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I 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXX   No.  2904  [y'I^.-r]  ■       THURSDAY.  JANUARY  3,  1918 


rREGISTERED  AST     PUnl.lSUEl)   WEKKLY 
La  NliWSVAPEllJ      PUlCli    SliV  liNPE.SCK 


Cifi/i 


m  u.a./i. 


The   Wages    of  Sin 

"The    price    is    going    up,    William' 


Cupyrignt  *'h'ina   Sl    Watrr" 


i 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  3,  igiS 


Winter  in  the  North  Sea 


^ 


A  British  Naval  Pa(roI 


y 


Officiiil   Photogr-iph 


January  3,  191S 


LAND    &    WATER 


'3 


LAND  &  WATER 

5,     CHANXERY    LANE,     LONDON,     W.C.2 

Telephone     H  OLBORN  2828.  


THURSDAY,  JANUARY  3.   1918 


CONTENTS 


rAGi: 

The  Wages  of  Sin.     Bv  Louis  Raeniaekers  t 

Winter  in  the  North  Sea    (Photograph)  2 

No  Status  puo.     (Leader)  3 

A  Pohtical  Survey.     By  Hilairc  Belloc  4 

National   Shipyards.     Bv  George   Lambert,   ^LP.  >' 

'Uv  First  Se^  'Lord.     By  Arthur  Pollen  7 

\\r  Must  Help  Russia.  'By  H.  M.  Hyndman  0 

]  raves  from  a  (ierman  Note  Book  i^^ 

With  a  Field  Ambulance.     By  Green  Patch  i^ 
German  Rule  and  Nati\e  Races.     By  Bishop  Frodsham     i.; 

Price  of  Citizenship.     By  Dr.  Charles  Mercier  14 

The  Memory  of  Beauty.     By  Algernon  Blackwood  15 

An  i:ssavist.     By  J.  C.  Squire  ^7 

Books  of  the  Week  ^^ 

Reliefs  at  Dawn.     By  C.  R.  W.  Nevinson  19 

i  he  ItaUan  Front.     "(Photographs)  20 

Domestic  Economy  ^^ 

Notes  on  Kit  27 


NO     " STATUS     QUO " 

Wi-:  liave  yet  another— the  last  in  a  long  scries — 
of  the  enemy's  efforts  to  obtain  that  peace  for 
which  he  is"  clearly  increasingly  anxious.  The 
series  began  with  a  number  of  informal  soundings 
duiiiig  the  smnmer  of  iQib,  continued  with  the  famous 
declaration  of  the  following  December,  ran  through  a  score 
of  more  or  less  official  pronouncements  leading  up  to  the 
sounding  of  the  Briti.sh  Govenmicnt  last  September,  and  con- 
cludes,  so  far,  with  the  German  Emperor's  speech  of  the  other 
day,  the  discussions  at  Brcst-Livotsk  and  the  formal  statement  ' 
of  the  enemy's  principles  of  jxjacc. 

In  war  the  great  object  of  all  intellectual  effort  is  to  dis- 
cover the  plan  of  the  enemy,  which  applies  just  as  much  to 
his  ^x)litical  as  to  his  miUtary  movements.  To  seize  that 
\)hn  at  the  moment  it  is  enough  to  examine  the  merely  ob- 
vious ciTor  contained  in  the  enemy's  declarations.  That 
error — a  calculated  one — is  the  falsehood  that  Europe  can 
return,  by  a  negotiated  peace,  to  her  old  self  again.  The 
enemy's  claim  is  that  he  will  revert  to  the  state  of  affairs 
before  the  war  ;  what  old-fashioned  diplomats  call  the  stalus 
quo  ante  bellum.  All  that  the  enemy  does,  all  that  he  suggests, 
officially  at  least,  is  moulded  upon  that  model. 
\  Wc  can  discover  the  enemy's  motives,  then,  and  so  imdcr- 
standing  his  plan  by  seizing  the  outstanding  fact  that  a 
iK  niand,  almost  universal  on  his  side  and  on  our  side,  from  the 
(Miiuusly  devised  minorities  which  for  various  reasons  agree 
with  <7(rmany,  is  for  a  peace  to  be  obtained  immediately, 
and  \\\»'\\  the  basis  of  neither  party  claiming  any  overt  ad- 
vantage that  is  for  the  slafiis  quo.  The  phrase  invented 
by  the  Berlin  tinanciers  to  describe  this  state  of  affairs  was  "  no 
annexations  mid  no  indemnities."  The  phrase  reported  to 
\)C  used  by  a  member  of  exactly  the  same  world,  who  happens 
to  be  resident  in  tliis  country,  was  "  since  neither  party  can 
beat  the  other,  let  bi;th  make  peace."  The  old  conventional 
l)hrase,  as  we  have  said,  is  'Revert  to  the  stalus  quo." 

Now  the  first  thing  to  be  grasped  by  any  one  who  pretends 
to  clear  thinking  is  this  :  that  such  a  claim,  the  phrases 
supporting  it,  and  the  idea  it  evokes,  are  utterly  unreal.  The 
tnlk  turns  round  a  thing  wliich  has  ceased  to  be — it  is  not 
there  any  longer  at  all.  It  is  no  longer  in  existence.  The 
status  quo,  the  Europe  which  we  knew  before  the  war,  has  gone. 
We  may,  with  victory,  restore  all  its  better  qualities,  and  add 
h)  them  ;  we  may  restore  that  European  spirit  and  respect 
for  nationality  and  for  treaties  and  for  the  chivalry  of  war, 
wliich  it  is  the  very  thesis  of  Prussia  to  deny.  We  may  yet' 
sjive  the  soul  of  Europe.  But  we  cannot  reconstruct  a  body 
that  has  passed  and  changed.  To  i^)eak  unnaturally,  as 
though  we  could  do  so,  as  tliouKh  that  old  body  were  still 


tiierc,  is  to  talk  nonsense.     That  is  the  great  outstanding 
fact  on  which  everything  turns. 

It  is  as  though  a  man  having  stolen  aXpicture  and  burnt  it 
were   to   begin   negotiations   for   its   restoration.     He   could 
compensate  and  make  reparation.     He  could  be    punished. 
The  art  which  created  the  picture  might  be  painfuBy  restored, 
but  the  picture  itself  is  gone.      Before  the  war  it  was  taken 
forgrantcxl  (foolishly  no  doubt,  but  still  taken  for  granted), 
that  a  neutral  European  State  was  inviolale  to  European 
belligerents  ;  that  no  Power  would,   without  even  excuse  or 
discussion,  tear   up   a  fundamental  international  treaty.     It 
was  part  of  the  world  in  which  we  Uved  that  certain  things 
were  never  done  in  war  by  Europeans  to  Europeans.     Civilians 
were  never  murdered  or  enslaved.     An  open  town  making  no 
resistance  was  not  subject  to  destruction.     At  sea  no  one 
for  a  moment  questioned  the  immunity,  even  of  the  belligerent 
sailor  unarmed — let  alone  of    the  neutral.     The  custom  of 
capture  and  prize  courts  seemed  to  be  in  the  very  nature  of 
European   things.     We   Europeans   reposed— up   to    1914— 
upon  a  certain  comity  of  nations.     One  exceedingly  impor- 
tant factor  ill  it — to  many  the  most  important  factor — was 
the  Russian  Empire,  the  natural  protector  of  the  Slav  States, 
and  the  chief  opponent  of  the  remaining  but  weakening 
.  Mahommedan  Power  which  still  held  the  gates  of  its  commerce. 
Two  great  States  in  Central  Europe  were  known  as  the  separate 
and    sometimes  opposed    German    and    Austro-Hungarian 
Empires.     It  was  recognised  that  they  both  disdained  the 
national  claims  of  certain  subject  provinces,  but  time  had 
rendered   their  attitude   familiar   and  tolerated.     There   re- 
mained the  small  nations  Scandinavian,  Nctherland  and  Balkan 
and  in  the  West  the  greater  nations,  Spain  and   Italy,   with 
the  two  strongest  and  most  homogeneous  national  groups, 
the  British  and  French.     These  two  last  had  for  centuries 
been  rivals,  but  their  rivalry  had  recently  been  appeased. 
What    now   remains   of   all   that    system  ?     The    British 
^and  French  States,  indetKl,  stand  as  they  stood.     They  pre- 
serve their  traditions.  Their  national  conscience  is  unimpaired. 
Their  national  strength  has,  if  anything,  increased.      The  new 
kingdom  of  Italy  also  maintains  itself.     But  the  old  system 
as  a  whole  has  gone  for  ever.     There  now  does  actually  exist, 
and  would  obviously  continue  to  exist  after  a  false  peace 
without  victory,  a  vast  highly  organised  new  State  planted 
in  the  centre  of  Europe,  which,  whether  it  called  itself  "dis- 
armed "    or  no,  would  be  a  Power  capable  of  armament  at 
any  moment.    This  State  (we  must  think  of  it  now  as  one 
State,  which  virtually  it  already  is,  and  will  be  if  it  remains 
undefeated)    has    effected    two    things— the    memory,  the 
example,  the   precedents    and   the  spirit  of    w-liich     would 
equally  remain. 

It  has  destroyed  what  was  once  the  Russian  Empire, 
broken  up  its  armies,  w-iped  out  and  brought  to  nothingness 
the  old  fact  and  conception  of  a  dominatmg  great  Slav  Power 
ruled  from  Petrograd.  This  new  Central  European 
State  now  dominates  .\sia  in  the  Near  East  and  North,  it 
has  put  Constantinople  under  its  tutelage,  it  has  occupied 
or  drawn  into  its  orbit  all  the  nearer  Slav  lands  and  the  Balkan 
States  except  Greece,  it  has  overrun  one  province  of  Italy,  a 
belt  of  Northern  France,  and  virtually  the  whole  of  Belgium. 
'^  It  has  impressed  itself  strongly  upon  the  smaller  Scandinavian 
nations — especially  Sweden — and  to  a  large  extent  upon  the 
as  yet  unoccupied  Netherlands,  that  is,  upon  Holland.  Accept 
the  nonsensical  idea  of  the  status  9H0— which  is  not  there — 
accept  this  idea  of  "  returning  to  1914  "  and  what  ^ou  get  in 
reality  is  a  Britain,  a  France,  and  an  Italy  remaining  peri- 
lously menaced  in  the  West  of  Europe,  and  all  the.  rest  of 
ICurope,  including  the  great  road  to  the  East,  'a  territory 
rided  for  the  most  part  directly,  all  of  it  indu-ectly,  by  the 
Pussian  Power.  That  great  Central  State  so  established  has 
further  developed,  beyond  any  previous  conception,  its  old 
tradition  of  neglecting  European  morals  in  war,  of  ftnding  its 
ad\antagc  in  sudden  aggression,  in  a  contempt  for  treaties 
and  in  the  most  extreme  forms  of  terror  and  of  force. 

We  liave  to  recognise  the;'  plain  physical  fact  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  now  left  as  the  status  quo.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  going  back  to  it,  for  it  was  killed  long  ago,  and  any  one  who 
proposes  to  do  so  is  either  incapable  of  perceiving  the  stark 
realities  of  this  world  or— as  is  certainly  the  case  with  the 
enemy's  diplomats — is  deliberately  usin«  a  falsehood 


LAND    &    WATER 

A  Political  Survey 

By  Hilaire  Belloc 


Jamiaiy  3,  kjiS 


IN'  the  absence  (at  tlic  moment  of  writing)  of  any  im- 
portant militar\-  movement,  let  us  consider  in  ^  genc.al 
'urvev  tlie    political  situation  :    the  political  conditions 
under  which  the  belligerent  world  enters  the  new  year 
The  year  ic)iS  will  probably  be  known  m  history  as^  the 
date  which   determined   a   certain   great    rearrangement     ,- 
European  forces.     It  is  probable  that  future  historian,  will 
not  only  use  the  phrase  '■  since  the  threat    luiropean   \\a., 
but  also  the  phrase  "  as  from  1918  "  when  they  are  describing 
the  re-scttleinent   of  our  ciyilisation.     It  will   be   a  phrase 
corresponding  to  another  phrase  which  will  certainly  be  used. 

to  wit,  "before  1014"  ,  n      i,   t  fi,.,* 

What  that  settlement  will  be  no  mortal  can  tell ;  but  tuat 
it  will  be  broadh-  one  of  two  kinds  is  certain. 

It  will  either  be  the  consequence  of  our  defeat  or  ot  our 
victory  ;  and  according  to  the  one  or  the  other,  one  or  otiier 
of  two  completely  different  Kuropean  schemes  will  emerge. 

The  former  contingency  is  called  by  various  names  :  A 
statement  of  war  aims  by  the  .Allies  "  :  "  The  ending  ol 
what  is  now  a  useless  struggle  "  :  "  Peace  without  annexation 
or  indemnities."  The  clearest  of  those  phases,  the  most 
direct  and  uncompromising,  was  used  by  Lord  Tansdowne 
when  he  said  that  we--that  is  Europe  and  her  ancient  ciyihsa- 
tion— now  caniiol  reach  certain  aims  which  were  our  objects 
at  the  inception  of  the  war.  Each  and  all  of  these  phrases 
are  synonymous  w  ith  an  acceptation  of  defeat  liy  the  \\'estern 
Allies  :  a  surrender  by  them  of  the  objects  which  they  set  out 
to  defend  when  Germany  cliallengcd  civilisation  three  and  a 
half  years  ago  :  an  admission  by  them  that  the  treason  to  the 
Alliance  in  the  East  has  renclered  it  incapable  of  success, 
and  a  consiqiicnt  recoonition  as  a  permanent  element  among 
us  of  a  imv  and  mightv  Slalx^a  Central  Europe  organised 
under  Prussia  and  inheriting  Prussian  methods  and  tradition. 
This  immensely  strong  novel'thing,  the  outgrowth  of  what  the 
expansion  of  "Prussia  had  already  shown  throughout  fifty 
years,  will  be  the  master  factor— the  determinant— in  the 
iuture  of  Europe. 

The  alternative,  which  would  follow  upon  what  we  call 
most  briefly  "  victory"  or,  at  greater  length,  "the  putting 
out  of  action  of  the  Prussian  military  machine,"  will  see  no 
such  great  Central  European  State  estabhshed  at  all,  but  the 
exact  contrary  of  it.  It  will  see  the  belt  of  peoples  who  afhrm 
their  German" race  and  feeling  (a  belt  not  more  than  about  500 
miles  at  its  longest  from  north  to  south,  from  the  Baltic  to 
the  Alpine  passes,  not  more  than  450  miles  at  its  widest 
from  east  to  west)  labouring  under  the  sense  of  defeat,  con- 
scious that  they  challenged  Europe  and  that  Europe  proved 
their  master  ;  organised  under  one  or  many  Governments 
as  may  best  suit  them  :  disarmed  ;  the  authors  of  their 
aggression  punished,  and  the  mass  of  them  reluctantly  devot- 
ing a  considerable  part  of  their  energies  to  the  economic 
reparation  of  the  evil  they  have  done. 

The  Europe  emerging  from  such  a  victory  would  make  cer- 
tain of  free  access  to  the  Baltic  and  to  the  Black  Sea.  and  would 
be  composed  not  only  of  the  large  independent  nations,  Eng- 
land, France,  Italy,  Poland,  the  (ierman  States,  the  Magyar 
State,  etc.,  but  also  of  many  smaller  nations  defined  as  nearly 
as  possible  by  their  national  consciousness.  There  would 
be  a  Roumania  much  larger  than  the  Roumania  of  1914  ;  a 
Soutliern  Slav  State  somewhat  larger  ;  a  Czech-Moravian 
State  of  Bohemia  ;  and  probably  small,  independent  bodies 
to  the  north  and  east  of  Poland,  of  which  Finland  would 
certainly  be  one. 

It  is  utterly  impossible,  and  has  been  from  the  beginning 
of  hostilities,  to  say  whether  the  Allies  can  accomphsh  their 
purpose  or  not  ;  whether  the  mastery  of  what  is  called  "  Middle 
Jiurope,"  that  is,  of  the  Prussian  system,  will  establish  itself 
or  no.  Those  politicians  who  have  boldly  prophesied  without 
ceasing  on  both  sides  that  their  system  was  certain  of  victory. 
have  madcr  themselves  upon  either  side  quite  equally  con- 
temptible. The  event  only  can  determine.  God  is  the  arbiter 
of  victory. 

But  whik'  this  is  so,  it  behoves  us-to  understand  the  materials 
out  of  which  alone  these  two  ])ossible  futures  can  be  con- 
stnicted.  It  is  a  point  upon  which  we  are  heavily  handicapped, 
and  upon  which  the  enem\' — by  which  I  mean  the  Germans 
organised  under  Prussia — have  the  great  ad\-antage  of  c.om- 
prchension  based  both  upon  their  central  position  and  upon  a 
special  attention  to  the  matter  in  their  contemporary  literature 
and  academic  study. 

The  Western  nations,  as  a  whole,  stood  indifferent  to  or 
ignorant  of  the  East  of  Europe  before  this  war  ;  they  were 
largely  ignorant  of  their  great  ("entral  rival  and  of  the  vast 
new  State  which  it  was  designing.     They  were  further  sin- 


gularly unfamiliar  each  with  the  problems  of  his  neighbour. 
How  many  educated  Englishmen  or  F'renclunen  before  this 
war  could  have  shown  vou  upon  the  map,  even  roughly,  the 
limits  of  the  Polish  nation  ?  How  many  men  could  have  told 
you  even  in  the  briefest  fashion,  either  the  history  or  the  present 
distribution  of  Slav  and  Italian  culture  upon  the  Adriatic  ? 
How  many  educated  Frenchmen  or  Italians  had  even  a  broad 
general  view  of  the  relations  between  (Ireat  Britain  and  her 
Dependencies  ?  How  many  Englishmen  could  have  drawn 
for  you  the  line  of  demarcation  between  Teutonic  and  Latin 
speech  in  the  Netherlands  ;  the  nature  of  the  cleavage 
created  by  this  ;  the  fundamental  ri'ligious  problem  also 
attaching  to  it  ?  I-3ven  now,  after  three  and  a  half  years  of 
so  terrible  a  tutoring,  one  reads  continually  in  the  F'rench 
and  Itahan  papers  articles  which  show  that  "the  writers  ha\e 
no  conception  of  what  is  a  national  freedom  for  the  English, 
the  relation  between  tonnage  and  military  action  overseas. 
One  sees  continually  articles  in  Flnglish  papers,  which  show 
a  corresponding  ignorance  of  German  influences  in  Scandinavia, 
of  the  Magyar  attitude  towards  the  alien  rule  of  Hungar\-, 
and  even  the  elementary  question  of  Alsace  Lorraine — 
though  this  last  has  been"  right  in  the  forefront  for  a  genera- 
tion, and  though  there  depends  upon  it  the  whole  future  of  the 
enemy. 

If  only  we  could  see  Europe  as  it  is  ;  if  only  the  picture  of 
Europe  as  a  whole  had  been  put  before  young  people  in  the 
schools  and  Universities,  witii  what  a  different  spirit  should 
we  now  be  entering  our  discussion  with  an  enemy  who 
docs  thoroughly  understand  his  Europe,  not  in  its  psychology, 
indeed,  but  iuits  external  relations  and  its  geographiced  and 
racial  facts  !  ,  ' 

East  and  West 

The  first  great  fact  which  we  must  grasp  is  the  contrast 
between  the  East  and  the  West.  The  ancient  civilisations 
of  the  \\'est  had  arrived  by  a  long  historical  process  at  a 
political  state  of  mind  highly  differentiated  and  national. 
The  conception  of  human  life  in  these  societies  was  one  deter- 
mined everywhere  by  nationality.  So  true  was  this  that  even 
where  the  process  ot  unification  was  quite  modern,  as  in  Italy, 
or  largely  artificial,  as  in  Belgium,  this  "worship  of  nationality  ' 
was  so  strong  that  it  bore  everything  before  it.  A.  man's 
first  duty  was  to  this  idea  of  the  nation.  It  was  hardly 
questioned  save  by  a  very  small  minority  of  very  unpopular 
men.  It  was  acted  upon — and  this  war  has  been  the  most 
tremendous  proof  of  it — as  even  religious  emotion  has  hardly 
caused  men  to  act  in  the  past.  There  had  come  to  be  some- 
thing sacred  about  frontiers  as  there  had  been  in  antiquity 
something  sacred  about  the  w^alls  of  a  city. 

The  effect  of  this  great  force  was  felt  in  a  thousand  ways. 
It  weakened  the  cosmopolitan  claims  of  religion  ;  it  strangely 
alienated  e\-en  neighbouring  peoples  one  from  the  other  ; 
it  certainly  overcame  forces  that  should  apparently  ha\'e  been 
stronger  than  itself.  For  instance,  it  completely  mastered 
that  tremendous  quarrel  between  the  possessors  and  the  dis- 
possessed, which  makes  our  time  (at  any  rate  in  the  industrial 
parts  of  Europe)  so  different  from  anything  in  the  past  : 
For  ne\-er  in  the  past  of  Europe  has  there  been,  as  there  is 
to-day.  a  violent  contrast  between  the  few  possessors  and  the 
mass  dispossessed,  but  free  proletarians.  It  was  clearly  seen. 
I  say,  that  even  this  issue  paled  before  the  extreme  claims  of 
modern  patriotism.  The  man  who  had  nothing  to  lose  and 
nothing  to  gain  ;  whose  individual  and  whose  class  interests 
were  both  in  ^'iolent  conflict  with  tlie  governing  minority 
of  his  fellow  citzens.  joined  at  once  with  that  go\'erning  mmority 
in  defence  of  the  State. 

One  might  digress  here  to  give  a  very  interesting  proof 
of  this  ;  a  proof  which,  I  think,  must  have  been  specially 
noted  in  this  country.  Those  who  were  most  sincereU' 
opposed  to  the  religion  of  patriotism,  those  who  most  earnestly 
pleaded  for  cosmopolitan  ideals  ;  those  to  whom  suffering 
for  the  sake  of  a  nation  or  imposing  sufiering  upon  a  foreign 
enemy  seemed  a  sort  of  nightmare,  \vere  almost  always- - 
though  quite  unconsciously — intensely  national  types  ;  yon 
could  not  match  the  long-worded  Internationahst  of  Paris 
anywhere  in  England  ;  you  could  not  match  the  English  . 
Conscientious  Objector  anywhere  in  France. 

We  notice,  then,  in  the  West  this  intense  national  feeling, 
coupled  with,  and  expressed  by,  clearly  hmited  frontiers  and 
homogeneous  societies. 

Now  the  East  of  Europe  presented  a  totally  different  picture 
in  this  regard.  There  was  here,  it  is  true,  "quite  as  much  as 
in  the  West,  strong  community  feeling,  but  it  w  as  a  community 


January  3,  iqiS 


LAND    &    WATER 


5 


feeling  diftVivnlly  defined  ;  largely  by  rare,  in  many  plaee> 
still  more  by  religion,  also,  bnt  le^s,  by  langnage.  The  sym- 
]>athies  within  each  gronp,  intense  as  they  were,  formed  a 
complex  wliicli  could  never  be  quite  resolved,  and  which 
would  always  leave  unsatisfied  minorities  and  over-lapping. 

The  curious  may  consult  those  maps  (the  best  of  them 
have  been  prepared  by  (Germans)  in  which  Europe  east  of 
thederman  language-line,  east,  that  is,  of  Pomerania,  Saxony, 
Bavaria  and  the  Austrian  Mark,  is  set  down  in  various  colours, 
now  to  show  the  differences  of  religion  ;  now  of  language  ; 
now  of  race. 

It  is  a  most  complicated  pattern  in  which  islands  and  colonies 
of  tlie  Slav  and  the  German,  the  Catholic,  the  Orthodox 
and  the  Protestant,  the  Czech,  the  Polish,  tlie  Lithuanian, 
the  Serbian,  and  even  the  Turkish  and  the  Greek  tongues 
make  a  bewildering  show.  Then  you  see  a  lonely  Slavonian 
dot  right  near  Berlin,  an  archipelago  of  Cierman  points  on 
tlic  Lower  \'olga  ;  Roumanians  infiltering  with  Maygar  and 
Saxon  colonists  in  the  Seven  Towns  ;  Turks  cut  off  right 
up  in  the  Northern  Dobnidja,  Greeks  in  a  strange  "  diaspora," 
which  covers  all  the  littoral  of  the  Levant  from  Constantinople 
to  Alexandria.  If  you  turn  from  these  modern  statements 
to  the  historical  maps  you  get  another  impression  of  complex- 
ity which  reinforces  the  first.  Vou  have,  almost  with  every 
generation  for  the  last  four  hundred  years,  a  ceaseless  cliange 
of  political  allegiance,  frontiers  and  groupings,  and  one  rises 
from  such  a  study  with  the  impression  that  the  East  still 
has  in  it  li\ing  traditions  of  its  nomadic  past. 

GeographicalK-  the  main  condition  of  this  stade  of  affairs 
North  of  tlie  Danube,  is  the  presence  of  the  great  Northern 
European  Plain,  though  that,  of  course,  is  only  one  of  a  great 
number.  The  fact  that  the  seas  connected  witli  that  plain 
are  closed  seas,  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea  ;  the  immense 
reserve  of  Asia  stretching  out  eastward  ;  the  uni\er.sal  ease 
of  water  carriage  ;  the  absence  of  stone  in  most  of  these 
regions  for  building  and  for  the  metalling  of  roads — a  hundred 
other  material  points  could  be  cited.  More  important  tlian 
these  (for  material  causes  never  suffice  to  explain  history)  you 
liave  the  racial  temperament  of  the  SlaV  aiKl  his  neighbours ; 
you  ha\e  the  recent  memory  of  the  conquering  Turk  and  his 
religion  ;  you  have  the  influence  of  the  Greek  and  the  Latin 
Churches  meeting  in  the  pagan  l)elt  of  Lithuania.  And  you 
have  that  odd  and  most  productive  accident  whereby  a 
wedge  of  wild  pagan  invasion  thrust  itself  in  between  the 
Northern  and  the  Southern  Slavs  a  thousand  years  ago  and 
separated  them  by  the  mass  of  the  Magyars. 

In  this  highly  complex  and  to  some  extent  fluctuating 
society  of  liastern  Europe  there  stood  out  at  the  moment 
when  it  was  crystallising  one  great  State,  the  State  of  Poland. 
It  was  not  a  State  with  exact  frontiers  like  tiiose  of  the  West, 
but  its  people  were  homogeneous,  and  it  had  the  immense 
advantage  in  such  a  welter  of  having  permanently  excluded 
both  the  Mahommedai^  and  the  Pagan,  and  of  bciii^  definitely 
Western  in  ideas.  Nothing  is  more  striking  than  the  contrast 
in  such  a  town  as  Posen  (Posna).  The  new  Prussian  building 
and  furniture  are  barbarous,  exterior  to  Europe  ;  the  old 
Polish  cliaracter  in  decoration  and  all  life  is  \\  estern  and 
civilised. 

The  story  of  the  last  200  years  is  the  story  of  the  super- 
session of  this  normal  unit,  this  Polish  State,  which  is  naturally 
the  fly  wheel  or  centre  of  the  Eastern  European  system  by 
three  artificial  groupings :  three  European  arbitrary  executive 
Powers  dividing  between  them  political  authority  over  the 
Eastern  Marchc-s,  and,  in  the  process,  attempting  the  murder  of 
Poland.  These  three  Powers  were  the  Prussian,  the  Austrian 
and  the  Muscovite,  rejjfesented  by  three  reigning  families 
(all  German),  whose  various  arrangements  throughout  the 
period  were  all  based  upon  these  two  conceptions  :  First, 
that  such  a  chaos  of  peoples,  religions  and  tongues  could  onlv 
be  ruled  despotically  ;  and,  secondly,  that  the  Polish  people, 
the  one  really  homogeneous,  conscious  and  permanent  ele- 
ment must  be  suppressed  in  order  to  allow  these  despotisms 
their  free  play. 

I'he  conclusion  of  all  this  is  that  we  have  in  that  belt  of 
country  which  stretches  from  the  /Egean  to  the  Baltic,  a 
battlefield  between  two  poHtical  ideas.  Either  it  will  be 
dominated  by  something  alien  to  any  one  part  of  it  bnt  common 
as  a  despot  to  the  whole — that  common  Government  would 
mean  under  modem  circumstances  the  great  Central  European 
State  informed  by  Prussia  ;  or  vou  would  have  a  considerable 
numbcT  of  States  varying  in  importance,  and,  perhaps,  in 
degree  of  autonomy  with  a  great  Polish  State  as  the  norm  and 
chief  of  them  all. 

But  there  is  much  more  behind  the  i^-oblem  than  this 
political  arrangement.  To  the  East  of  that  belt  of  which  we 
are  speaking  lies  Russia — to  use  the  old  familiar  term ,  perhaps 
no  longer  now  an  accurate  one.  The  two  outstanding  features 
of  what  was  once  the  Russian  Empire  east  of  the  Lithuanian 
March  are  (i)  immense  natural  resources,  and  (2)  the  absence 
both   of  internal  capital  and  of  intcrnnl   human  initiative 


for  the  development  of  those  resources.  To  these  two  main 
features  \ery  many  nuist  be  added — that  the  outlet  to  the 
sea  is  through  narrow  gates  in  foreign  hands  or  by  ports  dis- 
tant and  ice  bound  :  that  communications'  arc  still  rare, 
and  population  as  a  w-hole  still  sparse  :  that  there  is  nor 
avenue  for  trade  (in  the  Central  and  Eastern  part)  to  the 
North  or  South  :  that  the  great  part  of  the  products  available 
are  tlie  products  of  the  North  (no  tropical  or  sub-tropical 
Dependency),  etc.  But  the  immense  potential  resources 
coupled  with  the  absence  of  capital  and  initiative  are  the 
two  main  things. 

"Middle  Europe" 

It  is,  or  sliould  be,  tlie  clearest  point  in  the  whole  European 
situation,  that  if  th'e  war  results  in  the  permanence  of  a 
Prussian  "  Middle  Europe  " — already  in  existence — which 
shall  control  the  gates  into  this  land,  there  will  follow,  to  the 
advantage  of  that  vast  new  State,  one  of  the  most  formidable 
economic  exploitations  in  historj-. 

In  other  words,  if  Western  Europ?  were  to  be  content 
with  the  solution  of  its  own  local  problems  to  its  own  advan- 
tage, Prussia  and  her  modern  Dependencies  would  yet  be  iti 
the  near  future  far  stronger  than  ever  she  had  been  before, 
and  this  through  her  economic  regimen  of  the  Slavonic 
Plains  and  their  resources. 

There  is  here  no  need  for  garrisons,  still  less  for  annexation. 
Someone  must  find  the  ore,  design  communications  and  build 
them  and  develop  this  immense  untilled  field.  Capital  moves 
by  the  signing  of  paper  ;  initiative  consists  in  the  pregence  of  a 
few  managers  and  foremen. 

In  the  past  the  Western  nations  competed  with  the  Ger- 
mans and  their  Dependents  in  this  task,  and  the  whole  was 
controlled  by  a  powerful  Central  Government  at  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  presence  of  that  Government  forbade  economic 
power  turning  into  political  domination  ;  it  also  largely 
moderated  the  foreign  economic  power  itself,  conserving  for 
its  subjects  a  major  part  of  the  benefits.  That  Government 
has  disappeared.  The  machinery  and  the  stocks  (largely 
French  property  and  masked  under  the  form  of  loans)  pass 
by  repudiation  (if  repudiation  be  permitted — and  one  of  the 
tests  of  our  \ictory  or  defeat  will  be  our  power  or  impotence 
to  prevent  it — )  nominally  to  the  peoples  on  whose  teiritories 
they  stand  ;  really  to  the  new  exploiting  power  of  Prussia. 

There  must  at  this  moment  be  a  sort  of  fe\-erish  licking- 
of-the-lips  in  the  great  organised  capitalist  world  of  North 
Ciermany  as  it  looks  eastward  upon  this  new  field  delivered 
up — largelv  by  their  compatriots — to  their  adventures. 

This  is  tlie  great  economic  and  political  fact  of  the  moment. 
It  is  this  which  overshadows  all  the  eager  German  demands 
for  peace,  and  therefore  it  is  this  which  none  of  the  dupes  of 
that  demand  notice  or  debate. 

The  next  of  the  great  political  departments  to  be  surveyed 
in  the  present  European  position  can  be  dealt  with  much  more 
briefly  because  it  is  and  has  long  been  fully  familiar  to  English 
opinion  ;  I  mean  the  economic  and  political  question  define<l 
within  the  old  limits  of  the  Turkish  Empire  as  it  stood  before 
1877.  Even  the  Balkan  problems — a  symbol  of  that  com- 
plexity of  wliich  I  have  spoken — have  been  studied  here  in 
some  detail  and  have  been  in  their  largest  lines  for  two 
generations,  a  commonplace  of  our  foreign  policy. 

Here  the  issue  is  almost  as  simple  as  it  is  well  known- 
conditions  rare  enough  and  welcome  enough,  Heaven  knows, 
in  Foreign  Policy. 

Peace  with  an  unbeaten  Prussia  'would  necessarily  mean  the 
dependence  of  an  existent  Turkish  Power  seated  at  Con- 
stantinople upon  tluit  ^reat  Central  European  State  which  it 
is  tlie  object  of  the  enemy  to  create. 

It  is  obvious  enough  that  such  a  situation  would  close  the 
Black  Sea  at  the  will  of  the  successful  Power.  In  other  words, 
it  would  consolidate  Ihat  economic  grip  upon  the  future 
production  of  what  was  once  the  Russian  Empire,  which  we 
have  seen  to  be  a  consequence  of  such  a  peace.  It  is  equally 
obvious  and  equally  a  commonplace  that  the  Narrows  of 
Constantinople  and  the  Dardanelles  are  not  only  the  door  to 
traflic  from  the  Black  Sea  ;  they  are  the  "  nodal  point  "  of 
power  and  commerce  moving  from  and  to  the  East.  The 
railways  to  restore  Asia  Minor,  to  recreate  Syria  and  Meso- 
potamia, will  start  from  the  Bosphorus  or  (more  probahlv) 
pass  under  it  in  a  tunn(>l.  But  there  is  something  more.  .\ 
still  standing  Turkish  Empire  with  Constantinople  dependent 
upon  Prussia  as  it  would  necessarily  be,  would  he  economically 
developed  and  for  military  purposes  organised  by  its  suzerain. 

One  hears  a  certain  amount  of  discussion  as  to  where  the 
limits  of  restricted  Turkish  Power  would  lie  in  case  of  a 
negotiated  peace :  How  far  north  of  Bagdad  the  "  new 
frontier  "  might  lie,  whether  it  be  advisable  fn  jiracticable  to 
rescue  Armeniii  :  where  in  Syria  or  Palestine  the  line  might 
be  drawn.  .All  these  discussions  are  futile  in  tlie  absence  of 
victory,   for  no   line  could  be  permanently  held.     On   *!•» 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  3.  19^8 


further  or  defensive  side  of  any  line  organised  you  would  lia\e 
in  the  north  nothing-  for  Kiissia  as  an  armed  Power  would 
have  ceased  to  be.  In  the  south  any  Western  Power  <)r 
Powers  would  be  working,  with  very  distant  bases  and  with 
their  eoniniunications  maritime— and  therefore  costly,  slow, 
and  highly  vulnerable,  .\gainst  them  you  would  have,  with 
direct  land  communications  (which  time  would  indefinitely 
improve)  a  large  population,  great  potential  economic  re- 
sources, the  whole  organised  under  the  domination  of  .Middle 
Europe,  that  is.  of  the  Prussian  s>'stem  and  capable  of  an 
indefinite  accretion  in  wealth  and  ann-^.  The  issue  would 
not  be  doubtful  for  long  :  and  remember  that  it  includes  the 
isthmus  of  Suez. 

There  seems  to  be  floating  through  the  minds  of  those  who 
still  think  in  terms  of  the  old  Europe,  a  map  of  the  Near  East 
in  which  provinces  could  be  carved  out  from  what  was  formerly 
a  decadent  Turkish  Empire  and  held,  as  they  were  held  in 
the  past,  by  tlie  material  superiority  of  Western  civilisnUon. 

There  seems  to  be  a  still  rooted  conception  of  Britain  still 
in  Eg\pt  and  now  also  in  Mesopotamia ;  France,  perhaps,  in 
Syria,"  Hea\en  knows  what  in  Palestine  (a  buffer  Stat e  for 
Eg>-pt  perhaps)  continuing  a  calm  and  arderlv  rule  with  nothing 
before  them  to  fear.  The  conception  is  wildly  tmreal  ! 
Whatever  nominal  frontiers  were  drawn  up  by  such  a  Treaty 
they  would  ni)t  Ix'  frontiers  marching  \;'ith  what  we  ha\e  so 
long  thought  of  as  the  moribund  Turkish  Power  ;  they  woukl 
be  frontiers  marching  with  an  outlier  of  the  Mid-European 
State.  Who  surrenders  in  this  matter  to  the  conception  of 
a  new  artificial  frontier  is  surrendering  not  only  the  Levant, 
but  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  and  the  gate  to  the  Asian  seas. 

It  is  here,  as  everywhere,  in  this  enormous  field.  Rival 
forces  are  at  work  which  will  not  tolerate  each  other  and 
one  of  which  must  control  the  future. 

.   The  Adriatic 

There  remain  two  points  of  different  interest,  the  Baltic 
and  the  .\driatic.  Victory  will  open  the  Baltic  and  place 
upon  it  a  Polish  Port  ;  will  take  guarantees  for  its  remaining 
open  and  will  prevent  the  alternative — a  complete  control  by 
.Alid-Europe  of  that  sea  and  of  its  trade.  But  that  alternative 
of  a  Prussian  Baltic,  weakening  though  it  would  be  to  the 
Western  Powers,  is  not  so  serious  as  the  corresponding  effect  to 
the  south  upon  the  Adriatic  and  the  iEgean.  A  negotiated 
peace  creates  a  Balkan  Peninsula  which  is  a  part  of  Mid-Europe, 
a  dependency  of  it,  and  a  political  and'  military  way  for  it 
to  the  Mediterranean.  It  puts  Mid-Europe  upon  the  Adriatic 
and  the  .^gcan  for  good.  No  paper  can  save  that  situation. 
An  imdefeatcd  Prussia  ordering  and  moderating  its  great 
Central  State  has  immediate  access  to  the  Balkanr  States  : 
the  Western  Powers  ha\e   nothing  but  long,  round-about, 


expensive,  tedious,  and  peiilous  comnuinications  by  sea. 
.'\t  the  first  threat  of  rupture — even  if  there  were  no  open 
control  already  exercised — the  shores  and  the  ports  from 
I  stria  all  the  way  round  to  the  Dardenelles  would  be  theirs. 
Victory  would  make  the  Adriatic  an  Italian  Sea,  and  would 
retain  its  place  in  the  civilisation  of  Western  Europe.  It 
would  leave  the  Mediterranean  much  what  it  is  to-day  ;  but 
with  an  added  security— for  Valona,  and  the  islands  at  least 
of  the  Eastern  Adriatic  coast,  would  be  under  Italian  control. 

The  opposite  of  victory — whatever  you  like  to  call  it  — 
(some  call  it  a  reasonable  peace,  others  surrender,  others 
treason,  others  common  sense,  and  so  forth)  treaty  negotiated  ' 
in  the  present  state  of  affairs,  an  instrum.'nt  of  whatever 
kind,  e\en  supposed  to  be  final,  which  would  leave  Prussia 
as  she  still  is,  erect  and  strong,  would  also  necessarily  leave  the 
ports  of  the  Adriatic  mid-European.  Strategically  that  sea 
depends  upon  its  eastern  shore.  The  western  one  has  no 
harbours  and  no  security.  The  eastern  is  a  mass  of  deep 
water  channels,  covered  islands,  hiding  places  of  security 
for  submarine  work,  and  for  large  fleets  as  well. 

Look  at  it  how  you  will,  every  political  problem  you  examine 
in  this  business,  every  inquiry  you  make  into  the  effects  of  this 
or  that  geographical  settlement  turns  upon  the  belt  of 
<lebateable  land  in  whicji  there  has  been  such  vast  movement 
up  to  t]uite  the  immediate  past,  which  is,  therefore,  to  this 
day  so  complicated  a  pattern  of  race,  of  religion  and  political 
affection:  the  belt  which  lies  east  of  the  line  along  which  the 
German  tongue  ceases  ;  from  the  neighbourhood  of.  Dantzio 
lound  the  Bohemian  Plain,  down  the  mid-Danube  and  so  to 
Istria.  If  the  upshot  of  the  war  be  th^t  these  marches  fall 
under  the  general  influence  of  what  the  enemy  is  creating— 
a  great  Prussianised  State  in  Central  Europe— ^and  become 
the  outliers  of  such  a  State,  there  follow  consequences  linked 
one  to  the  other  which  stretch  from  the  domination  of  the 
Russian  Plains  upon  one  side  to  the  domination  of  the  Eastern 
Mediterranean  upon  the  other.  Whether  that  influence  be 
called  economic  or  military  matters  little.  No  concession 
upon  the  West  diminishes  the  character  of  this  issue,  and  the 
only  alternative  is  a  State  of  affairs  in  which  the  Prussian 
military  power  shall  no  longer  exist  for  the  congeries  of 
people  to  the  east  and  the  south  to  lean  upon  and  to  look 
up  to  or  to  seek  as  a  model  and  a  guide.  In  that  alternative 
one  great  State  would  be  the  natural  counter -weight— the 
Polish  State  ;  and  that  is  why  the  fate  of  Poland  is  necessarily 
the  test  of  the  whole  affair.  Such  a  conclusion  would  see 
the  German  nations  lying  within  their  own  boundaries  and 
the 'spirit  which  has  driven  them  to  this  great  crime  against 
Europe  exorcised. 

If  we  do  not  see  that  end,  the  Western  defence  of  Europe  has 
been  in  vain.  For  within  a  generation  that  which  threatens 
it  to-day  would  be  far  stronger  than  it  was  in  the  moment  of 
our  gravest  peril  three  years  ago.  H.  Belloc 


National  Shipyards 

By  Right  Honourable  George  Lambert,  M.P. 


Mr.  Gcor(;c  Lambert.  M.P.,  was  for  ten  years  Civil  Lord 
of  the  Admiralty  and  has  been  for  some  time  past  one  of  the 
severest  critics  of  Government  Naval  policy.  He  therefore 
-writes  with  high  authority. 

THE  Germans  are  destroying  our  mercantile  tonnage 
faster  than  we  are  building  it  ;  they  are  building 
submarines  faster  than  we  are  destroying  them. 
Such  IS  the  situation  that  confronts  us  in  this  year  of 
grace  1918.  Let  us  face  the  situation  and  resolutely  set 
about  righting  it. 

Lessons  for  the  future  must  be  drawn  from  the  experience 
—dearly  lx)ught  experience— of  the  past.  Our  magnificent 
mercantile  marine,  of  vital  moment  in  these  davs  of  agony 
has  been  wasted,  frittered,  dissipated.  Instead  of  conserving' 
we  have  squandered  it.  Why  worry  ?  Look  at  its  magnifi- 
cent array— built  by  private  enterprise  by  the  way— it  seem-; 
inexhaustible.  Wave  a  wand  over  the  water  and  a  ship 
appears.  Galhpoh,  Salonika,  East  Africa,  Mesopotamia 
Jerusalem,  all  needed  or  need  vast  quantities  of  shipping, 
mostly  too,  in  the  dangerous  submarine  zones.  As  a  conse- 
quence the  British  Navy,  that  superb  fighting  machine, 
was  scattered  and  dispersed  for  the  protection  of  shipping. 
There  has  been  no  concentration.  The  Eastern  Mediterranean 
has  value,  but  the  Apapa.  to  instance  only  one  example  with 
Its  precious  cargo  and  still  more  precious  lives,  was  submarined 
withm  forty  miles  of  Livoxpool.  Even  the  British  Navy  can- 
not be  in  two  places  at  once. 

,/!"<?  *';*'*«^  ^"""''  patient,  far-sighted  nun  who  built  the 
British  Mercantile  Service,  the  Empire  owe^  a  debt  of  undying 
eratitude.     I  hey    have    sa;.ed    the    British    Empire      They 


had  no  help  from  the  Government  ;  where  tlie  Government 
interfered  it  hampered.  We  want  tonnage,  w(>  must  ha\-e  it. 
Britain  wants  it.  The  Allies  want  it.  Without  ships  the 
great  resources  of  America  cannot  be  massed  against  the 
common  foe.  Germany,  too,  realises  that  in  the  destruction 
of  shipping  hes  the  hope  of  victory,  or  at  least  a  comiiromised 
peace. 

How  should  we  set  about  replacing  lost  tonnage  ?  The 
obvious  course  would  have  been  to  aid,  help,  assist  those 
great  private  yards  that  have  built  what  was  the  envy  of  the 
world— the  British  Mercantile  marine.  We  are  not,  liowever, 
with  Alice  in  Wonderland ;  we  are  waging  war,  so  those  great 
establishments  were  kept  short  of  steel,  short  of  material, 
short  of  men,  and  the  Government  in  its  wisdom  decided  to 
establish  national  shipyards.  The  fiat  went  forth  from  the 
seats  of  the  mighty.  Let  there  be  national  shipyards.  And 
it  was  so.  And  the  Government  said  that  it  was'good.  Was 
this  policy  the  result  of  mature  thought  ?  Certainly  not  ! 
What  Government  has  time  to  think  in  time  of  war  ?  An 
Advisory  Committee  of  distinguished  shipbuilders  had  been 
purposely  formed  for  counsel  in  such  affairs.  They  w-ere 
practical  men,  had  been  engaging  in'shipbuilding,  had  emerged 
successful  through  the  ordeal  of  a  world's  competition.  But 
were  they  consulted  ?  Again,  certainly  not  !  "  The  policy  of 
establishing, the  national  shipyards  was  decided  bf  the  War 
Cabinet.  .  .  .  The  Advisory  Committee  was  not  con- 
sulted by  the  War  Cabinet  so  far  as  I  know  before  the  de- 
cision." (Dr.  Macnamara,  House  of  Commons,  December 
19th,  1917).  "  Curiouser  and  curiouser,"  said  Alice  ;  but 
we  had  better  get  on. 

\\  ill  the  national  shipyards  increase  the  output  of   tonnage 


January  3,  191S 


LAND    &     WATER 


in  the  comiiig  critical  months  ?    That  is  the  dominant  con- 
sideration.   The  answer  is  obvious  for  the  following  reasons  : 

1.  They  can  only  be  constructed  and  equipped  now  at  abso- 
lutely abnormal  cost.  There  is  a  positive  dearth  of  labour 
and  materials  for  the  present  private  establishments. 

2.  They  must  compete  with  the  existing  yards  for  machinery, 
plant,  tools,  and  requisites. 

3.  They  must  draw  skilled  labour  from  private  yards,  anrl 
already  Clovernment  officials  have  been  making  overtures. 

.(.  J^abour  can  only  be  obtained  for  the  national  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  private  yards,  a  course  oi  action  which  will  react 
on,  and  retard  the  output  of  the  whole  industry. 

The  Government  say  the  national  yards  shall  not  proceed 
until  private  yards  are  working  at  full  pressure.  It  may  be 
said,  if  it  prove  true,  the  national  yards  are  not  likely  to  pro- 
ceed at  all.  The  pri\atc  yards  could  employ  from  twenty  to 
fifty  thousand  m^  more  than  at  present.  Where  then  exists 
this  great  untapped  reservoir  of  labour  for  the  national  yards  ? 
It  simply  docs  not  e.xist.  That  condition,  therefore,  cannot 
be  fulfilled.  German  prisoner  labour  can  well  be  used  for 
reclamation,  road  making,  rough  construction  and  similar 
semi-skilled  work,  but  building  ships  is  tout  autre  chose.  It  is 
hardly  to  be  supposed  that  the  Germans  recruited  their  army 
from  tiieir  shipyards. 

At  the  new  national  yards,  everything  lias  to  be  created. 
Imagine  a  bare  piece  of  land  to  be  turned  into  a  shipbuilding 
establishment !'  On  the  Clyde  and  on  the  Tyne  there  are 
buildings,  there  is  plant,  there  are  generations  of  accumulated 
skill  and  experience — skilled  managers,  skilled'  foremen, 
skilled  workers.  Surely  if  unskilled  labour  is  to  be  profitably 
utilised,  it  must  be  directed  by  men  competent  in  their  trade, 
who  can  only  be  found  where  the  present  shipyards  exist. 

Time  is  national  life.  Ships  bring  food,  and  without  food 
the  nation  cannot  live.    The  Government  should  retrace  its 


steps,  acknowledge  the  error  afnd  negative  the"  policy.  To- 
err  is  a  failing  not  common  only  to  War  Cabinets.  It  is 
betti'r  to  admit  mistakes  than  waste  national  energy.  Saving 
face  will  not  secure  ships.  Let  the  private  yards  be  aided, 
encouraged,  supplied  with  men,  materials,  if  need  be  money, 
to  accomplish  their  fullest  possible  output  at  the  speediest 
jjossible  moment.  It  is  not  a  question  of  private  profit. 
The  private  shipbuilding  yards  are  controlled  establishments 
and  their  profits  regulated.  What  the  nation  wants  is  ton- 
nage and  that  quickly.  The  line  must  be  cleared  for  ships. 
If  Government  yards  would  output  tonnage  faster  than  private 
yards,  let  us  have  tiiem  by  all  means.  Somehow  our  obser- 
vation teaches  us  that  Government  concerns — to  put  it  mildly 
— are  not  wholly  concerned  for  efficiency.  Most  j)ri\ate 
businesses  run  as  a  Government  business  would  be  ruined  in 
a  year. 

An  illustrative  incident  happened  at  Portsmouth  quite 
lately— last  December  15th.  At  a  war  meeting  the  Junior 
M.P.,  a  well-known  Admiral,  exclaimed  :  "  We  must  have^ 
more  men.  How  are  we  to  get  these  men  ?  "  A  \oice  from 
the  crowded  audience.  "  From  the  dockyard."  Where- 
upon there  was  such  vociferous  applause  that  the  Mayor  had 
to  intervene  to  stop  it.  Portsmouth  is  our  largest  national 
dockyard.  Comment  on  this  incident  was  superfluous.  Only 
by  those  who  desire  to  place  our  great  shipping  industry  under 
Government  control,  can  the  policy  of  establishing  these 
national  yards  be  approved.  To  them  I  would  commend  the 
words  of  Lord  Inchcape  at  the  last  P.  and  O.  meeting  held  on 
the  I2th  ultimo  :  "  If  it  is  the  intV;ntion  to  turn  the  British 
mercantile  marine  into  a  State  department,  managed  by 
officials  tied  up  with  red  tape  then  .  .  .  we  shall  make 
our  bow  and  let  the  curtain  fall  on  what  has  hitherto  been  tht 
supremacy  of  British  mercantile  shipping  on  the  Seven  seas.' 
From  such  a  consummation,  let  us  pray  to  be  saved. 


The  First  Sea  Lord 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


WHEN"  I  returned  to  England  at  the  end  of  last 
week  after  having sjwjnt  nearly  six  months  in  the 
Inited  States,  learned  that  \\dniiral  Sir  John 
Jellicoe  had  left  the  Admiralty  to  receive  a  Peer- 
age, and  that  Sir  Kosslyn  Wemyss  had  been  appointed  First  Sea 
Lord.  These  events  constitute  what  the  DailvTclcgraph  quite 
accurately  described  as  a  "  sensational  "  announcement.  But 
judging  from  such  public  comments  as  I  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  perusing,  a  great  variety  of  sensations  seems  to  have 
l)een  excited.  A  good  many  people  are  plainly  at  a  loss  to 
understand  the  significance  of  what  has  occurred. 

Sir  Kosslyn  Wemyss,  save  for  his  appointment  as  Second 
Sea  Lord  six  months  ago,  and  his  more  recent  promotion  to 
acting  as  Sir  John  JcUicoe's  deputy,  appears  to  be  almost 
unknown  to  the  press  or  to  the  general  public.  This  mav 
account  for  a  certain  lack  of  enthusiasm  in  the  reception  of 
the  news  of  his  promotion.  Similarly  the  causes  which  made 
a  drastic  change  in  the  Higher  Command  necessary,  seem  also 
to  have  been  very  little  understood.  One  paper  of  very  wide 
cnculation  I  noted,  published  a  portrait  of  the  out-going  First 
Sea  Lord,  and  printed  underneath  it  and  in  italics,  a  statement 
to  the  effect  that  this  particular  journal  had  "  never  joined 
ni  the  anti-Jellicoe  campaign."  When  people  see  no  reason 
wJiv  a  change  should  be  made,  and  then  hear  that  an  officer 
entnely  unknown  to  tiiem  has  been  entrusted  with  the  most 
difficult  and  the  most  arduous  post  in  the  anti-German 
Alliance,  tliey  are  not  unnaturally  filled  with  misgivings  and 
suspect  that  tjie  late  holder  of  the  post  is  the  victim  either  of 
some  personal  intrigue  or  of  a  cowardly  submission  to  press 
clamour,  and  so  look  upon  his  successor  as  a  pis-allcr — a 
choice  where  there  is  no  choice.  The  facts  of  the  position  are 
diametrically  opiwsitc  to  what  sucii  people  suppose. 

My  readers  may  remember  that  some  time  before  Mr. 
lialtour  reconstituted  his  Board  about  thirteen  months  ago,  I 
pointed  out  m  these  columns  that  such  a  reconstitution  was 
necessary,  that  the  task  of  selection  was  extremely  difficult, 
and  that  it  was  exceedingly  unlikely,  so  obscure  were  the 
indications  of  competence  in  this  grave  matter— that  Mr. 
Balfour  could  rest  satisfied  with  his  first,  or  even  with  second 
choice  of  advisers.  I  said  this  because  the  first  choice  was 
already  known  to  him.  To  those  who  shared  mv  doubts  of  a 
year  ago,  and  have  noted  what  has  occurred  between  their 
expression  and  the  present  date,  will  have  been  more  surprised 
that  the  second  choice  has  been  so  long  a-commg  than  that  it 
has  at  last  been  made.  It  is  unnecessary  then  to  explain  to 
tliem,  as  it  wouhl  be  ungracious  now  to  explain  to  others, 
preci^clv  why  th<-  first  of  the  events  of  last  week  was  inevit- 
able.    It  1.  iiiif.iituiiMU'  tl.-t  these  transitions  cannot  occur 


without  inflicting  pin.  The  British  public  is  extranrdinarily 
loyal  to  its  favourites,  and  particularly  to  its  naval  favourites. 
A  large  section  of  the  public,  which  for  years  bcrfore  the  war 
had  taken  real  trouble  to  study  na\al  affairs,  was  led  to 
believe  that  tiie  greatness  of  the  British  navy  derived  solely 
from  the  seamanship  and  statesmanship  of  Sir  John  Fisher 
and  depended  on  the  leadership  of  his  chief  pupil  and  suc- 
cessor. It  was  shocked  when  events  at  Gallipoli  led  to  Lord 
Fisher'6  retirement.  It  is  shocked  now  when  the  gallant  and 
popular  officer,  who  had  the  full  confidence  of  Wv  nation  in 
ins  command  of  the  Grand  Fleet,  has  to  make  way  for  another. 
This  mental  distress  is  deeply  to  be  regretted,  but  it  cannot 
be  avoided.  Old  estimates  of  personal  worth  and  ability 
formed  in  times  of  peace  are  constantly  upset  by  the  rude 
realities  of  war,  without  those  who  have  formed  those  esti- 
laates  being  able  to  realise  exactly  how  the  upset  has  occurred. 
For  the  moment  it  is  best  to  leave  this  mystery  unexplained! 
It  is  more  to  the  purpose  to  set  out  why  the  "  second  choice  '' 
is  a  sound  choice.  It  may  be  some  consolation  to  such  people 
to  know  that  the  officer  who  is  now  First  Sea  Lord  is  where 
he  is  because  it  is  A^ar,  and  notliing  else,  that  has  shown  liiin 
to  be  what  he  is. 

If,  therefore,  I  am  a.sked  what  the  recent  changes  in  the 
Board  of  Admiralty  signify,  my  simplest  answer  is,  to  say  that 
at  last  we  have  an  officer  appointed  First  Sea  Lord,  not  be- 
cause of  his  seniority  in  the  Navy  List,  nor  because  he  is 
blessed — or  cursed — with  a  newspaper  or  popular  reputation, 
but  simply  on  merit  shown  in  war.  I  was  in  Washington  when 
Sir  Edward  Carson  joined  the  War  Cabinet,  and  an  enter- 
prising interviewer  asked. me  why  the  Premier  had  put  an 
ex-railway  manager,  presumably 'ignorant  of  the  sea  affair, 
at  the  head  of  the  Burtish  Navy.  I  replied  that  he  had  done' 
so  for  the  almost  incredible,  but  nevertheless  valid  reason,  that 
Sir  Eric  Geddes  had  shown  himself  to  be  the  right  man  for  the 
place.  Just  as  Jlr.  Lloyd  George  passed  over  all  the  popular 
jwliticians  and  ciiose  the  ablest  man  he  knew  for  the  most 
difficult  position  that  a  civilian  can  fill,  so  now  Sir  Eric  himself 
has  passed  over  all  the  advertist^d  Admirals  and  appointed 
the  proved  man  for  the  most  diflicult  post  a  naval  officer 
can  fill.     It  is  natural  to  ask  in  what  the  proof  consists. 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  war  the  evidence  of  Sir  Rosslvn 
Wemyss'  merits  must  either  have  been  slender  or  was  unper- 
ceived,  for  wiien  Sir  Sackville  Carden  fell  ill,  a  day  or  two  l)efore 
tile  last  and  most  disastrous  attempt  to  force  the  Dardanelles. 
Rear-.Admiral  de  Robeck  was  appointed  to  succeed  liim,  and' 
two  officers  senior  to  him  were  passed  over  by  this  preferment. 
Sir  Rosslyn  Wemyss  was  one  of  these.  It  is  not  an  agreeable 
position  for  a  Rear-Admirul  to  find  liiinself  suddenly  and 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  3,  191S 


unexpectedly  subordinate  to  his  junior.  Rut  it  is  in  the  day's, 
work  to  accept  these  things  with  simple  loyalty,  and  it  Mould' 
bo  no  compliment  to  the  present  First  Sea  Lord  to  select 
that  for  congratulation  which  every  naval  officer  must  look 
upon  as  the  most  obvious  and  elementary  of  his  duties. 
The  fact  is  recalled  to  show  that  in  March  11)15,  Whitehall 
did  not  yet  know  their  man,  and  likely  enough  because  he  had 
not  yet  "been  given  his  opportunity.  But  it  was  not  long  in 
coming  now.  It  is  known  that  on  him  devolved  the  chief 
share  in  the  naval  part  of  the  two  evacuations  of  the  penin- 
sular, and  that  the  naval  part  was  the  chief  part.  But  his 
work  at  the  bases  previous  to  this  and  his  subsequent  work 
when  he  succeeded  Sir  John  de  Robeck  in  command  of  the 
Mcditeirancan,  seem  hardlv  to  be  known  at  all. 

The  abandonment  of  the"  dallipoli  adventure  coincided,  it 
mav  be  remembered,  with  the  beginning  of  the  enemy's  sub- 
marine activities  on  a  large  scale  in  the  middle  seas,  llie 
Mediterranean  command  was  not  limited  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  it  included  the  care  of  at  least  three  lines  of  communica- 
tions to  different  large  army  bases,  and  necessarily  involved 
the  closest  co-operation  with  the  l-'rench  and  Italian  fleets. 
I-ew  if  any  naval  officers,  therefore,  have  ever  undertaken 
duties  more  difficult,  more  extensive  and  various,  or  more 
complicated  than  tliose  which  now  fell  upon  the  new  C  -in-C. 
I  see  it  has  been  stated,  on  the  strength  of  his  having  com- 
manded the  vessel  in  which  tiie  King  once  visited  liik 
Eastern  Dominions,  that  Sir  Kosslyn  VVemyss  enjoys  a  reputa- 
tion as  a  courtier.  This  is  about  as  illuminating  a  remark 
as  to  say  that  because  he  wears  a  monocle  he  has  a  reputation 
as  a  dandy.  But  it  is  true  that  Admiral  Wemyss  is,  in  the 
best  sense  of  that  much  hackneyed  term,  a  man  of  the  world. 
It  was  this  fortunate  circumstance  combined  with  a  perfect 
acquaintance  with  the  French  language  that  smoothed  his 
diplomatic  path  with  our  gallant  naval  Allies.  He  illustrated 
in  short,  but  in  an  unexpected  sense,  the  dictum  of  Nelson, 
that  the  best  of  all  negotiators  was  a  British  Admiral  backed 
by  a  British  fleet.  The  Paris  Conference,  decided,  I  under- 
stand, and  the  decision  was  in  every  sense  gratifying,  that  an 
Allied  Naval  Council  was  to  be  established.  In  acting  with 
such  a  council  Sir  Rosslyn  Wemyss  has  his  Mediterranean 
experience  to  guide  him.  He  has  to  welcome  a  new  ally,  the 
United  States,  as  an  addition  to  those  with  whom  he  has 
dealt  before.  It  is  surely  a  happy  augury  that  these  complex 
relations  will  be  handled  at  the  British  end  by  one  whose 
knowledge  of  the  world,  whose  tact  and  diplomatic  accom- 
plishment are  unquestionable.  ^ 

Howev'cr,  the  essence  of  the  Chief  Command  to-day  is  fo 
get,  first,  out  of  the  Britsh  Naval  force  and  then  out  of  our 
Allies,  the  maximum  dynamic  effect  against  the  enemy's 
effort  to  cut  our  sea  communications.  As  most  competent 
obser\'crs  have  long  since  realised,  the  defeat  of  the  submarine 
is  far  less  a  matter  either  of  new  inventions  or  of  mere  multipli- 
cation of  known  weapons  or  weapon  bearing  units  than  a 
matter  of  the  best  combination  of  forces  already  in  existence. 
This  combination  can  only  result  from  a  rightly  organised 
staff.  What  ground  is  there  for  supposing  that  Sir  Kosslyn 
Wemyss  will  do  better  than  his  predecessors  in  this  matter  ? 
They  are  of  the  most  solid  possible  description.  They  are, 
in  point  of  fact,  just  these,  that  when  faced  with  those  exten- 
sive, varied,  complicated  and  difficult  tasks  to  which  I  have 
alluded  above,  Admiral  Wemyss  was  able  to  deal  with  them, 
and  deal  with  them  successfully,  precisely  because,  knowing 
exactly  what  he  wished  to  do  and  being  resolute  to  get  it  done , 
he  also  knew  how  to  organise  the  men  at  his  disposal,  so  that 
each  separate  task  was  clearly  defined  and  plainly  feasible. 
He  profited,  in  other  words,  bv  the  grinding  experience  of 
(".allipoli,  and  realised  that  onlyby  a  rightly  constituted  staff 
could  the  manifold  work  of  war  be  properly  done.  The  scale 
of  this  achievement  was  naturally  enough  known  to  few.  But , 
by  July  of  last  year,  the  evidences  of  it  were  available  at 
Whitehall,  and  Sir  Eric  Geddes  had  not  long  been  there  before 
he  had  ajjpreciated  their  meaning.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  it  was  almost  his  first  act  to  bring  Sir  Rossi vn  Wemyss 
into  his  councils.  The  change  was  announced  in  America 
in  the  second  week  in  August.  I  may,  perhaps,  be  pardoned 
for  quoting  from  an  interview  with  me  in  a  Washington 
journal  on  the  occasion.' 

"  The  really  big  stroke  is  the  retirement  of  Sir  Cecil  Burnev 
and  his  replacement  by  Rcar-Admiral  Rosslyn  Wemyss.  I 
have  not  a  British  Navy  list  by  me,  but,  at  a  rough  guess,  I 
should  say  there  arc  probably  forty  officers  senior  to  Admiral 
VVemyss  who  have  been  passed  over  to  permit  this  officer  to 
take  "this  position.  Wemyss  has  long  been  regarded  by  the 
forward  school  as  a  '  white  hope.'  He  was  second  in  command 
during  the  Gallipoli  campaign,  where  his  promptness,  energy 
and  fighting  spirit  showed  him  not  only  a  real  leader,  but  ii 
man  iwssossed  of  that  cool  quick  judgment  which  is  of  the 
essence  of  the  matter  in  war. 

"  The  cables  say  the  new  Second  Sea  Lord  is  to  be  relie\cd 
of  certain  departmental  duties  but  do  not  tell  us  what  the  new 
duties  arc  to  be But  ii  is  not  difficult  to  guess  the  character 


of  the  change.  The  rearrangement  of  two  months  ago  brought 
about  an  amalgamation  between  the  War  Stafif  and  the  Board 
of  Admiraltv.  The  First  Sea  Lord  was  still  left  as  the  chief 
administrative  head  of  the  whole  active  Navy  and  of  the 
Staff  as  well.  I  expect  what  will  happen  is  that  the  First 
Sea  Lord's  functions  will  now  be  cut  in  half,  that  he  will 
remain  the  chief  professional  administrator  and  the  Second 
Sea  Lord  will  become  the  chief  of  the  War  Staff.  It  will 
represent  the  triumph  of  the  younger  school.  M'hen  the  great 
changes  took  place  in  Ma>-,' those  of  us  who  had  fought  so 
hard  for  them  for  so  long  approved  everything  that  liarl  been 
done,  but  complained  that  the  thing  had  stopped  too  soon. 
We  also  saw  that  the  thing  could  not  remain  stopped  where 
it  was.  It  had  to  be  pushed  to  its  logical  conclusion..  .  It 
looks  as  if  Sir  Itric  Geddes  had  found  an  extremely  ingenious 
and  perfectly  effective  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  If  the 
appointment  of  Admiral  Wemyss  means  what  I  hope  it  meaiis, 
we  may  expect  to  sec  the  vast  potential  power  of  the  British 
Navy  applied  to  winning  the  war  in  a  fashion  which  has  not 
yet  been  applied." 

It  looks  as  if  I  did  not  very  greatly  misjudge  the  situation 
in  August.  What  would  seem  to  have  happened  is  something 
like  this.  Sir  Rosslyn  Wemyss  was  tried  at  the  Admiralty 
in  the  task  of  which  he  had  shown  himself  to  be  a  master  in 
the  Mediterranean.  It  was  a  task  that  had  not  been  success- 
fully met  elsewhere,  because  it  had  never  been  attempted 
elsewhere.  If  he  made  good  with  the  same  success  at  Whitehall 
there  would  be  no  need  for  a  deputy  First  Sea  Lord,  but  a 
clear  case  for  making  him  First  Sea  Lord.  In  the  event 
Admiral  Wemyss  did  make  good. 

Significance  of  Sea  Power 

Surely  the  New  Year  could  hardly  open  under  happier 
auspices.  The  developments  of  the  last  few  months  havi; 
changed  the  position  on  land  to  the  enemy's  advantage  in 
a  most  disconcerting  and  discouraging  way.  But  as  no  one 
knows  better  than  the  enemy  himself,  it  is  at  '.sea,  and  rot  on 
land  that  the  war  will  finally  be  decided.  The  factors,  that  is 
to  say,  on  which  victory  depends,  arc  still  those  that  derive 
from  sea  power.  How  well  the  enemy  understood  this 
a  year  ago  was  proved  by  his  being  compelled  to  drive  the 
L'nited  States  into  belligerency  rather  than  forego  his  only 
possible  stroke  at  the  sea  supplies  that  kept  the  mihtary 
alliance  against  him  in  munitions  and  stores,  and  the  civil 
populations,  on  whose  well  being  and  contentment  all  military 
force  is  founded,  supplied  with  the  necessaries  of  living  and 
prosperity.  A  year  ago,  when  the  enemy's  efforts  to  make 
peace  after  his  many  defeats  on  the  Somme  had  failed,  when 
President  Wilson's  last  effort  at  an  amicable  arrangement 
had  shown  all  the  world  that  no  settlement  by  negotiations 
was  possible,  it  became  at  once  clear  that  a  ruthless  sub- 
marine attack  on  our  supply  ships  would  immediately  be  made. 
Those  who  remembered  the  terms  of  the  German 
surrender  to  America  of  the  previous  May  expected  nothing 
else.  For,  with  curious  and  quite  unnecessary  candour, 
Berlin,  for  once,  instead  of  making  a  promise  and  breaking  it, 
entered  into  an  underaking  that  was  purely  provisional  and 
warned  the  world  that  the  objectionable  sinkings  would  be 
resumed  the  moment  it  suited  Germany's  con\X'nience  or 
necessity.  In  other  words,  from  the  day  \\hen  Von  Tirpitz 
first  threatened  the  world  with  the  submarine,  in  December 
1914,  until  she  drove  America  into  war  in  F'ebruary  1917, 
Germany  was  never  under  the  faintest  illusion  about  the  sea 
war  being  the  real  war. 

It  is  a  vital  matter  that  civihians  in  all  countries  should  bear 
this  fundamental  truth  in  mind,  especially  a  t  the  moment 
when  the  disappearance  of  Russia  has  altered  the  whole 
balance  of  power  on  land.  F'or  the  disappearance  of  Russia 
and  the  change  in  the  mihtary  situation  that  results,  do  not 
in  the  least  degree  affect  the  validity  of  the  axiom  on  whicli 
our  enemy  has  acted  consistently  and  from  the  first.  For  the 
mflitary  change  amounts  only  to  this,  that  until  the  American 
army  redresses  the  balance  on  land,  the  Allied  forces  are 
possibly  insufficient  to  obtain  a  definite  military  victory. 
But,  meanwhile,  the  enemy  forces  are  still  less  able  to  obtain 
a  decision  in  their  favour.  The  change  in  balance,  then, 
restores  a  situation  gravely  weighted  against  the  Central 
Powers   to   equality  onlj-.     And  it  is,  at  best,  temporary. 

The  problem  of  the  day,  then,  is  civil  endurance  ;  how  shall 
we  hold  out  till  the  enemy  force  is  spent  ?  It  is  largely  a 
matter  of  confidence  of  the  certainty  of  ultimate  and  com- 
plete success.  This  confidence — if  I  am  right  in  saying  that 
ultimate  success  turns  on  the  sea  war — should  now  be  better 
founded  than  it  has  ever  been,  for  the  reason  that  never  before 
lia\c  we  had  a  better  assura nee  that  a  sea  power  \\ould  be 
rightly  used.  The  reform  of  the  Admiralty,  initiated  by  the 
criticisms  of  last  April  and  May,  begun  by  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
in  the  end  oL  the  latter  month,  and  now  completed  by  Sir 
Eric  Geddes,  should  form  the  turning  point  in  tlie  war. 

Arthur  Pollkn. 


January  3,  1918 


LAND    &    WATER 


We  Must  Help  Russia 

By  H.  M.   Hyndman 


IF  a  poet  were  inclined  to  deal  with  a  section  of  national 
events  in  the  present  war  after  the  manner  of  Thomas 
Hardy  in  The  Dynasls,  he  could  find  no  more  inspiring 
and  terrible  theme  than  the  history  of  Russia  and  Russian 
movements  since  1914.  Western  Europe  has  been  completely 
bemused  by  the  succession  of  transformation  scenes  and 
cinema  films  of  upheaval  which  have  been  presented  to  its 
astonished  observation.  So  rapidly  have  events  moved  in 
that  great  country*,  during  the  past  three  years  and  a  half, 
that  we  can  only  recall  with  difficulty  what  has  actually 
taken  place. 

First,  it  was  assumed  that  Russia  with  her  vast  population 
would  play  the  decisive  part  in  the  resistance  to  German 
aggression,  and  that  no  long  time  would  elapse  ere  the  Russian 
armies,  wliich  had  helped  to  save  the  French  and  British 
forces  from  annihilation,  might  be  heard  of  in  the  suburbs 
of  Berlin.  Their  smashing  defeat  at  the  Masurian  Lakes 
put  an  end  to  that  little  orgie  of  optimism.  Later,  however, 
the  great  advance  of  :Brussiloff  into  Galicia,  with  the  extra- 
ordinary number  of  prisoners  taken,  again  raised  hopes  that 
Russia  could  play  the  part  assigned  to  her  at  first.  Once 
more,  owing  chiefly  to  the  lack  of  munitions  and  supplies, 
the  Russians  were  thrown  back  to  a  defensive  line,  and  talk 
of  treachery  in  high  places  was  proved  to  liave  only  too  much 
foundation.  Shortly  afterwards  Rasputinism  flourished  at 
the  Czar's  Court  in  all  its  infamy  and  M.  Stiirmer  arranged 
with  Hcrr  von  Jagow,  his  separate  peace  terms  for  Russia — 
terms  which  would  have  placed  all  tlie  resources  of  that  great 
Empire  under  Germany's  control.  Then  came  M.  Miliukoff's 
crushing  exposure  of  M.  Stiirmer's  treaciiery  in  the  Duma, 
the  downfall  of  that  pro-German  politician,  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  AL  Protopopoff  to  carry  on  the  same  policy  of  cor- 
ruption and  surrender,  with  the  full  approval  of  the  Ras- 
putinists  and  the  Court.  But  for  the  sudden  attempt  of  the 
new  administration  to  anticipate  an  expected  revolution  by 
a  counter-revolution,  the  plot  might  have  succeeded  ;  for  the 
revolutionary  leaders  were  not  prepared  for  action  during  the 
war.  As  it  was,  the  weapons  of  the  reactionaries  broke  in  their 
hands,  the  very  troops  they  reUed  on  turned  round  upon  the 
(government,  and  the  pro-German  Romanoffs  and  the  up- 
liolders  of  a  separate  peace  were  swept  away..  It  is  well  to 
remember  that,  had  not  the  revolution  occurred  when  it  did, 
all  Russia  would  already  have  been  for  months  under  German 
control  and  Russian  resources  at  the  disposal  of  Germanj'. 

Awakened  Democracy 

How  far  away  we  seem  to  bo  now  from  that  Revolution. 
How  heartily,  not  only  the  English  people,  but  the  whole  of 
Western  Europe  welcomed  the  overthrow  of  the  Czar  and  his 
family.  What  great  results  were  looked  for  in  many  quarters 
from  emancipated  Russia.  If  Russia  of  the  Czar  was  ready  to 
fight  to  tlie  death  against  German  aggression  how  much 
more  determined  would  be  the  awakened  and  self-governing 
democracy  of  Russia,  of  the  Republic,  to  organise  all  its 
forces  against  the  enemy  whose  armies  were  entrenched  on 
Russian  soil,  and  were  menacing  the  newly-acquired  Russian 
freedom  ! 

Revolutionan,-  Russia,  like  revolutionary  France,  would 
rise  as  one  man  to  e.\pel  the  invader  and  reconquer 
the  occupied  territory.  That  was  the  general  idea.  Optimism 
again  reigned  supreme.  The  best-known  Russian  exiles  were 
tlien  most  confident  of  the  future.  They  feared  only  that 
ICngland  and  her  Allies  would  stop  the  supply  of  munitions, 
aufl  thus  prevent  Republican  Russia  from  showing  her  real 
strength. 

CongratulatoVy  depiitations  were  then  sent  to  Potro- 
grad,  some  of  whose  members  unfortunately  completely  mis- 
understood the  position — which  indeed  was  not  surprising 
— and  differed  greatly  among  themselves.  But  the  national 
enthusiasm  was  so  great  and  the  desire  for  common  accord, 
to  secure  the  full  fruits  of  the  revolution  at  home  and  on  the 
frontier  apjx-ared  so  strong,  that  the  Allied  peoples  continued 
to  hope  against  hope,  even  when  affairs  in  the  jirovinces 
of  Russia  became  almost  chaotic,  and  mitters  in  her  towns 
looked  threatening  indeed.  A  complete  forgetfulness  of 
faction  and  permanent  coalition  of  revolutionists  of  all  sections 
might  ha\c  saved  the  situation.  A  combination  under  the 
leadership  <>l  Kerensky,  in  fact,  seemed  likel>-  to  be  successful 
for  a  time  ;  and  the  Committees  of  Soldiers  and  XN'orkmen, 
in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  doctrinaire  extremists  within  them. 
'  were  not  desirous  of  bringing  about  a  conflict  between  the 
various  groups.  The  Provisional  Government  could  probably 
have  carried  on  safely  while  the  great  Delegate  Conference  mv\ 
at  Moscow,  and  the  country  might  have  axyaited  with  reason- 


able calmness  the  meeting  of  the  Constituent  Assembly. 

This  would  not  have  suited  (jermany  at  all.  As  events 
have  shown,  -she  imderstood  the  position  much  better  than 
f'.id  the  Allies.  Lenin  and  his  friends,  after  having  been 
hurried  through  Germanv  from  Switzerland  to  Russia  by 
special  train,  accompanied  with  e\-ery  personal  attention,  at 
once  set  to  work  to  render  anarchy  almost  inevitable.  A 
political  and  economic  programme,  wholly  unsuited  to  a 
country  in  the  stage  of  development  of  Russia,  was  thrust 
on  the  people  with  fanatical  zeal.  Simultaneously,  a  wiiole  • 
sale  propaganda  of  mutiny  and  disbandment  was  carried  on 
in  the  army.  Both  were  successful.  Kerensky  and  his 
friends,  civilian  and  military,  looked  on  while  their  policy- 
was  wrecked  and  their  party  combination  disintegrated. 
Democracy  was  ruined  in  the  name  of  democracy. 

The  Bolsheviks 

t 

Then  a  sudden  stroke  put  Lenin,  Trotsky  and  the  Bolshevik 
minority  in  control  of  Petrograd,  on  lines  laid  down,  it  is 
said,  by  the  German  Military  Staff ;  a  dictatorship  of  ille- 
gality was  established  in  Petrograd  itself  as  well  as  in  Moscov\-, 
and  two  or  three  other  centres  ;  the  Red  Guards  were  trained 
and  organised  by  German  officers  into  an  admirable  force  ;  the 
propaganda  for  peace  in  the  army  on  the  front  was  carried  on 
more  systematically  than  ever,  aided  by  detachments  of  the 
Petrograd  gendarmery  of  Bolshexik  tendencies  ;  the  disinte- 
gration in  the  public  services  and  the  railroads,  begun  by  the? 
reactionaries  under  the  Czar,  was  pushed  even  further — until 
Anally  the  only  real  organisation  left  in  the  north  was  the 
political  and  military  force  at  the  disposal  of  Lenin  and  his 
friends.  There  was  no  longer  an  army  to  resist  the  Germans 
between  the  Riga  front  and  Petrograd.  Generals  and  officers 
who  tried  to  maintain  discipline  were  murdered  or  arrested. 
Peace  with  Germany  was  proclaimed  as  a  necessity  for  Russia 
and  the  Bolshevik  Self-Illusionists  actually  thought  they  could 
successfully  appeal  to  their  imaginary"  German  Democracy"- 
to  help  them  in  a  imiversal  democratic  reconstruction  !  Of 
course,  the  only  people  who  have  benefited  by  all  this  criminal 
lolly  are  the  Kaiser  and  his  henchmen,  Hindenburg  and 
Ludendorf. 

Yet,  in, the  face  of  all  this,  the  Unified  French  Socialist 
Party  and  some  Pacifists  here  in  England  still  declare  that 
had  the  pro-German  Socialist  International  Conference  niet 
at  Stockholm,  Russia  would  have  remained  true  to  her  engage- 
ments with  the  AUies,  and  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth 
would  have  grown  up  out  of  the  t  •enches,  amid  the  soul- 
inspiring  hochs  of  Kameraden  Scheidemann,  Siidekum, 
David,  Heine  and  Noske.  Those  who  believe  that  nonsense 
deserve  to  be  in  Peti^ograd  at  the  mercy  of  Lenin  and  his 
revolutionar\-  sbirri.  Plechanoff,  Catherine  Breshkovskaia, 
Tchemoff  and  others  who  have  given  themselves  body  and 
soul  for  more  than  a  generation  to  the  service  of  revolutionary 
Social-Democracy,  could  tell  the  world  what  sort  of  freedom 
men  like  Lenin  and  his  new  Militarist  crew  stand  for. 
Read  what  even  the  Marxist  Martoff,  himself  a  Zimnier- 
waldian  and  a  man  in  favour  of  what  I  should  call  a  pro- 
German  peace,  writes  about  Bolshevik  rule  in  Petrograd  so 
lately  as  December  i6th,  1917  : 

The  new  Government  finds  itself  compelled  to  institute  a 
reign  of  terror  against  a  populace  bitterly  hostile  to  a  military 
dictatorship.  Hence  arbitrary,  \iolent  persecution  against 
every  sort  of  even  Sociahst  opposition,  suppression  of  liberty 
of  the  press  and  freedom  of  public  meeting.  Many  Socialists 
have  been  thrown  into  prison.  ]'"urther,  the  foreign  policy  of 
Lenin,  inspired  liy  his  anxiety  to  bring  about  tlie  immediate 
peace  promised  to  the  soldiers,  assumes  a  character  contrary 
to  the  international  conception  of  a  democratic  peace  ;  andthi; 
the  rather  that  the  militarists  wish  to  take  advantage  of/thi 
jiosition  of  a  government  not  acknowledged  by  the  majority 
of  the  people  in  order  to  secure  the  signature  of  an  anti 
democratic  peace. 

To  form  a  Leninist  majority,  Lenin  and  Trotsky  actually 
refuse  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  Constituent 
.\ssembly,  the  majority'  of  which  is  composed  of  non-Maxi- 
malist Socialists.  Many  members  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly  have  been  arrested  and  the  entire  bourgeois 
"  minority  "  as  well.  For  these  reasons  Martoff  and  his 
section  of  Marxists,  pacifists  though  they  are,  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Lenin  autocracy. 

This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  the  Bolshevik  minority 
will  lose  ground  for  some  time  yet.  They  have  the  enor- 
mous advantage  of  the  support  of  German  organisjition, 
German  propaganda  and  German  money.  TheV  arc  ame  also 
to  bribe  their  soldier  contingitits  with  enormous  rates  of  daily 
pay.      Ih-ii    high-handed  methods,  too,  give  the  impression 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  3,  191S 


of  stable  determination,  not  only  to  one  or  two  of  tiio  Allied 
Ambassadors,  but  to  some  of  the  people  thcmsel^ics,  who, 
sc-eing  their  daily  life  disorganised  and  famine  coming  upon 
them",  are  beginning  to  feel  "  better  Bolsiievik  dictatorship 
than  the  continuance  of  this  period  of  anarchical  incertitude." 
It  is  indeed  a  desperate  situation,  so  far  as  the  north  of  Russia 
is  concerned, 

Meanw  hile,  liowever,  other  parts  of  tiiis  huge  aggregation 
of  territories  and  peoples  are  in  open  revolt  against  th^  policy 
of  a  handful  of  fanatics  and  intriguers,  who  are  using  tho 
means  supplied  by  enemy  foreigners  to  force  a  rule,  for  which 
the  country  is  economically  and  socially  wholly  unprepared, 
upon  a  jjopulation  of  180,000,000  souls.  However  honest 
they  may  be,  tlieir  methods  aid  reaction  in  every  direction 
and  threaten  to  put  Russia  at  the  mercy  of  the  "Kaiser,  his 
(unkers  and  his  Capitalists  for  many  a  long  year  to  come, 
therefore,  the  Ukraine,  the  Caucasiis,  Siberia  and  Finland, 
which  have  declared  themselves  independent  Republics,  are 
against  Bolshevik  tvrannv  and  doctrinaire  incompetence. 
Men  like  Savinkoff,  Axentieff,  Kerensky,  with  their  military 
friends,  are  striving  at  this  moment — not  to  help  reaction  as 
Bolsheviks  and  (Germans  perfidiously  proclaim— but  to  aid 
the  Social  Revolutionaries,  who  will  constitute  the  majority 
Df  the  Constituent  Assembly  (even  now  tliat  tiie  aiiarchist 
?.\treme  left  has  gone  over  to  the  enemy),  in  organising  the 
ijennine  democracy  of  Russia  based  upon  the  peasantry  and 
the  townsmen  alike.  The  Social  Revolutionaries  are  all 
ilemocrats.  They  are  also  advocates  of  the  land  for  the 
people.  Anything  short  of  a  Democratic  and  Social  Federated 
l^epublic  would  be  a  defeat  for  them.  To  attain  this  end 
the>'  are  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice— are  making  great 
sacrifices  to-day.  But  the  following  points  are  essential  to 
their  success : — 

1.  Germany  must  be  prevented  from  gaining  the  \-ictory 
by  a  German  peace  ;  for  if  She  dqes,  she  will  use  the  dis- 
organisation of  Is  orth  Russia  and  the  resources  of  South  and 
East  Russia  entirelv  for  her  own  ends. 

2.  A  new  front  must  be  formed,  supported  from  points  acces- 
sible to  the  Allies  of  Russia,  in  order  to  preser\e  the  non- 
Bolshevik  districts  from  such  a  disaster. 

3.  The  Germans  must  be  stopped  from  drilling  the  .2,000,000 
i.erman  and  Austrian  prisoners  now  in  Russia  for  service 
against  the  Allies. 

4.  The  Allied  Governments  and  the  United  States  must  give 
a  definite  statement,  based  upon  the  formula  of  Restitution, 
Reparation  ajid  tiuarantees,  and  repudiating  all  Imperialist 
aims — a  staten>ent  with  wliich  Russia  may  confront  German 
and  Bolshevik  lies. 

5.  Russian  troops  and  war  vessels  must  be  used  to  help  the 
Iriends  of  lie  Allifss  against  their  enemies,  ' 


6.  The  Allies  must  forthwith  proclaim  to  the  world  that  tlieir 
friends  in  l^ussia  are  their  friends,  and  that  th'.;  friends  of 
their  enemy,   Germany,  are  their  enemies. 

In  all  the  affairs  of  human  life  there  is  some  risk.  It  is  the 
duty  of  statesmen,  as  it  is  of  organisers  and  men  of  business,  to 
consider  a  position  carefully  from  every  point  of  view  before 
decisive  action  is  taken.  .But  when  the  decision  is  arrived 
at,  then  the  shutters  should  be  pidled  down  on  the  other 
side  of  the  intellect.  I'urther  reflection  is  not  only  useless 
init  dangerous.  Siicli  a  situation  has  arisen  in  Russia.  Tre- 
mendous issues  are  at  stake  not  only  in  regard  to  the  relations 
between  England  and  her  AlUes  and  Russia  herself,  but  for 
the  immediate  future  of  the  civilised  world.  Asia  is  involved 
as  well  as  Europe.  ' 

Do  what  ever  wc  may,  the  influence  of  Germany  upon  Russia, 
her  Eastern  neighbour  must  inevitably  be  great.  Terri- 
torial propinquity  and  commercial  advantage  will  tell  in  her 
favour  as  time  goes  on.  But  if  at  this  critical  juncture  wc 
stand  aside  and  allow  our  enemes  to  dominate  Russia,  without 
an  effort  to  help  the  rising  anti-German  Republics,  then  all 
hope  of  a  counter-influence  being  effectively  exerted  by  the 
Allied  Powers  in  the  future  may  disappear.  Our  present 
difficulties  West  and  East  will  be  greatly  increased.  The 
vast  .sums  likewise  which  we  have  advanced  to  enable  Russia 
to  remain  an  independent  country,  working  out  h(>r  own 
destinies  in  friendly  accord  with  nations  that  aspire  neither 
to  mercantile  nor  political  domination,  will  have  been  entirely 
thrown  away. 

Under  these  circumstances,  a  prompt  decision  must  be 
reached.  This  is  not  a  matter  only  of  to-day,  threatening  as 
the  immediate  outlook  may  be,  nor  of  to-morrow,  hopeful  as 
we  all  are  of  final  and  decisive  victory  over  the  forces  of 
mihtarist  reaction  and  diplomatic  treachery.  It  is  the  end 
of  an  old  pohcy  and  the  beginning  of  a  new.  To  hesitate  is 
far  more  dangerous  than  to  act.  I'or,  certainly,  if  F^ngland 
and  her  Allies  display  again  a  pusillanirrous  incpitude,  continue 
to  debate  about  pros  and  cons  while  events  are  settling  the 
immediate  issue  against  them,  and  persistently  let  I  dare  not 
wait  upon  I  would — then  the  democratic  Republicans  and- 
anti-Bolsheviks  of  Russia  will  be  compelled  in  despair  to  make 
the  best  terms  they  can  with  the  German  invader  and  the 
enormous  but  undeveloped  resources  of  that  great  nation 
will  now  and  hereafter  be  under  Teutonic  control. 

There  is  now  good  reason  to  hope  tliat  the  terrible  dangers 
already  arising  out  of  the  present  situation  are  understood  and 
will  be  met  with  energy  and  determination.      But  at  such  a 
critical  moment  promptitude   is  essential  and,  unfortunatelj-, 
that  has  not  so  far  been  characteristic  of  the  .\Uied  policy. 


Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book 


Peace  Negotiations  with  Russia 

IT  would  seem  that  the  peace  negotiations  with. Russia 
have  not  evoked  great  enthusiasm  in  (lermany.  The^vent 
is  not  minimised,  but  neither  is  it  regarded  as  being  in 
itself  decisive.  There  is  smoke  in  the  flame  ;  many 
insuperable  difficulties  are  expected.  The  press  warns  the 
j)ublic  not  to  build  castles  in  the  air.  The  Bolshevik  leaders 
are  even  mistrusted  in  some  quarters.  Franz  Mehring,  a 
Socialist  of  European  reputation,  goes  so  far  as  to  attack 
them  openly  in  these  terms:  "Have  Lenin  and  Trotsky, 
who  were  for  years  brave  fighters  on  the  side  of  the  proletariat, 
suddenly  lost  their  senses,  or  has  their  revolutionary  energy 
and  that  of  their  supporters  driven  them  into  a  situation  where 
they  are  compelled  to  do  much  which  they  would  not  do  were 
they  free  masters  in  making  their  decisions  ?  They  are 
heading  straight  for  chaos."  Nevertheless,  the  public  hopes 
tliat  perhaps  the  negotiations  with  Russia  may  bring  peace 
in  t'he  West.  This  desire  must  be  very  strong,  for  even  so 
moderate  a  journal  as  the  Frankfurter  /cilinii^  is  moved  to 
use  these  veiled  threats  if  the  Allies  should  not  fulhl  Ger- 
many's expectations  : 

If  the  leaders  of  the  Kntente'continiic  the  war,  in  spite  of  fate, 
against  the  will  of  Russia  and  despite  the  readiness  of  the 
Central  Powers  for  a  general  peace,  they  will  only  make  a 
real  understaiuliuf;  more  and  more  diflicult  ;  for  any  accom- 
modation which  nuist  be  exacted  from  the  Kntente  by  force 
is  bound  to  be  a  defeat,  however  moderate  Germany  may 
be.  The  statesmen  of  the  Entente  still  have  time  to  make 
the  decision.  May  they  decide  in  favour  of  that  which  the 
cours«>  of  events  will  make  a  necessity  for  them  before  long. 

Boastful  talk  of  this  kind  is  necessary  in  order  to  hearten 
the  Germans  to  bear  up  still  further.  Their  burden  is  indeed 
great.  They  lack  coal,  for  the  winter  ration  allows  of  warm- 
ing only  one  room  for  each  household.  The  schools  are 
closed  because  of  the  coal  shortage  ;  the  streets  are  dark 
and  the  Dublic  baths  are  unable  to  serve  the  public  needs. 


It  is  not  that  Germany  has  no  coal.  But  she  has  no  miners 
to  dig  it,  nor  sufficient  trucks  to  distribute  it.  The  whole  of 
the  railway  system  is  chsorganised  ;  the  rolling  stock  is  being 
neglected  ;  there  is  a  serious  shortage  of  lubricants  ;  railway 
fares  for  the  express  services  have  been  doubled  while  ordinary 
train  services  have  been  considerably  reduced. 

Yet  the  German  suffers  in  patience.  His  beer  is  thinner 
and  dearer  than  ever.  In  place  of  tobacco  he  is  given  hops 
and  chicory  roots  to  smoke.  His  fat  and  butter  ration, 
small  though  it  is  already,  is  to  be  reduced  on  January  ist 
by  one-fifth.  He  is  fed  on  substitutes,  of  which,  according 
to  an  official  report,  there  are  now  over  ten  thousand  in 
(iermany.     Even  his  daily  bread  has  become  nauseating. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Vorudrts  relates  an  experience 
which  is  worth  recording.  Recently  he  visited  an  eating 
house  in  the  centre  of  Berlin  where"  before  the  war  he  had 
been  a  regular  customer,  Asking  what  there  was  to  eat  he 
was  informed  by  the  waitress  that  they  had  cake,  but  when 
he  saw  the  substance  he  would  have  none  of  it.  Thereupon 
the  waitress,  anxious  to  please,  vouchsafed  the  information 
that  they  also  had  .scones,  at  one  and  threepence  each.  He 
ordered  one.  It  was  small  in  size  and  its  coloiu"  was  a  dirty 
brown.  He  no  sooner  bit  into  it  than  he  received  a  shock. 
It  was  all  stringy  within  and  had  an  abominable  taste.  It 
is  significant  that  the  Vonvarls  should  print  this  story  in  bold 
type.  In  all  probability  this  particular  experience  "is  by  no 
means  unique.  Four  days  later,  on  December  19th,"  the 
Socialist  paper  wrote:  "The  great  masses  are  not  only 
hungry  :    they  are  literally  starving." 

Fear  of  Air  Raids 

On  top  of  all  this  comes  the  dread  of  air  raids.  The  Bedin 
Lohal-Anzeiger,  a  paper  with  a  large  circulation  among  the 
masses,  finds  it  necessary  to  cheer  the  people  by  attempting 
to  demonstrate  that  German  air-raids  on  England  are  right 
and  prooer.  and  English  air-raids  on  Germany  unspcakabli' 


January  3,  1918 


I.ANU    &    WATER 


11 


wicked.  It  is  instructive  to  oUi^-rve  how  tliis  result  is  arn\-ed 
at.  The  story  opens  with  the  first  visit  to  London  of  German 
aeroplanes  on  June  13th,  iqi;,  which  were  so  effective  that 
pubhc  feeling  in  p:ngland  ran  high.  That  was  unjustifiab  e, 
seeing  that  English  airmen  had  attacked  Freiburg  and  Karls- 
ruhe long  before,  and  tiie  victims  of  those  raids  had  to  be 
avenged.  Besides  London  is  a  military  centre  ;  Karlsruhe 
and  Freiburg  are  peaceful  open  towns. 

The  German  reader,  by  being  told  half  the  story,  is  made 
to  believe  that  the  (.erman  air  raids  are  merely  retaliatory- 
Not  a  single  word  is  said  about  the  Zeppelin  raids  on  England 
with  their  toll  of  innocent  lives.  The  German  reader's 
memory  must  be  very  short  if  he  has  already  forgotten  that 
Karlsruhe  and  Freiburg  were  visited  by  Allied  airmen  only 
after  Germany  had  had  recourse  to  the  air  weapon.  It 
should  also  be"  added  that  practically  every  town  in  Germany 
is  turning  out  munitions  of  war— Karlsruhe  and  Freiburg 
included.'  The  eftorts  of  the  Lokal-Anzeiger  are  exceedingly 
instmctive  in  respect  to  German  propagandist  methods. 
One-iialf  of  the  truth  is  suppressed,  and  the  German  case  is 
based  on  the  other  half.  The  sliamelessness  of  it  has  long 
ceased  to  be  a  cause  for  wonder  to  the  world. 

German  Peace  Feelers 

Despite  these  attempts  at  assuaging  their  fears,  the  German 
people  is  really  interested  in  nothing  but  the  possibility  of 
peace.  When 'Mr.  Balfour's  revelation  of  the  German  Peace 
feelers,  which  were  sent  to  London  last  September,  became 
known  in  Germany,  a  wave  of  excitement  passed  through 
the  land.  The  "  explanation"  of  the  German  Government, 
halting  as  it  was,  did  not  deceive  the  simplest.  Why, 
mixierate  men  asked,  was  nothing  more  heard  of  the  matter  .-• 
Here  was  Germany  proclaiming  to  the*  world  again  and  agam 
that  she  was  ready  for  peace,  that  the  hand  of  fellowship 
she  had  stretched  out  was  rejected  with  mocking  and  scorn, 
that  if  the  bloody  business  continued  it  was  all  the  fault  of 
the  AUies.  Yet  when  an  opportunity  for  negotiating  really 
presented  itself,  the  German  Government  was  dumb.  Moderate 
men  cannot  fathom  the  mystery,  or  at  least,  they  pretend 
they  cannot.  A  distinguished  poUtician  and  journalist  like 
Theodor  Wolff,  the  Editor-in-Chief  of  the  Berliner  Tageblatl 
is  driven  to  this  confession,  and  the  only  hope  he  can  hold 
out  to  his  countr\'men  is  to  wait  until  Mr.  Lloyd  (ieorge, 
"  the  Lion  of  Wales,"  and  M.  Clemenceau,  "  the  Tiger  of 
Paris,"  have  both  fallen  and  yielded  up  their  places  to  men 
more  inclined  to  pean-.  And'  the  German  people  read  and 
arc  comforted  ! 

Capture  of  Jerusalem 

The  capture  of  Jerusalem  was  discounted  in  the  German 
press  long  before  the  event.  There  was  so  marked  a  similarity 
in  the  arguments  used  that  we  are  justified  in  assigning  them 
to  a  common  official  source.  Perhaps  Major  Endres  gave 
the  clearest  enunc  iation  of  what  the  victory  picans  : 

From  a  military  standpoint  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  is  of  no 
great  importance,  but  the  political  and  moral  effects  are  enor- 
mous. The  taking  of  Jerusalem  is  a  first  step  toward.s  filling 
up  the  gaps  in  Great  Britain's  overland  communications  between 
Kgypt  and  India.  The  projected  cxten.sion  of  Great  Britain's 
sphere  of  influence  signifies  a  very  great  danger,  not  only  for 
'J'urkcy,  but  also  for  Germany.  The  realisation  of  Great 
iiritain's  plans  would  mean  the  final  closing  of  south-western 
Asia  against  Central  JCurope,  and  a  barrier  against  all  economic 
expansion  which  did  not  possess  the  benediction  of  Great 
Britain,  One  of  our  most  important  tasks  on  the  conclusion  of 
peace  will  be  to  secure  the  integrity  of  Turkey,  and  thereby 
to  open  the  door  to  the  Orient. 

A  German  Africa 

If  that  is  one  of  Germany's  important  ta.sks  at  the  con- 
clusion of  peace,  another  is  the  attempt  to  obtain  an  exten- 
'  sivc  colonial  empire  stretching  across  Africa  from  the  Indian 
to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  ei^ectively  dividing  the  British 
spheres  of  influence  in  the  north  and  the  south  of  the  Dark 
Continent.  This  proposed  (jerman  Africa,  of  which  maiiv 
Germans  still  dream,  would,  of  course,  inchidc  the  Belgian 
Congo,  and  there  are  not  a  few  people  in  Gennany  who  have 
the  effrontery  to  argue  that  because  Ciermany  has  conquered 
I'Ji'lgium,  she  lias  not  only  a  moral  but  also  a  legal  right  to 
the  Congo  !  And  then  Germans  ask  inniKcntly  why  thr 
world  does  not  love  them. 

Their  universal  unpopularity  appears  to  Ixi  a  source  of 
annoyance,  else  why  should  tlicy  demand  that  the  Swiss 
Government  ought,  out  of  consideration  to  Germmi  feehngs, 
to  censure  the  Journal  de  Geuh'c  for  speaking  of  the  "  pro\ed 
crimes  and  mocking  lies  of  the  Imperial  (icrniaii  Govern- 
ment," and  the  Bibliolhcqnc  VnivcrseUc  for  referring  to  the 


"  robber  nations  which  fell  upon  Belgium  from  the  back, 
throttled  the  Serbs  and  .Armenians,  spoiled  Kniimnni.T  and 
torpedoed  neutrals." 

Vienna  in  War  Time 

A  Swiss  visitor  who  has  just  returned  from  Vienna  records 
his  impressions  in  the  principal  Zurich  paper.  There  is  only 
one  topic  of  conversation  in  the  Austrian  capital — not  the 
grave  scarcity  of  food,  or  the  inordinately  high  theatre  prices, 
or  the  Italian  victories,  but  only  the  prospect  of  peace.  A 
novel  peace  demonstration  is  reported  from  Vienna.  In 
order  to  show  their  appreciation  of  the  Russian  peace  negotia- 
tions, the  members  of  the  Austrian  Housewives  Association, 
the  largest  women's  society  in  the  country-,  decided  to  leave 
a  card  at  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  on  three  constCitivc 
days  set  apart  for  the  purpose. 

Owing  to  an  inflation  of  the  currency  which  surpasses  all 
records,  money  has  depreciated  to  an  incredible  extent, 
witli  tlie  result  that  general  prices  have  soared  to  an  exceed- 
ingly high  level.  Provisions  are  unprocurable,  except  by 
the  very  rich  ;  and  as  the  city  is  full  of  refugees,  principally 
from  (iahcia,  living  rooms  arc  scarce  and  expensive.  For 
apartments  which  in  Zurich  cost  about  £2  los.  per  month,  the 
charge  in  Vienna  is  £10  !  It  can  easily  be  imagined  that  in 
these  circumstances  the  war  is  hardly  popular.  Nor  is  the 
army.  At  a  recent  session  of  the  Austrian  Delegations,  a 
Socialist  member  asked  the  Minister  of  War  a  number  of 
questions  which  require  no  comment : 

The  nation  had  lost  all  confidence  in  the  conduct  of  the 
Army  Command.  Everybody  believed  that  successes  were 
only  gained  when  the  capacity  of  the  Austrian  troops  was 
united  to  that  of  the  Germans.  It  was  the  general  opinion 
that  there  had  been  great  and  unneces.sary  sacrifices  of  life. 
Who  was  responsible  for  the  complete  failure  of  the  first  two 
invasions  of  Serbia  ?  Why  was  Przemysl  not  evacuated 
at  the  right  moment  ?  ■  Was  there  a  great  explosion  at  an 
Italian  munition  stores,  whereby  a  large  number  of  Austrian 
and  Hungarian  soUliers  were  killed  ?  Who  took  the  booty 
from  I'riuli  and  Venetia  ?  Did  the  German  Command  claim 
it  all  ?     What  about  the  two  days'  plundering  of  Udine  ? 

Another  speaker  indicted  the  army  authorities  for  acts 
of  unspeakable  cruelty.  In  Bosnia  the  troops  were  in- 
structed to  persecute  the  Slav  elements  of  the  population.  At 
least  ten  thousand  innocent  people  suffered  unnecessarily. 
In  Trebinje  the  prisons  were  filled  with  the  most  respected 
citizens  who  were  threatened  with  death,  although  no  charge 
had  been  formulated  against  them.  The  author  of  this 
terrorism,  General  Braun,  was  still  on  the  active  list.  AU 
that  the  Ministry  of  War  could  say  in  reply  was  that 
tlie  Government  deeply  deplored  these  unhappj-  events. 

Austria  has  to  put  up  not  only  with  (ierman  domination, 
but  also  with  Hungarian  hatred.  Feeling  in  Hungary  against 
the  sister  kingdom  runs  high,  and  recently  it  was  reported 
that  the  Buda-Pcsth  Town  Council  passed  a  resolution  in 
fa\'our  of  the  entire  independence  of  Hungar\-.  A  Hungarian 
newspaper  has  accentuated  that  demand  in  words  wliich  are 
significant : 

Our  arch  foe,  old  .Vustria,  has  now  begun  open  and  systematic 
warfare  against  us.  In  the  air  f)f  Vienna,  fille<l  with  \.\\ii 
stench  of  decomposing  Austria,  fly,  instead  of  birds,  impre- 
cations and  calumnies.  Every  Czech  vagabond,  every 
Austrian  ass,  abuses  Hungary.  Now  some  .\ustrian  owl 
h;is  discovered  that  very  few  Hungarian  soldiers  have  fallen 
in  the  wjtr  but  that  very  many  have  been  taken  prisoners. 
Jf  this  were  so,  we  could  rejoice  for  the  healthy  and  honour- 
able Magyar  blood,  which  is  much  more  necessary  for  the 
world  than  .'Vustrian  ;  but  the  Hungarian  losses  have  been 
tlisproportionately  great,  not  only  through  the  treachery  of 
the  Czechs,  but  also  thanks  to  Austrian  leadership.  All 
this  enforces  the  necessity  of  organising  an  independent 
Hungarian  army  letl  by  Hungarian  high  officers,  not  by  our 
Austrian  foes.  Our  people  must  be  taught  that  we  can 
no  longer  live  in  community  with  Austria,  which  would  only 
lead  to  our  defeat  and  ruin. 

This  is  an  aspect  of  the  German  Alliance  which  is  carefully 
'hidden   from   the   German  people. 


The  manufacture  on  a  large  scale  of  a  new  substitute  for  rubber 
tvres  is  reported  to  have  begun  in  Germany,  and  it  is  expected 
that  the  tyres  will  lie  in  general  u.se  at  the  beginning  of  April. 
The  works  are  under  official  control,  and  the  distribution  of  the 
tyres  will  be  regulated  by  a  Central  Office.  'l"hc'  new  inven- 
tion is  not  merely  a  combined  spring  .system,  but  a  material 
which  is  the  result  of  months  of  experiment,  and  will  make  the 
motor  factories  completclj-  independent  of  foreign  tyre  material. 

.Vccording  to  a  Zurich'message.  the  electrical  works  at  Kolin, 
Bohemia,  have  been  closed  down  through  lack  of  coal,  with  dis- 
astrous results  to  the  whole  of  the  surrounding  ( oinitry.  I'our- 
teen  towns  antl  35  village  communities  are  witliout  liglit.  Eight 
sugar  refineries,  eleven  large  mills,  13  engineering  works,  the  rail- 
ways works,  and  numerous  other  industrial  establishments  are 
all  obliged  to  stop  work. 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  J,   iQiS 


With    a    Field    Ambulance 


By  Green  Patch 


OX  a  (liillv,  (lamp  night  last  spring  wo  bad  dined 
with  the  "officers  of  a  field  ambulance  in  the  little 
wooden  hut  that  housed  their  mess.  A  heavy 
action  had  been  in  progress  for  several  days,  during 
which  time  the  (iermans  had  i)een  forced  out  of  a  notable 
stronghold,  and  had  retreated  sullenly,  harassed  by  the 
infantrs"  and  pounded  incessantly  by  the  guns.  During 
dinner  the  arrival  of  several  loads  of  patients  drew  most  of 
the  officers  away  to  the  dressing  station. 

The  scene  here  was  typical  of  a  field  ambulance  main 
dressing  station  fluring  a  "show."  Ambulance  cars,  drawing 
up  in  front  of  the  door  discharged  their  quota  of  patients. 
Assisted  by  orderlies,  these  silently  straggled  into  the  hut, 
standing  for  a  moment  confused  and  blinking  in  the  strong 
acetylene  light.  Stretcher  cases,  carefully  lowered  from  the 
racks,  were  carried  in  by  the  bearers, 'and  laid  in  a  neat  line 
along  one  wall.  Hot  drinks,  coffee,  cocoa  and  soup  were 
rapidly  dispensed,  and  so  were  large  beef  sandwiches — to 
all  who  could  take  them.  Dressings  had  to  be  examined 
and,  if  necessary,  changed,  anti-tetanus  serum  administered, 
records  completed,  and  in  general  the  men  prepared  for 
their  trip  to  the  casualty  clearing  station. 

As  the  iiot  footl  and  warmth  began  to  thaw  their  stiffened 
bodies  the  wounded  became  more  talkative,  and  little  epics 
of  the  fight  were  bandied  about  in  Tofnmy's  trench  language, 
'riiere  was  no  complaining — there  practically  never  is  : 
grousing  is  re.served  for  matters  of  real  importance,  as, 
for  instance,  when  plum  jam  is  too  prevalent,  or  "  bully  " 
takes  the  place  of  the  expected  fresh  meat,  or,  still  more  often, 
upon  the  distribution  of  fatigues.  The  men's  equipment 
and  the  stretchers  were  wet  through,  and  plastered  witli 
puttj-  coloured  day,  which  is  the  winter  livery  of  thp  line. 
Here  and  there  a  man,  utterly  exhausted,  fell  asleep  on  a 
bench  or  on  the  floor.  One  stretcher  case  guarded  with  his 
arm  a  German  helmet.  Many  carried  little  odds  and  ends  of 
the  usual  trashy  nature,  which  are  so  nuich  prized  as  souvenirs. 

We  boarded  a  returning  ambulance,  and  proceeded  slowlv 
along  a  road  thick  with  traffic.  The  mud  was  bad,  and  small 
pools  disguised  treacherous  holes  that  were  a  constant 
menace  to  springs  and  axles.  A  run  of  two  miles  and  the  car 
drew  up  at  an  ambulance  station,  near  a  siding  of  a  line  of 
trench  railway.  Here  a  ''  hospital  train  "  of  small  low  trucks 
was  being  loaded  by  ambulance  men  with  rations,  stretchers, 
blankets,  bales  of  dressings,  a  jar  or  two  of  rum,  and  evep  a 
case  of  oranges  for  the  forward  posts. 

The  gasolene  engine,  a  squat  little  monstrosity,  of  the  pit- 
head type,  was  clanking  and  snorting  in  its  desire  to  be  off. 
and  being  presently  given  its  head  by  the  dri\-er,  a  philosophic 
wag  in  a  tin  hat,  jolted  its  load  of  "trucks  into  motion.  The 
scenery  was  not  remarkable— darkness  and  a  thin  rain  blot- 
ting out  the  landscape. 

The  train,  gathering  way,  shortly  attained  a  speed  of  about 
15  miles  per  hour.  We  passed  a 'tramway  control  post  and 
the  driver's  man  established  a  "  block  ",'in  the  line  beliind 
us  by  the  simple  expedient  of  holding  up  a  red  lantern.  A 
few  minutes  sufficed  to  reach  tramway  headquarters.  This 
was  a  sand-bag  hut,  constructed  (so  true  is  the  railway  man's 
homing  instinct)   inside  the  remains   of  a    French  "railway 

station,   lying  on  the  outskirts  of  the  village  of  C -. 

The  night  was  \-ocal  with  a  medley  of  sounds,  near  at  hand 
the  chcking  of  the  motor  engine,  the  crash  of  the  guns,  the 
sharp  scream  of  the  sliells  gradually  dying  away  into  a  purr, 
•  the  distant  rattle  of  machine  guns  (well  called  by  the  men 
"typewriters").  We  turned  from  watching  the"  flare  and 
flicker  of  German  star  shells  ahead  to  find  the  tramway  officer 

speaking.     "  Good    evening,    I'm    coming    up    to    D— ^ 

with  you,  to  see  if  everything  is  correct.  The  engine  is  on 
behind  now.  we  push  in  from  here." 

We  seated  oursel\-cs  on  the  front  truck,  and  were  soon  off. 
To  the  blase  person  seeking  a  new  sensation,  I  would  unhesi- 
tatingly recommend  a  night  ride  on  the  head  end  of  a  trencii 
tram,  as  liaving  its  littjt-  thrills.  Your  truck,  propelled  b>- 
its  clanking  vis-a-tergo,  dashes  ahead  in  uncanny  fashion,  it 
being  too  dark  to  see  much  of  the  narrow  track  in  front. 
Every  curve  gives  a  sensation  of  flying  off  into  space,  and  there 
Ls  always  the  chance  of  a  hole  in  the  track.     In  a  few  minutes 

we   were   passing   through   the   remains   of   S Wood, 

a  bit  of  ground  that  will  remain  to  Prance  for  all  time  sacred 
with  sacrifice.     Twice  we  crossed  a  small  stream. 

The  sounds  of  gun  fire  were  increasing  in  volume,  and 
flashes  could  be  seen  on  all  sides,  and  it  was  apparent  that 
we  were  drawing  near  the  centre  of  things.  .Suddenly  the 
train  entered  a  small  cutting.  Above  us  a  couple  of  ma'chine 
gun.s  were  raising  a  most  infernal  clatter— busily  engaged  in 
sowiner  an  indirect  barrage  on  the  enemy's  line.   "On  emerging 


again  into  the  open,  we  found  ourselves  running  across  a 
shallow    valley.     Beyond    this    loomed    an    indistinct    mass. 

"  That's  the  Ridge,"    said  G. 

We  drew  in  at  the  foot  of  the  slope,  and  saw  in  front  our 
destination — a  tunnel  of  roomy  dimensions  into  which  the 
track  ran.  On  entering  the  place  one  perceived  several 
dressing  r«oms  and  sleeping  quarters,  opening  off  the  main 
shaft.  A  number  of  the  field  ambulance  bearers,  who  were 
stationed  here,  on  the  command  of  a  sergeant,  Ijegaii 
carrying  in  the  stores  we  had  brought  up. 

A  Hospital   Dug-Out 

Having  ascertained  that  the  train  would  not  leave  for  nearly 
an  hour,  G.  and  I  procured  a  guide  and  set  off  to  visit  one  of 
the  regimental  aid  posts  farther  up  the  slope.  Thegoiiig 
was  bad,  owing  to  the  torn  nature  of  the  country— the  ground 
being  a  mass  of  shell  holes,  trenches,  and  wire,  and  after  mugli 
floundering  and  a  stiff  climb  of  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour, 
we  arrived  covered  with  mud  and  rather  breathless.  An 
opening  on  the  face  of  the  incline  gave  access  to  a  long  passage 
sloping  downwards  at  an  angle  of  about  20  degrees.  A  hun- 
dred yards  of  this,  and  we  entered  a  low  room,  where  we 
found  the  battalion  medical  officer  and  one  from  the  field 
ambulance.  In  bunks  men  were  sleeping,  while  several  lightly 
wounded  reclined  on  the  floor.  The  atmosphere  of  the  place 
was  very  substantial.  It  seemed  largely  composed  of  char- 
coal fumes  from  the  brasier  in  the  centre,  but  tobacco  smoke, 
the  odour  of  damp  chalk,  chloride  of  lime  and  well-worn 
clothes  struggled  nobly  for  the  ascendancy. 

We  lit  cigarettes  and  enquired  about  the" clearing  of  patients, 
supplies  of  dressings,  rations  and  so  forth.  Everything 
appeared  to  be  going  well.  Mugs  .of  tea  were  handed  around! 
"  You're  being  relieved  shortly.  Old  Thing,"  said  G.,  "what 
price  a  hot  bath  ?"  "  You'll" be  asking  me  next  if  I  care  to 
go  on  leave,"  retorted  the  M.O.  "  Meanwhile,  Bill  and  I 
are  scratching  along  quite  comfortably.  One  lump  please, 
dear,  and  no  cream." 

We  emerged  into  the  fresh  air,  accompanied  by  several 
lightly  wounded  men  who  were  able  to  walk  and  a  squad  of 
bearers  carrying  a  stretcher  case.  The  descent  was  a  tedious 
proceeding.  It  is  marvellous  how, it  was  accomplished  at 
all  by  the  bearers  over  that  ground  in  the  dark,  but 
they  finally  got  their  patient  safely  down.  As  the  party 
reached  the  level,  a  few  Hun  shells  began  to  burst  on 
the  Ridge.  At  the  train  parties  of  bearers  were  carrying 
stretcher  cases  from  the  tunnel  to  the  trucks.  This  took 
time,  and  it  was  some  minutes  before  the  walking  wounded 
were  helped  to  their  places.  Someone  flashed  an  electric 
torch  and  an  officer  ordered  him  sharply  to  put  it  out. 
Finally  the  car^  had  their  full  load — 25  patients.  The  motion- 
less forms  on  their  stretchers  covered  with  blankets  on  the 
forward  trucks,  and  the  lightly  wounded  filling  up  all  the 
extra  space — an  irregular  patchwork  of  white  bandages  show- 
ing in  the  dark— the  rest  being  almost  invisible. 

I  asked  the  dri\er  if  shelling  smashed  his  track  \ery  often. 
"  Quite  frequent,  sir,"  he  replied.  "  We  sometimes  get 
fi\-e  or  six  breaks  in  the  track  in  a  night  when  things  are 
quiet,  and  the  Germans  can  hear' the  train  coming  up,  or 
when  there  is  a  '  show  '  on.  The  shrapnel  is  all  right,  but 
it  gets  my  wind  up  \\hen  he  drops  H.E;  on  the  track,  in  front 
and  behind  and  then  starts  on  the  train."  n 

The  engine  was  already  humming,  but  something  seemed 
wrong  with  its  internal  economy,  as  the  regular  beat  gave 
])lace  to  a  series  of  asthmatic  coughs  and  finally  ceased  al- 
together. The  driver  was  engaged  with  its  levers  when  there 
was  a  shrill  thin  scream,  and  a  whizz-bang  passed  over  the 
train  and  burst  a  few  yards  to  the  left.  The  wounded  ob- 
served it  silently,  and  with  little  show  of  interest.  A  number 
of  tlnngs  followed,  kicking  up  showers  of  sparks  and  mud. 
'I  he  driver,  who  was  crouching  over  the  engine,  quickly  got 
the  train  in  motion,  ("Oli,  moments  that  seem  long  as  years," 
murmured  G.),  and  we  drew  slowlv  away,  leaving  the  strafe 
in  progress.  _  I  heard  a  man  witli 'his  arm  in  a  sling  remark 
to  a  chum  :   "  He  certainly  done  his  best  to  kiss  us  good-bye." 

Gathering  speed  wc  raced  through  the  cutting,  under" our 
friends  the  machine  gurs,  which  were  still  giving  tongue.  The 
rest  of  the  journey  was  uneventful.  One  could  only  think 
what  a  useful  meth(xl  of  clearing  this  was,  compared  to  the 
slow  and  painful  jolt  of  ambulance  wagons  o\-er  bad  roads 

The  train  drew  up  at  the  liuts  of  the  field  ambulance 
station,  and  orderlies  came  out  to  assist  the  wounded  into 
the  haven  of  warmth  and  light. 

"All  oft,  boys,  first  change  for  'Blighty.'  "  called  a  sergeant. 


January  3,  1918 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


German  Rule  of  Native  Races 


By  Bishop  Frodsham 


Bishop  Frodsham,  now  Canon  Rcsidcnliary  in  Gloiiccslcr, 
uorkcd  for  seventeen  years  in  Queensland,  being  Bishop  of 
Norlh  Queensland  foi  eleven  of  them.  His  knouledge  of 
German  methods  in  the  Pacific  Archipelago  is,  therefore, 
intimate  and  first  hand.  Contrast  the  opinions  expressed 
here  with  the  views  put  forward  by  Connt  Czernin  at  Brest- 
Litovsk  last  week  ;  "  The  fact  that  the  natives  of  the  German 
colonies,  despite  the  greatest  difficulties  and  the  slight 
prospects  of  success  in  the  struggle  against  an  enemy  many 
Utiles  superior,  and  disposing  of  unlimited  overseas  rein- 
forcements, have  through  thick  and  thin  loyally  adhered  to 
their  German  friends,  is  proof  of  their  attachment  and  their 
resolve  under  all  circumstances  to  remain  with  Germany. 
a  proof  which  in  .seriousness  and  in  iceight  far  exceeds  every 
possible  demonstration  of  wishes  by  voting." 

PROFESSOR  LOWELL,  of  Harvard  University,  has 
done  well  in  emphasising  the  moral  duty  which  has 
been  laid  upon  the  Allied  Powers  to  "deliver  not 
only  the  smaller  nations  of  Europe,  but  still  more 
the  undeveloped  races  of  Africa  and  of  the  Pacific  from 
the  horror  of  German  domination.  American  and  English 
tra\-ellcrs  are  almost  invariably  misled  by  what  they  sec  of 
native  peoples  under  German  rule.  They  are  impressed  by 
the  organisation.  They  compare  the  buildings,  the  sanita- 
tion, and  tha  regulations  with  regard  to  native  labour,  witli 
those  under  British  or  even  American  rule  unfavourably  to 
the  latter.  What  they  do  not  see  is  the  cold  inhuman  policy 
of  native  exploitation" that  lies  beneath  the  German  colonising 
policy. 

The  Americans  in  the  Philippines  and  the  British  in  their 
splieres  of  influence  make  many  mistakes  and  raise  many 
troubles  for  themselves  by  treating  natives  as  though  they  were 
black  or  brown  replicas  of  democratic  voters,  but  they  regard 
themselves  as  tnistecs  of  the  races  which  are  yet  in  their 
minority.  The  Germans,  on  the  other  hand,  regard  the  un- 
dc\cloped  races  of  mankind  just  as  they  would  regard  wild 
animals  who  are  capable  of  domestication.  Some  they  con- 
sider to  be  better  shot,  while  others  are  worth  preserving 
and  propagating,  so  long  as  they  behave  themselves  and 
ser\e  the  purposes  of  Germany.  To  put  the  matter  baldly, 
the  English  and  Americans  look  upon  the  undeveloixxl 
races  of  mankind  as  human  beings  who  need  looking  after  in 
their  own  interests,  while  the  Germans  regard  them  as  human 
beings,  perhaps,  but  as  human  beings  of  the  slave  variety. 
To  hear  a  German  talk  on  a  hotel  verandah  in  the  tropics 
about  the  nati\'e  races  is  what  one  would  imagine  an  ancient 
Israelite  would  say  about  his  duty  in  caring  for  the  children  of 
Gibcon,  who  were  allowed  to  exist  just  because  they  could 
split  wood  and  draw  water.  Until  this  tnith  with  regard  to 
the  Germans  is  recognised  it  will  be  impossible  to  get  their 
colonising  methods  into  proper  focus. 

Pacification  by  Bloodshed 

The  pacification  of  tlic  South  Sea  Islanders  by  the  Germars 
probably  never  involved  anything  like  the  volume  of  blood- 
shed which  was  the  case  in  East  and  South-West  Africa.  The 
Berlin  official  reports  enumerated  the  native  losses  in  East 
Africa  on  one  occasion  at  120,000  men  and  women.  This  re- 
port, and  ^■on  Trotha's  infamous  proclamation  that  the 
Hereros,  male  and  female,  armed  or  imarmed,  were  to  be  shot 
at  sight,  are  treasured  in  the  Imperial  archives  as  records  of 
their  successful  colonising  methods.  The  massacres  of  natives 
in  all  the  South  Sea  Islands  may  not  have  reached  more  than 
a  tithe  of  the  figures  in  East  Africa,  and  no  Island  proclama- 
tions like  Von  Trotha's  have  reached  the  outer  world,  but  the 
fact  remains  that  a  fine  manly  race  has  been  tamed  by  the 
Germans  somehow  or  another.  At  first,  after  the  process  of 
pacification,  they  sciu-ricd  away  like  frightened  rabbits 
whenever  they  saw  a  white  man.  An  .Australian  has  re- 
counted how  he  stood  on  a  broad  white  road  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Wilhehnshavon  in  Papua,  which  ran  through  cum- 
{^ativcly  well-populated  countrv.  There  was  not  a  native 
in  sight.  They  preferred  tu  slink  along  through  the  scrub 
to  sliaring  a  highway  with  a  whitt-  man  wjio  might  be  a  Ger- 
man. This  fear  has  been  removed.  It  did  not  pay  the  Ger- 
mans, who  required  labour  on  their  plantations,  that  the  natives 
should  fly  like  frightened  anim  lis  or  die  like  rotten  sheep. 
The  natives  to-day  are  well  cared  for,  but  let  them  raise  their 
voices  as  free  men  witli  riglits  and  opinions,  and  they  will 
be  treated  as  the  Belgians  and  Poles  are  treated  under  sim- 
ilar circumstances.  Thcsr  are  not  surmises.  They  are  solid 
facts,  as  every  mm  who  has  had  personal  kiiowkctg    of  Ger- 


man colonies  knows  well. 

The  methods  by  which  the  Germans  maintain  tlic  sub- 
jugation of  the  native  races  in  their  colonics  turn  not  only 
upon  the  force,  but  upon  the  native  ownership  of  land!  Here 
e.xpcricnce  in  the  South  Seas  casts  a  valuable  liglit  upon 
darkest  Africa.  .All  over  the  Pacific  the  natives  have  been 
from  the  first  inclined  to  sell  their  birthrights  without  in  the 
least  comprehending  what  the  transaction  actually  meant. 
Similar  ignorance  must  be  credited  to  white  men  who  did  not 
realise  at  first  the  complicated  character  of  -  land  tenure 
among  all  the  South  Sea  Islanders.  I'ndcr  the  native  laws 
of  custom  it  is  impossible  for  any  individual  to  sell  rights 
which  belong  not  to  him  alone  but  by  reversion  tu  hundreds 
of  others  also 

Native  Rights 

This  mutua;l  misunderstanding  led  to  extraordinary  results. 
Men  sold  and  bought  land  in  Samoa  alone  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  would  have  necessitated  reclaiming  the  foreshore  for 
twenty-five  miles  out  to  sea  all  round  the  island  in  order  to 
satisfy  the  claims  lodged  by  the  white  purchasers.  No  nation- 
ality of  traders  is  altogether  free  from  complicity  in  the 
pernicious  polic\'  of  land-grabbing,  but  care  should  be  taken 
to  differentiate  between  the  action  of  traders  and  the  action 
of  Governments.  The  American  and  British  Governments 
have  upheld  native  rights  throughout  the  Pacific.  The 
German  Government ,  on  the  other  hand,  not  only  condoned 
but  facilitated  the  transfer  of  land  from  native  ownership. 
By  this  policy  the  Germans  affected  the  whole  future  of  the 
islands  in  a  fashion  destructi\-e  of  native  freedom.  Wherever 
they  could,  they  bore  down  native  opposition  with  brutal 
force,  and  though  their  purposes  were  generally  effected  by 
such  methods  and  peace  restored  thereby,  it  was  upon  terms 
which  meant  perpetual  servitude  to  the  subdued.  This 
point  should  be  understood  very  clearly  by  all  who  wish  to 
estimate  the  German  colonial  question  from  a  moral  stand- 
point. ' 

The  British  policy  with  regard  to  native  land  has  entailed 
difficulties  in  the  Pacific  which  did  not  arise  in  German 
colonies.  In  Fiji,  for  instance,  the  Fijians  adopted  a  ddlci: 
far  nientc  life,  preferring  the  pleasures  of  landlordism  to 
irksome  work  on  sugar  plantations.  But  the  Fijians  are 
free  men  because  they  have  their  feet  firm  on  their  own  land  ; 
the  Papuans,  the  Marshall  and  the  Caroline  Islanders,  on  the 
other  hand,  while  under  German  domination,  were  not  free. 
They  had  to  work  under  any  conditions  the  Germans  con- 
sidered most  profitable  to  German  capitalists,  because  needs 
must  when  hunger  drives.  The  question  is,  are  the  Allies 
prepared  to  hand  the  South  Sea  Islanders  in  Papua,  in  the 
Marshall  and  the  Caroline  Islands,  in  the  Bismarck  Archipelago 
and  in  beautiful  Samoa,  back  to  the  hopeless  servitude  of 
landless  men — a  servitude  from  which  the  Australians,  the 
New  Zealanders  and  the  Japanese  have  delivered  them? 
To  this  question  only  one  answer  seems  possible  when  the 
facts  are  known. 

The  British  and  .\merican  poHcy  of  trusting  the  people 
may  have  failures,  but  it  has  successes  impossible  to  German 
slave  methods.  A  case  in  point  has  arisen  in  the  Gilbert 
and  Ellicc  Islands,  which  are  adjacent  to  the  Marshalls.  The 
inhabitants  of  these  islands  have  been  bewildered  by  the  war. 
Tiiey  are  naturally  warhke,  but  their  martial  activities  have 
been  sternly  repressed  by  both  the  Germans  and  the  British. 
That  these  two  great  white  races,  whose  wisdom  had  caused 
wars  to  cease  in  the  islands,  should  be  ."  visiting  each  other's 
islands  and  driving  home  the  spear  "  made  the  white  men 
seem  more  human.  The  fact  that  the  war  was  longer  than 
their  customary  three  days  fights  was  not  surprising,  because 
the  white  men's  "islands"  were  big  and  far  apart.  As 
months  went  by,  it  was  gradually  realisq^l  by  the  old  men  that 
the  war  was  of  an  unknown  kind  which  would  not  end  with 
"  a  little  shedding  of  blood."  This  fact  caused  them  to  be 
silent  over  their  own  vast  exploits  in  tribal  wars. 

Then  it  was  rumoured  that  the  native  races  were  being 
allowed  to  take  tlieir  place  with  the  British  troops  to  fight 
against  the  hated  Germans,  and  the  islands  under  British 
protection  volunteered  to  a  man.  When  it  was  learned  that 
their  services  could  not  be  utilised,  but  that  they  could  con- 
tribute to  war  relief  funds,  they  were  again  profoundly  sur- 
prised. The  \-ery  idea  that  "  Big  I'Vllow  Go\-ernmcnt " 
needed  money  and  not  men  from  the  "  boys  "  was  the  climax 
of  their  bewilderment.  But  when  once  they  realised  that 
their  help  was  actually  renuiixd,  the  effect  was  spontaneous. 

Tlic  nati\cs  ot  Ocean  Island  asked  lca\c  to  giNe  all  their 


14 


LAND    &    WAIEK 


January  3,   1918 


pho6j)liato  roj-alty  to  patriotic  funds,  and  were  with  difficulty 
persuaded  to  limit  their  gilt  to  /i.oooi  by  the  warning  of 
j)ossible  future  droughts.  At  a  meeting  of  the  labourers  of 
the  Pacific  Piiosphate  Company,  held  at  Ocean  Island,  by 
the  request  of  tlie  Ciilbert  and  Ellice  employees,  it  was  suggested 
that  each  man  should  give  5s.  from  his  deferred  pay.  Th(^ 
iininediate  answer  was  :  "  VVe  want  to  give  all  our  deferred 
pay  "  (amounting  to  about  £"15  a  head).  When  the  contri- 
bution was  eventually  raised  to  los.  each,  the  limit  permitted, 
great  disappointment  was  expressed.  These  facts,  condensed 
.from  the  latest  official  report,  receive  greater  importance 
when  it  is  realised  that  the  natives  in  this  little  colony  are  not 
onl}-  jxior,  but  are  faced  by  a  serious  drought,  in  which  they 
will  have  to  li\'c  from  hand  to  mouth  for  a  jear  or  more. 
The  action  of  the  Ocean  Islanders  is  a  valuable  piece  of 
evidence  as  to  the  humane  character  of  British  rule  in  the 
;  South  Seas,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  (ierman.  The 
evidence  should  warm  the  hearts  of  the  Alliance  fighters  to 
their  brown  allies  in  the  South  Seas  who,  although  they  arc 
not  allowed  to  take  up  anns,  arc  giving  generous  help  to 
lelicve  white  women  and  cliildrcn  who  are  suffering  from 
the  conmion  enemy  of  mankind. 

Deep  down  in  the  hearts  of  all  honest  democrats  is  the 
desire,  not  that  this  war  should  end  quickly,  but  that  it  should 
put  far  away  the  danger  of  all  war.  This  will  be  impossible 
so  long  as  the  German  Hag  flics  in  the  Pacific.  Professor 
%on  Buchka,  formerly  Director  of  the  Colonial  Department 
of  the  German  Foreign  Office,  made  this  point  «juite  clear  in 
a  recent  article  in  Der  Tag,  of  BcrHn.  After  discussing  the 
relative  values  to  Germany  of  Africa  and  the  Pacific  Islands, 
he  argued  that  the  extension  of  Colonial  territory  in  Africa 
would  not  compensate  Germany  for  the  loss  of  her  possessions 
in  the  South  Seas.  The  latter,  he  writes,  constituted  by  their 
geographical  position  and  their  excellent  harbours  the  naval 
bases  rccpiisite  for  the  emphatic  representation  of  the  Germain 
interests  in  the  \ast  domain  of  the  South  Seas  and  for  uphold- 
ing the  prestige  of  the  German  name.  The  i)ermanent  loss 
of  all  those  bases,  he  adds,  would  necessarily  entail  the  com- 
plete disappearance  of  the  prestige  already  acquired,  and  put- 
an  end  to  the  political  influence  in  the  South  Seas  founded 
on  the  prestige. 

This  German  journal,  Dcr  Tag,  docs  not  circulate  generally 
in  England.  The  opinions  expressed  by  Professor  von  Buchka 
iue  largely  uiiknoAvn  in  England.    They  may  be  unknown 


also  in  America.  Tlicy  arc  well-known  in  Australia  and  New 
Zealand.  How  well-known  may  be  judged  from  a  recent 
debate  in  the  New  Zealand  House  of  Representatives.  On 
July  3rd  last  Mr.  Massey,  the  Prime  IMinistcr,  stated  that  there 
was  no  division  of  opinion  throughout  Australasia  as  to  the 
grave  danger  of  returning  any  of  the  Pacific  Island  colonies 
to  (Germany.  To  this  wa'ning  Sir  Joseph  Ward  added  a 
striking  metaphor  :  "  Germany  was  "a  hound  ready  to  put 
its  fangs  into  all  honest   passers-by." 

.\merica  and  .Australia  may  regard  themselves  as  the  joint 
wardens  of  the  peace  of  t\u:  Pacific.  The  people  are  desirous 
that  freedom  of  trade  should  be  preserved  because  honest 
trade  is  an  ofticer  of  peace.  They  are  desirous  that  the  natives 
should  be  treated  as  free  men  with  rights  and  privileges  that 
belong  to  all  human  beings  by  virtue  of  their  humanity. 
They  are  prepared  to  be  patient  with  slow  nati\'e  dcx-eloi)- 
ment  because  down  at  the  bottom  they  believe  in  the  father- 
hood of  God,  and,  to  quote  old  Thomas  Fuller,  they  think  of 
the  black  man  as  being  "  God's  image  cut  in  ebony."  Thev 
are  prepared  to  admit  Germany  into  the  community  of  nations 
but  not  untd  the  Germans  have  changed  their  selfish  colonising ' 
IMojects  summed  up  in  the  motto  "  Deutschland  uber  alles," 
and  have  abandoned  their  mad  methods  of  militarism,  lentil 
these  arc  established  facts  it  would  be  inhuman  to  hand  back 
to  their  tender  mercies  the  colonies  of  the  Pacific  or  of  Africa. 
Democracy  cannot  hope  to  stand  upright  in  the  justice 
court  of  History  if  the  leaders  refuse  to  reahsc  facts  which 
may  be  foreign  to  their  own  experience,  or  if  the  rank  and  file, 
in  their  desire  for  an  early  peace,  disregard  the  rights  of 
working  men  overseas,  who  may  differ  from  workers  in  Europe 
and  America  chiefly  in  the  pigment  of  the  skin,  but  who  are 
otherwise  just  as  proper  men. 

As  an  Enghshman  who  has  lived  for  almost  seventeen 
years  111  tropical  and  sub-tropical  Australia,  I  agree  witli 
what  f^resident  Lowell,  of  Harvard  University,  has  said 
upon  the  mimorality  of  handing  back  the  nations  of  the 
so-called  fierman  colonies  to  their  former  tyrants  and  par- 
ticularly in  declaring  that  "  the  World  must  subdue  a  mih- 
tary  autocracy  that  goes  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer  or 
the  world  will  have  no  peace.  Moreover,  the  oppression 
of  one  race  by  another  must,  as  far  as  possible,  be  removed 
For  that  reason  we  cannot  consider  the  return  to  Germany 
of  her  former  colonies  that  their  people  may  be  exploited  as 
they  have  been  in  the  past."  -  • 


The   Price  of    Citizenship 

By  Dr.  Charles  Mercier 


THF:  social  state  is  not  peciUiar  to  mankind.  Many 
other  animals,  from  the  ant  to  the  elephant,  have 
adopted  it.  Even  plants,  and  parts  of  plants,  such 
as  the  flower  of  the  daisy  have  adopted  it,  for  of  all 
aids  in  the  struggle  for  life  the  social  state  is  the  most  efiicient. 
Many  devices  arc  employed  by  both  animals  and  plants  to 
secure  their  survival.  Some,  like  the  boa-constrictor,  trust 
to  their  strength  of  muscle  ;  some,  like  the  lion  and  tiger, 
to  offensive  weapons  wielded  by  great  muscular  strength  ; 
some,  hkc  the  tortoise  and  the  hedgehog,  to  defensive  armour  ; 
some,  like  the  mole  and  the  earthworm,  to  burrowing  out  of 
danger  ;  some,  like  the  swift  and  many  sea  birds,  to  the 
inaccessibility  of  their  haunts  ;  some  to  poisonous  fangs  and 
stmgs.  some  to  swiftness  and  agihty  ;  some  to  boundless 
jMohficness.  These  and  a  thousand  other  devices  aid  in  the 
survival  of  this  and  that  organism,  but  of  all  devices  in  aid 
of  survival,  none  except  proUficness  is  so  efficacious  as  the 
adoption  of  the  social  habit,  and  extreme  prolificncss  is  in- 
compatible with  a  high  grade  of  organisation. 

The  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong. 
It  IS  numbers  that  prevail.  The  chief  terrors  of  tropical 
lands  are  not  the  ferocious  beasts  of  prev  nor  the  poisonous 
reptiles,  but  the  armies  of  insects  ;  and  if  mere  numbers 
prevail,  how  muclf  more  numbers  that  are  (organised  and 
render  mutual  assistance.  A  cloud  of  midges  may  be  killed 
by  a  frost  or  dispersed  by  a  storm,  but  it  is  scarcely  possible 
to  destroy  ;i  colony  of  termites  or  an  armv  of  foraging  ants. 
Man,  born  destitute  of  weapons,  both  of  offence  and  defence, 
neither  swift  nor  strong  in  comparison  with  many  of  his  foes! 
living  neither  in  concealment  nor  in  inaccessible  places,  in- 
creasing but  slowly  in  numbers,  possessing  individually  but  the 
advantage  of  intelligence,  an  advantage  of  little  avail  if  he 
lived  solitary  or  in  families  alone,  has  taken  the  lead  over  all 
other  organisms  and  established  himself  against  all  his  foes 
and  against  the  destructive  forces  of  nature.  This  he  has  done 
by  virtue  of  his  adoption  of  the  social  habit. 

It  is  to  combination  with  his  fellows  that  man  owe^^  his 
sur\i\al.     It  is  by  combination  with  his  fellows  that  he  has 


become  what  he  is.  It  is  by  his  assumption  of  the  social  state 
that  he  has  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  all  living  beings  and 
achieved  an  astonishing  degree  of  mastery  over  the  forces 
and  material  of  nature.  But  for  his  sociality  man  could  have 
pursued  no  agriculture,  made  no  roads,  built  no  bridges,  con- 
structed no  machines,  woven  no  cloth,  devised  no  arts  or  crafts 
However  intelligent— and  his  intelligence  is  very  largely  due 
to  his  social  habit— he  would  have  remained  a  savage,  living 
from  hand  to  mouth,  and  destitute  of  everything  that  makes 
life  worth  living  to  civilised  man. 

Accustomed  as  he  has  been  from  a  past  of  immeasurable 
duration  to  live  in  societies,  man  cannot  now  adapt  himself 
to  solitary  life.  Condemned  to  solitude,  he  goes  mad  and 
soon  dies  fhc  social  state  is  necessary  to  the  survival  of 
t  le  individual :  no  individual  is  necessary  to  the  survival  of 
the  society  to  which  he  belongs.  The  .society  therefore  takes 
rank  of  every  one  of  its  individuals,  and  its  safety  and  its 
welfare  are  paramount  over  the  safety  and  welfare  of  each  of 
Its  individual  components.  This  is  recognised  in  every  body 
ot  social  animals  without  exception.  In  many  bodies  of  social 
animals,  bees,  for  instance,  those  individuals  that  arc  no 
longer  useful  to  the  State  are  deliberately  slaughtered. 

vSeeing  the  paramount  importance  of  the  social  state  it  is 
most  necessary  to  discover  how  this  state  is  maintained  • 
and  the  solution  of  the  problem  is  contained  in  two  words— 
Kenunciation  and  Duty. 

In  order  that  a  society  may  continue,  each  of  its  members 
must  rcnouiice  certain  satisfactions,  certain  pleasures,  certain 
activities  Each  must  so  Hve  as  to  allow  his  fellows  their 
chance  of  living  Those  activities  that  unrestricted  would 
interfere  wi  h  the  life-worthiness  of  his  fellows  must  be 
loregone.  The  prohibitions  of  the  Decalogue  must  be  observed 
Whatever  rein  a  man  may  give  to  his  aversions  and  desires 
towards  persons  and  things  outside  of  his  own  society,  he  must 
witrttr///  ='<^t^;tr^'-^«  '"s  fellows  as  not  to  interfere 
with  the  welfare  of  the  society.  .Action  antagonistic  to  the 
society  as  a  whole  must  be  checked  and  renounced,  for  if  per- 
mitted It  will  end  in  the  destruction  of  the  society. 


Januan'  3,  tot8 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


I'lic  liK-  i.i  Lii.  suck'ty  is  paramount  over  tlic  welfare  of  any 
of  its  members,  and  over  tlieir  lives  also  ;  and  if  any  member  of 
the  society  acts  in  a  way  injurious  to  it,  the  society  must  put 
a  stop  to  that  action  or'it  will  at  length  be  destroyed.  This 
is  the  principle  that  sanctions  the  killing  or  banishment  or 
imprisonment  of  murderer,  thief,  and  other  malefactors. 
Society  must  put  a  stop  to  their  depredations  or  it  will  perish  ; 
and  the  death  of  the  society  is  the  death  or  slavery  of  all  its 
members. 

It  is  not  enough  that  the  members  of  a  social  body  should 
refrain  from  acts  injurious  to  tliat  body.  They  owe  to  their 
society  not  only  passive  renunciation,  but  active  duty.  In 
whatever  action  is  necassarV  to  the  existence  of  the  society 
everv  individual  must  take  his  share.  If  it  is  necessary  for 
tlie  existence  of  the  society  that  a  thing  should  be  done,  an 
imperious  duty  lies  upon  every  member  of  that  society  to  take 
liis  share  in  the  doing  of  it.  If  the  society  is  to  continue, 
it  is  not  only  necessary  that  each  individual  should  abstain 
from  action  injurious  to  it  :  it  is  necessary  also  that  he  should 
contribute  his  share  of  beneficial  action.  He  must  take 
his  share  in  the  protection  of  the  ,society  from  malefactors. 
Hence  the  obligatory  system  of  frank-pledge.  Hence  the 
ol)ligation  of  every  citizen  to  join  in  the  hue  and  cry.  Hence 
the  obligation  on  every  subject  to  help  in  the  arrest  of  the 
malefactor  when  called  upon  in  th»  King's  name  to  do  so. 
Hence  the  obligation  of  every  citizen  to  contribute  to  the 
.support  of  the  police  that  they  may  do  for  him  that  duty 
that  would  otherwise  fall  upon  himself  But  his  payment  of 
the  police  does  not  absolve  him  from  his  primary  duty  It 
is  an  aid  to  the  more  effectual  performance  of  the  duty,  but 
it  is  no  substitute.     The  obUgation  still  remains. 

The  conflict  between  the  individualist  and  the  socialist 
is  a  conflict,  first  between  those  who  would  restrict  the  duty 
of  the  individual  to  acts  that  arc  necessary  to  the  existence 
of  society  and  those  that  are  merely  expedient  for  its  welfare  ^ 
and  second  between  tliosi;  who  regard  certain  acts  as  necessary' 
and  those  who  regard  these  acts  as  merely  expedient ;  but 
there  has  never  been  any  doubt  or  dispute  as  to  the  duty  of  the 
indi\idual  to  take  his  share  in  doing  what  is  necessary  for  the 
continuance  of  his  society.  This  duty  is  inherent  in  every- 
member  of  the  society,  and  cannot  be  renounced  or  shirked. 
Absolve  the  members  of  the  society  from  this  duty,  and  the 
society  falls  to  pieces.  It  exists  only  on  this  condition, 
and  every  society  has  of  necessity  the  inherent  right  to  call 
upon  each  of  its  members  to  perform  this  duty,  and  has, 
moreover,  the  right  to  compel  him  if  he  shrinks  from  the 
performance.  As  to  this,  there  never  has  been  any  doubt, 
and  there  never  can  be  any  doubt.  •     ■ 

For  the  benefits  that  accrue  to  every -member  of  a  civilised 
society  from  his  membership  of  it  are  immeasurable  and  incal- 
culable. First  of  all  and  most  of  all,  he  has  the  protection  of 
his  fellows  against  aggression  both  from  within  and  from 
without.  He  has  the  satisfaction  of  his  vital  need  of  social 
intercourse.  He  has  security  of  life  and  of  property.  He  has 
the  \ise  of  roads  and  other  means  of  communication  and  trans- 
port. He  has  the  benefit  of  an  organised  system  of  labour, 
_by  which  he  obtains  thousands  of  things  that  he  could  never 
make  for  himself.  He  has  the  benefit  of  an  organised  system 
of  supply,  by  which,  in  exchange  for  his  own  labour  and 
ability,  he  can  satisfy  all  the  wants  within  his  means,  and 
have  the  things  delivered  at  his  very  door.      He  has  an 


elaborately  constructed  house,  provided  with  supply  ril  water 
and  light.  He  has,  in  this  countiy  at  least,  insurance  against 
star\'atioii.  However  useless,  however  worthless,  however 
obnoxious  even,  he  may  be,  he  can  demand  and  will  be  pro- 
vided with  a  roof  to  shelter  him,  food  to  nourish  him,  clothes 
to  cover  him,  fire  to  warm  him,  and  a  bed  to  sleep  on.  He 
has  the  benefit  of  all  the  knowledge  and  skill  slowly  accumu- 
lated by  many  generations.  He  has  all  these  incalculably 
valuable  benefits  and  many  many  more,  and  is  he  to  enjoy 
them  without  jxiving  the  price  ? 

I  sav  the  price  :  1  do  not  say  the  money  price.  The  money 
that  he  gives  for  these  things,  money  that  he  may  or  may  not 
have  earned  by  liis  own  labour  and  skill,  is  only  a  part  of  the 
price  and  not  the  greater  part.  Beyond  and  behind  the  money- 
price  lies  the  imperative  inescapable  obligation  to  maintain  the 
mtegrity  of  tlie  wonderful  fabric  he  enjoys.  Part  of  the 
price,  the  most  important  part  of  the  price  is  the  obligation  to 
defend  the  fabric  if  it  is  attacked,  whether  the  attack  comes 
from  within  or  from  without.  No  one  disputes  his  obligation 
to  defend  it  from  internal  foes,  from  the  murderer,  the  thief, 
the  rebel  ;  but  these  are  innocuous  in  comparison  with  the 
powerful  foes  tliat  may  attack  the  State  from  without,  and  if 
he  is  bound  to  defend  it  against  internal  enemies,  liow  much 
more  is  he  not  bound  to  defend  it  against  external  enemies  ! 

Shall  a  man  enjoy  the  benefits  conferred  upon  him  by  society 
and  not  pay  the  price  ?  If  he  takes  the  goods  and  evades  pay- 
ment of  the  money  part  of  the  pirice,  society  scourges  him 
W'ith  whips.  If  he  enjoys  the  goods  and  evades  payment  of  the 
more  important  part  of  the  price,  shall  not  society  scourge 
him  witli  scorpions  ?  If  it  does  not,  it  deserves  the  fate  that 
must  fall  upon  it. 

If  every  citizen  was  thus  dishonest;  if  cvery)ne  thus 
swindled  the  nation,  what  would  become  of  it  ?  It  would  be 
destroyed  by  the  first  breath  of  assault.  It  would  succumb  to 
a  corporal's  guard,  and  it  would  deserve  to  perish  off  the  face 
of  the  earth  as  a  nation  of  thieves  and  swindlers.  But  if  the 
vast  majority  of  the  nation  is  honest,  what  is  its  proper  course 
towards  the  few  thieves  and  swindlers  it  may  contain  ? 

In  time  of  peace  it  m»/  deal  with  them  mildly.  It  may 
say  to  them,  You  refuse  to  join  the  fighting  forces  ?  You 
refuse  to  take  your  share  of  the  common  obligation  ?  You 
refuse  to  pay  for  the  goods  ?  Then  you  shall  not  enjoy  them. 
If  you  refuse  to  pay  the  price,  you  shall  not  share  in  the 
benefit.  Go.  Leave  the  country  to  its  honest  members  and 
betake  yourself  elsewhere.  Go,  with  the  brand  of  infamy 
upon  you,  and  find  a  home  where  you  can.  You  are  no  fit 
associate  for  honest  men.  This  country  is  your  country  no 
longer. 

This  may  suffice  in  peace,  but  in  war  time  it  is  not  enough. 
In  war  time  he  that  is  not  with  us  is  against  us  ;  and  this  we 
find  to  be  literally  tnic.  The  man  who  can  fight  and  will  not 
fight  is  «ot  merely  passively  useless  to  his  country  :  he  is 
actively  noxious.  He  not  only  consumes  food  and  other  things 
urgently  needed  by  his  honest  fellow  citizen,  but  experience 
shows  that  he  will  actively  as.sist  the  enemy  as  far  as  he  dares. 
He  does  his  best  to  poison  the  minds  of  liis  fellow  citizens. 
He  puts  in  Parliament  adroit  questions  calculated  to  dis- 
hearten his  own  country  and  to  assist  and  comfort  the  enemy. 
He  detains  in  guarding  him  men  who  ought  to  be  fighting 
and  he  gives  to  his  guards  all  the  trouble  he  can.  For  such 
men  tolerance  is  foolish  and  dangerous  weakness. 


The  Memory  of  Beauty 


By  Algernon  Blackwood 


IT  began  almost  impcrcoptil^ly— about  half-pa.st  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  to  be  exact — and  Lcnnart,  with 
his  curiously  sharpened  faculties,  noticed  it  at  once. 
Before  any  one  else,  he  thinks,  was  aware  of  it,  this 
dt  licatc  change  in  his  surroundings  made  itself  known  to  these 
senses  of  his,  s.iid  now  to  be  unreliable,  yet  so  intensely  recep- 
tive and  alert  for  all  their  unreliability.  No  one  else,  at  any 
rate,  gave  the  smallest  sign  that  something  had  began  to 
happen.  The  throng  of  people  nio\ing  about  him  remained 
uninformed  apparently. 

He  turned  to  his  companion,  who  was  also  nurse.  "  Hullo  !  " 
he  said  to  her,  "  There's  something  up.  What  in  the  world  is 
it  ?  " 

(Ibcdiont  to  her  careful  instructions,  she  made,  as  a  hundred 
times  before,  some  soothing  reply,  while  her  patient--"  Jack," 
she  called  him — aware  that  she  had  not  shared  his  own  keen 
observation,  was  disappointed,  and  let  the  matter  drop. 
He  said  no  more.  He  went  back  into  his  shell,  smiling 
quietly  to  himself,  peaceful  in  mind,  and  only  vaguely  aware 
that  something,  he  knew  not  exactly  what,  was  wrong  with  him, 
and  that  his  companion  humoured  Iiim   for  his  own    good. 


She  did  the  humouring  tenderly,  and  very  sweetly,  so  that  he 
liked  it,  his  occasional  disappointment  in  her  rousing  no  shadow 
of  resentment  or  impatience. 

This  was  his  first  day  in  the  open  air,  the  first  day  for  weeks 
that  he  had  left  a  carefully-shaded  room,  where  the  blinds 
seemed  always  down,  and  looked  round  him  upon  a  world 
spread  in  gracious  light.  Physically,  he  had  recovered 
health  and  strengtli  ;  nursing  and  good  food,  rest  and  sleej), 
had  made  him  as  fit  as  when  he  first  went  out  with  his  draft 
months  ago.  Only  he  did  not  know  that  he  had  gone  out,  nor 
what  had  happened  to  him  when  he  was  out,  nor  why  he  was 
tlie  object  now  of  sucl)  ceaseless  care,  attention  and  loving 
tenderness.  He  remembered  nothing  ;  memory,  temporarily, 
had  been  sponged  clean  as  a  new  slate.  That  his  nurse  was 
also  his  sister  was  unrecognised  by  his-  mind.  He  had  for- 
gotten his  own  name,  as  well  as  hers.  He  had  forgotten— 
everj'thing. 

The  October  dav  had  been  overcast,  high,  uniform  clouds 
obscuring  the  sun,'and  moving  westwards  before  a  wind  that 
had  not  cbme  lower.  No  breeze  now  stirred  the  yellow  foliage,  as 
hv  sat  with  his  companion  uj?on  a  bench  by  Hampstcad  Heath. 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  3,  iqiS 


and  took  tho  air  that  lielped  to  make  him  wliole.  In  spite  of 
the  cloud;;,  however,  the  day  \va>  wami,  and  calm,  as  with  a 
touch  still  ol  lingering  summer.  He  watched  the  sea  of  roofs 
and  spires  in  blue  haze  below  him  ;  he  heard  the  muffled  roar 
of  countless  distant  streets. 

"  Big  place,  that,"  he  mentioned,  pointing  with  his  stick. 
There  was  an  assumed  carelessness  that  did  not  aitosjether  hide 
a  certain  shyness.     "  Some  town — eh  ?  " 

"  London,  yes.     It's  huge,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"  I-ondon.  .  .  ."  he  repeated,  turning  to  look  at  her 
quickly.  He  said  no  more.  The  word  sounded  strange;  the 
way  he  said  it — new.  He  looked  away  again.  No,  he  decided 
she  was  not  inventing  just  to  humour  him  ;  tliat  was  the  real 
name,  right  enough.  .She  wasn't  "  pulling  his  leg."  But 
the  name  amused  him  somehow  ;   he  rather  liked  it. 

"  Mary,"  he  said,  "  now,  that's  a  nice  name  too." 

"  And  so  is  Jack,"  she  answered,  whereupon  the  shyness 
again  descended  over  him,  and  he  said  no  more.  Besides, 
the  change  he  had  noticed  a  moment  ago,  was  becoming  more 
marked,  he  thought,  and  he  wished  to  obser\'c  it  close!)'.  For 
in  some  odd  way  it  thrilled  him. 

It  began,  so  far  as  iie  could  judge,  somewhere  in  the  air 
above  him,  \'ery  high  indci'd,  while  yet  its  effect  did  not  stay 
there,  but  spread  gently  downwards,  including  everything 
about  him.  From  the  sky,  at  any  rate,  it  first  stole  downwards; 
and  it  was  hi^J  extreme  sensiti\'eness  which  made  him  realise 
ne.\t  that  it  came  from  a  particular  cpiarter  of  the  sky  :  In  the 
eastern  heavens  it  had  its  origin.  He  was  sure  of  this  ;  and 
the  thrill  of  wonder,  faint  but  marvellously  sweet,  stirred 
through  his  expectant  being.  He  waited  and  watched  in 
silence  for  a  long  time.  Since  Mary  showed  no  interest,  he 
must  enjov  it  alone.  Indeed,  she  had  not  even  noticed  it  at 
all. 

Yet  none  of  these  people  about  him  had  noticed  it  either. 
Some  of  them  were  walking  a  little  faster  than  before,  hurrying 
almost,  but  no  one  looked  up  to  see  what  was  happening  : 
there  were  no  signs  of  surprise  anywhere.  "  Everybody  must 
have  forgotten  I  "  he  thought  to  himself,  when  his  mind  gave 
a  sudden  twitch.  Forgotten  !  Forgotten  what  ?  He  mo\-ed 
abruptly,  and  the  girl's  hand  stole  into  his,  though  she  said 
no  word.  He  was  aware  that  she  was  watching  him  closely 
but  a  trifle  surreptitiously  he  fancied. 

He  did  not  speak,  but  his  wonder  deepened.  This  "  some- 
thing "  from  the  eastern  sky  descended  slowly,  vet  so  slovvlv 
that  the  change  from  one  minute  to  another  was  not  measur- 
able. It  was  soft  as  a  dream  and  very  subtle  ;  it  was  full  of 
n^ysterj'.  Comfort,  and  a  sense  of  pe'ace  stole  over  him,  his 
sight  w^as  eased,  he  had  mild  thoughts  of  sleep.  Like  a  whisper 
the  imperceptible  change  came  drifting  through  the  air.  It 
was  exquisite.  But  it  was  the  wonder  that  woke  the  thrill  in 
him. 

"  Something  h  up,  you  know,"  he  repeated,  though  more 
to^  himself  than  to  his  companion.  "  You  can't  mistake  it. 
It's  all  over  the  place  !  "  He  drew  a  deeper  breath,  pointing 
again  with  his  stick  over  the  blue  haze  where  tall  chimneys 
and  needle  spires  pierced.  "  Bv  Jove,"  he  added,  "  it's  like 
a  \eil— gauze,  1  mean — or  something — eh  ?  "  .\nd  the  light 
drawing  itself  behind  the  veil,  grew  less,  while  his  pulses 
quickened  as  he  watched  it  fade. 

Her  gentle  reply  that  it  was  time  to  go  home  to  tea,  and 
somethmg  else  about  the  cooling  air,  again  failed  to  satisfy 
Inni,  but  he  was  pleased  that  she  slipped  her  arm  into  his  and 
made  a  gesture  uncommonlv  like  a  caress.  She  was  so  pretty, 
he  thought,  as  he  glanced  down  at  her.  Only  it  amazed  him 
more  and  more  that  no  thrill  stirred  her  blood  as  it  stirred  his 
own,  that  there  was  no  surprise,  and  that  the  stream  of 
passing  people  hurrying  homewards  showed  no  single  sign  of 
havmg  noticed  what  he  noticed.  For  his  heart  swelled  within 
Inm  as  he  watched,  and  the  change  was  so  magical  that  it 
•troubled  his  breath  a  little'.  Hard  outHnes^ everywhere 
.  melted  softly  against  a  pale  blue  sea  that  held  tints  of  mother- 
of-pearl  ;  there  was  a  flush  of  gold,  subdued  to  amber,  a  liaze 
a  glow,  a  burning. 

This  strange  thing  stealing  out  of  the  cast  brought  a 
wonder  that  he  could  not  name,  a  wonder  that  was  new  and 
fresh  and  sw^et  as  though  experienced  for  the  first  time.  For 
his  mind  qualified  the  beautv  that  possessed  him,  qualified  it 
m  this  wa_\',  because-this  puzzled  him— it  was  not  quite 
experienced  for  the  first  time."  It  was  old,  old  as  himself  • 
jt  was  familiar.     ... 

.^^'P,'^^  }-^"^  K'  h^ -thought,  "  I've  got  that  rummy  feeling 
that  I  ve  been  through  all  this  before -somewhere,"  and  his 
mind  gave  another  sudden  twitch,  wliich,  again,  he  did  not 
recognise  as  a  memor.\-.  A  spot  was  touched,  a  string  was 
twanged,  now  here,  now  there,  while  Beautv,  plaving  softlv 
on  his  soul,  communicated  to  his  being  gradually"  her  secrc^t 
rhythm,  old  as  the  world,  but  young  ever  in  each  heart  that 
answers  to  it.  Below,  behind,  the  thrill,  these  deeply  buried 
strings  began  to  vibrate.     .     .    .    .-.  .,       " 

"  The  dusk  is  falling,  sec,"  the  girl  said  quietly,  "  It's  time 


we  were  going  back." 

"  Dusk,"  he  repieated,  vaguely,  "  the  fltisk     ;    :     ;     falling 

..."  It  was  half  a  question.  A  new  expression  flashed 
into  his  eyes,  then  vanished  instantly.  Tears,  he  saw,  were 
standing  in  her  own.  She  had  felt,  had  noticed,  after  all,  then  ! 
The  disappointment,  and  with  it  the  shyness,  left  him  ;  he 
was  no  moj'c  ashamed  of  the  depth  and  strength  of  this  feel- 
ing that  thrilled  through  him  so  imperioush'. 

But  it  was  after  tea  that  the  mysterious  change  took  hold 
upon  his  being  with  a  power  that  could  build  a  throne  anew, 
then  set  its  rightful  occupant  thereon..  By  his  special  wish 
the  lights  were  not  turned  on.  Before  the  great  windows, 
opened  to  the  mild  autumn  air,  he  sat  in  his  big  over-coat  and 
watched. 

The  change,  meanwhile,  had  ripened.  It  lay  now  full- 
blown upon  the  earth  and  heavens.  Towards  the  sky 
he  turned  his  eyes.  The  change,  whose  first  delicate  ad%'ent 
he  had  noticed,  sat  now  enthroned  above  the  world.  The 
tops  of  trees  were  level  with  his  window-sill,  and  below  lay 
the  countless  distant  streets,  not  slumbering,  he  felt  surely, 
but  gazing  upwards  with  him  into  this  deep  sea  of  blackness 
that  had  purple  for  its  lining  and  wore  ten  thousand  candles 
blazing  in  mid-air.  Those  lights  were  not  turned  out  ;  and 
this  time  he  wondered  why  he  had  thought  they  might  be, 
ought  to  be,  turned  out.  This  question  definitely  occurred 
to  him  a  moment,  while  he  watched  the  great  footsteps  of  the 
searchlights  passing  over  space.     .     .     . 

The  amazing  shafts  of  white  moved  liked  angels  lighting  up 
one  group  of  golden  points  upon  another.  They  lit  them  and 
swerved  on  again.  In  sheer  delight,  he  lay  in  his  chair  and 
watched  them,  these  rushing  footsteps,  these  lit  groups  of  gold. 
They,  the  golden  points,  were  motionless,  steady  ;  they  did 
not  move  or  change.  And  his  eyes  fastened  upon  one,  then, 
that  seemed  to  burn  more  brightl}'  than  the  rest.  Though 
differing  from  the  others  in  size  alone,  he  thought  it  more 
beautiful  than  all.  Below  it  far,  far  down  in  the  west,  lay  a 
streak  of  faded  fire,  as  though  a  curtain  with  one  edge  upturned 
hung  above  distant  furnaces.  But  this  trail  of  the  sunset  his 
mind  did  not  recognise.  His  eye  returned  to  the  point  of  light 
that  seemed  every  minute  increasingly  familiar,  and  iriore 
than  familiar — most  kindly  and  well-loved.  He  yearned 
towards  it,  he  trembled.  Sitting  forward  in  his  chair,  he 
leaned  upon  the  window-sill,  staring  with  an  intensity  as  if  he 
would  rise  through  the  purple  dark  and  touch  it.  Then, 
suddenly,  it— twinkled. 

"By  Jove!"  he  exclaimed  aloud,  "I  know  that  chap. 
It's— it's— Now,  where  the  devil  did  I  see  it  before  ?  \Vhere- 
ever  was  it.     .    ,'    .      ?  " 

He  sank  back,  as  a  scene  rose  before  his  inner  eye.  It  must 
have  been,  apparently,  his  "  inner  ".  eye,  for  both  his  outer 
eyes  were  tightly  closed  as  if  he  slept.  But  he  did  not  sleep  ; 
it  was  merely  that  he  saw  something  that  was  even  more  familiar 
though  not  less  wonderful,  than  these  other  sights. 

Upon  a  dewy  lawn  at  twilight  two  children  played  together, 
while  a  white-capped  figure,  from  the  window  of  a  big  house 
in  the  background,  called  loudly  to  them  that  it  was  time  to 
come  in  doors  and  make  themselves  ready  for  bed.  He  saw 
two  Lebanon  cedars,  the  kitchen-garden  wall  beyond,  the  elms 
and  haystacks  further  still,  looming  out  of  the  'summer  dusk. 
He  smelt  pinks,  sweet-william,  roses.  He  ran  full  speed  to 
catch  his  companion,  a  girl  in_ar  short  tumbled  frock,  and 
knew  that  he  was  dressed  as  a  soldier,  with  a  wooden  sword  and 
a  triangular  paper  hat  that  fell  off,  much  to  his  annoyance,  as 
he  ran.  But  he  caught  his  prisoner.  Leading  her  by  the 
hair  towards  the  house,  his  G.H.O.,  he  saw  the  evening  star 
"  simply  shining  like  anything  "  in  the  pale  glow  of  the  western 
sky.  But  in  the  hall,  when  reached,  the  butler's  long  wax 
taper,  as  he  slowly  lit  the  big  candles,  threw  a  gleam  upon  his 
prisoner's  laughing  face,  and  it  was,  he  saw,  his  sister's  face. 

He  opened  his  eyes  again  and  saw  the  point  of  light  against 
the  purple  curtain  that  hung  above  the  world.  It  twinkled, 
ihe  wonder  and  the  thrill  coursed  through  his  heart  again, 
but  this  time  another  thing  had  come  to  join  them,  and  was 
rising  to  his  brain.  "  By  Jove,  I  know  that  chap  !  "  he 
repeated.     "  It's  old  Venus,  or  I'm  a  dug-out  1  " 

And  when,  a  moment  later,  the  door  opened  and  his  com- 
panion entered,  saying  something  about  its  being  time  for 
l)cd,  because  the  "  night  has  come  "—he  looked  into  her  face 
with  a  smile  :  "  I'm  quite  ready,  Mary,"  he  said,  "  but 
where  in  the  world  have  you  been"  to  all  this  time  ?  " 

With  regret  we  have  to  announce  that  the  Rev.  R.  Monteith 
Ji.J.,  who  contributed  recently  to  Laxd  &  W.\ter  a  most  interest- 
ing scientific  article  on  the  flight  of  projectiles,  was  killed  in 
attending  devotedly  to  his  duties  in  an  advanced  dressing  station 
in  France  a  few  weeks  ago.  Father  Monteith  was  a  brilliant  mathe- 
matician, and  after  entering  the  Priesthood  was  chiefly  employed 
in  teaching,  where  he  was  notably  successful.  He  was  the  second 
son  ol  the  late  Mr.  Joseph  Monteith,  of  Cranley,  Carstairs,  and 
the  third  brother  to  fall  in  the  warl.  Three  other  brothers  are 
.still  serviu"  ■    • 


January  J,  191S 


LAND    &    WATER 


Eife  anil  Jtctters 

By  J.  C,  Squire 


An   Essayist 


THE  term  "  Essay  "  is  one  whicli  is  employed  of 
a  numerous  \-ariety  of  things.  They  range  from 
the  school-boy's  painfulh'  accumulated  thousand 
words  on  some  absurd  subject  in  which  he  does 
not  take  the  slightest  interest  to  Locke's  jiorrible  great ' 
treatise  on  the  Human  Understanding.  E\en  when  these 
things  have  been  ruled  out,  and  only  indubitable  and  universally 
acknowledged  essays  remain,  the  critic  is  hard  put  to  it  to 
frame  an  inclusive  and  exclusive  deiinition  which  will  at  once 
rope  in  Montaigne,  Bacon,  Cowley,  Addison,  Steele,  Goldsmith, 
Lamb,  Hazlit,  Wasliington  Irving,  De  Ouinccy,  Stevenson, 
Mr.  Chesterton,  Mr.  Belloc,  Mr.  Lucas.'  Dr.  "Johnson  and 
Lord  Macaulay,  and  rope  them  off  from  authors  who,  although 
tliev  l)'a\T  composed  short  prose  works,  are  deemed  to  ha\"e 
written  ratlier  articles,  studies  or  sketclies  than  essays.  Some- 
body says  an  essay  must  be  whimsical  and  wayward,  and 
up  leaps  Lord  Macaulay.  Somebody  else  sa\s  it  must  not 
be  didactic,  and  immediately  one  remembers  a  hundred 
e.xamples,  not  excluding,  some  of  Stevenson's,  which  are 
deliberately  improving.  Name  any  element  as  impossible 
and  you  will  find  it  present  ;  any  element  as  indispensable 
and  you  will  find  it  absent.  One  feels  that  there  is  something 
that  all  genuine  essayists  have  in  common,  besides  their 
unlikcness  from  each  other.  But  for  myself  I  am  inclined  to 
commit  myself  to  only  one  positive  generahsation  and  that 
is,  that  no  essay  on  record  is  a  billion  words  long. 
***** 

The  succession  of  English  essayists  is  an  illustrious  one, 
and  although  we  have  no  great  living  writer  to  whom  the 
essay  is  his  only  or  principal  form,  the  present  age  is  fairly 
rich  in  them.  Mr.  Robert  Lynd^  whose  //  lite  Germans 
Conquered  England  (Maunsel,  js.  6d.  net.),  follows  liis 
Book  of  Tin's  and  Thai — is  certainly  excelled  by  no  other 
li\ing  writer  in  the  kind.  Until  a  new  essayist  appears 
it  is  always  difficult  to  imagine  how  a  really  new  one  can  l)e 
jKjssible.  Every  conceivable  thing  seems  to  have  been  done 
within  the  essayist's  narrow  limits.  But  the  thing  solves 
itself  ;  the  essay  is  a  personal  thing,  and  no  two  personalities, 
expressing  themselves  candidly  and  following  their  own 
bents,  will  produce  exactly  similar  results.  Mr.  Lvnd's 
essays  arc  of  several  sorts.  Some  are  predominantly  political  ; 
some  deal  with  general  human  characteristics  or  social  institu- 
tions ;  some  arc  mainly  descriptive.  But  there  is  not  one 
which  a  stranger  could  for  one  moment  dream  of  assigning 
to  any  other  writer.  The  large  familiar  elements,  observa- 
tion and  reflection,  humour  and  wit,  common  sense  and  ideal- 
ism, fancy  and  imagination,  eloquence  and  a  nice  choice  of 
words,  arc  all  here,  but  mingled  once  more  in  novel  propor- 
tions and  united  by  a  new  and  fresh  personattty.  Nowhere 
does  Mr.  Lynd's  unique  gift  come  out  more  strikingly  than 
in  his  political  and  moral  .sermons.  Plenty  of  people  have 
preached  such  :  plenty  of  men  have  proclaimed  this  gospel 
of  Liberalism  an  d  Nationality,  of  democracy  and  freedom, 
of  courage,  chivalry  and , generosity  ;  and  Mr.  Lynd's  own 
pages  bristle  witli  the  names  of  men  who  have  believed  and 
preached  very  much  what  he  believes  and  preaches  himself. 
But  it  is  pretty  safe  to  say  that  not  one  of  them  has  promulgated 
his  doctrines  with  Mr.  Lynd's  high  spirits.  Mr.  Shaw  can 
buffoon  and  can  ram  home  a  moral  doctrine  witli  a  comic 
illustration  ;  but  his  power  in  this  regard  has  flourished  at 
the  expense  of  his  ability  to  appeal  to  the  heart.  Except 
for  Mr.  Chesterton,  I  cannot  think  of  another  writer  who  can 
be  so  thoroughly  didactic  as  Mr.  Lynd,  whilst  preserving  his 
whimsical  pojnt  of  view  ;  who  can  play  tiie  fool  for  our  amuse- 
ment, and,  at  the  same  time,  send  us  away  feeling  that  we 
have  been  in  contact  with  the  heart  of  goodness  and  that  we 
simply  must  behave  ourselves  better.  He  at  once  communicates 
his  profound  reverence  for  humanity  and  his  avowed  doctrine 
that  almost  the  whole  of  mankind  can  be  grouped  imder  the 
three  types  of  tiie  ass,  the  goat  .and  the  goose.  The  reason 
is  that  he  is  honest  witli  liimself,  that  he  is  aware  of  his  diviner 
impulses  and  at  the  same  time  aware,  if  I  may  say  so,  that  there 
is  a  good  deal  of  the  ass,  the  goat  and  the  goose  in  himself. 

It  is  not  easy  to  illustrate  his  greatest  quality,  namely,  his 
power  of  argument.  To  show  that  properly  one  \\ould 
have  to  quote  bodily  some  such  essay  as  that  on  "  A  Nation- 
ality," or  that  other  one  on  "  Ceward  Conscience,"  wiiicii 
concludes  : 

It  there  a  single  nation  in  the  world  that  has  a  bad  conscience 
at  the  present  mumeui  ?  If  there  is,  let  it  hold  up  its  hand  ; 
it  is  the  hope  of  the  human  r;^cc.. 

and  in  the  course  of  which,  discussing  the  Gerniau's  efforts 


at  self  justification,  he  obserxes  that  "  one  gets  a  certain 
comfort  from  .seeing  a  nation  take  oft"  its  hat  to  justice,  even 
if  it  passes  by  on  the  other  side."  His  humoUr  too,  is  a 
matter  rather  of  paragraphs  than  of  phrases,  thougli  one 
finds  very  agreeable  little  accidents  like  "the  coral  insect— 
if  it  is  an  insect — I  speak  without  prejudice — "  pnd  the 
comment  on  the  present  campaign  for  the  Simple  Life  in  the 
National  Interest  :  , 

aged  bon  vivavts  will  have  to  dye  their  hair  and  smuggle  them- 
selves into  the  army  in  order  to  get  a  decent  plate  o£  roast 
beef. 

and  the  terse  peroration  of  his  study  of  myths,  war  myths 
and  others  : 

.'Mreadv  tlie  visionary  armv  has  melted  into  thin  air.  The 
Belgian  child  is  .slowly  melting.  Kven  Lord  Haldanc  is 
melting.  The  myths  of  savages  grow  with  a  certain  gigantic 
slowness,  and  they  enjoy  long  Ii\es  like  forest  trees  and  tor- 
toises, but  the  myths  of  civilised  men  last  no  longer  than 
garden  flowers,  or  grass,  or  cheese,  or  the  daily  paper. 

His  descriptive  and  humorously  reflective  genius  it  would  be 
easier  to  illustrate. 

One  has  seen  many  rhapsodies  on  London's  beauties, 
but  none  at  once  so  accurate  and  so  fanciful  as  his 
beautiful  essay  "  The  Darkness;"  one  has  seen  many  attacks, 
on  London's  ugliness,  but  none  so  convincing  as  the  drab 
catalogue  which  fills  the  first  two  pages  of  "On  Doing  Nothing." 
But  for  a  characteristic  passage,  I  had  rather,  I  think,  come 
to  his  philosophic  lament  "  Farewell  to  Treating." 

I'ngland  is  a  public-house-going -nation.  She  drank- beer 
under  the  sign  of  the  Seven  Stars,  and  rested  the  soles  of  her 
feet  in  the  sawdust  at  the  bar  of  the  Salutation  and  Cat  Iqng 
before  Columbus  lost  him.self  at  sea,  or  Isaac  Newton  began 
to  take  note  of  falling  apples.  Is  not  the  very  word  "  public- 
house  "  an  epitome  of  the  history  of  a  nation's  pleasure  ? 
There  ha\e  been  periods  in  history  when  men  ha\e 
been  compelled  by  law  to  go  to  church,  but  no  law  was 
ever  needed  to  drive  a  man  into  an  inn.  He  has  found 
here  a  true  house  of  peers,  in  which  Oliver  Cromwell's  ideal 
that  every  Jack  shall  be  a  gentleman  is  realised  as  it  has  not 
yet  l>een  realised  in  politics.  The  public-houses  in  cities 
are  not,  I  admit,  so  democratic  as  that.  Their  public  bans 
and  private  bars  and  saloon  bars  and  jug-and-bottle  entrances 
wall  off  the  classes  from  each  other  like  animals  in  cages,  and 
in  some  of  them  even  a  row  of  little  shutters,  at  the  height 
of  a  man's  face,  conceal  the  respectable  tradesman  from  his 
carter,  who  mav  be  roaring  in  the  four-ale  bar.  None  the 
less,  the  public  house  is,  on  the  whole,  a  place  of  relaxation 
and  friendliness.  Men  who  have  left  their  homes  with  soiu" 
faces  here  find  no  difficulty  in  beaming  upon  strangers.  Such 
an  atmosphere  of  generosity  indeed  dwells  in  the  public-house 
like  a  guardian  spirit  that  the  law  has  had  on  more  than  one 
occasion  to  step  iii  and  forbid  men  to  be  excessively  friends 
with  one  another.  And  now  comes  the  no-treating  order,  as 
another  fetter  upon  this  easy  traditional  charity.  It  is  no 
longer  possible  to  pay  for  another  man's  drink  in  a  London 
])ublic-housc,  whether  he  be  your  friend  or  whether,  he  be 
one  of  those  homeless  night  birds  with  the  sadness  of  defeat 
in  their  hollow  eyes,  for  whom  all  is  lost  save  beer. 

When  wc  have  read  essays  like  this  it  is  easy  to  understand 
what  it  is  that  makes  Mr.  Lynd  so  powerful  as  a  political 
debater.  The  two  most  essential  qualities  are  to  be  found 
in  the  last  twenty  words. 


THE 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

AND    AFTER 

rOK    J.\NU.\IiV    coniDKiues    a  new   volume,  and    contamc— 

Americans.  Hall!  Ky  Sir  WILUAM  W.\TSO\. 

In  the   Balance.  \'-3   In.  .MiTUCll  8n.\D\VELL. 

The  British  Conatitution  and  the  Conduct  of  War 

in   Sl'KNSICi;  wn,KIX.-<(lN  (Chicliilo  ITol.  of  Military  Histor),  Oxford.) 
Let  Women  Say!     An  Appeal  to  the  House  ot  Lord*. 

liy    Mr.*.   UtlMPHIlY   W.\KD. 
Riisso  German  Relations   and  the  Sabouroff  Memoirs   (concluded). 

l)y    I'KOFliSSOU  J.    V.    SIMPSOX. 
The  Enemies  ol  Child  Lite. 

r.v   Sir    AlUHbll  XliWSHOI.ME,   K.C.B.,  M.D. 
Fad   versus  Dogma  i    an   Appeal    to  the    Church. 

Uv  Sir  OLlVr.ll  LODGIi.  F.H.S. 
Teuton  anainsl  Roman.  Dy  the  Very  licv.  C.VXON  WIIXIAM  BAILIIY.  U.D. 
The  German  Octopus.  By  W.    MOIiRIS  COLLES. 

Shahspeare   and    Italy.  By    Sir   1  DWAUU    si;i.I.IVAN,    Bart. 

Literature  and  Politics.  liy  C.ii>tain  i.  H.  MOKGAN. 

Parnell    and  his   Liberal   Allies.  liy   WILLIAM  O'BniLN,    M.P. 

The  Fight  against  Venereal   Intection:   a   Rejoinder. 

liy  Sir  nn,VAX  DOXKIN,  M.U. 
Jerusalem  Delivered:  a  Commemoration   and   a  Warning. 

By   WALTER  8ICHKL. 
Capital  and  the  Coet  ot  War.  By  W.  H.  .MAIJ-OCK. 

The  'Freedom   of  the  Seas."  By  JOHX   LEYLANU. 

I.oudoL:  S|i;>lti»»<iodc.  BalUiilvue  4.  Co..  Ltil.,   1,  .Sew  Street  Si]U«re. 


iS 


LAINU    &     VvAiHK 


jauuaiy  j, 


191S 


Books  of  the  Week 

A^Fraudulent  Standard.  Being  an  exposure  of  the  fraudu- 
lent character  of  our  monetary  standard  witli  suggestions 
for  the  establishment  of  an  invariable  xmit  of  value. 
By  Arthir  Kitso.v.  P.  S.  King  and. Son,  Westminster. 
^s.  ()d.  net. 

Madame  Roland,  a  Biography.  By  Mrs.  Pope-Hknnessy 
(Lna  Birch).     Nisbet  and  Co.     i()s.  net. 

Stealthy  Terror.     By  John  Fkkguso.v.     John.  I^Tue.     f)s. 

Debrett's  Peerage,  Baronetage,  Knightage  and  Com- 
panionage  for  1918.  Edited  by  Ahtuur  G.  II. 
HiisiLKK.ii.     Dean  and  Son.     45s.  net. 

Till'-  writings  of  Mr.  .Arthur  Kitson  on  financial 
subjects,  are  well-known  to  readers  of  L.A.xi)  &  W.'VTER. 
That  his  views  are  not  orthodo.x  it  is  unnecessary 
to  state  here  ;  indeed,  in  the  preface  to  his  new 
volume,  A  Fraudulent  Standard,  he  admits  that  he  is  a  heretic. 
But  these  are  times  in  which  heresy  may  prevail,  or  to  be 
more  accurate,  when  thoughtful  people  are  not  prepared  to 
accept  things  as  they  are,  merely  because  they  rejoice  in  the 
halo  of  orthodo.xy.  Religion,  social  ethics,  economics  are  all 
undergoing  a  severe  test  ;  they  are  scrutinised  and  examined 
from  top  to  bottom  in  a  manner  unknown  before,  and  it 
would  be  nothing  short  of  a  miracle  were  finance  to  escape. 
It  does  not  escape,  for  though  .Mr.  Kitson  writes  for  himself, 
there  is  behind  him  a  great  body  of  commercial  opinion,  and  he 
would  not  have  been  in  \ited  (as  he  has  been  invited)  to  address 
the  leaders  of  the  commercial  communities  of  such  various  im- 
portant industrial  centres  as  the  cities  of  Birmingham,  Bristol 
and  Belfast  unless  it  was  realised  that  his  opinions,  right 
or  wrong,  \\'cre  those  of  a  trader  of  wide  experience  who  had 
given  very   careful  thought  and  study  to  his  subject. 

*  «         «         »         * 

It  is  no  part  of  the  functions  of  L.-\.nd  iS:  \V.\ter  to  commit 
itself  to  any  particular  views  of  any  particular  school  of 
thought.  Its  columns  are  always  thrown  open  ec|ually  to 
conventional  and  unconventional  writers  on  the  leading 
topics  of  the  hour.  To  this  new  work  from  the  pen  of  Mr. 
Kitson  we  draw  very  special  attention  in  that  lie  attacks 
courageously  two  of  the  greatest  strongliolds  of  British  com- 
mercial life — the  gold  currency  and  the  Bank  Charter.  Both 
he  denounces  as  "  fraudulent  "  in  the  sense  that  they  do  not 
fulfil  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  created.  "  Gold 
money,"  he  declares,  "  is  the  Hun  imiong  commodities.  It 
is  the  barbarian  that  has  broken  all  its  treaties  and  promises, 
and  undertaken  the  conquest  of  the  world  by  force  and  fraud." 
And  in  another  place  he  speaks  of  legal  tender  being  ''as 
much  an  invention— a  mere  contrivance  for  effecting  certain 
ends— as  the  telephone  or  sewing  machine."  This  is  the 
right  spirit  in  which  to  attack  conventions  of 'all  sorts  and 
conditions,  and  whether  one  agrees  or  disagrees  with  the  con- 
clusions, one  has  to  admit  that  they  are  advanced  honestly, 
sincerely,  and  with  force  and  conviction, 

*  >•:  >•>  *  i|: 

This  slim  volume  of  227  pages  (with  an  excellent  index) 
is  cert^n  to  be  read  carefully  by  the  merchants  and  traders  of 
the  kingdom.  It  is  uncompromising,  with  the  result  that  it 
will  end  rapidly  in  some  instances  in  the  wastepaper  basket, 
and  in  other  instances  will  find  the  most  honoured  place  among 
invaluable  books  of  reference.  From  a  literary  point  of  view 
it  is  an  advance  on  Mr.  Kitson's  previous  writings  ;  his  weak- 
ness has  hitherto  been  to  branch  off  into  side-issues  ;  here  he 
keeps  himself  strictly  to  the  main  subject,  nor  has  he  ridden  his 
arguments  too  far,  thus  giving  the  enemy  a  chance  to 
smite  him  on  the  flanks.  Its  publication  is  opportune  for 
finance,  national  commercial  and  private,  is  greatly  to  the 
fore  and  the  author  has  the  rare  power  of  being  able  to  write 
on  this  most  complicated  of  all  complicated  subjects  simply 
and  straightforwardly.  We  wish  it  the  success  it  deserves. 
What  that  success  may  be  we  shall  know  better,  say,  five 
years  hence.  All  we  are  aware  of  now  is  that  new  forces  are 
at  work,  which  may  result  in  strange  upheavals. 
*        *        *        *        * 

In  reading  a  biography  "  we  should  be  made  to  feel  some- 
thing of  the  years  that  held  no  vista  of  new  chances,  something 
of  the  joys  and  sorrows,  something  of  what  went  to  the  slow 
building  up  of  character  ...  of  all  the  preparation 
that  went  to  the  splendid  action,  the  heroic  leading,  tlie  good 
end."    So   says   Mrs.    Pope-Hcnncssy    (Una   Birch)    in   the 


iritroduction^  of  her  biography  of  Madame.  Roland,  tiiat 
notable  woman  of  the  French  Revolution.  But  Mrs.  Popc- 
Hennes.s\'  lias  not  made  these  things  visible  :  she  has  made 
the  figure,  certainly,  but  it  is  not  alive.  One  distrusts,  rather, 
certain  conclusions  which  she  bases  on  somewhat  slight 
premises,  notably  as  to  how  far  Madame  Roland  actually 
inspired  her  husband  and  Buzot,  and  other's.  One  feels  at 
the  end  of  the  book  that  certain  part:^^  of  it  are  not  bad 
transcripts  of  history,  for  the  author  h<is  been  very  carefid 
with  regard  to  her  authorities  for  the  most  part,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  is  biassed  by  them  ;  but  the  central  character 
of  the  book  is  very  often  ])ushed  on  one  side,  with  the  result 
that  although  the  story  of  tlie  time  is  fairly  clear,  so  far  as  it 
concerns  the  Girondin  element  of  the  Re\olution,  the  object 
of  the  biography  is  not. 

TJie  author  has  brought  out  certain  things  very  clearly 
indeed,  and  therein  has  done  good  service.  She  has  shown 
how,  after  Varennes,  the  end  of  Louis  and  of  his  consort  was 
utterly  inevitable  ;  however  little  the  revolutionaries  might 
like  the  idea,  Louis  had  to  die  ;  she  has  brought  out  the 
strength  and  fitness  for  his  time  of  the  great  Danton.  She 
has,  on  the  other  hand,  rather  obscured  Roland,  or  it  might 
be  better  to  say  that  she  has  belittled  him  for  the  sake  of 
setting  his  wife  forward.  \vt,  at  the  end  one  feels  that 
Madame  Roland's  is  an  unsatisfying  portrait.  The  biblio- 
graphy at  the  end  of  the  work  is  good,  and  one  feels  that 
Mrs.  Pope-Hennessy  has  done  her  work  conscientiously — per- 
haps too  conscientiously,  thus  showing  a  politician  rather 
than  a  woman,  and  defeating  her  own  end  by  too  close  an 
attention  to  detail.  , 

*  H:  >H  *  3H 

There  is  much  in  Stealthy  Terror,  by  John  Ferguson,  to 
remind  the  reader  of  ICrskine  Childers'  Riddle  of  the  Sands, 
though  this  is  no  story  of  the  sea,  but  a  real  spy  story  starting 
in  Berlin  and  ending  in  the  open  country  of  east  Kent.  It 
is  the  story  of  a  sillv-looking  little  drawing  for  which,  in 
Berlin,  one  man  was  killed,  and  another  man — Abercromby, 
the  hero  of  the  story — underwent  a  series  of  adventures,  of 
which  the  reading  takes  one  on  and  on  to  the  \'ery  last  page, 
interested  all  the  lime.  It  is,  apparently,  a  first  no\'el,  but 
the  author  has  discovered  a  sense  of  humour,  more  especially 
when  he  conjectures  that  an  Abcrdonian  Scot  may  borrow 
his  book  to  read,  but  will  never  buy  it.  There  are  a  few  little 
asides  like  this  which  compel  a  smile  ;  for  the  rest,  the  story 
needs  no  dressing,  being  sufficient  in  itself  to  hold  all  one's 
attention. 

The  pre-war  slovenliness  in  high  places  in  dealing 
with  the  German  menace,  the  bewildering  efficiency  of  the 
British  secret  service,  the  half-astute,  half-childish  way  in 
which  German  plans  were  made  and  hidden — these  arc 
points  that  are  well  brought  out.  With  no  pretensions  to 
literary  style — in  fact,  with  an  absolute  disregard  for  that 
quality,  the  author  has  told  a  rattling  good  story  in  such 
fashion  that  one  who  reads  the  first  chapter  is  certain  to  read 
the  rest,  and  that,  as  a  rule,  is  all  that  one  demands  of  a  novel. 
And  the  "  stealthy  terror  "  of  the  title  is  well  conveyed  ;  there 
are  enough  thrills  in  the  book  to  satisfy  the  most  captious. 

^  ^  i*:  ](£  Ht 

Those  who  deliglit  in  dabbling  in  pedigrees  and  family 
histories  will  find  a  fund  of  interesting  facts  in  the  preface  to 
Debrett,  191S.  It  comes  from  the  pen  of  the  editor,  Mr. 
Arthur  Hesilrige.  1917  has  been  a  record  in  the  matter  of 
honours  ;  18  new  peerages  were  created  and  32  new 
baronetcies  ;  knighthoods  number  277,  while  the  companion- 
ships to  the  various  Orders  reach  tlie  phenornenal  figure  of 
3,472.  As  regards  the  peerage,  it  is  rather  interesting  to 
notice  that  during  the  last  25  years  200  new  peers  have  been 
created,  while  106  titles  have  become  extinct.  This  docs  not 
point  to  any  dwindling  in  public  interest  in  the  hereditary 
chamber,  and  it  will  ])c  interesting  to  discover  wdien  the  legis- 
lative powers  of  that  body  arc  revised  whether  titles  and 
dignities  will  have  their  same  attraction  in  th«  future  as  they 
obviously  have  up  to  now. 

A  most  interesting  paragraph  in  this  i)reface  deals  with 
the  honours  conferred  on  members  of  the  Royal  Family  at  a 
time  when  the  King  assumed  the  dynastic  name  of  Windsor. 
It  appears  that  nearly  every  title  had  been  formerly  borne 
by  a  member  of  the  Hanoverian  House  ;  Athlone  was  a 
subsidiary  title  of  the  late  Duke  of  Clarence,  while  George  II., 
when  Duke  of  Cambridge,  was  also  Marcjuis  of  Milford- 
haven  ;  only  Carisbrookc  and  Medina  (and  both  from  the  Isle 
of  Wight)  are  new  peerage  dignities. 


GOGGLES 

WIND-SCREENS 
A  WINDOWS 


<i^^    ^ 


'^  THE  ONUY  ^ 
SAFETY  CLASS 


January  3,  19 iS 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


20 


LAND    iS^    WATER 


January  3,  1918 


The  Italian  Front 


Monte  Rosso 


Val  S(agna 


Vidor  Bridge  ever  the  Piave,  between  British  and  Austrian  Trenches 


OllUtul  Pkototta^^ 


January  lo,  1918 


Supplement  to  LAND    &    WATER 


\ii 


NOTEDLY  SUCCESSFUL 

BREECHES-MA  KING 

We  have  long  been 
notedly  successful  in 
breeches  -  making,  and 
we  maintain  this  good 
repute  by  guaranteeing 
all  the  essential  factors 
■ —  fine  wear  -  resisting 
cloths,  skilful  cutting, 
careful,  honest  tailor- 
work  ;  and  our  experi- 
ence, ninety-six  years, 
is  certainly  adequate 
beyond  question. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number 
of  pairs  of  officers'  riding 
breeches,  and  arc  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. 

Patterns  and  Form  for  self-measurem4Ht  at  request. 


GRANT  AND  GOCKBURN 
25  PICCADILLY,  W.l. '" 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 

^m^^^^SSiSSm^  ESTD.  1821  ^......^^..i.^^ 


WEBLEY  &  SCOTT,  Ltd. 

K^Manufaclurers  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. 


To  be  obuined  (rom  all  Qun  Dealers,  and  Wholesale  only  at 
Head  Office  and   Showrooms  : 

WEAMAN    STREET.    BIRMINGHAM. 


mi 


mi 


TRADITION— 

Although  the  orftanisalion  known  as  the  B.5.A.  Company  is 
a  brilliant  example  of  modern  eflrciency  in  manufacturing,  yet 
it  is  steeped  in  tradition.  Pounded  on  an  ideal  —the  production 
of  the  finest  rifles  in  the  world— the  principle _>  of  the  founder:; 
have  been  zealously  guarded  and  nurtured  in  the  succeeding 
Senerations  so  that  now  the  whole  corporation  is  saturated 
and  imbued  with  the  maxim — 

QUALITY    FIRST. 

It  is  not  loo  soon  for  all  sportsmen  and  rifle  enthusiasts  to 

send    tofir   names  and    addresses    to    ensure    the    earliest 

.  information   as   to  the    Company's  post-war   productions   in 


3nl 


SPORTING  &  TARGET 
RIFLES,  AIR  RIFLES,  ^c. 

FREE    Booklet     "RIFLE    SIGHTS     AND    THEIR 
ADJUSTMENT"— on    receipt  of    postcard. 


THE 

Birmingham  Small  Arms 
Company  Limited, 
BIRMINGHAM,     ENGLAND. 

C^akcrs  of  Rifles  and  Lewis  Machine 

Guns     for       British,     Colonial,     and 

Foreign   Goocrnments,    and  of  B.S.'A. 

Cycles  and  Motors 


SCALES  FOR  GUNNERS 


TRANSPARENT    CELLULOID. 

PROTRACTORS,  8tn.  semi-circular,  with  cut-out  grids 

12in.  ditto  (Jitto  ..'. 

SECTORS,  30»  each  side  of  central  zoro,  5,000  yards  on  1/20  000 

Do.  do.  6,000  ditto        ' 

AUlO  RANGE  CORRECTOR,  for  use  with  aeroplane  observa- 
tions,  giving  range  and  deflection  corrections,  in 
case 

THE  NOTCUTT  WIND  CORRECTOR,  for  18-pdr.,  giving 
range  and  line  correction,  in  case       

MACHINE  GUN  PROTRACTOR,  with  graticules       ... 

THE  ETON  ARTILLERY  SCALE,  8,000  yards  on  1/20,000, 
with  arc  for  8,000  yards  on  one  edge  


on  this  .(t)d«. 

"  You     have     iuiuIb 
nmongst  otBccrs." 


7/6 
12/6 

7/6 
12/6 


20/- 

15/6 
6/6 

10/6 


The  ORILUX 

Irm,.2'*'-X    EtECTRIC    LAMP 

TEST    OF     ACTIVE     SERVICE 
FOR    VEARS. 

EXTRACTS    FROM   LETTEJifi    FROM    THK 

FRONT: — 

;•  The  most   iisetiil   article  in  my   kit  " 

iiiit""".'^'''''"''  '""  P™*^  "*  >"""■  l^^'P 

yowr    name     fainour 


HE  ORILUX  LAMP  is  fltted  with  switches 
-     for  Int^rimttent  and  for  consUint  light 
ilie^llRht  Clin  !«!  turned  on   wit^iout  openinc 

.;,.o«    the   urn   downward..    The  «  e'^l.Tovf! .'^^wiTh  L"^  WtLlTj    l" 
the  belt,   and  provision   is  mode  in  it  for  carr.vinj;  u  h™o  bum.  ''*'«««W°«    <" 

'Price  iBi .  s  .  o  r.zrv'\T.) 

Extra   Battery  In    Waterproof,   J/3  (Postage   lo  the    Front,   1/.  extra). 

SOI.l:   MAKERS-  ^""    ^'"'''  '"■   •"••"«•   '"• 

J.  H.  STEWARD  Ltd.,  "^ '"'m1K"T 

4^0a   strand,     4B7    Strand,     London.  '^ 


<S5» 


vm 


Supplement  to    LAND    &    WATER 


January  lo,  1918 


At  the  present  time  the  vast  organisation  of  the  Arrol- 
Johnston  Company  is  devoted  to  national  needs  ;  but 
when  the  "PLEASURES  OF  PEACE  "  axe  possible  it 
will  be  centred  on  the  production  of  the  post-war 
"  Arrol- Johnston  "  car — a  car  that  will  prove  to  be  well 
in  line  with  the  A. -J.  high-grade  reputation. 


TollJdlu\st^^ 


Ltd. 


DUMFRIES. 


SIX     DAYS    ADRIFT     IN 
THE     NORTH     SEA! 

Supreme  test  of  the  concentrated  food   value   of 

HORLICK'S 

MALTED    MILK   TABLETS 

To  HoRLicK's  Malted  Milk  co-.-Sloueh,  Bucks. 

Dear  Sir*.— As  a  utembcr  of  the  RoyaT  Naval  Air  Service,  it  will  interest  yon  lo  know  that  1 
recently  proved  the  extrome  value  of  your  Malted  Milk  Tablets.  lo  a  flight  over  the  North  Sea  on 
May  a4th.  1917.  Wie  machine  developed  engine  trouble,  and  the  pilot  was  compelled  to  descend,  and 
we  were  left  for  six  day*  adrift.  To  make  matters  worse  the  seaplane  capsized,  and  on  the  firs:  day 
my  companion  Utst  a  Thermos  Flask  filled  with  hot  cocoa,  l-rom  that  time  until  we  were  picked  up  on 
the  afternoon  of  May  j^th  nho  sixth  dayj  my  companion  and  myself  had  no  other  form  o(  nomishment 
but  your  Malted  Milk  Tablets  coniaioed  in  one  of  your  well-known  Ration  Tins,  except  a  ship's 
candle  which  we  found  in  some  drifting  wreckage. 

1  f»el,  therefore,  that  weab&olutel]/owe  our  lives  to  the  contents  of  your  invaluable  Ration  Tin,  and 
1  have  the  greatest  pleasure  in  infotining  you  of  these  (acts,  aud  express  my  gratitude  for  so  compact 
a  Ration  Tm  containing  so  much  nutriment.  You  ara  at  liberty  to  use  this  letter  in  any  way  you  like 
and  with  ay  renewed  thanks.  Yours  truly  (signed). R.N.A.S. 

SEND     THEM    TO    YOUR    NAVAL     AND    MILITARY    FRIENDS. 

See  that  tht  nafne  Horlick's  appears  #>i  fvtry  Container, 

^  *"  ^"o'M*  and  Stores,  or  we  will  forward  one  of  theie  tint  post  frre  la  any  addrew  on  receipt  of 

t/6.     Give  lull  n«ai«  sad  •ddreM,  or  nane  o(  ship,  also  ^ve  your  own  name  snd  addrew  when  Madiaf 

remittance  to 

HORLICK-S  MALTED  MILK   CO.,  SLOUGH,    BUCKS.,   ENGLAND. 

SIX  J^MEi  HORUCK,  llarl .  Pmid,,,:. 


J.  W.BENSON 


'Actiot  Service'  WRISTLET  WATCH 
Fully  Lnminoui  Fignret  &  HarJt 
Warranted  Timekeepers 

In  Stiver  Cam  wirh  Screw    Bezel 
and  Back.  £»  1  Os.  Gold,  Hit. 
With     Hunter    or    Halt'Hunter    cover. 
SiWer.    i:.4i    4s.      Gold.  iiO  9a. 
Othcra  in  Silver  from    iJM    iSt, 
Gold  from  no   lUi. 

JVIilitarjr  Badge  Brooches. 

Jliiy  Regimental  ©at/ge  Perfeetlii 
Modelled. 

FIUCEE  ON  AIPLIOATIOH 

Sketches  sent  lor  approval, 

25  OLD  BOND  ST.,  W.I. 

nd  62&  64  LUDOATE  HILL.  E.C.4 


BICYCLES 

THERE'S  always  one  safe  course  when 
selecting  a  new  bicycle— see  that  it  carries  the 
B.S.  A.  name  and  the  famous  "  Three  Guns  " 
trade  mark  shown  below;  they  are  a  guarantee 
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Vol.  LXX  No.  2905  [Sr]  THURSDAY,  JANUARY  10,  1918  [YS^^i^f^.H]  ISfc'-i^Ft^K^I^KSS 


^-i-sjaaa-— N. 


I 


_■  J      I    minirwiriirii _■■  i — ■■■■niuu  r  .-ci::^ 


Copyright  •'hina  It    Watn" 

"  My  Avowed  and   Unconditional  Ally  " 

IIb  thia  wrtoon  Mr.  Raemackers  calU  attention  to  the  Kaiser's   blasphemy,   which  aroused   the  indignation  of  the  civilised  world] 


Cipvngttt    1«17    in    V.S.M. 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  lo,  igi8 


Behind  the  French  Lines 


A  Rest   Gamp  in  the  Ravine  of  Naroliers 


French    Official  Photograph 


January  lo,  1918 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

5,  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828, 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY   10.   1918 

CONTENTS 


PAGE 


"My  Avowed 'Ally."     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

Behind  the  French  Lines.     (Pliotograph)  - 

What  We  Are  Fighting  For.     (Leader)  :; 

The  Prime  Minister's  Speech.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 

America's  Sea  Power.     By  Arthur  Pollen  '; 

The  Bankruptcy  of  Russia.     By  H.  M.  Hyndman  ^ 
Franco-Britisii    Economic    .Mlianci-.     By    J.    Couduricr 

de  Chassaigne  9 

Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book  i" 

Shop  Stewards.     By  Claude  T).  Farmer  12 
Christmas  on  a  "  Happy  Ship."      By  Lewis  R.  Freeman     i"; 

The  Skipper.     Bv  Frar.cis  Brett  Young    '•  14 

Shadows  and  the  Rocks.     Bv  William  T.  Palmer  ib 

Sir  Arthur  Helps.     By  J.  C." Squire  17 

Books  of  the  Week  it< 

Only  a  Painter.     (Illustrated.)     Bv  Charles  Marriott  i') 

In  Northern  Italy.     (Ph  tographs)'  21 
Scenes  from  Flanders.     (Photographs)  ^                                '   22 

Domestic  Economy.  24 

Notes  on  Kit                      •                                    .  25 


WHAT  WE   ARE    FIGHTING    FOR 

A  WEEK  ago  we  pointed  out  that  the  status  quo 
ante  bdlum — the  European  position  before  the  war 
— had  ceased  to  exist.  We  gave  detailed  reasons 
■for  this  statement,  which  no  one  has  attempted  to 
dispute.  The  war  has  brought  into  existence  an  entirely  n(?w 
position,  political,  economic,  and  international  on  the  Con- 
tinent of  Europe.  The  hand  that  does  not  go  back  upon  the 
dial  in  these  days,  and  we  have  to  accept  facts  as  they  are. 
The  most  important  fact  is  that  a  new  Central  State  of  Europe 
has  been  brought  into  existence  under  the  domination  of 
Prussia.a  Central  State  which, if  it  is  permitted  to  exist  when 
the  war  is  over,  can  have  only  one  object  in  view — the  destruc- 
tion of  the  British  Empire.  More  than  a  year  ago  a  striking 
article  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Harold  Cox  was  published  in 
Land  &  Water,  showing  how  railroad  power  was  undermining 
s«a-power,  because  the  former  was  more  secure,  more  direct^ 
and  more  rapid.  Let  the  State  of  Central  Europe  exist  after 
the  war,  inevitably  there  will  occur  conflict  within  a  few  years, 
between  Mid-Europe  rail  power  and  Britannic  sea  power. 
Delenda  est  Mitteleuropa.  The  future  security  of  the  British 
Empire  is  summarised  in  this  phrase. 

The  Prime  Minister  has  now  delivered  a  notable  utterance 
on  the  aims  for  which  the  Allies  are  fighting.  It  has  been 
welcomed  in  all  the  countries  of  the  Entente  and  it  has  caused 
the  German  press  to  foam  at  the  month.  This  speech  is 
closely  analysed  by  Mr.  Belloc  in  the  following  pages  ;  he 
declares  that  "  as  a  whole,  it  has  put  the  main  thesis  of  the 
Alliance  justly,  and  what  is  very  important,  without  too 
many  particulars."  Mr.  Lloyd  George  no  doubt  took  council 
with  the  leaders  of  the  Allied  nations  before  giving  utterance 
to  this  detailed  pronouncement,  which  may  yet  prove  to  be 
the  foundation-stone  of  European  peace  for  several  genera- 
tions. It  is,  however,  too  soon  to  perceive  its  full  effect. 
Germany,  at  the  first,  professetl  to  find  in  its  sentences  symp- 
toms of  weakness,  and  declared  that  the  submarine  offensive 
and  the  ''  fensive  on  the  Western  Front  has  only  to  be  con- 
tinued a  little  time  longer  for  Britain  to  cry  out  for  terms. 
In  this  they  once  again  mistake  the  character  of  the  nation. 
There  is  no  weakening  among  the  peoples  of  the  British  Empire; 
they  will  continue  fighting  until  freedom  is  assured ,  reparation 
obtained  and  punishment  inflicted.  At  no  period  of  the  war 
h:is  the  nation  been  more  imited  in  its  resolution  to  obtain  a 
complete  victory  over  Prussian  militarism  than  now.  Its 
education  has  been  slow,  but  it  is  at  last  realising  the  price 
that  would  eventually  have  to  be  paid  if  the  House  of  Hohen- 
zoUcrn  and  their  Pan-German  supporters  were  left  in  command 


of  Mid  Europe.  These  Germans  have  no  thought  or  sympathy 
for  the  men  who  fight  their  battles,  except  as  the  mere  instru- 
ments of  their  will.  A  typical  instance  of  this  mental  attitude 
is  related  in  to-day's  "  Leaves  from  a  German  Note-Book," 
when  at  a  recent  meeting  held  in  Frankfort,  a  Pan-German 
speaker.  Count  Bothmar,  was  urging  the  destruction  of  England 
and  for  the  war  to  continue  until  it  was  accomplished,  Was 
interrupted  by  a  group  of  wounded  soldiers,  to  one  who  pro- 
tested and  who  had  lost  an  arm  in  the  war,  he  replied  "  You 
simpleton  ;  be  quiet  ;  you  do  not  understand  anything  about 
it."  According  to  the  Pan-German  doctrine,  all  Germans  are 
simpletons,  who  do  not  hold  to  the  Pan-German  belief  in 
world  power. 

Thisworld  power,  Germany  now  realises,  cannever  be  attained 
if  the  Allies  war-aims  are  carried  to  their  logical  conclusion. 
The  Cologne  Gazette  has  put  the  position  in  the  clearest  light : 
"  If  the  war  aims  of  the  British  Prime  Minister  should  he 
fulfilled,"  it  writes,  "  Germany  would  be  driven  back  into  the 
position  of  1914,  without  Alsace-Lorraine  and  the  German 
Colonies,  but  loaded  with  an  immense  war  indemnity,  with  a 
dangerous  Polish  State  on  the  frontier  and,  moreover,  delivered 
to  the  discretion  of  the  Allies  for  receiving  goods."  But  it 
Avas  Germany  who  sought  the  arbitrament  of  war  in  1914, 
and  by  that  arbitrament  she  will  have  to  abide. 

In  Mr.  Belloc's  article  there  is  a  remarkable  passage  about 
.\lsace-Lorraine.  Though  the  facts  may  not  be  new,  they  are 
so  lucidly  stated  tliat  the  condition  of  these  two  Provinces 
since  they  were  torn  from  France  a  generation  ago,  assumes 
a  new  appearance.  No  attempt,  however  unsympathetic  or 
even  brutal  it  may  have  been,  has  been  neglected  by  Germany 
to  Germanise  these  provinces.  Yet  after  forty-six  years  the 
spirit  of  the  people  is  as  intensely  French  as  it  was  in  1871. 
Germany,  even  if  she  had  deliberately  tried,  could  not  have  ' 
gi\Tn  more  conclusive  proof  of  her  failure  to  rule  peoples  with 
ideas  not  in  common  with  hers,  yet  this  is  the  nation  which 
endeavours  directly  or  indirectly  to  impose  its  yoke,  on 
Europe.  With  the  fate  of  Alsace-Lorraine  before  them,  even 
the  Bolsheviks  have  shied  from  handing  over  to  Prussia  the 
rule  of  Russian  Provinces 

We  have  maintained  consistently  in  these  columns  that  an 
independent  Poland — independent  in  every  sense — with 
Dantzig  as  its  sea  port,  would  be  the  surest  possible  guarantee 
of  the  future  peace  of  Europe.  .\s  Mr.  Belloc  jxiints  out  to-day : 
"  Pnissia  reposes  historically  upon  the  attempted  murder 
of  Poland.  An  independent  Poland,  comprising  all  genuinely 
'  Polish  elements,  would,  were  it  brought  into  being,  be  the 
death-blow  of  Prussian  ambition,  of  the  whole  Prussian  theory 
of  aggression."  Unfortunately,  European  history  is  too 
little  known  in  this  country  ;  otherwise  the  Poland  ciuestion 
would  have  been  understood  from  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
whereas  it  is  only  in  the  later  months  that  its  full  significance 
has  emerged.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  did  well  to  put  the  need  of 
an  independent  Poland  in  the  forefront  of  the^aims  of  the 
.\llies,  but  we  shall  have  to  be  careful  when  the  day  arrives 
that  this  independence  is  assured  by  the  boundaries  assigned  to 
the  reconstituted  Kingdom,  boundaries  which  must  at  least 
include  the  port  of  Dantzig  on  the  Baltic.  Without  this 
port,  Poland's  independience  would  be  a  farce.    . 

The  chief  aim  before  the  Allies  at  the  present  time  is  the 
defeat  of  the  military  forces  of  Prussia.  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
has  spoken  of  these  times  as  being  the  most  critical  of  the 
war.  There  is  need  for  the  strongest  determination  to  bring 
the  issue  to  a  victorious  end.  Without  victory  the  aims  of 
theAllies  must  fall  to  the  ground.  We  are  passing  once  again 
through  one  of  these  periods  of  comparative  calm  which  are 
more,  trying  to  the  moral  than  active  stress,  and  the  enemy 
wastes  no  opportunity  to  induce  the  belief  that  our  aims 
may  possibly  be  better  obtained  by  negotiation.-  Russia  has. 
of  course,  been  invaluable  to  German  diplomats  in  this  connec- 
tion, and  the  Bolsheviks  have  served  their  pirrpose  in  per- 
mitting a  semblance  of  peace  to  be  proposed.  But  signs  arc 
not  wanting  that  the  Bolsheviks  are  nearing  th_e  end  of  their 
tether.  America  is  silently  but  rapidly  developing  her  power. 
There  are,  ;is  we  understand  nowadays,  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  making  her  full  strength  felt  as  quickly  as  possible, 
but  these  diffirulties  are  one  by  one  being  overcome.  Of  her 
firm  and  fixed  determination  to  be  one  of  the  deciding  factors 
of  victory  there  is  no  question. 


Lrt\ND    &    WATFR 


JaHtiaiT  10.  iQiS 


The  Prime  Minister's  Speech 


By  Hilaire  Belloc 


define!; 

whi'rli 

inert\- 


THE  Prime  Miniilor's.  speecli  upon  iln-  aim-,  which  Um^ 
British  Government  and  people  have  put  before 
iliemselves:  in  this  war  is  a  docunient  of  soinc  im- 
portance ;  not  because  there- is  niucli  tliat  is  new 
-that     could'    hardly   be     tiie   case     but    because     it 

and    leaves    upon  "record  certain  ffeneral   j)rinciples 
the    mass    of    discussion    recentlv  i.rovoked   by  the 

had  confused.  I'urther,  the  speech  not  being  an 
indi\-idual  pronouncement,  but  clearly  the  recital  of  an 
instrument  drawn  up  bv  many  han<ls  and  long  discussed 
down  to  its  most  minute  plirasin.i;  is  virtually  a  general 
declaration  on  the  part  of  the  WesUun  Allies.  The  duel 
defect  of  the  spo(H?h— and  it  is  a  grave  one— is  a  failure  to 
recognise*  the  recent  erection,  of  that  great  Central  State 
now  standing  in  Europe,  the  destruction  of  which  is  our 
immediate,  positive  and  concrete  necessity,  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  which  necessarilv  means  tlie  decline  of  this  country-. 
To  that  })oint— by  far  the  most  important  jxilitical  matter  of 
our  time-  I  shall' return.  It  is  also,  i)erhai)s,  a  defect  in  the 
speech  that  it  did  not  emphasise  the  necessary  dependence  ol 
the  objetits  it  mentioned  n})on  either  a  military  victory  or  at 
second  best,  an  internal  collapse  within  the  Central  Empires. 
To; this  it'niav  be  answered  that  the  jwint  was  fairly  obvious 
and  did  not"  need  reiteration.  With  that  answer  most 
observers  of  the  present  European  situation  would  differ. 
The  immediate  object  for  which  men  light  is  victory, but  if 
that  object  be  not  clearly  presented,  the  strain  of  a  war  may 
teem  to,  outweigh  thu  value  of  victon,-.  It  is  surely  incon- 
ceivable— apart  from  the  present  existence  of  her  great 
newly  established  State  in  Central  JCurop*— that  Prussia 
would  yield  any  of  the  points  summarised  in  tlu-  speech  so 
long  as  her  armies  were  intact,  so  long,  tliat  is,  as  she  was  a 
military  power  still  innocent  of  military  defeat. 

The  speech  contained,  ap.Tirt  from  its  general  positive 
points,  certain  elements  new  to  such  pronouncements  and  of 
considerable  \'alue. 

For  instance,  there  was  well  brought  out  in  it  the  fact  that 
'Pnissia,  while  clamouring  for  precise  terms  from  her  enemies, 
has  never  put  forward  precise  terms  herself.  That  is  a  s\nip- 
toni  of  the  whole  debate  upon  which  insistence  has  been  laid 
over  and  o\'er  again  in  these  columns.  Those  who  have  been 
working  for  the  enemy,  consciously  and  unconsciously,  those 
who  merely  desire  peace  and  are,  therefore,  doing  the  enemy's 
work  indirectly,  those  who  are  his  emissaries  or  moral  allies, 
and  those  who  ire  by  c^•el■y  test  most  j)robably  his  jiaid  agents. 
haVe  clamoured  tor  months  that  the  civilisation  of  Europe 
should  enter  into  a  bargain  ^nth  Pnissia  and  Ix'gin  by  stating 
a  iiilraDer  of  specific  terms.  I'pon  no  element  in  the  intrigue 
lor  surrender  have  the  supporters  of  that  policy  insisted  more. 
and,  from  their  point  of  view,  they  were  quite  right  :  for  that 
party  which  first  begins  a  parley  is  not  only  admitting  its 
inferiority  and  probable  submission  to  its  enemy,  but  is  also 
relaxing  the  strain  of  war  which  it  may  never  be  able  to  re- 
impose.  Yet  it  was  remarkable  that  while  the  enemj-  and 
liis -abettors,  conscious  and  unconscious,  were  f;till  clamouring 
for  a  statement  of  specific  terms — which  process  of  higgling 
would  liave  masked  the  actual  presence  of  u  truce  preparatory 
to  a  peace — the  enemy  never  gave  us  even  the  \aguest  idea  <>f 
his  own  claims.  The  nearest  thing  to  it  was  that  which  the 
Prime  Minister  himself  alluded  to,  the  speech  of  Count  Czernin 
on  Christmas  Day.  liut  that  speech  was  a  thousand  miles 
away  from  any  definite  pronowicement.  ■  It  should  in  this 
connection  be  noted  that  though  the  speech  wisely  avoided 
detailed  and  specific  terms  yet,  in  pro|K)rtion  as  it  approached 
such  detail  it  at  once  provoked  that  divergence  of,\iew  within 
the  alliance  which  it  isthe  object  of  the  enemy  to  create. 

Another  point  in  the  speech  which  deserves  "special  attention 
is  the  very  jiist  declaration  that  the  Prime Uinister  was  speak- 
ing, not  only  for  the  Allied  "statesmen,  or  for  the  political 
machinery  to  which  they  are  attached,  but  for  M/.s  nation  as  a 
wlJole.  Grcirt  bodies  of  men  are  not  vocal,  but  their  common 
dct<ermination  is  none  the  less  api)rociable,  and  there  is  no 
doiU)t,at  all  that  the  determination  of  this  countrv,  of  its 
civilians,  aiml  of  its  soldiers,  to  carry  the  war  to  a  successful 
conclusion  stands  firm  in  its  fourth  vcar. 

th(;  mociem  world  has  not  created  any  organs  of  strong 
national  expression  such  as  the  older  i^uro'pean  societies  once 
possessed.  Perhaps  it  is  too  complex,  perhaps  it  is  too  big  for 
such  orgams  to  be  possible.  At  anv  rate,  they  do  not  exist. 
No  one  can  pretend  that  the  modern  Xewspa'pet  Trusts  arc 
reprcsentath-c  of  general  opinion,  still  less  that  the  moribund 
Parliamentary  systems  of  Western  Europe  are  so.  We  can 
onh^  judge  to-day  of  a  uatipn's  will  by  travel  and  by 
talking  on  the  supreme  national  matter  with  men  of  e\:ery 


class.  The  common  experience,  the  general  impression 
left  upon  any  man  who  travels  widely  and  talks  to  many 
people  on  many  occasions,  lea\'es  ho  doubt  upon  the  general 
intention  of  the  British  in  this  crisis  of  their  fate.  The  Prime 
Minister  was  wise  to  associate  the  nation  as  a  whole  with 
his  particular  pronouncement. 

Our  .Mlies,  iioth  those  organised  in  the  field,  and  those 
unhappily  still  subject  to  the  enemy,  will  turn  with  anxiety  to 
till' ])ositi\e  jjoints  in  the  speech,  and  ujion  the  whole  they 
will  not  be  disajipointed. 

The  matter  of  Alsace-Lorraine  was  put  in  very  general 
terms,  but  those  terms,  though  general,  were  not  ambiguous. 
What  happened  in  the  case  of  the  I'rench  Provinces  40  years 
ago  is  forgotten  or  confused  by  those  who  are,  naturalh- 
enough,  little  interested  in  a  question  which  was  until  quite 
recently  foreign  to  their  lives.  It  is  worth  recalling.  This 
European  district,  verv  wealthy  and  densely  populated, 
counting  about  two  million  souls,"  was  forcibly  taken,  altera 
successful  war,  by  the  conc|ueror  from  tlie  conquered.  It  was 
taken  with  such  brutal  disregard  lor  the  wishes  of  its  own 
|)eople  that  their  protest  was  not  only  unanimous,  but  was 
carried  on  for  a  generation  by  all  tlie  channels  of  expression 
open  to  them,  that  it  had  to  be  ruled  despotically,  and  most 
significant  of  all  that  the  act  provoked  a  vast  ernigration  of 
those  who  preferred  exile  and  grievous  material  loss  to  the 
toreign  go\ernnient  imposed  upon  them  by  force.  Not  only 
was  there  no  consultation  of  the  people,  but  those  who 
annexed  them  regarded  the  v\hole  idea  of  consulting  popular 
wishes  with  dejision,  and  expressed  their  derision  not  only  in 
this  circumstance,  but  with  regard  to  every  experiment  of 
self-government  in  Europe. 

.\  p(Tit)d  of  time  covering  ;!ll  the  useful  life  cf  u  uk'H  has 
elapsed  since  that  crime  was  committed.  Dui-iii^  all  tT^vsc 
years  evciy  effort  has  been  made  b\-  a  Stall'  rapidlv  increasing 
in  wealth  and  pojnilation,  despotic  in  acticm  and"  ruthless  iii 
method,  to  destroy  the  spirit  which  they  found  in  these  dis- 
tricts upon  tiieir  annexation.  An  immensely  powerful 
bureaucracy  has  stified  every  free  expression  of  opinion, 
education  has  been  directed  "to  the  destruction  of  all  old 
memories  and  the  creation  of  a  new  tradition.  A  rigid  system 
ol  passports  and  a  universal  system  of  espionage  have  checked 
<'\-ery  tendency  to  reunion  with  those  who  were  the  fellow- 
citizens  of  the  families  thus  seized.  The  place  has  been 
flooded  with  new  colonists,  and  i-verv  single  appointment 
from  a  village  postmaster  to  a  bishop  and  from  a  bishop  to  the 
head  of  a  province  has  been  an  appointment  despotically 
imposed  from  above  and  designed  to  further  the  interests 
of  those  who  stole  the  land. 

If  aft<'r  such  a  process  the  original  thief  shall  mildly  be  told 
that  his  present  work  is  the  only  test  of  his  original  crime, 
and  that  if  he  has  succeeded  in  "uprooting  a  European  thing 
and  killing  it,  he  sliaH  be  forgiven,  then  it  is  no  good  talking 
about  the  immorality  of  annexation  or  the  priuciple  of  sclf- 
go\-cruinent.  To  suggest  such  a  thing,  as  too  many  honest 
people  ignorant  of  the  origin:d  conditions  have  suggested  it , 
is  a  direct  premium  upon  forcible  theft  of  jjeople  and  of  land,' 
and  what  is  perhaps  worse,  of  pers(-cution,  expatriation,  and 
artificial  colonising  b\-  the  conquering  power  in  order  to  con- 
solidate the  original  crime.  Before  leaving  this  point  we  must 
remember  that  valuable  as  are  the  pronouncements  of  one  ally 
w-ith  regard  to  the  aims  of  anotiier,  the  .\lliance  as  a  whole 
depends  upon  mutual  loyalty.  Each  member  of  the  Alliance 
is, necessarily  comparatively  indifferent  to  national  traditions 
and  claims  which  are  most  "vital  to  other  members.  The  Sea 
IS  life  and  death  to  this  Island,  but  this  Island  alone  of  the 
Alliance  feels  that.  All  North  Italy,  and  especially  the  dis- 
tricts east  of  .Milan,  are  aHame  with  the  desire  to  recover 
what  is  Italian  from  a  foreign-  rule,  but  to  other  members  of 
the  Alliance  the  matter  was,  until  the  war  broke  out,  literary 
or  academic;  and  even  now  they  cannot  feel  what  the  Italian 
feels.  So  it  is  with  Alsace-Lorraine.  But  it  is  just  to  sa\- 
that  after  so  prolonged  a  war  the  necessity  of  mutual  compn  - 
lieiisioii  is  now  fairh'  clear.  I'pon  it  the  moral  strength  of  the 
.\lhance  depends.  If  that  mutual  ser\-ice  fails  the  Alliance 
fails  with  It,  and  with  the  Alliance  the  future  of  England. 

Next  we  niay  note  the  satisfactory  and  sensible  declaration 
upon  the  ]5olitical.  group  now  holdingpower  in  North- Western 
Russia.  It  is  perfectly  impossible  to  have  any  definite  policy 
ol  adherence  or  even  compromise  here,  because  we  lia\-e  no  res"- 
l)onsible  and  permanent  force  to  deal  with.  But  even  if  we  had, 
neither  this  country  nor  any  member  of  the  Alliance  in  defence 
of  civilisation  can  support  a  programme  of  which  the  first 
principle  is  the  neglect  4)f  all  the  aims  for  which  the  West  met 
the  Prussian  challenge.     England  and  Trance,  the  (vij^a^ 


January  105  1 918 


LAND    &    WATER 


protagonists  in  defence  of  Europe,  did  not  go  to  \var  for  some 
international  theory  dear  to  internationaf  anarchists,  fThey. 
did  not  go  to  war  for  Karl  Marx's  bo6k  Das  Kapital,  strll  less 
for  the  private  interests  of  a  batch  of  adventurers  cjrajvn 
from  all  corners  of  the  earth..  They  did  not  go  to  \\ar  to 
help  a  clique  of  men  with  no  country  in  their  attack  on  the 
religion  of  their  hosts,  nor  did  they  go  to  war  to  support 
such  men  against  the  peasantry  whom  they  detest  and 
whose  influence  in  the  future  government  of  the  place  thev 
seek  to  eliminate.  They  went  tu  war  to  defend  the  public 
law  of  Europe,  whicli  had  been  broken,  and  to  save  the  national 
traditions  of  Europe  from  a  threat  morally  intolerable  but  im- 
fortunatelv  physically  strong.  They  went  to  war  to  preserve 
the  future"  existence  "and  power  of  their  own  states.  If  the 
townsfolk  in  one  part  of  what  was  once  the  Russian  Empire 
choose  to  accept  such  masters,  that  is  no  concern  of  ours. 

An  Independent  Poland 

Ihe  third  point  iu  tlie  si)eech  wliich  is  specially  noticeable 
is  the  declaration  that  Poland  must  be  independent.  Here 
again  the  thing  said  implies  more  than  the  actual  words  used. 
An  independent  Poland  "  comprising  all  genuiriel'y  Polish 
•lemcnts  "  would,  were  it  brought  into  being,  Ix;  the  death 
i)iow  of  Prussian  ambition  and  of  the  wholf  Prussian  theor\-  of 
aggression.  Prussia  reposes  historically  upon  the  attempted 
murder  of  Poland,  and  Poland  .-remember,  readies  the  sea  to 
the  North  at  Dantzig,  and  comes  within  a  startlingly' short 
distance  of  Berlin  towards  the  West.  Hut  -the  restoration  of 
Poland  though  a  moral  necessity  to  the  cause  of  the  .\llies 
and  to  the  restoration  of  a  decent  Europe,  that  is,  to  the  defeat 
of  Prussia,  is,  as  has  been  pointed  out  in  these  columns  more 
than  once,  rather  a  te,st  than  an  aim.  If  we  win,  of  course 
SVC  shall  restore  Polan<l.  Not  to  do  so  would  Ix;  an  ele- 
mentary folly.  But  ithd/ur  u-c  c.\x  do  so  or  not,  is  the  real 
point  :'  it  is  the  unfaihng  mark  of  victory  or  defeat.  In 
other  words,  we  cannot  pretend  to  ha\-e  achie\«l  our  ends  in 
this  war,  to  ha\-e  o,rTi\'ed  at  a  stable  victorv,  or  indeed  at  any 
victory  at  all,  if  we  pmve  ourselves  unable  at  its  conclusion 
to  re-erect  a  strong  Poland  which  shall  reach  to  the  boundaries 
of  the  really  German  States  and  shall  restrict  (lerman  rule 
within  those"  boundaries.  If  we  cannot  do  that  we  are  ile- 
feated  and  the  effects  of  our  defeat  will  be  immediattly 
apparent,  no  matter  behind  what  fine  phrases  it  may  be  hidden. 
It  was  very  well  pointed  out  the  other  day  in  a  series  of 
articles  simultaneonsly  printed  I  believe  both  in  France 
and  in  England,  that  there  is  attached  to  this  Polish  matter 
another  crucial  one,  the  position  of  the  Bohemian  quadri- 
lateral after  the  war.  Bohemia  is  practically  as  well  as 
morally  the  keystone  of  the  arch  of  free  jseoples  we  propose 
to  erect.  But  the  man\'  j>roblems  involved  in  this  war  are  too 
inimerous  for  a  detailed  analysis  here. 

It  is  satisfactory  to  tind  that  these  foreign  questions  which 
could  not  of  their  nature  mean  very  much  to  the  bulk  of  his 
immediate  audience,  formed  sti  large  a  part  of  the  Prime 
.Minister's  matte;-,  for  that  matter  was  delivered,  of  course, 
not  only  to  his  immediate  audience,  but  to  all  Europe. 

In  a  point  much  more  familiar  to  us  the  speech  was  equally 
satisfactory,  though  it  was  briefly  dealt  with  :  The  point  of 
reparation,  especially  as  regards  reparation  for  the  violation 
of  common  European  morals  at  sea.  That  is  a  matter  of 
practical  and  vital  importance  to  this  country.  If  we  allow 
indscriminate  murder  at  sea  as  practised  b\'  the  German 
submarines  to  establish  a  precedent,  not  only  the  power,  but 
the  security  and  one  might  say  the  verj'  existence  as  a  State 
of  Great  Britain  is  at  an  end.  • 

Here  we  cannot  aftord  to  use  general  terms.  The  people 
who  ordered  this  thing  and  the  people  who  did  this  thing  must 
be  punished  if  we  obtain  tlie  victor^-.  It  must  be  made  clear 
by  example  that  Europe  will  not  stand  a  further  degradation 
of  its  standard,  and  that  what  may  be  acceptable  to  Prussian  " 
morals  is  intolerable  to  ours.  Of  course  if  we  fail  to  obtain 
victory  the  matter  need  not  be  discasscd  at  all.  If  we  an- 
Ix'atcn  the  enemy  will  give  some  promise  or  other  not  to  do  it 
again — and  the  security  of  the  sea  will  have  come  to  an  end. 
\Vith  that  ending  the  whole  of  our  civilisation  will  rapidly 
decline.  For  there  will  be  no  power,  however  insignificant,  with 
a  real  or  a  fancied  grie\ance  that  will  not  be  able  to  ha\e 
recourse  to  such  a  weapon,  just  as  in  private  life  if  you  tolerati- 
poison  there  is  no  one  so  feeble  but  he  can  terrorise  a  whole 
community. 

Thcr  speech,  then,  as  a  whole,  has  put  the  main  thesis  of 
the  Alliance  justly,  and,  what  is  very  important,  without 
too  many  particulars.  The  change  of  attitude  with  regard 
to  Constantinople  was  doubtless  dictated  b\-  some  international 
agreement.  It  seems  rather,  gratuitous,"  but  if  victorv  hr 
a.ssumed  it  is  not  vital.  The  real  point  will  be  who  shall  be 
the  overlord  of  the  Turk  if  we  leave  him  in  Europe,  mtirji 
more  than  whether  he  is  left  in  Europe  or  no.  If  we  defeat 
Prussia— if  whether  bv  jwlitical  action  from  \nthiu  or  by 


niilitjir}-  action  from  without^ — the  Prussian  military  macliine 
is  put  out  of-  action,  then  the  old  Europe  and  Western 
civilisation  will  control  the  Dardanelles  and  the  Bosphorus. 
It  peace  is  made  with  Prussia  still  unbeaten,  then  the  Darda- 
nelles and  the  Bosphorus  will  be  controlled  ultimately  by 
Prussia.  That  is  a  certitude  comparable  to  the  certitudes  of 
])hvsical  law.  "    i^- 

But  one  nmst  conclude  one's  survey  (at  the  risk,  I  am 
afraid,  of  tedious  reiteration)  by  insisting  tliat  no  declaratior/ 
of  the  present  position  of  Europe  is  complete,  or  even  uea'/, 
unless  it  takes  into  account  the  solid  fact  that  Central  EurC/ipe 
lias  come  into  existence.  That  State  is  no  longer  a  theoi;y. 
It  is  not  an  ideal  of  the  future.  It  is  a  l)lock  of  matter  wh'/ch 
we  ha\-e  to  deal  with  and  whose  continued  cohesion  or  dissolu- 
tion are  synonymous  with  our  own  defeat  or  victory,  /ft  is 
only  a  matter  of  weeks  before  everyone  will  recognise  this, 
and  if  we  insist  upon  it,  as  we  do  in  this  journal,  it  is  because 
to  us  facts  of  this  sort  seem  equally  important  with  opinions. 
It  is  inexitable  that  men  should  still  thmk  in  terms  of  1914 
Euroj);-  though  that  Europe  has  ceased  to  be,  but  thfc  sooner 
they  learn  to  think  in  terms  of  Europe  as  it  now  is  iny.thjs  j'car 
lOi^,  the  better.  .     . 

When  Napoleon  proposed,  partly  through  his  aiemories  of 
a  kepublican  youth,  partly  from  personaP.  ambition,  partly 
(rym  mere  sequence  of  fate,  to  create  a  united  Continent  in 
the  spirit  of  the  l-'rench  .Ke\-olution  whi<:;h  he  incarnated, 
there  existed  for  some  years  a  state  of  the  aort  he  proposed  to 
create.  W'e  have  half  forgotten  it  because  it  was  ephemeral, 
but  it  was  there.;  and  the  real  object  of  the  Spanirirds,  the 
Portuguese,  the  P^nglish  and  the  Russians,  <lown  to  the  guerilla 
bands  in  Tyrol  who  also  armed  and  opposed  it,  was  to  destroy 
that  State.  Its  various  parts  had  different  names... some 
were  put  forw-ard  as  Allied  Kingdoms,  others  were  directly 
annexed  to  the  I-'renrh  Empire,  but  fropa  the  boundaries  of 
Poland  to  somewhat  beyond  the  Pyrenees  the  thing 
was  in  being.  It  covered  Italy,  and  the  Germanics  were 
a  part  of  it  as  were  the  Netherlands.  Prussia  has  not 
created  a  Statg  of  the  same  kind,  it  is  true.  Her  ideals 
are  the  exact  opposite .  of  those  which  inspired  the  art, 
the  songs  and  the  whole  civilisation  of  the  French  attempt 
under  Napoleon.  But  in  the  pouit  of  .success  or  failure 
the  parallel  is  singularly  exact.  Pnissia  has  not.. indeed, 
mastered  Europe.  Slie  is  not  of  a  calibre  Ijo  do  that.  All 
the  old  and  high  civilisation  opposed  to  her  stands  intact, 
nor  has  anyone  in  that  civilisation  a  sympathy  w-ith  her.  such 
as  very  much  of  civilised  Europe  hatl  wfth  the  Frertch 
Revolution  and  with  Napoleon.  But  she  has  created  such  a 
state  of  her  own.  There  is  now  properly  speaking,  not  an 
alliance,  but  an  organism  of  which  Berlin  is  the  centre, 
(jf  which  till'  outliers  reach  already  to  Mesopotamia  and  Syria 
and  the  Marches  of  Muscovy.  Integral  and  directly  adminis- 
tratetl  i)arts  include  Lithuania  and  all  Poland ,  half  Roumania 
and  all  the  Serbian  race.  Bulgaria  is  its  vassal.  If  the  war 
leaves  this  State  iu  being,  there  will  be  two  peoples  of  the  white 
race,  the  one  in  the  West,  upon  the  whole,  inferior  in  resources, 
the  other  in  the  East,  and  the  latter  may  prove  the  master, 
and  will  certainly  be  superior.  Where  iiritain  would  come 
in  such  a  scheme  readers  cait  determine  for  themselves. 

That  is  the  real  and  practical  issue  of  the  moment.  Not 
that  declarations  of  doctrine  have  not  their  value,  for  mankuid 
is  ruled  by  ideas,  but  here  we  have  a.rcal  and  existing  thing, 
aiid  on  its  survival  or  destruction  depends  the  future  of  the 
world  and  of  ourselves.  It  was  not  so  even  eighteen  months 
ago.     It  is  so  to-day.  H.  Belloc. 


Important  Notice 

TTHE  Price  of  Land  &  Water  will  be  raised  to  9d 
beginning  with  the  first  issue  in  February.  This 
increase  in  price  is  necessitated,  partly  by  the  advanced 
cost  of  all  materials,  and  artly  by  the  variety  of 
subjects  which  in  these  days  demand  the  attention  of 
a  weekly  journal. 

It  has  always  been  our  aim  to  secure  for  Land  &  Wdler 
the  most  eminent  writers,  not  only  on  military  arad 
naval  affairs,  but  on  social  and  economic  questicns, 
and  in  the  spheres  of  literature  and  art.  This  pqAicy 
will  be  maintained,  and  the  increase  in  price  will 
enable  us  to  do  justice  to  the  most  important  topics  of 
the  day. 

We  particularly  request  all  our  readers,  who 
have  not  already  done  so,  to  place  an  order  for 
regular  delivery  with  their  newsagent,  since  the  price 
of  paper  makes  it  impossible  to  provide  tor 
chance  sales. 


LAND    &    WATER 

America's  Sea  Power 

By  Arthur  Pollen 


^  January    lo,  1918 


WHEN  I  started  for  America  just  over  six  months 
ago,  1  lound  that  the  general  opinion  here  seemed 
to  be  that  the  people  of  the  ITnitcd  States  were 
not.  and  did  not  seem  likely  to  become,  over 
cnthfjsiastic  about  the  war,  but  that  any  lack  of  popular  war 
fury  would  certainly  be  made  up  by  the  staggering  efficiency 
with  which  tlie  Government's  war  programmes  and  prepara- 
tions would  be;  carried  through.  Six  months'  study  of  the 
situation  in  America  has  convinced  me  that  in  both  these 
respects  opinion  was  'largely  wrong.  Of  the  war  spirit  of  the 
Americans  there  could  be  no  possible  doubt,  from  the  first 
moment  one  found  ontsclf  in  the  country.  And  if  the  efficiency 
of  the  war  preparatioais  has  been  less  than  was  hoped,  it  is 
largely  ber.ause,  so  over\vhclming  was  the  war  enthusiasm,  that 
a  scale  of  national  effort  was  attempted  that  it  was  beyond 
Jmman  capacity  to  realise.  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that 
Ai.ierica's  k>?enness  to  wipe  out  her  long  neutrahty  by  a  swift 
and  rapid  stroke  for  \-ictory  was  altogether  limitless,  and  her 
power  of  nat-Uinal  action  very  severely  limited.  What  was 
perhapt  hardly  rea^Used  was  this.  In  normal  times  the  ratio 
of  corpoiatc  or  governmental  activity  to  industrial  acti^'ity 
is  extraordinarily  small.  It  had,  therefore,  been  nobody's 
business  to  find  out  how  far  the  ordinary  course  of  trade  and 
industrv  could  bf  broken  into,  and  their  machinery  turned 
to  national  objects,  without  making  a  great  deal  of  that 
machineiy  break  dow.n  altogether  This  has  been  illustrated 
in  the  case  of  railways,  mining  and  munitions.  The  case  was 
still  stronger  when  it  came  to  such  an  industry  as  shipbuilding 
for,  except  for  submaj-ines  and  warships,  the  capacity  of  the 
shipyards  of  America  iiefore  the  war  was  of  a  very  restricted 
kind.  It  was  expanded  and  expanded  rapidly  under  British 
and  Allied  orders  for  ships,  in  the  course  of  1915-16.  When 
America  came  into  the  war,  there  were  vessels  to  our  order 
displacing  over  two  million  tons,  actually,  I  believe,  in  course 
of  construction.  But  it  was  just  at  this  moment  that  the  full 
gravity  of  the  German  submarine  menace  was  realiped.  The 
unpleasant  truth  was  dawning  on  the  world  that  if  the  thing 
went  on  as  it  had  begun,  no  matter  how  great  or  well-equipped 
the  armies  might  be  that  America  would  raise,  they  could  be 
of  little  value  in  the  war  without  shipping  to  take  them 
to  Europe  or  to  keep  men  supplied  there.  In  other  words, 
it  bicame  apparent  that  the  first  necessity  of  the  situation  was 
i(<  nuiltii)ly  the  sbipbuilding  capacity  of  the  country  to  the 
utmost.  Americaai  necessity  and  not  American  capacity 
dictated  what  was  to  be  done.  A  programme  for  the  launching 
and  completion  of  four  million  tons,  in  addition  to  the  two 
millions  already  under  construction,  was  set  out,  and  every 
eifort  made  to  make  its  reahsation  possible.  Many,  indeed, 
conttdently  asserted  that  the  whole  six  million  tons  would  be 
afloat  and  available  before  the  end  of  1918.  But  no  such  result 
seems  probable  now.  Already  the  very  high  expectations 
formed  as  to  the  production  of  wooden  ships  are  understood 
to  have  been  ill  founded.  Nor,  in  spite  of  Mr.  Hurley's 
recent  statement,  are  those  seemingly  in  the  best  position  for 
anticipating  events,  at  all  confident  as  to  the  balance  of  the 
programme. 

The  truth  probably  is  that  those  who  first  had  shipbuilding 
in  hand  failed  to  grasp,  not  the  elementary  fact  that  the  total 
production  must  ultimately  turn  upon  the  amount  of  labour, 
unskilled  as  well  as  skilled  that  was  available,  but  the  effects 
of  the  very  exceptional  demands  that  other  necessary  prepara- 
tions for  war  would  make  upon  the  total  labour  available. 
Ordnance,  munitions,  aeroplanes  and  air-plane  engines,  cloth- 
ing, equipment,  the  increased  production  of  food,  the  greater 
demand  lor  copper  and  iron  ore,  the  vast  increase  of  plants  for 
((inverting  ore  into  metal,  and  other  plants  for  turning  the 
raw  material  into  fit  material  for  industry,  the  construction 
and  upkeep  of  camps  for  housing  and  training  the  million  and 
a  half  men,  the  increased  need  of  coal  and  oil,  the  new  and 
extraordinary  demands  made  on  railway  transportation 
just  at  a  time  when  the  railways  were  most  in  need  of  new  roll- 
ing stock  and  rails — needs  that  could  not  be  met  because  rolling 
stock,  engines  and  rails  had  to  be  got  ready  for  shipment  tu 
l"rance  and  Russia— all  these  vast  and  extraordinaiy  efforts 
hctwem  them  produced  a  dislocation  of  labour  and  of  the 
general  industrial  organisation  which  jiossibly  might  have 
l)een,  but,  in  fact,  seemingly'  was  not,  fully  anticipated.  In 
the  net  result,  not  only  the  shipbuilding  programme,  but  all 
othei-  programmes  will  unquestionably  meet  with  delays. 
J'.ut  in  singular  contrast  to  this  generaltruth  stands  the  very 
remarkable  work  of  the  Navy  Department  at  Washington. 
In  the  second  week  in  December  there  was  published,  not  only 
the  annual  report  of  Ihe  Secretary  himself,  Mr.  Daniels,  biit 
those  of  the  Chiefs  of  Bureau.  They  were  one  and  all  extra- 
ordinarily stimulating  and  highly"  satisfactory  documents. 


In  the  issue  of  Land  axd  Water  of  April  5th  and  April 
i2th  last  year,  I  published  two  articles,  one  written  before  the 
American  declaration  of  war,  but  after  the  declaration  had  be- 
come certain,  and  the  other  immediately  afterwards,  in  which 
I  dealt  with  the  mihtary  and  naval  forces  then  at  America's 
disposal,  and  discussed  the  probable  use  to  which  they  would 
be  put.  Already,  as  we  all  know.  Admiral  Sims  had  been 
despatched  to  and  arrived  in  England  to  arrange  for  the 
naval  forces  of  his  country  to  take  an  immediate  share  in 
the  fight  against  the  submarines,  and  before  the  third 
.April  number  of  Land  and  Watek  was  issued,  the  first  con- 
tingent of  American  destroyers  was  half  way  across  the  Atlantic. 
The  swift  promptness  of  this  action,  and  the  perfect  readiness 
for  action  of  every  unit  suited  to  the  purpose  are  legitimately 
made  the  keynote  of  Mr.  Daniels'  opening  paragraplis.  It  is 
legitimate  because  the  same  promptitude  was  shown  in  every 
other  field  of  the  Department's  activity.  No  time  was  lost,  for 
instance,  in  at  once  getting  Congressional  sanction  for  the  ex- 
penditure necessary  for  the  expansion  the  war  would  call  for. 
So  recently  as  the  previous  August  the  three  years'  programme 
under  discussion  for  nearly  eight  months  had  gone  without 
opposition  through  both  Houses.  This  programme  provided  for 
laying  down  immediately  four  battleships,  four  battle-cruisers, 
four  scout  cmisers,  nine  fleet  and  fifty-eight  coast  defence 
submarines,  fifty  destroyers  and  torpedo  boats  and  a  few 
fuel  ships,  transports,  tenders,  etc.  But  a  month  before  the 
declaration  of  war  was  made,  a  further  vote  of  five  hundred 
and  sixteen  million  dollars  was  asked  for  and  granted.  And 
approximately,  the  same  amount  was  voted  in  the  beginning 
of  June  and  again  in  the  first  week  in  October.  With  thesi; 
appropriations  behind  them,  Mr.  Daniels  and  his  Chiefs  of 
Bureau  set  to  work. 

The   Growth   of  the  Navy 

The  number  of  ships  actually  in  commission 
has  risen  from  about  three  hundred  to  about  a  thousand. 
The  personnel  of  the  Na\'y  prop>er  consisted  a  year  ago  of 
4,500  officers  and  ()H,ooo  enlisted  men.  To-day  the  officers 
arc  over  15,000  and  the  enlisted  men  exceed  254,000.  The 
number  of  naval  stations  grew  from  130  to  363  ;  the  Navy 
Yard  employees  have  doubled.  So  that,  omitting  the  Marine 
Corps,  over  30,000  strong,  the  Naval  Establishment  on  shore 
and  afloat  embraces  now  over  300,000  men.  Roughly,  we 
may  say  that  everything  has  been  multijilied  by  three  within 
nine  months — ever\'thing  that  is  to  say,  except  the  scale  of 
expenditure,  which  has  been  multiplied  by  more  than  seven. 
But  then  the  expenditure  no  doubt  takes  into  account  both  ■ 
paj'ments  on  account  for  new  construction  and  payments  for 
each  unit  as  it  is  delivered  finished,  and  payment  for'  large 
munition  supplies.  The  fifty  destroyers  authorised  in  August  ^ 
1916,  were  all  contracted  for  very  soon  after  the  appropriations  ' 
were  finally  passed.  This  pogramme  has  been  very  greatly 
added  to  since.  Last  October  225,000,000  dollars  were 
voted  for  this  class  of  ship  only,  and  again  every  unit  authorised 
was  contracted  for  immediately.  The  reports  are  silent  as  to 
the  dates  on  which  the  boats  making  up  these  two  programmes 
are  to  be  expected.  But  it  was  regarded  as  no  secret  when  I 
was  in  Washington,  that  in  this  field  at  any  rate,  there  would 
be  no  disappointment  at  all.  Every  builder  was  said  to  be 
ahead  of  his  time,  and  confident  of  keeping  ahead.  I  do  not 
know  what  the  contract  price  for  destrojers  now  is,  and 
consequently  cannot  say  how  many  boats  are  included  in 
the  Congressional  vote  of  225,000^000  dollars.  But  some- 
thing over  ;([45,ooo,ooo  worth  of  destroyers  ought  to  represent 
a  very  formidable  force.  We  know  that  the  destroyer 
building  firms  are  much  the  most  efficient  of  any  concerns 
of  their  kind  in  America.  We  know  that  the  greater  cost  of 
rapid  construction  has  been  taken  into  account  in  fixing 
prices,  and  that,  as  far  as  possible,  every  priority,  both  as  to 
material  and  labour,  has  been  accorded.  It  seems  reasonable 
then,  to  assume  that  the  most  effective  of  all  craft,  offensive 
and  defensive,  in  underwater  war  is  likely  to  be  suppHed  in  very 
useful  numbers,  and  of  a  peculiarly  meritorious  type  in  the 
coming  months. 

In  the  munitions  specially  necessary  for  anti-submarine 
war— and  this  includes  ordnance  for  the  arming  of  merchant- 
men, merchant  auxiliaries  and  every  other  form  of  patrol 
boat— the  Navy  Department  has  been  fortunate  in  placing 
its  contracts  and  therefore  in  securing  early  deliveries. 
Generally  speaking,  so  far  as  anti-submarine  provisions  go. 
the  material  within  the  Navy  Departments  activities  has  been 
admirably  taken  care  of.  More  remarkable  than  this,  which 
is  after  all  a  question  of  good  busmcss  management,  always 
a  conspicuous  mark  of  this  branch  of  the  National  Govcrnmeiit 


January  lo,  1918 


LAND    &    WATER 


has  been  the  way  the  problem  of  the  personnel  has  been  met. 
The  shortage  of  men  was  admitted  to  be  serious  on  the  pre- 
i\ar  programme  of  construction.  But,  as  we  have  found  in 
jur  own  service,  highly  efficient  seamen  can  be  turned  out 
with  great  rapidity  where  the  candidate  is  not  only  willing 
but  desperately  anxious  to  qualify,  when  tiie  right  kind  of 
effort  is  made  to  train  him,  and  when  every  step  in  the  training 
is  made  hi  the' atmosphere  and  under  the  stimulusof  real  war. 
In  America,  where  practically  all' of  the  seamen  are  not 
only  short  service  men,  but  are  sent  almost  untrained  into 
ships  to  transmogrify  in  the  ordinary  routine  of  naval  work, 
tlic  thing  was  expected  to  be  easier  still,  for  the  reason  that 
the  whole  officer  personnel  was  well  broken  to  the  task. 
As  a  <Jimple  matter  of  fact,  the  conversion  of  170,000  landsmen 
into  seamen  of  pretty  high  quality,  has  been  achie\ed  with 
even  greater  success  than  could  have  been  expected.  This 
has  been  made  possible,  partly  by  the  work  on  the  main 
training  stations,  partly  by  turning  the  battle  fleet  into  a 
gigantic  training  squadron.  A  year  ago  the  training  stations 
at  Newport,  Norfolk,  Great  Lakes  and  Verba  Buena,  had  a 
nominal  capacity  of  6,000  men.  Within  very  few  months 
they  were  expanded  to  take  in  48,000.  New  stations  have 
been  set  up  at  half  a  dozen  other  places  with  a  capacity  of 
25,000,  and  reserve  stations  at  half  a  dozen  more  to  take  in 
13,000.  If  the  aviation  centres  are  included,  20,000  more 
have  been  provided  for  at  new  marine  centres,  submarine 
bases,  universities,  etc. 

The  normal  course  on  shore  before  going  to  sea  is  four  to 
five  months,  but  few  men  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to  get  ' 
the  benefit  of  so  long  a  preparation.  For  the  700  ships  that 
used  to  be  yachts,  traders,  liners,  coasters  and  the  Uke,  and 
arc  now  patrol  boats,  transports  and  so  forth,  have  had  to  be 
manned  somehow,  so  that  in  the  majority  of  cases,  not  much 
more  than  the  rudiments  of  drill  and  discipUne,  of  gunnery 
and  the  simpler  forms  of  ship's  technique  have  been  learned 
on  shore.  But  notwithstanding  the  hurried  character  of  the 
training,  I  learned  from  many  quarters  that  there  is  no 
grouijid  whatever  for  complaint  against  the  newly  enlisted 
persdnnel.  At  the  only  camp  I  was  able  to  study  in  any 
detail,  namely,  that  of  Great  Lakes,  the  explanation  of  this 
was  not  difficult  to  see.  For  military  service,  men  are  not 
taken  in  America  under  the  age  of  twenty-one.  The  navy 
will  take  them  three  years  younger.  The  navy  has,  I  believe, 
under  the  draft  act,  a  right  to  its  quota  of  the  compulsorily 
selected  men.  But  it  will  never  have  to'  draw  on  this  quota  for 
the  sufficient  reason,  that  every  recruiting  station  was,  quite 
early  swamped  by  volunteers.  For  some  months  after  the 
war  began,  it  was  still  an  assumption  in  the  East  of  America 
that  the  Middle  West  was  largely  indifferent  to  the  war. 
The  indifference  could  never  have  extended  to  the  boys  of 
eighteen  and  under.  For  at  the  great  camp  near  Chicago, 
they  had  passed  many  thousands  through  by  the  middle 
of  November.  When  I  was  there,  18,000  were  in  camp  at 
the  time,  and  from  the  first  they  had  refused  as  many  recruits 
as  they  had  taken.  In  judging  of  the  rapidity  with  which  they 
had  been  thrned  into  seamen,  it  is  the  essence  of  the  matter 
to  recognise  the  quality  of  the  material  to  which  a  highly  in- 
tensive system  of  training  has  been  apphed.  At  Great  Lakes 
this  quality  leapt  to  the  eye,  nor  could  I  help  reflecting  on  the 
irony  of  things,  when  I  remembered  that  here  was  a  body  of 
young  men  training  for  fighting,  from  which  probably  as  many 
as  fit  as  they  had  been  excluded.  We  can  apparently  pool 
e\ery thing  in  war  except  the  most  important  thing  of  a\\,  our 
man-power  !  But  to  return  to  our  subject. 

Making   10,000  OflGcers 

The  main  factor  in  this  almost  tropical  production  of  sea- 
men has  been  the  work  of  the  officers  and  warrant  officers 
of  the  Atlantic  fleet.  My  visit  to  the  squadrons  composing 
i  t  was  brief.  But  it  sufficed  to  show  the  scale  on  which  the 
process  of  training  men  was  being  undertaken.  The  ships 
were  an  extraordinary  sight.  I  came  on  board  the  Flag-ship 
at  5  a.m.  on  a  glorious  June  morning.  It  looked  as  if  500  men 
had  been  sleeping  on  the  deck  of  every  Dreadnought.  Literally 
I  believe  the  bulk  of  the  ships  carried  double  complement, 
and  the  whole  of  each  working  day  seemed  to  be  some  con- 
tinuous effort,  wonderfully  strenuous,  still  more  wonderfully 
rliecrful,  to  teach  the  newcomers  the  accomplishments  of  their 
older  messmates.  It  was  to  tlie  battleships  that  the  men  from 
the  camps  were  sent,  and  from  the  battleships  that  the 
yacht,  transport  and  patrol  crews  were  chosen. 

The  imagination  reels  a  Uttle  at  contemplating  what  all 
this  work  must  have  meant  to  the  comparatively  small  num- 
of  regular  officers  on  whom  tlie  sole  responsibihty  for  it  fell. 
l'"or  these,  in  addition  to  turning  out  170,000  seamen,  had  also 
to  do  their  share  in  creating  more  than  10,000  midshipmen, 
ensigns  and  lieutenants.  A  couple  or  more  thousand  of  these 
were  sent  in  batchers  of  600  or  700  at  a  time  through 
the   Naval   College   at    Annapolis.     These   were   all. college 


graduates,  many  of  them  accomplished  yachtsmen,  a  large 
proportion  of  them  men  well  started  in  their  professions  in 
civU  life.  The  medical  and  pliysical  tests  were,  however,  severe, 
and  the  examination  tests  severer  still.  But  here,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  enlisted  man,  the  number  of  volunteers  greatly 
exceeded  the  capacity  of  the  Department  to  take  and  train. 
A  thousand  or  more  officers  were  got  by  promoting  those 
of  warrant  rank,  a  process  on  which  the  United  States  navy 
will  seemingly  rely-  still  more  largely  in  the  future. 

Mr.    Daniels'   Achievement 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  is  silent  on  the  two  points  as  tc 
which  public  curiosity  is  undoubtedly  greatest.  Accorduig 
to  the  1916  three-year  programme,  at  least  eight  capital  ships 
were  to  have  been  laid  down  at  once.  The  report  tells  us  that 
one  battleship  and  three  battle  cruisers  had  not  been  laid 
down  at  the  outbreak  of  war.  We  are  not  told,  however 
whether  the  construction  of  those  that  were  laid  down  is  still 
proceeding  or  whether  the  labour  allocated  to  these  ships  has 
been  freed  for  destroyers  and  so  forth  which  are  much  more 
greatly  required.  Nor  does  the  report  tell  us  what,  if  any, 
changes  have  taken  place  in  the  Chief  Command — by  the  addi- 
tion of  a  General  Staff  or  otherwise — to  facilitate  its  functions 
of  strategical  guidance  of  the  naval  forces  in  war.  But 
it  does  contain  passages  relating  to  both  these  matters  that 
suggest  sound  policy  has  been  or  will  be  followed. 

As  to  new  capital  ships  Mr.  Daniels  will  ask  Congress  to 
continue  their  authorisation  with  a  proviso  that  they  shall  be 
proceeded  with  "  as  rapidly  as  the  (shipbuilding)  facihties 
of  the  country  will  permit."  When  the  extra  votes  were  passed 
in  1917,  special  powers  were  taken  to  vary  the  usual  form  of 
contract  because  "  it  was  necessary  to  accelerate  the  progress 
of.  construction  or  to  delay  certain  vessels  to  allow  other 
vessels  to  be  speeded  up."  It  seems  to  be  a  fair  inference 
to  connect  "  the  urgent  demand  for  destroyers  and  merchant 
vessels  "  with  the  delaying  pf  ships  already  under  construc- 
tion and  to  uppose  that  it  is  the  less  necessary'  vessels — 
namely,  battleships  and  battle  cruisers,  whose  construction 
has  been  suspended.  If  this  is  so,  we  have  a  very  practical 
instance  of  national  pride  being  put  behind  national  duty. 
P"or,  undoubtedly,  the  1916  programme  was  pushed  through 
Congress  more  on  its  capital  ship  than  on  its  Hght  craft 
features,  and  it  was  intended  to  be  a  first  effort  towards  getting 
the  largest  and  most  powerful  fleet  in  the  world. 

That  this  ambition  is  now  relegated  to  a  second  place,  and 
the  work  of  defeating  the  submarines  put  first,  is  highly 
satisfactory  and  illustrates  the  extremely  practical  turn  Mr. 
Daniels  has  given  to  the  administration  of  his  Department. 
The  Report  is,  as  I  have  said,  silent  as  to  the  creation  of  a 
General  Staff.  But  it  is  not  silent  on  a  development  which 
must  necessarily  precede  its  creation.  I  mean  the  Secretary's 
full  realisation  that  the  war  efficiency  of  his  Department 
depends  upon  its  being  guided  by  the  best  naval  thought. 
On  page  72  occurs  a  passage,  unfortunately  too  long  to  quote, 
in  which  he  bears  tribute  to  "  the  spirit  of  tmwearied  dihgence 
and  expert  efficiency  "  of  every  one  of  his  bureaus.  He 
names  the  chiefs  seriatim,  and  declares  that  the  Repubhc 
has  been  fortunate  in  their  capacity  for  "  hearty  co-operation 
and  perfect  team  work."  "  These  men,"  he  adds,  "  and  their 
associates  and  the  other  officers  and  civihans,  whose  rare 
devotion  and  ability  have  been  equalled  only  by  their 
patriotism,  have  made  possible  the  recognised  power  of  the 
Navy  to-day.  In  the  stress  of  war  work  it  has  been  a  deUght 
to  serve  one's  country  in  such  comradeship  as  exists  in  the 
Navy  Department.  To  it  and  to  the  well-known  ability  of 
these  experts  the  chief  measure  of  naval  preparedness  is  due." 

It  is  not  every  civilian  chief  of  a  professional  service  who 
is  at  once  clear-headed  enough  to  perceive  and  generous 
enough  to  acknowledge  the  absolute  dependence  of  that 
service  on  the  skilled  efforts  of  professional  colleagues.  In 
Mr.  Daniels'  case  the  recognition  is  ample  and  acknowledg- 
ment noble— and  neither  has  been  limited  to  words.  Never 
before  has  a  better  choice  of  American  naval  officers  been  placed 
in  the  bureaux  :  never  have  they  been  given  a  freer  hand  ; 
never  has  such  rapid  effective  action  been  taken  on  so  wide  a 
scale.  In  this,  at  least,  Mr.  Daniels  has  earned  uncommonly 
well  of  his  country.  Before  the  war  no  Cabinet  Minister  at 
Washington  was  more  criticised.  Since  the  war  no  Cabinet 
Minister  can  point  to  a  greater  achievement.  Whether  he 
will  go  further— orll  would  prefer  to  say,  the  date  when  he;  goes 
further— and  gives  American  sea  power  that  organised  intel- 
lectual command  which  a  General  Staff  only  can  confer, 
must  wait  on  circumstance.  For  the  moment,  the  general 
strategy  of  the  American  Navy  is  necessarily  that  of  America's 
Allii^,  so  that  the  main  staff  problem  is  not  American,  but 
international.  The  point  of  Mr.  Daniels'  Report  is  that  he 
very  obviously  'appreciates  the  funjdamcntal  necessity  of 
which  a  Staff  "is  the  ultimate  expression. 

Arthur  Pollen. 


8 


LAND    &    WATER 


Januan-   lu,  191S 


The  Bankruptcy  of  Russia 


By  H.  M.  Hyndman 


Mori:  ihan  sixty  viai>  ago  Alexander  Herzcii 
wrote  ;  "Cicsar  knew  the  Gauls  better  than  Lurop;- 
doei  the  Russians."  Onlv  a  few  days  ago  a 
most  important  and  influential  Russian  C  omnnttee 
formally  made  a  similar  complaint  to  the  British  (,oyernment 
about  "luiglish  knowledge  of  Russia.  But  ofticial  ami 
general  ignorance  is  not  surprising  on  the  part  of  foreignci> 
'who  attempt  to  grasp  the  complications  of  a  yast  population 
and  an  enormous  territory  which  include  many  ditlerent 
eUmates  and  races.  Kveii  highly-educated  Americans,  who  come 
oyer  to  this  countr\-  knowing,  of  course,  our  language  well. 
and  understanding  tlioroiighly  a  great  part  of  our  institutions 
and  law*>  ha\-e  been  heard  to  declare  that,  after  scyeral  years 
of  observation  and  study,  tliey  went  away  not  much  wiser 
than  they  came. 

While,"  howe\-er.  diflieulties  of  language,  temperament, 
habits,  customs  and  religion,  varying  greatly  in  different 
localities,  are  \ei\-  hard  indeed  to  overcome  in  the  matter  of 
Russian  politics,  economics  are  not  so  troublesome  to  handle, 
jirovidcd  the  facts  are  known  und  the  statistics  are  reasonably 
iiccmate.  For  economies,  like  mathematical  formula;  and 
musical  notation,  have  a  world-wide  significance  understood 
by  every  civilisod  nation.  In  this  department,  therefore, 
if  we  throw  aside  the  old  obscurantist  fetish  of  money  and 
mercantilism,  the  truth  about  Russia  becomes  speedily 
apparent.  Thus  it  is  now  clear  that  Western  luirope  greath' 
overrated  Russian  power  in  the  war.  because  most,  if  not  all. 
of  the  Allied  statesmen,  forgot  that  modern  war  is  itself  a 
function  of  industrial  development.  But  Russia  is  only  just 
emerging  from  the  feudal  period  which  continued  in  force  there 
until  iSOr.  Whereas  japan  in  the  past  forty  years  has,  indus- 
trially and  socially,  "almost  accomplished  a  transformation 
which  it  took  Western  Europe  400  years  to  achic\-c,  Russia 
has  moved  veiT  much  more  slowly.  So  we  immcdiateh' 
discovered  that  "the  Allies  liad  to  furnisli  the  Russian  armies 
with  equipments,  armaments  and  munitions  of  every  descrip- 
tion, largely  purchased  from  America  and  even  from  japan. 

Machinery   of  War  ■» 

The  reason  for  this  was  that  Russia,  unlike  England,  the 
I'nitcd  States,  or  even  France,  had  not  at  her  command  suffi- 
cient machinery  ^\■hich  could  be  transformed  from  production 
lor  peace  into  production  for  war,  even  if  enough  supplies 
of  raw  material  had  been  at  hand.  It  was  an  awkward  dilemma 
and,  but  for  the  loan  of  hundrc-ds  of  jnillions  sterling  to  our 
Ally,  to  purchase  indisix-nsable  necessaries  of  warfare,  it  is 
possible  that  German  troops  w'ould  have  been  cantoned 
in  Petrogiad,  Moscow,  Kiev  and  Odessa  quit*  early  in  the 
contlict ;  not  because  the  Russian  troops  were  otherwise  than 
bra\-e  and  patriotic,  but  because,  as  was  shown  along  a  great 
j)art  of  the  Eastern  front,  the  most  courageous  soldiers  with 
old-fashioned  weapojis  cannot  effectively  face  the  Germans, 
who  possess  the  latzst  modern  instruments  of  slaughter.  The 
blowing  up  by  the  agency  of  traitors  of  the  Go\-ernment  works 
at  Ochta  only  made  this  Russian  industrial  inferiority 
the  more  apjxireiit.  M.  Witte's  State-fostered  factory 
system  broke  down  at  once  under  the  strain  of  war.  This 
;night  have  lx^;n  expected,  but  it  was  none  the  less  a  very 
ierious  matter  when  it  occurred. 

.The  steady  impovmshment  and  tlecay  of  l^ussian  agri- 
■ulture  and  the  Russian  jx-asantrv-  is  a  ground  of  more 
l>ermanent  uneasiness.  Russia  is  above  all  an  agricultural 
•oiintry.  More  than  tiinc-tenths  of  her  population  are  cul- 
tivators of  the  soil.  The  i)rol(;tariat  of  her  cities,  therefore, 
are  in  a  small  mriiiority,  and  the  revolutnonary  theories  of  their 
more  adv;u]cedTeade^■s  are  quite  inapiTi'icable  to  the  economic 
conditions  whicSi  jirc'.-ail  among  the  miess  (.)f  the  people.  Tlie.sc 
look  to  the  1;uk1  as  /.he  main  question  for  them ;  though  their 
terribly  sweated,  ove  rworked  and  underpaid  cottage  industries 
go  on  in  most  regio  ns  throughout  the  winter  months.  Even 
in  the  much  talkwl  of  Black  -artli  districts  the  condition  of 
the  peasantry  is  de]ilorable.  The  plain  (Ascription  of  a  peasant 
village  and  a  peasanr  t  home  in  official  reports  is  frightful  to  read. 
rho.se  educated  imm  who  have  lived  among  the  pea- 
santry in  order  to  be  ;  >.ble  ,to  form  a  sound  judgment  of  their 
home  life,  especially  du  ring  the  winter  months,  give  a  terrible 
account  of  the  ordinary  state  t)f  things.  Overcrowded 
msanitary  dwellings,  fr  e<iuently  inhabited  bv  animals  as  well 
IS  human  beings,  witli  a  Jl  the  liorrors  of  existence  thus  engen- 
lered,  the  acmlt  nienibci  .s  of  the  family  working  under  noisome 
onditions  for  12  and  i  ^  hours  a  day  where  home  industries 
indcr  small  capitalism  prevail— tlu-  lot  of  the  peasant  is 
jnenviablc  inrked.     Ha'  J  air,  bad  light,  bad  food,  poor  rai- 


ment, miserable  remuneration,  and  then,  with  the  return  of 
op)en  weather,  unceasing  toil  on  the  land  which  barely  suftires 
to  pay  taxes  and  give  enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together. 
Suciris  the  life  of  the  majority,  of  the  "Russian  peasantry. 
\'et  those  are  the  people  who  "are  supposed  to  ha\e  ample 
agricultural  ])roduce  to  spare  to  meet  the  growing  wants  of 
\\'estern  luirope  !  This,  of  course,  is  not  the  trutli.  The 
Russian  agricultural  population  is  desperately  poor.  What 
is  worse,  it  is  getting  steadily  poorer,  and,  unless  a  complete 
change  is  brought  about,  and  brought  about  soon,  Russia,  as 
a  whole,  apart  from  the  more  fortunate  districts  of  Siberia, 
will  be  utterh-  ruined.. 

Steady    Deterioration 

As  I  ha\-e  mori'  than  once  recalled.  Professor  Issaieff, 
formerh'  the  Chief  Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  the; 
University  of  Petrograd,  told  me  more  than  ten  years  ago  that, 
even  thcii,  it  would  have  required  hundreds  of  millions, 
perhaps  thousands  of  millions,  of  roubles  to  put  hack  Russian 
agriculture  where  it  had  been  twenty  years  before.  From 
that  time  to  this  the  same  deterioration  has  been  going  on  at 
an  increased  rate.  The  war  has  most  certainly  not  made 
matters  better,  but  rather  worse  owing  to  the  removal  of 
cattle  and  horses —which  were  already  diminishing  in  numbers 
--for  military  purposes.  ]\loreover,  the  very  heavy  fall  in  the 
rouble,  the  iiiipossibility  for  the  peasants  to  obtain  the  articles 
required  for  tillage,  house  repairs,  etc.,  in  return  for  their 
surplus  produce,  haw  intensified  the  prevailing  misery  ;  and, — 
what  is  very  important  at  the  present  moment — ha\-e  increased 
the  antagonism  lietween  country  and  town.  But  the  main 
j)oint  is  the  unchecked  extension  of  the  poverty  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  hard-working  cultivators.  What  are  the  chief 
causes  of  this  now  generally  admitted  and  deplorable  im- 
poverishment and  the  consequent  steady  reduction  of  the 
fertility  of  the  soil  ?     They  are  : 

1.  The  heavy  taxation  of  the  ix-asantrj',  payable  in  money , 
and  the  necessit}'  for  paying  the  redemption  fee  for  their 

'  overvalued  plots  of  land  in  money  also. 

2.  The  ruthless  manner  in  which  this  taxation  is  enforced. 

3.  The  inevitable  application  of  the  peasants  to  usurers, 
Russianor  Jewish,  in  order  to  meet  these  taxes  or  to  purchase 
again  (at  much  higher  prices  than  they  have  been  forced  to 
sell  their  own  crops  of  grain)  food  or  seed  to  enable  them 
to  carry  on  at  all. 

4.  The  lack  of  good  country  roads  which  necessarily  lowers 
the  price  of  agricultural  prc)duce  in  the  \illages. 

>  The  tremendous  drain  of  agricultural  produce  to  Western 
Juirope  in  order  to  pay  interest  on  Go\erninent  loans  and 
interest  and  profits  on  private  investments  for  which  there 
is  no  coinmerical  return. 

Here  is  the  main  groundwork  of  the  great  Russian  agrarian 
revolution  now  going  on,  beside  which  the  political|revolution 
and  the  o\'erthrow  of  the  Romanoffs  is  child's  plaj'.  The 
])easants  are  demanding  and  taking  more  land.  They  are 
cpiite  right.  The  impoverishment  of  their  own  soil  calls  per- 
emptorily for  an  extension  of  their  holdings.  But  no  matter 
how  much  land  they  may  seize  and  cultivate,  it  will  merely 
])ostix)ne  their  economic  and  social  bankruptcy,  so  long  as 
over-taxation  and  other  mischiefs  grind  them  to  the  earth, 
("o-operation,  of  which  we  hear  so  much,  and  which  is  good 
enough  in  itself,  cannot  alone  save  them  from  ruin. 

It  is  impossibli',  within  the  limits  of  an  article,  to  deal  ade- 
(piately  with  the  economic  and  social  problems  here  involved . 
.\11  Russian  economists  and  honest  Russian  statesmen  ac- 
knowledge the  truth  :  that  nothing  short  of  an  economic 
revolution  can  save  their  country.  Thus  it  is  universalK' 
admitted  that  the  taxation  of  the  peasantry  was  excessi\e 
in  comparison  with  the  means  at  their  disposal  for  paying  it, 
and  that  the  rigid  demands  for  money  payments  to  the  Go%'ern- 
ment  at  fixed  dates  constituted  a  serious  grievance,  even  if 
great  consideration  had  been  shown  by  the  official  ta.x-gatherers 
and  local  agents.  But  notoriously,  no  such  consideration  was 
shown.  Tlie  taxes  were  collected  \vith  the  utmost  rigour. 
Peasants  who  were  behindhand  were  harassed  by  the  author- 
ities in  every  possible  way,  being  thrown  into  prison  and  even 
flogged  for  their  remissness.  They  were,  in  fact,  forced 
into  the  hands  of  the  usurers  by  the  action  of  the  (jovernment 
itself.  And  the  usury  to  which  they  were  subjected  was  of 
the  kind  familiar  to  students  of  the  rural  economy  of  the 
^liddle  Ages  and  the  Roman  Empire.  It  was  a  direct  trading 
upon  the  urgent  necessities  of  the  borrower,  not  in  any  sense 
whatever  a  participation  in  profit. 

Hence  the  rates  of    interest    were    enormous.      Cases    are 


January  lo,  191b 


LAND    &    WATER 


cited  wlierc  the  unlucky  peasant  w  lio  fell  into  the  power 
of  the  hardest  of  hard  taskmasters,^ -.the  usurer,  .Wjis, 
compcHSjd  to  return  in  labour— money  he  had  none, ' 
and  the  shortness  of  his  crop  had  caused  his  trouble 
— a  hundred  or  even  two  hundred  per  cent,  on  the  \'alue  of 
the  money  or  seed  corn  ad\-anced  by  the  lender.  Frequently 
the  Jew  is  spoken  of  as  the  chief  agent  in  these  nefarious 
transactions.  As  Karl  Marx  said  to  mc  in  iSSiwhen  talking 
on  this  very  question  :  "  The  Jew  creeps  into  the  pores  of 
an  agricultural  society."  But  the  Jew  is  not  so  bad  as  the 
native  Ku.ssian  at  this  busin(.'ss.  The  Russian  usurer  is 
generallv  a  peasant  who,  having  by  some  means  enriched  him- 
self, lends  at  luige  interest  to  his  less  fortunate  fellows,  and, 
by  working  \\ith  them,  as  he  commonly  dt)es,  screws 
the  very  last  ounce  of  labour  out  of  his  debtors  in  return 
for  his  advances.  Usury  is  undoubtedly  qne  great  curse  of 
agricultural  Russia.  It  is,  as  said,  mainly'  due  to  the  action 
of  the  Government  :  and,  if  the  system  in  vogue  prior  to  tlie 
rexolution  continues,  not  even  the  creation  of  good  country 
roads  would  ixrmanently  relieve  the  agriculturists  from  the 
fe^arful  disabilities  under  which  they  suffer.  The  situation 
was  getting  worse  and  worse.  It  can  only  be  relieved  by  a 
complete  change. 

For,  not  only  are  the  peasants  cultivating  their  land  imder 
almost  every  conceivable  economic  disadvantage,  but  there 
is  a  huge  syi>hon  at  work  all  the  time,  which  drains  away 
such  wealth  as  exists  in  the  country  and  renders  the  continuous 
impoverishment  of  infinitely  the  greatest  national  asset,  the 
^land,  inevitable. 

Russia  is  terribly  indebted  for  loans  and  advances  to  Western 
liurope.  She  has  to  pay  away  interest  and  profit  each  year 
upon  these  loans  and  investments.  Discussing  the  cpiestion 
before  the  war  with  a  well-known  authority  on  Russian 
affairs,  who  is  not  a  Socialist,  we  agreed  the  total  amount  thus 
annually  due  and  payable  at  /i5,ooo,ooo.  F'or  this  amount 
of  wealth  so  exported  from  Russia,  to  meet  her  c.X'ternal 
liabilities,  tli:rc  is  no  commercial  rclurn  vhatcrcr.  And  this 
annual  charge  is  almost  entirely  paid  in  agricultural  produce. 

Thus,  putting  the  total  of  Russian  exports  roughly  at 
/,'l6o,ooo,ooo,  calculated  at  the  Russian  ports  and  the  Russian 
frontier,  more  than  one-third  of  this  export,  consisting,  chieily 
of  agricultural  produce,  is,  from  the  economic  standpoint, 
sent  out  of  the  country  for  nothing — this  from  a  country 
that  is  getting  poorer  all  the  time.  It  is  as  if  the  richest  top 
layers  of  the  soil  were  stripped  off  year  by  year  and  transported 
to  Western  Europe.  It  is  an  unendurable  tribute  which  Russia 
can  no  longer  pay.  This  was  in  ])rocess  of  verification  before 
the  war.  The  payments  of  Russia  lo  her  creditors  and  in- 
^•estors  necessarily  appear  in  the  comparison  between  exports 
iUid  imports.     They  can  be  arrived  at,  as  a  whole,  in  no  other 


way.  Well,  these  figures  show  that,  in  the  four  years  prior 
to  191.;,  Russia  had  fallen  behind  in  her  payments  to  Western 
Europe  to  the  extent  of  tens  of  millions  sterling.which  had  been 
met  by  financial  legerdemain. 

Such  a  .state  of  things  cannot  possibly  go  on.  Russia's 
indebtedness  to  the  West  has  been  greatly  increased  by  the  war. 
]>ut  if  she  could  not  j)ay  interest  on  the  amounts  previously 
due  without  utter  and  hopeless  ruin,  clearh'.  anv  addition 'to 
her  burden  cannot  ])ossibly  btt  borne.  It  is  of  the  \-crv  great- 
est importance  that  we  should  look  all  these  facts  in-tlie-rfacc. 
The  small  farmer  and  ])etty  bourgeoisie  of  France  pspeeially: 
should  at  once  taki'  account  of  the  unsatisfactory  iiature  of 
•he  Russian  securities,  with  which  they  have  been  encumbered 
by  the  financiers,  greatly  to  the  profit  of  these  latter.  Xo 
doubt,  according  to  the  ordinary  money  cant  of  the  day,  it 
would  be  monstrous  that  Russia  should  not  pav  her  foreign 
creditors  interest  on  moneys  honestly  lent  at  moderate  in- 
terest to  construct  her  railways  and  otherwise  to  "  develop  " 
her  \ast  territory.  But  when  it  is  clearh"  shown  that  such  a 
drain  of  her  Wealth  to  the  West,  not  only  spells  ruin  to  her 
agriculture  but  cannot  be  allowed  to  continue  bv  any  patriotic' 
Russian — how  then  ? 

We  arc  in  the  habit  of  speaking  of  the  enormous  resources 
of  Russia,  of  the  vast  mineral  and  forest  wealth  of  Russia,  of 
Russia  as  the  granary  of  Europe  and  so  on.  It  is  high  time 
that  we  should  clear  our  minds  of  illusions.  Russia  is  a 
country  of  immense  possibilities.  Sibe>ria  has  actually  in- 
creased in  population  far  more  rapid!}-  than  Canada.  But 
Russia  requires  that  her  latent  wealth  should  be  sj'stematic- 
all\-  developed  by  national  industry. 

This  will  take  time  and  effort.  At  present  she  is  economically 
and  financially  in  desperate  case.  Her  peasantry  refuse  to 
l>art  with  their  grain  becaiise  they  are  unable  to  obtain  in 
exchange  for  it.  with  the  greatly  depreciated  rouble,  the 
goods  tliey  require  for  tlieir  day  to  day  life,  which  were 
formerly  hawked  around  by  German  pedlars.  Her  town  popu- 
lations arc  at  their  wits'  end  because  many  of  them  arc  un- 
able to  get  sufticient  food  and  fuel,  owing  to  the  disorganisa- 
tion of  the  railways.  The  return  of  the  soldiers  from-the 
front  threatens  little  .short  of  destruction.  I'nless  the  Constit- 
uent Assembly,  when  it  meets,  at  once  takes  the  land  question 
in  hand,  the  peasants  will  settle  itin  their  own  way.  Under 
such  circumstances  it  behoves  the  statesmen,  financiers  and 
merchants  of  France  and  England  to  meet  for  serious  and 
unprejudiced  conference,  in  order  that  they  mav  be  able  to 
co-operate  with  their  respective  Governments  in  a  sound 
economic  policy.  But  it  is  the  duty  of  the  French  and 
English  peoples,  likewise,  to  take  care  that  the  real  interests  of 
the  Russian  peasants  and  townsfolk  shall  not  be  imperilled  by 
capitalist  exactions  or  Bolshevik  anarch}-. 


A    Franco-British    Economic    Alliance 


By  J.  Coudurier  de  Chassaigne 


WH.\T  could  be  of  greater  interest  at  flu-  moment 
than  to  study,  if  only  superficially,  the  mechanism 
which  has  preserved  the  French  and  British 
j)eopIes  from  hunger,  and  from  the  miser\- 
which  wouUl  have  been  inevitable  without  the  ceaseless 
energx'  of  the  Ministers  of  the  two  countries  ?  It  is  to 
this  policy  of  brotherly  union  between  France  and  Britain 
tor .  collecting-  all  o\er  the  world,  and  distributing 
l)etween  ourselves  and  our  friends  the  things  which 
are  essential  to  our  very  life,  that  we  owe  the  certitude 
of  being  able  to  tight  till  victory  is  ours.  To  this  work, 
achieved  in  the  sole  interest  of  the  community,  we  are,  each 
and  all,  in  duty  bound  to  <ollaborate,  by  submitting  loyally 
to  the  regulations  and  restrictions  which  the  various  con- 
trollers ,of  foodstuffs  and  law  materials  decree  for  our  own 
good.  And  I  am  convinced  that  I  am  not  unduly  optimistic 
in  stating  that  the  results  of  the  economic  policy  of  the 
.\llies  constitute  a  victory  which  compensates  for  inevitable 
weakness  in  other  domains,  for  the  simple,  reason  that  free 
nations,  un]irepared  fijr  war,  cannot  realise  in  such  a  siiort 
space  of  time  that  military  unity  which  has  proved  the 
best  asset  of  the  Central  Empires. 

.  .  M.  Clementel.  the  l-'rench  Minister  of  Commerce,  more  than 
any,  is  responsible  for  this  fortunate  state  of  things.  His 
success  proves  first  the  importance  of  a  political  axiom 
too  long  ignored  by  France.  It  is  that  continuity  in  office  is 
I'.ssential  if  practical  and  lasting  benefits  are  to  be  obtained 
therefrom. 

In  F'fance  the  Third  Re)niblic  inauguiated  a  system  of 
ti-niporary  Ministries  which  is  the  condenmation  of  the  French 
))olitical  system.  Happily  for  us,  however,  we  rc;ilised  that 
we  could  not  i;o  nn  ejianginc,'  our  Mini^trr  for  I'oreiKii  Affair- 


everv  six  months,  as  we  did  our  Prime  Minisft'r.  Tluis, 
when  M.  Delcasse  came  to  the  Ouai  d'Orsay  on  June  iSth, 
i.S().S,  he  remained  at  the  head  of  our  diplomacy  till  German 
intrigues  drove  him  from  oflice  on  June  dth,  1905.  , 

This  question  of  continuity  is  especially  important  when 
one  has  to  deal  with  the-  Anglo-Saxon  races.  They  like  or 
('.islike  a  man  personally  ;  they  trust  or  distrust  him  quite 
apart  from  his  intelligence  or  from  his  political  views,  J-  or- 
tunately  for  I'rance,  for  England  and,  for  Immanity,  two 
French  Ministers  of  Foreign  .\ffairs,  M.  Delcasse  and  M. 
Piclion,  each  a  convinced  partisan  of  the  Entente  Cordiale, 
remained  in  office  for  a  long  period  of  years.  The  same 
jHinciple  of  continuity  whe.;i  applied  to  diplomatic,  agents 
abroad  has  done  marvels.  M.  Paul  Camb'bn,  who  for 
nearly  twcnt\-  years  has  enjoyed  the  full  confidence  of  two 
Kings  of  Englaj,id  and  of  successive  ,Britis-h  Go\-ernments, 
is  a  living  proof  of  what  the  personal  touch  can  do  in  bringing 
about  and  maintaining  good  relations  between  two  free  nations. 
The  same  might  be  said  of  tlu'  Frencli  Ambassador  in  Washing- 
ton, M.  Jusserand,  who  for, so  many  years  has  been  tlie  link 
l)ct\vcen  the  two  great  Republics. 

To-day  M.  Clementel  jprovides  another  confirmation  of 
the  vital  importance  of  this  principle  of  continuity.  He  knows 
personally  all  his  British  colleagues.  Liberals  as  well  as  Con- 
servatives. They  know  him  too  ;  .they  appreciate  his  per- 
sonal gifts,  his  charming  manners,  his  common  sense,,  his 
tenacity  and  his  absolute  loyalty.  I'hey  consider  him  a  good 
fellow,  a  real  friend,  in  fact  one  of  themselves.  It  matters 
little  to  them  what  ^I.  Clemeiitel's  views  may  be  on  the  home 
])olitics  of  his  own  c<jinitry.  It  is  the  man  himself  they  have 
learnt  to  admire.  In  one  word,  English  statesmen  of  all 
unitir^  who  have  lieen  m  contact  with  M.  Clementel  -tru&t 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  lo ,  1918 


him.  Therein  lies  the  whole  secret  of  his  success  in  England. 
But  it  would  be  unjust  to  irefcr  that  M.  Clementel  is  only 
a  deliglitful  fellow  who  wins  political  victories  through  his 
agreeable  looks  and  his  straightfor\vard  disposition.  His 
intellectual  gifts  are  remarkable  and  typical  of  his  race.  He 
has  all  the  qiuUities  ot  the  real  Auvergnat  ;  patience,  tenacity, 
commen  sense,  and  ability  for  all  things  commercial. 

Though  he  started  Hfe  as  a  lawyer,  and  built  up  in  the  little 
town  of  Riom,  where  he  was  born,  a  very  good  practice  as 
an  avoiie  (a  profession  very  similar  to  that  of  a  solicitor), 
he  only  came  into  his  own  when  he  entered  the  circle  of  great 
commtTcial  and  colonial  enterprises.  On  being  elected  De- 
puty for  his  native  town,  he  arrived  in  Paris  to  conquer  an 
eminent  situation  in  parhamentary  as  well  as  in  business 
life.  His  fortune  once  made,  he  gave  his  full  time  and  energy 
to  affairs  of  State,  and  became  Minister  of  the  Colonies  in 
1905  when  still  in  the  early  forties.  Since  then  his  political 
career  has  been  smooth  and  prosperous.  Though  he  has  held 
portfolios  in  various  Cabinets,  his  real  success  dates  from  his 
entrance  into  the  Briand  Ministry  (October,  1915).  He  was 
appointed  Minister  of  Commerce  and  has  retained  that  port- 
folio in  the  Cabinets  of  MM.  Ribot,  Painleve  and  Clemenceau, 
having  become  as  it  were,  th,e  indispensable  Minister  of  Com- 
merce of  France  at  war. 

I  shall  not  analyse  here  the  work  done  by  M.  Clementel 
on  the  French  side  of  his  administration.  It  is  quite  enough 
to  say  that  he  found  the  Ministry  of  Commerce  an  old- 
fashioned  and  sleepy  place,  which  was  usually  given  to  begin- 
ners in  a  Ministerial  career.  H  under  former  conditions  this 
Ministry  did  nothing  to  hinder  commerce,  it  certainly  did 
little  to  1  elp  it.  M.  Cl^mentel's  advent  changed  all  that. 
He  began  by  reorganising  his  Home  Departments,  and  con- 
centrating all  his  energy  on  the  problems  which  arose  out 
of  the  war.  Very  soon  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  France 
alone,  just  as  England  alone,  could  not  face  the  economic 
responsibilities  of  the  present  and  of  the  future.  He  saw 
that  both  nations  would  have  to  unite  and  to  pool  all  their 
resources  if  they  were  to  feed  and  clothe  their  populations 
now  and  after  the  war.  Thereupon,  M.  Clementel  came  to 
England  and  placed  before  the  British  Government  his  pro- 
posal for  reorganising  the  economic  life  of  the  Allies,  in  accor- 
ance  with  this  vital  principle  of  unity.  He  put  forward 
a  practical  scheme  for  tackling  at  once  the  grave  problem  of 
the  wheat  supply,  and  he  was  able  to  convince  Mr.  Runciman 
of  the  practicability  of  liis  suggestion. 

•It  included  the  appointment  of  an  Executive  Committee 
by  the  Allies — France,  England  and  Italy — to  which  each 
country  should  nominate  one  representative,  and  this  trium- 
virate was  to  be  responsible  for  buying  all  the  wheat  available 
all  over  the  world,  in  order  to  allot  it  to  the  Allies  in  proportion 
to  their  requirements.  This  Wheat  Executive  was  appointed 
in  November,  1916,  and  its  work  has  been  an  unqualified 
success.  The  Alhes  instead  of  competing  against  each  other 
in  all  the  markets  of  the  world,  have  regulated  the  price  of 
wheat  and  monopolised  its  production.  Things  have  been 
made  even  easier  since  the  United  States  have  joined  our 
ranks.  Its  representative  has  been  added  to  the  three  original 
members  of  the  Wheat'  Executive,  and  now  the  Allies  and 
their  friends  know  that  they  need  fear  no  shortage  of  wheat, 
if  only  they  can  provide  sufficient  transport  to  carry  it  from 
all  the  great  centres  which  are  accessible  to  us. 
Since  then,  other  committees,  inspired  by  the  ,same  princi  - 


j)le  have  been  created.  They  are  the  Meat  and  Fats  Execu- 
tive and  the  Sugar  E.xecutive,  and  others  dealing  with  the 
remaining  vital  necessities  are  in  course  of  formation.  This 
alone  would  be  enough  to  justify  tlie  gratitude  of  the  Allies 
towards  M.  Clementel,  or  mark  liimout  as  one  of  the  statesmen 
who,  since  the  war  began,  have  deserved  unstinted  praise 
from  us  all. 

But  what  M.  Clementel  has  done  for  essential  foodstuffs 
might  and  ought  to  be  done  with  regard  to  raw  materials. 
Already  we  are  organising  on  analogous  lines  the  collecting 
and  distributing  of  some  kinds  of  raw  material.  But  is  it 
not  equally  Our  duty  to  foresee  what  will  happen  when  the 
war  is  over,  and  to  take  all  due  precautions  in  view  of  the 
enormous  demand  that  will  be  made  on  those  raw  materials 
which  are  indispensable  for  the  reconstruction  of  our  commerce, 
of  our  industries,  and  of  all  the  territories  which  have  been 
laid  bare  by  the  enemy? 

Moreover,  as  it  happens  that  by  a  stroke  of  good  fortune, 
the  Alhes  have  in  their  possession  the  actual  monopoly  of  a 
great  number  of  raw  products,  why  should  we  not  for  once 
think  before  everything  of  onr  own  interest,  and  organise  for 
the  benefit  of  our  own  countries  the  different  monopolies 
with  which  cirumstances  have  provided  us  ?  Why  should 
we  not  agree  amongst  ourselves  to  form  special  Executive 
Committees,  on  the  pattern  of  the  Wheat  Executive,  with 
the  object  of  collecting,  for  instance,  all  the  oil  seeds  which 
come  from  India  and  the  Far  East,  and  from  the  Western 
Coast  of  Africa,  and  distributing  them  among  the  Allied 
countries  according  to  special  agreements.  Is  it  not  our  duty 
to  think  first  of  our  own  people  ?  Then,  when  the  Germans 
come  ultimately  to  us  to  buy  oil  seeds,  we  should  be  in  a 
position  to  reply  that  we  are  not  trying  to  boycott  them,  but 
that  we  intend  to  put  before  everything  our  own  trade  and  our 
own  industri-es.  They  might  be  allowed  to  buy  the  surplus 
we  do  not  need  for  ourselves,  hxxtnoihmg  more.  What  is  true 
of  oil  seeds  is  equally  true  of  a  long  list  of  raw  materials.  It 
IS  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  Allies  have  now  the 
practical  control  of  all  the  principal  raw  materials,  while 
the  German  Empires  and  their  confederates  own  only  a  very 
small  percentage,  quite  insufficient  for  the  necessities  of  their 
industries.  Might  it  not  be  well  if  Germany  were  now  con- 
vinced that,  unless  she  consents  to  the  peace  we  must  one 
day  dictate,  in  order  to  ensure  our  own  and  the  world's  se- 
curity, she  will  have  no  access  to  our  raw  material,  except  under 
conditions.  Should  we  not  be  wielding  a  weapon  as  powerful 
as  any  possessed  by  army  or  navy  if  we  were  able  to  tell 
the  Germans  that  their  immediate  consent  to  peace,  at  our 
price,  would  obtain  for  them  out  of  the  supply  of  raw  material 
we  need  so  badly  for  ourselves,  a  certain  percentage  which 
would  grow  smaller  and  smaller  with  every  day,  month  or 
year  that  the  war  lasts  ? 

Such  a  scheme  is  the  natural  and  logical  continuation  of  M. 
Clementel's  economic  policy,  and  would,  if  adopted,  prove 
as  useful  as  any  military  triumph.  Here  and  now  I  can  only 
indicate  it  briefly.  The  time  has  not  yet  come  to  enter  into 
the  details  of  this  eminently  practical  project.  Let  us  hope 
that  M.  Clementel,  who  has  already  won  the  complete  approba- 
tion of  the  British  Government,  will  be  able  to  achieve  this 
great  object,  and  with  the  concordance  of  the  United  States 
It  might  not  only  shorten  the  war,  but  provide  us  after  peace 
IS  signed,  with  the  real  means  of  forcing  Germany  and  her 
friends  to  respect  their  treaties  in  future,  or  to  stai-ye. 


Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book 


A  Nine  Days'  Wonder 

FORCE  alone  will  not  secure  for  us  the  position  in 
the  world  to  which  we  believe  we  are  entitled.  The 
sword  has  no  power  to  thiiist  aside  the  moral  opposi- 
tion which  has  grown  up  against  us.  If  the  world 
Is  to  become  reconciled  to  the  greatness  of  our  power,  it  will 
have  to  feel  that  behind  our  strength  there  is  a  World 
Conscience. 

These  words,  remarkable  on  the  lips  of  a  German    were 
spoken  at  the  opening  Session  of  the  Upper  House  of  the  Diet 
m  Karlsruhe,  by  the  President  of  that  body,  who  happens 
to  be  a  member  of  one  of  the  German  ruhng  families      No 
ess  a  person  than  Prince  Max  of  Baden,  heir  to  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  that  name,    gave  utterance  to  these  sentiments 
and  all  Germany  wondered.     When  professors  and  writers 
expressed  views  of  tliis   tenor,  that  w:as  nothing  out  of  the 
ordinarv'^     But  that  a  royal  prince  should  boldly  come  for- 
ward and  have  his  say— that  for  Germany  is  truly  "remarkable 
I  he  Liberal  press  took  up  the  burden  of  his  message  amphfy- 
ing  Its  sahent  points,  agreeing  with  every  senti    ent.     Prince 
Max.  while  abusing  President  Willson  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
m  the  orthodox  German  fashion,  went  on  to  say  that  Germans 
should  be  criUcal  of  themselves  :  there  was  a  lack  of  freedom 


in  Germany,  and  it  was  all  the  fault  of  large  circles  of  the  Ger 

man  people  who  indolently  submitted  to  authority,  exercising 

no  influence  themselves  on  the  destinies  of  the  Fatlieriand ; 

and  during  the  war  a  heathen  outlook  had  been  adopted  by 

many  intellectual  men  in  all  countries,  and  a  moratorium  had 

been  declared  on  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

^    The  Sociahsts  made  the  most  of  this  declaration  of  faith. 

Where  is  the  statesman  among  the  Allies?  "  asks  one  of 

them,  "  who  has  spoken  in  this  strain  of  Democracy,  Freedom 

and  Humanity?"     The  question  only  shows  the  mentality  of 

the   man    who    propounded    it.     It   is   needless  to   mention 

President  Wilson  or  Mr.   Asquith.     The   Sociahst  writer  in 

his  joy  seems  to  have  forgotten  the  Kaiser's  utterances  about 

shimng  armour  and  mailed  fists  and  sharp  swords.     He  has 

torgotten,  likewise— an  important  consideration— that  Prince 

Max  of  Baden,  however  generous  and  noble  his  sentiments 

may  be,  is  of  no  significance  in  Germany,  whereas  the  Kaiser 

matters.     Prince  Max  is  only  the  President  of  the  Baden 

^^"se  of  Peers  ;    the  Kaiser  is  the  actual  ruler. of  Germany. 

And,  finally,  the  writer  has  forgotten  what  the  Pan-Geimans 

say  about  the  coming  peace.      It  must  be  a  peace  dictated 

by  the  victors,  a  peace  purchased  by  militaiy  success.     The 

Fan-Germans  of  Hamburg  deplore  that  the  speech  of  Prince 

Max,  with  Its  "  silly  sentimentalities,"  should  have  appeared 


January  lo,  1918 


LAND    &    WATER 


IT 


alx)Ut  the  same  time  as  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  oration.  What 
must  the  world  think  of  uS;  exclaims  the  leader-writer  of  the 
Hamburgischcr  Correspondent,  when  it  hears  the  suggestion 
made  that  we  must  place  force  behind  conscience.  "  German 
strength  has  made  our  existence  possible,"  and  on  German 
strength,  therefoK-,  the  Germans  must  continue  to  rely. 
In  Count  Reventlow's  paper,  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of 
Max  Lohan  puts  the  matter  more  forcibly — on  Christmas 
Day  of  all  days  : 

"  Away  with  the  World  Conscience  !  Down  with  the  spirit 
of  Universal  brotherliood  !  We  must  be  led  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  German  strength,  whose  watchword  is  ' '  More  Power  '. 
More  German  Power  !"  May  a  curse  hght  on  those  who  reject 
this  watchword." 

The  Pan- German  Party 

What  manner  of  men  are  these  Pan-Germans  ?  A  ghmpse 
into  their  mentaUty  may  be  afforded  by' two  illustrations. 
Early  in  1914  a  Pan-German  wrote  literally  :  "  We  do  not 
hesitate  blasphemously  to  declare,  '  But  now  abideth  Faith, 
Hope,  Hate,  these  three  ;  and  tlie  greatest  of  these  is  Hate.'  " 
A  Pan-German  organ  explained  that  to  love  your  neighbour 
as  yourself,  means  to  love  your  German  neighbour,  and  the 
doctrine  also  implies  that  if  a  stranger  attacks  or  insults  you, 
knock  him  down.  A  Protestant  clergyman  of  Charlottenburg, 
Dr.  Karl  Auer,  in  a  pamphlet  he  has  just  published,  roundly 
attacks  the  Pan-Germans  for  their  heathenism,  upbraids  them 
for  worshipping  W^otan,  accuses  them  of  replacing  the  name  of 
the  Saviour  by  Balder.  The  Party  is  composed  of  extreme 
reactionaries,  of  men  like  Tirpitz,  who  wants  to  smash  England 
and  e.xpects  the  German  people  to  go  on  fighting  until  his 
wish  is  reaUsed  ;  like  the  notorious  Berlin  cleric.  Dr.  Phillips 
by  name,  who  publicly  thanked  God  for  the  war  ;  like  the 
comical  Herr  von  Oldenburg- Januschau,  who  the  other  day 
told  a  meeting-  of  East  Prussian  junkers  that  if  an  equal 
franchise  were  introduced  in  Prussia,  Germany  would  ha\e 
lost  the  war. 

These  people  are  making  frantic  efforts  to  retain  their  hold 
on  the  ignorant  country  yokels  ;  and  their  ramifications  ex- 
tend to  the  army.  Here  is  an  official  notice  put  up  in  the 
convalescent  home  of  the  Res^erve  Battalion  of  the  loth 
Bavarian  Infantry  Regiment,  in  Ingoldstadt : 

"  Comrades  !  Everything  is  at  stake  !  Information  is  of  the 
utmost  imjxjrtancc.  To  bo  ignorant  in  these  times,  when  the 
Whole  Future  is  being  determined,  is  doubly  shameful. 
Away  then  with  ignorance  and  indiflference  ! 
"From  to-day  let  all  of  you  without  exception  read  the  follow- 
ing real  German  papers,  which  are  obtainable  free  of  charge 
in  the  orderly  room  :    The  Muiichen-Angsburger  Abendzeiluni; 

and  the  Deutsche  Togeszeilung.     Read  them  and  pass  them 

on  to  a  friend." 
Ingoldstadt,  6,  lo,  17,  HABr.NiCHT,  Captain. 

It  should  bo  stated  that  the  two  papers  named  are  among 
the  most  violent  in  Germany.  >Jothing  short  of  German 
rtorld  domination  will  content  them.  And  these  are  recom- 
mended to  the  soldiers.  The  Pin-Germans,  however,  do  not 
always  meet  with  the  success  they  expect.  At  a  public 
meeting  of  the  Patriotic  Party — an  offshoot  of  the  Pan- 
German  gang — which  was  held  in  Frankfurt  about  ten  days 
ago.  Count  Botfmiar  addres.sed  the  audience  in  the  best  Pan- 
(ierman  style,  preaching  the  destruction  of  England  and  war 
until  all  Germany's  ambitions  had  been  gratified.  A  group 
lA  disabled  soldiers  who  were  present  interrupted  the  speaker 
l>y  telling  him  to  go  into  the  trenches  instead  of  making  Pan- 
German  speeches,  and  one  of  them  raised  his  armless  sleeve 
and  asked,  "  How  many  more  men  are  to  be  crippled  and 
killed  in  order  that  the  Pan-German  war  aims  may  be  realised?" 
The  Count  could  only  say,  "  You  simpleton  !  Be  quiet ! 
You  don't  understand  anything  about  it !  "  Which  shows 
that  the  Count  is  no  great  debater.  But  it  also  shows  what 
the  masses  in  Germany  are  feeling. 

Party  of  Freedom  and  Fatherland 

Their  latest  attempt  to  organise  against  the  Pan-Germans 
is  a  new  Society — "  The  People's  League  for  Freedom  and 
Fatherland."  The  league  has  three  main  planks  in  its 
platform — to  strain  every  nerve  until  the  enemy's  desire  to 
shatter  Germany  is  frustrated  ;  to  reorganise  the  inner  political 
conditions  of  the  country  forthwith  ;  and  to  cultivate  a  clear 
popular  foreign  policy  with  a  view  to  establishing  j^erpetual 
peace,  securing  raw  materials  and  placing  the  development 
"tall  nations  on  the  basis  of  morality  and  law.  A  large  number 
of  workmen's,  officials'  and  clerks'  organisations  have  put 
their  names  to  the  manifesto  of  the  League,  which  is  also 
supported  by  a  number  of  liberal-minded  professors  who 
( ommand  some  respect  in  Germany,  men  like  Brentano, 
Herkner,  Oncken,  Reinecke,  and  others.  (It  should  be  noted, 
however,  that  the  Pan-Germans  can  also  boast  of  a  professorial 
following).    The  new  League  bands  together  all  those  who 


are  dissatisfied  with  the  trend  of  events  in  Germany,  who 
feel  that  victories  are  empty  tilings  if  men  hate  the  victors, 
who  begin  to  realise  that  a  foreign  policy  which  has  vmited 
practically  the  whole  world  against  Germany  must  be  wrong 
somewhere.  This  sentiment  was  cleverly  expressed  in  a 
half  column  letter,  published  in  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung 
of  December  i6th,  and  signed  "  Anton  Erkelenz  "  (probably 
a  pseudonym).  The  writer,  in  excellent  Nietzschesque,  sets 
forth  Germany's  present  discontents.  He  wants  the  Germans 
to  become  a  world  people.  But  a  people  with  the  soul  of 
slaves  cannot  become  a  world-people.  The  Germans  must 
therefore  change  their  character.  "Were  not  the  internal 
pohtics  of  Germany  before  the  war  a  humiliating  reflection  of 
our  character  ?  And  can  foreign  policy  be  sound  when  there 
is  no  basis  at  home  ?  Who  was  to  blame  ?  Our  pastors 
and  masters,  who  lacked  the  sense  of  world  politics  because 
their  outlook  was  limited  by  the  village  pump.  We  were 
exceedingly  proud  of  our  organising  capacity.  But  organisa- 
tion means  submission,  and  submission  is  in  itself  no  evidence 
of  strength  of  character."  What  is  wanted  is  perfect  democracy 
and  the  breaking  away  from  ancient  traditions.  The  writer 
ends,  in  imitation  of  Nietzsche,  by  apostrophising  his  fellows  : 
"  O  my  brothers  in  factories  and  offices,  you  peasants  and 
merchants  and  manufacturers,  you  women^  all  of  you  who 
will  bear  the  responsibility  of  the  new  order  of  Society,  I 
greet  you.  You  have  my  confidence !  " 
•  But  all  this  is  far  off  as  yet ;  at  best  it  may  be  but  the  straw 
which  shows  which  way  the  wind  is  blowing.  In  the  meantime, 
the  Germans  have  not  yet  changed  their  character,  and  arc 
still  content  to  remain  within  the  meshes  of  militarism. 
What  did  their  paper  say  about  the  truce  with  Russia  ? 
Approval  was  general — it  was  humane,  it  showed  Germany's 
goodness  of  heart,  her  true  desire  for  peace,  but,  of  course— 
and  here  the  cloven  hoof  appears — "  our  plenipotentiaries 
were  filled  with  the  sense  of  our  military  strength."  Even 
the  Frankfurter  Zeitung  could  not  deny  itself  the  pleasure  o£ 
dwelling  on  this  fact.  "  The  Germans  and  their  Allies  spoke 
as  victors." 

Crown  Prince  and  Count  Luxburg 

Two  interesting  items  of  news  must  not  be  left  unrecorded. 
The  first  refers  to  Count  Luxburg,  the  second  to  the  Crown 
Prince.  As  the  aftennath  of  the  Luxburg  affair,  .some  fifty 
of  the  largest  Hamburg  exporters  who  are  interested  in  South 
American  marj<ets  have  lodged  a  complaint  against  the  Count 
with  the  Imperial  Chancellor,  blaming  him  for  having,  by  his 
conduct,  spoiled  their  business  in  Argentina  and  Brazil, 
and  demanding  the  Government  to  punish  him ! 

The  German  Crown  Prince  appears  to  have  developed 
artistic  powers.  Before  the  war  he  was  famous  for  nothuig, 
except,  perhaps,  the  invention  of  a  new  kind  of  button.  During 
the  war  his  military  talents  have  shone  forth.  He  is,  as 
everybody  knows,  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  a  group  of 
German  armies,  and,  as  the  semi-official  Norddeutsche  Allgc- 
meine  Zeitung  states,  he  has  used  his  scanty  leisure  Jiours  in 
sketching.  A  simple  soldier's  head  might  attract  his  eye, 
and  a  black  and  white  drawing  of  singular  merit  perpetuates 
the  prospect.  The  Prince  also  has  a  weakness  for  the  various 
types  of  coloured  prisoners,  whom  he  has  likewise  honoured 
by  his  artistic  attentions.  These  drawings  are  now  being 
exhibited  behind  the  lines,  and  it  is  intended  to  make  a  few 
of  them  available  for  publication  in  the  illustrated  papers. 
Possibly  these  artistic  gifts  of  the  Crown  Prince  may  be  here- 
ditary— it  will  be  remembered  that  his  father,  too,  in  his 
palmy  days,  painted  pictures.  It  will,  however,  be  interesting 
to  await  the  judgment  of  competent  critics  when  the  Crown 
Prince's  efforts  are  made  available  for  the   German  people. 


The  Vossische  Zeitung  has  recently  published  an  article  on  German 
East  Africa  by  Erirh  v.  Salzmann,  who  begins  by  speaking  of  the 
naturallaw,  which  leads  the  inhabitants  of  thickly  populated  coun- 
tries to  seek  new  countries  o\'er  the  seas,  and  by  claiming  for  the 
Germans  the  same  right  as  any  other  nation  to  expand.  German 
East  Africa,  he  says,  is  essentially  German,  and  can  never  be  an 
object  of  exchange,  in  the  sense  of  the  Vienna  Congress,  anymore 
than  there  can  be  any  question  of  a  bargain  over  Alsace-Lorraine, 
which  was  German  from  remote  times.  General  v.  I-ettow- 
Vorbeck's  fame  has  spread  to  the  darkest  corners  of  the  dark 
continent,  where  men  now  know  that  no  power  or  cunning  of 
the  cnemv  can  overthrow  the  German  eagle,  and,  although  it  may 
have  disappeared  temporarily,  the  (Country  is  hallowed  and  will 
remain  German  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives  for  all  time. 

The  whole  dark  continent  believes  in  the  German  cause.  Wliat 
the  German  colonial  troops  have  done  in  East  Africa  is  of  incal- 
culable value.  Wc  at  home  must  beware  of  failing  to  recognise 
and  appreciate  the  moral  effect.  The  ethical  value  will  be  con- 
nected in  future  with  the  actual  possession  of  the  land  in  which 
it  has  had  this  effect.  This  country  must  remain  German  or 
Germany  will  have  no  further  importance  in  Africa.  German 
East  .Africa  cannot  be  an  object  of  exchange. 

It  is  a.  moral  duty  to  hold  it,  although  it  may  have  fallen  tcm- 
porarilv  into  the  hands  of  the  eaemv. 


1.AND    &    WATER 

Shop  Stewards 

By  Claude  D.  Farmer 


January   lo,.  19; S 


WHAT  may  he  termed  the  "  problem  of  the  Shop 
Steward "  is  a  feature  of  industrial  unrest 
which  has  lately  figured  largely  in  the  public 
eye.  The  comprehensive  strike  which  for  a 
briot  peri(Kl  during  last  summer  paralysed  the.  munitions 
industry  afforded  evidence  of  the  power  which  this  class  of 
worker  can  wield. 

The  institution  of  the  shoj)  steward  sysleni,  though  of 
recent  date  in  the  history  of  the  Trade  Union  movement,  is 
not  an  outcome  of  war  conditions.  The  practit  e  of  electing 
from  among  the  people  employed  at  a  factpry  a  chosen  few 
who  shall  personally  watch  over  the  conditions  of  work  inci- 
dental and  pecuHar  to  their  own  workshops  has,  in  fact, 
bt^en  in  force  for  several  years.  The  leading  officials  of  the 
rnions  are  naturally  unable  to  attend  to  all  the  minor 
grievances  and  evils  arising  in  each  factory  from  which  their 
members  are  recruited.  Local  or  distriet  officials  are  generall\- 
at  a  similar  disadvantage  in  this  respect,  especially  when  the 
members  of  the  I'nion  are  scattered  among  a  large  number 
of  works.  In  cases  therefore  of  kxalities  in  which  there 
were  many  firms  employing  the  same  denomination  of  work- 
jieople,  it  was  natural  that  Labour  representatives  should 
be  appointed  from  among  the  men  working  for  these  lirms. 
Officials  so  created  complied  with  the  principle  which  obtains 
as  a  general  rule  in  Labour  organisations,  that  the  official 
must  be,  or  nnist  have  been,  a  craftsman  at  the  trade  in 
which  the  I'nion  interests  itself. 

The  election  of  welfare  guardians  from  among  4he  work- 
people has  its  chief  merit  in  the  fact  that  only  those  who 
serve  as  manual  workers  in  the  factory  or  millcan  be  fully 
alive  to  the  needs  of  their  class.  This  truth  is  self-evident. 
The  managing  staffs  of  workshops  arc  often  unconsciouslv, 
sometimes  even  wilfully,  blind  to  matters  petty  in  therii- 
sehes,  but  irksome  to  those  whose  lot  it  is  to  be  daily  con- 
strained to  work  under  such  conditions.  The  shop  steward 
lias^rown  up,  hitherto  unconstitutionally,  as  a  unit  in  the 
far-reaching  organisation  whereby  the  interests  of  the  em- 
plovers  of  the  indixidual  factory  are  represented  to  the  govern- 
ing body  of  the  Trade  Union  in  cases  where  satisfaction  cannot 
.  )>e  obtained  in  discussion  with  the  employer.  Only  the 
I'nion-man  comes  directly  within  the  sphere  of  interest  of  the 
shop  stewards,'  but"  it  follows  that  benefits  gained  for  the 
•Organised  workers  must  generally  accrue  also  to  the  non- 
Vnion  employee.  This  qualification  does  not.  in  fact,  les.sen 
the  importance  of  this  type  of  representation  to  working-class 
interests  as  a  whole.  Industrial  Labour  is  now  regarded  in 
the  broader  aspect,  at  least,  as  an  oi-ganised  force,  and  with 
the  unprecedented  rate  at  which  the  membership  of  the 
frades  Unions— notably  of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of 
Engineers— is  increasing,  the  non-Union  man  becomes  of  less 
and  less  moment  (e.xcept  to  himself). 

So  much,  then,  for  the  shop  steward  principle  as  an  in- 
fluence to  the  good  in  safeguarding  the  interests  of  the  majority. 
(Jperated  honestly  and  honourably,  it  must  fulfil  a  consider- 
able part  in  the  steady  trend  ,of'  industrial  democracy. 

l-roni  the  capitalist  standpoint  it  must  be  admitted  that 
little  as  was  the  authority  possessed  by  the  employer  in  liis 
own  works  as  late  in  history  as  1914,  the  existence  of  the  shop 
steward  element,  now  officially  recognised  in  industry,  has 
practically  wrested  from  him  such  shreds  of  despotism"  as  he 
could  displa\-.  Tor  what  is  the  effect  upon  the  woiks 
manager's  position  of  having  in  his  employment  men  recognised 
by  agreement  as  endowed  \\ith  power  to  enforce  such  demands 
as  their  sense  of  right,  and.  in  extreme  cases,  their  personal 
whim  may  inspire  ?  Simply  this,  that,  short  of  a  decision 
favourable  to  him  by  a  court  of  arbitration,  he  is  compelled 
to  concede  any  claims  made  upon  him.  The  alternativ(> 
consequence  is  a  strike,  or,  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing 
as  regards  production,  a  lock-out.  This  state  of  affairs  was, 
before  the  war,  already  arising  by  reason  of  the  despotic  power' 
if  such  it  may  be  called,  of  the'Trades  Unions.  It  was  only 
augmented  and  accelerated  by  the  presence  of  shop  stewards 
in  sc\eral  large  works.  I<'or^the  shop  steward  antl  the  Trade 
I'nion  are  not,  in  principle  at  least,  opposing  parties  in 
Socialism:  in  object,  they  are  one  and  the  same,  and  it  is 
only  as  a  n'sult  of  certain  features  of  war  legislation  that 
they  ha\-e  appeared  to  be  rival  elements. 

It  may  ,be  urgid  that  th(>  employer  was  even  more  of  an 
autocrat  than  was  desirable  in  the  eyes  of  the  demagogue,  and 
therefore,  to  say  that  his  foothold  in  his  own  property  has 
been  cut  from  beneath  his  feet  is  all  to  the  good.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  it  is  now  widely  realised  that  after  the  war  the  old 
order  in  iadustr\-  \nll  not  lie  tolerated  by  tin;  people.  And 
since  Democracy  is.  the  battle-cry  of  the  Allied  cause,  it 
would  be  perfidy  were  we  to   thwart  at   home  and  during 


the  work  of  reconstruction  the  realisation  of  that  ideal  which 
figures  s<i  prominently  in  the  statements  of  our  war  aims.. 
DiscipHne,  or  the  obedience  to  an  established  order,  thbre 
must  be  in  industry  as  in  every  phase  of  public  and  private  life. 
Just  as  the  old  limitations  to  industrial  progress  and  pros- 
perity, the  re.-^ult  of  so  many  of  tho.se  fallacies  with  \nTiich 
Labour  has  become  imbued,  must  be  swept  away,  so  tlicrc 
must  be  concessions  on  the  part  of  Capital.  The  employer 
must  acquire  a  broader  sympathy  with  the  just  needs  ut 
working-men  and  women,  thereby  showing  that  order  and 
efficiency  in  the  business  contribute  to  the  prosperity  of  all 
concerned  in  it. 

It  is  difficult,  however,  to  be  very  sanguine  as  to  the  in- 
dustrial future  after  the  war.  Capital  and  Labour  arc  still, 
for  the  most  part,  at  daggers  drawn  e.\en  though  a  super- 
ficial harmony  has  arisen  out  of  the  common  call  of  patriotism. 
The  restraints  of  the  Munitions  Act  have  s?rved  to  foment 
hostility  between  the  two  sides  :  the  repeal  of  the  more  irksome 
of  the  clauses  has  come  late  in  the  day.  The  Trades  Unions 
have  beei'i  depri\-ed  of  all  power  of  militant  agitation.  Where 
there  have  seemed  to  be  flagrant  instances  of  the  exploitation 
of  labour,  the  resulting  strikes  ha\e  been  brought  about  by 
the  workers  themselves  or  through  the  medium  of  the  shoi^ 
stewards  acting  j)erforce  independently  of  their  official 
organisations.  On  the  other  hand,  the  issue  of  almost  ev-ery 
labour  disputi'  during  the  war  has  been  a  surrender  on  the 
})art  of  the  Government,  as  controllers  of  the  munitions 
t'stablishments,  to  the  workers '{demands.  Such  a  procedure, 
howe\Tr  reprehensible  in  some  respects,  has  at  least  kept 
the  wheels  of  industry  in  steady  motion,  and  has,  moreover, 
been  the  only  fair  course  jwssible.  in  view  of  the  uncurbed 
fall  in  the  buying-power  of  money. 

\\'hen  the  war  is  o\er  and  the  much-\"aunted  schemes  for 
reconstruction  come  to  the  test,  this  method  of  oiling  tjic 
labour  machine  will  not  be  economically  possible.  Of  the 
financial  dangers  of  such  .1  practice,  even  under  the  conditions 
of  the  moment,  one  has  gra\-e  fears  :  when  the  har\est  of  war 
has  been  reaped  and  the  fruits  of — let  us  hope — victory- 
garnered,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  sow  the  seeds  of  the  new  life 
at  the  cost  of  an  unlimited  and  ever-increasing  wage-bill. 
How  then  are  we  to  ensure  a  reasonable  stability  in  industry 
such  as  shall  create  a  contented  public  and.  at  the  same  time,  . 
preserve  the  capital  credit  of  the  country  without  which 
economic  progress  is  impossible  ? 

The  greater  part  of  the  schemes  afoot  deal  with  questions 
of  securing  to  labour  a  more  satisfying  share  m  the  fruits  of 
commerce.  It  is  now,  in  fact,  acknowledged  that  the  pro- 
ducer must  receive,  whetlicr  by  a  system  of  profit-sharing  or 
by  a  form  of  wage-bonus,  appreciable  recompense  for  his 
part   in   achancing   the   output   of   the   factory. 

Such,  briefl3%  is  the  impUwl  moti\e  of  the  Whitley  rejwrt. 
The  recommendations  of  this  committee  have  been"  adopted 
by  the  War  Cabinet  as  a  basis  for  post-war  reconstruction , 
and  already,  as  described  in  the  Contemporarv  Review,  they 
lia\-e  been  instituted  in  the  form  of  the  Painters'  and  Deco- 
lators'  Joint  Council.  A  similar  system  of  joint  management 
by  employers  and  workers'  representatives  is  in  force  in  the 
textile  trades.  It  is  early  days  to  venture  an  opinion  upon 
so  new  a  principle  as  co-operation  where  before  were  niistnist 
and  antagonism,  but  surely  this  scheme,  c(miplying  as  it  docs  ' 
w  itJi  one  (jf  labour's  strongest  aspirations — the  desire  to  call 
its  soul  its  own — can  meet  only  with  opposition  in  this  quarter 
if  at  all.  on  points  of  detail.      "  ^^ 

For  there  is  nothing  more  essential  to  any  policy  of    recon- 
struction than  the  inclusion  of  the  \yorkman's  opiiiion  in  the  , 
councils  of  the  directors  of  industry'-.      It  must  be  admitted 
tliat  questions  of  purely  commercial  policy  such  as  tendering   ■ 
for   contracts   or   considerations   of   extension   of   plant,    to 
name  but  two  instances,  are  prima  facie  matters  which,  for 
the  present  must  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  commercial 
or  technical  expert.     With  the  spread  of  education,  however, 
and  above  all  when  a  sane  grasp  of  economic  truths  has 
supplanted   the    false    though    seducti\-e    shibboleths   of   the 
worst   type   of   trade   agitator,    the   ^•iews  of  working-class ; 
representatives  will  carry  weight  in  shaping  the  whole  policy 
of  commerce. 

For  the  present  it  is  with  questions  of  employment  and ' 
wages  and  with  the  conditions  of  factory  life  that  the  opinion 
of  the  workpeople  must  be  consulted.  To  this  end  it  seems 
probable  that  the  present  position  of  shop  stewards  will 
only  be  modified  from  that  of  maintaining  an  attitude  often 
liostilt:  to  the  employer  to  one  in  which  their  views,  while 
.-^till  implying  in  the  main  a  protection  of  their  fellow-men, 
w  ill  come  lu  be  \-alurd  by  a  manager  as  those  of  an  ally  in 
promoting  ultimately  the  welfare  of  the  country  at  larg'- 


January  lo,  iqiS 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


Christmas  on  a  ''Happy''  Ship 

By  Lewis  R.  Freeman 


Mr.  Lcit'is  R.  Freeman,  the  distinguished  American 
jcyiirnalist,  ivkose  writings  are  familiar  to  readers  of 
Laxd  &  Water;'  is  now  ifilh  the  British  Grand  fket. 

THERE  was  a  hint  of  Christmas  in  the  long  stacks  of 
parcels  mail  on  the  station  platform  and  the  motley 
array  of  packages  in  the  hands  of  the  waiting  sailors, 
but  for  the  rest  there  was  nothing  to  differentiate 
the  "  Flcetward  "-bound  train  from  the  same  train  as  one 
might  have  seen  it  on  any  other  day  of  the  year.  There  is 
only  a  certain  small  irreducible  minimum  of  men  which  can 
be  spared  from  a  fighting  sliip  at  any  time  that  it  is  liable  to 
be  sent  into  action,  and  the  season  sacred  to  the  Prince  of 
Peace  is  no  exception. 

To  the  average  land-lubber  nothing  could  appear  nearer 
to  the  height  of  misfortune  than  the  lot  of  the  sailor  who  has 
to  leave  a  nice,  warm,  comfortable  hearthside  in  the  south 
of  England  and  return  to  his  unceasing  vigil  in  the  storm- 
tossed  northern  seas  at  the  one  time  of  year  set  apart  above 
all  others  for  the  family  and  the  home,  and  I  did  my  best  to 
introduce  a  note  of  sympathy  into  my  voice  when  I  tried  to 
condole  with  the  ruddy-faced  man-o'war's  man  who  had 
kindly  volunteered  to  help  me  find  my  compartment. 

"  'Ard  to  be  goin'  back  abord  on  Crismus  Day,  you  think, 
sir  ?  "  he  asked  with  a  grin.  "  P'haps  it  is  jest  a  bit  'ard 
to  leave  the  missus  jest  now,  but — ther'  ain't  no  qu'ues  in 
Scarpa  Flow,  an'  I've  got  a  jolly  good  lot  o'  mates  waitin' 

fer  me  on  the  ol' .    She's  a  happy  ship  if  ther'  ever  wu/, 

an,  an'  Crismus  at  sea  ain't  'arf  so  bad  as  you  mite  think, 
sir." 

That  there  were  several  \hundred  similar-minded  philoso- 
phers travelhng  by  that  train  became  evident  at  a  point 
where  they  met  and  mingled  for  a  space  with  some  of  the 
"  lucky  "  ones  who  were  gathering  there  to  go  home  on  a 
leave  which  had  providentially  coincided  witli  the  holiday 
season.  Scan  as  closely  as  I  would  the  men  in  the  long  blue 
lines,  there  was  nothing  to  distinguish  the  "  returning  from  " 
to  the  "  going  on  "  save  the  fact  that  the  former  were  bulging 
with  Christmas  parcels. 

Nor  was  there  about  any  of  the  officers  I  met  in  the  course 
f>f  my  northward  journey  any  suggestion  of  an  air  of  martyr- 
dom on  account  of  the' fact  that  it  was  their  lot  to  spend 
Christmas  afloat  instead  of  ashore.  One  of  them  was  going  to 
join  a  Destroyer  Flotilla  leader,  and  was  too  busy  con- 
gratulating himself  on  the  fact  that  he  was  to  be  second  to  a 
commander  who  had  the  reputation  of  having  a'"  nose  for 
trouble,"  and  the  faculty  of  always  being  "  among  those 
l)rescnt  "  when  anything  of  inten?st  occurred  in  the  North  Sea 
to  have  time  to  lament  the  fact  that  he  was  missing— this 
time  by  only  a  couple  of  days— his  eighth  consecutive  Christ- 
mas with  his  family.  Another  had  equally  high  hopes  of  the 
life  of  adventure  which  awaited  him  on  the  light  cruiser  h(^ 
had  been  ordered  to  report  to,  and  a  third  entertained  me  for 
an  hour  with  yams  of  Ward  Room  pranks  on  a  battleship 
to  which  he  was  returning  after  a  special  course  in  gunnery 
at  a  south-coast  port.  It  was  the  latter  who  used  the  identical 
expression  in  describing  his  ship  as  had  been  employed  by  the 
sailor  I  have  quoted  above. 

"  She's  a  happy  ship,  is  the  old  ,"  he  said  with  an 

affectionate  smile,  "  and  it's  glad  I  am  to  b?  getting  back  to 
her  again." 

The  only  man  I  met  on  the  whole  journey  who  seemed  in 
tJie  least  sorry  for  himself  was  a  thing's  Messenger — he  was 
carrying  a  turkey  under  one  arm  and  a  dispatch  box  under 
the  other— who  complained  that  his  schedule  would  not  take 
him  back  to  London  until  Christmas  afternoon. 

On  the  battleship  to  which  I  reported  about  the  onlv 
evidence  of  Vule-tide  obser\-ablc  on  mv  arri\al  was  the  huge 
accumulation  of  "  home-bound  "  letters  which  the  Ward 
Room  officers  were  engaged  in  censoring.  The  day  before 
Christmas  was  distinctly  "  routine,"  with  just  a  suggestion  of 
festivity  beginning  to  become  manifest  toward  evening. 
The  loungers  by  the  Ward  Room  fire  smoked,  chatted  and  read 
the  paper  for  an  hour  after  dinner  was  over,  but  showed  no 
disposition  to  melt  away  to  bed  as  in  the  usual  order  of  things. 
.\bout  ten  o'clock  a  violin,  banjo  and  a  one-stringed  fiddle 
with  a  brass  horn  attached  made  their  appearance,  and  upon 
these  never  entirely  harmonising  instruments  their  owners 
began  inconsequentially  to  strum  and  scrape.  As  fragments 
of  familiar  airs  became  faintly  recognisable,  the  loungers 
began  to  lay  aside  papers  and  cigars  and  to  join  in  the  choruses 
in  that  half-furtive  manner  so  characteristic  uf  the  Briton 
in*  his  first  forc-ninning  essays  at  "  close  harmony."  Until 
lie  is  assured  of  the  vocal  support  of  his  neighbour,  "there  is  no 
sfiund  in  the  worifl— from  tlic  ni;ii  of  Du-  lion  t"  tin-  ni:ir  of 


the  cannon— which  the  average  Enghshman  dreads  so  much-as 
that  of  liis  own  voice  raised  in  song. 

Volume  increased .  with  confidence,  and  it  was  not  many 
minutes  before  the  choruses  were  booming  at  full  blast.  .  For 
a  while  it  was  the  more  popular  numbers  from  the  late  London 
re\ues  which  had  the  call,  but  these  soon  ga%-e  way  to  rag- 
time, and  that  in  turn  to  those  old  familiar  songs  which  liavo 
warmed  the  hearts  and  bound  closer  the  ties  of  comradeship 
of  the  good  fellows  of  the  .'^nglo-Saxon  world  since  ships  first 
began  to  set  sail  from  the  shores  of  England  to  people  tlie 
ends  of  the  earth.  From  "  Clementine  "  and  "  Who  Killed 
Cock  Robin  ?  "  to  "  S^fanec  River,"  and  "  ^My  Old  Kentucky 
Home,"  there  was  not  a  song  that  I  had  not  heard — and  even 
boomed  raucously  away  in  the  choruses  of  myself — a  hundred 
times  in  all  parts  of  America.  Every  one  of  them  is  in  the 
old  "  College  Song  Book,"  not  a  one  of  them,  but  which 
ever^•  man  of  the  miUion  America  is  training  for  the  Grcit 
Fight  could  have  joined  in  without  faking  a  word  or  a  note. 

k  slight  shifting  of  the  gilt  braid  on  the  blue  sleeves,  a  re- 
shuffling of  the  papers  and  magazines  on  the  table,  and  the 

Ward  Room  of  the  might  have  passed  for  that  of  any 

-Vmcrican  battleship.  The  interposing  of  four  poster  and 
pennant  peppered  walls,  the  placing  of  the  lounging  figures  in 
proper  mufti,  and  you  would  have  had  a  room  in  an  .\merican 
college  "  frat  house "  or  club.  The  men,  the  songs,  the 
\ibrant  spirit  of  good  fellowship  would  have  done  for  either 
of  the  settings. 

Poignantly  suggestive  of  the  thi —  '•f  bygone  college  days 
was  the  change  which  came  over  i  rit  of  the  scene  wlien 

an  exuberant  young  sub-lieutenant  oegan  doing  stunts  by 
trying  to  climb  round  a  service  chair  without  touching  the 
deck.  His  inevitable  fall  upset  the  tilted  chair  of  a  visiting 
"  snotty,"  who  was  playing  his  mandolin,  and  an  instant 
later  the  two  were  rolling  in  a  close  embrace.  Suddenly  sonu; 
one  shouted  "  scrum  !",  and  with  an  impetuous  rush  the 
singers  ranged  themselves  into  two  rival  "  Rugby  "  te^ms, 
each  trying  to  push  the"  other  against  the  wall. 

Twitching  at  the  stir  of  long  dormant  impulses,  I  restrained 
myself  with  an  effort  from  mixing  in  the  joyous  melee,  and 
maintained  my  dignit}-  as  a  newly-arrived  visitor  by  backing 
into  a  corner  and  erecting  a  sofa  barricade  against  the  swirling 
human  tide. 

"  Shades  of  Stanford  and  old  Encina  Hall  "  (I  found  myself 
gasping),  "  it's  a  '  rough-house,'  a  real  college  '  rough-house.'  " 

While  it  lasted  that  "  scrum  "  had  all  the  fierce  abandon  of  a 
F'reshman-Sophomorc  "  cane  rush,"  but  even  at  its  very 
climax  (when  it  had  apset  the  electric  heater  and  was  threaten- 
ing to  engulf  the  coal  stove)  there  was  a  differentiation.  One 
sensed  rather  than  saw  the  thread  of  control  restraining  it, 
and  knew  that  e\-ery  pushing  laughing  player  of  the  game  was 
subconsciously  alert  for  a  signal  that  would  send  him,  tense 
and  ready,  to  the  performance  of  tho'ie  complexly-simple  duties 
training  for  which  he  had  given  the  l)est  part  of  his  life. 

"  Rugger  "  gave  place  to  "  chair  polo,"  and  that  highly 
diverting  sport  in  turn  to  comparati\-ely  "  formal"  bouts  of 
wrestling  and  feats  of  strength  and  agility.  It  was  while  a 
row  of  shirt-sleeved  figures  were  at  the  height  of  a  "  bat  " 
competition  (which  consisted  of  seeing  which  one  could  hang 
the  longest  by  his  toes  from  a  steel  beam  of  the  ceiling)  that 
the  Fleet  Surgeon  edged  gingerly  in  behind  my  barrier  and 
remarked  that  it  was  "  funny  to  think  how  that  up-ended 
line  of  young  fighting  cocks  might  be  tumbling  from  their 
roost  to  go  to  action  stations  at  the  next  tick  of  the  clock. 
.\nd  they'd  fight  just  like  they  play,"  he  went  on,  fingering  a 
sprained  wrist  that  was  proffered  for  diagnosis.  "  We'\e 
not  a  single  case  of  any  kind  in  the  hospital  to-day,  and  the 
men  are  just  as  healthy  in  mind  as  they  are  in  body.  It's 
half  the  battle,  let  me  tell  you,  to  live  on  a  happy  ship." 

Christmas  morning  broke  cold  and  clear,  with  a  royslering 
wind  from  the  north  furrowing  the  Flow  with  translucent, 
ridges  of  white-capped  jade  and  chrysoprase.  AU  but  the 
imperative  routine  cluties  of  the  ship  were  suspended  and  the 
men  spent  many  hours  decorating  the  m»ss  deck  for  their 
mid-day  feast.  When  all  was  ready  the  band,  its  variou.? 
members  masquerading  as  everything  from  Red  Cross  nurses 
and  ballet  girls  to  German  naval  prisoners  and  American  cow- 
boys, came  to  lead  the  Captain  and  Ward  Room  officers  on 
their  ceremonial  Christmas  \isiting  round.  F'rom  mess  to 
mess  we  marched,  the  capering  liand  leading  the  way  and  a 
policeman  with  a  "  sausage  '  club  sheplierding  the 
stragglers  at  the  rear.  Flvery  table  was  loaded  not  only  with 
its  Christmas  dinner,  but  also  with  all  the  gifts  received  by 
those  who  sat  then-,  as  well  as  with  any  trinkets  or  souvenirs 
they  had  jiicked  up  in  the  course  of  their  foreign  cruises. 
i';-.l)e<iaH\-    and    iiitciitiniKilK-    coiispicnous     were    numerous 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


Januaiy  lo,  1918 


home  photographs,  stuck  up  in  or  propped  against  tin-  cakes 
and  bQX#s  of  sweets.  Most  of  the  tables  had  "  Merry  Christ- 
mas "  ;iml  \arious  otlier  seasonal  mottoes  printed  with  letters 
ingeniously  built  from  cigarettes. 

A  running  fire  of  greeting  met  us  at  every  turn,  and  at 
each  table  cigarettes,  sweets,  or  chunks  of  succulent  plum 
pudding  were  pressed  U}»n  us.  Acceptance  for  the  most  part 
was  on  the  ancient  "  touch  and  remit  "  system.  I  noticed 
that  the  officers  sjxjke  to  most  of  the  men  directly  under  them 
by  name,  and  tliat  the  exchange  of  greetings  was  invariably 
of  unfeigned  cordiality  on  both  sides.  The  tour  completed 
the  band  escorted  us  "aft  where,  with  a  hearty  three  cheers 
and  a  "  tiger  "  for  the  Captain  and  Commander  severally, 
aud  the  Ward  Room  officers  jointly,  it  left  us  and  rollicked 
back  to  serenade  the  f casters  forward. 

Christmas  chapel  was  a  simple  Church  of  England  service 
without  a  sermon,  followed  by  Holy  Communion  for  those 
who  desired  to  celebrate  it.  Luncheon,  in  order  that  the 
Ward  Koom  servants  could  be  free  for  feasting  with  their 
mates,  was  on  the  buftet  plan,  each  officer  serving  himself 
from  a  side  table. 

Two  or  three  of  the  men  with  whom  I  had  spoken  in  the 


coQise  of  the  morning  round,  had  used  that  now  faniiUar  ex- 
pression about  the  good  fortune  of  being  on  a  "  happy " 
ship,  but  the  climax  was  capped  that  evening  at  dinner  (at 
which  the  Ward  Room  entertained  the  Warrant  Officers) 
when  the  Captain  employed  it  in  explaining  the  easy  bon 
camaraderie  characterising  that  interesting  occasion.  I  had 
told  him  how  many  times  I  had  heard  the  words  in  question 
since  my  arrival,  and  asked  him  point  blank  if  I  was 
to  assume  by  implication  that  the  other  ships  of  the  Fleet 
were  only  dismal  prisons   of  steel   in    comparison. 

"  Perhaps  the  men  would  try  to  make  you  believe  .something 
to  that  effect,"  he  laughed,  "  but  so  also  would  those  of  the 

' ,'  and  the  • ',  and  the' '  regarding  each  other,  the 

rest  of  the  squadron  and  the  whole  of  the  Grand  Fleet.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  if  you  had  been  on  any  one  of  them  during  the 
last  twenty-four  hours,  you  would  probably  have  seen  and 
heard  and  experienced  just  about  what  you  have  seen  and 
heard  and  experienced  here.  You  will  not  go  far  wfong  if 
\o\\  say  we  are  all  "  Happy  Ships  "  up  here.  The  "  Happy 
Ship  "  is  a  tradition  of  the  Kritish  Navy,  and  it's  tlie  one  type 
of  craft  which  does  not  become  out-of-date  with  the  march  of 
science  and  the  passage  of  the  years." 


The  Skipper 

By    Francis    Brett    young 


AT  Algiers,  in  the    early    spring    of  ^914,  one  lived 
f^k      a   very     pleasant     life.      Our    days    were     spent 

/  ^  in  a  Moorish  garden  of  the  Frais  Vallon,  a 
JL  .^.valley  that  has  not  been  idly  named,  with  a  bucket 
well  of  sweet  water  that  one  pumped  to  feed  the  terraces 
where  orange  trees  and  lemons  and  medlars  were  growing. 
All  the  terraced  walks  were  set  with  stone  benches  on  which 
one  could  sit  in  the  bright  morning  and  watch  the  goats 
feeding,  and  their  keepers  asleep  on  the  hillside  beyond  the 
valle\".  It  was  a  world  of  the  tender  colour  of  ancient 
Moorish  tiles  :  blue  and  white  and  yellow.  Blue  skies,  and 
in  the  mouth  of  the  valley  a  bluer  sea  ;  pale  lamps  of  lemon 
and  orange  fruit  and  a  prodigious  growth  of  the  yellow 
flowered  weed  that  the  French  call  vinaigrette. 

White  gleamed  the  square  wall?  of  our  villa,  and  its  cool 
courtyard  was  paved  with  the  same  cracked  tiles  that  were  so 
old  and  so  cunningly  coloured  as  to  seem  made  for  those 
very  days  and  for  no  others.  In  the  Frais  VaUon  itself 
there  were  diversions.  A  little  way  down  the  road  there 
lived  an  old  and  very  bitter  Lorrainer  with  his  three  sons, 
fine,  rugged,  red-beaded  fellows.  In  the  evening  he  would 
talk  to  us  of  the  war  that  was  going  to  be,  and  explain 
exactly  why  the  French,  with  the  worst  of  luck,  didn't  win 
the  battle  of  Trafalgar.  "  He  thinks  of  nothing  but  war," 
said  the  eldest  boy  smiling  and  shaking  his  head.  Indeed, 
M.  Schuh  (that  was  his  name),  dealt  in  explosive  violence, 
being  a  maker  of  fireworks.  Well,  by  now  he  will  have  had 
enough  of  fireworks  to  last  him  for  this  life.  I  often  wonder 
what  has  become  of  those  splendid  sons  of  his  .  .  .  .  And 
then,  if  one  were  tired  of  M.  Schuh  and  of  his  idol  Deroulede, 
one  might  descend,  at  the  hour  of  the  aperitif,  to  the  citv 
of  Algiers  itself,  in  a  little  two-horse  diligence  which  Manocl, 
tlie  Spaniard,  dro\-e,  cooing  to  his  horses  all  the  way  down. 
Thiis  to  the  centre  of  the  city  where  all  nations  meet  on  the 
terrace  of  the  Grand  Cafe  TanlonviUc,  whose  orchestra  is 
nearly  as  loud  as  the  trams  which  go  clanging  past  it. 

A  wonderful  place,  bright  with  the  uniforms  of  Zouaves 
and  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  and  with  the  flowing  robes  of  certain 
Arabs,  backsliders  of  Islam,  who  drank  absinthe  and  posed 
before  the  eyes  of  European  woman.  That  night,  I  remember, 
a  Swedish  gunboat  had  put  in  to  port,  and  her  crew  moved 
clumsily,  being  a  little  fuddled  with  the  wine  of  the  Sahcl. 
between  the  close-set  tables.  Tall  and  fair-haired,  so  curiously 
northern  and  remote,  they  gave  me  the  fancy  of  a  party  of 
wondering  Goths  moving  slowly  through  the  markets  of  ancient 
Alexandria  with  its  noisy  Mediterranean  crowd.  They 
threaded  their  way  between  our  tables  and  were  gone,  and 
behind,  them  in  curious  contrast  came  the  skipper  and  his 
friend  Antonio. 

Here,  at  any  rate,  there  was  no  chance  of  a  misunderstanding. 
From  his  dusty  bowler  hat  to  his  black  boots  he  was  English, 
and  so,  for  that  matter,  was  his  companion.  Antonio  had 
been  drinking.  How  much  it  would  be  difficult  to  say,  though 
his  loose  mouth  and  rather  haggard  eyes  warned  one  that  it 
wasn't  for  the  first  time.  The  skipper  wore  the  blue  serge 
reach-me-downs  that  they  sell  at  little  shops  in  Bute  Street, 
Cardiff.  Antonio's  suit  was  of  a  more  ambitious  cut.  They ' 
had  given  him  a  waist  which  went  a  little  to  the  winds  in 
front,  a  defect  in  form  that  his  solid  gold  watch-chain  accen- 
tuated that  evening  for  the  last  time.     He  was  unshaven 


and  his  collar  was  dirty.  I  suppose  that  a  Cardiff  collier  is 
not  a  paradise  for  linen.  The  skipper's  collar  was  dirty  too. 
But  that  didn't  matter  in  his  case.  The  trouble  with  the 
other  fellow  was  just  that  he  was  too  damned  pretentious. 
He  talked  French,  bad  French,  expansively,  to  the  waiter, 
who  was  Maltese.  He  ordered  brandy,  glass  after  glass  of  it. 
I  counted  eight.  And  the  skipper,  too,  did  his  bit,  drinking 
stolidly,  always  serious  and  contained  and  somehow  re- 
sentful. He  spoke  very  little.  I  couldn't  catch  his  accent. 
.Antonio  did  enough  talking  for  both  of  them  and  to  spare. 
A  ragged  Arab  boy  came  past  with  a  tray  of  flowers,  Parma 
\  iolets,  tied  up  tightly  in  leaves  of  the  wild  arum  wiiich  were 
unfolding  in  the  hedgerows  about  that  time.  The  skipper 
bought  a  bunch  and  gave  the  boy  a  franc. 

"  You  fool !  "  Antonio  scoffed. 

''  I  can't  be  worried  with  their  French  money,"  said  the 
skipper.  He  began  to  pull  the  bunch  to  pieces  with  square 
tipped,  clumsy  fingers  that  were  grimed  with  coal  dust.  He 
found  that  he  had  been  badly  had  ;  there  were  only  four  or 
five  blooms  cunningly  expanded  in  the  green.  Antonio 
thought  it  an  excellent  joke.  He  slapped  the  skipper  on  the 
back  and  told  him  that  in  future  he'd  better  trust  to  him. 

"  All  you  want  is  to  talk  French,"  he  said.  "  You  listen 
ro  me,  and  then  they  won't  make  a  damned  fool  of  you." 
I  saw  the  skipper's  neck  go  red.  He  laid  a  square  hand  on 
Antonio's  shoulder  and  whispered  to  him  sharply. 

"  English  ?  "     .    .     .     said  Antonio,  gaping.     "■"  English  ? 

...  Go  to  hell  with  your  English !  "  The  skipper 
smiled.     I  have  never  seen  a  more  uncomfortable  smile. 

Then  he  cleared  liis  throat,  and  before  I  could  guess  what 
was  going  to  happen,  he  had  turned  towards  us  and  was 
presentmg  the  little  bouquet  of  violets  to  my  wife.  He  raised 
his  hat.  "  You'll  excuse  me  taking  the  liberty.  Ma'am, 
but  they  are  no  use  to  me,  and  it  is  a  treat  to  see  an  English 
lady  among  so  many  of  these these  people." 

The  delicacy  of  the  act  was  astounding,  and  it  came  so 
queerly  from  this  grimy  merchant  seaman.  We  thanked 
lum,  and  he  hurried  to  explain  to  me  that  he  had  been  driven 
to  this  form  of  introduction  by  fear  for  his  companion's 
language.  Antonio,  struggling  with  the  waiter  in  the  toils  of 
the  trench  language,  heard  nothing,  and  the  skipper  hurriedly 
explanied. 

"  ^"^P'lio  •  •  •  that's  my  friend  here,  or  rather  what 
I  call  him,  because  of  his  telegraphic  address  ...  has 
been  at  me  for  the  last  half-hour  saying  your  lady  was  not  an 
l-.nglishwoman.  If  you  don't  mind  my  saying  so,  he  said 
that  no  Englishwoman  had  ankles  like  that.  I  warned  him. 
1  told  hmi  that  I  could  tell  an  English  lady  in  a  thousand, 
ankles  or  no  ankles.  But  he  wouldn't  stop.  Antonio  can't 
carry  it  .  ,  .  that's  the  trouble.  And  so  I  had  to 
apologise  .  .  .  and  as  far  as  I  could  see  there  was  no 
other  way  but  in  taking  the  liberty  which  I  did." 

By  this  time  Antonio  had  settled  to  another  glass  of  brandy. 
He  sat  looking  at  us  solemnly  like  a  decrepit  bird.  "  I  shall 
have  to  introduce  him  to  you  if  you'll  allow  me,"  said  the 
skipper.  "  He'll  all  right,  you  know.  All  right  .  , 
barnng  that.  It's  a  first-cla'ss  firm.  Very  well  known  in 
coaling  circles  Anthony  Berrett  and  Co.  Cables  :  "  Antonio." 
1  hat's  wiiat  I  call  my  friend  here  for  short." 

Antonio  nulled  himself  together,  began,  rather  too  obviously 


January  lo,  1918 


LAND    &    WATEK 


15 


to  set  off  the  gentility  of  nis  accem  against  his  unshaven  chin 
and  his  dirty  collar.     Still  he  didn't  do  it  badly. 

"  I  told  my  friend  the  Captain  here,  from  the  first,  that 
your  wife  was  English,  sir.  Delightful  to  meet  an  Enghshman 
in  these     .     .     .     these  surroundings." 

He  waved  his  hand.  There  was  no  way,  indeed,  of  getting 
free  from  his  attentions.  He  produced  a  card-case,  cards. 
In  five  minutes  his  intimacy  had  run  to  photographs  of  his 
wife  and  two  children.  Rather  a  handsome  woman  in  a 
florid  way  :  I  suppose  ten  years  ago  Antonio  had  been  some- 
thing of  a  catch  in  Newport  or  Cardiff,  or  wherever  it  was  ; 
and  the  children  were  charming.  My  wife  kept  her  end  up  as 
well  as  she  could,  and  while  she  did  so  the  skipper  pulled  round 
his  chair  to  face  me,  so  that  I  became  particularly  conscious 
of  the  tight  blue  serge,  wrinkled  horizontally  over  his  thighs, 
his  soiled  collar,  and  over  it  his  simple  ruddy  face  and  his 
very  puzzled  eyes.  He  spoke  in  a  low  voice.  "  You  muss 
excuse  nie,  sin  and  particularly  your  lady.  But  in  a  way  of 
speakin'  you're  a  godsend  if  ever  there  was  one." 

He  produced  a  cigarette  case  of  imitation  morocco  from 
his  pocket,  fumbled  with  a  visiting  card.  He  handed  it  to 
me.    It  ran  :  Capt.\i.n'  J.^mes  A.  Williams,  S.S.  Gower  Hall. 

"  Captain  Williams  !  "  I  said. 

"  That's  my  present  name,"  he  repUed.  "  But  you  never 
know.  I've  been  master  of  this  ship  for  five  years.  But  you 
never  know.  One  of  these  days  she'll  put  her  nose  into  a 
cargo  of  iron  ore  out  of  Bilbao  or  get  piled  up  on  Limdy,  and 
then  there  won't  be  much  Captain  about  it.  It's  hke  tempting 
providence  to  print  that  word.  Only  these  cards — " 
he  became  more  and  more  confidential^"  was  a  Christmas 
present  from  my  wife's  sister.  She's  all  for  the  Captain  and 
that.  Williams  is  my  name,  James  Williams.  Leave  the 
Captain  out  of  it.  I  say  you're  a  godsend,  meaning  that  if 
it  wasn't  for  you  being  here  I  should  have  the  devil's  own 
job  with  Antonio.  It's  bad  enough  to  have  been  shipmates 
with  him  from  Cardiff  to  Algiers.  Ten  days  of  it.  But  to 
get  the  beggar  loose  in  this  place  at  night  is  more  than  I'm 
up  to." 

Over  my  shoulder  I  heard  Antonio  asking  the  waiter  for 
aloueiles.     He  meant  matches. 

Antoni  >  broke  in  :  "  Now  sir,  what  about  a  Uttle  drink  ? 
Come  on,  Skipper,  come  on.     You're  frightened  of  it  !  " 

Another  round  of  brandy  ;  and  the  skipper,  gulping  it 
down  with  the  most  obvious  distaste,  smiled  that  curious 
protesting  smile  of  his.  A  moment  later  Antonio  began  to 
pick  a  quarrel  with  an  American  captain  whom  he  was  anxious 
to  instruct  in  a  fine  point  of  navigation.  The  Grand  Cafe 
Tantonville  was  no  place  for  us.  As  we  turned  to  go  the 
skipper  pressed  my  hand  fervently.  "  Very  much  obliged  to 
you,  sir,  and  to  your  lady.    You  see  I'm  in  for  it  to-night." 

II. 

He  was  in  for  it.  How  thoroughly  I  never  imagined  till 
next  day  when  I  met  liim  wandering  along  the  great  boule- 
vard above  the  harbour  w  all  not  far  from  that  particular  cafe 
which  sea  captains  frequent.  Its  name  I  forget  ;  but  if  you 
are  an  Enghshman  and  wear  a  blue  serge  suit  the  waiters 
will  call  you  "  captain  "  and  bring  you  beef  as  a  matter  of 
course.  There,''  in  the  pecuHarly  hard  light  which  the  white 
causeway  and  tlie  whiter  fronts  of  the  colonnade  reflect,  the 
skipper  looked  a  rather  meaner  figure  than  before.  He  was 
still  unshaven,  and  the  beard  had  grown  :  his  collar  was  a 
little  dirtier,  his  trousers  more  obviously  acquainted  with 
the  engine-room.  I  never  saw  a  man  more  stoUdly  down  in 
the  mouth.     "  Well,  where's  Antonio  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Antonio.  .  .  ."  He  swore  steadily  and  without  heat 
for  longer  than  I  should  have  imagined  possible.  It  had 
begun  with  a  quarrel,  the  one  which  I  had  seen  blowing  up 
in  the  Tantonville.  Tlien  to  the  Casino  :  a  place  that  was  a 
mixture  of  musical  hall  and  gambling  den.  There  Antonio 
had  won  money  :  that  was  the  worst  of  it  for  the  skipper  had 
been  looking  forward  to  a  process  of  natural  exhaustion  which 
was  thus  miraculously  stayed.  Still  the  skipper  stuck  to  hini. 
He  followed  Antonio  scattering  twenty-five  franc  notes  in  the 
alleys  and  escorted  by  an  appreciative  crowd,  through  an 
arched  door  in  the  middle  of  a  dancing  house. 

"You  know  those  dances,"  said  the  skipper  wearily; 
"  the  kind  you  can  see  in  any  port  between  Marseilles  to 
Honolulu.     Nothing  in  'em." 

Outside,  in  the  clear  night  air  Antonio  had  escaped  him, 
the  devil  kmw  how,  and  half  the  rest  of  that  night  he  had 
spt-nt  walking  the  straight  and  hilly  ways  of  the  Arab  city. 

"  About  four  o'clock  this  morning,"  said  the  .skipper, 
"  I  got  down  to  the  ship  and  went  below.  I  hadn't  been 
aslecji  more  than  a  couple  of  hours  when  in  comes  Antonio 
wanting  money.  Money.  .  .  .  Well,  I  told  Mr.  .\ntonio 
what  I  thought  of  him  :  him  a  man  with  a  position  and  a 
family.  '  CaJm  yourself,  old  chap,'  he  says,  just  like  that. 
'  I've  got  to  have  it.     I've  had  the  bad  luck  to  lose  my  watch 


as  well  as  your  revolver. 

The  skipper  glared  at  me  as  if  it  were  I  who  had  stolen  it. 

"  One  thing  I  know,"  he  said,  "  and  that  is  that  if  I  have 
to  lose  the  ship  i'll  never  take  a  'gentleman  on  board  again. 
You'll  excuse  my  saying  so  :  but  you  know  how  1  feci.  That's 
what  comes  of  being  the  master  of  a  ship.  You  think  you're 
going  to  be  God  Almighty  and  then  the  owners  come  and 
plant  a  thing  like  this  on  you.  Back  I  go  to  Cardiff  and  the 
first  thing  they'll  ask  mc  is  what  have  you  done  with  Antonio. 
Unless  I  put  him  in  irons  at  every  port  I  shall  have  lost  him. 
It's  my  luck.  -  It's  always  been  the  same.  Now  listen.  My 
wife's  a  Catholic.  ...  a  Roman  Catholic.  I  don't 
think  any  the  worse  of  her  for  it.  She's  a  good  woman  when 
she's  away  from  her  sister.  Voyage  after  voyage  she  hears 
of  me  taking  coal  to  Italy,  and  nothing  will  satisfy  the  woman 
but  to  come  with  me  and  see  Rome.  Now  she's  a  bad  sailor, 
and  inclined  to  be  stout.  A  fine  time  I  had  with  her,  I  can 
tell  you.  It's  an  awful  thing  to  see  a  woman  of  that  size  sick. 
When  we  came  to  Civita  Vecchia  she  goes  and  slips  on  a  gang- 
way .  .  .  weak,  you  know  with  the  sickness,  and  breaks 
her  leg.  And  that's  all  she  ever  saw  of  Rome.  That's  what 
hapf)ens.  I  wish  I'd  never  seen  this  ship  A  man's 
happiest  when  he's  a  mate.  I  assure  you  there's  nothing  in 
it  but  trouble nothing  but  trouble." 

By  this  time  we  had  wandered  a  good  way  to  the  east,  and 
I  noticed  that  his  eyes  were  constantly  turning  towards  the 
forest  of  masts  which  rose  above  the  docks.  At  last  he  stopped 
me,  tapping  me  on  the  arm. 

"  There  she  is  ?  "  he  said. 

"  Where  ?  " 

"  The  red  funnel  with  a  white  band  and  two  red  stars.'' 

I  looked  in  the  direction  which  he  gave  me  and  picked  out 
with  difficulty  a  funnel  of  this  description  springing  holt 
upright  from  one  of  the  most  villainous  little  craft  I  ha\'e  ever 
seen.  She  was  very  small,  resembling  some  undersized  and 
stunted  mongrel ;  her  smoke  stack  was  caked  with  spray  and 
soot,  her  decks  were  foul  with  coal ;  her  ensign,  tattered  and 
drooping,  hung  miserably  astern. 

"  There  she  is,"  said  the  skipper  again. 

I  looked  at  him.  It  was  an  extraordinaiy  transformation, 
or,  if  you  will,  transfiguration.  All  his  distress  and  grumbling 
discontent  were  suddenly  gone.  His  tanned,  square  face 
became  somehow  almost  beautiful.  The  change  would  have 
been  ridiculous  if  it  hadn't  really  been  the  symbol  of  a  rapt 
and  lovely  ectsasy.  It's  an  amazing  thing  how  emotion  of 
that  kind  communicates  itself.  In  that  moment  I  felt  tliat 
I  would  have  done  anything  in^the  world  for  the  master  of  the 
Gawer  Hall. 

"  She's  a  fine  little  packet,"  he  said,  gripping  my  arm. 
"  The  best  sea-boat  I  ever  sailed  in.  It  isn't  fair  for  you  to 
look  at  her  now  when  she's  discharging  a  cargo  of  coal.  You 
want  to  see  her  when  I've  got  'em  to  work  on  the  white  deck 
paint.  White  deck  paint  on  a  collier,  eh  ?  You  want  to  see 
her  spinning  along  at  eight  or  nine  knots.  My  chief '11  get  her 
up  to  ten  all-out.  One  of  these  days  you  must  come  aboard. 
My  steward's  a  Jap.  Say  what  yoti  like  about  the  Japs,  but 
they  do  know  how  to  cook.  If  only  I  had  this  Antonio  off 
my  mind.     .     .     ." 

We  walked  up  again  to  the  restaurant  of  which  I  have 
spoken  where  they  gave  us  an  uncomprising  steak  with  the  idea, 
no  doubt,  of  reminding  the  captain  of  Cardiff. 

"  This  is  the  first  food,"  he  smiled,  ■"  that  I've  tasted  for 
twenty-four  hours.  I  want  you  to  consider  yourself  my  guest 
for  all  your  sympathy,"  he  said,  and  when  I  protested,  thinking 
of  the  little  house  in  Cardiff  and  of  those  aml^itious  visiting 
cards  :  "  You  know,  the  owners  always  allow  us  so  much  for 
entertaining  in  a  business  way." 

We  parted  and  tliat  day  I  saw  no  more  of  him  or  of  .\ntonio. 
He  was  bound,  I  knew,  for  Bougie,  the  next  port  along  the 
coast,  where  he  was  due  to  pick  up  a  cargo  of  some  metal.  .  . 
I  think  it  was  copper,  and  1  gave  the  matter  no  more  thought 
till,  lounging  upon  the  sea  wall  about  the  time  of  sunset,  I 
happened  to  see  a  misshapen  httle  steamboat  putting  out 
to  sea.  It  was  a  wonderful  evening,  a  dull  red  going  down 
behind  the  serene  skyhne  on  which  the  church  of  Notre-Dame 
d'Afrique  stands,  ancl  all  the  bay  the  colour  of  deep  jade  and 
very  calm.  I  recognised  the  starred  smoke-stack  of  the 
Gowcr  Halt,  butting  out  stubbornly,  with  something  of  the 
skipper's  own  stunted  energy,  into  the  paler  sea  in  whch  the 
light  of  Cape  Matifou  would  soon  blink  out.  "  A  funny 
business,"  I  thought,  "  just  as  some  damned  little  coasting 
tramp  comes  in  and  hes  alongside  a  stranger  at  a  foreign 
quay,  we  human  creatures  bump  one  another  and  get  taken  up 
for  an  hour  or  two  quite  intimately  into  the  woof  of  each  other's 
lives.  And  that's  the  end  of  it.  I  shall  never  see  Antonio 
or  Captain  James  Williams  or  the  Gower  Hall  again,  and  yet 
in  some,  corner  of  our  brains,  even  though  we  don't  suspJect 
it,  we  shall  always  remember  one  another.  I,  at  any  rate, 
shall  always  remember  liow  Mrs.  Williams  broke  her  leg  on 
the  wav  to  sec  the  Pope.     A  funnv  business." 


i5 


LAND    &    WATER 


J  anuary  loT^lli 


Shadows    and    the    Rocks 


By   WilHam   T.    Palmer 


SOME  sjlorioiis  courses  among  the  rocks  have  been 
tli>eo\ered  by  some  trick  of  evening;  sliadow.  The 
(  rocii  on  Sgiimain  in  tiie  Coolen  was  not  known  to 
tJie  craft  until  a  sharji-eved  professor  nosed  a  tiny  d(»t 
of  sunshine  against  tiie  sliadowed  slal^s.  The  crag  itself  is 
curious,  and  curiously  situated.  It  is  perched  on  a  shoulder 
i>i  rock,  a  solitary  boulder,  and  only  approachable  across  a 
stretch  of  slabs  more  or  less  teciuiically  ditlicult. 

In  Cumberland  tiie  famous  Tapes  Needle  was  disclosed  in 
]>ractically  identical  manner,  though  the  chmb  had  to  wait 
longer  for  its  conciueroi-.  Nowadays,  tramping  down  the 
stony  track  below  Sprinkling  Tarn,  every  eye  turns  mechani- 
callv  towards  the  Tapes  hedge  as  it  appears  gradually  over 
the"  lessening  buttress  of  (7reat  End.  Old  landmarks  are 
settled  anew,  the  grey  sconces  at  the  foot  of  climbers'  gullies, 
the  ptrched  blocks  abo\-e,  the  sharp  ribs  and  edges,  and  then 
in  the  maze  of  fretted  stone,  the  sharp  tip  of  the  Needle 
Ix'conies  a  certainty,  and  eye  and  mind  travel  no  further 
until  a  bend  of  the  jjath  throws  that  wilderness  of  rock  into 
new  confusion,  and  view  of  the  Needle  is  lost.  From  Wasdaie 
Head,  in  tlie  deep  trough  west  of  the  mountains,  the  Needle 
ilames  like  a  candle  on  those  rare  evenings  when  the  rocks 
are  wet  and  the  sun  shines  clear  from  the  horizon.  A  keen 
eye  can  usually  identify  the  lower  of  broken  rocks  in  the  even- 
ing light.  It  is  a  patch  of  lighter  hue  amidst  the  tangled 
shadows  of  gullies  and  arches,       '    ^if  ■ 

In  the  Alps,  many  famous  routes  were  located  by  sunset 
shadow — a  crescent  of  snow  blue  in 'a  region  of  pitiless  silver 
has  drawn  the  eye  of  the  mountaineer.  .Possibly  beneatli 
such  a  point  existed  the  shallow  groove,  the  deep  cleft,  through 
which  lay  the  route  to  the  summit.  In  the  far-off  Rockies 
of  Canada,  a  steep,  even  dangerous  first  approach  to  the  top 
of  Mount  Robson  was  discovered  by  its.  shadow,  and  in  the 
Himalayan  sunset  many  a  telescope  has  been  levelled  from 
Darjeeling  and  other  stations  among  "  The  Hills  "  at  that 
wrinkle  which  slants  up  the  highest  snows  of  Mount  Everest , 
which  avoids  that  series  of  deadlv  pinnacles,  and  seems  to 
give  a  fair  path  to  the  summit.  Years  ago,  how  one  dreaded 
to  hear  that  some  band  of  German  cpiasi-professors  should 
intrigue  a  permission,  forbidden  to  Briton  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  India,  and  be  the  first  to  set  foot  on  that  virgin  peak. 
The  Abode  of  Snow,  which  stands  for  so  much  in  some  of  the 
theologies  of  our  liastern  peoples. 

Shadow  routes  do  not  alwa\s  lead  to  success.  The  wav 
is  apt  to  start  fair  and  either  "to  lead  away  from  the  desired 
objective,  or  to  end  tamely  against  some  holdless  face  of 
rock.  Tlie  deep  cleft  of  O.ssian's  Cave  above  Glencoc  is  a 
case  in  point.  The  shadow  is  good  and  strong,  but  even  the 
scramble  into  the  "  Ca\e  "  (which  is  merely  a  rock-archway 
crowning  a  gully  set  at  a  high  angle)  is  no  joke.  E.xperts 
only  can  pass  directly  beyond  liy  a  couple  of  narrow  cracks 
in  the  overhanging  wall.  A  fabulous  length  of  Alpine  rope 
is  run  out  before  the  leader  reaches  the  first  safe  and  com- 
modious ledge,  from  which  he  can  assist  and  supervise  his 
second's  ascent.  On  Lliwcdd  in  wild  Snowdonia,  a  line  of 
lire  marks  at  many  a  sunset  a  splendid  arete,  but  the  course 
is  just  a  medley  of  buttresses  and  slabs  foreshortened,  super- 
imposed, tricked  out  by  the  flood  of  light,  and  is  not  coherent 
at  all.  One  remembers,  from  experience,  a  guUv  which  the 
sunset  "  set  on  end,"  and  the  hopeless,  miserable  scramble 
which  was  necessary  before  one  was  persuaded  of  the  illusion. 
The  upright  pillars  of  mountains  were,  by  cold  daylight, 
scarce  visible  at  all  ;  rotten  rocks,  earthv  ledges,  inossy! 
lichened  slabs,  abomination  of  vegetation,  of  dripping  sjirings 
wer-t'  encountered  where  one  luwi  seen  clear  ,i-ock  and  sound 
going  indeed. 

No  one  believes  in  either  the  moon's  high  lights  or  her 
shadows,  else  one  would  be-  groping  on  the  hill-side  opposite 
my  tent  to-day.  Up  there  last  night  I  saw  a  niightv  abvss 
and  some  splendid  towers  of  rock,  but  the  hillside  luis  faflen 
back  to  Its  jiroper  mildness,  and  a  few  nodules  of  broken 
stone  among  which  the  sheep  are  ])lacidlv  grazing  is  all  that 
remains  of  that  series  of  gicat  rock  problems.  I  am  not 
fond  of  moonlight  rambles  among  the  hills  and  the  rocks. 
Get  down  to  the  valley  road  in  decent  time,  and  do  not  wander 
trom  tiie  direct  route  even  in  that  morose,  alluring  place 
llarta  Corrie  of  Skye.  The  difiiculties,  even  seen  from  a 
distance,  are  distorted,  rendered  fantastic,  by  moonlight- - 
one  needs  no  further  pattern  for  a  rock-climber's  nightmare 
than,  say,  the  west  front  of  the  Pillar  Rock  in  Cumberland 
as  seen  from  the  black  throat  of  the  Gnat  Doup  beneath. 

It  vould  need  a  question  of  life  or  death  to  niako  one 
\cutuie  on  the  sheer  crags,  even  bv  known  >  ourscs  there,  bv 
lU'jonhjjht.  but  one  admits  a  bciaiuble  or  two  ia  stfirlJgUt,  cvui 


in  complete  darkness.  .Mr.  Rooke  Corbeit,  of  the  RiK'k>ack 
(and  many  another)  club  claims  tliat  it  is  easier  togct.  im  ai^l 
down  a  cliff  at  night  by  conventional  climbing  methods  on 
cour.ses  of  moderate  difliculty  than  it  is  under  the  sar4i<' 
conditions  to  outflank  the  crag.  While  not  so  enthusiastic, 
V)iie  would  admit  that  it  is  easier  to  descend,  with  an  average 
partv  of  novices,  such  a  short  piect-  as  the  Broad  Stand  or  the 
North  Climb  down  to  Mickledore  ridge  than  to  pass  ,tlie 
.  caern  ofScafelland  to  find  and  negotiate  the  steep  scree-walk 
of  Lord's  Rake  on  the  western  edge  of  the  chff.  But,  any- 
way, the  problem  must  be  led  by  a  seasoned  climber.  '  The 
novice  and  the  tourist  is  better  advised  to  shirk  all  chffs  at 
night,  although  it  may  involve  turning  up  at  the  Woolpack 
in  Eskdale  instead  of  at  the  Royal  Oak  at  Rosthwaite  in 
Horrowdale.  At  such  times  geographical  considerations  may 
well  play  second  fiddle  to  safety.  But  few  old  climbers  will 
admit  that  descending  a  chff  at  night  is  worth  the  trouble  and 
danger  involved.  Probably  they  arc  right.  There  is  a  limit 
to  shado\v-\vays. 

Storm  Shadows 

The  sliadow  of  storm  plays  its  pranks  among  the  rocks, 
but  hardly  to  the  lielp  or  safety  of  climbers.  But  one  has 
found,  in  the  fierce  glare  before  a  thunderstorm,  the  key  to  a 
new  and  satisfactory  course.  It  was  on  a  ridge  of  the  Coolin , 
and  the  light  playing  round  from  the  north-east  touched  into 
notice  a  crevice  In"  which  a  difliciilt  cave-pitch  was  sur- 
mounted neatly  and  safely.  I'p  wc  went  lapidlv,  pulled  out 
of  the  gully,  and  on  to  the  great  slab  which  makes  the  upper 
peak.  Then  we  found  that  the  advantage  of  our  course  was 
to  us  of  dubious  value.  Had  not  this  variation  tempted  us, 
the  cave  would  have  been  our  shelter,  or  the  base  for  a  safe, 
if  damp  retreat.  The  clouds  hurled  themselves  against  the 
upper  rocks  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  air  round  us  was  full  of 
spra\'.  For  an  hour  we  balanced  on  insignificant  ledges,  in 
the  centre  of  something  not  unlike  a  cloud  burst,  for  sheets  of 
water  slid  down  the  slabs,  and  at  times  one  felt  that  but  little 
more  fluid  would  wash  us  down  to  the  foot  of  the  rocks. 
A  drenching  is  a  small  matter  to  the  climber,  but  to  be  made 
a  watercourse  while  negotiating  a  steep  open  slab  was  a  new, 
chiUing  and  uncomfortable  experience.  It  made  little  differ- 
ence to  us  that  the  floods  were  out  ui  the  glen. 

When  the  clouds  are  sweeping  over  the  hills,  one  finds  that 
they  make  .shadow  at  certain  points.  There  is  that  feather 
of  mist  which  so  often  marks  Twll  Dn  (th<-  Devil's  Kitchen) 
above  Llyn  Idwal  in  North  Wales.  That  is  a  sinister  rift  : 
a  strong  stream  daslies  itself  into  vapour  chi  the  rocks  beneatli 
and  the  two  bodies  combine  to  a  definite  smudge.  But 
one  would  not  climb  to  such  a  plact;  anticipating  the  sport  of 
the  rocks.  There  are  sheer  walls,  there  is  a  gloomy,' romantic 
gulf,  but  what  holds  there  are  are  rotten,  unsafe" affairs  and 
the  direct  ascent  of  the  Devil  s  Kitchen  wall  is  a  tribute  to 
good  nerxes,  good  climbing  technique,  and  a  wonderful  ej c 
for  the  best  of  bad  rock. 

The  vagaries  of  i^ist  are  too  well  known  to  mountain 
ramblers  to  need  any 'description.  One  has  heard  of  a  j^arty 
i)i  rock-climbers  shortening  a  holiday  on  the  cra^s  of  BuchailVe 
l'"tivc  Mhor,  in  order  to  spend  three  da\s  on  some  alluring 
crags  near  Ardlui,  whici  they  had  located,  through  the  mist- 
wreaths,  as  the  train  was  whirling  them  up  Glen  F'alloch. 
Even  moonlight  cannot  compare  with  mist  for  distortion. 
I  am  writing  tlitse  lines  in  sight  of  a  fifteen-foot  wall  of  rock 
which,  on  my  firsi  \isit,  turiiked  me  aside.  How  it  towered, 
grey,  gaunt,  |;rim,  with  plumes  and  crossbelts  of  white  puffs  ! 
Nowhere  did  there  seem  to  be  a  \  ulnerable  point.  Nowadays 
one  laughs  at  such  an  apparition.  One  has  paned  again  and 
again  the  maxim  tliat  no  rock  course  can  be  termed  impossibk 
until  one's  hands  have  gripped  its  holds.  Was  it  not  Mum- 
mery who  said,  or  quoted,  that  no  one  knew  a  rock  until  he 
had  rubbed  his  face  against  it.  And  rubbing  one's  face 
against  the  rock  is  the  only  way  one  knows  of  proving  the 
advantage  of  a  shadow-course,  or  of  finding  that  such  a  course 
is  a  mere  break  of  sun  or  cloud. 


The  IMpiiger  Neueste  Nac/iricMm  glori-fies  the  German  x  ictory 
over   Russiii  in  this  strain  ; 

There  is  a  pus.sibilitv  of  hastilities  being  resumed  if  the 
KuMian  demands  jirc  too  extensive.  But  this  is  not  likely  to 
happen.  _for  when  a  national  army  such  as  that  of  Kussia  has 
aclmitted  its  defeat  and  its  inability  to  continue  fighting  it  will 
liardly  resume  the  fight  in  order  to  gain  a  bettej  mihtarv  reputa- 
tion m  the  eyes  of  the,  -norld.  Mofvoi-er.  there  is  no  question, 
vt  n  ever  again  b^int;  ui  a  poniihn  to  rccwcr  the  tcrrlfviy  it  hat 
/ost.       The  Italics  are  ours. 


Januarv  lo.  1918 


LAND    &    WA.TER 

Etfe  anil  iteirers 

By  J.  C.  Squire 


77 


Sir  Arthur   Helps 

PROBABLY.  jno5t  modern  people,  confuse  Sir  Arthur 
Helps  with  Smile's  Self  Help  :    and  certainly  both 
were  edihing  and  neither  could  harm  a  fly.     1' or  the 
benefit  of  such  I  may  explain  that  Self-Help  was  a 
book,  and  Sir  Arthur  Helps  was  a  man.     He  was  a  man  with 
an  ample  forehead,  an  ample  nose,  and  an  ample  beard  :    all  ^ 
properties  commoner  in  his  dav  than  in  ours.     He  was  famous  • 
for  his  Friends  in  Council  and  a"s  editor  of  the  Queen's  Highland 
journal.     He  knew  a  great  manv  dignitaries  ;    he  ended  his 
Hfc  as  Clerk  to  the  Privv  Council  ;    and  he  died  forty  years 
ago.     The  Correspmidenc'e  of  Sir  Arthur  Helps  (John  Lane. 
I2S.  6d.  net)  has  been  published,  therefore,  after  a  very  long 
inter\-al.     But  no  ;    it  is  not  full  of  horrible  revelations. 
*         *         *         *         *  ' 
Xo  age  is  entirely  populated  by  persons  of  one  tvp<%  and 
it  is  as  stupid  to  make  generalisations  about  the  Victorians 
as  about  "the  Ehzabethans."     The  fact  remains  that  you 
have  onlj-  to  mention  those  two  terms  to  be  struck  by  a  differ- 
ence of  atmosphere.     We  feel  at  once  that  there  is  something 
about  the  majority  of  great  Victorians  which  is  not  present 
in  the  majority  of  great    Elizabethans.     Dozens  of  eminent 
Victorians  wrote  letters,  here  printed,  to  Sir  Arthur  Helps. 
Their  letters  and  his  are  not  merely  morally  blameless  :    as 
a  rule,  they  show  real  nobility  of  character,  loftiness  of  aim, 
anxiety  to  be  just,  tolerant,  sympathetic.     But  they  almost 
all  of  "them  Hrite  as  though  trovn  the  pulpit;  or  as  persons 
enjoymg  a  little  relaxation  out  of  the  piilpit.     There  is  sorne- 
thing  of  the  wean,'  Titan  about  them  ;    they  don't  complain, 
but  the  task  ot  maintaining  the  Cause  of  Nobility  is  a  little 
wearing.      Their  genuine  goodness  one  cannot  but    admire, 
but  one  could^  wish  that  they  were  sometimes  a  little  less 
eager  to  make  it  absolutely  clear  that  they  mean  well  to  the 
whole  human  race,  and  that  they  must  not  be  misunderstood 
when  they  joke,  and  a  little  less  self-consciously  determined 
that  their  every  utterance  should  be  characteristic  of  them. 
There  is  a  tinge  of  smugness  and  self-satisfaction  about  it 
all  ;   and  this  is  all  the  more  apparent  in  those  of  them,  like 
Helps  himself,  who  were  not  only  incapable  of  realising  the 
comic  side  of  themseh'es,  but  who  scarcely  ever  settn  to  have 
suspected  their  own  limitations. 

***** 
Helps  knew  that  he  meant  to  be  fair,  philanthropic  and 
progressive  ;  it  never  seems  to  have  occurred  to  him,  in  spite 
of  his  habit  of  putting  other  people's  points  of  view,  that  he 
may  sometimes  have  been  wrong  or  blind.  "  As  all  who 
knew  him  are  awarCj"  says  his  son,  "  he  had  a  hatred  of  war. 
a  dislike  of  competfl;i\'c  examinations,  and  \v;as  ever  oppre.ssed 
by  a  sense  of  the  evils  of  crowding  unhealthy  dwellings  and 
insanitation  in  large  cities."  The  mere  hst  is  funny  ;  it  is 
like  saying  that  a  man  •believed  in  God  and  drank  two  whiskies 
a  day.  Helps  realised  that  war  and  chattel-slavery  were 
great  evils  ;  but  it  was  scarcely  difficult  to  do  that;.  Faced 
with  the  brutalities  and  fhe  slavery  of  contemporary  in- 
dustrialism, he  had  no  such  general  horror,  but  merely  a  few 
iiobbies.  Mr.  Chesterton  has  talked  of  the  Victorian  Com- 
jiromise  ;  this  man  was  simply  It.  He  would  be  the  moderate 
man,  advising  employers  to  be  kind,  workmen  not  to  ask  for 

00  much,  governors  to  be  prudent,  .mobs  to  be  rcjasonable, 
•vePi-body  to  keep  his  temper,  refrain  from  invective  and 
:onsole  himself  for  his  afflictions— poverty  included — by 
neditation  and  the  cultivation  of  the  arts,  ("onfronted  whh 
•conomir  and  social  chaos,  all  he  could  suggest  was  that 
ompetitivc  examinations  were  bad,  and  that  foul  drains  were 

1  breeding-ground  of  sedition.  He  meant  very  wefl  indeed 
when  he  axlvised  tlie  emjJoyer,  faced  with  the  Chartist,  npt 
to  abuse  or  assault  him,  j[)ut  to  reason  with  him.  If  he 
"  begins  with  his  '  liberty,  equaht}-,  and  fraternity,'  tell  him 
that  here  there  is  neither  time  nor  space  for  such  things." 
')ne  can  imagine  how  blandness  like  that  would  work  !  The 
mixture  of  this  sort  of  thing  with  a  mild  human  is  what  his 
Iriends  called  Helpsianism  ;  and  he  obviously  relished  the 
name.  "This  person,  who  is  now  writing,"  he. says,  in  a 
letter  to  the  \'iceroy  of  India,  "  has,  amongst~  his  many 
other  faults,  a  little  love  of  teasing  and  making  fun."  Dear 
dear;   how  very  naughty  ! 

***** 

Still  he  was  an  amiable  And  benevolent  soul,  and  tluy  all 
Kked  him.  Many,  perhaps  most,  of  their  letters  acknowledge 
presentation  copies  of  his  books.  He  wrote,  besides  Friends 
in  Council,  a  life  of  the  Prince  Consort,  a  history  of  the 
■Spanish  Conquest  of  America,  several  novels  (including  one 
in  favour  of  emigration  -decidedly  a  no\cl  witli  a  ijurposc — 


but  he  was  quite  capable  of  a  romantic  drama  about  com- 
j)etitive  examinations),  some  plays,  and  numerous  political 
l>ooks  and  pamphlets.  He  seems  to  have  spread  free  copies 
about  so  freely  that  his  publisher  must  almost  always  ha\-(.; 
been  certain  of  a  second  edition.  It  is  amusing  to  study,  the 
replies  of  his  friends.  I  like  best  of  all  Tennyson's,  upon 
receiving  a  play  in  verse  called  Oulita  : 

Mv  Dk.'Mj  Helps,— Thanks  for  Oulita.     I  have  not  yet  read  it 
but  I  have  cut  it  open,  which  looks  as  if  1  meant  to  read  it. 

That  is  a  model.  If  one  only  acknowledges  one's  friends 
books  in  this  way,  one  can  express  one's  thanks  and  avoid 
the  lies  ;  for  no-one  could  expect  a  second  letter  containing 
additional  remarks.  Carlyle,  on  receiving  The  Spanish 
Conquest  in  America^  jvas  less  terse  : 

Dkar  Hui.ps, — Many  kind  thanks  for  this  kind  gift  of  your  last 
\'olunie.  It  is  very  pretty  reading,  like  its  predecessors, 
when  1  dip  into  it.  By  and  bye,  if  it  please  Heaven,  I  design 
to  give  that  Work  an  E.xamination  much  worthier  of  its 
qualities  than  I  could  vet  bestow  on  it — or  anything  that  has 
appeared  in  its  time  ;  wretched  sinner,  swallowed  in  the 
I'russian  quagmires  (fetid  as  the  Stygian),  and  swimming  for 
iife  (too  literally  that  !)  as  I  have  long  been. 

Most  of  Carlyle's  letters  here  are  like  that,  in  the  familiar 
posing  prose  ;  he  might  at  least  have  got  off  the  stilts  when 
not  writing  for  publication  ;  and  in  any  other  age  but  that  his 
friends  would  have  told  him — the  fastidious  reader  may 
be  given  a  choice  of  terms — either  to  stow  it  or  to  cheese  it. 
***** 

It  may  by  now  be  evident  that  the  present  reviewer  was  a 
httlo  bored"  by  this  volume,  is  not  drawn  by  the  magnetic 
charms  of  Sir  Arthur's  works,  and  respects  rather  than  loves 
Sir  Arthtir  himself.  E\'ident  or  not  it  is  true.  But  tire 
dullest  book  of  memoirs  is  just  worth  reading,  and  this  is  one 
of  them.  There  are  few,  if  any,  important  or  amusing 
additions  to  history.  One  would  not  expect  such  in  the 
letter  of  one  who-^when  his  circle  was  scandaUsed  by  the 
publication  of  Greville's  Memoirs — wrote  : 

I  cannot  help  praising  my.self.  There  will  be  no  papers  found 
after  my  death— no  diaries — containing  disagreeable  stories 
about  people  and  telhng  alk  that  I  have  seen  and  heard  of 
strange  things.  I  resolved  from  the  first  that  there  should 
be  an  instance  of  a  man  who  saw  and  heard  much  that  was 
fleeply  interesting,  but  private,  and  who  could  hold  his  tongue 
and  restrain  his  pen,  for  ever.     ... 

The  spirit  of  this  was  akin  to  his  'preference  for  harmless 
generalities  in  discussion  ;  we  do  not  go  to  Brer  Rabbit  for 
information.  But,  as  always,  there  are  entertaining  scraps. 
We  learn  that  the  second  Duke  of  Wellington  thought  that 
we  were  in  honour  bound  to  return  Gibraltar  to  Spain.  \\'e 
are  told  that  when  Dickens  had  his  conversation  with  Queen 
Victoria  (Helps  appears  to  have  been  the  tertium  quid),  the 
novelist  told  his  sovereign  what  President  Lincoln  dreamt 
the  night  before  his  murder.  Dickens,  we  know,  shared 
some  of  the  tastes  of  his  own  Fat  Boy,  but  if  this  is  the 
sort  of  small-talk  that  monarchs  arc  entertained  with,  it  is 
no  NN'onder  that  their  heads  lie  uneasy.  We  find  Lord  Morley, 
at  a  lamentably  early  age,  proudly  stating  that  "like  Buffon, 
I  insist  on  shaving  and  fine  Hnen  before  sitting  down  to  com- 
position "  ;  which  accounts  for  a  good  deal.  We  have  a 
little  light  on  "  the  old  Germany  of  Beethoven,  of  Bach, 
Goethe,  of  Lcssing,  of  Ltfther  and  of  Arminius  "  [vide  Press) 
in  Help's  own  description  of  his  experiences  at  a  Ratisbon 
song-festival  in  1849  ; . 

'Jhe    singing    was   excellent.     .     .     .     But   there    was    also 
speechifying.     Now  I  could  make  out  some  of  it,  and  indeed  t 
ought  to  have  done  so,  for  every  tentli  word  (literally)  was 
"  Germany,"  or  "  Geriiiafi,"  or  ''  ]'atherland  "  ;    the  orator 
divided  his  subject  into  three  or  four  sections,  and  at  the  end 
of  each,  he  thus  wound  up,  "  If  then  you  think  with  me  thai 
Fatherland,  etc."     ... 
There  are  also  a  few  anecdotes.     A  friend  of  Sheridaiv's  met 
him  and  condoled  with  him  on  the  death  of  his  father.     "  1 
am  very  much  obliged  to  you,"  said  the  young  man,  "  but 
von  are"  mistaken,  1  saw  him  myself  this  morning,  and  he  sait! 
that  he  was  alive,  and  well — Init  really  he  is  such  a  damne(! 
liar  there's  no  kiKwing."     Sidney  Smith,  describing  a  Scotch- 
man who  in  earlier  days  had  been  a  humble  kind  of  sculptor, 
said  :    "  He  used  to  do  tombs  and  Scotch  cherubs  upon  them 
with  high-cheek  bones."     And  when  a  Duke  of  Marlborough 
was  in  I.ondon  he  received  a  telegram  informing  him  that  one 
of  the  emus  had  laid  an  egg,  and  "  in  the  absence  of    your 
Grace  we  have  taken  the  largest  goose  to  hatch  it."      Finally 
there  is  a  long  lettdr  from  F'roude,  from  South  Africa,  which, 
in  its  heartiness,  naturalness  and  \-ividness,  is  like  a  breath 
of  fresh  air  amid  the  worthy  priggeries  and  senile  pleasantries 
of  this  astonishingly  dull  collection. 


I? 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  lO,  1918 


Books  of  the  Week 


Through  the   Russian   Revolution.     By  Claude  Anet. 

With  34  illustrations.     Hutchinson.     6s.net. 
Soldiers  of  Labour.    By  Bart  Kennedy.   With  ten  ilUis- 

trations  by  Joseph  Simpson.     Hodder  and  Stoughton. 

IS.  net. 
A  Lap  Full  of  Seed.    ByM.\xPLOWM.'VN.   B.  H.  Blackwell. 

3s.  6d.  net. 
Work-a-Day  Warriors.     Written  and  illustrated  by  LiEU- 

TiiNANT  Joseph  Leii.    John  Murray.     2S.  6d.  net. 
Umpteen    Yarns.     By  George    Goodchild.     Jarrolds. 

IS.  3d.  net. 

Although  Mr.  Claude  Anet  only  went  through  the 
/%      earlier  phases  of  the  Russian  Revolution,  his  book, 

/_%  Throui^h  the  Russian  Revolution ,  is  an  incredible  story 
J^  JLof  half  a  dozen  revolts.  .Mr.  Anet,  as  correspondent 
of  the  Petit  Parisieii  travelled  with  Kerensky,  with  General 
Korniloff,  and  with  M.  Albert  Thomas  in  that  tour  of  hopeful- 
ness that  preceded  tlie  military  breakdown  of  Russia.  He  has 
given  a  striking  picture  of  the  memorable  first  of  May  in 
Petrograd,  when  what  seemed  to  be  all  Russia  marched  in 
procession  to  commemorate  the  coming  of  liberty  ;  he  has 
given  yet  more  striking  pictures  of  things  as  they  were  on  the 
battle  fronts  of  the  south,  where  Roumania  was  ground  between 
the  upper  millstone  of  her  enemies  and  the  nether  millstone 
of  undisciplined  Russians.  The  book  is  a  chaotic  tragedy, 
dealing  with  the  main  -figures  of  the  months  that  shaped 
the  Russia  of  to-day— though  "  shaped  "  is  hardly  a  fit 
word  to  use  in  connection  with  such  a  bundle  of  loose  ends  as 
is  this  Russia  that  Mr.  Anet  shows. 

The  book  is  made  up  of  Mr.  Anet's  impressions,  which  he 
recorded  in  the  form  of  a  diary,  of  which  traces  appear  unaltered 
in  these  pages.  In  spite  of  having  had  his  camera  taken 
away  on  one  occasion,  when  Revolutionary  soldiers  threatened 
to  bayonet  him,  the  author  has  managed  to  save  some  vividly 
interesting  photographs  for  this  book,  portraits  of  Kerensky 
and  Korniloff  being  among  them,  as  well  as  views  from  which 
may  be  gained  some  idea  of  what  that  First  of  May  meant  to 
Petrograd.  The  tragedy  of  the  book  lies  in  present 
happenings ;  in  spite  of  the  wild  disorder  of  which  this 
author  tells,  there  was,  at  the  time  of  which  he  writes,  a  hop(> 
that  Russia  might  compose  her  internal  troubles  and  take  her 
place  again  in  the  fight  for  liberty  ;  the  German  agents  had 
not  then  accomplished  their  work,  and  Russia  promised  to 
become  "  free  Russia  "  in  reality.  But  it  is  a  book  worth 
reading,  and  the  portraits  contained  in  its  pages  form  a  unique 
collection  of  the  leading  figures  of  last  summer. 

Full  tribute  is  paid  to  the  men  behind  the  lines  in  Soldiers 
of  Labour,  by  Bart  Kenedy,  a  shilling  volume  devoted  to 
descriptions  of  the  various  industries  contributing  their  energy 
to  the  war.  "  Dock-woUoping  "  miglit  seem  an  unpromising 
subject  for  a  writer,  but  out  of  the  monotonous  business  of 
loading  and  unloading  ships  the  author  has  managed  to 
make  a  story  in  which  the  need  for  skill  as  well  as  strength 
on  the  part  of  the  men  is  fully  shown  ;  the  sailor,  the  iron- 
worker, and  the  miner,  all  have  places  in  this  record,  as  have 
the  young  men  who  have  gone  out  to  the  firing  line  from  British 
industries,  but  the  author  has  reserved  for  special  mention 
the  agricultural  workers  and  their  tasks.  "  Man  must  fight 
for  his  seeds  in  the  battleground  of  tjie  soil,  If  he  were  to  fail, 
his  portion  would  be  death,"  is  the  text  on  which  the  author 
bases  his  chapters  on  food  production — and  there  are  plenty 
of  object-lessons  on  this  matter  available  at  the  present  time. 
Mr.  Joseph  Simpson  has  contributed  ten  illustrations  to  this 
little  book,  which  is  a  tribute  to  the  workers  out  of  uniform 
who  are,  equally  with  the  troops  in  the  firing  line,  doing  their 
part  toward  victor}'. 

*        *        *         *        * 

In  a  recent  essay,  Mr.  John  Drinkwater  has  given  a  ver}' 
good  definition  of  poetry,  but,  after  all,  the  final  definition  of 
what  constitutes  poetry  as  apart  from  mere  verse,  lies  with  the 
individual  reader.  Max  Plowman's  work  in  A  Lap  l-'ull  of 
Seed  is  a  case  in  point  ;  most  of  the  poems  in  the  first  part 
of  the  book  leave  the  reader  cold  and  very  critical,  for  they 
reek  of  very  young  Oxford — plenty  of  form  and  very  Uttle 
life  ;  but  when  one  comes  to  the  second  part  of  the  work, 
there  is  "  The  Goddess  of  War,"  already  much  quoted,  ancl 
deservedly  so,  for  it  is  a  fine  sonnet  ;  there  is  "  Wlicu  It's 
Over,"    which  grips  by  its  very  simplicity : — 

"  Young  soldier,  what  -w-ill  you  be 

Wlien  you're  next  a-bed  ?  " 

"  Cod  "knows  what,  but  it  doesn't  matter, 

For  whenever  I  think  I  alwa\s  remember, 

1'he  [Belgians  massacred  that  September, 

And  England's  pledge — and  the  rest  seems  chatter. 

What  if  I  am  dead  ?  ' 


This  is  just  a  verse  out  of  the  pages— all  too  few— in  which 
the  author  has  left  forms  and  trivial  emotions,  and  got  down 
to  realities.  Not  that  the  earlier  part  of  the  work  lacks  beautx', 
for  it  is  eminently  graceful— but  it  lacks  the  strength  of  real 
feeUng,  as  if  Max  Plowman  were  merely  doing  exercises. 
Apparently  tlie  war  awakened  him  to  feeling. 

More  simply,  almost  ruggedly,  in  Work-a-day  Warriors, 
Lieutenant  Joseph  Lee  has  expressed  the  thoughts  of  the 
men  in  the  fighting  line.  Especially  are  to  be  noted  "  Back 
to  London,"  with  its  tale  of  how  familiar  things  rouse  the 
deep  feeling  that  nothing  in  trench  life  could  stir,  and  ".War,^ 
some  reflections  by  Corporal  Richard  Crew  of  the  Canadians." 
The  corporal  is  made  to  talk  in  dialect,  and  his  thoughts  are 
set  down  jerkily,  unevenly— just  as  he  might  have  spoken  them. 
Here  and,  throughout  this  slim  book  there  is  life,  the  weariness 
and  humour,  grim  realism  and  fanciful  description,  and  the 
liorror  and  sadness  of  the  trenches.  Among  the  verses  are 
set  black  and  white  line  drawings  which  prove  that  the  author 
is  artist  as  well,  and  one  has  only  to  read  a  dozen  of  his  pages  to 
understand  that  he  is  a  poet  in  touch  with  life  and  its  reahties. 
***** 

Mr.  George  Goodchild.  editor  rather  than  author  of  Ump- 
teen Yarns,  has  made  a  collection  of  those  little  stories  which 
men  tell  to  raise  a  laugh— such  of  them,  that  is,  as  would 
pass  a  censor  of  public  morals— and,  although  in  this  collection 
there  are,  unavoidably,  a  number  of  chestnuts,  yet  there  are 
many  good  things  as  well,  and  many  new  stories.  Quotation 
is  virtually  impossible  ;  if  one  made  a  start,  there  would  be 
no  possible  ending.  "  Most  of  it,"  says  Mr.  Goodchild, 
"  is  native  humour  of  a  kind  noticeably  absent  in  the  armies 
of  our  AUies  and  of  the  enemy.  The  French  have  no  such 
collection  of  anecdotes — they  cannot  see  the  humour  of  war. 
Where  the  poilu  would  cry  "  Vive  la  France !"  Tommy 
would  probably  sing  *  Another  little  shell  wouldn't  do  us  any 

harm.' Real  humour  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  manufacture, 

and  that  is  where  the  British  soldier  scores.  His  innate  op- 
timism, mixed  with  his  external  discontent,  gives' place  to 
situations  which  at  times  are  screamingly  funny,  and  more 
so  when  the  chief  character  concerned  is  at  the  moment 
sublimely  innocent  of  the  joke;  only  his  after  broad  grin 
reveals  the  fact  that  he  sees  the  humorous  side."  That  he 
does  see  it  is  evident  from  this  collection,  which  contains 
specimens  of  every  shade  and  class  of  soldiers'  humour. 
There  are  scores  of  good  yarns,  and  the  book  has  only  one 
defect — -there  is  not  enough  of  it. 


THE   BRITISH 
FIRING   LINE. 

A  Portfolio  of  Engravings  in  Colour 

from   Drawings  made 

Ob  the  Western   Front   1914-1917. 

BY 

Gapt.  Ed.  Handley-Read 

(Machine  Gun  Corps), 

With  a  Foreword  by 

Hilaire    Belloc. 


"T^HE  Pictorial   Records   of  the   Great  War 

■^     are  few.     It  is  possible  and  even  probable 

that  they    will   remain    few.    ...     Of  those 

who  have  attempted   the  task  the  artist  whose 

work    is    here    presented    is    among    the    most 

successful." 

From  The  Foreword. 


All  particulars  will  be  sent  on  application  to ; 

THE  PUBLISHER, 
"  Land  &  Water,"  5  Chancery  Lane,  W.C.2. 


January  lo,   1918 


LAND    &    WATER      - 

Only  a  Painter 

By  Charles    Marriott 


19 


SOMEBODY  asked  Rossetti  if  he  were  Mr.  Rossetti 
tlie  pre-Rapluulite,  and  he  said  ;  "  I  am  not  an  'ite 
of  any  sort:  I  am  only  a  painter."  This  did  not  mean 
that  Rossetti  disclaimed  sympathy  with  the  Brother- 
hood, but  only  that  lie  objected  to  being  labelled  out  of  his 
trade.  There"  was  a  touch  of  pathos  in  the  reply,  because 
Rossetti  was  never  master  of  the  painter's  trade  as  he  was  of 
the  writer's  ;  but  it  siiowed  that  he  took  the  right  view  of  it 
as  a  dignified  occupation. 

With  even  more  justice  on  the  technical  side,  because  witli 
less  imagination  than  Rossetti  he  is  more  a  master  of  his  job, 
.Mr.  Augustus  John  might  make  the  same  reply.  More 
nonsense  has  bi-eii 
talked  about  him  tlian 
a))'  ut  most  artists,  and 
nuKt  of  it  misses  the 
point  of  his  real  dis- 
tinction. He  is  not.  to 
judge  from  his  work,  a 
man  of  great  intellect 
or  deep  insight  or  un- 
usually strong  imagina- 
tion ;  though  he  has 
more  of  all  three  than 
most  living  painters  ; 
•  iMit  from  the  painter's 
[X)int  of  view  they  are 
as  irrelevant  as  they 
would  be  from  the 
carpenter's  or  black- 
smith's point  of  view. 
Whenever  1  hear  people 
talking  about  the  truth 
or  poetry  or  imagina- 
tion of  this  or  that 
painter,  I  am  reminded 
of  Dean  Ramsav's  story 
of  the  aristocratic  but 
plain  spoken  old  Scots- 
woman to  whom  some- 
biKly  recommended  a 
cook  as  "a  very  decent 
body."  ^he  said  : 
"  Damn  her  decency  ! 
("iin  she  cook  collops  ? 

Not  that  vou  get  any 
nearer  to  defining  Mr. 
John  bv  making  a  false 
d  i  s  t  i  n  c  tion  between 
"  painter"  and  "artist." 
It  is  quite  common, 
])  ;•  r  t  i  c  u  1  a  rly  among 
aitists,  to  hear  it  said  : 
"  Oh,  so-aid-so  may 
not  be  much  of  a  painter 

or  writer  or  singer 
iir  actor — but  he  is  a 
true  artist  "  ;  meaning 
lint  the  subject  has 
good  taste  or  "  nice  " 
ideas  ;  or  "  So-and-so 
is  a  first-rate  painter 
but  he  isn't  an  artist  "  ; 
meaning  that  he  paints 
matter-of-fact  subjects 
in  a  matter-of-fact  way. 
This  use  of  the  word 
"  artist  "   is  a  modern 

^  uigarism  with  a  lot  of  bad  aisthetics  behind  it.  The  only 
respectable  meaning  of  the  word  is  the  old  one  of  master- 
( raftsman-  in  any  trade  from  cooking  or  hair-dressing  to 
painting  or  poetry — and  the  only  real  distinction  between 
artist  and  painter  is  that  between  a  generic  and  a  specific  title. 

.\othing  has  done  more  to  confuse  the  general  pubhc  and, 
incidentally,  to  obscure  the  real  importance  of  such  a  painter 
a-.  Mr.  John,  than  the  false  distinction.  In  practice  it  works 
out  in  a  verv  odd  and  interesting  way.  It  is  commonly  said 
that  the  ordinary  person,  particularly  the  ordinary  Knglish- 
man  or  Englishwoman,  mav  like  pictures,  but  has  little 
appreciation  of  painting.  The  truth  is  that  the  ordinary 
jxTson  particularly  the  ordinary  Englishman  or  English- 
woman, very  often  has  a  keen  appreciation  of  painting- -of 
craftsmanship  in  general,  indeed — but  does  not  apply  it  to 
pictures  because  he  or  she  has  be^n  taught  to  regard  crafts- 


The  Fat  Artilleryman 


manship  and  art  as  different  things.  A  good  rough-and- 
readv  proof  is  the  discrepancy  between  the  furniture  and 
decorations  and  the  pictures  in  the  ordinary  home.  Almost 
invariably  the  furniture  and  decorations  are  much  better 
artistically  than  the  pictures  ;  the  reason  being  that  the 
iormer  represent  the  personal  taste  and  judgment  of  the 
owner  while  the  latter  have  been  taken  on  trust  from  t'le 
dealer  or  at  the  instigation  of  newspapers.  Like  the  man 
who  talked — or  was  it  wrote  ? — prose  without  knowing  it, 
the  ordinary  person  makes  use  of  real  artistic  taste  and  judg- 
ment in  choosing  wall-papers,  carpets  and  curtains,  and 
"  makes  up  his  mind  "  in  choosing  pictures  in  the  same  way 

as  h6  will  often  "  make 
up  his  voice  "  in  reading 
poetry — under  the  de- 
lusion that  literature 
is  something  different 
from  good  writing.  If 
he  could  only  be 
brought  to  understand 
that,  granting  i\s  fuller 
capacity  for  expression 
a  picture  is  good  or  bad 
artistically  in  exactly 
the  same  way  as  a 
carved  cabinet  or 
painted  screen  is  good 
or  bad  artistically  and 
that  painting  pictures 
is  only  a  more  subtle 
form  of  house-painting, 
the  future  of  art  in 
this  country  would  be 
assured.  The  amount 
of  iiarm  that  has  been 
done  to  art  and  litera- 
ture and  architecture — 
and  through  them  to 
life — by  regarding  them 
as  something  distinct 
from  painting  and 
writing  and  building  is 
simply  incalcidable. 

The  importance  OT 
Mr.  John  is  that  being 
^o  specifically  a  painter 
and  at  the  same  time 
>o  obviou-ly  an  artist, 
he  helps  to  abolish  the 
ialse  distinction  be- 
tween painting  and  art. 
.'\t  his  exhibition  at  the 
.Alpine  Club  Gallery, 
almost  anybody  can 
see  that  his  pictures, 
with  all  their  merits  of 
design  and  execution, 
are  examples  of  the 
same  human  exercise 
that  is  to  be  seen  in 
its  elementary  forms 
on  gipsy  caravans, 
canal  barges  and  ice- 
cream barrows.  Only  a 
great  painter  could  bear 
this  comparison  or 
illustrate  its  truth.  A 
great  deal  of  what  is 
called  "  art  "  is  concealment  of  origin  as  contemptible, 
though  probably  unconscious,  as  concealment  of  ancestry  in 
the  human  sense  of  the  word  ;  and  the  artist  who  disowns  his 
kinship  with  the  house-painter  is  as  truly  a  snob  as  the  man 
who  is  ashamed  of  his  grandfather.  It  would  be  extremely 
interesting  to  know  when  and  why  the  snobbish  views  of  art 
first  came  into  being.  OfP-hand  one  is  inclined  to  put  it  down 
to  the  Renaissance  ;  to  the  conscious  and  deliberate  revival 
by  cultured  people  of  what  had  been  done  hitherto  as  all  in 
the  day's  work  ;  to  preoccupation  with  ideas  and  theories 
instead"  of  with  craftsmanship  The  earlier  painters  do  not 
seem  to  have  bothered  about  ideas  ;  they  painted  what  they 
were  told  to  paint,  and  the  same  man  who  produced  the 
masterpiece  that  we  house  in  the  National  Gallery  sent  in  his 
bill  for  gilding  angels'  wings  or  freshening  up  the  flames  of 
Hell.     Ihave  beside  me  a  Portuguese  book  on  the  Royal 


By    pirmhiion    of    the    Chenil  Galleries 


20 


LAND    &     WATER 


January  lo,   iyi8 


Pcilace  of  Cintra.  containing  an  early  sixti-enth  century  state- 
ment o:  e^p  nditurem  vvliidi  t\\    painters  are  lunped   to- 


carted  wood    from   Lisbon" 


L'l  tiler  with  "the   men  wlio       , ,, 

■  ■  ■     •        •  stones    for    the    rabbit-warren.       Nor 


fnrni'^Ii 


iniliewn 


j:n    jnnui^iiou    of    the    Chenil  'jaidr.n 

Kathleen  Dillon 

were  these  painters  merely  artisans,  for  some  of  tlieir  name 
are  included  in  histories  of  the  arts  in  Portugal. 

Without  the  privilege  of  his  acquaintance,  it  is  impossibU 
to  say  how  Mr.  John  regards  the  business  of  art,  but  from  the 
look  of  his  work  I  am  confident  that  he  would  be  well  content 
with  Rossetti  to  call  himself  "  only  a  painter,"  differing  only 
in  skill  from  the  man  who  paints  a  garden  fence.  It  does  not 
need  an  artistic  education  to  feel  this  continuity  of  painting. 
Most  of  us  can  remember  our  childish  disappointment  at  tlu 
results  of  painting  on  canvas  or  paper  as  compared  with  th" 
glory  of  the  colours  in  the  pan  or  tube.  We  were  told  to 
admire  the  colouring  in  this  or  that  picture,  but  in  our  hcan 
of  hearts  we  preferred  the  colours,  neat  or  as  they  were  spread 
frankly  upon  our  toys.  The  instinct  was  perfectly  sound 
artistically,  though,  of  course,  it  needed  development,  and 
one  great' advantage  of  the  work  of  Mr.  John  is  that  it  vin- 
dicates this  childish  appreciation  of  paint  by  showing  that  it 
is  compatible  with  an  imaginative  interpretation  of  Nature, 
scholarly  design,  and  the  highest  degree  of  skill  in  execution. 
Many  pictures  deny  its  compatibihty  ;  and  in  order  to 
appreciate  the  qualities  of  the  artist  we  have  to  renounce  our 
instinctive  enjoyment  of  paint,  just  as  in  order  to  appreciate 
much  of  what  is  called  "  literature  "  we  have  to  regard  it  as 
."something  different  not  merely  in  degree,  but  in  kind 
from  the  nursery  rhyme  and  the  racy  conversation  of 
the  man  with  the  coster's  barrow.  The  writer  or  painter 
who  makes  us  feel  this  is  a  great  writer  or  painter, 
whatever  the  subject  he  writes  about  or  paints.  His 
ideas  are  as  God  pleases,  but  he  knows  his  job.  The 
lesson  that  wc  learn  from  him  is  much  more  than  a  technical 
lesson  ;  it  is  a  lesson  in  the  singleness,  the  wholeness,  oi 
luimm  faculty,  in  its  full  range  from  the  bodily  appetite  to 
the  spiritual  aspiration  ;  and  the  man  who  cannot  enjoy 
art  and  literature  in  tha  same  way  as  he  enjoys  his  dinner, 
but  has  to  shut  off  his  appetites  and  rise  to  the  occasion,  has 
never  learnt  what  they  mean.  Dinner  is  for  bodily 
!V)urishment,  and  art  is  for  spiritual  refreshment,  but  to  make 
those  the  conscious  aim  is  not  to  elevate  but  to  degrade 
enjoyment,  as  it  degrades  love  to  aim  at  offspring  in 
loving  a  woman.  "  There's  a  Divinity,"  Nature  has  her 
own  way  of  securing  results,  and  by  way  of  practical  warning 
against  distraction  there  is  the  first  chapter  of  Tristram 
ShaiiJy. 

As  a  inittcr  of  practical  convenience,  having  regard  to 
the  limitations  of  human  faculty,  painting  does  wisely 
concern  itself  with  natural   appearances  :    but  they  are   not 


essential  to  the  art  ;  and  if  a  painter  could  communicate 
with  us  directly  by  arrangements  of  abstract  forms  and 
colours,  as  the  musician  does  with  sounds,  there  is  no  reason 
whatever  why  he  should  not  do  so.  „      ,  , 

On  the  whole  it  is  an  advantage  to  art  that  Mr.  John  does 
not  attempt  such  experiments.  They  are  interesting  and 
promising  in  tliemselves— particularly  the  new  attempts  to 
inltuisifv  the  reahtv  of  space,  volume  and  energy— but  while 
they  enlarge  the  scope  of  painting  they  are  apt  to  hinder 
its  actual  exercise.  Prospecting  and  intensive  cultivation 
:rc  not  generally  done  at  the  same  time  or  by  the  same  person. 
Hy  keeping  to  the  same  sort  of  subject-matter  as  the  nine- 
teenth century  painters,  but  treating  it  in  a  more  scrupu- 
lously painter-like  way,  Mr.  John  becomes  a  useful  link 
between  the  old  and  the  new."  By  practice  and  not  by 
theory  he  emancipates  the  art  ;  bringing  it  once  more  into 
line  with  the  humble  efforts  of  cave  and  van  dwellers  and  at 
the  same  time  leaviui,'  the  way  open  to  the  most  abstract 
application  of- which  the  human  mind  is  capable.  As  may 
be  seen  at  the  Alpine  Club  Gallery,  his  art  is  remarkably  free 
from  opinions  and  at  the  same  time  remarkably  full  and 
sensitive  in  its  reaction  to  life.  .It  is  the  "  testament  "  of  a 
painter  in  his  character  of  painter,  leaving  his  opinions  as  a 
man  to  be  taken  for  granted.  Such  portraits  as  "  Admiral 
Lord  Fisher  of  Kilverston,"  '.'  Madame  Rejane,"  "  Robin." 
"Kathleen  Dillon,"  "Arthur  Symons,"  and  "The  1-at 
.Artilleryman  "  are  enough  to  indicate  the  range  of  the  reaction 
.  in  response  to  human  personality.  The  examples  reproducc'd 
here  are  particularly  well  contrasted.  They  represent  the 
.\rtist.  the  Soldier  and  the  Poet  ;  a  Vd  it  would  be  difiicult 
to  find  in  any  one  of  them  a  trace  of  partiality  beyond  the 
natural  interest  of  the  painter  in  suitable  material  for  his 
brush.  Yet  each  of  them  is  a  real  interpretation  of  per- 
sonality, and  not  a  mere  impression  of  external  appearance. 
They  are  as  far  from  sentimental  idealisation  as  from  carica- 
ture. Even  in.  the  remarkable  study  of  Mr.  Arthur  Symons 
there  is  no  assumption  of  psychological  insight  outside  the 
painter's  craft.  It  is  as  if  he  "said  :  "This  is  what  I  feel,  as  a 
painter,  about  this  man  "  ;  and  what  he  feels  convinces  us 
of  its  truth.  In  the  same  disinterested — though  far  from 
uninterested — way  the  vcrv  spirit  of  the  British  Army  to-day 
is  summed  up  in  "  The  Fat  Artilleryman."  Nothing  written 
helps  us  better  to  understand  w'lat  our  fighting  men  have 
done,  and  how  they  have  done  it  ;  but  it  leaves  the  subject 
a  credible  human  being,  as  you  might  meet  him  in  the  Tube. 
But   takin"  all  this  into  account,  and  the  response  to  the 


Uy    pcrmiision    of    the  Chcnil  Galleiiei 


Arthur  Symons. 


spirit  of  place  in  landscape  and  to  basic  humanity  in  "  The 
Tinkers,"  Mr.  John  has  no  higher  claim  to  our  gratitude 
and  admiration  than  his  constant  and  consistent  appearance 
as  "  only  a  painter." 


January  lo,  igi8 


LAND    &    WATER 

In  Northern  Italy 


21 


Padua  Cathedral,  bombed  by  German  Airmen 


..i-.v.  .H:  1^  I"  ■»■••••«»••  ■■■3  .;lii 


W1t.:>.'»^   r:v.'*T-— '■Tifw-twTT-WTW»i.»rA^-gmf»a«p-»^|j|Hmimi   | 


KW»tniBni«  i«KJHUuinnm.m 


General  View  of  Venice 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  lo,  rgi8 


Scenes  from  Flanders 


Australian  Soldiers  Marchiilg  to  the  Front  Line 


Otltcial   Photograph 


S^J^^  .*. 


-:M::'-- 


OllUial  Photograph 


An  Impromptu  Shelter 


January  17,  1918 


Supplement  to  LAND    &    WATER 


Vll 


L 


UNLIKE    ORDINARY     PUTTEES.     OUR    NEW 

ALL-LEATHER   PUTTEES 

NEVER  TEAR  OR  FRAY  OUT 


These  most  comfortable,  good- 
looking  puttees  are  made  en- 
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. 

The  puttees  are  quickly  put  on  or  taken 
off,  readily  mould  to  the  sh^pe  of  the  leg, 
are  as  easily  cleaned  as  a  leather  belt,  and 
saddle  soap  soon  makes  them  practically 
waterproof. 

The  price  per  pair  is  18/6,  post  free 
inland,  or  postage  abroad  1/-  extra,  or 
sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business 
(not  banker's)  reference  and  home 
address.     Please  give  size  of  calf. 


NOTEDLY  SUCCESSFUL 

BREECHES-MA  KING, 

We  have  long  been  notedly  successful  in  breeches- making, 
and  we  maintain  this  good  repute  by  guaranteeing  all  the 
essential  factors — fine  wear-resisting  cloths,  skilful  cutting, 
careful,  honest,  tailor-work  ;  and  our  experience,  ninety-six 
years,  is  certainly  adequate  beyond  question. 
We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs  of  officers'  riding  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. 

Patterns  and  Form  for  self-measuriment  at  request 


GRANT  AND  COGKBURN 

LTD. 

25  PIGGADILLY,  W.l. 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


ESTD.  1821. 


FOULOmr    THE    I^EiLD 

of    the    thousands  of    officers  who    are   fighting    in    the 
Trenches  equipped  with 


5» 


Z^e  famous 

/Moscow 

K,  SERVICE  KIT 

L»rie«t  slock   in  London  ready  (or  immediale  wear,  or  mads 

to  meisure  in   24  hours. 

Field    and     Trench     Boots.   Prismatic    Biaoculars,  Conipasiei, 

Saddlery,  etc. 

Officers  On  Leave  and  Others 

WII    find    an     eicellent     selection    o(     Mudi    ready    for    any 

emergency. 

MOSSBROS!! 

/'W.20  &  21  KING  ST.,iCOVENT 

c"',VJ  &  25.  31  &  32  BEDFORD  ST..  i  GARDEN 


WC    O     "I^AHbhE 
'\^,C,     HA  ,\U, 


THE  ORIGiniat  CORDING'S,  ESTD.  1S39. 


Campaigning 

Waterproof  Boots, 

"  Your  ^Newmarket'  Boots  are  just  splendid 

I  wore  Ikem  in  the  trenches  in  water  for  two  days  and  nights,  and  on  a  long 
march  from  9 p.m.  to  3.30  a.m.,  andmy  feet  were  perfectly  dry  and  warm. 
For  marc'tingthey  are  most  comfortable."  {Extract  from  an  Officer's  letter.) 


Our  "  Newniarkct  "  boots  are  "just  splen- 
did," because  the  material  is  so  good  and 
the  workmanship  unusually  skilful  and 
thorough. 

The  leRs  are  made  of  a  tough-wearing  tan 
twill,  interlined  with  a  stout  layer  of  pure 
rubber,  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  "  life" 
of  such  boots  depends  principally  on  the 
quality  and  substance  of  this  hilden  inter- 
hning.  Special  tan  leather  covers  the  foot- 
part,  and  only  seasoned  first-grade  sole 
leather  is  used. 

The  fitness  of  these  boots  for  military  wear 
has  been  fully  proved  by  a  large  number  of 
officers,  many  of  whom  formerly  used  them 
for  fishing  and  shooting. 

The  demand  at  one  time  was  greater  than  we 
could  meet,  but  we  now  have  all  sizes  in 
stock,  or  wo  can  make  specially  in  excep- 
tional cases.  ' 


To  order,  please  state  size  of  boot 
worn,  or  give  pencilled  outline  of 
foot  in  sock,  or  better,  send  an  old 
boot,  and  If  first  transaction,  add 
remittance  (95/-  is  the  price)  which 
will  be  returned  at  ones  if  the  boots 
are  not  approved,  or  give  business 
reference  and  home  addresa. 

Al  requtsi,  ILLVSTRA  TED  LIST  of  Wtdirproo}  Coats,  Boots,  Portable  Baths,  Air  Beds 


TERPROOFERS 
M.    The  King. 


j,acoRDiNG^c?r.ri; 

Only  Addresses: 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.l,  &  35  ST.  jamess  st.,  s.w.i 


WHAT  THE    SOLDIERS 
THEMSELVES  SAY  OF  THE 

CHEMICO 

FABRIC 
BODY 
SHIELD 


irs 

WARM 


IT'S 
COMFY 


should  convince  the  most  sceptical 
of  its  wonderful  value. 


Our  Fallxstowe  AsenU.  MeMri.  J.  H.  Crimwada  &.  Son.  wrriter- 

"Some  time  ago  wc  sold  a  Double  Shield  to  an  officer  procreding  to  France.  This 
day  he  cnlled  tn  our  shop  and  thanked  us  for  selling  him  the  shield,'  which  he  stated  had 
s-iveit  his  life.  He  was  badly  wounded  in  both  arms,  and  a  large  piece  of  shrapnel 
struck  him  in  the  abdomen,  and  undoubtedly  had  he  not  been  wearinR  the  shield,  he 
would  have  been  killed.  As  it  was,  the  shield  absolutely  stopped  the  piece  which  struck 
him.  He  has  written  in  our  album  the  following:^'!  hereby  testify  that  the  Chemico 
liody  Shield  bought  from  J-_H.  (irimwade  &  Son,  of  Felixstowe,  saved  my  life  while  in 
France'  You  may  use  this,  but  please  withhold  his  name,  which  can  always  be  ob- 
tained from  us  if  desired." 

Copy  of  letter  received  by  our  acenU,  Mewr*.  May  Brot.,  Ltd.,  374  Oxford  Street, 
London,  W..  on  2Ut  NoTember,  1917  :— 

"  Somr-  other  woman  may  likf  to  know  that  the  Chcmico  Shield  you  recently  sent 
to  my  friend  in  France  has  certainly  saved  his  life.     He  writes  from  hospital  :— 

'  I  am  O.K.  in  body  but  not  in  limbs,  as  I  picked  up  three  pieces  of  choice  German 
metal  in  my  left  leg  above  the  knee  and  below  the  hip,  also  one  below  my  ri^ht  elbow. 
One  also  got  stuck  into  my  right  jaw  bone  but  did  not  break  it,  but  still  it  is  out  of 
order  and  ni  eds  a  little  repairing.  If  I  had  not  had  that  shield  on  1  don't  know  where 
I  would  have  been  now,  as  there  were  four  holes  in  the  outside  of  it.* 

In  a  Iftter  just  received,  he  mentions  one  of  the  hits  by  shrapnel  '  which  would 
have  securt-tl  the  count  anyway.'  " 

THESE  ARE  BUT  A  COUPLE  OUT  OF  HUNDREDS. 

\ 
Send  for   Literature. 

THE  COUNTY  CHEMICAL  Co.,  Ltd., 

CHEMICO    WORKS  BIRMINGHAM. 


via 


Supplement  to    LAND    &    WATER 


January  17,  1918 


Army  Club 

CIGARETTES. 

Sold  by  the   leading   Tobacconists  and 
in  all  Canteens  at  Home  and  Abroad. 

20  for  lid.    50 for  2/3    100 for  4/6 


1  WO  Watches  of  Quality 


The  "Land  &  Water" 
Wrist-watch. 

Th«  "  Land  St  Water  "  Wrist-watch  li  dust 
;ind  damp  proof.  The  movement  is  fully 
JewcUed  and  tittecl  with  MicrometPr  Ke^u- 
uturtoeive  tine  adjuattuent,  by  means  of 
winch  it  can  be  rctfulated  never  to  lose  or 
Kain  moretha'^  4  lecoodc  per  day.  Knch 
wMtch  U  adjusted  and  compensated  for  %11 
positions  and  ten]p''ratuces.  and  is  guaran- 
teed to  stand  all  the  shocks,  jars,  and 
strains  to  Khich  a  wrist  watch  is  subjected 
under  the  severest  conditions.  Ity  far  the 
best  watch  for  meti  tii  the  Naval,  Military, 
or  Air  Services. 

The  "Land  &  Water"Wri»t  watch. 
ID    solid  silver  rasp,  with  unbreak- 
able glass,  nixl  fully  luminous  dial, 
£5     0     0 


The   **Q"  Pocket  Alarm 
Watch. 

A  perfect  timekeeper— it  is  guaranteed  for  two 
y«ars-the  "Q"  J*ocket  Alarm  Watch  assures 
punctuality  in  keeping  appointmenls.  The 
Alarm  may  be  set  to  within  a  minute  of  ihe 
desired  time,  and  its  note  is  soft  and  mellow,  yet 
insistent  and  unmistakable.  Evenif  surrooncted 
by  noise  its  vibrations  compel  one's  attention. 
At  nighl-time  the  back  of  the  case  opens,  so  that 
the  watch  may  be  stood  at  the  bedhide  ready  to 
awaken  one  m  the  morning.  Fully  luminous 
hands  and  figures,  it  is  in  every  wa\  a  perfect 
watch.  '     *^ 

Oxidized 


£5   St.        Silver  -  £6   6>. 

(Black  Dial,  5/-  extra). 
Unbreakable  Cla^s.  3/-  extra,  cau  only 
be  fitted  to  Silver  Watch. 
WRITE  FOR  ILLUSTRATED  CATALOGUE, 


BIRCH    &  GA^fDOlS^.urn 

Iccbiiiui  aim  ScicDlilic  Instrumeai  Makers  lo  Ihe  Admirally. 
(Del, I.    -il'    153    Fenchuroh    Street,    London,    t.C.3. 

Wet  En<lBn.cK.  19  Picc<JiU^  Area*  S.W.I   (Ut.  John  B^ 


THE 


"FORTMASON" 


A  Field  Boot  soft  as  a 
Slipper,  waterproof,  ^'ery 
strong,  and  lighter  than 
any  other  Service  Boot. 
Special  wear-resisting  soles. 
The  most  convenient  and 
comfortable  Service  Boot 
manufactured. 

£6:6:0 

Sizes   above   oj,    14/-  extra. 
Special  Measures,  1 5/-  extra. 


FORTNUM  &  MASON,  .to. 

182   Piccadilly,    London,   W.  1. 

Depot    for   "Dexter"    Trench    Coats. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXX  No.  2906  [y^Tr]  THURSDAY.  JANUARY  17,  1918 


rREGlSTI 

La  news 


rREGlSTEllED  AST     PUBLISHED  WEEKLY 

ewspaperJ    price  SEVENPENCB 


tc^t^yiil    iVli    la    O.d.A. 


Lt'py/.y/l(    ''(.'IliU    &,     nutti 


"  1  must  break  in  here  before   that  comes   down  " 


LAND    &    WATER  January  17.  1918 

British  Entry  into  Jerusalem 


General  Allenby  and  his  Staft  enler  the  Holy  City  on  foot 


V         bll'icliil  t'iiolograpk 


January  17,  igi8 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

5,  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON.  VV.C.3 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  JANUARY   17.   1918 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I 
2 

3 
4 

lo 
II 


I  Must  Break  In.     By  Louis  Raemaekers 

British   Entry  into  Jerusalem.     (Photograph) 

Kegimented  Industries.     (Leader) 

The  New  State  in  Europe.     By  Hilaire  Belloc 

Changes  at  the  Admiralty.     Hy  Arthur  Pollen 

Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book 

Tlie  Husbandmen.     II.     By  Centurion. 

Present  Position  of  Farming.     By  Sir  Herbert  Matthews     14 

First  Industrial  Council.     By  Jason  15 

Kabelais.     By  J.  C.  Squire  17 

A  German  View  of  Sea  War.    By  J.  C,  van  der  Veer  i>S 

Books  of  the  Week  19 

Modern  Shipbuilding.     (Photographs)  20 

Secrets  of  the  Desert.     (Photographs)  2i 

Domestic  Economy  22 

Notes  on  Kit  23 


REGIMENTED  INDUSTRIES 

IT  will  hardly  be  denied  to-day  by  anyone  worth  listening 
to  that  the  strongest,  the  most  unconquerable  organisa- 
tion of  human  beings  is  the  battalion  of  a  British  regiment 
imbued  with  the  highest  traditions  of  the  British  Army. 
Ironi  the  beginning  of  tlie  wa!i-  tmtil  the  most  recent  engage- 
ments of  which  we  have  any  oflicial  record,  it  has  been  proved 
again  and  again  that  when  a  group  of  men  of  British  blood, 
drawn    from  different   ranks  of  life  and  of  \aiying  ages,  is 
dominated  by  the  regimental  spirit  and  controlled  by  a  firm 
and   sympathetic   discipline,    they  win   achievements  which 
under  any  other  ciiAimstances  would  be  deemed  little  short 
uf  miraculous  and  nhich  are  in  themselves  of  such  power 
that  they  can  and  So  turn  the  course  of  history.    This  fact 
is  worthy  of  some  slight  investigation.     We  believe  it  would 
be  found  to  be  traceable  not  only  to  the  fighting  instinct  which 
indubitably  lurks  in  British  blood  and  to  that  genius  for 
discipline  which  is  a  characteristic  of  our  race,  but  also  to  the 
-hristian  spirit  which  sets  duty  to  others  above  duty  to  self 
and  is  satisfied  that  it  should  be  so,  and  which  has  found 
its  most  concise  expression  in  the  single  sentence,  "  Greater 
hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for 
liiends." 
io-day  we  publish  an  article  by  "  Jason,"  describing  the 
IiidustrialCouncil  which  has  been  inaugurated  by  the  pottery 
industrj- — a    council  on  which  every  section  of  those  whose 
li\(lihiiod  depends  on  jxtttery  is  represented.    The  objects 
w  liich  the  Council  have  to  keep  in  view  are  defined,  and  they 
include  everything  which  in  any  way  affects  the  prosperity 
n[  the  industry  as  a  whole  or  the  welfare  of  those  engaged 
in  the  industry  as  individuals  no  matter  what  their  particular 
jwsition  may  be.     It  seems  to  us  that  here  is  a  rightly  regi- 
mented industry.     "  Regimented  "  is  a  word — an  ugly  word 
\\  (■  admit — of  which  we  have  heard  a  very  great  deal  in  tlic 
List  two  or  three  years  in  connection  with  industrial  reform 
and  development  after  the  war.     Behind  it  there  lias  always 
lain  the  connotation  that  the  user  has  at  the  back  of  his  mind 
ilie  idSal  of  the  drill-sergeant.     Every  worker  is  to  fall  into 
line,  to  discharge  his  duties  in  an  efficient  but  more  or  less 
mechanical  maimer,  to  march  and  to  fight  whenever  he  is  so 
ordered  to,  and  the  day's  work  over,  to  be  dismissed,  when  he 
is  free  to  amuse  himself  the  best  way  he  can,  may  be  by 
drunkenness  or  disorderiy  behaviour,  so  long  as  liis  conduct 
i>  outside  the  drill-sergeant's  purview.     But  that  is  not  the 
proper  sense  of  "  regimented,"  if  the  word  be  used  in  tlu3 
British  spirit.    The  tastes  and  anuisements  gf.  the  man  outside 
tlie  barrack-yard  are  as  much  the  interests  of  his  officers  as 
his  conduct  within  it.     It  is  recognised  nowadays  that  a  man's 
daily  existence"  is  not  divided  into  watertight  rompartnients, 
but  that  his  life  as  a  whole  is  the  fitting  concern  of  the  regi- 
i.'irnt,  it    the  regiment  is  to  fulfil  its  duty  op  active  serNice. , 


When  \\c  examine  the  conditions  that  unaerlic  the  building 
up  of  a  iirst-class  regiment,  we  find  that  while  there  is  a  clean- 
cut  division  of  ranks,  there  is  beneath  it  an  undercurrent  of 
human  sympathy  which  holds  all  together  ;  that  there  is 
an  absence  of  class  distinctions ;  that  "  service  "  is  the 
keynote  of  the  whole,  and  that  when  the  hotir  of  trial  comes 
and  the  fiery  ordeal  has  to  be  faced,  it  makes  no  difference, 
whether  the  indi\idual  be  CO.  or  drummer-boy,  he  puts 
self  lx<hind  him  and  thinks  only  of  the.  regiment.  Thero 
is  no  reason  whatever  why  the  same  mode  of  conduct  should 
not  be  introduced  into  industrial  life.  This  newly-instituted 
Council  of  the  Pottery  Indu.stry  is  proof  of  it. 

The  rules  which  the  Council  have  drawn  up  are  framed 
on  right  lines.  The  industry  is  to  be  governed  by  conditions 
equitable  to  all  alike.  Security  of  earnings  is  to  he  main- 
tained ;  health  is  to  be  protected  ;  initiative  and  originaUty 
of  thought  are  to  be  encouraged,  and  whoever  may  add  by 
invention  or  improvement  of  methods  to  the  well-being  of 
the  industry,  no  matter  his  position,  is  to  be  adequately  re- 
warded. Due  attention  is  to  be  given  to  education,  and 
careful  statistics  are  to  be  kept,  without  encroachment  on  the 
proper  privacy  of  firms  or  individuals.  The  more  closely  the 
objects  of  the  Council  are  examined,  the  more  nearly  do  they 
appear  to  approach  the  ideal.  That  every  employer  and 
every  man  or  woman  employed  will  accept  them  willingly 
seems  to  us  to  make  too  large  a  demand  on  human  nature, 
but  that  the  majority  will  do  so  we  have  no  doubt,  for  they 
make  so  strong  an  appeal  to  the  unselfish  side  of  British 
character,  which  is  unquestionably  one  of  our  most  powerful 
national  assets  and  would  probably  be  found  to  be  the  very 
foundation  stone  of  the  British  Empire. 

Since  Cromwell's  day  the  English  people  has  alwajre  stood 
in  dread  of  organised  effort.  His  New  Model  Army  proved 
the  power  that  even  a  band  of  slow-trained  Midland  yokels 
ixjssessed  under  proper  discipline  and  leadership.  That  fear 
is  inh<rent ;  and  directly  industry  generally  organises  itself 
in  the  way  that  the  pottery  industry  is  now-  doing,  this 
;intii)atliy  is  bound  to  declare  itself,  covertly  and  overtly. 
"  Jason  "  anticipates  it  by  pointing  out  that  these  rules 
contain  a  clause  which  will  protect  the.  consumer  and  prevent 
his  exploitation  by  regimented  industrv.  The  gibe  that 
the  Briton  lacks  the  power  of  organisation  is  remote  from 
truth ;  but  it  is  a  fact  that  one  section  of  the  people  has 
always,  in  its  own  interests,  discouraged  another  section  from 
exercising  this  power,  the  favourite  point  of  attack  being 
what  is  called  class  prejudice.  There  ought  to  be  as  little 
room  for  class  prejudice  in  the  industries  of  peace  as  in  the 
regiments  of  war.  Only  stupidity  or  malevolence  maintains 
them  ;  reason  laughs  them  down,  and  if  it  were  possible 
for  all  engaged  in  various  industries  to  meet  on  that  common 
platform  of  humanity,  which  is  advantage  ground  which  the 
British  army  occupies  to-day,  and  from  which  it  will  advance 
in  due  time  to  victory,  then  we  may  be  certain  that  the 
nation  would  be  as  invincible  in  peace   as  in  war. 

The  progrcssrof  the  Pottery  Council  will  be  carefully  watched. 
If  it  succeeds,  ;iswe  trust  it  may  succeed,  it  will  introduce  a 
new  era  into  national  life  and  go  a  long  way  towards  redeeming 
the  worst  evils  of  the  Industrial  Revolution.  There  are  many 
other  industries  which  sorely  need  to  be  regimented  in  the 
same  spirit ;  the  outstanding  one  is  agriculture.  It  is  riddled 
by  petty  jealousy ;  it  is  riven  by  needless  animosities,  and 
even  at  this  hour  when  its  vital  importance  is  widely  recog- 
nised, it  is  so  weak  through  lack  of  co-ordination  and  sclf- 
fliscipline  that  it  is  forced  to  submit  to  rules  and  regulations 
wliicli  would  be  impossible  were  it  only  in  a  position  to  make  its 
full  jiational  and  political  power  felt.  One  has  only  to  read 
the  article  by  Sir  Herbert  Matthews  in  this  issue  to  realise 
the  truth  of  it.  Co-operation  must  be  introduced  ;  district 
must  work  with  district,  farmer  with  farmer,  and  not  each 
against  the  other  as  happens  at  present.  We  are  very  well 
aware  tiiat  many  who  know  intimately  the  British  agricultural 
community  declare  this  to  be  an  impossibility  ;  and  that  this 
industry  which  provided  the  oldest  story  in  the  world  of 
mortal  jealousy,  has  hardly  changed  in  this  respect  from  tliat 
primal  lioiu".  Be  that  as  it  may,  man,  though  he  be  husband, 
man  or  herdnian,  does  advance,  an4  we  are  convinced  that 
agriculture  will  never  occupy  the  position  it  should  do  in  this 
coiuitry  until  it  is  regimented  like  the  Pottery  Industry. 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  17,  1918 


The  New  State  in  Europe 


By  Hilaire  Belloc 


THERE  has  arisen  during  the  past  year  a  great  New- 
State  in  Europe.  It  aheady  exists,  in  practice. 
If  the  enemy's  armies  remain  undefeated  it  will 
soon  be  d«4ined  in  public  law  and- will  be  apparent 
.0  all.     It  may  be  called  the  State  of  Central  Europe. 

It  is  essentially  federate  in  nature,  though  parts  of  the 
federation  are  subjects  rather  than  partners.  It  is  composed, 
therefore,  of  distinct  communities,  some  of  which  liave  long 
h<vn,  othei-s  of  which  may  soon  be,  distinct  nations.  These 
will  'pos.scss,  no  doubt,  autonomous  institutions  and  c\en 
local  dynasties.  None  the  less  this  Xew  State  is  one.  It  is 
tin-  creation  of  one  Power  which  makcs.it  possible  (now  tiiat 
Russia  has  gone)  and  which  is  the  cchtiv^and  principle  of 
unity  of  the  whol  ^ 

"i'he  New  State  tints  created  before  our  cjes  is  tiic  work 
of  Prussia. 

Its  centre  and  principal  of  unity  is  .Prussia.  .'Its  capital  is 
Berlin. -'It- is  vast.  It  extends  frorn  somewhat  west  of  the 
Rhine  to  far  east  of  the  Vistula  ;  froiu  the  Baltic  to  the  Alps 
and  the  Balkaiis.  It  has  for  direct  (lepiendents  (or  members) 
the  Slavonic  and  other  eonununities  lying  for  lumdreds  of 
miles  to..the  east  of  the  (jermans.  It  has  for  indirect  dependents 
or  mem'tiers,  almost  equally  bound  "to  it.  the  Bulgarians  and 
the  Turks.  It  is  already  upon  the  Adriatic.  If  it  is  main- 
tained it  will  control  the  eastern  shores  of  the  North  Sea, 
nearly  all  the  littoral  of  the  Black  Sea,  the  northern  shores  of 
thc^jCgcan  and  the  whole  of  the  Baltic.  Through  it  will  be 
e.xploited  the  undeveloped  wealth  of  the  Russian  Plains,  of 
Syria  and  of  Mesopotamia.  It  will  be  the  dominant  factor  in 
the  politics  and  in  the  economic  structure  of  the  old  world. 

Upon  whether  this  New  State  thus  remains  strong,  organised^ 
informed  by  Prussia  as  its  principle  of  unity,  and  really 
existent  among  us  depends  the  future  of  Western  civilisation. 
Ill  particular  there  depends  upon  this  issue  the  fate  of  these 
ishi'  1  of  their  system  overseas. 

i  j  live  far  fjom  Europe  and   are  necessarily  un- 

famiiiai  )\ah  our  problems  maybe  excused  from  grasping  what 
has  happened.  It  is  a  very  recent  experience.  The  Nevv 
State  was  an  impossibility  so  long  a.s  the  Russian  autocracy 
still  stood  ;  and  from  the  first  signs  of  that  autocracy's  catas- 
trophe to  the  present  moment  is  less  than  a  year.  No  wonder 
that  observers  outside  Europe  are  still  blind  to  it,  and  still 
talk  in  terms  of  1914.  What  i3  more  remarkable  is  that  the 
politicians  of  Western  Europe  ha\e  not  yet  (apparently) 
grasped  its  existence.  None  the  less  it  is  there,  and  on  its 
continuance  or  dissolution  depend  all  our  coming  years.  It 
has  become  the  supreme  issue  of  tlxe  war. 

Prussia's  Ideal 

Prussia,  the  confederation  she  had  orgii^scd  upon  hei  own 
model  (called,  since  1871,  the  "  fierman  Empire,")  and  men 
of  German  speech  in  sympathy  with  that  model  to  the  south, 
in  the  .Austrian  mark,  envisaged  the  creation  of  such  a  Central 
State  when  war  was  suddenly  forced  K^on  Europe  in  1914. 
They  had  long  envisaged  it.  "  They  did  not  perhaps  imagine 
how  socwi  their  ideal  would  be  realised.  It  is  realised  to-da\-. 
It  is  before  us  now  for  all  to  observe,  and  if  it  is  confirmed  by  a 
peace  which  leaves  Prussia  undefeated,  all  that  for  which  the 
Western  nations  have  fought,  including  their  own  dignity, 
security  and  power  is  at  an  end. 

I  propose  in  this  and  the  following  articles  to  describe  the 
extent  and  nature  of  this  New  Central  State  ;  its  composition 
in  geographical  limits,  language  and  religion  ;  its  economic 
potential  ;  what  are  its  possible  weaknesses,  and  what  are 
certainly  its  present  elements  of  strength.  I  shall  attempt  this 
description  without  reference  to  the  moral  ideas  supporting 
us  in  the  great  struggle,  without  denunciation  of  the  tvranny 
or  falsehood  or  bad  faith  on  the  part  of  Prussia  which  were 
necessary  to  the  success  of  this  her  plan. 

To  make  •  the  necessity  of  victoi  v  unquestionable,  it 
should  be  suificient  for  the  peril  to  be  understood.  And  to 
understand  a  thing  it  is  enough  merely  to  analvse  the  nature 
of  the  thing  and  to  present  it— just  as  one  mav  analy.se  and 
]>resent  the  nature  of  a  strategical  situation  threatening 
defeat,  without  proceeding  to  dilate  upon  the  horrorsof  defeat ; 
or  just  as  it  is  p-^^ssiblc  to  analyse  witJi  'detachment  and  to 
describe  the  action  of  a  poison  without-wasting  words  upon  the 
agony  it  will  cause,  or  the  fear  of  dedth  which  it  promises. 
The  matter  we  ha\-c  to  examine  is'  soimthing  now  really 
existent.  Our  first  duty  is  t<.  recognise  it  and  to  umler^tand  it. 
That  done  it  will  be  clear  enough  that  cfther  it  survives  and 
we  go  under,  or  that  we  dissolve  it  and  p|-eser\  e  our  civilisation. 
We  must  hrst  sec  the  tiling  clearly  and  know  that  it  is  tliere. 


Then  and  then  only  can  we- deal  with  it.  1?o  continue  the 
repetition  of  .abstract  formula: .  upon  nationjfil' rights,  self- 
government,  and  the  rest  is  as  futile  in  the  presence -of  such  a 
phenomenon '  as  woitJd  be  a  panegyric  upon  quiet  living 
when  a  dam  had  already  broken  in  the  hills  above  us  and  the 
flood  wa,s  approaching  our  houses.  T^ussia  has  broken  and 
the  Central  State  is  consequently  upon  us.  Like  all  other 
historical  phenomena  its  appreciation  by  those  whom  it 
threatens  must  come  somewhat  tardily  and  may  come  too 
late.  Hence  the  advantage  of  studying  it  in  time  and  of 
appreciating,  as  soon  as  possible  after  its  first  appearance,  that 
it  lias  come. 

Though  this  great  new  State  now  in  pr'ocess  of  erection 
under  the  direction  of  Prussia  will  be  described  in  detail  and 
its  real  existence  at  this  moment  taken  for  granted  in  these 
articles,  this  does  not  mean  for  a  moment  that  the  writer 
l)resumes  its  successfid  continuance.  Such  a  presumption 
would  be 'a  presumption  of  defeat  ;  and  the  superiority  of 
\\'estern  civilisation  over  the  Gcrmanies  is  such  that  the 
balance  is  in  favour  of  victory,  no  matter  how  numerous  the 
new  resources  which  the  enemy  successively  discover,  if  only 
■\\e  avoid  a  jiremature  surrender. 

If  the  military  machine  of  Prussia  bo  put  out  of  action  the 
whole  structure  Of  this  great  new  Central  State  automatically 
collapses,  and  its  place  will  be  taken  by  numerous  independent 
nations  acting  upon  the  normal  European  model  which 
ensures  diversity  and  therefore  freedom  and  life.  But  the 
point  to  grasp  is  that  the  Hiing  of  which  we  speak  is  already 
in  being  and  that  its  maintenance  and  dissolution— though 
that  dissolution  may  arrive  at  any  momejit,  though  the  life 
of  the  thing  spoken  of  may  therefore  i)rovc  in  history  exceed- 
ingly brief — has  become- the  prime  matter  of  the  war".''  It  will 
be  maintained  if  we  make  peace  with  an  undefejatcd  Germany. 
If  wc  wear  Germany  down  it  wHI -be  dissolved. 

Western  Boundaries 

Let  us  iirst  of  all  grasp  what  the  complex  ol  Central  Europe 
is.  On  its  Western  side  Central  Europe  copsists  u  holly  of  that 
nationally  German  belt  which,  whether' witMn  the"  modern 
(ierman  Empire  or  exterior  to  it  in  the  .Austrian  marlv,  is  now 
for 'international  purposes  jiolitically  one.  V\'e  must  take 
for  our  Western  limit,  therefore,  the  undisputed  boundary 
which  marks  upon  the  West  the  German  peoples  jiroperly 
so  called,  that  is,  the  German-speaking  population  attaehcd 
to  the  German '  nationality  and  now  supporting  the  suecesses 
of  the  Prussianised  German  Empire.  That  is  the  best  definition 
of  the  "  (ierman  Beit:"  Tlie  German  language' \s  ii6i  an 
exact  test,  for  it  has  many  forms,'  fades  into  L'risidn  and  Dutch 
in  one  sector,-  is  mixcJd  with  Slavonic  additions  in  another.  It 
is  spoken — in  certain  dialects — by  men  who  have  no  political 
attachment  tti  German  nationality,  whether  because  thev  are 
by  tradition  opposed  to.  it — as  are  the  \  illages  of  .Msace — 
or  M-hether  because  (like  "the  Swiss-German  cantons)  while 
in  sympathy  with  the  race  they  prefer  .political  independence. 

The  Western  frontier  of  the  Central  Jiuropean  State  is, 
tlieii,the  western  limit  of  true  German  nationalit\-. 

Such  a  western  frontier  is  easily  determined,  it  follows  the 
Rhine  from  its  issue  out  of  Switzerland  for  a  distance  of  about 
100  miles  to  near  Karlsruhe.  It  runs  thence  a  little  east  of 
north  to  the  valley  of  the  Saar,  strikes  the  Moselle  at  the 
])resent  frontiei"  of  Luxembourg  and  is  thencc'almost  exactly 
coterminous  with  the  political  frontier  of  the  modern  German 
Empire  until  that  frontier  reaches  the  North  Sea. 

.Attempts  to  colonise  by  force  and  policy  beyond  this  mark 
can  be  debated,  s6  can  vague  sympathies  of  race  outsjdc  it, 
so  can  districts  within  this  mark  which,  until  quite  modern 
times,  had]no  strong  German  leanings,  but  rather  looked  towards 
the  Netherlands  or  other  local  patriotisms.  But  the  line  thus 
established  is  nearer  to  an  exact  politic  frontier  than  perhaps 
anv-thing  else  in  Continental  Europe. 

l'poitt,he  east  no  such  definite  boundariy-  can  be  established. 
There  we -deal -with  tliose  vast  flat  districts„.oftcn,  a.'waste  of 
marsh  and  forest,  nepirly  always  debatable  in  his.toiy  between 
various  races,  speeches  and  religions,  which  might' be  some- 
what rhetorically  (but  none  the  less  accurately)  described 
as  the  Marches  of  Muscovy.  W'e  must,  at  anv  fate,  include 
for  our  purpose  all  the  Valley  of  the  Vistula/ all  theBaHfc 
seaboard  up  to  the  Gulf  of  Finland;  the 'Marshes  of  tlic 
PHpct  ;  all  the  basin  of  the  Danube,  the  Dw-ister,  and  the 
Meniel,  and  the  lower  course  of  the  .D.viiia.  A  very  rough 
mark  is  longtitude  JO  East  of  Greenwieli. 

Between  these  two  boundaries,  minute  and  detailed  upon 
the  west,  exceedingly  \-ague  upon  the  cast,  lies  this  great  bodv 


January  17.  tc)i8 


LAND    &    WATER 


3 

w 


C/3 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  17,  1918 


nf  Central  Europe.  Wietlier  it  shall  offer  virtual  unification 
under  eiuniy  iiiHuence,  or  form  in  the  future  :i  bcxly  of  coni- 
jx^ting  and  independent  nations,,  is  the  present  great  debate 
of  the  world.  From  north  to  south  the  boundaries  are,  upon 
ihe  north,  of  course,  the  Baltic,  save  for  one  debatable  but 
\ery  narrow  belt  near  the  Kiel  Canal,  for  which  confiictiug 
arguments  will  claim  Danish  or  Gennan  allegiance.* 

Upon  the  south  the  frontiers  are,  up  to  tlie  Adriatic,  verj- 
nearly  those  of  tlie  .\ustrian  and  German  Empires  as  they  were 
before  tlie  war,  excluding  certain  Italian-speaking  and  feeling 
districts,  such  as  the  'frentino  and  a  portion  of  the  Austrian 
coast,  while  through  the  Balkans  a  vaguer  division  would  run, 
always  excluding  historic  tireece,  which  could  hardly  be  re- 
garded as  ever  likely  to  fall  into  the  direct  system  of  a  Central 
European  State,  though  it  would,  of  course,  like  many  out- 
Iving  nations,  be  within  its  orbit  should  such  a  State  be 
established.  But  the  Narrows  between  Asia  and  Europe 
(whicli  command  the  Black  Sea  and  are  also  the  doorway 
to  the  East)  certainly  fall  within  our  definition,  as  does  the 
^^  hole  of  the  Black  Sea  Coast,  at  least  to  Odessa. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  such  a  chvision  there  has  Ueen 
excludod  the  Swiss-German  cantons  in  spite  of  their  strong 
German  feeling.  It  is  right  to  make  this  distinction  bccaits(; 
the  national  tradition  of  the  Swiss  outweighs  any  such  racial 
attachment,  and  because  no  Central  European  policy  would 
be  so  foolish  as  to  challenge  the  Swiss  tradition,  useful  as  a 
neutral  force,  usel<>ss  to  them  in  any  other  capacity.  Nor  is 
any  mention  made  of  the  Netherlands  or  of  the  Scandinavian 
])foples,  because  witii  a  Central  European  State  establislied, 
these  outliers  would  necessarily  fall  under  the  orders  and 
influence  of  that  State,  while  its  authors  would  have  no 
Advantage  in  attempting  a  more  direct  rule. 

So  defined,  the  great  new  State  of  which  we  speak  consists 
?ssentially  of  two  political  factors.  First,  upon  the  west,  the 
various  German-speaking  peoples  united  for  the  moment  at 
least  in  a  common  object  and  drilled  bv  Prussia  :  secondly, 
ujwn  the  east,  an  extraordinary  mosaic  of  race,  language  and 
rrligion  ;  Slavonic  and  Turanian  and  Jewish  ;  Orthodox, 
*  atholic  and  Protestant  ;  showing  isolated  districts  of  German 
M'i''h  among  Slavs,  Magyars,  Roumanians  or  Letts;  other 
dilated  districts  of  Slav  or  others  amid  German  surroundings  ; 
chstinctions  social  and  not  geographical,  as  between  the  Gemian 
land-owners  of  the  Baltic  coast  and  their  serfs  ;  religious  but 
not  racial,  as  between  the  Roumanian  Orthodox  and  the 
lioumanian  Uniates ;  passionate  divergences  of  race  not 
tlefinable  geograpltically,  as  between  the  Jews  and  the  Poles; 
and,  adding  to  the  whole  confusion,  differences  closely  inter- 
twining of  culture,  of  tradition  and  of  expectations  for  the 
future. 

How  are  we  to  arrive  at  any  general  view  of  something  so 
apparently  chaotic  ?  We  shall  be  principally  helped  to  such 
a  general  view — as  will  appear  later  in  this  series  of  articles — 
by  a  general  historical  outline  which  explains  the  map  in  its 
\ariou?  forms.  But  before  reaching  tliis  there  are  certain 
lomis  of  graphical  presentations  which,  combined,  will  give 
us  our  first  elements  in  the  matter,  and  for  this  Imust  ask  my 
reader  to  look  at  the  annexed  map. 

Geography  of  tlie  New  State 

In  the  first  place,  .we  see  first  in  this  map  the  geographica 
area  with  which  we  have  to  deal.  It  is,  roughly  speaking, 
r.ooo  miles  from  east  to  west,  and  600 to  700  miles  from  north 
to  south,  the  latter  dimension  increasing  as  we  go  eastward 
liom  less  than  400  miles  as  the  crow  flies  upon  the  west  to 
about  900  miles  upon  the  cast. 

We  can  also  see  in  this  map  the  prime  distinction  between 
the  compact  German-speaking  body,  attached  to  German 
nationality,  and  tlie  vast  confused  region  wliich  lies  to  the  east 
of  that  body.  The  former  is  the  itiaster  in  the  New  State,  the 
latter  tlie  servant.  The  former,  under  Prussia,  controls, 
informs  and  will  exploit  the  latter  ;  and  the  first  step  in  the 
understanding  ofjthis  is  to  seize  the  distribiition  of  popiilaiion. 

This  element  in  the  understanding  of  anv  politico-geo- 
graphical matter  affecting  hiunan  affairs— density  of  popula- 
1  ion— is  very  ill  done  in  most  motlem  studv.  It  is  ill  done 
mainly  because  ordinary-  maps  teach  us  tb  think  in  mere 
(ircas—wnihowt  visualising  the  prest-nce  and  activity  of  those 
human  beings  which  compose  the  :nation.  It  is  also  ill-done 
jmrtly  because  it  is  novel  in  conception,  partly  because  modem 
conditions  make  it  very  difficult  t»j  do,  paftlv  because  it  is 
justly  suspect.  Industrialism  has  created  'the  enormous 
towns  of  our  time,  yet  we  know  thai;  those  towns  do  not  "  pull 
their  weight  "  in  tlie  body  politic,  because  they  have  no  cor- 
]>orate  unity  or  tradition. '  Again,  rindustrialism  has  crowded 
whole  districts  with  an  uprooted  population,  partly  vaga- 
l>ond,   always   nii.x;ed   and   unfortunate,   which   number   for 


*  A  Germanrf(V(/fd  will  be  loimd  well, north  of  that  line,  but  German 
*Ilci;iaucc  IS  ilisputeU. 


number  cannot  be  weighed  f.gainst  the  more  sparsely  inhabited 
countrysides.  -Vgaiii,  t\\-o  districts  equally  thickly  inhabited 
will  depend  for  their  effect  in  national  history  upon  many 
factors  other  than  numbers.  Nevertheless,  some  way  of 
presenting  the  density  of  population  to  the  eye  is  essential 
before  we  c^n  understand  the  meaning  of  a  mere  geographical 
area  and  is  the  first  thing  to  be  attempted. 

In  the  case  of  this  body  of  "  Central  Europe,"  that  .scheme, 
though  very  compUcated,  has  a  certain  principle  of  unity  which 
we  can  retain  in  our  further  study.  If  we  mark  off  the  dis- 
tricts with  more  than  100  souls  to  the  square  kilometre  (say, 
a  family  to  ten  acres — which  means  a  dense  modem  popula- 
tion taking  town  and  country  together)  ;  if  we  eliminate,  for 
the  sake  of  clearness,  many  separate  "  islands "  of  dense 
jjopulation,  marking  only  the  great  towns  of  over  half  a 
million  inhabitants,  we  obtain  the  fairly  obvious  "  L  "  of 
dense  population  apparent  on  the  map.  There  is  one  long  belt 
of  dense  population  running  from  west  to  cast  and  corre- 
sponding to  the  higher  courses  of  the  northern  rivers.  There 
is  another  short  one  running  fropi  north  to  south  and  corre- 
sponding exactly  to  the  opportunities  of  mining  communication 
and  agriculture  afforded  by  the  Rhine  valley. 

Mastery  and  Density 

Now  when  we  consider  on  this  sketcji  Map  (i)  the  total 
area  of  Central  Europe.  (2)  The  boundaries  of  the  Gennari 
national  group  ;  and  (3)  The  map  of  population,  we  are  at 
once  aware  of  the  following  phenominon  :  The  leeighl  of 
numbers  lien  to  ike  ii'esl  and  belongs  to  the  German-speaking 
belt  -which  under  Prussia  proposes  to  be  the  master  of  the  whole. 
In  other  words,  here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases  of  historical 
development,  especially  when  that  development  has  been 
false  and  procl^tctive  of  ill,  agglomeration  of  population  tells. 
We  shall  see  later  on  in  these  articles  the  curious  point  that 
the  district  from  which  has  sprang  and  wherein  still  prin- 
cipally resides  the  Prussian  spirit  that  informs  the  whole,  is 
a  district  ill-populated,  for  its  size  the  least  populated  of  all. 

The  reader  will  also  note,  when  he  compares  upon  the 
sketch  map  the  boundaries  of  the  German  area  and  the 
poHtical  boundaries  of  the  German  and  Austro-Hungarian 
Empires,  the  way  in  whic.h  the  preponderance  of  population 
lies,  not  only  mainly  within  the  German  belt,  but  also  almost 
entirely  within  the  old  political  boundaries  of  the  two  Central 
Empires.  In  other  words,  the  mass  of  the  population  which 
will  dominate  the  new  State  is  German  to  begin  witJi,  and  a 
still  greater  proportion  of  it  has  been  hitherto  included  within 
tlie  political  boundaries  of  the  (German  and  Austro-Hungarian 
F'mpires,  and  has  therefore  been  trained  to  obedience  within 
those  systems  ;  it  has  inherited  their  methods  of  government 
and  is  docile  to  their  expansion. 

We  have  here  an  element  very  favourable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  new  State  should  the  dominating  position  of 
Prussia  remain  undisturbed.  There  will  be  a  natural  tendency 
■for  the  more  densely  populated  areas  to  approach,  to  occupy, 
and  to  develop  the  less  densely  populated  :  a  process  which 
takes  place  in  every  development  of  a  hinterland.  F'or  there 
is  a  certain  sense,  economic  and  even  political,  in  wliich 
countries  to  the  east  of  the  Central  l-lmpires  may  be  regarded 
as  the  hinterlands  of  those  Powers.  They  themselves  certauily 
regard  this  eastern  belt  in  that  light.  In  the  German  Uni- 
versities the  thing  is  taken  for  granted.  So  it  is  in  the  political 
scheme  of  Berlin. 

Our  first  conclusion,  then,  with  regard  to  this  new  great 
State  now  arising  in  Europe  and  challenging  the  West,  is  that 
so  far  as  mere  distribution  of  population  is  concerned,  the 
weight  of  the  German  group  which  proposes  to  master  the 
rest  under  the  tuition  of  Prussia  is  naturally  preponderant 
and  should,  left  to  itself,  naturally  control  the  whole. 

Here,  as  in  other  matters  which  will  be  touched  upon  in 
these  articles,  we  see  in  what  lies  the  reason  of  the  Prussian 
ambition,  and  why  it  has  seemed  to  the  statesmen  of  Prussia 
an  almost  fatal  necessity  of  the  future  in  their  favour,  while  we 
in  the  West  were  hardly  thinking  of  the  matter  at  all,  but  were 
still  talking  in  terms  of  political  arrangements  which  before 
the  war  were  unstable  and  in  the  course  of  the  war  have  dis- 
appeared. Here,  as  in  other  aspects  of  the  same  .theme,  we 
can  understand  why  all  talk  of  an  independent  this  or  an 
independent  that  in  the  Eastern  countries  beyond  t  he  German 
belt,  all  talk  of  "self-determination"  or  "government  by 
consent  of  the  governed,"  means  nothing  in  practice  unless  the 
military  power  of  Prussia  be  overset.  Leave  it  remaining 
even  with  its  prestige  alone  ;  leave  it  undefeated  even  if  it 
consents  to  a  peace  with  nominal  autonomy  for  sundry  groups 
to  the  east  of  the  Germans,  and  those  groups  will  inevitably 
lall  under  the  general  hegemony  of  the  Prussianised  German. 
They  will  be  provinces  within  his  authority  and  they  will 
permanently  constitute  together  with  the  master-State 
over  them  that  new  State  of  Central  Europe,  the  existence 
and  menace  of  which  is  the  theme  of  these  articles.     So  much 


January  17,  1918 


LAND    &    WATER 


for  the  most  obvious  and  elementary  points :  area,  distribu- 
tion of  population,  and  relation  of  the  whole  to  the  German 
position  in  the  west. 

Our  second  step  must  be  to  explain  how  this  distribution  of 
population  arose  ;  that  is,  the  economic  exploitation  so  fully 
developed  within  Gqrmany  and  Boliemia  and  the  potential 
economic  exploitation  which  awaits  German  capital  and 
enterprise  in  the  nesv  lands  to  the  east. 

We  must  next  consider  how  the  complex  of  religions 
in  these  regions  afiects  the  problem.  Next,  we  must  turn 
to  the  historical  causes  which  have  produced  this  state  of 
affairs  before  the  war  and  tempted  the  Pnissian  reigning  house 
to  the  adventure  in  which  it  has,  for  the  moment,  succeeded. 
Each  aspect  of  the  enquiry  will  show  us,  1  think,  more  and 
more  clearly,  that  either  that  adventure  is  to  be  destroyed  by 
the  force  of  the  older  civilisation  in  arms,  or  that  it  will,  if  it 
be  established,  permanently  be  the  master  of  that  old  civilisa- 
tion. 

This  war  has  frequently  been  called  a  war  of  life  and  death 
for  natiofts.  The  term  has  seemed  exaggerated  to  those  who 
naturally  (and  all  cultivated  men  must  have  great  sympathy 
with  them)  re-act  against  the  vulgarity  of  certain  sections 
of   the  Press  and  politicians.       None  the  less   the  phrase 


though  violent  is  ultimately  true.  Tlie  struggle  is  indeed  a 
struggle  of  life  and  death,  in  the  sense  that  the  vigorous  im- 
l)ression  of  deser\<xi  superiority  which  the  older  Western 
civilisation  ga\'e  to  all  Europe,  the  culture  which  it  suj)portetl , 
the  diversity  which  it  nourished,  will  never  stand  against  a 
great  and  upon  the  whole  homogeneous  power  erected  upon 
such  a  scale  in  the  midst  of  Europe.  Though  les^  than  us  it 
would  master  us  and  put  ;us  into  a  position  of  inferiority. 
Though  incapable  of  building  as  we  have  built,  or  thinking  as 
we  have  thought,  it  would  be  capable  of  reducing  us  to  a 
permanent  jealous  and  insecure  defensive  wherein  all  that  wc 
care  for  and  that  makes  us  ourselves  would  gradually  dis- 
appear. No  instrument  theoretically  forbidding  so  great  a 
political  organisation  to  exercise  armed  power  is  of  the  least 
value.  If  that  organism  already  exists,  is  allowed  to  continue 
in  existence,  to  confirm  itself,  and  to  define  itself  further,  to 
take  root,  and  to  acquire  a  sohd  historical  substance,  it  would 
give  the  tone  to  all  Europe,  and  what  that  tone  is  we  know. 
The  intense  local  patriotisms  which  were  the  life  of  all  Europe 
will  have  no  place  in  such  a  scheme  :  the  tradition  of  the  past 
\\'ill  be  cut  and  the  greater  will  be  governed  by  the  less. 
Which  last  is  in  morals  almost  the  definition  of  decay. 
[To  be  conlinitcd). 


Captbre  of   Mount   Tomba 


OF  military  movement  during  the  week  there  has  been 
none  sa\e  a  step  upon  the  part  of  the  Austrians  north  of 
Mount  Tomba,   wliich  has  a  certain  local  importance, 
though  it  is  of  no  great  moment  in  the  war  as  a  whole. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  French  a  few  weeks  ago 
M  ized  the  trenches  on  the  crest  of  the  Mount  Tomba  from  the 
Austrians  by  one  of  those  rapid  co-ordinated  pieces  of  work  of 
which  the  model  was  ranged  in  the  October  of  igiO  in  front 
of  Verdun,  \\'hen  Douaumout  and  its  strip  of  territory  were 
t'-taken. 
In  this  comparatively  small  action  on  Moimt  Tomba, 
iiers  fell  into  French  hands  at  a  trifling  cost,  and 
ii.d  object  (which  was  reached)  was  the  Austrian 
trencli  system  overlooking  the  crest  of  the  hill.  We  have 
just  liiid  the  sequel  U>  that  which  was  proved  to  be  an 
Austrian  retirement  of  about  a  mile  down  the  northern  slopes 
and  their  consequent  abandonment  of  observation  over  the 
plain.  It  is  possible,  or  probable,  that  this  move  indicates  an 
abandonment  for  the  moment,  and  perhaps  throughout  the 
winter  season-pof  any  attempt  to  force  the  Itahanline  at  this 
|X)int.  For  many  weeks  past — indeed,  for  nearly  two  months 
— the  crest  of  Mount  Tomba  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy  has 
been  their  principal  mark  of  success.  The  snow  was  very  late 
in  falling.  A  great  concentration  of  guns  and  mimitions  was 
therefore  rendered  possible  in  the.se  hills,  and  a  successful 
advance  towards  the  plain.  The  only  part  of  the  last  rampart 
which  the  enemy  reached,  however,  the  only  point  from  which 
he  could  overlook  the  cities  and  plain  of  Venetia,  was  the  crest 
of  Mount  Tomba.  The  Allies  had  been  thrown  back  on  to  the 
soutliem  slopes  and  the  enemy's  observation  posts  on  a  clear 
day  commanded  everything  below  them  up  to  the  Adriatic 
itself. 

'This  advantage  they  would  appear  to  have  relinquished  in 
the  course  of  the  last  few  days  imder  the  pressure  of  the 
Irench  occupation  of  the  summit. 

A  Correction 

T  note  from  several  letters  that  have  reached  me,  uh  tm  i»iiy 
for  correcting  a  false  impression  given  about  a  month  ago  by  a 
misprint  in  these  colunms.  This  misprint  consisted  in  the 
word  "  upon  "  appearing  in  place  of  the  word  "  over,"  which 
last,  as  the  context  should  have  shown,  was  the  right  word.  I 
said  theft  (as  I  rejnat  now)  that  the  enemy  had  through  the 
events  in  Russia  a  superiority  in  men  and  material  for  tin- 
moment  (JVC)'  the  West.  That  is,  the  number  of  pieces  at  his 
disjiosal  probably,  and  the  nimiber  of  men  at  his  disposal 
certainly — the  orgunised  forces  and  the  recruiting  field  behind 
them — IS  larger  than  the  corresjxmding  strength  of  the  Western 
European  Powers.  To  these  will  ultimately  be  added  the 
effort  of  America.  But  for  the  moment  the  difference  exists 
and,  that  is  why,  in  a  word,  we  are  on  the  defensive.  To  say 
that  the  enemy  had  a  present  superiority  in  numbers,  upon 
what  is  famiharly  called  "  chc  Western  Front,"  that  is,  the 
line  from  Alsace  to  Nieuport,  would  be  nonsense.  The  West 
in  one  sense  means  the  Western  Powers  as  a  whole  ;  the  West 
in  the  other  sense  means  the  Anglo-French  hne  between  the 
Adriatic  and  the  North  Sea.  And  so  far. as  that  line  is  con- 
cerned, the  enemy  has  not  a  superiority  in  men  or  in  guns  for 
the  moment.  He  has  probably  no  more  than  157  divisions 
in  France  and  Belgium,  and  whatever  he  has  altogether 
between  the  Stelvio  Pass  and  the  mouth  of  the  Piave  dons  not 
make  up  fm  flw  l>iij  margin  betw,  .n  i.i^  nrn=p,it  strength  in 


France  and  Belgium,  and  that  of  his  opponents.  But  what 
he  has  got  is.  short  of  novel  events  in  Russia,  on  which  one 
cannot  prophesy,  biit  which  do  not  seem  likely,  a  great 
reservoir  of  men  to  draw  upon  for  use  ultimately  against  the 
three  Western  AlUcs. 

In  this  connection  there  is  a  point  which  ought  to  have  been 
fauly  clear,  and  which  it  is  remarkable  to  find  as  confused  as 
it  is  in  much  contemporary  writing  :  The  advantage  to  the 
enemy  of  this  Eastern  man-power  being  released  need  not  antl 
probably  will  not  take  the  form  of  many  divisions  being 
transfencd  bodily  from  East  to.  West.  The  lonn  it  will 
probably  take  is  the  very  great  extension  of  what  has  already 
begun,  to  wit,  the  use  of  the  Eastern  front  as  a  rest  camp  and 
the  pei-petual  filling  of  gaps  on  the  West  with  that  proportion 
of  the  Eastern  forces  which  are  of  young  and  good  material. 
The  ultimate  effect  in  mere  numbers  is  exactly  the  saaic  whether 
you  replace  losses  by  such  recruitment  (which  could  not  have 
taken  place  had  Russia  still  been  fighting)  or  whether  you 
move  units  as  a  whole.  The  choice  between  one  and  the  other 
system  is  entirely  a  matter  of  system,  not  of  ultimate  numerical 
strength  ;  it  is  a  choice  between  keeping  your  cistern  full  from 
a  tap  and  keeping  it  full  from  a  bucket.  The  result  in  mere 
man-power  is  the  same  in  either  case. 

So  much  for  the  numerical  position.  The  situation  of 
Northern  Russia,  which  you  may  call  at  will  a  collapse  or  a 
treason  or  an  anarchy  or  a  defeat  (in  mihtary  terminology 
the  last  tenn  is  certainly  the  accurate  one)  the  elimination  of 
South  Russia — whether  you  call  it  g,  betrayal  or  a  secession 
or  what  you  will — has  provided  the  enemy  with  anything  from 
three-quarters  of  a  million  to  a  million  men  for  ultimate  use 
upon  the  West,  which  he  would  not  have  had  if  the  Russian 
State  were  still  standing  and  were  still  fighting.  Meanwhile, 
of  course,  the  enemy's  annual  recruitment  of  about  500,000 
men  yearly  in  the  German  Empire  and  more  than  300,000 
in  the  Austro-Hungarian  continues — Class  1920  has  been 
called  up  in  both  those  coimtries.  ;  And,  the  annual 
recruitment  of  Bulgaria  certainly,  less  certainly  of  the  Turkish 
Empire,  is  more  than  equivalent  to  the  recniiting  power  we 
possess  for  replacement  against  it  in  the  Eastern  fields  of  the 
war. 

But  the  numerical  calculation  thus  established  (and  it 
is  exceedingly  simple  and  should  be  obvious  to  everyone)  is 
only  one  factor  in  a  very  complex  problem.  There  are  four 
others  which  posterity  will  be  able  to  analyse  at  leisure  and 
which  we  either  cannot  or  must  not  analyse  at  all  sufficiently 
for  any  practical  judgment. 

Those  four  remaining  factors  are :  (i)  The  rate  at  which 
America  can  supply  men  and  material,  including  the  power 
to  maintain  tonnage  for  the  same;  (2)  The  progress  pf  the 
submarine  campaign  against  our  communications  andciviUan 
supply,  coupled  with  the  rate  of  building  against  it ;  (3)  The 
technical  advantages  of  the  Western  Allies  compared  with 
those  of  the  Central  Empires  during  the  next  few  months — 
that  is,  the  rate  at  which  they  may  devise  and  train  upon  either 
side;  and  (4)  most  important  of  all :  The  internal  conditions  of 
the  enemy's  tciTitory  as  connected  not  only  with  the  material 
efficiency  of  his  armies,  but  tivilian  moral  and  all  the  rest  of  it. 

The  first  three  cannot  be  discussed.  Upon  the  4th,  which 
may  be  discussed,  we  have  data  quite  insuflicient  for  a  con- 
clusive judgment.  Of  its  nature  this  judgment  would  depend 
upon  something  imponderable.  Even  if  wc  knew  every- 
thing about  the  enemy's  material  condition  and  its  pro- 
bable exasperation  in  the  next  few  months,  we  should  still 


8 


LAND    A     WATER 


Tanuarv  17,  1918 


have  to  rely  upon  very  iiupcrkct  gucsswin k  u>  estimate  the 
<ffcGt  this  would  have  upon  his  power  of  resistance.  Such 
tilings  arc  only  calculable  where  they  concern  the  absolute 
necessities  of  "an  armed  force,  and  where  those  stocks  of 
necessities  are  near  exhaustion.  The  situation  of  the  enemy 
does  not  Icml  itself  to  anv.sucii  calculation.  He  is  not  short 
of  coal  or  of  iron  or  of  material  for  explosives.  What  he  is 
short  of  is  the  means  of  conducting  tlu-  general  life  of  the  State. 
M'e  also  arc  short  of  it.  but  not  in  the  same  degree  as  he  is.  \\  c 
do  not  know  the  degree  of  perfection  of  his  organisation,  but 
no  milter  how  high  that  degree,  it  is  clear  that  Uii  present 


situation  is  imposing  a  =.u.iiii  Iki  gudUi  ihau  anything  \et, 
suffered  among  the  Western  Allies.  On  whether  that  strain 
will  reach  a  breaking  point  or  not  mainly  depend  the  fortunes 
of  the  coming  season.  It^  is  wiser  to  scale  down  the  advan- 
tages in  our  favour  upon  the  enemy's  side,  moral  and  material, 
and  to  believe  that  the  enemy  can  hold,  so  far  as  mere  supply 
is  concerned,  throughout  the  open  season  of  ic)i8.  We  may 
well  believe  that  before  the  end  of  it  his  state  wiU  be  desperate, 
but  we  have  no  warranty  to  conclude  that  it  will  bring  about 
a  break  in  his  whole  organism  before  next  >\inter.  Russia 
has  changed  all.  U.  BiiLLuc 


The  Admiralty  Changes 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


WHEN  the  historian  of  the  Great  War  is  able  in 
some  dispassionate  future  to  appraise  this 
nation's  successive  steps  in  its  struggle  for 
efliciencv,  he  will  surely  regard  those  announced 
during  the  last  three  weeks  as  amongst  the  most  significant 
and  the  most  curious.  They  are  significant  bccaiise  they 
arc  a  measure  of  our  previous  inefiicienc\-  :  curious  as  meas- 
uring the  time  neces.-ary.  before  the  results  of  common  know- 
ledge can  be  expressed  in  common  action. 

.\  \en,-  cursory  rereading  of  the  comments  on  naval  affairs, 
written  bv  the  "better  quahlied  writers  during  the  last  three 
years,  woiild  remind  those  who  hav(;  maintained  their 
interest  in  this  vital  matter  that  the  various  governments 
that  have  controlled  our  destiny  since  the  beginning  of  the 
>\ar  have  never  lacked  remembrancers  to  warn  them  that 
war  cannot  be  carried  on  scientifically  except  through  an 
organisation  scientificially  calculated  to  achieve  its  purpose. 
Not,  of  course,  that  the  necessity  of  a  Naval  Staff  was  pointed 
oiit  for  the  first  time  after  war  had  begun.  It  was,  indeed, 
the  first  reform  urged  by  Lord  Beresford  when  he  was  almost 
the  only  reformer,  and  it  w-as  the  most  urgently  pressed  by 
those  who  supported  and  succeeded  him.  There  were  innocent 
and  hopeful  souls  who  thought  that  Mr.  Churchill's  Memoran- 
ilum  of  January  ist,  1912,  realised  the  advance  which  pro- 
gressi\-e  thinkers  had  desiderated.  They  did  not  realise  the 
fatal  omission  from  Mr.  Churchill's  professed  policy  ;  they 
did  not  appreciate  his  incapacity  to  carry  out  c^'cn  the  policy 
that  he  announced. 

The  theory  of  a  staff  organisation  is  not  really  very  difficult 
to  understand.  Historically,  the  staff  derives  from  the 
organisation  put  at  the  disposal  of  the  commander-in-chief 
in  the  field  for  securing  the  unified  action  of  all  the  scattered 
and  diverse  units  of  his  force,  so  that  by  synchronous  move- 
ments and  a  universally  understood  system  of  wording  and 
obe\"ing  orders,  all  couJd  combine  for  the  achievement  of  a 
common  object.  It  supplied  the  means  of  co-ordinating 
information  which  alone  made  co-operation  possible.  It 
was  at  once  a  mental  extension  and  the  physical  executive  of 
the  supreme  commander.  In  origin  then  the  staff  is  a 
necessary  element  to  command.  And  it  inevitably  grew 
until  it  covered  all  the  problems,  executive  as  well  as 
intellectual,  that  war  propounds. 

.\  right  conception  of  naval  war  shows  at  a  glance  the  main 
f mictions  of  a  staff  necessarj-  to  prepare  for  it  in  peace  and  to 
deal  with  it  when  it  comes.  Sea  power  is  brought  into  being 
for  one  purjjose  only— -to  destroy  the  sea  jwjwcr  of  the  enemy.  ■ 
Its  single  objecti\e  then  is  to  fight.  It  may  be  thwarted 
of  its  purpose,  because  the  enemy  has  it  in  his  power  to  with- 
draw liis  forces  from  the  sea  and  to  place  them  where  sea 
power  cannot  reach  them.  The  navy  that  is  denied  battle 
must  then  proceed  to  seize — so  far  as  is  possible — all  the  advan- 
tages that  victorious  battle  would  have  given,  and  to  inflict 
upon  the  enemy  all  the  disadvantages  which,  by  defeat,  he 
Avould  have  incurred.  The  ad\-antages  gained  by  \-ictory  are 
freedom  to  use  the  sCa,  the  ability  to  invade  directly  or 
indirectly,  immunity  from  the  threat  of  invasion.  The' dis- 
advantage of  defeat  is  a  siege  which  the  v'ictorious  fleet  can 
inflict  by  blockade.  But  it  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  the 
justification  of  a  blockade  is  the  gradual  sapping  of  the 
enemy's  civil  endurance  and  military  strength  effected  by  the 
stringency  it  creates.  The  real  rnilitarv-  justification  of  a 
blockade  is  that  the  disadvantages  of  "this  stringency  will 
<ompel  the  enemy  to  fight.  There  is  in. theory— and  all  the 
facts  of  history  support  it— no  possible  alternative  to  fighting 
being  the  primary  purpose  for  which  navies  exist. 

It  follows  that,  if  the  General  Staff  is  the  mental  extension 
of  the  chief  command,  fighting  must  be  the  only  concern  of 
the  most  important  section  of  staff  organisation.  "  War." 
said  an  American  general,  "  is  fightiug,  and  fighting  i.s  killing." 
At  sea  it  means  the  employment  of  weapons,  dmi-lly  in  ships, 
for  the  destruction  of  the  cncniy'ji  weapon-carrying  bliips  and 


other  defences  of  his  sea  forces.  Sea  war  then  is  primarily'an 
affair  of  the  choice  and  use  of  weapons.  For  practical  pur- 
poses there  arc  three  naval  w'capons  :  the  gun,  the  torpedo 
and  the  mine.  Ttie  guns  in  praetical  use  in  the  British  ll^rt 
alone  are  verj^  various.  Tlicre  are  anti-submarine  patrol 
boats  armed  with  twelve  pounders  and  even  smaller  w'capons  ; 
and  battleships  and  battle  cruisers  armed  with  15-inch  guns 
and,  if  rumour  is  to  be  trusted,  with  larger  weapons  still. 
Torpedoes  vary  as  do  guns,  but  to  a  less  degree.  And  there 
arc  several  types  of  mines  and  depth  charges.  In  selecting 
the  armament  for  any  particular  ship  and  in  detailing  any 
partiailar  ship  for  any  particular  operation,  two  intellectual 
functions  must  be  exercised.  There  is  the  choice  of  the 
weapon  and  jircscribing  the  method  of  its  use.  And,  insepar- 
able fi'om  these  two  is  the  third — the  design  of  the  ship  that 
is  to  carrj-  the  weapon.  What  is  true  of  guns  is  true  of 
torpedoes,  mines  and  dejith  charges.  It  is  hardly  necessary' 
to  add  that  in  all  war  the  science  of  the  use  of  weapons  is 
twofold.  It  has  an  offensive  and  a  defensive  side  to  it.  You 
must  master  your  weapon  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  the 
enemy  ;  you  must  master  the  defensive  means  the  enemy's 
use  of  the  weapon  imposes  upon  you.  According,  therefore, 
as  circumstances  make  the  use  of  one  or  other  kind  of  weapon 
likely  to  be  predominant  by  your  own  forces  or  by  the  enemy's, 
so  will  the  staff  grade  the  offeilsive  or  defensive  aspect  of  its 
preparations. 

The  general  theory  behind  the  British  pre-war  conception  of 
sea  povvcr,  was  that  so  long  as  we  possessed  a  battle  fleet 
excelling  in  numbers  the  combined  fleets  of  all  our  probable 
enemies,  and  composed  of  units  each  individually  more  j>owcr- 
ful  than  those  any  enemy  w'as  known  to  be  preparing,  v\e 
should  not  only  be  perfectly  safe  from  naval  defeat,  but  would 
in  all  probabilit\-  not  even  have  to  fight  for  safety,  for  the 
excellent  reason  that  no  enemy  not  absolutely  desperate 
would  provoke  a  contest  in  which  the  odds  would 
be  hopelessly  against  him.  Our  theor\-  of  war,  there- 
fore, was  generally  that  the  enemy's  main  forces  would  have 
to  keep  to  their  harlxiurs,  leaving  us  free  to  carrv'  on  the 
transport  of  troops  and  to  employ  our  own  and  Allied  and 
Neutral  mercliant  ships  in  sujiplv,  practicallv  as  if  no  enemy 
naval  force  existed.  If  we  test  this  theory  by  the  two  prin- 
ciples laid  down  above — namely,  that  fleets  exist  only  to 
light  and  that  in  preparing  for  this,  regard  must  be  had  to 
the  special  weapon  each  side  will  rely  upon,  we  shall,  I  think, 
notice  a  very  curious  contradiction  in  our  conduct.  For  our 
theory  being  that  with  a  battle  fleet  as  big  as  ours,  neither 
the  enemy's  main  fleet^ — nor  any  of  his  merchant  men — t^ould 
ever  put  to  sea  cxcejJt  upon  some  desperate  adventure, 
when  it  would  obviously  be  our  object  to  destroy  him, 
we  should  ha\-c  placed  our  main  reliance  on  our  longest  range 
weapon  to  effect  his  destruction.  For,  ex  liypothesi,  the  enemy 
would  generally  be  fugitive.  Our  first  care  then  should  have 
been  to  have  brought  our  battleships'  gunnery  to  the  highest 
perfection,  and  hence  to  have  exhausted  our  capacity  for  analy- 
sis so  as  to  anticipate  every  condition  of  action,  and  then  to 
have  entrusted  to  the  best  scientific  talent  we  possessed  the 
])roduction  of  whatever  optical,  mechanical  or  electrical  devices 
that  were  recpiired  for  overcoming  the  difiicultics  which  right 
anticipation  showed  would  arise  in  battle.  Only  so  could  wc 
have  hoped  to  give  a  logical  expression  to  the  offensive  theory 
on  which. battleship;^  are  designed.  .'\nd,  conversely,  assum- 
ing our  policy  of  driving  the  enemy  within  his  harbours  by  fear 
or  defeat  to  have  succeeded,  we  should  have  rendered  the  naval 
gun  in  his  hands  a  weapon  of  which  we  need  not  be  afraid — 
for  it  was  always  clear  that  with  the  advance  m  the  speed  of 
ships  and  in  rapidity  of  communication  brought  about  bv 
steam  and  wireless,  the  neutralisation  of  a  battle  fleet  must  be 
followed  by  an  absohitt-  command  of  the  sea  in  the  sense  in 
v\hich  old  writers  used  it. 

W'v.  .should  then  have  looked  into  the  possibilities  of  the  other 
naval  weapons,  new  comers  in  thq  field  of  war,  weapons  that 


Jannar\'  17,  191S 


LAND    &    WA5TER 


r 


havf*  rfallj'  duplicated  naval  war  by  making  an  under-siirfai  o 
as  wpH  as  a  i.urface  war  possiblo,  and  asked  ourselves  wlun- 
the  study  of  the  use  of  these  weapons  led  us  in  our  preparations 
for  hostilities.  We  should  have  nsked  ourselves  what  is 
left  to  an  enemy  doomed  to  defeat  or  impotence  in  the  war  ol 
surface  ships?  Will  under-water  war  help  liim  to  redress  the 
balance  of  sea  power  f  The  elements  were  all  well  known, 
and  had  long  been  familial'.  The  te.xtbopks  on  toqicdoes, 
submarines  and  mines  that  existed  before  the  fateful  fourth  ot 
August  will  no  doubt  all  need  extensive  rewriting.  But  there 
will  be  no  need  to  restate  any  fundamental  theory  nf  the 
employment  of  these  weapons. 

Admiral  Aube's  Doctrine 

For  over  thirty  years  it  has  been  a  commonplace  amongst 
naval  writers  that  the  ne%v  element  introduced  into  naval 
war  by  the  torpedo  was  a  form  of  attack — assumed  to  be 
neccssarilv  fatal  in  each  instance,  when  brought  home — almost 
impossible  to  avoid,  because  made  by  an  agent  enjoying  the 
magic  gift  of  invisibility.  That  a  maritime  nation  could 
be  defeated  in  war  by  bringing  its  sea  supplies  to  naught,  antl 
that  torpedo  attack  might  achieve  this  nullification,  despite 
all  that  surface  ships  could  do,  were  the  main  contentions  set 
out  bj'  Admiral  Aube  in  his  famous  j^amphlets  of  1885  and 
iS8b.  The  submarine  added  no  new  -principle  to  Aube's 
theory.  It  only  substituted  the  literally  invisible  submarine 
for  the  virtually  invisible  swift  torpedo  boat.  But,  while  no 
new  principle  was  adde<J,  a  means  so  far  more  effective  was 
substituted  that  naval  thinkers  and  writers  at  once  perceived 
that  the  logical  development  of  the  submarine  would  conv^ert 
.\ube's  guerre-  de  course  from  a  dream  to  a  working  theori'. 
What  then,  our  postulates  a.s  to  sea  war  on  the  surface  being 
a,s  we  have  seen,  were  the  obvious  deductions  to  which  a 
study  of  under-water  craft  and  under-water  weapons  would 
have  le<l  us?  We  should  .surely  have  realised  that  here  was 
the  only  hope  of  an  enemy  hopeli^ssly  disadvantaged  in  the 
war  of  battleships  and  cniisers.  And  e<iually  that  here  was 
a  field  in  wtiich  we  stood  to  gain  least  by  the  offensive,  for 
the  e.xcellent  reason  that  we  should  have  no  targets  to  attack. 
.\ud,  consequently,  just  as  the  perfection  of  long  range  gunnery 
'•n  action  conditions  would  ha\e  been  our  dominant  pre- 
occupation if  we  would  develop  offensive  in  normal  sea  war 
to  the  full,  so  too  it  should,  in  the  abnormal  war  beneath  the 
sea,  have  been  our  main  purpose  to  have  preoccupied  our- 
selves with  the  defensive.  But,  as  all  the  world  knows,  we 
lot  gunnery  take  care  of  itself,  setting  our  main  fleet  to  a  purely 
defensive  r61e.  And.wc  leapt  into  the  van  in  developing 
the  submarine  and  long  range  torpedo,  forcing  the  pace  which 
our  enemy  was  bound  to  follow,  ami  then  neglected  to  prepare 
i-ven  the  most  elementary  of  coimter  measures  \o  meet  the 
weapons  we  had  forged  against  ourselves. 

No  organisation  preparing  a  navy  for  war  which  had  in- 
cluded a  section  for  the  study  of  the  technique  of  weapons 
could  possibly  have  fallen  into  two  blunders  so  glaring  and 
disastrous  as  these  two  have  proved.  And  it  was  because 
the  Churchill  War  Staff  of  1912  set  an  enormous  number  of 
officers  and  clerks  to  work  on  plans  of  war  without  reference 
to  the  means  by  which  those  plans  were  to  be  pvjt  into  effect — 
for  the  staff  was  altogether  severed  from  the  study  of  weapons, 
that  is  the  study  of  fighting,  that  is  the  whole  purpose  for 
which  fleets  exist  ! — that  we  drifted  into  the  great  and 
hazardous  confiisioh  of  hostilities  wholly  unprovided  with 
the  first  essential  to  success.  • 

We  went  on  in  this  nuiddled  and  happy-go-luckv  way, 
learning  nothing  from  the  ominous  failures  to  make  hits  at 
the  l-alkland  Islands  and  the  Dogg.r  Bank  affair, blind  to  the 
appalling  ler>sf)nsof  Gallipoli,  until  Jutland  made  it  clear  even 
t(j  the  Kast  observant  that  modern  long  range  gunnery,  as 
exemplified  by  the  two  fleets  in  action  that  day,  was  afmost 
altogether  impotent.  Then  another  year  passed,  and  we 
found  that  just  as  forty  battleships  and  battle  cruisers  could 
not,  in  a  sea  action  lasting  from  a  quarter  to  four  till  eight  at 
night,  make  hits  enough  to  disable  more  th.an  one  of  their 
twenty  opponents,  so  too  our  other  sea  forces  were  altogether 
unable  to  i)roter.t  our  nierciiant  shipping  frum  the  submarines. 
^  et  that  the  attick  would  be  exactly  what  it  Wius,  there  had 
been,  if  possible,  even  less  doubt,  than  that  the  gunnery  of 
the  fleet  would  fail  when  it  came  to  battle.  Tor  the  German 
threat  of  ruthless  under-water  attack  on  tha  largest  scale 
which  Germany  could  prepare,  was  specifically  given  within 
t.n  days  of  our  hearing  that  von  Spec's  squadron  had  been 
<lestroyed,  and  had  been  repeated  again  and  again  in  the 
intervening  months.  ICven  to  those,  then,  who  liad  not 
the  mtelligence  to  realise  that  our  enemy  would  inevitablv 
adopt  the  Aube  theory  of  war  because  it  was  the  onlv  form 
of  war  open  to  him,  the  enemy's  actions,  no  less  than  his  per- 
fectly frank  warnings,  sholild  have  brought  enlightenin.nt. 
Why  were  ail  warnings  as  to  the  inefticiency  of  our  guimerv 
and  the  virtual  non-existence  of  an  anti-submarine  organisa- 


tion consistent!  v  ignored 


the  answer  is  obvious.  There 
was  no  staff  dei)artment  to  point  out  to  the  chief  command 
what  were  the  right  methods  of  using  the  gtui,  or  what  followed 
irom  the  enemy  emiiloying  the  right  method  —for  his  purpose — 
of  using  the  torpeclo. 

The  system  of  Admiralty  administration  under  which 
we  had  suffered  since  1904 — -the  system  of  autocracy — 
was  necessarily  responsible  for  these  misfortunes.  The 
\ice  of  autocracy  is  that  its  actions  cannot  be  impartially  or 
authoritatively  reviewed.  In  the  sphere  of  civil  government 
it  breeds  injustice  and  inefticiency.  In  the  \a\y  it  bred 
inefticiency  because  it  did  injustice  to  the  truth.  In  civil 
affairs  the  humaner  peoples  have  preferred  democracy  to 
uut(XTacy.  because  they  rightly  ^Jut  justice  to  the  individual 
as  the  first  care  of  the  State,  and  because  justice  cannot 
prevail  where  a  government's  actions  cannot  be  reviewed. 
\'ou  cannot  administer  a  service  like  the  Navy  democratically, 
that  is  by  allowing  the  individuals  composing  it  to  elect  their 
officers.  But  you  can  secure  that  justice  to  the  truth — 
and  incidentally  to  the  individuals  that  advocate  it — shall 
prevail  by  seeing  that  the  trained  intellects  of  the  service 
are  employed  impersonally  and  impartially  to  examine  every 
main  departure  in  policy. 

Goinmand  and  Supply 

Fourteen  months  ago  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Grand  Fleet  became  First  Sea  Lord  and  brought  with  liim 
various  officers  recently  under  his  command.  But  he  made  no 
change  in  Admiralty  organisation.  Its  two  main  defects 
remained.  Command  and  Supply  or,  as  the  official  phrase 
has  it,  Operations  and  Maintenance,  were  still  muddled 
together.  .\nd  there  was  no  Staff.  Five  months  of  this 
regime  revealed  total  failure.  Last  May  came  the  first  recon- 
struction. In  July  Sir  Eric  Geddesr  became  First  Lord,  and 
we  have  just  seen  the  reconstruction  completed.  The  first 
step  was  a  real  effort  to  separate  Command  and  Supply,  but 
it  was  the  only  advance  made.  For  not  only  was  the  organisa- 
tion wrong,  but  it  had  been  worked  by  the  dynasty  that  had 
governed  us  since  1904,  whose  inadequacy  for  the  task  was 
proved,  not  only  by  failure  in  the  field,  biit  by  their  content- 
ment with  a  system  that,  even  if  energetically  worked,  would 
have  made  success  difficult.  Critics  welcomed  Sir  Eric 
Geddes  and  Sir  Rosslyn  Wemyss  because  they  hoped  the  new 
organisation  would  be  worked  in  a  new  spirit.  They  also 
hopetl  for  the  completion  of  the  reorganisation  and  for  new 
men  to  operate  it.  What  has  just  been  accomplLshed  is  that 
the  reforms  of  last  May  have  been  carried  to  their  logical 
conclusion. 

1  said  at  the  outset  of  this  paper  that  historically  the  general 
staff  derived  from  the  organisation  through  which  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief in  the  field  could  employ  the  numerous  and 
various  imits  that  composed  his  forces,  and  that  its  growth  into 
an  impersonal  brain  force,  to  cover  the  whole  field  of  war,  was 
an  after  development.  It  is  the  first  of  these  stages  of  staff 
development  that  seems  to  be  realised  in  the  changes 
announced  last  week.  I  mean  by  this,  that  the  First  Lord 
has  not  attempted  the  construction  of  a  complete  staff  on 
scientific  lines  ;  method  and  technic  are  not  provided  for. 
It  is  an  organisation  created  to  deal  with  the  imrhediate 
difficulties  of  the  day  and  to  deal  with  them  immediately, 
.'\nd  so  far  as  it  goes,  both  in  the  division  and  subdivision  o£ 
functions  and  in  the  choice  of  officers  to  preside  over  the 
various  branches,  the  work  seems  to  be  exceedingly  well 
done.  This  is  not  to  say  that  there  are  not  both  inclusions 
and  exclusions  which  in  the  first  case  surprise,  and  in  the  other 
disappoint.  But  this  after  all  is  inevitable  and,  while  we 
may  be  sure  that  the  First  Lord's  new  scheme  of  work  is 
intended  to  be  the  foundation  of  a  permanent  fabric,  we  can 
be  equally  sure  th?it  such  a  fabric  will  call  for  a  continual 
change  in  personnel  as  the  needs  of  the  situation  and  the 
aptitudes  of  different  oflicers  are .  revealed. 

To  a  great  extent  no  doubt  the  most  vital  problems  of  all — 
those  that  arise  in  settling  the  use  of  weapons — while  not 
specifically  provided  for  in  the  new  arr^mgement  by  new 


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10 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  17,  191S 


staff  departnifnts,  nre  neverilielcss  not  altogether  neglected. 
The  First  Lord  lias  probably  siipposal  that  his  nine  new 
Directors — n  group  of  men  "it  is  nu  exaggeration  to  call 
lirilliant— working  umlor  the  Deputy  First  Lord  and  thi; 
Deputy  and  Assistant  Chiefs  of  the  Naval  Staff,  together 
with  their  several  expert  assistants  in  each  department — all 
o(  them  fresh  from  sea  experience  and  mostly  of  forty  years 
t)f  age  or  less— must  from  their  own  personal  knowledge 
:md  from  their  manv  facihties  for  communicating  with  those 
nrtivelv  engaged  in  operations,  have  at  their  disposal  all  the 
technical  knowledge  and  all  the  teclmical  developments  that 
tiie  war  has  brought  about,  and  that  therefore  their  plans 
and  advice  will  be  perfectly  in  accord  with  flie  possibilities 
<i(  the  ships  and  weapons  they  recommend  to  be  employed 
lor  putting  these  ])lans  into  effect.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  in 
;iiiy  department  of  naval  technique  it  is  wise  to  rely  upon  such 
a  general  immanence  of  this  vitally  important  fonn  of  wisdom. 
We  must  not  forget  that  at  Galhpoli  the  naval  guns  were  set 
to  perform  a  quite  impossible  task  on  the  advice,  as  Mr. 
Churchill  told  us,  of  the  gunnery  advisers  at  the  Admiralty, 
"  the  best  that  the  world  possesses."  The  failure  of  the  most 
nmbitiott?  of  all  Mr.  Churchill's  war  plans  was  perhaps  the 
revenge  of  fate  for  the  most  thoughtless  of  all  his  blunders  as 
an    administrator.       Only  eightem    months   brfn,-.     i„.    imrl 


banished  from  the  Admiralty  organisation  the  office  of  In- 
spector of  Target  Practice  --the  only  element  in  the  whole 
organisation,  which  the  genius  of  a  })jevious  holder  of  the 
Inspectorship  had  developed  into  a  highly  perfect  example  of 
what  a  staff  department  should  be.  It  was  the  depository  oi 
the  active  fleet's  experience,  judgment  and  wants  as  to'the 
gunnery  inethi)ds.  The  British  Meet  had  fired  more  rounds  at 
battle  practice  targets  under  the  supervision  of  abler  an<l 
keener  gunnery  oiilieers  than  any  fleet  in  the  world.  No  body 
of  men  could  have  been  more  "sensitive  to  their  faifures,  nor 
better  aware  that  it  was  caused  by  the  inadequacy  of  then- 
equipment.  None  could  better  indicate  the  lines  on  which 
progress  should  be  made.  But  the  Admiralty  did  not  know 
how  to  use  the  only  staff  element  it  possessed.  The  fatal  taint 
of  administrative  infallibility  made  the  mere  existence  of  a 
critic,  even  if  his  ad\-ice  was  not  followed,  intolerable  to  the 
lesser  bureaucrats  that  served  the  autocrat.  And  Mr. 
Churchill  was  persuaded  to  abolish  the  office  so  as  to  .silence 
criticism.     The  Galhpoli  failure  followed  inevitably. 

Is  it  not  probable,  is  it  not  at  any  rate  possible  that  the 
creation  of  branches,  equivalent  to  the  old  Inspectorship,  to 
elucidate  the  methods  of  using  weapons,  might  not,  even  at 
this  late  date,  give  us  prompt  results  which  would  be  reflected 

in  tlie  ficrjitinnr  |->n\vi>i-  mF  fV...  flp-.f-  }  AinilT'R    FoTirN. 


Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book 


The  Cult  of  the  Theatre 

THE  theatres  m  BerUn — and  in  A'ienna — are  sold  out 
ever\'  night.  Prices  have  been  raised  to  what  the 
Germans  themselves  call  scandalous  heights.  And 
yet  it  is  as  difticidt  to  obtain  a  seat  as  an  ounce  of 
butter.  The  Berlin  correspondent  of  the  Vienna  Xeit,  fur- 
nishes the  explanation  for  this  curious  fact.  In  the  first 
place,  the  demand  101*  enjoyment  is  as  strong  in  Berlin  as  the 
demand  for  food.  The  soldiers  from  the  front  coming  home 
on  leave  desire  to  be  amused  ;  the  people'  at  home,  thoroughly 
tired  of  the  "melancholy  business"  of  holding  out,  are 
equally  insistent  on  pleasure.  In  the  second  place,  social 
life  in  Berlin  is  quite  dead.  'The  shortage  of  meat,  cakes, 
beer  and  other  drinks,  makes  it  impossible  to  entertain  with 
any  hope  of  attracting  one's  friends,  and  invitations  to  drop 
in  after  supper  have  proved  unpopular.  Dancing  in  cold 
rooms  is  out  of  the  question,  and  so  social  Hfe  in  Berlin  con- 
centrates on  the  theatre. 

The  fare  is  certainly  abundant,  though  revue  is  appa- 
rently unknown.  So  is  the  specifically  war  play.  A  glance 
at  the  weekly  programme  of  the  Berlin  theatres  shows  plenty 
of  variety,  suitable  for  all  tastes.  During  the  first  week  of 
the  year,  for  instance,  the  Beriin  citizens  might  hear  at  the 
«)pera  "  The  Barber  of  Seville"  on  Monday,  "  The  Meister- 
sinper  "  on  Tuesday,  and  "  The  Marriage  of  Figaro  "  on  the  ' 
Monday  following.  There  were  several  classical  plays,  in- 
cluding "  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  and  a  host  of  inodcrn 
••omedies,  for  the  most  part  problem  plays,  by  well-known 
authors. 

ft  is  felt  that  these  joys  should  also  be  brought  within  the 
reach  of  the  less  well-to-do,  who  cannot  afford  the  pleasures 
of  the  theatre.  A  new  organisation  has  therefore  come  into 
being,  under  the  style  of  "  Happy  Evenings,"  for  the  purpose 
of  providing  musical  and  draniatic  entertainment  for  the 
masses  of  Berlin.  Herman  Sudermann  and  Lndwig  Fulda 
are  among  the  patrcais  of  the  society,  and  their  appeal  for 
funds, IS  mteresting  reading  for  the  light  it  sheds  on  the  con- 
ditions of  life  in  the  German  capital.  "  To  bring  a  little 
gladness  into  the  existence  of  those  who  are  oppressed  by  the 
cares  of  subsistence,  darkness,  cold  and  the  dearth  of  clothes 
is  the  aim  of  the  "  Happy  Evenings  "  Society.  ...  A 
few  hours  each  evening  spent  amidst  warmth  and  light  and 
laughter  may  generate  the  new  strength  necessary  for  bearing 
want  and  deprivation." 

Polygamy 

The  Germans  appear  to  he  greatly  annoyed  at  the  accusa- 
tions levelled  against  tlicm  in  the  press  of  the  worid  that  a. 
suggestion  to  encourage  ])olvgamy  had  been  favourably,  if 
not  officially,  received  in  the  I'atheriand.  The  Berliner 
'J  amebian,  which  may  be  described  as  a  moderate  and  respect- 
able daUy,  does  not  deny  that  the  cult  of  polgyamy  is  not 
unknown  in  Germany,  Intt  it  declares  that  it  is  "limited  to  a 
few  fanatics  who  are  of  no  significance.  In  making  this 
admission  it  mentions  iwi  less  than  six  organisations,  founded 
for  the  purpose  of  inrprovmg  and  increasing  the  German 
race— (i)  The  "  Eden  "  se-ttlcment,  {2)  The  Mid-day  Union, 
U)  The   Hammer  Comsmunity,    (4)  The     German"  League 


for  Regeneration,  (5)  The  New  Order  of  Templarp,  and  (f>) 
The  Ariana  Society  for  the  propagation  of  I^rce  Love. 

The  Berliner  Tagehlatt  is  at  pains  to  minimise  the  influence 
of  these  bodies,  and  in  so  doing  reaches  the  height  of  im- 
pertinence by  asserting  that  the  man  who  is  to  blame  for  these 
ills  is  the  Englishman,  Houston  Stewart  Chamberlain  ! 
Chamberlain  an  Englishman  !  Whatever  his  origin  may  ha\e 
been,  there  is  little  either  of  the  Britoa  or  the  British 
outlook  about  him.  He  himself  claims  to  be  a  German  of  the 
purest  type,  and  is  devoted  to  the  highest  German  ideals, 
ideals  exemplified  in  the  stripping  bare  of  Belgium,  the  sinking 
of  hospital  ships  and  the  poisoning  of  wells.  Yet  this  man 
is  dubbed  English  when  it  suits  the  German  book. 

Yet  another  instance  is  very  instructive  of  German  men- 
tanly.  The  Frankfurter  Zeitimi^,  commenting  on  Mr.  Lloyd 
George's  reference  to  the  (lerman  colonies,  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  demand  of  the  English  Premier  that  the  fate  of 
the  natives  should  be  determined  by  their  own  choice.  Th<> 
South  German  journal  is  aghast  at  the  proposal.  "  Pre- 
sumably Mr.  Lloyd  George  means,"  it  argues,  "  that  the  natives 
of  the  German  colonies  should  express  their  views  while  yet 
British  troops  are  in  occupation."  That  would  never  do. 
Yet  while  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  even  according  to  the  Frank- 
furter Zeitung  only  "  presumably  "  desires  this,, the  German 
(iovernment  actually  claims  a  s"imilar  right  in  Couriand  an. I 
Lithuania  ! 

Gall  to  Repentance 

Far-sighted  Germans  appear  to  realise  the  hopelessness  ot 
this  attitude,  and  they  are  striving  to  recall -their  fellow 
countrymen  to  their  senses.  Among  such  people  pride  of 
place  belongs  to  Rudolf  Eucken,  professor,  philosopher, 
theologian,  one  of  the  few  men  of  independent  spirit  in  Ger- 
many. In  a  Christmas  message  to  the  readers  of  a  Hamburg 
^  paper,  he  pleads  for  an  understanding  of  the  e'nemy.  And 
yet  even  Eucken  speaks  with  condescension.  The  "war  has 
shown  "  that  our  opponents  are  more  capable  tiian  we  were 
at  first  inclined  to  think.  It  was  a  common  thing  among  us 
to  speak  of  the  English  as  a  nation  of  shopkeepers.  But  a 
nation  of  shopkeepers  would  never  ha.ve  been  able  to  put 
forth  such  political  and  mihtary  energy  as  the  English  ha\'e 
done  and  continue  to  do."  "  ' 

In  the  same  way  Maximilian  Harden,  unmuzzled  once 
more,  urges  reconciliation  with  America.  On  this  he  insists 
in  his  lectures  as  well  as  in  his  weekly  organ,  which  is  now 
allowed  to  appear  again.  Of  President  Wilson,  Harden  writes, 
"Never  did  the  German  people  hear  an  iminire  word  front 
Ins  mouth."  The  way  to  end  the  war  lies  by  way  of  Washing- 
ton. Harden  told  an  audience  in  Beriin  three  days  after  last 
Christmas,  and  he  conehided  by  appealing  to  tlie  people  of 
Goethe  and  Diirer  to  contribute  its  share  in  constructing  the 
Temple  of  Righteousness.  The  pity  of  it  is,  however,  that 
few  people  lake  Harden  seriously,  enteiiaining  as  he  is. 

The  man  who  is  in  reality  all-powerful  is  Hindenburg,  and 
he  breathes  a  very  different  spirit.  "  Do  not  let  us  talk  so 
much  about  peace,"  he  told  a  deputation  of.  journalists  on 
December  23nd.  "  Only  \'ictory  leads  to  peace.  That  was 
the  case  in  the  East.  It  will  be  the  same  elsewhere.  Victory 
and  peace  are  certain,  and  they  \\ill  come  all  the  sooner  i"f 


January  17,  1918 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


only  we  present  a  united  front  at  home.  Militaiy  victory  is 
assured  ;  no  one  can  possibly  snatch  it  from  us."  That 
is  the  appeal  that  goes  home  ;  Eucken  and  Harden  are 
but  voices  crying  in  the  wilderness. 

"  The  Bolsheviks  of  Neukolla  " 

The  latest  public  sensation  in  Germany  is  the  action  of  the 
municipal  authorities  of  Neukolln,  a  prevailingly  working- 
class  district  in  Greater  Berliii,  There  are  many  munition 
works,  large  and  small,  in  Neukolln,  and  in  order  to  keep  their 
workpeople  in  good  humour,  the-  larger  works  buy  up  pro- 
visions and  sell  them  at  nominal  rates  to  their  employees, 
thereby  supplomenting  the  scanty  rations  allowed  by  tin; 
:mthorities.  In  order  to  obtain  these  additional  supplies 
till'  larger  concerns,  such  ;xs  the  General  Electric  Company  of 
Berlin,  regardless  of  the  maximum  prices  fixed  by  law,  pay 
w  hatfver  is  demanded  if  only  they  can  obtain  the  provisions. 

Wliat  is  the  result  ?  That  the  municipalities  coming  on  the 
market  to  purchase  eatables  for  their  citizens,  are  forced  to 
outbid  the  wealthy  companies,  so  they,  too,  exceed  the 
maximum  prices  for  corn  and  flour,  potatoes  and  vegetables, 
milk  and  cheese,  meat  and  sausages.  Competition  thus 
becomes  fierce  ;  prices  are  sent  up  to  dizzy  heights,  and  the 
Jaw  is  broken.  This  has  been  going  on  for  some  considerable 
time,  and  at  length  the  corporation  of  Neuk<>lln,  linding  its 
linauces  seriously  affectetl  and  its  conscience  a  little  uneasy, 
jirt-part'd  for  jiresentation  to  the  hood  Controller,  a  long 
iniinorandum  on  thtst-  abuses.  This  action  won  the  applause 
"f  many  jxople,  including  Maximihan  Harden,  who  named 
the  city  fathers  "  the  Bolsheviks  of  Neukolln." 

It  was  also  intended  to  bring  the  document  to  the  notice  of 
the  Part\'  Leaders  of  the  Imperial  Parliament  and  of  various 
nfhcial  bodies  besides.  But  no  sooner  had  the  Eood  Controller 
sien  the  nature  of  the  memorandum  then  he  prohibited  its 
l>ubhcation  on  pain  of  severe  penalties.  Nevertheless,  the 
Socialist  Vorudrls  got  hold  of  it  and  gave  to  the  world  what 


it  described  as  a  "  document  bearing  testimony  to  the  shame 
of  our  age."  Instead  of  pouring  oil  on  the  troubled  waters, 
the  German  Food  Controller,  who  is  a  Junker  to  his  finger 
tips,  now  threatens  to  take  action  against  corporations 
which  have  transgressed  the  maximum  prices  laws,  and  if 
need  be,  to  clap  all  their  members  into  prison.  Yet  the 
(iermans  tolerate  such  a  Food  Controller  I  Little  wonder 
indeed  that,  incredible  as  it  may  sound,  there  are  still  outlving 
parts  in  Germany  where  the  Junkers  pay  no  taxes.     Such  a 

privilege  is  theirs,  for  example,  in  the  town  of  Rostock. 

> 

An  Entertaining  Story 

To  illustrate  the  straits  to  which  Germans  are  put  in  regard 
to  food,  the  following  story  which  appeared  in  the  LeiprAi^er 
Volkszeitune^oi  January  2nd,ma5-  be  given.  It  is  only  necessarv 
to  add  by  way  of  explanation  that  maiiy  town-dwellers  a 
few  months  ago  would  go  to  the  countryside  in  order  to  bring 
home  what  food  they  could  obtain.  The  practice  became  so 
extensive  that  it  threatened  to  develop  into  a  public  danger. 
The  police  stepped  in  and  forbade  all  such  excursions,  and 
now  whenever  they  discover  a  culprit,  they  not  only  punish 
him  severely,  but  in  addition  seize  his  supplies.  So  much 
by  way  of  introduction.  The  story  comes  from  W'iedenbriick, 
a  countr\'  place  in  Saxony  : 

It  has  tx-en  observed  of  late  that  ladies,  slender  as  pines,  cnme 
by  an  early  train  into  the  country  from  the  neighboiirinj^ 
industrial  centres,  and  that  when  they  depart  by  the  last 
train  in  the  evening  they  have  become  wonclrou.s  .stout,  more 
especially  in  the  bust.  Yhe  irregular  shape  of  two  such  busts 
aroused  the  suspicions  of  a  constable,  who  entered  into  con- 
versation with  the  owners.  But  the  agitatio)i  of  the  ladies 
and  their  contradictory  statements  only  confirmed  the 
officer's  suspicions,  and  he  arrested  them. .  At  tlic  p(jlice 
station  the  ladies  were  searched,  and  it  was  discovered  that 
one  owed  her  apparent  stoutness  to  seven  pounds  of  meat 
and  a  quantity  of  butter  concealed  under  her  clothing,  while 
the  other  had  on  a  blouse  which  was  so  made  that  fifty 
oggj  could  be  safely  carried  within  it. 


The    Husbandmen— II 


By  Centurion* 


from  the  haw  i 

son  hue  of  bl' 

It  was  ek\ 

turning  tiie  h 


IT  was  one  c>i  iiio?c  late  autumn  day?;  wlien  the  ''  wind- 
falls "  of  the  orcljard  are  gathered  into  the  cider-press, 
and  the  farmyard  is  filled  with  the  aroma  of  the  pomace  ; 
when  the  last  sheaf  of  com  has  been  harvested  ujxjn  the 
-I  iddles  and  the  final  spekc  has  been  driven  into  the  thatch  ; 
ulirn  the  "  lands  "  are  ploughed  and  cleaned  of  couch  under 
theteethof  the  drag,  and  the  earth  is  dressed  for  thesowing  of 
the  winter  wheat.  A  red  sun  shone  through  the  autumnal 
mists  f)f  the  morning,  d\eing  them  to  a  flagrant  glow  ;  in  the 
f:ir  di-Jtnnce  the  fan-shajJcd  elms  stoixl  out  in  a  sharp  black 
lit  11  III'  upon  the  grey  screen  of  vapour.  The  fall  of  the 
l^.ii  Was  far  advanced,"  but  tufts  of  Old  Man's  Beard  still 
Inmg  on  the  hedgerows  like  fleece  ;  a  few  leaves  of  briar 
decorated  the  intricate  pattern  of  twisted  elder,  pallid  ash, 
and  spiked  hawthorn.  The  one  touch  of  bright  colour  came 
li's,  which  glowed  with  the  dark  crim- 
tlie  hedge-tops. 

k  in  the  morning.  An  old  man  was 
:i  swede-cutter  in  a  gablwl  barn  whose 
high  n  )of  was  supported  by  oak  rafters  and  tie-beams  festooned 
with  cobwebs.  The  open  doorway  of  tht-  bam  commanded  a 
\  iew  of  the  fields  which  slojied  upwards  from  the  edge  of  the 
t;irm\:ir'!.  One  of  those  fields  was  marked  by  deep  furrows 
II 'I  1:1  1.1  miIl  s  of  newlv-turned  earth,  all  cut  with  a 
Miaigiitness  ot  line  that  marked  the  work  of  a  skilled  plough- 
man. A  man  was  advancing  down  the  middle  of  one  of  the 
"  lands  "  with  a  cradle-sliaped  box  slung  against  his  waist 
in  front  of  him  ;  he  dipped  his  right  hand  into  the  box,  and 
desi  ribing  with  each  step  he  took  a  semicirctflar  movement 
with  his  liand  lie  scattered  the  seed  in  front  of  him.  With 
just  those  gestures  bygone  men  had  sown  these  same  fields  for  ■ 
;i  thousjind  years  before  him.  There  was  a  slow,  even  rhythm 
about  the  movement  of  Jiis  liands  and  feet  as  though  he  were 
meastiring  out  j)accs  on  the  land. 

The  old  man  at  the  swede-cutter  paused  a  liioment  to 
w.itrh  Jiis  progress.  "  It  be  joike  ahcient  toimes,  sowing 
wi'  h;md."  he  said,  reflectively.  "  This  cas'altv  weather  liev 
made  the  CTound  t<x)  jiard  for  the  drills.  And  them  tr.actors 
-  I  don't  hold  wi'  em.  They  be  no  good  on  wet  heavy  soil 
-they  kneads  it  like  dough.  They  be  all  very  well  for  the 
light.  l)rasliy  soil  up  Faringdon  way.  But  give  me  that  boy 
I  )an'ell  and  his  two  harSes,  licy,  thatcher  ?  " 


•  stories  by  "  rentnrion  "    appc.ir  exclusively  in  Land  &  Water. 

'"fipvrieht  in  the  t'nitwl  St;ih',  .,f  An.irl.  •■>    i.ii-. 


The  thatcher  who  was'mounted  on  a  ladder  against  a  rick 
just  outside  the  barn-door  looked  down. 

"  1  me,  old  Jarge.  It  be  the  zame  wi'  thatching.  I  don't 
hold  wi'  these  new  tin  sheds.  If  ye  wants  to  keep  a  rick 
warm,  there's  nothing  like  a  good  thatch  and  the  work  of 
a  man's  hands.  Here,  Wilham  Tuck,  hand  me  up  some  of 
those  'elms. . .  .Aye,  but  I  forgot  that  wooden  leg  o'  yonrn. 
It  bo  a  clever  piece  of  carpentry,  but  it  can't  climb  a  ladder, 
I'll  warrant." 

He  dc-scended  tfie  ladder  and  gathered  np  some  fabrics  oE 
combed  straw,  each  piece  a  foot  wide  and  three  feet  in  length, 
:md  carried  them  np  the  ladder  in  a  forked  stick  known  as 
a  "  shuttle."  Arrived  at  the  top,  he  proceeded  to  laV  them 
flat  against  the  sloping  roof  of  the  lick.  For  some  seconds 
nothing  was  heard  but  the  tap  of  his  mallet  as  he  drove  in 
his  "  spx-'kes  "  of  cleft  hazel  at  regular  intervals  into  the  rick. 
He  was  laying  the  "  yelms  "  like  the  tiles  of  a  roof,  each  one 
overlapping  the  other. 

Tlie  old  man  watched  him.  "  Eli  Riddick  do  know  lii.s 
job  and  mun  make  dree  pound  a  week  at  it  in  these  times. 
Thatchers  be  so  scarce.  But  maister  never  ought  to  hev 
left  thuck  rick  unthatched  all  this  time.  'Twas  tempting 
Providence — and  the  justices.  I  heerd  on  a  varmer  as  was 
fined  twenty  pound  for  't  t'other  day." 

Meanwhile,  the  object  of  his  original  meditations,  his  son 
Daniel,  a  stout  "  boy  "  of  fifty-five,  was  ploughing  the  field 
next  to  that  in  which  the  sower  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way.  He  had  placed  a  stick  in  the  middle  of  the  far  end  of 
the  field,  and  returning  to  the  near  end  had  hooked  in  his  team 
to  the  ploiigh.  Ih'  had  "  set  "  his  plough  somewhat  as  a  car- 
j)enter  sets  his  plane,  ha\'iug  by  an  adjustment  of  screws  and 
bolts  got  a  distance  of  nine  inches  horizontally  between  the 
right  wheel  and  the  coulter,  and  anotJier  distance  of  four 
inches  vertically  between  the  cotflter  and  the  bottom  of  the 
wheel.  H<^  then  shifted  a  bolt  in  the  iron  head-draught  of 
the  plough  lo  correct  the  "  pull  "  of  the  off  horse.  This 
done,  he  took  a  handle  of  th;>  plough  in  each  kind,  together 
with  the  reins,  and,  with  the  light  toucli  that  was  neither  a 
push  nor  a  pressure  he  guided  the  plough  straight  aliead 
with  his  eye.  on  the  distant  observation-post.  The  turn- 
furrow  of  tlit>  ])lough  threw  up  a  ripi^le  of  brown  eartli,  which, 
as  it  tin"ned  over,  showed  an  iridescent  gleam  wh(>re  the  pres- 
stne  of  the  steel  had  polislied  it.  .\s  tlie  nodding  horses  and 
the  jiloughman  diminished  towards  their  objective  they  were 
lolliivvrfl  h\'  a  letinnc  of  looks  and  starlings,  who  swooped 


LAND    &    WATER 


Jarmary  17,   iQiS 


down  upon  xne  crcfping  thing^i  di'^inti^rrpd  from  their  home 
HI  thf  earth  bv  the  a<;tion  of  thf  pkiu{<h. 

■  Ihe  buy  do  pldigh  a  straight  \  iirrow  to'ard  and  vrom'ard," 
<;aid  the  old  man.  "  Thougli  aw  never  did  win  prizes  as 
J'vi-  a  done.  1  mind  I  won  a  silver  cup  against  dirty-dree 
ploughmen  in  the  year  vivty-ftve." 

No  one  heeded  these  thrice-told  tale5  of  his  former  prowess, 
and  he  relapsed  into  an  old  man's  silent  reveries.  Ho  turned 
the  handle  of  the  swede-cutter  with  slow  revolutions,  hi.s 
shoulders  bowed,-  his  chest  narrowed,  and  his  right  foot  ad- 
\'anced  before  his  left.  His  breath  came  short  with  each  turn 
•1  the  wheel,  so. that  he  stood  like  one  of. the  I<"ates  spinning 
each  moment  of  his  o\\7i  existence.  Tliere  was  something 
marmoreal  in  the  concentration  of  his  pose,  as  though  man 
and  machine  were  one.  A  shambling,  ill-constructed  youth 
named  Jacob  Fox  was  engaged  in  feeding  the  hopper  with  its 
supply  of  purple  roots,  which  he  did  at  irregular  intervals. 
trrst  trimming  them  with  a  knife,  so  that  the  receptacle  was 
sometimes  full  and  sometimes  empty  ;  the  ancient  man,  un- 
mindful <>f  these  gaps,  continued  to  turn  blindly  like  an  old 
woman  who  drops  her  stitches. 

William  Tuck,  who  sat  on  a  milk-stool  splitting  hazel- 
sticks  with  a  bill-hook,  rose  up  and  looked  down  at  the 
heap  of  hairpin-shapad  "  .spekcs  "  he  had  prepared  for  the 
thatcher.  He  stretched  his  dorsal  muscles  and  emitted  a 
low  whistle. 

"  E.Ktra  fatigues  I  calls  it,"  he  commented.  "  I  wish  I  was 
a  solfljer  again.  1  can't  abide  the  vittles  ye  folk  gets  at  home. 
This  war  bread  be  like  the  prodigal  son's— it  be  full  of  the 
Juisks  that  the  twine  did  ear." 

'  Aye,"  said  the  old  man,  meditatively,  roused  from  his 
mechanical  trance.  "  There'll  be  a  mort  of  pjg-killing  this 
year,  I  do  think.  There  ain't  no  offals  for  'em.  And  where  'nil 
us  get  our  bacon  arterwards?"  ' 

"  True,  old  Jarge.  The  Germans  'uUhave  a  sight  ninr.'  o' 
pii^-meat  than  us,  I  'm  thinking." 

'  And  how  do  ye  figure  that  out,  William  Tuck  ? 
"  They'ir  eat  one  another." 

At  this  Jacob  Fox  turned  a  horrified  look  upon  the  speaker. 
The  latter  noted  it  with  mischievous  satisfaction,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  enlarge  upon  his  theme. 

■-Yes,  they  hev  a  corpse  factory  where  they  boils  all  the 
dead  corpses  down  into  dripping  to  make  lardy-cakes.  But 
they  always  keeps  the  spare-rib  for  the  officers." 

■  That  be  an  ungodly  thing  to  do,"  siiid  the  old  man., 
"  Tve  heerd  that  eatin'  live  frogs  is  good  for  the  consumption 
but   to  eat   mortal   man — come,   now.    William   Tuck,    thee 

cassn't   Ijelave   such   things Though    I   do   remember   a 

miss 'nary  from  the~  cannon  ball  islands  as  did  say  something 
of  the  kind.     Be  the  Germans  black  men,  William  Tuck?  ' 
■'  Aye,  when  they're  dead.     In  hot  weather.      Sometimes 
they  tunis  green." 

"  .\w  well,  dog  eats  dog.  You  must  a  seen  a  mort  o'  dead 
corpses,  V\'illiam  Tuck." 

"  Aye,  that  I  have.     Hunderds.    Thousands.     Stuck  my 
entrenching  tool  into  'em,  same  as  I  might  this  bill-hook  into 
Jacob  Fox  here." 
"  Let  him  bide,  the  poor  natural.    Cassn't  thee  see  he's 

all  of  a  twitter  ? It  do  mind  me  o'  when  I  wur  a  digging 

up  on  l.ongbarrow  Down  for  a  partv  of  gentlefolk  with  glasses 
on  their  noses,  what  were  studying  heathen  larning.  They 
were  all  round  us  with  their  tails  tip,  same  as  if  we  were  digging 
out  an  old  \i.\en  and  thev  a  waiting  for  a  kill.  I  strikes  a 
sarsen  stone  with  my  pick,  and  lo  and  behold  !  there  was  a 
skeHington  a  sitting  up  a-waiting  the  Day  of  judgment. 
And  he  had  a  lot  o'  flint  tools  with  him  to  help  liim  cut  his 
Way  out  when  aw  'eers  the  Last  Trump.  It  did  seem  an 
imchristian  thing  to  disturb  the  poor  soul.  I  used  ter  double 
lock  my  door  for  a  month  o£  nights  after  that,  thinking  he 
was  outside  asking  for  a  lodging.  '  I  never  would  do  any  more 
fliggmg  for  those  ould  'newsy  '  folk— a-poking  their  noses 
into  other  people's  sepulchcrs.  There  be  lots  of  'em  up  there 
Romans  an  Britons  and  other  heathen  folk— all  a-waitin"-' 
1  do  often  think  what  a  lot  of  'em  be  waiting  like  that  out  m 

|7.'!"'"^"PP°^   ^'^"'^-     1^0   they   give    'em   Christian    burial, 
William    luck.' 

"  Znmtimes.  They  has  'em  all  registered  like  parish  clerk 
--  rf  they  can  fmd  'em." 

'•  I  once  peeped  over  Church-yard  wall  and  saw  par.^n 
i-burymg,    uiterrupted  Jacob  Fox,  as  though  an.xious  to  show 
that  he,  too,  had  assisted    on  such    ceremonial   occasions 
Aw  wore  a  white  surplus  and  'aw  said ; 
•  .\shes  to  ashes,   dust  to  dust, 
If  God  won't  have  ye  the  <le\'il'nnist ! '  " 
"  True,  most  true,  and  well  spoken,"  said  old  Jarge      "  But 
I  do  think  ye've  got  it  a  bit  mixed  up  jn  that  mazv  poll  o' 
yourn,  Jacob  Fox-.     Not  but  what  it  bjdn't  a  vefy  rfous 

.sentiment Death  and  the  powers  of  darkness  do  seem 

to  l)e  abroad  in  the  land.    And  signs 'and  portents      I  do 
jnmd  me  as  the  ver>-  night   avore  Abigail  Hunt  got  news  of 


the  death  of  her  youngest  lad  in  tlie  war  I  was  a-zitting  up 
and  1  -.uddt  nly  'errs  a  bat  tapping  at  the  winder.  And  1 
looks  up,  and  behold  !  there  was  a  winding-sheet  in  tiiecandl<:. 
And  1  knowed  as  ziimone  was  took."  .       . 

The  conversation  was  interrupted  by  the  entrance  pf  tlie 
toilers  of  the  fields.  The  head  of  Levi  Godbehere,  a  gaunt, 
sinew\'  man,  appeared  in  tlie  doorway.  He  was  a  silent  man 
soured  by  domestic  strife,  and  he  placed  his  seed-lip  down  on 
the  ground  without  a  word.  He  was  immediately  followed  bv 
the  thatcher,  who  was  reputed  to  be  a  "  warm  ''  man  with  a 
Post  (.)Hice  Sa\ings  Book,  and  was  respected  accordingly  as  a 
great  authority  on  high  finance.  Each  proceeded  to  pull 
out  of  his  capacious  pocket  a  large  spotted  handkerchief,  which, 
when  unfolded,  disclosed  thick  slices  of  bread  and  cheese. 
The  thatcher's  rations  were  further  distinguished  by  the 
presence  of  a  piece  of  fat  bacon.  Each  of  the  others  in  turn 
produced  his  mid-day  meal  and  they  all  sat  down,  slowly 
masticating  t  heir  food  like  a  cow  chewing  the  cud. 

This  ritualistic  silence  was  broken  l)y  the  entrance  of 
Daniel  Newth,  who  proceeded  to  remove  two  large  incrustations 
of  loamy  brown  soil  from  his  lx)ots.  They  remained  on  the 
lloor  bearing  an  exact  imprint  of  liis  hob-nailed  soles. 

"  Well,  neighbours,"  he  said,  sociably,  "  toime  to  hev' 
a  bite  and  sup.  Let's  eat,  drink  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow 
we  tightens  our  belts.  If  this  war  goes  on  we  shall  all  be 
turned  out  to  grass.  There  won't  be  nothing  else  to  eat.  We 
starves  the  beasts  and  they'll  end  by  starving'  us.  There's 
mighty  little  oil-cake  for  the  cattle,  and  no  barley-meal  fo* 
the  pigs,  and  next  to  no  maize  for  the  jxiultry.  There'll 
be  as  girt  a  slaughter  of  beasts  as  there  is  of  men,  and  what 
then?     Hey,  neighbours  ?  " 

"  A  solemn  thought,  Dan'l.  A  solemn  thought,  'tis," 
ruminated  the  old  man.  "  There's  Blackacre  Field  as  hev' 
been  under  roots  these  seven  j^ear,  and  is  now  gi\'en  over  to 
whate,  and  what  'uU  the  cattle  do  for  winter  vittles  then  ? 
Die  they  must  like  burnt  offerings — 'tis  a  sacrifice,  sure  it 
is.  It  do  mind  me  o'  the  old  times,  when  I  saw  finly  liieat 
once  a  week.  But  there'll  be  a  powerful  lot  of  bread,  there 
^\ill.  Varmcr  be  ploughing  up  pasture.  There's  '  little 
Scotland  '  field  as  was  laid  down  in  '79— the  year  o'  the 
great  blight  when  corn  fell  to  vorty-drec  shillin'  a  quarter,  and 
the  cattle  rotted  in  the  fields.  A  terrible  year  that  was  !  It 
rained  vort^y.  days  and  vorty  nights  and  the  corn  sprouted 
in  tlie  shocks,  and  cows  and  sheep  ^ot  the  vluke  in  the  liver 
and  wasted  away,  like  a  .maid  in  a  decline.  .\nd  half  the 
farmers  in  the  parish  was  sold  up.  'Once  bit,  twice  shy,  ' 
says  t'others,  and  they  turned  all  tlieir  arable  into  pasture. 
And  now  they've  got  to  plough  it  i\|)  again.  Well,  'tis  an 
ill  wind  as  blows  no  one  any  good.  It'll  be  a  tidy  time  for 
ploughmen.  There's  Dan'el  as  gets  twenty-nine  shillin'  a 
week.  I've  a-ploughcd  a  hacre  a  day  in  my  toime  with  two 
liorses  and  only  got  twelve  shillin' for  it.  And  C)i  could  drive 
as  straight  a  vurrow  as  any  man. in  the  parish." 

"  Aye,  that  you  could,  veyther,"  said  Daniel  Newth, 
propitiatingly.      "  We  do  all  know  as  you  could." 

"  Y'es,  and  sow  too.  I  do  mind  as  how  a.fore  these  seed- 
drills  corned  in  Ive  a-zowed  tlcvon  acres  of  rye,  which  is 
elc\'cn  sacks,  in  a  day.  Rye  takes  .some  zowing-^sliort  steps, 
and  a  full  liandful  from  the  seed-lip  for  each  step. . .  .Y'e've 
an  easy  job  ploughing  this  year,  Dan'l,  after  the  roots,  'i'hose 
roots  have  Ijeen  hoed  clane  of  charlock  and  clytes  and  couch, 
and  ye've  no  skim-ploughing  to  do..  Them  lands  arc  as  clane 
as  my  hand." 

"  Well,  there'll  be  a  good  time  coming  for  Eli  Ruddick," 
said  the  ploughman.  "  He'll  be  thatching  day  in,  day  out, 
next  year.  Ye'll  be  buying  liousen  zoon,  Eli.  Ye  must 
have  saved  a  tidy  bit.     What  do  'ee  put  it  in,  if  1  may  so  ax  ? " 

"  I  lends  it  to  government,"    said  Eli  Kuddick,  shortly. 

"  Well,  it  be  better  than  laying  yer  talents  up  in  a  napkin," 
said  the  old  man  reflectively,  "  But  what  I  zays  is,  '  Spend 
it  as  quick  as  yer  can.'  'Tis  tlie  end  of,  the  world  coming, 
sure  it  is,  when  all  earthly  things  'uU  pass  away.  Or  lend  it 
to  the  Lord.  I  did  put  an  extra  penny  in  the  plate  last  Sunday . ' ' 

"  A  good  hinvestment,  old  Jarge,"  said  Levi  Godbehere, 
gloomily  breaking  his  long  silence.  "  A  good  investment  it 
be.  ^  e  gets  a  hundred  per  cent,  on  it.  I  do  mind  that  hymn 
they  sings  in  church  when  the  sidesmen  comes  round  with 
^  the  plate  all  looking  t'other  way.  aiicl  pretending  not  to  sec 
the  trouscr-buttons  what  some  folks  drops  in.  How  do  it 
go? 

'  \Vliate\-er,  Lord,  we  gives  to  Thee 
Kcpaid  a  hundredfold  'iiU  be.'  " 

"  Well,  us  brought  nothing  into  this  world,  and  us  can  take 
nothing  out.  Though  1  suppose  the  Almighty  'ull  allow 
William  Tuck  to  keep  his  wooden  leg. . .  .How  be  getting  on 
Mi'  that  leg  o'  yourn,  William  Tuck  ?  "  said  the  old  man,  for 
whom  the  soldi<ir's. wooden  limb  had  an  inexhaustible  fasci- 
nation. 

"  It  be  a  useful  tool  to  hev  !  A  very  useful  tool.  Oi  can 
plant  taters  wi'  un. , .  .Them  doctors  can  do  most  wonderful 


Januan-  17,  191S 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


tilings.  Tliry'Il  graft  and  prune  ye  like  a  rose-busli.  I  know'd 
a  chap  as  had  half  his  face  blown  away,  and  one  ercgone  to 
kingdom  come — a  terrible  siglit  he  wur.  The  birds  could  ha' 
flown  in  an 'out  of  his  face  like  an  old  ruin.  And  they  builded 
'un  a  new  face  wi'  a  glass  eve  so  as  his  own  mother  would'nt 
a  know'd  'un.  They  could  cut  up  Jacob  Fox  here  like  butcher's 
meat  and  put  'un  together  again,  if  they  had  a  mind.  And 
make  quite  a  pretty  man  of  'un  too." 

"  How  much  do  'ee  think  they'd  charge  a  body  for  doing 
t,  Mr.  Tuck  ? "  said  Jacob,  who  had  been  sadly  iU-fa\-oured 
jy  Nature. 

"  Jacob  Fox,"    said  the  old  man,  reproachfully,  "  doan't 

0  bri\ct  about  that  headpiece  o'  yourn  so.    It's  a  gift  of  <iod, 

ind  ye  nnna  make  the  best  of  it.     \^'e  do  all  know  ye  be  a 

»vonderful  ugly  man,  the  ugliest  man  in  the  parish,  hain't 

he,  neighbours  ?  "  ^ 

"  Aye,  that  he  be,"  they  all  echoed,  stuJ.ying  his  homely 
features  with  critical  attention.  "  You  be  a  wonderful  plain- 
featured  man,  Jacob  Fox"." 

"  Well,  oi  do  mind  a  man  as  once  took  quite  a  fancy  to  me 
features  once  upon  a  time,"  said  Jacob,  desperately.  "  Tt 
wur  a  fair-da\-,  and  I  was  a-gwine  round  the  booths.  A  wonder- 
ful fair  it  wiir.  There  was  zwings  and  roundabouts  and  peep- 
shows.  And  a  gentleman  selling  di'monds  at  a  penny  apiece. 
.\nd  giants  and  dwarfs  and  a  living  skcllington.  And. . . ." 
"  Cut  the  cackle  and  come  to  the  hosscs,  Jacob  Fox.  Ye 
do  take  a  terrible  time  to  spit  it  out." 

"  I  be  coming  to  'em. . .  .Oi  was  a-looking  under  the  flap  of 
a  tent  when  a  man  wi'  a  lot  of  shiny  buttons  on  Jiis  westcoat 
catches  oi  by  the  back  of  me  neck.  '  Ye  young  varmint,' 
he  says,  '  I'll  have  the  law  of  ye  for  trespass,  seeing  as  ye 
iin't  paid  for  admission.'  I  wur  all  4i  a  tremble,  and  I 
went  down  on  my  knees,  fny  teeth  was  a-chattcring,  thinking 
jid  be  hung  in  '\nzes  jail  for  a  malefactor.  .Xnd  a  looks  at  oi 
and  zays  all  of  a  zudden,  '  I'll  let  ye  off  if  ye'll  bide  here  for 
a  day  wi'  me,  and  do  as  I  tells  'ee.  But  if  ye  doan't,  yer 
life's  forfeit  to  the  Crown.'  So  I  bided,  being  in  his  mercy, 
and  'a  took  oi  into  a  painted  van  and  puts  a  horsc-cpUar  on 
me  neck  and  paints  me  face  and  dresses  oi  up  in  a  horse's 
hide  and  makes  oi  go  down  on  all  fours  like  Nebuchadnezzar. 
"  Balaam's  ass,  ye  mane,"  said  William  Tuck,  mahciously.  " 
"  And  then  he  puts  me  in  a  sort  of  horse-box  in  a  booth  and 
all  the  folk  crowded  in  to  sec  '  The  Horse-F'accd  Min,  (!aught 
Wild  in  Patygonia.'  Some  of  'cm  comed  up  and  offered  me 
bunches  of  hay.  but  I  could'n  stomach  it.  .\nd  the  man  wi' 
the  shiny  buttons  says,  '  Stand  back,  gentlemen,  he's  very 
^■icious.     He's  off  his  feed,  gentlemen,  being  only  just  got 

over  a  bad  attack  of  glanders' Lordy.  neighbours,  the 

way  (hat  man  did  talk  made  mc  fftl  as  if  I  must  hev  been 
burn  a  colt  in  my  mother's  womb." 

"  Drat  ye,  Jacob,  and  I  paid  zixpenceto  sec  yc — and  never 
kiiowed  it  were  a  cheat  till  now." 

lie  told  oi  not  to  say  a  word  about  it,  and  I  was  afcard. 
.\nd  at  the  end  of  the  day  he  gi\-  oi  a  new  half-crown,  and  says 
aw'd  make  my  fortune  if  old  trapse  the  country  with  'un. 
.Aw  said  '  I've  taken  a  fancy  to  ye,'  and  he  a.xed  if  me  mother 
,liad  ever  been  chased  bv  a  horse  avore  I  was  born." 

"  I  can't  call  it  to  mind,  Jacob  Fox,  "  said  the  old  man. 
"  But  I  do  know  as  she  wur  in  a  sore  travail  wi'  ye." 

"  Yc'nc  a  wonderful  soothing  way  wi'  horses,  Jacob,  there's 
no  denying  it,  "  said  Daniel  Newth.  "  I  never  zeed  such  a 
chap  for  coaxing  'em  into  a  halter." 

"  Well,  neighbours,"  said  Jacob,  tremulously,  "  it  do  seem 
to  oi  as  dumb  animals  be  more  human  than  men.  Meaning 
no  offence,  friends  and  neighbours  all." 

"  How  do  'ee  figure  that  out,  Jacob  Fox? "  said  the  old  man, 
magisterially.     "  It  be  a  heathen  thing  to  say." 

"  Because  yc  never  see  animals  a -slaughtering  and  making 
war  on  their  own  kind.     Except  rooks." 

"  That  be  a  deep  saying,  sonnies,"  said  Daniel  Newth, 
reflccti\ely.  "  A  deep  saying  it  be.  The  lad  do  think  deep 
thoughts  at  times." 

"  Howsomever,  killing  do  seem  to  be  a  law  of  nature," 
said   the  old   man.    "  The  hounds  kill  the  vox.  the  vox  kills 

the  vowjs,  and  the  vowls  kills  the  worms William  Tuck, 

have  ye  ever  slain  a  German  Hun  wi'  your  own    hands  ; 
smiting  'un  under  the  fifth  rib,  so  to  speak?" 

"  Aye,  that  I  hev.  I've  a  spit 'one  with  my  bayonet,  right 
in  his  innards.     .\w  did  give  a  kind  of  grunt." 

■  It  do  s<?eni  a  fearful  death.  But  I'd  sooner  be  bay- 
nilted  than  lunig.  I  mind  when  I  was  a  little  'un  I  went  to 
Hang  Fair,  at  Zaulsbury,  to  sec  a  woman  hanged  as  had 
jKjisoned  her  lawful  husband.  .And  my  vcyther  held  oi  uj) 
over  the  heads  of  the  crowd  to  see  her  zwinging.  I  mind 
well  as  'er  had  clean  white  stockings  on,  and  'er  kicked  oft 
one  shoe  wi'  t'other.  It  did  give  mc  quite  a  turn.  Still,  it 
were  a  sinful  thing  to  kill  a  husband.  Being  an  offence  against 
Holy  NJalrimony.  " 

"  Trijc,  most  true,  Jarge,"  said  Levi  (iodbcherc  darkly.' 
"  Marrying  be  like  dying — yc  can't  escape  it,  and  yc  never 


knows  what 'uU  come  after  it."  -  , 

"  Aye,  But  ye  can  only  die  once,"  said  the  old  man, 
significantly.  ...-.._,.■ 

"  True.  I  takes  yer  maning,  Jarge.  Ye'vc  ha'  buried  dree 
wives,  as  we  do  all  know.  Ye  oughter  have  dree  gold  stripes 
for  it,  like  the  chaps  that  ha\-e  been  wounded.  There  was  a 
fellow  in  Winterbourne  Parish,  .Abraham  Love  was  his  name, 
what  buried  four  wi\-es.  Buried  four  wi\'es,  aw  did.  A\v 
had  a  beautiful  headstone  stuck  up  in  churchyard  for  his 
^•irst,  and  when  t'others  died,  he  had  their  names  all  carved 
like  a  nobleman,  one  under  t'other.  When  he'd  buried  the. 
fourtli,  aw  died  hisself  and  there  warn't  mucli  room  for  a 
subscription  left.  So  they  just  put  '  Also  -Abraham  Love, 
husband  of  the  above.  At  Kcst.'  .\  \ery  proper  subscrip- 
tion 'twas." 

!'  A  very  proper  one.  I  never  could  understand  how 
King  Solomon  could  a  put  up  wi'  all  those  hundcrds  of  wives, 
all  at  once.  I  figure  he  must  hev'  had  a  girt  dorm-it-ory  for 
'em,  same  as  they  hev'  for  old  folks  in  the  workhouse." 

"  I  do  like  to'  hear  about  King  Solomon,''  said  Jacob 
Fox,  emboldened  by  the  success  of  his  last  observation. 
"  .Aw  wur  majn  fond  of  animals.  " 

"  What  be  the  latl  got  into  that  head  of  his'n  now  ?  What 
do  'ee  mane,  boy." 

"  Well,  neighbours,  it  says  as  he  kept  dree  hundcrd  concu- 
bines. I  expect  as  aw  liked  stroking  'cm.  Though  aw  must 
hev'  had  very  horny  hands.  I  saw  two  on  'cm  in  thuck 
travelling  menagerie  as  come  to  Marlbro'  last  j'car.  They 
had  prickly  quills  all  over  like  hedgehogs." 

"  'te  stun-poll,  ye  do  mane  porcupines.  They  bain't 
concubines.     Concubines  be  wenches.. 

A  loud  salh-  of  laughter  greeted  Jacob  Fox's  excursiou 
into  Biblical  history,  and  blushing  to  the  roots  of  his  yellow 
thatch-likc  hair  he  retreated  into  the  shadows  of  the  barn. 

"  Matrimony  be  destiny,  depend  on't,"  said  the  thatcher 
as  the  laughter  subsided.  "  There  was  Liz  Humming  as 
hung  her  shift  inside-out  on  a  gooscberiy-bush  at  Mid- 
summer-eve and  sat  up  to  see  the  form  aucl  features  of  her 
fated  husband,  as  maids 'do  at  such  times.  .And  about  eleven 
by  the  clock,  she  hears  footsteps  in  the  garden.  She  peeps 
through  the  buttery  window  and  zees  zumone  in  the  dark 
a-tearing  her  shift  from  off  the  gooseberry-bush.  She  tip-toed 
out  all  of  a-tremble,  and  lo,  and  behold,  it  was  one  of  the  sh6rt- 
horn  cows  out  of  the  pasture." 
"  There  bain't  much  sense  in  that,"  said  the  old  man. 
"Bain't  there,  though,  Jarge !"  retorted  the  thatcher. 
"  Inside  of  twelve  months  she  married  the  cowman." 

"  Well,  it  mid  have  been  the  finger  of  fate,"  the  old  man 
con(ieded.  "I  do  belave  in  \vitches  and  soothsayers.  Yc 
finds  'em  in  the  Bible.  'Tis  allowetl  to  lam  things  to  come 
from  searching  the  Scriptures.  There's  this  attacki^lg  o£ 
Jerusalem.  It  be  vexy  like  the  Second  Coming.  I  heeni 
from  parish  clerk  as  can  read  the  newspapers  as  soon  as  look 
at  'em — a  clever  man  that,  sonnies — as  this  godly  man  of 
war.  Lord  Allanby,  is  to  be  greeted  wi'-  loud  hosannas  as  he 
enters  the  Holy  City  riding  on  an  ass.  .A  man  from  (iod, 
.sure  he  be.  .And  there  is  some  as  do  say  that  we  Englishmen 
be  the  Lost  Tribes,  and  Chosen  People,  so  to  speak. 

"  Sure,  'tis  strange  things  be  happening,"  said  the  thatcher. 
"  There's  lads  as  hev'  never  been  outside  this  parish  all  their 
lives  as  be  now  in  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs,  a-making  love  to 
princesses,  and  in  ancnmt  Babylon  a- worshipping  strange 
gods,  and  in  Africa  a-riding  on  camels  and  laming  all  manner 
o'  .new  sins." 

"  Well,  I  do  hold  as  it  be  the  end  of  the  world,  iieighboms." 
said  the  old  man.  "  There  be  wars  and  rumours  of  wars, 
nation  rising  against  nation.  There  be  fire  and  brimstone. 
Ihere  be  engines  o'  torment  in  the  heavens  above  and  in  the 
deeps  beneath.  My  son  Dan'l  here  wur  a-rcading  Luke 
the  Twenty-virst  to  nte  t'other  night,  and  it  be  all  there  as 
plain  as  the  palm  of  your  hand.  Famine  and  pestilence  and 
fearful  sights.  And  Jerusalem  encompassed  with  armies," 
"  True,  most  true,"  said  Levi  Godbeherc,  darkly.  "I 
mind  them  holy  words.  It  do  say  'tis  to  be  as  in  the  days  of 
Noe— folks  eating  and  drinking,  marrying  and  giving  ii.i 
marriage.  And  so  they  be.  There's  more  banns  called  in 
this  parish  this  last  year  than  I  can  iver  call  to  mind.  'Tis 
the  separation  allowances,  maybe.  But  'tis  a  sign  and  portent, 
all  the  same." 

"  'Tis  a  thing  to  turn  a  man's  thoughts  heavenwards," 
said  the  old  man  conclusively.  "  .A  deep  and  fearful  time  it 
be.  But  ye  can  see  by  the  sun  'tis  past  noon,  neighbour>." 
.And  he  arose  and  wiped  his  month  with  the  back  of  his  hand. 
The  thatcher  took  up  his  shuttle,  the  sower  slung  his 
Mcd-lip  against  his  chest,  William  Tuck  took  down  his  bill- 
liook  from  the  nail  on  the  wall.  The  ploughman  hooked  in 
his  team  again,  liach  went  his  apjioinled  way.  .And  nothin.^ 
was  to  be  heard  in  the  barn  save  the  clank  of  the  s«ede- 
culter  and  the  patter  ot  the  orange-colouicd  slices  as  they  fell 
into  the  bushel-mca&urc  belo\\'. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


jamuvry  17,  njid 


Present  Position  of  the  Farmer 


By  Sir  Herbert  Matthews 


THE  present  position  of  the  famicr  i*  most  aptly 
described  by  the  old  saving-"  hke  a  toad  under  a 
Sorrow,-  but  as  possibly  some  are  ^^^-^^^'^^ 
with  the  peculiarities  of  a  set  o   harrow.,  and  there 

fore  will  fail  to  rcklise  the  extremity  "f  help^f  :\"'=trmor  h-is 
this  amphibian  is  reduced,  it  may  be  said  that  the  farmer  ha. 
no  more  control  over  his  actions  than  a  boy  who  is  bcm^ 
tossed  in  a  blanket.  ,    .  ,. 

To  begin  with.  We  are  on  safe  ground  in  assuming  that  tnc 
vast  majority  of  farmers  know  their  job  ;   very  few  of  them 
can  learn  anything  about  it  even  from  their  ^n^nds  m  Hect 
Street.     Numbers  of  them  have  spent  many  years  on  the  sa  nc 
farm,  and  know  it  as  they  know  the  back  of  their  hand 
They  know  that  what  may  be  done  on  one  fam  cannot  ul 
done  under  hke  circumstances  on  another  ;  that  what  may  be 
advantag.-ous  in  one  iield  will  mean  ruination  in  another,  am 
having  learned  this  by  long  experience,  until   knowlc'dgc   ci 
the  right  moment  for  the  manv  cultural  operations  has  Decoim 
insUnctive,  he  is  suddenly  called  upon  to  scrap  all  custom,  to 
do  that  which  bitter  financial  experience  for  a  generation 
proved  to  be  economically  wrong,  to  take  up  new  ideas,  to 
launch  out  into  new  systems  of  cropping,  to  feed  his  stock  on 
new  lines,  or  not  to  feed  them  up  to  the  condition  of  ripeness 
for  slaughter  which  he  knows  to  be  the  best,  but  to  sell  them 
just  when  he  wants  to  obtain  every  load  of  manure  he  can 
make.    All  these  things.are  now  being  pressed  upon  him  by 
officials ;   a  class    he  has  hitherto  looked  upon  as  ignorant 
])ersons,  who  must  be  humoured  but,  from  the  nature  of  things, 
know  nothing  of  the  practical  side  of  agriculture. 

The  farmer  cannot  possibly  know  all  the  facts  tliat  an; 
known  in  Whitehall,  and  caiinot  therefore  understand  the 
reason  for  much  of  the  advice  showered  upon  him.  He  has 
not  been  tokl  enough.  If  he  were  taken  more  into  the-ton- 
iidence  of  Whitehall  his  efforts  would  be  even  greater  than 
they  ha\<^  been.  Evidence  of  this  is  shown  by  the  different 
spirit  which  has  manifested  itself  since  Mr.  Prothero  and  the 
Prime  Minister  spoke  to  them  last  October;  Thus  the  farmer 
lives  jn  an  inverted  world,  and  to  add  insult  to  injury  he  is 
exp<x-ted  to  swallow  and  digest  a  heavy  breakfast  every 
morning,  consisting  of  fresh  budgets  of  Departmental  Orders 
and  Regulations  which  issue  fortli  ceaselessly  day  by  day 
from  \  arious  Government  Offices. 

Let  us  glance  back  for  a  moment  to  August  1914.  Apart 
from  actual  war  news  the  papers  then  devoted  more  space  to 
agricultural  matters  than  at  any  previous  time.  The  farmer 
suddenly  became  a  prominent  item  in  the  national  economy. 
He  was  told  how  important  he  was,  and  how  patriotic  he  would 
b*^  if  he  grew  more  food.  He  was  urged  to  get  his  harvest  in 
well  and  quickly,  as  though  that  needed  any  spur.  Then  the 
Government  took  most  of  his  horses  away.  There  was  no 
w'oxA  then — not  indeed  until  February,  1917,  when  the  sub- 
marine was  recognised  at  its  full  value — of  giving  the  farmer 
that  practical  encouragement  in  the  form  of  a  guarantee 
against  loss  which  he  asked  for.  He  must  be  patriotic  as  long 
as  he  could  pay  his  way,  and  if  he  lost  money  over  patriotism, 
well,  it  would  be  remembered  to  his  credit. 

Other  munition  makers  were  given  profitable  contracts, 
guarantees  of  all  sorts,  percentages  on  wages,  their  men 
w  ere  not  to  be  recruited  :  everything  done  to  encourage  and 
facilitate  production  :  but  any  suggestion  that  similar  methods 
were  desirable  in  connection  with  food-production  was  termed 
unpatriotic.  Meanwhile,  the  farmer's  men  were  leaving  him 
^vholesale,  for,  to  their  honour  be  it  said,  no  class  in  the 
country  answered  the  nation's  call  more  promptly  or  in  larger 
numbers,  than  the  agricultural  labourer,-  Next  his  supply  of 
implements  stopped,  and  even  tiic  most  urgent  repairs  were 
greatly  delayed,  for  the  implement  works  were  all  turned  into 
munition  works.  The  larger  farmers  tried  to  replace  horse- 
])0wer  by  motors,  but  the  output  was  limited,  and  before  the 
manufacturer  was  in  a  position  to  supply  the  demand  petrol 
ran  short,  and  permits  for  petrol  became  necessary,  though 
permits  when  obtained  did  not  ensure  a  supply. 

Railway  transit,  whether  for  farmers'  requirements  or  for 
sending  away  produce,  became  a  nightmare  ;  traffic  was  (and 
still  is)  delayed  sometimes  for  weeks,  or  even  months,  while 
delivery  by  road  must  be  regulated  by  the  horses,  petrol  and 
men  available  for  such  work.  The  highly-paid  work  in  muni- 
tion areas  and  military  camps  next  drew  away  further 
contingents  of  his  depleted  staff,  many  of  the  older  and  more 
skilled  men  going  where  they  could  get  higher  wages.  Then 
his  hay  and  straw  was  taken  at  fixed  prices,  and  below  their 
market  value,  while  threshing  engines  and  hay  presses  were 
commandeered.  As  a  result  much  of  his  stock"  had  tOi  be  fed 
on  very  inferior  hay. 
Profiteers  exploited  him,  and  though  prices  for  his  produce 


were  fi.Kcd  soniruiiR>  Ijcluw  iUl:  tn-^i  m  jjroduction,  ho  had  to 
pay  for  his  requirements  whatever  dealers  liked  to  charge. 
.Sometimes  the  commodities ,  supplied  were,  and  are,  almost 
worthless,  for  adulteration  has  become  rampant  :  sometimes 
the  supplvjhas  been  altogether  cut  off— for  example,  nitrate 
of  soda.  "During  part  of  1916,  and  most  of  1917,  an  immense 
amount  of  time  has  been  wasted  through  employers  and 
labourers  having  to  attend  at  recruiting  tribunals,  every  hour 
of  such  time  being  urgently  wanted  on  the  land ;  and  in 
addition  to  all  these  worries,  individual  farmers  and  land- 
owners have  voluntarily  devoted  a  large  portion  of  their  time 
to  pubUc  national  work,  at  their  own  expense.  These  trials 
f)f  the  agriculturist  are  not  put  forward  in  order  to  appeal  for 
sympathy,  or  to  voice  complaints,  but  as  a  mere  statement 
of  facts  wliich  should  not  be  forgotten. 

An  Instant  Response 

To  revert  to  1914.  Wlu  11  urged  to  grow  more  food  the. 
farmer  responded  by  increasing  the  acreage  of  wheat  liy 
434,000  acres,  or  20  per  cent,  above  the  average  of  the  previous 
ten  years  ;  this  in  spite  of  his  loss  of  men  and  horses  ;  but  he 
was  favoured  by  fair  weather  conditions.  This  gain  in  acreage 
has  been  since  reduced,  owing  entirely  to  lack  of  labour  and 
implements,  and  to  most  unfavourable  chmatic  conditions, 
but  the  aggregate  output  of  home-grown  food  was  quite  up  to 
the  average  in  1917,  while  potatoes  showed  an  abnormal 
increase.  So  far  as  present  conditions  allow  a  forecast 
the  output  in  1918  promises  to  be  very  considerably  above  the 
average. 

The  contradictory  methods  of  recruiting,  first  exempting 
certain  classes,  then  trying  to  drag  them  into  the  net ;  the 
conflicting  advice  to  increase  hve  stock,  and  then  to  reduce 
the  numbers  ;  the  urging  of  a  certain  ])olicy,  and  then  the 
issue  of  an  Order  which  compels  an  opj^osite  course — these 
are  the  things  that  have  confused  farmers,  and  rendered  them 
peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  attacks  made  upon  them  in 
certain  quarters.  Not  that  those  who  have  been  responsible 
for  advice  or  for  such  Orders  arc  always  to  blame.  The 
advice  was  probably  sound  when  it  was  given,  but  changing 
circumstances;  compel  a  change  in  policy.  Unfortunately, 
farming  operations  cannot  We  changed  as  quickly.   . 

Farmers  have  to  plan  months,  sometimes  years,  ahead, 
and  having  set  a  course  it  is  impossible  to  alter  it  without 
waste  of  time  and  labour ;  often  it  cannot  be  altered  at  all. 
The  present  shortage  of  milk  is  due  to  the  Milk  Order  of 
January  1917,  and  to  the  refusal  of  the  Food  Controller  to 
declare  months  earlier  than  he  did,  his  policy  in  regard  to 
milk  for  the  winter  of  1917-18.  The  meat  shortage  of  to-day 
is  due  to  liis  action  of  last  July,  when  he  hxed  the  price  of  beef 
on  a  descending  scale,  as  every  farmer  knew  would  be  the 
case,  and  as  the  Food  Controller  was  told  plainly  and  often 
enough.  The  recent  Order  prohibiting  the  slaughter  of  lamb 
until  June  will  not  result  in  a  greater  weight  of  meat,  but  in  a 
decrease  of  arable  crops.  Had  the  farmer  been  told  six  months 
ago  that  such  an  Order  would  be  made  he  would  have  planned 
his  whole  scheme  on  different  lines,  and  have  produced  the 
lambs  in  Februarv  instead  of  December.  The  unnecessary 
consumption  and  waste  of  bread  is  due  to  the  artificially  low 
price,  which  is  costing  the  taxpayer  rather  more  than  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  per  day.  How  can  the  average  consumer 
believe  that  there  is  a  shortage  of  bread  when  it  is  as  cheap  as 
ninepence  for  a  4  lb.  loaf  ? 

The  fundamental  mistake  which  the  Government  made 
was  to  make  the  Ministry  of  Food  the  controlling  Depart- 
ment. Surely  it  must  be  obvious  that  the 'first  necessity  is  to 
produce  the  food.  Control  is  a  secondary  object,  and  can  be 
settled  afterwards.  To  cook  a  hare,  first  catch  your  hart. 
To  control  food  presupposes  food  to  control.  Therefore,  the 
final  word  on  all  matters  of  policy  should  rest  with  the  Board 
of  Agriculture.  As  matters  are — the  unscientific  methods  and 
actions  of  the  Ministry  of  Food  decides  not  only  distribution 
but  production  of  food.  Sometimes  indeed,  the  control  is  so 
retrospective  that  food  which  might  have  materialised  has  not 
been  produced. 

The  cause  for  this  state  of  things  cannot  be  wholly  laid 
upon  Departmental  Officials,  who  are  a  hardworking  and 
conscientious  lot  of  people  ;  it  camiot  at  all  be  laid  upon  the 
farmer,  who  has  done  the  best  that  was  possible  under  the 
circumstances.  It  is  mainly  due  to  the  politicians,  who 
opposed  giving  encouragement  and  security  to  producers,  as 
recommended  by  Lord  Milner's  Committee  in  1915,  and  who 
keep  the  public  in  the  dark,  by  such  means  as  tJic  artificial 
price  of  bread,  etc.  :  and  it  is  partly  due  to  misunderstand- 
ings betweeen  officials  and  farmers. 


January  17,  1915 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


The  First  Industrial  Council 


By  Jason 


ONE  of  our  oldest  industries  has  taken  the  lead  in 
forming  an  Industrial  Council.  We  all  know  the 
¥ive  Towns,  even  those  of  us  who  have  never  seen 
a  potbank  at  Burslem  or  Stoke,  from  Mr.  Arnold 
Bennett's  vivid  pictures.  Two  centuries  ago  they  were,  af, 
they  are  to-day,  the  centre  of  the  pottery  manufacture.  At 
that  time  the  earthenware  was  made  from  the  finer  clay  of 
Staffordshire — yellow  or  red  marl  which  was  glazed  with 
galena,  a  cnished  raw  lead  ore  brought  from  Derbyshire,  but 
that  day  has  now  disappeared.  To-day  the  industry  draws 
its  raw  material  from  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  china  clay  from 
Cornwall,  ball  clay  from  Dorset,  flints  from  Normandy  and 
lately  from  Norfolk,  felspar  from  Derbyshire  and  from  Nor- 
way, and  bones  from  South  America. 

Why,  it  may  be  asked,  is  Staffordshire  still  the  home  of  the 
pottery  industry  if  it  has  lost  this  essential  advantage  ? 
The  answer  'is  partly  custom  ;  partly  the  presence  of  coal, 
because  cheap  fuel  is  an  important  element  in  the  manufacture 
of  pottery ;  partly  the  skill  of  its  workmen,  descendants  of 
independent  copyholders,  for  there  is  evidence  that  the 
enterprise  and  initiative  of  the  early  potters  were  con- 
nected with  this  free  status  ;  partly  the  histon,'  of  Josiah 
Wedgwood.  W'e  are  apt  to  think  of  Wedgwood  in  connection 
rhiefly  with  new  designs  and  new  wares,  such  as  black 
Kgyptian  and  jasper.  But  readers  of  Commander  Josiah 
Wedgwood's  book  on  Stoffordshire  Pottery  will  be  more  im- 
jircxtd  with  another  side  of  his  career,' the  push  and  per- 
tinacity that  he  showed  in  driving  through  the  House  of 
(ommbns  the  Bill  for  making  the  Trent  and  Mersey  Canal. 
Tor  in  the  early  days  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  it  was 
canal  transport  that  determined  very  largely  where  an  industry 
was  to  fincl  its  home,  and  in  those  critical  days  the  Stafford- 
shire potters  had  at  their  head'a  man  of  great  enterprise  and 
perseverance  who  provided  just  the  driving  force  that  was 
liteded.  The  cutting  of  the  canal  reduced  freights  by  80  per 
cent.,  and  for  that  immense  boon  the  five  towns  are  indebted 
to  the  great  Josiah,  who  was  a  skilful  potter  and  a  considerable 
artist,  but  above  all  things,  as  his  great-great-grandson  has 
jjut  it,  a  man  "  with  a  restless  passion  for  experiment  and 
novelty,  coupled  with  an  almost  American  love  for  the  exten- 
sion of  business — particularly  profitable  business." 

Pottery  is  no  longer,  as  it  once  was,  an  art  as  simple  as 
rooking.  The  early  master-jwtters  made  their  pots  in  sheds 
behind  their  dwelling-houses,  alongside  the  cow-shed.  "  They 
dug  their  own  clay,"  as  we  learn  from  Commander  Wedg- 
wood's book,  "  often  in  front  of  their  own  front  doors.  The 
Wedgwoods  at  least  owned  and  dug  their  own  coal  wherewith 
to  fire  the  oven.  It  was  a  peasant  industry,  carried  on  by 
the  family  among  the  pigs  and  fowls  ;  and  when  they  were 
not  making  show  pieces  for  presentation,  they  made  butter 
pots,  in  which  fanners  might  market  their  butter  at  Utto.xeter." 
Ihese  days  of  a  picturesque  simplicity  arc  long  past,  and 
the  potteries  luesent  a  very  different  aspect  now.  The 
industry  includes  a  number  of  different  processes.  A  large 
lirm  will  carry  out  all  these  processes,  buf  there  arc  a  number  of 
Jirms  that  speciah.se  in  different  processes. 

In  1014  there  were  some  648  factories  under  the  special 
regulations  m  force  for  the  industry,  of  whicli  just  under  500 
were  m  the  Potteries'  district.  The  industr>'  has  been  loosely 
organised  in  the  past.  There  has  been  one  employers'  organi- 
sation for  collective  bargaining,  the  North  Stafifordshirc 
Pottery  Manufacturers'  Association  and  several  associations 
for  fixing  prices,  representing  the  manufacturers  of  general 
earthenware,  sanitary  earthenware,  tile,  china,  jet  and' 
Rockingliam  (the  famihar  black  teapot  and  brown  jug). 
Organisiition  is  much  less  developed  on  the  side  of  labour. 
Of  tlie  workpeople,  some  70,001)  in  all,  only  about  a  third  are 
to  bo  found  in  a  Trade  Union.  The  chief  uiiion  is  the  National 
Society  of  Pottery  Operatives,  which  has  absorbed  several 
sectional  unions.  This  union  has  grown  rapidly  during  the 
war  and  now  has  a  membership  of  15,000.  The' Packers  and 
^rate-makers  belong  to  the  National  Union  of  General  Labour, 
and  there  is  a  Union  of  United  Ovcnmen,  about  1,000  strong. 

Organisation  of  the  Council 

It  is  appropriate  that  one  of  the  two  leading  nantrs  in  the 
histor>'  of  the  new  Council  should  be  a  Wedgwood.  Major 
Frank  Wedgwood,  brother  of  the  free  lance  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  great-great-grandson  of  the  great  Josiah 
has  acted  as  Chairman  of  the  conferences  in  which  tiie  project 
has  been  shapixl,  and  the  line  of  social  reorganisation  with 
svhich  he  has  been  associated  may  prove  in  the  event  to  be  as 


important   as   the   technical   developments    for    which   his 
ancestor  was  responsible. 

With  his  name  must  be  coupled  in  this  connection  that  of  a 
well-known  Trade  Union  leader,  Mr.  S.  Clowes,  J. P.,  of  the 
National  Society  of  Pottery  Workers.  These  two  would, 
however,  be  the  last  to  claim  any  special  merit.  The  Council 
is  a  perfectly  spontaneous  development,  which  had  its  origin 
in  a  series  of  private  and  informal  conferences  held  last  spring 
to  discuss  the  industrial  outlook  in  general.  All  the  leading 
names  in  the  industry  have  been  represented  in  the  dis- 
cussions, although  it  is  not  invidious  to  say  that  it  was  fortunate 
that  the  bearers  of  the  best-known  names  should  be  admirably 
fitted  to  preside  over  them.  These  private  conferences  had 
resulted  in  a  decision  to  hold  an  official  conference,  repre- 
sentative of  all  the  principal  organisations  in  the  industry, 
before  the  Whitley  Committee  issued  its  report,  to  discuss  a 
plan  for  organismg  an  Industrial  Council. 

These  plans  are  now  matured  and  they  provide  for  a  Council, 
with  not  more  than  thirty  members  on  each  side.  The  Council 
may  appoint  an  independent  chairman.  If  the  chairman  is  a 
manufacturer,  the  vice-chairman  is  to  be  a  workman  and 
\ice-yersa.  The  Council  will  meet  at  least  quarterly  and 
appoint  an  Executive  Committee,  and  Standing  Committees 
representative  of  the  different  needs  of  the  industry.  It  may 
appoint  special  committees  and  co-opt  outsiders  for  special 
purposes,  a  veiy  necessary  provision  in  view  of  the  scope  of 
the  Council's  duties.  The  expenses  will  be  met  by  a  lew  on 
.Manufacturers'  Associations  and  Trades  I'nions.  A  Iwo- 
tiiirds  majority  will  bo  required  to  carrj'  a  resolution.  The 
Association  of  General  Earthenware  Manufacturers  select 
eleven  representatives  and  the  other  associations  of  employers- 
smaller  numbers,  Yorkshire  and  Scotland  contributing  one 
member  each.  On  the  workmen's  side,  the  provisional 
arrangement  is  that  the  National  Society  of  Pottery  Workers 
will  elect  14  members,  the  United  Ovenmen  six,  the  Natioiial 
Union  of  Clerks  (the  Pottery  section),  the  Ceramic  Printers, 
the  Packers  and  Crat<;  makers,  two  members  each.  There 
are  to  be  women  representatives.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
the  Commercial  Travellers  have  asked  for  inclusion  on  the 
workers'  side  and  their  association  will  contribute  two  repre- 
sentatives. It  is  interesting  also  to  note  that  the  difficulty 
caused  by  the  fact  that  unioqs  are  spread  over  different 
industries,  can  be  got  over  by  some  such  scheme  of  repre- 
sentation, as  this  for  the  packers  and  crate  -makers,  who 
Ijelong  to  the  National  Union  of  General  Labourers,  will  be 
represented  on  the  Council,  through  the  union  by  delegates 
belonging  to  the  trade. 

Objects  of  the  Association 

The  objects  of  the  association  are  set  out  as  foUo^vs : 
"  The  advancement  of  the  Pottery  Industry  and  of  all  con- 
nected with  it  by  the  association  in  its  government  of  all 
engaged  in  the  industry'.  It  will  be  open  to  the  Cotmcil  to 
take  any  action  that'  falls  within  the  scope  of  its  general 
object."    Its  chief  work  will,  however,  fall  under  these  heads  : 

(a)  The  consideration  of  means  whereby  all  manufacturers 
and  operatives  shall  be  brought  within  tlieir  respective 
associations. 

(b)  Regular  consideration  of  wages,  piecework  prices,  and 
conditions  with  a  view  to  establishing  and  maintaining 
equitable  conditions  throughout  the  industry. 

(c)  To  a.ssist  the  respective  associations  in  the  maintenance  of 
such  selling  prices  as  will  afford  a  reasonable  remuneration  to 
both  employers  and  employed. 

(>l)  The  consideration  and  settlement  of  all  disputes  between 
-lifferont  parties  in  the  industry  which  it  may  not  have  been 
possible  to  settle  by  the  existing  machinery,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  machinery  for  dealing  with  disputes  where 
adequate  machinery  does  not  exist. 

(e)  The  regularisation  of  production  and  employment  as  a 
means  of  insuring  to  the  workpeople  the  greatest  possible 
security  of  earnings. 

(f)  Improvement  in  conditions  with  a  view  to  removin'» 
all  danger  to  health  in  the  industry.  ° 

'^'Mu'^/'iV'^y  "^  processes,  the  encouragement  of  research 
and  the  full  utiUsation  of  their  results. 

(h)  The  provision  of  facilities  for  the  full  consideration  and 
utUisation  of  inventions  and  improvements  designed  bv  work- 
people and  for  the  adequate  safeguarding  of  the  rights  of  tlie 
itesigners  of  such  improvements. 
(i)  Education  in  all  its  branches  for  the  industry. 
Ij)  The  collection  of  full  statistics  on  wages,  making  and  seliinff 
prices,  and  average  percentages  of  profits  on  turnover  and 
o.,    materials,    markets,,  costs,    etc..   and    the    study    and 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  i",  i9i<S 


promotion  of  scientific  nnd  prartical   sj-stemfs   of  costing   to 
this  end.  , 

All  statistics  shall,  where  necessan,',  be  verified  ljy{  <bartereil 
accountants,  who  shall  make  a  statutory  declaration  as  to 
secrecy  prior  to  any  investigation,  and  no  particulars  of 
individual  lirms  or  operatives  shall  be  disclosed  bo  anyone. 
(k\  Enquiries  into  problems  of  the  industry,  and  where  de- 
sirable the  publication  of  reports. 

(1)  Representation  of  the  needs  and  opinions  of  the  industry 
•  to  Government  authorities,  central  and  local,  and  to  the 
community  generally." 
• '  This  declaration  spn^nks  for  itself  and  it  shows  wliat  a  wide 
interpr<?tation  tlic  Council  wisely"  puts  on  its  duties.  It 
should  have  a  great  effect  in  raising  and  standardising  wages, 
which  at  present  vary  considerably  and  are  as  a  rule  poor ; 
in  strengtheniiig  the  unions,  in  providing  for  a  security  of 
tenure,  in  improving  tlie  prospects  of  tlie  industry  as  a  whole. 
Employers  and  workmen  have  both  been  educated  during  the 
war  by  working  together  on  the  advisory  committee  on  military 
exemptions.  Keadiness  to  co-operate  has  received  a  great 
stimulus  from  this  experience.  Each  side  has  learnt  that 
there  are  purposes  for  which  the  help  of  the  other  side 'is 
desirable.  But  perhaps  there  is  no  feature  of  the  spheme  more 
important  than  the  {.>rovision  (j)  for  the  collection  of  full 
statistics  on  selling  prices  and  average  percentages  of  profits, 
for  here,  of  course,  the  consumer  will  find  his  protection 
.igainst  the  danger  of  a  combination  of  employer  and  workman 
to  e.xploit  him.  It  has  already  been  argued  in  these  pages 
tliat  the  setting  up  of  representative  government  in  industry 
must  be  accompanied  by  some  definite  safeguards  of  this 
kind,  and  this  degree  of  public  control  over  industry  Mill  be 
necessary  under  any  system. 

The  Shadow  of  Disease    ^ 

Not  the  least  important  of  the  duties  of  the  Council  is  com- 
prised in  section  (I).  Pottery  has  had  a  sombre  history  in 
lespect  of  disease.  \Ve  have  all  heard  of  "  potter's  "  asthma," 
locally  called  "  potter's  rot."  The  potter's  special  tendency 
to  lung  disease  was  recognised  two  centuries  ago,  and  our 
own  generation  has  been  painfully  familiar  with  stories  of  lead 
Hiing.  Twenty  years  ago  it  was  the  custom  among 
.i  itive  people  to  buy  for  their  own  use  the  leadless  glaze, 
"  spionged  arid  painted"  ware  which  had  been  made  originally 
for  the  natives  of  West  Africa.  The  figures  published  by  the 
Chief  Inspector  of  Factories  show  a  notable  improvement  as 
"  the  result  of  agitation  and  also  of  the  publicity  given  to  the 
w  hole  subject  by  the  inquiry  carried  out  by  Professor  Thorpe 
of  the  Government  Laboratory,  and  Dr.  Thonias  Oliver,  the 
W'ell-known  doctor.  Professor  Thorpe  and  Dr.  Oliver  were 
appointed  in  1898  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  those  diseases 
and  the  possibility  of  taking  measures  against  them.  Their 
work  was  done  with  great  thoroughness,  and  all  the  leading 
minufactories  on  the  Continent  were  visited.  The  publication 
of  their  report  and  the  subsequent  arbitration,  at  which  Lord 
James  of  Ilerefprd  acted  as  umpire,  are  a  landmark  in  the 
history  of  this  melancholy-  subject. 

The  two  experts  made  a  number  of  pretty  drastic  recom- 
mendations, proposing  to  forbid  the  use  of  lead  in  any  form  in 
all  except  a  few  branches  of  the  industry,  and  to  stipulate  in 
those  branches  for  the  use  of  a  fritted  double  silicate,  a  com- 
pound that  would  greatly  diminish'  the  risk  and  e\il  of  lead 
poisoning.    They  also  proposed  to  exclude  women  and  young 
persons   from  the  dipping  and  ware-cleaning  departments. 
■Jhese  proposals  seemed  too  drastic  to  many  of  the  manu- 
facturers.and  to  an  industry  with  old-established  customs  and 
,  a  conservative  mind,  they  were  revolutionary.     After  negotia- 
tions between  the    trade  and  the  Home  Office,  the  whole 
question    was    referred    to    arbitration.    The    Home    Office 
ailopted  a  series  of  amended  rules  to  give  effect  to  Lord  James 
of    Hereford's    decision,    which    represented    a   compromise 
between  the  hopes  of  the  doctors  and  the  fears  of  the  trade. 
Those  rules  have  been  in. force  for  sixteen  years  and  the  results 
are  seen  in  the  diminution  of  disease.     The  Annual  Report 
■,ior  the  year  1914  showed  all  the  reported  cases  of  plumbism, 
which  from  an  average  of  116  in  the  vears  1899-1910,  had 
..fallen  to  62  in  1913  and  to  27  in  the  following  year.     In  the 
middle  nineties  the  figure  had  been  somewhere   about  350. 
.But,  the  industry  cannot  be  satisfied    until  it   has  removed 
.'this  employment  from  the   category  of  dangerous  trades. 

1  here  are  various  ways  in  which  tlic  Industrial  Council  will 

\>e  able  to  help  in  improving  the    industry  in    this  respect. 

.\t  present  inspectors  are  appointed  in  the  works  to  see  that 

the  Home  Ofiicf  rules  are  applied  ;   they  arc  supplementary 

policemen  to  the  Government  Inspector.    Their   difficulties, 

of  course,  arise  partly  from  the  conservatism  and  carelessness 

.of  workpeople  who  are  reluctant  to  take  ftie  trouble  to  protect 

thenrselves  by  wearing  washable  head-coverings,  and  using 

..o^hcr    precautionary  devices.     These'  inspectors    are    not 

.always  very  competent  or  active  in  discharging  their  dnties. 

it  would  obviously  be  better  to  entrust  this  task  to  the  Shop 


Committee,  which  will  have  greater  }x>wer  in  dealing  alike  with 
'  recalcitrant' \\orkmen  and  witli  recalcitrant  employers.  In 
"  general,  it  vVill  !>»:•  the  duty  of  the  Industrial  Council  to  sef  that 
the  standard  of  the  good  firms  is  applied  throughout  the 
industry,  and  that  we  shall  not  have  in  future  inspectors 
reporting.  "  In  many  earthenware  biscuit  warehouses  the 
means  for  avoiding  dnst  in  the  brushing  process  is  still  un- 
satisfactory." 

But  surely  the  Industr\'  will  do  more  than  this,  and  will 
prepare  for  the  largo  reform  that  civilisation  demands,  the 
abolition  of  the  use  of  lead.  Dr.  Ohver  tells  us  the  Egyi)tian 
potters  used  a  glaze  composed  of  silicate  of  soda  without  lt;ud 
and  that  there  was  no  trace  of  lead  or  tin  in  the  enamelled 
bricks  in  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  Lead  was  frequently  used  in 
Assyrian  and  Persian  pottery,  but  they  were  pot  superior 
cither  in  durability  or  colour.  The  common  argument  used  to 
be  that  our  potters  used  lead  because  they  worked  on  a  body 
made  of  bone  that  needed  it,  whereas  Continental  potters  have 
a  different  body — felspar,  which  does  not  need  it.  But  this 
argument  no  longer  hokls,  for  Dr.  Mellor  and  Mr.  Bernard 
Moore  have  recently  dc\-ised  a  body  which  has  all  the  pro- 
perties of  the  foreign  body  and  yet  is  made  from  Engfish 
material.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  use  of  leadless  glaze  is 
growing  steadily.  Many  of  the  bigpotterit^  use  it  mainly  or 
exclusively  in  their  works  ;  the  names  of  Wedgwood,  Cope- 
land,  Minton,  occur  to  the  mind  in  this  connection.  The 
last  Inspectors'  Keport  showed  that  of  iir  coarse  warp  pot- 
teries, raw  lead  is  used  only  in  18,  and  that  out  of  465  other 
potteries  (including  all  the  general  fine  household  earthen- 
ware and  china  manufactories  of  the  country)  106  are  now 
confining  themselves  to  substantially  non-poisonous  glaze. 
This  is  the  moment  for  prohibiting  the  use  of  lead,  and 
removing  this  slur  and  danger  from  a  noble  and  avcient  art. 

Some  General  Suggestions  ^ 

As  the  creation  of  these  Councils  is  now  under  disai.«slon 
in  several  industries,  a  few  suggestions  and  cautions  may 
be  desirable.  The  task  of  conducting  industry  successfidly 
on  these  lines  will  tax  all  the  resources  of  our  industrial 
statesmanship,  and  it  will  tax  the  ability  of  the  Trades  Unions 
in  a  special  degree.  If  they  can  seize  the  chance  to  break 
down  the  spirit  of  jealousy  between  this  craft  union  and 
that,  between  this  type  of  union  and  that,  and  gradually  to 
reorganise  and  combine  their  forces  in  new  jomiations, 
corresponding  to  the  new  circumstances  of  industn^",  the 
Trade  Union  movement  will  grow  immensely  in  power. 
If  this  is  to  be  effected,  several  questions  that  have  hitherto 
been  shirked  in  the  Trade  Union  world  will  have  to  be 
faced.  The  crisis  over  the  shop  stewards  was  a  result 
of  turning  a  blind  eye  to  the  realities  of  the  workshop 
and  the  mill,  and  allowing  a  dangerous  separation  to 
grow  up  between  leaders  and  rank  and  file.  That  movement 
is  in  itself  a  symptom  of  life  and  energy  and  if  properly  handled 
it  will  add  to  the  sincerity  and  strength  of  representati%-e 
government  in  the  Trade  Union  world.  And  all  its  power 
will  be  needed,  for  the  Industrial  Councils  will  not  inaugurate 
a  perpetual  peace  between  employers  and  employed  or  achieve 
a  final  rcconcihation  between  their  interests.  '  Some  people 
are  talcing  with  hope,  others  w-ith  fear  of  a  grand 'alliance 
between  employers  and  employed,  threa'tening  the  State 
and  the  consumer  with  a  new  and  dangerous  tyranny.  This 
assumes  that  the  State  is  helpless  and  that  employers  and 
employed  have  no  divergent  interests.  Both  assumptions 
are  mistaken.  The  organisation  of  industry,  with'  repre- 
sentative forms,  will  make  some  degree  of  State  control — of 
the  kind  outlined  in  previous  arcicles — essential  for'  the 
protection  of  society.  And  though  there  will  be  co-operation 
on  these  councils,  there  will  also  be  conflict.  The  workman 
who  thinks  that  the  Trades  Union  leaders  often  get  the 
worst  of  it  in  dealings  with  officials  and  employers  will  look 
on  this  prospect  with  some  anxiety,  and  it  is  in  the'interest 
of  the  nation  as  it  is  in  the  intcTest  of  the  workman  that  the 
Trades  Unionist  should  be  able  to  hold  his  own  in  debate  and 
deliberation. 

In  this  connection  the  Trades  Union  might  well  take  a  leaf 
out  of  the  employers'  book.  The  employers  do  not  choose  the 
secretaries  of  their  organisations  exclusively  from  their  own 
ranks.  Ofie  of  the  most  successful  officials  to  be  found  in  the 
service  of  these  as.sociations  was  previously  a  leadin.g  statistician 
in  the  Board  of  Trade.  The  Trades  Unions  would  be  well  advised 
to  look  beyond  their  own  boundaries  and  to  appoint  among 
their  of^~icials  men  with  the  kind  of  experience  and  education 
that  are  needed,  say,  for  the  Civil  Service.  Skill  and  quick- 
ness in  handling  documents,  in  analysing  and  in  presenting  a 
ca.se,  in  appreciating  the  precise  meaning  of  which  a  statement 
is  capable,are  acquired  by  a  special  training,  and  if  a  Trade? 
Union,  is  to  provide  its  own  secretary  and  staff,  it  will  need 
those  specialised  qualities  jiist  as  much  as'a  Go\'ernment 
Department  needs  them. 


January  17,  I9i« 


LANU    &    WATER 

aife  anti  Setters 

By  J.  C.  Squire 


17 


Rabelais 


IT  is  obscn-ed  by  ■Rabelais  himself  tliat  tlio?o  who  have 
read  "  tli<'  pleasant  titles  of  some  books  of  our  invention," 
such  as  Pease  and  Bacon  with  a  Commentary,  "  arc  too 
ready  to  judge  that  there  is  nothing  in  them  but  jests. 
mockeries,  lascivious  discourse,  ajid  recreative  lies  "  ;  but 
'■  the  subject  thereof  is  not  so  foolish  as  by  the  title  at  the 
first  sight  it  should  appear  to  be."  Were  one  not  faced  with 
incitements  to  speculation  about  meaning  on  o\-cry  page, 
this  would  be  sufficftnt  excuse  for  the  commentators  and 
explorers.  But  these  gentlemen  would  do  well  to  remember 
a  later  remark  of  the  author's  about  "  a  certain  gulUgut  friar 
and  true  bacon-picker  "  who  tried  to  get  incredible  allegories 
oiit  of  Ovid  : 

If  vou  give  no  credit  thereto,  why  do  not  you  the  same  in 
these  jovial  new  chronicles  of  mine  'f  Albeit  when  I  did 
dictate  them,  I  thought  upon  no  more  than  you,  who  possibly 
Mcro  drinking  the  whilst  as  I  was.  Por  in  the  composing 
of  this  lordly  book,  T  never  lost  nor  bestowed  any  more,  nor 
any  other  time  than  what  was  appointed  to  serve  mc  for 
taking  of  mv  Ixidilv  refection,  that  is,  whilst  I  was  eating  ami 
drinking.  And,  indeed,  that  is  the  fittest  and  most  proper 
hour  wherein  to  write  these  higli  matters  and  deep  sciences  : 
as  Homer  knew  very  well,  the  paragon  of  all  philologucs.  and 
Ennius,  the  father  of  the  Latin  poets,  as  Horace  calls  him, 
although  a  ccrtjiin  sneaking  jobbernol  alleged  that-^his  verses 
smcUetl  more  of  the  wine  than  oil. 

An  accusation  which  Rabelais  calls  "  an  honour  and  a  prcusc." 

.  V  *         *         *  *  « 

Our  ancestors  tended  to  regard  Rabelais  as  purely  a  buffoon. 
Their  imaginary  portraits  of  him  were  much  like  their  por- 
traits of  i-'alstaff.  Mode.r4i  research  has  recovered  a  good 
many  details  of  his  industrious  life,  and  shown  lH)W  vast  is 
the  learning  and  how  purposeful  mnch  of  the  satii:c  of  his 
great  book.  It  has  even  been  decided  that  the  only  portrait 
with  the  slightest  claim  to  aiithenticity  is  one  which  gi\e> 
him  wear}'  eyes,  sunken  cheeks,  a  wispy  beard,  and  a  forehead 
like  a  phjughed  field.  Some  of  the  results  of  the  immense 
mass  of  modern  hrcnch  investigation  arc  tabulated  in  Mr.  ^^'. 
J'".  Smith's  Rabelais  in  His  Writitif^s,  just  published  by  the 
Cambridge  University  Press  (bs.  net),  and  Mr.  Smith  nwkes  a 
good  many  conjectures  of  his  own.  Among  his  arguments  some 
are  not  exactly  conclusive.  It  is  not  ver>'  satisfying  to  be  told 
that  Rabelais  was  not,  as  used  to  be  supposed,  born  in  148.?  ; 
■  lie  was  always  exact  about  facts  and  we  can  (wc  arc  told) 
deduce  with  certainty  from'  his  own  writings  that  he  wajj  born 
in  1494,  "  about  1494  or  1495,"  or  else  in  1489.  It  is  not 
much  use  to  kn(jw  that  his  statements  of  facts  were  accurate 
when  you  don't  know  which  were  his  statements  of  facts. 
But  his  history  has  been  very  much  amplified  ;  we  know 
where  he  went  and  when  he  wrote  much  better  than  we  did  ; 
and  the  nature  of  his  reading  and  references  is  being  gradually 
cleared  up.  In  one  regard,  at  least,  the  tendenc\'  of  modern 
students  is  significant.  When  research  on  him  began  the 
inclination  wa.s  to  read  great  affairs  into  his  every  chapter. 
It  is  now  certain  that  the  war  between  (Irandgousier  and 
Picrocholc  represents  nothing  more  than  a  law-suit  between 
Rabelais'  father  (who  is  no  longer  alleged  to  have  been  an 
innkeeper  as  the  robust  old  tradition  had  it),  and  a  neigh- 
bouring landlord  over  riparian  rights.  But  the  point  to 
remember  (in  the  light  of  the  introduction  to  Gargantna. 
if  our  own  sense  doesn't  guide  us)  is  that  the  raw  material  of 
Rabelais  ceases  Uf  Ix-  important  after  he  has  used  it.  He 
may  have  amused  himself  as  much  as  he  liked  by  using  real 
characters,  incidents,  and  events  in  his  narrative,  but  the 
fair>-tale  he  made  out  of  them  is  the  thing  that  matters.  The 
war  between  those  two  kings  was  not  written  merely  in  order 
to  record  this  insignificant  law-suit  ;  when  Friar  John  of  the 
Funnels,  "by  his  prowess  and  valour  discomfited  all  those 
of  the  army  that  entered  into  the  close  of  the  abbev,  unto  the 
number  of  thirteen  thousand,  six  hundred,  twenty  and 
two,  besides  the  women  and  little  children,  which  is  always  to 
be  understotxl,"  Rabelais  had  forgotten  all  abo«.t  the  fishing 
rights  of  Rabelais  pcrc  and  was  merely  thinking  of  his  own 
amusement  and  perhaps  of  the  grinning  faces  of  his  hospitnl 
patients,  for  whose  amusement  tlie  first  two  books  arc  alleged 
to  have  been  written. 

***** 
The  scholars  must  not,  in  fact,  begin  to  make  iiim  smell 
nv^re  of  the  oil  than  of  the  «inc.  They  ha\c  demonstrated 
tliat  lie  wa>  nut  a  drunkard  — thougli  anyone  with  half  an  cyi: 
lOuldVe.-  that  ;  but  they  now  tend  to  suggest  rather  that  h< 
wn>  a  teetotaler.  They  prove  that  he  was  an  eminent 
physician,  a  successful  lecturer,  a  trusted  diplomatist,  an 
rnidite  tbeologiatii.  a  great  Humanist,  a  Church  Rcfonncr,  a 


linguist,  a  lawyer,  a  traveller,  an  expert  in  architecture  anu 
the  military  art,  and  Lord  knows  what  else  ;  and" they  almost 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that,  whatever  else  he  was,  he  was  a  jolly 
old  dog.  Here,  for  instance,  is  Mr.  Smith,  wIjo  has  patience, 
judgment,  learning,  and  who  certainly  would  not  be  spending 
his  life  upon  such  an  author  if  he  did  not  relish  hirn.  .  Yet 
his  book  is  completely  humourless,  lacking  in  high  s])irits  or 
even  rehsh,  and  unilluminated  even  by  the  quotations  from 
the  text  which  might  give  balance  to  it.  One  caiiwt  help 
thinkii)!?  that  if  the  spirit  of  Rabelais  himself,  looking  d.own 
from  the  clouds  over  the  lid  of  a  tankard  of  nectar,  shouUl 
descry  these  books  on  ,the  work  \vhich  he  dedicated  with  a 
"  Ho!  Ye,  most  illustrious  drinkers,"  he  would  be  twnptcd 
to  add  a  few  more  items  to  that  long  catalogue  of  imsjginarv 
p<'dairtry  with  which  he  filled  his  Library  of  St.  Victor,-  and 
which  includes  Ouacstio  subtilissima,.  utruni  chimacm.  in 
vacuo  tiomhinans  pussit-  comederc  secuitdas  inleiiliones,-  arid 
llarwotniiis  de  baboonis.  et  apis,  cum  Commcnto  DorbcUis. 
***** 

In  fact,  after  I  had  read  Mr.  Smith's  book— closely  reilsopcd, 
carefully  an-anged,  clearly  expressed,  a?  it  is — I  Irad  to  go  back 
to  Rabelais  and  read  a"  few  rcmernbercd  passages  iij  order 
to  remind  myself  that  neither  reform  nor  autobiogiap.liical 
histor\-  were  his  prime  interest.  I  read  ofthat  storni  dtjring 
which  Panurge,  as  white  as  chalk,  chattered.  "Be,, be,  be, 
bous,  bous,  bous."  I  read  the  debate  on  Marrying  or  not 
Marrying,  and  the  Discour.se  of  the  Drinkers,  the  finest 
reproduction  of  the  chatter  of  a  crowd  enjoying  themsch-cs 
which  exists  anywhere  in  literature.  I  read  the  great  formal • 
address  wherewith  Master  Janotus  de  Bragmardo  besought 
f  largantua  to  return  to  the  people  of  Paris  the  bells  of  Our 
Lady's  Church  w  hi.cli  he  had  carried  off  on  the  neck  of  his 
mare,  and  which  opens  :"  '*'  , 

Hem,  hem,  gud-day,  .sire,  gud-day.     Et  vobis,  my  mastc-rs. 

It  were  but  reason" that  you  should  restore  to  us  our  bells; 

for  wc  have  great  need  of  "them.     Hem,  hem.  aihf  uhash.  — '^''e 

have  oftentimes  heretofore  refused  good  money  for  them  of 

those  of  London  in  Cahors,  yea,  and  those  of  Bordeaux  in 

Brie,   who  would    have   bought   them   for  the  substantific 

rjuality  of  the  elementary  complexion,  which  is  introniicated 

on  the  terrcstreity  of  their  quidditati\-e  nature,  to  extraneize 

the  blasting  mists  and  whirlwinds  upon  our  vines,   indeoj 

not  ours,  but  these  round  about  us. 

And  I  read  that  most  perfect  chapture  of  all  "  of  the  qualities 

and  conditions  of  Panurge,"  v.ho  "was  of  a  middle  statute,  hot 

too  high  nor  too  low,^and  had  somewhat  of  an  aquiline  nos<^ 

made  like  the  handle  of  a  razor,"  who  was  "  naturally  sui)ject 

to  a  kind  of  disease  which  at  that  time  they  called  lack  of 

money,"   and  who  "  was  a   wicked  lewd  rogue,    a   cozener, 

drinker,  roister,  rover,  and  a  very  dissolute  and  debauched 

fellow,  if  there  were  any  in  Paris  ;    otherwise,  and  in  all 

matters  else,  the  best  and  most  virtuous  man  in  the  world." 

And,  having  thus  read  I  felt  sure  again  that  although  it  is 

interesting  to  know  that  the  idea  of  Panurge  came  out  of  an 

Italian  macaronic  romance,  and  probably  out  of  fifty-seven 

other  places  as  well,  itjcally  does  not  greatly  matter:    any 

more  than  that  "  fair  gieat  book  "  which  Panurge  wrote,  but 

which  "  is  not  printed  vet  that  I  know  of." 

*       "*        ♦      ■  *        ♦. 

Still,  it  is  ridiciilous  not  to  be  thankful  tor  the  bObk  one 
will  use.  This  is  especially  so  when,  in  England,  Rabelaisian 
literature  is  so  scarce.  No  Enghsh  biographer  has  tlioughtit 
worth  while  to  write  a  really  big  book  on  him  ;  and  beyond 
Professor  Saintsbury  (w-Ti'o  had  a  magnificent  chapter  on  him 
in  his  recent  History  of  the  French  Noirl)  and  two  industrious 
Cambridge  dons,  scarcely  any  living  English  critic,  has 
attempted  to  do  him  justice.  He  is  not  e\-cn  widely  read  ; 
except  by  schoolboys  who  get  hold  of  nasty  paper-covered 
editions  of  him  because  he  was  in  the  habit  of  plastering  his 
pages  with  unpleasant,  and,  in  print,  unusual  words.  He 
cannot  be  excused — as  some  have  atternptcd  to  excuse  him — 
from  the  charge  of  a  verbal  coarseness  unparalleled  in  any 
(jther  great  moflern  writer.  But  his  gigantic  humour,  b'^ 
inexhaustibly  liappy  language,  his  knowledge  of  mankind, 
his  wisdom  and  the  genen)sity  of  his  spirit,  have  madf-  him  the- 
secular  Bible  of  a  succession  of  English  writers  (amongst 
whom,  a  little  surprisinglv,  was  Charles  Kingsley),  and  there 
are  many  men  living  who  would  find  him  equally  companion- 
able if  only  they  would  once  try  him.  '^hcy  need  not  even 
bother  aboiit  reading  him  in  the.  original.  For  the  seventeenth 
century  translatioH  by  Sir  Thomas  Vrquhart  of  Cromartie 
(roncluded,  not  quit<:'s<>  suprrbh-.  by  Pctrr  Moltfux)  i?  onr; 
of  the  great  translations  of  the  world,  unequa,llf-d  by  any 
other  translation  in  our  language,  a  miracle  in  it-^  constant 
re-creation  of  what  cannot  be  Utcrally  rendered  from  the 
French  into  our  ox^-n  tongue. 


i8 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  17,  iQiS 


A  German  View  of  Sea-Law 

By  John  C.  van  der  Veer  (London  Editor  of  the  Amsterdam  Telegraaf) 


V 


IHE  most  monstrous  thing,"  saul  Mr.  Asquiiii  ou 
December  30tli,  in  tlic  House  of  Commons,  '  wlncli 
the  t.crmans  have  done  in  the  whole  war  is  the 
tUcliirHtioii  of  a  new  submarine  warfare  by  tar 
the  most  lawless  and  wanton  act  of  violation  of  the  letter 
and  the  spirit  of  all  international  convention  and  usage  that 
any  country  has  ever  perpetrated  in  all  its  liistory. 

That  Germany's  submarine  warfare  against  the  merchant 
ships  of  neutral  as  well  as  AlUed  nations  is  a  "  violation  ot 
the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  all  international  convention  and 
usage,"  can  be  proved  on  the  authority  of  a  well-known 
German  expert  on  the  Law  of  Nations.  I  refer,  to  Legal 
Assessor  Dr.  Hans  Wehberg,  of  Diisseldorf,  whose  book  ot 
450  compact  pages,  Das  SeekricgsrecM  (The  Rights  of  VVarfarc 
at  Sea),  finished  bv  him  during  the  first  months  of  the  war 
and  published  in  1915  by  Kohlhamincr  of  Berlin,  Stffttgart  and 
Leipzig,  is  a  running  comment  on,  and  a  thorough  condemna- 
tion of,  Germany's  lawless  acts. 

Dr.  Wehberg  is  one  of  the  few  German  publicists  to  whom 
truth  is  dearer  than  national  ambition.  Referring  to  the 
(krman  {Government's  protest  issued  in  October,  1914,  against 
Great  Britain's  detention  of  German  reservists  on  board 
overtaken  ships,  Dr.  Wehberg  says  on  page  313  : 

I  regret  sincerelv,  that  I  cannot  on  that  important  question 
share  the  point  of  view  of  my  Government.  Byt  much  as  I 
sliould  like  to  stand  up  for  the  interests  of  my  country,  I  cannot 
sacrifice  the  scientific  character  of  my  book,  nor  give  up  the 
great  idea  of  international  law,  which  reigns  over  all  countiies. 
Further,  mentioning  a  statement  made  on  March  17th, 
1915,  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  Mr.  Winston  Churchill, 
as  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  that  some  British  merchant  ships 
had  then  been  armed  as  food  carriers  exclusively  lor  defence 
which  some  German  critics,  among  them  Captain  Persius 
in  the  Berlin  TagcbMt,  had  reproved  as  a  "  backward 
step  to  former  piracy,"  Dr.  Wehberg  saw  no  ground  "'to 
doubt  the  airrectiicss  of  Mr.  ChutchiU's  statement."  ,'ihe 
opinion  of  that  German  expert,  who,  as  we  shall  see,  stated 
that  merchant  ships  of  a  belligerent  country  have  the  right  to 
defend  themselves  against  attack,  incurred  for  him  the  wrath 
of  the  German  authorities.  They  boycotted  his  book,  they 
drove  him  out  of  the  position  he  held  as  one  of  the  editors 
of  the  German  magazine  for  international  law,  and  it 
was  stated  in  the  Dutch  Press,  that  finally  they  had  called 
him  up,  although  he  was  quite  unfit  for  military  service.  In 
any  case  Dr.  Hans  Wehberg  has  effectively  been  silenced  and 
is  no  more  heard  in  Germany.  But  his  book  Das 
Scckriegsrcchl ,  of  which  I  possess  a  treasured  copy,  remains 
a  witness  of  German  lawlessness.  The  number  of  the  page 
from  which  I  am  going  to  quote  his  opinion,  will  be  given 
between  brackets. 

tierman  authorities  and  publicists  have  justified  the  V- 
boat  warfare  against  merchantmen  on  the  ground  of  the 
British  blockade,  which  they  declared  to  be  illegal.  This  is 
denied  by  Dr.  Wehberg,  who  finds  it  to  be  "  one  of  the  chief 
objects  of  naval  war,  to  strike  at  the  economical  hfe  of  the 
enemy  nation,  in  order  to  force  them  to  make  peace."  (3  and 
4)  which  can  only  be  done  by  "  grasping  the  enemy  in  his  life 
nerve."  While  it  suffices,  in  his  opinion,  "  in  war  on  land  t<j 
occupy  the  enemy's  territory,  in  order  to  make  him  yield," 
the  case  is  different  in  war  at  sea,  for  then  "  the  object  is  only 
attainable  by  striking  at  the  enemy's  industrial  and  com- 
mercial life,"  and  to  do  this,  "  the  goods  of  all  inhabitants 
of  the  enemy  country  must  be  captured  at  sea. "(192). 

It  is  not  necessary  to  quote  his  opinion  further  in  justifica- 
tion of  the  British  blockade,  which  is  applied  fully  in  accor- 
ance  with  Dr.  Wehberg's  description  of  a  legal  blockade. 
The  Cierman  submarine  blockade  can  in  no  way  be  squared 
with  it.  To  be  legal,  says  Dr.  Wehberg  (150),  a  blockade 
must  be  carried  out  and  maintained  by  a  sufficient  number  of 
warships,  which  blockade  all  entrance  to  the  ene  my  harbours 
"  as  much  as  possible."  Without  a  sufficient  number  of 
warships  present,  the  blockade  "  exists  only  on  paper,"  and 
\vould  merely  "  degenerate  in  damaging  neutral  trade." 
This  is  not  justified. 

"  All  nations  nowadays  have  accepted  tlie  principle  of 
effectiveness.  The  paper  blockade  endangers  neutral  ship- 
ping in  an  endless  manner.  ,  .  .  The  nations  are  to-day 
convinced,  that  a  war  necessity  cannot  more  justify  a  fictitiou. 
blockade,  because  the  harm  it  Causes  to  the  enemy  is  not  greas 
enough,  in  comparison  with  the  harm  done  to  neutral  tradet 
If  through  absence  of  the  necessary  warships  a  large  portion 
of  the  enemy  merchant  ships,  which  run  through  the  blockade, 
cannot  be  captured,  the  mere  prohibition  acts  neverthe- 
less as  a  preventive  and  keeps  many  vessels  away  from  the 


blockaded  ports.  And  in  spite  of  that  damage  caused  to 
neutral  shipping,  a  profound  blow  is  not  at  the  same  time 
given  to  the  enemy."  This  is  exactly  the  effect  of  Germany's 
fictitious  submarine  blockade. 

Use  of  Mines 

The  use  of  mines  for  that  purpose  is  also  illegal  in  the 
opinion  of  Dr.  Wehberg,  who  emphatically  declares,  that 
"  it  is  prohibited  to  establish  a  blockade  merely  by  laying 
mines."  For,  "  the  protection  of  international  trade  demands, 
to  apply  blockade  by  acts  directed  by  the  human  will.  The 
placing  of  mines  is  only  allowed  to  destroy  enemy  warships 
and  their  bases,  but  not  to  impede  the  enemy's  sea  trade.  It 
would  be  getting  round  the  ineffective  blockade,  if  a  mine- 
blockade  stopped  the  mercantile  marine."  (73).  Neverthe- 
less, Germany  has,  throughout  the  war,  used  mines  to  destroy 
Allied  and  neutral  merchant  shipping. 

Nor  has  she  heeded  the  proposal  made  in  1907  at  the  Hague 
Conference  by  the  German  delegation,  that  "  by  using  auto- 
matic mines,  all  possible  precautions  must  be  taken  to  safe- 
guard peaceful  shipping."  It  was  agreed  at  The  Hague,  that 
only  such  mines  should  be  used,  which  become  harmless 
"  one  hour ''  after  they  break  loose.  To  that  precaution, 
belligerents  "  are  bound,"  says  Dr.  Wehberg  (79).  But  to 
that  rule  Germany  has  never  adhered  in  this  war.  Nor  to  the 
rule  regarding  t(jrpedoes,  which  "  must  become  harmless, 
after  faihng  to  strike  their  object."  (77).  The  German  Govern- 
ment has,  in  the  case  of  the  Tuhaniia,  admitted,  that  this 
Dutch  steamer  was  destroyed  by  a  German  torpedo,  launched 
some  days  before  at  a  British  warship. 

More  brutally  lawless  is  the  sinking  of  merchant  ships  with- 
out warning  and,  worse  still  "  without  leaving  a  trace 
behind."  Dr.  Wehberg  underUncs  the  word  "  cluty "  in 
the  following  statement :  "  A  warship,  which  meets  an  enemy 
merchant  sliip,  has  the  duly  to  call  upon  it  to  stop,  in  order 
to  make  sure  whether  it  is  liable  to  capture  and  wilhng  to 
surrender."  (258).  And  it  is  in  his  opinion,  "  according  to  the 
ancient  common  law,"  that  "  a  warship  must,  before  attack- 
ing an  enemy  merchant  ship,  call  it  to  stop."  C^S?)-  He 
further  quotes  this  from  the  German  Prize  Law:  "  .\ll 
measures  must  be  applied  in  a  manner,  the  observance  of 
which,  also  against  the  enemy,  enhances  the  honour  of  the 
German  Empire,  and  with  such  respect  towards  neutrals,  as 
the  Law  of  Nations  and  German  interests  demand."  (259). 
This  is  an  admisuon,  that  the  ruthless  submarine  warfare 
has  lowered  the  honour  of  the  German  Empire.  History  will 
not  forget  that  fact. 

Although  Dr.  Wehberg  admits  the  right  to  sink  an  enemy 
merchant  ship,  if  it  cannot  be  brought  into  harbour,  he 
nevertheless  treats  it  as  exceptional,  while  insisting  that  care 
must  be  taken  for  the  fives  of  the  crew,  and  the  papers  of  the 
destroyed  ship  must  be  secured,  "  to  serve  as  evidence  before 
the  Prize  Court."  The  German  submarine  commanders 
never  take  that  trouble,  and  how  can  they  take  it,  in  executing 
their  order  to  shik  ships  at  sight  ?  Dr.  Wehberg  wrote  in  his 
book,  seventy  pages  about  the  procedure  of  the  Prize  Court, 
of  which  Germany  has  made  a  farce.  He  never  contem- 
plated that  his  country  would  use  submarines  as  commerce 
destroyers.  He  always  kept  in  view  the  recognised  principle, 
that  cruisers  have  the  task  to  capture,  or  to  detain  and 
search,  merchant  sliips  at  sea.  He  found  the  objection  against 
their  sinking  "  chiefly  based  on  the  critical  position  of  the 
crew  and  passengers,  who  had  to  be  taken  on  board  the 
cruiser  and  were  then  in  constant  danger  to  lose  their  lives  by 
war  operations."  The  German  submarines  leave  those 
crews  not  only  adrift  in  the  roughest  se,i,  but  even  fire  on 
them  while  they  try  to  escape  in  their  lifeboat. 

Implicitly  Dr.  Wehberg  condemns  the  e.\ecution  of  Captain 
Fryatt  as  a  juridical  murder,  when  he  says  :  "  An  enemy 
merchant  ship  has  the  right  to  defend  itself  against  attack, 
and  has  even  the  right  to  resist  s,"arch.  Should  large  mer- 
chant ships,  worth  millions  (of  marks)  without  more  ado 
allow  themselves  to  be:  captured  by  smaller  vessels,  simply 
because  the  latter  agree  to  the  destiiiction  of  so-called  war- 
ships ?  "  (284).  And  he  emphatically  declares,  that  "  the 
act  of  resistance  has  no  influence  on  the  fate  of  the  crew  of  the 
enemy  merchant  ship."  They  must  be  treated  as  prisone  rs 
of  war. 

The  .shelling  of  open  coast  places  and  attacks  on  hospital 
ships  are  also  condemned  by  Dr  Wehberg.  But  his  book  is 
chiefly  valuable  as  proving  the  complete  illegahty  of  Germany's 
new  submarine  warfare,  stamping  it  as"  the  most  monstrous 
XhkiK  "  of  all  her  many  atrocious  acts. 


January  17,  19 18 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


Books  of  the  Week 

The  Night  Club.     By  Herbert  Jenkins.     Author  of  B/«rf/' 

Herbert  Jenkins.  Ltd.     3s.  net. 
The  Don  a  id  Some  Others.     By  .'Escul.\pius.     W.   and 

R.  Chambers.     3s.  6d.  net. 
■We  of  Italy.     By  -Mrs.    K.    R.    Steege.     J.  M.  Dent  and 

Sons.  4s.  6d.  net. 
Rebels  and  Refor^meps.    By  A.  .\sv>  I).  Ponsonby.    George 

.\!len  and  Unwin.     6s.  net. 
The  Keeper's  Book.      lUustrated   War    Edition.     Bv  P- 

JiCFEERV    Mackie.     McCorquodale    and    Co.,    Glasgow- 

I2S.  6d. 

BINDLE  wass)  great  a  success  that  his  witty  aulho'" 
has  been  seduced  into  attempting  that  most  dangerous 
of  literary  experiments— a  sequel.     In  The  Night  Club, 
Bindle    and  his    friends  reappear,  but  it  cannot  be 
\vritt(;n  down  an  unqualified  success  ;    it  is  too  much  like  a  jar 
of  pickled  eggs,  some  are  splendid,  but  others  do  not  please. 
This  defect  is  in  part  due  to!  he  author's  excellences.     Given  a  ' 
v'ood  idea,  no  writer  can  work  out  a  bettei;^  story  ;    take  the 
following  three  chapters:    "  The    Prime  M mister  decides  to 
advertise."  "  The  Barabbas  C  ub,"  and  "  A  Dramatic  Engage- 
ment."    Each    of  them   is  a  "night"  one  delights  to  hear 
ab3utand  never  forgets,  and  the  tale  is  told  with  a  mastery  of 
lechniqut;  which  mtrits  the  highest  praise.     But  when  ideas 
are  lacking,  and  the  author  has  to  put  in  a  chapter  of  padding, 
it  is  deplorable.     .We  arc  given  jokes  and  cynicism  tliat  were 
j^enerally  and  hopefully  believed  to  have  been  buried    long 
ago  in  tlie  coffin  of  the  last  red-nosed  low  comedian  of  the 
mid- Victorian  music-hall.     It  is  evidently  a  dangerous  thing 
for  a  publisher  to  do  his  own  publishing,  thereby  escaping 
the  pitiless  criticism  of  the  professional  "  taster."     We  are 
.  ertain  there  are  pages  in  The  Nirjit  Club  which  no  comrnon 
or  garden  author  would  ever  have  been  allowed  to  print, 
M'hile  there  are  others   (they  are  the  more  numerous)  which 
any  author  would  have  been  proud  to  have  written  for  they 
are  good  literature  and  display  a  shrewd  and  kindly  know- 
ledge of  the  weaknesses  of  human  nature. 
•         •         ♦         «         * 
.Anonymity  seems  to  be  a  peculiar  delight  to  writers  on 
iia\al  matters,  though  perhaps  necessity  has  something  to 
«lo  with  the  matter.      A  certain  Mscidapius,  author  of  The 
Doc,  and  Some  Others,  is  very  obviously  a  member  of  the 
personnel  of  the  Grand  Fleet,   for  he  writes  with  the  sure 
touch  of  experience,  and  fully  equals  BartimcBus  in  the  vigour 
of    his  descriptions  and  the' dramatic  strength  of  his  narra- 
tives.    This  book  is  a  collection  of  short  stories  of  varying 
types,  both  humorous  and  dramatic — it  is  a  patchwork  of 
life,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  and  each  story  is  a  blend  of  humour 
and  pathos.     Probably  thf  best  story  of  the  lot  is  that  which 
tells  how  Mackellar  left  the  mess,  in  accordance  with  the 
<-.\pressed  wish  of  other  members  of  that  mess,  at  the  battle 
of  Jutland,  but  it  is  difficult  to  pick  out  a  "  best  "  whefe  all 
are  good.     "  ;^isculapius  "  has  rendered  the  spirit  of  the  Navy 
\'ery  well  indeed  ;   without  undue  use  of  technicalities  he  has 
shown  the  men  of  the  Grand  Fleet  and  the  mechanism  with 
•sv'hich  they  do  their  work— the  story  of  a  submarine  cruise, 
lor  instance,  is  enlightening  with  regard  to  submirine  warfare 
and  the  way  in  which  men  take  the  risks  of  under-sea  Ufe. 
'1  he  great  point  about  the  book  is  that  its  authof  shows  that 
the  officers  of  the  British  Navy,  and  the  rank  and  file  as  well, 
are  not  a  peculiar  breed  of  men  apart  from  all  the  world,  as 
some  writers  have  made  them,  but  are  of  just  such  material 
as  makes  the  world  of  landsmen  ;    through  necessity  a  little 
more  centred  on  their  work,  perhaps,  but  "just  as  mixed  in 
the  matter  of  type,  as  companionable,  as   eccentric,  as  the 
men  of  a  battalion,  or  the  men  of  a  business  house.     This 
-obvious  truth  with  regard  to  the  whole  is  made  clear  through 
a  few  individuals  and  incidents,  s(i  well  depicted  that  the 
hook  is  to  be  commended  without  reserve. 
***** 
Wc  oj  Italy,  by  Mrs.  K.  R.  Steege,  consists  mainly  of  letters 
written  by  Italian  soldiers  to  their  friends,  and  thus  is  ^descrip- 
tive of  the  work  in  the  field  and  the  circumstances  under  which 
that  work  is  carried  out.     It  has  been  often  and  very    truly 
said  that  the  soldier  knows  less  of  thi'  plans  ol  battles  than  any 
other     person,    and    here    in    th  sj    pages   is  full    evidence 
of  the  fact,  for  the  descriptipns  of  actions  given  by  these  men 


show  that  tactics  were  not  nearly  so  much  in  their  thoughts 
as  were  personal  experience,  and  that,  for  the  most  part, 
they  had  httle  idea  of  the  real  nature  of  the  work  wlich 
they  were  doing  so  valiantly. 

Here  and  there  are  touches  of  unconscious  humour 
— conscious  humour  is  rare,  for,  as  has  been  noted  by  all 
who  have  had  the  opportunity  of  miking  comparisons,  both 
French  and  Italian  troops  take  their  work  very  seriously, 
and  it  remains  for  the  British  soldier  to  make  a  joke  of  hi^ 
work.  One  man  writes  :  "In  those  instants,  my  dear  parents, 
I  saw  and  remembered  everything.  I  saw  thee,  Mamma,  at 
work  in  thy  usual  seat,  and  thee,  Papa,  going  about  the  shop 
as  usual,  and  a  sob  closed  nsv  throat."  This  was  while  waiting 
for  the  signal  for  attack— a  British  Tommy  would  probabh- 
have  wished  for  a  glass  of  bitter,  or  whistled  the  latest  music- 
hall  tune  he  could  remember,  under  similar  circumstances, 
for  the  Latin  tendency  to  sentiment  is  entirely  absent  from 
his  composition.  Quite  apart  from  these  things,  however, 
the  author  has  made  such  a  selection  of  letters  as  gives  a 
picture  of  the  work  done  by  the  Italian  armies,  and  brings  out 
the  tremendous  diffi;ulties  of  thz  battles  among  the  heights 
— before  the  tragedy  of  last  October. 

There  is  one  section  given  up  to  description  of  the  way 
in  which  the  King  of  Italy  has  identified  himself  with  his 
people  in  the  war,  in  which  he  is  shown  as  worthy  of  admira- 
tion as  is  Albert  of  Belgium,  and,  since  this  book  will  do 
much  to  give  understanding  of  the  way  in  which  Italy  regards 
the  war,  the  section  is  all  too  short,  for  the  example  of  the 
House  of  Savoy  is  a  matter  for  the  fullest  possible  recognition. 

***** 
The  fives  of  a  dpzen  of  the  great  figures  of  history,  none  of 
whom  are  British,  are  sketched  in  Rebels  and  Reformers, 
by  A.  and  D,  Ponsonby.  The  object  has  been  to  produce  a 
w^ork  wh.ch  shall  induce  young  people  to  take  an  interest  in 
history,  and  regard  it  as  "recreative  rather  than  as  a  difficult 
study  of  dates  and  names,  and  for  that  purpose  the  authors 
have  set  down  sketches  of  Savonarola,  William  the  Silent, 
Tyeho  Brahe,  Cervantes,  Grotius,  Voltaire,  Ma^./.ini,  Thorcau, 
and  others. 

Although  simply  written,  these  sketches  omit  no  csstn- 
tial  acts  in  the  fives  that  thev  portray,  and  it  might 
be  said  that  this  is  a  book  for  those  of  aU  ages  who  have 
managed  to  preserve  young  minds,  more  especially  since 
history,  as  taught  hitherto,  has  in  this  country  very  largelx 
neglected  the  great  men  of  other  countries — except  for  one  01 
two  figures— and  thus  at  least  half  of  these  names  are  very 
little  known  to  old  as  well  as  young.  Thoreau,  Tycho  Brahe, 
and  Giordano  Bruno,  for  exainple,  are  unknown  names  to  the 
majority  of  British  folk,  or  at  the  best  are  vague  figures  who 
did  something  in  some  past  time,  and  thus  such  sketches  as 
these  are  welcome,  since  they  will  tempt  readers  to  search  for 
fuller  biographies  of  men  who  have  influenced  the  world. 
The  authors  have  been  wise  in  introducing  personages  to  whom 
the  term  "  rebel  "  may  be  applied  in  the  sense  in  which  thcN" 
have  used  it,  implying  such  moral  courage  arid  independence 
of  action  as  set  itself  against  evil  tendencies  of  the  times  w  hicli 
these  men  influenced.  A  book  fike  this  breaks  new  ground  fti 
many  readers,  and  tiuis  has  a  very  definite  value. 
***** 
A  war  edition  of  Mr.  P.  J.  Mackie's  well-known  Keeper's 
Book  has  just  been  brought  out.  This  "  guide  to  the  duties 
of  a  gamekeeper  "  wgis  originally  pubfished  fourteen  years 
ago,  and  in  the  intervening  period  it  has  come  to  be  recognised 
as  a  standard  work.  It  contains  a  multitude  of  useful  facts 
and  information,  presented  in  a  very  agreeable  manner,  and 
their  value  is  considerably  enhanced  by  an  admirable  index. 
There  is  a  delightful  chapter  on  tiger-shooting,  the  batlue 
on  a  big  scale,  though  English  gamekeepers  do  not,  as  a  rule, 
have  to  arrange  for  elephant  beaters,  or  to  place  stops-  td 
turn  "  stripes." 

This  new  War  Edition  contains  a  dedication  to  llic 
boys  of  Britain,  in  effect  an  appreciation  by  the  author  ol 
the  admirable  work  that  has  been  done  by  the  Boy  Scouts 
movement.  There  is  also  a  preface  deahng  with  the  future 
of  the  country  after  the  war,  which,  in  ts  nature,  is^  contro- 
versial, but  provides  another  useful  sign  of  that  strong 
determination  to  ^irotect  the  industries  and  agriculture  of  this 
country  in  a  more  elficient  way  than  has  ever  happened 
before.  But  the  outstanding  merit  of  the  volume  hes  m  its 
dractical  treatment  of  the  field  life  and  sport  of  these  islai  ds. 


cocci.es 

WIND- SCREENS 

AWINDOW5 


.^^  ^^^ 


THE  ONUY  -^ 
SAFETY  CLASS 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 

Modern  Shipbuilding 


January  17.  1918 


Ollicial  notognt^tk 


Interior  of  a  Submarine  in  Course  of  Gonstruclion 


Laying  down  the  Decks  of  a  Cargo  Shio 


C//IcioI   Fhotogr'pK 


January  17,  19 18 


LAND    &    WATER 

Secrets  of  the  Desert 


01 


The  Cimel  Patrol:  Strange  Signals 


From   "Dttfrt    Campalgnt,"    iy    If.    T.    trniiet 


I-  From  "Deierl     Campaiyn«,  •    bu   (f.   X.  Uiu*<V 

London  Bacleriologists  in  a  Field  Hospital  Examining  Contents  of  a  Test  Tube 

'  In  these  two  pictures  Mr.  James  McBcy,  official  artist  in  Palestine,  has  depicted  the  watch  for 
the  enemy,   human  and  microbial,  which  the   British   Force   in  the   East   untiringly  maintains 


22 


LAND    &     WATER 


January  17,   1918 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


S'ames  and  ad'.lresses  of  sliops,  wliere  the  articles  mentiontd 
can  he  oblatited.  xfill  be.  forwarded  on  receipt  ol  a  postcard 
addressed  to  Passe- Partoul,  Land  &  Water,  5.  Chancery 
Lane,  W.C.  2.     Any  otiter  information  will  be  given  on  request- 


A  Change  io 
Furs 


It  is  not  often  that  such  money-saving 
chances  are  given  as  those  offered  with 
a  special  sale  of  most  inexpsnsive  furs. 
Nobody  can  afford  to  miss  it.  The  firm  responsible  have  made 
a  feature  of  those  attractive  fur  "  dog  collars  " — a  cosy  fur 
neck  band  encircling  the  neck  and  most  warm  as  well  as  be- 
coming. One  of  these  collars  in  natural  musquash  is  actually 
being  sold  for  fifteen  shillings  during  the  sale. 

A  guinea  is  all  that  is  asked  for  a  cross-over  tie  of  natural 
undyed  fur  wallaliy,  a  most  enticing  fur.  It  will  be  a  well- 
advised  woman,  too,  who  secures  one  of  the  cheapest  sets  of 
the  sale — a  cross-over  natural  undyed  musquash  tie  for  i8s.  6d., 
tlie  small  pillow  muff  to  match  costing  a  guinea  only. 

Several  of  the  fashionable  cape  collars  too,  are  being  sold  at 
much  reduced  prices,  and  most  attractive  affairs  they  are,  the 
becoming  cape  effect  over  the  shoulders  tapering  inwards  at 
the  neck,  and  then' branching  upwards  to  delightfully  frame 
the  face.  From  the  point  of  design  alone  these  cape  collars 
are  amongst  the  best  proposition  in  fur  neckwear  ever 
made,  and  it  is  good  news  to  hear  sale  time  reduces  their 
price  considerably,  though  this  was  never  unduly  high.  A 
fur  cape  collar  of  natural  undyed  wallaby — the  new  Aus- 
tralian fur — is  but  40S.,  a  large  barrel  muff  to  match  being  the 
same  price.  This  wallaby  is  of  a  soft  greyish  brown  tone 
and   particularly  charming. 

All  these  furs  are  being  sold  at  such  moderate  prices  that 
ready  money  must  be  asked  for  them.  They  wil^  however, 
be  sent  on  approval,  the  money  being  refunded  if  they  are 
I  eturned  to  the  firm  within  four  days. 


Delightful  Day 
.  Dresses 


The  fact  that  the  price  of  wool  is  mounting 
with  each  day  that  passes  makes  some 
charming  ready  -to-wear  frocks  in  wool- 
crape  all  the  more  noticeable.  They  are  naturally  enough  being 
sold  off  very  rapidly,  it  being  increasingly  difficult  to  get  any- 
thing of  their  character  at  all,  especially  at  their  exceptionally 
moderate  price,  75s.  being  all  that  is  asked  for  them. 

Too  much  stress  can  hardly  be  laid  on  the  value  of  these 
frocks  as  prices  go  to-day.  Not  only  do  they  look  well,  but 
they  wear  particularly  well,  wool-crape  being  that  welcome 
kind  of  fabric  that  never  creases  in  the  way  others  do. 

Th^  great  firm  responsible  arc  offering  two  different  styles 
of  wool  crape  frocks,  one  frock  having  an  attractive  Rani 
satin  .tollar,  cuffs,  and  waistbelt,  the  other  frock  being  made 
with  very  much  of  a  coatee  effect,  and  having  attractive  detail 
of  narrow  velvet  ribbon  about  it.  A  useful  booklet  giving 
pictures  of  the  designs  and  patterns  of  the  wool  crapes  is 
well  worth  applying  for — a.  fact  that  will  be  more  and  more 
liamrriered  home  as  the  months  of  the  New  Year  pass. 

In  the  country,  naturally  enough,  one 
needs  a  totally  different  kind  of  glove 
from  that  usually  used  in  town,  and  a 
famous  firm  reaUsing  this  are  featuring  during  their  winter 
sale  a  number  of  gloves  particularly  suitable  for  the  country 
at  a  special  sale  price. 

From  every  point  of  \iew  this  is  a  chance  to  be  pursued  and 
not  by  any  manner  of  means  to  be  lightly  set  aside.  Gloves 
arc  going  to  be  one  of  the  dress  problems  of  the  year.  Not 
only  is  their  supply  uncertain,  but  their  cost  is  bound. to  rise 
as  leather  of  all  kinds  gets  scarcer  and  dearer  ;  in  fact,  it  is 
quite  on  the  cards  that  before  1918  is  out  no  gloves  will  be 
available  at  anything  like  a  possible  price  at  all.  The  sales 
then  are  like  a  beacon  of  light  directing  the  way  everyone 
should  go,  a  light  which  \<\\\  fade  away  once  their  sway  is 
endeJ.  While  they  last  good  gloves  can  still  be  bought  and 
very  reasonably  too  and  the  wise  woman  is  securing  a  supply 
with  all  speed  while  yet  there  is  time. 

The  useful  country  gloves  in  mind  are  in  practical  shades  of 
tan  and  grey,  and  of  the  two-buttoned  variety.  They  are 
being  cleared  at  .4s.  11  id.  a  pair,  and  great  bargains  can  be 


Gloves  for  the 
Country 


found  amongst  them  by  anyone  with  the  eyes  to  see.  That 
they  are  strong  and  hard-wearing  gloves  goes  without  saying, 
a  chance  such  as  this  proving  past  all  shade  of  question  that 
the  winter  sales  do  not  merely  justify  their  existence  this  year, 
but  are  in  verv  truth  treasure  trove. 


At  times  when  a  chamois  leather  for  some 
The  Acme  Polishing     reason    or    another    is    unavailable,    the 
°'  Acme  polishing  cloth  is  a  useful  ally  to  have 

at  hand.     For  without  doubt  it  brightens  anything  exceedingh' . 
well,  being  a  great  aid  to  anybody  laudably  trying  to  keep 
silver,  brass  or  anything  else  of  the  kind  the  shining  attractive 
articles  they  ought  to  be. 

For  uniform  buttons,  too,  the  Acme  polishing  cloth  is  just  « 
the  thing  that  is  wanted,  the  final  rub  up. with  it  doing  wonders. 
Perhaps,  however,  the  primary  point  in  its  favour  at  a  time 
when  almost  everything  we  want  is  untowardly  dear  is  its 
exceptionally  low  price.  Acme  cloths  cost  4fd.,  6|d.  or  8fd., 
according  to  size,  under  none  of  which  categories  are  thcv 
expensive  affairs. 

Without  claiming  to  outclass  a  chamois  leather,  or  even 
entirely  rival  it,  these  cloths  on  the  question  of  price  em- 
phatically beat  them  hollow.  Chamois  leathers  are  now  not 
only  very  expensive,  but  likely  to  grow  still  dearer  as  time 
goes  on.  To  be  able  to  buy  a  reliable  polishing  cloth  in 
their  stead  as  cheap  as  this,  is  nothing  short  of  a  boon. 

Another  way  in  which  Acme  polishing  cloths  excel  is  the 
case  with  which  they  can  be  washed.  They  wash  out,  in  fact, 
quite  as  readily  as  a  duster,  being  as  soft  afterwards  as  they 
were  before — another  point  in  which  chamois  leather  cannot 
always  compare  favourably. 


How  to  Clean 
Knives 


No  matter  how  plain  or  simple  the  food 
is,  the  meal  can  be  an  attractive  one  if 
all  to  do  With  the  table  is  as  it  should  be. 
Clean  table  linen,  bright  silver,  and  last,  but  by  no  means  least 
polished  knives.  A  table  equipped  with  bright  shining  knives 
looks  a  different  thing  at  once,  yet  in  the  old  order  of  things 
and  with  old  methods  to  get  them  up'  to  this  standard  was 
irksome  labour  indeed.  Besides,  knife  cleaning  was  not 
always  a  tidy  job,  the  powder  was  apt  to  fly  about,  and  boards 
were  none  too  easy  to  put  away. 

Most  folk  now  are  agreed  that  the  fine  art  of  life  is  simplifica- 
tion, and  the  Beesway  knife  cleaner  is  simplicity  itself.  It  is 
a  little  machine  which  can  be  clamped  on  to  a  table  or  dresser, 
so  is  always  ready  for  use,  while  never  for  one  moment  in  the 
way.  With  its  help  a  dozen  knives  or  so  can  be  bright  and 
shining  in  the  neighbourhood  of  five  minutes — absoluteh- 
ready  for  use.  All  that  is  needed  is  to  put  a  knife  inside,  turn 
the  handle,  and  hey  presto  !   the  deed  is  done. 

Another  good  point  is  that  the  Beesway  does  not  wear  out 
knives  in  the  way  many  knife  cleaning  contrivances  do.  It 
saves  them  instead.  It  is  so  small,  compact  and  easy  i<i 
work  that  a  child  can  use  it,  while  so  convinced  are  the 
makers  of  its  reliability  that  each  little  machine  is  accom- 
panied bj'  a  year's  guarantee.  Anybody  using  it  then  is 
bound  to  look  upon  it  as  a  household  ally,  registering  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  such  a  labour  saver  as  this  proves  to  be.  Ot 
polished  oak  with  bright  nickel  or  oxidised  fittings  it  is  a  nice- 
looking  little  article  to  boot,  and  though  during  war-time  of 
necessity  its  price  of  8s.  iid.  is  more  than  it  would  otherwise 
be,  it  is  well  worth  it.  Passe-Pakiout 


Service  caps  for  women  are  the  latest  form  of  headgear  made  neces- 
sary by  the  times  in  which  we  live  and  Henry  Heath,  of  105-iog, 
O.xford  Street,  has  admirably  risen  to  the  occasion'.  His  service  cap 
is  the  most  ideal  kind  of  headgear  the  khaki-clad  girl  can  wear,  motor 
drivers  in  particular  finding  it  specially  useful.  A  pull-on  cap,  it  fils 
so  closely  to  the  head  that  the  most  tempestuous  gust  of  wind  cannot 
dislodge  it  from  its  place.  It  is  light,  serviceable,  and  though  prac- 
ticability is  its  watchword,  manages  to  be  becoming  at  the  .same  time. 
A  khaki  whipcord  cap  set  into  a  stitched  fold  of  material  at  the  back 
and  with  a  small  bow  in  front — much  after  the  manner  of  a  V.A.D. 
cap — or  trimmed  with  a  leather  buttoned  tab,  is  a  guinea,  and  a 
finished  article  it  is.  Then  there  is  a  less  expensive  cap  of  khaki 
serge,  made  upon  precisely  the  same  lines — quite  a  good  hardwearing 
cap  this,  even  if  not  quite  up  to  the  mark  of  the  first  example,  lis 
price  is  15s.  6d.  During  the  windy  months  to  come,  any  amount  of 
war  workers  will  feel  grateful  that  such  caps  have  been  made. 


January  31,  igi8 


Supplement  to  LAND    &    WATER 


Vll 


SERVICE  CLOTHES. 


To  those  who  order  their 
service  clothes  from  us 
we  assure  fine,  wear- 
resisting  materials,  skilful 
cutting,  honest  tailor-work, 
and  more — the  certain  ad- 
vantage of  ripe  experience. 

A  good  name  among  sports- 
men for  nearly  a  centur> 
is  a  sure  measure  of  our 
ability  in  breeches-making, 
to  which  gratifying  testi- 
mony is  now  also  given  by 
the  many  recommendations 
from  officers. 

For  inspection,  and  to  enable 
us  to  meet  immediate  require- 
ments, we  keep  on  band  a  number 
of  pairs  of  breeches,  or  we  can 
cut  and  try  a  pair  on  the  same 
day,  and  complete  the  next  day, 
if  urgently  wanted. 


Palltrns  and  Form  for  self-measurement  at  request. 


GRANT  AND  GOGKBURN 

LTD. 

25  PIGGADILLY,  W.l. 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


lESTD.  1821. 


FOILiILiOlAr    THE    ILiEiLI) 

of    the    thousands  of    officers  who    are   fighting    in    the 
Trenches  equipped  with 


u 


M 


T^oscow 

V_  SERVICE  KIT 

Largest  slock   in  London  ready  (or  immediate  wear,  or  mads 

lo  measure  in   24  hours. 

Field    and     Trench     Boots,    Prismatic    Binoculars,  Compasses, 

Saddlery,  etc. 

Officers  On  Leave  and  Others 

Will    find    an     excellent     selection    of    Mufii    ready    for    any 

emergency. 

MOSSBKOS^ 

pJt.lss  &  21  KING  ST.,)COVENT  ^ 

GARDEN  "•^•^• 


c"m,„'  &  25.  31  &  32  BEDFORD  ST. 


Ttt.     Ad.  : 

KA  \U 

'(Vol  V" 


■The  Original  Cording" s,  Estd.  1839^ 
The 

Paladin"  Oilskin 


All  the  year  round  our  shapely 
*' Paladin"  coat  will  stand  the 
rough  and  tumble  of  Active 
Service  and  throw  off  any  rain 
which  comes  along. 

The  material,  in  colour  a  good-looking 
dark  khaki,  goes  through  a  special 
"curing  "  process  which  makes  it  non- 
adhesive  and  very  supple. 

The  coat  is  cut  with  neat  tan  cloth 
collar,  full  skirt,  leg-loops  and  fan- 
piece  within  deep  button-to  slit  at 
back  for  riding,  and  has  a  broad  fly- 
front,  through  which  no  rain,  however 
violent,  can  drive.  Adjustable  inner 
cuffs  likewise  prevent  any  water 
entering  the  sleeves. 

Between  the  lining  of  porous  oilskin 
and  the  outer  materia!  the  air  freely 
circulates,  so  that  there  is  always 
abundant  ventilation.  The  coat  is  not 
bulky,  and  weighs  less  than  4  lbs. 

Mud  is  just  washed  off,  and  the 
material  is  then  as  fresh  and  clean  as 
ever.  After  lengthy,  exacting  wear, 
the  "life"  of  the  coat  can,  at  small 
cost,  be  effectively  renewed  by  re- 
dressing. 

Prioe  47/6 

Postage  :»broa(l   i/-  extra. 

When  ordering  a  "Paladin"  Coat  please  state 
height  and  chest  measure  and  send  remittance 
(which  will  be  returned  promptly  if  the 
^rment  Is  not  approvedi.  or  Give  home  address 
and  business  (not  banker's)  reference. 

At  request,  ILLUSTRATED  LIST  of  Water- 
proof Coats,   Boots,    Portable    Baths,    Air    Beds. 


WATERPROOFERS 
LTD   TO  H.M.  THE  KING 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  Ca 

Only  A  ddresses  •• 

19  PIGGADILLY,  W.l,&  35  ST.  J  AMES'S  ST..S.W 


TRENCH 
BOOT 

The  Norwegian  pattern, 
absolutely  waterproof  and 
almost  indestructible. 
Modelled  to  allow  of  room 
for  extra  pairs  of  stockings. 

<^ade    also    with    3    straps 
outside  lop  of  leg. 

£5  •  5 

fZ\  £6  •  15  •  0 

W.  ABBOTT  &  SONS,  LTD. 

(PHIT.EESI). 
121,  Hixh  Holborn.  W.C. 

(OPV.    Holborn  Station,  Plccadllljr  Tutie.i 

434.   Strand,  W. 
(N«it  to  Oatti's  ' 

&4t  Regent  Street,  W. 
(opp.   Swan    A    Edgar's.) 

and  BrancheA. 
London  and   Paris. 


VIU 


Supplement  to    LAND    &    WATER 


January  31,  1918 


//  Veace  should 
come  this  year — 


THE  war  is  approaching  its  climax 
rapidly.  It  may  end  as  suddenly 
as  it  began.  Peace  needs  its  pre- 
parations just  as  surely  as  war.  Will  it 
find  you  unready  ? 


THE  demana  for  Daimler  productions,  owing 
to   the    unrivalled   success   of   the   Daimler 
Sleeve-Valve    Engine  on  active    service,  is 
assured.     It  becomes  a  question  of  delivery. 


THE  best  plai^  is  to  secure  your  place  on  the 
Priority  List  for  A  DAIMLER  CHASSIS 
immediately.     The  details  of  body,  coach- 
work,  etc.,  can  be  deferred. 


The    Daimler    Company,    Ltd.,    Coventry 


leH.M. 
Tkt  King 


Worn  by  over 

20,000 

British  Officers 

PROOF,  this,  that  the  "Thresher" 
is  the  coat-triumph  of  the  war. 
Get  a  '  Thresher '  now,  and  you 
secure  a  garment  made  still 
better  than  the  original  by  virtue 
of  the  new 

MELCAM  INTERLININO 
the  proof  -  fabric  that  cannot 
crack,  that  neither  wind  nor 
water  can  penetrate,  and  that 
retains  its  silk-soft  suppleness 
under  all  conditions  of  wear  or 
weather. 
Trfnch  Coat,  unlined  £4  14    6 

The  Original  Price  uuchangi^d. 
rren«'h  Coat  with  (Wtathable 

■  Kamelcott"  lining  £6    6    0 

Cavalry   tyjje,    with    Knee  Flaps    and 

Saddle    GuAS*t,    IS/6   extra. 
.Send  Mtze  of  chest  and     approximate 
height,  and,  to   avoid  any  delay,  en- 
clone  cheque  when  ordering. 
Send  lor  Book  3,  the  Complete  Guide 
to  Expenditure  on  Kil  and  Equipment 


ScoUtsh  Agenls  : 

!WM  ANDERSON  &  SONS,  Ltd:. 

lU  Oeorirt  Street,  106  Hope  Street 
EDINBURGH.  GLASQCW, 


7T«^ 


TIKll^ 

THRESHER&GLENNY 

Military  Tailors  since  the  Crimean  War. 

152  £153  Strand.  London.W.C. 


ROLLS- 
ROYCE 


ROLLS-ROYCE  AERO  ENGINES 


LIKE 


ROLLS-ROYCE     CARS 

ARE  THE 

BEST  IN  THE  WORLD 

THE  WORLD'S  RECORDS 
'*  ARE  HELD  BY  ROLLS- 
ROYCE   AERO   ENGINES 

CLIMBING 

An  aeroplane  fitted  with  ROLLS-ROYCE 
Engine  holds  the  WORLD'S  RECORD 
for  RAPID   CLIMBING. 

SPEED 

An  aeroplane  fitted  with  ROLLS-ROYCE 
Engine  holds  the  WORLD'S  RECORD 
for  SPEED  in  the  air. 

RELIABILITY 

An  aeroplane  (Handley-Page)  fitted  with 
ROLLS  -  ROYCE  Engines  holds  the 
WORLD'S  RECORD  for  LONG  DIS- 
TANCE FLIGHT  under  War  Conditions, 
viz.,  London  to  Constantinople  (2000  miles). 

WEIGHT-CARRYING 

An  aeroplane  (Handley-Page)  fitted  with 
ROLLS  -  ROYCE  Engines,  holds  the 
WORLD'S  RECORD  for  WEIGHT- 
CARRYING,  viz.,  London  to  Constanti- 
nople, total  weight  SIX  TONS, 

PASSENGER-CARRYING 

An  aeroplane  (Handley-Page)  fitted  with 
ROLLS  -  ROYCE  Engines  holds  the 
WORLD'S  RECORD  for  CARRYING 
21  PERSONS  to  a  height  of  over  7,000  ft. 


ROLLS-ROYCE,    LIMITED 

14    and    15    CONDUIT    STREET 
LONDON 

Telegrams:  W.l  Telephones: 

'  Roihead,  Regd.,  London."  1654  Gerrard  (3  lines) 

And  at 

PARIS.  NEW  YORK,  PETROGRAD.  MADRID  and  BOMBAY  ■ 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXX  No  2908.  [yf^j,]  THURSDAY,  JANUARY  31,  1918 


rhegistered  ast    published  weekly 
La  newspaperJ    price  sevenpence 


ittfiffrtvxrmiuatissite'nnmmmammgm 


Ccpyuahl   1917   in    U.S.A. 


Copyright  ''t.nnd  &    Wat^f" 


Germany's  War  Aims 

The  Pan-German  Ruffian  :  "Now  the  World  sees  me  as  I  am." 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  31,   1918 


1 

4> 

ff 

Mi. 

The   Rogues   Gallery 

Von  Bernstorff.  Boy-Ed.  Von  Papen. 

The  Secret  Agents 
of  the  Kaiser 

FROM  the  first  day  of  the  War  there  was  one  man  in  America  who 
realised  that  before  long  the  United  States  would  have  to  fight,  and 
fight  for  its  life,  against  the  common  foe  of  civilisation.  This  man 
was  John  R.  Rathom,  the  Editor  of  the  Providence  Journal.  Born  in 
Melbourne  of  English  parents,  and  educated  at  Harrow,  Mr.  Rathom  had 
lived  a  life  full  of  adventure,  in  China  and  in  the  Soudan,  as  a  correspondent 
during  the  Spanish-American  War,  and  the  South  African  War — during 
which  he  was  twice  wounded.  From  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war  he 
took  in  at  his  office  at  Rhode  Island  every  wireless  rnessage  sent  out  by  the 
Germans  from  the  United  States.  He  placed  his  men  in  confidential 
positions  in  the  twelve  most  important  Teutonic  headquarters  in  the  United 
States,  and  received  from  them,  almost  daily,  reports  and  original  documents 
covering  every  phase  of  German  plots  and  German  propaganda.  He^forced 
the  recall  of  Von  Papen  and  Boy-Ed.  He  unearthed  Dr.  Heinrich  Albert 
and  his  ^8,000,000  corruption  fund,  and  sent  him  back  to  Germany. 
He  proved  that  the  Lusitania  warning  was  sent  out  by  the  German  Embassy 
on  orders  direct  from  Berlin.  He  warned  the  Government  that  the  Canadian 
Parliament  Building  at  Ottawa  was  to  be  fired  three  weeks  before  it  was 
destroyed  by  German  agents.  These  are  only  a  few  of  his  achievements. 
The  whole  astounding  story — the  most  sensational  Secret  Service  revelations 
ever  published — will  appear  weekly  in  LAND  &  WATER,  fully  illustrated 
from  photographs,  documents,  etc.  The  introductory  article  will  appear  in 
the  February  7th  issue.  It  is  important  that  readers  should  place  thtir 
orders  with  their  usual  agents  at  once. 


1 


January  31,  191b 


LAI\D    &     WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

5.   CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY  31.   1918 

CONTENTS 


PAGE 
I 


Germany's  War  Aims.     By  Louis  Kacniaekers 

A   Xational  Danger     (Leacier)  ^ 

'J'lie  New  State  in  Europe. — III.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 

( nTnian  Sea  Enterprise.     By  Arthur  Pollen  8 
']  he  Health  of  the  Fleet.     By  Lewis  R.  Freeman,  R.N.V.R.  lo 

Bolsheviks  at  Work  ir 

An  111  Wind.     By  Francis  Brett  Young  ij 

Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book  15 

V'iewsof  a  Prussian  Militarist.     By  Kenneth  Beaton  iG 

The  Universal  Memory.     By  J.  C.  Squire.  17 

Books  of  the  Week.  18 

The  Mine  Crater,  Hill  60.     By  Lieut.  Paul  Nash  19 
'Ihe  New  Landscape     (Illustrated)     By  Charles  Marriott     20 

Domestic  Economy  22 

Notes  on  Kit.  25 


NOTICE 

AFTER  this  week  the  price  of  Land  &  Water  will 
be  9d. 

Next  week's  issue  will  contain  the  introduction  to 
Mr.  John  R.  Rathom's  Revelations  of  German  Intrigue 
(lo  which  reference  is  made  on  the  opposite  page) ;  a 
short  story  by  Centurion  ;  special  sections  on  Country 
Life,  Literature  and  Art :  and  the  usual  contributions 
by  Mr.  Belloc  and  Mr.  Pollen  on  military  and  naval 
affairs. 

In  view  of  the  exceptional  interest  which  will  be 
aroused  by  Mr.  Rathom's  articles,  the  demand  for 
Land  &  Water  is  likely  to  be  greater  than  ever ;  and  wc 
particularly  request  all  our  readers  to  order  their  copies 
in  advance. 


A     NATIONAL     DANGER 

«A  BOUT  a  fortnight  ago  there  simultaneously  appeared 
/^  in  several  papers  an  attack  upon  the  present 
/ — ^  command  of  the  British  Army  at  home  and  abroad. 
•■  -^- These  papers  are  all  controlled  by  one  man,  and 
form  what  is  \irtually  a  Trust  or  monopoly.  This  News- 
paper Trust  has  during  the  last  two  years  increasingly  assimied 
the  right  and  the  power  to  upset  ministries,  to  nominate  new 
ministers  and  discharge  others,  and  to  dictate  and  veto 
public  polity.  The  danger  of  such  a  state  of  affairs  during 
a  national  war  for  life,  ought,  perhaps,  to  have  been  long 
ago  apparent  to  everybody.  But  it  usually  takes  some 
sharp  peril  or  shock  to  arouse  pubUc  opinion.  Such  an 
example  was  needed  here  before  public  opinion  was  moved 
sufficiently  to  act.  The  claim  of  a  newsp>aper  owner,  respon- 
sible to  no  one,  acting  by  suggestion  upon  millions  of  readers, 
and  yet  keeping  his  name  and  influence  in  the  background— 
the  claim  of  such  a  man  to  interfere  at  such  a  moment  as 
this  with  the  British  Higher  Command,  to  change  it  at  his 
will,  and  to  put  chance  nominees  of  his  own  into  the  places 
of  its  present  occupants,  was  a  claim  that  passed  the  limits 
of  public  tolerance.     It  was  high  time  ! 

Wc  all  know  wliat  followed.  In  the  face  of  such  a  protest 
as  has  not  been  made  since  the  attack  on  Lord  Kitchener  two 
years  ago,  the  newspaper  campaign  was  for  the  moment 
stopped,  and  it  seemed  as  though  its  authors  had  been  taught 
tiieir  lesson  once  and  for  all.  Men  went  about  saying  tliut 
the  thing  was  over  and  that  the  exceedingly  dangerous  piece 
of  insolence  they  had  just  witnessed  would  not  be  renewed. 
Those  who  thought  this  were  deceived  :  those  who  had 
a  full  acquaintance  with  its  character  were  less  sanguine. 
It  is  part  of  such  people's  calculation  that  the  public  of  our 
great  modern  cities  has  so  poor  a  memory,  and  is  so  lacking 
in  principle  as  to  be  easily  the  dupe  of  a  fresh  attack  withui 
a  coui)le  of  weeks  of  tliat  wliich  first  rendered  it  indignant. 
Alter  such  an  interval  therefore  the  outrage  has  been  renewed, 


iind  we  have  had  this  week  a  second  attack  on  the  cluete  of  the 
army.  We  believe,  with  all  due  deference  to  these  experts 
in  popular  folly  and  instability,  that  they  have  overreached 
themselves.  A  fortnight  was  not  enough  to  allow  lor  the 
forgetting  of  the  first  crime,  and  general  opinion  was  roused 
to  indignation.  But  beside  general  opinion  another  powerful 
opposition  was  aroused.  The  latent  forces  which  our  society 
can  develop  in  defence  of  its  fundamental  institutions  against 
so  maleficent  a  power,  are  greater  than  it  dreams  of.  This 
country  is  fighting  a  fight  of  life  and  of  death.  It  has  tolerated, 
during  the  last  two  years,  more — far  more — than  it  should 
have  tolerated  from'  this  "government  by  newspaper." 
It  has  done  so  on  account  of  the  easy-going  habit  engendered 
by  a  long  period  of  prosperity  and  peace.  But  there  is  a 
limit  to  its  patience,  and  it  has  discovered  that  in  time  of 
mortal  war  drastic  government  is  necessary  and  the  old 
tolerations  of  normal  times  must  be  suspended.  .\  very 
little  more  of  this  usurpation— of  this  attempt  to  dictate 
measures  without  any  responsibility  for  failure — and  the 
nation  at  large  will  demand  and  support  immediate  action 
against  the  culprits  and  their  due  punishment. 

The  motives  of  these  sudden  outbursts  against  public 
servants — each  one  of  which  in  its  turn  has  been  fatal  to  the 
individual  attacked — are  nearly  always  personal :  never- 
theless, the  whole  State  is  thrown  into  jeopardy.  It  was  a 
morally  intolerable  position  two  years  ago  when  the  original 
Grand.  Alhance  was  still  intact,  when  Russia  was  still  a  strong 
military  Power,  and  when  the  strain  of  the  war  had  not 
reached  its  present  extremity.  To-day,  when  we  all  know 
that  the  ordeal  of  the  next  few  months  must  decide  the  fate 
of  England,  this  newspaper  government  is  both  morally  and 
practically  intolerable  ;  we  feel  that  it  may'  breed  immediate 
and  overwhelming  disaster.  There  is  a  universal  feeling  that 
it  must  either  be  silenced  by  the  strength  of  opinion  or 
better,  by  the  direct  action  of  the  Government. 

It  is  exceedingly  impo'rtant  to  appreciate  in  this  connection 
that  the  discussion  is  fiot  whether  this  or  that  great 
official  of  the  State— this  or  that  soldier  in  a  high  position, 
this  or  that  executive  officer — is  the  best  discoverable  ;  whether 
a  long  term  of  office  has  fatigued  this  or  that  commander  at 
home  or  abroad  ;  whether  this  or  that  hitherto  untried  talent 
should  not  be  given  its  opportunity,  etc.  The  issue  is  not  of 
that  kind  at  all.  The  issue  is  between  two  forms  of  Govern- 
ment. The  first  form  of  Government  is  that  which  all 
civilised  nations  have  hitherto  understood,  which  was  long 
our  own  strength,  and  is  still  the  strength  of  our  enemies. 
It  is  the  form  of  government  in  wtiich  those  who  command 
are  publicly  clothed  with  certain  titles,  exercise  an  open 
authority  and  are  necessarily  responsible  in  one  form  or 
another  for  the  results  of  their  actions.  The  other  form  of 
Government  which  proposes  to  replace  this  is  a  complete 
example  of  demagogy  in  its  worst  form.  It  is  Government 
by  a  newspaper  owner  who  does  not  write  or  speak  liimself ; 
who  does  not  appear  in  public  ;  who  is  responsible  to  no 
one,  and  who  commands  through  a  great  variety  of  organs 
an  apparent  consensus  of  opinions.  Such  a  man  can  suggest 
anything  ;  can  boycott  whom  he  chooses,  can  print  on 
public  affairs  whatever  impression  he  hkes,  so  long  as  he  is 
left  immune   from  the  ordinary  processes  of  the  law. 

The  whole  heart  of  the  matter  Ues  in  the  fact  that  if 
responsible  Government  commits  an  error,  and  disaster 
results,  men  know  who  gave  the  order.  Its  author  has  been 
kept  under  public  observatioh.  The  nation  can  in  one 
fashion  or  another  remove  him — or,  at  any  rate,  brhig  liim  to 
book.  "  Responsibilit\'  "  means  that  you  must  "  answer 
for"  your  actions  and  their  consequences;  irresponsible 
government  is  anarchy.  If  a  man  whose  name  docs  not 
appear,  whose  power  is  anonymous  and  yet  in  his  own  estima- 
tion absolute,  is  permitted  to  depress  opinion  at  will,  to 
pubhsh  news  inciting  to  panic  and  to  end  by  nominating 
our  commanders,  the  nation  is  without  power  of  redress, 
and  the  direction  of  affairs  is  at  random.  To  permit  such  a 
power  to  continue  its  mischievous  course  unrestrained  is 
like  allowing  some  chance  intiTference  with  powerful  ma- 
chinery'— the  interference  of  a  child  or  of  a  jester.  It  is  worse.. 
This  modern  sort  of  demagogy,  anonymous  and 
l)0ssessed  of  such  extraordinary'  opportunities,  makes  for 
catastrophe. 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ji,  iyit> 


The  New  State  in  Europe     III 


By  Hilaire  Belloc 


The  Xcu:  Central  Stale  in  Europe,  under  Prussian  domi- 
nation, lias  been  defined  geographically  and  elhnologically 
bv  Mr.  Belloc  in  his  previous  articles.  'J  he  question  oj 
lanonage  mas  discussed  last  week,  and  tins  week  M-r..Bclloc 
deals  with  the  religious  diversity  of  the' peoples  inhabiting 
this  important  area. 

■W""W"    Te  have  seen  tluit  one  great  lactor  in  llic  German 

mm/   scheme  for  a  New  Central  State  in  Iturope  was 

WW     the  extraordinaiA'  diversit\-  of  language  cast  ol 

T    T      the  solid  German  block.    It  is  not  only  diversity. 

it  is  also  complexitN-  which  marks  the  language  map  o    the 

whole  belt   between   the   Baltic   and    the   Balkans,   and  the 

(iermanic  influence  acting   eastward    acts    upon    somctlung 

divided  and  therefore  open  to  its  mttuencc.  ^     ,  ^,        , 

But  this  complex  diversity  of  language,  important  thougli 

it  be.  is  less  important  than  the  diversity  of  religion.        t  is 

the  map  of  the  religions  lying  to  the  east  of  the  Gernian  block 

to  which  I  would  draw  attention  this  week.     \\  e  shall    hnd 

tliere  tliat  same  complexitv  and  confusion  we  discovered  on 

the  side  of  language,  and  we  shaU  understand  how  sucli  a 

state  of  affairs  strengthens  the  chances  of  foreign  domination. 

At  the  outset  there  are  two  points  to  be  made,     inrst.  we 

note  that  the   German  block  is  itself  rather  sharply  divided 

.    into   Protestant  and   Catholic    (very   nearly   half  and   halt). 

"   Next  we  emphasise  the  peculiar  local  importance  of  religious 

differences  and  its  reaction  on  politics  in  eastern  Europe. 

The  first  of  these  points  might  seem  to  a  superhcial  observer 
to  work  against  the  formation  of  that  new  great  State  in 
Central  Europe  which,  if  we  leave  it  standing,  will  be  the 
consecration  of  Prussian  Power.  Since  this  religious  cleavage 
exists  among  the  great  German-speaking  mass,  which  is  also 
proud  of"  its  Germanic  attachment  and  nationality,  it  must, 
it  would  seem,  divide  that  mass,  dissipate  its  effort,  make  the 
(  atholic  members  of  it  sympathetic  with  co-religionists  in  the 
Slav  countries  rather  than  with  lehgious  opponents. of  then: 

own  blood  ,       •    i         4- 

Thcre  was  a  time,  not  so  long  past,  when  such  a  judgment 
would  lia\'e  been  sound.  To-day  it  no  longer  applies.  On  the 
contrary,  the  verv  presence  of  a  Catholic  half  in  the  mass  of 
the  German  block  is  to-day  a  strong  instrument  of, foreign 
expansion,  and  the  fact  that  the  remaining  half  is-  Protestant 
(by  tradition  if  not  -in  practice)  gives  it  a  sort  of  neutral 
balancing  position  between  Catholic  and  Orthodox  which 
(though  it  is  of  indirect  and  often  distant  value)  is  not  to  be 
neglected.  Further,  the  traditional  Protestantism  of  North 
Germany  and  particularly  of  Prussia,  has  an  expansionist  effect 
all  up  the  Baltic  coast.  -It  helps  the  burghers  of  Riga  and  of 
Re\-al— or,  at  any  rate,  many  of  them,  and  those  the  most  active 
commercially — to  a  complete  sympathy  with  their  kinsmen 
right  away  "along  to  Hamburg.  That  the  division  between 
Catholic  and  Protestant  in  the  modern  Cierman  block  should  be 
thus  transfonned  from  a  weakness  to  a  strength  almost  within 
a  lifetime  is  due,  of  course,  ultimately  to  the  Prussian  ^•ictories 
of  fifty  years  ago.  It  is  a  sweeping  but  fairly  trustworthy 
historical  axiom  that  constitutions  arising  out  of  victory 
succeed,'  and  those  arising  out  of  defeat  fail.  The  brand  new 
Germanic  Empire  \ritli  its  liereditary  Prussian  Head,  its  simple 
general  franchise,  its  diverse  local  franchises,  the  traditions 
of  local  patriotism  which  it  had  to  meet,  etc.,  etc.,  seemed  at 
first  a  most  artificial  thing,  mechanical  and  brittle.  On  the 
contrary,  it  soon  proved  to  be  an  organic  thing,  strongh" 
bound  together  by  living  forces,  and  it  drew  its  hfe  from  the 
national  pride  in  the  military  successes  which  culminated  in 
1871.  The  Catholic  Ciermans,  as  a  whole,  felt  intimately 
but  concurrently  their  religion — which  is  strong  with  them — 
and  their  new  patriotism  There  was  a  critical  moment  of 
religious  conflict :  it  was  passed :  the  Catholics  could  claim  a 
measure  of  success,  and  the  union  was  more  solid  than 
ever,  'the  present  war  has,  of  course,  enormously  strength- 
ened this  feeling.  Nowhere  do  you  see  the  (ierman  claims 
put  forward  more  \'iolently  than  in  the  genuinely  popular  and 
thoroughly  Catholic  Press  of  the  Rhine  Valley.  It  is  rather 
the  Jewish  organs  like  the  Frankfurt  Gazette  or  those  belonging 
to  the  great  Protestant  Capitalists  which  strike  the  moderate 
note.  But  here  it  will  be  said,  "  All  this  may  well  apply  to 
the  Catholic  minority  within  the  modern  (ierman  Empire  : 
how,  can  it  affect  the  German-speaking  fringe  of  Bohemia, 
the  TjTol  and  the  Austrian-fiermans  upon  the  Danube  .•' 
Austria  was  a  power  defeated  in  thp  Prussian  victories  ;  her 
Catholicism  was  not  that  of  a  minority  or  in  conflict  ;  it  was 
I  universal  State  religion  and  the.  Austrian  house  should 
apparently  lia\e  had  no  sympathy  \vith  a  Power  such  as 
Prusiia,  which  is  not  only  Protestant,  but  which  has  uctualh' 


defeated  it  in  the  fields  " 

Here  again  there  was  a  long  period  during  which  this 
criticism  held  true.  It  does  not  hold  true  to-day.  It  will 
be  less  true  than  ever  after  this  war.  It  is  the  group  of 
German  peoples  as  a  whole  which  has  come  to  count.  It  is 
this  group  which  feels  that  it  has  been  fighting  a  desperate 
and  latterly  a  successful  war  ;  its  common  national  or  racial 
interests  arc  less  and  less  in  conflict  with  religious  differences, 
and— if  only  we  would  face  the  dangerous  truth — less  and  less 
dynastic. 

Unity  through  Religions 

The  division  then,  of  the  German  block  into  tiadiliuiially 
Protestant  (I  say  "  traditionally,"  because  while  especially 
in  the  great  towns  many  of  them  to-day  would  deny  any  creed 
and  gi-eat  masses  of  "them  lia\-e  abandoned  an\-  practice, 
yet  all  the  traditions  of  their  culture  are  Lutheran)  and 
"Catholic  doas  not  internally  divide,  but  rather  unites  tluit 
block.  It  also  gives  it  a  curiously  strong  diplomatic  position. 
The  religious  sympathies  of  the  north  affect  Scandinavia 
strongly  ;  those'  of  the  south,  particularly  as  represented  by 
the  House  of  Hapsburg-Lorraine,  stand  to  "the  authorities  of  the 
Catholic  Church  as  a  sort  of  rival  against  the  Orthodo.-c  pres- 
sure on  the  east.  This  was  perhaps  more  the  case  when  a 
strong   and   persecuting   Russian   State   existed. 

The  second  point,  the  importance  of  religious  differences 
in  Eastern  Europe,  is  one  that  must  be  very  specially 
emphasised  for  Western  readers. 

The  Englishman,  the  Frenchman,  the  Spaniard,  the  Italian 
—  anyone  of  the  West  (including  the  Western  German)  is 
always  puzzled  when  he  is  brought  up  against  the  religious 
complexity  of  Eastern  Europe,  and  with  difficulty  under- 
stands how  successful  a  disruptive  force  religious  difference 
there  can  be.  We  do  not.  save  hi  exceptional  cases,  such  as 
that  of  Ireland,  associate  in  our  common  thought  diftereiices 
of  religion  with  differences  of  national  aim  or  tradition.  \\  e 
have  been  accustomed— at  any  rate,  until  quite  recent  times — 
to  treat  religion  as  an  individual  matter  and  differences  of 
creed  as  tilings  that  cannot  or  should  not  disturb  the  State. 
This  attitude  has,  it  is  true,  grown  a  little  old-fashioned.  The 
internal  quarrel  of  clerical  and  anti-clerical,  for  instance,  is 
now  clearly  a  political  thing  and  is  felt  to  be  of  great  moment 
upon  the  Western  Continent.  But  you  could  not  make  a  map 
of  clerical  and  anti-clerical  districts  in  France  or  Italy.  It 
is  a  conflict  of  ideas,  not  of  localities.  In  the  East  of  Europe 
differences  of  religion  have  a  high  and  permanent  local 
significance  of  their  own.     They  are  like  flags  or  badges. 

One  of  the  most  striking  thifigs,  for  instance,  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  war  was  the  yiolent  conflict  between  the  Orthodo.w 
of  the  invading  Russians  and  the  I'niate  Church  in  Galicia. 
It  was  a  struggle  of  which  we  heard  little  at  the  time.  It  was 
one  of  which  history  will  make  a  great  deal  when  the  story  of 
the  war  is  written.  There  was  a  prodigious  struggle  with  all 
the  elements  of  persecution,  forced  conversion,  the  imprison- 
ment and  exile  of  native  clergy  ;  the  restoration  of  the  original 
church  conditions  when  the  Austrian  armies  returned — all 
the  features  of  a  religious  \\ar.  It  was  a  great  loss  to  the 
education  of  Western  opinion  in  the  true  state  of  Eastern 
Europe  that  the  alliance,  as  it  then  existed,  made  the  discus- 
sion of  this  crucial  matter  impossible. 

All  along  the  border  between  the  Polish  and  the  German 
races  religion  is,  again,  a  sort  of  hall-mark  distinguishing  one 
national  tradition  from  the  other.  It  is  a  sure  guide  for 
instance — a  much  surer  guide  than  language— in  all  the 
eastern  basin  of  the  River  Oder. 

To  give  an  example  :  If  you  were  to  mark  how  far  the 
Polish  influence  extends  towards  Berlin  and  were  to  go  by 
language  alone,  you  would  find  the  nearest  point  at,  say, 
Birnbaum,  about  50  miles  from  Posen.  But  if  you  go  by  the 
test  of  religions,  which  is  here  more  accurate  than  the  test 
of  language,  you  will  find  it  corresponding,  as  is  natural,  to 
the  old  boundaries  of  Poland,  that  is,  of  the  province  of  Posen. 
The  Polish  religion  and  tradition  go  much  further  west  than, 
the  language  boundary.  They  stretch  to  a  point  south  of 
Lansberg,  only  a  long  day's  walk — a  trifle  over  20  miles — 
from  Frankfurt,  and  not  more  than  75  miles  from  Berlin 
itself.  The  German  language  has  spread  somewhat, "but  it 
.  has  not  overlain  the  national  feeling  opposed  to  German\-. 
You  have  the  same  experience  in  the  debated  land  between 
Prussia  and  Poland  to  the  north  of  Lansberg  as  you  approach 
the  Baltic'.  Here  there  is  a  good  forty  miles  W'here  Creniian 
is  understood  and  largeh-  sjjoken  within  the  old  Polish 
provinces  insolently  called ""  West   Prussia."   but    the   Polish 


January  ^t,  iqiS 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  31, 


1918 


religion,  and  the  Polish  tradition  with  it,  goes  right  up  to  th 
old  boundary  upon  tlie  i6th  degree  of  longitude  East  of 
(ireenwich. 

You  have  the  same  thing  in  Silesia,  the  theatre  of  the  most 
impudent  and  shameless  of  Prussian  aggressions  in  the  past. 
The  German  speech  extends  over  the  old  border  by  a  belt  of 
from  15  to  20  miles  broad  to-day  ;  but  that  belt  has  lost 
neither"  its  traditional  religion  nor  at  bottom  its  traditional 
nationalitv.     It  is  Polish. 

Again,  the  contrast  between  the  Uniate  Roumanian  and  the 
f)rthod().\-  Roumanian  is  a  real  one,  though  the  greatest  experts 
will  difter— according  to  their  i^rsonnl  sympathies  -upon  its 
degree  A  "  L'niate  "  is  one  who  has  the  Byzantine  rite. 
that  is,  whose  language,  ornaments,  castoms,  etc.,  in  the  ser\'icf 
of  the  Mass  are  those  of  the  Greek  church,  but  who  is  m  com- 
jnunion  with  Rome  liverj-one  will  admit  the  strength  of  Rou- 
manian national  feeling,  biit  it  remains  tnie  that  some  genera- 
tions of  Uniate  practice— that  is  of  communion  with  Rome— 
on  the  part  of  Roumanians  lying  within  the  old  boundaries  of 
the  Hungarian  Kingdom,  "is  a  disturbing  factor.  NVhen 
nationality  and  religion  are  coterminous,  the  religious  differ- 
ences of  this  eastern  belt  are  a  most  vivid  index  of  differentia- 
tion, and  this  is.  of  course,  especially  the  case  along  the 
frontier  which  divides  the  two  religions  between  Poland  and 
the  Russian  peoples  to  the  east. 

Anyone  visiting  Warsaw  before  the  war  had  liefore  his 
yes  an  excellent  proof  of  what  1  mean.  What  did  the  Russian 
.lovernment  do  to  symbolise  its  part  in  the  partition  of 
I'oland  ?  What  was  the  visible  sign  of  its  presence  in  the 
]*olisli  capital  ?  A  new  brilliantly  coloured  huge  Orthodox 
Church  built  in  the  centre  of  the'  town  and  in  its  principal 
square,  and  contrasting  most  violently  with  all  the  archi- 
tectural and  religious  traditions  of  the  place.  It  was  a 
sort  of  challenge  which  nobody  could  miss,  and  it  was 
intended  for  such  a  challenge.  "The  two  religions  were  the 
two  hall  marks  of  the  fiercely  contending  forces.  The  Poles 
emphasised  their  Western  culture  and  tradition  by  a  worship, 
a  Church  ornament  and  architecture  almost  Italian.  I  have 
been  to  Mass  in  Warsaw  in  a  Church  where  one  might 
forget  that  one  was  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  north  and  to  the 
east  of  Italy.  One  might  have  been  in  Tuscany.  I  do  not 
mean  only  that  the  ritual  was  I.^tin  and  therefore,  of  course, 
e.xactly  homogeneous  with  the  Roman  ritual  all  over  Europe  ; 
I  mean,  that  down  to  the  details  of  ornament  aixd  shrine  the 
thing  was  entirely  Western.  Entering  an  Orthodox  Church 
you  enter  another  world,  a  world  of  different  colour  and 
different  shapes  entirely.  , 

To  the  south  of  that  belt  between  the  Balkans  and  the 
Baltic  the  test  imposed  by  religious  differences  changes  in 
character,  but  increases  if  anything  in  intensity.     Thus  side 
by  side  with  the  Uniate  and  the  Latin  rite  in  the  Carpathians 
you  have  the  strongly  Lutheran  character  of  the  German  towns 
planted  out  like  Colonies— "Heimanstadt,  for  instance.     You 
have  the  Orthodox  contrasted  with  the  Catholic  within  the 
boundaries  of  what  is  racially  cme  Southern  Slav  and  Serbian 
people,  and  as  you  proceed  further  southwards  you  have  the 
anomaly  or  survival^upon  a  very  considerable  scale — of  the 
Mahommedan.     Consider,  for  instraiice,  what  is  experienced 
by  the  tra\-eller  who  ventures  among  the  Albanian  tribes. 
In  one  day's  ride  he  will  pass  (they  are  mixed  everywhere, 
but  I  am  talking  of  the  bulk  orf  the  people)  from  a  Mahom- 
medan group  south  of  the  l^ke  of  Scutari    round    east- 
ward through  Catholic  villages  and  up  north  again  into  the 
higher  hills   of   Orthodox   Mom:enegro.      Leave   the   Upper 
Adriatic  coast  and  strike, into  the  mountains  of  the  Save  basin  ; 
you  pass  through  a  Cathohc  district,  through  an  Orthodox 
one  ;    far  north  as  you  are,  when  you  come  down  on  to  the 
Uno  Valley*  you  will  find  a  little  island  of  Mahommedans  living 
apart.     In  the  Lower  Danube,  especially  in  the  Dobrudja, 
you  find  the  same  contrast,    the  Orthodox  intermixed   with 
the  Mahommedan.     You  find  it  ijt  the  south-western  corner  of 
Old  Serbia  ;    and  of  course  in  all  these  lands,  the  chief  his- 
torical memory  of  which  is  the  no^v  lost  Turkish  rule,  religion 
is  the  badge  and  hall  mark. 

In  general,  we  must  think  of  religion  evcrj'where  east  of  the 
German  block  as  the  great  mark  of  difference,  in  most  places 
more  important  than  speech  ;  in  many  more  important  even 
than  race. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  map  itself  and  appreciate  what  the 
territorial  complexity  of  this   religious  patchwork  is. 

There  are  two  great  divisions  in  the  religious  world  east  of 
the  German  block.  These  divisions  are,  of  course,  the  group 
in  communion  with  Rome  and  tlie  group  of  the  Greek  Church. 
We  are  accustomed  to  think  in  tilie  West  of  a  comparatively 
simple  distinction  between  the  (ireek  Church  to  the  east  of  a 
^ertain  line  and  the  Catholics  to  the  west  of  it.  Roughly 
jj>eakmg,  this  distinction  holds,  bat  it  is  far  from  having  the 


„»,iL'!f'T  '^f-^^':'\  ^^'''-  t'^f  n»<»t  nor '.hc-rn  of  flie    isolated   Mahom- 
medan (listncts  with  an  "M     on  the  man. 


f^^imphcity  which  general  educated  opinion  has  attached  to 
it  in  France  and  England.  It  is  true  that  there  are  no 
"  islands"  of  orthodox,  that  is  Greek,  religion  in  the  midst  of 
CathoUcs  save  one  comparatively  unimportant  district  in 
the  foothills  of  the  Carpathians,  but  there  are  three  elements 
of  complexity  besides  this.  First,  the  boundary  where  the 
()rthodox  and  the  Catholic  meet  is  highly  indented  and  capri- 
cious ;  secondly  there  are  in  the  Middle  Danube  valley  nume- 
rous districts  in  which  both  creeds  live  (with  difficulty)  side 
by  side.  Thirdly,  the  Catholic  group  is  divided  into  a  great 
majority  who  follow  the  Latin  rite,J  and  a  minority,  entirely 
resident  upon  the  east  of  that  group,  who,  while  in  communion 
with  Rome,  follow  the  Cireek  rite  as  we  have  seen.  The  position 
of  these  last  introducesan  element  of  confusion  easy  to  under- 
st.ind,  almost  equally  easy  to  exaggerate  or  to  under-estimate. 

Uniate  Groups 

The  Uniate  (confined  entirely  to  Galicia,  the  district  of 
Cholm,  and  the  Carpathians)  is  accustomed  in  all  the  externals 
of  liis  religion  to  tlic  same  things  as  the  Greek  Church.  The 
ritual  is  much  the  same  ;  the  language  is  the  same,  and  it  may 
even  be  said  that  the  popular  tradition  is  the  same.  On  the 
other  hand,  from  influences  mainly  historical  and  political 
(not  the  result  of  individual  conversion),  his  organised 
liierarchy  feels  and  probably  the  mass  of  the  laity  also  feel  a 
strong  attachment  to  the  Roman  communion  which  separates 
them  from  the  Orthodox  Greeks  in  spite  of  the  similarity  of 
worship.  It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  estimate  a  moral 
point  of  this  sort.  Those  with  the  greatest  knowledge  of  it 
differ   widely   in   their   judgment. 

Beyond  the  main  division  between  Catholic  and  Orthodox 
coupled  with  the  sub-division  of  Uniate  and  Latin  right 
within  the  Catholic  group,  you  have  the  presence  of  numerous 
Protestant  districts,  some  of  them  corresponding  to  German 
colonisation  in  the  past,  some  of  them  representing  popula- 
tions who  accepted  the  Reformation  upon  the  .spot. 

Covering  a  larger  area  and  accounting  for  more  of  the  popula- 
tion than  these  isolated  Protestant  districts,  you  have  mixed 
districts  in  Hungan,^  where  the  Cathohc  and  'the  Protestants 
are  combined  ;  the  Catholics  usually  in  a  numerical  majority, 
but  the  Protestants  often  possessing  the  greater  part  of  the 
land  and  of  local  influence. 

Lastly,  we  must  note  beyond  the  Cathohc  Lithuanian  dis- 
trict of  which  Kovno  is  the  centre,  an  isolated  Protestant  group 
stretching  northward  to  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  of  which  Riga 
is  the  centre.  The  district  is  not  homogeneously  Protestant, 
but  is  mainly  Protestant  or,  at  any  rate,  its  directing  govern- 
ing class  is  almost  entirely  Protestant. 

To  add  to  that  labyrinth  of  forces  and  to  the  disunion  of 
all  these  eastern  marches,  there  is  the  fact  that  these  religious 
groups  do  not  exactly,  nor  in  many  places  even  nearly,  corre- 
spond with  language  and  national  tradition.  Thus,  the 
Roumanian  race  (as  tested  by  its  language)  though  in  the 
main  Orthodox,  has  its  large  "Uniate  provinces.  The  Poles, 
much  the  most  clearly  defined  nationahty  of  the  lot  and  most 
tenacious  of  Cathplicism  as  the  national  religion,  include 
in  the  district  of  the  Masurian  Lakes  a  population  wholly 
PoUsh  yet  mainly  Protestant.  Upon  the  borders  of  the 
German  block  Polish  Catholicism  has  often  survived,  though 
as  we  have  seen,  there  has  been  an  incursion  of  German 
language  through  the  influences  of  Prussian  domination. 

Upon  the  south  of  these  countries  which  modern  Prussia 
j)roposes  to  dominate  in  the  future  and  which  she  is  welding 
■into  her  Central  European  State,  you  have  Mahommedans 
in  Albania  and  Bosnia,  as  far  north  as  the  very  north-western 
corner  of  the  latter  district,  and  of  course  wherever  the  Turkish 
language  is  found  in  Thrace,  southern  or  eastern  Bulgaria,  or 
m  the  Dobrudja. 

Lastly,  scattered  in  groups  throughout  Poland  and  the 
Russian  or  Lithuanian  districts  immediately  to  the  east  of 
Poland  throughout  Galicia  and  far  into  Podolia  and  Volhynia, 
\'ou  have  the  Jewish  communities,  mainly  German  speaking,  , 
as  we  have  seen  in  the  matter  of  language,  and  exceedingly 
tenacious  of  their  separate  religion  as  welfas  of  their  separate 
race.  We  must  never  forget,  whether  we  arc  speaking  of  race, 
of  language,  or  of  religion,  one-half  of  the  Jewish  people  live 
ir.  these  marches  of  the  east  beyond  the  German  group  and 
are  in  communion  with  the  great  body  of  Jews  inhabiting 
the  German  Empire  itself. 

Such,  in  general,  and  only  of  course  in  rough  outline,  is  the 
religious  complex  of  the  belt  lying  east  of  the  Germans  stretch 
ing  from  the  Baltic  Sea  to  the  ^gean,  the  Adriatic,  the 
Balkans,  and  the  Black  Sea. 

If  I  had  made  an  attempt  at  more  precise  description,  the 
reader  would  ha\'e  found  with  every  additional  detail  a  further 
complexity,  for  the  mark  of  the"  whole  is  the  extreme  dis- 
turbance which  historical  accident  has  brought  here  upon 
rehgion  as  upon  race,  upon  race  as  upon  language. 

The  render  will    note    that    the     language    map    in     its 


January     ;i .   i  mi  N 


LAND    &    WATER 


bewildeiiiig;  (Jivtrbily  hab  trouliers  quite  independent  of  the 
religious  map,  and  the  full  chaiacter  of  the  mosaic — the 
txtraordinary  extent  to  which  it  is  split  up — can  hardly  be 
understood  save  by  the  super-imposition  of  the  one  map  upon 
the  other.  It  may,  however,  be  attempted  in  words,  and  the 
following  sentences  will  explain  what  I  mean. 

A  Government  desiring  to  ha\'e  information  upon  some  in- 
dividuals during  this  war,  individuals  who  may  have  shown 
activity  on  one  side  or  the  other  in  this  belt,  would  receive 
descriptions  something  after  this  fashion  : 

"  He  is  a  Mas\ar  land-owner  but  Protestant."  "He  is  a 
Catholic  Magyar  land-owner."  "  He  is  a  Bosnian  Mahomme- 
dan  from  Bihac."  "  He  is  a  German  Lutheran  from  the 
Seven  Towns  in  Transylvania."  "  He  is  a  Roumanian- 
speaking  Uniate  from  a  village  just  outside  one  of  the  German 
towns  in  Transylvania."  "He  is  a  Galician-Uniate  from 
Lemberg,  but  worked  with  the  Orthodox  Priests  during  tlie 
Russian  invasion."  "  He  is  a  German-speaking  Jew  from 
Lemberg."  "  He  is  a  German-speaking  Jew  from  Odessa,  but 
his  sympathies  are  with  the  Ukraine."  "  He  is  a  German- 
speaking  citizen  of  the  Empire,  with  a  farm  a  few  miles  out  of 
Landsburg  on  the  Warthe,  but  he  is  a  Catholic  and  Polish  in 
sympathy."  "  He  is  a  Polish  Nationalist  speaking  the  Polish 
Masurian  dialect  and  though  Lutheran  strongly  anti-Prussian. " 
"  He  is  a  German  merchant  from  Riga,  Lutheran  in  religion, 
but  tiTisted  by  the  Russian  authorities."  "  He  is  a  Lithuanian 
man  estabUshed  in  Riga,  Catholic  in  religion  and  with  Polish 
svmpathies."  "  Hcvhas  worked  for  the  so-called  Jugo-Slav 
cause,  but  is  strongly  Catholic  in  religion  " — and  so  forth. 
The  double  network  of  language  and  creed  produces 
this  bewildering  confusion.  It  is  remarkable,  and  character- 
istic enough  of  such  movements  that  the  adherents  of  par- 
ticular causes  seek  to  eliminate  one  or  other  of  these  factors 
of  complexity  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  their  theories.  For 
example,  a  German  Nationalist  will  tell  you  of  a  small  district 
near  the  Polish  town  of  Thorn,  that  it  is  German,  because  it  is 
derman  speaking  ;  the  same  man  will  tell  you  that  a  Masurian 
farmer  cannot  really  be  called  Polish  because  he  is  Lutheran. 
But  the  Polish  patriot  will  conversely  test  the  man  in  Thorn 
by  his  rehgion  and  the  man  in  the  Masurian  Lakes  by  his 
language  and  arrive  at  exactly  opposite  conclusions. 

A  Triple  Problem 

To  the  impartial  observer  the  problem  presented  is  a  triple 
one  of  language,  of  race  (which  does  not  perfectly  fbllow 
language),  and  of  religion,  which  often  cuts  clean  across  both. 

Supposing  such  an  observer  were  asked  to  suggest  what 
national  groups  could  be  formed  out  of  such  a  welter,  he 
would,  I  think,  reply  somewhat  thus  : 

"  There  is  first  of  all  and  most  important  a  perfectly  clear 
homogeneous  Catholic  Poland  :  Polish  speaking,  Polish  in  race, 
Polish  in  conscious  patriotism.  It  reaches  to  the  sea  ;  its 
great  port  there,  Dantzic,  has  been  Germanised  in  speech  and 
largely  in  race,  but  is  politically  necessary  to  the  Polish 
State  if  that  State  is  to  exist  at  all.  This  Pohsh  State 
would  have  fringes  rov^nd  it  of  mixed  language  and  of  mixed 
religion,  but  tiiat  is  absolutely  inevitable  in  Eastern  Europe 
however  you  draw  your  boundaries. . 

"  There  is  a  Bohemian  State  which  could  only  exist  if  a 
strong  Polish  State  were  already  erected,  and  into  which  it 
would  be  unwise  to  admit  too  large  a  proportion  of  the  German 
belt  in  the  mountains. 

"  There  is  a  Magyar  State,  aristocratic  in  character  and 
intensely  national.  It  can  certainly  be  recognised  and  can 
form  a  homogeneous  body,  for  it  has  been  a  dominant  State 
up  to  this  war.  But  it  must  give  up  its  claim  and  desire  to  rule 
the  Sla\  s  to  the  north  and  to  the  south,  which  are  now  within 
its  poUtical  boundary  and  by  which  it  is  hated,  and  the  great 
mass  of  Roumanian  speaking  people  to  the  east  who  are  not 
in  sympathy  with  it.  On  the  other  hand  we  need  not  trouble 
ourselves  in  the  future  of  such  a  State,  with  the  reUgious 
differences  within  it  or  with  the  considerable  German  speaking 
Colonies,  for  Hungary  is  too  united  in  feeling  to  be  in  peril 
from  such  anomalies. 

"There  is  a  Roumanian  State  clearly  defined  by  the  use  of  the 
Roumanian  language.  i)Ut  it  has  three  elements  of  instability, 
which  the  new  Constitution  would  have  to  safeguard  as  best 
it  could,  i'irst,  there  is  the  very  mi.xed  condition  of  Bess- 
arabia, with  Roumanian  and  Slav  districts  interlocked,  and 
ivith  a  mass  of  German-speaking  Jewish  population  as  well. 
Next,  there  is  the  division  between  the  Orthodox  and  the 
Uniate,  but  there  is  little  danger  of  this  breaking  up  the  State, 
for  there  is  here  no  great  friction.  Lastly,  there  are  the  very 
considerable  islands  of  Magyar  speaking  and  German  sf)eaking 
groups  right  in  the  mountain  centre  of  the  Roumanian  State. 
It  is  inevitable  that  the  Roumanian  State,  if  it  is  to  exist  at 
all,  must  rule  these  anomalies  as  best  it  can  and  must  be 
wise  enough  to  concede  considerable  local  autonomy. 

"There  is  a  Southern  Slav  or  Serbian  State,  which  doubtless 


could  be  erected  as  au  independent  Nation  but  ni  whicli  wc 
nuist  be  careful  to  note  two  elements  of  danger  only  ignored 
by  enthusiasts  ;  the  first  is  the  presence  on  its  Southern  piu  t, 
though  in  one  place  as  far  north  as  the  Save,  of  Mahommedan 
elements,  and  with  this  we  must  couple  the  probable  difficulty 
of  defining  the  Albanian  frontier.  Next  there  is  a  very  sharp 
division,  not  only  in  religion  but  in  many  fundamental  habits 
such  as  the  alphabet,  with  all  that  it  connotes  in  the  daily 
influence  of  the  Press  and  of  literature,  between  the  eastern  and 
the  western  portions,  the  Orthpdox  and  the  Catholic." 

Such  would  be,  in  its  very  roughest  form,  the  reply  of  a 
Western  observer  anxious  to  erect  independent  nation- 
alities in  the  East  of  Europe  and  to  save  them  from  falling 
into  the  orbit  of  Prussia.  It  is  clear  at  once  from  the  map, 
whether  of  religion  or  of  language,  and  from  history,  that'the 
essential  part  of  such  a  system,  the  keystone  of  it,  is  a  strong 
and  independent  Poland,  and  that  is  why  this  has  been 
insisted  upon  over  and  over  again  in  these  columns  as  the 
test  of  the  war. 

Now  on  the  other  side  the  enemy  has  a  very  strong  case,  a 
case  so  strong  that  short  of  his  defeat  he  will  undoubtedly 
make  good.  It  is  a  case  so  strong  in  history  and  in  fact  that 
an  undefeated  Prussia  cannot  but  translate  it  into  reality 
infinitely  more  easily  than  we  can  establish,  let  alone  protect, 
the  nationaUties  just  defined.  In  fact  Prussia  has  already 
actually  translated  its  theory  into  a  realitv  ;  for  since  the 
collapse  of  Russia  it  has  erected  this  new  State  under  our 
eyes.  It  already  exists.  And  the  Prussian  answer,  which  is 
also  that  of  all  academic  Germany  is  somewhat  as  follows  : 

"  In  contemporary  fact  and  in  the  light  of  history  it  is 
inevitable  that  these  exceedingly  complicated  conditions 
should  be  ruled  even  if  only  indirectly  and  in  a  confederate 
manner  by  the  homogeneous,  the  wealthier,  the  more  highly 
organised  German  people  to  the  West :  though  that  with  the 
aid  of  the  Magyar  State  which  has  f)een  organised  now  for 
many  generations  as  an  Imperial  power  dominating  its  non- 
Magyar  subjects.  There  might  have  been  a  great  Slav  mass 
stretching  uninterruptedly  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Adriatic  and 
welded  into  one  homogeneous  State,  but  historically  this  failed. 
The  .\siatic  invasion  of  the  Magyars  in  the  Dark  Ages  cut  it 
into  two  ;  the  Southern  part  of  it  was  overrun  by  the  Turks, 
and  on  the  top  of  that  you  got  the  profound  cleavage  in 
religion  ;  Poland,  Bohemia  and  the  Adriatic  Slavs  were 
t  rained  by  the  Latin  Church  under  a  Western  culture  ;  the  SlaA  s 
to  the  East  of  them—  wholly  cut  off  at  first  by  the  Pagan 
Lithuanians— was  trained  from  Byzantium  in  the  Greek 
culture  and  rehgion.  The  whole  history  of  the  German 
people  has  been  the  history  of  the  gradual  extension  eastward 
of  their  language,  influence  and  culture  against  the  Slav.  In 
this  they  have  succeeded.  Their  colonies  are  strongly  planted 
far  and  wide  in  Slav  territory,  and  to-day  all  indiistry,  all 
modern  energy  throughout  the  whole  belt,  derives  from  the 
Germans.  Such  a  state  of  aftairs  coupled  with  the  extreme 
diversity  of  race  and  creed  and  language,  the  frictions  and 
animosities  everywhere  present  between  one  small  group  and 
another,  render  order  and  development  therein  impossible 
without  imperial  control,  and  that  control  can  notv  only  be 
German.  It  is  inevitable ;  there  is  simply  nothing  else 
present  in  the  mass  to  give  it  direction,  now  tliat  the  strongly 
centralised  Orthodox  Slav  power  called  Russia,  which  used  to 
be  our  counter-weight,  has  disappeared.  We  admit  that  there 
is  a  true  Polish  State  and  nationality  ;  it  is  the  nearest  thing 
to  a  true  unit  in  the  whole  aiYair.  But  the  maintenance  of  that 
nationality  has  proved  impossible.  We  may  erect  it,  if  you 
like,  into  a  nominally  free  State,  but  it  could  not  stand  alone, 
just  as  it  did  not  stand  alone  in  the  past.  We  may  propose 
at  the  close  of  the  war  many  varying  forms  of  local  autonomy, 
of  federation,  of  nominally  independent  Kingdoms — what  you 
will — but  the  reality  behind  it  all  will  be  and  can  only  be  a 
great  Central  European  State  in  which  the  German  people  shall 
be  altogether  the  seniors  and  the  directors,  and  that  people, 
remember,  in  its  modern  form,  has  been  disciplined  and 
united  by  Prussia." 

Such,  I  think,  is  the  answer  that  would  be  given  by  a 
(ierman  at  the  present  moment  studying  what  he  would  caU 
"  objectivity  "  and  careful  to  avoid  extreme  claims. 

Wc  know,  we  in  the  West,  that  the  creation  of  such  a  State 
means  the  domination  of  all  Europe  by  Prussia  :  that  our 
tradition  and  civilisation,  all  that  we  cherish  in  sharp  antagon- 
ism to  Prussia — chivalry,  for  instance,  to  quote  but  one  idea 
out  of  many — ^would  not  survive  such  a  competition.  There 
would  be  one  great  European  Empire,  stretching  from  the 
Black  Sea  to  the  North  Sea  and  from  the  Baltic  to  the 
.Adriatic,  by  whatever  name  it  was  called.  Without  further 
armed  aggression  it  would  be  the  master  of  all  ;  especially 
would  it  be  spiritually  the  master — and  that  is  what  counts. 
We  have  learnt  these  things  very  late  ;  the  events  which  have 
suddenly  turned  this  jx)tential  thing  into  an  actual  one  arc 
events  of  only  the  last  few  months,  and  one  of  them  alone  is 
decisive,  the  break-up  of  Russia.    But  we  do  know  the  issue 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ji,  191^ 


now,  and  it  U  one  of  the  plainest  that  has  ever  been  s?t  to  com- 
batants in  a  war.  .  ,  , ,  ^  j  i  „ 
Those  who  stiU  tliink  and  speak  m  the  old  terms  and  xvlio 
conceive  of  a  Prussianised  Germany  modestly  retu-ing  within 
the  boundaries  of  its  own  culture  and  language  because  Us 
original  Western  aggression  has  failed,  are  living  m  a  completely 
unreal  world.  They  are  like  men  vv;lio  discuss  modern 
.-conomic  problems  in  terms  of  the  old  fasliioivid  individual 
manufacturer  and  his  hands.     They  are  hke  men  who  talk 


of  a  modern  railway  system  as  though  it  were  still  a  private 
venture.  They  are  living  in  the  past.  They' have  an  ex- 
cellent excuse,  for  that  past  is  a  past  exceedingly  recent  ;  but 
])ast  it  is,  and  to  neglect  the  modern  and  existing  thing  before 
us  while  the  enemy  knows  it  to  its  veiry  heart  is  to  accept 
our  final  and  decisive  defeat. 

It  remains  to  examine  the  economic  position  of  such  a 
central  state  and  the  menace  that  position  involves.  I  will 
attempt  it  in  another  article.  H.  Biiixoc 

{To  be  continued) 


German  Sea  Enterprise 


Bv   Arthur  Pollen 


4  T  the  time  of  writhig  last  week,  the  story  of  the 
/%  Gocben  and  Breslau  sortie  from  the  Dardanelles 
/  %  was  so  incomplete  that  any  discussion  of  so  mter- 
jL  A-esling  an  adventure  would  have  been  premature. 
The  communique,  of  the  23rd,  however,  gives  a  far  more 
detailed  picture  of  what  happened,  and  corrects  several  state- 
ments in  the  previous  accounts.  But,  even  now,  particulars 
of  many  major  points  are  stiU  to  seek.  Briefly,  the  story  we 
are  told  is  this. 

Lizard,  a  750-ton  destrover,  armed  with  two  4-mch  and  two 
li-pounder  guns,  discovered  Breslau,  with  the  Goeben  a  mile 
astern,  at  5.30  on  the  morning  of  January  24th,  when 
she  was  about  two  miles  from  the  north-east  point  of  Imbros. 
The  German  ships  were  on  a  northerly  course  and  steering 
towards  the  south  east  of  Cape  Kephalos.  Lizard  at  once 
gave  the  alarm  and  engaged  the  two  (ierman  ships,  at  a  range 
of  about  11,000  yards,  she  being  under  heavy  fire  the  whole 
time,  straddled  often,  but  never  hit.  She  was,  naturally 
enough,  not  able  to  turn  either  ship  from  her  course,  and  was 
pre\-ented  from  closing  to  torpedo  range  by  the  accuracy  of 
Breslau  s  fire  as  the  distance  shortened.  There  was,  then, 
nothing  to  prevent  Goehen  from  getting  opposite  the  mouth 
of  the  harbour  where  the  monitors  were  lying.  Lizard  had 
kept  between  Goeben  and  the  harbour  and,  no  doubt  in 
response  to  her  original  alarm,  Tigress  came  out  and  joined 
her,  when  both  destroyers  did  what  they  could  to  shield 
the  two  monitors  by  smoke  screens.  The  protection,  how- 
ever, was  insufficient'  and  within  forty  minutes  of  the  German 
ships  being  sighted,  first  Raglan  aiid  then  M28  had  been 
"  heavily  hit  "  and  sunk.  The  enemy,  having  accomplished 
their  mission,  turned  south,  not  apparently  with  the  idea  of 
returning  up  the  Dardanelles,  but  on  some  other  mission. 
They  were  followed  by  Lizard,  now  accompanied  by  Tigress, 
who,  at  seven  o^clock.  saw  Breslau  run  into  a  minefield,  in 
which  she  seems  to  have  struck,  not  one  but  several  mines, 
so  that  she  sank  within  ten  minutes  of  the  first  explosion. 
Goeben  was  apparently  leading,  for,  on  seeing  Breslau  sink, 
she  circled  round  her  once  and  then  continued  her  southerly 
course.  There  then  came  on  the  scene  four  Turkisii 
destroyers  accompanied  by  an  old  cruiser.  Lizard  and  Tigress 
engaged  the  destroyers  at  once,  hit  one  of  ihem  "  repeatedly  " 
and  drove  them  pell  mell  up  the  Straits.  But  Goeben  con- 
tinued past  the  Straits,  still  going  in  a  southerly  direction, 
when  an  attack  by  our  aircraft  "  forced  "  her  to  turn. 

The  account  does  not  say  whether  Goeben  was  hit  by  this 
first  attack.  But  the  presumption  is  that  the  bombs  must 
have  fallen  close  enough  to  make  her  realise  that  the  risk  of 
trying  to  add  to  her  successes  by  continuing  her  range  further 
afield  was  prohibitive.  But  the  decision  was  taken  at  an 
unfortunate  moment  for,  in  the  actual  act  of  turning,  she 
struck  a  mine  herself,  the  injury  from  which  must  have  been 
serious,  for  not  only  did  she  settle  down  aft,  but  developed 
a  list  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  degrees.  Damage  of  this  kind 
was  bound  to  affect  her  speed,  and  it  is  possible  that  one  of 
the  propeller  shafts  may  have  been  injured  as  well.  At  any 
rate,  her  procedure  up  the  Dardanelles  was  slow.  All  the 
four  Turkish  destroyers  that  had  been  driven  in  by  Lizard 
and  Tigress  now  turned  to  escort  Goeben — from  which  one 
concludes  that  the  boat  that  was  hit  could  not  have  been  very 
seriously  damaged.  The  Turks  also  sent  out  aircraft  to  put  a 
stop  to  further  attacks  from  the  sky  and,  in  the  encounters 
that  ensued,  one  of  our  seaplanes  seems  to  have  been  destroyed. 
But  the  others  in  the  meantime  continued  to  attack  not  only 
with  energy  but  with  effect,  for  no  less  than  four  direct  hits 
were  recorded — two  before  and  two  after  Goeben  was  run 
ashore,  100  yards  from  the  lighthouse  at  Nagara  Point. 
Lizard  and  Tigress  continued  to  follow  up  Goeben,  until  Uv 
fire  from  the  batteries  became  prohibitive.  The  gallant 
captains  of  these  enterprising  craft  felt  the  better  justified  in 
desisting  when  they  realised  how  effective  our  attack  from 
the  air  liad  become.  Having  left  the  Dardanelles,  tiiey  pro- 
ceeded to  the  rescue  of  the  Breslau  siir\i\ors,  a  woik,  how- 
ever, in  which  they  were  disturbed  by  an  enemy  submarine. 


The  story  docs  not  tullushownidny  German  li\es  were  lost  by 
this  veryill-timed  intervention.  Later  accounts  record  further 
direct  hits  on  the  Gocben,  and  there  is  one  story  to  the  effect 
that  her  decks  are  now  awash.  But  she  has  survived  so  many 
misfortunes  that  it  needs  some  hardihood  to  assert,  as  so 
many  have  done,  that  she  is  now  finally  destroyed. 
One  can  look  at  this  story  from  two  points  of  view. 
What  do  these  events  tell  us  about  the  art  of  fighting  at 
sea,  \-iewing  them  as  a  na\al  operation  only  ? 

Secondly  :    What  is  the  political  significance,  if  any,  in  tlic 
sortie  ?    Let  us  deal  with  the  technical  question  first. 

Imbros  lies  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  miles  from  the  nearest 
])oint  of  the  Gallipoli  Peninsula.     On  a  clear  day  with  a  good 
telescope,  magnifying,  say  forty-five  diameters — not  a  high 
power  for  use  in  Mediterranean  sunlight — objects  at  Imbros 
would  appear  to  an  observer  on  any  high  point  like  Achi 
Baba,  to  be  about  600  yards  off.     But  as  we  know  from 
the  despatch  describing  the  first  fortnight's  work  of  our  sub- 
marines in  the  North  Sea,  the  under-water  boat  is,  in  many 
respects  the  most  efficient  scout  there  is,  and  all  information 
got  by  direct  telescopic  view  and  by  submarine,  could  easily 
enough  be  confirmed  and  multiplied  by  aircraft.     In  deciding 
to  make  this  raid,  therefore,  we  must' realise  that  the  enemy 
knew  exactly'  what  he  was  doing,  exactly  what   force   there 
was  opposed  to  him  ;   knew,  in  fact,  that  he  was  running  no 
risk  of  encountering  any  craft  of  a  fighting  power  superior 
to,  or  even  equal  to,  that  of  the  ex-German  battle  cruiser. 
It  is  important  that  we  should  realise  this  because,  when  we 
come  to  the  poHtical  considerations  lying  behind  the  raid, 
the  degree  of  risk  run  by  these  ships  is  highly  material  to  their 
comprehension.     Next   we   must   also   assume   that,    at   the 
time  when  Imbros  was  made  a  base  for  the  operations  against 
tlie  Gallipoli  Peninsula,   it  was  not  thought  necessary   to 
j)rotect  it  by  heavy  guns.     In  those  days    the  idea  that 
Goeben  would  come  out  and  either  raid  the  harbour   or  attack 
a  squadron  of  our  older  battleships,  would  have  seemed,  as 
indeed  it  was,  chimerical.     Goeben,  therefore,  had  nothing  to 
fear  from  any  armament  except  those  of  the  monitors.     The 
smaller  monitor,  il/28,  can  be  ruled  out.     She  was  probabl\- 
armed  only  with  one  6-inch  and  one  9.2  guns  ;  there  would 
have   been,   therefore,   no  guns   to   take   into   consideration 
except  Raglan's  two  American  14-inch  rifles.     We  are  not,  it 
■  will    be    observed,     told     anything    of    Raglan     engaging 
Goeben.     And,  if  she  had  engaged  her,  we  surely  should  have 
been  told.     Such  an  action  would  have  been  the  first  between 
a  monitor  and  a  modern  sea-going  ship,  and  very  few  shells 
from  the  monitor  might  have  done  decisive  damage  to  the 
German  battle  cruiser.     We  know  that  Raglan  was  warned 
at  5.20  and,  though  we  do  not  know  exactly  when  the  Goeben 
opened  fire,  yet  the  inter\-al  before  she  cleared  the  point  that 
opened  up  the  harbour    must  have  been  considerable — for 
she  was  soon  steaming  seven  miles  out  at  sea  and  was  still 
some  distance  to  the  south    when  she  was  first  observed.     A 
ver\'  brief  interval  would  have  been  sufficient  for  Raglan  to 
have  got  ready  for  action,  if  we  assume,  first,  that  the  only 
preparations  were  to  man  the    turret    and   the  fire    control 
station,   and   that   all  was  well   with   the  ship  at  the   time. 
We  must,  then,  I  think,  conclude  that  Raglan  was  unable  to 
engage,  and  that  the  explanation  of  this  is  tha't,  not  anticipa- 
ting the  possibility  of  a  raid,  she  was  lying  with  her  bows 
facing  inland,  and  was  unable  to  turn  to  bring  her  only  guns 
into  action  in  the  inten'al  between  receiving  Lizard's  ^^•ircless 
and  Goeben's  opening  fire.     And  it  is  the  more  probable  that 
tliis  is  the  explanation  from  the  fact  that  Goeben  took  the 
risk.     It  is  just  the  kind  of  detail  that  might  have  been  ascer- 
tahied  on  Saturday  evening  by  aircraft,  and  may  have  been  the 
deciding  factor  in  the  determination  to  make  the  raid. 

So  far,  then,  it  is  quite  probable  that  things  went,  not  only 
as  the  enemy  hoped,  but  as  he  had  every  right  to  expect  from 
the  information  he  had  been  so  diligent  as  to  procure.  His 
success  indeed  had  been  complete.  The  intervention  of 
Lizard  and  Tigress,  though  as  daring  and  skilful  as  it  could 
l)0ssibl3'  ha\e  been,  \\as  nevertheless  entirely  without  results 


Jnnuarj-  31,  igiS 


LAND    &    WATER 


sn  far  as  tlip  first  main  aim  of  the  raid  was  concernefl.  But 
Irom  this  point  on,  things  went  aUogether  wrong.  An  hour 
after  giving  up  the  attack  on  the  monitors.  Tigress  and 
Lizard  saw  a  large  explosion  "  abreast  of  Breslau's  after 
funnel."  Two  or  three  minutes  later  more  e.xplosions  took 
place  and  ten  minutes  later  she  sank.  In  the  account  pub- 
lished on  the  22nd  the  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty  said  that 
Rreslan  was  forced  into  one  of  our  mine-fields.  The  fuller 
storj'  says  nothing  about  mine-fields,  or  of  Breslau  having 
been  intentionaHy  driven  into  one.  Neither  Breslau  nor 
Goeben  could  have  suspected  a  mine-field,  for  the  later  account 
tells  us  that  on  seeing  Breslau  sink,  Goeben  turned  and  circled 
round  her  once  and  then  continued  on  her  southerly  course. 
Either  Goeben  must  have  made  a  very  large'circle,  or  the  mine- 
field must  have  been  a  very  small  one,  or  finally  Goeben  must 
have  been  extraordinarily  lucky  in  not  sharing  Breslau's 
fate  then  and  there. 

That  both  these  ships  should  have  struck  mines  in  the 
course  of  the  same  adventure,  opens  up  an  interesting  question. 
It  has,  I  see,  been  taken  for  granted  by  several  of  those  who 
liave  discussed  this  raid,  that  the  location  of  our  mine-field 
must  have  been  perfectly  well  known  to  the  Turks,  if  only 
because  mine-fields  are  distinctly  visible  to  aircraft  in  the  clear 
and  well-illumined  waters  of  the  eastern  Mediterranean.  But 
is  not  this  far  too  sweeping  an  assumption  ?  It  will  be 
remembered,  for  instance,  that  when  the  British  and  French 
battleships  were  sunk  in  the  last  attack  on  the  Narrows  forts, 
it  was  confidently  asserted  that  they  had  all  been  sunk  by 
oscillating  mines  that  had  been  drifted  down  by  the  current. 
It  was  never  asserted  by  anyone  that  these  mines  could  be 
seen,  or  their  presence  in  any  way  detected.  It  seems  to 
me  quite  possible  that  there  may  be  parts  of  the  sea  bottom 
of  a  colour  that,  if  mine-fields  are  laid  on  it,  will  reveal  their 
presence  to  overhead  observers,  and  other  parts,  where  the  pre- 
sence of  mines  could  be  completely  camouflaged.  If  this  is 
so,  then  the  enemy,  finding  some  minefields,  would  naturally 
assume  that  there  were  no  others.  His  aircraft,  in  short, 
might  have  been  his  undoing. 

However  this  may  be,  the  idea  that  either  Breslau  could 
have  been  -"  forced  "  into  a  mine-field  by  destroyers,  she 
knowing  tliat  the  mine-field  was  there,  or  that  Goeben, 
threatened  by  aircraft,  would  have  preferred  the  minefield 
as  the  lesser  danger,  seems  to  be  quite  untenable.  This  is 
not  to  say  that  Goeben  was  not  forced  to  turn,  for  the  final 
account  distinctly  states  that  she  was,  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  the  accuracy  of  this  view.  But  I  think  this  must  be 
taken  to  mean  that  she  was  forced  to  desist  in  the  search  for  a 
second  objective.  She  might  well  ha\e  been  content  to 
balance  the  loss  of  Breslau  against  the  sinking  of  Raglan 
and  il/28,  together  with  such  sundr\'  damage  as  might  have 
been  effected  by  the  general  bombardment  administered  to 
Imbros. 

There  is,  I  think,  another  and  a  very  strong  reason  for 
supposing  that  the  Germans  simply  did  not  know  of  the 
existence  of  the  mine-fields  into  whicli  first  Goeben  and  then 
Breslau  ran,  and  it  is  that  the  Turkish  destroyers  did  not 
take  any  part  in  the  operations  until  an  hour  and  a  half  after 
the  main  purpose  of  the  raid  had  been  accomplished.  Had 
the  presence  of  mine -fields  been  suspected  anywhere  near 
the  course  which  Goeben  and  Breslau  had  to  steer,  either  going 
to  or  returning  from  Imbros,  the  destroyers  surely  would  have 
been  sent  ahead  to  sweep  a  channel.  That  they  did  not 
come  out  until  an  hour  and  a  half  afterwards  seems  to  point 
to  their  presence  being  an  afterthought.  They  were,  no 
doubt,  in  readiness,  perhaps  waiting  some  little  way  up  the 
Straits,  and  left  to  meet  the  returning  victors  in  response  to 
\vireless  orders  from  the  battle  cruiser.  Note  that  after 
Breslau  was  sunk,  they  still  did  not  accompany  Goeben,  but 
when  attacked  by  Lizard  and  Tigress,  retreated  incontinently 
to  the  rendezvous  from  which  they  had  come.  The  conclusion 
is  irresistible  that  this  raid  succeeded  on  all  the  points  on 
which  it  was  possible  to  get  reliable  information,  and  broke 
down  at  the  point  either  at  which  no  information  was  obtain- 
able at  all,  or  at  which  such  information  as  was  got  was  mis- 
leading. 
Some  of  my  confreres,  I  note,  quote  the  fate  of  the  two  ex- 
X.erman  ships  as  a  warning  to  those  who  seem  for  ever  to  be 
*  rging  that  the  Grand  Flpet  should  rush  through  the  German 
mine-fields,  bombard  the  German  ports,  and  smash  the  German 
fleet  by  a  coup  de  main.  So  far  I  have  not  been  so  fortunatt; 
as  to  run  across  any  such  heroic  recommendations  as  these 
nor,  if  indeed  they  exist,  should  1  have  thought  that  there 
was  the  slightest  danger  of  their  being  taken  seriously,  either 
by  politicians  impatient  of  results  or  by  seamen  anxious  for 
action.  It  is  surely  by  this  time  perfectly  well  imderstood 
that  a  sea-going  fleet  is  built  only  for  fighting  other  sea-going 
fleets,  and  could  not  be  adapted  to  inshore  fighting.  For  in 
such  fighting  two  forms  of  attack  are  possible  to  the  enemy 
which  cannot  be  made  in  the  open  sea.  The  first,  of  course, 
is  attack  bv  prepared  mine-fields  and  the  second,  gunfire  from 


invulnerable  piarrnrms  oy  guns  susceptible  of  far  more  accurate 
employment  than  are  those  which  are  mounted  in  ships. 
The  essence  of  the  kind  of  force  needed  for  engaging  shore 
ilefences  and  for  survi\ing  tlie  perils  which  mines  and  sub- 
marines threaten  in  narrow  channels  or  in  shallow  waters, 
has  on  several  occasions  been  alluded  to  in  these  columns 
and  need  not  he  repeated  now. 

Value  of  Monitors 

What  would,  however,  be  of  great  interest  would  be  some 
definite  information  as  to  what  this  episode  teaches  us  of  the 
fighting  value  of  monitors  of  the  Raglan  class.  Of  the  value 
of  the  American  14-inch  rifle  there  is,  of  course,  no  doubt  at 
all,  if  we  assume  it  to  be  rightly  aimed  and  controlled.  But 
the  control  of  guns  in  a  small  monitor,  which  is  not  par- 
ticularly seaworthy  and  which  in  many  conditions  of  wind  and 
weather  cannot  keep  a  course  for  more  than  a  minute  or  two 
at  a  time,  presents  difficulties  much  greater  than  the  same 
problem  in  battleships.  With  everything  in  the  monitor's 
favour  then,  she  would  not  be  likely  to  make  so  many  hits 
per  gun  per  minute  as  a  battleship  would  make  with  equal 
artillery  in  similar  conditions.  A  broadside  of  10  guns  in  a 
sea-going  ship  would  be  expected  therefore  to  make  more 
than  five  times  as  many  hits  in  any  given  time  as  the  guns 
in  a  monitor.  If,  as  I  have  suggested,  Raglan  was  unable  to 
open  fire  at  all,  the  events  of  January  20th  would  necessarily 
throw  no  light  on  her  fighting  capacity  whatever.  But  it 
should  throw  some  light  on  her  capacity  to  stand  punishment, 
and  if  these  monitors  were  built  to  engage  either  battleships 
or  sea-coast  forts,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  a  certain  capacity 
to  stand  punishment  must  have  been  contemplated.  For 
in  either  event  her  opponent  must  have  been  expected  to 
command  the  higher  probability  of  more  rapid  hitting,  so 
that  unless  the  monitor  could  put  up  with  a  good  many  hits 
before  being  out  of  action,  the  chance  of  her  damaging  her 
enemy  and  hence  being  of  any  fighting  value,  must  be  slender 
indeed.  .All  we  arc  told  is,  that  Raglan  was  "  heavily  "  hit. 
That  might  mean  half  a  broadside—or  five  broadsides.  If 
one  ii-inch  shell  sufficed  to  knock  her  out,  then  five  would  be 
verj-  "  heavy  "  hitting. 

The  question  is  interesting  because,  while  we  have  often 
heard  of  monitors  being  employed  against  Zeebrugge  and 
other  positions  on  the  Belgian  coast,  the  sinking  of  no  one  of 
them  has  yet  been  reported,  nor  with  the  exception  of 
a  small  monitor  .sunk  by  enemy  submarine  whilst  co-operating 
with  the  army  in  Palestine  have  we  ever  learned  of  any  one 
of  the  ships  of  this  class  even  receiving  a  casualty  in  action. 
Have  none  ever  been  so  exposed  that  they  could  be  hit  ? 
Or  being  hit,  have  they  received  the  blows  of  the  enemy 
without  damage  to  themselves  ?  What  was  the  difference 
between  the  conditions  in  which  they  had  previously  figured 
and  those  which  were  so  disastrous  for  them  last  Sunday 
week  ?  It  is  obvious  that  an  examination  of  the  data  of  the 
fight  at  Imbros  should"  throw  a  very  valuable  light  on  the 
wisdom  of  the  policy  that  gave  these  novel — but  untried 
craft — to  the  British  navy,  at  a  time  when  the  dangers  of  the 
submarine  campaign  seemed  to  call  for  nothing  but  con- 
centration upon  the  production  of  destroyers. 

An  additional  week's  return  of  losses  inflicted  by  sub- 
marine will  be  in  the  reader's  hands  on  the  day  that  this 
paper  is  published.  Until  this  return  is  given  to  the  public 
we  know  practically  nothing  of  how  that  lamentable  cam- 
paign goes  on,  although  this  week  we  have,  perhaps  by  chance, 
been  informed  that  a  13,000-ton  Cunard  finer  has  been  tor- 
pedoed, but  not  sunk,  off  the  Irish  coast.  The  returns  of  last 
Thursday  and  of  the  Thursday  before,  were  certainly  of  a 
nature  to  make  us  hope,  at  last,  that  the  menace  had  been 
considerably  diminished.  But  the  American  Secretary'  for 
War  somewliat  startled  the  world  on  Monday  morning  by 
warning  us  not  to  be  deceived  by  any  so  fond  illusions.  He 
will  have  it  the  enemy  has  called  in  his  submarines  and  is 
refitting  them  for  a  great  and,  perhaps,  final  offensive.  In 
May  there  was  a  weekly  average  of  66  ships  that  either  fell 
to  submarines  and  mines  or  were  attacked  unsuccessfully  by 
submarines.  The  average  for  the  last  two  weeks  is  less  than 
a  seventh  of  this.  There  was  recently  a  report  from  Berne 
that  23  submarines  due  home  in  German  ports  in  the  month 
of  December,  failed  to  give  any  account  of  themselves  But 
from  official  sources  we  have  heard  nothing  which  justifies 
our  accepting  such  pleasant  news  as  reliable.  It  has  not  yet 
been  claimed  by  us  that  we  are  sinking  submarines  faster  than 
the  enemy  can  build  them.  If  so  wide  and  determined  an 
offensive  is  in  preparation,  are  we  equipped  to  meet  it  ?  The 
.\dmiralt\-  one  presumes  has  at  least  as  much  information  as 
Mr.  Baker,  and  possibly  more.  The  question  is,  whether  even 
in  the  past  12  months  adequate  preparations  have  been  made. 
The  event  will  show. 

Arthur  Pollen 


10 


LAND    &f    WATER 


January  31,  19^^ 


The  Health  of  the  Fleet 

By  Lewis  R.  Freeman,  R.N.V.R. 


IT  was  a  great  dav  for  the  Principal  Medical  Officer.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  tliat  there  were  nearer  1,200  than  r,io<i 
men  on  his  ship,  the  returns  of  "  Sick  "  and  "  Hospital  " 
cases  had  been  recorded  bv  successive  "  pairs  of  spec- 
tacles "  for  several  da  vs.  Exen  a  single  twenty-four  hours 
like  that  for  a  battleship  on  active  service  was  worthy  oj 
remark,  and  tiiree  or  four  da\s  of  it  undoubtedly  constituted 
a  record  for  the  British  or  any  other  Navy.  That  the  clean 
'ilieet  would  be  spread  over  "a  whole  week  was  almost  too 
much  to  hope  for,  even  after  the  sixth  day  of  the  double 
(luck's  eggs  had  gone  b\'.  But  now  the  moniing  of  the  seventh 
day  had  come,  the  last  of  a  week  in  which  there  had  been  no 
rase  of  sickness  on  a  ship  which  carried  one  of  tiie  largest,  if 
not  the  largest,  complement  of  men  in  the  British  Navy.  It 
was  no  wonder  that  the  P.M.C.'s  eves  were  beaming  and  that 
he  shook  hands  all  round  with  his  Staff  Assistants,  for  it  was 
;in  achievement  which  might  well  stand  as  a  record  for  man\- 

a  voar.  ,   ,     •  , 

""  Since  you  do  not  appear  likely  to  be  troubled  with  any- 
thing worse  than  a  rush  of  congratulations  to-day,  sir,"  1 
said  after  extending  my  ov\Ti  felicitations,  "perhaps  yoivll 
have  time  to  tell  me  how  you've  done  it.  I've  heard  fine 
tributes  paid  the  R.N. M.S.  by  French,  American  and  Italian 
doctors  who  know  something'of  it,  but  I  was  hardly  prepared 
to  find  you  starting  a  sort  of  Ponce  de  Leon  '  Fountain  of 
Perpetual  Youth,'  in  the  British  Fleet.  " 

The  P.M.O.  laughed. 

"  Making  a  health  resort  of  a  battleship,  with  your  dressmg 
stations  under  casemates  and  your  sick  bay  all  but  under  a 
turret,  does  seem  a  bit  Uke  reversing  the  saying  about  '  in 
♦he  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death,'  "  he  replied.  "But  the  fact 
remains  that  this  ship,  the  whole  of  the  Grand  Fleet  indeed, 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  "  health  resorts  '  the  world  has 
ever  known.  Not  since  the  dawn  of  history  has  there  been  a 
large  body  of  men  with  so  small  a  percentage  of  bodily  ills 
and  ailments  as  that  which  mans  the  ships  of  the  Grand  Fleet 
Jit  this  moment.  This  is  due  to  the  absolutely  unique  con- 
ditions which  prevail  here,  and  our  success  in  maintaining  and 
improving  the  standard  of  health  is  principally  due  to  making 
the  most  of  those  conditions. 

"  The  health  of  any  community — of  any  body  or  collection 
of  human  beings — depends  primarily  upon  the  natural 
salubrity  of  the  region  in  which  it  is  located  and  the  extent 
to  which  it  is  isolated  from  those  living  under  less  favourable 
conditions.  A  city  may  be  very  healthy  naturally,  but  if  its 
inhabitants  are  subject  to  a  constant  influx  of  more  or  less 
infected  transients  from  less  healthy  places  its  own  standard 
must  inevitably  be  lowered.  Under  normal  conditions,  a 
modern  warship — either  in  port  or  at  sea — is  one  of  the 
healthiest  places  in  the  world,  and  such  sickness  as  prevails 
there  is  almost  always  contracted  ashore  and  carried — and 
•*   often  spread — abroad. 

"  With  a  Fleet  that  has  its  base  near  a  large  city,  so  that 
the  men  are  in  more  or  le.ss  constant  contact  with  those 
ashore,  the  health  of  the  former  will  \-ery  largely  depend 
upon  the  extent  to  which  that  contact  can  be  controlled. 
Between  dock-hands,  etc.,  coming  aboard  and  the  sailors 
going  ashore,  it  is  difficult  under  such  circumstances  to  keep 
the  men  afloat  much  healthier  than  those  on  the  land.  It  is 
only  when  there  is  comparatively  complete  isolation  from 
large  cities  that  it  is  possible  to  take  full  advantage  of  the 
ideal  conditions  for  maintaining  physical  healthfulness  at  sea, 
and  such  conditions  exist  to  a  degree  never  before  equalled  in 
Naval  history.  Our  success  here  is  merely  the  consequence 
of  making  the  most  of  those  unique  conditions. 

"  On  the  score  of  bodily  healthfulness,  life  as  lived  in  the 
Grand  Fleet  has  more  favouring  conditions,  and  fewer  un- 
favouring  ones,  than  that  possible  at  any  other  point  at  which 
a  considerable  fleet  has  ever  had  its  base.  Indeed,  I  could  go 
farther  than  that,  and  say  that  never  has  a  large  number  of 
men,  either  afloat  or.  ashore,  had  such  an  opportunity  to 
maintain  so  high  a  standard  of  physical  health.  In  thefirst 
place,  wet,  cold  and  stormy  though  it  is  for  much  of  the  year, 
the  climate  is  a  salubrious  and  invigorating  one  for  the 
]>hysically  sound  man  that  the  sailor  must  be  before  he  finds 
his  way  into  the  Navy  at  all.  Even  ashore  the  population  is 
notably  robust. 

"  In  the  next  place,  the  anchorage  is  isolated,  but  not  too 
isolated.  It  strikes  almost  the  ideal  mean  on  this  score.  In 
the  ordinary  routine,  there  is  practically  no  contact  whatever 
between  those  afloat  and  the  people  ashore.  If  the  men  land 
at  all  it  will  he  for  a  game  of  football,  a  cross-country-  run,  road 
work  or  something  of  the  sort;  in  the  course  of  which  nothing 
whate\-er  is  seen  of  the  resident  population.  It  is  not  prac- 
ticable to  give  the  men  a  long  enough  shore  leave  to  allow 


them  to  visit  a  neighbourig  town,  where  one  sees  rather  less 
navy  blue  as  a  rule  than  in  many  an  inland  town  in  England. 
The  steward  doing  his  marketing  is  about  the  only  regular 
human  link  between  a  ship  and  the  shore,  and  his  contact 
with  those  on  shore  is  not  of  a  character  likely  to  be  dangerous. 
This  leaves  the  fresh  drafts  and  the  men  returning  from  leave 
as  almost  the  only  possible  carriers  of  new  infection.  How 
those  are  looked  after  1  will  explain  presently. 

"  Much  more  complete  isolation  than  this  is,  of  course, 
effected  when  a  cruiser  or  a  fleet  of  cruisers  goes  on  an  ex- 
tended voyage  or  patrol,  but  in  such  a  case  the  freedom  from 
contact  with  shore  life  is  offset  by  the  more  arduous  conditions 
of  life,  especially  in  the  matter  of  diet.  The  great  thing 
about  the  situation  is  that  its  unique  position  makes  it 
possible  to  eliminate  most  of  the  rigors  of  seaUfe  without  being 
exposed  to  the  health  dangers  of  harbour  life.  A  ship  here 
can  be  just  as  well  victualled  as  at  Portsmouth,  so  far  as  the 
men  are  concerned,  while  letters  and  newspapers  six  times  a 
week  are  ample  service  on  that  score.  As  1  have  said,  tlu^ 
conditions  for  keeping  mind  and  body  at  their  best  are  ideal, 
and  give  us  a  unique  opportunity  for  establishing  new  health 
records  for  the  Navy. 

Sources  of  Infection 

"  Of  the  two  main  channels  by  which  disease  could  come 
to  us  from  the  outside — returning  leave  men  and  new  drafts — 
the  latter  is  the  more  dangerous,  and  therefore  the  one  the 
more  closely  watched.  Generally  speaking,  the  men  get 
leave  about  every  nine  months,  this  more  or  less  roughly 
coinciding  with  the  period  in  which  the  ship  is  in  dock  for 
repairs.  If  during  a  man's  leave  there  is  a  case  of  any  in- 
fectious or  contagious  disease  in  the  house  where  he  has 
stayed,  or  if  he  has  reason  to  believe  that  he  may  have  been 
exposed  to  infection  or  contagion  elsewhere,  he  is  ordered  to 
report  that  fact  immediately  upon  his  return  to  the  ship, 
when  we  take  such  precautions  as  the  circumstances  seem 
to  warrant  to  prevent  trouble.  His  clothes  are  disinfected, 
and  he  is  ordered  to  report  for  examination  over  a  period  of 
days  varying  with  the  disease  to  which  there  was  risk  of  his 
having  been  exposed.  This  enables  us  to  isolate  him  (should 
it  be  necessary)  before  he  is  in  a  condition  in  which  he  could 
pass  on  the  disease  to  others.  A  useful  check  which  we  have 
upon  a  man  who  might  neglect  to  report  his  possible  exposure 
to  disease  during  his  leave  is  the  law  which  requires  medical 
officers  in  all  parts  of  Great  Britain  to  ascertain  if  any  soldier 
or  sailor  on  leave  is  Uving  in  any  house  where^ there  is  a  ca.se  of 
infectious  disease,  and  to  report  this  fact  to  the  proper 
authorities.  In  this  way  it  may  be  that  we  learn  a  man  has 
been  exposed  even  before  he  returns  to  the  ship. 

"  New  drafts  are  watched  equally  closely.  Some  time  before 
a  man's  arrival  a  health  sheet  is  sent  to  me  on  which  is  indi- 
cated any  disease  which  he  maj^  have  had  during  his  period 
of  service,  together  with  information  as  to  whether  or  not  he 
may  have  been  exposed  to  anything  infectious  in  the  interval 
inmiediately  before  he  is  sent  to  us.  Any  treatment  for  minor 
chronic  ailments  which  may  be  in  progress  is  continued  on 
ship.  A  general  disinfection  of  kit  and  a  daily  reporting  for 
twenty-one  days  for  examination  makes  it  practically  im- 
]iossible  for  a  new  rating  to  bring  disease  to  the  ship. 

"  The  greatest  obstacle  to  the  preservation  of  perfect  health 
in  the  men  on  a  warship  is  the  unavoidable  necessity  of  having 
them  sleep  close  together  in  comparatively  confined  spaces 
This  ship,  from  the  fact  that  she  was  originally  designed  for  a 
foreign  Power,  is  worse  off  than  most  modern  battleships  on 
that  score,  and,  everything  else  equal,  would  be  more  difficult 
to  keep  the  men  in  health  on  than  in  any  of  the  others.  rhi> 
is  one  of  the  reasons  why  I  am  so  gratified  by  our  showing 
ol  the  past  week.  Sleeping  in  hammocks  in  itself  is  not 
unhealthy — quite  the  contraiy,  in -fact — but  the  danger  lies 
in  the  chance  an  infectious  disease  has  to  spread  among  so  main- 
men  lying  almost  side  by  side  and  head  to  feet.  Thorou.s^Jjt 
vi-ntilation  is  the  best  preventive  of  disease  under  the  ciixnnn- 
stances  ;  this  has  been  provided  by  fans. 

"  The  one  thing  dreaded  above  all  others  on  a  warship  is 
cerebro-spinal  meningitis,  both  on  account  of  its  unavoidably 
liigh  rate  of  mortality  and  the  difficulty  of  preventing  its 
spread  under  the  limiting  conditions.  Luckily,  we  have  had 
practically  none  of  it  up  here.  In  the  event  of  the  appear- 
ance of  a  case  of  any  infectious  disease,  the  man  is  isolated, 
the  men  of  his  mess  are  put  under  observation  and  all  of  their 
clothes  are  disinfected.  As  soon  as  possible  the  case  is  re- 
moved to  one  of  the  hospital  ships  which  are  always  here. 
The  restricted  sleeping  quarters  occasionally  are  responsible 
for  the  quick  spread  of  a  bad  cold .  but  the  fresh,  ft^e  from  germs 


January  31,  i9i<S 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


air  makes  anything  like  an  epidemic  of  influenza  almost  out 
of  the  question  in  the  Grand  Fleet.  German  measles  has  been 
rather  a  nuisance  once  or  twice  ;  in  fact,  we  have  seen  rather 
more  of  it  than  we  have  of  the  German  fleet.  If  the  latter  is 
as  easily  disposed  of  as  the  former,  however,  we  shall  have 
little  to  complain  of." 

Of  the  progressiveness  and  general  up-to-dateness  of  the 
Royal  Na\'y  Medical  Service,  I  had  already  heard  from  a 
number  of  sources  (I  remember  in  particular  how  Madame 
Carrel  had  told  me  that  the  British  .Admiralty  had  adopted  the 
remarkable  "  irrigation  "  treatment,  discovered  and  per- 
fected by  her  distinguished  husband,  long  before  any  French 
militarj^  hospital  would  even  consider  it),  so  I  was  quite  pre- 
pared to  find  every  ship  in  the  Grand  Fleet  amply  provided 
to  handle  "  action  eventualities." 

Tlic  problems  of  a  hospital  on  a  warship  aie  quite  different 
from  those  of  even  an  advanced  hospital  at  the  Front.  The 
latter  has  a  fluctuating  bnt  more  or  less  unbroken  stream  of 
casualties  to  handle,  with  sometimes  weeks  of  warning  when 
defensive  or  offensive  action  will  make  unusual  demands.  A 
battlesTiip  may  easily  be  lying  quietly  at  anchor  in  the  morning 
and  be  joined  in  a  death-grapple  in  the  evening.  Her  surgeons 
may  have  spent  a  year  with  nothing  more  to  keep  their  hands 
in  than  reducing  sprains  and  stitching  up  cuts,  and  then  a 
hundred  casualties  may  drop  out  of  the  sky  in  the  wake  of  a 
single  enemy  salvo.  I-'or  them,  it  rarely  rains  but  it  pours, 
though  it  may  be  a  long  time  between  the  storms. 

The  tisnal  practice  is  for  a  warship  to  have  a  small  perma- 
nent sick  bay  and  hospital  capable  of  coping  with  routine 


exigencies,  and  to  supplement  these  during  and  after  action 
by  converting  certain  favourably  located  parts  of  the  ship 
^always  below  the  water-line  if  possible — into  action  dressing 
stations.  The  equipment  of  these  latter — operating  tables, 
beds,  hghts,  etc. — is  all  made  on  collapsible  lines  and  kept 
stored  close  at  hand.  The  battleship  whose  remarkable 
health  record  I  am  writing  about,  takes  especial  pride  in 
the  fact  that  it  has  two  action  dressing-stations,  permanently 
equipped  and  ready  for  use  at  a  moment's  notice. 

The  men  in  the  various  turrets  and  casemates,  as  well  as  in 
all  other  parts  of  the  ship  where  casualties  are  hkely  to  occur 
in  action,  are  trained  to  give  first  aid  and  carry  their  wounded 
to  the  nearest  dressing-station.  For  the  latter  purpose  a 
specially  designed  stretcher  is  used,  so  constructed  that  the 
wounded  men,  strapped  in  securely,  can  be  carried  at  any 
angle  with  a  minimum  of  discomfort.  The-  stretcher  at 
present  in  use  in  the  British  Navy  is  of  Japanese  manufacture. 
It  is  made  almost  entirely  of  canvas  and  strips  of  bamboo, 
the  two  materials  which  experience  has  shown  are  the  best 
combination  on  the  score  of  lightness  ai)d  strength. 

As  soon  as  possible  after  an  action  the  badly  wounded  are 
transferred  to  a  base  hospital  ship,  whence  as  soon  as 
they  are  able  to  stand  the  voyage,  the}-  are  sent  in  a  carrier 
ship  to  one  of  the  big  R.N. M.S.  hospitals. 

The  superlative  aire  which  has  been  taken  of  the  bodily 
health  of  the  men  of  the  Grand  Fleet  has  been  one  of  the  main, 
if  not  the  main  factor  in  contributing  to  the  healthiness  of 
mind  and  the  keenness  of  spirit  which  have  made  it  possible 
for  them  to  "  stick  out  "  their  long  vigil  in  the  northern  seas. 


Bolsheviks   at   Work 


The  vague  and  contradictory  accounts  which  have  appeared 
in  the  English  press  relating  to  the  ei'oits  in  Moscow  during 
tite  Bolsftevik  rising  Uist  November  have  caused  disquietude 
to  many  people  in  this  country.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
Revolution  it  had  been  thought  that  "  Holy  Moscow  "  would 
be  immune  from  bloodshed,  but  the  downfall  of  Kerensky 
nuUerially  altered  the  situation.  The  Bolsheviks,  having  made 
tliemselves  masters  of  the  capital,  atid  being  in  control  of  all 
means  of  communication,  determined  to  assert  their  authority 
in  Moscow,  and  fighting  of  a  violent  nature  ensued.  The 
reports  that  reached  this  country  gave  a  lurid  picture  of  the 
destruction  and  havoc  wrought  by  the  combatants,  and  slated 
that  the  collision  between  the  two  parties  had  resulted  in  a '  heavy 
death-roll,  but  many  of  the  details  given  were  untrustworthy. 
There  was  also  considerable  doubt  as  to  the  actual  amount  of 
damage  done. 

Much  interesting  information  is  conveyed  in  the  following 
letter  written  by  an  Englishman  residing  t«  Moscow,  whose 
description  of  these  days  of  revolt  bears  the  character  of  a  frank 
statement  by  an  unprejudiced  eye-witness. 

The  impotence  of  the  Russian  Church  in  this  crisis  and  the 
,  revolt  of  the  peasant  cl-a.ss  from  her  authority  are  among  the  great 
surprises  of  the  Revolutioti,  aiut  we  are  confronted  with  the 
astonishing  fact  iluit  the  armed  forces  in  Moscow  have  even 
violated  the  satu-tity  of  the  icofts  which  they  have  hitherto  held 
in  deepest  reverence. 

C.  H.\r,BF.Rr,  Wright. 

London,  January  26thj  IQ18. 

***** 
h/rom  a  House  opposite  the  Kremlin,  Moscow. 

r^  ATURDAY,  November  lyth,  1917;  I  think  I  said  in 
\  my  last  that  I  expected  the  Bolsheviks  would  be  mak- 
^^  ing  a  move  ;  thej'  have  done  so.  Yesterday  e\'ening 
they  came  out  and  rushed  the  Governor-General's 
Palace  (the  seat  of  the  provisional  Government's  military 
organisation  here),  the  Post  Office  and  a  number  of  other 
strategical  points,  and  occupied  a  number  of  private  houses  in 
dominating  positions.  The  whole  of  the  Moscow  garrison, 
said  to  number  it)0,ooo,  with  few  exceptions,  seemed  to  have 
declared  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  Bolsheviks,  while  the 
Government  could  only  rely  upon  the  Junkers— that  is,  thi- 
O.T.C,  about  6,000,  and  about  5,000  to  (i.ooo  Oissacks,  which 
is  all  there  are  in  the  town.  However,  the  soldiers  of  the 
garrison  adopted  the  Bolshevik  methods  and  do  everything 
by  committee  and  plebiscite,  and  liave  no  discipline,  whereas 
the  Junkers  and  Cossacks  are  disciplined  and  obey  a  single 
head,  and,  consequently,  up  to  the  moment  of  writing,  have 
been  able  to  hold  their  own,  and  more  so,  for  they  have 
captured  the  Kremlin,  the  Post  Office,  and  many  other 
jX)ints  from  the  Bolsheviks. 

All  Friday  night  the  firing  was  continuous.  Under  our 
bedroom  windows  theie  was  a  fierce  fight,  and,  when  I 
looked  out  in  the  morning  there  were  heaps  of  dead  and 
wounded  on  both  sides  of  the  pavement,  who  laid  there  until 


the  Red  Cross  ambulances  removed  them  about  9  o'clock. 
.\I1  Saturday  the  fire  of  machine  guns  and  rifles  \vas  in- 
cessant, but  the  streets  were  fairly  full  of  people,  taking  no 
part  but  intensely  interested.  It  did  not  seem  to  strike  them 
that  *there  was  any  danger  in  watching  the  combat. 

I  went  out  myself  on  Saturday  afternoon  for  a  bit,  but 
came  back  when  I  found  bullets  whizzing  uncom- 
fortably all  round.  By  this  time  people  have  learnt  dis- 
cretion, and  the  streets  are  practically  deserted.  Heaps  of 
curious  onlookers  have  been  killed.  I  have  seen  four  killed 
to-day,  and  one  Red  Cross  nurse  shot  in  the  neck.  This  last 
case  is  particularly  disgusting.  A  squad  of  Bolsheviks  took 
up  a  position  in  the  Malaia  Loubianka,  a  few  yards  down 
the  street,  and  began  firing  volleys  across  the  Square  at 
nothing  in  particular.  Two  Red  Cross  nurses  and  three 
stretcher-bearers  came  along  the  pavement  from  the 
Niasnitskaya  in  their  Red  Cross  uniform  and  waving  a  large 
Red  Cross  flag  and.  as  they  were  crossing  the  Malaia  J.ou- 
bianka  the  Bolsheviks  fired  a  volley,  and  I  saw  one  of  the 
girls  sink  down.  The  men  picked  her  up  and  carried  her  to 
r)ur  front  doorstep,  and  I  saw  that  her  ankle  had  been  broken 
by  a  shot.  The  volley  was  fired  deliberately.  Annushka 
tells  me  that  she  has  heard  that  hundreds  of  children  have 
been  killed  and  wounded,  their  parents  (mostly  their  mothers) 
having  taken  them  out  to  see  the  fun  ! 

On  Sunday  we  first  Ix^gan  to  hear  big  g^ms,  4  in.  and  6  in., 
and  since  then  the  roar  and  boom  of  artillery  has  been  con- 
tinuous. The  Kremlin  was  first  occupied  by  the  Cossacks 
and  the  36th  Infantry  Regiment,  which  had  declared  itself 
loyal  to  the  Government,  but  later  it  nmtinied  and  went 
over  to  the  Bolsheviks.  However,  the  Cossacks,  though 
absolutely  outnumbered,  held  the  gates,  and  there  was  a 
stiff  fight.  Ultimately,  the  Junkers  brought  up  a  gun,  ran 
it  into  the  Ki-emlin  with  the  aid  of  the  Cossacks,  and,  after 
two  or  three  rounds,  the  56th  surrendered.  Now  the  Bol- 
sheviks have  got  a  gun  on  to  the  Sparrow  Hills  and  are  firing 
from  there  into  the  Kremlin.  A  very  fierce  engagement  has 
been  going  on  all  day  on  the  Nikitski  Boulevard,  both  sides 
employing  guns,  machine  guns  and  rifles,  but  I  don't  think 
tliere  has  been  any  bayonet  work. 

10.30  p.m. — For  the  last  two  hours,  since  writing  the  above, 
there  has  been  a  most  uncanny  silence.  Not  a  shot  ;  not  a 
gun.  1  wonder  what  it  means  ?  It  is  pitch  dark  outside,  not 
a  lamp  lit,  not  a  l;ous«^  that  shows  a  light,  and  it  is  raining 
heavily.  But  last  night  it  was  the  same,  yet  firing  went  on  all 
the  time.  There  is  apparently  not  a  soul  in  the  streets.  All 
(lay  long  pickets  of  five  or  six  Bf)lsheviks  have  been  strolling 
about  and  loosing  off  their  rifles  at  the  comers  of  the  streets 
at  nothing  in  general. 

Sarnia  came  here  yesterday  in  great  glee  and  {e.-lrfully 
excited.  She  is  an  out  and  out  Bolshevistke,  and  told 
Annushka  that  their  day  was  come  at  last,  and  that  they 
were  going  to  alter  and  improw  the  whole  order  of  the 
universe.  She  said  with  great  pride  that,  though  the  men 
seemed  to  be  afraid  of  going  about,  she  and  her  friend  (another 


12 


LAND    &    WATKR 


Jiimiary  Ji,  iQiS 


eirl)  wrnt  ovrn'where  and  wpro  afraid  of  nothing. 

rherr  goes  ;i  machine  gun  again  !  Another  !  \\  hat  a  rabble  ! 
There  go  the  rifles  and  guns  !  The  whole  symphony  is  starting 
again  after  a  two  hours  lull.  Wo  have  a  house  guard  ot 
Special  Constables  from  among  the  lodgers.  My  time 
on  guard  is  from  2  to  4  at  night.  There  are  three  of  us  on  duty 
at  a  time  for  the  whole  24  hours- two  hours  for  those  on  night 
dutv  three  hours  on  dav  duty  ;  three  of  us  at  a  time  in  the 
vard,  though  what  effective  use  we  could  be  in  the  case  of  an 
attack  1  am  sure  I  don't  know.  However,  it  gives  a  certain 
sense  of  security.  -Ml  the  front  doors  of  the  hou.se  are  locked, 
and  no  one  is  allowed  to  enter  or  lea\c  the  house  except  by 
the  gates  in  the  \ard,  and  thev  have  to  get  in  and  out  of  then- 
flats  b\'  the  back  stairs.  There  is  only  one  gate  for  the  whole 
house  "so  that  the  guard  can  be  sure  that  no  one  can  get  in 
without  their  knowledge,  but,  of  course,  there  would  be  "o 
difficult v  in  forcing  anv  of  the  front  entries  if  "*"  » 
dozen  men  tried  to  do  so,  nor  the  back  gates  for  the 
matter  of  that,  in  spite  of  our  guard,  if  the  attackers  were  armed 
with  rifles.  All  the  houses  have  been  organising  these  house 
guards  throughout  the  town,  and  it  is  really  a  very  sound  thing 
in  principle.  The  town  is  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  siege, 
and  no  one  is  allowed  to  be  in  the  streets  without  a  pass  ; 
but  unfortunately,  the  Government  Authorities  have  no 
means  of  enforcing  this  edict.  It  is  the  Bolshe\iks  who  are 
enforcing  the  edict.  Th."  first  thing  the  Boslheviks  did  was  to 
shoot  down  the  Tow  a  Militia,  the  new  Police,  an  absolutely 
rotten  lot  at  any  time.  Those  who  were  not  shot  disappeared 
at  once. 

Big  Guns 

A  fight  has  been  going  on  round  tlie  S — Works  between 
Bolsheviks  and  Junkers  who  have  their  school  just  on 
the  other  side  of  the  street,  over  the  bridge,  and,  as  each  side 
has  a  couple  of  guns,  one  4  in.  and  one  6  in.  each,  the  shooting 
is  quite  lively.  There  are  only  40  Junkers  against  about 
1,000  Bolsheviks,  but  the  latter  are  such  cowards  that  they 
don't  tr>'  to  storm  the  school.  The  Bolsheviks  fired  a  6  in. 
shell  at  the  warehouse  in  the  yard  of  the  works,  where  there 
are  150  Cossacks  quartered,  but  it  struck  the  cashier's  house, 
fifty  yards  away  and  burst  in  the  wall  on  the  ground,  doiiig 
little  "damage  except  that  it  happened  to  strike  the  main 
electric  light  cable  and  put  out  all  the  lights  ever\'where. 
Close  to  thelunkers'  school  is  the  Cadets' Academy,  boys  under 
sixteen  years  old.  These  also,  about  150,  put  up  quite  a  good 
fight,  but  I  heard  tliis  evening  that,  after  having  suffered 
heavy  casualties,  they  have  surrendered. 

Almost  all  the  news  we  get  is  hearsay,  and  it  is  most  un- 
satisfactory not  to  know  what  the  truth  is.  It  is  true  that 
the  Bolsheviks  have  been  publishing  a  paper,  but  it  is,  of 
course,  absolutely  unreliable.  Great  leaflets,  "Anarchy  is 
the  Mother  of  Order,"  have  been  scattered  over  the  place  here. 
It  is  the  motto  of  the  Maximalists  but  what  they  mean  by 
it  I  am  sure  they  don't  know  themselves. 

Tuesday  evening. — I  did  not  get  to  bed  till  5  o'clock  this 
morning  ;  heavy 'firing  all  night.  During  my  watch  almost 
incessant  rifle  fire  just  outside  the  yard  gates  in  the  Malaia 
].oubianka.  I  did  not  get  up  till  li  o'clock  ;  the  firing  was 
then  more  intense.  The  Bolshe\iks  have  brought  up  a  4 in. 
gun  to  try  to  capture  the  Telephone  Stations.  The  tele- 
phone has"  ceased  to  work  at  all  to-day.  I  attended  the 
House  Committee  which  sat  from  3  to  8,  discussing  measures 
of  self-protection  and  provisioning.  Fifty-five  occupiers  of  flats 
attended.  All  agreed  that  there  is  no  possibility  of  obtaining 
.  protection  from  any  authority,  as  there  is  none,  and  that  we 
must  organise  our  own  protection.  Also,  that  we  must 
consider  ourselves  in  a  state  of  siege,  pool  provisions  and  ration 
them  out,  as  it  may  be  a  fortnight  or  more  before  we  can  get 
any  more.  Few  have  any  revolvers  or  know  how  to  use  them. 
All  day  long  big  guns  have  been  firing.  Six  people  killed  in 
the  square  this  morning,  walking  along  the  pavement,  one  of 
them  a  Red  Cross  man  ;  1  saw  two  shot.  As  there  is  prac- 
tically no  one  in  the  streets,  and  I  don't  suppose  100  people 
ha%'e  been  through  the  square  during  the  day.  this  is  a  high 
percentage  of  casualties.  I  am  more  than  ever  amazed  at  the 
extraordinary  foolishness  or  dense  stupidity  of  the  few  people 
who  now  go  about  the  streets.  They  seem  to  stroll  about  in 
an  aimless  way,  totally  unconscious  that  the  shooting  is  in  the 
least  dangerous.  The  two  I  saw  killed  were  loafing  about 
casually,  apparently  unconscious  of  danger. 

This  evening  is  again  pitch  dark  ;  not  a  light  to  be  seen, 
and  I  have  been  watching  a  big  fire,  evidently  the  result  of 
shell  fire.  It  looks  to  be  somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  Arbat  Square.  One  can  see  the  \iolet  flashes  of  the  guns 
reflected  in  the  smoke  above  the  red  glare  beneath.  The 
curious  thing  is  that  no  soldiers  are  to  be  seen  anywhere. 

Our  windows  here  don't  rattle  from  the  gunfire,  but  they 
vibrate  in  an  extraordinary  way.  There  are  big  guns  booming 
continuously  now.  but  they  must  be  a  considerable  distance 


off.  What  on  earth  they  can  see  to  fire  at  on  a  night  like  tliis 
I  am  sure  I  can't  think.  There isa  continuous  firing  of  vollf>s 
from  a  squad  of  Bolsheviks  in  the  Malaia  Loubianka.  They 
fire  every  15  seconds,  but  1  am  absolutely  positive  the}'  have 
nothing  to  fire  at,  and  1  can  only  suppose  that  it  is  to  keep 
up  their  spirits.  These  shots  draw  no  reply  and  there  is  never 
anv  return  fire  from  across  the  square.  During  the  day  I 
think  their  object  is  to  terrorise,  and  at  night  to  keep  up 
their  spirits.  ■ 

Bad  Leadership 

November  20th. — Last  Friday  at  2  a.m.  the  Junkers  sur- 
rendered and  the  Bolsheviks  are  in  complete  possession.  No 
reinforcements  arrived.  The  few  who  did  come  in  joined  tlie 
Bolsheviks.  It  was  hopeless  to  continue  the  struggle, 
and  the  Metropolitan  Trifon  managed  to  effect  peace  terms 
— both  sides  to  set  free  all  prisoners  and  the  Junkers 
to  lay  down  their  arms.  The  latter  have  made  a  splendid 
fight,  but  were  abominably  badly  led  by  Kichtroff,  a  Socialist 
Colonel,  who  happened  to  be  the  military  governor  of  Moscow 
when  the  fight  began.  He  has  been  trying  to  run  with 
the  hare  and  hunt  with  the  hounds,  and  was  mostly  careful 
for  his  own  skin.  W'ith  good  leading,  in  spite  of  the  odds,  the 
junkers  would  probably  have  won.  They  wanted  to  depose 
him,  but  decided  it  was"  better  to  have  a  bad  leader  than  open 
possibilities  for  dissension  by  choosing  another.  Had  they 
at  once  attacked  the  Bolshevik  Barracks,  they  could  un- 
doubtedly have  captured  each  in  turn,  and  the  majority  of  the 
soldiers  would  almost  certainly  have  joined  them. 

An  enormous  amount  of  damage  has  been  done.  The 
Nikitski  Gates  into  the  Kremlin  have  been  very  badh' 
smashed  up,  and  the  Holy  Images  on  either  side  of  it  destroyed. 
The  Spassky  Gates  are  also  badly  knocked  about.  It  is 
lucky  they  chiefly  used  shrapnel  and  had  Httle  H.E.  shell,  or 
the  damage  would  have  been  much  worse.  The  Hotel  Metro- 
pole,  where  some  Junkers  were,  is  riddled  with  shell — great 
lioles  through  the  walls,  and,  of  course,  every  window  smashed 
to  atoms.  In  the  Nikitski  Boulevard  there  is  a  big  house 
almost  knocked  down.  In  our  flat  we  have  one  bullet-hole 
through  the  dining-room  window,  and  in  the  drawing-room 
the  plate  glass  window  looking  over  the  square  has  tliree 
shots  through  it  and  the  glass  is  entirely  smashed.  Kvcry 
window  in  each  room  along  the  Bolshaia  Loubianka  has  been 
smashed  by  shrapnel  fragments,  or  possibly  H.E.  shell,  so  I  am 
now  living  in  the  study  at  the  back,  sleeping  on  the  sofa, 
which  makes  a  most  comfortable  bed.  On  Sunday  I  walked 
round  the  place.  Many  houses  have  been  burned  down. 
There  were  trenches  and  barricades  everywhere,  and  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  them  all  the  windows  were,  of  course, 
broken.  It  is  estimated  that  about  15,000  people  were  killed 
and  wounded,  of  which  a  large  proportion  were  non-com- 
batants. The  Junkers  lost  only  about  300  men.  The  Novy 
Riady  (the  great  arcades  apposite  the  Kremhn)  are  badly 
smashed  up  and  all  the  plate  glass  in  the  shops  opposite  the 
Kremlin  broken.  The  Bolsheviks  have  a  complete  victory , 
and  we  shall  now  see  what  they  are  going  to  do  with  it.  For 
the  present  there  is  no  authority  whatever. 

The  officials  of  the  late  Government,  the  Town  Duma, 
Post  Office,  Telegraph,  etc.,  do  not  acknowledge  their  now 
masters,  and  are  adopting  the  policy  of  passive  resistance. 
The  Bolsheviks  can't  do  the  work  or  run  the  thing  themselves, 
and  the  old  staff  simply  ignore  them.  The  operators  of  the 
telegraph  refuse  to  work,  and  the  Bolsheviks  do  not  know  how- 
to  use  the  instruments,  so  they  had  to  make  terms. 

Of  course,  this  state  of  things  can't  last,  and  I  expect  to 
see  a  violent  swing  round  very  shortly.  If  the  people  find 
themselves  duped  as  they  undoubtedly  will,  if  they  find  they 
are  no  nearer  to  peace,  that  not  only  is  there  less  food  but 
starvation,  and  that  none  of  the  promises  made  them  are 
being  fulfilled,  then  I  fear  we  shall  see  the  people  turn  and 
rend  their  false  leaders,  and  there  will  be  no  leaders  at  all,  but 
complete  anarchy  followed  by  pillage,  rapine  and  murder. 
This  is  a  very  real  fear. 

The  Bolsheviks  put  a  machine  gun  on  the  roof  of  our  house, 
and  fired  it  for  some  time,  which  no  doubt  explains  why  we 
got  such  a  dose  in  reply,  otherwise  we  should  not  have  been 
in  the  line  of  fire  as  far  as  I  can  make  out.  I  am  afraid  that 
all  business  will  be  stopped  for  several  months  ;  no  raw 
materials  are  coming  in,  no  fuel,  and  no  goods  of  atiy  kind, 
and  there  is  no  money  in  any  of  the  banks.  We  can't  get 
money  to  pay  our  workmen  as  the  banks  have  none.  As  fast 
as  notes  are  printed  they  go  out  to  pay  the  peasants  in  the 
interior  for  grain,  and  for  cotton  in  Central  Asia.  The  town 
has  no  money  to  pay  its  employees  ;  there  is  no  money  any- 
where in  spite  of  the  fact  that  notes  are  being  printed  as  fast 
as  the  printing  press  can  turn  them  out.  None  of  the  money 
paid  for  grain  or  cotton  comes  back,  or  goes  into  circulation, 
for  there  is  nothing  to  buy  with  it  or  to  exchange  it  for,  there- 
fore it  is  all  being  hoarded  in  the  interior. 


January  ji,  itji8 


LAND    &    WATER 

An  111  Wind 

By    Francis    Brett    Young 


13 


1r  is  always  amazing  to  iiu;  liow  one  tumbles  upon  stories 
of  this  kind  ;  and  Dr.  Maxwell  was  really  one  of  tlie 
last  men  in  the  work!  whom  I  should  have  expected  to 
appreciate  the  one  Mhich  he  told  mc.  As  ij.  matter  of 
lact.  lie  was  wiy  diffident  about  it,  and  1  don't  imagine  that 
anythintj  but  the  peculiar  intimacy  into  which  circumstances 
had  thrown  us  would  ha\e  screwed  him  up  to  the  point  of 
tellin!;  it.  He  was  a  \Try  timid  man.  This  is  how  it 
happened.  I  liad  come  to  stay  for  a  wet  winter  holiday  in  a 
iisiiiiifj  \i!lagc  down  West,  with  no  companion  except  a  wiry- 
haired  terrier  puppy,  a  foolish  thing  with  brown  eyes,  to  which 
1  was  just  getting  attaclied. 

\\V  lived,  the  two  of  us,  in  the  front  room  of  a  widow  woman, 
a  :\Irs.  Seaward,  o\erloDking  a  waste  of  sea  that  was  nearly 
always  sad.  We  had  lighted  upon  a  period  of  cold  casterh- 
winds,  blowing  over  all  the  great  bay  from  Portland,  and 
rolling  dun-coloured  breakers  capped  with  white  against  that 
unyielding  coast,  rank  after  rank  of  them  ceaselessly  charging 
in  a  hope  that  was  forlorn.  Mrs.  Seaward's  house  was  jerry- 
built,  and  in  the  crevices  of  her  casements  the  wind  whistled 
night  and  day,  so  that  all  the  httle  space  of  her  bow-window 
was  full  of  colder  air  then  the  rest  of  the  room,  while  I  and  mv 
dog  Tristram  (who  took  his  name  from  Shandy,  not  froiii 
I.yonesse)  shivered  over  a  grate  of  wrought  iron  that  absorbed 
its  own  heat. 

Tiiey  were  uncomfortable  rooms ;  but  when  we  had 
once  got  there  I  felt  that  we  must  stay  if  it  were  only  for 
the  poverty  of  Mrs.  Seaward  herself  and  the  extraordinarv 
pride  which  she  lavished  on  them.  There  was  no  chance  of 
making  ourselves  at  home.  Every  chair,  every  cushion,  ever\' 
knick-knack  had  its  place,  and  if  one  of  these  were  disarranged 
when  we  left  the  house  it  was  certain  to  have  been  replaced  b\- 
the  time  that  we  returned.  .\nd  Tristram  was  no  respecter 
of  cushions.  I  disliked  Mrs.  Seaward's  family  photographs. 
I  disliked  her  funeral  cards.  We  disliked,  in  particular,  a 
])ortrait  enlarged  in  a  frame  of  red  plush,  which  sat  in  judg- 
ment on  our  breakfast :  a  very  dogmatic  not  ill-looking  young 
man  with  curled  moustaches  and  a  sailor's  peaked  cap.  I 
daresay  I  should  have  liked  him  better  if  I  hadn't  always 
taken  my  meals  with  him.  It  was  distressing,  too,  always  to 
find  Mrs.  Seaward  in  the  room  when  I  returned  from  mv 
walks,  standing  with  her  hands  clasped  in  front  of  her  in  that 
rcfrigeiator  of  a  bow-window  looking  out  to  sea.  In  the  end  I 
decided  to  gi\c  her  notice,  saving  my  face  with  the  forfeiture 
of  a  week's  rent. 

I  screwed  m\self  up  to  the  act  on  three  days  in 
succession  :  and  then,  at  the  precise  moment  when  I  needed 
it  most,  my  luck  failed  me.  Tristram,  poor  httle  beast, 
developed  a  cold  on  his  lungs.  I  expect  I  had  been  careless 
with  him,  and  when  night  came  on  I  didn't  like  the  look  of 
him.  I  enquired  about  a  vet.  The  landlady  told  me  there 
wasn't  one  within  ten  miles.  I  asked  her  if  she  knew  of 
anybody  who  understood  dogs  ;  and  after  she'd  thought 
about  it  and  mentioned  half  a  dozen  people  who  didn't,  she 
came  to  Dr.  Maxwell.  I  wondered  why  I  hadn't  thought  of 
asking  a  doctor  before  ,  for,  when  you  come  to  think  of 
It,  there's  not  much  difference  between  a  sick  dog  and  a  sick 
baby.  The  same  thing  had  evidently  occurred  to  Mrs.  Sea- 
ward.    '■  He's  splendid  witii  children,"  she  said.- 

It  was  a  filthy  night  with  a  south  west  wind  booming  down 
tiie  valley  and  out  over  tiie  sea,  but  the  doctor  was  quite 
willing  to  come  and  see  mv  patient. 

■'  They're  nice  beasts,  dogs,  aren't  they  :'  "  he  said,  as  he 
pulled  on  his  mackintosh,  and  then  our  concern  for  the  small 
;reature's  comfort  threw  us,  as  I've  said,  into  an  intimacy 
svhich  was  surprising  when  you  consider  our  short  acquaint- 
ance and  his  exceptional  shyness.  We  sat  together  smoking 
in  front  of  the  fire,  beneath  the  stonv  stare  of  Mrs.  Seward's 
relations,  listening  to  the  wind  and"  sometimes  talking. 

He  had  said  something  about  the  west  wind  being  good  for 
the  trawlers,  and  I  had  slipped  into  the  ready-made  answer 
that  it  is  an  ill  wind  which  benefits  nobody.  He  said  that 
ho  often  thought,  down  on  that  much-buifeted  coast,  how 
extraordinarily  dependent  on  wind  the  men  of  old.  times 
ivere  ;  how  they  could  never  cross  a  strip  of  sea  without  the 
.Mild 's  permission,  or  grind  their  corn  on  land.  He  spoke  of 
the  nihnitc  chances  of  the  wind  that  was  now  scattering  the 
lertilc  pollen  from  his  peach-blossom.  "  To-morrow  it  will 
yll  be  gone,"— and  then,  rather  shyh*.  he  said  :  "  That 
reminds  me,"— and  told  me  the  story  of  the  steward  on  the 
s.s.  Malifoit. 


"  I  expect,"  he  ^aid."  that  you,  as  a  stranger,  imaghie  tliat 
this  seaboard  is  hill   of  loniMiui'  ;   you   c;in   -(■<■  iiothing  but 


beauty  in  these  small  stone  cottages  and  this  rugged  coast, 
"^'ou  don't  know  how  hard  life  is  here— and  how  dirty.  You 
don't  realise  either  how  horribh-  isolated  we  arc  ;  how  very 
attracti\e  it  is — you  won't  mind  me  saying  sa — to  meet  a 
stranger  like  yourself.  That's  the  way  "in  which  Romance 
surprises  us,  in  our  chance  encounters"  with  men  who  come 
here  by  land  or  by  sea— and  particularly  by  sea.  Of  course, 
this  place  has  long  ceased  to  be  a  portof  "call  for  salt-water 
boats  :  but  it  so  happens  that  our  bay  is  a  harbour  of  refuge, 
the  only  one  along  this  coast,  from  a  westerly  gale  ;  and 
sometimes,  when  it  is  blowing  strong  you  may  sec  30 
vessels  sheltering— not  the  big  mail  boats  that  can  plug 
through  any  amount  of  muck,  but  great  sailing  ships  troni 
Hamburg,  Scandinavian  steamers,  with  deck-cargoes  of  timber, 
wide-bellied  freighters  light,  and  everj?  other  kind  of  tramp. 
Sometimes  they  lie  there  for  a  week  straining  at  their  anchors 
and  then  steal  away  in  stormy  sunshine.  Sometimes  thev 
land  a  sick  man— they  don't  like  sick  men  at  sea— and  in  this 
way  I    have  had  more  than  one  adventure. 

"  When  I  was  called  to  visit  the  Mali/on  it  was  blowing  a 
buster.  The  mate  brought  the  message  ashore  ;  told  me  that  tlie 
steward  had  hurt  his  leg  and  the  '  old  man  '  was  getting  worried 
about  him.  Didn't  know  if  the  beggar  was  shamming  or  not. 
If  I  were  coming  I  had  better  prepare  for  a  wetting  and  pull 
out  in  their  dinghy.  He  was  vers-  affable,  that  mate.  He 
said  that  he'd  never  \'isited  our  port  before  and  hoped  he 
never  would  again.  '  Talk  about  scenery  and  that,'  he  said, 
'  there's  plenty  of  pretty  scenery  outside  the  West  of  Eng- 
land. By  tlie  way  folks  talk  you'd  think  there  wasn't  nice 
country  places  in  Lancasliire.  You  should  hear  the  birds  in 
our  garden  on  a  spring  morning.  My  misses  feeds  the  little 
beggars.'  He  lived  at  a  place  called  Xewton-le- Willows— 
\vherever  that  may  be.  He  asked  me  if  I  was  '  on  the  square,' 
and  seemed  disappointed  that  I  wasn't. 

"  The  Matifon  was  lying  a  long  way  out  and  I  got  wetter 
even  than  I  had  expected  ;  but  it's  a"  heartening  thing,  you 
know,  to  go  butting  out  through  sheeted  sprav  with  the  salt 
sticky  on  your  lips— just  plugging  towards  a  "point  of  light 
which  wavers  and  dips  some  unimaginable  distance  ahead  : 
and  then,  suddenly,  to  hear  what  the  wind  leaves  you  of  a  hail, 
to  dissociate  something  black  that  looms  above  you  from  the 
blackness  of  the  windy  sky  ;  to  hear  a  rope  swish  down  like  the 
wind's  own  tail— and  then  the  splash  and  suck  of  water  be- 
tween yourself  and  the  hull  until  your  boat  and  the  big  ship 
are  heaving  together.  I  jumped  for  the  rope  ladder,  and  as  I 
looked  back  the  boat  and  the  mate  and  the  two  sailors  seemed 
to  be  sucked  downw^ards,  for  the  great  flank  to  which  I  was 
clinging  like  a  fly  on  a  horse  heeled  bodily  over,  blotting  out 
the  stars.  I  scrambled  on  to  an  iron  deck  g"ritty  with  coal  dust, 
where  the  captain  received  me. 

He  looked  as  if  he'd  been  On  the  bridge  for  a  week.  "  If  the 
beggar's  mahngering,"  he  said,  "  I  look  to  you  to  tell  me. 
If  he's  really  sick  you'd  better  have  him  ashore.  You  can't 
satisfy  him.  Says  he's  hurt  his  leg.  I  don't  know.  .  .  . 
He's  a  good  steward,  the  best  I've  ever  had  except  a  Jap  T 
once  picked  up  in  Kuchinotsu  ;  but  I'm  about  fed  up  with 
him.     The  chief  ofticer  will  take  you  for'ard." 

And  so,  down  one  iron  ladder,  up  another,  down  a  pre- 
cipitous companion  to  a  stuffy  hold.  "  Blast  the  Chief,"  said 
the  mate,  "  the  electric  ligh't's  off— that's  the  worst  of  this 
damned  company.  Short  of  crew.  The  donkeyman  went 
ashore  this  morning  and  came  black  bUnd.  You  wait  here  a 
minute  while  I  get  a  lantern." 

"  He  left  me  standing  there  at  the  bottom  of  the  com4)anion. 
It  was  very  dark  and  smelt  of  tallow  and  engine  grease.  I  had 
to  hold  on  to  the  oily  rail  of  the  ladder ;  for  this  part  of  the 
ship  was  plunging  heavily  as  though  it  were  angry  with  the 
strain  of  the  anchors.  "The  darkness  was  full  of  creaking 
sounds,  and  sometimes  the  impact  of  a  heavier  wave  smote  her 
bows,  making  the  plates  shudder  and  creak  more  loudly  than 
over.  The  mate  came  back  carrying  a  kerosene  lamp  "with  a 
smell  that  was  proper  to  that  fo'c'sle.     '  This  way,'  he  said. 

"  We  passed  into  a  narrow  cabin  in  which  there  were  four 
liunks.  It  smelt  a  little  of  foul  opium  smoke  and  a  great  deal 
of  dirt.  In  the  lower  bunk  on  the  inner  side  the  mate's 
lantern  showed  mc  a  Chhiaman  lying  on  his  back  breathing 
noisily  through  his  mouth.  '  That's  our  cook,'  said  the  mate. 
'  Don't  you  take  no  notice  of  him.  He  has  his  little  faihngs 
like  the  rest  of  us.     Tliis  is  your  bird.' 

"  He  held  the  light  up  to  the  upper  of  the  two  opposite 
bunks  which  were  fixed  to  the  flank  of  the  ship,  with  nothing 
but  a  thin  iron  plate  between  them  and  the  noisy  sea.  '  Hello 
Jim,'  ho  said  pulling  at  a  nest  of  grey  blankets.  '  How  arc  you 
getting  on  ^  " 

"  '  All  right,  Mr.  Cochran,'  said  the  man  under  the  blankets. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  31, 


igi8 


'  J  sliall  be  all  right  tu  morrow.     I  only  want  a  day  or  two's 
rwt." 

" '  Tliat's  good,  Jim,'  said  tin-  inatu-.  'The  old  man's 
M-Mit  ashore  for  a  doctor  to  see  vou.     Wake  up.     .     .     ." 

"  He  raised  his  head  aiid  looked  at  me.  An  elderly  man, 
with  a  grey  beard  and  very  bright  eyes.  From  the  first  they 
regarded  me  with  suspicion.  His  voice  was  surprisingly  re- 
fined. A  man  who  had  gone  down  in  the  world,  I  decided.i 
And  when  he  came  to  show  me  his  injured  hip,  I  could  see  that 
lie  was  ashamed  to  be  as  filthily  dirty  as  he  undeniably  was. 
All  the  time  his  eyes  were  insisting  :  '  You've  got  me  at  a  dis- 
advantage, you  know,  t  wasn't  always  like  this.'  A  poor 
■  old  man  .  .  .  but  not  so  old  as  I  had  imagined  at  first. 
A  merchant  seaman  who  has  knocked  about  tJie  world  in  the 
slums  of  great  seaports  doesn't  wear  well,  and  I  could  see  that 
this  fellow  had  had  his  whack  of  drink  and  other  things. 

"  In  the  demented  plungings  of  this  foul  and  unlit  cabin  it 
was  dilScult  to  find  out  what  his  trouble  was.  If  he  had  lain 
in  the  lower  bunk  it  would  have  been  easier.  As  it  was,  it 
took  me  some  time  to  discover  that  he  had  fractured  the  neck 
of  his  thighbone,  and  I  couldn't  be  sure  that  he  hadn't  a  dislo- 
cation as  well :   but  I  won't  lx)re  you  with  technicalities. 

'  The  mate  seemed  pleased  with  my  verdict.  '  I  told  the 
old  man  you  wasn't  shamming,  Jim,'  he  declared  ;  but  thu 
patient  became  alarmed  at  once.  '  You've  made  a  mistake, 
Doctor,"  he  protested.  '  You've  made  a  mistake.  I  only 
just  slipped  like,  wfien  a  sea  caught  her.  It's  only  a  bit  of  a 
sprain.  My  leg  can't  be  broken.  You  look.  ...  I  can 
move  mv  toes.  The  feeling's  all  right  too.  That's  not  a 
break.  \  shall  be  all  right  to-morrow  when  this  dirty  weather's 
gone.     You  give  me  a  bottle  of  stuff  to  rub  it  with,  sir.' 

"  Of  course,  it  was  no  good  talking  about  it.  The  thing 
was  there  and  had  to  be  dealt  with.  'We  can't  move  him  to- 
night, you'd  never  get  him  ashore  in  this  sea,'  1  told  the  mate. 
'  All  we  can  do  now  is  to  fix  him  up  in  some  sort  of  splint  that 
won't  come  adrift  when  the  ship  rolls.' 

Now  you're  asking,  Doc,'  said  the  mate  ;  '  we've  got  a 
bandage  or  two  and  some  plaster  and  Epsom  salts  and 
chlorodyne,  but  that's  about  the  height  of  it.  Still,  I'll  go 
and  turn  Chips  out  and  see  what  we  can  do  for  a  batten.' 

I  told  him  exactly  what  I  wanted,  and  he  left  us  in  the 
dark,  taking  his  lamp  with  him.       ,' 

You're  a  West-countryman,'  I  said  to  my  patient.  In 
the  first  minute  his  speech  had  told  me  that. 

"  He  said  :   '  Yes,  sir,  I'm  a  Devonian    ...     or  was.' 
"  'Well,'  said  I,  '  you'll  be  quite  at  home  when  wc  get  you 
ashore  into  the  Cottage  Hospital  to-morrow.' 

"  '  At  home    .     .     .     ?  '  says  he,  anxiously.     '  At  home  ? 
What  do  you  mean  ?  ' 

Wliy,  don't  you  know  where  you  are  ?  '  I  said. 
"  He  hadn't  the  least  idea.     He'd  been  in  too  much,  pain 
to  think,  and  no  wonder  ;   and  since  his  accident  he  had  kept 
it  down  with  brandy  and  laudanum.     I  told  him  that  we  were 
now  lying  in  Fishcombe  roads. 

"  Good  God,  sir,"  he  cried.  '  Y'ou  never  mean  it."  He  had 
jumped  right  up  in  his  bunk  and  the  movement  made  him 
scream  with  pain.  I  reassured  him.  He  began  to  talk 
excitedly  and  was  more  indubitably  Devonian  than  ever. 

'"  If  this  is  Fishcombe,'  he  said,  '  I'll  be  damned  if  this  isn't 
the  dirtiest  trick  that  Providence  has  ever  served  me.  I'd  rather 
die  in  this  rotten  ship  than  go  ashore  here.  You  can  do  what 
you  like  with  me.  You  can  kill  me  ;  but  for  God's  sake  don't 
send  me  ashore  here.  You'll  understand  if  I  tell  you.  A 
doctor  like  you  is  bound  to  hear  a  lot  of  funny  things  in  your 
life,  but  you'll  never  hear  a  truer  than  this,  rni  a  Fishcombe 
man.  I  le_ft  this  port  thirty  years  ago  as  mate  of  a  saiUng 
vessel.  You  can  trust  a  Fishcombe  man  to  do  well  for 
himself.  I  was  a  prosperous  young  fellow.  I'd  nothing  in 
t  le  way  of  trouble  in  my  life  but  one  thing,  and  that  was  my 
wife.  We  never  hit  it  off  well.  She  was  one  of  these  Ply- 
mouth Brethren,  you  know,  and  I  was  never  a  Bible  hand 
myself.  When  we  were  first  married  it  was  all  right,  but  bit 
by  bit  she  began  to  get  on  the  top  of  me.  I  was  doing  very 
well,  as  I  told  you,  working  my  way  up  gradual,  and  very 
pleased  with  myself ;  but  there  was  no  joy  in  that  woman'. 
The  better  I  done  tlic  harder  she  were  on  me.  You  couldn't 
call  your  house  your  own.  Clean,  I'll  admit.  Cleanliness 
and  godliness  was  all  she  thought  of.  It  was  all  very  well. 
I  told  her  that  I  could  get  on  without  her  ;  went  out  east  and 
got  on  to  a  Chinese  coasting  vessel.  Nobody  can  say  as  I 
didn't  do  my  duty  by  her.  I  was  earning  good  money  and 
she  had  half  of  it.  I  settled  half  in  the  beginning  and  I  stuck 
to  it  all  the  way. 

"  At  first  it  was  a  good  living.  A  little  later  it  was  some- 
thing extra.  I  took  my  master's  ticket.  Five  years  I  was 
master  of  a  Yangtse  steamer,  and  that  meant  a  lot  of  'cumshaw' 
in  those  days.  My  God  !  ...  the  dollars  I've  handled. 
Then  I  had  a  run  of  bad  luck  :  got  nm  down  by  one  of  Holt's 
boats  in  a  fog  off  Woosung.  The  court  gives  it  against  me, 
and  I  lost  my  ticket.     What's  the  good  of  fighting  ?  I  reckon 


if  a  doctor  like  you  is  struck  off  the  rolls  or  whatever  they  call 
it  he's  just  about  done.  Well,  I  was  done.  Ever  since  then 
it's  been  downhill.  I'm  reconciled  to  it.  I  know  that  a  man's 
liable  toups  and  downs  and  I  take  what  comes,  but  it's  more 
than  a  man  can  stand  to  be  took  at  his  lowest  and  shown  off 
in  a  town  where  he  was  at  his  best.  Why,  every  man  on 
Fishcombe  quay  would  be  up  to  me  saying  :  '  Well  Jim,  how 
be  'ee  then  ?  '  It's  as  like  as  not  my  wife's  living.  Her 
wouldn't  marry  again  unless  one  of  her  Plymouth  Brothers 
got  round  her.  She's  got  her  life  and  I've  got  mine,  and  they'm 
past  mixing  at  our  age,  You  wouldn't  send  me  ashore,  doctor, 
to  be  shown  up  and  read  scripture  to  by  my  own  wife  !  I'm 
not  that  kind  of  man.  I  couldn't  stand  it.  "  I've  always  had 
my  freedom.  I've  paid  for  it.  But  to  have  that  woman  on 
the  top  of  me  when  I  was  helpless  and  down  in  the  world  and 
not  more  than  a  month's  wages  to  my  name !  By  God,  if  I 
thought  that  was  going  to  happen  I'd  do  m5rself  in  with  a  dose 
of  .\h  Ling's  dope  ' 

"  I  suppose  the  name  must  somehow  have  penetrated  into 
the  cloudy  recesses  of  the  Chinese  cook's  brain,  for  he  turned 
in  his  sleep  and  yawned  heavily 

"  '  It's  a  funny  story,'  I  said.     'We'll  see  what  can  bo  done.' 

"  Land  me  anywhere  you  like.  Doctor  .  .  .  anywhere 
hut  here. 

A  big  sea  made  the  whole  ship  shudder  and  threw  him  over 
against  the  wooden  side  of  his  bunk.  He  gave  a  squeal  of  pain. 
•  That  got  me,'  he  said.  '  Come  to  think  of  it  this  is  a  funny 
old   turn-out.     .     .     .' 

"  A  moment  later  the  mate  came  in  with  two  ridiculous 
pieces  of  wood.  '  That's  the  best  I  can  do  for  vou,'  he  said  ; 
'  any  good  ?  " 

"  They  weren't  the  least  bit  of  good,  but  somehow  with 
rolled  newspapers  and  cardboard  and  a  bit  of  broomstick  we 
fixed  him  up.  When  once  the  splint  was  firm  a  look  of  extra- 
ordinaiy  relief  came  into  his  face.  I  could  see  that  he  had 
once  been  a  good-looking  man,  not  so  very  long  ago.  I 
seemed  to  know  that  face  too,  though  I  couldn't  remember 
Nvhere  I  had  seen  it.  Of  course,  people  in  this  place  are  so 
inbred  that  it  isn't  ditificult  to  find  family  hkenesses.  *  Thank 
you  doctor,'  he  said  smiling.  That,  vou  know,  is  the  most 
usual  way  in  which  doctors  get  paid  ;  biit  I  know  he  must  have 
meant  it.     '  Don't  forget  the  yarn  I  told  'ee,'  he  .said. 

"  Once  more  we  climbed  the  ladder  and  emerged  upon  the 
windy  deck.  The  captain  had  not  yet  shaken  off  his  bad 
temper.  I  believe  it  incensed  him  to  hear  that  the  man  was 
really  ill  more  than  if  he  had  been  shamming.  '  That's  a 
matter  for  compensation,'  he  said  gloomily.  '  I  hope  you 
didn't  put  him  up  to  any  dodge  of  that  kind"?  '  He  grunted. 
'  Well,  there's  only  one  "thing  for  it.  You'd  better  take  him 
ashore  to  your  hospital  and  I'll  wire  the  Company.  That 
doesn't  imply  any  responsibility,  you  know.  '  Without 
prejudice,'  as  the  lawyers  say. 

"  I  explained  that  in  any  case  we  couldn't 'move  him  until 
the  sea  had  gone  down.  I  did  my  best  for  Jim  (at  that  time 
I  didn't  know  his  other  name)  and  pointed  out  that  even 
when  it  did  calm  down  it  would  be  better  to  take  him  round  to 
Southampton  or  London  or  Newcastle  or  some  place  where 
there  were  big  free  hospitals.  I  told  him  that  in  Fishcombe 
the  Company  would  have  to  pay  for  accommodation,  and  this 
made  him  hesitate  for  a  moment ;  but  in  the  end  he  decided 
that  there  would  be  less  risk  of  trouble  if  he  put  him  ashore  at 
once,  or,  at  any  rate,  as  soon  as  the  weather  allowed. 

"  He  gave  me  a  suriy  good-night.  The  old  man's  not  as 
bad  as  he  sounds,'  the  mate  assured  me  as  I  descended  the 
ladder.     Perhaps  he  wasn't. 

"  It  was  a  rough  journey  home.  The  sea  ran  higher  and 
the  air  was  very  cold.  AU  that  night  it  blew  like  hell.  Next 
day  the  bay  was  so  wild  that  we  had  no  chance  of  moving 
our  patient.  In  the  middle  of  that  next  night  the  wind 
changed.  Changed,  not  dropped.  It  swung  round,  as  it 
sometimes  wiU  on  our  coast,  to  the  north-east,  and  all  the  small 
craft  that  had  been  sheltering  in  the  bay  had  to  haul  up  their 
anchors  and  put  their  noses  into  it  and  run,  for  now  they 
found  themselves  on  a  lee  shore.  With  them  the  Matifoa. 
In  SIX  hours  there  was  not  a  steamer  left  in  the  roads.     .     .     . 

The  doctor  knocked  out  the  ashes  from  his  pipe.  "  You're 
a  good  listener,"  he  said,  "  and  as  you're  evidently  not 'unsym- 
pathetic I'm  gohig  to  let  you  into  a  secret  tliat  I  haven't 
shared  with  anyone  else."  He  took  the  lamp  from  the  table 
aiid  poor  Tristram  looked  up  to  see  what  was  happening. 
He  carried  it  to  the  far  side  of  the  room  and  raised  it  till  it 
illuminated  the  features  of  the  handsome  young  man  with 
curled  moustaches  in  the  red  plush  frame. 
"  This,"  he  said;  "  was  the  steward  of  the  Matifou." 
***** 

I  stayed  in  Mrs.  Seaward's  rooms  for  close  on  six  weeks. 
Tristram  recovered  from  his  distemper.  A  doctor  who  is  a 
student  of  the  humanities  is  the  best  man  in  the  world  for 
dogs. 


January' 


191S 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book 


IT  would  seem  that  the  struggle  in  Germany  between  the 
militarists  and  the  people  is  nearing  the  crisis.  The 
howling  of  the  Patriotic  Party  increases  with  their  growing 
dread  of  p>opular  discontent,  and  the  masses  have  given 
immistakable  signs  of  their  dislike  of  the  military'  Patriots. 
In  Berlin,  in  Frankfurt,  in  Mannheim,  in  Jena,  meetings  of  the 
Patriotic  Party  were  broken  up  in  disorder  during  the  last  ten 
days  or  so.  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  The  GeiTnan  Patriotic 
I'artj'  .  .  .  " — so,  the  Chairman  began  at  Frankfurt, 
but  he  got  no  further.  The  audience,  which  numbered  over 
three  thousand,  shouted,  "  Down  with  the  Patriotic  Party  : 
We  want  peace."  That  meeting  was  not  held,  and  on  the 
following  day  the  G.O.C.  in  Frankfiul  issued  a  notice  in  the 
tone  of  a  schoolmaster  chiding  naughty  pupils.  Trusting 
in  the  political  maturity  of  the  populace,  tlie  authorities  had 
allowed  public  meetings  to  be  held  even  during  the  war. 
Never  before  had  that  privilege  been  abused.  The  pro- 
ceedings on  the  previous  day  must  have  been  exceptional. 
"  But  if  I  am  mistaken,  I  .sliall  be  forced  in  the  interests  of 
public  order  to  remove  all  possibility  of  a  repetition  of  yester- 
day's scenes  by  prohibiting  all  public  meetings." 

It  becomes  clearer  every  day  that  the  military  Patriots  have 
the  support  of  people  in  high  places.  '  The  Imperial  Chan- 
cellor has  informed  the  German  piiblic  through  the  press 
that  he  is  so  overwhelmed  with  work  that  he  has  no  time  to 
receive  deputations  of  bodies  which  favour  and  demand  a 
j)eace  by  understanding.  Yet,  it  has  been  pointed  out,  he 
found  time  to  confer  with  the  head  of  the  Patriotic  Party  not 
once  but  twice,  and  the  Party  was  able  to  assure  its  members 
that  in  the  event  of  a  peace  with  Russia,  the  interests  of 
Germany  would  be  safeguarded. 

But  the  Imperial  Chancellor  does  not  stand  alone.  The 
Patriotic  Party  has  the  support  of  royal  war-mongers  and 
annexationists.  The  King  of  Saxony,  replying  to  a  telegram 
of  the  Patriots  in  Plauen,  stated  that  he  was  convinced  the; 
majority  of  the  German  people  desired  a  peace  that  would  bring 
them  security,  that  he  was  certain  the  Kaiser,  "  supported  by 
the  unbroken  strength  pf  our  armies,"  would  give  his  consent 
only  to  such  a  peace.: 

The  Crown  Prince  has  assured  a  Patriotic  Working-men's 
Society  that  they  need  have  no  anxiety  lest  the  peace  that 
would  come  should  deprive  them  of  their  livelihood  and  force 
them  to  emigrate.  The  peace  would  provide  happy  conditions 
for  the  German  labouring  classes  and  would  allow  of  their 
dc\eIoping  their  powers  on  German  soil.  The  King  of  Bavaria 
is  of  the  same  opinion.  "  We  have  fought  like  lions  and 
have  been  e\-erywhere  victorious.  .  .  .  We  must  go  on 
fighting  until  our  enemies  come  and  beg  for  peace.  .  .  . 
Not  a  foot  of  German  soil  shall  be  given  up  and  everj'where 
we  shall  improve  our  frontiers."' 

King  Tudwig  of  Bavaria  uttered  the  new  cry  of  the  mili- 
tarists. "  Frontier  securities  "  is  the  watchword,  and  the 
German  people  are  beginning  to  realise  that  it  is  but  a 
euphemism  for  forcible  annexations.  Even  the  Frankfurter 
Zeitiing  is  alarmed.     It  writes  : 

A  Government  which  can  only  exist  by  the  permission  of  the 
high  military  authorities  and  can  be  removed  when  their 
views  take  another  direction,  is  only  a  caricature  and  a  mockery 
in  the  eyes  of  its  own  people  and  of  foreigners.  The  dangers 
which  threaten  us  are  innumerable.  To  reverse  the  policy  of 
peace  by  agreement,  in  which  our  AHies  are  in  accor<l,  would 
endanger  the  wonderful  unity  of  iM  Central  Powers  whicli 
lias  been  di.splayed  against  the  foe.  One  is  horrified  to 
think  that  at  the  moment  when  \we  appear  to  be  nearing 
a  victorious  end,  the  ship  may  again  be  thrown  amongst  the 
breakers,  and  we  may  be  exposed  to  perils  for  which  a  few 
coal-mines  or  a  few  .square  miles  of  foreign  territory  would  he 
hopelessly  inadequate  compensation. 

Rifts  in  the  Lute 

In  view  of  the  statement  of  the  Frankfurt  journal  it  is  of 
interest  to  observe  the  trend  of  feeling  in  Vienna  and  Buda- 
pest. The  press  in  the  Austrian  capital  is  restive,  fearing 
that  if  Kiihlmann  were  to  be  flung  from  oflice,  he  would  be 
succeeded  by  an  even  fiercer  reactionary.  The  Fremden- 
hlalt,  which  is  the  semi-official  organ  of  the  Vienna  Foreign 
Office,  wrote  bluntly  that  Kiihlmann  had  "  the  full  and  un- 
restricted confidence  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Government 
and  pieople."  The  German  papers  were  furious.  The  com- 
ment (of  Count  Reventlow's  journal  may  be  regarded  as 
typical !  "  The  German  nation  has  only  one  answer  for  the 
men  behind  the.  Fremdenhlatl — namely,  "  Hands  off — no 
matter  to  whom  the  hands  belong."    ' 

And  what  of  the  people  in  Au.stria-Hungary.  In  Vienna 
the  working  classes  are  calling  aloud  for  peace  by  under- 
standing.       In    Budapest    the    I'niterl    Suffragist    Societies 


organised  a  peace  meeting,  but  the  police  forbade  it  on 
the  ground  that  "  the  Brest-Litovsk  proceedings  might 
be  adversely  affected  in  consequence."  But  the  meeting 
was  held  after  all  under  another  name.  The  principal 
speaker  made  it  quite  plain  that  peace  was  uppermost 
in  their  minds.  "  If  we  had  something  to  say  at  the 
peace  deliberations  .  .  .  we  should  not  allow  certain 
people  to  talk  about  frontier  rectifications.  .  .  .  No 
strategic  precautions  can  secure  permanent  ])eace.  For  per- 
manent peace  there  is  onlv  one  security — tlie  reconciliation 
of  peoples." 

German  Pretentiousness 

The  Patriots  rage  on,  and  a  quasi-scientific  journal  like 
the  Year  Bonk  for  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Transport  prints 
an  article  pleading  passionately  for  the  defeat  of  England  : 

We  must  defeat  P^ngland  in  order  to  remove  a  weight  from 
the  whole  world. 

We  must  defeat  England  in  order  to  be  relieved  of  the  great 
anxiety  as  to  how  after  the  war  we  shall  obtain  our  fond  and 
raw  materials. 

The  hate  which  is  preached  against  Germany,  even  by  mer- 
chants, will  disappear  sooner  than  is  imagined., 
If  we  arrive  at  a  temporary  peace  by  understanding  with 
l%ngland,  she  would  make  out  that  she'had  been  victorioiis. 
Let  us  not  forget  one  thing — that  even  after  the  war  England 
will  have  a  powerful  army. 

It  must  be  part  of  our  victory  over  England  to  nip  in  the  bud 
the  growth  of  her  military  strength. 

Terrible  as  is  the  prospect  for  England,  there  is  worse  to  come. 
A  writer  in  the  Kolnische  Zeitung  has  discovered  yet  another  ^ 
war  aim.  Annexations  and  indemnities  ought  not  to  satisfy 
Germany  ;  she  must  insist  on  the  restoration  of  her  reputa- 
tion and  her  honour  in  the  world  !  The  greatest  crime  of  the 
Allies  has  been  to  sully  the  fair  fame  of  Germany.  So  success- 
ful has  their  campaign  been  that  the  Germans  are  detested 
all  over  the  world.  And  the  German  people  are  too  kind- 
hearted  to  realise  this  great  fact,  despite  the  efforts  of  their 
newspapers  to  instruct  them.  It  thus  becomes  one  of  the 
first  and  most  serious  demands  of  the  German  leaders  at  any 
peace  negotiations  that  the  Cierman  reputation  in  the  world 
shall  be  restored  to  its  pristine  purity  ! 

It  is  somewhat  puzzling  that  the  Kolnische  Zeitung  shmdd 
lend  itself  to  the  publication  of  screeds  of  this  kind.  Either 
the  writer  is  a  finished  hypocrite  or  he  is  an  ass  of  the  first 
order.  The  world  will  only  laugh  at  him,  and  students  of 
national  psychology  will  find  in  his  proposal  yet  another 
proof  that  the  Germans  possess  no  sense  of  humour.  At  any 
rate,  they  are  beginning  to  realise  the  result  of  their  conduct 
during  the  war.  Perhaps  before  long  they  will  wake  up  to  its 
causes.  Certainly  they  are  groping  about  for  the  reason  why 
they  cut  such  a  poor  figure  in  the  worid.  \  writer  in  the 
Vossische  Zeitung  lays  down  eighteen  propositions  to  account 
for  the  fact-  that  the  German  is  disliked.  Herr  Knatz,  the 
writer  in  question,  has  discovered  that 

The  respect  enjoyed  by  any  nation  in  the  world  does  not 
depend  on  its  power  or  greatness,  but  on  its  unpretentiously 
being  what  it  is,  with  its  excellencies,  its  failings  and  its  faults, 
all  of  which  it  acknowledges  as  a  matter  of  course. 

Herr  Knatz  instances  the  Dutch  and'  their  dignified  bearing 
throughout  the  vicissitudes  of  their  history,  and  the  English 
who  take  for  granted  their  virtues  and  their  vices,  who  are 
what  they  are.  The  Germans,  on  the  other  hand,  have 
always  pretended  to  be  what  they  are  not : 

The  <rennans  wanted  to  be, men  of  the  world,  although  they 
might  have  been  much  more.  They  spoke  out  threateningly 
when  they  ought  to  have  expressed  their  will  quietly.  They 
flattered  instead  of  cidti\'atmg  friendship.  They  gave  the 
impression  of  being  humbly  .satisfied  when  instead  they  ought 
to  nave  been  rude.  They  have  been  unjust  when  they  .shoidd 
have  been  just,  and  more  than  just  where  they  loiild  liave 
been  unjust  with  a  good  conscience.  They  hurt  other  people's 
feelings  by  well-meaning  zeal  where  dignified  submission 
would  have  been  gratefully  accepted.  In  fine,  the  German 
people  believed  that  they  must  appear  different  from  what 
they  really  were. 

Tf  this  Ix;  a  true  diagnosis  of  the  German  character,  it  is  easy 
to  understand  the  Kaiser's  assurance  to  the  Polish  delegation, 
which  came  to  pay  him  their  respects,  that  throughout  the 
whole  of  his  reign,  a  period  of  nearly  thirty  years,  he  had  been 
"  a  pioneer  and  protector  of  the  principles  that  made  for 
human  welfare  and  the  peaceful  co-operation  of  peoples  !  " 
.Xiul  yet  it  stands  on  record  that  when  war  broke  out  the 
AUdeutsche  Bldller,  the  organ  of  the  Pan-Germans,  wrote 
"  The  lioiu  we  hmged  for  has  now  arrived.     It  is  holy  !  " 


t6 


LAND    &     WATER  January  31.  19^8 

Views  of  a  Prussian  Militarist 

By  Kenneth   Beaton 

world-power  is  inconceivable  without  striving  for  expression 
of  power  in  the  world,  and  consequently  for  sea-power.  But 
this  involves  the  constant  existence  of  a  large  number  ot 
potential  causes  of  friction.  Hence  arises  the  necessity  for 
adequate  armaments  on  land  and  sea.  He  will  have  none  ot 
your  delusions  about  peace  and  the  brotherhood  of  man. 
War,  he  says  (p.  172)  has  its  basis  in  human  nature,  and  as 
long  as  human  nature  remains  unaltered,  war  will  continue 
to  exist,  as  it  has  existed  already  for  thousands  of  years.  The 
oft-quoted  saying  of  Moltkethat  wars  are  inhuman,  but  eternal 
jjeace  is  a  dream,  and  not  even  a  beautiful  dream,  will  con- 
tinue to  be  true.  In  support  of  which  contention  the  author 
brings  forward  suitable  extracts  from  Treitschke,  reminding 
us  that  the  polished  man  of  the  world  and  the  savage  both 
have  the  brute  in  them,  and  that  the  idea  of  one  universal 
Empire  is  odious,  the  ideal  of  a  State  co-extensive  with 
humanity,  no  ideal  at  all.  He  closes  his  book  with  the 
following  words  : 

We  must  not  put  might  before  right,  but  equally  little  shall 
we  and  can  we  clispen.se  with  might.  In  the  future,  as  in  the 
past,  the  (lerman  people  will  have  to  .seek  firm  cohesion  in 
its  glorious  arniv  and  in  its  belaurelled  young  fleet. 


''     7-\FDuCTI0N^    from   the    World    War    writtcB    b\- 

/  yi.ieut.-General     Baron     von     Freytag-Loringhoven, 

-^-^anrl   recentlv   translated     into     English     (Constable 

and  Co.,  2s.  bd.)  is  in  some   respects  a  disappomting 

book.      But  it    should    attract    attention,  owing     to   the 

position  of  the  author,  and  to  the  open  way  in  which  he_taiKs 

of  preparing  for  further  warfare  later  on.     W  e  all  prefer  to 

think  that  this  war  is  to  be  the  last,  and  peace,  when  it  hnaily 

comes,  is  to  come  for  ever. 

The  first  part  consists  of  general  observations  on  various 
features  of  the  war.  The  author  has  been,  since  September 
1916,  Deputv  Chief  of  the  t^.eneral  Staff,  that  is  to  say,  head 
of  suirh  parts  of  the  (general  Staff  as  remain  in  Berlin  ;  betore 
•that,  he  had  been  Ouarter-Master-(ieneral  in  the  Field,  his 
successor  being  the  now  celebrated  Ludendorff.  So  he  speaks 
with  authoritv  ;  and  the  book,  with  or  without  intrinsic  ment 
of  its  own,  becomes  of  importance  as  expressing  the  opinion 
of  the  men  at  the  head  of  the  German  Anny. 

His  general  observations  are  what  one  would  expect  from 
anv  intelligent  officer  who  had  been  at  the  front.  He  points 
out  the  increased  importance  of  railways,  which  have  enabled 
(.ermanv  to  move  ver\-  large  bodies  of  troops  backwards 
and  for\vards  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  fronts,  anc 
which  enabled  the  French  to  do  the  same  thing  during  and 
after  the  battle  of  the  Mame.  The  enormous  ad\antages  of 
motor  transport  are  duly  set  forth,  and  we  are  again  told  that 
aircraft  has  brought  about  a  number  of  new  phenomena  ; 
not  the  least  of  these,  to  my  mind,  is  the  announcement  that 
Orman  aviators  ha\-e  "  established  more  and  more  their 
superioritv  in  the  air."  General  von  Freytag  admits  that  the 
Zeppelin  has  given  wav  before  the  aeroplane  in  land  warfare. 

There  are  the  usual  excerpts  from  orthodox  German  militar\- 
historians  of  the  wars  of  the  last  centurj' ;  anyone  who  has 
read  a  few  of  them  is  fairly  familiar  with  them  all.  Here  is  a 
beautiful  instance  :  "  We  may  rejoice  that  the  following 
words  of  Clausewitz  are  completely  applicable  to  our  infantry-  : 
'  Happy  the  army  in  which  an  untimely  boldness  frequenth- 
manifests  itself  ; '  it  is  an  exuberant  growth  which  shows  a 
rich  soil.'  "  There  is  another  gem  from  Prince  Frederick 
Charles  on  page  136  concerning  the  mutual  relations  between 
generals  and  their  troops,  too  long  to  quote  here. 

The  author  explains  the  German  failure  on  the  Marne  by 
■  saying  the  Germans  simply  had  not  sufficient  numbers  to  carr>' 
out  their  plan  of  enveloping  the  French  and  British  forces  ; 
they  would  have  required  another  complete  army  in  echelon 
on  their  right  flank.  No  mention  is  made  of  any  mistakes  on 
the  part  of  the  Higher  Command.  We  also  come  upon  novel 
interpretations  of  recent  history.  A  certain  Dr.  Georg  Solms- 
sen  is  quoted  with  approval  as  saying  that  for  England  this 
is  "  a  commercial  war  with  a  view  to  her  own  enrichment  and 
the  annihilation  of  her  chief  rival."  Again  :  "  The  French 
officers  have  completely  lost  that  chivalrous  sentiment  which 
as  late  as  1870  found  expression  in  the  words  of  an  old  French- 
man :  '  The  person  of  a  prisoner  is  sacred.'  The  French, 
both  white  and  black,  and  their  women  no  less,  haVe  not 
scrupled  to  jeer  at  and  ill-treat  our  prisoners  in  the  most 
flagrant  manner,  and  the  Government  of  the  Republic  has  in 
general  furnished  an  example  of  unworthy  treatment  of 
prisoners."  This  from'  the  land  of  Ruhleben  and  Wittenberg  1 
Here  is  another  rich  passage  : 

In  the  case  of  the  Ontral  Powers,  that  lofty  moral  strength 
arising  from  the  sense  of  righteous  self-defence  in  a  war  which 
liad  been  thrust  upon  them,  showed  its  superiority  to  the  zeal 
which  a  commercial  antl  predatory  war  could  kindle  in  our 
enemies. 

Or  this ; 

F.ven  distinguished  minds  are  subject  to  mass-suggestion,  as 
is  shown  in  the  case  of  numerous  distinguished  scholars  and 
artists  among  our  enemies.  Neither  judgment  nor  good  taste 
availed  to  prevent  them  from  joining  in  the  general  orgies  of 
hatred  directed  against  everything  German.. 

W'e  Nvonder  whether  the  General  has  ever  heard  of  Lissauer's 
'■  Song  of  Hate,"  which  earned  the  author  a  decoration  from 
the  All-Highest ! 

Cieneral  von  Freytag-Loringhoven  appears  to  admit,  though 
of  course  he  does  not  say  so  in  so  many  words,  that  Germans- 
has  missed  her  mark  this  time  ;  but  he  is  perfectly  frank  about 
the  necessity  to  tr\'  again.  No  one,  he  says  (p.  155),  will 
dispute  the  fact  that  the  world  war  has  given  the  Ciermans 
cause  to  subject  their  national  life  to  a  thorough  examination 
in  all  its  departments,  and  that  it  must  mark  the  beginning 
of  all  kinds  of  new  developments.  Nobody  can  undertake 
to  guarantee  a  long  period  of  peace,  and  a  lasting  peace  is 
guaranteed  only  by  strong  armaments  (p.  171).      Moreover^ 


Incorrigible 

The  author's  purely  mihtary  Deductions  from  the  World  Wat 
liave  no  very  great  "distinction.  They  contain  nothing  that 
has  not  already  been  noted  in  the  numerous  pamphlets  circu- 
lated by  the  Allied  General  Staffs.  But  this  obstinate  resohe 
to  try  again  in  future  wars  is  significant,  though  e\'en  here 
there  is  nothing  for  us  to  be  alarmed  about.  These  Prussian 
officers  are  incorrigible.  But  there  are  other  forces  at  work  in 
the  world  of  which  they  know  little  :  which  in  their  conceit 
and  hardness  of  heart  they  refuse  to  acknowledge,  but  which 
may  in  the  end  prove  far  too  great  and  strong  for  them. 

There  is  a  measure  of  truth  in  what  this  one  says.  It  is 
quite  true  that  we  arc  men,  swayed  by  certain  primitive 
passions,  and  that  the  millennium,  the  day  in  which  all  men 
will  work  together  and  love  one  another,  and  feel  nothing  but 
good  will  towards  all  other  men,  white,  black,  and  yellow- 
is  a  day  which  may  never  dawn.  But  meanwhile  Cieneral 
\-on  Freytag-Loringhoven,  with  his  Treitschke  and  his 
Clausewitz  and  their  hard  traditions,  represents  a  type  of  which 
the  whole  of  Europe  is  now  sick  unto  death.  If  we  fail  to 
crush  those  men,  and  the  mighty  forces  that  are  rising  up 
around  us  prove  unable  to  overwhelm  Prussianism,  the  world 
will  indeed  be  a  strange  place  to  live  in. 

These  rulers  of  Germany  are  pitiless  and  enormously  con- 
ceited. They  may  say  unctuous  things  now  about  the  co- 
operation of  all  Germitns  in  the  world  war  ;  but  if  they  get 
the  upper  hand  they  will  crush  the  growth  of  democracy  in 
their  own  country  vjith  the  same  ferocity  with  which  they  would 
crush  us  if  they  could  come  across  the  Channel.  They  scorn 
the  idea  of  kindliness  towards  the  weak,  of  sympathy  with 
those  who  follow  different  ideals,  of  co-operation  with  men 
in  their  own  country  or  others  who  want  to  walk  in  the  paths 
of  peace,  and  build  up  the  State  by  work  rather  than  by  war. 
Theirs  is  a  narrow  view,  the  view  of  men  who  are  as  callous 
and  bigoted  as  they  are   vain. 

We  who  also  long  for  peace,  but  who  cannot  think  of  peace 
until  that  Prussian  tyranny  has  had  its  sting  drawn,  must  not 
exaggerate  the  power  of  these  men,  but  at  the  same  time 
must  not  forget  that  they  are  still  in  power.  Salvation  can 
only  come  to  us  through  our  own  strength  and  resolution,  and 
we  must  look  to  the  forces  of  democracy,  what  is  best  in  the 
democracy  of  Great  Britain  and  her  Allies,  to  make  it  irn- 
possible  for  these  evil  men  to  lift  up  their  heads  again.  Their 
destruction  will  come  from  their  own  people  in  the  first  place. 
There  are  many  in  Germany,  and  still  more  in  .Austria- 
Hungary,  who  look  upon  them  with  almost  as  much  dislike 
as  we  do,  and  in  time  the  better  instincts  of  the  (iermans  will 
reassert  themselves.  But  meanwhile  the  class  to  which  von 
Freytag-Loringhoven  belongs  is  in  power,  and  there  are  no 
serious  indications  that  their  power  is  disputed  by  any  appre- 
ciable portion  of  the  nation.  We  must  face  facts,  and  we 
must  not  allow  ourselves  to  relax  our  efforts,  iioth  military 
and  civil,  until  the  German  nation  takes  a  different  view  of 
the  rights  and  claims  of  other  people. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  large  numbers  of  our  country-men 
w-ill  read  and  meditate  upon  this  book,  even  if  it  costs  them  an 
effort,  and  induces  an  occasional  yawn.  As  long  as  the 
Pnissian  military  caste  is  in  power,  it  has  to  he  reckoned 
with  ;  and  we  are  here  told  plainly  what  it  hopes  to  accom- 
phsh  after  the  war,  in  preparation  for  another. 


January  ji,  i(jii> 


LAND    &    WATER 

ittfc  anti  Jtelter0 

By  J.  C.  Squire 


17 


"The  Universal  Memory" 

MR.  \V.  B.  YEATS,  in  Per  Arnica  SUeniia 
Ltiiiae  (Macmillan,  4s.  6d.  net)  has  published 
iwo  intimate,  and  beautifully  written,  fragments 
.if  self-communing  :  admitting  us,  with  an 
iinift'octed  frankness  not  disguised  by  the  polish  of  his  seii- 
te  ices  and  the  studious  care  of  his  images,  to  a  brief  glimpse 
of  the  inner  chamber  where  he  keeps  his  most  important 
secrets,  his  jjoetic  methods,  his  imperfections  of  character, 
liis  beliefs,  his  doubts  and  his  ignorances  about  Hfe,  death, 
and  "  the  nature  of  things."  Hii  essays  can  scarcely  be  called 
ethical ;  he  is  continuouslv  preoccupied  with  religion,  but  it 
Mould  scarcely  come  iinder  that  definition  of  "  morality 
tinged  with  emotion,"  which  is  an  agnostic's  and  not  a  mystic's 
dclinition  ;  and  his  principal  observation  about  conduct  is 
that  the  kind  of  character  that  he  most  admires,  "  over- 
mastering,  creati\e,"  and  of  which  he  gives  "  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi  and  (jesar  Borgia,"  as  examples  (!),  is  produced  when 
iiieii  aim  at  imitating  models  or  "  masks,"  and  that  our  modern 
cultivation  of  self  and  sincerity  makes  us  gentle  and  passive. 
Where  he  is  most  interesting  is  not  here — where  every  con- 
tention in  his  argument  provokes  an  answer — but  when  he  is\ 
tcntati\ei\-  e.Kploring  the  frontiers  of  psychology,  especially 
in  its  relation  to  art  and  cosmolog}'. 

***** 
Art,  to  him,  is  an  escape  ;  the  "  hollow  image  of  fulfilled 
desire."  "  We  make  out  of  the  quairel  with  others,  rhetoric, 
but  of  the  quarrel  with  ourselves,  poetry  "  ;  the  poet  is  a 
saint  or  a  Jiero  when  he  is  writing,  but  not  (Mr  Yeats  is  careful 
to  point  out)  at  other  times.  By  impUcation,  Mr.  Yeats 
narrows  down  to  the  definition  of  poetiy  to  exclude  the  fruits 
of  the  mere  conscious  intellect  ;  he  quotes  Goethe's  theory  of 
the  evocation  of  images.  "  One  must  allow  the  images  to 
fomi  with  all  their  associations  before  one  criticises."  This, 
of  course,  is  inspiration  under  another  name  ;  the  poet's 
\isions.  like  his  dreams,  come  into  his  mind.  As  in  dreams, 
if  the  mind  be  held  passive,  an  image  will  drag  up  from  tlic 
subconscious  "  anything  you  already  possess  a  fragment  of." 
l^xperiences  w  hich  he  could  not  explain  by  the  l-reudian  theory 
of  the  mere  rearrangement  of  personal  memories  and  fnis- 
t  rated  desires  (with  a  strong  emphasis  on  the  sexual)  led  him 
to  believe  in  "  a  great  memory  passing  on  from  generation  to 
generation  ";  but  this  did  not  suffice,  and  he  now  sketches, 
with  an  occasional  confidence  that  leaves  one  startled  and 
an  occasional  obscurity  that  leaves  one  puzzled,  a  universe 
of  material  and  spiritual  bodies,  emanations,  ghosts, 
witches,  Daimons,  Conditions  of  Air,  Conditions  of  Fire  and 
Paths  of  the  Serpent  which  is  possibly  more  familiar  to  tlie 
disciples  of  Madame  Blavatsky  than  it  is  to  me. 
•  «  *  *  * 
I  should  not  lia\e  given  this  inadequate  summary  of  doc- 
trines which  deserve  more  thorough  treatment  by  someone, 
wliether  sympathetic  or  not,  more  versed  in  their  history  and 
affmities,  had  I  not  desired  to  notice  an  extraordinary  narra- 
tive b\-  a  gentleman  whose  experiences  have  forced  him  to 
conclusions  resembling  those  of  Mr.  Yeats.  1  refer  to  The 
Gale  of  Remembrance,  by  Frederick  Bligh  Bond,  R.F.I.B.A. 
(Blackwell,  6s  net).  Mr.  Bond,  who  some  ten  years  ago  was 
appointed  Director  of  Excavations  at  Glastonbury,  gives  in 
this  book  "  the  story  of  the  psychological  experiment  which 
resulted  in  the  discovery.of  the  Edgar  Chapel  at  Glastonbuiy." 
He  and  a  friend,  in  short  obtained,  at  a  large  number  of  sit- 
tings, automatic  writings  which  (he  says)  divulged  to  hmi 
tilings  which  at  that  time  nobody  knew  and  which  afte^^vards 
proved  to  be  true.  Chfef  amongst  them  was  the  site,  shape 
and  size  of  the  Edgar  Chapel,  long  a  matter  of  speculation. 
***** 

Mr.  Bond  tends  to  Mr.  Yeats's  old  theory  of  the  "  general 
memorv."  But  he  is  rather  confused  on  the  subject  (no 
wonder  !)  and  what  happened  to  him  is  much  more  interesting 
than  any  theories  he  may  hold  about  what  happened.  He 
and  his  friends  received  messages  from  a  company  of 
ecclesiastics,  including  Beerc  and  Whiting  (the  last  two 
Abbots  of  Crlastonbury),  Guliclmus,  Reginaldus,  and  one 
Johannes  Bryant,  who.se  reminiscences  and  instructions 
appeared  most  frequently.  Johannes  was  a  man  of  marked 
character.  He  was  fond  of  building,  beer,  fishing,  and  nature 
study,  and  there  is  a  strange  story  about  Joha!\nes  (who  did 
in  i5.ij),  Henry  VIII.,  and  the  Abbey's  great  vat  of  ale. 
One  of  his  (if  tliis  is  liis)  messages  may  serve  as  iutroduction  : 

I  think  1  all!  wrung  in  sonic  things.     Other  influences  cross 
Hiy  own.      .  "  .  Tlube  monks  are  trying  to  make  tliem- 

sches  felt  bv  vou  bjtii.     Wliv  du  tliev  want  to  talk  Latin  i 


.  ■:  .  Why  can't  they  talk  English  ?  .  .  .  Bene- 
dicite.  Johannes.  ...  It  is  difficult  to  tall:  in  Latm 
tongue.  Seems  just  as  difficult  to  talk  in  Latin  language. 
Ye  names  of  builded  things  arc  very  hard  in  Latin 
tongue — transome,  faune,  tracery,  and  the  like.  ^le  son 
thou  canst  not  understand.  Weo  wolde  speak  in  the  Kng- 
Ij^she  tongue 

Fhe  hesitation  of  the  spirits,  or  the  memory,  about  language 
is  noticeable  throughout.  They  write  sporadically  in  collo- 
quial^ English,  in  the  F2nglish  of  American  Higher  Lifers,  in 
the  Englyshe  tongue  of  their  own  diverse  times,  in  Latin 
which  is  like  the  plodding  Latiri  of  Domesday  Book  (which 
tells  us  "  hoc  manerium  fuit  totum  wastum,"  etc.),  and  in  a 
mixture  which  recalles  the  law  French  of  the  clerk  to  the 
court  wlio  recorded  that  a  prisoner  had  "  ject  un  brickbat  " 
at  the  judge.  This  tlie  reader  must  accept  ;  it  is  only  a  minor 
puzzle  where  everything  is  piizzhng.  The  important  thing  is 
not  that  these  media;val  auxiharies  had  linguistic  difiiculties 
which  did  not  prevent  them  from  "occasionally  breaking  into 
a  beautiful  sermon  ending  witli  such  words  as  "  Work  in  the 
sun.  Listen  in  the  starlight,"  but  that  they  issued  specific 
directions  which  Mr.  Bond  obeyed  with  success.  Sometimes 
they  spiced  their  reiiiarks  with  humour,  like  that  Reginaldus 
(qui  obiit  1214)  who  replied  to  a  question  about  St.  Patrick 
and  St.  Brigit  with  :  "  They  were,  and  didde,  much  among 
the  heathen.  We  know  not  more,  save  that  their  workes 
were  old  and  very  dry  to  rede."  Sometimes  they  made 
extremely  questionable  remarks  about  things  in  general,  as 
when  Robert  the  Monk  alleged,  of  contemporary  architecture  : 
"  They  who  budded  in  our  day  and  were  masters,  lead  ye  ijow  '' 
-  which,  if  one  accepts  it,  piiovokes  the  reflection  that  the  old 
builders  must  experience  even  more  difficulty  in  getting  their 
instructions  tjarough  to  the  modern  ones  than  the  old  inhabi- 
tants of  Glastonbury  did  the  modern  visitors.  But  most  of 
their  messages  are,  if  fragmentary,  to  the  point.  Mr^  Bond 
gives  them  in  detail.  He  was  told  things  scarcely  credible 
about  the  huge  measurements  of  the  Edgar  Chapel  and  oiE  the 
whole  structure  ;  he  dug  and  found  them  true.  He  was 
told  to  go  on  when  he  seemed  to  have  come  to  a  solid  wall  of 
clay  ;  he  noticed  a  slight  discoloration,  dug  on,  and  found  a 
polygonal  east  end,  \\itli  a  probable  door,  which  confirmed 
se\"eral  emphatic  messages,  including : 

When  you  dig.  excavate  the  pillars  of  the  cr\pt,  si.^  feet 
below  the  grass — they  will  give  you  a  clue.  The  diregtion 
of  the  walls  .     .     eastwards  .     was  at  an  angle. 

.     .  Nothing  er.ds  twenty-seven  long  nineteen  wide. 

He  was  told  that  there  was  fine  blue  glat's  in  the  East  window* 
and  he  found  a  trench  where  blue  glass  was  thick  ;  he  wa* 
told  by  a  venerable  Saxon  to  dig  for  the  remains  of  his  wattle- 
\\ork  hut  and  he  found  blackened  wattlework  ;  he  was  told 
that  the  Chapel  had  four  bays  (as  to  which  nothing  was 
known  and  no  inference  was  possible)  and  he  found  it  to  be 
so  :  he  was  told  that  the  builder  "  did  make  the  Est  end  full 
square,  that  I  know  he  didd,  and  in  hym  three  arches  and  a 
grete  serene,"  and  he  pro\-ed  that  there  were  three  arches 
behind  the  altar,  and  found  indications  of  a  screen  wall. 
He  published,  on  the  strength  of  his  ultramundane  informa- 
tion, a  conjectural  plan  of  the  Edgar  Chapel,  long  before  the 
angular  east  end  shown  in  it  had  been  proved  to  have  existed, 
and  he  has  a  testimonial  from  the  Secretary  of  the  S.P  R 
saying  that  "  there  is  no  question  but  that  the  writing  about 
the  Edgar  Chapel  preceded  the  discovery  of  it  by  months" 
***** 

There  are  sometimes  difficulties  about  Mr.  Bond's  measure- 
ments ;  but  a  few  minor  flaws  do  not  much  impair  the  im- 
pressiveness  of  his  extraordinaiy  story.  The  curious  person 
will  hasten  neither  to  swallow  it  whole,  nor  to  call  the  author 
u  fabricator,  nor  to  invent  ingenious  plans  of  explaining  away 
the  difficult  by  the  equally  difficult.  Mr.  Bond  has  put 
his  cards  on  the  table  with  convincing  candour.  He  has 
given  us  the  text  of  a  later  series  of  communications  about  the 
lost  Loretto  Chapel.  The  building  is  stated  to  have  been 
(thus  early)  hi  the  Italian  style  ;  numerous  rough  plans  arc 
supplied  ;  and  it  remains  for  further  exploration  to  test  the 
information  given.  "  If,"  Mr.  Bond  remarks,  "  it  should 
appear  that  by  the  same  obscure  mental  process  which  has 
alreadv,  in  the  case  of  the  FZdgar  Chapel,  predicated  the 
existence,  with  practical  truth  in  form  and  detail,  of  a  building 
wliese  ^•ely  memory  was  lost  (and  tlve  evidence  for  which  had 
been  ignored,  nav  even  scouted,  by  the  most  competent 
antiquaries),  another  architectdral  treasure,  long  buried  and 
lorgotteii,  niigiit  once  again  be  brougiit  to  ligiit,  and  its 
wealth  of  Itahan  detail  verified  ;  then  indeed,  would  come  hito 
sight  new  vistas,  new  possibilities  of  exploration  and  research 
into  the  ?e';rets  of  old  time. 


iS 


LAND    &    WATER 


Januaiy  31,  1918 


Books  of  the  Week 


The  Green  Mi ppoi'.     By  Hvgh  Walpole,    Macniillaii  ami 

C(j.     t)s.  net. 
A  New  Study  of  English  Poetry.    By  HiiNRV  TS'lwbolt. 

Constable  and  Co.     los.  bd.  net. 
Japan  at  the  Cross  Roads.    By  A.  M.  PouLtv.     George 

Allen  and  Unwin.     los.  6d.  net. 

MANY  writers  iiave  set  out  to  .sliow  the  joys  of 
laniily  life,  but  Mr.  Hugh  Walpole  may  rank- 
almost  as  a  pioneer  in  fiction  in  that  he  has  shown 
how  the  ideal  of  tlie  family  mav  become  an  evil 
tiling.  Wiselv,  he  calls  The  Green  Mirror  "  a  quiet  story." 
lor  sa\e  tha't  Katherine  Trcnchard  married  Philip  Mark, 
whom  the  Trcnchard  family  disliked,  nothing  happens  111  the 
vear  which  the  book  covers.  But  the  analysis  of  the  Iren- 
l-hard  family,  in  which  the  story  is  wrapped,  is  the  main 
theme  ■  Mrs.  Trcnchard,  the  dominant  figure,  is  a  ternble 
woman,  whose  love  for  her  daughter  is  ousted  by  her  dislike 
lor  Phihp  ;  unable  to  break  the  engagement,  she  sets  herself 
to  enmesh  Philip  in  Trcnchard  traditions— she  will  not  let 
Katherine  go  to  him  and  begin  the  new  life  which  is  the  girl  s 
right,  but  will  let  him  share  Katherine  with  the  family  so  long 
as  he  is  content  to  forego  his  own  life  and  become  proud  of 
the  honour  of  being  a  Trenchard  by  marriage. 

Set  down  thus  briefly,  Mrs.  Trencharil's  plan  may  seem 
crude,  but  as  Mr.  Waplole  has  expressed  it  in  the  compass  of 
a  long— but  not  too  long— novel,  it  is  artistically  convincing. 
If  there  be  a  moral  to  the  story,  it  is  that  the  older  generation 
has  no  right  to  thwart  the  "life  aims  of  the  new.  Morals 
apart,  tlie  book  is  a  picture  of  changing  times  ;  mainly  written 
before  the  war,  it  is  a  quiet  forecast,  by  means  of  a  microcosm 
that  pictures  the  macrocosm,  of  the  great  upheaval  that  threw 
such  out-of-date  organisms  as  the  Trenchard  family  into  a 
melting  pot  from  which  emerge  not  families,  but  men  and 
women  conscious  of  and  free  to  fulfil  their  separate  destinies. 
Perhaps  the  end  to  wliich  the  book  is  designed  is  more  fully 
achieved  througii  being  embodied  in  what  its  author  justly 
termsi  "  a  quiet  story." 

m         *         *        *         * 

Twelve  essays,  most  of  which  have  already  appeared  in  the 
lorinighllv  Review,  make  up  Sir  Henry  Newbolt's  A  \ew 
Study  of  English  Poetry.  Beginning  withja  definition  of  poetry, 
the  author  goes  on  to  its  relation  to  politics,  personality, 
rliythm,  and  then  to  a  less  didactic  sketch  entitled  "  The 
Poets  and  their  Friends,"  which  paves  the  way  to  studies  of 
Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  and  British  ballads  and  ballad 
poetry.  The  rest  of  the  book  is  concerned  with  Marinetti's 
futuristic  dream,  the  relations  between  poetry  and  education, 
and  "The  Poet  and  his  Audience,"  at  the  very  end  of  which 
comes  one  of  the  finest  passages  in  the  whole  book — too  long 
lor  quotation  here. 

In  this  last  essay  as  a  whole,  the  author  has  let  his  love  of 
loetry  show  forth,  "the  previous  essays  forming  rather  a  mathe- 
natical  statement  of  poetry— if  such  a  description  be  per- 
missible— than  an  appreciation  of  poetry.  Sir  Henry  criticises, 
iveighs  and  measures  from  the  outside,  in  his  statements  of 
the  relations  of  poetry  to  the  various  aspects  of  life  ;  he  writes 
more  as  teacher  of  the  methods  of  poetry  than  as  poet,  and  as 
.1  teacher,  moreover,  who  is  writing  lor  the  advanced  student. 
1 1  is  the  voice  of  competent  authority  that  is  speaking  in  the 

first  four  essays. 

***** 

It  may  be  said  that  the  poet  gradually  emerges  from  the 
chrysalis  of  critic  ;  thus  in  "  The  Poets  and  their  Friends," 
we  come  to  mention  of  Whitehead,  and  quotation  from  his 
echo  of  Gray's  Elegy  ;  of  William  Browne,  an  earlier  and 
more  completely  forgotten  poet  ;  we  come,  too,  to  certain 
l)riniantly  sane  criticisms,  such  as  this  of  Byron — "  forced  to 
leave  England,  it  is  probable  that  though  he  gained  readers, 
he  lost  adherents.  His  case  is  a  doubly  significant  one, 
because  it  reminds  us  that  so  long  as  a  man  is  living,  so  long 
as  he  remains  in  the  sphere  of  active  hfe,  it  is  always  jwssiblc 
that  a  moral  view  may  come  in  at  any  moment  to  change  or 
interfere  with  the  purely  artistic  view  of  his  work.  Moreover, 
during  a  man's  lifetime,  his  social  position  or  his  social  credit 
may  have  an  effect  upon  our  judgment.  The  greatest  of  our 
poets  was  only  a  player  who  went  here  and  there  and  made 
himself  a  motley  to  the  view." 

There  is  in  this  pronouncement  a  ripe  kindhness,  so  dis- 
jjassionate  as  to  force  the  conviction  that  in  this  man's  hands 
the  meanest  of  versifiers  might  trust  his  work  for  criticism  ; 
and  that  quality  is  apparent  throughout  all  the  work. 
Whether  Sir  Henry  is  concerned  with  the  relation  of  poetry  to 
rhythm,  weighing  and  stating  with  the  cold  impartiality  of  a 
mathematician,  or  whether  he  is  dealing — as  he  does  deal — • 
with  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare  and  Miltoii,  with  u  true  poet's 


Iteling  lor  tlie  giaiu>  <•!  lu>  ail,  vi  wnelhcr  he  is  placing 
Marinetti,  with  an  inimitable  translation  of  Keats  into 
fuluiistic  jargon,  lie  is  never  swayed  from  his  intellectual 
study  of  his  art  to  mere  criticism  for  the  sake  of  criticising. 
Because  of  this,  his  book  is  more  creative  in  character  than 
critical  ;  he  has  put  doy-n  new  thought,  not  merely  criticised 
the  thoughts  of  others. 

.^s  for  the  sense  of  humour,  there  is  his  futuristic  translation 
of  the  best-known  stanza  of  the  "  Ode  to  a  Nightingale  "  : 

"  Bird  minus  death,  same  old  jug-jug-jug  Antiquity  Emperor 
Clown  Ruth  tears  windows  foam  fairyland  forlornness." 

But  one  must  read  the  context  to  get  tlie  full  flavour  of  this. 
It  is  given  as  "  an  honest  attempt  to  contrast  two  kinds  of 
work,  and  it  .  .  .  sufficiently  proves  tliat  a  system  of 
notation,  even  when  it  is  intelligible,  is  not  language,  and 
therefore,  though  it  may  be  used  in  description  or  enumera- 
tion, it  cannot  achieve  anything  creative." 

Within  the  limits  imposed,  adequate  review  of  this  book  is 
hardly  possible.  Tlie  author  characterises  his  own  work  as 
"  suggestive  and  not  authoritative." 


The  superficial  student  of  the  Far  East  and  il>  piubleuis, 
should  he  chance  on  Japan  at  the  Cross  Roads,  by  A.  M.  Pooley, 
will  probably  be  annoyed, 'for  the  book  will  upset  most  of  his 
conceptions  of  Japanese  hfe,  and  the  prospects  of  the  country. 
It  is,  the  author  states,  part  of  a  more  ambitious  work  dealing 
with  Japan  ;  it  is  designed,  apparently,  to  correct  the  appnt- 
ciati\e  attitude  hitherto  jjievailing  with  regard  to  Japan,  by 
means  of  very  thorough  criticism.  We  leam  from  Mr.  Pooley 
tliat  Japan  can  imitate,  but  cannot  initiate  ;  that  patriotism, 
instead  of  being  rooted  in  the  Japanese  for  centuries,  is  a  very 
new  virtue  indeed ;  that  the  country  has  been  torn  by  rival 
factions  for  years  ;  that  the  industries,  with  which  Japan 
competes  with  Britain  and  other  producing  countries,  are 
maintained  at  a  veiy  heavy  price  indeed,  and  that  the  state  of 
factories  in  Japan  is  as  bad  as  in  any  factories  in  the  world, 
twelve  and  thirteen  hours  a  day  being  the  rule  for  female 
labour.  The  author  tries  hard  to  give  credit  where  credit  is 
due,  but  he  points  out  that  for  years  Japan  has  suffered  from 
a  \'ery  thorough  system  of  press  ad\ertisement,  instigated  by 
the  government,  which  prevented  criticism  of  the  country 
and  gave  the  foreigner  a  false  conception  of  its  development. 

Mr.  Pooley  is  not  addicted  to  prophecy,  but  confines  himself 
to  statement  ;  otherwise,  it  would  be  difficult  to  see  what 
lies  beyond  the  "  cross  roads  "  for  Japan — as  it  is,  tliere  is 
plenty  of  food  lor  reflection  in  the  present  state  of  affairs,  and 
each  reader  may  decide  for  himself  where  they  are  likely  to 
lead  the  country.  Whatever  may  be  one's  conclusions  on 
this  score,  the  statements  embodied  in  the  work  will  be  found 
well  worth  perusal,  especially  those  dealing  with  commerce, 
and  with  social  conditions.  It  is  to  be  lioped  ^that  at  some 
later  date  the  author  may  find  it  possible  to  complete  the 
larger  scheme  of  which  this  book  is  a  part ;  Professor 
McLaren,  studying  the  subject  from  other  angles,  arrives  at 
virtually  similar  conclusions  to  these  of  Mr.  Pooley,  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  more  enlightened  of  Japanese 
people  will  welcome  this  frank  and  only  apparently  harsh 
criticism  of  their  country  and  itaways. 

***** 

In  tile  review  of  "  The  Keeper's  Book "  which  appeared  in 
this  colunin  on  January  17th  the  price  was  mentioned  as  12s.  Od. 
This  was  a  printer's  eiTor,  it  should  have  been  7s.  6d, 


THE 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

AND    AFTER 

1  i;bi;laky. 

Altace-Lorraine  and  the   Principle  of  Nationality :    An  Alsatian  View. 

1!.V  P.WI.  Hl.l.lirit. 
Tlie  'Conscription  of  Wealtli.'  itv  .1    A.  I;.  M.xrrioTT,  M.P. 

Tlie  Futurii  ot  India— (1)  Our  Aim  in  India:  an  Anglo-Indian  View, 

liv  Sir  FRANCIS  YOLXUHUSUAIiD,   K.O.b.l.,  K.C.I.L. 
(2)  The  Problem  before  us. 

iiy  Sir  AM)lli;\V  rHA.Slili,  K.C.S.I.  (foTincrlv  LitMit.  Governor  ol  Ucngal.) 
English  and  Americans:  the  End  of  a  long  Misunderstanding. 

Iiy   Sir  THEODORE  COOK. 
The    World's  Debt  to  Italy  and  how  to  pay  if.  Bv  J.   ELLIS   BARKEI!. 

Shakspearc  and  Italy  (concluded).  Uv  sir  KDW.\RI>  SULLIVAN.  Bart. 

The  Church  of  Engl.md  and  State  Control,    By  the  I!ev.  CYlilL  W.   E.MMET. 
The  Conscientious  Objector.  By  Profe-woi'  A.  V.  DICEY. 

Cerrrany's   Financial  Outlook.  Uv  H.  .1     .lEXNINUR. 

The  Plight  of  Spain.  bv  Dr.  E.  J.  DILLON. 

Qovernment    Relations   with   the   Press:  an   Indian    Precedent. 

liv    Sic   HOPER    I.ETHBKIDOE,   K.C.l.E. 
Incongruous  Days:  from  the  Notebook  of  a  Hospital  Orderly 

By  Coriioral   WAIiD  MUIR.   R.A.M.C.T. 
The  French.Canadians.  Bv  llii>  REV.    HAHOI.D   HAMILTON,  D.C. 

Ways  to   Industrial  Peace -(1)  The  Capfial  of  Labour:  A  Suggestion 

lor  the  EngineeriFC  Trades,     liv  tli«    liisht,  Hon.  Sir  WILLIAM  MATHER 
(2)  The   Commercialisation  ol  Labour.  By  YVES  GUY"OT. 

Londou:  S|iotti,svvi)<)ilc,  Ball^intjue  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  1,  New  Street  Square. 


January  31,  19 18 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  31,  iqiS 


The  New  Landscape 


By  Charles  Marriott 


A  Welsh  Valley 


PERHAPS  the  best  way  to  describe  the  newer  lands- 
cape painting  is  to  say  that  it  is  more  fundamental 
than  that  of  yesterday.  Caring  comparatively  little 
for  subtleties  of  light  or  atmosphere,  or  minor  acci- 
dents oi  surface,  it  lays  em  basis  upon  the  bones  of  the  land  ; 
and  it  becomes  decorative  not  so  much  by  inventing  patterns 
as  by  discovering  and  confirming  natural  rhythms. 

It  does  not  foHow  that 
tlie  landscape  of  yester- 
day was  mistaken  in  its 
aims.  Problems  of  light 
and  atmosphere  had  to 
be  mastered,  and  it  w  as 
right     to     study     the 
markings  on  the  skin  of 
the  cosmic  beast  as  well 
as  the  larger  facts  of  its 
anatomy,   and  to   gft 
skill  in  reproducing  sur 
face  and  texture.  Nor 
is  there  anything  reaUy 
new  in  the  more  modern 
landscape.  The  human 
mind  has  always  been 
possessed  with  the  idea 
of  unity  an     harmony 
under     the     apparent 
\ariety  and  irregularity 
of  Nature,  and  one  has 
only  to  turn  to  the  pic- 
tures  of    Wilson     and 
Cotman  to  see  this  idea 
expressed  or  acted  upon 
in    painting.     What  it 
amounts    to     is    that 
modern     painters     are 
"touching  earth"  again 
after  a    fruitful   excur- 
sion into  the  air.  Even 
in    their  treatment    of 

trees  one  sees  the  difference  between  their  aims 
those  of  most  nineteenth-century  painters.  They  are 
mtich  more  interested  in  the  growth  of  the  tree  than 
ill  the  flicker  of  light  on  its  foliage,  and  in  following  its 
growth  they  are  apt  to  insist  on  regularity  of  branching. 
In  short,  it  seems  as  if  modern  landscape  painters  instinctively 
recognised  that  they  have  not  fulfilled  their  function  unless 
they  have  given  us  a  stronger  hint  of  order  in  the  universe 
than  might  be  apparent  to  the  casual  eye.  Whether  this 
order  be  looked  upon  as  Divine  or  only  physical,  does  not 
really  affect  the  question  ;  there  is  a  tacit  recognition,  and 
so.Tietimes    an   over-emphatic   assertion,    of   law ;     and    th.- 


Trokes  Farm,  Devon 


and 


typical  modern  landscipo  assumes  the  origin  and  development 
of  the  earth  as  we  read  about  it  in  our  books  of  geology  :.nd 
physical  geography. 

Art  being  the  expression  of  life,  it  would  be  surprising  ratlier 
than  otherwise  if  this  renewed  sense  of  order  in  landscape 
painting  had  not  some  correspondence  in  contemporary  hfe  ; 
and  sure  enough  there  is  in  contemporary  Hfe  a  startled  "recog- 
nition   of    the   impor- 
tance of  order  and  of 
discovering  its  natural 
bases.   That  this  recog- 
nition   should     some- 
times be  expressed  in 
disorderly    ways    does 
not    alter    the    truth  ; 
at     bottom    the    Rus- 
sian   Revolution    is    a 
frantic  attempt  to  find 
the    broad    bases     of 
human    character   and 
relationship         u  p  o  n 
which    alone    a    stable 
society  can    be  organ- 
ised.   The  means  adop-  , 
ted  may  be   arbitrary 
cnc  u  ;h  ;  but  the  belief 
implied     is     that     an 
arbitrary     scheme     of 
^ociety,  such  as    "  the 
union  of  Germany  with 
the  sword  of  Prussia," 
will    not    do.       Apart 
fi  om   all  questions    of 
('C|uity  and  justice,  the 
demand   for  the  recog- 
iiition    of    nationalitv 
nallv  comes  from  the 
lielie/  that  security  re- 
quies  it.  The  attempt 
is  to   find    the    social 
there  is  room  for  many  diff  r- 
eally 


hy   Robert   Bevnn 


centre  of  gravity.     Of  course 

ences  of  opinion  as  to  where  the  social  centre  of  gravity 
lies  ;  hence  the  trouble  >  but  it  is  significant,  particularlv  in 
view  of  the  newer  landscape  painting— which  may  be  looked 
upon  as  the  unconscious  reflection  in  art  of  what  the, social 
reformers  are  bothering  their  heads  about— that  there  seems 
to  be  a  growing  conviction  that  the  social  centre  of  gravity 
IS  after  all  in  the  land.  After  all  these  years,  and  in  spite  of 
all  our  progress  in  manufacture  and  commerce,  we  are  coming 
back  to  the  belief  that  the  rock-bottom  of  ?odety  is  tlie  man 
with  the  hoe  ;  and  that  tlie  only  true  basis  of  social  .security 
'.s  a  wise  recognition   of  liis  rights  and   adjustment  of   his 


January  31,  1918 


LAND    &    WATER 


relationship  to  the  soil. 

The  difference  in  painting  is  all  the  more  striking  .f  you 
compare  modern  landscapes  with  older  ones,  such  as  those  of 
Claude  and  the  Poussins,  which  like  them  make  a  special 
feature  of  design.     In  the  older  pictures  the  designs,  though 
beautiful  and  coherent  in  themselves,  are. often  arbitrar  •  in' 
respec(  of  what  we  know  or  believe  about  natural  law.     Trees 
are  put  where  they  could  not  grow,  rivers'run,  if  not  uphill,  at 
any  rate,  in  defiance  of  probability,  and  the  lines  of  the  hills 
are  inexplicable  by  any  theory  of  gravitation.     The  modern 
landscape  painter  is  not  satisfied  unless  he  gets  these  things 
right — however  interested  he  may  be  in  his  design.     Truth, 
in  the  visual  sense,  as  it  was  understood  by  the  Impressionists, 
is     not     quite     what     I 
mean ;    for    the    modern 
landscape  painter  is  often 
careless  of   truth    to  ap- 
pearances.   Truth  to  prin- 
ciple   is    what    he    cares 
about.      Again,     in     the 
older   "  classical  "  —  and 
even  in  the  more  recen 
"  decorative  " — landscape 
the    successive  planes   of 
country    are    often    mere 
silhouettes,  like  the"  pro- 
files "   of   stage   s  enery  ; 
and   this    is    true  also  of 
the    beautiful    landscapes 
of  the  Chinese. 

The  modern  landscape 
-painter  is  exacting — some- 
times tiresomcly  exacting 
— about  his  ground  plan. 
Not  only  must  his  profiles 
be  set  in  true  and  rhyth- 
mical relationship,  but 
the  front  to  back  con- 
nection between  them 
must  be  securely  estab- 
lished. It  is  not  merely 
a  matter  of  correct  per- 
spective, for  in  his  desire 
to    give    reality     to     the 

third  dimension,  the  modern  painter  will  often  ignore  or  defy 
perspective.  He  wants  to  make  you  feel  rather  than  see  the 
weight  and  solidity  of  his  earth.  Finally,  in  the  old  er  land- 
scapes the  peasants  are  generally  playing  ;  in  the  modern 
they  are  generally  working. 

Granting  this  general  character  of  modern  landscape  there 
is  in  it  a  wide  range  of  opinion  and  treatment.     Cezanne  began 
by  putting  cmpiiasis  upon  the  masses  and  volumes  and  forces 
of  Nature  ;    and  his  more  enthusiastic  followers  carried  this 
rapidly  to  its  mathematical  conclusion.     For  a  time  it  was 
the  fashion  to  paint  diagrams  of  structure  and  "  g  aphs  " 
of  energy,  which  needed  for  their  interpretation  a  very  strong 
pictorial  imagination^ust  as  it  needs^  strong  musical  imagina- 
tion to  ititerpret  at  sight  a  figured  bass.     I  remember  seeing 
at  the  Dore  Galleries  some  remarkably  interesting  studies  of 
"  dynamsim  "  and 
"  velocity  "      and 
"  plasticity  "     by 
RussoloandBalla, 
"the  ItaHan  Futur- 
ists,   which    were 
only  not  good  pic- 
tures because   art 
is      not       mathe- 
matics.      Still,    I 
suppose  that   any 
good       piece      of 
music  is  reducible 
to    figured      bass, 
and  a  good  picture 
ought    to    be    re- 
ducible  to   a  dia- 
gram of  structure 
and  energy.    Any- 
how, whether  they 
incline      to       the 
mathematical     or 
the  fully  pictorial 
way  of  stating  re- 
ality modern  land- 
icape  painters 

seem  to  be  agreed 
that  the  la  e — o 
ba  s — is    ihe    im- 
portant th  ng; and 
if  they  tike    any- 


B<j  WiliMm   Rolhiiihlr.u 


The  Storm 


thing  for  granted  it  is  that  part  of  the  subject  which 
corresponds  to  the  upper  parts  in  music  ;  the  atmospheric 
elements  which  were  just  what  the  Impressionists  were  most 
keen  about. 

Analogies  between  one  art  and  another  are  risky,  but  it 
always  seems  to  ny  that  the  music  of  such  composers  as 
Debussy  is  a  rather  belated  correspondence  to  Impressionism 
in  painting  ;  and  I  beUcve  that  the  next  move  in  music  will 
be  a  return,  with  a  difference,  to  something  more  solid  and 
formal,  in  which  the  bass  will  again  have  the  obvious 
importance  that  it  has  in  the  music  of  Bach  and 
Handel.  This  is  only  speculation,  but  what  is  bejond 
speculation  is  that  vvKcreas  the   philosophy,  art   and  music 

of  the  recent  past 
were  most  concerned  with 
variety  and  irregularity — 
with  superficial  differ- 
ences and  accidents — thty 
are  now  preoccupied  with 
fundamental  unity  and 
order.  In  a  word,  the 
concern  of  the  moment 
all  round  is  with  soli- 
darity. 

It  is  indeed  remarkable 
to    look    round  a  modern 
exhibition,    such    as    the 
present  one   of  the    New 
English  Art  Club,  andste 
bow  many   of     the   land- 
scapes dispense  even  w  th 
trees.    Desire  for  breadth 
is  not  enough  to  account 
for   the  choice    of  moun- 
tains ;     it    is    rather    the 
desire   for  structure.     "  A 
Welsh    Valley,"     by    Mr. 
Adria^i    P.     Allinson,     is 
t/pical.      Apart   from   iti 
merits  as  a  picture  it  is  a  • 
passionate      exercise      in 
physical  geography.     Not 
that     modern     landscape 
painters      really     neglect 
the  atmosphere     The  difference   is  that   they  are  more  con- 
cerned  with  what  may  be   called,  its  plastic  and  dynamic 
character  and  possibilities    than    with   its   effects  of  colour. 
This  corresponds  curiously  with  the  new  conception   of   the 
atihosphere  that   has   been  forced  upon   us  by  the   new  art 
of  lying.     Such  terms  as  "  air  pockets."  "  banking, "and  "  side- 
shpping  "  have  made  the  least  reflective  familiar  with  the 
idea  of  the  atmosphere  as  a  highly  organised  element  with  a 
.  more  or  less  definite  structure  and  movement.     The -tendency 
in  painting  is  to  make  the  structure  and  movement  visible, 
not  only  as  they  are  obvious  in  the  architecture  of  clouds, 
but  by  arbitrary  expedients  ;   so  that,  Hke  pigs,  we  are  made 
actually  to  ''  see  the  wind."     Apart  from  the  gain  in  reality 
this   expedient  helps   to  bring  home  the  conception    of   the 
universe  as  one  great  orgitnism  ;  of  different  densities,  maybe, 

but  closely  articu- 
lated in  form  and 
enery  ;   an  organ- 
ism  in  which,    to 
quote  Thompson  : 
"  .\11  things  by  im- 
mortal power, 
Neai  or  far, 
Hiddenly, 
To      each       other 

linked  are, 
That  thou  cans't 
not  stir  a  flower, 
Without  troubling 
oi  a  star." 
The  unconscious 
aim,  in  fact,  of 
modern  landscape 
painting  seems  to 
be  to  help  our 
blindness  by  mak- 
ing evident  the 
"urgent  rest"  with 
which  the  heaven 
"  betrays  the  eyes 
that  on  it  gaze  "  ; 
to  explode  the 
"  still  lie  "  with 
which  the 
invests  its  ' 
particled 

„,,  .  .  tion." 

Whernside 


llolnn-H 


stone 
inter- 
vibra- 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  31,   1918 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


Names  and  addresses  of  shops,  where  the  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  mil  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
4iddressed  to  Passe-Partotti,  Land  &  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  W.C.  2.     Any  oilier  information  will  be  given  on  request. 


A  Woman's 
British  Warm 


Tlie  most  arctic  weather  can  be  faced 
with  equanimity  by  any  woman  lucky 
enough  to  have  a  really  warm  coat.  Not 
■one  of  those  delusions  and  snares  which,  while  professing  pro- 
tection really  let  in  the  cold  in  a  most  untoward  manner,  but  a 
winter  coat  honestly  worthy  of  its  name. 

.\  coat  bound  to  stand  its  wearer  in  good  stead,  though  the 
thermometer  may  register  seven  below  zero,  has  been  intro- 
duced by  a  well-known  London  firm.  This  is  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  a  woman's  British  warm — certainly  a  first  cousin 
to  the  coat  hitherto  associated  with  a  man  in  the  service. 
Soldiers  for  long  years  past  have  discovered  so  forcibly  that 
the  British  warm  is  the  best  coat  in  the  coldest  weather, 
that  they  will  not  grudge  its  main  idea  being  absorbed  for 
members  of  the  other  sex.  For  women  war  workers  of  all 
kinds  this  coat  is  without  rival,  since  besides  being  incompar- 
ably warm,  it  is  astonishingly  light  as  well — a  point  in  which 
winter  coats  do  not  always  excel. 

The  cut  and  design  are  all  that  can  be  desired;  the  coat 
not  being  cut  in  the  pea-jacket  fashion  the  original  men's 
British  warms  were,  but  with  a  buckled  belt,  and  longer. 
.Nice  roomy  pockets  are  an  additional  recommendation,  and 
there  is  a  third  pocket — a  breast  one — to  count  upon.  A  long 
becoming  revers  line  plays  its  part  when  the  coat  is  open,  or 
the  collar  can  be  turned  up  snugly  round  the  face  and  secured 
round  the  neck.  The  soft  fleecy  material  used  is  a  super- 
lative one,  giving  yeoman  service  in  a  reliable  way. 


A   Whistling 
Kettle 


Now  that  tea  seems  likely  to  grow  scarcer 
than  pearls,  it  is  of  first  rate  importance 
that  we  make  the  most  of  what  we  have. 
Less  tea  can  certainly  be  used  when  it  is  really  well  made  with 
■every  detail  as  it  should  be,  it  being  needless  then,  for  instance, . 
to  follow  the  time-honoured  fetish  of  allowing  one  teaspoon  ful 
over  "  for  the  pot."  The  water,  however,  must  really  be 
boiling,  not  ssmi-boiling,  or  even  minus  that  half-hearted 
pretence. 

With  a  whistling  kettle  anyone  can  secure  perfectly  boiling 
water  without  fail,  for  the  simple  reason  that  once  the  water 
boils  the  kettle  whistles  to  tell  us  so.  Whistling  kettles  are 
not  precisely  a  novelty,  but  since  they  were  first  introduced 
one  or  two  improvements  have  been  made  in  them.  The 
best  whistling  kettle  possible  can  be  bought  to-day  for  is.  8^d. 
or  IS.  ii?,d.  according  to  size,  and  what  is  more,  atone  par- 
ticular place  a  good  supply  may  be  found  of  them.  This  is 
worth  knowing  since  it  is  one  thing  to  want  a  thing  nowadays 
and  quite  another  to  get  it. 

With  these  kettles  care  should  be  taken  not  to  fill  them 
civcr  full,  as  then  the  steam  does  not  escape  by  the  way  it 
should,  and  the  whistle  is  neutralised.  It  is  good  news  to  hear 
that  the  kettle  has  a  large  flat  surface  and  so  boils  quickly 
not  making  extravagant  inroads  on  fire  or  gas. 

^  The  Government  restrictions  on  boot  tops 

Outers  which,  unless  some  change  is  made,  will 

be  in  force  by  the  time  these  words  appear 
in  print,  make  some  new  boot  top  gaiters  all  the  more  notice- 
able. These  are  so  shaped  as  to  look  exactly  like  a  high  cloth 
top  to  a  boot,  but  apart  from  look' the  primary  point  now 
commending  them  to  most  womenfolk  is  the  e.xceptional 
warmth  they  give.  With  a  pair  of  shoes  augmented  by  these 
top  gaiters  a  woman  is  as  cosily  booted  in  cold  weatheras  she 
vtcW.  can  be. 

These  boot  top  gaiters  are  very  carefully  cut  and  made 
with  a  particular  eye  to  their  good  fit.  Tliey  lace  down  the 
centre  just  in  the  same  way  as  an  ordinary  laced  boot  does, 
and  what  is  more  at  the  moment  they  come  under  the  aegi, 
of  a  sjx'cial  Fcbruarv  sale.  Reduction  of  price  then  is  yet  a 
furtJier  reco.Timendation,  and  one  which  everyone  with  economy 
at  heart  will  seize.     Gaiters  of  the  kind  in  black,  srey,  nigger 


brown,  navy  blue,  or  black,  cost  5s.  3d.,  and  an  inexpensive 
])roposition  they  are. 

Then  there  are  some  other  boot  top  gaiters  of  slightly 
superior  cloth,  but  available  in  dark  blue  or  black  only. 
They  are  7s.  6d.  in  price,  the  sale  being  once  more  operative 
here  and  enabling  them  to  be  bought  at  a  sum  which,  once 
I'ebruary  is  out,  is  not  likely  to  be  quoted  soon  again. 


White  Washable 
Kid    Gloves 


As  far  as  sheer  look  is  concerned,  nothing 
comes  up  to  white  kid  gloves,  these 
having  a  particular  charm  of  their  own 
and  go  an  incredibly  long  way  in  stamping  a  woman  as 
really  well  dressed.  Yet  white  gloves  with  cleaner's  prices 
increased  tremble  perilously  near  the  brink  of  an  extrava- 
gance— white  kid  gloves,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  usual  typo. 

Some  white  washable  kid  gloves,  then,  are  most  particularly 
welcome,  since  with  reasonable  care  they  can  be  washed 
over  and  over  again  at  home  and  the  cleaner's  bill  eliminated. 
Instructions  as  to  the  best  way  of  washing  them  should  be 
sought  from  tlje  famous  firm  responsible,  because  hke  many 
other  things,  in  washing  them  there  lies  a  certain  knack.  The 
gloves  hail  from  France,  that  home  of  perfect  gloves — and 
are  all  that  a  good  kid  glove  should  be.  For  the  next  four 
weeks  sale  prices  distinguish  them,  an  announcement  which 
cannot  be   too  strongly  emphasised. 

While  the  sale  is  on  these  gloves  will  be  reduced  to  4s.  iid. 
a  pair,  a  price  at  which  they  are  specially  well  worth  buying. 
Fnquiry  too,  might  be  made  at  the  same  time  about  some 
English  white  washable  doeskin  gloves,  these  being  down  to 
4s.  2d.  and  sure  to  increase  to  5s.  2d.  once  the  sale  is  over,  01 
grow  even  dearer  ! 


The   Treasure 
Cot 


Such  is  the  by  no  means  exaggerated 
name  for  one  of  the  best  and  most  con- 
venient cots  for  baby  ever  yet  invented. 
To  quote  particulars,  "  it  folds  up  like  a  camp  stool  and  can 
be  as  easily  carried  about  in  or  out  of  doors."  To  all  intents 
and  purposes  it  is  the  principle  of  a  hammock  slung  from 
support  to  support  and  is  just  as  comfortable,  there  being  no 
metal  or  anything  hard  of  the  kind  to  inconvenience  the  child. 
Another  factor  is  the  easy  way  in  which  the  Treasure  Cot  can 
be  kept  scrupulously  clean — and  this  without  any  imdue 
exertion  or  work.  The  hammock  just  slips  off  for  cleaning, 
the  frame-work  left  being  the  simplest,  most  uncomplicated 
affair.  When  not  in  use  the  cot  can  just  be  closed  together 
and  stood  against  a  wall.  Lightness  is  a  foregone  conclusion, 
the  weight  teing  about  nine  lbs. 

The  Ust  of  advantages,  indeed,  is  a  lengthy  one,  but  to  them 
must  be  added  the  fact  that  when  baby  travels  his  bed  can 
travel  with  him.  A  special  holdall  is  made,  into  which  a 
treasure  cot  can  slip,  it  being  then  as  compact  a  package  as 
anyone  could  wish  for  or  see.  The  treasure  cot  can  be  had  in 
all  kinds  of  varieties  for  rich  or  poor  alike.  Besides  being 
bought  by  some  of  the  best  known  people  in  the  land,  it  is 
also  en  evidence  at  more  than  one  East  End  creche,  being 
precisely  what  is  needed  for  this  particular  purpose.  To  suit 
different  requirements,  it  can  either  be  made  in  plain  wood, 
stained  wood  or  white  enamel,  one  and  all  being  listed  at  highly 
moderate  prices.  A  descriptive  leaflet  giving  all  kinds  of  illus- 
'  trations  and  particulars  will  be  sent  if  asked  for. 

To  show  how  genuine    the  offer  is,  it   will  gladly  b**   sent 
on  one  week's  approval. 


Electrical  heating  and  cookin,^.  ideal  from  the  point  of  view  cf 
sanitation,  also  deserves  every  encouragement  at  the  present  tim  ■ 
on  the  score  of  economy  of  fuel  supplies,  and  thus  the  range  of  elfcctrit;J 
cciokers  and  heaters  described  in  the  list  issued  by  Messrs.  Belling  and 
Co.,  will  prove  of  real  interest  wherever  current  is  available.  The 
range  of  supplies  for  factories  is  very  large,  including  electric  sold  r 
pots,  glue  pots,  boiling  rings,  engine  warmers,  etc.,  and  this  in  addition 
to  cookets  and  boilers.  For  manufacturing  works  of  every  description, 
for  mess  rooms,  hospitals,  and  the  like.  Messrs.  Belling's  appliances  will 
be  found  to  save  rime  and  money,  while  their  use  does  away  with  th.c 
du  t  and  dirt  that  always  accompanies  ordinary  heating  arrangemen" 
Lists  will  be  sent  free  on  application  to  Messrs.  Belling  and  Co.:  rveiby 
■Road  Works,  Montague  Road,  Edmonton.  Ix)ndon,  N.18 


LAND  &  WATER 

Vol.  LXX  No  2909.  [v^r]         THURSDAY.  FEBRUARY  7,  1918  [rSk\^i^rvil]  ^^'^l^^T^i^l 


C«— — I  I      .  I  w    «•  . 


IT_,  o  u  I  fT^P  mat-  r^*^^ 


Cuifgityni     i^'H     M    L^,A. 


Copyright  "Land  X-   Wnlfr 


The  Beast  of  Prey 


Land    &    Water 


February  7,  1918 


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February  7,  1918 


Land   &    Water 


3 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :   HOLBORN    2828. 


THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  7,   1918 


Contents 


The  Beast  of  Prey.     By  Louis  Raemaekers 

An  Observation  Post.     By  Capt.  G.  Spencer  Pryse,  M.L 

The  Outlook  ^    ,,.,  .      „  „ 

The  New  State  in  Europe— IV.     By  Hilaire  BeUoc 

The  Two  Blockades.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

John  Rathom's  Revelations 

High  Wages  and  High  Prices.     By  Harold  Cox 

The  Faith  of  the  Soldier.     By  Centurion 

British  Forestry.     By  Sir  Herbert  Matthews 

The  Senefelder  Club.     By  Charles  Marriott 

Home-coming  (A  Poem).     By  X.  M.  F.  Corbett 

The  Liars.     By  J.  C.  Squire 

Judith  Gautier.     By  Arthur  Symons 

"Domestic  Economy 

Notes  on  Kit 


PAGE 

I 
2 

?y 

II 

14 
15 
17 
19 

20 

21 
22 
24 

ix 


The  Outlook 


Submarines 

THE  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  issued  to  the  Press 
at  the  end  of  last  week  a  comment  of  the  highest 
interest  which  is  dealt  with  at  length  elsewhere  in 
this  issue.  Its  main  points  were  the  definite  infor- 
mation that  the  exaggeration  of  German  published 
statistics  over  the  real  statistics  of  submarine  losses  is  in- 
creasing the  First  Lord's  own  judgment  that  the  submarines 
are  now  being  suiik  as  fast  as  the  enemy  builds  them,  and  that 
our  own  production  of  tonnage— apart  from  the  Allies— is 
already  greater  than  it  was  in  the  record  year  before  the  war 
and  will  have  doubled  before  the  end  of  i()i8- 

The  First  Lord  also  made  a  reference  to  moral,  which  was 
of  high  interest,  especially  in  its  defence  of  the  policy  of 
secrecy  in  regard  to  the  sinkings  of  U  boatsC  The  factor 
of  uncertainty  is  a  very  powerful  one  in  such  a  business  as 
this  and  the  excellent  political  discipline  which  has  permitted 
a  complete  silence  and  has  forbidden  the  enemy  to  learn  any- 
tliing  save  the  most  indirect  scraps  of  knowledge,  is  bearing 
fruit.  The  more  men  know  of  war  the  more  they  appreciate 
the  value  of  such  secrecy  in  weakening  the  enemy,  and  therefore 
the  \alue  of  a  strong  civilian  temper  which  can  stand  the  lack 
of  news  without  cracking. 

American  Communications 

Sir  Eric  Geddes  also  tells  us  in  this  pronouncement  (which 
was  in  the  form  of  an  inteiview  granted  to  the  Associated  Press 
of  America)  that  there  is  no  sign  of  a  withdrawal  of  German 
submarines  in  preparation  for  a  concentrated  attack  against 
American  lines  of  communication.  This  refers  to  a  question 
almost  as  important  as  the  question  of  food  supply  for  this 

country.  ,.,,,,,■ 

A  factor  still  unknown,  and  one  upon  which  halt  the  issue 
of  the  coming  fighting  season  depends,  is  the  power  of  the  enemy 
to  interfere  with  this  terribly  long  line  of  sea  communication 
by  which  the  American  forces  and  supply  can  alone  reach 
Europe.  Some  interference  is  inevitable.  Whether  it  will 
be  small,  normal  as  judged  by  our  communications,  for  in- 
stance in  the  Mediterranean,  large  or  very  large,  makes  all 
the  difference  to  the  campaign  of  1918.  If  it  is  small,  if  the 
peculiar  difficulties  of  maintaining  submarine  action  far  from 
bases  and  under  oceanic  conditions'  prove  to  be  much  higher 
thati  the  enemy  expected,  his  chances  are  proportionately 
lowered.  For  norrtial  and  more  than  normal  losses  as  judged 
by  the  Mediterranean  and  the  home  seas  the  Allies  have 
allowed.  Much  larger  losses  would  obviously  throw  the 
balance  heavily  in  favour  of  the  enemy,  and  this  uncertain 
factor  is  the  one  that  will  be  most  closely  watched  in  the 
coming  months. 

Pensions  )and  Politics 

An  announcement  communicated  to  the  Press  last  week 
with  regard  to  the  policv  of  pensions  shows  an  cNtraordintirN- 
blindness  to  the  political  problems  which  will  arise  after  the 


war.  It  was  therein  solemnly  announced  that  a  Committee 
of  Parliamentarians  had  nominated  themselves  to  deal  with 
that  most  perilous  of  problems  "  as  a  non-party  question. 

It  is  really  deplorable  that  at  this  time  of  day  publKfmen 
should  still  be  using  the  terminology  of  a  past  which  has  com- 
pletely disappeared  and  apparently  living  in  that  past.  It  is, 
of  course,  quite  clear  that  if  the  future  elections  were  to  be 
fought  between  an  existing  Liberal  Party  and  an  existmg 
Conservative  Party,  nothing  could  be  more  unpatriotic  and 
even  suicidal  than  for  the  two  Official  candidates  to_be  bidding 
one  against  the  other  promising  an  increase  of  the  war 
pensions.  But  the  elcxtions  cannot  possibly  take  that  torm 
even  if  the  old  official  plan  of  two  candidates  named  each 
by  his  caucus  is  adhered  to,  nothing  would  prevent  the  appear- 
ance of  one  or  more  others,  and  the  Independent  candidate  will 
be  severely  tempted  to  promise  the  impossible  in  the  way  ot 

^^ThTonly  safeguard  is  a  well-studied  declaration  widely 
distributed  and  debated  before  the  elections  upon  the  whole 
policy  of  pensions,  so  that  the  public  at  large  may  becorne 
familiar  with  the  limits  beyond  which  national  finance  wiU  be 
imperilled.  1 

A  General  Election 

All  questions  connected  with  the  next  general  election 
remind  one  that  the  whole  policy  of  taking  in  election  soon,, 
or  indeed  at  all,  before  the  war  is  concluded,  is  open  to  a  very 
grave  objection  which  has  not  been  sufficiently  exercised. 
The  arguments  in  favour  are  that  the  authority  of  Government 
at  large  would  be  strengthened  by  an  election,  and  the  House  ot 
Commons  would  be  purged  of  its  unworthy  members,  etc.  etc. 
The  arguments  against  are  that  the  absent  miUions  would  not 
know  how  to  vote  even  if  they  could  be  consulted  as  Colonial 
troops  have  been,  that  the  result  would  therefore  be  fictitious, 
and  that  it  would  be  difiicult  to  find  a  direct  issue  on  which 
men  could  vote,  etc.,  etc.  jo-       ^ 

The  real  argument  for  and  against  is  of  quite  a  ditterent 
nature.  The  argument  for  is  that  such  an  election  would 
produce  a  House  of  Commons  and  a  Government  which  could 
carry  on  over  the  difficult  period  of  reconstruction  after  peace, 
and"  that  the  authorities  would  not  be  under  the  disability 
of  consulting  the  nation  in  that  most  critical  moment  of  all— 
the  transition  from  war  conditions  to  after  war  conditions. 
It  is  this  argument  which  really  lurks  at  the  back  of  the 
mind  of  those  professional  politicians  at  least  who  are  anxious 
for  an  early  election. 


P^xample  of  our  Allies 


On  the  other  hand,  the  argument  against  is  that  pqpular 
(minion  might  not  tolerate  such  a  trick.  A  general  election 
has  the  effect  in  nonnal  times  of  turning  the  key  on  popular 
liberty  and  its  expressions.  All  really  unpopular  measures 
in  the  past  have  been  imposed  by  a  House  of  Commons  which 
knew  that  it  would  not  have  to  meet  the  electors  for  a  long 
time  to  come.  But  the  temper  of  the  people  in  the  penod 
immediately  succeeding  the  war  will  be  very  far  from  normal, 
and  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  unpopular  measures 
can  be  shielded  in  this  old-fashioned  way.  ,,      „ 

A  public  declaration  that  a  second  election  would  follow 
within,  say,  six  months  of  peace  (the  pohcy  of  such  a  declara-  ■ 
tion  has  been  suggested  in  some  quarters)  woi)ld  unfor- 
tunately be  of  Uttlc  effect,  because  the  public  would  not  beheve 
that  such  a  pledge  would  be  kept.  The  probabilities  are  that 
an  early  election  will  be  forced  none  the  less  by  the  politicians, 
and  this  will  provoke  after  peace  the  summoning  of  volun- 
tary unofficial  bodies  whose  resolutions  will  count  more  than 
those  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  will  intimidate  and 
perhaps  override  it.  ,      •  i  n. 

The  way  out  is  to  postpone  a  general  election  until  there 
is  peace.  We  might  do  well  in  this  matter  to  consider  the 
example  of  our  Allies. 

Air-Raids  on  Paris 

The  air-raid  over  Paris  is  of  great  significance  in  two  ways. 
First  it  is  an  example  of  the  inabiUty  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment'to  keep  permanently  to  one  policy  ;  next,  it  is  an  exaniple 
of  what  will  probably  appear,  perhaps  in  decisive  proportion, 
during  the  last  phase  of  the  war. 

As  to  the  first  ]3oint,  it  has  been  increasingly  the  marK  ot 
German  international  politics  from  the  time  when  Pnnce 
Bismarck  fell,  and  has  been  particularly  evident  during  this 
great  struggle.  It  is  clear  both  from  the  tone  of  the  German 
press  and  of  the  German  speeches,  and  from  the  action  of  the 
enemy  that  for  the  last  year  and  a  half  he  has  banked  on  the 
chances  of'  scu.irating  the  British  and  the  French.  This 
policy  has  hail  many  aspects.    Its  chief  actfvity  has  been 


+ 


Land    ex    W^ater 


February    7,   19 1-8 


shown  in  communicating  to  the  German  agents  in  the  AUicd 
coimtrio'^  arguments  for  publication.  In  England  antl 
Amt'rica  wc  have  had  Alsace  Lorraine  harped  upon  perpetually 
and  its  insignificance  to  the  Britisli  and  American  public 
emphasised.  In  the  corresponding  quarters  in  France  we 
ha\-e  had  the  exactly  opposite  suggestion  -the  suggestion 
that  France  could  obtain  ver\'  liberal  terms,  and  that  the 
prolongation  of  the  war  was  onlv  a  capitalist  and  therefore 
•  hiefly  a  British  commercial  interest. 

While  this  h;is  been  the  principal  method,  one  of  the  sub- 
sidiary- ones  has  been  the  deliberate  sparing  of  Paris  from 
air  raids  while  the  raiding  <)f  London  got  more  and  more 
severe.  It  was  calculateil  both  that  this  policy  would  tend 
to  increase  a  desire  for  peace  auKmg  the  French  and  a  dis- 
content with  the  authorities  on  the  part  of  the  En^ish  who 
would  contrast  the  immunity  of  Paris  with  the  peril  of 
London,  and  complain  that  "their  defences  were  neglected 
or  in  bad  hands.  Indeed,  we  know  that  such  complaints  were 
made  freely  and  that  the  enemy  f)bjcct  was  therefore  in  part 
achieved.  Now  in  a  mood  of  petulance  the  enemy  throws 
up  the  whole  of  this  plan,  and  by  a  raid  on  Paris  which,  of 
course,  he  could  have  carried  out  at  any  time  in  the  last  two 
years,  has  destroyed  all  the  effect  of  his  former  policy. 

Allies  Aerial  Offensive 

The  second  point  is  also  of  great  interest.  The  raid  on 
Paris,  like  all  those  on  London,  shows  us  what  the  new  feature 
will  be  in  the  coming  phase  of  the  war.  It  will  be,  as  we  all 
kncnv,  the  gieatly  increased  effect  of  the  flying  machine  an  1 
in  particular  the  effect  it  will  have  upon  a  civilian  population. 
What  we  have  to  remember  is  that  hitherto,  as  in  every  other 
singl<>  case  of  the  enemy's  abandonment  of  common  European 
niorals,  the  advantage  consequent  upon  such  a  breach  of 
implied  contract  has  during  the  first  period  lain  with  him. 
It  was  so  with  the  use  of  poison  gas.  It  has  been  so  for  months 
in  the  case  of  the  submarine.  It  will  be  so  should  he  take 
to  tainting  the  water  supplies  of  great  towns — were  that 
possible  to  him— or  to  any  other  form  of  that  indiscriminate 
imu-der  to  which  he  has  reduced  the  noble  profession  of  arms 
and  by  wliicli  he  hai  disgraced  the  old  pride  of  the  soldier. 

Now  in  this  case,  unlike  the  example  of  the  submarine  and 
like  the  example  of  the  poison  gas,  his  breach  of  common 
European  morals  will  hardly  be  to  his  advantage.  It  is  true 
that  the  capitals,  Berlin  and  Vienna,  are  much  further  from 
the  lines  than  Paris  and  London.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
modern  Germany  is  a  confederation  and  the  chief  centre  of  its 
industrial  life  is,  though  much  further  from  the  lines  than 
Paris,  yet  well  within  \'ulnerable  distance.  When  everything 
is  ready  for  prolonged  and  repeated  Allied  action  agaiiist  the 
towns  of  the  Rhine  basin,  the  enemv  will  as  sureh' Vegret  his 
inauguration  of  this  form  of  warfare' as  he  has  learnt  to  regret 
his  inauguration  of  the  use  of  poison  gas  in  .\pril  1915. 

(ierman  Civilian  Moral 

The  remaining  strei  gth  of  Germanv  in  this  war  reall\- 
depends  upon  the  imnia.uty  of  its  civilian  population.  The 
lact  that  the  battles  have  been  fought  on  the  soil  of  the  Allies 
and  that  German  soil  has  remained  intact,  that  the  German 
towns  have  been  well  lit  and  normally  protected  during  the 
courst>  of  the  war,  that  all  the  circumstances  of  civilised  life 
.save  the  actual  privations  throngli  the  blockade,  have  been 
those  of  a  people  shielded  from  the  consequences  of  war, 
which  have  given  to  the  enemy  a  constancy  not  always  founcl 
in  the  Grand  Alliance. 

The  (ierman  is  peculiarly  susceptible  to  nerves.  Neglecting 
altogether  the  newspaper  telegrams  purporting  to  come  from 
Holland  and  Switzerland,  we  know  from  excellent  sources 
what  the  effect  of  bombing  has  been  on  Treves  and  Karlsruhe. 
Civilian  moral  in  those  unllapp^•  places,  to  cpiote  but  two,  has 
gone  to  pieces,  and  the  shrieks  of  the  German  Press,  in  re- 
gard to  the  latter  to  An  especially,  were  like  nothing  that  has . 
appeared  m  the  Allied  Press  even  after  the  worst  raids  on 
London. 

.\n  intensi\e  j^o'icy  of  raiding,  therefore,  on  the  part  of  the 
Allies,  when  their  superior  resources  shall  have  given  them,  as 
they  soon  will,  an  ample  material  for  such  action,  will  have  a 
very  great  effect  upon  the  enemy*and  perhaps  a  decisive  one. 

The  Strikes  I 

It  is  difficult  to  assess  the  exact  value  of  the  strikes  in  Berlin 
and  the  mdustrial  centres  of  Germany.  We  know  that  the 
civilian  element  is  well  disciplined  ;  we  also  know  that  the 
working  classes  are  suffering  from  privations  of  fooJ.  More- 
over, It  was  palpable  that  if  the  strikes  threatened  to  work 
serious  harm  to  the  armies  in  the  field,  thev  would  be  suppressed 
with  the  same  mercilessness  that  Prussian  militarism  alwaj's 


show-,  to  those  over  \\;hom  it  has  power,  whenever  they  stand 
in  its  way. 

The  most  important  factor  is  that  these  strikes  recur  ;  and 
their  recurrence  becomes  more  and  more  frequent.  Bread 
rather  than  franchise  is  probabh'  the  main  cause,  but  ex- 
perience teaches  directly  ci\il  disciiiline  give*  way,  the  revolt 
receives  help  from  all  to  whom  this  discipline  is  repugnant. 

There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  spirit  of  these 
strikes  has  touched  the  (ierman  N'avy  more  than  once,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  it  has  yet  reached  the  (ierman  ,\rmy, 
and  until  the  army  is  affected,  no  political  significance  can  be 
attached  to  them,  beyond  that  they  are  straws,  showing  how 
the  popular  breeze  is  changing. 

British  Ag-riculturists 

The  leading  agriculturists  were  invited  to  meet  Mr.  Prothero 
and  Lord  Rliondda  at  Westminster  last  week  :  they  accepted 
the  invitation,  heheving  that  an  opjiortunity  was  to  be  afforded 
to  them  to  express  their  views,  to  oStain  exact  information 
and  to  remove  from  the  official  mind  certain  misunder- 
standings. They  went  away  disappointed,  for  all  that  their 
long  journey  had  resulted  in  was  to  listen  to  two  speeches, 
good  in  their  way.  but  which  carried  the  practical  farmer  no 
larther.  The  Minister  of  .Agriculture  has,  we  are  glad  to  say, 
been  quick  to  rectify  the  error  ;  he  has  invited  these  same 
gentlemen  to  return  to  Westminster  next  Wednesday,  ivjjen  he 
will  be  ready  to  listen  to  them. 

There  is  no  great  industry  which  suffers  so  acutely  as 
agriculture  from  ignorance,  and  from  that  peculiarly  pernicious 
form  of  ignorance  which  arises  out  of  superficial  knowledge. 
The  scientist  is  not  the  least  offender  in  this  respect  ;  nor  is 
this  surprising  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  science  and  chemistry 
have  been  powerless  to  demonstrate  why  a  few  acres  on  a 
certain  hillside  can  produce  a  grape  or  a  coffcc-bcan  possessed 
of  a  fIa\-our  impossible  elsewhere,  or  why,  as  in  Cuba,  a  single 
valley  grows  tobacco  leaves  having  an  aroma  impossible  to 
reproduce  in  other  quarters  of  the  world. 

The  conservatism  of  the  farmer,  which  we  arc  apt  to  deride, 
is  much  like  the  conservatism  of  the  Oriental,  which  the 
Western  mind  is  at  last  beginning  to  comprehend  ;  it  is  based 
on  empirical  knowledge,  which  has  time  and  again  proved 
Itself  a  sounder  guide  than  scientific  advice.  The  fault  that 
has  been  made  in  all  food  production  schemes  in  this  country 
IS  that  the  advice  of  the  trained  agriculturist  has  not  been 
sufficiently  sought  or  followed. 

Wages  Committee 

Meantime  the  farmers  are  working  heart  and  soul  to  place 
the  agricultural  industry  in  a  sounder  position  than  before. 
The  Agricultural  Wages  Board  has  just  issued  a  circular  to 
all  farmers  asking  them  to  give  every  facility  to  those  of  their 
men  who  may  be  elected  b\-  the  fellow-labourers  to  service 
on  the  District  Wages  Committees. 

"  Nothing  in  our  opinion."  the  Board  writes,  "would  be 
more  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  agriculture  than  an 
attempt  by  individuals  to  interfere  with  or  impede  the  acce  pt- 
ance  b\-  aii\'  man  of  an  invitatipn  to  represent  his  class  on 
these  Committees." 

Public  Rationing- 

Ratio'iing  is  at  last  in  sight  :  before  the  month  is  out,  all 
arrangements  should  have  been  completed  in  so  far  as  meat 
and  fats  are  concerned.  Bread  may  soon  be  added  to  the 
list.  Meantime,  th  queues  continue  to  increale,  and  those 
who  hold  that  there  is  a  fascination  for  a  certain  type  of  woman 
in  standing  in  queues,  seem  to  be  justified. 

As  was  to  be  expected,  the  difficulties  of  marketing  are  far 
greater  in  towns  than  in  the  country,  where,  beyond  a  differ- 
ence in  quality,  things  remain  more"  or  less  normal.  There  is 
still  plenty  of  game  in  the  country,  and  we  wonder  whether 
it  will  be  permissible  to  market  the  eggs  of  pheasants  and 
partridges.  One  knows  by  experience  that  the  first  nests  of 
both  might  be  taken  without  diminishing  the  stock  next 
autumn,  provided,  of  course,  thf  wejither  be  favourable 
f  Jf  the  second  brood.  Sea-birds'  eggs  were  as  a  matter  of  fact 
used  for  food  in  increasingly  large  numbers  last  spring  in  the 
North  of  England  What  "is  required  in  these  times  is  a 
supple  mind  that  is  always   on  the  look  out   for  new  food. 

These  proposals  we  are  aware  are  trivial  ones,  but  they  are 
put  forward  not  f  r  th  ir  intrinsic  merit,  but  merely  to  suggest 
how  in  a  sco^e  of  little  ways  evervonc  can  help  towaifds  the 
solutio.i  of  food  pio')lems.  Think  what  the  countless  roods  of 
potato  patches  did  last  yrer,  in  so  far  as  this  staple  was  con- 
cerned. The  more  an  individual,  whether  living  in  town  or 
country,  can  be  self-supporting,  the  better  service  lie  renders 
to  his  countrv 


February    7,  191  8 


Land    &   Water 


The  New  State  in  Europe— IV  :  By  Hilaire  Belloc 


In  his  concluding  article  Mr.  Belloc  deals  with  the  economic 
aspjct  of  th;  Prussian  domination  over  Eastern  Europe. 

THE  last  point  to  be  made  upon  the  New  State 
which  Prussia  has  set  up  in  liurope  is  economic. 
The  economic  aspect  of  a  natioi  is  too  much 
emphasised  to-day.  The  economic  aspect  of  history 
has  even  been  put  forward  in  the  Universities  to  the 
exclusion  of  other  aspects,  and  economic  causes  have  even  been 
falsely  called  the  sole  fundamental  causes  of  all  historical 
pheno.Tiena.  But  precisely  because  the  economic  aspect 
occupies  this  e.xaggerated  position  to-day,  one  can  use  it  as  a 
weapon  in  argument.  If  you  can  convince  a  man  that  tliis 
new  Central  State  will  have  a  certain  econo.Tiic  tendency, 
and  that  this  tendency  will  be  adverse  to  our  interests,  he  will 
understand  what  you  are  saying  much  better  than  if  you  tell 
him  that  it  imperils  him  by  its  military  strength  :  it  will 
mean  much  more  than  telling  him  that  the  spiritual  character 
of  Prussia  is  our  peril. 

The  two  things  we  have  to  seize  about  the  new  Central 
State  are  first  the  enormous  margin  for  development,  the 
vast  oppo.-tunities  for  the  creation  of  new  wealth,  which  the 
Eastern  part  of  it  presents,  and  secondly,  the  fact  that  the 
combination  as  a  whole  will  be  used  not  only  as  a  competitor, 
but  as  a  hostile  competitor  to  the  West,  and  particularly  to 
Britain. 

Everywhere  east  of  the  German  block,  but  particularly  in 
the  two  regions,  one  of  which  was  until  recently  the  Russian, 
the  other  of  which  still  is  the  Turkish  Empire,  there  are 
undeveloped  natural  resources  the  potential  extent  of  which 
cannot  even  be  guessed  so  large  are  they,  and  even  the  visible 
or  known  untapped  resources  of  which  rather  resemble  those 
of  a  new  colony  than  of  an  old  State. 

Russia's   Cotton    Crop 

I  cannot  in  such 'an  article  as  this  do  more  thai  give  a  few 
examples  taken  at  random,  but  I  think  that  even  these  will 
be  found  sufficiently  striking  to  emphasise  the  point  I  am 
making.     I  consider  only  the  Russian  field  for  the  moment. 

Take,  for  example,  cotton  as  the  production  of  that  article 
stood  in  what  was  until  last  year,  the  Russian  Empire,  and 
what  will  be,  if  the  Great  Central  State  becomes  permanent, 
an  open  field  for  German  exploitation. 

We  ought  to  note  very  particulirly  the  position  of  cotton. 
It  concerns  us.  Germany  till  to-diy  depended  entirely  for 
its  cotton  upon  supply  from  over  sea.  The  maritime  poAfers 
(first  of  Great  Britain,  now  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  combined),  by  cutting  o.'?  the  supply,  have  already 
hampered  Germany  in  the  war.  Had  it  been  cut  0.*^  entirely 
at  the  beginning,  as  was  strongly  advocated  in  these  columns 
more  than  three  years  ago,  the  war  would  have  been  won 
long  ago.  ,  But  with  the  Central  State  drawing  upon  the 
resources  of  what  was  o.ice  the  Russian  Empire,  there 
develops  a  state  of  affairs  with  which  I  think  most  people  in 
this  country  are  quite  unfamiliar. 

Russia  produced  before  the  war  more  than  560,000,000  lb. 
of  cotton  upon  her  own  soil.  The  machinery  in  the  factories 
and  mills  was  British  and  the  management  was  largely 
British.  The  number  of  spindles  was  increasing  normally 
by  3  per  cent,  a  year.  But  the  striking  thing  in  the  statistics 
is  that  even  while  the  industry — which  was  quite  a  modem 
one — was  developing,  Russia  managed  to  produce  upon  her 
own  soil  more  than  half  the  cotton  which  was  needed  by  her  mills. 

Beyond  this  there  was  another,"  a  most  striking  phenomenon. 
When  the  war  cut  off  external  supply,  Russia,  in  spite  of  all 
the  difficulties  of  the  moment,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that,  as 
an  industrial  country,  she  was  very  ill  developed  ;  in  spite  of 
the  congestion  on  her  railways,  managed  to  increase  enor- 
mously the  produce  of  cotton  upon  her  own  soil  to  replace 
that  which  could  not  be  brought  from  abroad.  The  pro- 
portion of  native  cotton  fifteen  years  before  the  war  had  been 
38  per  cent.  It  had  risen  in  five  years  to  41  per  cent.  By 
1910  it  was  51  per  cent,  of  the  total  amount  used,  though  that 
total  amount  had  itself  further  increased  by  40  per  cent. 
(All  these  figures  are  exclusive  of  Finland).  Well,  under  the 
strain  of  the  early  part  of  the  war,  the  proportion  of  cotton 
groietn  on  Russian  soil  leapt  up  by  35  per  cent. 

For  the  truth  is  that  the  mere  area  suitable  for  the  growth 
of  cotton  in  the  continental  mas';  cast  of  Germany  has  only 
just  begun  to  be  dealt  witii.  It,can  certainly.be  multiplieJ 
by  three  at  least,  and  probably  by  a  lar^ -r  multiple  ;  while 
apart  from  m^re  area,  the  rate  of  production  per  acre  can 
also  be  increased  very  greatly. 

The  way  in  which  this  quite  modern  feature  has  developed. 


and  therefore  what  we  may  look  forward  to  in  the  future 
under  German  organisation  and  guidance,  and  with  a  supply  of 
German  capital  and  German  training,  may  be  estimited  from 
the  case  of  the  Khiva  oasis. _  Wnere  Khiva  in  1885  produced 
50  lb.  of  cotton,  it  produce'd  five  years  later,  in  1890,  three 
timjs  a;  much — 150  lb.  Ten  years  later,  in  1900,  the  produc- 
tion had  more  than  doubled.  There  were  320  lb.  to  the  50  lb. 
of  i8i5.  Ten  years  later  it  had  again  more  than  doubled. 
There  were  6S0  lb.  in  1910  to  the  50  lb.  of  1885  ;  while  in  the 
year  of  strain,  the  first  year  of  the  war,  when  the  blockade  so 
greatly  intensified  internal  production,  no  less  than  1,145  lb. 
of  cotton  were  produced  in  Khiva  for  every  50  lb.  that  had 
been  produced  thirty  years  before  ! 

I  recommend  those  figures  to  the  attention  of  Lancashire, 
with  the  added  remark  that  the  New  Central  European  State, 
exploiting  the  East,  will  have  political  and  military  power 
behind  it  if  it  remains  what  Prussia  intends,  and  will  be  able 
to  enforce  its  produce  upon  the  markets  of  Asia  in  a  way  that 
the  old  Russian  Empire  could  never  do. 

Minerals 

Another  matter  to  note  is  the  production  of  platinum. 
This  essential  in  electrical  work  is  almost  entirely  derived 
from  Russian  soil.\  Before  the  war  nine-tenths  of  the  world's 
supply  came  fro.n  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Ural  Mountains 
and,  what  is  perhaps  mjre  important,  the  opportunities  for 
expansion  in  the  near  future  are  enormous.  There  was,  before 
tha  war,  a  quarrel  between  the  large  proprietors  and  the  small 
controllers  of  placer-mining  which  hampeieJ  the  production. 
So  lo.ng  as  anarchy  prevails  we  may  be  certain  that  this  check 
will  be  severely  felt.  But  once  order  i§  restored  through  the 
influence  of  a  great  German  organised  Central  State,  which 
will  necessarily  "  run  "  this  economic  factor,  it  may  have  a 
develop.ment  of  almost  any  amount. 

It  must  be  admitted  in  this  connection  that  there  is  a  con- 
trary view.  It  has  been  maintained  that  the  intensive  pro- 
duction of  platinum  just  before  the  war  was  due  to  the  excep- 
tionally high  prices  then  ruhng.  Should  the  price  fall  the 
po3rer  sands  which  are  now  the  subject  of  placer  miping 
would  be  abandoned.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are 
sundry  undeveloped  regions,  especially  in  the  north  of  the 
Ural  districts,  which  may  more  than  make  up  for  the  difference. 

Another  way  of  lookin^^  at  the  econo.mic  potentiality  of 
all  that  Hes  east  of  the  German  conquests,  another  way  of 
testing  the  extraordinary  opportunities  that  will  he  before 
the  capitalists  of  the  New  Central  State,  if  it  is  maintained, 
is  the  rate  of  increase  in  products  which  was  shown  after  the 
co.mparatively  recent  introduction  of  industrialism. 

For  instance,  if  you  take  the  production  of  iron  ore  in  the 
seven  years  1893-99  inclusive,  you  get  a  curve  rising  so  rapidly 
that  the  total  production  more  than  doubles.  It  increases  in 
the  projortion  of  21  to  45.  The  exploitation  of  coal  is  far 
more  striking.  You  find  it  rising  between  1880  and  1890, 
from  four  to  five  miUions  of  tons,  but  in  the  ne.xt  ten  years, 
from  1890  to  1900,  it  rises  from  that  figure  of  five  million  to 
over  thirteen  milhon  tons.  In  this  country  tho.se  figures 
naturally  seem  to  us  so  small  abs  dutely  as  to  be  negligible  ; 
but  the  relative  increase  is  the  point  to  seize.  The  industry 
was  only  just  being  developed  and  yet  produced  such  results 
in  so  short  a  time.  And  when  we  consider  the  further  pro- 
duction in  later  years  the  riseTis  still  more  remarkable.  By 
1913,  in  the  year  before  the  war,  it  had  multiplied  again  by 
more  than  2\  and  had  reached  thirty-three  million  tons, 
and  even  under  the  strain  of  the  war  (when  one  large  coal- 
field was  cut  off  by  enemy  occupation  and  the  labour  difficulty 
WIS  severely  felt),  the  produce  only  fell  to  just  under  28 
million  tons — and  this  is  excluding,  of  course,  the  two  millions 
odd  from  Asiatic  Russia. 

But  if  we  were  considering  only  coal  in  general,  the  Russian 
resources  would  always  seem  small — unless  indeed  new  fields 
were  to  be  discovered.  Further,  the  Central  State  of  which 
we  are  speaking  has  very  large  resources  of  its  o.vn,  which 
overshadow  those  of  Russia.  The  re-.Uy  striking  thing  in  the 
statistics  is  the  position  of  anthraci'.e  coal. 

This  hard  coal,  invaluable  hitherto  for  naval  operations 
(to  be  supplanted  perhaps  by  oil,  but  at  any  rate  still  holding 
a  unique  position)  has,  I  believe,  only  two  great  fields  of 
exploitation  in  Europe,  which  are  those  of  South  Wales 
and  of  the  Donetz  basin  in  the  soutli  of  Russia.  It  is  pcrhap; 
not  sufficiently  appreciated  that  the  calculated  reserve  oi 
all  European  anthracite  coal  lies  principally  in  the  basin  of 
the  Donetz.  It  has  disadvantag?s  apart  from  those  of  recent 
exploitation,  unskilled  labour  and  the  rest  of  it.  Tlie  seams 
are  often  verv  thin,  the  distribution  is  uneven  and  does  not 


Land    Sc   Water 


February   7 ,  1 9  1 8 


lie  in  one  district,  but  jn  patches,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  usual 
workings  lie  in  patches.  None  tlie  less,  we  must  remark  that 
something  like  three-quarters  of  all  Russian  coal  is  of  this 
sort,  and  that  a  general  calculation  of  the  reserves  present 
gives  the  Donctz  basin  more  than  70  per  cent,  of  all  Europe 
in  this  necessary  mineral. 

Iron  ore,  the  next  modern  essential  after  coal,  is,  to  speak 
rhetorically,  an  almost  untouched  field.  No  one  knows  to- 
day what  the  potent  iaUty  of  iron  ore  to  the  east  of  the  Volga 
may  not  be.  Shortly  before  the  war  one  district  after  another 
was  being  discovered  ;  the  northern  Swedish  field  was  found 
to  extend  far  eastward  into  Lapland,  and  as  late  as  1913  new 
fields  were  discovered.  As  to  the  Siberian  opportunities, 
they  may  be  anything  at  all — hardly  anything  is  yet  known. 
You  have  a  whole  continent  undiscovered. 

The  wealth  of  what  was  once  Russia  in  Mangancs?  ,  is 
equally  remarkable.  Before  the  war  the  mass  of  the  export 
was  already  sent  to  the  German  Empire ;  indeed,  the  mines 
were  already  largely  German  owned.  If  the  Central  Euro- 
pean State  of  which  we  speak,  remains  in  existence,  the  whole 
of  this  essential  will  be  ultimately  under  Prussian  control. 
The  Caucasus,  the  Urals  and  the  district  of  Nikipol  in  South 
Russia,  but  particularly  the  first  of  the  three,  are  the  main 
sources  of  supply.  But  there  are  other  fields  opening  up 
further  west,  notably  upon  the  frontiers  of  Poland. 

The  Oil  Industry 

Lastly,  of  course,  there  is  the  oil  industry  with  which  every- 
one is  familiar.  But  upon  this  essential  piece  of  modern  supply 
there  is  no  need  to  elaborate.  The  point  is  perfectly  simple 
and  has  become  a  commonplace  with  all  educated  people 
since  the  development  of  petrol  traffic.  All  the  supply  of 
Europe  is  Galician,  Roumanian  or  Russian,  with  a  trifle 
German.  It  is  either  under  the  direct  control  of.  what  has 
now  become  the  Great  Central  State  or,  including  the 
Caucasus,  under  what  Will  indirectly  be  controlled  by 
it  if  it  remains  in  existence  It  is  notoriously  i  upossible 
to  estimate  the  future  expansion  of  this  particular  form 
of  production,  nothing  is  more  dependent  upon  chance 
either  for  its  discovery  or  for  its  rate  of  exhaustion.  We 
cannot  even  calculate  as  well  upon  this  matter  as  we  can  upon 
coal,  though  it  is  notorious  that  the  calculations  ma  'e  with 
regard  to  coal  have  been  upset  by  experience.  '  If  Central 
Europe  survives,  if  the  German  unbeaten  continues  to  enregi- 
ment  the  Slav,  to  overshadow  the  Balkans  and  Scandinavia, 
and  to  hold  the  gates  of  the  inland  seas,  not  only  will  he  con- 
trol the  direction  of  those  oil  fields,  but  he  will  have  his  hand 
on  the  doors  by  which  oil  can  reach  other  dominions  than  his 
own. 

On  all  this  first  point,  the  immense  undeveloped  field  lying 
open  for  whoever  shall  acquire  the  political  power  to  exploit 
it,  there  is  no  discussion.  It  is  a  commonplace  of  modem 
political  economics  in  which  men  only  differ  as  to  their  degree 
of  knowledge  and  upon  which  ^^"estem  politicians  only  differ 
in  the  degree  of  the  vividness  with  which  they  see  the  coming 
change.  _, 

But  on  the  second  point — the  point  that  this  vast  coming 
economic  power  will  be  used  adversely  to  the  West  and  es- 
pecially to  Britian — there  is  considerable  debate,  and  it  is  the 
doubt  upon  this  probably  which  will  most  confuse,  delay  and 
render  impotent  what  should  be  our  fixed  national  determina- 
tion, to  prevent  such  a  State  from  arising. 

There  are  two  theories  on  matters  of  this  kind,  the  debate 
between  which  has  grown  wearisome  during  the  last  few 
years. 

There  is  the  fundamental  Free  Trade  theory  that  your 
neighbour  s  increase  of  wealth  can  always,  if  you  treat  it 
properly,  be  made  a  source  of  increase  to  yourself.  There 
is  the  Protectionist  theory  that  this  statement  is  not  univer- 
sally true  or  even  neariy  so,  but  that  even  under  the  blind 
action  of  its  change,  without  political  purpose  behind  it,  the 
increasing  wealth  of  one  district  may  mechanically  involve 
the  decline  of  another. 

I  certainly  do  not  propose  to  reopen  that  threadbare  debate 
in  these  columns.  It  concerns  economics  as  a  science  rather 
than  international,  politics,  but  what  I  think  can  be  shown, 
what  is  indeed  obvious  and  only  requires  reiteration  to  obtain 
universal  assent,  is  that  a  competing  economic  power,  if  it  be 
deUberately  used  with  a  political  aim— whether  we  think 
that  aim  wise  or  unwise  in  economics — is  an  adverse  force 
as  much  as  is  a  hostile  army  or  restrictive  conditions  of  cUmate. 

Look  for\vard  some  years  and  see  this  new  Central  State 
at  work  when  German  capital  and  organisation  have  deve- 
loped the  mineral  resources  of  what  was  once  Russia,  and 
what  is  still  Poland  and  the  Baltic  Coast ;  its  forestry  regu- 
larised ;  its  hitherto  undeveloped  mines  prospected  and 
exploited.  You  have,  it  is  clear,  a  great  increase  in  the  world's 
wealth,  and  a  market  which,  if  it  is  open,  enriches  you  if  you 


can  trade  with  it.  You  have  people  producing  new  things 
which  they  can  now  exchange  against  your  products  which 
some  years  before  they  had  nothing  to  exchange  and  there- 
fore could  not  take  your  products.  In  general,  there  is  more 
wealth  in  the  world,  and  you,  in  the  distant  W  est,  though  once 
an  enemy  in  the  field,  indirectly  get  your  share  in  this  ex- 
pansion. There  is  apparent  conflict  between  your  interests  ' 
and  those  of  the  new  producers  when  you  only  consider  some 
particular  trade  in  which  they  have  become  your  com- 
petitors. But  take  the  national  wealth  as  a  whole,  and  if  you 
specialise  upon  what  you  can  produce  best,  while  your  former 
enemy  similarly  specialises  upon  what  he  can  produce  best, 
his  increase  in  wealth  is  all  to  your  advantage  as  well  as  to  his 
own. 

A  Fundamental    Error 

It  is  clear  that  this  general  statement,  which  would  have 
been  subscribed  to  by  all  or  nearly  all  our  politicians  of  the 
Victorian  era,  depends,  even  if  you  grant  its  main  theory  to  be 
true  (and  that  is  debatable)  upon  one  fundamental  con- 
dition, which  is  that  the  inciease  of  production  in  your  new 
country  will  be  guided  by  the  self-interest  of  individuals  or 
groups  of  individuals  ;  by  the  desire  of  the  merchant  ;  of  the 
manufacturer  for  enrichment,  untrammelled  by  political 
direction  of  his  State.  But  supposing  that  political  direction 
to  exist,  supposing,  no  matter  how  fooUsh  we  may  think  it  of 
him  to  act  so,  that  the  foreign  statesman  dehberately  inter- 
feres with  this  natural  operation  of  exchange  and  conceives 
that  an  artificial  hindrance  to  your  entry  into  his  markets 
will  be  of  ultimate  value  to  him,  certainly  in  poHtical  and 
military  strength  and  possibly  in  economic  strength  as  well. 
What  then  ?  Supposing  the  great  new  resources  are  used 
during  peace  with  a  hostile  poll  ical  intention  as  weapons 
are  used  during  war  ?  It  is  clear  that  wi  h  your  enemy 
(granting  for  the  moment  that  he  is  such  in  intention)  pos- 
sessed of  new  economic  power,  that  power  will  be  to  your 
disadvantage.  It  can  be  used  to  your  disadvantage  in  four 
ways. 

First  :  By  planning  to  destroy  within  your  boundaries 
some  form  of  production  which  you  can  with  difficulty  replace  ; 
on  which  you  have  specialised  and  on  which  you  will  remain 
better  than  he,  but  on  which  he  will  refuse  to  accept  the  advan- 
tage you  offer  him,  preferring  your  ruin. 

Secondly,  he  can  artificially  stimulate  with  the  same  object 
competition  in  neu:  ral  markets. 

Thirdly,  he  can,  perhaps,  if  his  economic  circumstances  are 
favourable,  acquire  a  monopoly  in  certain  kinds  of  production 
— the  Key  industries  upon  which  all  the  rest  depends,  and  he 
can  therefore  at  any  critical  moment  chosen  by  himself 
paralyse  your  economic  power  without  hurting  his  own. 

Fourthly,  he  can  withheld  or  supply  necessaries  such  as 
food — which  last  point  may  be  regarded  as  only  a  sub-section 
of  the  one  before. 

The  debate  really  runs,  therefore,  not  upon  economic  theory 
but  upon  our  judgment  with  regard  to  two  sets  of  facts  : 
The  one  demonslrable  because  it  is  geographical,  the  other 
political  and  dependent  on  opinion.  Would  th;  new  State 
so  erected  be  in  a  geographical  poiition  to  exercise  this  pres- 
sure against  it  ?  If  it  were  in  such  a  positioa  wo  aid  it  choose 
to  exercise  that  pressure  in  spite  of  the  sectional  harm  that 
might  be  done  to  portions  of  its  subjects  ? 

<Jn  thj  first  of  these' judgme  nts  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
The  great  Central  State  controlled  by  Prussia  would,  so  far 
as  geographical  circumstance  alone  is  ccncerned,  be  in  a 
po;itio;i.  to  exercise  mortal  pressure  upon  ^all  the  Western 
countries  and  particularly  upon  Great  Britain.  The  oil  sup- 
plies of  Europe  and  a  great  part  of  those  of  the  world  ;  much 
the  most  of  the  coal  supplies,  a  very  great  portion  of  the  wheat 
supplies  and  of  the  supply  of  wood  ;  the  great  ma  ses  of  the 
iron  ore  of  Europe,  would  be  under  its  control.  As  against 
this  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  command  of  the  tropics  and 
therefore  of  products  necessary  to  modern  civilisation,  and  not 
obtainable  in  Europe,  might  remain  with  those  who  at  present 
have  superiority  by  sea.  But  with  the  power  of  production 
such  as  a  more  or  less  united  Central  State  would  have,  we 
cannot  believe  that  it  would  permanently  leave  the  balance 
unredressed.  At  the  expense  of  another  war,  to  which  it  could 
come  far  better  armed  than  we,  or  more  probably,  at  the 
expense  only  of  a  threat,  it  would  secure  its  own  tropical 
supply. 

Meanwhile,  we  have  the  capital  point  upon  which  so  much 
insistence  has  been  laid  before  now  in  these  columns,  the  Nev 
State  would  control  the  two  narrow  gates  into  the  Baltic 
and  the  Black  Sea.     It  could  shut  or  open  those  gates  at  will. 

The  second  conditional  judgment  is  a  judgment  m  political 
motive.  Here  there  is  no  positive  proof  available.  We  are 
not  talking  of  a  material  condition  which  can  be  measured 
and  which  all  when  it  is  presented  will  admit ;   nor  of  a  past 


February  7,  19 18 


Land   &    Water 


7 


thing  on  which  evidence  is  obtainable ;    we  are  talking  of  a 
tendency  or  frame  of  mind. 

Would  Prussia,  acting  as  the  master  of  this  great  com- 
bination, direct  its  supposed  and  increa-ing  new  economic 
power  to  our  destructio.i  or  would  she  not  ? 

In  my  opinion,  an  opinion  based  upor|  the  action  of  that 
State  for  200  years,  and  especially  upon  her  action  during 
the  present  war,  she  would.  There  are  those — they  are 
numerous  and  many  of  them  well  informed  and  traveUed— 
who  say  shj  would  not.  And  the  issue  lies,  not  between 
the  two  hypotheses,  one  of  wh.ch  can  be  eliminated  by  trial 
and  error,  but  between  two  judgments  of  what  our  present 
enemy  is  now  and  will  later  be. 

Those  who  think  that  this  new  and  enormous  economic 
power  will  not  be  directed  against  Britain  in  any  hostile  fashion, 
use  two  kinds  of  argument.  They  say  first,  that  popular 
feelings — what  are  often  called  "democratic  conditions"— 
will  govern  the  future  of  this  as  of  other  States,  and  that  under 
such  conditions  freedo.Ti  of  exchange  will  be  thi  rule,  and  at 
any  rate  a  dehberately  planned  and  prolonged  economic  war 
impossible,  and  they  add  that  in  normal  times,  when  actual 
armed  hostility  is  not  to  be  reckoned  with,  no  economic  plan 
of  preference  tariff,  and  Government  protected  trusts  can  do 
more  than  diminish  the  economic  advantage  you  enjoy  when 
any  competitor  is  himself  increasing  in  wealth. 

Secondly,  they  say  that  a  new  Great  State  of  this  kind, 
though  it  existed  on  a  different  scale  from  the  old,  would 
necessarily  come  into  play,  not  only  as  a  competitor,  but  also 
as  a  consumer. 

There  are  a  few  who  would  add  a  third  argument,  to  wit, 
that  Prussia,  has  never  had  hostile  intention,  political  or 
economic,  and  that  our  present  mood  towards  her  is  irrational. 
But  this  last  body,  very  numerous  before  the  war,  has  been 
rendered  by  the  events  of  the  last  four  years  almost  negligible. 

Now  of  the  two  main  arguments,  the  first  is  certainly 
sound  :  But  then  it  is  equivalent  to  a  denial  that  the  new 
Central  State  will  come  into  being  at  all.  If  what  are  called 
(a  little  loosely)  "  democratic  "  conditions,  real  autonomy,  real 
national  expression,  and  the  refusal  of  the  mass  of  the  people 
to  be  organised  and  disciplined  from  above  comes  into  being 
in  Central  Europe — all  that  is  equivalent  to  the  break  up  of 
Prussia.  Wliether  it  takes  place  through  a  defeat  of  the 
Prussian  military  machine  or  by  an  internal  disintegration, 
in  either  case,  what  has  been  known  as  Prussia  for  the  now 
two  hundred  years  of  its  expansion,  would  cease  to  exist, 
and  with  it  there  would  cease  to  exist  the  hostile  plan  and 
intent,  the  motive  of  conquest  and  domination  directed  always 
against  the  principal'  rival  of  the  moment,  and  to-day  chiefly 
against  oursel.es. 

But  I  may  point  out  that  tliis  argument  begs  the  question. 
When  we  talk  of  a  new  Central  State,  of  its  danger  to  us,  we 
presuppose  a  peace  by  negotiation  which  leaves  Prussia  in 
existence  ;  we  are  showing  why  such  a  j  eace  would  be  fatal 
to  us  and  all  that  we  say  of  the  Central  State  is  said  in  that 
connection.  With  Prussia  defeated  by  those  whom  she 
challenged  from  without,  or  by  those  whom  she  has  oppressed 
from  within,  there  is  no  matter  for  debate.  The  Central 
State  now  in  process  of  erection  will  dissolve.  We  shall 
have  in  its  place  separate  free  nations  with  whom,  of  course, 
our  commerce  could  be  conducted  on  the  normal  lines  of  the 
past. 

The  second  argument  that  political  hostility  is  never  com- 
pletely, successful  in  the  economic  field,  and  that  it  only 
diminishci   but   cannot   extinguish    our    share  in   the   new 


wealth  created,  sesms  to  me  based  too  much  upon  the  past, 
and  even  so  it  djes  not  suTficicntly  allow  for  the  very  last 
fruits  of  Prussian  policy  just  before  the  war.  It  is  true  that' 
the  great  expansion  of  German  wealth  under  Prussian  direc- 
tion, which  was  the  mark  of  the  forty  years  before  the  war, ' 
though  its  international  benefit  to  us  was  restricted  by  tariffs 
and  trusts,  political  subsidy  and  the  rest  of  it,  could  not  pre- 
vent a  corresponding  increase  upon  our  side  which  was  itself ' 
very  great,  and  was  only  diminished  or  intercepted,  not ' 
destroyed,  by  the  artificial  arnngement  of  our  rival.  But 
those  who  argua  thus  forget,  as  it  seems  tome,  first  that  they 
were  deahng  «ith  only  one  still  isolated  Power  and  not  with 
what  the  New  State  would  be,  the  bulk  of'Eurape.  Next,  that 
this  power,  though  formidable,  had  not  brought  direct  miUtary 
pressure  to  bear  upon  rivals  as  it  now  has  and  can  ;  had  not 
comp  lied  them,  as  it  could  now  if  undefeated,  to  enter  into 
favourable  economic  relations  with  it,  or  to  suffer  its  economic 
domination.  Lastly,  they  forget  that  in  the  final  stages  of 
the  operation  before  the  war,  when  the  system  was  beginning 
to  bear  fruit,  there  had  already  appeared  very  disquieting 
things  which  boded  ill  for  the  future.  Certain  key  industries 
have  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  rival  who  might  be  an  enemy  ; 
certain  essentials  to  trade  and  even  to  life  had  been  permitted 
to  pass  to  him  also. 

In  other  words,  we  cannot  argue  as  to  the  hostile  economic 
power  of  a  great  Central  European  State  in  the  future  from 
the  analogy  of  Germany  between  her  first  Protectionist  move- 
ment in  the  early  go's  and  some  such  date  as  1904,  when  her 
intentions  were  beginning  to  be  unmasked.  We  must  argue 
from  premises  of  far  greater  power  upon  her  part,  and  we 
must  bear  in  view  the  difference  between  the  maturity  of  a 
plan  and  its  period  of  incubatiort.  Prussianised  Germany 
had  by  its  increase  in  wealth,  it  is  true,  also  added  to  the 
wealth  of  others,  but  towards  the  end  of  the  process,  and 
before  the  war  the  hostile  direction  and  intent  of  all  this  had 
begun  to  be  felt.  With  a  Prussianised  Central  Europe  you 
would  have  a  very  great  increase  in  scale  of  this  hostility,  an 
action  more  mature  and  an  action  supported  by  the  incalcul- 
able effect  of  proved  military  superiority. 

This  argument  is  virtually  that  the  Prussian  State  would 
not  be  strong  enough  to  control  the  commercial  system  ; 
that  the  separate  needs  or  desire;  of  the  merchant  and  the 
manufacturer  would  over-ride  the  central  purpose  of  the  State. 
It  may  be  so.  It  may  be  that  the  vast  territorial  extent 
alone  of  this  new  State,  its  highly  differing  parts,  its  great 
accession  of  Slav  blood,  \*ould  prove  too  much  for  the  ex- 
pansion of  Prussia  and  \vould  re-act  against  and  weaken 
what  has  hitherto  been  the  continually  increasing  strength  of 
the  Central  Directing  force.  One  cannot  tell.  But  the 
analogy  of  history  is  against  such  a  supposition.  Prussia 
has  not  only  maintained  her  character  as  she  expanded, 
but  has  intensified  it. 

To  take  one  test.  The  breaches  of  international  law  and 
the  outrages  against  international  morals,  which  are 
characteristic  of  Prussian  war  have  been  employed  to  far 
greater  lengths  in  the  last  four  years  than  they  were  carried 
in  1870-71,  and  in  1870-71  they  were  carried  to  greater  lengths 
than  Prussia  Had  ever  carried  them  before  that  date. 

.^.s  for  the  conception  that  Prussia  herself  will  suffer  some 
sort  of  conversion  without  either  defeat  or  revolution  seems 
to  be  hardly  worth  while  to  deal  with.  While  the  concep- 
tioa  she  was  really  not  hostile  to  the  West  or  to  this  country, 
but  that  wa  have  suffered  an  illusion  upon  the  matter,  may 
safely  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  bur  fellow  citizens  to-day. 


The  Curve  of  Exaggeration 


MUCH  the  most  important  news  of  the  week  is  contained  in 
the  statement  of  Sir  Eric  Geddes  to  representatives  of  the 
Associated  Press  of  .^marica  in  the  coarse  of  an  interview 
and   published   in   the   British    Press   last   Saturday.  It 

contains  concrete  pieces  of  information  which  are  of  the 
highest  value  in  guiding  public  opinion  at  this  moment.  And 
it  gives  us  one  of  the  very  few  opf  ortunities  for  calculation 
(the  only  foundation  of  any  sound  military  judgment)  which 
we  have  had  for  some  mo.iths  past. 

Until  the  co.nplote  dissolution  of  the  Russian  State  and  our 
equally  complete  assurance  that  it  had  ceased  to  be  the 
principal  factor  in  all,  judg  nent  upon  the  war  was  the  possible 
calculation  ot  men  and  inaterial. 

The  war  until  that  catastrophe  was  a  siege,  and  a  siege  is 
always  calculable  by  numbers,  so  long  as  the  state  of  siege  is 
maintained.  In  the  essential  element  of  sea  communication 
there  was  no  serious  factor  of  disturbance  in  the  calculation. 
The  German  authorities  dicidjd  to  break  with  all  European  tra- 
dition and  to  institute  ii.discriminate  murd/r  at  sea  much  at  ihe 
same  time  as  that  in  which  the  break  up  of  what  was  formerly 


jrme 


Russia  began  last  year.  The  effect  of  this  new  policy  upon  the 
war — upo.i  the  calculable  factots  in  the  war,  especially  tonnage 
and  maritime  co  nmunications,  was  not  fully  felt  for  some 
mo.iths.  Especially  was  its  effect  upon  the  civilian  conditions 
of  this  country  at  first  insignificant — for  it  is  of  its  nature 
cumulative,  and  its  beginnings,  though  they  indicated  what  its 
maturity  would  be,  were  of  no  immediately  great  effect.  What 
the  submarine  o;fensi\re  might  mean  was  borne  in  upon  general 
opinion  last  summer,  pretty  well  colncidently  with  the  proof 
throa|h  the  collapse  of  the  Russian  armies  in  the  south  that 
the  dissolutroi  of  the  Russian  State  under  its  present  inter- 
national guidance,  was  final.  There  remained  as  an  un-r 
known  factor,  the  chances  of  some  decisive  movement  upon 
o  12  sidi  or  the  other  in  the  West.  Neither  sidj  obtained  anv 
dicisio  1.  The  movement  in  Wanders  failed  in  this  ojject,  so 
ultimitely  did  the  tremendoas  ene.niy  blov  in  Friuli,  large 
a;  were  the  captures  in  min  and  gans  and  highlv  oriticn!  to 
Ui  (far  more  critical  than  the  work  in  Flanders  to  tli  -  enem.y) 
as  W.U  th2  waole  0  5>ratio  1. 

As  a  result  the  positioa  upon  which  the  prese.it  year  o  )e:ied 


8 


Land    &    Water 


February    7,  1918 


might  be  thus  summarised  : 

ii)  In  the  East  the  enemy  had  obtained  a  decision.  The 
itary  machine  of  the  Rivssian  Empire,  partly  through  the 
enemy's  own  victories,  partly  through  the  betrayal  of  the 
Allied  cause  by  international  agents,  had  been  put  out  of 
action. 

(2)  On  the  West  neither  party  had  succeeded,  though 
both  had  in  different  fields  come  near  to  arriving  at  a  decision. 

{3).  The  exhaustion  of  both  parties  in  Europe  had  proceeded 
to  an  extreme  degree.  The  original  conscript  belligerent 
Powers,  France,  Austria-Hungary  and  the  German  Empire 
had  suffered  definitive  losses,  that  is,  had  lost  men  per- 
manently by  death j  capture,  wounds,  etc.,  which  had  reduced 
them  nearly  to  exhaustion,  but  with  this  difference  that  the 
Central  Empires  had  been  relieved  of  pressure  upon  the  East 
and  could  thereby  reinforce  themselves  upon  the  West  against 
Italy  and  France  during  1918  by  perhaps  a  sixth  or  a  fifth  of 
the  forces  hitherto  retailed  for  Western  work — counting 
value  as  well  as  numbers. 

(4)  The  Powers  not  originally  conscript  or  not  originally 
belligerent  were  also  heavily  hit  though  not  in  the  same  degree. 
Great  Britain  had  lost  a  proportion  of  her  population  very 
much  less  than  any  of  the  Powers  just  mentioned,  but  on  the 
other"  hand  she  was  largely  maintaining  the  supply  of  the 
whole  Alliance,  she  was  maintainirg  almost  entirely  its 
maritime  conmunications  and  her  forces  were  widely  dis- 
persed, including  as  they  necessarily  did  Asiatic  as  well  as 
European  activities.  Italy  had  just  received  a  blow  of  the 
most  severe  kind  compelling  immediate  reinforcement  from  the 
French  and  from  the  British. 

{5)  The  American  effort  was  beginning  to  davelop,  but  oily 

.  beginning.     It  would  be  of  great  strength  before  the  end  of 

igi8,  but  the  initial  period  of  organisation  and  training  had 

barely  come  to  an  end,  while  there  remained  the  uncertain 

factor  of  transport  over  so  great  a  distance  of  sea. 

Essential   Communications 

Under  such  circumstances  the  pivot  of  the  moment  was  the 
situation  of  the  submarine  offensive.  That  offensive,  if  it 
could  do  what  the  enemy  claimed  for  it,  would  win  the  war  in 
three  converging  fashions.  It  would  more  and  more  paralvse 
the  maritime  communications  of  the  West  which,  with 
England  as  the  main  base  of  supply,  were  the  essential  com- 
munications. They  were  also  the  essential  communications 
from  the  fact  that  the  Allies  were  working  on  outer  lines 
from  the  ^Egean  to  the  North  Sea,  which  outer  Unes  were 
mainly  maritime  in  their  communication. 

Next  the  submarine  offensive  hampered  the  civilian  supply, 
and  therefore  threatened  the  civUian  moral  of  all  the  Western 
Powers,  but  especially  of  Great  Britain.  Lastly  the  sub- 
marine offensive  was  expected  by  the  enemy  almost  lo  neutral- 
ise the  American  effort,  which  could  only  be  exercised  over 
three  thousand  miles  of  open  water. 

Of  these  three  converging  effects  of  the  submarine  offensive 
upon  which  the  enemy  had  banked,  the  second  was  the 
chief.  The  real  issue  has  been  for  some  months  past,  and  will 
remain  for  some  months  to  come,  whether  the»enemy  can  so 
hamper  civilian  life  in  this  country  as  to  affect  the  political 
discipline  of  the  British  and  produce  a  demand  for  surrender. 
That  such  a  policy,  however  severe  the  strain  would  be  in 
the  long  run  fatal  to  this  country,  has  been  the  constant 
thesis  of  these  columns.  But  what  we  had  to  consider  in 
practice  was  not  only  the  power  of  organisation  and  ^iscipiline 
which  our  society  might  show,  but  the  real  measure  of  what 
the  enemy  could  do  to  undermine  that  discipline  by  his 
interference  with  supply,  and  especially  with  food. 

Now  Sir  Eric  Geddes  tells  us  in  this  pronouncement  which 
he  has  published  to  the  world  three  very  important  and 
definite  truths,  or  at  any  rate  judgments,  made  by  a  man  who 
is  alone  in  possession  of  all  the  facts. 

The  first  of  these  is  that  the  submarines  are  being  sunk  as 
fast  as  Germany  can  build  them.  He  puts  it  in  one  phrase, 
"  The  submarine  is  held." 

The  second  is  that  we  are  at  the  present  moment  building 
merchant  ships  at  a  higher  rate  even  than  was  the  record  of 
1913,  and  that  before  the  end  of  the  present  year  we  shall 
double  the  rate  of  to-day. 

The  tfird  fact  which  he  has  divulged  I  find  of  particular 
interest  because  it  is  exactly  parallel  to  what  I  have  myself 
noticed  in  regard  to  the  German  figures  of  their  losses  by  land 
in  the  many  careful  and  exact  estimates  which  I  published 
in  this  papar  o/er  a  period  of  more  than  two  years. 

Sir  Eric  Ge  des  tells  us  that  he  keeps  a  curve  representing 
what  he  calls  "  the  factor  of  exaggeration  "  in  the  German 
official  statements  of  U-boat  results,  and  that  this  factor  is 
increasing  in  our  favour. 

There  are  four  main  curves.  The  curve  of  construction  of 
liye  shipping  ;  the  curve  of  construction  of  merchant  shipping  ; 


the  curve  of  sinking  of  German  submarines,   and  the  curve 
representing  the  "  factor  of  exaggeration  "  just  mentioned. 

The  first  curve  is  flattening,  the  other  three  are  steepening, 
and  therefore  all  four  movements  are  in  our  favour. 

What  Sir  Eric  Geddes  calls  "  the  factor  of  German  exaggera- 
tion "  is  the  diflerence  Letween  the  real  lonnage  sunk,  which 
we  exactly  know,  and  the  German  published  estimates.  It 
is  clear  that  there  will  always  be  a  certain  margin  of  exaggera- 
tion due  to  the  fact  that  the  enemy  cpn  only  tell  the  precise 
tonnage  of  a  ship  when  he  knows  all  about  the  particular 
vessel  which  he  is  sinking — in  most  cases  he  can  only  estimate 
her  size  at  a  guess  and  knows  neither  her  name  nor  her  register. 
The  commander  of  the  submarine  will,  of  course,  give  the  best 
figures  which  a  reasonable  guess  will  allow,  and  therefore  the 
German  official  figures  will  al.'  ays  be  somewhat  larger  than  the 
truth  even  when  there  is  no  deliberate  intention  to  falsify.     , 

But,  as  was  pointed  out  in  these  columns  when  the  statistics 
of  German  Army  losses  were  being  analysed  m.onth  after 
month  from  the  summer  of  1915  to  the  summer  of  1917, 
there  is  a  deliberate  German  policy  of  exaggeration  which 
begins  to  work  whenever  things  go  less  well  than  the  authorities 
had  promised  their  public.  It  is  a  natural  development  and 
coincides  with  what  one  would  expect.  In  the  case  of  the 
armies  it  probably  took  the  form  of  getting  as  many  "  doubt- 
fuls  "  as  possible  in  this — ^men  of  whom  it  was  not  absolutely 
certain  whether  they  were  prisoners  or  dead  or  only  tem- 
porarily missing,  of  leaving  them  unmentioned  as  long  as 
possible  and  mor^  and  more  unmentioned  for  good  and  all. 
Later  it  took  the  form  of  not  mentioning  those  who  broke  down 
or  died  away  from  the  armies  ;  later  it  took  the  form  of  de- 
liberate suppression  alto^e  her.  The  worse  things  got  the  bigger 
became  the  margin  between  the  truth  and  the  official  pronounce- 
ment. 

Of  course  we  had  not  precise  figures  of  the  truth  to 
guide  us,  hke  the  figures  of  tonnage  lost  by  submarine  activity. 
But  we  had  numerous  sources  of  information,  the  one  checking 
the  other  (with  many  of  which  such  as  municipal  statistics 
and  hospital  statistics,  and  "  rolls  of  honour  "  the  enemy 
kindly  provided  us)  which  gave  us  our  re  ults  within  a  com- 
para:tively  small  margin  of  error  ;  and  we  know  positively 
that  what  Sir  Eric  Geedes  has  called  in  the  case  of  the  sea 
"  the  curve  of  German  exaggeration  "  increased  in  the  case 
of  the  land  exactly  as  it  seems  to  have  done  in  the  case  of  the 
submarines. 

An  interesting  and  conclusive  example  was  quoted  in  these 
columns  not  quite  a  year  ago.  At  one  and  the  same  moment 
independent  examination  concluded  the  total  number  of  Ger- 
man military  dead  to  be  al  out  one  million  and  three-quarters  : 
the  German  authorities  informed  the  American  Ambassador 
that  it  was  hardly  a  million  and  a  half,  and  the  German  official 
fists  were  still  pubhshing  just  under  a  million. 

I  take  this  statement  upon  the  "  curve  of  exaggeration  " 
to  be  the  most  important  of  all  the  important  statements  made 
in  Sir  Eric  Geddes's  publication  of  last  Saturday. 

H.  Belloc 

In  the  course  of  the  deliberations  at  Bre^t-Litovsk,  Baron  von 
Kuhlmann  asked  for  an  explanation  regarding  the  relations  be- 
tween the  Caucasus  and  the  Petrograd  Government.  M.  Trotsky 
replied  :  "The  Caucasus  Army  is  under  the  command  of  superior 
officers  who  are  absolutely  devoted  to  the  Council  of  People's 
Commissioners.  This  was  confirmed  some  two  weeks  ago  at  the 
general  congress  of  delegates  on  the  Caucasian  front." 

The  Pravda  of  Petregrad  contained  recentlj'  an  order  from 
Trotsky  dismissing  without  pension  «nd  the  right  to  re-enter 
Goveir.ment  service  the  Russian  diplomatic  representatives  in 
Engand,  Japan,  the  United  States,  Italy,  China,  Spain,  France, 
Sweden,  Holland,  Switzerland,  Portugal,  and  other  States,  as 
well  as  the  Consular  Agents  and  the  Consuls-General  in -the 
same  countries,  for  having  failed  to  respond  to  the  invitation  to 
work  under  the  Soviet  Government  on  the  platform  adopted  by 
the  second  All-Russian  Congress  of  the  Soviets. 

The  Kfflnische  Volkszeitung,  in  an  article  on  the  rejection  by 
Australia  of  ccmpulsory  mOitary  service,  says  that  it  comes  at  a 
very  inopportune  time  for  Great  Britain,  coinciding  as  it  does 
with  Russia's  defection,  and  just  when  the  Entente  has  need  of 
new  troops  in  the  light  of  the  forthcoming  German  offensive. 
Great  Britain  has  nothing  left  but  to  make  up  the  deficit  out  of 
her  own  resources.  "This  means  a  further  withdrawal  of  men  from 
industry,  which  will  still  further  weaken  Great  Britain's  position. 
This,  however,  it  adds,  will  not  be  the  only  political  result.  The 
Australian  decision  must  inevitably  have  a  detrimental  effect 
on  the  whole  British  Empire.  From  the  first  there  was  no  great 
inclination  to  comply  with  British  wishes  regarding  military 
service.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  other  Dominions  will 
take  much  trouble  about  questions  of  military  service.  This 
applies  especially  to.  Canada.  Here,  indeed,  the  law  has  been 
adopted,  but  the  minority  is  very  strong,  and  has  declared  that 
it  will  not  obey.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Canadian  minority, 
which  is  composed  of  the  French-Canadians,  will  be  confirmed 
in  their  intentions  by  the  decision  of  the  Commonwealth." 


February    7,  igi8 


Land   &   Water 


The  Two  Blockades:  By  Arthur  Pollen 


Men,  women  of  the  working  class,  there  is  no  time  to  lose 
after  the  horrors  and  sufferings  we  have  undergone.  A  new 
and  frightful  disaster  threatens  our  people — yes,  even  the 
whole  of  humanity.  Only  a  peace  without  annexations  or 
indemnities  can  save  us,  and  the  hour  has  come  when  you 
must  raise  your  voice  for  such  a  peace.  At  this  moment 
the  German  people  must,  by  means  of  powerful  demon- 
strations, manifest  its  will  to  finish  the  war.— Pamphlet 
published  January  loth  in  Berlin,  signed  by  Bernstein, 
Brand.  Cohn,  Dittmann,  Hease,  Ledebour,  Vagtherr,  Hers- 
feld,  and  other  leaders. 

A  crowd  of  some  200,000  advanced  on  Thursday  morning 
towards  Charlottenberg,  where  it  vehemently  demonstrated 
wita  cries  of  "  Peace  and  bread." — The  Amsterdam  Tyd, 
February  1st. 

Hen  Dittman  has  been  arrested  for  attempting  to  speak  at  a 
meeting  of  strikers. — Cologne  Gazette. 

Seven  BerUn  factories  have  been  placed  under  martial  law 
by  the  Chief  Commander  of  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg.  He 
has  also  ordered  the  strikers  to  resume  work  at  latest  by 
seven  in  the  morning  of  Monday  next,  failing  which  they  will 
be  punished  according  to  military  discipUne. — Central  News. 

WTien  they  realised  that  the  whole  of  the  importations  for 
civilian  purposes  were  practically  stopped  they  would  see  that 
shortage  could  not  be  avoided. — Lord  Rhondda. 

The  submarine  is  held.  .  .  .  the  sinkings  of  merchant 
ships  have  now  been  reduced  td  a  level  lower  than  before 
Germany  cast  aside  all  restraint.  .  .  .  But  we  must 
have  more  ships.  .  .  .  Submarine  destruction  still 
exceeds  production.  .     .     American  participation  in  the 

war  must  inevitably  make  large  demands  on  merchant 
shipping,  and  yet  we  must  strive  at  the  same  time  to  keep 
up  with  the  demands  of  the  Allied  armies  and  with  the  vitaJ 

necessities  of  the  European  civil  population 

—Sir  Eric  Geddes. 

Taking  all  the  homeward  bound  ocean  convoys  since  the 
inception  of  the  system  in  the  traddle  of  last  year  14,180,041 
gross  registered  tons  of  shipping  have  been  convoyed,  with 
a  loss  of  1.44  per  cent. — Sir  L.  Chiozza  Money. 

The  submarine  .  .  .  substituted  the  literally  invisible 
.  .  .  for  the  virtually  invisible  torpedo  boat.  But  while 
no  new  principle  was  acided,  a  means  so  far  more  effective 
was  substituted,  that  naval  thinkers  and  writers  at  once 
perceived  that  the  logical  development  of  the  submarine 
would  convert  Aube's  guerre  de  course  from  a  dream  to  a 
working  theory." — Land  &  Water,  January  24th,  1918. 

VVho  were  the  naval  thinkers  and  writers  who  so  clearly 
foresaw  what  is  happening  to-day,  and  why  did  they  not  warn 
the  Admiralty  of  the  peril  that  was  looming  ahead  ?  "  .  .  . 
(/-boat  piracy  was  an  entirely  unlooked  for  development 
and  we  venture  to  doubt  whether  it  came  more  as  a  surprise 
to  the  Admiralty  than  to  those  naval  thinkers  and  writers  who 
are  now  so  wise  after  the  event. — Naval  and  Military  Record, 
January  30th. 

Sea-Power  in  Actfion 

THESE  extracts  from  the  press  of  last  week 
seem  to  convey,  in  a  manner  that  is  at  once 
dramatic  and  unmistakable,  certain  elementary 
truths  about  the  facts  of  the  war  and  the  state 
of  mind  of  people  looking  on  at  it.  Perhaps 
the  first  of  them  is,  that  we  can  now  no  longer  doubt  that  the 
Allied  blockade  has  brought  about  such  a  stringency  in  Germany 
and  Austria,  that  the  peoples  of  both  countries  are  sick  and 
weary  of  war  and  its  privations,  and  are  shamelessly  clamorous 
for  peace.  That  they  have  made  themselves  heard  is  curiously 
striking,  for  the  obstacles  to  their  combining  for  any  form  of 
protest,  overt  or  otherwise,  have  always  appeared  so  great 
to  observers  here,  that  it  seemed  more  hkely  that  they  would 
prefer  to  die  of  hunger,  than  risk  the  perils  tliat  face  mutineers. 
For  to  a  military  government  the  rebellious  seamen  at  Kiel 
and  the  recalcitrant  munition  makers  in  Berlin  are  equally 
guilty  of  the  crime  of  mutiny,  a  crime  which  Germany  can 
generally  deal  with  in  a  simple  and  fatal  way.  Perhaps 
the  most  surprising  part  of  the  present  situation  is  that  one 
member  only  of  the  Reichstag  has  been  arrested,  and 
that  the  enforcement  of  a  state  of  siege  was  postponed  till 
last  Monday.  Indeed,  the  deliberation  of  the  authorities 
may  well  be  the  strongest  evidence  of  the  gravity  of  the 
situation  they  had  to  face.  In  any  event  it  is  the  improbable 
that  has  happened.  The  German  workman  has  become 
articulate — and  there  is  no  mistaking  the  meaning  of  his 
cry.  It  is  simply  that  what  neither  sea  nor  land  power  could 
achieve  by  fighting,  sea  power  alone  has  achieved  by  the  mere 
static  pressure  of  blockade. 

This  civil  populations  of  the  chief  enemy  countries  are  then 
in  the  initial  stage  of  disintegration—exactly  the  result  pre- 
dicted of  blockade  in  modern  conditions.     The  weapon  that 


for  six  months  we  would  not  use  at  all  and  then,  for  another 
twelve,  handled  so  gingerly,  has  proved,  when  all  is  said, 
the  most  effective  in  our  armoury.  The  thing  has  happened 
so  exactly  according  to  calculation,  that  one  is  left  wondering 
whether  the  further  historical  precedent  wiU  follow,  and  the 
enemy  try  to  seek  relief  by  a  victory  at  sea.  His  chances 
of  success  are  obviously  small  even  il  he  were  to  bring  every 
unit  of  his  sea  force  into  play.  For  that  matter,  it  is 
not  at  all  sure  that  even  a  single  sea  victory,  could  he  win  it, 
would  free  the  seas  for  him;  For  whatever  the  military 
reserves  of  the  Allies,  their  sea  reserves  are  greater  yet.  If  the 
High  Seas  Fleet  comes  out  then,  it  would  perhaps  be  rather  to 
revivify  the  moral  of  a  despairing  people,  than  in  search  of 
material  victory  that  would  reverse  the  sea  position.  But 
whether  hunger  and  despair  drive  him  to  sea  battl  or  not,  it 
is  certain  that  the  situation  leaves  the  German  Higher 
Command  with  no  third  alternative  to  peace  or  a  vigorous 
offensive  somewhere. 

The  case  of  Germany  and  the  effect  of  our  blockade  upon 
it,  naturally  give  rise  to  many  forms  of  reflection.  The  situa- 
tion has  a  grim  humour  of  its  own,  when  we  remember  that  it 
was  Germany  that  was  tlie  first  to  start  the  bli  ckading  game. 
But  it  has  grave  warnings  for  us  too,  for  our  own  pass  is  no 
laughing  matter.  It  is  clear  from  Lord  Rhondda's  state- 
ments that,  for  the  next  eight  months,  while  we  shall  not  be 
brought  to  Germany's  extremity  we  shall  unqtiestionably  be 
brought  far  lower  in  food  supply  than  the  most  pessimistic 
of  us  feared.  We  must  see  to  it  then  that  we  find  some 
appeal — as  effective  for  the  next  eight  months  as  has  been 
military  discipline  amongst  the  enemy  peoples  for  the  last 
eighteen — that  will  make  the  f)eople  of  this  country  under 
the  impending  trifil  preserve  their  moral  dignity. 

The  paradox  that  Germany,  the  first  Power  to  threaten 
blockade  by  sea',  should  be  the  first  to  find  its  results  intoler- 
able, is,  however,  not  the  only  one  of  the  situation.  For  just 
as  Lord  Rhondda  is  telling  us  that  meat  importation  for 
civilian  purposes  have  ceased  altogether,  the  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty  is  cheering  us  with  a  welcome  confirmation  of  the 
news  that  the  submarine  is  held,  and  that  we  haveMDrought — 
and  can  presumably  keep — the  losses  by  submarine  beloA*  the 
level  at  which  they  stood  before  the  ruthless  campaign  began 
a  year  ago.  How  this  result  has  been  achieved  is  further 
explained  by  Sir  Leo  Chiozza-Money.  The  convoy  system,  so 
long  declared  to  be  impracticable,  was  tentatively  inaugurated 
in  the  middle  of  last  summer,  and  six  months  experience  shows 
that  a  bare  ij  per  cent,  of  tonnage  is  lost  when  the  most 
obvious — if  only  because  the  sole— measure  of  protecting  it 
is  adopted.  But  we  must  go  hungry  because  it  was  adopted 
too  late,  and  700  or  800  ships  lost  that  could  have  been  saved, 
and  because  the  replacement  of  shipping — not  that  destroyed 
by  submarine,  but  that  taken  for  mihtary  and  naval  purposes 
at  the  very  beginning  of  the  war — was  not  undertaken  as  a 
national  effort,  until  more  than  a  year  after  the  necessity  for 
such  action  had  been  pointed  out. 

So,  after  all,  those  who  have  maintained  from  very  early 
days  that  Great  Britain's  share  in  the  war  should  have  been 
primarily  her  sea  share ;  that  an  immediate  and  relentless 
siege  would  have  been  of  more  effect  than  the  utmost  possible 
military  effort ;  and  that,  from  at  latest  December  1914,  our, 
first  business  after  enforcing  blockade  was  to  prepare  the 
material  and  organisation  for  rebutting  the  enemy's  effort  on 
the  same  lines,  were  not  so  far  wrong.  The  tragedy  of  the 
situation  has  been  not  merely  that  these  policies  were  not 
followed  earher,  but  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  their  even 
being  understood,  until  the  whole  structure  of  our  naval 
administration  had  been  utterly  transformed.  It  would  be 
the  last  and  greatest  of  our  misfortunes,  were  any  spirit  of 
re-action  now  to  lead  to  the  undoing  of  the  revolution  in  our 
sea  administration  and  sea  policies  that  have  been  brought 
about  in  the  last  si.x  months.  Perhaps  there  is  no  danger  of 
any  such  reaction  taking  place.  But  it  is  obvious  that  the 
complete  transformation  of  the  Admiralty,  begun  in  May 
1917  and  completed  within  the  last  month,  has  shocked 
and  disgusted  many  old  and  faithful  supporters  of  that  de- 
partment as  it  used  to  be,  and  »f  the  men  that  for  the  last 
fifteen  years  have  controlled  it.  Of  this  disgust  there  are 
many  evidences.  The  passage  I  quote  above,  from  the  best 
and  ablest  of  Service  publications,  is  only  one  of  many  proofs 
that  a  majority  of  those  interested  in  naval  policy  see  little 
more  in  what  has  happened  than  a  light-hearted,  irresponsible 
and  unjust  dismissal  of  one  after  another  of  their  old 
favourites.  It  is,  of  course,  very  unfortunate  when  men,  for 
nearly  a  generation,  marked  for  the  highest  commands,  have 
succeeded  to  them  in  war,  and  then  have  to  make  way.  for 
others,  either  because  war  has  taken  a  course  for  which  they 
were  unprepared,  or  because  they  themselves  have  exhausted 


lO 


Land    &    Water 


February   7,  igiH 


their  best  physical  and  mental  energies  in  serving  their  country 
before  the  real  test  came.  Men  like  this  do  not  rise  to  the 
head  of  their  profession  without  po-^essing  exceptional  guts 
and  rare  personalities.  They  command  affection  no  less 
than  respect,  and  they  inspire  loyalties  that  make  their 
admirers  sensitive  to  any  lack  of  honour  to  their  liero-S. 
The  prestige  of  such  men  is  an  invaluable  asset  wnen 
thev  are  in  command.  But  it  becomes  an  almost  incalcu- 
lable danger  when  they  fail.  The  reason  is  that  their  folo  >vers 
professional  no  less  than  lay,  are  blinded  by  devotion  and 
cannot  realise  that  failure  has  oc'curred.  ,  j-  x- 

A  man  of  the  highest  rank,  who^e  long,  faithful  and  distin- 
guished services  makes  him  to  many  a  sort  of  personihcation 
of  the  nax'v'  he  has  commanded,  is— quite  unexpctedlv  by 
tho-e  who  believe  in  him— relieved  of  his  office  or  his  com- 
mand and  his  task  handed  on  to  another.  Those  who  are 
unable  to  see  that  a  new  situation  calls  for  a  new  system,  new 
methods  of  work,  a  new  organisation,  fail  also  to  realise  that 
the  new  mechanism  must  be  handled  and  directed  by  new  men 
And  if,  as  was  the  case  with  our  navy,  the  chief  command 
ashore  as  well  as  the  highest  posts  in  the  sea  commands  had 
for  half  a  generation  been  monopolised  by  men  of  one  com- 
plexion of  thought,  it  necessarily  follows  that  the  new  inen 
called  in  after  the  revolution  must  have  less  reputation,  less 
distinguished  services,  less  experience  than  those  that  are  dis- 
placed. It  is,  then,  only  natural  that  the  partisans  of  the 
dispossessed  should  burst  out  into  praise  of  their  heroes,  and 
decry  the  injustice  of  their  supercession.  But  they  adopt  a 
rhetorical  method  to  which  there  is  no  reply,  for  the  defenders 
of  the  new  system  cannot  retaliate  by  criticism  of  the  old 
leaders.  It  is,  however,  legitimate  to  criticise  the  old  methods 
and  a  word  of  reply  to  the  Naval  and  Military  Record  will  not 
be  out  of  place. 

The  passage  which  I  have  quoted  above  gives  the  point  of 
the  attack  on  the  present  writer.  The  case  set  up  as  to  our 
former  naval  administrations — one  must  suppose  both  pre- 
war and  after  the  war— until  the  ruthless  campaign  finally 
begin  a  year  ago,  is  that  at  each  stage  the  employment  of 
submarine  against  trading  ships  came,  and  rightly  came,  as  a 
complete  surprise.  The  Admiralty  had  never  been  warned 
and  therefore  had  no  reasons  to  anticipate  the  event.  In  any 
event  I  am  completely  wrong  in  saying  that  "  naval  writers 
and  thinkers  "  at  once  realised  the  import  of  the  submarine 
as  giving  reality  to  Aube's  theory  of  the  guerre  de  course. 
Aube,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  not  merely  in  his  day  the 
most  brilliant  and  famous  of  French  writers  on  naval  war. 
Not  many  years  after  his  historic  prophecy  that  the  ruthless 
sinking  of  trading  ships  was  the  form  which  naval  war  would 
inevitably  take  in  the  future,  he  became  Minister  of  Marine 
in  France.  His  prophecy  was  published  just  at  the  time  when 
the  British  public  was  being  awakened  by  the  late  Mr.  William 
Stead  to  the  serious  deficiencies  in  material  of  the  British 
fleet.  Never  before  had  the  public  mind  been  so  stirred  on  the 
subject  of  sea  power.  When  Aube  became  Minister,  the 
political  rivalry  between  France  and  England  was  at  its 
highest,  and  the  interest  created  by  Stead  in  the  Navy  was 
being  fed  by  the  epoch-making  volumes  by  Mahan  that  were 
now  following  one  upon  the  other  year  by  year.  So  awake 
indeed  was  the  British  Admiralty  to  the  novelty  of  Aube's 
theory  of  war,  that  we  embraced  and  followed  for  many  years 
a  policy  in  shipbuilding  essentially  unsound,  and  excusable 
only  on  the  ground  that  the  French  had  begun  it.  I  allude, 
of  course,  to  the  policy  of  building  armoured  cruisers.  It 
was  on  these  and  the  torpedo  that  Aube  relied  to  bring  Great 
Britain  low  in  war.  A  more  scientific  study  of  the  subject 
showed  the  fallacy  of  the  armoured  cruiser  theory,  but 
not  till  we  had  followed  it  for  more  than  fifteen  years.  The 
weakness  of  Aube's  torpedo  theory  was  that  the  boats  of  his 
day  were  neither  fast  nor  sea-worthy  enough  to  make 
the  menace  real.  Indeed,  it  was  not  till  about  1906  that 
;  even  the  submarine  put  this  theory  on  a  new  basis.  And  it 
was  in  1907  that  Commander,  now  Commodore,  Murray 
Sueter  published  his  admirable  work  on  under-water  war. 

The   Second   Warning 

Already  by  this  time  the  cruising  and  sea-keeping  capacity 
of  the  submarine  had  gone  far  beyond  what  was  dreamed 
_  of  when  Aube  had  the  first  of  these  boats  under  his  fostering 
care  as  head  of  the  French  Navy.  And  the  Commodore  set 
out  in  his  book  in  very  unmistakable  fashion  that,  barbarous 
as  a  ruthless  attack  on  trade  would  be,  yet  there  was  no 
ojjvious  antidote  to  it.  He  went  as  far  as  so  junior  an  officer 
could,  to  indicate  to  his  superiors  that  the  problem  was  one 
that  called  for  analysis  and  experiment.  That  transports, 
jnunition  ships  and  fleet  auxiliaries  were  fair  game  for  the 
•Stibma.rin«  captain,  he  set  out  without  any  eva  ion  at  all,  nor 
did  he  siiggest  how  the  commander  of  the  under-water  ship 
could  possibly,  simply  by  a  hasty  inspection  of  their  hulls, 
distinguish  between  one  kind  of  merchant  ship  and  another. 


It  surely  was  an  obvious  inference  that  anything  he  thouglit 
suspect  it  would  be  his  duty  to  destroy.  By  1907  then  there 
war  all  the  warning  on  this  subject  that  any  vigilant  admini- 
stration could  possibly  desire.  Of  published  writing  on  the 
subject  I  know  of  nothing  between  Commodore  Sueter  s 
book  and  Sir  Percy  Scott's  letter,  written  in  January  1914 
and  published  six  months  later. 

In  a  measure,  however,-  all  this  justification  of  my  state- 
ment is  really  beside  the  mark.  A  naval  administration 
equipped  to  anticipate  the  developments  of  future  war  really 
should  not  be  dependent  upon  chance  published  warnings. 
When  the  Admiralty  is  publicly  criticised,  it  is  qmte  usual 
for  those  who  defend  it  to  tell  the  discontented  to  hold  their 
peace,  on  the  ground  that  the  Admiralty  alone  knows  all  the 
facts  and  can  judge  rightly  of  the  situation.  Well,  what  is 
sauce  for  the  absolving  goose  is  sauce  for  the  indicting  gander. 
The  point  is  not,  did  naval  writers  and  thinkers  warn  the 
Admiralty,  but  were  the  facts  of  the  situation  and  the  known 
theories  of  their  application  to  certain  purposes  in  war  such 
that  it  was  the  Admiralty's  business  to  be  ready  for  this 
particular  form  of  attack  before  it  came  ?  Looked  at  in  this 
way  there  can  be  no  possible  doubt  as  to  the  reply. 

False    Prophets 

And  now  to  take  this  matter  one  step  further.     In  another 
passage  of  this  editorial,  those  that  have  written  on  naval 
subjects  since  the  war  are  taunted  with  the  falsifications  of 
their  prophecies.     But  it  does  not  occur  to  the  writer  that  the 
explanation  of  many  of  these  miscarriages  is  to  be  found  in  a 
certain  simplicity  of  mind  not  altogether  discreditable.     One 
at  least  of  the  "  worst  offenders  "  to   whom   he  so  pointedly 
alludes,  did  indeec^  say,  in  the  second  month  of  the  campaign, 
that  the  protection  of  merchant  shipping  was  far  fro.-n  being 
an  insoluble  problem,  because  the  trade  could  be  directed  into 
narrow  and  defined  channels  and  these  protected  just  as  the 
transport  routes  had  been.     The  submarines  would  then  be 
compelled  to  seek  their  quarries  at  focal  points,  where  pro- 
perly equipped  convoy  vessels  could  deal  with  them.     'Two 
months  later  when  the  published  returns  showed   that  82 
ships  had  in  four  months  been  submarined  in  the  triangle  of 
which  a  fine  from  a  point  just  west  of  the  Fastnet  to  the 
centre  of  St.  George's  Channel  was  one  side,  another  south  of 
this  to  a  point  below  the  Scillies,  and  fro  n  here  back  to  the 
Fastnet  the  third,   the  suggestion    that  had  the  trade  been 
kept  in  a  narrow  path,  the  problem  of  making   that  path 
unassailable,  would  have  been  simple.     And  he  went  on  : 
The  capacity  of  the  Admiralty  to  defend  the  merchant  shipping 
seems  to  depend  almost  entirely  upon  possessing  an  adequate 
number  of  fast,  well-armed  patrols.     The  number,  of  course, 
depends  upon  the  area  to  be  patrolled.     A  system  that  would 
confine'  merchant   shipping   entering   or   returning   from   the 
Atlantic  to   definite   routes  would   reduce   that  area  to  one 
fortieth  of  its  present  size.       It  should  not  be  very  long  before 
a  number  of  destroyers  sufficient  to  patrol  such  routes  should 
be  available.     I   say   this  because   I   naturally   assume   that 
special   provision   was   made   for   increasing   the   number   of 
destroyers  in  the  first  months  of  the  war,  when  it  was  seen  how 
great  a  role  the  submarine  would  play,   and  that  this  pro- 
vision was  doubled,  trebled  and  quadrupled  in  December  ist 
when  the  Germans  announced  their  intention  to  add  murder- 
ous piracy  to-their  other  crimes  . 

Now  both  these  statements  were  made  in  reliance  upon  two 
incontrovertible,  and  indeed  quite  obvious,  truths.  The 
first  was  that  for  many  months  our  military  traffic  to  France 
had  been  carried  on  without  a  single  casualty,  because  from 
the  first  it  had  been  conducted  upon  right  lines,  and  next, 
that  past  experience  of  naval  war  had  shown,  that  it  was  only 
by  convoy  that  trade  could  be  protected  when  it  was  possible 
for  the  enemy  to  get  scattered  naval  force  on  to  the  open  seas. 
Now  when  a  man  says  that  there  is  no  reason  to  fear  the  sub- 
marine campaign,  because  the  enemy's  efforts  can  be  frus- 
trated, and  says  this,  on  the  supposition  that  what  had  long 
been  a  commonplace  of  naval  discussion  would  be  made  the 
basis  of  Admiralty  policy,  can  he  really  be  reproached  with 
being  a  misleading  prophet  ?  It  surely  was  not  his  fault 
that  action  so  clearly  elementary  as  this  was  not  adopted 
until  two  years  after  it  had  been  discussed,  until  indeed 
shipping  and  cargoes  to  the  value  of  more  than,  £1,000,000,00  > 
sterling  had  been  sent  to  the  bottom.  '\ 

It  is  of  very  little  interest  to  anybody,  and  certainly  not  to 
me,  to  argue  whether  on  any  particular  question  I  or  any  other 
naval  writer  was  right  or  wrong  two  or  three  years  age 
What  is  of  intense  interest  is  that  the  naval  dynasty  that  wa^ 
incapable  of  seeing  that  the  convoy  system  would  have  saved 
us  from  the  first,  was  manifestly  incapable  of  carrying  on  the 
chief  command  in  war.  Noi  would  I  have  worried  the  reader 
with  these  reminders  had  it  not  appeared  that  in  some  quarters, 
and  those  far  from  uninfluential,  loyalty  to  ttiis  4ypasty  might 
work  to  endanger  the  new  regime.  We  should  Tjc  blockheads 
indeed  if  we  went  backwards  now.  Arthur  Pollen. 


February   7,   igi8 


Land   &   Water 


1 1 


John  Rathom's  Revelations 

An  outline  of  the  methods  adopted  by  Mr.  John  R.  Rathom 
who   discovered  the  network  of  German   plots  in    America 


The  revelations  by  Mr.  John  R.  Rathom  0]  the  secret  plots  of  the  German  Government  in  America, 
at  the  time  when  the  United  States  was  a  neutral  nation,  is  possibly  from  first  to  last  the  most  thrilling 
story  of  shrewdness,  pertinacity,  and  courage  ivhich  the  war  has  provided  outside  the  heroism  of  the 
battlefields.  Three  instances  of  the  cool  daring  of  Mr.  Rathom  and  his  agei.ti  cr '  related  in  this 
article,  each  amusingly  simple  <«  its  manner  of  working,  but  each  demaniing  wonder] ul  nerve. 
The  time  has  long  p.issed  to  express  any  swprise  at  the  absolute  lack  0/  principle  and  of  all  sense  of 
honesty  and  honour  u'hich  his  characterised  the  German  Government  in  its  dealings  with  neutral 
nations.  None  the  less  one  is  astounded  at  the  cold-blooded  treachery  which  Count  von  Bernstorff 
systematically  practise  t  at  Washington  which  is  fully  disclosed  in  these  articles— treachery  to  which 
he  would  never  have  dared  to  lend  his  hand,  had  he  not  been  laell  assured  of  the  Kaiser's  sanction.  These 
revelations  will  appear  from  u^eek  to  x&eek  in  Land  "&  Water.  Next  week,  Mr.  Rathom  ivill  tell  the 
full  story  of  the  connection  of  the  Get  man  Embassy  in  Washington  with  the  sinking  oj  the  "  Lusita.Aa." 


JOHN  R.  RATHOM,  Editor  of  the  Providence  Journal. 
is  the  man  who  discovered  and  exposed  the  Germ  m  plots 
in  the  United  S;ates.  He  is  the  man 'who  forced  there- 
call  of  the  precious  von  Papen  and  the  notorious  Boy-Ed. 
He  is  the  man  who  unearthed  Dr.  Heinrich  Albert  and  his 
/|S,ooo,ooo  corruption  fund  and  sent  him  back  to  Germany. 
He  is  the  man  who  dis- 
covered and  revealed  the 
plot  to  restore  Hue  ta  to 
a  German-made  dictator- 
ship in  Mexico.  He  is 
the  man  who  proved  that 
the  Lusitania  warning 
was  sent  out  by  the 
German  Embassy  on 
orders  direct  from  Berlin. 
He  is  the  man  who  ex- 
posed William  Jenftings 
Bryan's  "peace  at  any 
price "  interview  with 
Dumba.  He  is  the  man 
who  sent  Consul-General 
Boff ,  at  San  Francisco,  to 
prison  for  two  years  for 
conspiracy.  He  is  the 
man  who  warned  the 
Government  that  the 
Canadian  Parliament 
Building  at  Ottawa  was 
to  be  fired  three  weeks 
before  it  was  burned  by 
German  agents.  In  brief,  ^ 
he  is  the  man  who  (with- 
out official  authority) 
was  for  three  years  the 
eyes  of  America,  guarding 
it  against  the  treachery 
of  the  German  Govern- 
ment. He  has  been  a 
patriot  of  the  highest 
order  in  the  face,  first,  of 
early  unbelief  and  ridi- 
cule on  the  part  of  Wa;h- 
in.^ton  officials  ;  then  of 
slander  and  abuse  on  the 
part  of  the  whole  pro- 
German  element  in  the 
United  States  ;  and,  fin- 
ally, of  attempts  upon  his 
life  by  hired  assassins. 

'.'  The  Providence  Journal  this  morning  will  say  :  " — that 
phrase,  familiar  to  every  newspaper  reader  in  the  United 
States,  has  been  the  preface  to  the  exposure  of  nearly  every 
German  plot  that  has  bee.i  tol  1  to  the  American  public  since 
the  World  War  began.  Merely  to  m  ntion  all  these  exposures, 
with  the  barest  outlines  of  names,  dates,  aud  places  involved, 
would  require  ten  or  twelve  pages  of  type  like  this  in 
Land  &  Water.  To  reprint ,  all  the  thousands  of  original 
cablegrams,  letters,  cheques,  photographs  and  codes  on  which 
they  are  based  would  fill  a  five-foot  shelf  of  books. 

This  mass  of  data,  accumulated  in  three  years  of  ceaseless 
search,  is  stored  in  triplicate  in  vaults  in  Providence,  New 


Mr.  John  R.  Rathom 

The  Editor  of  the  Providence  Journa 
Plots  in  the  United  States  has 


York,  and  Washington.  Copies  of  every  item  of  it  have  been 
supplied,  as  discovered,  to  the  Stale  Department  in  Washing- 
ton or  to  some  other  branch  of  the  An. eric  an  government.  It 
is  the  foundation  upon  which  has  been  erected  the  whole 
structure  of  .A.:neica'3  enormous  secret  service,  and  it  is 
the  cause  of  the  awakening  of  the  Americ;  n  p  >ople  to  the 

hideous  m  nace  of  Ger- 
many's  cold  -  blooded 
assaults  upon  its  very 
existence  as  an  indepen- 
dent nation. 

How  has  it  happened 
that  a  provincial  news- 
paper (it  is  called  "  the 
Rhode  Island  Bible  "  in 
its  own  territory)  has 
been  the  means  of  dis- 
closing facts  that  usually 
are  procured  only  by 
the  secret  agents  of 
governments  and  kept 
guarded  like  jewels  in  the 
most  sacred  archives  of 
ihe  State  depart  ments  ? 
It  lias  happened  because  : 

1.  John  R.  Rathom, 
editor  of  the  Journal, 
scented  from  the  first 
hour  of  the  war  that 
the  United  States  was 
a  world  power  w  ith  world 
wide  interests  ;  that  one 
of  the  objects  of  Ger- 
many's mad  ambition 
was  to  destroy  democracy 
the  world  over,  and  that 
the  cataclysm  in  Europe 
was  no  less  for  America 
than  for  Great  Britain 
and  France  the  crucial 
test  of  all  history. 

2.  Because  Mr.  Rotham, 
encouraged  and  financed 
by  the  owners  of  his  con- 
servative old  New  Eng- 
land paper,  and  working 
with  the  loyal  aid  of 
a  dozen  newspaper  re- 
porters, beat  the  German 
secret  service  at  their 
own  game  a  hundred 
times  since  the  war 
began. 

3.  Because  he  had  the  foresight  to  have  taken  down  in 
writing  and  kept  on  file  eve^y  wireless  dispatch  sent  by  the 
great  Sayville  and  Tuckerton  Stations  since  the  day  war  was 
declared  in  August,  1914,  and  the  ingenuity  to  decipher  masses 
of  these  dispatches  in  code,  including  thousands  of  damning 
messages  from  von  Bernstorff,  von  Papen,  Boy-Ed,  Dumba, 
von  Nuber,  and  scores  of  nameless  others,  to  the  German 
and  Austrian  Governments. 

4.  Because,  in  his  efforts  to  serve  his  country,  he  succeeded 
in  getting  his  own  reporters  into  confidential  positions  in  the 
twelve  most  important  Teutonic  headquarters  in  the  United 
States,  and  received  from  them  almost  daily  reports  and  original 
documents  covering  every  phase  of  German  plots  and  German 


i  whose  success  in  unearthing  German 
made  him  an  International  figure 


t2 


Land   &    Water 


February   7,  191 8 


propaganda.     These   men  he  placed  in  : 
German  Embassy  in  Washington  ; 
German  Consulate-General  in  New  York  ; 
Austrian  Consulate-General    in    New  Vor'c  ; 
German    Consulate  in  Boston  ;  v 

Austrian  Consulate  in  Cleveland  ; 
German   Consulate   in  New  Orleans  ; 
German  Consulate-General  in  Chicago  ; 
Austrian  Consulate-General  in  Chicago  ; 
German  Consulate-General  in   San  Francisco  ; 
Austrian  Consulate-General  in  Philadelphia  ; 
German    Consulate  in  Denver ; 
German  Consulate   in  St.  Louis. 

That,  in  the  barest  outline,  is  the  story.  Mr.  Rathom 
himself  is  going  to  tell  the  details  of  it  in  a  scries  of  articles 
in  Land  &  Water  beginning  next  week.  The  purpose 
of  this  present  article  is  to  give  some  idea  of  the  man 
who  did  these  things.  But  it  may  be  well  to  suggest  the 
character  ard  scope  of  his  forthcoming  articles  by  an 
attempt  to  tell  briefly  thre^  of  his  experiences  which  he 
will  not  ca\'er  in  his  series. 

When  the  war  began  in  1914,  most  Americans  regarded  them- 
selves as  interested,  but  aloof,  spectators  of  the  most  colossal 
drama  eyer  staged  in  the  world's  history.  That  it  might  con- 
cern theni  in  their  own  dearest  honour  and  possess'-ons  did 
not  for  one  moment  enter  their  minds.  But  Mr.  Ra'hom 
knew  otherwise.  He  had  travelled  over  nearly  the  whole 
world — Europe,  Africa,  China,  Australia,  and  the  United 
States.  He  knew,  of  old,  Germany's  ambitions  ;  particularly 
its  designs  upon  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  its  subtle  and  care- 
fully organised  propaganda  to  consolidate  the  Germans  in  the 
United  States  for  the  working  out  of  the  American  end  of  its 
dream  of  world  dominion.  Hen  :e,  the  day  war  was  declared, 
he  began  to  probe  German  activities  in  America,  knowing 
well  that  soon  they  would  be  in  'full  play  to  cause  much  ' 
damage.      In  his  search  for  German  plots   he  placed  men  in 


liaiscrliifj 

Ortitsrtic  l^otoriiad 
U'uliiuglQn,  DQ* 


Oatobec  9.    1915 


ERPOSSCHUNO        John  Kathoii 


ProTidenos 
How  York 
Chicago 
Lenve r 

San  Francisco 
St  Louis 
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Seattle 
Portland  0. 
Dallas 


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120.00 
335.00 
180.00 
685.00 
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160.00 
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Ausgnba  Eisenbahn  2450.00 
Eldliche  400.00 


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Von  Papeirs  account  of  expend  ture  incurred  in  a  far-reachins  in- 
vestigation of  Mr.  Raihoms  careeV  for  the  purno.e   of  Svfrine 
some  vulnerable  point  in  his  personal  character  ^ 

^''l.^t"u°"'^.u'^"''"''  mentioned  above.  Even  now  he  cannot 
publish  how  this  was  done.though  he  can  and  will  tell  the  men's 
names,  that  did  this  dangerous  work.     Of  these,  one  secured 


employment  as  a  secretary  to  von  Bernstorff ,  in  the  Embassy 
in   Wasliington. 

Enter  now  Dr.  Heinrich  Albert,  fresh  from  Germany,  with 
a  letter  of  credit  of  £8co,ooo  in  his  pocket  and  the  assurance 
of  his  government  that  he  may  have  eight  milhons  sterling 
alto^^ether— to  buy  public  opinion  in  the  United  States,  to 
purchase  the  votes  of  Congressmen,  to  procure  the  murder  of 
American  citizens  working  in  munition  plants,  and  to  do  other 
"  friendly  "  acts  toward   that  neutral  Government  and  its 
unsuspecting  people.     Dr.  Albert  landed  in  New  York  and 
registered  at  the  Ritz-Carltoh  Hotel.     He  wrote  at  once  to  his 
Ambassador,  Bernstorff,   announ'cing  his  arrival  and  asking 
for  instructions.     The  Ambassador  happened  to  be  taking 
an  outing  in  the  Adirondacks  when  Dr.  Albert's  letter  reached 
the  Embassy.     The  letter  was  delivered  on  Saturday  afternoon 
— and  the  p  jstal  clerks  at  the  Embassy  were  habitually  granted 
a  holiday  from  Saturday  noon  to  9  a.m.  Monday  morning. 
The  Embassy  secretaries,  however,  often  stayed  at  their  desks 
on  Saturday  afternoon  ;  and  so  it  happened  that  Mr.  Rathom 's 
man  there  got  the  letter,  together  with  others,  and  without  ap- 
parently disturbing  the  envelope,  read  the  contents.     Without 
a  moment's  hesitation  he  took  the  next  train  to  New    York 
and  telegraphed  Mr.  Rathom.     He  was  met  in  New  York  by 
another  reporter  from  the  Providence  Journal.     Next  morning 
this  other  reporter,  in  Sunday  top  hat  and  frock  coat,  appeared 
at  the  Ritz-Carlton  and  asked  for  Dr.  Albert.     He  was  shown 
up  to  the  doctor's  suite  and  there  presented  to  Dr.  Albert  his 
own  letter  to  von  Bernstorff.and  said  the  Ambassador  had  sent 
him  to  discuss  the  situation  with  him.     But  first  he  must  be 
assured  that  he  was  really  addressing  Dr.  Albert,  and  not  some 
possibly    untrustworthy    underling.      Dr.     Albert    produced 
credentials  of  his  identity,  and  even  called  in  msmbers  of  his 
suite  to  prove  that  he  was  himself — forgetting,  in  the  heat  of 
his  earnestness,  to  demand  a  similar  guarantcj  from  his  caller. 
.   That  would  hardly  have  seemed  necessary  even  if  he  had  re- 
flected, for  there  was  his  own  letter,   brought  to  him   from 
Wasliington. 

Scene  in  the  German  Embassy 

Having  satisfied  his  visitor,  Dr.  Albert  went  at  length  into 
his  mission— the  precise  purposes  of  it,  the  money  he  had  in 
hand  and  in  prospect — all  the  details.  His  caller  congrat  u'.ated 
him,  bade  him  good-day,  and  left  ;  and  immediately  restored 
the  letter  to  his  brother  reporter,  who  tock  the  afternoon 
train  back  to  Washington,  resealed  the  letter,  and  replaced  it 
in  the  Embassy  mail  bag  that  night.  ,■ 

On  Monday,  one  of  the  postal  clerks  at  the  Embassy  opened 
the  letter  zind  laid  it,  as  a  matter  of  routine,on  the  Ambassador's 
desk.  Birnstorff  appeared  on  Tuesday,  and  as  soon  as  he 
read  it  ^he  telephoned  Dr.  Albsrt  to  co.tis  to  Washington. 

The  two  msn  mst  the  following  morning  at  the  Embassy  and 
enbracei  in  the  presence  of  the  Jourml  reporter.  And  the 
first  words  Dr.  Albert  spoke  were  to  praise  his  Excellency  upon 
his  choice  of  "  so  discreet  aad  admirable  an  agent  "  as  he  had 
sent  to  him  in  New  York.  Then  there  was  a  scene.  Bernstorff 
denied  sending  any  messenger,  and  Albert  reaffirmed  it.  The 
clerk  was  called  in,  and  declared  he  had  slit  the  envelope  with 
his  own  hand. 

Albert  repeated  that  he  had  had  that  very  letter,  physically, 
back  in  his  hand,  from  the  messenger,  on  Sunday.  Results  : 
Two  badly  perturbed  agents  of  the  Kaiser,  and  the  ultimate 
exposure  of  Dr.  Albert  in  the  Providence  Journal. 

Another  episode  among  Mr.  Rathom's  miny  adventures 
into  the  intricacies  of  German  intrigue  is  known  in  the  Journal 
office  as  the  "  Case  of  the  Two  Hearts."  He  had  caught  the 
trail  of  von  Pap^n  when  this  happened.  Von  Papen,"  in  the 
course  of  his  duties  in  the  United  States,  had  accumulated 
a  large  mass  of  letters,  receipts,  reports  of  plots  to  blow  up 
munition  plants  and  American  ships,  and  other  documents 
thatwould  be  as  useful  to  the  United  S  ates  and  England  as 
to  Berlin  (America  was  still  neutral  and  the  Kaiser  stiil 
addressed  the  President  in  "  friendly  "  messages).  As 
they  often  did,  the  Germans  used  the  Austrian  diplomatic 
channels  to  get  this  treacherous  correspondence  to  Berlin. 
Hence  von  Papen  was  picking  his  documents  in  a  box  in  the 
office  of  the  Austrian  Consulate  General  in  New  York  for 
shipment  on  the  Oscar  II.  The  shorthand  writer  in  the  office 
had  been  on  the  job  only  a  few  months.  Before  that  she  had 
never  done  anything  more  exciting  than  to  take  dictation  in 
the  office  of  the  Journal,  though,  of  course,  that  was  not 
mentioned  when  she  applied  for  the  place.  She  knew  what 
was  going  into  the  box  and  had  reported  it,  and  she  had  in- 
structions to  mark  the  case  so  that  it  could  be  identified  later. 
The  day  it  was  nailed  up  for  shipment  she  ate  her  luncheon 
seated  on  the  top  of  it.  When  she  was  in  the  midst  of  her 
meal,  von  Papen  came  in.  He  asked  if  he  might  share  her 
sandwiches.  She  consented.  They  sat  on  the  box  together. 
He  grew  sentimental.  She  did  not  discourage  his  poetical 
mood.     At  Its  height  she  took  a  red  crayon  pencil  irom  her 


February   7,   19 18 


Land   &    Water 


13 


liair  and  in  a  dreamy  way  drew,  on  the  packing  box,  the  out- 
line of  two  hearts  entwined.  The  susceptible  von  Papen, 
in  the  spirit  of  the  moment  seized  the  pencil  and  with  his  own 
hand  drew  an  arrow  piercing  them.  And  so  it  was  that 
when  the  British  secret  service  agents  inspected  the  cargo  of 
the  Oscar  II.  when  it  touched  Falmouth,  they  took  particular 
pains  to  look  for  the  box  marked  with  two  red  hearts  and  an 
arrow^and  found  it.  U  Itimatelv  the  Providence  Journal 
published  such  full  and  intimate  details  of  the  sentimental 
von  Papon's  career  in  America  that  he  was  invited  to  leave 
the  country. 

The  Welland   Plot 

Episode  number  three,  and  the  last  to  be  told  here — Mr. 
Rathom,  in  his  articles,  will  tell  others  more  important — illus- 
trates not  only  one  of  the  many  methods  used  to  gather  evi- 
dences but  also  the  cheering  fact  that  some  German-Americans 
are  just  Americans,  and  of  the  most  loj'al  kind  at  that.  Mr. 
Rathom  discovered  that  the  offices  of  a  great  German  steam- 
ship company  in  New  York  were  in  reality  a  branch  of  the 
German  Government  and  a  hotbed  of  German  intrigue,  and 


Count  Johann  Heinrich  von  BernstorfF 

German  Am'jasiadorjn  the  United  States 

he  determined  to  get  access  to  their  records.  One  of  his 
reporters  was  little  more  than  a  boy,  the  son  of  German 
parents.  They  were  good  Americans,  though,  and  the  boy 
himself  was  a  patriot.  Under  instructions  he  went  back  from 
Providence  to  his  birthplace  at  Lima,  Ohio,  and  there  he  wrote 
a  letter  to  the  general  manager  of  the  steamship  line  in  New 
York.  He  had  a  brother,  so  he  wn^te,  who  was  a  telegraph 
operator  in  Providence  and  acquainted  with  one  of  the  tele- 
graph operators  in  the  Providence  Journal.  Through  this 
channel  he  learned  that  the  Providence  Journal  planned  to 
instal  one  of  its  men  in  the  office  of  this  German  steamship 
company  in  the  guise  of  a  janitor  so  that  he  might,  in  the 
course  of  his  duties,  become  familiar  with  the  location  of  their 
secret  files  and  take  from  them  such  of  their  contents  as  were 
of  interest  to  the  Journal.  About  a  month  later  a  man  did 
apply  to  the  officers  of  the  company  in  New  York  for  a  job  as 
janitor.  The  Prussian  officials  were  ready  for  hitn.  They  had 
detailed  thd  chief  of  their  secret  service  to  apply  "  the  third 
degree."  This  he  did,  and  under  the  machine  gun  fire  of  his 
questions  the  applicant  stammered,  hesitated,  trembled,  and 
finally  confessed.  For  two  days  thereafter  the  officers  of 
the  steamship  company  were  jubilant  and  they  wrote  an  ela- 
borate report  of  the  triumph  over  the  hated  Providence 
Journal  to  the  Embassy  in  Washington,  a  copy  of  which  is 
now  in  Mr.  Rathom 's  possession. 

Some  weeks  later  came  another  letter  from  the  young  man 
with  a  German  name  at  Lima,  Ohio.  He  wrote  rather  plain- 
tively that  he  had  not  heard  from  the  steamship  company 
and  so  felt,  of  course,  that  the  information  he  had  sent  had 
been  valueless.  Ncvcrtherlcss,  so  he  wrote,  he  had  done  his 
best.  He  was  coming  on  to  New  York  to  seek  his  fortune, 
and,  while  finding  his  way  about,  might  he  not  hnve  a  clerical 
position  that  would  support  him  for  a  few  months  ?  He  wa? 
assured  that  he  could  have  the  job — by  telegraph.      "  The 


young  man  from  Lima  "  went  through  the  filesin  the  offices 
in  New  York  at  his  leisure  and  supplied  the  Providence 
Journal  with  the  material  which  fastened  on  the  officers  of 
this  hne  and  its  secret  servic^  agents  the  guilt  of  the  plot  to 
blow  up  the  Welland  Canal,  gave  to  the  Journal  an  immense 
mass  of  valuable  information  concerning  the  methods  of 
securing  fraudulent  passports  for  German  and  Austrian  re- 
servists, and  also  secured  for  his  newspaper  proLfi  of  the 
criminal  activities  of  Captain  Hans  Tauscher,  the  agent  of 
the  Krupps  in  America  and  the  husband  of  Madame  Gadski. 

Card  Index  of  Seven  Thousand  Traitors 

So  much  for  some  of  the  means  by  which  German  Govern- 
ment's treachery  has  been  unearthed  during  the  last  three 
years.  But  let  no  one  deceive  himself  with  the  vain  hope  that 
the  job  is  done.  To-day,  in  the  offices  of  the  Providence 
Journal,  is  a  card  inde.x  of  the  names  of  seven  thousand 
people,  hundreds  of  them  American  citizens,  dozens  of  them 
honoured  leaders  in  professional  and  public  life,  who  are  known 
still  to  be  working  the  Kaiser's  will  in  every  important  city 
in  the  United  States.  These  traitors  are,  many  of  them, 
unsuspected  by  neighbours  and  friends  who  respect  and  trust 
them.  The  Government  has  been  informed  of  their  activities. 
The  Journal  is  still  following  thoir  movements,  and  every  day 
checkmates  some  of  them.  Thus,  privately,  the  Journal,  is 
doing  a  great  patriotic  service.  Publicly,  it  is  attempting  to 
arouse  the  loyal  citizens  of  the  country  to  the  common  danger 
and  to  show  thorn,  from  its  experience,  how  to  combat  this 
most  deadly  and  insidious  peril.  For  Example,  it  publishes, 
every  day,  at  the  head  of^its  editorial  columns,  the  following 
warning  to  Americans  : 

Every  German  or  Austrian  in  the  United  States,  unless 
known  by  years  of  association  to  be  absolutely  loyal,  should  be 
treated  as  a  potential  spy.  Keep  your  eyes  and  ears  open. 
Whenever  any  suspicious  act  or  disloyal  word  cornes  to  your 
notice  communicate  at  once  with  the  Bureau  of  Investigation 
of  the  Department  of  Justice. 

We  are  at  war  with  the  most  merciless  and  inhuman  nation 
in  the  world.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  its  people  in  this 
country  want  to  see  America  humiliated  and  beaten  to  her 
knees,  and  they  are  doing,  and  will  do,  everything  in  their 
power  to  bring  this  about. 

Take  nothing  for  granted.  Energy  and  alertness  in  this 
direction  may  save  the  life  of  son,  or  husband,  or  brother. 
Its  example  has  persuaded  twenty  or  more  papers,  in  ail 
parts  of  the  country,  to  print  this  notice — including  some  of 
the  most  important  papers  printed  in  Italian  and  other 
languages. 

Now  for  a  word  about  Mr.  Rathom  himself..  He  was 
born  in  Melbourne,  Australia,  of  English  parentage,  and 
was  educated  there  and  at  Harrow.  At  eighteen  he 
began  his  newspaper  career  as  a  correspondent  of 
Australian  papers,  reporting  the  military  operations  in  the 
Soudan  long  before  the  days  of  Kitchener  and  Omdurman. 
A  few  months  of  this  was  followed  by  a  journey  to  New 
Guinea,  where  he  joined  the  Bunbury  Expedition  exploring 
that  then  little  known  and  inhospitable  island.  His  wanderings 
next  took  him  to  Hong  Kong,  where  he  had  been  brought 
up  as  a  child  and  where  he  had  learned  to  speak  Chinese. 
Two  years  in  China  were  spent  in  trips  through  the  in- 
terior and  up  the  Yang  Tse  River,  to  the  head  of  navigation. 
After  work  on  various  newspapers  he  joined  the  Chicago 
Herald.  Then  came  the  Spanish  War,  and  Mr.  Rathom 
was  sent  to  the  front,  where  he  was  first  w  undcd  and 
afterwards  contracted  yellow  fever. 

Soon  after  the  Spanish  War,  came  the  war  in  South  Africa, 
and  again  the  Chicago  Herald  sent  Mr.  Rathom  as  its 
correspondent.  He  went  with  some  of  the  Australian 
troops,  and  was  wounded  twice  within  ten  seconds,  once 
in  the  leg  and  then  in  the  hip.  This  caused  him  to  miss 
seeing  the  capture  of  Cronje,  but  a  few  weeks  later  he  was  back 
on  the  job  and  spent  in  all  eight  months  reporting  the  war. 
Twelve  years  ago  Mr.  Rathom  went  to  Providence  to  be- 
come the  managing  director  of  the  Journal.  After  seven  years 
of  service  in  that  capacity  Mr.  Rathom  became  editor  and 
general  manager  of  the  paper.  What  he  has  made  it,  since  the 
war  began,  is  now  international  history.  Not  only  has  his 
work  in  exposing  German  plots  been  of  invaluable  aid  to  the 
United  States  Government  and  to  all  the  Allies,  but  his  power- 
ful editorials  upon  international  policies  have  been  quoted 
the  world  over.  In  the  United  States  he  has  become  a  national 
figure,  and  his  influence  among  men  of  light  and  leading  has 
become  one  of  the  forces  of  that  country's  history. 

Next  week  we  shall  publish  Mr.Rathom's  own  account 
of  the  arch-plottersin  the  German  Embassy  and  in  par- 
ticular the  carefully  laid  plans  for  sinking  the  Lusitania 


Ik 


14 


Land   &   Water 


February   7,  191  8 


High   Wages  and  High  Prices   :    By  Harold  Cox 


THE  primary  cause  of  the  food  shortage  from 
which  we  are  all  beginning  to  suflcr  is  the 
diversion  of  human  energy  from  production  to 
destruction.  This  has  happened  in  most  of  the 
countries  of  the  world,  and  throughout  Europe 
it  has  affected  in  slightly  varj'irg  degrees  all  the  belligerents 
and  most  of  the  neutrals.  It  is  important  to  bear  this,  general 
fact  in  mind  because  we  are  all  of  us  apt  to  imagine  our  own 
particular  troubles  are  peculiar. 

Unfortunately  the  Government,  while  on  the  one  hand  by 
its  labour  policy  encouraging  the  inflation  of  wages,  has,  on  the 
other  hand,  by  its  food  control  policy  encouraged  increased 
consumption,  and  fo  has  itself  helped  to  produce  the  shortage 
from  which  the  country  is  now  suffering.  When  traders 
began  to  realise  that  there  might  be  a  shortage  of  staple  foods 
and  consequently  prices  began  to  rise,  the  occasion  arose  for 
measures  to  prevent  the  poorest  classes  from  suffering  ex- 
cessively. One  of  the  best  things  accomplished  in  the 
way  of  legislation  since  the  war  began  was  the  passing 
of  the  Act  compelling  farmers  to  pay  a  minimum  wage 
of  25s.  a  week.  This  Act  was  necessary  because  economic 
forces  alone  were  not  sufficient  to  overcome  the  traditions  and 
the  strong  trade  union  action  of  farmers  acting  as  a  body. 
.Agricultural  wages  in  a  word  had  been  kept  dowTi  below  an 
economic  level  by  the  deliberate  action  of  the  farmers  based 
largely  upon  a  bad  custom,  and  outside  pressure  was  neces- 
sary to  get  rid  of  this  vicious  system.  Following  the  same 
general  principle,  certain  departments  of  the  government 
adopted  the  principle  of  raising  the  wages  of  their  less  well-paid 
clerks  while  leaving  the  better  paid  clerks  at  the  same  standard 
as  before.  If  these  sound  lines  of  policy  had  been  continued 
throughout,  the  country  would  have  been  saved  from  a  very 
large  part  of  the  economic  troubles  from  which  it  is  now 
suftering— namely,  from  that  part  which  is  due  to  the  increased 
wages  granted  to  large  classes  of  manual  workers  who  were 
already  enjoying  incomes  quite  sufficient  to  provide  them  fully 
with  the  necessaries  of  life. 

If  thos3  who  have  had  their  wages  so  greatly  increased  had 
devoted  the  larger  part  of  the  increase  to  war  savings,  little 
harm  would  have  been  done,  so  far,  at  any  rate,  as  the  question 
of  prices  is  concerned.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  experience 
of  the  War  Savings  Committees  shows  that  those  districts 
where  wages  have  risen  most  are  the  very  districts  where  the 
weekly  war  savings  are  least.  It  is  the  people  who  have  not 
prospered  financially  as  the  result  of  the  war  who  are  struggling 
out  of  their  relatively  low  wages  to  help  their  country  by  sub- 
scribing to  war  loans.  On  the  other  hand,  the  well-to-do 
wage  earner  is  using  his  increased  wages  to  enlarge  his  scale 
of  living.  He  is  buying  more  than  ever  he  did  before,  and 
every  purchase  he  makes  tends  to  force  up  prices. 

War   Bonuses 

Special  attention  has  recently  been  directed  to  this  question 
of  war  bonuses  by  the  extraordinary  pubhc  conflict  between 
Mr.  Barnes  and  Mr.  Winston  Churchill.  Mr.  Churchill  may 
be  responsible  for  the  blunder  of  attempting  to  deal  with  a  i 
highly  complicated  situation  by  means  of  a  percentage 
bonus,  but  the  foolishness  of  this  proposal  is  readily  seen. 
Take  for  example  the  case  of  a  skilled  man  earning  on  time 
wages  £3  a  week  as  contrasted  with  an  unskilled  man  earning 
on  piece  wages  £5  a  week.  Obviously  a  I2|  per  cent,  given  to 
the  skilled  man— that  is,  an  additional  7s.  ed.,  wiU  not  redress 
the  balance.  Mr.  Barnes  knew  this,  and  also  knew  that  the 
grievance  had  already  been  largely  redressed.  Yet  when 
.Mr.  Churchill  presented  to  the  War  Cabinet  a  scheme  for  giving 
a  12J  per  cent,  bonus  to  a  comparatively  limited  number  of 
skilled  workers,  Mr.  Barnes  and  Lord  Milner,  as  representing 
the  War  Cabinet,  instead  of  turning  down  the  scheme  in  Mo, 
expanded  it  immensely  by  extending  the  bonus  to  a  large 
number  of  other  classes  of  time  workers  and  thus  themselves 
set  up  a  claim  for  the  bonus  to  be  extended  to  piece  workers 
also.  It  only  remains  to  add  that  this  gigantic  expansion  of 
an  onginally  foolish  scheme,  not  only  fails  to  solve  the  original 
grievance,  but  actually  aggravates  it  ;  for  to  take  the  illustra- 
tion above  given,  if  the  man  with  £3  and  the  man  with  £5 
both  get  a  12J  per  cent,  bonus,  the  margin  between  them  is 
actually  increased  instead  of  being  diminished.  This  colossal 
muddle,  for  which  the  War  Cabinet  itself  must  be  held 
responsible,  may  possibly  cost  the  country  as    much     as 

£100,000  000. 

The  inflation  of  wages  must  in  any  case  have  made  the  food 
problem  more  serious.  It  has  been  further  aggravated  by  the 
deliberate  adoption  by  the  Food  ConfroUcr,  possibly  on  ex- 
press orders  from  the  War  Cabinet,  of  a  policy  which  the  ex- 
penence  of  mankind  has  uniformly  condemned,  namely,  the 


policy  of  attempting  to  limit  prices  when  demand  is  high  and 
supply  is  scarce.  On  this  point  it  is  worth  while  to  quote  from 
an  extremely  interesting  letter  written  more  than  three  and  a 
half  centuries  ago  with  reference  to  the  efforts  made  to  fix 
prices  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  The  letter  was  written  by 
Sir  John  Masone,  to  Mr.  Secretary  Cecil,  and  is  dated  December 
4th,  1550.  It  refers  to  an  Order  of  the  Privy  Council  fixing  the 
prices  of  cheese  and  butter  : 

I  hear  here  a  great  bruit  of  the  discontentation  of  our  people 
upon  a  late  proclamation  touching  cheese  and  butter.  . 
I  have  seen  so  many  experiences  of  such  ordinances  ;  and 
ever  the  end  is  dearth,  and  lack  of  the  thing  that  we  seek  to 
make  good  cheap.  Nature  will  have  her  course,  ctiam  si 
fared  expcllattir  ;  and  never  shall  you  drive  her  to  consent  that 
a  ^cMKjy-worth  of  new  shall  be  sold  for  a  fartliing. 
1  For  who  will  keep  a  cow  that  may  not  sell  the  milk  for  so  much 
as  the  merchant  and  he  can  agree  upon  ? 

The  whole  principle  is  contained  in  these  few  sentences- 
When  normal  supplies  are  reduced,  prices — in  countries  un- 
troubled by  Food  Controllers — rise.  The  result  is  that  some 
people  cut  down  their  purchases  and  this  process  continues 
until  what  remains  is  sufficient  for  all  who  continue  to  pay. 
It  is  the  business  of  traders,  both  retail  and  wholesale,  to  adjust 
prices  to  this  necessary  condition.  If  they  put  prices  too  low 
their  stocks  will  be  quickly  exhausted  and  their  customers, 
being  disappointed,'  may  carry  their  permanent  custom 
elsewhere.  If  they  put  prices  too  high  they  are  left  with  stuff 
unsold  on  their  hands.  On  the  other  hand,  where  a  Privy 
Council  or  a  Food  Controller  intervenes  and  fixes  a  definite 
price,  some  entirely  new  method  of  sharing  out  the  insufficient 
supply  has  to  be  devised.  The  simplest  plan  is  the  queue 
system.  It  has  been  in  operation  for  two  centuries  at  least 
in  connection  with  theatre  seats,  where  the  price  is  always  fixed 
and  the  supply  always  limited.  Consequently,  the  theatres 
have  always  regulated  admission  on  the  principle  of  "  first 
come  first  served  !  "  Exactly  the  same  thing  happens  when 
prices  for  margarine  are  fixed,  with  this  difference,  that  no  one 
by  standing  in  theatre  queues  can  get  two  seats,  whereas  with 
margarine  the  enterprising  mother  of  a  family  may  send  all 
her  children  to  stand  in  queues  ;  and  so  one  household  may  get 
three  or  four  times  its  fair  share, 

It  may  be  answered  that  this  argument  overlooks  the  fact 
of  unequal  incomes  ;  but  it  has  already  been  urged  above  that 
the  income  problem  should  have  been  dealt  with  by  raising 
the  wages  of  the  less  well-paid  workers  so  that  they  should 
have  had  enough  to  pay  for  their  necessaries.  Had  this  been 
done,  it  is  certain  Viiat  increased  prices  would  have  restricted 
the  demand  of  the  more  prosperous  wage  earners,  there  would 
have  been  less  greedy  consumption  and  less  sheer  waste. 

But  not  only  do  high  prices  serve  a  most  valuable  national 
function  in  limiting  demand  when  supplies  are  scarce,  but  they 
do  an  equal  service  to  the  nation  by  stimulating  the  production 
of  fresh  supplies.  Alternatively,  if  prices  are  artificially 
limited  by  public  authority,  production  ceases.  Of  this  truth 
there  has  been  abundant  evidence  during  the  past  twelve 
months.  When  the  Food  Controller  last  spring  began  to 
interfere  with  the  price  of  milk,  farmers  began  to  sell  their 
cows,  and  many  were  slaughtered.  The  Food  Controller 
has  also  fixed  the  price  of  butter  so  low  that  Dutch- 
men cannot  afford  to  supply  us,  and  the  country  is 
butterless.  Another  striking  illustration  is  the  fixing  of  the 
price  of  oil  seeds  with  the  plausible  idea  that  the  country 
would  thus  be  enabled  to  obtain  cheap  margarine.  The 
result  has  been  that  cargoes  of  oil  seeds  have  been  diverted 
from  England  to  France. 

The  Government,  having  landed  the  country  in  the  present 
muddle,  largely  through  its  own  fault,  is  now  proposing  to  go 
further  still  and  attempt  to  straighten  out  matters  by  a  uni- 
versal system  of  rationing.  This  indeed  is  the  only  logical  out- 
come of  the  abandonment  of  the  world-old  method  of  harmonis- 
ing demand  and  supply  by  means  of  price.  And  if  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  Kingdom  had  only  to  deal  with  a  small 
community  of  persons  of  very  similar  tastes,  rationing  would 
be  feasible  and  just.  Rationing  is  practised  in  the  army 
without  any  very  great  difficulty,  though  even  there  it  leads 
to  a  certain  amount  of  waste  ;  it  can  be  practised  at  a  pinch 
in  a  beleaguered  city.  But  when  we  have  to  deal  with  the 
problem  of  46,000,000  people — some  male  and  some  female, 
some  old  and  some  young,  some  ill  and  some  weU,  some 
doing  heavy  outdoor  work,  others  light  indoor  work,  some 
dwelling  in  towns  and  some  in  the  country,  some  producing 
food  and  some  only  consuming  it — no  system  of  rationing  can 
possibly  be  devised  which  will  get  over  the  multiple  difficulties 
created.  All  the  evidence  available  shows  that  Germany,  in 
spite  of  her  wonderfully  efficient  bureavicracy,,  has  made  a 
failure  of  rationing,  and  there  is  little  reason  to  believe  that 
Lord  Rhondda  wiU  succeed  where  Herr  Michaelis  failed. 


February   7 ,  1 9  i  8 


Land   6c   Water 


15 


The    Faith  of  the  Soldier  :  By   Centurion 


"  Wliat  of  the  faith  and  fire  within  us 
Men  who  march  away  ?  " 

"  Every   soldier,   whi;n   not  prevented   by   military   duty,    wil' 
attend  divine  serviee." — The    King's   Regulations. 

I  HAVE  read  somewhere  of  late  statements  by  two  Army 
chaplains — one,  I  think,  a  Wesleyan,  the  other  an 
Anglican — to  the  effect  that  the  ministrations  of  their 
Churches  had  failed  to  "  reach  "  the  soldier.  Whether 
this  confession  of  failure  was  a  reproach,  and,  if  a  re- 
proach, whether  it  was  directed  against  Church  or  against  Army 
I  do  not  know.  But  the  conclusion  itself  is  indisputable.  Yet 
the  Churches  have  not  wanted  for  advantages.  Their 
chaplains  have  been  given  commissioned  rank  and  a  spiritual 
hierarchy  is  recognised  under  military  forms.  The  soldier  is 
classified  according  to  his  religious  profession,  and  once  his 
election  is  made,  the  secular  arm  is  called  in  to  punish  him  if 
he  is  "  late  on  Church  Parade  "  or  neglects  to  "  follow  the 
drupi."  A  prayer-book  figures  in  the  inventory  of  his  kit, 
and  to  be  without  it  is  to  be  "  deficient  in  necessaries."  His 
religion  is  stamped  on  his  identity-disc,  and  is  recorded  in  the 
nominal  roll  of  his  company  "  returns,"  with  his  name,  his 
number  and  liis  rank. 

With  all  these  facilities  for  access  to  him  the  Churches 
have  failed  to  "  reach  "  him.  In  an  earlier  age 
when,  as  on  a  wet  and  gusty  morning  at  Agincourt, 
the  priests  shrived  the  archers  and  men-at-arms  as  they 
formed  up  in  order  of  battle,  such  an  admission  would  have 
meant  not  that  the  Church  had  failed,  but  that  the  Army  was 
damned.  But  in  those  days  men  were  more  exercised  with 
the  problem  of  how  to  die  than  with  the  question  of  how  to 
live.  To-day  if  a  man  has  solved  for  himself  the  latter,  he 
may  well  be  excused  if  he  ceases  to  trouble  himself  about 
the  former.  And  in  that  sense  the  soldier  has  a  faith  and 
by  that  faith  he  is  justified. 

This  may  seem  to  some  a  hard  saying.  The  soldier  is 
sometimes  ribald,  often  profane,  and  always  ironical.  He 
does  not* sing  hymns  on  going  into  action  like  Cromwell's 
Ironsides  or  accompany  reveille  with  a  morning  psalm.  He 
has  been  known  to  put  the  tune  of  "  Onward,  Christian 
soldiers  "  to  base  uses.  The  name  of  Christ  is  often  on  his 
lips,  but  as  an  imprecation  rather  than  a  prayer.  He  will 
make  a  jest  of  a  "  white  cross  "  as  though  it  were  a  new  Army 
decoration.  The  language  in  which  he  speaks  of  death  is,  in 
fact,  often  picturesque,  but  it  is  rarely  devout.  A  "  pal  " 
may  have  "  gone  West  "  or  "  stopped  one  "  or  been  "  outed  "  ; 
he  is  never  spoken  of  as  being  "  with  God."  Death  is  rarely 
alluded  to  as  being  the  Will  of  God  ;  it  is  frequently  character- 
ised in  terms  of  luck.  A  soldier  on  going  into  action  is  much  more 
exercised  about  the  condition  of  his  rifle  than  the  state  of  his 
soul.  There  are,  of  course,  exceptions,  but  the  average  soldier 
does  not  seem  to  feel  any  confidence  that  he  is  in  the  hands 
of  a  Divine  Providence  ;  he  is  fatalistic  rather  than  religious. 
After  all,  if,  like  the  writer,  you  have  looked  on  the  obscene 
havoc  of  a  battlefield  and  seen  the  entrails  of  men 
torn  out,  their  heads  severed  from  their  bodies,  and  all  the 
profane  dismemberment  of  that  which  according  to  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Church  is  the  temple  of  the  soul,  you  find  it  rather 
difficult  at  times  to  believe  that  the  fate  of  the  individual, 
whatever  may  be  the  case  with  the  typ)e,  is  of  any  concern  to  the 
Creator.  For  the  soldier  who  ponders  on  the  realities  of  war, 
the  judgments  of  God  may  be  a  great  deep  ;  what  he  Jeels 
to  be  certain  is  that  they  are  past  finding  out. 

As  to  whether  this  agnosticism  is  real  or  assumed,  transient 
or  permanent,  the  writer  offers  no  opinion.  But  he  will 
hazard  the  conjecture  that  it  is  not  without  its  sublimity. 
To  go  into  action  with  a  conviction  that  j'our  cause  is  every- 
thing and  yourself  nothing,  to  face  death  without  any  assurance 
that  in  dying  you  achieve  your  own  salvation,  whether 
victorious  or  not,  is  surely  a  nobler  state  of  mind  than  that 
of  the  old  Protestant  and  Catholic  armies  in  the  "  Wars  of 
Religion,"  equally  assured  of  their  own  personal  salvation 
and  of  the  damnation  of  their  opponents.  The  religious 
soldier  of  history  may  have  been  devout,  he  was  certainly 
fanatical.  And  as  he  was  fanatical,  so  he  was  cruel.  Regard- 
ing himself  as  the  chosen  instrument  of  God,  he  assumed 
he  did  but  anticipate  the  Divine  judgme'nt — and  incidentally 
ensure  his  own  salvation — by  giving  no  quarter  to  the 
"  papist"  or  the  "  infidel."  The  morning  psalm  ended  in  the 
evening  massacre.   The  English  soldier  is  not  cruel ;  though  he 

*  S'orics  by    "  C^cntu'ion  "  appear  exclusively   in  Land  &  V.'ater. 
Cop> right  in  the  t'nilcd  Stated  oj  America.  1917. 

■.-.;■;.  *  .0  •.;.';..,-  '.' 


can,  and  does,  take  a  terrible  revenge  for  treachery.  He 
certainly  despises  "  Fritz  "  but  he  rarely  hates  him.  Ha 
believes  in  "  getting  his  own  back  "  but  he  docs  not  give 
himself  religious  airs  about  it.  His  view  of  death  may  be 
"  light  "  but,  at  any  rate,  it  is  not  morbid,  neither  is  it 
egotistical.  I  am  no  theologian,  but  it  has  always  seemed 
to  me  that  the  religion  of  the  English  Churches^  with  its 
profoundly  Calvirtistic  colouring,  has  always  been  inclined  to 
a  certain  egotism  in  its  emphasis  on  personal  salvation  and  its 
attainment  exclusively  by  admission  to  the  congregation  of 
the  elect,  whether  by  baptism,  confirmation,  or  prc-f<Hsion. 
The  literature  of  English  religion,  especially  in  the  17th 
century,  is  full  of  an  extraordinary  preoccupation,  some- 
times a  morbid  preoccupation,  with  the  state  of  the  individual 
soul  and  a  frantic  desire  to  escape  a  damnation  which  was 
regarded  as  the  common  lot  of  men.  "  Save  yourself  "  was 
its  burden,  and  the  official  professors  of  religion  exhorted 
others  to  join  them  in  a  kind  of  spiritual  sauve  qui  pent.  "  Save 
others  "  is  the  creed  of  the  soldier  ;  all  his  military  education 
is  directed  towards  making  him  forget  himself.  He  has, 
indeed,  no  time  to  think  of  himself  ;  all  his  time  is  given 
to'  thinking  of  others — to  "  doing  his  bit,"  to  holding  a  line  of 
trench,  keeping  up  a  covering  fire,  getting  up  rations,  dehver- 
ing  his  "  chit,"  for  fear  that  otherwise  someone  else  will  be 
"  let  down."  Self-effacement  and  not  self-a.ssertion  is  the  rule 
of  life  in  the  Armv. 

It  was  well  said  by  de  Vigny  that  the  virtue  which 
characterises  the  good  soldier  is  "abnegation,"  and  that  his  is  a 
cross  more  heavy  than  that  of  the  martyr  :  and  one  which  must 
be  borne  a  long  time  in  ord^r  to  know  the  grand  jur  and  the 
weight  of  it.  The  renunciation  of  the  pursuit  of  gain,  the 
surrender  of  one's  liberty  of  though^  and  action,  the  acceptance 
of  the  duty  of  implicit  obcdit  nee,  the  certainty  of  punishment 
in  the  case  of  failure,  the  uncertainty  of  reward  in  the  event 
of  success,  the  contraction  of  ambition,  the  repression  of 
emotion — these,  ind xd,  are  great  abnegations.  They  might, 
perhaps,  seem,  like  the  \ o.vs  of  the  early  religious  orders,  more 
calculated  to  cramp  the  character  than  to  develop  it,  were  it 
not  that  the  soldier,  unhke  the  monk,  lives  a  life  of  action, 
not  of  meditation  :  that  this  long  abnegation  has  for  its  object, 
however  remote,  some  definite  achievement,  and  that  it  carries 
with  it,  in  the  case  of  our  own  nation,  no  imputed  rightLOUS- 
ness  and  few  or  no  prerogatives.  Except  in  rare  moments 
the  British  nation  has  never  "  spoilt  "  the  British  Army, 
-still  less  has  it  glorified  it,  and  the  disabilities  of  the  soldiei 
have  been  far  more  obvious  than  his  privileges.  Pacifist 
writers  may  fulminate  about  "  militarism  "  but  there  never 
was  a  less  "  militarist  "  army  than  the  old  British  Army  :  and 
if  ever  there  was  a  job  that  the  British  officer  hated  it  was 
being  called  in  to  "  aid  the  civil  power."  He  knew  it  would 
never  bring  him  any  credit,  while  it  might  often  involve  him  in 
irretrievable  disaster.  If  he  took  counsel  of  the  King's 
Regulations  the  only  thing  he  found  was  that  whatever  he  did 
was  almost  certain  to  be  wrong.  His  miUtary  character 
invested  him  with  no  sanctity,  but  it  often  e.\po,cd  him  to 
much  obloquy.  The  so  dier  took  his  oath  of  attestation,  and 
the  officer  accepted  his  cemmission,  knowing  full  well  that  he 
sacrificed  far  more  than  he  gained.  He  joined  a  great 
fraternitv,  but  he  d;d  not  become  a  member  of  a  caste.  He 
accepted  these  sacrifices  as  incidental  to  his  choice  and  in  that 
act  of  voluntary  abnegation  he  consecrated  them. 

It  is  this  spirit  of  sacrifice  which  animates  the  soldier  of  to- 
day. For  tliis  Army  had  that  character  stamped  upon  it  in 
the  first  two  years  of  the  war  and  it  has  never  lo;t  it.  Never 
in  any  country  in  the  world  had  there  been  anything  like  that 
great  ctusading  rush  to  the  colours :  and  by  the  time  the  rush 
had  begun  to  spend  itself  the  character  of  the  New  Army 
Mjas  fixed  for  all  time.  If  ever  men  dedicated  themselves  to 
a  cause  these  were  they.  Long-service  N.C.O.  instructors 
were  astonished  at  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  men  learnt 
their  duties,  often  learning  more  in  the  14  weeks'  intensive 
training  than  the  men  had  learnt  in  a  year  in  the  days  of  th^ 
old  Army.  The  abnegations  of  a  military  life  may  make 
a  man  or  they  may  mar  him  ;  it  all  d^penel;  on  the  spirit 
in  which  they  are  accepted.  If  the  original  impulse  is  com- 
pulsory, as  in  Germany,  they  will  enslave  him ;  if  it  is 
voluntary,  as  in  England,  they  will  exalt  him.  The  British 
soldier  has  learnt  how  to  extract  the  best  out  of  military  Hfe — 
to  see  that,  if  rightly  regarded  it  offers  every  day  such 
opportunities  for  voluntary  sacrifice  as  are  to  be  found 
nowhere  else  ;  you  have  only  to  read  the  award?  in  the 
Gazette  to  find  the  proof  of  it,  and  when  yon  read  them 
remember  that  for  one  d(>cd  that  stands  rewarded  a  th()usand 
go  unrecorded.   Every  natioh  get^' tb^  Army  it  deserves  ;  and 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


February    7,  191  8 


in  the  British  Army,  as  in  no  other,  one  seems  to  find  the 
resolution  of  the  problem  which  has  so  often  perplexed 
philo£ophers — how  to  reconcile  libertj'  with  authority.  The  ■ 
spirit  was  always  there,  for  it  was  native  to  the  English 
character.  There  never  was  any  Army  in  which  respect  for 
the  individual  was  so  strong.  It  was  always  bad  form  for  an 
officer  to  punish  a  man  "  with  his  tongue  " — it  was  enough 
for  him  to  say  "  Will  you  take  my  award  ?  " — and  it  was 
absolutely  fatal  to  his  career  for  him  to  lay  his  hands  upon  him. 
The  very  first  thing  a  subaltern  learnt  when  he  did  his  day's 
duty  as  orderly  otlicer  was  that  his  first  thought  must  be  the 
comfort  of  his  men  :  and  art  Army  Manual  reminds  him,  if  he 
is  in  dinger  of  forgetting  it,  that  he  must  put  it  before  his  own. 
The  recruit  is  quick  to  discover  this  and  |x»rhaps  not  more 
quick  than  surprised.  Also  he  discovers  that  he  himself  is 
"  his  brother's  keeper."  He  learns  that  everything  he-does 
or  does  not  do  in\'olves  others  besides  himself.  This  is  a  war 
of  platoons,  and  the  "  specialists,"  bombers,  rifle-bombers, 
Lewis  gunners,  learn  to  work  together  and  with  the  riflemen. 
like  the  forwards  in  a  football  team,  who  "  feed  "  each  other 
with  the  ball.  It  is  the  same  with  discipline  as  with  tactics — , 
the  man  who  goes  "  ca  canny  "  or  defaults  soon  discovers  that 
others  have  to  suffer  for  his  dereliction  as  well  as  himself, 
and  if  a  corporal  neglects  to  see  that  the  rifles  of  his  section 
are  clean  at  a  company  inspection,  he  may  be  the  first  to  hear 
of  it,  but  assuredly  he  will  not  be  the  last,  for  the  platoon 
sergeant  and  the  platoon  commander  will  hear  of  it  too,  and  all 
of  them  "  get  it  in  the  neck." 

In  an  Army  thus  constituted,  a  soldier  finds  a  rule  of  life 
and  a  theory  of  conduct.  It  is  not  in  itself  a  religion,  though  it 
may  easily  become  one  if  he  is  inspired  by  an  ideal  in  sub- 
mitting himself  to  it.  It  bears  the  same  relation  to  that  ideal 
as  dogma  does  to  faith.  One  may  have  the  dogma  without  the 
faith  ;  one  may  be  disciplined  merely  because  one  is  docile. 
But  the  acceptance  of  a  dogma  sometimes  generates  a  faith,  and 
the  soldier  who  joined  the  (31d  Army  menly  b?cause  he  liked 
it,  and  strove  to  keep  his  conduct-sheet  clean  because  he 
knew  that  a  "  dirty  "  one  obscured  his  chances  of  promotion, 
was,  in  the  process  of  becoming  a  good  soldier,  well  on  the  way 
to  becoming  a  good  man.  To  tell  a  falsehood  is  a  military 
offence  ;  in  learning  to  avoid  it  he  was  in  a  fair  way  of  dis- 
covering it  was  a  moral  offence.  There  are,  it  is  true,  military 
offences  which  are  not  moral  offences  and  there  are  moral 
offences  which  are  not  mihtary  offences.  But  generally  speaking 
in  the  Old  Army  a  bad  man  made  a  bad  soldier,  and  a  good  man 
a  good  soldier.  In  the  New  Army  most  recruits  had  the  faith 
before  they  learnt  the  dogma.  Many  of  them  joined  for  the 
sake  of  a  "cause, '<  all  for  the  sake  of  an  emotion,  but  it  was  an 
emotion,  whether  patriotism,  pride,  emulation  or  love  of 
adventure,  which  had  little  or  none  of  the  impurity  of  ambition. 
Most  of  them  accepted  the  discipline  without  any  great 
enthusiasm  for  it,  and  probably  with  some  aversion  from  it 
as  a  thing  foreign  to  their  civilian  habit  of  mind,  and  were 
surprised  to  find  that  it  had  a  meaning  and  even  embodied  a 
theory  of  conduct.  In  their  impulse  to  join  there  was  an 
emotion  ;  in  the  discipline  to  which  they  subjected  them- 
selves there  was  a  morahty.  And  it  it  be  true,  as  someone 
has  said,  that  religion  is  morality  touched  with  emotion,  then 
these  men  were  assuredly  religious. 

How  far  the  introduction  of  conscription  altered  this 
character,  and  whether,  indeed,  conscription  as  a  permanent 
system  were  compatible  with  it  I  am  not  concerned  to  discuss. 
But  as  regards  the  British  Army  during  the  years  of  1914-1916, 
and  more  particularly  the  Old  Army,  which  leavened  it,  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  by  their  works  ye  shall  know  them. 
Kitchener  never  wrote  anything  finer  than  the  allocution 
which  he  addressed  to  the  old  B.E.F.  when  they  landed  in 
France.  It  breathed  the  very  spirit  of  those  articles  of 
war  which  Henry  V:  issued  to  the  host  on  the  landing  at 
Harfleur.  The  men  were  worthy  of  it  and  they  hved  up  to  it. 
During  the  first  eight  months  of  the  war,  there  were  only 
two  cases  of  offences  against  the  inhabitants  of  the  country. 
The  British  soldier  showed  himself  to  be  what  he  was— a 
gentleman.  The  French  were  prepared  to  find  him  that ; 
what  they  were  not  prepared  to  find  was  that  he  was  gay, 
witty,  tender  and  debonnair.  His  playfulness  to  children 
delighted  them  ;  his  tenderness  to  animals  astonished  them. 
British  gunners  and  drivers  often  show  extraordinary  devotion 
to  their  horses,  but,  after  all,  "horsemastership"  is  part  of  their 
training  and  "  ill-treating  a  horse  "  leaves  a  black  mark  on  a 
soldier's  conduct-sheet  and  has  to  be  expiated  by  F.P.  That, 
however,  does  not  account  for  the  passion  of  a  battahon  for 
making  a  pet  of  a  dumb  animal,  nor  does  it  explain  the 
spectacle,  very  stupefying  to  the  Italians,  of  a  fox-terrier 
marchmg  at  the  head  of  a  rifle  battalion  and  giving  himself 
the  airs  of  a  second-in-command. 

There  is  a  sort  of  lyrical  temperament  in  the  British  soldier  ■ 
you  discover  it  in  the  way  he  sings.  The  French  rarely  sing 
on  the  march  ;  the  British  always.  It  is  true  the  German 
sings— but  he  sings  to  order.     Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of 


the  difference  between  the  British  and  the  German  Armies 
than  the  fact  that  a  "  gesangbuch  "  of  songs — doubtless 
passed  by  the  censor — figures  in  the  German  soldier's  list 
of  necessaries  and  is  absent  from  the  Englishman's.  German 
officers  have  been  known  to  strike  a  man  across  the  shoulders 
with  the  endearing  exhortation  "  Singen  Sie  !  "  The  English 
soldier  makes  his  own  songs  and  sings  them  or  not  as 
it  pleases  him.  I  have  even  seen  in  the  early  days  of  the  war 
a  fatigue-party  of  soldiers,  under  sentence  of  F.P.,  marching 
to  their  unsanitary  tasks  singing  "  Keep  the  Home  Fires 
Burning  " — a  spectacle  which  would  produce  a  fit  of  apoplexy 
in  the  German  mind.  I  often  think  that  whatever  else  the 
British  Army  has  done  or  not  done  in  France  it  has  destroyed 
for  ever  on  the  Continent  the  legend  of  a  dour  phlegmatic 
England,  hostile  to  cakes  and  ale.  It  has  restored  the  old 
tradition  of  a  "  Merrie  England." 

This  same  soldier,  cheerful,  humane,  sardonic,  engrossed  in 
learning  how  to  live  the  military  life  and  to  do  his  bit,  has 
not  troubled  his  head  about  how  to  die.  That  is,  I  suppose, 
why,  when  it  comes  to  the  point,  he  is  so  little  exercised  about 
it  ;  not  having  sought  to  "  save  "  his  life,  he  is  hardly 
conscious  that  he  "  loses  "  it.     He  is  as  one 

Who  through  the  h^at  of  conflict  keeps  the  law 
In  calmness  made,  and  sees  what  he  foresaw." 

I  have  seen  many  soldiers  die.  I  do  not  know  what,  if 
anything,  they  would  have  said  to  a  fadre.  I  only  know 
that  all  I  ever  heard  them  say  was  "  I've  done  my  bit," 
"  What  must  be  must  be,"  "  It  wur  worth  it,"  "  It  bain't 
no  use  grousing  "  or  "  I'm  all  right — I'm  topping."  I've 
often  thought  that  the  secret  of  their  fortitude  was  thit 
they  had  done  what  they  could. 

One  chaplain  I  knew  who  was,  indeed,  remarkably  successful. 
But  then  he  was  far  more  convinced  of  the  salvation  of 
the  men  than  he  was  of  his  own.  I  suppose  he  was  very 
unorthodox  ;  he  was  certainly  dying  to  fight.  Also  he  had 
no  brotherly  love  for  the  Boche  at  all  ;  he  hated  him.  I  forget 
his  creed — if  indeed  I  ever  knew  it,  for  he  was  the  last  man  to 
obtrude  it.  He  never  tried  to  improve  the  occasion  ;  if  a 
dying  soldier  wanted  religious  consolation  he  gave  it,  if  he  did 
not  want  it  he  was  content -to  sit  and  hold  the  dying  man's 
hand — and  it  was  no  bad  viaticum.  The  men  respected  him 
as  a  man  and  loved  him  as  a  brother.  He  was  quite  ready  to  • 
take  another  chaplain's  duty  and,  what  was  more  remarkable, 
to  let  him  take  his,  for  he  never  seemed  to  be  exercised  as  to 
whether  the  chaplains  of  other  faiths  than  his  own  had 
"  grace,"  and  I  don't  suppose  that  he  ever  vexed  himself 
about  apostolic  succession.  Like  the  Galilean  fishermen 
he  was  of  lowly  birth  and  he  had  the  humility  of 
Him  who  washed  the  disciples'  feet.  I  knew  just 
enough  of  his  religious  beliefs  to  know  that  they  were 
the  religion  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount..  He  got  his  way 
at  last  and  went  up  with  a  draft  to  the  Front.  I  never  saw 
him  again,  but  I  heard  afterwards  that  he  w^s  killed  when 
dressing  a  wounded  soldier  under  fire. 

I  often  think  that  in  his  own  way  that  chaplain  was  a  born 
soldier.  It  was  not  so  much  that  the  men  had  his  religion 
as  that  he  had  theirs.  Theirs  is  a  religion  which  has  never 
hardened  into  a  creed  ;     it  is  the  religion  of  humanity  : 

Give  unto  me,  made  lowly  wise, 
The  spirit  of  self-sacrifice. 

It  is  the  spirit  of  the  gunners  and  drivers  in  the  retreat  from 
Mons  who  got  off  their  horses  and  limbers  and  walked  in  the 
heat  and  dust  in  order  that  the  weary  infantry  might  ride  ; 
the  spirit  of  the  thousands  of  nameless  and  unremembered 
men  who  have  crawled  out  into  the  open  under  fire  to  rescue 
the  wounded  and  been  sniped  for  their  pains  ;  the  spirit  of 
the  gunner  captured  at  an  observation  post  who,  though 
scourged,  buffeted  and  despitefully  used  by  a  German  officer, 
broke  his  instruments  before  his  face  and  refused  to  betray 
the  position  of  his  battery  ;  the  Spirit  of  those  lonely  exiles 
who  held  their  heads  up  and  never  flinched  when  spat  upon 
and  kicked  through  the  streets  of  German  towns  in  the  long 
via  dolorosa  that  leads  to  the  hell  of  a  ^efangenenlager  and  often 
to  the  grave. 

It  is  on  those  exiles  and  their  proud,  indomitable 
spirit  that  my  mind  most  often  dwells  when  I  think  of 
the  faith  of  the  soldier.  They  were  not  happy  in  an  oppor- 
tune death  on  the  field  of  battle  ;  they  were  wounded  not  only 
in  body  but  in  spirit  :  they  were  scourged  and  mocked  and 
starved  in  an  alien  land  in  which  the  very  spirit  of  humanity 
seemed  dead  and  hope  deferred  enfeebled  the  heart.  But 
they  refused  to  be  cast  down.  The  Germans  robbed  them  of 
everything  but  their  self-respect.  That  remained  and  it 
endured  to  the  end.  Of  such  as  these  a  great  EngUshman 
must  surely  have  been  thinking  when  he  wrote  : 

This  man  is  free  from  servile  bands 
Of  hope  to  rise  or  fear  to  fall  :' 
Lord  of  himself,  though  not  of  lands  ; 
And   having  nothing,   yet  hath  all. 


February   7,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


17 


British   Forestry :    By    Sir   Herbert   Matthews 


To  those  who  have  always  been  concerned  with 
the  land,  and  interested  in  every  branch  of  the 
industries  connected  with  it,  it  is  gratifying  to 
role  how  the  war  has  brought  into  prominence 
the  fundamental  fact  that  home  production  is  the 
keynote  of  national  defence.  To  enable  a  country  to  wage 
war,  food  is  the  first  essential  ;  of  that  there  can  be  no  two 
opinions.  As  to  what  takes  the  second  place  there  may  be 
different  ideas,  it  may  be  ships,  guns,  ammunition,  or  other 
equipment,  but  hirdly  any  item  under  either  of  these  heads 
can  be  treated  without  the  use  of  timber  in  some  form  or  other. 
The  same  remark  applies  to  most  of  the  manufactures  and 
arts  of  peace  time,  and  to  the  everyday  needs  of  the  people 
in  times  of  cither  peace  or  war,  but  it  takes  a  war  to  bring  the 
facts  home  to  the  public.  Like  most  othet  commodities  in 
general  use  it  has  been,  in  normal  times,  so  easy  and  so  cheap 
to  buy  whatever  was  required  that  the  place  of  origin,  or  the 
means  of  transport  and  distribution  were  never  thought  of. 
War  transforms  everything,  and  a  sudden  inability  to  saticly 
some  apparently  simple  need  gives  a  shook  to  the  would-be 
purchaser. 

These  thoughts  are  prompted  by  reading  a  report  wluch  has 
recently  been  issued  by  the  Ministry  of  Reconstruction  on 
Forestry,*  which  presents  many  startling  points  of  intense 
interest  to  everyone.  The  man  in  the  street  usually  connects 
anything  about  land  with  the  farmer,  and  until  three  years 
ago  the  idea  liad  become  crystallised  that  what  concerned 
the  farmer  was  of  no  interest  to  anyone  else.  The  problem  of 
afforestation  is  not  a  farmer's  ques  ion.  It  concerns  first  the 
nation  as  a  whole  :  secondly,  the  consumer,  the  man  in  the 
street  himself ;  thirdly,  the  landowners ;  fourthly,  those 
interested  in  the  development  of  small  holdings,  and  men 
likely  to  find  employment  in  forestry  ;  but  only  to  a  very 
— tail  extent  the  ordinary  farmer. 

5  :  he  Committee  responsible  for  this  rep)ort  was  carefully 
.losen ;  and  it  has  done  its  work  well.  Every  debatable  point 
IS  well  argued  out,  and  every  statement  well  supported  by 
the  facts  presented.  Its  proposals,  therefore,  command  and 
deserve  attention.  Bearirg  this  in  mind,  let  us  turn  to  the 
report  itself.  The  Qommittee  say^,  "  the  forest  policy  of  the 
State  has  hitherto  been  totally  inadequate,"  and  it  adds 
"  (i)  that  dependence  on  imported  timber  is  a  grave  source 
of  weakness  in  war ;  (2)  that  our  supphes  of  timber,  even  in 
time  of  peace,  are  precarious  and  lie  too  much  outside  the 
Empire  :  (3)  that  afforestation  would  increase  the  productive- 
ness and  population  of  large  areas  of  the  British  Isles  which 
are  now  little  better  than  waste." 

For  lack  of  a  sufficient  supply  of  its  own  this  country  hds 
been  compe'led  to  continue  to  import  timber  on  a  very  large 
scale,  an(i  at  a  very  heavy  loss.  The  tonnage  so  occupied  has 
been  much  needed  for  other  purposes,  and  the  importation 
has  affected  price,  freight,  insurance,  and  the  rate  of  exchange. 
The  country  has  taken  risks  against  which  every  other  con- 
siderable country  has  long  protected  itself,  and  consequently 
we  have  lost  heavily.  The  Committee  estimates  this  loss  at 
£37,000,000  for  the  two  years  1915  nad  1916  only.  To  that 
must  be  added  the  loss  in  1917,  and  how  much  more  cannot 
be  said.  By  loss  it  means  the  additional  cost  compared  with 
the  average  value  of  the  same  material  for  the  five  years  before 
the  war.  This  additional  cost  is  stated  to  be  mainly  due  to  the 
increase  in  freight  and  insurance,  and  three-fourths  of  this 
extra  outlay  has  gone  into  the  pockets  of  shipping  owners, 
chiefly  of  Scandinavim  nationality.  "  It  is  certiiin  that  these 
risks  and  losses  will  increase  rather  than  diminish  in  any 

•   I'inal  I<c;iori:  nf  the  Forest  y  Sub-Committee    (Cd.  833 1).     Pric. 
ts.  ntt.     Obtainable  through  any  bo  k-,eller. 


future  war.  In  case  of  war  with  the  northern  timber-produc- 
ing countries  thty  might  even  prove  dtcisive.  They  are  not 
nec(ssaiily  limited  to  war  in  which  we  ourselves  take  part, 
or  to  war  at  all,  since  international  disputes  may  be  decided 
by  commercial  boycott." 

The  Committees  next  points  out  that  anxiety  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  national  safety,  but  that  it  is  hardly  less  necessary 
to  ensure  against  scarcity  of  timber  in  time  of  peace,  o>ving 
to  the  steady  increase  in  consumption  everywhere  ;  and  they 
show  what  this  increase  is,  and  how  it  is  overtaking  the  rate 
of  production.  "  We  believe  that  the  policy  of  neglect  cannot 
be  further  prolonged  without  very  grave  risks." 

To  realise  the  gravity  of  these  statements,  the  fuU  report 
must  be  read,  but  it  may  be  said  that  'the  Committee's  claim 
to  have  estabhshed  them  is  amply  justified. 

One  point  that  stands  out  clearly  is  that  that  much- 
maligned  class — the  landowner — has  proved  his  utility  to  the 
nation,  and  his  willingness  to  make  sacrifices.  For  the  last 
two  generations  the  plantirtg  of  woodlands  has  been  done  by 
owners  at  their  own  expense,,  with  no  prospect  of  profit  to 
themselves,  and  at  best  in  the  hope  that  their  successors  may 
not  make  a  loss  ;  while  the  conversion  of  waste,  or  semi-waste, 
land  into  woodland  by  planting  has  rendered  them  liable  to  ■ 
increased  charges  for  rates  and  taxes.  The  only  benefit 
accruing  from  this  expense,  and  increased  outgoing,  has  been 
a  possibly  improved  sporting  value.  Had  it  not  been  for  this 
past  action  the  present  position  of  this  country  hardly  bears 
thinking  of.  For  nearly  two  years  now  owners  have  been 
offering  their  timber  to  the  Government  regardless  of  resulting 
loss  in  amenity  value  or  the  seritimental  loss  of  fine  timber 
which  has  grown  into  an  owner's  being ;  ignoring  their 
financial  inability  (in  many  cases)  to  replant ;  for  landowners 
(as  such)  have  not  made  profits  out  of  the  war.  On  this  point 
the  Committee  writes  : 

Many  owners  have  offered  their  timber  for  sale  during  the 
war  from  patriotic  motives,  or  have  felt  themselves  compelled 
to  take  low  Govenrment  prices.  In  this  way  they  have 
received  for  it  very  little  mcT3  than  its  pre-war  price  and 
substantially  less  than  its  open  market  value,  and  the  prices 
received  have  not  made  good  the  losses  previously  incurred 
or  brought  in  anything  like  a  normal  return  on  the  money 
expended. 

The  public  can  hardly  realise  what  has  happened,  as  the 
chief  clearances  are  taking  place  in  out-of-the-way  and  little- 
known  areas  ;  but  it  is  estimated  that  100,000  acres  had  been 
cleared  up  to  April,  1917,  and  that  there  would  be  a  great 
speeding  up  of  felling  after  that  date.  No  figures  are  given 
for  other  areas  where  thinning  has  taken  place,  many  of  which 
must  have  been  denuded  of  timber  of  any  size. 

Having  established  their  case,  the  Committee  considers  the 
first  essential  is  the  setting  up  of  a  Forestry  Authority,  properly 
equipped  with  funds  and  power  to  survey,  purchase,  lease  and 
plant  land,  and  to  administer  the  areas  acquired,  and  it 
urges  that  the  care  of  forestry,  which  is  now  divided  among 
several  departments,  should  be  concentrated.  The  cost  of 
carrying  their  scheme  into  effect  is  estimated  to  cost 
£3,425,000  in  the  first  ten  years,  and  possibly  £15,110,000 
durii^g  the  first  forty  j-ears,  after  which  time  it  should  be  self- 
supporting.  Their  sclieme  is  carefully  worked  out,  and  the 
figures  are  not  too  optimistic.  But  suppose  they  are  :  sup- 
pose the  scheme  costs  25  per  cent,  more,  20  milhons  spent  in 
forty  years  on  something  that  is  going  to  be  productive. 
Compare  that  with  £3 -,000,000  absolutely  lost  in  two  years, 
and  in  addition  we  secure  our  timber  supply. 

Moreover,  as  the  Committee  itself  points  out,  this  aspect 
of  profit  or  loss  is  not,  from  a  national  point  of  view,  the  most 
important,  and  it  has  never  been  so  regarded  in  other  countries 


i8 


Land    &    Water 


February   7,  191 8 


where  silviculture  has  been  most  practised,  and  is  most 
valued.  Forestry  creates  new  values,  "  expressed  partly  in 
terms  of  population,  and  partly  in  terms  of  wealth."  In  other 
countries  the  construction  of  forests  is  regarded  m  the  same 
light  as  the  construction  of  roads,  bridges,  or  breakwaters, 
which  are  of  definite  national  value,  though  the  capital 
sunk  in  them  mav  produce  no  direct  return. 

All  the  members  sign  the  report,  but  two  of  them  add 
reservations.  Lord  Lovat,  who  speaks  with  knowledge  of 
the  subject,  urges  that  the  recommendation  to  create  a  new 
department  is  not  sufficiently  strongly  worded,  and  gives 
four  reasons  for  his  view.  We  need  only  quote  the  first  of 
these  to  justify  him  :  "  To  make  a  definite  break  with  the 
past,  to  get  out  of  the  welter  of  conflicting  authorities  and 
to  escape  from  the  arena  of  party  poUtics,  Koyal  Commissions 
and  amateur  inquiries."  Mr.  L.  C.  Bromley,  on  the  other  hand, 
objects  to  its  creation  on  the  ground  of  expense.  As,  however, 
Mr.  Bromley  had  a  seat  on  the  Committee  as  a  representative 
of  the  Treasury  he  has,  of  course,  to  defend  the  usual  attitude 
of  that  Department  towards  eveiy  new  proposal  involving 
expenditure.  On  very  many  occasions  such  an  attitude  is 
defensible,  but  it  is  submitted  that  this  is  an  exception. 

Unquestionably  the  best  authority  will  be  a  distinct  branch 
of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  as  the  report  hints  at  an 
enlarged  Ministry  of  Agriculture  this  separate  branch  might 
well  be  the  central  authority  for  the  British  Isles,  or  at 
least  for  Great  Britain.  A  new  and  separate  Department  is 
unnecessary  and  undesirable  from  every  point  of  view,  but 
chiefly  because  another  Department  involves  two  more  paid 
and  controlled  politicians,  two  less  free  men  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  because  it  therefore  means  that  we  shall  not 
"  escape  from  the  arena  of  party  politics,"  as  Lord  Lovat 
so  wisely  desires  we  should.  It  is  impossible  to  be  quite 
clear  of  them  if  national  funds  are  in  question,  but  a  perma- 
nent Commission,  with  the  Minister  for  Agriculture  to  reply 
for  it  in  Parliament,  much  on  the  lines  of  the  Development 
Commission,  will  allow  as  little  interference  as  our  methods  of 
government  render  possible. 

Some  objection  must  be  raised  to  the  suggested  rate  of  State 
assistance  to  private  owners  for  planting  new  areas,  or  for 
replanting  recently-cleared  woodlands,  as  they  are  anything 
but  generous.  A  grant  of  £2  per  acre  towards  the  cost  of 
planting  conifers,  and  £4  towards  the  cost  of  planting  ap- 
proved hardwoods  is  little  enough  by  itself,  for  the  Commit- 
tee does  not  consider  that  the  planted  land  should  be  relieved 
from  rates  and  income  tax  (schedule  A).  It  do_s  suggest, 
however,  that  relief  from  these  burdens  might  be  offered  as 
an  alternative  to  the  grant.     The  loss  either  to  local   autho- 


rities  or  to  the  State,  if  these  charges  were  removed  from 
properly-planted  woodlands  would  not  be  large  in  the  aggre- 
gate, but  the  relief  would  mean  a  great  deal  to  many  individual 
owners.  Instead  of  being  alternatives  the  grant  and  the 
relief  should  both  be  allowed,  though  the  value  of  sporting 
rights  must  justly  still  be  chargeable  with  local  rates. 

The  Committee  is  consistent  in  its  niggardliness,  for  it 
further  targes  that  replanting  of  recently  ciear-fclled  areas 
have  not  as  good  a  claim  to  the  full  grant  as  it  recommends 
for  taking  up  new  ground,  "  because  planting  wiU  lie  cheaper, 
they  may  (our  italics)  be  clear  of  growth,  drained,  fenced,  and 
freed  from  rabbits,  and  because,  as  their  timber-producing 
capacity  will  be  exactly  known,  few  mistakes  will  be  made 
in  replanting."  This  quotation  is  all  governed  by  th6  word 
"may"  ;  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  these  possible  advantages 
will  very  seldom  be  found  to  exist.  If  the  cleared  area  is  to  be 
properly  planted  the  tree  roots  must  be  grubbed  out  or  other- 
wise removed.  New  ground  will  not  have  to  carry  this  ex- 
pense. It  is  highly  improballe  that  land  which  has  been 
timbered  for  sixty  or  more  years  will  have  any  drains  that 
continue  to  work  :  it  is  very  rare  that  a  cleared  area  does  not 
require  re-fencing,  and  if  the  fences  are  only  partly  broken 
down  it  will  not  be  clear  of  rabbits.  The  only  real  advantage 
will  be  that  mentioned  last — the  experience  gained. 

As  the  Committee  says,  however,  that  many  owners  have 
lost  money  over  their  recent  sales  of  timber,  it  means^if 
effect  be  given  to  this  recommendation  to  give  a  smaller 
grant  for  replanting — that  those  owners  who  took  all  the  risks 
of  planting,  and  who  now  have  borne  the  loss  for  the  good  of 
the  country,  are  to  be  treated  rather  worse  than  others  who 
have  done  nothing.  This  is  how"  Government  encourages 
private  enterprise  ! 

The  average  Blue  Book  is  a  repulsive  document  to  the 
ordinal^  reader,  nor,  considering  its  usual  style,  is  this  sur- 
prising. The  report  under  review,  however,  is  a  happy  con- 
trast to  the  average.  It  is  well  constructed  and  arrargod, 
the  phrasing  is  lucid  and  unstilted,  and  the  official  flavour 
which  makes  most  of  these  publications  so  arid,  is  almost 
absent.  Another  refreshing  feature  is  that  recommen- 
dations are  made  in  straight-forward  language,  without 
hesitating    periods  and  qualifying  words. 

I  do  not  often  urge  my  friends  to  buy  Government 
publications,  but  a  shilling  spent  on  this  report  will  be  a  good 
investment  ;  for  if  the  present  critical  position  of  the  country 
is  to  be  remedied  popular  opinion  is  needed  to  bring  about 
a  change.  On  such  serious  matters  as  this  uninstructed 
opinion  is  dangerous,  and  nothing  now  is  more  required  than 
informed  views  on,  these  vital  problems  of  reconstruction. 


Timber  Hauling  in  Wales 


February   7,   19 18 


Land    &    Water 


19 


The  Senefelder  Club  :   By  Charles  Marriott 


THE  only  thing  that  is  wrong  about  the  Sene- 
felder Club,  now  holding  itseig  ith  exhibition  at  the 
Leicester  Galleries,  is  its  expressed  purpose  of 
advancing  "  artistic  "  lithography.  This  use  of 
the  word "  artistic "  cannot  be  too  strongly 
condemned.  A  good  lithograph  is  artistic  ;  a  bad  lithograph 
is  inartistic  ;  and  there  is  notliing  more  to  be  said.  It  does 
not  make  any  difference  whether  the  lithograph  is  an  illus- 
tration to  a  trade  catalogue  or  a  picture  of  "  Les  Pelerins 
d'Emmaus  " — to  name  one  of  the  most  imaginative  designs 
in  the  exhibition. 

It  is  high  time  that  this  abuse  of  the  word  "  artistic  '"  were 
left  to  the  shopkeepers  who  introluced  it.  Not  long  ago  I 
was  in  a  small  stationer's  shop  when  a  young  woman  come 
in  to  buy  a  blotting-book.  Gi%'en  a  choice  of  bindings  she 
said  :  "  I'd  better  have  the  art  shade  " — pronounced  "  shide  " 
— •"  because  it's  for  the  drawing-room."  There  is  nothing  to 
choose  between  this  obvious  vulgarism  and  "  artistic  litho- 
graphy." Its  wrongness 
is  all  the  more  apparent 
in  the  light  of  Mr.  Joseph 
Pennell's  clear  and  concise 
description  of  hthography 
in  the  catalogue  of  the  ex- 
hibition. He  points  out 
that  the  word  lithography 
— as  indicating  that'  a 
stone  is  essential — is  mis- 
leading, and  that  Aloys 
Senefelder,  the  eighteenth 
century  inventor  of  the 
art,  did  not  use  the  word. 
Lithography  is  essentially 
the  art  of  making  a 
drawing  on  a  flat  surface 
which  may  be  multiphed. 
So  that,  allowing  for  the 
fact  that  it  must  be  done 
with  a  substance  that  per- 
mits multiplication,  litho- 
graphy is  simply  drawing. 
Now  to  speak  of  "artistic" 
drawing  is  obviously  just 
as  bad  as  to  speak  of 
"  literary  "  writing.  Both 
drawing  and  writing  may 
be  good,  bad  or  indifferent; 
but  they  do  not  become 
any  more  or  less  a'  tistic  or 
literary  according  to  the 
purpose  to  which  they  are 
applied. 

Probably  the  intention 
of  the  Senefelder  Club  is 
to  .make  a  distinction  from 
commercial  lithography. 
Tiiat  is  almost  worse. 
Putting  on  one  side  the 
fact  that  the  lithographs 
produced  by  the  Club 
are  articles  of  commerce, 
in  that  they  are  not  only 
sold  by  the  artists  but 
quickly  become  the  sub- 
jects of  speculation  on  the 
part  of  dealers  and  collec- 
tors, it  is  impossible  to 
make  a  real  distinction. 
Irony  is  lent  to  the  attempt 
by    the     fact    that    when 


Shepherd  and  Shepherdess 

By  F.ank  Brangwyn,  A.R.A, 


wanted     to     master 
a  commercial  litho- 


Whistler 
lithography  he  went  and  worked  with 
grapher,  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Way.  Not  that  the  work  of  Mr. 
Way  was  any  the  less  artistic  for  being  commercial.  But, 
and  this  is  the  real  object  of  my  making,  apparently,  so  much 
tuss  about  th  word,  nothing  has  done  more  to  degrade  com- 
merce and  hinder  the  right  appreciation  of  art  than  the 
attempted  distinction. 

Npw,  if  ever,  is  the  the  time  to  try  to  abolish  it.  We  want 
to  give  every  workman  that  joy  in  his  work  which  is  the 
essence  of  art,  and  we  want  to  give  every  artist  that  sense  of 
his  place  in  the  community  which  might  help  in  the  regenera- 
tion of  lif .'.  I  wonder,  for  example,  how  the  Senefelder  Club 
would  classify  Steinlen's  cat  pictures  for  the  advertisement  of 
condensed  milk,  or  the  lithographic  posters  on  the  Under- 
ground Railways.  Would  they  call  them  artistic  or  com- 
mercial lithography  ?     Is  it  more  artistic  to  make  a  picture  for 


a  collector  to  put  in  a  portfolio — often  merely  against  a  rise 
in  its  commercial  value — than  to  make  a  picture  that  shall- 
brighten  the  Ijves — the  actual  lives — of  thousands  ? 

This  question  brings  up  another  evil  that  results  from  the 
attempited  segregation  of  "  art  "  ;  and  that  is  the  arbitrary 
limitation  of  the  number  of  proofs  which  may  be  printed  of  a 
lithograph— or  any  other  form  of  art  which  lends  itself  to 
multiphcation.  In  so  far  as  it  is  aimed  ^t  securing  good  proofs 
it  is  just  and  wise  ;  but  in  so  far  as  it  is  aimed  at  creating  a 
limited  supply  it  is  commercial  in  the  very  basest  meaning 
of  the  word.  It  is  not  less  commercial  for  the  superstition 
that  there  is  an  artistic  virtue  in  rarity  ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  any  pleasure  a  person  may  take  in  the  possession  of  a 
unique  copy  of  a  work  of  art  designed  for  multiplication  has 
noth  ng  to  do  with  art  but  is  on  the  contrary  due  to  the  most 
contemptible  snobbishness. 

Of  course,  every  artist  should  get  a  fair  price  for  his  work, 
but  the  price  need  not  be  lowered  with  quantity — in  the  case 

o'  books  it  is  actually 
raised,  since  it  is  usual  for 
the  writer  to  get  a  higher 
royalty  above  a  certain 
number  of  copies  ;  and 
a;  a  matter  of  fact  the 
'■  appreciation  "  in  the 
value  of  proofs  whici> 
results  from  a  limited 
edition  is  not  for  the 
benefit  of  the  artist  at  ail 
but  of  the  dealer  or  collec- 
tor. What  would  be 
thought  of  a  man  who 
proposed  to  limit  the 
printing  of  Shakespeare 
lest  he  should  become  too 
"  common  "  ?  One  has 
only  to  ask  the  question 
to  have  it  answered  in  the 
strongest   language. 

Nor  will  the  argument , 
that  an  artificially  limited- 
edition  enables  more 
attention  to  be  given  to 
the  individual  proof  bear 
serious  consideration. 
Whether  or  not  the  artist 
prints  his  own  proofs  their 
printing  should  be  a 
matter  of  purely  mechani- 
cal care  and  skill.  There 
should  be  no  variations  in 
the  proofs  except  to  get 
them  more  and  more  true 
to  the  original  drawing. 
Art  is  not  accidents  ;  and, 
as  Mr.  Walter  Sickert  said 
of  etchings,  a  lithograph 
should  be  capable  of  being 
printed  by  Messrs.  —  well, 
any  competent  firm  of 
commercial  printers  you 
like  to  name.  The  artistic 
merits  of  a  lithograph  are 
either  limited  to  the 
original  drawing  or  else 
they  persist  in  any  number 
of  mechanically  good  proofs 
that  can  be  printed  from 
it.  In  short,  whether  as 
regards  subject  or  purpose,  method  or  number,  there  is  no 
distinction  between  commercial  and  artistic  lithography  that 
docs  not  injure  art  and  encourage  the  worser  meaning  of 
commerce.  There  is  no  royal  road  to  goodness,  artistic  or 
otherwise,  and  the  only  way  to  be  artistic  in  lithography  is  t» 
do  your  work  well. 

Men  are  generally  better  than  their  institutions,  and  the 
members  of  the  Senefelder  Club  are  much  better  than  their 
advertised  aims.  One  and  all  they  are  engaged  in  the  advance- 
ment of  lithography,  and  their  works  at  the  Leicester  Galleries 
support  all  that  has  been  said  about  the  possibilities  of  the  art. 
These  possibihties  are  best  indicated  by  the  word  "  auto- 
graphic." As  Mr.  Pennell  points  out,  lithography  is  the  only 
truly  autographic'method  of  multiplying  drawings.  In  all  the 
methods  of  engraving  the  actual  touch  of  the  artist  is  com- 
promised by  the  means  of  reproduction.  "  Neither  in  etching 
or  wood  engraving  are  the  lines  the  artist  made  those  that 


20 


[.and    &    Water 


February    7,  igi8 


Les  Pellerins  d'Emmaus 

By  Maurice  Denis 


print,  but  reproductions  of  them.     In  lithography  the  artist's 
o  vn  lines  do  print,  are  not  reproduced,  but  multiplied  " 

This  very  responsiveness  of  lithography  brings  its  own 
dargers  because  there  is  not  in  it  the  discipline  that  the 
resistance  of  materials  lends  to  the  various  methods  of  en- 
graving. Foth  etching  and  wood  e-gravirg  aln-ost  compel 
the  virtue  of  simplicity  and  economy  ;  and  by  discouraging 
any  very  close  imitation  of  nature  they  put  a  premium  on 
design.  Lithography  gives  the  artist  every  facihty.  Not  that 
this  is  to  be  regretted  in  itself,  but  that  it  seems  to  call  for  a 
certain  self  restraint  in  the  artist. 

How  far  an  artist  should  observe  limitations  that  are  rot 
compelled  by  the  medium  is  a  nice  question  ;  probably  in  the 
last  analysis  all  arti?tic  virtues  are  virtues  of  necessity  ;  but 
itcanrot  be  denied  that  those  lithographs  give  the  rro  t  lastirg 
satisfaction  in  wl  ich  the  artist  has  not  taken  full  advantage  of 
his  freedoTi ;  has  treated  his  design  with  a  touch  of  formality, 
or  been  co  itent  with  suggestion  when  he  might  have  indulged 
in  full  statement.  "  Les  Pelerins  d'Emmkus,"  by  Maurice 
Denis  ;  "  The  Wave,"  by  Mr.  Nevinson  ;  "  Mower  Carrying 
Scythe,"  by  Mr.  Harry  Becker  ;  "  Shepherd  and  Shepl  erdess," 
by  Mr.  Frank  Brangwyn,  and  "  Boys  Bathing,"  by  Cezanne 
may  not  be  the  examples  that  show  best  the  full  resources  and 
possibilities  of  Hthography,  but  they  are  certainly  among  the 
most  satisfying  pictures. 

On  thinking  it  over  I  begin  to  see  that  the  virtues  of  litho- 
graphy are  virtues  of  necessity  after  all.  Because  it  is  an 
autographic  method  of  multiplying  drawings  its  virtues  are 
precisely  those  of  drawing  ;  and  tlie  virtues  of  drawing  are 
determined  by  the  implement  that  it  is  done  with.  A  stick  of 
greasy  chalk  used  characteristically  is  rot  a  suitable  imple- 
ment for  full  or  elaborate  statement,  though  it  is  excellent 
for  sugg'stion  ;  and  since  all  drawing  is  primarily  the  trans- 
lation of  things  into  line  it  is  proper  that  the  lines  should  be 
composed  with  some  care.  What  it  amounts  to  is  that  litho- 
graphy puts  upon  the  artist  a  responsibility  that  in  fome 
other  forms  of  art  is  taken  off  his  hand  by  the  obstinacy  of  the 
materials  themselves. 

Ore  thing  brought  out  by  the  exhibition  is  the  peculiar 
suitability  of  lithography  for  what  may  be  called  pictorial 
journalism— in  a  perfectly  dignified  sense  of  the  words.  The 
set  of  war  drawings  by  Captain  Spencer  Pryse,  and  "  Conseil 
juridiqiie,"  by  Forain,  are  examples  of  w'hat  I  mean.  An 
autographic  method  of  multiplying  drawings  is  obviously 
a  boon  to  tlie  artist  who  wishes  to  make  a  swift  and  impulsive 
record  of  actuality  ;  whether  his  aim  be  documentary  or 
satirical.     In  the  more  considered  methods  of  reproduction 


by  engraving  the  actuality  is  apt  to  fade  out.  Even  when 
the  artist  is  his  own  engraver  he  is  almost  bound  to  introduce 
.second  thoughts.  It  is  worth  remarking,  by  the  way,  that 
many  satirical  draughtsmen  practise  lithography.  With  all 
these  resources  and  possibiUties  at  their  command  the 
members  of  the  Senefelder  Club  have  no  need  to  quahfy  "  the 
advancement  of  lithography "  with  the  draper's  word 
"  artistic." 

Homecoming 

By  N.  M.  F.  Corbett. 

I  stood  upon  the  weed-hung,  g  istening  pier 

Waiting,     And  the  grey,  s'ow,  whispering  tide 

Eddied  about  the  stones  and,  gaunt  and  drear — 

Like  some  gigantic  skeleton  astride 

The  mist-enshrouded  F  rth — the  Br  dge  rose  sheer. 

And  other  women,  mother,  wife,  and  br  de. 

Were  waiting  too  :  and  n  their  eyes  lurked  Fear. 

Fear  froze  the  breath  upon  their  trembling  lips 

That  bravel}'  lied  to  comfort  one  another. 

I  heard  one  pale-faced  girl-wife  whisper,  "  Mother 

Nothing  could  happen  to  those  modern  ships  ? 

It's  not  a.i  if  she  were  an  o  d  one."     I 

Caught  the  answer,  "  Dar  iag,  if  God  so  wills  '.  .  ." 

Then  si  ence  but  for  sea-birds'  mournful  calling 

And  the  slow  tide. 

A  th'n,  cold  rain  was  falling 
And  the  grey  sea  was  one  with  the  weeping  sky 
And  the  stark  trees  veiled  upon  the  nearer  hills. 

Then  from  the  little  group  a  pent  up  sigh 
Escaped  and,  looking  seaward,  through  the  veil 
I  saw  the  lean,  grim  Battle-Cruisers  steer  ; 
And  in  their  shell-torn  sides  could  read  the  tale 
Of  the  price  paid  for  Victory. 

A  faint  cheer 
TremVed  and  died  upon  the  heavy  air. 
Silent  and  slow  they  passed. 

"  One,  two,  three." 
I  heard  a  woman  count  "  Are  there  no  more  ?  " 
"  Mother,  my  eyes  are  blurred;   I  cannot  se3. 
"  Is  there  another — count  if  there  be  not  four  ?  " 
The  grey  fog  closed  behind  them  like  a  door 
Shutting  out  Hope.     A  sudden,  heart-wrung  cry 
Rang  shuddering,  low,  pregnant  with  all  despair, 
"  She  is  not  there.  Christ !     Mother,  slie's  not  there." 


February    7,  igi8 


Land   &  Water 


21 


Life  and  Letters  ^  J.  C  Squire 


The    Liars 

MR.  BELLOC'S  small  book,  Tlic  Free  Press 
(George  Allen  and  Ihiwin,  js.  6d.  net)  is  a  re- 
print of  articles  contribut<(l  to  tlic  New  Ase, 
itself  one  of  tlie  few  papers  in  which  vou  find 
truths  which  you  do  not  find  elsewhere.  The 
book  deals  largely,  not  with  the  free  press,  but  with  the 
press  which  is  not  free  ;  and  his  exposure  -although,  owin,t,' 
lo  its  brevity,  it  neglects  fine  distinctions-should  be  read 
bv  e^•erv(>ne"who  is  interested  in  things  as  they  are. 

4:  +  *  4:  * 

It  would  be  ail  error  to  say  that  the  Vress  is  universally 
revered  by  Englishmen.  There  are  few  Englisimien  who 
have  not  at  one  time  or  other  been  heard  to  observe  that 
"  the  papers  are  full  of  a  lot  of  lies."  But  there  are  still  fewer 
who  know  a  lie  'when  they  sec  it,  who  habitually  observe 
distortions  and  suppressions  (the  most  popidar  form  of  lie),  and 
(above  all)  who  realise  how  and  why  it  is  that  the  commercial 
newspaper  must  lie,  and  why  the  contemporary  newspaper 
is  a  more  systematic  and  subtle  liar  than  its  predecessors. 
In  short,  the  economic  basis  of  the  thing  is  not  understood. 
This  Mr.  Relk)c  has  explained  with  excellent  clarity. 
***** 

Die.re  <ue  differences.  Wealtliy  men  have  been  known  to 
run  newspapers  at  a  heavy  and  foreseen  loss  in  order  to  run 
particular  programmes.  Even  these,  as  a, rule,  do  not  want 
lit  lose  too  much  and  will  compromise  a  great  deal  ;  the 
majority  are  out  to  make  money  at  any  cost,  and  there  is  only 
one  way  of  doing  it.  They  have  to  get  the  advertisers  in. 
.\dvertisement  revenue  is  the  basis  of  the  modern  newspaper. 
.\  newspaper  which  gets  a  huge  income  from  advertisements 
ran  afford  to  supply  the  public  with  twopence  worth  of  jiaper, 
ink.  !iews,  and  other  reading  matter  for  a  penny.  A  paper 
which  did  not  get  advertisements  could  not  stand  up  against 
this.  It  cannot  compete,  in  the  market  ;  it  cannot  supply  tlje 
acres  of  print  that  the  cjrdinary  reader  appears  to  desire  ; 
it  cannot  (unless  there  is  somebody  prodigiously  rich  and 
|irodigal  b<-hind  it)  supply  even  as  much  good,  reliable,  non- 
controversial  news  as  its  rivals  ;    it  cannot,  therefore,  exist. 


We  have  here  two  facts  :  that  the  newspaper  likeliest  to 
survive  is  (i)  run  by  a  man  primarily  out  for  loot,  and  bbnse- 
(pieiitlv  likely  to  exercise  political  power  (when,  having  be- 
coming sufticiently  rich,  he  hungers  for  something  more)  in 
an  ignorant,  corrupt,  and  disastrous  way  ;  and  (2)  that  adver- 
tisers are  likely  to  be  the  real  ultimate  masters  of  the  paper. 
It  is  not  that  all  advertisers  are  conscious  of  this,  or  that 
many  of  them  openly  walk  into  the  office  and  say  :  "  Write 
this  or  we  clear  out."  Such  things  dl)  happen.  When  a 
few  years  ago  a  Government  C(jmmittee  exposed  the  swindles 
o'f  the  patent  medicine  trade,  a  number  of  the  wealthiest  and 
least  reputable  of  the  quacks,  privately  intimated  that  adver- 
tisements would  be  withdrawn  if  publicity  were  given  to  the 
report,  with  the  result  that  there  was  a  remarkably  general 
agreement  that  the  report  had  no  "  news  value."  But 
usually  the  pressure  is  indirect.  The  advertiser  will  be 
hoked  off  a  paper  in  which  he  or  his  associates  see  things 
that  the\-  strongly  dislike  :  he  will  even  persuade  himself  that 
it  has  no  circulation.  He  will  go  where  his  own  mind  is 
reflected  ;  or  at  least  to  safe  places  where  the  fight  against  a 
status  quo  that  he  likes  is  more  sham  than  real.  The  result  is 
a  general  cowardice  and  timidity  iji  the  most  widely  circulated 
pajx-rs,  and  a  frequent  deliberate  mendacity  in  particular. 
*         «         *         «         * 

To  that  mendacity  there  are  limits.  As  Mr.  Belloc  suggests, 
it  would  not  do  for  a  paper  to  say  that  the  Pope  had  turned 
Methodist.  But  the  limits  are  remarkably  wide.  Beyond 
the  deliberate  furthering  of  class  interests,  there  is  also  a 
general  class  ignorance  and  shortsightedness.  To  this  I  do 
not  think  that  Mr.  Belloc  attaches  sufficient  importance. 
He  remarks  on  the  time  it  often  takes  before  a  big  proletarian 
movement— industrial  or  other-  gets  into  the  Press.  This 
is  indisputable  ;  but  it  is  not  always  directly  traceable  to  a 
deliberate  desire  not  to  "  advertise  "  the  movement.  The 
journalists  themselves — and  their  public,  also,  if  it  is  a  pros- 
perous public— cannot  take  any  interest  in  these  things. 
Strikes  and  lock-outs,  for  instance,  they  regard  as  dull  and 
unimportant  until  and  unless  they  inconvenience  themselves  ; 
it  never  occurs  to  these  "  organs  of  popular  opinion  "  to  dis- 
cover and  explain  the  actual  feelings  of  the  (possibly)  hundreds 


of  thousands  of  people  involved  ;  as  often  as  not  they  scarcely 
hear  of  such  events  imtil  long  after  they  have  become  im- 
portant. They  live  in  their  o\\  n  world  of  intellectual  lethargv 
and  party  politics. 

*         *         *         *         * 

It  is  impossible  to  cover  this  subject  here  ;  Mr.  Belloc  him- 
self could  have  made  a  much  bigger  book  out  of  it.  But  the. 
])lirase  "  party  jiolitics  "  does  suggest  one  illustration  of  the 
utter  unreality  of  our  newspapers,  ^'ou  do  not  expect  a  paper 
to  tell  the  whole  tmpleasant  truth  about  the  leading  spokes- 
man of  its  tiwn  side  or  sect  ;  but  they  do  not  even  tell  the 
tiuth  about  their  oj^jjonents.  The  habit  of  falsehood  has 
become  so  ingrained  that  the  journahst  refrains  from  accurate 
description  quite  mechanically  and  unconsciously  even  where, 
in  conversation,  he  betrays  an  almost  embarrassing  gift  for 
seeing  things  clearly.  The  public  knows  literallv  nothing 
about  politicians,  and  it  is  not  to  blame.  P"or  it  has  read  daily 
repoits  of  proceedings  which  treat  all  of  them  as  sensible  and 
public-spirited  (if  sometimes  misguided)  jjersons  and  man\- 
of  them  as  resplendent  orators  and  profound  thinkers.  A  coni- 
pletely  veracious  account  of  H,  parliamentary  debate  might 
open  thus  : 

The  motion  was  nio\ed  by  Colonel  Jigg  -Mthough  he  read 
his  speech  from  a  carefully  t>-pewritten  document,  he  lost  his 
way  so  frequently  tliat  he  was  several  times  incoherent.  At 
these  places  he  went  red  and  rubbed  his  bald  head  with  a 
handkerchief,  and  a  few  titters  were  heard.  His  seconder, 
Mr.  I'illycoddy,  no  one  tcK)k  seriously.  This  member  is  a  clean- 
shaven snub-nosetl  man.  who  dresses  a  little  too  showily  for 
a  gentleman  ;  everybody  knew  him  to  care  nothing  whatever 
for  the  subject  of  the  debate,  which  merely  offered  him  one 
more  opportunity  for  advancing  to  the  Solicitor-Generalship 
which  will  pay  his  own  and  his  wife's  debts.  Mr.  Blink, 
a  tall  emaciated  man  with  a  high  forehead  and  pince-nez,  is 
undeniably  sincere,  though  rather  a  prig  and  completely 
devoid  of  humour  :  his  speech,  though  dull  to  distraction, 
was  confidently  delivered  and  contained  well-arranged 
statistics  which,  far  as  they  went,  carried  conviction.  .After 
the  egregious  Sir  Isaac  Midsummer  had  contributed  his  usual 
inane  jests,  Mr.  Gullet  rose  from  the  Opposition  Front  Bench 
and,  obviously  by  arrangement  with  the  people  opjiosite, 
though  his  air  of  solemn  hesitation  was  perfectlv  assumed, 
\veighe<l  pros  and  cons  until  finally  suggesting  that  on  the 
whole  the  question  ought  not  to  have  been  raised  just  now. 
Mr.  Crullet,  until  he  began  eating  too  much,  was  a  good 
speaker  of  the  argumentative  type  ;  he  is  now  notoriouslv 
lazy  and  contents  himself  with  cliches  which  he  has  by  heart 
in  whole  paragraphs.  Two  younger  sons  of  rich  men  (who 
were  warmly  applauded)  having  made  painfully-prepared 
debuts,  and  an  honest,  if  shaggy,  enthusiast,  having  spoken 
on  the  other  side,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  iiuckiug- 
liam  (all  of  whose  relatives  are  in  the  industry  principally 
involved)  agreed  with  the  right  honourable  gentleman  opposite, 
and  the  mover,  puzzled  to  the  last,  witl(drew  his  motion. 

We  do  not  want  to  go  as  far  as  this.  Common  decency  prt;- 
vents  us  from  mentioning  that  a  man  has  eczema  or  that  his 
wife's  great-grandfather  kept  a  bad  bucket-shop  ;  but  even 
when  one  has  ruled  out  all  the  irrelevancies,  and  even  all  the 
libels,  what  a  margin  there  is  between  the  pertinent  truth  and 
what  we  are  told,  between  (in  fact)  the  conversation  in  the 
bar  at  the  Press  Gallery  and  the  words  that  trickle  from  the 
fountain  pens  in  the  writing-rooms  adjacent.  . 

***** 

How  then  shall  we  get  the  truth  which  the  general  conspiracy 
keeps  from  us  ?  Mr.  Bellpc  is  not  Utopian  and  has  no  perfect 
solution.  All  human  beings  are  faUible  and  will  be  to  sotne 
extent,  and  will  do  those  injustice  to  whom  they  are  opposed. 
Mr.  Belloc 's  "  free  "  papers  are  not  exempt.  But  they  have 
this  thing  in  common  :  that  they  tell  truths  not  told 
elsewhere  and  have  done  something  to  redress  the  balance  of 
speech  which  was  upset  when  one  small  class  of  people  with 
one  kind  of  interest  got  a  monopoly  of  a  kind  which  enabled 
them  to  howl  their  particular  "  news  "  and  views  through 
megaphones  to  the  whole  population.  An  extension  of  the 
Eree  Press  and  a  growth  of  its'  power  is  to  be  desired.  But 
if  it  is  to  do  more  than  exercise  the  slow  indirect  influence  it 
now  possesses,  it  will  have  to  have  more  money.  What  are 
wanted  are  political  papers  with  a  guaranteed  supply  of  money, 
vet  free  from  the  control  of  those  who  own  the  money,  papers 
endowed,  and  then  cut  loose,  with  staffs  as  fixed  as  College 
dons,  self-governing  and  free  from  the  fear  of  starvation.  The 
first  rich  man  who  puts  down  a  large  sum  in  that  way  *will 
have  really  demonstrated  his  public  spirit  :  he  will  also, 
incidentally,  if  he  chooses  his  men  properly,  get  some  fun  for 
his  money. 


22 


Land    &    Water 


February    7 


Judith  Gaufier  :   By  Arthur  Symons 


TIIIC  i^Riitt-st  .lutubiugiaphv  ever  written  by  a 
woman  is  Santa  Teresa's  ;  and  Catholic  Spain 
places  Iier  manuscript  of  her  own  Life  beside  a 
page  of  Saint  Augustine's  writing  in  the  Palace 
of  the  Escurial.  Her  position  as  a  spiritual  force 
i>i  as  unique  as  her  place  in  literature.  She  is  not  only  a 
miracle  of  genius,  and  a  glorious  saint,  but  the  greatest  woman 
who  ever  wrote  in  prose  ;  the  singliMinc  of  her  sex  who  stands_ 
beside  the  world's  most  i>erfect  masters.  \  She  attains  sub- 
limity, and,  in  her  rapturous  vision,  finds  "  large  draughts 
(if  intellectual  dav."  She  is  indeed  tlie  undaunted  daughter 
of  <ii-sires  ;  she  has  in  her  tlie  eagle  and  the  dove  :  and  in  her 
(l.inies  tlie  flaming  heart. 

How  different  from  liers  is  Saint  Augustine's,  whose  Conft's- 
xinns  arc  the  first  autobiography,  and  which  have  this 
to  distingiush  them  from  all  other  autobit)graphies,  that 
they  are  addressed  directly  to  God.  \\\d  more  different 
■-till  from  Rousseau's,  with  his  exasperation  of  all  men's  eyes 
fixitl  on  him,  thi'  protesting  self-conseiousness  which  they 
called  forth  in  him,  drove  him.  in  sjMte  of  himself,  to  set  about 
explaining  himself  to  other  people,  to  the  world  in  general. 
Still  morcunhkeis  Cellini's,  who  hurls  at  you  this  book  of  his 
own  deeds,  that  it  may  smite  you  into  admiration. 

But  Le  Collier  de  ines  J  ours  of  Judith  (lantier  has  a  special 
place  of  its  own  among  women's  confessions  ;  and,  to  me, 
it  is  the  most  amusing  of  all  women's  confessions  tha^  I  have 
e\'er  read.  There  is  something  in  it  of  her  ^'rencli  father  and 
of  her  Milanese  mother  ;  which  in  no  sense  detracts  from  its 
originaUty.  There  is  a  touch  of  the  exotic  in  these  pages,  as 
in  ail  that  is  finest  in  her  prose. 

Take,  for  instance,  in  regard  to  tne  style  and  the  rhythm 
of  her  prose,  these  sentences  from  her  atrocious  "  Flem- 
Serpent,"  with  its  imaginative  study  of  a  criminal's  mind; 
curiously  shown  in  the  penetrating  elaboration  of  the  re\engi- 
ul  the  [xjisonous  flower  on  all  that-it  touches  : 

("est  comme  tine  gerbc  de  minces  seypeiits  tiiessjs  ski'  lew-  ([itciie 
I  qui  inclinent  leur  teles  plates  vers  tin  petit  fruit  cl'iin  rintge 
iiaiigS  assez  semblable  a  itne  grosse  fraise.  mats  phis  veloute 
I't  rappelant  tine  fletir.  Ce  soiit  les  fetiilles  qtii  figtirent  les 
reptiles,  elle  s' ilargissent  en  forme  de  tetes,  et  ces  teles  soni 
tachis  de  detix  yeu.x  et  tine  epine  aigiif  se  proje^ie  conitne  tin 
(lafd.     La  ressemblance  avec  le  serper.t  est  saisissante. 

This  prose  has  the  serpent's  undulations,  its  venom. 

Certainly  every  writer  ha,s  to  choose  his  own  vocabulary; 
I  ine  must  beget  a  vocabulary  faithful  to  the  colouring  of  one's 
own  spirit,  and  in  the  strictest  sense  original.  Good  literary 
art  must  be  good  just  in  proportion  as  it  renders  the  complex 
world  in  the  foiins  of  the  imagination.  It  has  been  said  that 
the  '^  one  beauty  "  of  all  literary  style  is  of  its  very  essence., 
and  independent,  in  prose  and  verse  alike,  of  all  removable 
decoration  ;  that  it  may  exist  in  its  fullest  lustre,  as  in 
yiaubert's  Madame  Bovary,  for'  instance,  or  in  Stendhal's 
Le  Rouge  et  le  Noir,  in  a  composition  utterly  unadorned,  with 
hardly  a  suggestion  of  visibly  beautiful  things. 

The  Hurricane" 

I 

Judith  Gautier's  life  began  witli  a  passion.  .  She  was  said 
to  have  had  such  repugnance  in  coming  into  existence  that 
she  refused  obstinately  to  enter  into  this  life  of  ours,  and  that 
in  her  fury  she  seized  the  doctor's  hands-who  had  Titanic 
strength — in  such  a  fashion  that  he  had  to  shake  Jiimself  free 
of  them,  saying  :  "  What  can  this  little  monster  mean  ?  " 
No  wonder  that  later  on  she  was  called  I'Onragan  for  the 
rapidity  of  her  entrance  into  her  home  :  J' entrain  a  le  Uaison 
tn  coup  de  vent. 

Judith  Gautier  gives  an  amusing  account  of  tlie  adventures 
of  the  Gautiers  in  London  at  the  time  of  the  International 
lixhibitton.  They  stayed  in  the  Hotel  de  France,  Leicester 
Square,  where  they  were  deUghted,  as  all  foreigners  always  are, 
by  the  animation  of  those  nights  when,  the  lamps  being 
lighted,  that  strange  little  world  of  Soho  promenades.  Here 
is  a  curious  experience  of  hers  at  the  Exhibition.  She  was 
looking  at  a  Gainsborough,  when  a  man  lifted  her  by  the  elbows 
and  moved  her  some  steps  awa}'.  "  Fidile,"  she  says,  "  a 
man  prindpe,  apres  le  premier  moment  de  surprise,  jc  me  mis 
a  taper  sur  ce  monsieur,  a  le  tirer,  avec  des  saccades,  par  les 
basques  de  sa  tedingote  ;  mais  il  tourna  vers  moi  une  bonne 
face  rejouie,  se  cramponner  a.  la  barre  de  fer  et  ne  demarrapas." 

One  night  Judith  looks  out  qf  the  window  in  Paris.  The 
streets  are  covered  with  mud,  she  sees  a  man  coming  down  the 
street  treading  the  yellow  mud  mider  his  feet  ;  and  before 
him  a  big  dog,  horribly  dirty.  Suddenly  she  realises  that  it  is 
Baudelaire,  coming,  as  she  knows,  to  call  on  them.  Is  his 
intention  to  tread  on  the  dog's  tail,  so  as  to  frighten  the  animal 


<( 


and  find  out  what  he  might  do?  He  puts  liis  foot  on  the 
dog's  tail  ;  it  howls,  turns  on  him  so  furiously  that  Baudelaire 
falls  backwards  in  the  mud.  He  gets  up,  examines  his  clothes 
in  a  state  of  perplexity,  then  crosses  t"he  street  and  comes 
towards  the  house.  Marianne  lets  him  in,  stupefied  at  seeing 
him  in  such  a  state.  "  You  must  make  me  jiresentable,"  he 
says,  and  goes  with  her  into  the  kitchen.  He  enters  Gautier's 
study,  perfectly  correct,  with  his  red  cravat  tied  in  a  negligent 
knot  around  his  neck.  He  tries  to  explain.  "  I  have  Ix'cn 
knocked  down  by  a  dog  I  did  not  know." 

"  Was  he' a  mad  dog  ?  "  cried  Gautier. 

"  He  was  in  his  riglit  :  I  had  offended  him  in  expressly 
treading  on  his  tail.     Let's  talk  of  something  else." 

He  had  cut  a  sorry  figure  certainly  ;  perhaps  he  had  some 
occult  reason  for  doing  what  he  had  done  :  but  his  intention 
was  to  a.stonish  people-  to  be  astonislnng  and  tlnr^'forf- 
to  be  always  original. 

Her  Chinese  Writings 

It  was  a  wonderful  moment  for  the  Gautiers  when  the 
Chinese  Ting-Tan-Ling  entered  their  house,  to  become,  in  a 
sense,  one  of  their  intimates.  It  was  understood  that  he  was 
to  teach  Judith  the  Chinese  language  ;  the  final  result  of 
which  was  the  publication  of  her  masterpiece,  which  I  have 
before  me  as  I  write,  Le  Livre  de  fade  par  fudiUi  Walter  : 
Paris,  Lemerre,  1867.  She  assumed  the  name,  i  suppose, 
as  a  kind  of  disguise.  It  is  a  translation,  in  rhythnjic  prose, 
from  the  verses  of  Chinese  poets  ;  and  it  is  a  marvellous  thing 
to  have  given— as  Baudelaire  did  in  giving  more  than  the 
spirit  of  Poe  from  the  English  text — more  than  the  spirit  Of 
these  Chinese  poets.  Her  prose  is  exotic,  Eastern,  full  of 
strange  poetry,  of  unknown  images,  of  evocations,  of  moon- 
light and  love  and  war  and  wine  and  the  seasons,  that  remain 
in  one's  cars  like  the  faint  music  I  have  heard  in  Constantinople 
and  in  Spain.  What  a  sense,  in  these  versions,  which  at  times 
wail  with  the  lamenting  voice  that  one  can  still  hear  at  night 
on  any  country  road  in  Spain,  of  the  dramatic  moment,  the 
situation,  the  crisis  ! 

[,e  Paravent  de  Soie  et  d'Or  (of  which  I  have  a  copy  printed 
on  Japanese  paper  with  superb  coloured  illustrations  of  some 
of  the  finest  pictures  of  the  Chinese  painters  of  the  fifteenth 
century)  is,  in  every  sense,  extraordinary.  These  pages 
Ixing  before  one  visions  of  unearthly  beauty  and  of  strange 
humours  and  of  enchantments  and  evocations  ;  of  devils 
and  angels,  virgins  and  priests,  kings  and  Satans,  tigers  and 
dragons  ;  that  swami.  enormously,  as  a  whirlwind  hurled 
onward  by  the  wind's  fury. 

Take,  for  instance,  Une  Descente  aiix  Enfers,  which  is  as 
magnificent  as  an  opium  dream  ;  as  tormented  as  the  fabulous 
ten  hells  ;  as  tragic  as  a  canto  of  Dante's  Inferno  ;  as  gro- 
tesque as  the  sculptured  figures  of  St.  Etienne  de  Bourgcs, 
where  devils  thrust  the  sinners,  naked,  along  the  road  to  the 
bottomless  abyss,  where  devils  with  faces  full  of  horrible 
mirth  hft^np  women  and  men  on  their  shoulders,  and  stami) 
them  down  into  a  boiling  cauldron.  You  see  the  Haines 
underneath,  and  two  devils  blowing  the  furnace. 

While  this  art  is  an  art  of  negation — the  art  of  the  bcjdy 
rendered  by  artists  who  hold  the  body  in  contempt — on'  the 
contrary  Judith  Gautier's  sense  of  hell  has  in  it  no  negation. 
It  is  as  cruel  as  a  Chinese  painting,  and  it  gives,  as  these  do, 
.omething  of  the  beauty  of  the  horrible.  It  is  also  a  vision  of 
Villon's  Hell  : 

"And  eke  an  Hell  where  damned  folk  seethe  full  sore." 

Only  this  vision  is  mediaeval. 

Le  Ramier  Blanc  is  a  delicious  drama  where  two  Chinese 
lovers  are  drawn  together  by  the  mysterious  instinct  of 
youth  ;  and  the  finely-woven  intrigue  at  the  end  is  superbh* 
original.  She  evokes  illusions,  disguises,  love,  the  moonlight, 
and  China.  It  is  certainly  a  paradox  to  compare  this  sceni' 
with  some  scenes  in  Romeo  and  Juliet  :  yet  the  piece  is  like 
a  piece  of  music,  and  it  is  the  music,  which  all  true  lovers  have 
heard  in  the  air  since  they  began  listening  to  one  another's 
voices.  And  these  four  lovers — the  Italian  and  the  Chinese- 
awaken  us  from  a  dream  and  the  awakening  is  to  that  true 
reality  which  henceforth  shuts  them  off  from  the  world, 
as  in  a  deeper  dream.  .\nd  is  not  the  love  scene  in  both 
gardens  a  duet  of  two  astonishments  ?  ^ 

Les  Seize  Ans  de  la  Princesse  has  in  it  a  magician's  miracle 
of  creating  an  imaginary  spring  in  winter,  to  please  the 
insatiable  desires  of  Fiaki.  In  these  pages  I  find  a  kind  of 
hidden  irony,  not  unlike  the  finer  irony  of  Une  Mori  Heroique 
of  Baudelaire.  Only  it  is  the  misfortune  of  the  Prince  of 
Kanga  to  have  had  no  theatre  vast  enough  for  his  genius. 


February  7,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


23 


Mr.HEINEMANNSLIST 


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I  Can  Make  You  a 

Convincing^ 
Speaker 


says     Professor    Grenvillc    —^  ~  , , 
Kleiser.     He  rids  you  of    ■     *''' 
timidity — gives  you  confi- 
dence    in    yourself  —  de- 
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1..  iV  w.  


A  New  Service  Topcoat 


BURBERRYS 

are  the  source  of  many 
original  ideas  in  Service  Kit 
which,  by  their  efficiency 
and  distinction,  especially 
commend  themselves  to 
Officers. 

The  1918  BURBERRY 

combines  the  most  appre- 
ciated qualities  of  a  Bur- 
berry safeguard  —  double 
protection  over  vital  areas, 
resistance  to  wet  and  cold, 
lightweight,  self-ventilation 
and  durability. 

Collar  can  be  worn  open, 
closed  to  the  throat,  or 
turned  right  up. 

Complete  Kit*  in  2  to  4 
Day*  or  Ready  for  U«e. 

Every  Burberry  Garment 
bears   a   Burbefry  label. 


Military 
or  Naval 
Catatotue 
Post 
Free. 


BURBERRYS' 
1918  SALE 

Until  end  of  Feb- 
ruary, Women'* 
and  Men'*  1917 
Civilian  Weather- 
proof*, Topcoat*, 
Suit*,  Gown*.  AI*o 
a  few  Military  gar- 
ment* C*ee  par.  on 
page    JuJ. 

SALE  CATALOGUE 
•ent  on  request. 


Officers' 

Burberry 

W  ealherproofs 

cleaned  and  re-proofed 

FREE  OF  CHARGE. 


The  1918  Burberry. 

As  supplied  to  His  Majesty  the  King. 


BURBERRYS 


HAYMARKET 
S-W.l,  LONDON 
8  &  10  Bonl.  Malciherbet  PARIS ;  also  Agcnta. 


Best  Substitute  for  Meat 

pOSTER  CLARK'S  SOUPS  are  a  whole- 
■■■  some  substitute  for  Meat.  They  lighten 
housekeeping  cares  and  expenses.  House- 
wives of  all  classes  are  daily  using  these 
excellent  Soups  as  a  quick,  easy  and  sensible 
means  for  providing  delicious  and  nourishing 
meals  at  a  very  small  cost. 

These  splendid  Scmps  are  supplied  by  all  Grocers  and 

Stores  at  the  pre-War  price  of  2d.     There  is  no  other 

good  food  so  economical  to-day. 


FOSTER  CLARK    LTD. 


MAIDSTONE. 


Foster  Clarks 


24 


Land    Sc   Water 


February   7,  1918 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


Names  and  addresses  of  shops,  where  (he  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  will  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
addressed  to  Passe-Partoitl,  Land  &  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  W.C.  2.    Any  otiter  information  will  be  given  on  request. 

Alpaca  Wool  M^ny  things  conspire  to  make  some 
*  Q  alpaca  wool  scarves  the  acceptable  things 

bcarves  ^j^gy  ^^g      ^ov  one  thing  they  are  useful 

rilmost  throughout  the  entire  length  of  the  year,  being  as 
welcome  a  wrap  on  many  a  summer's  evening  as  they  are 
now  in  a  mid-winter  month. 

These  alpaca  wool  scarves  are  soft,  fleecy,  deUghtfuUy  warm 
and  hght.  Being  of  super  quality  and  with  wool  the  price 
it  is  they  cannot  of  necessity  be  specially  cheap,  but  they  are 
so  good  that  this  could  not  be  expected.  Another  feature  to 
note  is  the  way  in  which  they  save  furs — and  furs,  owing  to 
their  dailv  increasing  price,  are  things  to  be  zealously  guarded 
now.  With  a  warm  cosy  scarf  like  this  thrown  ove  r  one 
shoulder  and  drawn  round  the  neck,  a  fur  simply  is  not 
needed,  one  is  equipped  without.  Then  an  alpaca  wool  scarf 
is  so  refreshingly  becoming — it-  is  the  wool  scarf  de  luxe, 
establishing  a  very  enviable  reputation  and  showing  for  all 
time  what  a  superior  article  the  wool  scarf  at  its  best  can  be. 

Scarves  of  the  kind  in  plain  colours,  each  and  all  in  a  lovely 
shade,  are  the  most  inexpensive  to  buy ;  but  there  are  all  sorts  of 
more  ambitious  varieties.  Quite  exquisite  is  a  pale  apricot 
scarf  with  mauve  and  deep  iris  stripes,  besides  other  designs 
fully  as  charming  and  original.  Some  white  scarves  with  a 
criss-cross  pattern  again  are  such  miles  removed  from  the 
ordinary  that  to  buy  them  is  aft  irresistible  impulse. 

These  scarves  should  be  cleaned,  not  risked  in  the  wash. 


Shaped 
Veils 


Small  things  in  dress  have  a  knack  of 
counting  so  much  that  they  hardly  rank 
as  small  things  at  all.  Veils  in  them- 
selves may  be  a  minor  detail,  but  they  are  a  detail  of  some 
importance  nevertheless,  as  many  a  woman  with  a  rather 
shabby  hat  has  proved.  The  effect  a  new  pretty  veil  will 
work  on  a  somewhat  dashed  hat  is  nothing  short  of  electrifying. 
With  this  aid  it  can  grow  passable  again  and  enter  on  a  new 
phase  of  life  in  a  war-like  way  which  is  nothing  if  not  com- 
mendable. 

Veils,  to  really  look  their  best  and  be  properly  becoming, 
must  be  fresh — of  that  there  is  no  gUmmer  of  doubt.  Once 
the  "  crisp  "  of  a  veil  has  gone  the  cliarm  goes  too  in  an 
irretrievable  way.  Another  important  point  is  the  way 
it  is  put  on — no  small  matter  this,  for  it  is  amazing  how 
different  the  same  veil  can  look  in  the  hands  of  two  different 
women  One  wears  it  just  as  she  should — the  other  arranges 
it  bad.y — and  there  is  a  world  of  difference  between. 

In  all  probability,  if  the  truth  was  known,  the  woman  whose 
veil  lo  iks  neat  and  charming  has  gone  to  a  certain  shop  where 
the  veils  are  nothing  short  of  an  education  and  delight,  and 
what  is  more  she  has  probably  secured  one  of  the  special 
"  shaped  "  veils,  these  having  a  thread  already  run  along  the 
top  so  that  they  are  bound  to  fit  accurately  to  a  hat. 

Besides  being  so  perfectly  shaped,  these  veils  are  an 
inexpensive  affair  into  the  bargain,  some  beginning  at  such  a 
small  sum  as  eighteenpence. 

Extra  attractive,  however,  are  some  fine  meshed  lace 
shaped  veils  at  half-a-crov/n,  these  being  a  wondeiful  adjunct 
to  a  rather  plain  hat.  Shaped  veils  are  kept  in  blue,  brown, 
mole,  purple,  black  and  white. 

A  chance  in  From  time  to  time  there  are  events  which 
Mfn's  Pviamoc  nobody  can  afford  to  miss,  and  a  special 
iviciis,  ryjamas  sale  of  pyjamas  now  on  is  one  of  these. 
It  started  on  Monday  and  la^ts  for  a  fortnight. 

It  is  not  the  least  exaggeration  to  say  that  pyjamas  cannot 
now  be  made  for  the  price  they  are  going  for  during  the  sale. 
Such  is  the  plain  and  simple  truth.  The  maki.ig  and  material 
alone  without  any  extras  or  profit  would  cost  the  firm  more. 
Once  these  pyjamas  go  then,  it  seems  likely  to  be  many  a  long 
day  before  they  can  be  bought  so  wonderfully  reasonably  again. 
To  miss  this  opportunity   means  more  than  missing  somo 


unusually  inexpensive  pj'jamas,  it  means  refusing  a  chance  of 
money-saving  'twere  foolishness  indeed  to  overlook.  Men's, 
women's,  boys'  and  girls'  pyjamas  are  all  concerned,  all  in  a 
great  many  different  varieties,  so  that  everybody's  predilec- 
tions and  needs  are  met. 

'Three  suits  of  men's  plain  striped  pyjamas — and  all  the 
pyjamas  are  of  the  famous  "  Swan  "  quality — coit  a  pound 
the  three,  a  sample  suit  being  6s.  iid.  With  a  mercerised 
stripe  thirty  shillings  is  the  price  for  three  suits,  a  sample 
one  costing  los.  6d.  Very  effective  are  the  pyjamas  in  shaded 
mercerised  stripe,  thirty  shillings  again  being  the  price  for 
three,  a  single  sample  suit  being  ids.  6d. 

For  sheer  comfort  few  things  compare  with  the  wool  mixture 
striped  pyjamas,  three  suits  here  costing  forty  shillings,  or  a 
single  suit  for  thirteen  and  sixpence.  Those  people  liking  the 
luxury  of  silk  pyjamas  will  jump  at  the  prospect  of  three  all- 
silk  pairs  for  eighty  shillings,  or  a  sample  suit  for  twenty- 
seven  and  six,  and  some  all  silk  satin-striped  ones  too  will  not 
fail  to  rivet  attention  at  their  special  sale  price.  All  these 
pyjamas  can  be  got  in  sky  and  white,  pink  and  white,  mauve 
and  white,  and  in  some  instances  gold  and  white  and  saxe  blue 
and  white  are  available. 

Also    for  ^°  many  women  have  taken  to  wearing 

,..  J      pyjamas  that    the  news  that    the    sale 

W  omen  and  applies  to  them  also  is  brimful  of  interest. 
Girls  and  Boys  Before  they  are  gone,  tracks  sliould 
be  made  for  some  crepe"  Swan  "  striped 
pyjamas,  and  three  pairs  secured  for  twenty  shillings, 
or  one  suit  for  6s.  iid.  just  to  show  what  they  are  hke. 
Or  three  striped  wool  mixture  suits  should  be  bought 
for  40S.,  a  sample  suit  being  13s.  6d.,  while  those  now  wearing 
silk  pyjamas  as  blissfully  as  in  the  past  they  wore  silk  night- 
gowns will  not  let  the  bargains  in  this  direction  escape. 

Then  there  are  all  sorts  of  good  things  in  the  pyjama  way^ 
for  girls  of  from  five  to  sixteen  years,  three  pairs  in  striped 
wool  mi.xture  going  for  28s.  6d.  and  a  sample  pair  for  gs.  iid. 
as  one  example  only,  while  for  girls  from  three  to  eight  are 
some  one-piece  ones  in  striped  wool  mixture — three  pairs 
costing  24s.  6d.  or  one  pair  8s.  6d. 

Boys'  striped  cotton  crepe  pyjamas  are  being  sold  in  lots- 
of  three  for  sixteen  shillings,  a  sample  suit  being  five  and  six- 
pence, while  some  in  heavy  wool  mixture  winter-weight  repay 
buying  over  and  over  again  at  their  price  of  three  for  forty 
shillings  or  one  pair  for  13s.  gd. 

All  these  pyjamas  will  be  sent  on  approval  to  anyone  not 
previously  known  to  the  firm,  provided  they  supply  a  London 
trade  reference.  There  il  bound  to  be  such  a  rush  on  them 
that  application  should  be  made  at  once. 

Japanese  Rest  Most  of  us  work  so  hard  now-a-days 
p  that   nobody  grudges  the  luxury    of    a 

rest,  for  even  the  busiest  mortal's  v/orking 
day  must  come  to  an  end  somewhere.  But  nobody  can  take 
full  advantage  of  this  unless  they  are  clad  in  something  as 
restful  as  they  themselves  would  wish  to  he.  The  mere 
process  of  changing  from  out-door  attire  into  something  loose, 
pretty,  simple  and  fresh  takes  one  a  long  distance. 

A  famous  firm  whose  word  on  rest-gowns  always  "  goes," 
have  just  brouglit  out  any  number  of  new  and  infinitelv 
effective  models,  but  chief  in  novelty  and  charm  is  the  Japanese 
rest  gown  with  contrasting  coloured  borders.  This  does  not 
hail  from  Japan  ;  it  is,  in  fact,  taken  from  a  brilliantly  successful 
French  model,  but  it  is  Japanese  in  its  tendency  and  per- 
suasion to  a  very  large  extent.  To  get  into  it  does  not  need 
neariy  so  much  time  as  it  takes  to  tell.  It  slips  over  the  head, 
has  a  couple  of  fastenings,  and  then  all  remaining  to  be  arranged 
is  the  fascinating  sash- -an  equally  brief  affair. 

It  is  made  in  heavy  weight  crepe  de  Chine,  and  in  spite  of  the 
heights  to  which  good  quality  crCpe  de  Cliine  has  soared  is 
bci.ig  sold  at  a  special  price.  The  colourings,  too,  are  un- 
usually pretty,  and  any  colour  scheme  can  be  carried  out  to 
order.  \\"lute  with  rose-pink  borders  looks  well,  jade  green 
and  black,  yellow  and  mauve,  champagne  and  royal  blue 
as  well  as  a  host  of  others,  are  all  allurin?  and  effective. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXXi^o29io.  [vTa"r]        THURSDAY.  FEBRUARY  14,  1918  [TS^i^f^^^]  'v^rc^i'^i^.i^Vi^ll 


Copyright    1017    'i  V.S.A. 


Cofiirlfih t  "Land  Sc   WaUr" 


Austria  makes  Overtures  to  America 


Count  Czernin,  the  Austro-Hungarian  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  in  a  recent  speech  delivered  at 
Vienna,  said:  "Our  views  are  identical  with  President  Wilson's,  not  only  in  the  broad  principles 
regarding  the  new  organisation  of  the  world  after  the  war,  but  also  in  several  concrete  questioivs." 


Land   &    Water 


February    14.,  1918 


Where  the  British  Army  Fights 


rw 


V 


In  the  Mesopotamian  Desert 


vV 


I 


OftUial  Photograph 


Ollicial   Photograph 


Beneath  Italian  Alps 


Fehruary    14,  1918 


Land    Si    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 


Telephone  :    HOLBORN    2828. 


THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  14,  1918 


I 


Contents 


Austria  and  America.     By  Louis  Raemaeker^ 

Where  the  British  Army  Fights.     (Photographs) 

The  Outlook 

Enemy  Reinforcement.     Bv  Hilaire  Belloc 

The  After  War  Blockade.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

American  Locomoti\-es  in  France.     (Photograph) 

Lea\'es  from  a  German  Note  Book 

John  Rathom's  Revelations. — Part  I. 

At  Sea.     By  Etienne 

New  Secret  Diplomacy.     By  G.  K.  Chesterton 

Rural   Reformation.     (Illustrated).     By  John   Ruan 

Women's  Village  Councils.     By  Mrs.  Hamilton 

Mr.  Shaw's  Critics.     By  J.  C.  Squire 

Books  of  the  Week 

Domestic  Economy 

Notes  on  Kit. 


PAGE 

I 
2 

3 
5 

8 

9 
10 
II 
14 
15 
17 

19 
20 

22 

24 

ix. 


The  Outlook 

THE  signing  of  a  separate  peace  between  the 
Ukraine  and  the  enemy  and  the  consequent 
isolation  of  Roumania  marks  a  very  important 
point  in  the  war.  It  is  the  first  separate  peace 
the  enemy  has  been  able  to  negotiate.  It  will 
have  the  effect  of  relieving  Austria-Hungarv'  at  once,  of 
raising  civiHan  opinion  throughout  the  German  Empire,  and  of 
confirming  the  German  Government  in  its  certainty  that  it 
will  in  future  dominate  the- East  of  Europe. 

There  are  other  aspects  of  the  matter  which  should  be 
noted.  One  is  that  the  Germans  and  Austrians  are  both 
concerned  to  strengthen  the  separatism  of  South  Russia 
l)ecause  it  makes  the  resurrection  of  the  Russian  power  more 
difficult  and  also  because  it  is  a  check  against  the  spread  of 
anarchy  from  the  Northern  towns.  Another  point  is  that  the 
enemy  has  no  guarantee  of  permanence  in  the  State  of  the 
Ukraine.  The  doctrines  which  have  ruined  Northern  Russia 
are  permeating  the  South  and  may  have  a  much  larger  effect 
in  the  near  future.  Lastly,  of  course,  there  is  the  food  question. 
The  Ukraine  is  the  great  granary  which  used  to  help  to  feed 
us  and  will  now  help  to  feed  the  Central  Empires. 

The  great  strikes  in  Germany  have  ended,  as  they  were  ex- 
pected to  end,  in  a  thorough  military  suppression.  Two 
extreme  views,  widely  expressed  about  them  in  this  country, 
were  equally  erroneous  :  The  view  that  the^  were  engineered 
by  the  German  authorities  to  deceive  Allied  opinion  and  the 
view  that  they  were  the  beginning  of  some  sucli  break-up  of 
German  society  as  has  taken  place  in  Russia.  Neither  of 
these  things  was  possible.  No  belligerent  Government  would 
play  with  such  dangerous  fire  as  the  deliberate  fomenting 
of  national  strikes  in  the  present  phase  of  exhaustion.  G€rman 
society,  like  that  of  the  Western  nations,  is  organised  far  more 
strongly  than  Russian  society. 

The  really  significant  thing  about  the  strikes  for  us  in  this 
country  is  that  they  have  come  after  the  great  success  against 
Russia,  the  tremendous  victor>'  in  Italy,  and  after  what  we 
can  now  see  to  be  the  successful  German  defence  of  1917 
in  the  West.  If  the  economic  pressure  upon  Germany  and 
the  growing  strain  of  the  war  can  lead  to  such  a  thing  at  such 
a  moment  it  is  a  good  augury  upon  what  will  happen  when 
pressure  can  be  brpught  to  bear  upon  Germans  on  German 
soil.  We  do  not  know  whether  defeat  in  the  field  or  internal 
disintegration  will  take  place  first.  But  at  the  first  sign  of 
the  former  the  latter  must  certainly  appear  in  full  force. 

It  is  equally  certain  that  if  an  inconclusive  peace  can  be 
engineered  by  the  enemy  before  there  has  been  either  internal 
colla^Kie  or  external  defeat,  his  social  system  from  the 
Hohenzollern  Crown  downwards  is  secure  for  the  future. 


Two  members  of  the  Royal  Flying  Corps  have  been  con- 
demned to  a  long  term  of  penal  S(  rvitudc  in  the  enemy's 
country  for  dropping  propaganda  leaflets  behind  the  German 
lines.     A  good  deal  of  ink  has  been  wasted  upon  this  subject 


by  worthy  people  who  want  to  show  the  Germans  that  they 
are  neither  logical  nor  just  in  acting  thus,  and  who  are  at  the 
pains  to  tell  us  that  the  Germans  themselves  not  only  have 
largely/  used  this  method  of  propaganda  from  the  air,  but 
began  it.  At  this  time  of  day  one  might  just  as  well  argue 
about  the  bombardment  of  open  towns  or  the  murder  of 
Captain  Fryatt. 

Ihere  is  no  canon  of  European  morals,  however  sacred, 
that  the  enemy  will  not  break  if  he  believes  the  crime  to  be 
conducive  to  his  national  success.  Those  who  have  not  learnt 
that  lesson  by  this  time  must  be  incapable  of  appreciating  the 
ordinary  occurrences  of  daily  life.  What  is  of  practical  use  is 
to  consider  what  form  reprisals  could  take  in  the  present 
phase  of  the  war.  Liter  on  we  shall  have  to  consider  formal 
punishment.  But  for  the  moment  we  have  notliing  to  rely 
upon  but  reprisals. 


Here  the  situation  is  that  the  enemy  holds  Allied  towns  and 
large  numbers  of  allied  civihans  as  hostages,  while  the  Allies 
hold  no  towns  an^  very  few  civilians  of  his.  Further,  the 
enemy  has  taken  from  the  Western  Allies  combined  more 
than  they  have  taken  from  him  (though  in  the  particular  case 
of  the  British  this  state  of  affairs  is  reversed).  The  enemy 
could,  therefore,  if  this  matter  be  estimated  by  mere  numbers, 
do  us  worse  harm  than  we  could  do  him,  were  a  sort  of  auction 
in  reprisals  to  be  started.  Moreover,  he  has  the  advantage  of 
feeling  less  horror  than  would  the  society  of  the  Allies  at  the 
necessity  for  such  extremes. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  enemy  has  one  very  vulnerable 
point,  which  is  the  exceptional  position  occupied  in  his  society 
by  the  wealthier  classes,  and  especially  by  the  titular  nobility. 
The  French  have  taken  advantage  of  this  weakness  with  great 
effect.  Make  things  really  uncomfortable  for  a  man  highly 
placed  in  German  society  (we  have  many  such  among  our 
prisoners)  and  those  who  govern  Germany  are  touched  to  the 
quick.  Unfortunately,  the  constitution  "of  our  own  society 
in  England  has  in  the  past  made  it  more  difficult  for  us  to  use 
this  weapon  than  for  the  French.  At  any  rate,  that  is  the 
Hne  along  which  practical  reprisals  can  be  made  fniitful, 
pending  the  solution  of  the  whole  affair  when  (unless  we  accept 
defeat  beforehand)  theindividual  agents  of  these  abominations 
can  be  brought  to  book. 


The  appointment  of  Lord  Beaverbrook  to  be  at  the  head  of 
the  Propaganda  means  nothing  more  than  that  Lord  Bea\  er- 
brook  thought  that  such  work  would  interest  and  amuse  him. 
Neither  Parhament  nor  the  country  has  anything  to  say  in 
the  matter  nowadays.  Moreover,  what  concerns  us  prac- 
tically is  not  so  much  the  motives  and  causes  of  this  sort  of 
appointment  as  its  results. 

Propaganda  work  in  the  past  has  been  shockingly  done.  It 
has  three  branches  :  Propaganda  among  Neutrals  "(of  no  very 
great  importance  since  the  entry  of  America)  ;  the  support 
of  opinion  at  home  ;  and  the  proper  representation  of  British 
effort  ainong  the  Allies.  Lord  Beaverbrook  has  not  himself 
any  qualification  in  any  one  of  these  three  departments,  but 
that  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not  use  men  who  have.  The 
value  of  the  head  of  a  State  Department  at  this  moment  does 
not  lie  in  his  personal  acquaintance  with  the  work,  but  in  his 
power  of  choosing  agents  and  especially  in  his  integrity  in 
serving  the  national  interests  alone,  neglecting  private  motives, 
and  choosing  men  only  because  they  will  do  the  work  well. 
For  some  few  weeks  to  come  by  far  the  most  important  work 
of  the  department  will  be  the  confirming  of  public  opinion  at 
home,  and  if  the  new  head  of  the  Propaganda  can  succeed  in 
this  hitherto  almost  neglected  piece  of  duty,  he  will  have 
proved  his  fitness  for  the  post. 

It  is  a  curious  thing  in  connection  with  Propaganda  that 
no  one  has  properly  put  before  the  British  public  the  strength 
of  American  opinion  in  favour  of  war  and  the  excellent  writing 
in  which  it  is  expressed.  We  get  generalities  about  the 
unanimity  of  American  opinion,  which  generalities  are  both 
exaggerated  and  foolish.  Now  and  then  we  get  anecdotes 
that  are  either  sensational  or  ludicrous  or  both.  What  we 
want  is  reprints  from  the  American  daily  press  and  weekly 
and  monthly  reviews,  showing  how  firmly  the  best  minds  in 
America  are  supporting  the  common  cause  of  civilisation. 

After  all  the  nonsense,  for  instance,  that  has  been  talked 
over  licre  about  Alsace  Lorraine  as  though  these  provinces 
were  the  subject  of  a  debating  game  instead  of  the  vital 
symbol  of  the  whole  war,  it  is  refreshing  to  read  the  mass  of 
American  comment  upon  this  point.  The  historical  argu- 
ment is  clearly  understood  and  as  clearly  stated.  The  present 
political  argument  is  still  better  understood.  Prussia  is  a  great 
military  power  through  the  i)restige  of  1870,  and  the  name 'of 
1N70  to  the  people  whom  she  rules  is  Alsace  Lorraine.      The 


Land   &   Water 


February    14,  191 8 


economic  side  of  the  question  also— the  iron  supply  of 
l^ssia  with  all  its  consequences— is  appreciated  m  America 
better  than  it  is  licre,  botli  by  the  minority  which  supports 
secretly  or  openly  the  Prussian  claim,  and  by  the  majority 
which  "is  determined  to  destro>-  that  claim  for  good  in  l<,urope. 


The  trial  of  Bolo  in  Paris  has  not  been  reported  in  any 
intelligible  fashion  upon  this  side  of  the  Channel.  No  one 
competent  in  French  procedure  or  even  in  the  French  language 
seems  to  have  dealt  with  the  subject  at  all.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  opinion  in  general  is  simply  bewildered  by  the  accounts 
it  is  given  to  read.  Vet  tlie  main  lines  of.  the  affair  are  per- 
fectly simple.  A  shadv  financier  of  base  origin,  a  true  modern 
type' common  to  all  modern  countries,  and  usually  exercising 
great  power  over  wliat  are  ironically  called  "  representative 
institutions  "  is  accused  of  having  received  enemy  money  to 
serve  enemy  purposes  in  the  Alhed  countries.  He  is  compelled 
to  admit  the  reception  of  very  large  sums,  certain  of  which 
.  undoubtedly  come  through  enemy  channels.  He  explains 
his  jx)ssesssion  of  them  after  a  fashion  with  which  we  liad  grown 
unfortunately  familiar  ourselves  owing  to  jxilitical  scandals 
at  home  before  the  war.  He  says  that  he  has  never  kept 
records  of  payments  or  receipts,  however  large,  and  that  vast 
but  quite  unexplained  financial  operations  in  which  he  was 
engaged  (and  of  which  also  tliere  is  no  record)  accounts  for 
everything. 

There  would  be  no  doubt  about  the  issue  as  the  evidence 
now  stands  save  for  the  fact  that  personal  influences  are  still 
strong — even  after  three  and  a  half  years  of  such  a  war  as 
this — in  Parliamentary  countries.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  was  a  very  grave  and  legitimate  anxiety  felt  by  the 
politicians  themselves  in  every  such  country,  that  the  armies 
which  have  been  used  to  very  summary  justice  for  so  long 
will  not  tolerate  privilege  or  exemption  for  a  few  favoured 
civilians  simply  because  they  are  connected  witli  professional 
politics.  And  the  dread  of  what  may  happen  after  the  war, 
if  such  privilege  or  exemption  is  allowed  to  continue,  acts  as 
a  salutary  and  most  desirable  check. 


Lord  Jellicoe  made  S  speech  of  great  importance  at  Hull 
last  Friday  when  he  gave  his  audience  for  the  first  time  in 
the  course  of  this  war  an  estimate  of  at  least  one  future  date, 
to  wit,  the  date  when  the  rate  of  building,  etc.,  should  have 
mastered  the  submarine  peril.  He  did  not  give  the  date  as  a 
definite  one,  stUl  less  of  one  of  minimum  time  ;  he  gave  it 
as  a  maximum  limit  and  fixed  it  for  next  August — roughly 
six  months  from  the  present  date. 

There  is  no  one  else  who  can  speak  with  anything  like 
the  authority  of  Lord  Jellicoe  in  the  matter,  and  his  judgment 
will  be  received  everywhere  with  a  respect  that  certainly 
does  not  attach  to  the  wild  speeches  of  politicians.  Apropos 
of  those  speeches,  Lord  JeUicoe  very  wisely  reminded  his 
audience  that  almost  every  irresponsible  piece  of  boasting 
was  followed  by  a  disaster  and  that  this  was  particularly 
the  case  with  the  extraordinary  belittling  of  the  submarine 
peril  in  the  recent  past  by  the  Prime  Minister.  All  that, 
however,  is  of  no  practical  importance.  The  important 
thing  is  that  the  man  who  can  tell  us  most  about  it  has  warned 
us  that  there  will  be  continuation  of  the  present  strain  for  at 
least  six  months. 

The  nation  can  stand  the.strain  if  it  is  properly  informed, 
in  the  old  sense  of  the  word  "  informed,"  that  is,  not  fed 
with  sensational  tit-bits  of  news,  but  educated  in  a  right 
judgment  of  the  situation.  Of  course  decisive  events  on  the 
continent,  whether  within  the  enemy's  territory  or  against  his 
armies,  would  change  the  whole  problem,  but  as  things  are  we 
must  bear  in  mind  that  term,  next  August,  and  not  shrink 
from  the  length  of  the  ordeal  before  us. 


There  are  two  p^oints  remarkable  about  the  sinking  of  the 
''  Tuscania."  The  first  is  the  exceedingly  small  loss  of  life — 
only  about  4  per  cent. — the  second  is  that  this  should  be  the 
first  loss  of  any  of  the  great  American  transports. 

It  is  now  nearly  a  year  since  America  entered  the  war. 
It  is  many  months  since  she  began  to  send  men  and  material 
in  vast  quantities  across  the  Atlantic.  It  was  confidently 
believed  by  the  enemy  and  largely  apprehended  upon  the 
side  of  the  Allies  that  this  effort  could  not.be  made  without 
a  heavy  proportion  of  loss.  The  loss  turns  out  to  be  on  the 
contrary  exceedingly  light,  and  so  far  as  men  are  concerned 
only  one  half  per  cent,  of  those  ferried  have  been  subject  to 
sucessful  attack,  and  only  an  insignificant  number  of  the 
latter  have  been  lost. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  this  is  no  secure  guide  to  the 
future.  Indeed  it  is  the  undetermined  feature  of  the  submarine 
offensive  which  is  the  chief  unknown  factor  in  the  whole 


war  But  at  any  rate  we  have  had  a  consitUrablc  experience 
now  of  the  conditions  of  transport  acrc^s  the  Atlantic  on  a 
large  scale,  and  so  i-M  it  has  certainly  been  favouralile. 

The  I  ancashire  cotton  spinners  have  issued  a  statement 
on  the  subject  of  the  Education  Bill  after  taking  the  opinions 
of  the  members  of  the  Federation  of  Master  Spinners.  I  he 
raising  of  their  leaving  age  to  14  is  accepted  but  the  proposal 
for  continuation  education  after  that  age  is  criticised  as  putting 
too  great  a  strain  on  the  industry.  Apparently  a  half-time 
system  up  to  16  is  preferred  to  Mr.  Fisher's  proposed  arrange- 
ment on  the  ground  tliat  it  is  easier  to  work.  The  cotton 
spinners  argue  that  the  industry  will  be  in  difficulties  for  labour 
if  the  Bill  is  passed,  and  tliat  employers  and  workpeople  alike 
will  suffer.  The  answer  surely  is  that  the  present  crisis  gives 
an  e-xcellcht  opportunity  for  introducing  the  change  with  the 
minimum  of  inconvenience.  The  arrangements  made  by  the 
Cotton  Control  Board  have  had  the  effect  of  keeping  the 
factory  population  together.  Over  a  million  pounds  have  been 
paid  out  under  the  unemployment  scheme  in  six  months,  which 
shews  that  the  workpeople  have  not  been  scattered.  Peace 
will  bring  back  a  large  number  of  spinners  and  weavers  from 
the  army  and  it  will,  of  course,  be  essential  to  find  employment 
for  them.  There  will  still  be  many  disabled  soldiers  who  will 
prefer  to  return  to  the  mill  in  one  capacity  or  another. 

Now  the  scarcity  of  juvenile  labour  is  not  a  new  fact.  It 
has  been  noticeable  for  some  years  past.  And  the  reasi^n  for 
it  is  the  want  of  prospect  for  piecers,  because  there  are  many 
more  piecers  then  spinners,  and  the  outlook  for  piecers  is  con- 
sequently poor,  The  wages  of  men  weavers  again  are  far  too 
low.  In  other  words  some  reorganisation  of  the  industry 
is  necessary,  and  this  is  the  best  moment  for  beginning  it.  The 
effects  of  introducing  half  time  education  between  14  and  16 
will  be  to  make  such  reorganisation  easier  by  improving  the 
quality  of  labour.  The  cotton  industry  has  achieved  wonders 
m  the  course  of  the  last  ccntur>'  and  it  is  doing  less  than  justice 
to  its  resources  of  constructive  imagination  to  suppose  that  it 
cannot  adopt  itself  to  a  new  situation.  An  industry  which 
depended  upon  conditions  that  forbid  the  development  of  the 
full  capacities  of  its  workpeople  would  be  in  a  precarious  state. 


The  account  which  is  published  on  another  page  of  Women's 
Village  Councils  shows  how  the  ferment  of  social  revolution 
may  work  sanely  and  rightly.  English  villages,  for  all  their 
beauty  and  the  apparent  healthiness  of  their  peoples,  are  too 
often  devoid  of  sanitation.  The  hygienic  horrors  common 
among  them  are  only  known  to  those  who  dwell  in  them. 
But  improvement  has  been  diihcult  so  long  as  the  people 
themselves,  more  or  less,  acquiesced  in  .present  conditions. 
These  Councils,  which  seem  to  be  spreading  with  extraordinary 
rapidity,  are  just  the  very  thing  which  is  required,  combined 
as  they  are  to-day  with  better  education. 

Taken  as  a  class,  there  are  few  finer  types  of  British 
character  than  the  country-woman ;  she  is  industrious, 
self-respecting  and  independent,  and  the  best  of  mothers, 
when  she  survives  the  perils  of  childbirth.  Village  life  will 
be  both  healthier  and  happier  when  the  Women's  Council 
becomes  a  recognised  part  of  the  social  machinery  of  every 
parish.     And  we  prtdi:t  it  will  soon  be  so. 


Lord  Rhondda  has  at  last  been  able  to  present  London 
with  a  meat  ration  scheme.  It  is  doubtful  if  anybody  will 
really  understand  it  until  it  has  been  in  operation  for  two  or 
three  weeks.  The  great  thing  in  its  favour  is  that  it  will  be 
tested  in  a  spirit  of  good  will  for  the  most  part,  as  it  is  accepted 
as  part  of  the  price  of  victory.  The  comparative  silence  that 
has  fallen  on  the  Food  Ministry  is  another  advantage,  though 
Lord  Rhondda  still  protests  too  much  when  he  receives  depu- 
tations. It  would  be  infinitely  wiser  to  leave  his  political 
sincerity  to  the  imagination  of  the  audience.  No  one  for  a 
moment  doubts  the  disagreeableness  of  his  task,  nor  has  any- 
one the  least  wish  to  reheve  him  of  it,  and  so  long  as  he  is 
prompt  to  rectify  mistakes,  for  undoubtedly  there  will  be 
mistakes  and  many,  he  is  assured  of  general  support. 

He  may  go  down  to  history  as  the  man  who  opposed  horse- 
racing  and  popularised  horse-eating.  Will  horseflesh  ever,  be 
a  staple  of  diet  in  these  islands  ?  Country  people  will  be 
prejudiced  against  it  because  it  is  horse  ;  towns-folks  will 
object  to  it  because  it  is  cat's-meat.  There  is  the  alien  popula- 
tion, and  if  they  take  kindly  to  it  so  much  the  better.  Is  it 
not  time  that  the  Russian  element  was  returned  to  M. 
Trotski — good  name  for  a  horse-eater  ?  The  War  Cabinet 
would  do  well  to  devise  a  scheme  to  return  the  Russian  Jew 
alien  to  "  peaceful  "  Russia. 


February    14,    191 8 


Land  &  Water 


Enemy  Reinforcement :   By  Hilaire  Belloc 


A  DOCUMENT  of  some  importance  appeared  last 
week,  with  official  authority  behind  it,  concern- 
ing the  probable  extent  of  the  enemy  reinforce- 
ment upon  the  Western  front.  The  account 
was  a  little  more  detailed  than  the  general 
estimates  which  have  appeared  in  these  columns,  but  the 
round  figures  agree. 

We  are  told  that  there  are  now  more  than  i8o  and  less 
than  190  Germari  divisions  between  the  Alps  and  the  North 
Sea.  This  is  an  addition  of  more  than  twenty  and  less  than 
thirty  since  last  autumn.  Of  this  number  115  or  about 
60  per  cent,  are  in  line.  It  may  be,  and  probably  is,  a 
little  under  60  per  cent.  The  remaining  40  per  cent., 
or  rather  more  than  40  per  cent.,  are  in  reserve.  The 
German  Empire  (without  considering  the  Austrian  forces) 
still  retains  some  fifty  divisions  on  the  Russian  front,  of  which 
we  are  told  that  twenty  (or  even  at  the  maximum  thirty) 
might  be  transferred  ultimately  to  the"West.  But  the  figures 
here  are  of  less  importance  because  they  deal  for  the  most 
part  with  troops  that  would  not  be  used  in  active  operations 
against  the  Western  Allies.  At  any  rate,  the  total  number  of 
German  divisions  which  may  appear  upon  the  Western  front 
in  the  fighting  of  1918  will  be  certainly  not  less  than  200, 
and  may  as  a  maximum  rise  to  220.  This  means,  as  wais 
pointed  out  in  these  columns  many  months  ago  when  the 
effects  of  the  Russian  collapse  were  evident,  an  addition  of 
perhaps  half  a  million  bayonets  to  the  original  strength  of  the 
Germans  in  France  and  Flanders.  Another  way  of  putting 
it  is  that  it  means  the  addition  of  rather  less  than  half  as 
much  again  to  the  original  strength.  But  of  that  addition 
one  large  portion  is  not  fit  for  action  in  any  offensive  and  will 
not  be  so  used.  For  the  troojjs  employed  by  the  Germans 
on  their  Eastern  front  contained  a  much  larger  proportion 
of  secondary  material  than  those  on  the  Western.  Pretty 
well  all  the  German  heavy  artillery  will  be  massed  upon  the 
Western  front,  a  matter  of  just  under  1,800  batteries  counting 
heavy  artillery  as  anything  over  100  mm.,  and  counting 
the  go  mm.  gun  as  a  field  piece.  These  figures  do  not 
include  the  coastal  batteries  or  the  pieces  stUl  kept  in  fortresses. 

So  far  the  statement  follows  lines  with  which  all  students 
of  the  war  were  familiar.  There  is  nothing  new  qither  in  the 
number  of  guns  estimated  nor  in  the  fact  that  pretty  well  all 
the  heavy  artillery  can,  or  has,  come  westward  (or  is  on  its 
way  there),  or  in  the  general  figure  of  a  50  per  cent,  increase 
(rather  less)  in  men.  These  general  outlines  of  the  situation 
have  been  defined  here,  as  in  other  responsible  journals  follow- 
ing the  campaign,  for  many  months  past. 

The  really  interesting  thing  to  notice  in  this  official  piece 
of  news,  and  the  novel  thing,  is  the  distribution  of  th^  reserves. 
It  has  been  discovered  that  so  far  the  German  reserves  have 
been  spread  almost  evenly  along  the  whole  line.  This  does  not 
necessarily  mean  that  one  or  more  concentrated  efforts  may 
not  be  made  at  a  short  date.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
reserve  is  unusable  in  the  front  line.  That  part  which  is 
usable  can  be  concentrated  with  rapidity.  The  factor  of 
time  in  the  preparation  of  an  offensive  of  this  kind  is  much 
more  concerned  with  the  concentration  of  artillery  and  still 
more  with  the  concentration  of  its  munitionment  than  it  is 
with  the  concentration  of  infantry.  For  the  infantry  works 
with  a  "  spear  head  "  which  is  supported,  reinforced,  recruited 
by  continuous  rotation  as  the  effort  proceeds,  and  the  spear 
head  needed  at  the  outset  is  but  a  small  proportion  of  the 
whole.  For  instance,  the  main  effort  of  Verdun  two  years 
ago  was  entrusted  in  the  first  three  days  to  only  six  divisions. 
The  unexpectedly  successful  blow  struck  last  autumn  on  the 
Isonzo  was  also  entrusted  to  six  divisions ;  that  which 
failed  in  the  Trentino  in  igr6  to  another  six  or  eight.  But 
what  this  dispersion  of  the  reserves  does  probably  mean  is 
that  m(jre  than  one  attack  is  contemplated.  Indeed  the 
Germans  are  accumulating  a  reserve  of  mere  numerical  man- 
power upon  the  West  (leaving  out  quality)  about  double  that 
which  they  exhausted  in  the  five  months  of  the  Verdun 
failure. 

The  critical  point — which  is  also,  like  nearly  all  critical 
points  in  war,  the  doubtful  one — is  the  enemy's  power  of 
munitionment. 

The  elimination  of  Russia  as  a  State,  let  alone  as  a  belligerent 
— the  great  military  deci.sion  which  the  Germans  have  achieved 
on  their  Eastern  front  (for  to  dissolve  the  military  force  of 
your  opponent  is  a  decision,  no  matter  how  that  dissolution 
is  achieved) — has,  as  we  have  seen,  given  the  German  Empire 
alone,  not  counting  Austria,  something  not  much  short  of 
a  50  per  cent,  increase  in  its  Western  effectives.  It  has 
permitted  nearly  every  heavy  gun  to  go  westward  as  well. 
The  whole  numerical  balance  of  the  war,  as  we  said  in  these 


columns  more  than  fojur  months  ago,  has  changed  with  the 
exception  of  munitionment.  Can  the  increased  forces  the 
enem}'  now  has  at  his  service  against  us  on  account  of  the 
Russian  betrayal  deliver,  not  only  in  shell  but  in  all  other 
forms  of  industrial  product  useful  to  his  object  (including  the 
new  weapons  such  as  armoured  gun  platforms,  aircraft  and 
everything  else),  a  supply  commensurate  to  this  increase  in 
men  ? 

That  is  the  vital  question  which  only  the  immediate  future 
can  answer. 

The  other  three  factors  in  the  great  and  decisive  debate 
about  to  open  are,  of  course,  the  comparative  civilian  ex- 
haustion on  the  two  sides  ;  the  comparative  civilian  moral  ; 
and  the  comparative  progress  of  sinking  at  sea  and  new 
construction  to  replace  losses  at  sea. 

The  Political  Issue 

When  there  arises  a  sincere  and  vital  debate  upon  national 
policy,  no  purpose  is  served  by  either  party  to  it  if  arguments 
are  quoted  merely  for  the  sake  of  argument  or  affirmation 
mere!}'  repeated  without  a  recital  of  the  grounds  upon  which 
it  is  advanced. 

But  the  debate  in  which  the  whole  nation  is  concerned  to- 
day is  not  only  sincere  and  actual  beyond  any  other  con- 
ceivable matter  for  discussion,  but  it  is  one  whicU  covers 
every  individual  in  the  community  and  one  in  which  every 
individual  knows  himself  to  be  directly  concerned.  It  is  a 
debate  wh'ch  has  arisen  during  this  last  phase  of  exhaus- 
tion in  all  the  belligerent  countries.  It  is  occupying  the 
mind  of  the  Germans  quite  as  much  as  our  own.  It  is, 
briefly,  the  opposition  between  a  policy  which  seeks- — 
in  spite  of  agony- — conclusive  results  to  this  war  and  a 
jxilicy  of  negotiated  peace.  We  are  all  vitally  foncemed 
with  that  debate.  On  its  right  solution  the  future  of  the 
nation  and  of  every  individual  hangs. 

I  use  the  words  "  negotiated  peace  "  in  the  conversational 
sense  of  the  term,  as  it  is  currently  used  to-day.  I  mean  an 
attempted  return,  by  negotiation  with  a  Prussia  still  powerful 
and  still  fully  armed,  to  the  state  of  affairs  before  the  war,  or 
rather  to  that  state  of  affairs  less  international  rivalry  and  the 
perpetual  peril  of  disaster. 

As  is  always  the  case  in  the  final  decisions  of  a  great  nation 
upon  its  fate,  the  two  moods  opposed  to  each  other  on  this 
question  are  not  so  much  represented  by  two  bodies  of  men 
as  by  two  tendencies  present  in  the  mind  of  nearly  every  man. 
There  are,  of  course,  clearly  marked  leaders  on  the  one  side 
and  on  the  other,  and  groups  formed  round  them  ;  there  are 
even  the  beginnings  of  organisiition  on  either  side.  But  the 
essential  debate  is  one  conducted  by  every  man  in  his  own 
mind,  and  every  man  (except  a  very  few  fanatics  on  either  side) 
Vveighs  for  himself  the  respective  strength  of  the  two  tendencies. 
If  he  is  wise  he  will  try  to  discover  not  only  their  strength, 
but  the  weight  of  reason  which  supports  each.  It  is  that 
weight  of  reason  as  apart  from  any  mood  of  fatigue  or  forget- 
fulness  which  I  propose  to  examine  here. 

The  war  has  lasted*  very  much  longer  than  anyone  expected 
it  would  at  any  one  of  its  phases.  It  has  lasted  longer  even 
than  men  expected  a  twelvemonth  ago.  It  has  lasted  far 
longer  than  men  conceived  possible  three  years  ago. 

The  causes  of  this  prolongation  of  the  war  are  equally 
familiar.  They  are  to.  be  discovered  in  the  contrast 
between  the  primitive  East  of  Europe  and  the  highly-developed 
West. 

First  came  the  inability  of  the  Russian  Empire  to  munition 
itself  upon  the  vast  scale  which  by  the  winter  of  1914  was 
unexpectedly  discovered  necessary  for  modern  war.  Next, 
as  a  result  of  that,  came  the  immense  strain  put  upon  a 
simple,  unindustrial.andat  the  sanle  time  very  diverse  State 
by  the  great  enemy  victories  of  1915  ;  the  over-running  of 
Poland,  the  great  captures  of  Russian  prisoners,  etc. 

Lastly,  of  course,  and  much  more  decisive  of  the  result 
than  anything  that  went  before,  came  the  collapse  of  the 
Russian  State  which  began  this  time  last  year,  proceeded 
rapidly  for  more  than  six  months,  and  was  finally  consummated 
last  autumn.  The  war  after  this  -Eastern  collapse  ceased  to 
be  a  siege.  The  enemy  was  no  longer  surrounded  :  he  was  no 
longer  fighting  upon  two  fronts.  His  hitherto  rapidly  in- 
creasing numerical  inferiority  to  the  Allies  was  suddenly 
changed  to  an  equality  with  his  remaining  opponents,  and 
perhaps  even,  pending  the  arrival  of  American  reinforce- 
ment, to  some  superiority  over  them. 

But  the  causes  of  the  disaster  arc;  now  mere  matters  of 
history.  It  is  the  result  which  concerns  us.  The  result- — an 
indefinite  prolongation  of  the  war — has  meant  the  approach 


Land  &  Water 


February    14,    19 18 


of  famine  in  many  districts,  grave  scarcity  in  all ;  an  mcreasing 
and  very  severe  strain  ufK>n  the  civilian  population  every- 
where, and  the  possibility  of  social  disintegration  under  that 
strain  if  it  be  too  prolonged.  We  have  had  the  thing  summed 
up  by  more  than  one  advocate  in  the  phrase  :  "  Europe  is 
committing  suicide."  . 

Apart  from  this  extreme  and  increasing  exhaustion,  which 
is  the  chief  effect  of  the  j^rolongation  of  the  war,  there  has 
recently  been  rendered  visible  to  every  one  the  material 
effects  in  the  field  of  the  Russian  collapse.  The  first  and 
most  striking  of  these  effects  was,  of  course,  the  tremendous 
victory  of  the  enemy  in  Italy.  For  one  critical  fortnight  it 
threatened  to  give  him  a  true  decision.  Luckily  it  did  not 
reach  such  a  stage,  but  it  came  very  near  to  it,  and  though 
opinion  in  tliis  country  was  slow  to  realise  at  first  what  an 
enormous  thing  had  happened,  it  is  now,  I  think,  everywhere 
and  fully  appreciated.  Next  there  came  the  concentration 
of  the  enemy  in  the  West,  north' of  the  Alps,  which  is  still 
continuing.  Everyone  grew  aware  that  the  Western  Allies 
were  compelled  to  prepare  a  defensive  and  that,  for  the  first 
time  in  eighteen  months,  the  initiative  had  passed  to  the 
enemy.  A  third  stage,  of  which  the  issue  is  hidden  from  us, 
will  occupy  tlie  inmiediate  future,  when  the  critical  shock 
between  tlie  Western  Allies  and  the  newly  reinforced  enemy 
will  take  place. 

To  all  these  causes  of  a  weakening  in  the  public  mind 
there  is  added  the  threat  of  increase  in  the  attack  from  the 
air  upon  civilian  centres,  the  peculiar  vulnerability  of  London, 
and,  as  we  have  said,  the  sudden  and  drastic  reductions  in  the 
estimate  of  food  consumable  in  the  next  few  months  within 
this  island. 

There  is  also,  it  must  be  admitted  with  shame,  something 
formidable  in  what  is  called  the  financial  strain-^— as  distin- 
guished from  the  true  economic  strain  of  insufficient  provision 
and  labour.  This  financial  strain  simply  means  that  those 
who  had  hoped  to  lend  on  good  terms  to  the  State  in  its  peril 
are  now  in  fear  that  they  will  have  to  give. 

If  all  these  forces  combined  (afid  especially  that  of  exhaus- 
tion, which  is  overwhelmingly  the  most  important)  were  alone 
at  work,  if  we  had  to  deal  with  these  considerations  only,  if 
there  was  against  them  nothing  but  a  sense  of  disappointment 
in  having  to  return  to  some  such  Europe  as  existed  four  years 
ago,  less  its  perilous  armaments,  the  arguments  in  favour  of 
negotiation  would  be  overwhelming. 

If  some  magical  power  could  promise  us  securely,  on  condi- 
tion of  our  proposing  peace,  a  future  in  which  no  nation  could 
boast  of  victor}',  in  which  subject  nations  should  be  freed, 
and  in  which  all  should  lead  a  peaceful  life  permitting  the 
reconstruction  and  healing  of  Europe  and  themselves,  those 
who  stood  out  against  such  a  settlement  would  find  it  im- 
possible to  convince  the  mass  of  any  nation  to-day. 

But  the  whole  point  of  our  contention  is  that  the  power 
thus  gratuitously  taken  for  granted— the  power  to  return  to 
ease  with  honour  and  security — is  lacking.  To  suppose  it 
present  with  Prussia  unbeaten  is  to  live  in  unreal  conditions 
— conditions  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  Europe  as  it 
was  and  as  it  is,  with  the  known  forces  that  have  produced 
this  war  and  conducted  it.  To  take  illusions  fop  realities  is 
the  royal  road  to  disaster  in  all  things,  but  especially  in  war. 
Unless  we  fix  firmly  in  our  minds  what  should  surely  be 
for  all  sane  men  the  fundamental  truths  of  this  war,  apparent 
to  all  a  short  time  ago  and  still  apparent  to  all  who  have  kept 
their  heads,  men  will  fall,  especially  the  more  generous  and 
idealbt  of  them,  into  a  catastrophic  misjudgment  which  will 
ruin  Europe.  It  will  ruin  this  country  especially.  Such  a 
miscalculation  now  will  reduce  our  future  to  something  far 
worse  than  the  gloomiest  visions  of  those  who  propose  sur- 
render. 

These  truths,  I  say,  were  commonplaces  to  all  a  few  short 
months  ago.  They  should  be  commonplaces  still,  for  they 
are  as  obvious  as  ever,  and  they  are  fundamental  to  the  whole 
problem.     What  are  they  ? 

Prussia  Alone  Responsible 

The  first  truth  is  that  the  war  was  made  by  Prussia  This 
awful  calamity  is  the  direct  handicraft  of  Prussia  and  of 
Prussia  alone.  The  second  truth  is  that  the  barbaric  prece- 
dents in  modern  warfare  were  created  by  Prussia,  will  rfmain 
if  Prussia  survives  unbeaten,  and  would  be  the  death  of 
England. 

As  to  the  first  :  There  are  a  quantity  of  vague  phrases 
going  the  rounds  which  mask  that  plain  truth  and  make  un- 
stable men   forget  it.     The  war  is  talked  of  vaguely  as  a 

general  calamity."  Too  many  people  are  getting  to  speak 
of  It  as  though  It  was  some  visitation  of  nature,  an  earthquake 
or  flood  which  men  at  last  had  got  under  control  and  could 
put  an  end  to  ;  others  are  for  ever  taking  it  for  granted  in 
their  speeches  and  writmgs  that  it  was  a  sort  of  misunder- 
standing. 


The  Germans  themselves,  especially  during  the  interval 
between  their  bad  tumble  at  the  Mame  and  the  new  lease  of 
life  they  obtained  through  the  collapse  of  Russia,  assiduously 
propagated  the  legend  that  the  war  had  all  sorts  of  distant 
unseen  causes  of  a  general  European  sort.  It  was  due,  they 
told  us,  to  "  an  encircling  of  Germany  by  England  "  ;  "  to 
the  vanity  of  the  French  and  their  desire  for  revenge  "  ;  to 
"  the  unbridled  Slav  Imperialism  of  the  Russian  Empire." 
In  another  set  of  phrases  they  told  us  that  it  was  "  a  biological 
necessity  "  ;  that  it  was  "  the  necessary  establishment  of 
equilibrium  "■ — because  the  German  Empire  had  no  oppor- 
tunities of  trade  and  colonisation  corresponding  to  its  strength, 
^n  yet  another  set  of  pedantic  phrases  the  war  was  talked  of 
as"  oceanic."  It  proceeded  from  the  necessity  of  the  Germans 
having  a  free  way  to  the  Atlantic  in  spite  of  the  geographical 
barrier  of  the  British  Islands.  Others,  taking  advantage  of 
the  materialist  jargon  of  our  time,  talked  about  its  "  necessary 
economic  causes." 

All  that  sort  of  thing  is  rubbish — unless  indeed  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  the  human  will  and  no  meaning  attached  in 
human  affairs  to  the  words  "  right  "  and  "  wrong."  A  man 
who  committed  a  murder  or  forged  a  cheque  might  just  as 
well  trace  these  unfortunate  accidents  to  distant  causes  :  to 
his  grandfather's  bankruptcy,  or  to  the  accident  of  his  victim's 
meeting  him  on  a  dark  night  when  he  happened  to  be  in  a 
passion.  The  plain  act  and  the  responsibility  for  it  are  quite 
enough  for  history  and  for  all  sane  men.  Prussia  loudly 
preached  the  necessity  for  war  and  her  power  of  victory  in 
such  a  war.  She  prepared  for  it  quite  openly  by  raising  a 
vast  war  tax  and  suddenly  increasing  her  armed  forces.  She 
prepared  for  it  almost  equally  openly  when  she  designed  the 
reconstruction  of  her  artillery  and  the  completion  of  her  new 
strategical  communications  for  the  summer  of  1914.  When 
the  moment  came  for  her  to  strike  she  refused  arbitration, 
took  advantage  of  the  unexpected  blow  she  had  prepared, 
mobilised  secretly  before  her  victims  did,  violated  neutral 
territory  without  scruple,  immediately  proclaimed  a  reign  of 
terror  of  the  most  abominable  sort  upon  the  soil  of  Belgium, 
which  she  had  entered  against  every  right  and  every  treaty. 
From  the  first  day  of  that  crime  began  murder,  arson,  rape 
and  pillage,  after  a  fashion  utterly  unknown  to  modem 
Europe.  So  long  as  the  uninterrupted  victory  of  Prussia 
continued  her  spokesmen  never  dreamt  of  any  other  philosophy 
of  war  than  that.  Conquest,  and  conquest  aided  by  terror 
without  regard  to  treaty  or  tradition,  was  openly  proclaimed 
and  taken  for  granted  ;  nor  could  or  did  the  masters  of  Prussia 
conceive  any  other  fate  possible  for  her  than  that  of  complete 
and  rapid  success  in  crime. 

The  words  which  Mr.  Asquith  used  at  the  outset  of  the 
combat  exactly  expressed  the  mind  of  all  England  at  that 
time.  The  sword  had  not  been  lightly  drawn  ;  it  would  not 
be  sheathed  again  until  the  predatory  military  power  called 
Prussia  had  been  destrqyed. 

TTiat  is  the  first  main  truth  underlying  the  whole  terrible 
business.  It  has  not  ceased  to  underlie  that  business  because 
a  certain  space-of  time  has  passed  or  because  a  certain  measure 
of  exhaustion  has  been  reached — an  exhaustion,  be  it  remarked, 
far  less  pronounced  in  the  case  of  Great  Britain  than  that  of 
any  other  original  belligerent. 

If  our  primal,  fundamental  intention  and  our  solemn 
declaration  upon  it  are  to  be  sacrificed,  it  can  only  mean  that 
under  the  strain  of  suffering  we  have  grown  ready  to  yield. 
That  is  the  first  point,  and  probably  the  most  important ; 
for  in  human  affairs  spiritual  motives  are  more  important 
than  material  things  and  underlie  all  action.  A  civilisation 
which  has  been  violated  in  its  most  sacred  points  of  honour, 
which  has  taken  up  the  challenge,  which  has  proceeded  to 
defend  itself,  and  has  accepted  the  aid  of  allies  must  continue 
the  struggle.  If,  before  the  end  of  the  task,  it  cries  that  it 
has  grown  weary,  is  willing  to  treat,  and  finds  the  burden  of 
honour  in  alliance  too  heavy,  it  is  doomed. 

The  second  fundamental  truth  in  the  whole  affair,  which  is 
less  often  forgotten  but  which  is  still  too  much  glossed  over,' 
is  this  :  Prussia  in  the  course  of  this  war  has  gradually  dis- 
solved that  moral  code  upon  which  the  culture  of  Europe 
reposed  and  without  which  Europe  can  never  recover  herself. 
Only  her  defeat  can  restore  that  code,  and  on  that  code 
depends  the  very  life  of  this  island  more  than  of  any  other 
nation. 

Prussia  was  guilty  of  atrocity  from  the  first  day  in  which 
she  broke  a  binding  treaty  and  violated  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium.  But  there  is  a  more  practical  and  vivid -example 
of  the  truth  in  the  methods  of  accumulating  horror  which 
she  introduced  one  after  another  into  war.  It  was  Prussia 
that  began  these  things.  It  was  not  any  such  abstraction  as 
the  madness  of  war  "  or  the  "  delirium  of  Europe  "  ;  it 
was  the  rulers  of  Prussia— they,  and  they  alone. 

For  many  months  this  truth  was  such  a  commonplace  that 
one  was  ashamed  to  repeat  it.  One  is  almost  equally  ashamed 
to  find  the  real  necessity  there  is  of  repeating  it  to-day. 


February    14,    191 8 


Land   &  Water 


.7 


In  one  step  after  another  as  the  war  proceeded  Prussia 
broke  what  had  been  regarded  as  inviolably  sacred  under- 
standings throughout  the  European  community.  Men  without 
a  creed,  without  a  moral  code,  men  without  tenacity  and 
therefore  almost  without  moral  memory,  may  condone  these 
things  now  that  they  have  grown  familiar ;  but  men  who  boast 
of  certain  standards  of  decency,  who  regard  such  things  as 
"  impossible,"  are  much  saner  in  their  judgment.  For  these 
standards,  these  points  in  the  code  of  international  morals, 
are  expressions  of  something  vital  to  the  life  of  Europe.  If 
they  are  neglected,  Europe  rapidly  and  necessarily  declines — 
with  what  ultimate  consequences  of  disaster  we  cannot  tell. 
And  the  first  results  of  such  a  decline  will  be  felt  here,  in  this 
crowded  island. 

So  true  is  it  that  Prussia  in  breaking  these  elementary  laws 
of  European  morality  has  imperilled  the  whole  of  our  civilisa- 
tion, that  she  herself — utterly  imscrupulous  as  her  whole 
history  proves  her  to  be — showed  hesitation  before  each  new 
step  downwards.  There  was  always  an  interval  between  two 
succeeding  increments  of  atrocity,  nearly  always  an  at- 
tempted apology  or  explanation.  There  was  here  exactly 
what  you  see  in  the  career  of  the  individual  criminal.  Things 
rare  in  1871 — such  as  the  shooting  of  hostages — were  done 
wholesale  in  1914.  Things  impossible  even  to  Prussia  in  1871 
—such  as  the  massacre  of  neutrals — were  done  as  a  matter  of 
course  in  1914.  Things  such  as  the  use  of  poison,  which  any 
sane  man  in  this  country  during  the  first  six  months  of  the 
war  would  have  told  you  were  unthinkable  in  Europe,  were 
done  by  Prussia  before  twelve  months  had  passed.  Things 
which  were  quite  unthinkable  in  1915  were  done  in  1916— 
and  so  on. 

Accumulation  of  Atrocities 

The  series  lies  patent  to  all.  The  drama  has  been* enacted 
before  the  eyes  of  all.  Nothing  biit  an  inexcusable  slackness 
of  fibre  can  explain  a  forgetfulness  of  such  a  series.  The  use 
of  poison  was  unthinkable.  It  took  place.  The  bombard- 
ment of  civilians  in  open  towns  was  unthinkable.  It  took 
place.  The  sinking  of  merchant  ships  without  warning  was 
still  unthinkable.  It  took  place.  Even  then  the  sinking  of 
neutral  merchant  ships  without  warning  was  stUl  unthinkable. 
Prussia  proceeded  to  that.  Hospital  ships  were  still  surely 
immune  we  said  !  So  slow  is  a  civilisation — like  an  individual 
■ — ^to  appreciate  the  approach  of  death.  But  there  came  a 
time  when  Prussia  announced  her  intention  of  sinking  hospital 
ships — -and  she  did  sink  them.  There  is  no  end  to  such  a 
series.  It  may  pass  from  such  acts  to  private  assassination, 
to  the  corruption  of  the  water  supplies  of  great  cities,  to  the 
calculated  spread  of  epidemic  diseases.  It  is  a  plain  declara- 
tion of  moral  anarchy  in  the  midst  of  Europe. 

If  any  man  says  that  he  does  not  mind  the  advent  of  moral 
anarchy  let  him  consider  how  much  his  own  little  comfort 
and  even  life,  especially  in  this  country,  dejiend  upon  some 
measure  of  moral  order  between  nations. 

With  the  moral  order  between  nations  dissolved  London  is 
always  at  the  mercy  of  an  attaclc  from  the  air — at  any  moment, 
certainly  without  declaration  of  war.  The  supplies  of  this 
island  are  at  the  mercy  of  a  similar  attack  by  the  new  engines 
at  sea.  It  is  true  of  every  European  community — it  ought  to 
be-  obviously  true,  but  one  must  repeat  these  things — that 
lacking  a  certain  measure  of  convention  between  them  all 
the  fabric  of  Europe  Is  dissolved.  That  is  as  true  of  a  comity 
of  nations  as  it  is  true  of  a  community  of  individuals.  That 
is  why  we  put  the  anarchist  in  society  to  death.  If  we  do 
not  destroy  him  we  are  at  his  mercy. 

But,  after  all,  most  men,  when  so  elementary  a  thing  is 
pointed  out  to  them,  agree  with  it.  It  is  the  other  proposition 
which  is  really  dangerous :  the  proposition  that  Prussia 
having  once  begun  these  things,  they  have  entered  into  the 
common  habit  of  Europe  and  cannot  be  uprooted.  You  hear 
most  technicians  nowadays  discussing  the  use  of  poison  gas 
in  war  as  a  development  like  any  other  and  one  which  will 
have  to  be  taken  for  granted  in  the  future  as  we  have  taken 
artillery  or  any  similar  new  weapon  in  the  past.  You  hear 
men  accepting  as  a  commonplace  the  chances  of  unannounced 
attack  from  the  air  upon  great  civilian  populations  in  the 
future  ;  the  imperfect  methods  of  defence  against  the  same  ; 
the  effect  it  will  have  upon  the  construction  of  our  cities. 
You  hear  men  similarly  debate,though  a  little  more  cautiously 
and  in  rather  lower  voices,  the  conditions  of  sea-power  and  of 
life  upon  a  crowded  island  when  (as  they  take  for  granted) 
an  enemy  may  attack  them  without  warning  by  sdbmarine. 

All  that  point  of  view  is  false.  If  we  are  for  the  future  to 
stand  in  dread  of  such  a  dissolution  in  European  morals  as 
will  permit  these  things,  then  Europe  has  indeed  committed 
suicide.  It  is  not  the  war  which  Prussia  desired  and  procured, 
it  is  our  submission  that  will  be  the  suicide  of  Europe.  Such 
an  ending  to  the  present  conflict  would  be  much  more  definitely 
the  end  of  all  our  civilisation,  and  in  particular  of  this  country, 
than  the  mere  impxiverishment  which  must  follow  upon  the 


prolongation  of  this  war.  From  such  a  chaos  as  the  continu- 
ance of  Prussiau  methods  in  war  there  is  no  escape.  It  means 
our  final  dissolution. 

Those  who  tell' us  that  such  action  can  be  avoided  in  the 
future  by  getting  the  originators  of  it  all  to  sign  their  names 
on  a  bit  of  paper  are  not  worth  arguing  with.  Those  who  tell 
us  that  it  is  unavoidable  and  that  Prussian  methods  of  indis- 
criminate murder  are  unavoidable  hold  a  more  formidable 
position.  But  it  is  a  position  only  formidable  because  they 
have  not  learnt  the  main  lessons  of  history. 

History,  which  is  the  object  lesson  of  human  psychology, 
the  permanent  experience  of  how  the  human  mind  acts, 
teaches  one  thing  quite  clearly.  It  is  that  an  undefeated  and 
unchastised  aggression  upon  the  essential  morals  of  a  civOisa- 
tion  is  always  successful.  Any  compromise  with  barbarism, 
any  paying  of  dane-gelt,  any  postponement  or  shirking  of 
the  hard  duty  of  warring  down  the  menace,  defeats  its  own 
object.  It  does  not  purchase  security  at  the  expense  of  honour. 
It  sacrifices  both. 

It  is  a  thing  we  could  premise  from  what  we  know  of  indi- 
vidual character  ;  it  is  at  any  rate  a  thing  which  stands  clearly 
out  from  the  established  record  of  three  thousand  years. 
Who  first  proposes  to  yield  is  defeated. 

Permanency  of  Defeat 

There  is  a  converse  truth  which  too  many  men  are  reluctant 
to  entertain.  History  very  clearly  proves,  if  continued  human 
precedent  is  any  proof,  that  the  defeat  of  powers  thus  chal- 
lenging civilisation  is  a  permanent  thing.  If  you  break  them 
their  acts  are  not  repeated — but  only  if  you  break  them. 

■  It  is  not  true  that  acts  of  anarchy,  and  of  terror,  or  habits 
incompatible  with  a  certain  standard  of  civilisation,  re-arise 
"easily  after  their  defeat  in  the  field,  or,  at  any  rate,  after  the 
dissolution  through  the  effect  of  war  of  the  organisms  prac- 
tising them.  Human  sacrifice  did  not  re-arise  in  Gaul  after 
the  victory  of  the  Romans,  nor  in  North  Africa  after  the 
destruction  of  Carthage.  The  burnings  of  the  Commune  were 
not  repeated  elsewhere  in  Europe  after  the  military  victory 
of  authority  in  1871.  The  methods  of  the  Revolutionary 
Terror  were  not  attempted  after  the  punishment  of  its  authors. 
The  one  thing  and  the  only  thing  which  stamps  out  an  evil 
influence  (and  a  good  influence  too,  for  that  matter),  when 
once  the  challenge  of  arms  has  been  accepted,  is  success 
under  arms. 

Two  clearly  opp)osing  principles  will  not  stand  side  by  side 
in  one  spiritual  community,  such  as  is  or  was  the  civilisation 
of  Europe.  One  or  the  other  will  be  destroyed.  There  will 
be  victory  or  defeat. 

Men  stiU  living  can  remember  an  instance  of  this.  It  is 
an  instance  which  has  no  relation  to  the  fundamental  quarrel 
between  good  and  evil  as  has  this  war.  It  relates  only  to  a 
specific  and  logical  difference  in  constitutional  ideas.  I  refer 
to  the  armed  struggle  between  the  Union  in  the  United  States 
and  the  Confederacy.  We  have  no  need  to  discuss  which 
ideal  was  justified,  whether  both  were  justified,  or  neither. 
The  point  is  that  two  incompatible  theories  of  constitutional 
conduct  were  opposed  ;  either  the  national  unity  of  a  vast 
Federal  Democracy  could  be  maintained  or  its  tendencies 
to  local  independence  and  separatism  would  triumph.  What 
decided  the  issue  for  good  or  ill,  and  the  only  thing  that  could 
decide  the  issue,  was  complete  military  success  gained  by  one 
of  the  two  sides  over  the  other. 

The  last  obvious  form  of  such  a  success  may  be  a  great  battle 
or  it  may  be  an  internal  dissolution,  or  a  slow  siege  followed 
by  a  capitulation.  But  some  definite  seal  of  success  there 
always  is  which  is  called  in  military  history  a  decision. 

Such  a  decision  achieved  against  Prussia,  as  the  fruit  of 
some  mighty  effort  upon  the  part  of  forces  originally  inferior ' 
to  her  own  and  alw£^ys  handicapped  by  the  natural  weaknesses 
of  a  coalition,  would  stamp  out  the  increasingly  evil  precedents 
in  war  created  by  Prussia  during  the  last  three  years.  It 
would  make  them  impossible  for  the  future- — that  is  the 
point.  Unless  they  are  made  impossible  for  the  future  our 
civilisation  goes  under.  They  cannot  be  made  impossible 
by  mutual  understandings,  for  there  is  no  mutual  action  at 
work.  France  and  England  have  not  shot  hostages  nor 
initiated  indiscriminate  murder  by  sea  and  land.  They  have 
not  originated  the  use  of  poison  gas,  Hor  constructed  vast 
systems  of  internal  espionage  and  treason.  It  is  no  case  of 
a  number  of  equally  erring  passionate  belligerents  coming  to 
their  senses  and  making  good  a  misunderstanding.  It  is  a 
case  of  destroying  by  example  something  which,  if  it 
survives,  will  be  the  death  of  us. 

I  can  see  no  escape  from  that  conclusion,  and,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  all  those  who  attempt  to  escape  it  to-day  cither  deli- 
berately shut  their  eyes  to  the  immediate  past  or,  as  is  very 
common  in  the  case  with  men  under  a  strain  of  fatigue,  are 
choosing  immediate  relief  at  the  expense  of  future  cat.'strophe. 

H.  Belloc. 


8 


Land   &  Water 


February    14,    191 8 


The  After- War  Blockade:    By   Arthur    Pollen 


TH  E  New  York  papers  of  the  third  week  of  January 
contain  a  great  deal  of  interesting  information 
about  the  development  of  American  opinion. 
Not  the  least  important  jftem  relates  to  a 
canvass  of  500,000  members  of  the  Associated 
Chambers  of  Commerce,  who  have  been  asked  to  vote  on  the 
issue,  "  Should  the  business  men  of  America  enter  mto  a 
voluntary  obligation  after  the  war  to  decline  all  trade  trans- 
actions with  the  merchants  of  Germany  until  that  country 
is  governed  entirely  by  a  democratioiUy  elected  parliament  ?  " 
On  the  same  day  that  I  saw  th^s  I  noted  a  report  of  a  speech 
bv  Mr.  Havelock  Wilson  in  which  he  announced  that  the 
organised  labour  of  the  shipping  world  had  definitely  made  up 
its  mind  to  have— and  allow— no  after-war  dealings  with  a 
country  that  had  murdered  so  many  thousand  British  sea 
oflScers  and  sailors. 

There  is,  of  course,  nothing  new  in  unofficial  threats  of 
this    kind.     They  have    constantly  been    made    during    the 
war,  and  the  only  very  limited  official  endorsement  of  them 
seems  to  have  been  that  which  was  included  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Paris  Conference  on  economic  issues.     The 
sentiment   that   makes  people  individually  and  collectively 
resolve  never  to  employ  GeiTnans  again  or  to  trade  with 
them,  or  to  deal  with  them  on  any  excuse,  is  natural,  and 
that  it  should,  from  time  to  time,  take  concrete  shape  is 
inevitable.     It   is   inevitable    also   that   those   who   join   in 
common  resolves  of  this  kind  should  go  further  and  suggest 
to  their  governments  an  instant  profession  of  a  definite  and 
irrevocable  plan  for  joint  international  effort  to  give  effect 
to  this  plan  after  the  war.     But  save  for  the  not  very  sweeping 
conclusions  of  the  Paris  Conference — to  which  by  the  way 
no  adherence  has  been  given  by  the    United   States — no  re- 
sponsible post  bellum  threats  of  any  kind  have  yet  been  made, 
if  we  except  Mr.  Asquith's  statement  that  the  murderers  of 
Captain  Fryatt  would  be  brought  to  account,  a  thing,  of 
course,  that  cannot  be  done  unless  Germany  is  so  decisively 
defeated  that  her  government  will  be  compelled  to  accept 
any  terms  that  the  victors  propwse.     And  this  no  doubt  is 
the  explanation  why  no  further  threats,  economic  or  other- 
wise, have  been  made.     If  we  win  we  can  impose  any  terms 
we  like.     If  we  have  to  compromise,  the  economic  weapons 
at  our  disposal  for  a  bloodless  war  after  the  real  war  will  be 
highly  ifliportant  counters  in  negotiation.     The  more  certain 
we  are  to  win,  the  less  we  need  trouble  ourselves  with  menaces 
that  look  like  substitutes  for  victory.     When  we  remember 
that,  notwithstanding  the  defection  of  Russia,  the  military 
position  on  sea  and  land  is  such  that  we  only  have  to  per- 
severe to  be  sure  of  the  kind  of  victory  which  will  make  any 
"compromise  unnecessary,  we  shall  have  no  diificulty  in  seeing 
why  the  Allies  have  no  need  to  hold  a  trade  blockade  in 
terrorem  over  Germany.     And  we  are  less  than  ever  likely 
to  doubt  this,  now  that  we  have  the  very  welcome  news  that 
the  American  Navy  Department  is  assured  of  sufficient  ton- 
nage to  raise  the  American  Army  in  France  up  to  500,000 
early  in   this  year.      It   is   therefore   certain    that,    by    the 
beginning  of  the  autumn,  the  Allies  will  possess  that  super- 
iority of  numbers  that  will  secure  us  victory. 

But  though  there  is  no  burning  necessity  to  tell  the  people 
of  Germany  that  we  intend  to  carry  on  an  economic  war, 
when  the  struggle  of  arms  is  over,  there  would,  it  seems  to 
me,  be  nothing  lost,  if  a  highly  important  set  of  facts  were 
put  clearly  bfefore  the  enemy  and  neutrals.  They  are  those 
relating  to  the  inevitable  economic,  factors  in  the  post  war 
situation.  To  realise  what  these  are,  we  have  only  to  pro- 
pound two  elementary  questions.  What  will  be  the  demand 
nil  Europe  for  those  foodstuffs  and  raw  materials  necessary 
for  feeding  the  civilians,  and  for  railway  and  structural  re- 
construction and  the  revival  of  trade,  the  supply  of  which  is 
altogether  or  mainly  under  Allied  control  ? 

Nearly  two  years  ago  the  late  German  Chancellor,  when  a 
member  of  the  Prussian  Ministry,  wamed  his  compatriots 
that  such  shortage  of  food  as  existed  during  the  war  would 
certainly  be  continued  for  at  least  two  years  after  its  termina- 
tion. This,  he  explained,  would  not  be  due  to  the  absence 
of  supplies,  but  to  the  absence  of  shipping  for  bringing  those 
supplies  from  abroad  to  German  ports.  Other  German 
economic  authorities  have  further  pointed  out  that  the 
domestic  harvests  for  a  longtime  can  certainly  not  be  expected 
to  reach  the  old  level,  for  a  considerable  period  would  be 
necessary  before  the  high  farming  of  pre-war  days  could  be 
re-established.  In  no  country  in  the  world  has  agriculture 
owed  so.  much  to  a  lavish  use  of  fertilisers  and  the  other 
constituent  factors  of  intensive  cultivation.  Until  labour 
has  regained  its  normal  freedom,  until  the  supply  of  fertilisers 
bj  manufacture  or  importation,  has  reached  the  requisite 
standard,  the  wheat,  barley,  oat,  and  even  the  potato  crops 


cannot  reach  their  old  standard,  and  the  fodder  problem  must 
remain  acute.  Cereals,  meat,  cheese,  milk,  from  domestic 
sources  only,  must  continue  abnormally  low  for  some  time. 

German  Importations. 

I  am  quoting  from  memory  only,  but  my  recollection  is 
that  German  importations  of  meat  and  cereals  were  approxi- 
mately ten  per  cent,  of  the  total  consumption,  but  that  the 
import  of  fertilisers  and  feeding  stuffs  was  considerably 
higher.  Some  economic  authorities  went  so  far  as  to  say 
that  Germany's  old  standard  of  living  was  dependent  on 
foreign  supply  to  the  extent  of  at  least  thirty  per  cent.  The 
point  of  the  warning  Michaelis  gave  his  countrymen  was, 
that  only  a  small  part  of  this  deficit  could  be  made  up  for 
some  years  owing  to  the  restriction  of  shipping  facilities. 
If  we  pass  from  food  to  the  transportation  and  industrial 
problem,  we  shall  probably  not  be  far  wrong  in  saying  that 
the  first  needs  for  re-starting  German  industrial  life  will  be 
rolling  stock,  lubricants,  all  metals  other  than  iron  and  zinc, 
cotton,  wool,  and  rubber.  These  were  the  staple  of  Germany's 
oversea  imports  before  the  war,  and  it  is  upon  the  renewal 
of  these  imports  that  the  economic  resurrection  of  Germany 
depends.  If  we .  suppose  that  Germany  is  free  to  enter  an 
open  market  for  the  purchase  of  these  raw  materials  abroad, 
and  so  able  freely  to  acquire  these  things  in  competition  with 
other  Powers,  two  factors  would  stand  in  the  way  of  an 
adequate  supply.  There  would  be  the  enhanced  price,  and 
a  diminished  means  of  bringing  that  supply  to  Gennany. 
As  in  the  case  of  foodstuffs,  so  here,  the  shipping  shortage 
must  for  some  years  be  a  permanent  factor  in  delaying  an 
economic  revival.  In  both  cases  this  delay  is  inevitable 
and  quite  independent  of  deliberate  Allied  action  of  any  kind 
whatever. 

But  the  same  facts  that  militate  against  Germany's  imme- 
diate revival  will,  if  the  market  in  materials  is  left  open  and  if 
freights  are  to  go  to  the  highest  bidders,  operate  equally 
to  the  disfavour  of  the  people  of  the  allied  countries.  For 
the  rebuilding  of  great  parts  of  Belgium  and  of  Northern 
France,  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  French,  Italian,  and 
indeed  to  a  great  extent  of  the  British  railways,  for  the  re- 
placements of  bridges,  viaducts,  etc.,  and  for  the  re-establish- 
ment of  all  our  industries,  precisely  the  same  raw  materials 
will  be  needed  as  for  similar  purposes  in  Germany.  It 
therefore  stands  to  reason  that  so  far  as  the  Allied  govern- 
ments control  the  situation  a  preference  must  be  given  to 
our  own  people  and  a  discrimination  exercised  against  the 
enemy — and  this  apart  altogether  from  any  sentiment  of 
vindictiveness.  The  question  is,  what  factors  of  the  situation 
are  altogether  in  Allied  control  ?  For  practical  purposes  the 
United  States  of  America,  Egypt  and  British  India  are  the  main 
sources  of  the  supply  of  cotton.  Australia  is  by  far  the  largest 
source  of  supply  for  wool,  and  save  for  the  agricultural  pro- 
ducts of  Argentina,  and  the  plantation  products  of  the  Dutch 
Indies,  the  extra-European  sources  of  supply  for  all  other  raw 
materials  are  almost,  if  not  altogether,  monopolised  by  those 
who  are  now  in  arms  against  Germany.  It  will,  then,  be  open 
to  the  Allies  by  common  action  to  say  that  none  of  these 
products — food,  cotton,  wool,  ores,  lubricants,  machinery, 
steel,  railways,  girders,  etc. — shall  be  open  to  non- Allied 
purchase  at  all.  Apart  altogether  from  any  government 
fixing  of  prices,  the  raising  of  prices  by  German  (or  Austrian) 
competition  can  thus,  and  certainly  will  thus,  be  avoided. 
And,  as  it  is  certain  that  it  must  take  a  great  many  years 
before  the  manufactures  of  Belgium,  France,  Italy  and 
England  are  back  at  their  old  level,  it  is  equally  certain  that 
the  Allied  monopoly  of  the  sources  of  Allied  supply  must  be 
forcibly  maintained.  Not  till  all  our  needs  are  met  can  the 
ex-enemy  have  anything.  There  remain  the  non-Allied 
sources  of  supply.  These  it  may,  or  may  not,  be  possible  to 
bring  within  the  general  arrangement.  But  it  certainly  will 
not  be  to  the  Allied  interest  that  German  competition  should 
raise  prices  in  South  America  or  elsewhere,  and  the  Allies 
will  undoubtedly  hold  out  inducements  to  neutrals  to  join 
the  Allied  scheme.  And  if  these  fail  there  is  more  than  one 
resource  open  to  us,  some  of  which,  no  doubt,  will  not  be 
neglected. 

For  example  :  Michaelis,  it  will  be  remembered,  emphasised 
the  shortage  of  shipping  as  the  predominant  cause  of  Ger- 
many's after-war  shortage.  A  high  authority  has  assured  us 
that  approximately  one  half  of  Germany's  pre-war  shipping 
is  either  no  longer  in  existence  or  no  longer  in  German  posses- 
sion. It  is  to  the  last  degree  improbable  that  considerable — 
if  any — replacements  of  German  shipping  have  been  possible 
during  hostilities.  When  peace  comes  then,  it  is  not  reasonable 
to  expect  more  than  three  million  tons  of  German  shipping  to 


February    14,    191 8 


Land  &  Water 


be  afloat— even  if  we  suppose  that  the  Allies  will  be  so  weak 
as  not  to  insist  upon  the  replacement  of  the  ships  illegitimately 
sunk  by  submarine.  The  question  is,  what  can  three  million 
tons  do  for  Germany  in  helping  her  through  the  immediate 
problems  that  face  her  after  peace  is  established  ?  The 
problem  of  employing  them  will  no  doubt  be  simplified  if  all 
Allied  sources  of  supply  are  for  a  certain  period  closed  to 
Germany  altogether,  the  German  shipowners  may  indeed 
find  that  the  only  market  for  a  great  part  of  their  tonnage  is 
to  charter  them  to  foreigners.  But  if  we  suppose  some  of  the 
South  American  trade  and  the  whole  of  the  Dutch  East 
Indian  trade  still  to  be  open,  there  remain  such  matters  as 
the  supply  of  bunker  coal  and  the  use  of  the  Suez  Canal, 
both  of  which  are  almost  entirely  under  British  control  and 
can  therefore  be  exercised  in  accordance  with  any  common 
policy  the  Allies  adopt. 

If  we  put  these  factors  together,  it  is  difficult  to  see  that 
the  bare  justice  of  the  situation — and  by  this  I  mean  the 
natural  and  inevitable  preference  given  to  Allied  needs  before 
the  question  of  German  supply  can  be  considered  at  all — 
must  create  a  position  that  will  to  a  great  extent  leave  Germany 
in  a  state  of  economic  isolation  for  a  considerable  period. 
This  isolation,  I  repeat,  will  in  no  way  whatever  be  the  result 
of  any  deliberate  desire  to  injure  or  punish  the  enemy.  It 
follows,  of  course,  from  the  facts  of  the  situation. 

We  surely  are  quite  safe  in  taking  it  for  granted  that  an 
understanding  along  the  lines  set  out  above  has  already  been 
come  to  bv  the  Allies,  or  will  be  agreed  in  the  near  future. 
The  special  powers  already  conferred  on  the  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  the  similar  powers  which  the  Defence 
of  the  Realm  Act  gives  to  the  British  Government,  and  with 
which  simil.-:>.r  laws  have  invested  the  governments  of  the 
constituent  dominions  of  the  Empire,  and  of  France  and  Italy, 
make  the  carrying  out  of  such  a  programme  a  matter  of 
comparative  simplicity.  When  its  coming  into  effect  is 
certain,  it  is  unlikely  that  the  countries  not  yet  fighting,  who 
have  severed  relations  with  Germany,  such  as  Brazil  and 
China,  would  stand  apart  from  this  machinery.  It  would  be 
manifestly  to  their  interest  to  make  common  cause  with 
countries  that  represent  so  great  a  preponderance  of  their 
normal  customers. 

The  question  really  is :  Should  this  programme  be  drawn 
up  in  detail  and  publicly  announced  ?  It  could  not  be  done, 
of  course,  as  an  alternative  policy  to  seeking  victory  in  the 
field.  But  it  would  have  another,  and  quite  different,  justi- 
fication. It  is  impossible  to  read  the  public  statements  of 
Hertling,  von  Tirpitz  and  the  rest  without  being  continually 
struck  by  the  fact  that  they  all  take  it  for  granted,  not  only 
tha  Germany's  diplomatic  relations  will  be  normal  with  all  the 
belligerents  after  the  war  is  over,  but  that  Germany's  trading 
facilities  in  the  belligerent  countries  will  be  exactly  as  they 
were.     No  doubt  enhanced  prices  and  a  straitened  supply  of 


everything  is  anticipated,  from  which  Germany,  like  the  rest, 
must  suffer.  But  it  does  not  seem  to  have  dawned  upon  the 
minds  of  any  that — apart  altogether  from  peace  terms — 
there  must  be  a  period,  possibly  as  short  as  thre:  years, 
possibly  as  long  as  ten,  during  which  all  questions  to  do  with 
food,  raw  material  and  shipping  must  largely  be  controlled  by 
the  common  interests  of  the  Allies,  and  that  the  first  of  these 
common  interests  will  be  to  undo  the  ravages  of  war.  For 
this  the  resources  of  the  Allies  must  be  monopolised  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Allies  and,  until  Allied  needs  are  satisfied,  there 
can  be  no  margin,  not  only  for  Germany,  but  even  for  the 
neutrals  that  have  not  made  common  cause  with  us. 

Perhaps  a  calm  and  dispassionate  statement  of  Allied 
intentions  in  this  elementary  matter  may — -and  for  the  first 
time — bring  back  to  the  business  heads  of  Germany  a  much 
needed  sobriety  of  cogitation. 

Finally,  there  is  a  new  fact  in  the  situation  which  states- 
men in  this  country  would  do  well  to  take  into  account.  When 
I  arrived  in  New  York  last  June,  while  the  war  enthusiasm 
of  the  people  was  very  evident,  one  could  not  fail  to  notice 
that,  so  far  as  enthusiasm  was  bred  of  indignation,  it  was 
anger  against  the  German  Government,  and  not  against  the 
German  people,  that  provoked  it.  The  bulk  of  opinion  in 
the  United  States  was  still  under  the  influence  of  the  Presi- 
dent's discrimination  between  the  military  chiefs  and  the 
duped  subjects  in  the  enemy  countries.  Erzberger's  agita- 
tion, for  more  democratic  forms  and  peace  without  annexa- 
tions, was  taken  to  prove  that  the  President's  distinction 
was  an  operative  stroke  of  policy.  His  reply  to  the  Pope 
looked  like  a  continuation  of  that  policy.  There  was  a 
general  hope  that  the  German  nation  would,  without  too  long 
a  delay,  perceive  the  only  path  along  which  salvation  could 
be  found,  and  compel  a  renunciation  of  outrage  and  conquest 
and  a  settlement  of  real  reconciliation — without  rancour  on 
one  side,  or  a  sense  of  unslaked  revenge  on  the  other.  Thefn 
came  the  story  of  the  Kiel  mutiny,  and  many  held  it  as  proq 
of  the  working  of  the  new  leaven.  But  the  seizure  of  the 
Gulf  of  Riga,  the  push  into  Italy,  and  now'  the  shameless 
proceedings  at  Brest  have  seemingly  brought  American  opinion 
to  a  totally  different  view  of  the  situation. 

The  last  recorded  speech  of  the  President,  following  as  it 
does  on  the  Congressional  inquiries,  the  Senate  demand  for 
a  non-party  Cabinet,  and  so  forth,  are  conclusive  proofs  of 
this  contention.  It  is  realised,  in  short,  that  it  is  not  practical 
politics  to  build  on  the  differences  of  aim  which  the  German 
Government  and  the  German  people  profess.  A  proposal 
for  a  joint  Allied  statement  of  an  intention  to  exclude 
German  competition  as  an  obstacle  to  Allied  reconstruction 
after  the  war,  would  certainly  have  a  very  different  reception 
to-day  than  it  would  have  had  six  or  nine  months  ago. 

Arthur  Pollen. 


\Oficial  i>ioto. 


American     Railway    Engines    in    France. 


10 


Land   &  Water 


February    14,    191 8 


Leaves  from  a  German   Note  Book 


THE  Prussian  Minister  of  Finance  and  his  colleague 
at  the  War  Office  have  recently  expressed  views 
which  sufficiently  illustrate  the  prevailing  opinion 
in  Government  circles  in  Germany.  The 
Minister  of  Finance,  Herr  Hergt,  is  one  of  the 
new  men  introduced  into  the  Prussian  Cabinet  to  make  the 
world  think  that  Prussia  was  democratising  herself. 

The  speech  of  Herr  Hergt  in  introducing  the  Prussian 
Budget  for  1918  showed  that  the  men  may  be  new,  but  the 
system  remains  unchanged.  He  began  on  an  optimistic 
note,  and  on  an  optimistic  note  he  ended — with  what  justi- 
fication will  be  seen.  He  told  the  House  that  the  total  deficits 
on  the  working  of  the  three  years  of  war  amounted  to  nearly 
thirteen  million  pounds  sterling.  Prussia  in  the  past  had  had  a 
^  large  reserve  fund.  That  fund  was  now  exhausted.  Before  the 
war  the  railways  in  Prussia  had  invariably  provided  the 
Exchequer  with  a  few  millions  annually  ;  in  1917  there  was 
an  enormous  deficit  on  the  railway  accounts,  and  for  1918  it 
was  expected  that  the  deficit  would  be  some  eight  millions 
sterling.  All  this  was  bad.  But  Prussia  was  also  faced  with 
a  shortage  of  fodder,  which  was  becoming  serious.  One 
effect  of  the  war  had  been  to  loosen  morality  among  the 
people  to  a  frightful  extent ;  honesty  was  a  rare  quality — 
so  this  Minister  of  State  informed  the  "  High  House  " — 
and  many  public  departments  had  become  dens  of  thieves. 

Germany's  Victories 

But  what  was  there  on  the  other  side  ?  Germany's  great 
victories,  which  in  the  mind  of  Herr  Hergt  apparently  covered 
a  multitude  of  sins  and  deficiencies.  There  was,  moreover, 
the  peace  prospect  with  Russia.  "  Peace  is  on  the  march, 
and  will  remain  on  the  march."  The  Germans  need  not  fear 
America.  "  The  great  army  over  the  water  cannot  swim  and 
cannot  fly.  It  will  not  come."  That  was  one  prophecy 
in  which  the  Minister  indulged.  The  longer  the  Western 
Powers  refused  to  make  peace,  the  better  for  Germany. 
"  Proud  Albion,  which  boasted  that  she  was  the  merchant 
and  the  banker  of  the  whole  worid,  sees  her  ships,  her  money, 
and  her  prestige  irredeemably  lost."  When  the  enemy  does 
come  and  beg  for  peace,  Germany's  terms  will  be  very  different 
from  what  they  are  now.  The  war  will  not  unduly  have  hurt 
Prussia,  which  will  continue  to  be  what  she  has  been— the  seat 
of  productive  effort  and  the  centre  of  sound  finance.  "  Thus 
we  shall  surmount  all  our  difficulties." 

The  Leipziger  Volkszeitung,  which  is  not  a  Prussian  but  a 
Saxon  journal,  makes  bold  to  assert  that  the  tone  of  this 
speech  showed  neither  political  sagacity  nor  financial  ability 
As  It  was,  the  Prussian  Minister  admitted  the  growing  deficits. 
But  everybody  knows,  writes  the  Socialist  journal  that  the 
Prussian,  like  the  Imperial,  budgets  are  wholly  fictitious. 
Dr.  Mehnng,  one  of  the  newest  members  of  the  Prussian 
Diet,  and  an  Independent  Socialist,  warned  the  Minister  that 
the  people  were  tired  of  having  events  placed  before  them 
through  rose-coloured  spectacles ;  that  their  patience  was 
b^inning  to  be  exhausted,  and  if  need  be,  they  would  "  dear 
the  decks  for  action."  Dr.  Mehring,  it  should  be  noted,  is 
no  demagogu^,  but  one  of  the  most  respected  thinkers  in 
Germany.  The  same  tone  was  adopted  by  another  Indepen- 
dent Socialist  Deputy,  Herr  Hofer,  who  appears  to  be  closely 
m  touch  with  German  working-class  opinion  : 

Labour  is  enraged  at  the  mismanagement  of  affairs.  You 
(addressing  the  parties  of  the  Right)  have  no  idea  how  the 
masses  are  seethmg  with  discontent.  It  is  you  who  are 
paving  the  road  for  a  revolution.  ^ 

'^L^T'a^'^T^a  ^o^^^f '  appears  to  be  unmoved  by  the 
of  War  r™!"^""!*"^  conquest.  The  Prussian  Minister 
^nS.^f^K  u""""  ^*^'"'  '"  ^"  interview  with  the  repre- 
StVon  in  f  h".  w"^^'"  P^P"'  ^''i^^-  ^*^t^^  «'^t  Germany's 
Kh^I  I^^\  ^^^  '"  8°°^^  *at  all   eventualities, 

mdudmg  even  the  Americans,  were  provided  for.  Peace  ' 
Yes,  he  too  wanted  peace  But  "  as  a  soldier  I  see  only  one 
possibility  of  ending  the  war,  which  is  victory  "  ^ 

..  ^I^^  people  were  talking  of  peace  by  renunciation.     But 
renunciation  is  a  sign  of  weakness,  a  recognition  of  defeat  " 
Other  people  suggested  peace  by  understanding     What  is 

™th"t  of'Tl'hV'^"  conceive ^of  some  such  frrai^emen 
as  that  of  two  bdligerents  united  to  fight  a  third  •    if    for 
example,  the  Contmental  Powers  joined  forces  against  England 
and  America.     But  of  that  there  is  no  sign^    Indeed    the 

fiSn^'Thor^'r  °'  T^e-^-ding-  w'e  must  therefor^ 
f,r  -fK  ^^^^  ^^^  ^''^^'■*  ^^^t  military  victory  is  impossible 
for  either  side  are  wrong.  Militaiy  victory  has  alreadv 
been  achieved— bv  Germanv  nnH  \...  aii;„.  .  ^   "^   already 


We  and  our  Allies  hold  Belgium,  the  coast,   and  valuable 
provinces  of  France ;  we  hold,  too,  Serbia,  Montenegro,  parts 
of  Roumania  and   Italy.     The  moment-  our  enemies  realise 
that  they  cannot  drive  us  out,  they  admit  their  defeat.     But  I 
can  think  of  final  victory  in    another  way — I  mean  on  the 
battlefield.     I  am  not  at  liberty  to  state  the  details.     But  I 
am  bound  to  say  that,  in  the  midst  of  the  present  circum- 
stances, the  will  to  final  victory  and  the  certainty  that  it  will 
be  ours  should  not  be  lost  sight  of  among  us  and  among  our 
allies.     This  will  and  this  certainty  shall  give  us  all  the  power 
to  hold  out  until  victory  is  ours. 
It  is  obvious  from  this  what  the  German  military  leaders  think, 
and  what  is  the  attitude  of  the  Prussian  Government,  which  is 
the  most  influential  in  the  German  Confederation. 

The  Patriotic  Party 

The  Patriotic  Party,  it  need  hardly  be  added,  fully  shares 
the  views  expressed  by  General  von  Stein,  and  in  a  handbill 
of  the  Hamburg  branch,  which  has  received  wide  publicity 
in  Germany,  an  anonymous  Hamburg  merchant  sets  forth 
the  results  of  a  peace  by  renunciation.  If  Germany  were 
to  agree  to  renounce  her  victories  that  would  mean  that  she 
would  be  dominated  economically  by  England.  "  That 
England  has  in  the  main  achieved  her  war  aims  cannot  be 
denied,  and  our  splendid  military  position  in  Europe  will  not 
alter  the  fact."  What  is  the  real  situation  ?  Gerrpany's 
position  in  the  world  was  founded  on  her  commerce,  which  was 
carried  by  her  shipping  over  all  the  oceans  to  all  the  five 
continents  of  the  globe.  England's  aim  was  to  destroy 
Germany's  world  position,  and  she  has  succeeded : 

Our  shipping  and  world  trade  are  so  thoroughly. ruined  that 
we  shall  literally  have  to  start  again  at  the  very  beginning, 
and  even  decades  of  hard  work  will  scarcely  suffice  to  make 
good  what  has  been  destroyed  in  these  three  years. 
The  Hamburg  merchant's  disappointment  is  easy  to  under- 
stand.    Hamburg,    once    the    proudest    trading    centre    in 
Germany,  now  lies  desolate,  and  her  merchant  princes,  who 
hoped  to  get  rich  quickly  out  of  a  war  which,  as  many  people 
hold,  they  were  among  the  foremost  to  provoke,  have  been 
deeply  disappointed  of  their  easy  prey. 

The  anonymous  author  goes  on  to  say  that  it  will  be  im- 
possible for  German  commerce  after  the  war  to  take  up  the 
old  threads,  seeing  that  many  of  them  have  been  completely 
destroyed.  "  The  German  trader  who,  when  peace  has  been 
signed,  goes  out  into  the  world  will  find  ruins  almost  every- 
where, and  when  he  sets  about  to  raise  them  he  will  come  up 
against  a  solid  wall  of  enmity  which  will  prevent  him  from  so 
doing."  The  writer  then  recalls  the  resolutions  of  the  Paris 
Economic  Conference,  and  asks,  who  can  believe  that  England 
will  ever  agree  to  cease  from  her  economic  warfare  ? 

If  our  enemies  succeed  in  permanently  throttling  our  overseas 
trade  so  that  we  are  limited  to  Central  Europe,  our  industry 
will  decline  and  the  whole  of  our  economic  life  dry  up.  Our 
workers  would,  owing  to  the  lack  of  opportunities  for  labour, 
be  forced  to  emigrate.  The  German  Empire  would  sink  into 
a  second-rate  Power. 

What  is  to  rescue  Germany  from  this  awful  fate?  Only 
one  thing— she  must  force  England  to  agree  to  a  German 
peace.  "  Only  the  defeat  of  England,  with  the  assistance  of 
the  U-boats,  will  be  able  to  ward  off  this  evil  from  us."  What 
follows  ?  That  every  German  must  hold  out  until  the  "  in- 
comparable "  submarines  have  done  their  work. 


been  achieved— by  Germany  and  her  Allies  ; 


Belgian  Art 

•  ^^^1  ^^"^^"^  authorities  in  Belgium,  moved  by  their  interest 
m  Belgium  s  art  treasures,  have  appointed  a  spedal  com- 
mittee of  experts  and  representatives  of  the  Government  to 
make  an  inventory  of  all  the  Belgian  works  of  art  they  can 
collect,  and  to  have  some  six  to  eight  thousand  photographs 
taken  so  that  the  valuable  treasures  may  bec6me  available 
to  all  and  sundry. 

The  communication  lays  stress  on  two  facts.  In  the  first 
place,  the  Belgian  Government  was  too  incapable  or  too 
Kile  to  undertake  this  necessary  work,  which  has  been  left  for 
German  thoroughness  and  German  scholarship  to  accomplish. 
In  the  second  place,  the  Kaiser  himsdf  is  so  interested  in  the 
project  that  he  has  made  a  grant  out  of  his  privy  purse  of 
£1.750.  This  sum,  together  with  £1,000  provided  by  Hen- 
Louis  Laiblen,  a  wealthy  Wiirtemberg  merchant  and  art 
lover,  will  make  it  possible  to  begin  work  at  once.  German 
science  thus  proves— so  the  obviously  inspired  commtmique 
insists— that  even  in  war  time  it  is  ready  to  undertake  a  work 
of  peace,  and  by  its  care  for  the  Belgian  art  treasures  it 
frf  1  *^  *°  *^^*^  foolish  accusation  levelled  against  Germans 
that  they  are  capable  of  destroying  works  of  art. 


February    14,    191 8 


Land    &  Water 


II    ' 


John    Rathom's    Revelations 

The  spy' system  that  radiated  from  the  German  Embassy 
and  the  full  details  ol  the  plot  for  sinking  the  "  Lusitania  ' 


FROM— Berlin  Foreign  Office. 

TO— Botschaft,  Washington 

/ 

669.  (44— W)— Welt  nineteen-f  if  teen  warne  175  29  1  stop 

175  1  2  stop 

durch  622  2  4  stop  19  7  18  stop  IIX  11  3  4  5  6  . 

This  is  a  copy  of  the  wireless  message  sent  from  the  Foreign  Of&ce  in  Berlin  to  the  German  Embassy  in  Washington,  which 
was  intercepted  at  Sayville,  the  wireless  station  in  America,  by  the  Providence  Journal's  wireless  opera  ors.  It  created  the 
greatest  interest  in  the  Journal  ofi5ce,  because  it  followed  none  of  the  known  codes  and,  in  form,  was  unlike  any  other 
message  that  had  been  received  at  Sayville  up  to  that  time.  It  was  interesting  also  because  static  conditions  were  unfavour- 
able that  morning,  and  the  fact  that  four  attempts  were  made  before  it  was  successfully  put  through  indicated  its  unusua,! 
importance.     The  method  by  which  it  was  deciphered  is  illustrated  on  the  next  page. 


In  the.  following  article  Mr.  John  R.  Rathom  explains  the 
reasons  which  led  to  his  formation  of  a  private  secret  service  to 
counteract  tfie  German  plots  in  America.  A  facsimile  of  the 
secret  wireless  message  from  Berlin  regarding  the  sinking  of  the 
"  Lusitania  "  is  given  above,  and  the  ingenious  manner  in 
which  it  was  decoded  is  carefully  and  fttUy  explained. 


^  O  properly  understand  the  story  of  Gennan  intrigue 
in  America  it  is  necessary  to  realise  that  the  work  of 
propaganda  opened 


T 

■  up  through  the  Ger 
'  man  Embassy  in 
Washington  at  the  beginning  of 
the  European  war  was  not  con- 
ceived in  a  night,  and  did  not 
spring  full-grown  out  of  the 
emergency  then  created. 

The  United  States,  the  only 
great  nation  in  the  world  with- 
out any  political  secret  service 
or  espionage  system,  with  no 
knowledge  of  secret  diplomacy, 
no  machinery  with  which  to 
guard  its  military,  naval,  or 
governmental  secrets,  the  ranks 
of  employees  in  every  govern- 
ment office  freely  open  at  all 
times  to  men  and  women  of 
every  nationality,  and  con- 
taining within  its  borders  the 
most  polyglot  population  ever 
brought  together  under  a  civi- 
lised form  of  government,  had 
been  for  thirty  years  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  European 
war  a  fertile  field  for  German 
propaganda. 

Germany's  sources  of  in- 
formation with  regard  to  every 
condition  about  which  she  de- 
sired to  secure  information  in 
the  United  States  were  prac- 
tically limitless.  A  large  num- 
ber of  willing  and  subservient 
Germans,  working  without  hin- 
drance or  any  suggestion  of  espionage,  had  been  enabled  during 
a  long  period  of  years  to  lay  before  the  German  Foreign  Office 
very  complete  information  which  might  be  useful  to  the 
fatherland  in  any  future  emergency  on  that  continent.  Even 
in  the  ranks  of  the  army  and  navy,  there  were  hundreds  of 
men,  citizens  only  in  name  and  owing  their  first  allegiance 
to  Germany,  keen  and  eager  to  do  at  any  time  whatever 
Prussia  called  on  them  to  do.  .The  secrets  of  American  mills 
and  factories,  the  methods  and  scope  of  American  banking 
interests,  the  operation  of  American  railroads  and  American 
shipping — all  of  these  facts  had  been  for  years  the  very 
alphabet  of  Germany's  knowledge  of  American  daily  life,  a 
knowledge  secured  not  by  outside  spies  working  under  immense 
difficulties,  as  would  have  been  the  case  in  any  country  of 
Europe,  but  from  the  very  heart  of  America's  economic  and 


Captain 

Military  Attach^  at 


social  movement  by  an  organisation  of  men^actually  engaged 
in  the  work  itself. 

Thus  it  was  that  when  the  German  Foreign  Office,  through 
the  Embassy  in  Washington,  began  what  appeared  to  be  the 
easy  task  of  moulding  American  sentiment  to  its  will,  all  the 
necessary  machinery  was  ready  at  hand. 

This  condition,  coupled  with  the  firm  belief  on  the  part  of 
Germany  that  the  millions  of  her  subjects  who  had  become 
citizens  of  the  United  States  would  not  hesitate  for  a  moment 
in  any  choice  that  might  be  laid  before  them  between  adher- 
ence to  the  fortunes  of  Germany 
or  to  the  land  of  their  adoption, 
seemed  in  the  minds  of  the  men 
responsible  for  German  foreign 
jwlicy  to  make  it  certain  that 
in  whatever  channel  they  de- 
sired to  direct  American  senti- 
ment their  will  would  be  prac- 
tically law. 

For  nearly  a  generation  Ger- 
man influence  on  American 
school  boards  had  been  in- 
sidiously shaping  public  senti- 
ment through  school  books  and 
histories.  Exchange  professors, 
liberally  sprinkled  with  Im- 
perial decorations,  had  main- 
tained and  increased  a  con- 
stant propaganda  of  reverence 
for  German  institutions  through 
many  of  the  educational  cen- 
tres of  the  United  States.  And 
the  great  German  commercial 
houses  which  had  secured  a 
foothold  in  the  United  States, 
and  which  were  virtually  out- 
posts of  the  German  Foreign 
Office,  had  gained  strong  posi- 
tions in  many  vitally  important 
elements  in  the  German  com- 
mercial life.  It  was,  therefore, 
on  known  ground  that  von 
Bernstorff  and  his  numerous 
associates  began  their  work  of 
intensive  cultivation  of  Prus- 
sianised doctrines  in  America. 
With  every  path  apparently  wide  open  to  their  feet,  they 
proceeded  at  first  without  any  thought  of  serious  opposition, 
to  mould  the  United  States  to  their  will,  to  stultify  its  national 
ideals,  and  so  drug  its  national  conscience  that,  regardless  of 
what  might  happen  in  Europe,  it  would  stand  by,  a  dis- 
interested spectator,  except  for  the  growth  of  a  keen  desire 
to  see  Germany  triumphant. 

It  is  well,  to  begin  with,  to  know  something  of  the  per- 
sonality of  the  men  into  whose  hands  was  entrusted  this  new 
and  crowning  movement  which  was  to  lead  to  a  glorious 
success  for  German  diplomatic  methods.  For  purposes  of  this 
analysis  it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  personality  or 
character  of  Dumba,  the  Austrian  Ambassador,  or  any  of  his 
fellow-officials  representing  that  Government  in  America. 
None  of  them,  from  the  day  war  began,  was  ever  anything 


von   Papen 

the  German  Embassy 


12 


Land   &   Water 


February    14,    191 8 


TRANSATLANTIC    P7 

JHciuiUl oniyrfgularpwteHCertinftfrota  AV-t/  Yorl. 


tfKtV  VOHK.  PLYUUL-TH,  ClllCltBOUBa  AMD)         AMl^KICAN   LINIC. 

dogrtfAMrroN.Plgri'otft  W.  3J<iat,,  N.  K  ;    (Oilice.  Q  Broadway.) 


Kkw  Yobk   and  Ui.A£ao\r.  Flerr 
foot  W.  2«tll  SL 

■Rir 


CameroulA. .. 

glunibla... 
ledoulB.... 

Cfcllfornt* ... 

ififW     V'oKK     ANO 

Coot  w.  i7iaM. 

Wluileftpolia. 
Mlnnebalja.. 
Mlnnecooka. 
MInnewaska 
Minnekabtia 


01aa80w~ 

Ulassow... 

(JIasgow.. 

Ulaayow... 


\),  &  W,  Henderson.  . 
D.  A  W.Heiidenjoii... 
a  ftw.  Ueuderson... 
I)  »  W.  Bendernon  .. 


but  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  German  Embassy  officials; 
they  had  no, will  of  their  own,  and  they  had  been  directly 
ordered  through  their  Foreign  Office  to  put  themselves 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  von  Bemstorff  and  his  associates. 

The  German  Ambassador  had  been  for  years  a  social  lion 
in     Washington,     and 
this  r61e  was  particu- 
larly congenial  to  him. 
He  liked  the  attention 
of      wealthy      people 
which    came    to    him 
as  a  perquisite  of  his 
position,  and  the  social 
influence  which  it  let 
him  wield.     His  per- 
sonal vanity  was  great, 
and    his    subordinates 
often   played  upon   it 
as    an    easy    road    to 
favour    and'  advance- 
ment.     He,    in    turn, 
was   not   above  using 
his  social  connections 
aspart  of  themachinery 
to  spread  German  pro- 
paganda   in    America, 
and   in    this  work  he 
found  easy  victims  in 
some  of  the  people  of 
Washington  who  were 
flattered  at  the  atten- 
tions   showered    upon 
them    by    the    distin- 
guished representative 
of   a   great    European 
Power.     Social   weak- 
nesses were  played  up- 
on by  both  sides.  Capt. 


It 
It 

It 

't 

i» 
ai 
t> 

\i 

w 

94 


2'ransatlanticfPa33engerjSteamers. 


CER    STEAMERS. 

Ou  '/Ip  Cn  ine  Eurirpfan  tvnrlhVttittisltabtetochanoc^ 


Length,  t  HtTi>.Jih.  I  l)*i>th. 


I:sTabli3BED  1S92. 


8L  LoutJ* 

ISW 

riiil;uleli)lila 

\Vm.crujup  A  Nuiia... 

110-39 

■duo 

5i4 

63 

43 

HUPaul 

ISM 

fhlladelpliia 

Wm,  cramp  &  Sous.. 

116-29 

-AK) 

6o4 

63 

49 

PliUadtlphla..    .  . 

1880 

lJla.sfow..    ., 

.r.  &U.  Thomaou 

iu;86 

6801) 

m 

63.3 

42 

KcwVork. 

MSa 

(Jla^Kow J.  A  «.  Thomson...,  . 

1IJ799 

lajoo 

i6u 

63.3 

43 

A.XCUOKUtNK 
fOmce,  17  Broadway.)^ 


ESTABUSU  ED  185X 


1V%3" 
8393 

SMI 


nouo 

7lM)U 


6SS 

6U0 
C16 

4VU 


/ (Office.  0  BfQn(l»:t.v.) 


£3TAnLinUL-»189Z 


Jielfiuiu.. 
Culiusu.. 
HcKast... 
licliost .. 
Belfast.. . 


NaWr  YOHIC,  CjUUHSSlOWN.    KiSHOUARO 

AVP  LiyKrtPOOL.  Plera  53.  64.  5«  N, 


llarlAiid  &  WoliT... 
Uarlaiid  ft  WqiiT... 
lUrlatid  &  Woltl... 
Harland  &  WoIIT... 


1906 

^M».«.T^.. 19U     ^ 

TraosylTMola  (Bullldtnglj. 

K«  w     York,      Mkditerravkan- 

APBt*TlcS«rivicy.  FleriL.W.l4tn  St. 


Olissow    ..^.  UrowQ&Co 

QlaAgow.  ...  J.  llrowa  ft  Co 

Newcastle.. p3waD  ft  Huafer.. 
Utassuw.  ..,.!.  BrowD  &  Oj... 
Olaagow. ...  J.  Browo  ft  Co.... 


Curpatbia.. 

f'rauooula. 
Ternia  ..  . 
lACOula 


■pvvan  ft  Uuuter., 
Swau  ft  HuDter.... 
wwun  ft  Hunter... 
Uwan  ft  Hunter. . 
-    Hrn^. n  ft  <o.   . 


Every  attempt  to  decipher  the  wireless  message  (reproduced  on  the  previous 
page)  completely  failed,  until  someone  who  was  familiar  with  the  inner 
workings  of  the  German  Embassy  remembered  that  on  the  morning  of  April 
29th  Prince  Hatzfeldt  {of  the  German  Embassy  staff)  had  been  hunting  for  a 
New  York  World  Almanack. 


Teb  Americem  XTIaPti 
munber    ~ 


Alabonw 243  lodlaoa 762  Nebraska 

Alaska 25  Iowa 944  Nevada 

Arlzoaa -eSjKansas 735  New  Hampshire 

Arkansas 32-l|KeDtucky 2109  New  Jersey    .... 


T/u    World. 


3 


Z^t 


Franz  von  Papen,  the  German  military  attache,  was  another 
member  of  the  Embassy  staff  to  whom  social  triumphs  were 
more  than  ordinarily  fascinating.  Capt.  Karl  Boy-Ed,  the 
naval  attache,  a  man  of  infinitely  greater  mentality  than 
eitherof  the  other  two,  cared  little  for  social  life  at  Washington, 
though  he  was  person- 
ally well  liked  in  social 
circles  there. 

When  the  pro  pa  - 
ganda  of  the  German 
Embassy  began  to  meet 
with  opposition,  and  it 
gradually  dawned  upon 
the  minds  of  these 
men  that  the  task  be- 
fore them  was  filled 
with  pitfalls  and  diffi- 
culties, it  was  inter- 
esting to  note  the 
change  in  their  atti- 
tude. Von  Bemstorff 
tobk  up  the  role  of 
martyr.  He  _  posed, 
and  succeeded  "in  hav- 
ing his  pose  believed 
in  by  a  large  part  of 
the  American  public, 
as  a  creature  of  un- 
fortunate circum- 
stances, crushed  be- 
tween the  upper  and 
nether  mill-stones,  and 
powerless  to  prevent 
the  growing  insolence 
of  his  Foreign  Office  in 
Berlin,  as  displayed 
against  the  United 
States. 

Returning  to  the 
Embassy  from  a  visit 
to  Secretary  Lansing 
on  April  loth,  1916, 
after  the  attack  on  the . 
steamship  Sussex  by  a 
German  submarine,  he 
said   to   Prince  Hatz- 


puts  such  burdens  on  me !  "    This  declaration  was  received 

by  the  group  with  hearty  laughter,  in  which  the  Ambassador 

joined. 

During  this  period  a  good  many  people  were  trusting  in 

his  sincerity  and  believed  von  Bemstorff  to  be  in  a  cruel 

personal  position,  call- 
ing, as  far  as  he  was 
concerned,  for  nothing 
but  sympathy  ;  a  man 
forced  by  his  Govern- 
.  ment  to  do  and  say 
things  to  which  he 
himself  was  entirely 
opposed.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  many  of  the 
messages  alleged  to 
have  come  from  his 
Government  to  him, 
and  to  have  been  re- 
ceived and  trans- 
mitted by  him  in  des- 
pair to  the  American 
Government,  were  ac- 
tually prepared  under 
his  personal  direction, 
sent  to  Berlin  by  cable 
through  Swedish  chan- 
nels, and  then  for- 
warded back  to  him  by 
wireless  from  Nauen, 
the  principal  wireless 
station  in  Germany. 

Bemstorff  and  von 
Papen  had  no  scruples 
about  adding  to  their 
material  wealth  by 
means  of  knowledge 
secured  by  reason  of 
Government.     Working 


iaiM3 

13638 
13440 
14317 


6&U0 
9aUll 
tiOO 


1  CUNAilU    LINK. 

J  (OfBce.  21  State  .'Street.) 


til:*.  6 
615.6 

6I3.6 
em 


6i>.i 
65.6 
Bb.i 

66 


43.3 
43.3 
43.3 
44 


Ji;3TABLr8UIII>  1840. 


2(j(X)0 

820VO 
83UUII 


SIUOU 
31C0O 
!OIXW 
7UW)U 
CWHO 


ei,\) 
uo 

790 
780 
SOI 


;         CUKARD  LINE 
'  (Omce.21  Stale  Street.) 


63.» 

eo.» 

60.S 
92.6 


ESTABLIBBED  1904. 


13600 

uu 

64.6 

18180 

tii 

7a 

mi 

66 

181M 

«3S 

7J 

IWWO 

.. 

486 

49 
4U 


Ifalionat  Model  license  League. 


STATISTICS   OP   THeCPMS^ 

Ameruan  Wantjiaper  Annual  oiid  Direelory,  publlsbed  by  N.  W.  Ayer  A  Son.  renortcd  tha 
of  newspapers  publlalied  In  tUs  United  Stalw  In  1014  ai  follow;:  '  '^t™™™  "» 


e41iHouth  Carolina.  ..  168 

41SOUU1  Dakota.  415 

llOTenneasee 3H 

■3791Texaa. 1.081 


±U 


^ 


4 


•tOSCPM   PULITZER.      / 
April  lo/l841       •)•      October  80,  1911, 


7 


TBI  Wous-s  ptirpoee.  to  "turn  on  the  tight"  In  tlie  Intereut  of  the  pmcla  at  tarie.  vaMnot  1 
forirotten  durlnii  the  year  1914.     This  Inspiring  aim  was  responsible  tor  a  remarkable  feat  ISiJ 
^umaltotlc  world.     It  led  Tbk  Woeld  to  Investigate  the  business  methods  of  the  New  York    New 
T^.!?i"""°"'  "'"'o*"  Company,  nothing  daunted  by  the  fact  that  the, corporation  waa 
oontrouad  by  some  ol  the  greateel  UTIag  nnanelers,  men  whose  decisions  were  supposed  to  be  the 


The   first  tvvo  words   of  the   message  "Welt  1915"  supplied   the  clue 
A   Z.'!^^v^i^   ""'"^""'   ^^  "-epresenting  page,  line   and  word 
Almanack,  the  message  was  decoded  as  follotvs : 


Warne 
175  29 
175  I 
dutch  • 
622      2 


1  = 

2  = 

4      = 


Warn 

Lusitania 

Passengers 

through 

Press 


of  "Ihe' Emba^sf 'r.'  °  1  ^^''^V^^^'^'^'^""'  ^''^^-  Secretary 
oi  tne  embassy    Haniel  von  Haimhau.sen,  Counsellor    and 

of"s  aSHarttef"  *J^^Emb-^y  ^  "  I  told  thSecretarv 
ot  btate  to-day  that  the  poor  Ambassador  was  crushed  to 


their  official  connection   with   their 

through  a  well-known  New  York  stockbroker,  whose  personal 
affiliation  with  the  Embassy  was  common  talk  in  Washington 
and  New  York,   von.  Bemstorff  repeatedly  purchased  and 
sold  considerable  blocks  of  shares  of  various  industries. 
Von     Pa  pen's     me- 
thods of  enriching  him- 
self  did   not   stop   at 
these    out.,ide    activi- 
ties.    His  manner  of 
accounting,   or   rather 
lack  of  accounting,  for 
many    large    sums    of 
money     supposed      to 
have    been    spent    on 
propaganda  work 
brought    about,    more 
than  once,  a  very  rigid 
scmtiny  of  his  finan- 
cial condition  and  his 
agents'  receipts.     One 
of  his  common  lapses 
in    this   direction   was 
the  giving  of  elaborate 
parties  at  Washington 
clubs  to  satisfy  his  own 
social  desires,  and  the 
inclusion   of   the    bills 
for  these  parties  in  his 
official     accounts     as 
being  necessary  for  the 
progress  of  his  propa- 
ganda work.     One  of 
the   bills   so   rendered 
showed    that    a    golf 
club  luncheon  had  cost 
him    nearly    £4      per 
head  for  eleven  people. 
The  note^acompanying 
this  bill  "declared  that 
the   outlay   was    "  far 
more  than  justified  in 
the    results    secured." 
As  his  ten  guests  on 
this    particular    occa- 
sion   were    all    Wash- 


in  the 


and 
World 


19 
LIX 


=     not 


,,  ".    3,  4,  5.  6     = 
Voyage  across  the  Atlantic 


earth 

,,    ,  ,r-L- "-^  by 

that  accursed  Foreign  Office  which 


"^^^^G^^^^^S^^^t^^^^ 


ington  people,  none  of  whom  by  the  most  extreme  stretch  of 
the  imagmation  could  be  able  to  render  him  any  diplomatic 
service  whatever,  this  particular  account  was  disallowed,  and 
he  was  compelled  to  pay  the  money  out  of  his  own  pocket, 
or  rather  out  of  the  pockets  of  certain  rich  and  gullible  German- 
Americans  in  New  York  City,  who  more  than  once  tided  the 


February    14,    19 18 


Land   &  Water 


13 


gallant    captain    safely    over    his    very    frequent    financial 
rocks. 

To  both  von  Bemstorff  and  von  Papen,  the  sanctity  of 
human  life,  as  their  work  became  more  vicious,  was  a  matter 
entirely  out  of  their  calculations.  The  Ambassador  who  had 
received  all  courtesies  from  the  American  Government,  the 
recipient  of  unusual  honours  from  many  American  Universities, 
indebted  to  hundreds  of  Americans  for  exceptional  and  con- 
tinuous hospitality,  never  once  lifted  his  voice  to  his  Foreign 
Office  in  opposition  to  any  order  for  the  carrying  out  of  pro- 
pagandist activities  in  the  United  States  which  involved  the 
loss  of  hundreds  of  innocent  lives. 

Time  after  time  he,  with  von  Papen  and  Baron  von  Schoen, 
gleefully  celebrated  the  destruction  of  munition  plants  in 
America.  When  word  came  that  the  Lusitania  was  sunk, 
the  Bemstorff's  Press  agents  reported  him  as  being  "  over- 
come with  grief  and  regret  "  in  a  fashionable  New  York 
hotel — he  was  at  that  moment  actually  giving  a  supper  party 
elsewhere  in  New  York,  and  during  this  supper  party  the 
destruction  of  the  Lusitania  was  hailed  as  a  glorious  triumph 
for  German  naval  prowess.  During  the  evening  von  Papen, 
touching  glasses  with  his  chief,  made  the  remark : 

"  This  is  the  end  of  the  mistress  of  the  seas." 

Capt.  Boy-Ed,  who  was  not  at  this  function,  alone  among 
the  entire  group  of  German  Embassy  officials  persisted  in 
declaring  that  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  was  a  blunder  of 
the  worst  kind. 

On  another  occasion  when,  at  a  conference  at  ii,  Broadway, 
the  offices  of  the  Hamburg-American  Steamship  Co.,  the 
question  as  to  what  should  be  done  to  silence  the  Providence 
Journal  aime  up,  von  Papen  and  Koenig,  known  as  the  "  chief 
of  the  secret  service  "  of  the  Hamburg-American  Line,  at 
once  declared  that  the  Journal  office  should  be  blown  up, 
Boy-Ed  declined  to  accept  this  point  of  view,  and  refused  to 
have  a  hand  in  such  proceedings,  earnestly  advising  against  it. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  in  connection  with  the  mental 
attitude  of  these  two  Embassy  officials  with  regard  to  crimes 
of  this  character,  that  while  von  Papen  since"  his  return  to 
Germany  has  been  twice  decorated  by  the  Emperor,  and  has 
been  advanced  a  rank  to  a  colonelcy,  Capt.  Boy-Ed  has 
remained  a  captain  and  has  receiw^ed  no  such  honours  at  the 
hands  of  the  German  Government. 

In  this  connection  I  present  here  the  translation  of  a  letter, 
not  hitherto  published,  sent  by  Capt.  Boy-Ed  to  Adolf  Paven- 
stadt,*  of  112,  West  59th  Street,  New  York,  from  German 

•  It  may  be  noted  that  Pavenstadt's  name  has  been  brought  promi- 
nently fonvard  in  the  Bolo  Pasha  trial  in  Paris,  Bolo  having  apparently 
been  the  guest  of  '  Pavenstadt  on  several  occasions  during  bis  visit 
to  the  United  States. 


"THE  SEAL  OF 
SAFETY  AT  SEA'' 


Aftde  from  the  ftckaowledsed  duty  of  every  ma&Q- 

faclurer  to   make   an    boaest  product   there   It   an 

0Quatl7  Important  moral  responsib titty,  the  carefal 

useiDblIng  and  testing  of  each  motor  so  thac  llfo'  may  De  safe  vltb  It. 

Tlie  workmen  and  management  of  the  Scrlpps  Company  recogoi^a  tbli 

d'lty    Tbey  design,  construct  and  test  all  Scripps  molors  with  this  re* 

tponslbiUty  clearly  In  mind 

Ty£aE-AB£_niE_PROOFS : 

Tlie   «ucre9sru1^o> age    acrosa   the    AtlantlcV>r   the   3S*foot   motor 

boa.t  ^'Detroit  "  ^^  ^ 

The  *wo    luccvsaful    trtpa    through    the    Niagara    Rafilds   and    tbo 

Whirlpool. 

flecorda  r^de  in  endurance  teeu  and  in  theevcry<dayservlcelOAU 

parts  of  the  world. 

Tbe  1914  dcnppfl  models  contain  many  oev  improvementa.  all  of  which 
are  embodied  tn  tht  1914  Scrlppa  Motor  Book.  Seventeen  different  mod- 
els. Including  one.  two.  four  and  sU  cylinder  types,  aegiil-ipeed,  medium 
duty,  and  extra  heavy  duty,  are  abown. 

Tbli'^ook  also  contains  full  Information  regarding  the  new  ELECffflS 
SELF-STARTER.  UGHTINQ  CEINDRATORS,  new  KEROSENE  and 
DISTILLATE  motors. .  c»p,  ^„,  ,„  ,^,^4. 

SCRIPPS  MOTOR  COMPANY 


661  Lincoln  Ave.,  Detroit.  Mich.. 
CffTtapMt^iK*  •elidltd. 


U.  S.  A. 


n«ek 


Ptinr.  I  SCO 


SCniPPS    .\fOTOn9    ARB   CAA- 
KIED  IN   STUCK  BY 

N««     rofK-Soxli 

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CXPORT  OFFICE 
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le    CITY     BEAUTI- 

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lone       8980 — Corl 

CORPORATION 


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*rn  Route 

f  rt    from    Parli. 
A   M.^RSEILLES 

am'   Anna.  .Jun»  & 

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17  Stalest  .  N    y 


VLIANO 

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[OBorta    JuAt  25 

^jem,   J8I  A    190   up. 
V    B'way.    N.    T. 

L  0  B  I  D  A 

•olnU   South. 
Wth  AfcTN.   T. 


ADVKBTraKlCENT. 


NOTICE! 

TRAVELLERS  intending  to 
embark  on  the  Atlantic  voyage 
are  reminded  that  a  «ute  of 
war  exist»  between  Germany 
and  her  allies  and  Great  Britain 
and  her  allies;  that  the  zone  of 
war  includes  the  waters  adja- 
cent to  the  British  Isles;  that, 
m  accordance  with  formal  no- 
tice given  by  the  Imperial  Ger- 
man Government,  vessels  fly- 
ing the  flag  of  Great  Britain,  or 
of  any  of  her  allies,  are  liable  to 
destruction  in  those  waters  and 
that  travellers  sailing  in  the  war 
zone  on  ships  of  Great  Britain 
or  her  allies  do  so  at  their  own 
risk. 

IMPERUL  GERMAN  EMBASSY 

WASHINQTON.  D.  C.  APBiL  21.  1915. 


VBW    ENOLJUn 

HEATOP 

Sjtockbridge,  A 

in   the  B> 

WILL  OPE' 

Tlila  ilodern  Hol« 

Sellghlfully    Located, 
ftvlll,    TvUl    be  at    the 
47tU   St.,   New  York,   ff 
10th.     Information    rcgi 
>«    promptly    attended 


/     Marblehei 

THE  RO' 

Hotel  de  Lur 

\    Faces  aU 
BOOKLETS 


EARI 

STOCKBRII 

RED  LI 


'Mount 


As  a  result  of  the  instructions  received  by  wireless 
from  Berlin  the  above  advertisement  was  inserted  in  the 
New  York  World  and  New  York  Times  of  May  ist,  1915. 
The  advertisement  obviously  referred  to  the  Lusitania, 
which  was  sunk  six  days  later,  but  the  announcement 
was  ingeniously  dated  April  22nd,  1915,  for  insertion  by 
the  newspaper  of  May  ist. 


I.IX     II,     3,  4,  5,  6 
For  translation  see  previous  page. 


General  Headquarters  in  Berlin  under  date  of  March  5th, 
1916.  Pavenstadt's  address,  on  this  letter,  is  likewise  the 
address  of  the  German  Club  (Deutscher  Verein) : 

Dear  Mr.  Pavenstadt  :  In  order  not  to  appear  rude  any 
longer,  I  do  not  want  to  let  another  Sunday  pass  without 
sending  you  a  line  to  show  you  that  I  have  certainly  not 
forgotten  you,  in  spite  of  all  the  commotion,  turmoil  and 
work. 

I  sincerely  hope  that  I  shall  soon  have  more  leisure  for  my 
private  affairs  than  I  have  now.  That  will  probably  be  the 
case  if  I  am  left  in  my  present  appointment,  which  is  very 
interesting  and  very  agreeable  (being  independent  and 
greatly  esteemed).  Unfortunately,  however,  that  is  not  a 
certainty.  At  least  the  sword  of  Damocles  seems  to  be 
hanging  over  me,  and,  if  it  falls,  I  should  again  be  transferred 
to  another  very  busy  and  exacting  appointment  (in  Berlin). 
Such  a  change  will  be  most  unwelcome  to  me,  at  least  for  the 
present,  as  I  am  rather  upset  on  account  of  my  nervous 
■  complaints.  Above  all,  I  am  also  sleeping  wretchedly.  In 
other  respects,  however,  I  am  very  well,  as  I  said  before,  and 
it  is  grand  to  be  in  the  thick  of  it  amidst  all  the  knowledge, 
decisions  and  plans. 

Papen  has  been  for  some  time  on  the  West  front,  as  battalion 
commander  ih  a  Guards  regiment.  It  was  a  pity  he  brought 
so  many  useless  papers,  checjues,  etc.,  with  him.  I  hope 
that  his  bad  luck  has  not  inconvenienced  you  too.  His 
superiors  do  not  appear  to  have  taken  the  matter  tragically, 
as  he  was  awarded  a  second  Order. 

Everybody  here  is  full  of  confidence,  though  nobody 
ventures  to  say  how  long  the  business  will  last. 

Kindest  regards  to  all  our  common  acquaintances,  especially 
Messrs.  Rath,  Siedenburg,  Neuhoft,  Fleischmann,  Baron 
Schroder  and  yourself. 

From  your  faithful  and  very  grateful  friend, 

Karl  Boy-Ed. 

While  von  Bemstorff  directed  everything  that  was  done  in 
connection  with  the  blowing  up  of  factories,  the  placing  of 
bombs  in  freight  ships,  the  poisoning  of  mules  on  transports, 
and  all  the  other  movements  aimed  to  terrorise  the  United 
States  and  to  paralyse  traffic  with  the  Allies,  he  invariably 
kept  himself  away  from  any  conferences  concerning  details  of 
these  plots,  and  the  most  elaborate  precautions  were  always 
taken,  whenever  it  was  possible,  to  get  him  out  of  the  way  at 
the  time  when  such  outrages  were  scheduled. 

On  two  occasions  when  munitions  plants  were  blown  up  he 
had  gone  to  Lenox,  the  summer  home  of  the  Austrian 
Ambassador,  Dumba,  on  the  preceding  day.  His  constant 
declaration  to  both  von  Papen  and  Boy-Ed  was  that  he  must 
never  be  bothered  with  details  concerning  these  plots,  and 
that,  after  talking  over  the  general  scheme,  the  carrying  out 
of  all  such  work  should  be  conducted  without  any  reference 
whatever  to  him,  so  that  he  should  be  ignorant  of  details 
until  the  matter  under  way  was  concluded.  ; 

Bemstorff's  idea  was  that  in  order  to  make  Americans  believe 
whatever  he  wished  them  to  believe,  it  was  necessary  only  to 
state  his  case — the  training  of  the  German  State-made  mind 
— was  not  shaken  for  a  long  while  after  the  beginning  of  the 
European  war. 

(To  be  continued.) 


14 


Land   &  Water 


February    14,    191 8 


At  Sea  :    By  Etienne 


TIME  :  11.50  p.m.— Bang-bang  on  the  cabin  door, 
the  heaN'y  tread  of  a  marine  sentry,  a  crash  as 
he  trips  over  the  chair,  and  then  a  flood  of  light 
bathes  the  tinv  cabin. 
Lieutenant  John  Smith,  owing  to  long  practice 
b  by  this  time  thoroughly  awake,  but  he  closes  his  eyes  and 
tries  to  beUeve  it  is  all  a  dream  and  that  it  is  only  his  imagina- 
tion which  is  saying  :  ,. 

"  Ten  minutes  to  eight  beUs,  and  Mr.  'lU  s  comp  iments 
Sir,  and  it— it's— rainin'  and  blowin'  very  'ard— oil-skm  and 
sea  boot  weather,  if  I  might  'azard  a  remark,  Sir  ! 

This  effort  of  chattiness  on  the  part  of  the  marine  sentry 
rasps  on  Lieutenant  Smith's  sensitive  nature.  ^ 

Sitting  up  abrugay  he  remarks,  "  For  Heaven  s  sake  get 

out  of  my  cabin  !  "  ,.  j^   ,    ^  «  c    -n. 

The  sentry  withdraws  and  tells  his  own  relief  that  bmithy 
•asthe'eUof  afat 'ead."  .      ,  . 

He  also  privately  registers  the  resolve  to  mistake  a  quarter 
to  twelve  for  ten  minutes  to  the  hour,  when  next  he  caUs 
Lieutenant  Smith.  .     x-     i 

But  let  us  return  to  this  gentleman  and  observe  attentively 
his  movements  and  listen  to  his  conversation. 

Having  carefully  examined  his  wrist  watch  he  sprmgs 
ponderously  out  of  his  bunk.  The  ship  is  pitching  heavily, 
and  it  is  with  some  bitterness  that  he  notices  a  photograph 
of  a  girl- much  esteemed— has  fallen  from  its  frame  into  his 

wash  basin.  r  r>.     ,     j 

He  quickly  dresses,  putting  on  several  layers  of  Shetland 
waistcoats,  a  special  inflatable  waistcoat,  and  finally  sea 
boots,  an  oil-skin,  a  pair  of  reputed  waterproof  gloves  and 
a  sou'-wcster  hat. 

He  flings  a  pair  of  binoculars  round  his  neck,  and  with  a 
lingering  look  at  his  warm  bunk,  from  which  (O  shame  !) 
a  hot-water  bottle  leers  at  him,  he  staggers  on  deck. 

His  progress  to  the  bridge  is  lengthy  and  somewhat  painful. 
Funnel  guys  and  other  wires  strike  him  smartly  across  the 
face  at  regular  intervals ;  a  bluejacket  hastening  below  for 
four  hours'  sleep  rams  him,  then  disappears  in  haste.  Even- 
tually Smith  reaches  Monkey  Island,*  where  he  and  Mr. 
Hill  enter  into  a  short  conversation  lasting  a  couple  of  minutes. 
Mr.  Smith's  contributions  to  this  consist  of  a  series  of 
grunts,  but  it  apparently  satisfies  his  opposite  number,  for 
with  a  parting  remark  that  the  "  sea-cows  "  are  five  miles 
on  the  port  beam,  Mr.  Hill  retires  to  his  bunk. 

Let  me  explain,  en  parenthise,  that  the  "  sea-cows " 
are  an  extremely  respectable  squadron  of  cruisers,  once 
attached  to  the  Grand  Fleet. 

Amongst  other  yams,  passed  from  ship  to  ship,  concerning 
the  squadron,  runs  one  to  the  effect  that  the  "  sea-cows  " 
were  late  at  a  rendezvous.  On  enquiries  being  made  by 
wireless,  a  reply  was  received  as  follows  : 

"We  are  zigzagging  90  degrees  in  each  direction  every  quarter 
of  an  hour,  in  order  to  cope  with  the  submarine  menace." 

But  we  have  lost  sight  of  our  proteg^.  Smith  soon  finds 
that  it  is  in  very  truth  oil-skin  weather.  About  every  ten 
seconds  tlie  cruiser  buries  her  forecastle  deep  into  •  creamy 
foam,  then,  without  effort,  she  lifts,  and  her  "  flared  bow  " 
flings  many  tons  of  North  Sea  back  along  the  upper  deck. 

Much  of  this  is  caught  by  the  gale  and,  rising  in  a  curved 
sheet,  is  hurled  against  the  bridge. 

Smith  and  his  companion  (for  another  unfortunate  is  also 
keeping  a  weary  vigil)  manage  to  dodge  most  of  these  by 
ducking  behind  a  canvas  screen  at  the  critical  moment,  but 
every  now  and  then  they  miscalculate  and  receive  the  penalty 
in  the  shape  of  stinging,  blinding  spray. 

An  indeterminate  distance  ahead,  a  feeble  blue  light  glim- 
mers in  the  gloom  ;  Smith  watches  it  carefully — he  must 
keep  four  hundred  yards  from  that  light,  which  marks  the 
plunging  stem  of  the  next  ahead.  Whenever  he  can  he 
sweeps  the  h9rizon  and  imagines  dark  spots,  though  common 
sense  tells  him  that  there  is  little  chance  of  the  Hun  destroyer 
being  out  on  such  a  night. 

In  such  a  manner,  the  minutes  pass,  and  slowly  (oh !  so 
slowly  sometimes)  they  become  hours.  ' 

As  2  a.m.  rings  out  on  the  ship's  bell,  a  dripping  figure 
appears  at  his  side,  holding  in  one  hand  a  pulpy  mass  of 
signal  sheets. 

"  One  or  two  signals  come  through.  Sir  ;  shall  I  read  'em  ?  " 
"  Carry  on,"  says  Smith. 

The  dripping  one  produces  a  shaded  torch,  switches  it  on 
and  intones  various  signals. 
"  One  more,  Sir,"  "  Fleet  will  alter  course  at  2.15  to  North." 


"  Thank  heaven  for  that,"  comes  from  the  other  corner. 
"  We  shall  have  this  sea  behind  us." 

"  'Ear  !  'Ear !  to  your  sentunents,  John,  they  does  yer 
credit,"  adds  Smith. 

At  2.15  a.m.  course  is  altered  satisfactorily,  though  not 
before  Mr.  Smith  has  gone  tlirough  an  unpleasant  five  minutes, 
during  which  he  first  lost  his  guiding  stern  light,  then  having 
increased  to  twenty  knots  in  a  flutter  of  excitement  he  suddenly 
noticed  a  black  shape  on  his  beam.  However,  with  no  lights 
showing  such  things  often  happen  and  he  drops  into  station 
without  anyone  being  the  wiser. 

The  rain  has  kindly  stopped  and  on  the  new  course  the 
bridge  is  comparatively  dry. 

Thoughts  of  cocoa  obtmde  themselves. 
"  Messenger  !  " 
"  Sir  !  " 

"  Go  down  to  my  cabin  and  in  my  basin  you  will  find  a 
cup,  saucer,  and  spoon,  a  coffee  cup  fuU  of  milk,  another  on. 
full  of  brown  sugar,  a  tin  of  cocoa,  and  an  electric  kettle. 
Bring  it  all  up— got  it  ?  " 
"  Yessir  !  " 

In  the  fulness  of  time,  the  small  boy  aged  about  fifteen 
reappears  with  the  necessary  impedimenta  for  cocoa.  The 
kettle  is  plugged  up,  and  the  brew  mixed. 

Soon  both  officers  are  enjoying  the  cup  that  cheers,  but 
does  not  inebriate.  Under  cover  of  a  screen,  pipes  are  lit, 
and  Mr.  Smith,  revived  by  the  cocoa  and  soothed  by  the  pipe, 
known  as  the  "  gum-bucket  "  to  his  pals,  becomes  quite 
.affable. 

"  You  know,"  he  remarks,  "  that  drop  of  leave  we  gathered 
in  the  other  day  seems  like  a  dream,  a  vision  punctuated 
with  lovelv  ladies.  .  ." 

"  Yes,"  "interposes  the  other,  "  it  is  like  a  dream  until  you 
look  at  your  cheque  book  ;  I  had  not  observed  mine  closely 
until  I  got  a  screed  from  my  bankers  requesting  me  to  do  so. 
The  shock  was  terrific." 

"  Ah  yes,  Jacko  !  but  what  a  devil  of  a  good  time  one  had 
in  those  four  days  !     By  the  way,  did  you  get  engaged  ?  " 

"  No,  thank  heaven,  but  L  had  a  dashed  narrow  escape. 
It  was  on  the  river,  and  in  the  dusk,  about  the  time  you  darken 
ships,  savee  ?  and  'pon  my  word  I  was  just  losing  my  head, 
when  our  punt  was  rammed  amidships  by  a  tinker  in  a  skiff, 
one  of  the  '  grabbles,'  *  taking  his  young  lady  out  for  a  row 
— of  course  that  brought  me  to  :  I  sweated  with  fear  when  I 
thought  about  it." 

Mr.  Smith  murmured  sympathetic  condolences,  then,  apro- 
pos of  nothing  in  particular,  he  remarked  : 

"  It's  marvellous  how  noble,  how  sympathetic  some  girls 

are  !   Now  last  leave  I  met " 

He  was  rudely  interrupted. 

"  Look  here,  old  chap,  it's  quarter  to  four.  What  about 
the  reliefs  ?  " 

"  Good  lor  !  So  it  is.  Here,  Hi !  messenger,  nip  down  and 
tell  the  sentry  to  call  Mr.  Blanche  and  Mr.  BurreU.  Tell 
'em  it's  a  fine  night,  and  see  they  turn  out.  .  .  .  Signalman, 
bring  the  books,  and  send  a  hand  down  to  report  3.50  to  the 
navigator  !  .  .  .  Bosun's  mate,  send  a  hand  up  here  to  take 
the  crockery  down  !  " 

At  four  a.m.  a  sleepy  figure  arrives  On  the  bridge,  and  takes 
over  from  Smith's  companion.  "  Night,  Smithy  "  says  the 
latter,  "  I'U  smooth  your  sheets  for  you  as  I  pass  your 
house."  t 

"  See  if  that  slug  Blanche  has  turned  out  would  be  more 
to  the  point,"  is  Mr.  Smith's  reply. 

4.2  a.m.^ — "  If  there  is  one  thing  I  abominate,  it's  being 
relieved  late,"  remarks  Mr.  Smith. 

4.4  a.m. — "  I  say,  BurreU,  did  you  see  if  Blanche  was  turned 
out  ?  " 

"  No,  my  eyes  were/iot  unstuck  then,"  replies  BurreU. 
4.6  a.m. — "  Blast  his  sluggish  liver  !   Here,  messenger  !  " 
"  Yessir." 

"  Take  my  compliments — compliments,  do  you  savee,  to 
Mr.  Blanche  and  teU  him — Oh  !  here  he  is — wash  out." 

"  Sorry,  old  sport,"  remarks  the  new  arrival  with  forced 
joviality.     "  I'm  a  wee  bit  adrift." 

"  Not  at  all,   I  like  it,"  says  Smith  with  heavy  sarcasm. 
"  Well,  here  you  are.  Course  North,  etc." 
4.15  a.m. — "  Sentry  !  " 

;;  Sir  !  "  / 

"  CaU  me  at  eight  o'clock,  a  good  shake." 
"  Very  good,  Sir." 
4.20  a.m. — Heavy  breathing. 


*  Monkey  Island  is  the  name  given  to  the  fore  upper  bridge. 


Grabbies — Soldiers. 


t  House — -Cabin. 


February    14,    19 18 


Land  &  Water 


15 


New  Secret  Diplomacy :    By  G.   K.  Chesterton 


THERE  is  in  England  a  body  of  opinion  called  the 
Union  of  Democratic  Control,  to  which  I  have 
not  myself  the  honour  to  belong,  but  the  title 
and  aims  of  which  embody  very  lucidly  and 
thoroughly  almost  all  that  I  think  about  the 
problems  of  the  war.  The  very  name  is  a  fine  and  sufficient 
summary  of  nearly  everything  which  I  shall  attempt  to  say 
here.  If  there  is  one  thing  in  which  I  have  always  essentially 
and  literally  believed,  it  is  democratic  control  ;  which  is  (it 
should  be  noted)  something  much  more  extreme  and  drastic 
than  democratic  consent. 

I  believe  that  the  people  can  rule,  and  that  when  it  does 
rule,  it  does  so  better  than  any  of  its  rulers.  Even  where 
it  is  unjustly  forbidden  to  rule,  and  appears  only  to  dissolve 
and  destroy,  I  am  disposed  to  defend  it ;  I  believe  that  no 
human  institution  in  history  has  really  so  little  to  be  ashamed 
of  as  the  mob.  And  when  the  Union  of  Democratic  Control 
passes  to  its  more  particular  object,  it  satisfies  me  even  more 
fully.  It  aims  chiefly  at  eradicating  that  evil  craft  of  secret 
diplomacy  by  which  princes  and  privileged  men  cynically 
make  and  unmake  kingdoms  and  republics  as  they  roll  and 
unroll  cigarettes  ;  and  no  more  think  of  consulting  the  citizens 
of  the  State  than  of  consulting  all  the  blades  of  grass  before 
bargaining  for  the  sale  of  a  field.  This  detestable  detachment, 
inherited  from  the  heartless  dynastic  ambitions  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  has  been  covered  in  my  own 
time  and  my  own  society  by  the  large  and  optimistic  adver- 
tisements of  what  is  called  Imperialism.  I  can  say  without 
fear  or  penitence  that  I  have  always  hated  and  always  done 
my  hardest  to  extirpate  Imperialism,  as  an  ambition  of  any 
countrj^  and  above  all  as  an  ambition  of  my  own. 

It  is  indeed  true  that  the  members  of  the  Union  of  Demo- 
cratic Control  do  not  agree  with  any  of  these  principles,  with 
which  I  myself  agree  so  ardently,  when  I  read  them  in  their 
official  literature.  If  it  be  counted  some  sort  of  reflection 
on  a  society  that  its  mere  individual  membership  does  not 
happen  to  include  any  person  who  assents  to  its  printed 
formulfe,  the  U.D.C.  may  be  held  to  suffer  from  such  a 
disadvantage. 

Of  the  most  eminent  member,  Mr.  E.  D.  "  Morel,"  I  can 
only  say  that  his  warm  admirers,  while  agreeing  as  to  the 
thoroughness  of  his  enthusiasm,  are  apparently  doubtful  only 
about  its  object ;  and  that  in  any  case  the  mere  evisceration 
of  secret  diplomacy  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  satisfy  or 
explain  it.  He  is  himself  so  eminently  secret  a  diplomatist 
that  there  is  a  doubt,  not  merely  about  what  it  is  that  he 
does  for  his  country,  but  about  what  country  it  is  that  he 
does  it  for.  The  other  members  are  mostly  widely  respected 
and  well-informed  men,  famous  in  almost  every  branch  of 
culture,  and  for  almost. every  type  of  conviction — with  the 
exception  of  those  special  and  peculiar  doctrines  with  which 
they  are  accidentally  connected  by  the  formularies  of  their 
membership.  Probably  the  chief  influence  on  the  society 
comes  from  a  group  of  aristocrats,  representing  the  great 
governing  class  families  of  Trevelyan,  Ponsonby,  Buxton  or 
Hobhouse,  whose  tradition  naturally  it  is  to  perpetuate  Burke's 
antagonism  to  the  theory  of  the  French  Revolution.  And 
indeed  one  of  them  only  recently  refused  to  submit  himself 
to  any  popular  vote  in  his  constituency,  for  the  explicit 
reason  that  the  great  anti-Jacobin,  who  lies  buried  at  Beacons- 
field,  would  not  have  approved  of  a  representative  paying 
any  attention  to  anything  which  he  is  alleged  to  represent. 
But  in  the  plain  appeal  I  am  now  writing,  I  am  concerned 
with  the  principles  of  the  Union  of  Democratic  Control ; 
and  I  am  therefore  in  no  way  concerned  with  any  of  its 
members. 

To  those  principles,  which  condemn  an  undemocratic 
diplomacy,  it  is  now  necessary  to  make  a  new  and  very 
urgent  appeal.  For  undemocratic  diplomacy  has  returned  in 
a  new  and  even  more  undemocratic  form.  It  is  not  merely 
that  the  popular  opinion  has  never  been  expressed,  but  that 
it  is  censored  and  silenced  when  it  has  been  expressed.  The 
acts  of  a  meb  can  be  hidden  like  the  acts  of  a  man.  Silence 
does  not  rest  merely  on  the  momentary  negotiation  of  two  or 
three  officials  ;  silence  can  be  spread  over  the  desires  of  whole 
,  populations  and  the  destiny  of  whole  provinces.  It  is  not 
one  diplomatist  who  wears  a  mask,  but  a  million  democrats 
who  are  all  required  to  wear  muzzles.  The  chief  example 
of  this  new  secret  diplomacy  is  the  earnest  exhortation 
addressed  to  the  English  and  French,  that  they  should  qualify 
the  vehemence  of  their  anti-German  feeling,  out  of  considera- 
tion for  the  international  idealism  either  of  Petrograd  or  of 
Stockholm.  Sometimes  this  modification  is  recommended  as 
a  way  of  securing  peace  for  the  world.  Sometimes  it  is  only 
recommended  as  a  way  of  securing  peace  within  the  Alliance. 
But  upon  one  point  all  the  Stockholni-Petrograd  school  of 


democrats  is  agreed  ;  and  that  is  the  need  of  intxposing  silence 
upon  the  democracies  of  the  West. 

Now  while  I  agree  with  the  Internationalists  as  to  the  evil  of 
private  understandings,  I  think  it  the  reverse  of  an  improve- 
ment to  take  refuge  in  public  misunderstandings.  I  think 
it  a  bad  thing  that  diplomatists  should  secretly  arrange  the 
transference  of  the  French  people  to  the  power  of  the  Emperor 
of  China.  But  I  think  it  worse  to  declare  that  all  Frenchmen 
really  desire  to  be  Chinamen,  lest  any  hint  of  the  reverse 
should  ruffle  the  serenity  of  the  Chinese.  I  think  it  bad 
that  white  men  should  be  despotically  driven  into  an  alliance 
or  a  war  with  black  men  ;  but  I  think  it  worse  that  white 
men  should  be  made  to  black  their  faces,  for  fear  of  disturbing 
the  solidarity  of  the  human  race.  It  is  an  evil  thing  that 
the  people  should  not  choose  for  themselves,  but  should  be 
tricked  beforehand  into  having  something  whether  they  like 
it  or  not.  But  it  is  a  worse  thing  that  we  should  not  even 
know  what  they  do  like,  what  they  would  really  choose, 
or  perhaps  have  already  chosen. 

It  is  the  case  against  secret  diplomacy  that  the  masses  are 
never  consulted  until  it  is  too  late ;  but  it  seems  to  be  the 
upshot  of  the  new  pacifist  diplomacy  that  the  masses  are 
never  consulted  at  all.  For  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  consulting 
the  people,  if  all  their  most  primary  passions  and  bitterest 
experiences  are  to  be  concealed  in  the  interests  of  a  theoretic 
humanitarianism.  And  that,  and  nothing  else,  is  really  the 
claim  of  those  who  insist  on  the  anti-German  feeling  in 
England  being  qualified  by  concern  for  less  exasperated  feeling 
in  Russia. 

• 

Popular  View   of  Germans. 

Now  it  is  simply  a  fact,  like  death  or  daylight,  that  the 
English  people,  and  especially  the  English  poor,  regard,  the 
German  of  this  war  exactly  as  they  regarded  the  Whitechapel 
murderer  who  ripped  up  poor  girls  with  a  knife.  Seeing  that 
the  German  also,  as  it  happens,  has  ripped  up  poor  girls  with 
a  knife,  the  parallelism  of  the  sentiment  is  not  perhaps  so 
surprising.  The  English  poor  desired  to  find  the  Whitechapel 
murderer  and  punish  him  ;  the  English  poor  also  desire  to 
find  the  Germans  who  commanded  these  German  atrocities 
and  punish  them.  This  is  the  will  of  the  people,  if  the  will 
of  the  people  ever  existed  in  "this  world. 

It  is  now  necessary  to  insert  here  a  most  emphatic  warning 
against  people  being  misled  upon  this  point  by  any  such 
sectional  incident  as  a  vote  in  favour  of  Stockholm,  tempo- 
rarily upheld  by  certain  representatives  of  certain  English 
Trade  Unions.  Such  votes  are  variable  and,  as  a  basis  of 
argument,  quite  unreliable.  They  are  unreliable  for  three 
successive  and  decisive  reasons,  each  final  without  the  other. 
First,  it  is  admitted,  because  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  such 
schemes  of  representation  are  so  wildly  illogical  as  to  be  simply 
meaningless.  We  should  not  think  much  of  a  scientific 
assembly  in  which  the  men  who  believe  that  the  earth  is  flat 
had  as  many  representatives  as  those  who  cling  to  the  more 
common  opinion  that  it  is  round.  We  should  not  accept 
as  authoritative  a  Congress  of  Religions  in  which  the  Scotch 
sect  of  the  Upstanding  Glassites  (now,  alas,  nearly  extinct) 
was  represented  by  serried  rows  of  delegates,  covering  as 
many  benches  as  all  the  Catholics  or  all  the  Mahommedans 
put  together.  We  should  not  bow  down  to  a  representative 
system  which  brought  out  the  remarkable  result  that  as  many 
Englishmen  wear  sandals  as  wear  boots  ;  or  that  the  earnest 
students  of  scripture  who  think  it  wicked  to  have  their  hair 
cut  are  as  numerous  as  those  who  observe  the  rite  at  more 
or  less  reasonable  intervals.  Yet  this  was  strictly,  literally 
and  indeed  admittedly,  the  composition  of  the  so-called 
Labour  Conference  now  in  question  ;  in  which  enormous 
over-representation  was  given  to  tiny  Pacifist  groups  holding 
opinions  rather  rarer  than  the  opinion  that  the  earth  is  flat. 
Even  this  dispropwrtionate  and  absurd  assembly  admittedly 
voted  under  a  complete  misapprehension  about  the  most 
decisive  question  of  fact. 

Secondly,  therefore,  even  if  the  meeting  had  been  represen- 
tative, it  would  have  voted  on  a  misrepresentation.  And 
thirdly,  even  if  the  fact  had  not  been  entirely  misrepresented, 
and  if  the  Trade  Unions  had  been  formally  and  legally 
represented,  there  is  an  obstacle  more  absolute  and  unanswer- 
able than  all  the  rest.  It  is  the  fact  that  no  sane  man  denies 
the  sight  of  his  own  eyes  and  the  testimony  of  his  own  ears  ; 
it  is  the  fact  that  we  deal  to-day  with  deadly  realities  and 
have  no  patience  for  political  fictions ;  it  is  the  fact  of  the 
nature  of  fact. 

I  know  that  most  Englishmen,  and  especially  most  poor 
Englishmen,  are  furious  with  the  Germans,  exactly  as  I 
know  that  most  of  them  think  it  desirable  to  wear  clothes 


i6 


Land  &   Water 


February    14,    191 8 


or  prefer  cooked  meat  to  raw.  The  man  who  pretends  to 
doubt  it  would  pretend  to  doubt  the  nose  on  a  man's  face, 
because  it  slightly  differed  from  the  nose  in  his  portrait. 
Representation,  at  its  best,  does  not  profess  to  gi\'e  anything 
more  than  a  picture  or  emblem  of  the  multitudinous  mind 
of  the  people.  WTien  that  mind  is  so  unanimous  and  so 
uproarious  that  anybody  can  see  it  in  the  street,  and  almost 
breathe  it  in  the  air,  the  man  who  prefers  to  believe  the  figure 
rather  than  the  fact  is  something  very  much  worse  than  a 
lunatic. 

I  stress  this  parenthesis  because  I  conceive  myself  primarily 
to  be  bearing  witness  to  facts  for  the  benefit  of  foreign  opinion  ; 
and  whether  or  no  the  Internationalists  think  this  popular 
feeling  should  be  gratified,  it  can  do  no  kind  of  good,  even 
to  their  own  cause,  that  they  should  be  simply  ignorant  of 
anything  so  human  and  so  huge. 

Now  a  democrat,  fpr  whom  democracy  is  a  living  conviction 
and  not  merely  a  long  word,  has  nothing  whatever  to  do, 
qua  democrat,  with  the  wisdom  or  perfection  of  a  popular 
demand  as  any  modification  of  its  political   right.     When 
he  is  sure  of  the  people's  will,  he  must  admit  the  people's 
authority,  if  he  is  a  democrat,  and  if  he  is  also  an  honest 
man.     That  all  retribution  or  expiation  is  barbaric  may  be 
a  part  of  enlightenment,  but  it  is  not  a  part  of  democracy  ; 
and  any  Use  of  it  to  evade  a  general  demand  is  a  denial  of 
democracy.    To    believe    that    the    German    criminal    will 
spontaneously  repent  of  his  crimes  may  be  in  itself  charitable, 
but  it  is  not  in  itself  democratic  ;  and  if  it  is  used  against  the 
general  will  it  is  anti-democratic.     Particular  men  who  hold 
the  de-mocratic  thesis  may  also  hold  that  men  should  not  be 
punished  for  murdering  girls.     For  that  matter,  they  may 
hold  that  ipen  should  not  be  discouraged  from  murdering 
girls,  or  that  men  should  be  warmly  and  enthusiastically 
urged  towards  murdering  girls.     But  they  do  not  hold  these 
things  as  part  of  the  democratic  thesis  ;  and,  if  they  let  them 
prevail  against  the  general  will,  they  do  not  believe  in  the 
democratic  thesis  at  all.     In  the  case  of  the  English  people 
there  is  only  onei  possible  alternative.     Either  Germany  must 
pay  for  the  wrong  which  the  people  believes  it  has  suffered  ; 
or  else  the  people  has  no  right  to  have  an  opinion,  or  no  right 
to  express  an  opinion,  or  no  right  to  make  the  opinion  which 
it  holds  prevail. 

But  it  will  no  doubt  be  very  earnestly  urged  that  an  opinion 
may  be  democratic  in  appearance  while  being  very  undemo- 
cratic in  origin.     It  is  implied  that  the  anti-German  feeling 
in  England  was  officially  and  therefore  artificially  produced. 
It  is  contended,  to  summarise  briefly  what  is  to  be  said  for 
this   view,    that   our  diplomatists  had   darker   motives  for 
spreadmg  a  theory  that  a  British  promise  when  made  to 
Belgmm  ought  to  be  kept,  and  that  a  German  promise  when 
made  to  Belgium  ought  not  to  be  broken.     These  intellectual 
departures,  it  is  implied,  were  first  encouraged  by  a  small 
knot  of  officials  a  few  years  ago  ;  and  so  subtly  disseminated 
by  them  that  they  have  since  come  to  have  much  the  appear- 
ance of  bemg  the  common  morality  of  mankind.     In  the  same 
way  these  British  sophists  so  prepared  the  soil  of  our  men- 
tality, that  when  a  German  soldier  (in  the  fulfilment  of  his 
native  discipline  and  natural  duty)  killed  the  village  priest 
as  a  punishment  for  the  patriotism  of  the  village  atheist,  it 
seemed  somehow  that  we  should  always  have  regarded  such 
an   action   as  in   some   way  unreasonable   or   unjust.     The 
ordinary  mass  of  men  (it  is  argued)  would  inevitably  have 
thought  It  natural  that  the  village  priest  should  be  regarded 
as  having  performed  the  actions  of  the  village  atheist  or  even 
of  the  village  idiot,  had  not  the  subtle,  fluent,  brilliantly 
eloquent  and  bewilderingly  universal  philosophers,  who  are 
the  younger  sons  of  our  English  countv  families  and  the 
products  of  our  English  public  schools,  misled  the  multitude 
by  the  music  of  their  rhetoric  and  the  audacious  novelty  of 
their  reasoning. 

I  may  be  excused  if  I  absolve  myself  from  the  further  strain 
ot  stating  this  thesis  seriously  ;  but  it  is  a  thesis  on  which  our 
enemies  almost  entirely  rely.  As  it  happens,  it  is  not  only 
intrinsically  imbecile,  but  is  relatively  the  precise  reverse  of 
tne  tact.  It  is  not  so  much  an  injustice  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment and  governing  class  as  a  gross  and  verv  excessive  compli- 
ment to  them.  It  attributes  to  them  much  more  foresight 
than  they  had,  and  an  attitude  in  which  they  would  since  have 
been  entirely  justified  if  only  they  had  had  it.  It  supposes 
the  governing  classes  to  have  been  the  anti-German  influence. 
As  a  fact.  It  was  the  governing  classes  who  had  always  been 
the  pro-Germari  influence,  and  the  only  pro-German  influence. 
It  IS  the  real  and  very  damaging  joke  against  the  most  educated 
part  of  England  that  for  decades  past  it  had  been  trying  to 
educate  the  mob,  and  trying  to  educate  it  all  wrong  The 
universities  were  pro-German,  the  fashionable  philosophies 
and  religions  were  pro-German,  the  practical  politics,  the 
social  reform  and  slumming,  were  all  copied  from  Germany  ; 
for  It  IS  the  whole  art  of  slumming  to  pay  no  attention  to  the 
opmioD  of  the  slums.     Only  in  the  slumps  would  you  have 


found  alread}'  a  resentment  against  the  German  shopkeeper, 
more  especially  as  the  German  shopkeeper  was  commonly  a 
German  Jew.  ^ 

Friendship   towards    Germany. 

Similarly  the  great  aristocratic  statesmen  like  Salisbury 
and  Rosebery  kept  in  close  alliance  with  the  German  Emperor  ; 
the  great  quarterlies  and  the  graver  magazines  discussed  him 
as  the  architect  of  Germany  and  the'  arbiter  of  Europe.  It 
was  only  the  coarse  caricaturists  of  the  gutter  who  called  him 
then  the  lunatic  we  are  all  calling  him  now. 

That  Germany  has  suffered  wrong  from  <jur  statesmen  is 
arguable  ;  that  she  has  inflicted  wrong  on  our  citizens  is 
self-evident.  To  say  that  these  things  are  merely  incidents 
of  war  is  merely  to  quarrel  about  words.  The  fact  which  a 
democrat  will  feel  important  is  the  fact  that  this  democracy 
does  regard  these  acts  as  something  much  worse  than  war. 
The  Germans,  for  instance,  have  poisoned  wells  ;  and  the 
wickedness  of  poisoning  wells  has  long  been  an  ordinary 
.  English  proverb  and  figure  of  speech.  The  Germans  intro- 
duced the  use  of  venomous  vapours  in  battle  ;  and  the  poor 
people  whose  sons  and  husbands  have  been  "  gassed  "  do  in 
fact  speak  of  them  in  a  style  never  used  about  other  wars, 
in  which  they  have  been  merely  wounded.  In  the  presence 
of  this  popular  feeling  all  the  international  talk  about  quarrels 
manufactured  by  Governments  is  perfectly  true  and  perfectly 
irrelevant.  Cynical  British  statesmen  might  have  poisoned 
men's  minds  against  Germany.  But  the  indignation  is  there 
because  men's  bodies  have  been  poisoned  by  Germans. 
Sensational  journalists  might  have  taken  away  the  characters 
of  a  race  of  foreigners.  But  the  feeling  has  not  been  created 
by  the  taking  away  of  characters,  but  by  the  taking  away  of 
lives. 

This  democratic  decision  was  embodied  and  emphasised  in 
the  famous  refusal  of  the  Seamen's  Trade  Union  to  take  Mr. 
Macdonald  to  Stockholm.  Here  again  it  is  quite  possible  to' 
talk  of  the  intrigue^  of  politicians  ;  and  here  again  it  is  quite 
irrelevant.  Anyone  who  chooses  is  at  liberty  to  say  that  the 
strike  may  not  have  been  spontaneous,  or  may  have  been 
prompted  by  a  secret  Government  order  ;  just  as  he  is  free  to 
say  that  it  may  have  been  prompted  by  an  ancient  English 
prejudice  against  Cossacks  or  by  an  ancient  Highland  feud 
against  Macdonalds.  But  if  anybody  says  that  such  a  strike 
could  not  have  been  spontaneous,  or  niust'huve  been  prompted 
from  above,  he  simply  knows  no  more  about  any  kind  of 
poor  Englishmen  than  I  do  about  the  man  in  the  moon. 

The  matter  seems  so  far  to  resolve  itself  into  the  very 
simple  question  of  whether  the  democratic  conference  of 
Europe  shall  or  shall  not  express  the  real  views  of  the  real 
democracies.  If  it  is  to  express  them,  there  is  not  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt,  in  the  case  of  the  allied  peoples  in  the  West,  about 
what  those  views  really  are.  It  is,  I  suppose,  physically 
possible  (though  morally  most  improbable)  that  they  should  ' 
be  forced  to  renounce  these  opinions  by  the  prolonged  torture 
of  a  pitiless  war  ;  just  as  it  is  possible 'for  a  philosopher  to  be 
forced  to  renounce  his  opinions  on  the  rack.  But  that  is 
not  the  procedure  now  most  favoured  in  the  enlightened  * 
schools  of  international  democracy,  as  a  method  of  finding 
out  a  man's  opinions.  It  is  presumably  conceivable  in  the 
abstract  that  we  should  be  physically  compelled  to  pay 
attention  to  German  proposals,  as  we  might  be  physically 
forced  to  pay  ransom  to  a  brigand.  But  we  should  not  say 
he  was  an  international  fellow-worker  ;  we  should  say  he  was 
a  blackmailer  as  well  as  a  brigand.  The  fact  remains  that 
upon  the  worst  and  wildest  possibility,  our  public  testimony 
could  only  be  pacifist  if  it  were  tortured  or  terrorised  ;  it  could 
not  possibly  be  so  as  long  as  it  was  true. 

I  repeat  therefore  that  the  question  simply  is  whether  the 
democracies  are  to  dare  to  say  what  they  mean  ;  or  whether 
a  tew  self-appointed  public  orators  are  to  announce  to  the 
world  that  they  mean  something  else,  which  we  all  know 
tiiey  do  not  mean.  This  strikes  me  as  involving  a  degree 
of  meekness  and  self-effacement  in  the  masses  infinitely  more  • 
abject  and  absolute  than  that  demanded  by  the  old  despotic 
foreign  policy  of  which  I  have  always  disapproved.  We 
talk  of  denouncing  secret  diplomacy  ;  but  at  least  the  diplo- 
macy did  have  to  be  secret.  That  a  policy  was  concealed  from 
the  people  was  itself  a  confession  of  the  power  of  the  people. 
Princes  and  Chancellors  hid  themselves  in  dark  places  from 
a  thing  like  a  thundercloud  or  a  deluge— democracy.  But  now 
fi,T  u/""!^  ^""^  '"  ^'■^^^  daylight  that  all  democrats  believe 
that  black  IS  white  ;  and  it  must  be  received  in  religious 
silence,  tor  those  who  were  once  hailed  throughout  the  worid 
as  democrats  are  democrats  no  longer.  The  democrats  have 
all  become  diplomatists.  In-  truth,  we  have  all  become  secret 
diplomatists,  and  must  for  ever  hide  our  hearts  from  each 
other  ;  for  in  each  will  be  the  dark  tale  of  a, frustrated  justice, 
which  we  desired  and  dared  not  demand. 


February    14,    19 10 


Land   6c    Water 


17 


W.wSL\.-K%.^-w*ewwrrrfMr»MrrrMMjrmrMMrMMatr^trfirjrgirrrjrrirfjrfff*Jrj^ 


Rural   Reformation  :    By  John  Ruan 


As  architect,  designer  and  craftsman  Mr.  C.  R. 
Ashbee  does  well  to  devote  the  greater  part  of 
his  ^^  book,  Where  the  Great  City  Stands 
■  (Batsford  :  2 is.  net),  to  the  affairs  of  the  city 
itself ;  but  we  shall  not  be  wasting  time  if  we 
regard  the  city  rather  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  countr}'. 
A  city  is,  after  all,  only  the  concentrated  expression  of^the 
land.  Just  as  man  himself  may  be  regarded  as  com  and  grass 
and  fruits  become  conscious,  so  his  most  elaborate  works 
are  only  reorganised  pro- 
ducts of  the  soil. 

If  the  war  has  taught 
us  anything  it  is  the 
supreme  importance  of 
the  land,  and  any  scheme 
of  social  or  industrial 
reconstruction  that  does 
not  start  with  the  country 
will  be  dealing  with  symp- 
toms instead  of  causes. 
The  time  is  long  past  for 
regarding  the  country  as 
a  mere  background  to  the 
town.  Even  granting, 
and  it  is  open  to  question, 
that  the  finest  effects 'of 
civilisation  in  philosophy, 
science,  literature  and  art 
are  produced  in  cities, 
the  relation  of  country  to 
town  is  still  that  of  root 
to  flower ;  and  unless 
the  one  be  healthy  the 
other  cannot  be  more  at  . 
Best  than  the  hectic  blos- 
som which  an  actual 
plant  puts  forth  when 
threatened  with  decay. 

Mr.  Ashbee  himself  de- 
votes his  last  chapter  to 
this  very  question.  He 
takes  for  his  text  Axiom 
X.  of  the  list  drawn  up  at 
the  beginning  of  the  bofek. 
"  In  an  industrial  civili- 
sation, the  reconstructed 
city  cannot  be  stable 
without  a  corresponding 
reconstruction  of  the 
country.  Town  and 
country  should  be  corre- 
lated, and  react  upon  one 
another.  This  correla- 
tion is  a  necessary  con- 
sequence of  the  conditions 
of  machine  industry." 

With  the  prevision  that  town  and  country  react  upon  one 
another  whether  you  will  or  not,  and  in  any  conditions  of 
industry,  those  are  wise  words,  but  in  order  to  get  the  full 
wisdom  of  them  it  is  necessary  to  consider  them  in  more 
detail  than  the  axiomatic  form  allows.  What,  for  example, 
is  meant  by  the  "  reconstniction  of  the  country  "  ?  First" 
of  all  it  mcaas  the  re-establishment  of  human  beings  in  some 
secure  footing  on  the  soil  ;  and  that  brings  in  the  question  of 


Tyberton  Cross,  Herefordshire 


ownership.  This  is  hardly  the  place  to  weigh  the  respective 
claims  of  State  and  private  ownership,  and  it  is  enough  to 
say  that  in  either  case  the  peasant  must  be  something  more 
than  an  exploited  labourer.  Whether  he  owns  his  land  or 
rents  it  from  the  State  or  from  a  private  landlord,  he  must  be 
allowed  that  interest  in  his  labour  upon  it  for  which  the 
right  word  is  artistic. 

This  is  not  a  counsel  of  perfection  ;  it  is  a  counsel  of  neces- 
sity ;    and  anybody  who  has  lived  among  country  workers 

knows  that  one  of  the 
most  tragic  things  in 
country  life  is  the  struggle 
between  this  persistent 
interest  and  bad  con- 
ditions of  employment. 
The  countryman  who  does 
not  want  to  do  his  work 
better  than  he  is  allowed 
to  do  it  is  the  exception 
rather  than  the  rule.  A 
great  deal  has  been  said 
about  the  "  incentives  " 
to  labour.  There  is  only 
■  one  incentive  to  labour 
that  is  worth  practical 
consideration — it  is  plea- 

•  sure    in    the     job.      Let 
the  incentive  be  wholly, 

!    or   mainly,   the   hope   of 

•  profit,  and  sooner  or  later 
■,  the  man  will  find  out  a 
'.    way  of  scamping  his  job 

and  still  securing,  or  try- 
ing to  secure,  his  profit. 
•  Then,  apart  from  the 
question  of  labour,  there 
are  all  the  questions  of 
life  ;  of  housing,  educa- 
tion, social  intercourse 
and  recreation.  These 
are  not  new  questions 
brought  into  existence  by 
the  war  ;  they  are  old 
neglected  problems  seen 
by  the  light  .of  the  war 
to  be  soluble  and  press- 
ing for  solution.  And 
their  solution  must  come 
from  within.  It  is  no 
use  for  clever  gentlemen 
to  go  down  from  the  city 
to  put  the  country 
straight.  They  can  help 
to  supply  the  machinery, 
but  they  must  be  shown 
the  needs  by  people  who 
have  suffered  from  them  ;  who  know  by  bitter  experience 
the  conditions  that  are  covered  by  the  words  "  rural 
England."  This  means  organisation  in  the  country 
itself.  In  every  village  there  must  be  a  pooling  of 
experience.  The  prof)lems  of  birth,  nourishment,  bodily 
and  mental,  marriage,  domestic  economy  and  sickness  as 
they  are  conditioned  by  country  life  must  be  examined  m 
council  by  people  who  have  lived  the  life  ;    not  merely  as 


i8 


Land  &  Water 


February    14,    igi8 


pastors  and  masters,  however  benevolent,  but  as'workers  on  scious  reason  is  based  upon  the  larger  subconscious  mind. 
the  land  all  these  problems  are  implied  in  rural  refonna-  Indeed,  the  green  spaces  of  the  city  might  very  well  be 
tion,  and  the  problems  involved  in  the  correlation  of  compared  to  .the  inspiring  and  refreshing  intrusions  of  the 
town  and  country  are  not  less  urgent  or  less  native.  They  sub-conscious— call  it  day-dreaming  if  you  like— into  everv- 
are  mainly  problems  of  the  market,  and  from  the  ppint  of     day  affairs  that  most  of  us  experience. 

view  of  the  welfare  of  the  community  they  cannot  be  solved  One  of  the,.^best  things  about  Mr.  Ashbee's  book  is  the 
by  captains  of  mdustry  or  princes  of  commerce  thinking  and     bold  way  he  faces  the  question  of  machinery.     As  he  says  : 

, "  The  distinction  between  what  should  and  what 

should  not  be  produced  by  machinery  has  in 
many  trades  and  crafts  now  been  made.     This 
has  been  the  discovery  of  the  last  twenty-five 
years."     He  might  have  added  that  it  is  only 
when     the    distinction    is    clearly    made    tKat 
handicrafts  can  come  into  their  own.     So  long 
as   there   is  any  doubt  about  it  good  craftsmen 
will  waste  their  skill  in   doing   by  hand  what 
can  be  done  better  by  machinery  ;    and  on  the 
other  hand  machinery  will  degrade  production 
by   imitating    things    designed  to  be  done    by 
hand.     The  moment  it  is  recognised  that  there 
IS  no   special    merit   in  either  except   that   of 
adaptation  of  means  to  end,  there  is  no  longer 
any  point    in   either    the   competition    or    the 
imitation.     A  division  of  labour  is   made,  and 
the  thing  is  frankly  designed   to   be  done    by 
hand  or   machinery.     It  is  quite  certain  that 
we  shall  not  escape  from  the  "  tyranny  of  the 
machine  "  by  refusing  to  make  use  of  it.     The 
only  way  is  to  go  on  and  master  the  machine 

^, ^^      as  we  have  mastered  the    simpler  implements 

The  Norman   Chapel  at  Campden,   Gloucestershire,  as         ''V'uf  ^"''''P- 

rpnai'rpH     ^ritU^A^,.-  i>"'ic,    at,  jhis,   of  course,   applies   to   country  labour 

repaired,    with   additions  as  much  as  to  town  labour  ;   the  tractor  plough 

working  from  the  city.     The  country  must  find  and  control     Pl^rfri.      .  """^f   ^°  ^^'^y-     "^^^  ^^^y   distribution   of 

Its  own  market.  Something  may  be  done  with  exS  tlsks  ran^ TV  IT^"']'/  dozen  ways  in  which  country 
machinery;  though  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  a  machfnew  narHrnl.H  ^^^^''''^,  l"'"  ^he  benefit  of  the  labourer-^ 
lughly    organised    to     check     production    and     uneaSe     Sh!f^  ^«'     labourer's    wife.      Undoubtedly    this 

distribution  for  private  profit-which  is  what  the  exSne  ^K  .nH  .  %'^'u  .^P°"  ^^"  landscape.  Picturesque 
rnachinery  of  commerce  really  is-can  be  made  to  work  f"?  f  if  •  ^  ^^'J'SShng  hedgerows  wiU  disappear  in  the  broader 
the  welfare  of  the  commnnitv      rh.."lt.^  .uT'''^^  ^""^      technique     of    new    methods ;    very    much    as    a    certai^ 

cosiness   in   country   life   wiU    eo   to   be    mnr.   tha.     '.ir 


the  welfa^e-'of  th^'Vommunly.'^YhTrelsT 
TtllifCtel  "'  ^'^   i  ^^  P^^-"*   food'litS'on' 

^^'^^:^^^  Sn  "^r^^oT^ 

that  private  profit  m  the   needs  of  the  people  ^  ' 

IS  not  compatible  with  public  welfare  ;   which 

lonrtlr'^ "' "'  '^"^  '^^"  ^^y^^  f-  ' 

It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  a  reformed 

refC^'^Vr"^^  r^°  ^  "*y  automaticaUy 
reformed.  The  madne^  of  cities  is  caused  by 
poBon  m  the  country,  for  the  relation  of  town 
AnS  "^  u  T  ""^"^^  that  of  brain  to  bod  " 
Anyl^dy  who  has  come  into  close  contact  with 
the  insane  knows  that  the  most  fantaTtic 
delusions  can  often  be  traced  to  bodily  causes 

the  IftlTJf  ^°r  "^^  ^"""y  storL  abo"  t 
the  effect  of  homely  remedies  upon  the  state 
of   imaginary    kmgs.    What    is    needed    is    a 

The  English  landed  class,  in  allowine  the  rr>pl 
factorv  bells      AK^        T^  ^^^^''''-  o'"  ^ork  to 


cosiness  m  country  life  wiU  go  to  be  more  than  com- 
pensated for  by  the  increase  in  communal  interests;  for, Ts 
Mr.  Ashbee  pmnts  out,  the  machinery  must  be  under 
common  control ;  in  a  word  be  "  socialised." 


Home  Place.     By  E.  S.   Prior 

[These  photographs  are  reproduced  fron.  Wkere  ike  Great  City  Stands.-^ 


February    14,    19 18 


Land  &  Water 


9 


Women's  Village  Councils :    By  F.  G.  Hamilton 


Till  we  have  built  Jerusalem 

In  England's  green  and  pleasant  land. 

AT  a  meeting  held  at  the  Old  Wattle  House,  on  the 
Fair  Green,  Findon,  a  little  South  Downs 
village,  the  first  of  the  Women's  Village  Councils 
was  formed  on  October  2nd,  1917,  with  the 
purpose  of  assisting  the  Rural  District  CouncU 
by  a  voluntary  inquiry  into  village  needs,  present  and  future, 
in  connection  with  the  Local  Government  Board's  State-aided 
Housing  Scheme.  The  demand  made  for  fifty  State-aided 
cottages  was  based  on  an  analysis  by  the  vicar,  who  has 
long  experience  of  the  various  causes  of  the  housing  shortage 
and  of  the  evils  arising  from  it. 

It  is  now  evident  that  this  small  local  effort  has  become, 
almost  unconsciously,  the  pioneer  of  a  great  movement  for 
the  development  of  the  rur(i  woman,  and,  through  her  agency 
and  personality,  of  the  country  side.  In  rapid  succession 
other  Women's  Village  Councils  were  formed  in  West  Sussex, 
each  with  its  peculiar  local  features,  but  with  a  common 
aim  ;  in  Norfolk,  West  Runton  is  leading  the  way.  Inquiries 
are  pouring  in  from  all  parts  of  England  as  to  the  formation, 
methods  and  scope  of  these  voluntary  Councils. 

The  idea  of  reconstruction  is  grasped  slowly  in  the  country 
where  a  healthy  clash  of  opinion  is  rare,  and  the  mission  of 
the  W.V.C.'s  is  to  act  as  searchlights  on  bad  conditions,  and 
then  to  use  their  influence  and  power  for  their  removal  and 
the  substitution  of  better  things. 

As  originally  formed,  the  first  W.V.C.  had  for  its  single  aim 
the  building  of  fifty  State-aided  cottages  after  the  war  through 
the  agency  of  the  Rural  District  Council,  in  a  village  where 
the  accommodation  fell  short  of  requirements  present  and 
future.  It  was  seen,  however,  that  to  achieve  this  end,  and 
to  have  a  real  share  in  development  on  progressive  lines,  that 
more  woman-power  would  be  necessary  on  Parish,  R-ural 
District  and  County  Councils.  Maternity  and  chUd  welfare 
came  naturally  into  the  thoughts  of  a  body  composed  mainly 
of  mothers,  and  Mr.  Herbert  Fisher's  Act,  the  rationing  of 
education  as  it  has  been  wittily  called,  dealing  with  children 
of  all  ages,  made  it  imperative  to  give  education  a  place.  The 
Findon  Women's  Village  Council  declared  their  aims  to  be  : 
To  obtain  first-hand  information  of  great  value  to  the  nation 
on  conditions  of  housing,  maternity  and  child  welfare,  and 
education  under  the  new  Act. 

To  enable  the  genuine  working  woman  to  educate  herself  to 
take  her  place  on  Parish,  Rural  District,  and  County  Councils, 

The  W.V.C.  consists  at  present  of  nity  members  (to  be 
added  to)  who  have  elected  a  President,  a  respected  village 
mother,  who  has  suffered  great  family  losses  in  the  war,  two 
Joint  Hon.  Secretaries  and  an  Hon.  Treasurer.  Fortunately, 
finance  plays  a  small  part  in  local  work,  though  the  expenses 
of  the  Federation  *  are  growing. 

The  following  resolution  was  passed  unanimously  at  Findon, 
and  it  is  hoped  will  be  sent  forward  by  all  other  W.V.C.'s 
on  their  formation  : 

We  have  pleasure  in  reporting  to  the  Local  Government 
Board  that  the  Findon  Women's  Village  Council  (for  the 
purpose  of  collecting  evidence  for  the  State-aided  housing 
scheme)  has  been  formed  by  general  notice,  and  we  beg  that 
we  may  be  recognLsed  as  representing  working  women  in 
Findon,  and  we  ask  that  we  may  be  consulted  in  all  reforms 
and  schemes  connected  with  our  village. 

Copies  of  the  resolution  were  sent  to  the  Parish,  Rural 
District  and  County  Councils.  With  the  exception  of  the 
latter  Council,  the  only  replies  received  have  been  bare  printed 
or  typed  acknowledgments,  officialism  remaining  strongly 
entrenched  behind  red-tape  entanglements.  A  simple  consti- 
tution, on  broad  lines,  was  drawn  up  and  voted  upon  by  the 
members  of  the  W.V.C,  the  ordinary  business  procedure  being 
observed  at  aU  Council  meetings. 

A  Federation  of  Councils  has  been  formed  to  give  unity  and 
weight  to  the  movement,  and  in  addition,  an  advisory  council 
of  experts,  on  wjiich  men  and  women  have  equally  been  invited. 
A  cottage  survey  form  has  been  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Henry 
Chapman,  suitable  for  amateur  use,  yet  sufficiently  technical 
for  professional,  and  to  be  a  convincing  record  of  conditions. 
In  one  of  the  villages  such  a  survey  has  been  carried  out  in 
fifty-three  "  open  "  cottages,  no  "  tied  "  cottages  belonging 
to  landowners  or  tenant  farmers  have  been  visited,  it  being 
understood  that  these  are  of  modern  construction,  and  in  fair 
repair.  The  analysis  of  the  fifty-three  good  and  bad  cottages 
gives  these  facts  :    That  the  internal  arrangements  do  not 

*  Further  information  of  the  W.V.C.  Federation  can  be  obtained  from 
the  Hon.  Sees.,  Mrs.  Hamilton  and  Miss  Mackenzie,  Kyleinore,  Findon, 
Sussex. 


correspond,  except  in  the  newest  cottages,  with  the  external 
appearance  of  the  structure  and  roof.  In  forty-three  the 
water  supply  is  unfiltered  rain  water,  there  being  neither 
company's  water,  nor  main  drainage  in  the  village.  In  twenty- 
two  damp  comes  up  from  the  ground,  sixteen  have  damp  walls, 
five  have  no  back  doors,  ^twenty-nine  have  no  sinks  for 
waste,  every  drop  of  water  has  to  be  thrown  out  on  the 
garden,  washing  days,  bath  nights,  every  day,  and  all  day. 
Only  ten  of  the  fifty-three  possess  three  bedrooms,  in  thirty- 
seven  the  sanitation  is  so  primitive  that  it  hardly  deserves  the 
name  ;  there  is  no  gas  ;  kitchen  ranges  have  been  fitted  in 
most  cottages,  but  there  are  bedrooms  with  no  fireplaces. 

The  pre-war  wages  of  the  tenants  are  generally  given  as 
25s. — though  there  are  higher  and  lower  scales.  Rents  vary 
from  2s.  to  5s.  bd.,  when  rates  at  6s.  in  the  £  are  added. 

Already  the  action  of  the  W.V.C.'s  is  evoking  hope  for  the 
future  in  the  trenches,  and  stimulating  the  wives  and  mothers 
to  greater  effort.  Where  bad  "  tied  "  cottages  are  known 
to  exist  the  W.V.C.  wiU  bring  them  under  the  observation 
of  the  local  medical  Officers  of  Health  and  Sanitary  Inspectors. 
In  theory,  these  officers  are  independent,  but  official  and 
social  considerations  make  it  extremely  difficult  for  them  to 
press  a  point  where  a  recommendation  is  disregarded  or 
disallowed.  Some  system  of  inspection  by  independent 
surveyors  is  absolutely  necessary  if  conditions  suitable  to 
maternity  and  child  welfare  are  even  to  be  approached  and 
the  nation's  children  are  to  become  the  nation's  care.  It 
must  be  considered  how  narrow  and  self-centred  the  outlook 
on  general  affairs  becomes  in  rural  districts,  coloured  by  local 
interests,  and  held  in  check  by  fear ;  but  where  child  life  is 
concerned,  the  results  are  found  to  be  so  sure  and  deadly  that 
the  W.V.C.  count  on  national  support  in  their  demands  and 
effort  for  betterment. 

That  fifty-three  tenants  in  a  village  should  have  offered 
their  cottages  for  survey  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  newly- 
formed  determination  to  fight  these  evils,  and  of  the  desire 
for  homes  with  some  of  the  ordinary  conveniences  and  comforts 
of  civilisation,  the  absence  of  which  involve  daily  drudgery 
and  are  often  an  offence  to  decency. 

On  this  point  too  much  praise  cannot  be. given  to  village 
mothers  for  their  struggle  to  uphold  a  good  moral  standard 
in  their  children  under  many  difficulties.  These  women  have 
often  been  in  comfortable  service  before  marriage,  and  feel 
the  contrast  of  surroundings  acutely.  Unfortunately,  their 
very  efforts  to  preserve  appearances  have  beSn  detrimental 
to  real  improvement — the  unseen  is  the  unguessed  at.  The 
district  nurse  gets  behind  the  scenes,  but  in  many  neigh- 
bourhoods she  does  not  yet  exist. 

When  State-aided  building  begins  there  must  be  a  strong 
resolve  to  put  the  interests  of  children  first ;  they  must  be 
saved  from  fly-polluted  food  in  cottages  "  close  to  stables," 
from  long  tramps  to  school  in  mud,  rain,  snow,  or  summer  sun 
from  their  homes,  placed  in  some  remote  spot  for  the  con- 
venience of  a  labourer's  work.  Young  mothers  must  be  within 
reach  of  doctor  and  nurse.  Provision  wiU  have  to  be  made 
by  landowners  for  subsidiary  industries  necessary  to  their 
estates — for  example,  blacksmiths,  wheelwrights,  builders, 
.masons  and  those  tradesmen  who  supply  the  workers'  wants. 
The  "  open  "  cottages  are  at  present  overcrowded  with  these 
men  and  their  families,  and  those  employed  in  local  industries. 

The  case  of  week-end  cottages  will  have  to  be  considered  ; 
they  are  negligible  as  regards  reasons  of  shortage,  but  have  a 
bearing  on  village  life.  The  habit,  by  no  means  an  un- 
mitigated evil,  may  prove  the  salvation  of  many  a  charming 
old  dweUing,  not  ill-adapted  for  week-end  use  in  summer, 
though  unsuited  as  a  home  for  a  young  family. 

These  considerations  are  familiar  to  the  country  women, 
to  whom  the  separation  allowances  have,  for  the  first  time, 
given  a  measure  of  independence,  and  this  freedom,  further 
extended  by  her  potential  value  as  a  voter,  helps  to  explain 
the  startling  rapidity  with  which  a  new  movement  is  gaining 
ground.  The  Women's  Village  Councils  formed  of  women 
who  live  in  cottages,  claim  to  play  a  considerable  part  in  the 
reformation  of  rural  England. 


There  was  a  notice  in  our  issue  of  January  31  si  of  the  New 
English  Art  Club,  which  contained  reproductions  of  certain 
pictures  now  on  exhibition.  Owing  to  a  regretttfble  mistake 
two  pictures  were  wrongly  described.  "  The  Storm,"  by  Professor 
William  Rothenstein,  should  have  appeared  under  the  lower 
illustration,  the  upper  illustration  being  "  Whernside,"  by 
C.  J.  Holmes.  We  much  regret  this  mistake,  which  we  under- 
stand has  given  rise  to  some  confusion  in  the  minds  of  our  readers. 


20 


Land   &  Water 


February    14,    igio 


Life  and  Letters  Gj  J.  C  Souire 


Mr.  Shaw's  Critics 

ITHIXK  I  have  read  more  books  about  Mr.  Bernard 
Shaw  than  about  any  author,  not  exceptmg  Shake- 
speare :  which,  of  course,  is  what  Mr.  Shaw  wou  d 
think  most  reasonable.  I  cannot  remember  them  all. 
There  was  Mr.  Chesterton's.  There  was  Professor 
Archibald  Henderson's.  There  was  Mr.  Joseph  M-Cabe  s. 
There  ^vas  M.  Augustin  Hamon's.  Tliere  was  Mr.  P.  P.  Howe  s. 
There  was  one  by  a  Miss  Somebody.  Jhere  vv-ere  others. 
And  now  there  is  one  more.  It  is  called  Bernard  Shaw  :  7  he 
Man  and  His  Work  (Allen  &  Unwin,  4s.  6<f .  net)  and  its  author 
is  Herbert  Skimpole,  B.A.,  hitherto,  unlike  the  island  of 
Tenedos,  not  known  to  fame. 

»  •  ♦  *  * 

It  is  a  wonderful  coUection.  Mr.  Chesterton's  book  is  a 
sane,  amusing-and.  incidentally,  a  very  chivalrous,  piece  of 
criticism  But  the  rest  make  the  most  grotesque  body  of 
critical  literature  in  existence.  The  great  salient  fact  about 
them  is  that  they  are  about  a  man  who.'if  he  is  allowed  nothmg 
else  must  be  allowed  to  be  funny,  and  that  they  are  aU  utterly 
humourless.  Some  of  them  are  soberly  antipathetic  ;  most 
of  them  are  soberly  reverential ;  all  of  them,  whilst  their 
subject  gambols  like  a  jackpudding,  stand  about  the  platform 
in  grave  attitudes  with  constricted  brows. 

M  Hamon,  the  unique  French  translator  of  Mr.  Shaw, 
was  candid  enough  (in  his  B.  Shaw :  the  Tieenlieth  Century 
Moliire)  to  confess— though  he  hadn't  the  least  idea  what  he 
was  doing— that  it  was  jears  before  he. realized  that  his  hero 
made  jokes  : 

Impressed  by  the  profundity  of  the  ideas,  by  the  penetrating, 
terse  and  logical  criticism  of  society,  I  gradually  came  to  enter- 
tain an  enthusiastic  admiration  for  your  plays,  which  voiced 
so  many  of  the  ideas  which  I  myself  had  at  heart.     Yet  their 
essential  comedy  remained  largely  unperceived.     I  saw. only 
the  substance  of  the  ideas,  and  this  was  so  intensely  luminous 
as  actually  to  bhnd  me  to  the  spirit  of  comedy.     It  was  not 
until  at  Brussels,  on  February  7th,  1907,  Candida  was  staged, 
that  my  eyes  were  opened,  although  still  incompletely,  to  the 
beauties  of  your  drama. 
This  passage  alone  made  M.  Hamon's  book  worth  having, 
but  he  keeps  it  up  all  through.     He  tells  one  that  "  Shaw  is 
a  Socialist  to  the  marrow  of  his  bones,  so  much  a  Socialist 
that  when  he  married  in  i8g8  he  married  another  Socialist  "  ; 
that    '.'  in    the  country  Shaw  wears  a  Norfolk  jacket  and 
knickerbockers,  the  traditional  dress  of  the  English  sports- 
man .  .  .     Since  he  attained  to  wealth  he  has  had  a  motor- 
car, and  this  leads  him  to  neglect  the  bicycle  "  ;    and  that 
"  it  is  untrue  to   assert  that  he  acts  as  he  does  in  order  to 
make  people  dislike  him."     That  is  a  book  worth  haying. 
So  was  Mr.  M'Cabe's.    Professor  Henderson  beat  them  both. 
He,  in  a  volume  which  vied  in  size  with  Masson's  Life  of 
Milton,  not  merely  gave  one  photographs  of  every  house  in 
which  Mr.  Shaw  had  ever  lodged,  but   (unless  my  memory 
deceives  me)  took  the  greatest  pains  to  discover  with  what 
brand  of  ink  Mrs.  Shaw  senior  used  to  mark  her  son's  baby- 
clothes.     There  never  was  such  detail.     And  there  never  was 
such  profound  awe.     Whenever  the  word  "  Shaw  "  appeared' 
it  was   delivered  as   though  it  were  "  Mumbo- Jumbo  "  and 
this  amazing  professor  high  priest  of  the  cult. 

m  *  *  *  * 

Why  is  it  that  there  are  innumerable  books  about  Mr.  Shaw 
and  (I  think)  only  one  about  (say)  Mr.  Conrad  ?  And  why 
have  the  books  about  Mr.  Shaw  so  peculiar  and  distinctive  a 
badness  ?  Mr.  Herbert  Skimpole,  at  whom  I  now  arrive,  is 
fully  equal  to  his  illustrious  predecessors.  I  thought  he  would 
be  when  I  saw  this  on  the  paper  wrapper  of  his  book  : 

What  is  the  true  Shaw  ?  In  this  work  Mr.  Skimpole  takes  a 
new  view-point  of  Shaw  the  Man,  and  depicts  him  not  as  a 
living  legend,  but  as  a  very  contemporary  human  being. 

There  is  a  prudence  and  exactitude  about  that  "  very 
contemporary "  ;  observe  how  Mr.  Skimpole  eschews  the 
customary  exaggerations  of  hero-worship  and  refrains  from 
describing  Mr.  Shaw  as  "  the  only  contemporary  man  on 
earth."  He  is  merely  more  than  usually  contemporary,  more 
contemporary  than  most :  and  the  definiteness  of  this  promises 
well.  The  preface  clinches  it.  "  I  must  not,"  concludes  Mr. 
Skimpole, 

omit  to  convey  my  gratitude  to  Nordau,  Henderson  and  the 
others  whose  works  I  have  freely  used  in  my  study  of  Shaw, 
and  particularly  to  Gilbert  Chesterton,  whoni  I  have  imbibed 
through  the  medium  of  all  his  books. 


Which  certainly  sounds  as  though  Mr.  Chestferton,  perhaps 
as  a  punishment,  perhaps  as  a  reward,  for  his  insistence  upon 
liquor,  had  been  turned  into  beer. 
So  we  go  on : 
There  can  be  no  mistake  about  the  effect  that  Shaw  has  had 
on  the  English.      He  has  awakened  them  out  of  their  self- 
complacency,  like  a  clap  of  thunder,  instead  of  lulling  them  to 
sleep  with  sweet  sentimentalities,  like  a  prose  Tennyson. 

***** 
This  panegyric  is  followed  by  a  sentence  which  has  that 
unconscious  ambiguity  which  finally  stamps  Mr.  Skimpole  as 
a  worthy  successor  of  Mr.  Henderson :  "  Round  the  cradle 
of  Bernard  Shaw  moved  little  messengers  of  evil,  bearing 
tidings  of  the  woes  and  wailings  that  were  falling  upon  the 
whole  nation."  The  magnificenf  movement  of  Mr.  Skimpole's 
prose  continues :  _ 

The  tall  compact  form  is  an  excellent  symbol  of  his  lofty  but 
orderly  ideals  ;  the  strange  shape  of  his  face  and  cranium, 
whose  two  halves  are  so  asymmetrical  that  the  profiles,  when 
photographed,  cannot  be  recognized  as  belonging  to  the  same 
person,  is  a  significant  parallel  to  the  way  in  which  his  soul 
is  divided  by  eternal  conflicts ;  the  burning  hair  is  a  mark 
of  the  hot  strife  within  the  skull  .  .  . 

Where,  I  wondered,  had  t  seen  this  before  ?  Then  I 
remembered  the  seaside  speeches  of  the  mad  Moslem  in 
The  Flying  Inn.  I  cannot  go  on  quoting  indefinitely  ;  but 
a  few  more  extracts  will  give  the  quality  of  this  remarkable 
study  : 

'  Shaw  was  right.  London  was  just  then  in  an  unusually 
heated  state  of  fervid  discontent.  Reformers  and  revolution- 
aries were  spreading  their  nets  like  entomologists  throughout 
the  city,  catching  up  as  disciples  all  the  af-dour  and  impetu- 
osity of  the  youths  of  the  city. 

It  is  only  when  we  are  out  in  the  cool  air  of  the  evening  again 
that  we  remember  that  Shaw  is  our  great  satirist,  and  that  he 
is  probably  laughing  in  his  sleeve  at  our  horror  all  the  time. 
Of  little  infants  and  schoolchildren  I  cannot  remember  any 
examples  in  the  plays. 

I  see  in  a  sort  of  prophetic  vision  the  works  of  Shaw  studied 
in  the  schoolroom  when  his  fame  is  already  a  half-remembered 
legend  on  the  stage. 

The  one  amusing  sentence  in  the  work  is  that  in  which  he 
proves  that  Shaw  is  not  merely  perverse  by  saying  :  "  If 
Shaw  had  merely  wished  to  be  against  ordinary  diet  because 
it  was  ordinary,  he  might  as  well  have  become  a  Cannibal."' 
But  perhaps  he  has  ;  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  a  develop- 
ment one  would  keep  pretty  dark. 

«  *  *  *  * 

Mr.  Shaw  is  a  great  wit,  and  he  has  written  at  least  one 
perfect  comedy.  He  has  economic  doctrines,  solid,  and  not 
peculiar  to  himself.  But  what  attracts  all  these  queer  people- 
is  his  habit  of  promiscuous  speculation  about  established 
morals  and  ideals,  and  about  the  even  more  established 
emotions  which  underlie  them. 

The  followers  are  grim  eccentrics  who  are  always  ready  to- 
believe  that  black  is  white,  and  are  fascinated  by  anyone  who- 
_  throws  out,  however  his  cheek  may  bulge  with  his  tongue,  the 
suggestion  that  polyandry  has  its  points  or  that  our  ape-like 
ancestors  made  a  mistake  in  relinquishing  the  horizontal  for 
the  upright  posture.  Mr.  Shaw  scatters,  amidst  a  good  deal 
of  hard  rational  thinking,  little  blasphemies  against  every- 
thing that  men  believe  and  feel,  and  casual  challenges  of 
the  truth  of  almost  anything  generally  accepted  as  a  fact. 
He  does  it  partly  in  order  (as  a  man  may)  to  discover  which  of 
his  shots  hit  some  sort  of  a  mark,  and  partly  because  a 
blasphemy  (I  don't  mean  in  the  purely  theological  sense)  is- 
the  kind  of  joke  that  amuses  him  most,  and  raises  the  most 
piquant  laugh,  and  he  cannot  resist  one  even  if  it  spoils  a 
careful  serious  effect.  Then  along  come  these  bottomless 
cranks  to  genuflect  before  or  gloomily  analyse  the  pseudo- 
philosophical  persiflage  and  the  speculative  potshots.  The 
accident  that  Mr.  Shaw  writes  plays  instead  of  treatises  leads 
them  to  foUow  literary  precedent  and  discuss  "  Shaw  the 
Man,"  his  relations,  marriage,  and  sportsman's  breeches,, 
instead  of  concentrating  entirely  upon  his  remarkable  succes- 
sion of  tentative  theories.  The  result  is  the  most  compre- 
h,ensively  silly  series  of  biographies  on  record. 

No  man  of  Mr.  Shaw's  literary  performance  has  ever  been- 
so  ill  praised  ;  no  man  of  his  brains  has  ever  had  so  asinine  a 
herd  of  followers.  It  is  all  his  own  fault,  and  he  could  only- 
put  himself  right  by  composing  a  really  candid  play  about 
his  biographers.  For  let  there  be  no  mistake,  he  is  not  the- 
sort  of  crank  that  they  are. 


February   I4,  191H 


Land    Sc    Water 


2 1 


I— BoDLEY  Head  Novels— i 

To  Cheer  and  Charm  you  in    War  Time 
THE      WANDERER      ON     A      THOUSAND 

HILLS.       By  EDITH  WHERRY.  Author  of  "The  Red  Untern." 

"  In  converting  into  comprehensible  English  terms  the  actual 
workings  of  the  celestial  mind,  Miss  Whern,-  has  accomplished 
what  has  hitherto  been  impossible.  The  story  is  a  consummate 
work  of  art." — Globe. 


THE  SMITHS  IN  WAR  TIME.    By  keblk  hovard. 

One  of  the  most  fascinating  books  Mr.  Keble  Howard  has 
written.  The  New  Statesman  says  :  "  Keble  Howard  exercises 
again  his  unfailing  gifts  of  simple  humour  and  simple  pathos. 
I  could  read  for  ever  this  sort  of  tiling."  (2nd  Edition. 


STEALTHY  TERROR.  Br  john  ferguson. 
Though  by  a  new  author,  this  book  has  caught  on  at  once,  and 
new  editions  are  already  being  called  for.  All  the  critics  agree 
that  it  is  a  book  "  you  cannot  put  down,"  and  it  is  compared 
favourably  with  "The  Thirty-nine  Steps"  and  "Dr.  Jekyll 
and  Mr.   Hyde."  *  (2nd  Edition. 


HIS      JOB.       B^    HORACE    BLEACKLEY,    Author    ol    "The    Life    of 

John   Wilkes,    etc. 

Mr.  Horace  Blcackley  has  made  his  name  as  a  writer  by  his 
studies  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  both  in  Biography  and 
Fiction,  but  the  present  novel  is  a  story  of  modern  industrial  life, 
written  by  somebody  who  evidenlly  knows  it  from  the  inside. 


"MR.   MANLEY."    By  g.  ,.  whitham. 

"  For  a  heroine  with  so  much   sense,   spirit   and   courage  as 
Maude   Fielding  the   novel-reader   ought   to   go   down   on   his 
knees  in  thankfulness.      ■  Mr.   Manley  '  deserves  higher  praise 
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"A  most  remarkable  achievement." — Pall  Mall  Gazette. 


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22 


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Books    of  the    Week 


West  Point.  By  Robert  C.  RrcHARDSON,  Junior.  Illus- 
trated,    (x.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.     8g.  6d.  net 

The  Bag  of  Saffron.  By  B.\roness  von  Hutten.  Hut- 
cliinson  and  Co.     h'^-  net. 

Captivity  and  Escape.  By  Jean  Martin,  a  French 
Sergcant-Major.     John  Murray.     5s-  net 

Nineteen  Impressions.  By  J._  D.  Bekesford.  Sidgwick 
and  Jackson.     6s. 

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ston-. Illustrated.  Simpkin,  Marshall  and  Co.  is.  6d. 
net. 


w 


Point.     It 
pt-ndence, 


ITH  the  American  Armv  fighting  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  the  Allies  in  France, 
everything  that  appertains  unto  it  becomes  of 
sjKcial  interest.  There  is  no  better  known 
militan'  institution  in  the  world  than  West 
^    link    with    America's  struggle    for    inde- 


and    forms     the    main    connection    of 


all  her 
fighting  hitherto.  An  intimate  picture  of  this  national 
military  academy  and  of  the  life  of  the  cadet  there  has  been 
written  by  Captain  Robert  Richardson,  2nd  Cavalry .  U.S. 
.\rmy.  and  is  appropriately  enough  published  by  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  for  Putnam  is  a  name  honourably  associated 
with  West  Point.  The  situation  of  the  Academy  on  the 
banks  of  the  River  Hudson  is  most  picturesque,  as  can  be  seen 
from  the  photograph  reproduced  here  from  this  volume. 
The  discipline  is  severe,  and  the  life  itself  demands  that  the 
youth  shall  have  character  and  grit,  if  he  is  to  derive  full 
benefit  from  the  traditions  that  have  been  slowly  built  up  during 
the  last  hundred  years.     How  high  is  the  military  opinion  held 


West  Point  from  the   Hudson  River 

of  a  West  Point  man  in  the  United  States  may  be  judged  from 
the  dedication  to  this  volume,  in  which  it  speaks  of  the  corps 
of  cadets  as  "representative  of  the  best  American  manhood 

the    most    highminded,  loyal,  disciplined    body    of 

student  officers  in  the  world."  The  book  is  very  pleasantly 
written  ;  it  touches  on  history  lightly  but  illuminatively  ;  the 
story  of  the  cadet's  career  at  West  Point  is  brightly  and 
amusingly  told,  and  we  are  given  as  an  index  a  glossary  of  its 
peculiar  slang,  none  of  which,  with  one  exception,  seems  to 
have  any  common  meaning  with  English  slang. 
*         *  .  '  ♦         *         * 

The  article  whch  gives  its  title  to  the  Baroness  von  Hutten's 
latest  book,  The  Bag  of  Saffron,  was  a  curious  old  jewel  of  the 
Janeways  family,  wliich  the  head  of  the  family  gave,  only  to 
one  woman  in  each  feneration — and  that  woman,  stood  for 
the  best  of  her  generation.  Nicoleta  Blundell,  commonly 
known  as  "Cuckoo,"  was  an  unpromising  person  as  recipient 
-)f  this  gift  ;  the  daughter  of  a  worthless  father,  she  grew  up  in 
the  care  of  her  aunts  with  a  cramped  soul,  and  a. passion  for 
material  good  of  life  that  prevented  her  from  realising  that 
there  are  other  things  tlian  material  well-being.  ■  In  a  moment 
<jf  pique  she  contracted  a  foolish  marriage— or  so  it  seemed 
at  the  time— with  a  poor  artist,  and  later, '  having  grown  so 
tired  of  poverty  that  she  consented  to  run  away  with 
Janeways,  she  was  divorced  and  married  to  the  owner  of 
the  bag  of  saffron,  from  whom,  eventually,  in  curious  fashion, 
she  won  the  gift  by  winning  her  own  soul. 

Such  an  outline  of  the  plot  may  not  make  the  book  appear 


commendable,  but  those  who  know  the  work  of  tliis  author 
will  understand  that  the  story  is  told  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
it  worth  while.  There  is  a  quaint  and  quiet  humour  running 
through  the  narrative,  and  a  presentation  of  the  characters 
that  is  better  than  realism  of  the  modern  sort.  There 
are  passages  reminiscent  of  Jane  Austen's  descriptive  genius, 
more  especially  the  way  in  which  one  is  led  to  see  how  much 
of  worth  there  was  in  this  "  Cuckoo  "  who  hterally  lived  up 
to  her  nickname,  and  knew  all  the  time  that  she  had  no  nest  of 
her  own,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  "  things  "  she  wanted,  believing 
that  they  would  make  life  of  value,  went  on  striving  to  occupy 
other  nests.  Her  portrait,  and  that  of  Peregrine  Janeways, 
the  owner  of  the  bag  of  saffron,  are  real  creations  on  the  part 
of  the  author  ;  they  are  studies  of  unusual  folk,  and  yet  of  two 
people  with  such  traits  as  we  recognise  and  like  or  detest 
every  day  of  our  lives.  The  book  is  in  many  ways  the  best  that 
this  author  has  written. 

***** 

M.  Jean  Martin,  author  of  Captivity  and  Escape,  takes 
care  to  warn  his  readers  that  hi?  experiences  must  not  be 
taken  as  typical  of  all  German  concentration  camps,  for  there 
are  some  establishments  in  Germany  in  which  prisoners  are 
treated  like  men.  Having  read  the  book,  however,  we  take 
this  statement  with  a  certain  amount  of  doubt,  for  this 
Frenchman  unfortunately  corroborates  the  accounts  given 
by  many  British  prisoners  of  their  experiences  in  the  hands 
of  the  Huns. 

But  M.  Jean  Martin  had  sufficient  sense  of  humour  to  make 
good  "  copy  "  of  even  the  worst  experiences  ;  it  shows  in  the 
clever  drawings  with  which  he  has  illustrated  his  work,  as 
well  as  in  the  actual  writing,  which  tells  of  food — or  the  lack 
of  it— in  prison  camps,  of  barbarous  punishments  inflicted 
on  the  slightest  pretexts,  of  the  horrible  monotony  of  life, 
varied  only  by  German  attempts  to  break  the  spirit  of  the . 
prisoners,  and  finally  of  escape  carefully  planned  and 
dramatically  achieved. 

Possibly  in  the  last  chapter,  which  tells  of  the  escape  to  a 
neutral  country,  the  author  has  done  his  best  work,  for  it  is 
a  breathless  bit  of  reading,  with  a  thrill  to  every  half-dozen 
lines.  The  added  attraction  in  this  part  of  the  story  may  be 
due  to  the  fact  that  prisoners  are  many,  and  escapes  are  few. 

1*  1*  1*  n*  *** 

It  was  once  said  of  J.  D.  Beresford  that  he  "  mixed  brains 
with  his  writing,"  and  in  his  latest  volume.  Nineteen  Im- 
pressions, he  has  continued  the  practice.  The  contents  of  this 
book  are  certainly  impressions  rather  than  stories,  and  each  of 
them  is  distinctive  in  idea — and  in  execution  as  well.  It  is  a 
cold  survey  of  the  universe  that  Mr.  Beresford  affects  ;  he  has 
a  fine  sense  of  the  inevitable,  and  is  but  little  concerned  with 
sympathetic  pi-eseritment.  So  long  as  he  achieves  accuraCN' 
he  troubles  little  about  the  harshness  of  the  lines  which  com- 
pose his  pictures.  Evidence  of  this  may  be  found  practically 
in  all  of  these  "  impressions,"  and  most  of  all  in  The  Ashes 
of  Last  Night's  Fire  "  and  The  Great  Tradition.  Probably 
most  readers  will  find  the  last  sketch.  Lost  in  the  Fog,  the  best  ; 
it  is  the  story  d1  a  village  in  the  mist  where  the  various  families 
qoarelled  among  themselves  and  killed  each  other  over  a 
quarrel  which  ^started  through  the  greed  of  one  particular 
group.  It  is  a  little  parable  of  the  war  and  the  ugliness  of 
war,  and  is,  too,  the  only  impression  out  of  the  nineteen  which 
is  in  the  least  connected  with  the  war. 

***** 

Sir  Harry  Johnston's  account  of  the  coloured  races  who 
have  taken  part  in  trie  war  is  issued  under  a  slightly  mis- 
leading title.  The  Black  Man's  Part  in  the  War,  for  the  book  is 
more  an  account  of 'the  coloured  races  themselves  than  the 
part  they  have  taken  in  the  struggle.  It  outlines  the 
characteristics  of  practically  all  the  coloured  races  under  British 
rule,  and  such  a  work  could  be  done  by  no  better  authority, 
for  Sir  Harry.  Johnston  has  devoted  a  lifetime  to  the  study  of 
these  races,  and  for  such  a  sketch  as  this — in  the  limits  of  such 
a  book,  only  a  sketch  is  possible — he  is  admirably  qualified. 
The  book  deals  with  the  people  of  East  and  West  Africa,  and 
with  the  natives  of  the  Pacific  Islands,  as  well  as  the  coloured 
West  Indian  population,  and  it  is  packed  with  facts  relating  to 
tribar  characteristics  and  racial  differences.  There  is,  at  the 
same  time,  a  good  deal  of  information  about  the  work  of  these 
peoples  in  the  war,  but,  as  might  be  expected  from  such  an 
authority  on  the  subject,  the  peoples  themselves  are  given  more 
prominence   than    their   war   activities. 


f^       TOR     ^-^'  \ 

I  GOGGLES  I 
J[^AWINDOW5  L 


'  [  ^^  <^^  "^ 


^  THE  ONUY  . 
SAFETY  CLASS 


Februdjy   14^   19 18 


Land    &   Water 


23 


700 

Children  a  Month! 

nrHE  Belgian  Children's  Fund  in 
-*■  Holland,  under  the  Presidency  of 
H.S.H.  Princess  A.  de  Ligne,  brings 
sick  and  debilitated  children  from 
Belgium  into  Holland,  clothes  and 
feeds  them,  gives  them  medical  care, 
and  when  restored  to  health  has  to 
return  them  to  Belgium,  for  funds  do 
not  permit  more.  They  deal  with 
(about)  700  cases  a  month. 

WILL    YOU    NOT    HELP 
WITH    THIS    GOOD   WORK? 


Remittances  should  be  sent  to  the  Hon. 
Treasurer,"  Working  Men's  Belgian  Fund," 
32  Grosvenor  Place,  London,  S.W.I 
ear-marked  "  Belgian  Children's  Fund," 
Registered  War  Charities  Act,  1916. 


lllllllllllllli.Millilllllllll llliiUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINIIIilliiiillllliiiiilliMllmlli Ml iiiililllllllllllllNllilllllllltHlli 


Al 


an  s 


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Self'measurement    forms    on 
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g 


\A  e  continue  to  sell  our  Norwegian  Trench  Boots  at 
£5    15s.   Od.   per  pair. 

Ankle   Marching    Boots  " 

£3  3s.   Od.   and   £3    15s.   Od.   per  pair. 

Gaiters  in  various  styles  30/^  and  35/'  per  pair. 
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NOW 


V 


is  the  time  to  prepare! 

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nPHE  complete  "  Ubel "  line  is  illustrated  in  our 

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and  damp  prciof.  The  movement  i«  fully 
jewelled  and  fitted  with  Micrometer  Regu- 
lator to  give  fine  adjus'nicnt,  hy  means  of 
which  it  can  he  regulated  never  to  lose  or 
yain  nioretha"  4  seconds  per  day.  Kach 
watch  i*i  adjusted  and  compensated  for  all 
positions  and  tcmpTatutes,  and  is  guaran- 
leed  to  stand  all  the  shocks,  jars,  and 
strains  to  which  a  wrist  wiUch  is  subjected 
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years -the  "Q"  I'ockol  Alarm  Watch  assures 
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desired  time,  and  its  note  Is  soft  and  mellow,  yet 
insistent  and  unmistakable.  Kvenif  siirronnded 
bv  noise  its  vibrations  compel  one's  attention. 
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the  watch  may  be  stood  at  the  bedside  ready  to 
awaken  one  m  the  morning.  Fully  luminous 
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Land    &    Water 


February    14,  igi8 


♦ 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


Scotch  Tweed 
Suits 
like  and  attractive. 


Names  and  addresses  of  shops.  Mere  (he  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  will  be  forwarded  ^on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
addressed  to  Passe-PartotU.  Land  &  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  IV.C.  2.     Any  other  tn/ormation  mill  be  given  on  request. 

Knockabout  suits  are  the  desidera- 
tum  of  everv   won-i;in   now-a-days, 
sometliiiig  that  she  can  spend  most 
of  her  day  in  and  always  look  woman- 
Nothing,  of  course,  in  ttiis  particular 
category  quite  eclipses  a  well-cut  tweed  suit — but  tweed  and 
cut  alike  must  be  nowhere  short  of  first-rate. 

A  well  known  shop  is  laying  special  emphasis  on  their 
Scotch  tweed  suits  selling  at — considering  the  present  cost 
of  tweeds — an  exceptionally  reasonable  pric-e.  They  are 
excellently  cut,  and  the  materials  are  carefully  chosen, 
durable  ones,  certain  to  last  and  wear.  One  model  in  par- 
ticular appeals,  a  perfectly  plain  well-tailored  coat  and  a  skirt 
actually  boasting  the  old-fashioned  type  of  useful  pockets 
concealed  either  side  of  the  front  panel.  Tliere  is  a  tweed  belt 
and  a  general  air  of  finish  about  the  whole  thing  not  always 
easy  to  find.  Another  capital  feature  is  the  waterproofed 
lining  to  the  coat — a  boon  this,  now  so  many  women  are  out 
in  all  weathers. 

The  range  of  colours  is  a  big  and  vastly  attractive  one, 
blues,  greens,  browns,  violets,  pinks  and  mixtures  being  all 
represented.  Coats  and  skirts  are  willingly  sent  on  approval, 
or  a  range  of  patterns  can  be  forwarded.  Buying  these  suits 
is  a  chance  not  to  be  lightly  set  aside.  Tweeds  are  likely  to 
be  di;3,wn  into  the  shortage  vortex  before  many  months  are 
over,  and  in  any  case  their  prices  are  abundantly  certain  to 
mount.  There  is  another  Scotch  tweed  model  with  a  belt  and 
big  patch  pockets — an  inserted  pleat  behig  adroitly  introduced 
at  the  back  of  the  coat,  while  some  real  Connemara  and 
Harris  tweed  suits  are  so  desirable  that  few  seeing  them  will 
refrain  from  going  a  step  further  and  purchasing. 

Before  choosing  a  new  spring  frock 

Something    New     everyone  should  choose  a  new  corset 

in  Corsets  — there  being  true  economy  in  the 

idea  since  the  success  of  the  first 

hinges  entirely  on  that  of  the  second.     A  really  good  corset 

at  a  reasonable  price  is  not  the  easiest  of  things  to  find,  but  a 

famous  firm  whose  name  for  years  has  been  syonymous  with 

value  has  got  it.     Their  "  Ravissant  "  corset  is  every  single 

thing  a  stay  should  be,  running  through  the  widest  gamut  of 

quality,  style,  and  prices  and  in  consequence  suiting  everyone, 

no  matter  what  their  Tcquirements  arc. 

There  is,  for  example,  the  guinea  model,  as  certain  to 
achieve  fame  as  that  syimmer  is  coming.  This  is  what 
might  be  called  "  a  good  all-round  stay,"  it  is  light, 
ha.s  unbreakable  bones,  and  is  high  at  the  back  to  give  welcome 
support  just  about  the  shoulders.  A  stay  like  this  suits  the 
majority  of  tigures, 

Big  women  ,  however,  will  specially  welcome  the 
"  Ravissant  "  stay  made  for  their  particular  benefit.  This 
is  so  arranged  in  front  that  when  the  wearer  sits  down  extra 
room  is  at  once  allowed.  Standing  up  suspenders  auto- 
matically restore  it  to  place  and  everytliing  is  in  position. 

For  war-workers  there  is  the  Tricot  Ravissant,  a  very  lightly 
boned  stay,  giving  ample  play  and  freedom  and  no  more  than 
I2S.  <")d.  in  price.  Then  there  is  a  Ravissant  de  Lu.\e,  a  stay 
of  satin  broche,  model  33,  for  6 ;;s.,  and  many  others,  so  that  ail 
sides  of  the  picture  are  duly  considered.  Every  detail  of  these 
stays,  be  they  high  or  low  priced,  is  carried  out  by  an  e.Kpert, 
and  their  patrons  are  bound  to  be  content.  .\n  assortment  wi'l 
be  sent  on  approval,  but  any  new  customers  will  facilitate 
despatch  by  suppljdng  a  London  trade  refeience. 

One  of  the  most   important  matter^ 

The    Collapsible    in  a  baby's  entourage    is    the   bath 

ggfU  in  which   he   begins    and     ends    his 

day.     A  collapsible    bath  is  an  idea 

particularly    well    worth    heeding     from    more    than     one 

point  of    view.       For    one    thing   it  is    raised,    being  slung 


in  such  a  way  that  anyone  bathing  a  baby  can  do  so  with 
greatest  ease,  not  having  to  stoop  in  the  usual  back-aching 
manner.  Then  when  not  wanted  it  folds  perfectly  flat  and 
can  be  put  in  any  nook  or  corner  well  out  of  the  way. 

Emptying  presents  no  difficulty,  there  being  a  special 
arrangement  to  let  the  water  out,  while  for  travelling  it  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  ideal. 

Lately  a  great  feeling  has  sprung  up  for  folding  things,  but 
on  every  side  it  is  perfectly  understandable.  The  mere 
possibihty  of  being  able  to  fold  up  a  thing  and  put  it  away 
enhances  its  value  at  once,  for  it  is  not  everyone  with  roomy 
houses  and  space  to  spare — added  to  which,  numbers  of  (oik 
are  now  birds  of  passage. 

Everyone  knows  fiow  difficult  it  is 
No  More  Stained  to  keep  forks  really  clean,  especially 
Forks  when  the  domestic  staff  is  not  one 

of  vast  dimensions.  Eggs  and  such 
like  things  have  an  untoward  habit  of  staining  between  the 
prongs,  with  the  unwelcome  result  that  the  dinner  table  is 
often  not  the  immaculate  affair  it  ought  to  be. 

In  the  old  order  of  things  fork  prongs  were  most  obstinate 
to  clean,  requiring  a  considerable  amount  of  time  and  labour 
to  keep  them  anything  like  in  condition  at  all.  Now  this  is  all 
changed,  they  can  be  kept  perfectly  clean  and  shining  through 
the  good  offices  of  the  simplest  little  contrivance,  the  "  Unecdit" 
Fork  PoUsher.  This  is  easy  to  work  and  so  immediate  in  its 
results  that  ten  forks  can  be  brought  up  to  the  mark  in  the 
space  of  one  minute.  Powder  is  put  on  the  polishing  strands, 
the  prongs  of ,  the  fork  inserted  between,  and  with  a  few 
movements  up  and  down,  the  excellent  deed  is  done.  Backs 
and  fronts  are  then  just  rubbed  along  a  single  strand  and  the 
whole  prong  of  a  fork  is  as  bright  and  attractive  as  it  should 
by  rights  be. 

A  few  other  details,  all  of  the  most  uncomplicated  character, 
combine  to  make  this  polisher  the  ingenious  contrivance  it 
is'^nd  one  upon  which  the  inventor  has  every  cause  to  be 
congratulated.  Before  the  p^lisher  is  used  forks  should  be 
washed  and  all  grease  removed.  It  costs  3s.  6d.  post  free, 
or  will  be  sent  accompanied  by  a  tin  of  specially  good  plate 
powder  for  4s. — powder,  polisher  and  posting  combined. 


By  Way  of 
Information 


Golf  shaped  woven  knickers  in 
stockinette  or  cashmere  have  long 
been  easy  to  get,  but  women  find  it  a 
different  matter  when  they  want  the 
same  shape  in  longcloth,  cambric  or  nainsook.  Yet  washing 
ones  of  this  sort  are  often  needed,  and  many  a  weary  search 
has  been  made  for  them.  A  certain  firm  specialise  in  this 
particular  type  of  pnnt.ilon  from  4s.  i  id.  They  are  edged  with 
embroidery  and  are  one  and  all  the  quintessence  of  durable - 
/  wear.  Some  are  run  at  the  waist  into  an  elastic  and  very 
comfortoble  thev  are.     Three  .different  sizes  are  available. 

They  will  tte  gladly  forwarded  on  approval,  provided  anyone 
not  already  known  to  the  firm  supplies  the  customary  London 
reference.  Passe-P.vrto-jt^ 


Provided  D.  H.  Evans  of  Oxford  Street  have  a  say  in  the  matter, 
nothing  but  praise  can  greet  the  hats  of  the  spring.  For  llie  new 
models  showing  are  all  and  everything  a  spring  liat  should  be,  and 
quite  enough  to  make  us  even  prematurely  discard  winter  headgear. 
It  is  abundantly  certain  that  brocade  hats  of  all  sorts  and  sliapcs  will 
have  it  all  their  own  charming  way.  Evans  are  showing  any  number 
of  these,  notably  a  dark  blue  and  gold  brocade  model  with  >oinething 
unusually  clever  in  the  way  of  a  blue-beaded  ornament.  Then  there 
are  some'dehghtful  high-draped  toques  of  satin,  a  high  black  satin  one 
draped  in  precisely  the  right  way  just  awaiting  some  uncommonly 
lucky  owner.  A  hat  of  legal  and  loof-ih  straw  in  many  different 
combinations  of  colouring  and  trimmed  simply  .with  a  bow  and  tie  of 
ribbon  is  cheapness  personsified  at  i8s.,  while  novelty  marks  some 
hats  of  pedal  straw  for  its  own.  These  have  clever  little  crochet  bands 
finished  off  with  a  tiny  beaded  motif — are  in  all  colours  and  cost  no 
more  than  twenty-five  shillings.  Quite  exceptionally  charming,  too, 
is  a  hat  of  basket  straw  in  a  picturesque  Dolly  Varden  shape  for  25/9. 
It  is  tied  and  bound  with  ribbon  and  boasts  a  bright  little  floral  picquet. 
In  rose  colour  it  looks  as  charming  as  a  hat  can — but  many  oth.-r 
colours  are  also  in  the  running  and  e.iu.iUv  hard  to  beat. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXX  N02911.  [yTA]        THURSDAY.  FEBRUARY  21,  1918  [r^kl^i^^^^ik] 


PUBLISHED    WEEKLY 
PRICE    NINEPEN  CK 


Copyright    1«17   in  V.S.A. 


Cofj/Tight  "Land  <£   tfattr' 


Wilson's  Answer  to    Hertling 

The  Spirit  of  Washington 


Land    &   Water 


February   21,  19  1-8 


A  German  Double-storied  Pillbox 


Bv    Lieut,    faul  Hash. 
(An  Official  Artut   at  the   ytont.) 


On    rten   *t   th« 
Leicetttr     Qalleriet. 


This  pillbox  of  reinforced  concrete,  a  landmark  in  the  GSeluvelt  district,  was  a  great  obstacle 

to   our  advance  before  it   was  finally  captured.     Note  halfway   up  on  the  right-hand  side  a 

5*9  in.  shell  which  is  sticking  in  the  concrete.     It  is  now  in  British  occupation 


February  21,  i  g  i  8 


Land    &    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Tclephoat  :   HOLBORN    2828. 


THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  21,  1918 


Contents  p^^,. 

The  Spirit  of  Washington.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

A  Double  Pill  Box.     By  Lieut.  Paul  Nash  2 

The  Outlook  3 

The  Meaning  of  Ukraine.     By    Hilaire   Belloc  5 

An  American  Critic.     By  Arthur  Pollen  o 

A  Clyde  Shipyard.     (Photograph)  9 

Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book  10 

John  Rathom's  Revelations.     Part  IL  11 

The  Sleuth  Hound.     By  Alec  Waugh  I4 

New    Reform    Bill.     By    Jason  ^5 

English    Treasures    in     Russia.     (Illustrated).  By     J. 

C.  WiUiamson  ^7 

German  War  Medals.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  19 

Merrv-  England.     By  J.   C.   Squire  20 
Position  of  the  Landowner.     By  Sir  Herbert  Matthews     22 

Domestic  Economy  ?4 

Notes  on  Kit  ^^- 


The  Outlook 

ON  Tuesday  of  last  week  there  was  a  violent 
scene  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the  significance 
of  which  was  much  greater  than  that  attaching 
to  most  movements  in  this  assembly.  The 
Prime  Minister  was  defending  a  policy  decided 
at  Versailles,  also  the  impossibility  of  divulging  its  nature  for 
fear  of  informing  the  enemy,  when  he  appeared,  in  a  phrase 
he  chanced  to  use,  to  accuse  Mr.  Asquith  of  desiring  such 
divulgence.  This  accident  was  but  the  spark  which  fired 
material  already  very  explosive,  and  a  curious  combination 
of  three  very  different  elements,  which  between  them  made 
up  a  great  mass  of  the  House,  raised  a  storm  of  protest. 

The  Prime  Minister  explained  that  his  words  did  not  bear 
the  signification  attached  to  them,  but  his  apology  was 
received  in  silence,  and  there  followed  direct  accusations  of  his 
dependence  upon  a  certain  section  of  the  Press,  or  at  least  of 
liis  connection  with  it.  These  accusations  the  Prime  Minister 
in  turn  denied.  Later,  the  matter  which  was  in  everyone's 
mind— the  recent  Press  campaign  against  the  Higher  Com- 
mand of  the  Army  and  in  particular  the  Chief  of  the  Staff — 
was  alluded  'to,  and  the  suspicion  that  this  Press  campaign 
was  part  of  the  Government's  policy.  Allusion  was  also 
made  to  Cf)lonel  Repington's  exposure  of  this  policy  in  the 
Morning  Post. 

The  next  day,  Wednesday,  a  note  was  officially  com- 
municated to  the  Press  (appearing  'in  the  daily  papers  of 
Thursday  morning)  that  the  Chief  of  Staff,  Sir  William 
Robertson,  might  vacate  his  post  at  an  early  date  and  take  a 
position  of  high  influence  if  he  cared  to  do  so.  Again,  the  fol- 
lowing day,  Thursday,  the  Secretary  of  the  War  Office  issued 
the  further  note  that  "  no  official  authorisation  exists  for  the 
statement  circulated  by  the  Central  News  (the  agency  through 
which  the  original  statement  had  been  made)  with  regard  to 
Sir  William  Robertson.  On  Saturday,  however,  a  third 
official  message  reached  the  Press,  to  the  effect  that  the 
(iovernment  had  with  much  regret  accepted  Sir  William 
Robertsfjn's  resignation  and  appointed  Sir  Henry  Wilson  in 
his  stead.  The.  Sunday  Times,  however,  published  a  state- 
ment, as  given  by  Sir  William  Robertson  to  their  repre- 
sentative, that  the  distinguished  soldier  had  indeed  refused 
to  accept  a  new  post  at  Versailles  or  to  take  another  post, 
but  that  he  had  not  resigned  :  the  inference  remained  that 
he  had  been  dismissed. 

Meanwhile,  the  Government  had  decided  to  prosecute 
Colonel  Repington  and  the  Editor  of  the  Morning  Post 
under  the  Defence  of  the  Realm  Act,  and  on  Saturday  the 
case  came  on  before  the  magistrate  at  Bow  Street  Police 
Court.     It  was  adjourned  until  to-day. 

The  interest  of  the  incident  in  the  House  of  Commons  lay, 
of  course,  in  the  fact  which  had  been  loudly -^nd  universally 
discussed  for  man>-   weeks  outside   (for  it   was  of  common 


knowledge)  that  the  great  newspaper  Trust  which  has  vir- 
tually governed  this  country  for  18  months  and  more  had  been 
allowed  to  attack  the  Higher  Command  without  any  check 
from  the  Government.  It  had  long  been  felt  intolerable 
that  public  power  should  be  ^•ested  in  such  hands,  and  that 
the  real  authors  of  policy  were  not  the  Ministers  of  the  Crown 
but  a  power  which  could  make  and  unmake  such  Ministers, 
and  which  was  apparently  immune  from  the  general  law 
governing  us  all  in  these  times  of  necessary  discipline. 

The  House  of  Commons  only  expressed  in  a  very  belated 
an(J  rather  chaotic  fashion  what  public  opinion  had  felt  \vith 
rising  anger  for  a  long  time  past,  and  thus  for  the  first  time 
in  many  years  acted  in  a  fashion  more  or  less  representative 
of  its  constituents.  So  far  as  the  House  of  Commons  is  con- 
cerned, the  matter  is  of  no  great  moment,  but  the  opinion 
which  was  for  once  in  a  way  represented  by  that  assembly 
is  of  real  mpment  at  this  crisis  of  the  war. 

The  public  is  quite  indifferent  to  the  private  quarrels  of 
politicians.  They  have  passed  from  being  things  of  third- 
rate  interest  to  being  things  of  no  interest  at  all.  But  it  is 
acutely  interested  in  the  disastrous  revolution  in  methods 
of  Government  which  it  has  seen  with  dismay  and  has  been 
apparently   unable   to   check. 

Briefly,  this  revolution  consists  not  only  in  the  deposition 
of  this  politician  or  the  nomination  of  that,  but  much  more 
in  the  framing  of  national  and  now  even  military  policy  by  the 
newspapers  referred  to.  This  influence  is  not  now  in  the  main 
exercised  by  their  circulation,  but  it  is  rather  an  influence 
which  is  exercised  by  putting  unfair  pressure  upon 
individuals.  And  as  its  motives  are  nearly  always  personal, 
as  its  authors  are  often  ill-informed,  it  is  felt  that  such  a 
situation  has  passed  the  limits  of  endurance. 

The  protest  in  the  House  proceeded,  as  we  have  said,  from 
three  bodies.  A  tiny  handful  of  silly  Pacifists  ;  a  rather 
larger  group  of  professional  politicians  who  would  like  to 
replace  their  present  more  fortunate  colleagues  in  office  ; 
and  a  very  large  body  of  the  rank  and  file  who  rarely  speak 
and  who  are  composed,  as  to  their  persoimel,  of  soldiers, 
country  squires  and  the  rest,  much  more  nearly  representative 
of  the  English  people  than  the  small  habitual  troupe  which 
occupies  the  stage  of  the  House. 

The  Pacifist  element  in  the  demonstration,  insignificant 
not  only  in  numbers  but  in  capacity,  had  the  obvious  motive 
of  doing  anything  that  could  interfere  with  administration 
of  any  sort,  and  therefore  with  the  conduct  of  the  war.  The 
rather  larger  professional  group  had  the  equally  obvious 
motive  of  professional  politics.  But  the  great  mass  of 
members  who  joined  in  the  demonstration,  joined  in  it  not  so 
much  as  Members  of  Parliament,  but  as  ordinary  citizens, 
who  had  the  advantage  of  expressing  in  that  place  what  was 
felt  by  them  and  bM  decent  men  of  similar  education  outside. 

There  is  an  unfortunate  tendency  in  the  newspapers  to 
make  the  subject  a  matter  of  debate  as  though  it  were  one 
of  the  old  tawdry  quarrels  of  small  coteries  for  place  and 
salary,  already  badly  blown  upon  in  the  years  before  the  war. 
There  is  a  still  more  unfortunate  tendency  in  one  or  two 
papers  to  represent  it  as  a  debate  on  the  policy  of  Surrender. 
With  the  public  there  is  no  discussion  of  this  kind. 

The  public  at  large  is  determined,  if  it  can  only  find  the 
power,  that  misgovernment  by  any  section  of  the  daily  Press 
shall  cease.  Unfortunately,  it  does  not  possess  organs 
through  which  to  express  that  determination  or  to  exercise 
that  power,  and  it  is  hardly  credible  that  the  House  of 
Commons,  in  the  condition  to  which  it  has  sunk,  will  continue 
to  act-  in  a  representative  capacity  in  spite  of  its  little  scene 
of  the  other  day.  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  public 
meetings  or  the  mere  vague  fear  of  consequence  on  the  part 
of  the  culprits  may  effect  the  desired  reform.  At  any  rate,  if 
it  is  not  effected  we  shall  lose  the  war  and  with  it  the  liberties 
and  the  future  of  this  country. 


Just  before  dawn  last  Thursday  the  French  Infantry 
stormed  and  occupied  a  small  but  awkward  salient  on  the 
Champagne  front  between  Tahure  and  the  Butte  du  Mesnil. 
The  attack  was  on  a  front  of  just  under  a  mile  and  covered  a 
depth  of  about  the  same  extent,  reaching  and  occupying  the 
German  third  fine.  The  immediate  object  was  the  reduction 
of  this  rectangular  projection,  the  situation  of  which  gave  it 
the  power  of  annoying  the  French  line  east  and  west  of  it,  but 
this  was  net,  of  course,  the  main  purpose  of  the  operation, 
which  otherwise  might  have  been  performed  at  any  time  in 
the  last  two  and  a-half  years.  The  salient  has  existed  since 
September  1915.  The  real  motive  was  the  training  in  co- 
operation   of    the    new    American    batteries.      These,    with 


Land    &    \\'ater 


February   21,  igi8 


certain  British  pieces  in  addition,  furnished  the  barrage  fire 
which  covered  the  advance  and  the  further  fire  cutting  off 
the  enemy  communications.  We  are  not  told  whether 
the  heavy  p  eces  <f  the  Al  ies  other  than  French  heavy  pieces 
were  also  concerned  in  the  preparation. 

This  small  operation  was  thoroughly  successful,  and  it  is 
interesting  as  being  the  first  occasion  upon  which  French  and 
Americans  have  acted  together  upon  any  considerable  scale. 


The  Court  Martial  sitting  in  Paris  to  try  Bolo  Pasha  for 
treason  brought  in  a  unanimous  verdict  of  "  Guilty  "  last 
Thursday  against  the  accused,  upon  all  five  counts  : 

(:)  Of  having  entered  into  "communication  with  an  enemy 
power,  to  wit,  Germany — through  the  Ex-Khedive. 
U)  With  having  received  money  sent  by  the  German  Govern- 
ment to  create  a  Pacifist  movement  in  France. 
(3)  and  (4)  With  having  received  German  money  in  1915 
and  1916  with  the  object  of  influencing  French  newspapers  in 
the  enemy's  favour, 

(5)  With  having  furnished  a  politician,  Humbert,  with  enemy 
money  with  the  same  object. 

Bolo  was  condemned  to  death,  and  his  accompUce,  or  rather 
tool,  Porcherc,  to  three  years  imprisonment.  There  is  a 
right  of  appeal  on  the  form  of  the  trial  only.  The  verdict 
was  given  just  after  7  .p.m.  A  large  crowd  which  had 
gathered  during  the  evening  outside  the  Law  Courts  loudly 
cheered  the  result  of  the  trial. 


As  we  remarked  last  week,  the  real  interest  of  these  affairs 
is  the  change  which  has  come  over  the  position  of  professional 
fwlitics  in  France  as  elsewhere.  Bolo,  both  from  his  financial 
position  and  from  his  connection  with  Parliamentary 
pohticians,  was  the  sort  of  man  regarded  as  immune  ;  and  it 
would  have  certainly  been  impossible  to  condemn  him,  even 
to  a  mild  sentence,  before  the  change  of  temper  produced  by 
this  great  struggle.  But  any  sign  of  showing  favouritism  to 
such  people  to-day  when  the  great  mass  of  the  male  popula- 
tion have  been  subject  to  the  rigours  of  martial  law  for  more 
than  three  years,  would  have  provoked  an  explosion,  and  no 
one  in  the  French  Parliament  intervened,  openly  at  least, 
to  shield  the  culprit. 

The  verdict  marks  an  epoch  on  the  history  of  modern 
parliamentarism,  and  the  progress  of  the  change  vrill  be  noted 
with  anxiety  and  interest  as  the  trials  of  Humbert  and 
Cailaux  come  on.  These  men  being  themselves  parlia- 
menlarians  and  therefore  less  really  powerful  than  the 
financiers  behind  them,  are  none  the  less  more  in  the  hme- 
light  and  the  pubhc  fear  and  anger  lest  they  should  receive 
privi  ege  is  more  acute. 

It  is  a  curious  example  of  the  misunderstandings  produced 
by  the  stram  of  the  war  that  the  methods  employed  by 
Bolo  should  have  led  to  such  different  conclusions.  The 
German  money,  as  has  now  been  proved,  was  employed  in  two 
distmct  ways.  It  was  employed  to  distribute  Pacifist 
literature  of  the  less  sincere  and  more  virulent  type  as  widely 
as  possible  ;  it  was  also  employed  to  purchase  shares  in  the 
patriotic  Press,  and  especially  in  the  extreme  sections  of  it 
I  he  latter  manoeuvre,  in  spite  of  its  obvious  motive,  has  been 
completely  misjudged  by  those  who  have  not  compared  dates 
It  had  nothing  to  do  with  paying  for  extreme  jingo  statements 
m  order  that  they  might  be  used  in  Germany— as  roundabout 
a  way  of  domg  one's  country  good  as  the  supposed  Govcrn- 

uZ  ffvP*"'*  °^  •^"''°/  •'  ^*  "^^^  ^'"^Ply  an  attempt  to  get 
hold  of  the  majority  of  shares  in  order  gradually  to  change 
the  policy  of  the  paper,  to  spread  doubt  and  dissension  while 
still  openly  supporting  a  continuation  of  the  war,  and  so  to 
lead  the  large  mass  of  readers  who  still  believed  the  journal 

1,^  ?1f  ^'y"?"/  '"*?  ^  "'^"^  °^  'despair  upon  the  issue. 

What  the  tnal  has  shown,  and  what  presumably  the  further 
trials  will  also  show,  is  that  the  enemy  uses  his  money    ust 

^K^"?  '^"u  ""^^  r*^'^  ^''P^^*  h™  to  "se  it.  He  does  not 
subsidise  obscure  sheets  written  by  fanatics  and  read  by  little 
choues  ;    still  less  does  he  indulge  in  fantastic  combina  ons 

.^dPl°.''J°'^f""'^^'"''"  ^"^^ked  in  the  hope  ha 
such  attacks  wiU  somehow  or  other  do  him  good  bv  reacting 
on  home  opinion.  He  pays  the  corrupt  Prels  of  0^  t?rSe"S 
two  wavs^  First  by  subsidising  the  (listribution  on  a  large 
scale  of  Pacifist  literature  when  he  finds  a  working  chance  If 
such  a  distribution  ;  secondly,  by  getting  hold  of  a  con 
troUing  number  of  shares  in  a  Japer  hitherti  pa  rio?k  Lthat 
Its  tone  may  be  imperceptibly  changed,  not  to  Pacifism  wS 
would  at  once  be  spotted,  but  to  ditsension  and  doubt 

It  i3  a  cunvMs  commentary  on  hfe  in  peace  time  that  the 
need  for  reorgamsation  due  to  scarcity  sho,5dresult7n  an  actual 
improvement  m  the  condition  of  large  sections  of  the  popuk 


tion.  Ihis  will  be  true  of  boots  ver>'  soon ,  for  the  new  standard 
boot  is  now  readv,  and  it  will  be  true  of  clothing  when  the 
scheme  for  the  manufacture  of  standard  cloth  that  has  been 
produced  by  the  Wool  Textile  Department  bears  fruit.  This 
scheme  is  one  of  the  bye-products  of  the  War  Control  Board. 
Under  that  scheme  the  Board  is  directed  to  consider  the 
interests  of  the  consumer,  and  the  Trade  I'nion  representatives 
argued  that  the  Board  could  ciieck  profiteering  in  the  civilian 
trade  as  it  had  checked  profiteering  in  the  making  of  officers' 
uniforms.  The  proposal  was  taken  up.  A  plan  has  now  been 
worked  out  and  some  of  these  standard  suits  will  probably 
be  on  sale  in  three  months'  time.  Those  sections  of  the  work- 
ing classes  who  were  formerly  obliged  to  buy  shoddy  clothes 
wUl  be  better  dressed  in  war  than  they  were  in  peace. 

The  Board  of  Control  was  able  to  compel  the  manufacture 
of  standard  cloth  by  the  .simple  device  of  consigning  for  that 
purpose  a  certain  proportion  of  the  raw  wool  at  its  disposal. 
By  the  use  of  its  machinery  for  "  costing  "  the  Board  could 
decide  what  was  a  fair  price.  To  enforce  a  certain  standard  of 
quality  was  simple.  The  final  arrangements  have  now  been 
completed  by  the  setting  up  of  advisory  committees  of  clothing 
manufacturers  throughout  the  country  which  has  been  divided 
for  this  purpose  into  six  areiis.  There  are  about  36  patterns 
for  men's  suits,  so  that  there  will  be  no  lack  of  choice  and  the 
price  is  fi.xed  at  57s.  6d.  Boys'  suits  are  also  to  be  produced. 
This  interesting  experiment  may  have  important  consequences 
in  making  men  and  women  demand  better  quality  in  future. 
In  the  army  thousands  of  men  have  had  good  boots  and  decent 
substantial  clothes  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives.  We  may 
doubt  whether  men  who  have  worn  army  boots  or  these 
guaranteed  suits  will  ever  consent  to  put  up  with  the  scan- 
dalous articles  that  were  forced  on  them  before  the  war. 
In  that  way  the  war  has  altered  the  standard  of  dress  for  a 
large  section  of  the  nation  and  the  producers  will  have  to 
reckon  with    a  more  exacting  public  in  future. 


Reports  from  the  country  speak  of  agricultural  operations 
being  well  forward  for  the  time  of  year.  It  has  been  a  much 
more  favourable  winter  for  the  farmer  than  twelve  months 
ago,  and  labour  is  more  plentiful.  One  reason  for  the  latter 
fact  is  that  women  have  now  settled  in  earnest  to  farm  work  • 
those  for  whom  it  was  uncongenial  or  too  strenuous  have 
dropped  out,  where  those  who  remain  arc  proving  themselves 
most  efficient. 

In  those  counties  where  operations  have  not  been  impeded 
by  heavy  snowfall,  ploughing  is  well  advanced,  and  the 
amount  of  pasture  now  under  tillage  is  well  up  to  the  promised 
quota.  Of  course,  it  is  far  too  soon  to  predict  the  results 
of  next  harvest,  but  everything  up  to  now  promises  well 
Meantime,  the  meat  stringency  is  likely  to  rectify  itself  to  a 
considerable  extent,  once  rationing  is  general.  The  scale  of 
rations  has  been  fixed  on  home  production,  and  if  the  Food 
Ministry  will  continue  to  take  the  advice  of  the  Agricultural 
Department  and  to  listen  to  agriculturists  generally  there 
is  no  occasion  to  anticipate  anything  like  a  meat  famine  In 
fact,  everything  points  to  more  plentiful  supplies  once  con- 
sumption IS  kept  within  reasonable  limits. 

This  rationing  will  do  the  nation  infinite  good.  The  people"; 
ol  these  islands  have  been  accustomed  from  time  immemorial 
to  set  no  limit  on  their  appetites,  provided  purchase-money 
was  forthcoming.  They  are  learning  that  tliriftiness  in  dietary 
which  has  been  common  knowledge  on  the  Continent  for 
generatiras,  the  teaching  of  wars  and  the  devastation  of 
wars  ;  these  lessons  in  thrift  should  prove  a  valuable  national 
asset  in  the  future.  They  will  certainly  never  be  forgotten 
by  the  present  generation,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
rising  generation  will  receive  practical  instruction  in  them. 

London  is  passing  through  another  period  of  air  raids 
which  have  come  to  be  regarded  by  its  people  as  a  matter  of 
course  under  certain  conditions  of  weather  and  moonlight 

r^Zo^^'V-  I'^'r^  *'  '^J"^  ^"^^*^°"  '^  "-ai^d  what  does  the 
German  Higli  Command  expect  from  these  senseless  attacks 
on  a  civilian  population  ?  Does  it  really  believe  that  the 
slaughter  by  its  trained  moonhghters  of  a  certain  number  of 
British  women  and  children  will  induce  peace  ?  We  hear 
much  of  the  superiority  jf  German  education,  but' there  is  one 
branch  of  history  which  they  have  certainly  never  studied 
It  IS  the  nse  of  the  British  Empire.  sruaiea. 

The  British  Empire  would  not  have  been  what  it  is  to-day  if 
Bntish  women  had  not  suffered  and  endured  with  equal 
courage  and  fortitude  as  the  men.  We  have  learnt  in  the 
WnoH  r'  ^^TJ'""^  the  manhood  of  the  country  that  the 
blood  has  not  degenerated,  and  if  further  testimony  to  the 
truth  were  necessary,  the  women  of  London  would  furnish 
it  b}  their  calm  attitude  towards  those  night  attacks 


February   21,    19 18 


Land  &  Water 


The  Meaning  of  Ukraine:    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


THE  enemy  is  doing  in  Eastern  Europe  exactly 
what  the  argument  we  have  so  repeatedly  set 
forth  in  this  journal  would  presuppose. 
He  is  defining  point  by  point  the  portions  of 
that  Central  European  Empire  which  he  has 
already  called  into  being,  and  the  survival  of  which,  if  we 
leave  Prussia  standing,  is  as  surely  our  downfall  as  its  division 
into  really  free  nations  is  the  test  of  our  victory. 

His  first  two  actions  in  the  matter  are,  the  one  accomplished, 
the  other  in  negotiation  ;  for  he  has  signed  his  treaty  with  a 
new  weak  republic  of  his  called  "  The  Ukraine,"  and  he  is 
actively  arranging — principally  through  ecclesiastics — for  the 
erection  of  another  to  be  called  "  Lithuania."  Each  is  designed 
to  reduce,  the  one  by  the  south,  the  other  by  the  north,  the 
limits  and  therefore  the  strength  of  a  diminished  Poland, 
and  so  to  make  certain  his  full  grip  over  the  East.' 

Just  as  it  is  the  test  of  Allied  victory  and  the  necessary 
goal  of  Allied  effort  to  restore  a  strong  Poland  with  access  to 
the  sea,  so  the  enemy's  whole  effort  in  his  present  negotiations 
with  the  self-app)ointcd  mob  leaders  of  what  was  once  the 
Russian  Empire  is  in  the  main  directed  to  the  further  disrup- 
tion, belittling  and  weakening  of  the  Polish  people.  His 
reason  for  doing  that  is  as  clear  as  should  be  our  reason  for 
attempting,  as  one  of  the  great  objects  of  our  victory,  the 
e.xact  contrary.  He  knows  that  a  strong  Poland  is  the  only 
possible  counter-weight  to  his  power  upon  that  side,  and  he 
knows  that  it  would  be  the  only  possible  barrier  to  his  economic 
and  political  expansion  and  domination. 

Those  who  have  had  any  doubt  that  it  was  sound  policy 
for  the  Allies  to  restore  Poland — sound  policy  quite  apart 
from  common  loyalty  to  their  pledges — may  learn  from  what  is 
proceeding  before  their  eyes. 

The  Polish  nation  alone  represents,  along  all  that  great 
belt  between  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea  which  will  be  either 
the  check  or  the  prey  of  Germany,  the  strength  of  Western 
culture.  The  superiority  of  that  culture  gave  to  the  Poles, 
during  long  centuries  before  the  Partition,  the  mastery  over 
borderlands  where  they  were  in  places  only  a  majority,  in 
other  places  not  even  that.  That  culture  with  its  chivalry', 
with  its  intense  devotion  to  national  principle,  its  Latin  tradi- 
-tion,  its  military  genius,  was  the  opposite  pole  to  Prussia. 

Frederick  the  Great's  act  of  riiurder,  when  he  divided  that 
ancient  State  as  with  a  knife  and  compelled  the  reluctant 
Maria  Theresa  to  her  famous  prophecy  of  what  (even  as  she 
proceeded  to  it)  this  crime  would  breed,  was  insufficient  to 
achieve  its  end.  It  was  not  a  true  murder ;  for  Poland 
survived  in  fact,  though  it  had  disappeared  from  the  map. 

The  present  plot  follows  a  more  careful,  a  more  subtle  and 
a  more  dangerous  plan.  It  contains  the  following  elements  : 
First,  the  erection  of  a  mutilated  Polish  Kingdom  under 
some  foreign  dynasty.  This  is  necessary,  because  the  pretence 
thit  other  autonomies,  other  make-weights,  which  are  to  be 
set  up  all  around  as  a  supply  for  German  capitalism,  would 
not  stand  unless  some  Poland  or  other  were  to  be  admitted  as 
a  member  of  the  subject  herd.  Those  provinces  of  Poland 
already  subject  for  a  century  to  the  Prussian  torture — the 
original  seat  of  the  Kingdom  m  Posnania  and  its  access  to  the 
sea  by  the  lower  Vistula — are  not  so  much  as  to  be  mentioned 
in  the  settlement.  Prussian  they  are,  and  Prussian  they  are 
to  remain.  The  Austrian  Kingdom  is  to  act  as  a  lure  ;  the 
superior  Polish  intelligence  already  dominated  it  ;  into  its 
councils  the  new  diminished  Poland  is  to  be  admitted.  The 
•  industrial  districts  of  what  were  the  Polish  Russian  provinces, 
probably  Lodz  itself,  are  to  be  cut  off,  but  above  all,  every 
influence  that  a  free  and  strong  Poland  might  have  over  the 
less  developed  Borderland  to  the  East  is  to  be  subjected  and 
wherever  there  was  debatable  land,  wherever  the  population 
was  not  homogeneouslj'  Polish,  the  doubt  is  to  be  decided  in 
favour  of  the  less  Western,  the  less  civilised,  the  less  powerful, 
the  inferior  race.  A  Lithuania,  flattered  in  its  Catholicism 
(which  it  received  from  the  Poles),  is  to  be  played  off  against 
Poland  politically  and  to  be  set  up  as  a  small  rival  against 
Poland  to  the  north.  Tlie  Ukraine,  this  new  republic,  a 
mere  colony  for  German  enterprise,  is  made  the  active  opponent 
of  Poland,  for  it  is  given  Cholm,  and  this  not  only  to  reduce 
Poland  upon  the  south  and  east, but  to  offend  the  most  sensitive 
Polish  claim  and  to  breed  religious  as  well  as  racial  trouble. 
For  Cholm  was  always  Polish  and  is  Polish  to-day.  It  is  a 
test.  There  was  to  remain  a  Poland  even  further  diminished 
and  making  but  one  among  these  subject  States  of  the  Border- 
land. Beyond,  the  anarchy  of  Nortli  Russia  is  to  be  fostered  ; 
supreme  above  all  these  divisions,  the  mastery  of  Prussia  is 
to  be  secure. 
That  is  the  plan,  and  it  is  significant  of  the  extreme  peril 


through  which  Europe  is  passing,  of  the  divided  councils 
which  may  yet  ruin  the  Allied  cause,  that  these  things  are 
here  and  there  in  this  country  (not  yet  elsewhere  in  the  West) 
half  accepted.  Everywhere,  whether  they  are  accepted  or 
not,  they  are  treated  as  things  distant  and  half-indifferent. 
They  are  no  more  distant  in  space  than  was  that  Eastern 
Mediterranean  which  was  rightly  the  core  of  English  foreign 
policy  a  generation  ago.  They  are  as  acutely — more  acutely 
— our  business  now  as-  was  the  Levant  and  the  integrity  of 
Turkey  in  those  past  days.  But  men  still  fail  to  see  the  new 
thing,  and  the  change  is  proceeding  with  terrible  rapidity. 

I  know  how  unfamiliar  the  whole  problem  is,  how  strange 
its  presentation  may  appear  at  this  moment  when  all  immediate 
attention  is  riveted  upon  the  West  and  with  an  audience  to 
whom  all  these  names  are  still  vague  and,  as  it  were,  un- 
discovered. 

The  more  do  I  emphasise  it.     It  is  vital.  , 

There  is  in  this  matter  a  close  parallel  to  that  other  matter 
of  accepting  the  precedents  of  atrocity  in  war  which  Prussia 
desires  to  set  up.  It  has  often  been  argued  here  that  these 
precedents,  the  bombarding  of  open  civilian  centres  from  the 
air,  particularly  of  London  ;  the  indiscriminate  murder  by 
sea  in  the  use  of  the  submarine;  the  massacre  of  civilians  by 
land  ;  the  enslavement  of  occupied  populations  ;  the  killing 
of  innocent  hostages  ;  the  unlimited  loot  of  private  property — 
all  those  things  to  which  we  have  .become  unhappily  accus- 
tomed during  the  last  three  years — were  not  of  their  nature 
permanent.  Even  the  use  of  poisonous  gases  in  war,  let 
alone  the  deliberate  destruction  of  monuments  and  the  burning 
of  towns,  had  not  necessarily  come  to  stay.  They  would 
only  become  precedents,  we  have  said  over  and  over  again, 
if  the  Allies  by  a  negotiated  peace  allowed  them  to  become 
precedents.  Our  victory  could  be  used  to  prevent  their 
becoming  precedents.  The  allowing  of  them  to  go  unpunished 
would  be  our  defeat. 

Effect  of  Habit 

But  Prussia  has  relied  upon  the  effect  of  time  and  habit, 
nor  has  she  wholly  relied  in  vain.  She  has  produced  in  a 
considerable  number  of  publicists  and  politicians  a  state  of 
mind  which  accepts  these  things  as  somehow  necessarily 
concomitant  to  modem  war.  It  is  strange  indeed  that  such 
a  state  of  mind  is  chiefly  to  be  found  in  this  island — as  yet 
only  among  a  small  number  it  is  true,  but  still  an  influential 
group — although  this  island  is  the  direct  necessary  and  obvious 
victim  of  such  methods,  and  will  suffer  from  them  or  the 
threat  of  them  in  the  future  as  no  other  province  of  Europe 
can  suffer.  Their  admission  in  future  warfare  is  plainly  death 
to  Britain  with  her  supplies  dependent  upon  the  sea,  her  capital 
the  largest  and  the  most  vulnerable  of  targets. 

Well,  there  is  a  corresponding  danger  that  the  enemy's 
policy,  as  it  is  now  presented  in  the  east  of  Europe,  will  in  the 
same  way  be  taken  for  granted  as  an  accomplished  fact,  as 
something  which  we  cannot  change,  as  something  which  has 
come  to  stay.  If  we  so  accept  it  we  have  signed  our  own  death 
'warrant.  If  we  allow  this  new  Empire  of  Central  Europe, 
which  is  a  Prussian  Empire,  to  be  set  up  and  to  remain  with 
its  satellites  of  small  and  nominally  independent  communities 
upon  the  Eastern  border,  the  mass  of  economic  and  political 
power  passes  to  Prussia  for  good,  and  that  power  will  be  used 
principally  against  ourselves. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  most  straightforward  and 
obvious  conclusions  on  the  largest  lines  of  military  policy  are 
those  of  which  it  is  most  difficult  to  convince  a  general 
audience,  and  we  find  in  this  matter  a  singular  miscalculation 
running  through  the  attitude  of  many  Western  publicists. 
They  speak  as  though,  whatever  might  happen  in  the  West, 
the  Alliance  which  is  fighting  for  European  civilisation,  the 
Western  Allies  and  the  United  States,  could  not  now  affect 
the  destinies  of  Eastern  Europe.  They  even  speak  as  though 
these  destinies  were  something  remote  from  us,  which  we  could 
afford  to  neglect,  and  as  though  the  great  German  victory  over 
Russia,  which  so  far  has  proved  decisive  and  final  (for  it  has 
destroyed  the  fighting  force  opposed  to  it,  though  that  destruc- 
tion did  not  take  place  in  the  field),  was  now  a  part  of  history 
and  could  not  now  be  undone. 

Such  an  attitude  is,  upon  the  simplest  principles  of  military 
science,  a  grotesque  error.  The  enemy's  armies  will  be  defeated 
if  we  are  victorious  ;  his  military  machine,  if  we  are  vic- 
torious, will  be  dissolved,  while  ours  will  remain  intact.  If 
both  rerhain  intact  we  are  not  victorious  ;  we  are  defeated. 
If  we  arc  victorious  (and  the  confident  prophecy  of  victory 
may  be  left  to  those  who  enjoy  such  exercises)  the  destruction 


Land   &  Water 


February   21,    1 9 1 8 


of  the  enemy's  military  power  gives  us  as  full  an  opportunity 
for  deciding  the  fate  of  Eastern  Europe  as  it  does  for  deciding 
the  fate  of  Western  Europe.  Victory  gained  by  the  ^Vllies 
will  decide  the  fate  of  aU  Europe,  and,  for  that  matter,  of  the 
whole  world.  It  will  open  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  bea.  It 
will  leave  us  masters  with  the  power  to  dictate  in  what  fashion 
the  new  Jjoundaries  shall  be  arranged  ;  how  the  entnes  to  the 
Eastern  markets  shall  be  kept  open,  garrisoned  and  guaranteed. 

One  reads  sentences  such  as  this :  "  Though  the  German 
armies  were  driven  out  of  Northern  France  and  Belgium,  and 
even  beaten  back  to  the  Rhine,  the  German  domination  over 
Eastern  Europe  would  still  be  secure." 

Such  a  judgment— and  it  is  typical  of  the  whole  of  this 
school— is  illuminative  of  the  minds  that  framed  it.  They 
would  seem  never  to  have  read  military  history'  or  to  under- 
stand what  is  meant  by  victory  and  defeat.  There  is  no 
question  of  "  driving  the  German  armies  out  of  Northern 
France  "  or  "  out  of  Belgium  "  or  "  back  to  the  Rhine  "— 
or  to  the  Elbe  or  to  the  Vistula  for  that  matter.  The  task  is 
to  defeat  those  armlet  ;  to  undo  them.  Wherever  they  are 
defeated,  whether  upon  the  line  they  now  hold  or  upon  other 
lines,  their  defeat  and  our  victory  will  leave  us  with  complete 
power.  If  that  task  be  beyond  our  strength  then  civilisation 
has  suffered  defeat  and  there  is  the  end  of  it.  If  by  some 
negotiation  (involving  of  course  the  evacuation  of  the  occupied 
districts  in  the  West)  the  enemy  remains  undefeated,  civilised 
Europe  has  lost  the  war  and  Prussia  has  won  it. 

Constitution  of  Ukraine 

Have  any  of  those 'who  would  deny  so  simple  and  obvious  a 
truth  considered  even  the'  large  lines  of  this  first  German 
settlement  in  the  East  ?  Have  they  read  the  Ukraine  Treaty 
with  a  map  before  them  ?  If  they  have  not  done  so  let  them 
get  a  good  atlas  showing  the  religions,  the  races,  the  languages, 
the  economic  opportunities  of  the  district  concerned  and  they 
will  appreciate  what  I  mean.  Is  the  district  which  the  so- 
called  "  Little  Russians  "  really  feel  to  be  theirs  consulted 
and  rendered  autonomous  under  the  title  of  "  The  Ukraine  "  ? 
Not  a  bit  of  it.  Nearly  four  million  of  them  are  left  under 
the  domination  of  Austria.  Is  there  any  safeguarding  for 
the  large  Polish  population .  handed  over  as  a  make-weight  ? 
There  is  none.  Does  the  artificial  frontier  follow  a  religious 
division — that  great  factor  of  difference  in  those  regions  ? 
It  doe^  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  throws  together  Uniate  and 
Latin-Catholic  minorities,  a  large  dispersed  Jewish  popula- 
tion, and  Orthodox.  Does  it  concern  itself  with  historical 
tradition  ?  Still  less.  Historically  the  district  of  Cholm  is 
Polish  ;  historically  the  town  of  Kieff  was  the  origin  of  Russia. 
It  is  an  artificial  arrangement  imposed  by  the  conqueror  upon 
the  conquered,  deliberately  designed  to  foster  rivalry,  and  to 
curb  the  one  great  national  power  which  Prussia  fears. 

The  economic  element  is  glaringly  obvious.  This  new 
artificial  satellite  State  has  been  compelled  to  sign  an  economic 
clause  which  brings  in  to  the  economic  orbit  of  Germany, 
under  a  weak  and  necessarily  subject  government  at  Kieff, 
the  navigable  lower  reaches  of  the  great  rivers,  the  great  port 
of  Odessa,  the  control  of  the  Black  Sea,  much  of  the  coal. and 
nearly  all  the  granary  of  that  Eastern  world. 

We  shall  see  the  same  story  repeated  in  different  terms 
when  the  next  step  is  completed  and  an  "  independent  " 
Lithuania  appears.  There  it  wiU  be  the  Orthodox  who  will 
be  subject  to  the  Catholic,  but  the  Catholic  will  be  pitted 
against  his  fellow  Catholic  in  what  is  homogeneously  Polish 
to  the  West.  There  the  Catholic  of  similar  speech  will  be 
pitted  against  his  Protestant  fellow  upon  the  Baltic  Littoral. 
In  Lithuania  Germany  will  depend  upon  the  poorer  majority 
to  protect  her  interest  against  the  wealthier  minority  which  is 
Polish  in  tradition. 

Everywhere  this  congeries  of  new  States  will  be  artificially 
designed,  as  the  Ukraine  has  been  already  artificially  designed, 
in  the  interests  of  Prussia.  Everywhere  will  there  be  deliberate 
division  for  the  purposes  of  rule.  No  principle  of  nationality, 
of  religion,  of  historical  feeling,  will  guide  the  German  carving 
up  of  these  "terntories.  In  one  district  nationality  and  not 
speech,  m  another  speech  and  not  nationality,  in  another 
religion  to  the  neglect  of  both  race  and  tongue,  in  another  ■ 
historical  arguments  to  the  neglect  of  all  the  other  three  will 
be  invoked,  and  everywhere  one  principle  and  one  only  will 
be  the  motive  force,  the  natural  principle  of  the  conqueror  • 
the  principle  that  whatever  serves  Prussian  interest  must  be 
used  as  a  lever,  though  the  racial  or  religious  policy  in  one 
countryside  be  the  flagrant  contradiction  of  that  imposed 
upon  Its  neighbour.  Over  such  a  combination,  mechanically 
arranged  to  the  advantage  of  the  victor,  will  come  like  a  tide 
the  organised  economic  force  of  the  Germanics,  Pnissian  in 
flTnT-  '''I  .tP"i*',f"^  *"  "^"^^  o"'^  Empire  will  stand  from 
Sl'Vth^atel' '"^  ^^  ^^^^^  °^  *'^  ^°^^^  '^  *^^ 


Is  it  to  be  believed  that  Prussia  thus  doubled  or  trebled 
in  extent  and  potential  power,  able  to  boast  in  the  East  of 
complete  master}',  able  to  boast  in  the  West  of  a  successful 
defence  and  of  having  compelled  those  whom  she  had  there 
challenged,  invaded,  insulted,  ruined  and  subjected  to  every 
outrage,  to  leave  her  intact  and  strong,  can  be  accepted  by 
France  and  Britain  for  the  future  as  a  sort  of  easy  neighbour  ? 
Is  it  to  be  believed  that  after  such  a  peace  there  would  be  a 
general  disarmament,  or  that  if  such  a  thing  were  designed 
upon  paper  it  could  be  maintained  ?  Men  who  can  believe 
that  can  deny  the  testimony  of  their  own  senses.  Indeed,  so 
monstrous  a  proposition  could  not  be  made  with  regard  to 
things  tangible  and  near  at  hand.  It  is  only  made  by  those 
who  think  in  terms  of  maps  and  printed  matter,  and  who  do 
not  appreciate  realities.  Such  a  conclusion  would  at  once 
command  as  an  absolutely  necessary  task  further  armament 
and  yet  another  attempt  to  save  Europe.  The  whole  of  the 
West  would  be  subject  to  continued  preparation,  and  that 
without  limit.  It  would  mean  permanent  conscription,  the 
permanent  development  of  the  greatest  armed  forces  by  air, 
by  sea  and  by  land  which  the  humiliated  older  countries 
could  compass.  It  would  be  but  one  of  these  disastrous 
breathing  spaces  (of  which  history  has  some  record)  between 
a  first  catastrophe  and  its  successor. 

The  thing  ought  not  to  require  debate  or  argument.  It 
does  unfortunately  require  strong  debate  and  a  reiterated 
argument,  because  history  has  been  ill-taught  among  us  ; 
because  a  foolish  tradition  of  invincibility  has  been  the  result 
of  that  false  history,  and  because  men's  minds  so  naturally 
tend  to  live  in  the.  past  and  so  slowly  awake  to  great  changes, 
especially  when  they  are  at  once  huge  in  scale  and  rapid  in 
development. 

There  is  this  much  of  truth  in  the  illusion  that  we  can 
peacefully  return  to  the  old  Europe  the  German  peoples 
tolerated  as  neighbours :  that  if  Western  civilisation  prove 
at  last  triumphant  it  will  at  least  be  the  guardian  of  European 
traditions  and  will  be  able  to  restore  the  better  part  of  those 
traditions  and  give  them  sanction.  The  three  Western  nations 
in  alliance  will  remain  strongly  national  and  well  organised. 
There  does  not  apply  to  them  the  disintegration  and  chaos- 
of  the  Russian  marches  and  of  that  mosaic  of  Eastern  peoples 
upon  whose  differences  the  Germans  now  play.  Europe,  if 
Europe  is  victorious,  will  rebuild  upon  good  lines,  and  in  the 
structure  that  will  be  erected  certain  major  elements  will 
reappear  which  we  know  to  be  necessary  to  security  and  to 
content.  We  shall  have  nations  really  self-governing.  We 
shall  have  a  true  disarmament,  and  we  shall  have  eliminated 
from  our  midst  the  insolent  moral  anarchy  which  would 
sacrifice  everything  to  the  aggrandisement  of  one  Power. 
But  the  idea  that  by  a  mere  cessation  of  hostilities  such  things- 
could  arise  one  might  call  madness  were  it  not  too  foolish 
to  call  it  a  madness.  It  has  none  of  the  vigour  of  a  madness. 
It  is  a  mere  ineptitude. 

What  does  the  German  master  now  see  when  he  looks 
around  him  ?  What  does  a  man  like  Kuhlmann,  his  colleague 
and  coadjutor  Czernin,  working  in  close  co-operation  with 
him,  or  what  does  a  man  like  Ludendorff,  the  soldier,  see  ? 

He  does  not  indeed  see  the  mirage  of  immediate  universal 
triumph  which  delights  foolish  and  excitable  men  in  his 
community.  He  does  not  flatter  himself  that  the  German 
races  can  for  the  moment  hold  in  a  military  sense  the  littoral 
of  the  -North  Sea,  still  less  that  they  can  command  the  Straits 
of  Dover.  He  does  not  believe  for  a  moment  that  by  a  mere 
dictation  of  terms  he  can  compel  Britain  to  abandon  her 
coaling  stations  or  France  her  industrial  eastern  border  with 
its  remaining  mineral  deposits.  He.  probably  does  not  even 
believe  that  he  can  permanently  support  the  Flemish  peasantry 
against  the  French-speaking  Walloons  of  Belgium  and  the 
governing  elements  of  that  country.  He  neither  desires  nor 
proposes  further  annexation  of  Italian-speaking  land.  He 
does  not  pretend  to  impose  arduous  economic  terms,upon  us 
as  the  result  of  his  victory  and  our  defeat.  But  he  does  see 
things  at  least  in  this  light  : 

All  Central  Europe — including  the  Western  Russian  plain — 
thoroughly  established  under  Prussia  ;  far  stronger  than  any- 
State  or  combination  9f  States  that  can  be  opposed  to  it,  and 
able  through  future  development  to  attain  all  its  ends. 

We  have  not  sufficiently  realised  the  effect  upon  the  enemy's- 
mind  of  the  main  elements  of  the  situation  as  it  now  stands. 

In  the  first  place,  he  fights  on  foreign  soil  which  he  has 
occupied.  Think  how  we  should  read  the  news  in  Paris 
especially,  and  even  in  London,  if  the  names  of  the  ruined 
villages  and  occupied  towns  were  German  names :  if  it  were 
Cologne,  not  Lille,  of  which  the  population  were  compelled 
to  salute  as  they  passed  French  and  British  officers  and  from 
in  front  of  which  the  fire  of  artillery  destroyed  not  Soissons 
or  Rheims,  but  Frankfurt  and  Mayence  ;  if  we  read  of  petty 
garrison  details  arranged  for  our  troops  in  Treves ;  if  we 
were  disappointed  at  hearing  that  a  recent  great  advance 


February   21,    1 9 1 8 


Land  &  Water 


sweeping  the  sources  of  the  Danube  and  taking  100,000 
prisoners  and  a  thousand  guns  had  unfortunately  failed  to 
reach  Ulm  ;  if  the  names  of  obscure  hamlets  in  the  Black 
Forest  were  substituted  for  the  ruined  huts  and  the  clay  ghylls 
of  the  Argonne  ;  if  there  were  no  talk  of  action  in  the  Narrow 
Seas,  but  raids,  however  futile,  against  the  coast  towns  of 
the  Elbe  and  Weser  mouths. 

It  is  an  immense  moral  asset,  this  situation  of  the  war  upon 
alien  soil.  No  careful  observer  will  deny  the  difference  in 
effect  it  has  even  among  the  Western  nations,  for  all  their 
determination,  whether  their  own  soil  be  occupied  or  no.  No 
one  can  conceive  the  antics  of  our  pacifists  still  tolerated 
with  Durham  and  York  burnt,  and  the  enemy  line  stretching 
across  England  from  Morecambe  Bay.  They  \Y0uld  be  in 
fear  of  their  lives  and  correspondingly  silent  if  we  read  daily 
in  our  papers  news  of  English  women  enslaved  for  service  in 
German  camps,  and  of  English  men  shot  for  refusing  forced 
labour  against  their  fellows.  Yet  that  is  what  the  French  have 
felt  for  now  three  years.  That  is  what  the  Italians  feel 
to-day. 

The  German  master  sees  then,  first  of  all  (however  much 
of  a  pure  strategist  he  may  be,  however  much  he  may  confine 
himself  to  purely  military  problems),  that  in  point  of  fact  he 
enjoys  by  his  position  on  enemy  soil  an  enomjous  moral 
advantage.  He  feels  almost  physically  the  pressure  he  is 
exercising,  and  above  all  he  appreciates  what  an  asset  it  is 
with  the  civilian  population  for  the  maintenance  of  his  defence. 
They  suffer,  but  they  suffer  as  conquerors  ;  and  the  blockade 
which  makes  thiem  go  hungry  is  a  blockade  at  least  maintained 
before  lines  which  are  upon  the  enemy's  ground. 

The  second  element  in  the  judgment  such  a  man  forms  is 
comparable  to  this,  for  it  is  mainly  a  moral  element,  though  it 
has  its  material  side  as  well.  It  is  the  fact  that  the  vivid 
tactical  points  of  the  war  appear  to  him,  and  still  more  to  the 
populations  whom  he  rules,  as  a  series  of  great  victories. 

The  Allies  have  enjoyed  a  success  more  important  than  any 
of  his  because  it  moulded  the  whole  course  of  the  war,  destroyed 
the  opportunity  of  immediate  victory  for  the  enemy,  was  won 
by  inferior  forces  (that  is,  was  the  proof  of  the  greater  military 
genius),  and  to  this  day  leaves  the  opportunity  for  our  victory 
open.  That  tremendous  business  was  the  Battle  of  the 
Mame. 

But  the  Battle  of  the  Mame  came  at  the  very-  beginning  of 
what  has  proved  to  be  four  long  years  of  war.  The  memory 
of  it  is  already  old.  Its  final  fruits  are  still  ungathercd.  No 
other  great  tactical  success,  no  other  battle  to  which  a  name 
can  be  given  and  the  result  set  down,  no  action  of  movement 
and  recoil,  can  be  written  on  the  credit  side  of  our  account. 

I  am  speaking,  of  course,  only  of  what  may  be  called  the 
schoolroom  side  of  war — the  names  of  great  actions — but  they 
count.     Now  see  what  there  is  upon  the  other  side. 

The  German  can  easily  persuade  himself  that  the  Mame 
was  but  a  check.  Few  guns  were  lost  and  few  prisoners  ;  a 
line  was  established  and  maintained  after  a  comparatively 
short  retreat.  Attempts  to  recover  the  initiative  in  the  West 
failed  indeed.  But  that  was  negative.  Positively  the  enemy 
can  recount  such  a  list  as  would,  if  we  possessed  it,  wholly 
change  the  public  mind.  At  Tannenberg,  coincidently  with 
the  Mame,  he  enveloped  a  Russian  army,  won  a  victory  upon 
the  scale  of  Sedan,  captured  whole  divisions  with  their  artillery, 
and  achieved  a  local  decision  the  like  of  which  we  have  not  yet 
known  in  the  West. 

Three  months  laterf^tween  Lodz  and  Warsaw,  he  saved 
himself  when  he  was  iti  his  tum  nearly  enveloped,  and  retired 
intact  with  his  prisoners  irom  the  pocket. 

Next  he  advanced  and  cleared  Eastem  Prassia.  Three 
corps  of  the  enemy  were  dissolved  ;  one  wholly  obliterated  save 
for  a  remnant  which  fell  back  beyond  the  Niemen. 

With  the  following  spring  he  broke  the  Russian  line  east 
of  Cracow,  took  prisoners  in  a  few  days  by  scores  of  thousands, 
and  reached  the  San.  He  compelled  his  opponent  to  retire 
from  the  Carpathians.  He  re-entered  Lemberg ;  retook 
Przemysl.  He  broke  the  resistance  upon  the  San  ;  he  con- 
verged by  the  south  and  by  the  north  against  Warsaw.  Of 
the  two  great  fortresses  on  the  Vistula  he  compelled  retire- 
ment from  the  southern';  he  stormed  the  northern  one. 
Within  little  more  than  a  year  from  his  forcing  of  the  war  he 
had  entered  Warsaw.  By  the  autumn  he  was  at  Brest. 
Poland  had  been  overran  and  occupied  in  its  entirety.  He 
only  just  failed  to  achieve  a  decision  at  Vilna. 

Minor  Modifications 

It  is  true  that  all  this  was  due  to  the  incapacity  of  a  primitive 
and  agricultural  people  to  munition  itself  as  modem  industry 
can  munition  great  armies  for  moderp  war.  It  is  also  tnie 
that  the  Russian  retreat  was  masterly  ;  that  most  of  its 
artillery  was  saved  ;  that  each  great  salient  formed  by  the 
enemy  in  the  Russian  line  seven  times  over  was  seven  times 


successfully  emptied,  and  that  right  up  to  the  admirable 
defensive  movement  which  saved  the  salient  of  Vilna  the 
organism  of  the  Russian  army  remained  intact.  Under  the 
circumstances  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  proved  himself  a 
master  of  war  ;  his  conduct  of  that  great  retreat  will  stand 
in  our  text-books.  But  it  remained  with  the  enemy  to  say 
that  he  had  a  million  prisoners  and  the  whole  of  the  Border- 
lands of  Russia  and  of  Poland  in  his  hands. 

Jleanwhile  two  great  attempts  to  break  Ms  line  in  the  West 
as  he  had  broken  the  Russian  line  in  the  East  failed.  He  was 
shaken  ;  he  lost  heavily  in  men  and  guns  ;  but  his  line  was 
not  seriously  modified.  He  turned  against  the  Balkans  and 
made  himself  master  of  everything  down  to  the  Greek  border 
and  beyond.     He  acquired  a  new  ally  in  the  forces  of  Bulgaria. 

A  second  great  attempt  upon  a  larger  scale  than  anything 
yet  designed  imperilled  his  line  upon  the  Scmme.  There  was  a 
mornent  when  it  all  but  gave  wa  j^ — but  it  did  not  quite  give  way. 

Ano.ther  army  entered  against  him,  the  Roumanian  ;  ^  he 
defeated  it,  overran  more  than  half  its  country,  occupied  its 
capital. 

In  the  third  year  of  the  war  three  tremendous  battles,  or 
rather  successions  of  battles,  wrested  from  him  the  heights 
uf)on  which  he  reposed  his  Western  line.  He  lost  grievously. 
He  knew  that  his  future  was  imperilled  by  those  losses.  He 
feared  their  renewal.  None  the  less  his  line  remained  intact. 
The  most  violent  effort,  that  of  the  end  of  July,  1917,  was 
held.  He  made  that  action  (with  some  excuse)  the  subject 
for  an  ovation  in  his  capital. 

Lastly,  at  the  end  of  such  a  series,  he  won  the'greatest 
victory  of  all ;  a  victory  the  magnitude  of  which  was  unex- 
pected even  by  himself,  the  victory  of  Caporetto.  In  a  few 
days  he  thrust  right  into  the  Italian  Plain,  counted  more' 
than  a  quarter  of  a  million  prisoners,  and  perhaps  half  the 
Italian  artillery  as  his  trophies. 

Against  such  a  series  nothing  can  be  set  but  the  reverse  of 
an  ally  in  Volhynia,  where  the  guns  lost  were  few  and  the 
numerous  prisoners  largely  Slav  ;  and  he  can  say  that  it  was 
German  divisions  which  saved  the  situation. 

At  the  close  of  all  this  he  has  been  able  to  watch  with 
contemptuous  satisfaction  the  complete  disintegration  of  one 
half  of  the  Alliance  against  him  and  the  falling  of  that  society 
which  he  most  feared,  I  mean  the  Russian,  into  the  hands 
of  a  rabble  of  cosmopolitan  anarchists. 

All  this  does  not  mean  that  the  chief  observer  from  the 
German  side,  especially  if  he  be  a  soldier,  reckons  with  confi- 
dence upon  a  final  victory.  Far  from  it.  But  it  is  such  a 
series  of  obvious  extemal  successes  as  would  mean,  if  we 
reversed  the  position  and  considered  our  own  emotions  under 
similar  circumstances,  the  atmosphere  or  tradition  of  victory. 

The  third  element  present  to  his  mind  is  the  political  success 
upon  the  East,  the  fmit  of  his  Eastem  campaigns.  Men  trained 
in  diplomacy  and  having  behind  them  strong  and  disciplined 
nations  have  been  able  to  play  as  they  would  with  absurd 
emissaries  sprang  from  nothing,  worthless  when  they  were 
sincere  and  part  not  even  sincere — his  own  agents.  He  has 
been  able  to  arrange  new  boundaries  at  will. 

The  thing  has  the  more  meaning  to  him  because  half,  or 
more  than  half,  of  the  history  of  Germany  is  the  history  of  a 
German  expansion  Eastward  and  of  a  claim  to  dominion  over 
and  colonisation  of  the  Slav.  To  this  career,  of  Eastward 
conquest  by  the  German  there  has  been  but  one  great  obstacle 
and  check— the  Polish  people.  That  people  he  finds  for  the 
moment  entirely  at  his  mercy. 

The  German  leaders  looking  at  the  prospect  thus  see  before 
them  a  diverse  alliance  in  the  West  and  stake  all  the  critical 
remainder  of  the  war  up)on  its  diversity. 

Whether  they  answer  the  questions  which  the  situation 
puts  to  them  as  cheerfully  as  the  mass  of  their  subjects  answer 
them  we  cannot  tell.  Probably  they  do  not.  Probably  they 
regard  the  future  with  great  anxiety,  and  certainly  they  know 
that  if  the  differences  between  the  Western  Allies  (differences 
of  tongue,  religion,  and  superficial  interest  on  which  the  enemy 
relies)  are  not  allowed  to  prevail,  then  the  ultimate  doom  of 
Prassia  is  certain .  But  their  hopes  may  well  be  high,  especially 
as  they  are  men  who,  even  the  best-trained  and  the  most 
travelled  of  them,  misunderstand  foreign  psychology. 

It  is  the  whole  of  our  duty  to  disappoint' that  calculation. 
We  cannot  rival  them  in  rigidity  of  action,  in  mechanical 
obedience,  or  in  simplicity  of  direction,  both  because  we  are 
more  civilised,  more  active  and  altogether  of  a  higher  type, 
and  also  because  we  are  part  of  an  alliance  each  member  of 
which  differs  most  sensibly  from  his  neighbours  in  character. 
Further,  we  have  none  of  those  past  trophies  to  hearten  us 
which  he  can  boast. 

But  the  duty  of  unity  is  so  clear,  the  goal  which  we  have 
to  attain  so  evident,  and  our  power  to  attain  it  so  evidently 
dependent  upon  nothing  more  than  tenacity,  that  if  we  fail 
the  failure-  is  entirely  voluntary,  and  history  will  record  of 
our  downfall  that  we  willed  it  ourselves.  H.  Belloc. 


Land   &  Water 


February    21,    191 8 


An   American   Naval  Critic:  By  Arthur  Pollen 


A    SHORT  study  of  the  war  at  sea  entitled  "  Naval 
Power  in  the  War,   1914-17,"  has  been  sent  to 
us  by  the  publishers,  the  George  Borland  Company 
of   New   York.     The  writer  is  Lieutenant-Com- 
mander Charles  Clifford  Gill  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  and  the  work  has  grown  out  of  lectures  delivered  at 
Annapolis  and  aftervvards  published  in  a  New  York  magazine. 
After  a  short  chapter  on  the  significance  of  naval  power  in 
the  war  and  another  on  some  definitions  and  an  estimate  of 
the  situation  the  writer  considers  the  opening  activities — the 
action  in  the  Bight  of  Heligoland,  the  Coronel  and  Falkland 
engagements,   the  Dardanelles  operations.  Dogger  Bank  en- 
counter,  and   the   battle  of  Jutland.       He  then   has   three 
chapters  on   the  submarine  war,  on  anti-submarine  tactics, 
and  a  general  study  of  the  broad  naval  lessons.     There  is 
an  appendi.x  dealing  with  the  relative  strength  of  the  Powers 
in  1914 ;  another  on  the  exploits  of  the  Emden,  and  a  third 
on  .\merica's  part  in  the  development  of  naval  weapons  and 
tact  cs  by  F.   G.    FrothingV.am,   reprinted  from   the  "  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  United  States  Naval  Institute." 

The  book  makes  no  pretence  to  being  in  any  sense  a  history. 
It  is  avowedly  a  series  of  sketches  treating  of  the  general 
principles  involved,  and  not  the  events.  'And  as  such  it  has 
a    value.     Many   of   the   comments  are   excellent,    and   the 
summary  of  Jutland  is  impartial  and  generally  correct.     But 
the  worth  of  the  book  suffers  because  the  writer  seems  to 
have  taken  little  trouble  lo  get  accurate  information  about 
several  details  that  are  both  material  and  quite  well  known. 
The  plans  of  the  actions,  too,  are  merely  diagrammatic  and 
make  no  pretence  of  being  consistent  even  with  the  informa- 
tion contained  in  the  published  dispatches.     Yet  of  at  least 
two  extremely  important  engagements,  namely,  that  between 
Sydney  and  Emden  and  the  action  off  the  Falkland  Islands, 
quite  accurate  plans  are  available.     There  is  no  reason   to 
suppose  that  the  Times    plan  of  the  first  action  is  not  sub- 
stantially correct  in  almost  every  particular,  and  the  plan 
of  the  latter  engagement,  published  in  the  middle  of  August, 
1915,  by  Land  and  Water,  was  authentic.    In  some  matters 
the  rnisstatements  are  very  far  from  being  unimportant,  and 
as  this  volume  is  to  be  used  at  Annapolis  as  a  text  book,  it 
is  wortli  while  to  see  that  the  most  obvious  of  these  are 
corrected.     It  is  stated,  for  instance,  that  the  action  between 
Sydney  and   Emien  opened  at  4,000  yards;    whereas  it  is 
quite  well  known  that  Emden  got  Sydney  under  a  very  hot 
fire  at   10,500  yards,  and  actually  fired  many  hundreds  of 
rounds  m  the  first  minute  without  a  single  salvo  being  more 
than  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  wrong  for  range.     It  was  in 
this  period  that  Emden  made  her  only  hits,   smashed   the 
Sydney's  rangefinder,  and  inflicted  the  only  casualties  that 
Sydney  suffered.     Also  Emden  was  armed   with   4.1-in   guns 
nqt  4.1  pounders. 

Cradock's  Decision 

Again,  in  discussing  the  battle  of  Coronel  the  writer 
supposes  that  Admiral  Cradock  might  well  have  been  in 
grave  doubt  whether  after  he  had  got  his  ships  into  forma- 
tion he  should  engage.  "  By  bearing  off  sharply  to  the 
westward  even  at  this  late  hour,"  he  says,  "  the  speeds  of 
the  two  squadrons  were  so  nearly  equal  that  he  could  have 
avoided  engaging  that  night,  and  by  morning  he  might  have 
IZ^L'^^u"''"^'^^  and  fought  the^attle  L  a  mo^re  equll 
«  I  f\u^^  T"'"^  ^^  interesting  to  add  what  thoughts 
flashed  through  the  Admiral's  mind  and  what  prevailed  uS,n 
h  m  to  make  the  fatal  but  courageous  decision  embodied^in 
his  signal  to  the  Canopus  at  8  p.m.  :  "  I  am  goini-  to  attarT 
he  enemy  now."  But  here,  to^,  the  know^ffcs^of  the  cast- 
leave  little  doub    as  to  the  Admiral's  frame  of  m  nd      I? 

bSk"  un^tL  r'''".'"  break  away  from  Von  Spee  and  fal 

back  upon  the  Canopus,  for  the  simple  reason  that  he  had 

^on^nH/'Tf'^f.^'^°'"  deliberately  left  Cano/,«rbehind  to 

go  and  look  for  the  great  Von  Spee.     Further,  it  was  between 

two  and  three  in  the  afternoon  of  November  isT When  hTs 

squadron  was  scattered  over  a  very  wide  front  and  workk.? 

northward,  that  one  of  his  ships  signalled  to  him  That  an 

*nemy  wireless  had  been  tapped".     Admiral  CradoTk  at  once 

^rdered   MonmouU,     Glasgow   and    Otranto   to    cloJe   on    ?he 

fligsh.p   and  then  headed  straight  for  the  probable  p^"nt  at 

which  the  enemy  would  be  found.     And  no  soonerTd  he 

.find  h.m  than  he  made  the  signal  to  which  Captain  Gill  refers 

.J  f    r     l'^  P?.':'?"'-'-^Ph  of  the  chapter  dealing  with  these 

events  Captain  Gill  seems  to  have  hit  upon  the  only  possible 

explanation  of  Admiral  Cradock's  actions      '■  At  theLSin- 

^  i^'  '!,"J  ^'  '^f '      ^^^  B^'ti^''  armoured  cruiseTs  S 
Hope  and  Monmouth,  together  with  the  light  cruiser  G/as/.,; 


and  the  transport  Olranto,  were  in  Atlantic  waters  off  the 
coast  of  the  Americas.  These  ships  rendezvoused  off  the 
coast  of  Brazil  under  the  command  of  Sir  Christopher  Cradock 
and  proceeded  round  Cape  Horn,  evidently  with  the  mission  to 
find  and  destroy  the  German  vessels."  If  to  find  and  destroy 
was  actually  the  Admiral's  mission,  there  is  nothing  surprising 
in  his  leaving  the  Canopus  behind,  for,  however  useful  she 
might  have  been  in  helping  to  destroy  Scharnhorst  and 
Gtieisenau,  she  must  surely  have  been  perfectly  useless  in 
any  effort  to  find  them.  Her  presence  would  have  made  the 
whole  of  the  Admiral's  squadron  equally  ineffective  for  this 
purpose.  Had  the  Admiral's  mission  been  to  cruise  in  certain 
localities  and  fight  Von  Spee  if  Von  Spee  attacked  him,  he 
would  either  not  have  left  Canopus  at  all,  or  have  fallen 
back  upon  her,  as  our  author  suggests.  His  secretar3''s  letter, 
the  last  written  before  rounding  the  Horn,  makes  it  quite 
clear  that  the  general  impression  in  the  squadron  was  that 
everyone  knew  that  they  were  on  a  task  beyond  their  strength. 
It  was,  in  short,  a  naval  Balaclava,  and  the  Laureate's  tragic 
jingle  makes  it  impossible  to  suppose  that  the  heroic  Cradock 
wasted  any  moments  in  reasoning  or  debate. 

The  Jutland  Controversy 

The  author  seems  to  have  fallen  into  a  very  curious  mis- 
understanding about  the  controversy  to  which  the  battle  of 
Jutland  has  given  rise.  This  arose,  it  will  be  remembered 
not  out  of  Admiral  Jellicoe's  original  dispatch,  but  out  of 
the  astounding  explanation  which  Mr.  Churchill  offered  for 
the  failure  to  engage  the  German  Fleet  at  decisive  ranges  and 
destroy  it.  His  reasons  were,  it  will  be  remembered,  first 
that  there  was  no  need  for  victory,  because  we  enjoved  all 
Its  fruits  without  it,  and,  next,  that  whether  we  needed  victory 
or  not  It  was  impossible  to  place  battleships  within  range  of 
torpedoes,  because  their  under  bellies  were  not  protected. 
These  two  doctrines  gave  a  new  significance  to  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief's statement  in  his  dispatch  that  "  the  enemy 
constantly  turned  away  and  opened  the  range  under  cover  of 
destroyer  attacks."  Mr.  Churchill  went  on  to  make  counsel 
worse  confounded  by  laying  it  down  that  the  torpedo  had 
had  no  influence  upon  the  action  at  all  1  The  issue  in  the 
controversy  that  arose  was  quite  simple.  Should  Lord 
Jelhcoe  have  disregarded  the  torpedoes,  closed  to  a  range  at 
which  in  the  light  which  prevailed  his  guns  should  have  been 
effective,  and  so  have  done  the  only  thing  which  would  have 
given  him  a  reasonable  chance  of  destroying  the  German 
Fleet  ?  . 

The  arguments  on  either  side  ne-J  not  be  repeated 
here,  but  the  issue  is  quite  different  frcm  what  Commander 
GUI  seems  to  suppose.  -The 'disposition  of  the  British  Fleet 
"  for  the  night,"  he  says,  "  has  been  a  source  of  much  con- 
troversy in  England  ...  the  question  is  whether  or  not  the 
threat  of  torpedo  and  submarine  attack  was  sufficient  to 
justify  losing  all  touch  with  the  German  Fleet,  which  was 
inferior  in  numbers,  in  gun  power  and  in  speed.  Those  who 
support  Admiral  JelHcoe  in  his  decision  not  to  close  the  enemy 
battle  fleet  dunng  the  dark  hours  maintain  that  inasmuch  as 
naval  superiority  was  essential  to  the  Allied  cause,  it  should 
jiot  have  been  risked  upon  such  a  hazard  as  would  have  been 
involved  by  continuing  the  battle  under  the  conditions  which 
have  been  described.  On  the  other  hand,  many  hold  the 
opinion  that  the  destraction  of  the  German  Fleet  was  of  such 
urgent  importance  as  to  justify  this  risk."  I  am  not  aware  of 
anyone  who  has  criticised  the  disposition  of  the  British  Fleet 
after  darkness.  There  has  been  no  criticism,  partly  because 
there  is  no  information  as  to  what  the  disposition  was.  Such 
dispute  as  there  has  been  has  been  over  the  daylight  tactics 
and  not  the  night  tactics. 

The  most  interesting  portions  of  the  book  are  perhaps  the 
introduction  and  the  chapters  dealing  with  the  broad  lessons 
ot  sea  power,  and  portions  of  the  Appendices.  But  I  cannot 
agree  that  the  use  of  the  submarine  against  trading  ships 
either  should  have  been,  or  was,  a  complete  surprise.  There 
were  ample  warnings  of  such  things  being  inevitable.  In 
the  nature  of  things,  the  more  crushing  the  superiority  of  our 
surface  navy,  the  more  certain  it  must  be  that  any  enemy  would 
seek  to  relieve  the  position  by  using  whatever  force  that  could 
evade  it.  The  lessons  of  the  war  after  Trafalgar  and  of  the 
war  of  1812— to  look  no  further  afield— were  conclusive  on 
the  point  that  a  guerre  de  course  is  not  alone  the  necessary, 
but  the  only,  alternative  to  a  war  of  squadrons.  Aube  had 
pointed  out  thirty  years  ago  first  that  the  small  size  and  high 
speed  of  the  torpedo-boat  would  supply,  in  modem  condi- 
tions, the  power  of  evasion  possessed  by  the  privateer  in  old 
times,  and  secondly  that  the  deadly  character  of  her  weapon 


February    21,    1918 


Land  &  Water 


[Official  ihoti. 


A  Clyde  Shipyard 


would  invest  the  guerre  de  course  of  the  future  with  a  ruthless- 
ness  so  terrible  as  to  make  sea  war  impossible.  Tlie  signifi- 
cance which  the  development  of  the  submarine  gave  to  these 
doctrines  would  have  been  patent  had  the  application  of 
these  never  definitely  been  made.  But,  as  we  know,  Sueter 
in  1907  and,  as  Lord  Jellicoe  has  just  told  us,  Lord  Fisher  in 
1912  did  all  they  could  to  drive  the  lesson  home. 

Apart  from  this,  Cpmmander  Gill  sees  no  great  surprises 
in  the  war.  But  surely  no  one  anticipated  that  actions  in 
which  Dreadnoughts  Were  engaged  could  continue  hour  after 
hotir  with  so  little  damage  on  either  side.  It  was  a  more 
general  impression  that  a  fleet  action  between  all-big-gun 
ships  would  be  a  very  brief  affair  indeed.  Admiral  Togo,  it 
will  be  remembered,  said  that  the  Battle  of  Tsushima,  which 
began  at  about  half-p>ast  one,  was  decided  at  ten  minutes  to 
two.  It  certainly  was  a  general  impression  that  modern 
armaments  controlled  by  modem  instruments  would  at  any 
range  cut  this  time  in  two.  Again,  was  it  not  something 
of  a  surprise  that,  although  the  torpedo  threat  has  more  than 
once  had  a  great  effect  upon  the  imagination  of  commanders- 
in-chief,  yet  in  a  daylight  action  it  has  not  yet  succeeded 
in  sinking  a  single  ship  ?  Commander  Gill  seems  to  be  aware 
that  the  torpedo  has  in  this  sense  been  a  disappointment,  but 
not  to  ha\'e  perceived  the  application  of  the  lesson.  All  he 
says  about  the  gun  being  the  dominant  weapon  of  sea  force, 
and  hence  the  battle  fleet  being  the  real  palladium  of  sea 
power,  is  admirable.  He  says,  too,  that  to  those  who  possess 
,  a  dominant  navy  the  submarine  has  brought  benefits  so 
small  as  not  to  be  worth  consideration.  Yet  he  seems  to 
approve  of  America's  pre-war  naval  programme,  which 
preferred  to  build  scores  of  submarines  in  the  place  of 
destroyers  that  would  have  been  of  priceless  value  to-day. 

Methods  of  Gun  Use 

It  is  hardly,  perhaps,  fair  upon  the  author, to  treat  a  book 
which  he  probably  intends  only  to  be  suggestive  as  if  it  were 
an  attempt  to  produce  a  treatise  on  a  naval  doctrine.  But 
there  is  one  omission  and,  by  a  curious  coincidence,  a  mis- 
statement in  Mr.  Frothingham's  summary  of  America's 
contribution  to  the  principles  of  naval  war  wnich  ought  not 
to  be  allowed  to  go  past  without  comment.  In  Commander 
Gill's  cliapter  on  gun  power  he  weighs  the  pros  and  cons  of 
calibre,  range,  accuracy,  rate  of  fire,  etc.,  but  is  entirely 
silent  as  to  the  importance  of  the  method  by  which  the  accuracy 
and  power  of  the  gun  are  to  be  turned  to  warlike  account  in 
action.  He  is,  that  is  to  say,  still  in  the  pre-war  frame  of 
mind  of  being  much  more  interested  in  the  material  of 
apparatus  than  in  tlie  technique  of  its  use.  And  this  is  really 
more  curious  in  the  case  of  an  American  than  of  an  English 
writer— which  lends  point  to  the  extraordinary  statement 
of  Mr.  Frothingham.  This  writer,  in  a  brief  survey  of  the 
Wars  of  Independence  of  1812  and  of  the  Rebellion  claims 
the  following  as  an  impressive  summary  of  "  American 
contributions  to  the  naval  weapons  and  tactics  of  to-day  "  : 

The  development  of  the  all-big-gun  ship. 

The  tacticaJ  superiority  of  the  armoured  ship. 


The  tactical  suj)eriority  of  guns  in  turrets — and   of  turrets 

aligned  over  the  keel. 
The  tactical  use  of  the  torpedo. 
The  tactical  use  of  the  submsirine. 
Commerce-destroying  as  a  factor  in  warfare. 
Raids  of  an  enemy's  coast  by  an  inferior  navy. 
Establishment  of  a  legal  blockade  of  a  long  cojist  line. 
The  invention  and  development  of  the  airplane. 

It  is  instructive  to  examine  Mr.  Frothingham's  foundation 
for  the  first  claim,  for  it  explains  why  he  has  omitted  the 
greatest  of  all  America's  contributions  to  the  art  of  sea  fighting. 
Speaking  of  the  war  of  1812,  he  says : 

"  Our  naval  constructors,  with  an  intuition  almost  prophetic, 
had  built  a  class  of  frigates  of  which  the  Constitution  is  best 
known,  and  placed  i^-pounders  on  them.  Such  an  armament 
was  ridiculed  abroad,  and  it  was  predicted  that  such  ships 
would  be  useless — but  in  the  war  of  1812  these  frigates 
became  the  wonder  of  the  world.  Another  extract  from  the 
London  Times  shows  again  the  state  of  the  public  mind. 
'  The  fact  seems  to  be  established  that  the  Americans  have 
some  superior  mode  of  firing.'      ,    1    ««    1  ;*■- 

"  The  '  fact '  that  the  Times  could  not  understand  wa^  the 
great  advance  in  naval  construction  shown  by  these  frigates 
of  the  United  States  Navy.  This  advanced  design  by 
American  naval  constructors  was  the  birth  of  the  '  all-big- 
gun  ship  '  idea,  which  was  destined  to  dominate  naval  con- 
struction ;  and  the  Constitution  may  fairly  be  called  the 
ancestor  of  the  modem  Dreadnought." 

It  is  really  hardly  necessary  to  comment  on  this  amazing 
passage.  It  is,  of  course,  perfectly  true  that  the  American 
frigates  not  only  carried  more  and  heavier  guns  than  ours, 
but  were  built  of  far  stouter  timbers.  .  But  it  was  not  the 
weight  of  their  metal  that  gave  them  their  remarkable 
victories.  Their  victories  were  due  entirely  to  the  fact  that 
their  gunnery  skill  was  of  a  kind  infinitely  superior  to  that 
of  their  British  opponents.  When  Broke,  who  was  as  able 
and  keen  an  artillerist  as  any  American,  after  having  Shannon 
under  his  orders  for  over  a  year,  met  the  newly-commissioned 
Chesapeake  the  series  of  American  victories  ended  abruptly — 
and  this  although  the  Chesapeake  was  a  heavier  ship  and  armed 
with  heavier  guns  than  the  Shannon.  As  in  all  the  previous 
actions  it  was  superior  skill  in  the  use  of  guns  that  decided 
the  issue.  It  is  especially  noteworthy,  and  of  special  signifi- 
cance to-day,  that  superior  skill  meant  not  only  more  hits, 
bqt  a  freedom  in  the  tactical  handling  of  ships  that  made 
effective  defence  impossible.  I  am  grateful  to  Mr.  Frothing- 
ham for  reminding  us  that  a  writer  in  the  Times  of  that  day 
perfectly  appreciated  why  we  had  so  uniformly  been  beaten. 
Howard  Douglas,  the  real  founder  of  naval  gunneiy,  deals  with 
this  story  in  detail  in  his  historic  work.  There  is,  indeed,  no 
tactical  development  in'thc  whole  of  naval  history  the  exact 
character  and  importance  of  which  has  been  more  clearly 
demonstrated.  And  yet  here  wc  have  Mr.  Frothingham. 
telling  us  that  the  fact  which  the  Tim^s  could  not  understand 
was  the  great  advance  in  naval  construction  !  Surely  it 
would  have  been  just  as  reasonable  for  him  to  have  claimed 
the  Constitution  as  the  first  Dreadnought  because,  for  her 
displacement,  her  timbers  were  the  stoutest  yet  seen  in  any 
ship.  Arthur  Pollen. 


lO 


Land   &  Water 


February   2 1 ,    1 9 1 8 


Leaves  from  a  German   Note-book 


THE  strikes  in  Germany  could  not  have  taken  the 
Government  by  surprise.  As  early  as  January  26 
the  Imperial  Secretary  of  the  Intenor  notified  the 
Main  Committee  of  the  Reichstag  that  a  handbill 
had  been  circulated  calling  on  the  workers  to  ccme 
out  on  strike.  About  the  same  time  an  appeal  was  handed 
to  all  men  and  non-commissioned  officers  released  from  the 
army  to  work  in  munition  factories,  and  the  tone  shows  per- 
fectly well  that  the  suppression  of  Ebert's  speech  was  anything 
but  an  accident.     The  officiil  homily  runs  : 

To  you  who  are  released  or  discharged  to  enter  the  munitions 
industry  an  urgent  warning  is  given  always  to  bear  in  mind 
that  by  ceaseless  labour  you  can  contribute  to  the  speedy 
and  victorious  ending  of  the  war.  The  more  arms  you  deliver 
for  our  troops  the  better  will  they  be  equipped  with  all  that 
they  require,  the  greater  will  the  enemy  losses  be,  the  more 
useless  his  efiorts,  and  the  sooner  will  he  be  incKned  for  peace. 
Any  cessation  of  work,  any  strike,  on  the  other  hand,  prolongs 
the  war,  for  it  weakens  our  defence  and  gives  the  enemy  new 
confidence.  Every  strike  means  a  diminution  in  the  output 
of  weajxyns  of  defence,  and  must  therefore  be  paid  for  in 
German  blood.  He  who  strikes  now  is  sacrificing  the  blood 
of  his  comrades  to  his  own  selfish  aims  ;  he  is  increasing  our 
casualty  lists,  increasing  the  number  of  dead,  widows  and 
orphans,  depriving  so  many  families  of  their  bread-winner, 
and  increasing  the  misery  of  war.  The  munition-worker  who 
refuses  arms  to  our  defenders  at  a  time  when  from  all  sides 
enemies  are  endeavouring  to  carry  spoliation  and  devastation 
into  our  country  commits  not  only  a  crime  but  also  an  in- 
credible folly. 

The  ultimate  cause  of  the  world-war  was  the  success  of  the 
lal)our  of  the  German  workman.  "  Made  in  Germany  "  has 
conquered  the  world  and  more  and  more  driven  English  goods 
into  the  background.  This  is  the  real  reason  why  England 
years  before  the  war  began  the  policy  of  encircling  Germany  and 
inciting  the  whole  world  against  us.  Anyone  who  stops  work 
and  thus  endangers  our  victory  is  furthering  the  English 
object  of  destroying  the  German  workman.  Therefore  avoid 
those  who  wish  to  incite  you  to  strike.  They  are  doing  the 
enemy's  work.  They  are  to  be  con.siderea  enemy  agents. 
Peace  will  not  be  brought  nearer  by  strikes,  but  defeat  and 
overthrow.  Always  remember  that  England  only  won  over 
her  labouring  classes  for  the  war  by  saying  to  them  "  You  will 
be  richer  by  the  wages  which  will  be  taken  from  the  German 
.workman." 

Endure  privations,  such  as  scarcity  of  food,  coals,  etc.,  in 
the  consciousness  that  if  you  hold  out  a  favourable  peace  is 
certain,  which  will  secure  your  economic  future  and  that  of 
our  whole  people.  But  if  we  were  to  collapse  now  in  face  of 
certain  victory,  in  future  we  should  have  to  suffer  not  only 
privations  but  famine,  for  our  enemies  would  force  upon  us  a 
peace  which  would  mean  a  future  full  of  unemployment, 
misery,  and  despair.  Therefore,  comrades,  work  and  endure  ; 
this  IS  what  honour  and  common-sense  impose  upon  you, 
for  it  is  the  only  safe  way  to  a  quick  and  successful  peace. 

Authority   and  the  StriTcers 

.\11  this  goes  to  show  that  the  authorities  in  Germany  were 
fully  aware  of  the  gathering  storm,  and  when  Cabinet  Ministers 
lent  their  support  to  the  legend  that  English  agents  had  stirred 
up  the  strikes,  they  must  have  been  guilty  of  deliberate 
falsehood.  The  only  evi"aence  that  was  forthcoming  was  a 
cock-and-bull  story  published  by  the  Hamburger  Nachrichten 
which  all  through  the  war  has  made  a  special  feature  of  printing 
lying  libels  about  England  in  particular  and  the  Allies  in 
general.  This  newspaper  alleged  that  in  a  certain  street  in 
Hamburg  a  well-dressed  gentleman  was  seen  dropping  out  of 
his  overcoat  pocket  handbills  which  were  of  so  violent  a  • 
character  that  he  must  have  been  an  enemy  agent.  He  was 
not  caught,  however.  That  is  all  the  evidence,  and  one  cannot 
help  wondering  upon  whom  the  paper  desired  to  impose 
this  fairy  tale. 

The  German  workers  were  certainly  not  moved  by  the 
story,  for  they  came  out  on  strike  in  practically  every  industrial 
centre  in  Germany.  The  strike  was  most  extensive  in  Berlin 
but  reports  from  Munich,  Breslau,  Duisburg,  Cassel,  Halle 
and  Leipzig  show  that  in  all  these  towns  the  strikers  were  not 
merely  a  few  irresponsible  youths.  Their  numbers  ran  'into 
many  thousands  and  their  demands  were  specific  enough. 
As  in  Austria,  so  in  Germany,  the  men  asked  for  peace,  food 
and  democratic  institutions.  ,       ■  '  ' 

But  the  authorities  were  adamant.  The  G.O.C.  in  the  Berlin 
district,  General  von  "Kessel,  who  is  an  old  man  accustomed  to 
the  traditions  of  1870  and  out  of  all  sympathy  with  modern 
movements,  began  by  abolishing  the  ordinary  courts  and 
replacmg  them,  under  a  law  of  1851,  by  extraordinary  military 
tribunals ;  and  then  he  put  seven  of  the  largest  munition 
works  in  Berlin  under  military  control.  He  made  it  quite 
clear  that  he  would  not  shrink  from  machine  guns  in  order 
to  crush  the  uprising.      An .  uncompromising  attitude    was 


also  adopted  by  the  Imperial  Chancellor.  This  strike  incident 
shows  conclusively  that  the  Militarists  are  firmly  in  the 
saddle,  and  Count  Hertling  cannot  call  his  soul  his  own. 

Austria  and  Germany 

That  was  made  abundantly  clear  by  the  contrast  between 
Hertling's  and  Czemin's  speeches.  Czernin  was  mercilessly 
abused  by  the  Junker  Press,  which  seems  to  grow  more 
impertinent  daily.  These  papers  asked  Austria  who  it 
was  won  her  victories  for  her .'  Who  protected  Lemberg  and 
Przemysl  ?  Who  froze  in  the  Carpathians  to  safeguard  the 
integrity  of  Hungary  ?  Wlio  cleared  the  Rumanians  out  of 
Transylvania  ?  Who  withstood  the  onslaught  of  the  Italians 
on  Trieste  ?  The  German  army  did  all  these  things ;  and  is 
Austria-Hungary  now  to  be  ungrateful  ?  Will  the  Dual 
Monarchy  carve  out  a  path  for  itself  ?  These  questions 
must  have  rankled  in  Austria  and  Hungary. 

In  view  of  these  somewhat  strained  relations  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  Austrian  Press  puts  the  blame  for  the 
strikes  on  the  Junkers  and  annexationists.  And  is  there  not 
justice  in  their  plea  ?  The  ruling  party  in  Germany — the 
crowned  heads  from  the  Kaiser  downwards,  the  Ministers, 
the  officials,  the  army — all  belong  to  that  reactionary  clique. 
At  the  Conference  of  the  Conservative  Party  held  recently 
at  Halle  General  von  Liebert  won  the  applause  of  the  gather  ng 
he  was  addressing  when  he  laid  it  down  that 

for  us  the  watchword  must  be  "  might  before  right."  We 
must  not  listen  to  sentimentality  or  humanity.  We  must 
be  inconsiderate.  We  must  retain  Belgium  and  the  North 
of  France.  That  is  the  curse  of  God  which  has  fallen  on  the 
French  nation.  Let  us  rejoice  that  we  have  nothing  to  do 
with  such  a  criminal  people. 

Even  their  religion  is  tinged  with  the  gospel  of  might. 
On  a  recent  Sunday,  a  clergyman.  Dr.  Dibelius  by  name, 
gave  a  lecture  in  one  of  the  Berlin  churches  on  "  We  German 
Christians  and  the  German  peace."  The  reverend  gentleman 
explained  the  meaning  of  brotherly  love  in  these  words : 

Brotherly  love  in  the  first  place  implies  love  for  our  own 
suffering  people.  It  is  therefore  a  Christian  duty  not  to  reject 
indemnities  and  annexations  for  our  own  people.  .  .  .  What 
is  the  best  security  ?  Germany's  power.  The  demand  for 
a  German  peace  based  on  strength  has  an  ethical  justification, 
it  is  only  the  recognition  of  success.  Not  Letts  and  Esthonians 
shall  determine  the  fate  of  the  Baltic  lands,  but  the  Germans 
only,  to  whom  those  lands  owe  ever)rthing. 

Prussian  Brutality 

Brute  force  alone  appeals  to  these  people,  and  they  are 
not  ashamed  of  practising  what  they  preach.  A  striking 
illustration  of  the  depths  to  which  Prussian  Junkerdom  can 
sink  is  furnished  by  the  records  of  a  trial  held  before  a  local 
court  in  Mecklenburg.  This  federal  state  is,  even  in  Germany, 
admitted  to  be  the  most  baclrward  country  in  the  world ; 
and  if  the  case  in  question  is  typical,  it  is  surely  sufficient  to 
make  decent  people  shudder.  Herr  Wilhelm  von  Oertzen 
is  the  squire  of  Raggow,  near  Neubukow,  and  he  was  the 
defendant  in  the  case,  the  plaintiff  being  one  of  his  farm 
labourers. 

One  day,  recently,  this  labourer  was  found  by  the  squire's 
principal  beater  cutting  off  ears  of  corn  and  placing  them  in  a 
bag.  The  culprit  admitted  that  he  intended  to  grind  the  com 
for  use  as  a  substitute  for  coffee.  For  this  heinous  offence 
the  labourer  was  brought  before  Herr  von  Oertzen,  who 
declared  that  he  would  whip  him.  The  squire  accompanied 
the  labourer  into  the  park,  ordered  him  to  strip,  had  his  arms 
tied  to  a  tree  by  means  of  a  leather  strap,  and  he  himself 
let  fly  at  the  poor  wretch  with  a  riding  whip.  As  the  per- 
secuted labourer  attempted  in  his  pain  to  loosen  himself  from 
the  tree  the  Prussian  Junker  tied  yet  another  strap  round  his 
body  and  continued  the  flogging.  When  the  wretched  man 
cried  out  the  Junker  threatened  to  stop  his  mouth  if  he  were 
not  quiet.  Directly  after  the  flogging  the  man  was  sent  off 
to  work,  though  his  body  was  covered  with  blood.  The 
Public  Prosecutor  demanded  a  punishment  of  three  months' 
imprisonment  for  von  Oertzen,  but  the  Court  considered  one 
month  a  sufficient  penalty. 

It  is  remarkable  that  people  should  put  up  with  treat- 
ment such  as  this  ;  still  more  remarkable  that  lords  of  the 
manor  in  a  so-called  civilised  country  should  have  the  face 
to  treat  their  labourers  in  this  fashion  ;  and  most  remarkable 
of  all  that  a  court  of  justice  in  the  twentieth  century  should 
take  so  light  a  view  of  so  heartless  a  proceeding.  So  much 
for  the  Ktdtur  and  the  justice  of  Germany.  It  is  reminiscent 
of  the  social  state  of  France  in  the  eighteenth  century. 


February  2i,   191 8  Land   &  Water 

John    Rathom's    Revelations 

An    account     of     a     remarkable     interview     between 

Mr.    Rathom    and    Captain    Boy-Ed,  and  the    wireless 

conspiracies  which  originated  in  Berlin 


II 


The  Secretaries  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Embassy  at  Washington 


These  men,  with  Dr.  Dumba.  the  Ambasjador.  were  all  in  the  work  of  obtaining  fraudulent  passports^  JnllXr^nasroortfto  l"ustda" 
labour^s  (chiefly  longshoremen)  who  had  become  naturalized  American  citizens  were  mstr^cted  to  apply  ^"^  p^^^PO^t^"  ^ustna 
When  obtained  these  passports  were  bought  by  the  Austrian  officials  and  turned  over  to  the  Germans,  who  erased  tne  names  ana  SUD 
SS:te?tVT,^m*esTf  Kan  reserve  officers  an\  soldiers,  who  were  thus  -abled  to  return  to  ^^^^^^y.^L  «Lll'otDr"Dumba  in 
group  above,  from  left  to  right,  are  :  Baron  Erich  Zweidmek,  counsellor  and  Charge  d  Affaires  and,  after  the  recall  ot  J^'^^^"™"^'  ' 
charge  of  the  Embassy  Prince  Alfred  zu  Hohenlohe-SchiUingsfurst.  attach^;  Baron  Stephen  Hedry  deHedri  et  aeoenereADa, 
SberaiLtofSlmp^erial  and  Apostolic  Majesty:  second  secretary  Consul-General  von  Gnvic.c ;  K.  Schwenda,  Josef  Schoedel, 
y  ^K_^^^  J    Sobotka,  and  Charles  Pollak,  all  secretaries  of  chancellery. 


Mr.  John  R.  Rathom,  in  his  openingarticle.  amongst  other 
things  described  how  Count  von  Bernstorff,  the  German 
Ambassador  at  Washington,  falsely  posed  as  the  victim 
of  the  Foreign  Office  at  Berlin  and  was  compelled  to 
carry  out  instructions  that  were  distasteful  to  him. 
He  was  also  most  careful  not  to^  allow  himself  per- 
sonally to  be  ever  mixed  up  with  the  more  dastardly 
outrages  which  he  had  himself  helped  to  plan. 

AT  the  end  of  February,  1915,  von  Bernstorff  spent 
several  days  with  Captain  von  Papen  and  a 
lawyer,  busily  engaged  in  concocting  a  scheme 
of  false  affidavits  in  order  to  attempt  to  make 
Mr.  Bryan,  then  Secretary  of  State,  believe  that 
immense  quantities  of  dum-dum  bullets  were  being  shipped 
from  American  factories  to  the  British  War  Office.  There 
was  never  any  ground  for  this  accusation,  which  originated 
in  the  German  Embassy.  The  day  before  the  Ambassador 
went  to  Mr.  Bryan  with  his  alleged  evidence  he  actually 
rehearsed  his  approaching  visit  to  the  Secretary  of  State  in 
his  own  library,  with  one  of  his  secretaries  posing  as  Mr. 
Br>'an.  He  said  to  this  man  at  the  conclusion  of  an 
impassioned  plea  which  lasted  about  five  minutes—"  Ain 
I  impressive  enough  ?  Is  my  statement  forceful  enough  ?  " 
to  which  the  man  replied,  "  Most  forceful,  Your  Excellency." 

"  If  it  appears  that  way  to  you,"  replied  the  Ambassador, 
"  we  will  have  no  trouble  with  the  big-mouthed  (grossmau- 
lichen)  gentleman." 

A  question  that  has  been  repeatedly  asked  ever  since 
America  entered  into  a  state  of  war  with  Germany  is :  "  How 
was  it  possible,  with  the  precautions  naturally  taken  by  the 
Teutonic  Governments  and  their  agents,  to  get  inside  facts 
from  the  German  Embassy  and  from  manv  of  the  offices  of  the 
German  and  Austrian  Consul-Generals  ?  ' 

The  answer,  given  here  for  the  first  time,  is  simple  enough. 
While  the  entire  story  of  the  methods  used  in  getting  inside 
the  Teutonic  lines  in  America  cannot  be  told  at  this  moment, 
it  is  sufficient  for  present  purposes  to  say  that  from  the 
beginning  of  the  European  war,  and  for  some  months^  prior 
to  that  time,  the  Journal  was  able  to  bring  to  its  aid  the 
services  of  many  Bohemians  and  Southern  Slavs  from  every 
part  of  the  United  States.  It  was  largely  through  the  self- 
sacrificing  activities  and  the  remarkable  mental  equipment 
of  many  of  these  men  that  I  was  enabled  from  day  to  day  to 
receive  and  tabulate  information  from  the  very  heart  of  the 
German  and  Austrian  propagandist  system  in  the  United 
States— both  the  Embassies  and  many  of  the  Teutonic 
consular  offices  throughout  the  country. 

These  men  (and  women  as  well)  not  only  took  grave  risks 


in  this  work— for  they  were  braving  German  vengeance— but 
gave  up  their  time,  and  in  many  cases  their  own  funds,  without 
a  shilling  of  compensation  from  the  Journal  or  anybody  else, 
in  order  to  give  the  facts  which  would  prove  to  the  American 
people  the  manner  in  which  they  were  being  tricked  and  fooled 
by  the  German  Ambassador  and  his  fellows. 

A  large  number  of  the  men  engaged  in  this  work  were 
lawyers  and  doctors.  A  great  many  of  them  were  labourers 
in  factories,  some  were  publishers  of  Croatian  and  Bohemian 
newspapers,  and  the  list  included  several  hundred  students 
in  colleges  and  high  schools.  Every  one  of  the  men  among 
them  of  age  was  an  American  citizen.  It  is  impossible  to  pay 
too  high  a  tribute  to  their  energy  and  faithfulness. 

It  became  apparent  to  both  the  German  and  Austrian 
Ambassadors,  after  these  men  had  been  at  work  for  a  few 
months,  that  the  stories  printed  by  the  Providence  Journal 
must  have  had  their  sources  in  some  dangerous  leaks.  Count 
von  Bernstorff— between  May,  1915,  and  December,  1915— 
discharged  one  of  the  employees  of  the  German  Embassy  on 
suspicion  of  having  been  involved  in-  these  leaks,  and  this 
man  was  immediately  approached  through  friendly  channels 
with  the  result  that  he  has  been  on  the  pay  roll  of  the  Pro- 
vidence Journal  Company  ever  since  his  discharge.  The  right 
man  was  never  discovered  bv  the  Ambassador,  nor,  until  the 
day  he  left  for  Halifax,  did  he  have  the  slightest  inkling  as  to 
who  this  man  was. 

Four  months  of  listening  on  the  SayviUe  and  Tuckerton 
wireless  stations  through  one  of  the  best  equipped  and  highest 
powered  stations  on  the  North  American  continent,  from  the 
day  the  European  war  began,  had  also  brought  to  me  an 
immense  mass  of  information  concerning  the  propagandist 
activities,  not  only  of  German  and  Austrian  aliens  in  America, 
but  also  of  hundreds  of  American  citizens  of  German  and 
Austrian  birth.  From  many  of  the  latter  I  was  able  to 
secure  a  great  quantity  of  material,  particulariy  when,  as  I  ^vas 
frequently  able  to  do,  I  started  many  of  them  in  active 
recrimination  against  one  another. 

On  Sunday,  May  2nd,  1915,  some  months  after  the 
Providence  Journal  had  begun  its  series  of  exposures  of 
German  propaganda,  which  at  thai  time  very  few  people  in 
the  United  States  believed  to  be  true,  I  received  a  telephone 
message  at  a  New  York  hotel,  where  I  was  staying,  from  the 
steward  of  the  German  Club  at  112,  Central  Park,  South. 
After  stating  who  he  was,  he  said  that  two  gentlemen,  one  of 
whom  was  Captain  Karl  Boy-Ed,  were  very  anxious  to  have  a 
chat  with  me,  and  asked  me  if  I  would  see  a  representative  of 
Captain  Boy-Ed's,  and  accompany  him  to  the  clubhouse  at 
eleven  o'clock  that  moming.  I  replied  that  I  would,  and  half 
an  hour  later  a  man,  who  was  afterwards  identified  as  Dr. 
Fuhr,  one  of  von  Bemstorff's  New  York  spies,  came  to  my 


12 


Land   &   Water 


February   2i,    rgio 


rooms,  stating  th.it  he  was  from  Captain  Boy-Ed,  and  had  a 
car  at  the  door. 

I  went  with  him  to  the  German  Club  and  there,  for  the  first 
time,  met  Captain  Boy-Ed,  who  received  me  hi  a  large  private 
room 


facturcrs  not  to  indulge  in  the  practice  any  further,  he  will 
very  materially  hasten  the  coming  of  peace  by  reason  of  our 
desire  to  meet  him  more  than  half  way."' 

I  said  that  I  did  not  understand  his  meaning,  and  wanted 
some  further  light  on  his  proposition.     Captain  Boy-Ed  then 


He  said  he  had  one  or  two  important  matters  to  talk  continued:  ,.,..,      ^     a 

with  me  about,  and  that  while  he  realised  the  Providence        "  If  the  President  wil   make  this  plea  to  Ameriann  manu- 

Journal  was  antagonistic  to  him  and  to  the  German  cause,  facturers,  and  if  it  results  in  the  stopping  of  traffic  in  war 

he  felt  that  he  wanted  to  state  frankly  what  was  in  his  mind,  munitions  from  this  country,  the  German  Government  will 

and  try  to  establish  better  relations  with  us.     He  said  that  set  in  motion  at  once  the  prehminarj'  machinery  for  peace 

his  people  were  not  at  all  satisfied  with  the  way  in  whicli  the  negotiations.     The  only  basis  for  any  present   negotiations 

German  side  of  the  case  was  being  presented  through  American  will  be  the  stoppage  of  the  arms  and  ammunition  traffic  between 

newspapers,  and  he  wanted  to  ask  whether  I  believed  from  this  country  and  our  enemy.     You  can  tell  the  Ptesident  that 

my  experience  that   the  fault   lav  with   the  character  and  this  proposal  is  based  on  that  proposition,  and  that  if  the 

method  of  presentation  of  the  material  itself,  or  whether  tlie  embargo  is  carried  through  effectively,  Germany  will  begin 

majority  of  the  large  papers  were  so  biassed  against  Germany  negotiations  immediately,  and  will  agree  to  withdraw  from 

that  they  would  not  print  the  matter  submitted.     I  told  him  Belgium  and  from  the  occupied  portion  of  France.     We  will 

that,  regardless  of    the  sentiments  of  American  newspapers,  not  consider  the  payment   of  one  penny  in    indemnity,  nor 

they'  were  naturally  and  rightfully  antagonistic  to  any  move-  will  we   consider  giving   up   any   part    of     Alsace-Lorraine, 

ment  that  looked  like  a  propaganda  attempt    to  use  their  Germany  will  agree  to    rebuild,  in  as  good  a   condition  as 

columns  in  any  way,  and  that  in  my  judgment  the  material  they  were    before  the   war,    all    public   buildings   destroyed 

with  which  newspaper  offices  had  been  flooded  by  the  German  in  Belgian  towns,  but  that  is  all.     We  have  a  specific  reason 

Publicity  Bureau  was  on  its  face  so  false  and  rnalicious  that  for  wanting  these  facts  laid  before  Mr.  Wilson  from  outside 


no  decent  newspaper  could 
handle  it.  He  said  he 
felt  that  criticism  of  this 
kind  was  somewhat  just, 
which  led  liim  up  to  what 
he  stated  was  the  first  of 
the  matters  about  which 
he  wanted  to  talk  with  me. 
He  then  asked  if  I  would 
undertake  the  supervision 
of  a  German  News  Bureau, 
having  headquarters  in 
New  York,  and  with  branch 
offices  in  Chicago,  Denver, 
and.  San  Francisco,  which 
would  issue  regularly  to 
the  Presssemi-official  state- 
ments from  the  Overseas 
News  Agency,  and  _also 
regular  translationsof  news 
stories  and  articles  apjiear- 
ing  in  the  German  news- 
papers. 

He  said  he  would  be 
prepared  to  pay  £2,000  a 
month  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  these  bureaus, 
which  ought  to  be  run  by 
skilled  American  news- 
paper men  having  a  large 
and  friendly  relationship 
among  other  newspaper 
men,  and  he  would  be 
glad  to  pay  £400  a 
month  for  my  personal 
services,  and  a  bonus  of 
£2,000  at  the  end  of  six 
months,  and  would  also 
agree  that  I  was  not  to 
be  known  personally  in 
the  matter  at  all,  and  that 


Captain   Karl  Boy-Ed, 

German  Naval  AttacW  at  Washington. 


sources.       What    do    you 
think  of  it  ?" 

I  told  Captain  Boy-Ed 
that  I  thought  he  must  be 
crazy,  and  suggested  that 
if  the  German  Embassy  or  ^ 
the  German  Government 
had  any  proposition  to 
make  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States  they  had 
their  regular  diplomatic 
channels  through  which  to 
make  it. 

Captain  Boy-Ed  replied 
that  the  German  Govern- 
ment could  not  directly  or 
indirectly  put  itself  in  any 
position  of  making  the  first 
move,  but  if  the  President 
or  Secretary  of  State  could 
be  induced  to  approach  the 
German  Ambassador  or 
the  German  Foreign  Office 
with  a  question  based  on 
the  lines  suggested,  his 
Government  would  at  once 
acquiesce  and  "  go  m6re 
than  half  way." 

He  added  :  "  You  don't 
realise  what  a  tremendous 
influence  we  can  bring  to 
bear  on  Mr.  Bryan,  for 
example,  through  his 
church  affiliations,  and 
through  many  of  our  good 
friends  who  are  close  to 
the  Administration.  Any- 
way, we  want  you  to  make 
the  suggestion  to  the 
President  when  you  see 
him  this  week.    You  will 


Iwhi"^  h^  P^™1*^^^  so  to  arrange  the  installation  and  work     find   a    great  many   forces    moving  along  in   that  direction 

OI     tne     Dureau     that    nobody     could    SUSnect    mv    rnnnprtinn       hpfnrp  ihp  wooU  Jc  r>-„cr-  "  o  -o 


nobody    could  suspect  my  connection     before  the  week  is  over 


I  asked  Captain  Boy-Ed  how  he  knew  I  was  going  to  see 


with  it. 

I  told  him  that  it  was  absolutely  impossible  for  me  to     the  President^ 

anv  Ji!^n''Jh?r^"'^l!.'^°'J'  "/,*''  -f  ^^*^'*  ^"^  ^^"^  ^^'^  "^'"^  °^         "^  ""^P''^^  '■   "  We  know  whatever  we  wish  to  know." 

Aft^r  a  7ow  Zfpn.''"^*"'*''-^^'*-  u  .   u     .    .  ^  *°^^  '""^  t^^t  ^f  I  ^i'i  '^'^  the  President  I  would  tell  him 

Alter  a  tew  moments  he  said  he  was  sorry,  but  that  he  had     what  he  said 

done  r^^H.ihin  '"^i^'Jk  fT''*'°"  ^^^°'l  '"^'  ^J"^  ^^^         ^^P^^"^  ^"^Ed  broke  in  at  once  with  the  exclamation  : 
aone  so.     He  then  said  that  there  was  another  and  vastly        No,   you  must  not  say  where  this  croDosal  comes  from  I 

"rsT£f"f £;:";? '^ ^^Tf i^''^;^ "f -^^'i' "'  ^" j ^^"^ >'°^ *« ^« '^^° ^^^w oS r^u'gg^stionTsto how 

the  \VwTe  Hfusrvvn^tfh.  Pr    Pr'?^^""'"*  '?,  W^^l"."gto"  ft     5i>^h  ^n  act  on  his  part  will  be  received  by  our  Government. 
IZ  in  i      ^  %^1  President  dunng  the  coming  week.     Tell  him  you  have  inside  information.     I  forbid  you  to  suggest 

and  m  connection  with  that  appointment  I  want  to  place  a     to  him  that  you  have  ever  seen  or  talked  wih  me  "  f 

Tnow  up1STn\he  d'ub°"H   T  *?  i^^.l^f'^r  ^'t     u  I  ^°^^  CapLin  Boy-Ertha7l  Should 'pu^ fh'e  whole  sub  ect 
h.  wLT=tf,,!!!/il™^V,"^ '^°'^' "°*  ^^^' t^^^  before   the   President,    and   should  state   e.xactly   what   the 

proposition  was,  and  from  whom  it  came. 

This  ended  the  conversation  and  I  left  the  club. 

On  Wednesday,  May  5th,  the  entire  matter  was  laid  before 

the  President.     On  the  same  day  the  German  propagandists 

all  over  the  United  States  began  a  fresh  campaign  for  an 

embargo  on  arms.     The  announcement  was  also  made,  on 


be  wise  to  see  you  personally. 

The  following  is,  of  course,  not  a  shorthand  report  of  the 
statement  he  then  proceeded  to  make,  but  is  very  close  to 
being  as  correct  as  if  taken  down  in  shorthand. 

"  We  want  you,  when  you  see  tlie  President,  to  lay  before 
i"™  the  suggestion  that  he  reconsider  liis  attitude  regarding 

f  eitTe^hTor'MrTrvan^wilTln'rf"./"  'I^^'V  ^^J^f  '^'  ^""^'^  ^''"^te,  of  the  beginning  of  a  campaign' to  "fii^ance" a 

to   theTr  felL^dtizenrthat^lX^^^^^  new  German,  paper  in   New  York  to   fight  Igainst  further 

neuSy  in^lie  makin^of'a™^^^  munitions  shipments,  and  the  Germans  on  that  date  also 

irauiy  m   tlie  making  of  arms,   they  would  beg  manu-  began  an  endless-chain  petition  to  the  President,  urging  an 


February    21,    1918 


Land    ^   Water 


13 


extra  session  of  Congress  to  put  an  embargo  on  the  shipment 
of  arms. 

The  suggestions  put  out  by  Captain  Boy-Ed  were  directly 
in  line  with  four  or  five  other  attempts,  made  by  the  Germans 
in  America  through  other  channels,  to  keep  the  Administra- 
tion at  Washington  under  the  belief  that  Germany  was 
anxiously  seeking  some  basis  for  peace. 

Careful  examination  of  our  wireless  reports  showed  a 
constant  and  suspicious  connection  between  many  large 
commercial  and  shipping  houses  in  the  United  States  and 
the  Gennan  Foreign  Office.  Further  investigation  disclosed 
the  fact  that  the  code  numbers  and  combinations  of  letters 
being  used  by  the  German  Embassy  in  its  messages  to  Berlin 
were  in  many  cases  duplicated  by  messages  sent  out  from  the 
Atlantic  Communication  Company  (the  ostensible  owner  of 
Sayville,  the  American  wireless  station),  the  Siemens  and 
Halske  Gimpany  of  Kew  York,  the  Hamburg-America 
Line  and  North  German  Lloyd  Line,  and  many  other  concerns. 
Starting  with  this  knowledge,  it  soon  developed  that  the  great 
strength  of  the  German  propaganda  system  in  America  was 
largely  due  to  the  fact  that  these  great  commercial  houses 
were  nothing  more  than  outposts  of  the  German  Foreign 
Office,  heavily  subsidised  and  acting  directly  under  the  orders 
of  their  home  offices,  which  in  turn  took  their  orders  from 
Foreign  Office  officials. 

One  of  the  first  discoveries  made  by  the  Journal  was  the 
existence  of  a  chart  drawn  to  resemble  a  family  tree,  the 
trunk  of  which  bore  the  label  of  the  Foreigft  Office.  Spreading 
from  this  trunk  were  three  branches,  and  at  the  bottom  of 
each  branch  the  words,  "  Telefunken  Co."  Spreading  from 
each  of  these  three  branches  were  limbs  bearing  the  names  of 
electrical  firms  throughout  the  world. 

This  tremendous  network  of  great  electrical  concerns,  all 
of  them  in  turn  having  sub-agencies  and  all  being  directly  con- 
nected with  wireless  and  telegraphic  communication  of  every 
description,  was  continuously  at  the  service  of  the  German 
Government.  Thanks  to  heavy  Government  subsidies  these 
concerns  were  able  to  underbid,  and  did  underbid,  their  com- 
petitors in  the  price  of  installation  of  wireless  plants  through- 
out the  American  continent,  and  we  discovered  in  many  cases 
before  the  construction  of  such  plants  that  they  had  success- 
fully imposed  their  will  on  various  Central  and  South  American 
Governments  by  insisting^in  selecting  their  own  locations  for 
the  construction  of  these  plants. 

The  most  interesting  discovery  made  in  this  connection  by 
my  representatives  was  that  during  the  time  that  the  United 
States  Government  was  planning  a  series  of  wireless  stations 
throughout  the  Philippine  Islands  the  Gesellschaft  |Fur 
Drahtlose  Telegraphic  in  Berlin,  a  branch  of  the  great  Tele- 
funken system,  sent  to  its  branch  in  New  York  City  and  to 
its  office  in  Manila  (represented  by  the  firm  of  Germann  and  Co., 
of  Hamburg)  a  long  communication  setting  forth  that  the 
wireless  stations  to  be  constructed  by  the  United  States 
Government  in  the  Philippines  must  be  bid  for  at  such  a  low 
price  by  their  agents  that  there  would  be  no  possibility  of 
their  losing  the  contracts. 

A  former  manager  of  the  Atlantic  Communication  Company 
notified  me  that  the  definite  understanding  with  reference  to 
this  matter  was  as  follows :  "  Our  superior  knowledge  of 
wireless  must  be  set  forth  in  arguments  to  convince  United 
States  '  wireless  '  officials  that  the  stations  should  be  where  we 
have  designated  them  on  this  map,  regardless  of  their  own 
desires  in  the  matter,  so  as  to  make  it  certain  that  if  Germany 
comes  into  control  of  the  Philippine  Islands  the  wireless 
stations  shall  be  in  the  most  advantageous  positions  for  the 
work  of  the  German  Government." 

The  Hamburg- America  Line  and  the  North  i  German 
Lloyd  Line,  in  addition  to  being  under  the  direct  supervision 
of  Captain  Boy-Ed  (who  practically  had  charge  of  the  move- 
ments of  all  the  ships  of  both  concerns),  made  regular  reports 
through  their  home  office  to  the  Foreign  Office  in  Berlin. 
Among  these  reports  were  accounts  of  disbursements,  not 
only  for  the  legitimate  outlay  of  a  steamship  company,  but 
also  for  the  upkeep  of  two  large  bodies  of  secret  service  men 
who  took  charge  of  all  fraudulent  passport  work  for  the 
German  Government,  and  who  between  the  outbreak  of  the 
European  war  and  the  time  of  America's  entry  into  the  war 
shipped  on  Swedish  and  Dutch  vessels  a  large  number  of 
German  reservist  officers,  and  also  of  German  army  officers, 
from  America.  The  latter,  through  briber^',  were  allowed  to 
escape  from  Siberia  after  having  been  captured  by  the  Russians, 
and  were  brought  through  Japan  or  China  into  the  United 
States,  held  in  boarding  houses  in  New  York  and  shipped  with 
false  passports  to  Europe  as  opportunity  offered. 

These  great  corptjrations  were  used  also  for  other  purposes 
by  the  German  and  .\ustrian  Govemmcnts  and  the  Embassies 
in  Washington.  A  i)iot  to  blow  up  the  Welland  Canal  was 
worked  out  in  the  Hamburg- America  offices  by  Paul  Koenig, 
chief  qf^the  secret  service  of  that  company.  In  aii-attempt 
to    fool    the    American    Government,    hundreds    of    wireless 


messages,  ostensibly  relating  to  steamship  matters,  but  really 
secret  Government  codes,  were  sent  continually  to  the  German 
wireless  stations  at  Nauen  and  Elivese  signed  by  these  steam- 
ship and  electrical  concerns  under  orders  from  von  Bemstorff, 
in  whose  office  such  messages  originated. 

The  great  majority  of  the  men  working  in  these  establish- 
ments were  Genrian  and  Austrian  aliens,  but  they  invariably 
included,  usually  among  their  general  managers  or  directors, 
several  who  had  acquired  American  citizenship  solely  to 
permit  them  to  conduct  their  propaganda  work  with  more 
freedom. 

Truly,  the  German  Ambassador,  von  Bemstorff,  was  not 


The  Wireless  Station  used  by   the  German 
Plotters 

At  Sayville,  L.  I.  It  was  equipped  with  the  German  Tele- 
funken apparatus  and  was  owned  by  the  Atlantic  Communica- 
tion Company  before  the  United  States  Government  took  it 
over  after  it  bad  been  proved  that  it  was  being  used  to  send 
'  military  information  to  Germany  in  violation  of  our  neutrality. 

underestimating  the  boundless  credulity  of  a  democracy 
when  he  said  once  in  his  Embassy,  in  a  burst  of  pardonable 
pride  in  his  ability  to  make  the  American  people  believe 
what  he  wanted  them  to  believe  :  "In  dem  Lande  der  un- 
begrenzten  Moglichkeiten  ist  alles  tnoglich  !  " — "  In  this  land 
of  unlimited  possibilities  everything  is  possible  !  " 


We  regret  to  announce  that  publication  of  these 
articles  by  Mr.  ^ohn  R.  Rathom  will  have  to  be 
suspended  at  the  request  of  the  United  States 
Authorities. 


H 


Land   &  Water 


February   2i,    191 8 


The  Sleuth  Hound  :  By  Alec  Waugh 


E 


ERD  the  latest,  Kid  ?  " 
"  Nawh,  Steve,  what  is  it  ?     Cap  n  gone  on 

"  No  such  luck.  There's  a  chance  of  makm 
twenty  quid  and  getting  a  month's  leave. 

Private  Walker  sat  up  suddenly.  ,     xt  *  i:u  i„  •> 

••  What's  that  ?     Month's  leave,  did  yer  say  ?     Not  hkely. 

"  Straight,  though  ;  just  'ad  it  from  the  Sergmt ;  if  anyone 
catches  a  BDche  spy  'e  gets  twenty  quid  an  a  month  s  leave. 

Private  Walker's  face  lit  up  suddenly,  as  one  who  has  seen 
the  beatific  vision. 

"  Stuff  to  give  'em,  ay,"  said  his  companion. 

But  he  did  not  answer.  There  rose  before  him  dreams  of  a 
resplendent  future.  A  month's  leave  and  twenty  pounds  to 
spend  on  it.  Gawd,  but  what  a  time  he  would  have  !  Cinemas 
and  music  halls,  joy  rides  and  restaurants.  For  four  weeks 
he  could  live  like  a  lord  ;   but  the  secret  must  be  kept  fast. 

"  Now  look  'ere,  Alf,"  he  said  cunningly,  '  don  t  you  go 
teUing  the  chaps  about  this.  We  must  keep  this  to  ourselves 
like.     Don't  do  to  'ave  too  many  in  the  know.' 

"  You're  right  there,  Kid,"  said  Steve  ;   "  dead  nght.    This 

is  our  job."  .  ,      ...,., 

"  Yes,"  said  Private  Walker,  and  sank  back  into  his  dreams. 


From  that  moment  onwards  Private  Walker  was  a  changed 
man.    No  one  in  the  gun  team  could  understand  it. 

"  Look  'ere,  you  chaps,"  he  said  that  evening.     "  I  don't 
sleep  so  well  'o  nights  nowadays,  and  if  any  of  you  likes  to 
turn  in  a  bit  longer,  I  don't  mind  doing  an  extra  guard  or  two 
if  anyone  wants  me  to." 
Six  voices  rose  in  one  unanimous  discordant  wail : 
"  Me." 

"  Well,  I  can't  do  'em  aU,  you  know  ;  I'll  take  it  m  turns. 
You  don't  mind,  do  you,  Corporal  ?  " 

From  the  end  of  the  dugout  a  drowsy  voice  muttered  that 
if  anyone  was  fool  enough  to  want  to  go  on  guard,  they 
blooming  well  could.  As  long  as  some  one  was  sentry  over 
the  gun,  he  didn't  care  a  farthing  who  it  was. 

And  so  Private  Walker  mounted  guard  over  the  gun  for 
twelve  hours  of  the  twenty-four ;  and  the  rest  of  the  gun 
team,  accepting  gratefully  the  gifts  of  Providence,  drank  off 
their  rum  ration  and  slept. 

As  a  sentry  Private  Walker  had  in  the  past  been  a  sloppy, 
somnolent  individual.  Times  without  number  Mr.  Ferguson 
had  found  him  at  his  post  with  his  rifle  unloaded  ;  never  had 
Captain  Evans  extracted  from  him  a  satisfactory  explanation 
of  the  procedure  necessary  in  case  of  gas.  F.P.  No.  2  had 
come  his  way  with  monotonous  regularity.  He  was  quite 
the  dud  man  of  No.  305  Machine  Gun  Company,  and  it  was 
the  fervent  wish  of  every  officer  and  N.C.O.  in  the  company 
that,  when  the  Brigadier  paid  one  of  his  periodical  visits  to 
the  gun.  Private  Walker  would  not  be  the  man  on  guard. 

But  the  miracle  happened.  From  being  lazy  and  sleepy- 
eyed,  Private  Walker  became  vigilant,  keen,  ruthless  in  the 
pursuance  of  his  duty.  He  was  the  terror  of  anyone  passing 
near  him.  On  dark  nights  it  was  bad  enough  to  be  suddenly 
confronted  with  his  fierce  peering  face,  hoarse  roar,  and 
bayonet  levelled  at  the  throat.  But  it  was  worse  on  the  clear 
nights,  when  the  moonlight  fell  over  long  stretches  of  bleak 
moorland.  For  it  did  not  matter  how  far  away  a  figure  was, 
he  sentry's  "  Who  are  you  ?  "  thundered  across  the  night : 
and  it  was  no  good  for  the  man  once  spotted  to  shout  back, 
"  Signaller  with  a  message  for  Division."  Private  Walker's 
word  "  Advance  and  be  recognised,"  had  gone  forth,  and  there 
was  no  gainsaying  it.  The  signaller  had  to  come  back  the 
whole  five  hundred  yards,  and  satisfy  that  sleuth  hound  of 
spies  that  he  was  not  a  Prussian  guardsman  masquerading  as 
a  "  Jock."  And  like  every  man  with  a  true  sense  of  duty, 
rank  and  position  meant  nothing  at  all  to  Walker.  Even 
the  captain  of  the  R.E.'s  was  dragged  before  the  inscrutable 
tribunal.    For  a  moment  or  two  he  had  demurred. 

"  Look  here  ;  damn  it,  man,"  he  had  shouted  back  ;  "  I'm 
in  a  hurry.     It's  all  right.    I'm  a  captain  of  the  R.E.'s." 

Private  Walker  said  nothing ;   he  loaded  a  round  into  the 
breach  and  fired  into  the  night. 
The  captain  came. 

For  a  fortnight  this  went  on  ;  the  gun  team  was  relieved, 
and  went  back  to  detail,  spent  a  few  days  there  ;  then  back 
into  the  line. 

"  Still  like  doing  buckshee  guards.  Walker  ?  "  said  the 
Corporal. 

•  He  nodded.  He  was  one  of  those  men  who,  when  the  hand 
is  once  set  to  the  plough,  do  not  turn  back.  His  mind  was 
only  capable  of  holding  one  idea  at  a  time,  and  at  the  present 


moment  it  was  whoUy  obsessed  with  the  lust  of  thwarting  the 

Boche.  ,        ,  X 

The  climax  was  reached  two  days  later. 

Major  Dunstan  had  only  a  week  back  been  promoted  to  the 
Divisional  Staff,  as  Divisional  Machine-Gun  Officer,  and  the 
first  days  of  his  consulship  were  spent  in  the  reconnaissance 
of  the  gun  positions  under  his  command  ;  305,  being  the 
divisional  company,  he  left  till  last,  and  so  till  the  time  that 
Private  Walker  returned  to  the  line  his  company  as  a  whole 
had  seen  next  to  nothing  of  the  major.  Not  having  come 
into  personal  contact  with  him,  they  were  merely  aware  of 
his  existence,  as  they  were  of  the  General's — a  remote  being 
who  was  a  necessary,  but  none  the  less  insignificant,  part  of 
the  establishment  of  a  division. 

And  so  the  tall,  angular  figure  that  obeyed  Private  Walker's 
imperative  summons  to  "  advance  and  be  recognised  "  was 
quite  unknown  to  that  indefatigable  worthy. 

"  305th  Company,  aren't  you  ?  "   said  the  major. 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"No.  36c  gun  position  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Now,  let's  see,  where's  the  gun  on  your  left  ?  " 

Private  Walker  looked  at  him  suspiciously.  What  right 
had  this  man  to  be  asking  him  all  these  questions  ?  He 
wasn't  one  of  his  company's  officers.     Still,  he  was  an  officer. 

"  Over  there,  sir,  behind  that  tree." 

"Yes,  exactly,"  went  on  the  major,  "and, what's  your 
target  ?  " 

Before  answering.  Private  Walker  gave  him  a  very  searching 
glance.  This  was  suspicious.  German  spies  often  dressed 
up  as  officers.  He  had  read  about  that ;  and  who  but  a 
German  spy  would  want  to  ask  him  all  this  ?  Still,  he  would 
make  quite  sure. 

"  Point  on  the  Bapaume  Road,  sir,  three  hundred  yards 
north  of  Thiepval." 

"  Yes,  that's  good,"  went  on  the  major,  happily,  ignorant 
of  the  thoughts  flooding  tempestuously  through  Walker's 
mind.  "  And  now  what  about  your  battle  lines,  supposing 
the  Germans  were  to  break  through  ?  " 

That  settled  him,  a  bayonet  flashed  at  the  major's  throat. 

"  'Ands  up,"  shouted  the  sentry.  "  'Ere,  Sergint,  'ere ; 
I've  got  a  spy  1  " 

"  But,  damn  it,  man,"  spluttered  the  major,  "  is  this  a 
joke  ?  " 

"  You'll  find  it  a  joke,  when  you're  in  one  of  them  cages. 
'Ere,  Sergint,  this  is  'im  !  " 

The  sergeant  looked  a  bit  doubtful,  remembering  Walker's 
exploits  in  the  past. 

"  Are  you  certain.  Walker  ?  " 


"  Yes,  Sergint ;  'e  must  go  to  the  cap'n.  May  I  take 
'im  ?  " 

"  But,  look  here.  Sergeant,"  said  the  major,  "  we  can't  have 
this.    We're  at  war  now." 

"  Don't  care  what  the  'ell  we're  at.  You're  a  Boche  ; 
and  I  am  going  to  get  twenty  quid  and  a  month's  leave.  May 
I  take  him  off,  Sergint  ?  " 

The  sergeant  thought  for  a  moment.  Walker  was  a  most 
abandoned  fool,  but  then,  if  it  w?re  a  Boche  it  wouldn't  do 
for  him  to  let  it  go ;  and  whatever  happened,  Walker  wa 
responsible.  ■      '  . 

"  All  right.  Walker.    Take  him  off." 
"  Thanks,  Sergint,  you'll  see  me  off  on  leave  to-morrer,  I 
expect.     Come  on,  you  !  "  he  flung  at  the  prisoner.     And  the 
major,  resigning  himself  to  the  inevitable,  followed  dutifully. 
After  all,  he  had  a  sense  of  humoiir. 

Triumphantly  Private  Walker  led  his  spoil  before  Captain 
Evans. 

"  German  spy,  sir  1  'E  approached  my  post,  in  a  most 
suspicious  way,  sir  ;  asked  me  a  lot  of  questions,  sir.     Saw  as 

'ow  it  must  be  a  spy,  sir " 

He  broke  off  in  the  middle.  The  captain  was  looking  at 
him  with  a  look  that  spelt  28  days'  F.P.  No.  i. 

"  Do  you  know  who  you've  arrested,  Walker  ?  "  he  said, 
his  voice  dangerously  cool. 

"  No,  sir.     Thought  as'  ow  it  were " 

"  It's  Major  Dunstan,  the  Divisional  Machine-Gun  Officer." 
Private  Walker  stood  and  gaped. 
"  You  may  go,  Walker,"  said  the  captain. 
He  fled.     - 

Next  day  he  was  once  more  on  the  field  punishment  list. 
Captain  Evans  had  dealt  out  retributidn  lavishly. 

"  Well,"  said  the  sergeant,'  "  What  can  you  expect,  making 
a  fool  of  yourself  like  that  ?  You've  got  what  you  deserve, 
of  course;  the  captain's  fed  up.  Think  what  sort  of  a  name 
you've  got  the  company." 


February   2i,    igi8 


Land  &  Water 


15 


But  Walker  made  no  reply  ;  he  sat  solidly  on  a  S.A.A.  box, 
and  no  one  could  get  a  word  out  of  him. 

That  night  all  his  military  enthusiasm  had  vanbhed.  Fatigue 
parties  walked  within  a  hundred  yards  of  him  unchallenged. 
Signallers  came  and  went  undisturbed  ;  and  when  he  saw  a 
figure,  carrying  a  huge  sandbag,  loom  up  before  him,  he  merely 
mumbled,  "  Who  are  you  ?  "  without  getting  up  from  the 
box  he  sat  upon. 

"  R.E.,"  answered  the  figure. 

And  a  long  stout  man  with  a  huge  moustache,  like  a  Bairns- 
father  car-toon,  plumped  himself  down  beside  him. 

"  Terrible  war  this,  mate,"  said  the  Engineer. 

"  Oh,  bloomin'  terrible." 

"  What's  your  job  ?  " 

"  Damn  it  all.  I  just  sit  'ere  over  the  gun  ;  and  if  the  S.O.S. 
goes  up  I  fire." 

"iWhat's  the  S.O.S.  now,  mate  ?  " 

"  Four  greens.  But  it  won't  never  go  up.  Boche  won't 
never  attack." 

"  Many  of  your  crowd  about  ?  "  went  on  the  sympathetic 
fatigue-man. 

"  Yes,  there's  a  gun  over  there,  and  another  over  there, 
and  one  behind  the  ridge.  Four  of  'em  in  all.  Awful  life, 
believe  me.  We  'ave  to  learn  pages  of  stuff  about  what  we'd 
do  if  the  Boche  breaks  throusrh." 


"  And  what  would  you  do,  mate  ?  " 

"  Drop  a  ruddy  barrage  just  behind  the  wood  in  front,  catch 
the  Boche  consolidating,  or  some  rot.  I  don't  know,  and 
don't  care.     I'm  sick  of  the  war." 

"You're  not  the  only  one,"  said  the  Engineer,  rising. 
"  Well,  I  must  be  getting  along.     Cheerioh,  mate." 

"  Cheerioh,  Kid." 

And  the  ungainly  figure  swayed  away  into  the  night. 


"  You've  missed  your  chance  right  enough.  Kid,"  said 
Steve,  two  days  later. 

"  'Ow  do  you  make  that  out  ?  "   grunted  Walker. 

"  Why,  'aven't  you  heard  there  was  a  Boche  spy  over  'ere 
two  nights  ago  ?     But  he  got  away." 

"  Boche  spy  ?     What  did  he  look  like  ?  " 

"  'E  was  a  big  fat  feller,  so  they  say,  and  'e'd  got  a  moustache 
like  one  of  them  fellows  that  cove  Bairnsfather  draws,  carrying 
a  sandbag,  so  they  say — -'Ere,  what's  up,  mate  ?  You  look 
mighty  queer." 

"  No,  no.     I'm  all  right ;   carry  on  with  the  yam." 

"  Well,  he  came  down  the  Bapaume  Road,  'e  did,  and  then 
went  on  towards  Thiepval." 

But  Private  Walker  was  not  listening  ;  for  almost  the  first 
time  in  his  life  he  was  thinking  very  hard  and  very  straight. 


Effect  of  the  New  Reform  Bill  :    By  Jason 


No  prophecies  in  politics  have  been  made  to 
look  more  ridiculous  by  the  event  than  prophecies 
of  the  effects  of  Bills  for  the  reform  of  Parlia- 
ment. This  applies  alike  to  hopes  and  to  fears. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  declared  of  the  first 
Reform  Bill  that  it  proposed',  a  new  form  of  government 
incompatible  with  monarchy.  Most  of  his  followers  took  the 
same  view  that  the  Bill  meant  the  destruction  of  the  rule 
of  law  and — what  was  to  them  the  same  thing — the  rule  of 
property.  Lord  Grey  took  just  the  opposite  view.  "  I  am 
indeed  convinced  that  the  more  the  Bill  is  considered  the  less 
it  will  be  found  to  prejudice  the  real  interests  of  the  aristo- 
cracy." He  said  on  another  occasion  that  it  would  give  the 
whole  body  of  the  aristocracy  "  a  general  influence  more 
congenial  to  their  true  character  and  more  effectual  for  securing 
'to  them  the  weight  that  they  ought  to  possess."  For  Grey,  like 
Macaulay,  believed,  as  Mr.  J.  R.  M.  Bbtler  has  put  it,  in 
his  important  book  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Reform  Bill, 
that  all  that  was  necessary  "  was  to  open  the  gates  of  the 
Ginstitution  wide  enough  to  admit  a  manageable  number  of 
the  besieging  force  and  then  to  close  them  again  firmly." 
Macaulay  gave  a  philosophic  basis  in  the  manner  of  Burke  to 
the  general  theory  underlying  the  Bill,  "  the  higher  and 
middling  orders  are  the  natural  representatives  of  the  human 
-race.  Their  interest  may  be  opjwsed  in  some  things  to  that 
of  their  poorer  contemporaries,  but  it  is  identical  with  that 
of  the  innumerable  generations  that  are  to  follow." 

Amongst  the  Radicals  there  were  some  who  took  the  same 
.view  as  Wellington.  They  fought  for  the  Bill  as  if  it  had  been 
a  Bill  for  enfranchising  the  workpeople  and  not  merely  the 
middle  classes.  They  were  the  victims  of  an  intoxicating 
illusion.  This  is  the  way  of  life  ;  Nature  loves  to  gild  every 
object  for  which  men  strive,  leaving  them  to  discover  its  true 
worth  when  it  has  come  into  their  eager  hands.  Francis 
Place,  a  man  in  many  respects  of  great  perception  and  insight, 
said  :  "It  seems  remarkably  strange  that  Lord  Grey,  whose 
intention  it  always  was  to  stand  by  his  order,  should  have 
insisted  on  carrjdng  out  a  reform  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
the  inevitable  result  of  which  could  not  fail  to  be  the  total 
destruction  of  that  order,  and  of  every  other  privileged  order 
and  person."  Cobbctt,  whose  confidence  in  his  own  judgment 
remained  unshaken  till  the  day  of  his  death,  went  not  less 
wildly  astray,  and  the  workpeople  of  the  factories  who  streamed 
out  of  the  mills  to  meet  the  coach  that  brought  with  it  the  new 
issue  of  his  paper  were  taught  to  expect  from  that  measure 
little  less  than  the  Millennium.  He  had  little  love  for  the 
Whigs,  of  whom  he  said  that  they  had  been  led  to  church  with 
a  halter,  but  he  made  an  idol  of  their  Bill  which  they  gavo  to 
England. 

It  was  indeed  the  co-operation  of  the  Radicals  and  the 
demonstrations  of  workmen  who  were  themselves  to  wait 
another  generation  before  receiving  the  vote  that  compelled 
the  Lords  to  give  way.  The  agitations  of  '1831  and  1832 
were  the  result  of  a  combination  between  two  classes  that  had 
little  love  for  each  other — the  middle  classes  and  the  working 
classes — and  the  Whig  Government  that  forced  the  Lords  to 
accept  the  Bill  spent  part  of  its  time  and  energy  in  putting 
working-class  reformers  in  prison. 

The  history  of  the  reformed  Parliament  is  a  striking  proof 


of  the  justice  of  Macaulay's  estimate  of  the  effect  of  the 
Reform  Bill.  Most  of  us  were  brought  up  to  regard  the 
achievements  of  the  reformed  Parliament  as  an  unqualified 
triumph.  That  Parliament  seemed  to  have  done  wonders ; 
it  reconstructed  the  Poor  Law,  it  set  up  representative  govern- 
ment in  the  towns,  it  passed  a  Factory  Act,  it  even  made 
formal  recognition  of  the  claims  of  popular  education  by  a 
small  grant  of  public  money.  But  if  we  want  to  understand 
why  the  Reform  Bill  had  as  powerful  an  effect  in  exasperating 
the  working  classes  as  it  had  in  reconciling  the  middle  classes, 
we  have  to  consider  what  the  conduct  of  that  Parliament 
looked  like  to  the  idealists  who  had  fought  for  the  Bill  as 
the  promise  of  democracy.  The  new  Government  refused 
to  make  food  cheaper,  to  make  newspapers  cheaper,  to  give 
the  ballot.  It  did  nothing  to  humanise  life  for  the  poor. 
It  was  only  after  five  hundred  men  had  gone  to  prison  for  a 
cheap  press  that  the  Government  reduced  the  stamp  duty  on 
newspapers  from  ^d.  to  id.  These  were  its  omissions ;  some 
at  least  of  its  deeds  were  not  less  provocative. 

The  workpeople  had  found  themselves  becoming  more  and 
more,  as  the  industrial  revolution  destroyed  the  old  economy, 
the  instruments  of  a  great  and  inhuman  power.  The  towns 
they  lived  in,  the  hours  they  worked,  the  wages  they  received, 
the  general  conception  of  the  kind  of  life  that  was  proper  for 
them,  which  permeated  all  the  institutions  of  society,  stamped 
them  as  a  subject  population  without  dignity  or  rights. 
Reform  was  to  put  an  end  to  this,  but  instead  of  emancipation 
reform  brought  the  new  Poor  Law,  the  regime  of  the  work- 
house, the  principle  that  the  f)oor  man  must  either  starve  or 
sell  his  handloom  and  seek  the  shelter  of  the  nearest  Bastille. 
Thorold  Rogers  said  of  the  Poor  Law  of  1834  that  it  was 
necessary,  harsh,  inopportune,  unjust.  The  middle  classes 
saw  its  necessity,  the  working  classes  its  injustice.  When 
the  Bill  passed  through  the  House  of  Commons,  twenty  men, 
led  by  Cobbett,  Fielden  and  Walter,  of  the  Times,  de- 
nounced it,  and  319  members  supported  it.  It  may  be 
questioned  whether  the  upper  classes  would  ever  have  dared 
to  pass  such  a  Bill  without  the  help  of  the  middle  classes,  who 
had  become,  as  Macaulaj'  would  have  put  it,  part  of  the 
recognised  garrison  of  the  existing  order. 

This  cruel  disillusionment  produced  the  Chartist  movement. 
As  a  political  revolt  Chartism  was  a  tragical  failure,  though  it 
had  important  consequences  seen  in  the  legislatioru)f  the  forties. 
It  made  Lord  John  Russell  and  many  another  politician 
appreciate  the  truth  that  the  condition  of  the  people  of 
England  was  a  question  of  urgent  importance.  It  gave  great 
help  to  Shaftesbury  in  his  struggles  with  Lord  Londonderry 
and  the  other  opponents  of  his  efforts  to  abolish  the  scandals 
of  the  mines.  It  strengthened  the  hands  of  Fielden  in  passing 
the  Ten  Houi"s  Bill.  But  when  the  movement  had  been 
suppressed  the  enfranchisement  of  the  workmen  seemed  as 
remote  as  ever.  The  story  of  the  resumption  of  the  struggle 
is  told  in  Mr.  George  Trevelyan's  admirable  Life  of  John 
Bright.  As  Mr.  Trevelyan  points  out,  the  defenders  of  the 
existing  regime  in  1866  would  have  been  wise  if  they  had 
acted  on  the  principle  on  which  Macaulay  defended  the 
passing  of  the  Bill  of  i83'2,  if  they  had  admitted  into  the 
garrison  part  of  the  besieging  population.  But  the  opponents 
of  the  enfranchisement  of  workmen  adopted  a  policy  that  was 


i6 


Land  &   Water 


February   21,    19 18 


specially  dangerous  for  a  party  that  had  to  face  John  Bnght 
Who.  unlike  Cobbett,  in  many  respects  had  his  i^wer  for 
chastising  insolence.  Thcv  drew  a  sharp  and  hnal  line 
between  class  and  class.  The  f"»«^ving  famous  outburst  by 
Robert  Lowe,  who  shared  with  Lord  Robert  Cecil  (the  late 
Lord  Salisbury)  the  leadership  of  the  resisting  forces,  did 
service  in  every  pamphlet,  in  every  speech  in  which  the 
Refpnners  presented  their  demands: 

••  Let  anv  gentleman  consider  the  constituencies  he  has  had  the 
honour  to  be  concerned  with.     If  vou  want  venality,  if  you 
want  ignorance,  if  you  want  drunkenness,  and  the  facility  to 
be  intimidated,  or  if.  on  the  other  hand,  you  want  impulsive, 
unreflecting,  and  violent  people,  where  do  you  look  for  them 
in  constituencies  ?     Do  you  go  to  the  top  or  to  the  bottom  i 
This   p.assagc   recalling  Pitt's  outburst   about   the   idle  and 
profligate  population  of  the  northern  towns  was  received  with 
frantic  applause  in   the    House   of    Commons,  which   forgot 
that  it  was  not  exactly  prudent  to  provoke  too  far  a  population 
that   had   long   been    conscious  of   its   grievances   and   was 
becoming  steadily  more  conscious  of  its  strength.     John  Bright 
described  these  opponents  very  happily  when  he  said  that  they 
took  "  a  Botany  Bay  view  of  the  great  bulk  of  their  country- 
men," and  Gladstone  reminded  the  House  of  Commons  that 
the  men  at  the  bottom  were  "our  own  flesh  and  blood." 

In  1884  Mr.  Gladstone,  when  defending  his  Bill  for  en- 
franchising the  agricultural  labourer,  gave  an  estimate  of 
the  numbers  of  people  enfranchised  at  different  times  : 

"In  1832  there  was  passed  what  was  considered  a  Magna 
Charta  of  British  liberties  ;  but  that  Magna  Charta  of  British 
hberties  added,  according  to  the  previous  estimate  of  Lord 
John  Russell,  500,000,  while  according  to  the  results  con- 
siderably less  than  500,000  were  added  to  the  entire  con- 
stituency of  the  three  countries.  After  1832  we  come  to  1866. 
At  that' time  the  total  constituency  of  the  United  Kingdom 
reached  1,364,000.  By  the  Bills  which  were  passed  in  1867 
and  1869  that  number  was  raised  to  2,448,000.  Under  the 
action  of  the  present  law  the  constituency  has  reached  in 
round  numbers  what  I  would  call  3,000,000.  This  Bill,  if 
it  passes  as  presented,  will  add  to  the  English  constituency 
over  1 ,300,000  persons.  It  will  add  to  the  Scotch  constituency, 
Scotland  being  at  present  rather  better  provided  in  this 
respect  than  either  of  the  other  countries,  over  200,000,  and 
to  the  Irish  constituency  over  400,000  ;  or  in  the  main  to  the 
present  aggregate  constituency  of  the  United  Kingdom,  taken 
at  3,000,000,  it  will  add  2,000,000  more,  nearly  twice  as  much 
as  was  added  since  1867  and  more  than  four  times  as  much 
as  was  added  in  1832." 

The  interval  between  the  first  and  second  Reform  Bills 
was  35  years,  between  the  second  and  third  17  years,  and 
now  the  fourth  Bill  has  come  just  33  years  after  the  third. 
The  new  Bill,  according  to.  an  estimate  given  by  Mr.  Arthur 
Henderson,  will  increase  the  electorate  from  8,000,000  to 
16,300,000.  The  Bill,  though  it  more  than  doubles  the  elec- 
torate and  destroys  for  the  first  time  the  disqualification  of 
sex,  has  passed  with  infinitely  less  excitement  and  friction 
than  an}'  of  its  predecessors.  The  reason,  of  course,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  war.  It  was  obvious  to  anyone  who  was  in  the 
least  degree  sensitive  about  national  .consistency  that  we 
could  not  proclaim  to  the  world  that  we  were  fighting  for  the 
cause  of  democracy  while  refusing  to  acknowledge  that  cause 
in  our  own  system  of  representation.  There  are  a  few  people 
left  who  think  that  men  can  legislate  for  women  just  as  Pitt 
and  Castlereagh  thought  that  the  rich  could  legislate  for  the 
poor,  and  as  Macaulay  thought  the  middle  classes  could 
legislate  for  the  workman.  But  nine  people  out  of  ten  have 
been  convinced  of  the  necessity  and  the  justice  of  enfranchising 
women  by  the  devoted  and  heroic  service  that  women  have 
rendered  during  the  war.  It  was  difficult  in  a  world  which 
knew  something  of  the  facts  described  in  the  Reports  of  the 
Work  of  the  Munition  Factories  for  anyone  to  speak  with 
scorn  of  the  claims  of  the  war  worker  to  the  rights  of  a  citizen. 
Thus  the  atmosphere  of  the  war  has  given  soberness  and 
dignity  to  the  final  chapter  of  a  discussion  which  has  had  many 
fierce  and  undignified  pages  in  its  past. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Bill  of  1832  was  followed  by  legisla- 
tion, which  took  account  and  gave  expression  to  the  wishes 
and  the  interests  of  the  new  electorate.  We  see  the  same 
tendencies  in  the  legislation  that  followed  the  other  Reform 
Bills.  It  Is  no  accident  that  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
workman  was  followed  by  the  Acts  that  gave  Trade  Unions 
their  power,  as  well  as  by  the  granting  of  the  ballot  and 
Forster's  Education  Act.  It  was  not  until  the  agricultural 
labourer  had  been  enfranchised  in  1884  that  Bills  were  adopted 
by  Governments  recognising — however  imperfectly — the  need 
for  rural  refonn.  We  may  take  it  therefore  that  the  addition 
of  6,000,000  of  women  to  the  electorate  and  the  increase  of 
the  voting  power  of  the  working  classes  which  will  follow  from 
this  Bill  will  give  a  special  character  to  legislation. 

If  the  argument  that  has  been  developed  here  is 
correct  the  new  electorate  will  demand,  above  all  things,  a 
more  civilised  life  for  the  ordinary  man  and  woman.     This 


demand  is  the  chief  inspiration  of  the  war.  In  all  times  of 
agitation  and  revolution  men  and  women  come  to  measure 
their  institutions  by  a  new  standard,  to  apply  to  their  society 
a  new  test.  The  customs  and  traditions  of  men  and  of  classes 
are  a  kind  of  screen  between  their  minds  and  the  more  brutal 
realities.  In  a  great  disturbance  like  the  war  those  customs 
and  traditions  lose  their  power,  and  men  and  women  look 
around  them  with  a  new  curiosity  and  a  new  independence. 
That  is  happening  all  over  Europe. .  The  more  Europe  has 
had  to  suffer  the  more  passionately  have  men  and  women 
come  to  question  their  accepted  beliefs. 

The  degree  of  violence  with  which  men  shake  themselves  free 
from  the  restraintsof  old  habits  and  the  patience  and  tolerance 
of  the  settled  life  of  a  society  depend  on  conditions  of  race, 
time  and  politics.  If  men  cannot  get  from  their  society,  as  it 
is  constituted,  conditions  that  seem  indispensable  to  their 
happiness  and  freedom,  that  passion  takes  the  form  of  revo- 
lutionary violence.  A  perfectly  detached  and  impartial 
survey  of  the  statex>f  mind  of  the  workpeople  in  each  European 
country  at  this  moment  would  be  a  document  of  overpowering 
interest.  At  present  we  have  not  the  material  for  passing 
judgment  on  the  state  of  mind  of  the  workpeople  of  any 
country  ;  wliether  Bolsheviks,  German  strikers,  bread  rioters 
in  Austria  or  Italy,  or  even  the  workmen  of  our  own  country. 
But  in  considering  of  any  one  case  whether  or  not  discontent 
will  take  the  form  of  actual  revolution,  we  may  certainly 
attach  some  weight  to  the  capacity  of  existing  institutions  to 
satisfy  these  new  demands.  The  Soviets  have  been  defended 
as  a  means  of  collecting  and  expressing  the  will  of  the  work- 
people in  a  more  effective  form  than  any  provided  for  the 
Russian  workman  in  the  new  representative  institution  of  his 
country.  Critics  of  the  Parliamentary  system  will  watch, 
presumably  with  interest,  the  actual  working  of  this  method, 
if  it  survives.  In  our  own  case  the  passing  of  the  Reform 
Bill  provides  at  a  most  critical  moment  in  our  domestic  history 
an  opportunity  for  adapting  our  Parliamentary  institutioi.s 
to  the  needs  of  the  time  ;  for  strengthening  the  arguments 
of  those  who  think  that  the  men  and  women  who  are  anxious 
for  a  new  life  should  use  rather  than  break  the  machinery  of 
Parliament . 

Likely   Reforms 

If,  then,  the  workpeople  use  their  power  to  get  from  Parlia 
ment  what  they  want  we  may  hope  to  see  a  new  spirit  inspinng 
all  our  public  policy.  The  Bradford  City  Council  is  considering 
a  scheme  for  building  ten  model  suburbs  on  its  crest  of  hills. 
We  may  expect  to  see  a  great  impetus  given  to  a  generous  and 
constructive  policy  of  housing  and  town  building.  The  wildest 
ambitions  of  the  days  before  the  war  will  seem  to  be  paltry 
in  this  new  atmosphere.  One  reform  that  is  certain  is  the 
shortening- of  the  factory  day,  and  other  reforms  will  follow 
from  that  change.  The  industrial  tovm  is  the  home  or  the 
lodging  of  a  race  that  spends  its  daylight  in  the  mill.  If 
you  rescue  some  of  the  daylight  for  a  man's  life,  you  will 
have  to  change  the  town,  for  then  it  will  be  not  merely  the 
place  where  he  sleeps  and  eats,  but  the  place  where  he  spends 
his  leisure.  A  Parliament  representing  the  new  electorate  will 
have  to  satisfy  this  new  craving  for  a  humane  and  more 
various  life. 

The  special  influence  of  women  will  be  seen  in  a  new  sense 
of  responsibility  for  children  and  in  a  new  interest  in  those 
aspects  of  life  in  which  women  are  specially  concerned.  But 
jt  will  have  one  more  general  effect  on  policy.  Women  are 
the  housekeepers  of  the  nation.  They  understand  the  painful 
science  of  saving  and  the  skilled  "art  of  spending.  For  the 
housekeeper  the  war  has  been  a  stern  school.  Women  who 
have  spent  hours  in  the  queues  have  learnt  as  much  in  one 
way  as  men  who  have  spent  hours  in  the  trenches  have  learht 
in  another.  Now  it  is  obvious  that  social  developments  are 
tending  more  and  more  to  encourage  the  organisation  of  the 
producers.  This  movement  is  prompted  partly  by  the 
business  instincts  of  the  modern  industrial  world,  partly  by 
its  social  and  its  spiritual  discontents.  The  cartel  is  the 
symbol  of  the  one  ;  syndicalism  and  the  doctrines  of  the 
Guild  Socialists  are  the  symbols  of  the  other..  The  organisation 
of  the  producer  is  in  itself  a  welcome  development.  It  repre- 
sents the  triumph  of  larger  views.  The  Industrial  Councils, 
the  concrete  form  in  which  the  best  practicable  interpretation 
of  this  spirit  is  taking  forni,  will,  if  they  are  wisely  directed, 
improve  the  whole  tone  and  quality  of  industrial  life.  But 
there  is  an  obvious  danger,  the  danger  that  these  Councils 
will  give  too  much  power  to  the  producer,  and  sorrie  critics 
have  attacked  the  constitution  of  the  Potteries  Council  on 
this  ground,  for  in  the  statement  of  objects  there  is  included 
a  clause  about  maintaining  selling  prices.  At  such  a  moment, 
then,  it  is  specially  significant  that  6,000,000  women  should  be 
added  to  the  electorate,  for  their  enfranchisement  means  a 
striking  increase  in  the  political  power  of  the  consumers. 


February    21,    19 18 


Land  &  Water 


17 


English  Treasures  in  Russia  :  By  G.  C.Williamson 


View  of  Northumberland  House,  London. 


RECENT- terrible  events  in  Russia  have  caused 
grave  apprehensions  in  the  minds  of  connoisseurs 
respecting  the  fate  that  has  overtaken  the  art 
treasures  of  that  vast  country. 
It  is  feared,  and  with  good  reason,  that  mcst  of 
the  wonderful  things  have  perished  in  the  Revolution,  and  in 
that  case  the  world  is  infinitely  the  poorer.     In  recent  visits 

to  that  fascinating  coun- 
try I  have  had  unusual 
opportunities,   owing     to 
the  gracious  kindness  of 
the    Emperor,  of    seeing 
the  Imperial  possessions, 
including  those  contained 
in     private      apartments 
seldom    opened    to    the 
foreign  visitor,  and  a  few 
notes    with    reference    to 
them  may  be  of  interest. 
To     take     first     those 
connected      with      Eng- 
land.   The  visitor  to  the 
Imperial  Court  may  not 
at    first     remember    the 
intimate  connection  that 
has  existed  between   the 
commerce    and     a  rtistic 
productions   of   the    two 
countries  since  the  days 
of  Edward  VI.     It  might 
not  occur  to  him  that  the 
Emperor  Ivan  IV. ^  made 
overtures  for  the  hand  of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  desired  to  enter 
into  a  treaty  with  her,  and  that  the  Queen,  declining  the 
position  of  Empress  for  herself,  proposed  in   1581   that  the 
Emperor  should  marry  Lady  Mar>'  Hastings,  daughter  of  the 
Earl  of   Huntingdon."   This    episode    would    have    had    far- 
reaching  effects  but  for  the  f;ict  that  Lady  Mary  declined 
the  Imperial  hand,  but  from  that  time  Queen  Eliziibeth  and 
her  successors  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  Czar  of  Musavy, 
sent  over  various  missions  to  his  country-,  and  by  the  hands 
of  these  missions  sumptuous  presents  of  silver  ware.    Notable 


■^^■H 

1 

^^H.  *  ^^^1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

A  "  Memento  Mori"  Watch, 
by  Quare. 


amongst  these  missions  were  these  of  1571,  1581,  1604  and 
1620.  In  consequence  Russia  contained,  especially  in  the 
Museum  in  the  Krerhlin,  but  also  in  the  Winter  Palace  and  at 
Gatchina,  Livadia,  Peterhof,  and  in  the  Anitchkcv  Palace, 
fine  examples  of  English  silver  frcm  Tudor  times  downwards, 
as  well  as  specimens  from  all  the  important  countries  of  the 
Continent.  A  Tudor  cup  of  1557-8  is  the  eariiest  English 
piece  and  it  is  one  of  the  so-called  font-shaped  cups  of  which 
only  about  half  a  dozen  are  known  to  exist.  Mere  wonderful 
perhaps  are  the  five  great  vase-shaped  wine  bottles,  nearly 
two  feet  high,  called  pilgrims'  bottles,  and  mounted  with 
chains  ;  but  there  are  also  gourd-shaped  cups,  steeple  cups, 
standing  cups,  flagons  on  high  feet  of  unusual  size,  tankards, 
wine  cisterns,  salts,  tumblers,  jugs,  candlesticks  and  dishes, 
all  of  rare  beauty  and  remarkable  value.  Perhaps  the  most 
imposing  are  a  pair  of  silver  leopards  with  massive  chains 
standing  a  yard  high,  intended  to  be  placed  on  the  top  of  t^e 
staircase  on  either  side  of  the  throne. 

All  of  the  vast  store  of  silver,  unparalleled  in  its  extent 
by  that  possessed  in  any  other  country,  has  been  catalogued 
in  admirable  fashion  in  richly  illustrated  volumes,  privately 
printed,  and  copies  of  these  books,  gifts  frcm  the  Emperor 
himself,  are  before  the  writer. 

Not  nearly  so  well  knpwn,  however,  as  the  silver  and  very 
seldom  inspected  by  any  student  is  the  famous  collection  of 
mezzotints  of  unequalled  splendour.  Acting  under  the 
wise  advice  of  diaries,  ninth  Baron  Cathcart,  the  English 
Ambassador  to  her  Court,  the  Empress  Catherine  II.  placed 
instructions  in  the  eighteenth  century  with  the  principal 
print  dealers  of  London  that  they  should  send  her,  as  they 
were  issued,  their  finest  examples.  The  commissions  v/ere 
carried  out,  and  in  a  series  of  solander  boxes  are  the  engravings 
still,  or  were  when  I  examined  them,  each  with  its  own  piece 
of  greyish-blue  tissue  paper  on  which  was  very  faintly  set  off 
the  outlines  of  the  print.and  in  many  instances  with  the  original 
bills  of  the  English  print  dealer,  showing  the  very  mcderate 
prices  charged  for  the  prints  in  question.  The  bills,  which  are 
numerous,  have  never  been  folded  and  are  with  each  parcel. 
They  are  from  Sayer,  Doughty,  Jones,  Hodges,  and  others, 
and  the  prints  start  at  los.  each  and  go  on  up  to  £5  and  £10 
apiece.  In  one  special  instance  I  remember  noticing  at  the 
foot  of  one  of  &iyer's  invoices  a  memorandum  apologising 


i8 


Land  &  Water 


February   21,    191 8 


English   Silver  Cistern. 

Once  the  property  of  the  Duchess  of  Kingston. 


for  the  (act  thai  seven  prints  of  the  same  subject  had  been 
sent  but  adding  that  they  were  all  proofs  in  different  states, 
and  that  of  three  of  the  proofs  Sayer  was  sending  the  only 
impressions  that  had  been  taken.  He  therefore  hoped  that 
Her  Imperial  Majesty  would  consider  he  had  done  right  m 
forwarding  them !  These  wonderful  prints  had  been  so 
seldom  shown  to  visitors  and  were  so  scrupulously  tended 
that  their  velvety  surface  was  in  marvellous  condition, 
and  the  chief  workers  in 
mezzotint  were  repre- 
sented in  these  boxes  by 
their  choicest  examples, 
all  with  full  margin,  many 
of  them  far  exceeding  in 
merit  even  the  famous 
examples  in  the  Cheyles- 
more  collection  in  the 
British  Museum.  Periodi- 
callv  each,  with  its  owti  bit 
of  tissue  paper,  had  been 
exposed  to  light  and  air 
and  then  returned  to  its 
shelter,  and  so,  treated  with 
the  utmost  discretion,  the 
prints  were  in  absolutely 
unequalled  condition. 

Another  branch  of  Eng- 
lish art  which  interested 
the  Empress  Catherine  was 
that  of  horology,  and  to 
see  the  grandest  examples 
of  the  art  of  the  English 
watchmaker  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  it  was 
necessary  to  travel  to  the 
Winter  Palace.  I  have  had 
all  the  examples  in  my  hands.  There  were  no  finer  watches 
in  Europe.  The  movements  were  all  by  the  greatest  English 
makers— Quare,  Tompion,  Graham,  Wagstaff,  Harrison,  East, 
and  others — and  of  the  highest  quality,  while  many  of  them 
were  set  with  jewels  of  great  value  and  adorned  with  chate- 
laines, pendants,  and  chains  of  equally  rich  ornamentation. 
Several  were  musical  watches  or  repeaters,  many  with 
double  and  even  triple  cases,  most  of  them  with  diamond 
thumb-pieces,  and 
a  great  many  set 
with  emeralds  and 
sapphires  of  sur- 
passing brilliance 
and  glory. 

The  Empress 
was  also  much  in- 
terested in  Eng- 
lish ceramics,  the 
great  service  which 
she  had  made  by 
Wedgwood,  and 
which  .was  con- 
sidered of  suffi- 
cient importance 
to  warrant  a  book 
being  written  spe- 
cially about  it, 
being  of  unusual 
value.  This  service 
was  at  Peterhof, 
and  it  fell  to  my  lot 
to  be  the  means  of 
its  rediscovery  in 
an  underground 
pantry  where  it 
had  bp.en  forgotten, 
given  up  for  lost 
for  nearly  loo 
years.  Over  700 
pieces  still  re- 
mained out  of  the 
thousand  which 
comprised  the  ser- 


Ruins  of  lona  Cathedral,  Isles  of  Mull. 


Fountains,  York,  Windsor  Castle,  Berkeley,  Kew,  Hampstead, 
Stanton  Harcourt,  and  many  other  places  which  give  in- 
formation how  they  looked  in  Wedgwood's  time,  and  for 
which  in  many  instances  we  have  no  other  drawings  for 
comparison.  That  great  service  was  not,  however,  the  only^ 
set  1  saw  in  Russia.  There  were  at  least  four  other  important 
services  of  Wedgwood  ware  that  I  inspected,  besides  dinner 
services  of  Chelsea  and  Worcester  porcelain  of  the  grandest 

quality,  and  shelves  full 
of  fine  examples  of  Bristol, 
Bow,  Chelsea,  Swansea, 
Salopian,  Derby  and  Nant- 
garw  ware,  and  one  cup- 
board entirely  full  of  the 
best  examples  of  salt  glaze. 
Amongst  the  Emperor's 
own  personal  collection  of 
treasures  I  saw  two  fine 
examples  of  early  English 
metal  work  and  rock  cry- 
stal which  by  critics  have 
been  given  to  as  remote  a 
period  as  that  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  times,  one  a  cup, 
the  other  a  sceptre  or 
mace,  and  many  other 
fine  objects  in  rock  crystal 
and  silver  or  gold,  the  most 
notable  of  which  was  a 
crystal  cup  made  to  the- 
order  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
sent  out  by  his  messenger 
to  Anne  of  Cleves,  and 
which  in  some  mysterious 
manner  had  found  its  way 
to  Russia.  I  also  noticed 
some  good  English  carvings  in  horn  and  in  woodwork.  One 
palace  in  Russia  has  always  been  known  as  the  English 
Palace,  and  in  it  there  were,  many  fine  examples  of  English 
furniture,  some  of  which  Lord  Malmesbury  referred  to,  in  his 
Letters.  There  vere  sorr;e  splendid  oak  tables  of  Elizabethan 
and  Stuart  work,  and  many  choice  examples  of  the  work  of 
Chippendale,  Sheraton,  Ince  and  Mayhew,  and  Hepplewhite, ' 
while  in  one  of  the  southern  palaces  I  saw  a  suite  of  Stuart 

furniture  of  unique 
importance. 

Another  room 
was  entirely  de- 
voted to  Chip- 
pendale's most  ex- 
travagant Chinese 
style  of  furniture, 
four-post  bedstead, 
table,  chairs,  cabi- 
net, stools  and 
writing  tables. 

The  English  pic- 
tures in  Russia 
were  in  most  in- 
stances the  paint- 
ings which  came 
from  the  fine  Wal- 
pole  collection  at 
Houghton  Hall 
and  a  few  others 
sold  to  the  Em- 
press by  Dr.  Crich- 
ton.  .Amongst 
them  were  import- 
ant works  by  Rey- 
nolds, a  celebrated 
portrait  of  Crom- 
well by  Walker, 
and  fine  paintings 
by  Gainsborough, 
Lely,  Dobson,  and 
Kneller.  In  the 
Emperor's  own 
library  at  Tsarkoe 


vice,  and  each  piece  was  ornamented  with  views  of  English     Selo  I  saw  many  English  books,  first  editions  of  some  of  the 

houses  and  landscapes,  while  many  of  the  larger  pieces  had    most  notable  of  the  eighteenth  cehtury  writers. 

upon  them  many  such  views.  Colour  prints  made  their  appeal  in  Russia.      There  is  no 


These  decorations,  charmingly  executed  in  a  dull  mauve 
colour,  illustrated  the  great  houses  of  the  English  country- 
side, ruined  castles,  village  churches,  and  especially  re- 
markable buildings  in  London,  a  large  proportion  of  which 
have  now  p)assed  away. 

There  were  unique  representations  of  London  Bridge, 
Somerset  House,  Mile  End  Road,  the  Mall,  Northumberiand 
House,    Alnwick,    Appleby,    Wardour,  Holkham,    Kirkham, 


such  set  of  Wheatley's  Cries  of  London,  no  such  group  of 
Morland's  Laetitia  series,  no  such  examples  of  Cosway  coloured 
prints  as  in  one  solander  box  in  the  Winter  Palace,  and  I  have 
never  handled  colour  prints  of  such  glorious  colour,  or  with 
such  margins  as  those  which  the  Empress  Catherine  had  from 
London  when  they  were  being  produced  in  their  glory,  and 
which  ever  since  were  retained  for  the  delectation  of  the 
favoured  few  and  were  kept  in  perfect  order. 


February   21,    191 8 


Land  &  Water 


German  War  Medals  :   By  Hilaire  Belloc 


THERE  has  been  published  by  Messrs.  Longmans, 
Green  and  Co.  a  notice  of  the  Ccmmemcrative 
Medals  struck  in  Germany  during  the  course  of 
the  war.  It  is  written  by  Mr.  G.  F.  Hill,  the 
Keeper  of  the  Department  of  Coins  and  Medals 
in  the  British  Museum.  It  is  amply  illustrated  by  photo- 
graphs of  the  casts  exhibited  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert 
Museum  in  South  Kensington.  It  costs  sixpence  and  is,  for 
the  quiet  student  of  history,  the  best  sixpenn'orth.I  have  ever 
come  across. 

Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  draw  attention  to  the  bad. 
When  it  is  positively  comic  one  can  stir  the  reader  to  attention. 
So  one  can  when  it  is  in  some  way  morally  abominable.  But 
mere  badness  in  art,  mere  evidence  of  incapacity,  is  a  very 
difficult  thing  to  emphasise  and  to  present.  Turning  over 
these  few  pages  (there  are  32  of  them)  and  considering  by  what 
a  vast  distance  the  graphic  power  of  the  German  has  declined 
in  modem  times,  I  have  wondered  whether  it  was  possible  so 
to  put  the  thing  in  print  that  I  could  translate  my  emotions 
to  my  reader.  Perhaps  I  shall  fail,  but  there  is  a  parallel 
that  will  help  me.     Read  these  two  passages  consecutively  : 

"  When  she  dbcovered  he  would  not  return 
She  ceased  to  hope  for  him,  and  went  about 
Her  household  business  showing  no  concern, 
Although  she  felt  acutely." 

Having  read  this,  peruse  the  following  : 

But  thou,  not  poppy  nor  mandragora 
Nor  all  the  drowsy  syrups  of  the  world. 
Can  woo  thy  soul  again  to  that  sweet  sleep - 
Which  thou  owedst  yesterday. 

Both  these  passages  are  in  heroic  unrhjined  English  iamWc 
pentameters.  The  first  is  exceedingly  bad  ;  the  second  is 
exceedingly  good.  If  you  were  told  that  the  writer  of  the 
second  had,  after  some  changes  in  his  morals  and  way  of 
living,  come  to  be  capable  of  writing  the  first  you  would 
righUy  decide  that  he  had  become  degraded. 

Now  modern  Germany,  inspired  by  Prussia,  has  declined 
just  as  far  in  the  matter  of  plastic  art  from  the  oldest  and 
highest  German  standards  as  the  distance  between  the  first 
and  second  of  these  quotations.  Even  under  the  tremendous 
■stress  of  this  war  it  can  only  produce  this  amazing  collection 
of  medals.  That  is  the  xeal  interest  of  the  pamphlet ;  that  is 
the  real  lesson  it  conveys. 

Why  is  it  ?  Something  of  the  sort  was  to  be  expected, 
perhaps,  by  anyone  who  had  seen  the  building  and  sculpture 
of  modem  Germany — that  is  of  the  Germai^  which  grew 
more  and  more  degraded  in  the  last  fifty  years.  There  is  a 
contrast  of  the  same  sort  between  the  Old  Palace  in  Berlin 


of  society  permits  it  to  acclaim  the  sinking  of  a  passenger 
ship  and  the  murder  of  women,  children,  and  neutral  civilians, 
without  warning  as  an  act  of  war,  the  acclamation  will  take 
many  forms,  and  evil  though  its  motive  is  might  take  the 
form  of  fine  art.  The  excesses  of  the  French  Revolution 
were  undoubtedly  immoral  and  even  grossly  immoral  ;  but 
they  produced  a  great  deal  of  magnificent  rhetoric  and  a  few 
bits  of  really  good  verse.  What  is  remarkable  in  these 
German  efforts  is  not  the  perversion  of  their  motive — we 
are  all  familiar  with  that,  and  we  all  expect  it — it  is  their 
inability  to  create  anything  above,  the  very  lowest  level 
which,  one  imagines,  plastic  art  could  touch.  One  feels  that 
the  modern  German  might  have  the  noblest  motives  and  yet 
be  equally  inept.  This  famous  Lusitania  medal*  was,  of 
course,  intended  by  Gotz,  its  author,  for  nothing  more  than 
propaganda.  It  was  an  error  to  say,  as  many  said,  that  it 
was   an   official   commemoration.     But    I   do   not   see   what 


The    Sinking    of    the    Lusitania. 

and  the  Reichstag  or  the  Alley  of  Victory — the  last  of  which 
is  much  worse  than  the  old  Westminster  Aquarium.  There 
is  a  still  more  startling  contrast  between  the  early  nineteenth 
century  centre  of  Munich  and  the  modern  quarters  of  that 
town.     One  could  give  innumerable  instances. 

Why  is  it  ?  Without  trying  to  answer  this  question  I  will 
digress  for  a  moment  upon  the  term  of  all  this.  Things 
cannot  go  on  getting  worse  indefinitely.  A  lower  stage  of 
national  art  than  that  which  these  medals  show  has  never  been 
reached  and  cannot,  I  think,  be  reached. 

I  have  read,  especially  in  the  English  Press,  many  denuncia- 
tions of  the  immorality  of  those  who  could  issue  a  medal  to 
commemorate  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania.  I  hav?  never  quite 
agreed  with  these  criticisms.     If  the  religion  or  philosophy 


The    German    Crown    Prince. 

On    the    reverse    is    "  Young    Siegfried "   attacking    a    chimera-like 

monster  with  four  heads. — Bear  for  Russia,    Unicorn  for  EnglcUid, 

Lion  for  Belgium,  and  Cock  for  France. 

difference  that  makes.  It  ought  to  be  impossible  for  any 
white  man  making  a  medal  at  all  to  model  as  badly  as  that, 
or,  at  any  rate,  for  his  friends,  to  allow  him  to  issue  such  im- 
possibly bad  material.  And  the  curious  thing  is  that  this 
debased  standard  is  found  throughout  the  whole  series,  even 
where  the  subject  lends  itself  to  reasonable  treatment. 

For  instance,  there  is  a  medal  to  commemorate  the  martial 
ability  of  the  Crown  Prince,  who  is  compared  to  Hercules. 
That,  of  course,  is  purely  conventional.  It  is  exceedingly 
unlikely  that  any  Royalty  of  the  modem  sort  should  have 
the  highly  specialised  capacity  required  of  a  great  General ; 
and  the  weak  profile  of  the  young  man  (accurately  given  but 
rather  more  startling  than  life)  would  at  once  put  an  end 
to  any  such  claim.  None  the  less,  there  is  nothing  unusual 
or  absurd  in  these  conventions. 

There  is  one  exception  to  all  this.  It  is  the  medal  (the 
loth  of  this  series)  which  commemorates  the  German  advance 
on  Paris,  struck  in  the  first  days  of  the  war  when  foreign 
conquest  was  admittedly  the  German  aim.  It  bears  the 
legend  "  To  Paris,  IQ14,"  upon  the  one  side,  with  a  naked 
figure  upon  a  horse  holding  what  I  think  is  a  torch  in  the 
left  hand  ;  upon  the  other  side  is  the  face  of  the  ablest  of  the 
German  Generals,  Von  Kluck.  It  is  not  a  good  piece  of  work, 
but  it  is  normal  and  tolerable. 

Mr.  Hill  suggests  that  this  medal  may  have  been  with- 
drawn. It  is  obviously  inconvenient,  politically,  that  it 
should  remain  in  circulation  after  the  Mame.  He  tells  us 
that  it  has,  at  any  rate,  proved  difficult  to  obtain  in  neutral 
countries.  That  is  a  pity,  for  it  is  much  the  least  disgraceful 
of  the  series.  Its  author  is  a  certain  A.  Lowental ;  and  perhaps 
the  German  authorities  (who  carefully  collect  all  foreign 
criticism,  and  before  whose  eyes  this  humble  notice  will  pass) 
will  give  him  orders  for  further  work  during  such  interval 
as  may  remain  between  the  present  time  and  the  moment 
when  German  medals  upon  the  war  will  no  longer  appear. 
Upon  the  evidence  of  this  pamphlet,  at  least,  this  A.  Lowental 
would  seem  to  be  the  only  man  capable  of  reaching  in  the  art 
of  the  medallist  the  level  reached  in,  say,  English  prose,  by 
the  sober  announcements  of  our  Post  Office. 

There  are  those  who  think  that  bad  art  is  a  proof  of  national 
greatness.  They  may  increase  their  admiration  of  Pmssia 
by  studying  her  medals. 

•  Replicas  of  the  Lusitania  medal  can  be  obtained  from  the 
Souvenir  Medal  Committee,  32  Duke  Street,  Manchester  Square, 
the  proceeds  being  given  to  St.  Dunstan's  Hostel  for  the  BImd. 


20 


Land   &  Water 


February    2 1 ,    1 9 1 8 


Life  md  letters^  J. CSouire 


Merry  England 

ENGLISHMEN  fairly  weU  informed  about  modern 
history  frequenUy'  show  a  deplorable  lack  of 
curiosity  about  what  England  was  like  before  the 
Guilds  were  broken  up,  the  shecj)  ate  up  the  fields, 
the  new  leaniing  and  the  new  scepticism  came  m, 
and  Henry  VIII.  and  Thomas  Cromwell  had  been  forced  by 
tlieir  exquisite  religious  consciences  to  batter  down  the  Abbeys 
and  ' '  sequestrate  "*  their  lands.  And  even  those  who  do  study 
the  Middle  Ages  have  concentrated  too  largely  on  (first) 
their  constitutional  and  (later)  their  economic  histor>'.  The 
Social  Life  in  Britain  from  the  Conquest  to  the  Reformation 
(Cambridge  Press,  15s.)  with  which  Mr.  G.  G.  Coulton  has 
followed  up  his  Mediceval  Games,  is,  therefore,  doubly  to  be 
welomed.    It  is  a  w^rk  that  has  all  the  merits  of  the  academic 

and  none  of  the  faults. 

♦  ♦•*»* 

It  opens,  as  such  a  book  should  open,  with  passages  on 
Land  and  Folk.  The  best  of  them  are  taken  from  Trevisa's 
fourteenth-century  translation  of  the  work  Higden's  Latin 
Polychronism.  lie  gives  what  he  deems  the  most  important 
facts  about  the  three  Kingdoms :  their  climates,  characters, 
manners  and  marvels.  He  has  a  partiality  for  the  men  of 
the  South,  the  northerners  being  harder  and  talking,  also, 
in  a  most  uncouth  way  "  that  we  southeme  men  may  that 
longage  unnethe  understonde."  His  passages  on  Scotland 
(which  he  describes  as  full  of  "  moyst  rivers  ")  is  delightful. 
The  Scots  "  love  nyghe  as  well  death  as  thraldome,"  but : 

Though  the  men  herre  semely  ynough  of  fygure  and  shape, 

and  fayre  of  face  generally  by  "kind,  yet  theyre  owne  scotlyshe 

clothynge  dyes  fygure  them  full  moche.   .  .  .  And,  bycause 

of  medlyng  with  englishe  men,  many  of  them  have  changed 

the  olde  maners  of  scottes  in  to  better  maners  for  the  more 

parte,   but   the  wylde  scottes   and   Iryshe   accounte   greate 

worshyppe  to  folowe  theyre  fore  fathers  in  clothynge,  in  tonge, 

and  in  lyvynge,  and  in  other  maner  doynge. 

"  They  repute,"   he  concludes,   "  no  man,   of  what  nation, 

blondde,  or  puissance  so  ever  he  be,  to  be  hardy  and  valiant 

but  themselfe."     The  Irish  he  found  given  to   idleness  and 

evil  manners  ;    they  paid  no  tithes  and,  though  chaste,  were 

drunken    and    unreliable ;     but    "  good    men    among    them 

(theis  there  beeth  but  feive)  beeth  goode  at  the  best."     Our 

own  praises  of  England  may  be  set  against  the  more  detached 

observations  of    foreign    visitors.      Mr.  Coulton  gives  most 

interesting  extracts  from  an  Italian  account  of  the  end  of  the 

fifteenth  century.     The  Italian  essay  said  : 

The  English  are  great  lovers  of  themselves,  and  of  everything 
belonging  to  them  ;  they  think  that  there  are  no  other  men 
than  themselves,  and  no  other  world  but  England  ;  and 
whenever  they  see  a  handsome  foreigner,  they  say  that  "  he 
looks  like  an  Englishman,"  and  that  "  it  is  a  great  pity  that 
he  should  not  be  an  Englishman  "  ;  and  when  they  partake 
of  any  delicacy  with  a  foreigner,  they  ask  him,  "  whether 
such  a  thing  is  made  in  his  country.  .  .  .  They  think  that 
no  greater  honour  can  be  conferred,  or  received,  than  to 
invite  others  to  eat  with  them,  or  to  be  invited  themselves  ; 
and  they  would  sooner  give  five  or  six  ducats  to  provide  an 
entertainment  for  a  persojj  than  a  groat  to  assist  him  in  any 
distress. 

Oae  would  like  to  quote  the  whole  of  this  description.  Amongst 
the  Venetian's  obiter  dicta  are  "  They  generally  hate  their 
present,  and  extol  their  dead  sovereigns  "  ;  "  The  people  are 
held  in  little  more  esteem  than  if  they  were  slaves,"  and  "  If 
the  King  should  propose  to  change  any  old-established  rule, 
it  would  seem  to  every  Englishman  as  if  his  life  were  taken 
from  him." 

****** 

Mr.  Coulton  classifies  his  extracts  in  sixteen  sections, 
covering  the  whole  range  of  social  life.  If  you  want  to  find 
what  the  Middle  Ages  thought  about  art  or  architecture  you 
will  find  all  the  documents  together.  This  is  very  convenient 
for  reference  ;  but  the  reviewer  cannot  be  systematic  with  so 
large  a  subject,  and  one  can  only  dip  in  here  and  there  for 
characteristic  and  human  things.  The  novice  in  such  records 
will  find  all  the  colour  and  robustness  he  expects.  He  will 
also  probably  find  far  more  commonsense  than  he  expects, 
if  he  has  shared  the  common  unimaginative  habit  of  con- 
ceiving the  Middle  Ages  as  inhabitated  by  grossly  super- 
stitious people  inferior  to  ourselves  in  intellect  as  well  as  in 
knowledge  and  lacking,  altogether  lacking  in  the  finer  feelings. 
Frequently  when  we  smile  at  the  "  naivete  "  of  a  medieval 
writer  we  smile  not  because  he  is  wrong,  but  because  he  has 
put  the  bones  of  the  truth  more  baldly  than  we  should  do, 
or  because  he  is  discovering  things  that  we,  being  later,  take 


for  granted.  It  would  not  be  easy  for  a  modern  writer  to 
compose  an  essay  on  "  The  Father  "  with  sentences  like  : 

The  fader  is  dyligent  and  besy,  and  lovyth  kindely  his  chylde, 
in  so  moche  that  he  sparjrth  his  owne  mete  to  fede  his 
chyldren.  .  .  .  The  more  the  chvldeis  like  to  the  fader,  the 
better  the  father  loveth  hym.  The  fader  is  ashamed,  if  he 
here  any  foule  thing  told  by  his  chyldren.  The  father's  herte 
is  sore  greved  if  his  chyldren  rebel  agenst  him. 

At  the  same  time  we  should  not  fail  to  observe  that  no  general- 
isations could  be  sounder  and  that  a  great  many  modem 
discussions  on  politics,  education  and  domestic  life  entirely 
lose  sight  of  them.  Much  the  same  simplicity  may  be  observed 
in  the  tribute  (if  that  is  the  word)  to  what  Mr.  Coulton  terms 
"  A  familiar  beast  to  man  "  : 

The  flee  is  a  lyttell  worme,  and  greveth  men  mooste  ;    and 

scapeth  and  voideth  peril  with  lepynge  and  not  with  reunynge. 

and  wexeth  slowe  and  fayleth  in  colde  tyme,  and  in  somer 

■    tyme  it  wexeth  quiver  and  swyft ;    and  spareth  not  kynges. 

There  are  all  sorts  of  other  things  to  be  told  about  the  flea  : 
its  measurements,  phrenology,  sub-species  (if  any),  nervous 
system,  etc.  But  the  most  important  and — -I  may  say  in  a 
strictly  etymological  way— salient  things  are  here.  And 
this  scientific  terseness  and  directness  may  well  be  connected 
with  the  general  mediaeval  habit  of  mind,  with  the  mediaeval 
directness  and  bluntness  of  speech,  with  a  stable  order  of 
society,  a  clean-cut  code  of  morals,  and  an  accepted  religion.  • 

•fC  3|t  ^  3|S  SQC  J|C 

I  think  that  even  some  who  fully  appreciate  what  the 
Middle  Ages  did  in  architecture  will  be  surprised  to  find  a 
mediaeval  writer  consciously  talking,  at  Lincoln  Cathedral, 
of  "  those  slender  columns  which  stand  around  the  great 
piers,  even  as  a  hey  of  maidens  stand  marshalled  for  a  dance  "  ; 
for  it  is  commonly  assumed  that  the  mediaevals  were  a  sort 
of  mechanical  barbarians  who  built  greatly  like  insects  and 
without  knowing  what  they  were  doing.  Their  manners,  in 
some  regards,  were  rough.  It  is  not  now  necessary  on  the 
playing  fields  of  Eton  to  keep  "  prepositors  in  the  feld  when 
they  play,  for  fyghtyng,  rent  clothes,  blew  eyes,  or  siche 
like  "  ;  still  less,  I  trust,  "  for  yll-kept  hedys."  But  there 
are  places  where  their  roughness  was  a  great  virtue.  If,  in  our 
time,  a  man  sells  bad  food  we  fine  him  ten  pounds  ;  if  he  sells 
a  very  great  deal  of  bad  food  we  make  him  a  lord.  The 
Government  might  well  take  a  tip  from  proceedings  of  1364 
and  1365.  John  Penrose,  who  sold  red  wine  "unsound  and 
unwholesome  for  man,  in  deceit  of  the  common  people,  and 
in  contempt  of  our  Lord  the  King,  and  to  the  shameful 
disgrace  of  the  officers  of  the  City  ;  to  the  grievous  damage 
of  the  Commonalty,"  etc.,  was  compelled  to  drink  a  draught 
of  his  poison,  "  and  the  remainder  shall  then  be  poured  on  the 
head  of  the  same  John."  John  Russelle  who  at  Billyngcsgate 
exposed  for  sale  thirty-seven  pigeons,  "  putrid,  rotten, 
stinking,  and  abominable  to  the  human  race,"*  was  put  in 
the  pillory  whilst  the  pigeons  were  burnt  under  his  nose. 
'  *  *  *  *  *  * 

Tliis  is  the  sort  of  book  that  schoolboys  should  be  given  as 
soon  as  they  have  learnt  the  skeleton  of  English  history. 
They  may  be  told  any  amount  about,  for  example,  the  struggle 
between  the  English  and  Norman  tongues  ;  but  they  will 
never  properly  realise  it  until  they  see  original  passages  like  : 

Children  in  scole,  agenst  the  usage  and  manere  of  alle  othere 
nacionns,  beeth  compelled  for  to  leve  thire  owne  langage, 
and  for  to  construe  thir  lessonns  and  there  thynges  in 
Frensche,  and  so  they  haveth  seth  the  Normans  come  fust 
in  to  Engelond.  Also  gentil  men  children  beeth  i-laugh 
to  speke  Frensche  from  the  tyme  that  thev  beeth  i-rokked 
in  their  cradel  an  kunneth  speke  and  playe  with  a  childe's 
broche ;  and  uplondisshe  men  wil  likne  thym  self  to  gentil 
men,  and  fondeth  with  greet  besynesse  for  to  speke  Frensche, 
for  to  be  i-tolde  of. 

That  may  be  said  of  hundreds  of  other  truths  which  these 
documents  vitalise.  It  may  be  said  of  the  greatest  and  most 
moving  truth  of  all,  our  continuity :  the  permanence  of  the 
land,  the  long  succession  of  eyes  that  have  looked  on  it  and 
wondered  and  fallen  to  dust.  Five  hundred  years  ago  an 
Englishman  wrote  of  "  Stonhenge  by  sides  Salisbury  "  : 

There  beeth  grete  stones  and  wonder  huge,  and  beeth  arered 

an  high  as  hit  were  gates  i-sette  upon  other  gates  ;    notheles 

hit  is  nought  clereUche  i-knowe  nother  perceyved  how  and 

wherfore  they  beeth  so  arered  and  so  wonderlicche  i-honged. 

We,  at  least,  who  have  stood  by  Stonehenge  in  the  twilight 

and  looked  at  those  great  slabs  against  the  sky,  as  it  were 

gates  set  upon  other  gates,  those  words  move  and  stir  more 

than  all  the  records  of  battle  and  pageant  that  ever  were. 


February  21,  1 9 1  8 


Land    &    \\^atcr 


2 1 


The   Will    and    the   Way 

Pelmanism  as  an   Educational   Factor 
By  SIR   JAMES   YOXALL,  M.P. 


By  coincidence  a  book  1  openfii  in  tlic  Tube  train  told  me  the  story 
of  a  man  so  despondent,  thougli  deserving,  that  he  thought  himself 
■  beleaguered  by  all  the  circumstances  of  his  life."  He  even  found  a 
name  for  his  condition.  "  I'm  beset,"  he  thought,  as  many  another  is 
thinking  dolefully  at  this  minute.  For  "  nothing  had  ever  gone  right 
with  him."  He  had  had  "  no  luck."  Fate  always  seemed  against  him. 
"  He  was  the  most  conscientious  worker  in  the  office,  but  other  clerks  had 
been  promotedover  his  head.  The  manager  was  always  finding  fault  with 
him  for  being  so  slow.     Perhaps  lie  was  slow,"  he  thought. 

Part  of  the  coincidence  was  that  I  had  been  thinking  that  very  afternoon 
of  the  man\-  deserving  people  who  mean  well  and  try  well  but  never  "  do 
well,"  and  I  had  been  reflecting  again  why  it  was.  What  blocks  thcni  ? 
What  keeps  them  in  the  dismal  groove  of  unsuccess  ?  It  is  so  easy  to 
blame  them,  so  tempting  to  feel  di.sdain  for  them,  but  Heaven  forgive  n;e 
if  1  rlo  !  I  have  long  known  that  the  distance  between  success  in  life,  as 
people  call  it,  and  failure,  is  no  great  gulf  ;  I  have  long  been  aware  that 
success  and  failure  are  near  n<-ighl)ours,  that  may  at  any  moment  merge 
the  one  into  the  other  ;    for  only 

thin  partitions  do  their  bounds  divide, 
at  iinv  rate,  up  to  fifty  or  fifty-five  years  old. 

1  turned  the  page — success  is  often  a  matter  of  turning  a  page — and 
read  on.  The  unsuccessful  clerk  was  not  happy  even  at  home.  "  Emilj- 
was  a  good  wife  in  many  ways,  but  she  was  .so  abominably  careless  about 
vital  details."  Of  course  she  was,  for  so  few  women,  relatively,  have 
had  the  help  of  the  right  education  yet.  "  She  could  not  realise  the 
importance  of  method  and  accuracy  either  in  housework  or  cooking." 
It  takes  several  generations  of  wise  forbears  to  breed  accuracy  and  method 
into  us,  and  if  we  are  not  born  with  a  necessary  quality  we  must  acquire 
it,  or  fail.  "  He  was  always  being  forced  to  remonstrate  with  her,  but 
ihe  never  improved.  And  all  these  worries  seemed  to  be  steadily  accu- 
mulating. He  had  never  a  moment  now  that  was  not  filled  by  the  necessity 
to  counter  some  new  difficulty."  I  shut  the  book,*  and  seemed  to  see 
that  man  and  his  wife  sinking  into  the  slough  of  despond  deeper,  as  the 
habit  of  non-success  grew  upon  them  day  by  day. 

Yes,  one  knows  people  like  that.  The  woman  who  sits  basking  by  the 
•ire,  when  she  feels  that  she  should  not,  and  says  "  I  suppose  I  must  be 
getting  ready,"  but  is  still  there  half  an  hour  later  ;  and  then  says  more 
weakl)-.  "  I  shail  be  late  !  "  yet  does  not  stir.  The  minutes  tick  by, 
until  presently  she  says,  "  I  don't  know  that  it's  very  important.  .  .  . 
it's  so  late  now — it  wouldn't  be  much  good  going  jiow,  would  it  ?  I 
shan't  be  the  oiily  one  not  there  .  .  ,  It's  so  late  now — I  don't  think 
I'll  go.  would  you  ?  .  .  .  It  won't  matter  for  once  I  "  And  in  a  few 
.eai-s   that    "  once  "    becomes   every    time. 

The  man,  too,  who  hardly  ever  keeps  an  appointment  punctually. 
nd  misses  maiiy  a  chance  of  getting  on  a  little,  simply  because  never,  even 
by  accident,  does  he  arrive  anywhere  five  minutes  early.  And  the  other 
kind  of  man,  who  believes  in  doing  "  no  more  work  than  you're  paid  for," 
and  not  that  much  if  possible,  and  therefore  is  seldom  long  in  employ. 
The  man,  too,  who  blames  his  memory,  or  his  schooUng,  or  his  start  in  life, 
for  his  non-succe»( ;  who  blames  everything  and  everybody  but  himself. 
Heaven  forbid  that  I  should  be  scorning  such  folk,  or  boasting  as  one  that 
putteth  his  armour  off  because  the  fight  is  won  ;  What  I  am  really  trying 
to  ilo  is  to  indicate  a  mode  and  a  place  of  help. 

«         *         *         *         « 

Ihe  \'crv  day  I  opened  that  book  I  had  been  visiting  such  a  place. 
ft  is  rare,  and  I  think  unique  ;  it  exi.sts  as  a  place  of  business,  and  is  not 
run  as  a  place  of  philanthropy,  gratis  ;  but  it  is  philanthropic  in  its  business, 
which  is  to  help  the  unsuccessful  and  only  partly  successful  to  learn  how 
to  help  themselves.  I  had  visited  the  Pelman  Institute,  that  is,  I  had  tested 
the  men  and  the  methods  there  ;  I  had  satisfied  myself  that  the  men  are 
neither  unpractical  visionaries  nor  advertising  charlatans:  I  had  verified 
the  testimonials  which  they  pubhsh  and  the  names  of  well-known  people 
among  their  clients  ;  1  inquired  into  the  methods  they  use  in  a  way 
which  only  one  who  is  him.seU  a  teacher  could  do  ;  I  procured  and  have 
studied  the  books  they  issue  to  their  clients  ;  I  examined  the  queries  they 
put  the  schedules  they  work  by,  and  the  degrees  of  individual  effort  they 
nquire  to  be  put  forth.  I  went  there  rather  sceptical.  I  went  away  rather 
enthusiastic. '  And  because  the  more  I  think  about  it  the  more  I  feel  that 
"  Pelmanism  "  is  the  name  of  .something  much  required  by  myriads 
of  i^eople  to-day  I  am  writing  these  pages.  "  Pelmanism  "  is  no  fake,  no 
dodge,  no  knack  of  temporary  influence  only,  and  it  is  not  for  the  few 
alone.  It  is  not  for  the  relatively  few  whom  Nature  has  endowed  with  the 
successful  (jualities.  who  cannot  help  "  getting  on."  and  who  get  on  early 
because  the  many  do  not  compete  with  them  :  it  is  for  the  many  whom 
Nature  has  endowed  with  all  qualities  for  success  except  the  instinctive 
kn«>wledge  of  how  to  use  them  aptly.  There  is  no  m>-stery  about  Pelman- 
ism, except  that  it  is  not  ladled  out  to  all  and  sundry,  and  is'keptasa 
secret  for  those  who  wish  to  have  it,  those  who  will  work  as  well 
as  pay.  I  thought  the  training  might  be  mere  mnemonics  or  artificial 
memorizing  only;  I  thought  that  the  development  of  will-power  might  be 
done  by  hypnotic  suggestion,  perhaps  ;  but  no  suspicion  which  I  harboureti 
was  justified  by  my  inquiries,  searching  as  1  think  they  were.  Every 
facility  for  a  thorough  investigation  was  placed  at  my  disposal  by 
Mr.  W.  J.  Ennever,  the  Founder  of  the  Institute. 

I  am  mvself  a  trained,  experienced  teacher,  and  know  the  drawbacks  of 
schools.  1  know  the  faults  of  the  class  svstem  ;  how  if  the  cla.ss  or  form 
be  large  the  teacher  must  lecture  rather  than  teach  ;  and  how  if  the  class 
be  small,  even,  it  is  srill  too  large,  for  the  most  effective  teaching  is  done 
when  the  tutor  has  one  pupil  and  only  ope  ;  in  teaching,  the  eiifectual 
thing  is  to  help  each  lame  dog  over  his  own  particular  stile,  and  that  is 
what  class-teaching  can  seldom  do.  I  also  know  that  if  the  pupil  does  not 
wish  to  learn,  he  will  not  learn,  though  you  teach  at  him  ever  so  brilliantly 
and  assidously.  And  therefore  I  know  that  most  of  the  defects  which 
adults  discover  in  themselves  are  defects  which  cannot  be  removed  from 
the  average  person  while  i  boy  or  a  girl  at  school.  I  also  know  that  the 
instruction  received  from  another  is  nofhini;  likr  so  valuable  as  the  educa- 
tion which  one  can  gain  for  oneself 


■  Wiifttcii  ImprMdoDi."    By  J.  D.  BttMford. 


Therefore  it  delighted  me  to  discover  that  the  Pelman  Iii-Hliite  works 
along  lines  which  at  a  hundred  public  meetings  on  education  1  have 
ventured  to  lay  down.  Places  for  lecturing,  coaching,  and  preparing 
people  for  cxam.inations  are  valuable,  and  many  ;  so  are  places  in  which 
the  tuition  goes  on  by  post,  between  tutor  and  learner,  and  when  the  learner 
is  in  earnest  the  effect  is  sure  to  be  good.  But  this  is  not  a  place  for  thus 
imparting  general  or  examinational  information  ;  it  is  a  place  for  indicating 
how  to  learn,  how  to  live  and  learn  and  how  to  learn  and  live.  Here  any 
willing,  earnest  applicant  may  get  just  the  books,  papers,  hints,  sugges- 
tions, advice,  and  "  leg-up  "  which  he  needs  for  himself.  But  he  must  use 
them  faithfully  and  assiduously  ;  if  he  does  not,  his  fee  is  returned  with  a 
polite  note  indicating  that  he  has  not  shown  liimscif  suitable — that  is. 
worthy  of  the  help  which  the  system  can  give.  CompiiLsory  continuative 
education  has  not  been  tried  in  England  yet,  and  one  cannot  say  how  it 
will  work  out  ;  but  voluntary  continuative  education — self-education- 
with  aid  from  csunsellors  and  guides,  philosophers  and  friends,  has  a  great 
future  in  this  country,  1  am  sure.  Every  year  the  number  of  adults  who 
discover  that  it  will  be  worth  while  to  go  on  getting  educated  increases. 

Most  people  leave  school  too  early  to  be  able  to  know  while  at  school 
what  education  is  for  ;  that  knowledge  seldom  comes  to  anybody  earlier 
than  the  age  of  puberty,  and  most  young  people  leave  school  before  that 
age.  The  fact  is  that  the  schools  can  do  little  to  incite  a  habit  of  con- 
tinuative education,  except  in  the  naturally  gifted  few  ;  what  the  schools 
do  is  teach  boys  and  girls  "  ho\v  to  use  their  mental  knives  and  forks," 
so  to  speak  ;   the  appetite  for  the  meal  comes  later,  if  at  all. 

Life  is  the  real  school,  therefore,  it  is  also  the  sternest  schoolmaster  ;  how 
it  raps  our  knuckles  when  we  blunder,  how  it  lashes  us  with  hot  shame  when 
we  fail  !  To  me  the  saddest  street  sight — worse  than  some  accident 
which  may  end  or  prevent  years  of  life  not  worth  the  living — is  the  broken 
down,  elderly  failure  of  a  man  who  comes  faltering  along.  He  has  had  his 
chance,  his  time,  his  lifetime  almost,  and  he  has  not  known,  nor  cared  to 
learn  how  to  know,  how  to  use  them  ;  and  no  chance  now  comes  his 
way.  There  are  people  who  believe  in  one  life  only  ;  there  are  happier 
people  who  believe  in  another  ;  both  kinds  of  people  ought  snrely  to 
make  as  much  of  this  present  life  as  they  may.  Both  ought  to  educate 
themselves — the  one  because  this  life  may  be  the  onlj'  sphere,  and  the 
other  because  this  life  may  be  the  probation  for  another.  Living  is 
"  a  serious  art,"  and  we  need  to  be  artists  in  living  :  we  ought  to  master 
the  secrets  of  living  ;  and  obviously  we  should  begin  to  do  so  pretty 
young,  while  the  door  stands  open.     Yet  how  many  of  us  fail ! 

— we  give 
All  life  to  learning  how  to  live, 
And  die   in   ignorance,   the  gloom 
Around  us  to  the  very  tomb. 

For  few  of  us  continue  our  education  seriously,  day  by  day. 

Suddenly,  at  sixty  or  so,  the  man  who  has  neglected  to  use  the  school 
of  life  while  he  could,  discovers  that  he  has  failed.  He  discovers  it  "  too 
late,"  as  he  says — his  chances  are  all  gone.  He  may  try  to  comfort 
himself  by  talking  of  his  "  bad  luck,"  or  ths  people  who  were  always 
"  against  him,"  and  he  may  belittle  what  others  have  successfully  done  ; 
but  it  is  poor  comfort.  Indolence,  feebleness,  indetermination,  follies, 
vices,  blindness  to  chances  are  much  alike  in  their  effects,  and  every 
effect   had   a  cause. 

♦         *         •         *         * 

Pelmanism  is  not  for  the  self-satisfied  :  nor  for  the  easily  satisfied, 
content  with  any  way  of  life,  no  matter  how  narrow  and  poor  ;  nor  for 
the  sluggard,  too  inert  ,  nor  the  laggard,  too  idle.  It  is  discipline,  and 
many  a  chent  has  found  it  to  be  just  the  training  he  needed.  It  is  a 
means  of  energizing,  and  energy  is  the  master-force  of  everything.  I  do 
not  believe  in  conclusive  natural  disability,  except  when  it  is  due  to 
incurably  bad  health  ;  I  do  not  believe  that  tsp  to  the  age  of  fifty  and 
more  it  is  ever  too  late  to  mend  ;  I  am  sure  that  mental  effort  prolongs 
and  fortifies  bodily  life.  I  have  seen  so  many  men  fail  whom  everybody 
expected  to  succeed,  and  so  many  succeed  in  spite  of  apparent  cause 
and  excuse  for  failure,  that  I  have  no  faith  in  what  is  called  destiny  or 
fate.  I  have  seen  many  men  go  dull  with  the  monotony,  along  some 
groove  with  high  walls  to  it.  who  being  afterwards  kicked  out  of  the 
groove,  so  to  speak,  by  something  which  seemed  a  stroke  of  ill  chance, 
have  begun  to  get  on,  directly  they  were  out  of  that  groove.  One  can't 
jump  out  of  it  all  at  once,  as  a  rule  ;  success  seldom  comes  all  at  once, 
without  preparation  for  it  ;  but  out  of  the  groove,  sooner  or  later,  that 
man  will  climb  who  studies  how  to  try. 

The  clerk  who  does  not  "  get  on,"  the  salesman,  the  commercial 
traveller,  the  shopkeeper  who  does  not  sell  successfully  ;  the  underling, 
"  the  most  conscientious  worker  in  the  office,"  who  is,  neverthele.'-s,  too 
slow  ;  the  teacher  not  successful  in  a  peculiarly  difficult  vocation  ;  the 
would-be  writer  who  always  gets  his  manuscript  (it  should  be  typescript) 
back  again  ;  the  solicitor  who  might  as  well  be  his  own  clerk  ;  the  doctor 
who  vainly  waits  for  patients  :  the  briefless  man  at  the  Bar  ;  the  curate 
never  offered  a  Ix-nefice  :  and  many  another,  would  find  the  discipline, 
guidance,  and  training  of  Pelmanism  help  them  on.  When  peace  comes 
again  competition  in  life  will  be  fiercer  than  ever,  for  men  will  return 
from  the  great,  stern  l^niversity  of  the  War  with  qualifications  developed 
that  thev  did  not  previously  know  they  possessed  ;  1  have  passed  most 
of  a  life-time  in  trying  to  help  on  the  cause  of  education,  but  I  am  glad 
to  say  that  /  shall  not  have  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  sterner  competition 
to  come.  I  suspected  Pelmanism  ;  when  it  began  to  be  heard  of,  I  thought 
it  quackery  :  with  self-satisfaction  and  vanity,  I  supposed  that  /  needed 
nothing  of  the  kind.  Now  T  wish  I  had  taken  it  up  when  I  heard  of  it 
first.     It 

— spurs  Ihe  lated  traveller  apace 
To  gain  th€  timely  inn. 

Pelmanism  is  fully  explained  and  described  in  "Mind  and  Memory," 
uihich,  with  a  copv  of"  Truth's  "  remarkable  report  vn  the  work  of  the  Pelman 
Institute,  will  be  sent,  gratis  and  post  free,  tv  any  reader  of  La.nd  A  Water 
who  addresses  The  P/'Inuni  Iii^Ulidr  (u,  \\'iiiha»i  H'Uisr,  Plun)iishiiry 
.'Street,  London,   li-'.C'  i 


22 


Land    &   Water 


February   21,  i  9 1 8 


^^mTSf?^n?^:^}V2:}y^\h..^rTrrrrrrrw^ 


Position  of  the  Landowner:  By  Sir  H.  Matthews 


"  Where  nun  ol  greal  wealth  do  stoop  to  husbandry  it  muUiplieth 
riches  exceedingly." — Bacon. 

HOW  little  do  the  crowds  that  throng  the 
streets  of  our  towns  and  cities  realise  their 
indebtedness  to  the  landowners  of  this  country. 
Even  to-dav,  although  the  home  production 
of  food,  which  was  made  possible  by  the 
sacrifices  of  this  class,  has  stood  between  these  crowds 
and  shameful  humiliation,  how  many  are  aware  of 
what  they  owe  to  the  senior  partner  in  the  business 
of  agriculture  ?  Had  it  not  been  for  Coke  of  Norfolk. 
Lord  Townshend,  the  Earls  and  Dukes  of  Bedford,  Lawes  and 
Gilbert  and  scores  of  others,  whose  far-sightedness  and  practical 
cnergj'  were  devoted  to  improving  their  estates,  and  to  in- 
creasing produ&tion  from  the  land,  we  must  have  sued  for  peace 
with  our  enemies.  The  brilliant  example  set  by  these  pioneers 
was  generally  followed  by  the  rank  and  file  of  owners,  until 
the  amount  expended  in  buildings,  drainage,  fences,  and  roads, 
aggregated  hundreds  of  millions  sterling.  Of  course  their 
object  was  primarily  to  increase  the  value  of  their  property,  but 
incidentally  they  made  our  agriculture  what  it  is — as  good  as 
any,  and  better  than  that  of  almost  any  other  country  in  the 
world.  They  and  their  descendants  reaped  the  benefit  of  en- 
hanced incomes,  and  a  flourishing  tenantrj^'  for  many  years,  but 
of  course  with  certain  exceptions— always  putting  back  into 
the  property  in  the  shape  of  new  equipment  and  renewals, 
.\  large  percentage  of  their  income. 

In  the  late  'seventies,  however,  the  severe  agricultural 
depression  began,  accentuated  by  the  calamitous  year  of 
1879,  with  its  ruined  harvests.  Tenants  felt  the  full  effects 
of  this  first,  because  the  heavy  drop  in  the  price  of  all  their 
produce — except  milk — lessened  their  returns  much  faster 
than  their  outgoings  could  be  reduced.  They  went  bankrupt, 
pr  retired  from  farming,  in  scores  of  thousands  in  a  very  few 
years,  and  then  owners  had  to  bear  the  bnmt  of  it.  Farms 
were  left  vacant  in  a  deplorable  condition,  and  capital  had  to 
be  found  to  work  them  ;  while  such  tenants  as  remained  were 
only  induced  to  do  so  by  huge  reductions  in  rent.  More 
buildings,  or  expensive  alterations,  were  demanded  to  equip 
them  for  dairying  (the  one  branch  of  farming  not  swamped 
,  by  dumped  fann  produce),  heavy  outlay  for  laying  down  land 
to  grass,  and  for  the  consequent  fencing  was  incurred,  and 
such  repairs  as  had  been  done  by  tenants  were  taken  over  by 
owners,  whereas  mortgages,  settlement  charges,  and  similar 
outgoings,  remained  at  their  old  levels,  while  taxation,  and 
especially  death  duties,  were  heavily  increased. 

The  result  has  been  that  owners  with  incomes  derived 
from  other  sources  kept  up  their  estates  in  the  old  way,  and 
poured  money  into  them  without  getting  any  return.  Scores 
of  properties  showed  no  net  income  whatever,  and  the  great 
majority  have  done  no  more  than  give  from  i.l  to  2  per  cent, 
on  outlay  for  recent  equipment.  Others  less  fortunately 
placed  sold  their  estates  at  greatly  depreciated  rates  to  wealthy, 
business  men,  many  of  whom  lx)ught  for  spwrting  purposes, 
and  devoted  the  land  to  game.  Others  still  let  their  houses 
if  they  could,  or  shut  them  up  if  they  could  not,  and 
turned  their  attention  to  more  profitable  businesses. 

In  previous  articles  it  has  so  chanced  that  the  topics  dealt 
with  mainly  concerned  the  tenants,  but  the  senior  partner,  as 
I  venture  to  call  him,  deserves  more  attention  than  he  has 
yet  received.  The  landlord  (it  is  the  agricultural  owner 
that  is  referred  to  throughout  this  article,  not  the  town  land- 
lord) occupies  a  position  in  this  country  which  is  not  generally 
understood.     He    is    very    seldom    the    mere    rent-receiver, 


enacting  homage  from  trembling  tenants,  as  pictured  by 
certain  political  papers.  Looked  at  in  an  economic  sense  he 
happens  to  be  a  capitalist,  owning  stock  in  the  shape  of  land. 
Other  smaller  capitalists  wishing  to  become  food  producers 
offer  him  a  certain  percentage  per  annum  for  the  use  of  a 
definite  portion  of  his  stock,  in  order  that  they  may  be  enabled 
to  use  their  own  capital  to  the  best  advantage.  If  they 
cannot  find  an  owner  willing  to  lend  them  such  stock,  their 
only  alternative,  if  they  persist  in  their  desire  to  produce 
food,  is  to  purchase  land  themselves.  The  principal  difference 
between  the  owner  of  land  stock  and  other  capitalists  is  that 
the  former  is  usually  prepared  to  accept  a  much  smaller  return 
on  his  capital  than  are  other  owners  of  wealth.  That  is  the  real 
relation  between  agricultural  landlords  and  tenants.  Arising 
out  of  the  greater  intimacy  between  them  than  is  possible 
b 'tween  urban  owners  and  tenants,  a  feeling  of  friendship 
has  generally  grown,  which  has  developed  into  a  paternal 
interest  on  the  one  hand,  and  too  great  a  tendency  to  look 
for  help  on  the  other  ;  unfortunately  this  paternal  interest 
has  been  carried  so  far  that  a  certain  type  of  tenant  has 
come  to  look  upon  what  are  in  fact  only  acts  of  generosity 
as  their  right.     This  will  be  referred  to  later. 

It  is  peculiarly  difficult  for  the  general  public  to  know 
anything  about  owners  collectively.  They  are  not  known  as 
such  in  official  reports,  or  books  of  reference  ;  even  the  Census 
Returns  which  make  such  searching  investigations  into  our 
private  affairs,  ind  label  us  into  groups,  ignore  owners 
of  land  as  a  class.  The  Income  Tax  Office  knows  more  of  him 
than  anyone  else,  but  this  knowledge  is  not  used  to  benefit 
the  landowner,  or  for  the  gratification  of  public  curiosity.  If 
we  are  to  believe  socialist  speakers  and  writers,  or  the  politi- 
cian who  is  out  for  urban  votes,  a  personality  will  be  conjured 
up  which  is  as  much  unlike  the  Average  as  it  is  possible  to 
conceive.  If  on  the  other  hand  we  look  for  any  statement 
by  owners  as  to  any  part  they  have  taken,  or  are  taking  now, 
in  the  industry  of  agriculture,  we  find  little  to  guide  us.  With 
very  few  exceptions  (mention  must  be  made  of  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  s  book,  A  Great  Agricultural  Estate)  agricultural 
landlords  have  just  carried  on,  regardless  of  financial  results, 
and  have  treated  political  mud-throwing  with  silence. 

It  would  be  almost  impossible  to  form  any  association  of 
owners  which  could  represent  most  of  the  land  of  England, 
because  they  are  so  frequently  not  individuals  at  all.  Thus 
the  County  Councils  collectively  are  believed  to  be  the  largest 
owners  in  the  country.  Municipal  authorities.  Urban  District 
Councils,  Colleges,  Hospitals,  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners, 
Insurance  Companies,  Building  Societies,  and  various  charities 
all  own  large  areas  of  land,  and  the  Crown  itself  is  not  quite  a 
small  owner.  These  soulless  landholders  make  it  still  more 
difficult  to  describe  owners  as  a  group. 

An  interesting  point  in  this  connection  is  that  these  absentee 
landlords,  who  are  mere  rent-receivei"s,  have  no  votes,  as" 
owners,  and  consequently  a  very  large  area  of  land  is  actually 
disfranchised.  The  "  Land  Taxers  "  arc  fond  of  saying  that 
most  of  the  land  of  this  country  belongs  to  a  very  small  number 
of  individuals.  No  figures  are  quoted  here,  because  the 
numbers  vary  according  to  the  taste  of  the  speaker  or  writer, 
but  if  it  is  true  the  peers  will  account  for  a  large  proportion 
of  this  land.  But  they  too  have  no  votes.  Some  owners 
have  inherited  properties  so  far  apart  that  it  is  physically 
impossible  for  them  to  record  their  votes  for  some  portion 
of  them.  Taken  altogether,  it  is  evident  that  a  very  large  area 
of  the  country  is  disfranchised,  so  far  as  the  owners'  votes  are 
concerned.  In  every  constituency  owners,  even  if  a  homo- 
geneous body,  are  so  few  that  they  do  net  hold  the  balance  of 


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-power,  and  are  so  sc:ittered  that  the  value  of  their  votes  is  lost. 
As  a  voting  power,  therefore,  they  are  a  negligible  quantity. 
The.'  cannot  concentrate,  because  their  properties  and  con- 
Si.quently  their  votes  are  fixed. 

We  might  learn  an  interesting  bit  of  EngUsh  history  by 
reading  the  Duke  of  Bedford  s  book,  which  tells  of  that  fertile 
tract  of  land  situated  chiefly  in  Bedfordshire,  and  partly  in 
the  adjoining  counties.  The  fascinating  stories  of  Hereward 
the  Wake  comprise  all  that  most  of  us  know  of  that  district, 
and  lovers  of  Kingsley  may  regret  the  loss  of  romance  which 
vanished  with  the  \Aaters  and  desolation  of  this  area;  but  the 
Earls  and  Dukes  of  Bedford  did  more  for  England  by  driving 
■off  the  water,  and  reclaiming — no,  not  reclaiming,  but  making 
— the  land  which  is  now  one  of  our  chief  food-growing 
districts,  than  ever  Hereward  accomplished.  In  1630-33 
Francis,  Earl  of  Bedford,  spent  ;fioo,ooo  (equal  to  about 
^300,000  to-day)  in  draining.  And  that  was  merely  the  be- 
ginning, vast  sums  having  been  spent  since  in  larger  and 
better  drainage  schemes.  Between  1816  and  1S95  the  outlay 
on  the  land  was  i'4,240,539,  yet  at  the  time  of  writing  (1897) 
the  estate  accounts  showed  an  annual  loss  of  o\-er  £7,000  per 
annum,  ajiart  from  any  expenditure  on  Wobum  Abbey, 
park,  or  experimental  arm  ;  whUe  the  average  net  income 
from  Thorney  for  20  years  previously — without  allowing 
-anything  for  death  duties,was  only  2]  per  cent,  on  the  capital 
outlay  on  new  works  which  between  1816  and  1895  amounted 
to  £65,155.  In  the  same  period. the  net  return  from  the 
Wobum  estat :  was  only  one  per  cent,  on  the  capital  outlay 
■on  new  works,  which  amounted  to  £537,347. 

The  financial  history  of  these  estates  is  typical  of  hundreds 
of  others,  but  the  degree  of  loss  in  this  case  is  probably  heavier 
than  the  average,  and  there  are  certain  points  worth  noting. 
For  instance  the  initial  outlay  of  over  £4,000,000  was  much 
^greater  tliaii  average,  and  this  outlay  ought  (and  did)  put  the 
profKirty  into  a  better  condition  to  meet  the  shock  of  de- 
pression than  most.  The  annual  expenditure  on  equipment 
and  upkeep  was  larger  than  most  estates  could  incur,  and  the 
size  of  the  property  would  render  the  establishment  charges 
less  per  acre  than  on  smaller  ones.  There  was  no  single  case 
of  disturbing  a  tenant,  and  thus  insecurity  of  tenure  did  not 
conduce  to  bad  farming.  During  the  period  of  20  yeaite 
ri  ferred  to  four  or  five  years  are  included  before  the  depression 
became  really  acute,  which  makes  the  real  loss  greater  than 
is  apparent. 

O  e  may  well  ask  why,  under  such  circumstances,  did  owners 
continue,  not  merely  to  own,  but  to  pour  out  money  over 
land  which  brought  in  no  return  ?  It  was  unsound  business, 
it  was  commercially  and  economically  indefensible.  Hundreds 
of  families  impoverished,  hundreds  of  men  drawing  wealth 
from  other  sources,  and  sinking  it  in  agriculture.  But  they 
kept  the  flag  of  agriculture  flying,  and  faced  every  attack 
(wliicli  were  numerous)  with  the  pluck  that  carries  through 
a  forlorn  hope.  The  general  result  was  that  for  thirty  years 
the  consumer  was  fed  at  a  price  below  the  cost  of  production  ; 
supplied  with  cheap  bread,  cheap  meat,  milk,  butter  and 
cheese,  cheap  clothes,  and  cheap  boots  at  the  expense  of  the 
British  landowner,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  (the  con- 
sumer) has  come  to  look  upon  these  abnormally  low  prices 
as  an  inalienable  right. 

.  It  is  not  suggested  that  among  owners  there  was  general 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  they  were  gratuitously  presenting 
the  populace  with  the  necessaries  of  life  at  uneconomic  rates. 
It  was  a  case  of  circumstance  acting  upon  unorganised  units  ; 
but  the  great  majority  of  those  units  had  been  trained  in  a 
school  which  imbued  its  scholars  with  the  idea  that  nobles,se 
oblige  is  the  guiding  principle  of  life.  When,  therefore,  they 
found  not  only  their  income,  but  capital  as  well,  rapidly  dis- 
appearing, they  instinctively  held  on,  for  they  had  ties  they 
could  not  break ;  sentiment,  perhaps  foolish  sentiment, 
which  bound  them  to  the  homes  of  their  ancestors,  and  to 
tenants  they  would  not  forsake ;  and  often,  they  could  not 
sell  even  if  they  desired. 

The  vivid  imagination  of  certain  pwliticians  depict  them 
as  a  rack-renting,  overbearing  set  of  tyrants,  ruling  their 
tenants  as  despots.  Or  they  are  lazy,  living  lives  of  indul- 
gence and  amusement,  or  wasting  their  time  in  hunting  or 
other  sp(jrt.  Luckily  the  country  gentleman  is  usually  a 
sportsman.  If  he  had  not  been  a  hunting  man,  a  supporter 
of  hurdle-racing,  and  a  breeder  of  racehorses,  the  country 
must  either  have  sjjent  large  sums  of  money  every  year  in 
maintaining  a  horse  supply  for  the  army,  or  the  outbreak  of 
war  would  liave  found  us  without   remounts. 

The  first  legislative  proposals  towards  reconstructing  agri- 
culture arc  contained  in  the  Com  Production  Act,  and  while 
some  of  them  are  good,  others  are  anything  but  happy. 
The  best  feature  is  the  bracketing  together  of  a  minimum 
wage  for  the  workers  and  a  guaranteed  minimum  price  for 
certain  of  our  principal  crops;  the  worst  is  the  cynical 
provision  that  landowners  shall  not  reap  any  benefit  from 


enhanced  prices  for  agricultural  products.  The  former  was 
opposed  by  that  section  of  pohticians  who  stand  to  gain  by 
sowing  dissension  between  classes,  their  reason,  it  must  be 
supposed,  being  that  it  gave  proof  of  the  identity  of  interest 
between  employer  and  employed,  which  mutual  interest 
they  have  always  denied.  The  same  group  supported  the 
provision  which  prevents  owners  gaining  any  advantage,  the 
reason  (we  are  justified  in  assuming)  being  that  as  a  class 
they  are  political  opponents.  Those  whose  financial  interests 
are  in  foreign  production  or  in  transport,  were  among  the  most 
vocal  of  that  group.  It  has  among  its  friends  many  who  are 
fond  of  talking  loudly  about  the  "  duties  "  of  landowners, 
ignoring  the  fact  that  no  less  than  other  classes  they  may 
also  have  rights.  Some  of  them  urge  that  because  land  b 
limited  in  quantity  no  individual  has  a  right  to  own  any  of 
it,  as  such  ownership  implies  power  to  prevent  public  access 
to  it.  Do  they  imagine,  if  the  State  owned  it,  that  pubUc 
access  would  follow  as  a  matter  of  course  ?  WTiat  a  grotesque 
idea!  The  State  now  owns  plenty  of  land  for  experimental 
purposes.  Let  those  who  hold  these  views  endeavour  to 
obtain  public  access  to  this  Jand  as  a  demonstration. 

If  this  Act  had  provided  that  owners  were  to  gain  some 
part  of  the  benefit  of  enhanced  prices,  even  if  it  were  only  to 
recoup  them  in  part  for  the  losses  of  prfevious  decades,  there 
would  be  some  ground  upon  which  to  talk  of  duties,  and  there 
could  then  be  no  question  as  to  the  Government  having  the 
right  to  dictate  how  a  man  should  use  his  property  ;  but  when 
it  decides  that  he  must  bear  all  the  losses  without  sharing  in 
any  advantages  there  is  no  logical  ground  for  talking  of  duties. 
As  a  class  they  have  done  their  duty  in  a  way  that  offers  a 
shining  example  to  every  other  section  of  the  community. 

Peasant  Proprietors 

This  latter  provision  of  the  Act  wiU  have — is  indeed  already 
bringing  about — a  change  quite  imforeseen  by  those  who 
so  eagerly  helped  to  carry  it  through  Parliament.  For 
years  they  have  opposed  any  proposals  for  legislation  which 
would  help  to  increase  the  number  of  owners.  While  urging 
the  creation  of  small  holdings,  which  are  to  be  held  by 
tenants  at  a  perpetual  and  never-lessening  rent,  the  proposal 
that  sitting  tenants  should  be  aided  in  purchasing  their  farms, 
or  that  peasant  propriett  rs  should  be  created,  has  always  met 
with  their  hostility.  Now  the  large  owner?  are  offering  their 
land  for  sale,  and,  to  a  very  large  extent,  it  is  being  purchased 
by  the  tenants.  A  certain  type  of  farmer  is  objecting  to  this 
change  taking  place,  and  they  are  urging  that  sales  should  be 
prohibited  untU  after  the  war,  giving  as  their  reason  that  such 
sales  create  a  feeling  of  unrest  among  tenants,  and  thereby 
tend  to  inferior  cultivation.  Such  an  attitude  is  not  difficult 
to  understand. 

The  paternal  interest  of  owners  has  already  been  referred 
to,  as  having  given  tenants  a  sort  of  prescriptive  right  to  the 
benevolence  of  their  landlords.  They  have  enjoyed  this 
benevolence  so  long  that  they  naturally  prefer  to  go  on  as 
tenants,  getting  higher  prices  for  their  produce,  and  with 
rents  fixed  at  the  level  of  the  lowest  period  of  the  depression, 
but  still  with  a  landlord  whom  they  can  call  upon  to  keep 
their  places  in  order.  Many  others  would  hke  to  gamble  on  the 
terms  of  "  heads  I  win,  tails  you  lose,"  but  it  is  unreason- 
able, and  un-English,  to  ask  for  such  confiscation. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  so  many  landlords  having  been 
forced  to  take  upother businesses, they arenowapplying better 
business  methods  to  their  estates,  than  did  those  of  the  'eighties 
and  'nineties.  It  is  much  wiser  to  sell  now  than  it  was  to 
hang  on  then,  while  every  sale  gives  tenants  an  opportunity 
to  obtain  the  most  perfect  form  of  security  of  tenure  possible, 
by  purchasing  their  own  farms.  Owners  of  land  have  only 
one  other  alternative  of  avoiding  a  continual  loss,  and  that  is 
to  farm  their  estates  themselves.  Let  them  take  a  lesson 
from  Denmark,  and  farm  extensively.  It  will  decrease  the 
cost  of  production,  and  farming  generally  would,  under  such 
conditions,  be  more  productive  than  ever  it  has  been. 

For  the  sake  of  brevity  all  reference  to  the  continuously 
increasing  burdens  uf)on  land  in  the  shape  of  rates  and  taxes, 
mainly  bome  by  the  owners,  has  been  omitted.  It  is  a  long 
story,  and  a  somewhat  dry  one,  for  all  but  the  sufferers,  but  it 
would  be  easy  to  show  that  owners  have  bome  more  than  their 
fair  share  of  such  burdens  for  the  last  forty  years.  Moreover, 
they  have  shouldered  voluntary  burdens  in  addition  to  those 
imposed  upon  them  by  law;  especially  has  this  been  the  case  in 
connection  with  the  cost  of  national  education.  It  is  a  curious 
but  interesting  fact  that  among  the  strongest  opponents  to 
the  financial  provisions  of  the  Education  Bill  of  1902  were 
landowners,  who  would  have  been  relieved  of  a  voluntary  rate. 
amounting  in  cases  to  many  hundreds  of  pxDunds  per  annum, 
in  place  of  which  they  would  have  had  to  pay  a  much  smaller 
education  rate.  It  had  become  a  sort  of  hereditary  burden, 
and  those  who  could  afford  it  resented  its  removal. 


2  + 


Land    &   Water 


February    21,  1 9  i  H 


Q 


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,  W.C.  2.     Any  otiier  information  will  be  given  on  request. 

Few  people  travel  now-a-days  unless 
Collapsible  they  can  really  help  it,  but  if  by 

iJofc  chance  they  have  to  take  the  rail- 

road and  do  not  expect  to  be  away 
more  than  a  day  or  so,  they  travel  what  is  called  in  the 
\ernacular  "  light."  The  main  difficulty  generally  in  the  way 
is  the  auxiliary  hat.  Many  women  prefer  to  have  something 
other  than  the  hat  on  their  head— but  where  can  it  go  ?  Most 
hats  take  up  a  considerable  amount  of  room,  some  even 
demanding  an  extra  box  simply  and  solely  for  themselves. 

With  the  hats  in  question,  however,  no  such  problems  bother. 
.Attractive  though  they  are  and  suitable  now  for  any  occasion, 
they  can  be  packed  absolutely  flat,  Without  bearing  the 
least  resen^blance  in  shape,  they  are  indeed  much  on  the 
olJ  principle  of  a  man's  opera  hat,  so  thorouglily  do  they 
collapse,  and  ^o  little  space  do  they  take. 

Naturally  they  fit  into  the  normal  sized  suit  case  supremely 
well  without  any  bother  or  fuss  at  all.  In  some  models  the 
brim  is  rather  a  stiff  affair,  so  that  this  is  unlikely  to  get  out  of 
shape;  at  the  end  of  the  journey  out  comes  the  hat,  the  crown 
then  pushes  into  its  rightful  shape,  and  there  it  is,  ready 
for  prompt  and  effective  use  ! 

A  charming  black  silk  hat  of  the  kind  with  a  plaited  tie  of 
ribbon  was  in  every  single  way  the  summit  of  smartness  and 
simplicity.  Very  effective,  too,  was  a  dark  blue  silk  hat,  the 
brim  outlined  with  a  close  clipped  dark  blue  ostrich  feather 
ruche — particularly  comme  il  faut.  Many  other  materials 
and  colours  also  have  been  dressed  into  the  service  with 
wonderful  success. 

Some    months    ago    the    Sugarless 
Sugarless  Sweetners  hailing  from  a  well-known 

Sweetners  Scotch    pharmacy    were    mentioned 

,         ,  on  this  page.     They  were  useful  then, 

but  they  are  trebly  so  now  on  account  of  the  need  to  save 
sugar  for  jam  making.  It  seems  as  if  the  aUowance  of  sugar 
allotted  to  fruit  growers  last  year  would  not  be  available  this 
and  at  first  sight  as  if  a  great  deal  of  fruit  in  consequence  would 
be  wasted. 

The  wise  housewife,  however,  wiU  undoubtedly  save  sugar 
from  her  sugar  rations  against  the  jam  making  season,  using 
in  Its  stead  some  substitute.  This  the  Food  Controller  has 
specially  said  she  is  at  liberty  to  do,  the  sugar  thus  saved  not 
being  hoarding."  A  great  deal  of  care,  all  the  same,  must  be 
exercised,  it  not  being  every  sugar  substitute  that  can  be  voted 
reliable.  These  sugarless  sweetners  are  perfectly  wholesome 
and  they  sweeten  very  thoroughly— each  tiny  tablet  being 
eqm  alent  to  a  heaped  teaspoonful  of  sugar.  Save  sugar  and 
use  sugarless  sweetners  when  possible  instead,  is  advice  worth 
loUowing— It  being  quite  extraordinary  how  even  a  small 
amount  saved  from  the  ration  each  week  adds  up  and  how 
eagerly  pnzed  it  wiU  be  once  the  fruit  is  ready. 

People  not  liking  too  sweet  coffee  or  tea  will  find  half  a  tablet 
a  cup  amply  sufficient,  others  of  course  wiU  drop  the  entire 
little  tablet  in.  For  cooking  it  is  often  useful,  t\vo  sweetners 
giving  ample  sweetness  to  most  puddings.  Another  point  is 
that  they  will  be  for\varded  post  free,  one  hundred  costing 
2S.  6d.,  two  hundred  4s.  6d.,  and  five  hundred  los.  6d 

1  he  pharmacy  concerned  have  an  array  of  flattering  testi- 
monials to  show,  both  from  people  who  have  u^d  the 
sweetners  themselves  and  from  others  hearing  of  them  from 
their  fnends  and  wishful  to  make  their  experiences  their  own. 

Our  ancestors  flaunted  patch  or  snuff 

sugar    and  boxes;   but   never  with  such   an  air 

Saccharine   Boxes  ^  ^®  ^^^^^  o^^s  for  sugar,  sugar 

to  th*  fJr^o-   ;        1,-  1,    ^^^f.  '"^'"S    *^^    latest    concession 
to  the  times  m  which  we  live.     And  charming  they  are, 


whether  they  be  of  a  fairly  large  variety  calculated  to  take 
lump  or  moist  sugar  of  a  small  affair  suitable  for  the  sac- 
charine tabl  ts  so  many  people  take  about  instead. 

A  clever  firm, always  more  than  abreast  of  the  times, have 
prepared  all  kinds  of  silver  sugar  bo.xes — just  the  most  oppor- 
tune present  anyone  could  possibly  make.  As  a  wedding 
present  nothing  could  be  more  acceptable  or  up-to-date,  while 
could  there  be  a  more  fascinating  token  to  someone  with  a 
sweet  tooth  now  perforce  obhged  to  carry  their  sugar  as  of  yore 
the  travelling  tribes  carried  tlieir  tents.  Design  and  work- 
manship are  alike  sans  reproche  as  the  firm's  productions 
always  are,  and  the  little  box,  besides  being  a  supremely  useful 
thing  in  itself,  will,  in  happier  years  to  come,  serve  as  an  in- 
teresting souvenir  of  the  times  when  allhvedand  ate  under 
the  sway  of  the  Fooi  Controller. 

The  small  bo  ces  for  saccharine  tablets  and  the  Hke  are  the 
kind  many  people  will  annex,  but  there  are  bo.xes  for  lump 
sugar  also  ;  while  an  attractive  affair  of  engine-turned  silver 
di.ided  into  two  compartments,  one  to  take  lump  sugar  and 
the  other  moist,  is  a  sugar  box  of  the  superlative  type. 

Face  powders  of  an  ill-chosen  kind 
bomething  tresh  can  be  so  disastrous  in  their  re- 
in Face  Powder  ^"^^^  ^^^^^  ^^^'^  ^^**^st  one  to  appear 
seems  to  merit  more  than  passing 
notice.  This  is  "  poudre  fifine" — its  makers  claiming  it 
combines  all  the  virtues  of  a  skin  food  with  the  refreshing 
quahties  of  powder. 

li  has  been  proved  over  and  over  again  that  some  face 
powders  clog  the  pores  of  the  skin.  "  Poudre  fifine  "  is 
heralded  not  to  do  this,  and  it  is  a  natural  looking  powder  into 
the  bargain,  so  that  anyone  not  satisfied  with  the  kind  they 
already  have  in  use  could  not  do  better  than  cast  it  aside 
and  give  the  newcomer  a  trial  in  its  stead. 

To  have  a  powder  that  is  a  tonic  as  well  as  a  beautifier 
seems  almost  too  good  to  be  true,  being  such  a  complete  reversal 
of  the  days  when  sundry  souls  decreed  powder  as  bad  foi  the 
skin,  and  were  very  often  right,  the  povv-der  being  indifferent 
enougli  to  abet  them.  Besides,  "  poudre  fifine  "  has  other 
points  to  commend  it.  It  is  fragrant,  having  just  the  perfume ' 
a  really  attractive  powder  should  have— not  too  strong  and 
yet  with  its  own  particular  faint  scent.  It  is  sold  in  four  tints, 
rachel,  naturelle,  rosee  and  blanche,  is  packed  up  in  sometliing 
specially  charming  in  the  way  of  a  box,  and  costs  two  and  six. 

The  new  frocks  for  the  spring  liave 

A    l^rock   tor       already  made  their  debut ;  and  it  is 

the    Spring  abundantly  evident   that   the  more 

,        ..     ,  .    '         °  successful  among  them  will  be  those 

described  in  one  word  "  practical." 

Very   much  of  this  character  is  one  of  the  latest  springtime 
suggestions,    a  long  gab  rdine  tunic  slipping  on  over  a  satin 
underdress.     Dark  blue  and  black  always  succeed  combined 
andlhe  frock  in  dark  blue  gaberdine  and  black  satin  looks 
particularly  well,  though  other  colourings  are  available 

the  slip  IS  a  sleeveless  and  very  simple  affair,  the  tunic 
equally  uncompl  cated,  going  on  straight  over  the  head  with- 
out a  single  hook,  eye,  button  or  any,other  fastv^ning.  As  in 
the  preceding  example,  a  sash  gives  aU  the  shape  required— that 
in  this  case  being  of  black  satin. 

Such  is  the  irock  complete,  but  the  tunic  can  be  bought 
separately  and  used  separately— a  concession  m;.n  •  will  be 
glad  to  hear  of.  It  could  be  worn  over  a  frrck  past  its  first 
youth  but  of  which  the  skirt  part  is  still  x^earable.  so  that  it 
lias  interest  from  the  renovator's  point  of  view.  These  long 
over-tunics  have  long  been  mooted,  and  now  they  have  arrived 
are  gaming  nothing  but  praise.  In  heap,  of  ways  they  are 
invaluable,  bemg  hardwearing  and  very  sensible,  yet  not 
losing  by  one  iota  the  elusive  quality  of  charm.  Anybody 
buying  the  frock  in  question  and  using  the  tunic  over  other 
trocks  besides  with  the  slip  supphed  will  certainly  profit  by  the 
JoTvTnHhl'  ""'?  ."°^^'"S  else  yet  suggested  this  y-ear  is  Juite 
so  invincibly  useful.  p.^g^/  Partout. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXX  No  2912.  [yTa-r]        THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  28,  1918 


rreoistered  ast    published  weekly 
La  newspapeeJ   price  ninepence 


Cotiyrii/hl    V.'V   in    r  X  A 


Copyright    'Land  Ji   IVater" 


Socialism    in    Germany 


Land    6c    Water 


February   28,   igi8 


Balloon  Section,  R.F.C. 


Hauling  down  an  Observation  Balloon  at  night 

By  C.  R.  W.  Nevinson,  Official  Artist  at  the  Front 

(An  exhibition  of  Mr.  Nevinson's  work  opens  at  the  Leicester  Galleries  on  Saturday) 


February  28,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :   HOLBORN    zSzg. 

THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  28,  1918 


Contents 


pagp: 
1 
2 


Socialism  in  Germany.     By  Louis  Raemaekers 
An  Observation  Balloon.     By  C.  R.  W.  ^'evinson 

The  Outlook  3 

The  Public  Mood.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  5 

Russia's  Fleet.     By  Arthur  Pollen  7 

Hunting  the  U-Boat.     By  Herman  Whitaker  9 

America's  Part.     By  J.  D.  Whelpley  12 

A  Prevalent  Inconsistency.     By  L.  P.  Jacks  ij 

Ztjal.     By  Etienne  14 
Tht;  Sense  of  London.     (Illustrated).     By  Charles  Marriott  16 

A  Comer  of  Old  England.     By  J.  C.  Squire  18 

Foot  Sloggers.     (Poem).    By  Ford  Madox  Haeffer  19 

Books  of  the  Week  21 
The  Cradle  of  Polo.     By  Lewis  R.  Freeman.  R.N.V.R.      22 

Domestic  Economy                    ^  24 

Notes  on  Kit  ix 


The  Outlook 


IN  the  early  part  of  last  week]  it  was  officially  announced 
that  Sir  Henry  Wilson  had  taken  the  chief  command, 
vacated  by  the  dismissal  of  Sir  William  Robertson. 
Other  changes  in  the  commands  of  the  Army  were 
expected  by  the  public  but  have  not  taken  place  at 
the  time  of  writing.  Meanwhile  the  prosecution  of  Colonel 
Repington  and  the  Editor  of  the  Morning  Post  for  the  publica- 
tion of  an  article  dealing  with  the  reserve  arniy  in  a  fashion 
which  the  censorship  regarded  as  a  breach  of  its  direction 
was  undertaken.  Both  defendants  were  fined  the  nominal 
sum  of  £100,  and  the  incident  was  thus  closed.  It  came  out 
during  the  hearing  of  the  case  that  the  reserve  army,  the 
existence  of  which  the  British  censorship  desired  should  not 
be  mentioned,  had  already  been  amply  discussed  in  the 
German  Press. 

Certain  questions  were  asked  in  the  House  of  Commons 
during  the  course  of  last  week  concerning  the  attitude 
of  the  Government  towards  other  papers,  notably  towards 
the  one-man  group  of  numerous  and  varied  organs.  To 
these  questions  various  answers  were  returned.  Some 
repeated  the  old  formula  that  "  the  law  officers  of  the  Crown 
haul  advised  an  action  would  not  lie."  Other  answers  were 
that  "  the  matter  was  under  consideration."  The  educated 
public  is  not  concerned,  of  course,  with  fictions  of  parlia- 
mentary procedure.  The  interest  of  the  incidents  lies  en- 
_tirely  in  the  questions  and  the  state  of  mind  which  they 
indicate. 

Unfortunately,  though  these  questions  (put  down  by  in- 
dividuals more  daring  than  most  of  their  fellows)  accurately 
represent  the  mass  of  opinion  outside  the  House  of  Commons, 
they  have  had  no  sequel  in  the  shape  of  parliamentary  action, 
The  House  shirked  such  action.  In  other  words,  the  individual 
members  composing  it  each  thought  it  to  his  private  a.dvantagi' 
to  do  nothing,  and  the  practical  result  was  a  final  abdication 
if  authority  <m  this  l?.st  and  critical  test  to  which  that  assembly 
has  been  submitted. 

*  *  * 

The  most  curious  commentary  on  this  affair  is  the  criticism 
directed  towards  it  by  most  of  our  contemporaries.  They 
sjjeak  of  "  collusion  "  between  one  section  of  the  Press  and 
the  politicians.  They  darkly  hint  that  particular  newspapers, 
especially  those  of  popular  circulations,  are  "  inspired  "  by 
individual  members  of  the  Government.  They  talk  of  the 
"  Government  Press  "  and  so  forth.  All  that  is  putting  the 
cart  before  the  horse.  It  is  of  common  knowledge  that  the 
)rder  in  which  thesi>  things  stands  is  exactly  the  other  way. 
!t  is  not  the  politician  who  makes  the  newspaper.  It  is  the 
newspaper  wlio  ma'ccs  the  jxilitician. 

A  polic\-  is  not  first  decided  on  in  Downing  Street,  and 
then  communicated  to  Printing  House  Square.  It  is  decided 
in  Printing  House  Square  and  there  is  no  necessity  of  com- 
municating with  Downing  Street  at  all.  The  newspaper 
.nan  stands  in  no  dread  of  any  politician,  but  every  pxilitician 
stands  in  terror  of  the  newspi'.per  man.  If  wb  ask  ourselves 
why  the  thing  has  been  put  in  a  topsy-turvy  way.  and  why 
the  Press  is  treated  as  the  servant  when  it   is  really  the  mastn , 


the  answer  would  not  be  easy  to  furnish. 

Probably  the  nearest  to  the  truth  of  the  many  answers 
that  might  be  gi\en  is  the  natural  conservatism  of  the  jour- 
nalistic profession.  For  so  long  a  time  past  ha\;p  men  been 
writing  of  this  or  that  newspaper  as  the  '  supporter  "  of  such 
and  such  a  politician  or  policy  that  they  have  not  yet  framed 
a  new  set  of  phrases  to  express  the  new  state  of  affairs. 

*  *  * 

Not  so  many  years  ago  the  prestige  and  corporate  power 
of  the  House  of  Commons  would  have  sufficed  to  put  an  end 
to  the  whole  business.  The  offence  would  have  been  insisted 
upon  in  debate.  If  the  individual  professional  politicians 
whose  duty  it  nominally  was  to  undertake  such  prosecutioij 
proved  impotent  because  they  were  themselves  the  servants 
and  not  masters  of  the  people  whose  punishment  they  de- 
manded, a  motion  demanding  prosecution  would  ha\'e  been 
briefly  discussed  and  passed  by  a  large  majority.  To-day 
it  is  quite  hopeless  to  expect  any  such  virile  action  or  indeed 
any  action  at  all  from  the  House  of  Commons. 

As  an  organ  of  Government  the  House  of  Commons  is  dead 
and  it  is  very  doubtful  indeed  whether  it  can  be  revived.  Its 
moral  authority  had  disappeared  long  before  the  present 
war,  through  its  ovsti  foolish  toleration  of  financial  scandals 
antl  through  the  indecent  haste  of  its  most  prominent  members 
to  guarantee  themselves  from  punishment.  But  war,  which 
is  the  great  bringer  out  of  realities,  has  put  the  final  touch 
to  the  process  of  decay.  The  best  evidence  of  the  nullity 
into  which  the  Hou.se  of  Commons  has  sunk  is  the  new 
Reform  Bill.  This  measure  would,  if  the  suffrage  were 
a  Uving  reality,  and  the  House  of  Commons,  which  proceeds 
from  the  suffrage,  were  still  an  organ  of  Government, 
be  a  revolution  more  thorough  by  far  than  any  consti- 
tutional change  of  the  past.  It  actually  doubles  the 
electorate,  suddenly  includes  millions  Of  women,  and  even 
in  its  details  involves  a  complete  change.  Yet  none  pays 
the  slightest  attention  to  it.  No  one  is  interested  in  its  fate, 
and  for  a  very  simple  reason  :  everyone  knows  that  the 
electorate  cannot  do  anything  more  than  vote  for  Caucus 
candidates  and  the  resulting  House  can  have  no  representative 
authority.  -         1 

It  matters  little  or  nothing  which  of  the  Caucus  candidates 
happen  to  be  thrown  together  to  form  a  House  of  Commons. 
They  will  form  nothing  representative  of  the  natjon.  They 
will  in  any  case  be  a  b,  dy  of  men  each  for  the  most  part  using 
their  jxjsition  to  advance  their  private  affairs,  and  enjoying 
the  privilege  of  immunity  when  those  private  affairs  are  of  a 
doubtful  character. 

*  ♦  ^         * 

The  careful  observer  of  public  opinion  during  the  last  few 
months  w'ill  have  discovered  that  the  effect  of  newspapers 
upon  public  opinion  is  small.  It  is  less  than  it  used  to  be, 
and  even  at  its  height  it  neyer  affected  much  of  the  population 
outside  London.  The  real  strength  of  this  new  kind  of 
Government  lies  in  its  power  of  terrorising  by  threats  of 
exposure  and  corrupting  by  promised  advancement  individual 
poUticians,  coupled  \vith  its  effect  upon  other  organs  of  the 
press.  The  weapon  of  the  boycott  is  also  very  strong.  It 
is  particularly  true  of  the  professional  politicians  that  lack 
of  advertisement  is  death. 

It  is  this  grip,  upon  individuals  not  upon  the  public,  which 
is  the  true  mainspring  of  our  latest  constitutional  change, 
and  it  is  this  contemptible  character  in  it  which  makes  it 
happily  certain  that  this  singular  epoch  in  English  public  life 
will  not  be  long-lived.  Sooner  or  later  there  will  be  not  only 
a  protest  but  vigorous  action.  For  the  moment  the  culprits 
p.re  immune  from  the  law.  but  that  cannot  last.  The  weakness 
of  the  position  is  already  apparent  in  the  impossibility  of  in- 
flicting serious  punishment  upon  those  who  are  now  beginning 
to  attack  this  way  of  governing  the  country.  A  nominal  fine 
is  the  worst  they  have  to  fear,  and  it  is  tantamount  to  an 
acquittal.  Meanwhile,  though  the  evil  is 'a  passing  one,  it 
happens  to  coincide  with  the  gravest  moment  in  the  history 
of  the  country.     That  is  the  kernel  of  the  whole  affair. 

England  will  succeed  or  fail  in  the  next  few  months.  Her 
future  will  be  decided  in  this  year  1918,  and  though  general 
disgust  at  our  new  form  of  rule  will  undermine  it  and  perhaps 
destroy  it  before  the  end  of  the  year,  its  incompetence  may 
in  the  interval  have  decided  the  fate  of  the  country. 

*  *  *  • 

After  the  breaking  off  of  the  negotiations  between  the 
Solny  Soviet  (the  body  which  has  usurped  authority  in 
Northern  Russia  and  reigns  there  by  terror),  the  German 
Government  ordered  the  advance  of  its  armed  forces  beyond 
the  lines  of  the  Dvina  on  which  the  Baltic,  or  left,  wing  of  those 
forces  had  reposed  for  more  than  two  years — a  repose  broken 
only  by  the  facile  occupation  of  Riga  a  few  months  ago.  No 
effective  resistance  could  be  offered,  of  course,  by  the 
h;Jf-amied  mob  to  which  what  were  once  the  Russian  armies 
1  ,i\e  now  been  reduced  by  the  little  group  in  the  capital,  and. 


Land    &    Water 


February   28,  1918 


in  any  case,  it  is  probable  that  the  numbers  of  the  men  in  the 
Russian  uniform  still  to  be  found  in  that  front  have  been  so 
far  reduced  by  desertion  as  to  render  them  incapable  of  any 
serious  effort,  even  if  they  were  still  an  array. 

A  rumour  was  ciurent  that  the  Solny  Soviet,  or  rather  its 
handful  of  cosmopolitan  masters,  would  make  immediate 
peace  with  the  enemy  and  even  go  to  the  length  of  paying 
them  a  considerable  indemnity,  although  they  had  already 
repudiated  the  just  debts  incurred  to  the  Allies  while  their 
country  was  still  being  defended  at  the  expense  of  those 
Allies.  This  rumour  has  been  confirmed.  There  is  nothing 
to  prevent  the  enemy  walking  into  Petrograd  and  restoring 
order  if  he  thinks  it  suits  his  lx)ok  politically,  and  we  may 
take  it  for  granted  that  an\-  terms  he  chooses  to  impose  upon 
the  masters  of  the  Soviet  (some  of  whom  :ire  his  iigents)  will 
be  eiccepted.  Meanwhile,  these  gentry  have  sent  yet  another 
message  through  the  wireless  which  they  control  to  the  effect 
that  aJl  the  enemy  no\\  asks  of  them  is  tlie  cession  of  Li\'onia 
and  Esthonia  ;  j^-ace  with  the  Ukraine  and  with  Finland 
(that  is  the  withdrawal,  if  possible,  of  the  Revolutionary  agents 
from  those  districts)  ;  the  re-imposition  of  the  Turkish  yoke 
upon  the  Christians  of  Erzeroum  ;  the  internment  of  the 
Russian  battlesliips,  o!  our  own  ships,  which  we  sent  to  help 
Russia  before  the  usurpation  of  her  present  ephemeral  rulers. 
«  *  * 

There  has  been  a  very  considerable  increase  in  the  policy 
of  bombing  the  Western  German  towns  since  Christmas. 
.\nd  the  authorities  issued  in  the  course  of  last  week  an  inter- 
esting table  of  the  results.  From  this  we  find  that  during  the 
first  fifty  days  of  the  year  thefre  was  a  continuous  bombing 
of  the  whole  ;  one  immediately  behind  the  German  lines,  with 
the  exception  of  the  second  week  of  January,  and  rather  more 
than  a  fortnight  at  the  end  of  that  month  and  the  begin- 
ning of  I-'cbniary,  when  weather  conditions  were  unfavourable. 

The  large  town  of  Maimheim  (290,000  inhabitants),  a  some- 
what distant  point,  was  twice  visited  in  the  interval  with  a 
very  heavy  bombardment,  and  it  is  satisfactory  to  note  that 
Treves,  an  important  railway  and  manufacturing  centre, 
and  an  esj^cially  important  point  of  concentration  for  troops, 
was  bombed  with  great  thoroughness  no  less  than  seven  times 
in  less  than  four  weeks.  These  details  refer  to  the  British 
ser^^ce  alone.  Meanwhile,  there  has  also  been  a  continuous 
series  of  raids  upon  such  railway  centres  of  Lorraine  as  lie 
behind  the  enemy  lines,  and  particularly  the  big  junction  just 
outside  Thionville  ;  the  steel  works  in  that  town  were  also 
bombed,  and  these  and  the  railway  received  a  very  heavy 
weight  of  projectiles  no  less  than  seven  times  in  five  weeks. 
It  is  to  be  hoped — and  we  think  to  be  presumed — that 
this  policy  has  not  interfered  in  any  way  with  the  normal 
work  of  aircraft  within  the  fighting  zone,  which  is,  of  course 
by  far  the  most  important  function  the  service  has  to  perform. 
There  has  always  been  a  danger  since  the  recent  and  accelera- 
ting changes  in  our  methods  of  Government  at  home  that  the 
subsidiary  work  of  bombing  centres  behind  the  lines — work 
which  is  essentially  in  the  nature  of  reprisals — might  trench 
u?x)n  the  only  vital  and  necessary  function  of  flying  machines, 
which  is,  like  that  of  all  military  engines,  the  weakening  of  th6 
enemy's  armed  forces. 

Our  warranty  for  believing  that  the  science  and  common 
sense  of  the  soldiers  has  here  overborne  the  folly  of  the 
politicians  and  their  maintainers  lies  in  the  objectives  chosen. 
Xo  doubt  the  civilian  population  of  these  German  towns  was 
terrified,  which  is  an  excellent  thing.  Positively  it  weakens 
the  enemy  ;  and  negatively  it  will,  make  him  more  amenable 
to  give  up  this  particular  form  of  fighting  which  he  invented. 
But  it  would  be  deplorable  if  such  a  side  issue  were  in  this 
stage  of  the  war  to  take  the  place  of  effective  military  action 
or  to  diminish  it.  Every  one  of  the  places  visited  contained 
an  objective  of  a  strictly  military  charaxiter,  and  as  much  the 
greater  part  of  the  raids  took  place  by  day  these  objecti\-es 
could  be  accurately  located. 

*  *  ♦ 

The  Austrian  Government  has  made  an  ambiguous  declaar- 
tion  with  regard  to  the  fate  of  the  province  of  Cholm,  which 
It  had  proposed  to  hand  over  to  the  newly-constituted  subject 
State  of  Ukraine.  It  has,  for  the  moment,  said  that  it 
would  "  postpone  "  any  decision,  and  it  haS  done  this  in  view 
of  the  \'ery  considerable  movement  aroused  in  Poland  by  the 
proposed  policy  of  annexation. 

The  declaration  as  it  stands  is,  of  course,  worthless  Its 
sequel  will  depend,  like  everything  else,  upon  the  issue  of  the 
war.  If  the  enemy  can  compel  the  Western  Allies  to  accept 
their  victory  in  the  East  of  Europe  and  their  continued  supre- 
macy upon  the  Continent,  especially  if  their  victory  is  sealed 
by  ■concessions  made  to  us  upon  the  West,  the  obvious  policy 
of  the  Central  Empires  will  be  to  erect  a  new  diminished  and 
weakened  Polish  State,  and  to  create  as  man\  sources  of 
division  as  possible  between  the  other  artificial  "States  which 
they  propose  to  erect  all  along  its  Eastern  border      If    on 


the  other  hand,  the  ..Allies  succeed  in  defeating  the  Piussian 
military  machine,  then  all  the  Prussian  plans  regarding 
Eastern  Europe  will  be  forgotten  and  the  arrangement  of 
those  districts  will  lie,  not  in  the  hands  of  Prussia,  but  of  the 
Western  Powers. 

*  >i>  « 

The  House  of  Lords  was  the  scene  last  week  o'  an  almost 
mediaeval  ceremony  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  introduced 
and  took  his  seat.  Those  who  were  privileged  to  witness  it 
were  for  the  moment  transported  from  these  sombre  sorrowful 
days,  not  so  much  by  the  brightness  of  the  robes,  which  had 
something  of  a  theatrical  touch,  but  by  the  quaint  stateliness 
of  the  language  of  the  proclamations  which  the  Clerk  of  the 
House  read  out.  They  carried  the  mind  backward  and  a 
thought  that  must  have  been  present  with  many,  was  that 
never  has  a  Prince  of  Wales,  not  even  Edward  '  the  Black 
Prince,  seen  so  much  of  war  as  this  Edward  has  beheld. 

The  day  afterwards  the  Prince  went  first  to  Wales  and  then 
to  his  Duchy  of  Cornwall  to  inspect  the  industrial  side  of  this 
vast  combat.  Like  all  members  of  the  Royal  House,  he  has 
an  insatiable  thirst  for  facts,  and  he  entered  with  spirit  into 
the  various  operations  of  mine  and  factory.  His  three  years 
at  the  FVont  have  given  him  confidence  in  himself  ;  he  has 
never  been  obsessed  by  the  mere  externals  of  his  position, 
and  he  has  acquired  a  charm  of  manner,  which  brings  out 
more  plainly  the  strength  of  character  that  lies  behind  it, 
and  makes  for  him  personal  friends  wherever  he  is  known. 

*  *  * 

The  application  of  compulsory  rations 'to  approximately 
a  fourth  of  the  British  population,  which  began  this  week,  is 
an  interesting  experiment.  We  shall  learn  to  what  extent 
discipline  still  holds  sway  over  the  democracy  of  these  islands. 
Those  who  predict  a  complete  collapse  of  the  scheme  are  not 
wanting,  but,  in  our  opinion,  their  opinions  are  not  based  upon 
a  wide  enough  knowledge  of  their  own  countrymen  or  on  the 
extent  to  which  voluntary  and  involuntary  rationing  was 
already  in  force.  Grumbling,  of  course,  there  will  be,  and  at 
first  the  machinery  is  bound  to  work  badly,  but  we  shall  be 
much  surprised  if  the  country  is  not  astonished  at  the  ease 
and  quickness  with  which  the  populace  adapts  itself  to  the  new 
conditions,  that  is,  of  course,  assuming  that  the  rations  per- 
mitted are  available. 

At  the  same  time,  we  view  with  distrust  the  new  powers 
which  are  being  granted  to  the  Ministry  of  Food  for  entering 
private  houses  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  there  is  waste. 
These  powers,  so  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  this  realm,  should 
only  be  utiUsed  under  most  exceptional  circumstances.  We 
believe  it  to  be  true  that  no  nation  is  freer  from  "  graft  " 
than  ourselves,  but  because  of  this  to  argue  that  all  subordinate 
officials  are  adamant  against  a  discreet  piece  of  silver  or  a 
judicious  rustle  of  a  "  Bradbury,"  is  to  talk  arrant  nonsense. 
This  sort  of  appetite  grows  with  eating.  Lord  Rhondda  will 
do  well  to  remember  the  sequence  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
"  Lead  us  not  into  temptation.  But  deliver  us  from  evil,' 
and  will  not  try  to  reverse  it  by  endeavouring  to  deliver  u 
from  evil  by  leading  us  into  temptation. 

*  *  *  . 
The  vote  of  the  engineers  is  a  serious  event  but  not  yet  in 

any  sense  disastrous.  Roughly  the  situation  is  as  follows. 
The  Government  have  introduced  a  Man  Power  Bill  which 
overrides  certain  agreements  made  with  the  Trade  Union. 
The  A.S.E.  stipulated  for  a  separate  conference  on  the  subject, 
and  as  a  matter  of  formal  right  their  case  was  good.  The 
other  unions  involved  objected  to  any  separate 
agreement  between  the  Government  and  the  A.S.E.  Thus 
the  problem  was  complicated  by  jealousies  between  unions 
as  well  as  by  strained  relations  between  the  A.S.E.  and  a 
Government  department.  The  ballot  taken  on  the  acceptance 
of  the  Bill  was  in  the  main  a  test  of  the  men's  determination 
to  insist  on  a  separate  conference.  The  adverse  majority 
is  overwhelming  but  this  vote  does  not  commit  the  engineers 
to  a  strike  ;  it  is  only  at  present  a  demonstration. 

*  *  * 

The  committee,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Sir  John 
Lavery,  formed  to  obtain  a  characteristic  example  of  the  work 
of  Ivan  Mestrovic  for  a  pubhc  collection,  has  decided  to 
apply  the  amount  already  subscribed,  £350,  towards  the 
relief  in  wood.  Descent  from  the  Cross.  It  is  hoped  that  some 
heroic  group  in  the  round,  like  the  Mother  and  Child.  originalK- 
thought  of,  may  be  secured  in  happier  times. 

To  complete  the  purchase  of  the  relief  a  sum  of  £200  is  still 
required,  and  the  committee  appeals  with  confidence  to  those 
who  have  been  moved  by  the  measureless  sacrifice  of  tht 
Serbian  race  and  the  tragic  expression  given  to  it  in  the  art  of 
the  Serbian  sculptor.  The  example  chosen  is  a  fitting  symbol 
of  the  first,  and  would,  it  is  believed,  be  welcomed  among  our 
national  treasures  as  representing  a  remarkable  side  ol 
.Mestrovic's   art. 


Feb 


ruary   28,    191 8 


Land   &  Water 


The  Public  Mood  :    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


As  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  remark  in  these 
columns— it  is  the  key  to  all  useful  writing 
.  upon  the  war  at  this  moment— the  situation 
in  Europe  has  passed  from  being  mainly  mili- 
tary to  being  mainly  political. 
That  situation  may  be  reversed  at  any  moment.  Great 
operations  upon  the  West  resulting  clearly  in  our  favour,  or 
m  the  enemy's,  would  certainly  reverse  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  delay  in  the  beginning  of  such  operations  or  a  lack  of  conclu- 
sion ,  in  their  character  would  prolong  it.  Meanwhile  the 
balance  so  remains  and  will  probably  so  remain  for  some  little 
time  :  the  political  situation  overshadows  the  military  one. 
The  political  elements  of  civilian  tenacity  and  of  civilian 
conditions  play  a  larger  part  in  the  present  calculations  of 
the  war  than  the  estimates  of  numbers  and  of  reinforcement 
which  were  necessarily  the  chief  elements  in  our  judgment 
so  long  as  the  Russian  State  still  existed,  and  so  long  as  the 
enemy  was  therefore  still  in  a  state  of  siege. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  best  service  that  can  be 
rendered  by  the  publicist  is  an  estimate  of  the  political 
elements  present.  Most  of  our  publicists  have  recently  taken 
refuge  in  one  or  two  forms  of  activity :  exhortation  to 
tenacity  on  the  one  hand  and  exhortation  to  surrender  upon 
the  other.  In  spite  of  the  laudable  character  of  the  first  and 
the  natural  irritation  of  the  public  against  the  second,  I  cannot 
believe  that  either  of  these  kinds  of  writing  is  much  to  the 
purpose.  It  may  be  of  some  value  to  keep  up  a  constant 
stream  of  exhortation  to  tenacity,  but  the  nation  is  in  no 
great  need  of  it.  It  may  do  some  little  harm  for  a  few  excep- 
tional individuals  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  brotherly 
surrender,  and  describe  the  love  for  the  English  which  is  felt 
by  the  mass  of  the  Germans  (if  only  we  would  approach  them  in 
a  friendly  spirit ! )  ;  but  the  narm  cannot  be  very  great  because 
the  bulk  of  our  people  are  in  a  state  of  mind  in  which  this  sort 
of  thing  goes  off  like  water  from  a  duck's  back.  They  do  not 
like  the  Germans  one  little  bit,  and  they  are  not  getting  to  like 
them  any  more  as  time  goes  by.  Nor  will  they  readily  believe 
that  the  Germans  like  them. 

What  does  seem  to  be  to  the  purpose  is  to  draw  up  an  esti- 
mate of  the  political  position  as  accurately  as  one  can,  much  in 
the  same  spirit  and  with  the  same  intention  as  one  drew  up 
those  estimates  of  numbers  and  losses  which  we  published 
regularly  for  three  years,  and  the  exactitude  of  which  events 
have  since  proved  and  continue  to  prove. 

There  are  two  difficulties  at  the  outset  of  making  such 
an  estimate,  one  of  which  was  partly,  though  only  partly, 
present  in  our  former  military  calculations,  and  the  other  of 
which  was  entirely  absent  from  those  calculations.  The  first 
of  these  is  the  fact  that  one  cannot  speak  of  one's  own  side 
with  the  same  liberty  as  one  can  speak  of  the  enemy's.  The 
second  is  that  a  political  situation  is  not  susceptible  of  measure- 
ment as  are  the  component  parts  of  an  army,  or  distances  and 
obstacles  upon  the  map. 

I  say  that  the  first  of  these  difficulties  was  present  even  in 
military  calculation .  But  it  is  less  felt  there  than  in  a  political 
■  estimate.  Though  one  might  not  speak  of  numbers  upon 
one's  own  side  when  one  was  making  a  military  calculation, 
yet  educated  opinion  was  fairly  informed  upon  the  subject,  if 
only  by  the  method  of  analogy. 

For 'instance,  when  we  showed  in  these  columns  that  the 
German  military  dead  of  all  kinds  were  about  one  million  and 
two-thirds  (or  a  little  more)  at  the  moment,  in  the  spring  of 
last  year,  when  the  official  German  lists  »nly  allowed  for  under 
a  million  and  the  German  statesmen  were  privately  assuring 
the  American  Ambassador  that  they  were  less  than  one  million 
and  a  half,  the  educated  reader  could  guess  that  the  losses  of  ' 
the  other  originally  fully  mobilised  nations  were  much  the 
same  in  dead,  in  proportion  to  their  population,  and  that  the 
losses  of  the  nations  which  mobilised  only  partially  and  later, 
during  the  course  of  the  war,  were  proportionate  to  "the  average 
size  of  their  armies  since  their  entry  into  the  war. 

But  when  wc  are  talking  of  a  political  situation  we  have  no 
such  advantages.  Each  reader  must  read  for  himself  into 
what  is  said  his  own  judgment  of  our  "own  side  in  those  matters 
which  cannot  be  publicly  discussed. 

The  second  difficulty  is  equally  formidable,  and  what  is 
worse,  weakens  all  judgment  of  this  kind  by  making  it  in  a 
great  measure  personal. 

When  one  has  to  explain  what  the  losses  of  an  army  are 
in  military  dead,  up  to  a  certain  date,  one  can  put  before  one's 
readers  proofs  of  the  number  and  of  the  margin  of  error,  which 
proofs  he  is  as  well  or  better  able  than  oneself  to  appreciate. 
One  can  give  statistics  of  the  private  and  parochial  lists,  of 
the  rolls  of  honour,  etc.  ;  one  can  show  the  gaps  in  the  official 
lists,  their  nature  and  so  forth.     But  when  it  comes  to  making 


an  estimate  of  a  political  situation,  though  there  are  certain 
calculable  elements,  the  ultimate  judgment  is  necessarily  a 
personal  one,  and  therefore  weakened  by  the  personal  element 
of  error. 

However,  I  will  make  the  attempt. 

The  best  way  of  approaching  the  problem  is  to  tjfbulate  its 
various  parts. 

There  are  three  great  factors  in  the  political  situation  to-day 
1  he  first  alone  is  susceptible  of  some  sort  of  calculation  It 
IS  the  comparative  situation  in  the  power  of  the  two  parties 
to  provide  themselves  with  civilian  and  military  necessities 
including  recruitment  of  ^en.  This  element,  when  it  is 
carefully  gauged,  shows  a  certain  balance  in  our  favour  That 
IS  the  first  great  thmg  to  seize.  It  is  nothing  like  the  balance 
It  was  before  the  final  and  decisive  success  obtained  by  the 
eneniy  upon  his  Eastern  front  as  the  political  result  of  his 
mihtary  operations.  But  a  balance  it  is,  and  one  which 
should,  other  things  being  equal,  increase  in  our  favour. 

Ihe  second  element  is  simplicity,  unity  and  immutability 
of  purpose.     Here,  for  reasons  I  will  estimate  in  a  moment  - 
the  moral  balance  appears  to  be  upon  the  enemy's  side. 

Ihe  last  element,  morally  the  most  important,  because  it 
IS  the  one  in  which  there  can  be  most  variation,  may  be  grouped 
under  the  general  title  of  "  information,"  internal  and  external  • 
the  latter  divided  into  neutral  and  belligerent.  With  the 
first  element  upon  the  whole  in  our  favour,  the  second  against 
us.  It  IS  this  third  which  may  well  decide  the  issue. 

I. 

The  situation  in  regard  to  the  power  of  finding  food  and 
other  necessaries  for  all  and  of  providing  men  and  material 
immediately  required  for  the  armies  shows  some  such  balance 
sheet  as  the  following  : — • 

The  enemy  has  these  advantages  to  his  credit  :— 

(a)  His  communications  are  entirely  by  land,  and  are  for 
the  moment  nowhere  subject  to  attack. 
.,[?)  ^^-^^•^'^^  shorter  by  far  than  the  communications  of  the 
Allies.  This  point  is  insufficiently  appreciated.  If  we  take 
the  average  journey  which  material  must  take  from  the 
point  of  production  to  the  point  of  consumption  including 
material  m  civilian  use  as  well  as  material  in  military  use  the 
distance  which  the  Allies  have  to  deal  with  is  certainly  ten 
times  greater,  probably  more  than  fifteen  times  greater  than 
the  corresponding  mileage  of  the  enemy. 

For  instance,  Westphalia  and  Silesia  must  supply  Bavaria 
and  Hungary  with  coal,  but  we  must  supply  not  only  ourselves 
and  Northern  France,  but  Southern  France  and  Italy  and  our 
armies  in  the  Levant  as  well.  Wheat  never  has  to  travel 
more  than  a  few  miles  in  the  Central  Empires ;  to  feed  our- 
selves the  French  and  the  Italians  it  has  to  travel  thousands 
of  miles.     It  IS  the  same  all  through  the  list  of  materials. 

(c)  the  enemy  commands  a  very  considerable  population 
which  he  has  enslaved.  There  is  here  a  <lirect  economic 
advantage  to  him  which  the  Allies  lack. 

{d)  All  his  recruitment  is  on  the  spot.  He  is  not  trammelled 
by  lengthy  mantime  communications  to  support  his  fronts 
to  evacuate  his  wounded,  to  reinforce  his  units,  etc.  So  far 
as  the  recruiting  field  practically  open  to  him  for  iqi8  is 
concerned  he  will,  if  we  eliminate  the  Eastern  front,  probably 
have  till  the  latter  half  of  that  year  a  slight  superiority  but 
alter  next  autumn  an  increasing  inferiority. 

.i.*^?  }y^  °^^^^.  ^^"^'  ^^^^^  's  against  him  and  in  our  favour 
the  following  list : — 

{a)  Much  of  his  material  is  limited  in  continuous  production 
lar  more  than  is  the  corresponding  material  of  the  Allies.  He 
has  a  heavy  advantage  over  theAlliesin  Europe  if  you  multiply 
the  amount  available  by  the  inverse  of  the  distance  to  be 
travelled,  in  coal  and  in  iron,  possibly  in  foodstuffs  other  than 
lats,  and  a  very  great  advantage  in  certain  chemical  products  ■ 
but  he  is  at  a  disadvantage  in  most  metals  other  than  iron 
while  for  tropical  and  sub-tropical  products  (such  as  cotton! 
'" /m'^       ■'  ^^^■'^  ^^^  '^  "°^  dependent  upon  existing  stocks. 

(6)  Ihe  situation  in  men,  though  showing  an  apparent" 
slight  preponderance  in  his  favour  for  the  next  few  months 
has  these  two  elements  to  his  disadvantage:  (i)  that  his 
extreme  exhaustion,  which  may  be  compared  to  that  of  the 
l-rench,  cannot  be  relieved  by  rotation  ;  that  of  the  Allies 
m  a  large  measure  can  be  so  relievca.  Even  if  it  be  true  that 
the  number  of  men  that  can  be  maintained  at  any  one  moment 
m  Western  Europe  by  the  United  States  is  strictly  limited  by 
the  available  tonnage,  it  is  also  true  that  the  withdrawal  of 
losses  and  their  replacement  by  new  blood  can  be  continued 
almost  indefinitely,  and  it  is  also  true  that  this  country  has 
not  approached  to  anything  like  the  same  degree  of  exhaustion 


6' 


Land  &  Water 


February    28,    191 8 


recruitment  here  ,    (2)  ne  cinnoi  usi  •■  =  ..rivantaee  in 

at  will  Here  we  have  a  reversal  of  his  former  advantage  n 
^ he  East  There  the  whole  weight  of  the  Prussian  group  told 
at  on?e  In  theWest  it  must  count  almost  alone  on  Germany. 
''wmJugh  our  communications  are  far  l-ger  than  f  is  and 
very  ^•ulnenlble.  whereas  his  are  secure,  yet  the  critical  factor 
in  thiswhich  is  tonnage,  is  slowly  moving  in  our  favour.  The 
effS  of  thTs  vvill  not  le  felt  for  "some  months,  ^ut  ultimate 
k  must  be  felt  if  the  national  will  of  the  Allies  and  espec  ally 
of  This  country,  where  privation  is  sudden  and  serious,  prove 
sufficient  to  tide  over  those  months. 

^^  In  eeneral  material,  looking  down  the  whole  list  ol 
artkki  oTordinan  consumption,  the  AUies  (granted  an 
u  imate  sufficiency  of  tonnage)  have  an  >"defimtey  ^rg^;r 
field  to  draw  upon  than  the  Central  Empires  '^^nf  he^Do^i 
grant  these  an  ultimate  admission  to  markets  o  the  Don. 
Volga  and  Caucasus  beyond  their  present  Eas  em  front 
The  situation  of  such  an  article  as  wool  lUustrates  what  I 

"^The  general  truth  in  this  department  of  the  situation- 
mere  production  and  supply-may  perhai«  be^  best,  sta  ed 
thus  •  Neither  side  is  yet  even  in  sight  of  applying  actual 
compulsion,  through  lack  of  supplies  to  the  other.  Eacli  is 
concerned  with  nothing  more  than  the  relative  tenacity  in 
will  which  each  may  display,  ""^er  what  is  for  both  a 
severe  strain.  Neither  party  can  yet  or  for  a  lo"?  time 
"starve  the  other  out '^  using  the  word  starve  m  the 
extended  sense  of  cutting  off  things  necessary  to  the  conduct  of 
war  and  the  mere  support  (under  no  matter  what  pnvation) 
of  the  civilian  population.  It  is  strictly  a  conflict  of  wills 
rather  than  of  material.  .,.1^1, 

How  true  this  is  wiU  certainly  appear  in  the  last  phases 
of  the  campaign.  For  if  or  when  a  war  of  movement  is  restored, 
whether  by  the  enemy's  failure  or  our  own,  it  will  at  once  be 
apparent  that  the  victorious  party,  though  it  will  be  suffenng 
then  more  privation  than  it  is  suffering  now,  will  readily  accept 
the  sacrifice  in  the  immediate  prospect  of  victory.  Ihe 
psychological  difficulty  of  maintaining  at  its  proper  standard 
of  tenacity  the  national  will  in  the  present  phase  of  the  war 
is  due  mainly  to  the  stagnation  and  inaction  of  the  moment. 

II 

Simplicity,  unity  and  immutability  of  purpose  is  the  second 
great  factor  and  a  purely  moral  one.  The  advantage  is  here 
necessarily  with  the  enemy  and  that  for  the  following  reasons:— 

(a)  His  whole  combination  is  dominated  by  one  national 
group  :  the  various  German-speaking  polities,  most  of  which 
are  grouped  directly  under  Prussia  and  all  of  which  are  heart 
and  soul  with  Prussia.  Outside  this  the  only  considerable 
body  is  the  nine  million  Magyars— for  the  Slavs  of  Bohemia, 
Prussian  Poland,  the  Drave  and  the  Danube,  are  geographic- 
ally divided  and  in  any  case  subject  ;  the  Bulgarians  have  to 
consider  only  defensive  action  on  a  comparatively  short  front  ; 
the  loose  Turkish  Empire,  even  under  its  present  deplorable 
administration,  cannot  but  continue  to  depend  upon  the 
will  of  the  Central  Empires. 

.  (b)  As  against  this  situation  the  Allies  consist  of  four  inde- 
pendent and  sharply  differentiated  nations  whose,  objects 
m  entering  the  war  were  not  identical  and  whose  motives  of 
continued  action  are  not  even  identical  to-day  ;  who  have 
suffered  in  very  different  degrees  ;  and  in  whom,  therefore, 
the  reactions  produced  by  suffering  are  very  different  ;  whose 
historical  attitude  towards  the  Germans  and  whose  judgment 
of  them  differs  enormously,  and  whose  direct  cause  for  desiring 
a  complete  victory  differs  still  more.  Luckily  for  the  Allies 
the  Germans  have  themselves,  by  their  abominable  contempt 
for  Christian  morals,  helped  to  unite  these  different  elements, 
and  they  have  aroused  a  high  degree  of  indignation  in  men 
living  thousands  of  miles  away,  who  have  not  seen,  nor  even 
by  imagination  half  realised,  what  the  tortures,  and  burnings, 
and  murders  and  rapes  and  thefts  in  Belgium  and  Northern 
France  have  been.  But  still,  it  is  one  thing  to  feel  indignation 
about  these  things  when  you  read  them  in  connection  with  a 
distant  and  foreign  country,  and  another  thing  when  you  know 
that  they  have  happened  to  your  own  flesh  and  blood. 

(c)  Unity  of  purpose  again  iS  singularly  served  in  the  case 
of  the  enemy  by  a  similarity  of  historical  tradition  throughout 
all  that  counts  in  his  territory.  Every  German  and  every 
Magyar  has  inherited  for  centuries  the  conception  that  he 
was  standing  up  against  the  Slav  flood  and  was  bom  to  master 
it.  Most  modem  Germans  at  least  have  inherited  or  have 
been  indoctrinated  with  the  idea  that  if  the  West  conquers 
them  it  conquers  them  thoroughly,  and  treats  them  as  the 
inferiors  which  history  has  proved  them  to  be.  It  sounds  a 
paradox,  but  it  is  perfectly  trae  that,  closely  intermixed  with 
the  modem  Gcnnan  pride  (which  is  nearly  insanej,  and  with 
the  extraordinary  perversion  of  history  which  ascribes  to 


heories  but  of  defeats,  tnat  the  West  ,s  naturally  superior, 
and  that  when  it  wins  it  wins  thoroughly.  In  other  words 
there  is  at  bottom  a  feeling  of  nervous  self-defence  agains 
the  West  hidden  away  in  every  Gc^nan  mmd  oyerlaid  but 
not  destroyed  by  a  contradictory  attitude  of  .self-sufiiciency- 
which    after  all,  only  dates  from  fifty  years  ago. 

'd)  There  is  further  in  this  war  the  very  real  ur  ity  of  purpose 
produced  by  the  spirit  in  whicn  it  was  undertaken  ;  the  failure 
of  its  original  plan  and  the  mood  which  has  been  aroused 
throughout  civilisation  against  the  Gemians  as  the  result  of 
its  conduct.  All  Central  Europe  knows  that  if  it  is  defeated 
punishment  will  follow  ;  it  is  fighting  to  prejent  such  chastise- 
ment. If  it  can  prevent  it  it  will  feel,  and  rightly  feel,  that 
it  has  made  good"^  Every  nation  except  the  United  States  is 
fighting  for  its  life  in  this  war.  But  whereas  the  effects  of 
defeat  will  be  felt  indirectly  and  the  ebbing  of  national  life 
would  only  proceed  by  degrees  among  the  Allies  should  they 
accent  defeat,  it  would  be  felt  immediately,  directly  and  by 
every  individual  in  Prassianised  Germany  (to  a  less  degree 
in  Hungary  and  the  German  Austrian  provmces)  if  ihey  were 
defeated.  To  take  the  least  of  all  the  instances  which  prove 
this  Consider  what  would  happen  to  the  Magyar  if  the  Slavs 
whom  he  oppresses  were  released.  Look  at  the  inap  and 
conceive  of  the  position.  He  could  no  more  voluntarily 
release  the  Slav  without  further  consequences  following  than 
a  man  can  release  a  wolf  which  he  has  by  the  ears.  We  can 
release  the  Slav  nations  by  victory.     Nothing  else  will  do  it. 

III. 

The  third,  and,  as  I  have  suggested,  what  will  perhaps  prove 
the  decisive,  element  is  information.  I  include  under  this 
term  propaganda  in  neutral  and  even  in  enemy  countries, 
but  I  mean  by  it  especially  the  information  of  the  public  at 

home.  1      ■     1.       1        1 

As  to  propaganda  abroad  among  neutrals,  it  has  largely 
lost  its  importance  since  the  entry  of  the  United  States  into 
the  war.  We  used  to  hear  too  often  of  the  marvellous  organisa- 
tion the  enemy  maintained  abroad  and  its  triumphant  effects. 
I  am  personally  no  very  good  judge  of  such  things,  for  I  have 
an  insufficient  knowledge  of  modern  languages.  But  from 
what  I  have  seen  it  seems  to  me  that  each  of  the  belligerents 
has  been  almost  equally  slow  and  silly  in  his  method  of  propa- 
ganda among  neutrals  ;  and  certainly  the  Germans  were  not 
successful  in  their  chief  effort,  which  wa^  to  capture  opinion 
in  the  United  States. 

Of  propaganda  in  enemy  countries  I  cannot  speak,  because 
its  effects  are  in  no  way  apparent.  We  know,  speaking 
generally,  that  Prassia  would  shoot  men  whom  we  allow  to  go 
at  large,  and  we  also  know  that  the  different  countries  of  the 
Alliance  practise  very  different  degrees  of  severity  towards 
men  briefed  for  the  enemy.  But  we  remark  upon  the  other 
hand  that  the  enemy  propaganda  has  had  very  little  effect 
among  ourselves,  and  I  fear  we  must  add  to  that  our  own 
propaganda  has  hitherto  had  very  little  effect  in  his  countries. 

The  real  "  variant  "  in  the  problem,  the  place  where  there 
is  room  for  expansion  and  where  weican  be  perfectly  certain 
that  hitherto  we  have  been  inferior — especially  in  this  country 
— is  in  the  department  of  domestic  information.  Our  people 
have  not  been  told  what  defeat  would  mean  ;  why  victory  is 
a  necessity  ;  what  victory  is  ;  nor  what  its  tests  are,  by  which 
they  may  recognise  it.  On  this  account  there  has  been  the 
fluctuation  of  opinion  whicli  caused  more  concem  a  few  months 
ago  than  now,  and  on  this  account  also  there  has  been  proposed 
as  our  object  in  war  a  number  of  policies  incompatible  one 
with  another,  e.g.  we  cannot  punish  the  murderers  of  Dinant 
with  the  approval  of  German  "  democracy."  For  German 
"  democracy  " — or  populace — revels  in  the  story  of  Dinant. 

Here  it  must  be  remarked  that  the  enemy  Government  has 
a  natural  advantage  in  the  matter  of  information  which  we 
cannot  obtain.  He  has  only  to  tell  his  people  that  if  they 
give  way  they  will  be  severely  punished  for  their  crimes  and 
made  to  work  to  repair  them,  and  his  people  at  once  under- 
stand so  simply  and  obviously  trae  a  proposition.  Our  people 
are  in  no  such  situation.  We  cannot  instruct  them  by  the 
repetition  of  so  cmde  and  self-evident  a  tmth,  for  they  have 
not  committed  these  crimes.  There  is  no  wanton  damage 
which  they  could  be  asked  to  repair  at  the  expense  of  long 
years  of  hard  work  for  others,  nor  have  any  of  our  commanders 
or  men  bad  consciences,  and  the  resulting  fear  of  consequences 
in  the  future. 

That  is  a  very  real  difference  between  the  two  sides.  It 
makes  the  task  of  the  enemy  in  the  matter  of  infomiation 
infinitely  easier.  In  the  same  way  it  is  easier  to  persuade  a 
man  to  hang  on  when  he  has  a  precipice  below  him,  than  it 


February   28,    191 8 


Land  &  Water 


is  when  there  is  only  a  short  drop  ;  though  you  liappen  to 
know  that  this  short  drop  would  be  fatal  to  him  from  the  con- 
dition of  his  heart. 

Still,  with  all  this  disadvantage,  we  fall  far  behind  the 
standard  we  should  have  set  for  ourselves  in  the  matter  of 
information. 

Of  course  the  kind  of  information  one  means  is  not  at  aU 
that  which  is  looked  for  by  men  whose  only  object  is  to 
sell  newspapers.  So  far  from  wanting  more  picturesque 
description  'of  war  we  could  do  withoijt:  it  altogether  politically, 
and  the  public,  I  think,  would  be  exceedingly  grateful  to  get 
a  rest  from  it.  So  far  from  demanding  other  details  which 
the  enemy  particularly  wants  to  hear  we  should,  as  a  matter 
of  mere  commonsense,  demand  the  immediate  punishment  of 
those  who  reveal  anything  of  the  kind. 

But  the  other  type  of  information :  information  upon  the 
State  of  Europe,  upon  the  past  development  of  Prussia,  upon 
the  crimes  of  the  enemj',  his  mood  whenever  it  is  ailing  or 
weak,  his  real  divisions — that  kind  of  information  we  cannot 
have  too  much  of — and  hitherto  we  have  had  very  little. 

It  is  no  good  telling  people  what  is  false  or  even  what  is 
exaggerated.  They  find  you  out  because  the  facts  do  not 
correspond  to  what  you  have  said.  There  is  also  this  Nemesis 
attached  to  sUch  a  method,  that  after  you  are  found  out  you 
are  afraid  of  repeating  the  same  kind  of  thing,  even  when  it 
is  true.  But  there  is  the  greatest  possible  use  in  spreading 
broadcast  throughout  the  populace  what  men  of  special 
experience  have  long  known,  and  what  are  the  commonplaces 
for  those  who  discuss  the  ultimate  fate  of  Europe. 

For  instance,  there  is  the  position  of  Poland  which  has 
been  insisted  upon  over  and  over  again  in  these  columns,  which 
Mr.  Hyndman,  on  the  whole  the  best  informed  of  our  public 
men  upon  European  matters,  insisted  upwn  at  last  week's 
meeting,  and  which  every  historian  and  every  diplomatist 
takes  for  granted. 

You  cannot  expect  the  man  in  the  street  to  understand  that 
the  fate  of  Poland  is  the  test  and  the  keystone.  He  may 
very  well  have  never  heard  of  the  place.  He  may  connect  it 
vaguely  with  Jewish  tailors  in  the  East  End.  At' the  best  it 
will  be  nothing  to  him  but  a  name  in  a  geography  book. 

Again,  how  are  you  to  expect  the  average  man,  even  if  he 
be  of  high  education,  to  understand  the  meaning  of  the  iron 


fields  which  the  Germans  annexed  by  force  from  the  French 
in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century  ?  There  was  not  one 
man  in  a  hundred  among  the  best  educated  in  the  country 
who  knew  anything  about  this  question  before  the  war ; 
there  is  not  one  in  twenty  in  the  same  class  who  can  give  you 
even  the  roughest  outline  of  it  to-day.  Yet  so  far  as  material 
factors  are  concerned  it  is  overwhelmingly  the  most  important. 
Compel  the  Germans  to  disgorge  this  prey  and  you  have  cut 
off  the  right  hand  of  the  German  Army.  Leave  it  in  German 
hands  and  you  are  deliberately  presenting  your  enemy  with 
a  weapon  with  which  he  will  kill  you  in  the  near  future.  There 
is  no  space  in  which  to  set  down  the  list  even  of  the  most 
elementary  points — the  command  of  the  narrow  entries  to 
the  inland  seas,  the  neutrality  of  the  North  Sea  coast,  etc. 
What  we  can  determine  in  conclusion  is  method. 

There  is  obviously  neither  time  nor  opportunity  for  teaching 
history'.  There  is  not  even  time  or  opportunity  for  teaching 
the  perfectly  simple  outstanding  lesson  of  all  history,  that 
military  defeat  has  a  spiritual  consequence  and  that  the 
victor  imposes  his  soul  upon  the  vanquished  in  the  great 
decisive  duels  of  the  world. 

But  for  the  main  facts  and  their  interpretation  we  have 
the  Press  and  some  sort  of  public  control  over  special  articles 
in  it.  The  Press  receives  from  time  to  time  suggestions  or  com- 
mands often  negative  but  sometimes  positive  in  character. 
They  are  useful.  What  is  there  to  prevent  a  staff  of  competent 
men  (one  wonders  a  little  who  would  appoint  such  a  staff  in 
these  times  !)  from  sending  out  similar  suggestions  .upon  the 
political  conditions  of  the  war.  Why  should  not  articles  be 
communicated  explaining  what  the  Italian  claims  are  ;  the 
position  of  Lorraine  and  its  iron  mines,  Poland,  the  entrance 
to  the  Baltic  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  So  far  the  effort  has  been 
voluntary,  subject  to  the  chaos  of  competition  and  of  editorial 
judgment.  Information  of  the  sort  I  mean  has  only  reached  a 
very  few.  The  mass  of  readers  it  has  not  reached  at  all — and 
that  is  why  you  may  have  before  you  know  it  a  certain  convic- 
tion that  the  war  is  after  all  only  a  match  like  a  sort  of  prize 
fight  or  game  of  football  which  you  "  win  "  or  "  lose  "  or 
"  draw  "  and  then  go  about  your  business  as  you  were  before. 
Whereas  it  is  in  reality  something  more  solemn  and  fundamental 
than  a  man's  own  trial  for  his  life  in  a  court  of  criminal  justice. 

H.  Belloc. 


The  Russian  Fleet :  By  Arthur  Pollen 


THE  political  and  military  results  of  the  Russian 
surrender  to  Germany,  and  now  of  the  German 
advance  towards  Petrograd,  may  have  a  profound 
influence  upon  the  naval  war.  The  fall  of  Riga  in 
September,  followed  a  month  later  by  the  naval 
occupation  of  that  Gulf,  were  the  preliminary  steps  which 
secured  the  necessary  line  of  communication  before  an  advance 
on  the  whole  front  from  Dvinsk  northward.  Without  the 
transport  facilities  that  an  unbroken  chain  of  sea  supply 
could  give  from  the  German  Baltic  ports  to  a  series  of  advanced 
bases  on  the  east  coast  of  the  Gulf,  the  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  the  march  on  Petrograd  would  have  been  very  great  indeed, 
whereas  with  such  a  line  of  communications  the  thing  was 
made  comparatively  simple.  Before  this  is  in  print  it  is 
therefore  highly  probable  that  Reval  will  have  fallen  and 
possible  that  Kronstadt  will  have  surrendered.  Both  are 
inevitable  events,  whether  they  happen  soon  or  late,  and  with 
the.se  surrenders  the  Russian  Fleet — if  intact — must  fall  into 
German  hands.  For  it  cannot  take  refuge  in  Helsingfors, 
which  seems  to  be  virtually  under  German  control  already, 
and  there  seems  therefore  to  be  no  third  possibility.  How 
will  this  affect  the  situation  in  the  North  Sea  ? 

We  have  first  to  ask  what  are  the  constituent  ships  of  the 
Russian  Fleet  at  the  present  moment.  The  first  Dreadnoughts 
of  the  Russian  1910  programme,  Poltava,  Sevastopol,  Petro- 
pavlovsk  and  Gangoot  were  all  completed,  fully  commissioned 
and  in  a  high  state  of  war  efficiency  before  the  end  of  1914. 
These  four  ships  were  laid  down,  two  in  July,  one  in  August 
and  one  in  October,  1911.  They  had  been  completed  there- 
fore in  approximately  three  years.  At  the  bnd  of  1912  and 
the  beginning  of  1913  the  four  battle  cruisers  Borodino,  Ismail, 
Kinhurn  and  Navarin  were  laid  down,  I  think,  on  the  same 
ways  that  the  four  battleships  had  previously  occupied. 
They  were  due  for  completion  by  the  end  of  the  summer  of 
1916,  but  I  am  unaware  of  any  reliable  information  that  any 
of  the  four  was  commissioned  before  the  Revolution  of  a  year 
ago.  But  none  of  the  four  can  be  very  far  from  completion, 
and  if  the  Germans  seize  Petrograd  they  will  get  the  Galemy 
and  Baltic  works,  and  all  the  Imperial  arsenals,  and  will 
therefore  have  no  difficulty  in  finishing  their  equipment  for 
sea,  assuming  that  no  irreparable  damage  has  in  the  meantime 
been  done  to  them.     Besides  these  capital  ships  there  are  two 


modern  light  craisers  of  between  4,000  and  5,000  tons  and 
with  a  speed  of  over  27  knots,  Mooraviev  Amursky  and  Nevel- 
skoy,  that  should  have  been  completed  soon  after  war  began, 
and  there  were  four  others  displacing  about  2,000  tons  more 
each,  the  Svietlana,  Grieg,  Bootakof  and  Spiridof,  which,  like 
the  battle  cruisers,  were  due  in  1915  and  1916,  and  are 
presumably  either  ready  for  commission  or  nearly  ready. 
Hardly  less  important  are  the  destroyers  of  the  1912  pro- 
gramme, 36  in  number,  all  of  which  I  believe  were  at  sea 
early  in  the  war.  The  foregoing,  then,  Dreadnoughts,  battle 
cruisers,  light  cruisers  and  destroyers,  are  the  completed  or 
nearly  completed  modem  vessels  which  constitute  the  main 
assets  of  Russian  naval  force.  Of  the  older  craft  the  two  pre- 
Dreadnoughts  Imperator  Pavel  and  Andrei  Pervosvanni  are 
not  without  value,  and  two  of  the  older  class  of  protected 
cruisers,  the  Admiral  Makaroff  and  the  Bayan  still  survive. 
The  armoured  cruiser  Rurik  is,  in  modem  conditions,  of  very 
little  use. 

If  the  Germans  can  immediately  reinforce  the  High  Seas 
Fleet  with  the  four  Dreadnoughts,  our  enemy  has  at  a  stroke 
increased  his  main  battle  strength  by  at  least  20  per  cent, 
in  numbers  and  by  considerably  more  than  25  per  cent,  in 
gun-power.  The  four  three-gunned  turrets  of  our  late  ally's 
battleships  are  placed  along  the  centre  line,  so  that  the  whole 
12  guns  can  be  used  as  a  broadside  over  an  arc  of  about  130 
degrees.  Of  Germany's  possible  24  battleships,  13  have  a 
broadside  fire  of  only  eight  guns  ;  the  four  Koenigs  have  ten, 
and  if  the  Worth  class  are  finished,  it  is  supposed  that  they  will 
have  eight  only,  but  all  of  larger  calibre.  An  addition  of  48 
guns  in  the  line  of  battle,  then,  would  be  nearly  equal  in  fire 
effect  to  the  addition  of  six  ships  of  the  Kaiser  class.  This  is 
manifestly  a  very  formidable  reinforcement. 

If  the  four  battle  cruisers  become  available,  the  addition  to 
the  German  main  scoating  force  is  necessarily  more  important 
still.  Sofaras  we  know  from  pre-war  information,  the  German 
strength  in  battle  cruisers  available  during  the  war  were  the 
seven  built  for  the  German  Navy  and  Salamis  building  for 
Greece.  Of  these  Goeben  is  at  Constantinople, Z.!(/zov  and  Salamis 
(re-named  Pommern)  were  lost  at  Jutland,  and  there  have  been 
persistent  rumours  that  Von  der  Tann  was  sunk  sometime 
before  Jutland.  That  would  leave  the  German  Fleet  in  pos- 
session of  Derfflinger  and  the  third  ship  of  her  class,  supposed  to 


8 


Land  &  Water 


February    28,    191 8 


have  been  nam«l  Hindenherg.  with  Setdhtz  and  MoUke.  Both 
oMhe  la  to-  carry  only  ii-fnch  guns,  though  with  a(po..ibe 
broads  de  of  Ten  at  a^  small  arc.  The  addition  of  the  four 
S^/s.  then,  would  add  an  -tijl-y  strength  much  greater 
nJativelv  than  the  Gangoots  would  add  in  the  case  ot  me 
baUlSs  The  only  disadvantage  of  the  Russian  battle 
c^ Srs  ifthat  their  s^ed,  namely  2^  knots  is  infer^r  to  ha 
of  the  ships  which  von  Hipper  commanded  at  Jutland.  It  is 
Quite  uinecessarv  to  dweTf  at  length  on  the  value  of  light 
cmi^rs Tnd  modern  destroyers.  The  importance  of  addihonal 
St  forces  is  immense  in  the  phase  of  war  now  going  forward 
in  the  North  and  Narrow  Seas,  and  were  there  to  be  a  fleet 
action  it  would  be  greater  still.  .  Tribune 

\Vlien  Rissi  fell  I  wrote  an  article  m  the  ^eu'  York  ^riourie 
noin  ing  out   that,  if  there  were  the  faintest  chance  of  the 
Russian  sS>s  being  surrendered  to  Gennany  an  entirely  new 
value  would  be  given  to  the  help  that  the  American  Battle 
F^eet  <^uld  afford  in  Northern  yv-aters.     It  has  been  aX:onstant 
mattcrof  comment  that  the  public  has  heard  of  no  such 
amcentration  of  Allied  naval  battle  strength  in  the  Nor  h  Sea 
as  has  taken  place  on  land,  in  the  case  of  the  military  forces. 
There  were  two  obvious  reasons  against  such  a  concentration 
being  made.     First,  it  was  unnecessaiy  so  long  as  the  British 
Fleet  possessed  the  immense  preponderance  that  has  existed 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war.     Secondly,  while  the  co-opera- 
tion of  an  English  and  a  non-English  speakmg  naval  force  was 
feasible  in  such  operations  as  took  place  off  Gallipoh  in  the 
serine  of  iqi'5.  there  would  be  enormous  difficulties  in  secunng 
a  similar  cooperation  in  the  case  df  fleets  manoeuvring  at  sea. 
Especially  would  this  be  the  case  when  ships  are  for  more  than 
half  their  time  at  sea  working  in  close  order  and  in  the  dark- 
ness.   The  secret  of  successful  naval  tactics  is  to  be  found 
in  bringing  the  means  of  communication  to  perfection,     llie 
difficulties  that  have  stood  in  the  way  of  an  Admiral  making 
himself  promptly  understood— and  obeyed— by  all  the  vessels 
under  his  command    is    the  explanation  of  so  many  naval 
actions  having  proved  inconclusive  in  the  past.     It  was  perhaps 
the  greatest  of  all  Nelson's  triumphs  that  he  surmounted  this 
difficulty  as  it    never   had   been    surmounted  before.     And 
he  did   it  less  by  the  invention  of  the    more   intelligible 
signals    than    by    making    signals    so   largely  unnecessaiy. 
With    every   captain    knowing    precisely  what   was    in   the 
Admiral's  mind,   the  most  effective  co-operation    of    every 
unit  was  generally  secured  vVithout  further  ado.     And  as  we 
know  from  the  Jutland  dispatch,  the  co-operation  of  the  light 
cruiser  squadrons  with  the  battle  cruisers  on  that  eventful 
day  was  practically  perfect,  just  because  it  was  instinctive. 
Again  and  again  the  Commander-in-chief's  wishes  were  antici- 
papted  by  his  rear-admirals  and  commodores,  because  long 
and  intimate  intercourse  had  made  his  wishes  in  any  set  of 
circumstances  easily  divined.     Now  mutual  understanding  of 
this  kind  might,   indeed,  ultimately  be  reached  between  a 
British  Admiral  and  a  division  of  French  or  Italian  warships, 
but  it  could  only  be  obtained  after  long  and  difficult  training. 
If  then  it  has  not  been  attempted  to  incorporate  considerable 
French  or  Italian  units  in  the  British  battle  and  cruiser  fleets, 
it  may  be  chiefly  because  the  situation  did  not  make  it  neces- 
sary, and  there  seemed  no  likelihood  of  it  becoming  necessary 
—so  that  the  difficulties  of  securing  homogeneity  of  signals, 
arid  so  forth,  did  not  in  fact  even  have  to  be  faced. 

But  should  the  Germans  gain  the  immediate  reinforcement 
of  the  Russian  battleships,  with  the  prospect  at  a  later  date 
of  being  able  to  add  four  battle  cruisers  as  well,  a  position 
that  a  year  ago  was  entirely  unexpected  will  have  arisen,  and 
new  naval  dispositions  will  become  imperative.     There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  this   will    take   the   form    of   American 
co-operation  on  the  greatest  scale.     Fortunately  in  this  case 
the  difficulties  presented  by  French  or  Italian  co-operation 
would  be  absent.     The  differences  in  tactical  methods  and 
in  the  formula  of  signals  and  of  their  significance  are  real — 
but  unity  of  language  would  soon  bring  about  unity  of  method. 
The  United  States  Navy,  as  has  often  been  pointed  out  in 
these  columns,  could   reinforce  us  immediately  with   three 
divisions  of  four  ships,  with  a  reserve  of  two,  if  not  three, 
to   replace   any   unit    temporarily   under   repair.     They   are 
magnificent    ships,    so    exceptionally    armed,    manned    and 
officered,  as  to  promise  a  high  standard  of  war  efficiency 
after  the  briefest  possible  period  of  special  training  in  war 
conditions.     And,  let  it  be  added  that,  were  Admiral  Mayo 
ordered  to  join  Sir  David  Bcatty  with  the  whole  of  his  fleet, 
it  would  be  a  decision  that  would  give  infinite  satisfaction 
to  the  whole  of  the   American   Navy.     Against   a  possible 
addition^  to  the  Gennan  Fleet  of  eight  ships,  there  would 
thereforfe   be   a   corresponding   increase   of   the   Allied   main 
fleet    by    no    fewer    than    14.     And,  once    more,    we    must 
make  the  point  that  the  American  ships  are  more  powerfully 
gunned  than  the  Russians,  so  that  while  restoring  the  old 
relative  strength   in  numbers,  the   relative   gun  superiority 
would  also  be  maintained. 


It  must  not  be  assumed  that  we  have  to  look  upon  the 
incorporation  of  the  Russian  ships  with  the  Gennan  Navy  as 
a  certainty.  Some  patriotic  officers,  if  any  survive  may 
succeed  in  destroying  them  first,  and  if  they  are  not  destroyed, 
they  rnay  be  in  such  ill  repair  that  it  would  take  a  long  time 
to  make  the  four  battleships  seaworthy  and  fit  for  action 
In  the  case  of  the  batUe  cruisers,  the  delay  in  their  bemg  fit 
for  lise  might  be  greater  stUl.  On  all  these  points  the  Govern- 
ment has  no  doubt  the  latest  and  best  information  There 
may  be  no  danger  at  all ;  it  may  be  a  danger  which  cannot 
materialise  for  many  months.  The  only  satisfactory  feature 
of  the  situation  is  that,  if  it  does  materialise,  the  American 
Fleet  alone  can  restore  the  balance. 

Lord  Jellicoe's  Speeches 

It  is  in  some  ways  a  great  pity  that  Lord  Jellicoe's  series 
of  speeches  has  not  been  more  fully  reported  1  is  true 
that  in  the  first  of  them  he  told  the  schoolboys  at  Ea  mg  that 
sailors  were  trained  to  act  and  not  to  speak,  and  that  they 
should  not  be  too  impressed  by  the  talkers.  But  ever  since 
he  has  been  engaged  in  convincing  a  great  number  of  the 
public  that,  despite  the  eariy  education  of  which  he  complams 
a  saUor  can  talk  to  the  high  satisfaction  of  his  hearers  and  do 
a  good  deal  towards  making  people  appreciate  the  vast  scale 
of  the  Navy's  achievement  and  the  splendid  spirit  which 
Great  Britain  at  Sea— whether  in  naval  ships  or  merchantmen 
or  in  fishing  craft— has  exhibited  during  the  last  three  and 
a  half  years.  That  appreciation  of  these  great  things  should 
grow  and  intensify  is  a  very  vital  matter  mdeed  so  that  it 
seems  aU  to  the  good  that  Lord  Jellicoe  should  contmue 
addressing  his  feUow-countrymen  on  a  subject  no  one  can 
discuss  with  more  intimate  affection  than  he,  and  of  which 
no  British  audience  is  ever  likely  to  tire,  when  it  is  presented 
to  them  by  one  whose  long  and  devoted  service  must,  in  vest 
his  words  with  quite  exceptional  significance.  ^     .  ^     j 

-  The  most  important  and  the  most  closely  argued  of  Lord 
JeUicoe's  addresses  was  that  delivered  on  Wednesday  last 
at  the  Aldwych  Club.  It  was  a  delivery  of  quite  exceptional 
interest  for  many  reasons— not  the  least  of  which  is  the 
speaker's  impersonal  detachment  while  criticising  Admiralty 
Boards,  of  which  he  himself  was  so  influential  a  member. 
In  the  first  place  we  learned,  what  I  confess  was  new  to  me, 
that  in  August  1914  the  German  light  cruiser  programme  was 
overhauling  ours,  and  that  the  enemy's  ocean  gomg  submarines 
and  destroyers  were  equal  if  not  Superior  to  our  own  in  numbers. 
Inexplicable  as  our  neglect  of  light  craft  had  been,  few  of  us 
could  have  realised  that  the  situation  was  indeed  as  the  ex- 
First  Sea  Lord  has  now  revealed.  And  his  explanation  of 
how  this  dismal  state  of  things  came  about  is  not  less  inter- 
esting than  the  revelation  itself.  It  is  that  .the  public  thought 
only  in  terms  of  Dreadnoughts  and  that  money  could  not  be 
obtained  for  anything  else  !  It  seems  then  that  the  sea 
lords,  responsible  for  preparing  the  Fleet  for  war  must 
repeatedly  have  urged  the  necessity  of  more  cruisers  and  more 
destroyers,  but  without  succeeding  in  persuading  the  Cabinet 
to  ask  the  House  of  Commons  for  the  means  of  supplying  them 
We  must  therefore,  one  would  suppose,  regard  it  as  a  quite, 
extraordinary  piece  of  good  luck  that  an  exception  had  been 
made  in  favour  of  the  16  Arethusas  and  Calliopes.  It  makes 
one  tremble  to  think  where  we  should  have  been  had 
these  cruisers  not  been    approaching  completion  ]ust  as  the 

war  broke  out.  , ,         ^1.  ^  • 

In  a  previous  speech  Lord  Jellicoe  told  us  that  m  1913 
Lord  Fisher  had  awakened  him  and  his  colleagues  to  the 
reality  of  the  submarine  menace  to  commerce,  a  thing  that 
he  might  very  well  have  done,  for  it  is  to  be  presumed  that 
he  knew  then,  what  we  know  now,  that  Germany  s  larger, 
wide  radius  submarines  were  actually  more  numerous  than 
our  own.  One  wonders  if  it  was  at  the  same  time  that 
representations  were  put  before  the  Board  for  protecting  our 
Fleet  bases  in  the  north  from  the  attentions  of  this  redoubtable 
fleet  of  submerged  cniiscrs— for  to  them  the  few  hundred  miles 
tliat  divided  these  bases  from  the  German  ports  were,  of 
course,  a  quite  negligible  interval.  Of  the  long-distance 
possibilities  of  our  own  submarines  we  were  fully  mlormed, 
for  we  had  sent  many  to  Australia.  The  danger  therefore  was 
patent.  One  is  tempted  to  ask  whether  the  individuals  who 
lacked  courage  to  ask  Pariiament  for  cruisers  and  destroyers 
were  the  same  that  declined  to  protect  the  main  bases  ot  our 
fighting  squadrons  ?  For  that  matter  it  would  be  interesting 
to  know  precisely  who  were  the  individuals  so  impervious  to 
the  seamen's  arguments  in  favour  of  such  obvious  necessities 
of  war.  It  is  a  germane  inquiry,  for  Pariiament,  I  believe, 
has  never  been  known  to  refuse  provision  the  sea  lords  have 
demanded  on  the  ground  that  the  safety  of  the  country  niade 
it  necessary.  Perhaps  we  are  to  understand  that  the  civilian 
chief  of  the  Admiralty  realised  that  there  was  a  general  limit 


February    28,    1 9 1 8 


Land   &  Water 


of  expense  beyond  which  it  would  be  dangerous  to  go,  and 
persuaded  himself  that  it  would  be  better  to  spend  the  money 
on  Dreadnoughts  than  on  cruisers  and  destroyers  and  measures 
for  safeguarding  the  bases.  If  it  was  the  civilian  chief  who 
took  this  line,  one  is  left  wondering  exactly  what  the  seamen 
did  about  it.  And  here  certainly  Lord  Jellicoe  can  enlighten 
us,  for  of  the  nine  years  preceding  the  war  he  spent,  if  I 
remember  rightly,  no  fewer  than  six  and  a  half  at  the  Admiralty 
— -two  and  a  half  as  Director  of  Naval  Ordnance,  two  as  Third 
Sea  Lord  and  Controller,  and  nearly  two  as  Second  Sea  Lord. 
This  last  period  of  office  was  from  the  end  of  1912  till  he  took 
command  of  the^Grajid  Fleet  almost  on  the  day  war  was 
declared.  It  is  hardly  credible  that  he  and  his  professional 
colleagues  stood  by  without  protest  and  trusting  to  luck  while 
utterly  inadequate  provision  was  being  made  in  the  matter 
of  light  forces— without  which  a  battle  fleet  cannot  operate — 
while  our  bases  were  being  left  absolutely  open  to  submarine 
attack,  and  while  no  measures  of  any  kind  were  being  concerted 
for  a  protection  of  trade  against  U-boat  warfare.  Surely 
there  must  have  been  protests  and  strong  protests,  and  the 
public  has  a  right  to  know  when  and  by  whom  these  were 
overruled. 

And  is  it  not  just  a  little  hard  on  the  naval  historians  that 
Lord  Jellicoe  should,  in  the  vernacular  phrase,  blame  this 
Dreadnought  delusion  of  the  public  on  to  them  ?  It  is  true 
that  the  historians,  or  some  of  them,  have  thrown  into  very 
vivid  relief  the  incidents  of  the  great  naval  battles,  but  surely 
the  lesson  of  this  emphasis  was  not  that  battleships  only  were 
wanted.  I  prefer  to  think  that  their  reason  for  dwelling  on 
these  great  events  was  of  a  different  kind  altogether.  Not 
the  least  interesting  part  of  Lord  Jellicoe's  speech  was  his 
statement  of  the  objects  to  achieve  which  sea  power  exists, 
and  first  of  the  three  he  put  the  destruction  of  the  enemy's 


armed  fdrces.  We  are  certainly  getting  on  in  the  develop- 
ment and  teaching  of  naval  doctrine.  Two  and  a  half  years 
ago  the  then  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  published  a  brilliant 
letter  on  the  naval  position,  and  in  it  set  out  categorically 
the  purposes  for  which  a  navy  is  brought  into  being.  It 
was  considered  remarkable  at  the  time  that  it  did  not  include 
the  destruction  of  the  enemy's  navy  amongst  the  five  or  six 
.purposes  it  enumerilted.  Little  more  than  a  year  later  an 
ex-First  Lord,  in  an  apology  for  the  events  of  May  31,  told 
us  first  that  there  was  nothing  we  could  obtain  by  destroying 
the  enemy's  forces  which  we  did  not  possess  without  their 
destruction  being  accomplished,  and  then  went  on  to  tell  us 
that  the  destruction  of  these  forces  was  impossible,  because 
the  risk  to  our  own  ships  was  prohibitive.  It  is  a  good  thing 
for  the  public  education  that  so  high  an  authority  as  Lord 
Jellicoe  now  tells  us  that  victory  is  the  first  and  the  main 
purpose  of  sea  power.  It  is  a  truth  that  was  not  only  familiar 
but  ever  present  in  the  minds  of  our  forefathers.  And  if  the 
historians  in  describing  the  amazing  achievements  of  the 
seamen  of  old  had  dwelt  more  upon  their  battles  than  upon 
any  other  topic,  was  it  not  precisely  because  it  was  battle 
and  nothing  else  that  they  were  always  seeking,  and  seeking 
because  it  was  to  bring  battle  about  that  all  their  other 
efforts  were  directed  ?  It  has  no  doubt  taken  some  years  of 
war  for  the  public  of  to-day  to  releam  these  ancient  and  obvious 
^truths.  And  they  cannot  be, reassured  too  often,  as  Lord 
Jellicoe  assured  them  a  week  ago,  that  they  might  be  perfectly- 
confident  that  our  battle  fleet  would  "  on  the  next  occasion  " 
do  its  very  best  to  inflict  the  kind  of  defeat  upon  the  enemy's 
fleet  which  would  carry  with  it  'to-day^ — as  it  always  ha^  in 
the  past — that  nearer  approximation  to  a  complete  command 
of  the  sea,  which  without  battle  cannot  be  possessed  at  all. 

Arthur  Pollen. 


Hunting  the  U-Boats  :   By  Herman  Whitaker 


Mr.  Herman  Whitaker,  the  narrator  of  this  thrilling 
story  of  the  work  now  being  done  by  American  destroyers 
round  the  coasts  of  the  British  Islands,  is  a  novelist  of 
high  reputation  in  America  and  was  recently  a  special 
correspondent  in  -Mexico.  A  Yorkshireman  by  birth,  he 
served  for  three  years  in  the  British  Army,  afterwards  went 
to  Canada,  and  did  pioneering  work  in  Hudson's  Bay 
territory.  Twenty-two  years  ago  he  settled  in  California 
and  devoted  himself  to  literature  and  travel. 

When  Commander  Farragut  issued  to  his  fleet  at  Mobile  the 
famous  order  "Damn  the  torpedoes;  steam  right  ahead,"  he 
could  not  foresee  that  fifty  years  later  it  would  become  the  every- 
day watchword  of  a  combined  British  and   American    Fleet. 

MAY  you  visit  the  American  flotilla  base  ?" 
Admiral  Sims  repeated  my  question  before 
acceding  to  it  with  a  hearty,  "  To  be  sure  !  " 
He  also  granted  a  further  request  to  go  for 
a  cruise  on  a  destroyer. 

From  the  train  window  approaching  the  Base  I  obtained 
my  first  astonished  view  of  the  flotilla.  The  last  time  I  had 
seen  it  the  ships  were  painted  a  modest  grey,  but  now  they 
glared  and  blushed  in  "  dazzle  "  paint.  Barred,  striped  and 
ring-straked  in  vivid  pinks,  arsenic  greens,  violent  blues  and 
reds,  they  put  to  shame  all  leopards,  zebras  and  giraffes  that 
were  ever  gathered  together  in  the  world's  greatest  menagerie. 
The  exception  to  this  blazing  colour  scheme,  a  new  arrival, 
looked  in  her  dull  lead  paint  like  a  Puritan  maiden  that  had 
fallen  into  a  company  of  painted  Jezebels. 

The  object  of  this  wanton  display  is,  of  course,  to  fool 
Fritz  of  the  submarines.  That  it  might,  by  hurting  his  eyes 
or  shocking  his  artistic  sensibilities,  none  would  deny  ; 
but  I  found  it  quite  hard  to  believe  that  such  rainbow  colours 
could  change  their  visibility.  Yet  they  do.  Whereas  the 
Puritan  maiden  showed  a  clear  black  outline  at  sea  the 
following  day,  the  Jezebels  presented  at  the  same  distance, 
a  blurred,  wavering  mass  of  colour.  It  were  difficult  to  tell 
bows  from  stern  at  four  miles,  or  to  judge  their  course. 

The  vessel  chosen  for  my  cruise  had  struck  America's  first 
blow  in  the  war  by  sinking  one  of  the  submarines  that  attacked 
our  transports  in  mid-Atlantic.  The  thought  was. warm  in 
my  mind  when,  after  boarding  her,  my  eyes  wandered  from  the 
knife-like  bows  back  over  the  shotted  guns,  grim  torpedo  tubes, 
along  the  low  rakish  hull  to  the  stern  where"  depth  mines 
hung  poised  for  instant  use.  She  looked  the  part- — fit  and 
dangerous. 

From  the  bridge  I  watched  her  slip  like  a  slender  arrow  out 
through  the  harbour  heads  to  join  other  destroyers  that  were 
combing  the  offing  for  U-boats.  They  made  a  beautiful 
sight  shooting  at  full  speed  like  a  school  of  flying  fish  over  the 
long  green  seas  ;  now  careening  on  sharp  turns ;   now  coming 


about  on  swift  circles ;  laying  always  the  white  lace  of  their 
wakes  ov?r  sixty  square  miles  of  sea.  Within  a  number  of 
miles  of  the  lightship  that  formed  a  pivot  for  their  bird 
swoopings,  a  number  of  U-boats  lie  on  the  bottom,  and 
while  we  manoeuvred  over  their  graves,  I  heard  their 
stories. 

One  had  been  sunk  by  a  "  P"  boaUthat  chanced  upon  his 
wake.  The  "  P  "  had  only  an  old-style  fifty-pound  depth  charge, 
but  took  a  chance  and  dropped  it  at  the  head  of  the  wake.  Then 
he  listened  around  for  a  while.  Presently  he  heard  caulking 
hammers  at  work  on  the  bottom,  and  knew  that  Fritz  was 
down  there  making  repairs.  So  he  wirelessed  for  a  destroyer 
that  came  up  and  dropped  a  three  hundred  pound  charge 
squarely  on  top  of  the  "  sub."  Oil  came  up  in  gushes,  and 
next  day  it  was  found  by  a  diver,  lying  on  its  side  like  a  dead 
whale,  split  open  from  stem  to  stem.  Others  had  gone  to  their 
ends  in  similar  ways,  and  while  I  was  listening  that  ceaseless 
combing  of  the  offing  went  steadily  on.  Words  cannot 
describe  the  thorough  watch  that  was  kept  upon  the  sea. 
Not  an  inch  of  it  that  escaped  constant  scrutiny,  yet- — this 
strenuous  eye-searching  failed  to  find  Fritz  lurking  below. 

For  two  days  he  hafl  been  lying  there  in  wait  for  the  convoy 
which  was  now  filing  through  the  heads,  and  when  he  attacked, 
it  was  like  the  leap  of  a  wolf  at  a  sheep  with  the  subsequent 
rush  of  shepherd  dogs  at  his  tl;roat.  We  had  passed  over 
him,  and  as  he  rose  to  take  his  sight,  the  destroyer  next  in 
line  almost  ran  him  down.  Indeed,  it  was  in  going  full  speed 
astern  to  avoid  collision  that  his  periscope  showed.  We  did 
not  see  it.  Neither  did  the  second  destroyer.  But  sharp, 
young  eyes  on  the  third  picked  up  the  "  feather  "  it  made 
on  the  water.  Rushing  along  'the  wake — for  Fritz  dived  at 
once — ^this  destroyer  dropped  a  depth  mine  that  wrecked  half 
his  machinery,  blew  off  his  rudder,  tipped  his  stem,  and  sent 
him  two  hundred  feet  straight  down  on  a  headlong  nose  dive. 

Afterward,  the  commander  said  that  he  thought  he  would 
never  be  able  to  stop  till  he  was  crushed  in  by  deep  sea  pres- 
sure. To  do  it  he  had  to  blow  out  all  four  water  ballast 
tanks,  and  so  came  shooting  back  up  and  leaped  clear  of  the 
water  like  a  breaching  whale.  Instantly  the  second  and  third 
destroyers  opened  fire.  Out  of  control,  with  no  radder,  the 
U-boat  could  only  "  porpoise "  along,  the  conning-tower 
now  up,  now  down.  Every  time  it  showed  a  shell  whistled 
past  it.  Perhaps  half  a  dozen  had  been  fired  when  a  man 
popped  out  of  the  hatch  waving  a  white  shirt.  On  his  heels 
the  crew  came  pouring  out  and  ranged  along  the  deck  with 
hands  held  up. 

Undoubtedly  they  must  have  opened  the  sea  valves  first, 
for  the  U-boat  sank  under  their  feet  before  they  could  be  taken 
off  by  the  destroyer  that  ranged  alongside.  They  had  to  be 
hauled  on  board  by  lines — all  but  one,  who  could  not  swim. 
In  vivid  contrast  to  the  German  practice,  two  of  our  men 


lO 


Land   &  Water 


February   28,    191 8 


juinj><.<J  iMiw  til    .  ii<.i  I.'  :vivi-  him,  and  they  did  bring  him  in 
— only  to  die  a  few  minutes  later. 

It  had  all  happened  very  quickly.  From  the  dropping  of 
the  first  depth  charge,  till  the  prisoners  were  aboard,  no  more 
than  ten  minutes  had  elapsed.  It  fact  it  was  over  before  I 
had  time  to  realise  what  was  going  on.  How  I  should  like  to 
hate  talked  with  the  prisoners  !  But  a  large  convoy  is  not  to 
be  held   up   for  a   correspondent's  chatter.     We  moved  c 


on. 


leaving  one  destroyer  to  take  the  prisoners  back  to  the  Base. 


But  I  heard  of  them  on  our  return.  Tha  bag  comprised 
one  Captain-Lieutenant,  one  Lieutenant,  one  Ober-Lieutenant, 
one  Ober-Kngineer,  and  thirty-six  men,  who  could  be  ill-spared 
by  the  Kaiser  at  this  juncture  in  his  naval  affairs.  As  this 
U-boat  had  come  from  its  base  straight  to  our  port,  moreover, 
it  carried  down  a  full  complement  of  twelve  torpedoes;  a 
greater  loss  than  the  vessi-l. 

The  prisoners  were  all  cross-examined,  of  course,  and  from 
a  plentiful  chaff  of  misinformation  was  gleaned  a  few  kernels 
of  knowledge.  The  commander  said,  for  instance,  that  no 
submarine  officer  who  knew  his  business  w.ould  waste  a  torpedo 
on  a  destroyer.  But  in  the  course  of  an  intimate  conversation 
with  the  ensign  in  whose  charge  he  was  placed  he  let  out  the  fact 
that  two  torpedoes  were  always  kept  set  for  a  depth  of  six  feet. 
The  piece  of  infonnation  that  interested  us  most  came  in  a 
wireless  message  some  hours  later — the  Base  Port  was  "closed." 
The  poor,  harmless  U-boat  that  "  would  not  waste  a  tor- 
I>edo  on  a  destroyer "  had  mined  the  offing.  All  of  our 
bird-like  swoopings,  lively  evolutions,  had  been  performed  in  a, 
nest  of  mines  !  This  interesting  news,  however,  was  presently 
eclipsed  by  a  wireless  message 'we  picked  up  in  transit  between 
a  patrol  and  the  Base.  "  Submarine  has  just  fired  a  torpedo 
■  it  us.  We  have  dropped  a  depth  mine  at  head  of  his  wake." 
.\nother  green  commander  ! 

This  was  the  Base- Admiral's  busy  day.  The  next  message 
we  picked  up  came  from  a  British  patrol  boat  that  had  engaged 
a  submarine  in  an  artillery  duel  earlier  in  the  day.  It  appeared 
that  the  "  P  "  had  plumped  several  shells  into  the  "  sub  " 
and  did  not  wish  to  be  robbed  of  her  prey  ;  hence  a  polite 
inquiry  as  to  whether  our  "  capture  "  was  not  due  to  injuries 
and  disabilities  previously  inflicted  by  her  ?  She  was  assured 
of  the  contrary,  and  as  no  U-boat  ever  travels  in  any 
direction  but  the  bottom  with  six  shells  in  her,  the  little 
"  P  "  received  credit  for  a  sinking. 

The  next  message  brought  an  S.O.S.  from  a  merchant 
ship  that  was  being  shelled  by  a  submarine.  She  was  too  far 
away  for  us  to  render  dssistance,  but  it  drew  an  interesting 
reminiscence  from  the  executive  officer  whose  watch  I  was  shar- 
ing on  the  bridge. 

"  If  she  puts  up  as  good  a  fight  as  the  old  *  L ,'  she  will 


After  fighting  a  duel  with  an  American  "  tanker,"  that  only 
surrendered  when  her  ammunition  ran  out,  Kelly  ran  alongside 
and  congratulated  the  naval  gunner.  "  That  was  a  beautiful 
fight  j'ou  put  up,  sir.  Sorry  to  have  to  sink  you,  but  get 
into  your  boats  and  I'll  tow  you  to  the  nearest  land."  He 
seems,  also,  to  have  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  whereabouts 
of  American  destroyers,  and  knows  all  the  captains  by  name. 
"  Pull  in  such  and  such  a  direction,"  he  told  one  boat's  crew ; 
'  in  three  hours  you  will  meet  the  American  destroyer,  C 

r^: —   i'^ A.^:^    XT  _    !•__     _i_    _    .  _i    J. 11    1  ■  "_    1        » 


Stand  a  fine  chance  to  be  saved.  We  were  ninety  miles  away 
when  we  got  her  S.O.S.,  and  while  we  smoked  it  over  the 
ocean,  just  hitting  the  tips  of  the  waves,  she  kept  us  posted 
on  the  fight  "  Bridge  shot  away  !  On  fire  !  Fire  extinguished  i 
bhell  exploded  m  engine  room  !  We  have  thrown  code  books 
and  papers  overboard  !  "  We  were  still  thirty  miles  away 
when  that  happened,  but  we  wirelessed  "her  not  to  surrender 
and  received  a  reply  that  would  rnake  a  fine  sub-title  for  a 
movie  melodrama—"  Never  !  "  And  she  didn't— thanks  to 
the  naval  gunner  who  kept  on  firing  after  the  captain  thought 
It  time  to  haul  his  flag  down.  ^ 

^1^1^  k"  ^^  r''*""  ^J^  "°*  ^°  ^"""^y-  You  should  have 
seen  the  boats  of  an  oil  tanker  we  picked  up  one  day  The 
U-boat  had  tlirown  a  shell  into  each  and  dead  and  dying  men 

v,\l1u^u'J'°^^''"}^-     ^^"^^  ^""^  been  cut  in  two  by  Ihells 

■     Half  the  body  would  be  there,  the  rest  had  gone  overboard 

It  was  awful.   Yet  though  bloodier,  for  pure  devilry  it  was 

surpassed  in  another  instance  when  the  U-boat  commander 

took  away  all  the  oars,  sails  and  provisions  from  the  boats  of  a 

ThTn  ^      .  J"st  sunk.     He  evep  had  the  water  kegs  emptied. 

^  r.  S  ^^tl^'^'ll'^^y'  '^^^''"8  ^^'^  unfortunate  crew  to  die, 

hfnH     Th"^    ■  °^  ^V"?''"'  ^"^  ^*^''"'^'  hundreds  of  miles  from 

hJln  nS""^  were  picked  up,  but  I  do  not  doubt  that  there  have 

been  others  who  were  not  so  fortunate.     After  you  have  seen 

a    ew    hings  like  that,  you  don't  feel  very  t^ender  toward 

Fritz-though  there  is  one  German   submarine  commander 

operating  around  here  who  is  really  a  gentleman  •'"'""'''"^'^'^ 

thus  It  was  that  I  came  to   hear   of    Kelly    the  snortine 

U-boat    commander,   who   forms   the    shining^  excentbn    to 

Hun    barbarity.      Whether    Kelly-as   he   signs   himself     n 

the  humorous  notes  he  sends  out'  through   the  danger  zone 

-IS  really  a  Sinn  Feiner  in  the  German  service,  wHl  probably 

iTves  hfs  lok-r-  J'V''  °".^  '^'"^  h*^  ''  t™'y  Mile^[an-h^ 
Ujves  his  joke.     Sometimes  he  will  notify  a  local  paoer  or 

S"nT  A^f''"f  *'f  ?^  "il^  ""^  P^-^^-t  -t  a  cer  afn  &ic 
meeting.     A  few  days  later  will  come  a  second  letter  criticisinK 

trtsa'ctTd'""  Whe""."'*'  acquaintance  with  the  bu'in  I 
boat    Kplh-  .1  ''^  rP'  "P  alongside  an   Irish   fishing 

shTps  when  no^fnr^r  ^<''  '^'  '^f '•'  '^^  '^^''-  ^Iso  he  warn! 
Jives'tire  bmt^,  fhl  •  '^^"^°'-\^'"king  them,  and  invariably 
gives  .the  boits  their  courses  to  the  nearest  land. 


Give  Captain  N my  compliments  and  tell  him  he  has  a 

loose  propeller  blade.  I  heard  it  when  he  passed  over  me  this 
morning.  It  makes  inc  nervous.  Ask  him  to  have  it 
repaired  please." 

After  an  unsuccessful  attack  on  a  Canadian  transport  that 
had  Red  Cross  nurses  aboard,  he  sent  a  wireless  message  after 
the  fleeing  ship.  "  Sorry  you  must  go.  Give  my  love  to  the 
nurses."  It  is  said  that  the  transport  returned  answer : 
"  Same  to  you  !  " 

From  these  and  other  tales  of  Kelly,  I  judge  that,  like  most 
personages  who  achieve  the  limelight,  he  is  gathering  unto 
himself  all  the  sporadic  human  impulses  that  crop  up  in  the 
submarine  zone.  The  lively  sailor  imagination,  moreover,  is 
not  above  adding  a  few  of  its  own.     Kelly  is  really  in  danger 

of  evolving  into  a  myth  that  will  flourish  and  endure  long  after 
the  inevitable  depth  mine  has  been  dropped  on  his  head.  In 
the  meantime  he  remains  to  shame  by  his  fair  fighting   the 

bloody  records  of  his  brother  commanders. 

\\'hile  we  were  talking,  tj;ie  sun  had  rolled  down  its  western 

slant  and  hung  poised  for  a  few  minutes  in  a  cloud  glory  of 

crimson  and  gold  before  it  slid  down  into  a  purple  sea.     Above 

stretched  a  flaming  vault,  dappled  in   rainbow  colour  save 
-  where,   in  the  west,  a  great  tear  in  the  radiant  tapestries 

revealed  a  sky  wall  of  pure  jade.     It  was  intensely  beautiful. 

so  lovely  that  the  mind  refused  further  commerce  with  the 

quarrels  of  man  ;    would  not  picture  the  sea  murderers  that 

lay  in  wait  beneath  all  that  beauty.     But  they  were  there. 

The  officer  on  the  bridge  chuckled  as"  he  read  me  a  "  wireless  " 

picked  up  in  transit. 

"  Listen  to  the  chattering  of  the  little  '  subs ' !    Have  you 

seen  any  ships  to-day  .'     The  ocean  seems  empty.  I  am  afraid 

those  damned  destroyers  have  sunk  Muller.    He  does  not 

answer  my  calls  !  " 

Muller  "  was,  no  doubt,  the  "  P"  boat's  victim,  for  our 

Captain-Lieutenant,  now  at  the  Base,  answered  to  another 

name. 

All  that  evening  the  messages  came  in  a  constant  stream. 
Some  were  calls  for  aid  ;  others  merely  reports  of  U-boat 
■  movements.  One  told  of  a  torpedoed  derelict  that  had  been 
picked  up  and  safely  beach«d  by  the  patrol.'  And  no  one  of 
them  that  did  not  produce  some  tale  from  the  officer  on  the 
bridge.  Usually  tragic,  recording  the  loss  of  fine  ships  and  the 
deaths  of  brave  men,  their  grimness  was  short,  with  here  and 
there  a  gleaming  thread  of  humour. 

Such  was  the  case  with  the  M -,  an  American  munition 

ship  with  a  million  dollar  cargo,  torpedoed  a  hundred  miles 
out  from  the  Base.  The  Base-Admiral  sent  out  an  anxious 
inquiry  as  to  her  condition  and  progress  to  the  destroyer 
that  had  her  in  tow  and  received  in  reply  :  "  We  are  making 
three  and  a  half  knots,  but  it  is  a  long  way  to  Tipperary  " 
It  was,  alas  !     She  foundered  at  sea.  ■ 

Take  also  the  "Lovely  Lucy,"  a  trim  steamer  that  had 
strayed  from  her  convoy  during  a  fog.     A  wireless  came  in 
..  f.ru*^^'*^"'"^  ^'"""^  ^  destroyer  that  had  picked  up  the  stray  : 
What  did  you  do  to  the  '  Lovely  Lucy  ?  '       Found  her  at 
dusk,  without  an  escort,  zig-zagging  wildly  through  the  fog." 
bome    told  of    Homeric  encounters   between    British    and 
German  '  subs  "  as  when  two  collided  underwater  one  evening 
then  backed  away,  fired  a  torpedo  apiece,  and  lost  each  other 
in    the    dark.     Another    Englishman    came    up    alongside    a 
steamer  that  was  being  sunk  by  shell  fire.     Sinking  again, 
he  waited  till  the  German  came  sailing  around  then  put  a 
torpedo  in  his  solar  plexus.     Fritz  had  piled  some  cases-  of 
beer  on  his  deck,  loot  from  the  steamer,  and  when  he  went  up 
—using  the  graphic  language  of  the  British  commander— 
the  air  was  full  of  beer,  blood,  Boches,  and  broken  bottles." 
Ihat    evening    displayed    destroyer     life    at    its    best.     A 
brilliant  moon— which  the  "  Bridge  "  fluently  cursed  "for  kn 
ally  ot  the  Boche— laid  a  path  of  silver  along  a  sleepy  sea. 
Our  boat  laid  her  long,  slim  cheek  softly  against  the  slow 
swells.     From  the  deck  below,,  the  tinkle  of  a  mandolin  and 
guitar  ascended  to  the  bridge  accompanying  a  mixed  repertoire 
ot  rag-time  and  those  sentimental  ballads  the  sailor  so  dearly 
loves.     It  had  quite  the  flavour  of  a  Coney  Island  picnic  but, 
once  an  hour,  a  constant  reminder  of  the  grim  realities  of  war, 
a  dark  hgure  raised  and  lowered  the  guns  and  swung  them 
around  the  firing  circle.     The  gunners  were  taking  no  chances 
o*    Jreezing      through  cold-stiffened  grease. 

Ihis  remarkable  weather— which  the  "  Bridge  "  was  kind 
enough  to  attribute  to  me-held  till  we  dropped  our  convoy 
well  out  of  the  danger  zone,  and  picked  up  another  homeward 


L  K,  ui  Liai  y      ^  u  ,      ±  »_*  i  u 


7       -  u  ,       X  «-, 


L.anu    ex    vv  ater 


TT^ 


\Copyright  Commitiee  on  Public  In/or>ttaii<m,  U.S.A^ 

Crew  of  a   U-boat  Surrendering  to   U.S.S.   "  Fanning  " 


bound.  We  had  expected  to  leave  this  in  home  waters  that 
were  usually  "  safe,"  but  on  the  eighth  morning  out  we 
received  a  wireless  that  they  were  "  closed."  Fritz  had  broken 
in  and  was  shooting  right  and  left  like  drunken  cowboys  on 
the  Fourth  of  July. 

This  meant  that  each  ship  in  the  convoy  must  be  delivered 
at  its  individual  port.  While  this  was  in  course,  submarines 
were  operating  all  around  us.  Often  we  crossed  their  courses  ; 
we  must  have  been  under  their  observation  most  of  the  time. 
But  though  they  torpedoed  five  ships,  two  of  which  were 
safely  beached,  they  would  take  no  chances  with  our  destroyers. 
Already  the  "  blimps,"  hydroplanes  and  patrols  were  after 
them  like  swarming  hornets.  The  piratical  nest  would  soon 
be  exterminated.  In  the  meantime,  we  lived  amidst  alarms. 
Twice  we  were  called  to  "  General  Quarters  "  in  the  night — 
to  find  the  alarm  was  due  to  porpoises  charging  the  ship  along 
phosphorescent  wakes.  Each  time  a  certain  correspondent's 
hair  stood  on  end,  but  without  hitch  or  mishap  we  delivered 
our  last  ship  and  started  back  to  pick  up  a  third  convoy  and 
take  it  back  to  our  Base. 

All  that  last  day  the  wind  had  been  stiffening,  and  as  we  sat 
at  supper  in  the  wardroom,  the  twinkle  in  Admiral  Sims'  eye 
was  suddenlyrecalled  when,  with  celerity  that  equalled  sleight 
of  hand,  the  tablecloth  slid  with  its  load  of  food  and  dishes 
gracefully  to  the  floor.  The  casual  manner  in  which  the 
steward  cleared  up  the  ruin  betrayed  perfect  familiarity  with 
the  phenomenon.  Next  time  we  held  the  cloth  down  and  had 
got  in  safety  to  the  coffee  when,  with  cup  poised  at  his  lips, 
the  commander  tobogganed  on  his  chair-back  to  the  transom. 
Swallowing  the  coffee  while  hanging  in  balance,  he  came  back 
to  us  on  the  return  roll.  Profiting  by  experience,  the  exe- 
cutive officer,  who  sat  opposite,  had  hooked  his  feet  around  the 
table  legs — and  so  took  it  with  him  on  the  opp<isite  swing. 
Its  further  joumeyings  were  then  restrained  by  a  rope  lashing  ; 
but  that,  alas,  had  no  effect  on  the  motion,  which  grew 
worse  and  worse. 

By  midnight  the  vessel  was  rearing  like  a  frightened  horse 
and  rolling  like  a  barrel  churn,  a  queer  mixture  of  metaphor 
and  motion.  A  western  bronco  was  nothing  to  that  boat. 
She  would  rear,  shiver  with  rage  as  though  trying  to  shake  the 
bridge  off  her  back,  then  plunge  forward  in  a  wild  leap  and 
throw  her  sorrows  high  in  the  air.  It  was  sickening.  When 
she  did  her  best  and  beastliest,  the  waves  would  drop  from 
under ;  leaving  her  standing  on  her  heel,  two-thirds  of  her 
length  exposed  ;  then  when  the  thousand  tons  of  her  fell 
flat  on  the  water,  she  lifted  everything,  animate  and  inanimate, 
that  was  not  bolted  down  to  the  deck.  I,  for  instance,  spent 
a  large  fraction  of  the  night  in  mid  air  above  my  bunk  ;  am 
now  quite  convinced  of  the  possibility  of  levitation.  By 
morning  my  sides  were  sore,  my  bones  ached,  my  skin  was 
bruised  from  blows  and  shaking. 

I  confess  to  making  a  modest  breakfast  on  one  green 
pickle,  and  while  I  was  engaged  in  the  gingerly  consumption 
thereof,  the  skipper  comforted  me  with  a  vivid  description 
of  a  "  real  gale  "  they  had  been  out  in  for  nine  days  on  a 
previous  trip. 

"  You  could  neither  sit  down,  stand  up,  walk  nor  sleep. 
I  was  thrown  off  that  transom  eight  times  in  one  night,  and 


each  time  I  fell  almost  plumb  to  the  opposite  side.  I  might 
just  as  well  have  dropped  down  a  well,  I  was  so  bruised  and 
shaken  that  I  gave  it  up  after  that,  though  I  was  dying  for 
sleep.  When  she'd  rear  up  and  fall,  we  always  expected  her 
to  break  her  back,  and  she'd  quiver  like  a  shaken  lance  for 
five  minutes  afterward.  The  waves  were  enormous  ;  bases 
dark  green,  tips  light  jade  against  the  sky  and  so  clear  that  we 
often  saw  porpoises  shooting  along  like  fish  seen  through  the 
plate  glass  of  an  aquarium.  When  we  tried  to  signal  another 
destroyer  only  three  hundred  yards  away,  we'd  get  out  a 
couple  of  letters,  then  down  she'd  go,  lost  to  the  tips  of  her 
masts  in  the  trough  of  a  wave.  Next  day  it  grew  worse. 
The  wind  blew  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  an  hour  ;  the 
ocean  was  one  huge  mountainous  sea.  Our  decks  were  swept 
of  every  movable  object,  tool  chests,  boats,  everything.  All 
of  the  living  compartments  were  flooded  and  the  thermometer 
was  below  freezing  point.  For  thirty-six  hours  we  had  to  ride 
it  out,  hove-to,  before  we  could  go  ahead  with  our  duty  ; 
and  in  all  that  nine  days,  we  had  neither  bath,  wash,  shave, 
nor  a  hot  meal."  He  concluded  this  Homeric  recital,  "  If  a 
destroyer  had  been  sent  out  in  such  weather  before  the  war,  the 
man  responsible  would  have  been  court-martialled  for  need- 
lessly imperilling  the  lives  of  his  men.  But  we  go  out  in  it 
and  stay  out  now  as  a  matter  of  course." 

I  will  admit  that  my  storm  was  not  quite  so  bad  as  that. 
Nevertheless,  the  ends  of  the  bridge  seemed  to  be  dipping 
when  I  climbed  up  there  after — after  the  pickle.  At  every 
plunge  her  nose  would  go  under  a  solid  sea.  The  tips  of  the 
waves  were  veiled  in  water  mists.  Ail  night  we  had  been 
shoved  along  by  a  heavy  sea.  It  was  now  impossible  to 
"  take  a  sight,"  so  just  as  a  lost  boy  might  inquire  his  way 
from  a  policeman,  we  ran  inshore  to  a  lightship  to  find  out 
where  the  dickens  we  were  at. 

The  keeper  bellowed  through  a  megaphone  directions  that 
amounted  to  this  in  unofficial  language :  if  we  would  proceed 
so  many  city  blocks  to  the  northward,  then  take  the  first 
turning  to  the  left  after  we  passed  a  lighthouse,  we  could  come 
into  the  harbour  where  lay  the  convoy  we  were  to  take  back 
to  our  Base.  We  did,  and  as  the  ships  came  filing  out  to  join 
us,  I  saw  for  myself  one  of  the  humorous  flashes  that  lighten 
the  gloom  of  wireless  messages.  \t\  answer  to  a  polite  inquiry 
from  our  skipper  as  to  whether  she  would  not  avail  herself  of 
our  escort,  a  vessel  that  had  remained  at  anchor  made  equally 
courteous  answer. 

"  Thanks  very  much.  Think  I'll  stay  in.  I  was  torpedoed 
yesterday." 

The  delivery  of  this  convoy  at  the  Base  completed  my 
cruise.  In  ten  days  we  had  escorted  a  total  of  fifty-six 
vessels  a  distance  of  sixteen  hundred  miles  through  the  danger 
zone  without  a  mishap.  These  vessels  were  one  small  item 
in  a  total  of  thousands  that  have  been  convoyed  by  the 
destroyers  with  a  loss  of  only  one-eighth  of  OHe  per  cent.  In 
the  course  of  its  duty  the  flotilla  has  steamed  over  a  million 
miles  in  eight  montlis,  a  distance  equal  to  the  circumnavi- 
gating of  the  earth  forty  tirnes  ;  and  these  journeyings  have 
been  made  constantly  in  mined  seas  subject  to  the  attacks  of 
submarines.  Than  this  no  better  testimony  could  be  given, 
either  to  its  labour  or  the  worth  of  the  convoy  system. 


12 


Land  &   Water 


February   20,    1910 


America's   Part :    By  J.  D.    Whelpley 


THAT  America  would  contribute  money,  supplies  and 
men  to  the  war  in  vast  amounts,  quantities  and 
numbers  has  been  taken  for  granted  by  the  people 
of  the  Allied  nations,  though  even  n  these  direc- 
tions foreign  expectations  have  been  exceeded. 
That  American  military  representatives  in  France  should, 
however,  b^  able  to  present  a  workable  plan  for  the  Higher 
Command  and  prescjit  it  with  an  argument  that  eliminated 
other  plans  from  consideration  may  have  come  as  a  surprise 
to  many.  In  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons  last  week 
the  Prime  Minister  said  : 

I  hesitated  for  some  time  as  to  whether  I  should  read  to 
the'  House  the  very  cogent  document  submitted  by  the  Ameri- 
can delegation  which  puts  the  case  for  the  present  proposal. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  documents  I  have  ever  seen 
submitted  to  a  military  conference.  I  do  not  read  it  because 
it  is  so  mixed  up  with  the  actual  plan  of  operations  tliat  it 
would  be  quite  mipwssible  for  me  to  read  it  without  giving 
away  what  tlie  plan  of  operation  is.  If  I  could  only  have 
read  it  there  would  have  been  no  necessitv  for  me  to  make 
this  speech  at  all. 

The  Amjrican  Generals  came  fresh  to  the  problem  with  no 
political  or  constitutional  limitations  to  hamper  them  and 
the  hLstory  of  the  past  three  years  and  a  half  to  guide  them 
in  their  elimination  of  jwssible  error.  They  also  brought  to 
the  Council  table  those  peculiar  gifts,  apparently' characteristic 
of  American  enterprise,  the  faculty  of  the  "  bird's  eye  view," 
the  courage  to  make  quick  decisions  and  those  talents  for  organ- 
isation in  evidence  in  the  widespread  machinery  of  great 
businesses  conducted  so  successfully  in  home  and  foreign  trade. 
The  principles  underiying  successful  American  business  are 
unity  of  control,  organisation  and  speed ;  and  it  is  apparent 
that  these  same  principles  are  to  be  employed  in  the  making 
of  war  and  their  undoubted  value  impressed  whenever  possible 
upon  America's  partners  in  the  enterprise. 

The  worid  is  being  very  frankly  told  from  day  to  day  what 
America  is  doing  in  a  material  way  in  the  war.  Admiral 
Sims  says  that  everything  in  the  American  Navy  that 
could  be  of  use  is  now  in  European  waters  and  that  the 
Amencan  Navy  is  not  only  co-operating  but  has  become  an 
mtegral  part  of  the  Allied  Naval  forces.  The  American 
Secretary  of  War  says  that  a  half-million  American 
soldiers  wiU  be  m  Europe  eariy  this  spring,  in  fact  most  of 
them  are  here  now,  that  there  wiU  be  a  million  before  next 
wmter,  and  another  million  in  training  at  home.  The  United 
States  Government  has  already  lent  neariy  one  thousand 
mUlion  pounds  steriing  to  the  AUies  and  is  increasing  this 
amount  with  every  passing  month. 

Food   and    Supplies 

u  ■^u^ '» yP""  P^"^  °^  ^^^  ^°°^  ^"<^  supplies  now  being  imported 
by  the  AUies  is  commg  from  America,  and  it  is  only  a  question 
of  ships  to  mcrease  the  quantities.  Mr.  Hoover,  the  Food 
ControUer,  has  called  upon  the  American  people  to  decrease 
their  already  restncted  consumption  of  bread,  meat  and  sugar 
by  another  ten  to  twenty  per  cent,  to  furnish  cargoes  for  the 
rapidly  mcreasmg  number  of  new  ships  carrying  supplies  to 
the  Allies.  What  America  asks  of  the  AUies  is  that  consump- 
tion of  staples  shaU  be  reduced  as  low  as  possible  so  that  all 
ships  needed  for  troops  wiU  be  set  free.  It  has  in  fact  become 
a  question  of  whether  the  AUies  prefer  a  ton  of  food  or  a  ton 
ot  men,  and  the  decision  is  left  in  their  hands 

The  buildmg  of  new  ships  is  weU  under  way  and  the  tonnage 
figures  of  1918  wiU  make  a  remarkable  showing.  This  building 
of  new  ships  is  not  only  of  vital  importance  to  the  world  at  war, 
but  the  safety  and  comfort  of  aU  nations  depend  upon  a  large 
tonnage  being  avaUable  immediately  after  the  war  to  keep  the 
food  supply  going  and  to  re-stock  exhausted  stores  of  raw 
material  for  industry. 

r^.T!''"'^  if  ".?  q"f  tion  but  that  the  American  people  now 

clu^'.  fnr^.h^^'  l^'y  ^''  ^'  ^^'  ^"d  ^h^t  this  is  a^conflicT 
caUing  for  the  entire  reserve  strength  of  the  nation  in    men 

that  for  some  time  after  the  war  the  people  of  Europe  are 
going  to  look  to  them  for  help  in  the  rebuilding  of  a  broken 
world.  It  IS  with  this  in  mind  that  the  United  States  Govei^ 
ment  is  providing  for  after-the-war  control  of  prices  pS- 
tion,  railroads,  shipping  and  exports  that  the  needs  of  foreign 
countries  may  not  be  exploited  by  private  enterprise.     It  has 

wm  be^'mn^y^  ^^  "^"7  Governments  so  tLt  the  worS 
will  be  run  on  a  more  or  less  communal  basis  untU  at  least 

ILll^T''^}'  "°™.^'  ^t^t*^  °^  ^«^'^  °nce  more  preSs 
after  a  day  of  peace  has  dawned.  pievaus 

As  American  influence  is  increasingly  felt  in  the  war  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  mUitary  Ind  politkal  enterprLe! 


so  sharply  defined  by  President  Wilson,  becomes  more  apparent 
and  his  purpose  more  intelligible.  The  President  is  deter- 
mined if  possible  to  confine  America's  effort  in  Europe  purely 
to  military  and  economic  assistance  and  to  stand  aloof  from 
aU  political  discussions.  He  wishes  to  avoid  even  the  appear- 
ance of  dictation  in  European  affairs,  and  above  aU  he  does 
not  want  the  Government  of  the  United  States  through  the 
presence  of  a  large  number  of  American  representatives  in 
AlUed  Councils  to  drift  into  the  position  of  a  referee  or  a 
"  balance  of  power." 

The  original  idea  as  conceived  in  Washington  was  for  the 
Allies  to  agree  as  to  their  needs  and  for  America  to  supply 
them  as  best  she  could.  It  was  found,  however,  that  this  plan 
has  grave  disadvantages,  and  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
that  Americans  should  be  on  the  spot  in  London,  Paris  and 
Rome  to  discuss  ways  and  means  at  length  when  occasion 
arose.  It  is  significant  that  the  return  of  Colonel  House  to 
Washington  from  his  visit  to  Europe  was  foUowed  by  a 
decided  broadening  in  the  operations  of  the  American 
Government  abroad.  This  astute  and  unofficial  adviser  to 
the  President  grasped  the  situation  as  usual.  Commissioners 
were  appointed,  delegates  to  Conferences  appeared  in  London, 
Paris  and  Rome,  and  the  American  Government,  through 
carefully  selected  men  of  high  character  and  reputation, 
entered  into  closer  personal  relations  with  current  European 
affairs  than  heretofore.  These  men  are  working  in  closest 
co-operation  with  representatives  of  the  Allies,  and  they  are 
in  a  position  to  achieve  a  real  understanding  of  the  necessities 
of  the  day,  the  order  of  precedence  to  be  given  to  these 
necessities  and  to  keep  the  Washington  Government  informed 
daily  as  to  the  progress  of  events.  AU  this  is  more  or  less 
distinct  from  the  purely  mUitary  situation,  for  that  lies  in 
other  hands  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  national  or  inter- 
national politics. 

President  Wilson  has  been  so  careful  not  to  give  even  the 
appearance  of  attempting  to  play  a  part  in  European  politics 
and  not  to  allow  the  United  States  Government  to  become 
the  arbiter  in  inter-AUied  affairs  that  he  has  created  an 
impression  of  American  aloofness  from  the  war.  It  is  im- 
portant therefore  to  understand  that  this  aloofness  applies 
only  to  matters  not  directly  concerned  with  military  or 
economic  operations  and  that  it  is  but  the  expression  of  an 
Amencan  foreign  policy,  the  only  principle  held  and  practised 
consistently  since  1776,  that  of  non-interference  in  the 
political  fortunes  of  other  Powers.  There  is  no  aloofness 
from  the  war  itself,  for  America  has  entered  into  that  with 
aU  the  ardour  of  a  people  engaged  in  a  sacred  cause,  and  the 
nation  is  led  in  this  by  President  WUson  himself  with  words 
that  have  been  voluntarily  adopted  by  the  AUied  Governments 
as  a  complete  expression  of  their  own  ideals  and  purpose. 

Several  speakers  in  England  have  recently  referred  to  the 
wonder  of  Amencan  participation  in  the  war  "  in  spite  of 
the  Monroe  Doctrine." 

There  seems  to  be  a  slight  misunderstanding  here,  for  the 
so-caUed  *  Monroe  Doctrine  "  was  simply  the  enunciation  of 
a  purpose  to  the  effect  that  no  foreign  Power  should  be  aUowed 
to  acquire  landed  possessions  in  the  Western  Hemisphere 
other  than  those  already  there.  It  is  weU  understood  in 
Amenca  that  if  Germany  won  this  war  in  Europe  the  United 
States  would  shortly  be  caUed  upon  to  defend  the  Monroe 
JJoctrine  against  an  all-powerful  and  victorious  Germany. 
American  soldiers  in  France  are  now,  in  a  sense,  fighting  for 
the  Monroe  Doctrme  on  a  far-flung  frontier. 

It  was  not  President  Monroe,  but  President  Washington, 
m  his  fareweU  address,  who  advised  his  feUow  countrymen 
against  entangling  aUiances  "  with  foreign  Powers,  and  this 
warning  was  adopted  as  an  important  feature  of  American 
foreign  policy  from  that  time  on.  By  entangling  aUiances 
Washington  meant  those  "  offensive  and  defensive  "  treaties 
which  in  the  past  have  dragged  unwiUing  Governments  and 
unhappy  peoples  into  wars  not  of  their  making,  but  if  Wash- 
ington was  President  of  the  United  States  to-day  he  would 
undoubtedly  haU  with  satisfaction  any  suggestion  of  foreign 
worid^''^        sufficient  strength  to  ensure  the  peace  of,  the 

The  presence  of  an  American  army  in  France  to-day  is  but 
an  expression  and  a  culmination  of  all  President  Washington 
fought  for  and  mterpreted  to  his  people.  It  might  have  been 
him  and  not  President  WUson  who  said  the  other  day  that 
to  the  vmdication  of  human  liberty  the  American  people 
are  ready  to  devote  their  lives,  their  honour  and  everything 
they  possess.  The  moral  climax  of  this,  the  culmination  and 
final  war  for  human  liberty,  has  come,  and  they  are  ready  to 
put  their  own  strength,  their  own  highest  purpose,  their  own 
mtegnty,  to  the  test."  f    f      > 


February    28,    191 8 


Land    &   Water 


13 


A  Prevalent  Inconsistency :    By  L.   P.  Jacks 


THOSE  who  study  the  working  of  their  minds 
in  the  present  crisis — and  it  is  wise  to  do  this 
occasionally — will  perhaps  join  me  in  confessing 
to  a  measure  of  inconsistency.  I  am  not  speaking 
of  logic,  but  of  temper — of  changing  moods :  as 
when,  for  example,  a  man  is  by  turns  depressed  and  exalted. 
There  is  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  such  discords,  for  con- 
sistency of  temper  can  hardly  be  reckoned  a  hurhan  virtue 
at  all.  At  one  extreme  it  is  a  prerogative  of  the  gods,  at  the 
other  a  limitation  of  the  brutes  ;  so  that  if  ever  we  encounter 
a  being  whose  moods  are  never  in  conflict  we  maj'  conclude 
that  he  is  either  supra-humanly  wise  or  infra-humanly  stupid 
— probably  the  latter.  For  my  part  I  find  human  nature 
most  lovable  and  interesting  precisely  at  those  points  where 
it  is  hardest  to  understand,  that  is,  when  its  moods  contradict 
one  another.  There  is  really  nothing  to  deplore  in  these 
conflicts — not  even  when  active  in  the  mind  of  society  at 
large,  as  they  are  at  the  present  moment.  They  are  a  source 
of  energy  ;  powers  that  move  the  world  come  out  of  their 
clash.  A  man  or  an  age  whose  temper  never  varied  would 
be  a  nonentity  in  the  world  of  action. 

There  are  a  good  many  of  these  inconsistencies  now  in 
evidence,  all  interesting,  and  all  bearing  witness  to  the  rich 
complexities  of  human  nature.  But  the  one  which  seems  to 
me  most  worthy  of  attention  at  the  moment  is  that  strange 
mingling  of  the  sense  of  power  and  the  sense  of  powerlSssness 
which  arises  in  most  of  us  as  we  view  the  course  of  current 
events.  On  the  one  hand  we  feel  ourselves  to  be  taking  part 
in  a  series  of  the  greatest  actions  ever  performed  by  man,  and 
the  feeling  is  our  sense  of  power.  On  the  other,  we  seem  at 
times  to  be  in  the  grip  of  vast  forces  over  which  we  have  no 
control  whatsoever,  powerless  as  atoms  in  a  whirling  vortex. 
Our  minds  oscillate  between  the  two  attitudes,  mastership 
and  helplessness.  Some  would  call  this  a  glaring  inconsistency. 
But  I  doubt  if  it  often  glares,  though  unquestionably  it  does 
so  sometimes.  More  frequently  it  lurks,  and  is  to  be  found 
only  by  those  whom  Nature  has  endowed  with  a  good  memory 
for  their  changing  moods — by  those,  I  mean,  who  when  they 
have  seen  themselves  for  a  moment  in  the  glass  of  self-know- 
ledge do  not  "  straightway  forget  what  manner  of  men  they 
were." 

There  are  moments  when  the  sense  of  power  rises  to  an 
extraordinary  height  and  possesses  whole  multitudes  of  men 
at  once.  When,  for  example,  a  new  idea,  like  that  of  a  League 
of  Nations,  first  gets  possession  of  our  minds  we  are  like  men 
intoxicated.  We  feel  that  a  magic  sword  has  been  placed  in 
our  hands,  and  it  needs  only  that  we  lay  about  us  with  vigour 
to  bring  a  whole  world  of  wrong  and  error  tumbling  down. 
Many  examples  might  be  given  of  men  whom  the  advent  of 
new  ideas  has  thus  intoxicated  with  the  sense  of  p)ower — the 
French  revolutionists,  the  Positivists,  the  Malthusians,  the 
Darwinians,  the  mid- Victorian  Radicals,  the  scientific 
materialists,  the  followers  of  Henry  George,  the  early 
Socialists.  The  Bolsheviks  provide  a  contemporary  example. 
They,  too,  are  out  to  move  mountains.  We  call  them  fools 
and  madmen  ;  and  so  they  may  be  ;  but  are  there  no  ideas 
of  our  own  to  which,  at  one  time  or  another,  we  have  attri- 
buted an  equal  measure  of  wonder-working  power  ? 

This  mood  of  masterful  confidence,  which  is  quite  sincere 
while  it  lasts,  is  our  public  attitude  ;  the  side  of  our  minds  we 
show  to  one  another.  We  find  it  in  the  speeches  of  statesmen  ; 
in  the  Proclamations  of  Emperors  and  the  Notes  of  Presidents ; 
in  the  programmes  of  political  parties  and  schools  ;  in  propa- 
ganda of  all  kinds  ;  in  the  literature  of  social  reconstruction. 
All  these  breathe  the  spirit  of  mastership. 

World  Dominion  > 

There  is  an  expression  lately  come  into  evil  prominence 
which  curiously  reflects  these  feelings.  It  is  the  phrase 
"  world-dominion."  The  idea  of  world-dominion  has  many 
forms,  and  we  are  unjust  to  the  Prussian  militarists  in  treating 
them  as  its  solitary  exponents.  We  are  all  addicted  to  the 
notion  that  the  world  can  be  dominated — indeed  we  are  all 
trying  to  get  it  dominated  by  our  own  ideas  of  what  is 
good  for  it.  World-dominion  has  been  claimed  at  various 
times  for  various  things — for  religion  (or  for  some  partic- 
ular doctrine  of  religion)  ;  for  pliilosophy  (as  in  Plato)  ; 
for  the  Goddess  of  Reason,  for  science,  for  socialistic 
ideals,  for  Labour.  And  always  the  claim  has  been  made 
by  men  who,  from  one  cause  or  another,  were  intoxiaited 
or— if  the  word  be  disliked — exalted  by  their  sense  of 
power.  Some  men  are  thus  exalted  always.  All  men  are 
thus  exalted  sometimes.  It  is  a  frame  of  mind  which 
craves  publicity  and  usually  issues  in  a  programme  of  world- 


dominion,  either  &i  this  kind  or  of  that.  Such  programmes 
are  plentiful  at  the  present  moment,  and  they  have  more  in 
common  with  one  another  than  appears  at  first  sight.  The 
League  of  Peace,  for  example,  is  obviously  a  scheme  of  world- 
dominion,  and  differs  from  tlie  Prussian  militarists  only  as 
to  the  methods  to  be  applied.  So,  too,  when  war  broke  out  in 
Heaven,  as  narrated  in  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  (which,  by  the 
way,  is  the  best  of  war  books  for  present  reading),  the 
belligerents  were  agreed  on  the  general  necessity  of  world- 
dominion.  They  differed  as  to  the  principle  of  domination 
and  fought  to  settle  the  question. 

Masters  of  the  World. 

The  idea  of  world-dominion,  now  prevalent  everywhere  in 
one  or  other  of  its  many  forms,  seems  to  indicate  that  in  some 
sense  we  are  masters  of  the  world — a  view  of  ourselves  which 
implies  an  enormous  sense  of  power.  This,  however,  is 
only  the  public  aspect  of  our  mentality.  In  every  age,  cer- 
tainly in  our  own,  there  is  a  side  of  human  life  from  which 
reporters  are  excluded,  or  rather,  from  which  reporters  exclude 
themselves  because  it  fails  to  provide  them  with  marketable 
copy.  It  is  the  existence  of  this  unreported  side  which 
makes  history  difficftlt  to  write,  and  often  untrustworthy  when 
written.  The  sense  of  powerlessness  belongs  to  it.  It 
naturally  tends  to  hide  or  at  least  to  express  itself  in  whispers 
and  undertones.  When  a  man  believes  that  he  is  captain  of 
his  soul,  or  (like  the  Kaiser)  a  ruler  of  other  men's  destinies, 
he  can  hardly  'keep  his  feelin'gs  to  himself  ;  but  when  mis- 
givings assail  him  and  he  feels  as  though  the  bottom  were 
dropping  out  of  the  world,  he  will  say  as  little  about  it  as 
possible,  both  in  the  public  interest  and  in  his  own.  I  think, 
therefore,  that  we  should  be  wrong  in  concluding  that  the 
sense  of  powerlessness  is  non-existent  because  so  little  of  it 
gets  reported  in  books,  in  public  speeches,  in  documents  of 
one  kind  or  another.  The  future  historian  will  misre- 
present the  men  of  to-day  if  he  stops  at  describing 
them  as  amazingly  cocksure.  He  will  misrepresent  them  by 
telling  only  half  of  the  truth.  They  are  amazingly  cocksure  ; 
but  woven  in  with  all  this  self-confidence  there  is  a  strain  of 
profound  misgiving  as  to  the  general  state  of  the  world.  For 
the  evidence  of  this  we  must  look  to  the  unreported  side  of 
human  life — ^the  conversations  of  statesmen  after  dinner,  the 
confessions  of  intimate  friends,  the  talk  of  the  club  and  the 
railway  carriage;  the  outcries  of  imaginative  men  who  lie 
awake  at  night — things  which,  'from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
are  not  intended  for  publication. 

These  two  strains,  the  sense  of  power  and  the  sense  of 
powerlessness,  unquestionably  co-exist,  the  one  public,  the 
other  private,  and  each  speaking  in  opposite  tones.  The  one 
talks  proudly  of  science,  and  persuades  us  that  with  science 
at  our  elbow  we  can  move  mountains  ;  the  other  reminds  us 
that  science  itself  hasgot  out  of  hand  and  become  an  implement 
for  the  self-destruction  of  mankind.  The  one  points  to  the 
miracles  of  effort  and  organisation  which  the  nation  can 
accomplish  when,  as  now,  it  is  inspired  by  a  unitary  motive  ; 
the  other  feplies  that  a  unitary  motive  may  play  all  kinds  of 
damnable  tricks  ;  for  example,  when  it  takes  the  form  of 
Pan-Germanism  and  threatens  to  wreck  civilisation.  The 
one  proclaims  that  we  are  partners  in  mighty  actions  directed 
by  the  intelligent  purpose  of  the  common  mind ;  the  other 
answers  that  these  mighty  actions  are  forced  upon  us  by 
circumstances  over  which  we  have  no  control ;  that  the  world 
is  full  of  violent,  unpredictable,  explosive  forces;  that  we 
are  in  the  grip  of  elemental  powers  ;  that  we  are  like  men 
who  eat  and  drink  while  an  earthquake  is  rocking  the  house. 
The  two  views  are  interwoven  in  the  consciousness  of  all  of 
us ;  the  one  giving  rise  to  public  utterance,  the  other  to 
private  thought.  Here  it  is  that  we  are  not  consistent  with 
■  ourselves. 

The  causes  which  have  given  rise  to  the  sense  of  power  are 
well  known,  the  achievements  of  science  being  the  most 
obvious.  The  causes  of  the  opposite  feeling  are  less  familiar, 
though  no  less  deserving  of  study.  One  of  them  is  especially 
worthy  of  attention  at  the  present  moment,  because  it  seems 
likely  to  issue  in  important  political  developments.  It  pro- 
ceeds from  a  state  of  things  which  one  might  expect  to  con- 
tribute to  our  sense  of  power,  but  which  oddly  enough  is 
beginning  to  have  the  opposite  effect — I  mean,  the  enormous 
mass  and  volume  of  the  modern  State.  As  an  exhibition  of 
power,  what  could  be  more  impressive  than  a  statistical 
account  of  one  of  the  great  empires  of  the  world- — its  jiopulation, 
its  wealth,  the  immense  volume  of  its  civil  and  military 
machinery  ?  Not  without  reason  do  they  call  themselves 
"  Great  Powers."     But  the  sense  of  power  in  the  people  is 


1+ 


Land   &   Water 


February   2n,    1910 


not  tlie  knowle.if.''*  that  national  power  exists,  but  that  they, 
the  people,  have  it  in  their  own  control.  If  the  jwwer  exists, 
but  is  uncontrolled  in  its  action  or  subject  to  control  which 
is  not  in  their  hands,  then  its  existence  will  only  serve  to 
spread  the  sense  of  powerlessness  in  the  people  who  stand 
in  its  presence.  This  is  the  actual  state  of  things  at  the 
present  moment. 

If  one  were  asked  to  name  off-hand  the  outstanding  feature 
of  our  present  political  life  the  answer  would  probably  be  "  the 
growing  power  of  the  masses  "  ;  and  there  is  an  obvious  sense 
in  which  the  answer  might  be  accepted  as  true.  It  correctly 
describes  the  fact  that  policy  is  Ix'coming  less  dependent  on 
the  wills  of  a  few  and  more  susce]jtible  to  forces  which  originate 
with  the  masses  of  the  people.  But  if  it  were  offered  as  an 
account  of  our  p(^^)litical  psychology,  as  meaning  that  the 
average  citizen  is  conscious  of  growing  {wwer  as  a  political 
unit,  I  .should  be  inclined  to  question  its  truth,  even  to  say 
that  it  is  the  reverse  of  true.  In  the  consciousness  of  the 
citizen,  whether  working  man  or  any.  other,  it  is  the  sense 
of  powerlessness  and  not  the  sense  of  power  which  for  the 
moment  has  the  ascendancy. 

There  is  a  widespread  feeling  at  work  that  the  human  world 
of  to-day,  the  world  with  wliich  high  politics  is  concerned, 
has  gro\yn  too  big  to  be  manageable  by  any  existing  methods 
of  political  control ;  that  neither  representative  government 
nor  government  of  any  other  type  is  competent  to  deal  with 
the  immense  and  incalculable  forces  of  which  modern  com- 
munities are  the  seat.     This  feeling,  which  is  only  just  begin- 
ning to  reach  the  stage  of  an  articulate  idea,  is  a  consequence, 
unforeseen  by  early  political  thinkers,  of  the  enormous  increase 
of  mass,  measured  in  terms  of  jxipulation,  which  has  taken 
place  in  all  the  great  empires  of  the  world.     On  every  hand 
the  signs  are  multiplying  that  policy,  seeking  to  control  the 
destinies  of  these  masses,  is  unable  to  cope  with  its  problems. 
In  the  e.xpressive  vernacular  of  a  working  man  with  whom 
I  was  recently  discussing  these  questions  in  a  Northern  town, 
'the  Governments  of  Europe  have  all  bitten  off  more  than 
they  can  chew  "  ;  and  he  went  on  to  speak,  with  much  intelli- 
gence,  I  thought,  of  the  Russian  revolution,  and  of  Russia 
Itself  as  a  country  whose  very  bigness  rendered  it  unmanage- 
able.    Needless  to  say  the  war  has  given  a  new  vitality  to 
these  thoughts. 

Whatever  the  true  causes  of  the  war  may  have  been, 
the  peoples  of  Europe  know  very  well  that  it  is  none 
of  their  doing,  and  this  has  greatly  deepened  the  feel- 
ing of  helplessness,  the  sense  that  they  are  at  the  mercy 
of  elemental  powers— and  that  not  in  one  class  alone,  but  in 
^"-  .J.*'^  ^  complicated  state  of  mind  and  full  of  strange 
possibilities  for  the  future  history  of  the  world.  One  might 
expect  that  a  man  would  gain  a  new  sense  of  power  in  remem- 
benng  that  he  is  an  active  member  of  a  community  of  fifty  or 


a  hundred  million  souls.  Just  now  it  serves  rather  to  remind 
him  of  his  powerlessness.  What  can  he  do  as  a  mere  unit  in 
a  totality  so  enormous  ?  He  seems  to  himself  a  scarcely 
noticeable  atom,  impotent  to  affect  the  destinies  of  the  State 
one  way  or  another.  What  wonder  that  his  patriotism  is 
apt  to  be  confused,  or  to  disappear  altogether,  as  it  seems  to 
have  done  in  Russia. 

Concurrent,   then,  with  the  sense  of  power,  expressed  in 
our  many  schemes  of  "  world-dominion,"  we  have  to  reckon 
with  an  opposite  tendency — a  growing  lack  of  faith  in  tlie 
value  of  }X)litical  action,  and  in  the  efficacy  of  what  has  hitherto 
been    called    "  government."     What    the   outcome   of    these 
opposing  currents  will  be  it  would  be  dangerous  to  forecast. 
Much  will  depend  on  the  precise  form  in  which  the  war  comes 
to  an  end.     A  German  victory  would  unquestionably  tend 
to  perpetuate  the  e.xisting  political  system  of  Europe,  a  system 
profoundly  distrusted,  and  for  good  reasons,  by  the  people. 
There  would   be  more  centralisation   than   ever.     And  that 
not  only  on  the  part  of  Germany  ;  for  the  defeated  empires 
would  do  their  best  to  consolidate  their  vast  territories  and 
populations  with  a  view  to  the  subsequent  overthrow  of  the 
conqueror.     A  victory  of  the  Allies,  on  the  other  hand,  would 
open  the  way  to  a  drastic  revision  of  the  whole  structure  of 
modern  empire.     I  use  the  word  revision  rather  than  revolu- 
tion, in  t]-Lf  coming  of  which  I  do  not  believe  ;   and  I  hazard 
the  guess  that  it  would  take  the  form  of  decentralisation  on  a 
principle  of  world  policy. 

It  is  certain  that  one  of  the  chief  forces  which  accounts  for 
the  growth  of  great  empires,  and  maintains  them  in  their 
enormous  unities,  has  been  the  necessity,  real  or  supposed, 
of  resisting  each  other's  aggression.  If  the  war  ends  in  such 
a  way  as  to  ensure  the  future  peace  ot  the  world — and  this  it 
can  only  do  by  the  victory  of  the  AllieS— the  fear  of  mutual 
aggression  will  be  removed  ;  which  is  as  much  as  to  say  that 
the  military  reason  for  the  existence  of  the  present  empires 
will  be  open  to  revision.  What  will  follow  ?  What  I  imagine 
is  not  a  revolutionary  attack  upon  existing  Governments  but 
a  movement  working  behind  them  towards  a  new  grouping  of 
mankind,  which  will  cut  across  the  present  territorial  divisions 
of  the  world,  and  lead  to  the  creation  of  many  new  com- 
munities. Into  this  movement  the  Governments  themselves 
will  be  swept  sooner  or  later  ;  they  will,  in  fact,  be  called 
upon  to  direct  it,  and  overthrown  only  in  the  event  of  their 
proving  incompetent  to  the  task.  The  sense  of  power  and 
the  sense  of  powerlessness  have  both  to  be  reckoned  with. 
Just  because  the  people  are  aware  of  their  power  they  will 
not  endure  a  day  longer  than  is  necessary  the  state  of  power- 
lessness to  which  the  political  system  of  Europe  has  reduced 
them.  So  long  as  the  war  lasts  they  will  probably  endure  it 
refusing  to  follow  the  abortive  and  bad  example  of  Russia' 
But  afterwards  ? 


[N.B— Though  this  story  is  based  on  an  actual  incident, 
the  characters  as  described  here  are  wholly  imaginary.] 

MY  DEAR  NAP,"  said  the  captain  of  H.M. 
destroyer  "  Bloodhound  "  to  his  First  Lieu- 
tenant, "zeal  is  excellent  in  its  right  place. 
In  the  abstract  it  is,  I  suppose,  always  a 
,  desirable  trait  in  either  one's  own  or  anyone 

else  s  character,  but  in  real  life  it  is  often  a  dashed  nuisance  " 
Lieutenant-Commander  Airmach  lit  another  cigarette    and 
continued  : — ■  ' 

"  Take  the  Gunner." 

At  these  words  Lieutenant  Clambos,  sometimes  caUed 
Napoleon.from  the  shape  of  his  head,  but  more  often  linown 
as  iNap  stirred  uneasily  on  the  settee  upon  which'  he  was 
lying  and  murmured  something  that  seemed  to  be  in  the 
nature  ot  a  prayer. 

somewhat  "'''^''"^  ^^^^  thinking  of  the  Gunner  moved  him 

Airmadl"  ''^  ^''  ""^"'^  ^^"^  °^''^'  '^^^'"  gloo^^^y  remarked 

"Do  you  mean  the  grabby's*  dinner-party  we  eave  ?  " 
in(juired  the  recumbent  First  Lieutenant  ^      ^  ^^  ^^^^  ' 

therP  f"*  ^''°"  ',  ^\^'^'^  r*  ''^'^"  anything  else  since,  has 
there  .'      an.xiousiy  demanded  Airmach 

Oh,  only  last  night  he  fired  a  rifle  bullet  across  a  flag- 
officer  s  barge,  which  was  taking  the  old  boy  back  from  a 
dinner-party  in   the  flagship.     The  boat  had    engines    that 

oTSursTThe'c'  '  '"'•'""^'^^'^  't^""'  ^'"^'^  rag-tim'e  band   so 
CnrlT  coxswain   never  heard  the  hail  and  our  Mr. 

Cocker  assumed  it  was    a  Turkish  destroyer  or  other  'ostile 

*  Sailors'  nickname  for  a  soldier. 


Zeal  :    By   Etienne 


craft  and  fired  a  shot  across  his  bows.  The  flag-officer  was  in 
the  stern  sheets  digesting,  and-  though  he  was  a  hundred 
yards  off,  it  was  quite  easy  to  see  the  colour  of  his  face  by  the 
light  of  his  cigar,  they  harmonised  somewhat,"  eloquently 
concluded  Clambos.  ^ 

''  Well  it  might  be  worse,"  remarked  the  skipper.  "  He 
didn  t  hit  anyone,  did  he  .?  "    . 

"We  haven't  had  the  Service  letter  about  it  yet,"  said  the 
i-irst  J^ieutenant,  "  so  he  may  have  done  for  all  I  know.   Lord  ! 

Straits  '^"  '"  ^^'^  ^^''^*''   '^^"  '^  '*  ""''  *''™  *°  ^^^''°^  *^^ 

"To-morrow  at  dawn  my  boy,  will  see  you  hauling  the 
hook  up  on  the  fo  c'sle.  We've  got  to  patrol  the  West  flank 
trom  9  a.m  for  twenty-four  hours.  I  hope  that  perishin' 
field  gun  on  Gaba  el  Wad  has  been  flopped  out  by  the  Anzacs. 
Johnnie  Turk  will  catch  us  bending  with  it  one  day  I  bet 
they  ve  got  some  swine  of  a  Hun  spotting  for  them  " 

A  propos  of  that  gun,"  remarked  Clambos,  "Mr.  Cocker 
told  me  he  had  a  scheme  for  silencing  it  " 

"  No  doubt  he  has,"  replied  Airmach.  "  Our  Mr.  Cocker 
has  a  scheme  for  most  enterprises.  I  shouldn't  object  to  them  if 
they  didn  t  invariably  recoil  on  my  head,"  with  which  remark 

A^"^    Y  ^^"'  """"^  ''^^^^'^^  ^f  tl^ere  was  any  soda  on  board. 

Mr.  Carlo  Bimpero.  Maltese  steward,  second  class,  answered 
the  summons  and  replied  in  the  negative. 

'I  Have  we  any  beer  ?  "  demanded  the  Captain 
No,  Sah  !  "  briskly  replied  Carlo 

CanS^  "n'/v"w  n"^  K  ^"dignantly  demanded  the 
Captain.  Didn  t  I  tell  you  last  Thursday  to  get  some  from 
the  store  ship  next  time  we  were  in  the  base  ?  " 

to  fv,  ;  ^'''' .'  •  ^""^  \^?\  ^''^  ^  ^°-  ^  tell  you  Signer  I  go  myself 
to  the  store  ship  and  I  bring  the  beer.  It  was  Monday,  Signor. 
I  remember  the  day,  Sah,  because  I  getta  a  lettah  from  my  wifa 


February   28,    191 8 


Land  &  Water 


15 


Rosetta.    She  tell  me  I  haf  a  baby,  a  bello  bambino,  a  verra 
fine— — " 

"  Confound  your  baby,  what  about  the  beer  ?  " 
"  Yes,  Sah,  certainly,  Sah.  I  say,  Signor,  I  bring  de  beer  to 
zis  ship,  and  then  what  'appen  ?  I  tell  you,  Sah.  Dat  damfool 
Giuseppe  he  putta  de  beer  on  de  after  boiler-casing,  and  de 
heat  it  affect  de  beer,  Sah,  and  de  beer  maka  de  pop-bang, 
and,  Santa  Maria;  in  a  meenit  he  has  gone  !  It  gives  me  great 
regret  to  tell  you  dis  story,  Signor.  It  never  shall  happen 
again." 

"  You'll  sack  Giuseppe  when  we  get  back  '  to  Malta," 
announced  Airmach. 

"  Oh,  Sah  !  he  verra  good  boy.  His  mother  and  my  Rosetta 
are  sistahs,  Signor." 

"  Oh  get  out  of  it,  Carlo,"  Wearily  remarked  the  Captain, 
and  Signor  Bimpcro,  knowing  J.ieutenant-Commander 
Airmach,  deemed  it  advisable  to  withdraw. 

"  No  beer,  no  whiskey,  no  nothing.  I'm  going  to  repose 
in  my  cabin.  Let  me  know  if  an}'  ciphers  come  through."  And 
with  a  colossal  yawn  the  skipper  left  the  sweltering  ward  room 
for  the  slightly  cooler  shelter  .of  his  upper-deck  cabin,  on  the 
forebridge. 

Lieutenant  Clambos  re-read  La  Vie  Parisienne  for  the 
third  time,  cursed  his  lack  of  application  to  the  study  of 
the  French  language  in  the  earlier  days  of  his  youth,  cursed 
the  heat,  the  flies,  Gallipoli,  and  life  in  general,  and  then 
gently  dropped  off  into  an  uneasy  sleep. 

The  perfect  peace  which  brooded  over  the  destroyer  as  she 
lay  on  the  glassy  surface  of  her  base  amidst  half  a  dozen  of  her 
sisters  was  only  broken  by  the  low  persistent  rumble  of  the 
guns  which  rolled  across  from  the  blood-stained  peninsula 
and  echoed  and  re-echoed  dully  on  the  rocky  and  sun-dried 
shore  of  Rabbit  Island. 

The  whole  ship's  company  seemed  asleep,  and  though  lier 
bare  iron  decks  were  unpleasantly  hot  to  the  hand,  recumbent 
figures  were  scattered  fore  and  aft  in  such  shadow  as  her 
ventilators,  funnels  and  torpedo  tubes  afforded.  There  was 
one  notable  exception  to  this  state  of  slumber. 

The  e\ception  was  Mr.  Cocker,  Gunner  (T).  This  gentle- 
man was  sitting  in  his  cabin  right  aft.  attired  in  a  pair  of  duck 
trousers  and  a  vest,  and  sweating  profusely.  Every  few 
moments  he  absently-minded  dabbed  his  forehead  with  a  piece 
of  Service  blotting  paper.  His  dampness  was  due  to  two 
causes:  first  the  Gallipoli  sun,  secondly,  he  was  writing  a 
letter.  When  it  is  added  that  the  letter  was  to  a  girl,  much  is 
explained.  Mr.  Cocker  was  a  big  man,  and  looking  at  him  in 
his  cabin  one  was  irresistibly  reminded  of  those  model  ships 
you  see  inside  bottles,  which  are  used  to  adorn  so  many  public 
houses. 

On  this  very  hot  afternoon,  Mr.  Cocker  was  endeavouring 
to  write  a  letter  to  a  certain  young  lady  in  Plymouth  for 
whom  he  had  a  deep  and  abiding  affection.  It  was  a  lamen- 
table and  deplorable  fact,  from  Mr.  Cocker's  point  of  view, 
that  this  affection  was  not  entirely  reciprocated.  The  young 
lady's  affections  wavered  between  Mr.  Cocker  and  Quarter- 
master-Sergeant Basher  of  the  R.M.L.I.,  recently  awarded 
the  Military  Medal  for  having  throttled  a  Hun  in  a  trench  raid 
on  the  Western  Front.  It  was  this  medal  that  seemed  to  lie 
like  a  shadow  between  Mr.  Cocker  and  his  adored  one,  as  he 
savagely  bit  his  pen  in  his  tiny  cabin  ;  for  the  young  lady 
had  intimated  in  a  letter  which  lay  before  him  that  the 
■gallant  Basher  was  pressing  his  claims  per  medium  of  field 
postcards,  and  that  although  she  did  not  withdraw  all  hope 
from  the  more  distant  Alfred  Cocker,  yet  her  patriotism  told 
her  that  his  chances  would  be  considerably  improved  were  he 
to  achieve  some  martial  glory.  "  At  least,  Alf,"  she  concluded, 
"  if  you  really  love  me  you  will  get  mentioned  in  despatches. 
Bill  has  sent  me  his  photo  taken  with  the  medal  on.  He  looks 
a  hero." 

"  Blinkin'  Turkey*;  flat-footed  grabby,  that's  what  he 
is,"  muttered  Air.  Cocker  as  he  continued  to  wrestle  with  the 
problem  of  convincing  the  damsel  that  he  belonged  to  a  service 
noted  for  its  silence  and  in  which  potential  V.C.s  might  blush 
unseen  and  unheard  of. 

Mr.  Cocker  had  been  aware  of  the  lady's  partiality  for  heroes 
for  some  months,  and  when  he  had  left  England  in  the  spring 
to  join  the  "  Bloodhound  "  he  had  registered  a  mighty  oath 
to  distinguish  himself  in  some  manner  or  other. 

The  power  of  love  is  great,  and  in  the  two  months  he  had 
been  in  the  ship  he  had  certainly  distinguished  himself,  but 
not  in  a  manner  likely  to  bring  a  medal  to  his  manly  breast  or 
even  a  mention  in  despatches. 

His  first  exploit  had  been  to  arrest  and  confine  in  the  after- 
hold  for  three  hours  an  individual  who  had  strolled  on  board  the 
ship  at  4  p.m.  one  day  in  plain  clothes  in  Malta  Dockyard. 
On  Airmach's  return  from  the  club  at  7  p.m.  he  had  instantly 
ordered  the  release  of  the  prisoner,  and  a  dishevelled  apparition, 
.smelling  strongly,  of  tar,  paint,  and  new  ropfe,  had  emerged 

.  *  Sailors'  nickname  for  a  marine. 


from  the  manhole.  Wlien  it  could  speak,  it  transpired  that 
Lieutenant-Commander  Airmach  had  entertained  unawares 
a  highly  respectable  Member  of  Parliament,  on  a  commission 
travelhng  through  Malta  to  the  Far  East. 

This  episode  was  but  the  first  of  a  series  culminating  in  an 
awful /(7«r  pas  at  a  military  dinner,  which  cannot  be  described 
even  here,  and  lastly  he  had  only  the  night  before  committed 
the  belise  of  adhering  strictly  to  the  letter  of.  the  regulations 
in  a  matter  concerning  a  flag-officer.  At  6  p.m.  Mr.  Cocker 
completed  his  labours  and  took  to  his  bunk,  there  to  revolve 
in  his  active  brain  fresh  schemes  whereby  he  might  impress  his 
captain  with  a  proper  sense  of  Alfred  Cocker's  efficiency 
*  *  *  *  * 

The  next  day  at  dawn,  as  ordered,  the  "  Bloodhound  " 
weighed  anchor  and  proceeded  towards  the  peninsula. 

At  6  a.m.  Mr.  Cocker  came  up  to  relieve  Clambos,  who 
warned  him  before  turning  over  that  it  had  been  definitely 
established  that  German  submarines  had  arrived,  and  a 
look-out  was  to  be  kept  accordingly.  Mr.  Cocker's  face  lit 
up  on  the  instant,  and  who  shall  say  what  visions  flitted  through 
his  optimistic  mind.  Imagine  then,  if  it  be  possible,  what  his 
feelings  were  when  at  6.30  a.m.,  distant  half  a  mile  on  the 
port  bow,  he  sighted  a  small  dark  projection  apparently 
standing  up  about  a  foot  above  the  water.  To  ring  "  Full 
speed  ahead  "  and  starboar^  his  helm  was  the  work  of  an 
instant. 

At  ever-increasing  speed  the  "  Bloodhound  "  bore  down  on 
the  suspicious  object.  Trembling  with  excitement,  Mr.  Cocker, 
with  glasses  glued_to  his  eyes,  prayed  the  object  would  not  dip. 
When  they  had  but  three  hundred  yards  to  go  Mr.~  Cocker 
dropped  his  glasses  in  amazement,  "then,  staring  wild-eyed, 
shrieked  out  at  the  top  of  his  voice:  "  Submarine  with  four 
periscopes  right  ahead." 

As  Airmach  reached  the  bridge  the  "  Bloodhound  "  reached 
her  quarry,  and  there  was  a  slight  bump  and  a  perceptible 
rep>ort. 

"  We  got  her.    I  got  her.    We  got  her !  "  exulted  Mr.  Cocker, 
executing  a  species  of  war-dance  round  the  bridge. 
"  Got  what,  Mr.  Cocker  ?  " 

"  Submarine,  Sir  !     With  four  periscopes.    Four  of  'em,  Sir  ! 
Saw  'em  with  my  own  eyes.      Must  be  one  of  their  latest. 
Rammed  her  fair  and  square." 
"  Nonsense,"  said  the  captain. 

"  But  didn't  you  feel  the  bump  ?  "  indignantly  demanded 
the  Gunner.  * 

"  Yes,  I  did  feel  something,"  admitted  Airmach.  "  Turn 
the  ship  round  at  once,"  he  concluded. 

"  Did  you  see  anything,  Johnson  ?  "  queried  Airmach, 
addressing  the  coxswain. 

"  Yessir !  I  see  four  hobjects,  a  sticking  up  in  the  water, 
and  we  'it  'em  fair  and  square.  Likewise  I  felt  the  blow  and 
'eard  a  noise,  a  kind  o'  underwater  bang  like." 

"  Great  Scott  !  What  an  appalling  stench !  "  remarked 
Clambos,  who  arrived  on  the  bridge  at  this  juncture. 

"  Heavens  !  what  on  earth  is  it  ?  "  said  the  captain,  as  a 
fearful  odour  began  to  pervade  the  atmosphere. 

The  next  instant  everyone  who  had  a  handkerchief  was 
applying  it  to  his  nose.  After  a  few  moments-  of  agony, 
Clambos  muttered  through  his  handkerchief,  "  It  seems  to 
come  from  fore'ard.  Sir." 

An  A.B.  was  despatched  to  explore,  and  cautiously  making 
his  way  on  the  fo's'cle,  leant  over  the  side. 

He  speedily  withdrew  his  head,  and  speaking  with  difficulty 
was  understood  to  shout  that  "  we've  gone  and  got  the  innards 
of  an  adjectival  animaul  round  our  bows." 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Mr.  Cocker  really  established 
his  reputation.  Without  hesitating  for  an  instant,  he  jammed 
both  telegraphs  to  full  speed  astern.  The  "-Bloodhound" 
came  to  rest,  and  then  slowly  gathered  stern-way. 

As  she  did  so  the  honoured  remains  detached  themselves 
from  the  bows  and  the  Mediterranean  absorbed  the  carcass  of 
a  mule  which  had  died  for  his  country  some  weeks  previously 
on  the  Gallipoli  Peninsula,  and  had  been  drifting  about  with 
his  legs  in  the  air  ever  since. 

As  a  result  of  this  adventure  Mr.  Cocker  had  a  long  inter- 
view with  Lieutenant-Commander  Airmach.  The  Gunner 
emerged  therefrom  wreathed  in  smiles  ;  exactly  what  trans- 
pired was  never  officially  published,  but  it  may  be  noted  that 
at  the  date  of  writing  Lieutenant-Commander  Airmach  is  a 
godfather  in  the  Cocker  family,  that  Mrs.  Cocker  cherishes  an 
official  "  strictly  private  "  letter  from  Lieutenant-Commander 
Airmach  which  speaks  in  glowing  terms  of  her  husband's 
unremitting  attention  to  duty  and  his  stupendous  zeal.  It  also 
insinuates  that  it  was  only  Mr.  Cocker'-s  extraordinary  modesty 
that  stood  in  the  way  of  his  being  recommended  for  a  V.C. 

Mr.  Cocker  is  still  serving  with  Lieutenant-Commander 
Airmach,  so  it  may  be  presumed  that  his  zeal  has  abated 
somewhat. 

Quartermaster-Sergeant  Basher  is  still  throttling  Huns  in 
France  with  added  viciousness. 


1 6  Land    &    Water  February   28,    19 1 8 

The  Sense  of  London  :    By  Charles   Marriott 


:>^-?^5s%; 


Greenwich   Hospital.      View  from   Observatory  Hill  over   River  Thames 


[  A>  Edgar  Wilson. 


WE  are  apt  to  forget  that  London  was  not  built 
in  a  day.  This  often  leads  us  into  insincerity, 
as  when  we  try  to  fincj^cuses  for  a  slum  because 
It  happens  to  please  our  sense  of  the  picturesque 
If  we  remembered  that  very  likely  when  the 
slum  was  built  it  was  reasonably  well  adapted  to  the  condi- 
tions of  life  prevailing  then,  we  could  indulge  our  liking  for 
the  picturesque  without  finding  it  necessary  to  pretend  that 
the  slum  is  tolerable  now.  Just  as  dirt  is  only  "  matter  in 
the  wrong  place,"  so  a  great  many  abominations  are  onlv 
wrong  in  time.     This  is  ^ 

almost  a  truism  as  re- 
gards human  virtues 
and  vices ;  everybody, 
for  example,  sees  that 
the  great  fault  of  the 
Germans  is  that  they 
are  obsolete  ;  but  I  do 
not  think  it  is  generally 
recognised  of  places  and 
institutions,  and  so 
public  nuisances  are 
allowed  to  remain  be- 
cause they  were  once 
public  benefits. 

There  are  some  parts 
of  London,  however, 
which,  though  they  were 
built  a  long  time  ago,  do 
not  seem  to  have  out- 
lived their  convenience, 
and  therefore  need  no 
insincerity  to  justify  our 
affection.  Particularly 
the  parts  that  lie  beside 
the  Thames.  On  the 
whole,  though  with  un- 
happy intervals,  they 
have  been  altered  less 
than  any  other  parts  of 

London,  and  they  do  not  seem  to  need  alteration      Often 
gnmy  and  ramshackle,  they  are  not  reallv  slnrnf    a'  ci        • 
dead  matter   like  dead  tissL  in  "tht  humL  body   alid  Zs" 
places  are  alive.     I   think  that  one   reason  why '  thev  have 

the  demand,   though   increasing  S  population    lo^^'^oi 
T^^I  ""^fu^^  '"  character  from  one  centur^  to  anoth« 
Nor  does  the  means  of  supplying  it.    The  Sr  flow"   con: 


Springtime.     View  from 


tinuous  y,  one  tide  follows  another  without  interruption  and 
with  aU  the  successive  changes  in  motive  power  a  barge  is 
still  a  barge.  These  places  are  alive,  then,  because  they  serve 
persistent  needs  and  because  they  are  constantly  in  touch 
with  the  country  and  the  sea.  They  are  organic  parts  of  the 
body  politic  and  not  excrescences.  . 

.1,^*  ^lu""!  ^"''""es  and  pleasures  and  the  means  of  gratifying 
them  that  change  rapidly  and  so  leave  the  town  behmd  The 
consequence  is  that  those  parts  of  London  which  are  associ- 
ated with  luxury  and  pleasure  look  much  more  old-fashioned, 

and    degenerate    more 
rapidly    than    do    the 
places    I     have     men- 
tioned.        They    were 
never  alive  m  the  sense 
of  serving  life.       Com- 
pared   with    the    West 
End  the  City  stiU  serves 
Its  purpose,  and  looks 
it.     So  long  as  it  is  big 
enough  a  warehouse  will 
last      a      good     many 
centuries,  and  however 
it   be  elaborated,   busi- 
ness is  still  a  matter  of 
buying  at  twopence  and 
selling      at      twopence 
ha'penny;    but   a   res- 
taurant   or    a    theatre 
must  be  within  a  year 
or  two  of  our  notions  of 
social  enjoyment  or  dra- 
matic  entertainment   if 
it  is  not  to  become  an 
anachronism.     So  far  as 
looks       go      Piccadilly 
belongs    to    the    period 
of    ''Champagne 
Charlie,"  or  thereabouts. 
The    West    End    wears 


[A>  £dgar  IViVsM. 

Old  Chelsea  Embankment 


as  Hiri^,;l  '  rT>"^^^°-^^  tTthe'needs  oTLoTdon 

t^JoncfXl^'  ^°"^  ^^-*  -"^d  haertVbfreTuS 

TheThole'of 'fl^-f  ^  "IV^'  '"^"^  characteristic  of  London, 
nn  «.^!^  ^''?*  ^"^'  ^^cept  a  comer  of  St.   James's 

an  enormous  proportion  of  London,  indeed    could  be  s^eDt 
away  without  affecting  its  individuality  among  dties.     Size 


February    28,    191 8 


Land  &  Water 


17 


does  not  make  character.  If  you  were  to  disentangle  from 
the  mass  of  what  is  called  "  Greater  London  "  the  elements 
that  distinguish  London  from  all  other  cities  you  would 
reproduce  the  map  of  the  seventeenth  century  or  thereabouts  ; 
just  as  if  you  were  to  disentangle  from  the  sayings  and  doings 
of  an  acquaintance  the  things  that  really  distinguish  him  as 
an  individual  you  could  put  them  down  on  the  proverbial 
half-sheet  of  notepaper.  Most  of  London  is  mere  padding  ; 
and  j'ou  cannot  see  London  by  "  seeing  London  "  in  the 
sense  advertised  on  the  cars.  You  have  to  poke  about,  to 
use  the  expressive  phrase  of  childhood. 

But  the  irreducible  minimum  is  unlike  anything  elsewhere. 
Scattered  along  the  Thames,  and  enclosed  in  the  boundaries 
of  "  the  City,"  there  are  patches  of  what  may  truly  be  called 
"  London  particular."  They  have  always  appealed  to  artists 
and  writers ;  and  I  believe  that  the  reason  is  not  so  much 
that  they  are  picturesque — very  often  they  are  not — as  that 
they  are  characteristic.  Art  is  said  to  be  selection,  and  above 
all  the  selection  of  character  to  the  disregard  of  what  is 
irrelevant.  But  not  every  artist  has  the  power  of  selection, 
for  many  have  painted  London  and  written  about  it  without 
getting  anywhere  near  its  essential  character.  So  far  as  one 
can  make  out,  the  power  must  be  ekercised  unconsciously, 
for  pictures  and  books  that  set  out  to  give  the  essence  of 
London  almost  always  fail  to  do  so.  Apparently  there  is  no 
guide  in  the  appear- 
ance of  things,  and  age 
does  not  seem  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  it, 
for  many  of  the  older 
parts  of  London  are 
not  in  the  least  charac- 
teristic. Nor  does 
familiarity  help  much. 
I  have  known  a  person 
bom  and  bred  within 
the  radius  mistake  Hol- 
bom  for  London  ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  I 
remember  a  little  girl 
coming  up  from  Corn- 
wall for  the  first  time 
who  stood  in  the 
middle  of  Regent 
Street  and  said  dis- 
appointedly "  Is  this 
London  ?  "  Without 
being  told  she  knew 
that  it  was  not.  No, 
the  sense  of  London 
seems  to  depend  on 
some  obscure  faculty 
like  that  of  the 
"  dowser  "  for  metals 
or  water. 

Mr.  Edgar  Wilson, 
some  of  whose  etch- 
ings* are  reproduced 
here,  undoubtedly  has 
it.  These  etchings  are 
all  the  more  remark- 
able when  one  remem- 
bers his  other  work  as 
a  decorative  designer. 

Not  that  the  etchings  are  not  well  designed  from  a  pictorial 
point  of  view,  but  that  the  designs  are  so  closely  dependent  on 
character  that  they  seem  to  have  grown  rather  than  to  have 
been  made.  They  share  with  the  places  themselves  the  effect 
of  keeping  in  close  touch  with  what  is  being  done  there. 
However  old  the  comer  of  London  represented  it  does  not 
look  dead.  I  do  not  know  anything  about  Mr.  Wilson's  habits 
of  work,  whether  he  draws  from  the  scene  directly  or  from  a 
series  of  preliminary  studies  ;  but  these  etchings  give  very 
much  more  the  impression  ©f  having  been  drawn  from  some- 
thing felt  than  from  something  observed.  They  have  the 
character  of  last  rather  than  first  impressions,  like  those  queer 
memories  that  persist  almost  against  one's  will  and  lie  hidden 
through  the  waking  hours  to  come  out  clearly  in  dreams. 
They  belong  to  the  underworld  of  impressions.  There  is  a 
lurking  character  about  them  as  there  is  about  London  itself. 

Perhaps  the  secret  is  not  other  than  that  expressed  in 
Rodin's  remark  that  the  artist  should  draw  "  with  his  eye 
grafted  on  his  heart."  Certainly  the  power  to  find  and 
represent  or  describe  London  seems  to  depend  more  upon 
affection  than  upon  skill  or  knowledge.  The  sense  of  London 
that  comes  out  in  Johnson — or  Boswell's  version  of  him — 
Lamb  and  Dickens  is  not  matched  by  any  capacity  to  create 

•  These  etchings  are  reproduced  by  courtesy  of  the  Publishers, 
The  Twenty-One  Gallery,  York  Buildings,  Adelphi. 


The  Old  Crane,  London  Bridge 


the  atmosphere  of  other  places  ;  and  I  should  doubt  if  either 
Turner  or  Whistler  were  trustworthy — granting  all  their 
other  gifts — away  from  London.  But  conscious  affection  is 
not  enough.  Henry  James  undoubtedly  loved  London,  but 
though  I  am  a  fervent  admirer  of  his  work  I  could  never 
admit  that  he  succeeded  in  creating  the  atmosphere  of  London 
— except  perhaps  in  "  Princess  Casamassima."  On  the  other 
hand  he  gives  you  vivid  portraits  of  certain  places  on  the 
Continent.  Literary  skill  seems  to  count  for  nothing.  The 
novels  of  Sir  Walter  Besant  are  not  considered  to  be  good,  I 
believe,  but  nobody  has  got  nearer  to  the  atmosphere  of  the 
Thames  east  of  London  Bridge.  As  for  deliberate  purpwse 
without  affection  the  work  of  George  Gissing  might  serve 
as  a  warning.  His  people  are  alive,  but  you  are  never  con- 
vinced for  a  moment  that  they  live  in  London. 

What  is  true  of  the  writers  is  equally  true  of  the  artists, 
and  of  the  many  who  have  drawn  and  painted  London  very 
few  have  given  us  anything  more  than  streets  and  houses  and 
weather.  And  among  the  few  who  have  succeeded  in  atmo- 
sphere are  several  who  are  not  good  artists  in  other  respects. 
What  is  needed  can  only  be  described  as  the  sense  of  London  ; 
something  that  does  not  depend  upon  knowledge  or  observa- 
tion, but  appears  to  be  inborn — as  people  are  said  to  be  bom 
Cockneys  in  a  different  meaning  from  that  of  the  register. 
When,  as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Edgar  Wilson,  the  sense  of  London 

is  combined  with  tech- 
nical skill  the  results 
are  important  for  civic 
reasons. 

As  Professor  Beres- 
ford  Pite  pointed 
out  the  other  day, 
artists  are  not  neces- 
sarily the  best  guides 
in  questions  of  Civic 
improvement.  They 
are  apt  to  be  beguiled 
by  unrehearsed  effects 
of  the  picturesque.  At 
the  same  time  they 
ought  to  be  consulted 
in  any  scheme.  The 
important  thing  seems 
to  be  that  they  should 
have  a  sense  of  char- 
acter, not  only  as  ap- 
plied to  architecture 
generally  but  to  the 
architecture  of  par- 
ticular places.  The 
tmth  is  that  town 
planning  is  a  very 
ticklish  business,  par- 
ticularly when  it  is  a 
matter  of  improving 
an  old  city.  Character 
must  be  preserved,  and 
it  is  not  always  easy 
to  see  wherein  char- 
acter resides.  Neither 
age  nor  architectural 
dignity  should  protect 
a  nuisance,  but  it  is 
highly  important  to 
make  sure  that  the  nuisance  is  not  really  caused  by  later 
additions.  Many  of  the  older  parts  of  London  would  serve 
all  the  needs  of  healthy  modern  life  if  the  streets  surrounding 
them  were  cleared  away.  They  are  the  live  patches  in  a  mass 
of  dead  building  material.  A  great  deal  of  London  is  quite 
irrelevant,  and  could  be  re-planned  with  a  positive  gain  in 
character.  But,  to  use  a  homely  simile,  there  is  always  a 
risk  of  pulfing  out  the  wrong  tooth.  It  is  here  that  such 
pictures  as  Mr.  Wilson's  would  be  valuable.  Being  concen- 
trated studies  of  character,  they  help  to  suggest  the  lines  on 
which  London  should  be  improved ;  as  involuntary  evidence 
they  have  something  of  the  weight  of  history. 

The  last  word  is  important.  History  as  well  as  geography, 
hygiene  and  aesthetics  must  be  consulted  in  any  enlightened 
scheme  of  town  planning.  London  badly  needs  improvement, 
but  we  should  be  very  careful  that  we  do  not  improve  it  away. 
History  is  enshrined  in  stones  and  trees  as  well  as  written  in 
books,  but  it  is  not  everybody  that  can  read  it  at  first  hand. 
Pictures  are  a  sort  of  halfway  stage  between  the  actual 
memorial  and  its  written  description  ;  and  fortunately  we 
have  good  pictures  of  London  by  artists  of  many  periods, 
from  Wenceslas  Hollar  to  Mr.  Edgar  Wilson.  On  the  whole 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that  artists  arc  more  valuable  for  the 
unconscious  appreciation  of  London  that  comes  out  in  their 
work  than  for  any  conscious  aesthetic  advice  they  might  give. 


l^)'  Edgar  Wihon. 


iS 


Land   Sc  Water 


February   28,    191 8 


Life  and  Letters  ^  J.  C  Squire 


A  Comer  of  Old  England 

IT  has  been  maintained  that  War  is  indispensable  because 
it  teaches  people  geography.  I  will  not  discuss  the 
merits  or  the  defects  of  that"  doctrine  here,  and  I  freely 
admit  that  in  August,  1914,  I  knew  nothing  of  the 
situation  of  Prest-Litovsk  or  Bourlon  Wood.  But  the 
illumination  of  war  is  only  local,  and,  since  I  have  to  mention 
the  Southern  Appalachians,  I  had  better  explain  what  they 
are.  They  are  a  range  of  mountains  or,  rather,  an  extensive 
mountain  district  running  from  the  Pennyslvania  border, 
through  the  Virginias,  Kentucky,  the  Carolinas,  and  Tennessee 
into  the  northern  p;irts  of  Georgia  and  Alabama.  Here  Mrs. 
O.  D.  Campbell  and  Mr.  Cecil  Sharp  (to  whom  we  owe  the 
recovery  of  many  of  our  old  countrj^  songs)  have  been  hunting 
for  English  Folk  Songs.  The  results  of  their  explorations  are 
published  at  12.9.  6d.  net  by  Messrs.  Putnam  ;    the  book  is  a 

romance. 

t  *  *  *  *  * 

The  Southern  .Appalachian  region  is  a  large  one,  larger  than 
Great  Britiiin.     Mr.  Sharp  has,  therefore,  covered  as  yet  no 
more  than  small  portions  of  it,  chiefly  in  the  "  Laurel  Country  " 
of  North  Carolina.     In  that  region  he  had  experiences  which, 
to  an  imaginative  man,  must  have  been  as  thrilling  as  any- 
thing that  has  ever  happened  to  an  explorer  in  Central  Africa 
or   Borneo.     It  is  mountainous,   thickly  wooded,   and   very 
secluded.     There   are   few   roads,    except   mountain    tracks ; 
and  scarcely  any  railroads.     "  Indeed,  so  remote  and  shut  off 
from  outside  influence  were,  until  quite  recently,  these  seques- 
tered mountain  valleys  that  the  inhabitants  have  for  a  hundred 
years  or  more  been  completely  isolated  and  cut  ofi  from  all 
traffic  with  the  rest  of  the  world."     !>  suppose  this  is  a  slight 
e.xaggeration  :   that,   for  instance,   these  Arcadians,  however 
fortunately  sequestered,  imported  doctors,  clothes,  and  tools. 
But  one  knows  what  Mr.  Sharp  means.    Coming  into  their  midst 
the  travellers  found  themselves  in  a   "  pocket  "  of  an  old 
England    which    has    disappeared.     They    found    a    strong, 
spare  race  ;    leisurely  ;    easy  and  unaffected  in  their  bearing, 
and  with  "  the  unselfconscious  manners  of   the    well-bred." 
They  are  mostly  illiterate,  and  each  family  grows  just  what 
is  needed  to  support  life  ;    but  they  are  contented,  quick- 
witted and,  in   the  truest   sense,  civilised.     Their  ancestors 
came,  apparently,  from  the  north  of  England  ;    their  religion 
is  Calvinistic.      Generations  of  freedom  in  America  has   un- 
doubtedly  modified   some   of   their   original   characteristics. 
They  drink  and  smoke  very  little  and   "  commercial  com- 
petition and  social  rivalries  are  unknown."     But  though  in 
some  regards  they  have  customs  peculiar  to  themselves,  in 
others  they  are  more  faithful   transmitters  of  old    English 
tradition  than  are  the  English  of  to-day: 

Their  speech  is  English,  not  American,  and,  from  the  number 
of  expressions  they  use  which  have  long  been  obsolete  else- 
where and  the  old-fashioned  way  in  which  they  pronounce 
•  many  of  their  words,  it  is  clear  that  they  are  talking  the 
language  of  a  past  day,  though  exactly  of  what  period  I  am 
not  competent  to  decide. 

****** 

In  that  antique  tongue  they  sing  the  old  songs  that  their 
ancestors  brought  over  from  England  in  the  time  of  George  III 
and  perhaps  still  eariier.  Here  in  England  the  folk-song 
collector  always  has  to  make  straight  for  the  Oldest  In- 
habitant. The  young  know  few  of  the  old  songs,  being  supplied 
with  music-hall  songs  from  London  and  Berlin  and  rag-times 
from  New  York.  In  the  Appalachians,  where  cosmopolitan 
music  IS  unknown,  the  folk-song  tradition  is  as  strong  in  the 
young  as  in  the  aged,  and  Mr.  Sharp  has,  on  occasion,  drawn 
what  he  wanted  from  small  boys.  There,  in  log-huts  and 
farmsteads,  hundreds  of  miles  west  of  the  Atlantic  coast  on 
uplands  lying  between  Philadelphia  and  St.  Louis,  he  found 
this  people  strayed  from  the  eighteenth  century,  using  such 
phrases  as  "  But  surely  you  will  tarry  with  us  for  the  night  " 
and  singing,  with  a  total  unconsciousness  both  of  themselves 
and  of  their  auditors,  of  woods  and  bowers,  milk  white  steeds 
and  dapple  greys,  lily-white  hands,  silver  cups,  the  Northern 
Sea,  London  Bridge,  and  the  gallows.  He  heard  from  these 
mountain  singers  The  Golden  Vanity.  The  Cherry  Tree  Carol 
Lord  Randal.  The  Wife  of  Usher's  Well,  Lady  Isabel  and  the 
tlf  Kntght.  and  scores  of  less  well  known  ballads  and  songs 
versions  of  which  the  collectors  have  .for  years  been  painfully 
picking  up  in  Sussex,  Somersetshire,  Yorkshire  and  Cornwall 
It  IS  a  strange  reflection  that,  had  we  left  it  a  little  later  we 
might  have  had  to  go  to  America  for  old  folk  music  which 
had  been  totally  lost  on  English  soil. 


Mr.  Sharp  does  not  inake  it  quite  clear  which  of  his  songs 
are    hitherto    altogether    unrecorded  ;     he    includes    several 
ballads  nat  in  Child's  collection,  but  Child  may  have  deliberately 
rejected  them  and  they  may  have  appeared  elsewhere.     Re- 
markably,   he   got    no    ritual    songs,    songs   associated    with 
harvest  home,  morris  and  sword  dances,   or  the    coming   of 
English  spring  and  the  primroses.      His  hundred  and  twenty-  < 
two  texts  include  only  one  carol  and  few  songs  touching  on 
religion.     The   English    rituals   were   not   transplanted  ;     the 
festivals  died  out  ;    the  doctrines  of  the  mountaineers  depre- 
cated dancing  ;   and  the  spring  of   their  new  country  was  not 
the  spring  of  their  old.     They  are  strongest  in  ballads,  and  in 
songs  (like  Shooting  of  His  Dear)  with  stories  in  them,  whicii 
things  lose  nothing  by  transplantation  across  a  hemisphere  : 
and  the  songs  are  still  living  in  the  old  way,  growing  and 
changing  with  the  whims  and  memories  of  individual  singers, 
yet   always   retaining   the   essential    kernel.     Nearly   all    the 
tunes  are  in  "  gapped  scales,"  scales  with  only  five  or  six  notes 
to  the  octave  ;  as  always  with  folk  song  they  are  predominantly 
melancholy,  and  many  of  them  are  e.xcecdingly  beautiful. 
****** 
That  Mr.  Sharp's  te.xts— or  indeed  those  of  folk  songs  as  a 
whole— are  in   the  bulk  great    poetry  I  will  not  maintain. 
.At  Its  least  polished  the  folk  song  sinks  to  the  level  of  thi< 
(sung  by  Mrs.  Tom  Rice,  at  Big  Laurel,  West  Carolina)  : 

They  hadn't  been  laying  in  bed  but  one  hour 
When  he  hearfl  the  trumpet  sAund. 
She  cried  out  with  a  thrilling  cry  : 
O  Lord,  O  Lord,  I'm  ruined. 

This,  possibly,  is  a  corruption  of  something  originally  a  little 
more  rounded  ;  a  process  similar  to  that  which  works  upon  all 
folk  songs  and  which  (in  the  Appalachian  versions  of  The 
Golden  Vanity)  gives  the  name  of  that  good  ship  variously  as 
the  Weeping  Willow  Tree  and  the  Golden  Willow  Tree  and 
provides  a  sister  ship  with  the  names  of  Golden  Silveree  and 
Turkey  Silveree,  which  might  strike  even  an  Appalachian 
as  an  odd  name  for  a  vessel.  We  do  not  know  in  folk  songs. 
as  a  rule,  what  is  "  original  "  and  what  is  not  ;  usually  there 
has  been  so  much  accretion  that  there  can  hardly  be  said  to 
be  an  "  original  "  at  all.  The  process  is  not  productive  of 
great  verse,  comparable  with  the  masterpieces  of  form  pro- 
duced by  poets  with  surnames,  fountain  pens  and  identifiable 
tomb-stones,  though  often  there  is  a  poignancy  about  in- 
dividual lines  and  stanzas  which  makes  them  very  effective 
even  when  divorced  from  their  exquisite  tunes,  which  are  the 
real  tnumphs  of  folk-production.  Mr.  Sharp's  American 
CO  lection  is  certainly  not,  textually,  superior  to  the  English 
collections.  But  it  does  contain  some  fine  things.  It  must 
have  been  queer  to  listen  to  The  True  Lover's  Farewell 
commg  from  the  lips  of  a  woman  in  the  American  backwoods  : 

O  fare  you  well  my  own  true  love. 
So  fare  you  well  for  a  while, 
I'm  going  away,  but  I'm  coming  back 
If  I  go  ten  thousand  mile. 

If  I  prove  false  to  you,  my  love. 

The  earth  may  melt  and  burn. 

The  sea  may  freeze  and  the  earth  may  burn 

if  I  no  more  return. 

Ten  thousand  miles,  my  <  wn  true  love. 
Ten  thousand  miles  or  more  ; 
Thfe  rocks  may  melt  and  the  sea  may  burn 
■    If  I  never  no  more  return. 

And  who  will  shoe  your  pretty  little  feet. 
Or  who  will  glove  your  hand, 
Or  who  will  kiss  your  red  rosy  cheek 
When  I'm  in  the  foreign  land  ? 

My  father  will  shoe  my  pretty  little  feet. 
My  mother  will  glove  my  hand, 
And  you  can  kiss  my  red  rosy  cheek 
When  you  return  again. 

O  don't  you  see  yon  little  turtle  dove, 
A-skipping  from  vine  to  vine 
A-mourning  the  loss  of  its  own  true  love      ' 
Just  as  I  mourn  for  mine  ? 

Don't  you  see  yon  pretty  girl 

A-spinning  on  yonder  wheel  ? 

Ten  thousand  gay,  gold  guineas  would  I  give 

To  feel  just  like  she  feels. 

I^ L?f''  f^^^r'^  i""^"  ^'^^   ^   j^""!^  ;    but    the   construction 
iL^f.V.f  J  ??^^'"P   ^^   pursuing   his    researches   now   in 

Kentucky  ;    and  his  occupation  is  enviable. 


February   28,    19 18 


Land  &  Water 


19 


Foot-Sloggers  :     By  Ford   Madox  HuefFer 


WHAT  is  love  of  one's  land  ?  .  .  . 
I  don't  know  very  well. 
It  is  something  that  sleeps. 
For  a  year — for  a  day — 
For  a  month — something  that  keeps 
Very  hidden  and  quiet  and  still 
And  then  takes 
The  quiet  heart  like  a  wave 
The  quiet  brain  like  a  spell, 
The  quiet  will 

Like  a  tornado  ;  and  that  shakes 
The  whole  of  the  soul. 

n. 

It  is  omnipotent  like  love  ; 

It  is  deep  and  quiet  as  the  grave 

And  it  awakes 

Like  a  flame,  like  a  madness. 

Like  the  great  passion  of  your  life. 

The  cold  keenness  of  a  tempered  knife, 

The  great  gladness  of  a  wedding  day, 

The  austerity  of  monks  who  wake  to  pray 

In  the  dim  light, 

Who  pra}' 

In  the  darkling  grove. 

AU  these  and  a  great  belief  in  what  we  deem  the  right 

Creeping  upon  us  like  the  ovei^whelming  sand, 

Dri\-en  by  a  December  gale, 

Make  up  the  love  of  one's  land. 

III. 

But  I  ask  you  this  : 
About  the  middle  of  my  first  Last  Leave. 
I  stood  on  a  kerb  in  the  pitch  of  the  night 
Waiting  for  'buses  that  didn't  come 
To  take  me  home. 

That  was  in  Paddington. 
The  soot-black  night  was  over  one  like  velvet  : 
And  one  was  very  alone — so  very  alone 
In  the  velvet  cloak  of  the  night. 

Like  a  lady's  skirt 
A  dim,  diaphonous  cone  of  white,  the  rays 
Of  a  shaded  street  lamp,  close  at  hand,  existed. 
And  there  was  nothing  but  vileness  it  could  show, 
Vile,  paUid  faces  drifted  through,  chalk  white  ; 
Vile  alcoholic  voices  in  the  ear,  vile  fumes 
From  the  filthy  pavements  .  .  .  vileness  ! 
And  one  thought  : 

"  In  three  days'  time  we  enter  the  unknown  : 
And  this  is  what  we  die  for  !  " 

For,  mind  you, 
It  isn't  just  a  Tube  ride,  going  to  France  ! 
It  sets  ironic  unaccustomed  minds 
At  work  even  in  the  sentimental  .  .  . 

Still 
All  that  is  in  the  contract. 

IV. 

Who  of  us 
But  has,  deep  down  in  the  heart  and  deep  in  the  brain 
The  memory  of  odd  moments  :  memories 
Of  huge  assemblies  chanting  in  the  night 
At  palace  gates  :   of  drafts  going  off  in  the  rain 
To  shaken  music  :  or  the  silken  flutter 
On  silent,  ceremonial  parades. 

In  the  sunlight,  when  you  stand  so  stiff  to  attention, 
That  you  never  see  but  only  know  they  are  there — 
The  regimental  colours — silken,  a-flutter 
Azure  and  gold  and  vermilion  against  the  sky  : 
The  sacred  finery  of  banded  hearts 
Of  generations.  .  .  . 

And  memories 
When  just  for  moments,  landscapes  out  in  France 
Looked  so  like  English  downlands  :  that  the  heart 
Checked  and  stood  stiU.  .  .  . 

Or  then,  the  song  and  dance 
On  the  trestle  staging  in  the  shafts  of  light 
From  smoky  lamps  :  the  lines  of  queer,  warped  faces 
Of  men  that  now  arc  dead  :  faces  lit  up 
By  inarticulate  minds  at  sugary  chords 
From  the  vamping  pianist  beneath  the  bunting  : 
"  Until  the  boys  come  home  !  "  we  sing.     And  fumes 
Of  wet  humanity,  soaked  uniforms, 
Wet  flooring,  smoking  lamps,  fill  cubical 
And  woodcn-walled  spaces  brown,  all  brown, 
With  the  light-sucking  hue  of  the  Khaki.  ....  And  the  rain 
Frets  on  the  pitchpine  of  the  felted  roof 


Like  women's  fingers  beating  on  a  door 
Calling  "  Come  Home  "  .  .  .  "  Come  Home  " 
Down  the  long  trail  beneath  the  silent  moon.  ... 
Who  never  shall  come.  ... 

And  we  stand  up  to  sing 
"  Hen  wiad  fy  nadhau.  ..." 

Dearest,  never  one 
Of  your  caresses,  dearest  in  the  world. 
Shall  interpenetrate  the  flesh  of  one's  flesh, 
The  breath  of  the  lungs,  sight  of  the  eyes,  or  the  heart, 
Like  the  sad,  harsh  anthem  in  the  rained-on  huts 
Of  our  own  men.  .  .  . 
That  too  is  in  the  contract.  .  .  . 

V. 

Well,  of  course. 
One  loves  one's  men.     One  takes  a  mort  of  trouble 
To  get  them  spick  and  span  upon  parades  : 
You  straf  them,  slang  them,  mediate  between 
Their  wives  and  loves,  and  you  inspect  their  toenails 
And  wangle  leaves  for  them  from  the  Adjutant 
Until  your  Company  office  is  your  home 
And  all  your  mind.  ... 

This  is  the  way.it  goes  : 
First  your  platoon  and  then  your  Company, 
Then  the  Battalion,  then  Brigade,  Division, 
And  the  whole  B.E.F.  in  France  .  .  .  and  then 
Our  Land,  with  its  burden  of  civilians 
Who  take  it  out  of  us  as  little  dogs 
Worry  Newfoundlands.  .  .  . 

So,  in  the  Flanders  mud. 
We  bear  the  State  upon  our  rain-soaked  backs, 
Breathe  life  into  the  State  from  our  rattling  .lungs,' 
Anoint  the  State  with  the  rivulets  of  sweat 
From  our  tin  helmets. 

And  so,  in  years  to  come 
The  State  shall  take  the  semblance  of  Britannia, 
Up-borne,  deep-bosomed,  with  anointed  limbs.  .  .  . 
Like  the  back  of  a  penny.        , 

VI. 

For  I  do  not  think 
We  ever  took  much  stock  in  that  Britannia 
On  the  long  French  roads,  or  even  on  parades, 
Or  thought  overmuch  of  Nelson  or  of  Minden, 
Or  even  the  old  traditions.  .  .  . 

I  don't  know, 
In  the  breatUess  rush  that  it  is  of  parades  and  drills, 
Of  digging  at  the  double  and  strafes  and  fatigues 
These  figures  grow  dimmed  and  lost  : 
Doubtless  we  too,  when  the  years  have  receded 
May  look  like  the  heroes  ol  Hellas,  upon  a  frieze, 
White  limbed  and  buoyflit  and  passing  the  flame  of  the 

torches 
From  hand  to  hand.  .  .  .     But  to-day  it's  mud  to  the  knees 
And  Khaki  and  Khaki  and  Khaki  and  Khaki.  .  .  .     And  the 

love  of  one's  land 
Very  quiet  and  hidden  and  Still.  .  .  .     And  again 
I  donit  know,  though  I've  pondered  the  matter  for  years 
Since  the  war  began.  .  .  .     But  I  never  had  much  brain 
And  less  than  ever  to-day.  .  .  . 

VII. 

I  don't  know  if  you  know  the  i.io  train 
From  Cardiff : 

Well,  fourteen  of  us  together 
Went  up  from  Cardiff  in  the  summer  weather 
At  the  time  of  the  July  push. 
It's  a  very  good  train  ; 
It  runs  with  hardly  a  jar  and  never  a  stop 
After  Newport,  until  you  get  down 
In  London  Town. 

It  goes  with  a  solemn,  smooth  rush 
Across  the  counties  and  over  the  shires 
Right  over  England  past  farmsteads  and  byres 
It  bubbles  with  conversation, 
Being  the  West  going  to  the  East  : 
The  pick  of  the  rich  of  the  West  in  a  bunch. 
Half  of  the  wealth  of  the  Nation, 
With  heads  together,  buzzing  of  local  topics 
Of  bankrupts  and  strikes,  divorces  and  marriages 
And,  after  Newport  you  get  your  lunch. 
In  the  long,  light,  gently-swaying  carriages 
As  the  miles  flash  by 
And  fields  and  flowers 
Flash  by 


20 

Under  the  high  sky 
Where  the  great  cloud  towers 
Above  the  tranquil  downs 
And  the  tranquil  towns. 

VIII. 
And  the  corks  pop 
And  the  wines  of  France 
Bring  in  radiance  ; 
And  spice  from  the  tropics 
Flavours  fowl  from  the  Steppes 
And  meat  from  the  States 

And  the  talk  buzzes  on  like  bees  round  the  skeps 
And  the  potentates 
Of  the  mmes  and  the  docks 
Drink  delicate  hocks.  .  .  . 
Ah,  proud  and  generous  civilisation.  ... 

IX. 

For  me,  going  out  to  France, 

Is  like  the  exhaustion  of  dawn 

After  a  dance.  .  .  . 

You  have  rushed  around  to  get  your  money, 

To  get  your  revolver,  complete  your  equipment, 

You  have  had  your  moments.  Sweeter— ah,  sweeter  than 

honey, 
You  have  got  your  valise  all  ready  for  shipment : 
You  have  gone  to  confession  and  wangled  your  blessing, 
You  have  bought  your  air-pillow 
And  sewn  in  your  coat 
A  pocket  to  hold  your  first  field  dressing 
And  you've  paid  the  leech  who  bled  you,  the  vampire.  .  .  . 
And  you've  been  to  the  Theatre  and  the  Empire 
And  you've  bidden  good-bye  to  the  band  and  the  goat.  .  .  . 
And.'like  a  ship  that  floats  free  of  her  berth 
There's  nothing  that  holds  you  now  to  the  earth 
And  you're  near  enough  to  a  yawn.  •  •  • 
"  Good  luck  "  and  "  Good-bye,"  it  has  been,  and  "  So  long 

old  chap," 
"  Cheerio  :  you'U  be  back  in  a  month."    "  You'll  have  driven 

the  Huns  off  the  map." 
And  one  little  pressure  of  the  hand 
From  the  thing  you  love  next  to  the  love  of  the  land 
Since  you  leave  her  out  of  love  of  your  land.  .  .  . 
And  that  little,  long,  gentle  and  eloquent  pressure 
Shall  go  with  you  under  the  wine  of  the  shells 
Into  the  mire  and  the  stress. 
Into  the  seven  hundred  hells 
Until  you  come  down  on  your  stretcher 
To  the  CCS.  ... 
And  back  to  Blighty  again — 
Or  until  you  go  under  the  sod. 

But,  in  the  i.io  train, 

Running  between  the  green  and  the  grain. 

Something  like  the  peace  of  God 

Descended,  over  the  hum  and  the  drone 

Of  the  wheels  and  the  wine  and  the  buzz  of  the  talk 

And  one  thought : 

"  In  two  days'  time  we  enter  the  Unknown 

And  this  is  what  we  die  for  !  " 

And  thro'  the  "square 


Land  &  Water 


February   28,    191 8 


Of  glass 

At  my  elbow,  as  limpid  as  air, 

I  watched  our  England  pass.  .  .  . 

The  great  downs  moving  slowly. 

Far  away,  , 

The  farmsteads  quiet  and  lonely, 

Passing  away ; 

The  fields  newly  movm 

With  the  swathes  of  hay. 

And  the  wheat  just  beginning  to  brown, 

Whirling  away.  .  .  . 

And  I  thought : 

"  In  two  days'  time  we  enter  the  Unknown 

But  this  is  what  we  die  for.  ...     As  we  ought.  .  .  ." 

For  it  is  for  the  sake  of  the  wolds  and  the  wealds 

That  we  die. 

And  for  the  sake  of  the  quiet  fields, 

And  the  path  thro'  the  stackyard  gate.  .  .  . 

That  these  may  be  inviolate, 

And  know  no  tread  save  those  of  the  herds  and  the  hinds 

And  that  the  South-west  winds 

Blow  on  no  forehead  save  of  those  that  toil 

On  the  suave  and  hallowed  soil 

And  that  deep  peace  may  rest 

Upon  its  quiet  breast.  .  .  . 

It  is  because  our  land  is  beautiful  and  green  and  comely. 

Because  our  farms  are  quiet  and  thatched  and  homely, 

Because  the  trout  stream  dimples  by  the  willow, 

Because  the  water  lilies  float  upon  the  ponds 

And  on  Eston  Hill  the  delicate,  curving  fronds 

Of  the  bracken  put  forth  where  the  white  clouds  are  flying, 

That  we  shall  endure  the  swift,  sharp  torture  of  dying 

Or  the'  humiliation  of  not  dying 

Where  the  gascloud  wanders 

Over  the  fields  of  Flanders 

Or  the  sun  squanders  his  radiance 

And  the  midgets  dance 

Their  day-long  life  away 

Above  the  green  and  grey 

Of  the  fields  of  France. 

And  maybe  we  shall  never  again 

Plod  through  the  mire  and  the  rain  of  our  winter  gloaming. 

And  maybe  we  shall  never  again 

See  the  long,  white,  foaming 

Breakers  pour  up  our  strand. 

But  we  have  been  borne  across  this  land 
And  we  have  felt  this  spell.  ... 

And,  for  the  rest, 

L'Envoi. 

What  is  love  of  one's  land  ? 

Ah,  we  know  very  well. 

It  is  something  that  sleeps  for  a  year,  for  a  day. 

For  a  month,  something  that  keeps 

Very  hidden  and  quiet  and  still 

And  then  takes 

The  quiet  heart  like  a  wave, 

The  quiet  brain  like  a  spell. 

The  quiet  will 

Like  a  tornado,  and  that  shakes  , 

The  whole  being  and  soul ; 

Aye,  the  whole  of  the  soul. 


The  Roads  of  France 

By  C.  R.  W.  Nevinson,  Official  Artist  at  the  Front 


February    2^,   191  8 


Land    &    Water 


21 


3ILLY  GLADSTONE, 

THE   OxrpRO   rET. 

QLH.  DIZZY, 


Books   of  the    Week 

In  the  Days  of  Victoria.     By  Thomas  F.  Plowman.     The 

Bodley  Head.     los.  6d.  net. 
The  Wandeperon  a  Thousand  Hills.    By  Edith  Wherry. 

John  Lane.     6s. 
Our  Miss  Yorke.      By  Edwin  Bateman  Morris.     Cassell. 

6s.  net. 
Scandal.        Bv  Cosmo  Hamilton.       Hurst  and  Blackett. 

6s.  net. 

BOOKS    of  well-told    reminiscences  are    peculiarly 
welcome   in  these   days,  and  hearty   greetings  will 
be    accorded   to    Mr.    Thomas    Plowman     for    his 
111  the  Days  of  Victoria — a  poor  title,  by  the  wa\'. 
The  autlior  writes  almost   entirely  of  Oxford  ;   here 
he  was  born  ;   coming  of  age  he  was  elected  a  freeman  of  the 
^aTr««.r,c  B.ATTUE  rof<TK£«M       ^'^y''     'aterhebe^ 
^MncriAMPiOKSKiPOfTHsitxcKtqutB^^raH       ^"'^^^''^  associated 
'^      '  '"- "'    '"■ -™i«i       with  the  University. 

Hardly  any  event 
of  importance  occur- 
red in  Oxford,  or 
any  personality  of 
note  visited  Oxford, 
without  Mr.  Plow- 
inan  being  a  spec- 
tator or  auditor 
from  1850  onwards. 
In  November  1864 
he  was  present  in 
the   Sheldonian 

■^^_  'mi__  ■  ■■''   ^^^^^       Theatre  and  heard 

|K  'u     T^  bHIt^  ^^^^I       Dizzy's   famous  "  I 

the  angels  "  speech 
— a  phrase  which  set 
all  England  laugh- 
ing, but  which 
nevertheless  ren- 
dered good  service 
to  the  cause  for 
which  it  w  a|s 
uttered.  This  was 
Dizzy's  peroration 
spoken  amid  an 
impressive  silence, 
and  it  seems  to 
have  peculiar  sigiiiticance  in  *hese  disturbed  times  : 

When  the  turbulence  is  over — when  the  shout  of  triumph 
and  the  wail  of  agony  are  ahke  stilled — when,  as  it  were, 
the  waters  have  subsided,  the  sacred  heights  of  Sinai  and 
Calvary  are  again  revealed,  and  amid  the  wreck  of  thrones 
and  tribunals,  of  extinct  nations  and  abolished  laws,  man- 
kind, tried  by  so  many  sorrows,  purified  by  so  much  suffering, 
and  wise  with  such  unprecedented  experience,  bows  agaiii 
before  the  I^ivine  truths  that  Omnipotence  in  His  ineffable 
wisdom  has  entrusted  to  the  custody  and  the  promulgation 
of  a  chosen  people. 

Dizzy's  great  rival  Gladstone,  Mr.  Plowman  lieard  on  many 
occasions  ;  "  for  real  genuine  oratory  of  the  Demosthenes 
school  Gladstone,  when  at  red-heat  was  unsurpassable." 
We  reproduce  from  this  volume  a  political  cartoon  of 
these  times ;  it  is  d'  awn  in  a  different  spirit  to  political 
cartoons  to-day.  Not  a  Uttlc  of  the  social  history  of  the 
University  town  is  related  in  these  pages  ;  of  course,  glimpses 
are  given  of  Gown  and  Town  rows  ;  the  author  was  present 
at  the  first  theatrical  performance  permitted  by  the  University  ; 
and  there  is  a  capital  story  of  how  Thackeray  lost  a  Parlia- 
mentary election  when  everything  seemed  in  his  favour 
through  a  hot  night  and  an  open  window  at  the  Mitre.  The 
last  free  election  in  1868,  when  Sir  William  Harcourt,  one  of 
the  sitting  members  was  defeated,  lasted  a  fortnight,  and 
cost  £12,000.     We  have  changed  that ! 

Originality  is  apparent  in  the  title  of  Miss  Edith  Wherry's 
latest  novel.  The  Wanderer  on  a  Thousand  Hills,  and  the 
promise  of  the  title  is  fully  confirmed  by  the  book  itself, 
which  is  thoroughly  original,  and  must  rank  as  one  of  the  really 
important  novels  of  the  year.  The  story  is  that  of  a  Chinese 
woman,  whose  baby  girl,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of 


The  Fight  for  tl;  nentary 

Championship  in  tlie  'Sixties 


infanticide  at  one  time  prevailing  among  certain  of  the 
Chinese,  was  drowned  by  its  grandparents,  whereupon  fate 
sent  to  its  mother  a  tiny  boy,  the  son  of  a  family  of  mis- 
sionaries. This  boy  was  trained  up  by  the  Chinese  woman 
as  a  scholar,  being  destined  by  her  to  take  the  place  of  laureate 
in  the  highest  examinations  at  Pekin.  To  this  honour  the 
boy  attained,  only  to  find  in  the  very  day  of  attainment  that 
he  was  not  her  son. 

The  story,  being  devoid  of  the  conventional  "  love " 
interest  as  a  main  motive — for  the  Chinese  woman's  love 
story  is  but  a  slight  incident — is  also  unique  in  that  it  is  a 
picture  of  Chinese  life  and  customs  drawn  by  one  who  knows 
China  as  few  people  know  it.  The  old  teaclier,  the  widowed 
woman  stealing  thi^  boy  from  the  foreign  devils,  the  avaricious 
Lu  and  his  fiend  of  a  wife.  ;uid  all  the  inliabitants  of  the 
N'illage  of  Benevolence  and  Virtue,  are  made  real  to  the 
reader.  There  is  shown,  too,  the  different  conception  of  life 
that  rules  in  the  East,  as  compared  with  precepts  and  practices 
of  the  West,  and  the  net  effect  of  the  book  is  that  one  feels 
nearer  to  an  understanding  of  the  Chinese  race,  with  its — to 
westerners — twisted  views  of  life.  The  story,  which  ends  as  a 
matter  of  course  in  tragedy,  since  it  concerns  a  hybrid  being  of 
European  birth  and  Chinese  training,  never  loses  its  grip  on 
the  reader  ;  story  and  scene  are  equally  compelling,  and  the 
result  is  a  book  of  rare  charm  and,  one  feels,  almost  photo- 
graphically 'clear  presentment  of  people  and  things  little 
known  outside  the  land  of  their  origin. 

It  is  claimed  for  Our  Miss  Yorke,  by  Edwin  Morris,  that  it 
is  the  first  novel  m  which  the  business  woman  has  played  the 
leading  part  ;  the  claim  is,  as  Mark  Twain  said  of  the  report  of 
liis  death,  greatly  exaggerated,  but  Miss  Yorke  is,  all  the  same, 
a  very  entertaining  person,  more  especially  for  the  time  that  she 
confines  herself  strictly  to  business,  in  which  she  is  a  decided 
success.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  author  does  not  attempt  to 
make  of  her  a  super-woman,  nor  does  he  introduce  business 
schemes  which  might  strain  the  credulity  of  the  reader.  He 
is  content  to  select  his  material  from  the  ordinary  routine  of  a 
well-conducted  business  office,  and  to  show  how  by  the  exercise 
of  initiative  and  common  sense  a  woman  may  succeed  just  as 
well  as  a  man.  But,  being  himself  a  man,  he  is  careful  to  show 
also  that  the  business  career,  no  matter  how  well  a  woman  may 
succeed  in  it,  can  never  be  her  real  sphere  of  activity — it  is  at 
best  a  substitute,  although  she  may  fit  herself  for  it  so  well 
as  to  compel  the  admiration  of  the  men  with  whom  she  comes 
into  contact,  and  may  be  just  as  capable  as  a  man  of  seeing 
a  deal  to  its  best  termination. 

A  curious  psychological  phenomenon  comes  to  light  toward 
the  end  of  this  book  :  the  author,  having  been  concerned  with 
making  his  heroine  a  good  business  being,  and  then  turning  to 
make  the  reader  realise  her  as  a  woman,  fails  to  convince  ;  it 
is  not  his  fault,  but  is  more  the  limitation  of  the  work  of  fiction 
of  normal  length,  in  which  is  not  space  for  picturing  fully  the 
many  sides  that  go  to  make  up  a  character.  Our  Miss  Yorke  as 
business  woman  is  quite  convincing  and  not  a  little  attractive  ; 
the  same  woman  concerned  with  the  real  business  of  a 
woman's  life  is  unconvincing,  and  not  nearly  so  interesting. 
*         *         *         41         « 

When  Mr.  Cosmo  Hamilton  turns  his  hand  to  comedy  the 
result  is  usually  good  ;  in  his  latest  book.  Scandal,  the  comedy 
is  very  good  indeed — it  is  a  book  to  bear  in  mind  for  the 
hohday  season — if  ever  such  a  season  should  come  again. 
Beatrix  Vanderdyke,  a  spoilt  American  heiress,  in  order  to 
get  out  of  a  scrape  that  had  come  about  through  a  surreptitious 
series  of  visits  to  a  set  of  bachelor  chambers,  pleaded  a 
secret  marriage  with  another  man  whi)  had  chambers 
in  the  same  building,  and  persuaded  the  other  man 
to  play  up  to  the  part  of  her  husband  before  her  parents.  The 
complications  following  on  this  extraordinary  step  are  rather 
impossible,  but  they  make  the  gayest  and  most  exciting  reading 
though  all  the  time  one  has  the  impression  that  even  the  author 
himself  did  not  know  what  to  do  next  with  regrad  to  his  charac- 
ters. Therein  lies  the  only  complaint  one  can  possibly  make 
against  the  book — the  hand  of  the  writer  shows  at  times,  rather 
than  the  characters  themselves.  But  it  is  all  very  witty,  and 
not  a  little  wise  ;  the  angered  man,  intent  on  getting  even  with 
the  girl  who  entrapped  him  into  confessing  to  a  marriage  that 
had  never  taken  place,  gradually  develops — as  he  ought — into 
one  wishing  the  marriage  had  taken  place,  and  the  book  ends 
with  a  satisfactory  solution  to  the  problem  set  by  Beatrix. 
It  is  among  the  most  amusing  of  recent  books. 


GOGGLES 

VOHD-SCREENS 
<Sc  WINDOWS 


^.^^    ^^ 


THE  ONUY  ^ 
SAFETY  CLASS 


22 


Land    Si    Water 


February    28,   191  B 


The   Cradle   of  Polo :    By    Lewis    R.    Freeman 


A  Typical  Ladakh  Maidan  or  Village  Green 


The  writer  of  this  article  has  travelled  very  widely  ;  his  ex- 
periences of  the  Roof  of  the  World  are  probably  unique  for 
an  American.  Mr.  Freeman,  R.N.V.R.,  is  at  the  present 
time  attached  to  the  Grand  Fleet. 

THE  antiquity  of  polo  is  much  more  definitely  estab- 
lished than  is  the  region  of  itsorigin.     As  far  back 
as  the  sixth  century  B.C.  the  praises  of  a  mounted 
"  ball   game  called  chaugan  "  was  sung  by  the 
Persian  poets,  and  Omar  Khayyam's 
The  ball  no  question  makes  of  ayes  and  noes. 
But  here  and  there,  as  strikes  the  players,  goes, 
indicates  that  something  of  the  kind  was  played  in  that 
ancient  empire  at   the  time  of  the  old  astronomer-poet  of 
Nashipur.     Persia's  claim  to  having  been  the  birthplace    of 
polo,  however,  is  disputed  by  the  Chinese,  who  point  out  that 
one  of  their  philosophers,  writing  a  thousand  \ears  before 
the  time  of  Christ,  compared  the  ups  and  downs^of  life  to  the 
ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide  of  the  "  horse-and-ball  game." 

An  att(  m  ^t  to  "  back  track  "  the  path  of  polo  from  the 
frontier  of  India — from  which  country  it  reached  the  Western 
world  by  way  of  England — gives  no  indication  which  of  the 
rival  claimants  is  the  legitimate  one.  The  Mohammedans — 
probably  the  hordes  of  Ghingis  Khan  and  Tamarlane — brought 
the  game  from  somewhere  to  Tartary,  whence  it  found  its  way 
to  India  by  oneorbothof  two  routes — through  Afghanistan  and 
the  Khyber  Pass,  and  (or)  across  the  Roof  of  the  World 
and  Kashmir.  The  tracks  on  the  former  trail  have  dis- 
appeared, but  along  the  latter— village  by  village,  valley 
by  valley— the  footsteps  of  polo  may  be  traced  from  the 
Vale  of  Kashmir  to  Gilgit  and  Hunza-Nagar,  over  the  Hindu 
Kush  or  Karakoram  and  down  to  the  plains  of  Yarkand 
and  Kashgar,  where  they  arc  lost  in  the  desert.  The  secret 
of  its  birth  place  is  lost  in  the  shifting  sands  that  have  piled 
alxwe  the  cradle  of  the  Aryan  race. 

The  nearest  thing  to  polo  that  one  encounters  in  Central 
Asia  to-day  is  a  game  of  the  Khirghiz  in  which  each  of  the 
mounted  sides  endeavours  to  carry  the  body  of  a  calf  to 
opposite  ends  of  the  field.  No  ball  or  sticks  are  used,  but  the 
contest  resolves  itself  into  an  equine  rough-and-tumble  which 
requires  no  end  of  dare-devil  horsemanship,  and  is  almost  as 
hard  on  the  mounts  as  on  the  fiercely-striven-for  anatomy 
of  the  calf.  Across  the  Pamirs  to  the  south,  however,  the 
game  begins  to  take  shape,  and  there  is  no  difficulty  in  recog- 
nizing the  progenitor  of  modem  polo  in  the  fierce  mounted 
contests  of  the  hillmen.  Wherever  there  is  room  between 
the  soaring  slide-scarred  mountain  walls  and  the  foam-white 
glacial  torrents  that  tumble  through  the  narrow  valleys,  each 
little  community  of  stone  huts  has  its  maidan  or  village 
green  upon  which  the  "  pulu  "  games  are  played,  usually 
rough  informal  bouts  between  the  villagers  themselves. 

These  mountain  maidans  are  always  cut  up  by  streams 
and  often  littered  with  rocks  and  broken  by  jagged  outcrops 
of  native  granite,  all  mere  trifles,  however,  to  men  and  ponies 
who  have  been  spending  all  their  strenuous  lives  upon  the 
serried  ridge-poles  of  the  Roof  of  the  World.  Untrammelled 
by  off-side  rules,  unmenaced  by  threat  of  penalties  for 
fouls,  undismayed  by  sticks  in  the  air,  rocks  of  the   earth 


Masqued  Revellers  alter  a  Polo  Match 


or  waters  under  the  earth,  the  Himalayan  polo  player  is 
free  to  concentrate  heart  and  head  and  body  upon  banging  the 
battered  chunk  of  willow  or  bamboo  root  between  the  two 
little  cairns  of  razor-edged  slate  slabs  that  serve  him  as  goal 
posts. 

The  game  is  as  free  from  restrictions  as  proverbial  love 
and  war — literally,  all  is  fair.  To  shoulder  an  opponent 
and  send  him  raking  along  a  jagged  wall  of  rock  is  considered 
creditable  and  clever,  but  the  acme  of  fine.sse  in  riding  off  is  to 
force  him  over  a  cut  bank  into  an  icy  stream.  "  Hooking 
across  "  for  an  opponent's  mallet  is  rated  good  polo,  but  not 
nearly  so  much  so  as  hooking  the  man  himself  off  the 
precarious  pad  of  sheep-skin  which  serves  him  as  a  saddle, 
by  catching  him  under  the  chin  from  behind.  Blows  are  often 
dealt  with  the  stout  sticks,  but  not  quite  ihdiscriminately. 
One  player  will  belabour  another  to  make  him  miss  the  ball 
or  cause  him  to  give  ground  in  riding  off,  but  otherwise  he 
will  not  waste  the  effort.  An  action  that  will  enhance  the 
chance  of  making  a  goal  is  its  own  excuse.  Himalayan  polo 
furnishes  the  most  striking  example  of  singleness  of  purpose 
of  any  game  on  the  roster  of  out-door  sport. 

The  keenness  of  the  hillmen  for  their  "  pulu  "  is  something 
amazing.  Once  on  the  upper  Indus  I  saw  half  a  dozen  players 
follow  a  ball  into  a  roaring  torrent,  at  the  imminent  risk  of 
being  carried  down  by  the  swirling  current,  for  the  slight 
advantage  incident  to  "  passing  "  to  their  team  mates  on  the 
bank.  Just  as  the  ball  was  bobbing  out  of  reach,  the  foremost 
rider,  lunging  desperately,  swept  the  crook  of  his  stick  under 
the  buoyant  chunk  of  willow  and  sent  it  flying  back  to  the 
maidan.  The  long  reach  and  the  floundering  pony  upset 
his  balance,  however,  and  he  toppled  into  the  roaring  waters 
and  was  carried  away  in  an  instant.  Not  for  a  moment  did 
the  game  halt.  Not  a  player  gave  the  unlucky  wight  a  look, 
and  by  the  time  the  pluckiest  swimming  had  just  enabled 
him  to  grasp  a  jutting  log  in  the  wreck  of  an  old  cantilever 
bridge  on  the  opposite  bank,  the  centre  of  conflict  was  raging 
in  a  cloud  of  flying  pebbles  in  front  of  his  opponent's  goal. 
Did  he  give  a  thought  to  the  fact  that  the  wind,  drawing  down 
from  the  ice  caps  of  the  Pamirs  with  the  sting  of  a  whip-lash 
in  every  gust,  was  stiffening  the  saturated  folds  of  his  felt 
jacket  and  woollen  breeches  ?  Apparently  not.  Floundering 
up  to  a  little  terrace  of  cultivation  where  a  couple  of  fellow 
villagers  toiled  in  a  barley  patch,  "he  seized  one  of  their  goat- 
skin swimming  bags,  kicked  his  way  across  the  stream  upon 
it,  and  was  on  a  pony  and  back  in  the  game  in  time  to  make 
a  hair-breadth  "save"  as  the  shifting  tide  of  the  game  put 
his  own  goal  in  danger. 

It  was  in  another  game  on  this  same  maidan  that  a  rather 
awkward  player,  unhorsed  in  a  whirlwind  scrimmage,  was 
left  lying  among  the  rocks  with, a  twisted  knee.  The  pack 
swept  on  unheeding,  and  even  among  the  spectators  I  seemed 
to  be  the  only  one  who  took  his  eyes  off  the  play  long  enough 
to  note  the  movements  of  the  rumpled  figure  left  in  the  wake 
of  the  flying  ruck.  Twice  he  tried  to  rise  and  mount  the 
dancing  little  pony  whose  reins  he  had  pluckily  retained  in  his 
fall,  but  both  times  the  injured  knee  bent  sideways  and  let 
him  down.  Releasing  the  pony  in  disgust,  he  pulled  himself 
up  together  and  began  closely  to  follow  the  progress  of  the  play. 


February   28,   19  18 


Land    &    Water 


23 


Twice  ur  thnce  as  the  mob  clattered  by  I  saw  him  lean  forward 
eagerly,  but  it  was  not  until  one  of  his  opponents,  riding  free  on 
a  clean  run  with  the  ball  down  the  field,  came  charging  almost 
aCRiss  his  prostrate  form  that  he  made  a  decisive  move.  Lunging 
sharply  forward,  he  thrust  his  short  stubbv  mallet  between 
the  forelegs  of  the  galloping  pcnv,  and  an  instant  later  two 
lim;)  figures  instead  of  one  were  lying  in  the  middle  of  the 
stone-;iitered  maidan. 

I  he  fringe  of  spectators,  who  up  to  this  moment  had  con- 
tnic(  their  applause  to  chesty  grunts  of  approval,  broke  into 
a  wild  yell  of  delight  and  approbation  as  the  second  rider  was 
overthrown,  and  I  noticed  that  the  men  in  a  group  standing 
near  me  were  roaring  with  merriment  at  the  comments  of 
one  of  their  number. 

"  VVhat  is  he  saying,  Gunga  ?  "  I  asked  my  Punjabi  bearer, 
who  betrayed  m  an  unwonted  smile,  evidencelof  being  amused 
himself.  -  " 

"He  say  Sahib,"  was  the  reply,  "  that  Mulik  play  the 
better  polo  from  the  earth  than  from  the  horse." - 
♦  i,^°T^*^^'^  ^^^^^  hillman  for  his  ;'  pulu  "—the  word  is  from 
the  libetan,  by  the  way,  and  means  a  willow  ball— that  he 
no  more  thinks  of  foregoing  it  for  lack  of  afield  than  does  the 
street  urchm  his  cricket  for  lack  of  a  pitch.  If  topographical 
exigencies  forbid  a  maidan,  he  plays  in  the  village  bazaar  or 
up  and  down  the  solitary  street.  These  are  the  wildest  ex- 
hibitions   of    all. 

'■  What  in  the  name  of  common  sense  did  you  bring  those 
old  polo  balls  along  for  ?  "  I  asked  the  young  British  officer 
ot  an  Indian  regiment  who  had  accompanied  me  on  shikar  in 
Kashmir  We  had  followed  up  the  Sind  from  Srinagar 
crossed  the  lofty  Zoji  La,  and  were  in  camp  at  Leh,  the  capital 
of  Ladakh.  With  the  country  for  hundreds.of  mUes  in  every 
direction  tipping  one  way  or  the  other  at  an  angle  of  forty- 
hve  degrees,   my  question  was  a  natural  one. 

"  For  your  especial  amusement,"  was  the  reply.  "  Tossing 
a  polo  ball  into  a  Ladakh  bazzar  beats  throwing  copper  coins 
to  famine  sufferers  for  excitement.  Come  6n  down  and  see 
lor  yourself." 

Tibetan,  Ladaki  and  Nepali  shouldered  Pathan,  Khirgiz 
^d  Dogra,  and  the  gossip  of  half  a  continent  buzzed  in  Leh 
tezaar  as,  pushing  between  ponies  and  yaks,  goats  and  sheep 
B~—  and  I  picked  our  way  to  breathing  room  in  the  centre 
ot  the  httle  square.  Shouting  something  in  his  fluent  Hindu- 
stani, my  companion  held  the  battered  ball  aloft  for  a  moment 
and  then  tossed  it  upon  the  cobbles  among  the  vendors  of 
grains  and  pack  gears. 

Theefifect  Was  electric,  explosive.  The  vendors  seized  armful  s 
of  their  stock  and  bolted  for  shelter,  hillmen  of  a  dozen  races 
came  running  with  stubby  mallets  in  their  hands,  and  mount- 
ing the  nearest  pony,  pressed  upon  the  ball.  Yaks  grunted 
goats  and  sheep  bleated,  ponies  snorted,  women  chattered 
and  screamed  and  men  yelled.  Now  a  dozen  ponies  were 
stampmg  the  tough  lump  of  bamboo  root  into  the  stones 
now  a  S€ore.  The  air  was  black  with  flailing  sticks,  and  their 
resounding  thwacks,  as  they  fell  on  man  and  beast  alike 
mingled  with  the  bedlam  of  cries,  Now  the  ball  was  kicked 
from  the  press  and  a  quick  wrist  stroke  sent  it  flying  out  of 
the  bazaar  and  down  the  narrow  street.  A  fugitive  Tibetan 
girl  wnth  her  arms  full  of  strings  of  turquoise  hair  ornaments 
blundered  in  front  of  the  leader,  fell  sprawling,  and  half  the 
clattenng  pack  passed  over  her  felt-padded  anatomy  without 
doing  apparent  harm  to  anything  but  the  scattered  stock  of 
jewellery. 

Ever)-  able-bodied  pony  in  the  bazaar  was  seized,  mounted  and 
sent  in  pursuit  of  the  flying  throng.     There  was  no  endeavour 
to    resolve    mto    sides.      Each  man  strove  only  to  hit  the 
ball  as  hard   and  as  often  as  possible— where  it  went  was  a 
secondary  consideration.     Wayfarers  and  loiterere  seemed  to 
understand  what  was  coming,  and  the  street  cleared  as  before 
the  charge  of  a  troop  of  cavalry.     Most  of  the  traffic  bolted  to 
safety  through  windows  and  doors,  but  asmall  flock  of  fat-taUed 
sheep,  which  refused  to  be  driven  into  someone's  front  parlour 
was  fed  into  the  vortex  of  hoofs  like  meat  into  a  sausage 
machine,  to  emerge  in  about  the  same  condition.     A  coupfe  of 
unhorsed  hillmen,  scarcely  distinguishable  in  their  sheepskin 
coats  from  the  bodies  of  the  trampled  wethers,  were  left  floun- 
dering in  the  shambles  as  the  press  swept  on.     A  blind  side- 
swipe sent  the  ball  through  an  open  window,  and  the  iron-shod 
hoofs  struck  sparks  from  the  flinty  cobbles  in  the  rush  to  be 
hrst  upon  it  as'it  was  tossed  out.     Then  a  quick-eyed  Tibetan 
on  a  shaggy  rat  of  a  Tibetan  pony  got  away  for  a  clean  run 
and  hittmg  tile  ball  time  after  time  as  it  shuttled  back  and  fortli 
between  side-wall  and  pavement,  carried  ^t  out  of  sight  round 
a   corner.  •  .  ° 

And  I,  already  late  fur  tea  at  the  Commissioner's,  had  ro 
luctantly  to  forego  following  further  in  the  wake  of  the  ava- 
lanche we  had  set  in  motion.  As  an  aftermath,  however  we 
were  called  upon  that  evening  to  give  audience  to  a  "  damage^ 
deputation,"  and.  after  an  hour's  parley,  paid  for  five  fat- 
tailed  sheep,  half  a  dozen  sets  of  shattered  hair  ornaments 


several  bags  of  grain  and  a  number  of  minor  losses.  The 
Claims^  strange  to  say,  were  entirely  reasonable,  amounting  to 
less  than  thirty  rupees  in  all,  and  the  fun,  especially  for  one 
interested  in  polo,  was  cheap  at  the  price'. 

This  will  give  some  idea  of  what  early  Indian  polo  mu-^t 
nave  been,  the  polo  that  was  passed  on  from  the  Himalayan 
mil  states  to  the  sport-loving  nobles  of  Ra  putana  and  the 
i'unjab.  It  was  the  game  as  developed  by  these  latter  that 
came  to  he  known  as  "  the  game  of  kings,"  for  the  manly 
JNawabs  Rajahs  and  Maharajahs  of  these  war-like  States 
ever  used  to  taking  personal  lead  in  battle  and  the  chase,  we;e 
not  content  to  remain  passive  while  any  contest  of  strength 
or  skill  was  going  on.  Some  of  the  best  polo  players  the 
game  has  ever  produced  have  been  rulers  of  one  or  another 
ot  the  native  states  of  India,  nor,  indeed,  need  I  use  the  past 
tense  m  making  that  assertion. 

A   Burma  Polo  Ground 

One  of  the  most  striking  instances  of  polo  enthusiasm   1 
recati  ever  having  encountered  was  that  of  a  number  of  planters 
and  army  officers  near  Mergui,  in  the  southern  "  panhandle  " 
ot  Burma.     That  district,  with  the  lower  end  of  the  Malay 
Peninsula,  was  experiencing  a  rubber  boom,  and  incidental  to 
cleanng  a  stretch  of  dense  tropical  jungle  it  was  planned    to 
make  a  polo  field.     All  that  cutting  and  burning  could   do 
however,  was  to  get  rid  of  the  lighter  brash  and      timber. 
Several  giant  stumps  still  remained,   together  with  a    half- 
dozen  forty  or  fifty-feet  lengths  of  prostrate    trunk,   while 
straight  across  the  middle  of  the  field  meandered  a  little  perennial 
streamlet  for  the  diversion  of  which  no  practical  means  was  dis- 
covered.    Several  years  would  have  to  elapse  before  the  timber 
and  stumps  would  be  dry  enough  to  burn,  and  the  expense  of 
building  an  underground  conduit  for  the  streamlet  was  pro- 
hibitive ;  so  the  plucky  enthusiasts,  with  true  Oriental  philo- 
sophy   simply  did  the  best  they  could  with   the   facilities 
ottered.     The  stream,  except  when  it  ran  away  with  the  ball 
as  happened  every  now  and  then,  was  not  a  senous  handicap' 
and  the  stumps  could  generally  be  avoided ;  but  the  great 
prostrate  tranks  seemed  to  get  mixed  up  in  every   run      Of 
course  there  were  a  good  many  accidents  at  first,  both  to  man 
and  beast,  and  the  feelings  of  one  plantation  manager— he 
was  a  Dutchman,  from  Sumatra,  and  had  scant  sympathy 
for  sport   of  any  kind— regarding  the  demoraUsation  of  his 
staff  of  assistants  incident  to  the  game  as  played,  was  summed 
up  in  the  statement  that  "  haff  of  mine  men  vas  haff  kUt,  und 
all  of  dem  vas  all  crazy." 

At  the  end  of  a  few  weeks  of  this  steeplechase  polo  the 
casualty  hst  had  increased  to  an  extent  that  left  neither  ponies 
nor  players  enough  to  make  a  game,  and  before  two  full  teams 
were  ready  again  elephants  and  dynamite  became  available 
Between  these  two  irresistible  forces  stumps  and  logs  were 
soon  blown  up  and  dragged  out  of  thewav.  When  I  visited 
Mergm  five  years  ago,  this  remarkable  field  was  two  feet  deep 
under  water  from  the  monsoon  rains,  but  I  was  assured  that 
in  the  dry  season,  "  though  a  bit  soggy,  it  was  reallv  a  very 
sportmg  bit, of  turf."  ,- 

The  story  is  told  of  a  polo  field  at  one  of  the  North- Western 
Irontier  posts  which  was  so  near  the  Afghan  border  that  the 
festive  Afndis  used  occasionaUy  to  he  safely  hidden  among 
the  rocks  of  their  own  hill  sides  and  indulge    in   long-range 
target  practice  at  the  flying  figures  on  the  plain  below.    -This 
was  back  in  the  8o's.     Scant  attention  was  paid  to  pot- 
shooting,  for  the  Afridis,  though  exceUent  marksmen,  were 
rarely  able  to  do  much  damage  at  long  range  with  their  "  ten 
rupee  jezails."    Polo  went  on  as  usual  until  one  day  some  of 
the  first   fore-running  Mausers  from   the  yet   undeveloped 
Persian  Gulf  smuggling  trade  feU  into  the  hands  of  the  tribes- 
men at  this  point.     It  was  a  Saturday  afternoon,  a  game  was 
on  with  a  visiting  team  from  Peshawar,  and  the  players  were 
just  beginning  to  straggle  o^t  for  a  preliminary  warming  up. 
One  of  them— the  visiting  captain— was  in  the  act  of  carrying 
a  ball  down  the  field  at  an  easy  canter,  when  there  came  the 
shnek  of  bullets  in     the  air,  and   the  rider   went  tumbling 
from  his  horse,  shot  through  the  chfst  almcst  before  the  ringing 
cracks  from  the  distant  hill-sid^  told  the  players  that  there 
were  mcdern  high-power  rifles  tiUined  down  from  the  brown 
rocks  which  they  had  so  often  before  seen  overhung  with  the 
drifting   smoke-wreaths  of   the   harmless   old    jezails. 

I  could  tell  the  story  of  a  tiger  that  was  shot  and  killed 
one  night  almost  between  the  goal  posts  of  a  polo  field  in 
Upper  Burma,  where  he  had  dragged  and  was  eating  at  leisure 
the  body  of  the  post's  crack  pony,  or  of  how  some  rhinos 
came  down  early  one  morning  to"  a  polo  ground  in  Upjx-r 
Assam  and,  in  endeavouring  to  reach  the  fcdder  that  was  stored 
for  the  pionics  ,  completely  wrecked  the  stables,'  but  I 
hardly  ne«d  further  to  multiply  instances  to  show  the  splendid 
sporting  instmct  which  must  imbue  the  Anglo-Indian  poloist 
to  lead  him  to  play  the  game  under  such  untoward  conditions. 


Land    &   Water 


February   28,  191 8 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY. 


,  N„m^  and  addresses  0/  shops  wjvcrc  tf^  articUj  rncnticned 
can  be  obtained,  mil  be  forwarded  on  rece,^  "f"  S°J^Zy 
«^,i,f^':ed  to  Passe-Partout,  Land  &  Water,  5.  i^/wnce'/ 
u!'e  W.C  2     Any  other  tn/ormation  mU  be  g^ven  on  request. 

Everyone  hearing  the  usud  n^e 
Rliirhtv  asks  the  inevitable  question     What 

Bhghty  ^  ^  ^  ^^^.^^^  P  ..       d  heaps 

Tweeds  ^^^  hearing,  by  buying  them   wiU 

r    .u  ,      "  Tiiiahtv  Tweeds  "  are  woven  only  by 

^'^^^J  i!^f  nf  the  fervices  is  to  give  them  some  congemal 

rSso'cruA  hard  to  bear,  and  thus  are  helped  m  just  the 

■"'S^sucYess  of  '■  BUghty  Tweeds"  proves  that  but  for  the 
wa?many  an  embryo  w4ver  might  have  wended  his  way 
«ar  many  an  J  .  regular  art,  one,  it  might  be 
truSt-none  r^fy  to  -qSe,  but  the  -n^empl^^^^^^^ 
have  very  quickly  made  It  their  own  The  Bl-^hty  Tweeds 
arp  caoital— of  that  there  is  no  shadow  of  doubt  1  hey  art 
d^Lwe  w^-«sisting,  and  in  a  great  many  dehghtul  designs 
f^  Sour^  Glancing  through  the  I  oo'<  of  patterns  too.  is  a 
mostSeresting  proceeding,  since  c.  ch  pattern  has  a  ticket 
Sxed  to  the  back  on  which  the  name  of  the  man  who  has 

"°r?amoi  loSn  firm  have  taken  the  whole  output  of 
••  BliX  Tweeds  "  and  are  seUing  them  by  the  yard,  besides 
coats  and  suits  already  made  up.  They  are  quite  as,  smt- 
able  for  women  as  for  men. 

Nobody   wants   to   be  fassed   over 

A  n     Fconomv      anything  very  intricate  in  the  way  of 

An     ILConomy      ^ /^^^.j^  ^^w-a-days.  and  the  majonty 

t  roCK  Qf  £oijj  ^iii  be  delighted  with  a  new 

and  charming  frock  just  evolved  practically  devoid  of  fasteners. 

/Ul  the  fastening  indeed  that  it  has  is  in  the  sash,  and  yet  it  is 

■far  removed  from  being  shapeless,  fitting  the  figure  m  fact  in 

the  neatest  possible  way.  .     ^   j.u 

The  model  shown  is  of  soft  black  satin  bordered  at  the 
neck  and  wrists  with  white,  the  sash  being  white  hned  so  as 
to  emphasise  still  further  the  scheme.  The  frock  shps  on  much 
in  the  same  way  as  an  overaU,  the  sash  slots  through  a  sht  to 
one  side,  is  brought  round  the  figure,  and  knots  in  some  pretty 
wav  one  side  of  the  skirt  is  drawn  over  the  other  and  there  is 
the  whole  frock  complete— as  practical  and  pretty  a  dress  as 
anyone  could  see.  This  frock  is  called  by  the  firm  responsible 
their  Economy  Frock  and  the  name  is  a  mented  one. 
Not  only  does  it  eUminate  the  necessity  for  a  maid  s  help,  but 
it  can  be  worn  for  all  kinds  of  occasions,  not  looking  too 
overdressed  for  one  or  not  enough  of  a  frock  for  another. 
Then  too  there  is  nothing  to  get  easily  out  of  order  or  become 
"dashed"  Other  combinarions  of  colour  are  available, 
'  lor  this  frock  wiU  be  made  to  order  to  any  tone  required- 
navy  blue  with  beige  being  one  very  acceptable  suggestion. 

Some  spring  straw  hats,   just   the 

Workmanlike      tiling   to   take   the    place    of   the 

Q  TT  ubiquitous   velour,    are   well   worth 

btraw  rlatS  womenkind's    consideration.      They 

are  that  ideal  type  of  hat,  not  too  elaborate,  not  too  dowdj-, 

striking  inde-;d  that  difficult  mean  "  the  happy  medium." 

These  hats  are  of  pedal  straw  and  English  made  and  are. 
moreover,  almost  invariably  becoming,  taking  a  very  prett\- 
outline  on  the  head.  They  are  close  clipped  enough  to  keeji 
trim  and  taut  in  a  wind ;  it  they  get  wet  they  dry  easily,  and 
ar(>  quite  reasonable  regarding  price. 

Ml  the  trimming  needed  or  vouchsafed  is  a  simple  tie  and 
Vow  of  ribbon  blending  with  the  colouring  of  the  hats.  These 
colours  happen  usually  to  be  fascinating,  including  yellow, 
brown,  tomato,  navv  blue,  emerald  green  and  a  rather 
delightful  neutral  looking  hay  colour.  Anyone  wanting  a 
strictly  practical  yet  withal  exceptionally  pretty  hat,  one 
moreover,  that  can  confidently  be  expected  to  wear,  should 


meet  these  hats,  since  they  in  every  way  arc  undoubtedly  ju^t 
the  veiy  thing  they  want  to  find. 

On  chilly  nights  something  additiunat 

A  Novel  in    the    way    of   a  night   vvrap  is  a 

,  possession  anyone  would  rehsh,  and 

Nlght-wrap         [,,y  realisation  of  this  has  led  a  clever 

firm  to  bring  forward  just  the  thing  required.     It  is  a  meht- 

wrap  the  sort  anyone  can  slip  on  over  a  nightdress  and  s  eep 

in  all  night  with  a  distinct  gain  to  their  well-being  and  comfort. 

These  night-wraps  are  of  nuns  %eiling  in  wlute  or  in  some 

pretty  pale  colour,  notably  pink.     They  are  kimono  shaped 

and  either  scalloped  or  trimmed  with  an  attractive  veimng^ 

In  either  case  simphcity  and  charm  is  their  motto,  and  a  well 

conceived  legend  it  chances  to  be.  . 

These  night-wraps  are  weU  worth  buying  now,  in  casene.xt 
winter  brings  a  shortage  of  this  sort  of  thing.  A  point  in  their 
favour  is  the  ease  with  which  they  wash  it  being  perfectly 
easy  indeed  to  laundry  them  at  home  and  thus  make  n(.  fnrt  her 
encroachments  on  the  washing  bill. 

One  of  the  really  satisfactory  lessons 

An  Ideal  Plate      we  are  learning  is  the  art  of  "  doins 

-DA  without,"  and  a  plate  powder  whicli 

rowoer  ^^ij    jjp    ygy^j    without    additional 

moisture  of  any  kind  is  yet  another  footstep  on  the  wav. 
Many  kinds  of  plate  powder  need  a  little  methylated  spirit 
if  the  best  polishing  results  are  to  be  attained,  and  methylated 
spirit  is  untowardly  difficult  to  get,  indeed  in  many  places  ''an 
simply  not  be  got  at  all.  •   ,  1    j        ^i 

The  "  Brytenall  "  cleaning  powder  can  be  spnnkled  on  ttie 
article  needing  cleaning  just  as  it  is,  straight  out  of  the  tin _ 
The  tin,  it  may  be  mentioned,  aids  and  abets  this,  for  it  is  htted 
with  a  very  neat  sprinkler  top  so  that  the  process  is  facilitated 
in  every  possible  way.  Then  if  a  rub  is  given  with  a  leather 
the  whole  easy  cleaning  is  done  and  a  bright  shimng  poluh  is 
the  satisfactory  result.  .  . 

The  makers  guarantee  that  the  powder  contains  no  acidb,  so 
'  that  it  is  not  injurious  to  anything  it  should  touch.  This,  as 
it  happens,  is  a  point  to  emphasise,  lots  of  plate  powders  teng 
positively  harmful  to  silver  and  plate.  Nor  can  its  poliihmg 
powers  be  over-exaggerated,  it  polishes  so  qmckly  ana 
effectually  that  it  is  a  positive  labour-saver,  imparting  the 
brightest,  most  sparkling  shine.  Tins  of  the  powder  will  be 
sent  post  free  for  is.  3d.,  and  aU  housewives  would  be  well 
advised  to  give  it  at  least  a  trial.  PASSE-P.^KTOV^- 

N.B.— Owing  to  the  number  of  letters  received,  and  the  mass  of 
correspondence  involv  d,  it  is  impossible  to  guarantee  letters  addressed 
to  "  Passe-Partout  "  being  replied  to  within  less  than  48  hours. 

Pearls  have  played  an  important  part  in  all  history.  Imaginatuni 
can  linger  over  a  pearl  as  over  no  other  jewel,  dwelling  with  delight 
on  its  lustre,  its  orient,  the  shades  of  colour  it  betrays  as  if  it  were—a-, 
some  people  aver— in  truth  alive.  To  possess  a  beautiful  rope  of  pearls 
is  the  bounden  and  natural  ambition  of  many  a  woman.  Yet 
a  string  of  pearls  would  be  beyond  the  reach  i>f  all  but  the  favoured  tew 
were  it  not  for  the  good  services  of  Sessel  of  14  and  ma  New  lio  nd 
Street.  The  Sessel  pearls  are  so  like  natural  pearls  in  each  and  every 
particular  that  one  cannot  be  disti'nguished  from  the  other,  biae  uy 
side  with  pearls  of  price  it  is  impossible  fur  even  an  expert  to 
detect  the  difierence.     The  Sessel  booldet  is  well  worth  studying.      ; 

Whatever  other  opportumUes  may  pass  us  by.  the  White  Sale  at 
Derry  and  Toms  of  Kensington  High  Street  must  by  no  mischance  be 
among  them.  It  is  just  the  kind  of  thing  a  woman  with  an  eye  to  tlic 
future  simply  cannot  afford  to  neglect.  First  and  foremost  it  gives  a 
superlative  opportunity  to  buv  house  linen  and  secure  at  reduced  sale- 
prices  articles  which,  before  much  water  has  passed  under  the  bn(Jt.i>. 
in  all  probability  cannot  be  got  at  all.  This  while  sale  begin  ^  " 
Monday,  and  lasts  to  the  end   of  March. 

A  golden  opportunity  is  a  job  line  of  damask  cloths  snowi:':; 
slight  weaver's  damages,  the  kind  of  thing  that  in  countless  cases  c/n 
ha?dly  be  detected  with  the  naked  eye.  Table  cloths  are  being  sohl 
from  19s.  I  id.  each,  and  table  napkins  from  21s.  gd.  the  dozen.  /*'"'" 
special  heed,  too,  is  a  delightful  bedspread,  a  copy  of  an  old  hlet  la<.o 
one,  80  by  100  inches,  and  costing  only  nine  shillings  each  Cretonnes, 
originally  is.  1 1  id  ,  will  be  down  to  is.  i.Jd.  a  yard,  so  that  there  is  a 
chance  for  spring  curtains  and  covers  impossible  to  overestimate. 
Lingerie  of  all  kinds  falls  beneath  the  sale's  sway,  giving  scope  lor 
bargain  after  bargain,  some  Llama  cashmere  stockings  costing  as.  114a. 
being  a  case  in  point,  besides  any  number  of  attractive  camisoles  at 
three    shillings.     .\nd   there  are    blouses,    s^iort     coats    and  '.jloves. 


i 


LAND  &  WATER 

Vol.  LXX.     No.  2011.     [JS\%1         THURSDAY    MARCH  7     iqi8  rREGisxERED  as-i     published  weekly 

» ui.  i^.(v.i»..      J.1U.  ^>^i_j.      lyearj  1  iiu  jxoi^ni ,    ivi^iv^^^ii    /,    lyio  i^    newspaperJ      price  ninepence 


Survivors    at    Arras 

By  C.  R.  W.  Nevinson,  Official  Artist  at  the  Front. 
(Mr.  Louis  Raemaekers'  Cartoon  appears  this  week  on  pages  12  and  13). 


Land    <&    Water 

On  the  Aisne 


March   7 ,   i  g  1  8 


i 


An  Artillery  Encampment 


Frnu-li  Official 


When  the  Floods  are  Out 


French  Official 


March  7,  igi8 


Land    &    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :    HOLBORN    2828. 
v 

THURSDAY,  MARCH  7,  19 18. 

Contents 


Survivors  at  Arras.     By  C.  K.  W.  Xevinson 

On  the  Aisne.     (Illustrations) 

The  Outlook 

The  German  Offer.     By  Hilaire  Belloc 

A  Battleship  at  Sea.     By  Lewis  R.  Freeman,  R.N.V. 

Food  for  Thought.     By  Charles  .Mercier 

The  "  Glenart  Castle  "    (Cartoon).    Bj' Raemaekers  12 

Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book 

Rural  Housing  Question.     By  H. 

Moscow's  Stolen  Treasures.     By  G.  C.  Williamson 

Masterpieces.     By  J.  C.  Squire 

.Modem  Novels  and  Critics.     By  Hugh  Walpole 

The  Return.     By  Stacy  Aumonier 

Domestic  Economy 

Notes  on  Kit 


P.^GE 

I 


R. 

and 


3 

5 

7 
II 

13 

14 
15 
17 
19 
20 

2Z 
26 

xiii 


The  Outlook 


AT  4  of  the  morning  of  Tuesday,  February  26th, 
His  Majesty's  hospital  ship  "  Glenart  Castle," 
of  about  6,000  tons,  was  sunk,  probably  by 
submarine,  in  the  Bristol  Channel,  off  Hartland 
Point,  on  the  North  Devon  coast.  The  vessel 
was  fully  lighted  as  a  hospital  ship  at  the  time  and  was 
outward  bound — happily  (though  the  enemy  would  not  know 
it)  with  no  wounded  on  board.  She  sank  very  rapidly  by 
the  stern  in  less  than  ten  minutes,  and  a  heavy  loss  of  life  has 
been  involved.  A  matron  and  seven  nursing  sisters,  5 
doctors  and  42  men  of  the  R.A.M.C,  two  chaplains,  and 
124  officers  and  crew  were  the  t«tal   on  board. 

There  is  no  positive  proof  of  this  outrage  being  the  work 
of  a  submarine,  but  the  probabihties  are  in  favour  of  that 
supposition,  for  the  explosion  took  place  nearly  amidships 
from  the  side  towards  the  open  sea,  and  lights  very  low  down 
on  the  water  had  been  seen  on  this  same  starboard  side 
shortly  before  the  blow  was  struck.  The  hour  was  one 
which  would  increase  the  list  of  those  who  have  gone  down 
with  the  ship,  while  the  weather  was  so  bitter  and  the 
sea  so  rough  that  any  long  exposure  suffered  by  the  survivors 
must  have  proved  fatal.  The  single  boat  saved  was  found 
by  a-  French  vessel  seven  hours  after  the  tragedy  and  v\as 
only  kept  afloat  by  continual  baling  out  of  icy  water.  The 
,fengine-room  suffered  less  in  proportion  to  the  rest  of  the 
crew  because  the  explosion  happened  as  shifts  were  changing. 

♦  ♦  * 

Custom  has  rendered  familiar  incidents  such  as  the 
destruction  of  this  hospital  ship,  and  has  unfortunately  dulled 
the  indignation  with  which  they  were  received  when  the 
enemy  first  began  to  perpetrate  these  crimes.  All  the  more 
ought  we  to  insist  upon  them  and  to  keep  them  vividly  before- 
the  public  mind.  We  should  never  be  tired  of  repeating 
the  plain  truth  that  abominations  of  this  kind  were  unknown 
to  Europe  until  the  modern  Germans  made  themselves  respon- 
sible for  them.  They  are  not  "  the  product  of  modern  war." 
There  is  nothing  about  them  of  a  "  development."  They 
have  not  even  come  by  some  slow  and  therefore  facile  degrad- 
ation of  our  moral  standard.  They  do  not  lie  upon  the 
conscience  of  Europe  at  all,  for  such  things  have  never  before 
been  done  in  Eurojx;  or  by  Europeans. 

They  are  the  novel  and  characteristic  acts  of  the  German 
people  at  war.  They  are  committed  by  Germans  at  sea 
with  the  approval  and  support  of  the  German  people  at  home, 
and  they  are  committed  under  the  influence  of  a  pride  in 
themselves  and  a  contempt  for  our  civilisation  which  ma\- 
indeed  be  insane  but  which  must  none  the  less  be  destroyed 
if  Europe  is  to  survive.  They  are  not  the  work  of  individuals 
or  of  a  special  system  or  of  a  military  caste,  but  of  the  German 
people  as  a  whole,  who  thoroughly  applaud  them  and  con- 
sistently demand  their  pursuit.  Such  a  state  of  mind  is, 
of  course, a  moral  anarchy,  and  the  only  fruit  of  it;  if  it  remained 
unpunished  or  rather  undestroyed,  would  be  the  dissolution 
«f  that  high  European  civilisation  which  the  Germans  have 


onlypartiallyacquired,  and  which  their  barbarism  now  menaces 
with  extinction.  This  point  of  view  Raemaekers  emphasises 
in  his  cartoon  in  this  issue. 

*  *  * 

On  Monday,  February  25th,  Count  Herthng,  the  Chancellor 
of  the  German  Empire,  delivered  a  speech  upon  the  attitude 
of  the  German  Government  towards  the  war  and  the  terms 
upon  which  it  would  accept  peace.  He  ojx;ned  by  a  state- 
ment that  public  speeches  of  this  sort  were  not  of  very  great 
utility;  next  quoted  his  agreement  with  Mr.  Runciman's 
speech  in  the  House  of  Commons  earlier  in  the  month,  when 
that  gentleman  said  that  we  should  be  nearer  peace  if  a 
meeting  could  be  agreed  upon  for  discussion,  and  proceeded 
to  define  the  attitude  of  his  Government  towards  the  question 
of  Belgium.  With  regard  to  this  he  affirmed  the  disinterestedness 
of  that  Government,  their  desire  to  avoid  the  annexation  of 
Belgian  territory,  but  the  necessity  of  preventing  it  from 
being  used  as  a  basis  of  attack  against  Germany.  He  added 
that  he  would  welcome  a  separate  discussion  with  the  Belgian 
(Government  at   Havre. 

He  next  dealt  with  President  Wilson's  message  of  February 
nth  (which  he  criticised  as  being  excessively  long).  He 
summarised  its  proposals  under  four  heads,  all  quite  abstract, 
and  reducible  to  the  excellent  principle  that  the  inhabitants 
of  each  territory  should  decide  their  own  fate  in  the  settlement. 
With  this  abstract  principle  the  Chancellor  also  declared 
himself  in  agreement.  He  required  it,  however,  to  be  affirmed 
by  all  the  belhgerent  nations,  not  bv  the  head  magistrate  of 
one  alone,  and  asserted  that  the  chief  obstacle  to  such  a 
settlement  was  the  EngHsh  desire  for  conquest.  The  speech 
contained  no  concrete  propositions  and  was  of  little  value 
either  to  the  speaker  or  to  his  opponents. 

*  *  * 

A  reply  to  this  speech  was  delivered  upon  the  following 
Wednesday  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  Mr.  Balfour.  Mr. 
Balfour  in  his  reply  had  little  to  deal  with  save  the  obvious, 
but  he  dealt  with  that  effectively.  He  pointed  out  that  there 
never  had  been  any  question  of  using  Belgium  as  a  base  of 
aggression  against  Germany,  and  he  might  have  added  that 
the  Belgian  plain  has  never  been  used  as  a  base  of  aggression 
by  any  Western  Power  against  any  German  State  in  the  past, 
and  in  the  nature  of  things  could  hardly  be  so  used.  He 
pointed  out  that  the  German  Chancellor  had  said  nothing 
about  restoration  or  reparation,  and  further  that  the  account 
which  would  have  to  be  settled  with  Prussia  was  something 
very  much  larger  than  this  one  Belgian  item,  elTective  though 
it  niight  be  as  a  touchstone. 

Mr.  Balfour  further  remarked,  with  great  justice,  that 
whenever  modern  Germans  talk  of  "  security  of  frontiers," 
they  mean,  in  effect,  the  annexation  and  domination  against 
their  will  of  populations  to  whom  Prussia  was  repugnant. 
He  alluded  to  the  shameless  partition  of  Poland  in  favour 
of  the  new  artificial  Ukraine  State,  but  went  too  far  in  saying 
that  a  concession  had  been  made,  and  that  "  the  new  frontier 
was  apparently  going  to  be  modified."  All  that  has  hap- 
pened is  that  the  Austrians  have  promised  to  talk  about  the 
affair  some  other  time,  and  the  new  frontier  wilj  be  decided 
according  to  the  success  or  ill-success  of  the  enemy  in  arms. 

Mr.  Balfour  concluded  by  pointing  out  that  Turkey  had 
entered  the  war  with  the  object  of  recovering  Egypt, 
that  is,  for  conquest  ;  and  contrasted  the  foolish  claim  of 
humanity  made  for  the  German  interference  in  Russia  with 
the  notorious  German  cruelties  in  Belgium  and  France. 

*  *  * 

•  In  the  same  debate,  which  was  upon  the  Vote  on  Account, 
Sir  Herbert  Samuel  spoke  in  support  of  Mr.  Austen  Chamber- 
Iain's  recent  remarks  upon  the  relations  between  politicians 
and  certain  sections  of  the  Press.  He  asked  what  the 
Government  intended  to  do  in  the  matter,  but  received  no 
reply,  Mr.  Bonar  Law's  following  speech  dealing  only  with 
the  general  ground  of  confidence  in  the  Government.  '  Upon 
this  point  Mr.  Bonar  Law  made  in  great  detail  an  extensive 
defence  of  the  present  small  War  Cabinet,  atid  contrasted  its 
efficiency  in  Government  with  that  of  the  larger  Cabinet 
which  had  preceded  it,  and  of  which  he  was  also  a  member. 
This  portion  of  the  debate  was  of  no  great  interest. 

Indeed,  far  more  attaches  to  the  remarks  made  by  the 
same  Minister,  Mr.  Bonar  Law,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Aldwych 
Club  the  day  before,  when  he  urged  the  great  business  firms 
represented  in  his  audience  to  make  a  special  effort  for  a 
renewed  increase  in  the  sale  of  War  Bonds.  The  appeal 
appears  to  have  had  a  great  success,  and  to  confirm  the 
present  policy  of  day-to-day  borrowing  involving  the  post- 
ponement of  anv  great  loan. 

*  *  * 

In  the  House  last  Thursday,  Mr.  Samuel  contrasted  tin- 
First   Lord's  statement   of  the  2nd   ultimo— that   merchant 


Land  &  Water 


March  7,  19 18 


sliij  ,  iiig  was  "  incre.ising  rapidJy  " — with  the  later  official 
.1  lii'iMji-cmcnt  that,  whereas  over  130,000  and  150,000  tons 
'  1  '  been  completed  in  November  and  December,  only 
-^...no  tons  had  been  so  completed  in  January,  and  that  the 
n^ure  for  Fcl)ruarv  would  be  no  better.  The  rate  of  con- 
struction for  a  third  of  a  year  then  promises  hardly  more 
than  a  million  tons  for  the  twelvemonth,  which  is  about 
what  we  did  in  1917.  Mr.  Honar  Law,  admitted  labour 
troubles  were  largely  re.sponsible  for  this. 

The  situation  is  more  unpleasant  from  the  fact  that  nobody 
reallv  seems  to  know  what  the  situation  is.  Sir  Eric  Geddes, 
it  is  dear,  did  not  on  February  2nd  know  of  the  collapse  of 
shipbuilding  in  the  previous  month.  Lloyd's  List,  neces- 
sarilv  the  best-informed  journal  of  shipbuilding,  in  trying  to 
strike  a  balance  between  losses  by  enemy  action  and  new 
'-onstrUction  in  1917.  confesses  that  it  is  reduced  to  pure 
euess-work,  and  finds  Sir  Leo  Monev's  statement  that  our 
net  lo-is  in  1917  was  598  ships  of  over  i,6co  tons,  and  that 
British  tonnage  available  was  now  20  per  cent,  less  than  it 
»'a>.   quite  unintelligible.  .. 

There  are,  then,  two  salient  features  of  the  situation. 
First,  that  those  who  .should  know  most  of  the  subject — the 
First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  and  the  premier  shipping  journal 
- '-annot  make  head  or  tail  of  it  :  next,  that  those  who 
handle  labour — that  is,  their  own  leaders  and  the  employers — 
'.annot  succeed  in  getting  continuous  and  energetic  work. 
\\>  venture  to  think  that  the  first  of  these  phenomena 
e.\ plains  the  second, 

•  •  * 

There  can  be  little  doubt  now  that  the  Government  has 
made  a  grave  mistake  in  trying  to  disguise,  minimise,  or 
conceal  our  loss  of  ships  by  submarines  and  mines.  In  the 
early  part  of  1915  wc  were  told  the  names  and  tonnage  of 
each  ship  lost  and  the  approximate  locality  of  every  sinking. 
When  this  information  was  set  out  graphically  in  these  pages 
—that  is,  by  chart  and  diagram — to  enforce  our  naval  con- 
Tributor's  argument  that  the  historic  defences  of  convoy  and" 
patrol  should  be  adopted,  the  localities  of  the  sinkings'  were 
at  once  suppressed,  and  further  argument  along  this  line  was 
stopped  by  the  censorship.  When  the  more  vigorous  sub- 
marine campaign  reopened  in  August,  1916,  we  were  for- 
bidden even  to  tabulate  the  monthly  results  in  diagram  form. 
When  the  ruthless  campaign  began  thirteen  months  ago,  all 
infonnation,  except  the  bare  number  of  British  ships  sunk 
was  suppressed. 

There  may  be  two  reasons  for  secrecy.  The  first  is  to 
prevent  the  enemy  getting  information  that  will  help  him  to 
smk  more  ships  :  the  second  is  to  suppress  alarm  that  would 
be  discouraging  to  ourselves  or  to  our  Allies— and,  inci- 
dentally, any  criticism  that  exposes  responsibility  for  the 
events  which  cause  the  alarm.  The  first  is  a  legitimate 
reas<jn  for  absolute  secrecy  for  a  certain  period,  but  a  month 
after  the  event,  the  name,  tonnage,  and  locality  of  the  sinking 
would  tell  the  enemy  nothing  useful.  The  mere  suppression 
or  disguismg  of  bad  news  for  fear  of  its  effect  is  a  thoroughly 
baa  reason  for  secrecy,  for  it  gives  the  country  and  our 
Allies  a  totally  false  sense  of  security,  while  leaving  the 
enemv  free  to  get  the  full  propaganda  value  of  any  wildly 
e-vaegTU".!  statements  he  chooses  to  circulate 


.Mr.  Barnes  made  a  remarkable  statement  in  the  House  of 
Commons  last  week  upon  the  present  state  of  shipbuilding 
The  speech  included  certain  preliminary  statements  by  this 
Minister  upon  the  12 J  per  cent,  bonus,  of  which  we  have 

^  V.  f  i"""*"'  '*^  ^^^^^  "P°"  '=^^0"'''  and  the  discussions 
which  had  risen  upon  it  in  the  workshops.  Important  as  this 
policy  has  proved,  and  grave  as  are  the  problems  raised  by 
what  has  followed  upon  it,  it  is  one  exceedingly  difficult  for 
the  general  public  to  deal  with  justly 

We  do  not  know,  because  we  are  not  told,  exactly  what 
part  of  the  new  policy  was  due  to  the  initiative  of  the  Ministry 
of  .Munitions  or  how  much  to  the  initiative  of  the  Ministry 
01  Labour.  And  no  one  can  possibly  tell,  e.xcept  those 
immersed  in  the  immensely  complicated  details  of  labour 
and  munition  administration  at  this  moment,  what  the  full 

*?TL  «^  ^'^"  "■■  ^"■'^  '"'•^'y  *°  '^«-  Wliat  is  important  is 
that  Mr.  Barnes  ascribed  a  recent  unsatisfactory  decline  in 
the  rate  of  shipbuilding  to  the  labour  ferment,  and  traced 
this  ferment,  in  part  at  least,  to  the  policy  of  the  bonus 

The  words  he  used  were  significant  and  grave.  He  told 
...  that  during  January  less  than  half  of  the  estimated 
tonnage  had  been  actually  turned  out.  and  that  February 
would  show  the  same  bad  record.  He  added  the  remarkable 
(and.  m  dealing  with  foreign  affairs,  unusual)  phrase 
America  ha.s  failed  us  so  far  as  shipbuilding  is  concerned  '= 
Mr.  Barnes  is  a  Minister  of  the  War  Cabinet,  and  it  is  the 


first  time  during  the  course  of  this  struggle  that  such  words 
have  been  used  with  regard  to  an  Ally  by  any  responsible 
member  of  any  administration  in  any  of  the  Allied  countries. 
The  phrase  is,  of  course,  rhetorical  and  exaggerated  ;  but  it 
is  none  the  less  to  be  regretted.  Its  object  was  undoubtedly 
excellent,  since  it  was  designed  to  make  the  public  under- 
stand the  gravity  of  the  situation  ;  but  it  was  very  unfor- 
tunately  put. 

*  *  .     * 

The  Man-Power  Bill  was  considered  by  the  miners  at  their 
adjourned  conference  last  week.  A  resolution  from  Lan- 
cashire recommending  immediate  measures  to  supply  the 
recruits  from  the  mines  was  rejected.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
resolution  from  Northumberland  recommending  the  Govern- 
ment to  open  negotiations  with  the  Central  Powers  was  also 
rejected,  and  the  conference  decided  to  refer  the  question 
to  a  ballot. 

In  the  case  of  the  engineers,  the  result  of  the  recent  ballot, 
though  the  majority  was  large,  is  inconclusive  for  the  neces- 
sary proportion  of  members  did  not  vote.  The  situation  has 
been  made  much  more  difficult  by  the  methods  of  the  Govern- 
ment, for  obviously  it  was  most"  important  that  the  national 
need  should  be  made  clear,  whereas  the  authorities  seemed 
to  think  it  was  better  tactics  to  try  to  set  one  union  against 
another.  The  industrial  world  is  full  of  suspicion,  but  there 
is  no  weakening  of  the  main  purpose,  and  the  workmen  are 
quite  ready  for  sacrifices  when  the  necessity  is  put  plainly 
before  them. 

*  .  *  * 

An  important  agreement  has  been  come  to  between  the 
Japanese  and  the  other  Allies.  It  is  to  the  effect  that  the 
Japanese  are  to  have  a  free  hand  to  protect  the  large  accumu- 
lation of  stores  in  the  East  of  Siberia,  and  particularly 
at  Vladivostock,  which  had  been  provided  by  the  Allies 
for  the  defence  of  Russia  while  that  nation  still  existed. 
The  Japanese  Government,  which  in  this  matter  has 
been  specially  approached  by  the  French,  will  have  full  support 
of  the  Allies  in  occupying  and  policing  the  districts  threatened 
by  the  present  anarchy  in  Eastern  Siberia,  and  will  be  able, 
it  is  hoped,  to  salve  no  small  part  of  the  material  now  im- 
perilled. It  is  rumoured  that  a  very  large  number  of  German 
and  Austrian  prisoners  in  Siberia  have  been  given  arms 
by  the  Revolutionaries,  and  that  this  renders  the  action  »f 
Japan. the  more  necessary. 

The  incident  is  a  curious  commentary  upon  that  state  of 
mind  which  confidently  prophesies  the  future  in  international 
affairs.  It  is  not  20  years  since  what  was  then  the  Russian 
Empire  was  regarded  as  the  necessary  heir  to  European 
influence  in  the  far  North-East,  and  when  its  power  there 
was  regarded  as  specially  menacing  to  the-  interests  of  this 
country.  It  is  not  15  years  since  this  so-called  "inevitable 
process  "  was  checked  by  the  Japanese  declaring  war.  In  all 
the  possible  endings  to  that  rivalry  which  the  wisest  observer 
could  imagine,  such  an  ending  as  the  present  was  not  and 
could  not  have  been  conceived. 


A  change  of  considerable  importance  has  long  been  effected 
m  the  Austro-Hungarian  service.  A  complete  study  of  it 
has  recently  appeared  on  the  Continent,  and  its  effects  will 
be  interesting  to  note  in  the  fighting  of  this  year.  Even 
allowing  for  the  large  number  of  Slav  prisoners  which  that 
service  has  lost,  the  majority  of  its  recruitment  is  still  neither 
German  nor  Magyar  in  race,  but  Slav,  with  a  certain  small 
proportion  of  Rumanian  (about  7  per  cent,  of  the  whole). 

In  the  first  part  of  the  war,  when  recruitment  was  local 
and  fairiy  homogeneous,  these  subject  and  discontented 
elements  all  mustered  together  in  the  same  unity,  gave 
active  opportunities  for  revolt  and  organised  disaffection,  as 
aJso  for  general  surrenders— especially  to  the  Russians.  In 
the  latter  part  of  the  war  nearly  every  non-German  or  Magyar 
iHiit  has  been  thoroughly  leavened  'with  German  or  Magyar 
elements,  while  Slavs  have  been  dispersed  into  many  units 
of  non-Slav  origin.  This  policy  has  been  piu-sued  even  in 
the  case  of  the  officers.  The  result  is  that  actively  organised 
opposition  or  mutiny  is  more  difficult  to  produce  and  has 
almost  disappeared.  Moreover,  the  defeat  of  Russia  has 
helped  the  process. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  best  units  have  lost  their  old  quality 
under  this  policy,  and  there  is  a  sort  of  dilution  affecting  the 
whole  army,  and  lessening  its  vigour  and  driving  power 
Some  special  corps— for  instance,  the  Mountaineers  from  the 
lyrol,  have  remained  untouched.  But  these  are  excep- 
tions^ The  mass  of  the  forces  have  suffered  the  pro- 
cess described.  It  has  given  political,  though  very  short- 
lived, advantages,  at  the  expense  of  purely  military 
considerations. 


March    7,  191 8 


Land    Sc   Water 


The  German  Offer:    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


IN  the  course  of  last  week  the  Germtin  Chancellor  of 
the  moment,  Hertling,  delivered  yet  another  of  the 
series  of  speeches  upon  peace  terms  with  which  Europe 
has  now  grown  familiar.  It  was  replied  to  by  Sir. 
Balfour  in  the'  House  of  Commons  on  Wednesday 
last,  February  27th.  Mr.  Balfour  made  the  best  that  could 
be  made  out  of  such  very  thin  material,  but  the  truth  is 
that  the  enemy's  declarations  (for  they  cannot  be  called 
terms)  hardly  afford  matter  for  debate.  The  situation  is  so 
clear,  has  been  of  such  long  standing,  and  is  now  so  generally 
perceived  even  by  the  mass  of  the  public,  that  these  official 
statements  and  counter  .statements  are  little  more  than  a 
waste  of  time  and  are  attracting  less  and  less  attention. 

The  central  fact  of  that  situation  is  the  anxiety  of  Prussia, 
the  master  of  the  Central  Group  which  we  are  fighting,  to 
cry  oiT  while  her  army  is  still  intact — to  be  left  unhampered 
in  her  training  of  subject  Slavs  of  her  service.  It  is  as  simple 
as  that.     . 

In  pursuing  this  end,  Prussia  relics  upon  forces  in  our 
Western  civilisation  vastly  stronger  than  those  of  the 
numerically  and  intellectually  insignificant  Pacifists.  She 
relies  chiefly  upon  something  common  to  all  human  nature, 
which  is  the  tendency  to  act  "unreasonably  under  a  strain. 
She  also  relies  upon  the  contrast  between  her  own  knowledge 
of  Slav  problems  (which  is  naturally  extensive  and  accurate) 
and  the  general  ignor;mce  of  them  in  the  West.  She  further 
relies  upon  the  necessarily  diverse  character  of  the  several 
nations  arrayed  against  her  dominion.  All  these  things  are 
in  her  favour.  But  a  statement  of  plain  fact  is  not  in  her 
favour.  The  facts  now  known  to  every  one — though  they 
have  taken  a  long  time  getting  known — are  utterly  against 
her  moral  claim — which  is  now  that  the  war  is  but  a  sad 
misunderstanding.  Those  facts  are  also,  happily,  a.gainst 
the  probability  of  her  final  victory.  In  other  words,  if 
Europe  calls  in  its  intelligence  to  correct  its  moods,  Europe 
will  win  and  barbarism  will  be  defeated. 

The  position   has,  therefore,  two  clear  elements : — 

(i)  Prussia  and  her  dependents  have  gained  a  great  and 
decisive  victory  against  the  alliance  on  its  isolated  Eastern 
front  ;  which  victory,  if  it  can  be  left  undisturbed,  will  double 
her  power  in  a  generation. 

But  (2);  he  and  they  are  perilously  exhausted — far  more, 
exhausted  than  is  the  West  ;  and  Prussia  sees  little  chance 
of  any  further  accident  which  tvould  relieve  the  growing 
pressure  against  her.  She  perceives  that  if  the  war  is  main- 
tained in  spite  of  the  heavy  strain  on  us,  the  strain  on  her 
will  break   her. 

First,  the  Centra!  Empires  under  the  leadership  of  Prussia 
have  won  a  complete  and  decisive  victory  upon  the  front 
between  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea  ;  added  to  which 
victory,  and  as  a  consequence  of  it,  they  obtained  a  recent 
military  success  in  Italy  upon  a  scale  so  stupendous  (the 
greatest  single  capture  in  men  and  guns  of  all  military 
history)  that  though  no  decision  was  then  obtained,  the 
moral  effect  was  overwhelming  in  the  enemy's  countries  and 
very  serious  in  our  own. 

To  such  an  atmosphere  of  success — which  in  the  case  of 
the  Slav  countries  is  much  more  than  an  atmosphere — 
Prussia  and  her  subjects  stand  now  with  a  record  of  three 
and  a  half  years'  successful  resistance  between  the  Alps  and 
the  North  Sea.  This  successful  resistance  has  involved 
— by  a  mere  mechanical  accident,  it  is  true,  but  none  the 
less  has  involved — the  great  moral  factor  of  fighting  upon 
enemy  soil.  Until  the  air  raids  began  to  develop,  the  war 
was,  for  the  German  at  home,  a  terrible  trial  compensated 
for  by  the  triumph  of  ordering  and  subjugating  portions  of 
the  civilised  West.  This  was  more  than  a  moral  asset  ;  it 
was  a  material  asset  as  well.  If  the  Western  siege  line  had 
crystallised  in  the  fluctuations  of  1914  upon  German  instead 
of  upon  French  and  Bel.gian  soil,  the  enemy  would  have 
been  handicapped  by  having  to  spare  as  much  as  possible 
what  lay  behind  our  lines,  while  we  would  have  had  the 
pleasure  of  destroying  without  any  great  compunction  all 
that  lay  behind  his.  If  St.  Quentin  were  Cologne,  for 
instance,  or  Douai  Bonn,  they  would  be  uninhabited  to-day. 

This  first  element,  then,  is  the  fact  that  Pru.ssia  and  her 
dependents  are  the  heirs  of  a  gratifying  and  very  great 
success,  the  last  and  most  striking  proofs  of  which  arc  imme- 
diate and  vivid  The  Italian  victory  is  only  live  months 
old  ;  the  occupation  of  Reval  is  not  a  fortnight  old.  And  it 
simply  lies  with  the  enemy  when  he  may  cjioose  to  occupy 
St.  Petersburg  in  the  North  and  Kieff  in  the  south. 


But  the  second  counterbalancing  element,  of  which  far  too 
little  is  made,  is  more  serious  in  the  eyes  of  soldiers  and 
in  the  eyes  of  statesmen.  It  is  the  degree  of  exhaustion 
from  which  the  German  Empire  and  Austria-Hungar\-  are 
suffering. 

Of  the  belligerent  nations  upon  the  European  sidf,  the 
side  of  civilisation,  the  only  one  to  enter  the  war  fully 
mobilised  was  the  French  Republic.  We  know  what  four 
years  of  war  have  done  to  the  effectives  and  to  the  civilian 
man-power  of  that  nation.  Well,  that  same  four  years  have 
done  more,  not  very  much  more,  but  more,  to  the  civilian 
man-power,  and  still  more  to  the  effectives,  of  the.  two 
Central  Empires.  These  also  entered  the  war  from  the 
first  moment  fully  mobilised.  In  other  words,  they  have 
been  standing  a  maximum  of  losses  from  the  beginning. 

Great  Britain,  with  her  Colonies  and  Dependencies, 
developed  her  resources  with  marvellous  rapidity,  but  still 
the  pace  was  limited  by  sheer  physical  necessity,  and  the 
average  numbers  in  the  field  were  correspondingly  smaller 
than  those  of  any  nation  entering  the  war  fully  mobilised  on 
its  first  outbreak.  We  have  been  publicly  told,  upon 
official  authority,  that  our  casualties  of  all  kinds  are,  so  far. 
perhaps  one-third  of  the  French,  and  that  the  casualties  of 
all  kinds  from  these  islands  alone  are  perhaps  equal  to  the 
French  dead  alone.  On  that  basis  we  can  contrast  the 
German  position,  in  particular  among  our  enemies,  with  the 
English  position  in  p;u-ticular  among  the  Allies. 

Actual  German  Losses 

The  Germans  have  now  buried  (killed,  prematurely  dead 
from  disease,  and  from  wounds)  something  like  three  million 
of  those  drawing  military  rations  ;  perhaps  somewhat  more. 
They  have  lost  much  more  than  three  million  males  dead, 
over  and  above  the  average  rate  in  peace  time.  And  there 
are  other  factors  in  the  position  which  are  sometimes  for- 
gotten. The  German  military  system  depended  upon  a 
caste  of  officers.  That  caste  has  been  half  destroyed  by  the 
war,  and  the  gaps  have  been  supplemented  in  various  ways  : 
by  temporary  commissions  onlv  granted  after  expressed 
limitations  of  rank  and  authority  ;  by  giving  non-com- 
missioned officers  commissioned  duties :  by  reducing  the 
proportion  of  command  ta  rank  and'  file,  etc.  .  With  all 
these  supplementary'  methods  rather  grudgingly  used,  the 
handicap  from  which  Germany  suffers  in  a  long  war  remains. 
The  jealous  regard  of  the  miJitarv  caste  for  its  position,  has 
prevented  in  Germany  what  France  has  done  naturally  for 
a  century,  and  what  England  has  successfully,  though 
experimentally,  done  in  the  last  three  years^ — the  creation 
of  a  body  of  officers  chosen  and  promoted  almost  without 
regard  to  social  rank  in  peace. 

At  the  same  time,  the  enemy  is  suffering  from  a  more 
severe  economic  exhaustion  than  the  Western  Allies,  and  he 
has  been  suffering  from  it  for  a  much  longer  time.  There 
are  in  this  province  anomalies  and  discrepancies.  Civilian 
rationing,  for  instance,  has  come  upon  Great  Britain 
suddenly  and  severely,  thoiigh  only  on  a  few  articles,  whereas 
in  the' Central  Empires  it  has  been  at  work  almost  from  the 
beginning — though  covering  man\-  more  articles.  Certain 
necessaries  are  perilously  near  the  murgin  with  us  which  in 
the  enemy's  country  are  more  abundant.  But.  striking  a 
balance,  that  balance  is  heavily  against  him  and  in  out 
favour.  Our  real  difficulty  is  transport — principalK'  mari- 
time, and  therefore  vulnerable  and  slow,  while  the  distances 
to  be  travelled  are  also  very  long.  His  transport  is  short, 
invulnerable,  and  rapid.  But  the  ultimate  fact  is  available 
supply,  and  in  this  the  enemy  is  far  worse  hit  than  his 
opponents.  He  can  use,  not  without  great  friction,  the 
civilian  power  of  Belgium  and  of  a  small  strip  of  Northern 
France.  He  can  use,  on  a  scale  which  so  far  has  been  but 
an  insignificant  part  of  the  whole,  certain  industrial  centres 
in  Poland  ;  but  against  this  we  have  the  mass  of  British 
industrial  power,  the  complement  to  the  fact  that  the  Britisli 
armies  were  mobilised  more  slowly  and  less  fully  than  those 
of  the  French  ;  further,  we  have  the  production  of  the  world 
behind  us,  especially  of  the  United  States. 

There  is  one  last  point  to  be  considered  in  this  economic 
exhaustion  of  the  enemy  :  a  point  to  which  allusion  has 
often  been  made  in  this  journal  the  complete  cutting  off 
of  tropical  and  sub-tropical  products  from  the  Central 
Empires.  We  have  just  had  one  striking  example  of  its 
effect  in  the  difficulty  the  enemy  has  to  provide  efficient 
gas  masks  from  lack  of  rubber  ;   but- it  is  something  running 


Land    &    Water 


March  7, 


1918 


do  not  know,  for  instance,  when  the  dearth  of  such  an  essen- 
tial at.  cotton  (which  ought  to  have  been  strictly  contraband 
from  the  first  day  <if  the  war)  will  not  appear  with  the  same 
severity  as  the  dearth  of  rubber. 

This  second  element,  then,  the  element  of  exhaustion,  is 
the  counter-balancing  one  which  is  compelling  the  enemy  so 
an.viously  to  seek  some  wa\'  out  to  a  negotiated  peace  before 
he  loses  the  fruits  of  his  recent  great  successes. 

It  is  too  often  forgotten  that  military  science  proceeds  by 
calculation.  The  Higher  Conunand  of  every  army  in  the 
field  to-day  thinks  mainly  in  terms  of  curves  and  figures.  It 
has  no  choice  but  to  do  .so,  for  to  do  so  is  the  essence  of  its 
trade,  and  to  be  right  about  those  curves  and  figures  is  the 
test  of  its  efficiency'.  A  soldier  can  no  more  think  in  tlie 
rhetorical  or  sensational  vagueness  of  the  popular  journal 
and  politician  than  a  merchant  can  think  in  terms  of  fine 
houses  and  lu.xurious  displav.  The  commander  can  no  more 
escape  from  the  calculation  of  losses  and  effectives,  of  material 
and  production,  of  transport,  of  hospital  returns,  of  climatic 
statistics  concerning  weather  and  soil,  of  degrees  of  accuracy 
in  artillery  fire  and  its  results,  of  radius  of  action  in  aircraft 
and  missile  weapons,  than  the  merchant  can  escape  from  the 
calculation  of  prices,  costings,  and  quotations. 

The  Militarist  State 

Now.  the  German  organisation  is  an  organisation  of  soldiers, 
not  very  military  in  spirit,  for  it  is  neither  chivalric  nor 
adventurous,  but  still  entirely  of  soldiers.  Prussia  is  an 
army  with  a  State  attached  and  subordinate  to  it,  whereas 
the  Allies  are  States  using  armies  subordinate  to  civilians. 
Tlie  mere  essentials,  therefore,  of  the  militarv  art  are  the 
ver\'  core  of  the  enemy's  action.  What  the  German  com- 
manders think  is  what  directs  all  German  policy,  and  what 
the  (rerman  soldiers  want  is  the  thing  that  is  done  by  the 
German  civilians,  Chancellor  and  all. 

Well,  the  German  soldier  has  made  his  calculations,  and  in 
his  mind  all  the  talk  about  the  continuation  of  the  war  being 
"useless,"      the   German    Army    being  "  "invincible,  "      the 
"shining  sword,"  and  the  rest  "of  it  are  balderdash.     They 
are  used  by  courtiers  and  by  public  speakers  in  the  hope  of 
impressing  the  enemy.     But  the  motive  force  behind  them, 
the  reason  they  are  used  for  impressing  the  Allies,  and  per- 
suading them  to  a  negotiated  peace,  is  a  mass  of  exact  cal- 
culations  which    the   commanders   make   and    follow.     The 
people  behind  the  German  policy  of  peace  are  watching  the 
curves.     They  know  better  than  we  do   (though  we  know 
pretty  iu-.curately)  exactly  what  the  submarine  loss  is.     They 
know  what  crews  they  can  get  and  at  what  rate  to  replace 
losses.     They  have  a  curve  for  that  and  a  curve  for  the  real 
damage  to  tonnage  ;    a  curve  for  the  margin  of  error  in  this 
<seemg  that  the  submarine  officer  does  not  know  what  he  is 
hitting  unless  he  first  summons  it,  or  unless  it  is  a  hospital 
ship    with    distinctive   marks).     They    keep    most    accurate 
curves  of  their  dead  ;   of  their  recruitment  ;   of  their  losses  of 
every  kind  ;    of  their  hospital  returns.     They  have  innumer- 
able other  curves  of  production  and  consumption  in  civilian 
necessities  ;    in  the  output  of  munitions  ;    in  the  condition 
wastage,  and  numbers  of  railway  wagons  ;    in  the  dwindlin-' 
supply  of  lubricants^and  all  the  rest  of  it.     It  is  the  lesson 
taught    by   these   curves   which    produces   in    their   various 
forms,  from  the  grotesque— like  the  request  that  we  should 
give  up  our  coaling  stations—to  the  merely  futile— like  quot- 
ations from  St.  Augustine— these  perpetual  appeals  for  peace 
llie   elements   favourable   to    Prussia   are    fortuitous   and 
incalculable.     Ihere  may  be    a  civilian  breakdown  in  some 
one  other  country  of  the  Alliance,  such  as  that  which  has 
taken  place  under  alien  and  cosmopolitan  direction  in  the 
capital  of  what   was  once  Russia.      There  mav  be  ciuarrels 
among  the  Allies.     There  mav  be  discovered  anunexpectcdh- 
weak  sector  such  as  that  the  collapse  of  which  led  to  the 
enormous   victory   of  Caporetto    la.st    October.     It    is   such 
accidents  as  these  which  have  on  three  separate  occasions 
res  <,red,    when   it    seemed  l.opeless.    the   Prussian    position 
tint  no  soldier  gambles  upon  continued  luck.     All  soldiers 
calculate.     And    the   calculation    of    the    future    is    against 
Frussia.     That  IS  why  Prussia  continues  and  will  continue 
to  seek  the  earliest  possible  peace.     Subject  to  the  necessity 
she  IS  under  of  holding  all  she  can  of  what  she  has  already 
not '  r       ^A     .*  .  "™=^"r«    potentially    a    .strong    military 
pow.T-and  whatever  scheme  of  disarmament  were  proposed 

n   Io'T'k/-  T'f  ""'"f>'  f'"«'^-'-  ^h'^'  ^vill  potentially  remain, 
unless  she  is  beaten  in  this  war  •     " 

Thn'''CJ''^.".r''f  •'■  f""  ■'  ""^"'■"  because  ii  ,',  a  necessity. 

Those  who  talk  of  a  democratic  Prussia  are  using  a  coiV 

radict.on  in  terms.     Tho.se  who  conceive  of  Prussia  in  the 

future  as  one  of  many  happy  States  all  in  agreement  and  form- 


ing  a  sort  of  common   civilisation,   have  perhaps  not   even 
seen  a  map  of  the  German  Empire.     Prussia  is  not  a  State  ; 
save  for  a  certain  nucleus  of  governing  families,  half  Slavonic, 
half  German,  it  is  not  a  race.     It  is  a  system.     When  one 
talks  of   "Rhenish    Prussia,"    for  instance,   that   is  a    term 
which,  if  Prussia  were  a  State  or  a  race,  would  be  about  as 
meaningless  as  the  phrase  "Scotch  Connaught "   or  "Irish 
.Vberdeenshire."     Prussia,  if  it  were  possible  to  regard  it  as 
a  State  or  a  race,  would  mean  a  bare  thinly  populated  dis- 
trict mainly  Slavonic  in  blood  lying  on  the  extreme  north- 
ea.st  of  the  German  speech,  antipathetic  to  most  Germans  ; 
never  yet  fully  civilised,  and  run  by  a  class  of  large  land- 
owners, whose  dependents  arc  little  better  than  serfs.     But 
the  Rhine  Provinces  are  hundreds  of  miles  away  from  that 
territory.     They    are   the   most    civilised   part    of   Northern 
Germany  ;    they  still  retain  a  tincture  of  the  Roman  tradi- 
tion ;     they    have    proved    very    amenable    in    the   past    to 
Western  influence  ;   they  enjoy  great  economic  freedom,  and, 
though   they   are  now  badly   spoilt   by   industrialism,   they 
repose  upon  a  basis  of  free  peasants.     The  idea  of  such  a 
place  being  "Prussian"   in  any  racial   or  national   sense  is 
nonsense.     Yet  the  term  "Rhenish   Prussia,"  once  we  read 
the  word  "Prussia"  aright,  is  not  nonsense  at  all,  but  has  a 
very  real  meaning.     It   has  a  very  real  meaning  when  we 
read  it  to  mean  what  it  does  mean— which  is  this  : — 

"  T/ie  administration  by  a  military  system  of  those  Western 
Marches  of  the  Germanies  from  which  aggressive  action  can 
be  taken  against  France,  the  two  Netherlands,  and  Britain." 

We  are  not  out  to  destroy  Prussian  militarism  or  any 
other  "ism."  We  are  out  to  destroy  Prussia.  This  action 
is  not  the  destruction  of  a  nation,  but  of  a  creed.  It  is  a 
creed  the  whole  vitality  of  which  depends  upon  victory. 
It  is  a  creed  which  would  collapse  at  once  upon  defeat,  and 
which,  unless  it  is  destroyed,  will  itself  destroy  the  high 
civilisation  of  Europe  in  all  its  provinces,  but  in  particular 


our  own. 


Enemy  Inferiority 


This  element  of  exhaustion,  which  is  the  root  cause  of 
Germany's  anxiety  for  peace,  is  accentuated  by  her  rulers' 
perception  of  the  necessary  growth  of  superiority  (for  the 
third  time,  and  probably  for  the  last  time)  upon  the  side  of 
civilisation,  and  the  corresponding  decline  upon  the  side  of 
its  enemies.,.  The  Great  War  has  seen  three  cusps  or  waves 
of  the  sort.  First  came  the  unprovoked,  unexpected,  trea- 
cherous, and  exceedingly  rapid  attack  which  took  us  all 
unawares.  It  was  checked  and  broken  at  the  Marne  ;  held 
in  front  of  Ypres  and  on  the  Yser  ;  and  in  the  succeeding 
six  months,  as  Europe  began  to  take  breath  and  recover 
itself,  the  superiority  of  Europe  against  the  barbarian  became 
apparent.  The  rate  of  munitionment,  the  improvisation  of 
armies  from  Britain,  the  astonishing  development  of  work  in 
the  air  ;  the  production  of  heavy  artillery  upon  a  quite 
unheard-of  scale ;  in  all  these  new  things,  civilisation 
— which  is  always  potentially  superior  to  barbarism— drew 
rapidly  up  in  the  race  and  began  to  get  ahead  of  the  enemy. 
Let  me  give  an  example  : — 

In  Augu.st,  1914,  the  clumsy  but  very  large  howitzer 
which  the  Austrians  had  produced  and  the  Germans  adopted 
for  siege  work,  and  the  calibre  of  which  was  between  i6  and 
17  inches,  was  first  employed.  It  reduced,  with  other  lesser 
but  very  large  siege  pieces,  the  ring  fortresses  upon  which 
French  theory  reposed.  The  Germans,  who  alone  were 
thoroughly  preparing  for  war  and  were  planning  it,  had 
worked  out  the  effect  of  such  hve-^when  it  could  be  regulated 
by  the  new  and  hitherto  impossible  method  of  obsefvation  from 
the  air.  But  for  observation  from  the  air,  the  ring  fortress 
would  have  stood  indefinitely  against  any  assault.  There- 
fore It  was  that  the  Central  Empires  began  the  designing  of 
this  piece  about  the  time  of  Agadir  in  191 1,  and  had  it 
ready  at  the  moment  which  Prussia  had  decided  upon  to  be 
the  moment  for  her  successful  surprise,  immediately  after  the 
harvest  of  igr4_three  years  ahead.  Three  years  was  the 
tme  taken  to  develop  the  new  machinery  and  its  accessories, 
and  the  training  of  its  crews.  The  same  period  applies  to 
the  enlarging  of  the  Kiel  Canal  and  to  many  other  tests  of 
their   preparation. 

Now,  these  very  great  engines  were  somewhat  in  the 
nature  of  a  surprise— at  least,  their  effect  was.  Their  mere 
existence  was,  of  course,  familiar.  But  there  were  no  con- 
spicuously difficult  problems  to  be  solved.  The  howitzer 
fires  at  a  high  angle;  the  absorption  of  recoil  is  propor- 
tionately easier.  It  pretends  to  no  great  mobility,  sin^e  its 
function  IS  to  reduce  siege  works.  But  if  you  had  told  any 
German  in  1914  that  he  had  to  produce,  and  that  the  Allies 
-would  shortly  produce  a  land  gun  of  the  same  calibre,  pos- 


March   7,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


7 


sessing   great   mobility,   he   would   have   thought   you   were 
laughing  at  him. 

Well,  that  was  in  August,  IQ14.  In  February,  1015,  I  saw 
the  castings  of  that  very  gun  already  in  being — the  great 
French  400.  I  had  to  hold  m\-  tyngue  about  it.  of  course. 
and  did,  until  the  piece  appeared  in  the  field.  What  I  said 
to  th(jse  who  were  showing  it  to  me  was  what  I  think  anybody 
would  have  said  who  was  interested  in  such  subjects  :  That 
the  mere  making  of  such  a  gun  for  use  on  land  was,  of  course, 
possible,  though  it  could  have  no  such  platform  :  but  that 
I  could  not  conceive  how  the  recoil  could  be  absorbed. 
Further,  I  said  that  it  could  not  have  any  mobility,  and  yet 
mobilit\-  was  essential  to  the  use  of  such  a  gun.  The  last 
question  was  immediately  answered.  The  gun  would  move 
upon  railwavs  of  the  normal  gauge.  This,  I  said,  solved 
the  problem  of  mobility,  but  made  still  more  impossible  of 
solution  the  problem  of  absorbing  the  recoil.  I  could  not 
be  told  the  secret  of  this  last  and  essential  solution,  but  I 
was  told  it  had  been  made,  and,  as  we  all  know,  these  enor- 
mous pieces  came  forward  in  the  second  year  of  the  war  ; 
they  completelv  absorbed  their  recoil.  The  first  few  shells 
from  this  piece,  by  the  way,  destroyed  the  railway  station  of 
Peronne,  in  which  three  trains  were  standing  packed  with 
troops. 

-     Tliat  is  only  one  example  of  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that 
after  each  imexpectcd  enemy  success  civilisation  catches  up. 

Innumerable  other  examples  will  occur  to  every  technical, 
reader  of  these  pages,  and  I  think  to  most  other  general 
readers  as  well.  The  enemy  introduced  poison  gas  to  the 
horror  of  civilisation  ;  but  the  civilised  nations  quickly  beat 
him  at  his  own  game.  He  had  prepared  defensive  methods 
against  such  a  gas.  We  elaborated  better  ones.  He  came 
into  the  field  with  a  just  appreciation  of  the  machine-gun 
and  of  trench  weapons,  in  which  we  were  hopelessly  behind- 
hand. We  produced  more,  if  not  better,  of  the  one,  and 
certainlv  better  of  the  otlier.  He  took  it  upon  himself  to 
bombard  civilians  in  open  towns  from  the  air — another- 
abomination  hitherto  unheard  of,  and  indeed  strictly  for- 
bidden by  conventions  to  which  he  had  put  his  own  hand.  ^ 
We  devised  defences  against  such  action  superior  to  his  own 
and  we  are  now  appearing  as  his  superior  even  in  that  last 
deplorable  development,  which  he  himself  chose,  inaugurated, 
and  must  now  suffer  from. 

Now  of  all  this  the  enemy  is  just  afs  well  aware  as  we  are. 


We  were  catching  him  up  foot  by  foot  and  passing  him 
when  he  got  his  first  respite  through  the  inability  of  the 
Eastern  Slavs  to  munition  them.selves,  lacking  as  they  did 
industrial  power.  He  got  his  second  when  he  brought  in 
the  King  of  Bulgaria  after  the  usual  diplomatic  treachery 
and  promises  of  neutrality,  and  the  rest.  But  that  advan- 
tage was  in  its  turn  countered.  The  West  began  to  pour 
munitions  into  Russia  ;  the  advance  to  the  Mediterranean 
was  held  ;  the  Turkish  forces,  which  he  was  now  able  to 
organise  and  munition  through  Bulgaria,  were  beaten  in 
their  attack  on  Egypt,  and  were  gradually  pressed  back  on 
their  own  soil.  His  double  offensive  in  the  West — Verdun 
and  the  Trentino — failed.  Our  counter  offensive  pressed 
him  and  exhausted  him  throughout  iqi(). 

His  third  and  greatest  respite  he  has  just  obtained. 
Following  upon  the  heavy  effect  of  the  submarine  warfare 
before  we  had  begun  to  catch  up  on  that  also,  he  enjoyed 
what  was  for  him  the  good  fortune  of  the  Russian  Revolu- 
tion, and  the  subsequent  disintegration  of  the  Russian  State. 

We  all  know  the  fruits  of  that  last  and  most  important  of 
his  successes.  They,  were  apparent  in  Italy,  and  they  are 
apparent  in  the  present  concentration  upon  the  Western 
front.  But  the  process  by  which  the  superior  invariably 
dominates  the  inferior  at  last,  in  spite  of  any  accident  or 
any  surprise,  the  process,  but  for  which  civilisation  would 
long  ago  have  disappeared  under  the  attacks  of  barbarism, 
is  again  at  work.  Again  we  find  the  process  exasperating  us 
by  its  slowness,  but  again,  if  we  will  regard  it  as  a  necessary 
inevitable  growth,  we  can  watch  it  in  security.  The  pro- 
duction of  machinery  and  of  mmiitions,  of  offensive  and 
defensive  armament  catches  up.  If  you  had  before  y6u  the 
curves  representing,  for  instance,  submarine  warfare,  or  the 
building  of  new  tonnage,  or  the  recruitment  of  American 
soldiers,  or  the  rate  of  their  transport  to  Europe,  any  one  of 
the  many  incidental  curves  upon  which  the  future  is  cal- 
culated— j-ou  would  see  in  their  aggregate  (in  spite  of  fluctua- 
tions such  as  the  fall  in  tonnage  since  January  ist)  this 
movement  of  increasing  strength  against  the  corresponding 
curves  of  the  enemy.  And  the  enemy  has  those  calculations 
before  him  just  as  we  have  ;  though  we  know  our  own  figures 
more  accurately  and  he  his  own.  This  third  element  in  the 
situation  is,,  even  more  than  the  rest,  compelling  him  to 
seek  a  negotiated  peace. 

H.  Belloc. 


A  Battleship  at  Sea:  By  Lewis  R.  Freeman,  r.n. 


V.R. 


So  vivid  a  description  of  the  ivalch  at}d  ward  which  the 
British  Fleet  keeps  round  these  islands  in  all  weathers 
has  not  before  been  published.  Lieutenant  Freeman, 
R.N.V.R.,  narrates  his  actual  experiences  in  a  winter 
cruise  on  a  battleship  in  the  North  Sea. 

THE  collier  had  come  alongside  a  little  after  seven 
— two  hours  before  daybreak  at  the  time  of 
year — and  I  awoke  in  my  cabin  on  the  boat  deck 
just  abaft  the  forward  turret  to  the  grind  of  the 
winches  and  the  steady  tramp-tramp  of  the 
barrow-pushers  on  the  decks  below. 

On  my  way  aft  to  the  ward-room  for  breakfast,  I  stopped 
for  a  moment  by  a  midships  hatch,  where  the  commander, 
grimed  to  the  eyes,  stamped  his  sea-boots  and  threshed  his 
arms  as  a  substitute  for  the  warming  exercise  the  men  were 
getting  behind  the  shovels  and  the  barrows.  He  it  was  who 
was  responsible— partly  through  systematisation,  partly 
through  infusing  his  own  energetic  spirit  into  the  men  them- 
selves—for the  fact  that  the  "  Zeus  "  held  the  Blue  Ribbon,  or 
the  Black  Ribbon,  or  whatever  one  would  call  the.  premier 
honours  of  the  Grand  Fleet  for  speedy  coaling.  Not  un- 
naturally, therefgre,  he  was  a  critical  man  when  it  came  to 
passing  judgment  on  the  shifting  of  "Number  i  Welsh 
Steam"  from  hold  to  bunkers,  and  it  was  not  necessarily  to 
be  expected  that  he  would  echo  my  enthusiasm  when  I  told 
him  that  this  was  quite  the  smartest  bit  of  coaling  I  had  ever 
seen  west  of  Nagasaki,  something  quite  worth  stancling,  shiver- 
ing tooth  to  tooth,  with  a  raw  north  wind,  to  be  a  witness  of. 
"It's  fair,"  he  admitted  grudgingly,  "only  fair.  A  shade 
over.  300  tons  an  hour,  perhaps.  'Twould  have  seemed  good 
enough  before  we  put  up  the  Grand  Fleet  record  of  408. 
Trouble  is,  they  haven't  anything  to  put  'em  on  their  mettle 
this  morning.  Now,  if  some  other  ship  had  come  within 
fifty  or  sixty  tons  of  their  record  this  last  week,  or  if  we'd 
had  a  rush  order  to  get  ready  to  go  to  sea— then  you  might 
have  hoped  to  see  coaling  that  was  coaling." 

Copyright  in  the  Cnited  State*. 


All  through  my  porridge  and  eggs  and  bacon  the  steady 
tramp  of  the  barrow-men  on  the  quarter-deck  throbbed 
along  the  steel  plates  of  the  ward-room  ceiling,  and  it  must 
have  been  about  the  time  I  was  spreading  my  marmalade 
(real  marmalade,  not  the  synthetic  substitute  one  comes 
face  to  face  with  ashore  these  days)  that  I  seemed  to  sense 
a  quickening  of  the  movepient,  not  through  any  rush-bang 
acceleration,  but  rather  through  gradually  becoming  aware 
of  increased  force  in  action,  as  when  the  engines  of  a  steamer 
speed  up  from  "half"  to  "full."  In  a  few  moments  an 
overalled  figure,  with  a  face  coal-dusted  till  it  looked  like 
the  face  of  the  end-man  in  a  minstrel  show,  lounged  in  to 
remark  casually  behind  the  day  before  yesterday  morning's 
paper  that  we  had  just  gone  on  "two  hours'  notice."  A 
half-hour  later,  as  the  gouged-out  collier  edged  jerkily  away 
under  the  impulse  of  her  half-submerged  screw,  the  com- 
mander, a  gleam  of  quiet  satisfaction  in  his  steady  eyes, 
remarked  that  "it  wasn't  such  a  bad  finish,  after  all,"  adding 
that  "the  men  seemed  keen  to  get  her  out  to  sea  and  let  the 
wind  blow  through  her." 

The  ship's  post-coaling  clean  up — usually  as  elaborate 
an  affair  as  a  Turkish  bath,  with  rub  down  and  massage — 
was  no  more  than  a  douche  with  "a  lick  and  a  promise." 
Anything  more  for  a  warship  putting  off  into  the  North  Sea 
in  midwinter  would  be  about  as  superfluous  as  for  a  man  to 
wash  his  face  and  comb  his  hair  before  taking  a  plunge  in 
the  surf. 

Once  that  perfunctory  wash-down  was  over,  all  ti^aces  of 
rush  disappeared.  What  little  remained  to  be  done  after 
that — even  including  getting  ready  for  action — was  so 
ordered  and  endlessly  rehearsed  that  nothing  short  of  an 
enemy  salvo  or  a  sea  heavy  enough  to  carry  away  something 
of  importance  need  be  productive  of  a  really  hurried  move- 
ment. Just  a  shade  more  smoke  from  the  funnels  to  indicate 
the  firing  of  furnaces  which  had  been  lying  cold,  and  the  taking 
down  or  in  of  a  few  little  port  "comforts"  like  stove-pipes 
and  gangways,  forecasted  imminent  departure. 

The  expression  regarding  the  fleet,  squadron,  or  even   the 


8 


Land   &:  Water 


March  7,  191  S 


single  ship  readv  to  sail  at  a  moment's  notice  is  as  much  <)f 
a  figure  of  speech  as  is  the  similar  one  about  the  army  wlucli 
is  going  to  fight'  to  the  last  man.  A  good  many  moments 
must  inevitahlv  elapse  between  the  time  definite  orders  come 
to  sail  and  the  actual  getting  under  weigh.  But  the  final 
preparations  can  be  reduced  to  such  a  routine  that  the  ship 
receiving  them  <.in  be  got  ready  to  sail  witli  h.irdlv  more 
than  a  ripple  of  unusual  activity  appearing  in  tli.^  ebb  and 
flow  of  the  life  -.f  those  who  man  her.  No  river  ferr\-boat 
ever  cast  off  her  moorings  and  paddled  out  on  one  of  Iicr 
endlessly  repeated  shuttlings  with  less  apparent  effort  than 
the  "Zeus."  when,  after  gulping  some  scores  of  fathoms  of 
Gargantuan  anchor  chain  into  her  capacious  maw,  she 
pivoted  easily  around  in  the  churning  welter  of  reversed 
screws,  took  her  place  in  line,  and  followed  in  the  wake  of  the 
flagship  toward  the  point  where  a  notch  in  the  bare  rounded 
periphery  of  encircling  hills  marked  the  way  to  the  open  sea. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  temperate  latitudes  is  there  so  strange 
a  meeting  and  mingling  place  of  airs  and  waters  than  where 
we  were.  The  butterfly  chases  of  sunshine  and  showers  even 
in  December  and  January  are  suggestiveof  nothing  so  much 
as  what  a  South  Pacific  Archipelago  would  be  but  with  fifty 
or  sixty  degrees  colder  temperature.  Dancing  golden  sun- 
motes  were  playing  spirited  cross-tag  with  slatily  sombre 
cloud-shadows  as  we  nosed  out  through  the  mazes  of  the 
booms,  but  with  the  first  stinging  slaps  of  the  vicious  cross- 
swells  of  a  turbulent  sea,  a  swirling  bank  of  fog  came 
waltzing  over  the  ainies.sly  chopping  waters,  and  reared  a 
vaporous  wall  across  our  patli. 

Line  Ahead 

The  flagship  melted  into  the  milling  mists,  and  dimmed 
down  to  an  amorphous  blur  with  just  enough  outline  to 
enable  us  a  sight  to  correct  our  position  in  line.  In  turn, 
the  towered  and  pinnacled  head-on  silhouette  of  the  third 
ship  grew  soft  and  shadowy,  and  where  proper  perspective 
would  have  placed  the  fourth  was  a  swaying  Wisp  of  indeter- 
minate image  which  might  just  as  well  have  been  an  immin- 
ently wheeling  seagull  as  a  distantly  reeling  super-dread- 
nought. The  comparison  is  by  no  means  so  ridiculous  as  it 
sounds,  for  only  the  day  before  a  naval  flying-man  had  told 
me  how  he  once  started  to  bring  his  seaplane  down  on  sighting 
.  a  duck  (which  was  really  some  hundreds  of  feet  in  the  air) 
because  he  took  it  for  a  destroyer,  and  how,  later,  he  had 
failed  to  "straighten  out "  quickly  enougli  because  he  thought 
a  trawler  was  a  duck  in  flight. 

The  lean  grey  shadows  which  slipped  ghostily  into  step 
with  us  in  the  fog-hastened  twilight  of  three  o'clock  might 
just  as  well  (had  we  not  known  of  the  rendezvous)  have  been 
lurking  wolves  as  protecting  sheep-dogs. 

'Now  that  we've  picked  up  our  destroyer.-,"  said  the  officer 
who -paced  the  quarter-deck  with  me,  "we'l  be  getting  on 
our  way.     Let's  go  down  to  tea." 

Snioke,  masts,  funnels,  and  wave-washed  hulls,  the 
Whistleresque  outlines  of  our  swift  guardians  had  blurred  to 
blankness  as  I  looked  back  from,  the  companion-wav,  and 
only  a  misty  golden  halo,  flashing  out  and  dying  down  on  our 
port  bow,  told  where  the  flotilla  leader  was  talking  to  the 
flagship. 

Tea  is  no  less  important  a  function  on  a  British  warship 
than  it  is  ashore,  and  nothing  short  of  an  action  is  allowed 
to  interfere  with  it.  Indeed,  how  the  cheerful  clink  of  the 
teacup  was  heard  in  the  prelude  to  the  diapason  of  the  guns 
was  revealed  to  me  a  few  days  ago,  when  the  commander 
allowed  me  to  read  a  few  personal  notes  he  had  written 
while  the  light  cruiser  he  was  in  at  the  time  was  returning 
to  port  after  the  Battle  of  Jutland.  "The  enemy  being  in 
sight,"  it  read,  "we  prepared  for  action  stations"  and  went 
to  tea."  A  few  minutes  later,  fingers,  which  had  crooked  on 
the  hand  es  of  the  teacups  were  adjusting  the  nice  instru- 
ments of  precision  that  laid  the  guns  for  what  was  destined 
to  prove  the  greatest  naval  battle  in  history. 

Tea  was  about  as  usualwith  us  that  day,  save  that  the 
f)fficers  who  came  in  at  the  change  of  watch' were  dressed  for 
busmess—those  from  the  bridge  and  conning-tower  in  oil- 
skms  or  "lammy"  jackets  and  sea-boots,  and  the  engineers 
m  greasy  overalls.  A  few  words  of  "shop "---steam  pressure 
revolutions,  speed,  force  and  direction  of  the  wind,  and 
the  hkc— passed  in  an  undertone  between  men  sitting  next 
each  other,  but  never  became  general.  The  sponginess  of 
the  new  potato  '  bread  and  the  excellence  of  the  margarine 
came  in  for  comment,  and  some  one  spoke  of  having  rushed 
off  a  letter  just  before  sailing,  ordering  a  recently  advertised 
self  hair-cutter."  A  di.scussion  as  to  just  how  this  remark- 
able contrivance  worked  followed,  the  con.sensus  of  ..pinion 
being  that  it  must  be  on  the  safety-razor  principle,  but  that 
It  couldn't  possibly  1)0  worth  the  guinea  charged      \11  that 


I  recall  having  been  said  of  what  might  be  taking  us  to  sea 
was  when  an  officer  likely  to  know  volunteered  that  we 
wouH  possibly  be  in  sight  of  land  in  the  morning,  and  some 
speculation  arose  as  to  whether  it  would  be  Norway  or 
Jutland.  A  recently  joiiied  R.N.V.R.  provoked  smiles 
when  he  suggested  Heligoland. 

The  cabin  which  I  had  been  <Kciipying  in  port  was  one 
located  immediately  under  the  conning-tower,  and  used  by 
the  navigating  officer  when  the  ship  was  at  sea,  the  arrange- 
ment being  that  I  was  to  go  aft  and  live  in  his  regular  calkin 
while  we  were  outside.  Going  forward,  after  tea,  I  threw 
together  a  few  things  for  my  servant  to  carry  back  to  my 
temporary  quarters.  Groping  aft  in  Stygian  blackness  along 
the  windward  side  of  tlu'  ship,  I  encountered  spray  in  clouds 
driving  across  even  the  lofty  fi/c'sle  deck.  The  wind  appeared 
to  have  shaken  off  its  flukiness  as  we  cleared  the  headlands, 
and,  blowing  with  a  swinging  kick  behind  it,  was  rolling  up 
a  sea  to  match.  I  did  not  need  to  be  told  by  the  sea-booted 
sailor  whom  I  bumped  on  a  ladder  that  it  wasn't  "goin'  t' 
be  no  nite  fer  lam's,"  to  know  that  there  was  something 
lively  in  the  weather  line  in  pickle,  probably  to  be  uncorkecl 
before  morning. 

The  grate,  robbed  of  its  chimney,  was  cold  and  empty 
when  I  went  in  for  seven  o'clock  dinner — half  an  hour  earlier 
than  in-port^and  there  was  just  the  suggestion  of  chill  in 
the  close  air  of  the  ward-room.  .An  engineer-lieutenant  who 
started  to  reminisce  about  a  winter  cruise  he  had  once  made 
in  the  Arctic  was  peremptorily  hushed  up  with  a  request  to 
"talk  about  .something  warmer."  A  yarn  about  chasing 
the  Konigsberfi  in  the  lagoons  of  East  Africa  was  more 
kindly  received,  and  an  R.N.V.K.'s  account  of  how  his  ship 
carried  Moslem  pilgrims  from  Singapore  to  Jeddah  on  their 
way  to  Mecca  brought  a  genial  glow  of  warmth  with  it. 
There  was  something  strangely  cheering  in  his  account  of 
how,  when  there  was  a  following  simoon  blowing  across  the 
brassy  surface  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  Lascar  stokers  used  to  go 
mad  with  the  heat  and  jump  overboard  in  their  delirium. 
The  air  seemed  less  dank  and  chill  after  that  story.  I  ven- 
tured a  "sudorific"  contribution  by  telling  of  the  way  they 
rhade  "desert  storms"  in  the  California  movies  with  the  aid 
of  buckets  of  sand  and  a  "wind  machine."  The  whole  table 
showed  interest  in  this — probably  because  it  was  so  far 
removed  from  "shop" — and  sat  long  over  port  and  coffee 
planning  a  "blower"  that  would  discharge  both  wind  and 
sand,— in  sufficient  quantities  to  give  the  "desert  storm" 
illusion  over  the  restricted  angle  of  the  movie  lens — at  the 
turning  of  a  single  crank.  One  does  not  need  to  be  long 
upon  a  British  battleship  to  find  out  that  the  inventive 
genius  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  not  all  confined  to  the 
American  branch. 

Between  officers. on  watch  and  those  resting  to  relieve,  the 
after-dinner  gathering  around  what  had  once  been  a  fire  was 
a  small  and  rapidly  dwindling  one.  As  I  got  up  to  go  to  my 
cabin,  the  captain  of  marines  quieted  the  pet  cockatoo  on 
his  shoulder  long  enough  to  say,  as  we  would  probabh'  be 
at  action  stations  earlj'  in  the  morning,  I  might  find  it  of 
interest  to  come  up  to  his  turret,  where  he  had  a  "jolly 
smart  crew."  "\Ve  usually  do  'B.J. 2'  at  daybreak  when 
we're  out,"  he  said,  "just  on  the  chance  that  we  may  flush' 
some  sort  of  a  Hun  in  the  early  light.  Quite  like  snipe- 
shooting,  you  know." 

A  middy  whom  I  met  outside  said  something  about  the 
way  the  barometer  had  been  chasing  its  tail  on  the  drop 
ever  since  we  got  under  weigh,  and  when  I  turned  on  the  light 
in  my  cabin  I  noticed  that  the  arrows  on  the  navigating 
officer's  instrument  indicated  a  fall  of  thirty  points  since 
noon.  The  keen  whistling  of  the  rising  wind  shrilled  with 
steady  insistence,  and  the  wide  swinging  swells  from  the 
open  sea  were  lock-stepping  along  with  a  tread  that  was 
just  beginning  to  lift  the  great  warship  in  a  swaggering 
Jack  Tar  roll. 

On  the  floor  of  the  cabin  was  a  flannel  bulldog  with 
"manipulable"  legs  and  a  changeable  expression.  Its  name 
was  "Grip"  (so  "the  pilot"  had  told  me),  and  it  had  been 
his  constant  companion  ever  since  it  was  presented  to  him 
on  the  eve  of  his  first  sailing  as  a  midshipman.-  The  only 
time  they  had  ever  been  separated  was  on  the  occasion  a 
colleague,  who  had  borrowed  it  as  a  mascot  in  a  game  of 
poker,  threw  it  overboard  in  chagrin  when  the  attempt  to 
woo  fickle  fortune  proved  a  failure.  Luckily,  the  ship  was 
lying  in  a  river,  and  the  dog  floated  back  on  the  next  tide, 
and  was  fished  out  with  no  damage  to  anything  but  the 
compression  bladder  which  worked  its  bark.  The  navi- 
gating officer  left  the  companionable  little  beast  in  his  cabin, 
so  he  explained,  to  give  it  the  proper  home  touch  for  mv 
first  night  at  sea  with  the  British  Navy.  Cocking  "Grip" 
up  in  the  genial  glow  of  the  electric  grate  in  an  attitude  of 
"watchful  waiting,"  I  crawled  into  bed,  pulled  up  the  adjust- 


March  7,  igi8 


Land   &  Water 


able  side-rail,  and  was  rocked  to  sleep  to  the  even  throb  of 
the  turbines  and  the  splish-splash  of  the  spray  against  the 
screwed-down  port. 

"We  aren't  having  'B.J.i'  this  morning,"  some  one 
explained  facetiously  when  I  reported  for  "duty"  at  seven 
o'clock,  "because  wc  already  have  'B.B.8.'"  This  last 
rneant  "Boreas  Blowing  Eight,"  he  said,  and  I  was  just 
"nautical"  enough  to  know  that  a  wnd  of  "8"  in  the 
Beaufort  scale  indicated  something  like  fiftv  or  sixty  miles 
■    an  hour. 

"No  U-boat  will  want  to  be  getting  within  '  periscopic  ' 
distance  of  the  surface  of  the  sea  that's  running  this  morning," 
said  a  young  engineer-lieutenant  who  had  been  "in  the  sub- 
marine ser\-ice,  "and  even  if  one  was  able  to  get  a  sight,  its 
torpedo  would  have  to  have  some  kind  of  a  '  kangaroo  ' 
attachment  to  jump  the  humps  and  hollows  with.  Fact  is, 
it's  rather  more  than  our  destroyers  are  entirely  happy  with, 
and  we've  just  slowed  down  by  several  knots  to  keep  'em 
from  dipping  up  the  brine  with  their  funnels.  Hope  nothing 
turns  up  that  they  have  to  get  a  jump  on  for.  A  destroyer's 
all  right. on  the  surface,  but  no  good  as  a  submarine;  yet 
an  under-sea  diver  is  just  what  she  is  if  you  drive  her  more'n 
twelve  into  a  sea  like  the  one  that's  kicking  up  now.  Baro- 
meter's down  sixty  points  since  last  night,  and  still  going." 

Breakfast  that  morning  had  little  in  common  with  the 
similar  festal  occasion  in  port  where,  fresh  bathed  and  shaven, 
each  immaculate  member  of  the  mess  comes  down  and  sits 
over  his  coffee  and  paper  much  (save  for  the  fact  that  the 
journal  is  two  days  old)  as  at  home.  Several  places  besides 
those  of  the  officers  actually  on  watch  were  empty,  and  by 
no  means  a  few  of  those  who  chd  appear  had  that  intro- 
spective look  which  is  so  unmistakable  a  sign  of  all  not 
being  well  within  the  citadel.  Even  the  Poldu— the  daily 
wireless  bulletin  of  the  Nav\'— had  a  "shot-to-pieces"  look 
where  "static"  or  some  other  esoteric  difficulty  was  respon- 
sible for  gaps  in  several  items  of  the  laconic  summary.  The 
last  word  in  super-dreadnoughts  does  not  have  table-racks 
and  screwed-down  chairs.  She  isn't  supposed  to  lose  her 
dignity  to  the  extent  of  needing  anvthing  in  the  way  of  such 
vulgar  makeshifts.  The  fact  remains  that  if  the  mighty 
"Zeus"  had  chanced  to  have  these  things,  she  would  have  saved 
herself  some  china  and  several  officers  from  "nine-pinning" 
down  one  side  of  a  table  and  piling  up  in  a  heap  at  the  other. 
With  the  staid  ward-room  doing  things  Hke  this,  it  was 
only  to  be  e.xpected  that  the  mess  decks  would  be  displaying 
a  certain  amount  of  shiftiness.  I  was,  however,  hardly 
prepared  for  the  gay  seascape  which  unrolled  before  me 
when  I  had  worried  my  way  through  the  intricate  barricade 
of  a  watertight  bulkhead  door  in  trying  to  skirmish  forward 
to  the  ladders  leading  to  the  upper  decks.  For  several 
reasons— ventilation  and  guns  have  something  to  do  with 
it— it  is  not  practicable  to  close  up  certain  parts  of  a  battle- 
ship against  heavy  seas  to  anything  like  the  same  extent  as 
with  the  passenger  quarters  on  a  modern  finer.  It  is  only 
m  very  rough  weather  that  this  may  give  rise  to  much 
trouble,  but— well,  we  were  having  rough  weather  that 
,  morning,  and  that  little  bit  of  the  Roaring  Forties  I  had 
stumbled  into  was  a  consequence  of  it. 

Oilskinned.  "sou'-westered,"  sea-booted  men,  sitting  and 
Ijang  on  benches  and  tables,  was  the  first  strange  thing  that 
came  to  my  attention  ;  and  then,  with  a  swish  and  a  gurgle, 
the  foot-deep  wave  of  dirty  water  which  had  driven  them 
there  caught  me  about  the  knees,  and  sat  me  down  upon  a 
pile  of  hammocks,  or,  rather,  across  the  inert  bodies  of  two 
men  (boys  I  found  them  to  be  presently)  who  had  been  cast 
away  there  in  advance  of  me.  Clambering  over  their  unpro- 
testing  anatomies,  I  gained  dry  land  at  a  higher  level,  and  at 
a  tactically  defensible  point,  where  a  half-Nelson  round  a 
stanchion  steadfastly  refused  to  give  way  under  the  double 
back-action  shuffle  with  which  the  next  roll  tried  to  break  it. 
With  two  good  toe-holds  making  me  safe  from  practically 
anything  but  a  roll  to  her  beams'  ends,  I  was  free  to  survey 
the  shambles  at  my  leisure.  Then  I  saw  how  havoc  was 
being  wrought. 

With  a  shuddering  crash,  the  thousand-ton  bludgeon  of  a 
wave  struck  along  the  port  side,  immediately  followed  by 
the  muffled  but  unmistakable  sound  of  water  rushing  in 
upon  the  deck  above.  To  the  accompaniment  of  a  wild 
slap-banging,  this  sound  came  nearer,  and  then,  as  she  heeled 
far  to  starboard  under  the  impulse  of  the  blow  that  had  been 
dealt  her,  a  solid  spout  of  green  water  came  tumbling  down  a 
hatchway — the  fount  from  which  the  mobile  tidal  wave 
swaggering  about  the  deck  took  replenishment.  Two  men, 
worrying  a  side  of  frozen  Argentine  bullock  along  to  the 
galley  from  the  cold-storage  hold,  timing  (or,  rather,  mis- 
timing) their  descent  to  coincide  with  that  of  the  young 
Niagara,  reached  the  mess-deck  in  the  form  of  a  beef  sand- 
wich.    Depositing  that  delectable  morsel  in  an  inert  mass 


at  th«  foot  of  the  ladder,  the  briny  cascade,  with  a  joyov^s 
whoof,  rushed  down  to  reinforce  the  tidal  wave  and  do 
the  rounds  of  the  mess. 

I  was  now  able  to  observe  that  the  saUors,  marooned  on  the 
benches,  tables,  and  other  islands  of  refuge,  were  roughly 
dividable  into  three  classes— the  prostrate  ones,  who  heaved 
drunkenly  to  the  roll  and  took  no  notice  of  the  primal  chaos 
about  them  ;  the  semi-prostrate  ones,  who  were  still  able 
to  exhibit  mild  resentment  when  the  tidal  wave  engulfed  or 
threatened  to  engulf  them  ;  and  the  others— some  lounging 
easily,  but  the  most  perched  or  roosted  on  some  dry  but 
precarious  pinnacle— who  quaffed  great  mugs  of  hot  tea  and 
bit  hungrily  into  hunks  of  bread  and  smoked  fish.  These 
latter— hard-bit  tars  they  were,  with  faces  pickled  ruddy  by 
the  blown  brine  of  many  windy  watches — ^took  great  joy  of 
the  plight  of  their  mates,  guffawing  mightily  at  the  dumb 
misery  in  the  hollow  eyes  of  the  "semi-prostrates"  and  the 
dead-to-the-worid  roll  of  "prostrates"  with  the  reelings 
of  the  ship. 

Sea-sick  Sailors 

If  there  is  one  thing  in  the  world  that  delights  the  secret 
heart  of  the  average  landsman  more  than  the  sad  spectacle 
df  a  parson  in  a  divorce  court,  it  is  the  sight  of  a  seasick 
sailor.  Since,  however,  the  average  landsman  reads  his 
paper  far  oftener  than  he  sails  the  stormy  seas,  the  former 
delectation  is  probably  granted  him  rather  more  frequently 
than  the  latter.  At  any  rate,  the  one  landsman  in  Number  X 
Mess  of  H.M.S.  "'Zeus"  that  morning  saw  enough  seasick  sailors 
to  keep  the  balance  on  the  parsons'  side  for  the  duration  of 
the  war,  and  perhaps  even  longer. 

I  made  the  acquaintance  of  one  of  the  "prostrates" 
marooned  on  the  beach  of  my  hammock  island  through 
rescuing  him  from  the  assaults  of  a  tidal-wave-driven  rum 
tub.  He  was  nursing  a  crushed  package  of  gumdrop-like 
lozenges,  one  of  which  he  offered  me,  murmuring  faintly 
that  they  had  been  sent  him  by  his  sister,  who  had  found 
them  useful  while  boating  at  Clacton-on-Sea  last  summer. 
Endeavouring  to  start  a  conversation,  I  asked  him — knowing 
the  "  Zeus  "  had  been  present  at  that  mighty  Struggle — if  they 
had  had  weather  like  this  at  the  battle  of  Jutland.  A  sad 
twinkle  flickered  for  a  moment  in  the  comer  of  the  eye  he 
rolled  up  to  me,  and,  with  a  queer  pucker  of  the  mouth 
which  indicated  that  he  must  have  had  a  sense  of  humour  in 
happier  times,  he  replied  that  he  had  only  joined  the  ship 
the  week  before :." 'Tis  my  first  time' at  sea,  sir,  and  I've 
come  out  to — to — this." 

I  gave  him  the  best  advice  I  could  by  telling  him  to  pull 
himself  together  and  get  out  on  deck  to  the  fresh  air ;  but 
neither  spirit  nor  flesh  was  equal  to  the  initiatory  effort. 
Looking  back  while  I  waited  near  the  foot  of  a  ladder  for  a 
Niagara  to  exhaust  itself,  the  last  I  saw  of  h  m_  he  was 
pushing  mechanically  aside  with  an  unresentful  gesture  a 
lump  of  salt  pork  which  one  of  the  table-roosting  sailors 
dangled  before  his  nose  on  a  piece  of  string. 

Three  flights  up  I  clambered  my  erratic  way  before,  on  the 
boat  deck  in  the  lee  of  a  launch.  I  found  a  vantage  sufficiently 
high  and  sheltered  to  stand  in  comfort.  The  sight  was  rich 
reward  for  the  effort.  Save  for  an  ominous  bank  of  nimbus 
to  westward,  the  wind  had  swept  the  coldly  blue  vault  of  the 
heavens  clear  of  cloud,  and  the  low-hanging  winter  sun  to 
south'ard  was  shooting  slanting  rays  of  crystaUine  bright- 
ness across  a  sea  that  was  one  wild  welter  of  cotton  wool. 
I  have  seen — especially  in  the  open  spaces  of  the  mid-Pacific, 
where  the  waves  have  half  a  world's  width  to  get  going  in — 
heavier  seas  and  higher  seas  than  were  running  that  morning, 
but  rarely — not  even  in  a  West  Indian  hurricane — more 
vicious  ones — seas  more  palpably  bent  on  going  over,  or 
through  a  ship  that  got  in  their  way,  rather  than  under,  as 
proper  waves  should  do.  And  in  this  obliquity  they  were  a 
good  deal  more  than  passively  abetted  by  a  no  less  viciously 
incHned  wind,  which  I  saw  repeatedly  lift  off  the  top  of 
what  it  appeared  to  think  was  a  lagging  wave  and  drive  it 
on  ahead  to  lace  the  heaving  water  with  a  film  of  foam  or 
dust  the  deck  of  a  battleship  with  snowy  brine. 

But  it  was  the  ships  themselves  that  furnished  the  real 
show.  Of  all  craft  that  ply  the  wet  seaways,  the  battleship 
is  the  least  buoyant,  the  most  "unliftable,"  the  most  set  on 
bashing  its  arrogant  way  through^a  wave  rather  than  riding 
over  it,  and — with  increasing  armour  and  armaments,  and 
the  crowding  aboard  of  various  weighty  contrivances  hitherto 
unthought  of — this  characteristic  wilfulness  has  tended  to 
increase  rather  than  decrease  since  the  war.  As  a  conse- 
quence, a  modern  battleship  bucking  its  way  into  a  fully 
developed  mid-winter  gale  is  one  of  the  neare.st  approaches 
to  the  meeting  of  two  irresistible  bodies  ever  to  be  seen. 

The^  conditions.»for  the  contest  were  ideal  that  morning. 
Never  were  seas  more  determined  to  ride  over  battleshins. 


lO 


Liiiid    Si    Water 


March    7,   rgi8 


never  were  battleships  more  determined  to  drive  straiglit 
through  seas.  Both  of  them  had  something  of  their  way 
in  the  end,  and  neither  entirely  balked  the  other  ;  hut, 
drawn  as  it  was,  that  battle  royal  of  Titans  was  a  sight  for 
the  gods. 

The  battleships" we're  in  line  abreast  !is  I  came  up  on  deck, 
and  holding  a  course  which  brought  the  wind  and  seas 
abeam.  \\'e  were  all  rolling  heavily,  but  with  the  rolls  not 
sufficiently  "synchronized"  \vith  the  waves — which  were 
charging  down  without  much  order  or  rhythm — to  keep 
from  dipping  them  up  by  the  ton.  If  the  port  rail  was  low 
— as  happened  when  the  ship  was  .sliding  down  off  the  back 
of  the  last  wave — the  next  wave  rolled  aboard,  and  (save 
where  the  mast,  funnels,  and  higher  works  amidships  blocked 
the  way)  drove  right  on  across  and  off  the  other  side.  If 
the  port  side  had  rolled  high  as  an  impetuous  sea  struck,  the 
latter  expended  its  full  force  against  the  ship,  communicating 
a  jar  from  foretop  to  stokt-holds  as  strong  as  the  shock  of  a 
collision  with  another  vessel. 

Our  own   quarter-deck    was   constantly   swept    with   solid 
green  water,  and  even  the  higher  fo'c'sle  deck  caught  enough 
of  the  splash-up  to  make  traversing  it  a  precarious  operation. 
But  it  was  only  by  watching  one  of  the  other  ships  that  it 
was  possible  to  see  how  the  thing  really  happened.     If  it 
was  the  wallowing  monster  abeam  to  port,  the  strikini;  of  a 
sea  was  signalized  by  sudden  spurts  of  spray  shooting  into 
the  air  all  the  way  along  her  windward  side,  the  clouds  of 
flying  water  often  going  over  the  funnels  and  bridge,  and  not 
far  short  of  the  foretop.     She  would  give  a  sort  of  shuddering 
stumble  as  the  weight  of  the  impact  made  itself  felt,  and 
then— running  from  bow  to  stern  and  broken  only  by  the 
upper    works,    and    occasionally,    but    not    always,    by    the 
turrets— a  ragged  line  of  foam'  appeared,  quickly  resolving 
itself  into  three  or  four  hundred  feet  of  streaking  cascades 
which  came  pouring  down  over  the  starboard  side  into  the 
sea.     Watching  the  vessel  abeam  to  starboard,  the  phenom- 
enon was  repeated  in  reverse  order.      Save  for  the  swaying 
foretop  against  the  sky,  either  sjpp  at  the  moment  of  being 
swept  by  a  wa\'e  v\as  suggestive  of  nothing  so  much  as  a 
great  isolated  black  rock  on  a  storm-bound  coast. 


There  were  a  number  of  other  shi})s  in  difficulties  in  fiuit 
neck  of  the  North  Sea  at  this  moment,  and  every  now  and 
then —by  the  wireless— word  would  come  to  us  from  one  of 

»r._ii-.    il_ 1-- A    4.1...    1 : 1,..A    i__.       _ 


Fighting  in  Bad  Weather 


But  the  most  remarkable  thing  about  it  all  was  the  aston- 
ishingly small  effect  this  really  heavy  weather  had  upon  the 
handlmg  of  the  ships.  Evidently  they  had  been  built  to 
withstand  weather  as  well  as  to  fight,  for  thev  manoeuvred 
and  changed  formation  with  almost  the  same  meticulous 
exactitude  as  in  protected  waters.  A  gunnery  officer  assured 
me  that— except  for  momentary  interference  in  training 
some  of  the  lighter  guns— the  fighting  efficiency  of  the  ship 
would  hardly  be  affected  more  than  a  fraction  of  i  per  cent 
by  all  their  plungings  and  the  clouds  of  flying  spray  Their 
speed  was,  naturally,  somewhat  diminished  in  bucking  into 
a  head  sea,  yet  no  lack  of  seaworthiness  would  prevent 
(should  the  need  arise)  their  being  driven  into'  that  same 
head  sea  at  the  full  power  of  their  mighty  engines  The 
reason  we  were  proceeding  at  somewhat '  reduced  speed 
was  to  ease  things  off  a  bit  for  the  destroyers. 

Ah  !     And  what  of  the  destroyers  ?     there  they  all  were 
the  faithful  sheep-dogs,  when  I  came  up,  and  at  'first  blush 
1  got  the  impression  that  they  were  making  rather  better 
weather  of  it  than  the  battleships.     That  this  was  only  an 
optical  illusion  (caused  by  the  fact  that  they  were  farther 
away  and  more  or  less  obscured  by  the  waves)  I  discovered 
as  soon  as  I   climbed  to  the  vantage  of  the  after  super- 
structure, and  put  my  glass  upon  the  nearest  of  the  bobbins 
silhouettes  of  mast  and  funnel.    Then  I  saw  at  once  though 
not,  indeed,  any  such  spray  clouds  or  cascades  of  solid  water 
as  marked  the  course  of  the  battleships  that  she  was  plainly 
a  labourmg  ship.     A  destroyer    is    not    made    to    pulverize 
a  wave  m  the  bull-at-a-gatc   fashion    of   a    battleship    and 
any  exigency   that   compels  her  to  adopt  that   method   of 
progression  IS  likely  to  be  attended  by  serious  consequences 
If  one  of  the   modern   type  she  will   ride    out    almost    any 
storm  that  blows  if  left  to  her  own  devices  ;    but  force  her 
into  It  at  anything  above  half-speed,  and  it  is  asking  for 
trouble.     Even  before  the  destroyer  I  was  watching  began 
hsappearing -hull,    funnels,    and   ail   but    the   mastheads-- 

th^rhTt.^'f  ^"''.  T''  "^  '^'  onrushing  ^^•aves,  it  was  plain 
that  both  she  and  her  sisters  were  having  all  they  wanted  • 
and  1  was  not  surprised  when  word  was  flashed  "to  us  that 
one  of  our  brave  little  watch-dogs  was  suffering  from  a  wave- 
^ornnrfif'^'-^''""^  geai.  and  asked  for  permission  to  make 
or  poi  t  If  nece.ssaiy.  I  he  permission  was,  I  believe  granted 
but— carrying  on  with  some  sort  of  a  makeshift  or  other- ' 

Ihro'ugh  to  ttS."""'"'  ^"  ''"'''  ''  ""^  ^'"^  ^^■^"  *'-  g-- 


them.  Slostly  they  were  beyond  the  horizon,  but  two  were 
in  sight.  One  (two  smoke-blackened  "jiggers"  and  a  bobbing 
funnel-tojj  beneath  a  bituminous  blur  to  the  cast)  was  aj>par- 
ently  a  thousand-ton  freighter.  An  officer  told  me  that 
she  had  been  signalling  persistently  since  daybreak  for 
assistance  ;  but  when  I  asked  him  if  we  were  not  going  to 
help  her,  he  greeted  the  question  with  an  indulgent  smile. 

"Assistance  will  go  to  her  in  due  course,"  he  said,  "but  it 
will  not  be  from  us.  That  kind  6f  a  thing  might  have  been 
done  in  the  first  month  or  two  of  the  war,  but  the  Huns 
soon  made  it  impossible.  Now,  any  battleship  that  would 
detach  a  destroyer  at  the  call  of  any  ship  of  doubtful  identity 
would  be  considered  as  deliberately  asking  fur  what  she 
might  jolly  well  get — a  torpedo.  ' 

.\nother  ship  which  was  plainly  having  a  bad  time  was 
some  kind  of  a  cruiser  whose  long  rpw  of  funnels  was  punching 
holes  in  a  segment  of  sky-line.  There  was  a  suggestion  of 
messiness  forward,  but  nothing  we  attached  any  import- 
ance to  until  word  was  wirelessed  that  she  had  just  had  her 
bridge  carried  away  by  a  heavy  sea,  and  that  the  navigating 
officer  had  been  severely  injured.  The  latter  was  known 
personally  to  several  of  the  ward-room  officers,  and  at^  lunch 
speculation  as  to  what  hurt  he  might  have  received  led  to 
an  extremely  interesting  discussion  of  the  "ways  of  a  wave 
with  a  man";  also  of  the  comparative  seaworthiness  of 
light  cruisers  and  destroyers.  The  things  that  waves  have 
done  to  all  three  of  them  since  the  war  began  (to  say  nothing 
of  the  things  all  three  have  done  in  spite  of  waves)  is  a  story 
of  its  own. 

The  barometer  continued  to  fall  all  day,   with  the  wind 
rising  a  mile  of  velocity  for  every  point  of  drop.     The  seas, 
though  higher  and  heavier,  were  also  more  regular  and  less 
inclined  to  catch  the  ship' with  her  weather-rail  down.     The 
low  cloud-bank  of  mid-forenoon  had  by  early  dusk  grown  to 
a  heavens-obscuring  mask  of  ominous  import,  and  by  dark, 
snow  was  beginning  to  fall.     The  ship  was  reeling  through 
the  blackness  of  the  pit  when  I  clambered  to  the  deck  after 
dinner,  so  that  the  driving  spray  and  ice-needles  struck  the 
face  before  one  saw  them  by  even  the  thousandth  of  a  second. 
The  darkness  was  such  as  one  almost  never  encounters  ashore, 
and  it  was  some  time  before  I  accustomed  myself  to  close 
my  eyes  against  the  unseen  missiles  (when  turning  to  wind- 
\yard)  without  deliberately  telling  myself  to  do  so  in  advance. 
Into  the  Stygian   pall   the   vivid"  golden  triangles  of  the 
signal  apparatus  on  the  bridge  flashed  like  the  stab  of  a 
flaming  sword.     One  instant    the  darkness  was  almost  pal- 
pable enough  to  lean  against  ;    the  next,   the  silhouette  of 
funnels  and  foretop  pricked  into  life,  but  only  to  be  quenched 
again  before  the  eye  had  time  to  fix  a  single  detail.     So  lirief 
was  any  one  flash  that  the  action  in  each  transient  vision 
was  suspended  as  in  an  instantaneous  photograph,  yet  the 
effect  of  the  quick  succession  of  flashes  was  of  con'tinuous 
motion,  as  like  the  kincma.     From  where  I  stood,  the  heart 
of   the   fluttering   golden    halos,  where   a   destroyer   winked 
back  its  answer,   were  repeatedly   obliterated  by  the  inky 
loom  of  a  wave,  but  the  reflection  was  always  thrown  high 
enough  into  the  mist  to  carry  the  message. 

Returning  to  the  ward-room  by  the  way  of  the  mess- 
decks,  I  saw  the  youth  who  had  offered  "me  the  anti- 
seasick  lozenges  in  the  morning.  Now  quite  recovered,  he 
was  himself  playing  the  pork-on-a-string  game  with  one 
ot  the  only  two  "prostrates"  still  in  sight.  The  following 
morning— though  the  weather,  if  anything,  was  worse  than 
ever— all    evidences    of    "indisposition"    had    disappeared 


I'or  some  days  more  we  prowled  the  wet  seaways  and 
then  well  along  into  a  night  that  was  foggier,  colder  and 
windier  than  the  one  into  which  we  had  steamed  out  we 
crept  along  a  heightening  headland,  nosed  in  the  wake  of 
the  flagship  through  a  line  of  booms  and  opened  a  bay  that 
was  dappled  with  the  lights  of  many  ships.  A  few  minutes 
ater,  and  the  raucous  grind  of  a  chain  running  out  through  a 
hawse-pipe  signalled  that  we  were  back  at  the  old  «tand 

And  since,  like  all  the  rest  of  our  sisters  of  the  Grand 
Meet,  we  were  expected  to  be  ready  to  put  to  sea  on  x  hours' 
notice  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  that  the  several  hundred 
tons  of  coal  which  the  mighty  "Zeus"  had  been  snorting  out 
in  the  form  of  smoke  to  contaminate  the  ozone  of  a  very 
sizeable  area  of  the  North  Sea  should  be  replenished  without 
delay  A  collier  edged  gingerly  out  of  a  whirling  snow- 
squall  and  moored  fast  alongside  as  I  groped  forward  to 
retake  jjosscsskju  of  my  cabin  under  the  bridge  and  I  went 
to  sleep  that  night  to  the  grind  of  the  winches  and  the  steady 
tramjj-tramp  of  the  barrow-pushers  on  the  decks  below 


March  7,  19  iS 


Land    &    Water 


1 1 


Food    for    Thought  :    By    Charles    Mercier 


1.\  a  recently  published  little  book  on  Education  I  have 
insisted  on  the  desirability  of  teaching;  children  to  think, 
and  to  think  clearly,  and  have  indicated  the  way  in 
which  this  can  be  done.  Such  a  startling  and  heretical 
doctrine  naturally  excited  the  ire  of  schooln^asters,  and 
perhaps  was  not  presented  in  a  manner  calculated  to  soothe 
them  ;  but  there  is,  after  all,  something  to  be  said  for  it,  and 
evidence  in  its  favour  is  furnished  by  a  controversy  on  pig- 
breeding  that  has  been  recently  carried  on  in  The  Times,  and 
has  ^spread  thence  to  The  British  Medical  Jounial. 

The  controversy  is  as  to  whether  pig-breeding  is  or  is  not 
desirable  in  the  present  circumstances  of  shortage  of  food, 
and  of  destruction  of  food  ships  by  the  (ierman  submarines. 
And  the  arguments  are  as  follows  : 

A  Committee  of  the  Royal  Society  has  proclaimed  that  to 
keep  the  average  man  in  active  work,  the  minimum  daily 
ration  necessary  is  protein  loo  grammes  (3J  oz.),  fat  100 
grammes  (3J  oz.),  and  carbohydrates  500  grammes  (rather 
more  than  i  lb.).  The  allowance  of  meat  prescribed  by  the 
['ood  Controller  is  suthcient,  when  supplemented  by  the 
protein  in  pulses,  beans,  and  cereals,  to  provide  the  necessary 
minimum  of  protein.  The  pulses  and  cereals,  of  which  there 
is  no  serious  shortage  at  present,  furnish  the  carbohydrates 
(starch  and  sugar),  but  there  is  a  deficiency  iii  fat,  an  ingre- 
dient the  want  of  which  is  felt  acutely.  The  problem  is,  how 
are  we  to  provide  the  necessary  fat  ? 

The  answer  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Fisher  is,  "  Breed  pigs,  for  pig- 
breeding  is  the  quickest  and  most  profitable  way  of  producing 
fats."  To  this  the  Royal  Society's  Committee  answers,  "  Breed 
no  pigs,  for  pigs  consume  7  lb.  of  barley  meal  in  producing 
I  lb.  of  fat,  and  this  is  wasteful.  I'^ar  better  let  us  human 
beings  consume  the  7  lb.  of  barley  meal  than  give  it  to  pigs 
and  get  only  i  lb.  of  fat  in  return.  If  we  give  the  barley  meal 
to  pigs,  we  are  wasting  61b.  of  food  out  of  every  seven. 
Shocking  !" 
'~  The  answer  seems  conclusive  enough — if  we  do  not  think. 
But  a  little  clear  thinking,  such  as  the  Committee  of  the  Royal 
Society  omitted  to  bestow  upon  it,  puts  a  different  complexion 
on  the  matter.  What  we  are  short  of  is  not  cereals,  of  which 
barley  is  one,  but  fats  ;  and  though  pigs  can  easily  turn  7  lb. 
of  barley  meal  into  i  lb.  of  fat,  it  does  not  follow  that  fmman 
beings  can  do  so.  For  a  pig,  7  lb.  of  barley  meal  is  equivalent 
to  I  lb.  of  fat,  but  they  are  not  necessarily  equivalent  for  a 
man,  and  for  some  men  they  are  certainly  not  equivalent. 
Common  observation  shows  that  men  differ  very  widely  indeed 
in  their  capability  of  transforming  food  into  fat.  Some  men 
grow  fat  on  a  very  mf)derate  diet  ;  others  could  not  transform 
a  cwt.  of  barley  meal  into  i  lb.  of  fa,t  ;  and  if  they  could,  they 
would  have  to  do  for  themselves,  ar  a  certain  cost  of  energy, 
what  the  pig  does  for  them  at  a  much  less  cost  of  energy.  In 
short,  the  pig  cooks  our  barley  meal  into  fat  for  us  ;  and  if  we 
consume  the  barley  meal  ourselves,  we  must  do  our  own 
,  cooking  ;  and  some  of  us  have  no  skill  in  this  kind  of  cooking, 
and  cannot  cook  the  barley  meal  into  fat  ;  and  even  those  who 
do  possess  the  skill  still  have  to  do  the  cooking,  and  so 
expend  energy  that  might  be  more  usefully  employed. 

What  a  man  wants  is  not  barley  meal  that  he  can  turn  into 
fat,  but  fat  itself,  ready  made  ;  and  when  he  is  eating  his  7 
lb.  of  barley  meal,  he  is  not  eating  1  lb-,  of  fat  ;  he  is  eating 
only  2  oz.  of  fat,  for  that  is  all  the  fat  that  7  lb.  of  barley  meal- 
contains.  The  rest  of  the  fat  needed  he  must  make  for  himself ; 
and  if  it  is  wasteful  for  the  pig  to  turn  7  lb.  of  barley  meal  into 
I  lb.  of  fat,  is  it  not  equally  wasteful  for  a  man  to  t,urn  7  lb.  of 
meal  into  less  than  i  lb.  of  fat  ?  It  is  true  he  would  be  putting 
some  f)f  the  meal,  which  is  m(jstly  carbohydrate,  to  other 
uses  to  which  carbohydrates  are  put  ;  but  this  is  not  to  tiie 
point.  The  p6int  is  that  his  ration  is  deficient  in  fat,  not  as  yet 
in  carbohydrates  ;  and  Whatever  meal  is  used  as  carbo- 
hydrate cannot  go  to  the  formation  of  fat,  so  that  he  does  not 
git  his  pound  of  fat  out  of  his  7  lb.  of  mejl. 

So  far,  it  seems  that  the  Committee  of  the  Royal  Society 
has  not  thought  very  clearly.  We  want  a  pound  of  fat  ; 
and  the  Committee  gives  us  7  lb.  of  barley  meal,  and  savs 
we  ought  to  be  content.  Cooks — English  cooks,  at  any 
rate — are  wa.steful  ;  and  English  pigs  resemble  other  English 
cooks  in  this  matter,  and  waste  six  out  of  eyery  seven  pounds 
of  food  that  is  entrusted  to  them  to  cook.  But  there  is 
another  point  on  which  a  little  clear  thinking  is  necessary. 
It  seems  obvious  that  if  the  pigs  waste  six-sevenths  of  their 
food,  men  must  waste  at  least  as  much  ;  but,  after  all,  is  the 
six-sevenths  wasted  ?  It  takes  7  lb.  of  meal  to  make  i  lb. 
of  pcxk,  or  bacon,  or  lard.  Well  and  good  ;  but  what 
bercmes  of  the  other  bib.  of  material  ?     Does  it  vanish  into 


thin  air  ?  Some  of  it  does,  no  doubt.  Some  of  it  is  burnt 
up  into  carbonic  acid  and  water,  and  after  helping  to  sustain 
the  pig's  bodily  temperature,  is  exhaled  from  his  lungs  as, 
gas.  But  what  becomes  of  the  remainder  of  the  6  lb.  ? 
Is  it  wasted  ?  That  depends  on  whether  the  meal  is  con- 
sumed 15y  pigs  or  by  men.  If  it  is  consumed  bv  pigs,  it  is 
not  wasted.  //  i^oes  to  make  manure,  which,  being  applied 
to  the  ground,  produces  more  cereals,  some  a  hundredfold, 
some  sixtyfold,  and  some  thirtyfold  ;  but  if  it  is  consumed 
by  man.  it  is  not  utilized  in  this  way.  Part  of  it  is  deposited 
in  the  North  Sea  ;  other  parts  of  it  go  to  pollute  rivers, 
streams,  estuaries,  and  the  sea  round  our  coasts  ;  but  little 
of  it  is  utilised  as  manure,  and  what  is  so  utilised  goes,  for 
the  most  part,  to  produce  cabbages,  rye-grass,  and  other 
crops  that  have  not  the  food  value  of  cereals. 

A  farmer  in  my  neighbourhood  keeps  three  hundi;ed  pigs, 
and  after  fattening  them  on  7  lb.  of  barley  meal  per  pound 
of  fat,  sells  them  for  a  price  that  just  covers  the  cost  of 
breeding  and  fattening  them,  but  yields  no  profit.  He  makes 
no  profit  at  all  out,  of  the  sale,  but  it  pays  him  well  to  sell 
them  at  cost  price,  for  by  this  means  he  obtains  large  quanti- 
ties of  manure,  which  is  his  profit.  The  manure  goes  to 
assist  the  production  of  various  crops,  among  which  cereals 
are  conspicuous  ;  so  that  to  speak  of  7  lb.  of  barley  meal 
being  required  to  produce  i  lb.  of  fat,  though  it  may  be 
quite  true,  is  so  small  a  part  of  the  truth  as  to  be  in  practice 
fal.se.  It  is  very  misleading,  and  it  misleads  for  want  of 
clear  thinking.  The  proper  way  to  state  the  process  is  that 
7  lb.  of  barley  meal  produces  i  lb.  of  fat  and  so  many  pounds 
of  agricultural  produce  ;  and  we  want  both,  but  it  is  the  fat 
that  is  produced  first. 

Professor  Starling  and  the  British  Medical  Journal  take 
The  Times  to  task  for  aspersing  the  fair  fame  of  science  by 
saying :  "  Scientific  calculations  about  food  are  a  very 
untrustworthy  guide  to  practice,  because  the  data  on  which 
they  are  based  are  quite  inadequate  to  justify  the  conclusions 
drawn  from  them,"  but  in  this  case  it  seems  that  The  Times 
is  not  so  very  far  astray.  It  would  have  been 'more  accurate, 
however,  if  it  had  said,  instead  of  "scientific  calculations," 
"the  calculations  of  men  of  science."  As,  in  a  humble  way, 
a  would-be  scientific  man  myself,  I  should  be  the  last  to 
cast  aspersions  on  science  or  on  scientific  calculations  ;  but 
the  mischief  is  that  the '  calculations  of  men  devoted  to 
science  are  not  always  scientific  calculations. 

Professor  Starling  tells  us,  truly  enough,  that  science  is 
nothing  but  practical  experience  accurately  noted,  recorded, 
and  classified  ;  and  the  British  Medical  Journal  pats  him 
on  the  back,  and  says,  "Bravo  \"  But  it  is  because  science 
is  nothing  but  practical  experience  that  it  cannot  afford  to 
neglect  practical  experience,  the  practical  experience  of  the 
cook  and  the  farmer,  as  well  as  of  the  physiologist.  Professor 
Starling  tells  us,  moreover,  that  when  we  are  faced  by  an 
acute  food  shortage  it  is  idle  to  discuss  large  ideals  of  agri- 
cultural policy.  It  may  be,  but  surely  it  is  not  idle  to  discuss 
how  best  to  utilise  what  supplies  we  have,  which  is  what 
Mr.  Fisher  does.  ' 

Mr.  Fisher  is  a  practical  agriculturist,  immersed  in  the 
practice  of  producing  food,  and  accustomed,  therefore,  to 
take  into  his  calculations  all  the  data  that  are  necessary  in 
calculating  the  production  of  food.  Th«  highly  scientific 
men,  as  the  Committee  of  the  Royal  Society,  are  physiologists, 
immersed  in  the  study  of  physiology,  and  accustomed  to 
take  into  their  calculations  all  the  data  necessary  in  calcu- 
lating what  becomes  of  the  food  after  it  is  eaten.  But  the 
problem  before  us  concerns  not  only  the  production  of  food, 
but  also  the  consumption  ;  and  not  only  the  consumption 
of  food,  but  also  its  production  ;  and  neither  the  farmer  nor 
the  physiologist  is  in  a  position  to  dogmatize  on  the  whole 
problem.  Either  they  should  combine  together  and  issue 
a  joint  report  or  they  should  both  lay  their  evidence  before 
an  independent  tribunal  for  its  decision. 

I  am  neither  farmer  nor  physiologist,  and,  so  far,  am 
independent  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  that  if  the  case  is  stated 
fully  and  clearly,  as  I  have  tried  to  state  it,  the  farmer  has 
the  best  of  the  argtiment  ;  but  I  do  not  presume  to  express 
a  dogmatic  opinion.  I  have  shown  that,  for  want  of  clear 
thinking,  the  men  of  science  have  omitted  to  consider  certain 
data  that  vitally  affect  the  problem.  I  am  no  expert,  and 
there  may  be  other  data  that  I  also  have  omitted  ;  but 
those  I  have  added  must  be  apparent  to  every  one  who 
applies  his  mind  to  the  problem  ;  and  all  I  wish  to  insist 
upon  is  the  primary  and  vital  necessity  of  clear  thinking, 
e\'cn    al)iiut    pigs. 


14 


'•'  .^ 


'U 


-;-:^^i- 


■-r=re»*a««?^ 


^a^ 


Sinking  of  the  Hospital  Ship  "  Glenart  Castle," 

By 


^^eY] 


■.^T 


Bristol  Channel,  at  4  a.m.,  Tuesday,  February  26 

lemaekers 


.  o  u  ■'  ^ .  i"^o  ^ry}Q^f<^J'^ 


'4 


Land    &:    Water  March  7,  191 8 

Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book 


THE  war  has  wnmght  grwit  havoc  on  Gcnnaiiv's 
population.  Not  onlv  have  the  losses  in  the  field 
lieen  stupendous,  but  the  people  at  lionie  have 
surfcred  to  such  an  extent  that  the  number  of 
deaths  per  annum  now  exceeds  tlie  number  of 
births.  Germanx's  population  is  dedinin;;;,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  this  problem  is,  and  will  continue  to  be,  one  of 
the  most  serious  which  the  rulers  of  Germany  will  have  to 
face.  So  urjient  has  the  matter  become  that  two  new  measures 
have  just  been  introduced  in  the  Imperial  Parliament  for 
the  purpose  of  ameliorating  the  situation.  One  is  directed 
against  venereal  disease  and  consumption,  and  the  other 
will  punish  with  pains  and  penalties  the  artificial  restriction 
of  births. 

It  is  genexally  admitted  in  Germany  that  the  British 
blockade  has  in  the  long  run  tended  to  reduce  the  vitality 
of  the  Gertnan  people.  Underfeeding  for  a  period  of  over 
three  years  could  not  but  undermine  the  national  health, 
.ind  the  resort  to  food  substitutes  only  made  confusion  worse 
confounded.  There  are  at  present  over  ten  thousand  food 
substitutes  in  use  in  Germany,  beginning  with  substitutes 
for  ordinary  bread  and  including  substitutes  for  well  nigh 
everv  other  eatable.  Bread  made  of  maize,  barley,  oats 
and  potatoes  was  to  be  expected  ;  but  bread  in  German\- 
is  also  made  of  straw,  hay,  wood-fl:)ur.,  beet,  Iceland 
moss  and  mushroom-flour.  Incredible  as  it  may  sound,  there 
are  also  substitutes  for  meat,  made  of  congealed  blood  or 
wood  glucose  dyed  red.  There  are  substitutes  for  eggs,  milk, 
lemons,  tea  and  coffee,  all  for  the  most  part  harmful  to  the 
system.  Despite  official  action  to  check  the  growth  of  this 
ivil,  food  substitutes  continue  to  spring  up  and  the  national 
health  declines  in  consecjuence. 

The  ravages  of  consumption  are  becoming  fearful,  and  the 
toll  of  venereal  disease  immense.  The  combined  result  of 
.ill  these  forces  is  to  send  down  the  birth-rate  ;  and  to  improve 
the  birth-rate  will  be  the  main  purpose  of  German  statesmen. 
There"  is  much  discussion  already  as  to  possible  measures 
for  achieving  this  result. 

One  of  the  bills  already  referred  to  will  aim  at  healing  the 
'liseases  which  have  eaten  into  the  nation's  vitals.  Bonuses 
ire  to  be  allowed  t(/all  parents  who  have  at  least  three  healthy 
children  living  ;  sanitary  and  comfortable  dwellings  are  to 
be  erected,  especially  in  w(jrking-class  districts,  and  taxes 
ire  to  be  levied  on  bachelors. 

Germany   "Victorious" 

Despite  these  and  other  difficulties  at  home,  the  junker 
Militarists  are  puffed  up  more  and  more  by  their 
•  victories  "  on  the  Eastern  front.  Their  invasion  of  Russia 
■  ven  in  their  view  needs  a  decent  excuse,  and  you  may  trust 
he  Prussian  militarist  to  have  an  excuse  readv  for  the  meanest 
action.  The  Vienna  Arbeiter  Zcititng  knows  the  character 
of  its  Ally  and  pleads  sarcastically  (or  some  one  to  make  a 
compilation  of  Wolffs  lies.  Wolff",  be  it  noted,  is  the  tele- 
graphic mouthpiece  of  the  rulers  of  Germany. 

How  does  Wolff—more  familiarly  known  as  W.T.B.  (Wolff's 

lelegraphic  Bilreau) —smooth  over  the  continued  invasion  ot 

Russia  now  when  negotiations  are  supposed  to  be  in  progress  ? 

^  In  the  first  place,  the  peace  with  the  Ukraine  imposes  upon 

Germany  the  necessity  of  safeguarding  the  frontiers  of  the 

new  .State.    She  can  only  do  so  bv  driving  the  Russian  armies 

further  mland.     Secondly,  there  is  a  danger  that  both  iinarchv 

and  cholera  may  mfect  Germanv  from  Russia.      It  is  therefore 

necessary  to  push  these  as  far  from  the  German  boundaries'  as 

possible.     Thirdly,  the  people  of  the  Baltic  Provinces  and 

of  P inland  are  urgently  calling  on  the  Germans  to  succour 

them.     Finally  (and  here  the  cloven  hoof  peeps  out)    the 

X    mvasion  is  not  of  the  ordinary  kind,  for  will  not  a  purely 

Socialist  State,  Ukrania,  benefit  bv  it  ?    How  then,  can  the 

German  Socialists  have  an\-  objection  ? 

Even  so  illustrious  a  personage  as  Prince  Max  of  Baden 
who  appears  to  have  sprung  into  sudden  fame  as  a  result  of 
the  war,  sinks  to  the  level  of  Wolff's  argument.     He  stated  : 

It  has  always  been  Germany's  historic  mission  to  be  a  dam 
against  the  destructive  forces  that  come  from  the  Fast  We 
d.d  th..s  m  955  at  Lechfeld,  in  .24,  at  Liegnitz,  and  in  1914  at 
rannenberg  Hindenburg's  victories  were  not  onlv  Cermanv^s 
victones,  they  were  Europe  s.  Anyone  who  has  "not  grasped 
Ins  fact  ha^  not  grasped  the  real  basis  of  our  anger  agains 
Kngland  .VVe  must  again  be  on  the  watch  against  the  great 
danger  that  threatens  from  the  East.     A  moral  infection  Ton 

^,J^  \  ^'"^"  '''°''^''''  *"^  P'='S"«  ^"  imminent,  all  civilized 
btates  take  common  quarantine  measures.  To-dav  infected 
Kussia  desires  to  carry  her  disease  into  healthv  States  Counter 
measures  are   therefore   urgent.  '  >-ounier 


One  of  these  measures  is  to  conclude  peace,  and  Prince  ilax 
lays  down  four  iirinciples  to  govern  peace  discussions : 

(i)     Germany  must  insist  on  the  freedom  of  the  seas,   wliich 

means  that  non-combatants  should  be  kept  out  of  the  war  by  sea 

and  land.     A  blockade  of  starvation  must  in  future  be  impo.ssible. 
(2)     The  world  must  not  be  divided  into  two  opposing  camps. 

each  arming  again.st  the  other. 

^  (j)     There  must  be  no  economic  war  after  the  war. 
(4)     Africa  must  be  opened  up  to  the  white  rates  on  a  just  basis 

and  the  black  races  must  be  allowed  to  develop. 
It  will  be  seen  that  all  four  "  principles  "  will  tell  fn  favour 
of  Germany.  Prince  Max^has  not  a  word  to  sav  about 
Germany's  misdeeds  throughout  the  war,  about  her  violation 
of  Belgium,  about  the  Lusitania  and  hospital  ships  crime, 
about  aerial  attacks  on  defenceless  women  and  children. 
Freedom  of  the  seas  forsooth  !  Of  course,  Germany  would 
like  to  achieve  a  state  of  affairs  where  she  might  be  safe 
from  starvation  or  economic  boycott.  But  what  does  Prince 
Max  offer  in  return  ?  Only  that  Germany  will  condescend 
to  discuss  peace  terms. 

Prussia   Puffed   Up 

The  truth  is,  that  events  in  the  East  have  filled  the  Prussian 
Junkers  with  pride.  They  regret  only  one  thing— the 
resolution  of  July  19,  1917.  The  twenty-fifth  meeting  of 
the  German  Agrarian  League  illustrated  the  extent  of  this 
pride.  There  was  the  old  tone  of  joy  in  brutal  force,  the 
old  conviction  that  the  Germans  are  the  salt  of  the  earth. 
.\  few  extracts  from  the  speeches  may  be  of  interest. 

As  long  as  the  enemy  sees  the  majority  resolution  of   July  19 
supreme,  we  shall  have  no  peace. 

Germany's  future  can  only  be  secured  by  a  strong  monarchy 
and   a    mighty    army. 

What  we  have  lacked  hitherto  is  a  healthy  national  selfishness. 
One  cannot  get  away  from  the  impression  that  God  must  have 
been  angry  when  he  made  this  man  (Bethmann-HoUweg)  Imperial 
Chancellor. 

Only  fools  believe  in  a  reconciliation  of  the  peoples. 
The  ruffians  in  and  out  of  Germany  who  stir  up  bitter  feeling 
against  Hindenburg  and  Ludendorff  are  not  worthy  to  tie  their 
shoe  laces. 

This  war  is-  a  struggle  for  world-domination. 
This  pride  manifests  itself  in  a  large  part  of  the  Gernlan 
Press.  "  The  First  Victorious  Peace  "  is  how  reference 
is  made  to  the  peace  with  the  Ukraine  ;  the  peace  with  the 
Bolsheviks  will  doubtless  be  the  second.  This  is  harmless 
enough,  but  their  o.verweening  pride  makes  these  gentry 
presumptuous.  No  one  in  Germany,  so  the  Hambiirgischer 
Conespunde7it  assures  the  world,  ever  intended  to  reduce 
l'>ance  to  a  second-rate  Power  or  to  starve  out  England. 
But  to-day  it  is  different.  These  two  'countries  want  the 
war  to  continue  ;  they  place  the  Germans  before  the  alter- 
natives "  You  or  we."  If  fighting  is  to  go  on  throughout 
191S,  which  (iermany  honestly  desired  to  be  a  year  of  peace, 
then  she  will  not  be  answerable  for  the  consequences. 

German  conceit  shows  itself  in  vet  another  way.  For 
some  time  past  there  has  been  little  talk  of  indemnities  in 
Germany.  Now  indemnities  are  again  a  will  o'  the  wisp 
for  the  Junkers.  In  the  Bavarian  Diet  recently  Count 
Preysing  wanted  to  know  whether  the  large  German  war 
debt  was  to  be  shifted  on  to  the  shoulders  of  the  enemy. 
The  war  expenditure  now  amounted  to  a  sum  equivalent 
to  65,000  million  pounds  sterling.  If  the  enemy  cannot  be 
made  to  bear  this  load,  there  will  be  nothing  for  it  but  for 
the  Government  to  confiscate  wealth.  But  Count  Preysin,<' 
is  after  all  only  a  mere  member  of  the  House.  \\]\a.i  did  the 
Government  say  in  reply  ? 

The  Bavarian  Minister  of  Finance,  Dr.  von  Breuning 
informed  the  anxious  Count  that  of  course  the  burden  would 
be  shifted  on  the  enemy  if  the  military  and  political  situation 
allow  the  Imperial   Government  to  do   so. 

Mr.  Rathom's  "Fairy  Tales" 

The  Germans  appear  to  have  been  piqued  by  Mr.  Rathom's  . 
revelations.  Curiously  enough  they  do  not  categorically  deny 
them.  All  they  do  is  to  make  reflections  on  Mr.  Rathom's 
character.  He  is  a  man  with  a  shady  past  ;  he  is  said  to  have 
attempted  to  do  away  with  his  wife  bv  means  of  ppisoned 
cherries.  This  is  a  characteristically  German  mana'uvre 
When  they  cannot  deny  a  story  which  tells  against  them 
they  abuse  the  narrator.  The  Frankfurter  Zeitun^  calls 
the  revelations  "  Fairy  Talcs,"  spun  out  of  the  author's 
imagination,  and  is  sure  that  no  sensible  people  will  give 
them  credence.     0  sanda  simplicitas  ! 

[This  paragraph  xvas  shown  to  a  personal  friend  dJ  Mr  Rathom 
whom  It  amused  immensely.  Mr.  Rathom,  it  so  happens  ,1 
very  happily  married.  'En.  L.  dcW]  ' 


March  7,  19 18 


Land    Sc    Water 


15 


The  Rural  Housing  Question  :   By  H. 


AMONG  tlie  many  difficult  questions  which  are 
likely  to  present  themselves  for  solution  on  the 
conclusion  of  the  war,  none  will  demand  more 
immediate  attention  than  the  need  for  additional 
and  improved  housing.  Tlie  problem  is  a 
serious  one  in  many  of  the  larger  towns  and  in  the  more 
crowded  industrial  centres ;  but  it  is  equally  serious  in 
country  districts,  although  perhaps  less  prominent  and. 
noticeable  for  the  reason  that  conditions  are  more  varied 
and  the  pf)pulation  is  more  scattered.  It  is  not  proposed, 
however,  to  deal  here  with  nrban  housing,  but  only  with, 
those  aspects  of  the  housing  question  which  relate  to  country 
districts. 

It  has  been  said  that  because  the  rural  population  in  Great 
Britain  decreased  steadily  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  there  could  not  be  any  real  scarcity  of  dwellings  for 
the  occupation  of  those  remaining  upon  the  land.  This  was 
not  the  case,  however,  and  the  reason  is  no  doubt  to  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  old  houses  were  becoming  ruinous  and  unin- 
. habitable  at  an  even  greater  rate  than  the  country  population 
was  decreasing.  Moreover,  many  of  the  published  statistics 
dealing  with  rural  depopulation  have  been  confined  solely  to 
persons  employed  in  agricultural  pursuits,  and  have  not 
included  railwaymen,  pwstmen,  roadmen,  and  others,  whose 
numbers  may  have,  if  anything,  increased  rather  than 
decreased. 

ft  is  e.xtremelydoubtful  whether,  in  any  county  in  England 
or  Scotland  (excluding  urban  areas),  the  number  of  cottages 
built  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years  has  e<iualled  the 
number  of  houses  going  out  of  occupation  and  becoming 
uninhabitable.  The  comparatively  low  pre-war  scale  of 
wages  in  rural  occupations  rendered  it  impossible  for  those 
employed  to  pay  rents  commensurate  with  an  economic 
return  on  the  cost  of  building  and  maintaining  new  houses. 
Consequently,  it  was  only  where  the  need  for  labour  was 
specially  pressing,  or  on  fairly  large  and  wealthy  estates,  that 
cottage-building  was  pursued  under  a  consistent  scheme  or 
policy.  The  problem  for  the  future  may  be  considered  in 
two  aspects  : 

(1)  The  need  for  improving  existing  houses. 

(2)  .N'ecd  fpr  the  erection  of  new  houses. 

It  is  difficult  to  generalise  regarding  the  existing  standard  of 
rural  housing,  as  great  contrasts  are  often  noticeable  in  the 
same  parish  or  village.  Many  instances  may  be  found  in 
most  districts  of  "model"  houses,  not  only  in  design,  but  in 
their  surroundings  and  the  way  in  which  they  are  kept.  It 
must  be  regretfully  admitted,  however,  by"  any  impartial 
observer  that  such  houses  are  the  exception  and  not  the 
rule,  that  the  general  average  is  not  as  high  as  it  might  be, 
and  tliat  in  some  instances  houses  are  still  being  occupied 
which  are  only  fit  to  be  pulled  down. 

The  cornmonest  defects  in  houses  of  the  sm.Uler  type  »re- 
lack  of  room  ;  damp  walls  or  floors  ;  insufficient  light  and 
ventilation;  lack  of  adequate  "office"  accommodation  in 
the  .shape  of  scullery,  pantry,  coal-house,  etc.  ;  and  inade- 
(luate  water  sui)|)l\-.  Many  houses  can  be  improved  in  these 
respects,  and*  brought  up  to  a  high  standard.  The  cost  may 
be  considerable,  but  it  is  nevertheless  justifiable  on  economic- 
grounds.  On  the  other  hand,  owing  to  damp,  unsuitable 
sites,  decayed  walls,  or  (jtiier  similar  causes,  some  houses  are 
quite  unfit  for  further  expenditure,  and  incapable  of  improve- 
ment. For  such  structures  demolition  is  the  best  jjolicy, 
utilising  any  material  of  value  elsewhere.  The  ruin  of  an 
ancient  <astle  or  church  may  have  dit;nit\-  and  historical 
mtcrest,  but  this  cannot  be  said  of  smaller  and  more  modern 


habitations.  Nothing  appears  more  depressing  than  a 
ruinous  or  roofless  house  in  a  country  district,  and  there  are 
far  too  many  of  these  sad  relics  at  the  present  dav. 

The  need  for  the  erection  of  new  houses  is  perhaps  not  so 
general  as  for  the  improvement  of  existing  dwellings.  It  is 
nevertheless  an  urgent  problem  in  many  country  districts, 
and  it  is  certain  that  by  some  means  or  other  additional 
housing  must  be  found  in  the  next  few  years,  The-cpiestions 
which  naturally  present  themselves  are  : 

In  wliat  way  is  the  necessary  land  to  be  acquired  ? 

What   is    the   average   standard   of   accommodation    which    is 
necessary  ? 

What  should^  be  the  guiding  principles  in  design  ? 
How  are  the  necessary  funds  to  I)e  made  available  }, 

In  country  districts,  the  question  of  finding  land  for  the  erec- 
tion of  cottages  is  fortunately  not  a  difficult  one.  If  the 
landowner  himself  is  building  houses  for  labour  employed  on 
the  estate  it  is  only  in  exceptional  cases  that  any  value  is 
attached  teethe  site  at  all,  and  very  often  this  item  is  omitted 
altogether  in  the  statement  of  cost.  If  the  State  or  local 
authorities  require  land  for  rural  housing  schemes,  there  is 
little  doubt  they  can  get  what  they  require  on  easy  terms. 
The  co.st  of  the  land  is  not  likely  to  exceed  i  or  2  per  cent, 
of  the  total  outlay  for  building.  There  ran  be  no  c|uestion 
that  land  for  building  should  be  acquired  freehold  by  purchase 
wherever  it  is  possible  to  do  so. 

The  standard  of  accommodation  to  be  aimed  at  as  a 
minimum  has  been  a  matter  of  cor)siderable  controversy. 
There  would  seem,  however,  to  be  room  for  every  size  of 
house  from  two  rooms  upwards.  A  large  family  can. 
naturally,  be  overcrowded  in  either  a  two-roomed  or  three- 
roomed  house;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  these  small  houses 
are  greatly  preferred  by  single  women  or  by  a  married  couple 
without  children.  Not  only  does  the  .small  house  involve 
less  work,  but  the  more  moderate  rent  is  in  itself  a  great 
attraction.  Generally  speaking,  it  may  be  laid  down  that 
no  new  house  intended  for  the  occupation  of  a  family  should 
contain  less  than  four  rooms,  but  that  a  limited  number  of 
three-roomed  and  five-roomed  houses  may  also  be  the  most 
convenient  for  some  farpilies.  In  any  new  house,  attention 
should  be  given  to  the  "office"  accommodation,  as  a  good 
scullery  or  back  kitchen,  a  pantry,  and  coal-house,  add 
greatly  to  the  comfort  and  convenience  of  the  inmates. 
iBicycles  are  now  so  common  that  a  shed  capable  of  holding 
them,  as  well  as  tools  and  odds  and  ends,  is  usually  much 
appreciated. 

Design  and  construction  call  for  special  consideration. 
Standardisation  is  much  talked  of  in  shipbuilding  and  en- 
gineering, and  it  is  an  attractive  idea  in  house-design.  It  is 
only  necessary,  however,  to  look  at  the  dismal  rows  of  houses 
in  mining  villages  or  in  the  suburbs  of  some  towns  to  realise 
what  a  stereotyped  design  would  mean  in  country  districts. 
It  is  a  fallacy  to  assume  that  a  standard  plan  is  necessarily 
the  cheapest  or  that  variation  in  design  is  extravagant. 
Standard  jiatterns  of  doors,  windows,  grates,  etc.,  may  effect 
an  econoniv*'  in  cost,  but  can  be  apj)lied  to  an  inlinite  \ariety 
<.)f'designs  in  construction. 

.Almost  every  district  has  its  own  style  and  character  in 
housing,  and  good  reasons  can  generally  be  found  for  such 
fhstinctions.  Soil,  climate,  convenience  of  building  stone  or 
bri'-k,  are  all  elements  in  determining  design.  The,  brick 
^valls  which  are  typical  of  the  South  of  England  cmd  parts  of 
the  Midlands,  would  seem  out  of  ])lace  in  the  North,  where 
brick,  if  used  in  the  construction  t>f  outside  walls,  is  usually 
rough    cast    or    cement    plastered.     The    plain     substantial. 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


March  7,   1918 


;ilim)St  severe  ivpe  ot  cottat;e,  built  with  btuiie,  which  can  be 
seen  almost  anvwiiere  on  the  East  Coast,  from  Yorkshire 
northwards  into  Scotland,  well  suited  as  it  is  to  the  liimate 
of  these,  districts,  would  be  equally  out  of  place  in  the  South 
of  Ensland.  Another  perfectly  distinct  type  is  that  of 
I^ncashire  and  the  Lakes  District,  and  again,  in  the  west  and 
south-west  of  Scotland  the  whitewashed  walls  of  farmhouse 
and  cottage  are  general.  Each  one  of  these  distinctive  tvpes 
is  capabje  of  adaptation  to  a  strictly  modern  and  efiicient 
design,  and  it  would  be  a  matter  for  regret  if  local  charac- 
teristics of  architecture,  where  such  are  worthy  of  preserva- 
ti>)n,  should  be  wholly  abandoned. 

The  question  of  cost  in  relation  to  rural  housing  is  one  of 
the  most  difficult,  and  many  of  those  who  have  studied 
this  financial  aspect  maintain  it  to  be  almost  insoluble. 
The  pre-war  cost  of  a  cottage  of  three  or  four  rooms,  with 
<«uitable  office  accommodation,  and  including  water  supply, 
and  enclosure  of  the  site,  could  not  under  the  most  favour- 
able circumstances  be  less  than  £250, ,  and  in  many  cases 
amounted  to  considerably  more.  The  rise  in  the  price  of 
timber  and  all  other  building  materials,  as  well  as  the  increase 
in  wages,  make  it  impossible  that  the  cost  of  a  similar  house 
will  for  many  yeaVs  to  come  be  less  than  ;f400  to  £450.  The 
rise  in  the  rate  of  interest  is  a  further  burden  on  rent,  and  it  is 
quite  probable  that  local  rates,  already  onerous,  may  become 
even  hea\ier.  If  £400  is  taken  as  the  minimum  cost  of  a 
house  such  as  described,  the  economic  rent  cannot  be 
put  at  less  than  los.  per  week,  made    up  as  under  : 

Interest  on  i'^oo  at  5  per  cent        ..  i-'o     o     o 

Depreciation  on  building  at,  say,  i  per  cent        .  .  400 
Repairs,   maintenance,    insurance   and    managf- 

ment  at  10  per  cent  on  rent ,  say  .;   i  n     n 


It  is  obvious  that  unless  wages  stood  at  a  very  high  level, 
it  would  be  practically  impossible  for  many  married  men 
with  young  families  to  pay  such  a  rent,  and  local  rates  besides. 
In  England,  where  the  local  rates  are  payable  by  the  occupier, 
the  amount  due  on  a  £26  rent  might  be  £4  or  £5.  In  Scotland, 
where  local  rates  are  divided  between  owner  and  occupier, 
the  result  would  be  much  the  same,  seeing  that  although  the 
occupier  or  tenant  paid  a  lesser  sum  directly  in  rates,  the 
owner  would  require  to  take  into  account  his  share  of  the  rates 
in  arri\ing  at  an  economic  rent. 

From  consideration  of  these  figures,  the  inevitable  conclusion 
is  reached  that  the  extensive  programme  of  new  housing 
which  is  necessary  cannot  be  wholly  paid  for  out  of  the  rents 
which  the  new  houses  may  be  expected  to  yield,  and  the 
deficiency  must  be  met  from  Imperial  taxation,  local  rates, 
or  by  individuals  or  firms  emplojang  labour. 

There  appears  to  be  no  good  reason  why  all  three  sources 
should  not,  according  to  circumstances,  be  drawn  upon.  The 
landowner  has  in  most  instances,  especially  in  the  North  of 
England  and  in  Scotland,  provided  housing  for  the  labour  in 
his  direct  employ  or  employed  by  farmers  on  his  estate.  It 
is  clearly  the  duty  of  local  authorities,  railway  companies, 
and  public  departments,  such  as  the  Post  Office,  to  provide 
housing  for  those  in  their  employ.  There  will  still  remain  a 
considerable  unsatisfied  demand  for  houses  in  some  districts. 
Where  this  is  so,  the  local  authority  would  appear  to  be  the 
proper  body  to  initiate  well-considered  schemes  for  erecting 
houses  either  at  existing  villages  or  in  fresh  groups  or  centres. 
The  erection  of  single  isolated  houses  at  public  expense  is  a 
matter  of  very  doubtful  expediency,  except  in  special 
circumstances.  \ 

The  deficiency  which  would  almost  certainly  arise  in 
financing  such  schemes  would  perhaps  be  most  equitably  met 
by  eqiwl  contributions  from  the  Exchequer  and  from  local 
rates.  It  may  be  argued  that  any  contribution  from  local 
rates  is  merely  a  subsidy  from  the  whole  ratepayers  of  the 
particular  area  to  a  few  of  their  own  number  who  happen  to 
occupy  the  new  houses.  There  is  some  force  in  this  argu- 
ment ;  but,  on  the  other  side,  it  can  be  said  that  the  erection 
of  new  houses  under  a  "scheme"  brings  into  existence  fresh 
rateable  values  which  otherwise  would  never  emerge  at  all. 
Moreover,  the  fact  of  a  share  of  the  expenditure  falling  on  a 
local  authority,  induces  economy  and  care  in  carrying  out  a 
scheme  which  would  very  probaBly  be  lacking  if  the  whole 
burden  was  to  be  borne  by  Imperial  taxation. 

The  housing  question  is  such  a  large  one  that  it  is  impossible 
in  the  compass  of  a  single  article  to  do  more  than  touch  on 
salient  points.  For  those  who  desire  to  pursue  the  subject 
further  a  large  and  extensive  literature  is  available,  and 
some  of  the  recently  issued  official  documents,  such  as  the 
Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Housing  in  Scotland,  will 
well  repay  careful  study. 


A  la  Victoire 

By  Emilc  Cammaerts 

La  Victoire  sculptck^  dans  Ic  roc  des  falaises, 
Ses  draperies  ruissdantes  battues  par  la  niaree, 
Ses  ailes  large  ouvertes  au  vent  des  destinies, 
La  Victoire  a  parle  dan?  le  roc  des  falaises. 

Sa  voix,  depuis  trois  ans  restce  silencieuse, 
A  Sonne  grave  et  pure,  dominant  la  tempete. 
Sous  les  cieux  ^toil6s,  elle  a  lev6  la  tMe 
Et  ses  yeux  ont  sonde  les  vagues  capricieuses  : 

«  Tu  montes  et  tu  descends, 
Aloi,  je  reste. 
Tu  regrettes,  tu  esperes, 
Moi,  j 'attends. 

Tu  chantes  un  jour  sous  la  caresse 
Du  ciel  bleu,  pour  rugir  de  colere 
Le  Icndemain.     La  joie  succede  a  la  detresse, 
Dans  tes  flots  changeants. 
Tu  tournes  a  tons  les  vents, 
Moi,  je  reste. 

•  J'entends  des  voix 
Dans  la  brise  qui  me  meprisent  ou  me  reclament, 
J'entends  des  voix 

Parmi  les  vagues  qui  me  renient  ou  qui  m'acclament. 
Car  ceux  qui  parlent  ne  savent  pas 
Que  je  suis  la  qui  les  6coute 
Et  que  leurs  plaintes  et  leurs  doutes 
Eclaboussent  d'ecume  les  rochers  de  ma  foi. 
Tu  recrimines  et  tu  predis, 
Moi,  je  crois. 
Tu  as  ete  et  tu  seras, 
Moi,  je  suis. 

«  Celuj  qui  m'a  sculptee  dans  le  roc  immortel 
M'a  douee  de  rn^moire  et  de  longue  patience. 
Je  n'ai  pas  oublie  mes  serments  solennels, 
Ma  main  n'a  pas  lache  le  bois  dur  de  ma  lance, 
Je  n'ai  pas  pardonne  les  crimes  impunis, 
Mon  bras  n'a  pas  cesse  de  frapper  Tennemv. 
Tant  que  Justice  ne  sera  pas  faite. 
Tant  que  le  Mai  ne  sera  pas  repare, 
Tant  que  les  bourreaux  pourront  me  braver, 
Tant  que  je  ne  sentirai  pas  la  Defaite 
Choir  enfin  sous  mes  coups  et  gemir  et  prier, 
Tant  que  le  Mensonge  ne  sera  pas  confondu, 
Tant  que  I'Ordre  ne  sera  pas  retabli, 
Je  resterai  gravee  sur  les  rochers  chenus 
Comme  le  sceau  de  Dieu  sur  le  coeur  du  pays. 
Si  bien  que  la  mer  devra  briser  ces  pierres 
Et,  durant  des  siecles,  polir  ces  rocs  puissants 
Avant  qu'a  tons  les  yeux  man  image  altiere 
S'efface  pen  a  pen  sous  I'usure  du  temps. 

«  Tu  montes  et  tu  descends 
Moi,  j 'attends. 
Tu  recrimines  et  tu  predis, 
Moi,  je  suis ». 

[all  rights  reserved]  . 


The  death  of  Mr.  Edgar  Wilson,  some  of  whose  London 
etchings  were  reproduced  in  our  last  issue,  is  a  loss  to  art  in 
more  than  one  direction.  To  collectors  he  was  best  known 
as  an  etcher  of  slow  and  fastidious  production  ;  but  a  wider 
public,  who  perhaps  never  noticed  his  name,  were  familiar 
with  his  work  in  the  shape  of  decorative  pen-drawings  in 
periodicals.  Mr.  Wilson  was  also  one  of  our  leading  authori- 
ties on  Japanese  art  ;  his  knowledge  of  prints,  in  particular, 
being  reflected  in  the  tactful  addition  of  colour  to  some  of 
his  own  etchings. 


March  7,  19 18 


Land    &    Water 


17 


Moscow's  Stolen  Treasures:  ByG.  C.Williamson 


I 


T  lias  been  ar- 
nounccd  in  the 
Press  that  a  verv 
serious  robbery 
has  taken  place" 
at  Moscow,  the  patri- 
archal treasures  having 
been  stolen  at  some  un- 
known moment,  but  the 
theft  has  only  recently 
been  discovered.  If  the 
information  is  true — and 
there  seems  little  doubt 
about  its  accuracy — 
Russia  has  sustained  an 
exceedingly  serious  loss  ; 
and  if  the  wonderful 
treasures  contained  in 
this  Sacristy  have  been 
melted  up  for  the  sake 
of  the  gold,  the  result  is 
absolutely  disastrous. 
In  1910,  I  paid  a  pro- 
longed visit  to  the  Patriarchal  Sacristy,  and  on  presentation 
of  the  Imperial  order  which  I  carried,  the  Patriarch  appointed 
an  Archimandrite  of  high  rank  to  take  me  round  the  rooms 
and  show  me  all  I  desired  to  see.  I  well  remember,  after 
having  been  there  for  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  expressing 
a  desire  to  handle  a  particular  object  before  me,  and  being 
met  by  the  remark  that  as  it  had  been  anticipated  I  should 
want  to  handle  many  things,  permission  had  accordingly 
been  given,  and  I  might 


Processional   Cross    of  the 
Patriarch  Nicon 


have  anything  m  my 
hanijs,  including  many 
of  the  precious  objects 
which,  as  a  rule,  were 
handled  only  by  the 
highest  ecclesiastics. 

The  three  great  fea- 
tures of  the  wonderful 
collection  contained  in 
the  two  rooms  which 
constitute  the  Sacristy 
were  the  mitres,  the  port- 
able pyxes,  and  the 
sacerdotal  robes.  The 
mitres  are  seven  in  num- 
ber according  to  the 
careful  catalogue  pre- 
pared by  Bishop  Sabas 
in  1865 — a  very  rare 
document ,  which  the 
Patriarch  was  good 
enough  to  place  at  my 
disposal  when  leaving  the 
Sacristy,  and  from  which 
these  illustrations  are 
taken.  The  most  import- 
ant of  the  mitres  belonged 
to  the  Patriarch  Job,.and 
was  worn  by  him  in 
1595.  when-  he  assumed 
office.  It  is  a  dwarf  cap 
of  blue  silk,  bordered 
with,  fine  ermine,  and 
upon  it  is  embroidered, 
in  superb  gold  work, 
decorated  with  pearls,  an 
inscription  commending 
the  wearer  to  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Mother  of 
God,  and  stating  that  the 
mitre  was  prepared  in  Sejitember,  1595,  for  the  purjjose 
of  being  worn  by  the  first  I'atriarch  of  Moscow.  The  work 
is  of  exquisite  beauty. 

Another  of  the  mitres  belonged  to  the  Patriarch  Nicon, 
who  ascended  the  patriarchal  throne  in  1652,  and  this  more 
closely  resembles  the  cap  of  an  emperor.  It  was  enamelled 
on  gold,  sot  with  wonderful  precious  stones,  find  especially 
with  a  large  ruby  in  the  very  front,  on  which  was  engraved  a 
representation  of  the  Resurrection,  while  round  it  were  small 
representations  in  enamel  of  the  Evangelists,  and  of  scenes 
from  sacred  history.     It  was  prepared  by  order  of  the  Grand 


The  three  Mitrc-i  at  the  top  are,  from  left  to  right,  the   Patriarch    Job's,  St.   Cyiil's,  and 

the  Patriarch  N icon's.       The  centre  one  is  not  named.       Tht-  three  at  the  bottom  are  all 

called  after  the  Patriarch  Nicon 


Duke  Alexis,  and,  like  the  other,  bore  a  full  and  elaborate 
inscription,  stating  the  very  month  in  which  it  was  made, 
and  for  what  purpose.  There  were  three  other  mitres  that 
were  also  made  for  the  same  Patriarch  Nicon  ;  one  has  the 
whole  of  the  inscriptions  in  Greek,  and  was  a  gift  from  the 
Greeks  to  the  head  of  the  Russian  Church  ;  another,  dated 
1654,  was  sent  to  Moscow  from  Constantinople,  as  a  gift  from 
the  Patri;u-ch  of  that  place,  and  a  fourth,  dated  1653,  was 
prepared  by  tirder  of  the  Grand  Duke  Alexis  when  he  became 
Emperor,  and  was  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the 
group.  It  was  of  massive  gold,  set  with  wonderful  stones, 
and  having  a  series  of  enamelled  tablets  upon  it,  representing 
the  Evangelists,  each  of  whicii  was  richly  adorned  with 
rubies,  emeralds,  and  sapphires. 

These  mitres,  in  a  cupboard  at  the  end  of  the  room,  made 
a  great  display  ;  but  as  works  of  art,  they  were  not  to  be 
compared  witli  the  Wonderful  series  of  portable  pyxes,  which 
the  Russian  bishops  and  Patriarchs  wore  around  their  necks 
on  chains,  and  of  which  the  very  finest  were  contained  in  an 
octagonal  glass-topped  table  in  the  centre  of  the  room.  The 
most  attractive  of  all  was  a  fourteenth-century  one,  rough 
and  archaic  in  its  workmanship,  decorated  witli  large  uncut 
rubies,  and  having  in  the  centre  an  ancient  onyx,  which  bears 
in  cameo  the  figure  of  the  Prophet  Daniel.  Another  of  the 
panagia  (as  they  are  called)  was  executed  for  the  Emperor 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  in  commemoration  of  the  birth  of  his  son 
ill  1.555.  ''"d  is  formed  from  a  sardonyx  of  the  finest  possible 
quality,  probably  the  work  of  Cinquecento  date,  and  in  three 
layers^  representing  the  figure  of  St.  John  the  Scholastic,  and 
having  on  the  reverse  of  it  representations  in  black  enamel  of 
St.  Mark,  Bishop  of  Arethusa,  and  Cyril  the  Deacon.     This 

very  precious  panagia 
(i])en(>d  at  the  back,  and 
was  actually  a  relicpiary. 
It  contained  a  tiny  mor- 
sel of  the  purple  robe  in 
which  tradition  states 
Our  Saviour  was  clothed, 
and  also  a  bit  of  the  rock 
of  Calvary.  It  was  re- 
garded with  the  highest 
possible  reverence,  and 
even  the  Archimandrite 
himself  was  amazed  to 
find,  on  reference  to  his 
written  instructions,  that 
I  was  permitted  to  hold 
it  in  my  hand,  and  ex- 
amine it.  The  panagia 
worn  by  the  first  Patri- 
arch of  Mo.scow,  Job,  was 
another  gem,  Byzantine 
work  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tur\-  around  a  dark 
brown  onyx,  on  which 
was  represented  in  high 
relief  the  Crucifixion.  On 
the  reverse  were  figures 
of  the  Emperor  Con- 
stantine  and  his  mother 
Helena.  The  enamelled 
gold  mounting  belonged 
to  the  sixteenth  century. 
In  a  case  at  the  other 
end  of  the  room  was  an 
extraordinary  group  of 
crosses  and  tau-shaped 
patriarchal  staves.  The 
processional  cross  of  the 
Patrinrch  Nicon,  illus- 
trated on  this  page,  en- 
shrines early  Byzantine 
work,  mounted  in  seventeenth-century  Russian  enamel. 
Three  of  the  enamel  groups  on  it  were  of  very  early  date,  and 
the  two  engraved  sapphires  at  the  back  of  the  Cross 
were  declared  by  the  authorities  of  the  Sacristy  to  be  tw.o 
of  the  oldest  gems  engraved  with  scriptural  scenes  in  exist- 
ence, and  to  be  comparable  only  with  the  two  that  are 
preserved  in  Rome. 

If  the  thieves  had  confined  themselves  to  the  solid  objects 
of  gold  and  silver,  which  blazed  in  magnificent  splendour  in 
the  various  glass  cases  in  this  room,  comparatively  small 
damage  would  have  been  done,  because,  although  these  cups 


i8 


Land    &    A\^ater 


March   7,  191^ 


were  beautiful,  and  belonged,  many  of  them,  to  the  seven- 
teenth centur\-,  having  been  gifts  to  the  Patrianhs  and  other 
ecclesiastics  from  the  various  Grand  Dukes,  Emperors,  and 
Boyars,  their  artistic  merit  was  not  of  the  very  highest, 
except  as  e.xamples  of  Russian  art,  whereas  the  gold  and 
jewelled  work  of  the  mitres  and  the  vestments,  so  slight  in 
intrinsic  importance,  was  of  the  highest  possible  value  from 
an  artistic  point  of  view.  It  may  be  hoped  that  the  melting 
down  has  been  confined  to  the  larger  pieces — great  steeple 

cups.  Large  drinking  cups,  tankards,  holy-water  vases,  dishes, 

oil  jars,  salt  cellars,  cups  to  contain  chrism,  and  large  cisterns 

in  which  the  chrisms,  or  sacred  oils,  have  been  mixed.     .All 

these    objects    were    of 

great  beauty  and  magni- 
ficence,   but    of    far    less 

importance      than      the 

panagia.  the  mitres,  and 

the  robes. 
Amongst      the      \'est- 

ments.  the  chief  was  the 

Sakkos,    and,    of    them, 

the  finest  was  that  which 

was    presented    by    the 

Emperor   Ivan  the  Ter- 
rible to  the  Metropolitan 

Denys  in   15.S1,  but  the 

most  beautiful  that  which 

belonged  to  St.  Photius. 

who  was  Metropolitan  of 

the   whole  of   Russia   in 

1408,  and  died  in  1431. 

His  vestment,  which  has 

with  it  a  separate  collar, 

stole,       long       separate 

sleeves,      mantle,       and 

omophoros,  was  decor- 
ated with  portraits  of 
the  Greek  Emperor 
Paleologos  and  his  wife 
Anne,  and  of  various 
other  important  persons  of  their  Court,  and  had  in  fine  pearls 
the  whole  of  the  orthodox  creed,  embroidered  in  Greek. 
Over  the  front  and  back  of  it  were  small  separate  divisions, 
like  architectural  work  on  the  front  of  a  cathedral,  and  iii 
each  little  section  was  either  the  figure  of  an  Evangelist  or  an 
Apostle,  or  a  representation  from  the  Bible  of  some  scene 
exquisitely  embroidered,  and  outlined,  with  very  cunning 
skill,  with  tiny  gems  used  skilfully  to  enhance  its  beauty. 
There  were  no  great  stones  upon  the  vestments  of  the 
Metropolitan  Photius.  They  were  all  vcr\-  small  ones,  fine 
in  quality,  and  generally  pierced ;  and  the  skill  with  which 
they  were  combined  with  the  embroidery  was  beyond  all 
praise. 

The  Sacristy  also  contained  small  pieces  of  fine  embroidery 
from    the   vestments   of  the   Metropolitan    Peter,    who   was 


Gold  and  Silver  Vessels 


consecrated  in  1308,  and  one  of  his  successor's,  St.  Cyprian 
(1380).  and  also  a  larger  piece  of  a  vestment  made  for  St. 
Peter,  when  the  chair  of  the  Patriarch  was  transferred  to 
Moscow  in  1325.  In  no  other  place  in  Russia  was  it  possible 
to  see  embroidery  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
and  in  such  perfect  order  as  could  be  seen  in  this  Sacristy. 

Many  of  the  other  vestments,  in  their  lavish  adornment 
with  great  precit)us  stones,  were  prolsably  far  more  attractive 
to  the  robbers  ;  the  robe  that  Ivan  the  Terrible  gave  was 
Said  to  weigh  sixty  pounds,  and  was  adorned  with  magni- 
ficent sapphires  and  large  square-cut  emeralds,  and  even 
that  was  exceeded  in  lavish   work  by  a  vestment  made  in 

185(1  for  Alexander  II., 
which,  although  remark- 
able in  plain  outline,  was 
a  blaze  of  superb  gold  and 
precious  stones. 

It  seems  inconceivable 
that  the  Russians,  who 
valued  these  treasures  so 
highly  and  had  pre- 
served them  with  such 
infinite  care,  should  have 
allowed  sacrilegious 
thieves  to  scatter  them 
in  all  directions,  and, 
hoping  a.gainst  hope,  one 
desires  yet  to  hear  that 
some  of  the  more  pre- 
cious of  the  treasures^ — 
at  least,  some  of  the 
smaller  ones,  such  as  the 
isanagia.  the  rosaries,  or 
the  palliums — may  have 
Ijpen  sa\'ed. 

These  illustrations  are, 
unfortunately,  not  from 
photographs,  but  from 
the  wood  blocks  in  the 
rare  catalogue  men- 
tioned, and  do  not  do  adequate  justice  to  the  objects.  In 
the  second  group  are  illustrated  a  fine  sjilt  drinking  cup  of 
Augsburg  work  of  1629,  one  of  the  smaller  Imperial  drinking 
cups,  and  a  yet  smaller  kind  of  tumbler  of  1690  which  belonged 
to  the  Patriarch  Adrien,  as  also  the  great  silver-gilt  tankard 
of  Boris  Godounoff   (159S-1605). 

The  three  lower  illustrations  depict  a  chrism  ladle  of 
fine  French  work,  which  came  from  Pskoff,  and  was  made 
in  1620  ;  the  dish  belonging  to  the  Godounoff  tankard;  and 
a  drinking  cup  of  solid  gold,  which  was  presented  by  Prince 
Basil  Ivannovitch  to  the  Patriarchs  in  1394.  This  last 
piece  is  really  delightful  in  its  simple  lines  and  delicate 
chased  work,  albeit  it  is  somewhat  out  of  shape  owing  to 
the  softness  of  the  metal.  The  illustration  makes  it  look 
almost  flat,  which  is  not  the  case. 


\fi  p,... 


?!(?  ancienne  §recque 


20  Panagie  duPatnarcire  Adrien 


laPanagie  duPalriarche  IhiUrete  NikilUch 


Panagia  or   Portable   Pyxes 


March   7,'  19  i  8 


Land    &    \\^ater 


1-9 


Life  and  Letters  ^i  J.  C- Squire 


Masterpieces 

THE  Atlantic  is  wide  and  deep.  Great  gales 
sweep  across  its  surface,  and  its  waves  run  moun- 
tains high.  In  its  hither  waters  the  sleepless 
submarine  lies  in  wait  for  what  it  would  now  be 
inept  to  call  the  unwary  ship.  Yet  the  ships 
face  it.  With  the  wind  screaming  through  the  rigging  and 
the  white  crests  of  the  billows  flashing  palely  out  of  the 
night,  they  plough  onwards,  bringing  us  food,  munitions, 
and  allies.  They  also  provide  space  for  mails.  .-Vnd  some  of 
the  contents  of  the  mail-bags  are  such  that  if  the  sailors 
-could  see  them  they  might  well  treat  them  as  their  pre- 
decessors treated  Jonah,  and  with  much  better  reason. 

.-\mongst  the  literature  which  might  well  have  been  com- 
mitted tiTthe  deep  on  a  recent  voyage  is  a  "  bunch  "  addressed 
to  the  office  of  a  London  journal.  Still,  had  it  received  its 
deserts,  it  would  not   have  reached  me  :    and   I   should  be  ' 

sorry  to  have  missed  it. 

*  *  *    ■         *  *  * 

The  kernel  of  the  parcel  was  a  book  of  poems,  from  a 
publisher,  located  in  Boylston  Street,  Boston,  by  name 
Richard  G.  Badger.  But  before  this  was  reached,  there 
■were  numerous  subsidiary  papers'  which  arrested  the  atten- 
tion. F^irst  of  all,  came  a  letter  from  Mr.  Badger  who,  it 
appears  from  his  note-paper,  is  publisher  of  Poet  Lore,  of 
Badger's  Library  of  Religious  Thought,  of  the  World's  Worships 
Series,  and  of  The  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology— a  com- 
t^rcliensive  collection.     The  letter  began: 

iGentlemen. 

At  the  request  of  Mr.    Basudeb   Bhattacharya,   Editor  of   The 

Superman,    we  are  sending  you,   under  separate  cover,  to-day  a 

copy  of  his  latest  book,  The  Denied.     The  author  is  one  of  the 

two   Hindus  who  can  write   real   metric  verse  in   English.     He 

has  been  editor  of  a  number  of  periodicals  in  his  native  language, 

and  is  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Young   Hindus   both   in   this 

country  as  well  as  in  India.     He  leads  the  rival  school  of  Tagore, 

and,  unlike  the  mystic  poet  of  India,  believes  in  life. 

At  the  foot  of  the  note-paper,  1  forgot  to  mention,  js  the 

general  warning,  whicli  English  publishers  would  do  well  to 

ponder:    "All  contracts  subject  to  Strikes  or  Other  Causes 

Beyond  our  Control." 

****** 

From  the  letter  I  turned  to  something  larger  :  pages  from 
Mr.  Badger's  catalogue  of  new  books.  Some  of  these  books 
were  about  Nosology,  Symptomatology,  and  Psychognosis, 
about  which,  until  I  decide  to  become  a  really  modern 
novelist,  I  am  content  to  remain  ignorant.  But  in  poetry 
I  am  more  interested,  and  Badger's  New  Poetry  at  once 
attracted  my  eye.  The  most  casual  perusal  of  this'  list 
was  enough  to  convince  me  that  if  the  poetry  of  Mr.  Badger's 
authors  is  as  original  as  Mr.  Badger's  advertising,  they  must 
be  the  most  remarkable  lot  since  the  Elizabethans. 

I  give  a  few  extracts  from  this  pioneer  amongst  catalogues  : 

The  Fledgling  Bard  and  the  Poetry  Society. 
By  (ieorge   Reginald   Margetson. 

\  ringing  satire  which  deals  with  many  questions  of  the  day, 
with  topical  allusions  to  the  Poetry  Society  of  America. 

My   Soldier  Boy   and   Other  Poems. 
By  Mrs.    John   Archibald   Morison. 

This  collection  of  poems  is  mainly  expressive  of  the  subtle 
and  bewitching  voices  of  nature,  which  the  author  has  surely 
heard  and  interpreted  with  an  accuracy  and  sympathetic  skill 
all  her  own.  •   . 

Yearnings. 

By  WiUiara  Estill  Phipps. 

Every  poem  in  this  unique  volume  breathes  the  serene, 
inspiring  ethereal  touch  of  genuine  poetry. 

WiNTBROREEN.  ' 

By  Marvin  .Manan  Sherrick. 

A  breath  from  the  norttiern  forests  dealing  with  cradle  songs, 
voices  of  the  forest,  and  moods  of  the  seasons. 

At  the  Edge  of_  the  World. 
By  Caroline  Stern. 

These  beautiful  poems  take  us  on  the  wings  of,  fancy  to  the 
mystical  regions  at  the  edge  of  the  world. 

Songs  ok  a  Golden  .\ge. 
By  Elizabeth  F.  Sturtevant. 

The  first  seven  poems,  from  which  the  book  takes  its  name, 
are  the  real  foundation  of  the  volume.  The  other  poems  treat 
a  variety  of  subjects  in  a  very  versatile  manner. 

Mystery,  or  The  Lady  of  the  Casino. 
By  David  F.  Taylor. 

The  object  of  this  story  is  for  the  furtherance  of  peace. 

Kandom  Verse. 
By   F.  VV.  B. 
.      Simple  verse,  putting  before  us  thoughts  that  come  to  us  in 
onr  everyday  life. 


Humorous  Poems. 
By  Ignatius  Brennan. 

Do  not  tread  this  book  if  life  to  you  is  one  dark,  dismal  frown. 
If,  however,  you  see  laughter  lurking  even  amidst  the  crashing 
storm,  then  get  busy. 
The  Singer. 
ByJ.T. 

Mostly  about  three  human  beings  :  a  sinner,  a  saint,  and  a 
plain  ass.  The  first  two  will  find  considerable  interest  in  this 
book.     As  for  the  third,  he  will  never  see  this  catalogue. 

These  are  about  enough  to  indicate  the  manner.  We  learn 
in  another  that  Theodore  Botrel  is  "perhaps  the  most  con- 
spicuous literary  figure  in  Europe  to-day,"  and  in  another 
that  a  poem  by  Mr.  Arthur  Ketchum  "has  had  the  unique 
distinction  of  being  translated  into  Chinese."  As  for  The 
Foaliam,  by  Edwin  A.  Watrons,  it  is  described  as 

A  pentameter  satire,  with  a  punch  in  every  line.     For  men  only — 
and  for  curious  women. 

"Its   spicy   effectiveness,"    adds   Mr.    Badger,    "in    no   way 
makes  it  offensive."     It  is  a  pity  that  as  much  cannot  be 
said  for  his  advertisement  of  it ;  which  is  one  of  the  worst 
examples  of  what  may  be  called  the  tropical  allusion. 
****** 

My  appetite  whetted  by  all  this  luxuriant  introduction, 
I  arrived  at  last  at  the  book  itself — The  Denied,  by  the  editor 
of  The  Superman.  The  author  modestly  ascribes  publica- 
tion to  the  persuasions  of  "the  sponsors  of  the, Poets'  Federa- 
tion movement."  TTie ' movement  is  much  to  blame.  It  is 
not  that  one  is  surprised  to  find  the  editor  of  The  Superman 
writing  : 

I  am  a  speck  of  dust  at  your  feet, 

Clrey  in  insignificance  of  defeat  ; 

Fallen  and  shrivelled,  and  upon  your  face 

Gaze  my  thirsty  eyes,  longing  an  embrace  ! 

You  will  tread  upon — no,  no,  not  despise 

A  life  so  low,  so  small. 

For  no  man  can  be  expected  to  live  up  to  an  ideal  like  that. 
The  trouble  is  that  Mr.  Basudeb's  "real  metric  verse"  is  so 
exactly  like  what  many  Englishmen  and  Americans  write 
themselves  t*hat  one  feels  he  wasted,,  in  attaining  his  mastery, 
powers  which  might  have  been  devoted  to  a  continued 
rivalry,  in  the  vernacular,  with  Sir  Rabindranath  Tagore. 
Tagore's  position  in  English  is  scarcely  likely  to  be  shaken 
by  verse  like  this  : 

Kiss  me — and  I  in  a  breath  shall  impart 
Ebbs  and  tides  of  entire,  eternal  fate  ; 
The  rise  and  fall,  by  drops,  part  by  part^ 

Ceaseless  onrushes  of  Time  that  ne'er  abate, 
I  shall  give  you — if  you  can  only  hold — 
Creations,  destructions,  trillion  births. 
Multi-trillion   deaths, — all   that   unfold 

tiniverse's  mad  spasms, — her  secret  mirths. 

This,  perhaps,  is  a  little  more  like  the  Superman  ;    but  it  is 

even  less  like  poetrv  than  the  other. 

*  *  '  *  *  *  * 

"Basudeb,"  announces  Mr.  Badger  on  the  cover,  "believes 
in  Life — enjoys  it,  suffers  for  it,  is  madly  in  love  with  it. 
But  he,  too,  transcends  it  with  a  passionately  devotional 
pagan  attitude  toward  lower  lives  and  nature"  ;  and  he 
concludes  with  a  reference  to  "  the  supreme  message  of  these 
unique  cadences."  This  brings  me  to  the  real  reason  why 
I  have  quoted  so  profusely  from  Mr.  Badger's  catalogue — 
why,  indeed,  I  have  referred  to  him  at  all.  No  publisher 
in  England  (and  probably  no  other  in  America)  as  yet 
assaults  the  public  with  such  intolerable  bosh  as  Mr.  Badger's 
puffs  of  his  own  wares.  But  there  is  a  distinct  tendency 
both  here  and  there  for  publishers'  advertisements  to  become  at 
once  more  intimate  and  more  fulsome.  They  are  beginning  to 
cease  thinking  at  all  ;  fhey  either  waste  their  space  on  complete 
inanities  like  "treat  a  variety  of  subjects  in  a  very  versatile 
manner,"  or,  more  frequently,  they  copy  the  patent-medicine 
merchants,  and  announce  the  most  worthless  books  as  the 
greatest  things  on  earth.  But  they  are  not  catering  for  the 
patent-medicine  public,  and  they  should  realise  in  time  that 
though  there  is  a  good  deal  of  room  for  improvement  in  their 
advertisements,  it  does  not  lie  in  the  direction  of  increased 
brazenness.  Even  the  most  ingenuous  of  readers  is  liable 
to  reflect  that  every  book  publisiied  cannot  be  "unique"  in 
any  sense  that  matters.  And  it  no  more  pays  to  go  on 
crying  "Masterpiece,  masterpiece"  than  "Wolf,  wolf."  This 
))romiscuous  panegyric  defeats  its  own  ends,  and  the  public 
is  ceasing  to  believe  any  statement  by  a  publisher  about  his 
own  books  ;  this,  above' all,  being  true  with  books  of  belles- 
lettres  which  are  natural!  v  intended  for  the  most  discriminating 
and  intelligent  public  of  all.  A  description  is  useful  ;  but 
that  is  all  we  want  from  this  source. 


20 


Land    &    Water 


March  7,  191^ 


Modern  Novels  and  Critics:  By  Hugh  Walpole 


0\  returning  from  abroad,  where  I  have  spent 
the  major  part  of  the  last  four  .v«irs  I  am 
sahited  with  pessimistic  cries  about  the  hnglish 
novel.  In  one  newspaper  I  read  :  Where  are 
the  K.H.d  old  Victorian  days-Oh  !  for  a  C.eorge 
Fliot  '  ■■  In  another  :  "  At  no  time  in  the  history  of  English 
li'terature  has  the  novel  been  so  widely  read  as  at  present 
A  new  reading  public  has  sprung  into  existence.  tint, 

ala.s.  the  Knglish  no%-el  is  in  its  decadence. 

\nother  paper  declares  that  it  has,  at  last,  hopes  ol  the 
future  of  the  1-ngIish  novel  because  it  has  been  reading  a 
book  that  is  a  chronicle  of  actual  events  rather  than  a  creative 
work  "That  is  the  line  of  the  future  English  novel ! 
cries  this  paper.  More  than  these  individual  cries,  nowever, 
I  notice  a  complete  absence  of  anv  considered  criticism.  In 
the  reviews  o(  tiie  novels  of  1917  that  appeared  in  certain 
papers  there  were  ludicrous  jumbles  of  good  and  bad.  In 
no  single  review  was  there  mention  of  Miss  Dane  s  hegtment 
of  Women  Mr.  Jovce's  Portrait  of  the  Artist  as  a  Young  Man. 
Mr.  Norman  Douglas's  South  Wind.  Mr.  Frank  Swinnerton  s 
Nocturne— a  quartet  that  would  surely  give  distinction  to 
anv  list  of  rontemporarv  fiction  in  any  countrv  in  Europe. 
Most  of  all.  I  am  struck  bv  the  invariable  habit  of  referring 
everybody  back  to  cvervbody  else  ;  "  Mr.  Smith's  novel  is 
amusing.' but  what  a  pity  that  it's  not  like  Adam  Bede— 
or.  "Miss  Green's  storv  reminds" us  pleasantlv  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Hardy.  She  has  not.  however,  his  wonderful  gift  of  ... " 
Why  should  she  have?  .-^nd  how  very  much  better  for 
Miss  Green  that  she  has  not  !  One  Mr.  Hardy  is  a  joy  and, 
a  delight,  but  a  second  Miss  Hardv,  not  quite  so  good,  would 
onlv  be  a  torment  and  a  distress  to  us  all. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment.  I  am  told  that  we  have  no 
living  Enghsh  novelists  whose  work  will  go  down  to  posterity 
in  the  glorious  succession  of  the  authors  of  Tom  Jones,  Vanity 
Fair,  Wulhering  Heights,  and  the  rest.  I  suggest  that  we 
have  the  following  :  Tliomas  Hardy,  Joseph  Conrad,  Rudyard 
Kipling,  George  Moore,  H.  G.  Wells,  Arnold  Bennett,  May 
Sinclair,  and  D.  H.  Lawrence.  This  is  not,  I  think,  a  bad 
Ust.  and  I  doubt  whether,  at  this  moment,  any  other  country 
in  the  world  could  furnish  one  so  interesting.  Let  us  com- 
pare this  list  for  a  moment  with  the  English  novelists  of, 
say,  1850-60.  There  were  then  Dickens  and  Thackeray, 
Lytton  and  Trollope,  the  Brontes,  and  George  Eliot. 
"  Heavens  ! "  gasps  the  reader  of  The  Nation.  "  And  you 
dare  to  say  that  we  can  possibly  lift  our  heads  in  rivalry  ! " 
I  do  dare. 

"Yes,"  savs  our  Xonagenarian,  "all  very  well  !  But. give 
me  that  splendid  creative  power,  that  devil-may-rare  pro- 
fusion that  created  without  knowing  that  it  was  creating 
at  :dl  !  Show  me  a  world  of  living,  breathing  figures  such 
as  we  find  in  Thackeray,  Dickens,  and  even  Trollope!" 
To  that  I  answer  that  there  are  to-day  at  least  three  worlds 
for-  the  Cortez  of  the  bookshop  to  discover.  There  is  that 
wonderful  inexhaustible  world  of  Henry  James  ;  a  world 
of  ghosts,  perhaps  ;  but,  then,  why  not  ?  Are  not  ghosts 
as  interesting  as  humans,  and  is  not  their  planet,  often 
enough,  a  rest  and  refreshment,  especially  in  these  days  ? 
Or  there  is  the  world  of  Mr.  Hardy — the  world  of  the  English 
countryside  as  it  has  never  been  revealed  before,  of  daisies, 
and  woods,  and  lanes,  and  ancient  farms  and  pastures  thick 
in  grass,  of  Tess  and  Bathsheba,  and  Susan  and  Jude.  of 
whose  homeliness  and  comfort  and  beauty  no  wars  and 
rumours  of  wars  can  rob  us.  And  there  is  the  ■  world  of 
Joseph  Conrad — of  Sea  and  the  East,  and  our  own  dark 
streets,  a  created  world,  if  ever  there  was  one,  the  world  of 
Lord  Jim,  of  Marlowe,  of  Nostromo,  of  Flora  de  Barrel, 
of  the  magic  Heyst.  No,  I  do  not  think,  if  in  the  continent 
of  spirits  such  assemblies  occur,  that  Catherine  and  her 
Heathcliffe  will  be  ashamed  to  meet  Anthony,  the  poet,  and 
that  tragic  figure  Ahnayer,  or  that  Maggie  Tulliver  will 
smile  scornfully  upon  Bathsheba  Everdene,  or  Major 
Pendennis  give  the  Bond  Street  cut  direct  to  Mrs.  Brook 
and  her  lovely  Nanda,  or  Mr.  Micawber  have  nothing  to  say 
to  Mr.  Kipps,  Mr.  Lewisham,  and  Mr.  Polly.  They  are  in 
the  right  line  of  descent,  our  heroes  of  to-day,  and  we  need 
not  be  ashamed  to  sav  that  it  is  so. 

Why  do  we  so  invariably  despise  bur  own  home-grown 
products  ?  I  have  spent  sorne  time  during  the  last  two 
years  in  Russia,  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark.  On  making 
inquiries  about  the  present  state  of  the  novel  in  those 
countries,  I  have  found  there  are  in  each  case  only  two  or  three 
names  that  justify  real  study.  In  Sweden  and  Norway  I  was 
•constantly  told  that  here  in  England  we  had  many  interesting 


novelists  and  poets,  and  that  our  literature  was  becoming 
much  more  possible  for  an  intelligent  foreigner  because  it  was 
shedding  its  old  deadening  hypocrisy  ,  ,    ,  ,,     ^ 

I  have  said  a  word  already  about  the  world  of  Mr.  Conrad  ; 
but  reallv  what  is  one  to  do  with  the  critic  who  absolutely 
refuses  to  acknowledge  his  greatness  'i  One  can  only  suggest 
that  he  should  read  once  again  that  masterpiece  Nostromo, 
which  has  just  appeared  in  a  new  edition.  If  that  does  not 
open  to  his  eves  a  new  world  filled  with  new  glories,  then 
it  is  because'  he  is  wilfuUv  standing  with  his  face  to  the 
wall  and  hugging  his  gloom  as  theone  comfort  left  to  his 
crumbling  old  age.  Here  are  a  crowd  of  characters— realistic, 
romantic,  fantastic  tragic— positively  created  out  of  their 
own  soil.  They  exist— Nostromo,  Antonia,  IVcoud  and  the 
rest— not  because  their  author  has  delved  into  his  remini- 
scences and  produced  thence  tattered  remnants'  of  a  life 
that  he  once  himself  exoerienced,  but  because  they  demanded 
of  their  own  vitality  that  thev  should  be  born.  And  more 
than  the  creation  of  character  is  here.  It  is,  as  I  have  said, 
the  picture  of  a  world  with  towns,  villages,  mountains, 
deserts,  the  sea  and  the  river,  and  the  silver  mine  brooding 
over  ail.  What  of  the  Nigger  of  the  Narcissus,  what  of 
Chance  and  the  Wonderful  Flora,  what  of  The  Secret  Agent 
and  Mr.  Verloc.  what  of  .  .  .  ?  Hut  one  might  continue 
for  ever.  Conrad  is  as  great  a  creative  genius  as  any  novelist 
in  the  whole  line  of  English  fiction.  What,  in  heaven's 
name,  do  our  critics  want  ?  Do  they  realise  that  in  Mr. 
George  Moore  thev  have  one  of  the  most  beautiful  writers 
of  iMiglish  in  the  language,  and  that  in  Esther  Waters  and 
Evelvn  Innes  and  The  Lake  the\-  have  works  of  first-class 
beaiitv   and   distinction  ? 

And  the  tradition  continues— I  have  not  space  here  to 
speak  at  length  about  the  younger  novelists,  but  I  challenge 
anyone  to  say  that  Mr.  Beresford's  Stahl  Trilogy,  Mr.  Cannan's 
Round  the  Corner,  and,  above  all,  Mr.  Lawrence's  Sotis  and 
Lovers  and  The  Rainhoiv  are  not  works  of  real  importance 
and  interest  with  a  true  philosophy,  a  creative  power,  and  a 
vivid'  picture  of  the  life  of  our  times. 

But  I  do  not  wish  to  seem  here  too  extravagant  in  my 
claims  for  our  own  period.  I  do  not  suggest  that  all  the 
novelists  of  our  day  whom  I  have  named  in  this  paper  will 
live  for  ever,  or  that  they  are  without  fault.  It  is  because 
there  is  so  much  room  for  real  live  criticism  that  I  am  pleading 
for  a  truer  standard.  There  'were,  I  know,  many  gifts 
bestowecj  upon  the  earlier  no\'elists  that  the  man  of  to-day 
will  never  recapture. 

And  that  is  of  the  nature  of  the  case.  In  those  earlier 
day»,  when  Joseph  Andrews  met  Mrs.  Slipslop,  and  Tom 
Jones  found  "his  Sophia,  when  Redgauntlet  pursued  Green- 
mantle,  and  Elizabeth  Bennett  refused  Mr.  Collins,  there 
was  a  glow,  a  rapture  of  discovery  that  our  later  age  has 
grown  too  old  to  know.  Ours  is  now  a  different  technique, 
a  different  philosophy,  a  different  morality,  a  different  form. 
Let  the  critic,  then ,  recognise  that  it  is  so,  and  recognise  it 
gladly.  Let  the  critic  of  to-day  not  instantly  hang  his  head 
when  confronted  with  modern  work.  ^  I  know  that  to  this  he 
will  answer  that  there  was  never  a  period  when  more 
encouragement  was  given  to  the  new  man,  that  in  any -novel- 
writer  the  smallest  sign  of  originality  or  force  is  welcomed 
and  praised.  That  is  quite  tnve.  There  is  far  too  much 
praise,  and  a  young  writer  is  often  so  extravagantly  encour- 
aged by  the  applause  over  his  first  and  second  book  that  he 
is  the  more  depressed  when  the  inevitable  moment  comes 
later  for  him  to  be  told  that  he  is  not  improving,  and  that 
he  ought  not  to  have  swollen  head,  and  that  it  is  ridiculous 
of  him  to  think  that  he  can  write  nox-els. 

And  even  here  all  is  not  quite  well.  Books  with  obvious 
qualities  of  interest,  such  as  Mr.  McKenna's  Sonia  and 
Mr.  Alec  Waugh's  Loom  of  Youth  are  at  once  acclaimed, 
but  something  (paieter  and  more  unusual,  like  Mr.  Corkerys 
beautiful  Threshold  ofQmet,  received  only  two  or  three  reviews, 
is  to  be  seen  in  no  bookshops,  and  even  the  publisher  himself 
seems  to  be  reluctant  to  deliver  up  copies  to  willing  pur- 
chasers. There  is  no  sign  that  the  reviewer  has  discovered  that 
this  novel  is  literature  and  the  others  are  not.  He  finds  it 
dull  ;  it  has  no  plot,  he  says.  There  are  to-day,  in  fact,  no 
standards.  Our  better  critics— Mr.  Garnett,  Mr.  de  la  Mare, 
Mr.  Bailey,  and  others — write  too  seldom.  There  is  too 
much  anonymity,  too  much  carelessness  and  scorn,  too 
much  extravagant  praise,  too  much  pessimism,  and  altogether 
too  little   balance.  ' 

That  is.  finally,  the  trouble — too  much  patronage  on  one 
side  and  too  much  meaningless  praise  on  the  other. 


March  7,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


2  I 


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8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS;  Basingstoke  and  Provincial  Agents 


The  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


AND  AFTER. 


MARCH. 


Britlih  Policy  In  Riinia. 
The  Peril  of  Soelalltm. 


By  LESLIE  URQUHART 

By  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  SYDENHAM  OF  COMBE, 

G.C.S.I.,  G.C.M.G. 

The  Threatened  Suicide  of  Britllh  Dmnoeraoy,  By  HAROLD  F.  W.YATT 

Our  War-Alms  In  18U-and  To-day.  By  G.  W.  T.  OMOND 

The  Church's  Self-Covernment.     By  Ue  Right  Rev.  the  BISHOP  OF  ZANZIBAR 
A  Friend  of  Sir  Thomas  More.  Rv  Professor  FOSTER  WATSON 

The  Elementary  School  Child's  Mother.  By  EDITH  SELLERS 

Capital  and  General  Progress.  By  W.  H.  MALLOCK 

The  Occultism  in  Tennyson's  Poetry.  By  A.  P.  SINNETT 

The  German  Conference  Trick.  By  W.  MORRIS  COLLES 

'Jargon'  In  the  Great  War.         By  Major-Gemeral  Sir  GEORGE  ASTON,  K.C.B. 
The  Fitht  against  Venereal  Infection :  a  Further  Reply  t*  Sir  Bryan  Oonkin. 

By  Sir  FRANCIS  CHAMPNEYS,  Bart.,  M.D. 
The  Past  and  Future  of  Railways.  By  J.  H.  BALFOUR-BROWNE,  K.C. 

Confessions  of  a  Peacemaker.  By  Sir  WILLIAM  MrrCHELL  RAMSAY 

How  fiermany  makes  Peace.  By  WILLIAM  HARBUTT  DAWSON 

London  :    SPOmsWOODE,  BALLANTYNE  4  Co.,  Ltd.,  i  New  Street  Square. 


«ff« 


SIX     DAYS    ADRIFT     IN 
THE     NORTH     SEA! 

Supreme  test  of  the  concentrated  food  value   of 

HORLICK'S 

MALTED    MILK   TABLETS 

To  H')Kl  Ji.K's  MALli-.r^  Mil  K  Co.,  Sloueli.  Buck-*. 

Dear  Sirs,— As  a  member  of  the  Koyal  Naval  Air  Service,  it  will  interest  you  to  know  that  1 
recently  proved  the  extreme  value  of  your  Malted  Milk  Tablets.  In  a  flijjht  over  the  North  Sea  on 
May  .;4th,  1917,  the  machine  developed  engine  trouble,  and  the  pilot  was  compelled  to  descend,  and 
we  were  left  for  iix  days  adrift.  To  make  matten  worse  the  seaplane  capsized,  and  on  the  first  day 
my  companion  lost  a  ThermoN  Maiik  hi  led  with  hot  cocoa,  Troni  tnal  time  until  we  were  picked  upon 
the  afternoon  of  May  3)th  ithe  tixth  day)  my  companion  and  iiiy^eU had  no  other  form  o)  nOuiishment 
but  your  Malted  Milk  Tablets  cimtimed  in  one  ol  your  welf-known  R.itlon  Tins,  except  a  ship's 
canule  whicli  wefound  in  some  drifting  wreckage. 

I  feel,  therefore,  th.it  weabsolutely  owe  ourlivesto  the  contents  of  your  invaluable  Ration  Tin.  and 
1  have  the  ffreatest  pleAture  in  infonninff  you  cf  these  facts,  aiici  express  my  K^^t'tude  for  so  ccinpacl 
a  K.ition  Tin  containiiiL'  so  much  n'ltriincnt.  You  are  at  libtrrty  to  use  this  leiter  in  nny  way  you  like. 
and  wUh  my  reneweil  thanks  Yours  truly  'si^;n^■d^, — -  K  N.A.S. 

SEND     THEM    TO    YOUR     NAVAL     AND     MILITARY     fRIENDS. 

.srr  fhur  rke  nanif  Hoflich's  af-pean  on  evtry  Lonfaiif*'- 
Of  all  Ch«aiiBt«  and  Stores,  or  we  will   forwmrd  One  of  theie  tini  pcMl  free  to  any  addreM  on  receipt  " 
1/6.     Give  full  name  and  «ddreat,  or  name  of  Bhip,  aUo  live  your   own  name  end  iddreis  when  •endinC 

HORLICK'S  MALTED   MILK    CO.,   SLOUGH.    BUCKS..    ENGLAND. 


22 


Land   &   Water 


March  7,  191 8 


The  Return :    By  Stacy  Aumonier 


1  OUGHT  perhaps,  in  the  first  plu-e.  to  explain  that  I 
am  (or  raiher  was)  a  Hbrarian  at  the  suburban  library 
Tchadstow  Heath.  W.en  I  hrst  received  this 
important  appointment  my  sahirv  was  ^^^^P^'^^ 
a  year,  but  after  six  years  assiduous  apphcation  to 
mv  duties  it  was  advanced  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds 
Tvear  I  am  married  and  have  two  cliildren  and  we  hyed  in 
GentTan  vX  which  is  convenient  to  the  hbrary  and  barely 
^fn  nCiutes-'walk  from  the  heath  itself.  This  may  no 
eSrc^ent  to  vou  a  condition  of  material  prosperity,  but  I 
wouS  "en  ure  to  point  out  that  :U!  these  matters  are  entirely 
anpJat  e  To  a  successful  sugar  broker,  or  a  popular 
ome£  1  must  appear  in  the  light  of  n  pauper.  To  my 
msT  family  I  have  always  appe^ired  to  be  something  o(  a 
Zo  rat.  •  For  you  must  know  that  1  owe  my  education  and 
£  ever  advancement  I  may  have  made  to  my  own  efforts  at 
a  national  school,  and  the  privileges  of  continuation  classes. 
My  father  was  a  small  greengrocer,  and  his  family,  which  was 
a  very  large  one,  and  peculi^urly  prolific,  has^  in  no  instance 
except  mv  own  risen  above  the  social  standard  he  set  for  us. 
I'hope  this  Will  not  sound  a  priggish  statement  of  mine.  It  is 
simply  a  very  bald  assertion  of  truth.  All  my  relations  are 
deJ,  good  people:  it  is  simply  that  they  do  not,  and  never 
have  taken  any  interest  in  what  is  called  educatiori.  My 
brother  Albert  is  a  greengrocer,  as  our  father  was,  and  he  has 
seven  children.  Richard  is  in  a  leatherseller's  shop.  He  earns 
more  money  than  I  did.  but  he  has  eleven  children.  Chris- 
topher is' a  packer  at  the  Chadstow  Heath  luupornim.  God 
has  blessed  him  with  three  small  offspring.  Will  is  unmarried, 
and  I  couldn't  tell  you  quite  what  he  does.  He  is  something 
„f  a  black  sheep.'  My  sister  Nancy  is  married— alas ! 
unhappUy— to  a  worthless  traveUer  in  cheap  jewellery.  She 
has  two  chUdren.  Laura  is  the  .wife  of  an  elderly  Baptist  who 
keeps  a  tobacco  kiosk  on  Meadway.  She  is  childless.  Louie, 
my  favourite  sister,  is  not  married,  but  she  has  a  child.  But 
her  tragedy  does  not  concern  this  story. 

In  fact  the  details  of  the  entities  neither  of  myself  nor 
of  my  brothers  and  sisters  are  of  very  great  importance  in 
whati  want  to  t,ell  you,  beyond  the  fact  that  they  will  give  you 
a  clue  to  the  amazing  flutter  among  us  that  accompanied  the 
appearance  of  our  Uncle  Herbert  when  he  arrived  from  Africa. 
The  trutli  is  that  every  one  of  us  had  entirely  forgotten  aU 
about  him.  Albert  and  I  had  a  Vague  recollection  of  having 
heard  our  father  refer  to  a  delicate  young  brother  who  bolted 
to  South  .Africa  when  he  was  a  young  man,  and  had  not  been 
heard  of  since. 

But,  lo  and  behold  !  he  turned  up  one  evening  suddenly 
at  Gentian  Villa  when  my  sister  Louie  and  her  child  were 
paying  us  a  visit.  At  first  I  thought  he  was  some  impostor, 
and  I  was  almost  on  the  point  of  warning  my  wife  to  keep  an 
eye  on  the  silver  butter-dish  and  the  fish  knives  which  we 
always  displayed  with  a  certain  amount  of  pride  on  our 
dining-room  sideboard. 

He  was  a  little  wizened  old  man,  with  a  bald  head  and  small 
beady  eyes.  He  had  a  way  of  sucking  in  his  lips  and  contin- 
ually nodding  his  head.  He  was  somewhat  shabbily  dressed 
except  for  a  heavy  gold  watch  and  chain.  He  appeared  to 
be  intensely  anxious  to  be  friendly  with  us  all.  He  got  the 
names  and  addresses  of  the  whole  family  from  me,  and  stated 
that  he  was  going  to  settle  down  and  live  in  London. 

When  one  had  got  over  his  nervy,  fussy  way  of  behaving, 
there  was  something  about  the  little  man  that  was  rather 
lovable.  He  stayed  a  couple  of  hours,  and  promised  to  call 
again  the  next  day.  We  laughed,  about  him  after  he  had 
gone  and,  as  relations  will,  discussed  his  possible  financial 
position.  We  little  dreamed  of  the  surprising  difference 
Uncle  Herbert  was  going  to  make  to  us  all. 

He  called  on  all  the  family  in  rotation,  and  wherever  he 
went  he  took  little  presents,  and  made  himself  extremely 
affable  and  friendly.  He  told  us  that  he  had  bought  a  house 
and  was  having  it  "done  up  a  bit."  And  then,  to  our  surprise, 
we  discovered  that  he  had  bought  ''  Silversands,"  which,  as 
you  know,  is  one  of  the  largest  houses  on  Chadstow  Heath, 
it  is,  as  Albert  remarked,  "more  like  a  palace,"  a  vast  red  brick 
structure  standing  in  its  own  grounds,  which  are  surrounded 
by  a  high  wall. 

1  shall  never  forget  the  day  when  we  "were  all — including 
the  children — invited  to  go  and  spend  the  afternoon  and 
evening.  We  wandered  about  the  house  and  garden  spell- 
bound, doubting  how  to  behave,  and  being  made  to  feel 
continually  self-conscious  by  the  presence  of  .some  half-dozen 
servants.  It  would  be  idle  to  pretend  that  the  house  was 
decorated  in  the  best  of  taste.  It  was  lavish  in  every  sense 
of  the  word.     The  keynote  was  an  almost  exuberant   gaiety. 


It  was  nearly  all  white  woodwork,  or  crimson  mahogany, 
with  brilliant  floral  coverings.  Masses  of  naturalistic  flowers 
rose  at  you  from  the  carpet  and  the  walls.  And  the  electric 
lights'  I've  never  in  my  life  seen  so  many  brackets  and 
electroliers.  I  do  not  believe  there  was  a  cubic  foot  of  space 
in  the  house  that  was  not  brightly  illuminated.  And  m 
this  gay  setting  Uncle  Herbert  became  the  embodiment  of 
hospitality  itself.  He  darted  about  among  us,  shaking 
hands  patting  the  heads  of  the  children,  passing  trays  of  nch 
cakes  and  sandwiches.  The  younger  children  were  sent  home 
early  in  the  evening  laden  with  toys,  and  we  elders  stayed  on  to 
supper.  And,  heavens  !  What  a  supper  it  was  !  The  table  was 
covered  with  lobster  salads,  and  cold  turkey,  and  chicken,  and 
ham,  and  everything  one  could  think  of.  And  on  the  side 
table  were  rows  of  bottles  of  beer,  and  claret,  and  stout, 
and  whisky,  and  as  if  a  concession  tb-the  social  status  of  his 
guests,  Uncle  dismissed  the  servants,  and  we  waited  on 
ourselves.  ,  ,  ,•   i 

And  the  little  man  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and  bhnked 
and  nodded,  and  winked  at  us,  and  he  kept  on  repeating": 

"  Now,  boys  and  girls,  enjoy  yourselves  Albert,  cut  a 
bit  o'  fowl  for  Nancy.  'Erbeft.my  boy,  pass  the  'am  to 
yer  aunt." 

Uncle  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  party,  and  it  need  hardly 
be  said  that  we  soon  melted  to  his  mood.  I  observed  that 
he  himself  ate  very  httle,  and  he  did  not  drink  at  all.  For 
an  oldish  man  whose  digestion  was  probably  not  what  it 
was,  this  was  not  a  very  remarkable  phenomenon.  And  I 
should  probably  not  have  commented  upon  it,  but  for  the  fact 
that  it  was  the"  first  personal  trait  of  my  uncle  which  arrested 
my  attention,  and  which,  in  conjunction  with  more  peculiar 
characteristics,  caused  me  to  keep  a  closer  watch  upon  him 
in  the  days  that  followed.  For  this  supper-party  was  but 
the  nucleus  of  a  series  of  supper- parties.  It  was  given  out 
that  •'  Silversands  "  was  an  open  house.  We  were  all  welcome 
at  any  time.  Uncle  was  never  so  happy  as  when  the  house 
was  full  of  laughing  children,  or  when  his  large  circle  of  relations 
clattered  round  the  groaning  board,  and  ate  and  drank  the 
prodigal  delicacies  he  supplied.  Not  only  were  we  welcome, 
but  any  friends  we  cared  to  take  were  welcome  also.  I  have 
known  thirty-three  of  us  sit  down  to  supper  there  on  a  Sunday 
evening.  And  on  these  occasions  all  the  house  was  lighted 
up,  and  in  fact  I  have  no  recollection  of  going  there  .when 
every  electric  light  and  fitting  was  not  fulfilling  its  utmost 
function. 

Apart  from  abstemiousness,  the  characteristic  of  Uncle 
which  immediately  gripped  my  attention  was  what  I  will 
call  ■'  abstraction." 

It  was  indeed  a  very  noticeable  characteristic.  He  had 
a  way  of  suddenly  shrinking  within  himself  and  apparently 
being  oblivious  to  his  surroundings.  He  would  make  some 
gay  remark,  and  then  suddenly  stop,  and  stare  into  space, 
and  if  you  spoke  to  him  he  would  not  answer  for  some  moments. 
Another  peculiarity  was  that  he  would  never  speak  of  Africa, 
or  of  his  own  affairs.  He  had  a  convenient  deafness,  which 
assailed  him  at  awkward  moments.  He  seemed  to  be  in  a 
frenzy  of  anxiety  to  be  always  surrounded  by  his  own  family 
and  the  ubiquitous  electric  lights.  When  the  house  was 
quite  in  order  I  do  not  think  he  ever  went  out  at  all  except 
into  the  garden. 

He  was  scrupulously  impartial  in  his  treatment  of  us  all ; 
in  fact,  he  had  a  restless,  impartial  way  of  distributing  his 
favours,  as  though  he  were  less  interested  in  us  as  individuals 
than  anxious  to  surround  himself  with  a  loving  and  sympa- 
thetic atmosphere.  Nevertheless — and  it  may  quite  possibly 
have  been  an  illusion — I  always  felt  he  leant  a  httle  more 
towards  me  than  to  the  others,  perhaps  because  I  was  called 
after  him.  He  always  called  me  "  'Erb,  boy,"  and  there 
were  times  when  he  seemed  instinctively  to  draw  me  apart, 
as  though  he  wanted  to  hide  behind  me.  And  realising  his 
diffidence  to  indulge  in  personal  explanation,  I  respected  the 
peculiarity  and  talked  of  impersonal  things  or  remained  silent 
It  was,  I  think,  Albert  who  was  the  most  worried  by  Uncle's 
odd  tricks.  I  remember  he  came  to  me  one  night  in  the 
smoking-room  after  a  particularly  riotous  supper-party,  and 
he  said  : 

"  I  say,  'Erbert  (all  my  family  call  me  'Erbert),  what 
I'd  like  to  know  is — What  is  Uncle  staring  at  ?" 

I  knew  quite  well  what  he  meant,  but  I  pretended  not  t(x 
and  Albert  continued  : 

"  Of  course  it's  all  right.     It's  no  business  of  ours,  but  it's 
a  very  rum  thing.     He  laughs,  and  talks,  and  suddenly  he 
•leaves  off,  and  then  he  stares — and  stares — into  space." 
{Continued  on  page  24.) 


March    7 ,    1 9 1  8 


Land    &   Water 


23 


How  Bovril  Saves  Shipping  and  Feeds  the  People 


PRESIDING  at  the  General  Meeting  of  Bovril.  Ltd., 
Mr.  George  Lawson  Johnston  (Chairman),  in  moving 
the  adoption  of  the  report,  referred  to  the  general 
food  position  and  how  the  price  of  Bovril  has  been 
kept  down: — "Your  own  e.xperienc.e,"  he  said,  "will 
have  brought  you  into  touch  with  increases  in  price  in  most 
directions,  and  vou  will  have  seen  that  the  Board  of  Trade 
returns  show  a  long  list  of  rises  of  loo  per  cent,  or  more  in 
the  cost  of  food7Stuffs  since  the  commencement  of  the  war. 
I  cannot  call  to  mind  many  articles  the  prices  of  which  have 
not  been  raised  during  the  war.  and  I  believe  Bovril  is  the  onlv 
national  standard  food  that  is  sold  at  the  same  price  in 
February,  191S,  as  it  was  in  July,  iqi4.  That  the  price  of 
Bovril  has  not  been  moved  up  with  the  cost  (jf  beef,  although 
a  p»und  of  Bovril  is  the  concentrated  product  of  so  manv  pounds 
(if  beef,  is  an  outstanding  fact  that  requires  explanation. 

Needs  Little  Shipping  Space. 

"In  the  first  place,  in  the  countries  which  supply  the  raw 
materia]  for  Bovril.  beef  has  not  risen  in 
value  as  it  has  here.  Again,  the  abnormal 
cost  ©f  ocean  transport  only  to  a  minor 
extent  affects  a  concentrated  preparation 
like  ours,  making  as  it  does  such  small 
demand  upon  shipping  space. 

"Apart  from  these  general  tendencies, 
vou  are  aware  that  during  the  last  dozen 
vears  we  have  endeavoured  by  the  agency 
of  subsidiary  land  and  cattle  companies 
to  c«ntrol  and  develop  new  sources  for 
the  supply  of  raw  material.  This  policv 
has  borne  good  fruit  during  the  war. 
These  precautions,  taken  in  past  years, 
have  ensured  us  the  plentiful  supplies 
that  are  so  essential  at  the  moment,  and 
our  materia]  has  not  increased  in  price  to 
anything  like  the  extent  of  the  raw 
material  of  some  other  industries.  Taking 
all  this  into  consideration,  and  realising 
that  Bovril  enters  so  largely  into  the  food 
of  the  natfon,  we  felt  that,  with  the 
increased  sales  and  profits  outside  Bovril 
itself,  we  should  be  able  to  keep  the 
Company's  revenue  at  prt^-war  standard 
without  adding  to  the  hardships  of  the 
comfnunity.  I  am  glad  that  our  foresight 
has  not  only  been  to  our  benefit  as  share- 
holders, but  to  the  benefit  of  every 
l-Jovril  consumer.  His  Bovril  has  cost 
liim  no  more,  unless  he  has  consumed 
more — which  I  am  afraid  he  has. 


The  area  of  the  Bovril  Argentine  estates    (shown 

in  the  rectangle)  is  more  than  2  J  that  of  Alsace 

and  Lorraine. 


'  No  Profiteering.' 

"  1  know  we  lay  ourselves  open  to  the  reproach  of  the  share- 
holder who  may  say  that  this  is  not  a  philanthropic  institution, 
but  a  commercial  undertaking  which  should  try  to  secure  the 
biggest  possible  immediate  profits.  There  is  no  ground  I  would 
s<.)oner  be  attacked  upon  than  that  of  not  having  raised  the 
price  of  a  standard  article  of  dietary  during  this  time  of  food 
iiardship,  especially  meat-food  heirdships,  and  I  believe  the  vast 
majority  of  the  shareholders  will  heartily  endorse  and  approve 
this  attitude.  The  cost  of  this  policy,  the  deferred  shareholder 
may  say,  concerns  him  only.  Well,  it  is  as  the  Company's 
largest  deferred  shareholder  that  I  express  that  view.  Tliat 
our  whole  attitude  in  this  matter  will  redound  to  the  credit  of 
Bovril  I  have  little  doubt,  for  what  better  goodwill  can  we  have 
in  years  to  come  than  for  the  public  to  remember  and  say  : 
'Bovril  had  its  opportunity,  but  did  not  profiteer.' 

Bovril  Co.  a  'True  Democracy.' 

"  I  think  we  can  consider  this  Company  a  miniature  demo- 
iratic  institution.  We  are  a  co-operative  body  of  over  11,000 
shareholders,  and  we  control  provinces  in  the  form  of  estates  in 
.\ustralia  and  the  Argentine  of  9I  million  acres,  upon  which 
there  are  over  250,000  head  of  cattle.  We  manage  to  produce 
eur  beef  product  at  a  co.st  which  has  enabled  us  to  provide  our 
millions  of  consumers  with  Bovril  at  prices  unaltered  during 
the  war. 

"I  mentioned  the  area  of  the  joint  Bovril  Australian  and 
Argentine  estates  just  now  at  9J  million  acres.  Have  you  any 
idea  what  that  area  means  ?  It  is  larger  than  Belgium,  and 
over  2^  times  the  size  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  ;  or,  if  you  would 
like  a  comparison  nearer  home,  it  is  twice  the  size  of  Wale>;, 
or  nearly  the  size  of  Wales  and  Ulster  put  together. 


"  You  will  have  noticed  in  the  papers  many  estimates  of  the 
cost  of  rearing  or  fattening  cattle  in  this  country,  usually  proving 
that  with  beef  at  60s.  a  cwt.  live  weight,  the  business  was  unpro- 
fitable. Even  in  more  normal  times  the  farmer  requires  at 
least  /30  to  £40  for  a  fat  beast. 

Cattle  v.  Cereals. 
"  Now,  it  may  surprise  you  when  I  say  the  cost  of  rearing  a 
9  to  10  cwt.  steer  on  the  Bovril  Australian  estates  does    not 
amount  to  60s.  altogether,  and  though  the  cost  is  considerably 
more  in  Eastern  Australia  and  the  Argentine,  my  point  is  that 
the  rearer  of  stock  in  the  northern  part   of  this  hemisphere, 
particularly  in  the  thickly  populated  parts  of  Europe,  has  no 
chance,    in    competition    with    the   stock    raised    in    the    open 
plains  of  the  southern  hemisphere — Australasia,  South  America, 
Africa.     More  especially  will  this  be  the  case  in  normal  times 
— say,  after  the  war — when  frozen  beef  will  be  sent  ttiousands 
of  miles  to  these  shores  at  a  transport  ^cost    so    low    that    it 
can    be    covered    by    the    utilisation    of    by-products    at    the 
great    freezing  works    of    South  America 
and  Australia — by-products  which  cannot 
be    so    economically     handled     in     the 
comparatively  small  butchering  establish- 
ments   of    this    country.     In    making    a 
statement  such  as  this,  I  might  add  that 
I   have  no  financial  interest   in   freezing 
works  ;    in  fact,  some  of  them  are  com- 
petitors for  the  cattle  we  want  for  Bovril. 
"  The  cost  of  raising  stock  in  Argentina 
and  Australia  is,   roughly  speaking,   the 
interest  on  capital  invested  in  the  cattle 
and  the  land.    The  cattle  are  never  under 
cover,  and  the  number  of  men  employed 
is  so  small  that  the  payment  to  labour, 
spread  over  the  head  of  cattle,  has  little 
effect  on  the  final  cost. 

"  As  regards  the  United  States,  though 
they  are  good  enough  to  export  beef  here 
at  present,  that  country  will  later  have  to 
buy  heavily  in  the  southern  hemisphere 
in  order  to  feed  her  owti  growing  popula- 
tion. "  l# 
"  I  have  taken  up  your  time  explaining 
the  matter — little  realised  in  Britain — 
in  the  hope  that  my  remarks  may  reach 
the  eyes  of  some  farmers  who  do  not 
realise  that  the  paternal  Ministry  that  is 
forcing  them  to  plough  u])  their  grass  land 
is  not  only  doing  so  on  account  of  the 
immediate  war  necessity,  but  because 
the  getting  of  a  larger  portion  of  their 
farms  under  cereal  production  will  be 
of  the  utmost  permanent  advantage  to  tliemselves  and  the 
State.                                                                                          * 

A  Scientist's  Opinion. 

"Nearly  two  years  ago  I  quoted  at  the  Argentine  Estates 
Meeting  scientific  authority  for  saying  that  land  growing  wheat 
was  producing  fifteen  times  as  much  food  energy  as  could  be 
produced  on  the  same  area  by  way  of  grass  and  cattle  to  eventual 
beef.     I  then  said  : — 

"  The  .  point  which  I  wish  to  bring  out  is  that  if  there 
is  to  be  protection  for  the  farm  protjucts  of  this  country  with 
a  view  to  encouraging  a  larger  production  of  home-grown  food, 
I  can  only  imagine  that  that  protection  would  be  worked  out  with 
a  view  to  the  growing  of  cereals,  leaving  the  raising  of  cattle,  apart 
from  the  dairy  industry,  to  the  countries  that  have  ample  areas 
for  that  purpose.  Now  the  watershed  of  the  rivers  that  flow  into 
the  River  Plate  is  the  largest  and  finest  stretch  of  pasture  land  in 
the  world.  It  includes  not  only  a.  large  part  of  the  Argentine,  but 
Southern  Brazil,  west  of  the  coast  mountains,  and  the  Republics  of 
Uruguay  and  Paraguay,  whilst  the  cattle  thereon  must  number 
over  60,000,000  head.  These  Ccfttle  are  grown  almost  entirely  for 
beef,  and  certainly  not  one  cow  in  a  dozen,  probably  not  one  in  50,  is 
ever  domesticated  for  dairy  purposes.  This  portion  of  South  America 
is  the  great  cattle  reserve  of  the  world,  in  the  same  way  as  Australia 
is  the  great  sheep  reserve. 

Immense  Meat  Works. 

"  During  the  last  two  years,  meat  works  have  been  erected 
further  and  further  north  into  this  vast  continent  of  pasturage  ; 
starting  from  the  mouth  of  the  River  Plate,  the  original  nursery 
of  freezing  works,  they  have  now  spread  right  up  into  Brazil  and 
Paraguay.  The  principal  duty  of  all  these  works  at  the  present 
moment  is  to  supply  the  armies  of  the  Allies  with  beef,  but  after 
the  war  their  equipment  will  enable  them  to  supply  the  northern 
hemisphere  with  beef  on  a  scale  altogether  unknown  in  the  past." 


24 


Land    Sc    Water 


March  7,  19 18 


{CoMiinu*d  from  page  S2.) 


iSmumDled  somemine  about  Jncle's  age.  and  his  memory 
wandering,  but  Albert  wis  not  to  be  satisfied,  and  he  whispered: 
"  How  do  you  tliink  the  old  bov  made  his  money  ? 
I  could  offer  no  satisfactory  explanation,  and  we  dropped 
the  subject.  But  a  month  or  so  later  our  interests  were  all 
set  more  vividly  agog  h\  I'ncle's  behaviour,  for  he  suddenly 
expressed  his  detennination  not  merely  to  entertain  us  as 
usual  but  to  help  us  in  a  more  substantial  way.  He  bought 
and  stocked  a  new  shop  for  .Mbert.  He  set  Richard  up  in 
business  and  gave  Christopher  a  partnership  m  it.  He  paid 
Will's  passage  out  to  C;mada  and  gave  him  two  hundred 
pounds  to  start  on.  (I  believe  Will  had  already  been  trying 
to  borrow  money  from  him.  with  what  result  I  do  not  know.) 
He  offered  me  some  light  secretarial  work  to  do  for  hjiii  in 
my  spare  time,  for  which  he  agreed  to  pay  me  sixty  pounds 
a  year.  As  for  the  girls,  he  bought  them  a  life  annuity 
bringing  them  in  fifty  pounds  a  year. 

I  need  hardly  sav  that  this  new  development  created 
considerable  joy  and  sensation  in  our  family,  and  our  interest 
in  and  respect  for  Uncle  Herbert  became  intense.  I  felt  very 
keen'to  start  on  my  "  light  secretarial  duties,"  and  at  the  back 
of  my  mind  was  the  thought  that  now  I  should  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  get  some  little  insight  into  Uncle's  affairs.  But 
in  this  I  was  disappointed.  He  only  asked  me  to  go  on  two 
evenings  a  week,  and  then  it  was  to  help  check  certain  expenses 
in  connection  with  the  household,  and  also  to  begin 
to  inaugurate  a  library  for  him.  I  made  no  further  progress 
of  an  intimate  nature  at  all.  The  next  step  of  progression 
in  this  direction,  indeed,  was  made  by  Albert,  somewhat 
under  cover  of  the  old  adage,  in  vino  verilas.  For  on  the 
night  after  Albert's  new  shop  was  opened  we  all  supped  at 
Uncle's,  and  Albert,  I'm  afraid,  got  a  little  drunk.  He  was, 
in  any  case,  very  excited  and  garrulous,  and  he  and  Chris- 
topher and  I  met  in  the  smoke-room  late  in  the  evening 
and  Albert  was  very  mysterious.  I  would  like  to  reproduce 
what  he  said  in  his  own  words.  He  shut  the  door  carefully 
and  tiptoed  across  the  room. 

"  Look  here,  boys,"  he  said.  "  The  old  man  beats  me. 
There's  something  about  all  this  I  don't  like." 

"  Don't  be  a  fool,"    I  remarked.    "  What's  the  trouble  ?" 

Albert  walked  restlessly  up  and  down  the  room,  then  he 
said  : 

"  I've  been  watching  all  the  evening.  He  gets  worse. 
1  begin  to  feel  frightened  by  him  at  moments.  To-night 
when  they  were  all  fooling  about,  I  happened  to  stroll  through 
the  conservatory,  and  suddenly  I  comes  across  Uncle.  He 
was  sitting  all  alone,  his  elbows  on  his  knees,  staring  into 
space.  '  'UUo,  Uncle !'  I  says.  He  starts  and  trembles 
like,  and  then  he  says,  '  'Ullo,  Albert,  my  boy.'  I  says, '  You 
feeling  all  right.  Uncle  ?'  and  he  splutters  about  and  says, 
■  Yes,  yes,  I'm  all  right.  'Ow  d'yer  think  your  business'll 
go,  Albert  ?'  he  says.  I  felt  in  a  queer  sort  of  defiant  mood — I'd 
had  nearly  half  a  bottle  of  port — and  suddenly  I  says  straight 
out,  '  What  sort  of  place  is  Africa,  Uncle  ?'  His  little  eyes 
blazed  at  me  for  a  moment,  and  I  thought  he  was  going  to 
lose  his  temper-.  Then  he  stops  and  gives  a  sort  of  whimper, 
and  sinks  down  again  on  his  knees.  He  made  a  funny  noise 
as  if  he  was  going  to  cry.  Then  he  says  in  that  husky  voice, 
'  Efrica  ? . . .  Efrica  ?  . . .  Oh,  Efrica's  a  funny  place,  Albert. 
It's  big. . .  '  He  stretched  out  his  little  arms,  and  sat  there 
as  though  he  was  dreamin'.  Then  he  continues,  '  In  the 
cities  it's  struggle,  and  struggle,  and  struggle. .  .one  man  'gainst 
another,  no  mercy,  no  quarter. . .'  And  suddenly  he  caught 
hold  of  my  arm,  and  he  says,  '  You  can't  'elp  it,  can  yer, 
Albert,  if  one  man  gets  on,  and  another  man  goes  under?' 
I  didn't  know  what  to  say,  and  he  seems  to  shrink  away 
from  me,  and  he  stops  and  he  stares,  and  stares,  and  stares, 
and  then  he  says  in  a  kind  of  whisper.  '  Then  you  get  out  on 
the  plains. .  .and  it's  all  silent. .  .and  your  away  up  in  the  karoo, 
and  there's  just  the  great  stone  sldbs. .  .and  nothing  but 
yer  solitude,  and  yer  thoughts,  and  the  moon  above.  And 
it's  all  so  still.'  Then  he  stops  again,  and  suddenly  raises 
his  little  arm  and  points,  Christ  !  for  all  the  world  asthough 
he  was  pointin'  at  somethiij'  'appenin'  out  there  on  the  karoo." 

Christopher  rose  from  his  seat,  and  walked  to  the  window. 
He  was  looking  pale. 

"  Don't  be  a  fool,  Albert,"  he  said.  "  What  does  it 
matter  ?  Ain't  'e  done  you  all  right  ?  Ain't  he  set  you  up 
in  the  greengrocery  ?" 

Albert  looked  wildly  round,  and  licked  the  end  of  a  cigarette 
which  had  gone  out. 

"  I  don't  see  that  there's  anything  we  can  do,"  I  remarked 
unconvincingly. 

Albert  wiped  his  brow. 

"  No,"  he  argued.  "  It  ain't  our  business.  It's  onlv  that 
sometimes  I.. ." 


He  did  not  finish  his  remark,  and  we  three  brothers  looked 
at  each  other  furtively. 

Tlien  began  one  of  those  curious  telepathic  experiences 
which  play  so  great  a  part  in  the  lives  of  all  of  us.  I  have 
complained  that  none  of  my  brothers  or  sisters  showed  any 
leaning  towards  education  or  mental  advancement  of  any 
sort,  but  I  have  not  perhaps  insisted  that  in  spite  of  this  it 
was  one  of  our  boasts  that  we  were  an  honest  family.  Even 
Will,  in  spite  of  his  recklessness  and  certain  vicious  traits, 
had  always  played  the  game.  Albert,  and  Richard,  and 
Christopher  had  been  perilously  poor,  but  I  do  not  believe 
that  they  would  have  ever  acted  in  a  deliberately  dishonest 
or  mean  fashion.  I  don't  think  I  would  myself,  although  I 
had  had  perhaps  rather  less  temptation.  And  in  spite  of 
our  variety  of  disposition  and  trade,  we  were  a  fairly  united 
family.     We  understood  each  other. 

And  tiie  advent  of  Uncle  Herbert  and  his  peculiar  behaviour 
reacted  upon  us  unfavourably.  With  the  accession  of  this 
unexpected  wealth  and  security  we  became  suspicious  of  each 
other.  Moreover,  when  we  brothers  met  together  after  the 
evening  I  have  just  described,  we  looked  at  each  other  half 
knowingly,  and  the  slogan  :  "  It  ain't  no  business  of  mine," 
became  charged  with  the  acid  of  mutual  recrimination.  As 
far  as  possible  we  avoided  any  intimate  discussion,  and 
kept  the  conversation  on  a  detached  plane.  We  were  riotsusly 
merry,  unduly  affectionate,  and  according  to  all  the  rules  of 
the  game,  undeniably  guilty. 

What  was  Uncle  staring  at  ?  I  would  sometimes  wake  up 
in  the  night,  and  begin  feverishly  visualising  all  sorts  of 
strange  and  untoward  episodes.  What  were  these  haunting 
fears  at  the  back  of  his  mind  ?  Why  was  he' so  silent'  on  the 
primal  facts  of  his  position  ?  And  I  knew  that  in  their  indi- 
vidual ways  all  my  brothers  and  sisters  were  undergoing  a 
similar  period  of  trial.     I  could  tell  by  their  eyes. 

And  the  naked  truth  kept  jogging  our  elbows— that  this 
money  from  which  we  were  benefiting,  that  brought  us  so 
much  pleasure  and  comfort,  had  been  acquired  in  some 
dishonest  way,  or  even  over  the  corpse  of  some  tragic 
episode. 

He  spent  nearly  all  his  time  in  the  garden,  dividing  it  up 
into  little  circles,  and  oblongs,  and  triangles  of  geranium  beds, 
and  at  the  bottom  he  had  a  rock  garden,  and  fruit  trees  on 
the  south  wall.     He  seemed  to  know  a  lot  about  it. 

In  the  winter  he  stayed  indoors,  and  became  frailer  and 
more  pathetic  in  his  manner,  and  more  dependent  upon  our 
society.  It  is  difficult  to  know  how  much  he  followed  the 
effects  of  his  liberality.  He  developed  a  manner  of  asking 
one  excitedly  all  about  one's  affairs,  and  then  not  listening 
to  the  reply.  If  he  had  observecl  things  closely  he  would 
have  noted  that  in  nearly  every  case  his  patronage  had  had 
unfortunate  results.  Richard  and  Christopher  quarrelled, 
and  dissolved  their  partnership.  Albert's  business  failed. 
Nancy's  husband  threw  up  his  work,  and  led  a  frankly 
depraved  life  on  the  strength  of  his  wife's  settled  income. 
An  adventurer  named  Ben  Cotton  married  my  sister  Louie 
obviously  because  she  had  a  little  money.  Laura  quarrelled 
with  her  husband,  the  Baptist,  and  on  the  strength  of  her 
new  independence  left  him,  and  the  poor  man  hanged  himself 
a  few  months  later. 

To  all  these  stories  of  misadventure  and  trouble  Uncle 
Herbert  listened- with  a  great  show  of  profuse  sympathy,  but 
it  was  patent  that  their  real  significance  did  not  get  through 
to  him.  Always  he  acted  lavishly  and  impulsively.  He  set 
Albert  up  in  business  again.  He  started  both  Christopher 
and  Richard  independently.  He  gave  the  girls  more  money, 
and  sent  a  preposterous  wreath  to  the  Baptist's  funeral.  He 
did  not  seem  to  mind  what  he  did  for  us,  provided  we  con- 
tinued to  laugh  and  jest  around  his  generous  board. 

It  is  curious  that  this  cataclysm  in  our  Uves  affected  Albert 
more  than  any  of  us.  Perhaps  because  he  was  in  his  way 
more  temperamental.  He  began  to  lose  a  grip  on  his  busi- 
ness, and  to  drink. 

He  came  to  me  one  night  in  a  very  excited  state.  It 
appeared  that  on  the  previous  evening  he  had  come  home 
late,  and  had  been  drinking.  One  of  the  children  annoyed 
him,  a  boy  named  Andrew,  and  Albert  had  struck  him  on  the 
head  harder  than  he  had  meant  to.  There  had  very  nearly 
been  a  tragedy.  His  wife  had  been  very  upset,  and  threat- 
ened to  leave  him. 

Albert  cried  in  a  maudlin  fashion,  and  said  he  was  very 
unhappy.  He  wished  Uncle  Herbert  had  never  turned  up. 
And  then  he  recalled  the  night  in  the  conservatory,  when 
Uncle  Herbert  had  talked  about  Africa. 

"I  believe  there  was  dirty  work,"  said  Albert.  "I  believe 
he  did  some  one  down.  He  kihed  him  out  there  on  the 
karoo,  and  robbed  him  of  his  money." 

[To  be  continued.) 


LAND  &  WATER 

\'oK  I.XX.      \'o.  2914.     IJy^         THURSDAY,   MARCH   n     ihiR  rREcrsTERED  a?-,     published  weekly 

y     ■+  L>tARJ  i  -I  i  v-/  ivoi^ii  1  ,     i.ixiixv,!!      14,      lyio  L:^       NEWSPAI'TrJ         PRICE   N  I  n  e  pe  nce 


The  Town    Hall    of  Rheims    after   a    Recent    Bombard 


Fr'eiKh  Offidal 


ment 


Land    &    Water 


Mardi   14,   191 8 


'.TffTTTnnnTinj 


,^^^^.«^s»J^U 


nr^-TT-^ 


Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  ferusal 

By  Myra  K.  Hughes,  A.R.E.  (,u />agf  i  j). 


em 


~  I 

i 


March  14,  19  18 


Land    &    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :    HOLBORN  .2818. 


THURSDAY,  MARCH    14,  1918. 


Contents 


8 


PAGE 

The  Town  Hall  of  Rheims.     (Photograph)  i 

Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  Jerusalem.     (Illustration)  2 

The  Outlook            '  3 

East  and  West.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  .5 
The  Naval  Estimates.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

Judas.     (Cartoon).     By  Raemaekers                           10  and  11 

Russia  and  Japan.     By  Robert  Wilton  12 

Jerusalem  and  Damascus.     By  Myra  K.  Hughes,  A.R.E.  15 

The  Stage  Irishman.     By  J.  C.  Squire  16 

The  Return.     (Part  II).     By  Stacy  Aumonier  I7 

Village  Memorials.     (Review)  18 

House  and  Home.     By  Charles  Marriott  20 

The  Agricultural  Labourer.     By  Sir  Herljert  Matthews  22 

Domestic  Economy-  26 

Notes  on  Kit  xi* 


The  Outlook 


IN  introducing  the  Naval  Estimates  last  week  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  Sir  Eric  Geddes  reviewed  at  some 
length  our  shipbuilding  prospects  and  requirements. 
He  confirmed  the  disquieting  fact  that  our  average 
monthly  output  of  merchant  shipbuilding  had  declined 
from  140,000  tons  in  the  last  quarter  of  1917  to  58,ooo\tons 
in  January. 

For  this  a  variety  of  explanations  were  offered:  "The 
weather  was  exceptionally  bad,  and  delays  were  caused 
thereby."  "Januar\-,  because  of  the  holidays,  was  always 
a  bad  month  for  the  output  of  ships";  "Februarj'  was 
going  to  be  better"  (though  in  this  Sir  Eric  Geddes  appears 
to  differ  from  Mr.  Barnes,  who  should  have  access  to  all  the 
information  before  the  War  Cabinet).  "The  main  fact, 
however,  is  that  whether  due  to  labour  unrest,  to  strikes,  to 
difficulties  of  whatever  kind,  the  men  in  the  yards  are  not 
working  as  if  the  life  of  the  country  depended  on  their 
exertions.  Employers  also  are  not  perhaps,  in  all  cases, 
doing  all  that  can  be  done  to  increase  output."  "The 
serious  unrest  which  existed  in  January  will  have  its  effect 
on  completions  in  later  months."  The  First  Lord  added 
that  he  was  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  even  at  this  late 
date  the  situation  is  not  fully  realised. 

With  this  statement  we  entirely  agree,  but  the  responsi- 
bility for  dealing  with  Labour  troubles  must  rest  with  the 
Government.  It  should  be  obvious  at  this  critical  stage  of 
the  war  that  the  slackening  of  effort  in  the  shipbuilding 
\  ards  will  lead  straight  to  disaster.  Labour  unrest  will  not 
he  dispelled  by  speeches  in  the  House  of  Commons ;  there  is 
need  for  drastic  action.  It  is  not  enough  to  plead  that 'the 
piece-worker  is  inclined  to  take  more  holidays.  Labour 
lias  legitimate  grievances,  but  their  deman<fe  must  not 
always  be  met  by  concession  and  compromise.  There  can 
he  no  compromise  where  the  safety  of  the  State  is  concerned. 
But  it  should  be  the  first  duty  of  the  Government  to  put 
Labour  in  command  of  facts  and  figiu^es  which  truthfully 
represent  the  actual  state  of  afiairs.  It  is  the  Government's 
apparent  distrust  of  labour,  by  the  concealment  of  the  truth 
which  fosters  and  foments  agitations  that,  when  they 
come  to  a  head,  it  has  shown  itself  too  timorous  to  handle 

boldly. 

«  • 

In  looking-for  the  causes  of^this  deplorable  declinejin 
output  which  has  made  January  and  February  two  of  the 
blackest  months  in  the  history  of  the  war,  we  may  be  per- 
mitted to  refer  to  the  resolution  of  the  District  Committee 
of  the  Federation  of  Shipbuilding  and  Engineering  Trades 
which  was  passed  on  January  31st.  It  was  to  the  following 
effect  :  "We  are  strongly  of  opinion  that  the  Government 
should  immediately  open  up  negotiations  with  all  the  enemy 
countries,  and  that  facilities  should  be  afforded  to  Labour 
and  Socialistic  bodies  in  this  country  to  meet  with  the  Labour 
and  Socialistic  bodies  of  the  Allies  and  Central  Powers,  that 
their  vif.ws  may  be  obtained ;  and  we  warn  the  Government 
that  unless  they  do  afford  such  an  opportunity  to  Labour  in 
Great    Britain,    or    if   they    fail    to   give   satisfactory'    guar- 


antees that  they  will  open  up  negotiations,  we  will  down 
tools."  ■^  ^ 

The  meeting  further  decided  to  insist  upon  a  reply  bv 
February  8th.  What  else  is  this  but  treason  ?  The  resolu- 
tion was  promptly  disowned  by  other  large  bodies  of  Labour, 
yet  the  fact  remains  that  the  output  of  tonnage  declined 
by  two-thirds  in  the  month  of  January,  and  that  at  the 
best  in  the  month  of  February  we  can  only  expect  about 
two-thirds  of  what  the  same  yards,  with  fewer  men,  have 
done  in  previous  months. 

We  do  not  say  that  this  is  an  instance  of  cause  and  effect, 
but  we  should  like  to  know  whether  this  threat  has  been 
carried  into  effect. 


Perusal  of  the  military  communiques  from  day  to  day  is 
apt  to  leave  on  the  public  mind  the  impression  that  the 
raiding  and  counter-raiding  activities  on  the  Western  front 
are  minor  affairs  without  immediate  meaning.  When,  how- 
ever, these  operations  are  reviewed  over  a  longer  period  they 
are  seen  to  have  a  certain  indicative  significance. 

To  take  the  past  week  only,  there  was  the  enemy's  attempt 
against  the  Belgian  posts  round  Merkem,  accompanied  by 
an  effort  to  bridge  the  Yser  south  of  the  flooded  area.  The 
attempt  failed.  There  was  the  attack  on  the  British  posts 
south  of  Houthulst  Forest ;  another  failure.  The  assault 
on  the  British  line  from  Polderhoek  chateau  across  the 
Ypres-Menin  road  was  more  ambitious  and  determined,  but 
once  more  in  its  results  negative.  South  of  the  Lys,  on  the 
sector  between  Armentifires  and  La  Bass^e,  several  tactical 
"feelers,"  none  Very  encouraging.  At  Lens  and  on  the 
Scarpe,  more  especially  round  Monchy-Ie-Preux,  the  same. 
The  same  again  on  the  front  between  Havrincourt  and 
St.  Quentin. 

Then  we  come  to  an  attempt,  sharply  checked,  at  Chavignon 
at  the  western  end  of  the  Aisne  ridge  ;  and  another  at  Corbeny 
at  the  eastern  end.  There  was  the  assault  at  La  Neuville, 
the  bridge-head  estabUshed  by  the  French  on  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Aisne  and  Marne  canal  north  of  Rheims.  There 
was  the  attack  by  two  battalions  on  the  old  fort  of  La 
Pompelle,  where  the  French  line  has  been  pushed  across  the 
Vesle.  Both  these  enterprises  drew  a  blank.  Some  further 
fighting  occurred  on  the  col  between  the  Butte  de  Mesnil 
and  the  Butte  de  Tahure ;  and  an  outbreak  of  activity  at 
Vauquois  in  the  Argonne.  The  front  north  of  Verdun,  of 
course,  is  a  disturbed  area,  where  the  artillery  duel  is  per- 
sistent ;  but  for  a  long  time  past  the  enemy  had  south-east 
of  Verdun  been  quiescent.  The  effort  to  penetrate  the 
French  line  near  Les  Eparges  was  probably  therefore  intended 
as  a  surprise.     If  so,  it  was  not  fortunate. 

*  *  * 

Tactically  the  enemy  has  been  striving  to  improve  his 
methods.  Experience  has  shown  that  so  far  they  have  been 
too  costly.  He  is  anxious  to  reduce  his  losses,  partly  because, 
having  regard  to  his  present  resources  in  man-power,  that  is 
imperative  ;  partly  because  it  is  doubtful  if  his  troops  will 
stand  the  old  methods  of  mass  slaughter.  Though  it  would 
be  going  far— too  far,  perhaps — to  say  that  the  temper  of 
the  German  Army  is  depressed,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  it  is  sullen. 

Tlie  Germans  entered  upon  the  war  confident,  above 
everything,  in  the  superiority  of  their  tactics.  It  was  a 
confidence  shared  as  much  by  the  rank  and  file  as  by  the 
General  Staff.  And  at  first  it  appeared  justified.  Then  it 
was  rudely  dispelled.  To  the  astonishment  of  the  enemy 
— and  we  may  depend  upon  it  also  to  his  dismay — the  Frencli 
proved  to  be  tactically  his  masters.  And  the  disillusion  was 
terribly  expensive.  In  the  face  of  modern  weapons,  mass 
attacks  have  ceased  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  to  be 
war  at  all ;  they  are  sheer  imbecility.  So  tas  from  war 
to-day  having  been,  as  some  imagine,  reduced  to  a  brainless 
struggle  of  horde  against  horde,  modern  equipment  has  made 
it  more  than  ever  necessary  to  rely  upon  brains. 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  French  Army  knew  this  from 
the  start,  and  acted  upon  it.  In  order  to  compensate  and 
offset  the  effects  of  disillusionment  regarding  the  French, 
the  legend  was  started  that  the  British  Army,  at  any  rate, 
would  be  tactically  indifferent — unable,  in  a  word,  to  fight 
efficiently.  British  tactics  turned  out  to  b^  as  resourceful 
as  the  French.  What  has  been  the  result  ?  Having  burned 
his  fingers  over  the  tradition  of  Teutonic  steadfastness, 
physical  bravery,  and  the  rest  of  it — the  enemy  set  himself 
sedulously  to  copy  Allied  methods  He  is  still  doing  it, 
and  in  his  own  way  trying  to  improve  vipon  them. 

Somehow  he  must  tactically  get  level  with  these  Western 
opponents,  for  if  not  he  will  be  thrashed  to  a  pulp.  He  is 
well  aware  of  it.  Despite  the  poses  of  politicians,  and  the 
pretensions  of  Press,  magnates  ;    notwithstanding  the  visions 


Land    &    Water 


March  14,  19  i  8 


of  idealists,  well  enough  meant,  no  doubt,  the  foundat  o  is 
of  the  future  poaci-  of  Europe  are  at  this  moment  bang  laid 
Tn  the  trenches  in  France  and  Flanders,  m  the  daily  proofs 
that  there  are  soldiers  in  existence  whom  German  military 
ambition  cannot  meet  on  equal  terms. 

*  * 

The  significance  of  the  raids  of  the  past  week  or  two, 
apparently  meaningless,  lies  in  this.  The  enemy  m  them 
has  been  "putting  to  the  te.st  the  supposed  improvements  in 
his  tactics.  It  has  not  been  the  only  purpose,  of  course 
but  it  is  one  purpose,  and  important.  There  is  more  in  it 
than  reconnaisance.  These  activities  may  very  correctly  be 
termed  a  trial  of  probable  costs.  From  that  point  of  view 
they  must  have  been  consistently  disappointing.  Ihey  have 
been  disappointing  because,  though  many  experiments  in 
training  have  been  going  on  behind  the  German  front,  the 
devices  have  nothing  in  them  that  is  original. 

A^  tlie  moment,  the  anxiety  of  the  rulers  of  Germain  is  to 
overc^me  this  obstacle  of  tactical  inferiority.  They  have 
been  moving  heaven  and  earth  to  find,  a  solution,  fhe 
existence  rr  disappearance  of  the  Prussian  military  system 
turns  upon  finding  one.  In  any  event,  it  is  a  striking  dis- 
closure of  deficiency  to  embark  upon  tho  search  m  the  midst 

of  a  great  war. 

«  *  * 

I 

Directly  Turkey  entered  the  war,  Germany  .'irectad  that 
country's"  main  mihtarv  effort  towards  the  capture  of  the 
Batoum  oil-fields.  But  Russia's  armies  were  too  strong,  and 
Turkey  suffered  heavy  defeat,  taking  her  revenge  on  the 
.Armenians,  a  race  which  will  probably  be  exterminated  now 
that  Germany  has  deUvered  them  over  to  the  tender  merciL.. 
of  the  Turks— an  act  of  heartless  cold-blooded  cruelty'. 

What  was  impossible  in  war  has  been  achieved  by  peace, 
and  Turkey  is  to  occupy  the  most  important  and  valuable 
.  oil-field  in  the  world.  Her  authority  will  be  merely  nominal  ; 
Germany  will  be  actually  in  possession,  and  having  on  one 
pretext  or  another  installed  herself  at  Odessa,  Germany  will 
dominate  both  shores  of  the  Blagk  Sea  and  its  exceedingly 
wealthy  trade.  The  Teuton  parrot-cry  "freedom  of  the 
seas"  is  not  intended  to  apply  to  a  German-ruled  Baltic  or 
a  German-dominated  Black  Sea. 

The  most  serious  feature  of  this  latest  development  of 
Bolshevik  folly  and  perfidy  is  that  Germany  has  at  last 
arrived  at  her  "long-desired  goal — Central  Asia.  Thwarted  in 
Mesopotamia,  she  is  getting  there  by  the  Trans-Caspian 
route.  The  effect  on  the  British  Empire  must  be  the  same, 
if  German  influence  is  allowed  to  remain  there. 


It  wotdd  be  foolishness  to  minimise  the  danger  which  vnll 
arise  to  the  British  Empire  first  and  foremost,  and  finally, 
to  the  peace  of  the  world  if  German  influence  is  given  a 
foothold  in  Asia.  By  a  strange  coincidence,  the  "modesl 
tribute  of  a  generous  and  not  ungrateful  people,"  to  quote 
Mr.  Austen  Chamberlain,  was  being  paid  by  the  Houses 
of  Parliament  to  the  late  Sir  Stanley  Maude  just  at  the 
moment  when  the  details  of  the  Bolshevik  treaty  came 
through,  and  few  probably  realised  the  close  connection 
between  the  two  incidents. 

Had  Germany  obtained  that  treaty  before  Bagdad  had  been 
conquered,  she  would  have  found  in  every  bazaar  from  the 
Caspian  to  the  Hindoo  Kush  soil  lying  ready  for  her  evil 
seed.  After  the  failure  at  Kut,  British  prestige  had  never 
fallen  so  low  in  the  East  since  Britain  became  an  Asiatic 
Power.  But  with  the  flag  of  England  flying  over  the  old 
capital  of  the  Caliphs,  and  the  sacred  city  of  Jerusalem 
— as  sacred  to  Mohammedan  as  to  Jew  and  Christian — 
in  our  hands,  the  f)osition  is  entirely  altered.  More  than 
that,  the  Arab  tribes  of  Mesopotamia  are  happy  and  pros- 
perous under  our  administration  ;  they  are  allowed  to  make 
money,  and  Ihey  are  allowed  to  keep  it.  These  facts  are 
whispered  through  the  echoing  galleries  of  the  Orient,  and 
German  influence  will  find  it  a  difficult  and  costly  job  to 
push  forward  at  this  moment  her  anti-British  propaganda. 
What  the  Empire  really  owes  to  Sir  Stanley  Maude  for  this 
rehabiUtation  of  her  prestige  can  never  bC  set  down  in  pounds, 
shilUngs,  and  pence.     It  is  incalculable. 

But  Germany  cannot  be  allowed  to  become  an  Asiatic 
Power  or  even  influence.  Japan  must  head  her  off  from 
the  Pacific,  and  it  is  for  us  to  defeat  her  schemes  in  Persia 
and  Afghanistan.  Fortunately,  we  are  not  without  experi- 
ence in  those  regions  ;  we  have  capable  officers  at  our  dis- 
posal who  understand  the  people  they  are  dealing  with, 
but  no  time  is  to  be  lost  in  strengthening  our  influence 
north  of  the  Khyber  and  Quetta,  and  in  counteracting  the 
German  emissaries  who  are  probably  alrea.dy  on  their  way 
to  stir  up  trouble  for  us.    The  future  of  Germany  in  Central 


.\sia   is  yet   another  question  that  has  to  be  finally  settled 
on  the  Western  front. 

*  *  * 

The  arrangements  for  demobilisation  made  public  last 
week  show  that  the  Government  have  appreciated  the  drift 
of  working-class  feeling  during  the  last  few  years.  The 
Labour  Exchanges  had"  become  unpopular  before  the  war 
for  different  reasons,  one  of  thein  being  the  use  made  of 
Exchanges  during  strikes  by  employers  looking  for  blackleg 
labour.  This  truth  has  been  grasped  by  the  authorities,  and 
the  name  "Employment  Exchange"  has  now  been  sub- 
stituted for  the  original  name  of  these  institutions.  More 
important  schemes  for  giving  trade  unions  some  share  in  the 
control  of  the  Exchanges  are  under  consideration. 

If  demobilisation  had  been  left  to  these  Exchanges  and  a 
central  Government  department  the  outlook  would  have 
been  unpromising.  Fortunately,  the  Government  have 
learnt,  from  the  experiences  of  the  war,  that  bureaucracy  is 
not  an  ideal  instrument  for  guiding  industry  through  a 
critical  phase,  and  they  have  wisely  abandoned  the  project. 
An  Advisory  Committee  has  now  been  set  up,  consisting  in 
the  main  of  representatives  of  the  employers'  associations, 
and  of  the  trade  unions,  with  a  handful  of  officials  from  the 
departments  immediately  concerned.  In  cases  where  an 
industry  has  formed  an  Industrial  Council  before  the  con- 
clusion of  the  war,  that  Council  will  obviously  be  the  proper 
body  for  dealing  with  demobilisation,  and  this  Advisory 
Conimittee  will  have  in  such  cases  comparatively  little  to  do. 

The  blemish  in  the  scheme  is  the  .inadequate  representa- 
tion of  women  workers,  for  on  a  Council  of  nearly  fifty  mem- 
bers there  aie  only  four  women,  and  yet  some  of  the  most 
crucial  issues  affect  women  as  intimately  as  men. 


As  it  happens,  a  demobilisation  question  has  already 
arisen,  for  something  like  40,000  women  have  been  dis- 
charged from  munition  works.  On  the  face  of  it,  there 
ought  to  be  no  difficulty  in  providing  them  with  employrrient 
at  ;i  lime  when  there  is  so  urgent  a  demand  for  laboiu:.  But, 
in  the  first  place,  it  is  contended,  with  good  reason,  that 
these  women  ought  not  to  be  penalised,  and  that  they  are 
as  well  entitled  to  unemployment  pay  during  any  interval 
that  may  elapse  as  they  would  be  if  their  discharge  had 
come  at  the  end  of  the  warj  In  the  second  place,  the  ques- 
tion is  complicated  by  the  scandalous  pre-war  standards  of 
women's  wages. 

In  places  like  Sheffield  a  munition  woman  worker  may  be 
earning  over  £2,  when  before  the  war  she  was  working  long 
hours  with  deplorable  results  to  the  health  of  the  community 
for  a  quarter  of  that  sum.  The  only  way  to  prevent  a 
disastrous  relapse  is  to  abolish  this  whole  system  of  sweating 
For  this  reason,  the  announcement  made  by  Mr.  Roberts 
this  week  that  he  is  going  to  propose  a  large  extension  of  the 
Trade  Boards  is  most  welcome  news,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  Trade  Boards  will  be  encouraged  to  take  rather  a 
bolder  view  of  their  powers  and  responsibilities. 


The  Business  Men's  Week  must^^be  pronounced  a  great 
success;  even  those  who  object  to  what  they  caD  "the 
circus  business"  in  connection  with  national  finance  have 
to  admit  that  the  end  has  justified  the  means.  The  publicity 
campaign  brought  home  to  people  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
their  individual  responsibility  in  this  respect,  and  it  has 
also  served  a  good  purpose  in  that  it  must  have  induced 
many  to  begin  saving  who  had  hitherto  regarded  thrift  with 
distaste.  One  may  reasonably  hope  the  good  which 
this  concentrated  effort  to  arouse  the  people  to  their  re- 
sponsibilities toward  the  cost  of  the  war  has  effected, 
will   continue. 

♦  *  * 

fhe  dispersal  of  the  John  Linnell  collection  of  works  by 
William  Blake  at  Christie's  this  week  is  an  event  of 
more  than  artistic  interest  at  the  present  moment.  Blake 
was  a  great  Englishman,  in  the  sense  in  which  Chaucer  was 
English.  The  obscurity  of  much  of  his  work,  as  well  as  its 
imaginative  range,  has  distracted  attention  from  its  passionate 
nationalism.  His  earliest  drawings  were  made  from  the 
monuments  in  Westminster  Abbey  ;  as  a  youth,  he  spent  his 
evenings  designing  subjects  from  English  history,  Chaucer 
and  Milton  were  his  constant  companions,  and  in  "The 
Spiritual  Form  of  Pitt  guiding  Behemoth"  and  "Nelson 
guiding  Leviathan,"  he  made  a  definite  contribution  to  the 
political  propaganda  of  his  own  period.  Nor  was  his  influ- 
ence upon  other  artists  any  less  national  ;  and  in  the  works 
of  Edward  Calvert,  Samuel  Palmer,  and  John  Linnell  himself, 
there  is  expressed  an  ideal  of  England  curiously  in  accord 
with  what  we  are  striving  after  to-day. 


/ 


March    14,  19 18 


Land    &   Water 


East  and  West:    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


1  PROPOSE  to  examine  in  the  latter  part  of  what 
follows  certain  details  of  the  great  belt  of  territory 
which  the  Central  Empires,  under  the  guidance  of 
Prussia,  are  carving  out  into  separate,  new,  and  in 
the  main  artificial  States,  which  will  (if  we 
leave  Prussia  undefeated  and  enjoying  a  negotiated  peace) 
be  no  more  than  subject  portions  of  the  great  central  empire 
which  it  is  her  aim  to  establish. 

Any  discussion  of  this  matter — general,  like  those  which 
have  appeared  in  these  columns  in  the  past,  or  particular, 
like  that  which  I  propose  to  make  to-day — must  be  prefaced 
by  a  proviso  that  should  be  fairly  obvious  but  is  not  suffi- 
ciently grasped  by  the  public.  This  proviso  is  the  truth 
that  if  the  Prussian  army  is  defeated  or  reduced  to  a  position 
of  inferiority  preventing  its  continued  resistance,  nothing 
done  in  the  East  can  stand.  Nothing  of  the  Prussian  plans 
against  Poland  and  for  the  erection  of  these  new,  largely 
artificial  States  will  remain,  but  the  fate  of  these  provinces 
will  be  as  much  in  the  hafids  of  the  victors  as  that  of  Western 
Europe. 

One  often  hears  people  suggesting  that  the  weight  of 
civilisation  must  triumph  in  the  West,  but  that  the  Eastern 
position  is  lost  for  good.  Such  a  statement  is  a  contradiction 
in  terms.  A  decisive  victory  in  the  West  would  leave  the 
victorious  armies  in  a  position  to  dictate  the  future  to  all 
Europe.  Exactly  as  the  decisive  victory  gained  by  the 
Central  Empires  over  Russia,  political  though  it  be  in  character, 
has  left  the  victors  for  the  moment  in  a  position  to  dictate 
entirely  at  their  will  the  future  Russia  in  Europe  and  to 
carve  out  its  frontier  territories  as  they  choose. 

There  is,  of  course,  in  this  connection  a  further  statement 
current  that  a  decision  of  this  sort  cannot  be  expected 
in  the  West.  Many  men  speak  as  though  the  word  "  victory" 
were  a  vague  rhetorical  expression  signifying  no  more  than 
the  capture  of  such  and  such  portions  of  an  enemy's  force 
or  the  compelling  of  him  to  abandon  such  and  such  positions. 
A  decisive  victory  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  Upon  the  contrary, 
most  of  the  great  decisive  victories  have  not  been  followed 
by  retreats  of  any  sort,  and  some  of  them  have  not  even 
been  followed  by  routs.  The  object  of  all  military  art  is 
to  put  out  of  action  the  organised  force  of  your  opponent. 
But  whether  you  do  that  by  destroying  the  details  of  his 
force  or  destroying  its  organisation  or  even  by  compelling 
the  civilian  framework  .upon  which  all  armies  depend  to 
collapse  under  the  strain  of  the  pressur-e  you  put  upon  them, 
the  result  is  the  same. 

Now  to  say  that  a  complete  decision  is  impossible  in  the 
West  because  it  has  not  yet  arrived  is  to  talk  nonsense. 
It  is  to  let  the  mind  slip  into  a  habit  of  repetition  instead 
of  using  it  for  analysis.  Every  military  struggle,  from  a 
pitched  battle  within  narrow  limits  to  this,  the  greatest  of 
all  groups  of  campaigns,  is  ultimately  a  trial  of  endurance. 
It  may  be  that  the  moral  po>v'er  of  endurance  was  greater 
on  the  defeated  side  than  on  the  successful  ,side,  and  that 
the  result  was  only  obtained  by  the  superiority  in  weapons 
or  in  scientific  management  and  movement,  or  in  organisation. 
But  in  any  case  the  victory  is  obtained  by  the  power  of  the 
victor  to  impose  a  strain  upon  the  vanquished  which  ulti- 
mately breaks  him  up.  In  this  process  the  victor  himself 
is  nearly  always  subject  to  a  strain  nrarly  equal  to  the  strain 
he  imposes  upon  his  opponent,  the  difference  between  victory 
and  defeat  lying  in  the  priority  of  surrender.  He  who  first 
discovers  he  can  no  longer  stand  the  strain  is  the  defeated 
party.  In  the  great  duels  of  the  world  a  decision  is  invariably 
arrived  at  at  last,  and  it  will  be  arrived  at  in  this  the  greatest 
duel  in  which  our  ancient  civilisation  has  yet  been  engaged. 
Either  we  leave  the  enemy  upstanding,  in  which  case  the 
future  is  lost,  or  we  obtain  the  decision,  in  which  case  the 
future  is  ours. 

I  have  often  quoted  the  parallel  of  Waterloo  because 
Waterloo  is  an  excellently  small  model  in  time  and  space 
upon  which  this  very  large  general  principle  can  be  studied. 
That  battle  covered,  in  its  active  part,  not  much  more  than 
two  square  miles  of  land  ;  it  involved  at  first  the  action  of  less 
than  150,000  men,  and  even  at  its  close  of  much  less  than 
200,000.  It  lasted,  from  the  first  shot  to  the  French  breakdown, 
less  than  nine  hours.  Yet  all  that  is  said  of  this  great 
campaign  lasting  over  years  and  covering  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  square  miles,  all  the  fundamental  errors  on 
the  nature  of  that  campaign  could  equally  have  been  made, 
and  some  were  made,  in  the  course  of  that  action. 

In^the  first  two  hours  of  Waterloo— or,  at  any  rate,  before 


the  end  of  the  third  hour^the  failure  of'  Erlon  withjf  the 
first  corps  to  break  the  British  left  centre,  after  the  tremendous- 
cannonade  it  had  received,  might  well  have  been  used  as)  an 
argument  that  Napoleon's  task  was  impossible  of  achieve- 
ment. Erlon's  corps  was  the  only  fresh  one.  It  had  attacked 
upon  more  favourable  conditions  than  were  likely  to  come 
later,  and  it  had  failed.  Even  before  its  complete  failure 
Napoleon  had  already  perceived*  inj  the  distant  east  the 
approach  upon  his  flank  of  thosej German  troops  which  later 
were  to  change  the  balance  of  numbers.  The  battle  might 
seem  lost  to  the  French  at  tnat];  moment.  At  about  two 
o'clock,  if  I  remember  rightly,  this  judgment  could  perfectly 
well  have  been  passed  by  a  good  observer  of  the  struggle, 
and  there  are  some  historians  who  have'  gone  so  far  as  to  ask 
why  Napoleon  did  not  break' off^  the  battle.  Yet  in  the  mid- 
afternoon,  in  the  midst  of  the  great  cavalry  charges  against 
the  squares  of  the  British)  right  centre  (when  the  guns  had  to 
be  left  in  the  open,  and  werej  ridden  round  and  over  by  the 
Cuirassiers)  there  were' officers  upon  Napoleon's  staff  watching 
from  the  heights  in  the  south)  who  said  that  the  battle  was 
already  won — and  so  it  would,>  have[  been  if  the  British  line . 
had  yielded,  as  it  seemed  to)  be  to  one'  seeing  the  mass  of 
cavalry  in  its  midst ;  for  in  that  case  the  German  pressure 
on  the  right  would  have)  come  up  too  late.  At  the  end  of 
the  afternoon'  the  thing  was  really  what  is  called  a  deadlock. 
There  was  not  much  left  of  daylight,  the  French  had  twice 
swept  the  Germans  out  )ol  Planchenoit.  Yet  the  British 
line  was  intact.  The^  lastj  vigorous^  advance  of  the  guard 
was  at  hand.  ' 

iiote  that  for  seven  hours  there'  had  been  an  increasing 
strain  upon  either  side,  increasing  muiual  exhaustion — ^^and 
no  result.  The  result  came  at  the  very  end,  in  the  ninth 
hour,  because  in  that  hour  one  side — the  French — suffered 
just  up  to  and  beyond  the  breaking  point.  The  check  of 
the  guard  and  the  appearance  of  a  fresh  Prussian  body  on 
the  northeast  were  what  turned)  the  scale.  And  after  the 
breakifig  point  the  side  which]  had' not  broken,  in  spite  of  the 
very  great  strain  it  had  also  suffered,  could  do  what  it  willed. 

It  is  equally  true  of  this  gigantic  business  to-day.  The 
side  which  endures  longest  will  be  able  to  do  what  it  likes 
with  the  other ;  but  with  this  difference  in  our  favour,  that 
the  enemy  is  trying  to  breakf  off  the  battle,  and  we  as  yet 
have  not  tried  to  do  that.  It  is  he  who  is  already  more 
anxious  about^the)^ future  than  ourselves  ;   and  that  is  a  sign. 

Details  of  the  New  States 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  details  of  those  new  provinces 
which  Prussia  and  her  allies  are  in  process  of  carving  out  of 
what  was  once  the  Western  belt  of  the  Russian  Empire. 

The  general  lines  I  have  already  dealt  with  at  some  length. 
We  know  that  if  Prussia  succeeds  in  getting  her  negotiated 
peace  in  the  West  she  will  establish  a  great  centra!  empire  of 
which  these  new  nations  between  the  Baltic' and  the  Black 
Sea  will  be  virtually   dependent,   though  perhaps  federal 
States.     We  know  that  her  main  concern  is  to  reduce  the 
kingdom  of  Poland  to  the  smallest  limits,  to  refuse  it  access 
to  the  sea,  and  to  create  causes  of  friction  between  it  and 
its  neighbours.     The  reason  for  this  policy  is  that  Polaiid 
is  the  only  State  here  which  Prussia  really  dreads.     It  is  the. 
only  State  with  a  strong  tradition  of  Latin  civilisation  and  . 
of  Western  ideas,  the  only  one  with  a  long  historic  past  t)t> : 
consolidate  it,  and  the  only  one  with  a  true  national  con-., 
sciousness  spread  throughout  its  being.     To  the  south  there 
lies  the  Rumanian  State,  which  is  also  highly  national ;  hut. 
this  stands  apart  in  language  and  culture  from  the  Slav  group. 

We  have  also  explained  in  past  articles  the  principle  of 
dividing  in  order  to  rule ;  the  principle  of  creating  as  much 
local  friction  as  possible  underlies  the  whole  of  this  German 
work  in  the  East.  In  one  place  the  greater  landlords  will  be. 
relied  upon  to  help  German  influence  against  the  peasantry, 
in  another  the  peasantry  against  the  landlords,  in  another  ^ 
Catholics  against  Protestants  or  Orthodox,  in  another  Ortho- 
dox against  both.  In  one  district  a  minority  race  is  left  as  a 
cause  of  friction,  in  another  a  minority  language. 

Their  Constitution 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  thing  in  detail.  According  to 
whether  the  Prussians  propose  separate  States  or  annexation 
along  the  Baltic  shore,  there  will  be  five  at  the  least,  or 
eight  at  the  most,  nf  the';*'  mw  States.     The  eight  would  be. 


Land    &    Water 


March   14,  1918 


in  their  order,  Finland.  Esthonia,  Livonia,  Coiirland,  an 
Artificial  Lithuania  inland,  Poland,  the  new  artificial  State  ot 
Ukrain  ■  and  Rumania.  If  Courland  be  annexed  (witli  a 
part  of  what  is  the  Province  of  Kovno)  it  leaves  seven  new 
SUtes;  if  the  annexation  push  up  to  the  Baltic  shore 
to  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  it  leaves  five. 

Of  these  new  States,  that  of  Finland  will  hardly  form  part 
of  the  new  empire  which  Prussia  is  building  up.  and  hopes 
to  render  permanent.  Its  j. 000.000  inhabitants— the  directing 
classes  of  which  are  Swedish  in  origin— will  fall  rather  to  the 
Scandinavian  group.  That  group  will,  of  course,  if  Prussia 
emerged  from  this  war  undefe;ited,  fall  into  the  orbit  of 
Pru.s.sia.  Prussia  will  hold  the  gates  of  its  trade  and  will 
command  its  seas,  but  there  will  certainly  be  no  attempt  to 
act  on  Finland  directly. 

Finland  has  always  been  quite  a  separate  national  group 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  old  Russian  Government  ;  but 
Its  independence,  now  assured  by  the  action  of  German 
igents  in  Petrograd.  and  by  the  collapse  of  the  Russian 
State,  has  certain  new  consequences  which  are  of  importance. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  destruction  of  the  old  position  of 
Petrograd  itself.  With  a  German  province — or,  at  the  best, 
a  German  State— of  Esthonia  holding  all  the  south  of  the 
Gulf  of  Finland,  and  the  new  Finnish  independent  State 
holding  the  northern  shore,  Petrograd  can  only  hi  reached 
bv  sea  at  the  mercy  of  foreigners.  It  is,  on  a  smaller  scale, 
a  reproduction  of  what -Germany  has  already  produced  in 
the  Dardanelles  and  the  entry  to  the  Baltic.  And  we  must 
remember  that  the  mass  of  Finnish  population  is  on  the 
s<9Uthern  edge  commanding  the  approach  to  Petrograd. 

There  is  another  point  of  considerable  importance  in 
connection  with  Finland.  During  the  war,  and  with  the 
help  of  the  Allies,  the  Russian  Government  constructed  what 
ought  to  have  been  constructed  long  ago— a  railway  to  open 
water,  which  was  then  under  Russian  control.  This  railway 
runs  from  the  capital,  up  along  the  western  shore  of  the 
White  Sea,  to  the  Bay  of  Kola,  upon  the  Arctic  Ocean,  a 
deep,  completely  sheltered,  and  excellent  harbour,  a  fjord, 
more  sheltered  even  than  most  of  the  Norwegian  fjords,  and 
never  impassable  through  ice.  This  northern  railway,  pro- 
duced under  the  pressure  of  the  war,  was  the  first  communica- 
tion Petrograd  had  with  the  ocean  all  the  year  rourft.  Now, 
no  part  of  this  line  passes  throughjFinland  proper.  But  it 
w>ll  be  It  the  mercy  of  any  one  who  can  use  Finland.  It 
runs  up,  flanking  the  Finnish  border  all  the  way — and, 
indeed,  in  the  present  condition  of  Russian  society,  there  is 
no  reason  why  the  State  of  Finland  should  not  add  to  its 
rerntories  whatever  it  liked  of  the  great  uninhabited  waste 
tfiat  borders  the  White  Sea.  ^ 

To  the  south  of  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  you  have  first  the 
i^roup  of  three  territories  bordering  upon  the  Baltic — 
Esthonia,  Livonia,  and  Courland.  The  latter  would  shed, 
if  It  were  organised  as  a  German  or  quasi-German  territory. 
Its  long  easterly  tongue  which  contains  Dvinsk,  but  would 
take  in  all  the  western  part  of  the  province  of  jKovno,  and 
'  would  very  probably  include  the  town  of  Riga,  which  junder 
Russian  rule  counted  as  part  of  Livonia  The  new  Courland 
might  also  annex  the  territory  of  Sualki  to  the  south,  though 
tnis  had  counted  as  a  portion  of  Courland  for  a  jvery  long 
time  past.  Courland  so  organised,  with  Riga  as  its  chief 
town,  would,  especially  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  sea 
and  on  the  banks  of  the  main  rivers,  be  dominated  by  men 
at  German  tongue  who  are  the  merchants  and  thejprincipal 
landlords  in  most  parts. 

Esthonia,  at  the  other  or  northern  end  of  the  Baltic  group, 
includes — or  probably  would  include — the  northern  portion 
of  what  was  till  recently  the  province  of  Livonia,  including 
tlie  town  of  Dorpad,  and  the  great  naval  base  of  tReval. 
Here  again  in  the  wealthier  minority  German  influences 
iiready  dominate,  and  much  of  the  non-German  speaking 
oopulation  is  attachable  to  the  new  svstem  through  its 
religion,  which  is  in  the  main  Protestant.  There  comes  in 
between  the  district  of  Livonia,  the  southern  [part  of  the 
orovince  of  that  name,  of  which  the  chief  town  |is  Walk  ; 
the  majority  of  this  district  is  Catholic,  but  there  would  be 
both  a  Protestant  and  a  certain  Orthodox  Greek  minority. 
Whether  these  three  Baltic  districts  would  be  annexed  by 
Germany  or  given  partial  or  entire  autonomy  we  do  not 
know,  but  the  German  Press  is  already  speaking  of  them  as 
tttough  they  were  virtually  German  by  possession. 

Next  to  the  south,  we  have  the  district  which  is  in  the 
mam  to  be  regarded  as  the  future  Germanised  Kingdom  of 
Poland.  It  consists  in  the  Russian  portion  of  the  Polish 
kingdom  less  the  northern  territory,  of  which  Sualki  is  the 
chief  town,  and  less  the  province  of  Cholm,  which,  after  the 
shuffling  ambiguities  of  the  last  few  weeks,  it  is  still  probably 
the  enemy's  intention  to  hand  over  to  Ukraine  in  order  at 
once  to  diminish  the  remnant  of  Poland,  and  create  a  cause 


of  friction  between  that  State  and  its  eastern  neighbours. 
Poland,  thus  reduced,  ,is  in  population  about  half,  and  in 
territory  less  than  half,  the  true  Poland  of  history  and 
national  position.  Beyond  this  diminution  of  its  hereditary 
enemy  (to  whom  it  owes  also  its  title  to  a. kingdom)  Prussia 
will  not  go.  There  is  a  portion  of  the  German  Press  which 
is  crying  out  for  further  annexation,  but  it  will  not  be 
listened  to  because  the  direct  government  of  so  considerable 
a  body  of  men,  intellectually  their  superiors  and  always  in 
active  opposition,  would  be  exceedingly  dangerous.  And 
because- all  the  economic  and  political  results  desired  can  be 
obtained  either  by  this  remnant  of  Poland  autonomous  with 
a  German  house  ruling  in  Warsaw,  or  by  attaching  it  to  some 
tripartite  arrangement  in  a  new  Hapsburg  Empire. 

Prussianised  Rumania 

In  the  south,  the  plan  with  regard  to  Rumania  will  be 
seen  to  be  this.  Transylvania  and  its  three  million  Rumanians 
under  Magyar  rule  to  remain  where  they  are — part  of  the 
universal  policy  of  division  which  we  see  everywhere  in  this 
scheme.  But  Bessarabia  (with  about  half  that  number), 
in  the  main  Rumanian,  to  be  added  to  Rumania,  and  the 
whole  of  the  country  to  be  established  under  a  new  dynasty 
with  Prussian  sympathies.  The  Dobrudja  to  be  handed 
over  to  Bulgaria  ;  but  one  would  imagine  that  the  mouths 
of  the  Danube — or,  at  any  rate,  one  issue  to  the  Black  Sea — 
would  be  left  in  Rumanian  hands,  because  Rumania  thus 
constituted  would  be  virtually  subject  to  Prussia,  whereas 
Bulgaria,  though  within  the  general  influence  of  the  new 
great  State,  would  be  less  easy  to  control  directly. 

There  remain  the  two  unknown  quantities  of  inland 
Lithuania,  including  a  great  mass  of  the  White  Russian 
population  and  the  new  artificial  State  of  Ukraine.  These 
two  will  be  in  mere  acreage  the  largest  of  the  new  territories, 
and  in  population  Ukraine  will  be  much  the  largest — from 
30  to  35  million  souls.  It  will  contain  something  like  half 
of  all  the  new  States  together,  including  Rumania  (which 
will  count  about  9  to  9I  millions).  What  we  do  not  know  is 
the  eastern  boundary  within  wliich  Prussia  will  decide  to 
contain  these  two  new  satellites  of  hers — Lithuania  and  the 
Ukraine. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  inland  Lithuania— a  highly 
artificial  State — would  include  the  northern  part  of  the 
province  of  Minsk,  with  Minsk  itself,  the  northern  part  of 
Grodno,  with  that  town  and  Bialystok  as  chief  centres,  all 
Vilna,  the  eastern  part  of  Kovno,  the  eastern  tongue  of 
Courland  Province,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  even  Vitebsk 
and  Mohilev.  In  other  words,  everything  north  of  the 
Pripet  Marshes,  which  region  may  indifferently  fall  to  the 
northern  State  of  Ukraine.  It  is  true  that  this  will  be  a 
big,  unwieldy,  not  homogeneous,  hotch-potch  sort  of  a 
State — Catholic  and  Orthodox  in  religion,  partly  Polish, 
Jewish,  White  Russian,  and  Lithuanian  in  race.  But  it 
would  not  be  very  thickly  {populated,  it  would  be  only  about 
half  as  thickly  populated  as  Poland  (square  mile  for  square 
mile),  it  would  not  entrench  upon  the  territory  of  Great 
Russia  proper,  it  would  give  rise  to  friction  against  Poland, 
especially  in  Grodno  and  Vilna.  There  is,  from  the  German 
point  of  view,  a  good  deal  to  be  said  for  creating  such  an 
artificial  lump. 

Lastly,  from  south  of  the  Pripet  Marshes  to  the  Black  Sea 
and  from  the  artificial  frontier  drawn  near  Cholm  to  the 
boundaries  of  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  you  have  the  new 
artificial  State  which  the  enemy  has  christened  archaically 
"the  Ukraine."  It  is  possible  or  probable  that  the  Crimea 
and  its  hinterland  north  of  the  isthmus— in  other  words,  the 
Taurida  Province— would  not  be  included,  but  would  form 
some  small  government  of  its  own— at  least,  that  is  the 
suggestion  that  has  been  made  in  enemy  countries,  on  what 
foundation  I  do  not  know. 

It  is  not  fully  realised  yet  what  a  vast  estate  it  is  that 
Germany  has  thus  carved  for  herself  for  exploitation  by  her 
capital  and  government,  by  her  methods,  upon  the  marches 
of  Russia.  When  this  estate  has  been  estabhshed  as  a 
number  of  nominally  independent  little  nations,  with  the 
only  important  and  solid  national  group,  that  of  Poland, 
diminished  and  hemmed  in  (reduced,  say,  to  11  milUons  out 
of  20,  and  entirely  encircled  from  the  sea),  it  will  consist  of 
at  least  eight  units,  which  may  well  be  set  up  as  eight  States  ; 
but  which,  at  any  rate,  the  Germans  do  not  intend  to  set  up 
m  much  less  than  five  States,  all  of  them,  except  Poland, 
highly  artificial.  These,  as  we  have  seen,  are  Courland, 
Liv»nia,  Esthonia,  an  artificial  inland  Lithuania,  the 
so-called  "Ukraine,"  Rumania,  with  the  probable  addition 
of  Bessarabia,  and  the  remains  of  Poland.  Allowing  the 
Ukraine,  the  boundaries  of  which  on  the  east  remain  uncer- 
tain, a  margin  of  five  million  between  maximum  and  minimum 


March    14,    191S 


Land   Sc   Water 


7 


\   ;  V.-.  /^^s  ,'"'   V'     PtLpet  7ylarshes\ 

<  -.     /  •Cholm.     "         \.-~-Nr,-"*« 


lA 


I. 


1/ 


•— --'•-^  U 


',  ^ 


r< — ^ 

77iANSrLVAJ^'/A       )  \''^     \ 


jCVLTA/S  ;^J        "'■■■[SACHZSTA^ 


r  U  R.K  F   r    -  I  TV      A  S  /  A 


The    New    German- Made    States 


8 


La^d   &  Water 


March   14,  191 8 


\oM  have  here  a  popiUatiorTyery  nearly  as  larL;c  «,■.  tlial  of  tlie 
wholt  German  Empire  at  the  least,  and  larger  than  that  of  the 
-.fhoU  German  Empire  at  the  most.  In  mere  extent,  you 
have  an  additional  band  of  highly  exploitable  terntory 
ilet  alone  the  vast  prey  formed  by  the  mass  of  Russia  behmd), 
which  is  no  less  than  >  thousand  miles  from  north  to  south, 
and  from  700  to  800  miles  in  maximum  breadth. 

The  interest  of  the  operation  does  not  lie  in  the  fact  that 
!  IS  the  death  of  what  we  once  knew  as  Russia— that  one 
[.ikes  for  granted  ;  it  lies  rather  in  the  enorrtiity  of  the  opera- 
tion, in  the  vastness  of  tiie  territories  and  populations  that 
will  now  be  carved  out  by  the  victor— if  we  leave  him 
\ictor — for  his  profit  and  increase. 

More  than  that,  and  dominating  the  whole  economic 
situation,  i,s  the  fact  thatj(iermany  also  cuts  off  all  that  lies 
t.  the  east  of  these  States  from  traffic  by  sea.  The  nearest 
thing  to  a  warm  water  port  which  the  old  Russian  Empire 
possessed  in  the  north  was  Riga,  accessible  for  most  months 
of  the  year,  and  Libau  for  nearly  all  the  year.  In  the  south, 
Russia  had  many  ports  on  the  opeh  131ack  Sea,  but  her  great 
stand-by  was,  of  course.  Odessa.  The  Ukraine,  which  will 
be  economically  only  a  province  of  fhe  Central  European 


Sfote  under  Prussia— if  Prussia  has  her  way— possesses 
Odessa,  and,  what  is  more,  although  the  Ukraine  Govern- 
ment will  probably  not  directly  administer  the  Crimean 
Peninsula,  the  territory  of  the  Ukraine  cuts  off  the  mass  of 
Russia  behind  and  of  Asia  from  the  Black  Sea.  Even  when 
the  Northern  Baltic  is  open,  the  entries  to  Petrograd  by  sea 
are  blocked  by  whoever  holds  Esthonia  and  Reval.  In 
other  words,  with  this  scheme  matured,  all  that  lies  beyond 
the  frontiers  of  the  new  States  is  economically  at  Germany's 
mercy.     It  is  shut  up  in  a  cage. 

The  supply  of  wheat  for  Western  Europe,  all  the  wealth 
to  be  developed  in  the  basin  of  the  Volga  and  in  the  Urals, 
will  follow  the  commercial  routes  chosen  by  Prussia,  and  will 
cease  its  journey  for  the  purposes  of  consumption  where 
Prussia  chooses. 

.(jThere  are  still  left  a  certain  number  of  people  who  talk 
about  commercial  routes  and  exchanges  as  though  they  were 
governed  by  blind  laws  of  nature  and  had  about  them  some- 
thing inevitable.  Even  this  remnant  will  be  convinced, 
I  think,  when  the  transformation  in  direction  of  the  Russian 
exchanges  begins  to  take  place,  if  we  allow  a  German 
victory.  H.  Belloc. 


The  Navar  Estimates  :    By  Arthur  Pollen 


IN  introducing  the  estimates  the  First  Lord  dealt  witli 
the  naval  situation  with  exceptional '  candour  and 
lucidity,  and  he  cante  very  near  to  achieving  what 
is  very  likely  the  last  thing  he  has  ever  wanted, 
namely,  a  great  Parliamentary  success.  It  'was  an 
odd  error  of  judgment  that  robbed  him  of  it.  His  first  state- 
ment was  everything  a  statement  s(iould  be — except  that 
it  ignored  the  only  burning  topic  of  the  day.  For  months 
lu-aple  have  been  asking  why  Lord  Jellicoe  was  dismissed, 
and  there  have  been  plenty  who  have  offered  the  explanation 
that  it  was  either  to  please  some  vindictive  soul  in  the  Cabinet 
or  to  pacify  the  powerful  author  of  a  newspaper  vendetta. 
It  was  idle  to  expect  the  passions  aroused  by  the  "  Government 
Press"  agitation  to  go  without  expression  in  a  naval  debate, 
when  the  instance  of  Lord  Jellicoe  had  so  often  been  put 
forward  as  exactly  parallel  to  that  of  Sir  William  Robertson. 
It  was  no  surprise,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Lambert. should  lead 
the  attack  and  draw  Sir  Edward  Carson  into  supporting 
him,  or  that  ^ir  Hedworth  Meux,  Mr.  Pringle  and  Mr.  Robert 
McNeil  should  join  in  the  cry.  After  all  the  harm  had  been 
done,  the  First  Lord  stated  quite  explicitly  that  he  had 
acted,  not  on  pressure — personal  or  journalistic — ^but  solely 
on  his  own  judgment  and  in  the  interests  of  the  nation. 
But  unfortunately  this  .statement  was  forced  from  him  and 
not  volunteered.  It  followed  the  debate  instead  of  preceding 
it.  And  while  on  reflection  the  House  will  accept  it  literally, 
because  whatever  the  First  Lord's  other  qualities  may  be 
his  integrity  is  obvious,  it  did  not  at  the  moment  have  the 
full  effect  to  which  it  was  entitled.  It  did  not  come,  that 
is  to  say,  until  a  great  many  rather  painful  things  had  been 
said;  and  in  the  discussion  that  followed  it,  something  of 
the  tone  made  inevitable  by  the  earlier  discussion  continued. 
Tlie  whole  thing  is  much  to  be  regrdtted,  not  only  because 
no  good  can  come  by  any  canvassing  of  the  merits  of  naval 
officers  in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  because  so  much  time 
and  ability  were  diverted  from  the  discussion  of  other  and 
far  more  important  topics.  And  such  discussions  are  never 
worthy  of  their  subject.  The  incident,  one  hopes,  is  now 
finally  closed.      It  should  never  have  been  opened. 

The  First  Lord's  speech  dealt  first  with  the  work  of  the 
Admiralty,  and  included  such  topics  as  the  First  Lord's 
own  visit  to  the  Mediterranean,  the  latest  developments 
of  the  redistribution  of  the  functions  of  the  Admiralty  and 
their  success,  and  various  lesser  matters  connected  with  the 
Higher  Command  ;  next,  the  general  character  of  the  sea 
war — which  has  not  changed  materially  in  the  last  twelve 
months;  thirdly,  the  present  state  of  the  submarine  war 
and  the  progress  of  our  defensive  and  the  development  of 
our  offensive  ;  fourthly,  the  difficulties  connected  with  the  re- 
placement of  the  lost  shipping  ;  and  finally,  witb  various 
matters  connected  with  general  administration,  the  most 
important  of  which  perhaps  are  the  circumstances  which 
have  made  the  promotion  of  Sir  Reginald  Tyrwhitt  desirable. 
and  the  questions  to  which  such  promotions  naturally  give 
rise. 

The  naval  position  as  a  whole  was  presented  to  the  country 
as  being  substantially  what  it  was  a  year  ago.  Germany, 
that  is,  is  still  completely  besieged  by  the  sea  ;  and  the  First 
Lord  might  have  added  that  the  belligerency  of  America 


has  made  that  siege  far  stricter  and  more  complete  than 
it  was  last  February.  The  enemy  is,  therefore,  under  a 
greater  and  greater  necessity  to  use  his  sea  force,  either 
to  mitigate  the  siege  or  to  inflict  upon  the  Allies  some  injury 
proportionate  to  that  from  which  he  himself  is  suffering. 
The  sea  forces  he  can  employ  are  indirectly  his  battle  fleet — 
to  secure  the  safe  exit  and  return  of  his  submarines— and, 
directly,  the  submarines  themselves  to  do  the  work  of  attack- 
ing and  sinking  our  shipping.  It  is  no  use  lamenting  the 
fact  that  we  either  have  not  had  the  opportunity — or,  alter- 
natively, not  been  able  to  turn  it  to  account — of  destroying  the 
enemy's  fleet  and  thereby  attaining  the  possibility  of  a  closer 
investment  of  his  harbours.  It  remains,  therefore,  that  our 
main  business  is,  as  it  has  been  for  some  time,  first,  to  make 
the  attack  on  our  shipping  as  difficult  and  dangerous  as 
possible,  by  attacking  the  submarines  by  every  conceivable 
method,  so  as,  if  possibje,  to  drive  them  off  the  seas  altogether  ; 
secondly,  failing  complete  success  in  this,  to  defend  our 
shipping  from  the  attack  of  such  submarines  as  get  through  ; 
and,  lastly,  to  replace  as  rapidly  as  possible  such  shipping 
as  the  enemy  has  succeeded  or  may  still  succeed  in  destroying. 
The  first  part  of  the  programme — the  offensive  against  the 
submarine — while  still  only  in  its  tentative  stages,  is  shown, 
by  the  First  Lord's  statement,  to  have  achieved  some  quite 
important  results  already.  Real  progress  is  being  made  in 
blocking  the  English  Channel,  and  our  offensive,  whether 
independent  of,  or  part  of,  the  defence  of  shipping,  is  seem- 
ingly already  so  effective  to  enable  us  to  sink  submarines 
as  fast  as  they  can  be  built,  and  to  make  it  reasonably  sure 
that  out  of  every  four  or  five  submarines  that  go  out,  only 
three  or  four  return.  The  campaign,  then,  is  being  persisted 
in  at  a  great  cost  of  life  and  material  to  the  enemy,  a  fact 
which  is  having  an  illimitable  effect  upon  his  moral.  What 
is  not  less  satisfactory  is  that  there  is  a  continuing  decline 
in  the  loss  of  the  world's  tonnage.  February  was  a  good 
month  for  the  Germans,  but  if  March  is  equally  good,  the 
first  quarter  of  igi8  will  still  show  the  same  rate  of  diminish- 
ing success  as  was  shown  by  the  last  quarter  of  last  year. 
Whichever  way,  then,  we  look  at  the  naval  effort  against 
the  submarine — whether  we  measure,  that  is,  by  the  rising 
price  that  the  enemy  must  pay  or  the  falling  cost  to  ourselves 
— there  is  equally  a  satisfactory  progress. 

But  in  spite  of  the  falling  rate  of  destruction,  that  rate 
is  still  far  ahead  of  replacement  ;  and  in  replacement,  the 
rate  is  not  rising,  but  falling  more  heavily  than  the  other. 
The  civilian  effort  then  compares  very  poorly  with  the  naval. 
It  is  almost  a  summary  of  the  shipbuilding  situation  to  say 
that  whereas  the  expert  estimate  is  that  we  have  a  national 
capacity  to  produce  three  million -tons  a  year,  in  January 
and  February  we  were  producing  at  the  rate  of  between  a 
fifth  and  a  quarter  of  this.  The  First  Lord  suggested  several 
elements  which,  in  combination,  explain  this  appallingly  wrong 
state  of  things.  January  includes  an  exceptional  proportion 
of  hoHdays,  and  all  the  month  we  had  weather  of  the  worst 
and  most  unfavourable  kind.  Great  numbers  of  the  men  are 
overworked,  tired,  and  incapable  of  the  scale  of  effort  they 
made  before.  Worse  than  all,  there  is  much  serious  labour 
unrest  in  shipbuilding  centres,  and  a  section  of  the  men  are 
discontented.     There  was  war-weariness,   too,   amongst  the 


March  14,  19 18 


Land   &  Water 


employers.     So  that  there  are  unfavourable  elements  on  both 
sides  which  create  a  situation  of  the  utmost  gravity. 

Contributory  Factors 

In  the  course  of  the  debate  and  in  subsequent  newspaper 
correspondence,  many  other  causes  have  been  suggested, 
either  in  substitution  of  Sir  Eric's  or  as  complementary. 
The  responsible  heads  of  the  shipbuilding  firms  complain 
that  they  have  been  superseded  by  the  Government,  and 
have  neither  the  authority  nor  the  incentive  to  hustle  things 
in  the  yards.  Others  point  out  that  in  the  craze  for  stan- 
dardisation something  like  the  reverse  of  it  has  been  brought 
into  being.  It  is  surely  absurd  to  talk  about  "standard" 
ships  when  345  of  40  different  types  are  in  course  of  con- 
struction. Other  critics  have  condemned  altogether  the 
attempt  to  establish  national  shipyards  on  the  Severn,  on 
the  ground,  first,  that  the  enterprise  was  started  without 
the  advice  or,  presumably,  the  approval  of  the  shipowners 
will)  advise  the  Admiralty  ;  but,  chieflj',  because  it  has 
deflected  and  made  immediately  unproductive  labour  that 
would  have  been  available  in  the  private  sliipyards.  and 
would,  in  the  long  run,  have  given  us  more  shipping  more 
quickly    than    can    possibly   be   the   case   now. 

But  more  important  than  any  of  these  criticisms  are  the 
allegations  that  no  systematic  effort  has  been  made  te  deal 
with  the  false  labour  position  on  the  Clyde ;  that  the 
settlement  of  labour  difficulties  has  been  made  dilatory,  and 
therefore  the  position  everywhere  endangered,  by  Govern- 
ment machinery  intervening  between  the  masters  and  men. 
Finally,  it  is  said,  the  question  of  shipping  is  now  in  the 
hands  of  so  many  authorities  of  such  conflicting  powers 
that  no  one  knows  either  the  actual  state  of  things  or  the 
best  course  to  pursue  now.  One  authority,  ic  despair  of 
any  other  way  out,  has  suggested  Lord  Pirrie  as  a  kind  of 
Shipping  Dictator.  At  the  time  of  writing,  the  First  Lord 
has  not  dealt  with  his  critics  either  within  the  House  or 
outside.  But  it  is  clear  that  the  utmost  effort  of  statesman- 
ship must  be  made  if  a  very  ]f)erilous  situation  is  to  be  put 
right. 

One  of  the  First  Lord's  revelations  astonished  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  must,  one  would  think,  have  astonished  the 
country  also.  It  is  to  the  effect  that  a  considerable  number 
of  merchant  ship  masters  have  not  yet  been  brought  to 
realise  that  the  dangers  of  navigating  their  ships  without 
lights  are  trivial  compared  with  the  submarine  perils  when 
they  burn  them.  It  seems  extraordinary  that  in  such  ele- 
mentary matters  discipline  should  be  unenforced.  The 
Admiralty  has  unlimited  authority  over  merchant  skippers, 
and  a  Board  that  is  in  constant  session  has  power  to  with- 
draw the  certificate — that  is,  to  cut  off  all  the  means  of 
livelihood — of  any  offender.  Yet  our  own  submarine  captains 
report  ship  after  ship  travelling  in  the  danger  zone  with  all 
lights  showing,  and  on  one  occasion  seven  out  of  eight  ships 
passing  a  certain  headland  were  seen  to  be  acting  in  this 
manner.  Is  the  First  Lord  sure  that  the  Admiralty  is  really 
using  its  authority  in  this  matter  to  the  utmost  ? 

It  rather  looks  as  if  the  First  Lord  intended  to  carry  on 
with  somewhat  less  mystification  and  secrecy  than  has  pre- 
vailed hitherto.  It  has  long  been  maintained  in  these 
columns  that  the  Army  and  the  Navy  can  be  trusted  to  do 
all  that  is  necessary  for  victory  if  only  the  civilians  will  hold 
out.  There  would  be  no  danger  at  all  from  the  civilians  if 
every  one  understood  the  issues  at  stake.  And  the  way  to 
make  every  one  understand  is  not  to  make  eloquent  speeches 
or  to  write  convincing  articles,  but  to  see  that  all  the  facts 
of  the  war  are  known.  Mr.  Asquith  and  a  good  many  othef 
people  spoke  strongly  in  favour  of  this  view  last  week,  and 
perhaps  before  this  article  appears  the  Government  decision 
in  the  matter  may  become  known.  At  the  moment,  the 
obvious  thing  to  tell  people, is  the  truth  about  the  shipping 
position.  In  this  matter  the  Government,  for  the  moment, 
still  considers  itself  tied  by  some  undertaking  given  to 
France.  But,  where  he  was  not  so  tied,  the  First  Lord  threw 
a  good  deal  of  new  light  on  recent  events.  For  the  first 
time,  we  have  had  it  explained  to  us  what  the  Channel  night 
barrage  really  means.  We  heard  more,  too,  about  the  Goeben 
and  Breslau  incident  ;  and  a  little  more  about  the  Lerwick 
convoy.  I  hope  my  readers  will  not  misunderstand  me 
when  ,1  say  that  it  was  with  extreme  satisfaction  that  I  heard 
that  the  raid  on  the  Dover  Patrol  had  been  made  the  subject 
of  a  court-martial.  Every  incident  of  this  kind  ought  to 
have  been  so  treated  from  the  first  The  lay  reader  must 
bear  in  mind  that  it  is  not  the  primary  purpose  of  a  court- 
martial  to  find  a  victim  to  punish.  It  is  to  ascertain  the 
facts  and  give  a  verdict  that  should  be.  a  guide  to  other 
naval  officers  in  similar  circumstances.  For  a  long  time 
after  war  began  no  courts-martial  were  held  at  all,  and  when 


the  first  exception  was  made,  it  is  doubtful  "if  the  conduct 
of  those  most  responsible  were  brought  under  review  ;  if, 
as  I  have  always  understood,  the  evidence  and  verdict  were 
not  circulated,  then  nine-tenths  of  the  value  of  the  inquiry 
were  lost.  Court-martial  proceedings,  while  perhaps  reason- 
ably kept  secret  for  a  certain  period  during  the  war.  are,  it 
should  be  remembered,  those  of  h  public  court  and  should, 
be  communicated  to  the  public  the  moment  it  can  be  done 
with  reasonable  safetv. 

Rules  oF  Promotion 

The  First  Lord's  hints  about  recent  operations  call  for 
more  extended  discussion  than  I  can  give  them  here,  and 
I  pass  on  to  another  matter  of  great  interest,  viz.,  what  was 
told  us  about  the  promotion  of  Sir  Reginald  Tyrwhitt  to  be 
Rear- Admiral.  The  rule  that  the  .Vdmiralty  have  laid  down 
is  that  a  captain,  when  selected  for  this  rank,  will  hold  it 
until  he  will  be  entitled  in  the  ordinary  course  to  his  flag. 
If,  during  this  period,  he  has  used  his  opportunities  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Board,  he  will  be  confirmed  in  the  rank  as 
from  the  date  of  the  first  selection.  If  his  conduct  is  not 
approved,  his  seniority  will  date  as  if  he  had  never  been 
selected  at  all.  From  one  point  of  view,  this  seems  fair 
enough  ;  but  a  case  can,  of  course,  he.  made  against  it  'For, 
not  bfing  confirmed  as  from  the  date  of  appointment  must 
certainly  be  the  equivalent  of  very  grave  censure.  No 
course,  however,  can  be  free  from  objection,  and  almost  any 
course  is  to  be  recommended  that  encourages  the  Admiralty 
to  hasten  the  promotion  of  young  men  of  energy  and  ability, 
though  many,  of  course,  will  maintain  that  the  Admiralty's 
present  powers  are  ample  if  only  they  were  used.  What 
probably  few  members  of  the  public  realise  is  that  war  has 
been  very  far  indeed  from  hastening  promotion.  Eight  or 
nine  years  ago  the  senior  captains  were  given  their  flag  after 
less  than  ten  years  of  service.  There  was  at  least  one  promo- 
tion on  exactly  nine  years.  If  the  list  permitted  of  such 
promotions  now,  not  only  would  Sir  Reginald  Tyrwhitt  be 
a.  rear-admiral  without  any  special  exercise  of  Admiralty 
powers,  but  a  dozen  officers  junior  to  him  would  be  in  the 
same  rank. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Rear-Admiral  Tyrwhitt,  who  now 
gets  his  flag  under  quite  exceptional  circumstances,  and  after 
more  than  three  years  of  extraordinarily  distinguished  and 
continuous  service  at  sea,  is  about  six  months  older  than  the 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Grand  Fleet.  Batween  these  two, 
there  figure  in  the  Navy  List  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
names,  only  just  over  a  dozen  of  which  are  those  of  Rear- 
Admiral  Tyrwhitt 's  juniors. 

Is  it  not  a  reflection  on  our  methods  of  peace  selection  that 
more  men,  young  enough  to  take  risks  and  learn  from  them,  do 
not  get  equal  opportunities  ?  In  one  sense,  we  are  far  more 
fortunate  than  were  our  ancestors  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
great  war  with  France.  It  was  in  February,  1793,  that  war 
was  formally  declared  against  the  Revolutionary  Government, 
and'  it  was  just  four  years  afterwards  that  the  real  Nelson 
was  discovered  at  the  Battle  of  St.  Vincent.  And,  dvuing 
those  four  years,  the  Navy  was  for  the  most  dominated  by 
cautious  and  conservative  elder  men — and  with  lamentable 
results  in  inconclusive  fights. 

The  First  Lord's  new  principle  of  selecting  rear-admirals 
regardless  of  seniority  can,  one  supposes,  be  extended  to  the 
other  flag  ranks,  so  that  should  circumstances  justify,  there 
is  no  limit  to  the  opportvmities  that  may  be  given  to  those 
whom  war  has  shown  to  have  a  special  aptitude  for  command. 

Arthur  Pollen. 

Questionings   of  a   German   Philosopher 

OH  !   sav  what  made  Creation's  Lord  become.  Sire, 
thine  ally  ? 
It  must  be  as  thou  sayest,  but   I  sometimes 
wonder  why. 
How  came  He,  too,  to  make  the  pact  without 
conditions,  when 
He  makes  conditions  in  the  case  of  other  mortal  men  ? 
And  as  to  His  selection  of  the  Hohenzollern  Line 
To  dominate  all  EJurope  and  to  rule  by  right  divine 
I  do  not  doubt  at  all  the  truth  of  thine  imperial  voice. 
But  I  sometimes  fall  a-puzzling  at  the  reason  of  His  choice. 

Is  God  a  German  ?     I  would  ask.     And  can  He  haply  claim 
Some  kinship  with  thy  family  and  liigh-exalted  name  ? 
And  is  the  essential  spirit  of  Teutonic  "Kultur"  quite 
The  same  as  Christianity  and  one  with  Sitllichkeil  ? 
And,  if  so,  must  we  then  expect  that  Nature's  course  will  tend 
To  "Deutschland  uber  Alles"  as  the  Universal  End  ? 
Athenaeum  Club.  E.  A.  J. 


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I  2 


Land    &    Water  March  14,  191 8 

Russia  and  Japan:  By  Robert  Wilton 


BV  the  collapse  of  Russia  and  the  consequent 
advance  of  Austro-Gemian  forces  into  Ukrainia 
and  Muscovy,  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  a 
new  set  of  war  problems  which  may  be  summed 
up  in  the  words  :  enemv  absorption  of  Eastern 
Europe  and  a  large  part  of  Asia,  The  immediate  effect 
upon  the  Western  Allies  is  apparent.  Germany  obtams 
access  to  food  and  raw  materials.  The  people  and  the  armies 
of  the  Central  Powers  will  be  fed  and  their  industries  invigor- 
ated. The  mere  prospect  of  securing  such  advantages, 
backed  up  by  the  rapid  successes  of  the  invaders,  is  sufficient 
to  stiffen  the  "Teutonic"  nations.  They  know  that  the 
Russian  and  Asiatic  markets  can  compensate  them 
hlierallv  enough  for  their  loss  of  trade  in  the  West. 

Tliat"  is  not  all.  Germany's  plans  of  conquest— political, 
economic,  and  territorial— forbodc  a  still  greater  menace  to 
the  Western  Allies  in  the  future.  The  invasion  of  Muscovy 
is  but  the  first  step,  Gernianv's  ultimate  goal  will  not  be 
attained  till  she  has  reached  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  and 
Indian  Oceans.  Japan  long  ago  foresaw  the  danger.  She 
feels  it  now  more  clearlv  than  we  do..  The  reason  is  simple 
enough.  The  (ierman*  "peril  affects  her  more  immediately 
an<l  directly.  No  sooner  had  German  troops  begun  their 
march  on  Petrograd  than  a  note  of  alarm  and  warning  was 
sounded  by  the  Japanese  Press,  and  in  response — almost 
under  pressure  of  this  movement — Viscount  Motono,  the 
F"oceign  Minister,  had  to  give  assurances  in  Parliament  that 
a  Russian  surrender  to  Germany  would  be  met  with  pre- 
cautionary measures  by  Japan. 

His  announcement  let  loose  a  flood  of  sensational  rumour 
and  conjecture.  Restricting  myself  to  legitimate  surmises 
and  to  facts  that  are  really"  helpful  to  Allied  public 
opinion,  I  shall  attempt  in  this  article  to  explain  the  causes 
and  consequences  of  the  new  Easterp  situation.  • 

I. 

To  initiated  observers  it  was  clear  months  ago  that  the 
'  Revolution  was  being  exploited  by  Germany  in  defiance  of 
the  interests  and  wishes  of  the  great  majority  of  the  Russian 
people  ;  it  was  less  obvious  that  the  sober  element  among 
the  Russians  was  waiting  for  some  palpable  indication  from 
the  Allies  of  their  intention  to  support  law  and  order  in  the 
only  manner  that  could  create  any  impression,  namely,  by 
armed  intervention.  This  contingency  arose  when  the 
Bolsheviks  deliberately  brought  about  the  collapse  of  the 
Russian  offensive  in  Galicia  (July,  1917)  ;  it  became  pressing 
when  Kerensky  betrayed  Kornilov  to  the  Bolsheviks,  and 
thereby  ruined  all  hopes  of  restoring  disciphne  in  the  Russian 
armies ;  it  eissumed  a  tragic  form  in  November  with  the 
usurpation  of  power  by  Lenin.  The  leading  Bolsheviks  pro- 
ceeded at  once  to  initiate  separate  negotiations  with  the 
Germans.  It  was  still  not  too  late.  The  Bolsheviks  had 
not  yet  been  able  to  undermine  and  destroy  every  moral 
and  material  resource  :  Russia  could  still  have  ralUed  herself 
if  the  AlUes  had  sho\Yn  a  strong  hand  ;  Lenin  and  his  crew 
were  still  susceptible  to  pressure  from  the  outside. 

Why  did  the  Allied  governments  fail  to  take  action  ? 

The  causes  of  their  inactivity  must  be  sought  not  in  the 

Russian  situation,  but  rather  in   their  respective  domestic 

cares — in  the  whole  combination  of  circumstances  that  still 

''  prive  us  of  unity  on  what  I  may  call  the  diplomatic  front. 

On  returning  from  Russia,  last  autumn,  I  wrote  a  series 
of  articles  in  The  Times,  exposing  the  anti-national  character 
of  the  Revolutionary  movement,  and  privately  called  atten- 
tion to  the  necessity  of  immediate  intervention,  but  waited 
in  vain  for  some  indication  of  Allied  action.  Having  every 
reason  to  foresee  the  complete  collapse  of  Russia  unless  prompt 
measures  were  taken,  I  decided  to  place  my  views  in  writing, 
and  at  the  end  of  November  (after  Lenin's  usurpation)  1 
drew  up  a  memorandum,  from  which  I  cite  the  following  ; 

If  the  Allied  Governments  are  disposed  to  regard  Russia  as  a 
"  negligible  quantity  "  for  the  rest  of  the  war,  they  must  be 
prepared  (a)  to  waive  an  equitable  solution  of  the  Polish,  Serbian, 
and  Rumanian  questions  ;  (6)  to  consider  the  eventuality  of  a 
weakened  Russia  being  drawn  into  the  service  of  the  enemy  ; 
and  (e)  to  conclude  peace  without  Russia.  ... 

There  is  no  reasonable  ground  to  expect  any  improvement  in 
the  situation,  but  rather,  on  the  contrary,  a  development  of  the 
process  of  disintegration  that  has  been  going  on  Since  the  outbreak 
of  the  revolution. 

"The  failure  of  General  Kornilov's  plans  has  deprived  the 
country  of  its  one  and  only  hope  of  revival  by  its  own  unaided 
efforts.  .  .  . 

We  are  faced  by  the  possibiUty  of  a  German  landing  not  only 
in  Esthonia,  but  also  in  Finland,  which  will  entail  the  severance 


of  our  shortest  comniunii;ations  and  a  threat  to  the  Murman 
and  Archangel  lines. 

The  reaction  induced  by  revolutionary  excesses  has  become 
so  widespread  that  the  appearance  of  a  strong  government,  able 
to  impose  its  will,  would  be  hailed  by  all  except  the  Extremist 
minority.  Without  impetus  from  the  outside  efforts  in  this 
direction  will  be  unavaiUng,  and  we  may  have  to  wait  years 
before  anarchy  in  Russia  is  Ijrought  to  an  end. 

Allied  intervention  (the  landing  of  contingents  in  the  North  and 
of  troops  in  the  East)  is  necessary  in  the  interests  of  Russia  and 
of  the  Allies.  It  is  needed  urgently.  Its  effects  woiM  be  beneficent 
and  immediate. 

However,  nothing  came  of  my  efforts.  It  was  argued  that 
the  Bolsheviks  were  already  too  strong;  that  "we  must 
give  them  a  chance":  they  might  not,  after  all,  conclude 
a  separate  peace ;  whereas  any  act  of  intervention  on 
our  part  might  "throw  them  into  the  arms  of  Germany." 
The  wily  Bronstein-Trotsky  took  advantage  of  our  supine- 
ness  to  play  the  tragi-comedy  of  defiance  to  the  Germans  at 
Brest-Litovsk,  while  behind  this  screen,  successfully  bluffing 
Allied  opinion  and  deriving  encouragement  from  our 
Pacifist  Press,  his  associates  proceeded  to  break  down  anti- 
Bolshevik  resistance  in  Russia.  Their  efforts  were .  directed 
more  particularly  against  the  Cossacks,  against  the  volunteer 
army  raised  by  Alexeiev  and  Kornilov  in  the  South-East, 
and  against  the  Ukrainian  Rada.  By  insidious  propaganda, 
by  bribery  and  promises  of  land,  and  finally  by  open  force  / 
— using  for  this  purpose  regulars  drawn  from  tlie  front, 
which  was  thus  practically  opened  to  the  Germans,  and 
hired  mercenaries  known  as  Red  Guards — they  were  slowly 
but  surel}'  attaining  their  object.  Bereft  of  transport, 
munitions,  and  money,  which  had  fallen  by  foul  means  into 
Bolshevik  hands,  the  Cossacks  and  their  supporters  waited 
for  AlUed  help.  We  shall  know  some  day  through  what  a 
tragedy  of  watching  and  waiting  Kaledin  lived  till  he  finally 
shot  himself,  what  trials  Alexeiev  and  Kornilov  endured 
before  their  hosts  withered,  what  heart-searching  qualms 
shook  the  Ukrainian  delegates,  faced  by  the  alternative  of 
accepting  an  ignominious  peace  or  seeing  their  land  com- 
pletely ruined  by  Bolshevism. 

While  this  appalling  consummation  of  Russia's  ruin  was 
being  relentlessly  enacted,  the  antics  of  the  artful  Trotsky 
were  being  followed  with  wrapt  attention  by  the  uninitiated 
and  ehciting  unbounded  admiration  from  blind  and  envious 
leaders  of  democracy  in  AUied  lands.  The  Allied  govern- 
ments and  peoples  appeared  to  be  obUvious  of  the  fact  that 
the  Bolsheviks  were  helping  only  themselves  and  Germany. 
The  Brest-Litovsk  performance  achieved  its  purpose :  it 
effectually  stayed  the  hand  of  the  Allied  governments. 
Trotsky  was,  however,  so  infatuated  with  his  own  apparent 
success  that  he  began  to  believe  in  the  universal  victory  of 
Bolshevism,  and  carried  the  Brest-Litovsk  farce  beyond 
prescribed  limits.  For  this  vain .  delusion  sympathisers 
in  other  countries  were  largely  responsible.  But  German 
diplomacy  had  to  show  some  documentary  results  from  its 
laborious  and  costly  arrangements  with  the  Bolshevik  con- 
spirators, and  faute  de  mieux  conclude'd  a  pact  with  the 
Ukrainians. 

Baron  von  Kiihlmann  had  expected  to  bring  the  gift  of 
all  Russia  to  the  Reichstag  in  the  form  of  a  treaty  signed  by 
Lenin  and  Trotsky.  Diplomacy  had  had  its  innings  wdthout 
achieving  all  its  puFposes.  The  "mailed  fist"  thereupon 
went  in  to  settle  matters  in  an  expeditious  manner.  Aero- 
planes headed  the  march  of  the  invaders,  throwing  adequate 
proclamations,  and  reserving  their  bombs  for  Petrograd  as 
an  additional  argument  in  favour  of  a  separate  peace.  Light 
reconnoitring  parties  captured  strategic  points  and  railway 
junctions.  The  Bolsheviks  at  the  front  had  sold  cavalry 
and  artillery  horses,  machine  guns,  rifles,  and  ammunition 
to  the  German  in  exchange  for  money  and  goods  "made  in 
Germany."  .All  the  guns  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy 
because  they  could  not  be  moved.  Besides  the  so-called 
"armies"  under  "Comrade"  Krylenko  had  no  officers  and 
no  stomach  for  fighting.  They  were  the  remains  of  an 
armed  force  that  quickly  melted  away.  And  even  when  the 
Bolshevik  delegates  finally  signed  the  treaty  of  peace  with 
closed  eyes,  the  Germans  continued  their  flanking  move- 
ments in  Finland  and  Ukrainia. 

11. 

What  were  the  international  aspects  of  the  Russian 
tragedy  ?  Two  months  before  the  German  invasion,  I  wrote, 
but  did  not  publish — ^so  that  the  Allied  governments  should 
have  full   freedom   to  consider  the   question — a  statement 


March  14,  igi8 


Land    &    Water 


13 


■which  may  now  be  usefully  produced.  I  omit  certain 
important  passages  of  a  confidential  charactm-.  This  state- 
ment, dated  December  27,  1917,  deals  with  the  very  essence 
of  the  problem  that  concerns  us  at  present. 

The  Russian  Markets 

■  The  chief  asset  in  Germany's  future  is  the  Russian  market. 
To  assure  her  economic  control  over  Russia,  Germany  began 
the  "preventive"  war  of  1914.  She  decided  upon  that 
course  as  soon  as  Russia,  by  concluding  an  agreement  with 
<jreat  Britain  in  1907  and  preparing  a  series  of  mihtary 
programmes,  had  signified  her  intention  to  become  free  froin 
German  domination.  The  grand  programme  of  Russian 
armaments  was  begun  in  1912,  and  was  to  have  been  com- 
pleted in  1918.  Therein  lies  the  main  reason  for  Gennany's 
precipitating  the  struggle  in  1914.  Without  the  Russian 
market,  Germany'canhot  hope  to  carry  on  her  industrial  develop- 
ment, and  must' suffer  the  consequences  of  her  past  groivth 
— a  tremendous  economic  crisis  and  a  wholesale  exodus  of  her 
population.  From  Russia,  Germany  derived  cheap  food- 
stuffs and  raw  material ;  to  Russia,  Germany  supplied  the 
products  of  her  industries.  The  Russian  export  market  was 
largely  monopolised  by  German  firms.  German  exports 
similarly  monopolised  many  branches  of  Russia's  foreign 
trade.  During  the  year  preceding  the  -war  tliey  increased  by 
a  figure  equal  to  the  total  of  British  exports  to  Russia.  Gennany 
was  fast  becoming  predominant  in  imports  of  agricultural 
implements  and  machinery,  in  motor  cars,  and  all  kinds  of 
machinery  ajid  mechauiical  appliances.  Moreover,  German- 
owned  chemical  and  electrical  works  in  Russia^monopohsed 
the  home  production.  The  possibilities  of  the  Russian  market 
are  so  enormous  that  Germany  can  afford  to  lose  her  other 
mercantile  connections  if  she  secures  control  of  it.  The 
economic  trend  of  the  "peace"  negotiations  at  Brest- 
Litovsk  shows  clearly  enough  what  are  Germany's  aims. 

"Germany's  domination  in  the  Russian  market  affords 
not  only  an  invaluable  asset  in  itself ;  it  enables  hfir  to  reach 
the  markets  of  Asia  across  the  borders  of  Persia.  Afghanistan, 
and '^Mongolia.  She  xvill  thus  be  able  to  discount  British 
occupation  of  the  Bagdad  route,  and  compete  with' the  United 
States  and  Japan  in  Siberia  and  the  Far  East:  American 
interests  in  Siberia  are  very  considerable.  Siberian  imports 
of  .\merican  agricultural  machinery  increased  enormously 
with  the  development  of  colonisation,  which  had  only  begun 
to  assume  notable  proportions  just  before  the  war — Siberian 
gold-mining',  lumber  industries,  and  fisheries  are  still  in  their 
infancy.  They  offer  huge  fields  for  American,  Japanese,  and 
AustraUan  enterprise. 

"Siberia  and  Manchuria  are  the  greatest  untapped- wheat 
producing  countries  in  the  world,  with  natural  outlets  to  the 
Black  Sea  and  the  Pacific.  Germany  aims  at  controlling  the 
first,  if  not  the  second,  of  these  food  markets.  Thousands 
of  (lerman  prisoners  of  war  and  interned  subjects  of  the 
Fatherland  have  been  studying  the  language  and  the  customs 
of  Siberia  with  a  view  to  future  business  there. 

' '  //  the  Bolshevik  intrigue  engineered  by  her  does  not  enable 
Germany  to  capture  Russia  by  'peaceful  '  means,  she  will 
do  so  by  forfe.  She  is  already  concentrating  her  armies  on 
the  south-western  front  in  readiness  for  an  advance  on 
■  Odessa  and  Kieff  next  March  or  April,  when  cUmatic  condi- 
tions are  favourable.  By  this  course  she  will  come  into 
possession  of  the  rich  wheat  and  best  sugar  regions  of  Little 
Russia,  gain  a  permanent  foothold  on  the  Black  Sea  coast, 
and  be  in  a  position  to  strike  at  the  Donetz  steel  and  iron 
region.  As  soon  as  Germany  takes  the  Don  region  she  loill 
control  tlie  fuel  and  the  food  supply  of  European  Russia,  and 
have  the  country  at  Iter  mercy. 

'The  Little  Russians  (Ukrainians)  and  the  Cossacks 
a^jpreciate  this  danger,  and  have  revolted  against  the  pro- 
(ierman  Bolsheviks  in  Petrograd.  They  are  natural,  aJhes 
of  tlie  Siberians,  who  also  realise  the  consequences  of  the 
Bolshevist  'negotiations'  with  Germany.  All  these  kindred 
•elements  are  going  to  'fight  to  tlie  last  gasp  against  German 
absorption.  But  without  aid  from  the  Allies  they  tnay  fail. 
They  have  to  combat  the  ignorant  Russian  peasants  in  their 
own  midst,  for  millions  of  landless  parasites  have  swarmed 
to  the  land-grabbing  appeal  of  the  Bolshevism  (Social 
Democracy)  and  of  Maximalism  (Socialist  Revolution). 

"It  would  be  the  greatest  and  most  fatal  mistake  to  consider 
Rusiia  as  having  ceased  to  he  a  factor  in  the  war.  She  was 
the  main  factor  in  the  German  plan  of  a  'preventive'  war 
at  the  very  outset  of  hostilities,  and  she  has  not  ceased  to 
be  a  factor  because  of  her  military  collapse."  If  anything, 
site  is  more  important  to  us  now  that  there  'is  real  danger  of  her 
falling  into  German  Imnds.  for  it  is  obvious  that  once  in 
possession  of  the  South  of  Russia — tlie  granary  as  well  as 
the  mineral  storehouse  of  the  country — the  Germans  would 


be  able  to  prolong  their  struggle  with  the  Allies  almost 
indefinitely." 

Further,  I  pointed  out  the  necessity  of  organising  propa- 
ganda :  "The  people  of  Russia  must  know  our  motives  fully 
and  exactly.  The  truth  abput  the  Bolshevist  intrigiie  with 
Germany  must  be  set  forth.  We  should  offer  to  help  the 
Russians  preserve  their  freedom  and  independence." 

III. 

But  no  el^'ectual  action  was  taken.  Our  diplomatic 
front  was  still  in  abeyance,  each  Ally  continuing  to  deal 
with  this  \dtal  matter  not  on  its  intrinsic  merits  or  on  avail- 
able information  from  reliable  sources,  but  according  to 
prejudices  or  tendencies  dominating  their  own  domestic  polity. 
It  is  to  the  credit  of  Japan  that  she  has  shown  us  a  way  out 
of  the  impasse.  \Mien  the  Government  at  Tokio  proceeded 
to  sound  the  other  Allied  governments  as  to  their  respective 
views  on  the  Russian  situation,  the  first  serious  step  was 
taken  towards  saving  Russia  and  towards  the  establishment 
of  a  real  unity  of  the  Allied  diplomatic  front. 

It  is  fairly  obvious,  in  the  light  of  undisputable  facts 
adduced  in  the  statement  cited  above,  that  German  pre- 
dominance in  Russia  is  tantamount  to  a  German  victory. 
That  Germany  will  exert  every  effort  to  secure  her  grasp  t)n 
Russia  is  also  beyond  question.  Her  largest  pre-wax  cus- 
tomers— the  British  Empire,  the  United  States,  and  France — 
will  certainly  consider  their  own  interests  in  trade  and  in 
the  supply  of  raw  material.  Germany  knows  that  she  has 
little  to  expect  from  them.  Germany  must  have  Russia, 
otherwise  she  cannot  afford  to  continue  the  war. 

During  a  conference  held  early  in  January,  General  Foch, 
turning  to  the  Japanese  representative,  asked,  d  br&le  pour- 
point,  what  was  to  prevent  them  from  immediately  landing 

a    substantial    force    (I    withhold    figures)    at    ?      Two 

months  earlier,  Generjil  Alexeiev  had  warned  his  countr^'meIl 
that  Japan  would  take  this  step  if  revolutionary  anarfchy 
continued  to  prevail  in  Russia.  These  military  geniuses 
were  more  clear-sighted  and  outspoken  than  the  majority 
of  diplomatists, and  politicians.  The  question  put  by  the 
French  Generalissimo  did  not  for  this  .reason  obtain  a  full 
and  immediate  answer. 

There  were,  it  is  true,  certain  obvious  difficulties.  The 
people  of  Siberia,  like  most  of  the  Europeans  settled  in  the 
East,  were  suspicious  of  Japan.  Before  he  became  Hadji 
Wilhelm,  "Protector  of  Islam,"  the  chameleon  Kaiser  of 
Potsdam  had  magnified  the  bogey  known  as  the  Yellow 
Peril.  He  had  incited  Russia  against  Japan.  To  his  crafty 
counsels  the  hapless  Tsar  fell  a  ready  victim,  the  rotten 
government  then  prevailing  in  Russia,  bereft  of  organic 
connection  with  the  people,  drifted  into  the  senseless  war 
with  Japan.  Since  then  the  spectre  of  Japanese  "  aggression  " 
had  obsessed  the  minds  of  Siberians,  particularly  those 
living  east  of  Baikal. 

A  glance  at  a  map  will  emphasise  the  dominant  fact  in  the 
Trans-Baikal  situation :  that  this  region  is  dependent 
for  its  trade  outlet  upon  the  Pacific  littoral.  I  have  also 
made  allusion  to  the  economic  interests  of  Japan,  the  United 
States,  Australia — an(i  I  may  add  to  this  list  also  Canada — 
ip  the  East  Siberian  market.  Japan's  interests  tax  exceed 
those  of  any  other  country.  The  fishery  rights  secured  to 
her  by  the  Treaty  of  Portsmouth  on  the  East  Siberian  coast, 
coupled  with  the  reversion  of  Russia's  treaty  rights  in 
Manchuria,  place  her  indisputabl}'  in  the  front  rank.  This 
position  carried  with  it  bounden  duties  as  well  as  undoubted 
privileges.  She  could  not  stand  by  indefinitely  while 
Bolshevism  proceeded  with  its  work  of  disruption  and 
anarchy.  Her  first  duty  was,  of  comrse,  to  protect  her  own 
interests ;  but  in  doing  so  she  was  bound  to  save  the 
Siberians  from  their  internal  or  external  foes— from  the 
inroads  of  Bolshevism  and  the  invasion  of  Germany. 

According  to  accounts  received  from  Washington,  some 
hesitancy  has  been  displayed  there  in  agreeing  to  single- 
handed  action  by  Japan.  We  must  assume  that  there  is  a 
certain  measure  of  truth  in  these  assertions.  They  tally 
with  other  facts,  notably  the  persistent  tendency  displayed 
by  American  representatives  in  Russia  to  deal  gently  with 
the  Bolsheviks.  This  tendency  may  be  ascribed  to  domestic 
causes.  Tlie  American  mentality  has  become  accustomed 
to  machine  politics  and  rough  political  methods.  They  have 
done  no  very  great  harm  amidst  a  well-educated,  patriotic, 
and  energetic  and  individualistic  nation— at  least,  not  in 
times  of  peace.  The  methods  of  the  Bolsheviks,  resembling 
in  many  respects  the  methods  of  Tammany  Hall,  were  treated 
with  habitual  American  tolerance  as  "part  of  the  political 
game."  Lenin,  like  "Boss"  Croker,  had  simply  "got  there" 
— so  much  the  worse  for  the  "other  fellow,"  who  was  "no 
account,"  could  not  "deliver  the  goods."  Trotsky  had  lived 
in  New  York,  and  showed  his  appreciation  of  the  lessons  he 


14 


Land   &  Water 


March  14,  191  8 


had  learned  in  the  Western  Metropolis  by  remitting  sub- 
stantial sums  to  pav  off  numerous  debts  as  soon  as  he  had 
obtained  a  share  of  the  Tammany-Bolshevik  spoils.  But 
American  tolerance  does  not  imply  approval.  In  pre-war 
days,  home  politics  in  the  United  States  were  marked  by 
jieriotlical  overthrows  of  the  "machine,  "  whenever  citizens 
found  "Boss"  rule  too  onerous.  The  natural  remedy  for 
Bolshevism,  according  to  the  American  idea,  lay  with  the 
Russians  themselves.  Perhaps  I  have  stated  the  position 
crudely,  but,  I  believe,  not  unfairly.  The  separate  peace 
now  signed  bv  Lenin,  coupled  with  the  German  invasion, 
disi)els  all  these  fanciful  presentments  of  Bolshevism.  There 
cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  that  American  opinion  will 
in  the  end  whole-heartedly  support  Japan. 

IV. 
In  paying  a  fine  tribute  some  time  ago  to  the  essential 
character  of  British  rule.  General  Snouts  drew  attention  to 
a  fact  that  escapes  the  understanding  of  visionaries  and 
demagogues — the  British  Empire  has  laid  the  foundations 
of  a  new  world-edifice,  the  Brotherhood  of  Nations.  It  has 
given  substance  and  reality  to  the  noblest  ideal  of  humanity. 
Our  alliance  with  Japan  was  a  natural  and  consistent 
expression  of  British  tendencies.  We  were  the  first  White 
Great  Power  to  conclude  a  living  national  union  with  a 
\'ellow  Power.  We  did  so  for  what  may  be  regarded 
by  superficial  critics  as  selfish  motives,  to  safeguard  our 
interests  in  Asia ;  in  reality,  because  we  instinctively  felt 
that  Japan  was  animated  by  a  spirit  of  progress  and  enlighten- 
ment that  made  her  our  natural  ally  in  the  East. 

Have  our  hopes  been  disappointed  ?  I  do  not  think  that 
the  rashest  and  most  inveterate  opponent  of  the  Anglo- 
Japanese  alliance  can  aspire  to  produce  the  slightest  tittle 
of  evidence  in  support  of  a  negative  answer.  In  her  rela- 
tions with  Russia,  leading  up  to  an  agreement,  concluded 
by  \'iscount  Motono  while  he  was  Ambassador  in  Petrograd, 
Japan  pursued  a  wise  policy,  strictly  in  accordance  with  her 
obligations  towards  us.  We  have  not  a  single  reproach  to 
bring  against  Japan  in  connection  with  her  policy  in  Asia  or 
elsewhere.  Yet  the  internal  situation  in*  China  has  fre- 
quently given  her  much  provocation.  Germany's  "peaceful 
penetration "  of  the  Celestial  Empire  in  pre-war  days  threat- 
ened to  bring  about  a  state  of  affairs  resembling  Turkey. 
Japan  was  affected  to  a  much  greater  degree  than  were 
other  Powers  ;  but,  in  loyalty  to  us,  she  steadfastly  refrained 
from  precipitating  a  conflict. 

Since  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  Japan  has  loyally  fulfilled 
her  obligations  to  us.  Viscount  Motono  took  the  initiative 
in  prompting  Russia  to  avail  herself  of  Japan's  aid  in  the 
supply  of  munitions.  Japan's  military  activity  was  re- 
stricted to  the  Far  East,  and  although  this  restriction  was 
galling  to  the  national  amour  propre  whicli  interpreted  it  as 
an  evidence  of  mistrust,  the  Japanese  bore  the  slight 
without  r(?i>ining,  and  when  later  they  were  invited  to  extend 
the  ^^phere  of  their  naval  activities,  they  cheerfully  complied, 
("oming  to  more  recent  times,  when  the  Bolsheviks  assumed 
ciintrol  in  Harbin  and  the  Russian  General  Khorvat  invited 
Chinese  aid  to  quell  the  revolutionaries,  Japan  refrained 
from  taking  action,  being  desirous  only  of  considering  the 
wishes  of  her  Allies,  although  her  interests  at  Harbin  far 
exceeded  those  of  any  other  Allied  Power. 

Still  later,  after  it  had  become  apparent  that  enormous 
quantities  of  munitions  and  suppUes  collected  at  Vladivostok 
—largely  from  Japan— were  at  the  mercy  of  Bolshevik- 
German  agents,  she  still  withheld  her  hand,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  other  interested  Powers  showed  a  disinclination  to 
take  action.  And  only  when  public  opinion  at  home  began 
to  be  disturbed  by  this  loyal  quiescence  the  Japanese  Govern- 
ment took  the  initiative.  But  before  doing  so  the  .\llies 
were  approached  and  their  views  consulted.  I  think  Japan 
has  displayed  remarkable  reticence  in  the  face  of  the  strongest 
provocation,  and  has  shown  cause  for  every  confidence  on 
the  part  of  the  Allied  governments  and  peoples. 

V. 

It  would  be  premature  and  quite  outside  the  scope  of 
Al  led  journalism  at  the  present  moment  to  discuss^  the 
details  of  the  measures  that  Japan  may  be  called  upon  to 
take  Certain  things  are,  however,  self-evident,  and  do  not 
constitute  a  secret.  In  the  first  place.  Allied  munitions  and 
stores  at  Vladivostok  must  be  saved  ;  in  the  second  place 
Siberia  must  be  cleared  of  enemv  subjects,  and  within  this 
dehmtion  we  must  include  the  Bolslieviks,  since  they  have 
signed  a  traitorous  peace  with  Germany 

The  miUtary  aspects  of  the  task  that  now  confronts  Japan 
are  obvious.  The  Siberian  railway  and  the  Amur  waterway 
have  been  captured  by  the  Bolsheviks  with  the  aid  of 
liberated  convicts  and  enemy  prisoners  of  war.     The  line  of 


advance  is  thus  indicated  by  the  nature  of  things.  The 
Amur  will  be  cleared  either  by  flotillas  ascending  that  mighty 
river  as  soon  as  navigation  opens  or  by  a  flanking  movement 
of  troops.  The  main  objectives  are  Irkutsk — to  cut  off  the 
Amur  basin,  and  Omsk — to  secure  a  base  for  advancing  on 
Tinmen  and  Clieliabinsk,  which  respectively  command  the 
railways  to  Moscow  and  Petrograd.  From  a  strictly  military 
point  of  view,  the  clearing  up  of  Siberia  from  the  Pacific  to 
the  Urals  is  almost  entirely  a  matter  of  railway  transport. 
Sufficiency  of  rolling  stock,  repairs  of  bridges  that  may  be 
destroyed — these  will  be  factors  upon  which  the  progress  of 
the  Japanese  must  depend.  There  can  be  no  question  of 
armed  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Bolsheviks. 

Nor  is  it  likely  that  the  Cossack  armies  distributed' 
throughout  Siberia  wiU  combine  with  the  followers  of  Lenin. 
If  such  a  contingency  should  arise,  it  will  be  due  entirely  tO' 
their  ignorance  of  Allied  aims  ;  in  other  words,  to  the  defici- 
encies of  our  propaganda.  The  interests  of  the  Cossacks  are 
even  more  conservative  than  those  of  the  Siberian  settlers, 
to  whom  they  bear  in  point  of  numbers  a  relation  approxi- 
matelj'  of  one  to  ten.  The  total  population  of  Siberia  is 
under  7,000,000,  that  of  the  Cossacks  over  half  a  million. 

That  Bolshevism  is  utterly  alien  to  the  spirit  of  the 
Siberians  will  be  seen  from  the  following  facts.  Reserve 
troops  brought  hither  from  Russia  during  the  war  and 
garrisoned  in  the  large  cities  have  enabled  alien  agitators 
—many  of  whom  had  been  expelled  from  the  United  States 
for  revolutionary  propaganda— to  dispose  of  armed  brute 
force  to  back  up  their  nefarious  designs.  In  this  foul  work 
they  have  been  helped  by  large  numbers  of  convicts  and 
Germans — all  liberated  during  the  Revolution.  The 
Siberians  were  not  only  opposed  to  Bolshevism  :  they  formed 
volunteer  battalions  and  went  to  fight  the  Germans  during 
the  offensive  of  July,  1917. 

And  now  let  me  explain  why  Bolshevism  is  a  vain  Word  to 
the  Siberians.  Lenin  and  his  crew  have  been  able  to 
demoralise  the  Russian  reserve  troops  and  the  landless 
peasants  by  promises  of  peace  and  land.  In  European 
Russia  this  meant  depriving  landowners  of  their  property. 
In  Siberia  there  are  no  landowners,  strictly  speaking,  except 
the  Cossacks.  All  settlers  have  received  allotments  on 
tenure  from  the  State.  The  State  owns  practically  all  the 
land  in  Siberia.  Every  man  who  is  willing  to  work  can 
become  a  prosperous  farmer.  There  is  room  for  a  hundred 
million  and  to  spare. 

The  Siberians  themselves  are  a  more  developed  and  go-a- 
head people  than  their  Russian  kinsmen.  They  are  the 
product  of  a  long"  continued  process  of  national  selection. 
Only  the  hardiest  and  most  enterprising  Russians  emigrated. 
Moreover,  the  political  exiles  to  Siberia  were  also  the  most 
independent  and  resolute  men  in  Russia.  The  Siberian 
farmers  have  formed  dairy  and  other  co-operatives.  They 
were  no  fit  subjects  for  Bolshevik  propaganda  or  experiments. 
It  should  not  be  difficult  to  make  them  understand  why 
Japan  has  been  compelled  to  come  to  their  aid.  They 
know  that  Japan  is  our  ally,  and' that  the  British  market 
has  been  and  must,  after  the  war,  remain  their  best  customer. 
It  is  equally  essential  that  they  should  know  of  American 
sympathy  with  Japan's  movements.  They .  use  la  vast 
quantity  of  American — and  Canadian — agricultural  machin- 
ery, without  which  they  cannot  develop  their  farms. 

Wliat  will  be  the  ultimate  consequences  of  Japan's  inter- 
vention ?  The  answer  to  this  question  involves  a  large  field 
of  study,  that  can  be  briefly  touched  upon  here.  The  whole 
future  of  Asiatic  politics  has  been  affected  by  this 
war.  Germany's  plans  of  instigating  an  Islamic  movement 
against  us  in  the  Caucasus,  Turkestan,  Persia,  Afghanistan, 
and  India  are  too  well  known.  Japan's  influence  among 
the  Asiatic  nations  had  been  growing  steadily,  and  is  likely 
to  be  enhanced  by  impending  events.  It  is  well  for  us  that 
it  shpuld  be  so.  No  better  answer  could  be  found  to  the 
Protean  aspects  of  Potsdam  intrigue  among  Moslem  races 
than  the  presence  among  us  of  an  Asiatic  Great  Power  with 
aims  and  interests  in  direct  conflict  with  those  of  Germany. 
And  perhaps  it  may  be  permissible  to  venture  the  prediction 
that  Japan's  intervention  in  Siberia  may  ultimately  bring 
the  Mikado's  legions  face  to  face  with  those  of  the  Kaiser. 
I  think  the  Japanese  will  be  glad  to  meet  their  foe  face  to 
face,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  will  give  an  excellent 
account  of  themselves.  But  in  the  maturing  of  these  future 
events  Japan  will  help  us  to  bring  Russia  back  to  her  normal 
self — to  the  comity  of  nations. 

As  for  Japan's  reward,  is  it  necessary  or  seemly  to  discuss 
the  question  ?  Do  we  ask  ourselves  what  we  are  going  to 
make  out  of  the  war  ?  The  future  Peace  Conference  will 
decide.  Meanwhile,  let  us  trust  Japan  as  we  trust  ourselves 
—as  a  full-fledged  member  of  the  community  of  nations 
now  fighting  for  freedom,  justice,  and  humanity." 


March  14,   19  i  8 


Land    8c    Water 


15 


Jerusalem  and  Damascus  :  By  Myra  K.  Hughes,  a.r.e. 


CAN  there  be  two  names  that  conjure  up  to  one's 
imagination  more  scenes  connected  with  religion, 
romance,  and  history  than  Jerusalem  and 
Damascus  ?  Jerusalem,  the  capital  of  Palestine 
long  before  Joshua  entered  Jericho,  is  only  133 
miles  in  a  straight  line  from  Damascus,  the  capital  of  Syria, 
whose  origin  is  lost  in  the  mists  of  antiquity.  Broadly  speak- 
ing, these  two  stand  for  two  leading  factors  in  life — religion 
•and  commerce. 

No  great  advantage  of  position — geographical  or  strategical 
— in  troublous  times  gave  Jerusalem  lier  long  reign  :  she, 
"beautiful  for  situation,  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth,"  was 
first  known  as  the  City  of  Salem  or  Peace.  "Pray  for  the 
peace  of  Jerusalem  ;  they  shall  prosper  that  love  thee," 
came  from  the  warring  David,  who  brought  her  into  far 
more  strife  than  when  she  was  a  Jebusite  city.  One  of  his 
many  wars  took  him  to  Damascus,  which  we  read  he  sub- 
dued    and     which     paid  . — ^- 

tithes  to  him  for  some 
time.  It  was  in  King 
■Solomon's  reign  that  she 
was  at  the  height  of  her 
prosperity,  and  her  temple 
was  the  glory  of  the  whole 
world.  But  trouble  was 
brought  on  Jerusalem  and 
Damascus  by  their  various 
treaties  with  strong  allies. 
Egyptians,  Philistines, 
Israelites,  Moabites, 
Syrians,  Assyrians, 
Greeks,  Romans,  Per- 
sians. Franks,  Normans, 
Turks — all  in  turn  have 
•fought  against  and  around 
these  great  cities. 

Owing  to  the  numerous 
Jews  from  Jerusalem  liv- 
ing in  Damascus,  Christ- 
ianity first  began  to 
spread  to  that  city,  and 
here  one  turns  for  the 
scene  of  the  Conversion  of 
St.  Paul.  That  zealous 
Jew,  "a  Roman  citizen," 
hoped  to  keep  Damascus 
out  of  Christian  influence. 
Yet  in  after  days  his  was 
the  great  influence  which 
helped  to  make  the  city  a 
Christian  one,  until  she 
fell  in  634  into  the  hands 
of  the  Mohammedans. 
They  swept  on,  under 
Caliph  Omar,  to  Jerusa- 
lem, which  fell  in  637. 

Now,  alas,  for  the  pic- 
turesque, an  irregular 
straggling      suburb      has 


Es  Sinaneyeh,  Damascus 

By  Myra   K.  Hughes,  A.R.E. 


grown  out  of  Jerusalem,  west  and  north-west  chiefly,  com- 
posed of  hotels,  hospices,  hospitals,  etc.,  and  colonies  of 
Jews,  Quakers,  Russians,  French,  English,  and  others  have 
€stablished  themselves  there.  No  city  in  the  world  is  so 
well  provided  with  hospitals.  Every  nation  or  secj  of  any 
importance  thinks  that  it  must  be  represented  by  church, 
school,  or  hospital !  Anyone  who  has  travelled  in  Palestine 
and  Syria  realises  the  need  of  "eye  service"  ;  therefore  one 
of  the  best  known  is  the  British  Ophthalmic  Hospital, 
founded  by  the  Order  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem.  This  Order, 
of  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  Red  Cross  Society,  we 
hear  so  much  at  the  present  day,  wa^  founded  in  the  eleventh 
century  for  the  protection  of  the  pilgrims  to  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre — illustrated  on  page  2.  This  church 
was  originally  built  by  Constantine,  and  the  Chapel  of  St. 
Helena — which  is  under  the  same  roof— by  his  English 
mother,  and  both  were  consecrated  in  a.d.  336. 

Close  by  the  Jaffa  Gate  lies  the  Pool  of  Hezekiah,  which 
in  summer  has  very  little  water  in  it,  and  what  is  there  is 
very  dirty.  The  people  in  the  surrounding  houses  throw 
their  rubbish  into  it.  I  saw  every  variety  of  debris,  from 
orange  peel  to  a  dead  cat,  lying  on  its  surface,  while  the  frogs 
croaked  around.  The  proprietor  of  one  of  these  houses 
courteously  allowed  me  to  step  over -the  railing  on  to  the 


roof  to  make  a  sketch  when  1  saw  a  trap)-door  under  an 
overhanging  window  open,  and  a  big  can  was  lowered  by  a 
long  rope  into  this  unclean  water  below — filled,  and  pulled 
up  again.  This  occurred  several  times,  so  at  last  I  a.sked 
what  could  such  water  be  wanted  for,  and  was  told  as  if  it 
were  the  most  natural  thing,  "  Dat  is  for  de  bath"  ! 

The  chief  contrast  between  Jerusalem  and  Damascus  lies 
in  their  positions,  Jerusalem  being  away  from  any  great 
caravan  route,  Damascus  being  at  the  centre  of  three — one 
through  Galilee  to  the  Levant,  on  to  Gaza,  the  door  of 
Asia,  the  outpost  of  Africa — then  on  to  Egvpt  ;  another  to 
Bagdad  ;  and  the  third  to  Mecca.  The  last  starts  from  the 
South  Gate,  knoWn  as  "the  "Gate  of  God,"  because  the 
pilgriifiages  to  Mecca  leave  from  it.  Thus,  from  being  in  a 
centre  of  great  routes,  the  oldest  city  in  the  world  gained 
her  commercial  prosperity  in  spite  of  having  been  at  least 
twelve  times  pillaged  and  burned..    Think  of  her  standing 

on  the  banks  of  Abana 
4,000  years  ago.  when 
Abraham  crossed  the 
desert  of  Hauran.  Yet  she 
is  not  old-fashioned.  Did 
not  Damascus  have  elec- 
tric light  and  trams  before 
anv  other  biblical  city  ? 
.And  now  her  Mohamme- 
dan women  have  joined  a 
leapue  in  favour  of  un- 
veiling. To  show  their 
perverted  idea  of  decorum, 
I  relate  the  following  in- 
cident. One  day,  as  I  sat 
sketching  on  a  little  bridge 
over  the  Abana,  between 
two  rows  of  houses,  a 
servant  girl,  in  her  cotton 
costume  of  baggy  panta- 
loons and  loose  over-all 
tunic  down  to  the  knees, 
came  to  draw  some  water. 
She  looked  up  at  me 
smilingly,  but  when  a  man 
appeared  behind  me,  her 
one  idea  was  to  hide  her 
face  from  him.  Witliout 
a  thought,  she  pulled  her 
tunic  right  over  her  head, 
unconcerned  that  it  ex- 
posed all  her  back  ! 

The  swiftly  flowing 
Abana,  which  unites  with 
the  Pharpar  below  Damas- 
cus, is  taken  through  the 
city  by  channels  and  pipes 
to  every  part,  so  that 
every  mosque,  house,  and 
court  has  its  fountain.  In 
the  houses  of  the  rich  the 
fountain  is  in  the  centre 
of  a  court,  planted  with  orange,  apricot,  and  myrtle  trees, 
and  the  court,  with  its  comfortable  divans,  is  both  refreshing 
and  beautiful.  Damascus  is  in  a  desert  plain,  surrounded 
by  high  hills,  and  in  the  middle  of  an  oval  of  green,  is  the 
pale  golden  city,  with  its  hundreds  of  minarets,  domes,  and 
huge  bazaars.  This  green  ring  is  not  a  close  forest,  but 
cultivated  plantations,  orcheirds.  parks,  gardens,  and  corn- 
fields. The  long  bazaar,  leading  from  the  citadel,  ends  at 
the  mosque  Es  Sininfiyeh,  illustrated  here,  whose  dome  is 
covered  with  blue  and  green  and  white  glazed  tiles. 

The  House  of  Rimmon  stood  on  the  site  of  the  Great  Mosque 
Omayyades,  and  later  Constantine  erected  on  the  same  site 
a  Christian  Church  dedicated  to  St.  John  the  Baptist.  When 
Damascus  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Mohammedans  the 
church  wasi divided  between  the  Christians  and  Mohamme- 
dans. Seventy  years  later  every  Christian  trace  was  oblit- 
erated, and  they  closed  the  door  the  Christians  used  and 
put  up  buildings  in  front  of  it.  A  few  years  ago  this  mosque 
was  burnt  to  the  ground,  but  the  old  door  escaped.  No  one 
was  more  surprised  than  the  Mohammedan  himself  to  read 
over  its  portal,  "Thy  kingdom,  O  Christ,  is  the  kingdom  of 
all  ages  and  Thy  dominion  endureth  throughout  all  genera- 
tions." Many  felt  superstitiously  afraid  of  tampering  with 
the  old  door,  so  there  the  inscription  still  remains.  *• 


i6 


Land   &   Water 


March   14,  191  8 


Life  and  Letters  (nj  J.  C  Souire 


The  Stage  Irishmaa 

WE  cannot  definitely  deny  tint  every  good  book 
in  the  end  comes  into  its  own  and  there  are 
cases  (that  of  Herrick  is  cne)  in  which  the 
process  has  taken  a  centuiv.  What  happens 
"in  the  end"  we  cannot  say,  as  the  universe 
has  not  vet  been  wound  up.  But  at  this  moment  of  time 
ih^rc  are  certainly  a  good  man v  entertaining  works  which 
havXenTn  eSence\nything  from  ten  to  a  hundred  and 
Sftv  voars  wluch  have  never  reached  the  large  audiences  or 
which  thev  are  perfectly  adapted  or  which  have  accidentally 
and  unjus^^^v  slipped  out  of  notice^  I'ate  is  ^on.et.mes  uukind 
even  to  works  of  fiction;  as,  for  mstance,  T^  Wallet  of 
K^Lung,  about  which  I  recently  wrote  here.  But  injustice 
is  far  more  frequently  done  to  books  of  memoirs  and  bio- 
Uphv.  Any  such  book,  if  in  the  lerst  candid,  ^s  readable 
but  there  are  scores  of  really  exceptional  ones  which  ahiiost 
anybody  would  enjoy,  but  scarcely  anybody  reads.  Among 
them  one  may  mention  the  staggering  autobiography  of 
Tames  Lackington,  the  first  bookseller  to  deal  on  a  large 
scale  in  "remainders";  the  Adventures  of  a  Younger  Son 
by  Shelley's  friend  Trelawney— an  extraordinary  record  ot 
adventure,  accessible  in  Bohn's  Shilling  Library;  Burdy  s 
Life  of  Skelt'm.  which  is  as  good  as  a  fragment  of  Boswell ; 
and  Barringions  Memoirs,  now  reprinted  m  every. Irishman  s 
Library  (Fisher  Unwin,  3s.  net). 

****** 
The  "recoUections"  of  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  are  suffi- 
ciently "established"  to  obtain  a  place  in  any  Irish  literary 
liistor>' ;  but  how  many  Englishmen  have  read  them  ? 
There  was  a  time,  perhaps,  when  one  would  have  hesitated 
to  recommend  them  to  Englishmen.  That  was  the  time 
when  the  ordinary'  EngUshman  saw  Ireland  entirely  through 
the  eyes  of  Lever  and  Lover.  The  island  appeared  to  be 
entirely  populated  by  reckless  hunting  squires  with  a  pasSion 
for  whisky  and  broiled  bones,  and  devoted  servants  with 
long  upper  lips  and  an  unlimited  capacity  for  saying 
"Bejabers,  Begorrah,  Bedad,"  and  constructing  bulls.  A 
British  farce  was  incomplete  without  an  utterly  incapable 
and  incorrigible  Irishman,  with  towsled  red  hair  ;  and  the 
Irish  stranger  in  England  was  expected  to  Uve  the  part. 
It  was  scarcely  unnatural  that  the  intelligent  Irishman 
should  revolt  against  this  conception,  and  (as  Canon  Hannay 
points  out  in  his  introduction  to  the  hqw  edition)  there  have 
been  several  schools  of  protest.  We  have  had  generations 
of  grim  young  revolutionists  "laming"  England  through  the 
medium  of  pohtics.  We  have  had  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw  sug- 
gesting that  the  Irish  are  a  serious  and  a  humourless  race, 
and  contrasting  the  taciturn  solid  realistic  Irishman  Welling- 
ton with  the  sentimental  and  feminine  Englishman  Nelson, 
these  two  being,  with  as  much  solemnity  as  Mr.  Shaw  can 
command,  placed  before  us  as  characteristic  types  qf  the 
two  races.  Finally,  we  have  had  the  neo-Celts  who,  in  Canon 
Hannay's  words,  "saw  us/  and  half  persuaded  cultured 
England  to  see  us,  as  a  long  procession  of  fate-driven 
peasants  with  sorrowful  eyes,  behind  whose  shadowy  figures 
hover  vast,  maUgnant  powers,  spirits  of  cloudy  poetry,  and 
tragical  romance."  This  atmosphere  has  so  dominated 
Irish  literature  in  our  time,  that  Irish  literary  officialdom 
has  almost  entirely  neglected  the  stories  of  Somerville  and 
Ross.  They  have  been  resented  rather  as  heirs  of  the  Lover 
and  Lever  tradition.  But  there  was  a  foundation  for  Lover  ; 
and  Lever  was  scarcely  a  caricature  at  all.  He  did  not 
represent  all  Ireland,  any  more  than  that  admirable  realist 
Mr.  W.  W.  Jacobs  (riot  to  mention  the  Pickwick  Papers) 
represents  all  England  ;  and  times  change.  But  he  was  as 
true  to  the  facts  of  his  day,  and  to  Jonah  Barrington, 
as  Thackeray  and  Trollope  were  to  the  facts  of  their  day 
and  the  Victorian  diarists. 


There  is  no  risk,  at  this  date,  of  anybody  supposing  that 
Mr.  W.  B.  Yeats,  or  even  Mr.  John  Dillon,  is  a  red-headed 
man  who  makes  bulls  and  attends  wakes.  It  is  therefore 
permissible  to  observe  that  Barrington  is  the  justification  of 
the  nineteenth-century  Irish  novelists,  and  the  stage  Irish- 
man not  only  existed,  but  existed  in  large  quantities. 
Englishmen,  a  hundred  years  ago,  used  to  drink  and  sing 
more  than  they  do  to-day  ;  but  they  did  not  drink  and 
sing  like  Irishmen.  One  would  not  go  bail  for  all  Sir  Jonah's 
stories  ;  but  if  he  was  a  picturesque  liar,  he  was  so  much 
the  more  a  stage  Irishman  himself.     His  memoirs  deal,  to 


sonic  extent,  with  important  "affairs"  of  the  day-  the 
Union  with  England,  the  wars,  the  fall  of  Napoleon.  But 
he  writes  of  these  with  the  same  vivacity,  discursiveness. 
and  airy  independence  as  he  employs  upon  the  nipre  con- 
genial to]Mcs  of  divorce  cases,  duels,  and  junketings.  He 
had  liis  principles  ;-  he  adored  liberty  and  hated  democracy, 
lie  said.  But  it  was  the.  human,  and  particularly  the  human 
weakness  that  he  was  interested  in  ;  and  there  is  no  blunter 
or  more  jaunty  chronicler  in  English. 

«|l«^<>*  *  *  • 

**  Barrington's  Irish  gentry  might  have  come  straight  out  of 
Lover ;  his  servants  are  "preposterously  loyal,  and  they  do 
say  "Arrah"  and  "By  the  hokey"  ;  and  his  pages  ar<5 
crowded  with  inadder  freaks  than  any  noveUst  ever  dreamed 
of.  He  gets  the  atmosphere,  no  doubt  a  little  ideahsed,  at 
the   very  start  : 

No  gentleman  of  this  degree  ever  distrainecl  a  tenant  lor  rent  ; 
indeed,  the  parties  appeared  to  be  quite  united  and  knit  together. 
The  greatest  abhorrence,  however,  prevailed  as  to  tithe-proctors, 
coupled  with  no  great  predilection  for  the  clergy  who  employed 
them.  .  .  .     Every   estated   gentleman   in   the   Queen's   Couaty 
was   honoured   by   the   gout.     I   have   since   considered   that   its 
extraordinary  prevalence  was  not  difficult  to  be  accounted  for, 
by    the    disproportionate   quantity    of    adid    contained    in    their 
seductive  beverage,  called  rum-shrub,  which  was  then  universally 
drunk   in   quantities   nearly   incredible,    generally   from   supper- 
time  till  morning,   by  all  country  gentlemen,   as  they  said,   to 
keep  down  their  claret. 
It  is  not  long  J)ef ore  we  come  upon  the  first  of  his  hundreds 
of  fearful  anecdotes.     His  grandmother,  exasperated  with  a 
neighbour,   Mr.  Dennis  Bodkin,  said:    "I  wish  the  fellow's 
ears  were  cut  off !     That  might  quiet  him  "  : 

It  passed  over  as  usual :  the  subject  was  changed,  and  all  went 
on  comfortably  till  supper ;  at  which  time,  when  everybody 
was  in  full  glee,  the  old  butler,  Ned  Regan,  who  had  drunk 
enough,  came  in — joy  was  in  his  eye  ;  and,  whispering  some- 
thing to  his  mistress  which  she  did  not  comprehend,  he  put  a 
large  snuff-box  into  her  hand.  Fancying  it  was  some  whim  of 
her  old  domestic,  she  opened  the  box  and  shook  out  its  contents 
— when,  lo  !  a  considerable  portionjof  a  pair  of  bloody  ears 
dropped   on   the   table ! 

After  this,  we  are  not  surprised  to  hear  of  the  baronet  who 
dreamt  that  his  wife  was  a  "Papist  rebel"  and  nearly 
strangled  her  in  bed ;  or  of  the  young  sportsmen  who  shut 
themselves  up  in  a  cottage  for  a  week  with  a  cow  and  infinite 
drink,  pledged  not  to  emerge  until  they  had  eaten  the  whole 
cow ;  whilst  pipers,  a  fiddler,  and  two  couple  of  favourite 
hounds  made  music  for  the  feast.  Murders,  elopements, 
spectres,  and  discussions  on  the  decadence  of  a  later  age, 
pleasantly  fill  the  interstices.  "When,"  sighed  Sir  Jonah, 
"I  compare  the  foregoing  the  habits  of  the  present  day 
..."     Poor  old  man  ! 


Among  those  vi-ho  have  put  down  their  impressions  of  the 
war  as  they  have  seen  it,  Mr.  Jeffery  Farnol,  in  Some  War 
Impressions,  must  hold  a  prominent  place,  for  he,  out  of 
visits  to  the  Flanders  battle  line,  and  to  munition  factories, 
has  compiled  a  record  which  is  something  more  than  a  cata- 
logue— it  is  alive,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  a  good 
many  books  of  this  kind.  This  little  volume  (Sampson  Low, 
is.6d.)  takes  the  rekder  to  the  making  of  guns,  to  battle  cruisers, 
into  a  training  camp,  and  out  to  the  Ypres  salient— and  to 
other  places  and  doings  as  well — and  it  shows  that  there  is 
humour  as  well  as  tragedy  in  war  and  the  things  that  are 
made  for  war  purposes.  We  commend  the  book  most  heartily 
as  a  series  of  pictures  of  war. 

Czech  Folk  Tales,  by  Dr.  Josef  Baudis  (Allen  &  Unwin,  4s.  6d. ) 
is  a  book  that  may  be  taken  two  ways.  It  may  be  handed  to  ' 
a  Qhild  as  a  volume  of  fairy  stories,  or  it  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  serious  contribution  to  the  study  of  the  Czech 
peoples,  and  wrangled  over  by  the  erudite  who  wish  to  decide 
whether  the  matter  in  "Nine  at  a  Blow"  was  originally 
Czech,  or  whether  it  came  from  a  more  Western  source.  The 
main  point  of  interest  to  the  average  grown-up  is  that  these 
stories  are  very  close  parallels  on  the  fairy  tales  of  the  brothers 
Grimm  and  Hans  Andersen,  and  yet  there  are  divergencies 
that  mark  them  as  designed"  for  a  race  of  a  different  tempera- 
ment. In  some  of  them  is  much  beauty  of  imagery  ;  "Tlie 
Twelve  Months,"  for  instance,  has"  a  charm  equal  to  that  in 
the  story  of  Cinderella,  and  there  are  others  in  the  volume 
that  will  bear  comparison  with  the  best  of  Hans  Andersen's 
work.  One  thing  is  certain  ;  children  will  delight  in  this 
new  book  of  fairy  tales,  and  most  grown-ups  will_find  in  the 
book  a  new  light  on  the  Slavonic  character. 


March    14,   191 8 


Land    Sc   Water 


17 


The  Return  :    By  Stacy  Aumonier 

A  Story  in  Two  Parts — Part  II 


To  a  struggling  lower  middle-class  family  there  returns 
suddenly  from  South  Africa  an  almost  forgotten  uncle.  This 
Uncle  Herbert  is  unexpectedly  rich  ;  he  takes  pleasure  in  having 
his  nephews  and  nieces  and  their  families  round  him,  and 
helps  them  with  money  in  many  ways.  But  he  never  talks  of 
his  own  affairs  or  how  he  came  by  his  wealth.  It  creates, 
privately,  an  uneasy  feeling  that  the  money  is  ill-gotten,  more 
especially  as  their  affairs,  notwithstanding  his  help,  go  awry. 
This  feeling  grows  stronger,  they  talk  it  over  among  themselves. 

I  SUGGESTED  that  we  should  have  a  family  meeting 
and  discuss  the  best  thing  to  do,  and  Albert  agreed. 
But  the  meeting  itself  nearly  ended  in  another 
tragedy.  Albert  dominated  it.  He  said  we  must  all 
go  to  Uncle,  and  say  to  him  straight  out  : 

"Look  here,  this  is  all  very  well,  but  you've  got  to  tell  us 
how  you  made  your  money." 

And  Christopher  replied  : 

"  Yes,  I  daresay.  And  then  he'll  cut  up  rusty,  and  tell  us 
all  to  go  to  hell,  and  go  away.  .,  And  then  where  will  we  be  ? " 

Louie  and  I  agreed  with  Albert,  but  all  the  rest  backed 
Christopher's  point  of  view,  and  the  discussion  became 
acrimonious  and  at  times  dangerous.  W'e  broke  up  without 
coming  to  any  decision,  but  with  Albert  vehement  that  he 
was  going  the  next  day  on  his  own  responsibility  to  settle  the 
matter.     He  and  Christopher  nesu-ly  came  to  blows. 

We  were  never  in  a  position  to  do  more  than  speculate 
upon  what  the  result  of  that  interview  would  have  been 
because  it  never  took  place.  In  the  morning  we  heard  that 
Uncle  was  dead.  He  had  died  the  previous  evening  while 
receiving  a  visitor,  suddenly  of  heart  failure,  at  the  verj' 
time  when  we  were  arguing  about  him. 

When  we  went  round  to  the  house,  the  servants  told  us 
that  an  elderly  gentleman  had  called  about  nine  o'clock.  He 
gave  the  name  of  Josh.  He  looked  like  a  seaman  of  some 
sort.  Uncle  Herbert  had  appeared  dazed  when  he  heard  the 
name.  He  told  them  inra  faint  voice  to  show  the  stranger  in. 
They  were  alone  less  than  five  minutes,  when  the  stranger 
came  out  and  called  them  in  the  hall. 

'.'Something  queer  has  happened,"  was  all  he  said. 

They  found  Uncle  lying  in  a  huddled  heap  by  the  chester- 
field. A.  doctor  was  sent  for,  but  he  was  dead.  During  the 
excitement  of  the  shock  Mr.  Josh  disappeared,  and  had  not 
been  seen  since.  But  later  in  the  afternoon  he  called,  and 
said  that  if  there  was  to  be  any  inquest  he  was  willing  to 
come  and  give  evidence.     He  left  an  address. 

Of  course,  there  was  a  post-mortem,  and  1  need  hardly  say 

that  all  our  interest  was  concentrated  on  this  mysterious 

visitor.     He  was  a  tall,  elderly  man,  with  a  grey,  pointed 

beard,  a  sallow  complexion,  and  face  on  which  the  marks  of 

'  a  hard  and  bitter  life  of  struggle  had  left  their  trace. 

The  case  was  ver\-  simple  and  uneventful.  The  doctor 
said  that  death  was  due  to  heart  failure,  possibly  caused  by 
some  sudden  shock.  The  heart,  in  any  case,"  was  in  a  bad 
state.  The  servants  gave  evidence  of  the  master's  general 
disposition  and  of  the  visit  of  the  stranger.  When  Mr.  Josh 
was  called,  he  spoke  in  a  loud,  rather  raspish  voice,  like  a 
man  calling  into  the  wind.  '  He  simply  stated  that  he  was 
an  old  friend  of  Mr.  Herbert  Read's.  He  had  known  him 
for  nearly  twenty-five  years  in  South  Africa.  Happening  to 
be  in  London,  he  looked  him  up  in  a  telephone  directory,  and 
paid  him  an  unexpected  visit.  They  had  spoken  for  a  few 
moments,  and  Mr.  Read  had  appeared  very  pleased  and 
excited  at  meeting  him  again.  And  then  suddenly  he  had 
put  up  his  hands  and  fallen  forward.  That  was  all.  The 
coroner  thanked  him  for  his  evidence,  and  a  verdict  of 
"Death  from  natural  causes"  was  passed. 

When  the  case  was  over,  I  approached  Mr.  Josh,  and 
asked  him  if  he  would  come  back  to  the]  house  with  us.  He 
nodded  in  a  nonchalant  manner,  and  followed  me  out.  On 
the  way  back  I  made  vain  attempts  to  draw  him  out,  but  he 
was  as  uncommunicative  as  Uncle  Herbert  himself.  He 
merely  repeated -what  he  had  said  at^the  inquest.  He  had 
lunch  ;  and  a  curiously  constrained  meal  it  was,  all  of  us 
speaking  in  httle  self-conscious  whispers,  with  the|[  exception 
of  Albert,  who  didn't  speak  at  all,  and  Mr.  Josh,  who  occa- 
sionally shouted  "Yes,  thank  you,"  or  "No,  thank  you," 
in  a  loud  voice. 

At  three  o'clock  Uncle  Herbert's  lawyer  arrived,  and  we 
were  all  called  into  the  drawing-room  for  the|[_ reading  of  the 
will.     I  asked  Mr.  Josh  to  wait  for  us,  and  he'said^he  would. 


It  need  hardh'  be  said  that  we  were  all  in  a  great  state''of 
trepidation.  I  really  beheve  that  both  Albert  and  I  would 
have  been  relieved  if  it  were  proved  that  Uncle  had  died 
bankrupt.  If  we  did  indulge  in  this  unaccountable  arriere 
pensee  we  were  quickly  doomed  to  disappointment.  The 
lawyer,  speaking  in  a  dry,  unimpressive  voice,  announced 
that  "as  far  as  he  could  for  the  moment  determine,"  Herbert 
.  Read  had  left  between  £65,000  and  £70,000.  £30,000  of 
this  was  bequeathed  to  various  charitable  institutions  in 
South  Africa,  and  the  residue  of  the  estate  was  to  be  divided 
equally  between  his  nephews  and  nieces.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  varied  expressions  on  the  faces  of  my  brothers  and 
sisters  when  each  one  realised  that  he  or  she  was  to  inherit 
between  four  and  five  thousand  pounds  1  We  gasped  and  said, 
nothing,  though  I  remember  Christopher,  when  the  reading 
was  finished,  mumbhng  something  to  the  lawyer.  I  think 
he  asked  him  if  he'd  hke  a  drink.  I  know  the  lawyer  merely 
glared  at  him,  coughed,  and  said  nothing. 

When  he  had  taken  his  departure  in  a  frigidly  ceremonious- 
manner,  we  all  seemed  too  numbed  to  become  garrulous.  It 
was  a  duU  day,  and  a  fine  rain  was  driving  against  the 
window-panes.  We  sat  about  smoking,  and  looking  at  each 
other,  and  occasionally  whispering  in  strained  voices.  We 
might  have  been  a  co'.lection  of  people  waiting  their  turn  on 
the  guillotine  rather  than  a  united  family  who  had  just 
inherited  a  fortune.  Mr.  Josh  had  gone  out  for  a  stroll 
during  the  reading  of  the  will,  and  we  were  all;_  strangely 
anxious  to  see' him.  He  appeared  to  be  our^last  Unk  that 
might  bind  the  chain  of  our  earthly  prospects  to  a  reasonable 
stake.  He  returned  about  five  o'clbck,  and  strolled  carelessly 
into  the  room,  nodding  at  us  in  a  casual  manner,  in  the  way 
that  one  might  nod  at  a  carriage  full  of  people  on  a 
railway  journey. 

We  gave  him  some  tea,  and  he  lighted  a  cheroot.  And 
then  we  each  in  turn  made  our  effort  to  draw  him  out.  We 
started  casually,  then  we  put  leading  questions,  and  tried  to 
follow  them  up  quickly.  But  Mr.  Josh  was  not  apparently 
to  be  drawn.  He  evidently  disliked  us,  or  was  bored  with 
us,  and  made  no  attempt  to  illuminate  the  dark  shadows  of 
our  doubts.  Perhaps  he  rather  enjoyed  the  game.  The 
room  began  to  get  dark,  and  we  slunk  back  into  the  gloom, 
and  gradually  subsided  into  silence.  We  sat  there  watching 
the  stranger  ;  the  red  glow  of  his  cheroot  seemed  the  only 
vital  thing. 

It  was  Albert,  as  usual,  wlxo  broke  the  spell.  He  got  up 
and  walked  to  the  window,  then  turned  and  cried  out  : 

"Well,  I  don't  know  about  all  you;  but  I  know  about 
myself.  I'm  not  going  to  touch  a  penny  of  this  damned 
money  ! " 

I  was  sitting  quite  near  our  visitor,  and  in  the  half-light 
I  saw  a  strange  look  come  into  his  eye.  It  was  as  though 
for  the  first  time  something  interested  him.  He  started, 
and  I  said  as  quickly  as  I  could  : 

"Why  not,  Albert  ?" 

"Because  the  money's  not  clean,"  he  shouted  into  the 
room. 

I  don't  know  how  it  was  that  none  of  the  others  took  this 
up  ;  but  we  all  sat  there  looking  at  the  stranger.  It  was  as 
though  we  waited  breathlessly  upon  a  verdict  that  he  alone 
could  give.  He  looked  round  at  us,  and  carefully  flicking 
the  end  of  his  cheroot,  he  obliged  us  with  this  epigram  : 

"No  money  is  clean.     It  passes  through  too  many  hands." 

We  waited  for  more,  but  nothing  came.  Then  Albert, 
with  a  tempestuous  movement,  bore  down  on  him. 

"Look  here,"  he  said.  "I  don't  know  anything  about 
you  ;  but  you  knew  Uncle  'Erbert  for  twenty-five  years. 
For  God's  sake,  tell  us  how  he  made  his  money." 

The  stranger  looked  at  him,  and  blew  smoke  between  his 
teeth  ;   then  he  said  slowly  : 

"Made  his  money?  Your  uncle  never  made  more  than 
two  or  three  hundred  a  year  ii)  his  life." 

"Ah,  I  knew  it  !"  exclaimed  Albert. 

Whether  it  was  the  result  of  my  brother's  forceful  manner, 
or  whether  it  was  the  atmosphere  of  suspense  which  urged 
him  to  it,  I  do  not  know.  But  certain  it  is  that  at  that 
point  oiu-  visitor  sank  back  languidly  in  his  chair,  and  spoke  : 

"I'll  tell  you  what  I  know." 

We  none  of  us  moved,  but  we  leant  forward,  and  watched 
him  as  he  proceeded  : 

"In  the  spring  of  eighteen-forty-five,"  he  began,  "twc/ 
young  men  set  out  from^England  to  seek  their  fortunes^^in 


iS 


Land    &    Water 


March    14,  19  ^^ 


■Sftov  was  a  hVrd-headed,  iKird-working  man  of  affa  r. 
N'ow^n  this  case,  which  do  you  think  would  be  the  succe..ful 
.ie  '  You  would  naturally  put  your  money  «"  Ba";\o;^ 
\nd  vou  would  be  wrong  every  time  !  For  a  year  or  two 
thev  worked  together,  and  then  Banstow  was  offered  an 
overseas  5  in  I  tin  mine.  TlTev  continued  to  live  together 
but  tS  work  separated  them.  Lynneker  was  employed 
on  an  ostrich  farm  The  ostrich  farm  was  a  huge  success, 
but  the  tin  mine  failed.  That  seemecl  to  make  the  begmnmg 
■of  their  divergence.  Whatever  Lynneker  touched  succeeded  , 
whatever  Banstow  touched  failed.  ,    ^  ,  .  u.H   , 

Lynneker  was  a  careless,  easy-going  person,  but  he  had  a 
nati've  genius.     He  could  control  men.    Men  loved  him  .  .  . 

Mr  fori,  paused,  and  knocked  the  ash  of  his  cheroot  into 
1  tray      Then  he  continued  :  ,    ,r  .u       •  u* 

"Rmstow  worked  like  a  slave.  He  sat  up  half  the  night 
scheming  and  plotting.  He  was  infallible  in  his  calculations, 
Sd  then  he  just  missed.     He  didn't  inspire  anyone. 

He  misjudged  men,  and  men  didn't  believe  in  him.     As  the 
years  went  on.  and  Lynneker  became  morp  and  more  success- 
ful   and  Banstow  made  no  progress,  the  thing  began  to  get 
on'Banstow's  nerves.     He  quarrelled  with  his  friend,   and 
they  became  rivals.     The  injustice  of  it  all  infuriated  Banstow. 
He  worked,  and  Lynneker  lazed  and  dreamed,  and  yet  he 
won     every    time.'  They     went   into    the   diamond-mining 
industry,  and  Lynneker  began  amassing  a  great  fortune  in  a 
careless,   haphazard  way.     And  again   Banstow   failed.     In 
ten  years'  time  Lynneker  was  an  immensely  rich  man,  and 
Banstow  was  a  bankrupt  clerk  in  a  labour  bureau.     And 
then  one  day,  in  a  mood  of  sullen  resentment,  he  hatched  a 
diabolical  plot  against  Lyiftieker.     He  bribed  some  Kaf&rs, 
and   tried   to   get    Lynneker   convicted   of   illicit    diamond- 
bu\'ing-    By  the  merest  fluke  the  plot  was  discovered,  and 
it  "was  Banstow  who  was  convicted.     He  was  sentenced  to 
seven  years'  imprisonment.    He  served  his  term  m  full.     In 
the  meantime  Lynneker  became  a  bigger  and  bigger  man  m 
Africa.     He  lived  in  Johannesburg,  and  owned  great  blocks 
of  offices.    But  he  always  remained  a  dreamer.     Sometimes 
he  would  ride  out  at  night  into  the  karoo.    They  sa>'  he 
dreamed  of  a  United  Africa.     I  don't  know.     He  certainly 
wrote  poetry   in   the   intervals  of   amassing   money.    Two 
weeks  after  Banstow  was  released  from  prison,  Lynneker's 
body  was  found  out  in  the  karoo,  with  a  bullet  through  his 
heart.      He  had  ridden  out  alone  one  night,  and  as  he  hadn't 
returned  they  sent  out    a  search-party,  and  found  him  the 
next  day.    Banstow  was  suspected,  but  apparently  he  had" 
escaped.    Nothing  more  was  seen  of  him." 

The  stranger  paused,  and  then  languidly  hghted  another 
cheroot.    The   interval   seemed   so   indefinite  that    at    last 
.Albert  said : 
"Where  does  Uncle  Herbert  come  in  ?" 
"Your  Uncle  Herbert  was  a  cipher,"  replied  our  visitor. 
He  was  merely  one  of  the  people  who  came  under  the 
influence  of  Lynneker.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  believe  he  was 
one  of  the  worst  cases.     He  worshipped  Lynneker.   Lynneker 
was  the  obsession  of  his  life.     He  acted  as  secretary  for 
him  for  his'  vast  charitable  concerns.    And  when  Lynneker 
was  found  dead,  he  nearly  went  off  his  head.     He  howled 
like  a  terrier  who  has  lost  his  master." 
JHe  glanced  round  at  us,  and  in  the  dim  light  I  thought 
I-  detected  a  sneer  of  contempt. 

"  Lynneker  died  a  millionaire."  he  proceeded,  "  and  among 
other  legacies  he  left  your  uncle  certain  blocks  of  mining 
■    shares  which   were    probably    worth    about    forty    or    fifty 
thousand  pounds.     That's  how  he  made  his  money." 

There  was  a  gasp  of  relief  round  the  room,  and  Albert 
wiped  his  brow. 

"  Then    the    money     was    straight     enough,    after    all  !" 
he  said  huskily. 
The  chilling  voice  of  the  stranger  came  through  the  darkness: 
"  As  straight  as  any  money  can  be." 
Richard  stood  up  and  moved  to  the  mantelpiece. 
"  Why  the  hell  couldn't  he  tell  us  about  this  before,  then  ? 
Why  was  he  so  secret  ?" 

"  Herbert  Read  had  no  nerves.  The  thing  broke  him  up. 
Banstow  had  also  been  a  friend  of  his  at  one  time,  and  he 
was  convinced  that  Banstow  had  killed  his  master.  He  had 
periods  of -melancholia.  The  doctors  told  him  that  unless  he 
went  away  for  a  change,  and  tried  to  get  it  out  of  his  head, 
he  would  be  in  an  asylum  in  a  few  months.  And  so  I  suppose 
he  came  over  here.  But  his  heart  was  affected,  and  when 
I  gave  him  the  news  I  did  last  week,  the  shock  finished  him." 


We  all  started.         i 

■'  That  bSow  was  innocent.  I  was  able  to  show  him  a 
certificate  from  the  master  of  The  Birmingham,  provmg  that 
on  the  night  of  the  murder  Banstow  was  a  steerage  passenger 
on  board  his  ship,  seventy-three  miles  east-north-east  of 
the  Azores  Lynneker  was  probably  shot  by  some  vagrant 
thief      Certainly  his  watch  and  all  his  money  were  missing. 

We  all  peered  at  the  man  hidden  in  the  recesses  of  the  easy- 
chair,  and  Albert  said  :  . 

"  How  was  it  you  had  this  information  ^ 

The  figure  crossed  its  legs  and  the  voice  rephed  languidly  : 

"I    was   interested.      I    happen    to   be   Karl    Banstow!, 

\lbert  groped  past  me  on  tiptoe,  muttering  : 

■*  In  God's  name,  where  is  the  electric  light  switch  ? 

It  is  a  curious  fact  regarding  these  telepathic  processes  1 
have  hinted  at  in  this  chronicle  of  our  uncle's  return,  that 
from  the  day  when  it  was  demonstrated  that  the  money  we 
had  inherited  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  clean,  our  own 
little  affairs  seemed  to  take  their  cue  from  this  consciousness. 
Certain  it  is  that  since  that  time  everything  seems  to  have 
prospered  for  us.  (You  should  see  Albert's  shops,  partic- 
ularly the  one  on  the  Broadway,  where  he  is  still  not  too 
proud  to  serve  himself.)  As  for  myself,  as  I  am  now  in  a 
position  to  lead  the  indolent  life  of  a  scribe  m  this  little 
manor-house  up  in  the  Cotswolds,  and  as  this  position  is  due 
entirely  to  the  generosity  of  ITncle  Herbert,  it  seems  only 
right  and  proper  that  I  should  begin  my  literary  career  by 
recounting  the  story  of  his  return. 

Village  Memorials 

"  The  parish  of  Darrington  lies  in  the  centre  of  the  Wapen- 
take of  Osgoldcross."  This  is  the  opening  sentence  of  the 
introduction  to  Mr.  J.  S.  Fletcher's  Memorials  of  a  Yorkshire 
Parish  (John  Lane,  7s.  6d.  net),  and  it  stimulates  the 
imagination.  One  inevitably  wants  to  hear  about  that 
picturesque  locality,  "the  centre  of  the  Wapentake  oi 
Osgoldcross,"  and  its  delightful  surroundings,  which  are  so 
well  illustrated  by  Mr.  G.  P.  Rhodes,  whose  picture  of 
Darrington  Hall  we  reproduce  here.  At  the  Crown  Inn 
of  Darrington,  which  is  on  the  Great  North  Road,  forty 
to  sixty  coaches  would  change  horses  during  a  day,  in 
the  memory  of  old  people  who  have  died  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  And  Darrington  was  the  home  of  the 
highwayman    Nevinson,    who    went    to     the    gallows    like 


Darrington  Hall 

a  Fgentleman,  and  was  the  true  hero  of  that  famous 
ride  from  London  to  York,  attributed  to  Dick  Turpin.  There 
were  also  witches  at  Darrington.  Early  in  the  seventeenth 
century  one  Mary  Pannell  lived  in  a  cave  near  by,  told 
fortunes,  and  gave  "counsell  and  helpe"  to  the  villagers,  so 
that  the  place  grew  too  hot  for  her ;  she  moved  to  Ledsham, 
where  she  was  burned,  after  being  tried  and  convicted  for 
witchcraft  at  York.  ^ 

The  very  names  of  the  families  and  places  that  abound 
in  this  story  of  a  Yorkshire  village  are  almost  an  epic  in 
themselves  •  many  of  them  are  closely  connected  with  the 
history  of  the  county  and  the  realm.  To  Mr.  Fletcher 
cordial  thanks  are  due,  not  only  for  the  delightful  character 
of.  these  simple  annals,  but  for  the  example  he  has  set  to 
others.  There  ought  not  to  be  a  single  village  in  these 
islands  without  its  memorials,  written  in  this  pleasant  and 
straightforward  manner.  The  story  begins  in  Roman  times, 
and  continues  to  the  present  day,  and  many  glimpses  are 
given  of  the  conditions  of  life  of  these  Yorkshire  villagers 
throughout  the  centuries. 


March  14,    19 18 


Land   &   Water 


19 


BURBERRY  NAVAL  KIT 


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His  Majesty's  Naval  Forces 
recognise  the  value  of 
Burberry  Kit  as  an  aid  to 
the  efficient  performance 
of  their  duty. 

They  know  that  Burberry 
Weatherproof  prevents  the 
severest  conditions  from 
having  injurious  effects  on 
liealth  or  comfort. 

Burberry  Weatherproofs 
are  in  a  different  category 
from  rubber  or  oilskin 
garments,  which,  by  ex- 
cluding fresh  air,  produce 
condensed  moisture  inside. 

Burberry  Weatherproofs 
ventilate  naturally  and  are 
thoroughly  hygienic  in  all 
temperatures. 

Complete  Kit«  in  2  to  4 
Days,    or      Ready      for      Use. 


NAVAL     AND     MILITARY 
WEATHERPROO  FS. 

During  the  War  Officers*  Burberry 
Weatlierproofs  Cleaned  and  Re- 
proofed   FREE    OF    CHARGE. 


.Made  ill  materials  specially  woven  and  proofed 
by  BurheiTys  to  exclude  rain  and  wind. 


Every  Burberry  Garment 
bears  a   Burberry  Label. 


BURBERRYS   Haymarket   LONDON  ^ 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesberbes  PARIS;  Basincstoke  and  Provincial  Agents 


With  YOUR  Cheque  or  Treasury  Note 

WE 

Can  save  a  Child's  Life! 

A  Committee  in  Holland,  under 
the  Presidency  of  H.S.H.  Princess 
A.de  Ligne,  receives  from  Belgium 

STARVED,  CONSUMPTIVE, 
RICKETY,  RROKEN  CHILDREN 

Feeds,  Houses,  and  Clothes  them. 
When  restored  to  health  they  are 
returned  to  Belgium,  lor  funds 
do    not    permit  more. 

700  CASES 
ARE  DEALT  WITH  MONTHLY 

Donations  should  be  sent  to  the  Hon. 
Treasurer,  "Working  Men's  Belgian  Fund,"  32 
Grosvenor  Place,  London,  S.W.  i  (Registered 
War  Charities  Act,  1916),  earmarked  for  the 
"  Belgian   Children's    Fund." 


Land    &    Water 


March    14,  191 8 


House   and    Home :    By    Charles    Marriott 


IT  woulJ  be  an  amusing  and  a  not  uiiprotitablc  exercise 
to  try  to  recreate  the  liouscs  of  different  ages  from 
.  .mtemi-iorarv  pictures.  Not  necessarily  from  pictures 
ui  l)ou<es,  or  parts  of  houses,  but  from  any  sort  of 
pictures,  on  the  general  principle  of  suitability  in 
form  and  character  to  a  particular  sort  of  domestic  interior. 
The  earlier  pictures  would  not  afford  much  evidence  because 
they  were  mostly  painted  for  churches  ;  or,  if  not  for  churches, 
for'pfdaces;  but  from  the  seventeenth  century  onwards 
there  would  be  plenty  to  help  the  imagination.  Probably, 
too,  it  would  be  found  that  in  the  good  pictures,  the  relation- 
ship to  the  house  would  be  rather  carefully  considered.  It 
was  not  for  some  time  after  the  advent  of  the  easel  or  framed 
picture,  as  distinct  from  the  wall-painting,  that  artists  lost 
sight  of  the  close  connection  between  painting  and  archi- 
tecture, and  when  and  in  proportion  as  they  did  lose  sight 
of  it,  both  arts  undoubtedly  suffered. 

To  come  to  close  quarters  with  the  subject,  there  could  be 
no  more  damaging  criticism  of  the  Royal  Academy  than  the 
comparative  lack  in  its  exhibitions  of  any  recognised  connec- 
tion between  pictures  and  household  economy.     Most  of  the 
pictures  are  obviouslj^ 
painted    for    the 
Academy,  and  among 
the    rest     there    are 
very  few  that  seem  to 
anticipate     any     dis- 
position    more     con- 
sidered  than    that   of 
the  gamekeeper's  lar- 
der. But  honour  where 
honour  is  due;  and  it 
was  at  the  Academy 
that  one  of  the  earliest 
modern    attempts    to 
indicate  the  place   of 
pictures  in  the  house 
was  made.    Visitors  to 
the  summer  exhibition 
of  191 1  were  startled 
to  see  two  small  paint- 
ings— one  of  a  ring  of 
dancing  girls,  and  the 
other  of  a  village  green 
at  dusk — entirely  dif- 
ferent    in     character 
from  the  pictures  about 
them.     They  had  the 
disconcerting    effect 
of  simple  remeu^ks  in 
the  middle  of  elaborate 
and  confused  conversation  about  the  servants  or  the  neigh- 
bours.    Instead  of  aiming  at    abolishing  a  section  of  wall 
by  creating  the  optical   illusion  of  trees  and  things,  they 
really    seemed   to    welcome  the  wall  as  a  partner  in  their 
contribution  to  the  refreshment  of  life.    As  if  to  mark  the 
difference,   each  was  called   "living-room  picture,"   without 
any  other  title  ;    and  se  far  as  I  can  make  out,  nobody  who 
saw   them    has    ever    forgotten  them.     They  were  painted 
by  an  artist,  fairly   well  known,  whose  work  until  then  had 
been   in  the  nature  of   additions  to  the  expensive  muddle 
that  used  to  be  called  art  in  the  home.     Having  painted 
them,  he  died,  as  if  his  message  had  been  delivered.     It 
would  seem  that,  nearing  his   end,   with   the   sudden   illu- 
mination   that    approaching    death    often   brings,    he    had 
.liscovered  that   pictures  are   meant  to  be  lived  with,  to  be 
part  of  the  organi.sed  beauty  of  the   house  ;    and   hastened 
to  paint  accordhigly. 

Not  necessarily  as  a  result  of  this  pioneer  effort,  and  seldom 
under  the  same  title,  from  that  time  onwtu-d  the  living-room 
picture  in  fact  has  become  quite  common  in  our  exhibitions. 
At  anv  of  the  more  modern  shows,  .such  as  those  of  the  New 
i:nglish  Art  Club  or  the  London  Group,  there  will  be  a  reason- 
able number  of  pictures  that  look  as  if  they  were  designed 
ior  a  definite  place  on  the  wall  of  a  room  not  only  occupied, 
Init  used  by  intelligent  people  of  the  present  day^  Observing 
tlie  distinction  between  the  wall-painting  and  ,the  easel  or 
named  picture  that  is  made  necessary  by  the  small  interiors 
md  shifting  conditions  of  modern  life,  they  do,  nevertheless, 
lake  tht;  wall  into  their  confidence.  They  assume  that  their 
mnction  is  to  decorate  the  wall,  and  not  "apparently  to  make 
.1  hole  in  it  ;   that  pictures  are  part  of  the  house. 

It  is  when  you  examine  tln^  rli,ir;M  ri>i-;«t;r^  ,,f  f]ie  Hving- 


The  Sports  Coat :   By  Walter  Bayes 


room  piciuu;  that  the  matter  becomes  really  interesting; 
and  for  that  purpose  we  may  tvirn  to  the  pictures  of  i\Ir. 
Walter  Bayes,  on  exhibition  at  the  Leicester  Galleries;' 
one  of  which  is  reproduced  here.  Obviously,  subject  has 
nothing  to  do  with  it,  for  Mr.  Bayes  has  painted  several 
subjects  of  widelv  different  character.  It  is  a  matter  of 
treatment;  and  if  "you  study  the  treatment  you  will  see  that 
it  is,  so  to  speak,  half-wav  between  the  freedom  of  nature 
and  the  formality  that  would  be  adopted  if  the  subject  were 
to  be  carried  out  in  stained  glass  or  coloured  wool,  or  any 
other  obvious  "material."  So  far  as  the  attitude  to  nature 
is  concerned,  we  might  say  that  instead  of  paint  being  used 
in  the  service  of  nature,  nature  is  used  in  the  service  of  paint. 
There  is  no  arbitrary  alteration  of  the  shapes  and  colours  of 
nature,  but  thev  are,  so  to  speak,  domesticated  in  paint, 
with  such  modifications  as  are  suggested  if  not  compelled  by 
its  characteristic  employment. 

What  it  amounts  to,  briefly,  is  the  recognition  of  paint  ; 
and  the  moment  paint  is  acknowledged,  you  are  on  the  way 
to  the  rehabilitation  of  the  house  and  of  all  the  materials 
that  enter  into  its  composition.     The  importance  of  this  can 

hardly  be  over-estimat- 
ed, for  the  very  real 
evil  that  young  rebels 
of  the  'nineties  de- 
nounced as  "  stuffy 
domesticity"  was  not 
a  little  due  to  the 
degradation  of  the 
house.  Instead  of 
being  regarded  as  a 
living  organism,  active 
in  every  function,  the 
house  had  declined  to 
a  mere  "  section  of  in- 
finite space,"  to  quote 
Carlyle,  which  must 
be  heavily  upholstered 
before  it  could  serve 
the  purposes  of  the 
home.  The  transfor- 
mation of  the  house  to 
the  home,  in  fact,  in- 
volved the  fraudulent 
concealment  of  the 
house. 

There  is  no  height 
that  art  cannot  reach 
through  and  by  the 
characteristic  use  of 
paint,  and  there  is 
no  dignity  or  refinement  of  domesticity  that  needs  the 
neglect  or  concealment  of  the  house.  I  do  not  wish  to  be 
transcendental,  but  the  saying  about  the  foxes  having  holes, 
and  the  birds  of  the  air  nests,  is  too  good  an  illustration  to 
be  ignored.  The  right  alternatives  are  either  to  renounce 
domesticity  and  have  nowhere  to  lay  one's  head,  or  to 
accept  the  house  frankly  and  use  it  worthily  as  a  means  to 
that  condition.  To  pursue  the  same  train  of  thought,  the 
body  may  be  scorned  ih  favour  of  the  soul  ;  but  if  the  body 
be  accepted  at  aH,  its  needs  are  better  considered  frankly 
than  huddled  away  out  of  siglit  to  be  indulged  in  a  stealthy 
and  disorderly  manner.  Neither  art  nor  domesticity  caii 
really  flourish  in  a  house  of  which  they  seem  to  be  ashamed. 
All  this  is  implied  in  the  existence  and  the  name  of  living- 
room  pictures ;  hence  their  importance.  They  mean  that 
their  place  and  purpose  have  been  considered  ;  that  the 
house  itself,  and  not  merely  the  taste  of  its  occupants,  is 
regarded  as  worthy  of  them.  The  result  in  time  should  be 
a  levelling  up  of  the  house  in  all  its  details  of  structure  and 
function,  so  that,  by  accepting  the  house  as  part  of  the 
scheme  of  art,  good  painting  may  encourage  good  architec- 
ture. This  cannot  be  if  the  picture  seems  to  disclaim  any 
interest  in  the  house, 'as  so  many  pictures  do.  A  picture  that 
you  have  to  "get  up  to  look  at"  is  not  reallv  a  part  of  the 
house,  or  part  of  the  life  of  the  house.  It  is  evident  that  the 
pictures  of  :\Ir.  Bayes  do  not  need  getting  up  to  look  at  ; 
whether  they  happen  to  be  forcible  or  delicate  in  scheme, 
tlieir  clearness  and  simplicity  will  make  them  carry  from 
their  place  on  the  wall.  Their  relation  to  the  rest  of  the 
house,  even  to  its  foundations,  is  rightly  that  of  blossoms 
which,  though  finer  in  texture,  are  closely  and  organically 
related  to  tlie  rest  of  the  plant— root,  stem,  and  leaves. 


March 


2  I 


1918 


Supplement  to  Land  Sc  Water 


VII 


Two  Watches  of  Quality 


The  **Land   &  Water" 
Wrist-watch. 

The  *'  Land  *  Water  "  Wrist-watch  is  dust 
and  damp  proof.  Tlie  movement  i«  fully 
jewelled  and  lilted  with  Micrometer  R«gu- 
tatoftoffive  fine  adjiistment,  by  means  of 
which  it  can  be  regulated  never  to  lose  of 
gain  more  than  <  seconds  j-er  day.  Each 
watch  is  adjusted  and  compensated  for  all 
positions  and  temii^ratures,  and  is  j^uaran- 
leed  to  stand  M  the  shocks,  jars,  and 
strains  to  which  a  wrist  watch  is  subjected^ 
under  the  severest  conditions.  By  far  the 
bes*  watch  for  men  in  the  Naral,  Military, 
or  Kir  Services. 

"Land  &  Water*' Wri»t-w«tch, 


The  "Q"  Pocket  Alarm 
Watch. 

A  perfect  limekoejwr— it  is  guarant-sed  for  two 
years— the  'Q*  Pocket  Alarm  Watch  assures 
punctuality  in  k*e[)ing  appointments.  The 
Alanii  may  be  set  to  within  a  minute  of  the 
desired  time,  and  its  note  is  soft  and  mellow.  y«t 
insistent  :*nd  unmistakable.  liven  if  surroonned 
by  noise  its  xibrations  compel  one's  attention. 
At  niKht-time  the  back  of  the  case  opens,  so  that 
the  watch  may  be  stood  at  the  bedside  leady  tu 
awaken  one  m  the  morning.  Fully  lurainou^ 
hands  and  figures,  it  it  in  everj'  way  a  perfect 
watch. 


.„    soUd  silver  case,  with  unbreak- 
able glass,  and  fuUy  luminous  dial, 
£5     0     0 
fyRlTE  FOR  ILtmTRATED  CATALOGUE, 


Oxidized  -  £5   5«.        Silver  -  £8  6r 

(Black  Dial.  5/-  extra). 


BIRCH    &  GAyDON.LTii 

Techiiicil  and  Scicntilic  lastriineai  Makers  lo  (be  Admirally, 
(Dept.    4),    153    Fenchuroh    Street,    London,    E.G. 3. 

W..tEr.<lBr.i.cK,I9Kcc^iny  Axed.  S.W.I   (Ut.  JoKi.  Bm-im) 


Dri-ped    makes    the     Difference 

Tho  man  witli  wet  feet  is  either  a  pessimist  or  a  hero  ; 
but  the  ordinary  man  who  wears  Dri-ped  may  always  be  optimistic. for 

Dri-ped,  the  Super-Leather  for  Soles,  is  absolutely  water- 
proof; and  the  hiiher  leather  mounts  in  price,  the  more 
Dri-ped's  DOUBLE  WEAR  saves  you. 

War  noods  restrict  Dri-ped  supplies  /or  Mvilian  wear,  though  a  limited  quantity 
IS  available.  Soldiers  and  sailors  can  always  obtain  Dri-pvd  from  Repairers 
possessing  Governmcut  permits.  ~  ti>  ■•    ^     /       .      ■ ,  . 

*  -^^  Wnto  lor  free  booklet. 


Sec  this  trade  mark 
•Q  purjjio  every  few 
inches  on  each  sole 
Without  it  the  leather 
is  a  substitute. 


Inquiries  to  Dri'ped  Advt. 
t}«(jt,,   County   Buildings, 
Cannon    St.,    Manchester. 
\ 
St'/tf  Mantt/acturers  : 

Wm.  Walker  &  Sons, 
Ltd.,  Uolton,  Lanes. 


The  Super-Leather  for  Soles. 


r™  stVdington 

British- 
Warm 


This  is  now  the  Standard 
Overcoat  for  Officers' 
wear,  and  provides  the 
maximum  of  warmth 
without  weight,  and 
can  be  worn  on  all 
occasions. 

MADE    TO     ORDER 

OR 
READY  FOR  SERVICE. 

Without    fleece    lining    from 

£5:5:0 

With  fleece  lining  from 

£6  :6  :0 

Supplied  mith  or  without  Belt. 
Obtainable  only  from 


Wt  ' ■  L/MtTEl 


MILITARY    TAILORS 


5I.CONDUIT  STREET.  BOND  STREET  W 
67-69.  CHAMCERY  LANE.  LONDON.  WC 


Y 

I 


i^-<^'-<'"<; 


?-»»a 


THE  SUPREME 

SUNBEAM 

Allhough  many  makes  of  cars  are  in  use  on  the 
various  batlle  fronts,  ii  lias  been  left  to  the 
Sunbeam  lo  demonstrate  the  utmost  value  of  quality. 
This  is  not  surprising  when  one  remembers 
the  extent  of  our  experience  in  building  cart  and 

SUNBEAM- COAXAL EN 
AIRCRAFT    ENGINES 

Such  experience  will  be  further  utilised  in  our 
peace-time  productions,  and  for  that  reason  Sunbeam 
supremacy  will  be  of  greater  consequence  than  ever. 

Priority  of  delivery  of  the  po«t- 
war  Sunbeam  will  be  secured  by  the 
receipt    of    your    inquiry    now. 

The  SUNBEAM  MOTOR  CAR  Co.,  Ltd., 
WOLVERHAMPTON. 

M»nche«ler  Showroom!  "         106  Dtansjale. 

London  and  Dulricl  Agent!  lot  C.rt : 
J.  Keek.  Ltd.,  72  New  Bond  St..  W.  1 . 


VIM 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


March 


21,   I  918 


WHITELEYS 

PERIOD    FURNITURE 


The  "  Queen  Anne 
Dining  Room  Suite 


THE  "QUEEN  ANNE"  DINING-ROOM   SUITE. 
Important  large  sire  Mahogany  Sideboard,  well  constructed 
and  highly  finished,  6  ft.  long,  large  bevelled  oval  mirror  in 
back,   coi^modions   dravers  and  cupboards,  cellarette,  etc. 


£39:10:0 

Dining-Room  Chairs,  loose  seats,  upholstered  in  Rexine,  small  Chairs,  63/-  each  ;  Armchair,  82/6 


If  you  so  desire  you  may 

FURNISH 

OUT    OF 

I  NC  O  M  E 


AT 


WHITELEYS 

Goods  are  supplied  at 
ACTUAL  CASH  PRICES. 
Deposit— one-tenth  of  the  total 
value.  Interest  at  2i%  per  ann. 
only  is  added  to  the  balance. 
Instalments  are  spread  over  1, 
2,  or  3  years,  according  to  the 
value  of  the  goods   selected. 

THIS  IS  AN  EXAMPLE  OF 
WHITELEYS  EASY  PAYMENT 

TERMS: 
GoodsatCash Prices  £100 :    0:0 
Deposit— one-tenth 

of  total  value   ... 

Balance 
Add  Interest  at  2^  % 

for  2  years 
24  monthly  payments 

of  £3    18    9      .     £94:10 


10:   0:0 
90:   0:0 

4  :  10  :  0 


MARSHALL! 

NOTE.~Th,s EstablUlnn^nt  u.ll      SNELGROVE- 


be  closed  on  Saturdavs 
until  further  notice. 


VIKKSIRt:^!    ■\N[).ox|(»Bl>-STKIPT 

LONDON  W 


March    21,  1 9 1 8  Supplement  to   Land  &  Water 


IX 


LEATHER  PUTTEES, 


These  most  comfortable,  good- 
looking  puttees  are  made  en- 
tirely of  fine  supple  tan  leather, 
and  fasteft  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. 

The  puttees  are  quickly  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  18  6,  post  free 
inland,  or  postage  abroad  1/-  extra,  or 
sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business 
(not  banker's)  reference  and  home 
address.      Please  give  size  ol  calf. 


OFFICERS' 

RIDING  BREECHES, 

A  good  name  among  sportsmen  for  nearly  a  century 
is  a  sure  measure  of  our  ability  in  breeches-making, 
to  which  gratifying  testimony  is  now  also  given  by 
the  many  recommendations  from  officers. 

For  inspection,  and  to  enable  us  to  meet  immediate  requirements,  we 

keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs  of  breeches,  or  we  can  cut  and  try  a 

pair  on  the  same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day,  if  urgently  wanted. 

Patterns  and  Form  for  self-measurement  at  request. 


GRANT  AND  GOCKBURN 
25  PICCADILLY,  W.l.  " 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


lESTD.  1821 


Military  Scales 


mm 


e4 


4*iM lli.i.;. L,.^^ i. q-q. 


TRANSPARENT  RANGE  SCALES  with  angle  piece  for 
gun  position.  Scale  made  to  dovetail.  14.000  yds.  at 
1/20000,  7.000  yds.  at  i/toooo,  in  ca.=e   -      -     SI    15     0 


SEMI  CIRCULAR  PRO- 
TRACTOR with  range  arm, 
7,000  yd.s.  at  l/ioooo  or 
14,000  yd.s.  at  1/20000. 

£1     2     6  in  case. 


Sin.  TRANSPARENT  PRO- 
TRACTOR,   with     cut-out 
grids  and  range  scale, 
l/ioooo,  1/20000,  1/40000, 

7/6 


TRANSPARENT 

CO-ORDINATED. 

1/3 


iv^nj 


THE  '•  ETON  "  RANGE  SCALE  AND  ARC,  pencU  holes 

at  every  500  yds.  for  drawing  arcs. 

8,000yds.  at  1/20000  10/6.    10,500 yds.  at  i,'20ooo  £1  5  0 

«).ooo  yds,  at  i/ioooo  SI    5   0 


J.  H.  STEWARD  t 


TD  MILITARY  406 Strand 

INSTRUMENT  '"" 'f'   """ 

M  A  K  H  R  s   457  Strand 


London 


Floating 
Flower  Bowls. 


Wedgwood  Solid  Black  Basalt  Ware 


Originated  in  the  year  I  776.  by  Josiah  Wedgwood, 
throws   forward   the   bea  tiful     natural    cohours   of 


Its  dullness 
the    flowers. 


\€ 

Bullcrfliei  painled  in  ibeir 

BBlural   colour!,    filed    on 

ihe   bowl  wilh  plallictnc. 

4/6  t«ch. 


Model  o(  Orintd  Pa(«l>,  in  buutilul 
colours  cirried  out  in  Slafordahire  Porcelain, 
very  eBeclive  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
flower  bowL 

7il.  high.  IO/6  each. 


Toadt.  by  Worceiter.  in 
red,  green,  or  natural 
colours. 

S/6  each. 

C'^een  Glast  Hanging 
Frogs.       2/-      each. 


ALABASTER  GLASS. 


An  original  and  ncluHve  form,  made  in 
three  beautiful  colouri,  rose,  sreco,  and  blue. 
Diameter  10  in..  25/-:  )2  in..  32/6;  14  m., 
42/- (Blackwood  Standi  extra.  6/6.  10/6. 
14/6  each  J 

Floatins  Rower  Bowli.  in  Alabaiter  Clas«.  ai 
above,  but  in  the  plain  bowl  shape  as  uiual. 

10  in.    22/6;      12  In.  27/6;     14  in.  35/- 

Blackwood  Stand*  to  fit,  10/6.   12/6.  14/6 

Alabatter  Gtait  oiiginated  from  a  »lone  known 
ai  alabaster.  By  a  tecent  ditcovery,  it  has  been 
made  poa^tblc  to  blend  ihii  lemropaque  ala- 
baster sJass  with  •  variety  ol  toft  co'ouri,  pro~ 
d'jciog  a  most  brauliful  effect,  which  it  not 
only  pleating  to  the  eye,  but  quite  unique  in 
characlei. 


Wedswood  Solid  Black  Basalt  Ware,  lo  an  original  and  exclutive  form.  Floating 
Flower  Bowl.  16  in.  diameter.  Clataical  Figure  of  "Cupid"  or  "Psyche"  asdcilred. 
on  Polished  Blackwood  Stand  Complete  at  illuitration,  £4  15  0 
The  Bowls  only,  shape  at  above.  Diameter  |!l  in.,  14/6;  14  in  .  Zl-;  16  iD..30/- 
Carved  Blackwood  Standi  extra 12/6.14/6.18/6 

All  I  he  de'iigni  exclusive 'y  controlled  by 

SOANE  ^  SMITH,  Ltd. 

"  "TT/ic  Speciolitf  House  of  Originaliliei. 

462   OXFORD    STREET,    LONDON,   W. 

Telejinone^   »'ail<lthiito5  .'j  u.  Tck-grams  :  "  Eartbenwesdo,  1-ondon,'' 

(Orders  over  £1  Carriage  Paid  in  England.  Scotland,  and  Walci.) 


Economy  in 
Floral  Decorations. 


Clatiical  Figure  of  "  Piyche."  in  Wedgwood 
Black  Basalt,  or  '  Cupid,'*  as  sh(.wn  in  tha 
bowl,  Si  in.  high. 

45/-  each. 

OLD  PUCE  COLOUR  GLASS. 


>■; 


A.  new  and  exclusive  form. 
Diameter     12   in..     22/6:      14  in..     27/6; 

16  in..  35/- 
Carved  Blackwood  Stands  extra,   8/6,  8/6. 

10/6. 

Painted  Blue  Bhd  by  Wedgwood.  5/6  extra. 
In  progress. 

Floating  Flower  Bowli,  in  Old  Puce  Colour 

Glasi.  as  above,  but  in   the  plain  bowl  shape. 

wilh    the    old    welled     rim,    which    it    very 

effective 

Diameter     lO  in.,      14/6;      12   in.,     21/-; 

14  in..  25/- 
Catved  Blackwood  Standi  extra,  10/6.  l2/6, 
14/6 

After  continuous   experiment*,  this  colour    is 
now  absolutely  perfect,  and  produces  a   most 

beautiful  effect. 


Supplement   to  Land   &  Water  March   2i,  191^ 


— When  Germany  so 
rudely  interrupted  in 
1914 , 

the  Austin  car  had  attained  an  immense  popu- 
larity. The  Austin  "  20-"  was  rc-cognised  to  Iw 
an  achievement  of  the  highest  automobile  en- 
gineering skill.  The  majestic  conquest  of  tUe 
Alps  by  a  2(1  li.p.  model  adilcd  laurels  to  this 
car.  Avh'ich  had  already  a  wonderful  record  to  it.s 
credit.  The  Austin  "  2<J  "  was  bidding  fair  to  be 
the  most  iwpular  car  of  its  class  on  British 
roads  when  Germany  so  rudely  interrupted. 
'  Cut  this  iwpularity  is  "  to 

be  continued  in  our  next  " 
— our  next  il)  h  p.  model 
which  will  be  i)laced  on  t  he 
market  at  the  cl-ise  ol 
hostilities.  and  which 
will  be  even  a  liner  and 
more  cilrcicnt  example  of 
car  design  an<l  construc- 
tion than  its  predecessors. 

.\n  echo  of  Austin  pre-war  popularity  is  reflected 
in  the  number  of  inquiries  and  applications  we 
have  had  lor  early  delhery  of  our  new  after-war 
model.  May  we  not  add  your  name  to  the  List  ? 

The     AUSTIN    MOTOR     CO.,    Ltd., 

479  483     Oxford   Street,    LONDON,    W.  1 


Trlepl.one        

TcrJciratns 

Head  Office  and  Works 


Mayfar  6230 

'  Austinette.  We»do,  London." 
Northficld.  Birmingham. 


MANCHESTER.  NORWICH,  and  PARIS. 


B.S.A.  on  ^e^v  Service 


P 


Is  your  Thresher 
*  Melcam '  interlined  ? 

Fj^VEN  the  THRESHER-  the 
J  admitted  best  of  all  campaign 
coats — may  wear  out,  after  years 
of  active  service.  It  is  well  to  re- 
member, therefore,  that  the 
Thresher  of  to-day  surpasses  the 
original  Thresher  as  far  as  that 
surpassed  its  many  imitators.  It's 
the  new  interlinio;;  that  makes  the 
difference  the  all-and-always 
pliant  'Melcam'  that  cannot 
crackle  and  that  water  can't  be 
even  force-pumped  through. 
'Thresher' Trench  Coal,  f  4.  1  4  fi 
Detachable' 'KamelcoU' £  I     11     A 

Cavalry  type,  witli  kiu-e  M:ip^  ant!  s-icUllc 
Kussct,  lS/6  extra. 


l,.'i<)0  rnoriT  'Ihrf-^hcr^  lUif  liwiit  of 
our  present  stork  oi  material  anfi 
coats)  will  be  sold  at  these  original 
prices.  After  this  a  considerable  rise 
in  price  is  inevitable,  curing  to  the 
heavy  increases  we  are  paying  tor 
all  materials.  Buy  your  Thresher 
bejoru  thi?  rise. 


TJ^E 


ALL  S:Zi;S   LN   SIOCK. 

Senci  size  of  chesi  iiitd  Jipproximale  lu-ight, 

and  to  avoid  dnlay  ^^iclosa  cheque  oj  trade 

reference  witli  order. 

Over  21,000  Officers  wear 


flHII^iilHIll^ 


A  smAll  C'ldrr  gl»in^'  prices  of  N  ivjI,  Mi.ilary  a'  d 
Koyal  Air  l-~orce  I'nifonnsotiapplicatioii.  (Fol'ler.il 

THRESHER&GLENNY 

(Esiabli-htd  1735'. 
1S2  &  IS3  STRAND,  LONDON.  W.C.2 


By  AppMnttfuiii 


InH.M.ThcKlii:: 


WHEN  the  utmost  urgency  is  needed  B.S.A.  reliability 
never  falters ;  it  relieves  the  rider  from  anxiety,  and 
minimises  the  possibility  of  a  dangerous  delay.  The  above 
illustration  shows  B.S.A.  Motor  Bicycles  in  German  East 
Africa,  where  these  famous  machines  gave  every  satisfaction. 


Catalogue  Free. 


THE 


BIRMINGHAM    SMALL   ARMS    COMPANY,  LTD., 
BIRMINGHAM. 


Tot  Solo  e-  SidccM^ 


No.  6. 


SOFT    AS    A    SLIPPER 

THE  "FORTMASON" 
MARCHING 
BOOT 


The  most  perfect  and 
durable  marching  boot 
in  the  world  for  hard 
grinding  wear.  Built 
on  scientific  principles 
— minimum  weight, 
maximum  strengtli 


50/- 


"      '  Sizes  9 J   tniii,     5/.  extra. 

Size  12       -        -    7/6  extra. 
To  measure      -  10/- extra. 

The  durability,  softness  and  flexibility  of 
the  Fortmason  leather  has  stood  the  test 
of  the  trenches  in  France  and  the  dust 
and   heat   of    .\frica   and    Mesopotamia. 

FORTNUM  &  MASON,  ltd 

182    Piccadilly,    London,    W.  1. 

depot  for  "DEXTER"  TRENCH  COATS, 

\ 


LAND  &  WATER 

Vol.  LXX.     No.  2915.     [.^I^k]         THURSDAY,  march  21,   1918         [r<^?v?rP=.^P#l]     ^^Fc'^^^Jf^ETE^^^I 


The    Mosque   of  Omar,    Jerusalem 


official  Photo 


On  entering  the  Holy  City,  General  Allenby  placed  a  guard  over  all  sacred  buildings,  without  respect 
to  creed  or  race.  This  picture  shows  the  changing  of  the  guard  of  Mohammedan  soldiers  of  our 
Indian  Army — on  this  day  Vaughan's  Rifles,  Punjab  Frontier  Force,  relieved   123rd  Outram   Rifles. 


Land   &:  Water  March  21,  19 18 

Two  Historical  Ceremonies 


Memorial  Service  for  the  late  Sir  Stanley  Maude  at  the  Citadel,  Bagdad 


OgLiat    Photo 


General   Allenbv   leaving  the  Church   of  the   Nativitv  at   Bethlehem 


March  21,  i  9  i  8 


Land    &    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :   HOLBORN    lizS. 

THURSDAY,  MARCH   21,  1918. 

Contents 


PAGE 
I 
2 

3 


The  Mosque  of  Omar,  Jerusalem.     (Photograph) 
Two  Historical  Ceremonies.     (Photographs) 
The  Outlook 

Raiding  the  Rhine  Cities.     By  H.  Belloc  5 

Convoys  and  Submarines.  By  H.  Whitaker  _  H 
The  Robber  Barons.    (Cartoon).     By  Raemaekers    lO  and^ii 

Russia's  True  Voice.     By  C.  Hagberg  Wright  12 

The  Allies.     Bv  "  Centurion  "  13 

Hit.     By  S.  K".  Vesey  15 

America  and  the  Far  East.     By  J.  D.  Whelpley  16 

French  Art  in  Russia.     By  G.  C.  Williamson  17 

Shockers.     By  J.  C.  Squire  20 

The  Story  of  "Northumberland.     By  H.  R.  S.  22 

Domestic  Economy  26 

Notes  on  Kit         '  xii 

JOHN  RATHOM'S  REVELATIONS 

Our  readers  will  rennember  that  at  the  request  of  the 
American  Authorities  we  were  obliged  to  discontinue 
the  series  of  articles  describing  the  work  of  the  German 
spy  system  in  America  written  by  Mr.  John  Rathom, 
Editor  of  the  Providence  Jowrwa/.  We  are  now  pleased 
to  announce  that  we  have  made  arrangements  to 
publish  in  Land  &  Water  a  series  of  articles  by  Mr. 
French  Strother,  Managing  Editor  of  the  World's  Work, 
New  York,  which  will  amplify  and  substantiate  the 
charges  of  intrigue  and  treachery  which  Mr.  Rathom 
brought  against  the  German  Government.  These 
articles  are  to  be  published  by  courtesy  of  the  Bureau 
of  Investigation  of  the  American  Department  of  Justice, 
which  discovered  Von  Papen's  connection  with  the 
passport  frauds,  etc.  Mr.  Strother  has  been  able  to 
verify  the  statements  and  documents  contained  in  these 
articles.  The  first  article  will  appear  in  the  next  issue 
oi Land&  Water,  March  28th,  entitled: 

THE   AMERICAN    REVELATIONS 


The  Outlook 


THERE  has  been  a  recrudescence  this  week  of 
the  rumours  that  Germany  is  again  asking  for 
peace.  These  rumours  seem  to  have  a  good  deal 
of  substance  and  they  are  certainly  credited 
in  quarters  where  something  more  than  mere  gossip 
is  registered.  The  terms,  also,  which  are  suggested  as  being 
mentioned,  have  more  reality  about  them  than  those  which 
were  passed  about  some  weeks  ago,  and,  generally,  it  may 
be  judged  that  some  special  effort  is  being  made.  It  would 
seem  to  be  directed  towards  the  American  Government  and 
to  run  upon  the  familiar  lines  of  a  considerable  concession 
in  the  West  on  condition  of  a  free  hand  in  the  East. 

What  "a  free  hand  in  the  East"  would  mean  is  by  this 
time  familiar  enough  to  the  educated  public  in  this  country. 
It  would  mean  the  recruitment  of  anything  from  50  to  70 
per  cent,  extra  military  forces  for  the  Central  Empires,  their 
economic  exploitation  of  the  Slav  and  their  tutelage  and 
restoration  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  It  is  equivalent  to  the 
future  easy  mastery  of  Europe. 

mm* 
The  effect  of  such  a  settlement  upon  the  constitution 
of  the  British  Empire  is  more  evident  than  any  other  of 
the  many  propositions  raised  by  the  war  in  its  present  phase. 
It;, would  necessarily  mean  the  loss  of  security  in  our  com- 
munications with  India,  for  it  would  mean  the  loss  almost 
immediately  of  the  isthmus  of  Suez.  The  settlement  of 
a  frontier  covering  this  point  would  be  a  mere  paper  settlement 
if  the  control  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the  new  railways  termina- 
ting there  were  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  Central  Europe 
under  Prussian  guidance. 

Meanwhile,  the  alternative  land  route  to  the  East  could 
be  developed  upon  a  purely  German  model  and  for  German 
ends.     Such  would  be  the  efiect  upon  the  Indian  Dominion 


of  Great  Britain  and  the  n^ad  to  it,  but  it  would  mean  much 
more  than  that.  It  would  mean  the  complete  control  of 
the  Baltic  and  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  therefore  the  complete 
control  of  the  Russian  market  and  the  power  to  canalise 
its  export  of  oil  and  of  wheat.  The  long  possession  of  the 
Bosphorus  by  a  weak  Power  and  the  holding  of  the  Sound 
by  two  of  the  lesser  European  nations  has  made  men  forget 
the  meaning  of  a  strong  empire  possessed  of  both  those 
gates.  They  would  soon  learn  it  if  that  empire  were  left 
in  possession  of  them.  That  they  shall  not  be  left  in  possession 
has  become  one  of  the  main  objects  of  the  war  and  for  this 
country  an  absolutely  vital  object. 


Besides  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic,  and  in  a  sense  more 
important  than  either,  is  the  question  of  the  Adriatic. 
Whoever  controls  the  Eastern  littoral  of  that  sea  controls 
the  whole  of  it.  That  is  the  lesson  of  the  last  two  years 
which  ought  to  have  been  apparent  from  the  map  even  before 
the  war  was  opened.  It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say 
that  the  whole  of  the  Dalmatian  coast  is  one  vast,  deep, 
land-locked  and  protected  harbour.  If  Trieste  is  the  "spear 
point "  of  the  Germans,  Dalmatia  is  still  more  their  guarantee 
of  power  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  we  may  be  certain  that 
any  terms  suggested  for  the  West  will  not  include  a 
compromise  upon  this  essential  littoral.  It  will  be  won  or 
lost  by  the  fortime  of  the  war.  So  far  that  fortune  has  here, 
even  more  than  elsewhere,  and  especially  recently,  strongly 
favoured  our  enemies. 

No  matter  what  concessions  remain  in  the  West,  if  the 
Central  Powers  retain  their  present  position  in  the  Balkans 
and  therefore  upon  the  Dalmatian  coast  they  own  the  Adriatic, 
and  through  the  Adriatic  and  the  Bosphorus  they  are  the 
masters  of  the  Eastern  Mediterranean.  Europe  has  something 
to  say  to  that  quite  apart  from  our  own  interests  in  the  matter, 
and  for  the  future  of  Italy  in  particular  the  nature  of  the 
settlement  is  all-important.  But  our  own  interests  alone 
are  sufficient  to  define  our  position  too  clearly  for  any  hope 
of  compromise. 

*  41  « 

The  occupation  of  Odessa  by  the  enemy — an  immediate 
and  necessary  consequence  of  the  Rumanian  peace — does 
more  than  convert  the  Black  Sea  into  a  German  lake.  It 
also  puts  a  part  of  the  Russian  Fleet  into  German  hands 
and  promises  the  complete  control  of  that  Fleet  in  the  near 
future.  When  the  ice  melts  in  the  Baltic  we  shall  have 
the  enemy  reinforced  upon  the  north  and  upon  the  south 
with  nearly  every  unit  of  the  Russian  Navy,  subject  only 
to  such  destruction  as  calculated  measures  (or  more  likely 
neglect)  may  have  worked. 

One  of  the  effects  of  the  position  in  the  Black  Sea  will  be 
that  the  handing  over  of  Georgia  to  Turkish  garrisons  can 
be  fully  supported  by  the  Central  Powers,  and  further,  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  oil  supply  of  the  Old  World  is  now 
in  the  enemy's  hands.  Whether  the  granary  of  Southern 
Russia  is  in  a  condition  to  supply  wheat  this  year  to  the  enemy 
in  any  sufficient  quantity,  and,  if  it  is,  whether  the  condition 
of  communications  will  permit  of  any  great  transports,  may 
be  doubted,  but  the  position  for  next  year  is  secure. 

Here,  therefore,  as  in  every  other  point  upon  the  board, 
the  issue  of  the  struggle  in  the  West  is  decisive.  If  a  victory 
under  arms  in  the  West  is  denied  us  the  enemy  has  won  the 
war,  and  our  immediate  future  will  be  a  preparation  for 
the  next  sttuggle  under  conditions  far  less  favourable. 


The  action  of  the  Germans  in  arresting  British  and 
American  subjects  upon  Finnish  territory  is  not  only  character- 
istic and  for  that  matter  inevitable,  but  is  also  an  excellent 
index  of  the  relations  now  established  through  their  recent 
victories  between  the  Hoheneollems  and  the  new 
"autonomous"  nations  they  have  set  up.  There  is  no 
intention  of  annexing  Finland  even  informally,  Finland 
is  created  as  a  completely  independent  Republic.  But  enemy 
subjects  are  seized  upon  the  territory  of  Finland  exactly 
as   though    that    territory    were    Brandenburg    or  Hanover. 

The  incident  is  also  an  index  of  the  confidence  the  German 
Government  now  feels  in  its  position.  It  is  a  challenge  at 
once  to  the  Scandinavian  group  of  nations,  to  the  new  Finland, 
and  to  the  Allies,  and  it  is  a  challenge  given  in  the  confident 
expectation  that  no  results  can  follow  from  it  adverse  to 
German  interest.  The  calculation  is  just,  for  there  are  only 
two  possible  issues  to  the  present  situation  :  Either  the 
Allies  will  achieve  such  military  success  as  will  enable  them 
to  exact  full  reparation,  not  only  for  this  but  for  countless 
other  enormities,  or  they  will  accept  a  German  peace,  ia 
which  case  all  that  Germany  has  done  will  go  unpuni^ed. 


Land   &    Water 


March  21,  1 9 1 0 


Somewhai  t-  much  has  been  made  of  a  by-election 
decided  tliis  week  in  a  suburb  of  Berlin  where  the  working- 
class  vote  predominates.  This  vote  was  cast  for  the  official 
or  Majority  Socialist  with  an  enormous  lead  over  his  Minority 
opponent.  No  one  with  the  least  knowledge  of  German 
conditions  at  this  moment  could  have  doubted  the  issue. 
Even  those  who  voted  against  tlic  official  candidate  were, 
for  the  most  part,  in  favour  of  the  full  German  view  of  what 
peace  can  be  enforced  upon  the  Allies,  for  their  protest  is 
rather  academic  than  real  and,  in  so  far  as  it  is  real,  concerns 
domestic  conditions  much  more  tlian  it  does  foreign  policy. 
Even  so,  the  voting  was  taken  without  the  presence  of  the 
mobilised  men.  whose  votes  would  only  have  gone  to  swell 
the  majority  still  more. 

Tlie  truth  is  that  since  Caporetto  and  the  victorious  carving 
up  of  Russia,  the  whole  German  mind  takes  victory,  and  a 
ver>'  early  victory,  for  granted— with  the  exception  of  the 
few  directing  soldiers  who  can  judge  the  gravity  and  d*ubt 
of  the  military  problem  in  the  West.  It  is  with  such  a 
confident  mood  that  we  have  to  deal,  in  spite  of  the  very 
severe  strain  upon  the  civilian  population,  and  that  mood  is 
rendered  the  more  confident  by  evtry  misunderstanding  of  it 
into  which  w'ell-meaning  men  fall  over  here.  A  great  mass  of 
Germany  not  only  thinks  that  it  will  win,  but  thinks  that  it 
has  won,  and  those  who  would  parley  with  it  confirm  that 

judgment. 

*  «  * 

Prince  Lichnowsky's  private  memorandum  of  the  diplo- 
matic events  which  led  up  to  the  war  is  a  document  of  out- 
standing importance.  It  has  been  published  in  th.e  Swedish 
Socialist  journal  Politiken,  and  is  undoubtedly  authentic. 
It  proves  beyond  all  question  that  whatever  may  have  been 
the  faults  or  weakness  of  the  British  Foreign  Office,  Sir 
Edward  Grey  did  work  most  honestly  and  sincerely  for  the 
peace  of  Europe.  He  found  himself  in  much  the  same 
position  as  a  host  who  is  warned  that  one  of  his  honoured 
guests  is  cheating  at  cards,  but  has  no  definite  proof  of  it. 
How  ought  he  to  act  ?  Viscount  Grey's  reputation  may 
be  left  to  posterity.  The  late  German  Ambassador  has  made 
it  clear  for  all  time  that  Britain  strove  strenuously  not  only 
in  the  feverish  July  days  of  1914,  but  for  at  lea?t  two  years 
before,  in  order  to  avert  the  war  which  Germany  was  deter- 
mined to  force  on  Europe,  strong  in  the  belief"  that  world- 
dominion  was  at  last  within  her  grasp.  A  perusal  of  this 
memorandum  can  have  only  one  effect  upon  the  Allies — 
sterner  resolution  that  the  military  defeat  of  Germany  must 
be  definite  and  complete  if  Europe  is  to  have  a  settled  peace. 

*  *  * 

The  opening  debate  on  the  second  reading  of  the  Education 
Bill  promises  well  for  the  future  of  the  measure.  Mr.  Fisher 
has  paid,  perhaps,  in  his  revision  rather  high  a  price  for  the 
support  of  the  local  education  authorities ;  but  that  support 
may  make  the  difference  between  success  and  failure.  The 
really  crucial  question  at  issue  is  the  question  of  abolishing 
half-time  before  14  and  continuing  education  after  that  age. 
Sir  Mark  Sykes  made  a  new  point  when  he  argued  that  the 
male  population  born  between  1878  and  1900  would  be 
"practically  shattered"  by  the  war,  and  that  consequently 
in  twenty  years'  time  there  would  be  far  fewer  men  between 
40  and  60,  so  special  responsibilities  would  be  thrown  upon 
the  children  of  this  and  succeeding  generations. 

Mr.  Fisher  addressed  himself  directly  to  the  capital  diffi- 
culty—the case  of  the  cotton  industry.  He  reminded  the 
House  that  this  industry,  erected  originally  on  a  basis  of 
workhouse  labour,  had  never  entirely  recovered  from  its 
unfortunate  start,  and  he  contrasted"^  with  the  difficulties 
urged  against  the  Bill  the  prospect  that  confronted  the 
nation  if  it  refused  to  set  its  house  in  order.  In  point  of 
fact,  the  opposition  did  not  come  from  Lancashire,  for  the 
three  Lancashire  members  who  spoke  in  the  debate  all 
welcomed  the  Bill.  Discussion  is  still  proceeding  in  the 
textile  districts,  but  it  is  quite  clear  that  neither  employers 
nor  workpeople  are  going  to  offer  a  united  and  uncom- 
promising resistance  to  the  Bill. 

*  *  * 

For  the  first  time.  Mr.  Fi.sher  gave  the  House  an  estimate 
of  the  cost.  Raising  the  school  age  will  imply  a  million  • 
contmuation  education  something  under  nine  millions' 
thus  the  total  cost  of  the  Bill  will  be  less  than  two  days  of 
the  cost  of  the  war.  A  nation  that  can  regard  such  expendi- 
ture as  a  serious  burden  in  the  crisis  in  which  we  find  our- 
selves would  not  be  worthy  to  govern  a  hamlet 

An  arnusing  story  is  told  of  a  meeting  of  a  club  of  econo- 
niists  who  assembled  not  long  ago  for  the  first  time  since 
the  outbreak  of  war.  The  previous  meeting  had  been  held 
in  the  summer  of  1914.  Wlien  the  minutes  were  read  it 
appeared  that  the  subject  for  the  deliberation  of  the  club 


on  that  occasion  had  been  a  paper  read  by  a  distinguished 
economist  under  the  title,  "  Is  it  possible  for  any  nation  to 
sustain  the  burden  of  our  heavy  expenditure  ? "  The  war 
had  made  the  question  look  a  little  foolish  in  the  interval. 
It  has  certainly  made  it  seem  outrageous  that  anybody 
should  demur  to  adding  ten  millions  to  our  expenditure 
on  education.  The  true  criticism  of  the  Bill  is  not  that  it 
asks  too  much,  but  that  it  asks  too  little,  for  education. 

*  *  4c 

The  Central  Board  of  Finance  of  the  Church  of  England  is 
distributing  a  circular  letter,  signed  by  the  Archbishops  of 
Canterbury  and  York,  appealing  to  members  of  the  Church 
to  subscribe  liberally  to  a  new  Central  Fund,  which  is  to  be 
created  to  meet  many  urgent  needs.  Surely  it  would  be 
wiser  before  new  revenues  and  endowments  were  created,  if 
the  existing  ones  were  placed  on  a  sounder  and  more  business 
basis  ?  .'\n  organised  attempt,  we  believe,  has  never  been 
made  to  face  this  difficulty.  Vested  interests  are  so  power- 
ful, prejudice  and  bigotry  so  strong,  that  in  the  past  it  might 
well  have  been  declared  impossible.  But  we  have  learned 
in  these  years  no  reform  is  impossible,  if  it  be  carried 
out  with  energy,  courage,  and  determination.  There  is 
no  real  reason,  heavy  though  the  task  would  be,  why,  under 
.skilful  organisation,  a  chartered  accountants'  statement 
could  not  be  prepared  of  the  total  revenues  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  a  plan  devised  for  their  legislative  readjust- 
ment in  accordance  with  the  needs  of  the  age.  If  disendow- 
ment  is  to  come,  the  Church  of  England  could  at  least  assert 
that  it  had  endeavoured  to  employ  the  money  at  its  disposal 
to  the  best  purpose.     It  cannot  say  that  to-day. 

*  *  * 

Only  the  other  day  the  Bishop  of  London  publicly  declared 
that  the  total  of  his  private  means  was  £100,  which  he  had 
earned  by  writing  a  book.  Yet  the  emoluments  of  Fulham 
Palace  are  £10,000  a  year,  almost  as  much — not  quite — as 
the  fees  of  an  Attorney-General.  But  merely  because  this 
big  sum  represent^  ^hese  emoluments  and  the  needs  of  the 
diocese  are  urgent,  beyond  the  bare  cost  of  living  the 
Bishop  does  not  feel  justified  in  touching  a  penny.  But  if 
the  work  of  the  Church  requires  this  readjustment,  the  duty 
of  effecting  it  should  not  be  left  to  the  individual  ;  it  is  most 
unfair  on  him  ;  the  adjustment  should  be  made  by  the  Church 
in  its  corporate  capacity.  We  have  only  referred  to  the 
See  of  London  as  an  illustration  of  our  meaning  and  because 
the  facts  are  well  known,  but  this  inequity  of  stipends  exists 
in  some  form  or  other  in  every  diocese  ;  it  is  one  of  the  -worst 
weaknesses  of  the  Church,  of  England,  and  a  scandal  which 
its  lay  members  find  most  difficult  to  refute. 

*  *  * 

The  Ministry  of  Reconstruction,  though  almost,  if  not 
quite,  the  youngest  of  our  new  Departments,  has  got  well 
into  harness.  Apart  from,  "finding"  themselves,  they  had 
set  up  as  early  as  December  last  eighty-seven  separate 
committees  of  inquiry  into  as  many  phases  of  national 
activity,  and  this  number  is  still  being  added  to.  Some  of 
them  have  already  presented  their  reports,  while  others  have 
issued  interim  reports  ;  there  is  thus  rapidly  accumulating 
such  a  mass  of  literature  representing  the  considered  opinion 
of  the  members  of  these  committees  as  will  soon  overwhelm 
not  only  the  various  departments  of  Government  concerned, 
but  those  members  of  the  public  who  endeavour  to  keep 
themselves  informed  on  matters  of  national  welfare.  Though 
particular  individuals  seem  to  be  put  on  to  too  many 
committees  and  here  and  there  one  is  overweighted  by 
departmental  officials,  which  tends  to  too  much  theorising 
and  to  abstract  conclusions. 

*  *  * 

But  the  Minister  of  Reconstruction  is  not  the  only  parent 
of  committees,  A  White  Paper  gives  a  fist  of  267  commis- 
sions, committees,  or  special  branches  of  departments,  "set 
up  to  deal  with  public  questions  arising  out  of  the  war," 
34  of  which  had  ceased  to  exist  when  the  paper  was  pub- 
lished, and  a  few  of  which  are  also  included  among  the 
87  children  of  the  Minister  of  Reconstruction.  Some  of 
these  267  commissions  are  also  issuing  reports,  and  it  may  be 
assumed  that  all  of  them  are  intended  to  have  some  influence 
on  reconstruction  when  it  actually  begins. 

Now,  even  if  the  general  public  were  not  too  much  engaged 
to  follow  all  this  Hterature  it  is  quite  certain  that  they  could 
not  digest  it,  and  there  is  a  very  grave  danger  that  much 
future  legislation  will  be  based  upon  these  reports  which 
may  or  may  not  be  to  the  public  advantage.  A  report 
presented  by  a  Committee,  mainly  composed  of  Government 
officials,  for  instance,  may  be  a 'masterly  piece  of  abstract 
work,  cleverly  constructed,  and  full  of  excellent  theoretical 
arguments  ;  but  when  translated  into  an  Act  of  Parliament 
it  may  easily  become  irritating^and  inequitable. 


March  21,  ig  i  8 


J^and    <x    w  ater 


Raiding  the  Rhine  Cities:  By  H.  Belloc 


THE  new  factor  in  the  fighting  season  that  is 
opening  is  the  use  of  the  air  against  civilians. 
The  enemy  some  time  ago  deliberately  created 
a  change  for  the  worse  in  warfare  between 
European  nations.  That  change  consists ,  in  a 
repeated  attack  upon  points  far  behind  the  siege  lines  of  the 
West  and  including  the  bombardment  of  the  civilian  popu- 
lation in  what  are  called  (though  the  definition  hardly 
applies  to-day)  by  the  old-fashioned  term  of  "  open  towns." 
We  shall  do  well  at  the  opening  of  this  season  to  consider 
the  respective  advantages  and  disadvantages  in  this  respect 
of  the  two  parties  which  are,  in  the  West  of  Europe,  deciding 
the  fate  of  the  world  :  for  there — not  in  Russia — lies  the 
issue  between  our  victory  or  the  enemy's  successful  resistance 
and  his  imposition  on  us  of  his  peace. 

First,  let  us  grasp  the  history  of  the  thing. 
Prussia  inaugurated  in  1870  a  new  principle  in  European 
warfare.  It  was  a  principle  in  line  with  others  which  she 
had  created  or  expanded  in  previous  wars.  It  was  one  which 
her  rivals  fiercely  denounced,  hoped  to  be  ephemeral,  and  did 
not  themselves  copy.  This  principle  was  the  principle  that 
civilians — all  that  part  of  the  nation,  including  the  women 
and  children,  who  are  not  within  its  military  organisation — 
should  be  subjected  to  the  pressure  of  war  without  privilege 
or  special  distinction  of  any  kind.  We  must  distinguish  here 
between  the  hurt  done  in  hot  blood  or  from  lack  of  discipline, 
or  through  the  exceptional  cnielty  of  a  commander  to  civilians, 
and  the  new  Prussian  doctrine.  What  made  that  doctrine 
new — the  essence  of  it^was  universality  and  calculation.  It 
was,  as  I  have  said,  a  new  principle,  the  like  of  which  no 
nation  in  Christendom  had  accepted  before. 

This  new  step  was  but  the  realisation  in  part  of  a  general 
thesis  which  lies  at  the  very  core  of  all  the  Prussian  system  : 
that  anything  is  permitted  to  PrussiaVi  policy  so  long  as  it 
tends  to  the  aggrandisement  of  the  Prussian  State.  In  other 
words,  that  the  moral  duty  of  increasing  the  power  of  the 
Prussian  State  overrides  for  the  directors  of  that  State  all 
other  moral  duties. 

Since  the  idea  was  profoundly  immoral  and  inhuman,  it 
was  not,  as  a  fact,  fully  appHed.  It  grew  slowly,  because  a 
criminal  always  feels  subconsciously,  however  perfect  his 
immediate  immunity,  that  it  may  not  be  eternal  and  that 
mankind  is  a  permanent  judge.  All  moraJ  degradation, 
however  rapid,  is  (Successive,  and  nearly  always  goes  by 
distinct  steps  downwards.  It  is  hardly  ever  a  mere  plunge. 
We  have  had  very  striking  examples  in  the  present  war  of 
this  last  truth.  The  enemy  did  not  at  once  proceed  to  all 
the  logical  consequences  of  his  creed.  The  very  last  steps  in 
it  have  not  even  yet  been  taken. 

For  instance,  when  he  retired  from  the  Noyon  salient  he 
propounded  a  theory  tha*  a  belligerent  might  legitimately 
devastate  a  whole  countryside,  carry  off  its  inhabitants  into 
slavery,  destroy  every  house,  every  fruit  tree,  and  every  well, 
because  such  action  was  of  military  advantage  to  himself. 
Yet  he  did  not  destroy  Noyon  itself,  the  most  valuable  asset 
to  his  enemy  in  the  whole  district.  In  the  same  way,  he  has 
laid  down  that  the  suspicion  of  even  a  slight  advantage 
given  to  his  enemy  by  even  the  most  important  or  sacred 
monument  of  the  past,  justifies  the  destruction  of  such  a 
monument.  That  was  his  plea  for  beginning  the  destruction 
of  Rheims  Cathedral  on  a  doubtful  suspicion  that  the  towers 
might  be  used  as  observation  posts,  infinitesimal  as  that 
hypothetical  advantage  would  have  been.  Yet,  after 
beginning  this  destruction,  he  did  not  complete  it. 

In  the  same  way  each  successive  Prussian  novelty  in 
international  crime  has  come  after  a  considerable  interval, 
and  the  deliberate  terrorising  of  the  civilian  population  by 
bombardment  from  the  air  has  been  of  comparatively  recent 
development.  Even  now  he  continually  drags  in  the  word 
"reprisals." 

The  enemy  has,  however,  now  definitely  adopted  this 
method,  and  has  continued  it  so  long  that  the  Allies  have 
been  compelled  to  follow  suit.  Had  they  not  done  so  they 
would  have  left  in  the  hands  of  Prussia  an  instrument  of 
victory  of  which  they  would  themselves  have  been  deprived 
and  its  cumulative  effect  might  have  been  overwhelming. 
It  is  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  you  can  persuade  men 
to  break  with  some  long-established  standard  of  honour  even 
under  the  most  grievous  necessity  ;  and  the  highest  respect 
is  due  to  those  who  for  long  urged  that  retaliation  should  be 
postponed.  But  it  is  now  clear  that  retaliation  is  a  necessity, 
and  what  we  have  to  consider — most  unfortunately — are  the 


practical  conditions  under  which  this  new  method,  can  be 
exercised  by  either  side. 

Much  the  greater  part  of  these  practical  conditions  are 
forbidden  to  public  discussion.  The  publicist  knows  little 
of  them,  and  the  more  he  knows  the  more  it  is  liis  duty  to 
be  silent.  The  military  and  constructional  authorities,  who 
know  most,  have,  beyond  all  other  men,  the  duty  of  con- 
cealing their  knowledge.  The  number,  the  carrying  power, 
etc.,  of  the  machines  used — which  are  the  very  first 
practical  factors — are  things  that  must  not  be  touched,  and 
many  other  similar  points  wUl  occur  to  the  reader  as  barred 
from  all  publicity.  But  there  are  a  certain  number  of  topo- 
graphical and  political  points  which  are  open  to  analysis  and 
which  it  is  important  to  grasp,  both  in  order  that  the  public 
may  understand  the  problem  set  and  also  that  it  may  under- 
stand what  advantages  the  Allies  enjoy  in  this  unhappy 
extremity  to  which  Prussia  has  driven  them  ;  for,  with  the 
exception  of  one  great  province,  unalterable  until  we  break 
the  Prussian  siege  line  in  the  West — I  mean  the  province  of 
communications— ours  maritime  and  therefore  vulnerable 
and  slow,  his  continental  and  therefore  rapid  and  invulner- 
able— advantages  can  "be  counted  upon  our  side  as  well  as 
on   his. 

The  Enemy's  Advantage 

Let  us  first  of  all  appreciate  what  are  his  advantages — 
advantages  which  led  him  to  adopt  this  new  policy. 

The  first  and  most  conspicuous  advantage  he  has  is  the 
fact  that  the  two  principal  capitals,  not  only  of  the  Allies, 
but  of  the  world,  Paris  and  London,  are  highly  accessible  to 
his  machines.  The.  distance  from  his  starting  points  in 
Belgium  to  the  London  area  is,  upon  the  average,  less  than 
150  miles.  The  distance  from  his  starting  points  to  the 
area  of  Paris  is,  upon  the  average,  between  80  and  90  miles. 
Secondly,  the  way  to  both  capitals  is  indicated  in  clear 
weather  bj'  water.  The  valleys  of  the  Oise,  the  Marne,  and, 
in  an  approach  from  the  south,  of  the  Seine,  can  be  followed 
to  Paris  upon  any  clear  night,  however  dark  ;  while  London 
lies  at  the  apex  of  an  estuary  terminating  in  a  broad  and 
unmistakable  river.  . 

Thirdly,  the  great  areas  concerned,  especially  that  of 
London,  make  his  task  of  recognition  easier.  The  defenders 
cannot  hide  a  patch  of  this  size  upon  the  landscape  of  a  clear 
night,  and  the  attackers  cannot  miss  it.  London  is  especially 
vulnerable  from  the  fact  that  the  greater  part  of  the  trajec- 
tory to  it  lies  over  the  undefended  area  of  the  sea-,  and  because 
of  its  very  great  size.  Parjs  is  especially  vulnerable  because, 
although  the  approaches  to  it  are  over  land  and  the  area  is 
smaller,  the  length  of  the  trajectory  is  much  less. 

The  two  capitals  are  not  only  exceedingly  vulnerable,  but 
are  also,  when  attacked,  places  the  raiding  of  which  the  enemy 
can  calculate  to  yield  great  fruit  of  the  sort  which  he  seeks. 
For,  in  the  first  place,  the  closer  and  denser  a  population 
the  greater  the  moral  effect  of  a  raid.  In  the  second  place, 
the  mere  numerical  proportion  of  the  whole  nation  which  is 
situated  in  each  of  the  two  areas  is  very  large.  In  the 
third  place — much  the  most  important  factors-each  Cjen- 
tralises,  in  a  degree  unknown  to  other  countries,  the  national 
life.     Each  is  the  brain  of  the  national  organism. 

Every  one  recognises  this  in  the  case  of  Paris  ;  a  tradition 
no  longer  corresponding  with  modern  realities  masks  it  in  the 
case  of  London.  But  if  we  honestly  consider  those  realities 
we  shall  perceive  that  London  is  even  more  of  a  national 
centre  than  Paris.  The  Press,  for  instance,  has  far  more 
power  in  Britain  than  in  France,  and  the  London  Press 
largely  moulds  the  opinion  of  the  whole  country.  Every 
direction  of  this  war  has  for  Britain  its  chief  centre  in  London. 
What  is  more,  the  principal  offices  are  there  gathered  closer 
together  even  than  they  are  in  Paris.  One  may  put  the 
matter  most  clearly  by  an  extreme  case,  which  happily  has 
not  yet  been  realised,  and  ask  oneself  what  the  effect  would 
be  upon  the  strength  of  either  nation  if  a  really  serious 
destruction  of  records  and  disorganisation  of  personnel  could 
be  effected  in  either  capital  by  a  raid  on  a  much  larger  scale 
than  any  that  has  yet  taken  place — always  supposing  the 
present  centralisation  to  be  maintained. 

The  first  great  asset,  then,  of  the  enemy  is  the  vulnerability 
and  essential  importance  of  the  two  great  modern  capitals 
which  his  aircraft  can  so  easily  reach. 

His  second  asset  is  connected  with  this  first,  and  consists  • 
in  tho  fact  that  his  siege  line  happens  to  have  fallen  so  far 


Land    &    Watef 


March 


2  I. 


1918 


west  that  his  own  centres,  so  far  as  affecting  civilian  life  is 
concerned,  lie  much  further  from  our  points  of  departure 
than  do  ours  from  Jiis  All  that  is  destroyed  in  the  Western 
siege  belt  is  Belgian  or  French,  or  what  the  French  count  as 
part  of  their  territory,  for  it  is  Alsatian  or  of  Lorraine.  And 
it  so  happens  that  the  purely  German  centres  which  are 
nearest  to  Allied  points  of  departure  are  the  less  important. 
For  instance,  if  Alsace  and  Lorraine  were  really  German 
territor)',  Metz,  Strasburg,  Colmar,  Mulhouse,  ThionviUe, 
would  be  vulnerable,  as  no  great  corresponding  Allied  centres 
are  vulnerable  with  the  exception  of  Nancy.  But  imme- 
diately beyond  the  Rhine  in  this  neighbourhood  you  have 
only  the  Black  F"orest  and  the  territory  of  Baden  with  few 
targets  of  importance,  Freiburg  and  Karlsruhe  being  the 
only  considerable  centres  ;  while  the  area  where  most  can 
be  done  lies  far  back  in  the  basin  of  the  Lower  Rhine,  from 
Cologne  northwards. 

The  enemy,  then,  has  two  great  targets,  each  unique  in 
character,  highly  vulnerable,  close  to  hand,  and  his  siege 
lines  cover  our  targets  at  a  much  greater  distance  than  they 
cover  his.  l-'urther,  for  reasons  that  will  be  explained  in  a 
moment,  the  finding  of  one's  way  to  those  targets  is  a  some- 
what longer  and  more  difficult  business. 

There  are  two  great  sets  of  advantages  present  to  the 
Allies  in  this  deplorable  sort  of  warfare  which  the  enemy 
has  brought  upon  himself. 

The  first  is  topographical,  and  therefore  permanent,  and 
consists  in  the  fact  that  the  heart  of  German  war  industry 
and  of  compact  industrial  population,  though  distant,  is 
within  reach,  while  it  is  more  concentrated  than  the  more 
distant  centres  of  the  Allies.  It  is  to  be  found  in  that  vast 
mass  of  industrial  humanity  which  is  crowded  upon  a  com- 
paratively small  area  of  the  Lower  Rhine  basin,  and  par- 
ticularly of  the  Ruhr  Valley. 

The  second  is  moral  or  political,  and  therefore  neither 
necessarily  permanent  nor  susceptible  of  exact  calculation. 
It  is  twofold,  and  consists  in  the  superior  work  of  the  Allied 
aircraft  and  in  the  awakening  of  the  enemy  to  war  upon 
his  own  soil. 

I  will  take  these  in  reverse  order. 

It  is  a  matter  entirely  dependent  upon  individual  judg- 
ment, and  one  upon  which  one  can  therefore  make  no  positive 
pronouncement,  but  one  upon  which  general  observation  is 
agreed  that  the  immunity  of  German  soil  from  the  actual 
presence  of  war  has  had  very  much  to  do  with  the  main- 
tenance of  enemy  moral.     Personally,  1  do  not  believe  that 
if  the  siege  lines  had  fallen   within  German  territory  the 
German  character  would  have  held  as  the  French  has  done. 
But  those  who  would  differ  from  me  in  this  will  agree  that 
for  any  nation  it  is  an  immense  moral  advantage  that  the 
destruction  and  the  terror  should  be  falling,  so  far  as  civilians 
are  concerned,   upon  enemj'   territory.     We  have  only  to 
coasider  the  difference  between  an  invaded  and  an  uninvaded 
England  to  appreciate  the  force  of  that  truth.     Further,  we 
know  from  the  German  Press,  and  far  better  from  reports 
that  reach  the  Allies,  how  powerful  has  been  the  effect  of  the 
hitherto  trifling  punishment  inflicted  upon  German  centres. 
The  first  raid  upon  Karlsruhe  produced  a  violence  of  emotion 
not  comparable  to  anything  that  has  taken  place  hitherto  in 
London   or   in   Paris.     Treves— a   most   important    military 
centre— IS  beginning  to  caU  itself  uninhabitable ;    and  if  we 
had  no  other  evidence,  the  tone  of  the  enemy's  allusion  to 
Mannheim  alone  would  be  enough  ;    though  Mannheim    and 
stiM  more  the  great  group  of  factories  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  Rhme,   are  of  the  highest   military   importance    quite 
apart  from  the  effect  our  raids  have  now  produced  upon 
their  civilian  inhabitants.     If  these   Upper   Rhine  centres 
-4  am  for  the  moment  neglecting  the  great  industrial  dis- 
trict of  the  Lower  Rhme— were  only  a  few  isolated  points 
comparable,   say,    to   the   residential   towns   in   the   Severn 
VaUey,  the  effect  would  still  be  striking  enough  •    but    in 
■point  of  fact,  the  whole  district   between   Strasburg  on  'the 
south  and  the  gorge  of   the  Rhine  on  the  north  is  densely 
inhabited  and  of  high  political  importance.     The  vulnerable 
areas  of  purely  German  character  lying  within  the  Rhine 
basm.  and  accessible  to  aircraft  with  their  present  radius  of 
action,  contain  an  urban  population  nearly  half  that  of  the 
great  cities  of  the  Empire,  if  we  exclude  the  two  capitals  of 
Berlm    and   Munich,    and   the   port  ^nd    neighbourhood   of 
Hamburg.     The  German  Empire  has  a  distribution  of  popu- 
lation  fairly  simply  arranged  in  three  divisions      There  is 
the  densely  inhabited  basin  of  the  Upper  Elbe  •    there  is  the 
larger  and  more  thickly  inhabited  population  of  the  Rhine  • 
^^utl'^  remainder   by  far  the  greater  part,  is  not  densely 

R^rl-nf  Hih      '""*^'"l,""ly  the  great  agglomerations  of 
Beriin  and  the  ports  of  Hamburg  and  Bremen 

There  is   another  political  point-vague,   uncertain,   and 
only  given  for  what  it  is  worth-and  that  is  the  historical 


connection  of  the  Rhine  district  with  the  modem  German 
Empire.  That  connection  was  at  first  somewhat  artificial  ; 
the  character  of  its  inhabitants  is  the  most  remote  in  all 
Germany  from  the  character  of  the  Prussian  squirearchy  and 
bureaucracy,  which  owes  its  modern  supremacy  entirely  to 
the  victories  of  a  generation  ago  ;  and  a  serious  dislocation 
of  civihan  life  upon  the  Rhine  would  have  an  effect,  not  to 
be  exaggerated  but  to  be  remembered,  upon  the  whole 
structure  of  modem  Germany.  The  point  of  Prussia  for 
these  people  is  not  only  that  she  has  made  them  part  of  a 
great  State,  and  able  to  enjoy  the  sense  of  past  victories,  but 
also  that  she  can  continue  to  confirm  their  security. 

As  to  the  asset  manifestly  possessed  by  the  Allies  at  the 
present  moment  in  superiority  of  the  work  done  in  the  air, 
we  can  but  note  it,  and  hope  and  expect  it  to  continue  ;  but 
we  must  remember  that  it  is  not  a  permanent  and  necessary 
asset  as  is  the  geographical  one.  British  flights  across 
German  territory  ^ake  place  by  day  as  well  as  by  night  ; 
weather  lias  had  to  be  less  carefully  chosen  for  our  attacks 
than  for  theirs ;  and  these  attacks  have  a  repeated  and 
assiduous  character  hitherto  lacking  in  theirs.  The  whole 
line  of  the  river  down  as  far  as  Coblentz  and  up  the  Moselle 
as  high  as  Treves  has  been  alive  with  raids  for  two  months, 
although  the  season  is  but  opening  ;  and  the  intensity  of  the 
effort  is  rapidly  increasing. 

Cologne 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  chief  objective,  the  great  mass  of 
industrial  population  which  stands  upon  a  comparatively 
small  area  of  the  Lower  Rhine  Valley,  and  particularly 
within  the  basin  of  the  right-hand  tributary  called  the  Ruhr. 
If  the  reader  will  look  at  the  map  accompanying  this 
article,  he  will  see,  marked  "A,"  a  rather  small  heart-shaped 
region  just  north  of  Cologne,  but  including  that  city,  and 
lying,  for  the  most  part,  upon  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine. 
This  region  is  the  region  of  dense  population  which  is  some- 
times generally  termed,  from  the  province,  in  which  its  major 
part  lies,  "The  Westphalian  Coalfield."  It  is  economically 
the  foundation-stone  of  the  modern  German  Empire.  Coupled 
with  the  possession  of  the  great  ironfields  in  Lorraine, 
captured  in  1871,  which  send  their  ore  northwards  to  this 
coalfield,  the  Westphalian  industrial  district  is  the  pivot 
upon  which  the  industrial  expansion  of  modern  Germany 
has  turned.  The  River  Ruhr,  coming  down  from  the 
Southern  Westphalian  Hills,  holds  in  its  basin  the  great  mass 
of  coal  upon  which  all  this  new  mechanical  power  has  arisen, 
and  the  district  is  a  nest  of  towns  comparable  to  those  of 
our  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  district,  some  actually  touching, 
all  of  them  in  close  neighbourhood  one  with  another.  Essen' 
the  arsenal  of  modern  Germany,  is  the  best  known  in  this 
country,  and  the  largest  single  municipality  with  just  on  300,000 
population.  But  Dortmund,  with  considerably  more  than 
200,000,  on  the  east  of  the  coalfiSld,  mns  it  close,  and  you 
have,  all  within  fifty  miles  by  little  more  than  thirty.  Barmen 
and  Bochum,  Mulheim,  Duisburg,  etc.,  with  Crefeld  cleaner 
and  cut  off  from  the  rest  upon  the  western  limit  of  the  area. 
To  the  south  of  this  compact  and  highly  vulnerable  mass 
stands  what  is  now  virtually  the  capital  of  it  all— that  is 
the  great  historical  town  to  which  the  whole  place  looks 
socially,  the  town  of  Cologne,  with  over  half  a  million 
inhabitants— the  chief  crossing-place  of  the  line,  the  prin- 
cipal German  station  on  the  highway  of  Northern  Europe. 

If  you  stand  in  Barmen  you  have  within  a  radius  of  a  long 
day  s  walk  upon  every  side— within  a  radius  that  is  of  little 
more  than  twenty-five  miles  and  a  good  deal  less  than  thirty 
—an  extraordinarily  packed  industrial  centre  any  consider- 
able disturbance  of  which  would  hamstring  modern  Germany 
AJtIiough  we  speak  of  these  centres  of  the  Westphalian 
Loalheld  and  of  the  Ruhr  basin  as  separate  towns,  they  are 
like  our  industrial  centres  in  the  West  Riding  and  in  Lan- 
cashire, often  great  groups  of  almost  continuous  building  in 
which  the  vanous  towns  merge.     Gelsenkirchen  and  Essen 
are  continued  on  into  Mulheim  and  Oberhausen,  and  the 
latter  into  Hambourn  almost  without  a  break,  whUe  Duisburg 
across  the  Ruhr  from  Hambourn,  is  only  separated  by  the 
water-courses  and  the  docks.      Crefeld  and  Dusseldorf  stand 
lairly  separate,  so  does  Dortmund  at  the  other  extremity  of 
the  group ;    but  Elberfeld  and  Barmen  are  one  long  town 
and  there  is  not  a  mUe  of  clear  country  between  these  and 
the  hve-miJe  stretch  of  houses  which  is  caUed  in  various 
parts  Gevelsberg,  Hospe,  and  Hagen. 

Another  way  of  grasping  the  importance  of  the  district  is 
to  appreciate  that  the  total  population  of  its  large  incor- 
porated towns,  apart  from  the  smaller  groups  which  are 
virtuaUy  part  of  those  towns,  comes  to  no  less  than  just 
over  three  million  souls,  or,  if  we  include  Cologne,  more 
than  three  millions  and  a  half. 


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2  I 


1918 


This  industrial  district   is.   then,    the  economic   heart   of 

''XTe^/s  also,  of  course,  the  industrial  belt  of  Saxony  and 
that  of  Silesia;  there  is  the  single  '"dustnal  distr  ct  of 
Bavaria  in  the  Allied  Empire  to  the  south^  There  is  the 
intensely  active  little  field  in  the  Saar.  important  chiefly  for 
its  proximity  to  the  iron  of  Lorraine  and  Luxemburg.  Kut 
the  kernel  of  modern  German  material  power  is  here  upon 
the  Ruhr  and  its  neighbourhood. 

The  accident  of  tiie  present  war  luis  hitherto  gnen  this 
new  district  a  complete  security.  It  happens  to  he  imme- 
<liatelv  behind  the  most  advanced  sector  of  the  German  line^ 
jn  France.  Drop  a  perpendicular  from  Barmen  to  tho^,c 
lines-that  is,  take  the  place  on  the  Allied  or  German  hne  in 
France  nearest  to  Barmen  (which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  tne 
geographical  centre  of  the  industrial  district)— and  you  strike 
It  Quentin  200  miles  away.  Again,  the  distance  from  the 
nearest  point  of  this  industrial  group,  the  most  western 
point  to  the  closest  of  the  Allied  points  of  departure,  is  over 
180  miles.  The  southernmost  point  which,  though  not 
connected  with  the  coalfiekl  geologically,  is  socially  its 
capital  Cologne,  is  in  a  direct  line  more  than  160  miles,  and 
more  hke  170  from  the  nearest  practical  point  of  departure. 
There  lies  in  between  the  whole  occupied  belt  of  Northern 
France  and  Belgium,  Luxemburg  and  Lorraine. 

A  further  point  which  must  always  be  remembered  is  the 
difficulty  of  the  intervening  country  in  the  way  of  land- 
marks. The  waste  and  tumbled  hill-land  of  the  Ardennes 
and  the  Eifel  lie  between  for  anyone  approaching  from  the 
south.  A  waterway,  the  great  guide  by  night,  is  found  only 
by  following  the  Moselle  and  turning  down  the  Rhine  after 


Coblentz— a  long  addition  to  the  direct  line.  But  though 
the  industrial  district  of  the  Ruhr  is  distant  and  difficult  to 
find,  it  is  not  out  of  reach,  and  the  test  of  whether  the 
Germans  were  wise  or  no  when  they  opened  this  new  phase 
in  the  war  will  be  made  when  the  first  considerable  raids 
begin  to  be  made  upon  it.  The  first  severe  punishment  of 
Cologne  will  be  felt  throughout  the  world,  and  will  be  a  new 
thing  to  the  enemy,  something  quite  distinct  from  what  has 
hitherto  happened  upon  the  Upper  Rhine,  because  Cologne 
is  the  gate  of  the  neighbouring  coalfield. 

There  is  another  centre  of  very  great  social  importance  to 
Germany,  lying  but  a  short  distance  beyond  Mayence,  and 
that  is  Frankfort  on  the  Maine.  Frankfort  is,  more  than 
anv  other  town  in  the  German  Empire,  the  financial  capital 
of  that  Empire.  Its  wealthier  inhabitants  have  probably 
long  left  it,  and  they  would  not  be  personally  affected  in  any 
case,  for  those  remaining  would  leave  it  at  once  in  case  of  a 
raid.  But  it  remains,  none  the  less,  the  nerve-centre  of 
German  finance,  and  it  is  a  town  of  over  400,000  people — a 
place  on  the  same  scale  as,  though  little  smaller  than, 
Cologne.     It  is  also  the  centre  of  a  densely  inhabited  district. 

Comparatively  close  to  the  Allied  points  of  departure, 
and  therefore  subject  already  to  continual  bombardment,  is 
the  small  coal  basin  of  the  Saar.  It  is  not  so  directly  con- 
cerned with  our  present  problem  as  the  other  Rhine  towns 
because  it  is  admittedly  a  military  object,  crammed  as  it  is 
with  munition  works.  But  the  effect  of  attacks  upon  the 
industrial  district  of  the  Upper  Saar  cannot  compare  with 
the  effect  of  similar  attacks  when  they  can  be  made  upon 
the  Westphalian  coalfield. 

H.  Belloc. 


Convoys  and  Submarines:    By  H.  Whitaker 


This  article  was  compiled,  by  the  author  from  first-hand 
information  obtained  during  a  cruise  with  the  American 
destroyer  flotilla  in  the  submarine  zone. 

OUT  in  the  harbour  a  thirty-vessel  convoy  was 
nosing  up  to  its  anchors  ;  the  rattle  of  the 
winches  carried  across  the  water  and  up  the 
hill  to  where  the  Base-Admiral  watched  the 
departure  from  his  office  windows.  His  gaze 
centred  on  one  ship,  a  fine  steamer,  which,  with  her  cargo  of 
twelve  thousand  tons  of  foodstuffs,  was  worth  nearly  a 
milUon  pounds.  Her  potential  values,  however,  far  exceeded 
that  figure,  for  the  food  stood  for  human  flesh  and  blood — 
the  flesh  and  blood  of  women  and  children  in  France  and 
England  and  the  thews  and  sinews  of  soldiers  who  must  be 
fed  if  the  world  is  to  escape  the  German  yoke. 

The  ship  was  commanded  by  a  Scot — an  admirable 
character,  upright,  courageous,  self-reliant,  the  finest  of 
seamen,  but  hard  in  the  mouth.  Before  the  convoy  system 
was  estabUshed  he  had  voyaged  a  score  of  times  through 
the  submarine  zone,  winning  his  way  to  safety  by  seamanship 
and  daring.  A  torpedo  had  once  shaved  his  bows.  Another 
had  almost  clipped  off  his  stern.  He  had  fought  half  a 
dozen  artillery  battles  with  boats ;  all  of  which  had  raised 
his  opinion  of  himself  and  his  ship  fairly  close  to  omni- 
potence. He  hated  the  naval  discipline  of  convoys  as  much 
as  their  slow  sjjeed,  and  had  bolted  twice  ;  which  fact  was  in 
the  Base-Admiral's  mind  when  he  turned  to  his  Chief  of  Staff. 
"McGregor,  down  there,  has  bolted  twice.  I  have 
advised  his  owners  to  replace  him,  but  they  won't.  Sooner 
or  later  the  U-boats  will  get  him.  Wireless  to  N— — •  to 
watch  him   closely." 

The  order  was  duly  noted  by  the  Senior  Commander  of 
the  destroyer  group  that  escorted  the  convoy  to  sea  ;  and 
when  his  chief  officer  reported  a  few  hours  later  that 
McGregor  was  edging  out  of  his  column,  they  went  after  him 
like  dogs  in  chase  of  a  bolting  sheep. 

"Who  do  you  think  you  are,  anyway  ?  "  the  Senior  Com- 
mander bawled  out  through  a  megaphone.  "The  Lord  High 
Admiral,  eh  ?  Try  that  again,  and  I'll  put  an  officer  on 
your  bridge  and  recommend  that  your  papers  be  cancelled." 
"That  ought  to  hold  him,"  he  remarked  to  his  chief  officer  ; 
"but  I'll  bet  you  the  old  chap  is  raving.  His  crew  will 
need  to  step  lively  during  the  next  few  hours." 

And  raving,  McGregor  surely  was.  If  his  remarks,  as 
afterwards  reported  by  his  crew,  were  printed  here  they 
would  bum  a  hole  in  the  page.  He,  a  master  of  twenty 
years'  standing,  to  be  ordered  about  like  that !  He,  that 
had  out-fought,  out-witted,  out-run  more  U-boats  than  the 


entire  flotilla  had  ever  seen  !  He,  with  a  sixteen-knot  ship 
to  be  held  down  to  a  six-knot  crawl !  Put  an  officer  on  his 
bridge,  would  they  ?  Cancel  his  papers,  eh  ?  And  so  forth, 
with  profuse  marginal  notes  and  trimmings  ! 

If  a  plausible  excuse  in  the  shape  of  a  fog  that  fell  like  a 
grey  blanket  over  the  convoy  had  not  been  furnished,  these 
fulminations,  no  doubt,  would  presently  have  subsided.  He 
would  hardly  have  dared  violate  such  specific  orders.  But 
when  the  fog  lifted  towards  evening,  the  convoy  was  scattered 
over  the  seas  to  the  horizon,  and  came  scuttering  back  like 
frightened  chickens  in  response  to  the  destroyer's  wireless 
duckings — McGregor  was  out  of  sight.  Next  news  of  him 
came  in  a  S.O.S.  from  a  point  just  over  the  horizon. 

"  I'm  torpedoed.  Sinking.  Submarine  shelling  boats. 
Come  at  once. " 

Too  late  !  On  the  wide  and  lonely  ocean  that  had  just 
engulfed  that  fine  ship  with  her  sorely  needed  food,  they 
found  two  shell-torn  boats  full  of  wounded  and  dying  men. 
In  the  crest-fallen,  troubled  man  who  sat  in  their  midst,  it 
was  difficult  to  recognise  the  old  "hard  mouth."  He  was 
repentent,  of  course  ;  but  the  tears  that  washed  the  iron 
furrows  of  his  face  could  not  restore  his  ship,  nor  heal  the 
wounds  of  his  crew. 

From  one  point  of  view  his  conduct  was  criminal.  Yet 
it  was  natural,  inspired  by  the  same  spirit  that  has  kept  a 
thousand  of  his  kind  voyaging  these  dangerous  seas — the 
same  spirit  that  had  brought  him  and  many  another  off 
best  in  U-boat  duels — the  same  spirit  that  animated  that 
fine  old  skipper  of  the  North  Sea  who,  with  both  legs  shot 
off  and  his  vessel  sinking,  ordered  his  crew  to  throw  him 
and  the  code-books  into  the  sea  together.  So  allow  him  his 
repentence,  and  permit  the  incident  to  illustrate  at  once 
the  merits  and  faults  of  the  convoy  system. 

Its  merits,  taking  them  first,  have  been  proved  by  the 
decrease  in  mercantile  sinkings  since  the  old  patrol  system 
was  abandoned.  Under  the  latter,  the  destroyer  and  patrol 
fleets  were  scattered  hke  pawns  over  a  vast  checker  board 
that  ruled  off  British  waters — across  which  merchant  vessels 
moved  from  one  patrol  to  another.  Though  they  were 
hunted  incessantly,  the  U-boats  managed  to  pick  up  in 
those  days  anywhere  between  thirty  and  fifty  ships  a  week. 
But  after  Allied  shipping  was  grouped  in  convoys  and  sent 
through  the  danger  zone  under  destroyer  escorts,  the  weekly 
average  fell  to  eighteen  large  ships  and  four  or  five  small 
ones.  During  the  last  eight  months  of  1917,  indeed,  the 
British  and  American  destroyer  fleets  convoyed  over  one 
hundred  thousand  vessels  in  and  out  of  Allied  ports  with  a 
loss  of  one-eighth  of  one  per  cent.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
bulk  of  the  U-boat  weekly  bag  is  taken  from  unescorted  ships. 


March  21,  1 9 1 8 


Land   &  Water 


9 


world  are  merchant  ships  ever  allowed  to  go  out  alone  ? 
The  answer  is  simple  :  We  have  not  enough  destroyers  to 
provide  escorts  for  all.  If  we  had,  the  submarine  war  would 
now  be  of  the  past.  Another  reason — and  it  points  out  the 
convoy  system's  chief  fault — free  ships  make  faster  time, 
and,  accordingly,  can  move  more  goods  than  when  they  are 
grouped  in  convoys.  Tonnage,  or  carrying  capacity  (which 
amounts  to  the  same  thing),  is  reduced  ;  first,  by  delays 
waiting  for  escorts  ;  second,  by  limiting  the  speed  of  the 
faster  ships.  The  ship  on  which  I  recently  came  from  New 
York  to  Liverpool,  ior  instance,  is  a  seven-day  boat.  Two 
others  in  our  convoy — vessels  of  enormous  tonnage — were 
equally  fast :  yet,  by  being  forced  to  take  the  speed  of  the 
slowest  vessel,  these  fast  ships  took  so  many  days  to  cross 
that  it  almost  sufficed  for  them  to  have  made  the  return 
\"oyage   to   New  York. 

In  spite  of  this  manifest  fault,  the  convoy  system  is  here 
to  stay  ;  for  it  is  wholly  impossible  to  maintain,  safe  routes 
with  merchant  shipping  scattered  all  over  the  world.  To 
control  its  passage  and  to  divert  it  in  accordance  with  enemy 
movements,  it  must  be  grouped  under  war  vessels.  The 
great  reduction  in  mercantile  sinkings  more  than  makes  up 
for  delays  and  low  speed.  It  should  not  be 'forgotten  that 
after  a  convoy  passes  through  the  danger  zone  its  units 
are  usually  permitted  to  go  on  alone.  So  the  speed  limita- 
tion apphes  only  for  a  couple  of  days.  Summing  up  the 
convoy  system,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  shipping  interests  will 
be  best  served  by  extending  it,  as  fast  as  possible,  till  it 
covers  all  vessels.  A  step  was  taken  in  this  direction 
when,  the  other  day,  an  Order  in  Council  was  passed 
prohibiting  vessels  from  leaving  British  ports  without  a 
licence. 

The  limitations  and  advantages  of  convoys  being  thus 
defined,  let  us  briefly  examine  those  of  the  submarine. 
Instead  of  being  free  as  the  fish,  they  operate  within  quite 
narrow  lines  while  exposed  to  special  risks.  Think  of  the 
uncharted  rocks  that  must  reach  up  into  the  underseas 
lanes  along  which  the  U-boat  blunders  like  a  blind  fish  ;  the 
mine-fields,  "floaters,"  treacherous  tides,  traps,  decoys,  nets, 
that  turn  submarine  navigation  into  one  long  blind  hazard. 
I  heard  of  one  U-boat  that  blundered  into  the  Maelstrom, 
the  famous  whirlpool  ofi  the  coast  of  Norway,  chosen  by 
Jules  Verne  to  kill  off  Captain  Nemo  and  his  Nautilus.  Then 
think  of  the  special  war  risks — the  "blimps"  and  hydroplanes 
dropping  bombs  from  the  sky  ;  the  httle  P-boats,  always 
ready  to  engage  in  one  of  those  desperate  sea  duels  where 
no  quarter  is  given  or  asked ;  finally,  the  destroyer, 
a  foe  so  deadly  that  the  Germans  have  talked  long  and 
loudly  of  "underwater  battle-cruisers"  to  drive  it  off  the 
seas. 

Most  of  this  talk  was  meant  for  foreign  consumption,  for 
the  German  naval  constructors  are  quite  aware  of  certain 
limitations  that  make  against  such  a  boat.  Add  armour  to 
a  U-boat,  and  her  size  must  be  increased  to  provide  more 
buoyancy.  Increased  bulk  calls  for  heavier  internal  struc- 
ture, heavier  engines,  heavier  gun  platforms  for  bigger  guns  ; 
larger  quarters  for  a  more  numerous  crew  ;  larger  fuel  and 
ballast  tanks  ;  all  of  which  calls  for  more  buoyancy,  that  is, 
size  ;    which,  again,  calls  for  more  armour  plate. 

Such  a  vessel  would  present  a  deeper  target  for  a  torpedo 
than  any  destroyer  ;  and  whereas  she  might  drop  twenty 
shells  on  the  latter  without  putting  her  out  of  commission, 
one  well-planted  shot  would  send  her  to  the  bottom.  She 
would  stand  but  a  poor  chance  in  a  stand-up  fight  with  the 
half-dozen  destroyers  that  are  to  be  found  with  almost  any 
convoy.  She  would  require,  moreover,  such  deep  water  for 
her  manoeuvring  that  she  could  hardly  operate  in  the  shoals 
and  shallows  around  the  British  Isles,  where  her  prey  would 
be  principally  found.  Lastly,  she  could  chase  only  one 
vessel  at  a  time.  As  two  years  have  passed  since  we  first 
heard  this  "undersea  battle-cruiser"  talk,  we  can  rest  assured 
that  after  balancing  the  cost  in  time,  labour,  money,  and 
materials,  against  possible  advantages,  the  German  naval 
constructors  have  pronounced  against  them. 

There  are  also  decided  limitations  in  submarine  operation. 
It  cannot  emerge  and  dive,  'as  is  generally  believed,  with 
porpoise  ease.  If  they  go  down  at  an  angle  of  more  than 
12  degrees,  the  older  types  capsize  their  ballast  tanks  and 
become  helpless  hulks.  Abrupt  dives,  too,  are  very  dan- 
gerous. One  commander  told  me  how  his  hair  stood  on 
end  when,  on  a  quick  dive,  his  vessel  went  down  and  down 
and  down,  and  he  thought  he  would  never  be  able  to  stop 
her.  No  doubt  many  a  U-boat  has  nose-divod  into  the  deeps, 
where  her  steel  sides  were  crushed  like  a  thin  egg-shell.  Once 
on  the  surface,  it  takes  some  minutes  for  a  submarine  to 
submerge  ;  and  if  she  be  seen  by  a  destroyer,  a  depth-mine 
dropped  at  the  head  of  the  tell-tale  wake  is  very  likely  to 


Neither  can  a  U-boat  cruise  indefinitely  under  water. 
Seventy  miles  is  about  the  limit — at  any  speed.  After  that, 
it  must  recharge  its  batteries  while  steaming  on  the  surface, 
and  if  it  be  caught  with  exhausted  batteries,  its  situation 
is  more  than  precarious.  There  is  a  case  on  record,  indeed, 
of  three  Germem  submarines  that  lay  for  forty-eight  hours 
on  the  bottom,  listening  to  the  screws  of  the  patrol  chugging 
above.  Two  that  tried  to  sneak  away  in  the  night  were 
sunk.     The  third  surrendered. 

Surface  cruising  has  also  its  limits,  being  dependent  on 
fuel.  On  the  average,  a  U-boat  can  stay  out  about  twenty 
or  twenty-five  days  ;  but  a  considerable  part  of  this  time  is 
used  up  coming  from  and  going  back  to  the  base,  and  many 
attempts  have  been  made  to  extend  it  by  the  establishment 
of  fuel  bases.  One  ingenious  commander  used  to  cache 
barrels  of  fuel,  oil,  and  petrol,  loot  from  c^tured  tankers, 
at  the  bottom  of  a  sheltered  cove.  But  ah  oil  spot  betrayed 
him  one  day  to  a  British  destroyer. 

The  usual  procedure  would  have  been  to  carry  the  barrels 
off.  But,  with  a  flash  of  genius,  the  British  commander, 
so  the  story  is  told,  removed  the  bungs,  poured  a  few  gallons 
of  picric  acid — a  powerful  explosive — into  each  barrel, 
resunk  them,  and  sailed  away.  It  requires  but  a  small 
effort  of  the  imagination  to  picture  what  happened  to  the 
U-boat  when  it  began  to  use  that  petrol. 

A  Submarine's  Dangers 

Neither  does  the  submarine  have  things  all  its  own  way 
in  duels  with  merchant  vessels.  Indeed,  it  fights  at  a  dis- 
advantage, for  whereas  a  dozen  shells  may  fail  to  stop  a 
fleeing  vessel,  one  well-planted  hit  will  send  the  U-boat  to 
the  bottom.  Though  German  torpedoes  have  an  effective 
range  of  7,000  yards,  shooting  is  uncertain  at  long  distances.' 
The  U-boat  usually  tries  to  get  within  2,000  yards,  and  this, 
especially  in  shots  at  a  convoy,  endangers  it  getting  away. 

Rough  weather  also  brings  a  pause  in  the  hunting,  for  the 
periscope  describes  a  far  wider  arc  than  the  hull,  which 
threshes  around  like  a  wounded  whale  in  a  seaway,  making 
both  observation  and  the  sighting  of  shots  impossible.  In 
such  weather,  the  U-boats  lie  on  the  bottom  in  some  sheltered 
cove.  During  the  ektremely  bad  weather  last  November, 
indeed,  the  U-boat  bag  fell  from  eighteen  large  ships  to  six 
in  the  first  week,  to  one  in  the  second. 

All  of  these  dangers  and  difficulties  of  the  underseas 
campaign  are  increased  by  the  reports  of  U-boat  movements 
sent  out  from  observation  stations  on  land  and  ships  at  sea. 
When  cruising  with  the  American  destroyer  fleet,  I  was 
astonished  by  the  number  and  accuracy  of  those  that  came 
in  a  constant  stream  to  the  bridge.  Position  and  course 
were  always  given,  so,  besides  drawing  the  patrols  and 
seaplanes  after  them,  merchant  ships  could  easily  avoid 
their  locality.  The  reports  accounted  for  a  despairing  note 
in  a  wireless  message  we  picked  up,  one  evening,  in  transit 
between  two  U-boats. 

"  Have  you  seen  any  ships  to-day  ?  The  ocean  seems 
empty." 

This  commander's  report  was  one  of  those,  no  doubt,  on 
which  the  German  Adrniralty  based  its  explanation  for  the 
decrease  in  the  U-boat  weekly  bag  :  "Enemy  shipping  is  so 
depleted  by  the  attacks  of  our  invincible  U-boats  that  it  is 
becoming  more  and  more  difficult  to  find  ships  to  sink  " : 
this  during  a  week  that  had  seen  nearly  five  thousand  ships 
sail  in  and  out  of  British  ports  alone  !  And  probably  half 
as  many  more  from  Allied  harbours. 

Summing  the  U-boat's  capacities  and  potentialities,  we 
see  that  instead  of  being  the  original  sea-devil,  if  is  really  a 
hunted  creature — hunted  so  successfully,  moreover,  that 
from  40  to  50  per  cent,  were  sunk  last  year.  This  great  loss 
was  aggravated  by  that  of  the  torpedoes,  which  take  time 
and  money  to  make.  Indeed,  the  yearly  output  of  the 
United  States  Torpedo  Works  before  the  war  was  only 
twelve.  The  smaller  U-boats  carry  ten  each  ;  the  larger 
and  later  types,  twenty.  Accordingly,  if  one  be  sunk  out- 
ward bound,  which  happens  quite  often,  the  loss  of  the 
torpedoes  is  greater  than  that  of  the  vessel.  It  is  highly 
improbable  that  any  U-boat  goes  down  without  carrying 
some  torpedoes  with  her.  It  is  also  comforting  to  know  that 
five  or  six  are  shot  away  for  every  merchant  vessel  sunk. 
The  weekly  bag  costs  the  German  Government  over  a  hundred 
thousand  poinds  in  torpedoes  alone. 

The  outlook  for  the  U-boat  is  bad.  The  life  of  a  sub- 
marine commander  has  never  been  what  one  could  call  a 
good  insurance  risk.  In  1917  he  made  two  voyages  and  a 
half  before,  quite  literally,  he  went  down  and  out.  From 
present  indications — there  are  a  few  things  in  store  for  him 
that  I  know  of,  but  cannot  tell — his  life  during  1918  will 


"C<*)if<«*/;i9i8,ll/.S./)."^li^,  ,,. 


The  Robber  Bare 

Bv  L 


B«»iW>IBiP"»^«^i^»"'*"*«*wo 


imHiifMWMjUJ— wiw  mM  »wni,iiU>mi 


>«-' 
3     - 


•     ''^^, 


^ 


^-<^* 


)ve  of  Democracy 


Copyrifkl,  '-Land  &  Water.- 


ekers. 


12 


Land    <&    Water 


March    21,  i  9  i  8 


Russia's  True  Voice  :    By  C.  Hagberg  Wright 


rpa$y  KaMsepjiMHry. 

(OTtiKpumoe    nutbM«). 

Tpa^  KaHsopTHimt  Bu— ^joab  «o-ie-  Oesi.  apMlH.  II*  uptvjtaBMM  Hjf,  Bt  iy« 
ranifl  noGiiABTeieR  n  CTijactt  ooosopeu-  sneuit  ctjHi^b,  vs-h  iiapn£naro  $a.R!er«(i 
aofl  Po«('iii.  Osa  6pomeaa  n  Bamanh  xa  npog[aB:uie  satic^  Pocoiu  .<iioji8  t&sw 
-oraMi  Bamii  npHrjyxBacB  a  areoTHlxe  tia.ie  a:jiBn  npaFb  aan-noqaii  ^ 
craJH  aaniHMi  npaBHTej^.  raovt  FI  vipi '  Bana  H>fpT>,  aan  a  npo^KuaaTii  boSrj 
«Kji»iaeTc«  ae- MftxAf  i8T«a  eropoaaxfl, '  BbM.  PoccLii  se  stpari    7b  lame  B9<a 


THE  text  of  this  "Open  Letter  to  Count  Kaizerling," 
who  is  a  German  noble  of  Courland.  with  large 
estates  in  that  provinre  and  in  East  Prussia, 
was  originally  published  in  two  Russian  news- 
papers (the  Den  and  the  Petrogradsky  Golos),  but 
no  sooner  did  it  appear  in  print  than  every  copy  discoverable 
was  destroyed  by  the  Bolsheviks.  This  letter  demonstrates 
clearly  that  the  voice  of  true  Liberty  will  yet  make  itself 
heard  in  Russia,  and  that  the  reason  and  conscience  of  the 
Russian  people  arc 
not  dead,  but  stupe- 
fied by  the  succes- 
sive earthquake 
shocks  and  torna- 
does of  revolution 
and  war.  The  coun- 
sels of  moderation 
are  unheeded,  while 
the  overthrow  of 
authority  and  the 
disbanding  of  great 
armies  create  a 
general  condition  of 
chaos ;  but  the 
forces  of  the  ebbing 
tide  are  equal  to  the 
power  of  the  flow, 
and  it  requires  no 
excessive  optimism 
to  recognise  in  this 
protest  against  Bol- 
shevism a  sign  and 
portent  of  its  ap- 
proaching downfall. 
The_  copy  of  the 
newspaper  from 
which  this  letter  is 
taken  is  possibly 
the  only  one  which 
has  reached  Eng- 
land, for  the  present 
Russian  censorship 
is  rigorous,  and 
shows  as  little  re- 
spect for  the  liberty 
of  the  Press  as  the 
old  regime  was  wont 
to  do.  With  regard 
to  the  names  men- 
tioned in  the  course 
ot  the  letter,  be- 
sides those  of  Lenin 
and  Stiirmer,  the 
Imperial  Prime 
Minister,  which  are 
known  to  all  Eng- 
lish readers,  it  may 
be  added  that 
Myasoyedov  was 
the  arch-spy  at  Rus- 
sian headquarters, 
who  was  eventu- 
ally shot.  Sukhomlinov  was  the  War  Minister,  convicted  of 
treachery,  and  Sumenson  and  Kukovsky  are  Bolsheviks 
who  are  said  to  have  been  employed  by  Germany  in  the 
distribution  of  bribes.     The  following  is  the  translation  :     g 


"Count  Kaizerling  ! — You  come  an  envoy  of  victors  to  the 
capital  of  a  dishonoured  Russia  which  has  been  thrown  down 
at  your  feet.  Your  satellites  and  henchmen  have  become 
our  governors,  and  a  peace  is  on  the  eve  of  conclusion  ;  but 
it  is  not  a  peace  between  two  antagonists,  it  is  rather  a  pact 
between  two  parts  of  the  same  victorious  side,  and  one  of 


4  vexj;  nptucTitBTtiMuia  oia'^t)  k  toS-bo 
"npaifCTByiJiBeB  rropoHu,  op«  ie»^  o^t* 
crepoBa  cjckjiaja  ce6b  (bajbiseajD  lodiipea' 
H^Tb  on.  .Sana  scero  Barojia  pyccsaro 
Ho  He  Bre-ia  pasao?  Cojjhth  at  xe 
3n.«yn>  Boesin.  Baiit  ■  uupx  He  bvxpi^^ 
— Ba  EfM.iefl  (mipouli  nf  ib*  aofibjBie.iji 
Pyocceti -apHii  bu  a«  Qo6tsjiaja  Bu  ae 
i>o6iuuui  M  11^  BocToiBOt!  Opjccia— 
Bam  Donon  M«eoi>AOBi.  ae  nu6tia  10 
s<  n  ruaisa,— *aMi  Boiior»  Ctxoi(.<ib- 
flon.  Bu  Be  nofitiaja  m  j  Croxoxa  j 
Tapaonou,  y  Para— aairi  DOBtnn  Jle- 
Baai>.  UpK  Hoaapxla  sauiaMH  aresTava 
6u3a  AjiHca  rncceacRa^  a  apeitfcepi-ifB- 
acrp*  IllTnpMep^,  PacnyraaT.  croajii 
aa  Baci>  ropott.  ILicraja  peBOiuoi^.  a 
■anssiu  anBTaiiB  eraja  KosjobckiH  b 
CrMeRcoH-k;  OBR  otioramaf  9Cb  Bameio  -ton- 
.Tpa6as,itoa) ,  oepBUii  aTa&B  <BoscTaBinaro 
Bapo^a*  vh  iDX^  6u.ib  aaapaBjeau  aa 
BOUTi^%-paaB%jiKf,   £'kiieiiBie   BoeBHoaits- 

BUe    pySOBOJHJIH     BOBBEtJMB    xt3cTBi.a)ra 

feii>fl>eBBKOBi>  ■  BBBt  arfc  npasoTOJib- 
CTse  jEHx^BBo  npKBiTCTBjen  Baoi>,  repp'K 
rpa<}n>  K<ift8ep.iBHn>. 

OxBaso...  Korjia  ba  ono  iiraoBeirie  kxi> 
jrnoeHK  xoouo  AO  nucxu  apasesTa 
Bscib  BK  BapoA-»  Bh  MtpiiLHCKiS  i<eaTpi , 
cm  .(Tofl  Muoja  npauuock  OTsa^anex 
\.xm  Au  Baei  6us-i  jc^'P^'^bi  qmiih 
BVfl  napan.  ii  pa6oqie  b  •ouatu  biji 
c%  QpoxErroBaBBUMB  ^AT0-psAatf»i%  sa^- 
OBCJiiia  jufl  yBBEeaU  p<uuBM. 

Ppa/^  KaSsepjHBn,  ae  sbpfcis  STOiif 
napajtjl  Bact  odttaauaaerL  same  ycjj»- 
iBBoe  npaEBTeJbcTBO.  On  n«rporpajiit 
8axBaq«BBaro  aacnam  T^fliimi  mTa6ojii . 
jxo  OToosHJOCi  BCfr— yupafiia.  a  Aonii, 
KaBsasi  B  CB6ap&,  <t>BU.isflAta.ci>8CTauit 
Ct,  Ktm-se  BU  Bas.uoqaere  impi? 

H'bTT.   cnopa,  mm    ho    iioseMt   Bo?Ba«i. 


In  the  time  of  the  Emperor,  Alice  of  Hesse  and  Stiirmer,  the 
Prime  Minister,  acted  as  your  agents  ;  Rasputin  was  your 
mainstay.  Then  came  the  days  of  revolution,  when 
Kukovsky  and  Sumenson  became  your  chosen  hirelings, 
enriching  themselves  with  the  fruits  of  'contraband.'  In 
July  the  first  skirmished  of  the  populace  in  revolt  were  in 
the  nature  of  reconnaissances.  It  was  by  German  prisoners 
of  war  that  the  military  operations  of  the  Bolsheviks 
were  directed  ',  and  now  the  Bolshevik  Government,  in  its 

ignominy,  welcomes 
you.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  when  in  their 
enthusiasm  they 
proposed  at  one 
moment  to  bring 
you  face  to  face 
with  the  people  in 
the  Marinsky  thea- 
tre that  idea "had 
quickly  to  be  aban- 
(loncd.  Instead,  a 
magnificent  proces- 
sion was  arranged 
in  your  honour,  and 
soldiers  and  work- 
men marched  past 
you  bearing  ban- 
ners with  devices 
designed  by  your 
Fatherland  for  the 
humiliation  of  our 
native  country. 

"Count  Kaizer- 
ling !  Put  not  your 
trust  in  that  page- 
ant. Our  servile 
Government  is  de- 
ceiving 3'ou.  One 
and  all  —  the 
Ukraine,  the  Don 
province,  the  Cau- 
casus, Esthonia, 
Finland,  and 
Siberia  —  all  have 
severed  themselves 
from  Petrogracl,  of 
which  your  secret 
service  has  seized 
hold.  With  whom, 
then,  do  you  say,  are 
you  making  peace  ? 
"  There  is  no  gain- 
saying— we  cannot 
fight  without  an 
army.  But  those 
who  sold  Russia 
have  as  little  right 
to  conclude  peace 
as  to  continue 
war.  You  know 
well  Russia  does 
not  believe  in  your 
magnanimity  nor  in  your  fantastic  proposals  to  withdraw 
your  armies  from  Cburland,  Poland,  and  Lithuania  on  the 
futile  condition  of  England's  submission  to  the  peace  you 
offer.  Your  nation  is  in  a  state  of  exhaustion.  You  know 
well  that  England  and  America  will  crush  you.  It  matters 
little  how  3'ou  bluff,  or  how  you  drive  or  corner  the  unhappy 
deluded  Russians,  you  shall  not  escape  the  day  of  reckoning. 
There  is  no  peace.  This  is  the  conquest  of  Petrograd,  not 
the  conquest  of  Russia. 

"The  Russian  people  are  wont  to  make  peace  with  honour. 
They  made  peace  with  the  French  and  with  the  English  after 
Sevastopol,  and  these  are  now  our  friends  ;   they  made  peace 


KOAjane  ft  Bib  npaspaqnoe  coraaoie  a» 
aecTB  BoBaifa  BSk  tLjp-AsaX'^,  Tioiua^ 
JlarBu.  .  aa  H:)jie!Dkfto.\ii>  ycjesia  iio,(^» 
venU  Ajrrsin  HpeAAoseanoiq'  Sana  iup| 
Baim>  Bap»Ai  acT"aieB^,  e  su  BBant 
<tTu  Aarjiia  n  A.vtepHsa  sacs  pasxasxrii 
Kbk^  aa  xpaf^pai-ecb.  taiwh  hh  iio6kfl 
nx^re  tat,  i»  yr.u  QeeqacrabccB  0A7P*^ 
leBBvxii  pyccimii,  orb  Boaiieaiia  Bam 
ae  yflTa  Uo  a  oAjpawBasK^  ae  uaM 
cqBTaTb  jxb  TpemtpmaiB  Arpazajoi 
Tasi  cjytB.itre,  rpppi  KaSBapjiHHrb. 

970— Be  iupi>.  9to -saBOBBaafe  llvrpc^ 
rpasa,  ho  bo  Poecia  yBBtnanBX  yxyirt 
Ataswh  ra.iom  Ceun^meBBava  pycetpl 
akfm»,—m  ue  oso.yiust  Pescifl  CWrpxi^ 
Ha  see  STO.  Eam  aa  imBoeBaafe,  ei,  M| 
TopEm  BBnerAa  Be  npsmsptfTCA  B&p<nra) 
He  jiyiR^Te,  vo  bu  jtnai  bi>  Boin>  mm 
pioTBSH'b  B  iK^my  Oai>  ho  n]>mBpaTCa| 
Ob  Hifpoirt  r  r  Tponxaxs..  Rasi  'csntoaj 
Ba;i  Bcspa  SI  Bf.ui  p;i»>epaTC)i  stB»i 
BucTb  n  tars.  Otn>  BoscranoBvn  cbm( 
ap"iR>  a  cAoa  syxosswi  tMSA—n  Poeci^ 
Btuo.iro  oyxeTb  eairb  ii8B{ifmap«Kuini 
Bparax^ 

FjcctaK  wKf»n  sraporea   ^eerao.    Oq^ 

8aK.11D4BJ»   KBf<b  ei>  !j>{>aa)^f33Ma  B  9XTtM^ 

qaeaiiB  vtcii  Q-tm^ntaajia — b  obh  Haai 
AM^sbB.  Orb  8»Bj»<axb  lupb  ci  £n«a> 
OasiB— fl  oai  aaJOM  xpyaba. 

H  n  Sana  BokJMOBau^  QMltEflS  MMf/%^ 
BO  uap^  <ip«si  y<ip«ABT«2bBoe  Cofipasi^ 
a  He  «peB%  i^vb,  aoee  aa  sun  f»m 
arb  MMmerpEL 

II;csb  OB^  fiyjwxft  xobbk,  eau  Pmi 
cis  ero  Bacjyxxja  Ea  aa>  Cjf/tn  mm 
poiTb,  a  ss    BoneiML 

BaiBa«i  X*  caB»aaaaifb  KU,  BOiyn 
jjLDftBRriie.  jBpii<Miirb:  '-He  Bi^'K,  Pooat< 
Ko  DfWATejbBMtia   9to  es  liBpi*!  H  Pv 


these  swore  falsely  when  it  claimed  to  speak  for  the  whole     with  the  Japanese,  and  they  are  also  our  friends. 


Russian  people.  That  matters  little  ;  the  soldiers  no  longer 
desire  to  fight.  You  are  in  no  need  of  peace  ;  the  right  of 
the  conqueror  is  yours.  But  you  did  not  conquer  the  Russian 
armies.  You  did  not  win  the  battle  in  Eastern  Prussia— the 
traitor  Myasoyedov  came  to  your  rescue.  Neither  did  you 
win  the  battle  in  Galicia— Sukhomlinov,  the  War  Minister, 
aided  you.  Neither  did  you  win  the  battle  at  Skokhod,  at 
Tamopol,  or  at  Riga — it  was  Lenin  who  was  your  helper. 


"And  with  you  it  is  also  possible  to  make  an  honourable 
peace  ;  but  it  must  be  a  peace  entered  into  by  a  Constituent 
Assembly,  and  not  one  drawn  up  by  those  whom  you  have 
sent  here  as  Ministers.  Make  it  onerous,  if  you  will,  and  if 
Russia  deserves  it  so  ;  but  it  must  be  a  real  peace,  and  not 
a  farce.  Now,  in  half-strangled  accents,  we  cry  aloud  to  our 
Allies  :  'Never,  never  believe  that  Russia  is  a  traitor.  This 
peace  is  no  peace.     Russia  has  had  no  part  or  lot  in  it.'  " 


March   21,  1918 


Land    &   Water 


13 


The  Allies:    By  "Centurion 


»i 


D 


OOZE    oofs,    see    voo    plaise  !       Compronnay, 
madame  ? " 

Marie  Claire's  lips  parted  and  displayed  two 
rows  of  teeth.     They  were  filbert-shaped  and 
v€ry  white. 
"  Oui,   je  comprends  very  well — what  you  call  it  ?    Twelve 

■eerers,  yes  ? "  ,   ,      ,    i  j 

"Non  dooze,"  said  the  sergeant,  stoutly.  And  he  held 
up  two  'fingers.  She  noticed  that  the  skin  of  the  inside  of 
his  thumb  and  of  the  middle  joint  of  his  forefinger  displayed 
a  hard  abrasion  like  a  cobbler's.  It's  the  trigger  that  does  it. 
"Ah!  deux!  Ecoutez  !  'Un'  c'est  'one.'  'Deux'c'est 
'two.'  Dites-vous  'deux.'  Comme^a!"  And  she  expired 
the  monosyllable  from  her  lips  as  though  she  were  blowing 
a  kiss. 

"Do!"  said  the  sergeant. 
"Kon,   'deux'  !"  ^ 

"Dew." 

"Bien  !     Trd.-;  bien,  voilk  ! "     And  she  produced  two  eggs 
from  their  nest  in  the  crate,  and  laid  them  on  the  counter. 
"Combien,  madame?" 

"Vingt  centimes.  Mais 'madame' !  Pas  encore  !  'Made- 
moiselle.' Anglais— 'Mees'.  Voyez?"  And  she  displayed  the 
fingers  of  her  left  hend  as  though  it  were  a  parade  inspection. 
The  sergeant  looked  at  them.  With  a  sudden  movement, 
he  placed 'his  hand  upon  them  as  they  lay  upon  the  counter. 
"Non  !"  she  said  coldly  as  she  hastily  withdrew  her  hand. 
"  Fini  !     Bon  jour  ! "     And  she  turned  her  back  upon  him. 

Sergeant  John  Lawrence  put  his  twenty  centimes  on  the 
counter,  took  up  his  eggs,  saluted,  and  walked  out  of  the 
dpicerie  without  a  word.     He  felt  hot  and  uncomfortable. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  next  day  he  came  again.  Before 
he  could  open  his  mouth,  Marie  Claire  had  placed  two  eggs 
on  the  counter.  She  looked  at  him  abstractedly,  as  though 
he  were  a  piece  of  household  furniture  rather  the  worse  for 
wear,  which  might  soon  need  replacing,  and  said  indifferently  : 
^' Vingt  centimes." 

This  df)ne,  she  turned  to  a  shelf  behind  her,  and  began 
moving  the  jars  of  confitures,  occasionally  pursing  her  lips  to 
blow  away  the  dust.  These  expirations  grew  louder  as  he 
lingered  until  their  blasting  effect  upon  him  emotionally 
produced  the  kind  of  functional  paralysis  associated  with 
the  effects  of  high  explosive.  He  stood  rooted  to  the  spot, 
his  eyes  fixed  on  the  back  of  her  neck.  He  suddenly  put 
down  the  purchase-money,  pocketed  the  eggs,  and  walked 
out.  After  proceeding  a  hundred  yards,  with  knit  brows, 
he  stopped  and  ruminated.  Opposite  him  was  a  dead  wall, 
the  gable-end  of  a  house.  He  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket, 
drew  out  an  egg,  took  a  short  run,  like  a  man  practising  on 
■  a  bombing-course,  and,  throwing  from  his  hip,  hurled  the 
egg  at  the  wall.  He  noted  with  gloomy  satisfaction  the 
protoplasmic  effect,  and  taking  the  other  egg,  he  hurled  it 
after  its  predecessor.     And  he  resumed  his  walk. 

Four  day?  succeeded  one  another,  and  each  day  Marie 
Claire  rehearsed  a  frigid  reception  for  Sergeant  Lawrence. 
She  rehearsed  it  in  a  newly  ironed  blouse  and  after  carefully 
washing  her  hair.  Each  morning  as  she  rose  from  petit 
ddjeuner  she  prepared  herself  to  resent  his  appearance,  each 
evening  as  she  sat  down  to  diner  she  felt  unaccountably 
annoyed  that  he  had  not  appeared.  She  began  telling 
herself  that  it  did  not  matter  two  sous  to  her  whether  he 
appeared  or  not.     She  told  herself  this  very  often. 

One  evening,  towards  dusk,  she  was  sitting  behind  the 
counter  engaged  in  knitting  a  tricot.  Her  needles  clicked 
mechanically  as  she  gazed  abstractedly  at  the  wall,  and 
occasionally  she  stopped  to  count  the  dropped  stitches.  She 
beard  ik  footstep,  and  looked  up.  Sergeant  John  Lawrence 
was  st*ding  at  the  counter.  Before  she  had  time  to  collect 
her  thoughts  he  had  vanished,  vanishing  as  suddenly  as  he 
appeared  ;  so  suddenlv  that  she  began  to  doubt  the  evidence 
of  her  senses.  But  on  the  counter  lay  a  rose.  She  stared 
at  it  for  some  time,  and  then  suddenly  took  it  up,  burying 
her  nose  in  its  petals  as  she  inhaled  their  fragrance.  It  was 
a  Marechal  Niel.  She  examined  it,  pulling  back  the  petals 
as  though  she  were  peeling  an  artichoke.  But  there  was 
nothing  there.  It  was  simply  a  rose.  She  sat  with  her  chin 
upon  her  hands,  trying  to  conjure  up  the  appearance  of  the 
man  who  had  laid  it  before  her  and  wondering  what  it  was 
about  him  that  had  seemed  so  unfamiliar.  And  as  she  mused 
it  dawned  on  her  that  he  had  a  rifle  slung  over  his  left 
shoulder,  a  pack  on  his  back,  a  water-bottle  on  his  hip.  She 
rose  and  looked  at  the  clock. 


Copyright  ia  th«  Unitad  SUtM. 


"Marie  Claire!  Marie  Claire!  Diner,  Nom  de  .  Dicu  • 
J'ai  une  grande  faim.     La  soupe  est  froide." 

She  ignored  this  plaintive  remonstrance,  which  came  m  a 
stertorous  voice  from  the  parlour  behind  the  shop,  and, 
slipping  a  shawl  over  her  head,  she  stole  out  into  the  street. 
It   was  curiously  empty. 

She  crossed  the  Place,  already  steeped  in  shadows,  and, 
having  covered  some  400  yards,  she  stopped.  Ahead  of  her, 
in  the  middle  of  the  street,  were  a  number  of  soldiers  drawn 
up  in  long  lines  two  deep.  They  were  in  full  marching  kit, 
and  in  front  of  the  nearest  platoon  a  platoon-sergeant  was 
calling  the  roll.  It  was  Lawrence.  He  held  a  roll-book  in 
his  hand,  and  as  he  called  each  name,  the  owner  shouted 
"Here"  ;  the  sound  was  taken  up  in  a  series  of  repetitions, 
which  as  they  collided  acoustically  with  the  same  sounds 
from  other  platoons  farther  up  the  street,  produced  the 
effect  of  a  prolonged  echo.  Having  finished  calling  the  roll 
Lawrence  went  up  to  the  platoon-commander,  saluted,  and 
made  his  report.     The  company-commander  took  over. 

"FORM  FOURS  !-RIGHT!  AT  EASE  !  QU-I-I-J-I- 
CK  MARCH  !"  There  was  a  shuffle  of  heavy  feet,  and  the 
long  lines  dissolved  into  columns  of  fours.  The  men's  feet 
went  "CLIP-CLOP  !  CLIP-CLOP  !"  on  the  pave  with  the 
rhythm  of  a  pendulum.  The  next  moment  the  street  was 
empty,  and  Marie  Claire  was  staring  fixedly  at  the  tail  of  the 
column  oscillating  like  a  tuning-fork  from  right  to  left  as  it 
receded  in  the  distance  in  a  cloud  of  dust. 
*  *  * 

Sergeant  Lawrence,  having  cleaned  his  teeth  with  his  Army 
tooth-brush,  stood  in  front  of  a  mirror  and  studied  atten- 
tively a  fixed  smile— a  smile  which  he  produced  and  repro- 
duced with  reflex  movements  of  his  maxillary  muscles. 
It  was  a  serious  smile  without  mirth  ;  being  intended,  like 
the  capacious  smile  of  a  "chorus"  lady,  for  purely  exhibition 
purposes.  Dissatisfied  with  the  result,  he  went  over  his 
teeth  again  with  a  piece  of  charcoal  until  their  lustrous 
whiteness  convinced  him  that  art  could  do  no  more  for 
nature.  For  some  days  he  had  knocked  off  cigarettes  owing 
to  their  discolouring  effect  on  the  enamel  ;  he  had  also  been 
at  pains  to  remove,  with  the  aid  of  a  piece  of  pumice-stone, 
a  large  stain  of  a  chemical  brown  on  the  inside  of  the  middle 
finger  of  his  right  hand.  His  face  glowed  with  the  applica- 
tion of  soap  and  hot  water  ;  his  buttons  shone  and  twinkled 
like  the  stars  of  the  firmament. 

At  the  end  of  an  hour  of  these  ministrations  he  pronounced 
himself  "clean  and  regular,"  and,  taking  a  small  cane  in  his 
hand,  he  walked  with  an  air  of  studied  nonchalance  down 
the  street,  a  prey  to  a  secret  obsession  that  he  was  a  subject 
of  morbid  curiosity  to  every  passer-by.  As  he  reached  the 
corner  of  the  rue  Gamhetta  he  suddenly  ran  into  Sergeant 
Robert  Chipchase. 

"Hulloa,  Jack  !"  said  the  other.  "Going  for  a  stroll  ? 
"Y-yes,"  said  John  Lawrence. 
"I'll"  come  with  you,"  said  the  other,  sociably. 
Lawrence    hesitated,    and    was    lost.     He    fell    into    step 
beside  his  companion.     He  walked  some  distance,  replying 
to  conversational  overtures  with  monosyllables. 
"Got  the  hump.  Jack  ? "  said  the  other  suddenly. 
"N-no,"   replied   Lawrence.       He   stopped  dead.      "I've 
forgot  my  handkerchief." 

"  Strewth  !  I  knew  you  had  something  preying  on  your 
mind,  like.  Why  didn't  you  say  so  before,  inate  ?  Here 
you  are — use  mine."     And  he  tendered  first  aid. 

"Anything  wrong  with  it  ?"  said  the  other,  sensitively. 
V  "No!  No  offence,  I  hope,"  said  Lawrence.  "The  fact  is, 
"Bob,"  he  went  on  breathlessly,  taking  each  full-stop  at  full 
gallop,  "  I-can't-walk-as-well-as-I-used-to-I-think-I've- 
a-touch-of-trench-feet-you'll-  excuse  -  me-old  -  chap -no  - 
no-I-can-get-back- to -billets-  all-  right -Don't -let -me - 
spoil-your-walk-Bob."  He  paused  to  take  breath.  "It'll 
do  you  good,"  he  added,  earnestly.  "So  long,  old  man." 
And  he  turned  on  his  heel. 

His  companion  gazed  after  him.  He  walked  slowly  at 
first,  but  his  feet  appeared  to  recover  their  circulation  with 
remarkable  rapidity,  and  he  was  soon  lost  to  sight.  Sergeant 
Chipchase  soliloquised.  T-,,r-x7/-u 

"Sits  in  a  corner  of  the  mess  mugging  up  hKEMCJl 
AND  HOW  TO  SPEAK  IT.  Says  a  man  ought  to  improve 
himself.  Looks  at  a  pal  as  if  he  wasn't  there.  Dreamy 
like.  Never  passes  the  time  of  day.  Asked  me  if  I  heard 
a  blooming  nightingale.  .  .  .  Christ  !  It's  a  wofmn ! 
And  having  finished  his  train  of  induction,  he  went  on  his 
way   whistling. 


14 


Land    &    Water 


March  21,   191^ 


Meanwhile,  Sergeant  LawTence,  having  turned  the  corner 
of  the  Place  had  arrived  at  the  door  of  the  ^ptcerte.  He 
reconnoitred  it  from  nutsjde,  and  seeing  two  soldiers  at  the 
counter,  he  retreated.  He  walked  up  and  down  once  or 
twice  advanced  to  the  door,  and  again  retreated,  until, 
seeing  the  eye  of  a  military  policeman  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  street  watching  him  with  professional  curiosity,  he 
walked  straight  into  the  shop.  At  the  same  moment  the 
two  customers  emerged  from  it. 

Behind  the  counter  was  Marie  Claire.  A  wave  of  colour 
swept  over  her  face  as  she  saw  him.  They  stood  looking 
at  each  other.  ■■     ^  ,    ^ 

"Bon  jour,  M'sieu'.  Douzeoeufs?"  she  said  at  last. 
Sergeant  Lawrence's  eye  caught  sight  of  a  rose  in  a  vase 
on  the  shelf  behind  her.  It  was  a  languid  rose  with  drooping 
petals,  long  past  its  first  bloom  ;  but  he  thought  he  recog- 
nised it.  On  the  counter  lav  a  small  book  with  the  words 
"  Francjais-Anglais "  on  the  rover.  He  suddenly  had  an 
inspiration. 

"Afadame "  he  began. 

"Mademoiselle,"  she  corrected.     "Encore  Mademoiselle. 
"  Mademoiselle  Marie  ClaiEe"— she  wondered  where  he  had 
got  hold  of  her  name — "voulez-vouse  me  donner  lessons — 
French — pour  un  franc?" 
"Moi?  " 
"Oui." 

She  hesitated  a  moment.  "  Maman  !  Ici !  " 
There  was  .  a  sound  of  heavy  breathing.  "  Maman " 
appeared.  She  was  large  and  round,  and  so  richly  endowed 
by  Nature  that  her  chin  seemed  to  melt  into  her  neck,  her 
neck  into  her  bosom.  Wliere  other  people  display  joints, 
her  body  exhibited  nothing  but  creases.  Her  bosom  rose 
and  felf  continuously  in  short  respirations,  and  the  purple 
satin  of  her  blouse  rose  and  fell  with  them  as  though  it  were 
a  natural  plumage.  Two  large  dimples  appeared  on  either 
side  of  her  mouth,  giving  the  spectator  the  impression  that 
she  was  smiling.  The  smile,  however,  was  perpetual,  and 
afforded  no  index  to  the  state  of  her  emotions — it  was  one  of 
Nature's  tricks  of  camouflage,  and  served  to  mask  a  variety 
of  moods  ranging  from  lazy  benevolence  to  active  rapacity. 
It  was  useful  in  business.  If  anyone  objected  to  Madame's 
terms,  she  always  dismissed  the  objection  with  "  les  affaires 
son/  les  affaires,"  and  continued  to  smile  with  the  same 
impassivity.     She  was  a  tj'pical  bourgeoise. 

"M'sieu' "  began  Marie  Claire,  turning  interrogatively 

to  the  sergeant. 
"Lawrence — John  Lawrence,"  said  the  sergeant. 
■'M'sieu'  Lorens  wants  me  to  give  him  lessons  in  French, 
maman,"  said  Marie  Claire  to  her  mother  in  her  native  tongue. 
"He  offers  me  a  franc  a  lessofi,"  she  added  quickly,  seeing 
her  mother  hesitate,  and  fearing  a  prohibition  of  such 
intimacy. 

But  Madame  was  not  pondering  the  proprieties. 
"DeiLX  francs  !"  said  Madame,  with  a  smile  of  benediction 
which  expressed  a  genuine  conviction  that  it  is  more  blessed 
to  receive  than  to  give. 
"Oh,  maman!"  protested  Marie  Claire. 
But  Sergeant  Lawrence  jumped  at  the  stipulation.   "  Done  ! 
Bong!     Bien!"    he    exclaimed    hurriedly.     Had    Madame 
made  it  ten  francs  he  would  have  cheerfully  acquiesced. 

Then  began  for  Sergeant  Lawrence  a  course  of  French 
Without  Tears.  It  was  intensive  training,  for  he  knew  that 
the  battalion's  "rest"  in  billets  was  short,  and  he  took  two 
lessons  a  day.  They  were  given  in  the  parlour  behind  the 
shop,  with  maman  always  in  attendance,  except  for  brief 
and  occasional  absences  when  a  customer  claimed  her 
attention.  During  these  absences  the  conversation  took  on 
a  less  Ollendorfian  character  ;  they  ceased  to  ask  each  other 
whether  the  gardener's  mother-in-law  had  the  paper-knife 
of  the  tailor's  step-brother,  and  Sergeant  Lawrence  found 
himself  speaking  English,  as  a  language  more  naturally 
expressive  of  the  emotions. 

"Mademoiselle,  will  you  come  for  a  promenade  ?  "  he  said 
suddenly  in  one  of  these  truant  intervals. 
She  hesitated.     "  It  is  not  convenahle." 
"Why  not  ?"  he  pleaded. 

"  In  France  we  do  not  go  for  a  walk  unless  we  are— what 
you  call  it  ? — 'engaged' — fiance." 
"Then  let's  get  engaged,"  he  said,  decisively. 
"Parbleu!     To  go  for  a  walk!"     Her  eyes  were  full  of 
mirth. 
"No!     To  get  married,"  he  said. 

She  coloured,  but  said  nothing.  He  leaned  forward  and 
seized  her  hand.  This  time  she  did  not  withdraw  it.  "In 
France,"  she  said,  at  length,  "  it  is  not  convenahle  to  ask  a 
girl  that."  And,  seeing  his  look  of  astonishment,  she  added  : 
"You  must  speak  to  maman  first." 
"Bon!     Right   away!"  he  said. 


"Have  you  asked  your  papa?"  .she  said  as  they  waited 
■  for  maman's  return  from  the  shop. 

"  My  papa  ! "  he  exclaimed.  "  You  mean  my  old  governor  ? 
Lord,  no!  Nor  my  grandpapa."  He  remembered  there  was 
a  Table  of  Affinities  in  the  door  of  the  church-porch  at  home, 
proclaiming  to  all  that  a  man  may  not  marry  his  grand- 
mother, but  he  could  not  see  what  that  had  to  do  with  it. 

"In  France,"  explained  Marie  Claire,  "the  children  do  not 
marry  without  the  consent  of  their  papas  and  mammas. 
The  garcon  asks  his  papa,  and  his  papa  asks  the  papa  of  the 
demoiselle.     Then   there's  a  conseil  de  famille." 

"  Lord  love  me !  It  sounds  like  an  inquest.  .  .  . 
Madame  ! "  he  said,  rising  to  his  feet  as  maman  returned. 
"I  would  like  to  marry  your  daughter.  Marie  Claire.  I — I 
love  her,"  h£  added  simply. 

"Bien,"  said  Madame,  with  the  eternal  smile. 

He  thought  she  said  "Combien?"  and  added,  hastily: 
"  I'm  a  platoon-sergeant,  my  pay's  2s.  lod.  a  day,  I  don't  chuck 
money  about,  and  I've  got  ^50  in  the  bank.  I've  a  clean 
conduct-sheet,  Madame.     You  can  ask  the  adjutant." 

To  all  of  which — uttered  in  hurried  English — Madame 
made  no  replv,  but  continued  to  smile.  For  Madame  knew 
it  all  already.  How  ?  By  a  series  of  judicious  inquiries 
conducted  in  many  quarters.  She  had  an  instinct  for  these 
things. 

Lawrence  did  not  tell  her  that  he  had  the  D.C.M.,  that  he 
had  been  at  Mons,  and  that,  if  the  Fates  spared  him,  he 
would  one  day  wear  a  medal  with  many  clasps  which  would 
record  "Mons,"  "Le  Cateau,"  "the  Marne,"  "the  Aisne,"^ 
"Ypres,"  and  many  another  tale  of  epic  battles.  After  all, 
these  were  not  things  that  a  fellow  talked  about. 

And  Marie  Claire  put  up  her  mouth  and  received  his  first 
kiss.  Maman  looked  on  with  a  mercenary  smile,  being 
engaged  at  that  moment  in  a  rapid  mental  calculation  of 
how  many  francs  there  were  in  fifty  pounds  and  also  what 
Marie's  dot  should  be  and  whether  she  should  throw  in 
the  second  best  feather-bed.  Sergeant  Lawrence  wondered 
whether  it  was  not  "convenahle"  to  kiss  one's  fiancee  except 
in  the  presence  of  her  maman.  He  wondered  also  whether 
he  ought  to  have  kissed' w«waM  first.  He  even  wondered  for 
one  brief  moment  whether  maman  had  ever  looked  like  Marie 
Claire,  but  he  peremptorily  dismissed  this  unbidden  thought 
as  treasonable  and  a  temptation  of  the  devil. 

Sergeant  Lawrence  had  an  interview  with  his  CO.,  and 
the  CO.,  having  satisfied  himself,  in  the  spirit  of  No.  1360  of 
the  King's  Regulations,  that  the  lady  was  a  virtuous  woman 
and  precious  above  rubies,  duly  notified  the  D.A.A.G.  3rd 
Echelon,  who  in  turn  communicated  with  the  Officer  in 
Charge  of  Records.  Which  being  done,  the  CO.  was  duly 
informed  that  there  appeared  to  be  no  just  cause  or  legal 
impediment  in  the  way  of  the  marriage.  And  John  Lawrence 
went  before  an  officer  who  was  a  Commissioner  of  Oaths,  and' 
made  a  statutory  declaration  to  the  same  effect.  He  also- 
produced  a  birth  certificate.  All  of  which  solemn  declara- 
tions the  CO.  forwarded  to  the  Procureur  de  la  RSpublique 
of  the  arrondissement,  who  thereupon  communicated  with 
the  maire  of  the  commune. 

All  these  things  took  time,  and  Sergeant  Lawrence  liad  tO' 
go  into  the  trenches  again  before  the  marriage  ceremony 
could  be  celebrated.  Marie  Claire  spent  many  sleepless 
nights  trying  to  dispute  a  fixed  idea  that  all  the  enemy 
batteries  had  got  John  Lawrence  personally  "registered," 
and  were  laid  on  him.  But  he  came  out  all  right,  and  one 
day  Marie  Claire  and  her  maman,  with  an  amazing  retinue 
of  relations,  illustrating  all  the  Ollendorfian  degrees  of 
affinity,  who  accompanied  them,  met  Sergeants  Lawrence 
and  Chipchase  at  the  maison  commune.  Maman  introduced 
him  to  a  beau-pere  who  was  not  "beau"  and  a  belle-sceur 
who  was  not  "belle,"  but  he  reflected  that  the  French  are 
nothing  if  not  polite.  It  seemed  extraordinarily  like  a 
lesson  in  Ollendorfian  French,  as  the  stepfather  was  a 
cordonnier  and  the  brother-in-law  was  a  charcutier,  and  they 
all  got  mixed  up  in  the  most  approved  Ollendorfian  manner. 

Lawrence  had  obtained  a  certificat  de  coutume  from  the 
consul  at  the  base  to  the  effect  that  in  English  law  the  consent 
of  the  father  is  not  necesseu-y  to  the  present  marriage  ;  and 
this  being  duly  read  by  the  adjoint  au  maire,  whom  Chipchase 
called  the  adjutant,  Lawrence  again  solemnly  declared  that 
there  existed  no  just  cause  or  legal  impediment. 

Whereupon  the  "contractant,"  John  Lawrence,  in  English, 
and  the  "contractante,"  Marie  Claire,  in  French,  declared 
their  wish  to  take  one  another  for  spouse. 

And  the  adjoint  declared  them  united  in  marriage.  And 
maman  for  the  first  time  lost  her  smile  and  wept.  And  all 
the  relations,  to  the  number  of  two  score  and  three,  wept 
likewise,  until  Lawrence  felt  more  than  ever  that  it  w^s  like 
an  inquest.     But  Marie  Claire's  .smile  reassured  him. 

And  the  adjoint,  having  recited  his  entries  in  the  register 


March   2  1,   1918 


Land   &    Water 


15 


of  the  etal-civil,  wrote  down  "Lectvire  faite/'  ffipgating  the 
words  like  a  litany,  and  held  out  his  pen.  Whereupon  John 
Lawrence  and  Marie  Claire,  his  wife,  and  her  maman  and  a 
great  cloud  of  witnesses,  .duly  signed  their  names. 

"You're  married,  right  enough.  Jack,"  said  Chipchase,  as 
^he  took  his  turn  with  the  pen  and  gazed  at  the  nine  signatures 
Which  preceded  his  own.     "  It's  like  a  Summary  of  Evidence 
— you'd  better  take  the  old  adjutant's  award." 

And  John  Lawrence  gave  his  wife  a  nuptial  kiss  before 
them  all.  WTiereupon  Sergeant  Chipchase,  seizing  the 
youngest  and  prettiest  of  Marie  Claire's  girl  friends,  kissed 
her  also,  explaining  that  this  was  the  "custom"  in  England. 
This  obiter  dictum  was  so  well  received  that  he  promptly 
kissed  all  the  others,  thereby  wiping  away  all  tears  and 
putting  everybody  in  the  greatest  good  humour, 
*  *  * 

I  knew  Lawrence,  and  was  in  fact  in  France  at  the  time  of 
the  wedding  ;  but  it  happened  in  1915,  and  I  had  forgotten 
all  about  it  till  one  day  last  summer,  when  I  was  spending  a 
few  day's  leave  in  Dorsetshire.  I  had  just  heard  that  he 
had  got  a  bar  to  his  D.C.M.  And,  as  chance  would  have  it, 
my  walk  over  the  cliffs  took  me  in  the  late  afternoon  into  a 
village  churchyard  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  sea,  where 
I  sat  on  the  thick  vturf  in  the  shade  of  the  cypresses.  And 
while  I  mused  in  the  declining  rays  of  the  sun  my  eye  fell  on 
a  tombstone  opposite  me.     1  read  the  inscription  : 

To  the  honoured  memory  of 

SERGEANT    WILLIAM    LAWRENCE 

(of  the  40th  Regiment  Foot) 

Who  after  a  long  and  eventful  life 

In  the  service  of  his  country 

Peacefully  ended  his  days  at  Studland 

November  nth,  i86g. 

He  served  with  his  distinguished  regiment 

In  the  war  in  South  America,  1805, 

And  through  the  whole  of  the  Peninsular  War,  1808-13 

He  received  the  silver  medal  and  no  less  than  10  clasps 

For  the  Battles  in  which  he  was  engaged 

JROLEIA,  VIMIERA,  TOULOUSE,  CIUDAD    RODRIGO, 

BADAJOS 

(In  which  desperate  assault  being  one  of  the  volunteers 

Tor  the  Forlorn  Hope  he  was  most  grievously  wounded) 

VITTORIA,    PYRENEES,    NIVELLES,    ORTHES, 

TOULOUSE. 

He  also   fought   at   the  glorious  victory  of  WATERLOO, 

June  i8th,  1815. 

While  still  serving  with  his  regiment  during  the 

Occupation  of  Paris  by  the  Allied  Armies, 

Sergeant  Lawrence  married  Clotilde  Clairet 

at  St.  Germain-en-Laye,  who  died  September  26th,  1853, 

and  was  buried  beneath  this  spot. 

1  got  up  and  walked  round  to  the  reverse  side  of  the  tomb- 
stone.    On  it  was  inscribed  the  words  : 

Ci-git 

CLOTILDE    LAWRENCE 

N^e  at  St.  Germain-en-Laye  (France) 

D^c^d^e  k  Studland 

le  26  Sept.,  1853. 

Was  it  merely  a  coincidence  ?     I  do  not  know. 


Hit :   By  S.  K.  Vesey 


Distant  View  of  Hit 


WE  had 
beenca- 
ravan- 
ing  for 
many 
days  in  the  Mesopo- 
tamian  desert  when 
we  came  to  Hit,  the 
latest  town  to  be 
occupied  by  British 
troops.  From  far  off 
we  saw  the  smoky 
vapours  in  which  it  is 
enveloped,  and  we 
smelt  the  sulphurous 
smell  for  which  it  is 
renowned.  As  we 
drew  nighcr  it  seemed 
almost     as     if      we  Old  Gateway,  Hit 

were       approaching 
some    "Inferno"    of    Dante  or   Milton. 

The  road  from  Ramadieh  was  very  beautiful  in  its  desert 
way,  and  just  before  lunch  we  passed  through  a  fine  gorge 
and  rode  to  the  top  of  a  hill  which  commanded  a  view  of 
the  surrounding  country.  Desert  everywhere,  with  little 
knobs  and  hills  of  sand.  We  camped  that  night  close  to 
the  Euphrates,  where  river  tortoises  were  disporting  them- 
selves in  the  water.  During  the  night  there  was  a  great 
noise  of  men  and  horses.  No  unusual  occurrence,  but  this 
time  it  proved  to  be  a  Turkish  colonel  and  his  troop  of  sixty 
soldiers,  who  were  out  collecting  taxes.  They  did  not  like 
to  leave  us  unguarded  in  so  solitary  a  spot,  so  they  said, 
but  as  they  breakfasted  at  our  expense,  their  kindness 
was  not  as  disinterested  as  it  seemed. 

We  started  soon  after  dawn  along  a  dreary  way,  with 
torrential  rain  descending  at  intervals.  The  sky  was  dark 
and  gloomy,  and  mud  and  slime  strove  for  the  mastery 
underfoot.  We  encountered  the  postman  who  plied  between 
Damascus  and  Bagdad.  He  was  mounted  on  a  horse,  with 
two  large  saddle-bags  tied  in  front  of  him.  Occasionally  he 
arrived  at  his  destination  intact,  but,  as  a  rule,  his  load  was 
considerably  lightened  on  the  way. 

Our  first  impression  of  Hit  was  a  tall  minaret  and  black 
smoke ;  but  gradually  a  village,  perched  on  a  rock,  evolved 
itself  out  of  the  gloom.  There  were  rocky  hills  all  round 
from  which  smoke  issued,  indicating  where  hot  sulphur 
springs  could  be  found.  The  ground  was  dotted  with 
unpleasant -looking  black  patches.  The  retainers  dabbled  in 
these,  returning  with  huge  lumps  of  soft  tar  or  bitumen. 

We  camped  outside  the  town,  and  a  fire  of  bitumen  was 
soon  lit.  It  burnt  splendidly,  and  warmed  our  chilled 
persons  and  drenched  garments.  All  evening  we  were 
besieged  by  vendors  of  "antiques."  The  inhabitants  find 
them  in  old  Hit,  and  sell  them  to  passing  caravans.  Next 
morning  was  finer,  and  we  walked  up  to  the  town.  It  was 
entered  by  this  picturesque  gate.  The  streets  were  very 
narrow,  with  broken  steps  leading  up  to  the  houses. 

We  saw  bread  being  made  in  one  of  these  houses.  It  was 
in  a  basket  made  of  bitumen,  and  looked  like  porridge. 
There  was  also  a  fire  in  a  hole  with  bricks  built  round  it. 
A  dirty  girl  came  and  washed  her  hands  in  dirty  water,  then 
took  up  a  ball  of  dough,  worked  it  into  a  flat  substance,  and 
plastered  it  against  the  brick  wall..  In  a  few  minutes  it  was 
cooked.  In  spite  of  these  terrible  processes,  the  bread  was 
extremely  good. 

Later  in  the  day  we  visited  the  bitumen  pools.  Some  of 
these  were  harmless,  and  one  could  dabble  in  them  without 
evil  consequence,  but  others  were  sticky,  and  the  stuff  clung 
to  the  hand  like  a  black  glove.  Butter  removed  the  thickest 
coating,  but  fragments  adhered  for  days.  Another  pool  was 
quite  still  when  we  arrived,  but  presently  it  began  to  dance 
and  foam  as  if  possessed  by  an  evil  spirit.  The  edge  of  the 
pool  was  all  soft  bitumen,  but  if  gathered  and  laid  on  the 
ground  it  hardened  in  a  few  minutes.  Further  on  there  was 
yet  another  specimen  of  pool  — sulphur  and  bitumen  mixed — 
which  is  used  as  a  bath  by  the  natives.  It  is  also  said  to 
cure  any  disease  under  the  sun.  Everything  in  and  around 
Hit  was  made  or  mended  with  bitumen.  Houses  were 
patched  together  with  it,  boats  were  coated  with  it,  and 
baskets  made  watertight.  It  was  carried  away  in  baskets 
on  donkeys  to  the  river,  where  it  was  shipped  to  Bagdad. 
They  were  a  disagreeable  mongrel-looking  people,  but  very 
polite,  and  anxious  to  exhibit  their  town.  Much  of  it  was 
built  on  the  ruins  of  an  older  settlement,  for  the  bitumen  and 
sulphur  industry  has  existed  from  time  immemorial. 


i6 


Land    &    Water  March  21,  191 8 

America  and  the  Far  East:  By  J.  D.  Whelpley 


THJ-:  (HUSO  of  the  apparent  hesitancy  in  Washington 
in  giving  a  mandate  to  Japan  to  enter  Siberia  is 
twofold.  The  Washington  (lovernment  has  clung 
persistently  to  the  liope  tliat  real  democracy 
would  triumph  in  Russia,  and  long  after  other 
Governments  had  presumably  abandoned  Russia  to  the 
Russians,  messages  of  cheer  and  comfort,  coupled  with 
offers  of  material  assistance,  came  to  Petrograd  from  America. 
It  will  be  with  real  reluctance  that  President  Wilson  will 
commit  the  Government  of  the  i:nited  States  to  any  plan 
involving  possible  armed  conflict  with  the  Russian  people  ; 
which,  of  course,  is  what  a  Japanese  advance  into  Siberia 
might  mean  in  the  end.  There  is  also  an  American  principle 
of  foreign  policy  at  stake,  for  the  United  States  Government 
has  for  many  years  used  all  its  diplomatic  power  to  give  an 
international  character  to  all  foreign  movements  in  the  Far 
East.  At  Peking,  in  Manchuria,  Mongolia,  and  Siberia 
many  enterprises  have  been  undertaken  by  Japan  in  con- 
junction with  the  Western  Powers,  so  far  as  those  Powers 
were  able  to  secure  a  part  of  the  responsibility,  and  no  Power 
has  been  more  alive  to  this  situation  than  the  United  States. 

The  Trans-Siberian   Railroad 

To  acquiesce  in  the  advance  of  Japanese  armies  over  the 
Trans-Siberian  railroad,  unaccompanied  by  military  repre- 
sentatives from  the  West,  would  be  a  distinct  departure. 
If  it  is  agreed  upon  in  Washington,  it  will  be  an  act  of  expedi- 
ency dictated  by  the  military  situation  in  France  and  trans- 
port difficulties  the  world  over.  Japan  is  on  the  spot,  so  to 
speak,  with  a  great  navy,  an  army  of  a  million  and  a  half  of 
men,  and  comparatively  little  else  on  hand  to  engage  either 
the  naval  or  the  military  energies  of  the  nation.  To  let 
Japan  undertake  this  job — not  such  an  easy  one,  either — is 
the  obvious  course.  Japanese  statesmen  say  that  they 
require  no  mandate  from  America  to  go  ahead  ;  but  American 
wishes  would  have  great  weight  with  the  Allies,  to  whom 
Japan  looks  for  the  word  to  go,  and  the  deciding  word  lies 
apparently  with  President  Wilson  and  his  Cabinet.  He  will 
be  guided  bj'  Allies'  counsel,  however,  for  the  war  is  now  being 
fought  as  a  single  enterprise. 

Americans  are  wonderfully  well  informed  as  regards 
Siberia ;  probably  better  informed  than  the  people  of 
Western  Europe.  For  many  years  American  engineers  have 
been  developing  Siberian  resources;  American  industrial 
organisations  have  been  successfully  cultivating  Siberian 
trade ;  and  an  enormous  amount  of  publicity  has  been  given 
in  America  to  the  economic  possibilities  of  the  near  future 
in  that  country  of  amazing  potential  wealth.  It  has  been 
said  that  two  United  States  of  America  could  be  laid  out 
west  of  Vladivostok,  and  the  American  who  travels  the 
nearly  eight  thousand  miles  from  the  Pacific  coast  to  Moscow 
needs  to  look  occasionally"  at  the  people  to  disabuse  his 
mind  of  the  impression  that  he  is  still  in  the  middle  or  north- 
western part  of  his  own  country.  In  geography,  climate, 
and  soil,  Siberia  is  very  much  a  replica  of  a  large  part  of 
North  America,  with  the  advantage,  strange  to  relate,  of 
better  water  supply,  more  timber,  and  a  less  variable  climate 
on  the  side  of  Siberia. 

With  the  peaceful  people  of  Siberia  the  world  has  no 
quarrel,  nor  is  it  intended  that  any  armed  foreign  nation 
shall  establish  itself  in  their  country  to  the  disadvantage  of 
the  population  or  to  its  own  exclusive  advantage.  This, 
indeed,  may  be  said  of  the  whole  of  Russia,  for  Germany  has 
raised  the  issue,  and  America  and  the  Allies  must  and  will 
meet  it  successfully  in  time.  There  is  a  wonderful  clarity, 
positiveness,  and  unanimity  of  opinion  as  to  Russia  among 
the  American  people,  and  it  is  summed  up  by  the  New  York 
Times  when  it  says  : — 

Germany  must  be  compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  Russian 
provinces  she  has  seized.  That  is  a  war  aim  which  the  AlUes 
cannot  too  promptly  proclaim,  and  it  is  a  purpose  to  which  they 
must  inflexibly  adhere.  It  is  not  alone  the  rescue  of  Russia 
that  is  involved  :  it  is  the  safety  of  civiUsation.  If  Germany  is 
allowed  to  retain  her  grip  over  Russia  she  will  emerge  from  the 
war  victorious  beyond  even  her  own  plan  and  imagining,  for  she 
will  be  in  a  position  to  build  up  an  irresistible  mihtary  power 
and  enforce  her  will  upon  the  world.  It  would  be  the  rankest 
perfidy  to  talk  of  peace  or  think  of  peace  with  Germany  on  any 
terms  that  would  permit  or  condone  the  occupation  of  Russian 
territory.  It  would  be  the  abandonment  of  the  great  purpose  of 
the  war.  The  Allies  must  again  positively  declare  that  they 
will  fight  Germany  until  she  withdraws  from  Russia,  and  that 
they  will  give  no  thought  to  peace  until  she  does  so  and  makes 
peace  upon  terms  determined  by  the  Allies.  The  one  supreme 
aim  IS  to   destroy   Germany's  war-power  plans.     Until   that  is 


accomplished,  prating  about  peace  at  conferences,  whether  of 
working  men.  of  SociaUsts,  or  of  Pacifists,  is  treason  to  the  great 
cause.  The  war  must'go  on  until  the  end  for  which  the  Allies 
took  up  arms  is  achieved. 

Wlien  Mr.  Barnes,  the  Labour  Minister  of  the  British 
Cabinet,  in  speaking  of  shipbuilding,  said:  "America  is 
failing  us  so  far  as  shipbuilding  is  concerned."  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  he  did  not  expand  his  statement  to  cover  the 
real  situation.  His  remark  was  made  in  connection  with 
some  estimates  as  to  the  shortcomings  of  British  shipbuilding, 
and  it  was  to  emphasise  the  seriousness  of  the  situation  that 
he  made  the  reference  to  America.  The  only  failure  that 
can  be  attributed  to  the  American  shipbuilding  industry  is 
that  it  has  failed  to  satisfy  the  high  expectations  of  the 
general  public  here  and  even  at  home.  American  reputation 
abroad  for  great  industrial  output  has  become  almost  a 
belief  in  modern  miracles  among  those  who  read  of  the 
building  of  motor  cars  at  the  rate  of  "one  a  minute"  and 
of  other  standardised  outputs. 

In  1916  the  United  States  lagged  far  behind  other  countries 
in  her  merchant  marine.  Most  of  her  foreign  trade  was 
carried  in  foreign  ships,  and  shipbuilding  in  America  was 
comparatively  a  minor  industry.  The  demand  for  ships, 
owing  to  the  war,  stimulated  this  industry  considerably  from 
1915  onward,  but  it  was  not  until  less  than  a  year  ago  that 
America  really  entered  into  the  business  of  supplying  the 
world-deficiency  in  sea-going  tonnage.  In  a  few  months  the 
whole  situation  has  changed,  and  at  various  places  on 
the  North  American  Continent  have  sprung  into  being  the 
greatest  shipyards  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Some  of  them 
have  even  begun  to  launch  ships,  and  with  every  passing 
week  the  situation  is  improving.  These  great  shipyards  had 
to  be  built  before  ships  could  be  constructed,  and  the  material 
for  these  ships  had  to  be  assembled  before  keels  could  be  laid. 
The  day  is  rapidly  approaching  when  the  extent  of  American 
preparedness  will  be  apparent  to  all  in  the  vast  output  of 
finished  product,  and  there  will  be  no  disappointment  in 
this  except  to  the  enemy. 

It  has  been  said  of  American  preparation  for  war  that 
no  one  can  possibly  realise  its  magnitude  at  the  present 
time,  but  that  when  the  full  possible  output  materialises  the 
world  will  be  staggered  with  the  totals.  In  all  the  long 
months  from  August  4th,  1914,  to  April  6th,  1917,  when  j;he 
rest  of  the  world  was  at  war,  America  made  no  preparation 
for  the  day  that  was  to  come.  This  was  due  to  social, 
political,  and  legislative  difficulties  that  blocked  the  way. 
Following  American  intervention,  there  was  a  period  of 
mental  effort  necessary  to  secure  the  needed  realisation  and 
consequent  concentration  of  energy,  a  period  that  was  all 
the  longer  because  of  there  being  no  danger  of  immediate 
invasion  by  an  enemy.  The  machinery  of  war  in  all  its- 
phases  had  to  be  created.  It  is  now  well  on  towards  com- 
pletion, and  has  all  been  done  in  a  very  few  months.  It 
still  creaks  slightly  in  its  joints  ;  but  is  finding  itself  with 
marvellous  rapidity,  notwithstanding  a  clamour  of  tongues 
always  in  evidence  in  a  self-governing  democracy,  but  not 
without  its  usefulness. 

Above  the  clamour  of  tongues  can  be  heard  the  clang  of 
the  hammers,  the  sound  of  marching  feet,  and  the  cheers  of 
the  American  soldiers  as  they  land  on  French  soil,  and  all  in 
constantly  increasing  volume.  No  criticism  of  America  that 
is  heard  in  Allied  countries  equals  in  volume  or  vigour  a 
hundredth  part  of  the  fierce  controversies  that  now  rage 
over  alleged  American  shortcomings  in  Washington  and 
elsewhere  throughout  the  country. 

American  labour  is  solidly  for  the  war,  and  to  no  confer- 
ence of  pacifist  tendencies  or  to  no  gatherings  where  repre- 
sentatives of  the  enemy  people  \*ill  be  found,  will  American- 
labour  organisations  send  delegates.  The  people  of  America 
are  now  confronted  with  much  the  same  problem  of  how  to 
live  as  are  the  people  of  the  AUied  ^countries.  Scarcity  and 
high  prices  demand  their  increased  toll  of  American  endur- 
ance and  earning  power.  It  is  well  for  the  Allied  peoples 
to  bear  in  mind,  however,  that  the  food  and  supply  shortages 
in  America  are  caused  largely  by  the  great  effort  being  made 
to  send  more  to  the  people  of  the  Allies.  It  is  a  shorta^ge 
created  voluntarily  by  the  American  people  that  the  Allies 
can  get  on  with  the  war  in  safety.  Self-interest  dictates 
this  voluntary  rationing,  it  is  true ;  but  the  appeal  is 
naturally  not  as  compelling  as  it  would  be  if  supplies  were 
actually  short.  In  the  midst  of  plenty,  America  is  helping 
to  ration  the  world  on  an  equal  basis  by  plain  Hving.  This^ 
is  fine  testimony  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  the  Americaa 
people  have  cast  their  lot  with  their  Allies  across  the  sea. 


March  21,  1 9 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


17 


French  Art  in   Russia   :    By  G.  C.  Williamson 


UNTIL  recently  there  was  more  French  silver  in 
the  Winter  Palace  and  the  Anitchkoff  Palace,  in 
Petrograd,  than  there  was  in  the  whole  of  France  ; 
and  M.  Paul  Eudel,  writing  in  1884  respecting 
French  silver  work,  draws  a  piteous  account  of 
the  want  of  fine  examples  of  the  periods  of  Louis  XIV.. 
Louis  XV.,  and  Louis  XVL,  in  the  country  which  had  pro- 
duced them.  He  pointed  out  that  owing  to  the  Revolution 
and  the  Terror  of  1793,  France  had  been  robbed  of  almost  all 
the  fine  examples  of  chased  silver  work  executed  during' 
certain  periods  of  her  supremacy,  and  remarked,  in  a  phrase 
full  of  pathos,  that  one  had  to  go  to  Russia  to  see  the  works 
of  Germain,  the  Roettiers,  Claude  Vallin,  Biennais,  and 
Odiot.  He  added,  moreover,  as  if  to  augment  the  pain  to  be 
felt  by  his  readers,  that  a  journey  to  Russia  for  many  of  them 
would  be  practically  fruitless,  as  these  choice  examples  of 
French  art  were  hid- 
den away  in  the  pri- 
vate apartments  of  the 
Emperor,  or  in  other 
sections  of  the  palaces, 
to  which  the  ordinarv 
visitor  was  not  allowed 
access,  and  which  it 
was  often  difficult 
even  for  the  student 
to  reach.  He  spoke 
truly.  It  is  to  Russia 
one  has  to  go — or, 
rather,  it  was  to 
Russia  one  had  to  go 
—to  see  the  finest 
work  of  the  Roettiers, 
of  the  great  master 
silversmith,  Robert  J. 
Auguste,  and  of  his 
valiant  contempor- 
aries of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

The  Empress  Cathe- 
rine IL,  in  her  desire 
to  encourage  the 
French  silversmiths, 
and  also  with  that 
love  of  magnificent 
display  which  charac- 
terised her,  ordered 
complete  table  ser- 
vices of  silver  for  the 
governors  of  her  seven 
greatest  provinces. 
Four  of  these  services, 
executed  between  1776 
and  1778  by  the  mas- 
ter engravers  Louis 
Lehendrick  and 
Charles  Sprimann, 
were  delivered,  the 
last  of  the  four  not 
reaching  Russia  till 
1783.  Of  the  other 
services,  only  portions 
came  to  hand,  and 
eventually  the  idea  of  giving  them  to  the  governors  was 
relinquished,  and  they  were  retained  at  the  capital ;  and  in 
consequence  there  are  four  great  services  of  silver  by 
R;  J.  Auguste  and  his  two  collaborators  still  to  be  seen,  com- 
plete with  magnificent  centre-pieces,  fruit  bowls  of  extra- 
ordinary beauty,  and  all  the  smaller  accessories  exquisitely 
chased. 

Two  other  silver  services,  by  Fran9ois  Thomas  Germain, 
were  executed  by  command  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  and 
are  of  extraordinary  elegance  and  charm.  One  was  at  first 
intended  for  the  King  of  Portugal,  but  the  Empress  bought 
it.  The  second,  which  contains  three  magnificent  centre- 
pieces— "Bacchus  and  Love,"  "The  Awakening  of  Love," 
and  "The  Birth  of  Comedy" — was  originally  commissioned 
by  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  but  passed  into  the  possession  of 
Count  Soltykoff,  from  whom  it  was  redeemed  by  the  Emperor 
Alexander  III.  for  300,000  roubles.  The  famous  Orloff 
service,  of  nine  hundred  pieces,  one  of  the  great  features  of 
which  is  the  presence  of  ten  grouped  candelabra  and  fifty 
magnificent  candlesticks,  was  commissioned  by  the  Empress 


Jewelled  Clock  with   Mechanical  Movements 


Catherine  as  a  present  for  Prince  Gregory  Orloff,  and  is  the 
work  of  the  two  Roettiers  (father  and  son)  ;  but,  in  some 
mysterious  way,  it  did  not  pass  into  the  possession  of  the 
person  for  whom  it  was  intended,  and  could  still  be  seen 
quite  recently  in  the  Winter  Palace. 

Three  later  services  are  the  work  of  Biennais  and  Odiot, 
the  goldsmiths  who  worked  for  the  Emperor  Napoleon  I. 
One  is  not  only  a  dinner  service,  but  a  service  for  tea, 
and  also.,  for  the  deooration  of  a  room  ;  and  it  includes  a 
fountain,  two  chandeliers,  two  magnificent  centre-pieces  for 
fruit,  hundreds  of  plates  and  dishes,  and  all  kinds  of  separate 
small  pieces  ;  while  the  second,  which  Biennais  made,  is  a 
service  of  over  a  thousand  pieces  of  silver,  much  of  which  is 
engraved  by  Naudin  ;  and  then,  besides  that,  there  are  two 
tea  services  by  Odiot,  a  great  fountain  by  the  same  man, 
and  three  large  chandeliers,  all  of  silver,  besides  hundreds  of 

smaller  pieces  en- 
graved by  Fremin 
(1780),  Imlin  (1797), 
Feburier  (1800),  Boul- 
lier  (1781),  Cedoz 
(1809),  Vachette 
(rSio),  and  Lebrun 
(1838).  Altogether, 
nine  large  rooms  were 
filled  with  this  over- 
whelming display  of 
sumptuous  silver  work . 
to  which  there  could  be 
no  possibility  of  a  rival, 
for  no  such  mass  of 
wrought  silver  existed 
elsewhere,  and  no 
other  sovereign,  save 
the  Empress  Catherine, 
ever  commissioned  sil- 
ver on  such  a  huge 
scale,  or  pieces  of  such 
magnificence,  as  were 
some  of  the  fountains, 
chandeliers,  wine  cis- 
terns, or  centre-pieces 
for  fruit. 

The  F'rench  pictures 
which  one  saw  in 
Petrograd  mainly  be- 
longed to  one  par- 
ticular period.  It  was 
works  by  Boucher, 
Lancret,  Pater, 
Watteau,  Fragonard, 
and  Nicholas  Poussin, 
that  specially  appealed 
to  the  Russian  royal- 
ties. Many  of  them 
were  of  extreme  beau- 
ty, two  of  the  little 
Watteaus  being  un- 
rivalled in  importance, 
three  of  the  Lancrets 
almost  equally  beauti- 
ful. The  two  principal 
works  by  Poussin  were 
grand  classical  landscapes,  the  most  important  one  by 
Boucher,  a  very  unusual  subject  for  that  artist — "Repose 
in  Egypt" — but  painted  somewhat  on  mj^hological  lines, 
superb  in  draughtsmanship,  and  beautiful  in  colouring.  This 
is  not  to  say  that  earlier  schools  of  France  were  not  repre- 
sented. There  were  two  portraits  attributed  to  Clouet ;  one- 
of  Francis  d'Alen9on,  with  some  strong  degree  of  probability  ; 
five  landscapes  by  Claude,  representing  different  hours  of 
the  day,  and  several  other  landscapes  by  him  of  his  usual 
type.  Le  Meine  was  represented  by  a  "Cupid  Asleep,"  and 
by  the  same  artist  there  was  a  charming  representation  of 
the  mythological  legend  of  "Jupiter  and  lo";  while  in 
another  room  were  several  portraits  by  Greuze  and  some 
landscapes  by  Marne.  In  French  sculpture,  Houdin  and 
Falconet  were  well  represented. 

Another  great  feature  of  the  French  school  was  the  presence 
of  the  magnificent  Gobelin  tapestry,  which  covered  the  walls 
of  the  museum  of  carriages,  and  gave  to  the  long  galleries  in 
which  the  Imperial  carriages  were  presented  a  very 
sumptuous  appearance.    Some  of  the  very  finest  tapestry 


i8 


Land    &   Water 


March    21,   1 9 1 8 


that  the  Gobelin  works  ever  produced  cuuld  be  seen  in  these 
ong  RaUer,es;  notable  amongst  them  wcre^a  series  of  repre- 

Safions   from   the   Book   of   Esther  ." JIl^.^'^^P"^  o 
Haman."   "Haman   Imploring   Pardon.        The  Triumph  of 
Srdecki."  and  others)  :   in  another  room  there  were  scenes 
from  Raphael,  "Orj.heus  and  the  Muses"  ;    and  m  another, 


Russian  palaces,  covered  in  beautiful  Beauvais  tapestry, 
especially  furniture  of  Louis  XV.'s  time,  and  there  were 
many  grand  examples  of  the  large  commodes  of  the  Louis  XIV. 
period,  and  some  of  the  finest  specimens  in  the  worid  of 

bulil  work.  ,      ,  .  •  „         .•      ,  , 

Yet  another  group  of  French  objects  specially  noticeable 
was  represented  bv  the  magnificent  clocks,  UKjst  of  them 
distinguished  by  moving  figures,  or  some  unusual  accessory 
which  appealed"  to  the  rather  childish  taste  of  many  of  the 
great  monarchs  of  Russia.  One  of  the  clocks  (it  is  illustrated 
below)  was  always  regarded  with  special  delight,  because, 
by  means  of  some  cleverly  revolving  glass  tubes,  specially 
cut  and  decorated,  the  effect  of  moving  water  in  several 
separate  cascades  was  cleverly  imitated.  Tliere  appeared  to 
be  a  fountain  in  the  centre  of  the  clock,  from  which  rose  five 
distinct  jets.  By  the  side  of  it  were  two  longer  and  more 
powerful  jets,  beneath  it  was  a  broad  flowing  cascade,  while 
from  two  chimerical  figures  on  either  side  there  also  flowed 
streams  of  water.  The  effect  was  distinctly  clever,  and  the 
appearance  of  moving  water  quite  striking  at  a  distance  ; 
but  it  was  meretricious  decoration,  and  doubtless  this 
particular  accessory  interfered,  as  such  accessories  usually 
do,  with  the  timekeeping  quality  of  the  clock. 

Another  fine  clock  (illustrated  opposite)  had  all  kinds 
of  mechanical  figures  moving  on  it  —  a  windmill  and 
a  water-mill,  and  a  revolving  sun — all  of  which  were  set  with 
gorgeous  jewels,  and  on  the  back  of  it  a  group  of  figures 
moved  in  a  landscape.  Yet  another  represented  a  superb 
temple,  and  there  were  three  sets  of  mechanical  movements 
below,  one  pointing  out  the  month,  another  the  day  of  the 
week,  and  a  third  the  quarter,  while  above,  in  a  separate  dial, 
was  a  complicated  astronomical  movement,  giving  all  the 
movements  of  the  sun  and  moon. 

A  certain  air  of  barbaric  splendour  marked  almost  all  the 
objects  commissioned  by  the  Empress  Elizabeth  or  the 
Empress  Catherine  from  France  or  England.  They  appear 
to  have  been  seldom  satisfied  unless  the  objects  in  question 
were  glowing  with  jewels  encrusted  upon  them  in  all  direc. 


Beautiful  Panelled  French  Clock 


representations  after  Guido,  especially  three  great  panels 
which  depicted  the  "Alliance  of  Love,''  "The  Triumph  of 
Bacchus,"  and  "The  Triumph  of  Cupid." 

The  carriages  which  stood  in  these  long  galleries  were  also 
representative  of  French  art,  because  on  many  of  them  the 
panels  had  been  painted  by  Boucher.  One  carriage,  which 
was  presented  to  the  Empress  Catherine  II.,  had  superb 
panels,  depicting  "Labour,"  "Abundance,"  "Commerce,"  and 
"Industry,"  all  by  Boucher.  Another  the  same  artist  had 
painted  with  allegories  concerning  Cupid,  and  yet  another  in 
mythological  subjects — "Venus  leaving  her  Bath," — and 
scenes  of  shepherds  and  shepherdesses,  in  the  approved 
Boucher  manner.  On  one  small  carriage  it  was  stated  that 
the  panels  were  the  work  of  Fragonard,  and  that  it  was  the 
only  example  of  his  individual  work  in  this  particular  manner. 

Yet  another  branch  of  French  art  which  was  superbly 
represented  was  to  be  seen  in  the  long  series  of  snuff-boxes, 
the  work  of  some  of  the  most  noted  French  enamellers, 
many  of  them  of  extraordinary  beauty.  On  one  box  were 
portraits  of  Marie  Antoinette  and  her  children  ;  and  this  had 
a  melancholy  story  attached  to  it,  because  it  was  presented 
by  Louis  XVI.  on  the  scaffold  to  his  own  personal  servant, 
who  eventually  sold  it  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia. 

There  were  innumerable  choice  small  things  of  the  Marie 
Antoinette  period  :  cups,  boxes,  etuis,  card-cases,  inkstands, 
handles  for  walking-sticks  and  canes,  caskets  for  jewels,  and 
all  the  smaller  accessories  of  the  writing-table,  almost  invari- 
ably in  gold,  chased  with  extreme  beauty,  and  many  of  them 
decorated  with  precious  stones.  There  was  a  whole  collec- 
tion of  wonderful  French  finger-rings,  many  enamelled  with 
arms,  some  of  them  having  miniatures  set  within  them, 
others  set  with  superb  jewels ;  and  there  was  also  a  great 
collection  of  the  cases  which  contained  ivory  memorandum 
slips,  also  wrought  in  gold  and  exquisitely  chased.  It  was, 
in  fact,  impossible  to  imagine  a  finer  collection  of  the  smaller 
objects  of  gold  work  for  which  the  time  of  Louis  XVI.  was 
noted,  more  especially  the  objects  that  may  be  called  the 
useless  ones  upon  which  a  lavish  display  of  worlj  was  set  out. 

In  this  brief  survey  the  furniture  must  not,  of  course,  be 
overlooked.     There    were    many    sets    of   furniture   in    the 


■II-  V 


Clock  with  Mechanical  Waterfall 

tions,  and  in  consequence  the  wealth  represented  in  these 
various  objects  must  have  been  of  enormous  extent.  What 
has  happened  to  these  magnificent  treasures  is  a  source  of 
anxiety  to  all  art  lovers.  Are  they  destroyed  ?  Have  they 
been  looted  ?  Or  are  they  by  chance  still  in  existence, 
waiting  to  be  carried  off  by  Germany's  tliieving  Royalties  ? 
The  good  fortune  that  they  will  be  saved  to  Russia  seems  at 
the  moment  a  remote  one. 


March 


2  1 


1918 


Land    &    Water 


19 


"The  Ambitious  Man's   Bible." 


This  striking  phrase  occurs  in  a  letter  which  has  come 
to  hand  from  a  British  military  officer,  in  the  course  of  which 
he  mentions  that  several  "  very  sceptical  "  brother-officers  have 
recently  become  Pelmanists — impelled  to  that  step  by  their 
own  observation  of  what  the  system  had  achieved  for  the 
writer.  His  own  opinion  is  strikingly  expressed  in  the 
phrase  "  the  ambitious  man's  Bible,"  which  he  applies  to  the 
Pelman  books. 

Nothing  which  could  be  said  upon  the  subject  of  the  new 
movement,  which  is  to-day  reckoning  its  supporters  by  the 
hundred  thousand,  could  be  of  greater  significance  than  the 
frequency  with  which  the  sceptic  ultimately  becomes  an 
enthusiastic  Pelmanist. 

There  are  still  a  considerable  number  of  men  and  women 
who  profess  to  ignore  or  disbelieve  the  published  facts  anent 
Pelmanism — and  this  in  spite  of  the  unstinted  praise  which  has 
been  bestowed  upon  Pelmanism  after  investigation  by  the 
leading  journals  and  by  thousands  of  men  and  women  of  all 
occupations  who  have  studied  the  Course. 

Let  the  sceptic  examine  for  himself  the  astonishing  records 
of  the  Pelman  Institute,  or,  better  still,  let  him  work  through 
only  one  of  the  Pelman  "  lessons,"  and  his  scepticism 
vanishes  with  surprising  speed. 

The  truth  is  that  it  has  taken  the  public  a  fairly  long  while 
to  appreciate  that  the  faculties  of  the  mind  are  just  as  train- 
able as  the  faculties  of  the  body.  To  develop  efficiency  of 
a  mental  faculty  is  no  more  difficult  than  to  develop  efficiency 
of  any  particular  group  of  muscles — always  provided  that  an 
appropriate  method  of  exercise  be  followed. 

"Pelmanism"  is  not  an  occult  science.  It  is  free  from 
mysticism,  it  is  as  sound,  as  sober,  and  as  practical  as  the 
most  hard-headed  "common  sense"  business  man  could 
desire.  And  as  to  its  results,  they  follow  with  the  same 
certainty  with  which  mus<'ular  development  follows  physical 
exercise. 

It  is  nowhere  pretended,  and  the  inquirer  is  nowhere  led  to 
suppose,  that  the  promised  benefits  are  gained  "magically," 
by  learning  certain  formuhe,  or  by  the  cursory  reading  of  a 
printed  book.  The  position  is  precisely  the  same,  again,  as 
with  physical  culture.  No  sane  person  expects  to  develop 
muscle  by  reading  a  book  ;  he  knows  he  must  practise  the 
physical  exercises.  So  the  Pelmanist  knows  that  he  must 
practise   mental    exercises. 

"The  Finest  Mental  Recreation." 

"Exercises,"  in  some  ears,  sound  tedious,  but  every 
Pelmanist  will  bear  out  the  statement  that  there  is  nothing 
tedious  or  exacting  about  the  Pelman  exercises.  Indeed,  it 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  an  overwhelming  proportion 
of  Pelmanists  describe  the  exercises  as  "fascinating,"  "de- 
lightful," "the  finest  mental  recreation  I  have  known." 

Returning  to  the  sceptical  man,' it  is  amusing  to  find  this 
ejaculation  in  the  letter  of  a  military  officer  :  "Can  yon  tell 
me  why  I  did  not  take  the  Pelman  Course  before  ?  ' ' 

Set  that  letter  beside  the  many— literally  hundreds — of 
letters  in  which  Pelmanists  say,  "/  wish  I  had  taken  this 
Course  years  ago,"  and  the  reader  will  form  a  good  conclusion. 
There  are  thousmds  of  people  of  all  classes  who  would 
instantly  enrol  for  a  Pelman  Course  at  any  cost  if  they  oply 
realized  a  tithe  of  the  benefits  accruing.  Here  again  a 
Pelmanist  may  be  cited  in  evidence  :  "  If  people  only  knew," 
he  says,  "the  doors  of  the  Institute  would  be  literally  besieged 
by  eager  applicants." 

"We  sometimes  receive  visits  from  inquirers  who  express  a 
fear  that  they  are  '  not  clever  enough '  to  study  the  Pelman 
Course,"  remarked  the  Secretary  of  the  Institute  recently. 

"The  remark  betrays  a  misunderstanding  of  the  nature 
of  the  Course.  Pelmanism  is  not  severely  scientific  in  form, 
nor  is  it  tediously  technical.  Otherwise  we  should  not  have 
succeeded  in  interesting  (and  benefiting)  so  many  thousands 
of  men  and  women. 

"One  of  the  most  interesting  letters  received  lately  comes 
from  a  lady  in  the  Midlands,  in  the  course  of  which  she  says 
that,  being  55  years  of  age,  and  being  very  delicate,  she 
had  her  doubts  as  to  whether  she  should-  take  a  Pelman 
Course.  She  resolved  to  consult  her  son,  a  medical  prac- 
titioner, who  at  first  laughed  at  the  idea,  but  promised  to 
nuike   inquiries.     The  outcome   was   a    letter   from-  him.    in 


which  the  doctor  wrote :  '  Pelmanism '  has  got  hold  of 
me.  I  have  worked  through  the  first  lesson  and  .  .  . 
I  am  enthusiastic.  His  experience  tallies  exactly  with 
that  of  Sir  James  Yoxall,  M.P.,  Mr.  George  R.  Sims,  and  a 
host  of  other  professional  men  (doctors,  solicitors,  barristers, 
etc.),  who  haye  admitted  that  their  initial  scepticism  was 
quickly  changed   into  enthusiasm. 

"The  Course  is  founded  upon  scientific  facts:  that  goes 
without  saying.  But  it  presents  those  facts  in  a  practical, 
everydayi  fashion,  which  enables  the  student  to  apply,  for 
his  own  aims  and  purposes,  those  facts  without  'fagging'  at 
the  hundreds  of  scientific  works  which  he  might  otherwise 
read  without  gaining  a  fraction  of  the  practical  information 
and -guidance  secured  from  a  few  weeks'  study  of  Pelmanism. 
We  have  students  who  have  studied  psychology  as  a  science 
for  years,  but  it  remained  for  the  Pelman  Course  to  confer 
practical  and  beneficial  knowledge. 

"The  Course,  in  short  is  prepared  for  busy  men,  and  is 
designed  to  help  them  in  their  everyday  problems — whatever 
those  problems  may  be.  And  there  is  written  testimony 
— mountain  high — to  show  that  every  claim  made  for 
Pelmanism  is  completely  justified  by  the  voluntary  testimony 
of  those  who  have  adopted  it." 

Everj-  day  brings  its  batch  of  flattering  letters.  Upon  a 
recent  morning  there  came  to  hand  letters  of  praise  from 
the  following  persons  : —  \ 

A  British  General. 

A  Chief  Justice  of  the  Hith  Court  of 

2  Flying  Officers. 

A  Busiaess  Manager. 

An  Engineer. 

A  Woman  of  Independent  Means. 

A  Solicitor. 

3  Clerks. 

A  Clergyman. 

2  (no  occupation  stated). 

Fourteen  letters  !— and  that  is  very  far  from  being  a  "record" 
day.  Let  any  reasoning  man  or  woman  consider  that  list 
and  ask  himself  or  herself  whether  a  system  which  can  evoke 
voluntary  testimony  from  such  widely  different  classes  is  not 
worth  investigation.  Who  can  a  ford  to  hold  aloof  from  a 
movement  which  is  steadily  gaining  the  support  of  all  the 
ambitious  and  progressive  elements  in  the  Empire  ?  In  two 
consecutive  days  recently  two  M.P.s  and  a  member  of  the 
Upper  House  enrolled.  "Run  through  the  current  Pelman 
Register,  and  therein  you  will  find  British  Consuls,  H.M. 
Judges,  War  Office,  Admiralty,  and  other  Government 
officials.  University  graduates,  students,  tutors.  Headmasters, 
Scientists,  Clergymen,  Architects.  Doctors,  Solicitors, 
Barristers,  Authors,  Editors,  Journalists,  Artists,  Actors, 
Accountants,  Business  Directors  and  Managers,  Bankers, 
Financiers,  Peers,  Peeresses,  and  men  and  women  of  wealth 
and  leisure,  as  well  as  Salesmen,  Clerks,  Typists,  Tradesmen, 
Engineers,  Artisans,  Farmers,  and  others  of  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  nation.  If  ever  the  well-worn  phrase  "from 
peer  to  peasant  "  had  a  real  meaning,  it  is  when  applied 
to   Pelmanism. 

"A  National  Asset." 

It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  Pelmanism  without  enthusiasm. 
To  say  that  the  Pelman  Institute  is  doing  a  great  national 
work  is  no  more  than  the  bare  truth.  The  movement  is  no 
passing  craze,  but  is  one  which  will  endure  and  wax  greater 
and  still  greater  as  its  supreme  value  comes  to  be  more  and 
more  understood  and  appreciated  by  the  mass  of  the  nation. 

Pelmanism  is  a  real  national  asset,  and  it  possesses  the 
further  advantage  of  being  a  valuable  personal  asset  for 
every  man  and  woman  who  adopts  it, 

Pelmanism  is  fully  explained  and  described  in  Mind  and 
Memory,  which,  with  a  copy  of  Truth's  remarkable  report 
on  the  work  of  the  Pelman  Institute,  will  be  sent,  gratis 
and  post  free,  to  any  reader  of  Land  &  W.\ter  who  addresses 
The  Pelman  Institute,  39  Wenham  House,  BloomsBury 
Street,  London,  W.C.i. 

Overseas  Addresses:  MELBOUUNE.  46  Market  Street;  TORONTO. 
16  Toronto  Street;  DURBAN,  Club  Arcade. 


20 


Land   &   Water 


March  21,  1 9 1 8 


Life  and  Letters  fiiJ.CSqum 


Shockers 

CAPTAIN  HKETT- YOUNG'S  last  book  was 
Marching  on  Tanoa,  the  finest  piece  of  literature 
produced  bv  the  war.  He  has  now.  with  The 
Crescent  Moon  (Seeker,  Os.),  returned  to  fiction. 
But  he  is  still  under  the  spell  of  East  Africa. 
"That  morning,"  he  savs  in  his  dedicatory  letter,  "while  we 
were  riding  in  a  forest -wa\-  about  dawn,  a  pair  of  soft-grey 
doves  had  fluttered  up  from  our  path,  and  set  me  thinking 
of  the  goddess  Astarte  and  of  her  groves,  of  Sheba,  and  the 
fleets  that  sailed  for  Ophir."  Those  thoughts  of  the  past 
—  I  shall  return  to  this  later— ma\-  have  been  the  starting 
point;  but  the  w(7/i/plavs  no  great  part.  He  imagined  his 
ancient  remains,  great  stone  walls  and  a  tall  tower  far  inland 
above  the  forest  of  a  degraded  black  tribe.  He  imagined 
the  age-long  perpetuation  of  the  doves  around  the  temple  ; 
the  continuance  (or  resurrection)  of  the  rites  ;  drums  beating 
under  the  young  moon,  wild  dances,  fires  in  the  great  kiln, 
fren/.v,  human  sacrifice.  And  he  conceived  the  association 
of  a  white  man  with  these  ceremonies— Godovius,  a  strong, 
handsome,  German- Jew  planter,  perverse  and  sensual.  But 
the  other  characters  and  the  other  interest  came  in — at  least, 
this  is  what  one  supposes— and  de\il-worship  became  a  mere 
element  in  the  background  of  savagery  against  which  his 
story  of  passion  and  tenderness  is  unfolded. 

*♦«*** 
I  will  not  tell  that  story  :  one  should  only  do  that  with  a 
bad  book.  It  opens  obliquely,  in  the  Conrad  manner, 
when  the  narrator  meets  on  the  railway  station  of  Nairobi 
a  pathetic  group  of  missionaries  and  their  families  released 
from  the  German  prison  at  Nairobi,  and  notices  a  pale  girl 
standing. apart  from  the  others  : 

I  had  noticed  her  from  the  first :  principally,  I  imagine,  because 
she  seemed  horribly  out  of  it,  standing,  somehow,  extraordinarily 
aloof  from  the  atmosphere  which  bathed  the  assembly  as  in 
weak  tea.  She  didn't  look  their  sort.  .\nd  it  wasn't  only  that 
her  face  showed  a  little  tension — such  a  small  thing — about  the 
eyes,  as  though  the  whole  business  (very  properly)  gave  her  a 
headache.  I  think  that  if  she  hadn't  been  so  dreadfully  tired 
she  would  have  smiled.  As  it  was,  nobody  seemed  to  take  any 
notice  of  her,  and  I  could  have  sworn  that  she  was  thankful  for  it. 

This  is  the  heroine.  She  was  the  sister  of  James  Burwarton, 
a  fanatical  Nonconformist  from  Shropshire,  in  ^charge  of  a 
mission  station  in  German  East.  Those  two,  Godovius, 
and  McCrae,  a  bearded  and  one-armed  hunter,  are  the  char- 
acters in  the  tragedy  :  those  and  Africa,  her  sun,  her  moun- 
tains, her  rivers,  her  forests,  men  and  beasts,  a  land  per- 
petually smiling  and  insatiably  cruel.  The  landscape,  in  the 
broadest  sense,  permeates  every  page;  "conveved-"  never 
with  painfully  accumulated  plirases,  but  in  hundreds  of 
little  touches  and  unobtrusive  repetitions.  There  are  'out- 
standing scenes :  James's  journey  at  night  to  the  House  of 
the  Moon,  the  dance  in  the  native  village,  the  first  encounter 
with  McCrae,  the  escape  at  the  close ;  but  they  grow 
naturally,  they  are  not  "set."  And  at  theclose  the  coming 
of  the  War  in  that  remote  outpost  is  wonderfully  imagined  : 
the  sudden  outburst  of  tom-toms,  the  bewilderment  at  the 
mission,  where  McCrae  "did  not  know  then  any  more  than 
did  Hamisi,  sharpening  his  spear,  that  these  angry  drum- 
throbs  were  no  more  than  the  diminished  echoes  of  the 
guns  that  were  battering  Liege."  The  book  is  short,  and 
Eva  and  McCrae  are  lightly  drawn  ;  but  thev  are  not  too 
little  known  to  move  one's  sympathies  profoundly,  and  to 
be  remembered. 


In  his  preface,  Mr.  Brett-Young  boldlv— or  perhaps  it  is 
timidly— describes  the  book  as  a  "shocker."  It  is  not  my 
idea  of  a  shocker  ;  I  should  call  it  a  rather  realistic  romance. 
It  is  less  of  a  shocker  than  She  ;  no  more  of  a  shocker  than 
Treasure  Island  ;  scarcely-  nearer  a  shocker  than  Lord  Jim. 
It  is  true  that  there  is  a  "  sensational  "  element  in  the  idea  of 
the  persistence  of  the  rites  of  Ashtoreth  and  Moloch  amongst 
the  Waluguru  ;  and  it  may  be  (as  I  have  suggested)  that 
when  he  started  he  intended  this  to  be  the  kernel  of  the 
book.  As  things  are,  it  is  subordinate,  almost  irrelevant. 
We  have  a  book  dramatic,  intense,  hea\'y  with  African 
odours,  and  hot  with  the  African  sun.  But  it  is  not  a 
shocker.  Its  tragedies  are  inevitable  ;  its  characters— though 
we  have  to  swallow  a  little  in  Godovius— are  natural  and 
consistent  ;  its  main  interest  lies  in  its  powerful  and  accurate 
pictures  of  that  wild  land,  and  in  the  truth  and  force  of  its 
emotion.     Its  most  moving  chapter,  in  fact,  is  that  in  which 


is  described  the  flight  of  Eva  and  McCrae  over  the  waterless 
uplands,  their  strange  lov(?-making,  and  their  parting.  Where 
the  authtir  has  an  obvious  opportunity  of  "laying  it  on 
thick,"  such  as  those  given  by  the  Moon  festival  and  by 
James's  end,  he  is  restrained,  or  even  shrinks  back.  If  some 
incidents  are  unduly  "  sensational,"  all  I  can  say  is  that  he  has 
not  the  courage  of  his  unscrupulousness.  He  is  an  artist, 
and  he  cannot  help  it. 


That  is  not  the  way  of  the  shocker.  The  genuine  shocker 
—and  I  won't  hear  a  word  against  it — would  collapse  if  the 
author  were  fastidious  about  reality  or  bloodiness,  or  if  the 
characters  began  acting  like  real  people.  And  the  kind  of 
sincerity  which  enables  an  author  to  move  powerfully  the 
heart  would  shiver  a  slicx-ker  to  pieces.  The  true  shocker 
does  not  aim  at  touching  your  heart,  at  purging  you  by 
pitv  or  fear,  at  leaving  you  brooding  over  the  persistence  of 
evil  and  the  incomprehensibility  of  the  Universe.  Its  pur- 
pose is  to  give  you  the  shivers  and  a  sinking  in  the  stomach, 
to  keep  you  on  the  jump,  to  make  your  flesh  creep  and  your 
hair  stand  on  end.  It  is  to  the  tragic  tale  what  knock-about 
farce  is  to  the  comedy  of  manners..  Its  limits  cannot  be 
exactly  circumscribed  ;  like  Mr.  Chesterton's  elephant,  one 
c-annot  precisely  define  it,  but  one  knows  it  when  one  sees  it. 
It  taxes  one's  credulity,  and  one  makes  the  surrender  volun- 
tarily for  the  sake  of  the  game.  One  does  not  say  (as  one 
says  once  or  twice  when  reading  T/;c  Crescent  Moon)  :  "Oh, 
I  am  not  sure  that  so-and-so  would  have  done  that "  ;  if  one 
is  told  a  thing  one  accepts  it.  If  the  man  walking  down  the 
Strand  (in  the  shocker)  is  accosted,  during  the  space  of 
five  minutes,  by  six  dumb  men  wearing  green  turbans,  one 
does  not  say:  "Tell  that  to  the  Marines";  one  merely 
quakes  and  goes  on  to  find  out  from  what  mysterious  power 
these  sinister  strangers  were  emissaries.  One  delivers  oneself 
over  to  the  author,  gagged  and  bound. 


I  have  just  finished  a  good  specimen  of  the  real  article. 
I  like  it.  It  is  not  on  the  plane  of  Dracttla  or  The  Beetle, 
and  it  has  no  single  chapter  as  thrilling  as  the  chase  b'v 
aeroplane  in  The  Twenty-nine  Steps,  or  the  blind  detective's 
nocturnal  duel  in  Max  Carrados.  But  I  warm  to  it  very' 
much.  It  is  called  The  Yellou^  Claw,  and  its  author's  name 
is  Sax  Rohmer.  Everything  is  there  :  underground  passages, 
skinny  arms  (body  unseen)  throttling  their  victims  in  the 
moonlight,  secret  dooi^,  veiled  ladies  in  black  arriving  alone 
at  railway  stations,  a  cab-chase  by  three  cabs,  warehouses  by 
the  river,  watchers  outside  flats,  furtive  servants  who  are 
always  on  the  telephone,  a  "gang"  with  "wide  international 
ramiiications,  a  portentous  .Master- Villain  whose  face  is 
never  seen,  Scotland  Yard  men,  and  our  old  and  ever- 
welcome  friend  the  suave,  cultured,  indomitable  Chief  of 
the  Paris  Police.  Brilliant  politicians  resort  to  East  End 
opium  dens  ;  noises  of  dragging  are  heard,  and  women's 
voices  shrieking  "Oh,  no!  Not  that,  not  that!";  motor 
boats  chase  each  other  on  the  foggy  river  ;  baffled  searchers 
find  that  "the  birds  have  flown."  If  there  was  a  ghost,  I 
missed  it  ;  but  that  is  what  I  call  a  shocker.  No  space  is 
wasted  over  "psychological  analysis"  ;  there  is  at  least  one 
grue  on  every  page  ;  and  even  the  language  assists  in  pro- 
ducing the  cold  shivers,  the  author  being  especially  prone 
to  the  word  "beetlesque."  I  will  not  say  that  a  really 
serious  author  could  not  write  a  shocker.  Mr.  Arnold 
Bennett's  The  Grand  Babylon  Hotel  and  The  Loot  of  Cities 
were  shockers.  The  first"  of  these  at  least  was  fascinating ; 
for  sheer  ingenuity  it  beat  the  professional  mystery-monger  on 
his  own  ground.  But  they  were  not  perfect  shockers.  There 
was  a  strong  element  of  parody  in  them  ;  the  characters 
continually  came  to  life  ;  the  author  took  his  mysteries  with 
too  little  seriousness,  and  constantly  strayed  into  intelligent 
comment  and  mere  interesting  description.  This  must  be 
the  fate  of  every  good  reflective  writer  who  attempts  the 
kind.  His  reason  would  revolt  against  the  production  of  a 
nightmare.  He  cannot  bring  himself  to  humbug  people  into 
the  creeps. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

My  ideal  shocker  is  a  book  which  I  have  never  read.  I 
saw  it  mentioned  in  an  American  paper  ;  but  with  all  my 
international  ramifications,  I  have  not  vet  been  able  to 
run  it  down.  It  is  called  Three-Fingered  Mike  or  A  Bucket 
of  Blood;  and  even  the  British  Museum  officials  know 
nothing  about  it.  .  '. 


March  21,  1918 


Land  &  Water 


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22 


Land    &.    Water 

The  Story  of  Northumberland 


March  21,  1 9 1  8 

By  H.R.S. 


;,£^«#'%gf«i,  Jfi*^  ^/?^f 


.-TWS^f*'?--''  ""■■*£  ii' 


Chillingham    Castle,  and    The    Cheviots    in    the    distance 


from  an  old  engraving. 


A  WRITER  once  observed  that  Northumberland 
in  its  natural  contour  and  salient  features  is  a 
microcosm  of  England.  He  might  have  added 
that  its  history  is  an  epitome  of  the  realm's. 
And  in  nothing  more  than  in  the  rural  decadence 
and  depopulation  of  the  last  four  decades,  which  to  the 
historian  will  appear  as  a  hiatus  in  agricultural  development. 
The  grave  unbalance  between  manufacturing  and  agricultural 
industry,  between  town  and  country  life,  is  now  submitted 
to  the  shock  of  war,  and  will  be  eventually  righted. 

While  in  Northumberland  rural  depopulation,  with  its 
concomitants,  has  been  so  marked  and  melancholy  a  feature 
during  the  last  generation,  it  is  very  noticeable  how  the  old 
folk-names  survive  and  persist,  though  industrial  Tyneside 
and  the  Northumbrian  coalfields  have  been  flooded  with 
names  of,  in  a  sense,  alien  origin.  In  their  entirety  almost 
they  are  the  same  humble  names  that  figure  so  prominentlv 
in  the  long  subscription  list  that  prefaces  Mackenzie's  wonder- 
ful F»«x;  of  Northumberland,  published  in  1811  ;  that  list 
■which  is,  as  it  were,  an  epitome  or  index  of  the  trade,  craft, 
industry,  and  husbandry  of  the  rural  towns  and  villages — 
a  democratic  scroll  demonstrative  of  the  spirit  of  local 
patriotism,  so  prevalent  about  that  time  among  the  people. 

The  enumeration  of  the  most  recurrent  of  these  names 
makes  evident  the  truth  of  this  assertion  :— Armstrongs, 
Atkinsons  ;  Bells,  Bates  ;  Carrs,  Currys,  Charltons  ;  Dixons, 
Davisons,  Dobsons,  Dodds  ;  Elliots  ;  Grays,  Greens  ;  Halls, 
Hedleys,  Heslops,  Hutchinsons ;  Jamesons ;  Lees,  Littles! 
Lambs  ;  Maughans,  Milburns  ;  Nixons,  Nicholsons  ;  Olivers, 
■Ords;  Piggs,  Potts,  Pattersons;  Reeds,  Ridleys,  Robsons, 
Reays  ;  Steels,  Stobbs,  Storeys,  Scotts  ;  Tates,  Thompsons, 
Telfords,  Turnbulls,  Todds ;  Urwins ;  Whites,  Winships, 
Wrights,  Watsons,    and  Youngs. 

A  few  of  these  names  sound  sonorously  in  the  old  border 
ballads,  but  mostly  when  coupled  with  the  patrimonial 
place  riames,  as  "Parcy  Reed  o'  Troughend,"  and"  the  "fause 
Ha's  o'  Girsonfield."  As  a  whole,  they  have  not  commended 
themselves  to  ballad-singers  who  have  favoured  more  the 
Northumbrian  aristocratic  patronymics.  I  remember  how 
in  my  earliest  associations  with  North  Tyne  the  alliance  of 
surname  with  place  name— mill,  shieling,  onstead,  or  hamlet— 
appealed  to  me  with  its  musical  assonance.  These  recur  to 
ray  memory  :  Willie  Smith  o'  Gunnerton,  Stokoe  o'  the 
Mams,  Milburn  o'  the  Wester  Ha,'  the  Tailfords  (Telfords) 
o'  Humshaugh,  Tom  Trumble  (Turnbull)  o'  the  Boathouse, 
Kirsopp  o'  the  Keeper  Shield— all  within  a  tiny  and  sparsely 
peopled  area. 

That  was  thirty  and  more  years  ago.  The  old  mills  were 
still  grmding  corn  intermittently.  The  country  airs  and 
dances  still  were  favoured  at  meetings  and  merrymakings, 
though  the  feasts  and  fairs  were  mainly  a  memory  of  the 


past.  The  accumulated  inheritance  of  country  lore^— the 
''glamourie  of  faws  and  fairies,"  holy  and  wishing  wells,  ghosts 
and  apparitions,  haunted  lanes  and  houses,  fairy  hills,  knowes, 
and  springs  ;  charms,  spells,  tokens  ;  the  marvels  of  treasure 
trove  and  money  hills,  still  exercised  some  of  their  potent 
sway.  The  chase  had  its  full  quota  of  foot  followers,  who 
preserved  best  its  spirit  of  universal  humour  and  fellowship. 
The  mirth  of  the  rural  sports  still  resounded  on  the  village 
green,  and  on  the  green  haugh  amid  the  amphitheatre  of 
woods.  Youth  had  not  yet  in  large  numbers  felt  the  lure 
of  the  large  towns  and  cities.  But  the  time  of  change  had 
come,  the  tide  had  begun  to  set  that  way. 

Now,  and  for  long  past,  a  strange  somnolence  has  fallen 
like  a  spell  upon  rural  Northumberland.  A  primjEval-like 
calm  pervades  its  pastoral  valleys  and  villages.  I  have  been 
a  pilgrim  on  its  high  roads,  old  and  new,  through  its  lonely 
by-ways  and  forgotten  field-paths,  and  discovered  for 
myself  its  remote  homesteads  and  hamlets.  I  have  felt  the 
uplift  of  its  hills  and  horizons,  and  invoked  its  mountains  in 
my  muse,  loitered  by  its  rivers  and  burns,  where  the  shy 
dipper  disports  itself,  the  genius  and  naiad  of  rock  and 
waterfall,  and  where  the  kingfisher  darts  past  like  a  flash 
of  heavenly  flame.  I  have  communed  with  solitude  on  its 
heathy  wastes,  with  heart  strangely  stirred  by  the  curlew's 
mournful  call,  or  the  heronseugh's  piercing  cry  at  dusk. 
With  mind  informed  of  its  varied  history,  I  have  looked  upon 
the  memorials  of  its  past — monolith,  wall,  causey,  keep,  pele- 
tower,  church,  abbey,  cross,  caim,  manor-house,  inn,  mile- 
stone, miO — and  felt  the  inexpressible  appeal  of  its  old  border 
towns — Wooler,  with  its  clean  Scots  air,  set  against  the 
green  mounded  slopes  of  the  Cheviots,  Alnwick,  grey  and 
stern,  with  rough  cobbled  streets,  lion  bridge  and  kingly 
castle  seated  in  state  above  the  shallow  shining  Aln  ; 
Rothbury,  with  steep  street  of , stone  descending  to  the  gorge 
of  the  Coquet,  and  fronting  the  huge  saddleback  of  Simonside, 
the  rampant  of  the  middle  marches';  the  Rothbury  that 
Thomas  Doubleday  memorised  in  such  noble  prose,  and  whose 
Coquet  he  enwreathed  with  garlands  of  song. 

Each  place,  each  place-name  has  its  charm — Kirkharle,  of 
which  alone  the  church  remains,  cornless  but  sylvanly  fair, 
where  "  Capability  Brown"  first  tried  his 'prentice  hand  at 
landscape  gardening;  Cambo,  with  its  tall  church  tower  and 
chiming  clock,  overlooking  the  fair  valley  of  the  Wansbeck  ; 
Capheaton,  anchored    in   deep  sylvan  foliage,   home    of  the 
Swinburnes  ;    the  isolated  hamlets  along  the.  Watling  Street 
(the  old  drover's  road  from  Scotland  to  Stagshaw  Bank  Fair) 
whose  names  resoimd  in  the  injunction  of  the  old    folk-song  : 
Sandy,  keep  on  the  road;  that's  the  way  to  Wallington. 
O'er  by  Bingfield  Kame,  and  the  Banks  o'  HalHngton, 
Thro'  by  Bavington  Ha',  and  in  ye  go  to  Wallington, 
Whether  ye  gallop  or  trot,  |ye're  on  the  road  to  Wallington. 
(Continued  on  page  24.) 


March  21,  1 9 1  8 


Land    Sc    ^Vater 


23 


BENETFINKS 

Great  Sale  Offer  of  Household  Goods 


The  City's 
Shopping  Centre 

(ESTD.    1844). 


BLANKETS. 


LONGCLOTH 


Heavy,  soft,  white,  fleecy.  Size-about  70111.  X 
81  in.  Per  pair  15/1 1.  Size  about 
70  in.  X  90  in.  Per  pair  16/11 

FAWN  BLANKETS,  heavy 
make,  white  borders,  size  about 
5oin.X7oin.    Price  4/ 1 1,  3  for  13/6 

GREY  RUGS,   very  soft   make, 

with     white     border.       Size     about 

60  in.  X  So  in.  Price  8/6 

All  Carriage  Free. 

CALICO.  Best  quaUty,  fine  white.  Width 
about  ;i 3  in.  Price  per  u  yards  11/8^, 
post  free. 

TURKISH  TOWELS,  stout,  brown 
striped,  very  durable,  size  about  18  in. 
X  40  in.  Price  each  1/2,  postage  24  : 
3  for  3/3,  postage  4d. 

LANCASTER  WINDOW 
BLINDS,  exceptional  offer.  Biscuit 
I  (jloui  ground  with  coloured  border  or 
figured  all  over.  Can  be  clewed  with  a 
sponge :  will  roll  up  straight.  All  6  ft.  long, 
hut  in  two  widths  32  in.  and  36  in.  Worth 
5/6  each.  Sale  price  2/ 1 0  i  each,  postage 
3d. ;  3  for  8/6,  12  for  30/-,  post  free. 

SILK  TAFFETA  RIBBON.  One  line  only.  Twelve  colours, 
about  6  in.  wide.  Sale  price  6Jd.  per  yard,  postage  id.;  5/10 J 
for  12  yards,  post  free. 

The  above  offered  Goods  are  Salvage  and  Clear- 
ing Lines,  which  cannot  be  repeated.  We  cannot 
publish  a  Sale  Catalogue. 


fl 


BENETFINKS 


107     CHEAPSIDE,     E.C.2 

(200  yds.  from  the  BankJ.     'Phone:  City  6656 


Write  to-day  /or 
Illustrated, Cata- 
logue of  Useful 
Gifts  and  Novel- 
ties,  Post    Free. 


~^~"# 

^R 

^V  V^^k 

^^^K 

.\"^C  MIM^^^^ 

No.  A  4OJ. 

VICKERY'S 
FAMOUS 
SOFT   COLLAR 


PIN. 


No.  A  607 .—VERY  FLAT 
LONG  SHAPE  ENGINE- 
TURNED  SOLID  STER- 
LING SILVER  CIGAR- 
ETTE CASE,  for  .-Vftive 
Service,  5J  by  3i  in. 

£4    17>.   6d. 

Quite  Plain  Silver.  £4   15«. 

Holds  a  good  lot  nf  CigarelUi. 

Keal  Tortoiseshell  Case  about 
same  size.     £4  4*. 


Vickery"«  Rcgiilered  and  Exclusive  and 
Very  Succraiful  Bar  Pin,  for  keeping 
Tic  and  Points  of  Soft  Collar  in 
position. 

Plain  Gold        -         -         -  14/6 

Without  Chain          -  10  6 

18-carat  with  Chain          -  21/- 

Without  Chain  -  -  15/- 
Gold,  set  Pearls,  Kuby  or 

Sapphires      -         -         .  21/6 

Without  Chain          -         -  17/6 

(lold,  set  Diamonds  -         -  25/- 

Without  Chain          -         -  21/- 

With  Whole  Pearl  .pnds  -  £4 
£5  St.  and  £6   15s. 
Khaki  Colour  Gold,  with  Chain  15,'6 

Ditto,  without  Chain         -  11/6 


BURBERRY  KIT 

for     Tropical     Campaigning 

is  perfection   for  ,  liglitweight,   coolness,    and   security   against 
rain,  wind,  or  dust. 

^  Military 

Officers    en   route    for  ^,  ^^       ^.  Catalogue 

hot  climates;  outfitting  ^'  i^ — -     I """' 

at  Burbenys  can  ob- 
tain aJ]  the  necessary 
kit  in  the  most  suit- 
able materials  —  with 
many  special  comforts. 

Dense,  flexible,  and 
tough.  Burberry 
Cloths  withstand  hard 
wear  and  weather,  and 
are  non-conductive  of 
both  heat  and  wet, 
besides  being  perfectly 
self-\entilating. 


Complete  Kits  in   2  to   4 
Days,  or  Ready  for  Use. 


NAVAL  AND  MILITARY 
WEATHERPROOFS 

During     the     War    Oflicers' 

Burberry    VVeatherproofs 

Cleaned       and       Re-proofed 

FREE  or  CHARGE. 


Evtry  Burberry  Garment 
bears  this  label. 


S.W. 


BURBERRYS    Haymarket   LONDON 

8  &  10  Boul.   Malesherbes  PARIS  :  Basingstoke  and  Provincial  Agents 


>#«    tPalenI 
No. 
12699 
-1909) 


t« 


•  > 


LUPTONS 

SPIRAL  PUTTEES 

FASTEDGE 

H'orn  $x'«Hiivth  h  Offictrs  of  His 
Majeity  's    and    the    A  Hied    forces. 

SPECIAL  LIGHTWEIGHTS  FOR 
TROPICAL  CLIMATES. 

Reing  Positiveh  Non-frayahU 
T  I  JP'T'ON'S  Always  look  Neat  ard  Smart.  They  are  mosi  moderate 
■X.  ■•■  •■\^-  i-«  o  '"  P"^*'  ^"'^  ""^y  ^*  obtained  from  all  High-class  Military 
PU   1    1  EES       Tailors  and  Hosiers 

//  ordered,   Putlees   made  specially  to  u'ind  on   the  reverse  way,  and  to  fasten    the    tape 
round  the  ankle  for  riding. 

ASK   FOR  LOFTON'S  PUTTEtS. 

M«uf.c-   ASTRACHANS   Ud.,    Alberl   Mill,    Allan   St.,    BRADFORD. 

lured    by                       London  Agent:  A.  STRICKLAND.  38  Bow  Lane.  B.C. 
==  WHOLESALE    ONLY. 


LOOK  TO   YOUR  COAL  RATIONS. 


THE 


KOOKSJOIE 

"EVEREADY"    RANGE 

{Florence  Pats,  USJ/jLi) 

Only  Consumes    HALF  TON  a    Moalh 

Provides  Hot  Water  Day  and  Night. 

Perfection  in  Cooking. 

No  Dirty  Flues  to  Clean. 

Solves, all  Domestic  Troubles. 


full  particulars  from  Department  P. 


td 


London  Warming  &  Ventilating  C-  L 

20  NEWMAN  STREET,  OXFORD  STRFET,  W.l. 

Sole  Patentees  and  Makers  of  the  well-known  Record  "  t)Nlv  KING"  (la?  Cooker. 


24 


Land    &    Water 


March  21,   191H 


{Continued  from  page  22) 
It  was  in  Blanchland  I  found  the  ideal  village,  the  "happy 
village"  of  one  of  its  poets,  an  entity  whose  charm,  romance, 
histoid',  .and  unique  individuality    it  might  suffice  the  pen 
of  any  poet  to  describe. 

The  rural  Northumberland  of  a  hundred  years  ago  finds 
ample  record  in  Mackenzie's  view,  and  a  certain  expression 
in  the  very  improbable  "  IJfe  of  James  Aller^,  "  the  Northum- 
brian piper,  and  horse  stealer.     But  its  most  striking  portrait- 
ureistobe  found  in  the  tales  of  Surtees,  which  arc,  in  jiart  at 
least,  a  reflex  in  carica- 
ture  of   the   life    and 
humour  he  found  along 
the  borderlands  of  the 
two  northernmost 
counties,  just    as   the 
vivid  landscapes  he  de- 
picted— heath  and  hill 
and  sky — are  those  of 
which    he    found   tlic 
counterparts     to     his 
hand.     Blandiland,   I 
discovered  for  myself, 
is  the  "St.Bosweil"  of 
Hillingdon   Hall,    and 
the  Lord  Crewe  Arms 
of  that   place   is  the 
inn  of  the  story.     The 
chairman   depicted  as 
presiding  at  the  St.Bos- 
weil dinner  was,  in  fact, 
the  Master  of  Minster 
Acres  Hall,  Squire  Sil- 
vertop.     On  the  white 


Houghton  Castle  on  the  North  Tyne 


longing  and  intenser  vision  on  their  native  place,  and  the 
memory  of  those  who  have  died  will  to  those  who  mourn 
them  make  sacrosanct  field  and  fell,  hill,  homestead  and 
hamlet,  where  they  were  born. 

Speed  the  plough  is  the  motto  now ;  it  must 
ensure  the  future.  Sylviculture,  and  re-afforestation,  too, 
will  come  to  the  fore,  and  with  reason,  for  the  sound  of 
falling  woodlands  is  in  the  air,  and  the  aspect  of  the  country- 
side is  being  rapidl\/  changed.  A  renascence  of  -agriculture 
and  sylviculture,  the  reliabilitation  of  village  crafts  and  in- 
dustries, these  are 
envisaged  in  the 
new  time.  As  a 
background  to  this 
effort,  ^here  is 
the  storied  history 
of  Northumberland, 
its  prestige  and  pride, 
its  unique  wealth  of 
lore  and  legend, 
its  riches  of  romance, 
its  incomparable  stores 
of  folk-rhyme  and  folk- 
song, its  bede  roll  of 
illustrious  and  famous 
sons.  What  seemed 
dead  was  only  dor- 
mant. In  a  new  ves- 
ture there  will  arise  a 
nobler  Northumber- 
land, in  which  the  once- 
loved  landmarks  of 
Cheviot  and  Simon- 
side     will    stand    out 


^n  old  engraving. 


doorsof  the  upper  bedrooms  of  the  old  hostelry  the  names  of  with  a  larger  significance,   and    the    northernmost    county 

R.^fi'^M  Jl     'k  ?'  nimrods  of  his  time  are  still  shown,  of  England  again   justify  the  unrhvmed  apostrophe    that 

HnHnlfK    i^T!i ''"'?, ''^'Af^*^'''^  ^™"^  *''^  P''^'''^  ^y^  Mackenzie  prefixed  to  his  View  of  Northumberland  in  1811 : 
dunng  the  last  four  decades.     Of  necessity,  it  will  come  into 

Its  own  again.     Through  all  the  stressful  time  the  old  rural  Happy  Northumbria  I 

framework   remains.      The   remnant    of   its   people  are  the  Grateful  thy  soil,  and  merciful  thy  clime, 

genuine  native  stock,  with  the  old  familiar  folk-names,  folk-  w*.,     m  Thy  vaUies  float 

orSd'erTt5t'h?f"1-     ']^°:r?°  ^n^  from  the'fields  Sl^t SeS? U^^.  rn^rSSS 

01  Glanders  and  the  far-iiung  battle  Ime  will  look  with  deeper  Bellow  the  blackening  herds  in  lusty  droves. 


The  War  in  the  Air 

Whitehead  Aircraft  Ltd.  and  a  Great  Scheme 


The  supremacy  xn  aerial  warfare  to-day  belongs  to  the  British 
race  and,  although  the  last  word  of  conquest  has  yet  to  be  written 
tUe  tune  is  not  inopportune  to  hark  back  a  little  and  dweU  on  the 
means  by  which  we  gained  it,  for  it  is  only  by  so  doing  that  we  can 
learn  how  to  deal  with  the  problems  of  the  future,  which  already 
are  calhng  for  solution.  The  greater  issues  of  the  war  have  closed 
our  eyes  to  some  extent  to  the  marvellous  progress  which  has  been 
made  with  the  science  of  aviation. 

^^.^A^^"^^  or  so  before  the  war  the  few  who  were  striving  to  conquer 
^lw,t«°^^'''  °}  ^^^  ^"  "^T  ^°°^^  "P°"  ^'^^  the  pity  which  we  are 
thefr  bonnet  ^°°"^     *°  ^^^°^  °°  *^°'^  who  have  a  bee  in 

air^tp«H°"<i^T*'i^^  ?,f '  f'^"  *°  ^'■^'^''^  ^"'^"^^  i°  a  heavier-than- 
^n  nf/lV  ^Cody,  the  Wrights,  and  the  rest  of  the  world's  workers, 
^.,?  /'"■°"^''  ^^^  ^'^^  °^  '^'•"'='  criticism,  until  at  last  some 

measure  of  success  began  to  attend  their  experiments 
fliXr^  ff^K^^""  achievements  had  been  witnessed  and  long-distance 
fofc4  wetdT  ^^^°°!^!«''-  the  war  clarion  sounded,  and  the  aerial 
in  theTrim 'struggle!''"""'  "'"'  °'"  *''  '^'^"°°''  *°  ^'^^  ''''"  P^^ 
imlre°ssed''w  '">'',  the  thrilUng  stories  of  their  encounters  were 
o??hr.  ,.  ■■  \  •  '7t*"?."t,the  vision  of  those  who  had  studied  the  trend 
^he  fl^h  ^"''.'^l'"/,'^  '^''''''^'"^  t'^^'t  i-^s^  a  space  of  time  than 
o  wfn  soeid?F^  °  „^""  «e  would  come  to  Recognise  that,  if  we  were 
nl  fT„ V?        ^  and  crush  Prussianism  out  of  the  hearts  and  minds 

to  soeed  r^he'^r'^M'  ^"  r"'^.  '''''"'  ^  '«a'^«  the  effort  of  ourTve^ 
to  speed  up  the  building  of  craft  of  the  air. 

ofihe  dav7„^nhl*'°°'Tf'  '■^''■^^"'  ^}°  "'^^^'^  =^"°»'«1  the  larger  issues 
we  owf tL  ffpfrV  'f'""  ''"'°"  °  t*^^  f"*"'-'^-  a°d  "t  is  to  them  that 
we  owe  the  fact  that  at  present  there  is  in  our  midst  a  -foundation 

sYan  KrsTorl"  ^"'  *''=  ''T^''  ^"^  "'"^  ^'^^  ^^^^h  ara  n^t  on 
snail  DC  ours  for  as  long  as  we  desire  to  hold  it. 

Whitehead  li°Pn^i°K  ""^  ^l'  ^^'''^  ^^'"'^  ^^""^  America  Mr.  J.  A. 
to'St.''  cZlft^r^'t'wIn'thrw^r  '•=''^™"^'  *°  '^  ^^^^  ^^  ^°^'^ 
proWem^he^saw  ''Uf^.f'"'  ^""^  gcn.us„he  did  not  rush  at  the  first 
divs  of  the  ^m  .  l**"^  .'^.''i"'^  "'^"y  ^•■°"nd  "s  i"  the  opening 
days  of  the  war— but  he  set  himself  to  reckon  oat  what  wa>:  th% 
greatest  .service  which  it  lay  within  his  power  to  perform  * 

Tutored  to    00k  farther  ahead  than  many  men    he  foresaw  that 
he  nation  which  won  the  battles  of  the  air^vrid  be  the  ^i^ner  fn 

^<^^f^^riro/w^-^iLr^d^^^t/:^,^S 


To  the  story  of  Whitehead  Aircraft,  Ltd.,  adequate  justice  could 
no»  be  done  in  an  article  of  this  nature. 

Beginning  work  in  a  small  drill-hall,  Mr.  J.  A.  Whitehead  has 
organised  and  engineered  his  enterprise  into  one  of  the  greatest  in 
the   world. 

The  factories  cover  some  acres,  many  employees  are  at  work 
turning  out  the  finest  aeroplanes,  and  there  is-  a  splendid  aerodrome 
for  present  and  future  "work. 

The  Treasury  have  sanctioned  the' raising  of  the  capital  of  the 
firm  to  one  milUon  pounds.  This  will  be  devoted  to  the  purposes  of 
aviation  in  the  war.  What  tliis  means  exactly  is  that,  with  the  help 
of  the  British  public,  we  will  be  able  to  gain  overwhelming  superiority 
in  the  air. 

Whitehead  Aircraft,  Ltd.,  have  turned  out  machines  which  have 
helped  to  gain  our  aerial  supremacy,  and  now  the  greater  effort  is  to 
be  directed  to  deal  the  final  blow. 

The  Germans  are  still  building  machines,  but  we  have  the  inherent 
capacity  in  the  country  to  beat  them. 

The  people  of  Germany   know  it. 

Spectacular  raids  by  Gothas  may  bolster  up  hopes  for  a  moment 
but  all  Hunland  reahses  that  the  hour  of  doom  is  at  hand. 

The  work  of  our  aviators  at  the  front,  our  raids  on  Mannheim, 
Stuttgart,  and  Coblenz,  and  other  towns,  have  taiight  them  we  are 
out  to   win. 

And  they  know  a  National  British  effort  will  make  our  Air  Service 
as  powerful  as  our  Armies  and  our  Navies. 

With  new  plant  and  greater  factories,  our  aircraft  construction 
can  easily  out-distance  the  efforts  of  Germany. 

Aircraft  shares,  if  taken  up  enthusiastically  by  the  public,  will 
be  as  effective  as  Tank  Days. 

More  capital  means  more  power  to  our  daring  and  skilful  pilots 
and  a  speedier  crushing  of  the  enemy. 

It  means  the  dawn  of  peace  and  the  era  of  progress  and  prosperity. 

It  means  all  that  we  have  been  fighting  for  since  the  commencement 
of  hostihties.  Whitehead  Aircraft,  Ltd.,  believe  in  the  theory  that 
the  war  will  be  won  in  the  air,  and  they  mean  to  make  every  effort 
to  increase  the  great  work  they  have  been  doing. 

Every  one  who  helps  to  increase  the  capital  will  help  to  build  an 
aeroplane   and   defeat   Gernjany. 

Aircraft  shares  are  a  patriotic  and  an  easy  way  to  end  the  war. 
and  they  are  also  a  paying  way. 

The  main  thing,  however,  is  to'build  more  aeroplanes  than  Germany, 
and  get  the  war  over,  and  those  who  believe  that  a  national  effort 
will  accomplish  this  will  welcome  the  opportunity  now  offered  them 
to  become  aeroplane  builders.  To  learn  how  you  can  help  with  avia- 
tion, write  to  Whitehead  Aircraft,  Ltd.,  Box  1918,  c/o  Land  &  Water. 


LAND  &W  ATER 

V0I.LXX.     No.  2916.     [v^rA]         THURSDAY,  MARCH  28,   19 1 8       •  [rTE^4^pTp#l]     ^^fc"^^5fJ?ETE'^N^c"2 


A    Famous     Flyiiigman 

This  fine  portrait  of  a  British   Flyingman,  whose  name  is  withheld,  is  painted  by  William 
Orpen,   A.R.A.,    an  official  artist  at  the  Front.       It  is  a  splendid  example  of  his  work. 


Land   &    Water 


March  28,  19 18 


Transport  Ancient  and  Modern 


Remounts  on  their  way  to  a   French  Depot 


OfficiiU  Photo 


A   Motor  Engine  carrying  Shells  to  the  Guns 


Ogiciai  Photo 


March  28,  1 9  1 8 


Land    &    Water 


f        A    'V  T  "PX      O        "\  11  7     A    'TH  T7^  "O       ^^^  "P  ^'^^  '■a-'^'^s  of  our  amies.     The  Prime  Minister  spoke 
L^/\|^\    L/    OC      VV    l\    L     11/ 1\      ^'^'■y '^""^ctly  to  a  deputation  of  miners,  which  waited  on  him 

■"-'■^  *■  last  week.  For  once,  he  did  not  mince  his  words  on  a  labour 
question .  Would  that  he  had  spoken  as  straightly  on  previous 
occasions  whenever  they  occurred.  We  have  held  con- 
sistently that  a  prime  factor  in  all  labour  unrest  has  been 
the  timid' way  in  which  the  Government  has  dealt  with  the 
men  ;  impulsiveness  has  yielded  to  half-heartedness,  labour 
has  been  now  rebuked,  now  cajoled  like  a  spoilt  child,  and 
the  essential  troth  has  been  steadily  overlooked  that  the 
British  working  man  is  one  and  the  same  person,  whether  in  the 
shipping  yards  on  the  Tyne  and  the  Clyde,  or  in  the  trenches 
m  France  or  Flanders.  It  is  the  handling  of  the  men  which 
varies,  and  it  is  this  which  makes  the  difference  in  their 
behaviour.  We  shall  be  surprised  if  there  is  any  more 
trouble  over  obtaining  the  necessary  recruits  from  the  labour 
world  after  this  battle.  Already  we  hear  the  miners  have 
withdrawn  their  opposition  to  the  "comb-out."  We  have 
no  doubt  it  will  be  the  same  with  the  A.S.E.  England,  or, 
to  use  the  greater  word,  Britain,  is  fighting  for  her  exist- 
ence and  for  those  principles  for  which  through  the  centuries 
she  has  struggled  tenaciously.  It  is  impossible  to  believe 
there  is  a  single  Briton  who  will  in  this  crisis  be  fal.se  to 
himself  or  to  his  countrv. 


5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :   HOLBORN    2828. 

THURSDAY,  MARCH   28,  1918. 

Contents 


PAGE 

I 


A  Famous  Flyingman.     (Photograph) 

Transport  Ancient  and  Modern.     (Photographs)  2 

The  Outlook  3 

The  Great  Battle.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 
The  End  of  the  Road.     By  Raemaekers                     10  and  11 

Submarine  Campaign.     By  Arthur  Pollen  12 

England.     A  Poem.     By  H.  M.  D.  13 

The  Balkan  Stage.     By  H.  Collinson  Owen  15 

The  Great  Passport  Frauds.     By  French  Strother  16 

A  Contemplative  Mind.     By  J.  C.  Squire  19 

Chronicles  of  the  Great  War.     (Review)  20 

A  Neglected  Industry.     By  Christopher  Turner  20 

Domestic  Economy  23 


Notes  on  Kit 


25 


The  Outlook 

THERE  is  inevitably  only  one  topic  of  interest  • 
thfs  week,  only' one  question  which  occupies  the' 
mind  of  us  all — the  issue  of  the  great  battle 
now  raging  in  Franije.  Mr.  Belloc  writes  at 
length  on  the  subject  in  the  following  pages,  so' 
it  is  unnecessary  fo  dwell  on  it  I'lere.  The  future  of  European 
civilisation  sways  in  the  balance  during  these  momentous 
hours,  for  this,  the  greatest  battle  in  which  the  human  race 
has  ever  been  engaged,  a  struggle  far  vaster  and  more  terrible 
than  any  war  between  Gods  and  Titans,  will  decide  the 
fate  of  the  world's  progress,  and  more  nearly  still  the  very 
existence  of  the  British  Empire.  It  were  folly  to  shut  our 
eyes  to  all  that  is  involved  in  the  fift5'-mile  battle-line  now 
swaying  to  and  fro  in  France— a  battle-line  that  at  any 
moment  may  be  extended.  In  one  knowledge  we  have 
content — the  British  Empire  is  worthily  represented  by  her 
armies  ;  the  spirit  which  shone  so  brightly  during  the  dark 
hours  of  the  Mons  retreat,  in  the  perilous  onslaughts  at 
♦Ypres,  and  in  a  hundred  other  engagements  where  the  odds 
have  been  heavily  against  us,  burns  as  steadily  and  as 
brightly  as  ever.  Amid  the  bare  facts  related  by  the  war 
correspondents  in  France  tales  of  undying  heroism  con- 
tinually emerge.  We  can  place  full  confidence  in  our'  men  ; 
the  only  doubt  that  disturbs  is  whether  their  numbers  suffice 
to  stay  the  Teuton  hordes,  which  are  flung  'against  them 
with  a  most  callous  disregard  of  life. 

*  *  * 

This  great  battle,  which  history  may  well  know  as  "The 
Second  Battle  of  the  Somme,"  opened  upon  the  early  morning 
of  last  Thursday,  and  the  German  offensive  is  being  continued 
with  an  unprecedented  weight  oi  men  and  material  upon  an 
unprecedented  length  of  front,  and,  happily,  with  unpre- 
cedented enemy  losses.  It  had  the  result  in  the  first  five 
days  of  recovering,  roughly,  three-quarters  of  the  devastated 
area  upon  which  the  enemy  had  retreated  to  the  so-called 
Hinflcnburg  Line.  It  had  by  Monday  last  yielded  in  wounded 
men  left  behind  and  in  an  unknown,  but  probably  more, 
number  of  unwounded  prisoners,  45,000  claimed  by  the 
enemy  as  captured  and  somewhat  over  600  guns,  the  greater 
part  of  which  are,  of  course,  field  pieces.  These  losses  in  ground, 
men,  and  material,  though  severe,  are  not  the  determining 
matter  ;  they  only  strike  the  imagination  of  the  reader  at 
home  most  strongly  because  the  other  features  of  this  unpre- 
cedented struggle  cannot  be  dealt  with  in  detail,  and  many 
of  them  cannot  be  dealt  with  at  all ;  but,  as  is  pointed  out 
in  Mr.  Belloc's  article,  the  existence  and  ultimate  effect  of 
the  great  reserves  which  the  Allies  have  in  hand  are 
specially  to  be  considered,  and  there  is  no  result  to  be 
predicated  until  the  effects  of  its  use  shall  be  known. 

.     '  *  *  * 

Before  the  battle  was  joined,  there  was  trouble  in  the 
labour  world  regarding  the  comb-cut  of    men  necessary  to 


The  widespread  demand  for  an  official  statement  of  the 
true  position  of  shipping  at  last  compelled  the  Admiralty 
to  publish  the  figures  of  loss  of  tonnage.  Now  that  they 
have  been  made  known,  one  is  only  surprised  that  this 
information  was  withheld  for  so  long,  enabling  the  enemy  to 
hearten  his  people  with  exaggerated  reports,  which  were 
never  authoritatively  contradicted.  The  losses  are  heavy, 
but  Sir  Eric  Geddes  was  able  to  show  a  substantial  margin 
of  safety,  that  is,  provided  destruction  by  submarines  does 
not  increase.  The  curve  points  to  a  diminution,  but  we  are 
not  aware  of  the  number  of  U-boats  operating  round  these 
coasts  or  whether  Germany  is  able  to  increase  their  number 
faster  than  we  destroy  them.  This  is  a  factor  not  to  be 
overlooked.  The  whole  question  is  fully  discussed  by  our 
naval  writer,  Mr.  Arthur  Pollen,  on  another  page. 


VVhilc  the  loss  of  mercantile  shipping  through  enemy 
action  was  not  alarming,  the  statement  regarding  the  output 
of  new  ships  was  less  reassuring.  It  is  only  too  evident 
there  has  been  bungling  and  muddling  here,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  Lord  Pirrie  will  be  able  in  brief  time  to  straighten  out 
things  and  put  them  on  a  proper  footing.  Lord  Inchcape, 
who  has  been  actively  engaged  in  the  shipping  world  from 
his  youth  upwards,  tells  a  pitiful  story  in  the  Times  of  Monday 
about  the  irreparable  waste  of  time  over  the  so-called 
"national  shipyard"  at  Chepstow  on  the  Wye.  This  yard 
was  originated  by  private  enterprise,  and  had  it  been  left 
to  private  enterprise  to  complete  there  would  have  been  by 
this  autumn  100,000  tons  of  new  shipping  either  constructed 
or  in  course  of  construction.  But  last  August  the  Chepstow 
shipyard  was  commandeered  under  the  specious  plea  of 
making  it  "national,"  and  nothing  has  been  done.  The 
months  that  have  been  wasted  can  never  be  restored.  Will 
Government  Departments  never  learn  that  time  is  different 
from  public  money,  in  that  it  can  never  be  replaced  ?  They 
go  on  frittering  it  away  with  an  untroubled  conscience  as 
though  it  were  as  easy  to  make  good  a  year  as  it  is  to  put 
another  threepence  on  the  income-tax.  |         |j^^ 


Raemaekers'  cartoons  have  never  been  loved  by  the 
Kaiser  or  his  people.  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  this  ; 
their  influence  grows  steadily,  and  even  now  it  may  be  said 
to  be  only  at  its  beginning.  The  Teuton  slowly  realises 
this.  An  exhibition  of  anti-German  cartoons  and  drawings 
was  opened  recently  at  Munich,  under  the  designation  of 
"Our  Enemies'  Sowing  of  Lies."  Besides  these  cartoons 
were  hung  gentle  German  cartoons  of  the  tamest  kind.  This 
exhibition  was  promoted  by  the  Bavarian  Government,  and 
the  leading  Munich  journal,  in  commenting  on  it,  wrote : 
"  Most  of  the  enemy  productions  are  of  the  poorest'  quality, 
and  produce  only  a  feeling  of  disgust  ;  some,  indeed,  siich 
as  *he  cartoons  of  Raemaekers,  combine  with  the  sense  of 
disgust  a  bitter  feeling  of  pain  at  this  unparalleled  degrada- 
tion of  art."  The  bitter  feeling  of  pain  at  the  unparalleled 
degradation  0/  humanity  which  Raemaekers'  cartoons  portray 
will  endure.  It  is  the  Germans  themselves— not  Raemaekers 
—who  have  shown  to  the  world  that  Germans  are  really 
"Boches,  Huns,  and  barbarians,"  three  terms  which  rankle 
and  will  continue  to  rankle  in  the  Teuton  mind. 


Land  &  Water 


March  28,  i  9 1  8 


From    Arras    to    La    Fere 


March  28,  19 18 


Land    &    Water 


The  Great  Battle :    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


THE  great  battle  which  the  Qnemy  had  announced 
with  extraordinary  advertisement  for  many  weeks 
began  four  da}'s  before  these  hncs  are  written, 
and  is  still  in  progress.  The  present  conditions 
of  printing  make  it  necessarj-  that  this  article 
should  be  completed  upon  Sunday,  the  24th  of  March.  All 
phases  of  the  action  later  than  the  news  reaching  London 
at  that  moment  can  only  be  dealt  with  in  our  next  issue. 
But  the  results  of  the  first  three  days — that  is,  up  to  the 
evening  of  Saturday,  the  23rd — are  sufficiently  clear,  in  spite 
of  the  inevitable  brevity  and  imperfection  of  the  news 
received,  to  give  us  a  grasp  of  its  character,  of  the  enemy's 
objects,  and  of  their  first  results. 

The  enemy's  strategical  object  was  to  tear  a  great  gap  in 
the  British  front  as  near  as  possible  to  its  southern  extremity, 
or  right,  upon  the  River  Oise,  and  thus  at  once  to  separate 
the  British  from  the  French  armies  and  to  permit  them, 
when  the  breach  has  been  fully  opened  and  seized,  to  roll 
up  the  British  line. 

He  depended  for  the  security  of  his  left  or  southern  flank 
immediatel}',  after  the  success  of  such  an  operation,  upon 
the  Oise  Valley,  which  is  marshy  and  difficult  at  this  point, 
and  belie\'ed  that  the  obstacle  will  protect  him  from  successful 
Allied  attack  here,  at  any  rate,  for  a  space  of  time  long 
enough  to  permit  his  complete  success  towards  the  north. 

This  original  plan  may  be  and  probably  will  be  modified 
in  the  course  of  the  action,  especially  if  it  does  not  follow  his 
time-table  and  if,  therefore,  his  losses  are,  for  the  results 
achieved  in  the  first  few  days,  beyond  his  calculation  ;  but 
that  this  was  the  main  and  simple  strategical  intention  of 
the  enemy  is  obvious  from  the  place  and  method  of  attack. 

With  these  ends  in  view,  he  adopted  the  following 
dispositions : 

(i).  He  had  chosen  a  very  wide  front  of  76,000  yards, 
or  just  over  43I  miles  as  the  crow  flies,  from  the  point  where 
the  original  British  front  line  crossed  the  canalised  River 
Scaipe  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Roeux  to  the  point  where  it 
crossed  the  River  Oise  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Vendeuil. 
(These  villages  and  most  of  those  mentioned  in  the  course  of 
the  article  are  to-day,  of  course,  only  names  for  a  few  ruins 
at  the  best,  and  in  many  cases  a  little  scattering  of  brick- 
dust  upon  a  mass  of  shell  holes).  This  front  happens  to  be 
the  driest  part  of  all  the  long  Hne  held  by  the  British  armies 
in  France  and  Belgium,  and  this  feature,  a  great  aid 
to  his  offensive,  has  been  powerfully  accentuated  by  his 
extraordinary  luck  in  the  weather. 

(2).  To  ensure  success,  he  had  concentrated  upon  this 
front  of  43  miles  in  a  direct  line  (enlarged  by  sinuosities  to 
somewhat  over  50  miles,  which  will  be  again  increased  by 
the  greater  sinuosities  developed  during  the  battle)  perhaps 
75  divisions  out  of  the  186  which  he  had  in  line  between 
the  Swiss  frontier  and  the  North  Sea.  Of  these,  he  had  no 
less  than  40  upon  his  immediate  front  for  the  delivery  of  the 
first  shock,  and  within  48  hours  had  added  another  ten  to 
replace  his  losses  and  to  provide  fresh  material  for  the 
assault.  The  numerical  value  of  this  force  in  bayonets  can 
only  be  roughly  established.  We  know  that  the  German 
divisions  have  been  reduced  for  many  months  past,  and 
for  much  the  most  part,  perhaps  for  all,  to  some  6,500 
bayonets,  but  it  is  very  possible  that  additions  have  been 
made  from  the  younger  classes  and  by  the  selection  of  men 
from  divisions  the  main  part  of  which  have  still  been  left 
upon  the  East.  Perhaps  we  may  average  the  divisions  in  use 
at  7,000  bayonets  or  somewhat  over,  and  we  may,  therefore, 
estimate  the  number  of  German  infantry  already  engaged 
in  these  four  days  at  somewhat  more  than  350,000,  with 
at  least  half  as  much  again  immediately  behind  them  for 
reinforcement  during  the  course  of  the  action.  Most  of  these 
units  have  been  specially  exercised  for  three  months  past  in 
view  of  the  present  operation  ;  they  have  been  trained  to 
long  marches,  to  sham  attacks  upon  ground  in  the  rear  of 
the  German  lines  chosen  for  its  similarity  to  the  points  for 
which  each  unit  would  be  used  ;  and  the  so-called  "  Storming 
Troops,"  specially  picked  to  act  as  the  spear-hcads  of  the 
shock,  have  been  kept  far  back  from  the  fighting  zone,  fed 
and  trained  and  disciphned  in  a  manner  particular  to  their 
special  use. 

(3).  An  exceedingly  large  force  of  artillery,  far  greater 
than  any  yet  concentrated  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
bayonets  involved,  has  been  massed  upon  this  front.  It 
includes  not  only  the  German  heavy  batteries  released  by 
the  betrayal  of  the  Alhed  cause  in  Russia,  but  also  many 


Austrian  batteries  ;  and  special  attention,  has  been  paid  to- 
the  mobility  of  these  for  the  following  up  of  the  expected 
rapid  advance. 

(4).  The  clement  of  surprise  was  dehberately  excluded 
by  the  enemy,  probably  upon  the  ground  that  it  was  unattain- 
able and  that,  upon  the  balance,  it  was  better  worth  while 
to  hearten  public  opinion  at  home  (under  the  very  severe 
strain  it  was  suffering)  by  the  announcement  of  the  attack 
and  by  the  promise  of.  certain  and  decisive  success  to  be 
followed  in  a  very  brief  delay  by  a  Anctorious  peace. 

(5).  The  result  to  be  achieved  could  only  be  reached 
rapidly  and  therefore  at  a  great  initial  expense  in  men.  This 
is  the  capital  point  of  the  whole  business.  It  is  that  upon 
which  we  must  particularly  fix  our  attention,  for  it  is  the 
character  which  will  determine  the  final  result.  The  Prussian 
tradition  in  tactics  and  strategy  is  rigid  and  inflexible.  It 
has  the  advantage  of  all  rigid  and  inflexible  things  that  it 
permits  a  highly  detailed  study  of  its  conditions  anci  a  perfec- 
tion therein.  It  has  the  disadvantage  that  if  it  fails  it  fails 
altogether,  from  lack  of  alternatives. 

This  point,  the  dehberate  intention  to  sacrifice  vast  masses 
of  men  early  in  the  action  as  a  price  necessary  to  the  result 
and  as  the  cheapest  price  to  pay  in  the  long  run,  accounts 
both  for  what  has  hitherto  been  effected  by  the  enemy  up 
to  the  moment  of  writing  and  also  for  its  failure,  hitherto, 
to  follow  the  time-table  assigned  to  it.  By  which  we  must 
not  be  understood  to  mean  any  forecast  of  the  ultimate 
result,  but  merely  to  establish  the  character  of  the  first  three 
days'  engagement. 

Political  Necessity 

F  It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out  that  the  undertaking  of 
the  offensive  under  such  conditions  teaches  a  very  valuable 
political  lesson.  It  informs  us  that  the  enem}-  has  been 
compelled  to  attack  from  the  pohtical  conditions  existing 
within  the  German  and  Austrian  Empires.  It  was  the 
opinion  of  many  who  judged  the  situation  su'dy  upon  its 
mihtary  side,  that  this  offensive  would  not  be  delivered. 
The  unprecedented  and  exceedingly  unusual  advertisement 
of  it ;  the  relative  success  of  the  submarine  offensive  by 
sea ;  the  length  of  time  required  by  the  United  States 
to  put  any  considerable  force  into  the  field ;  the  very  fact 
that  so  long  a  period  of  dry  weather  made  the  chances  of 
a  break  in  that  spell,  and  more  difficult  conditions  for  the 
continuation  of  the  offensive,  high  ;  the  considerable  activity 
of  the  enemy  in  the  East ;  lastly,  the  self-evident  truth 
that  such  a  gamble  deliberately  staked  everything  upon  rapid 
success,  and  that  the  only  alternative  to  it  was  an  ultimate 
disastrous  failure,  led  many  of  the  best  judges  in  -Europe. 
especiaUy  soldiers,  to  believe  that  the  proposal  to  attack 
was  a  deceit  designed  to  compel  the  Alhes  to  distribute 
their  forces  on  the  defensive  and  produce  a  policy  of  delay 
that  would  lead  to  a  negotiated. peace.  Those  who  adopted 
the  opposite  view,  and  who  certainly  included  much  the 
greater  part  of  those  observing  upon  the  spot,  have  proved 
right.  The  internal  conditionsM)f  Central  Europe  are  such 
that  the  enemy  could  not  postpone  an  attempt  to  obtaini 
a  decision  early  this  year.  It  is  on  this  account  that  the 
dice  have  been  thrown,  and  the  issue  is  now  clearly  set  between 
his  rapid  ruin  or  our  own. 

Incidentally  we  may  add  that  such  a  position  puts  an  end 
once  and  for  all  to  every  discussion  of  detail  in  domestic 
or  foreign  policy.  Such  a  discussion  has  been  dangerously 
indulged  in  during  the  long  winter  period  of  preparation 
and  inaction.  It  no  longer  has  any  meaning,  and  if  any 
of  the  small  minorities  that  have  conducted  it  with  such 
intensitj-  in  the  Allied  countries  propose  to  continue  it,  thej- 
will  simply  not  be  listened  to. 

«  »  ■ 

From  these  preliminary  observations  we  may  proceed  tO' 
the  description  of  Xhe  action  so  far  as  the  very  terse,  general 
and  impel  feet  indications  afforded  permit  us  to  so  do. 

It  has  taken  the  form  of  an  attack  first  concentrated  upon 
the  north  of  line  in  front  of  Arras  and  Cambrai ;  then  pressed 
in  the  second  day  upon  the  decisive  point  to  the  south  in 
front  of  St.  Quentin.  It  had  by  Saturday  evening  compelled 
the  retirement  of  the  British  line,  pivoting  upon  the  north, 
from  a  direction  30  degrees  E.  of  S.  to  a  direction  20  degrees 
E.  of  S.,  the  northern  point  remaining  stationary  and  the 
southern  suffering  an  average  withdrawal  of  from  six  to 
eight  miles,  a  retirement  still  in  progress. 


Land    &    Water 


March  28,  i()iB 


In  the  course  oi  tlu'-c-  iiist  uiai<itions,  covering  three  days, 
the  line  had  remained  intact.  The  enemy's  total  claim  to 
prisoners  and  guns  covered  some  25.000  prisoners  and  400 
pieces,  the  greater  part  of  which,  of  course,  are  field  pieces 
which  had  been  pushed  right  forward  to  take  their  toll  of 
the  enemy  masses.  Unfortunately,  we  cannot  at  this  early 
<tage  estimate  with  any  degree  of  accuracy  the  essential 
(joint  of  all.  which  is  the  expense  to  which  the  enemy  has 
been  put  to  accomplisli  this  preliminary  advance.  We  know 
that  it  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  exceedingly  high  ; 
the  attack  w;is  pressed  with  very  dense  masses,  used  deliber- 
ately under  the  theory  that  exceedingly  heavy  initial  losses 
were  worth  while.  The  failure  to  reach  the  original  objectives 
of  the  rin;t  and  second  days  must  have  involved  an  even 
higher  casualty  list  than  had  been  budgeted  for,  and  the 
weakening  of  the  30  divisions  thrown  in  to  the  first  48  hours' 
attack  wa.s  already  sufficient,  by  Saturday,  to  compel  the 
enemy  to  reorganisation  and  very  large  reinforcement  for 
the  n  xt  phase  of  the  straggle. 

More  than  that  we  cannot  say,  but  we  note  that  the  number 
of  prisoners  taken  is  less  than  those  attaching  to  any  corre- 
sponding great  offensive  in  the  war,  front  for  front  and 
nuiubers  engaged  for  numbers  engaged.  The  loss  in  guns, 
including,  as  it  does,  field  pieces  pushed  up  towards  the 
front  hne  is  more  considerable.  But  the  figures  point  to 
no  decisive  result  upon  any  part  of  the  line.  They  do  not 
even,  so  far  as  we  have  liitherto  received  them  from  the 
enemy,  point  to  any  effective  disorganisation  upon  the 
.sector  west  of  St.  Quentin,  where  they  penetrated  the  third 
or  main  line  of  the  defending  army. 

The  Action 

At  half-past  5 — that  is,  just  before  dawn — on  the  morning 
of  Wednesday,  the  2rst  of  March,  the  enemy  opened  his 
intensive  bombardment,  stretching  from  his  positions  upon 
the  River  Oise  upon  the  south  to  his  positions  upon  the 
River  Scarpe  upon  the  north. 

The  front  upon  which  this  preparatory  bombardment  was 
delivered  exceeds  in  extent  that  of  any  other  similar  effort 
undertaken  by  either  side  in  the  course  of  the  war.  The 
distance,  as  the  crow  flies,  from  Roeux,  upon  the  canalised 
River  Scarpe,  to  Vendeuil  upon  th^  Oise  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
76,000  yards,  or  somewhat  over  43  miles  ;  and  the  front 
attacked,  in  all  its  sinuosities,  to  well  over  50.  The 
bombardment,  though  short,  was  of  the  most  intense  char- 
acter ;  more  severe,  in  spite  of  the  very  great  extent  of  the 
line,  than  any  which  had  preced^ed  it.  It  included  long- 
distance firing  far  behind  the  fronts  and  a  particularly  heavy 
destruction  of  the  wire  by  the  use  of  trench  weapons  which 
had  been  brought  up  in  very  great  numbers  to  the  most 
advanced  positions  upon  the  German  side.  Towards  the 
dose  of  the  bombardment  the  proportion  of  gas  shells  used 
was  strongly  increased  and  particularly  directed  against  the 
British  batteries  and  cross-roads  and  points  of  concentration 
beliind  the  line.  The  increase  in  the  volume  of  gas  delivered 
wa^  an  indication  that  the  infantry  attack  was  at  hand. 
This  attack  was  not  launched  simultaneously  along  the  whole 
line,  but,  according  to  separate  orders,  from  just  after  nine 
till  close  on  ten  in  the  forenoon— with  an  exceptionally  early 
movement  in  one  place  shortly  after  8.  The  advance  of  the 
infantry  was  nearly  co-extensive  with  the  hne  of  bombard- 
ment. It  stretched  on  the  north  to  the  valley  of  the  Sens^e 
Stream  (some  6,000  yards,  or  3J  miles,  south  of  the  Scarpe). 
On  the  southern  end  of  the  line  the  infantry  attack  was 
delivered  up  to  the  River  Oise  itself. 

If  this  front  as  it  stood  before  the  opening  of  the  battle 
be  examined,  it  will  be  seen  that  its  trace  formed  a  consider- 
able salient  before  Cambrai ;  the  most  advanced  point  of  which 
salient  was  the  series  of  trenches  which  marked  the  end 
of  the  retirement  from  the  Cambrai  battle-field  after  the 
initial  success  and  subsequent  retirement  of  last  November. 
The  first  effort  of  the  enemy  during  the  course  of  Thursday! 
March  2rst,  was  clearly  designed  to  increase  the  curve  and 
therefore  the  peril  of  this  salient  by  attacking  it  to  the  north 
and  to  the  south,  the  chief  concentrations  of  German  troops 
being  discovered' in  the  valley  of  the  Sensee,  to  the  north,  in 
front  of  Croisillcs,  and  in  front  of  Epehy  to  the  south. '  A 
sufficiently  rapid  advance  upon  either  of  these  points  might 
have  cut  off  all  that  lay  between  and  have  resulted  in  a  very 
considerable  capture  of  men  and  guns  in  the  intervening 
projection.  The  proportion  of  pressure  exercised  at  these 
two   points  will  be  dealt  with  in  a  moment. 

Meanwhile,  a  third  special  effort  designed  to  turn  the 
Bntish  line  as  a  whole  by  its' right  was  begun  on  the  extreme 
south  just  north  of  the  Oise,  with  the  object  of  throwing 
the  British  in  that  neighbourhood  back  upon,  and  beyond, 
the  Crozat  Canal:  there  was  thus  a  repetition,  on  a  large 


scale,  of  the  attack  on  two  distant  points,  with  the  object  of 
"pinching"  the  intermediate  portion  and  making  a  wide 
gap,  which  the  enemy  has  invariably  used  in  east  and  west. 

The  number  of  the  enemj'  divisions  between  Switzer- 
land and  the  North  Sea  we  have  seen  to  be  186.  There 
is  a  possible  adtlition  of  four  more  divisions  bringing 
the  total  up  to  190,  and  others  hitherto  within  the  Central 
Empires  may  arrive.  Of  these  186  divisions,  rather  more 
than  half,  96  divisions,  were  aligned  against  the  British 
between  the  Oise  and  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Yser,  north 
of  Ypres.  Not  all  these  186  or  190  divisions  can  be  used 
for  active  work  on  the  front  ;  a  certain  proportion  being 
composed  of  material  inadequate  to  such  a  strain.  No 
estimate  save  of  the  very  roughest  kind  can  be  made  of 
the  proportion  thus  to  be  eliminated,  because  the  fittest 
men  can  be  chosen  from  units  which  are,  as  a  whole  unfit 
for  use  in  the  shock,  a"nd  because  we  are  necessarily  in  doubt 
as  to  the  exact  condition  of  these  units  and  can  only  judge 
them  by  their  composition  as  indicated  by  their  categories. 
But  if  we  say  that  certainly  less  than  20  per  cent,  but  a 
great  deal  more  than  10  per  cent.,  may  be  thus  regarded 
as  unable  to  appear  on  the  front  of  shock  even  in  the  later 
developments  of  the  struggle,  we  have  the  limits  of  the 
calculation  defined  as  nearly  as  is  possible.  It  is  clear,  of 
course,  that  all  the  best  units  available  will  have  been  chosen 
for  this  main  effort. 

Of  the  40  divisions  originally  mustered  to  strike  the  first 
blow  all  the  way  from  the  Sensee  Brook  to  the  Oise,  the  dis- 
tribution was  very  unequal.  The  work  of  this  first  day 
was  mainly  concerned,  as  I  have  said,  with  an  attempted 
reduction  of  the  Cambrai  salient,  and  it  was  upon  this  work, 
though  it  was  subsidiary  to  the  main  object  developed  the 
next  day  of  turning  the  British  by  their  extreme  right  upon 
the  Oise,  that  the  principal  effort  was  made.  More  than 
half  of  the  total  force  lay  just  north  and  just  south  of  the 
Cambrai  salient.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  regard  so  very  large 
a  force  as  designed  for  a  feint  even  in  the  most,  general  sense 
of  the  term.  25  of  the  40  divisions  were  to  be  found  thus 
attempting  to  cut  off  the  area  of  which  the  village  of  Havrin- 
court  is  the  most  prominent  point,  and  if  we  add  the  6 
divisions  used  south  of  St.  Quentin  there  are  only  nine 
left  for  those  intervening  parts  of  the  line  which  were  less 
severely  pressed. 

At  the  first  onslaught,  then,  that  of  the  Thursday,  the  chief 
sector  of  the  whole  front  attacked  and  that  to  which  we 
must  particularly  direct  our  attention,  was  the  sector  stretch- 
ing frdm  the  valley  of  the  Sensee,  near  Cherisy,  to  the 
neighbourhood  of  Havrincourt  village  in  front  of  Flesquiferes. 
This  is  a  front  of  roughly  20,000  yards,  over  a  quarter  of 
the  whole  of  the  battle  line,  but  much  less  than  one-tliird. 
It  was  here  that  the  enemy  intended,  if  possible,  to  effect  a 
breach  at  the  very  first  shock,  and  certainly  designed  to 
reach  objectives  far  beyond  the  third  or  main  line  of  the 
British  defensive  system.  He  had  massed  altogether  on 
these  20,000  yards  no  less  than  17  divisions,  or  42  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  of  his  original  attacking  force.  The  extreme 
right  by  Fontaine  held.  What  followed  between  that  point 
and  the  point  12  miles  away  by  Havrincourt  can  only  be 
gathered  very  imperfectly  and  with  difficulty  so  early  in  the 
action  from  the  brief  dispatches  sent  home  and  from  the 
longer  descriptions  of  correspondents  ;  but  the  main  facts 
would  seem  to  have  been  these : 

From  the  valley  of  the  Sensee,  south  of  Fontaine,  the 
object  of  the  enemy  was  to  reach  the  heights  of  Henin,  where 
the  land  falls  away  from  the  Arras-Bapaume  road  and  also 
beyond  the  brook  the  heights  of  St.  Leger.  Both  these 
points  were  covered  by  the  British  main  defensive  or  third 
hne.  This  line  continued  on  southward  and  eastward, 
covering  what  were  the  points  where  once  stood  Vraucourt, 
Vaulx,  Morchies,  and  Beaumetz,  and  so  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  Havrincourt.  Of  the  17  divisions  used  upon  this  total 
sector,  the  greater  part,  9  divisions,  were  crowded  into  the 
crescent  between  the  Sensee  brook  near  Cherisy  and  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  railway  beyond  BuUecourt,  a  distance 
of  less  than  9,000  yards  ;  and  this  exceedingly  dense  mass 
—by  far  the  heaviest  weight  of  men  used  anywhere  on  this 
field— broke  right  through  back  to  the  third  line,  but  on  the 
third  line  failed. 

I  had  almost  written  that  it  was  the  heaviest  concentration 
for  an  assault  which  this  war  had  seen.  There  was  something 
like  it,  if  wc  allow  for  the  larger  size  of  the  divisions  in  those 
days,  when  the  Third  Corps  from  Brandenburg  and  its  neigh- 
bour upon  the  right  stormed  the  Douaumont  Plateau  in  the 
first  days  of  Verdun,  25  months  ago  ;  but  that  is  the  only 
parallel  to  the  use  of  such  dense  masses. 

The  result  was  achieved  with  very  heavy  losses  indeed. 
How  high  must,  of  course,  be  a  matter  of  guess-work  until 
much  more  information  is  available^   but  much  of  the  firing 


March  28,  19 18 


Land    &    Water 


with  the  British  field-guns  was  point  blank,  and  the  assault 
was  made  with  that  complete  disregard  of  immediate  cost 
which   is   the  logical   consequence   of   the   Prussian   tactical 
theory.     The  whole  system  of  the  Prussian  service,  I  repeat, 
and  its  whole  tradition,  at  once  the  cause  and  the  effect  of 
its  type  of  discipline,  involves  extremely  heavy  initial  expendi- 
ture upon  the  conception  that  it  is  ultimately  the  cheapest 
price  to  pay  for  success.     Although  the  day  was  misty — at 
any  rate,  during  all  its  earher  hours — the  target  afforded  by 
these  successive  waves  was  excellent  and  the  execution  done 
against  them  was  correspondingly  great.     It  is  very  difficult 
to  discover  from  the  as  yet  imperfect  descriptions  received 
whether  the  retirement  here  was  contemporary  with  that  to 
the  south  or  came  afterwards  as  a  consequence  of  that  to 
the  south  ;    but,  at  any  rate,  upon  the  southern  half  of  this 
same  .sector,  between  the  Cambrai  front  and  the  Sensee,  the 
remainder  of  this  specially  massed  concentration  got  through 
to  near  the  third  line  in  front  of  Morchies.     But  just  as  the 
northern  horn  of  the  advancing  crescent  was  held  at  Fontaine, 
so  was  the  southern  horn  held  from  the  British  positions  iri 
the   wood   of   Louveral   Chateau,    and   apparently   the   line 
suffered    little    indentation    between    that    point    upon    the 
Bapaume  high  road  and  the  village  of  Havrincourt.     The 
German  attack  on  this  southern  half  of  the  crescent,  number- 
ing about   four  tg  one   against   the   British   defensive,   was 
conducted  by  the  remaining  eight  divisions  of  the  17.     When 
the  fighting  died  down  at  the  end  of  the  day  the  situation' 
in  this  capital  sector  of  the  whole  line  was,  so  far  as  the 
evidence  afforded  can  guide  us,  what  is  seen  upon  the  accom- 
panying sketch-map  i,  with  an  enemy  gain  at  the  deepest 
point,  south-east  of  Bullecourt  and  at  Croisilles,  of  about  a 
mile  and  a  half.  5 

It  is  clear  that  this  falling  back  upon  the  third  line  in  the 

■orth  would  have  left  the  Cambrai  salient  untenable,  and  it 

IS  equally  clear  that  the  line  from  in  front  of  Havrincourt 

village  to  the  falling  ground  in  front  of  Epehy  liad  to  be 

withdrawn   to  conform  with   the    northern   situation.     But 

the  first  accounts  dealing  with  the  Thursday's  fighting  tell 

us  very  little  about  this  portion  ;    a  sector,  if  we  count  no 

further  south  than  the  fields  in  front  of  Ep^hy,  of  about 

12,000  yards,  or  rather  more  than  7  miles.     Between   this 

pomt— the  fields  in  front  of  Epehy— and  the  last  of  the  line 

•n  the  right  towards  the  Oise  (the  fighting  on  the  banks  of 

which  river  was  about  20  miles  south  of  Epehy)  we  were 

only  told,  with  regard  to  the  first  day,  Thursday's,  fighting, 

that  on  the  extreme  right,  just  north  of  the  Oise  itself,  a 

heavy  concentration  of  the  enemy,  6  divisions  strong,  was 

held  by  one  British  division  during  the  whole  day.     There 

was  here,  therefore,  as  I  have  said  above,  another  special 

concentration;    but  it  failed  of  its  effect,  and  the  British 

force  here  was  only  withdrawn  at  night  after  the  fighting 

■ad  ceased  to  conform  with  the  hue  further  north. 

We  may  sum  up  the  accounts  received  of  the  first  day's 
fighting,  Thursday  the  21st,  briefly,  then,  as  follows: 

After  an  intensive  bombardment,  beginning  a  little  before 
iawn,  continued  in  most  parts  of  the  line  for  four  hours 
(though  in  some   for  not   more   than   three),   the  German 
infantry  was  launched  to  the  number  of  40  divisions  against 
the   whole   British    front   between    the   Sensee   Brook,    just 
south  of  the  Scarpe.  and  the  Oise,  a  distance,  allowing  for 
the  folds  in  the  Une  of  over  50  miles.     The  chief  weight  of 
the  attack  was  upon   the  northern  quarter  of  the  Une    a 
sector  of  12  miles,  between  the  Sensee  Brook  and  the  Cambrai 
front.     Here   the  enemy  penetrated  to   the  third   or  main 
British  defensive  line,  occupying  a  crescent  of  land  the  two 
horns  of  which  stood  at  Fontaine  and  Louverval  respectively, 
and  the  maximum  depth  of  which  was  not  quite  a  mile  and 
a  half.     In  conformity  with  this  indentation,  the  Une  further 
to  the  south  between  Havrincourt  and  Epehy  was  retired, 
both   places   being  still  covered   by  it,   while   Le  Verguier 
t\  miles  south  of  Epehy,  was  also  held.     The  last  section 
between  the  Somme  and  the  Oise  witnessed  on  its  southern- 
most  extremity    the    very   heavy   pressure   of   six    German 
divisions,  which  were  successfully  held,  but  by  nightfaU  the 
defensive  was  called  back  up  to  or  behind  the  Crozat  Canal. 
On   the  Thursday  night  a  dense  mist  again  arose  and 
forbade  effective  operations.     Aircraft  could  not  leave  the 
ground  in  the  southern  area,  where  the  mist  was  especially 
dense  ;    the  air  was  clearer  in  the  north,  and  dispatches  tell 
us  of  heavy  bombardment   from  the  air  against  points  in 
Belgium,  which  have,  of  course,  nothing  to  do  with  the  main 
action.     The    mist    upon    the    southern    sector,    where    the 
enemy  was  to  attempt  a  decisive  effort  upon  this  Friday, 
the  22nd,  rose  late  in  the  forenoon.     As  it  cleared,  perhaps 
between  10  and  11  o'clock,  it  was  apparent  that  the  main 
enemy   effort   was   developing    upon    the   south,    and    that 
the  decisive  stroke  for  the  turning  of  the  British  Une  by  its 
right  was  being  delivered. 


The  accounts  so  far  received  of  what  foUowed  are  meagre  ; 
but,  piecing  them  together,  and  including  the  enemy's  dis- 
patches and  claims,  we'  can  airrive  at  a  general  outline.  For 
this  purpose,  we  must  take  our  view  from  the  town  of  St. 
Quentm  and  consider  the  ground  extending  over  150  degrees 
from  Ep^hy,  12  miles  N.N.W.  of  St.  Quentin  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Tergnier,  an  equal  distance  due  south  of  it,  where 
the  marshy  Oise  Valley  begins. 

The  whole  of  this  district  is  that  which  was  devastated 
by  the  enemy  during  his  retreat  a  year  ago.  It  consists,  for 
the  most  part,  of  the  upper  basin  of  the  Somme  River,  which 
flows  through  St.  Quentin  and,  after  running  south-west 
towards  Ham,  bends  round  sharply  north  to  Peronne.  The 
ground  falls  away  westward  by  a  gradual  decline  of  about  300 
feet  from  heights  just  west  of  St.  Quentin,  and  is  drained  by  the 
three  parallel  streams  of  the  Upper  Somme  with  its  canal,  the 
Omignon,  and  the  Cologne.  South  of  the  Somme  a  water- 
shed, from  150  to  180  feet  above  the  water  levels,  separates 
the  Upper  Somme  from  the  Valley  of  the  Oise.  It  is  known 
as  the  Ridge  of  Essigny.  There  is  a  depression  at  the  south- 
western end  of  this  ridge  which  runs  from  the  Somme  itself 
to  the  Oise  Valley,  and  is  used  by  the  canal  known  as  the 
Crozat  Canal. 

We  have  seen  that  on  the  previous  day,  the  Thursday,  no 
less  than  six  German  divisions  had  exercised  their  pressure 
upon  the  small  British  force  defending  the  upland  between 
the  Upper  Somme  and  the  Oise  Rivers,  and  that  in  the  night 
the  British  force,  which  had  thus  checked  tlie  enemy  all 
day,  was  retired  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Crozat  Canal. 
The  fighting  of  Friday  morning  developed,  therefore,  upon  a 
line  without  any  marked  salient,  running  in  front  of  Epehy, 
Le  Verguier,  and  so  down  to  the  Crozat  Canal,  and  along  it 
to  the  marshy  Oise  Valley.  The  main  weight  of  the  attack 
appears  to  have  fallen  to  the  north  of  St.  Quentin,  and 
a  protracted  defence  of  Epehy  and  of  Le  Verguier,  each  of 
them  standing  upon  heights  commancUng  the  fields  in  front  of 
them,  was  made.  The  holding  of  the  latter  point  by  the 
24th  Division  being  specially  singled  eut  by  the  British 
Commander-in-Chief  for  distinction. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  the  enemy's  progress  to  the  north 
and  to  the  south  of  Epehy,  which  had  begun  to  form  a  pro- 
nounced salient  round  that  height,  compelled  its  evacuation. 
Heudicourt  was  reached  upon  the  north  and  Villers  Faucon 
upon  the  south,  and  the  point  of  Roisel  to  the  south  again. 
Under  these  conditions,  the  whole  line  here  had  to  fall  back 
to  positions  in  front  of  Bertincourt,  behind  Roisel,  and  even 
beyond  Hancourt.  Thence  the  battle  fluctuated  upon  a  line 
running  nearly  southward,  but  a  little  eastward  until  it 
covered  Ham,  and  so  on  west  of  the  Crozat  Canal,  across 
which  the  British  had  retired,  to  the  Oise  VaUey. 

We  have  not  yet  heard  in  what  force  the  enemy  came  upon 
thi^  front  of  10  miles  south  of  Heudicourt,  but'  it  was  here 
in  the  Vermand  district,  that  he  forced  his  way  through  the 
third  or  main  defensive  Une,  and  compelled  a  considerable 
retirement,  involving  a  modification  of  the  whole  line.  It 
wiU  be  of  interest  to  study  in  detail  the  point  where  this 
local  success  of  his  was  accomplished. 

Immediately  in  front  of  and  to  the  north  of  St.  Quentin 
town  the  front  British  trenches  ran,  1  believe,  as  follows : 


They  covered  the  chateau  and  park  of  Fayet,  lunning 
about  500  yards  from  the  great  high  road  which  leads  (rom 
St.  Quentin  to  Cambrai.  About  half-way  between  Fayet 
and  Gricourt  they  bent  back  somewhat  westward,  covered 
the  ruins  of  Gricourt  village,  and  to  the  north-west  of  these 
the  marshy  village  of  Pontni,  but  left  Pontniet  in  German 


Land    &    Water 


March  28,  i^l8 


In  the  course  of  these  first  operations,  covering  three  days, 
the  Une  had  remained  intact.  The  enemy's  total  claim  to 
prisoners  and  guns  covered  some  25,000  prisoners  and  400 
pieces,  the  greater  part  of  which,  of  course,  are  field  pieces 
which  liad  been  pushed  right  forward  to  take  their  toll  of 
tlie  enemy  masses.  Unfortunately,  we  cannot  at  this  early 
stage  estimate  with  any  degree  of  accuracy  the  es.sential 
point  of  all,  wiiicli  is  the  expense  to  which  tlie  enemy  has 
been  put  to  accomplish  this  preliminary  advance.  We  know 
that  it  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  exceedingly  high  ; 
the  attack  was  pressed  with  very  dense  masses,  used  deliber- 
ately undex  the  theory  that  exceedingly  heavy  initial  losses 
were  worth  while.  The  failure  to  reach  the  original  objectives 
of  the  first  and  second  days  must  have  involved  an  even 
higher  casualty  list  than  had  been  budgeted  for,  and  the 
weakening  of  the  50  divisions  thrown  in  to  the  first  48  hours' 
attack  was  already  sufficient,  by  Saturday,  to  compel  the 
enemy  to  reorganisation  and  very  large  reinforcement  for 
the  n txt  phase  of  the  struggle. 

Mure  tiian  that  we  cannot  say,  but  we  note  that  the  number 
of  prisoners  taken  is  less  than  those  attaching  to  any  corre- 
sponding great  offensive  in  the  war,  front  for  front  and 
numbers  engaged  for  numbers  engaged.  The  loss  in  guns, 
including,  a.s  it  does,  field  pieces  pushed  up  towards  the 
front  line  is  more  considerable.  But  the  figures  point  to 
no  decisive  result  upon  any  part  of  the  line.  They  do  not 
even,  so  far  as  we  have  hitherto  received  them  from  the 
enemy,  point  to  any  effective  disorganisation  upon  the 
sector  west  of  St.  Quentin,  where  they  penetrated  the  third 
or  main  line  of  the  defending  army. 

The  Action 

At  half-past  5 — that  is,  just  before  dawn^-on  the  morning 
of  Wednesday,  the  21st  of  March,  the  enemy  opened  his 
intensive  bombardment,  stretching  from  his  positions  upon 
the  River  Oise  upon  the  south  to  his  positions  upon  the 
River  Scarpe  upon  the  north. 

The  front  upon  which  this  preparatory  bombardment  was 
delivered  exceeds  in  extent  that  of  any  other  similar  effort 
undertaken  by  either  side  in  the  course  of  the  war.  The 
distance,  as  tlfie  crow  flies,  from  Roeux,  upon  the  canalised 
River  Scarpe,  to  Vendeuil  upon  the  Oise  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
76,000  yards,  or  somewhat  over  43  miles  ;  and  the  front 
attacked,  in  all  its  sinuosities,  to  well  over  50.  The 
bombardment,  though  short,  was  of  the  most  intense  char- 
acter ;  more  severe,  in  spite  of  the  very  great  extent  of  the 
line,  than  any  which  had  precedjed  it.  It  included  long- 
distance firing  far  behind  the  fronts  and  a  particularly  heavy 
destruction  of  the  wire  by  the  use  of  trench  weapons  which 
had  been  brought  up  in  very  great  numbers  to  the  most 
advanced  positions  upon  the  German  side.  Towards  the 
dose  of  the  bombardment  the  proportion  of  gas  shells  used 
was  strongly  increased  and  particularly  directed  against  the 
British  batteries  and  cross-roads  and  points  of  concentration 
behind  the  line.  The  increase  in  the  volume  of  gas  delivered 
wa^  an  indication  that  the  infantry  attack  was  at  hand. 
This  attack  was  not  launched  simultaneously  along  the  whole 
line,  but,  according  to  separate  orders,  from  just  after  nine 
till  close  on  ten  in  the  forenoon — with  an  exceptionally  early 
movement  in  one  place  shortly  after  8.  The  advance  of  the 
infantry  was  nearly  co-extensive  with  the  line  of  bombard- 
ment. It  stretched  on  the  north  to  the  valley  of  the  Sensee 
Stream  (some  6,000  yards,  or  3i  miles,  south  of  the  Scarpe). 
On  the  southern  end  of  the  line  the  infantry  attack  was 
delivered  up  to  the  River  Oise  itself. 

If  this  front  as  it  stood  before  the  opening  of  the  battle 
be  examined,  it  will  be  seen  that  its  trace  formed  a  consider- 
able salient  before  Cambrai ;  the  most  advanced  point  of  which 
saUent  was  the  series  of  trenches  which  marked  the  end 
of  the  retirement  from  the  Cambrai  battle-field  after  the 
initial  success  and  subsequent  retirement  of  last  November. 
The  first  effort  of  the  enemy  during  the  course  of  Thursday, 
March  2rst,  was  clearly  designed  to  increase  the  curve  and 
therefore  the  peril  of  this  saUent  by  attacking  it  to  the  north 
and  to  the  south,  the  chief  concentrations  of  German  troops 
being  discovered" in  the  valley  of  the  Sensee,  to  the  north,  in 
front  of  Croisillcs,  and  in  front  of  Epehy  to  the  south.  A 
sufficiently  rapid  advance  upon  cither  of  these  points  might 
have  cut  off  all  that  lay  between  and  have  resulted  in  a  very 
considerable  capture  of  men  and  guns  in  the  intervening 
projection.  The  proportion  of  pressure  exercised  at  these 
two  points  wiU  be  dealt  with  in  a  moment. 

Meanwhile,  a  third  special  effort  designed  to  turii  the 
British  line  as  a  whole  by  its'  right  was  begun  on  the  extreme 
south  just  north  of  the  Oise,  with  the  object  of  throwing 
the  British  in  that  neighbourhood  back  upon,  and  beyond, 
the  Cro/.at  Canal :   there  was  thus  a  repetition,  on  a  large 


scale,  of  the  attack  on  two  distant  points,  with  the  object  of 
"pinching"  the  intermediate  portion  and  making  a  wide 
gap,  wliich  the  enemy  has  invariably  used  in  east  and  west. 
The  number  of  the  enemy  divisions  between  Switzer- 
land and  the  North  Sea  we  have  seen  to  be  186.  There 
is  a  possible  addition  of  four  more  divisions  bringing 
the  total  up  to  190,  and  others  hitherto  within  the  Central 
Empires  may  arrive.  Of  these  186  divisions,  rather  more 
than  half,  96  divisions,  were  aligned  against  the  British 
between  the  Oise  and  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Yser,  north 
of  Ypres.  Not  all  these  186  or  190  divisions  can  be  used 
for  active  work  on  the  front  ;  a  certain  proportion  being 
composed  of  material  inadequate  to  such  a  strain.  No 
estimate  save  of  the  very  roughest  kind  can  be  made  of 
the  proportion  thus  to  be  ehminated,  because  the  fittest 
men  can  be  chosen  from  units  which  are,  as  a  whole  unfit 
for  use  in  the  shock,  atid  because  we  are  necessarily  in  doubt 
as  to  the  exact  condition  of  these  units  and  can  only  judge 
them  by  their  composition  as  indicated  by  their  categories. 
But  if  we  say  that  certainly  less  than  20  per  cent,  but  a 
great  deal  more  than  10  per  cent.,  may  be  thus  regarded 
as  unable  to  appear  on  the  front  of  shock  even  in  the  later 
developments  of  the  struggle,  we  have  the  limits  of  the 
calculation  defined  as  nearly  as  is  possible.  It  is  clear,  of 
course,  that  all  the  best  units  available  will  have  been  chosen 
for  this  main  effort. 

Of  the  40  divisions  originally  mustered  to  strike  the  first 
blow  all  the  way  from  the  Sensee  Brook  to  the  Oise,  the  dis- 
tribution was  very  unequal.  The  work  of  this  first  day 
was  mainly  concerned,  as  I  have  said,  with  an  attempted 
reduction  of  the  Cambrai  saHent,  and  it  was  upon  this  work, 
though  it  was  subsidiary  to  the  main  object  developed  the 
next  day  of  turning  the  British  by  their  extreme  right  upon 
the  Oise,  that  the  principal  effort  was  made.  More  than 
half  of  the  total  force  lay  just  north  and  just  south  of  the 
Cambrai  salient.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  regard  so  very  large 
a  force  as  designed  for  a  feint  even  in  the  most,  general  sense 
of  the  term.  25  of  the  40  divisions  were  to  be  found  thus 
attempting  to  cut  off  the  area  of  which  the  village  of  Havrin- 
court  is  the  most  prominent  point,  and  if  we  add  the  6 
divisions  used  south  of  St.  Quentin  there  are  only  nine 
left  for  those  intervening  parts  of  the  fine  which  were  less 
severely  pressed. 

At  the  first  onslaught,  then,  that  of  the  Thursday,  the  chief 
sector  of  the  whole  front  attacked  and  that  to  which  we 
must  particularly  direct  our  attention,  was  the  sector  stretch- 
ing frdm  the  valley  of  the  Sens6e,  near  Cherisy,  to  the 
neighbourhood  of  Havrincourt  village  in  front  of  Flesquiferes. 
This  is  a  front  of  roughly  20,000  yards,  over  a  quarter  of 
the  whole  of  the  battle  line,  but  much  less  than  one-tliird. 
It  was  here  that  the  enemy  intended,  if  possible,  to  effect  a 
breach  at  the  very  first  shock,  and  certainly  designed  to 
reach  objectives  far  beyond  the  third  or  main  Une  of  the 
British  defensive  system.  He  had  massed  altogether  on 
these  20,000  yards  no  less  than  17  divisions,  or  42  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  of  his  original  attacking  force.  The  extreme 
right  by  Fontaine  held.  What  followed  between  that  point 
and  the  point  12  miles  away  by  Havrincourt  can  only  be 
gathered  very  imperfectly  and  with  difficulty  so  early  in  the 
action  from  the  brief  dispatches  sent  home  and  from  the 
longer  descriptions  of  correspondents ;  but  the  main  facts 
would  seem  to  have  been  these  : 

From  the  valley  of  the  Sensee,  south  of  Fontaine,  the 
object  of  the  enemy  was  to  reach  the  heights  of  Henin,  where 
the  land  falls  away  from  the  Arras-Bapaume  road  and  also 
beyond  the  brook  the  heights  of  St.  Leger.  Both  these 
points  were  covered  by  the  British  main  defensive  or  third 
line.  This  line  continued  on  southward  and  eastward, 
covering  what  were  the  points  where  once  stood  Vraucourt, 
Vaulx,  Morchies,  and  Beaumetz,  and  so  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  Havrincourt.  Of  the  17  divisions  used  upon  this  total 
sector,  the  greater  part,  9  divisions,  were  crowded  into  the 
crescent  between  the  Sensee  brook  near  Cherisy  and  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  railway  beyond  Bullecourt,  a  distance 
of  less  than  9,000  yards ;  and  this  exceedingly  dense  mass 
— by  far  the  heaviest  weight  of  men  used  anywhere  on  this 
field — broke  right  through  back  to  the  third  line,  but  on  the 
third  line  failed. 

I  had  almost  written  that  it  was  the  heaviest  concentration 
for  an  assault  which  this  war  had  seen.  There  was  something 
like  it,  if  we  allow  for  the  larger  size  of  the  divisions  in  those 
days,  when  the  Third  Corps  from  Brandenburg  and  its  neigh- 
bour upon  the  right  stormed  the  Douaumont  Plateau  in  the 
first  days  of  Verdun,  25  months  ago ;  but  that  is  the  only 
parallel  to  the  use  of  such  dense  masses. 

The  result  was  achieved  with  very  heavy  losses  indeed. 
How  high  must,  of  course,  be  a  matter  of  guess-work  until 
much  more  information  is  availablej   but  much  of  the  firing 


March  28,  19 18 


Land    &   Water 


with  the  British  field-guns  was  point  blank,  and  the  assault 
was  made  with  that  complete  disregard  of  immediate  cost 
which  is  the  logical  consequence  of  the  Prussian  tactical 
theory.  The  whole  system  of  the  Prussian  service,  I  repeat, 
and  its  whole  tradition,  at  once  the  cause  and  the  effect  of 
its  type  of  discipline,  involv-es  extremely  heavy  initial  expendi- 
ture upon  the  conception  that  it  is  ultimately  the  cheapest 
price  to  pay  for  success.  Although  the  day  was  misty — at 
any  rate,  during  all  its  earlier  hours — the  target  afforded  by 
these  successive  waves  was  excellent  and  the  execution  done 
against  them  was  correspondingly  great.  It  is  very  difficult 
to  discover  from  the  as  yet  imperfect  descriptions  received 
whether  the  retirement  here  was  contemporary  with  that  to 
the  south  or  came  afterwards  as  a  consequence  of  that  to 
the  south  ;  but,  at  any  rate,  upon  the  southern  half  of  this 
same  sector,  between  the  Cambrai  front  and  the  Sensee,  the 
remainder  of  this  specially  massed  concentration  got  through 
to  near  the  third  line  in  front  of  Morchies.  But  just  as  the 
northern  horn  of  the  advancing  crescent  was  held  at  Fontaine, 
so  was  the  southern  horn  held  from  the  British  positions  in 
the  wood  of  Louveral  Chateau,  and  apparently  the  line 
suffered  little  indentation  between  that  point  upon  the 
Bapaume  high  road  and  the  village  of  Havrincourt.  The 
German  attack  on  this  southern  half  of  the  crescent,  number- 
ing about  four  tg  one  against  the  British  defensive,  was 
conducted  by  the  remaining  eight  divisions  of  the  17.  When, 
the  fighting  died  down  at  the  end  of  the  day  the  situation 
in  tfiis  capital  sector  of  the  whole  line  was,  so  far  as  the 
evidence  aiforded  can  guide  us,  what  is  seen  upon  the  accom- 
panying sketch-map  i,  with  an  enemy  gain  at  the  deepest 
point,  south-east  of  Bullecourt  and  at  Croisilles,  pf  about  a 
mile  and  a  half.  '' 

It  is  clear  that  this  falling  back  upon  the  third  line  in  the 
■orth  would  have  left  the  Cambrai  salient  untenable,  and  it 
is  equally  clear  that  the  line  from  in  front  of  Havrincourt 
village  to  the  falling  ground  in  front  of  Epehy  had  to  be 
withdrawn  to  conform  with  the  northern  situation.  But 
the  first  accounts  deahng  with  the  Thursday's  fighting  tell 
us  very  little  about  this  portion  ;  a  sector,  if  we  count  no 
further  south  than  the  fields  in  front  of  Epdhy,  of  about 
12,000  yards,  or  rather  more  than  7  miles.  Between  this 
point — the  fields  in  front  of  Epehy — and  the  last  of  the  line 
•n  the  right  towards  the  Oise  (the  fighting  on  the  banks  of 
which  river  was  about  20  miles  south  of  Epehy)  we  were 
•nly  told,  with  regard  to  the  first  day,  Thursday';!,  fighting, 
that  on  the  extreme  right,  just  north  of  the  Oise  itself,  a 
heavy  concentration  of  the  enemy,  6  divisions  strong,  was 
held  by  one  British  division  during  the  whole  day.  There 
was  here,  therefore,  as  I  have  said  above,  another  special 
concentration  ;  but  it  failed  of  its  effect,  and  the  British 
force  here  was  only  withdrawn  at  night  after  the  fighting 
Mad  ceased  to  conform  with  the  Une  further  north. 

We  may  sum  up  the  accounts  received  of  the  first  day's 
lighting,  Thursday  the  21st,  briefly,  then,  as  follows  : 

After  an  intensive  bombardment,  beginning  a  little  before 
dawn,  continued  in  most  parts  of  the  hne  for  four  hours 
(though  in  some  for  not  more  than  three),  the  German 
infantry  wa-s  launched  to  the  number  of  40  divisions  against 
the  whole  British  front  between  the  Sensee  Brook,  just 
south  of  the  Scarpe,  and  the  Oise,  a  distance,  allowing  for 
the  folds  in  the  hne  of  over  50  miles.  The  chief  weight  of 
the  attack  was  upon  the  northern  quarter  of  the  line,  a 
sector  of  12  miles,  between  the  Sensee  Brook  and  the  Cambrai 
front.  Here  the  enemy  penetrated  to  the  third  or  main 
British  defensive  line,  occupying  a  crescent  of  land  the  two 
korns  of  which  stood  at  Fontaine  and  Louverval  respectively, 
and  the  maximum  depth  of  which  was  not  quite  a  mile  and 
ft  half.  In  conformity  with  this  indentation,  the  hne  further 
to  the  south  between  Havrincourt  and  Epehy  was  retired, 
both  places  being  still  covered  by  it,  while  Le  Verguier, 
6J  miles  south  of  Epehy,  was  also  held.  The  last  section 
between  the  Somme  and  the  Oise  witnessed  on  its  southern- 
most extremity  the  very  heavy  pressure  of  six  German 
•Lvisions,  which  were  succe.ssfully  held,  but  by  nightfall  the 
defensive  was  called  back  up  to  or  behind  the  Crozat  Canal. 
On  the  Thursday  night  a  dense  mist  again  arose  and 
forbade  effective  operations.  Aircraft  could  not  leave  the 
ground  in  the  southern  area,  where  the  mist  was  especially 
den.se  ;  the  air  was  clearer  in  the  north,  and  dispatches  tell 
MS  of  heavy  bombardment  from  the  air  against  points  in 
Belgium,  which  have,  of  course,  nothing  to  do  with  the  main 
action.  The  mist  upon  the  southern  sector,  where  the 
enemy  was  to  attempt  a  decisive  effort  upon  this  Friday, 
the  22nd,  rose  late  in  the  forenoon.  As  it  cleared,  perhaps 
between  10  and  11  o'clock,  it  was  apparent  that  the  main 
enemy  effort  was  developing  upon  the  south,  and  that 
the  decisive  stroke  for  the  turning  of  the  British  hne  by  its 
right  was  being  delivered. 


The  accounts  so  far  received  of  what  followed  are  meagre  ; 
but,  piecing  them  together,  and  including  the  enemy's  dis- 
patches and  claims,  we'  can  airrive  at  a  general  outline.  For 
this  purpose,  we  must  take  our  view  from  the  town  of  St. 
Quentin  and  consider  the  ground  extending  over  150  degrees 
from  Epehy,  12  miles  N.N.W.  of  St.  Quentin  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Tergnier,  an  equal  distance  due  south  of  it,  where 
the  marshy  Oise  Valley  begins. 

The  whole  of  this  district  is  that  which  was  devastated 
by  the  enemy  during  his  retreat  a  year  ago.  It  consists,  for 
the  most  part,  of  the  upper  basin  of  the  Somme  River,  which 
flows  through  St.  Quentin  and,  after  running  south-west 
towards  Ham,  bends  round  sharply  north  to  Peronne.  The 
ground  falls  away  westward  by  a  gradual  dechne  of  about  300 
feet  from  heights  just  west  of  St.  Quentin,  and  is  drained  by  the 
three  parallel  streams  of  the  Upper  Somme  with  its  canal,  the 
Omignon,  and  the  Cologne.  South  of  the  Somme  a  water- 
shed, from  150  to  180  feet  above  the  water  levels,  separates 
the  Upper  Somme  from  the  Valley  of  the  Oise.  It  is  known 
as  the  Ridge  of  Essigny.  There  is  a  depression  at  the  south- 
western end  of  this  ridge  which  runs  from  the  Somme  itself 
to  the  Oise  Valley,  and  is  used  by  the  canal  known  as  the 
Crozat  Canal. 

We  have  seen  that  on  the  previous  day,  the  Thursday,  no 
less  than  six  German  divisions  had  exercised  their  pressure 
upon  the  small  British  force  defending  the  upland  between 
the  Upper  Somme  and  the  Oise  Rivers,  and  that  in  the  night 
the  British  force,  which  had  thus  checked  the  enemy  all 
day,  was  retired  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Crozat  Canal. 
The  fighting  of  Friday  morning  developed,  therefore,  upon  a 
line  without  any  marked  salient,  running  in  front  of  Epehy, 
Le  Verguier,  and  so  down  to  the  Crozat  Canal,  and  along  it 
to  the  marshy  Oise  Valley.  The  main  weight  of  the  attack 
appears  to  have  fallen  to  the  north  of  St.  Quentin,  and 
a  protracted  defence  of  Epehy  and  of  Le  Verguier,  each  of 
them  standing  upon  heights  commanding  the  fields  in  front  of 
them,  was  made.  The  holding  of  the  latter  point  by  the 
24th  Division  being  specially  singled  eut  by  the  British 
Commander-in-Chief  for  distinction. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  the  enemy's  progress  to  the  north 
and  to  the  south  of  Epehy,  which  had  begun  to  form  a  pro- 
nounced saHent  round  that  height,  compelled  its  evacuation. 
Heudicourt  was  reached  upon  the  north  and  Villers  Faucon 
upon  the  south,  and  the  point  of  Roisel  to  the  south  again. 
Under  these  conditions,  the  whole  hne  here  had  to  fall  back 
to  positions  in  front  of  Bertincourt,  behind  Roisel,  and  even 
beyond  Hancourt.  Thence  the  battle  fluctuated  upon  a  line 
running  nearly  southward,  but  a  little  eastward  until  it 
covered  Ham,  and  so  on  west  of  the  Crozat  Canal,  across 
which  the  British  had  retired,  to  the  Oise  Valley. 

We  have  not  yet  heard  in  what  force  the  enemy  came  upon 
thi^  front  of  10  miles  south  of  Heudicourt,  but  it  was  here 
in  the  Vermand  district,  that  he  forced  his  way  through  the 
third  or  main  defensive  line,  and  compelled  a  considerable 
retirement,  involving  a  modification  of  the  whole  line.  It 
will  be  of  interest  to  study  in  detail  the  point  where  this 
local  success  of  his  was  accomplished. 

Immediately  in  front  of  and  to  the  north  of  St.  Quentin 
town  the  front  British  trenches  ran,  I  believe,  as  follows  : 


0/2        32fi/es 


STQUENTlN 


They  covered  the  chateau  and  paik  of  Fayet,  lunning 
about  500  yards  from  the  great  high  road  which  leads  from 
St.  Quentin  to  Cambrai.  About  half.way  between  Fajet 
and  Gricourt  they  bent  back  somewhat  westward,  covered 
the  ruins  of  Gricourt  village,  and  to  the  north-west  of  these 
the  marshy  village  of  Pontru,  but  left  Pontruet  in  German 


8 


Land   &   Water 


March   28,  i'1918 


hands.  Behind  these  front  lines,  rolling  open  conntry,  with 
one  or  two  small  copses,  rises  very  slowly  to  a  height  shghtly 
superior  to  all  its  surroundings  and  bearing  the  ruins  of 
Holnon  village.  Immediately  behind  Holnon  Village  its 
highest  part  ujion  a  level  with  the  ruins,  but  sloping  slightly 
down  from  them  to  the  west,  lies  the  large  wood  of  Holnon, 
througii  which  passes  as  a  green  lane  the  Roman  road  from 
St.  Quentin  to  Vermand.  This  wood  is  nearly  two  miles 
long  and  in  places  a  mile  across.  It  was  here  that  the  main 
British  defensive  position  lay  from  5,000  to  ,6,000  yards 
behind  the  original  front  line,  and  it  was  here,  according  to 
The  German  dispatch,  that  the  local  breach  was  made  in  the 
British  main  line.  Thence  the  successful  attack  poured  fan- 
shape,  increasing  the  breach,  to  the  valley  of  the  little  Omi,gnon 
River,  a  mile  to  a  mile  and  a  half  below.  This  successful 
movement  rendered  Saw  and  Rupy,  to  the  south,  untenable, 
and  compelled  a  rearrangement  of  the  whole,  line,  which  was 
reformed  from  Tincourt  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  junction 
of  fhe  Crozat  Canal  with  the  Somtne  and  thence  along. the 
bank  dominating  that  canal  from  the  west  to  the  Oise. 

Meanwhile,  as  the  Britisli  line  thus  slowly  fell  back  and  in 
good  order,  continuing  its  very  heavy  slaughter  of  the  advanc- 
ing enemy  masses  upon  the  south,  the  north,  upon  which  it 
pivotted,  held.  The  enemy  would  seem  to  have  reached 
no  further  here  than  the  foot  of  the  St.  Leger  height  and 
just  beyond  Vraucourt  and  Vaulx  ;  during  the  night  he  had 
penetrated  into  Mory,  but  was  thrown  out  again. 

The  conclusion,  therefore,  of  this  first  phase  of  the  assault 
showed  the  hne  standing,  on  the  Saturday  morning,  roughly, 
paraUel  to,  and  east  of,  the  great  road  Arras,  Bapaume, 
Peronne,  Ham.  This  line  upon  the  map  defines  in  a 
general  fashion  the  belt  upon  which  the  first  phase  of  the 
battle  came  to  an  end.  We  should  remark  that  all  the 
northern  portion  of  it,  from  Arras  nearly  to  Peronne,  lies 
along  heights  up  to  which  the  land  rises  from  the  Scarpe 
basin,  and  during  this  first  half  of  its  course  the  battle  position 
arrived  at  by  Saturday  last  enjoys  a  corresponding  advantage. 
South  of  Peronne,  and  between  that  town  and  the  Oise, 
things  are  different.  The  battle  zone  here  has  immediately 
behind  it  and  from  60  to  100  feet  below  it  the  very  marshy 
valley  of  the  Upper  Somme.  It  will  be  easier  to  stand  for 
the  moment  behind  such  an  obstacle.  The  last  portion  south 
of  Ham  is  composed  of  confused- high  land,  the  last  half  of 
which  again,  as  one  approaches  the  Oise,  is  densely  wooded 
and  rises  to  over  400  feet  above  that  river.  It  would,  there- 
fore, seem  to  be  the  section  between  Peronne  and  Ham 
which  is  the  critical  section  at  the  moment  of  writing,  but 
we  note  that  the  British  dispatch  of  Saturday  evening  speaks 
of  very  heavy  fighring  in  the  North  upon  the  day  ;  the  pres- 
sure, therefore,  was  continued  as  much  as  the  enemy  could 
bring  it  to  bear  after  the  moment  upon  Saturday  noon  or 
thereabouts,  when  he  had  himself  announced  that  the  first 
stage  of  the  battle  was  ended.  He  was  also  engaged,  some 
hours  earlier  in  the  night,  in  making  vigorous  efforts  to  force 
the  British  back  on  their  extreme  right  from  the  posidons 
which  they  held  behind  the  Crozat  Canal,  and  his  action  at 
that, point  is  instructive. 

There  runs  from  St.  Quentin  to  the  Crozat  Canal  one 
main  road  through  Essigny.  It  had  a  bridge,  destroyed,  of 
course,  in  the  Gennan  retreat,  restored  again  by  the  AlUes, 
and  we  may  make  certain  destroyed  once  more  when  the 
British  recrossed  it  last  Friday,  which  passed  the  canal  at 
about  a  third  of  its  course  between  the  Somme  and  the  Oise. 
Immediately  upon  the  western  or  British  side  of  the  obstacle 
stood  the  village  of  Jussy,  and  it  was  here  that  repeated 
attempts  were  made  all  night  long  by  the  enemy  to  dislodge 
the  British  force  which  held  this  point.  Their  efforts  had,  up 
to  the  dispatch  received  upon  Sunday  morning  last,  failed, 
but  it  was  clear  that  the  positions  to  which  the  British  had 
retired,  and  which  they  were  holding  at  the  end  of  what  the 
enemy  calls  the  first  phase  of  the  battle,  on  Saturday,  were 
temporary  only,  for  they  stood  far  forward  of  the  general  line. 
We  may,  before  concluding  this  account  of  the  action  as  a 
whole  cite  the  very  brief  couple  of  sentences  in  whicli  the 
enemy  makes  his  confession  of  loss.  They  were  dispatched 
apparently  towards  the  end  of  Saturday,  and  they  run  as 
follows :  'V 

"The  first  stage  of  the  great  battle  in  France  is  ended.  A 
considerable  part  of  the  English  Army  is  beaten." 

Of  these  two  sentences,  the  first  only  has  any  significance. 
The  second  is  rhetoric.  To  bteat  an  army— that  is,  to  obtain 
a  decision  against  it— is  to  put  it  out  of  action,  which  in 
this  case  would  mean  the  rupture  of  the  line,  and  either  the 
'ompulsion  of  a  forced  and  precipitate  retreat  or  rolhng 
it  up  along  the  flank  thus  formed.  Nothing  of  this  sort 
had  happened  bv  the  night  of  Saturday  last,  and  we  must 
therefore  turn  to"  the  first  phrase  to  learn  the  meaning  of  the 
<>ftemy's  statement.     That  meaning  is  simple  enough.     By 


Friday  night  the  energy  of  the  original  assaulting'force,  as 
a  whole,  was  partly  spent.  It  continued  to  exercise  pressure 
as  best  it  could,  especially  in  the  north  and  on  the  extreme 
south  at  Jussy.  But  it  attained  no  appreciable  results  in  the 
first  district,  and  none  at  all  in  the  second.  There  was, 
therefore,  a  necessity  for  the  Germans  to  bring  up  a  great 
number  of  reserve  divisions  although  they  had  already  put 
in  over  fifty.  How  long  such  a  rate  of  loss  and  reinforcement  can 
last,  the  energy  with  which  he  can  return  to  the  assault, 
the  consoUdation  of  the  new  line  effected  during  the  interval, 
these  are  the  factors  upon  wliich  the  next  phase  of  the  battle 
will  repose,  upon  which  alone  a  judgment  of  it  could  be 
based,  and  of  which  we  are  necessarily  ignorant.  By  the 
time  these  lines  are  in  the  hands  of  the  pubUc — four  days 
after  they  are  written — most  or  all  of  these  questions  may 
have  been  answered  by  the  event. 

Summary  of  Results 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  sum  up  the  great  two  days' 
action  and  to  estimate  the  situation  upon  the  third  day, 
the  Saturday,  when  the  enemy  admitted  his  losses  and 
spoke  of  the  f^rst  phase  of  the  battle  as  ended. 

The  original  front  line  had  run,  as  will  be  seen  upon  the 
sketch  map  i,  from  Cherisy  to  Vendeuil,  as  follows  ; 

Passing  just  behind  Cherisy  and  through  the  outer  ruins 
of  Fontaine,  it  covered  BuUecourt  with  a  shallow  salient, 
passed  rather  less  than  half-way  between  Noreuil  and  Oueant., 
formed   another  slight   salient  beyond   Lagnicourt,   covered 
the  ruins  of  Boursies,  with  Louverval  hamlet  and  chateau 
behind  them,  and  from  this  point  on  the  Bapaume  high  road 
began  what  is  called  the  Cambrai  salient.     This  salient  just 
covered  Flesquieres  and  Ribecourt,  climbed  to  the  summits 
of  the  La  Vacqiierie  heights,  which  the  British  call  "Welsh 
Ridge"  ;   left  the  ruins  of  La  Vacquerie  hamlet  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy  or  in  No  Man's  Land  ;    bent  back  to  pass  half- 
way between  Gouzeaucourt  and  Gonnelieu,  and  tenninated 
about   half-way   between   Epehy   and   Honnecourt  ;     thence 
the  line  ran  eastward  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Vendhuille, 
and  then  roughly  southward  to  the  point  half-way  between 
Pontru  and  Pontruet,  where  begins  the  section  immediately 
north  of  St.  Ouefitin  just  described.     South  of  St.  Quentin 
the  line,  running  only  just  outside  the  suburbs  of  that  town, 
just  missed  the  ruins  of  Gauchy,  covered  those  of  Urvillers, 
ran  through  those  of  Moy,  and  so  through  those  of  Vendeuil 
to  the  Oise  near  La  F^re.     When  the  new  line  was  estab- 
lished by  Saturday  morning  its  trace,  though  if  can  only  be 
given  approximately  (for  parts  of  it  were  still  fluctuating) 
would  seem  to  have  uncovered  Croi>illes  ;    but  still  to  cover 
the  height   of    St.  Leger  to  have  run  behind  Vraucourt  and 
Vaulx,   through  the  neighbourhood  of  Bertincourt  towards 
Fins  ;     thence    nearly    due    south    behind    Hancourt,    and, 
probably    after    some    deflection    westward,    south-eastward 
again  towards  the  junction  of  the  Somme  and  the  Crozat 
Canal.     Its  last  section  would  seem  to   have  followed  the 
canal,  as  I  have  said,  along  the  heights  of  the  western  bank. 
In  mere  measurement  of  ground — for  what  that  is  worth — 
this  gives  a  maximum  depth  of  nearly  nine  miles  just  where 
we  should  have  expected  it  behind  Holnon  ;    another  depth 
of  perliaps  over  six  miles  behind  the  Cambrai  salient,  and 
an  average  width  of  perhaps  some  three  filing  down  to  nothing 
in  the  north,  in  the  Scarpe  Valley  ;    the  whole  movement 
being,   as  we  have  seen,   a  pivotting  b^ck  upon   the  fixed 
northern  extremity  of  this  long  front. 

Such  are  the  results  upon  the  map  of  the  action  up  to  the 
moment  of  writing.  We  have  no  further  news  save  that 
no  change  was  to  be  reported  on  the  Sunday  morning,  but 
that  during  the  night  between  Saturday  and  Sunday  the 
enemv  had  begun  to  renew  his  vigorous  efforts,  concentrating 
especially  upon  the  high  ground  covering  Peronne. 
•  »  » 

The  daily  Press,  which  has  the  advantage  of  following 
every  stage  in  the  action  more  closely  than  can  be  hoped 
for  in  this  weekly  paper,  has  everywhere  enjoined  the  same 
duty.  It  is  an  obvious  one,  and  too  much  repetition  of  it 
would  be   tedious  or   futile. 

The  moment  in  which  these  lines  are. written  is  clearly 
the  most  critical  for  this  country  and  for  the  whole  AUiance  ' 
since  the  mastership  of  Foch  in  open  manoeuvre  decided 
44  months  ago  the  Battle  of  the  Marne.  The  fresh  and 
eager  mood  in  which  the  civihan  public  could  then  meet 
the  perils  of  the  war  has  necessarily  disappeared  under  the 
long  strain  ;  the  full  measure  of  the  national  danger  is  appre- 
ciated, as  it 'certainly  was  not  in  1914  ;  and,  meanwhile,  the 
whole  face  of  the  Alliance  has  cfianged.  The  war,  which 
was  for  more  than  2\  years  a  great  and  calculable  siege, 
became,  through  the  dissolution  of  the  Russian  State,  a  duel, 
and  a  duel  in  which  until  the  force  of  the  United  States  could 


March    28,  1 9 1  8 


Land    &    Water 


be  developed — a  necessarily  tardy  process — the  weight  of 
numbers,  as  a  whole,  was  against  the  Powers  which  are 
defending  European  civilisation  and  the  future  of  all  its 
traditions.  The  position  was  rightly  envisaged  as  a  duel 
of  this  kind  during  tJie  long,  tense,  but  enervating  lull  of  the 
winter  ;  the  political  discussions  which  arose  in  tliat  interval 
did  little  more  than  mask  a  more  profound  feeling,  which 
was  universal  in  the  West, .  and  which' was  a  mixture  of 
expectancy,  anxiet\^  and  determination.  The  issue  of  that 
duel  is  now  joined.  The  two  steels  have  met.  The  first 
heavy  lunge  has  been  delivered.  In  the  two  fierce  opening 
days  of  its  energy  it  has  been  parried:  but  with  difficulty 
and  with  no  finality — as  yet.  A  third  day  has  passed,  and 
part  of  a  fourth,  without  as  yet  the  appearance  of  the  next 
move.  It  may  be  that  the  full  suspense  under  wliich  these 
lines  also  are  written  will  continue  by  tlie  time  they  are  in 
the  hands  of  the  public. 

The  Prussian  System 

By  so  mucli  as  we  had  chiefly  to  consider  during  the  time 
when  the  war  was  a  calculable  siege,  numbers,  dispositions, 
and.  in  general  the  purely  military  problem — a  consideration 
at  which  fools  only  mocked — but  fools  are  many — by  so 
much  the  duty  of  the  civilian  at  this  moment  is  now  the 
converse  of  a  merely  mihtary  consideration  and  has  become 
mainly  a  political  one.  It  is  the  business  of  all  neither  to 
prophesy  success,  as  has  become  the  fatuous  habit  of  those 
who  suffer  or  enjoy  temporary  authority  upon  both  sides, 
nor_even  to  listen  to  such  baseless  and  useless  pronounce- 
ments. It  is  rather  our  duty  to  reiterate  to  ourselves,  to 
recover  and  re-emphasise  after  its  partial  oblitersjtion  during 
the  tedium  of  the  lull  now  ]iassed,  what  is  now  beyond  any 
dispute  and  beyond  any  possibility  of  argument,  the  issue 
involved.  Not  the  least  instructed  of  those  who  have 
imagined  Prussia  to  be  something  like  themselves  can  be 
in  doubt  any  longer.  No  one,  however  ignorant  of  the 
European  past,  but  feels  his  own  country  at  l^ast,  and  there- 
fore his  own  being,  to  be  at  stake.  Upon  the  grciat  battle  which 
has  now  but  just  opened  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  campaign 
must  necessarily  turn  ;  and  our  business  is  to  envisage  with 
the  utnaost  clarity  during  the  terrible  attention  of  the  next 
few  days  or  weeks  the  alternatives  before  us.  If  Prussia 
now  fails,  she  has  failed  for  ever.  The  vast  congeries  of 
mixed  and  various  peoples  whom  she  has  drawn  directly 
and  indirectly  into  her  detestable  system,  will  dissolve.  It 
has  no  natural  foundation  nor  any  natural  bond.  Even  its 
suppoi5ed  (ierman  basis  is  largely  a  modern  academic  fiction. 
The  rest  is  force,  fraud,  and  mechanics.  If  it  please  God 
that  this  system  shall  be  destroyed  by  the  sword  of  the 
Allies,  the  world  will  be  recovered. 

We  need  waste  no  mental  strength  upon  the  wholl3'  ephemeral 
catch  words  which  have  cropped  up  in  the  course  of  the 
struggle  ;  it  is  not  true  that  democracy  is  admitted  to  be  the 
best  form  of  human  government  ;  still  less  is  it  true  that 
niodern  industrial  society  is  democratic  or  that  Parliaments 
are  generally  regarded  as  instruments  of  a  happy  and  stable 
freedom.  It  is  not  true  to  say,  and  it  is  not  felt  by  the 
millions  who  have  suffered  in  this  great  cause,  that  par- 
ticular mechanical  schemes  of  international  arrangement  are 
the  object  of  the  sacrifice.  Men  have  neither  volunteered  nor 
died  nor  endured  such  abominable  things  for  so  long  nor  have 
women  suffered  the  much  worse  things  of  the  soul  to  which  they 
have  been  subjected,  for  any  of  these  academic  phrases.  What 
all  have  felt  and  what  all  still  feel,  what  every  man  is  feeling 
who  is,  as  I  am  writing,  engaged  between  the  Scarpa  and  the 
Somme,  is  the  necessity  of  preserving  his  countr)'.  Patriotism 
is  the  flame  of  this  war ;  and  it  is  because  Prussia  is  the  nega- 
tion of  patrioti.sm  that  Prussia  has  made  herself  the  enemy. 
The  love  of  country  in  our  old  civilisation  is  equivalent  to 
and  is  the  expression  of  its  general  soul  ;  through  it  alone 
we  are  wliat  we  are  ;  and  through  it  alone  does  the  modern 
man  receive  the  tremendous  inheritance  of  Europe  which  is 
now  at  stake.   • 

If  in  th(!  great  debate  now  actually  joined  before  Arras, 
St.  Quentin,  and  Laon — three  ancient  witnessesof  such  things 
— the  enemy  triumi)hs,  what  will  go  is  our  very  souls.  That 
is  what  we  must  grasp  and  retain  throughout  all  that  may 
be  before  us.  Nothing  whatsoever  can  compensate  a  man 
for  the  loss  of  his  national  pride  which  contains,  informs, 
and  creates  his  standing  in  this  world.  If  we  regard  the  pre- 
servation of  that- object  as  supreme;  if  we  count  nothing 
whatsfx'ver  in  the  balance  against  it,  then  no  material  victory 
can  ultimately  prevent  the  successful  reaction  of  Europe 
against  that  which  intends,  and  would  produce,  the  death 
of  Europe  :  That  which  has  already  broken  with  European 
morals  and  chivalry  in  war  and  has  rendered  detestable 
what,  for  all  its  horror,  had  hitherto  been  glorious  in  arms. 
If  such  a  faith  is  held  fast  it  can  carr\'  success  not  onlv 


through  this  immediate  trial,  but  through  whatever  an 
untoward  issue  of  that  trial  might  impose  upon  us  for  the 
future.  If  it  is  not  held  with  sufficient  clarity,  smglcness, 
and  tenacity,  even  victory  will  yield  but  little  fruit,  and 
deleat  would  be  final.  tt  n 

HiLAiRE  Belloc. 


Postscript 


It  has  proved  possible  to  delay  printing  for  the  addition  of 
a  few  words  upon  the  further  results  obtained  by  the  enemy 
in  the  course  of  Sunday  and  during  Monday,  the  24th  and 
25th  of  the  month,  and  to  estimate"  upon  the  further  cost  at 
which  these  results'  have*'been  obtained. 

Briefly  (to  take  the-  last  point  first),  another  twenty 
divisions  have  been  identified  as  throtvn  into  the  struggle 
for  its  second  phase,  and  the  total  number  recognised  by  the 
defensive  as  having  come  in  by  Monday  is  no  less  than 
seventy-three.  It  is  indeed  probable  that  divisions  are 
relieved,  or  their  immediate  task  of  assault  taken^over,  by 
fresh  units,  after  a  loss  less  severe  than  was  the  case  when 
the  enemy  wa,s  on  the  defensive  last  year.  As  we  know,  it 
was,  under  those  circumstances,  only  after  the  loss  of  some- 
thing like  50  per  cent,  that  a  division  was  relieved.  The 
present  proportion  cannot  be  on  the  average  anything  like 
so  high,  though  certain  units,  oi  course,  have  lost  even  more. 
But  it  is  none  the  less  significant  that  there  .should  already 
before  the  end  of  the  fifth  day  have  been  drawn  in  and  partly 
used  up  nearly  double  the  enormous  numbers  massed  for 
the  first  shock. 

It  is  an  index  of  the  pace  at  which  the  thing  is  being  forced, 
the  enemy's  determination  to  succeed  or  fail  "as  rapidly  as 
possible  ;  in  other  words,  to  gamble  very  high.  It  is  also 
an  index  of  the  conditions  upon  which  the  Allies  are  banking 
for  their  counter- stroke  w-hen  the  large  reserves  shall  be 
used  ;  for  it  is  now  apparent  that  the  defensive  has  been 
maintained  with  economy. 

So  far  as  ground  is  concerned,  the  enemy  reached  and 
passed  on  Monday  the  line  of  the  high  road,  Arras-Bapaume- 
Peronne,  which  on  Saturday  was  everywhere  covered  by  the 
British  forces.  He  was  some  thousand  yards  beyond 
Bapaiune  on  Monday  evening,  he  had  occupied  Peronne, 
and  he  had  established  one  bridge-head  at  least  beyond  the 
marshy  valley  of  the  Somme ;  though  here  he  lost  very 
heavily,  and  full  use  was  made  of  that  obstacle  by  the  defen- 
sive to  inflict  loss  on  the  attack.  The  number  of  prisoners 
claimed  has  swollen  to  45,000,  and  of  guns  to  over  600. 

The  French  have  taken  over  the  portion  of  the  line  on  the 
south,  reaching  apparently  to  somewhat  north  of  Nesle,  that 
is,  to  the  north-west  of  Ham,  uncovering  Guiscard  and 
Chauny  (none  of  these  places  are  marked  in  the  sketch  map 
drawn  for  the  results  of  Saturday,  they  fall  into  the  area 
covered  by  the  inset).  The  appearance  of  the  French  here 
upon  the"  right  has  nothing  to  do,  of  course,  with  the  use  of 
the  great  reserves,  which  is  a  local  extension  undertaken  by 
units  belonging  to  the  general  line. 

The  defensive  was  still  intact  by  the  Monday,  and  its 
general  line  would  seem  to  have  been  at  that  mpment  one 
lying  almost  due  north  and  south  from  the  neighbourhood 
of  Arras,  involving,  therefore,  a  further  pivotting  back  upon 
the  northern  hinge  of  another  twenty  degrees.  Monchy  Hill, 
to  the  east  of  Arras,  was  in  enemy  hands,  and  so  was  the 
high  ground  of  Henin  and  St.  Leger.  The  line,  still  in  move- 
ment, seems  to  have  crossed  the  Arras-Bapaume  road  about 
half-way  between  the  two  towns  ;  it  then  bent  somewhat 
westward  round  Bapaume,  reached  the  Somme  at  a  place 
corresponding  to  the  original  line  from  which  the  offensive 
started  in  ic)i6,  and  so  ran  southward  over  the  devastated 
area  ;  still  covering  Noyon  and  the  wooded  heights  to  the 
north  and  east  of  it,  where  the  French  are  still  maintaining 
them.selves. 

It  must  be  repeated  in  this  postscript  upori  what  basis  all 
sane  judgment  upon  the  situation  depends.  Any  ground  or 
even  losses  of  men  and  material  by  the  defence  (within  a 
certain  measure  which  has  not  been  exceeded)  are  nothing 
to  three  factors,  which  only  tiie  event  can  determine  for  us, 
and  which  are  the  real  essentials  of  the  situation. 

The  first  is  the  condition  of  the  defensive  line — that  it 
should  remain  unbroken.  The  second  is  the  rate  of  the 
losses  which  are  being  inflicted  upon  the  enemy.  The  third 
is  the  effect  that  will  be  produced  by  the  great  reserves 
when  they  come  into  play  :  whether  this  be  in  a  war  of 
movement  suitable  for  or  in  the  shape  of  a  counter-offensive 
upon  a  standing  line.  This  last  feature  of  reserve,  which 
must  be  no  more  than  named  (although  the  enemy  is,  of 
course,  well  aware  of  it,  and  has  discussed  it  at  length  in 
his  Press),  is  that  with  which  the  Germans  are  most  con- 
cerned, and  upon  which  we  should  therefore  most  rely. — H.  B. 


mmmmmmmmmmm 


ffPHMMiiippmiiii^llllll 


^^yTy^ f'^^^'r'^^^l^^  '—■:'r-  "v'^tf  ' 


Copyrigitt  1918,   U.S.A, 


Wm 


The    End 


Bv  Loi 


"  The  enemy  has  paid  a  stupendous  price  for  his  gain  of  ground.       It  is  ground  which  he  himsel 


m 


the    Road 


Copyright.  "Land  &  Water.' 


(TS. 


aste  with  absolute  destruction"— Mr.  Philip  Gibbs  {Daily  Chronicle)  on  the  German  Offensive. 


12 


Land    &    Water 


March    28,   191  8 


The  Submarine  Campaign:    By  Arthur  Pollen 


THE  coincidi'iice  last  week  of  tlic  revelation  by 
the  Government  of  the  true  position  with  regard 
to  tonnage  incidentally,  a  bird's-eye  ivview  of 
the  course  of  the  war  at  sea  during  the  last  yt^ar — 
with  the  great  attack  on  our  front  in  France, 
intended  by  the  Germans  to  be  decisive,  has  proved,  as 
nothing  else  could  have  proved,  that  the  strategy  of  our 
enemv  is  entirely  dominated  by  the  course  of  the  war  at  sea. 
Two  other  events  -the  destnn'ei"  engagement  that  took 
place  last  Thursday  between  Dunkirk  and  Zeel^rugge,  and 
the  seizure  of  Dut'-ii  shipping — interpreted,  as  they  should 
be,  in  the  light  thrown  upon  the  sea  war  by  the  Admiralty 
revelations,  emphasise  this  broad  truth  still  further.  The 
Dunkirk  engagement  serves  further  to  indicate  to  us 
certain  essential  truths  governing  the  present  sea  war,  which 
seem  to  have  been  little  appreciated  during  the  last  three 
"A-ears.     Let  us  deal  with  these  points  in  order. 

Tonnage  of  the  World 

Sir  Eric  Gcddes  gave  us  the  broad  facts  of  the  tonnage 
position  in  his  statement  read  to  the  House  of  Commons  on 
Wednesday.  On  Thursday  e\-ening  a  White  Paper  was 
issued  setting  out,  graph-wise,  the  loss  of  tonnage  and  its 
replacement  by  new  construction  since  the  outbreak  of  war. 
Two  diagrams  were  published,  one  showing  Josses  and  recon- 
struction as  they  affected  l?ritish  shipping  onh',  the  other 
illustrating  the  same  for  all  neutral  and  all  belligerents 
other  than  the  enemy.  If  we  regard,  as  scientifically,  1 
suppose,  we  should,  the  world's  tonnage,  so  defined,  as  under 
Allied  control  and  equally  available  for  Allied  purposes,  then 
the  situation  revealed  by  the  second  diagram,  while  anything 
but  satisfactory  to  those  who  hope  for  a  speedy  victory  by 
America's  military  help,  is  very  much  less  alarming  than  those 
anticipated  who  have  interpreted  the  food  rationing  to 
foreshadow  an  impending  surrender  bj-  famine,  although,  of 
course,  we  have  paid  and  must  continue  to  pay  until  the  end 
of  the  war  the  penalty  for  this  serious  loss  of  tonnage. 

The  situation  is,  roughly,  this.  Over  11,800,000  tons 
have  been  lost,  T^ie  British  share  is  just  ov^r  7,000,000  ; 
the  non-British  share  just  under  5,000,000.  Of  this  loss, 
just  over  six  and  a  half  million  tons  have  been  repl^iced  by 
new  construction,  and  just  over  two  and  a  half  milhons  by 
the  seizure  of  en&my  vessels.  British  new  construction 
amounts  to  just  over  three  million  tons,  and  the  tonnage  we 
have  captured  to  just  under  eight  hundred  thousand,  so 
that  our  total  loss  of  seven  million  tons  is  diminished  by  the 
total  gain  of  3,800,000,  leaving  us  with  a  net  loss  of  just 
oven  three  and  a  quarter  million.  The  non-British  Powers 
have  constructed  half  a  million  more  tons  than  we  have, 
and  have  captured  a  million  tons  more.  Their  gross  gain  is, 
therefore,  nearly  5,400,000  tons,  and  as  their  loss  was  only 
4.750,000,  they  have  a  net  gain  of  over  600,000 'tons.  Setting 
this  off  against  the  net  British  loss,  the  AlUed  Powers  and 
neutrals  together  are  just  over  two  and  a  half  million  tons 
to  the  bad. 

This  was  the  position  at  the  end  of  last  year,  and  in  the 
last  quarter  of  last  year  the  rate  of  loss  was  diminishing 
\'ery  rapidly  indeed.  It  had  fallen — since  the  third  quarter — 
from  about  a  million  and  a  half  tons  to  about  a  million  and  a 
quarter,  while  new  construction  had  gone  up  from  600,000 
to  nearly  950,000  tons.  The  two  curves  as  published,  look 
as  if  they  were  going  to  meet  before  the  first  quarter  of  this 
year  was  completed — as  if,  in  other  words,  they  should  have 
met  already.  The  curves,  as  published  for  Great  Britain, 
showed  a  similar  tendency.  At  the  end  of  the  third  quarter 
of  1917,  our  loss  of  tonnage  was  at  the  rate  of  950,000,  and 
our  construction  250,000  tons.  There  was  a  gap,  therefore, 
of  700,000  tons.  But  by  the  end  of  the  year,  the  rate  of  loss 
had  fallen  below  800, oot)  tons,  and  the  rate  of  construction 
had  risen  to  over  400,000.  So,  where  the  graphs  end,  the 
gap  was  below,  being  but  little  more  than  350,000  tons. 
Could  the  curves  have  continued,  these  two  also  would  have 
met  by  about  the  end  of  this  month.  As  I  shall  point  out 
later,  through  the  accidental  selection  of  quai'terly  periods, 
both  of  these  curves  arc  misleading. 

Rut  before  going  on  to  this  demonstration,  let  us  deal 
with  the  actual  situation  at  the  close  of  last  year.  The 
tonnage  available  to  the  .\llies,  as  we  have  seen,  was  then, 
roughly,  two  and  a  half  million  tons  down.  This  in  itself 
does  not  reveal  a  position  that  is  dangerous.  If  new  con- 
struction were  never  to  rise  beyond  the  level  at  which  it 
stood   at  the  close 'of   1917 — just  under  a  million   tons  a 


quarter — and  if  there  was  no  improvement  in  the  rate  of 
loss — just  under  1,300,000  tons  a  quarter — it  is  certain  that 
the  enemy  would  not  be  able,  by  such  an  attrition  of  our  sea 
transport  as  this,  to  bring  the  Allied  combtnation  to  the 
negotiation  point — which  is  the ,  same  thing  as  surrender 
point— before  exhaustion  had  overwhelmed  the  Centra! 
Powers  themselves.  The  curves,  in  other  words,  show  at 
the  final  point  to  which  they  have  been  carried,  that  if  they 
continued  parallel  to  each  other  from  now  onwards,  the 
sea  strategy  embarked  upon  by  Germany  fourteen  months 
ago  at  the  cost  of  bringing  the  United  States  into  the  war 
has  already  been  proved  to  be  a  failure. 

J* 

Failure  of  German  Sea  Strategy 

The  best  proof  that  this  is  the  moral  of  these  curves  is 
that  the  Germans  are  concentrating  the  whole  of  their  forces 
in  an  attack  upon  the  British  lines  to-day.  They  would  not 
do  this  if  victory  were  attainable  by  other  means.  We  have 
only  to  look  at  the  situation  fifteen  months  ago  to  reahse 
this.  Germany  had  then  just  called  upon  the  Allies  to 
make  peace  or  take  the  consequences.  The  consequences  to 
England,  if  she  declined  to  treat  on  the  basis  of  the  war  map, 
were  to  be,  as  was  pointed  out  in  these  columns  at  the  time, 
the  ruthless  destruction  of  her  shipping.  This  menacing 
eirenicon  was  followed  by  a  step  not  less  significant  by 
President  Wilson.  This  while  seemingly  an  effort  at  peace 
was  really,  as  again  was  pointed  out  in  these  columns,  only 
the  final  preliminary  to  preparing  .America  for  war.  He 
asked,  it  will  be  remembered,  that  both  belligerents  should 
state  their  war  aims,  under  the  plea  that  they  might  not  be 
found  too  divergent  for  accommodation.  The  pretext  was, 
of  course,  the  merest  camouflage.  All  the^  world  knew  that 
the  German  war-  aims  could  not  be  stated — and  no  one  knew 
it  better  than  the  Germans.  From  the  moment  President 
Wilson's  note  was  published,  the  decision  of  Germany  became 
inevitable.  There  was  literally  no  alternative  to  the  ruth- 
less submarine  war — though  such  a  war  would  throw  America 
on  to  the  side  of  the  Allies.  The  elements  in  Germany  that, 
quite  rightly,  judged  that  if  the  submarine  failed  American 
intervention  would  be  Germany's  final  ruin,  implored 
Bethmann-Hollweg,  who  was  still  Chancellor,  to  reconsider 
this  policy.  He  refused  on  the  ground  that  the  submarines 
must  succeed  in  a  reasonable  number  of  weeks.  We  had 
then  in  the  Chancellor's  statement  a  measure  of  the  German 
hope,  even  if  we  had  not  the  further  measure  that  it  was 
worth  American-  belligerency.  Had  it  succeeded,  of  course 
— and  we  have  only  to  look  at  the  curve  from  February  to 
April  to  see  how  near  it  came  to  success — there  would  have 
been  no  need  for  further  fighting  on  the  Western  front.  The 
Allies  simply  could  not  have  continued  the  war.  But  in 
April  the  Navy  began  ^o  get  the  better  of  the  submarine, 
and  has  continued  not  only  successfully,  but  with  increasing 
effect,  to  defeat  it. 

If  the  net  rate  of  loss  to-day  was  likely  to  remain  per- 
manent it  still  would  not  be  achieving  for  Germany  what 
Germany  hoped  to  achieve  when  the  campaign  began.  It  is 
this  failure  that  has  made  the  vast  effort  on  land  imperative, 
and  the  effort  has  to  be  on  this  colossal  scale  because  to 
Germany  there  is  no  alternative  between  complete  victory 
and  abject  defeat.  The  collapse  of  Russia,  it  is  true,  puts 
Germany  in  a  very  different  position  to-day  in  making  a  bid 
for  complete  victory  on  land  than  was  hers  a  year  ago.  But 
the  broad  fact  remains  that  a  land  victory,  while  to  the 
last  degree  improbable,  is  only  possible  at  enormous  cost, 
whereas  a  sea  victory  by  submarine,  which  seemed  far  from 
improbable,  would  have  been  both  cheap  and  rapid. 

Will  the  Situation  Improve  ? 

It  is  important  to  seize  this  fact,  of  the  December  position 
being  a  proof  of  German  failure,  as  the  starting-point  of  a 
further  consideration  of  the  problem,  because  it  is  even 
more  certain  that  the  curve  showing  the  rate  of  loss  must 
continue  its  downward  slope.  It  is,  as  plainly,  a  mere  matter 
of  statesmanship  evoking  the  right  moral,  and  of  sound 
business  maiiagement  producing  the  right  organisation,  for 
the  replacement  curve  to  rise  far  more  steeply  in  1918  than" 
in  fact  it  rose  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  preceding  year.  Whj-, 
it  may  be  asked,  is  it  possible  to  speak  so  confidently  on 
these'  two  points  ? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  are  not  very  recondite, 
and   to   make   them  -more  intelligible,  _I    have   ventured^to 


March    28,    1 9  i  8 


Land    &    Water 


13 


redraft  the  Admiralty  curves.  I  have  supplemented  that 
illustrating  British  tonnage  losses  (2)  by  another  (i)  showing 
the  monthly  shipping  losses.  And  I  have  varied  the  monthly 
British  replacement  curve  (3)  by  branching  off  at  the  month 
•of  October  with,  first,  a  new  curve  showing  the  monthly 
rate  of  replacement — which  is  the  curve  (3  B).  Secondly, 
as  a  contrast  to  the  Admiralty's  curve  for  the  last  quarter 
of  last  year — marked  (3  A)  in  my  diagram — I  have  added  a 
new  quarterly  curve  (3  C)  for  the  three  months  December, 
January,  and  Februarv.  This  curve  shows  that  the  chance 
selection  of  the  three  months  October,  November,  and 
December  give,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  totalh'  false  view  of 
the  situation.  If  we  regard  the  two  curves,  the  loss  curve 
as  showing  the  work  of  the  Navy,  and  the  replacement  curve 


England 


as  showing  that  of  the  civilians,  the  course  of  the  campaign 
is  revealed  to  us  almost  at  a  glance.  Where  the  White 
Paper  curve  misleads  is  that  it  understates  the  initial 
naval  failure,  by  smoothing  the  curve  for  the  three  months 
April,  May,  and  June.  It  understates,  therefore,  the  really 
extraordinary  character  of  the  purely  naval  recovery  of  the 
position.  To  reahse  this  we  should  not  only  contrast  the 
mean  between  the  rate  of  los^in  the  third  quarter  of  the  year 
and  the  rate  of  loss  at  the  finish,  but  the  rate  at  its  highest 
point  in  April,  and  at  its  lowest  point  in  the  second  week  of 
March  this  year. 

And,  just  as  the  recovery  of  the  Navy  is  understated,  so 
the  civilian  effort  is,   quite   unintentionally,   flattered. 

The  published  curve  gives  a  picture  of  the  civiHans  about 
to  join  hands  with  the  Navy  early  in  1918.  But  if  we  take 
the  quarter  which  I  have  selected,  we  sec  that,  so  far  from  the 
ciyilians  rising  to  meet  the  sailors,  they  are  indeed  in  full 
retreat  from  the  enemy  and  retiring  ignominiously  from  the 
■struggle.  The  curves,  instead  of  converging,  are  not  even 
parallel.  The  shipbuilders  arc  not  contented  to  let  the 
Navy  improve  and  only  fall  off  in  the  same  degree  that  the 
Navy  does  improve.  They  have  done  worse ;  they  are 
falling  back  on  one  flank  faster  than  their  allies  are  advancing 
on  the  other,  so  that  the  curves,  instead,  of  converging  or 
becoming  even  parallel,  arc  actually  getting  wider  apart. 
The  Admiralty,  of  course,  so  far  from  having  the  slightest 
intention  of  veiling  this  unpleasant  fact,  take  very  great 
pains  in  the  White  Paper  to  warn  the  public  against  being 
deceived  For  we  arc  specially  cautioned  that  production 
has  fallen  so  far  below  the  rate  exhibited  in  the  graph  that 
"if  some  improvement  is  not  speedily  made,  the  point  where 
production  balances  losses  will  be  dangerously  postponed." 
I  venture  to  think  that,  had  the  curves  been  continued  as 
they  might  well  have  been,  to  the  end  of  Februarv,  the 
graphic  index  to  the  position  would  have  made  any  verbal 
caution  unnecessary,  and  would  amply  have  accounted  ibr 
so  drastic  a  step  as  the  creation  of^a  new  dictator  of  ship- 
building and  the  appointment  of  so  eminent  a  master  of 
the  business  as  Lord  Pirrie  to  the  new  office. 

Bad  as  this  situation  is,  it  is  admittedly  one  that  can  be 
retrieved.  The  First  Lord  evidently  expects  it  will  be 
retrieved.     But  there  is  no  immediate  prospect  of  our  seeing. 


OUR  best  are  dying  in  field  and  flood, 
In  our  ears  is  the  roar  of  a  murderous  hate. 
On  the  wings  of  the  night  comes  a  terror  of  blood, 
Was  England  ever  so  great  ? 
She  was  great  in  the  days  that  are  gone,  we  know. 
When  Drake  was  singeing  the  mad  king's  beard, 
When  Marlborough  smote  for  her  blow  on  blow, 
When  straight  at  the  heart  of  his  far-sought  foe 
Our  passionate  Nelson  steered  ; 
When  the  worn  red  line  stood,  dogged  and  still. 
Facing  the  Conqueror's  desperate  stroke, 
.\nd  over  the  brow  of  the  gun-swept  hill 
T^  surge  of  his  squadrons  eddied  and  broke. 
Aye,  many  a  day  when  our  Englishmen  died 
England  had  honour,  and  place  for  her  pride. 
But  the  land  was  touched  by  a  poisonous  breath, 
And  her  arm  wa.xed  faint,  and  her  heart  grew  cold. 
And  they  laughed  in  their  hate  :  "She  is  sick  unto  death. 
She  is  ripe  for  our  sf)oiling,  the  hoarder  of  gold." 
And  now  ?     Now  before  them  she  stands  in  the  strait. 
The  hope  of  the  nations,  high  foeman  of  WTong.. 
Unfearing,  she  takes  up  the  challenge  of  fate. 
The  cold  heart  has  kindled,  the  faint  arm  is  strong. 
And  the  gleam  of  her  legions  has  girdled  the  earth. 
As  the  lightning  that  flashes  from  East  unto  West, 
At  the  sound  of  her  voice  they  have  leapt  to  their  birth. 
And  the  spoiler  shall  rue  ere  their  banners  have  rest. 
Shall  we  fail,  shall  we  doubt  her  ?     She  stands  for  the  right. 
She  was  never  so  mighty,  for  never  so  true. 
Though  in  blood  and  in  woe  we  must  win  to  the  light, 
Men  and  women  of  England,  heads  up  and  go  through. 

H.  M.  D. 

in  the  British  curve,  so  sharp  an  upward  slope  as  the  pub- 
lished diagram  gives.  For  -the  maximum  output  for  this 
year  is  put  at  r, 800, 000  tons — a  mean  rate  of  165,000  ton's  a 
month  for  the  next  ten  months,  while  it  is  onl}'  by  the  begin- 
ning of  next  year  that  we  hope  to  show  a  monthly  output 
of  a  quarter  of  a  million  tons — assumed  to  be  this  country's 
maximum  possibility  of  production.  If,  then,  the  two  lines 
are  to  cross,  the  rate  of  loss  reduced  to  zero,  and  a  definite 
increase  in  the  world's  shipping  to  be  brought  about,  we 
must  rely  upon  two  other  elements  in  the  problem.  First, 
we  must  look  to  the  Navy  to  cause  a  still  greater  decline  in 
sinkings,  and,  next,  to  our  Allies  and  to  the  neutrals  to 
quicken  their  shipbuilding.  Now,  as  to  the  last,  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  the  United  States  should  come 
very  near  producing  four  milUon  tons  this  year.  If  another 
million  can  be  got  from  other  sources,  this  output,  combined 
with  our  own,  will  give  a  mean  rate  for  the  year  of  500,000 
tons  a  month,  and  would  beat  the  present  loss  curve  so 
greatly  as  to  show  a  net  gain  of  nearly  a  million  and  a  quarter 
tons  a  quarter.  At  this  rate,  the  world's  net  losses — even 
if  they  continued  for  some  months  longer — should  be  caught 
up  befote  we  are  far  advanced  in  1919.  All  this,  of  course, 
depends  upon  the  shipbuilding  effort  here  and  abroad  realising 
the  hopes  of  those  who  are  organising  it. 

We  are  left,  then,  with  the  final  question  whether  the 
rate  of  loss  cannot  be  diminished.  On  this  point  the 
Admiralty,  very  prudently,  dechnes  to  prophesy.  But  less 
responsible  people  may  without  undue  rashness  indicate 
their  grounds  for  being  optimistic.  They  arc,  roughly,  two. 
If  we  look  at  the  monthly  rate  of  loss  in  April  and  contrast 
it  with  that  at  the  present  time,  we  shall  notice  that  the 
gap  between  the  highest  and  the  lowest  point  is  enormous. 
Now,  the  naval  effort  which  has  accomplished  this  is  marked 
by  two  characteristics.  For  want  of  a  better  term,  it  can 
be  described  first  of  all  as  almost  mainly  defensive.  It  has 
consisted,  that  is  to  say,  chiefly  in  concentrating  shipping 
into  convoys,  and  then  guarding  those  convoys  by  armed 
ships,  so  that  a  submarine  desiring  to  carry  out  its  mission 
must  generally  take  the  risk  of  encountering  armed  force 
superior  to  itself  before  it  can  do  so.  We  had,  in  other 
words,  finally,  and  after  much  hesitation,  adopted  in  the 
latter  half  of  last  year  the  simple  principle  of  naval  strategy 
which  had  governed  us  in  all  previous  sea  wars  when  a  similar 
difficulty  had  to  be  met.  We  interposed  superior  force 
between  the  enemy  and  its  objective.  I  have  called  this 
pohcy  "defensive"  in  full  realisation  that  the  term  is  mis- 
leading, because  in  the  actual  event  it  is  the  offensive  which 


14 


Land    &    Water 


March  28,  1 9  i  8 


is  taken  against  the  submarine.  But  the  initiative  is  really 
left  with  the  submarine.  If,  when  it  comes  to  the  point,  the 
Hun  pirate  does  not  like  the  look  of  things,  he  will  have  to 
kt  the  convoy  go  by  rather  than  risk  an  encounter  with  its 
protecting  ships.  The  destruction  of  the  enemy's  submarines 
— v/hich  we  gather  from  official  statements  to  be  at  the  rate 
•f  about  twelve  a  month — is,  then,  only  incidental  to  the 
general   course   of  our  campaign. 

We  have  not,  in  the  period  under  review,  been  able  to 
carry,  our  direct  offensive  against  the  submarines  very  far. 
The  White  Paper  makes  this  clear  :  the  reduction  in  the 
sinkings  "has  been  achieved  in  spite  of  imperfect  knowledge 
•f  a  new  and  barbarous  method  of  warfare,  and  of  a  scarcity 
•f  suitable  material.  Our  material  resources  for  this  warfare 
are  already  improved,  and  are  being  rapidly  augmented, 
while  science  is  placing  at  our  disposal  means  of  offence  and 
defence  of  which  we  have  been  in  need."  The  progress  made 
since  April,  in  other  words,  is  not  due  to  any  sudden  accession 
•f  material — always  accepting  the  very  welcome  assistance 
that  Admiral  Sims's  destroyers  brought  at  this  critical 
moment — but  to  the  adoption  of  sound  methods  of  using 
the  material  available ;  to  the  reorganisation  of  the  higher 
command  brought  about  last  May;  to  the  consequential 
adoption  of  the  convoy  system  ;  to  a  more  scientific  adapta- 
tion of  available  means  to  the  end  in  view  ;  to  a  wiser  selec- 
tion of  men  ;  and,  generally,  to  a  closer  co-operation  between 
all  the  agencies  that  could  contribute  to  the  desired  result. 
But  on  the  direct  offensive  against  the  submarine  only  the 
beginnings  could  be  made.  How  these  have  progressed 
since  we  have  to  gather  from  faint  indications.  I  shall 
touch  on  these  in  dealing  with  the  Dunkirk  argument. 
For  the  moment,  let  us  note  that  the  Navy's  strongest  card 
has  not  yet  been  played. 

The  second  reason  for  expecting  improved  naval  results 
is  that  the  defensive  organisation  that  has  revolutionised  the 
situation  since  last  spring  has  not  yet  been  applied  in  the 
Mediterranean  where,  the  First  Lord  told  us,  a  third  of  our 
losses  are  being  incurred.  It  has  been  stated  by  some  who 
claim  to  know  that  our  tonnage  losses  in  the  Mediterranean 
are  relatively  heavier  than  elsewhere.  If  Admiral  Calthorpe 
can  get  his  forces  to  work  as  satisfactorily  as  the  British 
and  American  forces  in  the  Atlantic  there  should  soon  be  a 
very  material  improvement  in  this  very  important  field. 

Lastly,  we  surely  cannot  be  deceiving  ourselves  in  sup- 
posing that  the  pirates  themselves  must  now  be  going  at 
their  work  with  greatly  diminished  belief  in  its  efficacy. 
Their  losses  are  heavy  ;  their  condemnation  by  the  whole 
world  is  known  to  them  ;  their  victims  are  a  diminishing 
number ;  they  must  be  conscious  that  this  combination  of 
guilt,  suffering  and  failure  has  not  gained,  and  now  has  no 
prospect  of  gaining,  that  result  for  their  country  that  would 
have  led  to  their  being  forgotten. 

Now,  if  we  put  these  elements  together  :  (i)  the  admitted 
capacity  of  British,  American,  and  the  allied  and  neutral 
shipbuilding  yards  to  reach  a  production  of  six  million  tons 
in  the  course  of  this  year ;  and  (2)  the  high  probabiUty  of 
the  naval  effort  continuing  increasingly  successful  on  its 
present  lines  ;  and  {3)  having  in  reserve  a  stroke  which  may 
be  far  more  successful  than  anything  it  has  yet  done — we 
must,  it  seems  to  me,  be  blind  indeed  if  we  do  not  perceive 
that  the  whole  position  has  been  reversed  since  April  of  last 
year.  It  is  a  result  which  justifies  those  who  insisted  upon 
the  reorganisation  of  our  chief  command-  long  before  things 
reached  their  worst.  And  it  is  one  that  reflects  infinite 
credit  upon  all  who,  at  the  Admiralty  and  at  sea,  have 
contributed  to  making  the  reforms  of  last  May  a  reality. 
And  special  credit  must  be  given  to  the  present  First  Lord 
who,  coming  to  the  Admiralty  when  things  were  at  their 
worst — when,  as  Sir  Edward  Carson  told  us,  the  situation 
seemed  perfectly  hopeless — has  patiently  and  with  infinite 
labour  first  simplified  and  quickened  the  supply  of  material 
to  the  Navy  and — a  far  greater  achievement — has  now  not 
•nly  reorganised  the  fighting  side  of  the  Admiralty  to  fit 
it  to  direct  the  Navy's  main  work,  but  has  gone  so  far.  in 
finding  the  right  men  to  work  the  machine  that  he  has  created. 

The  Channel  Raid 

At  five  o'clock  on  Thursday  morning  last  week,  a  flotilla 
of  German  destroyers,  taking  advantage  of  a  haze,  stole 
across  to  Dunkirk  from  Zeebrugge  and  bombarded  the 
place  for  some  ten  minutes.  They  were,  however,  inter- 
cepted by  some  French  and  English  destroyers  and  a  runaway 
action  ensued.  At  the  time  of  writing,  no  further  details 
are  known  except  that  no  French  or  British  boat  was  sunk, 
and  only  one  British  boat  injured  ;  that  prisoners  have 
been  brought  in  ;  that  it  was  believed  that  four  of  the  enemy 
had  been  sent  to  the  bottom ;    and  that  its  navy  admits 


the  loss  of  two.  No  doubt  much  fuller  details  will  be  in  the 
hands  of  my  readers  by  the  time  this  paper  is  printed.  In 
the  meantime,,  it  is  clear  that  a  very  welcome  success  has 
been  won  by  the  forces  under  Vice-Admiral  Roger  Keyes' 
command.  A  score,  standing  for  the  last  month  against 
the  enemy,  has  been  wiped  out.  But  the  incident  means 
more  than  an  agreeable  reversal  of  fortune. 

When,  two  months  ago,  the  change  at  Dover  was  an- 
nounced, it  was  suggested  in  these  columns  that  if  our  forces 
at  this  the  main  point  of  the  Narrow  Seas  were  rightly 
handled,  it  would  prove  a  very  serious  matter  for  the  enemy. 
In  introducing  the  estimates,  the  First  Lord  gave  us  a  more 
precise  indication  of  the  form  this  pressure  would  take. 
For  a  very  considerable  period  the  Germans  have  been 
using  the  Channel  freely  as  a  thoroughfare  by  which  to  get 
their  submarines  to  their  hunting  grounds.  But  the  new 
tactics  at  Dover  have  included  the  extraordinarily  bold 
proceeding  of  illuminating  the  entire  fairway,  so  as  to  make 
an  undetected  surface  passage  impossible.  The  raid  «f  a 
month  ago  was  carried  out  to  drive  off  the  trawlers  and 
drifters  that  carried  the  flares  necessary  for  the  illumination. 
By  some  oversight  they  were  able  to  carry  out  this  raid  with 
impunity.  But  it  may  be  observed  that  the  action  of 
Tlmrsday  morning  has  not  arisen  out  of  any  attempt  t© 
repeat  it.  The  real  interest,  then,  of  this  incident  lies  in 
this  :  that  once  the  enemy  is  cut  off  from  one  form  of  sea 
activity — viz.,  by  a  denial  of  the  shortest  road  to  his  sub- 
marines— he  is  at  once  driven  to  some  other,  in  this  case  a 
repetition  off  Dunkirk  of  one  of  the  fugitive  raids  which 
he  has  so  often  attempted  before. 

If  the  Channel  is  effectively  closed,  the  enemy,  to  get  to 
his  hunting  grounds,  must  go  north  about  ;  and  from  Heligo- 
land to  the  western  end  of  the  Atlantic  lanes  by  this  route 
is  between  700  and  800  miles  longer  than  by  the  Channel. 
Double  this  difference — for  the  submarine  always  leaves  in 
hopes  of  coming  home  again — and  you  have  the  pirate's 
cruising  radius,  once  he  is  at  work,  reduced  by  no  less  than 
1,500  miles.  More  than  this,  he  has  1,500  miles  more  not 
only  of  destroyer  and  patrol  peril,  but  a  marine  risk  as  well. 

A  second  reflection  that  this  last  engagement  off  Dunkirk 
suggests  is  this : 

From  Dover  to  Zeebrugge  is  just  over  70  miles  ;  and 
Dunkirk  is  just  over  35  from  each  point.  Seventy  miles 
is,  if  I  remember  right,  almost  exactly  the  distance  from 
Port  Arthur  to  the  Elliot  Islands,  which  the  Japanese  seized 
and  used  as  a  base  for  operations  against  the  Russian  Fleet 
in  that  harbour.  These  new  activities  at  Dover  tempt  one 
to  speculate  on  the  course  the  naval  war  might  have  taken 
had  it  been  possible  for  us  to  have  seized  and  defended  a 
considerable  anchorage  within,  say,  a  hundred  miles  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Elbe.  The  Germans  have  often  complained 
of  the  disadvantage  their  Navy  was  at  owing  to  their  geo- 
graphical position.  But  it  is  not  at  all  certain  that  the  dis- 
advantage has  been  all  on  one  side.  Unquestionably,  that 
our  main  sea  bases  were  five  or  six  hundred  miles  from  the 
main  German  base  has  given  a  character  to  the  war  that  it 
could  not  possibly  have  possessed  had  we  been  situated  as 
were  the  Japanese  in  their  war  with  Russia.  And  it  is  a 
character  entirely  unfavourable  to  the  stronger  and  more 
enterprising  side.  The  topic  is  a  large  one,  and  I  do  BOt 
propose  to  pursue  it  at  length  now.  I  mention  it  only  to 
draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  we  shall  probably  witness  in 
the  case  of  Dover  and  Zeebrugge  the  development  of  a 
campaign  from  wliich  perhaps  a  "might-have-been"  may 
be  reconstructed  by  the  ingenious.  In  the  meantime,  we 
have  heard  nothing  more  of  the  inquiry  into  the  loss  of  the 
drifters  a  month  ago.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  lessons  of 
that  event  have  not  been  ignored.  Arthur  Pollen, 


By  the  death  of  Mr.  Edward  Stott,  A.R.A.,  British  art 
loses  a  painter  of  peculiarly  native  sentiment.  Intensely 
subjective  in  character,  his  work  was  religious  in  a  deeper 
sense  than  merely  that  of  employing  the  traditionally  sacred 
themes  that  he  so  often  painted.  "The  Holy  Family,"  the 
ostensible  subject  of  his  most  important  picture  in  last 
year's  Academy  exhibition,  was  in  a  less  obvious  way  the 
subject  of  a  great  many  more  ;  and  if  it  were  possible  to 
sum  up  the  general  inspiration  of  his  art  in  a  phrase,  "the 
sanctity  of  domestic  life"  would  do  as  well  as  any  other. 
His  imagination  was  constantly  haunted  with  the  idea 
'  expressed  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Edward  Carpenter  :  "The  trio 
perfect  :  the  man,  the  woman,  and  the  babe,  and  herein  all 
Creation"  ;  and  it  was  the  humanistic  rather  than  the 
naturalistic  side  of  pastoral  life  that  attracted  him.  The 
brooding  quality  of  his  painting  was  thoroughly  in  sympathy  • 
with  its  emotional  pretext,  and  his  pictures  are  to  be  felt  by- 
degrees  rather  than  taken  in  at  a  glance. 


Marcli   28,  1918 


Land    &   Water 


15 


The  Balkan  Stage  :    By  H.  Collinson  Owen 


ONCE  upon  a  time,  for  my  sins  or  otherwise,  I  was 
dramatic  critic  on  a  London  morning  paper.  It 
is  accepted,  and  even  desired,  by  most  journalists 
that  their. work  may  take  them  into  all  sorts  of 
odd  corners  of  the  world  ;  but  I  never  dreamed 
that  one  day  I  should  become  a  dramatic  critic  in  the  Balkans. 
The  other  day  I  received  a  letter  from  a  former  colleague 
which  contained  a  sentence  that  was  peculiarly  apt  to  the 
moment.  He  touched  in  his  letter  on  the  London  theatres 
as  they  were  at  the  moment  of  his  writing,  and  said,  with 
what  was  intended  to  be  an  insistence  on  the  obvious  :  "  But, 
of  course,  you  have  no  pantomimes  in  Macedonia."  It  was 
curious  that  only  the  day  before  I  had  returned  from  a  tour 
of  a  large  portion  of  our  front  line  here,  where  I  had  been 
solely  in  order  to  visit  three  divisional  pantomimes.  And 
they  were  certainly  among  the  best  pantomimes  I  have 
ever  seen. 

Our  soldiers  in  all  the  zones  of  war  are  unexcelled  in  making 
the  best  of  things  and  in  creating  good  entertainment  out  of 
very  little,  but  I  doubt  if  in  any  army  such  good  results  have 
been  obtained  as  in  the  army  of  the  Balkans.  In  France  the 
problem  is  much  easier.  The  two  great  centres  of  civilisa- 
tion, Paris  and  London,  are  each  only  a  day  away,  with 
their  wonderful  shops  and  limitless  resources.  As  far  as 
civilisation  goes  our  front-line  men  hei  2  are  based  on  Salonica, 
which  is  still  no  more  than  a  burnt-out  shell.  But,  all  the 
same,  in  spite  of  Fritz  and  his  U-boats,  both  Paris  and  London 
have  been  drawn  on  to  contribute  to  the  startling  success  of 
these  and  other  theatrical  ventures.  With  the  parcel  post 
as  we  know  it,  it  is  well  to  cultivate  the  long  view  in 
Macedonia.  Wise  people  order  their  winter  things  in  summer, 
and  vice  versa.  Similarly,  the  devoted  and  hard-working 
people  responsible  for  these  entertainments  thought  out  their 
problems  aliead  many  months  ago,  and  pressed  into  service 
such  lucky  people  as  were  then  going  on  leave.  Thus,  on 
programmes,  all  of  which  were  distributed  well  within 
artillery  range  (the  Macedonian  theatres  have  the  honour  of 
being  the  furthest  advanced  theatres  of  any  in  the  war)  one 
could  read  :  "  The  principals'  dresses  from  Paris  and  Athens  "  ; 
"Costumes  and  wigs  specially  executed  for  this  production 
by  Blank  &  Co.,  Brighton"  ;  and  "Wigs  and  costumes  by 
So-and-so,  Ltd.,  London."  And  thus  it  is  that  in  a  large 
barn  on  the  fringes  of  a  miserable  little  wrecked  Macedonian 
village,  Bluebeard  comes  on  to  the  stage  clad  in  gorgeous 
garments  that  are  a  delight  to  the  eye  and  the  senses. 

The  three  pantomimes  were  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  "Blue- 
beard," and  "Dick  Whittington"  :  homely  old  stories  planted 
down,  with  their  comic  ladies,  principal  boys,  beauty  choruses, 
etc.,  all  complete  in  darkest  Macedonia.  But  each  story  was 
adapted  to  the  special  circumstances.  Robinson  Crusoe  was 
wrecked  not  in  the  western  seas,  but  somewhere  on  the 
coasts  of  Macedon,  and  found  his  Man  Friday  in  a  faithful 
vendor  of  the  Balkan  News.  Bluebeard  had  his  lair  not  in 
Norway,  but  in  Salonica,  and  was  discomfited  by  the  ever- 
resourceful  British  Navy.  And  Dick  Whittington  took  his 
cat  not  to  Morocco,  but  to  somewhere  in  the  Struma  Valley, 
where  the  faithful  animal  (wickedly  dubbed  Winston)  .cleared 
the  rats  out  of  the  Pasha's  Headquarters,  obtaining  before- 
hand unconditional  terms  of  surrender  from  the  Turks. 

The  large  majority  of  the  British  troops  for  whom 
these  entertainments  were  prepared  were  the  fighting  men  of 
the  service.  Many  of  them  have  been  through  big  battles 
in  France,  and  others  as  big  in  Macedonia.  They  have 
campaigned  for  what  seems  an  age  in  a  country  which  has 
many  discomforts  and  no  distractions.  They  know  some- 
thing about  malaria  and  dysentery.  Lots  of  them  have 
never  seen  even  a  decent  village  since  they  left  England  or 
France.  The  average  Macedonian  village  is  a  poor  affair, 
and  those  that  are  not  wrecked  are  generally  out  of  bounds. 
And  here  in  the  Macedonian  wilderness,  where  the  kites  and 
vultures  wheel  endlessly  by  day,  and  the  jackal  howls  and 
whimpers  by  night  ;  with  Salonica  (such  as  it  is)  fifty  miles 
away,  and  beer  a  rarity  in  the  canteen,  the  men  were  able  to 
look  across  a  real  orchestra  and  real  footlights,  and  see  a 
show  which  in  its  essentials  was  as  good  as  anything  which 
could  be  found  in  that  dear  old  Blighty  which  now  seems 
but  the  faint  echo  of  a  dream. 

At  each  show  the  men  are  enraptured.  It  is  impossible  to 
imagine  audiences  more  delighted  and  keen.  The  vigour  of 
their  approval  radiated  from  them  like  electricity.  They 
pay  2d.  admission,  and.  having  seen  the  show  once,  any  man 
is  willing  to  offer  5  drachmas  for  the  ticket  of  a  comrade 
who  is  next  on  the  list.    It  must  be  recorded,  even,  that 


some  "faking"  has  occurred  with  the  tickets,  and  the  box- 
office  clerks  at  the  various  theatres  have  had  to  keep  open 
very  sharp  eyes.  I  think  I  sympathise  with  the  fakers.  If 
I  had  lived  for  two  whole  years  in  the  Balkan  front  line,  and 
only  a  little  scrap  of  paper  of  this  kind  stood  between  another 
visit  to  the  Divisional  Theatre,  I  should  be  very  muclj 
tempted  to  try  to  bluff  the  guardians  at  the  portals  of  so 
much  delight  and  happiness. 

Eight  Shows  a  Week, 

The  pantomimes  have  meant  extremely  hard  work  for 
all  concerned.  Eight  shows  a  week,  including  two  matinees 
(no  Sunday  performances)  has  been  the  rule,  and  the  men  so 
engaged,  largely  infantrymen,  have  earned  their  pay  ten 
times  over.  Pantomimes  comprise  leading  ladies  and  ladies 
of  the  chorus.  This  is  a  difficulty  which  has  long  since  largely! 
disappeared  from  our  Macedonian  shows,  and  in  these  later 
ones  it  has  been  triumphantly  overcome.  Each  production 
has  its  leaven  of  mediocre  female  impersonators,  who  are  not 
expected  to  do  much  more  than  look  pleasant  (as  they  -do) 
in  the  costumes  provided  for  them.  But  each  production 
also  has  something  startlingly  good  to  show  in  this  respect. 
The  qualities  include  striking  beauty,  good  dancing,  good 
singing,  and — in  one  case  particularly — amazing  joie  de  vivre 
and  sprightliness  of  the  soubrette  type.  There  are  several 
cases  where  it  is  frankly  next  to  impossible  to  believe  that 
the  radiant  creature  on  the  stage  is  a  soldier-man.  At  each 
of  the  three  pantomimes  I  have  been  "behind"  after  the 
show,  and  though,  of  course,  one  had  no  real  illusions  as  to 
the  sex  of  the  players,  yet,  all  the  same,  it  came  as  a  shock 
to  see  these  dainty  creatures  peeling  off  their  feminine  finery 
and  putting  on  again  the  rough  khaki  of  active  service. 
Shakespeare  was  not  confronted  with  the  supreme  difficulty 
one  has  always  imagined  ini  having  to  use  men  for  his  female 
parts.  The  Balkan  Army  has  shown  that  it  can  be  done 
with  an  extraordinary  amount  of  success. 

We  have  a  principal  boy  (not  unknown  to  the  Londoa 
stage)  who  is  a  positive  marvel  of  willowy  grace,  and  it  is  a 
curious  thing  that  this  part,  as  played  by  a  man,  is  the  only 
one  difficult  to  accept,  so  accustomed  are  we  to  thinking  of 
the  principal  boy  as  a  particularly  buxom  female.  Two 
French  hospital  nurses  who  saw  him  opened  their  eyes  with 
amaze.  "  Mon  Dieu,  qu'il  est  bien !  "  exclaimed  one.  A 
distinguished  British  officer,  sitting  with  the  fair  visitors, 
launched  into  an  explanation  in  British-French  of  what  the 
principal  boy  stood  for  in  pantomime ;  but  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  they  understood  him  but  vaguely,  as  not  only  had  they 
never  seen  a  principal  boy  before,  but  they  had  never  even 
heard  of  a  pantomime. 

From  all  possible  points  of  view,  these  pantomimes  have 
been  complete  successes.  They  have  stimulated  a  good 
deal  of  inter-Divisional  rivalry  and  given  innumerable  sub- 
jects for  conversation,  which  are  good  things.  They  are, 
without  exception,  clean,  with  not  a  questionable  joke. 
Talent  has  been  poured  into  them.  The  "books"  are  witty, 
the  dancing  good,  the  part-songs  (in  several  instances)  super- 
latively good,  the  acting  thoroughly  competent,  and  the 
comic  men  (and  ladies)  really  comic.  Lighting,  costumes, 
and  scenery  have  all  been  treated  with  a  professional  hand, 
limited  only  here  and  there  by  lack  of  space.  And  a  very 
special  word  must  be  said  of  the  orchestras.  Here  the 
various  regimental  bands  have  been  drawn  upon.  All  three 
orchestras  were  excellent ;  but  one  pantomime  was  easily 
the  leader  in  this  respect.  To  listen  to  its  orchestra  playing 
some  of  our  best  light  music  (cosily  sunk  in  a  trench,  and 
with  a  gold-painted  iron  rail  hung  with  green  curtains 
separating  it  from  the  "stalls")  was  a  delight  such  as  only 
those  long  separated  from  the  pleasures  of  home  can  appre- 
ciate. And  a  final  word  must  be  said  for  the  daintily 
appointed  theatre  bars,  where  coffee,  cakes  (and  even  other 
things)  could  be  obtained  in  much  comfort.  At  one  of  them, 
during  an  entr'acle,  I  bought  a  massive  cigar  de  luxe  at  a 
spot  not  far  removed  from  a  noted  Bulgarian  village 
massacre  during  the  wars  of  1912. 

Leaving  this  place  the  niorning  after,  I  overtook  a  Scots 
battalion,  marching  over  the  plain  to  take  up  its  watch  on 
the  Struma.  The  pipers  were  skirling  aliead,  and  the  sight 
of  those  swinging  kilties  was  one  to  stir  the  blood.  And 
I  prefer  to  think  that  their  jaunty  step  and  happy  air  were 
partly  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  on  the  previous  evening 
many  of  them  had  shared  in  the  fun  and  hilarity  and  rousing 
choruses  of  "Dick  Whittington." 


i6 


Land    &  Water 


March  28,  1918- 


The  Great  Passport  Frauds— Part  I 

By  French  Strother,  Managing  Editor,  "The  woria 


s  Work,"  New  York 


l-V/ien  war  [was  declared,  thsre'were  a  number  of  Gentian  officers  in  the  United  States.  In  order  that  they 
f night  have  a  safe  passage  to  Europe,  it  was  necessary  to  provide  them  with  fraudulent  passports.  This 
was  done  with  the  connivance,  if  not  at  the  instigation,  of  the  German  Ambassador  at  Washington,  Count 
von  Bernstor^.     Hoiv  these  frauds  after  hriiiQ-  executed  were  detected  by  the  Department  of  Justice,  is  told  below  : 


■St.n  ■■MUtm. 


WHEN  C„.i  Ruroede,  the  "gnuu-,  of  the 
German  passport  frauds,  came  suddenly  to 
earth  in  the  hands  of  agents  of  the  Department 
of'  Justice  and  unbosomed  himself  to  the 
Assistant  United  States  District  Attorney  in 
New  York, ''he  said,  sadly  : 

"  I  thought  I  was  going  to  get  an  Iron  Cross  ;    but  what 
they  ought  to  do  is  to  pin  a  little  tin  stove  on  me." 

the  cold,  strong  hand  of  American  justice  wrung  that 
very  human  cry  from  Ruroede,  who  was  the  central  figure 
(though  far  from  the  most  sinister  or  the  most  powerful)  in 
this  earliest  drama  of  Germany's  bad  faith  with  neutral 
America — a  drama  that  dealt  in  forgery,  blackmail,  and  lies, 
that  revealed  in  action  the  motives  of  greed  and  jealousy 
and  ambition,  and  that  ended  with  three  diplomats  dis- 
graced, one  plotter  in  the  penitentiary,  and  another  sent  to 
a  watery  grave  in  the  Atlantic  by  a  torpedo  from  a  U-boat 
of  the  very  country'  he  had  tried  to  serve.  This  is  the  story  : 
•  •  * 

Twenty-five  days  after,  the  Kaiser  touched  the  button 
which  publicly  notified  the  world  that  Germany  at  last  had 
decided  that  "The  Day"  had  come — to  be  exact,  on  August 
25th,  1914 — The  German  Ambassador  at  Washington, 
Count  von  Bernstorff,  wrote  a  letter  effusively  addressed 
to  "My  very  honoured  Mr.  von  Wedell."  (Ruroede  had 
not  yet  appeared  on  the  scene).  The  letter  itself  was 
more  restrained  than  the  address,  but^  in  it  Bernstorff  con- 
descended to  accept  tentatively  an  offer  of  Wedell's 
to  make  a  nameless  voyage.  The 
vo3'a[ge  was  soon  made,  for  on 
September  24th  Wedell  left  Rot- 
terdam, bearing  a  letter  from  the 
German  Consul  -  General  there, 
asking  all  German  authorities  to 
speed  him  on  his  way  to  Berhn 
because  he  was  bearing  dispatches 
to  the  Foreign  Office.  Arrived  in 
Berlin,  Wedell  executed  his  com- 
mission, and  then  called  upon  his 
uncle.  Count  Botho  von  Wedell,  a 
high  functionary  of  the  Foreign 
Office.  He  was  aflame  with  a 
great  idea,  which  he  unfolded  to 
his  uncle.  The  idea  was  approved, 
and  just  after  the  elections  in 
November  he  was  back  in  New 
York  to  put  it  into  execution, 
incidentally  bearing  vdth  him  some 
letters  handed  him  by  order  of 
Mr.  Ballin,  head  of  the  Hamburg 
American  Steamship  Company,  and 
another  letter  "for  a  young  lady 
who  goes  to- America  in  the  interest 
of  Germany."  If  unhappy  Wedell 
had  let  this  be  his  last  voyage — 
but  that  belongs  later  in  the  story. 
Wedell's  scheme  was  this :  He 
learned  in  Berlin  that  Germany 
had  at  home  all  the  common 
soldiers  she  expected  to  need,  but 
that  more  officers  were  wanted. 
He  was  told  that  Germany  cared 
not  at  all  whether  the  100,000 
reservists  in  America  got  home'  or 
not,  but  that  she  cared  very  much 
indeed  to  get  the  800  or  1,000 
officers  in  North  and  South  America 
back  to  the  Fatherland.  Nothing 
but  the  ocean  and  tlie  British  Fleet 
stood  in  their  way.  The  ocean 
might  be  overcome.    But  the  British 

Fleet ?      Wedell   proposed   the 

answer :     He  would  buy  passports 


Spaniards,  to  whom  S25  was  of  infinitely  more  concern  than 
a  mere  he — and  send  the  officers  to  Europe,  armed  with  these 
documents,  as  neutrals  travelling  on  business.  Once  in 
Norway  or  Spain  or  Italy,  to  get  on  into  Germanj'  would 
be    easy. 

For  a  few  weeks,  Wedell  went  along  famously.  He  bought 
])assports  and  papers  showing  nativity  from  Norwegian, 
Swedish,  Danish,  and  Swiss  longshoremen  and  sailors.  Mean- 
time, he  got  in  touch  with  German  reserve  officers,  and' 
])assed  them  on  to  Europe  on  these  passports. 

But  he  was  not  content  with  these  foreign  passports. 
In  the  case  of  a  few  exceptionally  valuable  German  officers 
he  wished  to  have  credentieds  that  would  be  above  all  sus- 
picion. Consequently,  he  set  about  to  gather  a  few  American 
passports.  Here  his  troubles  began,  and  here  he  added  the 
gravest  burden  to  his  already  great  load  of  culpabihties. 
For  von  Wedell  was  an  American  citizen,  and  proud  of  it. 
But  he  was  prouder  still  of  his  German  origin  and  his  high 
German  connections,  and  in  his  eagerness  to  serve  them  he 
threw  overboard  his  loyalty  to  the  land  of  his  adoption. 

Von  Wedell  applied  to  a  friend  of  his,  a  certain  Tammany 
lawyer  of  pro-German  sympathies,  who  had  supplied  him 
with  a  room  belonging  to  a  well-known  fraternal  organisa- 
tion as  a  safe  base  from  which  to  handle  his  work  in  passports. 
What  he  wanted  was  an  agent  who  was  an  American,  and 
who  had  political  acquaintanceship  that  would  enable  him 
to  work  with  less  suspicion  and  with  wider  organisation  in 
gathering  American  passports.     Through  the  law^i'er,  he  came 


J  hi  person  to 
hu  Jtclared 
it  fof  use  in 
afUr^named,  ^ 


Tills  i/dssfiort 


A^nvy  /^//^0/afr{/'Aeru  ^?ray  /^a 

>rjfi///^/l.  ''/'■/■  ///-yj/    ■      /C 


\ 


How  Ruroede  (Wedell's  Successor)  Altered  Genuine- 


from   longshoremen   in   New    York 
— careless    Swedes     or     Swiss     or 


This  particular  passport  is  one  of  four  genuine  passports  especially  prepared  by  the  State  Department  for  the  use 
of  the  Department  of  Justice  in  getting  the  legal  evidence  upon  which  Ruroede  was  arrested  and  convicted.  .The 
identifying  photograph  of  **  Howard  Paul  Wright,"  in  tlie  upper  left-hand  corner,  was  the  photograph  of  an  agent 
of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation.  Another  Agent  of  the  Bureau,  who  had  worked  his  way  into  Ruroede's  coniidence, 
sold  this  passport  to  Ruroede,  who  altered  it  for  the  use  of  Arthur  W.  Sachse,  a  German  reserve  officer.  The 
method  ot  alteration  was  ingenious  :  Ruroede  pasted  Sachse's  picture  over  •*  Wright's"'  (the  picture  above  shows 
the  Sachse  picture  rolled  back  and  the  original  Wright  picture  revealed).      In  order  to  get  on  Sachse's  picture  the 


March  28,  19 18 


Land    &    Water 


17 


in  contact  with  an  American,  who  for  the  purposes  of  this 
article  may  be  called  Mr.  Carrots,  because  that  is  not  his 
name,  but  is  remotch'  like  it.  Carrots  seemed  willing  to  go 
into  the  enterprise,  and  at  a  meeting  in  von  Wcdell's  room, 
von  Wedell  carefully  unfolded  the  scheme,  taking  •  papers 
from  a  steel  cabinet  in  the  corner  to  show  a  further  reason 
wh\'  the  American  passports  he  already  had  wottld  soon  be, 
useless.  This  reason  was  that  the  Government  was  about 
to  issue  an  order  requiring  that  a  photograph  of  the  bearer 
should  be  affixed  to  the  passport,  and  that  on  this  photo- 
graph should  appear  half  of  the  embossing  raised  by  the 
impression  of  the  seal  of  the  Department  of  State.  He 
agreed  to  pay  Carrots  $20  apiece  for  all  genuine  passports 
he  would  supply'  to  him.  Carrots  accepted  his  proposal, 
and  departed. 

Instead  of  going  out  to  buy  passports,  he  went  at  once  to 
the  Surveyor  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  Mr.  Thomas  E.  Rush, 
and  told  him  what  Wedell  was  doing.  Mr.  Rush  promptly 
got  in  touch  with  his  chief  in  the  Treasury  Department  at 
Washington,  who  referreH  the  matter  to  the  State  Depart- 
ment, and  they,  in  turn,  to  the  Department  of  Justice.  The 
result  was  that  Carrots  went  back  to  Wedell  about  a  week 
later  and  told  him  he  would  not  be  able  to  go  on  with  the 
work,  but  would  supply  some  one  to  take  his  place.  This 
was  satisfactory  to  Wedell. 

In  the  meantime,  Wedell  had  introduced  Carrots  to  a 
fellow-conspirator,  Carl  Rurocde,  a  clerk  in  the  .ship  for- 
warding department  of  Oelrichs  &  Company — a  man  of  little 
position,  but  fired  by  the  war  with  the  ambition  to  make 
a  name  in  German  circles  that  would  put  him  in  a  position 
to  succeed  Oelrichs  &  Company  as  the  general  agent  of  the 
North  German   I.loyd  in  New  York. 

About  this  time  Wedell  lost  his  nerve.  He  was  a  lawyer, 
and  realised  some  of  the  possible  consequences  of  some  of 
his  acts.  He  had  had  occasion  to  forge  names  to  two  pass- 
ports ;  and,  also,  he  found  out  that  he  had  reasons  to  suspect 
that  he  was  under  surveillance.  These  reasons  were  very 
good :  he  had  arranged  for  the  transportation  to  Italy  of 
a  German  named  Doctor  Stark,  using  the  passport  of  a 
friend  of  his  in  the  newspaper  business,  named  Charles  Raoul 
Chatillon.     Wedell  got  wind  of  the  fact  that  Stark  had  been 


/  f.  J/' /,/////'//, 


— Passports  for  the  use  of  German  Officers 

embossed  imprcsiion  of  the  State  Department  aeal,  which  is  always  rc*]uired  to  show,  lie  turned  the  photograph  face 
down  and  placed  over  the  back  side  of  the  seal  a  silk  handkc-achief  folded  three  or  four  times.  Then  with  a  blunt- 
cdgcd  instrtim'-nt  like  a  letter  opener  he  traced  the  seal  on  to  the  photograph  oi  Sachsc  by  rubbing  the  yielding 
surface  of  the  damp  photograph  into  the  indentations  of  the  seal  on  the  dry  photograph  of  Wright.  When  Sachses 
picture  dried,  the  seal  showed  on  it  much  better  than  in  the  accompanying  reproduction,  for  before  this  was  taken 
the  Sachse  picture  had  been  loosened  again.  But,  for  reasons  explained  in  the  article,  Sachse  got  only  half  an  hour 
toward  Europe  on  the  steamer  with  it  before  he  was  taken  off  the  ship  by  men  from  the   Department  of  Justice. 


taken  off  the  steamer  Duca  de  Aosla  at  Gibraltar,  and  was 
being  detained  while  the  British  looked  up  his  credentials. 

Wedell  by  this  time  was  in  a  most  unhappy  plight. 
Bernstorff  and  von  Papen  had  no  use  for  him  because  he  had 
been  bragging  about  the  great  impression  he  was  going  to 
make  upon  the  Foreign  Office  in  Berlin  by  his  work.  If  any 
impressions  were  to  be  made  upon  the  Foreign  Office  in 
Berlin  by  anybody  in  America,  Bernstorff  and  von  Papen 
wanted  to  make  them.  Wedell  was  so  dangerously  under 
suspicion  that  von  Papen,  von  Igel,  and  his  Tammany-lawyer 
friend  had  all  warned  him  he  had  better  get  out  of  the 
country.     Wedell  took  their  advice,  and  fled  to  Cuba. 

The  substitute  whom  Carrots  had  promised  now  entered 
the  case,  in  the  person  of  a  man  who  called  himself  Aucher, 
but  who  was  in  reality  a  special  agent  pf  the  Department 
of  Justice.  Aucher  was  not  introduced  to  Ruroede,  the 
now  active  German,  and  so,  when  he  began  his  operations, 
he  confronted  the  very  difficult  task  of  making  his  own 
connections   with   a   naturally   suspicious   person. 

Carrots  had  been  dealing  with  Ruroede  after  Wedell's 
disappearance ;  and,  by  the  time  he  was  ready  to  quit, 
Ruroede  had  told  him  that  "everything  was  ofi  for  the 
present,"  but  that  if  he  would  drop  around  again  to  his 
office  about  January  7th,  1915,  he  might  make  use  of  him. 
Aucher.  now  on  the  case,  did  not  wait  for  that  date,  but 
on  December  i8th  called  on  Ruroede  at  his  office  at  Roorri 
204  of  the  Maritime  Building,  at  No.  8  Bridge  Street,  across 
the  way  from  the  Customs  House. 

In  this  plainly  furnished  office,  Aucher  appeared  in  the 
guise  of  a  Bowery  tough.  He  succeeded  admirably  in  this 
role — so  well,  indeed,  that  Ruroede  afterwards  declared  that 
he  "succeeded  wonderfully  in  impressing -upon  my  mind 
that  he  was  a  gang  man,  and  I  had  visions  of  slung-shots, 
pistol-shots,  and  hold-ups"  when  he  saw  him.  Aucher 
opened  the  conversation  by  announcing  : 
"I'm  a  friend  of  Carrots'." 

"That's  interesting,"  was  Ruroede's  only  acknowledg- 
ment. 

"He's  the  guy  that's  getting  them  passports  for  you," 
went  on  Aucher,  "and  all  I  wants  to  know  is,  did  you  give 
him  any  cush  ?  " 

"What  do  you  mean?"  asked 
Ruroede. 

"  Ni.x  on  that ! "  Aucher  exclaimed. 
"You  know  what  I  mean.     Did  you . 
give  that  fellow  any  money  ? " 

To  which  Ruroede  replied:  "I 
don't  see  whv  I  should  tell  you 
if  I  did." 

"WeU,"  retorted  Aucher.  "I'll 
tell  you  why.  I'm  the  guy  that 
delivers  the  goods,  and  he  swears 
he  never  got  a  penny  from  you. 
Now,   did  he  ?  " 

It  was  at  this  point  that  Ruroede 
had  his  visions  of"  slijng-shots,"  sohe 
admitted  he  had  paid  Carrots  one  hun- 
dred dollars  only  a  few  days  before. 
"Well,"  demanded  Aucher,  "ain't 
there  going  to  be  any  more  ? " 

"Nope.  Not  now,"  Ruroede 
replied.   "Maj-be,  pext  month." 

"Now,  see  here,"  said  Aucher. 
"  Let's  cut  this  guy  out.  He's  just 
nothing  but  a  booze-fighter,  and 
he's  been  kidding  you  for  money 
without  -delivering  the  goods. 
What's  the  matter  with  just  fixing 
it  up  between  ourselves?" 

Ruroede  now  tried  to  put  Aucher 
off  till  Christmas,  having  recalled 
meanwhile  that  the  steamer  Bergens- 
fjord  was  to  sail  on  January  2nd, 
and  that  he  might  need  passports 
for  officers  travelling  on  that  ship. 
But  Aucher  protested  that  he  was 
"broke,"  and  further  impressed  on 
Rurocde  4hat  he  had  received  no 
money  from  Carrots  or  Wedell  for 
his  work  for  them.  He  also  produced 
six  letters  written  by  the  State 
Department  in  answer  to  appli- 
cants for  passports,  and  '  finally 
convinced  Ruroede  of  his  good 
faith  and  that  he  ought  to  start 
him  to  work  right  away.  They 
haggled  over  the  price,  and  finally 
agreed  on  %20  apiece  for  passports 


77u  person  tc 
has  declared 
ii  fof  use  ir 


77/is    fiOSSporL 


i8 


Land    &    Water 


March  28,   19 18 


for  native-born  Americans  and  Sjo  apiece  for  passports  of 
naturalised  citizens — the  higher  price  because  getting  the 
latter  involved  more  red-tape,  and  hence  more  risk.  Aucher 
was  to  come  back  on  December  24th  and  bring  the  passports 
and  get  some  money  on  account. 

On  that  day  .\uciier  called  at  Ruroede's  office,  and  after 
further  quarrelling  about  Carrots  and  his  honesty,  Ruroede 
declared  that  he  was  read}*  to  do  business.  Aucher  objected 
to  the  presence  of  a  young  man  in  the  room  with  them, 
and  Ruroede  replied  : 

"Oh.  he's  all  right.  He's  my  son,  and  you  needn't  be 
afraid  to  talk  with  him  around." 

.•\ucher  then  produced  an  .American  passport,  No.  45,57.?, 
made  out  in  the  name  of  Howard  Paul  Wright,  for  use  in 
Holland  and  Germany.  (A  corner  of  this  passport  is  repro- 
duced on  page  14.)  It  was  a  perfectly  good  passport,  too,  as  it 
had  been  especially  made  out  for  the  purpose  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  State  at  the  request  of  the  Department  of  Justice. 
It  bore  Mr.  Bryan's  genuine  signature  and  a  photograph  of 
"  Wright,"  who  was  another  agent  of  the  Bureau  of  Investiga- 
tion. .\ucher  also  declared  he  was  on  the  waj'  toward 
getting  the  other  five  passports.  Ruroede  threw  the  Wright 
passport  on  his  desk,  and  said  : 

"I'll  keep  this.     Go  ahead  and  get  the  others." 

"What   about   money?"    demanded   Aucher. 

"I'll  pay  you  S25  for  it— no,  I'll  do  better  than  that. 
To  show  you  I  mean  business,  take  that,"  and  he  threw 
a  §100  note  on  the  table.  Ruroede  also  gave  Aucher  photo- 
graphs of  four  German  officers,  and  begged  him  to  get  pass- 
ports right  awa\'  to  fit  their  descriptions,  because  he  wanted 


Von  Wedell's  Successor  in  the  Passport  Frauds 

Carl  Ruroede,  who  operated  from  an  office  in  the  Maritime  Building,  acrots 
the  street  from  the  Custom  House  in  New  York.  His  efforts  to  buy  American 
passports  through  American  agents  led  him  into  trouble,  involving  him  in  the 
toils  of  one  of  the  cleverest  and  most  complete  pieces  of  detective  work  ever 
worked  out  by  th:  United  States  Department  of  Justice.  How  the  agents  of 
the  Bureau  of  Investigation  played  upon  his  vanity  to  his  vindoing,  and  how 
he  unwittingly  became  a  party  to  the  strange  outcome  of  Von  Wedell's  career, 
are  described  in  this  article. 

to  get  these  m,en  off  on  the  Norwegian  Line  Steamer 
Bergensfjord ,  sailing  January  2nd.  He  added  that  the 
officers  of  the  Norwegian  Line  had  all  been  "smeared" 
(otherwise  "fixed"),  and  that  they  would  "stand  for  any- 
thing." He  also  said  that  he  would  take  at  least  forty  more 
passports  from  Aucher. 

.\uchcr  delivered  two  more  passports  to  Ruroede  in  his 
office  on  the  morning  of  December  30th.  Ruroede  was 
rather  indifferent  about  getting  them  because — alas  for  the 
glory  of  the  "invincible"  Prussian  arms  ! — two  of  his  German 
officers  had  got  "cold  feet,"  and  had  refused  to  go.  Ruroede 
told  Aucher  to  come  back  at  two  o'clock,  and  he  would  give 
him  Sioo.     Aucher  invited  Ruroede  to  have  luncheon  with 


him  ;  and  as  they  left  the  building,  Ruroede  e.xplained, 
with  much  pride,  that  he  had  chosen  his  office  here  because 
the  building  had  several  entrances  on  different  sides  of  the 
block,  and  he  used  one  entrance  only  a  few  days  at  a  time, 
and  then  changed  to  another  to  avoid  suspicion. 

The  Government's  special  agent  complimented  him  highly 


"1 


Mdoi',.>i<  Avi,Huf  Afo«(ry  -'■ 
^     1/ 


)   i 


.^^...  Uff<^,  -^--^-  //  #V-- 


BernstorfF  appears  as  a  principal  of  Wedell's 

This  letter  reads  in  English  as  follows  :  **My  very  honoured  Herr  von  Wedell  : 
I  thank  you  very  much  for  your  friendly  letter  of  this  day,  and  the  very  kind 
offer  therein  contained.  I  shall,  eventually,  gladly  avail  myself  of  the  latter  and 
shall  let  you  know  when  an  opportunity  for  a  trip  presents  itself.  Most  respect- 
fully, Bernstorff."  What  the  trip  was  for  is  explained  by  illustrations  on 
pages   16  and  17. 

on  this  bit  of  cleverness  in  the  art  of  evasion.  Five  minutes 
later  the  two  were  sitting  at  a  lunch-counter,  with  another 
special  agent  casually  lounging  in  and  taking  the  seat  next 
to  his  fellow  detective,  where  he  could  overhear  and  corro- 
borate the  account  of  Ruroede's  conversation. 

After  a  discussion  of  Wedell's  forgeries  and  present  where- 
abouts, and  a  further  discussion  of  the  buying  of  passports 
(in  which  Ruroede  confided  to  Aucher  that  "  there  is  a  German 
fund  that  was  sent  over  here  for  that  purpose"),  the  pair 
walked  back  toward  Ruroede's  office.  At  the  Whitehall 
Street  entrance,  Ruroede  told  Aucher  to  come  round  to  the 
Bridge  Street  entrance  in  about  fifteen  minutes  to  get  the 
money,  and  that  in  the  meantime  he  would  send  his  son  out 
to  cash  a  cheque  so  he  could  deliver  it  in  notes. 

In  a  few  moments,  Ruroede's  son  rushed  out  with  a  bank- 
book in  his  hand.  Aucher  stopped  him,  and  told  him  he 
ought  to  have  a  coat  on — a  device  to  let  Aucher's  fellow- 
detective  identify  the  boy. 

M'hen  the  boy  returned,  Aucher  again  spoke  to  him,  and 
said:  "Tell  your  father  I  will  be  in  the  cafe  at  Whitehall 
and  Bridge  streets,  and  that  he  is  to  meet  me  there.  I  don't 
think  it  is  a  good  thing  for  anybody  to  see  me  hanging 
around  the  front  entrance." 

The  boy  went  on,  and  Aucher  walked  to  the  assigned 
rendezvous.  ^^^  j^  continued.) 


NOTICE. 


We  regret  that  it  was  erroneously  stated  in  our  issue 
of  February  21,  that  the  series  of  articles  entitled 
"  [ohn  Raihom's  Revelations  "  had  to  be  suspended  at 
request  of  the  United  States  authorities. 

We  are  informed  this  was  not  the  case.  There  were 
important  reasons,  fully  appreciated  both  by  "The 
World's  Work"  of  New  York  and  by  Mr.  Rathom, 
which  made  further  publication  undesirable;  and  in 
deference  to  their  wishes  the  series  was  discontinued 
in  Land  &  Water. 


March  28,      19 18 


Land  &  Water 


19 


Life  and  Letters  ^jJ.C^Souire 


A  Contemplative  Mind 

CAPTAIN  GERALD  WARRE  CORNISH,  whose 
volume  Beneath  the  Surface  has  just  been  pub- 
lished by  W.  Grant  Richards  (6s.  net),  was 
killed  in  France  on  September  i6th,  1916.  He 
was  not  a  professional  author ;  his  writings, 
spread  over  twelve  years,  consisted  of  a  few  "sketches"  and 
stories.  He  desired  them  to  be  collected  and  published  ; 
but,  says  Mr.  Desmond  MacCarthy,  in  his  delicate  little 
introduction,  "without  any  memoir  or  account  of  himself." 
The  reader  who  has  finished  the  book  will  understand  this 
wish  :  the  author  was  not  principally  interested  in  himself. 
If  he  had  ambition,  it  would  not  be  ambition  for  fame,  but 
ambition  to  do  well  the  thing  he  was  trying  to  do.  He  was 
far  too  concerned— one  might  almost  use  the  hard-driven 
word  obsessed — with  the  eternal  problems  of  man  and  the 
Universe  to  attach  much  importance  to  the  dates  and  daily 
actions  of  his  own  life  ;  and  if,  as  a  meditative  man  must, 
he  took  an  interest  in  his  own  personality,  it  would  not  be 
because  it  was  his  own  but  because  it  was  the  nearest  and" 
most  observable  of  many  millions,  all  equally  mysterious 
and  valuable.  Where  the  first  personal  pronoun  occurs  in 
this  book  it  is  used  merely  as  a  convenience. 


He  was,  that  is,  what  is  called  an  objective  writer  ;  he  had 
the  seeing  eye  and  "the  visiting  mind."  The  term  "objec- 
tive," however,  is  most  frequently  applied  to  men  who  are 
largely  preoccupied,  in  a  hard  scientific  way,  with  outward 
appearances.  From  these  he  was  poles  apart.  -Spirit,  not 
matter,  was  the  "object"  of  his  contemplation;  not  the 
surface,  but  what  lies  "beneath."  He  was  far  from  blind 
to  material  beauty,  and  in  "A  Visit"  he  paints  a  mellow  and 
charming  scene  for  its  own  sake.  But  he  cannot  rest  on  the 
surface  long.  He  is  continually,  like  the  bookbinder  in 
The  Poet  and  the  Atheist,  seeing  visions,  terrible  or  exquisite, 
through  fissures  in  the  face  of  things.  Minor  truths  occupied 
bim  less  than  the  greatest  truth  of  all ; "  and,  being  human, 
all  he  could  do  with  that  was  to  grope  after  it. 


The  most  remarkable  and  the  longest  of  his  stories  faces 
this  directly.  If  any  novelist  has  ever  made  so  ambitious 
£in  attempt,  I  can  only  say  that  I  do  not  know  him.  The 
attempt  to  tell  how  the  explorer  Fin  Lund  travels  up  the 
Euphrates,  sailing  simultaneously  backwards  up  the  stream 
of  creation,  to  penetrate,  actually  in  the  body,  to  the  source 
from  which  life  flows  over  the  earth,  is  not  a  complete  success  : 
it  could  not  be.  But  it  is  an  astonishing  failure  ;  and  had 
the  author  contented  himself  with  recording  phenomena,  and 
made  fewer  attempts  at  disclosing  a  metaphysical  hypothesis 
which  could  not  be  fully  comprehended  either  by  him  or  by 
us,  it  would  have  been  more  remarkable  still.  As  it  stands, 
he  has  done  far  more  than  could  have  been  expected : 
created,  convincingly  and  without  cheap  dodges,  a  man  of 
more  than  normal  powers,  and  infected  us  with  his  own 
vision,  however  fragmentary,  of  the  process  of  creation. 
This  is  certainly  the  part  of  the  book  which  gives  one  the 
greatest  respect  for  his  possibilities  as  a  writer  ;  but  there  is 
not  one  of  the  stories  which  a  person  of  reflective  habit 
would  not  read  more  than  once  and  more  than  twice. 


equally  real,  are  seen  from  the  same  point  of  view,  and  with 
equal  sympathy  and  comprehension  ;  and .  the  details  of 
their  backgrounds  are  no  more  fully  suggested  in  one  case 
than  in  the  other.  Most  writers,  when  "reconstructing" 
ancient  history,  tend  to  concentrate  too  much  on  the  trap- 
pings. They  think  that  if  only  they  produce  enough  exotic 
names,  beasts,  accoutrements,  jewels,  fabrics,  designs  in 
wood  and  stone,  they  will  produce  the  illusion  of  another 
civilisation.  It  would  clearly  have  bored  Gerald  Cornish 
to  go  to  museums  and  archa;ological  books  to  accumulate 
such  masses  of  material  detail  as,  for  instance,  Flaubert  did 
when  he  was  writing  Salammho.     "Now,"  he  writes, 

the  Greeks  were  armed.  Their  .six-deep  line  was  a  mass  of 
armour,  stretching  for  half  a  mile  and  more  inland  from  the 
river,  and  shining  with  the  dull  blue  glow  of  well-oiled,  well- 
tended  steel.  The  rows  of  round-casqued,  plumeless  helms 
pulled  down  over  the  faces,  with  two  eyeholes  in  each  vizor, 
presented  a  terrifying  and  savage  aspect.  It  seemed  as  if  some 
common  wave  of  national  hatred,  sharper  and  deeper  than  aH 
ordinary  feelings,  had  risen  to  the  surface,  and  was  holding 
them  motionless  and  set  like  a  steel-toothed  trap,  ready  to  snap 
and  spring. 

He  sees  it  clearly  ;  he  makes  us  see  it  clearly  ;  he  does  not 
destroy  his  effect  by  labouring  the  shapes  of  greaves  or  the 
names  of  the  animals  from  whose  hides  straps  were  made, 
or  the  order  in  which  the  countless  tribes  of  Asia  were  lined. 
He  gives  enough  for  the  reader's  imagination  to  catch  hold 
of ;  and  succeeds  in  conveying  a  complete  picture,  material 
and  mental,  whilst  he  is  doing  the  thing  he  does  always  : 
communicating  his  awe  and  wonder  before  the  endless  stream 
of  guttering  life  and  the  deep  mysteries  below  it. 
****** 

It  was  natural  that  so  sincere  and  so  unselfconscious  a 
man  should  write  both  simply  and  originally.  One  may  be 
fond  of  the  pomp  of  magniloquence,  the  careful  music  of  the 
poet,  the  tumultuous  music  of  the  inspired  enthusiast,  without 
wishing  Gerald  Cornish's  writing  anything  else  than  it  was : 
straightforward  prose  which  says  precisely  what  he  wants  it 
to  say  without  ever  reminding  one  that  there  is  a  writer 
behind  it,  crossing  out  weak  words  in  favour  of  strong  ones, 
concocting  verbal  melodies,  seeing  to  it  that  his  paragraphs 
begin  and  end  effectively,  laying  himself  out  to  make  the 
reader  exclaim:  "This  man  knows  how  to  do  it."  As  his 
writing  is,  so  is  his  approach  and  his  "forrn."  Me  at  least 
he  never  reminds  of  any  other  writer.  A  man  putting  on 
paper  the  vacuity  of  that  hunting  M.P.  and  the  way  in 
which  he  spent  his  day  might  well  have  succumbed  to  the 
influence  of  Mr.  Galsworthy,  who  has  frequently  done  that 
sort  of  thing.  Had  he  so  succumbed,  he  would  have  con- 
tracted Mr.  Galsworthy's  over-emphasis  of  the  trivial  and 
sordid  aspects  of  his  subject,  and  he  would  have  lost  that 
sympathy  which  Cornish  felt  for  the  man  he  was  analysing 
— analysing  as  a  fellow-creature,  not  as  an  offensive  insect. 
The  Anabasis  might  have  been  done  like  Flaubert ;  Beneath 
the  Surface  invited  treatment  in  the  manner  of  Mr.  Wells,  or 
even  in  that  of  Henry  James.  Cornish  escapes  all  these 
beckoning  influences ;  he  writes  as  though  nobody  had 
written  before.  And  for  the  reason  of  it  we  return  whence 
we  started:  he  was- interested  in  his  subject  matter;  and 
in  his  krt  only  secondarily  as  an  instrument  for  dealing 
with  it.  It  is  difficult  not  to  speculate  about  what  a  man 
with  his  intellect  and  his  temper  might  have  gone  on  to  do 
had  he  survived. 


It  is  a  slight  book.  And  it  is  not,  one  may  frankly  say, 
a  book  for  everybody.  It  is  dramatic ;  but  its  drama  is 
subtle.  It  has  incident ;  but  the  incidents  and  adventures 
are  not  of  the  gross  theatrical  kind ;  and  though  a  steady 
spiritual  ardour,  which  deserves  the  name  of  passion,  is 
throughout  present,  the  fires  that  commonly  appropriate 
that  name  are  not.  Many,  phases  of  life  and  action  are 
seen  and  recorded :  there  are  battles,  travels,  fox-hunts, 
scenes  in  poor  cottages  and  ships,  recreations  of  Persia, 
Babylon,  and  Rome.  Hosts  of  men  fight  and  kill  on  the 
plains  of  Mesopotamia  ;  work  or  strike  under  the  smoke  of 
English  industrial  districts.  But  there  is  strange  absence 
of  noise.  All  these  things  are  seen,  as  it  were,  through  a 
veil  of  meditation,  which  softens,  deadens,  gives  every  age 
and  spectacle  a  common  tone,  a  certain  uniformity,  something 
of  the  quality  of  dream.  As  he  shows  them,  his  cottagers  and 
his  hunting  M.P.  in  Lancashire  are  no  nearer,  and  no  farther, 
no  more  and  no  less  "vividly"  imagined  in  their  surroundings 
than  Horace  on  his  sabine  farm  and  Cyrus  on  Xenophon 
during  the  campaign  against  Artaxerxes.    The  people  are 


The  main  incidents  of  the  French  Revolution  have  pro- 
vided material  for  many  novelists,  and  what  may  be  termed 
the  subsidiary  incidents  have  also  been  often  dealt  with. 
In  Sir  Isumbras  at  the  Ford,  by  D.  K.  Broster  (John 
Murray,  6s.)  the  rising  in  La  Vendee  and  the  expedition  from 
Southampton  in  1795  to  aid  the  Royalist  cause  in  France 
provide  the  framework  of  a  good  story,  and  one  that  deals 
with  a  phase  of  the  revolutionary  activity  which  is,  so  far  as  the 
novelist  is  concerned,  very  nearly  virgin  soil.  Fortune  de  la 
Vireville,  the  central  character  of  the  story,  is  a  fitting  figure 
for  a  romance  of  this  kind,  and  the  author  has  made  a  stirring 
narrative  of  his  adventures — and  his  quixotry.  Vireville, 
sentenced  to  be  shot,  and  waiting  his  execution,  gives  scope 
for  a  fine  piece  of  descriptive  work  ;  again,  he  and  Raymonde, 
the  heroine,  alone  in  the  fog  together,  enact  a  scene  shown 
with  real  power — these  as  instances  out  of  many,  for  the 
author  writes  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  his  characters  alive. 
The  sense  of  the  period  is  evident  throughout  the  book, 
though,  in  spite  of  fidelity  to  historical  fact,  this  is  not  so  much 
a  story  of  a  period  as  of  men  and  women  brayely  facing  life. 


20 


Land    &  Water 


March  28,  191 8 


Chronicles    of  the    Great   War 


THE  novelist  and  the  biographer  would  find  this  a 
poorer  world  to  live  in,  were  there  readily  avail- 
able to  readers  the  actual  chronicles  of  all  wars 
— proclamations  of  kings,  orations  of  statesmen. 
Parliamentary  statutes,  and  the  bare  recital  of 
battles  by  land  and  sea.  These  contain  the  very  words  that 
stir  the  blood  and  that  ring  in  the  ears  like  the  noise  of 
trumpets.  The  language,  for  the  most  part,  is  sparing, 
rhetoric  is  avoided,  the  phrases  are  as  cold  as  cold  steel — 
and  as  deadly.  The  Times  is  now  preparing  a  Documentary 
History  of  the  War  (the  first  four  volumes  are  before 
us),  and  every  word  written  here  applies  to  them. 

The  idea  is  to  collect  in  these  volumes  (17s.  6d.  each) 
documents  of  the  war  in  all  its  aspects,  so  arranged  as  to  record 
the  events  of  tlie  struggle  and  the  circumstances  which  led  up 
to  it.  This  history  will  consist  of  papers  issued  officially 
or  recognised  by  the  various  belligerents,  such  as  diplomatic 
correspondence,  proclamations,  ultimata,  military  orders, 
reports,  messages  from  monarchs  to  their  peoples,  etc., 
together  with  public  statements  by  responsible  Ministers 
and  correspondence  in  the  Press  of  an  authoritative  char- 
acter. It  is  proposed  to  have  at  least  five  main  divisions  : 
Diplomatic,  Naval,  Military,  Overseas,  and  International 
Law,  each  division  to  appear  in  its  own  distinct  set. 

The  first  two  volumes  of  the  Diplomatic  series  carry  the 
story  of  the  war  to  the  beginning  of  October,  1914,  and  the 
first  two  volumes  of  the  Naval  series  to  the  end  of  that 
month,  so  it  i/  apparent  that  when  these  stately  chronicles 
are  complete.  The  Times  will  have  issued  almost  a  library  of 
the  vital  facts  of  this  mighty  struggle  for  the  survival  of 
European  civilisation.  The  volumes  are  stoutly  bound  in 
cloth,  with  excellently  clear  red  and  gold  impresses  on  the 
back — a  matter  of  importance  to  librarians.  There  is  no 
comment,  brief  notes  being  added  where  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  elucidate  the  text.  A  special  feature  is  the 
indexing  ;  it  is  lucid,  and  cross-references  and  annotations 
abound.  Looked  at  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  student 
or  the  historian,  these  volumes  must  be  regarded  as  classics, 
so  carefully  has  every  detail  been  thought  out  and  put  into 
execution— details  to  assist  the  worker  in.  his  task. 


What  a  long  way  we  have  travelled  since  that  September 
day  of  1914,  when  at  the  prorogation  of  Parliament  the 
King  began  his  speech  in  these  words:  "My  Lords  and 
Gentlemen,  I  s^ddress  you  in  circumstances  that  call  for 
action  rather  than  speech." 

In  the  Naval  section  we  have,  among  other  papers,  the 
story  of  the  escape  of  the  German  battleships,  Goeben  and 
Breslau,  the  latter  now  at  the  bottom  of  the  Mediterranean. 
There  is  hardly  any  single  incident  which  has  exercised  a 
more  potent  influence  over  the  future  course  of  the  war  than 
this  one,  and  at  this  time  of  day  it  is  most  interesting  to 
read  the  contemporaneous  records  of  the  episode. 

Also  here  may  we  read  the  German  account  of  the  victory 
off  Coronel  of  Admiral  von  Spec's  ships  over  Admiral  Cradock's 
brave  but  unfortunate  squadron.  This  happened  on  Novem- 
ber ist,  1914,  which  was  All  Saints'  Day,  and  the  German 
admiral  begins  his  dispatch  in  these  words  :  "  Yesterday 
was  All  Saints'  Day,  and  a  lucky  day  for  us."  But  there 
was  not  to  be  any  luck  for  the  German  admiral  some 
■five  weeks  later — on  December  8th,  which  was  No  Saints' 
Day — when  off  the  Falkland  Islands  his  squadron  met  the 
same  fate  as  Admiral  Cradock's.  These  two  naval  engage- 
ments are  described  in  these  volumes  in  the  naked  sentences 
of  dispatches,  and  their  story  is  a  grand  one,  for  on  both 
sides  there  was  bravery,  and  the  German  Navy  in  the  Pacific 
had  not  then  tarred  and  feathered  its  fair  fame  with  the 
cowardly  and  contemptible  actions  in  which  it  has  since 
gloried.  Space  forbids  us  to  deal  further  with  these 
chronicles.  No  person  of  intelligence  can  open  them  and 
begin  reading  without  finding  difficulty  in  laying  the  book 
down.  The.  fact  is  that  when  great  deeds  and  splendid 
actions  are  done,  the  fewer  words  in  which  they  are  described 
the  more  fascinating  becomes  the  story.  We  have  yet  to 
apprehend  fully  that  action  is  far  older  than  language,  and 
that  no  system  of  human  speech  has  been  devised,  which 
does  not  in  some  way  conceal  the  glory  of  noble  deeds.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  the  old  ballad  quickened  the  pulses 
with  its  crude  and  rough  diction,  and  in  .these  modern  days 
the  dispatch  of  general  or  admiral  who  does  not  polish  his 
periods  has  much  the  same  effect  on  the  human  mind. 


A  Neglected  Industry :  By  Christopher  Turner 


Potato  Production  in  tons   (Board  of  Trade  figures)  : 

United  Kingdom.  Germany. 

1893  5,634,000        ..        27,530,000 

1913        ..        5,726,000  49,463,000 

THE  full  and  proper  use  of  the  potato  has  never 
been  understood  in  this  country.  The  soil  and 
climate  of  England  are  more  suited  to  potato 
growing  than  those  of  Germany,  and  our  potato 
growers  are  the  most  highly  skilled  in  the  world : 
yet  compare  the  above  results  both  relatively  and  progress- 
ively. The  chief  reason  why  the  United  Kingdom  does  not 
show  better  results  is  that  our  people  think  of  the  potato 
in  terms  of  "table"  use,  whereas  the  German  thinks  of  it 
as  a  most  valuable  raw  material  of  industry.  Of  the  fifty 
million  tons  of  potatoes  produced  in  Germany  only  some 
ten  million  tons  were  used  for  human  consumption.  The 
remaining  forty  million  tons  were  used  in  the  production 
of  alcohol — the  key  to  the  bleaching  and  dyeing  industry 
(which  they  captured  from  us)  the  residuary  pulp  being  used 
as  cattle  food — in  the  production  of  potato  flour,  corn-flour, 
artificial  sago,  dextrine,  glucose,  starch,  size  and  so  forth. 
From  time  to  time  one  hears  of  the  need  of  subsidiary  agri- 
cultural industries.  What  a  range  of  industries  might  not  the 
potato  alone  set  going  ! 

The  potato  produces  more  starch  per  acre  than  any  ^ther 
plant.  So  that,  on  the  one  hand,  we  see  in  Germany  a  great 
reserve  of  carbo-hydrates  which,  when  the  war  broke  out, 
could  be  utilised  for  human  food  as  necessity  required,  and 
on  the  other  hand,  in  this  country  an  ever-lessening  supply 
of  carbo-hydrates,  till  we  find  ourselves  to-day  faced  with 
such  a  serious  shortage  that,  after  satisfying  the  bread  and 
flour  requirements  of  human  beings,  we  are  left  with 
insufficient  concentrated  food  for  pigs  and  cattle. 

Last  year  owing  to  the  efforts  of  the  Government  (and  to 
it  being  a  good  potato  year)  some  two  millions  tons  above 
the  average  were  produced.  A  sound  policy  of  concentrating 
on  a  vast  increase  in  the  output  of  pigs  and  potatoes,  if 


inaugurated  three  years  -ago,  would  have  placed  the  nation 
in  a  very  different  position  from  that  in  which  it  finds  itself 
to-day  in  regard  to  food.  Even  now  all  attention  should 
be  centred  upon  these  two  commodities,  for,  quicker  and 
greater  results  can  be  achieved  with  them  than  with  any 
other  articles  of  food. 

But  we  must  not  rest  content  with  the  production  of  an 
extra  two-  mOlion  tons  of  potatoes.  We  should  aim  at  an 
extra  ten  million  tons.  The  national  safety  demands  it. 
This  great  increase  could  be  effected  without  interfering 
with  the  policy  of  the  Government  as  regards  cereals.  It 
would  remove  any  fear  of  actual  starvation  and  any  surplus 
of  potatoes  could  be  used  for  feeding  pigs  and  cattle.  Quite 
a  sufficiently  fat  pig  can  be  turned  out  fed  on  pQtatoes  and 
scraps  with  little  or  no  meal  at  all. 

But  hand  in  hand  with  the  increased  output  of  potatoes 
should  go  the  erection  of  potato  flour  mills  and  drying  plants. 
Excellent  bread  can  be  made  with  30  per  cent,  or  40  per  cent, 
potato  flour  added  to  the  wheat  flour. 

The  Government  is  encouraging  the  growth  of  potatoes, 
it  has  fixed  the  prices  for  the  coming  crops  ;  it  has  agreed 
to  buy  all  the  potatoes  that  the  farmer  cannot  sell  in  the 
ordinary  course.  But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  farmer 
is  still  thinking  in  pre-war  terms,  and  in  spite  of  the  Govern- 
ment's offer  the  idea  of  an  extra  ten  million  tons  would 
probably  stagger  the  producer. 

The  question  is  :  "Has  the  Government  taken  a  sufficiently 
strong  line  in  regard  to  potatoes  ?"  If  it  is  agreed  that  they 
are  a  prime  necessity,  then  at  all  costs  the  area  of  land 
necessary  to  produce  the  desired  quantity  should  be  pre- 
scribed. Necessity  knows  no  limits.  Before  the  crop  comes  in 
we  could  have  our  drying  plants  and  our  mills  ready  for  it,  if 
the  Government  takes  the  matter  in  hand  seriously. 
We  should  in  this  way  be  able  to  obtain  a  supply  of 
pig  meat  that  would  greatly  ease  the  situation  from  the 
point  of  view  of  food,  and  also  on  the  financial  side ;  for  a 
largely  increased  production  of  potatoes  and  pigs  would  reduce 
our  enforced  expenditure  on  imported  meat  and  flour  staffs. 


April  4,  19  1 8 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


IX 


LEATHER  PUTTEES. 


These  most  comfortable,  good- 
looking  puttees  are  made  en- 
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. 

The  puttees  are  quickly  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  18/6,  post  free 
inland,  or  postage  abroad  I/'-  extra,  or 
sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business 
(not  banker's)  reference  and  home 
address.     Please  give  size  of  calf. 


:>' 


OFFICERS' 

RIDING  BREECHES, 

A  good  name  among  sportsmen  for  nearly  a  century 
is  a  sure  measureof  our  particular  ability  in  breeches- 
making,  to  which  gratifying  testimony  is  now  also 
given  by  the  many  recommendations  from  officers. 

For  inspection,  and  to  enable  us  to  meet  immediate  requirement!,  we 
keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs  of  breeches,  or  we  can  cut  and  try  a 
pair  on  the  same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day,  if  urgently  wanted. 

Patterns  and  Form  far  self -measurement  at  request. 


GRANT  AND  GOCKBURN 
25  PICCADILLY,  W.l. "" 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


ESTD.  1821. 


(kPPO/IVT-. 


THE  "  NEWBURY." 

B :?st  Quality  Felt  on  Water  and  Greasi.- 
proof  Foundation.  Black,  Brown  and 
Grey  are  the  principal  colours.  It  is  a 
Hat  that  can  be  worn  with  almost  any 
kind  of  suit,  and  makes  an  excellent 
substitute  for  the  Silk  Hat,  temporarily 
put  on  one  side.  Sent  to  any  part  of  the 
United  Kingdom  on  payment  of  One 
Shilling  extra  for  box,  crate  and  postage. 

Price     25/-     cash. 

SCOTTS 


THE  WAR 

has  created 
New  Problems 

even  in  connection  with 
Men's  Hats,  but  Messrs. 
Scotts.  at  the  Piccadilly 
corner  of  Old  Bond  St., 
W.,  certainly  seem  to 
have  ingeniously  solved 
one  problem,  and  that 
is  a  substitute  for  the 
silk  "topper."  The  new 
hat  they  have  designed 
for  men  seems  admir- 
ably suited  for  any 
style  of  clothes,  and 
would  go  well  with  any 
overcoat,  with  riding 
kit  or  even  lounge  suit. 
With  its  low  crown  and 
somewhat  broad  and 
gently  curved  brim,  it 
suggests  the  fashion  of 
the  old  days  ;  and  it 
would  not  be  surprising 
to  see  under  its  brim  a 
return  to  the  I  rock  over- 
coats SI  popular  with 
our    great-grandfathers. 

1   Old  Bond  St., 
Piccadilly,     W.l. 


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The  pessimist  who  has  been  heard  recently  expressing 
his  serious  belief  that  after-war  pleasure  motoring  is 
no  longer  to  be  permitted  was  criticised  very  severely  in 
the  "Autocar"  of  March  2nd.  Such  pessimism  is 
unwarranted. 

Although   British   motoring  concerns,   including 
the  Austin  Motor  Co.,   Ltd.,  were  obliged  by 
National  necessity  to  lay  aside  the  production  of 
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the  last  of  motoring  for  pleasure  ;  this  will  surely 
revive   with    the   return  of  peaceful  conditions. 
With  this  in  view  the  Company  has  laid  its  plans,  and  by  con- 
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Also    at    MANCHESTER.    NORWICH,   and    PARIS. 


LAND  &  WATER 

Vol.  LXXl.     No.  2917.     [vITr]  THURSDAY,  APRIL  4,   1 91 8  [r''il^,^fpTpE*l]     ^Kfc'k'^JJfgE^P^E^Ic'S 


The  British  Soldier,  Britain's  Shield 

liy   William   Orpcn,  A.R.A.,  an  Offici.nl   Artist  at    the   Kiont. 


Land    &    Water 


April  4,  19 1 8 


The  Road  from  Arras  to  Bapaume 

Some  of  the  fiercest   fighting  of  the  great  battle  took  place  on  this  ro:id. 
By   C.   R.  W.   Nevinson,  an  Official  Artist  at   the   Front. 


April  4,  1918 


Land   &   Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  •.    HOLBORN    2828. 

THURSDAY,  APRIL  4,  1918. 

Contents 

PAGE 

Tlie  British  Soldier.     By  W.  Orpcn,  A.R.A.  i 

Arras-Bapaume  Road.     By  C.  R.  W.  Nevinson  2 

The  Outlook'  3 

The  Great  Battle.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 

"  This  is  My  Battle."    (Cartoon)    By  Raemaekers.  10  and  11 

Citizen  Soldiers.     B\'  the  Editor  12 

On  a  Balloon  Ship.     B\4  Lewis  R.  Freeman,  R.N.V.R.  13 
The  Great  Passport  Frauds — Part  II.     By  French 

Strother  15 

Angels  and  Ministers.     By  John  Ruan'  18 

The  English  Peasant.     By  Jason  ig 

Murders.     By  J.  C.  Squire  22 

Books  to  Read  '     24 

Notes  on  Kit  xi 

Domestic  Economy  xii 


The  Outlook 

No  Royal  act  during  the  war  has  given  intenser 
pleasure  to  the  nation  than  the  unpremedi- 
tated vi«Tt  of  the  King  to  the  Western  Front  last 
week,  and  the  informality  which  accompanied 
it.  His  Majesty  went  to  his  armies  in  the  heat 
of  the  great  battle  as  the  representative  of  the  British  nation, 
or,  more  precisely,  of  the  British  Empire.  He  was  able,  by 
his  presence  among  the  soldiers,  to  convey  to  them  in  a  way 
no  words  could  express  how  the  thoughts  of  the  whole  Empire 
are  with  them,  and  the  complete  confidence  which  the 
Empire  places  in  their  "indomitable  courage  and  unflinching 
tenacity."  Nor- can  anyone  fail  to  p'crceive  the  contrast 
between  the  Supreme  War  Lord  of  Germany,  who  flings  his 
subjects  into  the  furnace  of  battle  with  wilful  recklessness  in 
order  to  save  his  dynasty,  and  of  the  King-Emperor  of  the 
British  Dominions,  whose  advent  on  the  battlefield  is  to 
hearten  his  men  and  to  carry  the  nation's  sympathy  to  the 
stricken  and  wounded.  These  two  Royal  cousins  epitomise 
in  their  acts  and  words — (place  the  King's  letter  to  Sir 
Douglas  Haig  beside  the  vainglorious  messages  of  the  Kaiser 
on  the  first  days  of  the  battle)^the  two  civilisations  which 
are  at  war  together.  Much  is  written,  and  often  written 
vaguely  about  democracy  and  militarism  ;  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  define  them,  but  we  cannot  mistake  the  spirit 
that  underlies  those  opposing  ideals,  and  it  was  this  spirit 
that  was  manifest  in  France  last  week. 

«  *  * 

The  great  battle  of  Picardy  upon  which  the  enemy  is 
btaking  everything  for  a  vagup  decision  is  now  clearly  per- 
ceived to  stand,  up  to  Easter  Sunday,  in  two  phases.  The  first 
almost  exactly  covered  the  week  following  its  inception,  and 
ended  upon  Wednesday,  the  27th  of  March.  It  had  taken 
the  form  of  successive  advances  by  the  enemy,  each  slightly 
less  pronounced  than  the  last,  and  putting  him  at  their 
close  within  possession  of  a  great  triangular  area  with  a 
western  and  a  southern  face,  tlie  western  menacing  Amiens 
and  the  main  railway  to  Paris  held  mainly  by  the  British, 
the  point  of  contact  between  the  two  armies  being  a  few 
miles  south  of  the  Somme  River.  This  western  or  main 
front  was  the  result  of  the  British  retirement  pivoting  upon 
Arras.  Meanwhile,  a  southern  front  at  right  angles  had 
been  created,  nmning  from  La  F6re  to  Montdidier.  The 
last  western  20  odd  miles  of  this,  after  it  left  the  Oise  Valley, 
were  uncovered,  exposing  the  enemy  to  some  peril  upon  liis 
flank,  and  compelling  him  to  concentrate  heavily  there.  The 
second  phase  of  the  battle,  which  filled  the  end  of  Holy 
Week,  took  the  form  of  no  further  serious  advance,  but  a 
violent  and  fluctuating  struggle  ;  and  one  in  which  this  trace 
was,  upon  the  whole,  maintained  everywhere.  The  hinge 
at  Arras  successfully  stood  out  against  a  violent  assault. 
The  enemy  made  a  few  hundred  yards'  progress  at  a  few 
separate  places  south  of  the  Somme  on  the  southern  front  ; 
a  furious  and  continuous  combat  still  left  things  uncertain. 


and  the  fighting  belt  developed  on  the  27th  was  but  little 

changed  by  the  31st. 

*  *  * 

Apart  from  the  great  battle,  certain  other  minor  military 
events  have  occurred  during  the  week.  The  new  long-range 
guns  have  continued  to  bombard  Paris,  causing  upon  Good 
Friday  in  particular,  at  the  moment  of  the  afternoon  service, 
a  terrible  disaster  in  a  great  Metropolitan  Church.  In 
Mesopotamia  there  has  been  a  renewed  advance  up  the 
Euphrates  for  83  miles  north-west  of  Hit,  with  the  capture 
of  5,000  Turkish  prisoners,  an  event  which  shows  both  the 
present  disorganisation  of  the  Turkish  forces  in  the  absence 
of  the  former  German  control  and  supply,  and  the  lack  of 
correspondence  between  their  nominal  strength  and  divisions 
and  their  real  strength  in  numbers.  The  same  thing  has 
been  apparent  in  Palestine,  where  a  further  advance  has  been 
made  of  about  two  miles  along'  the  Sechem  or  Nablus  road. 
But,  more  important  than  this,  the  Hedjaz  Railway  upon 
the  East  has  been  reached  by  colonial  mounted  troops,  who 
have  destroyed  many  miles  of  its  track  at  a  point  nearly 
east  of  Jericho.  This  cuts  off  aay  Turkish  troops  who  may 
remain  in  the  Arabian  field,  where  we  know  them  to  have 
been  formerly  operating  against  the  Arabs  of  Mecca  and  the 
Holy  Places.  It  also  ends  any  anxiety  (for  which,  however, 
there  was  no  ground)  of  an  enemy  force  arriving  on  the  east 
of  the  British  force  and  behind  it. 

*  *  * 

The  Prime  Minister  has  sent  to  the  Dominions  a  strong 
appeal  for  more  men,  and  in  this  message  reiterates  that  the 
Government  propose  to  ask  Parliament  to  authorise  imme- 
diate measures  for  the  raising  of  fresh  troops.  Parliament 
does  not  re-assemble  until  next  Tuesday,  but  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  proposals  which  the  Government  intend  to 
lay  before  it,  will  be  authoritatively  announced  before  then. 
The  nation  is  ready  to  accept  a  most  stringent  measure,  but 
any  half-measure  or  any  shrinking  from  responsibility  will 
be  strongly  resented.  Ireland  must  at  last  be  brought 
within  the  scope  of  conscription.  This  is  not  the  occasion 
for  adverse  criticism  of  past  actions,  so  long  as  there  is  no 
repetition  of  them.  Never  in  the  history  of  our  race  has 
there  been  more  urgent  need  for  courageous  leadership.  The 
people  look  for  it.  They  understand  the  situation  well, 
partly  because  there  are  few  homes — certainly  not  a  hamlet 
or  village — which  has  not -at  least  one  representative  actively 
engaged  in  this  vast  struggle.  It  is  a  battle  of  nations, 
not  of  armies,  and  this  nation  is  ready  to  fight  to  the  last 
man.     But  it  requires  to  be  led. 

*  *  * 

"Kultured"  Teutons,  with  their  admiration  for  Shakes- 
peare's plays,  must  be  reminded  of  the  tragedy  of  Richard  III. 
by  the  manner  in  which  the  ghosts  of  the  past  refuse  to  rest 
quiet  in  their  graves.  The  latest  spectre  to  fix  blood-guilt 
on  the  Kaiser  is  Prince  Lichnowsky,  who  with  murdered 
Buckingham  might  declare:  "The  last  was  I  that  felt  thy 
tyranny. ' '  From  his  notorious  memorandum,  The  Times 
has  given  copious  extracts.  It  is  obvious  that  the  Prince, 
when  German  Ambassador  in  London,  worked  not  only 
sincerely  in  the  cause  of  peace,  but  also  most  ably  for  the 
advantage  of  Germany,  and  the  terms  he  was  able  to  obtain 
from  Sir  Edward  Grey  in  order  to  promote  a  better  under- 
standing, were  of  so  generous  a  nature  that  they  seemed 
only  just  to  fall  short  of  abdication  of  dominion.  For- 
tunately for  the  British  Empire,  the  German  war  machine 
was  in  1914  considered  complete  and  perfect  in  all  its  parts, 
so  diplomacy  was  scrapped  ;  but  had  the  war  been  delayed 
for  a  few  years,  and  had  Germany  accepted  the  rights  our 
Foreign  Office  offered  to  them  in  Asia  and  Africa,  it  is  difficult 
in  the  light  of  the  last  three  years  to  see  what  could  possibly 
have  saved  the  British  Empire  from  disruption  when 
the  clash  of  arms  came.  These  revelations  establish  con- 
clusively that  Britain  had  no  desire  for  war,  nor  the  sHghtest 
wish  to  run  a  ring-fence  round  the  German  Empire. 
«  *  * 

The  big  guns  that  bombard  Paris  are  no  longer  a  mystery  ; 
they,  are  the  work  of  Krupps — not  of  an  Austrian  factory, 
as  was  at  first  thought.  Whether  the  gun  is  an  effective 
engine  of  war  is  doubtful,  its  purpose  so  far  having  been 
to  terrify  Paris — a  purpose  in  which  it  has  failed.  "That  it 
should  have  bombarded  Paris  on  Good  Friday  is  entirely  in 
keeping  with  the  German  spirit.  This  spirit  has  nothing  in 
^mmon  with  Christianity,  as  Christianity  is  understood  and 
practised  here  and  in  France.  When  will  people  fully  realise 
this  fact  ?  The  Germans  are  barbarians,  for  alltlieir  science 
and  material  progress  ;  and  the  longer  the  war  lasts  the 
more  forcibly  is  this  truth  emphasised.  They  continue  to 
pile  up  offences  against  humanity  for  which  there  can  be  no 
condonation.  Punishment  must  eventually  be  exacted  f  free- 
dom and  mercy  are  to  be  maintained.    Can  any  one  doubt  this  ? 


Land   &   Water 


April  4,  19  '  J 


The    Battle    Line    in    Picard' 


April  4,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


The  Great  Battle :    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


WHAT  is  the  Great  Battle  of  Picardj-,  the 
second  Battle  of  the  Somme  ?  What  is  its 
main  outHne  as  it  has  developed  in  its  first  ten 
days  up  to  the  end  of  March  ?  Let  us  grasp 
this  a4  a  preface  to  any  comprehension  of  it. 
There  was  a  great  line  from  the  North  Sea  to  the  Aljjs 
held  under  siege  conditions,  that  is,  under  those  of  a  war 
of  positions.  The  enemy  had  been  forced  back  to  tlus  while 
he  was  still  fighting  upon  two  fronts,  the  Eastern  and  the 
Western.  He  held  it  in  the  West  with  difficulty  against 
a  superior  force  because  his  vast  resources  had  to  be  divided 
for  an  Eastern  War.  Opposed  to  him  were  two  armies 
proceeding  from  two  ver\'  different  civilisations,  the  French 
and  the  English,  acting  in  alliance  to  defend  Europe.  These 
two  armies  held  the  one,  the  southern  half  of  the  Western 
line  frd^m  the  Alps  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  River  Oise, 
the  other  the  Northern  half  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  River  Oise  to  the  North  Sea.  That  is  very  roughly  and 
truly  the  first  condition. 


Upon  the  diagram  appended  the  scheme  is  suggested  by 
the  sides  of  an  obtuse  angle,  A — B,  which  is  the  British  line, 
and  B — C,  which  is  the  French. 

The  enemy's  continued  inferiority  was  turned  into  a  certain 
superiority  by  the  betrayal  of  the  Allied  cause  in  Russia. 
He  no  longer  had  an  Eastern  front  to 'consider.  He  could 
mass  his  enormous  forces  against  the  West.  What  should 
he  do  ?  It  would  take  him  some  little  time  to  concentrate 
upon  the  West,  and  further  he  must  await  the  season.  But 
with  the  advent  of  the  season  and  with  that  time  elapsed 
he  could  strike  with  superiority  upon  the  West  whenever 
he  chose.  Would  it  be  to  his  advantage  to  strike  thus  upon 
the  West  at  all  ?  His  submarine  campaign  was  progressively 
diminishing  the  strength  of  his  great  western  opponents. 
It  was  hampering  the  civUian  life  of  one  island  half — Britain 
— the  supplies  of  munitions  from  that  half  to  the  Continent 
(especially  to  distant  areas  of  warfare  based  on  the  Medi 
terranean),  and  its  continuance  appeared  assured.  His  losses 
had  been,  in  proportion,  somewhat  more  severe  than  those 
of  the  French  ;  more  than  those  of  the  Italians,  and  far 
more  than  those  of  the  British  ;  he  therefore  had  but  his 
last  resources  to  use  if  he  would  risk  them.  The  new 
American  pressure  could  not  be  felt  seriously  for  many  months 
to  come.  Upon  such  a  purely  miHtary  calculation  it  was 
his  to  stand  still  upon  the  defensive  in  the  West  in  spite 
of  his  slight  present  superiority  and  to  take  advantage  of 
the  increasing  domestic  strain  among  those  opposed  to  him  : 
Not  to  strike  at  least  till  that  strain  was  at  its  maximum. 

Civilian  conditions  within  his  own  countr}',  however,  were 
far  more  serious  than  those  among  his  opponents.  Under 
the  pressure  of  these  conditions  he  determined  to  stake 
everything,  and  to  win  or  to  lose  in  a  brief  and  intense 
adventure. 

This  conclusion  reached,  what  should  be  his  scheme  ? 


Clearly,  to  strike  upon  the  right  of  the  British  front,  that 
is,  nearer  B  than  A  and  as  near  B  as  possible. 

Such  a  blow  would  have  the  advantage  of  coming  at  the 
point  where  British  supply  had  the  furthest  to  travel  from 
the  Channel.  It  would  menace  the  main  Allied  railway 
communication  ;  it  would  have  the  incidental  minor 
advantage  of  choosing  the  driest  ground — particularly  dry 
after  a  long  spell  of  exceptional  weather  and  therefore 
permitting  rapid  movement.  It  would  have  the  capital 
advantage^the  whole  object  of,  the  move — of  separating  the 
French  from  the  British  forces,  and,  if  the  rupture  were 
immediately  effected,  of  putting  him  upon  the  flank  of  the 
British  line,  A — B,  and  rolling  it  up.  He  would  destroy 
the  British  Army  as  a  fighting  force  before  the  reserves 
of  the  Allies,  particularly  of  the  French,  could  come  into 
play.  The  Valley  of  the  Oise,  marshy  and  difficult,  would 
protect  him  from  danger  upon  his  own  flank  during  this 
sharp  and  very  expensive,  but  decisive  manoeuvre.  He  would 
strike  with  an  overwhelming  mass — and  consequently  with 
extraordinary  losses  ;  but  he  would  risk  the  expense  because 
that  expense,  if  he  were  immediately  successful,  would 
be  worth  while.  How  could  he  be  immediately  successful  ? 
How  could  he  obtain  a  decision  within  a  space  of  time  short  ■ 
enough  to  ensure  that  his  very  heavy  losses  in  such  a  gamble 
would  not  have  to  be  continued  to  the  point  where  h§  should 
be  again  in  a  position  of  inferiority,  and  that  inferiority 
final  and  irretrievable  ? 

He  could  do  this  by  making  the  breach  while  his  left  flank 
was  still  well  covered  by  the  Valley  of  the  Oise — a  mile 
of  marshes  and  backwaters  with  few  crossings.  This 
invaluable  obstacle  would  serve  him  down  to  about  the  point 
of  Noyon,  which  I  mark  N  upon  the  accompanying  dia- 
gram I. 

If  the  British  Hne  yielded  and  he  could  get  round  it  before 
a  retirement  beyond  the  point  N  had  been  made,  he  had 
separated  the  two  armies  :  He  had  separated  them  so  rapid- 
ly that  the  Allied  reinforcements  would  not  come  up  in  time 
to  be  of  service.  He  had  separated  them  with  a  good 
obstacle  between  him  and  any  danger  of  immediate  attack 
upon  his  own  flank. 

But  things  did  not  so  develop.  The  British  line,  losing 
terribly  and  continuing  to  retire,  still  remained  intact, 
pivoting  upon  its  hinge  at  H,  which  is  the  neighbourhood 
of  Arras.  It  went  right  back,  the  French  extending  and 
keeping  in  contact  with  it  as  it  receded.  Montdidier  at 
M  was  lost  by  the  French  :  the  angle  became  sharper  and 
sharper ;  and  there  had  appeared  more  than  20  miles  of 
open  country  between  M  and  N  :  open  country  not  protected 
by  the  marshy  mile  width  of  the  Oise  valley,  open  therefore 
to  a  flank  attack  by  the  French  reserves. 

On  the  tenth  day  of  the  battle  that  is  how  the  position 
stands.  This  open  southern  flank  is  his  concern.  The  enemy 
must  at  all  costs  prevent  increasing  pressure  upon  this 
imperilled  open  flank  between  M  and  N,  that  is,  between 
Montdidier  and  Noyon.  If,  indeed,  he  can  still  break  the 
Allied,  which  is  principally  the  British,  front  between  M 
and  H  he  has  succeeded,  although  that  dangerous  southern 
face  between  M  and  N  is  still  insecure — for  he  could  therv 
attend  to  it  at  his  leisure  later.  If  he  retains  sufficient 
strength  to  enlarge  himself  further  upon  that  southern  face 
between  M  and  N  and  to  reverse  the  French  pressure  there, 
he  has  also  succeeded.  But  his  immediate  concern  at  the 
end  of  last  week  was  to  save  that  open,  endangered  site 
which  has  come  into  being  through  the  retardation  of  his 
original  programme  and  through  the  steadiness  of  the  British 
retreat. 

That  is  the  scheme  of  the  Second  Battle  of  the  Somme 
as  it  stands  upon  its  loth  and  nth  days,  Saturday  and 
Sunday  the  30th  and  31st  of  March,  1918  :  A  battle  that 
will  probably  decide  the  fate  of  Europe. 

From  this,  the  roughest  outline,  let  us  turn  to  follow 
it  in  more  detail. 

The  great  battle  in  Picardy  is  at  the  moment  of  writing 
(the  evening  of  Sunday,  March  31st,  based  upon  dispatches 
sent  upon  the  evening  of  Saturday,  March  30th),  entering  its 
nth  day. 

Considerable  as  that  period  is  for  an  action  in  which  more 
than  half  the  German  forces  in  the  West  and  nearly  half 
tlie  German  army  as  a  whole  is  engaged,  not  only  has  no 
decision  yet  appeared  but  there  lias  not  yet  appeared  either 
any  one  of  those  final  elements  which  point  to  a  decision. 


Land   &  Water 


April  4,  19  iB 


The  junction  between  the  Allied  armies  remains  at  the 
moment  of  writing  intact :  the  chain  though  still  in  some 
movement  holds  in  every  link  ;  the  losses  inflicted  upon 
the  enemy  continue  to  be  those  inflicted  by  an  inferior 
defensive  against  a  superior  offensive  ;  the  bringing  up  of 
the  enemy's  heavy  artillery  to  his  more  forward  positions 
is  not  yet  accomplished. 

Before  attempting  to  grasp'  the  situation  as  it  stands  at 
the  moment,  let  us  recapitulate  the  various  phases  of  the 
battle  and  its  development  during  these  ten  days. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  enemy  opened  his  bombard- 
ment upon  a  front  of  50  miles  from  the  River  Scarpe  to  the 
River  Oise  an  hour  before  dawn  upon  the  morning  of  Thurs- 
day, March  21st,  when  he  launched  his  infantry  from  three 
to  foiir  and  a  half  hours  afterwards  (according  to  the  sector 
of  'the  line  upon  which  he  attacked).  His  principal  effort 
was  directed  to  the  cutting  off  of  the  Cambrai  salient  and 
presumably  to  the  creation  of  a  rupture  in  the  British  line  at 
that  point. 

This  salient  lay  at  about  or  rather  more  than  one-third  of 
the  distance  from  the  southern  to  the  northern  river,  and 
had  he  succeeded  in  breaking  the  British  defensive  organisa- 
tion there,  he  would  at  once  have  effected  his  purpose,  for 
though  a  considerable  portion — some  30  miles — of  the  British 
line  would  still  have  lain  to  his  left  (that  is,  below  or  to  the 
"south  of  the  point  of  rupture),  he  would  have  turned  the 
great  bulk  of  the  British  army  by  its  right,  could  easily 
have  thrown  back  the  remnant  upon  the  marshy  obstacle 
of  the  Oise  Valley,  and,  long  before  aid  could  have  appeared, 
would  have  begun  to  roll  up  the  main  line  from  the  south 
northwards. 

We  know,  from  captured  documents,  that  his  plan  was 
based  upon  a  very  rapid  advance  upon  this  first  day,  and 
that  he  expected  by  its  close,  having  broken  the  main  British 
position,  generally  called  the  third  line  or  principal  line  of 
defence,  to  reach  the  neighbourhood  of  Bapaume,  and  to 
have  advanced  over  a  distance  of  about  12  miles. 

His  failure  to  do  this  upon  the  Thursday  had,  as  we  shall 
see,  a  very  considerable  effect  upon  the  later  development 
6f  the  battle.  Though  more  than  one-third  of  his  total 
assaulting  force  was  concentrated  upon  this  effort  against 
the  Cambrai  salient,  he  did  not  succeed  in  creating  a  rupture, 
and  the  third  line  everywhere  stood  intact  ;  his  deepest 
penetration  being  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Croisilles  and  the 
subsequent  retirement  of  the  British  through  the  night 
being  effected  in  order  to  the  main  defensive  positions  behind. 
In  mere  ground,  the  deepest  part  of  the  belt  thus  occupied 
was  less  than  two  miles,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  second 
day  he  still  had  in  front  of  him  the-unbroken  defensive  front 
which  it  was  his  business  to  pierce.  He  had  had  extremely 
heavy  losses,  and  could  count  as  \'et  only  10,000  prisoners 
— most  of  them  wounded — and  the  numerous  field  pieces 
abandoned  in  the  front  lines  to  which  they  had  been  pushed 
up  to  take  their  toll  of  the  assault.  Meanwhile,  he  had 
been  acting  with  considerable  force  upon  his  extreme  left 
towards  the  Oise,  south  of  St.  Quentin.  There  also  he  had 
compelled  a  retirement,  but  it  was  an  orderly  retirement, 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Crozat  Canal,  undertaken  during 
the  night,  and  here  also  on  the  morning  of  the  second  day 
he  was  everywhere  in  front  of  a  main  British  defensive 
position  ;    that  is,  positions  fully  wired  and  long-entrenched. 

On  Friday,  March  22nd,  things  changed. 

Upon  that  day,  though  still  attacking  with  great  energy 
along  the  whole  50  miles  of  front  from  the  Scarpe  to  the 
Oise,  his  principal  efforts  were  made  upon  the  left  in  front  of 
St.  Quentin,  and  at  some  time  between  half-past  3  and  5  in 
the  afternoon  he  pierced  the  main  British  defensive  positions 
west  of  St.  Quentin  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  ruins  and 
great  Wood  of  Holnon.  His  forces  poured  through  the 
breach  thus  created  rapidly  down  in  an  opening  fan  upon 
the  Valley  of  the  Omignon  Stream,  the  neighbourhood  of 
Vermand,  and  the  open  country  to  the  south  of  it.  This 
misfortune  compelled  a  readjustment  of  the  whole  British 
line  which  had  to  retire  by  its  right,  pivoting  upon  the  north, 
which  still  stood  unbroken.  The  retirement  was  over  an 
angle  of  about  twenty  degrees,  the  hinge  of  which  was  the 
Vimy  Ridge  and  the  country  to  the  south  of  it,  just  in  front 
of  Arras.  By  the  Friday  night,  though  the  British  right 
still  stood  just  behind  the  Crozat  Canal  and  upon  the  high 
ground  dominating  that  depression  from  the  west,  the  centre 
was  bent  backward  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Monchy  La 
Gache,  and  thence  ran  due  north  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Fins,  after  which  point  it  veered  north-eastward  to  the  hinge 
above  mentioned  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Arras.  The 
heights  of  Henin  and  St.  Leger  were  there  still  held,  pro- 
tecting the  hinge,  and  the  Vimy  Ridge,  of  course,  in  the 
extreme  north  beyond  the  Scarpe,  was  intact. 

But  tliis  retirement  of  the  second  day  could  not  be  made 


upon  a  fully  prepared  defensive  pOsitioH,  for  such  no  longer 
existed.  It  was  but  the  beginning  of  a  general  retirement, 
which  continued  in  good  order,  but  without  interruption  or 
serious  check  to  the  enemv,  throughout  the  next  three  days. 
The  first  natural  obstacle  behind  the  British  as  they  yielded 
to  the  pressure  was  the  middle  course  of  the  Upper  Somme 
between  Ham  and  Peronne,  and  it  was  already  clear  that 
the  first  phase  of  the  battle  would  end  upon  a  line  just 
covering  the  main  road,  Arras-Bapaume-Peronne-Ham.  With 
such  a  trace,  the  positions  along  the  Crozat  Canal  upon  the 
right  were  far  forward  of  the  centre,  and  a  retirement  in  this 
neighbourhood  also  was  necessary  in  order  to  conform  to 
the  general  movement. 

During  the  Sunday,  March  24th,  the  battle  was  fought 
for  this  line  of  the  main  road  and  of  the  Upper  Somme  and 
necessarily  terminated  in  favour  of  the  very  great  masses 
the  enemy  had  brought  to  bear,  in  which  had  already  been 
identified  over  sixty  divisions.  By  the  Monday  evening, 
the  25th,  the  enemy  was  in  Bapaume  and  in  NesJe  and  had 
crossed  the  defensive  middle  line  of  the  Upper  Somme.  He 
probably  counted  at  that  moment  some  50,000  prisoners 
and  600  guns,  the  former  category  including,  of  course, 
wounded  men  who  made  up  by  far  the  greater  part,  or  nearly 
the  wliole,  of  the  list,  for  there  had  been  no  surrounding 
of  units — as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  no  Staff  captures 
were  reported.  The  French  were  already  in  action  upon 
the  extreme  right  of  the  British,  but  as  yet  in  comparatively 
small  numbers.  They  were  only  beginning  to  take  o\'er 
the  right  of  the  British  line. 

Character  of  the  Defensive 

We  must  pause  at  this  moment  in  the  action  to  emphasise 
two  essential  facts  :  First,  that  so  far  the  whole  weight  of 
the  enemy  had  been  thrown  against  the  British  alone ; 
secondly,  that  the  defensive  had  been  undertaken,  as  classical 
rule  directs,  by  the  smallest  number  of  men  necessary  to 
maintain  the  line  intact  and  to  inflict  the  maximum  number 
of  losses  upon  the  defensive.  Meanwhile  that  defensive  was 
now  being  rapidly  fed  with  newly  arriving  units,  and  though 
the  retirement  could  not  fail  to  continue  with  the  necessary 
losses  in  prisoners  and  in  guns  the  chances  of  preserving 
the  line  increased. 

On  the  Tuesday  evening  the  Germans  stood  before  Albert  ; 
the  French,  who  were  rapidly  taking  over  the  southern  part 
of  the  line,  had  abandoned  Roye  and  Noyon,  so  that  the 
battle  was  to  rage  the  next  day  along  a  line  nearly  due  south 
and  north  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Arras,  the  hinge  in 
the  north,  which  still  stood  intact.  By  this  time  70 
German  divisions  at  least  had  been  identified  as  having  been 
thrown  into  the  battle  area.  Albert  was  occupied  by  the 
enem}'  upon  the  evening  of  the  Tuesday.  Upon  Wednesday 
the  somewhat  increasing  strength  of  the  British  line  began 
to  tell,  and  this,  coupled  with  the  difficulty  the  enemy  had 
in  following  up  his  rapid  advance  with  supplies,  munitions 
and  heavy  guns,  caused  but  a  slight  fluctuation  upon  the. 
map  north  of  the  Somme,  where  the  line  lay  from  just  before 
■  Chipilly  along  the  heights  to  the  west  of  Albert,  across  the 
old  starting-point  of  the  battle  of  the  Somme  near  Beaumont- 
Hamel,  and  so  through  Bucquoy  to  the  unchanging  positions 
which  defended  Arras. 

But  on  the  same  day — Wednesday— two  events  modified 
the  battlefield  ;  the  first  was  the  crossing  of  the  Somme 
near  Chipilly  by  the  Germans,  compelling  a  considerable 
retirement  upon  its  left  bank  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Le 
Hamel,  while  much  farther  to  the  south  against  the  French, 
the  Gentians  reached  a  point  immediately  in  front  of 
Pierrepont  ;  and  the  French,  evacuating  Montdidier  and 
the  hollow  of  the  river  Avre  stream  called  "Des  Doms" 
(of  the  ponds)  which  passes  by  that  town,  took  up  positions 
on  the  heights  immediately  to  the  west  of  it.  These  positions 
therefore  form,  as  will  be  seen  upon  the  map,  the  point  of 
an  angle  too  sharp  to  be  long  maintained  either  by  the  enemy 
or  by  the  Allies. 

The  enemy  now  held — that  is,  by  the  morning  of  last 
Thursday — two  quite  distinct  faces  of  the  angle.  The  one 
face  ran  for  55  miles  to  60  looking  a  little  north  of  west  from 
Montdidier  to  east  of  Arras  ;  the  other  ran  at  right  angles 
,  to  it,  facing  a  little  west  of  south,  and  passing  from  these 
heights  near  Montdidier  through  Lassigny  to  the  Oise  below 
Pont-L'Ev6que,  With  this  sharp  right-angular  form  of  the 
fronts,  whicl)  was  to  give  the  battle  all  its  characteristics 
during  the  ensuing  days,  I  shall  deal  at  length  in  a  moment ; 
for  it  is  still  at  the  moment  of  writing  the  capital  point 
in   the  situation. 

Meanwhile,  all  during  this  Wednesday,  the  27th,  a  separate 
attack  in  very  great  strength  was  made  upon  a  narrow  front 
with  the  object  of  breaking  the  standing  hinge  at  Arras. 


April   4,  19 1  8 


Land    &   Water 


Upon  this  action  a  short  digression  may  be  permitted  ;    for 
though  local,  it  was  of  extreme  importance. 

The  enemy  mustered  here  no  less  than  ten  divisions  with 
the  special  object  of  breaking  the  hinge,  a  success  the  effect 
of  which  would  have  been  to  shake  the  whole  line  and  compel 
we  know  not  what  dangerous  and  rapid  modification  of  it 
to  the  south. 

Not  onlv  the  place,  but  the  time,  is  worthy  of  special 
attention.  By  this,  the  seventh  day  of  the  action ,  it  was  already 
apparent  that  the  enemy  was  prepared  to  throw  in  ultimately  the 
full  100  divisions  of  which  we  have  spoken,  and  much  more  than 
three-quarters  of  them  had  been  already  compelled  to  suffer 
the  strain  of  the  enormous  conflict.  His  losses,  which  were 
in  the  ratio  of  anything  between  2|  to  3  times  those  of  tlie 
defensive,  had  reached  something  like  a  quarter  of  a  million 
and  may  have  approached  the  larger  total  of  300,000.  It 
may  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  one  man  out  of  three 
in  the  troops  used  for  attack  had  fallen  ;  but  as  a  rough 
gauge  of  the  proportion  it  would  not  be  greatly  in  excess  of 
the  truth.  We  must  remember  in  this  connection  that  these 
gigantic  totals  have  quite  a  different  meaning  in  an  action 
of  this  sort,  compelled  by  political  circumstance  and  therefore 
depending  wholly  upon  rapidity,  from  what  they  had  in  the 
long  .drawn  out  struggles  of  Verdun  and  the  Somme.  This 
is  true  not  only  from  the  obvious  fact  that  time  permits 
the  training  of  new  recruitment  and  its  gradual  absorption, 
and  is  still  more  valuable  in  permitting  the  return  of  wounded 
men,  but  also  from  the  effect  of  such  enormou.sly  rapid  losses 
upon  organisation  and  moral.  The  Germans  had  certainly 
not  reached  the  maximum  loss  which  they  had  budgeted  for  as 
the  very  maximum  they  could  afford  for  the  price  of  complete 
success.  They  therefore  certainly  intended  to  throw  in  fresh 
units  with  equal  vigour  for  many  days  more  rather  than 
abandon  their  hope  of  ultimately  breaking  the  line.  But  tlie 
limit  was  approaching  much  nearer  than  had  been  allowed 
for  in  90  short  an  interval  and  undoubtedly  gave  cause  for 
anxiety.  The  enemy  press  was  already  being  instructed 
to  warn  opinion  within  the  German  Empire  of  the  severity 
of  these  losses  and  to  say  all  it  could  to  prepare  opinion  for 
their  reception. 

Note,  for  all  these  reasons,  the  importance  of  the  effort 
before  Arras  begun  upon  this  Wednesday,  and  continued 
till  Thursday  evening.  This  first  great  assault  upon  the 
Arras  hinge  was  fiercely  prosecuted,  but  completely  failed. 
On  the  north  of  the  Scarpe  if  reached  the  foot  of  the  Vimy  - 
Ridge,  and  just  touched  the  lower  southern  heights  of  it, 
but   went    no   further.     Here   the   British   position   was,    of 


CpiauuzlBpi^ish£>ine 
Line  ifKBTz  w/iicA  German 

Line  wAere  it/ai^ed 


■4000         VODO 

Yards 


Ikigh£s  above  120/mirBS 
■Sooo     '  ■     so     ■■  ,////// 


course,  strongest,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  enemy  did  not 
envisage  his  principal  success  here,  for  by  a  success  to  the 
south  of  the  Scarpe  he  would  have  turned  the  heights,  could 
have  compelled  a  retirement  from  the  Vimy  Ridge,  and 
thus  disengaged  the  whole  area.  In  other  words,  he  would 
have  broken  the  hinge  if  he  had  succeeded,  as  he  spent  the 
utmost  energy  in  attempting  to  do  south  of  the  Scarpe. 

The  battle  continued  all  during  the  Thursday,  wher  it 
reached  its  height,  and  was  observed  and  directed  by  the 
enemy  from  the  hill  of  Monchy,  which  he  had  capturedsome 
days  before,  and  whence  the  whole  of  the  country  south  of 
Arras  lies  below  one  to  the  west. 

By  9  o'clock  of  the  Thursday  morning  the  German  12th 
Reserve  Division  had  gained  somewhat  over  a  thousand 
yards  of  ground,  and  reached  what  were  their  supporting 
trenches  before  the  battle  of  Arras  this  time  last  year.  It 
was  behcved,  on  account  of  the  importance  of  the  point, 
that  a  second  attempt  would  be  made  upon  the  Friday  or, 
at  any  rate,  upon  the  Saturday,  when  fresh  troops  could  be 
brought  up  ;  but  no  such  development  followed,  and  the 
last  dispatches  received — those  reachiiig  -London  upon  the 
Sunday — give  no  news  of  any  continued  effort  to  shake  the 
pivot  point  in  the  north.  But  it  may  well  be  renewed  by  a 
continued  attempt  to  turn  Arras  from  the  south. 

Captured  documents  during  this  action  show — what  was 
also  obvious  from  its  nature — that  the  enemy's  purpose  was 
to  turn  the  Vimy  Ridge  from  the  south  and  to  enter  Arras 
itself,  and  in  the  course  of  the  second  day  it  was  established 
that  the  total  forces  mentioned  above — no  less  than  six 
divisions  engaged  in  the  .  first  attack  and  four  brought  in 
later — had  been  engaged.  In  other  words,  upon  this  com- 
paratively narrow  front — a  sixteenth  of  the  whole  line^ — 
more  than  an  eighth  of  the  whole  of  the  German  units  hitherto 
thrown  in  had  appeared  and  had  been  broken  without  attain- 
ing the  success  they,  had  aimed  at.  The  Field-Marshal 
characterised  the  whole  operation  as  a  severe  defeat  for  the 
enemy.  The  phrase  is  a  strong  one,  but  not  too  strong  for 
tTie  result  when  we  consider  the  very  great  importance  to 
the  enemy  of  attaining  the  objects  he  sought  here. 

From  this  digression,  we  may  return  to  the  main  action 
southward. 

We  left  the  Allied  line  (after  the  enemy  had  forced,  the 
crossing  of  the  Somme  near  Chipilly,  and  thus  compelled 
the  falling  back  of  the  British  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Hamel) 
running  north  with  little  indentation  from  the  sharp  comer 
just  west  and  south  of  Montdidier,  covering  Pierrepont, 
Hamel,  and  west  of  Albert,  near  Rossignol  Wood,  and  so 
near  Bucquoy  up  to  the  positions  in  front  of  Arras,  which 
were  the  scene  of  the  action  just  described.  The  enemy 
counted  at  this  stage,  when  the  line  had  reached  a  fairly 
even  trace  from  Montdidier  to  the  Vimy  Ridge,  70,000 
prisoners  and  over  a  thousand  guns. 

On  the  Friday,  the  29th,  his  activity  north  of  the  Somme 
slackened,  but  south  of  the  Somme  he  fought  very  hard  to 
advance  his  line,  and  a  large  and  continuous  concentration 
beyond  it  was  observable  proceeding  during  the  whole  day. 
He  pushed  forward  to  just  beyond  Hamel,  some  hundred 
yards  west  of  Marcelcave,  and  reached  his  furthest  western 
point  in  the  fields  just  west  of  the  ruins  of  Demuin.  So  much 
for  the  -British  section  upon  that  day — Friday,  the  29th. 

Upon  the  heights  just  west  of  Demuin  was  the  point  where 
the  French,  relieving  the  English  line,  were  in  contact  with 
them  upon  that  day.  The  French  held  the  ruins  of  Meziferes  ; 
thence  their  line  bent  back  towards  the  Avre,  covering 
Laneuville,  Pierrepont,  and  Gratibus.  It  stood,  therefore, 
just  in  front  of  the  little  stream  of  the  .\vre  and  upon  the 
heights  dominating  its  depression  from  the  East.  The 
stream  is  here  not  difficult  to  cross,  and  forms  .no  serious 
obstacle.  Were  it  otherwise,  the  line  would  have  been  taken 
up  upon  the  west  of  it.  It  crossed  the  small  tributary  of 
the  Avre,  the  brook  of  Doms,  somewhere  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Courtemanche  and  held  the  heights,  the  crown  of 
which  is  marked  by  the  village  of  Mesnil  St.  Georges,  west 
of  Montdidier. 

Jr  From  that  point,  as  will  be  seen  upon  the  map,  the  second 
and  now  quite  separate  southern  face  of  the  enemy's  great 
angle  begins.  It  runs  round  through  the  hamlet  of  Montchel, 
where  it  crosses  the  marshy  little  sources  of  the  Doms  Brook, 
uncovers  Lassigny,  and  reaches  the  Oise  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Pont  L'Ev^que. 

Now,  it  is  to  this  southern  face  that  we  should  direct 
particular  attention  if  we  are  to  understand  the  enemy's 
position  upon  Saturday  and  Sunday  last,  after  which  dates 
we  have  no  material  upon  which  to  study  the  action  for  the 
purposes  of  this  article. 

This  southern  face  is  of  the  last  importance  to  the  enemy. 
It  has  developed  in  a  fashion  which  he  did  not  allow  for 
when  he  laid  down  his  plan  for  the  great  attack. 


8 


Land    &    Water 


April  4,  19  1 8 


Its  trace  running  at  a  sharp  angle  to  the  main  iront  which 
faces  and  threatens  Amiens,  is  an  obvious  peril  to  him.  It 
is  here  that  the  I'rench  can  concentrate  most  rapidly,  and 
he  hiis  that  concentration  right  upon  the  flank  of  his  main 
effort  ;  so  that  if  tlie  I-Vcnch  pushed  him  northward  between 
Montdidier  and  Noyon  his  lines  of  supply  would  be  lost, 
his  enemy  would  have  got  behind  him.  His  main  attack 
on  the  British  he  had  designed  tt>  ])r(jceed  more  rapidly 
than  it  has  actually  proceeded.  While  he  created  the  breacli 
which  he  took  for  granted  he  would  create  in  the  British 
line,  while  he  thus  separated  it  from  the  French,  he  planned 
to  be  secure  upon  his  tiank  by  reposing  it  upon  the  marshy 
valley  of  the  Oisc.  Across  that  marshy  valley  all  the  way 
from  La  F6re  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Noyon  a  passage  is 
extremely  difficult.  The  enemy  could  hold  it  with  a  com- 
paratively weak  curtain  of  troops  and  guns,  and,  from  the 
heights  north-east  of  Noyon  especially,  he  swept  the  whole 
of  it.  Had  he  made  his  gap  while  his  tlank  still  extended 
no  further  than  beyond  Noyon  or  its  immediate  neighbour- 
hood, he  would  liave  been  secure.  As  a  fact,  that  flank 
now  exists  over  ojien  country  for  more  than  20  miles  from 
Mcsnil  to  Pont  L'Evfeque.  He  is  therefore  under  an  imme- 
diate and  unexpected  necessity  of  checking  the  French 
menace  here  and  of  getting  plenty  of  elbow-room,  which 
effort  may  in  its  turn  develop  into  an  attempt  to  obtain 
here  his  principal  success. 

I-et  us,  before  following  what  has  happened  along  this 
critical  piece  of  country,  pause  for  a  moment  to  consider  _the 
effect  upon  the  enemy  of  such  an  unexpected  change  of  plan. 

A  battle  which  does  not  proceed  exactly  according  to  ])lan 
will  necessarily,  as  it  develops,  produce  elements  of  weak- 
ness to  the  side  which  has  had  the  best  of  it  ;  and  it  is  when 
those  elements  of  weakness  can  be  taken  advantage  of  by 
the  hitherto  weaker  opponent  that  the  tide  is  turned.  We 
saw  that  in  the  case  of  the  Mame,  and  all  history  is  full  of 
it.  But  very  great  actions  rarely  proceed  accorchng  to  plan. 
Now,  it  is  a  curious  modern  tradition  of  the  Prussian  service 
to  exaggerate  this  conformity  of  an  action  to  its  original 
design.  In  their  dispatches  they  are  perpetually  using 
phrases  to  indicate  that  all  goes  along  lines  previously  pre- 
pared ;  in  their  military  studies  they  delight  to  present  an 
original  plan,  real  or  fictitious,  which  corresponds  to  the 
actual  event,  and  when  the  plan  is  not  carried  out  there  is 
always  a  note  of  grievance  in  the  account. 

This  trait  in  the  Prussian  service  proceeds  mainly,  of 
course,  from  the  general  character  of  that  service,  and 
especially  from  its  rigidity  ;  but  to-day  it  also  and  mainly 
proceeds  from  the  crushing  successes  of  1864,  1866,  and  1870. 

We  should  never  forget  that  the  mechanical  fighting 
machine  produced  by  the  Prussian  State  has  experienced 
only  one  closely  connected  set  o[  campaigns  in  just  on  a 
hundred  years.  Between  June,  1815,  and  July,  1914,  it  had 
no  experience  of  war  in  any  fqrm  save  the  campaigns  of 
1864,  1866,  and  1870,  which  gave  Prussia  complete  power 
■over  Northern  Germany  and  ultimately  over  Central  Europe. 
By  an  accident  which  was  \-ery  useful  to  the  Pnissian  State, 
the  oldest  men  who  supervised  those  campaigns  could  just 
remember  as  young  men  the  last  of  the  fighting  in  1812-5, 
first  on  Napoleon's  side,  and  then  against  him  ;  while  the 
youngest  men  fighting  in  those  campaigns  have  also  lived 
to  be  present  as  soldiers  in  their  old  age  upon  the  present 
battlefields.  But,  in  spite  of  this  advantage,  which  gives  a 
personal  continuity  to  the  Prussian  tradition,,  the  fact  that 
only  one  very  brief  and  enormously  successful  interval  of  war 
exercised  it  during  a  whole  century  has  had  a  powerful 
effect.  Contemporary  fighting,  which  the  Prussians  have 
very  carefully  studied  (the  American  Civil  War,  the  per- 
petual English  colonial  campaigns,  the,  Russo-Turkish  and 
the  Russo-Japanese  campaigns,  etc.),  informed  them  theo- 
retically, but  failed  to  affect  the  spirit  of  their  army.  For 
at  bottom  they  despised  everything  Ihat  was  not  them- 
selves. ' 

Now,  it  so  happened  that  this  group  of  campaigns,  1864-70, 
followed  plan  exactly,  and  that  in  a  sort  of  crescendo  each 
new  Prussian  strategic  scheme  followed  its  calculated  course 
even  more  exactly  than  its  predecessor.  The  consequence 
was  that  from  1870  onwards  the  Prussian  mind  was  firmly 
fixed  on  the  idea  of  a  strategic  plan  which,  if  it  were  Prussian, 
would  in  some  necessary  way  head  to  a  preconceived  result 
along  precise  lines  laid  down  for  it  ;  \  conversely,  a  disturb- 
ance of  plan  weighed  more  heavily  upon  the  Prussian  service 
than  upon  its  rivals,  jj  It  would  be  a  bad  misun ierstanding 
of  this  feature  to  neglect  the  advantages  attachihg  to  it. 
It  permits  of  extraordinarily  detailed  study  and  exceedingly 
accurate  machinery,  but  the  disadvantages  are  such  that 
even  an  unexpected  success  cannot  be  properly  developed — 
witness  Caporetto,  the  stunning  magnitude  of  which  pro- 
duced nothing,  after  all ;  and  witness  also  the  Mame.  To-day 


we  are  the  spectators  of  a  great  debate  as  to  whether  a  similar 
unexpected  development,  upsetting  the  original  Prussian 
plan,  can  be  restored  to  tlie  Prussian  advantaige,  or  will  be 
decided  against  it.  This  development  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  great  extension  f)f  the  southern  front  against  the  French. 

The  original  Prussian  plan  was  perfectly  clear.  One  might 
almost  say  that  it  was  not  even  concealed.-  It  has  been 
twice  stated  here.  Its  central  object  was  the  creation  of 
a  rupture  between  the  British  and  the  French  armies.  A 
breach  1  anywhere  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Carnbrai  south- 
wards would  have  sufficed.  The  more  it  lay  to  his  left 
towards  the  Oise  the  better  for  the  enemy. 

We  have  als(j  seen  how  that  plan  failed  to  follow  its  exactly 
calculated  lines.  The  time-table  could  not  be  observed. 
No  complete  breach  was  effected  in  the  British  line.  By 
the  time  the  exceedingly  expensive  but  deep  advance  of 
the  enemy  had  reached  the  line  of  the  Avre  and  the  Doms 
Brook  on  the  west  and  of  the  villages  from  Hamel  to  Mezi^res, 
as  its  extreme  extension  that  is,  upon  the  evening  of  Saturday 
last,  the  30th  of  March,  an  open  flank  much  more  than 
20  miles  in  extent  as  the  crow  flies,  and  more  than  25  foUow- 
ing  all  tli(>  sinuosities  of  the  line,  was  exposed  between  the 
Oise  at  Pont  L'Evfeque,  just  south  of  Noyon. 

Of  the  fighting  upon  this  essential  piece  of  country  nothing 
conclusive  can  be  said  at  the  moment  of  writing.  There  is, 
as  it  were,  a  race  between  the  I-"rcnch  pressure  increasingly 
exercised  upon  it  from  the  south,  and  the  German  counter 
pressure  exercised  by  the  peqjetual  bringing  in  of  fresh  units 
from  the  north.  Tiie  dispatches  of  Saturday  present  a 
picture  of  a  closely  contested  fluctuating  struggle  along  the 
double  front  of  which  ceaseless  small  fluctuation  takes  place. 
Pont  L'Ev&que  and  the  crossing  of  the  Marne  is  lost  and  taken 
again  by  the  French.  The  httle  village  of  Plessis  de  Roye, 
just  south  of  Lassigny  is  lost,  retaken,  and  then  half  lost 
again,  the  French  line  passing,  upon  Saturday  night,  through 
the  comer  of  the  Park  immediately  to  the  south  of  it.  Bier- 
mont  and  OrviUers,  four  miles  to  the  west,  the  French 
recover.  They  approach  Caj>p\-  also.  The  hamlet  of 
Montchel,  down  on  the  marshy  sources  of  the  Doms  Brook 
a  couple  of  miles  south  of  Montdidier,  the  French  having 
abandoned  it,  they  retake  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  The 
height  of  Mesnil  about  100  feet  above  the  valley  facing  and 
overlooking  Montdidier,  is  still  held.  There  is  no  appreciable 
result  obtained  during  all  tliat  day's  fierce  struggle  upon 
the  one  side  or  the  other. 


Such  is  the  general  aspect  of  the  Great  Battle  of  Picardy 
as  it  stands  according  to  the  news  received  not  later  than 
Easter  Sunday  morning,  March  3rst. 

Yet,  though  it  is  the  open  southern  face,  between  Mont- 
didier and  Noyon,  which  is  the  principal  concern  of  the 
enemy  and  of  the  Allies  in  the  present  extraordinary  shape 
of  the  whole  line,  with  its  sharp  angle  in  front  of  Montdidier, 
the  ground  has  other  features  which  may  at  any'  moment 
assume  a  new  importance  of  their  own. 

Look,  for  instance,  at'  the  situation  of  the  great  main 
railway  line  uniting  Boulogne  and  Calais  to  Paris,  through 
Amiens,  and  forming  ever  since  the  Battle  of  the  Marne  the 
great  lateral  communication  of  the  Allies  in  the  North.  It 
is  already  imperilled  by  the  German  advance.  At  the 
nearest  point  of  the  fluctuating  and  contested  line — that  is, 
at  Demuin — the  enemy's  most  advanced  troops  are  barely 
ten  thousand  yards  from  its  metals — that  is,  only  just  over 
six  miles — and  it  is  clearly  enormously  to  their  advantage 
to  put  it  out  of  use.  Once  it  be  cut  or  so  nearly  approached 
as  to  be  useless,  there  is  no  othet  double  line  for  a  long  way 
bqfk,  and  the  strain  upon  it  would  be  very  heavy,  apart 
from  the  additional  mileage  entailed. 

Again,  the  enemy  can  get  more  eUxnv-room  not  onh'  by 
forcing  the  southern  front,  but  bv  enlarging  the  corner 
round  Montdidier  to  the  west  and  tlie  north  of  that  town 
beyond  the  brook  of  Doms. 

Lastly,  tlicre  is  the  obvious  ptnnt  of  Amiens,  about  which 
a  gi^eat  deal  has  been  written  because  it  is  the  most  obviously 
appreciable  geographical  point  for  the  general  reader.  Amiens 
is  not,  of  course,  and  cannot  be  the  main  objective  of  the 
enemy.  He  is  clearly  making  for  an  immediate  decision,  as 
his  enormous  expense  of  men  proves,  and  no  one  can  seriously 
pretend  that  the  mere  occupation  of  Amiens  would  give  him 
that  decision.'  But  that  does  not  prevent  the  great  town 
from  having  a  very  high  importance  of  its  own,  apart  from 
the  still  greater  importance  of  the  railway  which  runs  through 
it,  and  might  equally  be  menaced  at  any  other  point,  whether 
a  town  was 'standing  there  or  not.  Amiens  is  a  centre  for 
military  activity  of  every  kind,  and  the  dislocation  of  estab- 
lishment there  would  be  exceedingly  serious.  It  has  the 
shops  and  the  turn-tables  and  the  sheds  of  a  great  railway 


April  4,  1918 


Land    &   Watef 


centre — or,  rather,  these  are  to  be  found  in  its  immediate 
neighbourhood.     It  is  a  perfect  focus  of  great  roads. 

Arras,  as  we  have  seen,  is  yet  another  secondary  objective 
which  the  enemy  must  regard.  He  has  tried  once  hard  to 
break  that  hinge,  and  it  is  exceedmgly  probable  that  he  will 
try  again.  But  it  still  remains  true  that,  short  of  a  rupture 
in  the  line  elsewhere,  the  exposed  southern  flank  is,  at 
present,  the  cnicial  piece  of  ground  upon  the  fortunes  of  which 
the  decision  depends.  H.  Belloc. 


Postscript 


Since  writing  the  foregoing,  on  Easter  Sunday,  March  31st, 
■  the  battle  has  not  developed  in  the  matter  of  ground,  but 
the  official  dispatches  and  the  commentaries  of  correspondents 
make  it  plain  that-Saturday  was  filled  with  a  most  intense 
effort  to  create  a  rupture  between  the  French  and  the  British 
to  approach  the  main  railway,  and  therefore  to  exercise 
the  greatest  pressure  possible  just  north  of  Montdidier  up 
to  the  stream  of  the  Luce. 

The  effect  of  the  event  measured  in  ground  was  not  great. 
The  heights  west  of  the  Avre  were  rushed  by  the  enemy, 
and  he  took  the  village  of  Mesnil,  which  had  up  to  that  day 
formed  the  corner  of  the  great  angle.  He  gained  a  maximum 
depth  in  this  sector  of  only  a  mile  and  a  half.  But  the 
significance  of  the  day  was  not  the  trifling  gain  in  ground, 
nor  even  the  sector  upon  which  it  was  obtained,  but  the 
tremendous  weight  of  infantry  with  which  the  enemv  attacked, 
and  the  very  high  price  he  was  willing  to  pay,  and  did  pay, 
ifor  his  defeat.  Thirteen  divisions  at  least  were  identified 
upon  the  small  front  chosen  for  the  effort.  For  S(bme  reason 
which  is  not  easy  to  define,  there  was  not  sufficient  weight  of 
enemy  artillery  behind  this  effort  :  and  yet  the  enemy 
thought  it  so  imperatively  and  immediately  necessary  that 
he  sacrificed  here  alone  for  the  moment  perhaps  20,000  men 
and  had  permanent  losses  of  perhaps  8,000  in  trying  to 
get  forward. 

Meanwhile,  upon  the  open  front,  which  is  strategically 
the  problem  of  the  whole  battle— the  front  between  Mont- 
didier and  Noyon — there  was  no  appreciable  gain  either 
way  ;  but  we  have  had,  with  regard  to  that  front,  since  the 
main  article  was  written,  the  very  significant  piece  of  news 
that  the  enemy  was  beginning  to  entrench,  especially  in 
front  of  Lassigny,  just  west  of  which  point  the  French 
pressure  had  begun  to  be  felt  most  severely.  If  it  show 
proof  of  the  enemy's  intention— if  he  fail  to  enlarge  his 
line — to  create  a  new  siege  front  thus  advanced,  his  power 
to  do  so  obviously  depends  upon  the  factor  of  time  :  whether 
the  Allies  can  begin  their  full  pressure  upon  him  so  early 
as  to  prevent  the  completion  by  him  of  a  good  defensive 
scheme.  We  know  from  the  experience  of  this  war  that  a 
salient,  no  matter  how  awkward,  can  be  held  if  time  for 
the  proper  defence  of  its  two  angles  is  given.  The  still 
sharper  salient  of  St.   Mihiel  is  an  example.— H.  B. 

Sea  and   Land   Communications 

To  the  Editor,  Land  &  W.\ter. 
Sir,— Writing  on  "Raiding  the  Rhine  Cities,"  Mr.  Belloc 
mentions  our  maritime  communications  are  "slow  and 
vulnerable,"  whilst  the  enemy's  communications,  being 
contmental,  are  "therefore  rapid  and  invulnerable."  I  have 
never  been  able  to  see  the  force  of  these  conclusions.  Why 
should  a  fixed  permanent  way  like  a  railway  be  less  vulner- 
able to  aerial  attack  than  ships  (which  have  a  choice  of 
routes  over  hundreds  of  miles  of  the  pathless  seas)  are  to 
destruction  at  the  hands  of  submarines  ?  In  the  latter  case 
a  submarine  cannot  injure  a  route;  it  can  only  destroy 
ships,  and  it  must  do  this  individually  and  separately '  On 
the  other  hand,  the  destruction  of  a"  railway  bridge  or  part 
of  the  permanent  way  may  hold  up  the  traffic  of  an  entire 
system.  And  surely  a  railway,  with  its  junctions,  bridges 
and  tunnels,  offers  a  much  better  target  for  a  bomb  dropped 
from  an  aeroplane  than  a  vessel  offers  to  a  submarine. 

I  should  have  thought  that  a  fleet  of  aeroplanes,  expressly 
employed  for  bombing  the  enemv  railways  and  roUing  stock 
as  often  as  the  weather  permits,  might  have  proved  far  more 
disastrous  to  him  than  anything  he  might  inflict  upon  us 
with  his  under-sea  craft  Our  enemv  is  very  short  of  loco- 
motives, freight  cars,  etc..  and  his 'rails  are  beginning  to 
wear  out.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  constant  and 
systematic  attacks  in  this  direction  would  cripple  him  in  a 
very  vital  place. 

Arthur  Kitson. 
The  British  Empire  Club,  St.  James's  Square, 
March  22nd,  ,1918. 


Pendant  la  Bataille 

By  Emile  Cammaerts 

La  lune  s'est.  levee  derriere  les  peupliers, 

Limpide  et  pure  comme  uiie  fiancee, 

Sous  le  souffle  du  soir  les  branches  ont  frissonne  .  .  . 

Donne  leur  la  Victoire,  6  Dien  des  armees. 

La  brume  serpente  le  long  de  la  riviere, 
Les  sansonnets  jacassent  perches  sur  la  goutti^re. 
La  rosee  du  printcmps  parfume  la  poussiere,  .  .  . 
O  Dieu  des  armees,  ecoute  nos  prieres. 

Les  oiseaux  se  taiscnt,  les  enfants  sont  couches. 
La  prairie  est  tendre  et  douce  sous  le  pied. 
Tout  est  calme  ici,  tout  est  serenite  .  .  . 
Donne  leur  la  Victoire,  6  Dieu  des  armees. 

Ce  n'est  pas  pour  la  gloire,  ce  n'est  pas  pour  la  guerre, 
Pas  meme  pour  I'idee,  pas  meme  pour  la  terre. 
Mais  pour  le  ciel,  Seigneur,  et  son  sacre  mystfere,  .  .  . 
O  Dieu  des  armees,  e.xauce  nos  prieres. 
[all  rights  reserved] 

From  a  German  Note  Book 

THE    German    Imperial   Budget    for    1918,    which   was 
recently  published,   was  a  reminder  to   the  German 
pubUc  that  they  are  paying  heavily  for  glory.     The 
ordinary  Budget   balanced  at   366   million   pounds   sterling, 
as   compared   with   224  milUons  last  year,  and  of   the  total 
expenditure    for    the    year,    295    millions    sterling    was   for 
interest  on   the   public   debt.     A  modest  9  millions  sterling 
sufficed   for  the   purpose    in    1914 :     No  wonder  the   Pan- 
Germans    are    dinning   into    the   ears   of    the   workers   that 
unless  Germany  obtains  an  indemnity,  she  will  be  bankrupt. 
But  bad  as  the  position  appears  to  be  in  the  Budget,  the 
whole  of  the  financial  statement  is  fictitious.     Expenditure 
on  the  army  and  the  navy  is  left  out  altogether ;    and  what 
IS  to  be  said  of  a  Budget  which  gives  no  indication  of  this 
very  important  item  ?     Furthermore,  as  it  stands  it  repeats 
the  old  1914  figures,  with  some  slight  variations,  and  thus 
guileless  Fritz  is  led  to  believe  that  38  millions  sterhng  will 
be  forthcoming  this  year  from  Customs  duties.     All  the  worid 
knows  that  owing  to  the  British  blockade  the  amount  received 
by  Germany  from  Customs  duties  has  sunk  very  low  indeed. 
Yet  these  38   millions  figured  in  the  Budgets  for  1915,  1916 
and  1917,  and  they  turn  up  once  more  in  1918.     It  needs 
no  great  insight  to  estimate  the  true  value  of  a  document  of 
this  kind.     Nevertheless,  Germany,  one  of  the  Great  Powers 
of  Europe,  is  not  ashamed  to  have  recourse  to  Ijnng  and 
deceptive  statements  of  a  character  which  even  a  bankrupt 
Central  American  Repubhc  would  disdain. 

Even  this  make-believe  Budget,  however,  ends  with  an 
enormous  deficit,  which  will  have  to  be  made  good  by  special 
war  taxes.  They  are  talking  of  higher  duties  on  beer  and 
spirits,  and  taxes  on  business  transactions.  But  why  no 
taxes  on  incomes,  it  may  be  asked  ?  The  answer  is  simple. 
The  Pan-German  annexationists  who  desire  to  pocket  as 
much  belonging  to  other  countries  as  they  can  seize  are  very 
unwilling  that  their  purses  should  be  touched.  In  a  recent 
debate  on  the  Prussian  Diet,  Freiherr  von  Zedlitz,  one  of 
the  leading  Ughts  of  the  reactionaries,  called  upon  the  Govern- 
ment to  oppose  with  all  the  forces  at  its  command  any  further 
encroachments  on  the  part  of  the  Imperial  Treasury  on  private 
incomes  and  private  property. 

Sport  and   Fashions 

Ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  has  been  a  move- 
ment in  Germany  to  get  rid  of  all  foreign  words,  which  have 
been  replaced  by  native  productions.  In  a  large  number 
of  instances  the  transformation  succeeded  ;  but  a  few  words 
were  left  over  for  which  no  exact  German  equivalent  could 
be  found.  Characteristically  enough,  these  included  the 
words  "lady"  and  "gentlemen,"  both  of  which  were  in 
common  use  in  Germany.  Perhaps  the  reason  for  the  failure 
is  that  Germany  lacks  what  these  words  indicate.  And  now 
it  is  the  turn  of  sport.  The  hnguistic  speciahsts  are  greatly 
troubled  to  find  exact  German  expressions  for  "sport"  itself, 
for  "lawn  tennis, "  "hockey,"  "golf,"  "  cross-countrv, " 
starter,"  "amateur."  Scholars  agitate  themselves  over 
the  search,  and  when  they  find  a  more  or  less  satisfactory 
equivalent,  it  sounds  strange  even  in  German  ears. 


Copyright  1918,   U.S. A 


''This  is  my  1 


By 


^lUlU  ..JHWUtl.H.gW'll'i't*"'"'"*  »■» M 


■Vl/ 


^f 


II 


, 


,^\' 


L  5  '  i  ' 


•/?! 


>l#ffl 


'K- 


■.\   >:* 


,-tj;,>#;^ 


.4i'. 


^r"-. 


:j 


I 


V. 


Si4^ 


:^^ 


??• 


•r*" 


le." — The    Kaiser 

a-iniiekers. 


Copyright,  "  Land  &   Waltr.' 


12 


Land    &    Water 


April  4,   191  8 


Citizen  Soldiers  :    By  The  Editor 


THE  power  of  the  Press  is  a  far  older  topic  of 
disputation  than  many  realise.  There  are  those 
who  have  always  regarded  it  as  anathema 
maranaiha,  while  others  have  gone  to  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  inasmuch  as  they  deem  a  newspaper 
vox  populi,  worship  its  writings  as  vox  del.  Both  these  views 
are  strained  ;  a  man's  a  man,  whether  his  daily  duties  be 
journalistic  or  connected  with  any  other  profession  ;  and  it 
ma  J'  tend  to  steady  those  who  still  hold  extravagant  ideas  on 
this  subject  to  learn  that  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
generals  in  the  Canadian  Army  is  a  newspaper  proprietor, 
a  man  who  until  he  joined 
up,  in  the  autumn  of  1O14, 
was  actively  engaged  in 
the  production  of  a  daily 
newspaper,  f^nd  who,  when 
the  war  is  over,  looks  for- 
ward to  returning  to  the 
same  duties.  Major- 
General  Sir /David  \yatson, 
K.C.B.,  C.M.G.,  command- 
ing the  4th  Canadian  Di\'i- 
sion,  is  the  principal  pro- 
prietor of  the  Quebec 
Journal.  He  was  in  his 
forty-fourth  year  when  war 
began.  Since  a  boy,  he 
had  belonged  to  the 
MiHtia — or  to  the  Volun- 
teers, as  we  should  call  the 
force  in  this  country.  This 
he  had  done  not  from 
miUtary  ardour,  but  be- 
cause he  held  it  to  be  part 
of  the  duty  of  every  honest 
citizen  to  be  prepared  to 
defend  his  country  if  occa- 
sion arose. 

True  to  his  principles,  he 
was  among  the  earhest  to 
volunteer  for  active  service 
in  France,  and  he  landed  in 
England  wi  th  the  first  Cana- 
dian contingent  on  that 
memorable  October  morn- 
ing of  1914,  in  command 
of  the  2nd  Battalion,  ist 
Canadian  Division.  He 
commanded  this  battalion 
in  the  second  battle  of 
Ypres,  has  since  taken 
part  in  many  hard-fought 
engagements,  been  wound- 
ed and  gassed,  and  is  at 
the  moment  in  command 
•of  the  4th  Division.  His 
business  experience  has 
served  him  well  ever  since 
he  put  on  khaki ;  for  he 
was  one  of  the  founders  of 

the  Valcartier  Training  Camp,  and  has  been  able  to  utilise 
in  other  ways  those  qualities  on  which  he  relied  for  success 
in  civilian  life. 

It  has  been  argued  that  since  the  war  of  positions  began, 
all  soldiers  started  even  ;  that  is  to  say,  that  the  training, 
experience,  and  special  education  of  the  professional  soldier 
were  of  slight  service  in  trench  warfare.  There  is,  no  doubt, 
much  truth  in  this  saying  ;  for  since  the  battle  of  the  Marne 
so  many  unforeseen  factors  have  been  introduced  into  warfare 
that  it  signified  little,  so  long  as  a  man  understood  discipline, 
what  his  position  in  life  might  have  been  previous  to  the 
autumn  of  1914,  provided  he  was  thoroughly  fit  in  body,  of 
an  alert  and  adaptive  mind,  quick  to  form  a  decision  or  to 
seize  an  opportunity,  and  possessed  of  the  subtle  and  indefin- 
able power  of  being  able  to  handle  men  This  truth  has 
been  more  fully  realised  by  the  French  nation  than  by  our- 
selves, with  our  strongly  conservative  notions.  One  may 
regret  it,  but  there  is  no  occasion  to  be  surprised  at  it  ;  it  is 
a  defect  of  our  quahties  ;  were  you  to  turn  to  Kipling's 
Departmental  Ditties*  you  will  find  exactly  the  same  spirit 
prevailing  in  the  management  of  Indian  State  railways  forty 

♦  The  ditty  is  called  Public  Waste.  • 


Major-General  Sir  David 
commanding  4th 


years  ago.  But  war  is  a  high  explosive  ;  it  looks  as  if  even 
the  reinforced  concrete  of  professional  ])ride  and  prejudice 
(which  applies  to  all  profesr-ions  alike)  is,  so  far  as  the  Amiy  is 
concerned,  to  be  shatti  red  for  all  time.  Certainly  tliis  is  true 
of  the  Canadian  Army,  entirely  a  civilian  force  to-day. 

If  the  civilians,  gathered  in  from  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
life,  bring  to  the  Army  fresh  ideas  and  new  standards  of 
value,  let  it  be  remembered  they  take  from  it  gifts  at  least  as 
precious.  And  the  best  of  these  is  discipline.  Find  the 
civilian  soldier,  no  matter  of  what  rank,  who  lias  fought  at  the 
front  and  been  through  tlie  hell  of  battle — that  hell  which  has 

been  raging  .so  furiouslyTor 
the  last  two  weeks — who 
will  not  extol  the  power  of 
discipline.  As  General 
Watson  remarked:'  "It's 
discipline,  discipline,  dis- 
cipline, all  the  time,  and 
the  men  themselves  take 
as  great  pleasure  and  pride 
in  the  smartness  and  effi- 
ciency of  discipline,  once 
they  realise  all  it  stands 
for,  as  does  any  officer." 

When  these  civilian 
armies  are  demobilised, 
they  will  take  back  with 
them  to  their  homes 
throughout  the  Empire  a 
different  standard  of  life. 
No  soldier  will  be  able  to 
eliminate  from  his  being 
the  influence  and  lessons 
of  these  months  of  war. 
Ihis  is  bound  to  declare 
itself,  and  there  is  no  pro- 
blem which  the  civilian 
soldier  ponders  over  more 
deeply  than  how  it  will 
work  in  the  future.  At  the 
front,  he  has  been  receiving 
object-lessons  in  that  in- 
discipline which  was  a  nor- 
mal part  of  his  former  life. 
Strikes,  labour  disputes, 
political  wranglings,  public 
intrigues,  and  calumnies — 
all  thi,s  turmoil  disturbs 
and  disgusts  him.  Why, 
he  asks,  cannot  every  man 
do  his  job  in  the  same  spirit 
as  do  the  fighting  men  ; 
why  cannot  men  lead  in 
thejx)Iitical  arena  with  tlic 
same  clear  purpose  and  dis- 
regard of  self  as  they  do  on 
the  field  of  battle  ;  why  is 
a  man  in  civil  life  per- 
petually slandering  and 
Isackbiting  his  fellow-men 
and  is  unable  to  see  good  even  in  his  friends,  while  the  soldier 
takes  life  as  it  comes,  knowing  at  any  moment  it  may  end,  and 
can  find  good  even  in  his  enemies  ?  Few  realise  how  deeply  this 
questioning  cuts  into  the  heart  of  the  civilian  army.  What 
its  effect  will  be  in  the  future  it  is  impossible  to  forecast,  taut 
it  may  lead  to  startling  surprises — socially  and  politically. 
There  is  certainly  a  strong  feeling  among  the  men  who 
have  proved  themselves  leaders  of  mcri  in  warfaj-e  not  to 
lose  their  grip  on  their  fellows  in  peace  time,  but  to  guide 
them  to  higher  ideals  and  a  better  use  of  life  than  in 
the  past. 

It  is  good  to  have  a  talk  with  a  man  of  one's  own  profes- 
sion, who,  laying  aside  temporarily  the  pen,  has  gone  out  to 
defend  all  he  holds  anost  dear.  As  one  discusses  the  ordinary 
topics  of  life,  tliose  little  intimacies  which  similarit\'  of  work 
creates,  one  gets  a  glimpse  between  the  spoken  words  of  the 
new  outlook  the  new  life  has  given  There  has  been  no 
attempt  here  to  put  General  Watson's  views  into  print  ;  the 
opinions  are  those  his  conversation,  often  on  very  different 
topics,  awakened.  But  it  was  brought  home  to  the  writer 
with  new  force  what  a  marvellous  power  for  good  is  the  bond 
of  British  blood,  the  common  ideals  which  can  move  men  to 
the  same  sacrifice  in  their  delence  in  all  parts"  of  the  world. 


Watson,  K.C.B.,  C.M.G., 
Canadian   Division 


April  4,   1 91  8 


Land    &    Water 


13 


On  a  Balloon  Ship :  By  Lewis  R.  Freeman,  r.n.v.r. 


I  HAD  crossed  on  the  old  "Xerxes"  in  tliose  ancient 
days  when,  as  the  latest  launched  greyhound  of  the 
Cunardcr  fleet,  she  held  for  a  few  precarious  months 
the  constantly  shifting  blue-ribbon  for  the  swiftest 
transatlantic  passage  ;  but  in  that  angular  "cubistic" 
lump  of  lead-grey  looming  over  the  bow  of  my  spray- 
smothered  launch  to  blot  out  the  undulant  skyline  of  the 
nearest  Orknev,  there  was  not  one  familiar  feature.  Her 
forward  funnel  had  been  "kippered"  down  the  middle  to 
somewhere  about  on  the  level  of  the  lower  deck,  and  carried 
up  in  two  smaller  stacks  which  rose  abreast  to  port  and 
starboard.  This  had  been  done  (as  I  learned  later)  to  make 
room  for  a  platform  leading  forward  from  the  waist  over 
which  seaplanes  could  be  wheeled  to  the  launching-stage, 
which  ran  out  over  the  bow  from  beneath  the  bridge.  The 
break  in  the  forecastle  had  been  closed  in  in  connection 
with  a  sweeping  alteration  which  had  converted  the  whole 
forward  end  of  the  main  deck  into  a  roomy  seaplane  "reposi- 
tory" and  repair  shop. 

The  changes  aft  were  no  less  stattling.  The  old  poop 
seemed  to  have  been  razed  to  clear  the  last  two  hundred 
feet  of  the  main  deck,  and  o\er  the  ten  or  fifteen-feet-high 
railing,  whiqh  surrounded  this,  the  top  of  a  pa'rtly  inflated 
observation  balloon  showed  like  the  back  Of  a  half-sub- 
merged turtle.  The  whole  effect  was  weird  and  "impossible" 
in  the  e.x:tremc,  and  I  felt  like  exclaiming  with  the  yokel 
who  saw  a  giraffe  for  the  first  time  :  "Aw,  there  ain't  no 
such  animal." 

I  had  been  asked  aboard  the  X for  an  afternoon  of 

seaplane  and  balloon  practice.  1  had  already  seen  a  good 
deal  of  the  former  at  various  points  in  the  Mediterranean 
and  Adriatic,  but  the  towed  observation  balloon — the  "kite," 
as  they  called  it — was  an  entirely  new  thing.  I  "put  in" 
at  once  for  an  ascent  in  a  kite,  for  I  was  anxious  not  only 
to  get  some  sort  of  a  first-hand  idea  of  how  it  was  being 
employed  against  submarines — of  which  I  had  already  heard 
not  a  little — and  also  to  compare  the  work  with  that  of 
handling  the  ordinary  observation  balloons,  of  which  I  had 
seen  so  much  in  France,  Italy,  and  the  Balkans.  The  captain 
— whom  I  found  just  getting  the  sliip  under  weigh  from  the 
bridge — after  some  hesitation,  promised  to  "see  what  he 
could  do,"  if  there  was  not  too  much  wind,  when  he  was 
ready  for  "balloon  work." 

To  one  who  has  had  experience  only  of  hangars  on  land, 
perhaps  the  most  impressive  thing  about  an  "aeroship"  is 
the  amount  of  gear  and  equipment  which  can  be  stowed 
and  handled  in  restricted  spaces.  Wings  and  rudders  which 
fold  and  re-fold  upon  each  other  until  they  fonn  compact 
bundles  that  can  be  trundled  about  by  a  man  or  two,  collap- 
sible fuselages  and  pontoons,  wheels  which  detach  at  a  touch 
of  a  lever,  "kncx;k-down"  transmissions — these  things  were 
everywhere  the  rule.  One  "baby"  scout  I  saw  almost  com- 
pletely assembled  on  the  launching-stage,  and  the  "tail," 
which  a  couple  of  men  wired  to  the  main  body  in  little  more 
than  a  minute,  I  would  have  sworn  I  could  have  knocked  off 
with  a  single  well-placed  kick.  Yet,  five  minutes  later,  I 
saw  that  same  machine  "loop,"  "side-flop,"  "double-bank," 
and  (quite  at  the  will  of  its.  young  pilot,  who  is  rated  the 
most  expert  seaplane  man  in  the  British  Naval  Air  Service) 
recover  at  the  end  of  a  live-hundred-feet  rolling  fall,  all 
without  apparently  starting  a  strut  or  rivet.  "  CoUapsibility  " 
and  portability  are  evidently  secured  without  sacrificing  any 
essential  strength. 

The  science  of  working  the  seaplane  from  the  deck  of  a 
ship  is  still  in  process  of  development.  Even  up  to  quite 
recently  it  was  the  practice  tp  put  a  machine  overboard  on 
a  sling,  and  allow  it  to  start  from  the  water.  The  use  of 
detachable  wlicels — which  fall  off  into  the  sea  after  they 
have  served  their  purpose  in  giving  the  preliminary  run — 
has  made  launching  from  the  deck  practicable  and  compara- 
tively safe,  but  the  problem  of  landing  even  a  wheeled 
machine  on  deck  lias  not  yet  been  satisfactorily  solved. 
On  account  of  lack  of  room,  most  of  the  experiments  in  this 
direction  have  ended  disastrously,  even  tragically. 

When  a  seaplane  is  about  to  be  launched,  after  the  usual 
preliminary  "tuning"  up  on  the  launching-stage,  the  ship  is 
swung  dead  into  the  teeth  of  the  wind  and  put  at  full  speed. 
This  matter  of  wind  direction  is  very  important,  for  its 
variation  by  a  fraction  of  a  point  from  "head-on"  may 
easily  make  a  crooked  run  and  a  fluky  laimching.  As  the 
latter  would  almost  inevitably  mean  that  both  plane  and 
pilot  must  be  churned  under  the  swiftlj'  advancing  fore-foot 
<>(  the  ship,  no  precautions  calculated  to  avoid  it  are  omitted. 


Besides  a  wind-pennant  at  one  end  of  the  bridge,  assurance 
is  made  doubly  sure  by  the  turning  on  of  a  jet  of  steam  in 
the  mathematical  centre  of  the  extreme  tip  of  the  launching- 
stage.  When  the  back-blown  steam  streams  straight  along 
the  middle  plank  of  the  stage,  the  wind  is  "right/' 

The  captain,  from  the  bridge,  lifts  a  small  white  flag  as  a 
signal  to  the  wing-commander  that  all  is  ready.  The  latter 
nods  to  the  pilot,  who  starts  his  engine  at  full  speed,  while 
two  mechanicians,  braced  against  cleats  on  the  deck,  hold 
back  the  tugging  seaplane.  If  the  "tone"  of  the  engine  is 
right,  the  wing-commander  (standing  in  front  of  the  plane, 
and  a  little  to  one  side)  brings  down  his  red-and-yellow  flag 
with  a  sharp  jerk,  falls  on  his  face  to  avoid  a  collision,  and 
the  machine,  freed  from  the  grip  of  the  men  holding  it,  jumps 
away.  The  next  two  seconds  tell  the  tale,  for  if  a  seaplane 
"gets  off  the  deck"  properly,  the  rest  of  its  flight  is  not  likely 
to'be   "eventful." 

Practice  Flights 

At  practice,  a  seaplane  sails  over  and  drops  its  detachable 
wheels  near  a  waiting  drifter,  whiq^  picks  them  up  and 
returns  them  to  the  ship.  The  machine  swoops  low,  and 
"kicks"  loose  the  "spares"  at  a  hundred  feet  or  less  above 
the  surface  of  the  water,  and  a  pilot  who  let  his  wheels  go 
from  a  considerably  greater  altitude  drew  a  growl  from  the 
bridge,  as  a  long  fall  is  likely  to  injure  them.  Its  flight  over, 
a  seaplane  returns  to  the  ship  by  alighting  on  the  water 
several  hundred  yards  astern,  and  floundering  up  alongside 
as  best  it  can.  With  a  high  wind  and  a  choppy  sea,  it  is 
rough  work.  The  machine  is  so  "balanced"  that  its  tractor 
propeller  should  revolve  in  the  air  and  clear  the  water  by 
several  inches,  even  in  a  rough  sea.  It  will  occasionally 
strike  into  "green  water,"  however,  which  is  always  likely 
to  shatter  the  ends  of  the  blades,  if  nothing  else.  The 
sheathing  of  the  blades  with  metal  affords  considerable 
protection,  though  a  certain  risk  is  always  present.  The 
operation  of  picking  a  seaplane  up  and  hoisting  it  aboard  is 
a  nice  piece  of  seamanship  at  best,  but  in  bad  weather  is  a 
practicable  impo.ssibility.  With  the  wind  much  above  thirty 
miles  an  hour,  indeed,  only  a  very  real  need  is  hkely  to  induce 
a  "mother  ship"  to  loose  her  birds  from  the  home  nest. 
With  the  sea  too  rough  to  make  it  possible  for  a  seaplane  to 
live  in  it,  it  is  sometimes  possible  to  carry  on  imperative 
reconnaisance  by  sending  up  an  ordinary  aeroplane  (some  of 
which  are  always  carried)  ;  though  the  latter  must,  of  course, 
make  its  landing  on  lerra  firma  when  its  work  is  over. 

The  wind  had  been  freshening  considerably  all  afternoon, 
but  with  no  more  than  thirty  miles  an  hour  showing  on  the 
indicator,  there  was  no  reason  for  not  letting  me  have  my 
"balloon  ride." 

As  the  time  approached  for  its  ascent,  the  balloon  was 
allowed  to  rise  far  enough  from  the  deck  to  .permit  its  car  to 
be  pushed  underneath  the  centre  of  it,  in  order  that  the 
latter  might  not  be  dragged  in  the  "getaway."  I  could  now 
see  that  the  monster  had  rather  the  form  of  the  "bag"  of  an 
airship  than  the  "silkworm-with-stomach-cramps"  shape  of 
the  regulation  modern  observation  balloon.  Its  nose  was 
less  blunt  than  that  of  the  "sausage,"  and  the  ropes  were 
attached  so  that  it  would  be  pulled  with  that  nose  boring 
straight  into  the  wind,  instead  of  tilted  upwards  like  that  of 
its  army  prototype.  The  throe  "stabilisers"  at  its  stern 
were  located,  and  appeared  to  function,  similarly  with  those 
of  the  "sausage." 

The  basket  was  mid- waist  deep,  and  just  big  enough  to 
hold  comfortably  two  men  sitting  on  the  strips  of  canvas' 
which  served  as  seats.  Supplementing  our  jackets,  two  small 
life-preservers  of  the  ordinary  type  were  lashed  to  the  inside 
of  the  basket.  When  1  asked  about  parachutes,  I  was  told 
that,  while  it  was  customary  to  carry  them,  on  this  occasion 
— as  they  were  worse  than  useless  to  a  man  who  had  not 
practised  with  them — it  was  best  notHo  bother  myself  with 
one.  "Stick  to  the  ba,sket  if  anything  happens,"  some  one 
said;  "it  will  float  for  a  month,  even  if  full  of  water."  Some 
one  else  admonished  not  to  blow  up  my  jacket  until  we  had 
stopped  rising,  lest  it  (from  the  expanding  air,  I  suppose) 
should  in  turn  blow  me  up.  Then  wc  were  off.  The  last 
thing  I  noticed  on  the  deck  was  the  ship's  cat,  which  I  had 
observed  a  few  moments  previously  rubbing  his  arched  back 
ecstatically  against  a  saggjng  "stabiliser,"  making  a  wild 
leap  to  catch  one  of  the  trailing  guide-ropes. 

"He  always  does  that,"   I   heard  my  companion  saying 
behin^  me.     "Some  day' perhaps  he  will  catch  it,  and  then 


14 


Land   &  Water 


April  4,  191  8 


— if  it  happens  at  a  time  when  there  isn't  an  opportunity  to 
wind  in  and  let  him  down  easy — I'm  afraid  there  won't  be 
a  one  of  his  nine  hves  left  in  the  little  furry  pan-cake  it  will 
make  of  him  when  he  hits  the  water.  It's  surprising  how 
the  water  will  flatten  out  a — anything  striking  it  at  the  end 
of  a  thousand-feet  fall.     Only  week  before  last— — " 

To  deflect  the  conversation  to  more  cheering  channels, 
I  began  to  exclaim  Sbout  the  view.  And  what  a  view  it  was  ! 
The  old  "Xerxes  "  was  lying  well  down  towards  one  end  of  the 
mighty  bay,  so  that  without  turning  the  head  one  could 
sweep  the  eyes  over  the  single  greatest  unit  of  far-reaching 
might  in  the  whole  world-war,  the  Grand  Fleet  of  the  British 
Navy.  And  in  no  other  way  than  in  ascending  in  a  balloon 
or  a  flying  machine  could  one  attain  a  vantag<^  from  which  the 
whole  of  the  fleet  could  be  seen.  Ijooking  from  the  loftiest 
fighting-top,  from  the  highest  hill  of  the  islands,  there  was 
always  a.  point  in  the  distance  be)'ond  which  there  was 
simply  an  amorphous  slaty  blur  of  ships  melting  into  the 
loom  of  the  encircling  islands.  But  now  those  mysterious 
blurs  were  crystallising  into  definite  lines  of  cleavage,  and 
soon — save  where  some  especia^lly  fantastic ^^rick  of  camou- 
flage made  one  ship  look  like  two  in  collision,  or  played  some 
other  equally  scurvy  trick  on  the  vision — I  could  pick  out  not 
only  battleships,  but  cruisers,  destroj'ers,  submarines,  ranged 
class  by  class  and  row  on  row.  Even  the  method  in  the 
apparent  madness  with  which  the  swarms  of  supply  ships, 
colliers,  oilers,  trawle«,  and  drifters  were  scattered  about 
was  discernible. 

An  Average  Day 

Save  for  the  visibility,  which  was  diamond-clear  in  the 
slanting  Ught  of  the  low-hanging  winter  sun,  it  was  just  an 
ordinary,  average  Grand  Fleet  day.  A  squadron  of  battle- 
ships was  at  target  practice,  and — even  better  than  their  own 
gun-control  officers — we  could-  tally  the  foam-jets  of  the 
"wides"  and  "shorts"  and  the  narrowing  "straddles."  A 
squadron  of  visiting  battle-cruisers  had  just  come  to  anchor 
and  were  swinging  lazily  round  to  the  tide.  Two  of  them 
bore  names  which  had  echoed  to  the  ends  of  the  world  ;  the 
names  of  two  of  the  others — from  their  distinctive  lines  and 
great  size,  I  recognised  them  as  twin  giants  I  had  seen  still 
in  the  slips  on  the  Clyde  scarcely  a  year  previously — the 
world  has  never  heard.  A  lean,  swift  scout-cruiser,  with  an 
absence  of  effort  almost  uncanny,  was  cleaving  its  way  out 
toward  the  entrance  just  as  a  line  of  destroyers  came  scurry- 
ing in  after  the  rolhng  smoke-pall  the  following  wind  was 
driving  on  ahead  of  them.  Out  over  the  open  seas  to  the 
east,  across  the  hill-tops  of  the  islands,  dim  bituminous  dabs 
on  the  horizon  heralded  the  return  of  a  battleship  squadron, 
the  unceremonious  deparijure  of  which  two  days  previously 
had  deprived  me  of  the  lalt  two  courses  of  my  luncheon.  In 
the  air  was  another  "kite" — floating  indolently  above  a 
battleship  at  anchor — and  a  half-dozen  circling  aeroplanes 
and  seaplanes.  Countless  drifters  and  launches  shuttled 
in   and  out  through  the. evenly  hned  warships. 

We  were  now  towing  with  the  cable  forming  an  angle  of 
about  si.xty  degrees  with  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  running 
up  to  us  straight  over  the  port  quarter.  The  ship  had  thinned 
down  to  an  astonishingly  slender  sHver,  not  unsuggestive  of 
a  speeding  arrow  whose  feathered  shaft  was  represented  by 
the  foaming  wake. 

"She's  three  or  four  points  off  the' wind,"  commented  my 
companion,  "and  yet-^once  we've  steadied  down — you  see 
it  doesn't  make  much  difference  in  the  weather  we  make  of 
it.  A  head  wind  is  desirable  in  getting  up  to  keep  from 
fouling  the  upper  works  amidships,  but  we,  hardly  need  to 
figure  it  down  to  the  last  degree  as  in  laimching  a  seaplane. 
When  we're  really  trying  to  find  something,  of  course,  we 
have  to  work  in  any  slant  of  wind  that  happens  to  be  blowing. 
The  worst  condition  is  a  wind  from  anywhere  abaft  the  beam, 
blowing  at  a  faster  rate  than  the  towing  ship  is  moving 
through  the  water.  In  that  case,  the  balloon  simply  drifts 
ahead  to  the  end  of  its  tether,  swings  around,  and  gives  the 
ship  a  tow.  If  the  wind  is  strong  enough^say,  forty  miles 
an  hour,  with  the  ship  doing  twenty — to  make  her  give  a 
good  steady  pull  on  the  cable,  it  is  not  so  bad  ;  but  when  it 
is  touch-and-go  between  ship  and  wind  the  poor  old  'kite' 
is  all  over  the  shop,  and  about  as  difficult  to  work  in  as  to 
ride  in — which  is  saying  a  good  deal." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  work  ?"  I  asked. 

"Looking  out  for  things  and  reporting  them  to  the  ship 
over  the  telephone,"  was  the  reply.  "Perhaps  even  trying 
to  run  them  down  and  destroy  them." 

"  Can't  we  play  at  a  bit  of  work  now  ? "  I  suggested.  "  Sup- 
posing we  were  at  sea,  and  you  saw  what  you  thought  to  be 
the  wake  of  the  periscope  of  a  U-boat  a  few  miles  away. 
What   would  you   do  ? " 


My  companion  laughed.  "Well,"  he  said,  "if  I  had  the  old' 
"  Xerxes  "  down  there  on  the  other  end  of  the  string,  I  should 
simply  report  the  bearing  and  approximate  distance  of  the 
periscope  over  the  telephone,  and  let  her  do  the  rest." 

"And  what  would  'the  rest'  consist  of?"  I  asked. 

"Principally  of  turning  tail  and  running  at  top  speed  for 
the  nearest  protected  waters,"  was  the  reply,  "and  inci- 
dentally 'broad-casting  a  wireless'  giving  position  of  the 
U-boat  and  the  direction  it  was  moving   in." 

"  But  supposing  it  was  a  destroyer  we  had  '  on  the  string '  ?  " 
I  persisted  ;  "and  that  you  had  no  other  present  interest  in 
the  world  beyond  the  finding  of  one  of  these  little  V-shaped 
ripples.  The  modus  operandi  would  vary  a  bit  in  that  case, 
wouldn't  it  ?  " 

"  Radically,"  he  admitted.  "I  would  give  the  destroyer 
what  I  figured  was  the  shortest  possible  course  to  bring  her 
into  the  vicinity  of  the  U-boat.  As  long  as  the  wake  of  the 
periscope  was  visible,  I  would  correct  that  course  from  time 
to  time  by  ordering  so  many  degrees  to  port  or  to  starboard, 
as  the  case  might  be.  As  soon  as  the  periscope  disappeared 
— which  it  would  do,  of  course,  just  as  soon  as  the  eye  at  the 
bottom  of  it  saw  the  '  kite  ' — I  would  merely  make  a  guess 
at  the  submarine's  most  likely  course,  and  steer  the  destroyer 
te  converge  with  that.  Our  success  or  failure  would  then 
hinge  upon  whether  or  not  I  could  get  my  eye  on  the  sub- 
marine where  it  lurked  or  was  making  off  under  water.  In 
that  event — provided  only  there  was  enough  light  left  to 
work  with-»-it  would  be  long  odds  against  that  U-boat  ever 
seeing  Wilhelmshaven  again.  Just  as  you  guide  a  horse  by 
turning  it  to  left  or  right  at  the  tug  of  a  rein,  so,  by  giving 
the  destroyer  a  course,  now  to  one  side,  now  to  the  other, 
until  it  was  headed  straight  over  its  prey,  I  would  guide  the 
craft  at  the  other  end  of  the  telephone-wire  to  a  point  from 
which  a  depth-charge  could  be  dropped  with  telling  effect. 
If  the  conditions  were  favourable,  I  might  even  be  able  to 
form  a  rough  estimate  of  the  distance  of  the  U-boat  beneath ' 
the'  surface,  to  help  in  setting  the  hydrostat  of  the  charge 
to  explode  at  the  proper  depth.  If  the  first  shot  fails  to  da 
the  business,  we  have  only  to  double  back  and  let  off  another. 
Nothing  but  the  coming  of  night  or  of  a  storm  is  likely 
to  save  that  U-boat  once  we've  spotted  it. 

"Is  it  difficult  to  pick  up  a  submarine  under  water?" 
I  asked. 

"That  depends  largely  upon  the  light  and -the  amount  of 
sea  running,"  was  the  reply.  "Conditions  are  by  no  means 
so  favourable  as  in  the  Mediterranean,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  they  are  much  better  than  in  some  other  parts  of  the 
North  Sea  and  the  Atlantic.  The  condition  of  the  surface 
of  the  water  also  has  a  lot  to  do  with  it.  You  can  see  a  lot 
deeper  when  the  sea  is  glassy  smooth  than  when  it  is  even 
slightly  rippled.  Waves  tossed  up  enough  to  break  into 
white-caps  make  it  still  harder  to  see  far  below  the  surface, 
while  enough  wind  (as  to-day)  to  throw  a  film  of  foam  all 
over  the  water  cuts  off  the  view  completely.  On  a  smooth 
day,  for  instance,  a  drifter  which  lies  on  the  bottom  over 
there — deeper  down  than  a  U-boat  is  likely  to  go  of  its  own 
free  will — is  fairly  clearly  defined  from  this  height.  To-day 
you  couldn't  find  a  sunk  battleship  there." 

I  remarked  on  the  fact  that,  in  spite  of  the  heavy  wind, 
our  basket  was  riding  more  steadily  than  that  of  any  stationary 
observation  balloon  I  had  ever  been  up  in  at  the  front.  "It 
'yaws'  a  bit,"  I  observed,  "but  I  have  never  been  up  in  a 
balloon  with  less  of  that  'jig-a-jig'  movement  which  makes 
it  so  hard  to  fix  an  object  with  your  glasses." 

"The  latest  'stabilisers'  have  just  about  eliminated  the 
troublesome  'jig-a-jig,'  "   replied  my  companion. 

He  turned  to  me  with  a  grin.  "You're  in  luck,"  he  said. 
"Ship's  heading  up  into  the  wind  to  let  a  seaplane  go  just 
as  they're  ready  to  wind  us  in.  You'll  learn,  now,  why 
they  call  one  of  these  balloons  a  'kite.'  There  they  got 
Hold  fast  ! " 

There  was  a  sudden  side-winding  jerk,  and  then  that 
perfectly  good  seascape — Grand  Fleet,  Orkneys,  the  north 
end  of  Scotland,  and  all — was  hashed  up  into  something 
full  of  zigzag  hnes  hke  a  Futuristic  masterpiece  or  the  latest 
thing  in  "scientific  camouflaging."  My  friends  on  the  deck 
told  me,  afterwards,  that  the  basket  did  nol  "loop-the-loop," 
that  it  did  not  "jump  through,"  "lie  down,"  and  "roll  over" 
like  a  "clown"  terrier  in  a  circus;  but  how  could  they, 
who  were  a  thousand  feet  away,  know  better  than  I, 
who  was  on  the  spot  ?  When  I  put  that  poser  to  them, 
however,  one  of  them  replied  that  it  was  because  they  had 
their  eyes  open.  The  only  sympathetic  witness  I  found  was 
one  who  admitted  that,  while  the  'kite'  itself  behaved  with 
a  good  deal  of  chgnity,  the  basket  did  perform  some  evolu- 
tions not  unrcmotely  suggestive  of  a  canvas  water-bucket 
swung  on  the  end  of  a  rope  by  a  sailor  in  a  hurry  for  his 
morning   "souse." 


April  4,  191  8 


Land   &  Water 


IS 


The  Great  Passport  Frauds— Part  II 

By      French      StrOther,   Managing  Editor,  "The  world's  work,"  New  York 


^■.%'^^ 


Ruroede,  who  was  a  clerk  in  the  North  German  Lloyd  Shipping 
Office  in  New  York,  was  the  "genius"  of  the  German  Passport 
Frauds  in  America  ;  he  succeeded  von  Wedell.  Both  the  men,  it 
was  discovered,  worked  under  the  instructions  of  the  German 
Embassy  in  Washington  to  secure  passports  by  fraudulent 
methods  to  enable  German  officers  of  the  reserve  to  return  to 
Germany.  Aucher,  a  Government  special  agent  or  detective,  had 
charge  of  the  case.  He  handed  Ruroede  two  A  merican  passports,  ■ 
the  latter  agreeing  to  pay  him  Sioo.  Ruroede  sent  his  young 
son  to  a  bank  to  cash  a  cheque,  and  Aucher  waited  for  the  money 
in  a  cafe  near  by. 

jA    UCHER    then   went    into   the  cafe,  and   signalled 
^%       to   three    other   detectives   to  follow   him.      He 

/    ^     took    a   seat    in  a   boot-black's    chair    near    the 

/       ^L    entrance,  and  proceeded  to  have  his  shoes  blacked. 
*-       -^^  In   about   ten   minutes,  Ruroede's  son  came  out, 
and   was  about   to  pass  by  him,  when  Aucher  hailed  him. 
Ruroede's     son     then 
took  a  sealed  envelope 
■from  his  inside  pocket, 
and     handed     it     to 
Aucher. 

"  Where  is  your 
father?"  Aucher 
asked. 

"  Oh,  he's  got  a  man 
upstairs  \vilh  him," 
said  young  Ruroede, 
'  and  he  couldn't  come 
down." 

"Wait  a  minute," 
said  Aucher,  and  tore 
open  the  envelope,  and 
in  the  presence  of 
Ruroede's  son,  and  so 
that  the  other  special 
agents  could  see  him 
■do  it,  counted  out  ten 
|io  notes  —  $100  in 
all.  As  he  was  count- 
ing them,  the  detec- 
tive who  had  followed 
Ruroede's  son  to  the 
bank  came  in,  and 
shouldered  the  boy 
to    'ypn&     side,      and 


seated,  two  of  the  special  agents  came  in  and  took  a  table 
about  fifteen  feet  away.  After  Aucher  had  ordered  lunch 
foh  himself  and  Ruroede,  he  took  out  of  his  pocket  another 
of  the  series  of  genuine  passports  supplied  by  the  State 
Department,  to  which  he  had  attached  one  of  the  photo- 
graphs Ruroede  had  given  him  for  this  purpose.  He  handed 
~the  passport  to  Ruroede,  who  opened  onh/  one  end  of  it, 
just  enough  to  glance  at  the  photograph  and  seal. 

"That's  fine,"  said  Ruroede,  and  was  about  to  sUp  it  into 
his  pocket,  when  Aucher  seized  it,  and  exclaimed  : 

"Fine  ?  I  should  say— — ,"  and  opened  the  passport  wide 
so  that  one  of  the  other  special  agents  could  see  the  red 
seal  on  it.  "  Just  look  at  that  description.  Eh  ?  He  is 
the  fellow  with  the  military  bearing,  and  I  gave  him  a  descrip- 
tion I  figured  a  man  like  him  should  answer  to." 

At  this  point,  the  special  agent  lyho  had  seen  the  seal 
left  his  seat  at  the  table,  and  walkea  to  the  cashier's  desk. 
As  he  passed,  Ruroede  was  holding  the  passport  in  his  hands 

and  Aucher  was  point- 


awroftignwawwwwiiiiWrWiiiwmnTW'iMi'fi 


*Kr^»4/}fuy 


■waawaaw 


MOBRBisxanni 


■>f/ 


Von  Papen  becomes  Accessory  to  a  crime 

Though  this  cheque  wjs  made  out  in  favour  of  G.  Amsinck  &  Co.,  the  German-American  bankers 
then     stood     rieht      bv       of  New  York,  the  couaterfoil  bears  the  notation  "Travelling  expenses  vW,"  that  is,  "von  Wedell." 


This  cheque  wai  »:nt  him  by  von  Papen  to  enable  him  to  escape  after  he  had  forged  signatures  to 
two  fraudulent  passports  and  realised  he  was  under  surveillance— von  Papeo,  Military  Attache  to 
the  German  Embassy,  thus  becominj  accessory  after  the  fact  to  a  crime  against  American  laws. 


him  while  the  money 
was  being  counted. 
Aucher  went  on  to 
impress  on  Ruroede's 'son  that  business  was  business,  and 
that  the  best  of  friends  sometimes  fell  out  over  money 
matters  ;  that  his  father  might  have  unintentionally  counted 
oijt  S80  or  $90  instead  of  the  full  |ioo,  and  it  was  safer  to 
take  some  precautions  than  to  take  a  chance  of  creating 
bad  blood  between  them.  He  then  invited  Ruroede's  son 
to  have  a  drink  with  him,  which  he  did,  both  of  them  taking 
the  strongest  Prussian  drink — milk.  When  they  were  about 
to  part  on  Whitehall  Street,  Aucher  told  Ruroede's  son  to 
tell  his  father  he  would  be  down  the- next  morning  with  the 
other  two  passports  he  had  mentioned  to  him,  and  again 
impressed  on  the  boy  the  importance  of  accuracy  in  money 
matters.  Aucher  then  returned  to  lieadquarters  with  the 
other  special  agents,  and  made  a  memo  of  the  distinguishing 
numbers  on  the  notes,  and  marked  them  for  future 
identification. 

The  next  morning  Aucher  telephoned  to  Ruroede,  and 
told  him  he  had  been  able  to  get  only  one  of  the  two  passports 
he  wanted,  giving  as  the  excuse  for  his  failure  to  get  the 
other  the  story  that  it  had  been  promised  to  him  by  a  man 
working  on  a  job  in  Long  Island,  and  that  this  man  had  met 
with  an  accident,  and  was  in  the  hospital;  that  it  would 
take  a  day  or  two  to  go  out  there  to  get  a  written  order 
from  him  to  a  brother  who  would  turn  the  passport  over  to 
.\uciier.  Ruroede  accepted  an  invitation  to  take  lunrheon 
with  Aucher  at  Davidson's  restaurant  at  the  corner  of  Broad 
and  Bridge  Streets. 

Shortly  after  noun  they  met  on  the  street,  and  went  into 
the  restaurant  together.     A  few  minutes  after  they  were 


ing  out  the  descrip- 
tion. Ruroede  then 
put  the  passport  into 
his  pocket,  and  said 
again,  "That's  fine." 

Aucher  then  open- 
ed a  discussion  of 
von  Wedell's  career 
a  1^1  disappearance. 
Ruroede  was  \'ery 
contemptuous  of  the 
missing  man.  "He 
was  a  plain  fool,"  he 
said.  "He  paid  £700, 
altogether,  and  got 
very  little  in  return. 
A  fellow  came  to  him 
one  day  and  told  him 
he  could  get  him 
American  passports, 
and  von  Wedell  said: 
'  All  right ;  go  ahead.' 
The  fellow  returned 
later  and  said  he  would 
have  to-  have  some 
expense  money,  and 
he -gave  him  $10.  A 
little  while  later  a 
friend  of  the  first  man 
came  tp  von  Wedell, 
wanting  expense 
money.  When  von 
Wedell  decided  to  put  him  off,  he  became  threatening,  and 
von  Wedell,  fearing  he  might  tell  the  Government  authorities, 
gave  him  some  money.  A  few  days  later  about  twenty  fel- 
lows came  looking  for  von  Wedell.  But,  quite  aside  from  that 
sort  of  business,  von  Wedell's  foolishness  in  forging  two  names 
on  American  passports  is  the  thing  that  made  him  get  away." 
"Did  I  understand  you  to  say,"  asked  Aucher,  "that  he 
had  gone  to  join  his  wife  ? " 

"No,"  rephed  Ruroede,  "she  will  be  in  Gerrriany  before 
him.  She  sailed  last  Tuesday.  He  went  to  Cuba  first,  and 
there  got  a  Mexican  passport  of  some  sort  that  will  take 
him  to  Spain.  He  ought  to  be  in  Barcelona  to-day,  and 
from  there  work  his  way  into  Germany."' 

"You  say  von  WedeU  spent  £700  of  his  own  money?" 
Aucher  asked. 

"No,  no,"  exclaimed  Ruroede,  "he  got  it  from  the  fund." 
"Well,  who  puts  up  this  money — who's  back  of  it  ?" 
"The  Government." 
"The  German  Government?"' 

"Yes,"  said  Ruroede.  "You  see,  it  is  this  way.  Tliere 
is  a  captain  here  who  is  attached  to  the  German  Embassy 
at  Washington.  He  lias  a  list  of  German  reservists  in  this 
country,  and  is  in  touch  with  the  German  Consulates  all 
through  the  country,  and  in  Peru,  Mexico,  Chile,  etc.  He 
gets  in  touch  with  them,  and  the  Consuls  send  reservists 
who  want  to  go  to  the  front  on  to  New  York.  When  they 
get  here,  this  captain  tells  them  :  'Well,  I  can't  do  anything 
for  you,  but  you  go  down  to  see  Ruroede.'  Sometimes  he 
gives  them  liis  personal  card." 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


April  4,  1 9 1  8 


'  J  /  r  /j  //■  /  /  J  / 

/-V/'/.- 

1 

\ 

i 

^ ///... 

■; 

\ 

■  -^tx/lf/V-tl 

///, 

\ 

\ 
\ 

/'/<, 

/ 

Two  of  Ruroede's  Visitors'  Credentials 

These  cards,  with  the  addresses  written  on  the  backs,  were  presented  by  two  German  oflicers  in  search  of  fraudulent  passports.      They  were  stnt  by   Captain   von 
Papen   and   by  Dr.  .'Arthur  Mudra,  German   Consul   at    Philadelphia)   who    both    frequently  directed  such   ofllcerj  to   Rurocde    for  this  purpose. 


"  Is  this  captain  in  reserve  ?  "  Aucher  interrupted. 

"Oh,   no;    he  is  active,"    Ruroede  repUed.     "You  see," 

he  continued,  "he  draws  on  this  fund  for  §200  or  $300  or 

$1,000,  whatever  he  may  need,  and  the  cheques  are  made 

to  read  'on  account  of  reservists."     You  see,  they  have  to 

have  food  and  clothing,  also,  so  there  is  nothing  to  show 

that  this  money  is  paid  out  for  passports  or  anything  like 

,  that.     I  meet  this  captain  once  a  week  or  so,  and  tell  him 

'  what  I  am  doing,  and  he  gives  me  whatever  money  I  need. 

You  see,  there  must  be  no  connection  between  him  and  me  ; 

no  letters,  no  accounts,  nothing  in  WTiting.     If  I  were  caught, 

and  were  to  say  what  I  have  told  you,  this  captain  would 

swear  that  he  never  met  me  in  his  life  before." 

Who  tliis  captain  was  became  perfectly  clear  through  an 
odd  occi^rrence  two  days  later.  On  that  day — January 
2nd,  1915 — Aucher  telephoned  to  Ruroede  at  his  office,  and 
made  an  appointment  to  meet  him  at  a  quarter  to  one. 
This  meeting  will  doubtless  remain  for  ever  memorable  in 
Ruroede's  experience. 

At  12.30,  a  whole  flock  of  special  agents  left  the  office 
of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation  of  the  Department  of  Justice 
in  the  Park  Row  Building.  There  were  nine  representatives 
of  the  Department  in  the  group.  When  they  got  near 
Ruroede's  office,  they  were  joined  by  two  others,  who  had 
been  shadowing  Ruroede.  They  had  located  him  at  the 
Eastern  Hotel,  several  blocks  away,  where  he  was  at  the 
moment  with  one  of  the  German  officers  who  planned  to 
sail  that  day  on  the  Norwegain  Line  steamer  Bergensfjord 
with  one  of  the  false  passports. 

Shortly  after  one  o'clock,  one  of  the  special  agents  notified 
the  group  that  Ruroede  had  returned  to  his  office,  and  then 
this  detective,  and  one  other,  went  to  the  Customs  House 
and  stationed  themselves  at  a  window  opposite  Ruroede's 
office  to  wait  for  a  signal  which  AucTier  was  to  give  when 
he  had  delivered  the  passport  to  Ruroede.     , 

When  Aucher  met  Ruroede  in  Ruroede's  office,  Ruroede's 
son  was  present ;  but  in  a  few  moments  the  younger  man 
took  his  leave,  and  liis  departure  was  noted  by  one  of  the 
agents  outside.  After  a  few  minutes'  con\'ersation,  Aucher 
handed  Rurocde  the  missing  passport  and  made  his  signal 
to  the  two  men  inside  the  Customs  House  window.  These 
men  reported  to  the  main  group  on  the  street,  and  thereupon 
the  whole  flock  descended  on  Ruroede's  office,  and  placed 
both  Ruroede  and  Aucher  under  arrest. 

They  seized  all  of  Ruroede's  papers  before  they  took  him 
away,  including  the  passport  wliich  Aucher  had  just  delivered 
to  him.  Aucher  put  up  a  fight  against  his  brother  officers, 
so  as  to  make  Ruroede  beheve  that  his  arrest  was  genuine, 
but  was  quickly  subdued  and  taken  away.  A  few  minutes 
later  Ruroede  also  was  taken  from  his  office  over  to  the 
ofiices  of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation,  but  to  another  room 
than  Aucher.  Detectives  were  left  behind  in  Ruroede's 
office,  and  in  a  little  while  Ruroede's  son  came  in.  He,  too, 
was  airested  and  taken  to  still  another  part  of  the  office 
of  the  Bureau. 


Now,  there  entered  in  Ruroede's  office  a  stranger,  who  to 
this  day  does  not  know  that  he  unwittingly  gave  the  officers 
of  the  United  States  Government  the  information  that 
Captain  von  Papen  was  directly  responsible  for  the  passport 
frauds.  This  man  entered  wliile  one  of  the  detectives  was 
busily  gathering  up  the  papers  on  Ruroede's  desk.  He  said 
he  wanted  to  see  Mr.  Ruroede.  The  detective  asked  him 
what  his  business  was,  and  he  repKed  that  he  had  a  letter 
to  give  him  ;  and,  answering  an  inquiry,  he  said  this  letter 
.  was  given  him  by  Captain  von  Papen,  to  be  delivered  tO' 
Ruroede. 

The  detective  calmly  informed  the  caller  that  he  was 
Mr.  Ruroede's  son,  and  that  he  could  give  the  letter  to  him. 
The  stranger  refused,  so  the  detective  told  him  that  his 
"father,"  Ruroede,  would  be  in  in  a  few  minutes.  After  a 
few  minutes  were  up,  he  told  the  caller  that  he  was  sure  that 
his  "father"  would  not  return,  after  all,  and  that  he  had 
better  go  with  him  to  where  his  "father"  was.  The  stranger 
agreed,  and  they  left  the  office  together,  the  detective  taking 
him  directly  to  the  office  of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation. 

On  the  way,  the  stranger  decided  to  give  him  the  letter 
from  Captain  vvon  Papen,  and  also  told  him  that  he  had 
come  from  Tokio  by  way  of  San  Francisco  ;  that  he  was 
very  anxious  to  get  back  to  Germany ;  and  that  he  was 
sorry  he  was  not  saiUng  on  tlie  boat  leaving  that  day.  He 
knew,  he  said,  that  Ruroede  had  a  great  many  officers  saihng 
on  the  ship  that  day,  and  asked  if  he  thought  the  operative's 
"father"  could  make  an  arrangement  to  start  him  to  Ger- 
many, too.  He  gave  as  a  reason  for  his  urgency  the  fact 
that  he  had  with  him  eight  trunks,  wliich  contained  very 
important  papers  in  connection  with  the  war  that  should 
be  delivered  to  Berlin  without  delay. 

Upon  arriving  at  the  office  of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation, 
the  detective  excused  himself  for  a  moment,  and  went  into 
another  room,  where  he  concocted  a  plan  with  a  fellow- 
agent  to  pose  as  the  senior  Ruroede.  The  detective  then 
brought  the  stranger  in,  and  introduced  his  confederate  as 
his  father.  The  stranger  gave  this  agent  of  the  Department 
liis  card,  which  was  printed  in  German,  and  which  read, 
translated  into  English  :  "  Wolfram  von  Knorr,  Captain  of 
Cruiser,  Naval  Attache,  Imperial  German  Embassy,  Tokio." 

But  let  us  leave  the  guileless  caller  in  the  hands  of  the  ' 
guileful  agent  of  Justice  for  a   few  moments,   returning  to 
him  a  little  later. 

*  *  ^ 

Meanwhile,  four  of  the  agents  from  the  Department — the 
minute  they  received  the  signal  that  Ruroede  was  under 
arrest—hastened  to  the  Barge  Office  dock  and  boarded  the 
revenue  cutter  Manhattan,  on  which  they  overtook  the 
Norwegian  Line  steamship  Berge?isJ'jord  at  four  o'clock,  about 
one  half-hour  after  it  had  set  sail.  They  were  accompanied 
by  several  customs  inspectors,  and  ordered  the  Bergensfjord 
to  heave  to.  All  the  male  passengers  on  board  were  lined 
up.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  they  discovered  four  Germans, 
of   such   unmistakable   names   as   Sachse,    Meyer,   Wegener. 


April  4,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


17 


and  Muller,  travdling  under  sucli  palpable  English  and 
Norwi^gian  names  as  Wright,  Hansen.  Martin,  and  Wilson. 
Stranger  still,  they  all  turnec;!  out  to  be  reserve  officers  in 
the  German  Army.  Sachse  proved  to  be  travelling  as  none 
other  than  our  friend  "Howard  Paul  Wright,"  for  whom 
.\ucher  had  supplied  Ruroede  with  the  passport — as,  indeed, 
lie  had  for  the  three  others. 

,  Meanwjiile,  Ruroede  was  the  centre  of  another  little  drama 
that  lasted  until  well  toward  midnight.  He  was  being  urged 
by  the  .Assistant  United  States  District  Attorney  to  "come 
across"  with  the  facts  about  his  activities  in  the  passport 
frauds,  and  he  had  stood  up  pretty  well  against  the  per- 
suasions and  hints  of  tlie  attornej'  and  the  doubts  and  fears 
of  his  own  mind.  About  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  as  he  was 
for  the  many'th  time  protesting  his  ignorance  and  his 
innocence,  another  agent  qf  the  Bureau  of  Investigation 
walked  across  the  far  end  of  the  dimly  lit  room — in  one  door 
and  out  another — accompanied  by  a  fair-haired  lad  of 
nineteen. 

".Aly  God!"  exclaimed  Ruroede,  "have  they  got  my  son, 
ttx)  ?     The  boy  knows  nothing  at  all  about  this." 

This  little  ghost-walking  sgene,  borrowed  from  "Hamlet," 
broke  down  Ruroede's  reserve,  and  he  came  out  with  pretty 
much  all  the  story,  ending  with  the  melancholy  exclamation 
with  which  this  article  began  :  "  I  thought  I  was  going  to 
get  an  Iron  Cross :  t>ut  what  they  ou^ht  to  do  is  to  pin  a 
little  tin  stove  (.in  me." 

Ruroede  admitted  that  he  had  met  rap.i;.,  \  m  Papeii    p 

New  York  numerous  times,  and  lliat  v'-<n  Paj  en  had  i.;;\i.ii 

Lid  nr  ney  at  dilTerent  times,  but  he  denied  thi".  ^\<i'.  n,one\ 

:;iv  ii    hii     I'or   u"e   in    iurnishing   pa.sspor         (in    this 

I'  :  he  st<.  X  lJ^t^;  and  to  this 'daj'  he  has  noi  tlirectly 
.  I'l '.jcated  \i<!!  Pajion  in  these  frauds,  thoui'fi  it  cost  him 
a  sentence  of 'three  years  in  the  Tederal  j)enitentiTry  at 
.^'•lanta,  imposed  just  two  months  later. 

{^nc  thing  Ruroede  did  confess,  however  ;    and,  in  doing 

■  .  he  was  the  Hand  of  Fate  for  the  timorous  von  Wedell. 

Ruroede  confessed  that  his  assertion  to  Auchcr  that  Wedell 

was  then  in  Barcelona  was  a  He,  and  that  the  truth  was  that 

Wedell  had  recently  returned  from  Cuba,  and  was  aboard 

the  Bergenh/jord !     This  confession  came  too  late  to  serve 

thnt  day,  for  the  agents  of  the  Bureau  had  by  that  time  left 

the  ship  with  their  four  prisoners,  and  the  Bergciisfjord  was 

■  >ut   to  sea.     But  Fate  had,  neverthel<^ss,  played  Wedell  a 

harsh  trick,  for  the  processes  of  extradition  were  instantly 

put   in   motion,    and  with   strange  results. 
♦  •  ♦  - 

Now,  we  may  appropriately  return  to  the  conierence 
between  the  guileless  .stranger  from  Tokio  and  the  guileful 
agent  of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation,  in  another  room.  The 
guileless  stranger  from  Tokio  revealed  what  Ruroede  would 
not  disclose — and  revealed  it  all  unconsciously.  He  talked 
so  frankly  with  "young  Ruroede's  father"  that  he  told 
several  most  important  things.  For  one,  Captain  von  Knorr 
declared  that  Captain  von  Papcn  had  sent  him.'  Whereupon 
the  pretended  Ruroede  asked  him  whether  the  fact  that  he 
was  expected  to  assist  von  Knorr  back  to  Europe  was  known 
to  the  German  Embassy  at  Washington.  To  this  von  Knorr 
replied:  "Of  coufse.  I  just  had  a  talk  with  Captain  von 
Papen  right  here  in  New  York." 

"Ruroede"  still  insisted  on  having,  better  proof  that  von 
Knorr  came  directly  from  the  Embassy,  to  which  von  Knorr 
retorted  that  "von  Papen  has  had  sufScient  deahngs  with 
\ou  for  you  to  know  that  any  one  sent  by  him  to  you  is  all 
right."   " 

F'inding  himself  dealing  with  a  somewhat  reluctant 
saviour,  von  Knorr  adopted  a  conciliatory  mood,  and  slapped 
iiis  broad  hand  several  times  on  "Ruroede's"  left  breast, 
saying:  '-'That  chest  ought  to  have  something,"  meaning 
a  decoration  from  Berlin. 

.'X.'^ter  some  verbal  sparring,  von  Knorr  was  allowed  to 
drift  off  the  scene  as  innocently  as  he  had  entered  it,  and 
he  has  yet  to  learn  that  his  visit  was  in  an  office  of  American 
law  and  that  his  dealings  were  with  the  officers  of  Justice. 
But  he  left  behind  a  legacy  quite  as  valuable  as  his  care- 
full\'  remembered  spoken  words.  This  legacy  was  the  paper 
wliich  he  had  brought  from  Franz  von  Papen. 

Two  most  important  facts  emerged  ultimately  from  a  study 
of  this  'innocent  bit  of  paper.  When  Ruroede  was  arrested, 
among  other  papers  taken  from  his  desk  by  the  officers  of 
the  law  were  numerous  typewritten  sheets  containing  lists 
of  names  of  German  officers,  their  rank,  and  other  facts 
about  them.  Ruroede  never  ^would  admit  that  these  were 
from  von  Papen,  but  that  admission  was  made  for  him  by 
a  far  more  trustworthy  testimony  than  his  own.  This 
testimony  was  an  expert  comparison,  under  a  powerful 
magnifying-glass  of  the  typewriting  on  these  sheets  and  the 
typewriting   on   the   von    Knorr   memorandum   which    had 


undoubtedly  come  from  von  Papen.  Thev  were  beyond  all 
questioning  identical.  The  same  typewriter  had  written  all. 
Bj'  this  microscopic  test,  von  Papen  and  the  other 
ruthless  underhngs  of  Germany  were  first  brought  within 
sight  of  their  ultimate  expulsion  from  Jtmerica. 

The  other  pregnant  fact  about  the  von  Knorr  memorandum 
was  that  the  eyes  of  Justice  rested  on  the  name  of  \Aerner 
Horn,  and  lingered  long  enough  to  fix  that  name  in  memory. 
Here  first  swam  into  its  ken  the  man  whr;  tried  to  destroy 
the  international  bridge  at  Vanceboro,  Maine,  and  whose 
story  is  one  of  the  most  romantic  and  ad\  enturou.-  of  all  the 
German  plotters  !  That  story'  will  he  told  in  full  in  Land 
&  Water.     Hence  it  need  not  be  d>velt  on  hrre. 

One  last  touch  in  tliis  drama  :  A  ^:w  mon  ent-s  ago  we  left 
von  Wedell — ambitious,  timer  jUS,  vou  W  dell — on  the  high 
seas,  bound  for  Norway.  I'V  Fatr  \\as:'lter  him.  Ruroede's 
moment  of  weakncs— hib  moment  of  1  ique,  when  he  swore 


iit  tt»H3  i,aiaitUi  nurds 
fun  t»>4  vnsbfl  an  ieti  mi»«  PeVRnttnotsf te*. 


•  ittehts- 


'**     r»Btl     iOftilJJt 


Jof  iMtaai  ilnntia*  liv  >e(  «titnt  oicbt  («u(t .   ,Uk 

Ml  iitmm   }«4«a  iTttthAt   v»i  |i»<9irt«,    isctcm  iuft. 

Mm   >»*  s'lliae^m I^u  ant  abtoinzt  ?tetn<iHk«jt, 

at  «iafex  »i»»  ii/rst  Ti<jiuc  m  4iilBr.iii  vcui>«fUrl- 

»urs  <>i>n<i«M<<s.r*>M  iito  lautat  rtif     ftroic  H^tr  gnd 
ru  allot  ttUoi  •s?lji»"-T'Urii' 


Instructions  to  C^erman  Officers  travelling  on 
False  Passports 

Telling  them  how  to  behave  on  shipboard  30  that  they  will  not  arouse  suspicion. 
In  English  the  instructions  read  : — 

1.  On  no  condition  and  in  no  way  whatever  must  anything  be  let  out  in  regard  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  voyage  was  ctfecled.  I  4 

2.  During  the  passage  one  should  Iceep  aloof  from  other  passengers  and  make  no  acquaintances 
'  on  board. 

J.  Deportment  on  board,  during  the  trip,  should,  as  far  as  it  is  at  all  possible,  be  in  harmony 
with  the  particular  characteristics  describedjin   he  pa  sport. 

4.  Should  any  questio  s  be  asked,  answer  with  reserve,  and  moreover,  it  is  fitting  to  ma1<e  use, 
as  far  as  practicable,  of  the  need  created  by  sea-sickness  for  remaining  in  seclusion.  Mv 

5.  Finally,  everything  will  depend  on  the  maintenance,  in  every  respect,  of  absolute  reticence. 
All  incit.  mcnts  to  political  or  similar  discussions  of  the  war  or  of  soldieis  and  their  obligations  must 
be  absolutely  avoided. 

' .  It  should  by  no  means  be  understood  that  on  landing  one  should  tell  everybody  everything 
that  happened,  on  the  contrary,  then  too  is  silence  absolutely  necessary,  lest  through  too  much 
talking  it  become  impossible  for  others  to  likewise  get  to  the  other  side. 

7.     Briefly,  the  watchword,  always  and  at  all  times,  is  **  Silence," 

he  would  not  shoulder  all  this  bitterness  alone — had  set  her 
on  his  trail.  A  cable  message  to  London,  a  wireless  from 
the  Admiralty,  and  then— this  entry  in  the  log-book  of  the 
Bergensfjord,  for  Monday,  January  nth,  1915  : 

"All  male  first  and  second  class  passengers  were 
gathered  in  the  first-class  dining-saloon,  and  their 
nationahty   inquired   into. 

"About  noon,  the  boarding  officer  of  the  cruiser 

(EngHsh)  went  back  and  reported  to  his  ship.  About 
0.45  p.m.  he  came  over  with  orders  again  to  take  off 
the  six  German  stowaways  and  two  suspected  passen- 
gers.   These  passengers  were  as  follows :  • 

"i.     Rosato   Sprio,    Jlexican.      Destination   Bergen. 
■  Cabin   71,  second-class.  ... 

"Rosato  Sprio  admitted,  after  close  exainination,  to 
be  H.  A.  Wedell.  Claimed  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  .  .  . 

"2.  Dr.  Rasmus  Bjornstad,  claimed  to  be  a  Nor- 
wegian ... 

"As  both  passengers  apparently  were  travelling  under 
false  pretences,  the  Captain  did  not  feel  justified  to 
protest .  against  the  detention  of  the  two  passengers. 
These    were    accordingly  ...  taken    off    and    put    on 

board  the  auxiliary  cruiser- ." 

Unhappy  \^'edell  !  This  auxiliary  cruiser  was  a  ship  that 
never  made  port.  Wedell's  high  connections  in  the  German 
F'oreigh  (Jffice  could  not  save  him  from  the  activities  of  the 
high  officials  of  the  German  Admiralty.  A  U-boat  fired  a 
torpedo  into  the  cruiser  and  sent  her  to  the  bottom,  with 
Rosato  Sprio,  alias  H.  A.' Wedell,  aboard. 
Exit  Wedell  and  Ruroede. 
Enter  Werner  Horn. 

{To  be  conlinued.) 


1 8  Land    &    Water  April  4,  19 18 

Angels  and  Ministers:  By  John  Ruan 


.JWSiiSiafJ 


If 


Clio  and   the  Children 


Hy  Charles  Sims 


1915 


DREAMS,  visions,  apparitions,  and  mythological 
and  allegorical  figures  ought  to  be  treated 
frankly  in  art,  for  art  is  concerned  with  reality,, 
and  reality  is  a  thing  of  the  mind.  For  the 
purposes  of  art,  there  is  very  little  difference 
— as  regards  reality — between  an  angel  and  a  stockbroker. 
If  anything,  the  advantage  in  reality  is  on  the  side  of  the 
angel  becajUse  the  stockbroker  is  more  dependent  on  circum- 
stances. An  angel  is  an  angel  all  the  time,  but  a  stockbroker 
exists  only  so  long  as  there  is  a  stock  exchange.  In  art  the 
important  thing  is  not  whether  a  thing  is  true,  but  whether 
it  is  believed. 

Mr.  Edward  Carpenter  wrrfte  a  book  or  an  essay — I  am 
not  sure  which — called  Angels'  Wings.  I  have  never  been 
able  to  get  hold  of  it,  and  consequently  I  do  not  know 
whether  or  not  I  am  plagiarising  him.  If  I  am,  so  much 
the  better,  because  that  will  be  two  opinions  instead  of  one. 
Anyhow,  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  the  reality  of  art 
at  any  period  could  be  judged  from  its  treatment  of  angels' 
wings.  If  you  look  at  the  wing  of  an  angel  by  Fra  Angelico, 
or  Botticelli,  or  the  Byzantine  mosaic  workers,  or  Mestrovic, 
the  Serbian  sculptor,  or  at  the  wing  of  a  Greek  or  an  Egyptian 
sphinx,  you  will  ?ee  that  there  is  no  attempt  to  make  it  look 
like  the  wing  of  a  bird.  There  is  no  attempt  at  plausibility, 
and  therefore  the  idea  of  impossible  anatomy  never  enters 
•  your  head. 

But  in  the  angels  of  even  such  great  painters  as  Rembrandt 
and  G.  F.  Watts — not  to  speak  of  the  angels  of  Gustave  Dore, 
German  Christmas  cards,  and  modern  R.A.s — the  wings  are 
painted  lOvC  the  wings  of  a  bird,  with  palpable  feathers. 
That  is  to  say,  there  is  an  attempt  at  plausibility.  It  is  the 
same  with  the  treatment  of  the  Nimbus  or  Glory.  In  the 
works  of  the  Primitives  it  is  painted  uncompromisingly  as  a 
Hat  plate  or  circle  of  gold  ;  but  in  the  works  of  inferior  artists 
— inferior,  that  is  to  say,  in  faith — it  is  made  to  look  like  an 
emanation  of  the  figure,  "the  aura"  of  modern  psychical 
terminology.  The  paradoxical  result  is  that  y'du  accept  the 
Fra  Angelico  or  Botticelli  angel  as  a  reality — a  creature  of 
the  mind,  an  idea  made  visible  ;  while  you  wink  at  the 
German  Christmas-card  angel  as  a  polite  fiction  for  the 
ediiication  of  children. 

There  is  nothing  more  detestable  in  art  than  the  attempt 
to  give  plausibility  to  miracles  by  approximating  them  to 
natural  phenomena.  The  implication  is  that  if  people 
stick  at  your  miracle  you  can  always  wriggle  out  of  it  by 
giving  a  pseudo-scieptific  explanation.  Almost  always  the 
explanation  is  much  less  convincing  than  the  miracle ;  as 
the  little  girl's  explanation,  when  rebuked  for  falsehood,  that 
God  said:  "Don't  mention  it.  Miss  Brown;  I  have  often 
mistaken  those  big  yellow  dogs  for  lions,  myself."  This  was 
much  less  credible  than  the  positive  assertion  that  she  had 
seen  a  real  lion  in  Kensington  Gardens. 

These  reflections  are  prompted  by  the  picture  of  "  Clio  and 
the  Children  :    1915,"  by  Mr.  Charles  Sims.     If  I  remember 


rightly,  Mr.  Sims  has  been  blamed  before  now  for  his  habit 
of  introducing  mythological  or  allegorical  figures,  creatures  of 
the  mind,  into  everyday  surroundings.  That  is  really  one 
of  his  great  merits  as  an  artist  ;  the  reality  that  he  gives  to 
creatures  of  the  mind — or  of  faith,  if  you  like  to  put  it  that 
way.  Clio,  the  Muse  of  Historj',  embodies  an  idea  tliat  is 
real  because  it  is  universally  accepted.  She  is  at  least  as 
real  as  Betty  and  Sue  and  Tom  ;  and  why  should  she  not 
be  painted  with  the  same  reality  ?  The  children,  at  any 
rate,  have  no  doubt  of  her  reality.  They  are  awed  not  by 
her  presence,  but  at  the  reading  of  her  scroll.  If  the  picture 
has  a  defect,  it  is  not  the  realit}'  of  Clio,  but  the  realism — a 
very  different  thing — of  the  children  and  the  land.scapc.  As 
compared  with  Clio,  they  arc  mere  phenomena. 

The  slight  discrepancy,  not  enough  to  hurt  the  picture,  is 
interesting  because  it  puts  us  on  the  track  of  a  difficulty  that 
does  not  exist  in  any  art  except  that  of  painting  :  the  rival 
claims  of  bodily  and  mental  vision.  There  is  not  the  same 
difficulty  in  writing  because,  even  in  the  most  realistic  study, 
everything  has  to  be  translated  into  mental  terms  before  it 
can  be  described  in  words.  The  painter,  unless  he  forswears 
mental  vision — when  he  becomes  inferior  to  the  camera — 
is  constantly  bothered  bj-  two  categories.  He  is  like  a  man 
having  to  do  a  sum  in  mixed  vulgar  and  decimal  fractions, 
and  forbidden  to  convert  one  into  the  other.  Personally 
— and  I  have  the  support  of  Blake,  at  any  rate — I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  he  is  only  self-forbidden  ;  that  if  he  plumped 
for  mental  vision  his  difficulties  would  disappear. 

Blake  said  some  interesting  things  on  this  point.  Defending 
his  illustrations  to  "The  Bard,  from  Gray,"  he  wrote  : 

The  connoisseurs  and  artists  who  have  made  objections  to  Mr. 

B 's  mode  of  representing  .spirits  with  real  bodies  would  do 

well  to  consider  that  the  Venus,  the  Minerva,  the  Jupiter,  and 
Apollo,  which  they  admire  in  Greek  statues,  are  all  of  them 
representations  of  spiritual  existences  of  gods  immortal,  to  the 
mortal  perishing  organ  of  sight ;  and  yet  tliey  are  embodied 
and  organised  in  solid  marble.  .  .  .  The  Prophets  describe 
what  they  saw  in  Vision  as  real  and  existing  men,  whom  they 
saw  with  theip-  imaginative  and  immortal  organs  ;  the  Apostles 
the  same  ;  the  clearer  the  organ,  the  more  distinct  the  object. 
A  Spirit  and  a  Vision  are  not,  as  the  modern  philosophy  .supposes, 
a  cloudy  vapour,  or  a  nothing  ;  they  are  organised  and  minutely 
articulated  beyond  all  that  the  mortal  and  perishing  nature 
can  produce. 

Elsewhere  he  speaks  of  the  necessity  for  definitcncss  in  the 
treatment  of  the  ideas  of  ordinary  perishable  things.  "  Yet 
the  oak  dies  as  well  as  the  lettuce  ;  but  its  eternal -image  or 
individuality  never  dies,  but  renews  by  its  seed." 

Well,  all  artists  cannot  expect  to  have  the  imagination  of 
William  Blake,  but  they  can  at  least  give  to  their  visions  the 
reality  he  demanded,  instead  of  trying  to  make  them  plau.'^ible 
with  "auras"  and  things.  And  if  tliey  are  to  be  introduced 
into  ordinary  or  perishable  surroundings  the  best  way  to 
obtain  consistency  is  not  to  lower  the  vision  to  the  critical 
standard  of  bodily  eyesight,  but  to  raise  the  perishable 
surroundings  to  the  standard  of  the  mirid's  eye. 


April  4,  19 1 8 


Land    &   Water 


19 


The    English    Peasant:  By  Jason 


A  CENTURY  ago  one  of  the  leading  economists  of 
the  time  prophesied  that  France  would  become 
"the  great  pauper  warren  of  Europe"  because 
she  had  turned  her  people  into  a  race  of  peasant 
owners.  His  remark  would  have  struck  most  of 
his  generation  as  a  commonplace,  for  the  agrarian  revolution 
which  created  the  landless  labourer  seemed  to  the  economist 
of  the  age  not  less  happy  and  providential  in  its  working 
than  the  industrial  revolution  that  created  Lancashire  and 
the  Black  Country.  Among  the  educated  minds  of  the  day 
it  was  only  here  and  there  that  any  misgivings  arose  about 
the  future  of  the  village  society  that  was  reformed  so  ruth- 
lessly in  the  age  of  the  enclosures  and  the  introduction  of 
the  large  farm.  To  most  of  the  enlightened  it  was  as  clear 
as  daylight  that  France  was  taking  a  retrograde  step  in 
establishing,  and  that  England  was  making  a  great  social 
advance  in  disestablishing,  her  ancient  peasantry.  The  _ 
peasant,  i.e.,  the  cultivator  with  rights  over  the  soii,  was  as 
much  of  an  anachronism  as  the  hand-loom  weaver. 

Of  course,  the  contrast  with  France  was  emphasised  by  the 
war.  Two  nations  were  at  war  in  a  sense  in  which  nations 
had  rarely  been  at  war  in  the  past.  For  the  war  with  France 
was  not  merely  a  struggle  between  Governments  on  the 
watch  for  opportunities  of  trade  or  political  power,  or  moving 
restlessly  for  more  elbow-room  in  the  world.  It  was  a 
struggle  between  two  social  systems.  And  just  as  the  Europe 
which  will  emerge  from  the  present  conflict  will  not  be  the 
Europe  we  knew  in  that  distant  summer  of  1914 — for  too 
many  hammer  blows  have  fallen  on  its  body  and  its  mind — 
so  the  Europe  from  which  Napoleon  stepped  on  to  his  exile's 
ship  was  very  different  from  the  Europe  that  had  listened  to 
the  echoes  of  the  tumbling  Bastille.  And  the  changes  that 
had  come  about  in  each  country  were  the  result  of  the  dis- 
tribution of  power,  for  the  governing  forces  guided  and 
controlled  the  changes  that  we  are  apt  to  speak  of  as 
economic  and  impersonal. 

Two  Diverse  Societies 

in  the  Middle  Ages,  England,  as  a  rural  society,  differed 
little  from  the  rest  of  Western  Europe.  There  is  a  common 
background ;  a  common  past.  How  different  their  face 
to-day !  Over  the  greater  part  of  France  the  place  of  the 
serf  cultivators  of  the  Middle  Ages  has  been  taken  by  peasant 
proprietors,  whereas  in  England  the  great  bulk  of  the  land 
belongs  to  large  landowners  who  let  it  out  to  comparatively 
large  tenant  farmers  who  in  their  turn  employ  labourers  for 
wages.  Two  diverse  societies  have  developed  from  a  common 
civilisation.  Modern  historians  are  coming  to  realise  that 
the  terms  on  which  each  society  in  Europe  dissolved  its  old 
mediaeval  village  system  are  among  the  most  important  facts 
of  its  history,  and  that  the  old  analysis  of  these  changes  was 
far  too  easy  and  simple. 

Why  and  under  what  conditions  did  the  peasant  survive, 
and  why  and  under  what  conditions  did  he  disappear  ? 
Five  years  ago  Professor  Ashley  gave  an  important  address 
to  the  International  Congress  of  Historical  Studies  in  which 
he  collected  the  results  of  modern  research  on  this  subject. 
Roughly  speaking,  we  may  say  that  there  were  everywhere 
reasons  of  State  for  keeping  a  peasantry  and  reasons  of  class 
interest  for  dissolving  it.  The  reasons  of  State  are  clear 
enough.  There  is  an  old  saying  :  "Pauvres  paysans,  pauvre 
royaume,  pauvre  royaume,  pauvre  rot."  In  the  old  statutes 
against  depopulation  stress  was  laid  on  the  military  import- 
ance of  the  peasant,  and  one  of  the  charges  brought  against 
engrossing  landlords  was  that  "the  defence  of  this  land 
against  our  enemies  outward  is  enfeebled  and  impaired." 
Peace,  defence,  order,  and  taxation  all  demanded,  in  the 
eyes  of  a  provident  English  statesman  of  the  sixteenth 
century  or  a  Continental  ruler  like  Maria  Theresa  or  Frederick 
William  III.  of  Prussia,  that  the  peasantry  should  not  be 
torn  from  the  soil.  On  the  other  hand,  the  reasons  of  class 
interest  are  not  less  apparent,  and  in  the  eighteenth  century 
the  landlord  who  wanted  to  add  to  his  property  had  the 
sanction  of  the  economist  not  only  in  England,  but  in  France, 
for  it  is  important  to  remember  that  McCuUoch  was  not 
more  hostile  to  peasant  farming  than  Quesnai  or  Turgot, 
and  that  the  French  Physiocrats  were  actually  the  pioneers 
in  preaching  enclosure. 

Now,  the  great  difference  between  England  and  France  was 
the  difference  in  the  position  of  the  aristocracy.  In  France 
before  the  Revolution  the  noble  was  a  courtier,  where  in 
England  he  was  a  ruler.     Consequently  the  actual  Govern- 


ment of  France  was  not  in  the  hands  of  the  class  whose 
instincts  of  self-interest,  reinforced  by  the  teaching  of  the 
economists,  prompted  enclosure.  The  French  noble  amused 
himself  at  Versailles  while  the  intendant  administered  the 
countryside.  The  seigneur  who  resided  on  his  estate  had 
become,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  a  mere  rent-receiver.  When 
the  Revolution  came  the  French  peasants  were,  in  the  main, 
customary  tenants  of  one  kind  or  another.  The  Revolution 
released  them  from  the  dues  and  services — vexatious  and, 
in  some  cases,  humiliating — under  which  they  held  their 
land.  In  this  respect,  the  Revolution  put  the  peasant  on 
his  feet.  Further,  a  certain  amount  of  the  land  that  was 
confiscated,  though  not  the  greater  part,  of  course,  came 
into  his  hands.  Meanwhile  the  Revolution  set  up  a  Central 
Government,  which  had  every  motive  for  protecting  the 
property  of  the  peasant,  who  was  the  natureil  defender  of 
the  new  order  against  the  danger  of  the  restoration  of  the 
ancient   regime. 

In  Prussia 

It  used  to  be  said  that  Stein  and  Hardenburg  did  for  the 
peasants  in  Prussia  what  the  French  Revolution  did  for  the 
peasant  in  France.  This  view  is  now  discredited.  The 
French  Revolution  enfranchised  the  peasant,  by  a  stroke  of 
the  pen  abolishing  all  feudal  dues  and  obligations  with  the 
enthusiastic  approval  of  the  liberal  nobles.  Stein  and 
Hardenburg  enfranchised  the  Prussian  peasant  on  much 
harsher  terms,  for  the  peasants  had  to  surrender  from  a 
third  to  a  half  of  their  holdings  to  compensate  their  lords 
for  the  loss  of  their  labour  services.  Secondly,  enfranchise- 
ment in  Prussia  was  limited  to  the  larger  holders  ;  the  smaller 
men,  customary  tenants  and  cotters,  lost  their  footing  as 
completely  as  did  the  English  labourer.  Thus  the  legisla- 
tion of  Stein  and  Hardenburg  reflects  the  power  of  a  landlord 
class,  which  was  able,  not  indeed  as  in  England,  to  do  exactly 
what  it  pleased,  but  to  control  legislation  in  its  own  interest. 
In  Bavaria,  where  the  peasants  were  turned  into  proprietors 
in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  there  was  no  powerful 
landlord  class,  because  half  the  duchy  had  been  in  the  hands 
of  ecclesiastical  bodies  down  to  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  peasants  \yere  consequently  enfranchised  on  much 
easier  terms. 

In  England  the  serf  disappears  much  earlier  than  on  the 
Continent,  but  the  general  conditions  on  which  the  mediaeval 
village  was  finally  rearranged  were  prescribed  by  an  all- 
powerful  landlord  class.  Now,  the  landlord  class  saw  no 
conflict  between  the  reasons  of  State  and  the  reasons  of 
class  interest.  In  their  minds  public  policy  and  private 
interest  pointed  the  same  way.  Their  power  was  absolute  ; 
strengthened,  first,  by  the  confiscation  of  the  monasteries ; 
secondly,  by  the  Revolution  of  1688 ;  and,  thirdly,  by  the 
freedom  of  English  social  life  from  the  strict  superstitions 
that  made  the  French  nobleman  shrink  from  trade.  The 
English  aristocracy  was  immensely  more  powerful  just 
because  it  was  not  a  close  aristocracy.  And  the  English 
landowner  was  not  a  hypocrite  when  he  asserted  that  the 
larger  his  estate,  the  more  prosperous  the  nation.  For  the 
Revolution  of  1688  had  consummated  the  process  by  which 
the  landlord  class  had  become  the  Government,  and  he  was 
a  very  active,  zealous,  and  self-confident  ruler. 

To  thinkers  like  Burke  it  was  an  axiom  that  the  govern- 
ment of  the  landlord  class  was  the  greatest  blessing  that 
could  be  bestowed  on  any  people,  and  if  Burke  coyld  have 
guided  the  French  Revolution  he  would  have  set  up  the 
nobles  as  the  successors  to  the  rule  of  Versailles,  and  turned 
the  peasants  into  English  labourers.  If  Burke  thought  this 
an  ideal  system,  the  landlords  were  not  to  be  blamed  for 
putting  their  own  services  to  the  nation  pretty  high,  and  for 
thinking  that  the  dispossession  of  the  peasantry  was  not  too 
great  a  price  to  take  in  return.  Thus  the  broad  difference 
between  the  course  that  agrarian  history  has  taken  here  and 
in  the  rest  of  Western  Europe  may  be  summarised.  England 
escaped  from  the  abuses  of  mediaeval  society  long  before  the 
Continent,  but  the  classes  that  established  ParUamentary 
and  Constitutional  Government  rewarded  themselves  by 
using  their  power  to  dispossess  the  peasantry.  Medievalism 
survived  on  the  Continent  down  to  the  nineteenth  century  in 
some  of  its  worst  forms  of  personal  oppression,  but  wfien  it 
disappeared  the  Revolution  (outside  Prussia)  helped  the 
peasant  instead  of  destroying  him.  If  the  English  nobleman 
had  been  a  gay  trifler  Uke  the  French,  he  could  never 
have   acquired   the  power   that   enabled  him   to  make  the 


20 


Land    &    Water 


April  4,  19 1  8 


great  enclosures,  and  instead  of  the  country  gentleman, 
an  official  like  the  intendant  would  have  ruled  the  country- 
side. 

The  struggle  between  the  reasons  of  State  and  the  reason 
of  class  interest  ceased  when  the  State  was  merged  in  a  class. 
The  effect  is  seen  in  comparing  the  enclosures  of  the  eighteenth 
century  with  those  of  the  sixteenth.  In  the  eighteenth 
century  it  was  assumed  by  the  governing  class  that  a  process 
which  turned  the  mass  of  the  villagers  from  men  with  rights 
and  property  into  mere  wage-earners  was  a  blessing  to 
civilisation.  In  the  sixteenth  century  Governments  still 
kept  something  of  the  old  fear  of  the  social  consequences  of 
enclosure.  We  have  Acts  of  Parliament  prohibiting  the  con- 
version of  arable  to  pasture,  enacting  that  houses  which  have 
decayed  must  be  rebuilt,  and  forbidding  the  letting  of 
cottages  to  labourers  with  less  than  four  acres  of  land 
attached.  We  have  a  Royal  Commission  for  checking 
enclosures  in  the  Midlands.  A  century  later,  Charles  the 
First  actually  annulled  enclosures,  and  Cromwell's  influence 
in  the  Eastern  Counties  has  been  attributed  by  Professor 
Firth  to  his  championship  of  the  commoners  in  the  Fens. 
There  is  nothing  of  this  spirit  in  the  proceedings  of  Parlia- 
ment in  the  eighteenth  century.  There  it  is  taken  for 
granted  that  the  old  common  rights  and  common  customs 
are  obsolete,  and  an  encumbrance.  The  word  most  often 
applied  to  them  is  barbarous,  and  it  was  argued  that  they 
were  more  suitable  to  a  Tartar  State  than  to  a  modern  and 
civilised  society.  This  was  the  view,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, not  merely  of  the  landowners  themselves,  but  of  the 
thinkers  and  economists  of  the  day. 

Force  of  Ideas 

If  we  want  to  know  how  a  society  will  behave  in  any 
circumstances  we  must  know  what  is  in  men's  minds.  The 
Industrial  Revolution  would  have  had  quite  different  conse- 
quences if  the  age  in  which  its  decisive  phases  occurred  had 
been  under  the  influence  of  a  different  set  of  ideas.  So  with 
the  enclosures,  and  the  Agrarian  Revolution  of  which  they  are 
the  most  striking  feature.  That  revolution  destroyed  the 
old  common  life  of  the  village  and  changed  the  population 
from  men  with  rights  and  property  of  one  kind  or  another 
into  landless  wage-earners.  It  had  fierce  critics  in  Cobbett, 
Sadler,  and,  after  1801,  in  Arthur  Young.  It  was  bitterly 
hated  by  the  poor,  as  anybody  can  see  from  chance  allusions 
in  the  novels  of  Fielding  and  Jane  Austen,  if  his  study  of  the 
period  has  led  him  no  further.  But  the  dominant  view  was 
that  it  was  better  for  the  nation  that  the  man  who  worked 
in  tjie  fields  should  be  a  wage-earner,  entirely  under  the 
power  of  the  farmer,  than  that  he  should  have  any  kind  of 
independence.  Of  course,  the  old  common  field  system 
needed  reform,  but  it  would  have  been  possible  to  reform  it 
in  such  a  way  as  to  preserve  the  elements  of  independence  in 
the  village  population.  Cobbett,  Arthur  Young,  and  the 
great  Lord  Suffield,  who  took  so  large  a  part  in  the  attacks 
on  the  abuses  of  the  prisons  a  century  ago,  presented  schemes 
for  this  purpose.  If  the  changes  necessary  for  making  the 
methods  of  agriculture  more  productive  and  scientific  had 
been  guided  by  their  ideas  England  would  have  retained  a 
peasant  class.  But  those  changes  were  carried  out  by  men 
who  beUeved  with  the  economist,  cited  at  the  beginning  of 
this  article,  that  it  was  precisely  because  the  men  who  tilled 
the  soil  of  France  had  rights  as  French  peasants  that  France 
was  in  danger  of  decay. 

It  is  sometimes  argued  that  England  had  to  choose  between 
poverty  culminating  in  famine  and  the  loss  of  the  peasant ; 
tliat  it  was  only  by  means  of  removing  enclosures  that  the 
country  maintained  itself  during  the  long  struggle  with 
France.  But  to  the  generation  of  the  enclosures  there  was 
no  such  reluctant  and  anxious  dilemma.  The  loss  of  the 
peasant  seemed  not  a  loss,  but  a  gain.  We  caa  see  the  prevail- 
ing notions  of  the  time  in  the  debates  in  Parliament  and  in  the 
Reports  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture  whidi  was  established 
in  1793,  with  Sir  John  Sinclair  as  President,  and  Arthur 
Young  as  Secretary.  Take,  for  example,  the  extract  from 
the  Report  on  Somerset  in  1795  :  "The  possession  of  a  cow 
or  two,  with  a  hog  and  a  few  geese,  naturally  exalts  the 
peasant,  in  his  own  conception,  above  his  brethren  in  the 
same  rank  of  society.  It  inspires  some  degree  of  confidence 
in  a  property,  inadequate  to  his  support.  In  sauntering 
after  his  cattle  he  acquires  a  habit  of  indolence.  Quarter, 
half,  and  occasionally  whole  days  are  imperceptibly  lost. 
Day  labour  becomes  disgusting  ;  the  aversion  increases  by 
indulgence  ;  and  at  length  the  sale  of  a  half-fed  calf  or  hog, 
furnishes  the  means  of  adding  intemperance  to  idleness." 
The  gentleman  who  reported  in  Shropshire  put  the  case  still 
more  plainly.  "The  use  of  common  land  by  labourers 
operates  upon  the  mind  as  a  sort   of  independence."     He 


went  on  to  give  as  some  of  the  advantages  that  would  follow 
the  enclosing  of  the  common,  "the  labourers  will  work  every 
day  in  the  year,  their  children  will  be  put  out  to  labour 
early,  and  the  subordination  of  the  lower  ranks  of  society 
which  in  the  present  time  is  so  much  wanted  will  be  thereby 
considerably  secured." 

With  these  ideas  in  the  ascendant  it  was  not  likely  that  the 
rights  either  of  the  individual  peasant  or  of  the  village  as  a 
peasant  society  would  be  too  jealously  safeguarded  in  the 
process  of  enclosure.  In  point  of  fact,  they  were  almost 
wholly  disregarded.  Where  enclosure  was  carried  out  by 
Act  of  Parliament,  procedure  was  by  private  Bill.  Commis- 
sioners were  appointed  to  inquire  into  local  rights  and  to 
make  the  enclosure  award.  Only  two  interests  were  formally 
and  definitely  protected  in  the  Bill  :  the  interest  of  the 
Lord  of  the  Manor  and  the  interest  of  the  tithe  owner.  The 
inclividual  proprietor  and  the  individual  commoner  had  to 
make  out  his  case  as  best  he  could,  and  the  compensation  he 
received  took  the  form  very  often  of  a  small  plot  of  land, 
which  was  worthless  when  unaccompanied  by  rights  of 
pasture  on  a  common.  But,  of  course,  in  hundreds  of  cases 
the  small  commoner  could  not  make  out  a  case  at  all.  He 
was  uneducated,  and  of  the  rights  that  were  at  issue  he  knew 
little  except  that  as  long  as  he  could  remember  he  had  kept 
a  cow,  driven  geese  across  the  waste,  pulled  his  fuel  out  of 
the  brushwood,  and  cut  turf  from  the  common,  and  that  his 
father  had  done  all  these  things  before  him.  If  Parliament, 
the  local  commissioners,  the  landowners,  and  the  lawyers 
had  all  been  full  of  the  idea  that  a  population  with  rights  of 
this  kind  was  a  better  basis  for  building  up  a  village  society 
than  a  population  of  men  without  land  and  without  rights, 
the  enclosures 'would  have  been  carried  out  in  such  a  way  as 
to  preserve  this  element  in  village  life,  while  enlarging  the 
opportunities  for  production  and  the  power  of  the  improving 
landowner  to  introduce  the  ideas  of  a  Coke  or  a  Bakewell. 
But,  as  it  happened,  their  heads  were  full  of  just  the  opposite 
idea  :  the  idea  that  the  nation  would  be  happier,  as  well  as 
richer,  if  the  village  labourer  had  to  depend  entirely  on  his 
earnings  from  day  to  day. 

This  same  belief  gives  the  key  to  a  momentous  chapter  in 
English  rural  history.  Towards  the  end  of  the  century 
there  came  two  or  three  years  of  bad  harvests  and  high 
prices.  The  labourers,  deprived  of  all  their  customary 
means  of  livelihood,  were  in  danger  of  starvation.  Some  of 
the  magistrates  of  the  day  proposed  to  establish  a  minimum 
wage  for  agriculture,  and  a  Bill  with  this  object  was  intro- 
duced by  Samuel  Whitbread  into  the  House  of  Commons. 
But  the  predominant  opinion  was  hostile.  Pitt  opposed  the 
Bill,  and  the  magistrates  all  over  the  country  adopted  as  an 
alternative  the  vicious  system,  generally  known  in  history  as 
the  Speenhamland  system.  Under  this  system  a  man's 
wages  were  supplemented,  according  to  a  fixed  scale,  out  of 
the  rates  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  his  children.  The 
system  takes  its  name  from  a  place,  now  part  of  Newbury, 
where  the  Berkshire  magistrates  met  in  May  1795,  in  order 
to  fix  wages.  But  when  the  meeting  was  held,  the  proposal 
to  fix  wages,  made  by  Charles  Dundas,  the  M.P.  for  Berk- 
shire, was  rejected  in  favour  of  the  fatal  alternative.  The 
degrading  and  depressing  effects  of  this  policy  are  notorious, 
and  the  reason  for  preferring  to  supplement  wages  out  of  the 
rates  rather  than  compel  farmers  to  pay  adequate  vages 
was  the  belief  that  the  more  dependent  and  helpless  the 
position  of  the  labourer,  the  better  for  society.  Men  were 
afraid  of  recognising  any  right  or  moral  claim  on  the  part 
of  the  labourer,  and  they  wanted  to  keep  the  atmosphere  of 
charity  about  him. 

The  agrarian  problem,  as  Mr.  Arthur  Acland  once  pointed 
out,  has  two  aspects.  Agriculture  is  an  industry  :  the 
system  of  life  that  depends  on  it  is  a  civilisation.  The  great 
English  landowners  who  performed  such  signal  services  to 
the  nation  in  introducing  improvements,  and  in  making 
agriculture  an  infinitely  more  productive  industry,  did  not 
lose  sight  of  this  truth.  The  chief  argument  for  the  form 
that  the  enclosures  took  was  the  argument  that  the  world 
needed  more  food,  and  that  these  methods  helped  to  satisfy 
that  need.  But  this  was  not  the  only  argument.  It  was 
believed  that  the  concentration  of  social  power  produced  in 
itself  a  desirable  civilisation,  and  that  the  view  that  there 
was  some  virtue  in  a  community  of  men  enjoying  a  certain 
economic  independence  was  a  sentimental  superstition. 

Now,  we  are  at  this  moment  supremely  interested  in  the 
problem  that  confronted  our  great  grandfathers.  We  want 
to  increase  production,  and  we  also  have  our  ideas  of  the 
qualities  that  make  a  civilisation  more  or  less  desirable  ;  and 
these  ideas  are  not  theirs.  It  will  be  interesting  in  a  later 
article  to  examine  the  effect  of  the  ideas  of  that  age  on  the 
problem  as  we  find  it  to-day,  for  the  English  village  has  lain 
for  a  hundred  years  under  the  shadow  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


April  4j  191 8 


Land    &   Water 


2r 


Well=Known  M.P.  on  "Pelmanism" 


81      Admirals      and     Generals 
nowr  Enrolled. 

75   ENROLMENTS   IN   ONE  FIRM  ! 

"  Pelmanism"  continues  its  extraordinary  progress  amongst 
all  classes  and  sections  of  the  community. 

To  the  many  notable  endorsements  of  the  System  which 
have  been  already  published  there  is  now  added  an  important 
pronouncement  by  a  well-known  M.P. — Sir  James  Yoxall, 
whose  eminence,  both  as  an  educationist  and  as  a  Parlia- 
mentarian, gives  additional  weight  to  his  carefully  con- 
sidered opinion. 

"  The  more  I  think  about  it,"  says  Sir  James  Yoxall, 

"the  more  I  feel  that  Pelmanism  is  the  name  of  soine> 

'       thins  much   required  by  myriads  of  people  to-day." 

He  adds :  "  I  suspected  Pelmanism  ;  when  it  began  to 
be  heard  of  I  thought  it  was  quackery. 

"  No^v  I  wish  I  had  taken  it  up  ^vhen  I  heard  of  it  first." 

This  is  verj'  plain  speaking  ;  but  plain  speech  is  the  key- 
note of  the  entire  article.  Thus  one  of  the  greatest  national 
authorities  upon  the  subject  of  education  adds  his  valuable 
and  independent  testimony  to  that  of  the  many  distinguished 
.  men  and  women  who  have  expressed  their  enthusiasm  for 
the  new  movement. 

81  Admirals  and  Generals  are  now  Pelmanists,  and  over 
20,000  of  all  ranks  of  the  Navy  and  Army.  The  leged  and 
medical  professions  are  also  displaying  a  quickened  interest 
in  the  System — indeed,  every  professional  class  and  every 
grade  of  business  men  and  women  are  enrolling  in  increasingly 
large  numbers. 

Several  prominent  firms  have  paid  for  the  enrolment  of  eight, 
ten,  or  a  dozen  members  of  their  staffs,  and  one  well-known 
house  has  just  arranged  for  the  enrolment  of  75  of  the  staff. 

With  such  facts  before  him,  every  reader  of  Land  &  Water 
should  write  to  the  address  given  below  for  a  copy  (gratis 
and  post  free)  of  "Mind  and  Memory,"  in  which  the  Pelman 
Course  is  fully  described  and  explained,  together  with  a 
special  supplement  dealing  with  "  Pelmanism  as  an  Intel- 
lectual and  Social  Factor,"  and  a  full  reprint  of  Truth's 
remarkable  Report  on  the  work  of  the  Pelman  Institute. 


A    DOCTOR'S    REMARKABLE 
ADMISSION. 

Fascination  of  the    "  Little  Grey 
Books." 

Within  the  past  few  weeks  several  M.P.s,  many  members 
of  the  aristocracy,  and  two  Royal  personages,  as  well  as  a 
very  large  number  of  officers  in  H.M.  Navy  and  Army, 
have  added  their  names  to  the  Pelman  registers. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  letters  received  lately  comes 
from  a  lady  in  the  Midlands.  Being  55  years  of  age  and 
being  very  delicate,  she  had  her  doubts  as  to  whether  she 
should  take  a  Pelman  Course.  She  consulted  her  son,  a 
medical  practitioner,  who  at  first  laughed  at  the  idea,  but 
promised  to  make  inquiries.  The  outcome  was  a  letter  in 
which  the  Doctor  wrote  : 

"'Pelmanism'  has  got  hold  of  me.  I  have  worked 
through  the  first  lesson  and  ...  I  am  enthusiastic." 

His  experience  tallies  exactly  with  that  of  Sir  James  Yoxall, 
M.P.,  Mr.  George  R.  Sims,  and  a  host  of  other  professional 
men  (doctors,  solicitors,  barristers,  etc.),  who  have  admitted 
that  their  initial  scepticism  was  quickly  changed  into 
enthusiasm. 

"Truth's"  Dictum. 

Truth  puts  the  whole  matter  in  a  nutshell  in  its  famous 
Report  on  the  work  of  the  Pelman  Institute  : 

"Ths  Pelman  Course  is  .  .  .  valuable  to  the  well- 
educated,  and  still  more  valuable  to  Xho  half-educated 
or  the  superficially  educated.  One  might  go  much 
farther  and  declare  that  the  work  of  the  Pelman  Insti- 
tute is  of  national  importance,  for  there  are  fcw^ 
people  indeed  who  would  not  find  themselves  men- 
tally stronger,  more  efficient,  and  better  equipped  for 
»ho  battle  of  life   by   a  course   of  Pelman    training." 


"delightful,"    "the    finest    mental   recreation   I  have 


Easily  Followed  by  Post. 

"Pelmanism'  is  not  an  occult  science;  it  is  free  from 
mysticism  ;  it  is  as  sound,  as  sober,  and  as  practical  as  the 
most  hard-headed,  "common  sense"  business  man  could 
desire.  And  as  to  its  results,  they  follow  with  the  same 
certainty  with  which  muscular  development  follows  physical 
exercise. 

It  is  nowhere  pretended,  and  the  inquirer  is  nowhere  led 
to  suppose,  that  the  promised  benefits  are  gained  "magically," 
by  learning  certain  formulae,' or  by  the  cursory  reading  of 
a  printed  book.  The  position  is  precisely  the  same,  again, 
as  with  physical  culture.  No  sane  person  expects  to  develop 
muscle  by  reading  a  book  ;  he  knows  he  must  practise  the 
physical  exercises.  Similarly,  the  Pelmanist  knows  he  must 
practise  mental  exercise. 

"  The  Finest  Mental  Recreation." 

"Exercises,"  in  some  ears,  sound  tedious ;  but  every 
Pelmanist  will  bear  out  the  statement  that  there  is  nothing 
tedious  or  exacting  about  the  Pelman  exercises.  Indeed,  it 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  an  overwhelming  proportion 
of  Pelmanists  describe  the  exercises  as  "fascinat- 
ing, 
known." 

There  are  thousands  of  people  of  all  classes  who  would 
instantly  enrol  for  a  Pelman  Course  at  any  cost  if  they  only 
realised  a  tithe  of  the  benefits  accruing.  Here  again  a 
Pelmanist  may  be  cited  in  evidence  : — "  If  people  only  knew," 
he  says,  "the  doors  of  the  Institute  would  be  literally  besieged, 
by  eager  applicants." 

The  Course  is  founded  upon  scientific  facts  ;  that  goes 
without  saying.  But  it  presents  those  facts  in  a  practical, 
everyday  fashion,  which  enables  the  student  to  apply,  for 
his  own  aims  and  purposes,  those  facts  without  "fagging" 
at  the  hundreds  of  scientific  works  which  he  might  otherwise 
read  without  gaining  a  fraction  of  the  practical  in- 
formation and  guidance  secured  from  a  week's  study  of 
Pelmanism. 

A  system  which  can  evoke  voluntary  testimony  from  every 
class  of  the  community  is  well  worth  investigation.  Who 
can  afford  to  hold  aloof  from  a  movement  which  is  steadily 
gaining  the  support  of  all  the  ambitious  and  progressive 
elements  in  the  Empire  ?  In  two  consecutive  days  recently 
two  M.P.s  and  a  member  of  the  Upper  House  enrolled. 
Run  through  the  current  Pelman  Register,  and  therein  you 
will  find  British  Consuls,  H.M.  Judges,  War  Office,  Admiralty, 
and  other  Government  Officials,  University  Graduates, 
Students,  Tutors,  Headmasters,  Scientists,  Clergymen, 
Architects,  Doctors,  Solicitors,  Barristers,  Authors,  Editors, 
Journalists,  Artists,  Actors,  Accountants,  Business  Directors 
and  Managers,  Bankers,  Financiers,  Peers,  Peeresses,  and 
men  and  women  of  wealth  and  leisure,  as  well  as  Salesmen, 
Clerks,  Typists,  Tradesmen,  Engineers,  Artisans,  Farmers, 
and  others  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  nation.  If  ever  the 
well-worn  phrase,  "from  peer  to  peasant,"  had  a  real 
meaning,  it  is  when  applied  to  Pelmanism. 

Over  250,000  Men  and  Women. 

The  Pelman  Course  has  already  been  followed  by  over 
250,000  men  and  women.  It  is  directed  through  the  post, 
and  is  simple  to  follow.  It  takes  up  very  little  time.  It 
involves  no  hard  study.  It  can  be  practised  anywhere,  in 
the  trenches,  in  the  office,  in  the  train,  in  spare  minutes 
during  the  day.  And  yet  in  quite  a  short  time  it  has  the 
effect  of  developing  the  mind,  just  as  physical  exercise 
develops  the  muscles,  of  increasing  your  personal  efficiency, 
and  thus  doubling  your  all-round  capacity  and  income- 
earning  power. 

The  improvement  begins  with  the  first  lesson,  and  con- 
tinues, increasingly,  right  up  to  the  final  les  on  of  the  course. 
Individual  instruction  is  given  through  the  post,  and  the 
student  receives  the  utmost  assistance  from  the  large  expert 
staff  of  instructors  at  the  Institute  in  solving  particular 
personal  difficulties  and  problems. 

"Pelmanism"  is  fully  explained  and  described  in  "Mind 
and  Memory," '  which,  with  a  copy  of  Truth's  remarkable 
report  on  the  work  of  the  Pelman  Institute,  will  be  sent, 
gratis  and  post  free,  to  any  reader  of  Land  &  Water  who 
addressee  Tlie  Pelman  Institute,  39,  Wenham  House, 
Bloomsbury  Street,  London,  W.C.i. 


22 


Land   &  Water 


April  4,  191  8 


Life  and  Letters  Qj  J.  C  Squire 


Murders  • 

MR.  H.  B.  Irving — a  very  fine  lago  one  remem- 
bers— has  long  beguiled  his  leisure  with 
criminal  research,  and  his  new  Book  of 
Remarkable  Criminals  (Cassell,  7s.  6d.)  is 
his  third  or  fourth  work  of  the  kind.  He 
tells  here  the  stories  of  six  famous  criminals,  and  of  four 
pairs  who  worked  in  conjunction.  One  may  regret  that  he 
confined  himself  entirely  here  to  persons  who  committed  at 
least  one  murder  (for  ingenious  theft  is  delightful  to  read 
about) ;  and,  if  one  is  insular,  ohc  may  be  sorry  that  so  many 
of  his  criminals  are  French  ones,  moving  in  a  milieu,  and 
speaking  a  language,  which  are  not  familiar  to  us.  But  his 
Frenchmen  are  excellently  selected,  and  his  Anglo-Saxons, 
include  Peace,  who  was  only  incidentally  a  murderer,  and 
•who,  indeed,  lumself  reaUsed  at  the  close  of  his  career  that 
his  murders  had  been  highly  reprehensible.  "My  great 
mistake,  sir,"  he  said  to  the  clergyman  who  visited  him  in 
the  condemned  cell,  "and  I  can  see  it  now  as  my  end 
approaches,  has  been  this — in  all  my  career,  I  have  used 
ball  cartridge.  I  can  see  now  that  in  using  ball  cartridge 
1  did  wrong.  I  ought'  to  have  used  blank  cartridge  ;  then 
I  would  not  have  taken  life." 


Charley  Peace  deserves  the  long  chapter  he  gets.  He  has 
claims  to  be  considered  the  greatest  of  English  criminals. 
It  is  impossible  to  like  him  :  he  was  of  repulsive  appearance 
and  a  most  monstrous  egoist.  But  he  had  some  qualities 
on  a  heroic  scale — courage,  alertness,  impudence,  imagina- 
tion. The  man  whose  execution  the  English  crowd  deplored 
and  whose  betraj'er  they  nicknamed  "Traitress  Sue"  was 
not  the  whole  Charles  Peace  of  real  life,  but  the  sly  fox  who 
got  out  through  the  roof  when  tlie  police  were  downstairs  ; 
who,  in  disguise,  discussed  his  own  crimes  with  interest 
and  reprehension  ;  who  wandered  about  earning  his  Hving 
as  a  fiddler  under  the  noses  of  the  authorities  ;  who  lived  for 
two  years  in  Streatham  as  a  Christian  old  gentleman,  enter- 
taining the  neighbours  to  charming  musical  evenings  and, 
at  a  later  hour  of  the  night,  sallying  out  at  the  back  door 
with  pony,  cart,  lantern,  and  crib-cracking  tools  to  plunder 
their  houses — that,  and  the  daring  adventurer  who,  even 
at  the  last,  leapt  out  of  the  window  of  the  train,  and  only 
failed  to  escape  his  warders  b\'  breaking  his  leg.  Before 
him,  all  Mr.  Irving's  other  criminals  pale  ;  but  one  may 
commend  the  philosophic  Robert  Butler  (who  said  he  had 
modelled  himself  on  Napoleon  and  Frederick  the  Great), 
Professor  Webster,  and  H.  H.  Holmes  of  America,  a  smug 
fiend  whose  pertinacity  and  cunning  were  only  equalled  by 
those  of  the  man  who  ran  him  down.  Webster  was  a  Pro- 
fessor of  Chemistry  at  Harvard  and  a  colleague  of  that  quite 
unimpeachable  professor  who  wrote  The  Autocrat  of  the 
Breakfast  Table.  He  was  a  family  man ;  a  fairly  good 
scientist ;  benevolent-looking,  sociable,  spectacled,  middle- 
aged.  Yet — and  it  is  still  uncertain  whether  the  crime  was 
premeditated  or  the  result  of  momentary  exasperation — he 
slew  an  old  friend  who  had  lent  him  money  and  discovered 
him  in  trickery.  And,  having  slain  him,  he  cut  him  up 
into  small  pieces,  buried  bits  of  him,  burned  other  bits,  and 
worked  for  days  at  the  job  behind  closed  doors.  Had.it  not 
been  for  the  refusal  of  a  fine  set  of  teeth  to  be  incinerated 
he  might  never  have  Been  condemned-  though  he  would 
certainly  have  been  suspected.  As  for  Holmes,  he  is  a 
remarkable  example  of  how  one  thing  leads  to  another. 
His  original  intention  was  merely  to  swindle  an  insurance 
company ;  a  thing  that  many  people  would  consider  as 
only  less  venial  than  cheating  a  railway  company.  This  led 
him  into  murder.  Having  murdered  one  man,  it  became 
necessary,  in  order  to  cover  up  his  tracks,'  to  get  rid  of  the 
deceased  person's  family — six  in  number.  He  had  disposed 
of  three  when  he  was  caught.  Had  he  been  given  away  by 
nothing  else,  he  would,  to  the  percipient  eye,  have  been 
hopelessly  betrayed  by  his  protest  to  the  bereaved  mother  : 
"Surely  you  cannot  think  that  I  would  murder  innocent 
children,  especially  without  a  motive."  His  story,  Hke  the 
others,  is  told  by  Mr.  Irving  with  commendable  precision. 

Tennyson  once  told  Mr.  Irving's  father  that  he  and  Jowett 
had  sat  up  talking  well  into  the  small  hours  of  the  morning. 
Asked  what  thej'  were  talking  about,  the  poet  said  "murders." 
Some  people  would  affect  to  be  shocked  at  this  in  Tennyson  ; 
though  the  same  people  would  read  Browning's  The  Ring 


and  the  Book  with  interest  and  admiration  merely  because 
the  murder  with  which,  and  its  concomitant  circumstances, 
the  poem  is  wiiolly  concerned  took  place  some  hundreds  of 
years  ago,  and  is,  consequently,  history  and  not  mere  vulgar 
crime.  But  one  doubts  whether  there  Ls  a  man  alive  who 
lias  not  at  least  the  inclination  to  read  murder  trials,  however 
much  he  may  be  ashamed  of  it.  That  this  interest  in  murders 
is  not — as  is  sometimes  hastily  assumed — a  dcl)ased  craving 
for  mere  blood  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  ordinary  straight- 
forward murders  in  hot  blood  get  no  space  in  the  news- 
papers. What  provoke  men's  curiosity  are  mysteries, 
mysteries  of  motive  or  stratagem  ;  astute  or  daring  plots  ; 
the  unaccountable  lapses  of  respectable  citizens  ;  the  opera- 
tions of  the  mind  in  self-justification  ;  the  battle  of  wits 
between  criminal  and  police.  If  a  man,  in  a  fit  of  sudden 
temper,  "takes  a  chopper  to  some  one,"  and  then  kills  him- 
self or  delivers  himself  up  to  the  police,  no  sane  person,  out 
of  mere  blood-lust,  will  read  about  him.  The  man  we  r6ad 
about  is  he  who,  possessing  fine  qualities  of  courage  or  clever- 
ness, endeavours  to  cover  up  his  tracks  ;  the  oddity  who, 
apparentlv  normal,  secretly  poisons-  his  fellows  wholesale. 
We  enjoy  the  adventures  and  the  escapes — we  even  appre- 
ciate good  burglaries  better  than  good  murders  because  we 
are  spared  the  horrors — we  are  curious  to  know  precisely 
where  it  is  that  the  criminal's  mind  differs  from  ours,  and 
we  habitually,  though  often  unconsciously,  match  our  own 
resourcefulness,  in  face  of  all  the  legal  engines  of  civilisation, 
with  that  of  the  man  who  has  actually  "done  the  job."  For, 
in  the  last  resort,  the  murderer  and  the  burglar,  the  daring 
criminal  and  the  desperate  fugitive,  have  done  in  the  flesh 
things  that  we  all  do  in  our  minds. 


I  do  not  suggest  that  there  are  no  differences  between 
criminals  as  a  class  and  ordinary  people,  though  there  are 
a  good  many  ordinary  people  among  criminals  and  a  good 
many  very  wicked  men  who  will  never  see  the  inside  of  a 
jail,  "and  can  often  be  found  on  the  inside  of  a  church.  Some 
of  Mr.  Irving's  murderers  were  criminals  owing  to  environ- 
ment or  an  accident  that  might  have  happened  to  anyone  ; 
but  some  certainly  committed  their  crimes  because  they 
lacked  some  restraint,  of  reason,  of  morals,  of  human  sym- 
pathy, of  pity,  which  in  most  of  us  keeps  the  murderous 
impulse  in  check.  But  we  all  have  the  law-breaker  in  us, 
even  though  our  better,  or  our  more  calculating,  selves  keep 
him  permanently  in  a  strait  waistcoat.  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  a  man  alive  (always  excepting  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury)  who  has  never,  sitting  innocently  in  his  chair 
or  lying  peacefully  in  his  bed,  pictured  himself  committing 
a  crime  and  then  trying  to  evade  the  consequences.  Charles 
Peace  ?  Jack  the  Ripper  ?  Why,  they  were  merely  the 
projections  of  lines  in  our  own  mental  diagrams  I  In 
animosity  we  have  played  with  the  idea  of  getting  rid  of 
our  abominable  private  enemy  or  that  politician  whom  we 
regard  as  a  Wight  on  the  country  ;  and,  still  more  often, 
with  our  private  passions  totally  disengaged,  we 'hare  played 
crime  as  a  game.  .  We  also  have  fired  the  bullet  through  a 
lighted  window,  tipped  the  man  out  of  a  train  or  over  a 
bridge,  poisoned  thousands  in  a  quite  undetectable  way, 
traded  on  our  respectable  reputations  to  burgle  our  neigh- 
bours, blown  up  rails,  soaked  straw  with  paraffin,  hidden 
in  the  house  in  Belgrave  Square,  burrowed  long  tunnels 
under  banks,  broken  jewellers'  windows  and  bolted.  We 
also  have  passed  ir/  twenty  towns  under  twenty  names, 
Hke  H.  H.  Holmes,  played  the  suburban  philanthropist  and 
music-lover  like  Peace,  shaved  and  grown  beards,  had  secret 
dug-outs,  hidden  suits  of  clothes,  obtained  our  revolvers, 
poisons,  and  notepaper  from  places  which  would  give  no 
clue.  Yes,  above  all,  we  have  avoided  those  absurd  clues. 
We  never  wear  shirts  spattered  with  little  rusty  spots  which 
"prove,  on  examination  under  the  microscope,  to  be  human 
blood."  We  never  carry  compromising  papers,  leave  our 
laundry-marks  about,  repeat  ourselves,  overreach  ourselves, 
rashly  confide  in  fellow-criminals,  turn  pale  at  inconvenient 
moments,  or  lose  our  nerve  when  a  policeman  accosts  us,  or 
publicly  threaten  to  "do  somebody  in."  We  do  what  we 
like.  Our  victims  are  an  easy  prey.  Our  lairs  are  crammed 
with  diamonds,  gold  watches,  bullion,  petrol,  margarine, 
sugar,  and  matches.  We  go  on  for  ever  and  are  never  caught. 
That  is  where  we  differ  from  the  ordinary  criminal.  But  we 
are  close  enough  to  take  an  interest  in  him  ;  and  an5'one 
who  reads  Mr.  Irving's  bodk  will  find  it  fascinating. 


April  II,  19 1 8 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


IX 


SERVICE  BREECHES 

MADE  AT  SHORT  NOTICE. 


A  GOOD  NAME 
AMONG  SPORTS- 
MEN FOR  NEARLY 
A  CENTURY  is  a  sure 
measure  of  our  particu- 
lar ability  iq  breeches- 
making,  to  which 
gratifying  testimony  is 
now  also  given  by  the 
many  recommendations 
from  officers. 

For  inspection,  and  to 
enable  us  to  meet  im- 
mediate requirements, 
we  keep  on  hand  a 
number  of  pairs  of 
breeches,  or  we  can  cut 
and  try  a  pair  on  the 
same  day,  and  complete 
the  next  day  if  urgently 
wanted. 


Patterns  and  Farm  for  self-measurement  at  requett._ 


GRANT  AND  GOGKBURN 
25  PIGGADILLY,  W.l.  " 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


ESTD.  1821. 


■The  Original  Cording's,  Estd.  1839- 


The  'Equitor  is 

tr-Maa.) 

guaranteed 
waterproof. 


and  will  therefore  keep  a 
man  bone  dry  through 
the  heaviest  and  most 
lasting  downpour. 

A  special  feature  of  the 
"  Equitor  "  is  the  attached 
riding  apron,  which,  when 
not  in  use,  fastens  back 
conveniently,  out  of  sight. 

Snug  warmth  may  be 
secured  by  having  the 
"Eqnitor"  fitted  with  a 
detachable  fleece  lining, 
and  then  indeed  those 
twin  discomforts  —  wet 
and  cold — are  effectively 
set  at  naught. 

In  our  light-weight  No.  31  ma- 
terial, the  price  of  the  "  Equitor" 
is  105/-;  of  our  No.  II,  a 
strong,  medium-weight  clotli, 
120/-;  without  apron,  15/- less. 
We  can  also  recommend  an 
"Equitor"  (without  apron)  in 
our  No.  22  cloth,  at  70/- 

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


When  ordering  an  "  Equitor'*  Coat  plea»e  state  height  and  chest  measure 
and  'send  rewltance  (which  will  be  returred  promptly  if  the  coat 
is    not    approved),    or   sive    home    address     and     business     reference. 

Illustrated  List  at  request. 

WATERPROOFERS 
'LTD.  TOH.M.THEKING 

OhIv  AddrtsMs; 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.  1,  &  35  st.  jamess  st.,  s.w.i 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  CS. 


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. 


To  be  obtained  Irom  all  Oun  Dealers,  and  Wholesale  only  at 
Head  Office  and  Showrooms  : 

WEAMAN    STREET,    BIRMINGHAM. 

Londoo    Depot : 

78  SHAFTESBURY  AVENUE. 


kTI    I  Q      FLEXIBLE 

IV  Li  10       PIITTFFS 


"  They  are  the  most  comfortable  puttees  to  wear  that 
I  have  ever  come  across  during  over  ^2  years'  service.'^ 
— //.  B.   Vaughan  (Bt.  Colonel). 

Expand  like  elastic,  yet  there  is  no  rubber  in  tbem.^^^*^ 

Their  wonderful  elasticity  is  entirely  due  to  a  special  method  of 
weaving,  which  enables  the  cloth  to  expand  on  pressure,  and, 
immediately  it  is  removed,  to  spring  back  (o  its  normal  proportions. 

t  is  impossible  to  put  Klis  Puttees  on  wrongly,  as  there  is  no  right 
or  left,  and  no  twists  to  make, 

They  6t  perfectly,  whether  bound  from  knee  down  or  ankle  up,  and 
never  rcstrici  either  the  muscles  or  blood-vessels. 

Wool  only.     Price   10/6.      Khaki  or  Navy  Blue 

BURBERRYS  Haymarket  LONDON 


Terms  of  Subscription  to  "  LAND  6  WATER." 

(Hseabristud  iSOi.f 

At  HOME— Twelve  Months,  £2  2    0  CANADA— Twelve  Months,  £2    2    0 

ELSEWHERE   ABROAD— Twelve  Months.  £2  10  0 

The  aitfvt  tafts  indudt  all  Sptcial  Numbtrt  anJ  Pa{[a^ 

"LAND    &    WATER."    Old  Serjcanti'   Inn.  5  Chancery    Lane.    W.C  2 

7eipj.hrino:   Holbom  jgjd.  Te!rcrH['hic  Adiltr*.^  :   "  Ari^nilortini.  I  l^ct.  London.' 


I^^^ 


TRADITION— 


Although  the  organisation  loiown  as  the  B.S.A.  Company  is 
a  brilliant  example  of  modern  efficiency  in  manufactunng.  yet 
it  is  steeped  in  tradition.  Founded  on  an  ideal  —the  production 
of  the  finest  rifles  in  the  world— the  principles  of  the  founders 
have  been  zealously  guarded  and  nurtured  in  the  succeeding 
generations  so  that  now  the  whole  corporation  is  saturated 
and  imbued  with  the  maxim — 

QUALITY    FIRST. 

It  is  not  too  soon  for  all  sportsmen  and  rifle  enthusiasts  to 
send  their  names  and  addresses  to  ensure  the  earliest 
Information  as  to  the    Company's  po^t-war  productions  in 


SPORTING  &  TARGET 
RIFLES,  AIR  RIFLES,  &c. 

FRLL    Booklet -"RIFLE.    SIGHTS    AND    THEIR 
ADJUSTMENT"— on    receipt  of    postcard. 


Be  THE 

^  Birmingham    Small    Arms 

^  Company       Limited, 

§i  BIRMINGHAM,     ENGLAND. 


^ 


5ni 


CKakers  of  Rifles  and  Lewis  Machine 

Guns     for      British,     Colonial,     and 

Foreign  Goocrnments,   and  of  B.S.A. 

Cycles  and  Motors 


Supplement  to  Land  Sc  Water 


April 


1  I 


1918 


Personality  in  Dress 


"  Lista "  Shirts  and  Pyjama*  reflect 
that  a!r  of  solid  worth  which  gives  the 
wearer  standing  as  a  well-dressed  man. 
For  Officers'  Khaki  Shirts  and 
ordinary  wear  "Lista"  is  unrivalled. 
It  can  be  washed  over  and  over  again 
without  injury.  Once  feel  a  "Lista" 
Shirt  and  you  will  want  them  always. 


Look  for  the  word   "Liita"  upon  the  telvedse.  Wholesale  only : 

Your  favourite  pattern  can  lie  selected  at  any  Outfitters.       LISTER  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  Old  Change,  E.C. 


Cold 

£9 


Cold 

£9/9/ 


J.  W.  BENSON 

LTD. 

•A  dive  Service'  WRISTLET  WATCH 
Fully  luminons  Figurts  and  Hands 

Warranted  Ti.nekeepers 

In  Silver  Cases  with  Screw  Bezel  and 
Baclc.  £3  10s.         Cold.  S9 

With   Hunter  or  HaU-Hunter  Cover, 

Silver,  £4  4s.         Cold.  £9  9s. 

Others  in  Silver        -       from  £2   15  s. 

Gold,  from  £6   10s. 

Military   Badge  Brooches. 

ylny  Regimenlcl  Sadge  'Pcr/tctly 

Modelled. 

Prices  on  Application. 

Sketches  sent  for  approval. 

OLD   BOND  ST.,  W.l. 

62  &  64  LUDGATE  HILL,  E,C.4. 


"SOFT  AS  \ 

A  SLIPPER" 


THE    "FORTMASON"    MARCHING    BOOT 

is  very  strong,  and  fib.  liahter  than  any  similar  boot.  Special  wear-resisting  soles. 
Worn  by  thousands  of  Officers  at  the  Front,  50/-.    Sizes  1 OJ  upwards,  S5/- 

FORTNUM  &  MASON,  ltd., 
182    Piccadilly,     London,     W.l. 

DEPOT  FOR  "DEirER"  TRENCH  COATS. 


MILITARY 


nV^ hatever  tne 
Regiment  that 

trougKt  it  off 

Americans  slioulol  note 
.  .  some  of  tKe  officers 
were  the  aoler  for  tneir 
Military  Dexter  .  .  . 
rreea  or  any  personal 
weather  worry  ty  Dexter 
Proormg  .  .  Guaranteed 
■^     to  resist   -wet   always.   .    . 

ir\  "As      Britist     as      the 
*^  Weather    but     RelJalle." 

Supplied  by  Atfents  Everywhere 


UCPOTS     POR     MILIT&R 


DEXTERS 


FORTNUM   &  MASON    LTD 

181-184.     PICCADILLY.     Wl 

AUSTIN    REED  LTD 

113.    REGENT    STREET.  Wl 

MANCHCBTER  .         BIRMINGHAM 

R.  W.   FORSYTH    LTD 


EOINBURSH 


IfaZ/acf.   SiO/t  &    to,    1.1,2.    (IVholesalt} 
Glas^OTi-.    Makers  oj Dexter  ii'cuiiierproo/s 


^Regent  St  Mouse  ^ 

PETERROBINSON 


■^v'"^^^[^*^C^ 


London,  w 


Juvenile 
Fashions 


IT  is  always  tlie  soundest 
economy  to  buy  the  BEST 
in  Juvenile  Wear.  You 
save  money  in  the  long  run. 
At  this  house  you  can  always 
be  sure  of  getting  the  best,  not 
alone  in  quality  and  style,  but 
value  as  well. 

R.S.  37  J  {as  sketch).  Practical 

Coat  and  Skirt,  in  reliable  navy 

serge,  for  school  wear.  Also  in  a 

good  variety  of  coloured  cheviot 

serges.      Sizes 

10   to    12   years.      '3  1 

For     10      years     *-'2  S^S. 

Rising  5/-  a  size. 

Peter  Robinson,  nd. 

Regent      Street,      W.l 


LAND  &W  ATER 

Vol.  LXXI.     No.  2918.     [v»|rR]  THURSDAY,  APRIL  II,   1918         [F°i?;fs^TpE*l]     'p^?c"i^JJfSE^p¥i?^S 


:»t^\t0u. 


Official  Photo 


The    King's    Visit    to    France 

His  Majesty  talks   to  a  Highlander  just  back  from  the   Battle 


Land    &   Water 


April  II,  19 18 


April  II,  191 8 


Land   &   Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :   HOLBORN    2818. 


THURSDAY,  APRIL  ii,  1918. 


Contents 


PAGE 
I 


The  King's  Visit  to  France.     (Photograph) 

Pozieres.     (Illustration.)     Bv  Captain  Handley-Read  2 

The  Outlook                          "  3 

The  Continued  Battle.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 

A  New  German  Port.     By  Arthur  Pollen  9 
Good  Friday,  1918.     Bv  Raemaekers                          10  and  11 

Mr.  Wilson's  Great  Stroke.     By  Arthur  Pollen  12 

German  Plots  Exposed.     By  French  Strother  13 

The  Petitot  Snuff-Box.     By  G.  C,  Williamson  16 

Our  Band.     By  Etienne  17 

Mr.  Asquith  as  Author.     B\-  J.  C.  Squire  19 

Motor  Tractors  in  Agriculture.     By  H  20 

Domestic  Economy  24 

Notes  on  Kit  xi 


The  Outlook 


AT  the  beginning  of  the  first  week  of  this  month 
the  enemy's  main  attack  was  held  by  the  in- 
creasing resistance  of  the  Allies  as  portions  of 
the  French  Reserves  came  up.  But  in  two 
great  attacks  whic'h  followed  during  the  course 
of  that  week,  and  the  last  and  most  severe  of  which  was  last 
Thursday,  the  enemy  still  continued  his  vast  expenditure  in 
men  with  the  clear  object  of  creating  a  nipture  in  the  line 
as  soon  as  possible.  In  the  course  of  these  efforts  the 
Germans  occupied  the  western  or  left  bank  of  the  Avre,  and 
finally  reached  the  point  where  the  brook  Luce  falls  into 
that  river,  thus  occupying  new  ground  in  the  shape  of  a 
crescent  about  twelve  miles  long  and  rather  more  than  a 
couple  of  miles  deep  at  the  deepest  point. 

TTiis  movement  brings  the  most  advanced  German  posts 
to  within  three  miles  of  the  main  railway  between  Amiens 
and  Paris,  which  they  have  already  had  under  distant  fire 
for  a  long  time,  and,  at  Castel,  to  about  nine  miles  from  the 
heart  of  Amiens.  But  the  coSt  of  the  effort  continues  to  be 
enormous,  the  German  losses  to  date  being  at  least  a  third 
of  a  million  men  and  probably  more — 60  per  cent,  of  their 
whole  annual  revenue  in  recruitment.  The  Allies  still  stand 
upon  the  defensive,  and  a  rough  rule  governing  the  situation 
is  to  regard  that  defensive  as  about  half  the  strength  of  the 
offensive  which  it  is  for  the  moment  holding,  and  creating  in 
,  the  offensive  losses  about  double  that  which  itself  suffers. 

•  •  • 

The  lesser  military  incidents  of  the  week  include  the  con- 
tinued bombardment  of  Paris  by  the  long-range  guns  which 
the  enemy  has  established  between  La  Ffere  and  Laon,  which 
have  caused  a  few  casualties  in  the  course  of  the  week,  but 
nothing  seriously  disturbing  the  life  of  the  city.  Unfor- 
tunately, among  the  victims  was  a  niece  of  Mr.  Sargent,  the 
painter  whose  unique  position  in  this  country  is  familiar  to  all. 
This  young  lady  was  the  widow  of  a  French  officer  already 
fallen  in  this  war. 

Apart  from  the  main  attack  ujwn  the  junction  between 
the  French  and  British  armies,  strong  pressure  was  exercised 
by  the  Germans  just  south  of  Albert,  with  the  result  that 
they  gained  a  further  narrow  strip  on  the  high  ground  beyond 
the  Ancrc  River  ;  but  considerable  efforts  made  further  to 
the  south  again,  between  this  point  and  the  Somme,  broke 
down  with  serious  losses. 

The  German  Press  continues  almost  unanimously  to  pro- 
phesy immediate  victory  as  the  result  of  the  present  action, 
and  the  attitude  of  the  Socialist  organs  is  worthy  of  special 
attention ,  These  surpass  their  rivals  in  their  certitude  of 
the  imminence  of  a  complete  military  success  and  in  their 
support  of  the  policy  now  leading  to  it.  There  has  been  no 
more  conspicuous  change  of  tone  in  Europe  than  this  new 
attitude  of  the  German  Socialists,  unless  it  be  the  converse 
change  which  has  taken  place  in  this  country  since  the 
enemy  showed  his  hand  a  couple  of  weeks  ago. 

•  •  •  ' 

Never  since  the  war  began  has  British  public  opinion 
ijcen  more  averse  from  a  "negotiated  peace"  than  it  is  at 
present.     It   is   not   only   the   battle   now  being   fought   so 


sternly  in  Picardy  that  is  accountable  for  this  healthier 
state  of  feeling.  The  Lichnowsky  memorandum  has  knocked 
the  bottom  out  of  the  favourite  argument  of  the  Pacifist 
that  this  country  in  some  mysterious  way  was  responsible, 
at  least  in  part,  for  the  war ;  also  recent  events  in  Russia, 
Finland,  and  Rumania  have  conclusively  established  the 
kind  of  treatment  any  nation  may  anticipate  which  is  willing 
to  conclude  a  German  peace. 

The  Government  in  carrying  into  effect  its  new  Man- 
power Bill  will  bo  met  more  than  half-way  both  in  the  House 
and  the  country.  The  proposals  are  far-reaching,  and 
Ireland  is  at  last  to  have  conscription  ;  but  before  it  is 
enforced,  a  new  Home  Rule  Bill  is  to  be  passed.  It  will 
be  interesting  to  watch  the  welcome  now  accorded  to  Home 
Rule  1iy  the  various  Irish  sections. 

#  »  ♦ 

April  6th  will  always  be  hailed  as  a  festal  day  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  the  date  on  which  America  entered  the  war, 
and  the  first  anniversary  was  fitly  celebrated  in  London  by  a 
luncheon  given  by  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  at  the  Mansion 
House  last  Saturday.  A  distinguished  company  had  been 
invited  to  listen  to  the  speeches  of  Mr.  Balfour  and  the 
American  Ambassador.  Mr.  Page  made  a  deep  impression 
by  following  up  his  remark  that  "his  countrymen  were 
aroused  and  united  as  they  were  never  united  and  aroused 
before,"  with  the  observation  :  "To  no  previous  war  did  we 
give  our  unanimous  approval.  Neither  Washington  nor 
Lincoln  had  all  the  people  behind  him.  Such  unanimity  as 
President  Wilson  has  is  a  new  fact  in  our  history.  It  took 
the  boundless  and  barbarous  ambition  of  Germany  to  bring 
this  about." 

Mr.  Page  also  put  into  memorable  words  the  task  that 
still  lies  before  the  Allies  :  "  No  nation  that  helps  to  stay  this 
plague  will  ever  outlive  the  glory  of  its  achievement  nor  the 
thanks  of  succeeding  generations."  And  on  this  same  day 
Mr.  Wilson  delivered  at  Baltimore  yet  another  of  those 
speeches  that  will  pass  into  history.  According  to  the  Reuter 
report,  it  concluded  with  the  following  sentences,  to  which 
it  is  impossible  to  give  too  wide  publicity  : 

Germany  has' once  more  said  that  force  and  force  alone  shall 
decide  whether  justice  and  peace  shall  reign  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
whether  right  as  'America  conceives  it,  or  dominion  as  she  con- 
ceives it,  shall  determine  the  destinies  of  mankind;  There  is, 
therefore,  but  one  response  possible  from  us — force,  force  to  the 
utmost,  force  without  stint  or  limit,  the  righteous  and  triumphant 
force  which  shall  make  right  the  law  of  the  world  and  cast  erery 
selfish  dominion  down  in  the  dust. 

•  *  * 

Mr.  Balfour  did  well  to  differentiate  clearly  between  /the 
speeches  and  the  acts  of  the  enemy.  It  is  a  favourite  German 
trick  to  endeavour  to  fog  us  with  words,  and  it  is  one  for 
which  the  rulers  of  Germany  have  some  justification  in  that 
in  this  manner  they  undoubtedly  did  deceive  us  in  the  past. 
All  their  careful  war  preparations  were  made  behind  a  cloak 
of  protestations  of  desire  for  peace  and  for  friendly  relations 
with  their  neighbours ;  their  endeavours  to  estrange  the 
Allies  have  always  been  undertaken  by  verbal  protests  of 
respect  first  for  this  one  and  then  for  the  other  of  their 
adversaries,  and,  like  the  drowning  man,  they  still  cling  to 
the  straw  that  though  might  fails  them  and  their  armies  are 
defeated  in  the  field,  they  will  secure  victory  at  the  last 
either  by  tongue  or  pen.  Therefore,  Alhed  statesmen  cannot 
be  too  precise  and  emphatic  in  their  references  to  Teuton 
hypocrisy. 

Mr.  Balfour  drew  attention  to  the  methods  Germany  is 
employing  to  secure  self-determination  in  her  own  favour. 
"Is  it  not  a  very  simple  plan,  either  by  massacre  or  other- 
wise, to  change  the  character  of  a  population  ?  That  sounds 
almost  incredible  in  its  brutality.  It  has  been  done.  It  is 
being  done.  And  it  is  proposed  to  be  done  at  the  very 
moment  at  which  I  am  speaking,  under  the  a?gis  of  those 
civilised  nations  Germany  and  Austria."  These  are  plain  words. 
And  to  drive  them  home,  the  Foreign  Secretary  told  what 
was  not  generally  known  before  :  that  Rumania's  alternative 
to  accepting  Germany's  terms  of  peace  was  her  destruction 
as  a  nation,  her  dominions  to  be  equally  divided  between 
Hungary  and  Bulgaria. 

»  «  » 

The  Prime  Minister  would  be  well  advised  to  break  himself 
of  the  habit  of  uttering  words  in  order  to  galvanise  liis  audi- 
ences. He  has  confessed  it  was  the  real  reason  for  his  Paris 
speech  which  gave  rise  to  regrettable  misunderetandings,  and 
we  conclude  it  is  also  the  origin  for  the  final  sentence  of  his 
April  6th  message  to  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  :  "During 
the  next  few  weeks  America  will  give  the  Prussian  military 
junta  the  surprise  of  their  hves."  It  would  be  wiser  and 
so  much  more  dignified  were  these  "surprises"  only  spoken 
about  after  accomplishment.  Experience  warns  us  that  the 
anticipated  "surprise"  is  usually  a  frost. 


Land    Sc   Water 


April   II,  I  91 8 


British  Line 
TTreiicA  L>ute 


10 


^ 


WMUis^ 


Area,  occupied  uiJu'st^S  <Jays 


'   Area  occupied  ui  succcedui^  S  days 


Two    Phases    of   the    Great     Battle 


April  II,  1 9 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


The  Continued  Battle :    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


THE  strategical  object  of  the  enemy  in  this  very 
rapid  and,  to  him,  intensely  expensive  and 
presumably  final  gamble,  is  to  separate  the 
French  and  EngUsh  armies. 
What  advantage  has  a  general  in  separating 
two  fractions  of  an  enemy  numerically  equal  or  even  numeri- 
cally superior  ?  He  has  the  advantage  that  his  army  remains 
one  organism  while  his  enemy  becomes  two  organisms,  and  the 
effect  is  vastly  increased  when  the  two  halves  thus  separated 
are  dissimilar  and  under  distinct  commands.  Two  divided 
halves  are  obviously  weaker  than  one  whole,  for  the  one 
whole  can  operate  with  single  and  immediate  determination, 
possessing  full  initiative  after  its  success,  and  able  at  will 
to  expend  a  minimum  force  in  defending  itself  against  one 
half  of  the  defeated  body,  and  a  m^aximum  effprt  against 
destroying  the  other  half.  The  united  whole  is  in  this  military 
sense  much  greater  than  the  two  separate  parts.  That  is 
why  any  rupture  in  any  line,  since  first  human  beings  began 
to  deploy  and  to  fight  with  method  in  large  organised  bodies, 
has  been  immensely  to  the  advantage  of  the  offensive  creating 
the  rupture.  That  is  why,  to  take  the  classical  modem 
instance.  Napoleon,  in  the  Campaign  of  Waterloo,  struck  for 
and  all  but  effected  (but  failed  completely  to  effect)  a  rupture 
between  the  two  halves  of  his  opponents,  Wellington  on  the 
left  and  Blucher  on  the  right,  who  were  considerably  superior 
in  combination  to  his  own  forces. 

The  enemy's  first  plan,  as  we  know,  was  to  effect  a  rupture 
between  French  and  British  somewhere  between  Cambrai 
and  the  Oise,  that  is  in  the  sectors  of  St.  Quentin  and  (or) 
Cambrai.  Had  he  succeeded  immediately  he  could  have 
stood  upon  the  defensive  towards  his  left  against  the  French 
with  very  small  forces.  For  he  would  have  had  two  advan- 
tages. First :  Doing  the  thing  at  once  he  would  have  some 
days  of  grace  before  the  French  could  possibly  concentrate 
against  him  ;  secondly,  he  would  have  had,  protecting  that 
left  flank  of  his,  the  broad  and  very  difficult  obstacle  of 
the  marshy  Oise  Valley.  He  would  therefore  have  had 
very  nearly  the  whole  of  his  forces  free  to  roll  up  the  British 
line,  upon  the  flank  and  rear  of  which  he  would  have 
debouched  through  the  gap. 

He  sUpped  upon  the  threshold ;  because  the  British 
resistance  upon  the  first  day,  notably  the  magnificent  organ- 
isation and  fighting  power  of  the  Third  Army,  held  him  up 
with  cruel  losses  from  the  Cambrai  salient  all  the  way  to 
the  hinge  at  Arras.  PJaving  slipped  upon  the  threshold, 
he  none  the  less  did  what  he  wanted  to  do — but  thirty-six 
hours  later  than  his  time-table- — in  the  break  through  west 
of  St.  Quentin  upon  the  sector  of  Holnon.  That  thirty-six 
hours  made  a  great  difference,  for  it  permitted  several  days 
later  what  has  been  called  "the  shepherding"  of  the  German 
push  slightly  northward  of  west  from  the  heights  just  beyond 
Noyon.  This  important  manoeuvre  we  know  now  to  have 
been  the  work  of  General  Fayolle  when  he  came  up  just  in 
time,  though  as  yet  necessarily  in  small  force,  with  French 
troops  to  begin  the  taking  over  of  the  right  of  the  British  hne. 

Result  of  Retirement 

This  "shepherding"  from  Noyon,  coupled  with  the  main- 
tenance of  the  British  line  intact  as  it  retired,  pivoting 
upon  Arras,  gave  the  battle  front  at  last  that  peculiar  fomi 
of  a  great  right-angled  triangle  with  its  apex  near  Montdidier, 
which  all  have  remarked,  and  which  created,  in  spite  of 
the  enemy  and  vastly  to  -his  disadvantage,  a  big  open 
improtected  flank  of  over  twenty  miles  between  Noyon  and 
Montdidier,  upon  which  flank  in  the  succeeding  days  the 
French  had  time  to  concentrate.  The  French  meanwhile 
rapidly  took  over  not  only  the  new  open  southern  side  of 
the  triangle — that  between  Noyon  and  Montdidier — but  also 
a  portion  of  the  western  side  of  the  triangle,  where  they  re- 
placed the  losses  of  the  British  Fifth  Army,  from  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Montdidier  to  the  stream  of  the  Luce,  12  miles  away 
to  the  north.  The  enemy's  main  object  was  still  (after 
more  than  a  week's  fighting,  and  losses  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  300,000 — say  one-third  of  the  vast  masses  he  had  already 
thrown  in)  to  effect  his  breach  between  the  British  and 
the  French  armies.  He  had  to  make  the  attempt  now  uader 
more  difficult  conditions  than  at  first  because  he  had  tliis 
open  flank  threatening  him  upon  the  south,  but  the  forcing 
of  a  gap  still  remained  the  grand  end  to  which  all  his  actions 
were  directed.  The  cutting  of  the  main  railway  between 
Amiens  and  Paris,    the  occupation  of  Amiens  itself,  were 


still  subservient  to  this  main  obvious  and,  as  he  hoped 
and  hopes,  decisive  object :  The  separation  of  the  Frenct 
from  the  Bri,tish  forces. 

That  is  the  whole  of  the  battle.  It  is  on  this  accoun: 
that  he  had  been  attacking,  under  conditions  which  arevirtuallA 
those  of  open  warfare,  without  as  yet  full  support  from  hi^ 
heavy  artillery,  with  continued  immense  losses,  and  always 
between  Montdidier  and  the  Somme — that  is,  up6n  the  sector 
where  the  British  and  the  French  armies  join. 

The  whole  first  week  of  April  was  proof  that  the  enemy 
in  spite  of  the  grave  risk  which  will  be  presented  by  his  open 
southern  flank  if  he  does  not  rapidly  obtain  a  decision,  and 
in  spite  of  losses  at  three  times  the  rate  he  has  ever  risked 
over  so  long  a  period  in  the  past,  and  in  spite  of  the  faci 
that  those  losses  are  coming  at  the  end  of  his  national 
exhaustion  in  men,  still  thinks  it  worth  while  so  to  act  in 
such^  situation  because  he  beheves  that  he  can  get  through 
and  separate  the  British  armies  from  their  French  Allies. 

We  have  here  one  of  those  rare  cases  in  the  preseat  war 
where  the  map  alone  is  sufficient  to  tell  the  whole  tale. 

The   Present   Enemy  Thrust 

If  the  reader  will  look  at  Map  i,  with  its  contrast  between 
the  line  at  the  end  of  the  9th  day  of  fighting — Easter  Eye — 
with  the  line  at  the  end  of  the  17th  day  (last  Saturday 
April  6th,  the  dispatches  sent  on  which  day  are  the  latest 
available  for  this  article),  he  will  appreciate  that  the  great 
rush  after  the  enemy's  momentous  success  just  west  of 
St.  Quentin  was  stopped  roughly  upon  the  line  River  Ancre- 
Moreuil-River  Avre-Brook  of  Doms-Montdidier.  But  he 
will  further  note  that  since  what  General  Foch  has  called 
"the  Dam"  was  built  up  against  him  his  great  weight  of 
effort  has  been  to  break  down  that  dam  upon  one  sector. 
and  this  sector  precisely  that  upon  which  the  French  and  British 
armies  meet.  There  is  clearly  apparent  upon  Sketch  i  the 
shaded  "dent"  which  he  has  made  during  the  first  week  of 
April,  and  that  dent  is  as  clearly  the  continuation  of  his 
effort  to  separate  the  two  armies.  To  make  this  small 
advance,  he  threw  in — and  thought  it  well  worth  while  to 
throw  in — at  least  twenty  divisions,  first  and  last,  including 
fresh  material.  He  fought  two  actions  of  the  utmost  vio- 
lence, the  first  putting  him  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Avre 
but  still  leaving  him  east  of  Moreuil ;  the  second,  upwn 
Thursday  and  the  end  of  the  week  giving  him  the  marshy 
low-lying  land  between  the  Avre  and  the  Luce,  Moreuil  and 
its  wood,  and  the  heights  upon  which  that  wood  stands, 
and,  as  a  furthest  point,  the  ruins  of  Castel. 

In  other  words,  before  he  began  this  violent  second  effort 
of  his  in  the  first  week  of  April,  he  was  six  miles  from  the 
Amiens  railway  at  his  nearest  point  and  12  miles  from  the 
centre  of  Amiens  town.  At  the  end  of  it  he  had  an  advantage 
of  >hree  miles  more.  He  was  only  nine  miles  from  Amiens 
town  and  only  three  from  the  railway  track.  But  it  is  not 
his  approach  to  the  railway  (which  can  be  supplemented  by 
the  main  western  line  from  Beauvais  as  well  as  by  the  single 
line  in  between),  nor  even  his  approach  to  Amiens,  exceed- 
ingly important  as  that  point  is,  which  is  the  measure  of  his 
object  or  of  his  nearness  to  realising  that  object.  The  motive 
of  this  slight  advance  is  ultimate  penetration  between  the 
British  and  the  French.  If  he  fails  to  make  such  a  gap. 
even  by  further  advance,  he  has  failed  altogether.  If  he 
makes  it  even  after  a  slight  further  advance  he  has  succeeded. 
The  tremendous  movement  after  St.  Quentin  was  a  conse- 
quence of  the  break  at  Holnon  ;  but  the  test  of  whether 
Holnon  would  break  was  not  the  rate  of  advance  imme- 
diately before  the  break.  The  vast  affair  in  Italy  last 
autumn  was  due  to  the  break  at  Caparetto  ;  but  no  previous 
advance  heralded  that  break. 

We  postulate,  then,  as  giving  its  whole  meaning  to  the 
present  situation,  that  the  enemy  is  deliberately  risking  a 
bad  strategic  situation  with  arKT5pen  flank,  and  is  deliberately 
risking  immense  losses  in  his  last  stage  of  national  exhaus- 
tion, because  that  open  flank  will  cease  to  count,  and  those 
losses  can  in  his  estimation  be  afforded  if,  before  it  is  too 
late,  he  breaks  the  link  between  the  two  Allied  armies. 

We  have  next  to  ask  ourselves  what  total  of  loss — irrepar- 
able in  so  short  a  time — would  decide  the  issue  against  him 
should  he  find  himself  at  that  loss  without  having  achieved 
his  end. 

At  what  does  he  estimate  that  maximum  loss  up  to  which 
he  is  prepared  to  go  before  he  must  admit  that  he  has  lost  ? 


Land   &  Water 


April  II,  I  9 1 8 


Any  answer  must  be  vague  ;  but  we  may  say  perhaps  600,000 
men.  That  is,  some  double  of  wliat  he  had  lost  in  the  first 
nine  or  ten  days.  He  is  clearly  dctennined  to  do  the  thing 
at  once  or  not  at  all.  I-'or  reasons  which  he  can  gauge  better 
than  we  can,  which  are  mainly  political  and  concerned  with 
his  condition  at  home,  he  is  all  out  to  win  or  lose.  With 
his  dangerously  exposed  southern  flank  he  musl  do  the  thing 
(^uicldy  or  not  at  all.  If  he  can  do  it,  whatever  immense 
losses  he  has  budgeted  for  will  be  worth  his  while.  That  is 
the  situation. 

Should  he  effect  the  rupture,  he  envisages  this  state  of 
affairs  : 

Obstacle  of  the  Somme  Valley 

Below  Amiens  runs  an  obstacle  which  is  among  the  chief 
in  all  North-Western  Continental  Europe,  and  which  has 
played  its  part  again  and  again  in  the  wars  of  the  last  two 
y  thousand  years.  This  obstacle  is  the  Lower  Valley  of  the 
Somme,  which  is  a  mass  of  ponds  and  backwaters  far  more 
formidable  even  than  the  Valley  of  the  Oise.  Upon  this  he 
could  count  for  keeping  his  flank  towards  the  French  while 
he  rapidly  advanced  upon  the  isolated  British  forces. 

Holding  Abbeville,  which  he  might  regard  as  the  con- 
sequehce  of  the  rupture  following  immediijitely  after  his 
entry  into  Amiens,  he  w(mld  have  the  old  Noyon-Oise  condi- 
tions reproduced  on  a  vastly  larger  scale.  The  Somme 
Valley,  a  far  more  formidable  obstacle  than  the  Oise,  would 
protect  his  left  flank.  He  would  have  cut  off  all  the  remain- 
ing British  forces  not  only  from  their  French  allies,  but  from 
most  of  their  great  ports  of  supply  and  innumerable  other 
au.xiliary  aids.  A  rhetorician  would  say  that  he  would  have 
tfae  Alliance  at  his  mercy.  A  sober  critic  would  say  with 
justice  that  he  had  at  least  achieved  his  end  for  the  time 
being,  whatever  future  surprises  this  incalculably  great 
campaign  of  the  world  might  have  in  store  against  him. 
For  he  would  have  half  the  Western  forces  cut  off  and  backed 
against  the  Channel,  nearly  all  his  own  free  to  crush  that 
lialf,  and  the  balancing  new  force,  the  American  Army,  not 
\'et  in  the  field  in  any  decisive  strength. 

There,  then,  is  the  plan,  still  pursued  ;  missed  in  its  first 
and  easiest  form,  but  continued  in  its  later  and  more  difficult 
form  because  the  prize  is  so  great  and  the  crisis  so  near  that 
the  enemy  thinks  it  worth  the  immensely  increased  and 
rapidly  increasing  risk  he  runs  from  the  shape  of  his  front 
and  from  his  outrageously  rapid  loss.  What  we  have  to 
watch  is  his  real  approach — not  only  in  ground,  but  in  ground 
as  measured  in  loss  of  men  ;  not  only  in  advance,  but  in 
advance  as  threatened  by  his  open  flank — towards  a  separa- 
tion between  the  French  and  the  British. 

We  do  not  know,  and  he  does  not  know,  how  far  the  situa- 
tion has  already  called  up  the  Allied  reserves.  The  reason 
we  do  not  know  is  that  no  one  ought  to  know  this,  lest  it 
should  dribble  through  to  him.  But  remember,  before  any 
rash  judgment  is  formed  one  way  or  the  other,  that  this 
unknown  factor  is  the  kev. 

The  three  grea^  factors  of  the  battle  are  the  maintenance 
•>i  the  junction  between  the  British  and  the  French,  the 
strength  and  use  of  the  Allied  reserves,  and  the  rate  of  enemy 
exhaustion. 

The  first  we  have  dealt  with.  It  is  still  intact  ;  the  conse- 
quences of  its  rupture  we  have  noted,  and  to  produce  that 
rupture  is  the  main  object  of  the  enemy.  The  second  is 
very  properly  denied  to  all  students  of  the  situation,  and 
must  not  be  touched  upon  at  all.  But  with  regard  to  the 
third,  which  is  co-equal  in  importance  to  the  other  two,  we 
are  now  beginning  to  have  serious  and  even  detailed  informa- 
tion.    To  that  I  shall  therefore  now  turn. 


Rate  of  Enemy  Loss 

1 1  we  knew  exactly  the  rate  of  German  loss  and  its  extent 
to  date  we  would,  subject  to  the  necessary  silence  upon  tlic 
use  of  Allied  reserves,  be  almost  able  to  give  a  curve  of  the 
battle  and  of  its  future  chances.  There  is  nothing  known 
yet,  of  course,  sufficient  for  this  ;  but  what  is  already  known 
}X)ints  to  a  general  conclusion  of  some  moment.  That  con- 
'lasion  is  :  That  the  enemy  threw  in  about  61  divisions 
during  the  first  nine  days,  increased  them  to  64  on  the  tenth, 
and  to  over  <So  during  the  violent  blow  at  the  French  right 
and  the  junction  of  the  armies  just  after,  and  to  mnre  than 
S6-^riiaps  go— by  the  fifteenth  day,  Tlmrsdav  tiie  4t!i  of 
April,  when  he  captured  Moreuil  and  Castel.  Of  this  vast 
force  he  has  of  all  arms  lost  perhaps  a  third.  He  can  continue 
but  not  double  the  effort  and  the  consequent  loss— and 
all  this  vast  expenditure  is  proof  that  the  enemy  is  determined 
upon  an  extremelyrapid  decision.ithat  is,  upon  a  gamble  against 
time,  and   our  knowledge  that  he  is  so  risking  loss  will  be 


confirmed  by  an  examination  of  the  figures  we  are  about  to 
give. 

The  figures  are  based  upon  the  examination  of  prisoners 
and,  occasionally,  upon  captured  documents.  They  are 
separate  altogether  from  vague  estimates  based  upon  a  view 
of  particular  parts  of  the  field  or  the  number  and  observed 
effects  of  attacks  behind  the  enemy's  line  from  the  air.  They 
deal  only  with  precise  information  which  can  be  checked. 
We  must  remember  that  in  a  defensive  action  the  first  phase 
of  which  is  a  rapid,  difficult,  and  very  expensive  retirement, 
the  proportion  of  enemy  prisoners  taken  is  small  and  the 
information  correspondingly  insufficient. 

In  the  fifteen  days'  fightinf  which  had  elapsed  up  to  the 
morning  of  Friday,  Ajiril  5th,  21  divisions  of  the  enemy 
had  furnished  details  available  for  publication  in  the  judgment 
of  the  British  Command.  The  enemy  had  by  that  time 
thrown  in  rather  more  than  80  divisions,  of  which  a  certain 
proportion  had  come  in  against  the  French.  We  may  say. 
then,  that  we  have  at  the  time  of  writing  various  items 
of  information,  items  of  very  different  values,  upon  enemy 
lo.sses  in  about  a  third  of  the  enemy's  divisions  engaged  against 
the  British. 

Next  let  us  note  that  the  losses  ascertained  regarded, 
for  the  most  part,  not  the  Whole  period  of  fifteen  days,  but 
only  the  first  eight  or  ten. 

This  proportion  of  units  dealt  with,  one-third,  is  sufficient  to 
serve  as  a  sample  for  the  whole,  but  it  is  not  ample.  This  reserve 
also  must  be  made  :  That  prisoners  and  documents  captured 
usually  come  from  units  which  have  been  specially  heavily 
engaged.  They  do  not  always  come  from  such  units,  but 
in  most  cases  they  are  provided  by  a  body  of  men  which 
has  got  far  forward,  fought  very  hard,  has  then  suffered  a 
check,  has  been  beaten  back,  and  has  therefore  probably 
lost  more  than  the  average  of  the  whole  lump.  I  say  this  is 
generally  the  case.  That  there  are  exceptions  and  many 
exceptions  is  exddent  :  For  instance,  you  may  capture 
prisoners  from  a  single  enemy  company  that  has  got  into 
difficulties.  Those  prisoners  may  give  you  information  with 
regard  to  something  that  happened  to  their  whole  division 
many  days  before,  when  it  was  not  suffering  exceptional 
losses.  But  as  a^rule  the  information  on  enemy  losses  comes 
to  the  defensive,  and  especially  to  the  retiring  force,  from 
enemy  units  which  have  suffered  somewhat  beyond  the  average. 
It  is  important  to  make  this  proviso. 

The  21  divisions  on  which  we  have  information  are  as 
follows  : 

( The  I2th  Division 

I  The  Guards  Erzatz  Division 

rThe  119th  Division 

JThe  1st  Division 

^The  13th  Division 

The  45th  Division 
The  5th  Division 
The  88th  Division 
j  The  20th  Division 


Oi 

m 

2  6- 
do 

<u  "^ 

Is 
§1 

a 


The  208th  Division 
The  6th  Division         1^ 
The  125th  Division 
The  1st  Bavarian  Division 


o  g  ^The  4th  Division 

7!  Q 


M.M   o 


^.a 


The  50th  Reserve  Division 
The  239th  Division 
The  26th  Division 
5  ^The  41st  Division 

The  3rd  Division  of  the  Guards 
The  i6th  Bavarian  Division 
The  1st  Guards  Reserve  Division 


They  fall  into  two  groups.  There  are  those  concerning 
which  we  have  information  of  the  suffering  of  the  division  as 
a  whole,  and  those  on  which  we  have  information,  highly 
detailed  indeed,  but  referring  only  to  certain  units  of  the 
division. 

The  former  of  these  categories  is  the  largest.  It  deals 
with  13  out  of  the  21.  The  latter  deals  with  only  eight. 
In  other  words,  we  have  divisional  information,  though  often 
it  is  only  of  a  general  kind,  upon  rather  less  than  two-thirds 
of  our  subject  covering  the  average  losses  of  the  divisions  as 
a  whole.  The  more  detailed  evidence  which  gives  you 
accurate  figures  for  small  portions,  which  confirms  doubtful 
points,  but  upon  wliich  it  is  more  difficult  to  build  large 
conclusions,  deals  with  more  than  one-third  of  the  formations 
mentioned.  We  may  therefore  say  with  justice  that  we  get 
our  only  good  view  of  the  general  losses  from  two-thirds  of 
the  material  examined,  which  is  but  a  fifth  or  sixth  of  the  whole, 
while  certain  fragmentary  information  concerning  another 
tenth  supports  us  in  our  conclusion  by  detailed  examples. 


April 


1 1 


191 8 


Land    &   Water 


The  13  divisions  of  the  first  category  (that  which  deals 
with  divisions  as  a  whole)  are  as  follows  : 

(The  1 2th  Division 

I  The  Guards  Erzatz  Division 

rThe  119th  Division 

1  The  ist  Division 

The  13th  Division 

The  45th  Division 

The  5th  Division 

The  8Sth  Division 

The  20th  Division 
(The  208th  Division 

The  6th  Division 

The  125th  Division 

The  ist  Bavarian  Division 

These  13  divisions  on  which  we  have  general  iijformation 
pro\'ide  that  information  in  three  separate  groups — the  first 
two  showing  the  lightest  losses,  the  next  three  heavier  losses, 
the  last  eight  very  heavy  losses  indeed. 

We  have  first  the  two  standing  at  the  head— ;-the  12th 
Division  and  the  Guards  Erzatz. 

These  two  betray  a  loss  of  25  per  cent,  in  the  first  week's 
fighting.  Considering  the  nature  of  the  fighting,  its  pro- 
longation and  the  fact  that  these  units  were  at  work  all 
through,  that  figure  is  low.  Moreover,  in  the  case  of  the 
I2th  Division,  it  is  accounted  for  largely,  such  as  it  is,  by  the 
very  heavy  losses  of  the  62nd  Regiment,  which  was  caught 
in  its  advance  along  the  Arras-Cambrai  road,  early  in  the 
battle,  and  lost  800  men  apparently  at  one  blow. 

The  three  next  divisions — the  119th,  the  ist,  and  the 
13th — form  the  next  group,  which  is  that  upon  which  we  have 
•btained — not  true  di\-isional  figures — but  the  average  remain- 
ing strength  of  many  individual  companies  after  a  week's 
fighting.  We  apparently  have  no  divisional  documents  or 
information  from  prisoners  upon  these  divisions  from  staff 
reports,  but  have  found  a  fairly  uniform  return  for  company 
strength  by  examination  of  prisoners  ;  and  in  these  divisions 
the  companies  examined  fell  to  numbers  varying  from  far 
below  to  just  over  one-half  their  original  strength  during  the 
irst  week's  fighting. 

Heaviest  Losses 

The  lemaining  8  divisions — much  the  largest  group  in  the 
whole  category  of  13 — not  only  furnish  information  upon 
divisional  losses  as  a  whole,  but  show  an  extraordinarily 
high  proportion  of  such  losses. 

The  45th  Division  lost  50  per  cent,  in  the  first  day's  fight- 
ing ;  at  what  point  in  the  line  we  are  not  told,  but  presumably 
upon  the  north. 

The  5th  Division  is  that  same  Brandenburg  Division  which 
has  been  re-formed  over  and  over  again  since  it  was  so  cruelly 
butchered  in  front  of  Verdun  two  years  ago.  Its  tradition 
remains,  and  it  is  one  of  the  best  divisions  in  the 
German  Army.  It  was  thrown  in  to  try  to  stop  that 
"shepherding  movement"  of  which  I  spoke  when  the 
German  flood  was  deflected  westward  from  Noyon.  It  was 
therefore  specially  heavily  tried.  It  lost  50  per  cent,  at 
Ham  and  more  at  the  crossing  of  the  Somme  River 
immediately  after. 

The  88th  Division  lost  30  per  cent,  on  the  first  day's  fighting 
against  the  English  and  40  per  cent,  of  the  remainder  in  the 
fighting  against  the  French  on  the  29th  at  Meziferes.  The 
total  losses,  therefore,  in  nine  days  reduced  it  by  nearly 
60  per  cent.  It  would  seem  that  this  division  was  one  of 
those  withdrawn  after  the  first  day's  ordeal  and  put  in  again 
later,  after  a  short  rest.  It  may  have  been  exceptionally 
unlucky.  • 

The  20th  Division  lost  in  the  week  half  its  strength,  and 
suffered  especially  heavily  in  officers.  The  208th  lost  more 
than  two-thirds  of  its  strength. 

The  6th  (another  Brandenburg  Division,  memorable  in  the 
attacks  at  Vaux  in  1916)  and  the  125th  suffered  a  total  loss 
of  Ihree-quarlers. 

Sucli  an  enormous  proportion  of  loss  for  such  large  units 
will  be  questioned  by  many.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  any 
organisation  could  remain  after  punishment  of  this  sort, 
though,  of  course,  smaller  units  do  not  come  under  the  same 
criticism.  But  we  must  accept  the  evidence  given  us  ;  and 
we  may  be  certain  that  it  has  been  carefully  controlled, 
co-ordinated,  and  checked. 

The  1st  Bavarian  seems  to  have  suffered  in  much  the  same 
proportion,  though  the  figures  are  less  precise. 

Of  these  tremendously  heavy  losses  in  the  worst  tried  of 
the  enemy's  divisions  during  the  week,  we  have  corrobora- 
tion in  a  special  instance  taken  from  the  second  category  of 
evidence,  that  of  small  units,  to  which  I  now  turn. 


The    eight    divisions    which    provide    details    of   this   sort 
— that  is,  details  about  special  units  only — are  : 

The  4th  Division  (also  an  elite  which  did  very  hca\^' 
'       work  at  Verdun  two  years  ago) 
The  50th  Reserve  Division  , 
The  239th  Division 
The  26th  Division 
The  41st  Division 
The  3rd  Division  of  the  Guards 
The  i6th  Bavarian  Division 
The  1st  Guards  Reserve  Division. 

These  eight  divisions  provide  very  different  types  ot 
information,  but  the  first  mentioned  of  them,  the  4th  Division, 
helps  us,  as  I  have  said,  to  understand  how  some  divisions 
have  actually  lost  three-quarters  of  their  total  numbers. 
For  we  have  in  the  case  of  this  unit  very  precise  details 
upon  the  fate  of  the  ist  Battalion  of  the  140th  Regiment. 
The  four  companies  of  this  battalion  would,  at  their 
full  establishment  count  250  men  each.  Even  if  we  allow 
only  250  men  to  have  been  actually  present  in  the  battle 
in  each  company,  the  losses  (which  have  been  ©btained 
with  absolute  precision  from  a  captured  document)  are  amazing 
and  they  all  took  place  in  the  first  day's  fighting.  At  the  end 
of  that  day  the  ist  company  had  35  men  left  ;  the  second 
company  16  ;  the  third  26;  and  the  4th  17 — with  an  even 
heavier  corresponding  loss  in  officers  and  n^n-commissioned 
officers.  In  other  words,  at  the  end  wf  the  first  day,  se  far 
as  this  battalion  was  concerned,  less  than  •ne-tenth  of  its 
full    establishment    remained   unwounded,  and  even  if   that 


'SritUkLine 

Arax  occupcecffy-Oieiays  Oi/nznx  ^w7' 


establislmient  was  reduced,  as  most  of  the  German  establish- 
ments now  are,  the  killed  and  wounded  were  still  seven-eighths 
of  the  whole  ! 

In  the  50th  Reserve  Division  we  get  something  of  the  same 
sort,  though  the  details  are  less  precise.  It  would  seem  that 
the  remnants  of  whole  regiments  had  to  be  reorganised 
together,  and  we  have  evidence  of  one  company  completely 
annihilated. 

In  the  239th  Division  two  regiments  lost  30  per  cent 
to  50  per  cent. 

Of  the  26th  Reserve  Division  and  the  41st  Division  we 
have  such  fragmentary  evidence  as  that  in  tlie  first  case 
a  whole  company  were  annihilated  ;  in  the  second  that  one 
battalion  lost  just  under  half  its  officers  apparently,  in  a 
single  day. 

The  i6th  Bavarian  gives,  in  certain  unnamed  regiments, 
a  loss  of  25  per  cent.  only.  Of  the  3rd  Division  of  the  Guards 
we  have  company  details  only  showing  losses  of  40  per  cent. 

Lastly,  we  have  the  curiously  minute  evidence  from  a 
fraction  of  the  ist  Guards  Reserve  Division.  It  concerns 
only  a  single  battalion  of  the  64th  Reserve  Regiment,  but 
it  is  absolutely  complete.  This  battalion  was  engaged  in 
the  fighting  for  Bapaume,  astraddle  of  the  great  high  road 
from  13apaume  to  Cambrai,  and  was  reduced  in  the  tremendous 
struggle  for  Bapaume  from  a  full  nominal  establishment 
of  a  thousand)  which  can  hardly  liave  been  much  less  than 
an  actual  800  men)  to  only  80  unwounded  at  the  end  of  the 
day  !  It  called  for  a  draft,  and  could  only  receive  150  men, 
bringing  it  up  again  to  230,    at  which  strength  it  stood  in 


8 


Land    &    Water 


April  II,  1 9 1 8 


Bapaume  ruins  when  these  were  reached.  But  a  day  or 
two  later,  when  next  information  could  be  obtained,  that 
remnant  had  again  falleii  by  nearly  half :  There  were  120 
men  left. 

Summary  of  Evidence 

Now  if  we  put  all  this  evidence  together  what  we  arrive 
at  is  this  : — 

The  best  divisions  were  used  early  and  used  hard  :  Guards, 
Brandenburg,  etc.  The  least  tried  divisions  on  which  we 
can  get  information  lost  only  a  quarter  of  their  men — but 
these  are  but  a  tenth  of  those  examined.  A  next  and  larger 
batch  lost  one-half  or  something  approaching  one-half.  The 
largest  batch  of  all,  the  great  majority  of  the  divisions  analysed, 
had  enormous  losses  passing  from  one-half  to  two-thirds, 
and  even,  in  the  case  of  three  of  them,  up  to  three-quarters. 
While  fragmentary  but  highly  detailed  and  complete  evidence 
with  regard  to  units  smaller  than  divisions,  from  companies 
to  battalions,  show  us  that  these  very  high  figures  are  credible 
for  the  divisions  as  a  whole. 

.\llowing,  as  we  must,  that  most  of  the  evidence  comes 
from  the  more  sorely  tried  bodies  and  that  the  average  is 
brought  down  sharply  by  the  bodies  that  came  in  latpr, 
or  which  were  not  concerned  in  the  worst  parts  of  the  fighting, 
we  are  certain  that  in  the  first  nine  days  or  so,  a  third,  at  least, 
of  the  forces  thrown  in  were  hit.  The  evidence  would  warrant 
lis  putting  it  higher  and  saying  nearly  one-half,  but  one  refrains 
from  so  high  a  figure  because  it  would  surely  mean  a  dis- 
organisation on  the  enemy's  side  which  his  continued  offensive 
does  not  support.  If  we  say  of  the  first  nine  days  somewhat 
over  a  third  for  the  units  thrown  in  during  those  first  nine 
ciays — if  we  think  in  terms  of  well  under  40  per  cent.,  but 
more  than  34  per  cent. —  I  think  we  are  on  the  right  lines. 

I  see  it  suggested  by  the  field-correspondents  (who  write 
with  direct  and  quasi-official  information  before  them)  that 
we  may  reckon  «n  more  than  three  thousand,  but  not  more 
:han  four  thousand  losses  to  the  division.  The  latter  figure 
would  certainly  be  exceedingly  high,  yet  it  may,  when  we 
aave  full  evidence,  prove  true.  In  any  case,  we  have  now 
:onfirmed  by  ample  figures  the  first  rough  guess  of  a  toll 
Taken  out  of  the  enemy's  material  for  action ;  it  comes  to 
something  certainly  not  far  short  of  300,000  men,  and 
possibly  over  350,000,  up  to  a  period  more  than  ten  days 
before  these  lines  will  be  in  the  hands  of  the  public. 

This  is  a  rate  of  exhaustion  the  like  of  which  has  not 
appeared  in  any  other  fighting,  even  of  this  war.  It  helps  to 
explain  the  continued  AUied  defensive ;  it  illuminates  a 
phrase  whic}\  has  been  used  upon  the  French  front,  and 
which -I  have  heard  quoted:  "Patience:  They  have  still 
many  more  divisions  to  pass  in  front  of  our  machine-guns." 

Numerical  Position 

We  must  recall  at  this  point  that  foundation  of  all  miUtary 
judgment  which  has'  been  somewhat  obscure  during  the 
last  few  months,  the  numerical  position  of  the  enemy. 

•  We  have  far  less  data  upon  which  to  base  it  now  than  we 
aad  a  year  ago.  There  has  been  no  loss  upon  the  Eastern 
front  for  very  many  months.  What  is  worse,  there  has 
i>een  no  serious  information  from  the  Eastern  front.  The 
enemy  has  stopped  giving  us  even  those  belated  and  wilfully 
lessened  figures  of  losses  which  for  nearly  three  years  afforded 
in  excellent  check  upon  other  forms  of  calculation. 

Nevertheless,  our  knowledge  of  the  situation  as  it  stood  a 
year  ago,  the  known  rate  of  German  recruitment,  and  the 
Known  or  nearly  known  position  of  his  present  establishment, 
coupled  with  some  guess  at  his  losses  during  last  summer 
ind  autumn  in  Flanders,  are  sufficient  to  convince  us,  even  if 
the  enemy's  movements  were  not  there  to  prove  it,  that  he 
IS  now  staking  everything.  What  he  may  call  up  from  his 
.\Uies,  as  we  shall  show  in  a  moment,  is  hardly  significant 
to  the  struggle. 

The  total  German  losses  at  the  end  of  1915— that  is,  after 
17  months  of  war,  and  counting  as  dead  all  those  who  had 
died  after  ever  being  upon  the  ration  strength  of  that  service 
m  any  form  since  the  beginning  of  the  war — was  approxi- 
mately one  milUon.  After  the  further  lapse  of  an  equal 
space  of  time,  after  another  17  months — that  is,  at  the  end 
of  the  34th  month  of  the  war,  by  May,  1917 — in  spite  of  the 
very  heavy  losses  sUffered  under  the  recent  English  and 
French  offensive^  of  Arras  and  Champagne,  his  losses  in 
dead  were  not  'doubled.  In  other  words,  the  total  late  of 
loss  had  slightly  slackened,  the  reason  being  that  he  had  had 
prolonged  repose  upon  the  Eastern  front  during  the  break-up 
of  Russia.  He  had  not  quite  two  million  dead  at  this  moment. 
He  had  more  than  a  million  and  three-quarters.'*     He  had 

*  Sli  or  seven  weeks  earlier  the  au(tioritte9  la  Germaay  were  admituag  one  and  a  half 
million  dead  to  the  American  Ambassador ia  Berlia,  but  still  giving  under  oa«  raiUioo 
In   their  otJQcial  lists. 


perhaps  more  than  1,800,000,  but  wo  may  doubt  whether  he 
had  i,goo,ooo.  In  the  lest  12  months  the  rate  again 
slackened.  The  last  Russian  effort  was  short,  and  broke 
down,  and  his  main  losses  were  due  to  the  heavy  fighting  in 
Flanders  under  the  pressure  of  the  British  and  his  own 
pressure  exercised  earlier  for  many  weeks  on  the  Chemin 
des  Dames  in  front  of  Laon.  On  the  other  hand,  the  effect 
of  time  and  of  the  blockade  was  being  felt  ;  losses  from 
sickness  were  going  up  and  old  cases  were  dropping  off, 
many  of  them  after  discharge  to  civilian  life.  Meanwhile, 
he  had  a  regular  annual  recruitment  of  just  on  half  a  milhon, 
and  had  called  up  every  available  lad,  including,  at  the 
end  of  last  year,  class  1920.  He  stood  before  the  present 
offensive  with  a  ration  strength  of  some  five  million  and  a 
strength  organised  in  divisions  of  some  three  millions. 
Nearly  the  whole  of  what  could  be  used  for  active  effort 
was  on  the  Western  front.  Of  liis  total  forces  available,  he 
has  already  put  in,  roughly,  one-half  into  the  single 
battle  area  of. the  triangle  Arras-Montdidier  and  Noyon. 
Reckoned  in  fighting  value,  he  has  put  in  far  more  than 
one-half. 

If  he  had  no  more  material  to  put  in,  if  the  remaining 
half  were  pinned  down  to  other  sections  of  the  line  and 
immovable,  his  losses  would  have  already  been  sufficient 
to  cripple  his  effort.  But  they  are  not  so  pinned  down. 
He  can  send  back  to  quiet  sectors  of  the  hne  divisions  hammered 
out  of  this  battle  and  throw  in  as  fresh  material  the  divisions 
which  these  replace.  Roughly  speaking,  he  can  still  risk 
material  and  losses  double  those  already  incurred— but 
that  will  be  the  end  or  very  near  the  end  of  continued 
offensive  power  so  far  as  the  German  resources  alone  are 
concerned-, 

I  do  not  know  whether  any  readers  of  Land  &  Water 
want  to  waste  time  over  the  favourite  thesis  of  certain 
writers  that  the  German  armies  suffer  less  than  the  Allies  (in 
spite  of  their  tactical  formations),  or  upon  the  alternative 
thesis  (which  seems-  equally  popular)  that  the  German 
General  Staff  can  work  a  miracle  and  create  men  out  of 
nothing  indefinitely.  I  hope  I  may  take  it  that  we  need  not 
waste  space  here  upon  the  discussion  of  these  alternative 
theses. 

The  unknown  factor  that  does  apparently  remain  is  the 
factor  of  enemy  supply  for  the  West  of  men  other  than  German. 
I  have  read  that  there  are  certain  Bulgarian  units  now  west 
of  the  Rhine.  No  proof  is  given  and  the  point  is  not  really 
very  material  for  the  numbers  must  be  insignificant  in  any 
case. 

The  Austrian  situation  is  worth  a  more  serious  consider- 
ation. The  highest  number  given  for  the  existing  Austrian 
divisions  is  76.  The  Italians  report  60  Austrian  divisions 
opposed  to  their  line.  If  that  report  is  correct  it  means 
that  at  least  11  divisions  have  been  brought  from  the  east 
to  reinforce  the  reduced  front  between  the  Swiss  frontier 
and  the  mouth  of  the  Piave.  That  would  seem  a  very  high 
nvunber  and  some  doubt  has  naturally  been  expressed  in 
France  and  England  as  to  the  accuracy  of  the  very  high 
figure  60  which  the  Italians  give  us.  But  we  must  remember 
that  we  ignore  the  internal  condition  of  the  Austrian  army. 
We  do  not  know  the  present  strength  of  those  divisions  well. 
There  is  here  a  phenomenon  something  hke  that  which  was 
discovered — in  a  much  higher  degree — relative  to  the  Turkish 
forces  some  months  ago.  The  divisions  supposed  to  exist 
and  noted  were  numerous  enough  to  make  us  believe  that  a 
Turkish  effort  was  probable  in  Mesopotamia.  No  such  effort 
developed.  Upon  the  contrary,  the  Turkish  front  weakened 
more  and  more,  and  the  explanation  could  only  be  that  the 
nominal  strength  of  the  Turks  was  vastly  in  excess  of  their 
real  strength,  and  that  disorganisation,  as  well  as  other 
forms  <jf  loss,  accounted  for  the  balance. 

At  any  rate,  if  we  accept  the  Italian  figures,  there  would 
be  a  balance  of  not  more  than  16  Austrian  divisions  ;  but  of 
these,  some  must  be  at  work  in  Russia  and  one  or  two  in  the 
Balkans,  and  the  number  that  could  be  spared  for  adding 
to  the  German  forces  in  France  cannot  be  very  large. 

All  this  is  leaving  out  the  natural  political  argument  that 
the  Government  of  Austria-Hungary  would  be  reluctant  to 
send  more  men  than  it  could  help  to  the  Western  front,  and 
the  military  argument  that  the  obvious  way  to  use  the 
remaining  strength  of  Austria  would  be  for  action  upon  the 
Italian  front  next  month  or  at  the  latest  in  June,  when  the 
weather  permits  the  renewal  of  an  offensive  upon  that  perilous 
mountain  flank  left  open  by  the  decision  of  the  Allies  to 
cover  Venice,  and  not  to  retire  upon  the  natural  line  of  the 
Adige.  We  know  that,  as  a  fact,  the  Austrians  have  con- 
centrated heavily  in  the  Tyrol,  and  it  seems  to  stand  to 
reason  that  the  Italian  situation  will  be  kept  in  hand  as  a 
sort  of  balance  to  work  with  in  case  the  great  offensive  in 
France  should  fail.  H.  Belloc. 


April  II,  19 1  8 


Land    &   Water 


A  New  German  Port:  By  Arthur  Pollen 


WHEN  Kerensky  fell  and  the  fortunes  of  Russia 
were  confided  to  a  Government  of  fanatics  and 
traitors,  it  became  obvious  that  the  military 
situation  on  the  Western  front  would  suiter  a 
change  very  damaging  to  us,  as  soon  as  the 
enemy  troops,  hitherto  contained  by  our  late  ally  in  the 
East,  could  be  transferred  to  the  sole  remaining  field  of  war. 
What  in  the  late  autumn  it  was  obvious  must  happen,  has 
in  the  last  three  weeks  actually  happened.  To  what  extent, 
if  at  all,  is  the  naval  position  adversely  changed  by  the 
elimination  of  Russia  from  the  war  ? 

Some  weeks  ago  it  was  pointed  out  here  that  the  most 
obvious  of  the  naval  advantages  that  Germany  could  gain 
by  her  advance  Qn  Petrograd  would  be  the  possession  of  so 
much  of  the  Russian  Baltic  Fleet  as  was  either  in  fighting 
condition  or  could  be  completed  or  refitted.  If  the  battle- 
ships and  battle-cruisers  of  the  old  programme  had  been 
ready  by  their  due  dates,  were  in  fighting  trim,  and  were  so 
surrendered,  the  enemy's  reinforcements  might  be  so  for- 
midable as  to  make  it  necessarj'  for  the  Grand  Fleet  to  be 
enlarged  by  all  of  the  American  fourteen  dreadnoughts. 
Nothing  appeared  in  our  Press  on  this  subject  since  that 
article  was  written  until  last  week,  when  Reuier's  corre- 
spondents at  Stockholm  and  Petrograd  informed  us  that 
the  Germans  had  landed  40,000  men,  3,000  guns,  2,000 
machine-guns  and  armoured  cars  at  Hango,  and  had  already 
advanced  to  Ekenaes,  twenty  miles  along  the  railway  which, 
seventy  miles  further  on,  forms  a  junction  with  the  line 
that  leads  down  to  Helsingfors.  We  learned  also  that  at 
Helsingfors  are  moored  two  Russian  battleships,  a  division 
of  destroyers,  five  submarines,  and  numerous  transports,  and 
that  these  are  ice-bound  and  cannot  move,  because  the  only 
ice-breaker  had  left  Helsingfors  and  surrendered  to  the 
Germans  at  Reval,  just  before  the  landing  at  Hango  took 
place.  At  Hango  itself  there  were  four  submarines  and 
several  other  Russian  warships,  and  the  commanders  of  these 
vessels,  being  unable  to  resist  the  landing,  blew  them  up 
rather  than  that  they  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy. 

The  only  satisfactory  feature  of  this  news  is  that  some 
Russian  warships  are  still  under  the  command  of  men  loyal 
enough  to  their  country,  to  prefer  seeing  their  ships  destroyed 
to  seeing  them  tamely  handed  over  to  the  enemy,  not  only 
of  Russia,  but  of  mankind.  Whether  the  battleships  at 
Helsingfors  are  in  such  loyal  hands  we  do  not  know.  It 
would  clearly  be  possible,  by  exploding  small  charges  in  the 
engine-rooms,  the  gun-mountings,  in  the  guns  themselves 
and  in  the  ships'  bottoms,  to  put  the  vessels  beyond  the 
possibiUty  of  repair,  and  to  do  so  without  risk  of  any  kind  to 
the  surrounding  population,  supposing  the  ships  to  be  moored 
,  where  their  complete  destruction,  by  blowing  up  the  maga- 
zines, would  be  a  public  danger.  If  they  are  not  in  such 
hands,  the  first  accession  of  naval  strength  to  the  enemy  will 
become  an  accompUshed  fact,  and  Allied  plans  will  have  to 
be  altered  to  meet  them. 

But,  as  has  been  foreseen  from  the  first  moment  when  the 
German  expedition  into  Finland  was  announced,  the  enemy 
has  a  second  naval  objective  in  view  which,  if  it  succeeds, 
may  prove  far  more  embarrassing  to  us  than  any  increase  of 
his  battleship,  cruiser,  or  destroyer  strength.  On  Wednesday 
■  last  week  The  Times  correspwudent  at  Petrograd  announced 
that  Germany's  Finnish  allies  were  already  advancing  on 
Kem,  a  port  on  the  North  Sea,  the  most  important  town  on 
the  Munnan  Railway  that  connects  Kola  with  Petrograd. 
This  correspondent  also  hints  that  some  Allied  effort  is  being 
made  to  prevent  this  railway  falling  into  traitorous  hands. 
If  the  possession  of  Kem  were  followed  up  by  the  effective 
occupation  of  Finland,  not  only  would  Petrograd  be  hemmed 
in  from  the  North,  but  German  access  to  an  ice-free  Arctic 
port  would  seemingly  be  secured,  except  for  such  opposition 
as  a  navy  working  with  or  without  military  assistance  could, 
oppose.  The  possession  of  this  port  would  be  of  incalculable 
value  to  the  enemy  for  various  reasons. 

The  latest  maps  seem  to  give  the  name  of  Romanov  na 
Murmanye  to  this  latest  Russian  effort  to  get  access  to  the 
sea,  and  it  is  situated  half-way  up  an  inlet  known  as  Kola 
Bay,  which  is,  in  fact,  the  estuary  of  the  River  Tulom.  It  is 
situated  about  seventy-five  miles  from  the  Finnish  and 
Norwegian  boundary  in  the  Varanger  Fjord.  Though  nearly 
ten  degrees  north  of  Archangel,  it  is  not  ice-bound  in  winter. 
It  is  not  the  lowness  of  temperature  that  makes  Archangel 
useless  in  the  winter  months,  but  the  fact  that  the  southerly 
currents   from    the   Arctic   Ocean,   combined   with   the  pre- 


vailing winds,  carry  the  ice  floes  southward  into  Dwina  Bay, 
and  there  pack  them  in  such  masses  that  it  is  neither  possible 
to  prevent  the  channel  being  altogether  blocked,  nor  to 
blast  nor  break  a  channel  when  the  block  has  taken  place. 
Kola  Bay  is  free  from  both  these  phenomena,  and  though 
the  surface  may  freeze,  it  seldom,  if  ever,  attains  the  thickness 
that  cannot  easily  be  dealt  with. 

The  advantages  that  a  properly  equipped  port  at  this 
point  would  give  to  Russia  had  long  been  realised,  and  ever 
since  the  beginning  of  hostilities,  great  and  sustained  efforts 
have  been  made,  not  only  to  complete  the  port  itself  in  every 
respect  for  the  reception  and  unloading  of  ships,  but  to 
complete  the  Murman  Railway  to  connect  the  port  with 
Petrograd.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  both  port  and 
railway  are  now  ready  for  use. 

Kola  Bay 

If  the  Germans  could  seize  the  sea-board  railhead,  and 
establish  railway  communications  either  with  Helsingfors  or 
Petrograd — which  they  can  occupy  when  they  will — they 
could  establish  there  a  new  submarine  base  free  from  the 
very  patent  disadvantages  of  those  from  which  her  under- 
water craft  have  now  to  operate.  If  we  suppose,  as  seems 
likely,  that  the  English  Channel  will  before  long  be  made 
impassable  for  thfe  submarine,  and  further  suppose  that  the 
enemy's  main  field  of  operations  must  always  be  the  western 
end  of  the  Atlantic  lanes.  Kola  Bay  will  only  be  some  six 
hundred  mUes  further  from  the  submarine  destination  :  a 
.very  inconsiderable  handicap  when  it  is  remembered  that, 
in  exchange  for  six  hundred  miles  of  well-patrolled,  and 
therefore  highly  dangerous  passage,  the  U-boats  will  have 
but  double  this  distance  to  go — and  a  journey  in  which 
almost  complete  immunity  from  attack  may  be  expected. 

All  these  considerations  have  long  been  before  the  Allied 
Governments,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  some  and,  let  us 
hope,  adequate  measures  have  been  taken  to  prevent,  not  only 
the  Murman  Railway  with  its  port,  but,  if  possible.  Archangel, 
too,  from  falling  into  enemy  hands.  Should  certain  measures, 
however,  not  prove  adequate,  new  duties  will  be  thrown  on 
our  naval  forces,  and  it  is  perhaps  worth  considering  what 
they  must  involve.  .It  will  make  what  has  to  be  considered 
more  intelligible  to  rehearse  once  more  the  essential  character- 
istics that  distinguish  submarine  from  other  attacks  on  trade. 

Most  people,  when  they  think  about  the  submarine,  imagine 
its  unique  merit  to  be  its  power  of  unseen  attack.  This, 
however,  is  not  really  the  case.  For  nine  out  of  ten  sub- 
marine attacks  have  to  be  made  with  the  submarine  either 
altogether  or  at  least  partially  visible.  The  unique  charac- 
ter of  the  submarine  is  its  power  of  invisible  passage.  It 
can,  that  is  to  say,  set  before  itself  a  destination,  arid  by 
coming  to  the  surface  only  during  darkness,  travel  in  almost 
continuous  invisibility  until  it  has  reached  the  desired 
point. 

The  development  of  under-water  hearing  makes  it  possible 
in  some  conditions  to  discover  that  a  submarine  is  in  the 
neighbourhood.  But  under-water  hearing  cuts  both  ways, 
and  for  the  moment  it  is  doubtful  if,  in  the  open  sea  at  least, 
the  submarine  has  not  gained  most  by  its  development. 
For,  being  able  to  lie  motionless — and  therefore  soundless — 
on  the  bottom,  it  can,  by  periodically  stopping  to  listen, 
decide  whether  at  any  moment  it  is  safe  to  come  to  the 
surface  or  not.  For  practical  purposes,  therefore,  the  sub- 
marine, if  it  can  avoid  mines,  can  navigate  the  seas  with 
comparative  freedom  from  risk.  Hence,  though  I  have  no 
definite  information  to  guide  me,  I  will  hazard  the  guess  that 
95  per  cent,  of  the  submarines  that  are  destroyed  are  caught 
either  when  they  are  on  or  near  the  surface  for"  purposes  of 
attack,  or  just  after  diving  from  the  surface,  when  the  area 
within  which  depth  charges  will  reach  them  can  We  judged 
with  sufficient  accuracy  to  make  the  counter-attack  almost 
sure.  It  follows,  then,  that  only  such  submarines  are 
destroyed  as  are  either  surprised  when  their  commanders 
think  they  are  in  safety,  or  intercepted  when  their  com- 
manders think  they  are  taking  a  legitimate  risk  in  coming  up. 
Thus  the  anti-submarine  offensive  depends  for  its  efficacy 
almost  entirely  upon  the  greed  of  the  submarine  for  its  prey, 
just  as  the — very  uncertain — success  of  an  angler  depends, 
as  Sir  Wilham  Simpson  says,  on  the  appetite  "of  a  scaly  but 
fastidious  animal." 

When  men  fish  for  a  living,  they  do  not  rely  on  anything 
so  uncertain  as  the  combination  of  skill  and  judgment  of  the 
ifiontinued  on  page  12.) 


Copyright  igii,  tl.S.A. 


Good    F 


] 

By  Loi 

"  On  Good  Friday,  at  the  very  hour  of  the  death  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  when  the  faithful  gathered  in  the  churches  to  ce 
churche.  and  the  vaulted  roof  collapsed,  crushing  m;.ny  of  our  faithful  attending  Divine  Service.  There  are  at  least  75  k 
at   such   an  hour  arouse,  reprobation    in  every  heart.       In  an  hour  of  profound  grief  it  is  our  duty  to  echo  this  reprobatioi 


mn 


Copyright,  :    I, and  &   Water." 


.V 


1918 


eke 


rs. 


r 


it  mystery,  the  Germans  resumed  their  bombardment  of  Paris  after  several  djys'  interruption.     A  shell  fell  on  ont-  of  our 

,urcd,  who  for  the  most  part  are  women  and  children.       Such  a  crime  committed  in  such  circumstances  on  such  a  day  and 

1  to  the  justice  of  God,  while  imploring  His  compassion  for  the  victims."    -Protest  by  Cardinal  Amette,  Archbishop  of  Paiip. 


12 


Land    &    Water 


April   II,  191 


{Continued  front  page  9). 
angler  with  the  appetite  or  voracity  in  the  fish.  They  deal 
with  the  quarry  not  as  a  creature  that  can  be  tempted  to  the 
surface,  but  as  a  resolute  denizen  of  the  depths,  and  proceed 
to  intercept  him  between  his  starting-point  and  his  destina- 
tion by  means  from  which,  being  invisible  and  submerged, 
he  cannot  escape.  The  professional  fishermen,  in  otlier 
words,  recognise  that  the  under-water  quarry,  if  it  is  to  be 
attacked  wholesale,  must  be  attacked  by  under-water  means. 
The  application  of  this  counsel  to  the  case  of  the  submarine 
has,  from  the  first,  been  obvious  enough.  The  arming  of 
merchantmen  and  their  convoy  by  gun-  and  depth-charge- 
carrying  destroyers,  the  regular  patrolling  of  infested  areas 
to  search  for  submarines  while  recharging  their  batteries 
on  the  surface  at  night,  the  employment  of  aeroplanes  to 
discover  them  near  the  surface — all  these  things  may  be 
likened  to  the  angling  side  of  the  fisherman's  craft.  It  is 
no  doubt  the  more  attractive  form  of  fishing.  It  appeals 
more  to  the  artist  and  to  the  sportsman.  But  it  is  too 
accidental  to  be  the  method  that  gets  satisfactory  results  in 
fish  brought  to  market.  For  this,  wider  and,  if  you  like, 
brutal  ways  are  better.  For  obvious  reasons,  you  cannot 
trawl  for  submarines,  nor  does  it  seen;  likely  that  stationary 
obstacles,  whether  nets  or  otherwise, '  would  be  effective — if 
merely  designed  to  impose  a  passive  barrier  between  the 
submarine  and  his  destination.  Through  any  such  obstacles 
as  these  some  means  could  certainly  be  found  of  using  a 
torpedo  to  clear  a  passage.  But  it  is  not  at  all  certain  that 
the  submarine  could  ever  find  a  way  of  evading  continuous 
mine-fields,  spread  from  shore  to  shore  over  the  Channel 
and  North  Sea,  and  repeated  at  different  depths,  so  that  at 
no  level  or  even  on  the  surface  could  a  safe  passage  be  found. 
It  looks,  then,  as  if  the  only  wholesale  method  of  dealing  with 
the  submarine  is  to^make  its_^passage  through  any  tract  of 


sea  that  it  is  bound  to  pass,  if  a  destination  is  to  be  reached, 
wholly  impossible. 

The  advantage  of  a  Kola  Bay  port  to  the  Germans  would 
be  the  possession  of  a  port  free  from  what  might  be  called 
the  geographical  shortcomings  of  her  present  naval  bases. 
It  is,  of  course,  not  a  base  that  would  be  of  value  for  anything 
except  for  submarine  work,  for  it  is  inconceivable  that  any 
useful  number  of  surface  ships— even  of  the  fastest  de- 
stroyers— could  pass  through  our  guard  and  reach  so  distant 
a  point  in  safety.  And  from  this  it  follows  that  it  is  in 
theory  a  port,  the  use  of  which  by  submarines  could  be  denied 
to  the  enemy  by\close  investment.  As  has  so  often  been 
pointed  out,  the  present  German  bases  cannot  be  blocked  by 
a  mine-barrage  because  mine-fields  must  be  protected  by 
surface  ships,  because  the  integrity  of  the  German  Fleet 
would  make  the  defence  of  a  mine-field  near  to  the  German 
harbours  possible  only  by  employing  our  own  battleships 
there,  and  because  to  emjiloy  our  battleships  in  narrow, 
shallow,  and  uncharted  waters,  would  expose  us  to  such 
disadvantages  as  to  make  the  risk  almost  impossible.  But 
if  no  powerful  surface  sliips  could  be  brought  into  Kola  Bay, 
then  a  close  investment  of  this  inlet  by  a  mine-field,  watched 
by  surface  vessels  more  powerful  than  anything  the  enemy 
could  have  there,  should,  as  I  have  said,  be  possible.  But 
I  use  the  phrase  "in  theory"  because  the  actual  operation 
would  present  extraordinary  difficulties.  For  we  should  be, 
presilmably.  without  a  base  on  the  Murman  coast  ourselves, 
and  to  maintain  an  inshore  watch  in  the  Aictic  regions, 
1,200  miles  or  more  from  the  nearest  port  in  which  it  would 
be  possible  to  refit  ships  and  refresh  crews,  would  be  an 
undertaking  entirely  without  precedent  in  warfare.  Em- 
phatically', therefore,  the  problems  that  must  arise  from  the 
German  possession  of  a  port  in  Kola  Bay  are  far  better  dealt 
with    by  prevention  than  by  cure.  Arthur  Pollen. 


Mr.   Wilson's  Great  Stroke :    By  Arthur  Pollen 


I 


DOUBT  if  the  majority  of  Enghsh  people  really 
appreciate  the  fuU  significance  of  what  President 
Wilson,  seemingly  at  the  suggestion  of  General 
Pershing,  has  decided  to  do,  not  only  with  the 
American  troops  in  France,  but  with  all  the  troops 
that  can  be  got  to  France  in  the  immediate  future. 
^The  decision  in  itself  is  that  the  American  battalions  are 
to  be  brigaded  as  occasion  requires  with  the  French  and 
British  battalions,  and  to  be  sent  into  the  firing  line — of 
course,  under  their  own  colonels,  majors,  and  company 
officers,  but — as  units  controlled  by  French  or  British 
Brigadier-Generals  of  Division  and  so  upwards.  To  many 
people,  the  President  seem^,  in  this,  first  to  have  done  no 
more  than  meet  a  very  clear  necessity  of  the  situation,  and, 
secondly,  only  to  be  following  a  course  for  which  he  himself 
and  the  British  Admiralty  have  already  supplied  precedents. 
As  to  the  first  point,  I  see  it  stated  that  there  are  in  France 
a  large  number  of  American  troops  available  for  the  purposes 
designated,  a  nvunber  which  must  very  much  exceed  the 
total  of  the  Allied  losses  in  the  battle  which  still  continues. 

Of  the  timely  value  of  this  reinforcement  there  can  be  no 
two  opinions.  As  to  the  second,  a  precedent  for  the  principle 
involved  has  existed  for  several  months  in  the  case  of  the 
American  destroyers  operating  in  the  Atlantic  under  the 
ultimate  command  of  one  of  the  most  experienced  and  most 
brilliant  of  our  senior  admirals.  They  are,  of  course,  only 
part  of  the  forces  at  the  disposal  of  this  officer,  and  to  make 
the  analogy  complete,  Admiral  Sims  commanded  the  entire 
combined  forces  himself  for  a  period. 

This  reciprocal  action  by  the  Governments  of  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  is,  I  believe,  entirely  without 
parallel  in  history.  It  has  often  happened  that  Allied  forces 
have  worked  together  under  a  Generalissimo,  but  in  each 
case  every  unit,  and  every  individual  in  it,  looked  to  the 
national  commander-in-chief  for  orders.  What  was  unique 
in  this  Anglo-American  naval  arrangement  was  that  the 
captains  and  officers  of  English  and  American  ships  came 
under  the  direct  orders  of  an  officer  nol  of  their  own 
natioriality.  Those  who  have  been  privileged,  to  see  at  first 
hand  how  this  arrangement  has  worked  in  practice  have 
been  deeply  impressed  by  the  skill  and  tact,  no  less  than  by 
the  fine  warlike  and  patriotic  spirit  which  has  alone  made 
its  complete  success  possible.  And  it  is  not  a  far-fetched  idea 
to  suppose  that  the  real  authors  of  President  Wilson's  epoch- 
making  decision  are  Rear-Admiral  Sir  Lewis  Bayley,  Vice- 
Admiral  Sims,  and  the  officers  and  men  of  both  nationalities 
who  have  served  under  them 


But,  precedent  or  no  precedent,  the  case  of  the  Army  is  in 
reality  an  infinitely  more  striking  affair.  For  seamen  are  as 
a  race  apart.  The  long  training  and  the  sustained  self- 
devotion  necessary  to^  gain  mastery  of  a  science  and  a  craft 
incomprehensible  to  the  lay  segregate  the  sailor  so  com- 
pletely from  the  landsman  that  when  a  common  cause  bids 
them  unite  their  forces,  it  is  almost  easier  for  English  naval 
officers  to  feel  the  bond  of  brotherhood  with  American 
colleagues  than  with  brother  Englishmen  not  of  their  own 
high  and  select  calling.  The  professional  training  of  the 
soldier  confers  no  parallel  aloofness  and,  where  you  have  the 
citizen  soldier,  there  is  almost  no  qualification  of  his  purely 
national  prejudices  and  characteristics.  Without  question, 
every  American  who  volunteered  for  this  war — and  nine  out 
of  ten  of  those  in  France  must  be  men  who  had  gone  into 
training  before  the  draft  came  into  force — did  so  to  become 
a  member  of  a  purely  American  force,  to  fight  under  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  for  the  credit  and  glory  of  his  own  country, 
to  be  commanded  by  American  generals,  and  to  be  led  and 
directed  by  an  American  staff. 

To  sacrifice  so  much  of  this  ideal,  to  consent  to  so  much  of 
the  merging  of  so  much  of  the  national  identity — this  would 
be  extraordinary  in  any  event.  It  approximates  to  the 
heroic  in  the  case  of  a  nation  so  singularly  self-conscious  of 
its  nationality.  The  President  has  not,  of  course,  by  any 
means  abandoned  the  building  up  of  an  American  Army 
with  its  whole  apparatus  of  Generals,  Staff,  and  so  forth. 
But  the  decision  not  to  wait  for  the  realisation  of  this  plan 
before  enabling  his  ardent  countrymen  to  strike  a  blow  for 
justice  and  freedom,  has  necessarily  postponed  the  Army's 
creation,  and  to  do  this  called  for  moral  courage  of  a  very 
high  order.  It  is  a  thing  that  claims  our  sincere  gratitude, 
and  not  the  least  of  its  many  pleasing  aspects  is  the  very 
obvious  satisfaction  of  the  people  of  America  with  their 
President's  decision. 

Three  months  ago,  in  these  columns,  1  offered  my  tribute 
to  the  unlimited  willingness  of  the  American  people  to  make 
every  effort  and  every  sacrifice  demanded  of  them  for  victory  ; 
but  it  did  not  occur  to  me  that  this  particular  demand  would 
so  soon  be  made.  But  circumstances  have  made  it  necessary, 
and  great  and  unusual  as  the  event  is,  those  who  realise  that 
America's  determination  to  fight  and  not  to  stop  fighting 
till  victory  is  won,  will^not  be  surprised  that  the  President 
has  not  hesitated  to  do  what  to  a  more  narrow  view  of 
national  dignity  would  have  seemed  prohibitive,  or  that  the 
nation  as  a  whole  should  have  endorsed  this  finer  vision 
with  unanimous  enthusiasm. 


April  II,  1 9 1 8 


Land   &  Water 


13 


German  Plots  Exposed 

Enter   Werner   Horn 

By      French      StrOther,   Managing  Editor,  "The  Woria-s  work,"   New  York 


No  villainy  icas  loo  bad  to  check  the  German  Embassy  at  Washington 
in  its  plots  against  A  merica,  then  a  Neutral  State.  The  attempt  to  blow 
up  with  dynamite  the  Vanceboro  Bridge  that  divides  the  State  oj  Maine 
from  Canada  is  described  here.  Von  Papen,  German  Military  Attache 
at  Washington,  again  plays  a  leading  part  in  this  dramatic  episode. 


THE  real  mys- 
tery in  the 
case  of  Werner 
Horn  is  this  : 
Who  was  the 
man  in  Lower  3  ?     (If  he 

had    only    known !) 

Because,  except  for  this  one  missing  fact,  the  story  of  Werner 
Horn   is   as   clear  as  day.     It  is  the  story  of  a  brave  man, 
too  honest  to  He  with  a  straight  face,  who  was  used  by  the 
villainous  von   Bernstorff   and  von  Papen   only  after  they 
had  hed  without  a  quiver,  on  at  least  three  vital  points,  to 
him.     He  meant   to  fight  the  enemy  of  his  country  as   a 
soldier   fights,   and   they  cynically  sent   him   on   an  errand 
which    they   meant   should   be   an   errand   of   miscellaneous 
crime,  including  murder.     He  was  to  go  to  a  felon's  death, 
for  this  one  of  the  many  devilish  plots  they  were  concocting 
against  American  lives,  while  they  lived  in  luxury  in  Wash- 
ington and  lied  with  smihng  faces  to  the  representatives  of 
the  people  whose    hospitality 
they    were    betraying.     There 
have  been  few  more  despicably 
outrageous,  more  cold-blooded, 
■crimes  than  this — except  ^that 
.  other  one  (also    of  their   de- 
vising) in  the  ship  bombs  case 
— but  that  is   another   story, 
to  be  told  later. 

The  story  of  Werner  Horn 
begins    in    Guatemala.     Horn 
^was  the  manager  of   a  coffee 
plantation  at  Moka.     He  had 
seen  ten  years  of  service    in 
the  German  Army    when,   in 
1909,   he  got  a  furlough  from 
tlie     authorities    in     Cologne 
pennitting  him  to  go  to  Central 
America  for  two  years.     This 
furlough  writes  him  down   as 
an  "  Oberleutnant  on  inactive 
service":  which  means,  roughly, 
he    was   a    first-Ueutenant  of 
the    German    Army,    out    of 
uniform,   but  subject   to  call 
ahead  of  all  other  classes   of 
men  liable  for  military  duty. 
Then  came  the  war. 

Two    hours    after    word    of 
"The    Day"    reached     Moka, 
Werner  Horn  was  packed  and 
on  his  way  to  Germany.  From 
Belize  he  sailed  to  Galveston, 
where    he   spent    two    weeks 
looking  in  vain  for  a  passage. 
Then  on  to  New  York,  where 
he  tried  for  a  month  to  sail. 
Finding    that    impossible,    he 
went     to    Mexico    City,    and 
there    learned    that    another 
man  in  Guatemala  had  his  job 

one,  on   an  American  coffee  plantation  at  Salto  de  Aguas, 
in  Chiapas,  and  was    about    to   go   there   by    launch   from 
Frontera,  when  he  got  a  card  telling  him   to   try  again    to 
get  to  Germany.     By  December  26th  he  was  back  in  New 
Orleans,  and  a  few  days  later  he  was  lodging  in  the  Arietta 
Hotel  on  Staten  Island,  in  New  York  Harbour. 

Now  began  a  series  of  conferences  with  vop  Papen.     Horn 
was   afire   with   honest  zeal   to   serve   the   Fatherland,    and 
von  Papen  was  unscrupulous  as  to  how  he  did  it.     When  he 
could  not  get  passage  for  him  back  to  Germany,  von  Papen 
determined  to  use  this  blond  giant  (Horn  is  six  feet  two) 
for  another  purpose.     He  then  unpacked  his  kit  of  lies. 
•  ••••• 

A  little  after  the  midnight  of  Saturday,  December  29th, 
1914,  a  big  German  in  rough  clothes  and  cloth  cap,  entered 
the  Grand  Central  Station,  carrying  a  cheap  brown  suit- 
case.    A  porter  seized  it  from  him  with  an  expansive  Muile. 


o'clock  New  Haven  train 

to  Boston.     "  Boss,   yoh 

sho'  has  got  a  load  o'  lead 

in  theah,"  was  his  puffing 

comment    as  he^  got    his 

tip.  The  German  grinned, 

and  a  few  minutes  later 

swung  the  suit-case  carelessly  against  the  steam-pipes  under 

Lower  3,  and  clambered  to  the  upper.     A  suit-case  full  of 

dynamite — and  the  man  in  Lower  3  slept  on  I 

Several  people  on  the  Maine  Central  train  that  left  North 
Station,  Boston,  at  eight  o'clock  the  next  morning,  after- 
wards identified  the  big  blond  German  who  left  it  at  Vance- 
boro, Maine,  at  six  forty-five  that  evening  None  of  them 
recalled  his  luggage. 

But  trust  the  people  in  a  country  town  to  catalogue  a 
stranger.  Horn  went  directly  from  the  train  about  his 
errand ;  which  was  reckoning  without  the  Misses  Hunter 
and   the   twelve-year-old    Armstrong   boy.     They   saw   him 

toiling  through  the  snow, 
marked  the  unusual  weight  of 
liis  suit-case  from  the  way  he 
carried  it,  saw  him  hide  it  in 
the  woodpile  by  the  siding— 
and  then  they  talked.  Soon 
Mr.  Hunter  hurried  to  the 
Immigration  Office  and  told 
an  inspector  there  about  the 
suspicious  stranger.  The  in- 
spector hurried  down  the  rail- 
road track  and  met  Horn 
returning  from  the  inter- 
national bridge  that  spans 
the  St.  Croix  River  a  few 
hundred  feet  away.  He  asked 
where  the  stranger  was  going. 
Horn's  reply  was  to  ask  the 
way  to  an  hotel.  When  his 
name  was  next  demanded  he 
gave  it  as  Olaf  Hoom,  and 
said  he  was  a  Dane.  The 
inspector  then  asked  what  he 
was  in  town  for,  and  Horn  said 
he  was  going  to  buy  a  farm. 
And  finally,  the  inspector  asked 
him  where  he  came  from. 
When  Horn  explained  in  detail 
that  he  had  come  from  New 
York  via  Boston  the  insf>ector, 
with  a  true  legal  mind,  decided 
that  he  "had  no  jurisdiction," 
and  let  it  go  at  that.  His 
concern  in  life  was  with 
"immigrants"  from  Canada 
— and  this  man  had  proved 
that  he  had  come  from  "an 
interior  point."  Hence  he 
could  do  nothing  officially, 
for  the  moment, 
sharp  eyes  saw  the  stranger, 
after  this  interview,  recover  the  suit-case  from  the  woodpile 
before  going  on  to  Tague's  Vanceboro  Exchange  Hotel  for 
the  night.  The  host  at  the  hotel  was  not  on  duty  when 
Horn  registered,  and  never  saw  his  luggage,  but  his  mother, 
who  happened  to  have  occasion  to  enter  Horn's  room  in  his 
absence  on  the  following  Monday,  noticed  the  suit-case, 
tried  to  lift  it,  and  wondered  how  any  one  could  carry  it. 
Horn  was  a  marked  man  from  the  moment  he  arrived  in 
town. 

Evidently  he  sensed  the  suspicions  he  aroused,  for  he 
made  no  effort  to  proceed  about  his  business  that  niglit,  or 
the  next.  But  shortly  before  eight  o'clock  on  Monday 
night  Horn  gave  up  his  room  and  said  he  was  going  to  Boston 
on  the  eight  o'clock  train.  He, took  his  suit-case  and  dis- 
appeared. Instead  of  going  to  the  station,  he  liid  out  in 
the  woods  until  the  last  train  for  the  night  should  go  by. 
At  eleven  he  was  encountered  in  the  railroad  cutting  above 


Werner  Horn 


He  had  just  found  another         But  the" Misses  Hunter's 


The  smile  faded  long  before  they  reached  car  34  of  the  one-     the  bridge  by  an  employee  of  the  Maine  Central  RaUroad 


14 


Land    &    Water 


April 


1 1 


1918 


who  got  such  unsatisfactorj'  answers  to  his  questions  that 
he  talked  the  matter  over  witli  a  fellow  workman  in  the 
roundhouse,  though  without  results.  -So  Werner  Horn 
marched  out  alone  upon  the  bridge  -alone  except  for  his 
cigar  and  his  suit-case,  the  spirit  of  the  Fatherland  upon 
him  and  the  lying  words  of  von  Papen  in  his  ears. 

He  had  need  of  the  fire  of  patriotism  to  warm  his  blood 
and  to  steel  his  courageous  spirit.  It  was  a  black,  winter 
nifeht.  The  mercury  was  at  thirty  degrees  below  zero,  the 
wind  was  blowing  at  eighty  miles  an  hour,  the  ice  was  thick 
upon  the  cross-ties  beneath  his  stumbhng  feet.  The  fine 
snow,  like  grains  of  flying  sand,  cut  his  skin  in  the  gale. 


The  Vanceboro  Bridge 

rhe  suit   case,  full  of  dynamite,  was  placed  beiide  a  beam  (X)  at  the  Canadian 
end  of  the  bridge. 

But  Werner  Horn  was  a  patriot  and  a  brave  man.  Von 
Papen  had  told  him  that  over  these  rails  flowed  a  tide  of 
death  to  Germans— not  only  guns  and  shells,  but  dum-dum 
bullets  that  added  agony  to  death.  He  must  do  his  bit 
to  save  his  fellow  soldiers  ;  must  help  to  stop  the  tide. 
Destroy  this  bridge,  and  for  a  time  at  least  the  cargoes  would 
be  kept  from  St.  John  and  Halifax,  It  was  a  short  bridge, 
but  a  strategic  one,  and  the  most  accessible.  So  Horn 
stumbled  on.  He  must  get  beyond  the  middle.  Von  Papen 
had  not  urged  it,  but  Werner  Horn  had  balked  about  this 
business  from  the  first — not  through  lack  of  courage  (he  would 
go  as  a  soldier  upon  the  enemy's  territory  and  there  fire  his 
single  shot  at  any  risk  against  their  millions),  but  he  would 
not  commit  a  crime  for  anybody,  not  even  for  the  Kaiser  ; 
nor  would  he  trespass  on  the  soil  of  hospitable  America. 
Hence  on  each  sleeve  he  wore  the  colours  of  his  country  : 
three  bands,  of  red  and  white  and  black.  Von  Papen  had 
beguiled  him  into  thinking  these  transformed  him  from  a 
civihan  to  a  soldier.  Twice  as  he  struggled  through  the 
darkness,  he  slipped  and  fell,  barely  saving  himself  from 
death  on  the  ice  below.  Each  time  he  clung  doggedly  to 
his  suit-case  full  of  dyrwamite. 

Suddenly  a  whistle  shrieked  behind  him,  and  in  a  moment 
the  glaring  eyes  of  an  express  train's  locomotive  shone  upon 
him.  Horn  clutched  with  one  hand  at  a  steel  rod  of  the 
bridge  and  swung  out  over  black  nothingness,  holding  the 
suit-case  safe  behind  him  with  the  other.  The  train  thun- 
dered by,  and  left  him  painfully  to  recover  his  uncertain 
footing  on  the  bridge.  The  second  of  von  Papen 's  lies  had 
been  disproved. 

He  had  promised  Horn  that  the  last  train  for  the  night 
would  have  been  gone  at  this  hour,  for  Horn  had  said  he 
would  do  nothing  that  would  put  human  lives  in  peril.  But 
Horn  thought  only  that  von  Papen  had  misunderstood  the 
time-tables. 

A  few  moments  after  he  had  got  this  shock  another  whistle 
screamed  at  him  from  the  Canadian  shore,  and  again  he 


made  his  quick,  precarious  escape  by  hanging  out  above 
the  river  by  one  hand  and  foot.  He  now  decided  that  all 
time-tables  had  been  put  awry,  and  that  he  must  change 
his  plans  to  be  sure  of  not  endangering  human  beings.  To 
accomplish  this,  he  cut  off  and  threw  away  most  of  the 
ftfty-minutc  fuse  that  he  had  brought  along,  and  left  only 
enough  to  burn  five  minutes.  No  train  would  come  sooner 
than  this,  and  then  the  explosion  would  warn  everybedy 
of  the  danger. 

In  doing  this,  Horn  deliberately  cut  himself  off  from 
hope  of  escaping  capture.  He  had  planned  such  an  escape 
-an  ingenious  plan,  too,  except  that  it  was  traced  on  a 
railroad  time-table  map  of  the  Maine  woods  in  winter  by  a 
strange  (ierman  fresh  from  the  tropics.  He  had  meant  to 
walk  back  one  station  westward,  then  cut  across  the  open 
country  to  the  end  of  a  branch  line  railroad,  and  then  ride 
hack  to  Boston  on  another  line  than  that  on  which  he  came 
east  to  Vanceboro.  It  was  a  clever  scheme,  except  that  it 
missed  all  the  essentials,  such  as  the  thirty  miles  of  trackless 
woods,  the  snow  feet-deep  upon  the  level,  the  darkness  of 
winter  nights,  and  the  deadly  cold.  Still,  Horn  childishly 
believed  it  feasible,  and  he  did  a  brave  and  honorable  thing 
to  throw  it  overboard  rather  than  to  cause  the  death  «f 
innocent  people. 

He  fixed  the  dynamite  against  a  girder  of  the  bridge  above 
the  Canadian  bank  of  the  river,  adjusted  the  explosive  cap, 
and  touched  his  cigar  to  the  end  of  the  five-minute  fuse. 
Then  he  stumbled  back  across  the  gale-swept,  icy  bridge, 
made  no  effort  to  escape,  and  .walked  back  into  the  hotel  in 
Vanceboro,  with  both  hands  frozen,  as  well  as  his  ears,  his 
feet,  and  his  nose.  A  moment  after  he  entered  the  hotel,  the 
dynamite  exploded  with  a  report  that  broke  the  windows  in 
half  the  houses  in  the  town  and  twisted  rods  and  girders  on 
the  bridge  sufficiently  to  make  it  unsafe,  but  not  enough 
to  ruin  it. 

Everybody  in  Vanceboro  was  aroused.  Host  Tague,  of 
the  Exchange  Hotel,  leaped  from  his  bed  and  looked  out  of 
the  window.  Seeing  nothing,  he  struck  a  light  and  looked 
at  his  watch,  which  said  i.io,  and  then  he  hurried  into  the 
hall,  headed  for  the  cellar,  to  see  if  his  boiler  had  exploded. 
In  the  hall  he  faced  the  bath-room.  There  stood  Werner 
Horn,  who  mildly  said  "Good  morning"  to  his  astonished 
host.  Tague  returned  the  greeting  and  went  back  to  get  his 
clothes  on.  He  had  surmised  the  truth,  and  Horn's  connec- 
tion with  it.  When  he  came  back  out  into  the  hall,  H»m 
was  still  in  the  bath-room,  and  said  :  "  I  freeze  my  hands." 
Small  wonder,  after  five  hours  in  that  bitter  gale  I  Tague 
opened  the  bath-room  window  and  gave  him  some  snow  to 
rub  on  his  frozen  fingers,  and  then  hurried  to  the  bridge  to 
see  the  damage.  He  found  enough  to  make  him  press  on  to 
the  station  on  the  Canadian  side,  and  then  come  back  to 
Vanceboro,  so  that  trains  would  be  held  from  attempting 
to  cross  the  bridge. 

When  he  got  back  to  his  hotel,  Horn  asked  to- have  again 
the  room  he  had  given  up  that  evening.  Tague  had  let  it 
to  another  guest,  but  gave  Horn  a  room  on  the  third  floor. 
There  the  German  turned  in  and  went  to  sleep. 

Meanwhile,  human  nature  as  artless  as  Werner  Horn's 
was  at  work  in  Vanceboro.  The  chief  officer  of  law  there- 
abouts was  "John  Doe,"  a  deputy  sheriff,  chief  fish  and 
game  warden,  and  licensed  detective  for  the  State  of  Maine. 
His  later  testimony  doubtless  would  have  had  a  sympathetic 
reader  in  the  Man  in  Lower  3  (if  only  he  had  known  I)  ;  "I 
was  asleep  at  my  home,  which  is  about  three  or  four  hundred 
feet  from  the  bridge  ;  heard  a  noise  about  i.io  a.m.,  which 
I  thought  was  an  earthquake,  a  collision  of  engines,  or  a 
boiler  explosion  in  the  heating  plant.  The  noise  disturbed 
me  so  that  I  could  not  get  to  sleep.  (And  the  Man  in  Lower  3 
slept  on  !)  I  got  up  in  the  morning  about  half-past  five  ; 
met  a  man  who  said  they  had  blown  up  the  bridge." 

But  while  Mr.  Doe  was  about  his  disturbed  slumbers,  the 
superintendent  of  the  Maine  Central  Railroad  was  making  a 
Sheridan's  Ride  through  the  night  by  special  train  from 
Mattawamkeag,  fifty  miles  away.  He,  at  least,  was  on  the 
job — he  had  brought  along  a  claim  agent  of  the  road,  to  take 
care  of  suits  for  damages.  When  they  reached  the  Vanceboro 
station  they  sent  for  Mr.  Doe,  and  when  he  arrived  at  seven 
o'clock,  Canada  also  was  represented  by  two  constables  in 
uniform.  This  being  a  case  of  law,  and  not  for  commerce, 
Mr.  Doe  took  charge.  He  told  the  others  that  the  first  thing 
to  do  was  to  cover  all  the  stations  by  telegraph  and  arrest  all 
suspicious  parties.     Then  he  led  his  posse  to  the  hotel. 

There  Mr.  Tague  told  them  about  the  German  peacefully 
a.sleep  upstairs.  He  led  them  to  the  upper  floor  and  pointed 
out  the  room,  but  went  no  farther,  as  he  thought  there  might 
be  shooting.  His  sister,  being  of  the  same  mind,  sought  the 
cellar.     Doe  knocked  upon  the  door. 

"What  do  3'ou  want  ?"  called  Werner  Horn. 


April  II,  I  q  1 8 


Land    &   Water 


15 


r, 


a^-A  ti. 


l.>»/-rt>    *4 


^■■ 


-i    i 


■:r 


/r 


"Open  the  door,"  commanded  Doe. 

The  door  swung  open,  and  the  big  German  sat  back  on  his 
bed.  Then  he  saw  the  Canadian  uniforms,  and  jumped  for 
his  coat.  Doe  shoved  him  back,  and  one  of  the  constables 
got  the  coat,  and  the  revolver  in  it.  When  Doe  told  Horn 
he  was  an  American  officer,  Horn  stopped  resisting,  and 
said  ; 

"  That's  all  right,  then.  I  thought  you  were  all  Canadians. 
I  wouldn't  harm  any  one  from  here." 

Doe  handcuffed  Horn  to  his  own  arm,  and  took  him  to  the 
Immigration  Station  to  make  an  inquiry.  Here  Horn  told 
a  straightforward  story,  but  with  one  embellishment  that 
caused  more  excitement  than  all  the  rest,  and  that  ultimately 
revealed  his  own  character  in  its  clearest  light.  This  story 
was  that  he  had  not  brought  the  dynamite  in  his  suit-case, 
but  that,  by  prearrangement,  he  had  carried  the  empty  suit- 
case to  the  bridge,  and  there  met  an  Irishman  from  Canada, 
to  whom  he  gave  the 
password  "Tommy,"  ,'  „' 
and  that  this  Irishman 
had  given  him  the 
explosive  and  then 
•disapp>eared. 

"Tommy"  imme- 
diately became  a 
sensation  who  over- 
shadowed Horn  him- 
self. Canadian  officers 
scoured  the  Canadian 
shore  for  days,  looking 
for  this  dangerous 
renegade,  and  Ameri- 
cans were  as  zealous 
on  their  side  of  the 
river. 

But  Horn  himself 
was  in  a  dangerous 
position.  Lynching 
bees  were  discussed 
•on  both  sides  of  the 
river,  and  probably 
only  prompt  action 
by  the  local  author- 
ities prevented  one. 
Both  to  hold  Horn 
for  more  serious 
prosecution  and  to  get 
him  out  of  peril,  he 
was  charged  in  the 
local  p)olice-court  with 
maUcious  mischief  in 
breaking  the  window 
^lass  in  one  of  the 
liouses  in  Vanceboro  ; 
he  pleaded  guilty,  and 
was  at  once  removed 
to  Machias,  the  county 
seat,  to  serve  thirty 
(lays  in  jail.  Five  days 
after  the  explosion, 
the  Department  of 
Justice  had  Horn's 
signed  confession, 
taken  in  person  by 
the  Chief  of  the  Bur- 
eau   of   Investigation. 

It  was  in  the  giving  of  this  confession  that  Werner  Horn 
revealed  himself  most  fully  as  a  patriot  and  a  gentleman, 
and,  all  unconsciously,  revealed  that  the  cynical  von  Papen 
was  a  liar,  a  cold-blooded  criminal,  and,  for  the  second  time 
in  the  first  months  of  tlie  war,  the  secret  hand  behind  the 
violations  of  American  neutrality  instigated  through  him 
and  Bemstorff  at  the  behest  of  the  Imperial  German  Govern- 
ment. 

When  the  Government  Agent  saw  Horn  in  jail  at  Machias, 
and  warned  him  that  what  he  said  would  be  used  against 
him  in  proceedings  for  his  extradition  into  Canada,  or  prose- 
cution here,  Horn  told  the  same  straightforward  story,  with 
the  same  embellishment  about  "Tommy."  "I  met  a  white 
man,"  so  Horn  said,  "whom  I  liad  never  seen  before,  but 
who  was  about  35  or  40  years  '  of  age — clean  shaven — 
'Tommy' — I  was  told  to  say  'Tommy'  when  I  met  him - 
I  cannot  say  anything  that  would  involve  the  Consulate  or 
the  Embassy — Gcfrmany  is  at  war — I  received,  however,  an 
order  which  was  from  one  who  had  a  right  to  give  it,  a  verbal 
urder  only — received  it  two  or  three  days  before  leaving 
New  York  for  Vanceboro." 

Later  he  said  :    "  I  cannot  sjicak  of  the  rank  of  the  man 


t) 


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VW.^'*..*^*— •-  -^—  . 


Werner  Horn's  Confession 

la  which  he  unintentionally  revealed  the  guilty  purposes  of  Von  Papen  to  violate  American 
neutrality  and  commit  a  crime  against  human  life,  and  which  Horn  refused  to  sign  upon  his 
"honour   as  a    Germ.in    officer"    until   it   was   .lUcred    to  remove   the    fantastic    tale  about   a 

confederate   in   C'lnada. 


who  gave  the  orders — I  cannot  even  say  that  he  was  an 
officer.  No  one  was  present  when  the  orders  were  given  me 
in  New  York  City.  I  cannot  tell  more  because  it  was  a 
matter  for  the  Fatherland.  I  would  rather  go  to  Canada 
(where  he  knew  they  wanted  to  lynch  him)  than  to  tell  more 
about  my  orders — -this  would  be  impossible — at  least,  until 
after  the  war  is  over." 

Horn  admitted  he  had  met  von  Paj^en  several  times  at 
the  German  Club  in  New  York  City,  but  no  art  could  compel 
him  to  admit  that  he  had  got  his  orders  from  him.  But,  as 
the  agent  noticed,  his  manner  gave  his  words  the  lie  ;  and 
whenever  he  tried  to  tell  anything  that  was  inaccurate  he 
did  so  with  great  difficulty  and  embarrassment.  But  finding 
him  determined,  at  whatever  risk,  to  witlihold  this  informa- 
tion, and  determined,  too,  to  stick  to  the  absurd  story  about 
"Tommy,"  the  agent  wrote  out  by  typewriter  a  statement 
of  the  facts  as  he  had  given  them  for  Horn  to  sign. 

Horn  read  the  state- 
ment over  and  said 
that  he  would  sign  it. 
Then  the  agent  took 
out  his  pen,  added  a 
few  items  of  new 
information,  and  wrote 
these  words  : 

"I  certify  on  my 
honour  as  a  German 
officer  that  the  fore- 
going statements  are 
true,"  and  handed 
Horn  the  pen  to  sign 
it.  Horn  read  the  last 
sentence,  and  seemed 
non-plussed.  He 
turned  back  through 
t'ne  pages  of  thestate- 
,  m  e  n  t ,  blushed, 
scratched  his  head, 
and  finally  grinned 
up  at  the  agent  with 
the  one  word  : 
"Tommy !  " 
The  agent  grinned 
in  turn  : 

You   mean    it's    all 
right   except    ff)r 
Tommy  ? " 
"Yes." 

Horn  would  not  sign 
a  lie  and  pledge  his 
honour  it  was  truth. 
.\  close  scrutiny  of 
the  block  on.  this  page 
will  show  where  tlie 
]ieriod  after  the  word 
"true"  has  been 
erased,  so  that  the 
sentence  could  go  on 
to  say,  before  lie 
signed  it,  "  except  as  to 
'  Tommy '  that  I  did 
not  buy  the  nitro- 
glycerine, but  received  it 
in  New  York,  and  took 
it  with  me  in  the  suit- 
case. I  cannot  say  from 
whom  I  received  it.     Werner  Horn." 

It  Werner  Horn  had  been  less  honest,  less  humane,  the 
black  wickedness  of  his  Imperial  masters  would  have  been 
less  clearly  visible.  He  was  the  one  who  was  punctilious  to 
respect  American  neutrality — while  they  flouted  it.  He  was 
the  one  who  risked  his  own  life  rather  than  imperil  others- — 
while  they  sat  snug  in  Washington  devising  means  to  place 
on  the  rudders  of  American  ships  the  bombs  that  would  add 
another  horrid  chapter  to  their  crimes.  A  mere  criminal  at 
Vanceboro  might  have  been  accused  of  exceeding  their 
criminal  instructions — Werner  Horn  refused  to  carry  out 
the  instructions  they  had  given. 

But  the  American  Government  was  on  still  other  German 
plotters'  trails.  How  the  Department  of  Justice  soon 
had  a  network  of  special  agents  and  detectives  in  every 
city,  town,  and  hamlet  in  the  country,  is  told  in  the  next 
article,  which  is  the  story  of  the  ship  bombs,  another  of  the 
infernal  imaginings  of  the  evil  geniuses  at  Berlin,  one  of  the 
most  heartless  of  the  cruelties  of  von  Bemstorff  and  von 
Papen,  and  one  of  the  cleverest  pieces  of  American  Govern- 
ment detective  work  born  of  the  war. 
{To  be  continued.) 


>3  Ri<JU>vr-*-cv\ 


.X. 


^  ^-'  Y-r 


i6 


Land    &   Water 


April   II,   igi8 


The  Petitot  SnufF-Box  :     By  G.  C.  Williamson 


Miniatures  on  the  Top   (Left)   and  Bottom   (Right) 


ONE  of  the  chief  treasures  that  belonged  to  the 
late  Mr.  Alfred  de  Rothschild  was  the  famous 
gold  snuff-box  decorated  by  Petitot.  Few  things 
that  the  great  collector  valued  were  more 
highly  esteemed  than  this  precious  box,  which 
has  now,  with  other  famous  jewels,  passed  into  the  possession 
of  the  Countess  of  Carnarvon,  who  has  succeeded  to  the  house 
in  Seamore  Place,  with  all  its  valuable  contents. 

The  gold  box  came 
from  the  collection  of  the 
Marquis  de  la  Reigni^re, 
and  was  purchased  by 
Mr.  de  Rothschild  many 
years  ago  at  a  very  high 
price,  included  in  the 
bargain  being  an  import- 
ant document,  always 
preserved  in  the  box, 
setting  forth  the  names 
of  the  persons  depicted 
on  it.  It  was  adorned 
with  no  less  than  four- 
teen portraits  in  enamel, 
executed  with  marvellous 
fidelit}'^  and  exquisite 
detail.  On  the  top  were 
three  portraits:  La 
Duchesse  de  la  Vallifere, 
the  mistress  of  Louis 
XIV.,  who  was  neglected 
for  Mme.  de  Montespan, 
and  retired  to  a  convent 


Jean  Petftot 


From  a   Portrait    in    the  Collection    of  the 
Earl  of  Dartrey 


and  died  in  1710,  in  the  centre  ;  Mme.  de  Maintenon,  who  in 
her  turn  ousted  Montespan,  on  the  right ;  and  La  Duchesse 
de  Fontanges,  Marie  Angehque  de  Scoraille,  another  of  the 
king's  favourite  ladies,  on  the  left. 

On  the  bottom  of  the  box  were  three  more  portraits.  In 
the  centre,  the  famous  niece  of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  Hortensia 
de  Mancini,  who  fled  to  England,  and  died  in  Chelsea  in  1690  ; 
the  Marquige  de  Montespan,  who  succeeded  Louise  de  la 
Vallifere  in  the  king's  affection,  on  the  left ;  and,  on  the  right, 
the  famous  beauty,  Mile.  Dupre,  "La  Belle  Jardiniere  de 
Meudon." 

On  the  front  of  the  box  Come  three  more  :  The  centre  is 
a  portrait  of  La  Duchesse  de  Brissac,  on  the  right  is  the 
daughter  of  the  Marquise  de  Sevigny,  La  Comtesse  de  Coignj', 
and  on  the  left  Mile,  de  Blois,  Princesse  de  Conti. 

The  back  has  yet  three  more  portraits :  Madame  de 
Montespan's  niece,  known  as  La  Duchesse,  is  on  the  right  ; 
Henriette  de  Coligny,  La  Comtesse  de  la  Sure,  on  the  left  ; 
and  in  the  centre  La  Duchesse  de  Nevers  ;  while  right  and 
left  of  the  box  are  single  portraits,  the  dissolute  French 
beauty,  Ninon  de  I'Enclos  being  on  the  right  and  one  of  the 
same  frail  sisterhood,  who  cannot  be  identified  with  cer- 
tainty, on  the  left. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  this  wonderful  box  is  a 
treasure  home  of  portraiture  of  the  famous  beauties  of  the 
Court  of  Louis  XIV.,  all  alike  painted  by  the  greatest  portrait 
painter  in  enamel  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  We  illus- 
trate the  top  and  bottom,  the  front,  the  back,  and  the  two 
sides  of  the  box,  and  also  a  signed  portrait  of  Petitot,  which 
comes  from  Lord  Dartrey's  collection. 


So  much  for  the  portraits,  of  which  our  illustrations  give 
ample  evidence  as  to  beauty  and  charm,  save  that  they  lack 
the  exquisite  colour  of  the  originals  ;  but  what  about  the 
famous  painter  whose  chefs  d'auvre  they  are  ? 

Jean  Petitot  was  a  Genevan  Huguenot,  a  man  who  belonged 
to  the  French  Reformed  Protestant  religion,  and  came  of 
the  same  group  as  the  potter  Palissy,  the  ebeniste  Boulle, 
the  tapestry-worker  Gobelin,  the  architect  Salomon  de 
Brosses,  the  painter  Jean  Cousin,  the  sculptor  Jean  Goujon, 
and  the  enameUer  Limousin,  as  well  as  many  other  men 
who  have  been  noted  in  literature  and  art,  including  Beza, 
Calvin  and  Zwingli. 

His  family  came  originally  from  Burgundy.  His  grand- 
father was  a  medical  man,  his  father  a  wood-carver  ;  and 
the  Petitots  fled  from  France  to  Switzerland  on  account  of 
religious  difficulties,  as  did  the  Arlauds,  the  Bordiers,  the 
Huaulds,  and  the  Thorons — all  artists  of  repute.  Young 
Jean  Petitot,  with  whom  we  have  to  deal,  was  born  in  1607, 
and  apprenticed  to  the  jeweller-goldsmith  Pierre  Bordier, 
some  of  whose  descendants  still  reside  in  Geneva.  His 
master  was  not  very  much  older  than  Petitot  himself,  and 
the  two  men,  master  and  pupil,  formed  a  close  attachment, 
and  becoming  dissatisfied  with  the  progress  of  their  work, 
determined  to  learn  more  about  enamelling  and  to  do  finer 
portraits.  For  a  while,  in  Paris,  they  were  engaged  in  the 
workshop  of  Jean  Toutin,  the  king's  jeweller,  and  when 
they  left  him,  so  pleased  was  he  with  their  industry  that  he 
gave  them  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Turquet  de  Mayerne, 
the  celebrated  physician,  who  was  the  confidential  adviser 
to  Charles  the  First.  This  man,  when  they  came  to  England, 
gladly  received  Toutin's  two  promising  assistants,  made 
them  free  of  his  own  workshop,  where  he  was  investigating 
the  secrets  of  enamel  work  and  chemistry,  and  eventually 
introduced  them  to  the  king.  Charles  was  delighted  with 
their  skill,  and  Petitot  executed  portraits  not  only  for  the 
king,  but  for  many  of  the  notable  persons  about  the  Court, 
his  greatest  work  at  this  time — say,  in  1642 — being  perhaps 
his  portrait  of  Rachel  de  Ruvigny,  Countess  of  Southamp- 
ton, the  copy  of  the  painting,  by  Vandyck,  now  to  be  seen, 
although  damaged,  at  Chatsworth. 

When  the  king  was  beheaded,  and  the  Royal  Household 
fled  to  Paris,  Petitot  went  with  them.  His  friend  Bordier 
remained  in  England,  and  he  it  was  who  was  employed  by 
the  Commonwealth  Government  to  execute  the  Naseby 
jewel,  which  now  belongs  to  Lord  Hastings.  Petitot  found 
in  Paris  a  cousin  of  his  friend,  one  Jacques  Bordier,  however, 
entered  into  partnership  with  him,  and  became  the  most 
famous  and  popular  worker  in  enamel  in  the  city.  Then  it 
was  that  he  was  employed  by  Louis  XIV.,  and  to  this  period 
of  his  life  belongs  the  famous  box  to  which  allusion  is  made 
in  this  article. 

The  drawing  of  the  portraits  seems  to  have  been  done  by 
Petitot,  and  a  few  of  his  actual  signed  sketches  survive  ; 
but  in  the  execution  of  the  enamel  work  the  skill  of  his 
partner  also  came  into  play,  and  portraits  usually  ascribed 
to  Petitot  should  more  justly  be  attributed  to  the  joint 
efforts  of  the  two  men. 

Petitot  married  in  165 1,  and  his  wife  was  Marguerite  Cuper, 
whose  sister  Anne  Madeleine  had  in  the  previous  year 
espoused  his  friend  and  partner,  who  now  became  also  his 
brother-in-law.  He  had  seventeen  children,  and  has  left 
behind  him,  now  carefully  preserved  in  Bordeaux,  a  wonderful 


April  II,  1 9 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


17 


t 


little  journal  in  which  he 
has  recorded  all  their  names 
and  ages. 

For  a  while  he  was  so 
popular  in  political  circles 
that  he  represented  the 
Republic  of  Geneva  as  official 
agent,  but  when  the  Revo- 
cation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes 
took  place,  in  1685,  disaster 
came,  and  troubles  were 
serious  and  swift.  The  king 
tried  to  protect  his  favourite 
artist,  but  in  1686  Petitot 
was  arrested  and  confined  to 
prison. 

Bishop  Bossuet  visited  him 
many  times,  but  to  no 
purpose,  and  at  length  his 
health  gave  way,  an'd  then, 
owing  to  special  efforts  on  the 
part  of  the  RepubUc  of 
Geneva,  he  was  released  and 
left  Paris  in  1687  for  his 
native  town.  There,  at  first, 
he  was  not  too  well  received, 
but  presently  was  able  to 
settle  down  to  his  profession 
and  to  produce  many  famous 
works  for  the  weU-to-do 
people  of  his  country  and 
for  the  Court  of  Poland. 

While  in  the  full  strength 
of  his  work,  and  actually 
when  paiiiting  a  portrait,  he 
was  seized  with  paralysis,  on 
April  3rd,  i6gi,  and  died 
that     very     night,     at     the 


Downwards:Viewof  Front, Left,  Right  and  Back 


advanced  age  of  84.  A 
touching  account  of  his  last 
hours  was  written  by  his 
son  Paul  in  the  httle  journal 
to  which  we  allude,  and 
which  we  have  seen.  It  is 
adorned  with  portraits  from 
his  own  hand  of  himself  and 
his  wife,  and  besides  that  has 
other  drawings  in  it  and  by 
him,  and  a  vast  amount  of 
genealogical  information  in 
his  handwriting,  and  in  that 
of  members  of  his  family 
and  of  their  descendants. 
It  was  mainly  prepared  in 
1674,  and  has  never  left  the 
hands  of  the  family.  It  is 
the  chief  source  of  all  the 
i'nformation  respecting 
Petitot  that  we  possess, 
and  to  it  we  have  to  go  also 
for  information  concerning 
his  almost  equally  well-known 
son  who  bore  the  same  name 
and  carried  on  the  sanie 
tradition  of  fine  work.  _^ 
Other  artists  of  high 
renown,  such  as  the  Cupers, 
the  Bordiers,  and  the  Prieurs, 
are  alluded  to  in  its  pages, 
and  on  some  future  occasion 
we  may  perhaps  return  to 
it,  and  give  some  notes- 
regarding  two  of  these  men, 
of  whom  but  little,  save 
their  splendid  productions 
in  enamel,  is  known. 


Our  Band:  By  Etienne 


MEETING  an  old  shipmate  at  the  sign  of 
Capricomus,  fhat  Zodiacal  spot  known  only 
to  naval  officers  and  to  a  few  of  the  very 
best  soldiers,  wluch  bears  four  cables  north- 
west of  Piccadilly  Circus,  we  refreshed  our- 
selves, then  retiring  to  a  corner  which  was  adorned  by  the 
flag  of  a  defunct  U-boat,  we  discussed  the  old  ship  and  the 
Navy  in  general. 

I  had  left  the  ship  some  months  previously,  but  my  friend 
was  stiU  in  her,  and  he  explained  his  presence  in  London  by 
the  fact  that  the  old  junk  was  at  last  getting  a  decent  refit. 

"Fourteen  days'  leave  of  the  best  and  brightest,"  said  he, 
with  smug  satisfaction.  "There  are  rumours  of  strikes 
amongst  the  riveters,  so  we  may  get  an  extension  of  four 
days,"  he  added  quietly,  as  a  thoroughly  unpatriotic  after- 
thought. 

This  last  remark  amused  me,  for,  when  I  had  last  refitted 
in  the  ship  and  there  had  been  labour  troubles  which  had 
delayed  us  somewhat,  I  remembered  my  friend  had  ful- 
minated for  hours  in  front  of  the  wardroom  stove  as  to  the 
iniquity  of  strikes  in  war  time,  and  the  grave  danger  we  ran 
of  missing  an  operation  which  a  cousin  of  his  in  high  places 
had  told  him  was  impending. 

For  half  an  hour  he  told  me  all  the  local  news,  of  how  the 
"sub"  had  nearly  got  engaged,  and  that  the  "Pay"  was 
suspected  of  designs  on  a  Scotch  widow  in  Edinburgh,  of 
how  they  had  at  last  wangled  triplex  glass  out  of  the  dock- 
yard, of  how  the  engineer-commander  had  been  defeated  in 
the  quarterly  auctions  for  back  numbers  of  La  vie  Parisienne 
by  the  assistant-paymaster  after  a  duel  which  ran  the  price 
up  to  two  shillings  a  copy.  He  told  mc  that  the  piano  on 
which  I  used  to  make  such  hideous  noises  was  still  going 
strong,  though  a  bit  queer  in  the  treble,  as  a  green  sea, 
coming  down  a  badly  battened  skylight,  had  half-filled  up 
the  noble  instrument,  and  the  treble  strings  had  broken, 
and  the  ship,  being  far  from  civihsation  at  the  time,  the 
torpedo-lieutenant  had  replaced  half  a  dozen  of  the  missing 
strings  with  electric  fuze-wire  of  various  sizes. 

All  these  matters,  and  many  others,,  concerning  their 
comings  and  goings,  what  they  had  seen — and  more  especially 
what  they  had  not  seen — in  the  North  Sea,  my  friend  told 
me  of.  Until  at  length  I  asked  him  about  that  which  had 
been  as  an  ewe  lamb  to  me  in  the  ship. 


"And  what  of  our  band?"  said  I. 

"Broken  up,"  he  replied,and  I'll  swear  his  hand  trembled 
slightly  as  he  lifted  his  glass.  When  I  had  left  the  ship, 
I  had  turned  over  the  business  of  fathering  our  band  to  this 
officer,  and  he  had  taken  it  over  without  a  murmur.  The 
stupendous  and  well-filled  "spring-back,"  replete  with  bills, 
a  few  receipts,  and  reams  of  official  correspondence,  the 
endless  reports  of  band  committee  meetings,  all  these  things 
he  had  cheerfully  taken  on  his  shoulders — so  I  had  known 
him  to  be  an  enthusiast.  V 

Well,  the  band  served  its  purpose,  and  now  that  its 
chequered  career  of  three  years  has  ended,  it  seems  fitting 
that  there  should  be  some  historical  record  of  the  "Voluntary 
Band  of  H.M.S.  Orpheus."  It  originated  in  the  very  early 
days  of  the  war,  as  the  result  of  a  brain-wave  between  the 
secretary  and  myself.  It  was  then  of  the  drum-and-fife 
variety. 

'We  managed  to  wheedle  £%  out  of  the  ward-room,  by 
striking  when  the  iron  was  hot,  after  a  very  cheery  guest 
night.  The  secretary  attacked  the  admiral  for  a  subscrip- 
tion the  day  he  got  his  decoration,  and  touched  him  for  £2 
— which  shows  what  enormous  influence  secretaries  have 
over  admirals.  With  this  capital  of  ten  pounds  we  pur- 
chased instruments  and  started  operations. 

But  the  "matelot"  is  one  of  the  most  ambitious  creatures 
on  eartli ;  wood-wind  but  ill-satisfied  his  desire  for  music, 
once  the  appetite  was  excited.  One  of  our  number.  Able- 
seaman  Thomas,  suddenly  produced  a  cornet,  upon  which 
instrument  he  proved  to  be  a  remarkably  good  performer. 
A  brass  band  was  forthwith  suggested  and  it  was  enthusias- 
tically approved. 

In  strict  historical  fact,  the  honourable  part  played  by 
the  torpedo-lieutenant  should  come  in  here ;  but  if  this 
meets  his  eye,  he  will,  I  feel  sure,  excuse  me  if  I  show  a 
reluctance  in  attempting  to  describe  the  extraordinary  com- 
pUcated  transactions  which  took  place  before  the  drum-and- 
fifers  were  amalgamated  with  the  "  brassers"  with  a  minimum 
of  resignations  from  either  camp.  I  had  never  fully  under- 
stood the  trials  which  theatrical  managers  and  producers 
have  to  undergo  in  their  dealings  with  the  artistic  tempera- 
ment— I  do  now  ;  all  the  members  of  our  band  claimed 
the  artistic  temperament,  and  A.B.  Thomas  was  the  greatest 
artist   on    tlie    lower    deck.       His    opening    gambit,    when 


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April  II,   19  1 8 


brought  up  before  the  commander  on  those  rare  occasions 
on  which  he  was  caught  breaking  the  regulations,  ran  as 
follows  : 

"  Intimately  hassociated  as  I  am  with  every  social  hor- 
ganisation  in  this  Vrc  ship.  I  hegs  to  point  out  .  .  ." 

The  alternative  to  this  opening  was  as  follows  : 

"Speakin'  not  so  much  fer  myself  as  fer  those  wot  ain't 
fluent,   I   begs  to  point  out  .  .  ." 

Either  remark  is  a  perfect  index  to  a  character  which, 
though  interesting  to  study,  was  a  thorn  in  many  fleshes. 
Early  in  1915  the  brass  band  was  in  full  swing.  A.B.  Thomas 
was  the  amateur  bandmaster,  and  undoubtedly  knew  his 
job.  He  played  the  cornet  with  tremendous  vigour,  and 
kept  the  band  in  good  order.  I  remember,  one  day  in  the 
middle  of  the  Japanese  .Anthem,  he  removed  his  cornet  from 
his  lips,  and,  shaking  it  in  the  direction  of  a  panting  signal- 
man, shouted  :  "Blow  you — ,  yer  dirty  hound."  A  fearful 
blare  from  the  criticised  performer,  who  was  supporting  a 
b;issoon,  testified  to  the  accuracy  of  the  bandmaster's 
criticism. 

The  manner  in  which  this  signalman  became  a  bandsman 
was  typical  of  many  of  our  recruits,  and  illustrates  the  average 
sailors'  behef  in  his  own  capabilities.  Signalman  Bunting 
came  to  my  cabin  one  evening,  and  informed  me  that  he 
desired  to  join  the  band.  Much  gratified,  I  inquired  what 
instrument  he  played.  He  explained  that  he  did  not  actually 
play  any  instrument,  but  that,  noticing  an  advertisement 
which  offered  a  second-hand  bassoon  for  £6,  and  observing 
that  he  happened  to  possess  £$.  he  considered  that  the 
opportunity  was  unique. 

Although  I  did  not  feel  quitf  so  sanguine  as  he  did,  1  had 
not  the  courage  to  damp  such  enthusiasm  ;  I  had  my  reward, 
for,  strange  to  say,  as  a  result  of  daily  practice  in  the  sohtude 
of  the  starboard  condenser-room.  Bunting  became  quite  a 
good  performer.  Another  sportsman  bought  a  silver-plated 
trombone  on  the  credit  system,  which  was  priced  £12  los. 
On  being  pressed  for  pavmcnt,  he  applied  to  me  for  a  loan 
of  £10. 

I  was  weak  enough  to  oblige  him,  and  every  month  I 
used  to  receive  niasses  of  coppers  and  sixpenny-bits,  until 
at  the  end  of  a  year  we  were  square.  I  could  never  make 
out  where  he  got  the  money  from,  as  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
bringing  instalments  at  al!  sorts  of  odd  times,  whilst  the 
hands,  of  course,  are  paid  monthh'.  The  secret  was  revealed 
upon  the  day  on  which ,  the  ship's  police  discovered  him 
presiding  over  a  crown  and  anchor  board  in  the  screw  alley. 
Fortunately  for  me,  this  event  took  place  some  time  after 
the  debt  was  liquidated.  I  can  still  remember  the  anxiety 
with  which  I  used  to  watch  this  gentleman  on  those  occasions 
when  we  came  under  shell-fire. 

As  the  months  went  by,  the  band  improved  and  grew  in 
grace  ;  a  certain  town  sent  us  music,  and,  more  wonderful, 
an  official  letter  to  the  School  of  Music  eventually  extracted 
some  most  interesting  old  orchestrated  operas  whose  tuneful 
rhelodies  must  have  charmed  our  fathers ;  not  that  it 
mattered  in  the  least,  as  our  band  would  have  played  Cesar 
Franck,  Debussy,  Rameau,  Scriabine,  or  any  of  the  moderns 
with  the  same  pleasure  with  which  they  tackled  "The  Merry 
Peasant"  or  the  latest  ragtime — all  was  grist  that  came  to 
their  mill. 

Every  morning  at  8  o'clock  they  played  three  national 
anthems  from  amongst  those  of  the  Allies,  and  our  initial 
practice  of  betting  in  our  baths  as  to  which  they  were,  soon 
lost  its  interest.  As  soon  as  the  band  got  properly  going  it 
was  placed  on  a  semi-official  basis  ;  it  had  a  special  routine 
of  its  own,  the  principle  of  which  was  that,  in  return  for 
services  rendered  at  route  marches,  and  to  the  ship's  com- 
pany during  the  dog-watches,  the  band  were  excused  certain 
duties. 

The  rush  of  recruits  was  amazing,  and  at  one  time  we  had 
no  less  than  thirty-seven,  all  working  '"ands"  on  some 
form  of  musical  instniment.  The  commander  was  a  true 
patron  of  the  fine  arts  ;  but  when  the  excused  list  rose  to 
thirty-seven  I  had  an  interview  with  him,  and  I  was  told 
that  future  candidates  would  have  to  go  on  a  waiting  list, 
unless  they  were  exceptionally  talented. 

I  also  used  to  find  a  certain  difficulty  in  persuading  the 
gunnery-lieutenant  that  musical  members  of  a  gun's  crew 
were  as  well  employed"  at  their  instruments  as  at  their  guns 
during  "quarters  clean  guns"  periods.  Can  it  be  that 
gunnery-lieutenants  as  a  class  are  not  musically  inclined  ? 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  band  had  no  enemies, 
for,  though  much  appreciated  by  the  ship's  company  as  a 
whole,  there  were  always  a  few  objectors. 

The  big  drum  was  punctured  at  regular  intervals  in  a  most 
mysterious  manner ;  these  outbreaks  generally  coincided 
with  the  expulsion  of  some  refractory  member  from  the 
band.     One  memorable  evening  the  band  were  playing  to  a 


crowd  of  about  a  hundred  sailors  on  the  boat  deck,  when  an 
enemy  of  the  band  threw  a  halfpenny  down  the  euphonium. 
As  the  euphoninm-playcr,  a  certain  Stoker  Emmanuel  Millar, 
explained  to  me  afterwards  in  the  privacy  of  my  cabin, 
"  I  was  a-suckin'  at  the  moment,  sir  !  an'  that  swine  'e  knew 
it,  'e  did,  and  wot  I  sez  is,  I  chucks  me  blinkin'  'and  in,  I 
does,  with  t;liis  'ere  band.  I  expects  appreciation,  not 
insults."  I  eventually  soothed  his  outraged  feelings,  but  it 
cost  the  band  fund  £'3  12s.  fid.  to  get  the  euphonium  stripped 
in  Edinburgh  and  the  deadly  coin  removed.  Two  engine- 
room  artificers  and  the  blacksmith  volunteered  to  do  the  job 
as  a  mark  of  their  esteem  for  the  band. 

As  time  went  on,  most  of  the  other  ships  of  the  neigh- 
bouring squadrons  started  bands  ;  and  a  tremendous  spirit 
of  competition  grew  up,  deadly  feuds  existing  between  rival 
l)andmasters.  This  was  well  illustrated  at  the  squadron 
sports,  at  which  function  the  bands  were  scheduled  to  per- 
form in  "mass"  formation.  The  burning  question  arose  as 
to  which  bandmaster  was  to  have  the  honour  of  conducting. 
It  was  eventually  decided  by  drawing  lots.  The  lot  did  not 
fall  upon  Able-seaman  Thonias,  whereupon  this  gentleman 
registered  his  displeasure  on  the  day  of  the  event  by  per- 
sistently playing  his  cornet  a  tone  flat, -alleging,  in  reply  to 
my  indignant  accusations,  that  "me  lips  were  all  of  a  crack." 
Curiously  enough,  this  unsportsmanlike  act  was  highly 
approved  of  by  all  our  band,  who  apparently  considered  it  a 
very  natural  outcome  of  an  artistic  temperament. 

The  band  continued  with  ups  and  downs  for  three  years, 
when  most  of  its  members  left  the  ship,  and  it  died  a  natural 
death. 

Before  concluding  its  histor\',  one  incident  in  connection 
with  our  liig-drummer  deserves  to  be  told.  We  had  a  very 
fine  big  drum,  on  which  our  battle  honours  were  cunningly 
inscribed,  and  its  purchase  price  hung  for  months  like  a 
mill-stone  round  our  financial  neck.  The  drum  was  played 
by  an  enormous  seaman,  who,  by  dint  of  much  saving,  Iiad 
purchased  a  second-hand  leopard  skin  ;  and  vvhen  route 
marching  he  was  our  pride  and  joy.  At  Jutland  he  lost  a 
leg,  and  soon  after  his  removal  from  the  operating-room,  I 
went  along  to  see  how  he  was  getting  on.  A  pal  of  his  came 
in  at  the  same  time  and,  by  way  of  letting  him  know  the 
worst,  said,  in  lugubrious  tones  : 

"Them  Huns  have  put  a  shell  right  through  your  drum. 
Bill — smashed  it  up,  a  fair  treat,  they  have." 

Bill  was  supposed  to  be  suffering  from  severe  shock  at  the 
time,  and  the  sick  berth  steward  was  horrified  at  the  blunt- 
ness  of  this  remark.  It  acted  in  an  unexpected  manner  on 
Bill,  who  had  been  lying  very  still. 

Raising  himself  on  one  arm,  he  shook  his  fist  at  the  deck 
overhead,  and  came  out  with  a  torrent  of  abuse  concerning 
the  Huns.  The  doctor  told  me  afterwards  that  Bill  spent 
most  of  the  night  muttering  and  damning  the  Germans  ; 
he  seemed  to  consider  that  tlie  loss  of  a  leg  was  a  matter  of 
secondary  importance.  It  is  pleasing  to  record  that  Bill  is 
now  estabhshed  in  a  comfortable  job  ashore,  and  that  the 
shattered  drum  is  in  safe  keeping  as  an  honoured  relic. 

Though  the  band  is  now  dispersed  and  its  members  are 
scattered,  it  served  its  purpose  and  brightened  many  a 
monotonous  hour  in  the  North  Sea.  We  may  also  say  with 
pride  that  where  we  led  the  way  others  have  followed,  as 
I  believe  there  are  at  the  present  moment  more  than  a  dozen 
voluntary  bands  in  the  small  ships  of  the  Fleet.  Perhaps 
we  are  a  musical  race,  after  all  ? 


Jason's  essays  on  reconstmction  have  been  a  feature  of 
L.AND  &  W.VTER  for  some  months  past.  A  baker's  dozen  of 
them  are  now  published  in  book  form  under  the  title  Past 
and  Present  (Chatto  &  Windus,  3s.  6d.).  The  author  mentions 
in  his  preface  that  he  makes  no  attempt  to  explore  the  whole 
field  of  social  politics  ;  he  lays  down  no  programme,  he  only 
discusses  a  spirit  which  will  revolutionise  our  way  of  looking 
at  every  programme.  In  his  opinion,  "the  great  lesson  of 
the  war  is  the  lesson  of  equality."  Jason  reviews  the  pa.st 
only  to  show  the  more  palpable  social  errors  that  have  been 
committed,  and  he  regards  the  future  as  being  critical  just  in 
so  far  as  we  can  or  cannot  combine  power  with  equality, 
organisation  with  freedom.  "For  the  needs  and  perils  of  the 
world  make  the  waste  and  disorder  of  energy  a  crime,  and 
the  hiunan  will  revolts  against  tyranny,  whether  it  takes  the 
name  of  military  necessity  or  economic  law."  We  have 
indented  rather  largely  on  this  preface  in  this  introduction  of 
these  essays  in  their  new  book  form,  for  it  explains  the 
author's  true  purpose.  Jason,  in  our  opinion,  voices  the 
sincere  desire  of  a  large  body  of  intellectual  men  and  women 
that  in  the  future  wider  and  wiser  freedom  and  opportunity 
be  given  to  all  classes,  and  that  in  this  country  we  abolish 
that  poverty  and  misery  which  are  the  outcome  not  of 
individual  failings,  but  of  the  faults  of  our  social  svstem. 


April 


1 1 


1918 


Land   &   Water 


19 


Life  and  Letters  Gj  J.  C  Squire 


Mr.   Asquith  as  Author 

EXCLUDING  collections  of  political  speeches,  Mr. 
Asquith's  Occasional  Addresses,  1908-16  (Mac- 
millan,  6s.  net),  is  his  first  book ;  unless,  indeed, 
like  most  able  young  lawyers,  he  wrote  something 
about  Torts  or  Company  Law  in  an  earher  age. 
The  book  consists  mainly  of  five  considerable  addresses  :  on 
Criticism,  Biography,  Ancient  Universities  and  the  Modern 
World,  Culture  and  Character,  and  the  Spade  and  the  Pen 
— the  last  being  concerned  with  classical  studies  and  the 
place  of  archaeology.  There  are  also  lesser  addresses  on  the 
Enghsh  Bible,  Omar  Khayyam,  and  other  subjects,  a  Latin 
speech  made  at  Winchester,  and  several  obituary  "  tributes  " 
to  eminent  men  deceased.  These  last,  perhaps,  would  not 
all  have  been  included  had  Mr.  Asquith  not  desired  to  give 
the  pubUc  a  respectable  sized  book  for  its  money. 

•  «  *  ♦  ««      -■'" 

"  BuTthe  smaller  book  would  have  been  well  worth  it.  No 
professional  author  has  constructed  in  our  time  so  clear,  so 
compressed,  so  convincing  a  defence  of  the  humanities,  and 
so  eloquent  a  demonstration  of  their  daily  practical  value  as 
Mr.  Asquith  has  produced  in  the  sporadic  addresses  of  his 
restricted  leisure.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  devotes 
himself  entirely  to  generalisations  as  to  "culture,"  absorbed 
discursively,  or  under  curriculum.  Both  his  addresses  to 
students  and  the  others  are  full  of  incidental  judgments 
upon  books  and  men,  criticisms  usually  indisputable,  and 
often  original.  His  criticisms  of  the  Uteratures  of  the  ancient 
world,  as  well  as  of  English  books  of  several  centuries,  would 
be  well  worth  having  if  they  illustrated  no  general  argument 
at  all.  His  tastes  are,  on  the  whole,  orthodox  ;  one  deduces 
that  he  is  most  drawn  to  the  admittedly  greatest  of  writers. 
But  though  never  eccentric,  he  thinks  independently.  The 
evidences  of  this  are  everywhere.  One  may  quote  his  acute 
observation  that 

■  U  we  were  given  fewer  of  a  man's  letters  to  his  friends,  and  more 
of  his  friends'  letters  to  him,  we  should  get  to  know  him  better 
because,  among  other  reasons,  we  should  be  better  able  *o  realise 
how  his  personality  affected  and  appealed  to  others. 

One  may  quote  also  his  illuminating  pages  .on  the  neglected 
autobiography  of  Haydon,  the  painter ;  his  description  of 
Haydon  as  "one  of  the  acutest  and  most  accomplished 
critics  of  his  time,"  and  his  question,  though  it  be  a  mere 
question,  why  it  was  that  Haydon  was  not  a  great  portrait 
painter.  We  may  note,  incidentally,  as  lights  on  his  tastes, 
that  he  is  a  close  student  of  Bacon  and  a  devotee  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  and  that  he  beheves  most  of  Shakespeare's 
sonnets  to  have  had  no  relation  with  the  poet's  personal 
career.  One  has  not,  however,  space  here  to  enter  into  such 
questions  of  detail ;  and  one  must  be  content,  as  to  Mr. 
Asquith's  general  views  about  culture,  to  refer  readers  to 
the  book  itself,  and  especially  to  the  noble  passages  on  pages 
25  and  6g.  Nothing  is  more  remarkable  about  these  addresses 
than  the  apparently  effortless  way  in  which  their  author 
"lifts"  to  a  higher  level  of  eloquence.  He  favours  the  sus- 
tained peroration  ;  but  his  perorations  grow  out  of,  are  all 
of  a  piece  with,  what  has  gone  before,  instead  of  being  shame- 
lessly stuck  on  like  those  of  the  wanton  rhetorician.  One 
result  of  this,  however,  is  that  they  are  not  detachable  :  one 
always  wants  to  take  in  the  sentence  before,  so  to  speak. 
Instead  of  attempting  to  quote  them,  therefore,  one  may 
be  permitted  to  pass  to  a  few  remarks  upon  his  way  of 
expressing  himself :  what,  vaguely,  we  call  his  style. 
****** 

In  his  lecture  on  "Culture  and  Character,"  Mr.  Asquith 
refers  to  the  frequency  with  which  "  a  man  takes  an  hour  to 
say  what  might  have  been  as  well  or  better  said  in  twenty 
minutes,  or  spreads  over  twenty  pages  what  could  easil)' 
have  been  exhausted  in  ten."  The  offence  of  being  "shp- 
shod  and  proUx"  is  never  committed  by  him.  There  is  no 
greater  living  master  of  the  summary  ;  and  the  quahties  of 
his  speaking  are  present  in  his  wnting.  He  surveys  his 
field  from  a  detached  eminence,  and  sketches  its  main  out- 
Hnes  with  precision  and  in  their  due  proportions.  His 
survey  is  so  simple  and  straightforward  as  sometimes  to 
appear  easy  and  obvious  ;  but  a  man  who  should  succumb 
to  that  impression  might  be  recommended  to  attempt  the 
operation  for  himself.  The  certainty  with  which  Mr.  Asquith 
grasps  his  general  ideas  is  matched  by,  and  allied  to,  the 
lucidity  with  which  he  formulates  them.  No  one,  I  might 
add,  who  was  not  habituated  to  accurate  expression  could, 


when  occasion  calls,  say  nothing  at  all  with  Mr.  Asquith's 
ease  and  safety.  His  verbal  instrument  is  the  perfect 
servant  of  his  mind.  It  is  indeed  difficult  for  a  politician 
to  retain  a  sound  stj'le.  Whenever  he  rises  he  must  play 
St.  Anthony  to  beckoning  hosts  of  cliches  ;  and  according 
to  his  temperament  he  will  be  more  liable  to  yield  to  one 
bevy  or  the  other,  to  those  of  wooden  pomposity  and  sham 
dignity  or  to  those  of  intemperate  rhetoric  and  sham  passion. 
Mr.  Asquith,  as  a  political  speaker,  has  been  known,  not 
infrequentlj',  to  lapse  into  a  hollow  resonance,  and  there 
are  a  few  examples  of  this  pardonable  and  almost  unavoid- 
able humbug  in  the  obituary  speeches  printed  at  the  end 
of  this  volume.  But  as  a  speaker — or,  rather,  a  writer — 
on  other  subjects  he  is  entirely  free  from  it ;  and  his  style 
is  literallv  a  model  of  its  kind. 


It  is  what  is  called  a  classical,  what  used  to  be  called  a 
"correct"  style :  the  style  natural  to  a  man  of  his  intellect 
and  temper.  His  sentences  are  close-knit :  packed,  but 
easy.  Every  phrase  adds  something ;  but  an  intractable 
content  never  destroys  the  balance.  In  the  Latinity  of  the 
language,  in  the  structure  of  the  sentences,  in  the  objectivity, 
impersonality,  of  the  writer's  attitude,  there  is  something 
reminiscent  of  the  eighteenth  century.  There  are  constant 
faint  traces  of  Johnson,  of  Burke,  of  Gibbon.  We  observe 
the  affectionate  use  of  words  like  "denigration"  and  "fuligi- 
nous" ;  and  admirably  compendious  phrases  like  that  in 
wWch,  referring  to  the  production  of  superfluous  biographies, 
he  speaks  of  "the  monuments  which  filial  piety  or  mis- 
directed friendship  is  constantly  raising  to  those  who  • 
deserved  and  probably  desired  to  be  forgotten."  One  has 
employed  the  word  "affectionate";  and  here,  of  course,  is 
one  of  the  places  where  personality  does  come  in.  Marked 
proclivities  in  language  are  in  themselves  windows  into 
personality.  And  in  these  addresses  Mr,  Asquith's  indivi- 
duality peeps  out  in  all  sorts  of  ways :  in  the  revelation  of 
his  tastes,  in  the  warm  mental  glow  which  saves  from  frigidity 
the  most  "scientific"  of  his  paragraphs,  and  in  his  frequent 
humour.  But  he  does  not  write  to  display  his  powers  of 
writing  ;  he  does  not  parade  his  tastes  because  they  are  his, 
announcing  them  merely  because  they  appear  to  him  to  be* 
sensible  and  reasonable  ;  and  he  does  not  jump  over  the 
hedge  for  any  joke  or  take  even  those  which  stand  right  in 
his  road  save  in  the  most  delicate  and  undemonstrative 
manner.  Many  readers,  by  no  means  obtuse,  might  well 
miss  the  gentle  jest  in  his  address  to  the  Royal  Society, 
which  was  founded  by  Charles  II. : 

Whether  the  interest  in  anatomy  displayed,  as  your  annals  show, 
by  the  Society  in  its  earliest  years  was  due  to  the  proclivities  of 
its  Royal  Patron,  I  do  not  know  ... 

The  passage  on  the  uses  of  the  bastinado  and  the  knout 
in  criticism  might  also  be  quoted  ;  and  the  charming  account 
of  Jeremy  Bentham's  variegated  evenings.  His  criticisms 
and  apt  images  are  all  the  more  enjoyable  because  of  their 
subservience  to  his  main  purpose  :  his  refusal  to  allow  the 
garlands  to  conceal  the  pillar.  And  one  must  mention  his 
extraordinarily  happy  and  judicious  use  of  quotations.  They 
are  never  dragged  in  by  the  heels  to  display  learning  or 
import  a  facile  colouring  ;  but  the  few  he  makes,  both  from 
Enghsh  and  from  classical  authors,  are,  by  their  very  nature 
and  pertinence,  an  unmistakable  proof  of  large  reserves. 
His  temper,  almost  always,  is  amiable.  But  just  as  the 
even  surface  of  his  language  is  sometimes  abruptly  and 
effectively  broken  by  an  unusual  or  a  colloquial  word,  so  his 
pervasive  easy  tolerance  now  and  then  yields.  Something 
hard  comes  into  sight,  like  black  rocks  under  a  smooth  sea : 
self-knowledge,  determination,  a  settled,  though  usually 
concealed,  contempt  for  the  complacent,  stupid,  and  the 
pretentious  superficial.     But  he  never  Ibses  his  self-control. 


It  would  be  easy  to  supplement  this  brief  catalogue  of 
some  of  Mr.  Asquith's  qualities  with  a  list  of  the  quahties 
which  he  does  not  possess.  He  has  little,  no  doubt,  in 
common  with  Rousseau,  Shelley,  and  John  the  Baptist ; 
like  the  rest  of  us,  he  is  something  and  not  something  else. 
But,  reading  this  too  slight  coDection,  one  remembers  the 
superb  generalisation  that  "conference  maketh  a  ready  man, 
reading  a  full  njan,  and  writing  an  exact  man"  ;  and  one 
feels  that  the  three  processes  have  here  been  operating,  with 
uniform  success,  in  one  person. 


20 


Land    &    Water 


'April   IT,   19  I  8 


Motor  Tractors  in  Agriculture:    By  H. 


A  Steel  Mule  breaking  up  Grass  Land 


By  courtesy  oj  the  Hif:Uand  Agricullural  Sociely,  ScollanJ 


emi 


■"■     ^HE    gradual    adaptation    and    improvehient    of 

.    I         machinery    for    agricultural    uses    was    a    well- 

■         marked  feature  of  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 

H         century,   a   period   which   was  especially   notable 

-^       for  the  introduction  of  the  self-binder,   which  is 

still  one  of  the  most  ingenious  of  farm  implements  and  the 

greatest  of  labour- savers. 

The  inventiveness  and  resource  of  the  agricultural  engineer 
*  throughout  the  same  period  evolved  various  farm  implements 
now  considered  almost  indispensable,  such  as  corn-drills, 
potato-diggers,  cultivators  of  various  descriptions,  and  a 
variety  of  machines  for  dealing  with  the  hay  crop.  On 
large  arable  farms  at  the  present  day  an  inspection  of  the 
implement  shed  is  an  indication  of  the  large  quantity  of 
expensive  machinery  now  considered  essential  for  the  prompt 
and  efficient  performance  of  the  various  agricultural  opera- 
tions. For  the  care  and  best  use  of  such  implements  not 
only  the  farmer,  but  those  in  his  employ,  must  have  quite  a 
considerable  mechanical  knowledge  such  as  was  Uttle  thought 
of  even  thirty  years  ago. 

The  severity  of  the  period  of  agricultural  depression 
between  the  'eighties  and  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century 
no  doubt  gave,  an  increased  stimulus  to  the  use  of  machinery 
in  agriculture.  The  low  level  to  which  prices  fall  made  it 
impossible  to  employ  profitably  as  much  manual  labour  as 
formerly,  even  at  the  moderate  rate  of  wages  then  prevailing, 
and  if  agriculture  was  to  be  carried  on  at  all  an  increased 
reliance  on  mechanical  power  became  inevitable.  During 
this  period,  however,  the  whole  trend  of  invention  was  in  the 
improvement  and  perfecting  of  the  implement  or  machine 
which  it  was  always  assumed  would  be  horse-drawn,  and  no 
other  form  of  motive  power  was  thought  to  be  possible  in 
practice.  It  is  true  that  fully  fifty  years  ago  high  expecta- 
tions were  formed  of  the  capabilities  of  steam  ploughing  ; 
but,  from  one  cause  or  another,  steam  tackle  gradually  went 
out  of  use,  and  was  almost  entirely  abandoned.  Objections 
were  found  in  the  severe  compression  of  the  soil  at  the  ends 
of  the  fields  by  heavy  engines,  the  ill  effects  of  which  were 
in  some  cases  apparent  for  several  years.  Damage  was  also 
done  in  many  instances  to  tile  drains,  and  on  uneven  ground 
it  was  difficult  to  maintain  the  plough  or  other  implement 
at  an  even  depth. 

The  invention  of  the  internal  combustion  engine,  and  its 
rapid  application  to  motor  traction  on  roads,  not  unnaturally 
turned  the  thoughts  of  engineers  afresh  to  the  problem  of 
motive  power  in  substitution  for  horses  in  agricultural  opera- 
tions. Moreover,  with  the  early  years  of  the  present  century 
came  signs  of  a  slight  revival  in  agricultural  prosperity, 
accompanied  in  many  districts  by  ah  increasing  scarcity  of 


agricultural  labour.  Emigration  of  agricultural  workers  to 
Canada  and  Australia  became  considerable,  and  the  question 
of  rural  depopulation  began  to  engage  the  serious  attention 
of  politicians  and  economists.  One  view  e.xpressed  was  that 
agricultural  labour  was  being  driven  off  the  land  by  the 
increasing  use  of  machinery.  This  explanation  was,  hovvever, 
manifestly  incorrect,  seeing  that  there  was  no  agriculturai 
unemployment.  .  What  had  in  realitv  occurred  was  that  the 
increasing  scarcity  of  labour  had  compelled  the  farmer  to 
rely  more  and  more  on  machinery  in  place  of  manual  labour. 
These  conditions  have,  as  is  well  known,  become  greatly 
aggravated  since  the  outbreak  of  war.  Agriculture  has,  in 
common  with  other  industries,  contributed  her  full  quota 
to  the  fighting  forces  ;  but  has  felt  the  strain  in  a  special 
degree,  partly  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  rural  population 
form  the  healthiest  and  strongest  class  from  which  recruits 
are  drawn,  and  also  on  account  of  the  urgent  demands  now 
being  made  for  increased  cultivation. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  for  these  reasons,  coupled 
with  the  increased  cost  of  labour,  the  application  of  mechanical 
traction  for  agricultural  work  has  received  its  greatest  impetus. 
Motor  tractors  have  been  so  much  advertised  anc>  written 
about  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  anyone  not  an 
expert  to  form  a  reliable  opinion  upon  respective  merits. 
One  farmer  may  state  he  has  found  a  certain  type  of  tractor 
invaluable  and  reliable  for  ploughing  and  other  kinds  of 
work.  Another  farmer  may,  from  his  experience,  express 
an  entirely  contrary  view.  Such  conflicting  evidence  merely 
goes  to  prove  that  the  agricultural  tractor  is  vet  in  its  infancy, 
and  that  its  development  within  the  next  few  years  dan 
scarcely  be  foreseen.  It  may  be  asserted,  however,  with 
.some  confidence,  that  tractors  have  come  to  stay— at  any 
rate,  in  the  cultivation  of  large  arable  farms-^and  that 
improvement  in  design  and  increasing  reliabilitv  mav  be 
looked  for  in  the  future. 

Probably  the  most  extensive  and  complete  demonstrations 
and  trials  of  iigricultural  tractors  which  have  yet  taken 
place  in  this  country  were  those  organised  bv  the"  Highland 
and  Agricultural  Society  of  Scotland  in  the  autumn  of  191 7 
The  trials  were  held  at  three  centres-Edinburgh,  Glasgow, 
and  Perth— and  a  special  report  has  been  published  deahng 
with  the  results.  {Demonstration  of  Agricultuml  Tractors  and 
Ploughs.  Messrs.  William  Blackwood  &  Sons,  October,  1917.) 
Twenty-nine  tractors  were  entered,  and  a  short  description 
and  illustration  of  each  is  given  in  the  report.  To  anyone 
desiring  full  information  on  the  subject  this  report  will  repav 
careful  study.  The  Conmiittee  have  avoided  placing  the 
tractors  entered  for  the  trials  in  any  order  of  merit,  and 
(Continued  on  page  22.) 


April 


I  I 


1918 


Land    &    \^'ater 


21 


THE    FRENCH    ARMY. 

THERE  are  a  few  vacancies  for  VOLUN- 
TARY MOTOR  AMBULANCE 
DRIVERS  (men),  with  our  Sections  work- 
ing with  the  FRENCH  ARMY.  Contracts 
are  for  six  months'  duration.  The  work  is 
most  interesting  and  affords  an  unrivalled 
opportunity  of  working  with  the  French 
Army  in  their  front  line.  The  committee 
is  officially  recognised  by  the  French  Head 
Quarters  and  the  British  War  Office. 
Practically  all  expenses  defrayed. 

BRITISH    AMBULANCE    COMMITTEE, 
23a    BRUTON    STREET, 

LONDON. 


BURBERRY  NAVAL  KIT 

fcr  the  Tropics 
and  Far  East. 


Naval  Ofiicers,  en  route 
for  hot  climates,  out- 
fitting at  Burberrys  can 
obtain  all  the  necessary 
kit  in  the  most  suitable 
materials — with  many 
special  comforts. 

Burberrys'\VhiteCotton 
and  Union  Ducks  and 
Drills  are  unrivalled  for 
airylight  weight,  fine- 
ness of  te.xture,  tough- 
ness, and  durability. 

Burberry  Weather- 
proofs  exclude  the 
heaviest  rain,  yet  are 
cool  and  perfectly  self- 
ventilating. 

Complete  Kit*  in  2  to  4 
Day«,     or    Ready     to     U»e. 


Every 

Burberry 

i,arment 

b  ars  a 

lUirberrv 

label. 


During  the  uar  Burberrys 
CLEAN  and  RE-PROOF 
Officers'  Burberry  Weather- 
proojs   FREE  OF  CHARGE. 


Illustrated    Naval    or    Military    Catalogue     Post     Free 

BURBERRYS   Haymarket  ^   LONDON 

8   &    10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS;  and  Agents  in  Chief  Naval   Ports, 


More  of  our  brave  lads  have 
sacrificed  their  Hberty  in  their 
recent  heroic  stand  against 
the  German  hordes  who 
threatened  our  freedom. 

They  will  be  left 
to  starve  unless  we 
come  to  their  aid. 

The  only  way  to  save  them  is  by  send- 
ing out  parcels  of  food  and  comforts, 
and  this  can  best  be  done  through  the 
channels  of  a  recognised  Association. 

Will  you  help  to  make  bearable  their  existence 
by  sending  a  donation  to  the  Founder, 

Rev.  HUGH    B.  CHAPMAN,   7   Savoy   Hill,    London,   W.G.2.. 

THE  ROYAL  SAVOY  ASSOGIA 
TION    FOR    THE    RELIEF     OF 
BRITISH  PRISONERS    OF  WAR 

President:  Vice  President: 

The  Countess  ol  Plymouth.  Lady  Phyllis  Windsor  Clivc. 

Chairnion  : 
Mr.  D.  V.  Shaw. 

Rttiiltrei  undtr  Iht  War  Charillts  Acl. 
Av:hori$ed  by  th*  Central  Pritentrt  of  War  Committee, 


22 


Land   &    Water 


April   II,  1918 


(Continued  from  page  20.) 
probably  they  are  wise  in  taking  this  course.    They  have, 
however,  summarised  their  conclusions  a&  follows  :— 

Weight. — TJie  weight  of  tractor  should  not  exceea  ^o  cwt. 
Horse-po'wer. — Should     be     ample.      Not     less     than 
20  B.H.P. 

Caterpillars  and  Wheels. — Caterpillar  tracks  have  not 
been  shown  to  possess  any  advantage  in  gripping-power 
over  the  best  type  of  wheels. 


On  Heavy  Ground 

spikes,  Bars,  and  Sptids. — Well-designed  spuds  {on 
■.wheels)  appear  preferable  to  either  spikes  or  bars. 

Accessibility  and  Protection. — Working  parts  of  machin- 
■ery  should  be  readily  accessible.  Complete  protection 
■against  weather  and  interference  should  be  provided. 

Brakes. — Adequate  brakes  should  be  fitted. 

Durability. — Exposed  gear  drives  on  wheel  tractors  and 
excessive  wear  on  caterpillar  tracks  tend  to  impair  dura- 
bility. 

Speeds. — 2\  and  4  miles  per  hour  forward,  with  reverse, 
appear  to  be  most  generally  useful. 

Fuel. — Complete  vaporisation  of  paraffin  does  not  appear 

to  have  been  generally  attained,  and  it  may  be  found  more 

satisfactory  to  use  petrol  when  normal  conditions  return. 

Price.— The  price  should  not  exceed  £300. 

'Several  of  the  tractors  entered  for  the  demonstrations  would 

mot  comply  with  these  conditions,  and  from  a  study  of  the 

particulars  of  each  machine  it  is  not   difficult 

to  reduce  the  number,  from  which  to  make  a 

selection,  to  comparatively  narrow  hmits.- 

There  do  not  seem,  meanwhile,  to  be  many 
reliable  records  of  the  cost  of  operating  tractors 
for  ploughing  or  other  work.  Much  naturally 
depends  on  the  skill  of  the  man  in  charge  for 
freedom  from  minor  accidents  and  breakdowns, 
which  in  many  instances  have  been  the  cause 
of  unforeseen  and  exasperating  delays.  Even 
where  accurate  records  exist  of  the  cost  of 
wages,  fuel,  etc.,  there  must  be  an  element  of 
uncertainty  as  to  the  proper  allowance  for  de- 
preciation, and  for  current  repairs  and  replace- 
ments. It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  cost  of 
ploughing  by  tractor  is  not  meanwhile  any  less 
than  ploughing  with  horses,  the  rates  charged 
for  the  hire  of  tractors  varving  from  20s.  to 
25s.  per  acre. 

With  increasing  reliability,  reduction  of  prime 
cost,  and,  above  all,  substantial  reduction  in  the 
price  of  oil  and  petrol,  there  is  every  reason  to 
anticipate  that  the  operating  charges  may  be 
substantially  reduced  in  the  future.     It  must  be 
acknowledged  that,  in  spite  of  present  defects 
and  shortcomings,    the    tractor   has    been  the 
means  in  a  national  emergency  of  getting  a  considerable  area 
of  land  ploughed  and  put   under  crop  which   would  have 
otherwise  remained  in  grass.     The  sphere  of  usefulness  of  the 
tractor  is  by  no  means  confined  to  ploughing.     It  has  been 
tried  with  some  measure  of  success  in  various  other  agricul- 
tural operations,  such  as  cultivating,  harrowing,  drilling  com 
hauling  reapers  and  self-binders,  and  also  when  stationary  for 
■  driving  a  threshing  mill. 

It  seems  probable,   however,  that,  whatever  the  tractor 
•  may  accomplish  on  the  land,  it  is  not  likely  to  be  efficient  for 


road-haulage  purposes.  In  the  fi.rst  place,  the  speeds  suit- 
able for  work  on  the  land  are  too  slow  for  road  transport, 
and  to  design  the  engine  and  gears  for  higher  speeds  would 
not  only  add  to  the  weight,  but  would  unduly  complicate  the 
machine.  Another  practical  difficulty  in  adapting  tractors 
for  road  haulage  is  the  absence  of  springs.  These  would 
merely  add  to  the  weight  without  any  corresponding  advan- 
tage for  work  on  the  land,  while  for  road  transport  strong 
springs  are  almost  essential  in  order  to  protect  the  engine 
and  working  parts  from  excessive  vibration. 
Fortunately,  another  form  of  road  transport 
suitable  for  agricultural  purposes  is  already 
available  in  the  motor  lorry,  carrying  a  load  of 
from  one  to  three  tons.  The  lighter  types  have 
proved  of  great  value,  especially  for  market  gar- 
den and  for  dairy  work.  To  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  more  remote  and  outlying  districts, 
however,  the  motor  carrying  a  three-ton  load  is 
preferable  in  every  respect.  The  cost  of  horse 
haulage  has  become  almost  prohibitive  in  carry- 
ing out  agricultural  improvements  such  as  lim- 
ing, draining,  or  the  erection  of  new  buildings, 
unless  a  railway  station  is  available  within  a  few 
miles.  Even  the  routine  carting  of  grain,  feed- 
ing stuffs,  manures,  and  coals  is  becoming  an 
increasingly  costly  item  of  expenditure.  Ex- 
perience has  proved  that  the  larger  the  load 
carried  by  motor  lorry  the  lower  the  cost  per 
ton  ;,  but  the  application  of  this  principle  is 
limited  in  country  districts  by  the  capacity  of 
the  roads  to  stand  the  traffic,  and  a  further  limit 
is  placed  upon  the  width  and  length  of  the 
motor,  by  the  narrowness  of  gates  and  roads, 
and  the  sharp  turns  which  may  have  to  be  en- 
countered. In  practice,  therefore,  it  has  been 
found  that  a  motor  lorry  weighing  three  tons  unladen  and 
carrying  a  three-ton  load  is  about  the  most  convenient  size. 
Many  thousands  .of  motors  of  this  type  must  be  in  use 
for  military  purposes,  some  of  which  might  be  subsequently 
made  available  for  rural  transport.  It  would  be  impossible 
for  any  but  the  largest  farms  to  find  constant  employment  for 
a  motor  of  this  type,  but  the  purchase  and  management  of  a 
three-ton  motor  at  rates  of  hire  calculated  to  cover  all  working 
costs  and  depreciation  would  be  an  eminently  suitable  object 
for  farmers  or  small-holders,  co-operative  societies  or  similar 
bodies.  In  many  instances,  no  doubt,  the  owner  of  an  estate 
might  acquire  such  a  motor  for  estate  purposes,  and  [for 
hire  to  tenants  on  the  estate. 

The  choice  of  machinery  and  implements  open  to  the 
agriculturist  is  now  so  wide  that  there  is  a  strong  temptation 
to  the  enthusiast  entering  upon  farming  to  purchase  more 
than  he   actually   requires,  and  to  sink  too  much  capital  in 


A  General  Farm  Tractor 

this  branch  of  expenditure.  The  safest  test  to  apply,  to  any 
machinery  or  plant  not  in  constant  use,  is  that  of  the  balance- 
sheet.  Is  the  saving  which  it  is  expected  to  make  in  manual 
labour  or  in  other  ways  at  least  equal  to  the  depreciation  on 
the  particular  implement  or  machine  and  the  interest  on  its 
cost  ?  If,  to  use  a  term  beloved  of  Cabinet  Ministers,  "the 
answer  is  in  the  affirmative,"  the  contemplated  purchase  is 
clearly  desirable.  If,  on  the  contrary,  "the  answer  is  in  the 
negative,"  the  purchase  is  undesirable,  and  the  money  can 
be  better  spent  on  some  other  fnrm  nf  atrrimUnrai  rMifioT, 


LAND&WATER 

VoLLXXl.     No.  29.9.     [vir.]  THURSDAY,  APRIL  18,   191 8  [r^S^Tr^H    ^J^i^^fgE^P^^l 


Daily  Mirror  Photo 


Brigadier-General  Sandeman  Carey,  C.B. 


Land    &   Water  April  i8,  191 8 

.   The  Flanders  Battlefields 


Duck-walks  below  the  Passchendaele  Ridge 


Sunset,  Inverness  Copse 

By  Lieut.  Paiil  Nash,  nn  Official  Artist  at  the  Front 


April  I  8,  19 1 8 


Land   &   Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephoac  :   H0L60RN    2828. 

THURSDAY,  APRIL  i8,  1918. 

Contents 

PAGE 

Brigadier-General  Sandeman  Carey,  C.B.  (Photograph)  i 
The  Flanders  Battlefields.     (Illustrations.)     By  Paul  Nash    2 

The  Outlook  3 

Battle  of  the  Lys.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 
Liberty  Against  Kaiserism.     By  Raemaekers            10  and  11 

Lichnowsky's  Revelations.     By  Sir  Mortimer  Durand  12 

The  Irish  Convention.     By  Harold  Cox  13 

Fay  and  the  Bombs.     By  French  Strother  15 

From  a  German  Note  Book  16 

Shakespeare's  Sonnets.     By  J.  C.  Squire  17 

Official  Art.     (Illustrated.)     By  Charies  Marriott  18 

Electrification  of  Seeds.     By  Charles  Mercier  19 

The  Attorney-General's  Pilgrimage.     (Revniew)  20 

Domestic  Economy  22 

Notes  on  Kit                                                ■     /  25 

The  Outlook 

IN  the  extreme  gravity  of  the  present  moment  the 
prime  duty  of  all  is  to  keep  their  sense  of  proportion. 
Panic  is  the  worst  of  counsellors.  Next  worst  is  dis- 
tortion. The  magnitude  of  the  war  has  been  such 
from  its  very  origins  that  this  task  has  been  exceed- 
ingly hard  to  fulfil.  There  has  been  something  of  the  contrast 
here  which  one  gets  in  private  life  when  there  is  Death  in  the 
house.  The  little  affairs  of  every  day  go  on  side  by  side  with 
the  tremendous  event  which  overshadows  us.  What  is  more, 
we  do  not  get  out  of  the  rut  of  the  past.  We  do  not  forget 
or  see  the  pettiness  of  our  ordinary  anxieties  imtil  long 
after  the  blow  has  fallen. 

So  it  is  with  these  terrible  four  years  and  their  present 
climax.  We  are  all  inevitably  driven  to  see  things  out  of 
perspective ;  to  remember  political  quarrels  which  are  now 
meaningless ;  still  to  discuss  personalities  and  policies  of 
finance  or  domestic  administration,  when  all  that  should 
really  concern  us  is  that  overhanging  issue,  the  maintenance 
or  the  fall  of  England.  No  one  escapes  from  tliis  unfor- 
tunate and  inevitable  lack  of  proportion,  but  every  man  ran 
escape  from  it  in  that  degree  at  least  to  which  he  makes  his 
effort  to  see  things  as  they  are.  It  is  possible  to  state  things 
as  they  are.  It  hais  been  done  over  and  over  again  here  and 
elsewhere.  It  may  be  made  yet  clearer  with  each  repetition, 
and  there  is  still  ample  need  for  the  reiteration  of  the  truth. 
«  *  * 

Prussia,  strong  in  a  vast  alliance  of  various  dependencies, 
forced  on  what  she  thought  would  be  a  short  and  triumphant 
war.  These  dependencies  were  (for  the  purposes  of  war) 
almost  subjects.  The  Prussian  and  Austro-Hungarian  armies 
had. one  word  of  command  and  one  system  of  drill  and  organi- 
sation, from  Lemberg  and  from  Konigsberg  to  the  North  Sea, 
the  Vosges,  and  the  Alps.  They  had  a  population  of  121 
millions  to  recruit  from.  They  had  no  active  internal  diffi- 
culties within  their  boundaries.  It  is  quite  futile  to  discuss 
the  Prussian  motive  ;  it  is  enough  to  affirm  it.  That  motive 
was  a  mixture  of  wounded  vanity,  exaggerated  (almost 
insane)  pride,  including  a  mystical  beUef  in  a  "mission"  of 
vileness  ;  contempt  for  things  outside  the  orbit  of  Prussia  ; 
and  all  this  mixed  with  two  apparently  (but  not  really  con- 
tradictory) things  ;  curiously  detailed  and  treasonable  study 
of  special  conditions  in  countries  other  than  those  which 
Prussia  dominated  ;  and  an  ignorance  of  their  soul.  Prussia, 
thus  prepared  and  inflamed,  desired  the  war,  Prussia  made 
the  war,  and  her  closest  friends  abroad  (and  here)  have, 
under  the  recent  effects  of  domestic  revelations  and  her  last 
military  policy,  themselves  abandoned  the  ridiculous  false- 
hood of  some  "misunderstanding."  There  is  a  clean  conflict 
between  a  mere  ruining  foice  in  Europe  and  the  civihsation 
"Ivhich  it  is  attempting  to  destroy.  Prussia  wanted  the  war ; 
Prussia  launched  the  war.  If  Prussia  loses,  Europe  lives. 
If  Prussia  wins,  Europe  breaks  down. 

*  *  « 

The  ability  Prussia  has  thus  discovered  after  a  long  siege 
to  press  the  issue  to  an  immediate  conclusion  is  entirely  due 


to  the  collapse  of  the  Eastern  front.  Nothing  that  we  could 
have  done  in  the  West  would  have  saved  the  situation.  That 
situation  was  produced  entirely  by  the  internal  condition  of 
the  Russian  Empire.  That  State — largely  artificial — existed 
through  and  by  an  autocratic  central  machine.  The  religious 
foundation  of  that  autocracy  had  long  declined  ;  it  had 
recently  been  actively  challenged  ;  it  was  in  rapid  decay. 
It  had  governed  and  united  artificially  a  vast  population, 
exceedingly  backward  according  to  the  standards  of  modem 
material  civihsation,  and  particularly  backward  in  the 
industrial  development  of  to-day. 

Being  thus  backward,  the  common  enemy  pushed  this, 
our  insufficient  ally,  back  by  hundreds  of  miles  when  once 
the  original  stock  of  supply  was  exhausted.  The  populations 
under  the  Tsar  suffered  frightful  losses,  and  thereby  was 
provoked  an  aeritation  against  the  only  possible  form  of 
government  which  could  hold  together  what  had  hitherto 
been  called  the  Russian  Empire.  When  that  agitation 
passed  a  certain  point  the  autocracy  and  its  central  govern- 
ment collapsed.  Nothing  could  take  its  place. 
'  *  *  * 

It  is  foolish  to  regard  the  sly,  cowardly,  and  corrupt  inter- 
national elements  that  then  came  to  the  front  as  mere  paid 
agents  of  the  Germans,  though  the  Germans  indirectly  sub- 
sidised many  of  them.  They  thought  peace  with  the  enemy 
an  obvious  good  because  the  love  of  country  which  alone  can 
make  the  abominable  suffering  of  war  tolerable  was  ridiculous  to 
them.  They  had  no  country.  The  mere  fact  that  they  tempted 
men  with  a  rehef  from  the  terrible  strain  drew  to  them  at 
once  the  mass  of  the  broken-up  soldiery  and  the  worn-out 
countrysides.  The  enemy  from  that  moment  had  nothing 
more  to  fear  upon  the  East.  The  siege  under  which  he  had 
lived  for  three  years  was  raised.  He  could  concentrate 
entirely  upon  the  West.  The  result  was  that  from  last 
summer  onwards  the  initiative  passed  into  his  hands. 

He  struck  first,  last  autumn,  in  Italy,  overrunning  a 
whole  province;  capturing  a  quarter  of  a  million  men  and 
half  the  artillery  of  his  Itahan  opponent ;  he  was  only  just 
prevented  from  driving  that  opponent  wholly  out  of  the 
field.  The  weight  of  his  attack  having  proved  so  rapidly 
and  easily  successful,  his  losses  were  not  yet  serious,  and  he 
was  free  to  design  at  leisure  the  risk  of  a  next  blow  against 
his  chief  antagonists,  the  French  and  the  Enghsh,  between 
the  Alps  and  the  North  Sea.  But  when  we  say  that  such  a 
policy  was  a  policy  of  risk,  we  are  saying  a  thing  not  less 
obvious  than  his  power  to  undertake  it  upon  his  own  initia- 
tive. His  domestic  conditions  were  (from  lack  of  food,  and 
especially  of  lubricants  and  fats)  getting  desperate.  The 
United  States  would,  in  time,  provide  overwhelming  masses 
of  men  and  material  against  him.  His  great  Western  attack, 
therefore,  unless  it  were  immediately  successful,  might  be  so 
expensive  as  to  leave  him  at  the  end  of  it  exhausted  before 
he  could  reap  its  fruits. 

*  *  * 

He  took  the  risk  in  the  fiJlest  sense  He  engaged 
all  he  could  p>ossibly  engage.  Opening  his  attack  upon 
March  21st,  he  has  continued  it  to  the  present  day.  He  has 
paid  a  price  in  total  casualties  which  amount  already  to 
nearly  one-third  of  his  available  margin  for  offence ;  and  the 
corresponding  losses  he  has  inflicted  upon  an  equal  opponent 
who  (if  Pru.ssia  fails)  wiU  soon  be  a  greatly  superior  opponent, 
are  much  less  than  his  own.  It  is  none  the  less  worth  his 
while  to  press  the  adventure  on.  For  if  he  loses,  he  does 
but  die  earlier,  having  to  die  anyhow ;  whereas  if  he  wins 
before  he  reaches  his  maximum  possible  expenditure  in  men 
— perhaps  double  what  he  has  already  invested — he  will 
have  saved  himself  and  have  destroyed  us. 

In  this  tremendous  moment  he  is  occupied  in  pursuing 
such  a  gamble  of  hfe  and  death.  Nor  must  we  misjudge  the 
situation  either  through  overstrain  during  its  sharpest 
moments  or  through  reaction  during  the  checks  he  receives. 
Whatever  happens  during  the  process  of  the  great  battle 
—it  is  all  one  battle  on  whatever  sector  he  may  choose 
successively  to  fling  himself — the  ultimate  issue  is  the  only 
thing  that  counts.  Either  he  will  fail  before  breaking  us 
— in  which  case  he  has  failed  for  good,  and  we  shall  reap  the 
full  fruits  of  the  failure  rapidly  enough — or  he  will  succeed 
in  breaking  us  before  his  last  margin  of  men  is  spent.  He  has 
himself  forbidden  himself  all  opportunity  for  a  third  course. 
I/he  exhausts  his  remaining  margin  without  reaching  a  decision, 
he  is  at  our  mercy. 

In  the  presence  of  this  obvious  truth,  there  is  only  one 
problem,  and  it  is  a  problem  of  hfe  and  death.  It  is 
how  to  increase  the  military  strength  of  the  nation 
by  the  means — principally  indirect — which  are  alone 
now  open  to  us  between  this  moment  and  the  end  of  the 
summer.  For  in  those  few  weeks  (and  they  will  pass  with 
terrible  rapidity)  the  fate  of  this  country  will  be  decided. 


Land    Sc   Water 


April  I  8,  1918 


I 


o 

L_ 


L_ 


2D 


30  l^fifes-' 


Is^ot^k      Sc  a 


'^sMXX^Qi'at'' 


Wx^iS 


StOvazx 


5r.PoL 


v\^ 


■J>, 


^. 


AAIIENi 


Fronton  April  8^ 

Allied  Double  ^xzcA  railtvays  j  1  1 1  1 1 

German  7)oa6le  t^ac£  rai/ways  ■. 


Mill 


Tpres 


^( 


3 


>♦♦< 


Hoz^broLU-'t 


/•gi 


Aniu:»itii:rcs 


♦^ 


'fttiime****fc 


■  ■: 


Arroi, 


/ 


^*/*j»*^^aml?riui 


,'Rontidukr 


The  Two  German  Salients 


April  1 8,  191  8 


Land    &    Water 


Battle  of  the  Lys  :    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


THE  present  action  of  the  enemy  in  Flanders  is 
connected  thus  with  the  campaign  as  a  whole  : — 
The  enemy  had  planned  to  make  his  great 
attack  in  the  West  upon  March  21st.  He  had 
concentrated  for  that  object  a  far  greater  weight 
of  artillery  than  had  ever  been  gathered  before.  Out  of  a 
total  force  of  not  quite  200  divisions  available  for  every  kind 
of  service,  he  marked  down  actually  over  one-half,  and  those 
tlie  best,  for  a  particular  object — to  fail  or  to  succeed  in 
which  would  probably  decide  the  war. 

What  that  object  was  is  now  as  clear  as  daylight.  Now 
that  we  know  he  was  prepared  to  put  in  one  hundred  divisions, 
and  now  that  we  have  seen  the  continuous  expenditure  in 
men  which  he  deliberately  permitted,  it  is  mere  nonsense  to 
speak  of  the  great  attack  of  three  weeks  ago  as  but  one  of 
two  or  more  plans.  It  was  as  single  and  as  decisive  a  moment 
as  ever  there  has  been  in  military  history.  His  aim  was  to 
tear  through  the  British  line  as  near  to  its  right  as  possible, 
where  it  joined  the  French  ;  to  pour  through  the  gap,  restore 
a  war  of  movement — for  which  he  had  been  training  close 
on  a  million  men  first  and  last  for  months — and  by  his 
rapidity  and  the  superior  value  he  claimed  in  such  a  war  of 
movement  to  thrust  the  British  Army  up  north  with  blow 
upon  blow  towards  the  sea,  daily  reducing  its  value  as  an 
opponent,  and  rapidly  thus  achieving  a  decision. 

There  existed,  as  he  well  knew  and  perpetually  discussed 
in  his  Press,  a  large  AlUed  force  free  from  the  line  and  ready 
to  act  as  a  mass  of  manoeuvre.  That  was  his  risk.  But  his 
insurance  against  that  risk  lay  ii^the  calculated  rapidity  of 
his  action  against  the  British  Army  when  it  should  have  been 
torn  asunder  from  its  Allies  and  should  be  compelled  to  what 
he  conceived  would  be  its  increasing  confusion  in  an  open 
war.  The  British  Army  had  been  created  during  a  period  of 
siege  war ;  once  manoeuvring  at  large,  he  thought  himself 
its  master. 

We  know  what  followed.  It  was  the  unexpected  for  both 
sides — much  the  most  general  happening  in  war.  He  did 
break  through.  He  did  restore  a  war  of  movement.  But 
he  just  did  not  succeed  in  maintaining  it.  The  flood  began 
to  pour  through,  but  was  rapidly  dammed.  Its  full  energy 
was  maintained  for  nearly  a  week.  By  the  tenth  day — that 
is,  by  Easter  Sunday — it  was  slowly  gaining  in  a  few  last 
waves,  but  had  already  come  up  against  a  sufficient  bank  of 
resistance.  In  a  day  or  two  over  the  fortnight  it  was  defin- 
itely held  :  for  the  last  great  assault  of  April  4th  failed 
with  murderous  loss. 

A  number  of  subsidiary  advantages  which  the  enemy  had 
gained  were  the  elimination  of  a  quantity  of  Allied  material, 
the  threat  to  one  great  line  of  communications,  etc.  But  on  the 
debit  side  there  was  far  more,  and  the  balance  was  against 
the  German.  He  had  lost  upon  the  balance,  far  more  men 
than  his  equal  opponent,  just  in  this  phase  Of  the  war  when 
the  whole  thing  is  a  struggle  of  each  to  reduce  the  effective 
numbers  of  his  foe.  Ahd  he  found  himself  upon  an  abomin- 
able line,  with  high  ground  against  him  everywhere,  with  a 
huge  vulnerable  flank  of  over  20  miles  on  the  south,  and 
more  than  half  as  much  again  to  hold  in  mileage  without 
prepared  defences  as  he  had  before  he  began. 

The  price  of  all  tliis  failure — for  it  was  a  failure — was  the 
eUmination  of  a  great  part  of  the  margin  which  he  had  free 
for  attack  over  and  beyond  what  was  necessary  to  hold  his 
line. 

He  had  no  option  but  to  make  a  new,  a  separate  movement, 
while  the  continued  holding  of  their  hands  by  the  Allies 
permitted  him  the  initiative  of  risking  these  continued  losses. 
tie  might  make  that  movement  wherever  he  chose.  He 
might  have  made  it,  for  instance,  upon  any  part  of  the  great 
new  Montdidier  salient.  He  might  even  mal;e  it  where  his 
last  pressure  had  ebbed  away  on  the  westernmost  point  of 
that  advance  towards  .'\miens.  But  even  so,  it  would  have 
been  a  second  and  a  separate  effort,  and  would  have  had  to 
be  made  with  less  strength  tharj  the  first,  for  tlie  simple 
reason  that  less  strength  remained  to  him. 

He  decided,  as  a  fact,  to  make  it  upon  the  northern  sector 
of  Lille  ;  acting  thus  as  he  has  always  acted,  to  wit,  in  copy 
of  his  own  past  ;  for  to  strike  alternately  and  to  create 
double  salients  was  his  method  all  through  his  Russian 
campaign  and  remains  his  gospel  for  his  last  effort  in  the 
West.  The  date  April  9th  was  chosen  for  this  second  effort, 
and,  as  I  have  said,  the  sector  in  front  of  Lille  and  an  ultimate 
development  of  20  miles  of  front  there— less  than  half  that 
of  his  first  effort — was  his  choice. 


The  reasons  for  which  the  enemy  chose  this  particular 
sector  of  attack  may  be  tabulated  as  follows  : — 

(i)  It  was  as  far  north — that  is,  as  distant  from  hi^  first 
main  battlefield  and  point  of  pressure  in  front  of  Amiens-^ 
as  could  usefully  be  chosen  to  impose  by  its  distance  a  maxi- 
mum strain  upon  Alhed  reinforcement.  Had  he  struck  yet 
further  north  he  would  have  had  high  ground  in  front  of  him 
and  north  of  that  again  flooded  country. 

(3)  Striking  thus  not  in  the  extreme  north,  but  in  the 
north  of  the  centre  he  could  threaten  the  communications 
of,  and  therefore,  if  he  were  immediately  successful,  would 
destroy  all  the  British  forces  that  lay  between  his  point  of 
attack  and  the  sea. 

(3)  He  knew  that  there  were  here  not  a  few  divisions 
sent  to  redress,  under  the  conditions  of  a  sector  long  quiet, 
the  strain  and  loss  which  they  had  suffered  elsewhere  ;  and 
he  knew  in  particular  that  one  division  consisted  of  what  he 
was  pleased  to  describe  as  second-class  troops. 

(4)  He  enjoyed  a  remarkable  superiority  in  railway  com- 
munication. 

This  point  is  of  such  importance  that  I  would  beg  my 
readers  to  consider  it  in  detail. 

Railway  Communications 

If  the  reader  will  turn  back  to  Map  I.,  and  look  at  the 
sinuous  Une  of  the  front  as  it  stood  from  the  Amiens-Arras 
sector  to  the  sea  at  Nieuport  upon  April  8th — the  eve  of  the 
new  offensive — he  will  perceive  what  admirable  oppor- 
tunities for  concentration  upon  Lille  the  railways,  double 
and  single,  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans  present ;  and,  at 
the  same  time,  how  perfect  is  the  continuous  line  of  lateral 
communications  from  Ostend  southward  through  Lille  and 
Douai  and  Cambrai.  The  whole  is  a  double-line  railway, 
with  the  exception  of  the  strip  between  A  and  B.  This  in 
the  past  four  years  he  must  surely  have  doubled — no  very 
difiicult  task,  for  it  runs  through  flat  country.  When  I 
speak  of  this  part  of  the  hne  as  single,  I  am  entirely  depen- 
dent upon  information  as  belated  as  that  of  1913.  Unless 
I  am  mistaken,  the  section  between  A  and  B  was  a  single 
line  in  that  year ;  but  all  the  rest  of  the  lateral  communica- 
tion was  a  double  track,  and  we  observe  that  it  exactly 
follows  the  line  of  the  front  all  the  way  down,  and  at  a  suffi- 
cient distance  from  that  to  be  continuously  available, 
in  spite  of  the  heavy  work  done  against  it  from  the  air. 
Upon  Lille  itself  there  converge  no  less  than  five  great  main 
lines  of  double  track,  probably  increased  by  this  time,  as 
I  have  just  said,  to  six.  There  are,  of  course,  large  railway  . 
works  and  sheds,  innumerable  sidings,  and  all  the  oppor- 
tunities for  concentration  afforded  by  a  great  town. 

Now  contrast  this  with  the  corresponding  communications 
upon  the  Allied  side  in  reference  to  the  sedqr  of  attack. 

Here  also  there  is  a  lateral  line :  Dunkirk-Hazebrouck- 
B6thune-St.  Pol-Amiens.  But  it  is  devoid,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  sector  opposite  Lille,  of  any  great  centre  of 
concentration — the  best  is  the  comparatively  small  though 
exceedingly  important  junction  of  Hazebrouck.  It  has — or 
had— a  very  considerable  sector  of  single  line  ;  it  is  indif- 
ferently parallel  to  the  front,  approaching  it  far  too  close  at 
Bethune,  receding  too  much  from  it  elsewhere.  What 
Hazebrouck  means,  by  the  way,  we  shall  see  later  on,  when 
we  consider  the  field  of  action  in  detail.  The  alternative  line 
behind  the  nearest  lateral  communication  is  the  great  main  rail- 
way Amiens-Calais  ;  the  hilly  country  between,  coupled  with  the 
necessity  of  linking  up  the  ports,  has  thrust  this  line  far  back. 

Added   to   these   advantages   in    railway    communication 

which  the  enemy  would  enjoy  if  he  chose  this  Lille  sector  for 

his  second  offensive  was  the  fact  that,  so  far  as  railways 

were  concerned,  he  was  virtually  working  upon  interior  lines. 

Let  me  explain  this  point. 

If  you  are  working  within  a  large  concave,  such  as  that  of 
.\-B  in  the  accompanying  diagram,  and  if  both  your  lateral 
communication  C-D  and  that  of  your  opponent  E-F  are 
each  roughly  parallel  to  the  front,  it  is  clear  that  you  can 
move  your  troops  more  quickly  than  your  opponent  can 
move  his.  You  can  bring  a  particular  unit  of  yours  from 
D  to  C  in  a  little  more  than  half  the  time  that  he  can  bring 
a  unit  of  his  from  F  to  E.  That  is  called  the  strategic  advan- 
tage of  working  upon  interior  lines.  There  is  no  sucii  advan- 
tage, of  course,  when  the  concavity  is  small  and  cramped, 
but  the  advantages  are  obvious  when  it  is  large. 

Now  this  advantage  of  interior  lines  exists  in  another  form 


Land  &  Water 


April  1 8,  1 91 8 


even  if  your  front  has  not  a  concave  shape,  for  it  exists 
when  your  most  vital  and  necessary  communications  (which 
to-day,  in  spite  of  the  extension  of  petrol  traffic,  still  take 
the  rare  and  expensive  shape  of  railways)  give  you  more 
rapid  movement.  For  instance,  your  front  might  be  actually 
convex  as  in  H-K,  but  if  your  lateral  communications  were 
short  and  convenient  hke  M-N,  while  those  of  your  opponent 
were  long  and  inconvenient  like  0-P,  you  would  still  have 
the  advantage  of  what  could  technically  be  called  interior 
lines,  for  you  could  move  a  unit  from  M  to  N  more  rapidly 
than  your  opponent  couM  move  one  from  P  to  O. 

With  this  consideration  in  mind  we  have  only  to  look  at 
the  railway  map  of  Northern  France  and  Belgium  to  see 
that  the  enemy  here,  although  the  front  as  a  whole  is  not 
concave,  has  this  advantage,  and  if  we  consider  not  only 
the  northern  part  from  the  Arras-Amiens  sector  to  the  sea, 
but  the  whole  line  from  AlSace  to  the  sea,  the  greater  distance 
through  which  the  Allies  must  move  to  meet  an  enemy 
concentration  is  still  more  apparent. 

(5)  Apart  from  this  advantage  in  possessing  what  were 
virtually  interior  lines,  which  the  enemy  would  enjoy  if  he 
chose  this  sector  for  his  second  offensive,  there  were  certain 
local  advantages  which  will  appear  more  clearly  when  we 
discuss  the  action  in  detail.  He  had  the  great  town  of  Lille 
in  which  to  mass  unobserved  ;  it  was  screened  by  the  Aubers 
Ridge  ;  and  above  all,  certain  vital  nodal  points  of  commu- 
nication lay  dangerously  close  to  our  front,  notably  Hazebrouck, 
Cassel  and  B^thune.  If  the  reader  will  look  at  map  III. 
which  indicates  the  railways  and  main  roads  of  the  northern 
British  front  he  will  see  the  capital  importance  of  these  three 
points :    Hazebrouck,  Bethune  and  Cassel. 


Everything  coming  up  from  the  south  directly  by  rail 
must  go  through  Bethune.  Everything  com!  ng  indirectly  f rom' 
the  south  by  the  Boulogne  railway,  or  directly  from  the 
north  and  west,  the  Ports  of  the  Channel,  must  go  through 
Hazebrouck  junction.  The  only  line  excepted  is  the 
insufficient  single  coastal  line  Calais-Dunkirk.  Save 
round  by  the  coastal  road,  all  road  vehicles  supplying  and 
evacuating  that  front  converge  directly  upon  and  must  pass 
through  Cassel.  The  sea  was  not  far  behind  and  there 
could  be  no  rapid  retirement  of  a  large  force  beyond  a  sea 
line. 

(6)  For  what  it  is  worth,  there  was  the  moral  effect  of 
an  attack  developing  close  to  and  threatening  that  highlv 
sensitive  point  the  Straits  of  the  Channel,  the  shortest  and 
most  direct  communication  between  this  country  and  its 
forces  overseas.'  But  this  must  be  set  against  a  corresponding 
disadvantage  which  will  be  mentioned  in  a  moment. 

So  much  being  safd,  we  may  equally  tabulate  the 
disadvantages  and  therefore  risks  which  the  choice  of  this 
sector  would  entail  and  which  were  as  well  known  to  the 
enemy  as  to  ourselves. 

(r)  It  was  the  sector  upon  which  reinforcements  from  this 
country  could  be  poured  most  rapidly  and  the  one  behind 
which  was  the  largest  and  most  immediate  supply  of  material 
as  well  as  of  men. 

(2)  Upon  one  flank  at  least,  that  to  the  north,  was  the 
strong  position  of  the  Messines  Ridge,  continued  by  the  strong 
position  of  the  Passchendaele  Ridge.  To  the  south  there 
was  no  equally  strong  flank,  and  it  is  on  this  account,  as  we 
shall  see,  that  the  enemy  in  his  first  plan  made  Bethune 
his  chief  objective — an  objective  wliich  he  failed  to  reach 
through  the  gallantry  of  the  Lancashire  troops.  He  knew 
then  that  if  he  did  not  succeed  upon  his  left  at  Bethune 
his  right  would  almost  certainly  be  held  on  the  Wytschaete- 
Messines  heights  and  th%t  he  would  be  condemned  to  action 
upon  the  comparatively  narrow  front  of  10  miles. 

(3)  The  triple  lines  in  front  of  him — that  is,  the  defensive 
zone  which  he  had  to  break — ran  through  difficult,  marshy 
ground,  cut  by  numerous  dykes,  and  the  countryside  having 
been  densely  populated  before  the  war  was  fuU  of  strong 
posts  in  the  ruins  of  cottages  and  farms.  The  enemy  was 
therefore  well  justified  in  boasting  of  a  special  feat  when  he 
proved  his  capacity  to  break  through  this  long-prepared  and 
difficult  organisation.  Further,  there  lay  immediately 
behind  this  defensive  zone  an  obstacle,  not  very  formidable, 
indeed,  but  still  not  negligible,  in  the  shape  of  the  Lys  River. 
This  little  stream  is  a  partly  canalised  piece  of  water,  quite 
narrow  (hardly  anywhere  100  feet  across),  and  in  most  places 
fordable  so  far  as  depth  is  concerned ;  but  it  has  a  muddj' 
bottom,  and  the  approaches  are  often  marshy. 

(4)  Any  such  offensive  would,  after  the  failure  of  his  main 


3c?     T^Ues       JO 

—I _i 


liailivays  T^ouBle 

Single  . 

n^iain  TZxids 


^{cupoefr 


TrozitofAprilS^ 


Tkulo^i 


April    I  8,  19 1 8 


Land   Sc   Water 


scheme  in  the  south  between  Arras  and  the  Oise,  with  its 
vast  expense  in  men,  depend  upon  a  smaller  attacking  force 
for  its  conduct.  This  was  by  far  the  most  important  matter 
from  the  enemy's  point  of  view.  The  new  offensive,  wherever 
it  was  decided  upon,  would  have  to  be  on  a  lesser  scale  than 
the  first,  and,  other  things  being  equal,  would  have  a  lesser 
chance  of  effecting  a  complete  decision.  If  he  were  to  exploit 
a  success  here  his  exploitation  would  have  to  be  rapid 
because  he  ha,d  already  committed  himself  irrevocably  in 
another  and  distant  field  to, the  use  of  the  great  mass  of  his 
men,  to  the  loss  of  a  great  proportion  of  them,  to  the  pinning 
down  of  many  for  the  maintenance  of  an  open,  greatly  in- 
creased, and  extended  front. 

We  shall  not  understand  the  battle  it  all,  even  the  factors 
against  us,  still  less  the  factors  in  our  favour,  unless  we 
fully  appreciate  this  point,  which  I  have  already  emphasised 
but  to  which  I  would  return.  When  the  enemy  dehberatdy 
engaged  a  month  ago  in  what  may  properly  be  called  his 
great  speculation  between  Arras  and  the  Oise  he  banked 
upon  i^utting  in  more  than  half  of  his  total  numerical 
strength,  far  more  than  half  his  real  fighting  strength,  as 
measured  not  only  in  numbers,  but  in  the  efficiency  of  units. 
He  had  thus  mortgaged  on  the  speculation  of  victory  there 
the  most  of  all  that  he  had  in  men  and  material  available  for 
attack.  He  could,  of  course,  draw  up  very  considerable 
reinforcements  northwards  for  a  struggle  of  many  days,  5ut 
the  whole  thing  would  necessarily  be  on  a  reduced  scale. 

He  also  in  that  deliberately  planned  hazard  prepared  to 
lose,  and  did  lose,  men  upon  a  scale — measured  in  numbers 
and  time — unprecedented  even  in  this  war.  He  must  have 
lost  in  a  fortnight,  for  immediate  purposes  at  least,  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  million  men,  and  perhaps  nearer  a  third 
of  a  million.  An  even  larger  expenditure  would  have  been 
justified  had  it  produced  the  expected  rupture  between  the 
French  and  the  British.  FaiUng  to  produce  such  a  rupture, 
its  excess  over  the  expenditure  imposed  upon  the  AlUes  was 
dead  loss ;   and,  as  we  know,  that  rupture  was  not  effected. 

But  this  is  not  all.  His  full  measure  of  success  in  the 
south,  between  Arras  and  the  Oise,  had  put  him  upon  a 
trace  of  new  front  far  longer  than  his  old  one,  and  also  more 
expensive  to  hold.  Nowhere  in  all  that  new  front  did  the 
enemy  get  hold  of  good  defensive  dominating  positions.  He 
failed  with  very  heavy  loss  to  seize  the  Lassigny  Hills ;  he 
failed  to  take  the  Renaud  Hill  in  front  of  Noyon  ;   he  failed 


to  carry  the  great  glacis  which  slopes  up  westward  from  the 
Avre,  and  he  failed  to  take  the  especially  important  bank  of 
high  ground  west  of  Albert  and  the  Ancre  Valley  ;  he  failed 
to  carry  the  Vimy  Ridge  on  the  extreme  north.  He  started 
from  a  line  of  50  miles.  He  created  by  his  advance  a  line 
which,  in  all  its  sinuosities,  is  nearly  85  miles  in  length,  and 
on  the  whole  of  its  vast  concavity  he  was  not  in  any  one 
place  possessed  of  a  naturally  strong  defensive  position.  He 
was  everywhere  overlooked.  All  this  meant  that  he  would 
be  compelled  to  do  whatever  he  had  to  do  in  the  north  quickly 
and  with  but  a  reduced  remaining  margin  of  the  force  he 
could  spare  for  attack. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  discovered  that  even  at  the  moment 
when  his  destruction  of  the  main  defensive  zone  and  his 
passage  of  the  Lys  upon  the  first  day,  April  9th,  had  given 
him  his  great  opportunity,  he  could  not  throw  in,  fresh  and 
used  combined,  more  thf>n  thirty  divisions  over  a  period  of 
five  days.  That  is  a  very  large  number  positively,  of  course. 
It  indicates  a  loss  enormously  in  excess,  mile  for  mile,  time 
for  time,  prisoner  for  prisoner,  and  effect  for  effect,  of  what 
the  French  and  British  offensives  cost  in  the  past.  Also 
that  tremendous  expenditure  did  in  this  case  permit  him  to 
break  through  a  defensive  zone  and  create  for  a  time  a  war 
of  movement.  But  relatively,  even  this  great  number  repre- 
sents action  upon  a  scale  nearer  a  third  than  a  half  of  that 
upon  which  the  first  great  effort  of  March  had  been  designed. 

The  Action 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  details  of  the  action. 

The  enemy  as  he  conceived  his  plan  and  studied  the  battle- 
field before  him  had  the  following  ground  to  consider : —     . 

From  above  Merville  to  Armenti^res  the  little  river  Lys 
flows  through  a  plain  some  miles  to  the  north  of  which  nm, 
in  a  crescent,  a  series  of  obstacles  :  The  great  forest  of  Nieppe, 
the  slightly  rising  ground  of  Bailleul,  and  its  neighbourhood, 
and  at  last  the  Messines-Wytschaete  heights,  which  come 
down  near  to  the  river  again  on  the  east.  That  plain 
extends  south  of  the  rivor  for  some  five  miles,  up  to  the 
Aubers  Ridge,  covering  LiUe,  where  the  enemy  had  his 
observation-posts,  and  from  whence  (it  is  very  low)  he  over- 
looked the  scene  of  his  coming  attempt.  He  proposed  to 
break  through  upon  the  flat  from  Bethune  to  Armenti6res, 
seizing  Bethune  at  once  so  as  to  cut  the  final  junction  there 


'"""I""'-/!,,, 


IV 


V/ai 


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Hoiebrouck 


■',„,,  Vferrii  s 


Steenwerfce^ 


"Nieppe 


tpluits 
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''6EIKUNE 


J-Mia^ 


8 


Land    &    Water 


April   I  8,  1918 


and  to  prevent  his  action,  as  it  developed,  having  too  narrow 
a  base  and  the  salient  crea'ed  being  too  pronounced.  He 
proposed,  immediately  he  had  obtained  a  rupture  on  the 
flit  between  66  hune  and  Armentiferes  to  push  on  across 
the  Lys,  mushrooming  out  to  the  left  and  the  right  ;  upon 
the  left  getting  round  the  big  Nieppe  Wood  and  closing 
upon  Hazebrouck,  the  second  vital  railway  junction,  and 
upon  the  right  working  up  from  the  south  belunc^the  Messines 
Ridge,  while  further  forces  upon  his  right  came  into  play 
against  the  same  ridge  from  the  east.  With  that  ridge  gone, 
further  advance  right  and  left  turns  the  middle  of  the  crescent 
of  heights,  gives  him  Bailleul,  and  brings  him  up  towards 
Cassel,  the  great  junction  of  road  communication,  as  Haze- 
brouck is  of  railway  communication.  By  that  time,  if  the 
blow  could  be  struck  with  sufficient  rapidity,  he  would  have 
the  whole  of  the  forces  opposed  to  him  between  the  hills  of 
the  Artois,  which  run  from  St.  Omer  to  Calais,  and  the 
extreme  northern  front  which  runs  round  Ypres  to  the  sea 
at  Nieuport,  disorganised  and  undone. 

We  shall  see  in  what  measure  he  carried  out  this  pro- 
gramme, and  where  and  how  it  was  in  part — and,  let  us  hope, 
finally — checked. 

The  details  of  the  action  up  to  the  moment  of  writing 
cover  six  days,  Tuesday  morning  to  Sunday  night  inclusive, 
and  are  as  follows  : — 

At  8  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  Monday  the  8th  of  April, 
a  heavy  bombardment  opened  upon  a  front  of  about  12 
miles  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Houplines  beyond 
Armentieres  upon  the  north-east,  to  the  La  Hassle  Canal 
upon  the  south-west,  that  is,  over  all  the  flat  and  marshy 
plain  which  extends  southwards  from  the  Lys  River.  This 
bombardment  lasted  eight  hours,  ceasing  at  midnight.  The 
back  areas  were  particularly  heavily  searched  and  the  enemy 
employed  gas  very  extensively,  especially  against  the  towns 
which  were  points  of  concentration  far  behind  the  Allied 
lines  and  also  in  Armentieres  upon  their  front.  From  12 
midnight  to  4  a.m.  the  bombardment  ceased ;  but  at  5 
minutes  past  4  in  the  morning  of  Tuesday,  April  gth,  just 
before  dawn,  up  to  a  quarter  past  _$  in  some  places,  and  as 
late  as  half  past  5  in  others,  a  last  intensive  bombardment 
was  delivered  and  was  carried  on  not  only  along  this  line 
and  with  special  vigour  against  the  back  areas,  but  far  to 
the  south  of  the  La  Bassee  Canal,  in  order  to  prepare  what 
was  coming.  The  weather  was  very  misty — as  in  the  first 
great  affair  a  month  ago. 

At  a  quarter  past  5  a.m.,  just  as  it  grew  light,  the  first 
German  infantry  attack  was  launched  against  Neuve  Chapelle 
and  almost  immediately,  that  is  within  the  next  quarter  of 
an  hour,  the  whole  line  was  at  work  from  the  La  Bassee 
Canal  right  up  to  Armentieres.  Under  this  pressure,  the 
first,  second  and  third  lines  in  the  centre,  held  by  the 
Portuguese,  were  overrun.  Laventie,  a  strong  part  of  the 
organisation  on  the  last  or  third  line  was  reached  by  the 
enemy  by  about  11  o'clock,  and  though  certain  posts  still 
held  out  for  an  hour  or  two  later,  some  of  them  apparently 
even  up  to  2  o'clock,  the  centre  may  be  said  to  have  gone 
by  noon,  and  this  wide  breach  in  the  deferisive  zone  to  have 
been  created  in  the  first  six  hours  of  the  action. 

Meanwhile,  it  was  essential  for  the  enemy,  if  his  full  plan 
was  to  develop,  that  he  should  immediately  reach  B^thune 
upon  his  left.  If  he  failed  to  do  this,  if  this  corner  still 
held  for  any  considerable  time  against  him,  the  presence  of 
the  strong  Messines  Ridge  on  his  right,  coupled  with  this 
resistance  upon  his  left,  would  cramp  him  within  a  compar- 
atively narrow  gate,  and  though  he  might  expand  the  area 
he  should  occupy  beyond  that  gate  and  to  the  north  and 
west  of  it,  he  would  inevitably  be  checked  in  his  advance 
unless  the  neck  of  the  area  were  widened.  Essential  as 
it  was  for  him  to  seize  Bethune  at  the  earliest  possible  moment 
in  this  first  successful  shock,  he  threw  in  directly  westward 
towards  against  the  point  of  Givenchy  no  less  than  four 
divisions  out  of  a  total  eight  (rapidly  increasing  to  eleven) 
which  he  had  put  forward  for  his  first  blow. 

But  at  Givenchy  a  division  which  he  had  hoped  to  find 
weak  from  fatigue,  the  55th  from  the  western  part  of  Lanca- 
shire and  Liverpool,  upset  his  plan.  The  ruins  of  Givenchy 
stand  upon  a  very  slight  rise  of  ground,  only  just  showing 
above  the  general  level  of  that  flat  and  marshy  land.  Fight- 
ing four  to  one  the  ruins  were  rushed  by  the  enemy,  appar- 
ently before  noon  ;  but  the  Lancashire  men  retook  them. 
Further  masses  of  the  enemy  debouched  from  La  Bassee  and 
fought  all  day  to  re-obtain  the  place.  During  the  night 
they  once  more  entered  the  ruins,  and  were  once  more  thrown 
out,  and  by  Wednesday  morning  Givenchy  still  held,  covering 
Bethune — covering,  therefore,  the  important  double  track 
of  railway  by  which  communication  is  maintained  from  the 
south  to  Hazebrouck,  and  which  comes  nearest  the  enemy's 
Une  (and  is  therefore  most  imperilled)   at  Bethune.    This 


unique  and  splendid  local  defence  of  Givenchy  modified  at 
its  very  outset  the  course  of  the  battle.  Elsewhere  the  whole 
of  the  Tuesday  was  taken  up  by  the  enemy  in  reaching, 
and  attempting  to  cross,  the  line  of  the  Lys.  He  could  only 
touch  the  river  at  the  extreme  of  the  salient  he  had  created 
— that  is,  opposite  Estaires,  perhaps  near  Sailly,  and  opposite 
St.  Maur,  where  there  used  to  be  a  ferry,  succeeded  for  many 
years  past  by  a  bridge.  All  these  three  points  are  approached 
by  a  road.  To  the  left  of  these  points  the  continued  defence 
of  Lestrem  held  him  and  on  the  right  the  continued  defence 
1>\-  the  British  of  Fleurbaix. 

The  Lys  Forced 

The  accounts  are  still  somewhat  confused,  so  that  exact 
hours  cannot  be  given  ;  but  apparently  the  enemy  forced 
his  way  across  the  Lys — at  any  rate,  at  the  point  of  St.  Maur, 
if  not  at  other  points — in  the  course  of  the  afternoon  or 
evening  of  the  Tuesday,  for  it  was  during  the  night  that  a 
counter-attack  threw  him  back  across  the  river  at  St.  Maur 
and  in  the  suburbs  of  Estaires.  There  had  been  at  the  very 
end  of  Tuesday  a  sharp  advance  of  the  enemy  beyond  St. 
Maur  for  nearly  a  mile  to  the  place  called  the  Ferry  Cross,  or 
Croix  du  Bac.  But  the  counter-attack  in  the  night  threw 
the  enemy  right  back  from  there,  and  he  did'  not  readvance 
to  it  until  the  next  day.  In  the  early  morning  of  Wednesday, 
the  loth,  therefore,  the  second  day  of  the  battle,  the  position 
would  seem  to  have  been  somewhat  like  this  : — 

The  55th  West  Lancashire  Division  at  Givenchy  and  un- 
named British  troops  at  Fleurbaix  held  either  post  or  corner 
of  the  big  gap  made  where  the  triple  line  of  the  defensive 
zone  between  Laventie  and  Neuve  Chapelle  had  given  way  in 
the  overwhelming  of  the  Portuguese  divisions,  which  originally 
stood  upon  either  side  of  Neuve  Chapelle. 

The  enemy  had  reached,  crossed  for  a  moment,  then  re- 
crossed  during  the  night,  and  was  now  again  fighting  for  the 
passage  of  the  River  Lys,  and  he  created  a  salient  of  over 
three  miles  at  his  deepest  part  upon  a  front  between  Givenchy 
and  Fleurbaix  of  nine  miles,  and,  the  defensive  zone  being 
gone,  he  was  fighang  in  the  open. 

So  far,  the  only  German  army  which  had  come  into  play 
'was  that  of  von  Quast — the  ■6th  Army.  His  command  was 
apparently  of  the  strength  of  12  divisions,  of  which  onlj 
8  had  so  been  identified  in  the  course  of  the  fighting,  though 
probably  11  had  already  appeared  in  the  first  twenty-four 
hours.  But  with  the  morning  of  the  second  day — Wednesday, 
April  loth — a  development  of  the  utmost  importance 
appeared,  the  ultimate  fate  of  which  was  comparable  upon 
the  north  to  what  the  resistance  of  Givenchy  had  been  upon 
the  south.  This  development  was  the  entry  into  plav  of  the 
4th  German  Army,  lying  to  the  north  of  von  Quast,  under 
the  command  of  Arnim,  and  the  attempt  of  this  in  co-opera- 
tion with  Quast's  t^oops  to  seize  the  Messines  Ridge,  and 
thereby  to  enlarge  immensely  the  area  of  the  push,  give  it 
elbow-room,  and  permit  its  far  more  rapid  advance. 

The  enemy  apparently  calculated,  rightly  enough,  that  the, 
Messines  Ridge  could  hardly  be  taken  by  any  direct  assault 
from  the  east.  He  lay  upon  this  morning  of  the  Wednesday 
just  to  the  east  and  beneath  it  from  Hollebeke  to  the  Lys 
before  Warneton,  and  if  he  had  struck  from  this  line  up  the 
slopes  unaided  he  might  not  hope  to  reach  the  summit.  The 
full  plan  was,  therefore,  partly  to  threaten  to  turn  the 
Messines  Ridge  from  the  south,  while  attacking  directly  from 
the  east,  von  Quast's  extreme  right  undertaking  the  first 
task,  and  von  Arnim's  divisions  the  second. 

At  the  same  time,  on  the  morning  of  the  loth,  apparently 
early  in  that  day,  the  Germans,  who  had  crossed  the  Lys  at 
St.  Maur,  had  already  got  so  -far  round  to  the  east  that  they 
were  in  Ploegsteert  and  into  the  big  wood  to  which  that 
village  gives  its  name  immediately  to  the  north.  They  thus 
already  looked  at  the  Messines  Ridge  from  its  reverse  side. 
Nearly  coincident  with  this  movement  came  the  blow  struck 
by  von  Arnim  upon  the  east.  The  attack  blazed  up  from 
the  south  northward,  beginning  in  the  early  morning,  and 
by  noon  had  reached  the  summits  of  the  ridge  at  Messines 
and  Wytschaete,  while  to  the  north-east  von  Arnim's  men 
had  taken  the  ruins  of  Hollebeke. 

There  must  have  been  a  moment  at  and  after  the  middle 
of  this  second  day  in  the  action — Wednesday,  the  loth — 
when  it  looked  as  though  Messines  Ridge  and  all  that  it 
meant  might  go.  But  the  gth  Division  counter-attacked  in 
the  early  afternoon,  pushed  well  past  Wytschaete,  driving 
the  enemy  down  the  eastern  slopes  by  some  500  yards. 
A  harder  task  was  involved  in  the  clearing  of  Messines,  nor 
was  the  site  of  that  vanished  village  wholly  retaken  ;  but 
by  nightfall  most  of  the  summit  was  recovered,  though  the 
enemy  remained  just  clinging  to  the  further  edge  of  it,  and 
so  remained  apparently  through  the  succeeding  days.    This 


April  I  8 ,  1 9  I  8 


Land    6c    Water 


maintenance    of   the    Messines    Ridge    was    of    the   greatest 
consequence  to  all  that  followed. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  plain  below,  Armentieres,  more  and  more 
threatened  as  Quast's  troops  over  the  river  spread  eastward 
and  von  Arnim's  troops  attacked  westward,  was  being 
evacuated  as  rapidly  as  could  be  (it  was  full  of  gas)  before 
disaster  should  befall  it.  The  evacuation  was  far  from 
cbmpleted  before  the  place  was  virtually  surrounded  ;  for 
the  enemy  claimed  the  surrender  therein  of  3,000  men  and 
the  General  Officer  commanding  them. 

During  this  same  day — the  second  day  of  the  battle, 
Wednesday,  the  loth — the  enemy  also  crossed  at  Estaires, 
and  was  fighting  northward  and  westward  from  that  town. 
He  had  tried  hard  to  get  further  elbow-room  westward  by 
taking  Lestrem  ;  had  held  it  for  a  moment,  but  lost  it  again. 
He  would  seem,  then,  by  the  evening  of  the  second  day 
— Wednesday,  the  loth — to  have  been  upon  the  line  indicated 
on  the  map  :  the  second  line  in  front  of  Steenwerke  and 
Nieppe  Village,  beyond  Estaires,  holding  part  of  Ploegsteert 
Wood,  just  clinging  to  ^he  eastern  slopes  of  Messines,  missing 
Wytschaete,  and  so  round  to  Hollebeke. 

On  Thursday,  April  nth,  it  was  apparent  by  mid-morning 
that  the  momentum  of  the  attack  was  being  diverted  and  in 
places  held.  Though  there  is  naturally  complete  silence 
upon  the  rapidity  and  number  in  which  reinforcements  were 
pushed  up  to  tlie  British  Une,  their  effect  had  begun  to  be 
felt,  and  that  although  the  enemy  seeing  what  a  gate  he  had 
obtained  through  the  defensive  zone,  and  how  thoroughly 
he'  had  obtained  (though  upon  a  comparatively  narrow  front) 
a  war  of  movement,  had  for  at  least  thirty  hours  past  begun 
to  call  up  from  the  south  and  elsewhere  further  divisions. 

Up  to  this  moment — Thursday,  April  nth — About  16 
German  divisions  had  already  been  identified,  counting  the 
four  from  von  Arnim's  army,  which  had  struck  against  the 
Messines  Ridge  (among  which  four  may  be  quoted  the  first 
two  to  attack,  the  49th  Reserve  German  Division  and  the 
17th).  But  before  the  next  three  days  were  oyer  the  enemy 
more  than  doubled  this  feeding  in  of  divisions.  He  reached, 
as  we  shall  see,  by  Sunday  night  the  total  of  well  over  30, 
the  latter  half  of  which  were  mainly  spent  in  attempting 
with  increasing  difficulty  to  advance  the  line  attained,  a 
result  only  effected — and  that  imperfectly — on  his  extreme 
left  beyond  Estaires. 

The  end  of  that  Thursday — the  third  day  of  the  battle — 
found  the  enemy  just  north  of  Estaires  and  Steenwerke, 
holding  all  the  ruins  of  Ploegsteert,  and  perhaps  half-way 
between  that  village  and  Neuve  Eghse,  and  most  of  Ploeg- 
steert Wood ;  but  they  had  made  no  further  impression 
upon  the  Messines  Ridge,  though  once  again  there  had  been 
a  tremendous  assault  upon  it,  and  once  again  the  enemy 
had  been  thrown  out  by  the  9th  Division,  which  still  stood 
there  maintaining  the  crest. 

On  the  next  day — Friday,  the  12th — probably  by  the 
arrival  of  considerable  new  forces,  the 'enemy  enlarged  himself 
upon  the  north  by  a  crescent  as  much  as  a  mile  and  a  half  in 
depth  at  its  deepest  part,  and  achieved  the  very  real  success 
of  pushing  westward  to  Merville ;  whence,  as  we  shall  see, 
he  was  to  push  southward  and  try  to  turn  B6thune.  The 
crescent  by  which  he  advanced  on  the  north  brought  him 
from  his  positions  in  front  of  Neuve  Eglise  to  a  fluctuating 
and  violently  contested  front  not  far  from  Bailleul  Station  ; 
thence  round  between  Old  and  New  Berquin,  and  so  just 
including  Merville  to  the  river  line.  The  importance  of  this 
extension  westward,  including  Merville,  was  that  it  turned 
the  stoutly  defended  line  of  that  little  obstacle  the  Lawe, 
and  therefore  for  the  first  time  seriously  threatened  Bethune. 
This  will  be  clear  from  looking  at  the  line  upon  the  sketch- 
map  wliich  indicates  the  position  upon  the  evening  of  Friday 
last.  That  line  may  be  seen  still  to  cover  Givenchy  and  the 
straggling  hamlet  of  Locon,  but  the  line  of  the  brook  is 
abandoned,  and  the  enemy  is  facing  right  down  upon  Bethune 
from  the  north.  It  goes  without  saying  that  a  huge  projec- 
tion of  this  sort,  curiing  round  a  strongly  held  post  like 
Givenchy,  would  be  very  perilous  to  any  advancing  force,  if 
there  were  at  the  right  moment  sufficient  bodies  of  opponents 
to  press  hard  into  the  neck  of  the  salient — that  is,  from  the 
Givenchy  region  north-eastwards — and  so  threaten  its 
existence.  But  it  is  clear  that  the  enemy,  when  he  thus 
Hooded  westward  into  Merville  and  then  turned  southward 
towards  Bethune,  still  took  for  granted,  and  had  a  right  to 
take  for  granted,  his  continued  numerical  superiority.  He 
was  in  again,  as  he  had  been  a  fortnight  before,  on  the  Somme, 
for  all  he  was  worth,  though  upon  a  smaller  scale.  By  the 
night  of  this  fourth  day,  Friday,  the  enemy  claimed  20,000 
prisoners  and  200  guns. 

Upon  Saturday  the  gravest  enemy  success,  so  far  as  the 
still-important  point  of  Bethune  is  concerned,  was  registered. 
The  enemy  entered  (but  did  not  pass)  Locon,  and  just  reached 


the  projecting  curve  of  the  B6thune  Canal.  If  the  British 
Hne  still  at  that  moment  held  Givenchy,  a  point  on  which 
I  have  no  information  at  the  moment  of  writing,  the  German 
thrust  southward  on  this  extraordinary  bulge  must  have 
reached  its  utmost  limits  of  stability. 

In  every  other  part  of  the  field  the  advance  was  held. 
Though  the  enemy  was  now  wholly  in  possession  of  Ploeg 
steert  Wood,  and  even  got  into  Neuve  Eglise,  he  was  thrown 
out  of  the  latter  place.  He  could  not  push,  during  the 
Saturday,  Beyond  the  neighbourhood  of  the  railway  at 
Bailleul  Station,  which  railway  he  failed  to  reach  or  to  cross 
at  that  point.  He  just  passed  the  railway  somewhere  in 
front  of  Meterem  ;  thence  south-eastward  he  was  much 
where  he  had  been  before,  between  Old  and  New  Berquin, 
and  close  on  the  former,  and  feeling  the  eastern  edges  of  the 
big  Nieppe  Forest.  The  whole  effect  of  that  Saturday  on 
the  shape  of  the  front  was  slight.  There  seemed  to  be  taking 
place  what  had  taken  place  on  the  Somme — a  gradual  banking 
up  of  the  flood. 

All  the  next  day — last  Sunday,  April  14th — he  was  fighting 
furiously  to  increase  this  front,  by  however  little,  but  the 
resistance  grew  stronger  hour  by  hour,  and  he  on  that  day 
achieved  nothing  appreciable  to  affect  the  future.  He  still 
stood,  when  night  fell,  upon  the  line  which  rims  from  Holle- 
beke to  just  the  southern  end  of  the  Messines  Ridge,  thence 
in  front  of  Wulverghem,  Neuve  Eglise,  Bailleul,  Meterem 
—all  of  them  s.  f.ht  glacis,  or  rising  slopes,  possessed  by  the 
British.  Thence  I  is  line  curved  round,  no  further  advanced, 
in  front  of  Merris,  Old  Berquin,  the  edges  of  the  Nieppe 
Forest ;  so  west  of  Merville  town,  due  south  across  the 
Clarence  River  until  it  touched  the  canal ;  thence  through 
the  ruins  of  Locon,  and  so  to  Givenchy  ;  all  the  latter  part 
making  an  extraordinary  western  bulge  of  impossible  shape. 

The  factors  in  the  maintenance,  extension,  or  redressing 
of  this  western  bulge  we  cannot  judge  ;  but  apparently,  for 
the  moment,  it  can  neither  be  used  by  them  for  further 
outflanking  Bethune,  and  thus  cutting  the  railway  and 
increasing  their  area  of  movement,  nor  as  yet  by  us  in  counter- 
stroke  behind  them.  That  western  bulge  upon  its  either 
face,  northern  and  southern,  looks  at,  threatens,  and 
approaches  the  two  vital  railway  points  marked  A  and  B 
upon  map  4.  The  one  A,  that  through  which  passes,  or  did 
pass,  a  direct  supply  of  men  and  material  from  the  south  ; 
the  other,  B,  that  through  which  comes  all  railway  supply 
in  men  and  material  from  the  channel  ports,  Boulogne, 
Calais,  and  Dunkirk,  Their  retention  or  loss  the  future 
must  decide.  , 

The  Numerical  Situation 

Such  was  the  situation  when  the  last  dispatches  were  sent 
after  the  nightfall  of  Sunday  last,  April  14th.  The  line  of 
that  moment,  as  shown  in  those  dispatches,  is  indicated 
upon  the  accompanying  map. 

But  meanwhile  there  came  by  Saturday  evening  news 
more  interesting  and  perhaps  more  important  than  the 
description  of  the  line  in  the  war  of  movement  thus  restored. 
It  concerned  a  point  already  touched  on,  the  number  of 
divisions  which  the  Germans  had  already  thrown  into  the  mill. 
That  is  the  heart  of  the  matter. 

Up  to  that  date — the  evening  of  April  13th — there  had 
been  identified  upon  the  fronts  of  the  two  offensives  since 
March  21st  no  less  than  no  German  divisions,  and  of  these 
no  less  than  40  had  been  thrown  in  twice. 

Now  let  us  appreciate  what  this  means.  We  are  dealing 
with  exactly  twenty-four  days,  of  which  about  two-thirds 
have  been  days  of  very  violent  fighting,  and  of  which  the 
remaining  third  have  also  seen  very  expensive  and  heavily 
pressed  local  attacks.  We  may  say  that  we  are  dealing 
with  the  equivalent  of  twenty  days  of  maximimi  effort. 
During  this  period  there  has  been  a  call  upon  the  German 
Army  to  the  equivalent  of  150  divisions.  He  began  with 
50  in  line  during  the  first  two  days  of  his  great  main  offensive 
of  March,  the  fifty  grew  to  over  100  ;  his  second  offensive, 
here  in  April,  used  in  the  first  two  days  perhaps  16.  The 
r6  grew  in  six  days  to  something  well  over  30 — perhaps  to  40. 
He  is  putting  stuff  through  the  mill  at  the  very  maximum 
rate.  He  is  giving  divisions  much  less  than  half  the  old 
average  time  to  rest  in  between  two  appearances  on  the 
l>attleneld.  He  has  used  his  units  at  more  than  three  times 
the  rate  of  their  use  during  the  longer  drawn  battles  of  the 
last  two  years.  In  other  words,  he  is  straining  his  power  of 
endurance  after  a  fashion  which  we  may  represent  as  multi- 
plied by  two  or  three  times  the  fashion  of  any  earlier  period 
— of  Verdun,  Champagne,  or  the  Somme.  Tlie  whole  thing 
is  a  violent  confirmation  of  the  thesis  that  he  is  out  to  win 
in  a  very  short  time,  or  to  be  decisively  beaten. 

HiLAiRE  Belloc. 


Copyright  1918,  U.S.A. 


Liberty  Ag 

By  Lou 


Li 


Copyright,  •■Land  <r  tVater." 


:t  Kaiserism 

ekers . 


t 


12 


Land    &    Water 


April   i8,  1918 


Lichnowsky's    Revelations:  By  Sir  M.  Durand 


SOME  remarkable  papers  have  seen  the  Hght  in 
Germany  duri-ng  the  last  few  weeks,  and  the  more 
they  are  studied  by  the  British  public  the  better  ; 
for  they  reveal  with  striking  clearness  the  real  facts 
about  the  rcsponsibihty  for  the  war,  and  incidentally 
they  bring  out  the  difference  between  the  general  attitude  of 
Germany  and  that  of  Great  Britain  in  matters  of  foreign 
policy.  We  English — or  nearly  all  of  us — have  been  satisfied 
from  the  beginning  that  we  were  entirely  in  the  right.  Like 
most  people,  we  are  apt  to  take  that  view  of  our  own  pro- 
ceedings. But  it  is  one  thing  to  be  absolved  by  the  voice  of 
conscience,  it  is  another  thing  to  find  ourselves  openly  and 
formally  absolved  by  an  enemy  who  has  hitherto  proclaimed 
that  England  has  been  the  arch-plotter  against  the  peace  of 
Europe — the  instigator  and  leader  of  a  wicked  conspiracy  to 
hem  in  and  destroy  the  peace-loving  German  Empire, 

First  among  these  papers  is  the  famous  memorandum  of 
Prince  Lichnowsky,  late  German  Ambassador  in  England. 
Prince  Lichnowsky  was  representing  his  country  here  when 
the  war  broke  out,  and  he  had  therefore  the  fullest  knowledge 
of  the  course  of  affairs.  He  has  not  hesitated  to  declare  in 
his  memorandum  that  the  responsibility  for  "the  war  rests 
upon  Germany — not  upon  England.  "We  deliberately  de- 
stroyed," he  says,  "thepossibihty of  a  peaceful  settlement"  ; 
and  "my  London  mission  .  .  .-  was  wrecked  not  by  the 
perfidy  of  the  British,  but  by  the  perfidy  of  our  pohcy." 
These  assertions  he  supports  by  a  statement  of  "  indisputable 
facts"  drawn  from  official  pubUcations,  and  not  controverted 
by  the  German  White  Book.  He  shows  that  to  the  end 
Great  Britain  made  repeated  efforts  to  maintain  the  peace 
of  Europe;  and  he  sums  up  with  the  remark,  "it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  whole  civilised  world  outside  Germany 
attributes  to  us  the  sole  guilt  for  the  world  war."  The 
unfortunate  Ambassador,  it  may  be  observed,  was  tricked  by 
his  own  Government  as  to  their  intentions  ;  for  under  a 
system  well  known  in  the  German  service,  the  Kaiser  kept  in 
London  two  diplomatic  instruments,  one  a  representative, 
himself  deceived  so  as  better  to  deceive  our  people,  the  other 
a  subordinate  working  in  secret  over  the  head  of  his  chief. 

Prince  Lichnowsky  does  not  stand  alone,  for  Herr  Miihlon, 
an  ex-director  of  the  great  Krupp  firm,  almost  simultaneously 
declared  that  the  Kaiser  himself  was  personally  responsible 
for  the  war.  Then  Herr  von  Jagow,  German  Foreign  Minister 
from  1913  to  1916,  Hvas  apparently  put  up  to  answer  Prince 
Lichnowsky's  memorandum  ;  at  all  events,  his  observations 
upon  it  are  pubhshed  by  the  German  Government.  And 
what  is  his  answer  ?  Anyone  who  studies  it  will  see  that  it 
is  practically  no  answer  at  all,  for  the  main  facts  brought 
forward  in  the  memorandum  are  in  no  way  disproved.  -  As 
to  Great  Britain,  Herr  von  Jagow  makes  the  following 
remarks :  "I  am  by  no  means  willing  to  adopt  the  opinion, 
which  is  at  present  widely  held  in  Germany,  that  England 
laid  all  the  mines  which  caused  the  war ;  on  the  contrary, 
1  believe  in  Sir  Edward  Grey's  love  of  peace,  and  in  his 
serious  wish  to  reach  an  agreement  with  us.  .  .  .  Among 
the  English  people  also  the  war  was  not  popular."  It  is 
true  that  Herr  von  Jagow  says  Sir  Edward  Grey  "did  not 
prevent  the  world-war,  as  Ke  could  have  done,"  but  no  proof 
of  this  assertion  is  brought  forward  beyond  the  remark  that 
"he  had  involved  himself  too  deeph'  in  the  net  of  Franco- 
Russian  policy"  and  "could  no  longer  find  the  way  out." 

Finally,  other  persons  of  some  note  in  Germany  have 
apparently  accepted,  and  have  been  permitted  to  express, 
the  view  that  Great  Britain  was  not  the  guilty  party.  For 
example,  the  naval  critic.  Captain  Persius,  has  written  in 
the  Berliner  Tageblatt :  "An  understanding  ought  to  be 
easier  now  that  we  have  heard  from  two  opposing  sources, 
from  von  Jagow  and  Lichnowsky,  that  England  was  not 
responsible  for  the  war,  as  hitherto  has  been  believed  in  wide 
circles  in  Germany."  , 

Now,  the  first  thing  that  strikes  one  on  reading  these 
various  pronouncements  is  the  fact  that  they  should  have 
been  allowed  to  see 'the  light  in  Germany.  It  seems  evident 
that  the  pubhcation  could  not  have  been  made  without  the 
permission  of  the  German  Government.  Such  a  complete 
change  of  front  must  have  a  meaning. 

A  friend  of  mine  once  told  me  it  was  a  sajing  in  his  country 
that  the  best  way  of  coming  to  terms  with  an  Englishman 
was  to  knock  him  down  first  and  then  talk  nicely  to  him. 
The  words  of  Captain  Persius  quoted  above,  and  other 
expressions  used  by  German  newspapers,  would  seem  to 
show  that  the  German  Government  has  resolved  to  try  this 
method.     It  looks  as  if  they  hoped  that  by  dealing  a  great 


blow  at  our  Army  in  France,  and  then  proclaiming  the 
innocence  of  Great  Britain,  thcj-  might  induce  us  to  conclude 
a  separate  peace,  inducing  their  own  people  at  the  same  time 
to  regard  such,  a  settlement  with  favour.  It  is  a  grotesque 
idea  ;  but  any  other  explanation  of  the  German  action  is 
difficult  to  imagine. 

This,  however,  is  a  point  of  minor  importance.  Whatever 
may  be  the  intention  of  the  German  Government,  the  imme- 
diate effect  of  their  action  is  clear.  The  veil  has  been  torn 
from  the  face  of  the  Kaiser,  and  the  responsibility  of  Germany 
for  the  war  is  definitely  estal)lished.  It  will  be  observed, 
incidentally,  that  no  German  except  Lichnowsky  seems  in 
the  least  ashamed  either  of  the  villainous  aggression  by  which 
the  war  was  brought  about  or  of  the  long-continued  campaign 
of  falsehood  by  which  the  German  Government  sought  to 
throw  the  blame  on  England. 

Some  hard  things  have  been  said  of  late  in  England  about 
the  British  Foreign  Office  and  the  methods  of  British  diplo- 
macy. I  hold  no  brief  for  the  P'oreign  Office,  and  fully  believe 
that  some  of  its  proceedings  in  the  past  have  been  open  to 
attack.  Granted  that  the  Foreign  Office  is  full  of  sin,  this  is 
not  because  its  proceedings  have  been  false  and  aggressive 
like  those  of  the  Germans ;  it  is  for  the  precisely 
opposite  reason,  that  they  have  been  simple  and  conciliatory 
to  the  verge,  and  at  times  beyond  the  verge,  of  feebleness. 
Partly  from  that  timidity  in  matters  of  policy  which  is  as 
marked  a  characteristic  of  our  people  as  courage  in  the  field, 
partly  from  an  honest  desire  for  peace  and  goodwill  among 
men,  we  have  not  always  "held  up  our  end,"  as  we  might 
have  done ;   and  we  have  suffered  in  consequence. 

Our  Policy  Towards  Russia 

An  excellent  example  of  this  is  the  course  of  our  pohcy 
towards  Russia,  especially  since  the  Crimean  War,  when  she 
began  to  push  out  seriously  along  her  natural  "slope"  to  the 
eastward,  and  in  the  opinion  of  our  statesmen  to  threaten 
India  closely.  We  allowed  the  Russians,  when  they  were 
much  weaker  than  we  were  in  Asia  to  "draw"  us  to  an 
extent  which  would  have  been  reaUy  comic  if  it  had  not  been 
so  dangerous.  By  an  attitude  of  perpetual  apprehension 
— not  to  say  alarm — at  their  smallest  movement  in  Central 
Asia,  we  impressed  them  and  unluckily  impressed  all  Asiatics, 
including  the  natives  of  India,  with  the  idea  that  we  were 
afraid  of  Russia  and  dared  not  stand  up  to  her.  This  attitude 
did  great  harm. 

{3i,Writing  as  late  as  1897,  I  urged  that  Russia  was 
not  strong  enough  to  attack  us,  and  that  we  should  do 
well  to  show  more  confidence  in  our  own  strength,  which,  as 
long  as  the  people  of  India  trusted  us,  was  immense.  I 
urged  also  that  we  should  do  well  to  show  less  distnist  of  the 
good  faith  of  the  Russians,  who  had  not  for  seventy  years 
made  any  serious  encroachment  on  the  treaty  frontiers  of 
Persia,  and  were  pledged  by  a  formal  agreement,  not  hitherto 
broken,  to  respect  the  frontiers  of  Afghanistan.  But  this 
was  not  the  view  generally  taken,  and  the  old  pohcy  of  alarm 
continued  to  hoM  the  field.  Then  in  1907  came  indeed  a 
new  pohcy,  one  of  rapprochement  towards  Russia,  prompted 
in  great  measure  by  our  growing  sense  of  the  aggressive 
spirit  of  Germany  ;  but  there  remained  witli  the  new  policy 
the  old  exaggerated  estimate  of  Russian  strength,  and  the 
old  distrust  of  our  own.  The  result  was  the  Anglo-Russian 
Convention,  by  which  we  hoped  to  put  an  end  to  .Anglo- 
Russian  rivalry  in  Asia. 

I  am  not  now  discussing  the  general  merits  and  effect  of 
that  agreement.  I  wish  only,  to  bring  out  the  particular 
point  that  our  policy  towards  Russia  was  concihatory  in  the 
extreme.  When  the  matter  came  up  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
Lord  Lansdowne  and  Lord  Sanderson  pointed  out  that  in 
the  past  we  had  been  ready  to  come  to  an  understanding 
with  Russia,  but  that  she  had  been  unwiUing  to  meet  us. 
And  the  critics  of  the  Convention  had  no  difficulty  in  showing 
that,  now  she  had  met  us,  we  had  in  the  interests  of  concilia- 
tion made  a  very  bad  bargain  with  her. 

Wc  undoubtedly  had  a  bargain  so  bad  that  it  was  regarded 
throughout  Asia  as  a  discreditable  surrender  to  superior  force. 
For  example,  in  Afghanistan  the  Russians  were  to  have  any 
trade  facilities  the  Afghans  might  give  us,  but  there  was  no 
clause  securing  to  us  any  facilities  they  might  give  the 
Russians.  Also,  though  we  promised  the  Russians  equal 
commercial  opportunities  in  that  country,  where  our  influence 
predominated,  they  did  not  promise  us  equal  opportunities 
in  regions  where  they  were  predominant.    As  Lord  Lansdowne 


April  1 8,  1918 


Land    &    Water 


13 


observed:    "A  more  one-sided  application  of  a  sound  prin- 
ciple I  never  came  across." 

More  might  be  said  about  Afghanistan  and  something 
about  Tibet.  But  the  main  sacrifice  was  in  Persia.  That 
great  country  was  divided  into  Russian  and  English  spheres 
of  influence  in  no  way  corresponding  to  the  positions 
— pohtical  and  commercial — of  the  two  Powers. 

Further  examples  of  the  conciUatory  and  peaceful  attitude 
of  our  Governments  for  a  long  time  past  might  easily  be 
cited  from  the  history  of  our  relations  with  other  Powers 
—with  Germany,  perhaps,  in  particular.  To  the;  very  end, 
when  she  had  everything  ready  for  war,  and,  to  use 
Lichnowsky's  words,  was  "insisting  that  Serbia  must  be 
massacred,"  England,  whom  she  accused  of  encirchng  and 
throtthng  her,  was  granting  her  concessions  of  many  kinds, 
even  consenting — most  improperly,  I  think — to  the  extension 
of  the  Bagdad  Railway  down  to  Basra,  so  as  to  open  Meso- 
potamia to  lier  operations.  Every  one  knows  of  the  con- 
cihatory  spirit  in  which  we  met  France  when  the  time  came 
for  a  rapprochement.  Every  one  knows,  of  the  spirit  of 
goodwill — and  more  than  goodwill — which  for  years  past 
we  have  shown  towards  the  Americans,  until  our  Govern- 
ments really  seemed  actuated  at  times  by  the  feeling  which 
a  famous  American  novelist  ascribes  to  one  of  her  characters, 
"the  desire  that  England  should  have  an  excuse  to  hug  us." 
As  is  evident  from  what  I  have  written,  I  do  not  contend 
that  our  prevailing  attitude  in  matters  of  foreign  policy  has 
always  been  dignified  or  successful.  Personally,  I  believe  it 
has  often  been  wanting  in  strength,  and  has  led  at  times  to 
the  sacrifice  of  \he  legitimate  interests  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  Dominions.  I  feel  that  when  the  personal  and  party 
feelings  involved  have  passed  away,  history  will  not  easily 
forgive  the  extreme  anxiety  shown  by  some  of  our  public 
•  men  to  make  the  nation  believe  in  German  goodwill  towards 
us  when  they  well  knew,  or  certainly  ought  to  have  known, 
that  no  such  goodwill  existed — an  anxiety  which  even  led  to 
shameful  attacks  upon  the  great  soldier  who  spent  his  last 
years  in  trying  to  open  our  eyes  and  make  us  prepare  for  the 
deadly  peril  that  was  coming  upon  us.  For  such  proceedings 
there  can  be  no  excuse.  And  it  may  well  be  held  that  a 
more  virile  attitude  might  often  have  been  not  only  more 
honourable  to  us,  but  more  useful  to  the  world. 

But  when  all  that  is  said,  there  remains  something  more 
to  be  said.  If  other  nations  besides  Germany  have  now 
and  then  seemed  inclined  to  take  advantage  of  our  softness 
— if,  for  example,  the  Russians  in  Asia  were  somewhat  high- 
handed in  their  working  of  the  Convention  of  1907 — yet 
I  believe  the  certainty  that  England  could  be  trusted  to  keep 
to  her  engagements,  and  was  honestly  desirous  of  peace,  did 
have  its  effect  upon  the  attitude  of  the  world  towards  us. 
As  Admiral  Mahan  asked  when  discussing  the  alleged  "  stupid 
ity"  of  British  officers  :  "Where  has  it  placed  Great  Britain 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth  ? " 

It  is  not  a  little  thing  that  Palavia  Inglesa  has  become 
a  household  word.  Substantially  the  nations  keep  faith  and 
peace  with  us  as  we  keep  faith  and  peace  with  them.  Russia, 
until  she  broke   up   under   the   twin   solvents   of  ideologue 


TURKEY  AND  THE  WAR. 

When  the  history  of  the  world-war  comes  to  be  written,  the  most 
outstanding  event  after  the  battle  of  the  Marne  will  be  found  to 
have  been  the  entrance  of  Turkey  into  the  war  on  the  side  of  the 
enemy.  But  for  this  there  would  have  been  no  Gallipoli,  no  fall  of 
Kut;  the  expeditionary  forces  to  Salonika,  Mesopotamia,  and 
Palestine  would  have  been  unnecessary;  the  Dardanelles  would 
have  remained  open  for  the  export  of  corn  and  oil  from  Russia  and 
Rumania;  Rumania  would  have  been  secure,  Bulgaria  not  daring 
to  move,  with  neutral  nations  friendly  to  the  Entente  on  either 
flank;  there  would  have  been  no  Armenian  massacres.  Think 
what  it  would  have  meant,  had  Turkey  remained  neutral! 
Victory  would  have  been  won  months  ago. 

Friendship  and  goodwill  between  Great  Britain  and  Turkey  was 
traditional.  How  did  it  come  about  that  it  broke  down  at  this 
tremendous  crisis?  The  circumstances  have  hitherto  been  veiled 
in  secrecy,  but  with  the  publication  of  the  diplomatic  experiences 
of  Mr.  Morgenthau,  the  American  Ambassador  at  Constantinople 
from  1913  to  1916,  all  the  facts  will  be  revealed, 

Mr,  Morgenthau'6  diplomatic  record  will  be  published  in 
Land  &  water  early  next  month.  It  is  an  invaluable  contribution 
to  the  history  of  these  times;  it  relates  the  incidents  of  the  escape 
of  the  "Goeben"  and  '' Breslau,"  and  it  explains  how  Germany 
was  able  to  establish  her  dominance  over  Turkey  at  that  critical 
hour.  It  is  all  the  more  interesting  in  that  Mr.  Morgenthau  was  by 
birth  a  German,  having  been  born  at  Mannheim;  he  went  to 
Americawhen  ten  years  of  age,  and  is  now  American  to  the  backbone. 

chatter  and  German  gold,  adhered  faithfully  to  the  under- 
standing which  lay  at  the  root  of  the  Convention,  and  did 
great  service  to  the  Allied  cause.  Our  old  enemy  France 
is  now  our  firm  friend  and  staiuich  ally.  Along  the 
immense  frontier  hne  between  Canada  and  the  United  States 
there  has  been  peace  for  a  hundred  years,  and  practically  no 
armed  force,  because  on  each  side  there  has  been  an  honest 
desire  for  peace  ;  and  now,  thank  God,  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
and  the  Union  Jack  are  flying  side  by  side  in  defence  of 
liberty.  Italy,  Greece,  Belgium,  Japan,  and  many  other 
countries  seem  to  trust  us  thoroughly.  Only  Germany  was 
left  to  denounce  us  as  false  and  aggressive,  and  now  the 
guilt  of  falsehood  and  aggression  has  been  firmly  fixed  by 
Germans  themselves  upon  their  own '  country  ;  and  the 
sincerity  and  peacefulness  of  England  have  been  formally 
acknowledged  even  in  Germany. 

Of  course,  the  German  Government  has  not  definitely 
accepted  the  burden  of  criminality.  It  has  left  itself  a  loop- 
hole for  the  repudiation  of  the  truth,  and  when  England 
declines  to  be  tricked  into  peace  by  soft  words  the  old  bogey 
may  be  set  up  again  for  the  deception  of  the  German  people. 
But  if  they  should  be  again  deceived  no  one  else  ever  will. 
Prince  Lichnowsky  and  others  may  be  disgraced  and  punished 
for  speaking  the  truth,  but  it  has  been  spoken,  and  nothing 
can  alter  that  fact. 

Henceforth,  England  stands  out  clear  of  all  responsibihty 
for  the  monstrous  wickedness  which  has  been  let  loose  upon 
the  world ;  and  when  the  gigantic  conflict  comes  to  an  end 
she  will  be  not  only  greater  than  ever,  but  more  highly 
trusted  and  honoured. 


The  Irish  Convention  :    By  Harold  Cox 


WHETHER  the  Convention  over  which  Sir 
Horace  Plunkett  so  patiently  presided  for 
nearly  nine  months  has  rendered  any  service 
to  Ireland  is  a  matter  upon  which  opinion  is 
divided ;  that  it  has  rendered  an  immense 
service  to  England  is  beyond  question.  For  two  generations 
at  least  Irishmen  in  all  parts  of  the  world  have  been  denounc- 
ing England  as  the  cause  of  all  their  troubles.  They  have 
proclaimed  on  thousands  of  platforms  that  England  denies 
to  Irishmen  the  right  to  self-government,  and  insists  on 
holding  in  subjection  a  nation  that  for  centuries  has  struggled 
in  vain  for  freedom. 

The  report  of  tlie  Irish  Convention  has  disposed  of  this 
delusion.  It  proves  that  the  obstacle  to  Home  Rule  for 
Ireland  is  not  some  curious  mental  twist  on  the  part  of 
Englishmen,  but  the  inability  of  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland 
to  discover  any  scheme  of  Home  Rule  upon  which  they  can 
even  approximately  agree. 

The  Irish  Convention  was  called  into  being  last  summer  as 
the  result  of  correspondence  between  thp  present  Prime 
Minister,  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  the  then  leader  of  the  Irish 
Nationahst  Party,  the  late  Mr.  John  Redmond.  "Irishmen 
of  all  creeds  and  parties"  were  invited  to  meet  together 
"  for  the  purpose  of  drafting  a  constitution  for  their  country." 


A  more  comprehensive  invitation  cannot  be  imagined.  The 
mere  fact  that  it  was  given  disposed  of  the  idea  that  the 
British  Government  for  some,  strange  malicious  motive 
wished  to  deny  freedom  to  Ireland.  The  subsequent  history 
showed  what  is  and  ■always  has  been  the  obstacle  to  Home 
Rule  for  Ireland.  Every  effort  was  made  at  the  outset  to 
meet  the  Prime  Minister's  request  for  a  Convention  representing 
the  whole  of  Ireland.  A  very  considerable  amount  of  success 
was  achieved.  The  members  of  the  Convention  were  well 
chosen  ;  they  were  men  of  distinction  in  their  respective 
spheres  of  activity,  and  probably  no  better  men  could  have 
been  .found  to  give  expression  to  the  different  points  of  view 
which  they  represented.  Yet  even  so,  the  Prime  Minister's 
ideal  of  "all  creeds  and  parties"  was  not  attained,  for  the 
very  important  Sinn  Fein  Party  refused  to  have  anything  to 
do  with  the  Convention.  Therefore  even  if  the  findings  of 
the  Convention  had  been  unanimous  they  would  have  been 
discounted  by  the  fact  that  a  party  which  has  won  a  majority 
of  the  by-elections  in  Ireland  in  the  past  twelve  months 
was  contemptuously  hostile. 

But  the  Convention  did  not  reach  an  agreement — not  even 
an  approximate  agreement.  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  whose 
services  to  Ireland  cannot  be  too  highly  estimated,  evidently 
struggled  hard  to  secure  some  show  of  agreement.     He  got 


14 


Land    &    Water 


April  1 8,  19 1 8 


so  far  as  to  feel  himself  jiistified  in  saying,  in  his  letter  trans- 
mitting the  report  to  the  Prime  Minister,  that  the  "Conven- 
tion had  laid  a  foundation  of  Irish  agreement  unprecedented 
in  history."  That  may  quite  easily  be  true,  for  as  far  back 
as  the  history  of  Ireland  can  be  traced  the  inhabitants  of 
that  island  have  been  engaged  in  fighting  with  one  another. 
Therefore,  judged  by  Irish  standards,  it  is  possible  that 
some  progress  has  been  made.  But  when  we  pass  from 
Irish  conceptions  to  prosaic  facts  it  will  be  seen  that  agree- 
.  ment,  for  all  purposes  of  action,  is  as  remote  as  ever. 

In  the  first  place,  Ulster  remains  outside.  Nineteen 
representatives  from  Ulster  attended  the  Convention  in  the 
hope  of  finding  some  common  ground  between  themselves 
and  the  Nationalists.  They  report  that  the  Nationalists, 
instead  of  tntdng  to  meet  their  objections  to  the  Home  Rule 
Act  of  1914,  put  forward  claims  which  went  far  beyond  that 
Act.  The  only  concession  offered  to  Ulster  wa.s  a  proposal 
that  in  an  Irish  Parliament  "Unionists  should  have  a  tem- 
porary representation  largely  in  excess  of  what  they  are 
entitled  to  on  the  basis  of  population."  This  proposal  may 
have  been  well  meant,  but  obviously  such  an  arrangement 
could  not  long  endure,  and  the  Ulster  representatives  pru- 
dently declined  to  accept  the  proffered  concession. 

The  Southern  Unionists 

On   the  other  hand,   there  is  the  notable  fact  that   the 
Southern  Unionist  representatives  on  the  Convention,  led  by 
Lord  Midleton,  did  co-operate  to  a  very  considerable  extent 
with  the  Nationahst  Party,  and  did  vote  in  the  final  division 
in  favour  of  the  motion  "That  the  report  as  a  whole  be 
adopted."     That  motion  was  carried  by  44  to  29.     As  the 
Convention  at  the  time  of  voting  contained  90  members,  it 
will  be  seen  that  less  than  half  voted  in  favour  of  finally 
endorsing    the    report.     The    majority    of    44    consisted    of 
Nationahsts    and    Southern'  Unionists,    plus    two    or    three 
Labour  representatives  ;   the  minority  consisted  of  the  Ulster 
Unionists    and    eleven    of   the    more    extreme    Nationalists. 
Thus  superficially  there  was  a  combination  of  moderate  men 
in  favour  of  the  report,  while  the  extremists  on  both  sides 
voted  against  it.     This  is  just  the  kind  of  situation  that  is 
dear  to  the  heart  of  an  Enghshman.     But  the  EngUsh  love 
of  compromise  finds  no  place  in  Irish  mentality,  and  when 
two  Irishmen  have  agreed  to  what  appears  to  be  a  compromise 
it  is  safe  to  assume  that  they  have  only  agreed  to  differ — 
which  is  a  very  different  proposition.     An  examination  of 
the  report  of  the  Convention  will  show  that  this  is  exactly 
what   happened   in   the   case   of   the   apparent   compromise 
between   the   Southern   Unionists   and   the   more   moderate 
Nationalists      They  both  indeed  had  one  common  purpose 
— to  prevent  the  partition  of  Ireland.     The  Southern  Unionists 
are  opposed  to  the  exclusion  of  the  six  north-eastern  counties 
of  Ulster — to  which  John  Redmond  and  his  followers  agreed 
both  In  1914  and  in  1916 — because  they  want  the  support 
of  their  Ulster  friends  against  their  Nationalist  enemies  ; 
the   Nationahsts,    since   the   Sinn   Fein    movement   became 
formidable,  refuse  any  longer  to  accept  the  exclusion  of  the 
six  counties  because  that  exclusion  conflicts  with  the  con- 
ception   of    "Ireland    a    Nation."     This    was    the    common 
ground  between  the  Southern  Unionists  and  the  Nationalists  ; 
there  was  none  other. 

The  Southern  Unionists  begin  their  separate  note  to  the 
report  by  declaring  "their  unaltered  conviction  that  the 
Legislative  Union  provides  tlie  best  system  of  government 
for  Ireland."  They  go  on  to  say  that  they  entered  the 
Convention  in  response  to  an  appeal  from  His  Majesty's 
Government  which  they  did  not  feel  justified  in  disregarding, 
and  that  they  had  done  their  best  to  assist  in  devising  a 
constitution.  After  this  preface,  they  enumerate  the  condi- 
tions which  they  consider  vital  to  a  satisfactory  settlement, 
and  they  say  expressly  that  their  action  "must  be  subject 
to  these  conditions."  That  is  to  say,  the  Southern  Unionists 
must  be  regarded  as  opposed  to  the  scheme  for  which  they 
voted  unless  these  conditions  are  satisfied.  The  more 
important  of  the  conditions  enumerated  arc  the  following  : 
"  That  all  Imperial  questions  and  services,  including  the  levying 

of  customs  duties,  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Parliament  of  the 

United  Kingdom." 
"  That    the    whole    of     Ireland     participate     in     any     Irish 

Parliament  " 

"  That    an    adequate    contribution    be   made    by   Ireland   to 

Imperial  services." 

The  first  of  these  points  raises  an  issue  the  importance  of 
which  has  not  hitherto  been  appreciated  in  England.  In 
reality  it  is  a  touchstone  by  which  to  test  the  meaning  of 
the  phrase  Home  Rule.  The  mere  Englishman  or  Scotchman 
who  says  he  is  in  favour  of  Home  Rule  for  Ireland  means 
by  that  phrase  that  Ireland  is  to  be  endowed  with  a  strictly 
subordinate   parliament,   whose  powers   will   be  hmited  to 


strictly  Irish  affairs,  leaving  the  parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom  in  unquestioned  control  of  all  matters  concerning 
the  kingdom  as  a  whole.  That  is  also  the  meaning  attached 
to  the  phrase  by  American  critics  of  alleged  English  obstinacy. 
"Why  not,"  asks  the  impatient  Yankee,  "make  Ireland  a 
State  in  your  Union,  as  Massachusetts  is  a  State  in  our 
Union  ? "  The  answer  is  that  this  is  not  what  the  Irish 
Nationalist  wants.  His  slogan  is  "Ireland  a  Nation." 
Massachusetts  is  not  a  nation,  it  is  a  state  ;  the  nation  is  the 
United  States.  The  Irish  Nationalists  are  not  content  witli 
statehood  ;  they  want  nationhood.  Some  of  the  Nationalists, 
in  spite  of  the  Sinn  Feiners,  are  willing  that  the  Irish  nation 
shall  continue  to  form  part  of  the  British  Empire,  but  only 
on  condition  that  it  has  tlie  full  status  of  a  Dominion  like 
Canada,  or  Australia,  or  Soutli  Africa.  With  absolute  dis- 
regard for  the  facts  of  geography,  the  Irish  Nationalists 
demand  that  Ireland,  situated  within  sixty  miles  of  the 
coast  of  Wales,  within  eyesight  of  the  coast  of  Scotland, 
should  be  placed  on  the  same  footing  towards  Great  Britain 
as  the  Dominion  of  Canada  two  thousand  miles  away,  or  the 
Commonwealth  of  Australia  at  the  Antipodes.*  That  is  why 
the  customs  controversy  occupied  so  large  a  share  of  the 
time  of  the  Convention,  for  the  control  of  customs  is  every- 
where a  function  of  the  national  or  federal  legislature,  never 
of  the  state  or  pro.ancial  legislatures.  Consequently,  the 
Nationalist  demand  for  the  control  of  customs  shuts  out  the 
federal  solution  of  the  Irish  problem  wliich  is  so  often  talked 
about  by  people  on  this  side  of  St.  George's  Channel.  How, 
then,  did  the  Convention  deal  with  this  crucial  issue  ? 
Simply    by   postponing   it. 

The  second  of  the  conditions  enumerated  above  as  being 
requisite  to  any  acceptance  of  Home  Rule  by  the  Southern 
Unionists  is  that  the  whole  of  Ireland  should  participate  in 
an  Irish  Parliament.  This  means  that  unless  Ulster  comes  in 
the  Southern  Unionists  will  have  no  Home  Rule.  In  this 
case  the  Convention  did  not  even  make  a  pretence  that  unity 
had  been  reached.  The  attitude  of  Ulster  is  unmistakable. 
The  six  north-eastern  counties  demand  exclusion,  and  mean 
to   insist   upon   it. 

The  third  condition  on  which  the  Southern  Unionists 
insist  as  essential  to  their  acceptance  of  any  form  of  Home 
Rule  is  that  an  adequate  contribution  must  be  made  by 
Ireland  to  Imperial  services.  The  attitude  of  the  Nationalists 
towards  this  demand  is  made  sufficiently  clear  by  the 
separate  reports  which  the  two  Nationalist  parties  on  the 
Convention  have  drafted.  Both  these  parties,  while  verbally 
accepting  "the  principle"  of  an  Irish  contribution,  make 
it  clear  that  they  do  not  intend  to  part  with  any  appreciable 
amount  of  cash.  They  demand  that  the  amount  of  *he 
contribution  should  be  left  to  be  settled  by  agreement  between 
the  Irish  Parliament  and  the  Imperial  Parliament,  and  t>»fy 
show  the  spirit  in  which  they  would  approach  negotiation 
on  this  question  by  insisting  that  Ireland  must  be  freed 
from  all  hability  for  the  Imperial  debt.  Ireland  is  to  receive 
the  full  security  that  victory  will  bring  to  the  United  King- 
dom, but  she  is  to  accept  no  responsibility  for  the  debt 
incurred  in  winning  that  security.  ;  More  than  this,  the 
Nationahst  parties  .demand  that  in  fixing  the  amount  of 
contribution  from  the  prosperous  Ireland  of  to-day  account 
must  be  taken  of  sum"s  alleged  to  be  due  to  Ireland  for 
liypothetical  over-taxation  eighty  or  ninety  years  ago,  when 
Ireland  was  poor.  In  addition,  the  extremer  Nationahsts, 
who  represent  the  real  driving  force  in  Irish  pohtics,  suggest 
that  the  cost  of  various  services  wliich  they  admit  to  be 
Irish  must  still  be  debited  to  the  Imperial  Exchequer  and 
that  any  balance  due  from  Ireland  "could  best  be  paid  in 
kind  by  the  provision  of  ships  or  other  war  material  manu- 
factured in  Ireland." 

There  we  have  a  revelation  of  the  true  Irish  mentahty — 
picturesque  talk  about  Ireland  a  nation,  but  a  refusal  to 
part  with  a  single  sixpence  to  pay  lor  the  pride  of  nationhood. 
Nor  is  that  all.  It  was  said  above  that  on  no  point  was  an 
agreement  reached  by  the  Convention.  That  statement  is 
not  quite  accurate ;  on  two  points  the  Convention  was 
unanimous.  It  decided  unanimouslv  that  the  Imperial 
Exchequer  should  be  called  upon  to"  furnish  more  money 
both  for  Irish  Land  Purchase  and  for  Irish  Housing.  In 
fairness  to  the  Unionist  members  of  the  Convention,  it  must 
be  added  that  they  insisted  at  the  same  time  on' the  full 
liabihty  of  Ireland  for  an  adequate  share  of  all  Imperial 
charges,  so  that  the  Irish  taxpayer  would  in  their  view  have 
shared  the  increased  burden  with  the  British  taxpayer. 

•  In  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords  when  the  Home  Rule  Bill  of 
1893  was  rejected,  the  Duke  ot  Argyll  said  that  he  had  recently  been 
spending  a  few  weeks  "  in  a  part  of  Scotland  whence  we  look  down 
upon  the  hills  of  Antrim.  We  can  see  the  colour  of  their  fields  and  in 
the  sunset  we  gan  see  the  glancing  of  the  Ught  upon  the  windows  of 
the  cabms  of  the  people.  And  this,  my  lords,  is  the  country  which  we 
are  told  must  be  governed  as  we  govern  the  Antipodes." 


April  1 8,  19 1 8 


Land    &  Watei 


15 


German  Plots  Exposed 

Fay    and   the    Bombs 

By      French      StrOther,  Managing  Editor,  "The  World's  Work,"  New  York 


In  this  picture  of  infernal  imagining  the  true  character  of  German 
plottings  in  America  stands  revealed.  Ingenuity  of  conception 
characterised  them,  method  and  patience  and  painstaking  made 
them  perfect.  Flawless  logic,  flawless  mechanism!  But  on  the 
human  side,  only  the  blackest  passions  and  an  utter  disregard  of 
human    life;    no   thought    of    honour,    no    trace    of     human     pity. 


ROBERT  FAY 
landed  in  New 
York  on  April 
23rd.1915.He 
landed  in  jail 
just  six  months  and  one 
day    later — on    October 

24th.  In  those  six  months  he  slowly  perfected  one  of 
the  most  infernal  devices  that  ever  emerged  from  the 
mind  of  man.  He  painfully  had  it  manufactured  piece  by 
piece.  With  true  German  thoroughness  he  covered  his  trail 
at  every  point — excepting  one.  And  five  days  after  he  had 
aroused  suspicion  at  that  point,  he  and  his  entire  group  of 
fellow-conspirators  were  in  jail.  The  agents  of  American 
justice  who  put  him  there  had  unravelled  his  whole  ingenious 
scheme  and  had  evidence  enough  to  have  sent  him  to  the 
penitentiary  for  life  if  laws  since  passed  had  then  been  in 
force. 

Only  the  mind  thaf  conceived  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania 
could  have  improved  upon  the  devilish  device  which  Robert 
Fay  invented  and  had  ready  for  use  when  he  was  arrested. 
It  was  a  box  containing  forty  pounds  of  trinitrotoluol,  to  be 
fastened  to  the  rudder  post  of  a  vessel,  and  so  geared  to  the 
rudder  itself  that  its  oscillations  would  slowly  release  the 
catch  of  a  spring,  wliich  would  then  drive  home  the  firing-pin 
and  cause  an  explosion  that  would  instantly  tear  off  the 
whole  stem  of  the  ship,  sinking  it  in  mid-ocean  in  a  few 
minutes.  Experts  in  mechanics  and  experts  in  explosives 
and  experts  in  shipbuilding  all  tested  the  machine,  and  all 
agreed  that  it  was  perfect  for  the  work  which  Fay  had  planned 
that  it  should  do. 

Fay  had  three  of  these  machines  completed,  he  had  others 
in  course  of  construction,  he  had  bought  and  tested  the 
explosive  to  go  into  them,  he  had  cruised  New  York  harbour 
in  a  motor-boat,  and  proved  by  experience  that  he  could 
attach  them  undetected  where  he  wished,  and  he  had  the 
names  and  sailing  dates  of  the  vessels  that  he  meant  to 
sink  without  a  trace.  Only  one  little  link  that  broke — and 
the  quick  and  thorough  work  of  American  justice — robbed 
him  of  another  Iron  Cross  besides  the  one  he  wore.  That 
link — but  that  comes  later  in  the  story. 

Fay  and  his  device  came  straight  from  the  heart  of  the 
German  Army,  with  the  approval  and  the  money  of  his 
Government  behind  him.  He,  hke  Werner  Horn,  came 
.originally  from  Cologne ;  but  they  were  veq^  different  men. 
Where  Horn  was  almost  childishly  simple.  Fay's  mind  was 
subtle  and  quick  to  an  extraordinary  degree.  Where  Horn 
had  been  humane  to  the  point  of  risking  his  life  to  save 
others.  Fay  had  spent  months  in  a  cold-blooded  solution  of 
a  complex  problem  in  destruction  that  he  knew  certainly 
involved  a  horrible  death  for  dozens,  and  more  likely  hun- 
dreds, of  helpless  human  beings.  Horn  refused  to  swear  to 
a  lie  even  where  the  lie  was  a  matter  of  no  great  moment. 
Fay  told  at  his  trial  a  story  so  ingenious  that  it  would  have 
done  credit  to  a  noveUst,  and  would  have  been  wholly  con- 
vincing if  other  evidence  had  not  disproved  the  substance 
of  it.    The  truth  of  the  case  runs  like  this : 

Fay  was  in  Germany  when  the  war  broke  out,  and  was 
sent  to  the  Vosges  Mountains  in  the  early  days  of  the  con- 
flict. Soon  men  were  needed  in  the  Champagne  sector,  and 
Fay  was  transferred  to  that  front.  Here  he  saw  some  of  the 
bitterest  fighting  of  the  war,  and  here  he  led  a  detachment  of 
Germans  in  a  surprise  attack  on  a  trench  full  of  Frenchmen 
in  superior  force.  His  success  in  this  dangerous  business 
won  him  an  Iron  Cross  of  the  second  class.  During  these 
days  the  superiority  of  the  Allied  artillery  over  the  German 
caused  the  Germans  great  distress,  and  they  became  very 
bitter  when  they  realised,  from  a  study  of  the  shells  that 
exploded  around  them,  how  much  of  this  superiority  was 
•  due  to  the  material  that  came  from  the  United  States  for 
use  by  the  French  and  British  guns,  t'ay's  ingenious  mind 
formed  a  scheme  to  stop  this  supply,  and  he  put  his  plan 
before  his  superior  officers.  The  result  was  that,  in  a  few 
weeks,  he  left  the  army  and  left  Germany,  armed  with  pass- 
ports and  £700  in  American  money,  bound  for  the  United 
States  on  the  steamer  Rotterdam.  He  reached  New  York 
on  April  23rd,  1915. 

One  of  Fay's  qualifications  for  the  task  he  had  set  for 
himself  was  his  familiarity  with  the  English  language  and 


with  the  United  States. 
He  had  gone  to  America 
in  1902,  spending  a  few 
months  on  a  farm  in 
Manitoba  and  then  going 
on  to  Chicago,  where  he 
had  worked  for  several 
years  for  the  J.  I.  Case  Machinery  Company,  makers  of 
agricultural  implements.  During  these  years,  Fay  was  taking 
an  extended  correspondence  school  course  in  electrical  and 
steam  engineering,  so  that  altogether  he  had  a  good  technical 
background  for  the  events  of  1915.  jIn  1908  he  went  back 
to  Germany.  '- 

What  he  may  have  lacked  in  technical  equipment.  Fay 
made  up  by  the  first  connection  he  made  when  he  reached 
New  York  in  1915.  The  first  man  he  looked  up  was  Walter 
Scholz,  his  brother-in-law,  who  had  been  in  America  for 
four  years,  and  who  was  a  civil  engineer  who  had  worked 
there  chiefly  as.  a  draftsman — part  of  the  time^for  the  Lacka- 
wanna Railroad — and  who  had  studied  mechanical  engineer- 
ing in  his  spare  time.  When  Fay  arrived,  Scholz  had  been 
out  of  a  ^ob  in  his  own  profession  and  was  working  on  a 
rich  man's  estate  in  Connecticut.  Fay,  armed  with'  plenty 
of  money  and  his  big  idea,  got  Scholz  to  go  into  the  scheme 
with  him,  and  the  two  were  soon  living  together  in  a-  boarding- 
house  at  28  Fourth  Street,  Weehawken,  across  the  river 
from  up-town  New  York. 

To  conceal  the  true  nature  of  their  operations,  they  hired 
a  small  building  on  Main  Street,  and  put  a  sign  over  the 
door  announcing  themselves  in  business  as  "The  Riverside 
Garage."  They  added  verisimilitude  to  this  scheme  by 
buying  a  second-hand  car  in  bad  condition  and  dismantling 
it,  scattering  the  parts  around  the  room  so  that  it  would 
look  as  if  they  were  engaged  in  making  repairs.  Every 
once  in  a  while  they  would  shift  these  parts  about  so  as  to 
alter  the  appearance  of  the  place.  However,  they  did  not 
accept  any  business;  whenever  a  man  took  the  sign  at  its 
face  value  and  came  in  asking  to  have  work  done.  Fay  or 
Scholz  would  take  him  to  a  neighbouring  saloon  and  buy 
him  a  few  drinks,  and  pass  him  along  by  referring  him  to 
some  other  garage. 

The  most  of  their  time  they  spent  about  the  real  business 
in  hand.  They  took  care  to  have  the  windows  of  their 
room  in  the  boarding-house  heavily  curtained  to  keep  out 
prying  eyes,  and  here,  under  a  student  lamp,  they  spent 
hours  over  mechanical  drawings  which  were  afterwards 
produced  in  evidence  at  the  trial  of  their  case.  The  mechanism 
that  Fay  had  conceived  was  carefully  perfected  on  paper, 
and  then  they  confronted  the  task  of  getting  the  machinery 
assembled.  Some  of  the  parts  were  standard — that  is,  they 
could  be  bought  at  any  hardware  store.  Others,  however, 
were  peculiar  to  this  device,  and  had  to  be  made  to  order 
from  the  drawings.  They  had  the  tanks  made  by  a  sheet- 
metal  worker  named  Ignatz  Schiering,  at  344  West  42nd 
Street,  New  York.  Scholz  went  to  him  with  a  drawing, 
telling  him  that  it  was  for  a  gasolene  tank  for  a  motor-boat. 
Scholz  made  several  trips  to  the  shop  to  supervise  some  of 
the  details  of  the  construction,  and  once  to  order  more  tanks 
of  a  new  size  and  shape. 

At  the  same  time,  Scholz  went  to  Bernard  McMiUan 
— doing  business  under  the  name  of  McMillan  &  Werner, 
81  Centre  Street,  New  York — to  have  him  make  a  special 
kind  of  wheels  and  gears  for  the  internal  mechanism  of  the 
bomb,  from  sketches  which  Scholz  supplied.  At  odd  times 
between  June  loth  and  October  aoth  McMillan  was  working 
on  these  things,  and  dehvered  the  last  of  them  to  ScholJ 
just  a  few  days  before  he  was  arrested. 

In  the  meanwhile  Fay  was  taking  care  of  the  other  neces- 
sary elements  of  his  scheme.  Besides  the  mechanism  of  the 
bomb,  he  had  to  become  famiUar  with  the  shipping  in  the 
port  of  New  York,  and  he  had  to  get  the  explosive  with 
which  to  charge  the  bomb.  For  the  former  purpose  he  and 
Scholz  bought  a  motor-boat — a  28-footer — and  in  this  they 
cruised  about  New  York  harbour  at  odd  times,  studying  the 
docks  at  which  ships  were  being  loaded  with  supplies  for  the 
AUies  and  calculating  the  best  means  and  time  for  placing 
the  bombs  on  the  rudder-posts  of  these  ships.  Fay  finally 
detennined  by  experience  that  between  two  and  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning  was  the  best  time.    The  watchmen 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


April  I  8,  19  I  8 


on  board  the  ships  were  at  that  hour  most  Ukely  to  be  asleep 
or  the  night  dark  enough  so  that  he  could  work  in  safety 
and  with  Uttle  fear  of  detection. 

Fay  made  actual  experiments  in  fastening  the  empty 
tanks  to  the  rudder-posts,  and  found  that  it  was  perfectly 
feasible  to  do  so.  His  scheme  was  to  fasten  them  just  above 
the  water-line  on  a  ship  while  it  was  light,  so  that  when  it 
was  loaded  they  were  submerged  and  all  possibihty  of  detec- 
tion was  removed. 

The  getting  of  explosives  was,  however,  the  most  difficult 
part  of  Fay's  undertaking.  This  was  true  not  only  because 
he  was  here  most  hkely  to  arouse  suspicion,  but  also  because 
of  his  relative  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  thing  he  was  deaUng 
with.  He  did  know  enough,  however,  to  begin  his  search 
for  explosives  in  the  least  suspicious  field,  and  it  was  only 
as  he  became  ambitious  to  produce  a  more  powerful  effect 
that  he  came  to  grief. 

The  material  he  decided  to  use  at  first  was  chlorate  of 
potash.  This  substance  in  itself  is  so  harmless  that  it  is  an 
ingredient  of  tooth-powders  and  is  used  commonly  in  other 
ways.  When,  however,  it  is  mixed  with  any  substance 
high  in  carbons,  such  as  sugar,  sulphur,  charcoal,  or  kerosene, 
it  becomes  an  explosive  of  considerable  power.  Fay  set 
about  to  get  some  of  the  chlorate. 

But  it  is  now  time  to  get  acquainted  with  Fay's  fellow- 
conspirators,  and  to  follow  them  through  the  drama  of 
human  relationships  that  led  to  Fay's  undoing.  All  these 
men  were  Germans — some  of  them  German-Americans — and 
each  in  his  own  way  was  doing  the  work  of  the  Kaiser  in 
America. 

Herbert  Kienzle  was  a  dealer  in  clocks  with  a  shop  of  his 
own  on  Park  Place,  in  New  York.  He  had  learned  the 
business  in  his  father's  clock  factory  deep  in  the  Black  Forest 
in  Germany,  and  had  gone  to  America  years  ago  to  go  into 
the  same  business,  getting  liis  start  by  acting  as  agent  for 
his  father's  factory  over  there.  After  the  war  broke  out  he 
had  become  obsessed  with  the  wild  tales  which  German 
propaganda  had  spread  in  the  United  States  about  dum- 
dum bullets  being  shipped  for  use  against  the  soldiers  of  the 
Fatherland.  He  had  brooded  on  the  subject,  had  written 
very  feelingly  about  it  to  the  folks  at  home,  and  had  pre- 
pared for  distribution  in  the  United  States  a  pamphlet 
denouncing  this  traffic.  Fay  had  heard  of  Kienzle  before 
leaving  Germany,  and  soon  after  he  had  got  to  New  York 
he  got  in  touch  with  him  as  a  man  with  a  fellow-feeling  for 
the  kind  of  work  he  was  undertaking  to  do. 

One  of  the  first  things  in  Fay's  carefully  worked  out  plan 
was  to  locate  a  place  to  which  he  could  quietly  retire  when 
his  work  of  destruction  should  be  done — a  place  where  he 
felt  he  could  be  safe  from  suspicion.  After  a  talk  with 
Kienzle,  he  decided  that  Lusk's  Sanatorium,  at  Butler,  New 
Jersey,  would  serve  the  purpose.  This  sanatorium  was  run 
by  Germans,  and  Kienzle  was  well  known  there.  Acting  on 
a  prearranged  plan  with  Kienzle,  Fay  went  to  Butler,  and 
was  met  at  the  station  by  a  man  named  Bronkhorst,  who  was  in 
charge  of  the  grounds  at  the  sanatorium.  They  identified  each 
other  by  prearranged  signals,  and  Fay  made  various  arrange- 
ments, some  of  which  are  of  importance,  and  will  be  de- 
scribed later  in  the  story. 

Another  friend  of  Kienzle's  was  Max  Breitung,  a  young 
German  employed  by  his  uncle,  E.  N.  Breitung,  who  was  in 
the  shipping  business  in  New  York.  Young  Breitung  was 
consequently  in  a  posirion  to  know  at  first  hand  about  the 
movements  of  ships  out  of  New  York  harbour.  Breitung 
supplied  Fay  with  the  information  he  needed  regarding 
which  ships  Fay  should  elect  to  destroy.  But  first  Breitung 
made  himself  useful  in  another  way. 

Fay  asked  Kienzle  how  he  could  get  some  chlorate  of 
potash,  and  Kienzle  asked  his  young  friend  Brietung  if  he 
could  help  him  out.  Breitung  said  he  could,  and  went  at 
once  to  another  German  who  was  operating  in  New  York 
ostensibly  as  a  broker  in  copper  under  the  name  of  Carl  L. 
Oppegaard. 

It  is  just  as  well  to  get  better  acquainted  with  Oppegaard 
because  he  was  a  vital  hnk  in  Fay's  undoing.  His  real 
name  was  Paul  Siebs,  and  for  the  purpose  of  this  story  he 
might  as  well  be  known  by  that  name.  Siebs  had  also  "been 
in  America  in  ea,rlier  days,  and  during  his  residence  in 
Chicago,  from  1910  to  1913,  he  had  become  acquainted  with 
young  Breitung. 

Siebs,  moreover,  had  gone  also  back  to  Germany 
before  the  war,  but  soon  after  it  began  he  had  returned  to 
the  United  States  under  liis  false  name,  ostensibly  as  an 
agent  of  an  electrical  concern  in  Gothenburg,  Sweden,  for 
the  purpose  of  buying  copper.  He  frankly  admitted  later 
that  this  copper  was  intended  for  re-export  to  Germany  to 
be  used  in  the  manufacture  of  munitions  of  war. 
{To  be  continued.) 


From  a  German  Note  Book 

WHATEVER  else  may   have   influenced    the   German 
High    Command   to   launch    their  offensive    in  the 
West,   certain  it  is  that  two  factors  predominated. 
The    German    people  were    suffering    from    that   sickness  of 
hope  deferred.     Peace  had  been  forced  on  Russia,  and  yet 
peace  conditions  in  Germany  are  as  far  away  as  ever. 

The  "news  of  the  offensive  electrified  the  nation.  People 
were  transported  back  into  the  days  of  August,  1914,  when 
every  edition  of  the  newspapers  brought  intelligence  of 
^victory.  As  in  that  early  period,  so  during  the  last  two 
weeks  the  crowds  in  Berlin  thronged  round  the  windows  of/'' 
the  newspaper  offices  to  read  the  telegrams.  But  while  in 
1914  their  rulers  held  out  to  them  the  promise  of  worid 
dominion,  to-day  their  task-masters  babble  of  peace. 

At  any  rate,  the  offensive  has  reawakened  the  war  fever 
in  Germany— no  small  matter  for  the  military  party.  But 
it  was  also  necessary  for  another  reason.  With  clock-work 
regularity  Germany  has  floated  a  war  loan  every  six  months 
—in  March  and  September.  Seven  have  already  been 
launched  ;  the  eighth  is  now  in  progress.  The  result  of  the 
loans  certainly  warranted  the  satisfacrion  they  called  forth. 
The  seven  war  loans  have  yielded  altogether  3,632  million 
pounds  steriing.  Be  it  remembered,  however,  that  the 
inflation  of  currency  in  Germany,  even  on  German  showing, 
is  immense.  Secondly,  the  country  is  denuded  of  all  stocks, 
and  manufacturers  and  shopkeepers  have  plenty  of  money^ 
but  no  goods.    What  are  they  'to  do  with  their  cash  ? 

The  day  of  reckoning,  however,  will  come  after  the  war, 
when  the  investors  will  require  cash  and  will  sell  out  their 
holdings  of  war  stock.  The  results  may  be  imagined,  when 
such  large  amounts  are  involved.  But  even  now  there  are 
searchings  of  heart.  In  the  budget  for  1917,  no  less  a  sum 
than  178  millions  sterling  was  allocated  for  payments  of 
interest  on  the  war  loans.  When  in  the  budget  for  1918 
the  sum  was  fixed  at  295  millions  sterling,  even  the  most 
patriotic  Germans  were  aghast,  and  the  Press  could  not 
restrain  its  anxiety.     Where  would  this  lead  to  ? 

Wherefore,  when  the  eighth  war  loan  was  floated,  it  was 
not  popular.  The  wildest  rumours  spread  about  among 
them  that  the  Government  would  confiscate  all  the  stock, 
and  would-be  investors  were  a  httle  frightened  of  coming 
forward.  The  President  of  the  Imperial  Bank  found  it 
necessary  to  make  a  public  statement  in  which  he  reassured 
the  public  that  all  was  well. 

This  atmosphere  of  doubt  and  hesitation  was  hardlj' 
conducive  to  a  successfiil  loan.  The  offensive  therefore 
became  a  necessity,  and  was  in  a  sense  part  of  the  propaganda 
for  the  war  loan.  "Read  the  daily  communiques  and  sub- 
scribe," the  German  reader  was  urged  in  all  the  papers  on 
March  27th.  "The  success  of  the  loan  means  the  success  of 
the  sword.  The  success  of  the  s\Vord  means — Peace.  There- 
fore, subscribe  T"  This  was  the  significant  message  on  the 
succeeding  day.  And  on  the  29th,  the  following  legend  was 
put  under  his  eyes  with  that  characteristic  lack  of  perception 
which  marks  the  Pnissian  soul:  "Are  you  still  debating 
whether  to  subscribe  or  not  ?  Ask  the  Frenchman  and  the 
Russian,  the  Serb,  the  Rumanian,  and  the  Itahan  what  it  means 
to  have  the  enemy  in  the  land.      Are  you  still  debating  ? " 

The  enthusiasm  engendered  by  the  results  of  the  offensive 
is  somewhat  damped.  Industry  is  at  a  standstill ;  only  the 
munition  works  are  doing  well.  A  manufacturer  has  informed 
the  readers  of  the  semi-official  Prussian  State  organ  that  in 
the  cotton  industry  only  70  out  of  a  total  of  1,700  spinning 
and  weaving  establishments  were  kept  going  ;  in  bootmaking, 
only  300  factories  out  of  1,400  ;  in  the  oil  industry,  15  alone 
are  left  out  of  720  works  ;  and  in  the  sil6-weaving  industrj' 
2,500  looms  are  still  busy  out  of  a  total  of  45,000. 

Bad  as  are  these  conditions,  they  are  aggravated  by  the 
high  cost  of  living,  and  still  more  by  social  diseases  brought 
about  by  the  war.  Berlin  swarms  with  criminals  who  carrj' 
on  their  nefarious  handiwork  on  a  large  scale  and  in  organised 
bands.  There  were  four  startling  murders  in  one  week  in 
Berlin  only  a  fortnight  ago.  Burglaries  are  daily  occur- 
rences, and  the  advertisement  boards  exhibit  any  number  of 
flaring  red  posters  offering  rewards  for  the  capture  of  the 
guilty  parties.  Very  frequently  the  robberies  are  per- 
petrated in  broad  daylight. 

One  of  the  Berhn  insurance  companies  estimates  the 
number  of  daily  burglaries  in  the  German  capital  at  300, 
to  say  nothing  of  thefts  on  the  railways.  In  1912  the  Imperial 
postal  authorities  had  to  recoup  the  public  for  parcels  lost  in 
transit  to  the  extent  of  £5,000  ;  in  1917  the  amount  had 
risen  to  £155.000.  Goods  trains  are  boarded  en  route  and 
the  railway  guards  attacked  by  armed  men,  who  seize  and 
decamp  with  what  they^can  lay  hands  on. 


April    i8,   1918 


Land    Sc   Water 


17 


Life  and  Letters  mjJX- Squire 


Shakespeare's  Sonnets 

IT  is  nearly  twenty  years  since  Messrs.  Methuen,  with 
Mr.  W.  j.  Craig  as  editor,  began  the  pubhcation  of 
the  Arden  Shakespeare  ;  nearly  ten  since  Mr.  R.  H. 
Case  took  over  general  control  of  the  series;  and, 
I  should  think,  at  least  two  since  a  volume  was  issued. 
Mr  C.  Knox  Pooler's  edition  of  the  Sonnets  (3s.  net)  has 
at  last  appeared.     It  was  worth  waiting  for. 

****** 

The  notes  are  considerably  more  voluminous  than  the 
text.  This  is  not  always  a  tribute  to  a  poet's  editor  ;  and  it 
necessitates  an  arrangement  of  the  page  which  makes  the 
edition  an  inconvenient  one  for  ordinary  reading.  At  the 
same  time,  a  man  who  should  habitually  read  the  Sonnets 
without  an  occasional  hankering  for  a  fully  annotated  edition 
would  be  more  than  human.  Both  their  nature  and  their 
condition  make  them  cry  out  for  explanation.  They  appear 
to  tell  a  story  ;  but  what  stoty  ?  They  are  evidently  a 
sonnet  sequence  ;  we  have  the  sonnets,  but  almost  certainly 
not  the  sequence.  They  are  dedicated  by  the  printer  to  a 
mysterious  person  whose  identification  might  or  might  not 
provide  a  clue  which  would  illuminate  their  whole  content. 
They  are  full  of  phrases  which  need  explanation,  and  words 
which  open  the  door  to  conjecture  ;  the  originals  of  the 
greater  portion  of  our  text  are  two  evidently  corrupt  editions. 
One  of  these  editions  was  published,  apparently  by  a  pirate, 
in  Shakespeare's  lifetime ;  the  other  by  an  ignoramus 
twenty-four  years  after  his  death.  On  all  sides  we  are 
besieged  by  questions.  For  whom  did  Shakespeare  write 
them  ?  Are  the  whole  of  them  meant  to  hang  together  ? 
Where  does  euphuistic  compliment  end  and  passion  begin  ? 
Who  were  the  persons  mentioned,  including  the  brother- 
poet  ?  Which  of  the  thousands  of  variant  readings  are 
correct  ?  What  is  the  correct  order  ?  And  even — though 
this  is  not  commonly  put — do  we  possess  the  whole  of  them  ? 
****** 

Mr.  Pooler  is  an  editor  of  the  cautious  and  judicious  type. 
His  qfotes  on  the  text — interpretations,  variants,  parallel 
paissage — embody  a  great  deal  of  what  is  valuable  in  the 
work  of  his  predecessors,  and  much,  uniformly  sensible,  that 
is  his  own.  On  more  general  questions,  however,  he  inclines 
to  summarise  the  arguments  of  two  centuries  of  commentators 
instead  of  parading  theories  of  his  own.  One  positive  and 
exhaustive  argument  he  does  carry  through,  as  I  tliink, 
successfully.  He  argues,  as  against  Sir  Sidney  Lee,  that 
Benson  for  his  edition  of  1640  had  no  other  materials  than 
Thorpe's  1609  edition  and  The  Passionate  Pilgrim  (1599), 
which  contains  two  sonnets.  Prima  facie,  there  is  a  good 
deal  in  favour  of  Sir  Sidney  Lee's  view  :  Benson  leaves  out 
some  sonnets,  misdescribes  many  in  head-lines,  muddles 
them  up  with  other  poems,  and  frequently  varies  tlie  text. 
But  most  of  his  exploits  can  be  explained  away  as  the  stupidi- 
ties of  a  dolt  or  the  deliberate  changes  of  a  knave.  Premising 
that  "one  blind  beast  may  avoid  the  hole  into  which  another 
blind  beast  has  fallen,  but  it  cannot  fall  into  the  same  hole 
unless  it  is  going  over  the  same  ground,"  Mr.  Pooler  collects 
a  very  large  number  of  instances  to  show  that,  where  Thorpe 
had  committed  misprints  or  errors  of  punctuation  which 
play  havoc  with  the  sense,  Benson  corvtinually  follows  him. 
This  is  not  what  is  called  a  "mere"  bibhographical  question. 
For  in  Benson's  edition,  to  put  it  briefly,  a  great  many  of  the 
"he's"  are  altered  into  "she's,"  and  if  it  could  be  proved  to 
be  anything  more  than  a  mere  adaptation  of  Thorpe's,  the 
sex  of  the  person  addressed  in  most  of  the  Sonnets  would 
be  more  open  to  doubt  than  it  is. 

*    '         *  *  *  *  « 

The  theory  that  the  Sonnets  do  not  refer  to  actual  occur- 
rences, often  propounded  (and  recently,  supported,  by  the 
way,  by  Mr.  Asquith).  does  not  seem  to  me  tenable  ;  I  do 
not  think  that  a  poet  whose  own  personal  feelings  were  not 
directly  engaged  ever  produced  sonnets  with  the  ring  that 
these  have.  There  is  no  justification,  on  the  face  of  the 
poet's  statements  or  in  the  general  spirit  which  permeates 
the  sonnets,  for  those  interpreters  who,  sometimes  from 
interested  motives,  have  detected  abnormality  in  Shake- 
speare's love  for  that  friend  of  whom  he  said  : 

And  for  a  woman  wert  thou  first  created 

Till  Nature,  as  she  wrought  thee,  iell  a-doting, 

And  by  addition  me  of  thee  defeated.  .  .  . 

But  ill'  existed  ;   Shakespeare  urged  iiim  constantly  to  marry  ; 


and  there  was  a  breach.  In  spite  of  all  the  fever  of  all  the 
controversialists,  we  do  not  know  who  he  was.  We  do  not 
even  know  whether  his  initials  were  W.  H.  ;  Sir  Sidney  Lee 
thinks  that  "  W.  H."  was  a  seedy  hanger-on  of  the  publishing 
trade.  Whether  the  "Dark  Lady"  has  ever  been  identified 
with  Anne  Hathaway,  Mr.  Pooler  does  not  say,  and  I  do  not 
know.  But  there  are  several  candidates  for  her  post,  and  at 
least  six  for  that  of  the  "rival  poet."  The  amount  of  inci- 
dental information  brought  to  light  by  all  their  supporters 
has  been  enormous ;  even  Baconian  research  has  a  silver 
lining.  But  nothing  near  proof  has  ever  been  produced. 
The  "Dark  Lady"  remains  in  the  dark,  and  under  "  W.  H.'s" 
dedication,  as  under  Junius'  title,  the  motto  "Stat  nominis 
umbra"  must  still  be  written. 

****** 

Possibly  the  mystery  will  never  be  solved.  But  even  if  it 
were,  a  greaterjnystery  remains,  and  one  that  envelopes  the 
Plays  as  well  as  the  Sonnets.  It  is  the  greatest  of  all  Shake- 
spearean mysteries  ;  far  greater  than  the  mystery,  so  obsessing 
to  the  Baconians,  of  how  "the  drunken  illiterate  clown  of 
Stratford"  could  have  known  so  much  law,  grammar,  and 
classical  mythology.  Why  was  the  greatest  of  all  poets  so 
utterly  careless  about  the  perpetuation  of  his  texts  ;  why 
did  he  apparently  take  no  steps  to  get  the  bulk  of  his  work 
published  or  even  to  correct  the  corrupt  versions  that  did 
get  published  ?  Why,  in  an  age  when  everybody  rushed 
into  print,  did  he  leave  his  manuscripts  about  to  die  or 
precariously  survive  like  foundlings  ?  In  any  case,  had  he 
never  said  a  word  about  his  art  himself,  this  would  have 
been  inexplicable,  in  the  light  of  what  we  know  of  human 
nature  and  the  nature  of  poets.  But,  apart  from  that,  there 
is  plenty  of  quite  indisputable  detailed  evidence  that  he 
who  envied  "this  man's  art  and  that  man's  scope,"  and  who 
spoke  of  the  "proud  full  sail"  of  a  rival's  "great  verse" 
revered  his  own  'calling.  More,  over  and  over  again,  in  the 
Sonnets  themselves  he  not  only  shows  that  consciousness  of 
his  own  powers  which  great  poets  always  have  but  definitely 
anticipates  the  durability  of  what  he  has  written.  He  never 
says  that  he  is  writing  for  his  private  amusement  or  relief 
and  that  he  does  not  care  what  becomes  of  his  work  or  whether 
anyone  ever  reads  it :  though  that  is  the  attitude  that  some 
critics,  anxious  not  to  admit  any  puzzle  insoluble,  have 
absurdly  imputed  to  him.     W^at  he  says  is : 

Not  marble,  nor  th^  gilded  monuments 
Of  princes  shall  outlive  this  powerful  rhyme  ; 
But  you  shall  shine  more  bright  in  these  contents 
Than  unswept  stone,  besmear'd  with  sluttish  time  : 
When  wasteful  war  shall  statues  overturn. 
And  broils  root  out  the  work  of  masonry, 
Nor  Mars  his  sword  fior  War's  quick  fire  shall  burn 
The  living  record  of  your  memory. 
'Gainst  death  and  all  obUvious  enmity 
Shall  you  pace  forth  ;  your  praise  shall  still  find  room, 
.,     Even  in  the  eyes  of  all  posterity 

That  wear  this  world  out  to  the  ending  doom. 
So,  till  the  judgment  that  yourself  arise, 
You  live  in  this,  and  dwell  in  lovers'  eyes. 

"  Who  will  believe  my  verse  in  time  to  come  ?  "  he  asks  again. 
"Do  thy  most,, old  Time,"  he  says.  "My  love  shall  in  my 
verse  ever  live  long."  ''To  times  in  hope  my  verse  shall 
stand.  Praising  thy  worth"  : 

Your  njonnment  shall  be  my  gentle  verse. 

Which  eyes  not  yet  created  shall  o'er  read  ; 

And  tongues  to  be  your  being  shall  rehearse, 

When  all  the  breathers  of  this  world  are  dead  ; 
You  still  shall  live,  such  virtue  hath  my  pen. 
Where  breath  most  breathes,  even  in  the  mouths  of  men. 

And  where  he  is  not  promising,  but  hoping,  we  see  the  con- 
fidence behind  the  hope,  as  in  that  sonnet  with  the  marvellous 
beginning : 

Since  brass  nor  stone,  nor  earth,  nor  boundless  sea, 

But  sad  mortality  o'ersways  their  power, 

How  with  this  rage  shall  beauty  hold  a  plea. 

Whose  action  is  no  stronger  than  a  flower. 

He  had  written  in  some  of  these  sonnets  the  greatest  lyric 
verse  in  the  world,  and  he  knew  it  ;  verse  which  in  its  effort- 
less fertility  of  image,  its  "inevitable"  directness  of  phrase, 
its  perfection  of  rhythm,  must  be  the  idol  and  the  despair 
of  every  writer  who  reads  it  and  sees  Shakespeare  doing  a 
thousand  times  "on  his  liead"  what  he  himself  would  be 
proud  to  do  once.  There  are  contorted  sonnets  ;  there  are 
oven  dull  ones  ;  but  the  best,  and  the  best  jiarts  of  the  others 
surpass  anything  in  English  poetry.  And  they  were,  appar- 
ently, the  by-product  of  a  voluminous  professional 
dramatist. 


i8 


Land    &    Water 


April   1 8,  1918 


Official  Art:    By  Charles  Marriott 


So  far  as  can  be  judged  from  a  photograph,  the  first 
prize  design  for  a  meiriorial  plaque  to  be  presented 
to  the  next  of  kin  of  members  of  His  Majesty's 
Forces  who  have  fallen  in  the  war  has  the  right 
dignity  and  simplicity.  The  idea  expressed  in  the 
design  is  worthy,  the  feeUng  restrained,  the  sjTnbolism  apt 
and  easy  to  read,  and  the  modelling  clean  and  firm.  On  the 
whole,  the  artist,  the  Government,  and  the  general  pubUc 
are  to  be  congratulated.  As  a  rule,  this  sort  of  thing  is 
done  badly  in  England,  and  it  may  be  worth  while  trying  to 
discover  the  reason  why.  Certainly  it  is  not  lack  of  ideas 
or  of  technical  abihty  in  this  country. 

For  some  reason  or  other,  a  great  many  people,  including 
intelligent  and  educated  people,  and  even 
some  artists,  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to 
bring  to  art  the  same  good  faith  that 
they  bring  to  literature.    For  ex- 
ample,   they    use    the    words 
"truth  to  nature"   with  an 
entirely  different   meaning 

in  speaking  of  literature        ,^^^^^^^H%F    /        / 
and    in    speaking    of 
painting    or    sculp- 
ture.   In  the  case 
of   literature  they 
tacitly,  and  right- 
ly, mean  truth  to 
nature  in   words  ; 
but  in  the  case  of 
painting  or  sculp- 
ture they  do  not 
mean      truth     to 
nature  in  paint  or 
bronze  or  marble. 
They     mean     the 
imitation    of    na- 
ture in  those'  sub- 
stances.      In    the 
one      case      they 
tacitly    assume 
translation    into 
terms    of    the 
medium^  and  in  the 
other  they  do  not.    As 
apphed      to      hterature 
they   interpret   the   phrase 
"holding    the    mirror   up    to 
nature"  figuratively,  as  it  was 
intended ;     but    in    the    case    of 
painting,  they  interpret  the  phrase 
literally,  as  it  was  not  intended.    The 
reflection  in  a  mirror  is  a  respectable  . 

ideal  for  a  possible  art,  but  it  is  not  the  Design 

art  of  painting.  It  is  the  art  of  perfect 
colour  photography.  The  art  of  photo- 
graphy,   indeed,    is    essentially    and 

hteraUy  the  art  of  holding  up  a  mirror  to  nature  and  fixing 
the  reflection. 

As  will  be  seen,  a  good  deal  of  the  confusion  is  caused  by 
the  bad  habit  of  talking  about  "art"  in  the  abstract. 
Strictly  speaking,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  art  as  distinct 
from  the  particular  arts  of  painting,  carving,  or  modelling. 
The  essential  thing  about  any  art  is  control  of  the  medium 
according  to  its  nature  and  capacities.  In  the  case  of  litera- 
ture this  is  more  or  less  clearly  recognised.  The  people  of 
whom  I  spoke  recognise  that,  irrespective  of  subject,  litera- 
ture is  primarily  the  right  and  effective  use  of  words  ;  that 
the  writer  is,  in  fact,  a  word-smith  ;  but  they  do  not  recognise 
that,  equally  irrespective  of  subject,  art  is  primarily  the 
right  and  effective  use  of  paint  or  marble  or  bronze,  or  what- 
ever the  substance  may  be  ;  and  that  in  one  case,  as  in  the 
other,  truth  to  nature  implies  translation.  The  parallel  in 
literature  to  what  such  people  expect  of  painting  or  sculpture 
would  be  the  sacrifice  of  articulate  language  to  imitative 
sounds. 

In  order  to  satisfy  the  public,  and,  above  all,  the  official 
pubhc,  an  artist  has  to  make  a  compromise  between  truth 
to  nature  in  terms  of  his  medium  and  the  imitation  of  nature 
which  violates  his  medium — as  imitative  sounds  would 
violate  language.  Even  in  pictorial  art,  where  a  reasonably 
close  imitation  of  nature  can  be  indulged  without  serious 
injury  to  the  medium,  the  difficulty  exists ;  but  when  it 
comes  to  special  forms  of  art,  such  as  the  designing  of  coins 


or  medals,  the  difficulty  is  eriormously  increased.  There  is 
not  only  the  special  substance,  but,  the  special  form  to  be 
considered  in  the  translation  of  nature.  I  have  talked  to 
several  of  the  artists  responsible  for  official  insignia  actually 
in  use,  and  they  all  tell  me  the  same  story :  the  problem  was 
to  dodge  in  the  interests  of  craftmanship  the  official  demand 
for  an  imitative  representation.  Generally,  the  result  is  a 
bad  compromise  ;  *  and  if  you  examine  the  various  examples 
of  official  art  in  use,  from  decorations  to  "Bradburys"  and 
postage  stamps,  you  will  see  that  their  general  character  is 
that  of  a  more  or  less  good  pictorial  design  clapped  on  to  the 
surface  of  the  materials.  They  are  not  designed  in  terms  of 
the  material  or  in  terms  of  the  particular  art  involved. 

The   difference   between    the    task   of    the 
artist  and  that  of  the  writer  in  satisfy- 
ing the  ofiicial  mind  can  be  illus- 
trated   in    a    very    simple    way. 
Everybody  must  have  noticed 
that  in  most  public  memorials 
the  inscription  is  the  best 


for  Memorial 

By  E.  C.  Preston 


part.    The  reason  is  not 
necessarily     that     the 
artist  was  inferior  to 
the  writer  chosen, 
but    that    the 
writer     was      ad- 
dressing a  sounder 
judgment.    He 
could       use       his 
medium     freely 
with  the  certainty 
of    being    under- 
stood.    Nobody 
would  pull  him  up 
and      point      out 
I       that  the  word  was 
not  really  "like" 
the  thing.      Good 
as  is  Mr.  Preston's 
design      for      the 
memorial    plaque, 
it    has   not    quite 
the    felicity    of '  the 
inscription  :    "He  died 
for    Freedom    and    Hon- 
our."   I  cannot  help  think- 
ing that  the  combat  between 
the  British  lion  and  the  German 
eagle  was  an  anticipatory  conces- 
sion on  the  part  of  Mr.  Preston.    As 
somebody  said  when  I  pointed  it  out, 
he  has  done  it  "  very  small."   Certainly 
it  adds  nothing  to  the  dignity  of  the 
design  or  to  the  value  of  the  leading 
idea.   Fighting  for  honour  and  freedom 
and  fighting  Germany  are  not  inevit- 
ably the  same  thing.     They  only  happen  to  coincide. 

The  reason  why  most  of  our  official  art  is  bad  is  not 
that  the  artists  are  incompetent  or  that  the  officials  are 
insensible  to  fine  conceptions  or  even  hostile  to  good  crafts- 
mansliip  in  itself.  It  is  the  much  simpler  and  much  less  dis- 
couraging reason  that,  as  a  rule,  the  officials  responsible  do 
not  understand  that  in  art,  as  in  literature,  in  order  to  be 
effective  the  thing  must  be  done  in  terms  of  the  medium. 
Sometimes,  of  course,  the  chosen  artist  is  incapable  of 
making  the  necessary  translation  because  he  has  not  been 
trained  as  a  craftsman,  but  only  as  an  "artist."  It  is  much 
easier  to  imitate  nature  skilfully  than  to  master  a  medium. 
Hundreds  have  poetical  ideas,  most  people  can  write,  but 
few  can  write  poetry.  I  would  say  that  for  every 
hundred  artists  who  are  capable  of  a  fine  conception  there 
will  be  only  ten  who  can  embody  it  in  a  good  design  ;  and  foi 
every  ten  who  can  embody  it  in  a  good  design  in  the  abstract, 
there  will  be  only  one  who  can  design  it  in  characteristic  terms 
of  a  particular  material  for  a  particular  purpose. 

Fortunately,  this  last  is  a  removable  deficiency,  and  that 
brings  me  to  what  I  beheve  is  one  reason  why  Mr.  Preston 
has  succeeded  where  so  many  have  failed.  Besides  being  a 
medallist  and  painter,  he  is  a  maker  of  toys,  and  he  has  done 
a  great  deal  of  work  in  connection  with  the  Lord  Roberts 
Memorial  Workshops.  I  venture  to  say  that  he  learnt 
more  about  designing  medals  in  his  toy-making  than  from 
his  artistic  training  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  words. 


Plaq 


ue 


April  1 8,  19 1 8 


Land    &   Water 


19 


|M.x.'>.^%.'fc.%v^^^^%%^^'^m.%m.^%».^»-%m.^%.»-%.v*-^<.^^^^m.%^i»^^.r#^#.yr^.y.r##'########j>#####J^J>-i'^-»^jr^#-####^/5BH 


Electrification  of  Seeds:  By  Charles  Mercier,  m.d,  f.r.c.p. 


ELECTRICITY  is  a  word  to  conjure  with.  In  the 
estimation  of  the  ignorant  it  is  a  kind  of  superior 
witchcraft,  a  mysterious  power  that  is  capable  of 
working  great  marvels,  they  do  not  in  the  least 
know,  or  care,  how.  For  this  very  reason,  those 
who  do  know  a  good  deal  about  electricity  are  apt  to  be 
sceptical  when  some  new  claim  is  made  on  its  behalf.  They 
are  inclined  to  put  the  claim— provisionally,  at  any  rate — 
on  a  level  with  the  assertion  that  "Electricity  is  Life,"  and 
to  regard  it  as  a  bit  of  quackery. 

This,  at  least,  was  my  own  mental  attitude  when  I  heard 
it  asserted  that  treatment  of  seeds  by  electricity  before  they 
are  sown  produces  an  increase  in  the  crop  that  grows  from 
them,  and  I  was  reluctant  to  waste  time  in  investigating  the 
process.  But  when  I  was  assured  that  an  agent  of  the 
Ministry  of  Food  was  taking  sufiScient  interest  in  the  process 
to  inquire  into  it,  I  began  to  think  there  might  be  something 
in  it ;  when  I  found  that  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  had 
released  the  materials  and  machines  necessary  for  con- 
struction and  working  of  the  plant,  my  interest  was  aroused  ; 
when  I  read  the  reports  and  heard  the  verbal  explanations  of 
agricultural  experts  of  eminence,  it  seemed  that  the  thing 
was  worth  examination ;  when  I  heard  that  the  firm  of 
Mitsui,  the  Rothschilds  of  Japan,  had  taken  the  matter  up 
and  are  arranging  to  instal  a  plant  in  Japan,  I  was  con- 
finncd  in  the  view  ;  and  when  I  discovered  that  practical 
farmers,  farming  on  a  large  scale,  who  had  in  previous  seasons 
made  trial  sowings  of  a  few  acres,  were  now  preparing  to  sow 
a  large  acreage — the  whole  of  their  cereals — with  treated 
seed,  I  could  no  longer  doubt  that  the  project  was  worth 
serious  examination.  I  was  now  prepared  to  find  that  there 
is  something  in  it.  I  was  not  quite  prepared  to  find  how 
much  there  is  in  it. 

The  process  was  invented  by  Mr.  H.  E.  Fry,  a  gentleman 
residing  at  Godmanstone,  near  Dorchester,  who  has  been 
working  at  it  for  the  last  six  years,  and  by  means  of  some 
hundreds  of  experiments  of  gradually  increasing  magnitude, 
has  brought  a  promising  conjecture  to  a  practical  success. 
He  has  been  fortunate  in  possessing  open-minded  neighbours, 
who  have  confidence  in  his  ability,  and  who  have  conducted 
for  him  field-trials  upon  a  considerable  scale.  The  process  con- 
sists in  steeping  the  seed  in  a  Uquid,  such  as  solution  of 
common  salt,  or  of  calcium  chloride,  that  is  a  good  conductor 
of  electricity,  and  in  passing,  when  the  seed  is  thoroughly 
soaked,  a  current  of  electricity  through  the  solution,  and 
thereby  through  the  seed  also.  The  current  is  allowed  to 
flow  for  a  time  that  varies  with  the  kind  of  seed  treated, 
the  optimum  duration  for  each  having  been  determined 
by  many  careful  experiments.  The  moment  the  proper 
time  has  elapsed,  the  liquid  is  run  off,  and  the  seed  is  taken 
out  and  dried  ;  and  at  this  stage  a  very  unexpected  result 
was  manifested. 

In  the  early  trials,  the  seed  was  not  thoroughly 
dried,  or  but  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  drying ;  but 
subsequent  experiments  showed  that  the  drying  is  a  very 
important  part  of  the  process.  The  temperature  needs 
careful  regulation,  and  the  more  thoroughly  the  moisture  is 
removed,  the  greater  is  the  increase  in  the  yield  of  the  crop. 
The  crude  methods  of  drying  at  first  resorted  to  are  now 
superseded  by  kiln-drying,  which,  though  not  ideally  perfect, 
is  very  satisfactory  in  practice.  When  the  seed  is  dry,  the 
pr(x;ess  is  complete,  and  the  seed  is  ready  for  sowing.  The 
sooner,  in  reason,  it  is  sown,  the  better  are  the  results  ;  but 
it  is  ascertained  that  the  seed  retains  its  increased  power 
wjtliout  serious  diminution  for  a  month,  and  may  then  still 


be  sown  with  profit  ;  but  at  or  before  the  end  of  two  months 
deterioration  sets  in,  and  the  seed  gradually  reverts  to  the 
condition  it  was  in  before  being  treated.  It  suffers  no  harm 
from  the  treatment,  if  this  is  properly  conducted,  but  if  the 
sowing  is  delayed  beyond  a  month  the  treatment  is  partly  or 
wholly  wasted. 

The  early  experiments  showed  varying  results.  In  most 
of  them  there  was  a  gratifying  and  encouraging  increase  in 
the  growth  of  the  plant,  and  in  the  yield  from  it.  In  some, 
little  or  no  improvement  could  be  discovered  ;  and  in  a  few 
there  was  an  actual  deterioration.  As  the  experiments  pro- 
ceeded and  the  method  was  perfected,  these  discrepancies 
disappeared,  and  a  stage  has  now  been  reached  at  which  it  is 
possible  to  reckon  confidently  upon  an  increase  in  the  crop, 
and  upon  a  greater  increase  than  was  attained  in  the  early 
stages  of  experimentation.  It  may  now  be  said  that  an 
increase  of  yield  more  than  compensating  for  the  cost  of  the 
process  is  assured. 

The  cost  of  the  treatment  is,  indeed,  trifling,  being  only 
about  14s.  per  sack,  which  will  sow  an  acre  of  ground  in 
spring  and  more  than  an  acre  in  autumn.  To  get  this  money 
back  at  the  present  price  of  wheat,  the  yield  should  be 
increased  by  3  bushels  per  acre,  or  about  10  per  cent,  on  a 
moderate  crop  of  30  bushels  to  the  acre.  In  fact,  the  average 
increase  on  the  trials  in  1914-5  was  36  per  cent. ;  in  1915-6, 
22  per  cent.  ;  and  in  subsequent  seasons  these  percentages 
have  been  maintained. 

To  judge  of  the  trustworthiness  of  these  results,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  how  the  trials  are  conducted.  The  method  is 
this :  of  a  given  bulk  of  seed,  so  many  sacks  are  taken  and 
submitted  to  the  treatment.  The  treated  seed  is  then  sown 
in  one  patch,  side  by  side  with  the  untreated  seed  from  the 
same  bulk.  The  whole  of  the  field  has  precisely  the  same 
preparation  ;  the  whole  has  been  cropped  in  the  same  manner 
in  previous  years  ;  the  whole  is  similarly  manured  ;  the  two 
samples  of  seed  are  sown  on  the  same  day,  with  the  same 
drill,  the  rows  at  the  same  distance  apart,  the  same  amount 
of  seed  to  the  acre.  The  subsequent  cultivation  is  the  same 
in  every  respect.  No  field  is  precisely  uniform  in  every 
respect  in  every  yard  of  its  surface,  but  these  little  local 
differences  are  swamped  and  submerged  when  a  sufficient 
area  is  taken.  In  the  trials  that  have  been  made,  the  areas 
taken  have  been  considerable  ;  that  is  to  say,  several  acres 
— from  6  to  20 — in  extent.  When,  under  these  conditions, 
trial  after  trial,  by  different  farmers,  in  different  parts  of 
the  country,  as  widely  distant  as  Dorset  and  Cheshire,  show 
results  uniformly  in  favour  of  the  treated  seed,  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  doubt  that  the  difference  is  due  to  the 
treatment  the  seed  has  undergone.  Scepticism  becomes 
unreasonable. 

It  would  be  incorrect  to  say  the  results  have  been  uniformly 
in  favour  of  the  process.  Therfe  have  been  a  few  failures; 
but  when  these  have  been  investigated  it  has  been  found 
that  either  the  treatment  of  the  seed  has  been  ifi  some  respect 
faulty,  or  the  conditions  of  cultivation  have  not  been  the 
same. 

If  the  facts  are  as  here  stated,  doubt  becomes  unreason- 
able ;  but  are  the  facts  as  here  stated  ?  To  establish  this  it 
is  necessary  to  call  evidence.  The  evidence  is  abundant, 
far  too  abundant  to  give  here,  and  I  must  be  content  with 
citing  that  of  a  single  witness,  but  this  witness  is  of  unim- 
peachable authority.  Mr.  Molyneux  is  accepted  throughout 
the  world  of  agriculture  and  horticulture  as  a  man  wl\ose 
authority  cannot  be  gainsaid.  He  has  judged  more  frequently 
at  agricultural   shows  than  perhaps  any  other  living  man. 


20 


Land   &   Water 


April  1 8,  19 1 8 


and  the  following  extracts  are  from  a  report  signed  by  him 
that  appeared  in  the  Gardener's  Chronicle  on  December  6 : — 

On  approaching  the  field  I  at  once  detected  a  difference  in 
the  greater  luxuriance  of  the  growth.  [Mr.  Molyneux  does  not 
say  so  ;  but,  in  fact,  the  difference  was  noticeable  at  a  distance 
of  a  quarter  of  a  mile.]  On  a  closer  inspection,  the  straw  on  the 
half  of  the  field  so  treate<l  was  found  to  be  eight  inches  higher 
than  in  that  untreated.  Mr.  Smith  seized  a  handful  of  straw 
in  quite  a  haphazard  manner  in  both  plots — treated  and  untreated. 
The  comparison  showed  much  difference  in  the  tliickness  of  the 
straw  and  the  size  of  the  ears. 

The  next  field  inspected  was  10  acres  of  Champion  Hybrid 
Yellow  Turnips.  .  .  .  The  treated  seed  occupied  every  fifth 
drill.  The  difference  in  the  appearance  of  the  plants  in  tliis 
single  row  was  very  striking.  The  foUage  on  many  of  the  plants 
was  much  more  robust,  and  possessed  more  chlorophyll  than'' 
the  untreated  plants  in  the  four  remaining  drills.  I  pulled  up 
roots  opposite  each  other  froiYi  the  two  rows  without  any  attempt 
to  choose.     That  from  the  treated  seed  was  distinctly  larger.  .  . 

We  then  crossed  over  to  Nethercerne,  a  neighbouring  farm, 
owned  by  Mr.  Maby,  who  has  taken  an  interest  in  the  subject, 
and  has  sown  two  fields  with  treated  and  untreated  seed.  The 
barley  was  being  cut.  Here  the  untreated  portion  showed  less 
luxuriance  of  growth  in  the  thickness  of  the  straw,  as  well  as  in 
.  the  height  and  in  the  size  of  the  ears. 

The  oats  were  sown  in  a  field  which  had  previously  lain  some 
years  as  derelict  grass.  .  .  .  Here  the  difference  in  the  treated 
portion  was  most  striking  in  the  length  of  the  straw 

The  conclusions  I  drew  from  these  inspections  arc  that,  to  use 
a  common  phrase,  there  is  "something  in  it."  If  by  treating 
the  seed  only  two  more  sacks  per  acre  are  produced,  which  is  a 
low  estimate,  in  value  the  two  sacks  are  worth  40s.,  and  surely 
the  gain  is  considerable. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  a  Pope  could  not  be  convicted  of 
crime  except  on  the  evidence  of  at  least  seventy-two  unim- 
peachable witnesses.  That  a  Pope  should  be  guilty  of  crime 
is  in  the  highest  degree  improbable ;  but  it  would  be  almost 
as  difficult  to  convince  a  farmer  that  the  yield  of  his  corn 
can  be  increased  by  30  per  cent,  as  to  convince  him  that  a 
Pope  could  be  guilty  of  crime.  In  the  one  case,  as  in  the 
other,  a  multitude  of  unimpeachable  witnesses  is  required ; 
and  as  to  the  corn,  the  witnesses  are  forthcoming.  They  are 
not  only  agricultural  experts  like  Mr.  Molyneux,  or  ignorant 
outsiders  like  myself,  but  comprise  seed  experts,  seed 
merchants  in  a  large  way  of  business,  and,  above  all, 
practical  farmers  whose  living  depends  on  their  success  in 
farming,  and  who  are  by  nature  a  cautious,  sceptical  race, 
clinging  to  traditional  ways  that  have  proved  successful 
through  the  years  of  many  generations,  and  shy  of  new- 


tItclTtnsoiits 


vecD 
J\/ovels 


^yJ.r^^rF^^  vi^it  f.  e.  tmTHXZH.c 


U.P.,  His  Majesty's  Attorney-General. 
Now  Ready. 


With  16  Illustrations 
Cloth  6/-  net. 

Notes  of  a  Nomad  ^y  ^^^^  jephson.  with 

Portrait     of    the    Author    and 
16  Illustrations  in  a  large  handsome  volume,  12/6  net. 

The  Coming  Economic  Crisis 

Now  Ready.  By  H.  J.  JENNINGS-     3/6  net. 

Japanese  Memories    ?y  ethel  uoward 

„,.^.  ^„  -^n  cloth    Bilt.     12/fi   net 

With  numerous  Illustrations, 


cloth    gilt,     12/6   net. 
Note  Ready. 


HUTCHINSON'S  NEW  6/-  NOVELS 


The  Bag  of  Saffron  «  „   Third  Edition. 

T     J      i,t         ,     -Z    "     ^y  ^'"■'^''  VON  HUTTEN 

Lady  Mary  s  Money  By  c.  b.  burgin 
Sands  of  Gold  i'^Zt.  sy  kathlyn  Rhodes 
The Lyndwood Affair  By  una  l.  silberrad 

Second  Edition. 

Sergt.  Spud-Tamson,  V.C.  „  „,    ^y 

A    ir.         .       D    L    /  ^'  R-  W.CAMPBELL 

A  King  tn  Babylon  o,,„,^^     ^y 

, A  .,,      . ..  T  •./  n        ^Vf^TON  E.  STEVENSON 
(Author  of  ••  Little  Comrade.")     50th  Thousand. 

I  he  Narrow  Strait  By  w.  e.  norris 

Miss  Pim's  Camouflage  By  lady  Stanley 
In  Our  Street  By  peggy  webling 

Children  of  Eve        By  isabel  c.  clarke 

HUTCHIVSO.N  &  CO.,  Paternoster  Row.  London.  E.C 


fangled  methods  that  have  been  insufficiently  tested.  More 
than  a  hundred  such  men  have  already  testified  in  the  most 
practical  manner  to  the  value  of  the  electrifying  process  by 
using  electrified  seed.  On  a  Saturday  of  last  month  no  less  thaa 
twenty  tons  of  electrified  seed  potatoes  were  sold  in  Dorchester 
Market  alone,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  hundreds 
of  tons  of  electrified  seed  potatoes  will  be  sown  this  season, 
■  and  hundreds  of  acres  will  be  sown  with  electrified  seed 
com. 

It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  a  knowledge  of  the  process 
should  be  more  widely  disseminated  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  so  completely  past  the 
experimental  stage  as  to  warrant  its  universal  adoption, 
but  I  do  say  that  it  is  worth  a  widely  extended  trial.  It  is 
open  to  any  agriculturist  to  experiment  for  a  few  shilling* 
with  a  sack  or  two  of  corn.  The  trial  plots  are  already  3» 
numerous  that  the  harvest  of  igi8  will  put  the  matter 
beyond  doubt ;  but  localities,  soils,  and  other  circumstancec 
differ  so  much  that  the  trials  cannot  be  too  widely 
extended. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  my  interest  in'  the  matter 
is  scientific  and  patriotic  only.  Of'  the  commercial  side  »f 
it  I  know  and  care  nothing. 


The  Attorney -General's  Pilgrimage 

THE  extreme  versatility  of  the  writer  is  the  first 
impression  gained  from  perusal  of  Sir  F.  E. 
Smith's  My  American  Visit  (Hutchinson,  6s.  net). 
The  tour  occupied  two  months,  including  the 
voyages  to  and  from  Liverpool ;  in  that  period 
"F.  E. "  addressed  forty-eight  meetings,  which  meant  an 
average  of  about  four  a  day ;  yet  there  was  time  to  visit, 
time  for  Turkish  baths,  for  dinners  with  such  people  as 
Elsie  Janis  and  Maxine  Elhott,  and  a  considerable  amount 
of  social  intercourse.  The  reflections  on  American  life,  and 
especially  on  America  at  war, .  may  be  assigned  to  the 
slack  times  of  the  return  voyage,  which,  on  the  word 
of  the  author,  gave  opportunity  for  the  compilation  •f 
the  book. 

In  spite  of  the  hurried  nature  of  the  visit,  the  view  afforded 
of  the  States  is  very  complete,  probably  because  the  writer 
has  not  attempted  to  present  a  reasoned  study  of  conditions 
from  New  York  to  San  Francisco,  but  has  set  down  ably 
and  simply  the  things  that  he  saw  and  the  people  he  met. 
Where  necessary,  the  narrative  is  supplemented  by  state- 
ments of  American  men — notably  that  declaration  by  the 
President   of  the   American   Federation   of  Labour  : 

I  Uved  in  a  fool's  paradise  ;  I  have  believed  in  men  ;  beliered 
that,  when  they  solemnly  pledged  themselves  and  those  in  whose 
name  they  were  authorised  to  speak,  they  would  go  to  the  limit 
in  their  own  countries  to  prevent  the  rupture  of  international 
peace.  I  believed  them,  for  I  felt  that  I  would  have  gone  to 
the  furthest  Umit  to  uphold  those  pledges.  Almost  out  of  a 
clear  sky  came  the  declaration  of  war,  and  I  found  the  men  who 
pledged  their  word  to  me  and  mine  to  maintain  peace,  flying  to 
the  (^olours  of  the  greatest  autocrat  of  all  time — a  scientific, 
intellectual  murderer — flying  to  attack  their  brothers  whose 
lives  they  had  sworn  to  protect ;  and  from  then  until  the  peace 
of  the  world  is  assured  I  count  myself  transformed  from  a  pacifiat 
into  a  living,  breathing,  fighting  man. 

In  this  statement  Sir  F.  E.  Smith  saw  the  attitude  of  the 
United  States  toward  the  war.  He  emphasises  the  necessity 
for  patience.  "The  United  States  have  undertaken  simul- 
taneously a  number  of  tasks,  each  of  which  is  so  stupendous 
that  even  their  gigantic  energy  must  prove  slower  in  its 
fruits  than  was  hoped."  He  bears  testimony  to  the  unity 
of  the  American  nation.  Even  the  German  element  in 
Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  Cleveland,  etc.,  supported  the  Mihtary 
Service  Act  and  made  no  more  attempt  to  appeal  from  con- 
scription than  the  rest  of  the  population — "many  of  them, 
it  was  pointed  out,  had  left  Prussia  precisely  in  order  to  avoid 
the  military  virus  which  had  brought  this  cataclysm  upo« 
the  world."  It  is  almost  incredible  that  in  so  short  a  tour 
one  man  should  have  seen  so  much  and  done  so  much — the 
net  impression  of  the  book  is  a  panoramic  view  of  all  the 
States,  necessarily  superficial,  but  not  the  less  interesting, 
and  even  illuminating  with  regard  to  the  cjuahty  of  the 
war  America  is  waging. 

There  are  certain  criticisms  of  the  apphcation  of  "dry" 
measures  to  the  various  States  of  the  Union  which  are  not 
devoid  of  humour,  both  conscious  and  unconscious  ;  these 
are  necessarily  brief,  for  throughout  the  book  is  the  note  of 
hurry  that  must  have  been  a  dominant  characteristic  of 
the  tour  itself.  The  author  admits  that  his  work  is  "  informal 
and  often  disconnected,"  but  it  is  doubtful  if  a  more  careful 
and  pretentious  record  of  such  a  crowded  tour  would  have 
been  equally  effective  as  this  vivid  series  of  keen  and  often 
brilliant  impressions. 


April  25,  19 1  8 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


IX 


SERVICE  CLOTHES 


To  those  who  order  their 
service  clothes  from  us 
we  assure  fine,  wear- 
resisting  materials,  skilful 
cutting,  honest  tailor-work, 
and  more — the  certain  ad- 
vantage of  ripe  experience. 

A  good  name  among  sports- 
men for  nearly  a  century  is 
a  sure  measure  of  our  par- 
ticular ability  in  breeches- 
making,  to  which  gratifying 
testimony  is  now  also  given 
by  the  many  recommenda- 
tions from  officers. 

For  inspection,  and  to  enable 
us  to  meet  immediate  require- 
ments, we  keep  on  hand  a  number 
of  pairs  of  breeches,  or  we  can 
cut  and  try  a  pair  on  the  same 
day,  and  complete  the  next  day, 
if  urgently  wanted. 


Patttrns  and  self-measurement  Form  for  Breeches  at  request 


GRANT  AND  COCKBURN 
25  PICCADILLY,  W.l. 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


ESTD.  1821. 


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. 


To  be  obtained  Irom  all  Oun  Dealers,  and  Wholesale  only  at 
Head  Odice  and  Showroomi  : 

WEAMAN    STREET,    BIRMINGHAM. 

London   Depot : 

78  SHAFTESBURY  AVENUE. 


^The  Original  Cording's,  Estd.  1839- 

The 

"Paladin" 

fKlSGD.J 

Oilskin. 

All  the  year  round  our  shapely 
^'Paladin"  coat  will  stand  the 
rough  and  tumble  of  Active 
Service  and  throw  off  any  rain 
which  comes  along. 

The  material,  in  colour  a  good-lookins 
(lark  khaki,  goes  through  a  special 
"  curing  "  process  which  makes  it  non- 
adhesive  and  very  supple. 
The  coat  is  cut  with  neat  tan  cloth 
collar,  full  skirt,  leg-loops  and  fan- 
piece  within  deep  button-to  slit  at 
back  for  riding,  and  has  a  broad  fly- 
front,  through  which  no  rain,  however 
violent,  can  drive.  Adjustable  inner 
cuffs  likewise  prevent  any  water 
entering  the  sleeves. 
Between  the  lining  of  porous  oilskin 
and  the  outer  material  the  air  freely 
circulates,  so  that  there  is  always 
abundant  ventilation.  The  coat  is  not 
bulky,  and  weighs  less  than  4  lbs. 
Mud  is  just  washed  off,  and  the 
material  is  then  as  fresh  and  clean  as 
ever.  After  lengthy,  exacting  wear, 
the  "Ufe"  of  the  coat  can,  at  small 
cost,  be  effectively  renewed  by  re- 
dressing. 

Pfice  47/6 

Postage  abroad  i/-  extra. 

When  orderint  a  "  Paladin ' '  Coat  please  (tat*  height  and  ohest  measure  and  send 
pamittanee  (whioh  will  be  returned  promptly  if  the  garment  Is  not  approved),  or 
ghra  home  address  and  business  (not  banker's)  reference. 

At  request,  ILLUSTRATED  LIST  of  Waterproof  Coats,  Boots,  Overalls,  Air  Beds. 

_      WATERPROOFERS 
^LTO  TO  H.M.  THE  KING 
Only  Addrtssts: 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.  1,  &  35  st.  jamess  st.s.w.i. 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  CP™ 


""%js^';;r. 


TRADITION— 

Although  the  organisation  known  as  the  B.5.A.  Company  is 
a  tirilllant  example  of  modern  efficiency  in  manufacturing,  yel 
it  is  steeped  in  tradition.  Founded  on  an  ideal— the  production 
of  the  finest  rifles  In  the  world— the  principles  of  the  founders 
have  been  zealously  guarded  and  nurtured  in  the  succeeding 
generations  so  that  now  the  whole  corporation  is  saturated 
and  Imbued  with  the  maxim — 

QUALITY    FIRST. 

It  is  not  too  soon  for  all  sportsmen  and  rifle  enthusiasts  to 
send  their  names  and  addresses  to  ensure  the  earliest 
information  as  to  the   Company's,  post-war  productions  in 


SPORTING  &  TARGET 
RIFLES,  AIR  RIFLES,  &c. 

FRLE    Booklet -"RIFLE    SIGHTS    AND    THEIR 
ADJUSTMENT"— on   receipt  of   postcard. 


THE 

Birmingham  Small  Arms 
Company  Limited, 
BIRMINGHAM,     ENGLAND. 

C^akers  of  Rifles  and  Lewis  Machine 

Guns     for      British,     Colonial,     and 

Foreign  Goocrnments,   and  of  B.S.A. 

Cycles  and  Motors. 


Supplement  w  Land  &  Water 


April  25,  igi8 


Personality  in  Dress 


"Lista"  Shirts  and  Pyjamai  reflect 
that  air  of  solid  worth  which  gives  the 
wearer  standing  as  a  well-dressed  man. 
For  Oflicers'  Khaki  Shirts  and 
ordinary  wear  "Lista"  is  unrivalled. 
It  can  be  washed  over  and  over  again 
without  injury.  Once  feel  a  "Lista" 
Shirt  and  you  will  want  them  always. 


MILITARY 


Wkere  tke  Next 
Blow  ^Vill  Come 

nas  never  to  he  considered 
fcy  tke  Dexter  Wearer 
.  .  .  he  knows  ne  ■will  be 
dry  whatever  the  -weather 
.  .  .  cosy,  fit,  confident 
of  Dexter  Proofing 
al-ways    .    .    .    guaranteed. 

"As  British  as  the 
Weather    hut    Rcliahle." 


Summer 
Wear 


VERMIN-PROOF. 

Men  in  the  trencher  write  stating 
that"An-on"  Silk  I.'nderwear 
is  proof  against  vermin. 


All  progressive  men  wear  An-on 
underclothing. 

The   An-on  one  piece  auit  is 

the  last  word  io  men's  under- 
Karments,  and  weighs  6  ozs.  or 
"ess. 

Loose  fitting  and  very  comfort- 
able. 

Made  in  Vests,  Drawers,  and 
Union  Suits. 

Fine  AU-Wool  Taffeta. 
Pure  Silk  (white  and  coloured). 
Mixed     Wool     and     Cotton 
Taffeta. 

AN-ON  Cotton. 

Slocked  by  High-class  Out- 
fitters all  the  world  over. 

BRITISH-MADE. 

BUTTONS  LIKE  A  COAT. 

A  list  of  Selling  Agents  will 
be  sent  on  application  to 

AN-ON, 

66  Ludgate  Hill,  E.C.4 


An-on 

Underw^eai: 


S^/ie 


RGgcnlSIHouse 
^cterRoMnsoi^j 


Inexpensive 
Tailor  Skirt 


R.S. 


"Loftus." 


Well-tailored  Pleated  Skirt, 
in  navy,  black,  and  cream 
serge      -        -         .        .    45/. 

In  black  and  white  checks  and 
o\'erchecks     -        -         -     45/. 

In  black  taffeta  silk       -     45/. 

In  black  crepe  de  chine  -    59/6 

In  black  satin         -         -    69/6 

Stocked  in  the  following  sizes  :— 
Waist      -      26         26         28  ins 
Length    -      36         38         40  ins. 

Catalogue  of  Spring  Fashions  will  be 
sent  gratis  and  post  free  on  request. 


Peter  Robinson,  Ltd.,  Regent  Street,  W .1 


r 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXXI.     No.  2920.     [41^^]  THURSDAY,  APRIL  25,   191 8 


fREGISTERED  AST        PUBLISHED  WEEKLY 

LA     newspaper]       price  NINEPENCE 


J.  RusuU  &  So»s 


Lieut. -General  Sir  David  Henderson,  K.C.B.,  D.S.O., 
late  Vice-President  of  the  Air  Council. 

General  Henderson's  resignation,  following  the  retirement  of  Sir'Hugh  TrencharJ,  Chief  of  the  Air  Staff,  has  given  rise  to  much  discussion. 


Land    &    Water 


April  25,  1 91 8 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephones    HOLBORN    2828. 

THURSDAY,  APRIL  25,  1918. 

Contents 

PAGE 

Lieutenant-General  Sir  DaVid  Henderson.     (Photograph)  i 

The  Outlook  2 

Battle  of  the  Lys  (continued).     By  Hilaire  Belloc  3 

The  Channel  Straits.     By  Arthur  "Pollen  9 
German  Socialism.     (Cartoon).     By  Raemaekers      10  and  11 

Climax  of  Two  Great  Wars.     By  Dr.  J.  Holland  Rose  12 

Fay  and  the  Bombs— II.     By  French  Strother  14 

Rumania's  National  Shrine  :  By  G.  C.  Williamson  16 

Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book  17 

Remnants.     By  J.  C.  Squire  18 

The  Two  Frances.     (Review).     By  Winifred  Stephens  19 

History  of  the  Rural  Labourer.     By  Jason  20 

Domestic  Economy  26 

Notes  on  Kit  xii 


Mr.  Austen  Chamberlain  is  a  man  of  integrity  in  private  and 
public  life,  and  it  was  only  reasonable  for  him  to  assume  that 
when  the  Prime  Minister  offered  him  a  seat  in  the  War  Cabinet 
it  was  because,  in  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  opinion,  Mr.  Chamberlain 
could  render  service  to  the  country  at  this  crisis.  It  must, 
therefore,  have  been  a  surprise  to  Mr.  Chamberlain  that,  no 
sooner  had  he  received  the  offer,  he  should  be  made  the  sub- 
ject of  virulent  personal  attacks  in  the  very  organs  of  the 
Press  which  have  assured  and  reassured  the  country  that 
the  present  Prime  Minister  is  the  one  and  only  public  man 
in  England  who  can  win  the  war.  On  the  strength  of  it, 
these  journals  have  at  times  almost  claimed  for  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  the  ancient  divine  right  of  kings,  so  this  attack  on 
Mr.  Chamberlain  for  the  fault  of  Mr.  Lloyd  George  serves  as  a 
curious  commentary  on  the  prescience  of  those  who  are 
responsible  for  these  opinions. 

In  our  opinion,  neither  the  inclusion  of  Mr.  Chamberlain 
in  the  War  Cabinet  nor  the  transference  of  Lord  Derby  to 
the  British  Embassy  in  Paris  are  to  be  commended,  and  it 
cannot  be  overlooked  that  both  these  gentlemen  exercise 
considerable  political  influence  in  two  important  areas — 
Mr.  Chamberlain  in  Birmingham,  Lord  Derby  in  Lancashire. 
But  for  this  influence,  would  they  have  been  chosen  by  the 
Prime  Minister  ?  This  question  has  been  widely  asked,  not 
in  a  rancorous  spirit,  but  because  even  firm  supporters  of 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  find  it  impossible  to  justify  either  appoint- 
ment by  outstanding  abihty. 


The  Outlook 


THE  military  situation  during  the  second  week  of 
the  battle  of  the  Lys  gave  no  appreciable  new 
advantage  to  the  enemy  with  the  exception  of 
putting  him  in  possession  of  the  summits  of  the 
Wytschaete  Ridge.  He  obtained  the  ruins  of 
Wytschaete  as  he  had  those  of  Messines — or,  rather,  their 
sites — and  held  them  from  the  night  of  Tuesday,  the  i6th. 
This  success  naturally  compelled  a  flattening  of  the  Ypres 
salient,  but  it  was  effected  in  perfect  order,  and  without  the 
enemy's  knowledge,  or  the  Ifiss  of  any  men  or  material. 

For  the  rest,  on  the  northern  front  of  the  enemy's  saUent 
he  advanced  his  line  by  a  few  hundred  yards  through  Meteren, 
in  front  of  Bailleul  and  Neuve  Eglise,  points  that  put  him 
at  the  foot  of  the  hills,  which  it  is  his  object  to  hold  or  turn, 
but  do  not  seriously  advance  that  object. 

Two  more  remarkable  actions  have  marked  the  week; 
the  first,  which  might  have  had  very  serious  consequences, 
was  an  attempt  a  week  yesterday  to  force  the  Belgian  front 
just  north  of  Ypres  with  four  German  divisions  ;  to  advance 
towards  Poperinghe,  and  so  to  turn  the  whole  of  the  British 
positions  on  the  Kemmel  Hills.  It  completely  failed,  leaving 
in  Belgian  hands  over  700  prisoners.  The  second  was  the 
very  vigorous  effort  on  Thursday,  the  i8th,  to  force  the  La 
Bassfee  Canal  just  where  it  covers  B6thune,  at  the  place 
where  it  was  formerly  crossed  by  the  Hinges  Bridge,  an 
action  supported  by  stronsj  pressure  to  the  left  and  right  at 
Robecq  and  Givenchy. 

*  *  * 

The  rest  of  the  military  news  of  the  week  consists  in  that 
of  a  local  French  advance  at  the  extreme  apex  of  the  new 
salient  in  front  of  Amiens,  with  the  capture  of  about  800 
German  prisoners.  The  Germans  reacted  here,  and  fighting 
was  still  in  progress  when  the  last  dispatches  of  Sunday 
left  the  front. 

There  has  been  noted,  but  without  any  official  confirma- 
tion of  it,  the  .concentration  of  considerable  bodies  between 
Albert  and  Arras,  as  though  this  sector  were  the  next  to  be 
attacked.  The  minor  features  of  the  last  few  weeks  have 
also  taken  their  part  ;  the  long-range  guns  bombarding 
Paris  claimed  a  number  of  victims  at  a  public  nursery  in 
Paris  ;  but  interruption  in  the  action  of  these  pieces  has 
lasted  in  the  course  of  the  week  for  as  much  as  forty-eight 
hours.  The  Frencii  divisions  sent  north  in  aid  of  the  British 
upon  the  Lys,  have  arrived,  and  have  taken  part  in  the 
fighting  upon  the  northern  front  of  the  new  German  salient. 
-vAn  estimate  has  appeared  under  official  French  sanction 
of  the  enemy  situation  in  the  west  in  round  figures.  He  is 
credited  with  some  200  total  divisions,  of  which  from  170 
to  175  are  available  for  the  strain  of  attack.  Of  these,  from 
106  to  no  have  already  been  put  into  the  recent  offensives; 
more  than  a  third  of  them  twice  and  about  half  a  dozen 
three  times.  There  remain,  therefore,  still  some  60  to  70 
divisions  which  have  not  yet  been  in  the  fighting  emd  can 
replace  tired  units.  In  other  words,  the  enemy  has  chosen 
to  use  in  the  intense  action  of  the  last  month  just  on  two- 
thirds  of  his  available  force. 


These  pohtical  movements  have  distracted  the  public 
mind  from  a  far  more  serious  change  in  personnel — we  refer 
to  the  resignations  of  Sir  Hugh  Trenchard  and  Sir  David 
Henderson  from  the  Air  Board.  It  may  at  the  outset  be 
said  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  if  efficiency  and 
proved  abihty  were  the  touchstone  of  office,  the  resignation 
of  every  one  else  on  the  Air  Board  would  have  been  accepted 
before  Sir  Hugh  Trenchard  was  permitted  to  retire.  General 
Trenchard  is  perhaps  the  most  outstanding  figure  the  war 
has  produced  ;  flying  men  regard  him  as  the  Nelson  of  the 
Air  Service.  He  has  that  touch  of  genius  both  for  command 
and  brotherhood  which  made  the  British  Fleet  what  it  is 
to-day  and  bestowed  immortahty  on  Nelson.  We  are  aware 
that  this  is  exceedingly  high  praise,  but  we  have  never  yet 
met  an  active  member  of  the  Air  Force  whose  praise  and 
appreciation  of  General  Trenchard  was  not  higher.  Sir 
David  Henderson  has  also  done  splendid  work  for  the  Force, 
and  his  resignation  is  almost  equally  to  be  regretted. 

«  «  * 

Lord  Rothermere  is  to  be  given ,  an  opportunity  m 
the  House  of  Lords  this  afternoon  to  explain  personally 
these  resignations  and  also,  it  is  hoped,  the  reasons  which  led 
to  his  letter  to  Colonel  Faber,  M.P.,  and  its  publication  at 
that  juncture.  The  implication,  of  course,  is  that  the 
multiplicity  of  staff  appointments  at  the  Hotel  Cecil  is 
the  root-cause  of  these  resignations.  This  we  believe  is 
entirely  eiToneous,  and  the  Minister  of  the  Air  Force  will 
no  doubt  welcome  gladly  this  opportunity  of  setting  facts 
straight.  But  the  departure  of  Sir  Hugh  Trenchard  is  a 
serious  matter,  emphasised  as  it  is  by  the  going  of  Sir  David 
Henderson.  It  will  be  felt  through  every  branch  of  the  Air 
Force  ;  the  actual  truth  of  it  will  soon  be  known  by  all 
ranks,  because  though  easy  to  conceal  from  the  public,  when 
a  man  is  beloved  in  his  own  service,  no  trouble  is  too  great  in 
order  to  obtain  exact  knowledge  on  a  point  of  honour. 
But  back  of  all  this  is  the  uncomfortable  feeling  that  the 
best  interests  of  the  country  are  being  jeopardised  by  the 
inexperience  of  a  Minister.  We  have  estabhshed  a  superiority 
in  the  air,  for  which  General  tienderson  and  General  Trenchard 
are  largely  responsible,  and  this  is  the  last  moment  when  any- 
thing should  be  done  that  is  calculated  in  the  ieast  degree  to 
check  or  interfere  with  this  superiority. 

•  •  • 

The  whole  of  Great  Britain  is  now  rationed  for  meat  and 
sugar.  It  has  taken  time  to  do  this,  but  now  the  scheme  is  in 
force  it  works  so  well  that  already  one  hears  of  its  extension 
to  lard  and  possiblv  to  tea. 

We  have  bowed  the  knee  for  so  many  years  to  the  fetish 
of  German  organisation  and  efficiency  that  we  may  well  ask 
ourselves  how  it  comes  about  that  rationing  work's  so  much 
more  easily  here  than  there.  The  German  people,  we  know, 
are  disciplined,  yet  the  British  nation,  though  far  from 
being  disciplined  in  the  German  manner,  have  shown  greater 
readiness  to  conform  to  these  irritating  rules  and  restrictions 
than  the  subjects  of  the  Kaiser.  The  tnith  probably  i^  that, 
being  convinced  that  these  restrictions  are  necessary,  and 
knowing  that  they  are  applied  to  all  equally,  every  subject 
of  the  King  has  taken  a  certain  pride  in  conforming  to  them. 


April  25,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


Battle  of  the  Lys :    By  Hilaire  Belloc 


The  7th  to  the  14th  days 

BEFORE  describing  the  details  of  the  great 
action  in  the  valley  of  the  Lys  as  it  has  developed 
during  the  past  week,  it  may  be  well  to  put 
simply  and  in  diagrammatic  form  the  enemy's 
past  and  present  situation. 
Before  he  attacked  upon  this  sector  he  found  the  Allied 
armies  (here  almost  entirely  British,  save  for  the  Belgian 
forces  north  of  Ypres  and  one  Portuguese  division  in  front 
of  Lille)  occupying  a  big  right-angled  comer  of  land  which 
is  that  of  the  French  side  of  the  Straits  of  Dover.  Each 
side  of  this  angle  was  roughly  50  miles  long.  North  of 
Abbeville  the  only  way  out  of  it  was  by  sea  and  the  only 
three  effective  ports  open  were  Dunkirk,  Calais  and  Boulogne. 
This  main  group  of  the  British  forces  relied  for  its  supply 
from  the  sea — apart  from  roads — upon  railways  passing  through 
Abbeville  and  Amiens  from  west  and  south-east  on  railways 
coming  from  Boulogne,  Calais  and  Dunkirk  upon  the  coast 
immediately  Sehind.  All  the?e  railways  passed  through  the 
junctions  of  Bethune  and  Hazebrouck  and  through  that  of 
Bethune  ran  all  the  direct  communications  with  tlie  south, 
that  is  with  the  French. 


When  the  enemy  struck  on  April  gth,  a  fortnight  ago, 
upon  that  sector  of  the  front  lying  beyond  the  points  2  and 
3  upon  diagram  i,  his  object  was  to  seize  Bethune  immediately; 
in  the  next  move  Hazebrouck,  and  so  before  there  could 
possibly  be  time  to  organise  a  retirement  from  all  the  north- 
eastern part  of  the  district,  to  cut  the  communications  at 
the  nodal  points  and  throw  out  of  action  all  this  part  of  the 
Allied  forces.  How  far  such  rapid  rupture  would  have 
proceeded  we  cannot  tell,  but  we  may  be  certain  that  it 
would  have  destroyed,  principally  by  way  of  capture,  every- 
thing to  east  of  the  line  Dunkirk,  Hazebrouck,  Bdthune. 
It  would  probably  have  overrun  the  whole  of  the  belt 
to  the  sea,  for  the  opportunities  of  resoldering  the  line  after 
that  bre^k  through  would  have  been  less  than  they  were 
in  the  south  a  month  ago  ;  there  would  have  been  no  room 
for  manoeuvre  and  no  sufficient  opportunity  even  for  retiring 
any  appreciable  proportion  of  the  forces  by  way  of  the  sea- 
ports behind. 

As  we  know,  so  complete  a  success  was  happily  denied  the 
enemy.  He  broke  through,  indeed,  upon  the  sector  2-3, 
but  he  failed  to  reach  Bethune  altogether.  He  was  held 
by  the  Lancashire  men  at  the  comer  of  the  point  3,  which 


is  Givenchy.  His  advarice  through  this  check  took  the  form, 
after  about  eleven  days  fighting,  of  a  large  bulge,  very  much 
the  same  in  shape  as  the  great  salient  he  had  formed  to  the 
south  before  Amiens  :  This  similarity  of  shape  we  will  discuss 
in  a  later  article.  It  is  not  an  accident  but  it  has  its  defin- 
able causes.  As  men  were  rapidly  pushed  up  to  the  menaced 
districts  his  advance  was  further  checked.  The  shape  of  the 
new  area  he  held  upon  the  nth  day  of  the  fighting  may  be 
reduced  to  a  triangle,  although  the  actual  shape  of  the  front 
was,  of  course,  sinuous  and  complicated.  This  triangle  I  have 
marked  on  the  diagram  1-2-3,  <^he  apex  i  being  in  front  of 
the  little  town  of  Merville  which  he  holds. 

In  such  a  situation  and  after  so  great  a  lapse  of  time  he 
could  no  longer  hope  for  anything  like  a  decisive  result. 
But  he  could  hope  to  effect  ultimately  a  change  in  the  dispo- 
sition of  the  Allies  greatly  to  his  advantage,  and  that  change 
may  be  called  the  swinging  back  of  the  Allied  line  pivoting 
upon  Arras  to  the  line  of  the  Aa  river.  This  would  have 
involved  a  complete  abandonment  of  all  the  north-eastern 
square  in  which  Dunkirk  and  the  ruins  of  Ypres  stand,  and 
even  if  that  abandonment  were  conducted  in  complete  order, 
the  final  result  would  have  the  following  great  disadvantages 
for  the  French  and  British. 

(i)  The  port  of  Dunkirk  would  be  in  the  enemy's  hands, 
putting  him  much  nearer  the  Straits  of  Dover  than  he  had 
yet  been. 

(2)  A  different  salient  would  have  been  created  round 
.4rras,  which  salient  he  might  hope  to  reduce  as  it  would 
be  a  long  time  before  the  new  defensive  could  be  strongly 
organised. 

(3)  J  He  would  have  found  himself,  then,  within  but  a 
short  distance  of  Calais,  about  ten  miles,  able  to  molest 
that  harbour  with  his  heavy  pieces  and  probably  to  close 
it  altogether. 

(4)  He  would  have  produced  an  Allied  defensive  line 
possessing  no  lateral  communications  save  the  distant  one 
along  the  sea  coast. 

(5)  He  would  have  reduced  to  still  narrower  and  very 
perilous  limits  the  margin  of  manoeuvre  remaining  to  the 
Allied  forces  here  in  the  north  against  the  Channel.  In  other 
words,  every  further  advance  of  his  would  have  meant 
disorder  and  with  that  disaster,  not  only  the  loss  of  great 
numbers  to  the  Allied  side,  but  the  possession  by  him  of  the 
Channel  ports. 

Now,  to  compel  the  swinging  back  of  the  line  thus  to  the 
line  of  the  Aa  river— a  good  line  of  defence,  so  far  as  it  goes, 
with  excellent  observation  behind  it  from  the  hills,  and  a 
perfectly  straight  marshy  line  to  defend,  better  even  than 
that  of  the  Yser— two  forms  of  action  from  the  triangle 
which  he  occupied,  two  forms  the  success  of  either  of  which 
singly  would  go  far  to  achieve  his  end,  and  the  success  of 
which  both  together  would  certainly  achieve  it,  lay  before 
him.  These  forms  of  action  consist  in  pushing  forward 
along  the  north  front  of  the  triangle  1-2  and  along  the  south 
front  1-3.  The  first  would  ultimately  give  him  the  line  of 
heights  M-K— that  is,  from  Mont  des  Cats  to  Kemmel,  the 
junction  at  Hazebrouck,  and  the  hill  of  Cassel.  Long  before 
these  were  fully  held,  from  the  moment  their  occupation 
seemed  probable,  retirement  back  along  the  coast  would 
have  had  to  begin.  On  the  other  front,  from  i  to  3,  his 
advance  would  give  him  the  junction  of  Bethune,  and  begin 
to  create  a  pronounced  and  dangerous  salient  at  Arras. 

This  action,  with  both  elbows  alternately  upon  the  northern 
and  southern  front  of  the  triangle  to  which  he  has  been 
confined  by  the  increasing  resistance  of  the  defence,  is  some- 
times and  quite  properly  called  "an  attempt  to  enlarge  his 
salient."  It  is  that.  And  the  enlargement  of  a  salient 
both  gives  you  more  room  for  action  and  increases  the  length 
of  shaken  front  upon  which  you  are  working.  But  a  mere 
enlargement  of  the  salient  is  no  final  strategic  aim.  The 
final  aim  was  to  compel  the  swinging  back  of  the  whole 
Allied  line  at  the  very  least  to  this  next  possible  defensive 
position  of  the  Aa,  with  all  its  inconveniences  and  perils. 
Thus  it  is  that  we  find  him  spending  in  proportion  to  the 
front  attacked  such  enormous  forces  in  trying  to  reach  and 
occupy  (probably  by  turning  them  to  the  right  and  to  the 
left)  the  hills  from  M  to  K  and  to  seize  Hazebrouck.  In 
other  words,  that  is  why  you  see  him  in  the  past  week  striking 
so  furiously  upon  the  front  1-2,  while  the  complementary 
design  of  seizing  Bethune  explains  the  other  co-relative 
action  alternating  with  the  first  upon  the  Hne  1-3. 

With  this  in  mind,  we  may  turn  to_the  details  of  the  last 


Land    &    Water 


April  25,  19 1 8 


0/2         J        ■#-       5" 

I 1         I I ■ 


I 


OverbO  "Me/^tesy//////. 


aaVo    x>°.l>a 


•Lm^itumrk, 


20Q-O- i^fJ-ca  ■'„''-o/iiia-  /i<i-a-a(i 


lOldBenjtua 


"MervtUe 


i^%**Armeatieixi 


H-Lj/s 


FUurbouc 


StVfenonf.': 


Aubcrs 


oemencnon 


Wvc^  V 


3etkuiae 


Festfuiijerf 


lUiBassei. 


Battle   of  the   Lys 


April  25,  19 18 


Land   &    Water 


5 


week,  so  far  as  we  have  them  up  to  the  moment  of  writing, 
for  all  that  I  can  say  here  is  based  at '  the  latest  upon  the 
dispatches  sent  from  the  front  upon  Stinday  night,  the  21st. 

The  Action 

The  battle  of  the  Lys  had,  when  the  dispatches  of  Sunday 
night,  Aprili4th,  reached  London,  lasted  six  days,  and  upon 
the  events  of  those  six  days  my  last  article  was  based 

Those  six  days  had  seen  the  following  situation  develop  : 

The  enemy  had  completely  broken  through  the  old  defen- 
sive zone  between  Fleurbaix  and  Givenchy.  He  got  up  to 
the  line  of  Lys  at  the  end  of  the  first  day,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  night  was  occupied  in  trying  to  push  beyond  the 
river.  That  was  on  Tuesday,  April  9th — the  first  day  of  the 
battle.  This  success  was  unexpected,  considerable,  and  the 
enemy  hoped  it  might  be  decisive.  But  three  accidents 
interfered  with  his  complete  success.  The  first  was  the 
magnificent  defence  of  Givenchy,  covering  Bethune  ;  there 
he  was  completely  held,  and  so  long  as  he  was  completely 
held  there  the  main  line  by' which  supply  and  reinforcement 
could  come  up  from  the  south  was  free,  and  the  avenue  for 
his  advance  was  cramped  upon  that  side  :    his  left. 

The  second  interruption  to  his  plan  was  the  defence  of 
Fleurbaix,  which  held  him  for  most  of  the  first  day  upon  the 
northern  post  of  that  same  gate,  cramping  his  advance. 

The  third  interruption,  which  he  had  foreseen,  but  the 
length  of  which  he  had  not  foreseen,  was  the  position  of  the 
Messines  Ridge  behind  and  further  to  the  right. 

The  enemy  crossed  the  Lys  successfully  in  spite  of  counter- 
attacks which  made  the  line  fluctuate,  and  reached  on  the 
evening  of  the  third  day  a  sort  of  flat  horseshoe  front,  mushroom- 
ing out  to  the  right  and  to  the  left,  but  especially  to  the  left 
of  his  original  advance.  He  had  made  no  impression  upon 
Givenchy,  but  he  had  got  beyond  Merville  ;  he  touched  the 
edge  of  the  Nieppe  Forest,  and  rourid  by  the  north  he  was 
outside  Bailleul  and  Neuve  Eglise.  Meanwhile  he  had  made 
a  determined  effort  to  get  hold  of  the  Messines  Ridge,  but 
had  only  succeeded  in  holding  on  to  the  southern  end  of  it 
by  the  ruins  of  Messines,  not  quite  at  the  summit ;  from  the 
other  end  at  Wytsrhaete  he  had  been  thrown  off. 

That  was  the  situation  in  the  first  three  days  advance, 
which  were  the  three  serious  days  at  the  opening  of  the  action. 
They  were  the  days  in  which  the  element  of  surprise  (which 
was  evidently  considerable)  was  fully  taken  advantage  of ; 
they  were  the  days  in  which  though  reinforcement  was 
hurrying  up  it  had  not  yet  arrived  in  any  sufficient  strength. 

The  three  following  days  were  of  quite  a  different  nature. 
On  the  one  side  the  enemy  was  bringing  up  fresh  divisions 
to  exploit  this  success ;  on  the  other  hand  British  reinforce- 
ment was  already  beginning  to.  come  in  strength,  and  the 
front  of  the  salient  was  but  sUghtly  advanced.  It  did  get 
a  Uttle  nearer  Bethune ;  it  was  contesting  the  outskirts 
of  Bailleul  and  of  Neuve  Eglise,  but  the  Messines  Ridge  as 
a  whole  still  held,  and  one  might  say  that  with  the  Sunday 
night,  April  14th,  a  first  phase  of  the  battle  of  the  Lys  was 
ended. 

The  enemy  then  stood  i^pon  those  two  fronts  I  have 
described  making  about  a  right  angle  one  with  the  other, 
much  in  the  same  form  as  the  two  fronts  which,  upon  a  larger 
scale,  make  an  angle  one  with  another  from  Arras  to  Mont- 
didier  and  from  Montdidier  to  Noyon  in  front  of  Amiens. 

Tl)e  first  day  of  the  second  phase  of  the  battle,  the  phase 
in  which  the  enemy  was  trying  to  enlarge  an  accomplished 
salient,  the  phase  which  began  upon  Monday,  April  15th, 
developed  almost  entirely  upon  the  northern  face.  The 
pressure  here  resulted  in  a  withdrawal,  during  the  night, 
of  the  British  troops  which  had  been  holding  Bailleul,  and 
by  Tuesday  morning  the  German  line  ran  north  of  that 
little  town  just  along  the  brook  which  separates  it  from  the 
considerable  range  of  hills  of  which  it  is  the  outpost.  The 
occupation  of  Bailleul  by  the  enemy  gave  him  no  appreciable 
advantage  in  the  way  of  ground  and  was  exaggerated  in 
importance  at  home. 

What  took  place  the  next  day,  Tuesday,  was  correspond- 
ingly misunderstood,  though  it  was  far  more  important — 
for  on  Tuesday  the  i6th,  the  enemy  reached  the  summit  of 
the  Messines  Ridge  in  every  part.  He  already  held  the  site 
of  what  had  been  Messines  on  the  southern  end ;  he  now  held 
the  site  of  what  had  been  Wytschaete  upon  the  northern 
end.  It  was  clear  that  if  he  could  maintain  himself  upon 
the  summit  of  this  low  rise,  it  would  compel  a  certain 
flattening  of  the  saUent  round  Ypres  to  the  north ;  a  retire- 
ment which  was  duly  and  regulariy  accomphshed  without 
molestation  from  the  enemy  and  without  any  loss  in  men  or 
material. 

A  counter-attack  which,  the  next  day,  Wednesday  the  17th, 
re-took  the  northern  end  of  the  ridge  for  some  hours,  was 


probably  intended  only  to  give  elbow-room  for  the  end  of 
this  retirement  to  the  north. 

The  loss  of  the  Messines  Ridge  was  of  importance,  not 
because  it  would  compel  this  flattening  of  the  Ypres  salient 
— a  purely  sentimental  point — but  because  it  prepared  the 
way  for  the  turning  of  the  Kemmel  range  of  hiUs  from  the 
east.  The  summit  of  the  ridge  gives  observation  westward 
to  the  slopes  of  Kemmel  and  over  the  depression  between, 
and  positions  there  support  any  advance  nor|th-eastward 
from  Neuve  Eglise  through  this  depression  which  the  enemy 
might  make  with  the  object  of  turning  the  hills  by  that  end  ; 
since  they  are  so  difficult  of  direct  assault. 

He  did  not,  however,  on  that  Wednesday  pursue  his 
advantage  at  this  point.  He  undertook  another  manoeuvre 
most  significant  and  interesting  which,  had  it  succeeded, 
would  have  altered  the  whole  situation  suddenly  in  his 
favour. 

There  was  a  very  obvious  strategic  move  open  to  the 
enemy — so  obvious  that  he  had  been  told  cheerfully  enough 
in  the  continental  Press,  and  particularly  by  the  French, 
how  glaring  it  was,  and  how  thoroughly  it  was  appreciated 
upon  the  Allied  side. 

That  move  was  to  strike  north  of  the  Ypres  sahent.  Were 
the  enemy  to  succeed  here — I  mean,  were  he  to  break  a 
front  here — he  would  certainly  uncover  Dunkirk  and  put 
out  of  action  a  very  large  number  of  men  and  guns 
between  the  southern  thrust  and  the  northern.  That 
one  successful  movement  upon  an  axis  Bixschoote- 
Popcringhe  would  in  its  ultimate  effect  give  him  all  that 
he  has  failed  to  achieve  upon  the  Lys.  But,  I  repeat, 
the  thing  is  so  obvious  that  there  can  be  no  element  of  sur- 
prise in  it.  An  advance  here  not  only  turns  the  line  of  hills 
from  Mont  Kemmel  to  the  Mont  des  Cats,  it  also  turns  the 
obstacle  of  the  inundated  country  upon  the  Lower  Yser  ; 
it  cuts  through  the  main  lateral  communications  by  road 
between  the  Ypres  sector  and  the  sea ;  it  compels  rapid 
retirement  north  and  south  of  it  through  bottle-necks  which 
are  quite  insufficient  to  the  task. 

Seeing  that  every  one  perceived  this,  and  that,  in  countries 
where  the  Press  writes  in  military  terms,  it  was  openly 
defined  as  tlie  serious  menace  of  the  moment,  the  reader  may 
ask  whether  the  enemy  will  again  attempt  his  original  failure 
in  which  we  are  about  to  follow. 

The  answer  to  this  is  that  no  sensible  being  dares  to 
prophecy  in  war. 

Immediately  in  front  of  the  south-western  edge  of  the 
forest  and  astraddle  of  this  main  road,  lay  the  Belgians. 
The  enemy  designed  to  break  the  front  here,  on  a  front  of 
4,000  yards,  just  as  he  had  broken  the  Portuguese  front  south 
of  the  Lys  eight  days  before,  and  thus  to  create  a  highly 
pronounced,  rapid,  and  perhaps  decisive  enveloping  movement 
against  all  the  Ypres  forces  in  between.  Had  he  got  through 
he  would  have  been  half  way  to  Poperinghe  that  night. 

The  extreme  significance  of  this  move  was  naturally  not 
seized  at  once  by  opinion  at  home,  nor  the  corresponding 
value  of  its  failure  ;  but  it  was  certainly  apparent  over  there. 
The  attack  was  made  with  21  full  battalions — rather  over 
5  men  to  the  yard  were  chosen  for  the  shock,  drawn  from 
four  first-class  German  divisions :  The  2nd  Naval  Division 
furnished  3  battalions — the  5th  regiment ;  the  58th  Saxon 
furnished  3  battalions  of  one  regiment ;  the  6th  Bavarian 
sent  in  6  battalions  (2  regiments),  and  a  4th  division,  the 
ist  Landwehr,  sent  in  all  its  9  battalions.  The  concentration 
had  taken  place  during  the  .course  of  the  previous  forty- 
eight  hours,  and  it  is  clear  that  the  moment  for  attack  was  to 
be  timed  by  the  enemy  occupation  of  the  Messines  Ridge 
to  the  south.  That  occupation  was  effected  upon  the  Tuesday, 
as  we  have  seen.  Upon  the  Wednesday,  the  17th,  at  half 
past  eight,  the  German  infantry  went  over  the  top  without 
the  usual  preliminary  bomWrdment :  It  was  an  effort  at 
surprise.  The  first  lines  of  the  Belgians  were  pierced  at 
one  point  about  3,000  yards  from  the  forest  immediately 
to  the  west  of  the  Bixschoote  high  road.  The  reinforcements 
immediately  sent  up  by  the  Belgians  came  on  the  advancing 
enemy  from  that  enemy's  right  flank,  that  is  from  still  further 
west,  and  completely  restored  the  position.  They  drove  the 
Germans  into  pockets  of  marshy  ground,  killed  some  2,000 
first  and  last,  and  took  over  700  prisoners.  By  the  beginning 
of  the  afternoon  this  attempt  to  envelop  the  Allies  by  their 
left  had  disastrously  failed. 

These  movements  upon  the  north  having  come  to  nothing 
after  occupying  the  first  three  days  of  the  week,  the  enemy 
turned  to  the  southern  face  for  his  next  blow,  and  undertook 
upon  the  following  day  an  action  as  momentous  as  that 
which  had  failed  in  the  north. 

On  Thursday,  April  i8th,  then,  came  .this  extremely 
important  movement  upon  the  part  of  the  enemy,  the  magni- 
tude and  significance  of  which  was  not  at  first  grasped  in 


Land    &    Water 


April  25,  1918 


this  •country  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  failed.  And  here 
again  we  may  remark  that  the  enemy  attacks  which  fail  are 
not  sufficiently  emphasised  in  our  Press  nor  their  significant 
character  grasped  by  public  opinion.  In  the  enemy's  country 
it  is  otherwise.  The  German  General  Staff  do  everything 
to  impress  upon  its  civilian  population  the  undoubted  truth 
that  when  an  opponent  makes  a  great  and  expensive  effort 
the  results  of  wh  ch  would  have  been  of  great  moment  had 
it  succeeded,  and  when  that  effort  fails,  then,  even  if  not  a 
single  prisoner  is  taken,  and  even  if  the  trace  of  the  front 
does  not  vary  by  a  yard,  a  big  item  ha-  at  once  to  be  set 
down  upon  the  credit  side  of  the  great  account  in  losses 
whose  sum  is  victory. 

The  important  movement  of  which  I  speak  was  the  effort 
made  by  the  Germans  upon  this  Thursday  last,  the  i8th,  to 
pierce  the  southern  front  of  'he  new  salient  he  has  created, 
and  to  turn,  as  so  far  he  had  failed  to  turn  during  eleven  days 
of  effort,  the  essential  position  of  Bethune. 

It  may  be  remembered  that  the  enemy  liad  already  reached 
some  days  before  a  point  where  he  just  touched  the  canal 
which  runs  eastward  from  La  Bassee  to  Aire  and  beyond. 
This  canal  is  the  chief  defensive  obstacle,  slight  though  it  is. 
covering  the  position  of  B6thune.  Its  whole  object  on  this 
Thursday,  the  i8th,  was  to  force  the  line  of  the  canal  and  to 
establish  a  bridge-head  upon  the  further  side. 

The  essential  points  to  remember  in  this  narrow  area  are 
the  following  : 

First  a  road  (see  map)  which  runs  from  Merville  to  B6thune, 
formerly  used  a  bridge  (now  destroyed)  across  the  canal, 
called  "Hinges  Bridge,"  and  continues  on  its  way  to  B6thune 
beyond  the  canal  through  the  village  of  Hinges. 

Secondly,  a  wood  coming  quite  close  to  the  canal — within 
two  hundred  yards  of  it.  and  with  a  frontage  facing  the 
canal  of  about  a  thousand  yards.  This  wood  is  known,  from 
the  name  of  a  neighbouring  hamlet,  as  the  wood  of  Pacaut. 

Thirdly,  south  of  the  canal,  upon  the  side  which  the  Allies 
hold,  the  isolated  lump  known  as  Bernenchon  Hill,  about 
40  feet  high,  which  gives  observation  over  everything  to  the 
north  beyond  the  canal,  from  Robecq,  on  the  left,  to  far 
past  the  Hinges  Road,  on  the  right. 

The  enemy's  object  was  to  force  a  passage  of  the  canal 
in  this  neighbourhood  and  to  establish  a  bridge-head  as  near 
as  possible  to  the  point  where  he  could  use  in  his  further 
advance  the  Hinges  Road.  If  he  had  succeeded,  the  threat 
to  Bethune  would  have  been  serious. 

During  the  whole  of  the  previous  nigfjt — the  night  of  the 
Wednesday  and  the  Thursday — he  had  continued  a  pro- 
longed and  heavy  bombardment  upon  all  this  sector,  far  to 


the  right  and  far  to  the  left  of  the  central  point  which  he 
desired  to  seize  as  a  bridge-head.  It  was  a  bombardment 
characterised  like  all  these  upon  the  Flanders  front  during 
the  last  fortnight  by  a  lavish  use  of  gas.  He  had  also  occupied 
the  village  of  Riez  in  front  of  Robecq  to  support  his  centre. 
At  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  Thursday,  while  it  was 
still  dark,  he  launched  the  infantry  in  extraordinarily  dense 
formation.  Six  divisions  were  used  first  and  last  on  that 
day  from  the  Pacaut  Wood  to  Givenchy.  But  at  the  vital 
point  of  the  Hinges  Bridge  his  depth  was  at  the  rate  of  one 
division  to  every  800  yards,  or  something  like  nine  or  ten 
bayonets  to  the  yard  run  :  two  divisions  in  just  over  a  mile 
appeared  before  the  end  of  the  attacks.  Three  divisions  were 
also  concentrated  against  the  "pillar"  of  Givenchy  on  the  ex- 
treme British  right,  while  upon  the  left,  near  Robecq,  one 
division  attacked  :  to  pin  the  troops  down  in  front  of  it  and 
prevent  reinforcement  of  the  centre.  The  pressure  at  the 
Hinges  Bridge  must  have  been  as  heavy  as  anything  that  has 
been  seen  even  in  this  extraordinarily  expensive  German 
effort  on  the  field  of  the  Lys. 

The  divisions  which  had  the  principal  task  assigned  to 
them — that  of  forcing  the  canal  at  or  near  the  point  where 
the  bridge  used  to  stand,  by  which  the  Hinges  Road  crosses 
the  waterway— were  easily  identified  after  their  defeat. 
They  were  the  240th  and  239th  Divisions.  The  240th 
attacked  first,  the  German  right  or  west,  and  the  23gth  later 
to  the  left  of  it. 

The  first  movement  in  the  early  morning  before  dawn 
was  made  by  the  enemy  in  four  waves  which  issued  from  the 
Pacaut  Wood,  under  the  imperfect  cover  of  which  their 
concentration  had  been  made  the  day  before,  and  charged 
for  the  canal.  The  banks  of  the  waterway  were  nearly 
reached,  but  the  rate  of  destruction  was  too  much  for  them 
and  ultimately  they  broke  just  before  it  grew  light.  Then 
came  a  pause  of  over  one  hour  in  the  enemy's  effort,  during 
which  he  was  presumably  drawing  up  the  fresh  men  of  the 
239th,  and  certainly  reorganising  the  chaos  of  the  broken 
240th  which  had  taken  refuge  again  among  the  trees. 

In  tliis  second  effort — principally  made  by  the  239th  along 
the  main  road  east  of  the  wood — not  only  was  the  bank 
of  the  canal  reached  but  pontoons  and  floaters  began  to  be 
placed  by  the  survivors  of  the  terribly  expensive  onslaught. 
But  the  crossing  was  not  made.  Those  who  had  succeeded  in 
beginning  the  placing  of  the  pontoon  floaters  were  wiped  out. 
Another  wave  of  men  coming  up  immediately  behind  were 
upon  the  bank  before  the  crossings  could  be  destroyed, 
and  it  looked  for  a  moment  as  though  the  crossing  would 
be  effected.     The  fire  of  the  defence  was  just  too  much  for 


III 


April  25,   iqi8 


Land    6c    Water 


them.  There  was  something  like  a  local  panic,  some  of  the 
men  offering  to  surrender  even  as  they  advanced,  and  the 
whole  at  last  breaking  back  for  the  cover  of  the  wood  in 
disorder.  As  may  be  imagined,  under  such  conditions  in 
what  was  now  broad  daylight,  those  who  fled  were  nearly 
all  destroyed  before  they  reached  the  edge  of  the  wood, 
close  as  this  cover  was.  A  few  prisoners,  some  200  or  300, 
were  taken  on  the  canal  itself. 

Upon  this  second  failure — which  was  complete  before 
8  a.m. — the  attempt  to  cross  the  canal  that  day  was 
abandoned  and  the  main  effort  had  failed.  Meanwhile, 
upon  the  two  wings,  towards  Robccq  upon  our  left 
and  Givenchy  upon  our  extreme  right,  the  whole  day 
was  filled  with  a  very  violent  struggle.  Certain  advanced 
posts  round  Givenchy  changed  hands  many  times,  but  at 
the  end  of  the  day  the  "  pillar  "  on  which  the  whole  of  this 
front  depends,  stood  firm  with  the  same  trace  in  front  of  it 
as  had  been  held  at  the  beginning,  sav;e  for  the  loss  of  two 
outposts.  Upon  the  right  in  front  of  Robecq  the  enemj% 
made  a  most  determined  effort  to  advance,  chiefly  con- 
ducted by  his  i6th  division,  and  was  also  there  completely. 
checked. 

At  the  close  of  this  effort,  therefore,  the  line  stood  as  it 
had  stood  at  its  opening.  The  obstacle  of  the. waterway 
was  intact.  Robecq  upon  the  left  and  the  far  more  important 
point  of  Givenchy  on  the  right  were  both  held.  Neither 
side  could  claim  ground.  But  the  severe  repulse  of  so  intense 
an  effort  will  form  a  landmark  in  the  story  of  this  battle. 

Though  this  was  the  principal  work  of  the  Thursday, 


heavy  fighting  was,  of  course,  proceeding  elsewhere  upon  the 
northern  face  of  the  sahent.  There  was  a  strong  effort  to 
advance  beyond  Meterem,  which  failed.  The  ruins  of  that 
Uttle  place  remain  a  No  Man's  Land,  and  apparently  the 
sHghtly  rising  ground  to  the  north,  which  used  to  have  a 
windmill  upon  it,  and  is  known  as  Hill  62,  is  not  yet  in  the 
hands  of  the  enemj'.  To  the  south,  where  Merris  is  in  his 
hands,  there  was  a  slight  Alhed  advance. 

The  third  scene  of  special  action  was  upon  the  front  between 
Bailleul  and  Dranoutre.     Here  no  advance  was  effected. 

The  fourth  region  of  effort,  though  very  heavily  pressed, 
could  hardly  have  been  expected  to  succeed,  but  must  rather 
have  been  in  the  nature  of  a  containing  action,  for  it  was 
pressed  right  upon  the  steepish  and  wooded  slopes  of  Mount 
Kemmel  itself.  However,  whether  it  were  a  side-issue  or 
no,  it  was  engaged  with  not  less  than  two  divisions,  one  of 
them  fresh,  and  at  a  particularly  heavy  expense,  which 
could  be  the  better  noted  from  the  fact  that  the  whole  field 
here  is  a  gradual  and  even  rise  up  the  slopes  of  Kemmel 
right  under  the  eyes  of  the  observation-posts  above. 

So  heavy  had  been  the  loss  in  men  and  the  futile  expense 
in  energy  of  this  Thursday  that  the  whole  of  the  next  three 
days — last  Friday,  Saturday,  and  Sunday — were  passed  by 
the  enemy  without  any  serious  effort  to  attack  along  the 
whole  of  the  line.  The  British  took  occasion  of  this  lull  to 
effect  upon  the  second  day,  the  Saturday,  a  rectification  of 
the  line  in  front  of  Givenchy  and  Festubert,  where  a  couple 
of  advance-posts  had  been  rushed  by  the  enemy  two  days 
before.     Beyond  that  there  was  nothing  to  report. 


The  Meaning  of  Reserves 


AFTER  more  than  a  month  of  the  most  intense  effort 
upon  the  part  of  the  enemy,  an  effort  far  more  intense 
than  any  that  has  been  made  before  in  any  phase  of 
this  war  by  any  belligerent,  and  therefore  an  effort  of  exceed- 
ingly rapid  exhaustion,  there  is  still  a  necessity  for  making 
clear  the  fundamental  point  of  all  which  is  that  of  reserves. 

The  governing  principle  of  the  whole  matter  is  this  :  No 
party  to  any  struggle  can  put  in  his  whole  strength  at  once : 
he  can  only  act  tjfirough  a  number  of  successive  moments. 

Whatever  you  have  in  hand  at  any  given  moment  still 
fresh,  not  yet  engaged,  is  in  the  most  general  sense  of  the 
term,  your  reserve. 

That  reserve,  then,  always  existing  to  some  degree  in 
general  form  up  to  the  last  moment  of  a  conflict,  is  given  a 
particular  form  by  the  commander  when  he  calculates  its 
amounts  and  apportions  its  station.  It  enters  into  his  plan 
at  any  given,  moment  as  a  factor  separate  from  the  troojjs 
actually  engaged  at  that  moment.  As  we  shall  see,  it  can 
be  used  in  various  ways,  kept  back  for  one  blow  at  the  end, 
dribbled  out,  thrust  in  quite  early,  etc.,  and  it  is  largely  upon 
the  calculation  of  which  way  of  using  it  is  best  that  military 
success  depends. 

In  the  present  great  struggle  the  units  in  which  you  count 
your  reserve  are  great  numbers  of  divisions;  you  say  "a 
reserve  of  50  divisions,"  etc.,  and  a  division  is,  for  nearly  all 
the  belligerents  engaged  to-day  in  the  West,  nominally  to 
be  measured  as  9,000  bayonets.  In  practice,  with  deductions 
for  services  out  of  the  field,  for  inevitable  delays  in  recruit- 
ment, for  occasional  temporary  disabilities,  etc.,  it  is  8,000 
or  somewhat  less.  You  must  measure  in  bayonets — that  is, 
in  infantry— because  although  your  other  arms  largely 
increase  the  total,  and  are  each  essential ;  and  although 
some  of  them — notably  the  artillery — may  on  occasion 
suffer  more  than  the  infantry ;  and  although  the  power 
both  of  the  attack  and  of  defence  is  also  controlled  by  the 
weight  of  artillery ;  yet  the  one  great  measure  of  strength, 
the  one  great  element  that  is  used  up,  and  the  using  up  of 
which  is  the  test  of  the  whole,  is  the  infantry. 

Both  parties  have  an  income  as  well  as  an  expenditure  in 
divisions  ;  therefore,  you  cannot  estabhsh  a  fixed  limit  in 
time  and  say  :  "We  are  only  .concerned  with  the  expenditure 
up  to  such  and  such  a  date,  and  our  reserve  can  be  exactly 
measured  at  this  moment  by  the  numbers  remaining  in  hand 
between  it  and  the  final  date."  But  this  income  is  obviously 
of  less  importance  as  the  rate  of  wastage  increases. 

Next,  let  it  be  noted  that  a  revenue  in  men — that  is,  in 
divisions — may  come  in  various  ways.  It  may  come  in 
continuously  or  it  may  come  in  by  big  lumps  twice  a  year, 
or  even  only  once  a  year.  It  may  be  increasing  rapidly  on 
the  one  side  while  it  is  constant  or  diminishing  on  the  other — 
and  so  forth.  All  these  modification^  affect  the  issue  of 
reserves. 

One  power  is  getting  its  recruitment  by  yearly  classes  ; 
it  will  have  incorporated  nearly  all  the  men  of  the  1919 


class  before  it  can  incorporate  the  next  class  of  the  1920 
men.  Another  Power  takes  every  lad  as  he  reaches  the 
age  of  18,  and  trains  small  batches  successively,  enjoying 
thus  a  continuous  income.  The  system  once  matured  can 
only  with  difficulty  be  changed.  Yet  another  Power  (such 
was  Great  Britain  two  years  ago,  such  is  America  to-day) 
has  a  prospect  of  a  rapidly  increasing  income  in  men.  The 
rate  at  which  it  is  receiving  at  a  given  moment  is  less  than 
the  rate  at  which  it  will  be  receiving  four  months  hence, 
and  that  in  its  turn  much  less  than  the  rate  at  which  it  will 
be  receiving  eight  months  hence. 

With  all  these  obvious  preliminaries  clearly  before  us,  we 
can  approach  the  particular  point  we  are  studying — that  is, 
the  situation  of  the  two  groups  in  the  West  during  the  present 
crisis  and  the  meaning  of  the  word  "reserves"  as  appUed 
to  them. 

The  enemy  has  for  effective  use  upon  the  West  about 
— or  perhaps  just  over — 170  divisions-.  The  actual  number 
on  which  he  can  count  in  the  West  as  a  total  is  now  a  little 
over  200  divisions.  But  he  will  not  be  able  to  use  more 
than  170  or  175  of  these  because  the  balance  are  not  of  a 
composition  suitable  for  the  tremendous  strain  involved. 
Call  it  180  divisions  at  a  maximum,  and  you  have  a  figure 
certainly  beyond  the  mark. 

Can  this  figure  be  materially  enlarged  in  future  ?  It 
cannot,  for  reasons  we  have  already  seen  in  these  columns. 
The  small  active  balance  of  the  German  armies  is  needed  in 
the  East  even  under  present  conditions.  The  succour  that 
Austria-Hungary  can  afford  is  very  small.  That  Power  is 
not  now  more  than  one-third  as  strong  as  her  Ally.  She 
also  has  to  act  upon  the  East,  and,  unless  we  are  misinformed, 
is  compelled  to  maintain  the  great  mass  of  her  forces  upon 
the  ItaUan  front.  It  has  been  said  that  Austria  could  not, 
in  the  course  of  this  fighting  season,  lend  her  ally  more  than 
ten  di\dsions.  That  is  the  figure  given  even  by  those  who 
desire,  for  whatever  reason,  to  put  at  the  utmost  the  forces 
against  us,  and  it  is  certainly  not  under-estimated.  As  a 
fact,  we  have  seen  no  Austrian  divisions  against  us  yet, 
though  we  have  seen  plenty  of  Austrian  guns,  and  the 
Austrian  infantry  is  not  of  a  type  that  would  be  kept  for 
final  use  on  account  of  any  superior  excellence  of  theirs  over 
the  Prussian.  There  may  be  Austrian  forces  in  the  West 
behind  the  Unes,  but  they  cannot  appreciably  affect  the 
issue. 

There  remains  annual  recruitment.  The  annual  income 
of  the  German  Empire  in  men  is  about  half  a  niiUion.  It  is 
probably  in  practice  a  little  less  ;  but  half  a  million  is  the 
round  figure  to  take.  These  lads  provide,  by  the  time  they 
are  trained  and  incorporated,  the  equivalent  of  35  divisions. 
All  class  1919  has  been  incorporated  long  ago.  Part  of  1920 
is  being  incorporated,  but  it  is  the  bulk  of  1920  which  we 
have  to  consider.  It  has  already  been  suminoned  for  some 
weeks  ;  it  will  be  examined  and  put  in  full  training  imme- 
diately.    It  can  begin  to  appear  in  active  units  towards  the 


8 


Land    &    Water 


April  25,  19  I  8 


end  of  the  present  fighting  season,  but  not  before.  As  the 
enemy  is  working  at  the  highest  possible  pressure — that  is, 
spending  men  at  the  maximum  rate — all  that  he  really  has 
to  consider  as  available  in  the  crisis  of  this  spring  and  summer 
is  the  sum  of  more  than  170,  but  less  than  180  divisions. 

Of  these  he  has  put  in  since  March  21st  at  least  106 — 
perhaps  no.  Many  of  them  have  been  put  in  twice,  and 
some  of  them  even  three  times  ;  but  for  the  moment  we 
are  only  considering  the  total  number  of  divisions  available. 
Fresh  divisions  not  yet  used  leave  him  a  balance  of  some- 
thing between  60  and  70  divisions. 

The  exhaustion  of  all  fresh  divisions  docs  not  mean  the 
exhaustion  of  an  army.  A  division  "put  through  the  mill" 
is  not  destroyed — it  is  only  weakened.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
by  the  "fresh"  divisions  remaining  that  one  measures  the 
comparative  reserve  strength  of  two  opponents,  for  he  that 
has  the  largest  such  group  in  hand  at  the  critical  moment 
should  win. 

The  enemy,  like  ourselves,  has  to  hold  a  long  line  as  well  a 
to  mass  upon  the  sectors  of  active  engagement.  He  must, 
therefore,  always  have  a  certain  proportion  of  his  total  kept 
out  of  the  battle  upon  those  lines  ;  but  this  does  not  mean 
that  his  divisions  upon  what  are  called  "the  quiet  sectors" 
form  no  part  of  his  reserve.  They  do.  They  can  be  brought 
in  one  after  the  other,  and  their  place  taken  by  "  tired  divi- 
sions" withdrawn  from  the  battle. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  the  enemy  has  in  hand  a  reserve 
of  some  sixty  to  seventy  divisions  at  the  present  moment, 
and  this  statement,  as  applied  to  the  limits  of  this  fighting 
season  and  of  these  great  actions  (which  he  evidently  intends 
to  be  decisive  one  way  or  the  other),  is  mathematically  true. 
It  is  mere  waste  of  time  to  argue  against  people  who  think 
that  there  is  some  miraculous  method  of  increasing  the 
number,  just  as  it  would  be  waste  of  time  to  argue  against 
what  exactly  the  same  people  would  be  saying  if  they  were 
in  one  of  their  opposite  fits,  to  wit,  that  the  German  force 
in  reserve  was  smaller  than  it  is.  The  enemy  has  from 
sixty  to  seventy  fresh  divisions  wliich  he  can  use  in  various 
fashions  according  to  what  his  plan  may  be,  and  on  his  use 
of  them,  as  compared  with  the  Allied  use  of  theirs,  will 
depend  the  result. 

Alternative  Offensive  Methods 

Now,  there  are  two  ways  in  which  you  may  choose  to  use 
reserves  when  you  are  on  the  offensive,  and  two  ways  in 
which  you  may  choose,  or  may  be  compelled,  to  use  reserves 
when  you  are  on  the  defensive.  These  two  ways  are  apparent 
all  through  mihtary  liistory  in  either  case,  in  the  case  of  the 
offensive  and  in  the  case  of  the  defensive,  whether  you  are 
dealing  with  the  smaillest  tactical  operations  or  with  the  largest 
strategic  ones. 

You  may  definitely  ear-mark  a  proportion  of  your  forces, 
set  them  aside  to  be  used  at  a  critical  moment  which  you 
foresee  coming,  and  then  launch  them  to  obtain  your  decision 
at  that  moment.  That  was  Napoleon's  usual  method,  which 
he  used  with  success  time  after  time  ;  which  he  hesitated 
(perhaps  wrongly)  to  use  at  Borodino,  and  which  he  used 
too  late  at  Waterloo.  Or  you  may  feed  in  your  reserve 
continually  using  it  as  a  reservoir  with  the  tap  always  on, 
maintaining  your  rate  of  expenditure  pretty  well  the  same 
throughout  your  operations,  and  approaching  your  limit  of 
exhaustion  by  regular  steps. 

Let  us  see  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  each  method 
in  the  case  both  of  the  offensive  and  of  the  defensive. 

If  you  are  on  the  offensive,  and  you  think  that  your  success 
under  the  circumstances  can  be  obtained  by  an  immediate 
and  maximum  expense  of  energy,  you  adopt  the  second  plan. 
You  cannot  put  in  all  your  men  at  once,  but  ydu  put  them 
in  as  fast  as  ever  you  can,  and  you  use  your  reserve  as  a 
reservoir  from  which  you  draw  at  top  speed  and  without 
cessation  in  the  hope  that  a  favourable  decision  will  be 
obtained  before  your  limit  of  exhaustion  is  reached.  In 
the  alternative  case  you  judge  that  continuous  pressure  dis- 
tributed over  some  time  will  put  him  into  a  condition  in 
which  at  a  particular  moment  a  sudden  and  much  more 
violent  blow  will  break  him  up.  In  most  cases,  and  in  this 
case  of  the  German  attack,  the  offensive  is  free  to  choose  the 
one  method  or  the  other. 

In  the  case  of  the  defensive  the  problem  is  nearly  always 
to  keep  as  large  a  reserve  as  you  can,  for  as  long  a  time  as 
you  can,  and  meanwhile  to  hold  yoi^r  enemy  with  as  small  a 
force  as  you  dare.  But  the  defensive  has  not  the  same 
choice  as  the  offensive  here.  That  phrase  "as  small  a  force 
as  you  dare"  is  the  kernel  of  the  whole  business.  You  may 
say  :  "  I  will  hold  with  only  twenty  units,  and  keep  ten 
back  ;  I  tlunk  the  twenty  are  enough  to  hold  and  exhaust 
the  attack."     If  the  twenty  prove  not  to  be  enough,  and  a 


weak  sector  gets  into  trouble  so  that  the  line  looks  like 
breaking,  gets  badly  pushed  back,  loses  great  numbers  of 
men  and  material,  etc.,  then,  willy-nilly,  you  find  yourself 
compelled  to  draw  upon  the  balance  which  you  had  kept 
back  for  action  when  your  attacking  enemy  should  be 
exhausted. 

If  your  enemy  by  his  attack  compels  you  to  exhaust  the 
whole  of  your  reserve  within  the  limits  of  the  action,  while 
he  has  still  fresh  troops  for  assault  in  hand,  he  will  win. 
But  if  you  manage  to  hold  with  less  forces  against  him, 
costing  him  (as  he  is  the  attacking  party)  much  heavier 
losses  than  your  own  ;  and  if  you  thus  find  yourself  at 
the  end  of  the  process,  with  a  balance  of  fresh  troops 
still  in  hand,  while  he  has  reached  the  limits  of  his,  you 
will  win. 

In  the  light  of  this  simple  contrast  the  present  battle  is 
plain  enough,  and  indeed  its  character  has  been  emphasized 
over  and  over  again  without  much  difference  by  the  two 
opponents  in  their  Press,  and  even  in  their  official  pro- 
nouncements. 

The  Germans  are  working  upon  the  first  system  of  the 
offensive.  That  is  perfectly  clear.  They  seek  to  obtain  as 
rapid  a  decision  as  possible  with  a  continuous  and  very 
high  expenditure  in  men.  Never  was  an  army  more  thor- 
oughly committed  to  this  system  than  is  the  German  Army 
at  the  present  moment.  So  obvious  is  this  that  we  find 
the  first  German  blow  delivered  not  only  with  more  than 
half  the  total  number  of  infantry  available  for  all  purposes, 
but  with  the  very  best  units. 

The  last  tremendous  attempt  to  break  the  Western  line 
in  front  of  Amiens  was  made  on  April  4th,  after  more  than 
a  fortnight  of  the  heaviest  possible  fighting  and  after  losses 
involving  certainly  a  quarter,  and  probably  more,  of  the 
eissailants. 

The  second  blow  began  immediately  afterwards  with  the 
bombardment  of  April  8th  in  the  north  and  the  infantry 
attack  at  dawn  on  April  9th.  It  continued  from  that  day 
to  last  Thursday  without  any  intermission,  and  fresh  troops 
were  perpetually  being  called  up  to  replace  broken  divisions, 
and  were  thrown  daily.  The  enem}'  so  acts  because  he 
calculates  that  this  continued  effort  will,  before  his  limits 
of  exhaustion  are  reached,  have  brought  all  that  there  is 
for  defence  against  him  into  line.  He  knows  as  ^yell  as  we 
do  that  if  his  calculation  fails  he  is  defeated.  For  he  has 
not  in  one  short  month  put  two-thirds  of  his  available  strength 
through  the  mill  without  meaning  to  do  the  trick  this  season 
or  never. 

It  is,  on  the  other  hand,  the  firm  calculation  of  the  Allies 
— that  is,  of  their  higher  command — apparent  in  everything 
they  have  done,  in  the  comparatively  small  forces  with 
which  they  have  held  this  tremendous  onslaught ;  in  the 
choice  of  the  vital  points  for  resisting  it,  and,  above  all,  in 
the  frequent  but  necessary  exhortations  to  patience  which 
'  they  have  given  to  the  civilian  population  upon  which  they 
repose,  that  at  the  end  of  the  effort  they  will  still  have  in 
hand  a  sufficiency  of  fresh  forces  when  the  enemy  shall, 
though  still  possessed  of  very  large  bodies,  have  none  not 
yet  put  under  the  ordeal. 

In  these  circumstances  it  is,  or  should  be,  grasped  by 
every  publicist  that  his  duty  is  to  confirm  public  opinion. 
The  test  of  character  is  a  defensive,  and  the  proof  of  folly  is 
panic  and  impatience  under  that  test. 

A  defensive  deliberately  adopted  and  biding  its  time, 
perhaps  for  months,  is  the  hardest  trial  through  which  an  army 
and  the  nation  behind  it  can  be  put. 

Anyone  who  in  the  midst  of  a  defensive  battle — or,  to  be 
more  accurate,  during  the  defensive  phase  of  a  great  battle — 
tries  to  act  behind  the  soldiers,  or,  in  spite  of  the  soldiers, 
butts  in  with  inane  amateur  suggestion,  vents  a  personal 
spite,  or,  still  worse,  attempts  some  private  profit  to  be 
obtained  through  excitement  at  the  expense  of  the  nation, 
is  almost  like  one  who  spreads  disaffection  or  disorder  in  a 
besieged  fortress.  The  only  difference  is  this :  The  case  of 
a  besieged  fortress,  every  one  understands,  and  therefore, 
short  of  actual  treason,  it  is  a  case  in  which  every  one  does 
what  he  can  to  keep  out  the  enemy.  Mere  ignorance  and 
mere  folly  would  there  have  little  chance  of  appearance. 
But  the  nature  of  a  great  action  in  which  the  first  phase  is 
necessarily  a  prolonged  and  difficult  defensive — the  way  in 
which  that  first  phase  is  the  necessary  and  inevitable  condition 
of  final  victory — is  less  generally  understood.  By  the  mass 
of  your  politicians  and  wire-pullers  it  is  not  understood  at 
all.  These  men  should  therefore  be  told  sharply,  and  their 
dupes  more  gently,  that  to  hurry  or  to  disturb  the  operations 
of  the  defensive  phase  is  in  effect,  though,  of  course,  not  in 
motive,  exactly  the  same  as  direct  treason.  Our  whole  duty 
— and,  after  all,  an  easy  and  a  simple  one — is  to  stand  by. 

H.  Belloc. 


April  25,  191 8 


Land    &   Water 


The  Channel  Straits:    By  A.  H.  Pollen 


THE  following  question  has  been  put  to  me : 
"  I  observe  that,  in  the  current  number  of  Land 
AND  Water,  your  colleague,  Mr.  Belloc,  in  ex- 
plaining the  enemy's  selection  of  the  Messines- 
Givenchy  sector  for  his  recent  attack,  points  out 
that,  among  the  arguments  in  its  favour,  'for  what  it  is 
worth  there  was  the  moral  effect  of  an  attack  developing 
close  to,  and  threatening  that  highly  sensitive  point,  the 
straits  of  the  Channel.'  Is  it  not  possible  that  he  had 
something  more  than  '  moral  effect '  in  view  ? 

"  I  am  driven  to  ask  this  question  :  Is  it  possible  the 
enemy  has  some  objective,  altogether  independent  of  the 
direct  military  advantages  of  his  procedure  ?  Is  he,  in  other 
words,  trying  to  manoeuvre  us  into  giving  up  Dunkirk,  and 
then,  possibly,  Calais  ?  If  there  were  some  overwhelming 
naval  advantage  to  be  gained  by  the  possession  of  Dunkirk, 
his  policy  might  seem  to  be  justified.  Is  it  possible  to 
state,  with  some  precision,  the  change  that  would  be  brought 
about  in  the  naval  position  if  the  enemy  were  either  at 
Dunkirk,  or  at  Dunkirk  and  at  Calais  ? " 

In  essaying  to  answer  this  question,  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
assess  either  the  probabilit}'  of  or  the  military  effect  of  our 
withdrawal  from  Dunkirk,  or  of  our  being  compelled  to  give 
Calais  to  the  enemy.  Though  the  first  seems  to  me  highh' 
improbable,  and  the  second  altogether  out  of  the  question, 
all  I  am  concerned  with  here  is  to  deal  with  the  effect  their 
tenure  by  the  enemy  would  have  in  assisting  his  naval  opera- 
tions in  impeding  ours,  and  in  giving  him  means,  other  than 
naval,  for  interfering  with  our  sea  traffic.  Before 
attempting  a  reasoned  answer,  it  might  be  as  well  to 
glance  at  what  may  be  called  our  traditional  policy  with 
regard  to  the  Dutch,  Flemish,  and  French  Channel  ports  ; 
for  it  is  really  to  this  tradition,  and  not  to  the  facts  of  the 
situation  of  to-day,  that  we  must  look  for  the  moral  effect 
of  which  my  colleague  wrote  last  week.  From  very  early 
times  it  has  been  taken  for  granted  that  the  possession  of 
these  ports  by  an  enemy  must  constitute  a  serious  sea  menace. 
It  is  largely  for  this  reason  that,  ever  since  the  fall  of  Napoleon, 
the  maintenance  of  the  independence  and  neutrality  both  of 
Holland  and  of  Belgium  has  been  a  corner  stone  of  our  foreign 
policy.  When,  therefore,  in  September  and  October,  1914, 
the  enemy,  having  seized  Ostend  and  Zeebrugge,  was  engaged 
in  a  determined  effort  to  get  Dunkirk  and  Calais  as  well,  the 
utmost  unea.siness  was  created  in  this  country.  But  I  do 
not  think  many  people  could  have  stated  explicitly  their 
exact  ground  for  uneasiness  in  the  sense  of  being  able  to 
say  precisely  what  particular  naval  and  military  operations 
the  possession  of  these  ports  would  have  made  possible  for 
the  enemy.  People  forgot  that  our  historic  attitude  in  this 
matter  dated  from  the  period  when  there  were  not  only  no 
submarines,  but  no  thirty-knot  destroyers,  nor  guns  with 
the  modern  command  of  range,  nor  air  power.  Conse- 
quently, if  it  was  traditional  policy  with  us  that  the  Dutch 
ports,  the  Flemish  ports,  and  the  French  ports,  should  be 
in  separate  possession,  and  two  of  the  groups  neutral,  it 
seemed  necessarily  to  follow  that,  if  an  enemy  could  get 
two  groups  into  his  own  possession,  not  must  an  immediate 
blow  have  been  struck  at  our  prestige,  but  some  kind  of 
naval  loss  of  a  serious  kind  would  follow.  Calais  and  Dun- 
kirk, then,  grew  into  symbols  just  as  Verdun  did  later 
on.  To  possess  them  became  an  end  in  itself,  and  hence 
their  denial  to  the  enemy  became  of  crucial  importance. 

As  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  the  actual  possession  of  Dunkirk, 
or  even  of  Calais — viewing  the  thing  altogether  apart  from 
the  military  consequences  involved — would  affect  the  naval 
position  adversely  at  a  single  point  only.  And  the  explana- 
tion of  this  is  not  very  recondite.  The  two  governing  factors 
at  sea  are,  first,  that  the  enemy's  only  free  naval  force  is  his 
submarine  fleet,  which  is  almost  independent  of  port 
facilities,  and,  secondly,  that  outside  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  his  larger  ports,  the  enemy  possesses  no  freedom  of  surface 
movement  at  sea  at  all.  If  you  examine  these  propositions 
separately,  their  truth  becomes  obvious.  The  two  main  and 
most  profitable  fields  of  the  enemy's  submarines  have  been 
from  the  Chops  of  the  Channel  westward,  and  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean Passim.  To  be  a  thousand  miles  from  its  base  makes, 
therefore,  very  little  difference  to  the  submarine.  To  give  a 
submarine-using  enemy  a  base  a  few  miles  nearer  his  main 
field  would  consequently  confer  no  advantage  on  him  of  any 
kind  whatever. 

Curiously  enough,  if  we  suppose  the  Channel  to  be  the 
field  of  their  operations,  the  same  thing  is  true  about  the 
enemy's  surface  craft,    though    for   a   very  different  reason. 


For,  as  things  stand  to-day — and  as  they  would  stand  if 
he  got  Dunkirk,  Calais,  and  even  Boulogne — his  freedom  to 
get  his  destroyers  or  other  ships  out  of  harbour  can  be  exactly 
measured  by  the  distance  he  is  from  the  nearest  British 
base.  The  truth  of  this  was  instructively  shown  last  week. 
Twice  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  we  heard  that  our  ships 
had  swept  into  the  Kattegat  and  the  North  Sea,  each  time 
destroying  German  trawlers  on  outpost  duty,  and  capturing 
their  crews.  On  two  other  occasions  unsuccessful  efforts 
were  made  to  cut  off  destroyers  that  had  been  bombarding 
parts  of  the  Belgian  coast,  west  of  Nieuport.  On  each  of 
these  the  enemy  escaped  in  the  darkness.  The  point  of 
the  contrast  hes  in  this.  When  he  is  four  or  five  hundred 
miles  away  from  a  British  base,  the  enemy  can  venture  out 
by  daylight,  so  long  as  he  does  not  go  so  far  afield  that  he 
ma}'  be  cut  off  and  brought  to  action  before  dark.  If  no 
British  force  appears  in  such  distant  waters  for  some  days 
together,  he  may  even  venture  to  send  out  light  craft,  such 
as  trawlers,  either  to  lay  mines  or  to  sweep  for  them,  or  to 
engage  on  some  other  operation.  But  even -here  he  risks 
their  destruction  if  he  does  so.  But  from  Zeebrugge,  which 
is  less  than  eighty  miles  from  Dover,  he  dare  not  venture 
out  at  all  except  by  night.  You  never  hear  of  German 
trawlers  being  raided  off  Ostend  by  Admiral  Keyes'  command. 
And,  whenever  there  is  news  of  an  engagement,  it  is  either 
a  midnight  or  a  mid-fog  affair. 

Zeebrugge  and  Ostend 

Zeebrugge  and  Ostend,  then,  are,  on  the  experience  of  the 
last  three  years,  perfectly  useless  to  him  for  any  daylight 
work.  They  are  just  jumping-off  places  for  night  raids, 
and  refuges  into  which  the  marauders  must  rush  for  safety 
at  the  first  threat  of  attack.  Observe  that  never  yet  has  the 
enemy  in  such  encounters  even  pretended  to  fight  the  engage- 
ment to  a  finish.  He  runs — as  he  did  the  other  day — though 
he  had  a  force  of  eighteen  boats  against  a  bare  half-dozen: 
He  cannot,  from  the  nature  of  the  situation,  even  risk  delay. 
He  must  always  fear  a  still  stronger  force  coming  on  the 
scene.  Hence,  they  are  not  bases  from  which  systematic 
naval  operations  could  be  carried  out,  nor  any  orderly  form 
of  sea-pressure  be  put  upon  us  by  regular  and  methodical 
operations.  The  fact,  then,  that  "we  control  the  surface  of 
the  sea  robs  Dunkirk,  Calais,  and  Boulogne  of  any  surface- 
craft  value  to  the  enemy,  just  because  they  are  so  much 
nearer  to  our  main  base  at  Dover  than  are  Zeebrugge  and 
Ostend.  Indeed,  we  can  go  further.  If  he  hardly  now 
dares  come  out  of  Zeebrugge,  it  is  doubtful  if  he  would  run 
and  go  into  Dunkirk  or  Calais.  Neither  can  help  him  then 
with  his  destroyers.  And,  because  submarines  do  not 
require  bases  into  which  to  run  for  refuge,  these  ports  are 
unnecessary  to  him  for  his  submarine  campaign. 

I  said  just  now  that  there  was  one  respect  in  which  the 
possession  of  this  strip  of  French  coast  would  be  an  advantage 
to  the  enemy.  It  is  that  the  blocking  of  the  Channel  at  its 
narrowest  parts  by  mine  barrages  would  be  either  impossible 
or  exceedingly  difficult.  But  the  possession  of  Dunkirk  only 
would  hardly  affect  this,  for  from  Dunkirk  to  Cape  Gris  Nez 
is  nearly  forty  miles  ;  and  our  estabUshment  and  mainten- 
ance of  a  barrage  would  not  be  affected  unless  the  enemy 
occupied  not  only  Dunkirk,  but  the  whole  coast  right  round 
to  Boulogne. 

We  may  then,  it  seems  to  me,  make  our  minds  compara- 
tively easy  as  to  the  effect  on  the  naval  situation  of  any 
further  advances  of  the  enemy  along  the  French  seaboard, 
so  far,  at  least,  as  the  naval  situation  can  be  affected  by 
purely  naval  means.  But  are  there  not  other  than  purely 
naval  means  that  would  affect,  if  not  our  naval  forces,  at 
any  rate,  the  sea  traffic  which  it  is  one  of  the  main  objects 
of  naval  force  to  protect  and  guarantee  ?  The  enemy,  we 
are  told,  has  been  bombarding  Paris  with  unpleasant  regu- 
larity from  a  range  of  seventy-five  miles.  From  Dunkirk  to 
the  Downs  is  not  more  than  half  this  distance.  Every  mile 
he  can  push  on  of  the  twenty-five  that  intervene  between 
Dunkirk  and  Calais  will  very  nearly  reduce  the  range  of  the 
Enghsh  coast  by  an  equal  amount.  Would  it  still  be  safe 
for  ships  to  come  up  Channel  aijd  enter  the  mouth  of  the 
Thames  ?  Or  would  London  cease  to  exist  as  a  port,  except 
for  such  traffic  as  could  come  to  it  north  about  ?  Far  be  it 
from  me  to  suggest  the  Hmits  of  the  enemy's  ingenuity  in 
designing,  or  of  his  industry  in  producing,  cannon  of  fabulous 
reach.  But  the  merest  tyro  in  the  art  of  gunnery  would  be 
{Continued  on  page  12). 


Copyright,  1918,  U.S.A. 


i<  |i    III,  la mt"*^  "-■  '  »■■»«■ 


At  the  Grave  c 

By  Lc 
Schcidemann,  a  leader  of  the  German  Socialists,  has  publicly  declared  that  Socialist; 


rTman  Socialism 

iiaekers. 

't  their  influence  in  Germany  since  the  military  successes  on  the  Somme  and  the  Lys. 


Copyright^  "  Land  &  Wttltr  " 


I  2 


Land    &    Water 


April  25,  19 1  8 


(Continued  from  page  'J). 
able  to  reassure  us  on  the  value  of  tliis  artillery  as  a  menace 
to  trading  shipping  going  up  and  down  the  Channel.  If  the 
enemy  held  the  coast  of  France  from  Dunkirk  to  Cape  Oris 
Nez,  his  guns  could  reach  Shoreham  on  the  Sussex  coast  and 
Orfordness  in  Suffolk  ;  ■  so  that  the  whole  of  Kent,  all  of 
Surrey  and  Sussex  that  lie  east  of  the  main  Brighton  line 
would  be  under  his  fire.  His  hmit  of  range  would  be  just 
short  of  Croydon,  from  a  point  just  opposite  Erith  to  the 
south  of  a  line  through  Chelmsford  and  Colchester.  The 
lower  corner  of  Suffolk,  including  Ipswich,  would  complete 
the  danger  area.  The  Thames,  of  course,  would  be  under 
fire  almost  right  up  to  the  docks  in  London. 

This  may  all  sound  very  terrifying,  but  it  would  be  entirely 
without  naval  significance,  for  the  simple  reason  that  at 
these  extreme  ranges  no  aiming  with  a  gun  is  possible  at  all  ; 
and  the  value  of  guns  of  this  kind,  trained  even  on  a  great 
city  like  London  or  Paris,  is  not  distinguishable  from  that  of  , 


regularly  conducted  air  raids.  Indeed,  as  far  as  destruction 
of  life  is  concerned,  it  is  probable  that  the  same  number  of 
air  bombs^from  the  fact  that  their  explosive  charge  is  so 
much  greater — would  be  far  more  deadly  than  the  9-inch 
shell,  whjch  the  German  long-range  gun  is  supposed  to  carry. 
As  to  such  guns,  or  even  the  much  more  accurate  naval  gun, 
being  mounted  on  the  coast  to  prevent  the  passage  of  mer- 
chant shipping,  this  menace  is  entirely  chimerical.  If  the 
best  naval  ordnance  in  the  world  were  perfectly  mounted 
and  controlled  from  Dover  or  Calais,  shipping  could,  in 
broad  daylight  on  a  clear  day,  pass  up  mid-Channel  with 
complete  safety,  if  they  adopted  the  simple  precaution  with 
which  every  merchant  skipper  is  famihar,  from  his  experi- 
ence with  submarines.  He  has  only  got  to  zigzag  his  course 
to  make  hitting  impossible  at  ten  miles,  and  at  twenty  no 
accurate  fire  of  any  sort  would  be  conceivable.  We  must, 
therefore,  look  for  a  purely  mihtary  explanation  of  the 
enemy's  present  mihtary  pohcy.  A.  H.  Pollen. 


Climax  of  Two   Great   Wars:   By  j.  Holland  Rose,  Lkt.D. 


AT  no  time  during  the  present  war  bave  the  pros- 
pects of  the  British  people  been  so  gloomy  as  they 
were  after  the  collapse  of  Austria  in  the  Wagram 
Campaign  of  the  year  1809  and  the  disgraceful 
Walcheren  expedition  of  that  autumn.  It  may 
be  well  to  outline  the  situation  in  the  j'ears  1810-11  and  to 
suggest  comparisons  at  some  points  with  that  of  the  far 
greater  war  against  the  Central  Empires  and  their  Allies. 
In  this  article  I  attempt  to  form  estimates  on  mihtary  and, 
naval  affairs  at  the  two  periods,  and  in  a  subsequent  article 
to  treat  questions  of  food-supply,  commerce,  and  financial 
stability. 

The  defection  of  Russia  has  brought  about  a  state  of  affairs 
not  unlike  that  which  Napoleon's  triumph  over  Austria  pro- 
duced in  1809.  Thenceforth,  up  to  the  end  of  181 1,  he  threw 
his  whole  strength  into  the  West.  In  1810  a  veteran  army 
under  Massena  swept  through  Spain  and  Portugal,  and 
pinned  Welhngton's  forces  to  the  Lines  of  Torres  Vedras. 
The  tenacious  Kritish  resistance  (far  from  appreciated  at  the 
time)  saved  frorn  utter  ruin  the  cause  of  the  Portuguese  and 
Spanish  "Patriots,"  inaugurated  a  time  of  balance  in  the 
Peninsular  War,  and  encouraged  the  Tsar,  Alexander  I.,  to 
the  independent  fiscal  policy  which  brought  about  the  French 
invasion  of  Russia  in  1812.  Thus  the  years  1810-2  form 
the  crisis  of  the  Napoleonic  War.  Without  Torres  Vedras, 
there  would  have  been  a  timorous  peace,  an  unchallenged 
French  ascendancy,  broken  by  no  retreat  from  Moscow,  no 
Leipzig,  no  Waterloo. 

The  obedient  journalists  of  Berlin  have  asserted  that  the 
great  German  push  which  began  on  March  21st,  1918,  can  be 
more  than  once  repeated  ;  that  they  do  not  rely  chiefly  on 
the  submarine  campaign,  but  will  force  a  military  decision. 
In  a  general  way,  therefore,  the  present  push  may  be  compared 
with  the  effort  of  Massena  ;  but  Germany  confronts  Allies 
who  equal  her  in  determination  and  excel  her  in  man-power, 
money,  and  material.  She  controls  a  central  mass  of  terri- 
tory and  possesses  an  admirable  mihtary  organisation — 
advantages  possessed  in  a  unique  degree  by  Napoleon  over  his 
feeble  opponents  of  1810-11.  But  her  mass,  like  his,  is 
gripped  by  sea  power  ;  and  she,  any  more  than  he,  cannot 
escape  from  its  economic  pressure  by  subjecting  Russia  as 
he  did  at  Tilsit  in  1807.  Indeed,  the  more  the  Teutonic  yoke 
galls  the  Russians,  the  more  likely  are  they  to  cast  it  off  at 
the  first  opportunity.  The  more  intelligent  Germans  blame 
their  Government  for  imposing  humiliating  terms  on  Russia, 
just  as  Talleyrand  censured  Napoleon  for  alienating  pubhc 
opinion  in  1811-12.  But  the  Germans  persist,  even  as  he 
persisted.  Early  in  1812  his  nervousness  as  to  the  East 
prevented  him  sending  into  Spain  the  forces  needed  for 
ending  the  war.  Even  so,  the  Germans  persist  in  their 
penetration  of  Russia.  Sooner  or  later,  then,  sympathy  must 
reawaken  among  the  Russians  with  their  former  Allies,  just 
as  in  the  winter  of  1811-12  Alexander  I.  based  his  resistance 
to  the  Napoleonic  decrees  on  his  confidence  in  Wellington's 
indomitable  resistance,  while  the  duke  fought  his  uphill 
fight  with  the  more  spirit  because  he  foresaw  the  Russo- 
French  rupture.    Adsit  omen ! 

As  the  Berlin  Press  assures  the  world  that  the  time  is  at 
hand  when  the  war-will  of  the  Western  peoples  must  collapse, 
it  may  be  well  to  recall  the  odds  against  which  our  fore- 
fathers fought.  The  census  of  1811  gave  the  population  of 
Great  Britain  as  12,596,803  souls.  That  of  Ireland  in  1821  was 
6,801,827  ;   and  in  1811  it  may  be  reckoned  at  about  6,250,000. 


The  numbers  of  the  white  population  in  our  chief  colonies  are 
not  known  until  the  following  dates  :  Canada,  1,172,820  in 
1844  ;  New  South  Wales  (inclusive  of  what  is  now  Victoria), 
36,598  in  1828 ;  Van  Diemen's  Land,  12,303  in  1824 ; 
Western  AustraUa,  2,070  in  1834 ;  South  Austraha,  17,366 
in  1844 ;  New  Zealand,  about  3,000  or  4,000  in  1847  ;  Cape 
Colony,  68,180  in  1839.  In  1811  these  figures  would  be 
about  one-half  of  those  just  presented.  Consequently,  we 
then  had  no  military  succour  from  the  British  race  beyond 
the  seas  ;  and,  owing  to  the  disputes  with  the  United  States 
and  the  Dutch,  Canada  and  Cape  Colony  (not  to  speak  of 
India)  needed  considerable  garrisons  from  the  motherland. 
It  ,  is  well,  then,  to  realise  that  the  British  race  within 
the  Empire  (including  the  Irish,  but  excluding  the  French- 
Canadians  and  the  Dutch  of  Cape  Colony)  numbered  less 
than  twenty  milHons  in  the  year  181 1.  Captlin  C.  W. 
Pasley,  R.E.,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Military  Policy  of  the  British 
Empire  (1811),  reckons  only  Great  Britain  as  counting  in  the 
war,  and,  estimating  the  population  of  the  Napoleonic 
Empire  and  vassal  States  at  77,000,000  souls,  concludes  that 
the  odds  against  us  were  more  than  five  to  one.  Probably 
he  exaggerates  the  hostile  numbers  and  underestimates  our 
own  ;  but,  after  Napoleon's  annexations  of  the  Papal  States, 
Illyria,  Holland,  and  N.W.  Germany  (as  far  as  Lflbeck),  the 
French  Empire  must  have  included  nearly  60,000,000  souls. 
This,  however,  is  not  all.  In  June,  1812,  Napoleon  marshalled 
for  the  Russian  campaign  147,000  Germans  from  the  Con- 
federation of  the  Rhine,  and  some  80,000  Itahans,  60,000 
Poles,  and  10,000  Swiss,  besides  exacting  contingents  of 
50,000  from  the  quasi-dependent  States,  Austria  and  Prussia. 
If  we  include  all  the  lands  which  furnished  the  Emperor  with 
man-power,  Pasley 's  estimate  of  the  odds  is  within  the  mark 
— at  least,  for  181 1. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  the  sharp  contrast  afforded  by 
the  present  struggle.  Probably  the  white  population  of  the 
British  Empire  now  approaches — or  even  equals — that  of 
Germany,  about  68,000,000.  The  deficiencies  of  the  AlUes 
are  in  their  scattered  positions  and  their  military  unprepared- 
ness.  But  in  1811  the  British  and  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese patriots  were  still  more  deficient  by  comparison  with 
Napoleon.  He  had  the  great  advantage  of  inheridng  a 
system  of  national  conscription  founded  by  the  French 
Jacobins  in  August,  1793,  and  developed  more  systematically 
in  1798.  He  applied  this  system  to  his  vast  Empire,  and 
expected  vassal  princes  to  supply  almost  as  large  a  quota. 
True,  by  the  year  1810,  warlike  enthusiasm  had  declined, 
and  bands  of  refractory  conscripts  had  to  be  hunted  down. 
The  levies  which  he  exacted  from  his  vassals  were  half- 
hearted, only  the  Poles  and  the  North  Italians  fighting  with 
enthusiasm.  Still,  love  of  glory,  hope  of  plunder,  or  the 
longing  to  secure  a  lasting  peace  impelled  the  mass  forward. 
As  Count  Segur  says  :  "There  was  not  a  hope  which  Napoleon 
could  not  flatter,  excite,  and  satiate.  .  .' .  A  war  was  often 
only  a  battle  or  a  short  and  brilliant  excursion.'!  Such,  too, 
is  the  Prussian  tradition,  based  on  the  triumphant  wars  of 
1864,  1866,  1870. 

To  break  down  the  moral  which  in  1810-11  still  inspired  the 
best  of  Napoleon's  troops  was  a  stupendous  task ;  but 
Welhngton  impaired  that  moral  at  Busaco,  wore  it  down  at 
Torres  Vedras,  displayed  the  full  fighting  strength  of  the 
British  soldier  at  Badajoz,  and  his  superiority  in  the  mighty 
clash  of  Salamanca  (July,  1812).  Even  so,  in  the  present 
w^r,  the  Allies,  owing,  first,  to  lack  of  numbers,  and  then  of 


April    25,    1918 


Land    &    Water 


13 


thoroughly  trained  troops,  have  been  confined  mainly  to  a 
defensive  strategy.  The  Germans,  also,  like  Napoleon,  having 
the  advantage  of  inner  hnes  of  operation,  could  adopt  his 
methods  which  so  often  won  a  decisive  triumph  in  a  single 
campaign.  Considering  their  superiority  in  numbers,  equip- 
ment, and  position  in  1914,  they  cannot  be  pronounced 
brilliant  pupils  of  the  great  commander. 

It  is  well  to  reahse  how  slowly  and  awkwardly  the 
British  military  machine  worked  in  WelHngton's  day. 
Nor  must  the  fault  be  ascribed  solely  to  the  Govern- 
ment ;  it  must  accrue  to  the  nation  as  a  whole.  Take 
the  following  jottings  of  Lord  Uxbridge's  agent  at  Plas- 
newydd  in  August,  1807,  when  England  stood  entirely  albne  : 

"Our  regular  army  is  now  to  be  increased  by  enlistments 
from  the  militia,  but  there  is  great  unwillingness  to  save  the 
country  unless  in  a  constitutional  way.  .  .  .  Our  country 
gentlemen  make  no  distinction  in  the  means  of  defence  they 
would  adopt  between  an  insignificant  rebellion  in  Scotland 
and  the  mighty  invasion  with  which  we  are  now  threatened. 
.  .  .  We  have  nothing  very  great  to  expect  till  the  enemy 
is  actually  amongst  us.  He  will  then  give  us  a  practical 
lesson."* 

Politicians  Aforetimcs 

Nothing  awakened  John  Bull.  He  jogged  along  in  the 
old  ruts.  Successive  Cabinets  sought  to  co-ordinate  the 
regular  army,  militia,  and  volunteers.  Pitt,  Dundas,  and 
Windham ;  Addington  and  Hobart ;  Pitt,  Camden,  and 
Castlereagh  ;  Grenville  and  Windham,  successively  produced 
their  reforms  until  chaos  reigned  supreme.  The  Perceval 
Ministry  (1809-12)  totally  failed  to  solve  these  difficulties, 
which,  of  course,  could  be  overcome  only  by  the  adoption  of 
conscription  ;  but  that  nervous  Cabinet  feared  to  take  so 
drastic  a  step.  After  the  disastrous  failure  at  Walcheren  it 
hesitated  to  send  Wellington  tlie  needful  supplies  either  in 
men  or  money  ;  and  (as  will  appear  later)  so  unpopular  was 
the  Peninsular  War  that  the  Whigs,  who  opposed  it  outright, 
might  well  have  ejected  Perceval  if  he  had  greatly  increased 
the  taxes.  Home  poUtics,  therefore,  prevented  a  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war,  until,  in  the  summer  of  1812,  the 
action  of  Russia  breathed  new  energy  into  the  calculating 
trimmers  of  Westminster.  Harsh  things  have  been  said 
by  soldiers  of  politicians  during  this  war,  but  nothing  com- 
parable to  the  insults  hurled  by  Napier  at  the  memory  of 
Perceval :  "  The  politician,  believing  in  no  difficulties  because 
he  feels  none,  neglects  the  supplies,  charges  disaster  on  the 
general,  and  covers  his  misdeeds  with  words."f 

But  the  damning  charge  against  the  Portland  and  Perceval 
Cabinets  is  their  ineffective  use  of  the  existing  forces.  In 
1808-9  the  effectives  were  26,500  cavalry,  178,000  infantry, 
artillery  and  engineers,  24,000 ;  and  the  embodied  militia, 
77,000,  Pasley  in  181 1  reckoned  that,  by  calling  up  the 
reserve  militia  and  training  the  volunteers,  120,000  men 
might  be  spared  for  active  service.  He  arraigned  British 
statesmen  of  timidity  and  blindness  in  keeping  so  many 
regulars  at  home,  and  in  frittering  others  away  in  spasmodic 
and  generally  belated  efforts.  Our  troops  (he  wrote)  cost  half  as 
much  again  as  those  of  any  other  nation ;  our  politicians  rarely 
looked  ahead,  never  framed  a  consistent  military  policy,  or 
provided  adequate  equipment.  If  they  continued  to  act 
thus  we  should  "have  nothing  before  us  but  the  gloomy 
prospect  of  eternal  war."  We  must  act  on  land  as  vigor- 
ously as  by  sea,  or  else  we  might  be  conquered  on  both 
elements.  Trust  in  Coalitions  was  futile  ;  indeed,  in  course 
of  time— "  Germany  might  become  so  power/id  as  to  act  the 
part  which  France  now  does."  Let  us  vigorouslj'  support 
Wellington  and  the  Spaniards,  for  there  only  could  we  hope 
to  overthrow  Napoleon's  power. 

Such  is  the  gist  of  Pasley's  essay,  which  I  recommend  as 
a  tonic  to  the  croakers  of  to-day.{ 

Wellington  also,  in  the  spring  of  1812,  asserted  tliat 
Napoleon's  ascendancy  was  rotten  at  the  base,  being  "sus- 
tained by  fraud,  bad  faith,  and  immeasurable  extortion"; 
and  that  an  honest  understanding  among  the  European 
Powers  would  end  it.  5  If  in  those  dark  times  our  military 
thinkers  foresaw  the  issue  of  1814-15,  have  we  any  cause  for 
pessimism  now,  when  all  the  Powers  of  the  world  are  united 
for  the  overthrow  of  a  supremacy  which  is  less  intelligent 
and  inspiring,  far  more  odious-  and  extortionate  ?  May  we 
not  also  derive  conlidence  from  a  survey  of  our  recent  military 

*  Th$  Paget  Papers,  II.,  p.  316. 

t  Professor  Oman  {Peninsular  War,  IV.,  p.  67)  rebuts  the  diatribes 
of  Napier  against  Perceval  (Napier,  bk.  xi.,  ch.  10,  xiv,  ch.  2)  ;  but, 
surely,  after  Torres  Vedras,  Perceval  should  have  properly  supported 
WelUngton  or  resigned  if  Parliaraeut  refused. 

I  Pasley,  op.  cit.,  pp.  19,  40,  98,  105,  119,  146,  498-501. 

§  Life  of  Sir  IV.  Gomm,  p.  240. 


efforts  which  dwarf  e\ery thing  that  Pasley  deemed  possible  ? 
In  efficiency  the  British  Army  probably  excels  our  Peninsular 
Army  which  in  December,  1812,  Wellington  pronounced 
inferior  to  a  French  armj'  presumably  of  equal  size.*  The  levies 
of  1914-16  are  certainly  equal  to  the  highly  trained  German 
Army — a  feat  of  organisation  which  dwarfs  every  other 
effort  in  our  annals. 

Relatively  to  Germany,  it  seems  probable  tliat  we  occupy 
a  position  more  favourable  in  naval  affairs  than  our  fore- 
fathers did  to  Napoleon  in  1810-12.  At  that  time  and  down 
to  the  spring  of  1812  he  excluded  us  from  intercourse  with 
the  Continent,  except  Turkey  and  parts  of  the  Spanish 
Peninsula.  His  empire  comprised  nearly  all  the  coastUne 
from  Hamburg  to  Venice  and  Ragusa ;  he  had  the  active 
support  of  the  Danes,  and  in  June,  1812,  when  Russia  failed 
him,  the  United  States  declared  war  against  Great  Britain. 
Potentially,  therefore,  his  resources  in  shipbuilding  were  far 
greater  than  ours,  and  he  hoped  to  overwhelm  us  at  sea. 
Thus,  on  March  8th  and  August. 9th,  1811,  he  bade  Decrfes, 
Minister  of  Marine,  prepare  for  great  naval  enterprises  in 
1812  ;  eight  sail  of  the  line  must  be  ready  at  the  Texel, 
twenty  at  Antwerp  or  Flushing,  and  large  squadrons  in 
French  and  Italian  ports,  for  expeditions  to  Ireland,  Sicily, 
Egypt,  Martinique,  Surinam,  "  et  tout  le  Continent  hollandais  " 
(Australia).  Pinnaces  were  to  be  built  suited  to  the  naviga- 
tion of  the  Nile  and  the  Surinam.  The  Boulogne  flotilla 
must  be  prepared  to  carry  30,000  infantry,  6,000  cavalry, 
and  2,000  artillerymen.  In  the  spring  of  1812  fears  of 
invasion  revived  in  England.  On  January  23rd,  1813, 
(that  is,  even  after  his  disaster  in  Russia),  he  ordered  naval 
construction  which  would  raise  the  numbers  of  his  battle- 
ships to  104.  At  that  time  we  had  only  102  in  commission, 
with  22  in  reserve ;  and  in  view  of  the  hostilities  with  the  United 
States,  the  horizon  was  not  reassuring.  True,  we  had  reduced 
the  last  of  the  enemy  colonies,  Java,  and  we  controlled  the 
tropics  ;  but  the  immense  extent  of  the  Napoleonic  coast- 
line required  that  at  least  five  British  squadrons  should 
blockade  or  observe  his  chief  ports,  and  he  hoped  thus  to 
wear  us  out  until  his  new  fleets  could  challenge  us  to  decisive 
combat. 

In  guerilla  tactics  at  sea  he  had  many  advantages.  It  was 
impossible  to  prevent  hostile  cruisers  from  slipping  out  and 
doing  mischief.  In  181 1  the  French  and  their  naval  Allies 
captured  seven,  and  in  1812  eight,  British  cruisers,  while  we 
took  or  destroyed  seven  and  four  respectively.  Our  losses 
by  wreckage  were  always  far  heavier  (e.g.,  three  sail  of  the 
line  and  15  cruisers,  as  against  one  French  cruiser  in  181 1). 
In  that  year  not  one  hostile  squadron  evaded  our  blockading 
forces,  though  the  Toulon  fleet  attempted  a  futile  sortie. 
But  Napoleon  continued  to  press  on  liaval  construction,  and 
Pasley  deemed  the  scattered  British  possessions  so  vulnerable 
as  to  make  the  issue  doubtful  against  the  dominating  mass 
of  the  Napoleonic  System.  Strategically,  it  possessed  enormous 
advantages  over  the  present  German  Empire,  which  in  open 
waters  can  act  only  from  "the  wet  triangle"  (the  Ems, 
Heligoland,  the  Elbe)  and  from  the  Flemish  coast.  The 
further  Jiis  System  extended,  the  heavier  were  the  losses  to 
our  merchant  shipping,  viz.,  387  in  1804  to  619  in  1810. 
Thus,  Trafalgar  procured  no  immunity  for  our  mercantile 
marine,  which  in  1810-12  was  at  the  mercy  of  cruisers  and 
privateers  from  nearly  all  the  ports  between  Copenhagen 
and  Venice. 

On  one  topic  the  Napoleonic  and  the  German  strategy  lays 
equally  insistent  stress,  viz.,  the  supreme  importance  of 
possessing  the  Flemish  coast.  "He  who  holds  Antwerp," 
said  Napoleon,  "  holds  a  loaded  pistol  at  the  head  of  England." 
During  the  futile  negotiations  at  Chatillon  in  March,  1814 
(i.e.,  when  he  had  virtually  lost  Holland),  he  said:  "I  am 
ready  to  renounce  all  the  French  colonies  if  I  can  thereby 
keep  the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt  for  France."  That  dominating 
point,  then,  was  worth  the  former  colonial  Empire  of  France, 
obviously  because  from  Antwerp  to  Ostend  he  could  coerce 
England  at  his  will.  Such,  too,  is  the  creed  of  Berlin  ;  and 
by  their  submarine  and  aerial  warfare,  waged  largely  from 
Belgian  bases,  the  Germans  have,  with  their  usual  fatuity, 
supphed  novel  and  irresistibly  cogent  arguments  for  ejecting 
them  thence.  j. 

The  crowning  contrast  between  1811-12  and  1917-8  has 
already  been  hinted  at.  Perceval's  unwise  maritime  pro- 
cedure led  to  the  American  declaration  of  war  in  June,  1812, 
and  to  a  serious  diversion  of  British  naval  and  military 
strength.  The  signal  tact  and  moderation  of  the  -British 
Foreign  Office  and  Admiralty  in  1914-7  paved  the  way  for 
friencUy  relations  with  our  kinsmen  ;  and  under  the  pressure 
of  German  frightfulness  these  developed  into  an  alliance 
which  may  prove  to  be  one  of  the  decisive  issues  of  the  war. 

"  Crokcr's  Diaries,  I.,  p.  41. 


H 


Land    Sc  Water 


April  25,  191  8 


German  Plots  Exposed 

Fay    and   the    Bombs — II 

By      French      StrOther,   Managing  Editor,  "The  Woria-s  Woric,"  New  York 

Three  years  ago—on  April  23rd,  uji^— there  arrived  in  New  York,  one  Robert  Fay,  a  German  soldier  born  at  Cologne, 
who  had  been  through  the  earlier  fighting  of  the  war.  His  avowed  intention  was  to  check  or  prevent  the  export  of  munitions 
from  America  to  the  Allies.  He  had  lived  in  America  for  some  years  previous  to  the  war,  and  could  speak  English 
fluenth:  He  also  had  a  brother-in-law,  Scholz,  a  civil  engineer,  in -ike  United  States  ;  the  two  men  came  together  and  opened, 
as  a  blind,  a  garage  in  New  York  for  motor  repairs.  Here  they  worked  at  making  bombs  to  attach  to  the  rudders  of  ships. 
Their  main  difficulty  was  to  obtain  explosives,  and  with  this  end  the  two  men  got  in  touch  with  four  other  Germans  who  were 
prepared,  for  due  payment,  to  help  in  their  schemes.  These  men  were  Kienzle.  a  clock  maker  ;  Bronkhorst,  who  worked  at  a 
sanatorium  at  Butler,  New  Jersey,  run  for  Germans  ;  Brcitang,  a  friend  of  Kienzle  in  the  shipping  business,  and  Siebs, 
who  knew  Breitung  and  was  in  New  York  ostensibly  to  buy  copper  for  a  Swedish  ComJ>any  but  really  to  ship  it  to  Germany. 
At  this  point  the  story  of  "  this  injernal  imagining,"  of  which  the  first  part  was  told  in  Land  &  Water  last  xveek,  continues : 


SIEBS  had  not  liad  mucli  success  in  liis  purchases  of 
copper,  and  he  was  finally  forced  to  make  a  living 
from  hand  to  mouth  by  small  business  transactions 
of  almost  any  kind.  He  could  not  afford  a  separate 
office,  so  he  rented  a  desk  in  the  office  of  the 
Whitehall  Trading  Company,  a  small  subsidiary  of  the 
Raymond-Hadley  Corporation.  His  desk  happened  to  be 
in  the  same  room  with  the  manager  of  the  company, 
Carl  L.  Wettig. 

When  Breitung  asked  Siebs  to  buy  him  some  chlorate  of 
potash,  a  chemical  largely  used  in  making  certain  forms  of 
explosives,  Siebs  was  delighted  at  the  opportunity  to  make 
some  money,  and  immediately  undertook  the  commission. 
He  had  been  instructed  to  get  a  small  amount — perhaps 
200  pounds.  He  needed  money  so  badly,  however,  that  he 
was  very  glad  to  find  that  the  smallest  kegs  of  the  chlorate 
of  potash  were  112  pounds  each,  and  he  ordered  three  kegs. 
He  paid  for  them  with  money  supplied  by  Breitung,  and  took 
a  delivery -slip  for  it.  Ultimately  this  deUvery-slip  was 
presented  by  Scholz,  who  appeared  one  day  with  a  truck 
and  driver,  and  took  the  chemical  away. 

Fa}-  and  Scholz  made  some  experiments  with  the  chlorate 
of  potash,  and  Fay  decided  it  was  not  strong  enough  to 
serve  his  purpose.  He  then  determined  to  try  dynamite. 
Again  he  wished  to  avoid  suspicion,  and  this  time,  after 
consultation  with  Kienzle,  he  recalled  Bronkhorst  down  at 
the  Lusk  Sanatorium  in  New  Jersey.  Bronkhorst,  in  his 
work  as  superintendent  of  the  grounds  at  the  sanatorium, 
was  occasionally  engaged  in  laying  water  pipes  in  the  rocky 
soil  there,  and  for  this  purpose  kept  dynamite  on  hand. 
Fay  got  a  quantify  of  dynamite  from  him.  Later,  however, 
he  decided  that  he  wanted  a  still  more  powerful  explosive. 

Again  he  applied  to  Kienzle,  and  this  time  Kienzle  got  in 
touch  with  Siebs  direct.  By  prearrangement,  Kienzle  and 
Siebs  met  Fay  underneath  the  Manhattan  end  of  the  Brooklyn 
Bridge,  and  there  Seibs  was  introduced  to  Fay.  They 
I  walked  around  City  Hall  Park  together,  discussing  the 
subject ;  and  Fay,  not  knowing  the  name  of  what  he  was 
after,  tried  to  make  Seibs  understand  what  explosive  he 
wanted  by  describing  its  properties.  Siebs  finally  realised 
that  what  F'ay  had  i;i  mind  was  trinitrotoluol^one  of  the 
three  highest  explosives  known.  Siebs  finally  undertook  to 
get  some  of  it  for  him,  but  pointed  out  to  him  the  obvious 
difficulties  of  buying  it  in  as  small  quantities  as  he  wanted. 
It  was  easy  enough  to  buy  chlorate  of  potash  because  that 
was  in  common  commercial  use  for  many  purposes.  It  was 
also  easy  to  buy  dynamite  because  that  also  is  used  in  all 
kinds  of  quantities,  and  for  many  purposes.  But  trinitro- 
toluol is  too  powerful  for  any  but  military  use,  and  it  is 
consequently  handled  only  in  large  lots  and  practically 
invariably  is  made  to  the  order  of  some  government.  How- 
ever, Siebs  had  an  idea  and  proceeded  to  act  on  it. 

He  went  back  to  the  Whitehall  Trading  Company,  where 
he  had  a  desk,  and  saw  his  fellow-occupant,  Carl  Wettig. 
Wettig  had  been  engaged  in  a  small  way  in  a  brokerage 
business  in  war  supplies,  and  had  even  taken  a  few  small 
turns  in  the  handling  of  explosives.  Siebs  had  overheard 
him  discussing  with  a  customer  the  market  price  of  tri- 
■  nitrotoluol  some  weeks  before,  and  on  this  account  thought 
possibly  Wettig  might  help  him  ou-.-t  When  he  put  the 
proposition  up  to  Wettig  the  latter  agreed  to  do  what  he 
could  to  fill  the  order. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Fay  had  sent  another  friend  of  Breitung's 
to  Bridgeport  to  see  if  he  could  get  trinitrotoluol  in  that 
great  city  of  munitions.  There  he  called  upon  another 
German  who  was  running  an  employment  agency— finding 
jobs  for  Austro-Hungarians  who  were  working  in  munition 


factories  so  that  he  could  take  them  out  of  the  factories 
and  divert  their  labour  from  the  making  of  war  supphes  for 
use  against  the  Teutons.  The  only  result  of  this  visit  was 
that  Breitung's  friend  brought  back  some  loaded  rifle  cart- 
ridges which  ultimately  were  used  in  the  bombs  as  caps  to 
fire  the  charge.  But  otherwise  his  trip  was  of  no  use  to  Fay. 
Carl  Wettig  was  the  weak  link  in  Fay's  chain  of  fortune. 
He  did,  indeed,  secure  the  high  explosive  that  Fay  wanted, 
and  was  in  other  ways  obUging.  But  he  got  the  explosive 
from  a  source  that  would  have  given  Fay  heart-failure  if  he 
had  known  of  it,  and  he  was  obliging  for  reasons  that  Fay 
lived  to  regret.  Siebs  made  his  inquiry  of  Wettig  on 
October  19th.  The  small  quantity  of  explosives  that  he 
asked  for  aroused  Wettig's  suspicions,  and  as  soon  as  he 
promised  to  get  it  he  went  to  the  French  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce near  by  and  told  them  what  he  suspected,  and  asked 
to  be  put  in  touch  with  responsible  police  authorities,  under 
whose  direction  he  wished  to  act  in  supplying  the  trinitrotolyol. 
From  that  moment,  Fay,  Siebs,  and  Kienzle  were  "waked 
up  in  the  morning  and  put  to  bed  at  night"  by  detectives 
from  the  police  department  of  New  York  City  and  special 
agents  of  the  Secret  Service  of  the  United  States.  By 
arrangement  with  them  Wettig  obtained  a  keg  containing 
25  pounds  of  trinitrotoluol,  and  in  the  absence  of  Fay  and 
Scholz  from  their  boarding-house  in  Weehawken,  he  delivered 
it  personally  to  their  room,  and  left  it  on  their  dresser.  He 
told  Siebs  he  had  delivered  it,  and  Siebs  promptly  set  about 
collecting  his  commission  from  Fay. 

Siebs  had  some  difficulty  in  doing  this  because  Fay  and 
Scholz,  being  unfamihar  with  the  use  of  the  explosive,  were 
unable  to  explode  a  sample  of  it,  and  decided  that  it  was  no 
good.  They  had  come  home  in  the  evening  and  found  the 
keg  on  their  dresser,  and  had  opened  it.  Inside  they  found 
the  explosive  in  the  form  of  loose  white  flakes.  To  keep  it 
more  safely,  they  poured  it  out  into  several  small  cloth  bags. 
They  then  took  a  sample  of  it,  and  tried  by  every  means  they 
could  think  of  to  explode  it.  They  even  laid  some  of  it  on 
an  anvil,  and  broke  two  or  three  hammers  pounding  on  it, 
but  could  get  no  result.  They  then  told  Siebs  that  the  stuff 
he  had  delivered  was  useless.  Siebs  repeated  their  complaint 
to  Wettig,  and  Wettig  volunteered  to  show  them  how  it 
should  be  handled.  Accordingly,  he  joined  them  the  follow- 
ing day  at  their  room  in  Weehawken,  and  went  with  them 
out  into  the  woods  behind  Fort  Lee,  taking  along  a  small 
sample  of  the  powder  in  a  paper  bag.  In  the  woods  the 
men  picked  up  the  top  of  a  small  tin  can,  made  a  fire  in  the 
stump  of  a  tree,  and  melted  some  of  the  flake  "T.N.T."  in  it. 
Before  it  cooled,  Wettig  embedded  in  it  a  mercury  cap. 
When  cooled  after  being  melted,  T.N.T.  fonns  a  sohd  mass 
resembling  resin  in  appearance,  and  is  now  more  powerful 
because  more  compact. 

However,  before  the  experiment  could  be  concluded,. one 
of  the  swarm  of  detectives  who  had  followed  them  into  the 
woods  stepped  on  a  dry  twig,  and  when  the  men  started  at 
its  crackling,  the  detectives  concluded  they  had  better  make 
their  arrests  before  the  men  might  get  away  ;  and  so  all 
were  taken  into  custody.  A  quipk  search  of  their  boarding- 
house,  the  garage,  a  storage  warehouse  in  which  Fay  had 
stored  some  trunks,  and  the  boat-house  where  the  motor- 
boat  w.as  stored,  resulted  in  rounding  up  the  entire  para- 
phernalia that  had  been  used  in  working  out  the  whole  plot. 
All  the  people  connected  with  every  phase  of  it  were  soon 
arrested. 

Out  of  the  stories  these  men  told  upon  examination 
emerged  not  only  the  hideous  perfection  of  the  bomb  itself, 
but  the  direct  hand  that  the  German  Government  and  its 
agents    in    America    had    in    the    scheme   of    putting  it  to 


April  25,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


^5 


its  fiendish  purpose.  First  of  all  appeared  Fay's  admission 
that  he  had  left  Germany  with  money  and  a  passport  supplied 
by  a  man  in  the  German  Secret  Service.  Later,  in  the 
witness-box,  when  Fay  had  had  time  enough  carefully  to 
think  out  the  most  plausible  story,  he  attempted  to  get 
away  from  this  admission  by  claiming  to  have  deserted  from 
the  German  Army.  He  said  that  he  had  been  "financed  in 
his  exit  from  the  German  Empire  by  a  group  of  business 
men  who  had  put  up  a  lot  of  money  to  back  a  motor-car 
invention  of  his,  which  he  had  worked  on  before  the  war 
began.  These  men,  so  he  claimed,  were  afraid  they  would 
lose  all  their  money  if  he  should  happen  to  be  killed  before 
the  invention  was  perfected.  This  tale,  ingenious  though  it 
was,  was  too  fantastic  to  be  swallowed  when  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  all  the  things  found  in  Fay's  possession  when  he 
was  arrested.  Beyond  all  doubt,  his  scheme  to  destroy  ships 
was  studied  and  approved  by  liis  military  superiors  in 
Germany  before  he  left,  and  that  scheme  alone  was  his 
errand  to  America. 

Von  Papen  Again 

Far  less  ingenious  and  equally  damning  was  his  attempt 
to  explain  away  his  relations  with  von  Papen.  The  sinister 
figure  of  the  military  attache  of  the  German  Embas^  at 
Washington  leers  frorh  the  background  of  all  the  German 
plots.  And  this  case  was  no  exception.  It  was  known  that 
Fay  had  had  dealings  "with  von  Papen  in  New  York,  and  in 
the  witness-box  he  felt  called  upon  to  explain  them  in  a 
way  that  would  clear  the  diplomatic  service  of  implication  in 
his  evil-doings.  He  declared  that  he  had  taken  his  invention 
to  von  Papen  and  that  von  Papen  had  resolutely  refused  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  it.  This  would  have  been  well 
enough  if^Fay's  explanation  had  stopped  here. 

But  Fay's  evil  genius  prompted  him  to  make  his  explana- 
tion more  convincing  bj'  an  elaboration  of  the  story,  so  he 
gave  von  Papen 's  reasons  for  refusal.  These  were  not  at  all 
that  the  device  was  calculated  to  do  onurder  upon  hundreds 
of  helpless  men,  nor  at  all  that  to  have  any  part  in  the  busi- 
ness was  to  play  the  unneutral  villain  under  the  cloak  of 
diplomatic  privilege.  Not  at  all.  At  the  first  interview, 
seeing  .only  a  rough  sketch  and  hearing  only  Fay's  description 
of  preliminary  experiments,  von  Papen's  sole  objection  was  : 

"Well,  you  might  obtain  an  explosion  once  and  the  next 
ten  apparatuses  might  fail." 

To  continue  Fay's  explanation  : 

"He  casually  asked  me  what  the  cost  of  it  would  be,  and 
I  told  liim  in  my  estimation  the  cost  would  not  be  more 
than  $20  apiece.  [$20 — £4 — apiece  for  the  destruction  of 
thirty  lives,  and  a  million-dollar  ship  and  cargo  !]  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  in  Germany  I  will  be  able  to  get  these  things 
made  for  half  that  price.  'If  it  is  not  more  than  that,'  von 
Papen  said,  'you  might  go  ahead,  but  I  cannot  promise  you 
anything  whatever.'  " 

Bay  then  went  back  to  his  experiments,  and  when  he  felt 
that  ha  had  perfected  his  device,  he  called  upon  von  Papen 
for  the  second  time.    Von  Papen's  reply  was : 

"Well,  this  thing  has  been  placed  before  our  experts,  and 
also  we  .have  gone  into  the  political  condition  of  the  whole 
suggestion.  Now,  in  the  first  place,  our  experts  say  this 
apparatus  is  not  at  all  seaworthy  ;  but  as  regards  poUtical 
conditions,  I  am  sorry  to  say  we  cannot  consider  it,  and, 
therefore,  we  cannot  consider  the  whole  situati6n." 

In  other  words,  with  no  thought  of  the  moral  turpitude  of 
the  scheme,  with  no  thought  of  the  abuse  of  diplomatic 
freedom,  but  only  with  thoughts  of  the  practicability  of 
this  device  and  of  the  effect  upon  political  conditions  of  its 
use,  von  Papen  had  put  the  question  before  technical  men 
and  before  von  Bemstorff,  and  their  decision  had  been 
adverse  solely  pn  those  considerations — first,  that  it  would 
not  work,  and,  second,  that  it  would  arouse  hostihty  in  the 
United  States.  At  no  stage,  according  to  Fay,  was  any 
thought  given  to  its  character  as  a  hideous  crime. 

The  device  itself  was  studied  independently  by  two  .sets  of 
military  experts  of  the  United  States  Government,  with 
these  results : 

First,  that  it  was  mechanically  perfect ;  second,  that  it 
was  practical  under  the  conditions  of  adjustment  to  a  ship's 
rudder  which  Fay  had  devised  ;  and,  third,  that  the  charge 
of  trinitrotoluol,  for  which  the  container  was  designed,  was 
nearly  half  the  quantity  which  is  used  on  our  own  floating 
mines,  and  which  is  calculated  upon  explosion  twenty  feet 
from  a  battleship  to  put  it  out  of  action,  and  upon  explosion 
in  direct  contact,  absolutely  to  destroy  and  sink  the  heaviest 
super-dreadnought.  In  other  words,  beyond  all  question, 
the  bomb  would  have  shattered  the  entire  stern  of  any  ship 
and  would  have  caused  it  to  sink  in  a  few  minutes. 

A  brief  description  of  the  contrivance  reveals  the  mechanical 


ingenuity  and  practical  efficiency  of  Fay's  bomb.  A  rod 
attached  to  the  rudder,  at  every  swing  the  rudder  gave, 
turned  up,  by  one  notch,  the  first  of  the  bevelled  wheels 
within  the  bomb.  After  a  certain  number  of  revolutions  of 
that  wheel,  it  in  turn  gave  one  revolution  to  the  next  ;  and 
so  on  through  the  series.  The  last  wheel  was  connected 
with  the  threaded  cap  around  the  upper  end  of  the  square 
bolt,  and  made  this  cap  slowly  unscrew,  until  at  length  the 
bolt  dropped  clear  of  it  and  yielded  to  the  waiting  pressure 
of,  the  strong  steel  spring  above.  This  pressure  drove  it 
downward  and  brought  the  sharp  points  at  its  lower  end 
down  on  the  caps  of  the  two  rifle  cartridges  fixed  below  it — 
like  the  blow  of  a  rifle's  hammer.  The  detonation  from  the 
explosion  of  these  cartridges  would  set  off  a  small  charge  of 
impregnated  chlorate  of  potash,  which  in  turn  would  fire  the 
small  charge  of  the  more  sluggish  but  stronger  dynamite, 
and  that  in  turn  would  explode  the  still  more  sluggish  but 
tremendously  more  powerful  trinitrotoluol. 

The  whole  operation,  once  the  spring  was  free,  would  take 
place  in  a  flash  ;  and  instantly  its  deadly  work  would  be, 
accomplished. 

Picture  the  scene  that  Fay  had  in  his  mind  as  he  toiled 
his  six  laborious  months  upon  this  dark  invention.  He  saw 
himself,  in  imagination,  fixing  his  infernal  box  upon  the 
rudder  post  of  a  ship  loading  at  a  dock  in  New  York  harbour. 
As  the  cargo  weighed  the  ship  down,  the  box  would  disappear 
beneath  the  water.  At  length  the  ship  starts  on  its  voyage, 
and,  as  the  rudder  swings  her  into  the  stream,  the  first  beat 
in  -the  slow,  sure  knell  of  death  for  ship  and  crew  is  clicked 
out  by  its  very  turning.  Out  upon  the  sea  the  shift  of  wind 
and  blow  of  wave  require  a  constant  correction  with  the 
rudder  to  hold  the  true  course  forward.  At  every  swing  the 
helmsman  unconsciously  taps  out  another  of  the  lurking 
beats  of  death.  Somewhere  in  mid-ocean — perhaps  at  black 
midnight,  in  a  driving  storm — the  patient  mechanism  hid 
below  has  turned  the  last  of  its  calculated  revolutions.  'The 
neck  piece  from  the  bolt  slips  loose,  the  spring  drives  down- 
ward, there  is  a  flash,  a  deafening  explosion,  and  five  minutes 
later  a  few  mangled  bodies  and  a  chaos  of  floating  wreckage 
are  all  that  is  left  above  the  water's  surface. 

This  is  the  hideous  dream  Fay  dreamed  in  the  methodical 
180  days  of  his  planning  and  experimenting  in  New  York. 
This  is  the  dream  to  realise  which  he  was  able  to  enlist  the 
co-operation  of  half  a  dozen  other  Germans.  This  is  the 
dream  his  superiors  in  Germany  viewed  with  favour,  and 
financed.  This  is  the  dream  the  sinister  von  Papen  .en- 
couraged and  which  he  finally  dismissed  only  because  he 
believed  it  too  good  to  be  true.  This  is  the  dream  Fay 
himself  in  the  witness-box  said  he  had  thought  of  as  "a  good 
joke  on  the  British." 

In  this  picture  of  infernal  imagining  the  true  character  cf 
German  flattings  in  America  stands  revealed.  Ingenuity  of 
conception  characterised  them,  method  and  patience  and  pains,- 
taking  made  them  perfect.  Flawless  logic,  fl.mless  mechanism. 
But  on  the  human  side,  only  the  blackest  passions  and  an  utter 
disregard  of  human  life ;  no  thought  of  honour,  no  trace  of 
human  pity. 

It  happened  in  the  ca.se  of  Fay  that  the  agent  himself  was 
ruthless,  and  deserved  far  more  than  the  law  was  able  to 
give  him  when  convicted  of  ^lis  crimes.  But  through 
all  the  plots,  von  Papen,  von  Bemstorff,  and  the  Imperial 
German  Government  in  Berhn  were  consistent.  Their  hand 
was  at  the  helm  of  all,  and  the  same  ruthless  grasping  after 
domination  of  the  world  at  any  price  led  them  to  the  same 
barbarous  code  of  conduct  in  them  all. 
(To  be  continued.) 


TURKEY  AND  THE  WAR. 

Y^HEN  the  history  of  the  war  is  written,  the  most  outstanding 
"^  event  after  the  battle  of  the  Marne  will  be  found  to  have 
been  the  entrance  of  Turkey  into  the  war  on  the  side  of  the 
enemy.  But  for  this  there  would  have  been  no  Gallipoli,  no  fall  of 
Kut;  the  expeditionary  forces  to  Salonika,  Mesopotamia,  and 
Palestine  would  have  been  unnecessary;  the  Dardanelles  would 
have  remained  open  for  the  export  of  corn  and  oil  from  Russia  and 
Rumania;  Rumania  would  have  been  secure,  Bulgaria  not  daring 
to  move;  there  would  have  been  no  Armenian  massacres.  Think 
what  it  would  have  meant,  had  Turkey  remained  neutral ! 
Victory  would  have  been  won  months  ago. 

Friendship  and  goodwill  between  Great  Britain  and  Turkey  was 
traditional.  How  did  it  come  about  that  it  broke  down  at  this 
tremendous  crisis?  The  circumstances  have  hitherto  been  veiled 
in  secrecy,  but  with  the  publication  of  the  diplomatic  experiences 
of  Mr.  Morgenthau,  the  American  Ambassador  at  Constantinople 
from  1913  to  1916,  all  the  facts  will  be  revealed, 

Mr.  Morgenthau's  diplomatic  record  will  be  published  in 
Land  &  Water  early  next  month,  It  will  be  found  to  be  an  in- 
valuable contribution  to  the  history  of  these  times. 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


April  25,   1918 


Rumania's  National  Shrine  :  By  G.  C.  Williamson 


Cathedral  of  Curtea  de   Argcs,  a  town  in  the   Carpathians 


VERY  few  persons  have  travelled  in  Rumania 
compared  to  those  who  have  followed  the 
ordinary  tourists'  ways,  but  the  country  was 
well  worthy  of  more  attention,  and  those  whose 
occupation  or  desire  have  led  them  in  past 
years  to  visit  that  interesting  land  have  been  well  rewarded. 
It  is  a  country  of  great  natural  beauty,  its  mountains  and 
rivers,  forests  and  valleys  well  repaying  attention.  Its 
people  are  little  spoiled  in  the  more  remote  districts  by 
modem  civilisation,  and  their  village  handicrafts  and  those 
of  the  vagaband  gipsies  who  abound  in  the  place  are  of 
great  interest. 

Its  language,  which  is  so  closely  akin  to  Italian,  is 
easy  to  learn,  the  costumes  of  its  people  are  beautiful  and 
picturesque,  its  history  is  one  long  romance,  and  many  of  its 
notable  buildings  are  of  the  highest  architectural  and  his- 
torical importance.  Students  of  Roman  antiquities  will  find 
there  a  new  field  of  activity,  and  the  Roman  basilicas, 
the  Trajan  monuments  at  Adamklisi  commemorating  his 
Dacian  victories,  the  Villa  of  Commodus  at  Celeiv,  the  Trajan 
wall  at  Cernavoda,  the  great  road  of  the  Dobrudja,  and  the 
Temple  at  Slaveni,  will  all  repay  closer  investigation.  The 
student  of  natural  history  will  be  interested  in  the  famous 
black  buffaloes  of  Rumania,  in  the  remarkable  hosts  of 
waterfowl,  in  the  rare  species  of  crows  and  woodpeckers,  and 
in  the  bears  and  chamois.  The  entomologist  will  find  several 
very  rare  insects  in  the  country,  especially  some  curious 
weevils  ;  while  the  mineralogist  will  find  ample  fields  for 
attention  in  the  numerous  mines  of  rock  salt,  nickel-cobalt, 
arsenic,  gold,  lignite,  anthracite,  cuinabar,  sulphur,  and 
china  clay.  The  greatest  attraction  as  an  architectural 
monument  is,  however,  the  national  shrine  of  the  Cathedral 
of  Curtea  de  Arges,  a  church  of  unique  importance,  by  far 
the  most  famous  in  the  country,  and  differing  from  every 
other  chvu-ch  in  Europe. 

It  is  very  dear  to  the  national  heart  of  the  people,  and  if 
it  has  been  injured  in  the  recent  attacks  of  the  enemy  there 


will  be  undying  hatred  on  the  part  of  the  people  toward 
their  ruthless  and  treacherous  invaders. 

The  cathedral  was  founded  in  1517  by  Prince  Nagul 
and  his  wife  Despina  of  Serbia,  continued  by  his  successor 
and  son  Theodosius,  but  completed  by  Radul  d'  Afumati,  the 
Voivode  of  Wallachia  who,  with  the  aid  of  the  Hungarians, 
defeated  the  Turks  in  1522. 

Of  the  original '  building,  little  save  the  walls  and  the 
tombs  of  the  founders  and  their  successors  now  remains, 
and  of  the  accessories  and  treasures  with  which  Despina 
enriched  it  still  less,  but  all  its  architectiu-e  is  of  the  deepest 
interest  because  it  belongs  to  many  successive  periods,  and 
because  it  is  so  very  national  in  its  strange  Byzantine-cum- 
Moorish  characteristics.  , 

In  the  convent  of  Krusedol  is  still  preserved — or  was 
when  I  visited  it— the  collar  of  a  chasuble  wrought 
by  Despina  and  her  four  children  for  the  cathedral  and  com- 
pleted on  June  15th,  1519,  as  the  needlework  inscription 
itself  sets  forth,  and  in  the  great  church  itself  are  two  fine 
images  or  icons  which  belonged  to  the  founder,  having 
on  one  of  them  Despina  represented  with  her  son  Theodosius 
in  her  hands  and  the  inscription  "O  Queen  of  Heaven, 
receive  they  servant  John  Theodosius  and  guard  him  in  thy 
kingdom." 

There  is,  furthermore,  a  piece  of  ,  beautiful  woven 
material  from  a  robe  found  in  one  of  the  tombs  carefully 
preserved  in  the  cathedral.  In  1681  considerable  additions 
were  made  to  the  original  structure  by  Prince  Serban 
Cantacuzene,  but  while  Rumania  was  under  the  Turkish 
rule— and  for  a  long  period  the  districts  of  Wallachia  and 
Moldavia  were  simply  so  many  roads  across  which  the  Turks 
passed  in  their  plundering  expeditions  against  Hungary— 
the  buildings  erected  by  the  Voivodes  were  destroyed,  so 
that  in  1866,  when  the  late  King  Carol  visited  the  place 
he  found  the  magnificent  building  largely  in  ruin.  He  took 
the  advice  of  VioUet  le  Due  as  to  its  restoration,  and  the 
great    French    architect    recommended    an    artist    named 


April  25,  1918 


Lecomte  de  Neiiy,  who 
gave  immense  pains  to  the 
task  and  encouraged  and 
aided  by  the  King  and 
by  "Carmen  Sylva,"  who 
now,  alas,  lies  within  the 
building,  having  died  since 
the  days  when  they  gra- 
ciously entertained  me 
many  times  at  Sinaia — 
he  restored  the  building 
in  superb  style.  Lecomte 
tells  us  in  his  own  papers 
how  diligently  he  visited 
thechurchesat  Jassy,  Horez, 
Cozia,  Valcei,  Padure,  and 
Campulung.  and  from  these 
famous  buildings  acquired 
a  sound  knowledge  and 
deep  affection  for  the 
Rumanian  architecture  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries.  Satu- 
rated with  this  knowledge, 
he  set  to  work,  and  now 
with  wonderful  frescoes 
and  mosaics,  glorious 
bronzes,  rich  marble, 
stained  glass,  and  gold, 
silver,  and  wrought  iron, 
the  whole  place  is  a  glowing 
feast  of  colour.  In  archi- 
tecture the  building  is 
rectangular,  with  an  ir- 
regular shaped  annexe,  and 
is  surmounted  by  a  dome 
with  two  small  cupolas,  and 
by  a  great  dome  surmount- 
ing the  annexe;  a  strange 
mingling  of  Arab,  Roman, 
and  Byzantine  forms,  char 


Land    &    Water 


The  Reredos 


acteristic  of  the  people  whose  national  shrine  it  has  become. 
Its  adornment  is  that  of  involved  and  intricate  Arabesque, 
combined  with  wreaths  of  lilies  carved  on  all  the  windows, 
cornices,  and  balconies.  Wonderful  bronze  doors  lead  to  its 
interior,  adorned  with  fine  tapestiy,  superb  marble  columns, 
elaborate  mosaic  decoration  in  the  saucers  of  the  domes, 
long  and  decorative  inscriptions,  and  extraordinary  fresco 


17 

work.  The  accessories  for 
worship  are,  of  course,  all  of 
recent  date,  but  specially 
designed  and  carried  out 
in  the  sentient  designs  of 
Moldavia ;  and  bronzes  and 
crosses,  iconoatasis  and 
icons,  candlesticks  and 
vestments  alike  speak  of 
incessant  attention  to  de- 
tail, profound  study  of 
native  art  and  scrupulous 
adaptation  to  purpose.  The 
book  of  the  Gospels  is  alone 
worth  a  journey  to  see,  as, 
painted  and  illuminated  by 
Queen  "Carmen  Sylva" 
herself,  it  is  one  of  the 
finest  works  of  imaginative 
decorative  art  that  the 
century  has  produced,  a 
veritable  triumph  of  illu- 
mination, the  highest  pos- 
sible achievement  of  that 
gifted  lady  for  the  sanc- 
tuary she  loved  so  well 
and  where  now  she  is 
buried. 

The  King  and  Queen 
devoted  themselves  to  this 
great  work,  becoming  more 
Rumanian  even  than  the 
Rumanians  in  their  earnest 
desire  to  help  their  people, 
and  their  names  will  ever 
be  feelingly  associated  with 
the  cathedral,  where  Masses 
for  their  souls  will  per- 
petually be  said. 

When  the  work  was  com- 
pleted. King  Carol  in- 
structed Herr  Jaffe  to  prepare  a  great  book  on  the 
building,  and  from  this  elephant  folio,  privately  pnnted  and 
presented  to  the  writer  by  the  King  himself,  our  illustrations 
have  been  taken.  The  plates  are  in  colour  and  in  mono- 
chrome, and  it  lavishly  represents  in  every  possible  view 
the  building  and  its  contents  that  all  Rumania  loves  and 
that 'the  native  regards  as  its  great  national  shrine. 


Leaves  from  a  German  Note  Book 


THE  British  blockade  is  making  itself  felt,  despite 
German  denials  to  the  contrary.  The  food  situation  grows 
more  and  more  difficult.  Consider  the  rations  of  a  large 
town  like  Frankfort  for  the  first  week  of  this  month  :  Meat, 
7  oz. ;  sausage,  i|  oz.  ;  margarine,  2  oz.,  costing  3d. ;  i  egg, 
costing  5d.  Another  change  which  is  significant  is  that,  as 
from  the  latter  end  of  March,  self-providers  were  ordered  to 
reduce  the  quantity  of  flour  for  bread-making  from  ig  lb. 
to  14  lb.     This  harcHy  points  to  a  state  of  plenty. 

Clothing,  too,  is  expensive  and  unobtainable.  Take  a 
well-to-do  woman's  requirements.  Before  the  war  a  pair  of 
silk  stockings  in  Germany  cost  afcout  3s.  ;  patent-leather 
boots,  us.  ;  tailor-made  costume,  40s. ;  blouse,  20s.  ;  hat 
trimmed  with  an  ostrich  feather,  15s.  ;  pair  of  kid  gloves,  2s.  ; 
umbrella,  6s.  And  to-day  ?  Here  are  the  prices  taken  from 
the  lists  of  an  ordinary  Berlin  general  store.  The  silk  stock- 
ings cost  15s.  ;  shoes  (be  it  noted,  made  of  substitutes),  36s.  ; 
coat  and  skirt,  150s.  ;  blouse,  70s.  ;  hat,  50s.  ;  gloves,  8s.  ; 
and  umbrella,  25s.  But  even  at  these  high  prices,  the  goods 
are  not  always  obtainable,  and  the  latest  ukase  provides 
that  as  from  the  ist  instant,  only  one  purchasing  permit  for 
boots  should  be  allowed  for  a  whole  year. 

Coal  has  gone  up  in  price  us.  a  ton  .since  August,  1914, 
and  this  limit  would  have  been  left  far  behind  were  it  not 
that  the  coal  merchants  charge  the  neutral  consumers 
unheard-of  prices  for  the  coal  exported  from  Germany.  Even 
so,  a  ton  of  coal  costs  to-day  in  Hamburg  as  much  as  71s. 

The  present  is  sombre  enough,  and  over  the  future  there 
hangs  the  shadow  of  economic  ruin.  Judging  by  the  energy 
with  which  the  authorities  are  endeavouritig  to  show  the 
people  that  their  future  is  not  nearly  so  hopeless  as  is  generally 
believed,  it  would  seem  that  the  Germans  must  be  greatly 
terrified  at  the  prospect  of  being  deprived,  when  the  war  is 
over,  of  essential  raw  materials  like  rubber  and  cotton,  jute, 


and  copper,  which  the  AUies  control,  to  say  nothing  of  such 
vital  necessaries  as  palm-oil  and  grain.  Lecturers  have 
recently  been  sent  all  over  Germany  whose  purpose  it  is  to 
dispel  the  fears  on  this  point.  But  the  people  have  been 
deceived  too  often,  and  their  eyes  are  no  longer  shut  either 
to  the  past  guilt  or  the  future  punishment  of  Germany.  In 
view  of  all  these  sufferings  and  privations,  the  plaint  of  the 
Frankfurter  Zeitung  is  intelligible  : 

Germany's  Lent  has  lasted  almost  four  years— years  of 
deepest  sufiering,  sharpest  pain,  bitterest  need,  and  manifold 
death.  ...  Let  us  admit  that  we  have  at  all  times  passed 
through  hours  of  terrible  anxiety,  helplessness,  and  despair. 

But  now  the  hope  of  peace  through  victory  buoyl  up  the 
whole  nation.  This  was  written  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Great  Offensive,  and  victory  once  again  is  deferred.  Rumours 
of  May  Day  labour  troubles  are  in  the  air. 

The  Arbeiter  Zeitung,  of  Vienna,  which  often  looks  at 
affairs  dispassionately,  did  not  share  the  optimism  of  its 
Frankfurt  contemporary.  Even  if  Germany  forces  France 
and  Italy  to  their  knees,  she  will  still  not  have  peace  so  long 
as  England  is  in  her  island  home  and  America  protected  by 
the  ocean.-  "They  would  always  be  able  to  continue  the 
war  by  sea  and  cut  us  off  from  raw  materials  and  food.  Only 
a  peace  by  understanding  is  possible  with  these  two  countries. 
A  peace  based  on  might  cannot  be  enforced  by  Ihe  most  striking 
victory  on  land."  What  follows  ?  That  if  Germany  desires 
peace,  she  must  recover  from  her  vain  dreams  of  conquest  and 
forgo  all  her  plans  of  vain-glorious  world-dominion. 

As  long  as  England  and  .\nierica  hold  the  command 
of  the  sea,  even  the  mightiest  \'ictories  on  land  are 
futile,  for  the  determining  factor  of  the  war  is  in  their 
hands.  This  Vienna  journal  has  spoken  many  a  true  word 
before  now,  but  nothing  truer  than  this. 


i8 


Land    &    Water 


April   25,  19 1 8 


Life  and  Letters  Qj  J.  C  Somm 


R 


Remnants 

EMNANTS"  (by  Desmond  MacCarthy.  Con- 
stable, 5s.  net)  is  a  title  which  is  calculated  to 
mislead.  It  has  a  savour  of  the  depressed 
novel  about  it.  We  have  got  so  used  to  these 
morose  metaphors.  Either,  we  suppose,  the 
"remnants"  will  be  odds  and  ends  of  unsuccessful  people 
thrown  up  on  some  obscure  beach  by  the  sea  of  life,  or  else 
they  will  be  the  poor  shreds  of  consolation  with  which  some 
discontented  man — or,  more  probably,  woman — ^will  content 
(damn  these  alternative  pronouns  of  gender)  hprself  after 
twenty-five  years  of  disillusionment  with  a  husband  who 
does  his  best,  several  deaths,  several  survivals,  crippling 
poverty,  embarrassing  wealth,  and  the  bitter  disappointment 
of  bringing  up  children  who  have  turned  into  young  men 
with  round,  red  faces — all  the  experiences,  in  fact,  with 
which  contemporary  novelists  make  their  characters  unhappy 
and  bring  their  readers  to  the  verge  of  suicide.  But  in  this 
instance  the  title  of  the  book  has  no  such  name  or  bitter 
significance.  The  author  has  gathered  together  a  few  essays 
and  stories.  They  are  various,  and  they  are  a  selection  from 
a  large  journalistic  product  ;  and  their  modest  author, 
evidently  despairing  of  a  really  accurate  descriptive  title, 
has  taken  refuge  in  this. 

*  Ik  «  *  «  * 

The  volume  contains  seven  short  stories  and  "sketches," 
and  sixteen  essays  on  places,  men,  books,  plays,  and  human 
habits.  The  stories  are  so  good  that  one  wishes  there  were 
more  of  them.  The  Brothers  Brindle,  which  exposes  to 
the  gaze  the  tricks  of  picture  dealers,  might  to  advantage 
have  been  greatly  lengthened,  and  The  Snob  Doctor  contains 
a  beautiful  idea  of  which  much  more  might  have  been  made. 
"Perhaps,"  it  begins, 

some  of  my  readers  also  received  a  copy  of  the  prospectus, 
which  I  found  enclosed  in  a  large  envelope  of  superfine 
quality  on  my  breakfast  table  the  other  morning.     The 
drift   of   it   was   unusual.     In   this   document,    Mr.    Ponde, 
M.A.,    of    Harley    Street,    announced    that    his    consulting 
hours  were  10  to  i  and  3  to  5,  and  that  between  those  hours 
he  was  at  the  service  of  anyone  who  wished  to  consult 
him  about  any  uneasiness  they  might  feel  with  regard  to 
their   social   position.     "It   is   not   uncommon,"   the   pros- 
pectus ran,  "for  those  whose  accomplishments,  education, 
incomes,  and  good  sense  might  be  expected  to  render  them 
immune  from  such  uneasiness,  to  suffer  intermittently,  or 
even  chronically,   from  distressing  doubts  as  to  their  own 
claims  to  gentility,  especially  in  the  company  of  those  who 
set   store   by   such    distinctions.      Their   trouble   has   been 
in  most  cases  much  aggravated  by  reserve,   such  matters 
being  regarded  as  too  delicate  and  invidious  to  be  touched 
upon    in    conversation.     For    although    the    claims    of    the 
absent  to  be  lady  or  gentleman,  as  the  case  may  be,  are 
often   brightly   discussed   among   their   friends,    the   person 
concerned  derives  Uttle  benefit  from  these  discussions  ;    on 
his  or  her  appearance  the  conversation  is  too  often  turned 
into  other  channels.     On  the  other  hand,  free  communica- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  patient  about  his  own  sufferings 
and  symptoms — wide  experience  has  convinced  Mr.  Ponde 
is  the  first  step  towards  healthy  recovery. 
"  Enclosed  were  a  number  of  testimonials  announcing  com- 
plete   recovery   from   fear   of   flunkeys,    unintentional   con- 
descension, unwilHng  humility,  chronic  oblivion  of  unsuccess- 
ful   relations,    and    cases    of    the    most    virulent    compound 
snobbishness."     We   are   taken   to   Mr.    Ponde's   consulting- 
room  ;  we  see  the  man  operating  upon  a  fashionable  preacher 
who    has    scourged    his    congregation    for    subtly    snobbish 
reasons,  an  honest  Labour  leader  alarmed  by  the  flutter  he 
has  felt   when   driving  with   a   Marchioness,   etc.;   and   the 
author's   sly   observation  is   as   accurate   as   his   manner  is 
arch  and  delicate.     But  the  best  of  this  group  is  A  Hermit's 
Day,  which  conducts  us  from  morning  to  night  through  a 
typical  section  of  the  aged  Voltaire's  life  at  Femey.     The 
introductory  paragraph  is  sure,   firm,  and  arouses  expect- 
ancy at  once : 

Blue  damask  curtains  were  drawn  across  the'  windows, 
but  one  long  slit  of  daylight  made  every  shadowy  object  in 
the  room  discernible  :  a  cold  white  pyramidal  stove  opf)osite 
the  marble  fireplace,  the  portraits  and  the  magnificent 
mirror  on  the  walls,  five  writing-tables  piled  with  neat 
papers,  and  under  its  canopy  of  blue  silk  the  low,  plain 
bed,  with  a  deep  cleft  in  the  swelling  pillow.  Absolute 
stillness  reigned. 
In  a  few  pages  the  whole  character  of  the  philosopher  and 
his  odd  menage  are  painted  :    the  crowd  of  subsidiary  people 


are  touched  in  with  subtle  strokes,  and  perfect  art  is  shown 
in  the  selection  of  incidents  to  draw  out  Voltaire's  leading 
traits.  It  is  not  for  everybody  ;  nor  is  the  book  as  a  whole. 
But  anyone  who  is  already  familiar  with  Voltaire  will  get  a 
rich  and  a  repeated  pleasure  out  of  it. 

i  *  *  *  «  * 

The  literary  and  dramatic  essays  are  rather  too  miscel- 
laneous, and  one  or  two  of  them  are  too  scrappy,  but  they 
are  so  sane  and  persuasive  that  one  can  finish  none  of  them 
without  one's  views  having  suffered  some  slight  modification. 
Why  is  it  that  they  nevertheless  leave  us — most  of  them — 
with  a  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  ? 

****** 

Mr.  MacCarthy  has  qualities  which  should  put  him  among 
the  best  occasional  essayists.  His  interests  and  his  sym- 
pathies are  universal  and  his  tastes  catholic.  He  is  not  one 
of  those  critics  who  are  so  impressionable  and  ductile  that 
they  take  the  colour  of  the  last  powerful  book  they  read 
or^the  last  emphatic  man  they  met.  He  has  an  attitude  ; 
his  ideas  about  morals  and  manners  are  personal  and  fixed. 
You  cannot  contrast  one  essay  with  another  and  say,  "Here 
he  is  sceptical,"  "Here  he  believes,"  "Here  passion  and  here 
reason  is  in  command  of  him."  He  is  certain  about  his 
few  certainties  and  his  uncertainties ;  his  standards  and  his 
affections  do  not  vary ;  he  preserves  his  criteria  and  his 
balance.  But  his  own  position  is  always  rather  hinted  at 
and  implied  than  stated,  and  he  is  not  so  preoccupied  with 
it  as  to  be  unable  to  give  the  fullest  measure  of  understanding 
to  men  of  other  types  and  with  other  opinions.  He  has  a 
wide  knowledge  of  books  and  a  love  of  fine  writing  ;  but  he 
is  never  in  the  least  bookish.  Books  are  only  one  element  in 
the  glittering  phantasmagoria  of  life;  and  his  principal  interest 
is  not  art,  not  inanimate  nature,  though  he  writes  vividly 
and  intimately  of  both,  but  the  heart  and  mind  of  man, 
particularly  in  their  more  secret  and  less  observed  workings. 
His  criticism  is  the  fruit  of  long  experience  and  reflection, 
an  eye  quick  to  seize  appearances  and  quick  to  pierce  them, 
a  brain  to  which  make-believe  and  self-deception  are  not  merely 
wrong,  but  also  boring.  In  a  casual  way  and  without  parade, 
he  will  bring  out — whether  he  is  discussing  the  speeches  of 
a  politician  or  the  grimaces  of  a  clown — some  truth  about 
everybody's  inner  life  which  one  has  never  heard  stated 
before.  He  has  an  instrument  exactly  suited  to  him,  a 
vocabulary  full  of  fine  shades,  an  easy,  flexible  style,  capable 
both  of  fluent  eloquence  and  colloquial  abruptness.  But 
he  works  under  a  very  great  handicap. 

It  is  a  handicap  that  must  in  this  age  oppress  every  essayist 
of  his  curious,  sagacious,  leisurely,  discursive  kind.  That 
handicap  is  the  nature  of  what  the  literary  agents  would  call 
the  market  for  serial  rights.  A  century  ago,  when  Lamb 
and  Hazlitt  wrote  their  essays  ;  less  than  a  century  ago, 
when  Macaulay,  Bagehot,  and  Matthew  Arnold  wrote  their 
essays  on'  criticism,  the  quarterly  and  monthly  reviews 
dominated  the  critical  world.  They  had  the  reputations, 
they  had  the  audiences;  they  usually  had  the  funds  ;  and 
their  daily  and  weekly  rivals  offered  them  Uttle  rivalry. 
The  man  who  wrote  for  them — and  the  essayist  got  an 
opening  nowhere  else — was  allowed  plenty  of  elbow-room  ; 
four  thousand  words  he  regarded  as  quite  a  moderate  allow- 
ance, and  he  ran  to  much  greater  lengths  when  he  chose. 
In  our  own  day,  the  centre  of  interest  and  of  influence  has 
shifted  to  the  literary  weeklies  and  some  of  the  dailies. 
Almost  all  the  work  of  our  best  modern  essayists — Mr. 
Chesterton,  Mr.  Belloc,  Mr.  Lynd,  Mr.  Lucas — has  originally 
been  done  either  for  weekHes  wliich  cannot  do  with  more 
than  two  thousand  words  at  a  time  or  daihes  which  permit 
anything  between  twelve  and  eighteen  hundred  words.  A 
great  deal  of  very  fine  work  has  been  done  within  these 
limitations.  They  restrict  some  writers  less  than  others. 
They  put  a  premium  on  rapid  effects,  on  impressionism, 
on  the  picturesque  paragraph,  and  the  brilliant  phrase,  and 
they  bear  most  hardly  on  the  critics  of  literature  who  wish 
to  exhibit  a  subject  in  all  its  aspects,  and  the  meditative 
man  who  has  a  full  mind  and  an  undemonstrative  manner. 
The  feeling  one  so  often  has  with  modern  essayists — the 
feeling  of  disappointment  that  they  have  come  to  a  stop 
just  when  we  are  beginning  to  be  touched  or  excited — is 
especially  acute  when  the  essa5dsts  are  of  this  critical  type, 
and  one  feels  the  defect  of  length,  particularly  with  Mr. 
MacCarthy,  who  gives  the  impression  that  he  could  say 
ten  times  more  on  a  subject  than  he  actually  has  done. 


April  25,  1 9 18 


Land    &    Water 


^9 


The  Two  Frances:    By  Winifred   Stephens 


IT  would  be  difficult  to  imag.ne  any  one  better  qualift^u 
than  Mme.  Duclaux  to  interpret  to  British  readers  the 
true  spirit  of  France.*  By  birth  an  Englishwoman,  by 
vocation  a  poetess,  France  is  the  country  of  her 
adoption.  There,  where  she  has  long  resided,  she  has 
been  intimately  associated  with  two  distinguished  French 
families  and  has  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  gifted  French 
scholars.  Already  in  many  volumes  she  has  displayed 
insight  into  and  sympathy  with  French  national  character, 
literature,  and  institutions.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
to  find  in  her  History  of  France  one  of  the  clearest,  most 
penetrating  presentments  of  a  vast  subject  embracing  no 
less  than  2,000  years. 

Mme.  Duclau.K  could  never  be  dull ;  and  every  page  of 
this  book  thrills  with  interest.  Constitutional  matters, 
philological  questions,  points  legal  and  fiscal,  which,  under 
less  skilful  treatment  might  be  obtruse,  are  so  cleverly  woven 
into  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  story  that  they  jump  instantly 
to  the  reader's  comprehension.  Though  far  too  scholarly 
and  artistic  to  obtrude  her  own  opinions,  the  historian  intro- 
duces enough  of  the  personal  touch  to  enliven  and  point  the 
narrative.  While  retaining  a  certain  critical  attitude,  she 
cannot  conceal  her  admiration  of  and  esteem  for  France  and 
the  French,  not  excluding  even  that  administration,  which, 
although  it  Ls  to-day  almost  universally  condemned  by 
Frenchmen  themselves,  Mme.  Duclaux  considers,  despite  its 
obvious  imperfection  "to  be  on  the  whole  more  efficient 
than  that  of  any  other  country." 

The  book  is  fairly  well  sprinkled  with  dates.  We  miss 
some  of  the  old  familiar  landmarks  such  as  the  eighth-century 
Battle  of  Prtitiers  or  Tours  and  the  thirteenth-century 
Bouvines.  But  the  historian's  object — and  one  brilliantly 
achieved — is  not  so  much  to  chronicle  facts  and^dates  as  to 
present  the  spirit  of  successive  £iges.  Thus  with  perfect 
lucidity,  for  example,  she  foUows  the  cross-currents  in  the 
confusion  and  anarchy  of  the  "Wars  of  Religion."  A  few 
graphic  words  sum  up  the  character  of  another  period.  "  The 
age  of  Louis  Quinze  was  not  an  age  of  glory.  Contrasted  with 
the  reign  of  Louis  Quatorze,  we  see  the  ugliness  of  its  absurd 
contrasts  and  the  monotony  of  its  dull  frivolity.  And  yet  it 
was  undeniably  an  age  of  progress  ...  it,  too,  contributed 
to  the  growth  of  France  by  the  general  diffusion  of  know- 
ledge and  the  gradual  constitution  of  a  public  mind." 

This  historian  is  equally  happy  when  she  characterises  a 
region  :  Bordeaux,  "  curious,  intelligent,  philosophic,  sceptical, 
commercial"  ;  Lyons  "m3^ticaLl,  emotive,  sensual  yet 
highly  moral"  ;  Toulouse,  occupying  a  position  not  unlike 
that  of  Odessa,  "the  depository  and  hoarding-place  for  the 
wealth  of  a  vast  agricultural  region." 

Of  the  striking  personal  portraits,  many  of  them  illus- 
trating the  marvellous,  natural  ability  of  Frenchmen,  which 
look  out  upon  us  from  these  picturesque  pages,  it  is  impossible 
to  give  any  idea  here.  Mme.  Duclaux  has  her  favourites. 
She,  the  biographer  of  Margaret  of  AngoulSme,  has  naturally 
a  kindly  feeling  for  Margaret's  grandson  Henri  Quatre.  And 
we  suspect  her  of  a  weakness  for  the  unhappy  Louis  XVI., 
whom  she  does  not  think  such  a  fool  as  many  have  made 
out.  He  "had  a  long  head  for  detail,  much  good  sense,  a 
certain  ^administrative  capacity." 

But  perhaps  what  strikes  one  most  in  reading  Mme. 
Duclaux's  history  is  the  existence  of  two  marked  and 
different  strains  in  the  French  national  character.  We 
discern  two  Frances,  the  industrial  France  of  Henri  IV., 
the  imperialistic  France  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  France  of  the 
Celt,  and  the  France  of  the  Roman.  One  is  the  pas-tsionate 
advocate  of  freedom  and  the  rights  of  man,  the  other  of 
equality,  unity,  regularity,  and  noble  order.  One  has  the 
delicacy  of  a  Vauvenargues,  the  other  the  coarseness  of  a 
Rabelais.  One  France  is  a  devoted  home-lover,  the  other  is 
ever  attracted  by  the  glamour  of  distant  lands.  One  France 
is  essentially  logical,  ever  ready  to  push  a  proposition  to  its 
conclusion ;  the  other  is  sentimental  and  romantic.  One 
gazes  keenly  into  the  future  passing  with  the  hopeful 
logic  of  Anatole  France  through  "the  ivory  gate"  which 
leads  to  the  Europe  of  2,270  ;  the  other  dreams  with  Barrfe 
of  the  past,  performing  with  him  the  rites  of  Le  Cidte  des 
Moris.  In  the  words  of  our  own  poet,  France  has  ever  been: 
"  First  to  face  the  truths  and  last  to  leave  old  truths  behind." 

While  all  down  the  ages  of  French  history  sometimes  one, 
sometimes  the  other  strain  has  dominated,  there  have  been 
periods  when  the  two,  running  side  by  side,  seem  equally 

*  A    Short    History   of   France.     By    Mary    Duclaux    (A    Mary     I- . 


prono  jnced.  Throughout  the  Revolution,  for  example, 
while  with  Celtic  frenzy  France  was  tearing  to  pieces  the 
old  regime,  with  true  Latin  statesmanship,  she  was  building 
up  the  new  order;  while  "sectarian  fury"  was  raging  in  the 
provinces,  the  Jacobin;  in  Paris  were  p.ofessing  one 
religion,  the  Stae,  and  possessing  one  virtue,  patriotism. 
R 'vqlutionaries  who  were  proclaiming  the  rights  of  man, 
were  making  war  on  private  property.  And  while  they  were 
striving  after  the  liberty  of  the  individual,  they  werfe  impro- 
vising a  strong  centralised  Government.  In  the  words  of 
Marat,  they  were  opposing  "the  despoti  m  of  freedom 
to    the  despotism  of  kings."    ^ 

Not  only  in  the  same  age,  but  sometimes  in  the  same 
character  the  two  strains  mc^et.  They  were  present  in 
Henri  Quatre,  the  leader  of  a  faction  during  the  Civil  War, 
and  later  the  originator  of  one  of  the  earliest  schemes  for  a 
League  of  Nations.  They  were  equally  present  in  that 
naturalised  Frenchman,  Napoleon,  whom  Mme.  Duclaux 
describes  as  "a  logical  dreamer.  .  .  .  The  sort  which  does 
great  things  in  France."  His  attempts  to  realise  his  dreams 
so  exhausted  the  nation  that,  returning  from  Elba,  he  found 
the  imperialist  France  dead,  and  nothing  left  for  the  moment 
but  the  industrial  France,  asking  only  to  be  let  alone  to 
cultivate  her  garden  in  peace. 

If  Mme.  Duclaux  had  brought  her  history  down  to  the 
present  day  instead  of  closing  it  with  the  Battle  of  Waterloo, 
she  doubtless  would  have  continued  to  trace  these  two 
strains  in  French  national  character,  and  she  would  have 
told,  as  she  has  -done  so  forcibly  in  her  essay  in  The  Book 
of  France,]  how,  in  the  summer  of  1914,  internal  discord 
was  suddenly  silenced  by  that  "strange  sinister  tattoo," 
which,  resounding  throughout  the  land,  announced  that 
la  patrie  was  in  danger.  This  cry  has  never  failed  to  end 
internal  dissensions  and  to  join  both  Frances  in  the  bonds 
of  sacred  union. 

The  Miraculous  Herring 

MR.  ARTHUR  SAMUEL,  who  comes  of  a  famUy  long 
settled  in  East  Anglia,  and  has  himself  been  Lord 
Mayor  of  Norwich,  has,  written  a  book  on  that 
humble  Ash  the  herring,  which  has  played  a  bigger  part  in 
history  than  any  other  denizen  of  the  deep,  including  either 
whale  or  pearl-oyster.  For  five  hundred  years — that  is  to 
say  "from  the  twelfth  to  the  seventeenth  centuries — wool 
and  herring  were  what  would  now  be  called  key  industries. 
On  them  our  national  policy  may  be  said  to  have  largely 
turned,  whenever  the  rulers  of  England  entered  upon  dis- 
cussions, peaceful  or  warlike,  with  other  nations."  These 
sentences  are  taken  from  Mr.  Samuel's  preface  to  his  new 
work.  The  Herring,  Its  Effect  on  the  History  of  Britain  (John 
Murray,  los.  6d.  net).  The  policy  of  Britain,  which  cul- 
minated in  Cromwell's  wresting  their  sea-carrying  trade  from 
the  Dutch,  began  with  squabble ;  about  the  herring  fishery. 
It  would  be  hard  to  over-emphasise  the  influence  which  these 
inexhaustible  shoals  have  exerted  over  the  national  hfe  of 
this  country,  both  internally  and  externally.  How  inex- 
haustible they  are  may  be  judged  that  in  one  year — 1908 — 
a  million  tons  of  fish  were  taJcen  from  the  North  Sea,  of  which 
more  than  half  (57  per  cent.)  were  herrings  caught  in  drift- 
nets.  And  this  harvest  has  been  in  progress  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  for  centuries. 

This  book  is  delightfully  illustrated  by  reproductions  of 
old  prints,  illustrating  fishing,  curing,  and  eating' of  the  herring. 
There  are^many  quaint  recipes  given  which  have  fallen  out 
of  use;  but  in  these  days,  when,  to  quote  Pimch,  "quite 
nice  people  eat  fresh  herrings,"  some  may  hke  to  revive 
these  recipes.  The  price  of  the  herring  has  been  frequently 
controlled,  and  in  the  fourteenth  century  the  wholesale 
price  in  Yarmouth  market  was  fixed  at  6s.  8d.  a  last,  which 
works  out  at  165  herrings  for  one  penny  1  Cran,  the  usual 
measure  for  herrings  nowadays,  comes  from  the  Gaelic  word 
"craun,"  and  means  a  barrel  of  36  gallons,  and  it  holds 
3j  cwt.  of  fish,  or  from  600  to  1,000  herrings,  according  to 
size.  A  shoal  swimming  down  the  coast  is  "often  eight  or 
nine  miles  in  length,  three  or  four  miles  in  breadth,  and  of 
unknown  depth,  the  fish  closely  packed  like  sheep  in  a  flock 
moving  along  a  country  lane."  The  miracle  of  quails  in  the 
wilderness  is  nothing  to  the  miracle  of  herrings  in  the  ocean. 
Read  this  book  ;    it  is  as  full  of  meat  as  the  fish  it  describes. 

t  See  The  Background  of  a  Victory,  by  Mme.  Duclaux.  The  Booh 
of  France,  ed.  1915,  by  Winifred  Stephens  for  the  benefit  of  the  invaded 


20 


Land    &    Water 


April    25,  1 9 18 


History  ot  the  Rural  Labourer  :^By  Jason 


WHEN  Englishmenjwere  full  of  the  triumphs  of 
the  agrarian  revolution,  Sismondi  came  over 
on  a  visit.  He  had  expected  to  find  the 
labourers  working  on  the  reclaimed  commons 
with  the  zeal  and  energy  of  peasants,  and, 
instt  ad,  he  found  them  in  the  workhouse,  or  breaking  stones 
on  the  roads,  or  serving  what  looked  like  a  penal  sentence  as 
roundsmen.  For  when  the  practice  of  paying  allowances 
out  of  the  rates  spread  over  the  country,  the  labourer  became 
a  kind  of  overseers'  property.  No  farmer  paid  proper  wages, 
but  every  fanner  contributed  to  the  rates,  and  almost  all 
labourers  were  in  part  maintained  out  of  the  rates.  The 
labourer  was  thus  regarded  as  a  kind  of  parish  serf  at  the 
disposal  of  any  employer  sanctioned  by  the  overseers,  and 
passed  from  one  farmer  to  another  without  any  reference  to 
his  own  wishes.  Sismondi  coming  upon  this  world,  of  which 
he  had  heard  such  glowing  rumours,  asked  a  pertinent  ques- 
tion :  "You  tell  us  you  have  improved  the  land  ;  but^what 
have  you  done  with  the  labourers  ?  " 

'The  Agrarian   Problerrn 

Sismondi's  question  goes  to  the  root  of  the  agrarian  prob- 
lem. Nobody  is  satisfied  with  the  position  of  the  agri- 
cultural labourer  or  the  life  of  the  ordinary  English  village. 
Jfien  of  public  spirit  in  all  classes  have  been  groping  about 
for  remedies  for  generations.  But  the  truth  is  that  agricul- 
tural life  has  been  seen  in  a  false  perspective  ever  since  the 
era  of  the  enclosures,  and  it  is  that  false  view  which  has 
vitiated  all  our  efforts  at  reform.  Nobody  has  described 
the  situation  more  accurately  or  more  vividly  than  Mr. 
Prothero  in  the  concluding  pages  of  his  book  on  English 
Farming :    Past  and  Present : 

Under  the  older  system   peasants  were   rarely   without 
some  real  stake  in  the  agricultural  community  ;    they  were 
not  members  of  an  isolated  class  ;   they  were  not  exclusively 
dependent  on  competitive  wages  for  their  homes  and  liveli- 
hood ;    they  were  seldom  without  opportunities  of  bettering 
their  positions  ;    they  had  not  before  them  the  unending 
vista  of  a  gradual  process  of  physical  exhaustion  in  another's 
service.     Under  the  modem  commercial  system  the  condi- 
tions from  which  pesisants  were  generally  free  are  those 
under  which  the  average  agricultural  labourer  Uves,  though 
exceptional  men  may  struggle  out  of  their  tyranny.     They 
have   no   property   but   their   labour.     Even    of   that   one 
possession,  such  are  the  exigencies  of  their  position,  they 
are  not  the  masters.     If  they  fail  to  sell  it  where  they  are 
now  living,  or  if  they  lose  employment  by  a  change  in  the 
ownership  or  occupation  of  the  land  on  which  they  work, 
they  must  move  on.     Their  home  is  only  secure  to  them 
from   week   to  week.  .  .  .     Agricultural  labourers   believe 
that  there  is  Ufe  in  the  towns  ;    they  know  that  in  the 
villages  there  is  none  in  which  they  share  as  a  right,  or 
which  for  them  has  any  meaning.     They  may  be  indis- 
pensable, but  it  is  only  as  wheels  in  another  man's  money- 
making. 
The  history  of  the  labourer  is   summed  up  in  the  first  and 
last  sentences  of  this  passage.    The  Agrarian  Revolution, 
like  the  Industrial  Revolution  and  the  philosophy  that  it 
taught,  reduced  men  and  women  to  the  category  of  instru- 
ments.    We  have  seen  in  the  case  of  the  industrial  worker 
the  consequences  of  a  creed  which  beUeved  that  society  had 
to  accommodate  itself  as  its  first  duty  to  the  needs  and 
demands  of  capital.     It  was  supposed  that  a  nation's  pros- 
perity depended  on  the  encouragement  it  gave  to  capital, 
and  that  as  long  as  industry  earned  high  profits  and  the 
State  put  no  restrictions  on  its  power,  men  and  women 
would  secure  as  much  happiness  and  liberty  as  this  imperfect 
world  of  ours  allowed.     The  whole  life  of  industrial  society 
was    branded    with    this    doctrine.    The    Lancashire    town 
to-day  is  not  the  town  of  a  society  with  leisure,  with  tastes, 
with  any  play  of  mind  and  fancy.     It  is  the  settlement  of  a 
population  only  thought  of  as  workers,  as  the  servants  of 
the  industrial  system. 

The  same  thing  has  happened  to  the  village  and  the  village 
population. .  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
there  was  boundless  optimism  about  the  expansion  of  agri- 
culture. This  in  itself  was  not  surprising,  for  it  was  a  time 
of  xemarkable  achievements  and  progress.  Every  year  from 
1778  to  1821  Thomas  Coke,  the  great  Norfolk  Whig,  used  to 
collect  celebrities  from  all  parts  of  the  world  at  his  annual 
sheep-shearing.  This  event  grew  out  of  his  custom  of 
bringing  all  his  tenants  together  to  talk  over  agricultural 
topics  and  discuss  discoveries  and  suggestions.  As  the  fame 
of   Coke's  farming   spread   over   the   world,    these    annual 


shearings  developed  into  a  great  pageant  attended  b)-  rejire- 
sentatives  from  all  rcuntries  who  came  to  admire  Coke's 
farms  and  =tock,  and  to  discuss  with  him  and  with  Arthur 
Young  and  the  chief  scientists  of  the  day  the  virtues  of 
this  or  that  fertiliser  and  this  or  that  breed.  The  ambas- 
sadors of  foreign  countries  used  to  attend,  and  nobody  who 
valued  his  reputation  as  an  agriculturist  faikd  to  witness 
one  of  these  famous  gatherings.  [ 

Coke  was  the  most  celebrated  of  a  class  of  improving 
landowners  who  vied  with  each  other  in  promoting  scientific 
agriculture.  His  position  in  the  agrarian  revolution  may  be 
compared  roughly  with  that  of  Arkwright  in  the  industrial 
revolution.  He  supphed  brains  as  well  as  capital.  He  made 
scientific  farming  the  fashion  in  a  country  which  had  been 
conspicuous  for  its  attachment  to  obsolete  methods.  He 
introduced  Southdowns  in  place  of  the  Norfolk  sheep;  he 
set  the  example  in  planting  and  in  heavy  stock  farms  ;  he 
taught  the  wonders  of  marhng  and  draining,  and  he  con- 
verted Norfolk  from  a  corn-importing  county  into  one  of 
the  chief  corn-producing  counties  of  England.  A  large  part 
of  the  estate  that  he  created  was  originally  composed  of 
salt  marshes  on  the  coast  of  the  North  Sea,  and  it  had  been 
believed  that  wheat  would  not  grow  between  Holkham  and 
King 's  Lynn. 

Coke,  unhke  most  landlords  of  his  time,  ,  retused  to 
rent  his  tenants  on  their  own  improvements,  and  gave  them 
the  relative  security  of  long  leases.  He  represented  the  best 
aspect  of  the  new  system.  Cobbett,  whose  appreciation  of 
the  moral  consequences  of  enclosures  as  a  general  policy 
made  him  a  bitter  critic  of  the  landlords  of  his  day,  noted 
Coke's  great  popularity  in  his  own  county.  "Every  one," 
he  said  in  the  diary  of  his  rural  rides,  "made  use  of  the 
expression  towards  him  which  affectionate  children  use 
towards  their  parents." 

Coke's  generation  drew  from  the  spectacle  ot  the  jiew 
agriculture  two  morals.  The  first  was  the  moral  that  in 
agriculture,  as  in  industry,  the  one  test  was  the  test  of  pro- 
duction. The  second  that  development  of  agriculture 
demanded  the  capital  and  the  personal  interest  of  the  large 
landowners,  and  that  therefore  the  most  important  thing 
was  to  make  country  life  attractive  to  that  class.  These 
two  views  are  illustrated  in  the  legislation  of  the  time ;  the 
first  in  the  wild  and  "uncontroUedFprocess  of  enclosure,  the 
second  in  the  passing  of  game  laws  that  can  only  be  described 
as  barbarous.  *  . 

Game  Lawsi 

In  1816  an^Act'was  passed  of  which  Romilly  said  that[  no 
parallel  to  it  could  be  found  in  the  laws  of  any  country  in  thd 
world.  By  that  Act  a  person  who  was  found  at  night  with 
a  net  for  poaching  in  any  forest  or  park  could  be  punished 
by  transportation  for  seven  years.  Next  year  Parliament 
modified  the  law  to  the  extent  of  hmiting  this  punishment 
to  persons  found  with  guns  or  bludgeons.  When  anybody 
tried  to  reform  the  game  laws  he  was  met  with  the  question  : 
"Do  you  wish  to  drive  the  country  gentlemen  off  their- 
estates  ? "  Y'et  these  laws  were  playing  an  immense  part 
in  disturbing  the  peace  of  the  countryside.  In  three  years, 
between  1827  and  1830,  8,500  persons  were  convicted  under 
these  laws,  many  of  them  to  be  transported  for  hfe. 

As  the  labourers'  condition  grew  more  and  more  desperate, 
poaching  as  the  alternative  to  starving  grew  more  common 
and  bolder  in  its  methods,  and  magistrates  more  severe  in 
the  punishments  they  inflicted.  A  Member  of  Pariiament 
stated  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1831 
that  as  men  who  had  been  transported  were  not  brought 
back  at  the  public  expense,  they  scarcely  ever  returned,  and 
that  agricultural  labourers  specially  dreaded  transportation 
because  it  meant  entire  separation  from  former  associates, 
relations,  and  friends.  Readers  of  Marcus  Clarke's  famous 
novel  For  the  Term  of  his  Natural  Life  will  remember  the 
scene  on  the  transport  ship,  with  the  village  labourer  thrown 
into  the  society  of  forgers,  housebreakers,  and  footpads. 
"The  poacher  grimly  thinking  of  his  sick  wife  and  children 
would  start  as  the  night-house  luffian  clapped  him  on  the 
shoulder  and  bade  him  with  a  curse  to  take  good  heart  and 
be  a  man." 

During  the  opening  chapters  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  agricultural  labourer  passed  through  a  period  of  distress 
and  growing  destitution  comparable  to  that  of  the  hand- 
loom  weaver  in  Lancashire.  He  had  lost  nearly  all  his 
{continued  on  page  22) 


April  25,     191 8 


Land    &   Water 


21 


BURBERRY  ^1 


AF. 
T 


embodies  every  practical  and 
weatherproof  quality  that  makes  for 
health,  comfort,  and  distinction  to 
the  flying  man. 

BURBERRYS  supply  Uni- 
forms, Weatherproofs,  Leather 
Coats,  British  \\'arms,  Fur  Under- 
coats, Caps,  and  every  detail  of 
R.A.F.  dress  and  equipment,  at 
reasonable  prices. 

BURBERRY  KIT  made  in 
special  cloths,  woven  and 
proofed  by  Burberrys  without  rubber 
or  other  air-tight  agents,  provides 
an  effective  safeguard  against  wet 
or  cold,  and  is  ideal  for  facing  the 
atmospheric  conditions  of  varying 
altitudes  and  climates. 


Complete     Kit*    in    2    to    4 
Day*,     or    Ready     to     U»e. 


During  the  war  Burberrys 

CLEAN    and  REPROOF 

Officers'    Burberry    W eathtrproofs 

FREE    OF^  CHARGE. 


Every 

Burberry 

Garment 


bears 

this 

label. 


Illustrated     Naval    or    Military    Catalogue     Post    Free. 

BURBERRYS    Haymarket  ^   LONDON 

8     &      10     Boul.      Maletherbes      PARIS ;      and      Provincial      Agent*. 


Four  Novels  picturing 
Four  Phases  of  ^Zodernity 


Vhe 


Love  Eternal 


By  H,  Rider  Haggard 
"  Will  bring  comfort  and  consolation  to  many  who  in  these  days  necil 
it.  .  .  .  It  is  a  love  story,  and  a  pretty  one,  presented  wilb  Sir  Rirler 
Haggard's  healthy  hiunan  sympathies." — The  Times  Literary  SuppU- 
ment.  6'.  nti 

The  Pretty  Lady  ByjmMBenne,, 

"  The  2ath  century  incarnate — a  study,  and  a  very  brilliant  one,  of 
London  Society — real  and  human  "  (Mr.  W.  L.  Courtney,  in  Daily 
Telegraph).  "  The  book  is  perhaps  the  most  brilHant  Mr.  I3ennctt  has 
given  us"  {Manchester  Guardian).  "  Keen  and  unerring.  Christine 
could  not  have  been  taken  with  more  humour  and  knowledge  by 
Anatole  France  himself  "  {Weslminster  Gaxette).  8/-  net 

The  Tree  of  Heaven 

By  C^ay  Sinclair 
"  This  book  is  a  family  epic — one  of  the  year's  achievements"  {English 
Review),  a  verdict  confirmed  by  the  American  Press,  who  ^eak  o(  it 
as  "  a  work  of  vcritabjc  genius  and  consummate  art.  It  will  make  a 
lasting  mark  upon  our  life  and  thought  "  {New  York  Times). 

X  P^oic  in  its  Fourth  Impreauon,  6/-  net 

Simple    Souls      BsiIohnHaUlngVurner 

"  An  engaging  narrative  which  the  clever  author  develops  before  our 
eyes"  {DaUy  Telegraph).  "As  an  irresponsible  entertainment 
'Simple  Souls  *  remains  a  notable  and  indeed  brilliant  success" 
{Punch).  Second  Imprestlon,  6/-  net 

A  Book  of  Remarkable 


'Social 
Satire. 


.A  Family 
Epic 


Humo 


Criminals 


By  H.  B.  Irolng 

"  Mr.  In-inK  hiiH  vt  out  wcU-chosen  careers — they  form  the  more  attractive  part  of 
the  book — thouKh  wi-  have  found  this  in  the  Introduction  "  (The  Times  Literary  Sup- 
plement). "A  book  of  cxtraordiaary  interest"  {Evening  News).  "A  fascinating 
volume"  (Land  &  Water).  7/6  net 

Both  Sides  of  the  Curtain 

By  Genevieoe  Ward  and  Richard  Wbiteing 
The  famous  tragedienne  and  the  author  of /Vo.  5 /oAnS^rce/ combine  forces  in  a  livelv 
volume.  "...  Bright,  gracefulreading  .  .  .  touched  with  the  charm  and  pcr'^onaiity 
nf  Miss  Ward  herself.  .  .  '.  Penetration,  prettily  expressed,  goes  all  through  thf  book, 
that  and  sweetness  of  fljiposition." — The  Daily  Chronicle.     29  lUuslrations,  10I6  net 

Wonder  Women  in  History 

By  Jjlbert  Payson  'Uerhune 
Histnry  without  tears!  A  series  of  rapid  "  film  sketches"  of  wonder-won»en  like  Rachel, 
Ninon  de  KEnclos.  Peg  Woffington,  Milady,  and  a  baker's  dozen  of  others,  j  resented 
in  their  habits  as  they  breathed  and  lived.  5  Photogravures,  10!B  net 

THE  HOUSE  OF  CASSELL,  LONDON,  E.C.4 


"SOFT  AS 
A  SLIPPER" 


THE    "FORTMASON"    MARCHING    BOOT 

is  very  strong,  and  fib.  linhter  than  any  similar  boot.  Special  wear-resisting  soles. 
Worn  by  thousands  of  Officers  at  ihe  Front.  50/--    Sizes  tO^  upwards,  ft>5/« 

FORTNUM  &  MASON,  i-td., 
182     Piccadilly,     London,     W.L 

DEPOT  FOR   "DEXTER"  TRENCH  CbATS. 


i,!l,^.ji^ii/li^J^^Ji^^i^^.a^i^iiULWI^J^FJ^^>a^^*J^Ji'*Ju^J^^^Lf 


Hi'i'iJt;lM^Ua'JltLHi'mit'iikU'JitMJi'¥iJMjlit| 


^%<. 


HAZEL  COLLAPSIBLE^^ 


# MILITARY  KIT  BAG  M 

>^'    LengtK    26  inS'.       Depth     22  ms-        ^ 
■^  -  Brown  Proofe(d  Canvas  )  C*  Q  *i  /^         '=^ 

Leather  Fittings  )oL«j.0.w.  ^ 

Leather    throuqhoub         3LO.10.0.  y     ^ 


fia^eU^ 


p.      /    4,PR1NCES  STREET.HANOVER SQUARE. LONDON.Wr. 


22 


Land    &    Water 


April  25,  19 1 8 


(continued  from  page  20) 
customary  rights,  which  meant  food  and  fuel.  He  had  lost, 
in  r^any  places,  the  right  of  gleaning.  He  was  dependent 
on  wages,  and  his  wages  were  falling.  No  body  of  English- 
men will  resign  themselves  to  this  fate  without  a  struggle, 
and  the  misery  of  the  labourer  broke  out  in  the  winter  of 
1830  in  a  rising.  The  methods  of  the  rioters  were  crude, 
and  consisted  mainly  in  breaking  thresliing  machines.  In 
many  cases  the  whole  village  would  turn  out  in  a  threatening 
deputation  to  the  farmer  calling  on  him  to  raise  wages.  The 
labourers  were,  in  fact,  in  revolt  against  the  general  degrada- 
tion of  their  hves,  with  its  squalor,  its  starvation,  its  endless 
servitude,  and  its  humiUating  bondage  to  farmer  and  over- 
seer. A  certain  amount  of  damage  was  done,  one  or  two  of 
the  rioters  were  killed,  but  nobody  was  seriously  injured  by 
any  labourer  or  body  of  labourers. 

If  such  a  tiling  happened  to-day  it  would  be  recognised  as 
a  crisis  demanding  attention  and  remedy.  Unfortunately, 
in  the  state  of  mind  of  the  ruling  class  in  1830,  it  was  a  crisis 
demanding  only  repression,  for  no  remedy  seemed  possible 
to  nine  people  out  of  ten  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  times. 
And  repression  took  a  savage  form.  Six  men  and  boys  were 
hanged  for  rick-burning,  three  for  rioting,  450  were  trans- 
ported, and  400  sentenced  to  imprisonment  at  home.  Mr. 
Hudson,  whose  vivid  book  A  Shepherd's  Life  recalls  some  of 
the  memories  of  those  days,  tells  us  that  of  the  150  labourers 
who  were  transported  from  the  Wiltshire  Downs  only'  one 
in  five  or  six  ever  returned. 

Terrible  Events 

These  terrible  events  have  received  little  notice  in  our 
history  books,  and  the  reader  of  Cobbett's  Political  Register 
is  at  first  a  Uttle  bewildered  when  he  comes  upon  them.  It 
is  probable  that  few  of  the  country  gentry  to-day  hear  much 
about  them  ;  that,  as  a  rule,  the  country  parsons  and  the 
immigrants  from  the  towns  who  have  /found  quiet  retreat  in 
a  village  where  they  spend  their  week-end  or  part  of  the  year, 
have  never  heard  of  them.  They  may  know  a  great  deal 
about  the  history  of  their  nation  and  yet  be  quite  ignorant 
of  that  passionate  and  very  important  chapter  in  the  history 
of  their  own  district.  The  story  of  the  conduct  of  the  judges 
who  compelled  the  prisoners  at  Winchester  to  see  their 
comrades  hanged  would  read  to  them  as  more  in  keeping  with 
the  stories  of  the  French  Terror  than  with  the  gentle  and 
amiable  traditions  of  the  English  upper  classes.  They  would 
find  it  difficult  to  beUeve  that  the  peaceful  village  where 
they  watch  the  sunset  on  a  still  evening  and  contrast 
the  silence  of  the  countryside  with  the  distracting  noise  of 
London  is  the  home  of  such  fierce  and  cruel  memories,  and 
that  so  many  hearts  and  homes  were  broken  there  only 
three  generations  ago.  But  the  legend  of  that  retribu- 
tion still  lingers  in  the  labourer's  home,  as  any  traveller  in 
the  villages  of  Hampshire  and  Wiltshire  may  discover  if 
once  he  can  break  the  ice  and  find  out  what  the  labourers 
are  really  thinking.  One  boy  from  a  HampSliire  village 
who  was  hanged  at  Winchester  for  striking  a  countrj'  gentle- 
man was  buried  in  liis  village  churchyard  with  every  circum- 
stance of  respect  from  Ms  neighbours,,  who  looked  on  his 
execution  as  murder,  and  to-day — nearly  ninety  years  later — 
it  is  still  beheved  in  the  cottages  that  "the  snow  never  lies 
on  his  grave,"  as  a  villager  said  to  the  writer. 

If  Hampshire  and  Wiltshire  have  burning  memories  of 
that  winter,  the  Dorsetshire  labourers  have  their  own  martyrs 
in  the  Tolpuddle  exiles.  In  this  httle  village  a  few  labourers 
tried  to  form  a  union  in  1833  (wages  had  just  been  reduced 
from  gs.  to  7s.  a  week).  Next  year  the  chief  promoters  were 
arrested  and  sent  to  prison.  The  village  parson  visited  them 
in  jail  to  tell  them  that  the  labourer  was  better  off  than  his 
master,  to  which  Loveless,  the  men's  leader,  rephed  that  he 
found  it  difficult  to  believe  this  when  he  saw  what  a  number 
of  horses  were  kept  for  no  other  purpose  than  foxhunting. 
The  men  were  tried  under  the  Act  passed  in  a  moment  of 
panic  at  the  time  of  the  Mutiny  at  the  Nore,  and  the  judge 
sentenced  them  to  seven  years'  transportation,  not  for 
anything  they  had  done,  but  as  an  example  to  others. 

The  authonties  in  that  year  determined  to  crush  the  spirit 
of  revolt,  and  they  succeeded  beyond  their  wildest  dreams. 
The  agricultural  labourer,  whose  ancestors,  as  Mr.  Prother^ 
has  pointed  out,  were  members  of  a  community,  has  been 
the  most  isolated  and  lonely  figure  in  our  society.  Take 
any  aspect  of  his  hfe.  No  class  of  workman  stood  more  in 
need  of  the  help  and  power  of  trade  unions,  and  in  no  class 
has  the  struggle  for  trade  unionism  been  so  hopeless. 

In  the  old  days  the  agricultural  labourer  was  not  friendless 
in  his  own  village.  The  economy  of  small  farming  encouraged 
the  labourer  holding  land  or  enjoying  common  rights,  for  by 
that  means  the  small  farmer  could  have  labour  when  he 


wanted  it,  without  pajdng  for  it,  all  the  year  round.  It  was 
often  difficult  to  draw  the  Hue  between  the  smaU  farmer 
and  the  agricultural  labourer.  The  village  was  a  society  of 
men  and  women  understanding  each  other,  whose  arrange- 
ments and  lives  fell  into  a  common  scheme  of  mutual  help 
and  sympathy.  The  new  type  of  farming  isolated  tlie 
labourer,  setting  up  two  hostile  interests — the  larjge  f.trmer 
and  the  shopkeeper. 

The  New  Village 

The  farmer  of  the  new  type  believed  that  if  the  labourer 
had  land  or  any  kind  of  independence  he  would  be  a  less 
diligent  worker ;  the  new  shopkeeper  who  supplied  the  food 
that  was  formerly  supplied  by  the  small  farm  thought  that 
if  the  labourer  could  grow  his  own  food  again  he  would  lose 
his  customers.  Thus,  in  respect  of  its  economic  structure, 
the  new  village  was  just  the  opposite  of  the  old ;  economic 
influences  were  adverse  and  not  favourable  to  the  ambitions 
of  the  labourer. 

Nobody  took  the  place  of  the  old  village,  for  Parliament 
and  the  Church  were  under  unsympathetic  influence.  In 
1872  the  labourers  embarked  on  a  great  campaign  to  organise 
trade  unions.  Their  leader  was  Joseph  Arch.  They  had 
good  friends  in  politicians  like  Fawcett,  Auberoh  Herbert, 
Jesse  CoUings,  WilHam  Morrison,  and  the  great  Bishop 
Eraser  and  Canon  Girdlestone,  who  preached  to  his  farmers 
that  the  cattle  plague  was  a  just  punishment  for  their  treat- 
ment of  their  labourers.  1  But  those  were  exceptions.  The 
Liberal  Government  allowed  soldiers  to  be  used  as  strike- 
breakers ;  landlords  sided  with  the  farmers,  and  the  Church 
followed  suit.  The  labourers  met  by  moonhght ;  they 
faced  the  dangers  of  eviction ;  they  tried  emigration  on  a 
large  scale  ;  but  in  vain.  They  were  beaten.  A  year  before 
the  war  there  was  a  labourers'  movement  in  Lancashire, 
and  a  union  had  made  progress  in  Norfolk.  But  trade 
unionism  has  still   to  win  its  first   considerable  battle. 

Or  take  again  the  labourers'  home.  It  matters  enormously 
to  most  of  us  in  what  kind  of  a  house  we  live,  whether  it  is 
adequate,  comfortable,  dry,  wami,  healthy.  It  does  not 
matter  less  to  people  who  have  to  work  day  after  day  in  all 
weathers.  Rather  it  matters  more.  In  1867  the  commis- 
sion on  the  employment  of  women  and  cliildren  in  agricul- 
ture reported  that  there  was  nothing  injurious  in  the  work 
itself,  but  that  serious  evils  arose  because  fuel  being  so 
difficult  to  get  on  their  meagre  wages,  they  were  unable  to 
dry  their  clothes,  and  had  consequently  to  go  to  work  the 
next  morning  with  the  wet  clothes  they  had  taken  off  the 
day  before.     This  difficulty  still  exists. 

Nobody  who  reads  the  reports  of  the  County  Medical 
Officers  of  Health  can  suppose  that  the  houses  of  the 
labourers  arc,  as  a  rule,  adequate,  comfortable,  warm,  dry, 
or  healthy.  But  the  labourer  has  no  choice  in  the  matter. 
Often  he  has  to  live  in  a  tied  house,  and  if  it  is  asked  why 
houses  are  not  built  either  by  private  landlords  or  by  local 
authorities,  elected  in  part  by  agricultural  labourers,  the  answer 
comes  back  again  to  the  labourer's  circumstances,  for  it  is 
explained  that  his  wages  are  so  poor  that  he  cannot  afford  to 
pay  a  proper  rent,  and  that  therefore  houses  can  only  be  built 
at  a  loss.  Our  ancestors,  who  thought  they  could  build  up 
a  prosperous  industry  by  sacrificing  every  consideration  to 
that  of  giving  the  landowner  and  the  farmer  a  free  hand, 
have  reduced  this  industry  to  such  a  predicament  that  it  is 
not  self-supporting. 

Take  again  his  pleasures  and  his  whole  life.  Social  life 
and  recreation  are  specially  necessary  to  the  agricultural 
labourer.  The  man  or  woman  who  works  in  a  factory  meets 
other  people  constantly  in  the  course  of  his  or  her  work, 
whereas  the  man  who  ploughs  and  trims  hedges  and  hfts 
turnips,  works  often  in  solitude  and  sees  scarcely  a  soul. 
One  reason  why  allotments  are  popular  with  townsmen  is 
that  they  provide  opportunity  for  quiet  and  private  occupa- 
tion. For  the  same  reason,  it  is  specially  important  to  have 
theatres,  pictures,  clubs,  cricket  and  football  grounds,  and 
libraries  in  villages.  Yet,  as  a  rule,  there  is  scarcely  any 
recognition  in  our  village  of  this  urgent  need,  and  the  village, 
which  two  hundred  years  ago  had  dances  and  music,  is  too 
often  destitute  of  all  the  essentials  of  social  life. 

Such  have  been  the  consequences  of  treating  the  men  and 
women  engaged  in  agriculture  as  if  their  condition  was  less 
important  than  the  state  of  the  crops  or  the  attractiveness 
of  country  life  to  the  country  gentry.  If  at  any  time  the 
ruling  class  had  said  to  itself  that  it  was  the  first  duty  of 
society  to  see  jthat  the  conditions  necessary  to  a  free  and 
civihsed  life  were  within  the  reach  of  all  classes,  they  would 
have  set  to  work  to  build  up  village  life  on  a  different  basis. 
To-day  that  is  the  conviction  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  and 
rural  life  will  be  reconstructed  on  new  lines. 


LAND  &  WATER 

Vol.  LXXI.     No.  2921.     [v^^Tr]  THURSDAY,  MAY  2,   1918  [r'-^^fv^F.m     '.IfM'^^^^ s^'ufl^hl 


\ 


The  American  Ambassador 


Land    &    Water 


May  2,  1918 


_  IUIIIIIIIIIIIUUIIIIIIIIIIIII!llllllllllliHIIIII!lll«W| 

1  R.A.  Forces.          1 

I  Complete  Flying  Outfits  m 

S  at    the    most    moderate  B 

3  cost  commensurate  with  g 

J  excellence     of     material   B 

=  and  fit.                   g 

■liiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiil 


IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUI 

erican    Army, 

are     now     in     the 
on     to    supply 
icers  of  the  American 
with      complete 
outfits 


Equipped  for  the  greatest  game  of  all. 


A  GREAT  NAME 

has   been    made   by 


nernard 


batheii// 


as    an    EXPERT 

in  the  production  of  Breeches  and  Service  Kit 


Mr.   Weatherill    has   now    added    a    handsomely   appointed    Ladies' 

Department,  and  makes  a  speciality  of  a  Coat  and  Skirt  at  8  guineas. 

Perfect  cut  and  fit  guaranteed. 


Self-majsuremenI  Form  seni  on  appticalion   lo  . — 

55  CONDUIT  ST.,  W.i 


ASCOT, 
Bridge   House. 

Phone  :  285  Ascot . 


'Phone  :   2071    Mayfair. 

ALDERSHOT.   II    High  Street,     i-bone;  137  AUersho.. 


CAMBERLEY, 
5 1    London  Road. 

Phone  :  36  Camberley. 


May  2,  19 1 8 


Land    &   Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :    HOLBORN    282S. 

THURSDAY,  MAY  2,  1918. 

-  -           ■                               ■        ■      ■  . 

Contents 

PAGE 

The  American  Ambassador.     (Photograph)  I 

The  Outlook  3 

America's  Effort.     By  H.  Belloc  4 

Flying  Sailors.     (Illustrated).     By  Herman  Whitaker  6 

Sir  Roger  Keyes'  Victory.     By  Arthur  Pollen  9 

Comrades  in  Arms.     (Cartoon.)     By  Raemaekers  13 

Fighting  on  the  Western  Front.     By  H.  Belloc  14 

President  Wilson's  War  Mind.     By  L.  P.  Jacks  17 

The  United  States  Navy.     By  Lewis  R.  Freeman  19 

Education  of  the  Soldier.     By  Centurion  21 

The  Higher  Punctuality.    By  G.  K.  Chesterton  23 

Rivers.     (Poem.)     By  J.  C.  Squire  24 

Famous  Jewels.     (Illustrated.)          By  G.  C.  Williamson  26 

American  Text  Books.     By  J.  C.  Squire  30 

America's  Industrial  Strength.     By  J.  D.  Whelpley  34 

Motor  Utility  Machines.     By  H.  Massac  Buist  40 

Notes  on  Kit  44 

Household  Notes                                                                ,  48 


THE  publication  of  the  diplomatic  experiences  of 
Mr.  Morgenthau,  the  American   Ambassador  at 
Constantinople  from  1913  to  1916,  will  begin   in 
next  week's  issue  of  Land  &  Water. 

This  record  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  the  tortuous 
ways  of  Germany  and  Turkey.  It  explains  much  that 
has  hitherto  mystified  students  of  affairs  and  incident- 
ally it  reveals  how  very  near  at  one  time  the  Allies 
came  to  the  forcing  of  the  Dardanelles. 


The  Outlook 


NOT  yet  do  we^realise  the  exact  significance  of 
the  entry  of  America  into  the  war  on  the  side 
of  the  Allies.  It  is  not  difficult  to  estimate  the 
final  effect  of  her  aid  in  men,  material,  and 
finance ;  but  these,  important  though  they  be, 
are  in  a  sense  only  the  beginning  of  things.  The  vital  fact  is 
of  a  moral  character ;  the  New  World  stands  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  that  part  of  the  Old  World  which  is  shedding 
the  best  of  its  life-blood  in  defence  of  a  civilisation  which 
places  humanity,  justice,  and  freedom  in  the  forefront  of  its 
creed.  Democracy  is  a  big  word  of  diverse  meanings,  but 
there  can  be  no  mistaking  the  ideals  for  which  the  world  is 
at  death-grips.  Germany  has  made  the  ^dividing  line  a 
clean  cut ;  she  makes  no  pretence  of  hiding  the  raw  brutality 
of  her  actions,  still  hoping  that  victory  may  justify  them. 
Heaven  help  mankind  were  this  possible  ;  but  now  that  the 
United  States  has  thrown  the  full  weight  of  her  power  into 
the  contest  the  impossibility  of  it  is  greater  than  ever. 

•  •  • 

The  resources  of- America  are  so  immense  that  it  seemed 
as  if  the  seed  had  only  to  be  scattered  for  crops  of  armed 
men  to  spring  instantly  from  the  ground.  This  is,  as  it  were, 
true  so  far  as  men  are  concerned,  for  already  the  first  of 
America's  armed  forces  is  in  the  battlefield,  and  has  given  a 
good  account  of  itself  in  actual  fighting.  Her  Navy,  also, 
has  rendered  valuable  assistance  in  the  hunting  down  of  the 
U-boats.  But,  in  so  far  as  guns,  aeroplanes,  and  sliips  are 
concerned,  it  is  evident  there  must  continue  to  be  delay 
before  they  are  ready  in  appreciable  quantities.  Meanwhile, 
the  Allies  are  providing  America  with  all  she  stands  in  need 
of  in  the  way  of  munitions  of  war.  Wisely  we  have  not 
checked  our  rate  of  manufacture,  and  thus  England  and 
France  are  able  to  supply  the  necessary  material,  until  the 
ordnance  and  aeroplane  factories  across  the  Atlantic  are  in 
a  position  to  deliver  the  goods. 

•  •  * 

Dr.  Page,  America's  Ambassador  in  London,  whose  photo- 
graph appears  as  the  frontispiece  of  this  Special  Number  of 


Land  &  W.\ter,  has  won  the  esteem  and  gratitude  of  every 
Briton.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  American  Embassy 
took  charge  of  German  interests  in  this  country.  It  was  a 
difficult  duty  ;  but  Dr.  Page  discharged  it  with  the  utmost 
tact  and  good  judgment.  Whenever  he  could  render  services 
to  Englishmen  that  in  no  way  interfered  with  his  diplomatic 
duties,  he  invariably  did  so,  and  many  inquiries  about  the 
missing  were  made  by  him  during  the  earlier  years  of  the 
war.  How  great  was  the  restraint  which  the  American 
Ambassador  had  to  place  on  his  feelings,  until  neutrahty 
was  abandoned  by.  his  own  country,  has  been  made  evident 
in  his  subsequent  speeches.  America  has  sent  many  dis- 
tinguished citizens  to  act  as  her  representative  at  the  Court 
of  St.  James's  ;  but  Britain  will  always  regard  herself  as 
fortunate  in  having  at  this  great  crisis  in  her  history  an 
ambassador  who  combined  with  sterling  character  and 
honestv  of  purpose,  those  high  qualities  of  sympathy,  sound 
sense,  and  reticence  which  will  cause  Dr.  Page  to  figure, 
when  history  comes  to  be  written,  as  one  of  the  outstanding 
diplomatic  figures  of  the  Great  War. 

♦  •  • 

The  Royal  Air  Force  has  changed  its  minister,  Lord 
Rothermere  having  resigned  and  Sir  William  Weir  having 
been  appointed  in  his  stead.  The  sympathy  which  was 
extended  to  Lord  Rothermere  owing  to  the  reasons  assigned 
for  this  step  was  unfortunately  rather  checked  by  the 
exuberance  of  the  Prime  Minister's  laudation.  To  say 
that  a  civilian  had  it  in  his  power  to  "take  over  the 
conduct  of  an  entirely  new  arm  of  the  Service,"  and  in  the 
space  of  five  months  "to  bestow  on  its  administration  an 
initiative  which  has  given  the  new  force  a  real  supremacy 
at  the  front "  is  pernicious  nonsense.  It  encourages  the 
idea  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Prime  Minister,  soldiers  and 
sailors  are  the  blind  instruments  and  slaves  of  the  politician, 
devoid  in  themselves  of  initiative  or  the  ability  to  conduct 
the  work  to  which  they  have  devoted  their  careers.  Every- 
body knows  who  have  made  the  Air  Force — not  the  politicians, 
but  the  fighting  men.  The  sooner  Generals  Henderson  and 
Trenchard  are  permitted  to  resume  the  duties  for  which 
they  have  proved  themselves  pre-eminently  qualified,  the 
quicker  will  the  nation  be  satisfied. 

»  •  ♦ 

Mr.  Bonar  Law's  Budget  had  many  points  of  interest,  and 
though  it  was  received  at  first  with  extraordinary  favour 
both  in  the  House  and  the  country,  opposition  to  details  was 
bound  to  ensue.  This  has  crystalised,  mainly,  into  objec- 
tion to  the  doubling  of  the  stamp-duty  on  cheques.  It  is 
just  sixty  years — in  1858 — since  this  duty  was  first  imposed, 
and  during  that  period  the  use  of  cheques  has  so  largely 
increased,  more  especially  latterly,  that  for  all  practical 
purposes  they  represent  at  least  80  per  cent,  of  the  currency. 
Anything  that  may  tend  to  restrict  the  use  of  this  popular 
form  of  paper-money  is  bound  to  meet  with  opposition  in 
influential  quarters  ;  we  should  not  be  surprised  were  the 
enhanced  duty  dropped.  The  rest  of  Mr.  Bonar  Law's 
proposals  seem  likely  to  be  accepted  with  good  grace, 
though  they  mean,  broadly  speaking,  a  further  reduction  of 
10  per  cent,  on  the  professional  man's  fixed  income,  which 
has  already  been  reduced  by  from  40  to  50  per  cent, 
through  the  increased  cost  of  necessities.  At  the  same  time, 
there  must  be  plenty  of  money  in  the  country.  The  excess 
profits  duty  is  estirnated  to  bring  in  300  millions  sterling, 
which  leaves  at  least  75  millions  sterling  to  be  divided  among 
certain  fortunate  private  citizens. 

»  •  « 

Luxury  taxation  is  the  novelty  of  the  Budget.  What  is 
luxury  ?  One  dictionary  defines  the  word  as  "  anything 
productive  of  enjoyment."  On  this  basis,  taxation  might 
be  enormously  widened.  Again,  will  there  be  one  luxury 
for  all  classes,  or  will  what  is  deemed  a  necessity  for 
Dives  of  Bayswater  be  taxed  as  a  luxury  for  Lazaruski  of 
Whitechapel?  Man  and  woman  should  be  permitted  to 
clothe  themselves  neatly  and  not  extravagantly,  according 
to  their  station  in  life,  without  incurring  a  penalty  for  undue 
expenditure.  Another  point  about  the  Budget  indirectly 
deals  with  French  light  wine.  Now  that  beer  and  spirits  are 
taxed  more  heavily,  does  the  Government  propose  to 
release  greater  quantities  of  this  wholesome  fluid  from  bond, 
where  the  lighter  qualities  are  fast  becoming  un,wholesome, 
inasmuch  as  they  will  not  keep  ?  There  seems  a  nemesis  in 
this  country  dogging  the  footsteps  of  those  who  desire 
sincerely  the  promotion  of  temperance.  Under  proper 
management,  there  need  never  have  been  the  slightest 
necessity  for  any  shortage  either  in  tea  or  fight  wines.  This 
shortage  has  been  artificially  created  by  bungling  and 
political  chicanery,  and  the  opportunity  to  popularise  the 
Vgreater  consumption  of  claret— possibly  the  healthiest  beverage 
there  is,  with  the  exception  of  milk — has  been  lost. 


Land    &    Water 


May  2,  19 1 8 


The    American    Effort  :    By    Hilaire    Belloc 


MUCH  the  most  •  important  aspect  of  the 
American  effort  for  the  Allies  as  a  whole, 
and  for  the  Americans  themselves,  is  the 
contrast  it  presents  with  every  other  historical 
example  of  miUtary  alliance  during  a  great 
struggle.  There  are  other  :ispccts  more  immediately  enter- 
taining or  more  encouraging.  One  may  talk  at  large  upon 
the  national  intention  of  the  United  States,  upon  the  long 
forbearance  of  their  Government,  followed  by  its  present 
clear  resolve,  and  such  disquisitions  are  of  value  in  main- 
taining the  spirit  of  the  alliance  and  in  expressing  its  soul. 
But  by  far  the  most  practical  issue  is  the  purely  military 
one,  and  in  that  issue  the  great  outstanding  feature,  is  the 
novelty  of  the  position. 

It  is  the  novelty  of  the  position  which  gives  the  enemy 
his  ground  for  hoping  that  the  advent  of  the  American  forces 
will  not  turn  the  scale,  and  it  is  the  novelty  of  the  position 
which  creates  all  the  cTifficulties  which  we  have  to  surmount  ; 
difficulties  consider- 
able in  themselves  and 
made  greater  from  the 
very  fact  that  they 
are  new. 

When  we  say  that 
the  outstanding  mili- 
tary feature  of  the 
situation  is  its  novelty, 
that  is  a  truth  which 
may  be  masked  Uke  so 
many  other  truths  in 
this  great  modem  war 
by  the  use  of  general 
terms  brought  from  the 
past.  For  instance, 
men  talked  for  months 
about  the  exposed 
salient  of  St.  Mihiel  as 
though  we  were  still 
during  1 915  in  a  war 
of  movement,  whereas 
we  were,  in  point  of 
fact,  in  a  war  of  siege. 
In  the  same  way,  one 
can  present  the  con- 
ditions of  the  American 
effort  in  the  terms  of 
former  campaigns  and 
make  it  seem  other  and  ea!sier  than  it  is.  One  may  say  that 
a  nation  living  across  the  sea  has  promised  to  raise  and  send 
troops  in  aid  of  its  Allies  upon  the  further  side,  and  that 
things  of  this  sort  have  been  done  times  out  of  number  from 
the  beginning  of  history. 

The  novelty  of  the  situation  certainly  does  not  consist  in 
that.  It  consists — apart  from  the  question  of  the  blockade 
and  of  belligerent  action  by  sea — in  three  great  factors 
never  before  present. 

The  first  of  these  factors  is  the  creation  of  a  highly  trained 
and  what  ma}'  be  called  a  technical  force  upon  a  very  large 
scale  out  of  a  very  small  nucleus  or  germ  within  a  very 
narrow  limit  of  time. 

The  second  factor  is  the  reconstruction  of  transport 
necessitated  under  these  particular  conditions. 

The  third  is  the  necessity  of  special  intensive  training  of 
the  units  created  after  they  have  been  transported  oversea 
and  put  down  upon  Allied  soil. 

None  of  these  three  factors  ever  appeared  before  in  any 
transmarine  expedition,  and  the  combination  of  them  it  is 
which  gives  the  enemy  his  hope  that  the  difficulties  created 
will  be  in  practice  insurmountable  ;  that  is,  will  not  be 
surmountable  within  the  useful  limits  of  time  assigned  to  the 
effort.  The  surmounting  of  those  difficulties,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  it  is  accomplished,  will  make  the  issue  of  the  war 
absolutely  certain,  in  spite  of  the  disappearance  of  the  State 
that  used  to  be  called  the  Russian  Empire  and  the  consequent 
present  preponderance  of  the  Central  Powers.  If  those 
difficulties  are  successfully  surmounted  within  the  limits 
of  time  that  bound  useful  action  we  shall  owe  that  success 
mainly  to  the  energy  of  the  Americans  themselves,  and  they 
may  well  boast  that  this  energy  has  decided  the  victory  of 
civilisation. 

Let  us  examine  these  three  novel  points  in  their  order. 

The  creation  of  a  large  trained  body,  of  a  body  so  highly 


American  Soldiers  passing   through   London 


trained  that  it  may  properly  be  called  expert  or  technical, 
compared  with  the  levies  of  the  older  wars,  has  a  parallel 
effort  in  the  amazingly  successful  corresponding  effort  of 
this  country.  Great  Britain  in  the  first  two  years  of  the  war 
expanded  a  small  professional  army  into  a  force  of  many 
millions  of  men.  I  have  often  quoted  one  of  the  test  points 
of  this  achi.vement,  the  creation  of  the  heavy  artillery.  It 
had  hitherto  been  taken  for  granted  that  the  heavy  gunner 
could  not  be  properly  trained  under  three  years,  while  his 
officer  required  a  far  longer  training,  and  the  multiplicity  of 
types  developed  in  the  present  war  as  it  became  a  war  of 
positions  enhanced  the  magnitude  of  the  task.  Nevertheless, 
we  know  that  the  task  was  accomplished  with  extraordinary 
success,  and  that  by  the  late  summer  of  1916  the  new  force 
was  in  full  being,  and  had  reached  a  very  high  point  of 
efficiency.  Further,  this  force  thus  suddenly  expanded  had 
to  cross  the  sea. 

But  the  American  task  differs  in  certain  degrees  so  much 

from  ours  that  it  is  a 
novel  proposition,  just 
as  ours  was  a  propo- 
sition completely  novel 
compared  with  any- 
thing that  had  gone 
before. 

In  the  first  place, 
the  nucleus  from  which 
the  expansion  must 
take  place  is  in  propor- 
tion far  smaller.  In 
the  second  place,  there 
was  in  existence  hardly 
any  machinery  for  such 
expansion.  It  had  not 
been  imagined  possible 
or  necessary  at  all. 
For,  in  the  third  place, 
all  the  history  and  tra- 
ditions of  the  country 
involved  were  conti- 
nental, and  no  raising 
of  a  very  large  force  to 
meet  an  already  highly 
trained  and,  at  least, 
equal  opponent  far 
over  the  sea  had  en- 
tered into  American 
experience.  In  the  fourth  place— and  most  important  of  all 
— the  limits  of  time  imposed  upon  the  British  effort  were  less 
severe. 

The  new  American  Army  must  depend  for  its  instruction 
upon  a  body  of  men  less  in  proportion  to  its  numbers  than 
what  we  could  call  upon  in  this  country  between  three  and 
four  years  ago.  We  had,  in  proportion  to  our  population,  a 
larger  professional  Army  than  the  Americans  by  far.  We 
had  particularly  a  larger  number  of  officers,  a  very  consider- 
able proportion  of  whom  had  seen  active  service  in  the 
numerous  Colonial  and  Indian  wars  of  the  British,  ;ind  we 
had  thus  beginnings  of  cadres  on  what  it  is  true  was  a  small 
but  what  proved  happily  a  sufficient  scale.  Further,  thanks 
principally  to  the  foresight  and  industry  of  Lord  Haldane, 
machinery  for  expansion  had  long  existed.  A  considerable 
Expeditionary  Force  was  in  being,  so  that  the  plan,  though 
upon  a  small  model,  was  already  present ;  one  had  but  to 
enlarge  its  scale.  A  system  for  the  elementary  training  of 
lads  who  might  have  to  be  given  commissions  was  in  full 
swing,  and  had  already  covered  a  considerable  amount  of 
ground  ;  and  the  Territorial  Army,  though,  as  we  know,  its 
use  was  restricted,  and  even  delayed,  had  also  provided  a 
considerable  mass  of  elementary  training  before  the  war 
broke  out. 

The  tliird  element,  though  it  is  not  a  precise  one,  is  also  of 
importance  :  The  tradition  and  habit  of  transmarine  expedi- 
tion was  not  estabUshed  in  the  United  States  as  it  is  here. 
The  whole  of  English  history  is  full  of  such  expeditions  ; 
the  numerous  Britisli  wars  of  the  last  170  years  consist  of 
nothing  else.  The  Seven  Years'  War,  so  far  as  England  was 
concerned  ;  the  American  War  of  Secession,  the  Peninsular 
War,  the  Waterloo  campaign,  the  Crimea,  the  Indian  Mutiny, 
the  South  African  War,  and  innumerable  intervening  smaller 
operations,  all  of  them  of  necessity  meant  the  transport  of  a 
force  oversea,  usually  to  very  great  distances,  and  its  niain- 


Ogicidl  Photo 


May  2,  191.8 


Land    &   Water 


J  finch  u^iu* 

American  Troops  on  the  Verdun  Front 


French  Officii 

General  Philipot  presents  the  Croix  de  Guerre 


tenance  and  supply  under  those  conditions.  This  form  of 
warfare  was  the  form  normal  to  British  tradition  and  experi- 
ence. With  aJl  other  nations  it  was  rare,  abnormal,  and, 
as  a  rule,  unsuccessful. 

It  is  true  that  the  United  States  had  quite  recently  engaged 
in  two  such  affairs — the  Cuban  War  and  the  occupation  of 
the  Philhpines.  But  the  former  was  close  at  home,  and 
neither  were  conducted  against  an  equal  enemy.  There 
could  be  no  serious  threat  of  interference  with  communica- 
tions ;  there  was  no  serious  fear  of  an  equal  struggle  upon 
landing  being  established  ;  and  if  we  omit  those  two  recent 
e.xperiments,  the  whole  mihtar\'  and  jwhtical  tradition  of  our 
present  Allies  was  purely  continental  and,  indeed,  domestic. 

But  it  is  the  hmitation  of  time,  as  I  have  said,  which  is  the 
most  serious  condition  of  all  which  affect  this  sudden  creation 
of  a  vast  new  force  out  of  such  insufficient  origins.  It  is  as 
evident  to  the  enemy  as  to  ourselves  that,  while  no  exact 
hmit  can  be  laid  down,  the  interval  between  the  opening  of 
the  present  fighting  season  and  the  moment  when  consider- 
able American  forces  can  first  appear  in  the  field  must  be  the 
crisis  of  the  whole  campaign.  In  other  words,  there  is 
applied  here  a  spur  of  haste,  with  its  consequent  threat  of 
insufficiency  and  confusion,  and  it  is  apphed  after  a  fashion 
far  more  severe  than  was  the  case  between  1914  and  1916, 
when  the  vast  Russian  armies  were  still  in  being,  and  when 
the  siege  of  the  Central  Powers  was  still  fully  maintained. 

This,  then,  the  mere  creation  of  so  great  a  force  within 
such  menacing  hmits  of  time,  is  the  prime  difficulty  over- 
shadowing all  others.  It  is  the  one  upon  which  the  enemy 
most  counts,  and  with  reason.  But  it  is  also  a  problem  the 
solution  of  which  the  enemy  should  most  dread,  for  if  it  is 
solved  his  doom  is  certain.  By  so  much  as  his  latest  opponent 
is  distant,  and  by  so  much  as  that  latest  opponent  is  numerous, 
by  so  much  must  the  enemy  forgo  any  hope  of  a  poUtical 
diversion.  If  the  new  great  armies  are  created  in  time,  their 
effect  will  never  be  Aiodified  in  favour  of  the  enemy  by  any 
pohtical  action  of  his  to  divert  them  from  their  aim.  They 
will  come  fresh  frorn  a  nation  fully  determined ;  unex- 
hausted by  previous  effort ;  quite  secure  at  home,  and  with  as 
clean  an  objective  before  it  as  that  of  the  French  themselves. 

The  second  and  novel  difficulty — the  mechanical  one  of 
communication— may  be  said  to  differ  only  in  degree  from 
similar  difficulties  in  the  past.  But  the  degree  is  so  great 
that  it  involves  a  clear  difference  in  quality. 

All  the  older  wars  normally  permitted  of  an  easy  landing 
wherever  that  landing  was  unopposed ;  that  is,  of  an  easy 
transition  from  the  maritime  to  the  terrestrial  communica- 
tions of  a  transmarine  force.  There  were  many  reasons  for 
this  :  The  proportion  of  the  armies  to  the  civilian  population 
was  such  that  civUian  harbours  were  usually  ample  for 
maritime  needs.  In  many  cases,  landing  could  be  effected 
when  it  was  possible  to  choose  one's  weather,  from  open 
roadsteads.  The  material  to  be  transliipped  from  vessels  • 
to  the  shore  was  not  in  very  heavy  units.  Once  the  tran- 
shipment had  been  effected,  the  orcUnary  means  of  communi- 
cation by  land  were,  as  a  rule,  ample  and  available  to  the 
advancing  force. 

What  has  changed  all  this  to-day  is  the  magnitude  of  the 
forces  compared  with  the  civiUan  population  ;  the  greater 
draughts  of  ships  and  the  weight  of  the  units  of  material  that 
have  to  be  handled.  The  accommodation  of  civihan  harbours 
is  unsuited  to  the  transhipment  of  a  large  force  save  in  very 
rare  cases.  The  railway  terminals,  the  wharfage  accommoda- 
tion, the  amount  of  rolling  stock  present,  and  the  nature  of 


the  track  leading  from  the  harbours  inland  are,  save  in  those 
rare  cases  of  exceptionally  large  and  deep  marine  depots, 
insufficient  for  their  work.     A  great  deal  has  to  be  remade. 

In  the  particular  case  of  this  Expeditionary  Force  there  is 
a  further  handicap.  Most  of  the  best  French  harbours  in 
the  north  are  already  earmarked  for  British  supply.  Those 
nearest  to  the  American  ports,  and  providing  the  shortest 
communications  by  the  sea,  are,  with  few  exceptions,  of 
moderate  depth  ;  nor  were  they  engaged  in  any  great  volume 
of  trade  such  as  would  have  developed  their  resources.  Many 
of  those  most  famous  in  history  did  their  work  undet  the  old 
conditions  of  small  vessels  and  import  upon  a  far  smaller 
scale  than  that  of  the  great  commercial  nations  to-day. 

The  French  western  and  north-western  coasts  have  nothing 
corresponding  to  Antwerp  or  Plymouth  or  New  York.  There 
lies  behind  them  a  broad  belt  of  purely  agricultural  territory  ; 
the  happier  and  the  more  civilised,  indeed,  from  what  is 
called  "industrialism,"  but  none  the  less  consequently  iU- 
provided  with  rapid  communication,  and  neither  needing 
nor  creating  large  facilities  for  import  at  its  few  points  of 
access-  by  sea. 

The  result  of  all  this  is  that  the  harbours,  the  terminals, 
the  railway  tracks  beyond,  and  their  rolling  stock,  all  have 
to  be  transformed  with  the  utmost  rapidity  if  the  Americam 
force  is  to  come  into  play  at  all  in  useful  time  ;  and  such  a 
condition  has  never  arisen  in  the  history  of  war  before — or, 
at  any  rate,  upon  nothing  like  this  scale'. 

The  last  of  the  principal  difficulties  we  are  noting  is  the 
most  novel  of  all.     It  is  unique  and  particular  to  this  war. 

The  developments  of  the  campaign  since  ^he  autumn  of 
1914  have  been  such  that  a  completely  new  tactical  art  has 
arisen,  most  of  which  can  only  be  learnt  upon  the  spot.  The 
old  armies,  if  they  left  your  home  ports  as  trained  soldiers, 
landed  upon  a  distant  soil  as  ready  for  combat  as  ever  they 
would  be.  The  weapons  they  had  to  handle  and  their  way 
of  handhng  them  were  as  famihar  to  them  at  home  as  abroad. 

The  trench  warfare  of  the  last  three  years,  the  elements  of 
poisonous  gas  introduced  by  the  enemy ;  the  enormous- 
expansion  of  aerial  observation,  experience  not  only  of  cover, 
but  of  leaving  cover,  of  concealment,  of  a  vast  development 
of  new  missile  weapons,  and  on  the  top  of  all  tliis  the  unpre- 
cedented strain  of  the  thing — all  have  to  be  learnt,  or,  at 
least,  the  learning  of  them  completed  within  the  zone  of- 
action,  and  most  of  them  upon  the  front  of  that  zone.  You 
can  teach  a  man  at  home  to  dig  a  trench  and  to  put  up  wire, 
to  handle  trench  weapons,  and  (with  no  feeling  of  reality) 
to  adjust  a  gas-mask.  You  can  /  teach  them  somewhat 
imperfectly  the  rudiments  of  observation  from  the  air ;  but 
the  difference  between  this  preliminary  instruction  and  its 
completion  upon  the  front  is  like  the  difference  between 
learning  the  grammar  of  a  foreign  language  at  school  and 
having  to  talk  it  abroad.  It  is  a  new  chapter  altogether,  and 
an  absolutely  necessary  one. 

The  consequence  of  this  is  that  to  the  difficulties  of  merely 
raising  and  training  a  vast  new  force  out  of  a  very  small 
nucleus  and  to  the  special  difficulties  of  transhipment  you 
have  added  the  "bottle  neck"  of  intensive  training  upon  the 
European  side.  The  great  bodies  of  men,  even  though  long 
under  discipline  and  of  good  training  poured  over  from  the 
reservoir  beyond  the  sea,  must  pass  through  the  gate  of 
special  instruction  before  they  can  spread  out  upon  the  far 
side  of  it  as  troops  in  line  equal  to  the  present  emergency. 
And  that  again  is  a  condition  which  the  past  never  knew. 

HiLAiRE  Belloc 


Land   &   Water 


May  2,  1918 


Flying   Sailors  :    By   Herman  Whitaker 


"•tMWMMH 


Seaplane    leaving    the    Water 


w 


'  HAT  in  the  world  are  those  fellows  ? " 

On  the  transport  that  brought  three  thou- 
sand of  us  across  from  America,  this  ques- 
tion was  asked  whenever  two  young  men 
appeared  on  deck  in  khaki  suits  that  bore 
the  blue  >and  gold  shoulder  straps  of  an  American  naval 
lieutenant ;  and  the  explanation  that  they  belonged  to  the 
U.S.  Naval  Aviation  Service  invariably  produced  the  same 
exclamation :   "I  did  not  know  that  we  had  one. " 

I  confess  to  sharing  this  general  ignorance,  and  if  a  ship- 
load of  Americans  knew  nothing  about  the  naval  aviation 
stations  which  Uncle  Sam  has  scattered  with  a  free  hand 
along  the  seaboards  of  England,  Ireland,  Italy,  France,  it 
is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  British  public  is  equally 
unaware  of  their  existence. 

When  an  opportunity  opened  for  me  to  visit  certain  of 
our  American  aviation  stations  in  France,  I  jumped  at  the 
chance  to  remedy  my  ignorance  and  took  the  first  train 
to  a  little  south-coast  town,  where  I  found  the  station 
surrounded  by  peaked  stone  houses,  grey  with  age,  and 
menaced  by  fat-bellied  windmills  that  waved  wooden  arms 
in  the  distance,  hke  plethoric  millers  warming  their  hands 
on  a  frosty  morning. 

A  convoy  had  been  reported  as  approaching  the  sector 
just  before  my  arrival,  and  when  the  commander  asked  if 
I  would  Uke  to  go  out  with  the  air  patrol,  I  jumped  at 
the  chance.  A  flight  with  a  sea  patrol  guarding  a  convoy 
against  the  attacks  of  U-boats  does  not  drop  in  every  day. 
Five  minutes  after  he  made  the  offer,  I  emerged  from  his 
office  in  a  quilted  flying  suit  and  woollen  boots,  every  inch 
an  aviator — on  the  outside. 

The  planes  were  already  launched,  and  sitting  there  on 
the  water,  their  golden  fish  bodies  under  widespread  white 
wings  spotted  wth  the  red  and  blue  flying  circles,  they  looked 
like  gay  aquatic  birds.  The  sailor  lad  who  filled  the  dual 
role  of  observer  and  wireless  operator,  was  crouched  in  his 
cubby  hole  in  the  great  bird's  thick  beak.  Lest  the  wireless 
fail,  however,  we  took  with  us  a  pair  of  carrier  pigeons. 
For  though  the  planes  had  been  subjected  to  a  microscopic 
examination  and  the  motor  tested  and  groomed  to  racing 
fitness,  accidents  will  happen.  The  tiniest  nut  falling  on 
to  a  propeller  revolving  at  two  thousand  revolutions  per 
minute  Twill  pierce  the  blade  like  a  high-power  bullet,  and 
the  ensuing  vibration  will  wreck  the  motor. 

Just  forward  of  the  pilot's  seat,  where  he  could  release 
them  with  a  touch,  two  large  bombs  hung  in  tlieir  bracket. 
Dropped  from  an  altitude  of  ten  thousand  feet  at  a  speed 
of  seventy  miles  an  hour,  they  will  strike  twelve  hundred 
feet  beyond  the  point  above  which  they  were  let  go.  At  tlie 
lower  altitudes  maintained  by  sea  patrols,  two  hundred  feet 
is  a  sufficient  allowance,  but  even  then  a  good  deal  of  practice, 
skill,  and  judgment  are  required  to  secure  a  liit. 

Another  plane,  our  consort,  was  already  spinning  around 
the  channel  warming  up  her  motor,  and  while  we  followed 
suit  my  oificer-pilot  delivered  a  short  lecture  on  the  clocks 
that  indicate  altitude,  levels,  air  pressure  on  the  engine, 
propeller  revolutions  and  so  forth,  and  had  me  peep  into  the 
cubby  hole  where  the  wireless  operator  was  "tuning"  his 
receiver.  When  we  rose  he  would  let  down  his  aerial,  where- 
after we  should  be  in  constant  communication  with  our  base, 

A  deafening  roar,  a  dash  of  smarting  spray,  a  sudden  blow 
in  the  face  from  a  bitter  wind,  marked  the  get-away.     The 


day  was  cold  in  any  case,  and  that  fierce  wind  chilled  my 
face  to  the  bone.  Soon  it  settled  into  a  more  comfortable 
numbness,  then  as  my  eyes  grew  accustomed  to  the  goggles, 
I  saw,  far  beneath,  a  line  of  white  surf  along  seamed  black 
rocks,  a  toy  lighthouse,  a  golden  beach ;  beyond  all,  a 
dull  green  plain  scored  with  yellow  roads  that  led  on  to  toy 
hamlets.  All  this  quickly  vanished,  and  there  remained  only 
the  sea,  grey-green  through  a  golden  haze,  chased  and  fretted 
with  tiny  wavelets ;  across  which  we  raced  our  own  shadow 
toward  the  indefinite  horizon.  I  had  always  thought  of 
gulls  as  flj^ng  swift  and  high ;  but  down  there,  almost 
stationary  by  comparison  with  our  flight,  a  flock  floated 
hke  bits  of  feather  fluff. 

Rising  out  of  his  cubby  hole,  the  observer  now  began  to 
sweep  the  waters  with  a  powerful  glass.  From  a  plane  the 
dark  mass  of  a  submarine  can  be  detected  sixty  feet  under 
water ;  and  though  so  small,  mere  black  pin-heads  in  the 
sea's  translucent  green,  mines  are  sometimes  seen.  Up  there 
with  the  roar  of  the  motor  in  one's  ears  conversation  was 
impossible.  Though  I  shouted,  for  experiment,  I  could  not 
hear  my  own  voice.  Sign  language  obtained  and  following 
the  pilot's  pointing  finger  I  saw,  first  a  red-sailed 
fleet  of  fishing  boats,  then  a  large  ship.  From  stem  to  stem 
she  lay  flat  on  the  sea  just  as  though  etched  on  the  water ; 
the  only  sign  of  life,  sp  shirt  and  pair  of  trousers  that  fluttered 
in  the  breeze. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  we  had  scarcely  passed  her  before 
the  island  where  we  were  to  pick  up  our  convoy  hove  in 
sight.  To  passing  ships  it  must  have  appeared  as  a  rock- 
ribbed  shore  smothered  in  surf.  To  us  it  presented  the 
customary  rehef  map  on  which  a  toy  Hghthouse  posed  with 
a  toy  hamlet,  toy  churches,  toy  windmills,  all  within  the 
sea's  edging  of  green  and  white  lace.  The  ships,  however, 
were  not  in  sight,  and  on  the  chance  that  they  had  gone 
up  the  other  side,  we  swept  around  a  twenty-mile  circle 
and  came  roaring  down  the  opposite  shore.  A  golden  haze 
spread  its  thin  veil  over  the  ocean,  and  from  its  midst 
suddenly  sailed  out  twenty  vessels  in  three  columns  with 
a  destroyer  in  the  lead  and  a  converted  yacht  behind.  We 
were  too  high  to  distinguish  people,  but  a  white  flash  from 
the  destroyer,  followed  by  a  quick  electric  blinking,  spelled 
out  the  hearty  greeting:  "Glad  to  see  youl" 

We  answered  in  kind,  then  flew  on  down  the  long  Unes 
of  ships  that  rode  the  shining  sea,  each  with  a  white-feathered 
wake  behind,  a  plume  of  dark  smoke  above.  First  the 
destroyer,  slender  as  a  lance  ;  next  the  broad  white  decks 
of  a  tramp ;  on  over  ship  after  ship  till  the  graceful  shape 
of  the  converted  yacht  passed  below.  Up  there  the  sun 
shone  with  an  effulgence  unknown  on  earth.  As  it  were  in 
great  silence — for  that  was  the  effect  of  the  tremendous 
noise — we  shot  back  and  forth  circhng  and  recirchng  the 
fleet.  When  we  swung  out  on  its  flanks,  it  would  appear 
to  break  up  into  small  detachments — to  resolve  once  more 
into  lines  as  we  swung  ahead  or  astern. 

It  was  a  beautiful  as  well  as  a  wonderful  sight,  but  when 
I  tried  to  photograph  it — well,  imagine  yourself  leaning  down 
from  a  plane  with  an  eighty-mile  wind  tearing  at  the  camera 
while  you  strive  to  see  in  the  finder  an  object  a  thousand 
feet  below.  It  is  not  easy  to  do.  Even  when  our  consort 
flew  alongside  for  me  to  take  her  picture,  it  was  difficult 
to  find  her  in  the  lens. 

At  intervals  the  wireless  observer  had  dived  down  into 


May  2,  igrS 


Land   &   Water 


his  cubby  hole  and  we  would  see  only  his  bark  bent  over 
the  wireless  receiver.  He  now  bobbed  up  holding  a  slate 
on  wliich  he  had  chalked  a  message  just  received.  It  was 
not  from  the  convoy  sailing  so  quietly  under  our  protecting 
wings.  It  came  hurtling  along  the  meridians  ;  perhaps  from 
the  Mediterranean  ;  more  likely  from  far  up  the  British 
Channel. 

"  Enemy  ships  in  sight." 

With  the  German  Fleet  bottled  up  in  port  ?  It  seemed 
absuro.  At  tne  station  that  evening,  the  commander  in- 
sisted that  the  man  must  have  misread  the  message.  But 
^I  am  not  so  sure  of  that.  It  was  the  very  day  that  the 
German  destroyers  made  their  "tip  and  run"  raid  and  sank 
the  trawler  patrol  off  Dover.  It  may  have  been  the  strangled 
call  of  a  small  boat  encountered  earher  in  the  day. 

"Submarine  quite  near,"  a  second  ran. 

This  undoubtedly  came  from  a  distance,  yet  the  thrill  of 
it  tautened  Our  nerves,  stimulated  our  watch  on  the  waters 
below  during  the  rem3inder  of  the  forty  miles  we  escorted 
the  convoy  across  our  sector. 

A  red  pennant  streaming 
from  below  the  golden  fish 
belly  of  our  consort  gave  the 
signal  for  home,  and  down 
the  streaming  path  of  the 
low  sun  between  the  blue 
sky  and  grey-green  sea  we 
roared  on  like  great  birds 
homing  from  afar.  Our 
consort  was  flying  higher 
than  we.  and  as  I  watched 
her  against  the  sky  there 
came  one  of  those  incidents 
that  have  given  rise  to  a 
rule  that  no  plane  must 
ever  fly  alone.  She  wavered 
like  a  duck  shot  in  mid-air  ; 
the  next  instant  swooped 
down  on  a  long  nose-dive  and 
alighted  with  a  great  white 
splash.  She  was  sitting  there 
when  w6  caught  up,  wings 
outstretched  like  a  winded 
gull,  thirty  miles  from  home. 
Twice  we  circled  her  to  make 
certain  she  was  not  in  im- 
mediate distress  ;  then  flew 
on,  faster  than  her  pigeons, 
faster  than  the  swiftest  bird, 
covering  the  thirty  miles 
in  a  little  more  than  twenty 
minutes  ;  landing  with  barely 
enough  gasolene  to  carry  us 
ten  more  miles.  Time  had  sped  so  quickly,  I  could  hardly 
beUeve  my  eyes — we  had  been  out  four  hours  and  a,  quarter, 
and  covered  two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  miles,  a  record  for 
the  station. 

Going  up,  I  had  felt  anything  but  sure  of  my  behaviour. 
But  the  novelty,  stark  beauty  of  it  all,  out-sailing  the  birds 
between  sea  and  sun,  had  lifted  me  above  fear.  But  I  was 
both  greatly  tired  and  stone  deaf.  Down  here,  on  earth,  it 
seemed  so  confoundedly  quiet.  The  commander's  greeting 
sounded  as  though  played  on  a  run-down  phonograph  on  a 
badly  cracked  record  several  miles  away.  Nor. did  I  fully 
recover  my  hearing  for  twenty-four  hours  later. 

"You'll  sleep  to-night,"  my  pilot  told  me;  and  I  did — 
like  the  proverbial  log. 

He,  poor  fellow,  had  to  hop  into  a  motor-boat  and  go  after 
our  consort.  She  had  broken,  it  seemed,  a  connecting-rod. 
Darkness  fell  before  the  boat  covered  half  the  distance.  A 
strong  tide  carried  her  six  miles  from  the  point  we  left  her, 
and  but  for  the  hand-rockets  her  pilot  fired  at  intervals,  they 
would  never  have  found  her  at  all.  She  might  have  had  the 
same  experience  as  another  crew  that  drifted  for  two  days 
and  nights  before  they  v/^re  picked  up.  As  it  was,  midnight 
passed  before  she  was  towed  into  the  dock. 

We  had  neither  seen  nor  captured  a  submarine  that  day. 
But  prevention  is  better  than  cure.  The  daily  sweeping  of 
the  French  channels  by  our  patrols  has  rid  them  of  the 
nesting  submarines  that  used  to  sow  them  thick  with  mines. 
It  is  human  to  love  adventure.  If  it  were  not,  where  should 
we  get  men  to  fly  our  planes  ?  It  is  natural  that  these  flying 
sailors  of  ours  should  long  for  the  thrill  of  actual  encounter. 
Instead  of  for  bread,  their  daily  prayer  now  iMns :  "Give  us 
this  day  a  submarine  1"  But  their  work  will  be  just  as 
valuable  if  they  never  set  eyes  on  one  during  the  war. 
*  ♦  •  *  » 

My  second  flight  was  made  at  a  third  station  in  North 


France,  and  I  will  take  up  the  tale  on  the  morning,  two 
weeks  later,  that  I  sat  with  the  chief  pilot  on  the  quay  wall, 
dangling  our  legs  above  a  miniature  gale  raised  bv  the  pro- 
pellers of  a  seaplane  that  was  being  "tuned  up"  for  patrol. 
A  dozen  stout  men  were  holding  it,  and  the  big  bird's  struggles 
in  their  hands  strongly  reminded  me  of  a  Christmas  turkey 
.  in  sight  of  the  axe  and  block. 

It  was  easy  to  tell  this  for  the  war  zone.  A  ne^t  of  British 
gunboats,  the  night  patrol,  cuddled  like  sleepy  ducklings 
under  the  opposite  quay.  Two  squat  monitors,  bull-dogs  of 
the  ocean,  drowsed  heavily  further  down  the  channel — their 
fifteen-inch  guns,  however,  still  trained  on  the  German  naval 
base  fifteen  miles  away  in  readiness  for  anything  Fritz  might 
see  fit  to  start. 

Behind  la}'  the  Uttle  port,  battered  and  mangled  by  three 
years  of  war.  A  single  monster  shell,  fired  from  twenty 
miles  away,  had  laid  in  ruins  its  greatest  pride— a  fine  old 
churcli.  Blank  windows  stared  like  sightless  eyes  from  dead 
and   ruined  houses      Neither  had  the  station  escaped  scot 

free.  Four  bombs  had  struck 
recently  within  a  few  hundred 
feet  of  where  we  sat,  and  the 
huts  and  hangars  were  nicely 
riddled  by  shrapnel  and 
splinters.  All  of  which  formed 
a  grim  war  background  for 
the  sea  and  land  planes  that 
whirred  and  whined  above. 

A    burst    of   machine-gun 
fire    drew   our  gaze   to  five 
British     planes     that    were 
manoeuvring  in   mimic    war. 
Three  were  in  swift  pursuit 
of  two  across  the  sky.     But 
just  as  they  gained  position, 
the     pursued     looped     and 
dropped  on  the  tails  of  pur- 
suers with    bursts    of   blank 
fire  that   put    them,  techni- 
cally, do.wn  and  out.     It  was 
fascinating  to    watch    these 
green  pilots  practising  every 
trick  of  the  garte  they  would 
soon  be  called  up  to  try  on 
the    Boche.     But  when    he 
spoke,  the  chief  pilot's  point- 
ing finger  indicated  a  dozen 
white  specks  at  least  fourteen 
thousand  feet  up  in  the  blue. 
"That  is  the  British  bomb- 
ing squadron  returning  from 
a  raid.    They  are  big  fellows 
that  can  do  a  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  an  hour  with  a  heavy  load  of  bombs.    Fritz  is  always 
claiming  aii-supremacy,  and  finds  fools  even  among  ourselves 
to  believe  his  boasts.    Those  chaps  have  evidently  made  a  big 
killing.     They  fly  low  and  drop  quietly  into  camp  when  the 
luck  is  bad."     Just  then,  from  that  awful  height,  the  planes 
began  to  drop  earthward  in  a  series  of  dizzy  loops.     "There 
they  go  !     pulling   the   joy-stick   to  beat   the   band.     They 
must  have  cleaned  up  the  German  submarine  base." 

He  turned  and  looked  up  at  the  last  plane,  which  was 
tying  the  finishing  double-knot  in  the  atmosphere  before 
dropping  into  camp.  "There's  no  getting  away  from  it — 
these  British  lads  have  set  us  a  terrific  pace./  We'll  have  to 
go  some  to  catch  up." 

The  glint  in  his  eye,  however,  told  that  they  were  going 
to  try.  He  was  a  quiet  chap,  anyway  ;  not  given  to  talk. 
Only  by  accident  had  I  discovered  that  he  had  come  into 
the  American  Naval  Aviation  Service  from  the  Lafayette 
Escadrilla,  and  had  been  mentioned  by  both  the  French  and 
Belgian  Governments  for  shooting  down  German  planes ; 
and  he  simply  would  not  talk  about  it.  But  he  was  quite 
eloquent  about  his  fellows.  Two  of  them,  an  officer  pilot 
and  bluejacket  observer,  had  crashed  fatally  the  preceding 
week  ;  but  it  had  not  affected  the  nerve  of  the  others.  All, 
for  matter  of  that,  had  had  their  shaves.  One  had  driven 
a  plane  at  a  hundred  miles  an  hour  between  two  trees  twelve 
feet  apart.  He  stripped  both  wings  and  landed  with  the 
motor  in  the  bushy  top  of  a  pine  a  hundred  feet  away,  from 
which  he  climbed  down  and  walked  back  to  his  hangar. 
Yesterday  one  of  the  little  fighting  planes  that  guard  the 
hydros  on  patrol  had  crashed  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel, 
and  sunk  at  once,  leaving  its  pilot  swimming  for  his  Hfe.  He 
was  almost  exhausted  when  picked  up  by  the  hydroplane  he 
was  guarding  ;  but  though  no  hves  were  lost,  the  accident  gave 
rise  to  one  of  tliosc  minor  tragedies  the  birds  and  beasts  contri- 
bute to  the  war.  His  carrier  pigeons  went  down  with  the  plane. 


Converted  Yacht  guarding  Convoy 

Photo  taken  from  a  Seaplane  by  Author 


8 


Land    Sc    Water 


May  2,  19 1 S 


Of  the  two  released  from  another  breakdown,  one  flew 
straight  home  with  the  news  ;  but  the  other  fell  in,  t)n  the 
way,  with  a  boy  and  a  gun,  for  after  laying  up  two  days  for 
repairs,  the  faithful  little  creature  finally  arrivvd  home  with 
its  tail  feathers  shot  of?  and  a  pellet-wound  in  the  back. 

"  But  there's  our  star  case." 

The  pilot  indicated  a  dog  that  had  just  trotted  out  from 
behind  a  hangar.  He  was  not  much  to  look  at ;  belonged, 
in  fact,  to  that  yellow-cur  variety  one  may  see  being  hugged 
and  cuddled  by  small  urchins  on  almost  any  American  street. 
His  air  was  cheerful  as  he  nosed  for  bones  or  anything 
else  eatable  the  canine  gods  might  vouchsafe.  But  suddenly 
he  paused  and  shrank  in  a  cjueer,  paralytic  crouch 

"Shell-shocked  during  a  raid.  He  will  probably  recover. 
Meanwhile,  he  has  learned  his  lesson  ;  bolts  for  the  dugout 
ahead  of  the  men  when 


COLLAR  iBIo 


^^^irHr^M- 


ADMIRAL   Of    the:  NAVY 


^H^ir  *  • 


*  • 


VICF.  ADMlliAL 


4^  ik  H: 


KtAR  ADMIRAL 


+#  *m 


he     hears     '  Mournful 
Mary's'     first  j  yell. 
'Mary'  ?  She's  a  siren 
with  a  sob  in  hiir  voice. 
You'll  probably  make 
her   acquaintance    to- 
night,    for    a    Boche 
plane     hovered    over 
here  yesterday  taking 
photographs,   and  ru- 
mour has  it  that  we  are 
to  be  gassed  to-night." 
1    carried    tiiat    in- 
teresting piece  of   in- 
formation   back    vvitli 
me,    that  evening,  to 
the  hotel  where  I  was 
lodged     on     the    top 
story  with  only  a  few 
slates  between  me  and 
the  Boche.       Being 
bombed  is  one  thing  ; 
gassed — quite  another. 
I  once  helped  to  pull 
a  pair  of  farmers  out 
of   an  hotel   bedroom 
after  th?y  had  blown 
out    the    gas.      They 
looked  horrid.     When 
awakened  by  "  Mourn- 
ful Mary's"  lugubrious 
wail   in  the  middle  of 
the  night,  I  felt  that  I 
was  looking  hke  them. 
Far    off,     the     "Old 
.Man,"  a  second  siren 
of  the  masculine  gen- 
der,  was   cursing   the 
Boche    in    stentorian 
tones.     But,   louder 
than  either — at  least, 
so  it    sounded  to    me 
— rose  the  "grumph  ! 
grumph  !  grumph  !"  of 
German  planes. 

There's  no  mistaking  the  sound,  and — they  were  directly 
overliead.  I  know  that  I  must  have  presented  an  accurate 
reproduction  of  that  Baimsfather  cartoon  wliich  shows  a 
Tommy,  hair  on  end,  stretched  out  flat  on  "  No  Man's  Land" 
under  the  glare  of  a  star-shell.  But  they  were  not  after  me. 
Four  hours  later  "Mary"  warned  us  of  their  return,  fresh 
from  the  murder  of  women  and  children  in  Paris. 

•  *  ♦  •  • 

The  sea  patrol,  two  hydroplanes,  and  three  small  lighting 
planes,  were  perched  hke  so  many  dragon-flies  and  attendant 
wasps  on  the  quay  when  I  came  back  to  the  station  the 
following  afternoon.  The  pilots  and  observers  were  already 
in  their  places,  the  former  trying  out  motors  and  controls, 
the  latter  fitting  and  loading  the  machine-guns  in  the  fore 
and  aft  pits.  The  after-observer,  by  the  way,  has  to  be 
cool-headed,  or  he  may  cut  a  few  wires  and  shoot  off  the  tail. 
In  their  quilted  suits  and  leather  helmets,  they  looked  like 
hooded  knights  ;  and  surely  Arthur's  Knights  of  tlie  Round 
Table  never  sallied  forth  on  more  desperate  quests,  for  the 
fabulous  winged  dragons  of  their  day  are  real  in  this  age. 
I  also  was  to  fly,  and  after  thd  patrol  had  got  away,  I 
dropped  into  the  forward  observer's  place  in  a  third  great 
bird.  This  time  I  had  wadded  my  ears  against  the  deafening 
roar  and  knew  what  to  expect.  A  rush  down  channel,  the 
familiar  dasli  of  spray,  then  we  rose,  lifting,  lifting,  lifting 
on  the  long  low  flight  of  a  mallard,  till  we  soared  over  the 
lighthouse  at  tlie  pier  end. 


ADMIRAL 
or  THr.  NAV> 


SHOULDER 

'Ovttcoali  *n'l  Whirf  Sen 


?i'^-^-|f<^ 


JVPMIRAL  OF  THt  NAVY 


VICE  ADMIRAL 


REAR  ADMIKAC 


»        -It'^' 


REAR  ADMIRAL 


COMMANDER 


LIEUT    CO.MMANDER. 


LICLTENANT 


LtEUTLNA\T 


mm 

CAfT/,!:. 
tOMM  ■  ■.    ■':■ 

4D  If  i 

UEUT.  Ci  A"/  \-.L'!  K 

III 


Insignia  of  Rank,   United   States   Navy 


A  wide  circle  laid  the  town  chrcctly  beneath,  its  red-roofed 
houses  in  vivid  contrast  with  the  dull  winter  gleam  of  the 
surrounding  prospect.  I  did  not  iialf  like  it,  there,  over  the 
land.  A  seaplane  is  a  seaplane,  and  the  ground  looked  so 
confoundedly  hard.  Those  pretty  red  pebbles  of  houses 
would  hurt  like  the  dickens  in  the  small  of  one's  back.  Though 
I  knew  we  should  crash  just  as  effectively  if  we  fell  into  the 
sea,  still  the  water  looked  soft. 

As  on  my  other  flight,  the  country  lay  below  like  a  map 
in  relief — hills  mere  green  knobs  in  a  silver  lace  of  water 
channels,  the  beacli  satin-gold,  edged  by  the  foaming  surf 
of  the  sea.  To-day  the  visibility  was  not  so  good,  yet  the 
haze  that  wrapped  sea  and  land  as  in  a  golden  cloak  lent 
them  mystery.  Anything  could  come  out  of  that  enchanted 
prospect — flying  Boche  dragons,  for  instance,  belching  five 

•  hundred  bullets  a 
minute  from  the  midst 
of  fire  and  smoke. 
But  it  was  all  so 
beautiful,  the  air  so 
crystalline,  sunlight 
golden  clear,  sea  so 
green  and  wi  de — 
Boche  obnoxiousness 
had  no  place  in  it. 
I  quite  forgot  him  as 
we  roared  on  between 
sea  and  sky,  while  toy- 
ships,  like  coast  vil- 
lages, passed  in  swift 
procession  beneath.  I 
had  almost  forgotten 
even  that  I  was  flying 
when — t  h  e  motor 
"stalled." 

Then  it  was  that  I 
n  cognised  the  tnith 
of  an  eminent  English 
doctor's  statement  in 
the  British  House  of 
Commons:  "Though 
the  flyer  may  have  no 
conscious  fear,  his  ner- 
vous system  is  never- 
theless aifraid,"  Un- 
consciously my  heart 
had  synch  roijised  with 
the  motor.  They 
stopped  ~  and  started 
together  when,  after 
we  had  fallen  a  few 
hundred  feet,  the  pilot 
coaxed  the  motor  into 
going  again. 

After  that  how  that 
man  did  climb,  climb, 
climb,  until  a  couple 
of  miles  out  from 
the  base,  we  had  risen 
fully  seven  thousand 
feet.  And  again  we 
needed  it,  for,  with  a  last  vicious  snarl,  the .  motor  refused 
the  propeller  another  turn.  Seven  thousand  teet  in  the  air, 
and  the  motor  stalled  !  A  nice  place  for  a  peaceful 
correspondent ! 

It  was  a  new  sensation,  that  headlong  dive  through  golden 
space,  in  silence  broken  only  by  the  harping  of  the  Wind  on 
our  wires.  I  should  have  enjoyed  it— if  I  had  not  been 
afraid.  I  hope  and  believe  the  pilot  did  not  notice  my  fright, 
for  I  camouflaged  it  by  taking  a  few  snapshots  at  those 
nasty  little  pebbles  of  houses  as  we  fell.  Perhaps  he  was 
afraid  himself  ?  Though  I  do  not  think  so.  No  doubt,  in 
the  pride  of  his  skill,  he  took  great  pleasure  in  those  sickening 
careens  on  the  curves  that  seemed  to  me  the  beginnings  of 
side-slips.  But,  be  this  as  it  may,  for  six  long  minutes  we 
fell,  fell,  fell,  and  as  each  loop  brought  those  red,  pebbly 
houses  up  to  meet  us,  I  experienced  once  more  that  absurd 
preference  for  the  sea. 

The  channel  in  front  of  the  hangars,  too,  looked  about  the 
size  of  a  cotton  thread,  and— there  was  so  much  land  on- 
each  side  of  it.  Even  at  a  thousand  feet  it  looked  no  wider 
than  a  length  of  baby  ribbon.  I  did  not  believe  we  could 
possibly  hit  it  ;  was  rather  surprised,  on  the  whole,  when 
we  took  the  water  with  scarcely  a  splash  almost  in  front  of 
our  hangar. 

"That  was  as  pretty  a  spiral  dive  as  ever  I  saw";    the 

chief  pilot  extended  us  congratulations  when  we  came  ashore. 

I  do  not  doubt  it,  but— I  should  not  care  to  do  it  again. 


LIEUTENANT  (Ju..; 


May  2,  19  I  8 


Land    &    Water 


Zeebriigge  :  By  A.  H.  Pollen 


IN  the  course  of  the  night  April  22nd-23rd  an  attack 
was  made  on  the  two  Flemish  bases  Ostend  and 
Zeebriijge  with  a  view  to  blocking  the  entrances  of 
both  by  the  familiar  method  of  sinking  old  cement- 
filled  ships  in  the  narrow  fairway.  It  is  suspected 
that  at  Ostend  the  block-ships  were  grounded  slightly  off  their 
course.  But  there  seems  little  doubt  that  the  Zeebru|ge 
block-ships  got  into  their  chosen  billets,  and  are  safely 
grounded  there.  The  latter  port  must,  in  spite  of  official 
denials,  for  some  weeks — if  not  months — be  useless  to  the 
enemy,  and  it  is  probably  safe  to  assume  that  the  value  of 
Ostend  will  be  considerably  diminished.  Material  results, 
therefore,  of  high  importance  have  probably  been  achieved 
by  this  enterprise. 

These  operations  are  worth  examining  from  three  quite 
separate  points  of  view. 
First,  what  is  the  strategical 
value  of  their  objective  ? 
How,  that  is  to  say,  would 
the  naval  activities  of  Great 
Britain  and  her  Allies  gain 
by  Zeebriigge  and  Ostend 
being,  for  some  months  at 
least,  out  of  action  ?  And, 
conversely,  what  would  the 
enemy  lose  ?  Unless  we 
are  satisfied  that  the  gain 
must  be  substantial — apart 
altogether  from  the  moral 
effect — we  should  obviously 
have  a  difficulty  in  justify- 
ing, not  the  losses  in  ships 
incurred,  which  are  trivial 
and  easily  replaced,  but  the 
losses  in  picked  men,  which 
are  irreparable.  Secondly, 
the  incident  is  clearly  worth 
examining  for  its  tactical 
interest.  What  were  the 
difficulties  the  Vice-Admiral 
in  command  had  to  over- 
come ?  By  what  weapons, 
devices,  and  manoeuvres, 
did  he  attempt  to  effect  his 
purpose  ?  Thirdly,  there 
is  the  direct  moral  effect 
of  this  enterprise  on  our- 
selves, our  Allies,  and  our 
enemies.  Finally,  we  are 
encouraged  to  ask  our- 
selves if  the  event  suggests  that  further  operations,  either 
of  the  same  kind  or  of  a  cognate  order,  are  now  shown  to 
be  possible  ?  Have  we,  in  short,  naval  assets  in  men  and 
material  that  we  have  not  so  far  used  and  can  use  ?  Let 
us  begin  with  the  strategy  involved. 

Strategical  Object 

There  is  now  only  one  theatre  of  the  war,  and  in  this  the 
issue  of  civilisation  or  barbarism  must  be  decided,  by  mihtary 
action,  in  the  next  few  months.  The  event  depends  upon  the 
capacity  of  the  sea  power  of  the  Alhes  to  deliver  in  France  all 
the  fighting  men  and  all  the  war  material  that  Allied  ships 
can  draw  first  from  Asia,  from  .Australia,  from  South  America, 
from  the  United  States,  and  from  Canada,  and  then  dehver 
either  directly  into  France,  or  first  into  British  ports,  and 
then  from  Britain  into  France.  To  beat  the  German  Army 
is  ultimately  a  problem  in  sea  communications.  The  whole 
of  them  have  to  pass  through  the  bottle-neck  of  the  Western 
end  of  the  Atlantic  lanes.  Into  an  a«a  south  of  Ireland 
and  north  of  Ushant,  a  hundred  miles  square,  every  ship  that 
comes  from  the  Mediterranean,  from  the  Cape,  from  Buenos 
Ayres,  Rio,  the  West  Indies,  or  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  of  America,  must  come,  as  is  shown  by 
the  diagram  on  the  next  page. 

Secondary  only  to  this  are  the  areas  that  feed  ships  into  it, 
or  into  which  the  ships  that  pass  through  it  are  dissipated 
on  their  way  to  the  several  ports — the  Mediterranean,  the 
Bay  of  Biscay,  the  English  Channel,  St.  George's  Sound,  the 
Irish  Sea.  It  is  in  these,  when  it  is  driven  from  the  main 
funnel  point  of  traffic,  that  the  submarine  must  do  its  work. 
The  defeat  of  the  submarine  turns  upon  two  factors  :  the 
efficiency  with  which  ships  liable  to  attack  are  protected  by 


Vice-Admiral  Sir  Roger  Keyes 


convoy,  and  the  skill  and  persistence  with  which  submarines, 
once  on  their  hunting-grounds,  are  in  turn  hunted.  Con- 
voying and  submarine-hunting  make  heavy  demands  on 
material,  on  personnel,  and  on  sldll,  judgment,  and  organisa- 
tion. But  the  decisive  material  factor  is  the  number  of 
destroyers  available  for  both  forms  of  work.  When  it  comes 
to  a  close-quarters  fight,  no  craft  that  has  a  speed  of  less  than 
thirty  knots,  that  cannot  maintain  itself  in  any  weather, 
that  does  not  possess  a  large  cruising  radius,  can  be  of  the 
first  efficiency.  , 

The  larger  petrol-driven  submarine-chasers  and  the  mariy 
special  craft  which  are  built  for  various  purposes  in 
connection  with  the  defensive  campaign,  all  have  their  field 
of  utility.  But  for  the  final  power  to  rush  swiftly  on  to  a 
submarine,  if  it  is  momentarily  seen  afloat,  and  for  covering 

the  area  into  which  it  can 
submerge  itself,  while  the 
destroyer  approaches  with 
depth  bombs,  the  destroyer, 
if  only  from  its  superior 
speed,  stands  supreme  as 
the  enemy  of  the  U-boat. 
From  the  very  earliest  days 
of  the  submarine  work  it 
has,  then,  been  axiomatic 
that  every  measure  which 
will  put  a  larger  number 
of  destroyers  at  our  dis- 
posal should  be  taken  at 
almost  any  cost.  How  docs 
the  stroke  at  Zeebi^gge 
and  Ostend  help  us  in  this 
respect  ? 

At  these  two  ports  our 
enemy  was  able  to  maintain 
a  very  considerable  de- 
stroyer force.  Its  activities, 
as  we  saw  last  week,  were 
necessarily  mainly  confined 
to  work  in  darkness  or  in 
thick  weather.  But  in  such 
conditions  its  efficiency  was 
of  a  very  high  order.  The 
public  only  heard  of  its 
activities  when  it  shelled 
some  point  of  the  coast  of 
Kent,  or  raided  our  traw- 
lers or  other  patrols,  and, 
in  all  conscience,  it  heard 
of  these  activities  often 
enough.  Yet  we  were  incUned  to  suppose  them  unim- 
portant because  their  material  results  were  insignificant. 
But  their  value  to  the  enemy  should  not  be  measured 
by  the  casualties  they  inflicted  on  our  light  craft,  nor  by 
their  occasional  excursions  into  the  murder  of  civilians 
on  shore.  It  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  enemy's  force 
permanently  withdrew  from  the  anti-submarine  cam- 
paign numerous  destroyer  leaders,  and  destroyers  which 
had  to  be  maintained  at  Dover  to  cope  with  it.  From 
ZeebrQgge  to  Emden — the  nearest  German  port — is,  roughly, 
300  miles  by  sea ;  and  it  does  not  need  elaborate  argument 
to  show  that,  with  Zeebriigge  and  Ostend  out  of  action,  the 
problem  of  dealing  with  enemy  craft  in  the  Narrow  Seas  is 
totally  and  entirely  changed.  With  these  gone,  the  East 
Coast  ports  become  the  natural  centres  from  which  to  com- 
mand the  waters  between  Great  Britain  and  Holland.  They 
are  fifty  miles  nearer  Emden  than  is  Dunkirk.  If  any 
German  destroyers  got  west  and  south  of  Dunkirk,  and  the 
news  of  their  presence  were  cabled  to  an  East  Coast  base, 
destroyers  could  get  between  the  enemy  and  his  ports  without 
difficulty.  Thus,  enemy  surface  craft,  based  upon  German 
ports,  would  practically  be  denied  access  to  Flemish  waters 
altogether,  and  this  by  the  East  Coast  and  not  by  the  Dover 
forces.  In  other  words,  the  Dover  patrol  forces  would,  by 
the  closing  of  Ostend  and  Zeebriigge,  be  set  free  for  the 
highly  important  work  of  aiding  in  the  anti-submarine 
campaign — and  there  is  certainly  no  naval  need  of  the  moment 
that    is   greater.  . 

The  strategical  objective,  therefore,  which  Admira*  Keyes 
put  before  himself  in  his  expedition  was  to  set  back  the 
enemy's  naval  bases  by  no  less  than  three  hundred  miles. 
The  direct  importance  of  this  to  the  submarine  campaign  is, 
as  we  saw  last  week,  while  not  unimportant,  of  no  decisive 


Vandyk 


lO 


Land    Sc    Water 


May  2,  1 918 


value.  But  its  indirect  importance  as  setting  free  new 
forces  for  attacking  the  submarine  cannot  be  exaggerated, 
for  it  will  be  a  step — and  a  great  step — forward  in  making 
sure  of  the  sea  communications  on  which  all  depends.  It 
must  be  conceded,  then,  that  the  results  Admiral  Keyes  had 
in  view  amply  justify  a  very  considerable  expenditure' both 
of  material  and  rnen.  Let  us  next  ask  ourselves  what  kind 
of  material  he  chose,  and  how  he  proposed  to  use  his  forces 
with  utmost  economy  and  maximum  tactical  effect. 

Sir  Roger  Keyes'  Tactics 

™  The  purposes  of  the  expedition,  as  we  have  seen,  was  to 
block  the  exit  of  the  canal  at  Zeebriigge  and  the  entrance 
of  the  small,  narrow  harbour  at  Ostend  with  old  cruisers 
filled  with  cement,  the  removal  of  which  would  be  an  opera- 
tion of  a  lengthy  and  tedious  kind.     Incidentally,  the  plan 


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was  to  effect  the  maximum  destruction  of  war  stores  and 
equipment  at  ZeebrQgge  and  to  sink  as  many  as  possible  of 
any  of  the  enemy  vessels  found  in  either  port,  and,  finally, 
to  inflict  on  the  enemy  the  maximum  possible  losses  of 
personnel.  As  there  were  two  points  of  attack,  the  expedi- 
tion naturally  resolved  itself  into  two  distinct,  but  simul- 
taneous, undertakings.  The  simpler,  the  less  dangerous,  the 
less  ambitious  but,  as  the  event  showed,  the  more  difficult 
operation  of  the  two,  was  the  attempt  to  block  Ostend.  The 
larger,  more  complex,  and  infinitely  more  perilous  under- 
taking, but  because  of  its  very  complications,  ultimately 
easier,  was  the  attempt  at  Zeebriigge.  In  its  broad  outlines, 
the  scheme  was  to  get  the  ships  as  near  as  possible  without 
detection,  and  then  to  trust  to  a  final  rush  to  gain  the  desired 
position.  Concealment  up  to  the  last  moment  was  to  be 
secured  by  smoke  screens.  At  Ostend  the  problem  was 
simply  to  run  two  or  three  ships  into  the  entrance — that  is, 
to  get  them  there  before  the  enemy's  artillery  would  sink 
them  where  their  presence  would  do  no  harm.  If  the  Ostend 
attempt  failed,  it  was  largely  because  a  sudden  change  in 
the  weather  conditions  robbed  the  smoke  screens,  which 
were  to  hide  the  ships,  of  their  value,  so  that  the  operation 
of  placing  the  block  ships  accurately  was  made  almost 
impossible.  It  may  be  asked  why,  in  these  conditions,  the 
attempt  was  hot  postponed  ?  The  answer  is  obvious.  The 
enemy  could  not  be  surprised  twice,  and  though  the  oppor- 
tunity was  not  as  good  as  had  been  hoped,  the  best  had  to 
be  made  of  it.  The  operation  of  blocking  such  entrances 
has,  of  course,  long  been  familiar.  The  exploit  of  Lieutenant 
Hobson  in  the  Spanish-American  War  is  fresh  in  the  memories 
of  all  sailors.  This  failed  through  the  steering  gear  of  the 
blocking-ship  being  destroyed  by  gunfire  at  the  critical 
moment.  The  Japanese  attempted  the  same  thing  on  a 
large  scale  at  Port  Arthur,  but  with  anj'thing  but  complete 
success.  If  the  Ostend  effort,  then,  falls  short  of  finality, 
we  have  the  experience  of  these  earlier  precedents  to  explain 
and  account  for  it. 

I  have  dealt  with  Ostend  first  because,  after  the  preliminary 
bombardment,  nothing  more  could  have  been  attempted 
than  to  force  the  ship^  into  the  harbour  entrance  and  sink 
them  .there.     But  at  Zeebriigge,  as  a  glance  at  the  plan  of 


the  place  shows,  a  far  more  intricate  operation  was  possible. 
Zeebrugge  is_not  a  town.  It  is  just  the  sea  exit  of  the  Bruges 
Canal,  with  its  railway  connections,  round  which  a  few 
streets  of  houses  have  clustered.  The  actual  entrance  to  the 
canal  is  flanked  by  two  short  sea-walls  at  the  end  of  each  of 
which  are  guide-lights.  From  these  lights  up  the  canal  to 
the  lock  gates  is  about  half  a  mile.  A  large  mole  protects 
tiie  sea  channel  to  the  canal  from  being  blocked  by  silted 
sand.  The  mole  is  connected  to  the  mainland  by  five  hundred 
yards  of  pile  viaduct.    The  mole  is  nearly  a  mile  long,  built 


in  a  curve,  a  segment  amounting  to  perhaps  one-sixth  of 
a  circle,  the  centre  of  which  would  be  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
east  of  the  canal  entrance,  while  its  radius  would  be  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile.  It  is  a  large  and  substantial  stone  struc- 
ture, on  which  are  railway  lines  and  a  railway  station,  and 
has  been  turned  to  capital  military  account  by  the  enemy, 
who  erected  on  it  aircraft  sheds  and  mihtary  estabhshments 
of  many  kinds. 

The  general  plan  was  to  bombard  the  place  for  an  hour  by 
monitors  and,  under  cover  of  this  fire,  for  the  attacking 
squadron  to  advance  to  the  harbour  mouth.  Then,  when 
the  bombardment  ceased.  Vindictive  was  to  nm  alongside 
the  mole,  disembark  her  own  landing  party,  and  those  from 
Iris  and  Daffodil,  who  were  to  overpower  the  enemy  pro- 
tecting the  guns  and  stores,  while  the  old  submarines  were 
run  into  the  pile  viaduct  to  cut  the  mole  off  from  the  main- 
land, thus  isolating  it.  Meanwhile,  other  forces  were  to 
engage  any  enemy  destroyers  or  submarines  that  might  be 
in  the  port.  Finally,  the  block-ships  were  to  be  pushed  right 
up  into  the  canal  mouth,  and  there  sunk.  The  success  of 
the  latter  part  of  these  operations  turned  upon  the  success  of 
the  attack  on  the  mole,  for  it  is  seemingly  on  this  that  the  main 
artillery  defences  commanding  the  inner  harbour  at  short 
range,  were  placed  ;  so  that  if  these  could  be  put  out  of 
action,  the  attack  on  the  lock-gates,  the  sinking  of  the  enemy's 
ships,  and  the  navigation  of  the  block-sliips  to  their  right 
positions,  would  be  as  little  inteifered  with  as  possible. 

To  ensure  success  against  the  mole,  several  very  ingenious 
devices  were  brought  into  play.  The  first,  and,  it  must  be 
presumed,  the  main  landing  parties  were  placed  in  Vindictive. 
This  cniiser — which  displaces  about  5,600  tons,  and  has  a 
broadside  of  six  6-inch  guns — was  fitted,  on  the  port  side, 
with  "brows"  or  landing  gangways,  that  could  be  lowered 
on  the  mole  the  moment  she  came  alongside.  All  the  vessels 
of  the  squadron  were  equipped  with  fog  or  smoke-making 
material,  which  would  veil  the  force  from  the  enemy  until  he 
sent  up  his  star-shells  and,  in  the  artificial  light,  would 
conceal  the  character,  numbers,  and  composition  of  the  force 
as  completely  as  possible.  It  seems  that  a  shift  of  wind  at 
the  critical  moment — here,  as  at  Ostend — robbed  this  plan 
of  some  of  its  anticipated  efficiency.  At  some  point  of  the 
approach,  then,  apparently  just  before  Vindictive  rounded 
and  got  abreast  of  the  lighthouse,  the  presence  of  the  invaders 
was  detected,  and  they  were  saluted  first  by  salvoes  of  star 
shells  and  next  by  as  hot  a  gunfire  as  can  be  conceived. 
Vindictive  lost  no  time  in  replying.  Her  six  6-inch  guns 
— and  no  doubt  her  12-pounders  as  well — swept  the  mole 
as  long  as  they  could  be  fired,  and  once  alongside  the  "brows " 
— only  two  out  of  eighteen  seem  to  have  survived  the  heavy 
gunfire — were  lowered,  and  officers  and  men  "boarded"  the 
mole. 

The  earlier  accounts  stated  that  this  landing  was  effected 
in  spite  of  the  stoutest  sort  of  hand-to-hand  fighting,  that  the 
enemy  was  overcome  and  driven  back,  and  that  the  landing- 
party  then  proceeded  to  the  destruction  of  the  sheds  and 
stores.  The  plans  had  included  the  blowing  up  of  the  pile 
viaduct,  which  connects  the  stone  mole  with  the  mainland 
— by  means  of  one  or  two  old  submarines  charged  with 
explosives,  and  so  virtually  converted  into  giant  torpedoes. 


May  2,  1918 


Land    &    Water 


1 1 


These  did  their  work  most  effectively,  and  had  the  enemy 
been  in  occupation  of  the  mole,  his  force  would  have  been 
isolated.  But,  as  a  fact,  the  mole  was  not  occupied,  and  the 
enemy  relied  upon  machine  and  gun  fire  organised  from  the 
shore  end  of  the  mole  for  making  the  landing  impossible. 
In  spite  of  a  withering  fusilade,  a  considerable  landing-party 
of  marines  and  bluejackets  got  ashore,  though  Colonel  Elliott 
and  Commander  Halahan  and  great  numbers  of  their  men 
were  killed  in  the  attempt.  Those  that  got  on  the  mole 
proceeded  to  destroy,  as  far  as  possible,  the  sheds,  stores, 
and  guns,  and  then  turned  their  attention  to  the  destroyers 
moored  against  its  inner  side. 

Meantime,  the  only  enemy  destroyer  that  seems  to  have 
had  steam  up  tried  to  escape  from  harbour,  and  was  either 
rammed  and  instantly  sunk,  or  torpedoed.  Others,  less  well 
prepared,  were  either  _^___,.,____^__^__^_^^__ 
boarded,  after  the  resist- 
ance of  their  crews  had 
been  overcome,  and,  it 
must  be  presumed,  sunk 
also.  Others,  again,  were 
attacked  by  motor 
launches,  which  pre- 
ceded and  helped  clear 
a  way  for  the  block- 
ships.  Whether  an  at- 
tempt on  the  lock-gates 
was  made  or  even  con- 
templated, we  have  at 
the  time  of  writing  not 
been  told  ;  but  the  main 
purpose  of  the  expedi- 
tion, the  sinking  of  at 
least  two  out  of  the 
three  old  Apollos  in  the 
right  place,  seems  to 
have  been  achieved  with 
precision.  The  moment 
the  block-ships  were  in 
place,  the  jiurpose  for 
which  the  mole  was 
occupied  was  gained, 
and  the  order  was 
rightly  given  for  an  im- 
mediate retreat.  The 
work  had  been  done,  and 
there  was  no  knowing 
what  new  resources  the 
enemy  could  have 
brought  to  bear,  had 
time  been  wasted.  Many 
of  the  vessels,  including 
Vindictive,  had  been 
hol^d  by  ir-inch  shells. 
But  Vindidive's  dam- 
ages were  not  of  a 
serious    kind,    and   the    . 

whole  force  was  able  to  withdraw  in  safety,  with  the"  ex- 
ception of  one  destroyer,  and  two  motor  launches.  The 
destroyer  is  known  to  have  been  sunk  by  gunfire.  The  fate 
of  the  other  two  is,  at  the  moment  of  writing,  uncertain.  The 
successful  withdrawal  of  the  expedition  is  conclusive  evidence 
that  the  enemy  was  demoralised. 

For  such  close-quarters  work  Admiral  Keyes,  naturally 
enough,  armed  his  forces  as  for  trench  fighting.  Vindictive 
carried  howitzers  on  her  forward  and  after  decks ;  and  her 
boarding  parties  were  liberally  armed  with  grenades  and 
flame-throwers,  as  well  as  with  rifles,  bayonets,  and  truncheons. 
Machine-guns  also  seem  to  have  been  landed,  so  that  hand- 
to-hand  fighting  was  prepared  for  in  the  full  Hght  of  the 
most  recent  war  experience.  The  plan,  it  should  be  noted, 
was  to  have  included  aeroplane  co-operation  to  supplement, 
if  not  to  assist,  the  work  of  the  monitors  ;  but  the  change  in 
the  weather  appears  to  have  interfered  with  this  part  of  the 
programme,  and  may  quite  easily  have  made  ciny  accurate 
work  by  the  monitors  impossible  also. 

It  is,  first  of  all,  patent  that  the  expedition  was  thoroughly 
thought  out  in  all  its  details,  and  therefore  closely  planned. 
An  accurate  study  of  the  enemy's  defences  had  been  made, 
and  suitable  means  of  avoiding  his  attack  or  overcoming  his 
defences  had  been  elaborately  worked  out.  It  is  equally 
clear  that  almost  to  the  moment  when  the  attack  was  made, 
the  weather  conditions  were  those  which  the  plan  contemplated 
as  necessary  to  success,  and  that  it  was  only  the  sudden 
unexpected  change  in  the  wind  that  threatened  the  Ostend 
part  of  the  operations  with  partial  failure,  and  made  the 
Zeebriigge  operations  more  costly  in  life  than  thev  should 
otherwise   have   been.     When    it   is   remembered   that    the 


H.M.S.  Vindictive 


approaches  to  Ostend  and  Zeebriigge  are  commanded  by 
very  formidable  batteries,  armed  with  no  less  than  120 
guns  of  the  largest  calibre,  and  that  the  mole  and  the  sides 
of  the  canal  bristled  with  quick-firing  12-pounders  and  larger 
pieces,  it  will  be  reahsed  that,  to  the  enemy  any  attempt 
actually  to  bring  an  unarmoured  vessel,  with  her  cement- 
laden  consorts,  right  up  either  to  the  mole  or  to  the  actual 
mouth  of  the  canal  must  have  appeared  an  undertaking  too 
absurdly  hare-brained  for  anyone  but  a  lunatic  to  have 
attempted.  It  was  just  because  Sir  Roger  Keyes  had 
evaluated  the  enemy's  defences  with  exactitude  and  had 
thought  out  and  adopted  first,  methods  of  evading  his  vigil- 
ance, and,  next,  manoeuvres  that  would  for  the  necessary 
period  make  his  weapons  useless,  that  it  was  possible  not 
only  to  make  the  attempt,  but  to  realise  the  very  high  degree 

of  success  that  has   ap- 
parently been  won. 

The  essence  of  the 
matter,  of  course,  was 
to  take  the  enemy  by 
surprise.  At  first  sight, 
it  may  appear  a  curious 
way  of  putting  him  off 
his  guard,  that  he 
should  for  an  hour  be 
bombarded  by  moni- 
tors and  aeroplanes. 
But  the  Vice-Admiral 
probably  reasoned  that 
this  would  lead,  as  it 
often  does,  to  the  crews 
of  the  big  guns  taking 
shelter  underground 
until  the  attack  is  over. 
If  the  monitors  were 
placed  at  their  usual 
great  distance  from  the 
ports,  and  were  con- 
cealed by  smoke  or  fog 
screens,  the  enemy  gun- 
ners would  know  that  it 
was  merely  idle  •  to  at- 
tempt to  reply  to  their 
fire.  If  nothing  was  to 
be  possible  in  the  way 
of  response  until  day- 
hght,  the  gunlayers  were 
just  as  well  in  their 
shell-proofs  as  any- 
where. Under  cover, 
then,  of  this  long-range 
wmbardment,  and  con- 
.'caling  his  squadron  by 
the  ingenious  fog 
methods  invented  by 
the  late  Comman- 
der Brock,  Sir  Roger 
Keyes  made  his  way  within  a  very  short  distance  of  the  veiled 
lights  at  the  end  of  the  mole.  It  was  at  this  point  that  the 
wind  shifted  and  the  presence  of  the  squadron  was  revealed  to 
the  enemy.  There  was  a  brief  nterval  before  the  big  guns 
could  be  manned,  and  it  was  doubtless  owing  to  this  that 
Vindictive  got  alongside  before  more  than  one  11 -inch  shell 
had  struck  her.  Once  under  the  shelter  of  the  mole,  she  was 
safe  from  the  larger  pieces,  and  only  her  upper  works  could 
be  raked  by  the  smaller  natures. 

Attack  on  the  Mole 

The  policy  of  attacking  the  mole  and  making  that  appear 
to  the  enemy  the  central  affair,  was  a  fine  piece  of  tactics. 
The  engagement  which  developed  there  was,  in  fact,  a  con- 
taining action,,  which  left  the  execution  of  the  main  objective 
to  the  other  forces,  and  its  purpose  was  to  prevent  the  enemy 
from  interfering  too  much  with  them.  Nelson,  it  will  be 
remembered,  cut  out  a  block  of  ships  in  the  centre  of  the 
enemy's  line  at  Trafalgar,  occupying  them  so  that  their 
hands  were  full,  and  preventing  both  them  and  the  van  from 
coming  to  the  succour  of  the  rear.  The  main  operation 
was  the  destruction  of  the  rear  by  Collingwood.  Here  it  was 
Vindictive,  with  her  landing-party,  that  played  the  Nelson 
r61e,  while  the  Vice-Admiral — in  Warwick — himself  directed 
the  crucial  operation,  namely,  the  navigation  of  the  block- 
ships  to  their  billets.  The  moment  they  were  blown  up  and 
sunk,  the  purpose  of  the  expedition  was  fulfilled,  and  Vin- 
didive's siren  recalled  all  those  from  the  mole  that  could 
get  back  to  the  ship.  The  actual  fortunes  of  the  fight  on 
the  mole  itself,  while  of  thrilling  human  interest  owing  to 


tJJflUM   i^ttOtO 


12 


Land    &   Water 


May  2 ,  1 9  I  8 


the  •xtraordinary  circuiiistanceti  in  which  it  vva»  undertaken, 
were  of  quite  subsidiary  importance.  The  primary  object, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  was  not  the  destruction  of  the 
mole  forts,  or  of  the  aeroplane  shed,  or  of  whatever  military- 
equipment  was  there,  or  even  of  killing  or  capturing  its 
garrison.  These  were  only  important  in  so  far  as  their 
partial  realisation  was  necessary  to  relieving  the  block-ships 
from  the  danger  of  premature  sinking. 

This  is  a  matter  of  real  capital  importance  and  of  very 
great  interest,  for  it  is,  I  think,  not  diificult  to  realise  that, 
had  similar  circumstances  existed  at  Ostend — had  it  been 
possible,  that  is  to  say,  to  occupy  the  defenders  and  distract 
their  attention  on  some  perfectly  irrelevant  engagement^ 
the  requisite  time  would  have  been  given  to  those  in  command 
of  the  block-ships  to  make  sure  of  getting  them  into  the 
right  position.  As  things  were,  they  were  threatened  b}' 
the  fate  which  made  Hobson's  attempt  at  Santiago  a  failure. 
With  the  whole  gun-power  of  Ostend  concentrated  upon  the 
blocking-ships,  there  was  not  a  minute  to  be  wasted.  But- 
with  the  enemy's  fire  drawn  there  would  have  been  the 
leisure  which  alone  could  make  precision  possible. 

Moral  Effect 

This  enterprise,  carefully  planned  and  boldly  and  resolutely 
carried  out,  seems  to  have  achieved  a  very  high  measure  of 
success.  It  is  natural  enough,  on  the  first  receipt  of  the 
news,  that  we  should  all  have  been  carried  away  by  our 
wonder  and  admiration  at  the  astonishing  heroism  that  made 
it  possible  to  carry  through  so  intricate  a  series  of  operations, 
when  every  soul  engaged  was  seemingly  aware  of  the  desperate 
character  of  the  enterprise,  when  no  one  could  have  expected 
to  return  alive,  when  the  enemy's  means  seemed  ample,  not 
only  for  the  killing  of  every  one  engaged,  but  for  the  imme- 
diate frustration  of  every  object  that  they  had  in  view.  For 
nearly  four  years  now  we  have  had  a  constant  recurrence  of 
such  feats  of  courage,  and  repetition  does  not  lessen  their 
power  to  intoxicate  us  with  an  overwhelming  admiration  of 
those  who  are  the  heroes  of  these  great  adventures.  But  we 
should  be  misconceiving  the  significance  of  this  event  if  we 
were  to  measure  its  importance  either  by  the  ordered  daring 
of  those  engaged  in  it,  or  by  its  successful  execution,  or  by 
its  immediate  military  results,  great  and  far-reaching  as  these 
seem  certain  to  be. 

The  tiling  is  more  important  as  affording  conclusive 
evidence  that  the  British  Navy,  as  inspired  and  directed 
from  headquarters,  has  now  abandoned  the  purely  defensive 
role  assigned  to  it  by  ten  years  of  pre-war,  and  three  and  a 
half  years  of  war  administration.  It  means  that  the  Fleet 
has  escaped  from  those  counsels  of  timorous — because  un- 
imaginative and  ignorant — caution,  which  have  checked  its 
ardour  and  limited  its  activities  since  August,  1914.  The 
effect  may  be  incalculable.  The  doctrine  that  every  opera- 
tion which  involved  the  risk  of  losing  men  or  ships  must 
necessarily  be  too  hazardous  to  undertake,  is  no  longer  the 
loadstone  of  Whitehall's  policy.  The  Navy  is  at  last  set 
free  to  act  on  an  older  and  a  better  tradition. 

It  is  indeed  on  this  tradition  that  on  almost  every  occasion 
the  Navy  has,  in  fact,  acted  when  it  got  a  chance.  When 
Swift  and  Broke  tackled  three  times  their  number  of  enemy 
last  year,  and  Botha  and  Morris  six  times  their  number  a 
month  ago,  the  gallant  captains  of  these  gallant  vessels  did 
not  wait  to  ask  if  the  position  of  their  ships  was  "critical" 
or  otherwise  ;  but,  with  an  insight  into  the  true  defensive 
value  of  attack — which,  seemingly,  it  is  the  privilege  only  of 
the  most  valorous  to  possess — went  straight  for  their  enemies, 
fought  overwhelming  odds  at  close  quarters,  and  came  out 
as  victorious  as  a  rightly  reasoned  calculation  would  have 
shown  to  be  probable. 

Similarly,  on  May  31st,  igi6,  Sir  David  Beatty,  when 
his  force  of  battle-cruisers,  by  the  loss  of  Indefatigable 
and  Queen  Mary,  had  been  reduced  below  that  of  the  enemy, 
persisted  in  his  attack  upon  von  Hipper  and,  by  demoralising 
the  enemy's  fire,  provided  most  effectively  for  the  safety  of 
his  own  ships.  Losses  did  not  make  him  retreat  then,  nor, 
when  Scheer  came  upon  the  scene  with  the  whole  High  Seas 
Fleet,  did  he  withdraw  from  the  action — his  speed  would 
have  made  this  easy — 'though  the  odds  were  heavy  against 
him.  He. kept,  on  the  contrary,  the  whole  German  Fleet  in 
play,  drawing  them  dexterously  to  the  north,  where  contact 
with  the  Grand  Fleet  would  be  inevitable.  And,  when  the 
contact  was  made,  his  last  effort  to  break  up  the  German 
line  was  to  close  from  the  14,000  yards,  a  range  he  had 
prudently  maintained  during  the  previous  two  hours,  to' 
8,000,  where  his  guns  would  be  more  certainly  effective, 
realising  perfectly_  that  no  loss  of  ships  in  his  own  squadron 
would  signify,  if  only  the  entire  destruction  of  the  German 
Fleet  were  made  possible  by  such  a  sacrifice.     It  would  not  be 


difficult  to  give  score*  of  incidents  in  which  individual  admirals 
and  captains  have  shown  the  old  spirit  under  new  conditions. 

But,  save  only  for  the  crazy  attack  on  the  Dardanelles 
forts — and  this  was  hardly  a  precedent  we  should  rejoice  to 
see  followed — we  have  looked  in  vain  for  any  sign  of  naval 
initiative  from  Wliitehall.  The  explanation  lies  in  the  fact 
that  we  had  no  staff  for  planning  operations,  nor  the  right 
men  in  power  for  judging  whether  any  proposed  undertaking 
was  based  on  a  right  calculation  of  the  value  of  the  available 
means  of  offence  and  defence.  The  events,  therefore,  of  the 
night  of  the  22nd  and  the  early  hours  of  the  23rd  are  of 
quite  extraordinar\-  importance,  for  they  mark  an  under- 
taking needing  long  and  elaborate  preparation,  and  one 
which  could  not  have  been  brought  to  a  successful  issue, 
had  it  not  enjoyed  from  its  first  inception  the  entlmsiastic 
support  of  the  Admiralty.  But  this  is  not  all.  Not  only 
was  this  an  Admiralty  supported  undertaking,  it  was  one 
that,  unlike  the  Gallipoli  adventure,  was  carried  through  on 
right  staff  principles.  There  was  a  definite,  well-thought-out 
plan — careful  preparation  for  every  step  in  the  right  selection 
of  men  and  means  for  its  execution. 

I  think  it  is  right  to  put  this  forward  as  the  most  important 
aspect  of  a  significant,  stirring,  and  successful  enterprise.  It 
is  the  most  important  because  the  news  of  Wednesday  last 
means  much  more  than  that  Zeebriigge  is  blocked,  that 
Ostend  is  crippled,  and  that  an  expedition — at  first  sight 
perilous  beyond  conception — has  been  carried  through  with 
losses  altogether  disproportionate,  either  to  its  dangers  or  to 
the  results  achieved.  The  news  means  that  a  new  direction 
either  has  been,  or  certainly  can,  and  therefore  must,  now  be 
given  to  our  naval  policy.  A  year  ago  sceptics  were  asking 
if  the  Army  would  win  the  war  before  the  Navy  lost  it. 
Why,  they  said,  if  our  land  forces  can  force  a  way  through 
what  we  were  told  were  impregnable  fortifications,  should 
the  greatest  sea  force  in  the  world  be  impotent  against  an 
enemy  who  sUnks  behind  his  forts  with  his  surface  craft, 
while  devastating  our  sea  communications  with  his  sub- 
marines ?  Is  naval  ingenuity,  they  asked,  so  crippled  that 
we  can  neither  protect  our  trade  against  the  submarine  at 
sea,  nor  block  the  enemy's  ports  so  that  the  submarine  can 
never  get  to  sea  ?  The  critics  repUed  that  all  was  well  with 
the  Navy,  but  that  all  was  sadly  wrong  with  its  official  chiefs. 
The  reorganisation  of  the  Admiralty  a  year  ago  was  imme- 
diately followed  by  the  adoption  of  the  convoy  principle — 
and  submarine  losses  were  reduced  to  half.  This  long- 
advocated  measure,  the  recently  inaugurated  barrage  at 
Dover,  and  now  the  events  of  the  morning  of  April  23rd, 
have  justified  the  critics  and  the  changes  in  method  and  men 
which  they  urged.  Zeebriigge  has  been  in  the  enemy's 
hands  since  September,  1914,  and  it  has  taken  us  three  and 
a  half  years,  not  to  discover  a  man  capable  of  attacking  it, 
but  in  developing  an  Admiralty  capable  of  picking  the  man 
and  giving  him  the  right  support  before  the  attack  could  be 
made.  If  a  similar  spirit  had  actuated  a  properly  constituted 
Admiralty  all  these  years,  what  might  not  the  Navy  have 
accomplished  ? 

In  the  last  eleven  months  the  emancipation  of  the  Navy 
has  gone  forward  apace.  And  not  the  least  significant  of 
the  stages  in  the  process  were  first  the  appointment  of 
Admiral  Sir  Roger  Keyes  to  be  head  of  the  Planning  Division 
at  the  Admiralty,  next  his  removal  from  the  Admiralty  to 
Dover,  next  the  inauguration  of  the  Channel  barrage,  and 
now  his  surprising  and  masteriy  stroke  at  the  Flemish  ports. 
The  enumeration  of  these  stages  is  worth  making,  for  they 
mark  the  genesis  of  the  plan  we  have  seen  achieved.  It  was. 
if  I  am  correctly  informed,  quite  understood  when  .Admiral 
Keyes  went  to  Dover  that  his  mission  was  temporary.  If  he 
was  sent  to  do  the  things  which  he  has  done,  and  now  that 
he  has  done  them  is  taken  back  to  Whitehall,  then  it  might 
seem  as  if  we  might  look  forward  to  an  aggressive  policy  at 
sea  more  worthy  of  the  superb  force  which  we  posses?,  "and 
more  consonant  with  its  glorious  heritage  than  anything 
which  we  have  witnessed  in  the  past.  And,  if  Sir  Roger 
cannot  be  spared  from  his  new  command,  so  auspiciously  in- 
augurated, then  we  must  trust  that  some  other  of  equal  brains 
and  spirit  has  already  taken  or  will  take  his  place.  Zeebrugge 
and  Ostend,  then,  will  figure  in  naval  history,  not  only  as 
the  names  of  achievements  unique  and  splendid  in  them- 
selves, but  more  famous  as  the  harbingers  of  still  greater 
things  to  come.  Arthur  Pollen. 

The  History  of  the  British  Army,  by  the  Hon.  John  Fortescue, 
is  a  classic.  The  author  has  now  taken  from  it  extracts  which 
deal  with  British  operations  in  the  Low  Countries  from  1690 — 
1794,  and  publishes  them  separately  under  the  title  British  Cam- 
paigns in  Flanders  (Macmillan.  8s.  6d.).  It  is  a  most  interest- 
ing volume,  and  not  only  for  the  soldier,  but  for  all  who  take  an 
historical  interest  in  the  great  battlefields  of  this  era,  and  in  the 
settling  of  the  present  war. 


May  2,  19 1  8 


Land   &   Water 


13 


Comrades  in  Arms 


Copyright,  1918,  U.S./4, 


Copyright,  "  Lard  &  Water." 


The  Old   Campaigner 

By    Louis   Raemaekers 


14  Land    &    Water  May  2,  191 8 

< 

Villers-Brettoneux  and  Kemmel  :  By  H.  Bclloc 


THE  week  has  been  marked  by  two  operations, 
both  of  great  importance  :  the  attack  on  Kemmel 
and  the  attack  in  the  region  of  Villers-Brettoneux 
upon  the  junction  of  the  French  and  British 
armies  in  front  of  Amiens.  The  first  of  tliese 
was  a  success  for  the  enemy,  though  a  success  the  expense  of 
which  we  cannot  gauge  ;  the  second  was  certainly  a  very 
expensive  failure.  As  has  been  naturally  the  case  in  the 
past,  through  the  proximity  of  the  fighting  to  these  shores, 
the  acquaintance  of  many  writers  with  the  district  since  the 
war  began,  and  the  apparent  threat  to  tlie  Channel  ports, 
the  former  of  tiiese  operations  has  been  somewhat  over- 
estimated (important  though  it  is)  and  the  latter  somewhat 
under-estimated. 

Before  looking  into  them  in  detail,  we  must  appreciate  a 
fact  about  the  whole  nature  of  the  front  to-day  which  affects 
the  enemy's  operations  from  first  to  last.  That  fact  con- 
sists in  two  complementary  elements  :  First  that  he  has  the 
initiative,  and  secondly  that  he  has  the  initiative  upon  a 
front  nearly  all  of  which  is  now  a  front  of  slow  and  partial 
but  continuous  movement. 

All  belligerents  know,  from  the  experience  of  now  many 
years,  what  a  strongly  fortified  defensive  line  established 
over  a  great  length  of  time  means  in  modern  war,  and  what 
the  form  of  an  initiative  undertaking  its  rupture  may  be. 
If  your  offensive  action  slowly  proceeds  to  the  point  of 
exhaustion  without  doing  more  than  slightly  modifying  or 
indenting  the  original  line  by  a  few  miles,  the  defensive  has 
the  advantage.  Its  losses  are  normally  less  than  its  oppon- 
ents ;  the  strategic  result  at  the  end  of  the  affair  is  nil.  If  a 
nipture  be  effected  and  a  rapid  advance  takes  place  through 
the  gap,  the  defensive  loses  heavily  in  men  and  guns  before 
the  Une  is  re-established.  It  should  in  theory  lose  much 
more  heavily  than  the  attack.  That  was  certainly  the  case, 
for  instance,  in  Italy  last  autumn.  But  if  the  original  effort 
was  made  with  overwhelming  forces — spent  like  water  in 
order  to  obtain  an  immediate  decision — and  if  the  attempt 
to  get  that  decision  is  carried  on  long  after  it  has  become 
impossible,  then  the  offensive  will  lose  more  than  the  defensive 
by  far  ;  although  the  fact  that  the  defensive  loses  so  many 
prisoners  brings  the  definitive  losses — that  is,  the  losses  for 
good  'and  ail,  the  losses  in  men  who  never  return — nearer 
to  an  equality. 

A  decision  having  then  failed  the  offensive,  but  the  initia- 
tive still  remaining  (from  superiority  of  force  properly  handled) 
with  the  offensive  commanders,  a  third  phase  may  arise  ; 
and  it  is  precisely  such  a  third  phase  that  has  arisen  between 
Noyon  and  the  sea  to-day.  This  third  phase  is  what  I  have 
called  a  war  of  slow  and  partial  but  continuous  movement ; 


C^ort/i     Sea. 


I 


Ctunivoi' 


■Quen&i. 


UrSioaslosf' 

"Pnsen^Line  — 

Satunbyexau^AfcUlS'^ 

Sec6onsin.&ulmesLii>rec€' 

ibpsoent/luctiuaeiati  ' 

o    s    10        20         x>'iItUs'40 


in  other  words,  by  continuing  to  attack  now  here,  now  there, 
the  offensive  can  prevent  a  re-crystallisation  of  the  defensive 
line  in  the  intervals  of  heavier  blows  designed  to  try  once 
more  the  chance  of  breaking  it  for  good  and  all.  When  the 
original  defensive  front  has  gone,  the  creation  of  a  new  one 
equally  solid  is  a  very  long  business.  Ludcndorff  spent 
months  at  it  behind  his  hues  during  the  Battle  of  the  Somme 
in  the  preparation  of  the  defensive  zone  generally  called 
"the  Hindenburg  line"  from  the  Vimy  Ridge  to  the  Forest 
of  St.  Gobain.  When  on  the  third  attempt,  while  the  Allies 
still  possessed  the  initiative,  this  zone  was  itself  pierced,  it 
was  only  pierced  on  a  comparatively  narrow  front  astraddle 
of  the  Scarpe  River.     It  was  able  to  re-crystallise  again. 

Now,  in  the  present  phase  the  enemy  has  the  advantage 
for  his  continued  effort  of  an  immense  line,  only  a  small 
fraction  of  which  is  now  the  original  defensive  zone  and  no 
long  portion  of  the  rest  of  which  has  had  even  one  full  month 
in  which  to  strengthen  itself  permanently. 

If  we  look  at  the  map  and  compare  the  lines  drawn  across 
it  we  shall  see  that  the  proportion  of  original  British  front 
left  between  the  Aisne  Ridges  and  the  sea  consists  of  no  more 
than  the  northern  part  of  Vimy  Ridge,  continued  northward 
up  to  Givenchy,  and  the  stretch  north  of  Ypres,  which  is 
protected  by  the  continuous  and  widening  marshes  of  the 
Yser.  We  shall  further  see  that  what  may  be  called  the  new 
fronts  have,  as  yet,  no  real  stability.  There  is  still  fluctua- 
tion in  sectors  all  roimd  the  great  Amiens  salient ;  and  there 
is  still  fluctuation  latterly,  as  we  have  seen  of  a  very  grave 
kind,  on  the  new  Ypres  sahent.  The  proportion  even  of 
the  new  line  which  has  been  fairly  steady  for  even  as  little 
as  four  weeks,  is  quite  insufficient  to  stabihse  the  whole. 

Now,  in  these  conditions,  quite  apart  from  any  chance 
success  greater  than  he  has  planned,  and  apart  even  from  a 
third  great  movement  on  a  wide  front,  it  is  obviously  the 
enemy's  pohcy  to  keep  shaking  the  defensive.  He  has  taken 
Kemmel.  Let  us  suppose — though  it  should  take  him  three 
weeks  or  more — he  captures  the  whole  line  of  heights  up  to 
Mont  des  Cats.  According  to  the  length  of  time  involved, 
there  is  less  and  less  menace  of  disaster  to  his  opponents,  in 
spite  of  his  success.  The  awkward  salients  formed  upon 
the  north  can  be  flattened  back  if  time  is  provided — and. 
after  all,  he  did  not  get  to  the  top  of  Kemmel  until  more 
than  a  fortnight  after  his  first  thrust  at  Hazebrouck  and 
Bethune.  But  the  point  is  that  he  keeps  the  line  continually, 
though  slowly,  moving,  thereby  certainly  prevents  its  cry- 
staUising,  and  possibly  threatens  it  with  disaster  at  some 
unexpected  point  of  which  he  hopes  to  take  immediate 
advantage.  It  is  true  the  movement  has  been  only  slowly 
progressive,  but  it  is  obviously  intended  to  bear  such  fruits. 
Further,  with  every  pronounced  advance,  even  at  great 
expense  and  spread  over  a  long  time,  some  strategic  object 
is  clearly  achieved.  For  instance,  supposing  he  compels  the 
Allies,  before  he  is  exhausted,  to  fall  back  upon  the  line  of 
the  Aa,  of  which  I  spoke  last  week  (an  excellent  natural 
line),  he  thereby  destroys  what  used  to  be  our  nearest  lateral 
communication,  he  uncovers  Dunkirk,  he  is  within  long 
range  of  Calais  Harbour,  and  he  creates  such  a  salient  round 
Arras  that  he  might  hope  to  make  that  his  next  prey.  This 
latter  effect  he  also  produces  if,  checked  in  the  north,  he 
produces  a  new  dent  between  Arras  and  Albert.  Again,  as 
we  shall  see  in  a  moment,  if  he  seizes  the  junction  land  between 
the  Avre  and  the  Somme  his  observation  stands  upon  the 
high  plateau  of  Villers-Brettoneux  and  gives  him  great 
advantage.  The  same  thing  is  tnie  of  a  success  upon  any 
one  of  the  heights  which  now  look  down  upon  him  all  along 
the  very  awkward  Hne  which  chance  estabhshed  for  him  after 
his  advance  in  March.  For  instance,  there  is  great  strategic 
advantage  in  reaching  the  top  of  the  ridge  between  the 
Avre  and  the  Noye,  or  in  seizing,  as  he  has  failed  to  seize, 
the  extremely  marked  Lassigny  Hills  ;  or  in  getting  Mount 
Renaud  outside  Noyon. 

One  can  never  understand  even  the  simplest  military 
operation  without  appreciating  its  hmitations.  The  advan- 
tages of  the  enemy  are  obvious,  and  will  remain  obvious  for 
some  time  to  come.  He  has  what  are  virtually  interior 
lines  :  he  has  what  is  still  superiority  of  organised  number. 
He  has  compelled  the  considerable  reduction  of  a  detached 
reserve  prepared  for  a  very  different  purpose  and  now  neces- 
sarily used  only  defensively  as  regards  at  least  a  portion  of 
it.  He  has,  thanks  to  the  Russian  treason  and  his  Itahan 
victory,  a  superiority  in  pieces  if  not  in  munitionment. 

All  this  he  has  ;   but  his  limitation  on  the  debit  side  is  his 


May    2,    191 8 


Land    &    Water 


15 


expense  in  men.  You  can  no  more  say  which  of  two  oppon- 
ents under  such  circumstances  will  play  his  hand  better  than 
you  can  say  it  of  two  chess  players  of  whom  one  has  "  the 
move,"  but  of  whom  neither  has  yet  so  lost  pieces  as  to  be 
manifestly  inferior.  What  you  can  present  is  the  conditions 
of  the  play. 

The  object  of  this  offensive  is,  before  the  limit  of  its  exhaus- 
tion is  reached,  to  absorb — that  is,  to  put  through  the  mill 
in  defensive  work — all  that  is  still  fresh  upon  the  Allied  side, 
and  in  the  process  so  to  shake  a  line  that  has  already  been 
rendered  viscous  as  first  to  render  it  fluid  and  then  dissolved. 
The  object  of  the  defensive  is  to  compel  the  offensive  to 
crippling  losses  which  will  end  by  his  exhaustion  while  the 
defensive  still  stands  organised  and  still  has  solid  fresh  assets 
in  hand.  This  is  all  the  more  the  game  of  the  Allies  because, 
though  the  time  handicap  is  very  severe,  there  arc  very  large; 
resources  ultimately  behind  them. 

A  concrete  point  will  make  this  play  of  judgment  clearer : 
You,  the  defensive,  are  holding  a  certain  sector  of,  say, 
20  miles,  on  to  which  you  only  returned,  say,  ten  days  ago, 
and  of  which  the  new  defensive  system  is  necessarily  imper- 
fect. To  the  south  end  of  that  sector  is  a  specially  strong 
point — say,  a  hill  or  well-wired  wood.  The  offensive  com- 
mander says  to  himself  :  "  If  I  launch  four  divisions  at  that 
point,  which  I  now  know  to  be  held  by  only  one  division, 
I  shall  probably  take  it — at  the  immediate  expense  of  perhaps 
10,000  men.  I  njay  suppose  the  8,000  or  9,000  men  opposed 
to  me  to  lose  less  than  half  that  amount.  I  may  have  better 
luck,  and  make  them  lose  nearly  their  whole  effectives,  in 
which  case  our  losses  are  pretty  well  equal.  But,  meanwhile, 
if  I  get  it  quicker  than  they  expect,  the  line  to  the  north  will 
have  to  fall  back  again  from  their  already  imperfect  defences, 
and  begin  others  yet  more  imperfect — partly  prepared,  no 
doubt,  but  not  yet  strong — behind  the  sector  they  are  now 
holding."  The  defensive  commander  says  to  himself:  ''If 
there  is  a  tactical  success,  and  I  hold  the  strong  point  for, 
say,  forty-eight  hours,  there  will  be  plenty  of  time  for  the 
pyeoplt  in  the  north  to  fall  back  ;  and  in  such  a  time  of  con- 
tinued assault  I  will  inflict  far  greater  losses  on  the  attack 
than  he  will  inflict  on  my  men.  It  may  be  that  my  defensive 
success  will  be  complete  (compare  the  case  of  the  Hinges 
Bridge  a  few  days  ago) ;  in  that  case,  I  have  locally  suc- 
ceeded in  my  general  object  beyond  all  expectation.  But  it 
may  be  that  his  success  will  be  unexpectedly  rapid.  In  that 
case,  I  must  tell  my  one  division  to  hang  on  until  it  is  wiped 
out,  and  even  then  there  may  be  only  just  barely  time  for 
the  people  to  the  north  to  get  back." 

The  hazard  is  engaged,  and,  in  general  terms,  one  of  these 
two  things  happens  in  a  greater  or  a  less  degree.  Either  the 
strong  point  is  rapidly  taken,  the  single  defending  division 
knocked  to  pieces  without  more  than  corresponding  loss  to 
the  attack  and  the  line  to  the  north  badly  shaken  by  its 
necessity  for  rapid  retirement  on  to  the  imperfectly  prepared 
defences  behind,  or,  in  various  degrees,  the  defensive  gets 
the  advantage  by  its  prolonged  resistance,  the  most  extreme 
example  of  which  would  be  the  complete  repulse  of  the  attack 
with  losses  corresponding  to  its  violence  and  density. 

It  is  clear  that  any  amount  of  modification  surrounds  so 
simple  a  statement.  The  attack  or  the  defence  may  be 
blunderingly  led  on  to  attempt  an  impossible  task,  and 
may  suffer  correspondingly.  The  man  commanding  the 
sector  in  the  north  may  send  word  that  it  will  take  him  two 
days  at  least  to  effect  his  retirement  because  he  has  mis- 
handled things,  in  which  case  the  unfortunate  defensive  will 
have  to  go  on  feeding  fresh  men  into  what  is  virtually  a  new 
offensive  of  its  own,  terribly  expensive.  The  attacking 
general  may  lose  his  head  or  even  his  temper  (such  things 
have  happened  in  war),  and  get  men  massacred  quite  use- 


TfighHnad 
"E^eqfPtateau  '*i»in«"iii- 
Exfitnte  Umii'of 
Etvemyiaffadi 

iTvtttatendqfaitLin  .—  —  —  — 


lessly  by  a  prolongation  of  what  he  ought  to  have  seen  after 
the  first  stages  to  be  an  impossible  task — something  of  that 
sort  happened  on  April  4th  to  the  Germans  in  front  of  Amiens. 
Meanwhile,  the  general  principle  holds.  The  best  player  is 
he  who  in  this  terrible  game  first  exhausts  his  adversary. 
The  best  player  wins,  only,  unfortunately,  nobody  knows, 
or  can  possibly  know,  the  full  situation  even  at  a  given 
moment — let  alone  its  future  chances. 

Two  Great  Actions 

Now,  let  us  turn  to  the  two  great  actions  of  the  week  : 
that  of  Villers-Brettoneux   and  that  of  Kemmel. 

The  action  in  front  of  Villers-Brettoneux  was  of  great 
importance. 

There  stands  between  the  Somme  River  and  the  valley  of 
the  Brook  Luce,  a  tributary  of  the  Avre,  a  plateau  about 
150  feet  above  the  water  levels,  rising  in  some  places  to  as 
much  as  r8o.  It  is  a  bare  rolling  countryside  of  open  fields, 
diversified  only  by  two  considerable  tracks  of  wood,  the 
smaller  on  the  south  known  as  Hangard  Wood  ;  the  larger, 
on  the  north,  called  in  various  parts  by  various  names,  but 
better  called,  for  the  purposes  of  our  study,  the  Wood  of 
Villers.  This  plateau  is  the  last  high  ground  between  the 
junction  of  the  Avre  River  with  the  Somme,  and  is  therefore 
the  last  high  ground  directly  in  front  of  Amiens.  From  the 
edges  of  it  the  land  falls  away  uninterruptedly  to  the  great 
railway  junction  and  works  at  Longeau,  almost  a  suburb  of 
Amiens,  hardly  more  than  three  miles  from  the  edge  of  the 
plateau,  and  entirely  overlooked  from  it.  Further,  this 
plateau  between  the  Somme  and  the  Brook  Luce,  upon  a 
trace  of  about  10,000  yards,  carried  the  point  of  union  between 
the  British  and  the  French  forces.  The  escarpment  of  the 
plateau  towards  Amiens  is  not  regular.  It  falls  away  sharply 
immediately  behind  the  village  of  Villers-Brettoneux,  but  to 
the  south  it  leans  much  further  away  and  more  gently  west- 
ward. While  immediately  beyond  the  village  of  Villers- 
Brettoneux  and  along  the  edge  of  the  escarpment  runs  the 
big  wood  of  which  I  have  spoken,  having  about  half-way 
along  its  southern  edge  the  village  of  Cachy.  To  the  south 
in  the  French  line,  on  the  edge  of  the  plateau  overhanging 
the  Brook  Luce,  are  the  ruins  of  the  village  of  Hangard. 

It  will  be  clear  from  all  this  what  the  object  of  the  enemy 
was  in  this  neighbourhood.  It  was  his  task  to  thrust  the 
British  back  over  the  edge  of  the  plateau  and  hold  Villers- 
Brettoneux  ;  to  work  round  the  wood  by  the  south  at 
Cachy  and  to  push  the  French  back  from  Hangard. 

The  attack  as  a  whole  was  undertaken,  as  far  as  we  can 
make  out,  by  eight  divisions,  counting  those  who  were  trying 
to  work  round  by  the  extreme  south.  Three'divisions  struck 
against  the  British  along  the  high  road,  starting  from  their 
original  line  about  a  thousand  yards  east  of  the  village ; 
while  another  three  divisions  attacked  the  French  against 
the  wood  and  village  of  Hangard  down  to  the  Luce.  Mean- 
while, apparently  two  divisions  (but  the  number  is  not  given) 
fought  hard  to  outflank  the  French  by  the  south. 

The  action  began  at  half-past  six  in  the  morning  of  Wednes- 
day, the  24th,  after  the  usual  intensive  preliminary  bombard- 
ment.    Its  general  result  was  as  follows  : 

In  the  first  attack  it  was  repulsed  along  the  whole  line. 
In  the  second  it  entered  the  eastern  edge  of  the  wood  of 
Hangard  and  the  ruins  of  Hangard  village.  What  is  more 
important,  it  also  in  the  second  attack  (in  which  the  German 
tanks  appeared  ior  the  first  time)  carried  the  village  of 
Villers-Brettoneux ;  reached  the  edge  of  the  plateau,  and, 
south  of  the  wood,  got  to  the  outskirts  of  Cachy.  This 
latter  movement  uncovered  the  French  left  flank  and  caused 
'the  French  to  leave  Hangard.  By  the  evening  two  more 
divisions  had  appeared  against  the  British,  and  it  was  evident 
that  the  enemy  intended  a  very  serious  operation. 

But  the  point  was  altogether  too  important  for  the  "selling 
of  ground,"  which  is  the  general  policy  of  the  defensive  where 
there  is  opportunity  for  manoeuvre.  A  counter-attack  was 
organised,  and  proved  completely  successful.  Fighting  con- 
tinued throughout  the  night,  and  in  the  morning  of 
Thursday,  April  25th,  the  Germans  were  thrust  back  again 
far  from  Cachy  (where  some  of  the  new  British  tanks  did 
great  execution)  and  by  noon  out  of  Villers-Brettoneux 
itself ;  the  latter  success  being  due  to  Australian  troops 
co-operating  with  British  battalions.  The  fighting  for  the 
village  had  gone  on  all  during  the  night,  and  the  consumma- 
tion of  the  success  covered  the  hours  from  seven  in  the 
morning  onwards.  About  a  thousand  prisoners  were  left  in 
British  hands  after  the  affair.  The  sum  total  of  the  action 
was  that  the  enemy  had  completely  failed  to  master  the 
plateau.  He  had  for  the  eighth  time  penetrated  into  Hangard 
Village  and  Wood  (the  line  here  is  perpetually  fluctuating), 
but   these   are  far  from  the  edge  of  the  plateau.     Villers- 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


May   2,  19 1 8 


Brettoneux,  the  essential  point,   he  had    gained,  but  lost 
again. 

Once  again  we  have  to  ask  the  question,  impossible  to 
answer  with  exactitude,  what  the  cost  to  the  enemy  may 
have  been  ?  The  nature  of  the  attack  proves  it  to  have 
been  considerable.  For  it  was  one  in  which  more  and  more 
men  had  to  be  fed  in,  and  yet  in  which  the  object  was  not 
accomplished.  Also  some  of  the  best  divisions  available 
were  used.  There  came  in  the  first  attack  the  4th  Division 
of  the  Prussian  Guards  which  had  already  been  used  twice 
since  March  21st,  and  which  had  been  given  a  fortnight's 
rest,  and  its  ranks  fully  replenished  from  its  Berlin  recruit- 
ment. A  fresh  division  back  from  the  Eastern  front,  the 
77th  Reserve — Westphalian  in  composition — was  also  used. 
Two  more  divisions  came  in  during  the  day  ;  and  prisoners 
were  taken  before  the  end  of  the  thirty-six  hours  from  yet 
two  more,  the  228th  and  the  243rd.  It  is  not  certain  that 
the  whole  of  these  last  units  were  engaged. 

As  the  British  re-advanced  over  ground  previously  lost 
it  was  possible  to  make  some  estimate  of  the  proportion  of 
German  dead,  and  the  official  dispatch  from  headquarters 
says  that  the  numbers  of  these  were  exceptionally  high.  In 
other  words,  the  German  effort  at  Villers-Brettoneux  was 
not  only  a  failure,  but  an  exceptionally  expensive  one. 
^  As  is  usually  the  case  when  the  enemy's  plans  go  wrong, 
his  dispatch  upon  this  occasion  is  misleading.  He  may 
very  well  be  exact  in  claiming  some  2,000  prisoners  and 
4  guns,  for  he  made  a  rapid  advance  on  the  evening  of  the 
Wednesday.  But  to  say  that  our  counter-attacks  "broke 
down  with  sanguinary  losses"  is  obvious  nonsense,  while  to 
leave  out  all  mention  of  the  capture  and  recapture  of  Villers- 
Brettoneux  is  equally  ridiculous.  The  counter-attack  was 
completely  successful.  That,  indeed,  is  the  whole  point  of 
the  action. 

Nearly  coincident  with  this  principal  piece  of  work,  which 
may  be  called  the  action  of  Villers-Brettoneux,  was  a  second 
piece  of  work  in  the  north  which  may  be  called  the  action  of 
Mount  Kemmel.  It  opened  upon  the  morning  of  Thursday, 
April  25th,  and  continued  throughout  two  days  and  part  of 
the  third,  reaching  its  maximum,  which  was  also  the  moment 
in  which  the  hill  was  seized,  during  the  first  twenty-four  hours. 

The  tactical  details  of  this  action  have  been  clearly  given 
in  the  daily  Press  and  have  been  followed  closely  by  opinion 
at  home.  What  has  been  perhaps  less  thoroughly  dealt  with 
has  been  its  strategic  aspect. 

The  tactical  details  were  that  a  very  large  force  drawn 
apparently  entirely  from  the  4th  Germany  Army,  that  of 
von  Amim,  fought  to  surround  the  hill  of  Kemmel  by  the 
north  and  by  the  south.  Among  those  who  attacked  were 
identified  the  Alpine  Corps,  the  117th  Division,  the  nth 
Bavarian  Division,  and  the  56th  Division.  The  enemy 
carried  Dranoutre  and  pushed  up  the  valley  to  the  west  of 
Mount  Kemmel.  He  carried  Kemmel  Village  itself  to  the 
east  of  the  height  (and  by  that  time  the  summit  was  clearly 


turned  on  both  sides)  ;  he  reached,  but  did  not  pass,  the 
"Cross  Roads"  (for  which  the  Flemish  is  Vierstraat),  and  he 
got  into  the  mass  of  craters  at  St.  Eloi.  As  the  enemy  had 
outflanked  the  summit  of  Mount  Kemmel,  both  from  the 
east  and  from  the  west,  the  summit  was  doomed.  But  for 
local  reasons,  probably  connected  with  the  necessity  of 
holding  the  enemy  during  the  formation  of  new  dispositions 
behind,  it  was  determined  to  hold  the  summit  as  long  as  was 
possible.  This  sacrifice  was  allotted  to  a  French  division, 
which  maintained  the  defence  until  the  hill  was  completely 
surrounded  and  its  defenders  lost  with  it. 

By  the  morning  of  the  next  day — Friday — the  enemy 
claimed  6,000  prisoners,  most  of  them  French,  and  his  line 
la}'  from  in  front  of  Locre  right  up  the  depression  between 
Mount  Kemmel  and  the  Scherpenberg  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  La  Clytte ;  thence  along  the  northern  base  of  Mount  Kemmel 
to  Vierstraat  and  so  to  St.  Eloi.  His  capture  of  Kemmel 
had  already  given  him  the  whole  of  its  district  at  a  blow. 

The  familiarity  of  the  public  with  this  part  and  these 
names,  their  proximity  to  the  British  seas,  and  the  fame  of 
Ypres  and  of  its  salient  during  the  last  three  years,  between 
them  somewhat  obscured  and  exaggerated  the  strategical 
meaning  of  the  German  success. 

That  success  is  important,  but  it  does  not  in  itself  connote 
any  great  strategical  change.  Had  a  similar  effort  been 
made,  for  instance,  against  Hazebrouck,  it  would  have  been 
worth  while  meeting  and  containing  it,  and  it  would  have 
been  met  and  contained.  What  the  capture  of  Mount 
Kemmel  does  is  to  give  complete  observation  towards  the 
north,  and  to  begin  a  gradual  advance  westward  along  the 
chain  of  hills  of  which  Kemmel  is  the  eastern  bastion,  and 
render  the  Ypres  salient  more  and  more  difficult  to  hold. 
But  supposing  that  salient  evacuated  completely  and  the 
line  redrawn  from  the  marshes  of  the  Yser  south-westward, 
no  considerable  strategic  result  immediately  follows.  As 
part  of  the  general  German  plan  to  shake  the  Allied  front 
and  to  keep  it  continuously  in  movement,  all  this  has  its 
place.  But  there  is  nothing  decisive  about  it.  There  is  no 
great  strategic  move  taken,  until,  for  instance,  Dunkirk  be 
uncovered  :  a  contingency  already  mentioned  as  possible  in' 
the  future  if  the  enemy  should  compel  a  retirement  to  the 
fine  of  the  Aa.  And  we  must  clearly  keep  in  mind  during 
all  these  actions  that  pace  is  everything,  for  pace  is  measured 
in  expense.  So  long  as  (i)  the  yielding  is  gradual ;  (2)  the 
cost  imposed  upon  the  advance  is  far  superior  to  that  imposed 
upon  the  defence  ;  (3)  the  yielding  takes  place  where  there 
is  room  to  manoeuvre  and  where  nO  strategic  consequences 
follow ;  (4)  the  yielding  does  not  lead  to  any  disintegration 
or  confusion— so  long  advance  here  or  there  is  not  to  the 
enemy's  advantage.  He  continues  to  make  it  and  will  con- 
tinue to  make  it  because  he  hopes  that  on  every  one  of  these 
four  points  he  will  some  day  score  and  so  achieve  his  result. 
But  until  he  does  so  he  is  still  hazarding  expense  of  men 
against  a  possible  but  not  attained  result.  H.  Belloc. 


May  2,  19 1 8 


Land  &  Water 


1.7 


President  Wilson's  War  Mind  :  By  L.  P.  Jacks 


To  understand  the  war-mind  of  President  Wilson, 
and  to  leam  the  lesson  it  conveys,  we  must  read 
his  speeches  from  the  beginning  of  the  war  as 
though  they  formed  a  continuous  whole.     Those 
who  have  not  the  full  text  of  the  speeches  before 
them  will  find  a  good  substitute  in  The  Foreign  Policy  of 
Woodrow  Wilson,  by  Messrs  Robinson  and  West  (Macmillan), 
in  which  the  relevant  passages  are  presented  in  historical 
order.     Reading  them  continuously,  they  present  us  with  a 
natural,  inevitable,  and  yet  very  remarkable  evolution.     I  find 
nothing  inconsistent  between  the  earher  and  the  later  sa^nngs 
of  the  President,  notwithstanding  that  the  former  are  devoted 
to  the  advocacy  of  peace  and  the  latter  to  the  advocacy  of 
war.     On  the  contrary,  the  later  passages  throw  back  a 
meaning  on  to  the  earlier,  which  makes  them  doubly  signi- 
ficant, while  the  earlier  are 
like  the  clear  hours  of  the 
morning     in     which     the 
weatherwise  may  read  the 
portent  of  a  coming  storm. 
It  has  been   said    that 
whosoever  writes  the  his- 
tory   of    the    war    must 
write  it  as  a  drama  ;   and 
certainly    there    has  been 
no  more  dramatic  feature 
in  the  whole  tragic  story 
than    that    presented    by 
the     movement     of     Mr. 
Wilson's  mind  from 
position    to    position     in 
correspondence   with    the 
gradual .  unfolding  of   the 
plot.     In  reading  through 
these  speeches  one  has  the 
feeUng   famiUar   to    every 
lover    of     the     Odyssey. 
There  is  the  same  gradual 
darkening    of    the    atmo- 
sphere as  events  march  on 
to   the   final   catastrophe, 
the    same    tightening    of 
expectancy  and  tension  as 
the  gathering  storm  comes 
nearer,  until  at  last,  when 
the  gloom  is  deepest,  the 
lightning    leaps   out    and 
retribution    falls    on    the 
wrong-doer.     If  the  words 
are    not     inadequate     to 
matter  of  such   moment, 
'one     may    say    of     the 
speeches    that  they  have 
the  wholeness  of  a  work 
of  art.     The  germinating 
idea  of  Mr.  Wilson's  policy 
is    that   America,  because  of  her  greatness,  of  her  power, 
of  her  vast  potentialities,  is  a  servant  among  the  nations, 
and  not  a  master     It  is  a  noble  conception,  and  peculiarly 
fitted  to  inspire   a   young  and  mighty  people  with  a  vision 
of  its  destiny,  and  so  to  mark  out  for  it  in  the  centuries 
that   are   to   come   a  line   of    development    different  from 
and  I  think  higher  than,  any  which  the  older  States  of  the 
world  have  so  far  pursued.    Though  the  idea  of  greatness  in 
service  has  been  long  familiar  in  other  connections,  where 
perhaps  it  has  received  more  lip-service  than  loyalty,  President 
Wilson  is  the  first  statesman  to  make  it  operative,  or  to 
endeavour  to  make  it  operative,  as  a  guiding  principle  of 
international  politics  ;    and  this  alone,  whether  he  succeeds 
or  not,  assures  him  a  distinct  place  in  history  and  in  the 
grateful  remembrance   of  mankind.     Needless  to  say,   this 
idea — that  the  greatest  nation  must  needs  be  a  servant- 
nation — stands  out  as  the  polar  opposite  to  the  notion  of 
national  greatness  which  prevails  with  the  rulers  and  appar- 
ently with  the  people  of  Germany  ;    and  a  prescient  mind, 
on  hearing  it  first  announced  by  Mr.  Wilson  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  war,   might   have   predicted  that   a  moment 
would  come  when  the  two  opposites,  driven  by  a  dramatic 
or  moral  necessity,  would  break  out  into  open  conflict  with 
one  another. 

From  the  very  first,  the  question  uppermost  in  the  Presi- 
dent's mind  has  been  this  :  In  what  way,  by  what  policy, 
by  what  action  can  America  best  serve  the  nations  involved 


Bust  of  the  President:  By  Jo  Davidson 

(Now  on  view  at  the  Fine  Art  Society,  148  New  Bond  Street. 
This  buit  was  executed  by  Mr.  Davidson  at  the  White  House  just  before  America 
entered   the   war.     It  is  the  only  bust  for   which  the   President  has  given  sittings. 


in  the  struggle,  and  through  them  mankind  at  large  ?  Again 
and  again  his  public  utterances  have  repeated  this,  thereby 
showing  its  solemn  insistence  in  his  pHvate  mind  •  and  though 
he  has  varied  his  answer  with  the  change  of  circumstance,  he 
has  never  departed  from  the  purpose  and  spirit  of  the  ques- 
tion. Indeed,  he  did  not  wait  for  the  war  to  disclose  his 
guiding  idea. 

On  March  5th,  1914,  he  said,  in  a  message  to  Congress 
when  the  Panama  tolls  were  under  discussion  :  "We  are  too 
big,  too  powerful,  too  self-respecting  a  nation  to  interpret 
with  too  strained  or  refined  a  reading  the  words  of  our  own 
promises  just  because  we  have  power  enough  to  give  us 
leave  to  read  them  as  we  please" — a  sentence  which,  in  its 
latter  clause,  anticipates  the  most  hateful  aspect  of  German 
pohcy  both  in  the  initiarion  and  the  conduct  of  the  war, 

and  is  almost  a  prediction 
of  the  coming  conflict. 
Again,  on  April  30th,  1915, 
he  said  to  the  members  of 
the  Associated  Press :  "  We 
do  not  want  anything  that 
does  not  belong  to  us. 
Is  not  a  nation  in  that 
position  free  to  serve  other 
nations  ?  "  And  three  days 
after  the  Lusitania  had 
been  sunk  he  followed 
with  the  statement,  so 
much  misunderstood  at 
the  time:  "  I  am  interested 
in  neutrality  because  there 
is  something  so  much 
greater  to  do  than  to  fight. 
There  is  a  distinction  wait- 
ing for  this  nation  which 
no  nation  has  ever  yet 
had."  A  year  later  he 
sounded  the  same  note. 
On  April  19th,  1916,  he 
said:  "We  cannot  forget 
that  we  are  the  responsible 
spokesmen  of  the  rights 
of  humanity."  What  this 
last  involved  comes  out 
very  clearly  in  the  Address 
to  Congress  on  the  occasion 
of  America's  entry  into 
the  war.  "We  shall  fight 
for  the  '  things  we  have 
always  carried  nearest  our 
hearts — for  democracy,  for 
the  right  of  those  who 
submit  to  authority  to 
have  a  voice  in  their 
own  government,  for  the 
rights     and    liberties     of 


small  nations,  for  a  universal  dominion  of  right  by  such 
a  concert  of  free  peoples  as  shall  bring  peace  and  Safety  to 
all  nations,  and  make  the  world  itself  free," 

If  the  reader  will  take  these  speeches  as  a  connected  whole,  • 
or  even  the  few  sentences  I  have  quoted,  he  will  have  before 
him  the  Odyssey  of  the  President's  mind.  They  indicate  the 
successive  stages  through  which  he  passed  in  his  efforts  to 
find  an  answer  to  the  question  :  How  can  the  United  States, 
in  the  world  crisis  that  has  now  arisen,  most  effectually  serve 
mankind?  In  the  earher  stages  "neutrality"  covered  the 
answer  that  then  seeme4  most  fitting.  By  remaining  neutral 
the  President  beheved  that  the  United  States  could  render 
most  help  not  only  in  hastening  the  advent  of  peace,  but  in 
giving  to  peace,  whenever  it  should  come,  the  form  most 
conducive  to  the  just  interests  of  all  concerned.  He  believed 
—  and  rightly  believed  —  that  impartiality  would  confer 
upon  America  rights  and  powers  as  a  peacemaker  both 
during  the  conflict  and  afterwards ;  and  he  saw,  further, 
that  a  peace-making  nation  was  the  world's  greatest  need  at 
the  time.  Then,  through  no  will  of  his  own,  but  by  the 
direct  action  of  Germany,  the  right  to  be  neutral,  the  power 
to  be  impartial,  was  taken  from  him.  The  consequence  was 
that  the  first  form  of  his  answer  was  necessarily  abandoned 
as  no  longer  apphcable  to  the  circumstances,  and  another  had 
to  be  sought.  Only  one  was  possible.  If  America  was  to 
serve  all  nations  she  must  make  war  on  the  Power  which 
was  striving  to  make  all  nations  serve  itself.     Thus,  by  what 


i8 


Land   &   Water 


May  2,   1 91  8 


I  again  venture  to  call  dramatic  necessity,  we  are  carried 
stage  by  stage  from  the  moment  when  the  President  declared 
"there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  man  being  too  proud  to  fight" 
to  the  last  sentence  of  his  speech  the  other  day  :  "There  is 
therefore  but  one  response  possible  from  us :  force,  force  to 
the  utmost,  force  without  stint  or  limit,  the  righteous  and 
triumphant  force  which  shall  make  right  the  law  of  the 
world,  and  cast  every  selfish  dominion  down  into  the  dust." 
Thus  was  Wilson  the  peace-maker  turned  into  Wilson  the 
war-maker.  The  "diNanity  that  shapes  our  ends"  is  clearly 
accountable  for  the  transition,  and  the  worid  may  rejoice 
that  it  found  in  the  President  an  instrument  amenable  to  its 
guidance.  He  stands  out  to-day  as  the  foremost  interpreter 
of  the  international  mind. 

Dealings  with  Mexico 

The  authors  of  the  admirable  book  to  which  I  have  referred 
have  done  well  to  interweave  with  their  narrative  the  almost 
synchronous  story  of  the  President's  dealings  with  Mexico, 
for  the  two  things  throw  light  upon  one  another.  If  a 
guarantee  were  needed  for  the  entire  sincerity  of  Mr.  Wikon's 
professions  it  could  be  found  in  the  record  of  the  Mexican 
transactions.  These  had  given  rise  to  the  notion  among  his 
European  critics,  and  also,  I  think,  among  not  a  few  of  his 
fellow-countrymen,  that  he  was  an  impracticable  idealist. 
We  now  know  that  his  Mexican  policy  and  his  European 
policy  were  intimately  related.  They  sprang  from  the  same 
root,  and  had  the  same  guiding  idea.  Judged  by  the  stan- 
dards which  most  conquering  Powers  have  applied  to  their 
actions,  Mr.  Wilson  would  have  been«fully  justified  in  making 
war  upon  Mexico  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  order,  if  for 
nothing  else.  There  were  many  Liberal  statesmen  in  other 
countries  who  found  his  attitude  hard  to  understand,  and  in 
some  instances  openly  condemned  it,  and  there  is  little  doubt 
that  he  would  have  raised  his  general  reputation  as  a  states- 
man— at  least,  for  a  time — if  he  had  pursued  a  "stronger" 
policy.  We  now  know,  however,  and  by  the  clearest  of 
evidence,  that  the  "impracticable  idealism"  which  kept  him 
out  of  war  with  Mexico  was  identically  the  same  with  that 
which  later  on  brought  him  into  war  with  Germany.  As  in 
the  later  so  in  the  earlier  problem,  the  question  Mr.  Wilson 
set  himself  to  answer  was  how  can  the  American  Republic 
hdp — how  can  it  best  serve  the  interests  of  the  rich  but 
disordered  and  miserable  country  which  fate  has  assigned 
as  its  neighbour  ? 

There  were  abundant  precedents  for  intervention  to  which 
Mr.  Wilson  might  have  appealed  without  the  slightest 
fear  that  his  credit  would  suffer.  He  came  to  the  con- 
clusion, however,  that  the  best  service  the  United  States 
could  render  to  Mexico  was  to  respect  her  integrity  and 
independence,  and  leave  her  to  work  out  her  own  salvation. 
To  the  argument  that  Mexico  was  incapable  of  doing  this, 
and  that  neither  her  integrity  nor  her  independence  was 
worthy  of  respect  he  consistently  turned  a  deaf  ear ;  nor 
was  he  much  more  attentive  to  the  various  commercial 
interests  that  were  involved. 

As  one  reads  the  story  in  the  light  of  later  events,  one  is 
tempted  to  believe  that  some  kindJy  genius  was  warning. the 
President  of  the  situation  he  would  shortly  have  to  face. 
For,  if  he  had  acted  on  the  lines  demanded  by  his  critics,  he 
would  not  only  have  tied  up  a  considerable  part  of  the 
national  resources  at  a  time  wlien  they  were  all  wanted  for 
a  far  graver  enterprise,  but  he  would  have  seemed  to  be 
.acting  on  the  accursed  principle  which  underlies  the  creed 
of  Germany,  and  so  deprived  the  Allies  of  the  enormous 
moral  force  which  the  entry  of  .America  into  the  war  has 
conferred  on  the  common  cause.  Had  Mexico  been  within 
striking  distance  of  German  aggression  there  is  not  a  doubt 
she  would  have  been  fonquered,  exploited,  and  enslaved. 
We  well  regret  that  Mekico  is  still  in  the  condition  of  chaos, 
and  may  possibly  remain  so  for  some  time  to  come.  But 
this  is  as  nothing  compared  with  the  fact  that  President 
Wilson  has  clean  hands. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  thinking,  however,  tliat  the  Presi- 
dent's experience  with  Mexico  may  be  in  some  measure 
accountable  for  what  I  wiU  venture  to  call  a  certain  limita- 
tion of  vision  in  his  view  of  "  the  smaller  and  weaker  nations" 
— a  limitation  he  shares  with  many  who  have  less  excuse 
for  displaying  it.  In  his  public  utterances,  especially  in 
those  which  refer  to  the  League  of  Peace,  he  constantly 
tends  to  speak  of  these  small  nations  as  though  they  were 
satisfied  with  their  present  smallness  and  nurtured  no  designs 
of  expansion  at  the  expense  of  their  neighbours — a  descrip- 
tion which  is  true  of  some  of  them  and  possibly  of  Mexico 
and  of  other  Latin-American  States  with  which  the  President 
has  been  brought  into  more  immediate  contact.  Whether 
or  no  I  am  right  in  assigning  this  as  the  cause — and  perhaps 


I  am  totally  wrong-there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Wilson's 
LbTt  of  mind  incUnes  him  to  think  of  smaU  States  as  needmg 
rather  protection  than  restraint.  ,  .  ^  ^.  .  ,  ,  ,  „ 
Sand  again  we  find  him  refernng  to  the  nght  of  small 
States  to  develop  their  own  hfe  in  their  own  way  and  of  the 
duty  of  great  States  to  protect  them  '^  th.«  "ght^  Unfor- 
tunately however,  there  are  some  smal  States  whose  out- 
standing characteristic  is  the  desire  to  become  big  ones  at 
the  expense  of  their  neighbours,  and  whose  notion  of  l.vmg 
their  own  hfe  in  their  own  way  takes  precisely  that  form. 
Small  States  of  this  character-and  there  are  several  of  them— 
are  among  the  chief  troublers  of  the  peace  of  the  worid  ; 
and  it  would  be  difficult  for  Powers  wliich  were  once  small 
ones  themselves,  and  have  grown  great  by  conquest  to 
make  a  rule  forbidding  the  present  smaU  Powers  from  follow- 
ing their  own  example,  and  the  first  attempts  to  enforce 
such  a  rule  would  certainly  lead  to  some  embarrassing  re- 
minders, and  perhaps  to  some  bitter  taunts.  But  here  again 
the  Wstory  of  the  United  States  has  been  very  different  from 
that  of  the  other  great  Powers.  She  would  be  immune— or 
almost  immune— from  the  taunts  to  which  the  others  would 
be  exposed  And  this  perhaps  may  also  accoxmt,  in  part, 
for  the  fact  that  Mr.  Wilson  shows  a  tendency  to  overlook 
the  difficulty.  No  doubt  the  difficulty  would  be  largely 
overcome  if  it  were  the  lot  of  the  United  States  to  exercise 
a  dominaring  influence  in  the  League  of  Narions.  And  this 
we  may  very  well  believe  to  be  her  destiny.  "Amenca," 
asserted  President  Wilson,   in   May,   1915.   "was  created  to 

unite  mankind."  .,,   ,  ,  ^      , 

That  the  rights  of  great  nations  are  entitled  to  respect  only 
when  they  are  translated  into  corresponding  duties  to  man- 
kind is  a  principle  wliich  the  guiding  minds  of  the  British 
Empire  are  prepared  to  accept.  Our  people  have  long 
been  famihar  with  "the  White  Man's  Burden,"  and  all  that 
Mr.  Wilson  has  said  about  America  as  the  uniter  of  nations  is, 
if  I  mistake  not,  only  a  wider  application  of  the  principle 
which  underlies  that  phrase.  He  speaks  a  language  we 
understand,  and  he  will  find  us  ready  to  join  hands  with 
him,  and  with  his  countrymen,  in  united  effort  to  realise  his 
great  ideal  of  international  service.  It  is  not  enough  that 
an  aUiance  should  exist  between  America  and  Great  Britain. 
It  is  essential  that  it  should  be  guided  by  a  clear  and  lofty 
principle  of  action.  This  principle  Mr.  Wilson  has  supplied, 
and  he  has  stated  it  in  a  form  which  expresses  the  best 
elements  of  our  own  political  aspirations.  The  effect  has  been 
not  only  to  increase  our  confidence  in  the  outcome  of  the 
war,  and  to  give  us  a  new  assurance  that  we  stand  upon  the 
rock,  but  to  open  out  a  great  prospect  of  future  service  to 
humanity  in  which  America  and  Great  Britain  will  be  joined 
hand  to  hand.  Only  when  nations  are  united  on  the  highest 
ground  can  we  say  that  they  are  united  at  all.  It  is  to  the 
highest  ground  that  Mr.  Wilson  has  raised  our  aUiance,  and 
so  long  as  we  stand  there  together  this  alliance  will  remain 
indissoluble. 

I  have  spoken  of  President  Wilson's  mind  as  having  evolved 
its  present  character.  It  is  a  war-mind  evolved  from  a 
peace-mind,  the  most  dangerous  sort  of  mind  for  an  enemy 
to  encounter.  But  we  should  make  a  mistake  if  we  were  to 
assume  that  Mr.  Wilson's  evolution  will  be  arrested  at  its 
present  stage.  It  will  unquestionably  go  on  to  further 
developments.  What  precisely  these  will  be  it  is,  of  course, 
impossible  to  say ;  but  we  may  be  sure  that  they  will  follow 
the  general  course  of  his  evolution  up  to  date.  This  has 
taken  the  form  of  making  clear  and  explicit  in  liis  later 
policy  what  was  hidden  and  implicit  in  his  earlier  pxjlicy. 

In  forecasting  the  line  of  his  future  influence  we  should  do 
well,  therefore,  to  ask  which  of  his  present  principles  contains 
the  largest  implications,  for  he  is  certain  to  develop  them 
as  time  goes  on.  My  own  choice  would  be  for  the  principle^ 
contained  in  his  saying  that  America's  purpose  in  going  to 
war  is  "to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy."  Making 
the  world  safe  for  democracy  involves  much  more  than  is 
apparent  at  first  sight.  The  first  requirement  is,  of  course, 
the  overthrow  of  autocratic  domination  ;  for  it  is  certain 
that,  so  long  as  democracy  is  entangled  with  autocracy  in  a 
common  system  of  international  relations,  autocracy  will  call 
the  tune  and  war  will  be  a  perpetual  menace  to  mankind. 
For  the  time  being  we  need  think  of  nothing  else  ;  but  when 
this  has  been  accomplished  we  shall  have  to  go  much  further 
if  Mr.  Wilson's  ideal  of  a  world  "safe  for  democracy"  is  to 
be  made  good. 

I  beheve  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  fully  prepared  for  this,  and  that 
he  will  develop  his  principle  when  the  time  is  ripe.  Punch, 
in  a  famous  cartoon,  unconsciously  hit  the  nail,  when  it 
exhibited  the  White  House  with  a  closed  door,  on  which  the 
words  were  written  :  "  The  President  is  thinking."  Yes,  he 
was  thinking  to  some  purpose,  and  he  is  thinking  still.  So 
are  we. 


May  2,  191 8 


Land    &   Water 


19 


The  United  States  Navy :    By  L.  R.  Freeman 


Since  the  first  units  of  the  United  States  Navy  appeared  in  these  waters, 
the  greatest  interest  has  been  taken  in  them.  In  this  article  Mr.  Freeman 
depicts  the  spirit  of  the  United  States  Navy  and  also  describes  the  course 
of  instruction  through  which  an  American  Naval  Cadet  passes.  The 
United  States  Navy,  he  points  out,  has  been  modelled  on  the  British  Navy. 


IN  writing  in  L.'iND 
&  Water  some 
months  ago  on 
the  coming  of  the 
American  Army  to 
France  I  quoted  the  naive  words  used  by  a  French  Staff  Officer 
to  describe  the  impression  the  new  arrivals  had  made  upon  him. 
After  speaking  of  the  keenness  of  the  American  officers  to 
learn  from  those  who  had  had  the  experience,  he  concluded  : 
"We  hke  them  very  much.  In  fact,  they  have  been  quite  a 
surprise.  They  have  not  displayed  the  least  tendency  to 
show  us  how  to  run  the  war.  Indeed,  they  are  not  the  least 
American !  " 

I  do  not  know  that  I  have  heard  a  British  naval  officer  use 
precisely  the  same  words  in  voicing  his  relief  that  his  American 
"opposite  number,"  whom  he  is  now  beginning  to  meet 
with  increasing  frequency  and  intimacy,  has  not  fulfilled 
expectations  in  insisting  on  showing  the  British  Navy  how 
to  win  the  war ;  but  that  precise  sentiment  I  heard  implied 
many  times,  though,  I  am  happy  to  record,  less  and  less 
frequently  as  the  favourable  impression  formed  by 
those  who  have  had  opportunity  of  meeting  the  first 
officers  from  across  the  Atlantic,  has  had  time  to  percolate. 
Save  on  the  score  of  technical  training  and  uniform,  there 
is  very  little  to  differentiate  the  American  naval  officer  from 
his  brother  in  the  Army  who  has  furnished  so  agreeable  a 
surprise  to  his  Allies  in  France,  and  there  need  be  no  fear 
(whatever  may  have  been  expected  from  those  who  have 
not  had  the  opportunity  of  meeting  him  before)  that  the 
former  will  not  "keep  station"  at  sea  in  the  same  quiet 
tmostentatious  way  that  the  latter  has  "fallen  into  step" 
on  land. 

So  far,  since  American  naval  activities  in  the  war  zone 
have  been  largely  limited  to  the  operations  of  their  fleet  of 
destroyers  off  the  Irish  coast,  the  two  navies  have  had  fat 
less  opportunity  to  get  acquainted  than  have  the  British  and 
American  armies.  The  liaison  established  at  Queenstown, 
however,  may  be  taken  as  a  microcosm  of  the  co-operation 
that  will  be  established  on  a  larger  scale  should  the  exigencies 
of  the  situation  demand  it.  As  thoroughly  characteristic  of 
the  spirit  in  which  the  Americans  are  taking  up  their  work 
in  these  waters,  I  may  quote  the  words  of  an  officer  of  one  of 
their  destroyers  with  whom  I  talked  recently. 

"Green  as  we  came  to  the  job,"  he  said,  "in  comparison 
to  their  three  years  of  hard  experience  of  the  British,  our 
taking  over  here  was  almost  like  a  lot  of  boy.  scouts  replacing 
a  regiment  of  seasoned  veterans  in  the  trenches.  We  were 
all  for  the  job,  however,  and  somehow  we  began  to  get  results 
right  from  the  get-away.  Let  me  tell  you,  though,  that  if 
we  had  had  to  find  out  all  the  wrinkles  of  the  game  ourselves 
— if  they  had  not  given  us  the  benefit  of  all  they  had  been 
paying  in  ships  and  men  for  three  years  to  learn — it  would 
have  been  a  far  slower  business  for  us,  and  a  far  more  costly 
one  as  well.  1  take  off  my  hat  to  the  British  destroyers  and 
trawlers,  and  to  the  men  who  man  them.  I  have  not  had  a 
chance  yet  to  see  anything  of  the  rest  of  their  Navy,  but  if 
the  officers  and  men  are  of  the  same  stamp  as  those  we  have 
worked  with  here,  when  our  capital  ships  come  over  it  will 
be  just  like  joining  up  with  another  American  fleet." 

These  sentiments  seem  to  me  thoroughly  typical  of  the 
spirit  with  which  the  American  Navy  is  taking  .up  its  task  in 
European  waters,  and  such  also  was  the  opinion  of  a  dis- 
tinguished British  Naval  officer  to  whom  I  quoted  them 
not  long  ago. 

"I  have  known  American  Navy  officers  a  good  many 
years,"  he  said,  "principally  on  the  China  and  West  India 
stations,  so  that,  persona:lly,  I  had  none  of  the  doubts  about 
our  ability  to  co-operate  with  them  that  may  have  been 
harboured  by  some  of  my  friends  who  had  been  less  fortunate 
than  myself  on  that  score.  The  fact  that  the  average 
untra veiled  Briton  has  had  to  judge  the  American  wholly 
by  such  specimens  as  seemed  to  him  the  most  characteristic 
among  those  coming  to  this  side  of  the  water — that  is,  by 
the  Cook's  tourist  and  the  money-slinging  millionaire,  neither 
of  whom  are  in  the  least  representative — has  been  responsible 
for  our  getting,  as  a  nation,  a  distorted  picture  of  you,  as  a 
nation.  It  was  that  which  gave  the  more  conservative 
element  in  both  our  Army  and  Navy  some  doubts  as  to 
how  we  might  settle  down  to  pull  in  double  iiamess. 

"One  of  the  best  things  about  the  American  naval  officer 
— and  one  that  stands  him  in  good  stead  at  the  present 
time— is  his  open-mindedness.  He  may  have  come  over 
here  firmly  believing  that  some  gun,  some  explosive,  some 


system  of  loading  or  fire- 
control,  or  any  of  a 
number  of  other  things  he 
has  perfected  to  the  best 
of  his  experience,  is 
better  than  anything  else  of  the  kind  that  Britain  or 
any  other  nation  has  got.  But  that  does  not  blind  him 
in  the  least  to  the  good  points  of  the  latter,  and  no  false 
sentiment,  pride,  or  conservatism  will  prevent  the 
incontinent  scrapping  of  his  own  long-laboured-over  invention 
to  make  way  for  what  his  open  mind  and  sterling 
common  sense  tell  him  is  better.  It  is  this  which  makes  it 
comparatively  easy  for  the  American  to  do  a  thing  which 
is  above  almost  all  othefs  difficult  for  the  Briton — to  profit 
and  take  advantage  of  another's  experience. 

"An  American  destroyer — and  the  same  will  be  true  of 
any  other  ships  of  whatever  class  that  may  be  sent  over — 
takes  its  place  as  a  unit  of  one  of  our  fleets  or  squadrons 
just  as  easily  and  naturally  as  if  a  new  British  ship,  manned 
by  British  sailors,  had  been  commissioned,  and  that  will  go 
on  just  as  long  as  it  is  necessary  or  advisable  to  increase 
your  naval  strength  in  European  waters.  Indeed,  the 
effective  smoothness  of  the  system  under  which  the 
American  ships  work  with  ours  makes  one  feel  that — quite 
without  realising  it — we  have  taken  the  first  step  in  the 
formation  of  what  has  so  long  been  talked  of  as  a  Utopian 
dream — an  'International  Police  Force.'  It  is  hardly  the 
time  to  talk  of  such  a  consummation  at  this  stage  of  things ; 
but  if  it  ever  does  eventuate,  you  may  take  it  that  an 
Anglo-Saxon   naval   force  will  be  its  foundation." 

Because  it  has  been  impossible  to  tell  the  public  scarcely 
anything  about  American  naval  co-operation  with  the 
British,  the  historic  significance  of  that  event  has  been 
almost  overlooked.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  it  marks 
the  first  occasion  in  which  the  ships  of  one  Allied  nation 
have  been  practically  incorporated  (as  far  as  the  direction 
of  operations  are  concerned)  in  the  navy  of  another.  Allied 
fleets  have  carried  out  operations  together — as  the  French 
and  the  British  at  the  Dardanelles,  or  the  British  and  the 
Italians  in  the  Adriatic — but  never  has  the  co-operation 
been  more  intimate— and,  it  may  be  added,  more  success- 
ful— than  in  the  present  instance. 

That  the  British  and  American  naval  officer  would  "hit 
it  off"  well  personally  from  the  outset  no  one  with  any 
acquaintance  with  both  of  them  could  ever  have  had  any 
doubt.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  indeed,  there  is  less  difference 
between  them  than  between  the  average  American  and 
Englishman,  and  even  that  is  a  good  deal  less  than  most 
people  imagine.  In  the  first  place,  they  come  from  very 
nearly  the  same  classes  socially  (I  am  speaking  now  of  the 
regular  "R.N."  and  "U.S.N."),  in  their  respective  countries, 
and  there  is  very  httle  indeed  to  differentiate  the  English 
lad  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  and  the  American  lad  of  a  year 
or  two  older,  the  one  beginning  his  naval  training  at  Osborne 
and  the  other  at  Annapolis.  Differing  in  details  though 
they  are,  the  training  of  these  two  naval  schools  is  far  less 
divergent  than  that  of  English  and  American  public  schools 
and  universities.  That  is  to  say,  the  naval  schools  of  the 
two  countries  are  aiming  at  precisely  the  same  thing — the 
turning  out  of  an  officer  who  knows  his  business — whereas 
public  schools  and  universities  are  working  in  a  number  of 
different  directions. 

The  system  of  appointing  the  American  naval  cadet  ensures 
that  each  year's  class  is  selected  as  nearly  as  may  be  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  Each  member  of  Congress  is  required 
to  make  one  appointment  to  both  the  naval  and  military 
academies,  and,  in  addition  to  these,  there  are  ten  or  more 
appointments  at  large  made  from  Washington.  In  this  way 
each  State  is  represented  in  the  Naval  Atademy  according 
to  its  population.  Thus  New  York,  with,  say,  forty  mem- 
bers in  the  House  of  Representatives  and  two  in  the  Senate, 
would  have  forty-two  nominees,  while  Nevada,  with  three 
members  in  the  House  and  two  in  the  Senate,  would  have 
five.  A  Member  of  Congress  has  his  choice  of  making  the 
appointment  open  to  a  competitive  examination  or  giving  it 
direct  to  any  boy  fulfilling  the  requisite  requirements. 
Even  in  the  latter  case,  however,  the  prospective  nominee 
must  pass  very  stiff  examinations  calculated  to  establish  his 
mental,  moral,  and  physical  fitness,  and  it  is  practically 
impossible  for  him  to  be  pushed  in  simply  because  he  has 
friends  in  high  places.  It  is,  I  believe,  becoming  more  and 
more  the  custom  to  resort  to  competitive  examination,  so 
that  the  boy  named  by  each  member  is  usually  the  brightest 


20 


Land    &    Water 


May  2,  19 1  8 


of  a  score  or  more  striving  for  that  honour  from  his  Congres- 
sional district,  which  contains,  roughly,  a  population  of  from 
two  to  three  hundred  thousand. 

As  nearly  as  tlie  comparison  can  be  made,  the  four  years' 
course  at  the  Annapolis  Naval  Academy  covers  about  the 
same  ground  that  the  British  cadet  covers  in  his  two  years 
at  Osborne,  the  same  period  (since  the  war  somewhat  reduced) 


so  that  he  is  competent  ultimately  to  perform  the  duties  of  any 
officer  on  any  ship  of  the  Navy,  but  actually  to  require  him 
to  serve  several  years  in  each  of  such  various  capacities  as 
engineer,  navigator,  gunnery,  or  torpedo  ofiicer. 

This  system  gives  the  officer  who  has  been  through  the 
mill  an  incomparable  experience  by  the  time  he  attains 
his  captaincy,   but  the  number  of  good   men    (who   might 


at  Usbome,  the  same  period  (since  the  war  somewhat  reduced)  his  captamcy,   but  the  number  01  good   me 

at  Dartmouth,  and  his  first  year  as  a  midshipman.     Since  have   made    most    excellent    specialists)    who    "fell    b'y   the 

the  average  age  of  entrance  to  Osborne  is  about  thirteen  wayside"  because  they   were   not    able   to   stand   the   pace 

and  a  half,  and  to  Annapohs  about  sixteen,  it  is'difficult  to  '""■  ""-f'f"<""  f"--  "^^  -rr^ot  o  ranorp  nf  Hiifif.«  matpc  nnn  rir.i,K+ 
compare  the  entrance  requirements  or  the  courses.     As  the 


British  cadet  has  about  two  and  a  half  years  the  start  of  the 
.American  in  the  matter  of  age,  it  follows  that  the  latter 
— to  reach  an  equality  of  training,  if  not  of  rank,  at  twenty — 
must  cover  in  four  years  the  same  ground  which  the  former 
does  in  six  and  a  half.  This,  I  should  say,  he  comes  pretty 
near  to  accomplishing. 

The  fact  that  the  American  Navy  was  less  than  half  of  the 


for  quahfying  for  so  grea.t  a  range  of  duties  makes  one  doubt 
if  it  is  practicable  for  any  nation  situated  otherwise  than 
was  the  United  States  up  to  its  entry  into  the  present  war — 
that  is,  with  a  huge  population  and  a  modest  navy.  With 
the  development  of  the  modern  man-of-war,  the  increasing 
mastery  of  technical  detail  which  such  duties  as  those  of 
torpedo  or  gunnery  officer  entail  would  seem  to  make  it 
inevitable  that  such  officers  should  not  be  required  to  divert 
their  attention  or  energies  to  anything  else.     This  fact  we 

nj ii.-   * i   j._ a^^i.^^   K,.^u   .'«    i-u„   J. ;__• 


ic  icu-i  inai  ine  .'vmencan  iNavy  was  less  tJian  Halt  ol  the  tneir  attention  or  energies  to  anyining  eise.  inis  ract  we 
size  of  the  British,  while  the  population  from  which  officers  may  confidently  expect  to  see  reflected  both  in  the  training 
could^be  dra\vn  was  more  than  twice  that  of  the  British     of  the  cadet  at  Annapolis  and  in  American  naval  practice 

before  very  long — 
perhaps  even  during 
the  war. 

The  fact  that — as 
was  only  natural — the 
United  States  Navy, 
when  it  was  formed 
during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  was 
modelled  on  the  only 
other  Navy  of  which 
the  colonials  had  ex- 
perience— the  British 
— is  responsible  for 
many^.  similarities  in 
the  forms  and 
practices  of.  the  re- 
spective services  to- 
day. The  gold  sleeve 
or  shoulder  stripes 
indicating  the  rank  of 
officers  are  practically 
identical,  save  only 
that  the  Americans 
replace  the  British 
executive  "curl"  with 
a  star.  The  American 
Marine  even  retains 
the    silver    half-globe 


Isles,  made  it  possible 
for  Annapolis  to  insist 
on  a  mental  and  phy- 
sical standard  in  its 
entrants  calculated  to 
make  them  equal  to 
the  very  stiff  years  of 
work  ahead  of  them. 
The  system  of  naming 
as  "alternative"  the 
boy  who  passed 
"Number  2"  in  the 
competitive  entrance 
examination  also  made 
it  possible  to  weed  out 
and  replace  in  the 
first  year  any  cadet 
who  began  to  lag 
behind  his  class. 

Not  only  was  the 
"book  "  and  class 
room  work  at  Anna- 
polis a  good  deal  stiffer 
than  in  the  corres- 
ponding years  at 
Osborne  and  Dart- 
mouth, but  the  year 
was  a  longer  one  in 
point    of    work.      At 

Osborne  the  cadet  spent  three  terms  of  three  months 
each,  with  the  other  three  months  of  the  year  divided  into  his 
Easter,  Summer,  and  Christmas  holidays.  At  Annapolis 
there  was  something  like  nine  months  of  work  at  the 
academy  proper,  with  the  summer  months  spent  in  cruising 
on  a  training  ship. 

At  the  end  of  four  years — or  at  about  the  age  of  twenty — 
the  American  cadet,  on  passing  the  examinations,  received 
the  rank  of  ensign— corr^ponding  to  the  British  sub-lieu- 
tenant— and  began  his  sea  career  as  an  officer.  The  British 
midshipman  usually  managed  to;,  qualify  for  his  first  stripe 
at  a  somewhat  earlier  age  than' his  American  cousin,  and 
this  start  tended  to  increase  rather  than  decrease  as  he 
climbed  the  ladder  of  promotion.  Speaking  very  roughly, 
the  British  lieutenant  appears  to  average  two  or  three  years 
younger  than  his  American  "opposite,"  the  lieutenant- 
commander  three  or  four,  the  commander  three  to  five, 
and  the  captain  five  to  seven. 

Of  the  training  of  the  cadets  in  the  British  and  American 
naval  institutions,  only  the  briefest  comparison  is  possible 
here.  On  the  physical  side  there  is  very  little  difference, 
both  giving  the  greatest  encouragement  to  outdoor  exercise 
and  bodily  development.  Each  pays  equal  attention  to 
aquatics— rowing,    swimming,    and    sailing— and    American 


U.S.N.  Destroyer  Crossing  the  Atlantic 


which  is  so  characteristic  a  feature  of  the  badge  of  the  Royal 
Marine  of  the  British  Navy.  In  manning  guns,  and  even  whole 
turrets,  with  Royal  Marines,  it  would  appear  that  the  British 
Navy  has  progressed  rather  farther  than  has  the  American 
from  the  time  when  this  "anachronistic amphibian,"  as  some 
one  has  called  him,  was  carried  principally  to  swarm  over 
the  rail  with  a  cutlass  when  the  old  ships  of  the  line  closed 
in  a  death  grapple.  In  general  multifarity  of  duties,  however, 
there  is  little  to  choose  between  this  always  useful  "soldier- 
and-sailor-too "  of  either  service. 

The  comparatively  short  term  of  service  in  the  American 
Navy  was  responsible  for  the  fact  that  the  Yankee  man-o'- 
wars-man  was  a  good  deal  less  of  a  "jolly  Jack  Tar"  in 
appearance  than  his  British  cousin,  a  difference  which  has 
been  accentuated  since  America  entered  the  war  by  the 
necessity  of  an  even  further  "dilution"  of  landsmen.  The 
practice  of  allowing  the  American  sailor  to  wear  a  sweater 
and  toboggan  cap,  except  on  "dress"  occasions,  has  also 
tended  to  make  him  smack  less  of  the  sea  than  the  flowing- 
collared  sailorman  who  will  be  performing  similar 
duties  on  a  Bntish  ship.  Since  the  fighting  of  the  modern 
warship  is  about  90  per  cent,  "mechanical"  and  10  per  cent. 
■  "fh  ^'v'  ,''°'^^'^f'  ^^^  la<:k  of  the  "Yo-heave-ho"  touch 
football  gives  the  Annapoiis°cadet-the™s^''e  v^'o^ourmTni;  Sn  the^'ntrTry'lLXd^the  ^Ir^lTZt'lf  '^"'r""'. 
training  as  it  does  those  of  Osborne  and  Dartmouth  come  to  sea  mav  indicate  that  h7h.f  .  n.u  "^^^  ^"'^ 
Baseball  and  cricket  are  more  or  less  the  same.  in  mas^.rin.^h^  "^f'w;'?!   ^l^.^_'P^"*  ^"  ^.^^ .^ore  time 


BasebaJ!  and  cricket  are  more  or  less  the  same. 

On  the  technical  side  there  was  also  a  good  deal  of  simi- 
larity in  the  training,  though  it  seems  probable  that  the 
"specialisation,'-  which  is  the  principal  differentiation  between 


•     „ „.     .        .,  "    .    ,   . . "^  ""^  opcui  ail  tiic  more  ume 

in  mastenng  the  intncacies  of  machinery  and  electricity  and 
the  other  things  which  enter  so  much  into  the  efficiency  of 
the  present-day  fighting-ship. 
To  quote  my  American  naval  friend  again,  both  navies 


the  British  and  American   naval  officer  (who  is  given  an  have  man7th7ngs  tSare  dllrJt  k?^'"'  ^°'^  '''■^''' 

"aU-round"   preparation),   is  being  given Vore  and  more  execuSve^systeT SaSn^^^^^^^^^ 

attention  in  the  British  schools  as  the  necessity  of  turning  pride  in  itsowXnssTheJf...^f\^I^  ^^^^  t  "'''"'"^ 

out  officers  rapidly  has  increased  during  the  w^.     The  fact  Lvy  the  otS^r  can  p?ofit  bv  bu^  ^ie^tS^?'^^^^''  '^'^ 

that  It  IS  the  Bntish  rather  than  the^American  officer  who  bearing  in  mind  that  eve^hin^  new  <■>,?«  I   t^^^^'l '' 

is  trained  as  a  "specialist"  presents  a  curious  anomaly,  for  to  offer  it  has  been  twJH^nH^       ^  the  British  Navy  has 

generally  speaking,  the  United  States  is,  of  all  the  nations  penence    whUe  ^U  the  new  thinr  U  \l  t^  T^  ^^"^  T 

m  the  worid,  the  one  where  specialisation  is  carried  to  the  British  Navy  have  oiUy  bel  ou^^to  Lt    .     *°.  f^'  ^^^ 

greatest  length.     Yet    the  fact  remains  that  it  has  always  now  that  American  ships  are^havfn,?         .*™f  ^^'*'-  ■  ^"^ 

been  the  American  practice  not  only  to  train  the  naval  cadet  that  is  beingXred  rapSy  ^  P'^*'*"'^^  experience. 


May  2,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


2 1 


Education  of  the  Soldier  :    By  Centurion 


FROM  the  moment  a  civilian  attests  or  is  called  up 
he  is  subjected  to  what  experts  in  the  treatment  of 
shell-shock  call  a  process  of  "re-education" — with 
this  difference,  that  in  his  case  the  process  is  not 
restorative  but  revolutionary.  He  finds  he  has 
many  things  to  learn,  and  still  more  to  unlearn. 

The  first  thing  he  learns  is  that  his  personal  tastes  are  of 
no  importance.  He  is  taken  before  the  company  orderly 
sergeant  and  told  with  some  asperity  to  get  his  hair  cut ; 
the  operation  is  performed  with  an  incisiveness  that  leaves 
nothing  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  uniformity  except  the 
branding  of  the  scalp  with  a  broad  arrow.  He  goes  before 
the  quartermaster-sergeant  and  exchanges  the  whole  of  his  ■ 
variegated  wardrobe  for  ready-made  garments  more  remark- 
able for  uniformity  than  cut.  He  is  allowed  little  private 
property;  but  a  large  number  of  articles,  all  exactly  like 
everybody  else's,  are  issued  to  him,  which  he  is  expected  to 
keep  with  as  much  care  as  if  they  were  his  own,  under  penalty 
of  being  put  under  stoppages  of  pay  if  he  becomes  "  deficient." 
He  finds  that  he  has  to  black  his  boots,  brush  his  clothes, 
polish  his  buttons,  and  make  his  bed,  with  an  eye  not  to  his 
own  satisfaction,  but  to  that  of  some  one  else.  He  has  to 
rise  and  retire  at  inexorable  hours,  and  from  reveille  to 
tattoo  his  life  is  subject  to  a  time-table.  He  is  free  to  make 
a  pal,  but  his  choice  is  strictly  limited  to  the  ranks ;  the 
shades  of  distinction  in  these  things  are  fine  but  definite. 
He  has  probably  reflected,  on  the  way  to  the  depot,  that  the 
tolerant  smile  of  the  sergeant  conducting  the  draft,  under 
the  volatile  chaff  of  the  slouching  recruits,  is  indicative  of  a 
large  heart  and  a  sociable  disposition  ;  a  few  days'  experience 
of  N.C.O.'s  on  the  square  wiU  induce  him  to  think  that  there 
was  irony  in  that  srnUe,  and  his  one  ambition  will  be  not  to 
attract  a  sergeant's  attention,  but  to  avoid  it. 

He  may  feel  that  he  would  Hke  to  know  his  CO.,  but  he 
soon  finds  that  the  opportunities  for  seeing  him  are  singularly 
restricted  and  usually  avoided  unless  they  come  unsolicited 
from  the  orderly-room,  in  which  case  it  generally  means  that 
he  is  "for  it."  He  finds  that  to  go  unremarked  is  at  this 
stage  more  creditable  than  to  attract  attention,  and 
originality  is  out  of  place. 

Unless  he  is  both  modest  and  humorous,  his  first  days  will 
be  depressing.  He  \yill  find  that  the  N.C.O.'s,  though  he 
may  be  better  educated  than  they,  give  him  credit  for  pos- 
sessing very  littre  intelligence — and  when  he  is  wiser  he  will 
recognise  that  they  were  probably  right.  He  will  find  that 
the  instructors  are  quick  to  discover  an  element  of  "personal 
error"  in  him  which  he  did  not  know  himself.  He  finds 
that  he  never  "orders"  his  dinner  or  anything  else,  but  that 
everything  is  ordered  for  him.  He  is  subject  to  all  kinds  of 
."inspections,"  and  if,  like  most  civilians,  he  has  been  very 
casual  about  his  chattels,  knowing  that  he  could  always 
walk  into  a  shop  and  order  a  substitute  for  the  article  he  has 
mislaid,  he  will  almost  certainly  be  "deficient"  at  his  first 
kit  inspection.  He  discovers  that  to  be  slack,  unclean, 
disorderly,  haphazard,  are  not  merely  faults :  they  are 
"crimes."  He  must  inwardly  digest  the  lesson  that  the 
first  duty  of  a  recruit  is  to  be  "clean  and  regular"  ;  if  he 
learns  it  thoroughly  he  may  aspire,  when  put  on- guard  duty, 
to  "get  the  stick"  and  be  made  orderly-room  orderly.  H 
he  does  not,  he  is  "for  it."  It  will  console  him  to  discover 
that  everybody  else,  including  the  N.C.O.,  has  to  be  "clean 
and  regular,"  too,  and  that  if  the  regimental  institutions 
which  minister  to  his  comfort,  from  cook-house  to  canteen, 
are  not  clean  and  regular,  the  Orderly  officer  will  know  the 
reason  why.  If  the  company-sergeant  seems  hard  on  him, 
he  may  reflect  that  the  company-sergeants  might,  with  as 
much  or  as  little  justification,  think  the  same  of  the  sergeant- 
major  and  the  sergeant-major  of  the  CO.  By  the  time  he 
has  got  his  first  stripe — if  not  before  it — he  will  have  realised 
that  all  this  inexorable  discipline  has  a  meaning,  and- that 
he  and  his  fellows  are,  in  the  language  of  the  Apostle,  members 
one  of  another. 

The  "re-education"  of  the  recruit  is  a  series  of  surprises. 
He  discovers  on  the  square  that  he  has  never  learnt  how  to 
use  his  legs  ;  at  Observation  he  finds  that  he  has  never  known 
how  to  use  his  eyes.  To  translate  a  command  "  Right  turn  !  " 
into  an  immediate  co-ordination  of  the  musc!(?s  of  the  heel 
of  the  right  foot  and  the  toe  of  the  left  is  at  first  an  act  of 
painful  deUberation  ;  it  is  only  later  that  it  becomes  a  reflex 
movement.  Unless  he  was  an  athlete,  he  was  probably  a 
stranger  to  his  body  until  he  joined  the  army ;  after 
"physical  jerks,"  he  discovers  by  the  location  of  numerous 

Copyright  in  U.S.A. 


aches  and  pains  that  it  contains  a  number  of  muscles  which 
he  has  long  neglected,  until  they  were  in  danger  of  becoming 
as  obsolete  as  the  vermiform  appendix.  The  first  thing  is  to 
get  him  "fit" — physical  jerks  do  much,  the  "gym  squad" 
and  route-marching  do  the  rest. 

All  the  time  his  mind  is  not  being  neglected  ;  indeed,  like 
his  body,  it  is  treated  as  singularly  unformed.  Squad  drill 
probably  strikes  him  as  a  stupid  and  elementary  operation  ; 
but  he  is  astonished — with  a  wholesome  humiliation — to  find 
that  to  remember  your  right  from  your  left  and  whether 
you  are  odd  or  even  is  not  so  instantaneous  as  he  had  thought 
it  was.  At  section-drill  he  begins  to  grasp  the  great  principle 
of  the  composition  of  a  battalion,  namely,  that  it  is  founded 
on  a  standardisation  of  parts  ;  when  he  has  done  his  company- 
drill  the  lesson  is  complete.  During  these  stages  he  feels  that 
he  is  becoming  merely  automatic,  and  so  he  is.  He  is 
learning  to  subordinate  his  personality  to  the  will  of  others. 

Observation  Lessons 

At  "observation"  he  learns  how  to  use  his  eyes,  and 
discovers — especially  if  he  is  a  townsman — that  all  his  life 
he  has  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  at  things  without  seeing 
them.  A  class  of  recruits,  when  invited  to  estimate  the 
number,  distance,  and  size  of  given  objects,  will  exhibit  the 
most  astonishing  differences  of  judgment,  which  will  have 
nothing  in  common  except  that  they  are  all  wrong.  In 
time,  they  will  learn  the  chronology  of  "six  o'clock,"  will  be 
able  to  locate  objects  in  terms  of  a  given  "prominent  object," 
and  sum  up  a  landscape  in  "Church  to  the  left.  Two 
elms  in  the  foreground.  Farmhouse  in  the  middle  distance. 
Eight  hundred."  They  will  learn  to  read  nature  like  a  book 
— to  know  that  she  has  a  thousand  tricks  of  camouflage, 
that  in  a  good  light  the  distance  of  an  object  is  under-estimated 
and  in  a  bad  one  exaggerated,  that  red  and  yellow  colours 
seem  near,  and  purple  and  violet  appear  distant.  Later 
they  will  leam»  to  consider  the  heavf  ns  like  the  husband- 
man and  to  estimate  almost  intuitively  the  effects  of  wind, 
moisture,  and  light  in  producing  a  marksman's  margin  of 
error. 

Up  to  this  point  a  recruit  has  been  learning  to  train  his 
muscles  and  re-educate  his  senses.  In  the  old  and  leisurely 
days  before  the  war  all  these  stages  were  carefully  graduated, 
and  the  time  at  which  a  recruit  went  "off  the  square"  to  do 
his  musketry  course  at  the  butts  was  strictly  contingent  on 
the  degree  of  intelligence  he  had  attained.  Also  he  learnt 
one  thing  at  a  time.  In  these  days  of  intensive  training, 
when  a  man  is  rushed  through  a  course  in  fourteen  weeks 
which  in  the  old  days  might  take  a  year  and  more,  he  has  to 
learn  half  a  dozen  things  at  once.  But  there  is  one  principle 
that  the  army  instractor  has  never  abandoned — namely, 
that  theory  can  never  be  a  substitute  for  practice.  '  You  do 
not  teach  a  recruit  the  use  of  a  rifle  or  a  Lewis  gun  from  a 
diagram  ;  you  put  the  weapon  into  his  hands,  and  educate 
him  in  the  meaning  of  the  parts  before  you  teach  him  to  use 
the  whole.  The  army  instructor  works  on  the  principles  of 
that  great  educationist,  Mr.  Squeers,  "Spell  winder — now 
go  and  clean  it" — except  that  the  pupil  has  to  clean  it  before 
he  "spells"  it.  He  must  know  how  to  "strip"  a  Lewis  gun 
before  he  fires  it.  Moreover,  in  the  actual  use  of  any  weapon, 
he  has  to  learn  a  dozen  things  in  order  to  forget  them  ;  they 
begin  by  being  dehberate,  they  end  by  being  instinctive. 
The  ideal  of  a  good  musketry-instructor  is  to  teach  his  men 
to  shoot  like  the  cowboy  who,  on  being  asked  by  a  naive 
spectator  how  he  managed  to  shoot  so  unerringly,  retorted : 
"Guess  yer  a  clerk,  ain't  yer  ?  Wal,  you  don't  have  to  aim 
with  yer  pen  every  time  you  write  a  letter,  do  you  ? " 

When  the  recruit  has  learnt  how  to  use  a  rifle  or  to  throw 
a  "powder  puff,"  he  can  enter  on  the  stage  of  five  rounds 
or  live  bombs.  But  training  goes  far  beyond  that :  the  one 
and  undivided  object  of  Army  schools  to-day  is  to  exercise 
the  recruit  in  circumstances  which  approximate  as  nearly  as 
possible  to  the  conditions  which  the  soldier  will  have  to 
encounter  in  actual  warfare,  A  good  training  camp  is 
furnished  with  trenches,  strong-posts,  and  assault-courses — 
which  sometimes  reproduce  with  remarkable  fidelity  all  the 
features  of  a  German  position  with  its  tricks  of  concealed 
machine-guns,  masked  trench-walls,  and  all  the  rest  of  it. 

The  soldier  is  even  taught  how  to  use  the  weapons  of  the 
enemy  and  exercised  in  the  use  of  those  lethal  toys,  the 
"  pineapple"  trench-mortar.  And  he  has  not  only  got  to  know 
his  own  job,  but  also  how  to  act  in  conjunction  with  others  ; 
also  in  tiiis  war  of  platoons  a  soldier's  education  is  incomplete 


22 


Land    &    Water 


May  2,  1918 


*•• 


ir  * 


LIEUTENANT  GENERAL 


MAJOR  GENERAL 


• 


BRIGADIER  GENERAL 


COLONEL 


LIEUTENANT  COLONEL 


MAJOR 


CAPTAIN 


FIRST  LIEUTENANT 


Insignia  of  Rank,  Tne  Uiiited  Sfat;s  Army 


until  he  is  exercised  in  the  "combined  tactics"  of  his  own 
and  all  the  other  arms,  so  that  the  riflemen,  rifle-bombers, 
bombers,  and  Lewis  gunners  can  work  together  like  the 
"pack"  of  a  good  football  team.     They  are  "specialists," 
but   their  teaching  has  one  common   denominator :    every 
man,  including  the  bombers,  should  be  able  to  shoot  and  to  get 
down  to  his  15  rounds  a  minute.     In  this  way  a  platoon  has 
a  singular  elasticity ;    its  four  constituent  units  have  each 
their  special  task,  and  at  the  same  time  have  all  a  common 
adaptabiUty.    The  soldier  of  to-day  has  to  be  at  one  and 
the  same  time  an  expert  and  a  good  all-round  infantryrrian. 
He  has  to  be  trained  to  act  in  large  masses,  and  also  to  work 
on  his  own  initiative.    These  are  paradoxes ;    but  modern 
warfare  is  full  of  them.     From  the  point  of  view  of  artillery 
the  division  is  the  unit,  of  machine  guns  and  trench-mortars 
the  brigade,  of  Lewis  guns  the  platoon.    At  any  moment,  all 
this  nice  integration  of  parts  may  be  dislocated,  and  men 
may  find  themselves  fighting  "on  their  own"  in  shell-holes 
until  the  co-ordination  is  whittled  down  to  a  couple  of  rifle- 
bombers  working  in  pairs — the  "gun"  and  his  loader — like 
partridge-driving ;    or   to   a   handful   of  bombers   doing   a 
forward  drive.     In  the  same  way,  the  fire-control  of  a  Stokes 
gun    battery,    especially    in    attack,    may    be    broken    up 
into  the  detachment   fire  of  a  single  gun   carried  forward 
without  its  legs  and  "pooped  off"  a  few  yards  behind  the 
bombers.    And,    therefore,    though    a    soldier's    education 
begins  by  making  him  automatic,  it  must  always  end  by 
making  him  self-reliant  and  resourceful. 

The  whole  tendency  of  this  war  is  to  make  the  unit  of  self- 
containment  smaller  and  smaller,  whichever  arm  of  the 
service  it  be.  Originally  it  was  the  battalion,  then  the 
company,  now  the  platoon.  All  this  means  that  the  indivi- 
dual soldier  has  to  be  more  and  more  versatile,  even  while 
he  becomes  more  and  more  specialised.  A  company,  or  even 
a  platoon,  must  be  able,  in  an  emergency,  to  improvise  its 
own  field  fortifications  without  waiting  for  the  ingenious 
sapper;  the  men  must  be  able  not  only  to  "consolidate," 
but  to  make  loopholes  and  lay  out  barbed  wire,  which,  by  the 
way,  is  a  science  in  itself.  It  is  neither  desirable  not  per- 
missible to  say  here  how  all  these  problems  are  worked  out ; 
it  is  enough  to  say  that  the  curriculum  of  the  soldier,  although 
not  the  method  of  teaching,  is  subject  to  constant  change. 
He — and  still  more  his  officers— are  being  worked  as  they 
were  never  worked  before,  and,  under  the  stress  of  modern 
warfare,  the  Army  is  becoming  as  technical  a  service  as  the 
Navy.  On  the  whole,  it  has  responded  to  these  imperative 
exigencies  with  remarkable  aptitude.  The  conscript  is  not 
as  good  an  all-round  soldier  in  a  war  of  movement  as  the 
old  regular,  who  was  the  product  of  years  of  trgiining ;  but 
when  it  comes  to  specialisation,  the  Army  has,  in  virtue  of 
conscription,  an  almost  unlimited  field  of  choice  in  selecting 


men  for  the  job  they  are  bes.t  quaUfied  by  civilian  pursuits 
to  do.  In  some  directions,  therefore,  the  new  conscript  is 
more  teachable  than  the  old  pre-war  recruit. 

More  than  that,  the  training  of  the  new  armies  is  flexible  ; 
it  has  no  Prussian  rigidity  about  it.  Thp  Infantry  Training 
Mamtal  is  no  longer  regarded  as  the  beginning  and  end  of 
wisdom.  The  recruit  has  to  learn  rules ;  but,  once  he  has 
learnt  them,  he  is  allowed  a  wide  latitude  in  the  way  of 
exceptions.  After  he  has  learnt  at  the  butts  to  shoot  with 
one  eye,  he  may,  in  practising  an  attack,  be  encouraged  to 
shoot  with  two,  for  with  two  eyes  3'ou  have  the  whole  of  the 
ground  open  to  you,  and  can  take  in  the  Boche  on  your 
flank  while  getting  your  sights  on  the  Boche  in  front.  Having 
learnt  to  point  and  parry  with  the  bayonet,  and  mastered 
the  first  and  second  butt  exercises,  he  will  probably  be  told 
eventually  by  the  instructor  that  to  "kick  him  anywhere" 
is  the  upshot  of  it  all  when  it  comes  to  the  third.  If  he  is  a 
bomber  he  will  be  allowed  to  do  what  he  likes  with  his  left 
hand,  so  long  as  he  has  learnt  how  to  "bowl  overhand"  or 
"put  the  weight"  with  his  right.  And  if  he  is  a  sniper 
— that  chartered  libertine  of  a  battalion — he  can  do  things 
■all  his  own  way.  For,  once  you  have  learnt  to  do  a  thing 
well  in  the  new  Army,  you  will,  within  reasonable  limits,  be 
allowed  to  do  it  as  you  like. 

The  soldier  must  begin  by  being  docile,  but  if  he  wishes  to 
excel  he  must  end  by  being  intelligent.  He  has  not,  like  the 
officer,  to  be  a  student  of  tactics  ;  but  he  has,  in  his  own  way, 
to  master  that  great  principle  of  war  which  is  to  anticipate 
what  the  other  fellow  is  hkely  to  do.  If  he  is  a  sniper  he 
wiU  select  all  his  positions,  construct  his  loopholes,  camou- 
flage his  headgear  with  that  principle  always  in  his  mind. 
But  the  principle  is  primarily  one  of  the  lessons  of  a  "com- 
mand" ;  it  is  one  of  those  high  matters  which,  like  the 
hard  dilemma  of  knowing  when  to  follow  an  order  and 
when  to  depart  from  it,  is  reserved  for  a  higher  order  of 
intelligence  than  that  imposed  upon  the  soldier  in  the 
ranks. 

At  last,  there  comes  a  day  when  the  soldier  is  warned  by 
the  sergeant  for  an  overseas  draft.  His  blankets  are  returned 
to  store,  his  kit  is  inspected,  and  an  entry  to  that  effect  is 
made  in  his  pay -book.  The  time  has  come  for  "marching 
out."  Soon  he  will  meet  his  enemy  in  the  gate.  Many 
things  will  come  back  to  him  as  the  train  takes  his  draft  up 
to  railhead  from  the  base  ;  he  will  reflect  that  the  instructor's 
apparent  asperity  on  the  square,  at  the  butts,  and  on  the 
assault-course  was  inspired  by  a  really  conscientious  desire 
to  make  a  soldier  of  him,  and  he  will  find  later  that  many  a 
little  trick  of  hand  and  eye  which  he  was  ordered  with  inexor- 
able persistency  to  try  again  will  stand  him  in  gOod  stead, 
and  may  make  all  the  difference  between  life  and  death. 
Happy  he  if  he  has  learnt  his  lesson  well. 


May  2,  1918 


Land    &    Water 


23 


The  Higher  Punctuality  :   By  G.  K.  Chesterton 


SOME  time  ago,  having  the  honour  to  write  in 
Land  &  Water,  I  began  my  article  by  comparing 
the  toleration  of  Prussia  in  Europe,  after  the  war, 
to  the  presence  of  a  cannibal  butcher's  shop,  hung 
with  human  bodies,  in  broad  daylight  in  the  streets 
of  a  modern  city.  There  were  some  faint  or  playful  protests 
against  the  goriness  of  the  figure  of  speech  ;  but  Prussia  can 
generally  be  trusted  to  turn  the  most  frantic  figure  into  a 
fact.  And  my  own  image  returned  to  my  imagination  when 
I  read  recently,  in  a  letter  from  an  eye-witness  in  the  villages 
evacuated  by  the  Germans,  that  he  had  actually  seen  the- 
corpse  of  a  young  girl  hung  on  one  of  the  hooks  outside  a 
butcher's  shop.  It  did  not,  of  course,  indicate  anything  so 
useful — we  might  almost  say  so  excusable — as  cannibalism. 
It  indicated  the  deep,  true-hearted  Teutonic  sense  of  humour  ; 
a  thing  somewhat  unique  in  aesthetics  ;  a  cruelty  that  is  not 
merely  dirty,  but  greasy.  And  although  the  image  be 
offensive — or,  rather,  because  it  is  offensive — it  is  well  to 
remember  it ;  and  to  repeat,  in  the  plainest  terms,  what  is 
as  true  in  the  hour  of  doubt  or  danger  as  it  would  be  in  the 
hour  of  triumph  ;  that  if  such  things  go  ultimately  uncon- 
demned  and  unchastised  in  the  European  settlement — it  will 
be  strictly  and  precisely  as  if  all  the  busy  and  peaceful  Ufe 
of  that  little  foreign  town  were  resumed,  with  folk  flocking 
to  market  and  to  church,  but  with  the  fear  of  the  barbarian 
still  so  heavy  upon  it  that  no  man  dared  take  down  that  body 
for  decent  burial,  but  all  left  it  to  swing  and  rot  in  the  sun. 

But  the  position  of  the  Allies,  and  especially  of  the 
Americans,  permits  another  practical  use  for  this  small 
working  model  of  a  common  shop,  as  the  scene  of  a  somewhat 
uncommon  crime.  The  point  is  this :  that  there  would 
certainly  be  a  limit  to  the  extent  to  which  such  a  crime  could 
be  concealed  or  perpetuated  by  the  mere  coincidence  of 
comings  and  goings.  The  corpse  could  not  remain  there 
long  merely  because  one  policeman  passed  just  before  it  was 
impaled,  and  another  when  the  shutters  were  up,  and  another 
in  a  fog,  and  another  in  a  state  of  intoxication.  If  the 
moral  sense  of  that  city  could  ultimately  be  found  to  be 
against  such  an  incident,  it  would  also  ultimately  be  found 
in  effective  combination  against  it.  If  there  was  a  universal 
disapproved  of  crime,  men  could  and  would  eventually  be 
present  in  sufficient  numbers  to  take  down  the  corpse,  and 
hang  the  butcher  instead  of  the  meat. 

Now,  that  is  precisely  the  position  of  Prussia  in  the  world 
to-day.  It  is  an  ironic  position  ;  and  the  supremely  valu- 
able, but  inevitably  gradual,  arrival  of  American  help  is  the 
great  example  of  it.  The  blunder  of  the  withdrawal  of 
Russian  help  is  another  example  of  it.  I  call  it  a  blunder 
because  even  those  who  committed  it  are  already  calling  it  a 
blunder.  It  is  a  queer  paradox  that  now,  while  Russia  is 
politically  most  broken  to  pieces,  it  is  morally  much  more  all 
of  a  piece  again.  At  least,  it  is  more  all  of  a  piece  about  the 
war.  Save  for  the  dubious  motives  of  the  Ukraine,  it  must 
now  be  almost  sohdly  anti-German.  Old-fashioned  patriotic 
Russians  must  be  furious  at  the  loss  of  their  frontiers,  and 
new  revolutionary  Russians  equally  furious  at  the  fall  of 
their  barricades.  One  half  of  Russia  must  mourn  for  glory 
and  the  national  faith,  and  the  other  half  for  freedom  and 
the  international  hop)e.  And  for  both  they  have  to  blame 
the  Germans.  Whether  or  no  they  agree  that  the  revolution 
against  the  Tsar  was  right,  the  one  thing  in  which  they  must 
logically  all  agree,  now,  is  that  the  war  against  the  Kaiser 
was  right.  In  other  words,  they  must  all  agree  that  they 
were,  at  least,  entirely  right  to  do  the  one  thing  that  they 
have  left  off  doing.  And  that  is  the  irony  of  the  present 
position  everywhere ;  it  is  not  that  the  feeling  of  the  world 
does  not  correspond  to  the  cause  of  the  Alhes ;  it  is  simply 
that  the  facts  of  the  world  do  not  correspond  to  the  feeling 
of  the  world.  And  if  the  whole  AUied  cause  failed  now,  it 
would  be  but  one  huge  and  brutal  blunder  in  synchrony. 

Failure  of  synchrony  may  mean  the  loss  of  a  battle, 
or  even  the  loss  of  a  campaign ;  but  I  doubt  if  men 
would  ever  allow  it  to  mean  the  final  loss  of  a  cause.  Napoleon 
might  very  well  have  won  Waterloo ;  England  and  Prussia 
might  not  have  been  ready  to  join  up,  just  as  Austria  and 
Russia  were  not,  as  a  fact,  ready  to  join  up  ;  but  Russia  and 
Austria,  England  and  Prussia  would  not  have  abandoned 
the  struggle  for  that.  If  the  powers  of  the  world  were  really 
against  liim  to  the  last,  he  could  not  have  conquered  finally, 
though  Quatre  Bras  had  been  more  successful  than  Ligny. 
1  use  the  parallel,  of  course,  as  a  small  and  technical  example  ; 
and  with  no  reference  to  the  ridiculous  though  fashionable 
comparison   of   Napoleon   to   the   North-German   mihtarist. 


Napoleon  wa"S  the  heir  of  noble  ideals,  and  himself  a  great 
artist ;  there  is  nothing  Napoleonic  in  any  sense  whatever, 
bad  or  good,  in  the  stagnant  materialism  of  the  Prussian 
mind.  As  for  the  present  German  Emperor,  let  his  sun  set 
on  St.  Helena  when  it  has  risen  on  AusterUtz.  The  most 
important  difference  between  the  old  case  and  the  new, 
after  the  more  blazing  clarity  of  the  moral  issue,  would  be 
the  fact  that  in  the  present  case  we  count  on  our  side,  not, 
as  of  old,  only  antique  and  mysterious  millions  of  the  Russian 
Empire,  but  the  very  modem,  very  quick-witted  and  equally 
-  high-spirited  millions  of  the  American  Republic. 

American  Business  Men 

We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  business  man  in  v^ar ;  and 
a  great  deal  of  it  is  rubbish.  We  even  hear  a  great  deal 
about  the  American  business  man  ;  and  most  of  it  is  very 
unjust  to  the  American  man,  especially  that  part  of  it  that 
is  meant  to  be  complimentary  to  him.  The  American  is  not 
only  a  genuine  democrat,  but  is  generally  a  genuine  idealist. 
Even  when  he  is  really  too  commercial,  it  is  often  because  he 
idealises  commerce.  Even  when  he  does  kill  himself  in  the 
dollar-hunt,  it  is  less  for  the  dollar  and  much  more  for  the 
hunt.  But  the  American  population  does  not,  as  some 
suppose,  consist  entirely  of  millionaires.  The  rest  are  quite 
civilised  people ;  indeed,  to  speak  seriously,  they  are  not 
only  civilised  people,  but  essentially  civic  people.  The 
average  American  does  truly  desire  to  be  a  citizen,  and  not 
merely  to  be  something  in  the  city.  Nevertheless,  there  is 
one  virtue  of  the  American  citizen  which  may,  without  too 
wild  a  paradox,  be  described  as  the  virtue  of  a  business  man. 
Even  in  an  office  life  can  be  lived  well ;  there  are  potential 
virtues  buried  even  in  business  habits ;  and  one  of  them  is 
highly  practical  in  this  connection.  Unless  my  impression  of 
American  psychology  is  very  far  out,  the  one  thing  an 
American  will  not  tolerate  is  this  idea  of  the  world  civilisation 
coming  to  an  end  by  accident.  He  will  certainly  resent  the 
notion  that  the  world's  greatest  battle  should  be  not  so 
much  lost  as  mislaid.  He  will  not  easily  endure  the  idea  of 
moral  and  material  forces  lying  disused  and  derehct,  while 
the  whole  world's  story  ends  wrong  for  want  of  them.  In 
such  a  matter  he  will  be  inspired,  primarily,  by  an  ideal 
which  may  be  called  the  higher  thrift,  or  even  the  higher 
punctuality.  The  General  in  Bernard  Shaw's  play  says  he 
would  not  hang  any  gentleman  by  an  American  clock ;  but 
'  the  remark  would  be  highly  unjust  to  modern  American 
clocks ;  and  generally  to  modem  American  machinery. 
And  there  is  something  of  which  the  prompt  and  impatient 
American  intelligence  would  be  highly  intolerant,  in  this 
vision  of  an  almost  cosmic  collapse ;  which  is  as  if  the  world 
and  the  planets  should  cease  to  turn  and  the  sun  should 
tumble  out  of  the  sky,  merely  because  one  town-clock  was 
a  httle  slow  and  the  other  a  Uttle  fast. 

At  this  moment  the  Prussian  is  more  unpopular  .in  the 
world  than  he  has  ever  yet  been  in  the  war.  However  few 
or  many,  in  any  given  place  or  time,  fight  against  him,  all 
men  to-day  vote  against  him.  The  Russians,  or  Russian 
Jews,  who  told  us  to  trast  him,  vote  against  him  ;  and 
threaten  to  fight  against  him  in  the  future.  The  Americans, 
who  very  naturally  and  rationally  wished  to  be  at  peace 
with  him,  vote  against  him ;  and  are  fighting  against  him 
with  all  speed  and  on  the  spot.  His  own  Ambassador  votes 
against  him — over  the  vexed  but  vitcd  question  of  the  origin 
of  the  war.  His  own  ally  votes  against  him — over  the 
vexed  but  vital  question  of  the  restoration  of  Alsace-Lorraine. 
Those  who  would  not  vote  at  all  vote  against  him.  Those 
who  consistently  voted  for  him  vote  against  him.  The 
criminal  is  condemned  by  all  who  were  not  his  accompUces, 
and  by  many  who  were  his  accomplices.  That  he  should 
be  finally  found  triumphant  in  the  hour  when  he  is  finally 
found  giiilty  ;  that  the  jury  should  all  bow  to  his  ruUng  at 
the  very  moment  when  they  are  all  agreed  on  his  crime  ; 
that  he  should  suffer  exposure  and  his  successful  accuser 
should  suffer  execution ;  in  short,  that  we  should  all  of  us 
lie  for  ever  undefended  from  the  one  thing  which  we  have 
all  just  found  to  be  indefensible ;  and  that  all  this  would 
happen,  that  the  judge  should  be  hanged  instead  of  the 
murderer,  merely  because  the  American  clock  kept  some- 
what different  time  from  the  private  watch  in  the  pocket  of 
a  Jew  in  Petrograd — all  this  is  something  worse  or  wilder 
than  injustice.  It  is  nonsense  ;  and  the  Americans,  I  know, 
will  not  stand  any  such  nonsense ;  nor  live  in  any  such 
nightmare  for  ever. 


24 


Land   &  Water 


May  2,  19 1  8 


RIVERS  I  have  seen  which  were  beautiful, 
Slow  rivers  winding  in  the  flat  fens, 
With  bands  of  reeds  like  thronged  green  swords 
Guarding  the  mirrored  sky  ; 
And  streams  down-tumbling  from  the  chalk  hills 
To  valleys  of  meadows  and  watercress-beds. 
And  bridges  whereunder,  dark  weed-coloured  shadows. 
Trout  flit  or  lie. 

I  know  those  rivers  that  peacefully  glide 
Past  old  towers  and  shaven  gardens, 
Where  mottled  walls  rise  from  the  water 

And  mills  aU  streaked  with  flour  ; 
And  rivers  with  wharves  and  rusty  shipping, 
That  flow  with  a  stately  tidal  motion 
Towards  their  destined  estuaries 

Full  of  the  pride  of  power ; 

Noble  great  rivers,  Thames  and  Severn, 
Tweed  with  his  gateway  of  many  grey  arches, 
Clyde,  dying  at  sunset  westward 

In  a  sea  as  red  as  blood  ; 
Rhine  and  his  hills  in  close  procession. 
Placid  Elbe,  Seine  grey  and  swirUng, 
And^Iser,  son  of  the  Alpine  snows, 

A  furious  turquoise  flood. 

All  these  I  have  known,  and  with  slow  eyes 

I  have  walked  on  their  shores  and  watched  them. 

And  softened  to  their  beauty  and  loved  them 

Wherever  my  feet  have  been  ; 
And  a  hundred  others  al§o 
Whose  names  long  since  grew  into  me. 
That,  dreaming  in  Ught  or  darkness, 

I  have  seen,  though  I  have  not  seen. 

Those  rivers  of  thought ;  cold  Ebro, 
And  blue  racing  Guadiana, 
Passing'white  houses,  high-balconied, 

That  ache  in  a  sun-baked  land, 
Congo,  and  Nile  and  Colorado,  ' 

Niger,  Indus,  Zambesi, 
And  the  Yellow  River,  and  the  Oxus, 

And  the  river  that  dies  in  sand. 

What  splendours  are  theirs,  what  continents. 
What  tribes  of  men,  what  basking  plains. 
Forests  and  hon-iiided  deserts. 

Marshes,  ravines,  and  falls  ; 
AU  hues  and  shapes  and  tempers. 
Wandering,  they  take  as  they  wander 
From  those  far  "springs  that  endlessly 

The  far  sea  calls. 

O  in  reverie  I  know  the  Volga 
That  turns  his  back  upon  Europe, 
.\nd  the  two  great  cities  on  his  bcmks, 
Novgorod  and  Astrakhan  ; 


j.c.squiRE.  % 


Where  the  world  is  a  few  soft  colours. 
And  under  the  dove-Uke  evening 
The  boatmen  chant  ancient  songs 

The  tenderest  known  to  man. 

And  the  holy  river  Ganges, 

His  fretted  cities  moonhght-veiled 

Arches  and  buttresses  silver-shadowy 

In  the  high  moon. 
And  palms  grouped  in  the  moonlight 
And  fanes  girdled  with  cypresses 
Their  domes  of  marble  softly  shining 

To  the  high  silver  moon. 

And  that  aged  Brahmapootra 
Who  beyond  the  white  Himalayas 
Passes  many  a  lamasery 

On  rocks  forlorn  and  frore, 
A  block  of  gaunt  grey  stone  walls 
With  rows  of  little  barred  windows. 
Where  shrivelled  young  monks  in  yellow  silk 

Are  hidden  for  evermore. 

But  O  that  great  river,  the  Amazon, 

I  have  sailed  up  its  gulf  with  eyeUds  closed. 

And  the  yellow  waters  tumbled  round, 

And  all  was  rimmed  with  sky. 
Till  the  banks  drew  in,  and  the  trees'  heads. 
And  the  lines  of  green  grew  higher 
And  I  breathed  deep,  and  there  above  me 

The  forest  wall  stood  high. 

Those  forest  walls  of  the  Amazon 

Are  level  under  the  blazing  blue 

And  yield  no  sound  save  the  whistles  and  shrieks 

Of  the  swarming  bright  macaws  ; 
And  under  their  lowest  drooping  boughs 
Mud-banks  torpidly  bubble. 
And  the  water  drifts,  and  logs  in  the  water 

Drift  and  twist  and  pause. 

And  everywhere  tacitly  joining 
Float  noiseless  tributaries. 
Tall  avenues  paved  with  water  : 

And  as  I  silent  fly. 
The  vegetation  hke  a  painted  scene, 
Spars  and  spikes  and  monstrous  fans 
.\nd  ferns  from  hairy  sheaths  up-springing 

Evenly  jiasses  by. 

And  stealthier  stagnant  channels 
Under  low  niches  ot  drooping  leaves 
Coil  into  deep  recesses  : 

And  there  have  I  entered,  there 
To  heavy  hot,  dense,  dim  places 
Where  creepers  chmb  and  sweat  and  climb, 
And  the  drip  and  splash  of  oozing  water 

Loads  the  stifling  air. 


May  2,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


25 


Rotting  scrofulous  steaming  trunks, 
Great  horned  emerald  beetles  crawling, 
Ants  and  huge  slow  butterflies 

,  That  have  strayed  and  lost  the  sun 
Ah,  sick  I  have  swooned  as  the  air  thickened 
To  a  pallid  brown  ecliptic  glow. 
And  on  the  forest, 

Thunder  has  beisfun. 


fallen  with  languor. 


Thunder  in  the  dun  dusk,  thunder 
Rolhng  and  battering  and  cracking. 
The  caverns  shudder  with  a  terrible  glare 

Again  and  again  and  again. 
Till  the  land  bows  in  the  darkness 
Utterly  lost  and  defenceless 
Smitten  and  bUnded  and  overwhelmed 

By  the  crashing  rods  of  rain. 

And  then  in  the  forests  of  the  Amazon 
When  the  rain  has  ended,  and  silence  come. 
What  dark  luxuriance  unfolds 

From  behind  the  night's  drawn  bars 
The  wreathing  odours  of  a  thousand  trees 
And  the  flowers'  faint  gleaming  presences 
And  over  the  clearings  and  the  sighing  waters 

Soft  indigo  and  hanging  stars. 


O  many  and  many  are  rivers. 
And  beautiful  are  all  rivers, 
And  lovely  is  water  everywhere 

That  leaps  or  glides  or  stays  ; 
Yet  by  starlight,  or  moonlight,  or  sunlight. 
Long,  long  though  they  look,  these  wandering  eyes 
Even  on  the  fairest  waters  of  dream 

Never  untroubled  gaze. 

For  whatever  stream  I  stand  by. 

And  whatever  river  I  dream  of. 

There  is  something  still  in  the  back  of  my  mind 

From  very  far  away  ; 
There  is  something  I  saw  and  see  not, 
A  country  full  of  rivers 
That  stirs  in  my  heart  and  speaks  to  me 

More  sure,  more  dear  than  they. 

And  always  I  ask  and  wonder 

(Though  often  I  do  not  know  it) 

Why  does  this  water  not  smell  like  water  ? 

Where  is  the  moss  that  grew 
Wet  and  dry  on  the  slabs  of  granite 
And  the  round  stones  in  clear  brown  water  ? 
— And  a  pale  film  rises  before  them 

Of  the  rivers  that  first  I  knew. 

Though  famous  are  the  rivers  of  the  great  world. 
Though  my  heart  from  those  alien  waters  drinks 
Delight  however  pure  from  their  loveliness 
And  awe  however  deep. 


Would  I  wish  for  a  moment  the  miracle 
That  those  waters  shoxild  come  to  Chagford, 
Or  gather  and  swell  in  Tavy  Cleave 

Where  the  stones  chng  to  the  steep  ? 

No,  even  were  they  Ganges  and  Amazon 
In  all  their  great  might  and  majesty 
League  upon  league  of  wonders. 

I  would  lose  them  all,  and  more. 
For  a  light  chiming  of  small  bells. 
A  twisting  flash  in  the  granite,  ' 
The  tiny  thread  of  a  pixie  waterfall 

That  lives  by  Vixen  Tor. 

Those  rivers  in  that  lost  country. 

They  were  brown  as  a  clear  brown  bead  is 

Or  red  with  the  earth  that  rain  washed  down. 

Or  white  with  china-clay  ; 
And  some  tossed  foaming  over  boulders, 
And  some  curved  mild  and  tranquil. 
In  wooded  vales  securely  set 

lender  the  fond  warm  da}'. 

Okement  and  Erme  and  Avon, 

Exe  and  his  ruffled  shallows, 

I  could  cry  as  I  think  of  those  rivers 

That  knew  my  morning  dreams  ; 
The  weir  by  Tavistock  at  evening 
When  the  circling  woods  were  purple. 
And  the  Lowman  in  spring  with  the  Icnt-lilies,* 

And  the  little  moorland  streams. 

For  many  a  hillside  streamlet 
There  falls  with  a  broken  tinkle. 
Falling  and  dying,  falhng  and  dying. 

In  little  cascades  and  pools, 
Where  the  world  is  furze  and  heather. 
And  flashing  plovers  and  fixed  larks. 
And  an  empty  sky,  whitish  blue. 

That  small  world  rules. 

There,  there,  where  the  high  waste  boglands 
And  the  drooping  slopes  and  the  spreading  valleys 
The  orchards  and  the  cattle-sprinkled  pastures. 

Those  travelling  musics  fill. 
There  is  my  lost  Abana, 
And  there  is  my  nameless  Pharpar 
That  mixed  with  my  heart  when  I  was  a  boy. 

And  time  stood  still. 

And  I  say  I  will  go  there  and  die  there  : 

But  I  do  not  go  there,  and  sometimes 

I  think  that  the  train  could  not  carry  me  there, 

And  it's  possible,  maybe. 
That  it's  farther  than  Asia  or  Africa, 
Than  moon  or  sun  or  the  ends  of  space. 
Farther,  farther,  beyond  recall.  .  .  . 

O  even  in  memory  ! 


I?" 


26  Land    &    Water  May  2,  1918 

Famous  Jewels  in  America :  By  G.  C.  Williamson 


WE  h.ave  a  habit  in  England  of  making  use  of 
one  word  and  giving  to  it  diverse  meanings. 
An  employer  will  say  to  his  typist,  late  in  the 
afternoon,  that  he  desires  her  to  "stop,"  but 
would  be  amazed  if  she  "ceased  work,"  as  he 
meant  her  to  "remain  later  and  continue  her  work."  So 
with  regard  to  the  word  "jewels."     The  dealer  in  Hatton 

Garden  may  mean  stones  ; 
the  jeweller,  ornaments  set 
with  precious  stones  ;  the 
virtuoso,  objects  in  enamel 
or  metal  without  a  stone 
upon  them  ! 

Mr.  Pierpont  Morgan  used 
the  term  in  its  generic  sense, 
and  even  included  amongst 
his  precious  jewels  objects 
in  rock  crystal,  exquisite 
wood-carving,  and  portable 
reliquaries  in  enamel,  and 
so  on. 

Let  us  attach  the  word 
"pendent"  when  we  speak 
i)f  some  of  the  jewels  he 
collected,  and  group  to- 
gether a  few  fine  things 
from  his  famous  collection 
of  treasures  that  will  easily 
come  under  that  heading. 
Here,  for  example  (A)  is  a 
p  jewel     of     wrought      gold 

enamelled,  French  work  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  adorned  with  an  oblong  ruby 
and  ten  diamonds  in  shuttle-shaped  mounts,  and  on  the 
reverse  a  figure  of  a  woman  in  ermine  and  green, 
represented  in  fine  enamel,  the  whole  supported  by  chains 
of  pearls  and  gold,  a  very  dainty  ornament ;  while  (B)  is 
a  very  rare  badge  of  the  Order  of  the  Annunziata  in  wrought 
gold  and  enamel,  without  any  precious  stones  upon  it,  which 
belonged  to  the  .'\bbot  of  St.  Gallen,  who  was,  in  virtue  of  his 
position,  a  knight  of  the  Order  in  perpetuity,  and  whose 
monastery  was  at  one  time  considered  as  the  chapel  of  the 
Order  and  meeting-place  of  the  knights. 


Hence  this  badge  differs  somewhat  from  that  usually  worn 
in  the  Order.  The  love  knots  about  it  are  symbolic  of  the 
affection  the  knights  should  feel  for  each  other. 

Then  regard  two  otlier  jewels,  of  Itahan  sixteenth-century 
work,  each  largely  composed  from  baroque  pearl  cunningly 
wrought  and  exquisitely  mounted. 

In  one  (D)  we  see  a  mermaid  mounted  in  rich  enamel,  with 
rubies  and  diamonds,  hold- 
ing a  mirror  of  labradorite 
in  her  hand  and  an  hour- 
glass of  pearl  and  ruby, 
while  in  the  other  (C)  we 
find  the  baroque  pearl 
adapted  to  form  a  dolphin 
upon  whicli  desports  a 
figure  of  Fortune,  nude, 
waving  a  scarf,  which  she 
holds  as  a  sail  to  catch  the 
first  breath  of  a  favourable 
wind. 

Here  the  clever  goldsmith 
has  adapted  a  design  made 
by  Hans  Collaert,  of 
Antwerp,  who  in  the 
sixteenth  century  issued  a 
book  of  designs  for  workers 
in  gold  and  enamel.  The 
goldsmiths  of  that  day 
seldom  designed  in  -tlj'eir 
entirety  the  jewels  they 
wrought.  They  used  the 
books  of  designs  in 
existence,  but  they  never  copied  them 
ingeniously  adapted  them  to  their  own  ideas. 

Take,  as  an  instance,  a  pendant  (E)  which  came 
from  Augsburg,  and  formed  part  (it  is  believed)  of  a 
wedding-gift  sent  to  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  II.  by  his 
brother's  wife  Philippina  Welser,  an  Augsburg  lady  whose 
brother  married  a  Countess  Fugger,  a  member  of  the  great 
mercantile  house  of  that  city  whose  daughters  married  into 
the  noblest  houses  of  Europe.  Here,  and  in  a  pendent 
jewel  (F),  representing  a  pehcan  "in  its  piety,"  seated  upon 
its  nest,  with  three  young  ones,  wonderfully  wrought  in  gold 


D 

slavishly,    but 


Top  Row  (Left  to  Right)  :   A,  F,  B.       Bottom  Row  (Left  to  Right)  :    G,  H,  E. 


May  2,  iqi8 


Land    &    Water 


27 


THE  QUESTION  OF 
KIT  COST  g  QUALITY 

is,  first  and  last,  a  question  of 
kit-maker.  All  else  being  equal, 
discretion  surely  points  to  the 
long-established,  widely-reputed, 
honourably  known  firm  as  the 
safest  to  consult. 
And  here  "all  else"  means  price. 
Despite  Thresher  and  Glenny's 
ancient  standing  and  jealously- 
guarded  tradition,  their  prices  as 
seen  below,  may  well  challenge 
comparison. 


NAVAL. 

Monkey  Jacket,  blue  cloth     ... 

Vest        

Trousers 

Great  Coat.       Pilot  Cloth      ... 
British  Warm.     Blue  Lambswool 
Cap  and  Badge.     Blue  superfine 


MIUTARY. 


Field  Service  Jacket 

Slacks 

Riding  Breeches  ... 

Field  Service  Cap 

British  Warm 

Sam  Browne  Belt  (i  Brace) 

Flannel  Shirts 


105/- 

37/6 

63/- 

icis/- 


105/- 

21/- 
36/6 
105/- 
126/- 
26/6 


and  126/- 

and  45/- 
and  84/- 
...     15/6 

and  1  6/- 
...  27/6 
from  10/6 


THE  THRESHER 
TRENCH     COAT 

The  Thresher  Trench  Coat,  the  Pioneer  Cam- 
paign Coat  that  first  saw-  service  with  the 
B.E.F.  in  Nov.  1914,  worn  by  over  21,000 
Oftirers.     Fitted  new  Melcam  interlining. 

Unlined £4     14     6 

Detachable  Kamelcott  lining  ...  1116 

Coat  with  lining...         6      6      0 

Cavalry    Pattern    with    knee   flaps   and    saddle 
gussets,  IS  6  extra. 

Send   size    of   chest   and    approximate    height 
when  ordering. 

MVETl' TAILORING. 

Overseas  Officers  can  have  suits 
made  ready  waiting  to  try  on  on 
arrival  and  finished  the  day 
following.  Patterns  and  self- 
measur-  ment  forms  sent  oversea 
on  application. 

A  small  folder  giving  prices  of 

Naval,  Military,  and  Royal  Air 

Force  imilorms  on  application. 

(Folder  3.) 


•y 

Appolntae  it 


to 
H.M.  the  King. 


THRESHER  &  GLENNY 

Outfitters  since  the  Crimean  War 

152&153Strand.London,W.G. 


28 


Land    &   Water 


May  2 ,  1 9 1 8 


Well=Rnown  M.P.  on  "Pelmanism 


ft 


83      Admirals      and     Generals 
now  Enrolled. 

75   ENROLMENTS   IN   ONE  FIRM! 

"  Pelmanism  "  continues  its  extraordinary  progress  amongst 
all  classes  and  sections  of  the  community. 

To  the  many  notable  endorsements  of  the  System  which 
have  been  already  published  there  is  now  added  an  important 
pronouncement  by  a  .well-known  M.P. — Sir  James  Yoxall, 
whose  eminence,  both  as  an  educationist  and  as  a  Parlia- 
mentarian, gives  additional  weight  to  his  carefully  con- 
sidered opinion. 

"  The  more  I  think  about  it,"  say*  Sir  James  Yoxall. 
"the  more  I  feel  that  Pelmanism  is  the  name  of  some- 
thins  much   required  oy  myriads  of  people  to>day." 

He  adds  :    "  I  suspected  Pelmanism  ;    when  it  began  to 
be  heard  of  I  thought  it  was  quackery. 
"  Now  I  wish  I  had  taken  it  up  when  I  heard  of  it  first." 

This  is  very  plain  speaking  ;  but  plain  speech  is  the  key- 
note of  the  entire  article.  Thus  one  of  the  greatest  national 
authorities  upon  the  subject  of  education  adds  his  valuable 
and  independent  testimony  to  that  of  the  many  distinguished 
men  and  women  who  have  expressed  their  enthusiasm  for 
the  new  movement. 

83  Admirals  and  Generals  are  now  Pelmanists,  and  nearly 
25,000  of  all  ranks  of  the  Navy  and  Army.  The  legal  and 
medical  professions  are  also  displaying  a  quickened  interest 
in  the  System — indeed,  every  professional  class  and  every 
grade  of  business  men  and  women  are  enrolling  in  increasingly 
large  numbers. 

Several  prominent  firms  have  paid  for  the  enrolment  of  eight, 
ten,  or  a  dozen  members  of  their  staffs,  and  one  well-known 
house  has  just  arranged  for  the  enrolment  of  75  of  the  staff. 

With  such  facts  before  him,  every  reader  of  Land  &  Water 
should  write  to  the  address  given  below  for  a  copy  (gratis 
and  post  free)  of  "  Mind  and  Memory,"  in  which  the  Pehnan 
Course  is  fully  described  and  explained,  together  with  a 
special  supplement  dealing  with  "Pelmanism  as  an  Intel- 
lectual and  Social  Factor,"  and  a  full  reprint  of  Truth's 
remarkable  Report  on  the  work  of  the  Pelman  Institute. 


A    DOCTOR'S    REMARKABLE 
ADMISSION. 

Fascination  of  the 
"Little  Grey  Books." 

Within  the  past  few  weeks  several  M.P.s,  many  members 
of  the  aristocracy,  and  two  Royal  personages,  as  well  as  a 
very  large  number  of  officers  in  H.M.  Navy  and  Army, 
have  added  their  names  to  the  Pelman  registers. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  letters  received  lately  comes 
from  a  lady  in  the  Midlands.  Being  55  years  of  age  and 
being  very  delicate,  she  had  her  doubts  as  to  whether  she 
should  taJce  a  Pelman  Course.  She  consulted  her  son,  a 
medical  practitioner,  who  at  first  laughed  at  the  idea,  but 
promised  to  make  inquiries.  The  outcome  was  a  letter  in 
which  the  Doctor  wrote  : 

"'Pelmanism'    has  £ot  hold  of  me.     I  have  worked 
throush  the  first  lesson  and  ...  I  am  enthusiastic." 

His  experience  tallies  exactly  with  that  of  Sir  James  Yoxall, 
M.P.,  Mr.  George  R.  Sims,  and  a  host  of  other  professional 
men  (doctors,  solicitors,  barristers,  etc.),  who  have  admitted 
that  their  initial  scepticism  was  quickly  changed  into 
enthusiasm. 

"Truth's"   Dictum. 

Truth  puts  the  whole  matter  in  a  nutshell  in  its  famous 
Report  on  the  work  of  the  Pelman  Institute : 
"  The  Pelman  Course  is  .  .  .  valuable  to  the  welU 
educated,  and  still  more  valuable  to  the  half-educated 
or  the  superficially  educated.  One  might  go  much 
farther  and  declare  that  the  work  of  the  Pelman  Insti> 
tute  is  of  national  importance,  for  there  are  fe^v 
people  indeed  who  would  not  find  themselves  men- 
tally stronger,  more  efficient,  and  better  equipped  for 
the  battle  of  life   by   a   course   of  Pelman    training." 


Easily  Followed  by  Post. 

"Pelmanism"  is  not  an  occult  science;  it  is  free  from 
mysticism  ;  it  is  as  sound,  as  sober,  and  as  practical  as  the 
most  hard-headed,  "common  sense"  business  man  could 
desire.  And  as  to  its  results,  they  follow  with  the  same 
certainty  with  which  muscular  development  foUows  physical 
exercise. 

It  is  nowhere  pretended,  and  the  inquirer  is  nowhere  led 
to  suppose,  that  the  promised  benefits  are  gained  "magically," 
by  learning  certain  formulae,  or  by  the  cursory  reading  of 
a  printed  book.  The  position  is  precisely  the  same,  again, 
as  with  physical  culture.  No  sane  person  expects  to  develop 
muscle  by  reading  a  book  ;  he  knows  he  must  practise  the 
physical  exercises.  Similarly,  the  Pelmanist  knows  he  must 
practise  mental  exercise. 

"The  Finest  Mental  Recreation." 

"Exercises,"  in  some  ears,  sound  tedious;  but  every 
Pelmanist  will  bear  out  the  statement  that  there  is  nothing 
tedious  or  exacting  about  the  Pelman  exercises.  Indeed,  it 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  an  overwhelming  proportion 
of  Pelmanists  describe  the  exercises  as  "fascinat- 
ing," "delightful,"  "the  finest  mental  recreation  I  have 
known." 

There  are  thouscinds  of  people  of  all  classes  who  would 
instantly  enrol  for  a  Pelman  Course  at  any  cost  if  they  only 
realised  ^a  tithe  of  the  benefits  accruing.  Here  again  a 
Pelmanist  may  be  cited  in  evidence  : — "If  people  only  knew," 
he  says,  "  the  doors  of  the  Institute  would  be  literally  besieged 
by  eager  applicants." 

The  Course  is^  founded  upon  scientific  facts ;  that  goes 
without  saying.  But  it  presents  those  facts  in  a  practical, 
everyday  fashion,  which  enables  the  student  to  apply,  for 
his  own  aims  and  purposes,  those  facts  without  "fagging" 
at  the  hundreds  of  scientific  works  which  he  might  otherwise 
read  without  gaining  a  fraction  of  the  practical  in- 
formation and  guidance  secured  from  a  week's  study  of 
Pelmanism. 

A  system  which  can  evoke  voluntary  testimony  from  every 
class  of  the  community  is  weU  worth  investigation.  Who 
can  afford  to  hold  aloof  from  a  movement  which  is  steadily 
gaining  the  support  of  all  the  ambitious  and  progressive 
elements  in  the  Empire  ?  In  two  consecutive  days  recently 
two  M.P.s  and  a  member  of  the  Upper  House  enrolled. 
Rim  through  the  current  Pelman  Register,  and  therein  you 
will  find  British  Consuls,  H.M.  Judges.  War  Office,  Admiralty, 
and  other  Government  Officials,  University  Graduates, 
Students,  Tutors,  Headmasters,  Scientists,  Clergymen, 
Architects,  Doctors,  Solicitors,  Barristers,  Authors,  Editors, 
Journalists,  Artists,  Actors,  Accountants,  Business  Directors 
and  Managers,  Bankers,  Financiers,  Peers,  Peeresses,  and 
men  and  women  of  wealth  and  leisure,  as  well  as  Salesmen, 
Clerks.  Typists,  Tradesmen,  Engineers,  Artisans.  Farmers, 
and  others  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  nation.  If  ever  the 
well-worn  phrase,  "from  peer  to  peasant,"  had  a  real 
meaning,  it  is  when  applied  to  Pehnanism. 

Over  250.000  Men  and  Women. 

The  Pebnan  Course  has  already  been  followed  by  over 
250,000  men  and  women.  It  is  directed  through  the  post 
and  IS  simple  to  follow.  It  takes  up  very  little  time  It 
involves  no  hard  study.  It  can  be  practised  anywhere,  in 
the  trenches,  in  the  office,  in  the  train,  in  spare  minutes 
dunng  the  day  And  yet  in  quite  a  short  time  it  has  the 
effect  of  developing  the  mind,  just  as  physical  exercise 
develops  the  muscles,  of  increasing  your  personal  efficiency, 
and  thus  doubhng  your  all-round  capacity  and  income- 
earning  power. 

The  improvement  begins  with  the  first  lesson,  and  con- 
tinues increasingly,  right  up  to  the  final  lesson  of  the  course. 
Individual  instruction  is  given  through  the  post,  and  the 
student  receives  the  utmost  assistance  from  the  large  expert 
staff  of  instructors  at  the  Institute  in  solving  particular 
personal  difficulties  and  problems. 

"Pelmanism"  is  fully  explained  and  described  in  "Mind 
rllrf  ?!"°f^'  "'•^/^h,  With  a  copy  of  Truth's  remarkable 
report  on  the  work  of  the  Pehnan  Institute,  will  be  sent. 
fdl'Jr.  ^Th  ^'p'/"  any  reader  oi  Land  &  Water  who 
addresses  The  Pelman  Institute,  30  Pelman  House 
Bloomsbury  Street,  London,  W.C.i.  ' 


May  2 ,  1 9 1  8 


Land    &    Water 


29 


Lett  to  Right  :    K  and  J 

and  enamel,  and  set  with  fine  rubies,  the  German  goldsmiths 
have  gone  to  the  designs  of  Daniel  Mignot,  of  Augsburg,  and 
have  cleverly  adapted  some  of  his  patterns  to  suit  the  purpose 
they  had  in  view,  putting  into  each,  part  of  their  own  indivi- 
du^ty,  and  so  giving  it  special  dignity  thereby. 

Gold  and  enamel,  however,  were  not  the  only  materials 
used  for  jewels.  Here  is  one  of  mother-of-pearl  (G)  mounted 
in  silver.  The  man  whose  portrait  it  bears,  Paul  Harsdorffer, 
was  an  Imperial  Privy  Councillor  and  a  sheriff  in  Nuremberg. 
a  person  of  high  distinction,  and  belonging  to  a  patrician 
family  from  whom  sprang  Georg  Philipp  Harsdorffer,  the  poet. 
The  reverse  bears  the  family  coat-of-arms.  Another  (H) 
is  in  ivory,  and  sets  forth  "The  Last  Judgment,"  "Christ 
Crowned,"  between  the  Virgin  and  St.  John,  and  with  the 
emblems  of  the  Passion. 

This,  probably  wrought  in  Spain  in  the  fifteenth  centurj-, 
was  very  possibly  an  enseigne  or  hat  ornament  set  as  a  sign 
of  pilgrimage  to  some  remote  shrine,  as  Chaucer  says  :  "They 
sett  their  signys  upon  their  hedes  and  som  upon  their  capp." 
Another  cap  ornament  is  in  painted  enamel  (J),  French  work 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  depicts  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 
on  a  bright  blue  background  inscribed  "  CAROL VS  REX 
CATOLICVS"  while  yet  another  (K),  in  gold  enamel,  shows 
"The  Entombment,"  and  is  Itahan  work,  richly  set  in 
precious  metal,  and  adorned  on  the  frame  with  fine  table-cut 
diamonds.      The  pathos  of  the  scene  is  marvellously  set  forth. 

Perhaps  two  ivory  medalUons  were  also  hat  ornaments, 
and  one  (L)  represents  Goetz  von  Berlichingen,  the  fjimous 


Left  to  Right  :    L  and  M 

German  knight — Goetz  of  the  Iron  Hand,  as  he  was  called, 
from  the  artificial  gauntlet  he  wore  in  lieu  of  his  right 
hand,  so  well  adapted,  that,  with  it,  he  could  wield  his 
sword  with  terrible  effect.  On  the  reverse  are  his  family 
arms — in  one  respect,  inaccurately  carved. 

The  other  (M)  more  strictly  a  medallion  to  be  worn  as  a 
jewel,  came  from  the  Oppenheim  collection,  and  represents, 
on  one  side,  Farel,  the  Genevan  Minister  at  Neufchatel,  and 
on  the  other  Calvin,  and  both  portraits  are  signed  by  the 
renowned  craftsman  Hans  Reinhart,  the  medallist  and  gold- 
smith of  Leipzig.  To  two  badges  of  the  French  Order  of  St. 
Michel  belongs  an  interesting  discovery. 

Our  illustrations  (N  and  O)  show  the  ordinary  badges 
worn  by  the  two  degrees  in  knighthood,  each  of  them  finely 
wrought  in  gold  and  enamel,  and  very  seldom  seen. 
Another  illustration  (P)  depicts  one  which  on  first  discovery 
was  declared  to  be  a  forgery,  no  such  badge  having  before 
,  been  discovered ;  but  it  fell  to  the  writer  to  ascertain,  in  Paris, 
from  the  archives,  that  Louis  XIV.  added  to  the  knights  six 
ecclesiastics  who  were  to  wear  shell  cameo  badges,  and  the 
only  one  that  has  survived  is  that  illustrated  here.  Two 
more  jewels  were  also  largely  composed  of  baroque  p>earl. 
One  (Q)  is  Italian,  and  represents  a  swan  ;  another,  Augsburg 
work,  forms  a  Calvary  (R),  exquisitely  wrought,  and  on  the 
back  adorned  with  niello  work  in  black  enamel ;  while, 
finally,  allusion  should  be  made  to  a  gold  medallion  of  the 
Archduke  Maximilian  (S)  (1558-1618)  from  the  Spitzer 
collection,  richly  mounted  in  gold  and  enamel. 


Top  Row  (Left  to  Right)  :  N,  Q,  O.      Bottom  Row  (Left  to  Right)  :  P,  R,  S. 


3° 


Land   &   Water 


May  2,  1918 


April  No.    2s.  6d.  net. 


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THE 

HIBBERT  JOURNAL 

THE  MEANING  OF  LIFE.   AND  OF  THE  WORLD.   REVEALED  BV 

THE  CROSS.  Prince  Eugene  Troubetzkoy. 

SHELLEY'S  INTERPRETATION  OF  CHRIST  AND   HIS  TEACHING. 

By  the  late  Stopford  A.  Brooke. 
STOPFORD  BROOKE.  G.  K.  Chesterton. 

GROUND  FOR  HOPE.  F.  S.  Marvin. 

PROSPECTS  OF  LIBERAL  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR. 

President  Charles  F.  Thwing. 
THE  DOCTRINE  OF  A  FINITE  GOD  IN  WAR-TIME  THOUGHT. 

R.  H.  Dotterer. 
THE  BOOK  OF  JONAH.  Sir  PhUip  Magnus.  Bt..  M.P. 

WHAT  SHALL  WE  CALL  BEAUTIFUL  ?  W.  H.  Lethaby. 

PALESTINE  AND  JEWISH  NATIONALITY.      Israel  Abrahams.  D.O. 
ERASMUS  AT  LOUVAIN  Prolessor  Foster  Watson. 

PRAYERS  IN  TIME  OF  WAR.  E.  F.  Carritt. 

BIRMINGHAM  MYSTICS.  Rev.  R.  H.  Coats,  B.D. 

SUBSCRIPTION. — 10/-  per  annum,  post  free. 


WRITINGS  BY  L.  P.  JACKS. 


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CoUege,  Oxford ;  Editor  of 
"  The   Hibbert    Journal." 

Cheap  Edition.     Crown  8vo.     3s.  6d.  net  each  volume. 

Vol.  l.~MAD  SHEPHERDS. 

Vol.  2.— FROM  THE  HUMAN  END. 

Vol.  3.    PHILOSOPHERS    IN    TROUBLE. 

Vol.  4.— THE  COUNTRY  AIR. 

Vol.  5.— ALL  MEN  ARE  OHOSTS. 

Vol.  6.— AMONG  THE  IDOLMAKERS. 

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American  Text-books 

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THE  American  school  text-books  are  being  revised. 
They  need  it  badly.  So  do  most  historical  text- 
books. They  are  usually  lop-sided  ;  they  usually 
give  the  impression  that  no  question  has  more  than 
one  side  to  it ;  and  their  authors  go  on  copying  each 
others  mistakes  for  generations.  But  the  American  books 
have  almost  all  had  one  defect  which  has  led  to  serious 
practical  results.  To  them  can  in  part  be  traced  the  mis- 
understanding of  this  country  which  has  always  been  so 
common  in  America.  Their  chief  defect  has  been  the  baldness 
of  their  accounts  of  England's  policy  before  and  during  the 
war  of  Independence.  The  struggle  has  been  too  crudely 
presented  as  a  struggle  between  a  tyrannical  England  and  a 
population  of  freedom-loving  colonists  who  never  would  be 
slaves.  There  is  truth  in  that  conception  ;  but  not  the  whole 
truth.  The  whole  truth  would  include  the  fact  that  a  large 
part  of  the  British  nation  was  hostile  to  the  war,  and  that  that 
hostility  was  shared  by  most  of  the  wiser  and  most  eminent 
English  political  thinkers  of  the  day.  The  British  Government 
which  waged  that' war  was  a  collection  of  nobodies,  headed  by 
a  nobody,  inspired  by  a  pig-headed  king,  and  supported  by 
place-men,  pedaijts  and  unimaginativd  adherents  of  the 
throne.  It  is  utterly  misleading  hot  to  paint  the  other  side 
of  the  picture  ;  but  the  one  side  has  been  so  emphasised  that 
until  recently  Americans  were  to  be  found  who  not  merely 
did  not  realise  that,  save  for  a  series  of  unfortunate  chances 
we  might  never  have  acted  as  we' did,  but  who  imagined  that 
in  their  heart  of  hearts  Englishmen  still  regret  that  the  cause 
of  independence  was  won.  We  may  and  do  regret  that 
America  was  ever  forced  out  of  the  Empire  ;  but  our  his- 
torians, including  those  who  write  for  schools,  are  as  emphatic 
about  the  fatuity  of  the  Government  which  drove  them  out. 
as  the  Americans  themselves  are. 


It  was  a  modem  Englishman  who  invented  the  phrase  that 
the  American  revolt  was  "  the  revolt  of  an  English  gentleman 
against  a  German  king."  But  there  were  plenty  of  Enghsh- 
men  in  the  seventeen-seventies  who  took  the  same  view. 
There  were  exceptions  amongst  the  great.  Gibbon,  who 
was  not  cut  out  for  active  politics,  was  a  complacent,  if 
dumb,  supporter  of  the  North  Ministry,  and  Dr.  Johnson 
wrote  a  tract  Taxation  no  Tyranny  which  fortified  the  English 
extremists  in  their  worst  courses.  In  Johnson's  defence,  it 
may  be  urged  that  the  thing  that  chiefly  stuck  in  his  gullet 
was  that  the  colonists,  though  demanding  liberty  for  them- 
selves, continued  to  own  slaves.  The  attitude  of  the  ordinary 
thinking  Englishman,  however,  was  far  different.  Blake  was 
an  eccentric  and  phrased  things  peculiarly.  Speaking  of  the 
repositories  of  British  authority  in  America,  he  wrote  : 
at  the  feet  of  Washington  down  fall'n 
They  grovel  in  the  sand,  and  trembling  lie,  while  all 
The  British  soldiers  through  the  Thirteen  States  sent  up 
a  howl. 
This,  if  the  Army  had  read  Blake,  might  well  have  been 
disclaimed.  A  far  more  typical  utterance  is  that  of  Horace 
Walpole,  a  representative  of  the  Whig  tradition  at  its  purest. 
He  was  writing  (1779)  to  Lady  Ossory  on  the  occasion  of 
Keppefs  acquittal  when  crowds  had  demonstrated  in  the 
streets  : 

I  am  not  fond  of  mobs,  madam,  though  I  like  the  occasion 
and  can  but  compare  the  feel  I  had  from  them,  with  what 
I  should  suffer  were  the  illuminations  for  the  conquest  of 
America.  After  putting  out  these  lights,  we  should  have 
heard  : 

And  then  put  out  the  light : 
Liberty  has  still  a  continent  to  exist  in." 
Such  observations  can  be  found  up  and  down  almost,  every 
volume  of  private  papers  that  has  reached  us.  But,  above 
all,  in  common  fairness  to  what  England  then  was,  Americans 
should  be  famihar  with  the  speeches  on  their  behalf  made  by 
the  three  greatest  political  orators  of  that  age — Burke,  Fox, 
and  Chatham. 

****** 
Even  in  this  country  those  speeches  are  not  as  famiUar  as 
they  /might  be.  Burke's  great  oration  of  March  22nd,  1775, 
pleading  for  conciliation,  is  the  finest  in  argument  and  temper 
that  he  ever  made,  though  not  equalling  in  splendour  of  lan- 
guage the  great  East  Indian  speech.  He  seized,  once  and  for 
all,  in  passages  which  men  may  still  benefit  by  reading,  the 
elements  of  national  self-consciousness.  He  showed  that  the 
spirit  in  which  the  Colonists  were  fighting  was  the  most 
English  thing  about  them,  and  that  to  oppose  them  was  to 

{Conlinuti  on  poft  8S) 


May  2,   19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


31 


COMPLETION   OF   NEW   EDiTlON. 

BRITISH  BIRDS 

Written  and  Illustrated  by 

ARCHIBALD  THORBURN,  F.Z.S. 

With     82     Plates     in     Colour,     showing   over   440    Figures. 
4  Vols.,  4to,  gilt  top,  £8     8     0  net. 

Two  additional  plates,  which  appear  in  Volume  IV.r  have  been 
published  in  a  separate  part,  with  the  descriptive  letterpress,  a^ 
6i.  net.  in  the  ordinary  size,  and  in  large  paper  at  I5s-  net.  sO 
that  purchasers  of  the  First  Edition  may  have  an  opportunity 
of  completing  their  sets. 

'*  The  colnurs  are  as  tn  c  to  life  as  in  any  attempts  ever  n^ade  to  give,  in  this  way, 
the  hues  of  the  birds,  so  gav  and  vet  so  delicate  and  subtle.  They  are  drawn  with 
»ll  Mr.  Thorburn's  known  skill  and  truth,  and  exhibit  the  birds  in  tife-like  poses  full 
of  the  character  of  each  species." — Country  Li/,, 

"  This  m  ght  be  better  described  as  abook  of  the  century  than  as  a  book  of  the  year. 
Forthe  coloured  iilu-trati"ns  of  ltri^i^h  bird>  arc  tlK-  tinest  that  have  eve-  yet  been 
produced  in  this  country,  or  arc  likely  to  be  produced  for  a  very  long  time  to  come." 
— ^   nu.it  Registft. 

"In  these  latter  days  the  bird  has  come  to  its  own.  In  Mr.  Thorbum  we  hav^ 
the  combin;<ti<)n  of  the  Held  naturalist  of  the  keenest  power  of  observation  and  th^ 
deiineaior  of  the  highest  skill— two  qualities  rarely,  if  ever,  befpre  found  in  equa' 
balance." — //  unrated  Sporting  ai.d  Dramatic   \eiut. 

STRICTLY    LIMITED    TO    SSO    COPIES. 

RHODODENDRONS 

in   which  is   set  forth  Rn    f>cc  >unt  of  oil   fpecieo  of    the  genus 
Rhododendron  (includi  ig  Azaleas)  and  the   va  iout    Hybrids, 

By    J.    G     MILLAIS,    F.Z.S 

With  17  Coloured  Plitcs  bv  MISS  BEATRICE  PARSONS.  MISS 
WINIFRED  WALKER.  MISS  E.  F.  bRhNNAND,  and  ARCHIBALD 
THORBURM.    14    Collotype    Plates,    and    numerous   Illustrations 

irom  Photographs,     4to.     16  by  12  ins.     £j    8    0  net. 
"  Mr.    MMlais   has  done   his   work    very  thoroughly   and    has   brought   together  an 
amount  of  intormation  winch  must  for  many  years  to  come  make  this  volume  the 
■«tandar  I    wok   of   reference  on   rhndudendrons    ...     this   is   a   great  work." — 
iy''itminit*r  Gazet  «■ 

'•Suc>  a  volume  is  not  for  the  million,  but  the  price,  eight  guineas,  will  not  be 
grudged  by  amateurs  who  have  made  a  speciality  of  this  noble  subject,  or  intend  to 
do  s«i.  The.  may  derive  from  it  practicallv  all  there  is  to  be  learnt  about  the 
rbododen  rons.  ,  .  .  But  the  most  eloquent  testimonies  in  the  volume  are  those 
of  the  artists  1  he  water<u|our  studies  by  ihe  ladies,  both  of  individual  blooms 
and  of  garden  F-cenes,  have  been  reproduced  most  admirably,  and  aff  ;rd  a  feast  of 
colour." — Kor*iAfr*  fast. 

LONGMANS,  GREEN  &  CO.,^'tll^!'o'it:'ic.^°^^ 


J.  W.  BENSON 

LTD. 

■A  ctlvc  Sere/ce'  WRISTLET  WATCH 
Fully  LumiBous  Figures  and  Hdn<ls. 

Warranted  Timekeepers 

In  Silver  Cases  with  Screw  Bezel  and 
Back.  £3  lOs.         Cold.  £9 

With   Hunter  or  HaK-Hunter  Cover 

Silver.  £4  4s:         Cold.  £9  9s. 

Others  in  Silver  from  £2  ISs. ' 

Cold,  from  £6  10s. 

Military   Badge  Brooches. 

Jiny  Reglmcnial  3)aJge  'Perfectly 

SfCodclUJ. 

Prices  on  Application. 

Sketches  sent  for  apprpval. 

25    OLD   BOND  St.,  W.l 

and  62  &  64  LUDGATE  HILL,  E,C.4 


SIX     DAYS     ADRIFT     IN 
THE     NORTH     SEA! 

Supreme  test  of  the  concentrated  food   value   of 

HORLICK'S 

MALTED    MILK   TABLETS 


To  H'JHI.I'JK'S   MaLTF-D   MlI.K   '  O, 
Deiir   Sirs,--As  a  meinb*!r  of  tlie 

recenily  proved  the  extreme  valu'T  of 

M«y  24'h.  ivi:.  tT>^  ru.,'i:u':   ■\--:.  :.,;,t-. 

we  were  if' 

my  com;   i 

the  after 

h\H  your 

cau.lk  ■■- 
I  le- 

I  haveti,. 

a  K^tj'jii   .  i. ,-_...,,.,.,,.,,,.,.,„,.,..,,,,  ..I, 

and  with  my  feinrwe-l  ttMnks. 


Service,  it  will  inteiest   you  to  know  thai  1 
:  Tat>Iet<>      In  a  flight  over  the  North  Sea  on 

■.n'\  Ihr  pilot  w.is  rLHiip'-lld   to  .ie^<  end,  and 

.      ■         .-  r„,t.l.y 


sl,.l/ 


ivestotheconlrnls  nf  your  invaluable  Ration  Tut,  and 
ihe^e  tacts.  »nd  eipre^s  oiy  K'alitude  for  so  compact 
i.i  i<:,Mii       I   .u  are  at  Iibt-rty  to  ii»e  this  fetter  in  any  way  yon  like. 
Yours  truly  'siv;ncit'. K  N.A.S. 

SEND     THEM    TO    YOUR     NAVAL     AND    MILITARY    FRIENDS. 

.S^r  /*-!/  ftie  njftf  //or.'r.t'i    afffurt  on  r^ery  C.''nfa€Mer. 
(X  all  Ohctniw*  and  Htor«a,  or  we  will  forward  on«  of  these  tina  po«t  free  lo  any  addrvn  on  reoejpt  o 
1. 6.     Give  full  lutne  and  addrcM,  or  name  of  ihip,  aUo  £<*«  your   own  name  and  addrcM  when  Mndiatf 

remittance  to 

HORLICK'S  MALTED  MILK    CO.,  SLOUGH.    BUCKS.,    ENGLAND. 

.'>■    .  :mi   .  H  :!  :  /■  /.     '.  /•/    /■,/  ■:.  •• 


Burberry  carapace  Air  Suit 


fe  THE  perfect  one-piece 
Overall  Suit  for  ensuring 
warmth  and  protection. 

THE    CARAPACE    AIR-SUIT    U 

made  up  of  three  layers,  each  of 
different  material. 

The  outer  covering  is  of  Burberry 
Gabardine,  which  will  withstand  in- 
tense pressure  from  wind  or  rain,  yet 
ventilates  naturally. 
Next  comes  an  interlining  of  woollen 
fleece  ;  the  innermost  lining  is  ot 
glissade. 

The  suit  is  re-inforced  by  a  double 
plastron  of  Burberry  Gabardine  across 
the  chest  and  shoulders. 
The  Burberry  Puttee  Collar,  broad 
tabs  for  drawing  tight  the  sleeves  and 
trouser-legs, and  large,  easily  accessible 
pockets,  are  further  details. 
A  waist  belt  adds  comfort  and  stability. 
The  helmet  is  of  the  latest  Burberry 
pattern. 

The  whole  outrig  affords  efBcient  secu- 
rity without  the  objectionable  features 
of  rubberproofs,  oilskins,  or  leather. 

Uniforms  &  Weatherproofs 
for  U.S.  Army  and   Navy. 

Officers  in  The  United  State*  Mili- 
tary or  Naval  Forces  can  obtain  at 
Burberrys  every  item  of  equipment. 
Uniforms  and  Weatherproofs  made 
in  Burberry-proofed  cloths. 


Illustrated 
Military 
or  Naval 
Catalogue 
sent  on 
request. 


Ihiring  the  War  Burberrys  Clean 
and  Re- proof  Officers'  Burberry 
Weatherproofs     Free    of     Charge. 


BURBERRYS  Haymarket  ^^  LONDON 

8  &  10,  Boul.    Malesherbes,    PARIS;    Agents  throughout  the  Wor.d. 


Hereford — The  English  Rheims 


TTie  House  of  Bulmer,  famous  the 
world  over  for  Ciders  of  quality, 
has  now  produced  that  delicious 
"  POMAIGRE,"  that  has  brought  new 
delight  to  Champagne  and  Cider 
drinkers.  There  will  be  found  in 
Bulmer's  SparUing  "POMAGNE" 
all  the  exhilarating  and  health-giving 
properties  which  attract  the  Cham- 
pagne Wines  of  Rheims,  their  manfi- 
facture  in  each  case  being  identical. 

Price  Lilt  and  Particolar*  will 
be  forwarded  on  application  to 

H.  P.  BULMER  &  CO., 
HEREFORD. 


32 


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{fiaHtimudfrom  poft  SO) 

stultify  our  own  past.  He  pointed  out,  as  a  practical  man, 
that,  whether  we  liked  it  or  not,  the  fact  remained  that  they 
did  mean  to  resist  our  taxation,  and  that  we  should  not  be 
able  to  impose  our  will  upon  them  without  a  long  and  bloody 
fight  in  which  we  might  be  beaten  ;  and  he  implored  the 
formalists  not  to  take  their  stand  upon  a  literal  interpreta- 
tion of  what  they  conceived  to  be  our  legal  rights.  "Force," 
he  said,  "  may  subdue  for  a  moment  ;  but  it  does  not  remove 
the  necessity  of  subduing  again  ;  and  a  nation  is  not 
governed  which  is  perpetually  to  be  conquered."  And, 
arguing  that  generous  "conciliatory  concession"  was  the  only 
thing  that  would  pay  in  the  long  run,  he  met  the  case  of 
those  who  were  always  afraid  that  once  the  attempt  at 
coercion  were  abandoned  all  would  be  lost  : 

But    the    colonies    will   go    further. — Alas  I     alas  I     When 
will  this  speculating  against  fact  and  reason  end  ?     What 
will  quiet  these  panic  fears  which  we  entertain  of  the  hostile 
efiect  of  a  conciliatory  conduct  ?     Is  it  true  that  no  case 
can  exist,  in  which  it  is  proper  for  the  sovereign  to  accede 
to  the  desires  of  his  discontented  subjects  ?     Is  there  any- 
thing pecuUar  in  this  case,  to  make  a  rule  for  itsel:  ?     Is 
all  authority,  of  course,  lost,  when  it  is  not  pushed  to  the 
extreme  ?     Is  it  a  certain  maxim,  that,  the  fewer  causes  of 
dissatisfaction  are  left  by  government,  the  more  the  subject 
will  be  inclined  to  resist  and  rebel  ? 
The  younger  Pitt's  speech,  years  later,  on  the  peace,  should 
be  read  in  conjunction  w^th  this,  a  peace  in  which  (he  said) 
anything  that  was  inadequate  was 

chargeable  to  the  noble  lord   in   the  blue  ribbon,   whose 

profusion  of  the  public's  money,  whose  notorious  temerity 

and  obstinacy  in  prosecuting  the  war,  which  originated  in 

his    pernicious    and    oppressive    pohcy,    and    whose    utter 

incapacity  to  fill  the  station  he  occupied,  rendered  peace 

of  any  description  indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the 

State. 

These    passages,    one    thinks,    should    adorn    the    pages    of 

American  school-books  as  a  proper  supplement  to  accounts 

of  the  Boston  Tea-Party. 

****** 

Burke's    exposition     mainly    appealed    to    the     reason  ; 
Chatham's  magnificent  speech  on  the  employment  of  savage 
Red  Indian  troops  against  the  Colonists  struck  another  note. 
Few   things  in   English    oratory  are    more    passionate  and 
more   moving  than   his  elaboration  of  the   horror    of    this 
plan ;    and  in  vigour  and  vividness  the  rest  of  the  speech 
does  not  fall  far  short  of  it.     "You  cannot,  I  venture  to  say- 
it — you  cannot  conquer  America."     "  I  love  and  honour  the 
English  troops  :    I  know  their  virtues  and  their  ivalour  :    I 
know  they  can   achieve  anything  except  impossibilities  : 
You  may  swell  every  expense  and  every  effort  still  more 
extravagantly  ;    pile  and  accumulate  evei-y  assistance  you 
can   buy  or  borrow  ;     trafific  and  barter  with  every  little 
pitiful  German  prince   that  sells  and  sends  his  subjects  to 
the  shambles  of  a  foreign  prince  :    your  efforts  are  for  ever 
vain  and  impotent — doubly  so  from  this  mercenary  aid  on 
which  you  rely  ;    for  it  imitates,  to  an  incurable  resentment, 
the   minds   of   your   enemies — to   overrun     them   with    the 
mercenary  sons  of  rapine  and  phmder  ;    devoting  them  and 
their  possessions   to   the   rapacity   of  hireUng   cruelty  !     If 
I  were  an  American,  as  I  am  an  Englishman,  while  a  foreign 
troop  was  landed  in  my  country,  I  never  would  lay  down 
my  arms — never — never — never  I 
The  peroration  beginning  "My  lords,   I  am  old  and  weak, 
and  at  present  unable  to  say  more,"  brought  a  noble  speech 
to  a  close  as  effective  as  anything  in  the  annals  of  oratoiy. 
****** 

The  Colonists  and  ourselves  are  now  united  against  those 
same  "mercenary  sons  of  rapine  and  plunder,"  not  greatly 
changed  during  the  interval.  That  Chatham  could  not  have 
foreseen  ;  but  the  prophecy  was  made,  though  anything  but 
hopefully,  by  a  contemporary  who  did  not  sharehis  views. 
In  a  suppressed  passage  of  his  pamphlet.  Dr.  Johnson,  who 
saw  in  America  a  breeding  ground  of  democrats  and  con- 
temners of  authority,  lamented  ;. 

By  Dr.  Franklin's  rule  of  progression,  they  will,  in  a  century 
and  a  quarter  be  more  than  equal  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Europe.     When  the  Whigs  of  America  are  thus  multiplied, 
let  the  Princes  of  the  earth  tremble  in  their  palaces. 
The  "Whigs"  have  multiplied;    and  they  are  on  the  move. 


Readers  of  Land  &  Water  are  familiar,  with  M.  Emile 
Cammaerts'  poems  on  the  war.  Written  in  French,  they  are 
among  the  most  notable  literary  work  which  this  terrible 
struggle  has  eUcited.  Under  the  title  of  Messines.  a  new 
collection  of  them  is  now  pubHshed  (John  Lane,  3s.  6d.)  with 
English  translations  by  Mme.  Tite  Brand-Cammaerts.  This 
poet  has  been  well  called  "one  of  the  strongest  and  sweetest 
of  Belgian  singers,"  his  work  is  exquisite— full  of  beauty 
and  pathos. 


May  2 ,  1 9  1 8 


Land    &   Water 


35 


iMAU^ 


^m  the  days 
f  he  Crimea 


%.N0*'' 


Catalogues    Free 

THE  BIRMINGHAM  SMALL 
ARMS  COMPANY,  LTD., 
SMALL  HEATH,  BIRMINGHAM 

While  »e  are  to  largely  engaged  on  MuniHons, 
supplies    of    tB-^-^-  Machines    are    limited. 


jVyiORE  than  half  a  century  has  passed  since  the  founding  of  the 
B.S.A.  reputation  during  the  Crimean  War,  and  from  those  early 
days  the  B.S.A.  name  has  been  associated  with  only  the  finest  quality 
material  and  workmanship.  To-day  B.S.A.  is  the  recognised  standard  in 
cycle  and  motor  cycle  construction.  Every  part  is  tested  and  guaranteed 
interchangeable  ;  hence  exact  replacements  of  any  B.S.A.  parts  accidentally 
lost  or  damaged  can  be  supplied  without  delay  by  almost  any  cycle  agent. 

B.S.A.  Bicycles 

and 

Motor  Bicycles 


Lt.  L.  C  C-"— ,  Caoadlaiu,  France,  writes : — 

*'  They  are  the  re»l  goods.'' 

Capl.  E.  C.  M .  B.E.F..  France,  writes  :— 

"  I  can't  do  %vithout  tbem  ...  a  vitondeHul  lavIng" 

Phillips'  'Military' 


H 
% 


SOLES    AND    HEELS 

Thin  rubbT  pl^lei,  with  raited   ttuds,  to  be  I 
atlacied  on  lop  o(  or  linary  soles  and  heels,  giving  I 
com  ilete  proteclion  from  wear.     1  he  rubber 
used  is  six  times  more  durab'e  than  leather. 

They  imparl  smoothness  to  the  tread,  give  grip. 
and  prevent  slipping.  Feet  kept  dry  in  we* 
weather.     Ideal  for  golf. 


FROM    ALL  BOOTMAKERS. 


=     MEN'S  STOUT  (Aclive  Service) 


5/6  per  Ml 


LIGHT  (Supply  temporarily  tutpended 
owing  lo  enormouB  demand  for  STOUT)  4/" 


LADIES'  Siz«B  (Limited  supply  only) 

Wilh  slight  extra  cliarge  for  fixing 

Ladies, 


3/-     „ 
1/*  per  pair 


Spare    Hesla — Men's  Stoul.    2/-: 

PHILLIPS'     PATENTS,     Ltd.     (Depl.    F.3) 
142  6  Old   Street,  LONDON,  E.C.l. 


^^^^^^^^m=P^^^^5j^^ 


U.S.A.  and  CANADIAN 

Patents  for  above 
for  Sale  or  License. 


iiiiiiiii^ 


Military  Footwear 

EVERYTHING  a  man  requires 
^— 'for  Civil  or  Military  wear  is 
offered  at  Harrodsin  a  quality  that  he 
can  trust  and  of  a  value  he  can  rely  upon. 

A  FAULTLESS  BOOT  MODEL 

G.B.  705.  Military  Kne  Boot,  panel  fronts.  Norwegian 
oa'Icrn.  Made  f  be«t  Waterproof  Calf,  i  inch  Chrome 
Waterproof  Soles.  Very  comfortable  Legs  designf-d 
to  give  neat  appearance.     All  sizes.     Black  or  Brown. 

£6  :6  '.hT^ 


G.B.  141. 

Military  Slipper*.  Harrodt  exclusive  desiffti- 
Black  or  Brown  Leatl  er.  warm  lined.  Stoul 
damp-proof  loles.  They 
(old  flat  in  case,  and 
take  up  minimum  room 
in  kit.  The  neatest,  most 
compact  active*'  service 
■  ^     slipper  yet  produced. 


HARRODS  LTD 


Managing  Uirectdr 


21/. 
LONDON  SWl 


36 


Land    &    W'atcr 


May    2 ,    1 9 1  8 


■'  Proudly  anil  sturdily  go  the  gun  horses  even  in  the 
rain .  Js  I  passed  a  battery  to-day  .  .  .  /  thought 
hou:  much  better  off  we  are  for  horses  than  the  enemy. 
He  has  been  using  small  Russian  ponies  for  transport 
ifork,  and  tee  haye  heard  of  some  German  batteries 
■ffhich  now  hate  no  horses  of  their  otvn.  They  hare 
to  horroa-  them  from  transport  v>hen  they  moye." 

HAMILTON  FYFE  in  Daily  Mail,  9/4/18. 

Not  least  of  the  causes  for  the  relative 
German  shortage  of  horses  is  the  care  we 
have  given  to  our  horses  from  the  first  day 
of  the  war.  The  Army  Veterinary  Service 
assisted  by  the 

R.S.P.C.A.  FUND 

FOR   SICK   AND  WOUNDED  HORSES 

(the  only  Fund  authorised  by  the  Army  Council  to  assist  the  A.V.C.) 

has  done  work  as  brave  and  as  valuable  in  its  way  as 
that  of  our  heroic  soldiers  themselves.  The  restoration 
to  service  of  450,000  horses  in  1917  alone  tells  its  own 
tale.  That  it  saved  the  nation  some  £23,000.000  is  of 
less  account  to-day  than  that  the  R.S.P.C.A.  Fund 
shall  be  enabled  to  continue  its  good  work  of  providing 
the  various  veterinary  accommodation  and  supplies, 
for  which 

£50,000  IS  NEEDED 

now.     To  quote  Mr.  Hamilton  Fyfe  again  : — 

"  Horses  are  hitfing  a  great  deal  more  work  to  do 
than  during  trench  warfare.  Hott  they  add  to  the 
picturesqueness  of  war .'  'But  hort  much,  also,  to  the 
pitifulness  of  it  when  one  sees  them,  as  1  haye  lately, 
lying  by  the  roadside  !  " 

What  English  man  or  woman  reading  this  appeal  will 
fail  to  respond  to-day  ?  No  matter  what  you  have 
already  done  for  us  you  cannot  forget  those  dumb  yet 
eloquent  loyal  supporters  of  our  men.  Patriotism, 
economy,  humanity,  all  urge  and  justify  real  sacrifice  in 
this  cause.  You  need  not  our  thanks  or  we  would  add, 
they  go  out  to  you  now,  even  as  you  fill  in  the  form 
below. 

The  cost  of  this  advertisement  is  generously  borne 
by  a  group  of  well-known  sportsmen  and  horse-lovers. 


CONTRIBUTION  FORM 

If  you  cannot  send  us  much,  pi  ase  send  a  little.  Cut  out  this 
form,  fill  it  in,  and  return  as  promptly  as  possible  to  the  Hon. 
Secretary,  R.S.P.C.A.,  Dept.  B.N.  i6,  105  Jermyn  Street,  S.W.i. 
I  herewith  enclose  £  ,  which  is  to  be  used  exclusively 

for  the  British  Sick  and  Wounded  Horses  at  the  Front. 

Name ^ 

Address.. ..i^ 

P.C.B.— B.N.  16.  Date 


•  {CoKlinutd  from  pate  M) 

a  Standing  army  was  deprecated  loudly  as  an  outburst  of 
militarism,  and  to  expand  the  navy  was  thought  to  divert 
the  taxpayers'  money  from  the  legitimate  improvement  of 
public  facilities.  There  is  no  nation  mentioned  in  history, 
ancient  or  modern,  that  talked  or  thought  less  of  war  and 
warlike  things,  or  that  rested  so  secure  in  the  conviction 
that  the  world  had  reached  that  point  in  civilisation  when 
a  war  of  any  magnitude,  or  at  least  of  sufficient  magnitude 
to  draw  America  into  the  vortex,. was  an  impossibility. 

When  tlie  crash  came  in  1914  this  was  the  frame  of  mind 
in  which  American  industry  was  discovered,  and  it  took 
nearly  three  years  of  the  great  conflict  and  the  persistent 
efforts  of  the"  German  Government  to  bring  the  American 
people  to  a  realisation  of  the  stern  necessities  of  the  hour. 
.\s  soon  as  realised,  however,  there  was  not  a  moment's 
hesitation.  The  leaders  of  industry  at  once  moved  the  hands 
of  their  indicators  from  "peace"  to  "war,"  and  orders  went 
forth  that  transformed  the  greatest  peace  organisation  the 
world  has  ever  seen  into  an  organisation  designed  and  operated 
with  the  single  purpose  of  defeating  the  enemies  of  America 
and  the  .■\llies. 

America's  Fighting   Power 

The  fighting  power  of  America  is  hampered  in  Europe 
by  the  3,000  miles  or  more  of  water  separating  that  country 
from  the  battlefield,  and  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  mere  fact 
of  this  isolation  leaves  American  industry  free  to  develop 
without  fear  of  attack.  In  less  than  a  year  the  army  has 
been  increased  from  about  200,000  to  nearly  2,000,000  men, 
the  navy  personnel  from  less  than  80,000  to  nearly  half  a 
million,  and  all  these  soldiers  and  sailors  have  been  equipped 
with  kit,  armament,  and  food  supplies.  In  April,  1917,  about 
125  naval  vessels  were  under  construction,  and  now,  a  year 
later,  nearly  1000  are  on  the  waj's.  Twenty  great  manufac- 
turing plants  are  building  flying  machines,  and  army  supplies 
have  been  turned  out  at  a  bewildering  rate  until  the  totals 
run  into  many  millions  of  tons.  It  is  estimated  that  ever}' 
soldier  sent  to  France  means  at  least  5  tons  of  accompanying 
equipment  and  supplies. 

It  is  towards  the  shipbuilding  industry  of  America,  therefore, 
that  most  anxious  eyes  have  been  turned  and  upon  which 
effort  has  been  concentrated.  With  11,000,000  tons  of 
shipping  gone  to  the  bottom  and  the  large  demands  made 
by  the  naval  forces  on  the  merchant  marine  the  need  was 
imperative.  Men  and  materials  were  ready  to  come  to 
Europe  in  unlimited  numbers  and  quantities,  but  transport- 
ation had  to  be  provided.  To  build  ships  was  one  of  the 
most  difficult  things  to  ask  of  .\merica,  for  this  industry 
up  to  the  year  1916  had  been  at  a  low  ebb  as  compared  with 
other  industries,  and  the  amount  of  preparation  necessary 
for  a  big  turn-out  was  greater  than  in  any  other  direction 
in  the  production  of  war  material.  Work  was  not  begun 
as  promptly  as  was  hoped  for,  there  was  trouble  "at  the 
top,"  but  a  different  story  can  be  written  of  the  last  few 
months,  and  in  America  to-day  are  some  of  the  largest  ship- 
building yards  in  the  world,  and  all  crowded  with  vessels 
rapidly  approaching  completion.  Indeed,  ships  are  already 
being  launched  the  keels  of  which  were  laid  some  time  after 
the  American  declaration  of  war  against  Germany. 

From  the  beginning  of  American  participation  in  the  war 
American  industry  has  had  little  trouble  with  labour.  The 
leaders  of  the  great  labour  organisations  have  shown  a 
marked  and  intelligent  understancUng  of  the  purpose  of  the 
United  States  Government  and  the  rank  and  file  has  supported 
them  with  enthusiasm.  Many  of  the  problems  that  affect 
labour  unfavourably  in  Europe  do  not  exist  in  America, 
hence  the  situation  is  not  quite  so  complicated.  The  supply 
of  men  for  the  army  is  so  great  no  comb-outs  are  necessary. 
There  is  no  real  shortage  of  food,  wages  are  high,  and  the 
eight-hour  day  with  its  two  or  even  three  shifts  for  the  24 
hours  prevails  in  all  Government  work  and  in  most  private 
establishments.  The  disappearance  of  the  Tsardom  in  Russia 
narrowed  all  opposition  to  the  war  among  the  ahen  population 
to  the  sympathisers  with  Germany  and  her  Allies,  and  many 
of  these  are  lukewarm  or  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  their 
mother  countries.  The  United  States  Government  showed 
unexpected  firmness  in  deahng  with  alien  enemies,  and,  backed 
by  public  sentiment,  the  strong  hand  of  the  Department  of 
Justice  has  kept  harmless  all  but  a  few,  and  even  their  activities 
have  been  reduced  to  the  minimum.  There  are  fewer  labour 
disturbances  and  outrages  upon  industrial  plants  in  America 
to-day  than  there  were  before  America  came  into  the  war. 

Nearly  all  of  the  great  American  industrial  institutions 
have  been  built  up  not  only  through  efficiency  and  modern 

{Continued  on  page  38) 


May  2,  1918 


Land    &    Water 


37 


THE 

Veterans  Association 

An    Imperial    Memorial 

to   the 

Heroes  of  the  Great  War 

War  found  us  unprepared,  but  not  dismayed  ;  our  youth 
and  manhood — sailors,  soldiers  and  civilians  alike—  thrust 
themselves  between  us  and  the  armies  of  the  Hun,  held 
them  at  a  terrible  cost,  and  protected  our  homes  from 
German  aggression  and  German  brutality.  For  nearly  four 
years  they  have  fought  for  us,  and  those  who  return  at  all 
return  as  Veterans — "Veterans  such  as  before  the  war 
we  never  knew". 

We  sent  them  out,  encouraging  them  with  brave  words 
and  stirring  appeals.  They  left  us  safe  at  home  and  went 
into  the  shadows  to  fight  for  us  and  for  our  children,  for  our 
Empire  and  all  that  our  Empire  means  to  us — for  all  that 
is  human  and  decent  in  life. 

The  parting  was  bitter,  but  the  return  should  be  trium- 
phant ;  their  task  finished,  they  should  learn  the  warmth 
of  our  gratitude  .  .  .  such  was  our  thought,  such  was  our 
determination  !  Are  we  so  mindful  of  that  resolution  now 
as  we  were  in  the  first  flush  of  our  enthusiasm  ? 

In  the  heart  of  London  stands  the  Veterans  Club,  its 
doors  open  to  every  returned  sailor  and  soldier  who  needs 
comfort,  advice  or  aid.  Men  from  all  parts  of  the  world, 
alone  in  London,  turn  to  it  naturally,  certain  of  welcome 
and  hospitaUty — good  beds,  food,  and  warmth.  This  is  the 
home  of  the  Veterans,  equipped  and  maintained  by  the 
freewill  offerings  of  those  whose  lot  it  is  to  remain  at  home. 

It  is  not  an  imposing  Club  ;  there  is  no  great  luxury  in 
the  appointments  ;  the  accommodation  is  by  no  means 
ample — is,  indeed,  quite  inadequate.  Yet  the  men  them- 
selves are  profoundly  grateful  to  their  hosts,  and  express 
their  appreciation  in  glowing  letters.  These  letters,  and  the 
increasing  difficulty  of  providing  adequate  hospitality,  de- 
termine the  Committee  now  to  present  this  special  appeal. 

The  growing  demands  upon  the  resources  of  the  Club 
cannot  be  met  by  the  donations,  however  generous,  of  the 
few  who  have  hitherto  endeavoured  to  satisfy  the  urgent 
call  for  larger  rooms,  better  service  and — over  and  above 
all — more  beds.  Are  we  content  to  leave  this  work  to  the 
support  of  a  small  section  of  the  community  ?  Is  that  the 
full  measure  of  our  gratitude  ? 

Surely  not  !     The  need  has  but   to  be  widely  enough 
known  to  secure  that  a  larger  and  a  nobler  Veterans  Club  , 
Shall  be  possible  here,  in  the  heart  of  the  Empire — a  building 
that  shall  be 

An  Imperial  Memorial 

to  those  who  have  fallen,  a  rallying  point  for  those  who 
survive. 

That  is  the  aim  of  the  Veterans  Association — to  secure 
additional  support  for  the  development  of  their  scheme,  so 
as  to  enable  them  to  receive  all  fighting  and  ex-Service  men 
in  a  building  dedicated  to  their  service  who  have  fought 
our  battles  on  sea  and  land. 

It  costs  ;f  100  to  dedicate  a  bedroom  in  the  proposed  new 
premises  of  the  Veterans  Club.  Already  more  than  thirty 
such  donations  have  been  made  for  the  purpose  of  dedicating 
bedrooms  to  some  fallen  hero  or  some  glorious  deed  .  .  .  with- 
out a  doubt  many  will  wish  to  follow  the  example  thus  set. 

But  it  is  only  by  a  constant  flow  of  donations,  small  or 
great,  that  the  Veterans  Club  can  be  supported  and  its 
sphere  of  usefulness  enlarged.  Give  therefore  generously 
according  to  your  means.  It  is  a  gift  to  the  men  who  have 
fought  for  you  and  saved  your  country — Heroes  of  the 
(ireat  War. 

All  donations  should  be  addressed  to  the  Secretary. 

Veterans  Association,  -17  Bedford  Row,  W.C.I 
(KegisttrrJ  under  the  War  Chariliri  Act,  1916) 
Trustees  :   The  Hi.  Hon.  Sir  Henry  Bargrave  Deane. 

Regd.  Cox  Esf..  James  A.  Malcolm  Esj 
Hon.Treasurers  :  C.  L.  Collard  IZs/.,  M.A.,B.C.L..  Sidnev  Hanev  l£sq.,M.n. 
Bankers  :  Messrs.  Cox  &■  Co.,  16  Charing  Cross,  S.W.I  ' 

Messrs.  Drummond,  49  Charing  Cross,  S.W.I  j 

Messrs.  Holt  #-  Co.  ( Woodhead's  Branch),  44  Charing  Cross,  S.  W ,1  j 


AT  THE  FRONT 

Extract  from  a  letter  received  from  France  : — 

"  It  is  impossible  to  express 
the  comfort  we  derive  from 
a  cup  of  hot  0X0  when 
returning  after  a  cold  night 
job." 


Hot  0X0  is  an  inesti- 
mable boon  to  the  fighting 
forces  at  this  time  of  the 
year. 

It  aids  and  increases  nutri- 
tion ;     it   stimulates   and 


builds  up  strength  to 
resist  climatic  changes, 
and  is  invaluable  for  all 
who  have  to  undergo  exer- 
tion either  to  promote 
fitness  or  to  recuperate 
after  fatigue. 


Sole  Proprietors  and  Manufacturt-i-- 
0x0  Limited,  Thames  House,  London,  E.C.4 


3« 


Land    &    Water 


May    2 ,    I  9 1 8 


BY  SPECIAL  APPOINTMFNT 


TO  H  M.  THE  KING. 


Ilncrushable  Trench  Cap 


Soft,  yet  retains  its  shape 
and  smart  appearance, 
being  made  on  a  founda- 
tion of  special  material 
which  is  springy — prac- 
tically uncrushable  and 
unaffected  by  wet.  In 
best  quality  khaki  whip- 
cord, and  fitted  with 
leather  headband. 


T^r, 


ice 


21/- 


net. 


Packing  in  Wood   Box  and 
Postage  to  the  Front,  2\- 

The  ever-increasing  salei  of  this 
Lincoln  Bennett  speciality  are 
proof  of    its   super    excellence. 


The  "  LB  "  Adapter  Lining  for  Steel  Helmets 

is  still   the  only   lining  soundly  constructed  on 

an    efficient    principle.     Write   for    particulars. 

Anyone  can  fit  it.— No  fasteningfs  required.— Distributes  weipht.— 
Equalises  balance. — Provides  ventilation. — Minimises  concossion. — 
Obtainable  in  all  sizes  and  shapes  ol  heads. 


Lincoln  Bennett  &  Co.  Ltd. 

The  Leading  Military  &  Civil  Hatters, 
40    PICCADILLY,   LONDON,  W.l. 


CFJ^ilS^^^^^^^ 


KHAKI  SHIRTS 


HARRODS  LTD 


HARRODS     are 
the     actual 
makers.      The     more 
particular  the  man  the 
more   he   will    appre- 
ciate the  detailed  care 
and     excellence      that 
Harrods    offer. 
Harrods    Shirts     em- 
body   more   of    those 
niceties    of    make  and 
than    are   com- 
monly  en- 
countered, 
but   which 
make    all 
the  differ- 
ence   to 
c  o  mfor  t 
and  to  service. 

Khaki  Zephyr  -  7/6 
Union  Twill  -  10/6 
Taffeta  (light)  -  15,6 
Twill  Silk  -  -  21/- 
Viyella  13  6  &  14/6 
All  NON.SHRINKINC 

'^aZ'?:/li:^iVr  LONDON  SWl 


(CoHtinued  Jrom  page  38) 

methods,  but  by  the  aid  of  intelligent  co-operation  with  the 
labour  employed.  There  is  less  antagonism  between  the 
employer  and  the  employed  than  in  any  other  country, 
The  principle  is  recognised  as  sound  that  a  well-paid,  well- 
housed  and  well-fed  man,  allowed  to  earn  according  to  his 
individual  productive  power,  is  an  invaluable  asset  to 
industry,  and  in  the  largest  and  most  successfully  operated 
plants  this  principle  governs  in  the  relations  of  the 
employer  to  the  employed. 

Increase, of  Wealth 

In  the  last  four  years  the  national  wealth  of  America 
has  inrreased  bv  at  least  £ioo  per  capita,  and  this  is  not  due 
to  profits  on  the  sale  of  war  materials,  for  this  has  only 
accounted  for  about  £5  per  capita  including  the  profit  made 
on  shipments  of  food  such  as  would  have  been  made  had 
there  been  no  war.  The  war  is  responsible  to  some  degree, 
however,  for  the  total  increase,  for  internal  development 
has  been  intensified  by  reason  of  the  disturbed  condition 
of  the  rest  of  the  world.  This  increase  in  national  wealth 
has  come  from  but  one  source  and  that  is  the  legitimate 
development  of  industry. 

It  was  a  good  thing  for  America  and  for  the  Allies  that 
this  development  preceded  actual  participation  in  the 
war,  for  American  industry  was  all  the  more  ready  and  able 
to  respond  to  the  demand  to  be  made  upon  it  when  the  conflict 
came.  It  meant  that  there  was  more  money  to  be  loaned 
to  the  Allies,  greater  facihties  immediately  available  for  war 
purposes,  and  more  workers  ready  drilled  to  take  their  part 
in  the  great  war  machine  at  home  and  abroad.  Any  increase 
in  wealth  that  may  have  come  to  the  American  people 
in  the  earlier  days  of  the  war  in  Europe  through  supplying 
the  needs  of  the  countries  at  war  has  been  more  than  returned 
in  money  and  materials  during  the  past  year. 

The  expansion  of  industry  that  has  taken  place  in  Arnerica 
in  the  past  twenty  years  has  exceeded  anything  before 
recorded  and  the  whole  force  of  this  tremendous  organisation 
has  been  turned  against  the  foe  of  civilisation.  As  fast  as 
alien  immigration  has  entered  the  country  it  has  been 
absorbed  into  the  industrial  world,  and  in  the  second  generation 
these  people  are  no  longer  aliens  in  spirit  or  in  customs. 
Too  little  importance  is  attached  to  climate,  food  and  environ- 
ment in  estimating  the  power  of  the  American  melting  pot. 
A  bracing  and  electric  atmosphere,  a  full  supply  of  nourishing 
food  and  association  with  a  free  people  change  the  whole 
character  of  the  population  bom  of  alien  parents  from  that 
of  their  forefathers.  The  industrial  tffi:iency  of  these 
people  is  multiplied  beyond  comparison  with  those  who  remain 
in  Europe,  The  contrast  in  the  productive  power  of  the 
individual  worker  has  been  strikingly  confirmed  in  the 
experience  of  one  great  American  industrial  with  factories 
in  nearly  every  large  country  in  the  world.  This  company 
has  found  that  the  men  they  employ  in  America  can  be 
depended  upon  to  produce  a  minimum  of  40  per  cent,  more 
output  than  the  men  they  employ  abroad,  and  yet  these 
men  both  in  America  and  elsewhere  may  be  of  the  same 
race  and  nationality  at  birth.  Forty  years  ago  Irishpien 
did  the  pick  and  shovel  work  of  America.  To-day  the 
Italians,  Slavs  and  Levantines  have  taken  the  place  of  the 
Irish,  and  the  latter  are  engaged  in  more  skilled  and  better 
paid  branches  of  labour.  It  has  been  so  with  every  influx 
of  aliens.  When  they  first  arrived  they  began  at  the  bottom 
of  the  ladder,  but  as  they  came  under  the  influence  of  the 
American  chmate,  food,  and  institutions,  they  quickly  raised 
themselves  to  a  more  satisfactory  status,  and  their  children  : 
brought  up  or  born  in  America,  began  far  in  advance  of 
where  their  parents  left  off. 

Fifty  years  ago  America  had  to  make  a  choice  between 
rapid  industrial  development  with  large  immigration  or  a 
very  slow  development  and  restricted  immigration.  The  first 
named  course  was  adopted.  The  industrial  development  has 
been  more  rapid  than  was  even  dreamed  of  and  some  social 
and  poUtical  penalties  have  been  incurred  by  the  nation 
and  its  institutions  through  the  great  influx  of  foreign  labour. 
The  damage  has  been  less  than  was  predicted,  however,  for  the 
regenerative  powers  of  the  New  World  were  under-estimated. 
The  fusion  of  a  number  of  races  has  produced  a  new  race 
dominated  absolutely  by  Anglo-Saxon  ideals  and  even  still 
by  Anglo-Saxon  leaders,  but  broadened  in  its  sympathies 
and  understandings  and  containing  within  its  spirit  a  hatred 
of  all  tyranny,  a  shadowy  inheritance  from  previous 
generations  of  the  oppressed.  It  is  because  of  this  inheritance 
that  America  is  inhabited  by  a  peace-loving  nation.  It  is 
also  because  of  this  inheritance  that  when  once  convinced 
that  liberty  and  democracy  were  threatened  the  nation  was 
ready  to  turn  the  whole  power  of  its  immeasurable  industrial 
strength  against  the  enemy. 


May  2,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


39 


FORTNUM&  MASON'S 

BOOTS  AND  EQUIPMENT 

FOR 

BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   OFFICERS 

SERVING   ON    ALL 

BATTLE    FRONTS 

THE 

"FORTMASON" 

MARCHING 

BOOT 

Soft  as  a  slipper  but  very  strong  and  f  lb. 
to  I  lb.  lighter  than  any  similar  boot. 
The  durability,  softness,  and  flexibility  of 
the  "  Fortmason "  leather  has  stood  the 
test  of  the  trenches  in  France  and  the  dust 
and  heat  of  Africa  and  Mesopotamia. 

Price  C)U/"  per  pair.^ 

Sizes  9i  to    Hi,  5/-  extra;    size  12,  7/6 
extra.     To  measure,  10/-  extra. 


THE. 

"FORTMASON" 
HAVERSACK 


Waterproof     throughout.  Leather 

bottom  double  sewn  and  well 
finished. 

Cut  square  for  carrying  capacity,  and 
back   pocket   extra  large. 

The  top  hood  shajsed  and  keeps 
out  the   wet. 

The  web  sling  is  sewn  right  round 
the  haversack,  carries  off  the  rain, 
and  supports  the  strain.  Swivels 
engage  with  belt  and  distribute  weight 
between  waist  and  shoulder. 


2. 


3. 


Price  20/- 


eac 


h. 


FORTNUM  &  MASON,  Ltd. 

182    Piccadilly,    London,    W.  1. 

DEPOT     FOR    "DEXTER"     MILITARY     WEATHERPROOFS 


40 


Land  &  Water 


May  2,  19 1  8 


Wni- 


GONG  SOUPS 

are  "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. 


Extract  from  a  letter  received  from  the  Front : — 

"The  men  are  on  fatigue  all  night  until  2  or  3  a.m., 
and  much  appreciate  hot  soup  on  their  return. 
Sometimes  the  men  come  in  wet  through  and 
plastered  with  mud,  and  a  drink  of  hot  soup  makes 
new  men  of  them  in  a  very  short  time." 


Twelve  Delicious  Varieties: 


Scotch  Bioth 

Ox  Tail 

Mock  Tur.le 

Thick  Gravy 

Pea 

Celery  Cream 

Mulli^ataway 

Green  Pea 

Lentil 

Hare 

Kidney 

Tomato 

Sole   Proprietors  and  Manufacturers : 
0X0  Limited,  Thames  House.  London.  S,C^. 


Motor  Utility  Machines 

By  H.   Massac  Buist 

WHILE  the  war  has  made  altogether  unprecedented 
demands  on  the  world's  motor  industry  alike  for  the 
production  of  aircraft  and  marine  engines  and  for 
motors  for  military  transport  service,  it  is  generally  over- 
looked that  it  has,  besides,  enonnously  accelerated  the 
demand  for  engines  for  agriculture  and  for  all  forms  of  utility 
service  in  civiliart  life  pure  and  simple.  Indeed,  when  the 
history  of  motoring  in  these  islands  comes  to  be  written  it 
will  be  found  that  tlie  first  really  extensive  use  of  agricultural 
machinery  dates  from  the  preparations  made  for  the  coming 
harvest.  The  shortage  of  horses  for  civilian  service,  which 
is  an  inevitable  feature  of  any  war,  has  enormously  accelerated 
the  growth  of  the  utility  vehicle  movement. 

The  general  idea  is  that  the  agricultural  motor  is  needed 
for  ploughing  only,  and  that  if  that  can  be  arranged  satis- 
factorily, the  agri-motor  problem  is  solved.  The  fact,  how- 
ever, is  scarcely  n>  simple,  as  may  be  promptly  realised  when 
it  is  borne  in  mind  that  on  the  average  farm  ploughing  takes 
place  on  appro.ximately  only  twenty  -  one  days  of  the  year. 
Even  on  the  co-operative  principle -it  would  not  be  a  com- 
mercial proposition  to  purchase  motor  machinery  for  so 
relatively  few  days'  service,  despite  the  fact  that  a  motor 
differs  from  horseflesh  in  {hat  when  it  is  not  in  service  it  is 
not  consuming  the  material  which  enables  it  to  do  its  work. 
Moreover,  if  the  motor  equipment  of  a  given  farm,  or  collec- 
tion of  farms,  takes  the  form  of  a  plough  only,  then  it  follows 
that  horses  must  be  available  for  all  the  many  subsequent 
operations  to  which  ploughing  is  the  preliminary.  Obviously, 
if  horses  were  available  for  the  subsequent  processes  they 
would  be  equally  available  for  the  initial  one. 

Thus,  the  successful  application  of  the  internal  combustion 
liquid-fuel  engine  to  the  agricultural  problems  depends  in 
large  measure  on  the  variety  of  uses  to  which  the  machiner\' 
can  be  put.  This  becomes  particularly  emphasised  in  a 
country  like  our  own,  where  the  individual  farm  and  the 
individual  field  are  extremely  small  by  comparison,  for 
example,  with  the  areas  that  are  brought  into  cultivation  in 
Canada,  the  United  States,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  the 
Argentine,   Russia,  etc. 

Ploughing  Tests 

As  regards  the  problem  of  motor-ploughing,  tests  have 
practically  proved  that  success  or  failure  depend  not  so 
much  on  the  motor  mechanism  as  on  the  ploughshare,  or 
shares,  employed  for  the  work  in  the  given  district.  Many 
of  our  agri-motor  trials  promoted  in  the  eariv  days  of  this 
war  really  gave  a  false  idea  of  the  relative  ments  of  various 
forms  of  motor  tractors  because  the  point  was  overiooked 
that  you  could  not  judge  those  merits  unless  all  the  tractors 
engaged  m  the  given  competition  were  working  precisely  the 
same  type  of  share  on  the  given  patch  of  land.  Judges, 
moreover,  in  certain  districts  obviously  were  more  partial  to 
a  certain  class  of  share  than  others,  long  experience  having 
taught  them  what  is  the  most  suitable  for  the  given  neigh- 
bourhood. The  result  was  that  they  could  not  but  judge 
by  rather  the  ploughshare  used  than  by  the  motor  equipment 
Henceforth,  therefore,  it  is  desirable  that  when  agricultural 
motor  trials  are  promoted,  the  manufacturers  entering  for 
them  shall  always  be  informed  what  share  they  are  to  use  in 
each  district  in  which  thev  are  to  compete.  It  is  only  bv 
standardising  in  this  fashion  that  the  relative  merits  of  each 
tractor  can  be  brought  out. 

The  number  of  motor  tractors  that  have  been  brought  into 
service  for  farm  work  in  these  islands  to-day  is  very  great 
running  into  more  thousands  than  there  are  months  in  the 
year.  Yet  we  have  merely  touched  the  fringe  of  the  develop- 
ments. The  work,  too,  is  in  part  handicapped  by  the  fuel 
situation.  In  face  of  the  demands  during  the  war  and  on 
the  coming  of  peace,  for  the  lighter  motor  spirits,  which  must 
always  be  rendered  available  for  aircraft  work,  for  example 
obviously  petrol  must  be  regarded  as  an  uncommercial  fuel' 
for  agri-motor  purposes.  Consequently,  the  bulk  run  is  on 
paraffin-at  anv  rate,  after  the  mechanism  has  been  warmed 
up  on  petrol.  The  difficulties  of  vapourising  paraffin  have 
been  overcome  in  more  or  less  practical  fashion  ;  but  un- 
questionably, the  whole  business  has  been  greatly  hkndi- 
capped  by  the  dearth  of  men  of  motor  experienqe  t8  initiate 
the  average  farm  hand,  who  has  been  no  more  trained  than 
nis,torbears  to  mechanism  and  the  idea  of  it 

The^youths  of  to-day  who  will  be  the  farm  hands  of  to- 

(Conlimud  on  page  42.) 


May  2,    1918 


Land    &    Water 


41 


PREFERENCE  foi 
^  the  Humber  Car  is 
proof  of  good  judg- 
ment. Willingness  to 
wait  for  one  is  evidence 
of  sound  patriotism. 
The  necessity  for  this 
exercise  of  patience  is 
to  be  found  in  the 
accompanying  picture. 


HUMBER    LIMITED 

AgenU  everyivhtre. 


A  Corner  of   View    isoom. 


Where  Flying  Men 


are  fitted  out 


Long  years*  experience  of  catering  for  Motorists 
brought  DunhilU  into  the  field  of  Aviation  tCit 
supply  with  a  flying  start  They  still  lead 
wherever  articles  of  practical  use  and  comfort 
for  Flying  Men  are  concerned. 

Here  are  tl>ree  good  items  from  the  Showroom 
at  Conduit  Street. 

A  special  aviation  cap  of  black  or  tan  leather 
is  the  first  item.  Th«  leather  is  delightfully  soft 
and  flexible,  and  the  whole  cap  is  lined  with  best 
quality  nutria  fur.  It  is  cut  long  at  the  back  to 
protect  the  neck,  and  is  most  popular  among 
American  and  all  the  Allied  Aviators.  The 
price  is  55/-. 

A  much  appreciated  gadget  for  this  or  any 
other  Dunhill  flyins  cup.  is  our  fur-lined  chin 
muff  (No.  19/10)  In  black  or  tan  leather 
and  lined  with  similar  fur  to  the  cap  above,  it 
costs  17/6  and  provides  a  maximum  of  comfort. 


5773  A 

Our  "  High  Flyer"  gloves  are  deep 
gauntlet  shaped  with  two  straps,  and 
are  made  in  tan  leather  lined  with 
fur.  They  are  interlined  with  oil- 
cambric,  thus  being  quite  waterproof, 
snug  and  cosy,  though  at  the  same  time 
most  flexible  and  yielding  to  every 
movement  of  the  hand.  I  ney  repre- 
sent the  high-water  mark  in  glove 
comfort  for  airmen. 

The  price  is  35/-  per  pair- 


Waterproof  overboots  :  I  376/50 
These  fine  overboots  are  made  in  strong  Paramatta 
twill,  lined  with  fur.  and  have  a  soft  leather  sole,  a 
strap  just  below  the  knee  to  n\ake  them  quite  secure, 
and  a  laced  front.  They  are  perfectly  waterproof, 
warm  and  comfortable.  The  price  is  63/-  per  pair,  and 
when  ordering  it  is  necessary  to  state  size  of 
walking  boot  worn. 

Dunhills,  Ltd. 

2   CONDUIT   STREET, 
REGENT  ST,  LONDON,  W.l. 


For  our  WOUNDED  SOLDIERS 


A    comfortable,  easy    run- 
ning,  self-propelled    Chair, 
with  adjustable   back 
and  leg  rest. 


What  more  suitable  gift  than 
INVALID    FURNITURE 

A  choice  selection  will  be  found  at  our  extensive  New 
Showrooms  at  449  OXFORD  STREET,  London,  W.l 
(opposite  Selfridges),  where  we  also  have  a  large  stock 
of  our  famous  BABY  CARRIAGES. 

Full  particulars  will  be  aeni   on  application  to — 

HircHiisP^^"^ 

449    Oxford   Street, 

Telephone:  Cemird   291.  LONDON,     W.l. 


42 


Land    &    Water 


May  2 ,  1 9 1 8 


IMITATION 


is  the 


Sincerest  Form   of  Flattery 


(( 


INSIST 

ON  THE 


L.B."  Adapter  Lining 

Originaled  bp  {Registered  Design.) 

Messrs.    LINCOLN    BENNETT     &     CO.,     LTD., 

FROsr.      ^^t^^^ZS"^^.  which  rnsures  absolute  fit  and 

perfect  comfort  for  your  Steel 
Helmet. 

IT  IS  STILL  THE  ONLY 

LINING  SOUNDLY  CON- 
STRUCTED ON  AN 
EFFICIENT  PRINCIPLE. 


BACK. 

hnproxd    Pallcrn    with    SpeciJ    Blling   back 

head  piece. 

Price   19/6  net. 

Without  back  piece,   16/6  net. 

Packing  in  wood  box  -nd  postage  to  the  Front.  2/- 


Ladiea  desiring  to  tend  one  of  these  linings  to  a 
Relative  or  frieod  at  the  Fro'  t  should  send  us.  if  possi- 
ble, a  top  hat,  bowler,  or  straw  boater  of  his  from 
which  to  lake  the  exact  sha.  e  and  dimensions  of  his 
head,  otherwise  state  ordinary  hat  size. 


Thousands    in    us* 

at  tht  l-rant  prove 

Us  efficiency. 


Anyone  can  6t1t — No  fasten- 
ings required.  —  Distributes 
weight  — Equalises  balance. — 
Provides  ventilation.  —  Mini- 
mises  concussion. — Obtainable 
in  all  sizes  and  shapes  of  heads. 


IVrile  to — 

Lincoln   Bennett  &  Co.,  Ltd., 

40  PICCADILLY,  LONDON,  W. 

And  78  LOMBARD    STREET,  E.G. 
For  Descriplioe  Pamphlet. 


The  Weldon 
Auto-Motive  Crutch 


(Pat.  105.18^-1916.) 


FOR  LOCOMOTION  WITH- 
OUT   EXERTION. 


Owing  to  the  unique  construction 
of.  the  base,  the  user  is  propelled 
by  gravitation  without  any  exer- 
tion beyond  resting  the  weight  of 
the  body  on  the  handles. 

In  proceeding  down  hill  it  is  only 
necessary  to  reverse  the  crutches, 
which  then  act  as  a  natural  brake. 

But  th£  feature  of  the 
"Weldon  Auto-motive"  is  the 
anatomically  correct  position 
of  the  head,  which  conforms 
to  the  oblique  direction  of  the 
axilla  (arm-pit). 

No  otlier  Crutch  possesses  these 
features. 

All  risk  of  "crutch  paralysis" 
is  entirely  eliminated. 

A   most  instructive  booklet,  post  free  on 
request. 


SOLE 
AGENTS 
FOR  THE 
UNITED 
KINGDOM. 


HOSPITALS  &  GENERAL 
CONTRACTS  CO.   LTD. 

19-35     MORTIMER     STREET, 
LONDON,  W.l. 


Telephone ; 
Museum      3140. 

Tclesrami : 
'Contractina. 

London." 


{Continued  from  page  40.) 

morrow,  however,  will  grow  up  as  mucli  in  a  motor  atmosphere 
as  pubhc-school  boys  grow  up  with  knowledge  of  motor 
cycling,  even  though  the  individual  is  not  lucky  enough  to 
possess  a  macliine  of  his  own.  Further,  if  there  were  any 
doubt  on  this  subject,  it  is  sufficiently  dissolved  by  the 
reflection  that  the  vast  number  of  men  who  will  presently 
be  disbanded  from  the  Army,  and  who  have  motor  experi- 
ence, will  render  an  amply  sufficient  proportion  available  to 
the  agricultural  branch  of  the  movement ;  for  one  thing, 
because  the  end  of  the  war  will  see  more  than  sufficient  to  go 
round  all  branches  of  service ;  for  another,  because  for 
health  reasons  the  war  experience  will  cause  vast  numbers 
,to  take  to  work  on  the  land.  Consequently,  the  ground  for 
taking  a  pessimistic  view  concerning  the  deterioration  of 
agri-motor  macliinery  through  lack  of  understanding  and, 
consequently,  neglect  or  mishandling,  is  not  substantial. 

Inevitable  Handicaps 

In  war  time,  however,  even  paraffin  and  such  like  heavier 
grade  oils  are  not  available  in  sufficient  quantities  for  agri- 
motor service.  Hence,  the  other  day  a  scheme  for  employing 
town  gas  for  motor  work  on  the  farm  was  mooted.  But 
much  in  this  direction  is  not  to  be  expected  either  during  or 
after  the  war. 

In  brief,  therefore,  while  the  agri-motor  will  undoubtedly 
prove  one  of  the  prime  factors  in  enabling  us  to  carry  on 
this  war — the  number  of  machines  produced  and  brought 
into  use  is  increasing  continuously— nevertheless,  such 
machines  are  being  employed  at  the  moment  under  inevitable 
conditions  of  handicap.  Therefore,  while  we  may  know  the 
worst  concerning  the  agri-motor  problem  to-day,  the  best 
of  it  cannot  possibly  be  revealed  to  us  until  after  the  war. 
Hence  it  is  particularly  gratifying  to  realise  that,  despite 
all  shortcomings,  the  proposition  of  applying  motor  power 
to  agricultural  work  is  to-day  a  thoroughly  practical  one, 
which  under  a  wide  variety  of  tests  has  given  results  more 
profitable  than  can  be  obtained  with  horse  traction. 

As  for  the  commercial  motor,  the  only  problem  in  connec- 
tion with  it  to-day  is  to  get  sufficient  supplies  to  meet  civiUan 
needs.  Those  needs  are  growing  all  the  time  ;  and  it  wall  be 
quite  impossible  to  meet  them  until  the  coming  of  peace. 
Then  it  will  be  practicable  to  meet  them  in  absolutely  satis- 
factory fashion.  The  reason  is  that  war  service  has  put 
both  heavy  and  hght  transport  to  tests  not  to  be  exceeded 
m  severity.  Consequently,  experience  ahke  in  design  and 
production  has  been  brought  to-  the  necessary  pitch  to  ensure 
absolutely  reliable  service  in  the  post-war  products. 

The  class  of  vehicle  available  for  use  in  war  time  is  extremely 
limited.  By  far  the  majority  are  put  in  charge  of  those  of 
practically  no  training  and  experience.  Some  of  them  have 
not  even  the  instinct  for  handling  machinery  of  this  sort ; 
yet  we  perceive  it  answers  admirably. 

Electric  Utility    Vehicles 

It  is  gravely  to  be  doubted  if  the  electric  utiUty  veliicle 
will  make  such  progress  in  this  country  as  some  anticipate 
for  It  Weight,  cost,  and  Umitation  of  range  of  use  are  among 
the  obstacles  in  this  direction  ;  but  the  greatest  of  aU  concerns 
facilities  for  obtaining  supphes.  The  roads  of  London  are 
admirably  suitable  for  electric-driven  utUity  vehicles,  and 
provided  the  direction  of  our  clectric-power-producing  com- 
panies becomes  trained  to  the,  idea,  much  may  be  done 
At  the  best,  however,  we  could  never  match  American 
conditions,  such,  for  example,  as  are  provided  by  the  great 
generating  stations  at  Niagara,  which  supply  plant  to  cities 
hundreds  of  miles  away  at  rates  which  would  spell  bank- 
ruptcy if  we  attempted  them  here.  Our  chance  in  England, 
of  course,  depends  on  keeping  electric-power-producing 
machinery  vyorking  for  twenty-four  hours  out  of  the  twenty- 
four,  in  place  of  having  the  load,  as  it  is  called,  on 
at  night  time  only,  when  illumination  is  needed:  only 
"Issibfe     ^^''*'°"  ^^  ^  ''^^^P  ^"d   easily    avaOable  supply 

Whether  electric  power  becomes  a  big  factor  in  the  utility 
transport  service  in  the  big  cities,  particularly  for  the  smaller 
classes  of  vehicle,  scarcely  matters  to  the  individual  citizen, 
mnVnr  ;/"i,''?^  ""^^t"  ^^e  growth  in  the  use  of  the  commercial 
hi,  nlr^^  ;/"'^,''^  *'^'  tradesman's  motor  delivery-van, 
be  accelera^te'^  f''"'\'°  T^  proportions,  and  wiU  assuredly 
within  1.  '"'^^■  ^''^'■"•^  °"  the  coming  of  peace,  that 

vea  'Lr,T~''''\^^'^^^'-  f"^  ^^i*«  P^bably  withiA  five 
a  horTe  fn  ,  ^°"^l"^'°'i  "^  the  campaign  the  spectacle  of 
a  horse  m  big  cities  such   as  London,   Birmingham    and 

DetToKr;  "^"  J'';  '"""'^^^  °"  ^'  "^"'^h  as  it  usK'be  in 
Detroit  three  and  four  years  before  the  war  started. 


May  2 ,  1 9 1  8 


Land   &    Water 


43 


THERE  are  occasions  when,  to  mark  appreciation  of  services  rendered,  or  Fto 
commemorate  some  conspicuous  act,  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  presentation 
[  of  substantial  worth. 
The  Goldsmiths  and  Silversmiths  Company's  presentation  services  offer  better  value 
than  is  obtainable  elsewhere,  and  the  choice  is  more  comprehensive. 
A  selection  of  articles  suitable  for  presentation  will  be  forwarded  for  approval, 
carriage  paid,  at  the  Company's  risk,  or  a  catalogue  will  be  posted  free  on  appUcation. 

The  Goldsmiths  &  Silversmiths  Company  have  no  branch  establishments  in  Regent  Street,  Oxford 
Street,  or  elsewhere    in  London  or  abroad    only  one  address,  112  Regent  Street,  London,  W.l. 

THE     ■ 


©LDSMHTIS  &  m 
OMPANY  E? 


wif£  v:>fiicfi  is  incorporated 


112    Regent  Street,  London,  W.l. 


44 


Land    &    Water 


May  2,  1918^ 


iiinuiiiaii 


Suits 
Aviation 

■■■■■■■■WIIIIIIHmiM 

The  *Air-Velope' 

iiiiniMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiH^ 

Built  up  on  entirely 
new  scientific  lines, 
the  details  of  which  we 
shall  make  known 
shortly. 


Positively  cold,   wind, 
and  wet  proof. 


As  sketch,   with  fur    collar, 

£10:10:0    I 


BOBINSON  &  CLEAVER 


^ 


Naval  and  Military  Outfitters, 
156-168  Regent  St., 

London, 

W.I. 

iBiiiiiiiaiiiiiii 


LTD.      m 

m 
m 


iiniiiiiiiiniiiiDiiiiiuiiiiiiDiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuii^^^^ 


TO    HOLD    30    CIGARETTES. 

No.    8S.— PIGSKIN     CIGARETTE     CASE, 

to  hold  30  cigarettes 

No.  89. — Ditto,  superior  quality,  lined 

pigskin       ..        ..  ..        ..SI 

No.  00.— Ditto,     Qgarette     Case     and 
Tobacco  Pouch  


No.  91.— SAM  BROWNE  BELTS.     One  shoulder 
strap.     Best  bridle  leather  ..8250 

Ditto,  stitched  pigskin        ..        ..    83     3     0 


2  6  No.  87. — Non-conosive,  oxi- 
dised, bayonet  top,  plated  inside, 
1 7/6  '"''''*  ^^''  concave  shape,  j-pint. 
37/6 
Ditto,  smaller  sizes,  30/.,  35,'. 
Britannia  Metal,  screw  top,  con- 
cave shape,  (-pint  , ,  15/, 
Ditto,  smaller  sizes. 

8/6  and  1 1/6 


WATER-BOTTLES. 

No.  83. — Nickel  silver  plated 
inside,  non-corrosive,  screw 
top,  rounded  front,  flat  back, 
covered  khaki  doth,  i|  pints 
£16    6 

No.  84. — Ditto,  with  leather 
cradle  carrier  (as  illustrated) 

£1   10     0 
No.  85. — Ditto,  Regulation  i 
pattern,   concaved,  2t  pints   ■ 

£1   12     6 

HAVERSACKS. 

Extra  large  and  strong, 
made  from  an  officer's 
design        ..        ..        17/6 

No.  81.— Ditto,  with  Leather 
Base  ..        ..        27/6 

Detachable  Sling,  2/6  extra. 


Pottagt 


•  Inland  id.    I      , 

.  B.E.F.  lie  )  ""■"• 


Sndfor  NEW  Illustrated  List  of  War  Equipmnt. 


SWAINE    &    ADENEY 


By  ApMnlmrnt  to  H.M.  The  Hint. 


185    PICCADILLY 


LONDON,  W.l. 


Notes  on  Kit 

Leggings 

Some  men  will  tell  you  that  leggings  simply  do  not  matter 
much ;  if  you  want  a  pair,  they  say,  you  just  go  and  get  a 
pair  ;  there  are  two  or  three  sizes — maybe  more,  and  maybe 
less,  but  if  you  get  the  size  that  feels  nearest  to  a  fit  you- 
have  done  the  best  possible — and  there  it  is.  Which  doctrine 
accounts  for  the  remarkable  appearance  of  a  brigadier — no 
less  rank — who  ornamented  Charing  Cross  platform  one 
morning  not  so  long  ago  ;  a  perfect  man  down  to  the  knees, 
but  thence  .  .  .  well,  the  less  said  the  better.  And  it  is 
not  only  confined  to  brigadiers  ;  you  may  find  all  ranks  who 
firml}'  beheve,  judging  by  what  they  wear,  that  the  word 
legging  means  a  funnel  of  leather  designed  to  cover  the  leg, 
and  incapable  of  fitting  it.  A  behef  which  is  in  the  highest 
degree  erroneous. 

If  appearance  were  all,  there  would  be  no  necessit}'  to 
bother,  for  any  man  can  go  on  active  service  and  bother 
not  at  all  about  what  he  looks  like,  so  long  as  he  has  a 
semblance  of  a  uniform  outfit  that  will  save  him  from  being 
taken  for  a  franc-tireur.  But  there  are  the  points  of  hard 
wear,  comfort,  and  efficiency  to  be  taken  into  account,  and 
in  order  to  fill  those  conditions  to  the  fullest  possible  extent 
it  is  just  as  necessary  to  get  a  pair  of  leggings  made  by  a 
man  who  understands  the  job  as  it  is  to  get  a  pair  bf  boots 
made  by  a  reputable  and  capable  bootmaker.  For  the 
reach-me-down  legging  may  come  out  very  well  as  regards 
appeafance,  in  some  cases  ;  but  to  get  perfect  leg-comfort 
it  is  really  necessary  to  get  the  leggings  made  to  measure, 
just  as  it  is  necessary  to  get  boots  made  to  measure.  A  pair 
of  leggings  should  be  so  fitted  that  sleeping  with  them  on 
and  buckled  in  place  is  no  discomfort — which  is  not  an 
attribute  of  ready-made  articles,  unless  one  has  legs  of  the 
exact  "stock"  size  and  shape,  which  very  few  men  have. 
There  are  still  three  or  four  places  in  London  where  speciaUsts 
in  the  build  and  fitting  of  leggings  stiU  exist,  and  to  every 
man  to  whom  the.  need  for  a  new  pair  of  leggings  comes 
once  in  a  while,  the  best  advice  is  that  he  should  betake 
himself  to  one  of  these  establishments  and  get  a  pair  of 
leggings  made  to  fit  him.  If  he  has  not  tried  this  trick 
before,  he  will  very  soon  appreciate  the  difference  between 
made  to  measure  and  chosen  from  stock — and  his  friends 
vvill  appreciate  it,  too. 

A  Waterproof  Welted  Boot 

The  value  of  waterproof  welts  for  boots  lies  in  the  fact 
that,  apart  from  the  wear  on  the  soles  of  boots,  it  is  the 
welts  that  first  give  way  in  the  ordinary  patterns,  since  such 
water  as  penetrates  at  that  point  stays  there — the  crease 
between  sole  and  upper  makes  a  pocket  that  holds  water 
and  permits  it  to  injure  the  leather.  With  these  boots  such 
damage  is  virtually  impossible  ;  the  boots  themselves  are 
waterproof,  in  the  sense  that  they  will  keep  the  wearer's  feet 
dry  under  any  conditions  of  water  and  mud,  and  the  welts 
are  waterproof  in  another  sense,  in  that  they  are  so  con- 
structed that  the  "life"  of  the  boots  is  very  largely  increased, 
since  the  welts  will  not  hold  water  and  permit  of  injury  to  the 
leather  through  holding  it.  To  this  should  be  added  the  fact 
that  the  boots  themselves  are  made  of  leather  which  is  of 
pre-war  quality— not  that  it  has  been  kept  in  stock  since 
pre-war  times,  but  that  it  is  equal  in  quality  to  the  best 
leather  that  used  to  be  obtainable  for  service  footwear.  And 
on  top  of  this  there  is  really  excellent  workmanship  put  into 
these  boots,  which  represent  the  very  best  service  footwear 
obtainable.  You  can  get  these  boots  made  to  measure  if 
necessary,  or,  if  in  a  hurry,  you  can  get  a  pair  to  fit  from 
stock,  and  be  assured  of  genuine  foot  comfort. 

The  Scientific  Water-bottle. 

Since  health  on  service  is  the  first  consideration,  and  a 
supply  of  pure  water  is  one  of  the  first  considerations  in 
regard  to  health,  the  water-bottle  which  forms  its  own  germ- 
proof  filter  is  a  necessity  to  every  man,  and  its  rapidly  growing 
popularity  is  proof  of  its  unique  value.  So  efficient  is  the 
filter  that  the  bottle  may  be  filled  with  sewage,  if  nothing 
else  is  available,  and  still  the  filter  yields  a  drink  of  pure 
water,  germ-free.     Sufficient  tests  have  been  made  to  prove 

THE  LIGHTING  AND  STARTING  of  your  "  After  the  War  " 
car  IS  Its  most  important  feature;  therefore,  let  "CA.V"  advise 
you.— Wnte,  call,  or  'phone  C.  A.  VANDERVELL  &  CO.  (LTD.). 
Electncal  Engineers,  Acton,  London,  W.3.  Telephone:  Chiswick 
2.000  (8  lines). — (Advt.) 

{Cotttinued  on  page  40) 


May  2,  191 8 


Land    6c   Water 


45 


IBde  HAMILTON 

Germ -Proof  Water -Bag 

TAKES  the  place  of  the  old-fashioned,  dirty  water  bottle,  because  it  is  practically  germ-proof 
and  allows  any  kind  of  water  to  be  drunk  with  perfect  impunity. 
It  is  pronounced  by  experts  as  one  of  the  greatest  inventions  of  the  war,  and  should  be  in 
universal  use  by  the  troops. 


THOUSANDS 
OF  VALUABLE 
LIVES  might 
easily  be  saved  by 
its  adoption. 

INVALUABLE 
IN  TROPICAL 
COUNTRIES 
where  the  source 
of  water  supplies 
is  doubtful. 

Ensures  PURE 
WATER  under 
all  conditions  of 
ACTIVE  SER^ 
VICE. 


THE  bags  are  inter- 
lined with  canvas 
to  prevent  wastage  of 
water,  and  also  to  keep 
the  contents  cool. 


THE  bags  fill  very 
rapidly,  and  are 
easily  cleansed.  There 
is  nothing  to  get  out 
of  order.  Stagnant 
water  drawn  from  shell 
craters,  ditches,  or 
wells,  once  it  passes 
through  the  germ- 
proof  filter,  is  freed 
from  all  germs. 


THE  bags  do  not 
have  to  be  tipped 
up  to  drink  from.  The 
water  is  drawn  simply 
bv  suction. 


THE    HAMILTON    WATEB  BAG    FOR    OFFICERS, 

holding  about  one  quart.  Price 

Extra  Filters,  3/6  each. 

The  following  extract  Is  from  the  Editor  of  Land  4  Watir  in  his  kit  article  (March  7th,  1918) : — "  The  design  is  so  very  simple  that  one  wonders, 
on  seeing  the  thing,  why  nobody  thought  of  it  before.  In  the  case  of  the  ordinary  water-bottle,  of  course,  the  first  necessity  is  to  assure  oneself  that 
the  contents  are  pure,  for  otherwise  a  water-bottle  may  become  a  first  class  disease  trap,  warranted  to  hand  out  enteric,  dysentery,  and  other  com- 
forts with  every  drink.  But  you  may  &1I  this  particular  bottle  with  sewage,  if  it  so  please  you,  and  still  get  a  drink  of  germ-free  filtered  water.  .  . 
The  bottle  \i  no  more  trouble  to  fill  than  an  ordinary  bottle,  and  no  more  trouble  to  empty ;  neither  is  it  any  bulkier  or  heavier  than  an  ordinary 
bottle.  It  is,  as  already  remarked,  so  simple  that  it  iii  a  wonder  it  has  gone  undiscovered  so  long,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  safeguards  of 
health  that  the  war  has  seen.  .  .  .  There  has  been  nothing  to  surpass  this  scientifically  designed  water-bottle  in  value  as  a  preservative  of  health 
among  the  troops,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  every  man  proceeding  on  active  service  mil  have  one  of  these  water-bottles  to  take  with  him.'* 


THE  HAMll  KIN  WATER-BAG  for 

ambulani-ta  .umJ    trans-  '7C/ 
port,  holding  two  gals.  tftM/" 
Larger   ^izcs   can   be    supplied. 


THE  HAMILTON  GERM-PROOF  BAG 

has  passed  the  severest  of  tests  at  the 
Bacteriological    Department    of    Guy's. 


A    FULL    DESCRIPTIVE    PAMPHLET    SENT 
FREE  TO  ALL  INTERESTED. 

Obt»ina.ble  from 

ARMY  &  NAVY  STORES,  Ltd. 

HARRODS  STORES. 

FORTNUM  &  MASON. 

SELFRIDGE'S. 

S.  W.  SILVER. 


THE    HAMILTON   CAVALRY 
WATER-BAG,    to    be   earned   as 
shown.     To  hold  two 
gallons        .         -         - 


50/- 


46 


Land   &    Water 


May    2 ,   1 9 1 8 


t^^  THE  ^^  ♦• 


COAT 

The    Outcome    of    Actual 
Trench  Experience. 


A  WATERPROOF 
A  GREAT  COAT 
A  BRITISH  WARM 


m 


One 


Remove  the  Undercoat  and  you  have 
(lor  wet  and  "  muggy  "  dayt)  a  hght  weight 
Rainproof,  guaranteed  rainproof  a{>$olute- 
ly  and  periranenlly. 

READY    for    IMMEDIATE    WEAR 

and  forwarded  on  approval  on  recelpl  of  height, 
chett  measurrnient.  and  remittance,  which  it  at 
once  returned  if  ooat  iinot  kept- 


£5  :  10  :  0 


(With  Oil  Cambric  Interlinin«  sod  Mparate  Fleece 
undercoat-) 

A    testimonial    letter    selected    from 
hundreds  we  can  show  : — 

Auxiliary  HospiUxi for  Qffinrs, 

H'.i  Afrit  %th,  iqmS. 

Sirs,— It  will  interest  yen  to  hear  that  tAe  trench  coal 
f  lined  Kapok ^  t  bought  from  you  last  Novtnbtr  has 
fvoxtd  a  great  success,  t -wort  it  almost  day  and  night 
tkrouehout  last  ninttr  duriitj'  the  fighting  in  the  Italian 
Mountains,  where  the  heavy  snoiv  and  the  slush  and  mud 
.»«  the  foothi!l\  are  very  exacting  cnstomets.  Moreoz'er, 
this  coat  prex-fd  (/rr^  WDJ/ EXIRAOROINARILY  HUOY 
ANT  WHHN  WK  WURE  TORPELh:)E1>  c«  the  way  hcrnr. 
the  sea  -nuter  having  very  little  effect  on  it. 
Yturs  /aithfttUy, 

A.  ft. .  l.Uut .  R.F.A 


City  House  . 

65*61. 

LinWATX  BILL. 

S.O. 


ludBrotk 

"  II1.ILIIJ  H-ii.miJLrrn, 
OXFORD    CIRCUS 

AND 

LUDGATE       HILL. 


ii'e.it  End  House 

221  A  223, 

0X70RD  STREET, 

W. 

(Six  doors  H.  of 

Circus  Tube  Station  /. 


Light  Camping  Outfits 


Extract  from  TRUTH,  October  3rd,  1917. 

"  In  order  to  answer  a  recent  inquiry  from  the  front, 
I  obtained  particulars  of  some  ingenious  devices  for 
mitigating  minor  discomforts  of  camp  life  on  active 
service,  especially  those  of  cold  and  wet  weather  ; 
for  example,  a  practical  weatherproof  tent  that  can 
be  folded  into  a  parcel  small  enough  to  go  into  an 
overcoat  pocket ;  a  waterproof  ground-sheet  weigh- 
ing less  than  1  lb.,  and  a  capital  sleeping  bag  which 
weighs  no  more  than  IJ  lb.  These  are  among  many 
useful  articles  supplied  by  the  LIGHTWEIGHT 
Tent  Co.,  61  High  Holborn,  London,  W.C.I, 
and  I  think  my  Service  readers  may  be  glad  to 
know  of  them."  Write  Dept.  "  L"  for  Lists. 


STORMPROOF 
TRENCHER 

ELVERY'S    STORMPROOF   No.  4  x 

|\  _  Guaranteed  to  resist  the  heaviest  possible 

''     ^  rains.     Fitted  with  belt,  stormcuffs, 

and  deep  collar,  78/-.      Cavalry 

Pattern,  84'-.  Detachable  Fleece 

Linings,  IJ  gns.  extra. 

Thi  "  Slormprncf    is    tiuUy    an   excelUnt 

one.     I  coulti  not  wish /or  better  article  *'out 

/««."— (Specimen  of  letters  received). 

^Iverys  are  replete  will)  all  Waterprool  Kit. 

WATERPROOF  "KNEE  PROTECTORS,"  14/6 

(Just  what's  wanted). 

Riding  Aprons,  16/6:  Waterproof  Gloves  7/6;  Cap 

Covin-s  and  Curtains,  5/6 :    Pocket  Air  Pillows    6/6 ; 

Portable  Batlis,  25/-. 


""e"'785o"""""'-    31  Conduit  St.. 

LONDON.  W. 

(One  door  from 
LKl.    New  Bond  St.) 


I        W^     ^         tst.  1850. 


{Continued  from  page  44) 

that  the  filter  "candle"  needs  only  to  be  sterilised  or  boiled 
once  a  week  to  keep  it  clean  and  free  from  germs,  and  the 
filters  are  interchangeable,  and,  if  necessary,  can  be  used 
apart  from  the  water-bottle,  which,  by  the  way,  is  of  canvas, 
and  is  far  easier  to  fill  than  the  ordinary  bottle.  Another 
valuable  point  is  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  tip  up  the  bottle 
in  order  to  get  a  drink,  and  the  small  bags,  intended  for 
officers  and  men  to  carry,  and  containing  about  the  same 
amount  of  water  as  an  ordinary  water-bottle,  are  no  heavier 
than  any  other  type  of  bottle.  A  larger  size  is  made,  intended 
for  transport  or  horse  carriage,  and  containing  about  two 
gallons  when  filled.  Half  the  value  or  more  of  this  unique 
invention  lies  in  its  absolute  simplicity  ;  that  it  is  extremely 
valuable  is  past  question,  for,  in  ensuring  that  all  the  water 
a  man  drinks  is  filtered,  it  will  prove  the  means  of  saving 
many  lives  in  areas  where  water  is  a  carrier  of  disease.  There 
has,  in  fact,  been  nothing  among  the  innovations  in  kit  and 
equipment  during  the  war  which  will  surpass  this  scienti- 
fically designed  water-bottle  as  a  preservative  of .  health 
among  the  troops  and  a  means  of  saving  life,  and,  inciderttally, 
of  lightening  transport,  since  it  saves  all  necessity  for  purifying 
water  in  bulk  by  rendering  it  possible  for  every  man  to  assure 
for  himself  a  pure  supply. 

The  Sleeping  Bag- 
Some  thousands  of  British  and  Allied  officers  have  proved, 
what  has  been  asserted  in  these  columns  more  than  once,  that 
the  kapok-lined  sleeping  bag  and  valise  is  not  only  an  improve- 
ment on  the  old-time  "Wolseley,"  but  is  one  of  the  really 
important  advances  in  the  design  of  military  equipment 
made  in  recent  years.  Although  attention  has  been  drawn 
to  the  design  of  this  bag  many  times,  yet  certain  folk  must 
still  be  ignorant  of  its  advantages,  for  inquiries  still  come  in 
as  to  its  design  and  superiority  over  other  kinds.  Briefly, 
its  value  lies  in  the  fact  that  without  a  single  blanket  it  is  as 
warm  as  a  Wolseley  with  two  or  more  blankets,  and  it  is  of 
far  less  weight  than  the  Wolseley  pattern  without  any  blankets, 
while  it  is  always  ready  for  use  as  a  sleeping  bag,  and  the  kit 
is  always  packed — the  system  of  "throw-off"  pockets  for 
carriage  of  kit  renders  it  unnecessary  to  unpack  anything 
when  the  bag  is  required  for  sleeping  in.  This  means  an 
enormous  saving  of  time  and  trouble,  as  very  little  experi- 
ence is  sufficient  to  prove.  Moreover,  the  bag  is  waterproof, 
obviating  the  need  of  a  ground-sheet  or  waterproof  outer 
covering  of  any  kind.  It  is  a  big  aid  to  comfort  and  efficiency, 
and  it  means  a  substantial  reduction  in  the  weight  of  a  kit 
without  any  sacrifice  of  warmth  or  waterproof  quahties.  It 
is  the  ideal  sleeping  bag  and  valise  for  active  service  work, 
and  for  all  arms  of  the  service. 

Helmet  Linings 

The  "tin  hat"  is  not  a  comfortable  article  of  wear  at  best, 
and  the  introduction  of  an  adapting  hning  is  about  the  only 
means  of  rendering  it  less  uncomfortable — for  the  "issue" 
lining  is  productive  of  headaches  and  fatigue,  owing  to  bad 
ventilating  properties  and  lack  of  cusliioning  for  the  helmet. 
It  is  perfectly  easy  to  fit  this  adapting  lining  to  any  steel  helmet, 
and  by  means  of  the  lining  it  is  possible  to  make  the  helmet 
a  fit  on  the  head,  without  in  any  way  detracting  from  the 
efficiency  of  the  helmet  itself.  You  simply  take  out  the 
"is.sue"  hning,  and  put.the  adapter  Hning  in  its  place,  and  the 
result  is  perfect  ventilation,  together  with  a  series  of  rubber 
cushions  that  minimise  any  blow  or  shock  to  the  helmet 
itself,  transmitting  only  a  very  small  effect  from  the  shock 
to  the  wearer's  head.  More  especially  in  summer  weather  is 
this  adapting  lining  of  value,  for  the  weight  of  the  helmet 
renders  ventilation  essential,  and  the  design  of  this  hning 
ensures  perfect  ventilation.  A  point  worth  noring  is  that,  in 
getting  the  lining,  it  is  possible  to  get  just  as  good  a  fit  as  if 
one  were  ordering  a  field  serwce  cap,  and  the  adapting 
cushions  render  that  hning  a  fit  in  any  helmet.  The  hning 
was  introduced  very  soon  after  the  helmet  itself  came  into 
use  for  active  service  work,  and  it  has  proved  its  value  among 
a  sufficient  number  of  the  wearers  of  these  helmets  to  ensure 
itself  a  permanent  place  in  campaigning  equipment ;  as  long 
as  there  is  need  for  a  steel  helmet  the  use  of  these  linings  is 
bound  to  increase  as  their  value  becomes  known. 


And  at  Eleph.int  House.  Dublin  and  Cork. 


The  Hymans  Pocket  Range-Finder,  described  in  this  column  in  our 
issftie  of  August  loth,  1916,  has  met  with  very  great  appreciation,  and 
has  now  been  supplied  to  some  thousands  of  officers.  It  is  the  simplest 
and  most  accurate  pocket  instrument  made,  taking  the  range  of  any 
object  within  2  per  cent,  in  a  few  minutes.  The  price  complete  in 
leather  belt-case  is  l^.  Descriptive  pamphlet  free  from  manufacturer. 
— Chas    Hymans  (Dept.  T.),  St.  Andrews'  Street,  Cambridge. 


May   2 ,    1 9 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


47 


The  American  :  Gee-whiz !    Some  class  to  that  Dope- 
Stick.      What's    its   nom-de-plume  ? 

The  Canadian  :  This  is  a  new  6-cylinder  go  horse- 
power stunt  — ARMY  CLUB 
CIGARETTES.      Get   wise,    sonny. 


'CAVANDERS'  ABMY  CLUB" 
CIGARETTES. 

Sold  Everywhere. 


CAVANDERS   LTD. 

LundoD 
and  Glasgow. 


^c^Tomtd^Qj 


Officer's    Regulation    Kit    Bag. 

Best    Brown     Waterproof   Canvas,     Leather    Straps,    Strong     Lock, 
size  36'  by   18"  by   14" 


74/6 


Best    Sheffield    Steel 
Campaign    Knives. 


12/6         15/6 

As  Illustration 


21/. 

3S/6 

Engraving  Name  and  Regiment 

•     3/6 
Postage,  Expeditionary  Forces,  if. 


SAM     BROWNE    BELTS 

MILITARY    KIT     BAGS 

WOLSELEY    VALISES 

MAP    CASES 

COMPRESSED     FIBRE     TRUNKS 

FANCY    LEATHER    GOODS 


Bro^vn    tlide    Fitted    Attache    Case, 

Strongly  Sewn,  Loose  Blotter. 

14"   52/6  16"    60/- 

«  Best  Quality. 

14     70/.  16'    80^ 


Ne^^    Combinatiun 
Cigarette   and    Note    Case. 

Loose  Fold  for  Treasury  Notes.  P.  cl<ets 
for  Cheque  Book,  Cards  and  Stamps. 

Pigskin  or  Calf  ...'         ...     27/6 

Fine  Seal :..      38/6 

Postage,  Expeditionary  Force-^,  gd. 

Stamping  Name  and  Regiment...     3/6 


POSTAL   ORDERS  receive  careful 
and  prompt  attention 


"  ActiTC     Service"     Wrist 
Watch. 

Illuminated     H&nds    and     Figures, 
best  Lever  Movement    ...     42/6 
Postage,  Expediti-.nary  Forces,  gd. 


268-270     OXFORD    STREET,   W.   1 

187  REGENT  STREET.  W^  1  67  PICCADILLY.  W.  1 

177-178  TOTTENHAM  COURT  ROAD.  W.   1 

81-84   Leadenhall    St.,  LONDON,  E.G.  3 


4« 


Land   &    Water 


May  2,  191 8 


Beautifying  Barbara. 

By  Mimosa. 

How  a  Plain  Girl  was  Made  Pretty. 

Barbara  had  always  been  considered  tlic  ugly  duckling  of  the 
family,  and  certainly  no  one  would  have  voted  her  attractive 
the  day  she  called  on  me,  and  told  me  how  tired  she  was  of  being 
classed  amongst  the  dull  and  uninteresting  women  of  her  set. 

To  tell  the  truth.  Barbara  had  fallen  in  love,  and  was  anxious, 
as  she  had  never  been  before,  to  appear  at  her  best.  She  wasn't 
a  flapper  ;  she  was  twenty-eight,  but  there  were  possibilities  in 
her,  and  I  promised  her  that  if  she  would  follow  my  advice 
carefully,  she  wouldn't  recognise  lier  own  reflection  in  the 
mirmr  in  a  month's  time. 

Her  Complexion. 

VVitli  a  good  complexion  the  plainest  features  look  attractive, 
but  Barbara's  unfortunately  left  much  to  be  desired.  It  was 
muddy,  and  there  were  blackheads  around  the  nose  and  mouth, 
caused,  I  think,  through  using  impure  toilet  soaps.  For  the 
dull  muddy  look  I  made  her  rub  a  little  pure  mercolised  wax 
gently  into  the  face  and  neck  every  night,  leaving  on  the  skin 
till  the  next  morning.  This  very  gently  and  imperceptibly 
peeled  off  all  the  dead,  dull  outer  cuticle,  leaving  the  fresh 
young  complexion  underneath,  and  giving  her  a  skin  as  clear 
and  fresh  as  a  baby's.  The  blackheads  were  soon  removed.  A 
stymol  tablet  was  dissolved  in  hot  water,  and  the  face  bathed 
and  gently  dried.  After  two  applications,  all  signs  of  the 
blackheads  had  disappeared. 

Beautifying  Her  Hair. 

Barbara  had  a  fairly  good  head  of  liair.  but  it  had  been  verv 
much  neglected.  I  don't  know  what  she  had  shampooed  it 
with,  but  it  certainly  wasn't  the  right  stuff,  for  her  hair  was  dull 
and  lifeless  without  the  bright  Ughts  it  should  have  possessed  ; 
there  was  no  wave  in  it,  and  it  appeared  to  be  falling  out  rather 
more  than  was' natural. 

So  I  made  her  get  some  stallax  at  the  chemists,  and  give  it  a 
good  shampoo.  A  stallax  shampoo  leaves  the  hair  soft,  silky, 
and  glossy,  and  no  rinsing  is  necessary.  After  one  shampoo  a 
most  marked  improvement  could  be  noticed,  and  by  the  time 
Barbara  had  used  it  three  times,  with  an  interval  of  a  fortnight 
between  each  shampoo,  you  would  not  have  recognised  it  as  the 
same  head  of  hair.  Then,  to  stop  the  fall,  I  advised  her  to  get 
two  ounces  of  boranium,  and  mix  it  with  water  and  a  little 
bay  rum.  This  she  dabb#d  into  the  roots  every  night,  and  it 
not  only  stopped  the  fall,  but  gave  the  hair  great  vitality. 

A  Uttle  Colour  to  the  Cheeks.  ' 

Barbai"a  is  one  of  those  giils  wlio  are  much  improved  by  a 
little  colour,  in  the  ,cheeks,  but  unfortunately  she  has  none 
naturally.  So  I  suggested  that  she  should  get  some  coUiandum 
and  apply  a  very  little  to  the  cheeks  with  a  small  piece  of  cotton 
wool.  The  most  critical  observer  cannot  detect  that  a  colour 
given  by  this  method  is  not  natural,  for  this  wonderful  powder 
isjjust  the  correct  tint,  and  has  an  advantage  which  no  other 
artificial  colour  has — it  deepens  slightly  in  a  warm  atmosphere, 
and  thus  appears  absolutelv  natural. 


Famoui  for  Jill-round  Excellence  0/  Materials, 
Design  and   Worl^mamhip. 


BREECHES 


BY 

WEST  &  SON 

THie  work,  of  Expert  Breeches  Makers 

whom  long  association    and   experience 

have   mode  perfect. 

Built  on  lines  that  permit  the  utmost 
freedom  witliout  unnecessary  folds, 
the  increased  comfort  when  riding 
IS  most  marked — the  avoidance  also 
of  strain  or  drag  .it  any  point  sub- 
stantially prolongs  the  wearing 
quaUties  of  the  Breeches. 

Corduroys       -  £313s.6d. 
Bedford  Cords  &  I  «,  ,    f.. 
^cuatptu^.  Cavalry   Twills  r    *^-"^' 

The  laigest  Stocks  0/  Breeches  Cloths  in  Hie  Country. 
PATTERNS    AND     PRICE     LIST     BY    RETURN. 


WEST  &  SON  L™ 


•  FIELD 
HOUSE 

Telegrams ; 


Tiegimental    Tailors 
Outfitters, 


and 


HOUSE.   152  NEW  BOND  STREET,  LONDON,  W.l 


'  Westcanad,  Wesdo,  London.' 


'Phone  :  Mayfair  876. 


Household  Notes 

W  Names  and  addresses  of  shops,  ivhcre  the  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  ivill  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  post  card 
addressed  to  Passe-Partout,  Land  &  Water,  5  Chancery 
Lane,  W.C.2.     Any  other  information  will  be  given  on  request. 


Watch  Your 
Lights 


Having  grappled  with  the  difficul- 
ties of  food  rations,  it  is  now  in- 
cumbent on  the  householder  to 
give  careful  attention  to  the  electric 
light  consumed,  for  drastic  penalties  are  to  be  inflicted  on  the 
spendthrifts  of  light. 

At  a  Uttle  party  given  last  week  for  some  American  officers 
and  for  some  of  our  "woundeds,"  the  hostess  achieved 
economy  by  receiving  her  guests  in  the  customary  lighting 
of  her  room,  and  then  in  half  an  hour  turning  out  all  save 
two  electric  lights  ;  rather  a  twilight  effect  was  the  conse- 
quence, and  not  too  exhilarating.  It  is  therefore  delightful 
to  think  that  in  the  future  such  economy  is  made  unnecessary 
by  the  use  of  the  "Halo" — a  luminous  circle — which  one 
of  the  most,  enterprising  of  firms  has  lately  put  upon  the 
market.  It  is  easily  fixed  to  any  electric  lamp,  and  ensures 
an  efficient  and  even  distribution  of  light.  The  "Halo 
Reflector"  has  been  tested  by  the  National  Physical  Labora- 
tory, and  has  been  proved  to  increase  the  light  six  times. 

Besides  its  utilitarian  virtues,  it  has  other  attractions, 
for  it  casts  no  shadows  and  does  not  interfere  with  tlie 
use  of  fancy  shades.  The  cost  of  the  "  Halo  "  is  so  small — 
only  three  shillings — that  it  is  a  purchase  to  be  highly 
recommended. 

Not  yet  is  it  woman's  role  to  be  in 

To    L)ery    the       the    trenches,     but    every    woman 

Wet  values    the    possession    of    a    really 

good   waterproof,    and    there   is    an 

opportunity  to  acquire  one  at  a  figure  which  for  cheapness 

and  quality  stands  comparison  with  pre-war  goods. 

The  designer  was  determined  to  defy  more  than  a  mere 
shower,  for  it  is  called  "the  Ai  Stormproof,"  and  has  many 
little  devices  to  keep  out  the  wet — in  the  special  tab  at  the 
front  hem,  in  the  design  of  the  collar,  which  can  be  worn  in 
three  ways,  and  in  the  reversible  cuff.  The  belt  is  adjustable, 
and  also  detachable,  and  when  the  "Stormproof"  is  rolled 
up  it  serves  as  a  strap-sling  by  which  to  carry  it.  Very  light, 
yet  untearable,  it  costs  35s.  6d.,  and  is  kept  in  fifteen  different 
sizes  ;  and  a  little  pull-over  cap  to  match,  at  los.  6d.,  com- 
pletes a  real  storm  outfit. 


The  Ideal  Wra 


It  takes  many  "mickles  to  make  a 

muckle,"  and  so  also  it  takes  many 

r     different  sorts  of  raiment  to  make  a 

good     wardrobe ;      and     for     the 

treacherous  spring-time  there  is  a  "mickle"  that  should  not 

be  forgotten. 

Anyone  who  has  seen  a  Burleigh  coat,  however,  would  not 
forget  it.  Here  is  the  ideal  wrap,  warm,  yet  light,  ample  in 
proportions,  and  all  that  a  "surtout"  should  be,  for  the 
fullness  is  confined  by  a  belt  of  its  own  material,  fastened  by 
a  leather  buckle.  The  splendid  storm  collar  is  very  adapt- 
able, and  can  be  worn  up  or  down. 

In  tweeds,  the  Burleigh  coat  costs  y\  gns.,  and  there  is  a 
larger  selection  Of  checks,  stripes,  and  plain  materials  to 
choose  from,  while  for  10  gns.  it  is  carried  out  in  angolas 
and  Shetlands,  in  serges,  and  home-spuns — and,  again,  in 
white  blanket  it  is  most  desirable  for  those  days  that  are 
cold  yet  sunny. 

--p      (,  ,  French  women  have  always  shown 

1  O    bave    the        a  preference  for  coloured  cloths  for 
Laundry  the    breakfast    table,    for,    with    a 

moderate  income  and  a  bonne  d 
tout  faire,  no  extravagance  could  be  permitted  that  entailed 
extra  work  at  the  wash-tub.  The  difficulty  experienced  in 
getting  laundry  work  well  done  since  the  war  has  popu- 
lansed  the  coloured  tablecloth  in  England,  and  many  pur- 
chasers are  seeking  for  something  that  is  not  white— and 
they  have  not  far  to  seek. 

A  very  pretty  rep  washing  cloth  has  lately  been  intro- 
duced m  a  variety  of  colours,  green,  pink,  and  blue,  and, 
hke  the  damask  tablecloth  of  former  days,  it  has  a  border 
m  a  stencil  design  in  white.  The  blue,  an  Oriental  shade,  is 
most  attractu-e,  and  would  look  particularly  well  on  the 
dmmg-room  table  where  the  dinner-service  is  of  blue  and. 
white  ;  and  all  the  colours  are  the  same  price,  which  is 
regulated  by  the  size  of  the  tablecloth,  beginning  at  8s  11  d. 
for  a  cloth  a  yard  by  a  yard  and  a  half,  to  i8s.  iid.  for  one 
measunng  2  yards  by  3  yards.  Passe-Partout. 


-i' 


LAND  &  WATER 

Vol    T  YYT        Ko'  onti        r  ^aru -\  TT-TTTPSFJAY     MAY    n     miR  rREGisTERED  asi      published  weekly 

vol.  l^AAl.      INo.  2922.      LyearJ  inUKSiJAI,    IVJAI    9,    1918  [^    newspaperJ      price   ninejence 


The    Ration    Carrier 

By   Kric   Kennington,  an  Official  Artist  at  the  Front 


Land   &  Water 


May  9,  19 18 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  i   HOLBORN    2828 

THURSDAY,  MAY  9,  1918. 

Contents 


PAGE 

Tlie  Ration  Carrier.     By  Eric  Kenningtoli  i 

The  Outlook  2 

Victory  of  April  29tli.     By  H.  Belloc  3 

Tlic  Turkish  Conspiracy.     By  Henry  Morgenthau  7 

Zeebriigge.     (Cartoon.)     By  Raemaekers  10  and  11 

Mconnniy  in  the  Grand  Fleet.     By  Lewis  R.  Freeman  12 

Climax  of  Two  Oreat  Wars.     By  J.  Holland  Rose  i^] 

The  Tree  in  the  Pool.     (A  Sketch)  15 

American  Literature.     By  J.  C.  Squire  16 

The  Royal  Academy.     By  Charles  Marriott  17 

Corporal  Grim.  \'.C.     \W  F.  Willev  Turner  18 

The  North  Countrie.     (Illustrated')     By  H.  R.  S.  .          19 

Household  Notes  22 

Notes  on  Kit  xi 


T 


The  Outlook 


THE  long  lull  which  has  occurred  in  tlie  German 
Offensive  since  the  signal  victory  of  Monday, 
the  2qth  ultimo,  is  the  outstancUng  event  of  the 
week.  To  what  e.xtent  tliis  victory  contributed 
to  the  lull  it  is  impossible  to  say,  nor  is  it  possible 
to  forecast  the  immediate  future,  for  the  initiative  still  rests 
with  the  enemy.  But  the  Allied  position  is  favourable,  and 
the  heavy  losses  which  have  been  inflicted  on  the  enemy 
are  to  our  good.  The  battle  may  break  out  again  with 
increased  fury  at  any  moment,  but  to  the  north  of  the  line 
the  German  command  has  found  it  daily  more  difficult  to 
assemble  for  the  attfvck  owing  to  the  increased  strength  of 
the  Allied  gun-power.  Heavy  weather  has  militated  against 
the  air  force,  but  whenever  the  atmosphere  has  cleared  for 
a  few  hours,  full  advantage  has  been  t;ik(>ii.  and  our^^nperinritv 
in  the  air  has  been  maintained. 

«  *  * 

The  position  in  Austro-Hungary  is  obviousl}'  critical,  for 
only  under  most  severe  pressure  would  consent  have  been 
given  to  the  Northern  Tyrol  being  joined  to  Bavaria,  and 
the  German  districts  of  Northern  Bohemia  to  Saxony  "for 
purposes  of  food  supply."  This  virtual  dismemberment  of 
Austria,  even  for  temporary  reasons,  would  never  have  been 
allowed,  could  it  ha\'e  been  avoided,  for  the  hand  does  not 
go  back  upon  the  dial,  and  a  precedent  has  been  estabhshed 
which  Germany  will  not  hesitate  to  make  use  of  at  the  first 
favourable  opportunity.  According  to  the  Hague  corre- 
spondent of  The  Times,  the  German  peoples  in  these  districts 
directly  appealed  to  Germany,  and  a  resolution  addressed 
to  the  Austrian  Emperor  was  passed  by  them  in  which  it 
was  stated  :  "Should  we  find  no  help  in  our  State,  we  have 
no  alternative  save  recourse  to  oud  German  brothers  in  the 
German  Empire,  and  we  know  that  Germapj-  never  for- 
sakes her  sons."  This  comes  dangerously  near  to  revolution, 
and  if  revolution  against  the  Hapsburgs  starts  among  their 
German  subjects,  where  is  it  to  end  ?  Moreover,  the  food 
crisis  will  only  reach  its  worst  at  the  end  of  this  month. 
■II  *  * 

Ukraine,  which  was  to  have  proved  a  land  of  Goshen,  is 
now^  found  to  be  as  naked  as  the  wilderness.  The  Rada, 
which  concluded  peace,  has  been  dissolved  by  force  of  German 
arms,  because  it  was  found  not  to  have  been  representative. 
It  was  sufficiently  representative  for  signing  a  peace  treatv. 
but  directly  it  stood  between  its  own  people  and  starvation, 
and  strove  to  prevent  wholesale  pillage,  it  was  destroyed. 
A  military  governor  has  now  been  appointed  at  Kieff ; 
obviously,  his  duty  is  to  collect,  at  any  cost,  the  last  sack  of 
grain  from  the  peasants.  The  Ukraine  is  to  be  treated  as 
though  it  were  another  Belgium,  and  even  so,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  it  will  save  the  food  situation. 

«  *  * 

The  Prime  Minister  is  certainly  a  busy  man,  possibly  a 
tired  man,  therefore  one  must  not  read  his  conversational 
remarks  too  strictly  according  to  the  letter.  But  we  do 
consider  he  would  be  well-advised  to  speak  either  less  or 


more.  The  following,  for  instance,  requires  explanation, 
though  it  would  have  been  better  left  unsaid.  It  refers  to 
Mr.  Lloyd  George's  recent  visit  to  the  VVestem  front ;  last 
Saturday  he  told  an  interlocutor  that  he  had  seen  there  "a 
very  large  number  of  regimental  officers  and  soldiers"  : 

I  met  no  pacifists  and  no  pessimists  among  them.  They 
could  not  in  the  least  imderstand  the  wrangles  in  certain 
quarters  in  England,  which  seemed  to  proceed  on  the 
assumption  that  they  had  been  defeated  and  that  the  only 
question  of  importance  was  as  to  who  was  to  blame. 

Naturally,  they  could  not  understand  wrangles  about  whether 
or  not  they  had  been  defeated.  No  more  can  we  at  home, 
for,  to  the  best  of  our  belief,  such  wrangles  have  not  occurred. 
There  have  been  questionings  whether  the  War  Cabinet 
sufficiently  supported  the  generals  at  the  front  and  gave 
them  all  the  men  they  asked  for  ;  and  as  there  has  been 
considerable  misgivings  on  these  points,  it  has  been  suggested 
that  the  armies  may  have  been  placed  in  a  position  in  which 
defeat  were  possible.  But  this  is  a  totally  different  matter. 
Was  the  Ij'rime   Minister  referring  to    these    questionings  ? 

*  =f!  * 

It  is  one  thing  to  be  careless  in  con\ersation,  tut  another 
matter  for  the  Prime  Minister  or  his  colleagues  in  the  War 
Cabinet  to  make  statements  in  the  House  which  are  not  in 
accordance  with  fact.  Major-General  Maurice's  letter  to  the 
Press  on  Tuesday  makes  this  indictment.  It  is  a  very 
temperate  letter,  and  its  sincerity  is  indisputable.  This  is  a 
question  for  Parliament  to  settle,  in  the  first  place,  and  the 
people  afterwards.  No  Government  can  be  tolerated  which 
permits  itself  to  colour  its  deliberate  statements  on  the  war 
in  order  to  suit  its  own  purposes. 

*  *  * 

The  unconquerable  spirit  of  the  British  Army  has  never 
been  displayed  to  nobler  advantage  than  during  the  last 
six  weeks.  In  the  vast  hurly-burly  of  a  modern  battle, 
extending  over  days,  it  is  all  but  impossible  to  put  the  finger 
down  and  say:  "Here  was  another  Thermopylae,  here  a 
second  Agincourt,"  but  we  know-  that  these  historic  fights 
have  been  constantly  repeated  by  the  AUied  armies  in  the 
field  during  these  grey  days  of  spring.  How  can  there  be 
pessimism  in  the  face  of  such  achievements  ?  And  there 
has  been  Zeebriigge,  where  the  only  trouble  was  to  select 
volunteers  for  that  most  hazardous  and  daring  exploit. 
Flight  times  the  number  would  have  gladly  stormed  the 
Mole,  had  it  been  possible  to  convey  them  there.  Knowing 
as  all  do  nowadays,  the  true  significance  of  complete  military 
victory  over  the  enemy,  who  can  be  a  pacifist,  when  such 
splendid  evidence  has  been  forthcoming  that  victory  is 
within  our  grasp  if  we  endure  ? 

*  *  * 

At  time  of  writing.  Sir  Hugh  Trenchard's  reappointment  in 
the  Royal  Air  Force  has  not  been  announced.  Every  day 
he  remains  unemployed  is  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  country. 
Sir  William  Weir  has,  no  doubt,  found  his  time  much  occupied 
in  pouring  oil  on  the  needlessly  troubled  waters,  but  General 
Trenchard  should  be  back  at  work  with  the  least  possible 
delay.  His  services  cannot  be  indefinitely  suspended  without 
giving  rise  to  all  kinds  of  undesirable  nimours. 

*  *  * 

Will  Lord  French  l>e  an  acceptable  Viceroy  of  Ireland  ? 
In  his  long  adventurous  life,  he  has  never  entered  on  a  greater 
adventure.  Being  an  Irishman  by  birth  is  to  his  advantage  ; 
being  a  soldier  by  training  may  or  may  not  prove  a  benefit. 
At  any  rate,  circumstances  have  compelled  him  frequently 
to  form  quick  decisions  in  arduous  affairs.  And  in  Mr. 
Shortt  he  has  a  Chief  Secretary  of  whom  all  men  speak  well. 
It  is  difficult  to  formulate  any  opinion  on  the  future  of  Ireland 
until  the  Home  Rule  Bill  is  drafted,  beyond  this  :  That, 
bad  as  the  outlook  is  to-day,  it  must  needs  be  worse  if  vagilla- 
tion  and  hesitancy  prevail.  Courage,  resolution,  and 
sincerity  are  the  essential  qualities  ;  but,  unfortunately,  they 
are  the  very  qualities  which  have  been  at  a  considerable 
discount  in  the  poHtical  life  of  this  comitrv  for  years  past. 
We  can  hope  that  for  once  they  mav  not  be  absent,  for 
I  the   Irish   question    has   to  be   settled"  now   or   hereafter. 

*  *  * 

The  narrative  of  Mr.  Henry  Morgenthau,  American 
Amba,ssador  at  Constantinople,  1913-6,  begins  in  L.tXD  and 
W.\TER  this  week  with  graphic  character  sketches  of  the 
leading  players  in  the  Turkish  conspiracy.  Mr.  Morgenthau 
gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  war  would  probably  have 
ended  a  few  months  after  the  battle  of  the  Marne  if  turkey 
had  not  joined  the  enemy.  The  change  in  the  balance  of 
power  brought  about  by  this  event  was  so  immense  and  far- 
reachmg  that  one  lias  to  watch  the  drama  unfold  in  order  to 
realise  the  full  truth.  Mr.  Morgenthau  has  an  accomplished 
pen,,  and  brings  events  vividly  before  the  reader's  mind. 


May  9,  191  8 


Land    &    Water 


The  Victory   of  April  29th  :  By  H.  Belloc 


THE  great  action  of  Monday,  April  29th,  is  not 
only  of  the  highest  interest  in  itself  as  an  example 
of  the  defensive  nt^w  organised  by  the  Allies,  but 
also  because  it  exhibits  much  more  clearly  than 
usual  the  general  scheme  of  the  war  in  its  present 
phase,  the  play  of  the  offensive  against  the  defensive,  the 
calculation  of  each  party,  and  the  measure  of  success  which 
each  is  obtaining  towards  these  contrasted  objects. 

So  far  as  this  large  aspect  of  the  great  German  offensive, 
as  a  whole,  is  concerned,  what  we  have  to  note  is  this  : — 

The  action  of  April  29th  came  at  the  end  of  a  long  series 
which  in  their  entirety  may  be  called  the  second  phase  of 
the  great  offensive. 

Whether  it  is  the  close  of  that  phase  or  no,  only  the  future 
can  tell  us  ;  whether  the  enem\''s  action  will  develop  a  third 
phase  many  have  asked  but  none  can  pretend  to  answer, 
and  the  attempt  to  answer  it,  which  has  been  made  in  so 
many  sections  of  the  Press,  is  quite  futile.  The  enemy  has 
and  retains  the  initiative  as  well  as  the  offensive,  and  that 
will  remain  the  position  inevitably  until  a  certain  point  of 
exnaustion  is  reached,  which  it  is  the  whole  object  of  the 
defensive  to  provoke  by  the  infliction  of  superior  losses. 

The  enemy  may  use  that  initiative  of  his  to  spin  out  the 
process,  or  he  may  attempt  once  more,  with  the  remaining 
fresh  troops  he  has  in  hand,  to  snatch  a  decision  in  one  blow. 
He  may  have  it  in  mind  that  the  defensive  will  crumble  if  he 
continues  a  succession  of  strong  local  attacks,  any  one  of 
which  may  give  him  some  useful  point  in  ground,  such  as  a 
jx)rt,  or  some  sharp  advantage  in  numbers  by  a  local  break- 
down upon  the  other  side  with  a  corresponding  capture  of 
prisoners.  He  may,  on  the  other  hand,  prefer  to  mass  for 
one  more  great  concerted  action  upon  the  largest  scale  still 
open  to  him — with  the  use,  say,  of  thirty  or  forty  divisions 
at  once,  e.g.,  between  Albert  and  Arras. 

Not  only  do  we  not  know  in  the  least  which  of  these  two 
general  ideas  will  guide  the  future  :  he  himself  does  not 
know.  The  successive  accidents  of  a  battle  control  and 
perpetually  modify  military  policy.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  fixed  plan  governing  an  action  save  in  the  rare  cases 
where  an  action  is  immediately  successful.  Upon  the  con- 
trary, the  great  bulk  of  military  operations  in  history  hava 
consisted  in  a  series  of  steps,  each  moulded  by  the  result 
of  the  last. 

Even  the  vague  and  doubtful  indications  obtainable  from 
the  result  of  actions  alone  are  subject  to  a  supreme  political 
modification  which  again  we  cannot  judge ;  the  pressure 
exercised  upon  the  German  Government  by  the  economic 
strain  its  civihan  population  suffers  and  by  the  judgment  of 
the  great  money  power  in  such  centres  as  Frankfort  and 
'Hamburg. 

The  past,  however,  is  open  to  us  ;  and,  as  I  have  said,  we 
there  essentially  distinguish  two  phases  so  far  in  the  great 
German  offensive  of  1918.  1 

The  first  phase  was  the  attempt — very  nearly  successful, 
and  though  unsuccessful,  giving  an  immense  advantage  in 
prisoners  and  material— to  separate  the  French  and  the  British 
armies  and  to  roll  up  the  latter.  This  phase  opened  upon 
March  21st,  and  continued  for  ten  days.  At  its  close  the 
enemy  found  that  he  had  failed  to  create  a  permanent  gap. 
He  was  held,  but  he  had  taken  so  many  prisoners  that  the 
definitive*  losses  on  his  opponent's  side  nearly  balanced  his 
own.  He  had  captured  an  enormous  amount  of  material ;  he 
had  compelled  a  fraction  of  the  Allied  reserve  to  be  thrown 
in  to  save  the  situation.  He  had  put  himself  very  near  vital 
points  on  the  lateral  communications  of  the  Allies-^notably 
Amiens.  What  was  almost  as  important  from  his  point  of 
view,  he  had  destroyed  and  overrun  most  of  the  permanent 
defences  on  the  northern  part  of  the  Western  front,  and  had 
created  a  war  of  movement :  slow  and  partial,  but  still  a 
war  of  movement. 

Under  such  circumstances,  he  inaugurated  the  second 
phase  of  his  offensive.  The  mark  of  this  second  phase  has 
been  the  use  of  smaller  groups  upon  narrower  fronts  ;  each 
such  attack  being  designed  to  perpetuate  the  war  of  move- 
ment, to  compel  furtlier  fractions  of  the  detached  Allied 
reserve  to  be  thrown  in  ;  and  to  compel  these  fresh  troops 
to  very  long  journeys  round  the  outside  of  a  great  salient  by 
comnuinications  which  were  far  lengthier  than  his  own. 

•  By  "  definitive  losses  "  we  mean  losses  that  are  never  replaced  :  The 
d'/ad,  mutilated,  and  prisoners  ;  as  contrasted  with  gross  01  total  losses 
which  include  sick  and  wounded  of  all  kinds  as  well.  Ol  the  latter,  a 
J.trge  proportion  ultimately  return  to  the  ranks. 


The  greatest  and  most  successful  of  his  operations  in  this 
second  phase,  as  well  as  the  smallest  or  least  successful, 
have  all  this  mark  in  common  :  that  they  are  local  instead  of 
general ;  deliberately  dispersed  so  that  the  whole  hne  may 
be  shaken  by  various  widely  separated  blows  ;  and  designed 
each,  first,  to  put  a  further  "drain  upon  the  AlHed  reserves  in 
men,  secondly,  to  try  the  chances  of  considerable  local  results 
-psuch  as  {a)  the  production  of  confusion  and  consequent 
superior  loss  to  the  defensive,  (b)  the  production  of  salients, 
e.g.,  Bethune,  Messines,  which  can  be  reduced  by  further 
pressure,  (c)  the  occupation  of  points  of  ground  valuable  for 
further  action,  e.g.,  the  plateau  of  Villers-Brettoneux,  or 
valuable  in  themselves  as  military  assets,  e.g.,  the  port  of 
Dunkirk. 

It  is  further  obvious  that  if  any  one  of  these  local  blows 
of  the  second  phase  prove  unexpectedly  successful,  the 
result  can  be  rapidly  used  for  exercising  pressure  at  once 
against  the  wounded  sector  of  the  Allied  defensive  line  and 
perhaps  achieving  an  unexpectedly  great  result. 

The  Enemy's  Policy 

So  stated,  the  enemy's  policy,  of  which  he  has  the  full 
initiative,  is  not  only  simple  but,  apparently,  wholly  and 
necessarily  to  his  advantage.  So  stated,  it  is  the  action  of  a 
mere  conqueror  who  is  methodically  proceeding  with  his 
conquest  ;  and  that  is  the  light  in  which  the  German  mihtary 
writers  are  treating  this  second  phase.  That  is  the  way  in 
which  the  German  Press  is  expected  to  regard  it,  and  does 
for  the  most  part  usually  regard  it.  We  have  such  phrases 
as :  "Victory  in  the  West  at  short  date  is  now  inevitable." 
"The  conclusion  is  now  foregone."  "The  repeated  blows 
against  the  English  and  their  repeated  breakdown  compel 
the  exhausted  French  to  use  up  the  last  of  their  resources." 
"We  strike  where  we  will,  when  we  will,  and  always  in  the 
successful  pursuit  of  a  methodical  plan,"  etc. 

The  counter-part,  however,  to  that  point  of  view,  the  thing 
not  said  on  the  German  side,  and  yet  the  thing  which  makes  all 
the  difference,  is  the  expense  of  men  multiplied  by  the  effect 
of  time. 

^  Suppose  this  policy  (a)  to  be  drawn  out  for  some  months 
without  reaching  a  final  issue,  and  (i)  to  be  costing  the  enemy 
at  least  three  men  where  it  cost  the  Allies  two  (the  proportion 
of  Verdun),  or  even,  as  may  well  be  the  case  after  a  series  of 
bad  failures  to  advance,  two  men  where  it  cost  the  Allies  one 
— then  it  is  not  a  winning  game,  but  a  losing  game. 

As  to  the  effect  of  time,  the  unknown  factor  is  the  exploita- 
tion of  the  East.  So  long  as  the  Prussian  armies  are  unde- 
feated, the  Slavs  of  the  East,  now  in  the  enemy's  hands 
through  the  international  traitors  at  the  capital  of  what 
was  once  the  Russian  Empire,  can  be  gradually  exploited. 
They  can  ultimately  produce  food  and  a  great  part  of  the 
raw  material  needed  by  the  enemy.  The  whole  problem  lies 
in  the  answer  to  the  question  :    "At  what  rate  ?" 

Meanwhile,  the  strain  on  the  Central  Empires  gets  more 
and  more  severe.  In  the  more  civiUsed  (and  less  organised) 
southern  part,  the  Upper  Danube  Valley,  it  is  shocking ; 
patches  of  comparative  plenty  in  country  districts  stand 
side  by  side  with  actual  famine  in  some  towns.  In  the  less 
civiMsed  (and  still  less  organised)  south-west,  the  Lower 
Danube  Valley,  things  are  worse  still.  In  the  Northern 
Baltic  Plains,  manufacturing  Saxony,  and  the  Lower  Rhine 
Valley,  the  great  German  industrial  system,  with  its  crude, 
inferior  culture  and.  its  highly  exact  organisation,  the 
strain  is  far  better  distributed,  and  therefore  presents  fewer 
special  points  of  danger.  But  the  strain  is  none  the  less 
very  severe  indeed.  It  was  undoubtedly  this  general  strain 
ufwn  the  Central  Empires  which  provoked  the  experiment 
of  last  March  and  the  gamble  with  the  remaining  men  in 
hand.  It  was  because  that  gamble  was  played  with  such 
very  high  stakes  on  the  board,  because  such  a  vast  concen- 
tration just  failed  to  reach  its  goal,  that  the  second  phase  has 
taken  that  form  of  repeated  local  attacks  which  we  have 
described. 

How  distinct  the  second  phase  is  from  the  first  a  few 
comparative  statistics  will  show  : — 

In  the  first  great  attack,  40  di\isions  gave  the  shock, 
swelhng  to  50  within  twenty-four  hours,  reinforced  by  20 
more  during  the  pursuit,  and  reaching  a  total  before  the 
end  of  the  operation  of  over  80. 

None  of  the  actions  in  the  second  phase  has  occupied  more 
than   13   divisions,   and  each   such   action   has  been  quite 


Land    &    Water 


May  9,  191 8 


separate  and  distinct,  e.g..  that  of  April  4th,  that  of  the 
other  day  against  Villers-Brettoneux  and  Hangard  (6  divi- 
sions, rising  to  8,  and  ending  with  10),  that  against  Rcthunc 
the  week  before  (6  divisions).  The  break-through  at  Armen- 
tiferes  (4  divisions,  bc?coming  6  within  the  first  day,  and 
rising  to  8  by  the  second,  or  perhaps  11  by  the  end  of  the 
second).  Six  divi.sions,  rising  to  7  and  reinforced  to  10  in 
the  operations  against  Arras  on  March  2iSth  and  29th,  etc. 

Although  the  break-through  at  Armentieres  gave  an 
opportunity  for  rapidly  developed  action,  and  although  in 
the  course  of  three  weeks  following  nearly  40  divisions 
appeared  in  that  region,  yet  even  here  we  have  to  deal  svith 
successive  and  distinct  actions,  with  longer  and  longer  pauses 
for  re-arrangement  in  between  and  with  stricth'  local 
objectives. 

It  is  the  same  thing  if  we  contrast  the  length  of  front  in 
the  first  and  in  the  second  phase.  The  first  phase  involved 
a  shock  on  a  front  of  about  50  miles,  rapidly  extended  to 
over  70.  None  of  the  local  efforts  of  the  second  phase  have 
at  any  one  action  covered  a  front  of  more  than  15  miles,  and 
the  greater  part  have  been  confined  to  lengths  of  from  6  to 
10  miles  at  the  most. 

Again,  the  first  phase  was  one  continuous  blow,  rupture, 
and  pursuit,  pressed  to  its  extreme  limits,  and  evidently 
expecting,  up  to  the  last  moment,  a  decision.  The  second 
phase  has  admitted  distinct  and  lengthening  intervals  between 
each  loc&l  and  partial  effort. 

The  battle,  then,  has,  during  the  whole  of  a  period  roughlv 
corresponding  to  the  month  of  April,  had  the  new  mark  of 
what  I  have  called  the  second  phase,  and  it  is  as  part  of  this 
perhaps  as  the  termination,  or  nearly  the  termination  of  this, 
that  we  must  regard  the  great  action  of  April  29th,  which 
may  be  called  the  Battle  of  Locre.  It  was  a  complete  local 
defeat  for  the  enemy,  and  an  exceedingly  severe  one. 

We  have  been  told  more  about  it  than  we  have  about 
most  of  these  affairs,  and  at  this  distance  of  time  we  can 
judge  it  in  some  detail.     I  will  proceed  to  analyse  it. 

Firet,  as  to  its  object  :  The  enemy,  in  a  strength  of  about 
9  divisions  against  about  4,  had  seized  Mt.  Kemmel  some  four 
days  before,  and  had  extended  his  line  at  the  base  of  this 
height  ;  so  that  it  stood,  at  the  eqd  of  his  success,  in  a  nearly 
straight  line  north-eastwards,  from  Meteren  along  the  base 
of  the  hills  through  the  saddle  west  of  Kemmel,  in  front  of 
the  village  of  Locre,  right  up  north  (further  across  the  saddle) 
to  the  fields  in  front  of  La  Clytte,  and  thence  north  of  the 
cross  roads  of  Vierttraat. 

It  passed  through  the  hamlet  of  Voormezeele.  The  line 
then  swept  on  eastward  round  Ypres  in  a  flat  salient  to  which 
it  had  been  retired,  and  then  up  through  Bixschoote,  in  which 
region  the  Belgians  took  it  oh  to  the  marshes  of  the  Lower  Yser. 

Two  things  will  be  clearly  apparent  from  the  trace  thus 
established,  especially  if  we  put  the  matter  (as  upon  Sketch  I.) 
in  the  form  of  a  diagram.  First,  that  if  the  enemy  could 
make  another  rapid  advance  in  his  centre  north-westwards 


3rMt/£S~' 


from  Dranoutre  along  the  arrow,  forcing  Locre  and  the 
saddle  between  Mt.  Kemmel  and  the  Mont  Noir,  turning, 
and  then  occupying  the  next  lump  of  hills  (Mont  Noir  and 
.Mont  Rouge)  he  niight  create  such  a  salient  round  about 
the  ruins  of  Ypres  as  would  be  untenable.  But  it  might 
have  to  be  a  rapid  movement  to  succeed.  It  would  then 
compel  a  rapid  evacuation  of  that  deep  salient,  and  it  would 
throw  the  Allies  back  in  the  north.      ' 

Next,  a  blow  of  this  sort  outflanking  the  Mont  Noir  and  the 
Mont  Rouge  would  put  nes-riy  the  whole  of  the  range  of  hills 


\oo?actt^ 


St-Onier 


Riarh.i'ouclc- 


into  German  hands,  completely  dominating  the  plain  to  the 
north.  Nothing  would  be  left  to  take  but  the  Mont  des  Cats, 
and  by  the  time  that  had  gone  it  would  be  certain  that  the 
whole  of  the  northern  plain  \^ould  have  to  be  evacuated,  and 
Dunkirk  uncovered  in  any  case. 

Such  was  the  obvious  strategic  advantage  aimed  at  when 
the  blow  was  planned  and  prepared  during  the  three  days' 
lull  after  the  occupation  of  Mount  Kemmel,  and  such  were  the 
results  envisaged  when  the  enemy's  bombardment  began  at 
3  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  Monday,  the  29th. 

The  order  of  battle  at  this  moment  would  seem  to  have 
been  as  follows,  reading  from  west  to  east — that  is,  from 
right  to  left  of  the  Allied  line  : — 

On  the  extreme  right  at  .Meteren,  and  from  Meteren  up  to 
the  base  of  the  Mont  Noir,  were  the  Australians.  From 
there  to  a  point  somewhere  near  the  front  of  La  Clytte,  and 
between  it  and  Locre,  ran  the  French,  holding  the  base  of 
the  hills  and  the  saddle  between  Kemmel  and  the  Mont  Noir. 
On  the  left,  continuing  eastward  up  to  the  Ypres  Canal, 
were  3  English  divisions— the  25th,  the  49th,  and  the  21st. 
The   whole    of   the     front    thus    engaged    extended     for    a 


■     u 


"dangerous 
German  ITirusf' 
here  at /wan  ^ ../  ^S 


■^::^1^\W 


Wood 


,  V  W 

'       H05pLC£ 


4s^  ii    \Urstvaat 


^2fIt.i(ei^n£L 


II 


May  9,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


trace  of  17,000  yards,  or  nearly  10  miles.  The  points  to  be 
particularly  noted  upon  it  for  the  purpose  of  understanding 
the  action  are,  reading  from  east  to  west,  that  is,  from  the 
Allied  left  to  the  Allied  right,  the  following  :  First,  the 
Ypres  Canal,  with  its  sharp  elbow  at  Lock  No.  8,  which  had 
been  lost  previously  to  the  battle.  The  line  started  here 
from  the  latter  end  of  the  long  straight  reach  of  the  Canal, 
which  runs  up  to  Ypres  itself  past  Lock  No.  9.  It  ran  through 
the  ruins  of  Voormezeele,  and  thence  up  to  Ridge  Wood  ; 
thence  behind  Vierstraat,  along  the  Kemmel  Beck,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  slope  which  leads  up  to  I,a  Clytte,  and  climbed 
up  over  the  saddle  between  Kemmel  and  the  Mont  Noir. 
passing  through  Locre  Hospice  ;  thence  along  the  base  of 
the  hills  covering  the  Wolfhoek  Wood,  and  so  to  Meteren. 

There  was  a  dense  mist  that  morning  when  the  German 
infantry  was  launched  at  times  varying  with  different  parts 
of  the  line  from  half-past  5  until  7.  Against  what  may 
have  been  6  or  may  have  been  7  Allied  divisions  in  line, 
a  total  of  perhaps  13  divisions*  was  used  in  the  German 
offensive,  of  which  11  have  been  identified  ;  6  against  the 
French,  under  Eberhardt,  including  the  233rd,  the  4th 
Bavarian,  and  the  Alpine  Corps,  which  is  equivalent  to  no 
more  than  a  division.  Five  and  a  fraction  against  the 
British  on  the  left  (the  German  right),  part  of  the  7th,  the 
25th,  49th  Reserve,  the  3rd  Guards,  the  19th  Reserve,  and 
the  56th.  The  remaining  two  were,  I  presume,  used  upon 
the  extreme  right  against  the  Australians.  But  on  this  the 
messages  received  are  so  far  confused  or  doubtful. 

While  the  attack  with  6  divisions  against  the  French  was 
being  made  by  the  Corps-Commander  Eberhardt,  that  with 
5  divisions  against  the  British  was  being  made  under  the 
orders  of  another  corj)S-commander.  It  was  a  distinctly 
divided  action  :  the  right  of  the  Germans  to  hold  the  British, 
the  left  under  a  separate  command  to  divide  the  British 
from  the  French.  The  density  of  such  an  attack  is  always 
to  be  noted.  It  was,  if  anything,  somewhat  under  the 
customary  extreme  density  of  the  German  assault,  which 
has  reached  more  than  eight  bayonets  to  the  yard.  In  the 
action  with  which  we  are  dealing  the  average  from  the  Ypres 
Canal  to  the  French  right  beyond  the  hills  was  more  like 
six  bayonets  to  the  yard. 

Following  what  is  now  his  almost  invariable  tactic,  the 
enemy  put  his  chief  weight  into  the  first  blow,  and  was  so 
far  successful  as  to  achieve  two  j)reliminary  advances  ;  one 
of  which  was  of  secondary  importance,  but  the  other  critical. 
The  first  of  these  was  a  thrust  through  Voormezeele  ruins, 
and  between  them  and  the  Ridge  Wood,  a  short  sector  held 
by  Lancashire  and  other  troops.  The  idea  was  to 
turn  the  obstacle  of  the  wood  by  the  right  or  east.  The 
attack  forced  its  way  through  Voormezeele  village  itself, 
and  apparently  to  the  northern  edge  of  the  ruined  houses, 
but  no  further.  Lancashire  men  in  the  Ridge  Wood  itself 
kept  off  the  enemy  all  morning,  and  Yorkshire  and  South 
African  troops  immediately  to  their  right  held  this  western 
obstacle  flanking  Voormezeele  intact. 

.  The  second,  as  I  have  said,  was  of  a  more  critical  character. 
It  was  directed  against  the  French  left  and  the  point  of 
junction  between  the  British  and  the  French  divisions.  It 
pushed  the  French  back  through  Locre,  and  at  one  moment 
reached  the  extremely  important  point  which  the  British 
soldiers  call  Hvde  Park  Corner,  where  five  wavs  meet,  on  the 

•  There  is  some  doubt  about  two  of  these— the  31st  and  thi  107th- 


saddle  between  the  Scherpenberg  and  the  group  of  hills  the 
Germans  were  desiring  to  turn  and  occupy.  This  meant 
not  only  a  serious  advance  of  well  over  a  thousand  yards, 
but  a  wedge  stuck  in  at  the  most  vital  part  of  the  line  between 
the  two  Allies.  Another  1,500  yards,  if  it  had  been  occupied 
and  held,  might  have  meant  the  loss  of  the  hills  to  the  left 
and  to  the  right  ;  the  Scherpenberg  might  have  been  turned, 
and  so  might  the  mass  of  the  Mont  Noir  and  the  Mont  Rouge. 
The  Germans  reached  this  point  a  little  before  noon.  But 
there  came  a  counter-attack  in  the  early  afternoon  from  the 
French,  which  not  only  restored  the  position,  but  ultimately 
swept  the  Germans  back  to  points  from  1,000  to  1,500  yards 
behind  those  from  which  they  had  started.  All  the  rest  of 
the  day  the  German  efforts  to  re-advance,  including  four 
separate  massed  concentrations  and  innumerable  smaller 
groupings,  were  broken  by  the  French  fire  with  very  heavy 
loss.  Before  dusk  the  fighting  had  completely  died  down, 
and  the  heaviest  attack  delivered  by  the  enemy  since  the 
great  tidal  wave  towards  Amiens  was  checked  had  been 
completely  broken  and  defeated. 

Special  mention  has  been  made  in  dispatches  and  public 
correspondence  of  the  heavy  trial  to  which  the  new  young 
drafts  were  put  in  the  British  units,  especially  among  the 
Leicesters,  and  the  gallantry  with  which  this  severe  strain 
was  met.  The  men  had  slept  and  worked  in  their  gas-masks 
continuously,  and  had  been  subjected  to  a  more  appalling 
bombardment  than  any  hitherto  experienced. 

A  notable  feature  in  the  German  attack  upon  the  French 
in  the  centre  was  the  copying  of  the  EngUsh  tactic  of  very 
low-flying  aeroplanes. 

Lastly,  it  must  be  remarked  that  in  this  battle  the  deter- 
mination to  achieve  an  immediate  success  led  the  enemy  to 
return  to  his  old  tactic  of  densely  massed  formations,  with 
corresponding  losses,  from  which  he  had  departed  during  his 
successful  effort  against  Mount  Kemmel,  where  he  had  acted 
rather  by  the  new  method  of  "infiltration"  with  numerous 
isolated  and  successive  machine-gun  groups. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  even  in  the  roughest  -way  the 
losses  sustained  in  this  cUsaster.  He  must  have  put  in  to 
the  actual  shock,  excluding  the  plain  south  of  the  hills,  some 
80,000  infantrj',  and  possibly  somewhat  more.  His  casualties 
may  have  amounted  to  a  quarter  of  these  or  more.^The 
effects  of  such  a  set-back  were  seen  in  the  complete  absence 
of  movement  upon  his  part  for  five  full  days  up  to  Saturday 
night  (on  the  dispatches  of  which  this  article  is  written). 
Roughly  speaking,  the  defensive  worked  on  this  occasion 
with  forces  much  less  than  two-thirds,  but  probably  slightly 
more  than  half  those  of  the  offensive.  The  result  was  in 
part  due  to  this  increase  in  covering  and  in  part  to  the  arrival 
of  ample   French  gun-power. 

Among  the  German  units  specially  weakened  was  the 
3rd  Guards,  opposite  to  the  British  25th  Division  in  the 
centre.  The  Kemmel  Brook  ran  between  them,  the  British 
Border  Regiment  holding  the  open  sloping  ground  to  the 
north  ;  the  German  Guards  being  compelled  to  concentrate 
as  best  they  could  under  the  cover  of  a  few  ruined  huts  upon 
the  open  slope  beyond  and  to  advance  down  it.  In  this 
attempted  advance  they  suffered  very  heavy  losses  indeed, 
and  apparently  never  got  into  contact ;  the  execution  being 
specially  effected  by  the  coolness  and  accuracy  of  fire  on  the 
part  of  the  Border  Regiment,  which  is  signalled  out  for 
special  mention  in  this  connection. 


Appearance  of  the  German  Class    1920 


As  the  question  of  men  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 
whole  problem  with  which  the  Allies  and  the 
enemy  equally  are  confronted,  we  may  say  that 
a  piece  of  news  received  in  London  on  Wednes- 
day evening  last  from  Renter's  correspondent 
in  France  is  perhaps  the  most  important  for  a  long  time  past. 
It  is  to  the  effect  that  the  French  Higher  Command  have 
obtained  intelligence  of  the  presence  of  the  German  Class  1920 
at  the  front.  It  is  the  misfortune  of  this  war,  and  par- 
ticularly of  this  stage  in  the  war,  that  matters  of  first-class 
moment  such  as  this  fail  of  public  recognition  because  there 
is  nothing  striking  about  them  and  they  cannot  serve  the 
uses  of  the  popular  Press.  But  the  readers  of  Land  and 
Water  who  are  familiar  with  the  fundamentals  of  the  cam- 
paign will,  I  think,  appreciate  the  value  of  this  news. 

The  German  Empire  has  been  compelled,  ever  since  the 
end  of  1914,  to  draw  upon  its  younger  classes,  to  "borrow 
men,"  as  we  may  say,  more  and  more  as  the  campaign 
advanced.  So  have  all  the  conscript  belligerents :  the 
French,  for  instance.  But  the  German  borrowing  has  been 
more  rapid.     Class  1914  was  called  upon  immediately  and 


normally.  Class  1915  was  called  up  earlier  than  had  been 
expected.  Class  1916  earlier  still,  and  Classes  1917  and  1918 
continued  the  process  of  acceleration.  Prisoners  from  the 
latter  were  taken  as  early  as  late  in  the  month  of  July  (if 
my  memory  serves  me  right) — that  is,  before  the  Battle  of 
the  Somme  had  been  long  in  process.  ^ 

Then  came  a  period  during  which  acceleration  was  less 
marked.  Russia  did  nothing  for  months.  When  she  did 
move  it  was  only  to  break  up.  Htr  offensive,  when  it  came, 
was  very  short,  ;uid  was  a  pitiful  failure.  Then  came  anarchy, 
followed  by  treason  upon  the  part  of  a  cosmopolitan  gang 
which  had  got  hold  of  the  capital.  All  this  lowered  the  rate 
of  German  losses,  and  consequently  relieved  what  already  by 
1916  had  become  a  very  grave  problem  in  man-power.  The 
relief  afforded  to  the  German  Empire  by  the  collapse  of 
Russia,  and  the  subsequent  betrayal  of  the  Allies  there, 
can  roughly  be  measured  by  the  figures  with  which  my 
readers  are  familiar.  For  every  1.0  Germans  down  and  out 
in  the  first  seventeen  months  of  the  war,  there  were  more 
than  7,  but  probably  not  8,  Germans  down  and  out  in  the 
next   seventeen    months.     Class    1919,    therefore,    though    it 


Land    &    Water 


May  9,  191 8 


was  drawn  on  very  early,  did  not  show  an  acceleration  over  Class 
1918.    At  the  beginning  of  this  year.  Class  1920  was  warned. 

That  warning,  again,  showed  no  new  acceleration  in  the 
rate  of  exhaustion.  This  step  would  have  normally  meant 
no  more  than  the  calling  up  of  the  main  portions,  at  least, 
of  Class  1920  for  examination  in  .\pril,  1918  ;  four  months 
training  would  normally  have  followed,  and  the  appearance 
of  the  hrst  batches  of  Class  1920  in  the  fighting  line  as  recruits 
would  have  been  seen  in  July  and  thenceforward  tliroughout 
the  summer  ;  the  bulk  of  them  certainly  would  not  have 
been  incorporated  in  the  units  suffering  heavy  expenditure 
until  the  end  of  the  summer,  if  the  German  calculation 
before  the  offensive  had  made  good.  A  Gennan  immature 
class  is  under  half  a  million  available  lads — say,  450,000. 
That  was  what  one  meant  when  one  said  that  the  enemy 
could  reckon  on  an  income  or  recruitment  of  rather  less  than 
half  a  million  later  on  in  this  year.  Now,  the  significance 
of  the  news  to  hand  is  that  he  has  been  compelled,  for  some 
reason  or  other  (and  much  most  probably  by  the  unexpected 
rate  of  liis  loss  in  action  since  March  2ist),  to  bring  the  first 
batches  of  this  new  recruitment  in  not  in  July,  but  before 
the  last  days  of  April.  In  other  words,  he  had  anticipated 
even  his  own  schedule  of  anticipation  in  the  case  of  some 
elements  of  this  new  recruitment  by  as  much  as  three  months. 

Significant  as  the  detail  is,  we  must  not  exaggerate  it. 
The  exact  evidence  gathered  and  published  should  be  re- 
tained and  no  more  built  upon  it  than  it  warrants.  That 
exact  evidence  testifies  to  the  presence  in  the  fighting  zone 
(but  not  yet  incorporated  in  any  regiment  used  for  shock) 
of  a  full  company — 250  strong — of  the  new  class  which 
normally  should  not  have  appeared  until  the  late  summer. 
This  single  unit  has  been  discovered  attached  to  the  13th 
Reserve  Division,  and  is  now  in  the  field  depots  of  that 
division.  Its  personnel,  the  average  age  of  whom  is  probably 
just  about  18  (though  some  of  them  probably  a  httle  under) 
has  only  had  eight  weeks'  training,  and  yet  here  they  are 
present  immediately  behind  the  lines  with  the  obvious  task 
of  filling  gaps  in  quite  the  near  future.  Small  as  is  the  indica- 
tion it  clearly  cannot  be  a  mere  unique  exception.  For  news 
of  a  single  unit  thus  to  have  reached  French  headquarters, 
there  must  be  some  considerable  fraction  of  the  whole  recruit- 
ment already  thus  distributed. 

The  next  step  of  interest  will  be  to  note  the  moment  when 
the  Allied  forces  first  begin  to  take  prisoners  from  this  1920 
class.  From  that  moment  we  shall  know  that  this  immature 
recruitment  is  being  regularly  fed  in  to  the  mill  which  has 
already  sucked  up  from  136  to  140  of  the  German  divisions, 
and,  counting  those  who  have  been  in  twice,  and  even  three 
times,  njust  have  used  the  equivalent  of  something  over  182. 

The  Enemy  Losses 

Very  various  estimates  have  been  made  of  the  enemy 
losses,  and  these  must  still  be  hopelessly  vague  until  better 
and  more  detailed  evidence  is  available.  The  nearest  thing 
to  an  official  pronouncement — but  it  is  not  official — is  con- 
tained in  the  message  of  a  correspondent  in  touch  with  the 
French  who  puts  down  a  minimum  of  350,000  up  to  about 
ten  days  ago.  I  cannot  but  regard  this  as  an  insufficient 
estimate,  though,  of  course,  anything  with  official  backing 
to  it  (if  we  could  get  such  a  pronouncement)  would  have  to  be 
accepted  at  once  because  only  at  the  Intelligence  Department 
of  Headquarters  is  there  a  proper  collation  of  all  evidence. 
But  I  remark  the  following  points  in  the  problem  : — 
(i)  The  number  of  German  divisions  actually  identified 
as  appearing  in  action  since  the  great  offensive  began  is  more 
than  136  and  less  than  140.  To  put  it  at  the  lowest  figure, 
and  allowing  only  just  over  7,000  bayonets  to  the  division, 
and  you  have  a  million  men.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  tlie  divi- 
sions used  for  shock  have  been  brought  up  to  strength,  and 
if  the  full  9,000  bayonets  have  not  appeared  in  each,  at  any 
rate,  7,000  is  too  low  an  estimate,  and  8,000  not  too  high. 

(2)  Something  like  40  divisions  have  by  this  time  appeared 
twice,  and  at  least  6  have  appeared  three  times.  Now,  this 
makes  a  total  equivalent  to  182  divisions,  at  least — more 
probably  nearer  190 — for  a  division  when  it  is  taken  out,  and 
rested  and  recruited,  and  sent  in  again  loses  again  the  second 
or  the  third  time  just  as  it  did  in  the  first.  We  are  really 
dealing,  then,  with  a  mass  in  infantry  alone  of  nearer  one 
million  and  a  half  men  than  a  million,  and  though  the  infantry 
Jjear  the  mass  of  the  casualties,  there  is  very  heavy  loss  in  all 
the  other  branches,  particularly  in  the  artillery.  There  is 
loss  also  in  the  depots  from  bombing,  and  there  is  the  ordinary 
loss  froiji  sickness  and  fatigue,  apart  from  known  losses  in  brittle. 

(3)  Although  a  division  is  not  kept  in  as  it  was  during 
the  Gennan  defensive  on  the  Somme,  until  it  has  lost  40  to  50 
per  cent,  of  its  effectives,  yet  it  would  be  foolish  to  retire  it 
before  it  had  lost,  say,  25.     There  are  cases,  of  course,  when 


it  is  retired,  or  where  the  action  ceases  with  much  smaller 
loss  ;  but  I  am  talking  of  the  a\-erage.  Now,  that  average 
is  built  up  by  the  exceedingly  heavy  losses  actually  demon- 
strable in  case  after  case.  The  4tli  Erzatz  Division,  for 
instance,  which  attacked  at  Givenchy,  has  been  pretty  well 
wiped  out.  One  regiment  had  an  average  of  only  fifteen  men 
to  each  company  left.  The  ist  Guards  Reserve  Division,  in 
the  same  locality,  showed  in  one  regiment  the  loss  of  one- 
tiiird  of  its  officers  in  one  day  alone.  We  have  from  twenty 
to  thirty  units  analysed  fully  on  this  scale.  True,  they  have 
been  units  which  have  suffered  quite  exceptionally  and  from 
which  prisoners  have  been  taken  in  our  counter-attacks 
after  such  suffering  ;  but,  still,  they  are  numerous,  and  the 
losses  have  proved  invariably  exceedingly  heavy. 

(4)  We  know  perfectly  well  by  experience  on  the  Allied 
side  during  our  own  offensives  how  exceedingly  heavy  the 
casualties  of  an  attack  can  be,  and  certainly  the  average  Ger- 
man tactic  is  no  less  expensive  than  the  average  Allied  tactic. 

(5)  We  know  that  Class  1920  has  already  appeared  in 
the  field  depots  just  behind  the  fighting  line. 

There  is  in  all  these  statements,  semi-official  and  even 
unofficial,  a  perhaps  necessary  political  element.  It  is 
necessary  to  prevent  the  public  from  making  wild  judgments 
in  its  own  favour.  Opinion  Was  to  be  tuned.  But  I  confess 
myself  to  a  preference  for  mere  truth  or,  as- the  enemy  called 
it  in  the  dear  old  days  of  peace,  "objective  reality,"  and  I 
cannot  but  believe  that  the  lowest  of  the  estimates  published 
is  below  the  truth  on  the  plain  evidence  before  us. 

rOStSCnpt  Tuesday  Morning,  May  yth. 

Since  writing  the  above,  we  have  the  news  of  two  more 
days  in  dispatches  from  the  front  :  the  news  of  Sunday  and 
Monday,  May  5th  and  6th.  It  is  remarkable  that  both  days 
continued  tlie  long  halt  imposed  upon  the  enemy  by  his 
severe  defeat  upon  April  29th.  In  all,  seven  full  days  have 
passed  without  his  renewing  the  attack  on  the  hills  or  striking 
elsewhere.  It  is  far  the  longest  interval  he  has  permitted 
or  suffered  since  March  21st.  There  seem  to  have  been 
indications  of  a  renewed  concentration  for  attack  on  the 
fourth  day,  and  its  failure  to  develop  is  ascribed  by  the 
public  correspondents  to  the  increasing  vigour  of  the  Allied 
artillery  on  this  front. 

So  considerable  an  interval  has  also  been  ascribed  to  the 
large  re-arrangement  and  concentration  necessary  for  the 
inception  of  a  third  phase  to  the  battle  in  the  shape  of  another 
great  blow  with  all  available  force  on  the  model  of  the  first 
great  action  on  March  2ist-22nd.     It  may  be  so. 

On  the  front  between  Albert  and  Arras  there  has  been  a 
little  local  movement  to  the  advantage  of  the  AustraUan 
troops,  and  the  French  left  at  Hangard  has  also  been  slightly 
advanced. 

Every  newspaper  in  Europe  almost  has  spoken  of  impend- 
ing action  against  the  Italians.  That  is  pure  conjecture, 
but  the  main  elements  are  well  enough  known.  The  snows 
have  melted  enough  to  permit  movement  in  the  latter  part 
of  May  in  the  mountains.  On  the  other  end,  the  Piave  line 
is  stronger  then  and  in  June  from  the  rise  of  the  water. 
A  menace  to  either  party  here,  during  the  freshets,  is  the 
shelling  and  breaking  of  the  high  banks,  between  which  the 
river  sometimes  runs  as  much  as  10  or  iz  feet  above  the 
plain.  The  number  of  Austrian  divisions  believed  to  be 
present  between  the  Swiss  frontier  and  the  sea  is  55,  with 
special  concentration  in  the  Trentino  on  the  Italian  left. 
There  is  no  reason,  if  the  united  enemv  command  chose  to 
alter  the  direction  of  attack,  why  these  should  not  be 
strengthened  by  the  addition  of  German  divisions.  Beyond 
those  bare  elements  in  the  situation  we  know  nothing. 

The  Rural  Labourer 

To  the  Editor,   Land  &  Water. 

Sir,- — -In  your  issue  of  the  25th,  "  Jason,"  in  his  article  on  "The 
History  of  the  Rural  Labourer,"  speaks  of  a  boy  "who  was 
hanged  at  Winchester  for  striking  a  country  gentleman."  Will 
you  allow  a  collateral  descendant  of  the  man  who  was  struck, 
and  who  is  himself  a  Hampshire  farmer  and  much  in  sympathy 
with  the  agricultural  labourer,  and  who,  further,  lives  close  to 
where  the  incident  occurred,  to  say  that  the  facts  of  the  case 
are  hardly  as  quoted  by  your  correspondent. 

What  really  happened  was  that  the  youth  in  question  hit  the 
gentleman  twice  on  the  head  with  a  sledge-hammer,  and  his 
life  was  merely  saved  by  his  wearing  at  the  time  a  hard  box -hat. 
I  may  incidentally  mention  that  the  greatest  possible  efiorts 
were  made  by  the  man  assaulted,  who  had  considerable  political 
influence,  to  prevent  the  execution. 

Woodlands   Farm,   Bramdean,   Hants.         Arthur  Baring. 

P.S. — I  should  perhaps  add  that  at  the  time  the  incident 
occurred  the  gentleman  in  question  was  merely  trying  to  prevent 
his  n--^  hinery  being  des'--  ••  A  by  the  rioters.  1 


May  9 ,  1 9  i  8 


Land   &    Water 


The  Turkish  Conspiracy 

The    Narrative    of  Mr.    Henry    Morgenthau,    American    Ambassador   in    Turkey, 

1913-1915 

In  this  opening  chapter  of  the  diplomatic  activities  at  the  Sublime  Porte  before  the  outbreak  of  war, 
the  scene  is  set  for  one  of  the  most  thrilling  tragedies  in  the  history  of  the  uorld — a  tragedy  which 
has  involved  the  annihilation  of  the  Armenian  people,  carried  uar  anew  to  earth's  most  ancient 
battlefi.elds,  and  brought  the  sacred  city  of  Jerusalem  for  a  second  time  under  the  banner  of  the  Cross. 
In  these  pages  are  described  vividly  the  actors,  uho  took  the  leading  part,  by  one  icho  moved  freelv 
among  them,  and  had  unrivalled  opportunities  of  studying  them  under  most  varied  circumstances. 
This   diplomatic  record  surpasses   in   vital  interest   anything  of  the  kind   hitherto  published. 


I  AM  beginning  to  write  these  reminiscences  of  my 
ambassadorsliip  at  a  moment  when  Gennan'y's  schemes 
in  the  Turkish  Empire  and  the  East  have  achieved  an 
apparent  success.  The  Central  Powers  have  dis- 
integrated Russia,  have  transformed  the  Baltic  and 
the  Black  Seas  into  German  lakes,  and  have  obtained  a  new 
route  to  the  East  by  way  of  the  Caucasus.  Germany  now 
dominates  Serbia,  Bulgaria,  and  Turkey,  and  regards  her 
aspirations  for  a  new  Teutonic  Empire,  extending  from  the 
North  Sea  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  as  practically  realised.  The 
world  now  knows,  though  it  did  not  clearly  understand  this 
fact  three  years  ago,  that  Germany  precipitated  the  war  to 
destroy  Serbia,  seize  control  of  the  Balkan  nations,  transform 
Turkey  into  a  vassal  state,  and  thus  obtain  a  huge  Oriental 
empire  that  would  form  the  basis  for  unlimited  world 
dominion.  Do  these  German  aggressions  in  the  East  mean 
that  this  extensive  programme  has  succeeded  ? 

As  I  look  upon  the  new  map,  which  shows  Germany's 
recent  miUtary  and  diplomatic  triumphs,  my  experiences  in 
Constantinople  take  on  a  new  meaning.  I  now  see  the  events 
of  these  twenty-six  months  as  part  of  a  connected,  definite 
story.  The  several  individuals  that  moved  upon  the  scene 
now  appear  as  players  in  a  carefully  staged,  superbly  managed 
drama.  I  see  clearly  enough  now  that  Germany  had  made 
all  her  plans  for  world  dominion  and  that  the  country  to  which 
I  had  been  accredited  as  American  Ambassador  was  the 
foundation  of  the  Kaiser's  whole  political  and  military 
structure.  Had  Germany  not  acquired  control  of  Con- 
stantinople in  the  early  days  of  the  war,  hostihties  would 
probably  have  ended  a  few  months  after  the  battle  of  the 
Marne.  It  was  certainly  an  amazing  fate  that  landed  me, 
a  quiet  and  diplomaticcdly  inexperienced  business  man  of 
New  York,  in  this  great 
headquarters  of  intrigue, 
at  the  very  moment  when 
the  plans  of  the  Kaiser, 
carefully  pursued  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  were 
about  to  achieve  their 
final  success. 

For  the  work  of  sub- 
jugating Turkey  and  trans- 
forming its  army  and  its 
territory  into  instruments 
of  fiermany,  the  Emperor 
had  sent  to  Constantinople 
an  Ambassador  who  was 
ideally  fitted  for  the  task. 
The  mere  fact  that  Wij- 
helm  had  personally  se- 
lected Baron  von  Wangen- 
heim  for  this  post  shows 
that  he  had  accurately 
gauged  the  human  quali- 
ties needed  for  this  great 
diplomatic  enterprise. 
Wangenheim  had  for  years 
been  the  Kaiser's  personal 
intimate  and  confidant  ; 
he  had  occasionally  spent 
his  vacations  witii  his 
imperial  master  at  Corfu, 
and  here,  we  may  be  sure, 
the  two  congenial  spirits 
passed  many  days  dis- 
cussing German  plans  in 
the  East.  At  the  time  I 
first  met  him,  Wangen- 
heim was  fifty-five  years 
old  ;  he  had  given  a 
quarter  of  a  century  to 
the  dmlomatic  service,  had 


Henry   Morgenthau 


been  charge  at  Constantinople,  and  Minister  to  Greece  and 
Mexico — his  sojourn  in  the  latter  country  having  given  him 
a  great  knowledge  of  the  United  States.     He  had  a  complete 
-  technical  equipment  of  a  diplomat  ;    he  spoke  German,  Eng- 
lish, and  French  with  equal  facility,  he  knew  the  East  thor- 
oughly', and  had  the  widest  acquaintance  with  public  men. 
Physically,  he  was  one  of  the  most  striking  persons  I  have 
ever  known.    When  I  was  a  boy  in  Germany,  the  Fatherland 
was  usually  symbolised  as  a  beautiful  and  powerful  woman — 
a  kind  of  dazzling  Valkyrie  ;    when  I  think  of  modem  Ger- 
many,  however,   the  massive,  burly  figure  of  Wangenheim 
naturally  presents  itself  to  my  mind.      He  stood  six  feet 
two  inches  high  ;    his  huge,  solid  frame,   his  Gibraltar-like 
shoulders,  erect  and  impregnable,  his  bold,  defiant  head,  his 
piercing  eyes,  the  whole  physical  structure  constantly  pul- 
sating with  life  and  activity — there  stands,  I  say,  not  the 
Germany   which    I    had   known,    but   the   Germany   whose 
limitless  ambitions  had  transformed  the  world  into  a  place 
of  horror.     And  Wangcnheim's  every  act  and  every  word 
typified  this  new  and  dreadful  portent  among  the  nations. 
Pan-Germany  filled  all  his  waking  hours  and  directed  his 
every  action.     The  deification  of  his  Emperor  was  the  only 
religious  instinct  which  impelled  him.     That  aristocratic  and 
autocratic  organisation  of  German  society  which  represents 
the  Prussian  system  was,  in  Wangenheim's  eyes,  something 
to  be  venerated  and  worshipped  ;    with  this  as  the  ground 
work,  Germany  was  inevitably  destined,  he  believed,  to  rule 
the  world.     The  great  land-owning  Junker  represented  the 
perfection    of    mankind ;     "  I    would    despise    myself,"    his 
closest  associate  once  told  me,  and  this  represented  Wangen- 
heim's attitude  as  well,   "if  I   had  been  born  in   a  city." 
Wangenheim  divided  mankind  into  two  classes,  the  govern- 
ing   and    the    governed  ; 
and  he  ridiculed  the  idea 
that  the  upper  could  ever 
be     recruited     from     the 
lower.    I  recall  with  what 
unction    and    enthusiasn> 
he   used    to   describe    the 
Emperor's  caste  organiza- 
tion  of  German   estates ;; 
how   he   had   made   them 
non-transferable,  and  had 
even  arranged  it  so  that 
the  possessors,  or  the  pro- 
spective possessors,  could 
not    marry    without    the 
imperial  consent.   "  In  this- 
way,"  Wangenheim  would' 
say,  "  we  keep  our  govern- 
ing classes  pure,  unmixed 
of  blood."    Like  .all  of  his 
social  order,  Wangenheim 
worshipped    the    Prussian 
military       system ;        his 
splendid    bearing    showed 
that  he  had  himself  served 
in  the  army,  and,  in  true 
German    fashion,    he    re- 
garded   practically    every 
situation    in    life    from    a. 
military  standpoint.   1  had 
one  curious  illustration  of 
this  when    I   asked   Wan- 
genheim one  day  why  the 
Kaiser   did   not   visit   the- 
United  States.  "  He  would 
like    to    immensely,"    he 
replied,  "but  it  would  be 
too  dangerous.  War  might 
break    out    when    he    was 
cominL'     home     and      thf»- 


Land    &    Water 


May  9,  1918 


enemy  would  capture  liim."  I  suggested  that  that  could 
hardly  happen,  as  the  American  Government  would  escort 
its  guest  home  with  warships,  and  that  no  nation  would  care 
to  run  the  risk  of  involving  tlie  United  States  as  Germany's 
ally  ;  but  he  still  thought  that  the  military  danger  would 
make  any  such ,  visit  impossible. 

Wangenheim's  Nature  ^ 

From  the  day  that  he  reached  Constantinople,  Wangen- 
heim  had  one  absorbing  ambition  ;   that  was  to  make  Turkey 
Germany's  ally  in  the  struggle  which  he  knew  was  impending. 
He  believed  that  should  he  succeed  in  doing  this,  he  would 
reap  the  reward  which  for  years  had  represented  his  final 
goal — the  Chancellorship  of 
the  Empire.    His  personal 
popularity  with  the  Turks 
gave  him  a  great  advan- 
tage over  his  rivals.    Wan- 
genheim  had  precisely  that 
combination  of  force,  per- 
suasiveness, geniality,  and 
brutality  needed  in  dealing 
.  with  the  Turkish   charac- 
ter.   I  have  emphasised  his 
Prussian     qualities ;      yet 
Wangenheim  was  a  Prus- 
sian not  by  birth,  but  by 
development ;     he    was    a 
native  of  Cassel,  and,  to- 
gether with  ail  the  push, 
ambition,  and  overbearing 
traits  of  the  Prussian,  he 
had    some    of    the    softer 
characteristics    which    we 
associate     with     Southern 
Germany.       He    had    one 
conspicuous  quality,  which 
is    not    Prussian    at    all — ■ 
that  is,  tact ;    and  for  the 
most  part  he  succeeded  in 
keeping  his  less  agreeable 
tendencies  under  the  sur- 
face and  showing  only  his 
more  ingratiating  side.   He 
dominated  not  so  much  by 
brute    strength    as    by    a 
mixture  of  force  and  ami- 
ability.   Externally  he  was 
not  a  bully  ;    his  manner 
was  more  insinuating  than 
coercive  ;    he  won  by  per- 
suasiveness,   not    by    the 
mailed  fist ;    but  we  who 
knew  him  well  understood 
that  back  of  all  his  gentle- 
ness there  lurked  a  terrific, 
remorseless  ambition.    Yet 
the  impression  left  was  not  one  of  brutality,  but  of  excessive 
animal  spirits  and  good  nature.     Indeed,  Wangenheim  had 
in  combination  the  jovial  enthusiasm  of  a  college  student,  the 
rapacity    of   a    Prussian    official,    and    the    happy-go-lucky 
qualities  of  a  man  of  the  world.     I  still  recall  the  picture  of 
this  German  diplomat,  seated  at  the  piano,  playing  the  finest 
productions  of  the  Fatherland— and  then  suddenly  starting 
to  pound  out  uproarious  German  drinking  songs  or  popular 
melodies.     I  still  see  him  jumping  on  his  horse  on  the  polo 
grounds,  spurring  the  splendid  animal  to  its  speediest  efforts 
— never  .making   sufficient   speed,    however,    to   satisfy    the 
ambitious   sportsman.     Indeed,   in   all   his   activities,   grave 
and  gay,  Wangenheim  displayed  this  same  restless  spirit  of 
the  chase.     Whether  he  weis  flirting  with  the  Greek  ladies  at 
Pera,  or  spending  hours  over  the  card -table  at  the  Cercle 
d'Orient,  or  bending  the  Turkish  officials  to  his  will  in  the 
interest  of  Germany,  all  life  was  to  him  a  game,  which  was  to 
be  played  more  or  less  recklessly,  and  in  which  the  chances 
favoured  the  man  who  was  bold  and  audacious  and  willing 
to  pin  success  or  failure  on  a  single  throw.     And  this  greatest 
game  of  all — that  upon  which  was  staked,  as  Bernhardi  has 
expressed  it,  "world-empire  or  downfall" — Wangenheim  did 
not  play  languidly,  insidiously,  as  though  it  had  been  nierely 
a  duty  to  which  he  had  been  assigned  ;    to  use  the  German 
phrase,  he  was  "  fire  and  flame  "  for  it ;  he  had  the  conscious- 
ness that  he  was  a  big  man  set  aside  to  perform  a  mighty 
task.     As  I  write  of  VV'angenheim  I  feel  myself  alfectcd  by 
the  force  of  his  personality,  yet  I  know  all  the  time  that, 
like  the  government  he  served  so  loyally,   he  was   funda- 
mentally  ruthless,   shameless,    and   cruel.     He   accepted   in 


Baron  von  Wangenheim,  German  Ambassador  to  Turkey 

He  was  personally  selected  by  the  Kaiser  to  bring  Turkey  into  line  with  Germany  and 
transform  that  country  into  an  ally  of  Germany  in  the  forthcoming  war — a  task  at 
which  he  succeeded.  Wangenheim  represented  German  diplomacy  in  its  most  ruthless 
and  most  shameless  aspects.  He  believed  with  Bismarck  that  a  patriotic  German  must 
stand  ready  to  sacrifice  for  Kaiser  and  Fatherland  not  only  his  life,  but  his  honour  as 
well.  With  wonderful  skill  he  manipulated  the  desperate  and  corrupt  adventurers  who 
controlled  Turkey  in  1914  into  becoming  an  instrument  of  Germany. 


full  Bismarck's  famous  dictum  that  a  German  must  be  ready 
to  sacrifice  for  Kaiser  and  Fatherland  not  only  his  life,  but 
his  honour  as  well. 

The  Austrian  Ambassador 

Just  as  Wangenheim  personified  Germany,  so  did  his 
colleague,  Pallavicini,  personify  Austria.  Wangenheim  was 
always  looking  to  the  future,  Pallavicini  to  the  past.  Wan- 
genheim represented  that  mixture  of  commercialism  and 
mediaeval  lust  for  conquest  that  constitute  Prussian  ivell- 
politik  ;  Pallavicini  was  a  diplomat  left  over  from  the  days 
of  Mettemich.  "Germany  wants  this  I"  Wangenheim  would 
shout  when  an  important  point  had  to  be  decided ;   "I  shall 

consult  my  Foreign  Office," 
the    hesitating    Pallavicini 
would    say    on    a    similar 
occasion.       The   Austrian, 
with  little,  upturned  grey 
moustaches,  with  a  rather 
stiff,    even    shghtly   strut- 
ting walk,  looked  like  the 
old-fashioned  Marquess  of 
the    Opera   Comique.        I 
might    compare    Wangen- 
heim with  the  representa- 
tive   of    a   great    business 
firm  that  was  lavish  in  its 
expenditures  and  obtained 
its  trade  by  generous  en- 
tertaining, while  his  Aus- 
trian colleague  represented 
a  house  that  prided  itself 
on   its   past   achievements 
and  was   entirely  content 
with    its    position.       The 
same    delight    that    Wan- 
genheim    took     in     Pan- 
German  plans,   Pallavicini 
found   in    all   the   niceties 
and    obscurities   of    diplo- 
matic technique.  The  Aus- 
trian had   represented  his 
country  in   Turkey  many 
years,   and  was   the  dean 
of  the  corps,  a  dignity  of 
which    he    was    extremely 
proud.     He  found  his  de- 
light in  upholding  all  the 
honours  of  his  position  ;  he 
was    expert    in    arranging 
the  order  of  precedence  at 
ceremonial     dinners,     and 
there    was    not    a    single 
detail  of  etiquette  that  he 
did  not  have  at  his  finger's 
ends.      When   it  came  to 
affairs   of   state,   however, 
he  was  merely  a  tool  of  Wangenheim.     In  this  way,  Pallavicini 
played  to  his  German  ally  precisely  the  same  part  that  his 
Empire  was  playing  to  that  of  the  Kaiser.     In  the  early 
months  of  the  war  the  bearing  of  these  two  men  completely 
mirrored  the  respective  successes  and  failures  of  their  coun- 
tries.    As  the  Germans  boasted  of  victory  after  victory, 
Wangenheim's    already    huge    and    erect    figure    seemed    to 
become  larger  and  more  upstanding,   while   Pallavicini,   as 
the  Austnans  lost  battle  after  battle  to  the  Russians,  seemed 
to  become  smaller  and  more  shrinking. 


The  situation  in  Turkey  in  these  critical  months  seemed 
almost  to  have,  been  artificially  created  to  give  the  fullest 
opportunities  to  a  man  of  Wangenheim's  genius.  The  so- 
called  Young  Turks— more  properly  the  committee  of  Union 
and  Progress— now  dominated  the  Turkish  Empire.  Several 
years  before  I  came  to  Turkey  I  remember  reading  a  most 
encouraging  piece  of  news.  A  body  of  young  revolutionists 
had  swept  from  the  mountains  of  Macedonia,  marched  upon 
the  capital,  deposed  the  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid,  and  estab- 
lished a  constitutional  system.  Turkey,  these  glowing  news- 
paper stories  told  us,  had  become  a  democracy,  with  a 
parliament,  a  responsible  ministry,  universal  suffrage  equaUty 
of  all  citizens  before  the  law,  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the 
Press,  and  all  the  other  essentials  of  a  free,  hberty-loving 
commonwealth.  That  a  party  of  Turks  had  for  years  been 
struggling  for  such  reforms  I  well  knew  ;  that  their  ambitions 
had  become  realities  seemed  to  indicate  that,  after  all  there 
was  such  a  thing  as  human  progress.     The  long  welter  of 


May  g,   igi8 


Land    &   Water 


Enver  Pasha,  Minister  of  War 

A  man  of  the  people,  who,  at  26,  was  a  leader  in  the 
revolution  which  Jeposed  Abdul  Hamid  and  estab- 
li«hed  the  new  tigime  of  the  Young  Turks.  At  that 
time  the  Young  Turks  honestly  desired  to  establish  a 
Turkish  democracy.  This  attempt  failed  miserably 
and  the  Young  Turk  leaders  then  ruled  the  Turkish 
Empire  for  their  own  selfish  purposes.  Enver  is 
chiefly  responsible  for  turning  the  Turkish  army  over 
to  Germany.  He  imagines  himself  a  combination 
of  Napoleon  and  Frederick  the  Great. 


Talaat  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier 

In  1914,  when  the  war  broke  out,  Talaat  was 
Minister  of  the  Interior  and  the  most  influential 
leader  in  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  the 
secret  organisation  which  controlled  the  Turkish 
Empire.  A  few  years  ago  Talaat  was  a  letter-carrier, 
and  afterward  a  telegraph  operator  in  Adrianople. 
His  talents  are  those  of  a  great  political  boss.  He 
recently  represented  Turkey  in  the  peace  negotiations 
with  Russia  and  his  signature  appears  on  the  Brest- 
Litovsk  treaty. 


Djemal  Pasha,  Minister  of  Marine 

In  1 914  Djemal  headed  the  Police  Department;  it 
was  his  duty  to  run  down  citizens  who  were  opposing 
the  political  gang  then  controlling  Turkey.  Such 
opponents  were  commonly  assassinated  or  judicially 
murdered.  Afterward  Djemal  was  NJinister  of 
Marine,  and  as  such  violently  protested'  against  the 
sale  of  American  warships  to  Greece.  Then  he  wat 
sent  to  Palestine  as  Commander  of  the  Fourth  Army 
Corps,  where  he  distinguished  himself  as  leader  in  the 
wholesale   massacre   of  the  non-Moslem  population. 


massacre  and  disorder  in  the  Turkish  Empire  had  apparently 
ended.  The  great  assassin,  Abdul  Hamid,  had  been  removed 
to  soUtary  confinement  at  Salonika ;  and  his  brother,  the 
gentle  Mohammed  V.,  had  ascended  the  throne  as  the  first 
constitutional  sovereign  of  Turkey.  Such  had  been  the 
promise  ;  by  the  time  I  reached  Constantinople,  in  1913, 
however,  many  changes  had  taken  place.  Austria  had 
annexed  two  Turkish  provinces,   Bosnia  and  Herzegovina ; 


citizens  are  busily  engaged  in  the  daily  tasks  and  have  no 
leisure  for  pubUc  matters.  In  Turkey  the  masses  were 
altogether  too  ignorant  to  understand  the  meaning  of  demo- 
cracy ;  the  bankruptcy  and  general  vicissitudes  of  the 
country  had  left  it  with  practically  no  government  and  an 
easy  prey  to  a  desperate  band  of  adventurers.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Union  and  Progress,  with  Talaat  Bey  as  the  Supreme 
Boss   constituted  such  a  band.     About  forty  men  controlled 


Italy  had  wrenched  away  Tripoii ;    Turkey  had  fought  two     this  committee,  and  there  were  sub-committees  stationed  in 
th  the  Balkan  St'atcs,  and  had  lost  all  her  territories     all  important  cities  of  the  empire.    These  men  met  frequently 

in  secret  ;  they  formulated  their  plans,  allocated  the  patron- 
age, and'  issued  orders  to  their  nominees,  who  filled  nearly 
all  the  important  offices.  These  men,  hke  orthodox  depart- 
ment heads  in  the  worst  days— now,  happily,  passed— of 
American  city  government,  "took  orders"  and  made  the 
appointments  submitted  to  them. 

I  must  admit,  however,  that  I  do  the  corrupt  American 
gangs  a  certain  injustice  in  comparing  them  with  the  Turkish 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress.  Talaat,  Enver,  and 
Djemal  had  added  to  their  system  a  detail  that  has  not 
figured  extensively  in  American  poHtics — that  of  assassina- 
tion and  judicial  murder.  They  had  wrested  power  from 
the  other  factions  by  a  deed  of  violence.    This  coup  d'etat 


wars  wit 

in  Europe,  except  Constantinople  and  a  small  hinterland. 
The  aims  for  the  regeneration  of  Turkey  that  had  inspired 
the  revolution  had  evidently  miscarried.  I  soon  discovered 
that  four  years  of  so-called  democratic  rule  had  ended  with 
the  nation  more  degraded,  more  impoverished,  and  more 
dismembered  than  ever  before.  Indeed,  long  before  I  had 
arrived  this  attempt  to  estabhsh  a  Turkish  democracy  had 
failed.  Let  us  not  criticise  too  harshly  the  Young  Turks  ; 
there  is  no  question  that,  at  the  beginning,  they  were  sincere. 
In  a  speech  in  Liberty  Square,  Salonika,  in  July,  1908,  Enver 
Pasha  had  eloquently  declared  that:  "To-day  arbitrary 
government  has  disappeared.     We  are  all  brothers.     There 

are  no  longer  Turks,    Bulgarians,  Greeks,  Servians,  Ruman-      —   ^  ^.i     u  t 

ians,  Mussuhnans,  Jews.  Under  the  same  blue  sky  we  are  had  taken  place  on  January  26th.  1913.  a  few  months  betore 
aU  proud  to  be  Ottomans."  That  represented  the  Young  my  arrival.  At  that  time  a  political  group  headed  by  the 
Turk  ideal  for  the  new  Turkish  State,  but  it  was  an  ideal  venerable  Kiamil  Pasha,  as  Grand  Vizier,  and  Mazim  Fasha, 
which  had  been  maltreated  and  massacred  for  centuries  by  as  minister  of  war,  controlled  the  government ;  they  repre- 
the  Turks;  they  could  not  transform  themselves  over-night  ,sented  a  faction  known  as  the  Liberal  Partv,  winch  was 
into  brothers  ;  'hatreds,  jealousies,  and  religious  prejudices  chiefly  distinguished  for  its  enmity  to  the  Young  lurks, 
of  the  past  still  divided  Turkey  into  a  medley  of  warring     These  men  had  fought  the  disastrous  Balkan  War ;    ;nd,  in 


clans.  Above  all,  the  destructive  wars  and  the  loss  of  great 
sections  of  the  Turkish  Empire  had  destroyed  the  prestige  of 
the  new  democracy.  There  were  other  reasons  for  the 
failure  ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  them  at  this  time. 

Committee  of  Union  and  Progress 

Though  the  Young  Turks  had  disappeared  as  a  positive, 
regenerating  force,  they  still  existed  as  a  pohtical  machine. 
Their  leaders,  Talaat,  Enver,  and  Djemal,  had  long  since 
abandoned  any  expectation  of  reforming  their  state,  but 
they  had  developed  an  insatiable  lust  for  personal  power. 
The  pohtical  order  that  existed  in  Turkey  in  1913  bore 
certain  resemblances  to  the  Boss  system  in  the  United  States. 
The  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  was  a  private,  irre- 
sponsible group  of  men  who  secretly  manipulated  elections, 
and  filled  the  offices  with  their  own  henchmen.  It  had  its 
own  building  in  Constantinople,  with  a  supreme  chief  who 
gave  all  his  time  to  its  affairs  and  issued  orders  to  his  sub- 
ordinates ;  in  fact,  he  ruled  the  party  precisely  like  an 
American  city  boss  in  the  most  unrcgenerate  days.  It 
furnished  a  splendid  illustration  of  "invisible  government." 
This  kind  of  irresponsible  government  has  obtained  control 
of  American   cities   mainly   because    the   real   hard-working 


January,  they  had  felt  themselves  compelled  to  accept  the 
advice  of  the  European  Powers  and  surrender  Adrianople  to 
Bulgaria.  The  Young  Turks  had  been  outside  the  breast- 
works for  about  six  months,  looking  for  an  opportunity  to 
return  to  power.  The  proposed  surrender  of  Adrianople 
apparently  furnished  them  this  opportunity.  Adrianople  was 
an  important  Turkish  city,  and  naturally  the  Turkish  people 
regarded  the  contemplated  surrender  as  marking  still  another 
milestone  to  their  national  doom.  Talaat  and  Enver  hastily 
collected  about  200  followers-  and  marched  up  to  the  Sublime 
Porte,  where  the  ministry  was  then  sitting.  Nazim,  hearing 
the  uproar,  stepped  out  into  the  hall.  He  courageously 
faced  the  crowd,  a  cigarette  in  his  mouth,  and  his  hands 
thrust  into  his  pockets. 

"Come,  boys,"  he  said,  good  humouredly.  "what's  all  this 
noise  about  ?  Don't  you  know  that  it  is  inteifering  with 
our  deliberations  ?  " 

The  words  had  hardly  left  his  mouth  when  he  fell  dead. 
A  bullet  had  pierced  a  vital  spot. 

The  mob,  led  by  Talaat  and  Enver,  then  forced  their  way 
into    the    council-room.     They    forced    Kiamil,    the    Grand 
Vizier— he  was  more  than  eighty  years  old— to  resign  his 
post  under  threat  of  meeting  Nazim's  fate. 
(To  be  continued). 


Copyrifhl,  1918,  U.S.A. 


Admiral  von  Capelle:    ''Ever 

By  Loi 


JJtjIiJiWt  PHLLMimm-i.-i-j.  i-iii   !■■»■  iT«iriTi«Tr  i..ii  i  — ■■^— — .  ,.^^.^^  ^  .^  ^^ - 


rg  is  all  right,  All-Highest!" 


Copyright,  "  Laiul  &  WaUr' 


'e.Ts. 


12 


Land    &    Water 


May  9,  1918 


Economy  in  the  Grand  Fleet  :  By  l.  r.  Freeman,  r.n.v.r 


THE  wind  liad  been  whistling  raw  and  cold  through 
the  foretop,  from  where  I  had  been  watching  the 
night  target  practice,  and  my  appetite  was 
whetted  to  a  razor  edge  by  the  time  the  game  was 
over  and  the  ship  was  again  at  anchor. 

"I'm  as  hungry  as  a  shark,  myself,"  said  the  gfunnery 
■commander;  "but,  never  mind,  we'll  have  a  good  snack  of 
supper  just  as  soon  as  we  climb  down  and  get  out  of  these 
Arctic  togs." 

Five  minutes  later,  the  first  of  a  dozen  officers  who  stamped 
in  as  fast  as  their  duties  were  over,  we  were  seated  at  one  of 
the  ward-room  tables.  "Would  you  rather  have  ham  or 
sardine  sandwiches?"  some  one  asked.  "Both!"  I  un- 
blushingly  replied,   'unless  the  latter  are  as  large  as  whales." 

A  waiter  came  hurrying  through  the  door  in  answer  to  the 
ring,  buttoning  his  coat  as  though  he  had  been  surprised  by 
an  unexpected  summons.  "A  couple  of  plates  of  ham  and 
sardine  sandwiches  and  beer  all  round,"  was  the  laconic  but 
comprehensive  order. 

The  old  "Marine"  smiled  deprecatingly,  as  one  who  has 
unpleasant  news  to  imptirt. 

''Sorry,  sir,"  he  said,  addressing  the  commander,  "but  the 
day's  bread  was  finished  at  dinner,  sir,  an'  the  'am  we'  ad  for 
breakfast  was  all  we  can  'ave  to-day,  sir." 

And  then  the  wonderful  thing  happened.  I  had  expected 
the  howl  of  a  Roman  stage  mob  to  greet  the  disappointing 
announcement  ;  but  it  was  only  the  commander's  voice  that 
was  heard,  speaking  quietly  as  he  rose  from  the  table. 

"Very  well,"  he  said;  "bring  us  some  hot  cocoa  in  the 
smoking-room.  A  good  hot  drink's  the  best  thing  for  a 
night  like  this,  anyway."  Over  steaming  cups  of  cocoa  the 
commander  told  me,  briefly  and  casually,  something  of  what 
ha'd  been  done  on  his  ship  (which  was  thoroughly  typical  of 
the  other  units  of  the  Grand  Fleet)  to  cut  down  the  unneces- 
sary consumption  of  food. 

"The  old  idea,"  he  said,  "that  a  fighting  man  ought  to  be 
stuffed  like  a  prize  steer  was  discredited  by  experience  long 
ago,  but  it  took  the  war  to  jar  us  into  putting  that  experi- 
ence (like  so  many  other  things)  into  practice.  Any  man 
living  a  non-sedentary  life  will  make  a  very  brave  attempt 
to  eat  all  the  food  that  is  put  before  him,  but  that  by  no 
means  proves  that  he  needs  it.  If  he  is  working  hard 
enough  in  the  open  air,  the  surplus  over  his  normal  require- 
ment does  not  do  him  any  harm,  and  so  there  was  not  much 
p)oint  in  keeping  it  away  from  him  as  long  as  there  was  food 
to  waste  all  over  the  world.  But  when  the  world's  surplus 
began  to  be  turned  into  a  deficit  by  the  war,  the  opportunity 
arose  to  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone — to  save  food  and  to 
improve  the  health  of  the  men.  I  am  glad  to  saj'  that  we 
have  been  able  to  do  both,  and  with  the  hearty  concur- 
rence  of  every  one   concerned,    officers  and  men. 

"Generally  speaking,"  he  continued,  "we  left  the  Navy 
ration  just  about  as  it  was  before  the  war,  with  the  exception 
of  those  staples  in  which  there  is  the  worst  shortage — bread, 
meat,  and  potatoes.  Great  as  the  actual  food-saving  has 
proved,  a  still  more  important  benefit  has  been  to  our 
health.  There  are  several  factors  contributing  to  the  truth 
that  the  personnel  of  the  Grand  Fleet  has  incomparably  the 
highest  standard  of  health  ever  maintained  in  so  large  a 
body  of  men,  and  I  am  quite  positive  that  by  no  means  the 
least  of  these  is  the  check  that  has  been  put  on  over-eating 
by  our  food-saving  measures." 

»  *  • 

This  incident  occurred  on  the  occasion  of  my  first  visit  to 
the  Grand  Fleet  in  the  late  autumn  of  last  year ;  but  it  was 
not  until  my  return,  nearly  two  months  later,  that  I  had 
opportunity  to  gather  anything  further  of  the  details  of  food 
economy.  Then  I  learned  that  a  strict  rationing  was  only 
the  first  part  of  a  scheme  of  which  the  second  was  a  waste- 
prevention  campaign.  Bread  and  meat  were  both  further 
restricted,  but  to  the  iiViprovement  rather  than  the  detriment 
of  the  already  high  health  standard  of  the  Fleet.  The  bread 
now  served  consists  of  one-eighth  potato,  one-sixth  barley 
meal,  and  the  remainder— but  slightly  more  than  two- 
thirds — of  "standard"  flour.  The  Fleet  Paymaster  of  my 
ship,  who  outlined  the  scheme  to  me,  said  that  the  idea  was 
to  reduce  waste  to  a  minimum,  both  "coining"  and  "going." 
"We  aim  to  put  no  more  food  on  the  tables  of  cither  the 
officers  or  men  than  they  will  eat  up  clean.  Jack  Spratt  and 
his  wife  are  our  models.  But  we  don't  stop  there  by  any 
means.  Jack  Spratt,  so  far  as  we  have  any  information, 
must  have  thrown  away  the  bones,  even  if  he  and  the  missus 

Copyright  in  U.S..^. 


did  hck  the  platter.  We  not  only  save  the  bones,  but  even 
go  so  far  as  to  skim  the  grease  of^  the  dish-water  the  platter 
is  washed  in.  If  you  will  run  over  this  report  here,  you'll 
understand  the  'fade-away'  expression  on  the  faces  of  the 
gulls  that  used  to  fatten  on  the  waste  of  the  Grand  Fleet. 
It  is  merely  a  tabulated  summary  of  a  week's  saving  of  the 
things  which  used  to  go  down  the  chutes. 

There  were  numbers  nmning  to  four  and  five  figures  in  the 
table,  most  of  them  referring  to  the  pounds  of  various  refuse 
which  had  been  collected  and  shipped  for  conversion  into 
glycerine  and  other  useful  and  valuable  products.  Without 
giving  figures  which  might  be  "useful  or  heartening  to  the 
enemy,"  I  will  probably  be  permitted  to  state  that  the 
various  headings  were  the  following  :  Dripping,  fat  meat, 
bones,  waste  paper,  bottles  and  jars,  discarded  clothing, 
head  seals,  mail  bags,  and  tins.  Several  of  the  items  would 
have  run  to  substantial  figures  even  in  tons,  and  the  money 
received  for  them  at  even  the  nominal  prices  paid  by- the 
contractor  aggregated  many  thousands  of  pounds. 

Variations  in  Savings 

Glancing  quickly  through  the  figures  under  the  headings 
opposite  the  various  ships  of  our  squadron,  I  noticed  at  once 
that  there  were  considerable  variations  in  their  savings,  and, 
knowing  that  the  number  of  men  did  not  vary  materially  on 
any  of  them,  I  asked  the  reason  why  the  flagship,  for  instance, 
with  less  than  half  the  weight  of  "bones"  to  her  credit  than 
"ourself,"  was  still  able  to  put  by  something  like  50  per 
cent,  more  dripping. 

"It  will  probably  be  because  we  haven't  yet  'standard- 
ised' our  methods  throughout'  the  Fleet,"  repUed  the  Pay- 
master; "because  different  ships  may  have  different  waj^ 
of  going  about  the  job.  Of, these  particular  items  you  have 
mentioned,  perhaps  we  can  find  out  something  by  talking 

to  Mr.  C ,  the  warrant-officer  who  has  charge  of  the 

collection  of  by-products." 

Mr.  C ,  who  was  plainly  an  enthusiast,  launched  on  to 

the  subject  with  eagerness. 

"  I've  been  intending  to  explain  that  matter  of  dripping 
to  you,  sir,"  he  said,  addressing  the  Fleet  Paymaster,  "for 
the  figures  certainly  have  the  look  of  not  doing  us  justice. 
Fact  is,  though,  that  the  only  reason  we've  run  behind  the 
flagship  on  this  count  is  because  I  have  been  encouraging 
the  messes  to  carry  food-saving  one  stage  further  by  using 
the  clean  grease — the  skimmings  from  their  soup  and  the 
water  their  meat  is  boiled  in — instead  of  margarine.  With 
a  Uttle  pepper  and  salt,  most  of  them  like  it  better  even  than 
butter,  and,  of  course,  they  can  use  it  much  more  freely.  And 
since  dripping  is  worth  more  for  food  than  it  ever  can 
be  to  make  up  into  soap  or  explosives,  I  figure  I'm  on  the 
right  ttack,  even  if  it  does  give  the  Lucifer  and  the  Mephis- 
tofoles  a  chance  to  head  us  in  the  'grease'  column.  I  must 
admit,  though,  sir,  that  they've  both  been  gaining  a  few 
pounds  of  second-quahty  stuff  by  rigging  'traps' — settling 
tubs  at  the  bottom  of  their  chutes — in  which  they  catch  any 
grease  that  has  got  away  from  them  in  the  galley.  H'll  be 
beating  them  at  that  game  before  long,  though,  for  I'm 
putting  in  setthng  tubs  at  both  top  and  bottom,  with  a 
strainer  in  between. 

"As  for  the  'bones,'  "  he  went  on,  turning  to  me,  "that's 
largely  'personahty.'  'Boney  Joe,'  my  chief  assistant,  is 
perhaps  more  largely  responsible  than  anyone  else  for  the 
fact  that  we  are  not  only  the  champion  '  bone-collecting ' 
ship  of  the  squadron,  but  also  head  the  list  with  '  bottles  and 
jars'  and  'empty  tins.'  With  'waste  paper'  tliere's  no  use 
competing  with  the  flagship,  for  they  come  in  for  an  even 
heavier  bombardment  of  that  kind  of  stuff  from  the  Admiralty 
than,  we  do;  and  as  for  'discarded  clothing,'  1  feel  that  a 
place  at  the  bottom  of  the  column  would  be  more  likely  to 
indicate  economical  management  than  one  at  ihe  top.  But 
the  things  that  represent  a  sheer  saving,  the  things  that 
used  to  be  thrown  away  right  along— they're  what  it's  worth 
while  pihng  up  by  every  means  we  can,  and  they're  the  ones 
with  which  I  want  to  keep  heading  the  columns.  And,  as 
I  said  before,  'Boney  Joe'  is  the  main  feature  of  the  show  on 
this  score.  If  you  like,  I  will  arrange  it  so  that  you  can  do 
his  morning  round  with  him  to-morrow." 

I  accepted  the  offer  with  alacrity,  for  I  had  heard  of  "Boney 
Joe"  frequently.  The  first  time  was  when,  in  order  to  avoid 
a  howlmg  blizzard  which  was  sweeping  the  decks,  I  endea- 
voured to  make  my  way  forward  to  the  ladder  leading  up 
to  my  cabm  under  the  bridge  by  threading  the  mazes  of  the 


May  9,  191 8 


Land   &   Water 


13 


mess-deck.  Bent  almost  double  to  keep  from  butting  the 
low-swung  hammocks,  I  tripped  the  more  easily  over  a  box 
of  empty  tins,  and  fell  with  one  arm  sousing  elbow-deep 
into  what  proved  to  be  a  tub  of  "frozen"  grease.  Surveying 
the  draggled  cuff  of  my  jacket  in  the  morning  my  servant 
pronounced  his  verdict  without  a  moment's   hesitation. 

"Tumbhn"  into  'Boney  Joe's' pickin's  last  night,  sir,  was 
you,"  he  said  with  a  grin  ;    "we's  alius  doin'  it  oursel's." 

On  a  number  of  other  occasions  certain  syrenic  notes 
which  came  floating  up  to  my  cabin  from  the  mess-deck 
were  variously  ascribed  to  '"Boney  Joe'  doin'  'is  rounds," 
"  'Boney  Joe'  cadgin'  for  grease,"  and  "  'Boney  Joe'  singin' 
'is  'Momin'  'Ate.'"  I  had  several  pictures  of  "Boney 
Joe"  in  my  mind,  but  not  one  of  them  came  near  to  fitting 
the  handsome,  strongly  built,  and  thoroughly  sailorly  man- 

o'-war's-man    wliom    Mr.    C introduced   to   me    as    the 

bearer  of  that  storied  name  on  the  following  morning.  Only 
a  sort  of  scallywag  twinkle  in  his  eye  revealed  him  as  a 
man  who  liked  his  little  joke. 

Mr.  C was  called  away  at  this  juncture,  and  left  cock 

of  his  own  dung-hill  "Boney  Joe  "  became  at  once  his  own 
natural  self.  The  sailorly  man-o'-war's-man  disappeared  in 
an  instant,  and  only  one  of  the  drollest  characters  in  the 
British  Navy  remained  behind.     "I'll  be  showin'  you  'ow  I 


goes  out  to  drum  up  me  bone  trade,"  he  said,  throwing  an 
empty  sack  over  his  shoulder,  and  replacing  his  be-ribboned 
cap  with  a  crumpled  Homburg  hat.  "Now,  'er's  wot  I  sing 
tu  'em.     Made  it  up  mysel',  too." 

With  a  quick  double-shufHe,  he  began  footing  it  up  and 
down  the  junk-cluttered  deck  of  the  "bonatorium,"  singing: 

'Eave  out  all  yer  dead  an'  dyin', 

'Eave  out  all  yer  bones  an'  fat,  . 

'Eave  out  the  stiff  o'  '  LittI'  Willie,' 
An'  I'll  give  you  my  'at. 

"  Why  celebrate  Little  Willie  ?"  I  asked  in  perplexity.  "I 
don't  trace  the  connection  between  the  'dead  and  dying,' 
and  'bones  and  fat,'  and  the— the  earthly  remains  of  the 
Crown  Prince." 

"I  ain't  celebratin'  'em,"  explained  "Joe"  ;  "I'm  abomi- 
natin'  'em,  so  to  speak.  My  reference  is  to  the  dead  an' 
dyin'  sojers  th'  Kaisur  cooks  up  to  make  glysreen  frum. 
I  brings  in  Willie  jest  to  make  'etn  ieel  how  they'd  like  it 
if  'twas  their  turn  next." 


There  is  a  "Boney  Joe"  on  every  ship  of  the  British 
Navy  to-day.  We  could  do  with  a  few  more  of  him  in 
civil  life. 


Climax  of  the  Two  Great  Wars:  By  j.  Holland  r 


ose,  Litt.  D. 


IN  a  former  article  I  sought  to  compare  the  military 
and  naval  situation  of  Great  Britain  relatively  to  her 
enemies  in  the  years  1810-11  and  1917-18,  which  may 
be  considered  the  climax  of  the  two  struggles. 
Now  I  am  concerned  with  questions  of  food  supply, 
•commerce,  and  finance  at  the  two  periods.  As  before, 
I  i  leave  the  reader  mentally  to  supply,  many  present 
■details,  and  I  concentrate  attention  chiefly  on  the  years 
i8ro-ii. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Great  Britain  then  occupied 
a  position  respecting  food  supply  sounder  than  she  now  does. 
The  population  was  about  one-third  of  the  present  numbers 
and  the  potential  area  for  tillage  greater.  Owing  to  agri- 
cultural reforms  and  improvements  in  the  breed  of  oxen  and 
sheep,  British  farming  was .  far  the  best  in  the  world.  In 
fact,  we  were  just  in  the  position  best  suited  to  face  Napoleon's 
•  continental  blockade.  Further,  he  never  sought  to  prevent 
food  coming  to  our  p>orts,  but  rather  encouraged  such  imports 
in  the  belief  that  he  was  harming  us  by  draining  away  the 
reserves  of  gold.*  Such  a  course  of  action  now  seems 
singular  ;  but  we  must  remember,  firstly,  that  the  England 
of  those  days  grew  enough  corn  in  average  seasons  to  suffice 
for  49  weeks  out  of  the  52,  whereas  home-grown  corn  usually 
lasts  for  about  10  weeks  only.  To  Napoleon,  then,  a  policy 
of  starvation  may  well  have  seemed  impossible.  Secondly, 
he  was  a  mercantilist  of  the  crudest  type,  and  believed  that 
a  great  volume  of  imports  weakened  a  country  ;  and  as  our 
credit  .declined  somewhat  in  1810  he  sought  to  increase  the 
drop  by  allowing  imports  of  com  at  the  then  high  prices.  It 
so  chanced  that  bad  harvests  occurred  in  all  the  years  1809-12 
of  the  Napoleonic  ascendancy.  Ill-luck  in  weather  condi- 
tions has  certainly  dogged  us  during  this  war ;  but  our 
forefathers  had  to  face  four  bad  harvests  in  succession  at  a 
time  when  the  great  conqueror  was  excluding  them  from 
intercourse  with  all  the  Continent  except  Turkey  and  parts 
of  the  Spanish  Peninsula.  Accordingly,  the  average  price  of 
wheat  rose  from  about  45s.  the  quarter  (pre-war  price 
previous  to  1793)  to  95s.,  103s.,  92s.  5d.,  and  122s.  8d: 
in  1809-12. t 

Drastic  expedients  were  adopted  to  assuage  the  dearth. 
The  distillation  of  spirits  from  grain  was  prohibited  in  those 
years,  as  it  had  been  in  1795,  1800,  and  1808  ;  and  public 
opinion  demanded  the  prohibition.  At  a  large  meeting  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Liverpool  on  November  4th,  18x1,  the 
Mayor  being  in  the  chair,  it  was  unanimously  resolved,  on 
the  motion  of  Mr.  John  Gladstone  (father  of  the  statesman) 
that  a  petition  be  drawn  up  requesting  prohibition  by  royal 
prerogative  until  the  assembly  of  Parliament.  It  ran  thus  ; 
".  .  .  In  times  like  the  present,  when  no  dependence  can 
be  placed  on  receiving  supplies  of  foreign  corn,  it  becomes  of 
the  first  importance  to  husband  to  the  utmost  the  crops  of 
this  country."  .  .  .  (unless  prohibition  be  soon  reinforced) 
"the  distUlers  will  have  laid  in  their  stocks  of  grain  for  the 

•  For  proofs  see  my  Napoleonic  Studies  {fj.  Bell  &  Sons,  1904), 
jjp.  196-221. 

t  Porter,  Progress  of  the  Nation,  sec.  ii,  ch.  i.  Tooke's  estimates 
are  higher. 


season,  a  large  proportion  of  which  will  either  be  distilled  or 
converted  into  a  state  unfitting  it  for  the  food  of  man."* 
There  was  need  for  drastic  action.  Owing  to  Napoleon's 
rigid  enforcement  of  his  Continental  System  and  his  annexa- 
tions in  1810,  intercourse  with  the  Continent  almost  ceased 
in  1811,  and  whereas  in  1810  we  imported  nearly  ij  milUon 
quarters  of  wheat  and  wheaten  flour,  not  much  over  a 
quarter  of  a  million  entered  our  ports  in  1811,  when  the 
harvests  throughout  Europe  failed.  The  narrowness  of  our 
sources  of  supply  (viz.,  France,  Germany,  and  Poland  in  peace 
time)  was  in  itself  a  source  of  danger.  Australia  then  raised 
barely  enough  corn  for  her  infant  settlements,  and  America 
sent  mere  driblets.  In  1810,  William  Cobbett,  who  had 
been  over  there,  asserted,  with  his  usual  perverse  dogmatism  : 
"America  never  did,  and  never  can,  give  us  any  very  large 
supply."  He  therefore  prophesied  that  the  quartern  loaf 
would  sell  at  2s.  6d.  by  Christmas.  It  sold  at  just  half  that 
price  (as  his  Political  Register  testifies),  and  remained  at  that 
figure  till  the  autumn  of  181 1,  when  it  rose  to  is.  6d.,  and 
more  still  in  1812.  Best  Danzig  wheat  then  fetched  i8os. 
the  quarter  at  Mark  Lane — a  price,  I  believe,  never  exceeded. 
The  collapse  of  Napoleon's  power  in  1814  brought  the  average 
to  less  than  73s. — approximately  the  same  as  in  1807.  Thus, 
the  unfortunate  coincidence  of  a  run  of  bad  seasons  with  the 
climax  of  the  Napoleonic  System  brought  England  in  the 
winter  6f  1811-12  to  the  verge  of  starvation,  though  he  never 
designed  to  starve  us.  On  July  i6th  and  August  6th,  1810, 
he  issued  instractions  for  the  export  of  com  from  Italy  to 
Malta  and  England,  as  such  a  step  would  help  Italian  finance. 
In  1811-12  he  seems  either  not  to  have  known  of  our  dire 
straits  or  to  have  clung  to  his  notion  of  raining  us  by 
increasing  the  excess  of  imports  over  exports.J  In  either 
case,  his  action,  or  inaction,  saved  us  from  a  crisis  of  extreme 
gravity,  which,  as  will  shortly  appear,  produced  deep  dis- 
tress among  the  poor.  But  that  state  of  things  was  wholly 
exceptional,  and  due  to  the  causes  just  explained. 

A  comparison  of  the  average  price  of  wheat  in  1809-12 
with  that  for  1917-18  shows  the  f.,llowing  average  prices  : 
In  1809-12,  103s.  4d.  per  quarter  (at  Tooke's  estimates, 
105s.  5d.) ;  in  1917-18,  about  75s.,  with  a  tendency  to  a 
gradual  rise.  Government  control  has  doubtless  checked  this 
tendency.  Still,  the  fact  remains  that  Germany's  sub- 
marines, operating  against  these  crowded  islands,  have  not  pro- 
duced the  dearth  which  characterised  the  years  1809-12. 
The  failure,  hitherto,  of  the  submarine  campaign  could  not 
be  more  signally  demonstrated.  Sir  Eric  Geddes  stated  on 
November  ist,  1917,  that  the  net  reduction  in  British  mer- 
cantile marine  in  the  four  preceding  months  had  been  30  per 
cent,  less  than  he  had  estimated  in  July.  Furthermore, 
wheat — the  most  vulnerable  of  our  necessaries — sells  at  Uttle 

•  T.  Tooke,  Thoughts  on  the  High  and  Low  Prices  of  the  Years 
1793-1822,  app.  vii. 

t  W.  Cobbett,  Political  Register,  for  June  23rd,  1810,  and  Tables 
of  Prices. 

I  Cobbett  writes  {Polit.  Register  ior  November  23rd,  1811)  : 
' '  Napoleon  is .  not  fool  enough  to  prevent  the  exportation  of  com 
while  it  brings  him   back  our  hoarded  gold." 


u 


Land    &    Water 


May  9,  igi8 


more  than  double  the  average  pre-war  prices  {3.48.  6d.  to  35s. 
the  quarter).  The  average  ol  1809-12  was  far  more  than 
double  that  for  the  pre-war  period  (45s.  the  quarter). 

It  appears,  then,  that  German  "fright fulness,"  exerted 
against  conditions  of  food  supply  which  are  perilously  arti- 
ficial, has  produced  far  less  distress  than  the  Napoleonic 
System,  which  never  aimed  at  starving  us.  I  commend  this 
fact  to  -the  notice  of  Admiral  Tirpitz,  Count  Reventlow,  and 
Captain  Persius.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  however,  that  we  shall 
never  again  persist  in  the  blind  optimism  and  official  heed- 
lessness with  regard  to  food  supply  in  war  time  whicli  charac- 
terised the  pre-war  period.  For  it  is  ])ossibIe — even  pro- 
bable— that  in  the  future  a  naval  combination  might  be 
formed  against  us,  formidable  not  only  in  submarines  and 
gun-power,  but  also  in  coast-power.  As  I  have  shown,  our 
mercantile  losses  largely  increased  after  Trafalgar,  and 
reached  their  climax  at  the  time  when  Napoleon  controlled 
three-fourths  of  the  continental  coasts.  If  ever  the  inten- 
sive warfare  of  the  type  of  the  German  submarine  should  be 
combined  with  the  extensive  methods  employed  by  him,  the 
results  would  certainly  be  fatal. 

One  word  more  on  this  topic.  German  savagery  is  ranging 
all  nations  against  her  more  quickly  than  the  severities  of 
Napoleon's  Continental  System  ranged  the  European  peoples 
against  him  in  1813-14.  His  methods  for^assuring  our  ruin 
took  him  to  Moscow  and  assured  his  ruin.  Their  methods 
have  (to  use  Canning's  famous  phrase)  brought  in  the  New 
World  to  redress  the  balance  of  the  Old. 

Industrial  Conditions 

Only  a  short  space  remains  for  a  comparison  of  the  indus- 
trial and  financial  conditions  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  the 
years  1810-12  and  1917-18.     The  growth  of  British  industry 
was  probably  more  marked  in  the  earlier  period  than  it  has 
been  in  recent  years,  and  that  growth  showed  few  signs  of 
slackening  even  during  the  Napoleonic  War.     The  applica- 
tion of  labour-saving  machines  to  the  textile  industries  and 
the  increased  use  of  steam  engines  in  factories  brought  about 
an  immense  expansion  in  output,  an  improvement  in  quality, 
and  a  cheapening  of  the  cost  of  production,   especially  of 
cotton  yam,  viz.,  from  38s.  per  lb.  in  1786  to  6s.  gd.  in  1807. 
This  economic  gain  stimulated  the  export  of  cottons,  viz., 
from  the  value  of  £7,081,441  in  1803  to  ;fi8,95i,994  in  1810. 
The  exports  of  woollens  are  not  known  before  1815  ;    then 
they  were  valued  at  £9,381,426.     British  textiles  (except  in 
silk)  being  far  cheaper  and  better  than  those  of  the  Continent, 
it  was  useless  even  for  Napoleon  to  try  to  exclude  them. 
His  lands  were  a  generation  behind  these  islands  in  industrial 
methods.    Woodward's  caricature,  "The  Giant,  Commerce, 
overwhelming  the  Pygmy  Blockade"  (January,  1807),  shows 
a  brawny  John  Bull  clad  in  wool,  with  porcelain  visor  and 
helmet,  shod  with  Staffordshire  ^hoes,  his  arms  covered  with 
calico,  his  hands  deep  in  Woodstock  gloves,  hurling  Birming- 
ham  pig-iron,   blocks  of  steel  and  tin,   barrels  of  London 
porter,  and  patent  coffins,  at  a  diminutive  Boney  behind  his 
battlements,   while  between  them  the  sea  is  covered  with 
ships   fl>nng   the   Union   Jack,    for   all   the   French   decrees. 
This  sketch  and  many  others  of  the  time  reveal  the  con- 
sciousness of  strength  of  the  British  race.      Its  production 
or  use  of  necessaries  (e.g.,  bricks,  tiles,  tallow,  sperm,  hides, 
soap,  starch,  salt)  increased  by  about  a  half  in  the  war  period, 
and  the  supply  of  beer  increased  by  one-ninth.     True,  the 
sales  of  tea — then  a  rather  dear  luxury — fell  from  25,144,171 
lbs.  in  1802  to  23,058,4961b.  in  that  year  of  distress,  1811 ; 
but,  early  in  1812,  Russia  again  admitted  British  products  ; 
and  the  rise  of  the  sales  of  tea  to  24,856,914  lb.  in  that  year 
bespoke  the  recovery  of  purchasing  power.     Indeed,  the  rest 
of  the  world  was  largely  dependent  on  Great  Britain  for 
textiles,  hardware,  and  the  cheaper  kinds  of  porcelain.     The 
following  are  the  values  of  the  total  imports  and  exports 
to  and  from  the  United  Kingdom  in  the  two  periods,  so  far 
as  they  are  available  (inclusive  of  the  last    years   of   peace 
and  in  each  case  omitting  '000)  : 

Imports  Exports 

1802 31,442       .  .  41,411 

1810 41,136      •■  45,869 

1811      ..  ..  ..        28,626      ..  32,409 

i^i^ -^^.sgs  •  •   43.241 

1913 768,734  . .  634,820 

1914 <>96,b35   •  •   526,195 

1915 851,893   ..   483,930 

191'J 949,152   ..   604,154* 

It  will  be  Sijirn  tliat  at  the  earlier  period,  except  in  181 1, 
exports  showed  an  increase  over  the  years  of  peace,  and 
in   all  those  years   a   large  excess  over  imports.     In   both 


•  Statesman's   Year  Book, 


1917- 


respects  our  present  position  is  unsatisfactory ;  but  the 
contrast  is  due  to  the  urgent  calls  on  war  industries  which, 
of  course,  have  checked  or  stopped  ordinary  trades.  The 
great  increase  of  imports  is  due  to  the  same  reason,  as  also 
to  senseless  extravagance,  which  demands  restraint  by  all 
possible  measures  ;  otherwise  the  financial  situation  at  the 
peace  will  be  worse  than  it  was  after  Waterloo.  The  ratio  of 
war  expenditure  to  the  total  national  wealth  is  believed  to 
be  no  higher  than  in  the  Napoleonic  War ;  and  the  fall  in 
the  exchange  value  of  the  £  (especially  at  New  York)  is 
comparatively  shght.  Still,  the  future  is  far  from  bright 
so  long  as  we  buy  recklessly  and  produce  marketable  goods 
sparingly.  Our  forefathers  were  in  a  sounder  position, 
industrially  and  financially,  than  we,  who  are  living  largely 
on  credit. 

The  working  classes  now  are  in  a  far  better  position  than 
in  the  earlier  war.  Taxation  is  now  fairlj'  adjusted  so  as  to 
spare  the  necessaries  of  life  as  much  as  possible,  and  fall  on 
wealth  and  luxuries.  Then  thfe  reverse  was  the  case,  the 
income-tax  being  at  only  2s.  in  the  /  from  1806  to  181 5, 
while  necessaries  and  small  comforts  bore  heavy  imposts. 
Now  the  taxes  on  wealth  furnish  348  millions  out  of  the 
total  of  573  millions  of  the  revenue  for  1916-7.  Then  Excise 
and  Customs  sent  up  the  prices  of  all  articles  in  common  use, 
with  the  result  that  all  trades  were  hampered  and  every 
larder  was  pinched.  Unfortunately,  the  new  labour-saving 
machinery  threw  many  men  out  of  work  or  for  the  time 
reduced  earnings,  when  war-taxes  were  raising  prices.  Distress 
was  especially  acute  in  1811  and  the  first  part  of  1812,  a  fact 
which  explains  the  fierce  Luddite  riots  in  the  Midlands  and 
North.  The  coUapse  of  our  speculative  exports  to  South 
.America  in  1810  caused  wholesale  bankruptcies  (1,200  in  the 
first  half  of  1811),  especially  in  the  textile  districts,  whose 
condition  Cobbett  thus  describes :  "  How  many  of  these 
towns  does  the  traveller  pass  through  wtithout  being  way- 
laid at  the  entrance  and  the  exit  by  a  swarm  of  children 
more  than  half-naked,  running  and  tumbling,  and  bowing 
and  praying  and  crying,  in  the  hope,  often  disappointed,  of 
obtaining  the  means  of  buying  an  ounce  of  bread  ?  Enter 
their  dwelling-places.  See  misery  in  all  her  horrors,  filth, 
disease,  the  blood  poisoned,  and  the  heart  hardened  to  a 
flint."* 

It  is  needless  to  point  the  contrast  with  present  conditions. 
Of  late  the  rise  of  prices  has  been  accompanied,  in  nearly  all 
manual  callings,  by  an  equal  or  greater  increase  in  wages,  so 
that  the  chief  danger  is  the  rapid  growth  of  extravagant 
habits  which  must  perforce  cease  abruptly  with  the  cessation 
of  the  profuse  war  expenditure  that  alone  renders  them 
possible. 

That  the  United  Kingdom  is  now  subsisting  more  on 
credit  than  at  the  earher  period  will  appear  from  a  comparison 
of  the  revenue  raised  by  taxation  and  the  expendituref 
(omitting  '000)  : 

1802         1810         1811  1812  1813 

i  i  £  £  £ 

Revenue  36,368     67,144     65,173         65,037         68,748 

Expenditure     49,549     76,865     83,735         88,757,     105,943 

1912-3        1913-4        i9t4-5  1915-6  1916-7 

Revenue         188,801    198,242   226,694       336,766      573,428 
Expenditure  188,621    197,492   .560,473    1,159,158    2,198,112 

In  the  years  1810-2  only  £9,385,000  was  lent  to  our  Spanish, 
Portuguese,  and  Sicilian  Allies  ;   and  the  recent  disproportion 
between   revenue   and   expenditure   is   due   largely   to   very 
heavy    loans    to    our    numerous    Allies.      Nevertheless,    the 
figures  suggest  the  urgent  need  of  economy  both  by  Govern- 
mental Departments  and  the  nation  at  large.     Unless  the 
nation  resolutely  endeavours  to  meet  the  present  enormous 
financial  demands  out  of  its  own  resources,  our  indebtedness 
to  other  peoples  (especially  the  United  States)  will  be  very 
far  heavier  than   at   any   time  in   British   history.     At   St. 
Helena,  Napoleon  cpngratulated  himself  that  he  had  for  ever 
crippled  England  with  a  National  Debt  which  would  make 
her  tributary  to  America.     He  was  wrong  ;    for  the  British 
people  then  lived  frugally  and  met  their  indebtedness  out  of 
their    own    resources.     Their    credit    was    never    seriously 
impaired.     Even  in   1811   Government  could  borrow  at  4^ 
per  cent.,  and  not  until  the  needs  of  our  Allies  became  exigent 
in  1813  did  the  rate  rise  above  5  per  cent. J     That  rate  has 
long  bfeen  exceeded  in  this  war,  and  for  reasons  stated  above. 
There  is  no  need  for  alarm  ;    but  there  is  a  more  pressing 
need  than  ever  for  resolute  economy.     Caveat  emptor  ! 

•  Cobbett,  Political  Register,  March  9th,  i8ii. 

t  Porter,  op.  cit.,  p.  483,  gives  the  figures  of  the  annual  loans 
then  raised  so  as  to  appear  to  balance  expenditure, 

}  R.  Hamilton,  Inquiry  into  .  .  .  the  National  Debt  (1818),  app. 
viii.  ;  Miss  A.  Cunningham,  British  Credit  in  the  Napoleonic  War 
(rgio),  ch.  7. 


May  9,  191 8 


Land    Sc    Water 


^5 


The  Tree  in  the  Pool 


A  Sketch 


IT  is  a  curious  tree.  In  my  travels  I  had  not 
heard  of  it.  nor  had  I  read  of  it  in  books. 
It  grew  in  a  hollow  on  the  edge  of  a  cliff 
overlooking  the  sea.  ,  It  grew  in  a  pool  of 
uncertain-looking  water,  around-  which  lay 
a  narrow  strip  of  treacherous  swampy  ground. 
To  the  rear  of  it  ran  a  winding  line  of  subtle- 
tinted  moss,  following  the  bottom  of  a  shallow 
valley  which  ran  itself  out  on  the  rolling  plain. 

The  trea. itself  had  no  resemblance  to  any  of  the 
vegetation  surrounding  it.  Around  it,  indeed, 
were  a  great  variety  of  plants  and  stunted  shrubs, 
forming,  as  it  were,  a  great  and  varicoloured 
setting  to  the  one  really  green  thing  that  grew 
there.  There  were  great  areas  of  purple  heather, 
toned  and  shaded  in  places  by  smaller  patches  of 
pink  and  still  smaller  patches  of  white.  Then 
there  were  the  intennediary  strips  of  green, 
coarse  grass  and  a  good  sprinkling  of  low-growing 
yellow-tipped  gorse.  The  eye  of  the  botanist,  too; 
would  have  discovered  a  great  variety  of  small 
and  flowering  plants,  hidden  away  in  a  thousand 
most  envious  'places — far  more  obvious  to  him 
perhaps  than  the  tree  that  grew  in  the  pool. 

In  size  it  was  not  a  big  tree  ;  indeed,  it  must 
have  been  a  very  small  bird  that  would  have 
thought  it  a  tree  at  all.  But  for  some  unaccount- 
able reason,  one  is  constrained  to  think  of  it  and 
term  it  as  such.  Perhaps  because  of  its  age  But 
its  appearance  would  suggest  it  as  being  the 
growth  of  a  night,  or  six  or  seven  nights  at  most. 
Something  suggests  its  form.  But  no  tree  ever 
grew  whose  limbs  and  branches  spread  like  these 
spread.  However,  one  can  but  attempt  to 
describe  it,  and  in  doing  that  perhaps  make  some 
distance  towards  a  solution  of  its  nature  and 
origin.  N 

The  pool  in  which  it  grew  was  not  deep — at 
least,  it  did  not  appear  to  be  so  to  a  fully  grown 
man — although  there  is  no  saying  how  far  one 
might  have  probed  its  uncertain  substance,  and 
ye^  failed  to  arrive  at  a  solid  bottom.  At  the 
surface,  except  for  the  gatherings  that  lay  there, 
one  could  most  certainly  say  it  was  water ;  but  a 
very  little  effort  revealed  a  substance  which  none 
might  readDy  name  or  speak  of  with  certainty. 
Nor  could  one  say  what  relation  it  had  to  the 
roots  of  the  tree.  Perchance  the  roots  pierced  it . 
and  gathered  their  nourishment  from  the  simple 
earth,  and  unless  they  hung  loose  as  in  some 
floating  mass  of  semi-fluid  matter,  this  must  have 
been  so.  But  the  latter  conjecture  is  as  feasible 
as  the  former,  inasmuch  as  that  the  roots  were  in 
no  way  required  as  a  support  to  the  very  weighty 
and  cumbrous  limbs.  These  had  made  of  them-- 
selves  their  own  support,  and  rested  in  the.swampy 
ground  round  the  whole  circumference  of  tlie  pool, 
so  that  the  pool  lay  completely  overshadowed  by 
a  veritable  network  of  limbs,  leaves,  and  stems  of 
vegetable-hke  flowers. 

Wliat,  then,  could  it  be  that  gave  this  tree  its 
attraction  and  made  it  so  suggestive  of  sx>  many 
unheard-of  things,  for  one  has  to  give  rein  to  one's 
fancy,  and  the  tree  and  all  its  associated  sur- 
roundings take  us  into  realms  that  are  scarcely 
earthly.  In  a  moment  we  discover  ourselves  in 
the  toils  of  som:>  enchanted  spot  or  away  irj  some 


place  inhabited  by  creatures  other  than  men,  or 
even  it  may  be  in  the  primitive  ages  of  the  world 
itself.  Then,  also,  there  surrounds  the  tree  an  air 
of  present  mystery  as  of  some  hidden  presence 
clinging  over  the  pool  and  in  the  undisturbed 
shadows  of  its  limbs,  thus  hiding  itself  by  reason 
of  some  unseemly  truth  it  wished  to  keep  con- 
cealed. And  in  this  last  suggestion  there  seems 
to  be  more  than  a  semblance  of  reason,  for  what 
child,  or  nymph,  or  naiad,  ever  before  saw  a  tree 
that  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  the  water,  and  in  a 
pool  which  was  fed  by  a  moss-covered  stream, 
and  one  to  which  there  was  no  outlet  nor  the 
possibility  even  of  one  that  was  hidden. 

Again,  appealing  to  the  same  sprightly  denizens 
of  the  earth,  which  of  them  ever  before  saw  a  tree 
which  had  neither  one  trunk  nor  two,  but  twenty 
— each  one  of  which  ordered  itself  in  a  manner 
most  suitable  to  the  formation  of  the  complete 
canopy  of  leaves  and  flowers,  and  whose  flowers 
were  neither  red  nor  blue,  but  were  rather  an 
admixture  of  pale  green,  tipped  with  an  indelicate 
white ;  or  a  tree  whose  trunks  and  limbs  were 
neither  hard  nor  soft,  but,  instead,  were  formed 
of  a  fibrous  grassy  substance  surrounding  a  heart 
of  pithy  white.  Then  there  were  the  limbs  that 
spread  from  the  joints  in  regular  circles  !  And 
the  leaves  that  spread  from  the  limbs  in  paim-like 
order  and  the  flowers  that  stood  out  at  the  top — 
round  tips  to  hands  of  a  hundred  fingers  !  Then, 
again,  there  were  the  vegetable  wonders  which  lay 
in  the  shadows  and  away  down  among  the  intricate 
labyrinth  of  leaves  and  Umbs,  and  on  the  surface 
of  the  water,  and  beneath,  down  among  the 
floating  roots  and  suspended  earth. 

In  the  poisonous  air  of  some  tropical  jungle 
these  things  might  have  passed  without  comment, 
but  on  the  edge  of  a  sea-chff  and  in  a  country  that 
supported  nothing  but  stunted  growths,  one  looks 
at  them  and  wonders  from  whence  they  come 
and  by  what  spirit  they  are  upheld. 

But  note  the  change  that  comes  over  them 
even  as  I  write.  The  water  takes  on  a  forbidding 
hue  and  becomes  spotted  all  over  with  the  up- 
rising spins  of  hidden  creatures.  One  lifts  its 
head  a  little  above  the  surface.  It  is  green,  and 
as  its  body  draws  further  and  further  out  it 
becomes  spotted  green  and  yellow — a  long  reptilian 
creature  with  snake-like  scales  and  feet  like  those 
of  a  hzard.  In  the  furthest  shadow,  the  water 
teams  with  similar  uncanny  horrors— who  writhe 
and  turn  about  in  the  mud,  and  in  the  water  like 
a  mass  of  virulent  vegetation.  From  the  centre 
of  the  pool  insects  travel  along  the  branches  of 
the  tree — backwards  and  forwards  to  the  marshy 
b^nk  as  though  burdened  with  some  treasure. 
Bright-coloured  flies  hum  among  the  branches 
and  disturb  the  heavy  air.  A  lizard  springs  from 
the  bank  and  on  to  the  largest  hmb — and  thence 
to  the  further  shore. 

A  moment  later  the  waters  begin  to  rise.  The 
tree  sinks  deeper  and  ever  deeper  in  the  water — 
first  the  mass  of  its  heavy  limbs,  then  the  middle 
leaves,  and,  last  of  all,  its  topmost  flower ;  when 
suddenly  the  earth,  like  the  mouth  of  a  monster, 
closes  over  it,  and  serpents,  pond,  and  tree  dis- 
appear fot  ever. 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


May  9,  igi^ 


Life  and  Letters  Qj  J.  C  Squwe 


American  Literature 

THE  Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  of 
which  vol.  I  (15s.  net)  has  just  been  pubhshed, 
should  not,  to  all  appearances,  be*  taken  as  a 
work  for  which  either  Cambridge  University  or 
its  Press  has  more  than  a  godparental  responsi- 
bility. Its  editors  are  four  American  scholars  ;  its  con- 
tributors are  all  Americans  ;  and  the  English  edition  has 
been  printed  in  America.  Cambridge  seems  to  have  supphed 
merely  a  model,  an  imprint,  and  a  name.  This  generous 
delegation,  on  the  part  of  the  Press,  of  the  care  of  its  reputa- 
tion for  producing  works  of  sound  scholarsliip,  has,  however, 
done  no  harm.  The  history — thus  far,  at  all  events — is  a 
creditable  and  even  impressive  work  of  reference  ;  and  at 
this  moment  it  is  peculiarly  felicitous  that  Americans  and 
EngUsh  should  co-operate  in  producing  it. 


It  is  on  a  larger  scale  than  any  previous  history  ;  and  it 
cannot  fail  to  supplant  its  predecessors,  though  Professor 
Barrett  Wendell's  short  book  will  still  hold  the  field  for 
those  who  want  merely  an  outhne.  The  preface  leads  one 
at  once  to  expect  a  sensible  work.  The  editors  very  naturally 
discuss  the  old  and  much-vexed  question  as  to  how  far 
American  Hterature  ought,  or  can  be  expected,  to  differ 
from  English  literature.  All  sorts  of  fanatical  Americans 
and  misguided  Englishmen  have  clamoured  for  something 
unmistakably  American  :  often,  it  must  be  admitted,  in 
reaction  against  dilettante  Americans  who  have  kept  their 
eyes  too  exclusive!}-  upon  Europe  and  undervalued  anything 
which  did  not  come  from  England.  But  a  desire  to  be 
"different,"  whether  nationally  or  otherwise,  never  in  itself 
produced  good  work.  The  sort  of  advice  which  may  assist 
such  production  is  not  of  local  appUcation  only ;  it  is  em- 
bodied in  phrases  like  "the  eye  on  the  object,"  "look  in  thy 
heart  and  write,"  and  others  none  the  less  sound  for  being 
hackneyed.  America  cannot  escape,  nor  is  there  any  reason 
to  escape,  her  origins,  and  the  great  community  of  traditions 
she  hjis  with  us  in  language,  in  literature,  in  morals.  Ameri- 
cans must  write  in  English  ;  must  be  influehced  by  the  htera- 
ture that  exists  in  the  language  ;  and,  in  so  far  as  they  think 
and  feel  like  us,  must  write  as  we  do.  There  is  no  risk  of  a 
lack  of  local  colour  where  a  man  writes  sincerely  and  local 
peculiarities  exist.  An  American  who  looks  directly  at 
the  scenery  around  him,  and  not  merely  at  the  scenery  in 
books,  will  get  something  that  an  Enghshman  could  not  get ; 
even  were  the  speech  and  intellectual  outlook  of  Americans 
exactly  the  same  of  ours  down  to  the  last  detail  their  affec- 
tions are  necessarily  in  part  centred  on  other  objects  than 
those  which  hold  ours.  The  less  American  writers  bother 
about  being  either  like  us  or  unlike  us,  the  better  for  them. 
Against  the  extreme  doctrinaires,  the  editors  of  the  history 
very  pertinently  quote  Griswold,  who  said,  in  1847  :  "Some 
critics  in  England  expect  us  who  write  the  same  language, 
profess  the  same  religion,  and  have  in  our  intellectual  firma- 
ment the  same  Bacon,  Sidney,  and  Locke,  the  same  Spenser, 
Shakespeare,  and  Milton,  to  differ  more  from  themselves 
than  they  differ  from  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  or  from  any 
of  the  moderns."  Nevertheless,  Griswold  was  "a  proud 
nationalist,"  and  left  valuable  collections  of  American  prose 
and  poetry.  Mere  imitation  of  Enghsh  writers  is  bad  and 
sterile ;   but  it  is  as  bad  in  England  as  in  America. 


the  confession  of  his  critic,  only  wrote  two  good  lines  in  all 
his  life),  which  might  well  have  been  devoted  to  a  fuller 
treatment  of  major  (though  undeniably  later)  writers.  There 
is,  as  a  rule,  very  little  tendency  to  exaggerate  the  merits 
of  these  small  fry;  Anne  Bradstreet  herself  "The^Tentb 
Muse,"  is  quite  properly  dismissed  as  merely  an  attractive 
personahty  whose  product  of  "meritorious  lines"  was  only 
twice  as  great  as  that  of  the  reverend  gentleman  previously 
mentioned.  The  critical  standards  of  the  volume  as  a  whole 
are  sound  ;  the  judgments,  so  far  as  one's  limited  knowledge 
enables  one  to  test  them,  sensible.  But  this  passion  for 
completeness  and  this  desire  to  prove  that  American  literature 
did  not  begin  until  the  nineteenth  century  has  sacrificed 
valuable  pages  which  might  well  have  been  added,  say,  to- 
Mr.  Paul  Elmer  More's  powerful  little  essay  on  Emerson. 
One  could  have  even  spared  the  account  of  Wigglesworth  in 
exchange  for  a  few  quotations  from  Thanatofsis,  the  end 
of  which  is  admittedly  the  finest  thing  that  Bryant  ever 
wrote.  Bryant  otherwise  certainly  gets  his  due  from  Pro- 
fessor Leonard  ;    perhaps  rather  more  than  his  due. 


Almost  all  the  most  interesting  American  writers — what- 
ever may  be  urged  on  the  other  side — are  left  over  for  the 
other  volumes.  Research  may  do  what  it  likes  in  the  way  of 
rehabihtating  the  neglected  and  exhuming  the  forgotten. 
The  fact  remains  that  almost  all  the  lasting  work  that  America 
has  done  was  done  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  great 
mass  of  it  in  the  second  and  third  quarters  of  that  century. 
There  is  nothing  odd  about  the  slowness  of  the  beginning  ; 
what  is  tantalising  is  the  great  void  after  the  death  of 
Whitman.  You  have  a  period  wliich  produced  a  crowd  of 
men,  varying,  no  doubt,  in  stature,  Hke  Poe,  Emerson, 
Longfellow,  Whittier,  Lowell,  Motley,  Thoreau,  and 
Hawthorne.  There  follows  it  a  period  of  immense  literary 
production,  of  tremendous  activity  in  every  other  department 
of  life,  in  which  the  conspicuous  names  are  those  of  popular 
humorists  and  small  poets,  and  in  which  Henry  and  William ' 
James  stand  on  a  lonely  eminence. 


The  principal  figures  in  this  volume,  beyond  those 
already  referred  to,  are  Willis,  Halleck,  Brockden  Brown, 
Fenimore  Cooper,  Herman  Melville,  Margaret  Fuller, 
Parker,  and  Channing.  It  is  impossible  to  attempt  here  a 
survey  of  so  much  ground.  There  are  few  weak  chapters 
in  the  book.  The  principal  fault  which  is  at  all  general  is 
an  excessive  passion  for  dragging  in  names,  especially  of 
foreign  authors,  allusively.  When  Professor  Leonard  paren- 
thetically calls  Samuel  Rogers  "that  old  Maecenas  and 
Petronius  Arbiter,"  he  is  indulging  the  same  foible  that 
leads  other  critics  to  rush  about  after  needless  literary 
parallels.  Had  the  proofs  been  better  read,  misprints  would 
have  been  fewer,  and  sentences  such  as  "in  quite  different 
ways,  Bryant  is  with  Poe,  American's  finest  artist  in  verse" 
would  not  have  been  passed.  That  sentence  is  meaningless. 
The  latter  portion  of  it,  taken  alone,  might  reasonably,  in 
the  absence  of  other  knowledge,  have  been  supposed  to  mean 
that  Bryant  and  Poe  were  Siamese  twins  who  collaborated 
in  art;  but  the  quahfication  "in  quite  different  ways"  in 
itself  precludes  such  an  interpretation. 


This  is  an  attempt  at  a  .standard  and  comprehensive 
history.  In  their  desire  not  to  be  mere  anthologists,  or 
commit  an  error  in  proportion  by  concentrating  too  exclu- 
sively upon  the  nineteenth  century,  the  editors-have  perhaps 
gone  a  little  too  far  in  the  opposite  direction.  It  is  quite 
true  that  the  seventeenth  century  divines  ought  not  to  be 
treated  as  though  they  had  never  existed  ;  that  Jonathan 
Edwards  was  a  great  man  who,  in  England  at  least,  has 
recently  not  received  his  due  ;  and  that  Frankhn  and  Wash- 
ington Irving  flourished  before  Poe  and  Longfellow  were 
thought  of.  But  the  determination  to  do  justice  to  the 
earlier  centuries  has  given  the  greater  part  of  this  volume 
the  appearance  not  of  a  history  of  literature  (in  the  usual 
sense),  but  of  an  undiscriminating  record  of  the  products  of 
the  American  printing  press.  The  result  is  that  space  is 
wasted  upon  scores  of  forgotten  authors  like  the  Revs.  Uriah 
Oakes,  Mather  Byles,  and  Michael  Wigglesworth  (who,  by 


Over  two  hundred  pages  of  the  volume  are,  quite  properly,, 
filled  with  bibliographies.  It  would  be  sheer  humbug  on 
my  part  to  pretend  that  I  have  studied  them  or  that  I  am 
competent  to  judge  them.  I  can  never  have  heard  of  nine- 
tenths  of  the  works  mentioned  in  them  ;  and  thus  far  (though 
I  shall  certainly  use  them  for  reference)  1  have  not  even 
looked  at  them.  This  lapse  into  candour,  so  unusual  amongst 
reviewers,  may  look  rather  like  a  piece  of  poor  swank.  I 
prefer  to  think  myself  that,  during  perusal  of  this  book, 
I  have  been  influenced  by  the  ghostly  presence  of  George 
Washington.  All  I  can  honestly  say  is  that  bibhographies 
so  voluminous  cannot  fail  to  contain  a  great  deal  of  informa- 
tion, and  that  if  the  compilers  of  them  are  as  conscientious 
and  sensible  as  their  colleagues  who  have  written  the  rest  of 
the  book,  they  cannot  fail  to  be  found  both  accurate  and 
exhaustive.  In  format  the  work  is  uniform  with  the 
Cambridge  History  of  English  Literature.  That  is  to  say,  it 
is  pleasant  in  every  way  save  that  the  bindings  are  coloured 
with  a  red  dye  that  fades  and  fades. 


May  9,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


The    Royal    Academy  :    By    Charles    Marriott 


THE  only  way  to  get  the  Academy  into  proper 
perspective  is  to  regard  it  as  an  institution,  as  one 
thinks  and  speaks  of  "the  opera."  Otherwise, 
there  is  great  risk  of  doing  injustice  both  to  the 
Academy  and  to  art.  The  two  things/-  are  not 
opposed,  any  more  than  "the  opera"  and  music  are  opposed, 
but  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  they  should  be  separate 
considerations.  It  ought  to  be  obvious  that  an  exhibition 
cannot  be  at  the  same  time  a  social  function  and  a  fully 
representative  exhibition  of  contemporary  painting,  sculp- 
ture, and  architecture  ;  because  most  of  the  things  that 
matter  in  these  arts  are  brought  forth  by  needs  and  impulses 
which  have  nothing  to  do  with  social  seasons. 

By  far  the  greater  number  of  works — at  any  rate,  in  paint- 
ing— at  the  Academy  are  done  "for  the  Academy,"  and  that 
gives  them  a  more  or  less  definite  character  irrespective  of 
quality.  The  only  legitimate  grievance  against  the  Acadcm\' 
is  that,  granting  this  general  character  in  kind,  it  has  not,  or 
does  not  seem  to  have,  a  very  high  standard  of  craftsmanship. 
But  lack  of  a  high  standard  does  not  necessarily  mean  a 
prejudice  against  good  work.  Like  every  other  institution, 
the  Academy  invites  three  fairly  well  marked  attitudes  of 
appreciation.  There  is  the  first  which  takes  everything  on 
trust  because  it  is  "in  the  Academy,"  there  is  the  second 
which  rejects  everything  for  the  same  reason,  and  there  is 
the  third  of  the  open  mind  which  assumes  you  are  as  likely 
to  find  good  pictures  at  the  Academy  as  elsewhere. 

Because  it  is  an  institution,  with  traditions  and  conventions 
of  its  own,  the  Academy  cannot  be  expected  to  present  a 
very  profound  or  direct  expression  of  contemporary  life. 
Before  an  impulse  or  an  event  gets  into  the  Academy  it  has 
to  be  ,translated  into  Academy  form.  Therefore  you  do  not 
expect  nor  do  you  find  in  this  year's  Academy  any  adequate 
interpretation  of  the  war.  There  are  plenty  of  war  pictures, 
of  course  ;  but  they  are  much  more  like  the  war  pictures  of 
many  successive  Academies  than  they  are  like  what  is  going 
on  in  France  and  Flanders.  They  are  competent  of  their 
kind,  but  they  are  very  definitely  of  a  kind.  Once  and  for 
all,  the  photographs  at  the  Grafton  Galleries  have  set  the 
standard  of.  what  sort  of  pictures  we  want  so  far  as  the  actual 
facts  of  warfare  are  concerned. 

So  far  as  I  could  judge  in'  a  confessedly  hasty  visit,  the 
only  work  in  this  year's  Academy  which  attempts  that  with 
any  success  is  a  piece  of  sculpture  :  "  War  Equestrian  Statue," 
by  Mr.  Gilbert  Bayes,  in  the  Quadrangle.  A  small  personal 
accident  may  help  to  suggest  one  great  merit  of  this  work. 
On  entering  Burlington  House,  I  passed  it  by  without  seeing 
it  at  all,  though  it  is  on  the  colossal  scale  and  light  in  colour  ; 
and  it  was  not  until  a  colleague  asked  me  what  I  thought  of 
it  that  I  knew  it  was  there,  though  I  had  seen  it  before  in 
'  the  sculptor's  studio.  This  means  that  Mr.  Bayes  has  pro- 
duced for  monumental  purposes  a  work  in  sculpture  which 
really  takes  its  place  in  an  architectural  setting  as  if  it  had 
always  been  there.  Overlooked  or  underlooked  in  passing, 
the  work — designed  to  be  carried  out  in  bronze  for  the 
National  Art  Gallery,  Sydney— only  gains  in  dignity  and 
power  with  deliberate  examination^  Within  the  hmits  of 
the  realistic  convention  in  which  it  is  conceived  it  is  real 
sculpture,  and  not  merely  a  colossal  reproduction  of  a  svm- 
bolical  figure  on  horseback. 

"The  Under  World" 

By  coincidence,  though  I  prefer  to  tiiink  that  it  is  some- 
thing more,  another  work  in  the  Academy,  also  large  in 
scale,  which  keeps  its  place  is  by  the  sculptor's  brother, 
Mr.  Walter  Bayes.  The  first  thing  that  strikes  you  in  looking 
at  "The  Under  World"  is  that  it  looks  as  if  it  had  been 
painted  for  the  Academy  not  as  an  institution,  but  as  a 
building.  It  is  there.  This,  too,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it 
is  neither  obviously  "decorative"  in  intention  nor  hung  in 
a  space  that  suits  its  proportions.  The  reason  why  it  keeps 
its  place  and  looks,  so  to  speak,  "natural"  there  is  that 
irrespective  of  ail  question  of  merit  it  is  a  genuine  painting 
as  "War  Equestrian  Statue"  is  a  genuine  piece  of  monu- 
mental sculpture.  In  either  case,  an  architectural  relation- 
ship is  implied.  "The  Under  World,"  which  represents  a 
Tube  platform  during  an  air  raid,  makes  no  attempt  to 
interpret  or  sum  up  the  war,  though  it  does  express  the 
practical  response  of  the  LondcJner  to  "  f rightfulness  "—very 
much  as  if  the  people  were  sheltering  from  a  thunderstorm — 
but'  it  does  give  an  incident  of  the  war  a  memorable  charac- 
ter.    The  figures  are  individuals,  but  they  are  dealt  with  on 


the  typical  side  which  every  individual  h;is.  They  lie,  sit, 
or  stand  as  they  would  in  actuaUty,  but  now  hot  by  accident 
but  in  the  swing  of  a  design,  and  the  colours  of  their  clothes 
though  likely  enough  are  coaxed  into  harmony.  There 
could  hardly  be  a  better  illustration  of  the  province  bf  the 
painter  in  dealing  with  actuality  that  is  entirely  unaffected 
by  the  splendid  possibihties  of  photography.  And  if  you 
come  to  examine  the  reason  why  you  will  see  that  it  is  all  a 
matter  of  the  modifications  of  reality  that  become  a  transla- 
tion into  paint.  Tlie  difference  in  result  is  that  between 
historical  and  journahstic  truth.  Say  what  you  like,  history 
implies  human  consideration  and  judgment  in  terms  of  a 
particular  art.  Look  for  comparison  at  "Their  Majesties 
King  George  V.  and  Queen  Mary  visiting  the  Battle  Districts 
of  France."  In  spife  of  the  historical  incident,  and  the 
august  figures,  and  for  all  its  accuracy  in  detail,  it  achieves 
only  journalistic  and  not  liistorical  truth  ;  and  neither  its 
architectural  purpose — the  Royal  Exchange — nor  the  device 
of  a  predella  gives  it  an  organic  relationship  to  any  building 
that  could  ever  exist.  i^" 

The  only  picture  besides  "The  Under  World"  dealing 
directly  with  the  war  which  seems  to  me  to  have  more  than 
Academy  value  is  "The  Battle  of  Bourlon  Wood,  30th  Nov- 
ember, 1917,"  by  Mr.  W.  L.  Wyllie,  R.A.  Its  value  as  a 
bird's-eye  view  lending  intelligibility  to  written  or  spoken 
descriptions  of  the  battle  is  only  enhanced  by  the  picture 
above  it.  Through  a  mistaken  zeal  for  what  is  called  "art," 
Mr.  Wylhe  has  sacrificed  some  of  the  advantages  of  a  plan, 
which  photography  cannot  compass,  to  realistic  representa- 
tion of  appearances,  including  atmosphere,  which  photo- 
graphy can  nianage  better  than  any  painter  that  ever  lived. 
If  Academicians  only  knew,  it  is  the  devotion  of  so  much 
skill  to  such  ends  that  drives  so  many  of  us  to  the  crude 
experiments  of  young  rebels.  But  as  between  Nas.  319 
and  320  there  can  be  no  question  which  picture  will  have 
the  gratitude  of  posterity. 

But,  to  leave  the  surface  and  come  to  the  heart  of  things, 
there  is  no  picture  in  the  Academy  more  truly  significant  of 
the  fact  that  "  there  is  a  war  on  "  than  "The  Winter  Evening," 
by  Mr.  F.  Cayley  Robinson.  Whether  or  not  the  picture 
was  so  intended  by  the  artist  is  entirely  irrelevant.  The 
probabiHty  is  that  it  was  not  ;  that  it  came  from  the  mysteri- 
ous deeps  of  personality  under  pressure  of  events.  However 
or  whenever  inspired,  it  is  the  picture  that,  in  one  form  or 
another,  lives  in  the  secret  heart  of  every  soldier  in  France 
and  Flanders  ;  that  even  those  of  us  who  stop  at  home  are 
more  and  more  possessed  with  :  the  domestic  interior.  To 
call  the  idea  sentimental  is  to  write  yourself  down  a  fool. 
It  is,  in  cold  fact  and  passionate  truth,  what  the  war  is  all 
about ;  the  still  centre  of  all  that  noise  of  battle.  All  our 
sounding  phrases  about  war  aims,  the  freedom  of  democracy, 
the  self-determination  of  peoples,  can  in  the  last  analysis  be 
reduced  to  this  :  the  preservation  of  the  private  hearth  for 
the  free  exercise  of  the  sacred  rites  and  affections  that  make 
it  the  altar  of  humanity.  Here  and  not  in  the  forward 
trenches  is  the  true  "listening  post"  of  the  war  as  a  whole  ; 
and  it  is'  from  here  and  not  from  headquarters  that  the 
soldier  takes  his  orders. 

Ostensibly  the  five  people  in  Mr.  Robinson's  picture  are 
waiting  for  the  kettle  to  boil ;  actually  they  are  nursing  the 
flame  of  all  human  endeavour  in  peace  and  war.  Except 
that  the  figures  happen  to  look  reflective  there  is  no  obvious 
attempt  to  dwell  upon  the  poetical  idea  of  domesticity  ;  it 
is  all  a  matter  of  taking  tilings,  material  and  familiar  things 
in  particular,  for  what  they  are  worth  to  the  imagination  ; 
so  that  they  become  "the"  table,  "the"  chair,  "the"  cup 
and  saucer,  instead  of  merely  examples  of  those  articles. 
Since  Chardin  there  has  not  been  a  painter  who  could  get  so 
much  human  significance  out  of  still  life  as  Mr.  Cayley 
Robinson.  Lest  the  remark  be  misunderstood,  he  gets  it  all 
by  strictly  pictorial  means  ;  by  spacing  and  proportion,  and, 
above  all,  by  the  actual  handling  of  paint.  The  common 
saying  that  such  and  such  a  musician  makes  his  instrument 
"speak"  might  very  well  be  applied  to  Mr.  Robinson's  use 
of  his  material. 

Under  cover  of  the  institution  there  are  several  other 
pictures  that  bring  life  into  the  Academy.  There  is,  for 
example,  Mr.  Spencer  Watson's  jolly  "  Mary  and  Guido," 
and  there  are  the  landscapes  by  Mr.  Cameron,  Mr.  Adrian 
Stokes,  and  Mr.  Arnesby  Brown.  And,  without  knowing 
the  intention  of  the  artist,  I  am  prepared  to  say  that  Mr. 
Clausen's  still-hfe  painting  "A  Corner  of  the  Table"  is 
eminently  a  war  picture. 


iS 


Land   &    ^V"ater 


May  9,  191  8 


Corporal  Grim,  V.C. :  By  F.  Willey  Turner 


PROBABLY  I  knew  as  much  about  Jim  Green  as 
any  man  in  our  countryside,  which  is  not  saj'ing 
much,  for  in  common  parlance  Jim  was  known 
as  "a  hard  nut  to  crack."  Once  I  spoke  to  the 
foreman  of  the  quarry  where  Jim  was  employed, 
about  him.  "What  kind  of  a  man  is  Jim  Green  ?"  I  asked. 
The  foreman  scratched  his  head  for  some  time  before  he 
answered.  "  He's  a  curious  critter,  is  Jim,"  he  said,  at  last  ; 
"let  Iiim  go  his  own  gait,  and  he'll  do  a  good  day's  work  ; 
but  interfere  wi'  him,  and  he's  as  obstinate  as  a  mule." 

This,  I  think,  is  a  fair  summar\'  of  the  man's  character  ; 
he  was  the  sort  of  man  who  might  be  led,  but  could  not  be 
driven. 

In  appearance,  he  was  not  ]prepossessing  ;  he  stood  five 
feet  ten  without  his  shoes,  was  built  in  proportion,  and 
altogether  obsessed  one  with  a  sense  of  naked  brutal  strength. 
His  face  was  not  pleasant  to  look  at  ;  his  jaw  was  too  massive, 
his  cheek-bones  too  prominent,  while  his  eyes  sat  back  too 
deeply  in  their  sockets.  When  things  went  wrong  with 
him.  which  they  frequently  did,  he  had  a  way  of  crumpling 
up  his  forehead,  and  a  birth-mark,  at  other  times  unnotice- 
able,  stood  tout  vivid  and  distinct.  This  mark  came  to  be 
recognised  as  a  kind  of  danger-signal,  and  when  it  was  flown 
his  mates  gave  him  a  wide  berth.  At  such  moments  it  was 
touch-and-go  witli  Jim,  and  no  man  likes  to  be  in  close 
proximity  to  a  human  powder-magazine. 

To  this  may  be  added  that  Jim  was  naturally  taciturn 
and  unsociable,  and  on  this  account  far  from  popular.  He 
was  rarely  seen,  for  instance,  at  the  "Fiddle  and  Trumpet," 
the  quarryman's  favourite  rendezvous  at  the  edge  of  the 
moors,  preferring,  on  the  few  occasions  when  he  did  imbibe, 
an  obscure  tavern  in  a  back  street,  where  he  would  brood 
and  drink  in  soUtarj'  state. 

At  fixed  periods,  however,  this  rule  was  relaxed.  The 
landlord  of  the  "Fiddle  and  Trumpet"  held  bi-weekly 
pigeon  "shoots"  in  the  meadow  behind  his  inn,  and  on  these 
occasions  Jim  was  usually  conspicuous  by  his  presence.  He 
was  a  champion  shot,  could  do  "ovvt, "  so  it  was  said,  with  a 
gun,,  and  no  more  sure  investment  was  known  among  the 
pigeon-shooting  fraternity  than  "puttin"  yer  money  on  Jim." 
In  this  connection,  Jim  was  regarded  as  a  "dead  cert." 

Once— and  once  only— ^did  he  fail  to  satisfy  his  backers; 
and,  as  the  story  is  typical  of  the  man,  it  may  be  related 
here.  At  this  particular  match  he  turned  up  late,  with  a 
rag  wound  about  his  wrist,  muttering  something  by  way  of 
apology  about  a  strained  hand.  Shouldering  his  gun  awk- 
wardly, he  fired  wide  and  lost  his  score.  As,  however,  on 
the  following  Monday  he  was  seen  at  work  without  the 
bandage  on  his  wrist,  inquiries  were  set  afoot.  The  truth 
came  out  bit  by  bit,  but  it  was  finally  disclosed  that  on 
that  particular  Saturday  his  chief  backer  was  his  own  fore- 
man, and  that  during  the  previous  week  he  (the  foreman) 
and  Jim  had  had  a  serious  quarrel.  So  it  was  Jim  took  his 
revenge.     This  incident,   I   repeat,   is  typical. 

Every  year  when  the  country  "Feast"  was  on,  Jim  dis- 
appeared for  a  week  and  went  to  Scarborough.  As  he  usually 
carritd  a  rod  in  his  hand  and  a  creel  on  his  back,  it  may  be 
presumed  he  went  a-fishing.  For  my  own  part,  I  believe 
that  the  natural  beauty  of  the  place  also  attracted  him,  for 
once,  in  a  burst  of  unwonted  loquacity,  he  asked  me  if  I 
thought  Heaven  was  much  like  Scarborough,  for  "  when  the 
sun  was  glowing  red  in  the  haze  and  the  rocks  ghnted  like 
gold,  he  was  minded  o'  t'  better  land."  I  remember  being 
considerably  startled  by  the  query,  for  it  seemed  to  suggest 
unplumbed  depths  in  the  man's  nature  of  which  I  never 
dreamed.  As  good  Americans  when  they  die  are  said  to 
go  to  Paris,  so  may  Jim  have  had  visions  of  Scarborough  as 
his  ultimate  and  desired  haven. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  it  was  shortlj'  after  the  German  raid  on 
Scarborough  that  Jim  did  the  unexpected  and  enlisted.  For 
my  {lart,  I  am  incUned  to  think  that  he  regarded  the  raid 
on  his  favourite  resort  as  a  personal  affront.  At  any  rate, 
when  he  presented  himself  at  the  depot,  and  was  asked  if 
he  had  any  preference.jn  the  way  of  regiments,  he  bluntly 
answered  that  all  regiments  were  alike  to  him  ;  all  he  wanted 
was  "to  have  a  smack  at  them  dirty  Germans  as  fired  on 
folk  at  Scarborough  as  couldn't  fire  back."  Being  pressed 
as  to  his  quahfications,  he  said  that  he  could  "hack  stones 
apiece."  The  recruiting  sergeant,  who  did  not  like  the  looks  of 
the  man,  was  unimpressed;  but  when  he  added  that  he  could 
shoot  a  bit,  the  sergeant  gripped  him  by  the  hand,  and  he  was 
straightway  enrolled  as  a -member  of  His  Majesty's  Forces. 

I   have  it  on  the   excellentj  authority   of   my    nephew. 


a  .second-lieutenant  (to  whom  I  had  written  commendmg 
Jim),  that  he  (Jim)  had  not  been  many  weeks  in  trainmg 
before  he  was  acclaimed  the  crack  shot  of  his  company. 
As  the  lieutenant  observed  in  passing,  a  man  who  can  hit 
a  flving  bottle  at  a  hundred  yards  has  a  future  before  him 
in  the  British  Army.  This  did  not  altogether  surprise  me  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  I  was  surprised  to  hear  that  khaki 
had  wrought  a  miracle  in  him,  and  that  the  uncouth  and 
surly  quarryman  had  become  steadily  amenable  to  mihtary 
discipline,  and  was  making  a  fine  soldier. 

.^gain,  whether  it  was  the  result  of  this  or  whether  it  was 
solely  due  to  the  needs  of  the  rapidly  growing  Army,  I  cannot 
say,  but  the  next  I  heard  of  Jim  was  that  he  had  been  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  corporal.  His  procedure  when  he  was 
called  to  face  his  small  squad  for  the  first  time  was  entirely 
unconventional.  "I'm  to  be  foreman  o'  this  gang,  am  I, 
sir?"  he  demanded  of  the  Heutenant  who  inducted  him. 

The  officer  laughingly  assented  :    "That's  so,  corporal." 

The  new  corporal  stepped  back  a  pace  or  two  and  eyed 
his  men  with  a  frown  which  made  the  livid  bar  on  his  fore- 
head gloom  ominously  ;  then  he  stepped  forward  again  and 
shook  a  huge  fist  in  their  faces.  "You  see  this,  m'lads  ? 
Well,  you'll  feel  it  if  yer  don't  come  up  to  t'  scratch  when 
I  tells" you!" 

This  anecdote,  retailed  in  the  mess-rooms,  marked  Jim 
out  for  popular  approval  ;  it  was  also  responsible  for  a 
change  of  name,  for  from  that  time  Corporal  Green  became 
Corporal  Grim. 

Vyiien  his  regiment  left  for  somewhere  in  France  there 
were  only  two  in  all  Little  Turfbury  who  mourned  Jim's 
departure.  One  was  his  mother,  a  garrulous  old  lady,  who 
occupied  a  cottage  in  Lane's  End,  and  between  whom  and 
her  son  there  was  a  warm— if  on  the  one  side  a  somewhat 
tacit — affection,  and  who,  to  quote  Jim,  "would  ha'  been 
the  best  mother  in  the  world  if  only  she  had  had  the  luck 
to  be  born  dumb."  The  other  was  his  dog  Tiser,  a  mongrel 
of  no  scheduled  breed,  who  knew  his  master's  habits  to  a 
T,  only  barked  to  order,  and  came  to  heel  at  a  glance. 
Both  these  beheved  in  him,  and  were  perhaps  the  only  two 
in  the  whole  countryside  who  did.  To  a  pessimistic  neigh- 
bour who  gave  it  as  her  opinion  that  Mrs.  Green  would  do 
well  to  order  funeral-cards  while  they  were  cheap  as  she 
would  never  see  her  son  again,  the  old  lady  replied  with 
supreme  confidence  :  "  Jim'll  turn  up  again,  never  fear  ! 
I  ud  Ifke  to  see  t'  German  as  ud  best  our  Jim,  that  I  ud  1 
He'll  gi'  'em  pepper,  see  if  he  don't!"  Saying  which,  the 
old  dame  tossed  her  head  proudly  and  went  indoors. 

Some  weeks  later  her  confidence  was  confirmed  by  a  letter 
from -the  front  which  she  showed  to  me  with  much  glee.  It 
was  very  short  and  characteristic.  "Deer  mother,"  it  ran, 
"  I  opes  ye  and  tiser  is  harty.  I  opes  ye  gets  yer  .money  ole 
rite.  I  aint  in"  much  danger  ere  as  I'm  a  snapper  (sniper) 
most  days.  Now  and  agen  the  Germans  fetch  a  bang  at 
me,  that  is  when  I  gives  em  a  chance.  Kepe  yer  spirits  up. 
Yeres  trewly,  Jim  Green." 

This  letter,  duly  passed  from  house  to  house,  was  regarded 
as  a  "clincher"  by  the  inhabitants  of  Lane's  End.  Several 
\'0ung  men  made  tracks  for  the  recruiting  office,  while  Mrs. 
Green  went  about  with  all  the  consciousness  of  a  British 
matron  whose  only  son  was  fighting  his  country's  foes,  and 
doing  it  well. 

But,  alas  !  the  best  of  human  hopes  are  as  fragile  as  glass, 
and  as  easily  broken  ;  and  when  towards  the  end  of  October 
the  postman  knocked  at  the  door  for  a  second  time,  Mrs. 
Green  undoubtedly  received  a  shock.  "Deer  mother,"  wrote 
the  corporal,  "I  have  got  a  nasty  smack  consequens  of  a 
plank  toppling  on  me  and  my  left  arm  is  broke.  But  ye 
mustn't  take  on  as  it's  not  lialf  as  bad  as  I  got  in  the  quarry 
fewer  years  back.  I  am  in  a  London  ospitle  at  present  but 
••  am  to  be  let  out  next  Wednesdy  week  wen  I  opes  to  land 
ome  by  the  train  as  gets  in  at  three." 

Mrs.  Green  had  to  read  this  missive  several  times  over 
before  she  made  out  its  purport.  When  at  length  she  did, 
she  rubbed  her  spectacles  clean,  and  placed  them  with  the 
letter  in  the  Bible ;  she  felt  that  such  a  letter  could  not 
be  handed  round.  It  was  only  because  I  acted  as  her 
amanuensis  that  I  was  permitted  to  see  it.  She  admitted 
that  she  "was  main  glad  that  it  was  only  a  accident  that 
had  got  Jim,  for  if  it  had  been  them  Germans  she  could 
never  ha'  forgiven  them  "  ;  but  it  was  evident,  notwithstand- 
ing, that  her  faith  in  Jim  had  suffered  a  serious  check. 

The  letter  aforementioned  was  received  on  a  Friday,  but 
on  the  following  Monday  stirring  news  reached  us  at  Little 


May    9,    191 « 


Land    6i    Water 


19 


Turfburj'.  The  morning  papers  came  out  with  a  list  of  the  new 
V.C.s,  and  among  the  names  was  that  of  Corporal  Green. 
I  read  the  item  over  the  breakfast-table.  "  For  conspicuous 
bravery,"  so  began  the  brief  report,  and  then  went  on  : 

.\11  others  being  killed  or  wounded.   Green  and  his  officer 
held  the  trench  ior  three  hours  against  a  large  enemy  force. 
In    the    late    afternoon    the    officer    fell    wounded.     Taking 
advantage  of  the  darkness,   though   under  heavy  shrapnel 
fire.  Green  crawled  out  of  the  trench  and  bore  the  wounded 
officer   into   safety.     He    then    returned,    and   brought   out 
another    wounded    man.     Going    back    a    third    lime,    and 
finding  all  the  other  occupants  of  the  trench  dead,  he  brought 
back  the  machine-gun.     Unfortunately,  Green  was  himself 
wounded  ne.vt  day  by  a  flying  beam  from  a  house  struck 
by  an  enem\-  shell,  and  is  at  present  in  hospital. 
It  took  some  little  time  for  this  news  to  get  home  to  our 
hearts,  but  when  it  finally  did,  something  akin  to  a  revolu- 
tion happened  in  our  tiny  borough.     People  who  had  never 
heard  the  name  of  Corporal  Green  until  then,  mysteriously 
discovered  that  he  was  one  of  their  intimates.     The  quarry 
owner  descended  on  his  men  in  a  frock  coat  and  silk  hat. 
and  with  a  flag  in  his  buttonhole  ;    called  for  three  times 
three  for  the  hero,  and  gave  a  day's  holiday  with  full  pay. 
Mine  host  of  the  "Fiddle  and  Trumpet"  drew  much  custom 
b\'   retailing  s.tories  of  Jim's  prowess  as  a  pigeon-shooter 
(true)  and  of  the  innumerable  pints  he  could  take  without 
effect    (apocryphal).     Mrs.    Green,    her   confidence    and    her 
garrulousness  alike  restored,  became  a  person  of  consequence, 
and  her  cottage  was  invaded  by  all  sorts  of  well-wishers. 
When  her  portrait  appeared  in  the  local  press.  Lane's  End 
felt    itself   exalted.     Incidentally    mentioning    to    the    vicar 
that  Jim  was  coming  home  next  Wednesday  week  at  three, 
that    enthusiastic    parson    passed   on    the   information,    and 
Little  Turfbury  at  once  began  preparations  for  receiving  its 
gallant    townsman    in    fine   style.     The   corporation   met   in 
secret  conclave  and  discussed  whether  or  not  the  Freedom 
of  the  Borough  should  be  conferred  on  the  corporal,  and  the 
discussion  only  petered  out  when  a  distinguished  alderman 
explained  that  the  Freedom  of  the  Borough  meant  freedom 
from  all  rates  and  taxes,  which  "he  felt  might,  if  conferred 
once,  by  setting  up  a  precedent,  mihtate  in  future    against 
all  disinterested  heroism  in  the  British  Army." 

Up  in  hospital  Corporal  Green  became  the  astonished 
recipient  of  many  letters.  His  brow  corrugated  as  he 
watched  the  pile  on  the  little  table  grow.  As  a  concession  to 
public  curiosity,  he  allowed  the  nurse  to  open  and  read  one 
of  them  ;  but,  finding  it  to  be  from  a  stranger,  he  f^rusquely 
refused  to  allow  the  others  to  be  opened.  "He  would 
take  them  home,"  he  said,  "where  it  would  please  the  owd 
woman  to  read  them,"  and  the  inquisitive  nurse  whisked 
herself  away  in  a  tantrum,  remarking  audibly  "that  though 
Corporal  Green  might  be  a  brave  man,  he  was  a  bear  all 
the  same." 

It  was  owing  to  these  letters  going  unopened  that  Jim, 
on  his  way  north,  reached  the  jimction,  where  he  changed 


trains  for  Little  Turfbury,  without  the  slightest  inkling  of 
the  bands  and  banners  and  huzzas  which  were  awaiting 
him  on  the  platform  there.  An  energetic  reporter,  athirst 
for  news,  and  who  boarded  the  waiting  train  at  the  junction, 
was  the  first  to  enlighteji  him.  He  was  a  brisk  young  fellow, 
who  prided  himself  on  knowing  how  to  deal  with  all  sorts  of 
men  ;  but.  finding  that  he  could  get  nothing  out  of  his  quarry 
than  that  he  "had  done  nowt  to  talk  about,"  began  to 
tell  of  the  doings  at  Little  Turfbury  in  the  hope  of  drawing 
his  man  by  that  means. 

For  a  time  Jim  listened  with  mouth  agape  and  eyes  ablaze. 
The  reporter  noticed  the  impression  his  words  made,  and 
began  to  congratulate  himself  on  a  glorious  coqp  ;  he  was 
getting  at  his  man  at  last.  Suddenly  his  hearer  rose  up 
and,  without  a  wor.d,  lurched  out  of  the  compartment.  The 
brisk  young  newsman  awaited  his  return  in  vain  ;  so  also 
did  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  Little  Turfbury. 
»         ♦         ♦         »         » 

The  town  clock  was  striking  midnight  when  a  haggard 
and  weary  man  in  khaki — who  had  extended  the  ten  miles 
which  lay  between  the  junction  and  his  home  into  fifteen, 
by  choosing  unfrequented  paths — took  the  last  turning  into 
Lane's  End.  A  well-known  step  outside  the  cottage  and  an 
excited  whine  within  told  his  anxious  mother  who  had 
arrived.     She  hastened  to  fling  open  the  door. 

"Eh,  but  I'm  right  pleased  to  see  ye,  l^d  ;  whatever  are 
ye  doing  so  late  ?  " 

The  corporal  did  not  answer,  but  sat  down  heavily  on  the 
nearest  chedr.  Quick  to  notice  that  something  was  wrong, 
Mrs.  Green  busied  herself  with  the  supper-table  ;  she  had 
learned  by  experience  to  bide  her  time.  It  was  not  till  the 
meal  was  half  over  that  he  spoke.  "I'm  fair  capped  wi' 
yer,  mother,  letting  them  mayors  and  corporations  make 
such  fools  o'  themselves  ! "  was  his  first  remark. 

"  I  couldn't  help  it,  Jim  ;  I  really  couldn't.  I  tellcd  'em 
that  ye  didn't  like  fussing  ower  ;  but  they  said  as  ye  were 
a  'ero,  and  oughter  be  received  as  one." 

"I  wish  I  had  'em  all  i'  the  trenches,"  he  growled.  "I  ud 
give  'em  summat  to  do  better  than  flag-wagging  and  trumpet- 
blaring,  that  I  ud." 

He  bent  over  the  supper-table  again,  but  the  birth-mark 
in  his  forehead  stood  out  threateningly.  Presently  he  pushed 
away  his  plate  with  his  unwounded  hand  and  looked  around, 
his  glance  finally  resting  on  the  old  worn  face  opposite.  The 
look  of  yearning  home-hunger  whidh  I  have  often  detected  in 
the  eyes  of  war-wearied  men  from  the  front,  came  into  those 
of  Corporal  Grim.  He  gulped  in  his  throat,  and  hi  hard 
face  softened. 

"  Mother,  did  ye  ever  kiss  me  when  I  was  a  babby  ?  " 

"Ay,  lad,  many  and  many  and  many  a  time." 

"Then  kiss  me  now,  mother  ;  and  as  for  them  mayors  and 
corporations  ..." 

Ah,  yes,  there  were  certainly  unplumbed  depths  in  the 
heart  of  Corporal  Grim. 


The  North  Countrie  :    By  H.R.S. 


\To  t amble  round  th--  north  countrie 
That  is  the  life  that  pleases  me.   ...       ' 

RATHER  it  was  the  life  that  pleased  me.  Now 
the  pleasure  is  mainly  retrospective.  The  con- 
flagration of  world-war  has  lit  up  our  Uttle  lives, 
and  in  the  face  of  an  uncertain  future  memory 
resolves  past  time  into  a  quick-moving  kinema 
of  tlie  mind.  The  north  countrie  !  In  its  envisagenient  real 
and  ideal  mingle.  Childhood  and  youth  are  in  the  vague 
background,  a  dreamy  timeless  past,  with  a  mother's  angel 
prescience  hovering  near ;  the  setting — the  grime  of  in- 
dustrial Newcastle,  the  resounding  yards  and  workshops, 
the  sheening  Tyno.  the  lurid  night-furnaces,  booming  buzzers, 
squalid  streets,  and  scurrying  trains,  relieved  by  roving 
hours  on  Ravensworth's  wooded  slopes  ;  sunny  days  by  the 
Browney  at  Bearpark  in  sight  of  Durham's  Gothic  towers  ; 
holidays  amid  the  bright  greenery  of  the  North  Tyne,  and 
the  free  breath  of  Gunnerton  Crags. 

Sharply  punctuated,  like  a  note  of  exclamation,  came  my 
first  thrill  of  inspiration.  On  the  eve  of  the  outbreak  of 
the  South  African  War,  I  heard  the  storm-voice  on  Windy 
Hill,  roaring  in  the  pines,  spirit  speaking  to  spirit  amid  the 
pauses  of  the  storm.  To  me,  as  an  event  of  sad  and  significant 
spiritual  import,  the  South  African  War  in  retrospect  stands 
out  supreme.  It  seemed  to  reveal  to  me  the  deterioration 
of  the  old  Enghsh  spirit.     In  the  neglected,  almost  forgotten. 


wealth,  of  North-Country  history  and  literature,  I  found 
solace,  and  felt  then,  as  now,  the  vague  but  ineffectual  desire 
to  voice  the  dormant  sentiment  of  local  patriotism. 

I  have  roved  wide  over  Northumberland  and  Durham, 
contrasting  the  rural  decadence  of  the  one  with  the  feverish 
exploitation,  mining  and  industrial,  of  the  other.  In  my 
origin  I  am  linked  with  each,  and  have  mused  over  each 
with  an  equal  love.  Northumberland  !  County  of  castles, 
each  on  its  green  mound  or  rocky  scaur,  land  of  fell  and 
mountain,  stream  and  strath,  glade  and  glen  ;  of  the  oak 
and  the  ash,  and  the  bonnie  birken  tree  of  old  Northumbrian 
song  ;  of  the  pipe's  sweet  strain  and  wild  moorland  muse  ; 
of  a  once  thousand  happy  and  thriving  hamlets,  villages,  and 
market  towns  ;  of  famous  fairs ;  wheat-laden  valleys ; 
whirring  windmill  and  clacking  water-wheels !  Now,  in 
comparison,  a  sylvan  and  pastoral  solitude,  lacking  soul,  but 
lovely  and  romantic  still.  On  its  mountain  sides,  its  cleughs 
and  crags,  its  sheep-walks  and  heathery  wastes,  I  have  marked 
its  wild  memorial  flower — ^the  bluebell — the  chosen  emblem 
of  its  sons,  as  the  stanza  of  an  old  song  suggests,  and  the 
sign  of  many  an  old  Northumbrian  wayside  inn  : 

Ask  the  shepherd.s  who  dwell  on  our  wild  heathy  mountains. 
What  flower  has  their  favour,  and,  mark  me,  they'll  tell, 

'Tis  the  flower  that  blooms  brightest  by  forest  and  fountain. 
On  moorland  and  meadow,  the  bonnie  bluebell  ! 

And  Durham  of  the  dismal  present,  a  cloudy  collieried  land. 


20 


Land   &    Water 


May  9,  1918 


View  of  Durham  from  the   North-east 


From  an 


of  gloom  and  glow — oven,  furnace,  mine,  where  the  chimneys 
and  pit-heads  silhouette  every  sky-Hne,  and  the  pit-heads 
smoulder  and  smoke  like  scoria  of  a  v-olcanic  eruption  ; 
where  the  shambles  of  abandoned  pit-rows  stand  naked  to 
the  elements.  A  land  of  devastated  denes  and  dells,  blighted 
woods  and  poisoned  streams. 

Durham,  the  ancient  palatinate  county  of  sacerdotal 
splendour,  and  of  the  immortal  legends,  which' yet  conceals 
within  its  crowding  hills  nooks  of  historic  interest  and  sylvan 
charm  ;  whose  city,  with  its  cathedral  towers,  clambering 
castles,  and  clustering  woods  and  hills,  crowned  and  crowding 
upon  the  winding  river  and  whispering  weirs,  never  fails  to 
impress  deeply  pilgrim  and  stranger. 

Not  unmeet  that  its  early  chroniclers  should  have  called 
Durham  the  English  Jerusalem,  the  veritable  "city  of  our 
solemnities,"  Drayton's  "stately  seated  town"  ;  or  that  the 
late  Lieutenant  Noel  Hodgson,  in  the  face  of  death  at  the 
Somme,  should  have  penned  such  subUme  poems  in  its  praise. 

Over  the  pastoral  beauty  of  present-day  Northumberland 
a  poet  might  enthuse,  a  prophet  lament.  But  over  the 
blasted  and  blackened  sylvan  beauties  of  its  neighbouring 
shire,  what  can  the  heart  of  poet  and  prophet  ahke  feel  but 
the  flame  and  ire  of  revolt  ?  Windy  Hill,  Barlow,  Pontop, 
Penshaw,  and  Wreckenton,  have  been  my  mounts  of  vision 
and  peaks  of  prophecy.  Think  of  Consett,  with  its  inferno 
of  fires  and  cumulus  slag,  set  upon  the  orchestral  hills  ; 
Kerryhill,  of  foetid  and  fungus  growth,  the  "fairy  hill"  of 
Robert  Surtees,  Durham's  faithful  historian  ;  of  Seaham, 
for  which  John.  Dobson,  with  ideahstic  mind,  designed  such 
a  noble  sea  front,  now  disgraced  by  its  degenerate  evolution  ; 
of  Jarrow,  domicile  of  Bede,  which  even  in  Carmichael's 
picture  of  eighty  years  ago  evinces  such  atmosphere  and  charm, 
now    sunk    into    dis-  ►' 

honorable  squalor, 
dreariest  of  the  dreary 
industrial  towns  of  the 
north  ;  Bede's  Well 
nearly  effaced  by  the 
daily  deposited  dumj) 
from  the  furnaces  ; 
Monkton  alone,  Bede's 
reputed  birthplace,  by 
some  miraculous  dis- 
pensation, preserving 
its  rural  entity. 

.Monkton  was  my 
mother's  earliest 
home  ;  round  its  hum- 
ble roofs  twine  the 
tendrils  of  sentiment 
and  devotion.  Like  a 
voice  of  reproach 
seems  to  steal  upon 
the  car  the  lament  of 
the  northern  hvmn  : 


Jarrow  on  the  Tyne 


Behold^ thy  shrines  are  desolate — 

I-o  !   Durham,  Jarrow,  Wearmouth  mourn, 

Build  up  the  altars  now  laid  waste. 

Bid  peace  and  faith  again  return. 

What  a  medley  of  images  crowd  and  mingle  in  the  mirage  of 
the  past !  Sunday  in  Saltwell  Park  twenty  years  since — the 
spring  sunshine,  the  birds,"  the  budding  trees,  the  lake's 
metallic  glare  ;  the  band  playing  "Tannhauser,"  the  moving 
maze  of  the  circling  crowd.  The  lights  of  Swalwell  Hopping 
dancing  in  the  June  dusk  ;  the  zigzag  street  of  faces,  the 
stalls,  the  swaying  swings  and  caracoling  merry-go-rounds  : 
the  organs,  the  drums,  the  cymbals,  the  hullabaloo  and 
noise  ;  the  churring  calls  and  noiseless  nocturnal  .evolutions 
of  the  nightjars  on  Tinkler  Fell.  The  vision  through  Causey 
Woods,  the  baleful  sunset,  the  fury  of  the  snowstorms,  and 
earth  emerging  under  starlight  in  the  stole  of  peace.  A 
summer's  day  in  Brancepeth  Park ;  its  glorious  deer-dappled 
greensward !  Twilight  on  Prebend's  Bridge ;  meetings  and 
partings  at  Neville's  Cross  !  Mainsforth,  ivy-mantled  home 
of  Durham's  great  historian,  as  I  first  saw  it  on  its  hill-crest, 
with  the  March  sun  smiling  on  its  soughing  trees  and  cawing 
rooks  !  Crowds  converging  by  rail  and  road  on  that  unfor- 
gettable Sunday  of  the  burial  service  of  the  victims  of  the 
Stanley  Pit  disaster.  The  Horden  Colliery  strike,  with  its 
incendiary  fire  scarring  the  northern  sky.  Then  came  the 
thunderbolt  of  August,  1914  ;  war's  alarums  and  excursions  ; 
forebodings  .of  invasion  at  Old  Seaham.  And  now,  the 
thrill  and  glare  of  the  present ;  the  certitude  that  truth, 
whatever  happens,  will  emerge  triumphant,  and  God's  way 
be  justified  to  man,  purged  and  chastened.  I  remember 
the  (glorious  evening  of  May  25th,  1905,  the  electric  thrill 
of  earth  and  sky,  the  spirit  upUfted  : 

The  roadway  like  a 
burnished  sword, 
The  sun  an  Angel 
of  the  Lord  ! 
.\nd     thought    fusing 
like   molten   metal   in 
the     furnace     of     the 
mind  ; 

The      earth      .shall 
quake,    the   hills 
resound. 
And  every  field  be 

battle-ground. 
And  freedom  shout 
o'er  land  and  sea. 
So  hey,  so  hey, 

then  up  go  we. 
Lightning  along 

the  sky  shall  range, 
The  time  is  ripe  for 

coming  change. 
The   better  days   for 

you  and  me. 
So  hey,  so  hey,    now 
up  go  we. 


LAND  &  WATER 

V0I.LXXI.     No.  2923.     [v'eTr]  THURSDAY,  MAY   16,   1918  [T^sSfl^Sfi^^^S 


Capytiihl,  I9l«,    U,S.A. 


Copyright,  ••  Land  &  Waltr"  y 


Bottling   the   Pirate 

By   Louis  Raemaekers. 


,;>. 


Land    &   Water 


May- 1 6,  191  8 


German  Rule  in  East  Africa 


German   Forms  of  Civil  Punishment 

1.  Natives  hung  en  masse  for  causes  unknown. 

2.  Fsur  civil  prisoners  under  an  armed  escort. 

3.  Civil  prisoners  at  work  in  a  field. 


Copyright 


o 


F   Gennan    rule    in    South 
Africa     much    ha.s     been 
written.       We     give     an 
opportunity     to-day     for 
people     to     behold      the 
actual    methods    by    which    Germany 
has  sought  in  days  of   peace  to  estab- 
lish her  ideals  of  justice'and  civilisation, 
andtoinauguratethat  superiority  of  life, 
of  which  she  makes  so'proud  a  boast, 
under  the  name  of  Kultiir  among  the 
native   races    which  have  been  placed 
under     her    power    by     international 
treaties.  These  photograplis  were  taken 
in  1914,  before  war  Was  declared.    The 
first    photograph    represents    a    public 
execution  ;     the    cause    why    sentence 
was  passed  on  these  unfortunate  men 
we  are  not  in  a  position  to  state,  but  it 
is  obvious  that. the  penalty  was  executed 
with  that  "certain  degree  of  frightful- 
ness"  which  was  intended  to  impress 
the  subject  people  of  East  Africa  in 
the  same  manner  that  similar  brutality 
was    practised    in    Belgium    and    else- 
where  during   the   war.      The   second 
and  third  photographs  represent  civil 
prisoners  under  German  rule.     In  the 
second  we  see  four  wretched  men  with 
forked  boughs  of  trees  riveted  to  their 
necks,     under     the     guardianship     of 
natives,    armed    with    guns,    some    of 
whom    are    little    more    than    boys. 
Obviously,    the    armed    men    do    not 
belong  to  the  same  tribe  as  the  pris- 
oners ;    and    it    is    noticeable  that  no 
European  is  in  charge  of  the  prisoners. 
To    anyone    the    least    familiar    with  ' 
tribal   life  in  Africa,   it   is  plain   that 
here  there  can  be  no  check  upon  the 
most  callous  cruelty.     This  cruelty  is 
even     more    palpable    in     the    third 
photograph,  showing  native  civil  pri- 
soners ;    they  are  chained  together  by 
the  neck  as  though  they  were  beasts. 
The    idea    still    prevails    in    some 
quarters — not    in    many,    we    admit, 
nowadays — that    the    German    is    not 
universally  brutal ;    that  his  cruelty  is 
due  only  to  a  small  clique  of  militarists, 
who  practice  terrorism  as  a  fine  art, 
and    that    when    left    to    himself    the 
German  is  as  kind-hearted  as  men  of 
other    nations.        Facts    are    entirely 
against   this   theory.      A   German,   no 
matter  to  what  class  he  belongs,  is  by 
nature  a  bully.     Let  any  human  being 
be    subject    to    him,    be    it    woman, 
child,  or  native,  and  he  behaves  like 
a   brute   directly   the   individual    runs 
counter  to  his  will.     Is  it  conceivable 
that  anywhere  in  the  British  Empire, 
no  matter  how  backward  or  timorous 
they  may  be,  natives  could  be  treated 
in  this  cold-blooded  manner  ?    Im'agine 
that    any    Briton    should    descend   to 
isolated     acts     of     bestial     barbarity, 
think  you  his  fellow  subjects  abroad 
or  at  home  would  permit  this  to  con- 
tinue ?    When  has  the  Reichstag  done 
anythmg  effectual  to  put  an  end  to 
these  barbarities  ?     To  say  they  were 
unknown    is    absurd.       Germany    has 
ruled  for  a  generation  in  East  Africa, 


ai^d  these. methods  are  obviously  not  recent.     And  it  is  to  this  systematic  torture,  to  these  forms  of  punbhment   ihich 
the   civnl  code   of   Germany    mfl.cts   m  times  of  peace  for  ordinary    offences  against  society,  that  vve  are  trinnd  l.rC 
these    wretched  peoples   whom    we  have  now   freed   and   to   whom   we   have   given  secm-ity   from   cn^eltv  fnr  h  .  r 
being?      The  idea   is   unthinkable.      The  suggestion   which    has  been  made  by  the  Gerr^Tn   Chancellor     iL. J       T^ 
races  desire  German  rule,  would  be  laughable  were  the  truth  less  horrible.    And  to  thTsu-estion  th    nron^^^^^^  }Va 

that  the   native  peoples  should  be  allowed  to  elect  their  rulers  for  themselves.      W  at^'o'uTd   bel^he^cW.    was  added 
who  had  before  them  the  alternative  of  the  <•  frightfulness"  depicted  here  if  they   thouSTthat  after  hfvlf^"^'^' 
against  the  Teuton,  they  might  yet  be  handed  over  to  his  tender  care.      That  has  happened  to  ?hcm  t    h!        ^ 
they  might  weU  think  it  could  happen  to  them  again.     Next  week  we  shall  publish  further  photograplls  on  this  sub iecT 


May    1 6,    191  8 


Land    &    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  :   HOLBORN    z8z8. 

THURSDAY,  MAY  16,  19 18. 

Contents 


PAGE 

I 
2 


Bottling  the  Pirate.     (Cartoon.)     By  Raemaekers 
German  Rule  in  East  Africa.     (Illustrated.) 

The  Outlook  3 

French  and  German  Theories  of  War.     By  H.  Belloc  4 

Ostend.     By  Arthur  Pollen                 '      "  8 

James  J.  F.  Archibald.     By  French  Strother  10 

The  Suez  Canal      (A  sketch.)     By  Miller  Dunning  12 

Leadership.     By  L.  P.  Jacks  13 
Their  First  "Crash."    (Illustrated.)    By  Herman  Whitaker  15 

In  an  Ambulance.     By  Francis  Brett  Young  »        16 

The  Royal  Academy.     By  J.  C.  Squire  19 

Building  in  Paint.     By  Charles  Marriott  20 

Gardens  frorn  the  Waste.     By  J.  Gorman  22 

Household  Notes  24 

Notes  on  Kit  ',             xi 


The  Outlook 


THERE  is  little  military'  news  this  week  of  direct 
interest.  The  only  two  movements  of  any  size 
have  been  purely  local,  confined  to  the  scope  of 
two  divisions  in  the  one  case  and  a  single  division 
in  the  other.  The  first  was  an  attempt  of  the 
enemy  to  attack  a,t  the  junction  of  the  French  and  English 
lines  near  La  Clytte  in  Flanders.  This  was  made  a  week 
yesterday,  after  an  interval  of  nine  days,  during  which 
nothing  had  been  done  upon  this  front  since  the  heavy  defeat 
suffered  by  the  Germans  on  Monday,  April  29th.  It  is 
possible  that  as  many  as  parts  of  six  divisions  were  mustered 
before  the  concentration  of  it  was  attempted  for  this  attack 
upon  La  Clytte.  A  much  larger  concentration  was  observed 
than  was  warranted  by  the  blow  actually  delivered.  Only 
two  divisions  appeared  in  the  shock  itself,  however,  and 
these  were  completely  repelled. 

iThe  second  action,  which  to6#  place  upon  Saturday  last, 
was  on  the  other  extreme  of  the  line,  where  the  French 
stand  in  front  of  Amiens.  Here  the  park  of  the  ch4teau  of 
Grisvesnes  village  (which  stands  upon  a  spur  dominating 
two  ravines  upon  either  side,  and  therefore  forming  a  sort 
of  bastion  to  the  .\vre  Ridge,  which  the  French  hold)  had 
been  in  German  hands  for  some  time.  As  it  would  make  a 
very  convenient  point  for  further  progress  in  case  the  ex- 
pected general  German  offensive  should  include  this  sector, 
the  French  retook  it  on  Saturday  with  very  little  loss, 
and  now  hold  it.  Continued  concentration  is  noted 
upon  the  whole  front  between  the  Somme  and  Arras. 
*  *  * 

Further  details  of  the  peace  concluded  between  Rumania 
and  the  Central  Empires  give  clear  indication  of  the  policy 
whicli  the  enemy  intends  to  pursue — for  the  moment,  at 
least— in  the  territories  which  he  has  overrun  in  the  East 
of  Europe.  It  is  a  federal  policy  tending  to  build  up  a  great 
Central  European  State,  with  dependent  States  around  it 
and  attached  to  it,  after  the  fashion  described  in  a  series  of 
articles  in  Land  Sc  Water  some  months  ago,  and  further, 
alluded  to  in  a  special  article  in  this  issue.  The  present 
Holu-nzollern  dynasty  is  kept  upon  the  throne  of  Rumania 
— for  the  moment,  at  least — contrary  to  the  expectation  of 
those  who,  naturally  enough,  believed  that  Prussia  would 
try  to  install  there  the  other  branch  of  the  family  which  was 
claimant  to  the  throne,  which  had  always  been  Gemianophil, 
and  formed  a  centre  for  the  intrigues  in  favour  of  Gennany 
during  the  earlier  part  of  this  war.  The  enemy  prefers  to 
leave  as  much  as  possible  of  the  Rumanian  autonomy  for  his 
own  purposes.  He  has,  however,  lessened  the  popular  voice 
in  thi-  constitution,  claimed  very  heavy  economic  terms  to 
supplirnent  his  present  needs,  and  annexed  the  oil-fields. 
The  cliief  cession  in  territory  is,  of  course,  to  Bulgaria  ;  and 
in  view  of  this  cession  (involving  the  complete  command  of 
the  rit^ht  bank  of  the  Lower  Danube  as  far  as  the  sea),  it  is 
clear  that  the  Central  Powers  envisage  a  permanent  alliance 
with  Bulgaria  which  they  have  so  greatly  strengthened,  or, 
r;!th<r.    a   permanent   dependence   of   Bulgaria   upon   them- 


selves.    Indeed,  this  State  is  the  necessary  high  road  to  their 

economic  exploitation  of  the  Turkish  Empire  and  the  East. 

*  ♦  ♦ 

The  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  letter  of 
Major-General  Sir  Frederick  Maurice  would  have  been  more 
convincing  had  it  only  been  possible  for  him  to  have  put 
forward  his  point  of  view.  It  is  contrary  to  one's  sense  of 
justice  and  fair  play  to  condemn  a  man  imheard.  That 
General  Maurice  is  honest  and  sincere  everv  one  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  him  knows  perfectly  well.  He  wrote  in 
defence  of  his  brother  officers  ;  and  the  idea  that  he  had  lent 
himself  to  a  political  intrigue  is  inconceivable  bj'  those 
who  know  him.  This  argument  is  absolutely  dishonest ; 
it  was  only  put  forward  as  an  afterthought,  and  it  is  em- 
ployed entirely  for  partisan  purposes,  without  a  thought 
whether  or  not  it  does  gross  discredit  to  a  gallant  soldier. 
Discipline  is  undoubtedly  essential,  not  only  in  the  army, 
but  in  civil  life  ;  but  discipline  when  it  has  to  be  based  on 
injustice  and  dishonesty  of  word  is  a  mere  travesty.  One 
good  thing  has  arisen  out  of  this  incident — it  has  shown 
that  there  is  a  great  depth  of  public  sympathy  with  the 
man  who  stakes  his  career  fearlessly  to  do  that  which  he 
conceives  to  be  his  duty.  Courage  is  not  confined  to  the 
battlefields.  Englishmen  respect  it  wherever  it  is  shown. 
»  ♦  »  - 

The  bottling-up  of  Ostend  is  a  magnificent  sequel  to  the 
Zeebriigge  dash.  No  one  believed  it  possible  for  the  German 
naval  forces  in  the  Belgian  ports  to  be  surprised  a  second 
time.  But  once  again  the  Royal  Navy  has  achieved  the 
impossible,  and  the  Vindictive,  having  borne  the  brunt  of 
the  fighting  at  Zeebrugge,  has  now  found  a  splendid  resting- 
place  in  the  fairway  of  Ostend.  Her  name,  so  curiously 
linked  in  its  meaning  with  revenge,  is  henceforth  as  imperish- 
able as  the  Revenge.  Admiral  Sir  Roger  Keyes  and  the 
gallant  seamen  under  his  command  have  won  the  unstinted 
thanks  of  the  Empire.  Let  it  not  be  overlooked  that  these 
plans  for  bottling  up  the  Belgian  ports  were  submitted  to 
Admiral  Jellicoe  while  at  the  Admiralty  and  approved  by 
him.  His  knowledge  of  them  and  his  confidence  in  their 
success  may  in  part  have  accounted  for  the  optimism  with 
which  he  regarded  the  future  of  the  submarine  menace. 
♦  ♦  * 

The  letter  of  welcome  which  the  King  has  personally 
addressed  to  the  soldiers  of  the  United  States  passing  through 
this  country,  and  the  review  of  American  troops  which  His 
Majesty  held  opposite  Buckingham  Palace  on  Saturday, 
symbolise  in  fitting  manner  the  new  union  which  has  been 
called  into  being  between  tliis  kingdo.m  and  the  repubhc  of 
the  West.  The  issue  of  "the  great  battle  for  human  free- 
dom "  is  certain.  Defeat  is  unthinkable ;  it  would  mean  the 
destniction  of  freedom.  Victory,  complete  military  victory, 
is  the  single  aim  of  all  the  .\llies,  and  not  one  is  working 
harder  or  with  more  resolute  purpose  to  hasten  this  victory 
than  the  United  States.  We  have  now  learnt  that  America 
has  already  landed  an  army  of  half  a  million  men  in  France, 
and  though  there  may  be  delays  in  regard  to  delivery  of 
munitions,  everything  humanly  possible  is  being  done  to 
overcome  them.  The  review  last  Saturday  may  be  called 
the  final  act  of  reconciliation  between  the  two  nations ; 
henceforth  it  is  publicly  and  formally  recognised  that  the 
work  of  the  two  in  the  cause  of  human  peace,  progress,  and 
freedom  must  be  identical  through  all  future  time. 
»  #  * 

Is  the  Luxury  Tax  to  be  regarded  as  a  revenue  or  an 
ethical  measure  ?  In  other  words,  are  we  for  the  sake  of 
our  country  to  indulge  in  or  to  refrain  from  luxuries  ?  A 
man  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon,  not  even  a  Chancellor 
of  the  E.vchequer,  and  more  than  half  the  trouble  over  the 
liquor  business  in  past  times  has  arisen  from  the  attempt 
simultaneously  to  promote  temperance  and  to  increase 
revenue.  Another  question  that  arises  is  w^hether  the  tax 
is  to  be  paid  more  than  once  on  the  same  article.  Take 
jewellery,  for  instance,  which  will  certainly  be  included 
among  luxuries  ?  Many  retail  jewellers  buy  their  stocks 
from  manufacturers.  Will  the  retailer  pay  this  tax  on 
purchasing  from  the  manufacturer,  and  the  customer  pay 
the  tax  a  second  time  on  buying  from  the  retailer  ?  That  is 
to  say,  will  the  luxury  tax  on  a  £5  bracelet  be  200  or  432 
pence  .•'  For,  be  it  noted,  tlie  retailer  will  have  to  collect  the 
original  tax  from  the  customer,  who  will  then  have  to  pay 
not  only  on  the  original  price,  but  also  on  the  tax  which  has 
been  added  to  it.  This  is  by  way  of  illustrating  the  compli- 
cations that  may  ensue.  An  antique,  to  give  another  instance, 
may  possibly  change  hands  half  a  dozen^times  in  the  course 
of  a  year  ;  in  that  case,  it  would  in  the  end  yield  considerably 
over  roo  per  cent,  on  its  original  price.  In  fact,  this  tax, 
which  on  the  face  of  it  appears  simple,  will  in  practice  prove 
most  difficult  and  complicated. 


Land    &    Water 


May  1 6,  1918 


French  and  German  Theories:  By  H.  Belloc 


THERE  has  been  a  lull  of  now  just  over  a  fortnight 
between  the  last  German  offensive  in  Flanders, 
which,  as  will  be  remembered,  was  broken  by  the 
verj'  considerable  victory  of  April  29th,  and  the 
present  date  ;  this  article  being  written  after  the 
receipt  of  dispatches  sent  upon  the  night  of  Sunday,  May  12th. 

That  lull  has  only  been  broken  by  one  abortive  effort  upon 
a  small  scale,  in  its  final  development,  at  least,  and  quickly 
checked,  which  was  attempted  by  the  enemy  last  Wednesday. 
As  a  whole,  the  period  has  been  one  of  marking  time  upon 
the  side  of  the  oltensive,  while  the  defensive  has  watched  it 
in  the  same  mood  and  with  part  of  the  same  prolonged  policy 
as  will  characterise  its  whole  attitude,  so  long  as  tlie  enemy 
submits  himself  to  this  strain. 

It  is  clear,  from  the  tone  of  the  Press,  that  opinion  has 
been  puzzled  by  so  long  a  halt  ;  and  the  question  has  even 
been  asked  whether  the  great  offensive  will  continue. 

We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  great  German 
offensive  will  continue.  The  political  motives  which  prompted 
it  are  as  acute  as  ever;    the  concentration  "is  undiminished. 

There  is  a  permanent  and  fundamental  contrast  between 
the  German  and  the  French  conduct  of  military  operations, 
which  contrast  may  be  traced,  upon  the  German  side  at  least 
as  far  back  as  Frederick  the  Great ;  on  the  French  as  far 
back  as  Camot — the  creator  of  the  modern  school. 

Briefly,  the  opposing  doctrines  are,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
theory  that  success  is  most  probably  attained  by  a  single 
plan  thoroughly  thought  out  and  imposed  upon  the  enemy  ; 
on  the  other,  that  success  is  most  probablv  attained  by  the 
prevision  of  every  possible  chance,  and  "all  depends  upon 
great  rapidity  of  judgment  in  changing  plan  from  one  line 
to  another  as  necessity  arises. 

It  is  of  a  dramatic  interest,  rare  in  the  annals  of  war,  to 
note  that  the  two  latest  exponents  of  these  two  contrasting 
theories  are  both  in  the  field.  Bernhardi,  who  wrote,  with 
as  much  lucidity  as  his  language  would  allow  before  the 
present  war  in  defence  of  the  first  thesis,  is  reported,  I  know 
not  on  what  authority,  to  have  commanded  and  been  de- 
feated the  other  day  at  Bethune.  Foch,  whose  great  essay 
on  The  Conduct  of  War  has  been  the  text-book  of  the  French 
schools,  is  in  command  of  the  Allied  armies. 

The  Bernhardi  Theory 

Bernhardi  has  said,  in  effect,  this:  "Be  resoh'ed  to  act 
in  a  predetermined  fashion  which  shall  give  the  form  to  all 
you  do.  Thus  disembarrassed  of  every  temptation  to 
vacillate  and  of  every  opportimity  for  intellectual  vagary, 
you  \yill  deliver  your  blow  whole-heartedly,  and  if  your 
material  and  3'our  will  be  sufficiently  strong,  your  enemy 
will  be  condemned  to  vour  own  plan,  no  matter  what  the 
ingenuity  or  multiplicity  of  his  alternative  plans." 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  those  who  mystically,  as  one  may  say, 
confuse  with,  or  conceive  in,  the  mere  prophecy  of  victory 
the  fact  of  victory  itself.  The  French  temperament,  which 
is,  if  anything,  too  much  enamoured  of  reahty  and  has,  if 
anything,  too  great  a  contempt  for  vision,  prefers  to  cal- 
culate and,  at  the  same  time,  to  trust  to  rapichty  of  judgment. 
The  power  of  calculation  is  seen  not  in  the  slow  preparation 
of  a  mass  of  detail  co-ordinated  to  one  plan,  but  in  the  simul- 
taneous grasp  of  several ;  just  as  the  power  of  a  mathema- 
tician is  not  shown  in  his  accuracy  or  patience  when  making 
a  simple  addition  of  many  thousand  figures,  but  in  his  power 
to  co-ordinate  the  interdependence  of  many  variants. 

Of  the  first  theory  it  may  be  said  that  when  it  succeeds  it 
succeeds  entirely ;  and  not  only  is  the  result  complete,  but 
also  it  leaves,  for  what  it  is  worth,  a  sense  of  destiny  or 
creation.  You  intended  to  do  one  thing,  and  that  thing  you 
did.  It  confirms  you  in  the  sense  of  victory,  and  it  impresses 
neutral  and  foe  alike.  It  is  1866  and  1870.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  you  fail,  you  fail  altogether.  It  is  a  theorv 
useless  for  the  defensive,  and  one  such  that  men  practising 
it  can  hardly  understand  the  great  Napoleonic  doctrine  that 
one  must  always  expect  one's  enemy  to  be  about  to  do  what- 
ever would  be  the  worst  for  oneself. 

About  the  second  theory  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  a  product 
of  the  defensive  type,  and  therefore  of  a  conscious  weakness. 
That  is  for  philosophers  to  discuss.  At  any  rate,  it  has  these 
three  advantages  :  That  if  it  wins  it  wins  quite  as  completely 
as  the  first ;  that  it  can  rally  against  local  or  immediate 
failure  ;  and  that  in  the  case  of  general  failure,  it  is  at  least  an 
instrument  for  prolonging  to  the  utmost  the  chances  of  reco\'erv. 


Now,  quite  apart  from  the  theoretical  interest  of  these 
contrasting  ideas — enormous  as  |t  is  to  the  future  of  the 
war — there  is  the  practical  interest  of  observing  that  our 
knowledge  of  the  German  theory  confirms  our  conviction 
that  the  great  offensive  will  be  continued,  and  confintis  our 
opinion  (for  it  is  not  a  conviction,  but  only  a  judgment  of 
probability)  that  it  will  be  continued  intensively  and  in  the 
same  spirit  of  gambling  to  win  or  lose  as  inspired  its  first 
inception  upon  March  21st. 

Everything  tKe  enemy  has  done  in  the  past  was  of  this 
prolonged  sort  following  a  predetermined  plan.  He  pushed 
the  first  Western  invasion  beyond  the  point-  of  defeat  and 
nearly  to  the  point  of  disaster.  He  pushed  the  plan  of  the 
first  Flanders. offensive,  which  we  call  the  Battles  of  Ypres, 
right  up  to  the  point  of  exhaustion  without  result.  He  did* 
exactly  the  same  in  front  of  Verdun.  He  did  the  same  again 
against  the  (J!hemin  des  Dames.  On  the  Allied  side,  with 
the  exception  of  the  advance  last  year  east  of  Ypres,  an 
offensive  ceased  upon  the  failure  to  achieve  a  final  object  or 
upon  success  in  achieving  a  limited  one.  We  have  a  right, 
in  view  of  the  enemy's  general  theory  of  war,  coupled  with 
our  experience  of  his  action  in  the  past,  quite  apart  from 
the  common  sense  of  the  position,  his  political  necessities 
and  his  actual  concentration,  to  behave  that  he  will  continue. 
What  sector  he  will  choose  for  the  next  action,  and  upon 
what  scale  he  will  nialce  it,  we  cannot  tell,  but  upon  the 
balance  of  probability  it  is  the  front  of  Albert  that  should 
most  tempt  him.  It  has  only  one  disadvantage,  to  wit, 
that  he  has  not  there  any  opportunity  for  surprise.  But 
that  he  can  hardly  now  expect  upon  any  sector. 

While  it  is  ridiculous  to  pretend  a  knowledge  of  the  enemy's 
•  plans  (and  that  is  what  prophecy  comes  to  when  your  enemy 
has  the  initiative),  it  is  not  ridiculous  at  all,  butthe  best  of 
sense,  to  estimate  the  elements  which  he  has  before  him 
and  his  reasons  for  doing  this  or  that.  And  it  is  therefore  of 
value  at  this  moment  to  consider  what  advantages  the  enemy 
has  in  attacking  between  the  Somme  and  the  Scarpe, 
and  particularly  between  Albert  and  Arras  as  distinguished 
from  the  advantages  he  has  in  attacking  south  of  that 
sector. 

In  the  first  place,  upon  a  great  part  of  this  front  (which  is 
one  of  rather  less  than  30  miles)  the  enemy  is  not  upon  a 
disadvantage  of  ground,  and  that  is  particularly  the  case  in 
the  north  of  it.  In  the  sovWli,  the  Allies  hold  the  high  ridge 
which  runs  parallel  to  and  west  of  the  course  of  the  Ancre. 
But  the  northern,  12  or  15  miles  above  the  upper  courses  of 
that  river,  and  in  the  watershed  between  the  basins  of  the 
Somme  and  the  Scheldt,  are  not  marked  by  any  line  of  terri- 
tory where  we  staad  overlooking  him.  It  is  true  that  ground 
has  not  the  importance  it  had  ;  but,  still,  other  things  being 
equal,  ground  makes  a  sufficient  difference  to  determine  all 
calculation.  Where  there  is  a  marked  ridge  it  has  profoundly 
affected  the  defensive  throughout  this  war. 

The  second  obvious  advantage  of  an  attack  in  this  sector 
is  that  it  takes  advantage  of  the  salient  of  Arras.  The 
enemy  had 'already  created  a  bulge  of  which  Arras  was  the 
marking  point  when  he  made  his  great  advance  up  to  and 
past  Albert  after  his  victory  in  front  of  St.  Ouentin  in  March. 
He  accentuated  the  value  of  that  bulge  to  himself  and  its 
disadvantage  to  us  when  he  got  his  new  success  upon  the  Lys 
and  pushed  west  of  Merville,  creating  a  new  front  in  the  rear 
of  Arras  all  the  way  from  Robecq  to  Givenchy,  near  La 
Bass^e.  It  is  true  that  such  a  bulge  is  not  verv  pronounced. 
The  extreme  depth  given  it  by  this  northern  advance  of  his 
•on  the  Lys  is  only  12  miles,  and  that  advance  is  20  miles  and 
more  north  of  Arras  (hi^  advance  begins  at  Givenchv,  which 
IS  about  16  miles  north  of  Arras,  and  extends  to  Robecq, 
which  is  some  23  miles  north-west  of  Arras).  Still,  there  is  a 
salient  of  just  the  sort  which  he  has  loved  to  create  before  in 
his  Eastern  strategy,  and  the  reduction  of  which  would  give 
him  a  further  great  advantage  of  territory  and  the  infliction 
of  losses  upon  his  opponent. 

Thirdly,  a  real  and  rapid  success  upon  this  sector  comparable 
to  his  break  through  by  St.  Quentin  or  upon  the  Lys,  the 
other  day,  would  give  him  .very  much  more  than  the  mere 
reduction  of  the  Arras  salient.  It  would  give  him  an  advance 
towards  the  nodal  point  of  all  communications  in  this  district, 
the  town  of  Doullens,  .which  stands  some  15  miles  behind 
the  nearest  of  his  present  positions. 

Lastly,  it  is  a  sector  upon  which  the  Alhes  have  less  lateral 
communication  of  the  old-established  kind  (main  roads  and 
railways)  than  e'sewhere. 


May  1 6,  191 8 


Land    &   Water 


This,  again,  must  only  be  taken  for  what  it  is  worth  :  In 
a  country  full  of  good  roads'  a  main  road  is  not  the  absolute 
essential  which  it  is  in  Eastern  Europe,  and  under  conditions 
of  a  long  war  railways  come  into  existence  of  which  the 
peace  map  knew  nothing.  But,  still,  the  comparative  weak- 
ness in  main  communications  makes  a  difference  and  again, 
other  things  being  equal,  favours  attack  upon  this  quarter. 

There  is  no  apparent  disadvantage  in  an  attack  upon  this 
sector  compared  with  an  attack  upon  any  other.  It  is  true 
that  the  communications  immediately  behind  it  form  a  belt 
of  devastated  territory,  but  it  is  a  belt  narrower  than  that  to 
the  south.  The  roads  are  in  good  condition,  and  there  has 
been  ample  time  for  the  enemy  to  lay  dowii  light  railways 
and  to  accumulate  all  that  he  needs  for  such  a  blow. 

Meanwhile,  pending  that  blow — if,  indeed,  the  enemy 
intends  to  deliver  it  in  full  force,  and  to  make  of  the  third 
phase  of  the  great  battle  a  repetition  of  the  first — the  issue, 
as  I  have  said,  is  still  a  question  of  numbers.  Should  he 
effect  a  breach  and  get  a  large  result,  reaching  Doullens,  for 
instance,  a  great  expense  is  still  worth  his  while.  Should  he 
effect  a  breach  but  be  early  checked,  the  expense  would  not 
be  worth  his  while,  and  he  would  be  weaker  after  the  effort 
than  before.  Should  he  make  a  determined  and  prolonged 
attack  and  fail  altogether  to  affect  a  breach,  he  is  defeated. 
He  cannot,  if  he  attacks  in  the  near  future,  and  if  he  proposes 
an  attack  upon  the  largest  scale,  stand  losses  as  great  as 
those  which  he  has  already  sustained.  The  sum  of  loss  for 
which  he  has  budgeted  is  now  more  than  half  exhausted, 
and  though  it  is  true  that  prolonging  the  business  gives  time 
for  the  rettirn  of  hospital  ca.ses,  yet  it  is  manifest  it  also 
gives  time  for  the  strain  at  home  to  increase  and  for  the 
steady  arrival  of  the  American  recruitment  to  prepare  for  a 
full  establishment  some  months  hence. 

I  have  said  previously  in  these  columns  that  time  would 
necessarily  help  to  solve  the  chief  unknown  factor  in  our 
present  military  problem,  which  is  the  enemy's  rate  of 
expetise.  One  has  to  wait  for  evidence  ;  Knd  now  that 
evidence  is  beginning  to  arrive. 

We  have  not  indeed  as  \'et  any  direct  information  on  the 
enemy's  losses,  for  there  has  been  no  appreciable  re-advance 
over  territory  upon  which  those  losses  have  occurred,  and 
therefore  no  exact  enumeration  of  dead  in  a  particular 
action,  no  considerable  nmnber  of  prisoners,  and  no  discovery 
of  documents.  We  have  an  increasing  number  of  details 
by  which  we  may  judge  the  rate  of  loss  in  the  heavily  pun- 
ished units,  especially  where  a  small  local  recovery  of  ground 
is  effected ;  but  we  need  very  many  more  of  these  and  the 
addition  of  average  losses,  and  losses  in  units  below  the 
average,  before  we  can  get  anything  like  accurate  statistics. 

Indirectly,  however,  the  efflux  of  time  has  given  us  an 
exceedingly  useful  piece  of  evidence  in  the  number  of  imits 
the  Gennans  nave  empIo\-ed,  and  that  evidence  not  only 
points  to  higher  losses  than  the  minimum  recently  quoted 
(probably  for  some  p)olitical  purpose)  in  the  Press,  but  to  a 
particular  method  of  warfare  which  necessarily  involves  the 
most  rapid  losses. 

Last  week  I  said  that  the  nvunber  of  divisions  the  Germans 
had  put  in  (by  the  end  of  April)  approximated  to  the  equiva- 
lent of  at  least  182,  and  more  probably  190.  That  was 
counting  from  136  to  140  used,  of  which  some  40  had  appeared 
twice,  and  not  less  than  6  three*  times.  That  was  a'  very 
conservative  estimate  of  the  target  the  esemy  had  presented 
up  to  the  end  of  April  in  his  great  offensive  ;  but,  even  so,  it 
made  it  likely  that  he  had  lost  400,000. 

Now,  we  have  had  in  the  last  week  information  w^hich 
gives  us  far  more  precision  in  this  matter,  and  shows  a  much 
higher  bulk  of  units  employed. 

The  identification  has  been  published  of  German  divisions 
up  to  May  ist — that  is,  for  the  first  six  weeks.  This  identi- 
fication presents  us  with  a  number  of  at  least  140.  You 
cannot  have  exact  precision,  you  can  only  establish  a  mini- 
mum, and  this  because  of  numerous  factors  of  error,  though, 
luckily,  these  affect  but  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  total. 
For  instance,  you  may  identify  the  presence  of  a  new  division 
on  a  particular  day  without  finding  out  its  number,  and 
there  may  be  a  discussion  as  to  whether  it  is  a  division  drawn 
from  some  other  jiart  of  the  Hne  or  not.  When  we  say  that 
140  is  the  number  of  original  divisions  used  in  the  period 
between  St.  Quentin  and  May  Day,  we  arc  really  taking  a 
minimum.  The  total  is  something  more,  but  only  slightly- 
more,  than  140. 

Of  these  140  divisions  (or  a  little  more)  it  turns  out  that 
not  40,  but  at  least  50  were  put  in  twice  over,  and  not  6, 
but  somewhere  about  20 — let  us  say  18  for  a  minimum — were 
put  in  three  times  ;  further,  we  learn  that  one  di\'ision  was 
actually  used  four  times. 

We  are  dealing,  then,  not  with  the  equivalent  of  at  least  190, 
but  of  at  least  229  divisions  as  a  target  presented  by  the  enemy 


during  the  first  six  weeks  of  the  great  offensive,  and  more 
probably  over  230.  A  division  is  withdrawn  after  losing 
such  and  such  a  proportion  of  its  effectives  :  say,  3,000  men. 
When  a  division  reappears  after  fiUing  its  gaps  it  is  equivalent 
to  a  new  division  for  the  purpose  of  calculating  losses.  I 
withdraw  a  division  that  has  lost  3,000  men.  I  replace 
these,  and  send  it  in  again  made  up.  It  loses  another  3,000. 
I  withdraw  it  and  fill  the  gaps.  The  losses  are  6,000,  i.e., 
the  same  as  those  of  two  divisions  used  for  the  first  time. 

Now,  to  say  that  the  enemy  losses  of  all  kinds  were  as  low 
during  those  first  six  weeks  as  even  450,000  is  to  say  that 
the  average  loss  of  a  division  during  the  period  it  was  put 
through  the  mill  was  less  than  two  thousand  of  all  arms. 
The  equivalent  of  230  divisions  losing  an  average  of  only 
2,000  men  each  would  give  you  460,000. 

That  is  not  credible.  It  is  not  in  the  past  history  of  the 
enemy's  method  of  action  ;  it  is  not  consonant  with  the 
intensity  of  the  great  actions  now  engaged  ;  it  is  not,  by  any 
sane  rule,  economic  of  material.  To  be  perpetually  with- 
drawing divisions  after  a  comparatively  low  standard  of  loss, 
to  put  a  corresponding  strain  on  your  communications  and 
on  all  your  staff  work,  to  advertise,  as  it  were,  to  your  own 
men  your  doubt  of  their  standing  a  strain  vastly  inferior  to 
what  they  have  stood  in  the  past — these  and  twenty  other 
considerations  surely  make  it  certain  that  a  divisional  strength 
of  14,000  or  15,000  with  an  establishment  of  7,000  to  8,000 
infantry  is  not  thought  to  have  done  its  work  for  the  moment 
when  its  total  losses  of  slightly  wounded,  sick,  and  all  the 
rest  of  it  included,  come  to  less  than  15  per  cent,  of  its  total,  , 
and  its  infantry  losses  to  perhaps  20  per  cent. 

Moreover,  we  have  positive  evidence  to  guide  us  as  weU  as 
this  consideration  of  common  sense.  'We  have  first  the 
extremelj'  heavy  losses  discoverable  whenever  the  data  axe 
available — in  a  few  samples  only,  it  is  true,  but  in  samples 
fairly  uniform. 

We  have  next  the  very  rapid  rate  at  which  divisions  are 
recruited  and  put  in  again  and  the  large  proportion  which 
these  bear  to  the  whole. 

A  year  ago  (on  the  defensive,  it  is  true)  the  Germans  were 
sending  back  one-eighth  in  the  first  six  weeks  of  heavy  fighting  ; 
in  this  year  they  are  sending  back  more  than  a  third. 

Still  more  striking  is  the  rate  of  using  divisions  three  times 
in  so  very  short  a  period  ;  and  these  the  best  quality — the 
3rd  Division  of  the  Guard,  for  instance.  iQuite  extraordinary 
is  the  use  of  one  division  no  less  than  four  times  in  so  very 
short  a  period  as  six  weeks. 

Proportion  of  Loss 

Now,  it  is  true  that  this  intensive  repetition  in  use  cuts 
both  ways.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  argued  that  the  mill 
working  at  such  a  rate  is  necessarily  grinding  down  material 
very  much  faster  than  ever  before.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
arguable  that  if  divisions  can  be  used  again  so  quickly  they 
are  withdrawn  after  much  less  loss  than  formerly.  13ut  of 
these  two  considerations  the  first  is  much  the  weightiest. 
There  would  be  no  point  in  withdrawing  a  division  and 
sending  it  back  almost  immediately,  then  withdrawing  it 
again  and  sending  it  back, again  after  sHght  losses  upon  each 
occasion.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  proportion  of  loss 
suffered  before  a  division  is  withdrawn  is  smaller  than  it  was 
in  the  fighting  on  the  Somme  or  at  Passchendaele,  but  there 
is  an  obvious  limiting  minimum  to  the  losses  which  make  it 
worth  your  while  to  rest  a  division  at  all.  Over  and  above  all 
this,  there  is  the  obvious  governing  fact  which  conditions 
the  wliole  affair,  from  beginning  to  end,  that  the  enemy, 
from  his  first  tremendous  attack  of  Ma#ch  21st  up  to  his 
local  defeat  in  Flanders  upon  April  29th,  was  pressing  with 
the  utmost  energy,  and  had  unclertaken  a  task  which  of  its 
nature  demanded  and  budgeted  for  very  rapid  loss  in  the 
hope  that  such  a  rate  of  expense  would  prove  fruitful  in  the 
long  nm.  and  that  some  'decision  would  be  really  achieved.  , 
It  is  difficult,  with  the  evidence  before  us,  to  put  the  total 
losses  of  those  six  weeks  at  less  than  half  a  million. 

There  .is  just  one  other  httle  point  worth  noting  in  this 
connection.  An  official  reply  was  given  in  the  (lerman 
Parliament,  after  about  a  month  of  the  fighting,  and  referring, 
therefore,  j)robably  to  completed  statistics  of  about  the 
first  three  weeks,  that  20,000  light  cases  had  already  re- 
turned—or, at  any  rate,  had  already  been  discharged  from 
hospital. 

Now,  these  parliafnentary  statements,  designed  to  soothe 
civilians  at  home,  are  nearly  always  of  great  value  to  an 
opponent  ;  that  is  why  they  should  never  be  made.  The 
number  of  20,000  cured  put  positively,  without  relation  to 
the  forces  employed,  sounds  like  a  very  large  and  satisfactory 
figure,  showing  a  rapid  recov.cry  of  men,  and  no  doubt  the 
statement  did  its  work,   which  was  purely  political.     But 


Land   &    Water 


May   1 6,   191 8 


at  the  same  time,  it  informs  us  (if  it  is  true)  that  thi  rate  of 
loss  \ras  exceedingly  high.  Tlie  average  tiiiie  for  return, 
taking  all  cases  together,  is  about  four  months.  But  tlie 
returns  in  the  first  month  are  a  very  small  proportion  of  th ; 
whole.  You  cannot  give  an  exact  figure  because  the  nature 
of  the  fighting  and  the  pressure  for  men  to  be  returned  as 
soon  as  possible  are  two  factors  that  between  them  make  it 
vary  for  different  actions.  In  the  winter,  for  instance,  if 
you  are  dealing  with  the  co.mparative  quiet,  the  proportion 
to  total  "off  strength"  of  slightly  sick  who  are  in  hospital 
for  less  than  a  month  is  much  liigher  than  the  same  propor- 
tion in  fine  weather  and  in  very  violent  action  ;   for  the  type 


of  case  received  into  hospital  is  very  different  in  one  case 
from  what  it  is  in  the  other.  But,  at  any  rate,  20,000  return- 
ing in  the  first  three  weeks  does  not  mean  less  than — and 
probably  m^ans  much  more  than — ^200,000  hospital  cases  of 
all  kinds  within  tlie  same  period.  It  means  a  total  casualty 
list  of  certainly  nearer  300,000  than  250,000.  This,  of  course, 
is  working  on  a  bare  minimum,  and  the  second  half  of  the  six 
weeks,  with  their  tremendous  local  actions  (ro  divisions 
between  Avre  and  Somme,  6  against  Bethune,  to  in  the 
fighting  for  Kemmel,  4  in  the  check  inflicted  by  the  Belgians, 
II  or  15  in  the  last  check  of  April  2gth),  surely  keeps  up  the 
average. 


The  Rumanian   Peace 


THE  peace  whicli  the  Central  Empires,  under  the 
direction  of  Prussia,  have  imposed  upon  Rumania 
is  very  instructive ;  yet  that  not  altogether, 
I  think,  in  the  fashion  represented  by  most  of 
our  publicists. 

These,  as  a  rule,  emphasise  the  harshness  of  the  terms, 
and  hold  them  out  as  an  example  to  others  of  what  a  German 
victory  means.  But  there  is  much  more  in  the  incident 
than  that.  As  for  mere  harshness,  there  is  nothing  to  grcvent 
the  Central  Empire's  annexing  Rumania  out  and  out  : 
exploiting  h^r  soil  and  people  as  thoroughly  as  Prussia  has 
exploited  thbse  parts  of  Poland  which  Frederick  the  Great 
annexed. 

When  you  have  achieved  a  military  decision  in  its  complete 
form,  or  by  any  means  destroyed  your  opponent's  armed  forces, 
then  you  can  do  what  you  will  with  that  opponent — and 
this,  by  the  way,  should  be  borne  in  mind  in  the  West  also 
when  people  talk  of  terms  that  might  be  negotiated  with  the 
enemy  ;  for  if  we  ultimately  defeat  his  armies  we  can  arrange 
all  his  immediate  future  at  our  will. 

There  was  nothing,  I  say,  to  prevent  terms  far  harsher— 
up  to  the  complete  extinction  of  the  nation.  But  what 
Prussia  has  done  in  this  case  is  an  excellent  'proof  of  her 
general  policy.  It  is  a  strong  support  of  that  thesis  which 
I  maintained  in  these  columns  some  months  ago,  when  I 
described  the  Great  Central  State  which  is  coming  into  being 
before  our  eyes,  and  which,  if  it  stands,  will  be  the  great 
practical  result  of  the  Prussian  victory  and  the  abs(jlutely 
certain  decline  of  all  the  West. 

This  Rumanian  Peace  shows  Prussia  to  be  bent  upon  a 
Federal  arrangement,  and,  in  conjunction  with  the  treatment 
of  Bulgaria,  shows  that  the  process  of  Federalism  is  to  be 
carefully  established  in  various  degrees. 

Prussia  desires — very  wisely — an  extension  not  of  an 
absolute  tyranny,  but  of  that  Federal  system  upon  which 
Bismarck  and  his  advisers  constructed  the  modern  German 
Empire  and  towards  which  by  a  parallel  movement  the 
Hapsburgs  were  moving  in  the  generation  before  the  war. 
She  conceives  of  a  great  Central  State  which  meets  modem 
conditions  by  the  recognition  of  local  feehng,  which  sacrifices 
just  the  necessary  minimum  of  her  own  power  to  that  local 
feeling  ;  which  sacrifices  more  and  more  of  her  power  in 
proportion  as  the  new  State  falling  beneath  her  sway  is 
stronger  or  more  distant  or  has  better  natural  defences. 

At  such  a  price  will  Prussia  obtain  the  reality  of  power, 
which  is  principally  mihtary,  and  after  that,  economic  and 
social.  ■ 

Such  a  system  jwould  be  resilient  and  strong.  Such  a 
system  would  gather  into  one  mass  so  large  a  body  of  men 
and  resources,  so  situated  upon  the  map,  and  moved  by  such 
a  poHtical  will  at  the  centre,  tiiat  the  crude  and  repulsive 
culture  developed  by  modern  North  Germany  in  its  attempted 
imitation  of  older  and  better  things  would  certainly  master 
Europe.  Its  social  experiments  would  be  used  as  models  in 
the  West ;  its  hterature  (supposing  it  capable  of  producing 
one)  would  debase  that  of  the  West ;  its  morals,  particularly 
in  the  negation  of  chivalry,  would  destroy  the  traditions  of 
the  West. 

I  do  not  say  that  such  a  degradation  would  be  long-lived. 
It  would  bring  about  its  own  breakdown,  but  with  that, 
ours  as  well.  And  Europe  would  re-enter  after  a  complete 
decline  some  slow  and  difficult  process  of  reconstruction  such 
as  marked  the  Dark  Ages. 

That  is  the  matter  in  its  largest  aspect.  Now  let  us  turn 
to  the  particular  point  of  Federalism,  which  is  the  gist  of 
this  article. 

Up  to  i8t6,  under  what  may  be  called  "the  eighteenth- 
century  system"  of  extending  political  power,  Prussia  simply 
annexed.  She  annexed  her  share  of  Poland  and,  after 
losing  it  at  the  hands  of  the  French  soldiers,  had  it  restored 


to  her  upon  their  defeat.  She  annexed  the  territories  of  the 
Rhine,  the  Bishoprics  of  Treves,  and  Cologne,  and  Munster,  and 
Pardeborn,  and  a  whole  belt  lying  to  the  south  of  Branden- 
burg, mainly  carved  out  of  what  had  formerly  been  the 
Electorate  of  Saxony ;  and  she  annexed  the  northern  comer 
of  Pomerania  and  the  Island  of  Rugen. 

If  you  look  at  the  map  beginning  after  the  Thirty  Years'. 
War  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  Ccirrying  it 
on  into  the  nineteenth,  you  find  the  territory  directly  ruled 
by  the  HohenzoUems  perpetually  growing  until  from  a 
single  small  territory  it  comes  to  cover  much  more  than  the 
half  of  North  Germany  and  a  great  portion  of  Poland  as  well. 

Now,  in  the  second  and  third  quarters  of  the  nineteenth 
century  this  original  method  of  brute  annexation  was  out- 
lived. It  still  obtained  (for  Prussia  was  slow  to  learn)  as  late 
as  1864-6,  when  the  great  mass  of  Hanover  and  Schleswig 
and  Holstein  were  annexed  together  with  Nassau  and  Hesse- 
Cassel  and  the  free  town  of  Frankfort,  linking  up  Hanover 
with  the  Rhine  provinces.  Bur  already  the  power  of  local 
feeling,  the  strength  of  what  is  called  in  its  largest  form 
Nationality  and  in  its  smallest  Provincial  Life,  was  recog- 
nised as  an  invincible  force.  At  the  same  time  Prussia 
desired  to  do  her  work  quickly,  and  therefore  to  obtain  the 
consent  of  those  whom  she  would  subject.  It  became  the 
policy,  therefore,  of  Bismarck  and  his  advisers  to  envisage 
the  future  of  the  Hohenzollern  supremacy  upon  a  Federal 
basis. 

The  German  Empire  of  1 870-1  was  the  creation  of  that 
idea.  Very  wide  local  powers  indeed  were  left  to  any  district 
which  would  admit  the  mastery  of  Prussia.  In  the  case  of 
a  large  and  powerful  State  such  as  Bavaria  there  was  allowed 
what  looked  at  first  like  complete  autonomy — even  miUtary — 
with  no  restrictions  save  the  common  economic  arrange- 
ments, postal,  tariff,  etc.  ;  the  common  higher  military 
command  of  the  General  Empire  and  the  common  accept- 
ance of  the  HohenzoUems  as  hereditary  Emperors  above 
the  Federation.  It  is  not  perhaps  appreciated  here  how 
much  a  Bavarian  still  feels  himself  to  be  rather  a  Bavarian 
under  his  own  Bavarian  King  than  a  subject  or  member  of 
the  new  artificial  Empire. 

The  same  truth  applied  to  the  commercial  and  in  part 
international  financial  oligarchy  of  Hamburg,  to  Saxony, 
and  to  the  lesser  States.  The  realities  of  power  fell  increas- 
ingly to  Prussian  hands.  The  new  German  Empire  was  not 
a  German  Empire  at  all ;  it  was  a  Prussian  arrangement. 
But  the  Federal  type  of  that  arrangement  was  the  great 
and  startHng  innovation  of  the  moment  and  the  mark  of 
what  the  future  was  to  be.  Even  when  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
were  annexed,  the  booty  was  put  in  commission,  as  it  were, 
and  the  stolen  territory  held  in  trust  for  the  Empire  as  a 
whole.  In  practice,  it  is  Prussian.  Every  subject  of  oppres- 
sion in  Alsace-Lorraine  talks  of  the  "Prussian"  not  of  the 
"German"  master.  It  is  a  Prussian  system  and  a  Prussian 
control  ;  but  it  is  not  called  Prussian  territory — it  is  called 
"  Imperial "  territory. 

Parallel  with  this  movement  in  North  Germany,  which 
was  the  aggrandisement  of  Prussia,  went  a  movement  in  the 
dominions  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg-Lorraine— Austria- 
Hungary.  It  was  provoked  by  the  revolt  of  the  Magyars, 
and  at  first  supported  by  those  natural  tendencies  towards 
local  autonomy  which  go  with  conservatism.  But  the  real 
development  of  the  system  was  potential  rather  than  actual. 
It  was  a  programme  not  yet  realised  when  the  war  broke 
out ;  it  was  an  idea  already  accepted  at  Vienna  ;  disliked, 
but  perhaps  thought  inevitable  at  Budapest ;  well  on  its  way 
to  realisation,  and  probably,  had  he  not  been  assassinated, 
to  have  been  realised  by  the  then  heir  to  the  throne.  This 
idea  was  to  give  very  large  local  autonomy  to  the  Slav  depen- 
dencies of  the  German  reigning  House.  The  Emperor  was. 
in  theory,    King  of  Bohemia.     It  was  thought  possible  to 


May  1 6,  191 8 


Land    &   Water 


erectj'a  real  Kingdom  of  Bohemia  with  safeguards  for  the 
German  belt  upon  the  North  and  East.  One  could  imagine 
the  old  Margravate  of  Moravia,  the  old  Duchy  of  Carniola, 
and  the  old  Kingdom  of  Croatia  treated  in  the  same  fashion. 
The  Poles,  already  very  powerful  in  the  Empire,  might  have 
had  a  still  larger  measure  of  freedom :  a  freer  Poland 
would  actually  have  increased  the  power  of  the  Crown  over 
the  Orthodox  elements  in  Galicia.  There  would  have  been  a 
difficulty  with  the  Magyars  because  the  Magyars  thought  it 
more  natural  to  rule  directly  over  Serbs  and  Rumanians, 
whom  they  regarded  as  inferiors ;  but  a  Federal  system  was 
in  the  air,  and  would  soon  have  arrived. 

Both  the  Hohenzollerns  in  the  North  ajid  the  Hapsburgs 
in  the  South  were  moving  towards,  or  had  established,  a 
system  marked  by  three  clear  characteristics.  First:  The 
maintenance  of  a  supremacy — particularly  in  the  case  of 
Prussia.  Secondly,  the  basing  of  that  supremacy  upon 
Federalism.  Thirdly,  very  marked  degrees  in  the  extent  of 
that  Federalism  ;  from  the  ruthless  crushing  of  the  Prussian 
Pelish  Provinces,  through  the  nominally  Imperial  rights  of 
Alsace-Lorraine,  to  the  very  maximum  of  autonomy  such  as 
you  found  in  Bavaria  or  in  Hamburg. 

•  This  system  had  for  its  essential  motive  the  preservation 
of  two  d3masties — the  Hohenzollem  and  the  House  of 
Hapsburg-Lorraine.  Not  only  its  Federal  quality,  but  the 
calculated  degrees  in  autonomy  at  once  gave  this  system 
elasticity  and  permitted  of  confusion  in  national  ideals — 
and  to  confuse  such  ideals  is  the  chief  moral  weapon  of  those 
who  would  destroy  them. 

One  must  not,  of  course,  regard  the  process  mechanically. 
It  was  largely  unconscious,  largely  imposed  by  necessity, 
largely  marred  by  stupidity.  It  was  stupidity,  for  instance, 
that  forbade  any  open  admission  of  the  Polish  claims  and 
that  compelled  the  Government  of  Prussia  to  alternatives 
of  futile  repression  and  secret  accommodation.  For  the 
popular  German  passion  for  bullying  the  Slav  was  too 
strong  for  the  statesmen  to  override.  It  was  necessity 
which  produced  the  position  of  Hamburg  or  of  Bavaria. 
But,  allowing  for  every  modification,  there  did  run  through 
the  pohcy  both  of  Vienna  and  of  Berlin,  especially  in  the 
later  nineteenth  century,  this  growing  conception  that 
Federalism  would  be  their  saving  and  their  aggrandisement. 

Single  Direction 

To  this  idea  the  present  situation  of  the  war  has  given  two 
new  features  :  First,  a  vast  extension  ;  secondly,  a  single 
centre  instead  of  a  double  one.  It  is  Prussia  alone  which 
now  directs  the  whole  movement^indeed,  the  last  diplo- 
matic lever  upon  which  the  West  can  still  work  is  the  fact 
that  a  Prussian  victory  would  now  mean  the  subjection 
of  the  House  of  Hapsburg. 

The  new  extension  is  even  more  remarkable  than  the  new 
imity.  Before  the  war,  you  could  not  say  that  the  two 
Central  Empires  had  extended  to  an  orbit  outside  their  strict 
fiontiers.  The  smaller  States  around  them  were  mostly  in- 
different or  hostile  to  the  Central  Powers.  But  it  is  clearly 
the  intention  of  the  Prussians  to-day  to  create  a  number  of 
free  but  attached  weak  States  a'hd,  as  in  the  case  of  the  for- 
mer domestic  FederaUsm,  to  distinguish  between  varying 
degrees  in  their  liberty.  The  Turkish  Empire  shall  be  main- 
tained and  supported.  The  Bulgarian  shall  be  no  more  bound 
than  a  well-treated  ally — subject  only  to  providing  a  free 
passage  to  the  East.  The  Finns  shall  be  reorganised,  but 
independent ;  the  Poles  cut  down  to  a  fragment,  but  recog- 
nised. And  in  this  Rumanian  Treaty  you  have,  perhaps,  the 
most  characteristic  mark  of  all. 

Observe  these  points  :  First,  a  monarchy — and  a  monarchy 
of  German  origin — is  maintained.  Such  elements  in  the 
constitution  as  might  ultimately  have  threatened  the 
monarchy,  or  might  make  it  too  national,  are  eliminated. 
But  the  nation  is  left  a  nation  ;  it  is,  so  far,  quite  independent 
of  military  service.  Here  you  have  a  sort  of  half-way  house 
between  the  position  of  (say)  Bulgaria  in  the  system  and 
the  position  of  (say)  Courland — which  last  will  presumably 
be  absorbed  as  a  purely  German  Federal  State. 

But  it  should  be  clearly  appreciated  that  this  sparing  of 
Rumania,  this  deliberate  withholding  from  the  apparently 
obvious  Prussian  pohcy  of  changing  the  dynasty  and  of 
putting  a  more  sympathetic  branch  of  the  Hohenzollerns 
upon  the  throne,  is  but  a  mark  of  a  further  intention.  That 
intention  is  to  help  where  they  are  new,  to  maintain  where 
they  are  old,  to  protect  where  protection  m.^y  be  necessarJ^ 
and  in  aU  cases  to  draw  within  the  general  orbit  of  Prussian 
policy,  a  ring  of  smaller  States  west,  north,  and  east.  There 
is  difficulty  in  setthng  Lithuania,  there  is  still  greater  diffi- 
culty in  forming  an  artificial  State  called  "the  Ukraine.' 
but  the  rest  is  going  well. 


After  her  victory,  -Prussia  certainly  expects  a  perfectly 
independent  Sweden  and  Denmark,  and  Holland  to  be 
always  friendly  to  her  interests.  As  for  Belgium,  she  would 
restore  it  to  a  similar  complete  independence ;  but  she 
would  expect  and  obtain  support  for  the  Flemish  tongue  to 
the  gradual  decline  of  the  French,  and  every  economic 
facility  for  the  use  of  the  Scheldt — a  thing  that  does  not 
involve  one  word  of  recognised  political  inferiority.  Nothing 
could  possibly  be  more  to  the  advantage  of  tliis  new  system 
than  a  Switzerland  as  free  as  air — but  one  in  which  the 
German-speaking  cantons  should  remember  the  victory  of 
their  kindred,  while  the  minority  of  French  and  Italian 
speech  should  remember  the  defeat  of  theirs. 

We  have  before  us,  then,  not  only  the  erection  of  a  great 
new  State,  but  the  erection  of  one  bearing  a  special  type — 
a  type  novel  for  us  and  a  type  which  would  give  immense 
and  permanent  power  to  those  who  direct  it.  It  will  be  a 
State  federal  in  its  nucleus,  surrounded  by  lesser  quasi- 
independent  nations,  with  various  degrees  of  freedom,  and 
bounding  these  again  small  States  perfectly  independent, 
but  awed  into  political  and  economic  alliance  or  friendliness. 
The  whole  will  really  be  subject  to  one  control.  That  control 
will  come  from  one  centre  in  Berlin  ;  and  that  centre  is  the 
thing  which  we  are  fighting. 

In  the  presence  of  such  a  fact  all  talk  of  German  failure  in 
the  West,  coupled  with  German  success  in  the  East,  is  non- 
sense. Success  in  the  East  is  the  enemy's  object  for  the 
whole  war. 

If  Germany  were  to  consent  to-morrow  to  restore  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  to  accept  the  complete  independence  of  Belgium, 
to  withdraw  (of  course)  from  all  occupied  territory,  to  cede 
the  Trentino,  and  even  to  repair  at  her  own  charges — or, 
rather,  those  of  the  great  New  Central  State  which  she  now 
controls — the  destruction  she  has  wrought,  she  would  have 
won  the  war. 

It  is  a  mere  tiresome  platitude  to  repeat  that  this  war  is 
not  like  any  other  war  :  That  we  are  fighting  for  the  salva- 
tion of  what  used  to  be  called  Europe  and  for  all  that  we  mean 
in  the  West^by  the  word  "civilisation."  The  thing  is  so 
obvious  that  those  who  do  not  recognise  it — those  who  still 
talk  in  terms  of  the  old  struggles  of  professional  armies  and 
dynasties,  accommodated  by  partial  treaties,  and  resulting 
in  a  peace  of  mutual  accommodations— are  no  longer  listened 
to  at  all. 

What  is  not  a  platitude  and  what  needs  perpetual  insist- 
ence pntil  it  shall  be  as  universally  recognised  and  become  a 
commonplace  in  its  turn,  is  the  truth  that  the  mark  of 
victory  one  way  or  the  other  is  the  power  of  Prussia  to  use 
what  is  now  her  decisive  Eastern  victory. 

If  her  armies  and  those  of  her  Allies  are  defeated,  as  she 
has  defeated  the  armies  against  her  upon  the  East,  we  shall 
at  once  and  essentially  destroy  all  this  Prussian  dream  of  a 
Central  European  State.  We  shall  have  behind  us  for 
doing  so  the  most  intense  national  forces ;  we  shall  be  the 
liberators  of  races  and  territories  which  still  desire  not  the 
mercy  of  a  conqueror,  but  a  revenge  against  him.  We  shall 
destroy  fully  the  present  prestige  upon  which  alone  -the 
Prussian  scheme  depends.  There  will  not  even  remain  the 
artificial  modern  structure  of  a  German  Empire;  and  to 
whatever  the  Scandinavian  States  or  the  Netherland  States, 
or  the  Balkan  States,  or  what  we  hope  wiU  be  a  complete 
and  resurrected  Poland,  look  as  the  centre  of  strength  in 
Europe,  it  will  not  be  to  Berlin. 

The  issue  of  the  world  lies  upon  the  West  and,  for  the 
moment,  upon  that  little  stretch  upon  the  map  between  the 
rivers  Scarpe  and  Oise,  where  three  million  men  are  drawn 
up  facing  each  other.  "  Anyone  who  thinks  that  the  East  is 
settled  before  that  battle  is  settled  is  unfit  to  discuss  the 
destinies  of  his  own  country,  let  alone  of  Europe. 

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Land    &    Water 


May  1 6,  191 8 


Ostend  :    By  Arthur  Pollen 


AT  lunch  time  on  Friday  last  the  evening  news- 
papers had  in  their  "stop  press"  space  an 
Admiralty  annoimcenient  to  the  effect  that 
H.iM.S.  Vindictive*  filled  with  cement,  had  been 
sunk  the  night  before  in  the  narrow  entrance 
at  Ostend.  Is  it  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  no  news  more 
completely  surprising  than  this  has  ever  been  published  ? 
In  discussing  the  main  operation  on  April  22nd  in  Land 
AND  Water,  I  said  of  the  operation  at  Ostend:  "The  prob- 
lem here  was  simply  to  run  two  or  three  ships  into  the 
entrance — that  is,  to  get  them  there  before  the  enemy's 
artillery  could  sink  them  where  their  presence  could  do  no 
harm.  If  the  Ostend  attempt  failed,  it  was  largely  because 
a  sudden  change  in  the  weather  conditions  robbed  the  smoke 
screens,  which  were  to  hide  the  ships,  of  their  value,  so  that 
the  operation  of  placing  the  block  ships  accurately  was  made 
almost  impossible.  It  may  be  asked  why,  in  these  condi- 
tions, the  attempt  was  not  postponed  ?  The  answer  is 
obvious.     The  enemy  could  not  be  surprised  twice.  .  .  ." 

Never  was  a  more  confident  prophecy  more  completely 
falsified.  Nevertheless,  I  venture  to  think  that  no  prophecy 
was  ever  made  on  a  sounder  reasoning  of  the  probabilities. 
It  really  was  unthinkable  tliat  the  enemy  could  be  off  his 
guard  a  second  time.  Is  it^  possible  that  it  is  just  because  it 
was  unthinkable  that  he  was,  as  a  fact,  off  his  guard  ?  Is  it 
equally  possible  that  Sir  Roger  Keyes,  profiting  by  his  past 
experience,  so  organised  his  second  attempt  as  to  make  it 
certain  of  success  wliether  the  enemy  was  on  guard  or  not  ? 

The  narrative  of  events  appears  to  be  somewhat  as  follows. 
As  on  St.  George's  Day,  the  immediate  command  of  the 
operations  was  entrusted  to  Commander  Lynes,  at  whose 
disposal  Vice-Admiral  Keyes  had  placed  the  necessary 
monitors,  destroyers,  motor  launches,  and  coastal  motor 
boats.  We  learn  from  a  French  source  that  French  de- 
stroyers took  part,  and  no  doubt  Rear-Admiral  Tyrwhitt's 
cruisers  and  the  balance  of  the  Dover  forces  were  disposed 
to  prevent  any  interference  by  enemy  ships  that  might  be 
at  sea.  A  mixed  aeroplane  and  monitor  bombardment 
preceded  the  attempt  on  the  entrance,  as  before.  Up  to 
within  half  an  hour  of  the  actual  attempt  to  force  the  entrance 
the  weather  conditions  had  been  perfect.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  it  was  because  they  Were  perfect  that  the  attempt 
was  made.  The  expedition,  that  is  to  say,  may  be  presumed 
to  have  been  ready  for  several  days  and  the  first  favourable 
opportunity  taken.  But  history  repeats  itself,  and  less  than 
half  an  hour  before  Vindictive  was  due  a  sea  fog  suddenly 
formed  and  drifted  inland,  so  dense  as  even  to  make  the 
continuation  of  the  aeroplane  bombardment  impossible.  It 
is  said,  for  instance,  that  it  completely  obscured  the  search- 
lights. 

Vindictive,  under  the  command  of  the  captain  and  officers 
oilBrilliant,  one  of  the  two  cruisers  that  had  miscarried  on 
the  previous  occasion,  were  faced  then  by  a  task  of  extra- 
ordinary perplexity.  For  arriving  punctually  to  time  off 
the  port,  they  had  to  cruise  first  east  and  then  west,  looking 
for  the  entrance.  The  shore  gunners  must  have  found  the 
atmospheric  conditions  less  trying  than  did  the  navigators 
at  sea.  Probably  a  chance  star-shell  betrayed  the  presence 
of  strange  craft  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  after  that  favour- 
ably placed  observers  must  have  got  fleeting  glimpses  of 
Vindictive  and  her  consorts.  For  these  were  soon  under  a 
hot  fire,  and  Vindictive  had  many  casualties  before  suddenly 
finding  herself  almost  in  the  entrance  itself. 

Finding  the  vessel  close  up  against  the  entrance,  her 
captain  ran  her  in  until  her  stem  grounded,  when,  being 
unable  further  to  move  her,  he  ordered  the  crew  off  and 
started  the  charges  which  were  going  to  sink  her.  She  lies 
accordingly  now  some  five  or  six  hundred  feet  within  the 
entrance,  diagonally  placed  across  it,  a  very  narrow  passage 
only  being  clear  between  her  bows  and  the  western  pier. 
Forty-five  of  her  officers  and  crew  were  brought  off  by  two 
motdr  launches,  under  a  storm  of  machine-gun  fire.  Another 
motor  launch  .searched  for  a  further  fifteen  minutes,  as  near 
inshore  as  possible,  when  she  was  ordered  out  by  the  Vice- 
Admiral,  who  was  flying  his  flag  in  the  destroyer  Wanenck. 
This  motor  launch  had  had  several  casualties  and  was  so 
riddled  by  shot  that  her  destruction  was  ordered,  after  her 
crew  had  been  taken  off.    The  launches  and  destroyers  then 


*  Why  .speak  of  this  famous  ship  as  "obsolete"  ?  Is  it  necessary  to 
apologise  for  sinking  her  ?  Have  we  really  not  outgrown  the  imbeciUty 
of  thinking  that  only  the-  newest  ships  are  live  ships  ?  Vindictive  has 
been  the  chief  instrument  in  two  post  brilhant  successes.  It  is  a 
pity  that  we  have  not  more  of  such'  obsolescence. 


withdrew,  using  smoke  screens  as  far  as  possible.  Motor 
Launch  254  was  the  only  craft  lost,  and  the  casualties  were 
light. 

Whether  or  not  the  port  of  Ostend  is  now  absolutely 
blocked — as  completely,  that  is  to  say,  as  Zeebriigge  un- 
doubtedly is — seems  to  be  uncertain.  There  is  a  gap  between 
Vindictive  and  the  pier,  iind  if  it  is  not  wide  enough  for 
ocean-going  submarines,  or  even  for  destroyers,  it  is  clearly 
a  passage  wliich,  by  blasting  off  Vindictive' s  end,  can  ultimately 
be  widened  sufficiently  for  this  purpose,  and  in  less  time 
and  with  less  labour  than  if  the  ship  was  jammed  hard  from 
pier  to  pier.  But  it  does  not  at  all  follow  from  this  that 
Ostend  is  now  or  can  for  many  months  be  of  any  real  prac- 
tical use  to  the  enemy. 

As  we  know  to  our  cost,  a  shjp  that  sinks  in  these  narrow 
artificially  made  harbours  is  almost  a  complete  bar  to  the 
user  of  that  harbour,  even  if  she  is  of  ordinary  construction 
and  the  operation  of  removing  her  completely  undisturbed 
by  enemy  action.  The  thing  is  altogether  different  in  the 
case  of  a  ship  of  solid  steel  construction  like  Vindictive,  whose 
plates  and  booms  and  scantlings  are  of  tougher  and  thicker 
fabric  than  those  of  any  merchantman,  and  the  task  of 
removing  it  becomes  colossal  when  the  intricate  steel  con- 
struction is,  so  to  speak,  welded  into  a  solid  mass  by  concrete. 

To  begin  with,  it  is  out  of  the  question  raising  the  ship, 
even  by  a  minutest  fraction,  and  then  bodily  hauling  her  to 
one  side.  Next,  it  is  out  of  the  question  to  deal  with  the 
ship  section  wise,  by  sending  divers  to  lay  small  charges  in 
rings,  so  as  to  plough  off  portion  after  portion,  and  then  to 
remove  the  debris  after  each  blast.  There  is  nothing  for  it 
but  to  disintegrate  the  entire  mass  by  successive  blastings 
and  then  laboriously  to  remove  each  fragment.  Meantime, 
the  harbour  mouth  and  the  narrow  passage-way  of  the 
entrance  tends  to  silt  up  with  mud  and  sand,  and  dredging 
operations,  which  would  be  perfectly  effective  if  they  had 
only  the  oMinary  material  to  deal  with,  are  altogether 
impracticable  if  the  mud  is  heavily  strewn  with  large  frag- 
ments of  steel  and  concrete.  This  silting  will  take  place, 
in  any  event,  in  the  congested  passage  which  may  be  left 
between  Vindictive  and  the  pier.  We  are  probably  safe, 
then,  in  assuming  that,  for  a  considerable  period,  at  least,' 
both  Ostend  and  Zeebriigge  are  altogether  lost  to  the  enemy. 

Merchant  Ship  Construction 

It  adds  to  the  effect  that  these  examples  of  offensive 
initiative  have  come  after  a  period  of  six  months  during 
wipch  the  main  naval  effort  had  to  be  devoted  to  working 
out  and  creating  a  defensive  against  the  submarine.  In  the 
last  three  weeks  a  good  deal  of  further  information  has  come 
to  us  as  to  its  progress.  A  week  ago  the  Admiralty  pub- 
lished complete  returns  of  merchant  ship  construction  for 
the  three  months  ending  March  31st,  both  for  the  United 
Kingdom  and  for  the  worid,  and  the  April  figures  for  this 
country  only.  Three  weeks  ago  we  had  the  tonnage  loss 
month  by  month  since  the  beginning  of  the  war  up  to  the 
close  of  March.  As  we  have  not  got  the  world's  tonnage 
production  for  April,  nor  yet  either  the  British  nor  the  world's 
losses  for  the  same  month,  it  is  only  possible  to  present  a 
review  of  our  progress  against  the  submarines,  as  measured 
by  such  statistics  as  these,  for  the  first  quarter  of  the  year. 

The  state  of  affairs  revealed  by  these  figures  is  as  follows. 
British  losses  for  the  first  quarter  are  95,313  tons  less  than 
in  the  previous  quarter,  and  the  worid's  losses  are  diminished 
by  149.333  tons.  The  naval  offensive  against  the  submarine 
and  the  active  defence  of  shipping  in  the  danger  zone  has 
therefore,  improved  the  position  as  far  as  Great  Britain  is 
concerned,  roughly  by  11  per  cent.,  and  so  far  as  the  worid 
IS  concerned  by  about  12  per  cent.  In  each  case  effective 
and,  indeed,  invaluable  as  is  the  assistance  rendered  by  allied 
forces,  the  lion's  share  of  the  work  falls  on  the  British  ser<ace 
—so  that  it  is  a  record  on  which  we  can  legitimately  con- 
gratulate ourselves.  But  instead  of  there  being  progress  in 
our  shipbuilding,  there  has  been  a  falling  off.  Our  own 
production  is  down  by  99,341  tons,  and  as  allied  and  neutral 
construction  is  only  about  33,000  tons  up,  there  is  a  net 
decline  of  67,416  tons.  Thus  the  actual  gain  of  shipping 
built  and  saved  during  the  first  quarter  of  igi8  over  the 
last  quarter  of  1917  is  81,917  tons  only-^r,  shall  we  say 
6  per  cent.  •" 

When  the  Admiralty  statement  on  the  submarine  and 
merchant  tonnage  was  published  in  the  third  week  in  March, 
it  wiU  be  remembered  that  the  progress  of  destruction  and 


ki 


May  1 6,  191 8 


Land    &   Water 


construction  was  shown  by  curves  made  out  in  quarterly 
stages  which  ended  on  December  31st,  showing  the  destruc- 
tion line  descending  somewhat  sharply  and  the  construction 
line  ascending  still  more  sharply  to  meet  it.  Had  these  two 
slopes  continued  we  should  have  had  them  crossing  before 
the  middle  of  February  last.  If  we  continue  those  curves 
now  in  the  light  of  the  latest  returns,  we  shall  find  that, 
while  the  destruction  curve  still  slopes  downwards,  the 
angle  of  the  slope  is  more  gradual.  This  is  accounted  for 
by  the  fact  that,  while  the  fourth  quarter  of  1917  showed  a 
loss  of  170,000  tons  less  than  the  third  quarter  for  British 
shipping  and  of  221,630  tons  less  for  the  world's  shipping, 
the  improvement  for  the  last  quarter  is  only  50  per  cent,  of 
this  in  the  case  of  our  own  shipping  and  only  66  per  cent, 
for  the  world's  shipping.  The  building  curve,  of  course, 
instead  of  continuing  to  rise,  does  not  even  remain  parallel. 
But  as  there  is  a  net  gain  of  81,000  tons,  while  both  curves 
now  slope  downwards,  the  destruction  curve  is  steeper  than 
that  which  represents  replacement.  The  situation  on 
January  ist  and  April  ist  may  then  be  compared  in  this 
way.  On  the  first  date  the  world  was  losing  tonnage  at  the 
ra^e  of  340,820  tons  a  quarter,  whereas  on  the  second  the 
rate  had  fallen  to  258,903  a  quarter. 

Of  tlie  present  state  of  affairs  we  have,  as  indicated  above, 
only  the  figure  for  British  construction  for  the  month  of 
April,  during  which  we  produced  111,533  tons  only.  But  it 
■is  officially  pointed  out  that  during  this  month  repairs  to 
damaged  ships  increased  by  no  less  than  40  per  cent.  This 
represents  a  call  on  material,  plant,  and  labour  in  the  ship- 
yards, which  may  very  easily  be  the  equivalent  of  a  very 
considerable  tonnage  of  new  shipping.  But,  apart  from  this, 
it  would  be  a  mistake  to  estimate  the  increase  or  otherwise 
of  the  effort  in  shipbuilding  simply  by  monthly  returns. 
We  have  not -yet  reached  the  stage  of  all  ships  under  con- 
struction being  uniform  in  tonnage  and  design.  The  com- 
pletion of  each  individual  ship  must  depend  partly  on  its 
character,  partly  on  the  date  of  its  inception,  partly  on 
local  conditions — of  which  the  demand  for  repairs  to  injured 
vessels  is,  after  all,  only  one.  It  therefore  would  not  be 
surprising  if  th"  monthly  returns  varied  within  very  wide 
limits.  The  official  estimate  for  the  production  of  British 
yards  during  the  current  year  stipulated  a  monthly  rate  of 
165,000  tons  from  the  date  of  the  Admiralty  statement  in 
March.  The  natural  thing  to  expect  is  a  gradual  approxima- 
tion to  this  output,  and  then  a  steady  increase  upon  it,  so 
that  the  average  for  the  next  seven  months  should  come 
out  approximately  at  this  figure.  It  is,  however,  an  obvious 
possibility  of  the  situation  that  the  reorganisation  of  the 
industry  secured  by  Lord  Pirrie's  appointment  m«y  give  us, 
before  eight  months  are  out,  results  which  are  substantially 
better. 

Losses  by  Submarines 

We  shall  not  get  the  returns  of  British  and  world's  losses 
,  by  submarine  for  April  for  another  fortnight,  but  there  are 
significant  indications  that  an  improvement  will  be  shown. 
First,  I  find  a  general  impression  prevails  that  submarines 
are  being  sunk  at  a  far  higher  rate  than  ever  before — the 
most  satisfactory  way,  when  all  is  said,  of  securing  the  pro- 
tection of  our  trade.  Next,  Admiral  Sims,  speaking  at  a 
complimentary  dinner  to  American  officers  in  London  a 
week  ago,  is  reported  to  have  said  that,  in  his  opinion, 
there  was  no  danger  that  the  Allies  were  going  to  be  defeated. 
Germany  had  never  had  any  hope  of  victory,  save  in  the 
,  submarine  campaign,  and  the  progress  of  this  from  its  highest 
point  in  April  last  had  shown  a  steady  decline,  whereas 
building  had  steadily  progressed.  He  then  added  that  these 
two  curves  would  cross  at  the  present  rate  inside  of  two 
weeks.  From  that  time  on  building  would  increase  our 
shipping  instead  of  submarines  decreasing  it.  Germany 
knew  this  just  as  well  as  the  Allies,  and  it  was  this  knowledge 
that  explained  why'she  was  making  such  a  desperate  effort 
on  the  Western  front.     It  was  her  only  and  laist  chance. 

The  Admiral's  reference  to  the  two  curves  crossing 
in  a  week's  time  not  only  confirms  our  supposition  that 
the  anti-U-boat  offensive  has  gained  in  effect,  but  gives 
ground  for  hope  that  there  has  been  a  further  decline  in 
submarine  losses,  and  that  a  notable  advance  in  the  world's 
rate  of  shipbuilding  may  shortly  be  revealed.  That  the 
American  rate  should  have  been  comparatively  low  for  the 
first  months  of  the  year  was  fully  to  be  expected,  for  the 
mere  scale  of  the  original  plan,  apart  from  every  other  con- 
sideration, militated  against  the  early  output  being,  month 
by  month,  proportionate  to  the  desired  total.  A  year  ago 
the  Emergency  Shipping  Corporation's  programme  was 
framed  on  an  expectation  of  half  a  million  tons  a  month. 
The  practical  difficulties  in  realising  so  vast  a  project  at  so 


early  a  date  were  insuperable.  It  is  probable  that  more 
would  have  been  achieved  in  the  first  twelve  months  if  a 
programme  considerably  less  ambitious  had  been  attempted. 
With  Mr.  Schwab's  appointment,'  at  the  end  of  the  winter, 
to  the  general  supervision  of  the  whole  undertaking,  however, 
a  new  direction  was  given  to  the  scheme,  and  it  is  not  un- 
reasonable to  interpret  Admiral  Sims's  prophecy  to  mean 
that  the  American  reorganisation  effort  is  now  about  to 
bear  fruit.  If  4,000,000  tons  are  to  be  produced  in  the 
current  year,  as  seems  not  improbable,  production  at  the 
rate  of  the  original  plan — namely,  half  a  million  a  month — 
will  have  to  be  attained,  and  that  very  shortly.  Now,  if 
all  the  Allies  and  the  neutral  world  have  together  only  pro- 
duced 544,000  tons  in  the  first  three  months  of  the  year,  it 
is  easy  to  see  what  a  vast  difference  a  comparatively  small 
acceleration  of  the  American  rate  will  make  to  the  general 
position.  And,  as  the  quarterly  gap  is  now  only  just  over 
a  quarter  of  a  million  tons,  a  continuation  of  the  downward 
slope  of  the  destruction  line  ought  soon  to  put  us  in  the 
position  which  the  Admiral  forecasts. 

If  this  point  can  be  reached  in  a  week,  it  means  something 
much  more  significant  than  that  the  power  of  the  submarine 
to  reduce  the  world's  shipping  by  attrition  will  have  come 
to  an  end.  It  means  that  shipbuilding  will  be  contributing 
more  to  the  result  than  the  naval  defensive.  Now,  there  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  destruction  curve  will  not 
continue  downward.  THere  is,  indeed,  every  expectation 
that  it  must  do  so.  And  if  America  alone  can  get  to  half  a 
million  tons  a  month  and  the  rest  of  us  to  200,000,  then  it 
would  not  be  so  very  long  before  the  handicap  of  shipping 
shortage  must  definitely  be  removed.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  dwell  upon  the  severity  of  the  handicap  as  it  stands  to-day. 
By  making  it  a  vital  necessity  to  substitute  home-grown  or 
home-made  products  for  those  that  we  used  to  import,  the 
submarine  has  in  the  first  place  put  such  a  strain  upon  our 
man-power  that  we  have  not  been  able  to  measure  and 
provide  provisions  of  men  at  the  front  by  military  require- 
ments only.  We  have  had  to  balance  this  necessity  against 
others  not  less  imperative.  That  it  has  reduced  our  food 
supply  is  a  disagreeable,  but  not  a  vital  matter.  What  is 
entirely  vital  is  that  limited  transportation  is  at  once  the 
bottle-neck  which  prevents  the  vast  resources  of  America 
being  reflected  in  her  strength  in  the  field  of  battle,  and 
imposes,  not  in  one,  but  in  all  fields  of  war,  ruthless  limits 
to  our  employing  the  forces  already  at  our  disposal. 

When  the  Admiralty  return  was  published  in  March  of 
the  tonnage  lost,  by  enemy  action,  built  and  acquired  as 
prize,  it  appeared  that  the  shipping  of  the  world  available 
to  the  Allies  showed  a  net  reduction  of  two  and  a  half  million 
tons  from  the  figure  it  stood  at  before  the  war.  The  losses 
for  the  month  of  March  make  the  total  now  t^o  and  three- 
quarter  millions.  If  the  rate  of  loss  remained  only  constant 
and  the  shipbuilding  went  up  to  the  anticipated  figure,  the 
whole  of  this  deficit  would  be  wiped  out  in,  at  most,  six 
months'  time.  It  is  surely  impossible  to  over-estimate  the 
effect  this  will  have  upon  the  campaign.  It  will  be  a  fin^l 
assurance  of  victory,  so  long  as  the  enemy  does  not  find  some 
new  naval  means  of  breaking  in  to  our  sea  communications. 
And  it  is  surely  not  ra«h  to  prophecy  that  no  such  means  do 
exist  or  can  conceivably  be  brought  into  existence. 

.It  will  be  observed  that  herein  I  take  it  for  granted  that 
the  normal  means  of  sea  war — that  is,  battleships,  cruisers, 
destroyers,  and  submarines  employed  for  their  legitimate 
purposes  against  our  armed  sea  forces — available  to  the 
enemy  since  the  beginning,  will  not  probably  be  used  with 
effect  against  us  now.  If  the  enemy  has  made  no  effort  to 
employ  them  up  to  now,  is  it  likely  that  this  failure  of  the 
submarine  will  compel  him  to  a  final  struggle  ?  Certainly 
if  it  does,  the  effort  will  be  made  in  conditions  far  les;  pro- 
mising than  they  have  ever  been.  For  it  is  now  abundantly 
apparent  that  the  conversion  of  our  system  of  naval  adminis- 
tration and  command  from  the  old  quarter-de6k  or  auto- 
cratic principle  to  the  present  staff  principle  has  resulted  in 
exactly  that  gain  in  energy,  enterprise,  and  efficiency,  that 
the  advocates  of  the  conversion  so  confidently  foretold.  It 
must,  in  other  words,  be  as  abundantly  clear  to  the  enemy, 
as  it  is  to  us,  that  Allied  sea-power  in  the  month  of  May, 
1918,  has  reached  a  point  in  efficiency  never  previously 
touched  during  the  war  and  t  hat  its  mark  is  not  that  individual 
ships  or  squadrons  are  better  trained,  nor  that  individual 
commanders  are  bolder  or  more  skilful,  though,  no  doubt, 
the  crucible  of  war  has  run  much  dross  away  and  left  the 
true  metal  clear.  The  change  lies  in  this :  that  the  Navy 
as  a  whole — and  this  includes  the  Allied  forces  no  less  than 
the  British — is  being  handled  with  initiative.  It  can  be 
so  handled  to-day  because  at  last  the  varied  and  widely 
diffused  brain  work  necessary  to  it  is  executed  and  co- 
o.dinated  to  the  right  purpose. 


lO 


Land    &  Water 


May   1 6,  191 8 


German  Plots  Exposed 

James  J.    F.   Archibald 

By      F^rench      StrOther,   Managing  Editor,  "Th=  world's  work,'?  New  York 


"I  always  say  to  these  idiotic  Yanlcees  that  they  should  shut  their  mouths  and, 
better  still,  be  full  of  admiration  for  all  our  heroism."— Extract  from  von  Papen's 

F.  Archibald  undertook  to  deliver. 


letter  to  his  wife  in  Berlin  which  James  J. 


THE  case  of 
James  J.  F. 
Archibald, 
war  corre- 
spondent, is  another  sample  of  the  Germans'  fatal 
gift  for  trusting  a  weak  link  in  an  otherwise  ingenious  and 
complete  chain.  Their  "cleverness"  was  the  cleverness  of 
the  cockv  boy  who  thinks  he  can  outwit  anyone.  The  sad 
ending  of  .Archibald's  career,  the  ignominious  exposure  of 
his  character  as  a  messenger  for  the  Gennans,  was  simplicity 
itself.  And  the  revelations  contained  in  the  messages  he 
carried  were  most  discreditable  to  the  honour  and  the 
wisdom  of  the  plotters  in  the  Teutonic  Embassies. 

The  story  begins  on  July  29th,  1914,  six  days  after  Austria's 

ultimatum  to  Serbia  and  three  days  before  the  formal  historical 

date  of  the  opening  of  the  war.     On  that  day  an  enterprising 

American  Newspaper  Syndicate  telegraphed  Mr.  Archibald : 

Please  telegraph  us  your  terms  for  going  to  the  European 

war,  so  that  we  can  size  up  the  syndicate  field.     As  soon  as 

received  will  try  for  quick  action. 

The  Wheeler  Syndicate,  Inc. 

Archibald  suoii  had  his  arrangements  made,  though  his  em- 
ployers were  ignorant  of  the  reason  for  the  surprising  ease  with 
which  he  obtained  the  highest  possible  entree  to  the  best  pos- 
sible points  of  observation  within  the  German  lines.  It  should 
be  said  at  once  that  their  attitude  was  perfectly  correct, 
and  that  the  moment  they  discovered  the  true  nature  of 
his  errand  they  discharged  him  by  cable,  on  October  27th.  But 
that  comes  later  in  the  story. . 

Archibald  was  a  man  of  true  grandiose  German  style.  Writ- 
ing to  the  syndicate  on  September  4th,  he  said  : 

You  should  not  confound  my  efforts  with  more  than 
five  hundred  correspondents  of  every  description  who  have 
attempted  to  get  to  the  English,  French,  and  Belgian  fronts, 
none  of  them  with  any  official  recognition,  and  most  of  them 
without  even  a  passport.  At  the  hysterical  beginning  of 
the  war,  correspondents  are  very  much  in  the  way,  but 
every  cartoonist,  humorist,  and  amateur  millionaire  who 
wanted  a  httle  private  excitement  rushed  to  the  front  and 
embarrassed  the  armies  in  their  mobihsation ;  and 
naturally,  they  were  not  gladly  received.  I  have  been 
working  quietly,  just  as  I  did  in  the  Russian  War,  when 
I  was  the  first  and  only  foreign  correspondent  to  be  accepted 
after  four  months'  waiting. 

There  is  no  necessity  of  coming  into  conflict  with  any 
censors  if  one  knows  mihtary  censorship  as  I  do,  for  all 
they  require  is  that  you  will  not  embarrass  their  present 
actual  movements.  "There  is  not  one  single  foreign  corre- 
spondent with  either  the  German  or  Austrian  armies,  and 
it  will  be  a  great  achievement  to  get  dispatches  out  from 
there  ;  and  I  am  positive,  with  the  papers  that  I  now  hold, 
that  there  wiU  be  no  difficulty  whatever.  The  difficulty  is 
merely  in  establishing  one's  responsibility  with  these 
armies,  and  my  residence  in  Washington  for  the  last  ten 
years  has  been  for  that  purpose  alone. 

.Archibald  was  soon  in  Germany,  and  began  sending  bac 
cable  dispatches  to  a  syndicate  of  papers,  the  principal  ones  of 
which  were  the  New  York  Times,  Tribune,  and  World.  His 
dispatches,  however,  were  so  blatantly  pro-German  and  had  so 
much  more  propaganda  than  news  in  them  that  these  papers 
quickly  became  dissatisfied.  For  example,  the  Times  cut  out 
of  one  of  his  dispatches  a  large  section  of  fulsome  eulogy  of  the 
German  Government.  Imagine  their  astonishment  the  next 
morning  to  receive  a  telephone  call  from  Captain  Boy-Ed, 
Naval  Attache  of  the  German  Embassy  with  offices  in  New 
York.  Captain  Boy-Ed  demanded  the  reason  for  the  omission 
of  these  paragraphs.  The  Times  naturally  demanded  Captain 
Boy-Ed's  source  of  information  that  such  paragraphs  existed. 
It  soon  developed  that  Boy-Ed  was  receiving  direct  from  Ger- 
many duplicates  of  all  the  material  that  Archibald  was  cabling 
for  publication.  As  soon  as  the  American  newspapers  under- 
stood this  situation  they  declined  to  proceed  further.  In  the 
same  spirit  and  simultaneously  the  Wheeler  Syndicate  "fired" 
Mr.  Archibald  by  cable  and  wrote  him  a  stinging  letter  from 
which  the  following  two  paragraphs  may  be  quoted  : 

Perhaps  because  of  the  nature  of  your  stuff,  at  any  rate, 
we  have  to  face  the  veiled  insinuation  that  you  are  in  the 
pay  of  the  German  and  Austrian  Governments.  In  this 
connection,  we  have  been  told  that  the  German  and  Austrian 
Ambassadors  to  this  country  have  received  in  skeleton  form 


the  several  vrireless^dis • 
patches  you  sent  to  us 
addressed  care  the 
Times.  We  think  you 
should  know  this,  and  also  know  that,  with  the  nature  of 
your  dispatclies  such  as  they  were,  we  dared  not  allow  our- 
selves, by  continuing  the  service,  to  be  laid  open  to  the 
charge  that  we  were  in  the  employ  of  the  German  and 
Austrian  Governments.  So  for  this  reason  we  had  to  terminate 
the  service. 

We  have  instructed  the  Times  not  to  accept  any  more 
wireless  dispatches  from  you,  and  the  wireless  company 
h£ts  been  notified  that  no  dispatches  will  be  accepted. 

Nothing  daunted  by  these  rebufis,  Archibald  continued  his 
exploits  as  "war  correspondent,"  interspersing  his  labours  at 
the  front  with  voyages  back  to  the  United  States,  ostensibly  to 
deliver  lectures.  The  true  character  of  his  movements  stands 
revealed  in  a  letter  Archibald  received  from  Bernstorf^,  the 
Geripan  Ambassador,  a  few  days  before  he  embarked  on  the 
voyage  from  New  York  which  was  to  be  his  last.  This  letter 
was  written  from  Bernstorii's  summer  home  at  Cedarhurst, 
Long  Island,  on  August  19th,  1915,  and  reads  : 

Dear  Mr.  Archibald, 

I  send  you  herewith  the  two  letters  of  recommendation 
asked  for,  and  hope  that  they  will  be  useful  to  you.  I 
learn  with  pleasure  that  you  wish  once  again  to  letum  to 
Germany  and  Austria  as  you  have  interceded  for  our  concerns 
here  so  courageously  and  successfully. 
With  best  compUments, 

Yours  very  sincerely,  ^ 

Bernstorff. 
One  of  these  letters  was  as  follows  : 

The  German  Frontier  Custom  Authorities  are  requested 
to  kindly  give  to  the  bearer  of  this  letter,  Mr.  James  J.  F. 
Archibald,  from  New  York,  who  is  going  to  Germany  with 
photographic  apparatus,  etc.,  in  order  to  collect  material 
for  lectures  in  the  United  States  in  the  interests  of  Germany, 
all  possible  faciUties  compatible  with  regulations  in  the 
dispatching  of  his  luggage. 

Bernstorff. 
Imperial  Ambassador. 

The  familiar  story  of  what  happened  next  is  that  Archibald 
carried  some  secret  documents  for  Bernstorff  and  Dumba  in  a 
hollow  cane.  This  could  scarcely  be,  for  the  documents  lie 
carried  were  so  numerous  and  some  of  them  so  bulky  that  the 
cane  would  need  to  be  a  giant's  walking  stick.  In  any  event 
the  documents  themselves  are  of  more  interest  than  their 
vehicle.  They  were  taken  from  Archibald  by  the  British 
authorities  at  Falmouth.  The  series  can  be  best  introduced 
from  a  letter  from  the  Austro-Hungarian  Ambassador  in 
Washington,  Dumba,  to  his  chief.  Count  Burian,  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs  in  Vienna,  which  reads  : 

My  Lord, 

Yesterday  evening  Consul-Genera  von  Nuber  received 
the  enclosed  aide  memoire  from  the  chief  editor  of  the  locally 
known  paper  Szabodsog,  after  a  previous  conference  with 
him,  and  in  pursuance  of  his  proposals  to  arrange  for  strikes 
in  the  Bethlehem  Schwab  steel  and  munitions  war  factory, 
and  also  in  the  Middle  West. 

Dr.  Archibald,  who  is  well  known  to  your  lordship,  leaves 
to-day  at  12  o'clock  on  board  the  Rotterdam,  for  Berlin 
and  Vienna.  I  take  this  rare  and  safe  opportunity  to 
warmly  recommend  the  proposal  to  your  lordship's  favour- 
able consideration. 

It  is  my  impression  that  we  can  disorganise  and  hold  up 
for  months,  if  not  entirely  prevent,  the  manufacture  of 
munitions  in  Bethlehem  and  the  Middle  West,  which,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  German  military  attach^,  is  of  great 
importance,  and  amply  outweighs  the  expenditure  of  money 
involved. 

But  even  if  strikes  do  not  come  ofi,  it  is  probable  that 
we  should  extort,  under  the  pressure  of  the  crisis,  more 
favourable  conditions  of  labour  for  our  poor,  down-trodden 
fellow-countrymen.  In  Bethlehem  these  white  slaves  are 
now  working  for  twelve  hours  a  day,  and  seven  days  a 
week.     All  weak  persons  succumb  and  become  consumptives. 

So  far  as  German  workmen  are  found  among  the  skilled 
hands,  a  means  of  leaving  will  be  provided  for  them. 

Beside  this,  a  private  German  registry  office  has  been 
established  which  provided  employment  for  persons  who 
have   voluntarily   given    up   their   places,    and   is   already 


May  1 6,  191 8 


Land  &    Water 


1 1 


working  well.  They  will  also  join,  and  the  widest  support 
is  assured  me.  I  beg  your  Excellency  to  be  so  good  as 
to  inform  me  with  reference  to  this  letter  by  wireless  tele- 
graphy, replying  whether  you   agree.  Dumba. 

The  considaiation  which  "Doctor"  Archibald  received  for 
his  complacency  in  giving  his  friends  Dumba  and  Bernstorff 
"this  rare-and  safe  opportunity"  is  indicated  by  his  receipt 
of  April  24,  1915,  to  the  German  Embassy  in  Washington 
for  ;fi,ooo  for  propaganda  work. 

Further  light  upon  "the  enclosed  aide  memoire.  .  .  in 
pursuance  of  his  proposals  to  arrange  for  strikes  in  the 
Bethelem  Schwab  steel  and  munitions  war  factory,"  is  gained 
by  the  following  quotations  from  the  enclosure  mentioned 
by  Dumba  in  his  letter  to  Burian.  The  enclosure  was  an 
outline  of  a  scheme  for  fomenting  strikes,  submitted  to  Dumba 
by  William  Warm,  the  Editor  of  Szabodsog  {Freedom): — 

In  ray  opinion,  we  must  start  a  very  strong  agitation  on 
this  question  in  the  Freedom  (Szabodsog),  a  leading  organ, 
with  respect  to  the  Bethlehem  works  and  the  conditions 
"  there.  This  can  be  done  in  two  ways,  and  both  must  be 
utilised.  In  the  first  place,  a  regular  daily  section  must 
be  devoted  to  the  conditions  obtaining  there,  and  a  cam- 
paign must' be  regularly  conducted  against  those  indescrib- 
ably degrading  conditions.  The  Freedom  has  already  done 
something  similar  in  the  recent  past,  when  tlie  strike  move- 
ment began  at  Bridgeport.  It  must  naturally  take  the 
form  of  strong,  deliberate,  decided,  and  courageous  action. 
Secondly,  the  writer  of  these  lines  would  begin  a  labour 
novel  in  that  newspaper  much  on  the  lines  of  Upton 
Sinclair's  celebrated  story,  and  this  might  be  published  in 
other  local  Hungarian,  Slovak,  and  German  newspapers 
also.  Here  we  arrive  at  the  point  that  naturally  we  shall 
also  require  other  newspapers.  The  American  Magyar 
Nepszava  (Word  of  the  People)  wiU  undoubtedly  be  com- 
pelled willingly  or  unwilUngly  to  follow  the  movement 
initiated  by  the  Freedom  (Szabodsog),  for  it  will  be  pleasing 
to  the  entire  Hungarian  element  in  America,  and  an  absolute 
patriotic  act  to  which  that  open  journal  (the  Nepszava) 
could  not  adopt  a  hostile  attitude.  .  .  . 

In  the  interest  of  successful  action  at  Bethlehem  and  the 
Middle  West,  besides  the  Szabodsog,  the  Nepszava,  the  new 
daily  paper  of  Pittsburg,  must  be  set  in  motion,  and  those 
of  Bridgeport,  Youngtown  District,  etc.,  also  two  Slovak 
papers.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  first  necessity  is 
money.  To  Bethlehem  must  be  sent  as  many  reUable 
Hungarian  and  German  workmen  as  I  can  lay  my  hands 
on,  who  will  join  the  factories  and  begin  their  work  in  secret 
among  tlieir  fellow  workmen.  We  must  sepd  an  organiser, 
who  in  the  interest?  of  the  Union  will  begin  the  business 
in  his  own  way.  We  must  also  send  so-called  "soap-box" 
orators  who  will  know,  and  so  start  a  useful  agitation. 
We  shall  want  money  for  popular  meetings,  and  possibly 
for  organising  picnics. 

It  is  my  opinion  that  for  the  special  object  of  starting 
the  Bethlehem  business  and  for  the  Bethlehem  and  Western 
newspaper  campaign,  £3,000  to  ;f4,ooo  must  be  able  to 
be  disposed  of,  but  it  is  not  possible  to  reckon  how  much 
will   ultimately  be  required. 

These  documents  should  be  read  in  the  light  of  their  date, 
August  20,  1915,  when  the  United  States  was  a  neutral 
nation,  still  receiving  the  representatives  of  the  "friendly" 
German  and  Austro-Hungarian  Empires. 

Another  document  which  Dumba  entrusted  to  Archibald 
was  his  report  to  Burian  on  the  then  recent  publication 
in  the  New  York  World  of  the  papers  taken  from  a  satchel 
left  in  an  elevated  train  by  Dr.  Heinrich  Albert,  the  Financial 
Adviser  to  the  German  Embassy  in  America  and  the  pay- 
master for  a  great  deal  of  its  work  in  plots  and  propaganda. 
This  dispatch  of  Dumba's  is  worthy  of  reproduction. 

A  map  and  a  number  of  documents — typed,  bilt  un- 
finished copies  or  statements  of  petitioners — were  stolen 
from  the  Financial  Adviser  of  the  G8rman  Embassy  here, 
obviously  by  the  English  secret  service.  These  documents 
are  now  published  in  the  current  issue  of  the  World,  which 
ha5  gone  over  to  the  English  Yingolager  (Jingo  camp) 
as  a  great  sensation,  with  cheap  advertisement.  The 
paper  makes  the  most  violent  accusations  against  the 
German  Embassy,  mainly  against  Count  von  Bernstorff, 
Military  Attach^  Captain  von  Papen,  and  Geheimrat  Albert, 
who  are  said  to  have  conspired  secretly  against  the  safety 
of  the  United  States,  in  that  they  have  bought  arms  and 
munition  factories,  have  concluded  bogus  contracts  for 
delivery  with  France  or  Russia,  have  purchased  large 
quantities  of  explosive  materials,  have  incited  strikes  in 
the  munition  factories,  have  sought  to  corrupt  the  Press, 
and  have  spread  far-reaching  agitation  for  the  effecting  of 
an  embargo  in  the  different  American  circles.  The  other 
important  New  York  papers  second  the  World,  although 
with    less   violence. 

Count  von  Bernstorff  took  the  view  that  these  calumnies 
were  beneath  reply,  and  by  a  happy  inspiration,  refused 
any  explanation.     He  is  in  no  way  compromised. 

On  the  other  hand,  Geheimrat  Albert  published  in  the 


newspapers  a  very  cleverly  worded  explanation,  the  tenor 
of  which  I  venture  to  submit  to  Your  Excellency  in  an 
enclosure.  It  is  especially  to  the  credit  of  the  German 
Embassy  that  on  July  15th  last  it  informed  the  State 
Department  officially  that  it  found  itself  compelled  to  buy 
as  many  materials  of  war  in  this  country  as  it  possibly 
could,  and  to  control  their  production,  \vith  the  intention 
of  preventing  their  being  supplied  through  the  enemy. 
These  materials,  it  stated,  were  at  any  time  at  the  disposal 
of  the  American  Government  at  favourable  prices,  either 
as  a  whole  or  in  parts  ;  and,  of  course,  this  could  only 
further  the  readiness  of  the  United  States  for  taking  the 
field  in  war. 

The  torpedoing  of  the  Arabic,  in  the  event  of  its  having 
been  done  without  warning,  or  its  having  caused  American 
passengers  to  lose  their  lives,  will  do  more  than  any  news- 
paper accusations,  to  prejudice  Germany  in  the  pubUc 
opinion  of  the  United  States.  c.  Dumba 

Imperial  and  Royal  Ambassador. 

Archibald  carried  numerous  other  papers — for  the  Germans 
as  well  as  for  the  Austrians.  The  most  interesting  of  these 
was  a  report  from  Franz  von  Papen,  Military?  Attache  of  the 
German  Embassy  upon  the  same  World  exposuffe.  The 
following  are  extracts  from  this  dispatch  : — 

MILITARY  REPORT. 

" Sen.sational  Revelations"   of  the  New    York    World. 

On  July  31st  important  papers  were  abstracted'  from 
Herr  Geheimrat  Dr.  Albert  in  the  elevated  railway,  appar- 
ently by  an  individual  in  the  employ  of  the  English  secret 
service.  These  papers  were  sold  to  the  World,  and  formed 
the  basis  of  the  revelations  (Enclosure  i)  which  gave  to 
the  New  York  Press — friendly  to  the  Allies — a  welcome 
opportunity  to  make  a  fresh  outburst  against  the  Imperial 
Government  and  the  Imperial  representatives  in  this 
country.   ... 

Apart  from  political  results,  the  consequences  of  the 
publications  for  us  show  themselves  in  connection  with 
business. 

The  report  of  June  30th  of  the  treasurer  of  the  Bridgeport 
Projectile  Company,  which  I  forwarded  to  the  Royal 
Ministry  of  War  on  July  13th,  J.  No.  1888,  was  among 
the  stolen  papers. 

The  declaration,  published  in  the  papers,  of  the  President 
of  the  Aetna  Explosive  Co.  that  he  intended  to  throw  up 
powder  contracts  with  the  Bridgeport  Projectile  Co.  is, 
of  course,  only  newspaper  gossip,  and  was  already  much 
weakened  yesterday  through  a  fresh  explanation. 

The  only  actual  damage  consists  in  'that  the  Russian 
and  English  committee  have  at  once  broken  off  their 
negotiations  with  the  Bridgeport  Projectile  Co  ,  and  that 
thus  our  plans  to  cut  off,  by  the  acceptance  and  non-delivery  vf 
a  shrapnel  contract,  other  firms  here  from  the  possibility  of 
beginning  the  furnishing  of  war  material  have  come  to  nothing. 

Most  of  all  have  our  efforts  for  the  purchase  of  liquid 
chlorine  been  interfered  with,  since  the  tying  up  through 
middlemen  of  the  Castner  Chemical  Company,  which  is 
friendly  to  England,  appears  now  to  be  out  of  the  question. 

Part  of  the  significance  of  von  Papen 's  dispatch  is  his 
reference  to  the  Bridgeport  Projectile  Company.  Other 
documents  in  the  possession  of  the  United  States  Government 
demonstrate  completely  the  ownership  of  this  corporation 
by  the  Teutonic  Allies.  Hans  Tauscher,  the  agent  of  Krupps 
and  other  German  munition  factories  in  this  country,  was  in 
the  habit  of  reporting  direct  to  the  War  Ministry  in  Berlin 
as  if  he  were  its  representative  in  this  country — as  indeed 
he  was,  though  not  ostensibly  so.  Among  other  papers  in 
the  hands  of  the  Government  is  a  letter  from  the  President 
of  the  Bridgeport  Projectile  Company,  informing  him  that  the 
company  is  being  reorganised  and  that  hereafter  Mr.  Tauscher 
will  hold  as  trustee  only  60  per  cent,  of  the  capital  stock. 
Naturally  Tauscher  was  acting  for  his  employers. 

Another  document,  of  little  importance,  is  a  letter  von 
Papen  wrote  to  his  wife  and  sent  by  Archibald.  But  two 
parts  of  it  are  interesting.  After  speaking  again  of  the 
World  exposure,  he  says  : 

The  answer  of  Albert  I  am  sending  you  herewith,  so  you 
can  see  how  we  defend  ourselves.  The  document  we  drew 
up  together  yesterday. 

But  the  bright  spot  for  the  Americans  whose  hospitality 
he  was  abusing  lies  in  this  : 

How  splendid  in  the  East !  I  always  say  to  these  idiotic 
Yankees  that  they  should  shut  their  mouths,  and,  better 
still,  be  full  of  admiration  for  aU  our  heroism.  My  friends 
from  the  Army  are  in  this  respect  quite  different. 

Papen's  "friends  from  the  Army"  have,  with  a  good  many 
of  "these  idiotic  Yankees,"  organised  an  army  and  are  looking 
for  Captain  Franz  again,  this  time  over  the  top  in  France, 
with  the  determination  to  settle  the  question  with  his 
government  on  the  battlefield. 

(To  be  continued.) 


12 


Land    &    Water 


May   1 6,  1918 


The  Suez  Canal:  By  Miller  Dunning 


A  Sketch 


WE  entered  at  dusk.    The  night  that 
followed  was  such  as  will  sometimes 
open  to  us  its  arms  and  reveal  the 
wonders  and  mysteries  of  its  em- 
brace.   On  this  occasion  we  seemed 
doomed  to  disappointment.     Hope  in  us  had  been 
tempted  to  lift  its  eyes  and  peer  for  what  might 
come — but  no. 

Our  ship  moved  slowly — verj',  very  slowly — as 
solid  as  some  portion  of  the  earth  that,  had  been 
thrown  high  on  cither  side.  Our  .searchlight  shone 
on  the  banks  and  lighted  the  course  far  ahead. 
Beside  us  was  a  native  cutter  anchored  close 
ashore  :  then  a  canoe  richng  in  the  wash  ;  then, 
again,  a  great  ocean-tramp  looming  alongside  like 
some  ugh'  dream,  waiting  for  us  to  pass.  On 
passing,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  light  glaring 
from  the  eyes  of  some  insatiable  eater  of  mud  and 
sand — a  dredge. 

And  yet  nothing  speaks  to  us,  neither  the  dark-' 
ness  that  lies  on  the  desert  beyond  the  canal,  nor 
the  shadows  that  lie  about  the  strange  native 
cutter  as  she  looks  up  with  her  bare  masts  and 
bent  poles,  like  some-  venomous  creature  of  the 
water.  For  some  disconcerting  reason,  our  fancies 
will  not  be  moved.  The  things  we  see  give  no 
rein  to  our  thoughts,  neither  mj'stery  nor  the 
great  unfolding  roads,  to  wonder.  All  the  miracu- 
lous penetrations  of  the  mind  seem  cloyed  and 
.  inert.  Even  the  sky  falls  to  this  sorrowful  keep- 
ing. Dame  Philistina  has  won  all  things  to  her 
hands,  and  paints  them  to  her  senseless  colour 
.  .  .  that  frowsy  dame  who  long  ago  should  have 
been  consigned  to  the  upper  hells  of  charity,  well, 
labelled  as  a  warning  to  the  upholders  of  her 
kind. 

The  very  night  had  become  tainted  with  her 
breath  .  .  .  undefined  monotonous  clouds,  thick 
veiling  a  discontented  misshapen  moon,  pene- 
trating uncertain  winds  that  leak  to  one's  marrow. 
The  night  was  urgent  with  her  presence  ;  the  air 
murky— the  night  air  of  Arabia.  A  bedrizzled 
star  shone  here  and  there.  A  dank  and  lifeless 
water  lay  on  either  side.  About  us  there  was  not 
even  a  ghost  of  the  fearful,  the  frightful,  or  the 
insane.  Only  the  sightless  passionless  ill-nature 
of  that  nocuous  dame  who  persists  at  times,  in 
spite  of  Egypt  and  all  her  Pharoahs,  in  spite  of 
Arabia  and  all  that  Arabia  has  seen  and  known. 
Wlien  she  persists  so  it  is  better  to  sleep  ;  to  flee 
into  the  recumbent  realms  of  slumber,  and  if  noi 
to  dream,  then  to  forget — most  entirely  to  forget, 
and  in  one  momentless  bound  become  submerged 
in   oblivion. 

But  sleep  was  not  to  hold  us  long.  The  night 
had  not  gone  far  when  through  this  woof  and  weft 
of  Sleep's  toxic  veil  there  came  an  overwhelming 
light — all  white  and  infinitely  cold.     It  poured  in 


as  through  a  rift  in  the  darkness — all  frozen  and 
finely  cruel.  We  were  as  in  a  world  apart ,  immersed 
in  the  rays  of  a  perished  sun.  The  night  in  all 
truth  had  quickened — yes,  and  to  a  ghostly 
semblance. 

Out  vessel  was  motionless.  Each  sound  that 
came  grew  and  arose  as  out  of  the  depths  of 
nothingness.  We  were  moored — and  all  around 
us  vastness — yastness  of  silence.  We  looked  to 
the  high  receding  banks  on  either  side.  We  could 
trace  the  marks  of  human  feet  on  the  sand,  and 
just  beyond  the  zone  of  light  we  could  see  a  man. 
The  wind  had  tossed  the  sand  from  mound  to 
mound.  Here  it  was  slipping  and  making  easy 
race  to  the  water.  Then  again  there  were  breaks 
in  the  higher  banks  leading  out  into  the  desert. 
We  could  see  plainly  their  uneven  form,  and 
behind  that  again  the  desert  covered  in  the 
mantle  of  impenetrable  light. 

Across  the  desert  the  wind  blew  cold,  and  hard 
as  steel.  The  great  monstrous  light  about  us  was 
vanishing.  Something  immense  and  dark  was 
following  behind — some  great  ocean  mammoth, 
gliding  silently  through  the  night,  making  deep 
hidden  sounds,  scarcely  heard,  strange,  and  un- 
couth. We  see  figures,  passing,  her  inner  lights  to 
and  fro,  but  no  voices,  nothing  human — only  a 
great  creature  pursuing  its  own  intent,  blind  and 
senseless,  yet  feeling  its  way  by  some  deep  mysteri- 
ous intuition.  ,It  is  gone.  There  is  a  watch  on 
the  shores — a  light  foam  passing  along  the  side, 
a  stray  object  floating  in  the  current,  and  then 
again  we  are  left  in  the  night. 

It  is  such  a  night  as  knows  no  compassion,  it 
is  stealthy  in  its  movement.  It  is  as  though 
death  had  come  robed  in  frozen  silence  to  the 
desert,  to  the  realm  of  fierce  heat  and  sun.  She 
has  come  without  warning  to  deal  swiftly  and 
without  mercy.  There  are  camps  pitched  on  the 
sands  and  along  the  shore.  Tawny  human  beings 
will  shiver  and  crouch  from  this  strange  thing, 
the  cold.  Camels  are  resting  at  their  open  stalls. 
They  will  look  up  to  an  implacable  sky,  uneasy 
and  impatient  for  the  passing  of  a  spiteful  thing. 

The  wind  has  come  across  the  deserts  of  Egypt. 
It  has  unravelled  its  way  through  the  solitary 
oasis — has  penetrated  the  palace  of  the  native 
prince  and  the  huts  of  his  slaves.  The  wind 
reaches  us,  where  we  are,  enters  into  the  nature  of 
the  night,  and  we  know  that  it  is  flying  to  the 
hard  hills  of  Arabia.  There,  perhaps,  it  will  die. 
But  we,  we  have  been  bitten.  We  would  away, 
but  cannot. 

We  are  held  in  fascination  of  a  strange  world 
and  its  night.  Our  ship  has  waited  the  passing  of 
one  great  mammoth  after  another,  each  flooding 
us  with  its  cold  steely  light,  and  then  entering 
the  darkness  astern. 


May  1 6,  19 18  Land    &    Water 

Leadership  :    By  L.  P.  Jacks 


13 


THE  power  to  dismiss  its  leaders  at  a  moment's 
notice  and  replace  them  with  new  ones  has  been 
celebrated  as  a  notable  privilege  of  British 
Democracy.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  this  power 
is  one  of  the  safeguards  of  liberty.  And  so 
perhaps  it  is.  But  what  kind  of  liberty  is  that  which  requires 
safeguarding  by  an  arrangement  so  drastic  ?  And  what  kind 
of  men  are  they  who  will  accept  the  position  of  leaders  on 
the  understanding  that  they  are  subject  to  instant  dismissal  ? 
And  what  is  the  use  of  choosing  a  leader  whose  retention  of 
office  is  contingent  on  his  pleasing  you  ?  There  was  once 
a  great  leader  who  said  to  his  followers ;  "  You  have  not  chosen 
me  ;  I  have  chosen  you. "  That  strikes  the  true  note  of 
leadership,  but  a  saying  more  undemocratic  was  never 
uttered. 

These  questions,  which,  of  course,  are  very  old  ones,  were 
brought  back  to  my  mind  with  fresh  and  even  startling  force 
by  a  perusal  of  Lord  Morley's  Recollections — and  especially 
by  the  chapter  which  deals  with  the  Irish  troubles  of  the 
early  'nineties.  Lord  Morley  heads  his  chapter  "  The 
Tornado,"  though  I  must  confess  that  it  seems  a  tornado 
in  a  teacup  when  compared  with  the  present  storm,  which 
the  powers  of  darkness  had  even  then  begun  to  brew.  The 
principal  justification  for  calling  it  a  tornado  is  that  it  lifted 
the  roof  off  the  house  where  the  political  leaders  of  that 
time  had  established  their  dwelling,  and  dispersed  the  inmates 
into  various  exiles. 

As  we  read  Lord  Morley's  narrative  we  see  how  these  poor 
men  lived  in  the  apprehension  of  instant  dismissal ;  how  thin 
and  rotten  was  much  of  the  ice  they  skated  on  ;  how  constantly 
they  were  engaged  in  vi^arning  one  another  of  the  rotten  places 
and  seeking  to  avoid  them  ;  liow  slippery  and  steep  were 
the  precipices  they  had  to  climb,  and  how  again  and  again 
they  hung  on  by  their  teeth,  expecting  every  moment  to  be 
plunged  into  the  abyss — as  indeed  they  ultimately  were  on  a 
slight  impulse  administered  by  the  Irish  leader  of  those  days. 
Much  of  their  time  was  spent  in  manoeuvring  to  save  them- 
selves frorn  being  overthrown  by  their  own  followers,  and 
a  most  exciting  occupation  it  evidently  was.  They  piped, 
but  neither  ParUament  nor  the  public  would  dance.  They 
were  certainly  under  no  illusion  as  to  the  security  of  their 
tenure.  They  knew  they  were  destined  to  a  brief  career ; 
and  when  the  moment  of  dismissal  arrived,  they  accepted 
it  without  complaint,  as  good  sportsmen  should.  Yet  these 
men,  who  never  knew  whether  the  morrow  would  see  them 
politically  alive,  were  the  very  men  whom  the  British  electors 
had  chosen  to  lead  in  dealing  with  the  most  perplexing 
problem  of  our  political  history,  a  problem  requiring  length 
of  time,  far-reaching  plans,  and  tenacity  of  purpose  maintained 
through  many  years.  With  a  courage  that  cannot  be  too 
much  admired  they  undertook  their  leadership  with  a  clear 
uhderstaiicfing  tliat  whatever  plans  thoy  had  formed,  whatever, 

policy  they  had  begun, 

might      be      abruptly 

broken     off    at    any 

moment.     And  in    all 

this  their  position  was 

not   singular,  nor   ex- 
ceptional.    It  was  the 

position   occupied    by 

aJl  leaders  in  a  demo- 
cracy whose  liberty  is 

guarded  jjy  powers  of 

immediate  dismissal. 
Although  this  state 

of   things   is    all   fair, 

open,  and  avowed,  it 

has    some     disadvan- 
tages.  "  Minister  "    of 

course,         means 

"servant."      But,    so 

far  as  I  know.  Ministers 

of  State  are  the  only 

class  of  servants  who 

can  be  dismissed  with- 
out notice.     We  could 

hardly  expect  to 

secure      an      efficient 

gardener  or  an  efficient 

butler  on  those  terms. 

No  doubt   if  we   paid 

our      gardeners     and 

butlers    at    the    rate 

of  £5000  a  year  the 


positions  would  be  attractive  to  a  certain  order  of 
adventurous  spirits,  and  we  shonld  have  many  applicants. 
But  even  so  I  doubt  if  things  would  prosper  either  in  the 
greenhouse  or  the  wine  cellar.  We  should  be  exposed  to 
^annoying  intrigues  in  the  servants'  hall,  with  what  result 
to  our  peaches  and  old  wine  may  be  easily  imagined — ^just 
as  the  public  is  exposed  to  annoying  intrigues  in  Parliament, 
which  is  the  National  Servants'  Hall,  with  what  result  to  the 
public  interest  is  well  known. 

In  war  the  military  oath  pledges  us  to  follow  our  leaders 
and  obey  their  orders  for  a  definite  period — to  the  end  of 
the  campaign,  or  for  a  stated  term  of  years  ;  in  politics  we 
reserve  the  right  to  desert  our  leaders  whenever  we  choose, 
or — which  comes  to  the  same  thing — to  turn  them  out  at 
any  time  by  the  same  methods  which  put  them  in. 

Now  this  is  a  pretty  arrangement  when  looked  at 
from  the  point  of  view  of  those  whose  business  in  politics 
is  to  follow — the  mass  of  the  citizens.  It  is  pleasant  to  feel 
that  you  are  under  no  obligation  to  obey  orders  a  moment 
longer  than  you  are  disposed.  But  the  leaders,  I  imagine, 
must  view  it  in  a  different  light,  and  the  standing  wonder 
to  my  mind  is  that  any  great  man  should  ever  be 
willing  to  engage  himself  to  the  public  on- those  conditions. 
For  every  true  leader  knows  perfectly  well  that  in  great 
affairs  nothing  can  be  done  in  a  hurry  ;  that  the  objects 
best  worth  striving  for  are  distant  objects,  and  that  he  can 
accomplish  little  unless  he  is  sure  of  long-dated  loyalty  in 
his  followers  to  match  the  far-sighted  purpose  which  he  has 
to  pursue.  To  be  sure,  the  Minister  of  State,  whether  in 
office  or  out  6f  office,  can  usually  count  on  a  multitude  who 
will  follow  him  ;*  but  if  he  is  to  carry  out  his^  plans  as  leader 
the  multitude  must  always  be  large  enough  to  keep  him  in, 
and  this  he  can  never  count  on  from  one  day  to  another — 
as  anybody  will  see  who  may  read  Lord  Morley's  narrative 
of  what  went  on  while  he  and  Mr.  Gladstone  were  leading 
the  public  through  "the  tornado"  of  1891. 

Truly  it  must  be  a  heart-breaking  business,  and  £5000 
a  year  seems  a  small  solatium  to  offer  any  man  for  eftduring 
it.  To  make  far-reaching  plans  for  the  public  good,  and  then 
find  them  suddenly  upset  or  endlessly  deferred  because  a 
section  of  your  followers  has  exercised  the  sacred  right  to 
desert  you  when  they  will — this  it  is  that  makes  me  wonder 
what  stuff  the  men  are  made  of  who  consent  to  take  office 
on  these  terms.  As  I  read  Lord  Morley's  Recollections  I 
can  see  they  have  their  consolations,  and  even  enjoy 
the  wild  adventure  while  it  lasts ;  but  that  only  serves  to 
divert  one's  sympathy  from  them  to  the  public.  For  it  is 
the  public  which  pays  for  this,  as  for  everything  else. 

An  American  writer.  Dr.  Cram,  has  recently  published 
a  book  called  The  Nemesis  of  Mediocrity  in  which  he  discusses 
this  question  of  leadership.  He  makes  a  canvas  of  the  various 
men  who  have  lately  come  to  the  front,  especially  in  politics, 

and  dismisses  thern, 
one  after  another,  as 
mediocre,  with  Presi- 
dent Wilson  as  a 
jjossible  exception, 
riie  mediocrity  of  our 
leaders  reflects,  he 
thinks,  the  general 
mediocrity  of  our  own 
lives,  so  that  in  a 
sense  it  is  ourselves 
who  are  to  blame. 
The  moral  is  that  we 
must  get  rid  of  our 
own  mediocrity  before 
we  can  expect  any- 
thing else  in  our 
leaders. 

Now  there  are  two 
ways  in  which  we  may 
get  rid  of  our  medi- 
ocrity, one  pointing 
downwards,  the  other 
pointing  upwards.  It 
is  clearly  the  latter 
that  Dr.  Cram  recom- 
mends. But  would  it 
have  the  effect  he 
anticipates  ?  Would 
the  efficiency  'of  our 
leaders  rise  automat- 
ically with  the  parallel 


The  Liberty  Loan   Drive 

A  Typical  Crowd  in  Wall  Street,  New  York 


14 


Land    &    Water 


May  1 6,  1918 


nse  in  the  qualities  of  the  public  ?  I  confess  I  have  my  doubts. 
A  community  composed  of  superior  persons  would  be  a  very 
difficult  lot  for  any  leader  to  handle.  Suppose  for  example 
that  the  average  citizen  everywhere  were  suddenly  to  acquire 
the  political  intelligence  and  the  high  moral  standards  of  Dr. 
Cram  himself,  and  were  to  apply  this  intelligence  and  these 
high  standards,  as  Dr.  Crani  does,  to  criticising  the  claims 
and  pretensions  of  every  great  man  who  came  forward  to 
guide  the  destinies  of  the  body  politic.  Is  it  not  obvious 
that  under  these  circumstances  the  position  of  the  leader 
would  become  exceedingly  difficult,  if  not  impossible  ? 

Little  to  be  envied  is  the  great  man  entrusted  with  the 
task  of  leading  a  public  in  which  there  are  thousands 
of  connoisseurs  in  leadership  prowling  about  and  seeking  whom 
they  may  devour.  I  think  he  would  soon  come  to  grief.  The 
sharpness  of  their  criticism  would  undo  him  ;  he  would  be 
torn  to  pieces.  This  reminds  me  of  what  I  heard  lately  from 
a  gentleman  who  has  just  returned  from  Russia.  He  said  that 
when  the  revolution  took  place  all  the  privates  in  the  Russian 
Army  suddenly  became  generals.  After  a  little  experience 
it  occurred  to  this  army  of  generals  that  it  would  be  wise  to 
appoint  a  generalissimo,  and  a  deputation  was  sent  to  a  pro- 
mising strategist  to  offer  him  the  post.  For  answer  the  pro- 
mi^ng  strategist  drew  his  hand  across  his  throat  and  shook 
,  his  head  ;  which  gestures  the  deputation  rightly  understood 
as  meaning  that  the  post  was  declined.  This  incident  seems 
to  me  a  fair  illustration  of  what  is  likely  to  happen  when  a 
public  which  has  got  rid  of  its  mediocrity,  as  the  Russian 
privates  had  done,  sets  about  the  task  of  finding  a  leader. 
The  situation  is  deeply  paradoxical.  Is  it  not  because  of  our 
mediocrity  that  we  need  somebody  who  is  not  mediocre  to 
lead  us  ?  What  then  will  happen  when  we  have  all  ceased 
to  be  mediocre  ? 

The  truth  is  that  the  game  of  leadership  requires  two 
to  play  it ;  a  leader  to  give  orders  and  a  public  to  obey  them. 
The  prgblem  is  not  merely  that  of  finding  a  man  who  is  able 
to  lead  ;  it  is  equally  that  of  finding  a  public  which  is  willing 
to  follow.  People  like  Dr.  Cram  who  deplore  the  lack  of 
great  leadership  in  modem  times  usually  fix  their  attention 
on  the  first  half  of  the  problem  and  ignore  the  second  altogether. 
And  yet,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  root  of  the  problem  lies, 
there.  We  live  in  an  age  which  on  the  one  hand  clamours  for 
leaders  ^nd  on  the  other  grqws  less  and  less  willing  to  follow 
anybody.  Perhaps  we  are  under  some  illusion  on  this  matter. 
Most  of  us  feel — I  certainly  do  so  myself — that  if  only  we 
could  find  a  leader  after  our  own  heart  we  would  gladly 
.follow  him.  After  our  own  heart  !  Precisely — but  is  that 
playing  the  game  ?  May  it  not  be  that  what  we  all  need — 
as  distinct  from  what  we  want — is  a  leader  not  after  our  own 
heart  ?     Should   we   follow   him  ? 

Dr.  Cram,  comparing  past  times  with  present,  looks  back 
regretfully  to  the  days  of  his  youth,  1880,  or  thereabouts, 
and  tells  us  that  he  has  made  out  a  list  of  i6o  great  leaders 
who  were  then  alive  and  active.  Now  the  question  that 
rises  in  my  mind  is  not  about  the  leadership  of  the  160, 
but  about  the  followership  of  Dr.  Cram.  Did  he,  when  a 
young  man,  follow  the  whole  lot  ?  In  theology  he  mentions 
Newman  and  Martineau.  Did  he  follow  both  of  them  ? 
In  politics  he  mentions  Gladstone  and  Disraeli.  Did  he 
follow  both  of  them  ?  With  r6o  leaders  all  leading 
at  once,  would  not  the  confusion  be  very  great,  and  would 
it  not  be  a  pious  prayer  on  the  part  of  any  man  to  ask  the 
devil  to  fly  away  with  them  all  and  leave  him  to  find  his 
own  way  through  this  bewildering  world  ?  Would  it  not 
be  better,  therefore,  to  speak  of  1880  not  as  an  era  of  great 
leadership,  but  as  the  beginning  of  the  confusion,  the  in- 
decisiveness,  the  uncertainty  as  to  who  is  right  and 
who  wrong,  which  makes  it  equally  difiicult  in  these  days 
for  followers  to  find  leaders  or  for  leaders  to  find  followers  ? 
Perhaps  if  there  had  been  fewer  leaders  in  1880  there  would 
be  more  now. 

The  difficulty  of  finding  leaders  is,  therefore,  far  greater 
than  Dr.  Cram  imagines,  for  it  includes  the  difficulty  of 
finding  followers — the  major  part  of  the  problem.  The 
question  arises,  what  is  to  be  done  ?  Various  alternatives 
present  themselves  of  which  the  following  three  are  perhaps 
the  chief. 

(i)  Would  not  the  public  be  well  advised  to  make  up 
its  mind  to  do  without  leaders  altogether,  contenting  itself 
with  servants  only,  and  giving  all  Ministers  of  State  to  under- 
stand cleariy  that  that  is  what  they  are  and  that  nothing 
else  is  expected  of  them  ?  Is  not  the  public  playing  fast 
and  loose  with  a  vital  problem  when  in  one  and  the  same 
breath  it  declares  itself  master  and  bemoans  its  lack  of 
leaders  ?       Is  not  this  double-minded  ? 

(2)  May  we  not  have  a  kind  of  secret  leadership .?  What 
I  have  in  mind  is  the  existence  of  a  body  of  powerful  person- 
alities, whose  identity  is  unknown  to  the  public  but  who. 


by  indirection  and  various  byways,  manage  to  make  their 
ideas  effective  and  so  lead  the  people  without  letting  them 
know  who  is  leading  them  or  even  that  they  are  being  led  at 
all.  These  men  by  playing  their  part  judiciously  might 
exercise  enormous  influence,'  though,  of  course,  they  would 
receive  no  salaries,  and  enjoy  no  fame  until  they  were  dead. 
Much  influence  of  this  kind  is  being  actually  exercised  at 
the  present  moment,  though  perhaps  it  js  a  little  indiscreet 
to  say  so.  For  example  (if  I  may  be  pardoned  a  personal 
confession)  I  have  long  been  convinced  that  somebody  is 
leading  me.  But  I  do  not  know  who  he  is,  and  if  ever  I 
find  out  I  intend  to  keep  his  name  a  secret.  I  wonder  if 
the  reader  has  had  the  same  experience  ? 

We  make  a  mistake  in  thinking  only  of  the  great  men 
who  are  in .  evidence — or  in  fragments.  We  should  think 
also  of  those  who  are  in  hiding  and  intact.  There  are  manjr 
of  them.  Some  are  in  hiding  for  reasons  which  are  suggested 
b\'  the  incident  already  mentioned  of  the  Russian  general- 
issimo ;  that  is  to  say,  they  are  averse  to  having  their  throats, 
cut  by  their  followers  ;  or  to  being  torn  to  pieces  by  their 
critics — whetlier  by  connoisseurs  in  leadership  like  Dr.  Cram 
or  by  a  powerful  newspaper  press.  Should  not  these  men 
be  encouraged  ?  And  would  not  a  wise  public  abstain  from 
all  efforts  to  lift  the  veil  of  anonymi^  which  now  protects 
their  leadership   from  destruction  ?       ~" 

(3)  The  last  alternative  is  suggested  by  the  position  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  He  is  appointed  leader 
for  four  years  with  the  possibility  of  renewing  the  term. 
It  is  an  admirable  arrangement,  for  it  gives  the  President 
a  chance  which  Ministers  of  State  in  this  country  do  not 
possess.  Think  of  what  Mr.  Gladstone,  or,  if  you  prefer. 
Lord  Salisbury,  might  have  accomplished  if  at  the  time 
of  Lord  Morley's  "tornado"  they  had  been  assured  of  four 
years  of  office.  Then  think  of  what  President  Wilson  would 
have  failed  to  accomplish  had  he  not  been  assured  of  four 
years  of  office.  Had  his  tenure  of  office  been  as  insecure 
as  that  of  a  British  Prime  Minister  he  would  have  been  turned 
out  long  ago.  It  would  never  have  been  foimd  out  that 
President  Wilson  is  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  modem  times. 

The  men  who  framed  the  American  Constitution  had  a 
profound  political  insight.  They  understood  that  leadership 
is  a  game  which  two  must  play  if  it  is  to  be  played  at  all ; 
and  accordingly  they  made  arrangements  to  follow  their 
leader  for  four  years. 

In  conclusion,  I  may  point  out  that  the  right  relation 
between  leader  and  follower  is  admirably  portrayed  in 
Tennyson's  picture  of  Arthur  and  the  Knights  of  the  Round 
Table.  The  ideal  follower  is  Lancelot,  and  it  is  just  as 
important,  at  the  present  day,  to  emphasise  the  scarcity 
of  Lancelots  as  to  emphasise  the  scarcity  of  Arthurs. 
Lancelot  puts  the  whole  secret  of  followership,  and  there- 
fore of  leadership,  in  a  nutshell 

in  me  there  dwells 
No  greatness,  save  it  be  some  far-off  touch 
Of  greatness  to  know  well  I  am  not  great. 


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May  1 6,  191 8 


Land    &    Water 


15 


Their  First  "Crash":  By  Herman  Whitaker 


I 


Lieut.   Campb 


T  happened  while  we  were  bowl- 
ing along  a  smooth  French  road 
that  split  innumerable  red-tiled 
villages  in  equal  halves  on  its 
way  to  the  American  front.  A 
week  ago  I  had  journeyed  around  our 
flying  instruction  stations  in  South 
France,  where  our  lads  were  to  be  seen 
in  training,  from  their  first  ridiculous 
''  hops  "with  wing-cUpped  "  penguins," 
to  the  final  dare-devil  stunts  on  the 
acrobatic  field.  There  I  had  watched 
performances  that  would '  have  taised 
the  hair  of  Lincoln  Beachey,  or  any  of 
the  stunt  flyers  of  five  years  ago.  For, 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  their  flying, 
our  lads  are  taught  the  "  vreille,"  tail  spin ;  the  "  reversement," 
a  half  loop  and  fall  sideways  ;  to  "barrel,"  turning  over  and 
over  sidewaj^  like  a  rolling  cask;  the  "vertical  viragc,"  a 
ninety-degree  bank,  said  to  be  a  most  disagreeable  first  experi- 
ence ;  to  bank  and  side-slip  any  distance  required  to  elude  a 
pursuer,  a  difficult  operation  which  the  beginner  usually  ends 
in  a  "barrel."  While  dropping  from  a  height  of  fourteen 
thousand  feet,  I  had  seen  one  boy  pull  almost  the  whole  bag 
of  tricks.  In  fact  he  put  his  plane  through  every  possible 
twist  and  gyration — and  many  impossible — in  an  actual  fall. 
"With  this  knowledge 
stored  away,  I  was  now 
on  my  way  to  visit  an 
American  squadrilla  in 
actual  service  at  the 
front. 

As  we  approached 
the  last  town  between 
us  and  the  trenches  I 
finished  telling  the 
lieutenant  from 
General  Headquarters 
about  a  submarine  1 
had  seen  captured 
while  cruising  with  our 
destroyer  flotilla  in 
English  waters.  He 
agreed  that  it  was  as 
fine  a  bit  of  luck  as  ever 
fell  to  a  correspondent. 
"But  lightning  never 
strikes  twice  in  the 
same  place,"  he  added. 
"You  have  used  up 
•  all  the  luck  that  is  com- 
ing to  you  in  this  war 

that  again."  ^  . 

He  was  mistaken.  Nature's  laws  are  said  to  be  without 
exceptions,  but  he  had  no  more  than  said  it  before  the  light- 
ning violated  all  precedents  and  struck  again— through  the 
raised  hand  and  arm  of  an  American  military  policeman  on  the 
edge  of  the  town. 

"Pinched!"  our  sergeant  chauffeur  exclaimed,  when  the 
hand  went  up. 

He  was  not  altogether  joking.  Military  law  is  like  that  of 
the  Medes  and  Persians,  which  altereth  not.  Because  of  some 
mix-up  in  their  passes,  three  correspondents  had  been 
""  pinched"  by  the  military  police  and  brought  back  to  General 
Headquarters  last  week  in  a  state  of  uncertainty  as  to  whether 
or  not  they  would  be  shot  at  sunrise.  ' 

The  sergeant  abided,  as  the  car  rolled  on  to  a  slow  stop,  "You 
can  get  by  the  French  military  police  with  any  old  thing — 
beer-check,  laundry  bill,  spearmint  coupon,  anything  that's 
written  in  English  and  looks  official.  But  when  them  "Iron- 
jaws  "  of  ours  hold  up  a  hand,  it  means  you." 

The  "Iron-jaw,"  however,  was  relaxed  in  a  pleasant  smile. 
Saluting,  its  owner  informed  us  ;  "  If  you  drive  round  by  the 
public  square,  you  will  see  two  Boche  planes  our  boys  have 
just  shot  down.  It's  worth  your  while.  These  are  the  first 
planes  brought  down  by  home-trained  .American  aviators  fly- 
ing our  own  flag." 

"First  submarine — first  plane  !  "  the  lieutenant  commented. 
"You  must  be  the  luckiest  man  in  the  whole  wide  \Vorld." 

It  happened  to  be  Sunday,  and  in  the  square  we  found 
dozens  of  women,  children^nd  pretty  French  girls,  all  in  their 
go-to-meeting  best,  elbowing  through  a  mixed  crowd  of  poilus, 

Copyright  Id  U.S.A. 


Albatross  aeroplane  shot  down  by    Lieut.    Winslow 
The  first  machine  to  be  brought  down  by  a  home-trained  American  flyer 


You  won't  get  in  on  anything  Uke 


Tommies  and  Sammies,  to  get  a  good  view  of  the  wrecks. 
Though  the  French  have  shot  down  German  planes  by  the 
hundreds,  those  good  people  were  glorying  for  us  ;  could  not 
have  shown  more  genuine  pleasure  at  their  awn  first  achieve- 
ment. Even  that  reserve  with  which  the  British  officer 
habitually  camouflages  his  own  feelings  was  dissipated,  for 
once,  by  friendly  interest.  The  sprinkhng  of  them  in  the 
crowd  were  exultant  as  big  boys  crowing  over  the  first  vic- 
torious fight  of  a  j'ounger  brother.  Our  own  men  displayed 
the  least  emotion  of  all.  But  it  was  quite  easy  to  see  their 
pride  welling  up  through  cracks  in  their  modesty. 

The  captured  planes  were  "Albatrosses,"  swiftest  of  German 
machines.  But  the\'  had  proven  far  too  slow  for  the 
machines  of  the  latest  type  flown  by  our  lads.  I  would  Uke  to 
give  you  their  name,  and  the  terrific  speed  at  which  they  fly — 
but  I  know,  without  asking,  that  the  censor  would  not  consent 
— and  he's  right.  Be  content,  therefore,  to  know  that  they 
can  outfly  anything  Fritz  has  got. 

Of  the  two  ".\lbatrosses,"  one  had  burned  in  mid-air,  and 
lay  a  charred  wreck  on  the  ground.  The  other  could  easily  be 
fitted  for  flying  again.  Both  their  pilots  had  survived,  though 
one  was  badly  burned. 

Their  conquerors,  we  were  told,  could  be  found  at  the  flying 
fit^ld  outside  the  town,  and  a  very  few  minutes  thereafter  it 
opened  before  our  speeding  car— a  dead  flat  plain,  bounded  on 
one  side  by   long  low  barracks,  on  the  other  by  camouflaged 

hangars.  In  front  of 
one,  surrounded  b}'  a 
mixed  mob  of  me- 
chanics and  flyers, 
stood  the  victorious 
planes.  On  their 
painted  dragon-fly 
bodies  they  bore  the 
insignia.  Uncle  Sam's, 
starred  hat  within  the' 
flying  circle — v^ry  ap- 
propriate, for  on  this, 
the  first  morning  that 
historic  headgear  had 
been  pitched  in  the 
arena,  its  champions 
had  scored  a  knock- 
out. 

In  the  crowd  we 
found  two  of  our  crack 
flyers  who  had  recently 
transferred, to  us  from 
the  Lafayettes.  One 
had  just  received  the 
newly  created  Ameri- 
can Order  for  distinguished  conduct.  The,  other  has  no  less 
than  sixteen  official  "crashes"  to  his  credit,  and  twice  as 
many  that  are  unrecorded.  It  is  said,  by  his  admirers,  that 
his  total  equals,  if  not  surpasses,  that  of  Baron  Richthofen, 
the  German  crack  flyer  whose  death  has  since  been  recorded. 
Usually  the  presence  of  this  one  man  would  be  sufficient  to 
set  any  hangar  a-buzz  with  excitement.  But  to-day  he  and  his 
fellow  star  were  "supeing"  in  a  scene,  wliich,  in  its  general 
features,  strongly  resembled  that  created  in  an  average  Ameri- 
can household  by  the  first  visit  of  the  stork.  The  same  atmo- 
sphere of  quiet  joy,  suppressed  excitement,  prevailed.  In 
their  pleased  interest,  indeed,  the  two  stars  might  have  ac- 
ceptably filled  the  rdle  of  maiden  aunts. 

But  though  they  were  "supeing"  to-day,  it  was  luck  thrown 
on  luck  to  have  the  chance  to  meet  them.  Undoubtedly  the 
most  spectacular  figure  in  this  most  spectacular  of  wars,  is  the 
great  flyer  who  conducts  his  duels  to  the  death  above  the 
thunder  and  lightnings  of  the  guns.  His  is  a  figure  that  stirs 
even  the  dullest  imagination  to  wonder  what  manner  of  man 
this  can  be  who  sets  at  naught  fears  and  tremors  that  govern 
most  of  us,  and  goes  forth  daily  to  slap  Death  himself  in  the 
face. 

I  sought  the  secret  in  tlie  star  flyer's  face.  Short  and  square, 
quiet  and  kind,  bumed  and  wrinkled  by  sun  and  wind,  those 
quantities  and  qualities  told  nothing.  Any  farmer  has  them. 
But  the  eyes  told  the  tale — bits  of  grey  steel  peering  through 
narrowed  lids  as  it  were  between  the  slits  of  his  armoured  soul. 
They  were  the  eyes  of  an  eagle,  unconsciously  unafraid. 

While  I  was  talking  with  him  they  were  softened  by  the 
reflection  of  his  courteous  smile.  But  when  his  face  sets  for 
combat — I  should  not  like  to  see  them,  as  have  half  a  hundred 
Germans,  glinting  behind  the  levelled  sights  of  his  flame-tipped 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


May  16,  1 91 8 


I.ieut.   Winslow  and  his  Aeroplane 


gun.  His  success,  as  I  read  it,  in- 
heres in  his  superb  confidence 
backed  by  superior  skill.  When 
that  man  goes  after  a  Gennan,  lie 
kno7iS  that  he  is  going  to  get  liini ; 
which  is  nine-tenths  of  the  battle. 
Jiist  now,  however,  to  repeat,  his 
pleasure  in  the  event  left  his  fact 
kind  and  soft,  and  eager  as  that  of 
a  maiden  aunt  at  a  christening. 
For  matter  of  that,  the  two  youths 
we  presently  rounded  up,  and  stood 
against  the  "barrack  wall  to  be  snap- 
shotted, might  also  have  played  the 
leading  r61e  on  such  an  occasion ; 
for  instead  of  the  grim  men  their 
exploit  seemed  to  deniandi  two  lads 
with  the  peach  bloom  of  early  youth 
still  on  their  cheeks  came  out  to 
met^t  us  at  their  major's  call. 

They  were  bashful  about  their 
age  as  girls— for  the  opposite  rea.son. 
They  would  fain  liave  been  older. 
When  pressed  for  the  truth,  Douglas 
Campbell,  a  young  Califomian,  ad- 
mitted to  one  and  twenty.  Alan 
Winslow,  who  hails  from  Chicago. 
went  him  one  better.  Babes  !  Just 
out  of  their  legal  infancy  !      Think 

of  it !     But  then— this  aerial  war  has  been  conducted  from 
the  first  by  babes.     Their  major  is  only  twenty-four. 

Of  course  we  want  to  know  more  about  them.  Alan  Wms- 
low,  then,  trained  with  the  French  ;  therefore  must  yield 
precedence  to  young  Campbell,  who  was  born  and  "  raised"  at 
the  Lick  Observatory,  on  the  top  of  Mount  Hamilton,  in  Cen- 
tral California— with  its  wooded  gorges,  deep  ravines,  cosmic 
outlook  over  foothills  and  plains,  surely  an  ideal  eyrie  for  a 
young  eagle.  He  had  taken  his  ground  training  at  the  Mas- 
sachussetts  School  of  Technology,  and  was  completely  Ameri- 
can trained. 

■.  Your  fighter  is  never  a  talker,  and  of  all  fighters  the  airmen 
go  the  limit  in  slowness  of  speech.  Even  after  Winslow,  the 
hoary  elder  of  two-and-twenty,  was  finally  prodded  on  to  talk, 
he  left  so  much  to  the  imagination  that  it  is  necessary  to  fill  in 
between  his  wide  Unes.  He  and  Campbell  had  gone  out  earlj' 
for  the  first  official  flight,  and  were  playing  cards  in  a  tent  near 
their  hangar,  while  the  mechanics  tuned  up  their  machines. 
The  morning  was  clear  ;  sunUght  streaming  between  soft 
clouds  high  over  the  flying  field.  From  the  sandbag-  targets, 
where  a  machine  gun  was  being  Uned  lip  and  synchronised 
with  the  motor,  came  staccato  bursts  of  firing.  Everything 
was  going  on  as  usual  when,  in  response  to  a  telephone  call 
from  some  far  observation  post,  a  bugle  shriUed  out  the 
'■.\lerte!"  ' 

"  I  was  already  in  my  flying  togs,"  Winslow  explained,"  and 
so  got  into  the  air  at  once.  Campbell  followed  about  a 
minute  later.  The  Boche  planes  had  just  come  into  view, 
flying  quite  low,  not  higher  than  a  thousand  feet.  Their 
pilots  said,  afterwards,  that  they  were  lost  and  mistook  our 
station  for  their  own,  otherwise  they  would  never  have  ven- 
tured into  such  a  hornet's  nest.  To  me  it  seemed  impossible. 
I  felt  sure  it  must  be  some  of  our  fellows  coming  in  from  another 
station.     But  the  '  Alerte'  kept  me  ready.     They 'were  flying 


higher  than  we,  and  the  instant  I 
sighted  the  German  cross,  I  let  fly 
a  burst  from  my  gun. 

"The  Boche  answered,  but 
already  I  had  banked  steeply  on  a 
half  loop  that  carried  me  above 
him;  then,  describing  a  'vreille,' 
that  is,  a  tail  spin,  I  came  squarely 
behind  and  shot  him  down  with  my 
second  burst.  By  that  time  Camp- 
bell was  chasing  his  man  like  a  hawk 
after  a  running  chicken  across  the 
sky,  and  I  Ut  out  after  them.  How 
that  Boche  did  go !  But  lie  was  too 
slow.  Just  as  I  caught  up,  Camp- 
bell sent  him  down  in  flames." 

He  summed  this  remarkable  con- 
test in  the  following  schedule :  "The 
'  Alerte '  sounded  at  8.45  a.m.  8.50, 
closed  with  the  Boche.  8.51,  shot 
down  mv  man.  8.52,  Campbell  got 
his.  8.53,  back  on  the  ground." 
Eight  minutes  by  the  clock  ! 
Good  work  ! 

It  remained  for  Campbell  to  add 
tlie  touch  of  humour  that  cross-cuts 
the  most  serious  dramas — even  like 
these,  of  life  and  death.  "Our  me- 
chanics all  came  running  out  of  the 
hangars  to  see  the  fun— till  one  got  shot  through  the  ear. 
Then  vou  should  have  seen  them  duck  for  the  dug-outs.  In 
ten  seconds  the  field  was  as  empty  as  if  the  dinner  call  had 
rung"  He  added,  "And  Winslow's  man?  He  wasn  t 
hurt  a  bit.  I  don't  think  he  knew  just  where  he  was  going, 
but  he  was  certainly  on  his  way,  for  he  ran  Uke  a  hare  ;  broke 
every  record  up  to  half  a  mile  before  they  chased  him  down. 

We  went  into  their  rooms  to  view  the  trophies,  guns,  car- 
tridge belts,  cl6cks,  and  so  forth  that  were  laid  out  on  their 
cots  ;  and  while  we  were  looking  them  over,  Campbell  added  • 
the  last  human  touch  to  the  story.  In  sky  warfare  alone,  it  is 
said,  have  the  Germans  displayed  any  chivalry— a  thing  that 
is  quite  understandable.  The  uttermost  bravery  called  for  in 
those  desperate  duels  up  there  in  the  wide  and  lonely  vault  of 
heaven  is  always  associated  with  chivalric  spirit.  There  the 
knightly  tradition  still  obtains,  and  this  lad's  utterance  proved 
that  our  bovs  can  be  depended  upon  to  hold  it. 

"  My  fellow  was  wearing  an  Iron  Cross.     I  wanted  it  badly, 
but  the  poor  devil  was  suffering  enough  from  his  bums,    I 
hadn't  the  heart  to  take  it  from  him," 
Fine  feeling  ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  defeat  for  men  animated  by  such 
spirit  backed  up  by  the  thorough,  intensive  training  given  at 
our  fields.  Flying'has  progressed  since  the  days  when  Captain 
von  Boelke,  the  great  German  flyer  of  1914,  invented  the 
"loop  the  loop"  attack.  Happily  he  is  now  deceased.  But 
were  there  resurrection  for  flyers,  and  he  tried  to  pull  any- 
thing hke  that  on  our  boys— his  shrift  would  be  short  indeed. 
By  a  quick  combination  of  acrobatics  he  had  learned  during 
instruction,  Winslow  had  got  his  man.  And  as  I  thought  of 
the  quick-witted  lads  of  ours  that  are  now  getting  the  same 
training,  not  by  the  tens  or  twenties,  but  by  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, I  mentally  echoed  a  favourite  exclamation  of  the 
British  Tommy  :      'Poor  old  Fritz  ! " 


1 


In  an  Ambulance  :   By  Francis  Brett  Young 


THIS  story  is  not  really  mine  at  all,  but  that  of 
the  fellow  who  lay  on  the  stretcher  alongside  of 
me,  scratching  his  back  (our  clean  shirts  had 
never  caught  us  up),  and  staring  up  at  the  hood 
of  the  ambulance.  He  scarcely  moved  at  all, 
lying  flat  on  his  back,  so  that  I  got  him  in  profile,  and  could 
see  the  flies  setthng  on  the  tip  of  his  thin  nose  and  worrying 
his  lips.  You  can  always  tell  how  ill  a  man  is  by  his  attitude 
towards  flies  ;  and  this  man,  I  could  see,  was  prettiy  bad. 
His  face  had  that  peculiar  dusky  yellowness  that  you  see  in 
men  who  are  on  the  edge  of  blackwater  fever.  He  was 
horribly  bony  ;  his  features  were  drawn  and  waxy,  like 
those  of  a  dead  man.  All  that  afternoon  we  scarcely  spoke  ; 
but  in  the  evening,  when  the  heat  of  the  day  had  passed  and 
the  driver  had  brought  us  a  brew  of  tea,  the  fellow  brightened 
up  amazingly  ;  and  when  night  came,  and  our  ambulances 
were  parked  on  the  edge  of  the  bush,  we  found  ourselves 
thrust  into  the  sudden  and  peculiar  intimacy  which  even 


the  most  shy  men  find  easy  when  they  are  jolted  together  in 
a  F"ord  ambulance.  He  revealed  himself  ■  as  a  quiet  and 
homely  man  of  middle  age  who  had  joined  the  Indian  Army 
Reserve  and  been  posted  as  a  subaltern  to  a  Baluchi  regii^ient. 
Already  he  liad  been  fighting  for  over  two  years  in  F2ast 
Africa.  Twice  he  had  been  sent  back  to  the  hills  with  malaria 
and  dysentery.  This  time,  as  I  had  half-guessed,  it  was  a 
mild  attack  of  blackwater.  He  said  that  a  montli  in  tlie 
highlands  would  put  him  right. 

Of  course,  I  knew  that  it  wouldn't  :  that,  as  far  as  Africa 
was  concerned,  his  campaigning  days  were  over.  I  told  him 
so,  thinking,  for  my  own  part,  that  no  man  could  give  more 
cheerful  news. 

He  shook  his  head:  "I  hope  they  won't  send  me  to 
England." 

"My  God,"  I  said,  "  I  wish  I  had  your  chance.  Just  think 
of  it !  March,  .  .  .  April,  .  .  .  May.  .  .  .  Why,  you  have 
the   prospect  of  getting   to  England  in  spring.     You   may 


May  1 6,  191 8 


Land  &  Water 


17 


see  the  end  of  thelblackthorn.  Green,  .  .  .  real  green — not 
this  grey  stuff,  but  beautiful  tender  "bread  and  cheese"  on 
the  hawthorns.  All  the  hedges  bursting  out  into  a  green 
flame.  Gorse,  .  .  .  miles  of  almondy  gorse  tossing  on  the 
moors.  Linnaeus  went  down  on  his  knees,  and  thanked  God 
for  it.  And  he  was  a  Swede,  a  Scandinavian  neutral.  You 
don't  deserve  to  be  Enghsh,  I'm  damned  if  you  do.  .  .  ." 

He  said:  "I  shock  you  when  I  say  that  I  hope  they 
won't  send  me  tO  England.  I  suppose  you've  decided  for 
yourself  that  I  want  to  keep  clear  of  the  pohce.  It  isn't 
that.  It's  because  of  my  last  visit.  A  sort  of  nightmare. 
The  most  curious  .  .  .  what  shall  I  call  it  ?  .  .  .  spiritual 
cold  douche,  we'll  say,  ...  a  man  ever  got.  And  when 
I  do  tell  you,  you'll  probably  decide  that  I'm  mad.  .  .  . 
Oh,  well  ...  I  think  it  was  your  speaking  of  the  gorse 
on  the  moors  that  brought  it  back  to  me  worst  of  all." 

"Of  course,  I'm  not  a  young  man.  In  the  ordinary  way 
I  didn't  show  my  age.'  Now,  I  daresay  I  look  it.  Anyway, 
I'm  well  over  forty,  and  nearly  the  whole  of  my  life  I've 
lived  in  India.  People  who  belong  to  the  Army  don't  under- 
.  stand  that.  They  don't  realise  that  there  are  men  who  live 
in  India,  men  as  white  as  themselves,  who  don't  know  the 
meaning  of  the  word  'home.'  They  hve  in  India,  and  work 
in  India,  and  die  in  India.  They've  less  claims  on  England 
even  than  the  babu  students  who  go  there  to  study  medicine 
and  law^  and  teach  the  beautiful  mysticism  of  the  East  to 
their  landladies'  daughters  or  theosopMcal  societies  in 
Highgate.'  It's  a  matter  of  money  .  .  .  money,  and  the 
hard  line  which  divides  English  society  in  India. 

"My  father  was  a  sergeant-major  in  the  Comwalls ; 
married  on  the  strength.  I  was  bom  in  Cornwall  ...  or 
.  Devon.  Devonport,  anyway.  I  Uved  there  for  I  don't 
know  how  many  years.  I  was  a  backward  cliild,  and  don't 
remember  anything  about  it  except  the  noise  that  the  steam- 
ships used  to  make  with  their  syrens  in  the  Hamoaze  :  just 
the  noise  of  bellowing  in  the  sort  of  misty  rain  you  get  there. 
Yes,  that's  the  one  thing  I  really  remember.  But.  what  I 
remembered  for  myself  wasn't  half  as  important  as  what  my 
mother  told  me. 

"At  Poona,  in  the  hot  season,  it  was  pretty  awful.  It 
Mas  so  hot  that  children  couldn't  sleep,  and  the  married 
quarters  in  that  cantonment  weren't  fitted  with  the  latest 
thing  in  punkahs.  She  used  to  sit  by  my  bed  and  fan  me. 
Sometimes  she'd  sing  a  song  about  a  mole-catcher.  But 
more  often  she  would  just  talk  about  Treliske,  and  the  people 
and  things  she  most  fondly  remembered.  The  most  wonder- 
ful thing  of  all  was  a  kind  of_  catechism  which  she  made  for 
me.  I  dare  say  it  was  simply  for  the  joy  of  hearing  me  say 
the  words.  It  was  just  part  of  the  great  plan  that  she  had 
made  for  her  own  home-coming.  I  expect,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  that  my  father  was  really  rather  a  brute  of  a  man.  .  .  . 
"But  her  catechism.  ...  It  went  something  like  this: 
When  you  get  out  of  the  train  at  Liskeard,  which  way 
do  you  go  ?  ' 

"  'Down  the  hill,'  I'd  say,  'on  Hie  road  to  Looe  till  you  get 
'  to  the  gate  on  the  .  .  .'    . 

The  gate  on  the  railway.  Yes.  ...  And  then  you  cross 
that,  and  the  brook,  and  go  up  the  hill.  Oh,  such  a  hill,  till 
you  get  to  ...  ?' 

"'Mr.  Fenberthv's  farm.  .  .  .' 
"  '  Yes.     And  then  .^  '      \ 

You  don' I  take  no  notice  of  the  dog,  mother,  because  he's 
an  old  'un,  and  his  teeth  wore  smooth  with  stones  as  Jack 
Pcnbertliy's  made  'en  fetch  and  carry.  .  .  .' 
•"We'll,  then?  .  .  .' 

"  "Then  there's  one  field  of  rough  grazing,  and  one  field  of 
plough,  and  don't  'ee  tread  on  the  young  corn,  tuother  .  .  . 
and  thenyou  keeps  the  path  right  over  above  Herodsfoot.  .  .  .' 
You're  forgetting  something.  .  .  .' 
"  'Oh,  yes  .  .  .  The  furze.  The  field  where  the  furze  grows 
like  a  letter  " L,"  where  there's  two  paths.  And  the  one  of 
them  goes  to  Duloe  and  the  other  to  Treliske.' 

"'To  Treliske  .  .  .'  she  would  say,  laughing  and  kissing 
me,  and  holding  me  close  to  her  as  if  the  ecstatic  thing  had 
actually  happened,  and  there  we  were  at  Treliske,  the  two 
of  us  together. 

"Of  course,  you  know,  it  was  really  a  lot  more  elaborate 
than  that.  It  was  a  perfectly  definite  picture,  or  series  of 
pictures,  which  made  between  them  an  atmosphere  .  .  .  I'm 
•no  good  at  words  ...  a  sort  of  dream  atmosphere  which 
was  a  thousand  times  more  real  to  me  than  any  piece  of 
pukka  reality  1  ever  came  across. 

"It  >taycd  with  me.  It  didn't  vanish  or  even  grow  more 
tenuous  wlien  she  died.  I  lost  both  of  them  in  the  same 
week.  It  was  in  Bombay  ...  a  terrible  place  for  typhoid 
in  those  days.  I  suppose  it  was  as  good  a  starting-point  as 
any  other  for  a  commercial  career.  I  worked  in  a  shop 
where  a  Devonshire  man  named  Snell  was  foreman  ;    and  by 


the  time  he  had  left  Bombay,  with  just  enough  money  to 
set  up  poultry-farming  down  Plymouth  way,  he  had  put 
me  on  my  feet. 

"I  won't  bore  you  with  a  tale  of  my  employments.  In 
my  own  way  I  prospered.  Tea  was  my  hne.  I  became 
expert  in  the  qujility  of  tea-leaves  and  the  secrets  of  their 
blending.  AU  the  time  I  lived  in  a  chummery  near  an 
infernal  cotton-mill  in  Bombay  ;  and  I  might  have  stayed 
there  till  this  day  if  I  hadn't  happened  to  go  away  for  a 
week-end  to  a  place  called  Matheran,  over  on  the  coast,  a 
Uttle  hill-station  in  the  Western  Ghats.  I  went  there  in  the 
breathless  days  before  the  breaking  of  the  monsoon,  when 
Bombay  was  like  an  orchid-house  built  in  direct  communica- 
tion with  a  sewer.  You  people  who  sip  iced  pegs  at  the 
Yacht  Club  don't  know  what  Bombay  is.  I  went  to  Matheran, 
I  say,  and  tasted  hill  air.  I  began  to  wonder  why  in  God's 
name  I  had  ever  been  content  to  live  down  there.  I  threw 
up  my  job,  and  got  another,  poorly  paid  enough,  on  a  planta- 
tion in  Assam.  Moving  from  one  plantation  to  another, 
I  worked  for  twenty  years.  That's  a  long  time  for  India  ; 
and  yet  I  can't  say  I  wasn't  happy.  I  was  living  simply 
and  healthily  in  the  open  air.  Apart  from  fever,  I  kept 
pretty  fit ;  and  all  the  time  I  was  scraping  together  a  Uttle 
money  .  .  .  enough  to  hve  on  ;  that  was  all  I  wanted — 
just  enough  to  buy  me  one  of  my  dreams. 

"PerhajK  you  can  guess  what  that  was  ?  .  .  .  I  wanted 
to  go  back  to  Trehske.  I  wasn't  in  a  tremendous  hurry  to 
go  there.  I  just  thought  of  it  as  something  always  indefin- 
itely before  me  :  something  beautiful  that  would  arrive  in 
the  natural  passage  of  time  and  bring  peace  with  it.  Deliber- 
ately, I  wouldn't  allow  myself  to  build  on  it,  and  yet  it  was 
always   there,   sustaining  me. 

"One  day— it  was  about  six  years  cigo — I  was  knocked- 
over  by  a  mixture  of  fever  and  sun.  t  must  have  been 
pretty  bad.  I  didn't  know  anyone  for  five  days.  When 
I  came  round,  the  man  who  had  been  nursing  me— a  good 
fellow — told  me  that  I'd  been  talking  a  lot  of  nonsense. 
'Something  about  a  letter  L,  '  says  he, 'and  then  Herod's 
foot.  I've  heard  of  John  the  Baptist's  head ;  but  I'm 
damned  if  I  ever  heard  of  Herod's  foot.  I  didn't  know  you 
were  a  religious  man,  Charlie.'  .  .  .  And  I  laughed — -you 
know,  in  the  feeble  sort  of  way  one  does  when  one  is  washed 
out — to  think  of  the  way  in  which  this  old  catechism  of  my 
mother's  went  ticking  on  in  my  brain.  I  said  to  myself: 
'Not  yet  .  .  .  not  yet.  Another  year  or  two  will  do  it ; 
and  then  I  shaU  never  see  India  again.'  The  doctor  told  me 
that  it  had  been  a  near  thing ;  but  I  didn't  believe  him,  for 
I  knew  that  some  day  in  this  life  I  should  walk  to  Treliske. 
What  a  day  that  would  be  !  . 

"It  came.  I  went  home  by  a  B.I.  boat,  second  class. 
I  wasn't  in  a  hurry.  I  didn't  fret  like  the  pale  people  on 
board  who  were  already  seeing  the  other  end  of  their  leave. 
I  had  done  with  India.  There  was  plenty  of  time.  Some- 
times, lying  in  my  cabin  at  night,  and  rather  cold  (for  the 
air  of  the  Mediterranean  seemed  icy),  I  would  look  over  the 
map,  which  I  knew  already  by  heart.  I  was  determined  to 
take  it  all  calmly.  If  I  didn't  take  it  calmlj',  it  seemed  to 
me,  something  might  miscarry  at  the  last  moment.  I  only 
had  one  pang  of  dangerous  emotion.  At  a  concert  in  the 
first  saloon  one  nighf  a  young  girl  got  up  and  sang  a  song 
which  I  hadn't  heard  before.  I'm  not  musical,  I  may  tell 
you.  It  was  called  '  A  Little  Grey  Home  in  the  West,'  and 
something  in  the  words — I  don't  know  what  exactly — made 
me  suddenly  emotional.     I  could  have  cried, 

"We  had  a  bad  time  of  it  in  the  Bay.  I'm  not  a  good 
sailor,  and  so  I  spent  most  of  the  time  below.  When  I  came 
on  deck  at  last,  I  found  that  we  were  wallowing  in  a  pale, 
frosty  sort  of  sea,  and  people  were  standing  in  little  groups 
looking  at  a  level  coastline  of  the  same  neutral  colour,  very 
low  and  ihdistinct  under  a  huge  sky  of  clouds  streaming 
from  the  west.  I  heard  the  word  'Cornwall.'  Coniwall. 
...  I  just  stood  there  clutching  on  to  the  hand-rail  that 
ran  along  the  deck-house.  I  was  simply  bewildered.  It's 
difficult  to  describe  my  state  of  mind.  There  was  exulta- 
tion in  it  ;  and,  besides  the  exultation,  something  else  that 
was  nearest  to  fear.  I  dared  not  look  at  it  any  longer.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  I  couldn't,  for  suddenly  1  felt  horribly  sick. 
I  found  myself  hanging  over  the  rail,  looking  at  a  swirl  of 
giddy  water — pale  and  horribly  cold.  / 

"Three  days  later  I  left  London  in  a  train  they  call  the 
Riviera  Limited  Express.  I  don't  remember  much  of  the 
country  through  which  we  passed-:  nothing,  except  that  it 
all  seemed  to  mc  Ijlue — just  made  of  a  sort  of  blue  haze  and 
very  colourless.  The  train  travelled  much  faster  than  an 
Indian  express  ;  the  carriages  were  not  so  comfortable,  and 
my  feet  were  icy.  I  couldn't  believe  it  was  spring.  In  my 
time  I  had  read  a  lot  about  the  Enghsh  spring.  I  had 
imagined  it  clear  and  fresh,  like  the  chmate  of  the  Nilghiris. 


i8 


Land    &   Water 


May  1 6,  191 8 


I  persuaded  myself  that  in  a  little  while,  as  we  went  west- 
ward, the  conditions  would  change  ;  I  should  see  the  green, 
the  intense  green  that  people  wrote  about,  instead  of  this 
everlasting  blue  haze  ;  I  should  see  the  Tamar,  shining  blue 
with  great  banks  of  brilliant  gorse  climbing  on  cither  side. 

"Next  morning  I  set  off  early.  You  won't  be  surprised 
when  I  tell  you  that  I  remember  every  ridiculous  detail  of 
that  walk.  On  the  floatinp  bridge  at  T<xrpoint  I  talked  to  a 
bluejacket.  A  Cornishman,  he  told  me,  home  on  leave  to^ 
a  place  called  Tregantle.  He  was  vcrj'  friendly,  taking  me 
for  a  seaman  ;  deceived,  I  suppose,  by  my  tanned  face. 
I  told  him  that  I  was  walking  out  beyond  Liskeard,  .  .  . 
and  he  said  he  would  go  with  me  as  far  as  Antony.  Then 
came  my  first  disappointment.  The  road  out  of  Torpoint 
was  hilly,  and  I  found  "that  I  simply  couldn't  keep  pace  with. 
him.  That's  what  India  does  for  you.  You  never  think  of 
walking  there.  I  soon  saw  it  was  a  bad  job,  and  he  went  on 
his  way  whistling,  leaving  me  pumped  on  the  side  of  the 
road,  sitting  to  recover  my  breath.  It  was  on  one  of  those 
banked  hedges  which  you  get  in  the  West  countr}',  covered 
with  sweet-smelling  grass,  and  on  the  top  of  it,  in  a  cluster, 
I  found  my  first  primroses.  You  say  that  Linnaeus  went 
down  on  his  knees  and  thanked  God  for  the  sight  of  the 
gorse.  I  didn't  do  that  exactly;  but  I'll  confess  that  tears 
came  into  my  eyes.  I  thought  of  my  mother.  You  know, 
she  had  a  passion  for  primroses. 

"Oh,  well.  .  .  .  That  day  I  realised  what  spring  means. 
I  don't  believe  there  was  ever  such  a  day  in  the  world.  The 
clouds  lifted.  The  sun  shone.  All  the  country  was  full  of 
bird-song.  And  it  wasn't  blue  any  longer.  I  suppose  my 
eyes  were  beginning  to  get  accustomed  to  the  subdued 
English  colour.  Suddenly  I  began  to  see  it  all.  It  was  just 
as  if  the  green  had  come  out  with  a  rush.  I  won't  talk  about 
it :  I  see  it  will  make  you  homesick.  I'll  only  say  that  it 
made  me  forget  my  tiredness.  If  life  were  going  to  be  all 
like  that  it  would  be  unbearably  beautiful. 

"  I  slept  that  night  in  a  hotel  at  Liskeard — a  comfortable, 
square  place  facing  a  wide  street  planted  with  trees.  Next 
morning,  in  the  same  peerless  weather,  I  set  off,  a  little  stiff 
and  sore  with  my  walk  of  the  day  before.  This,  of  course, 
was  to  be  my  great  day.  My  mind  was  full  of  words,  which 
ran  in  it  like  a  nursery  rhyme. 

"  'When  you  get  out  of  the  train  at  Liskeard,  which  way 
do  you  go  ?' 

"  'Dozen  the  hill  to  the  road  to  Looe  till  you  get  to  the  gate 
on  the  railway.' 

"  It  was  all  working  out  pat,  like  a  game  of  patience. 
Here  was  the  hill.  On  the  edge  of  it  there  hung  a  block  of 
recent  labourers'  cottages.  Bfelow  the  hill  I  found  the 
railway  running  in  the  bottom  of  a  most  lovely  valley,  with 
hazel  thickets  clothing  the  hills  on  either  side.  I  crossed  the 
line,  and  the  brook  which  becomes  the  East  Looe  river. 
I  climbed  a  steep  bank  at  the  back  of  some  farm,  buildings. 
On  the  edge  of  a  dark  spinney  of  firs  primroses  were  growing. 
The  prescription  still  worked. 

"It  was  an  awful  pull  up  to  Penberthy's  farm.  'Here,' 
I  said  to  myself,  '  the  dream  is  going  to  let  me  down  ;  for 
Jack  Penberthy's  dog,  with  the  teeth  worn  smooth  by  carry 
ing  stones,  must  have  been  dead  for  many  years.  Still  .  . 
Well,  there  was  a  dog  there  ;  but  I  saw  quite  enough  of  his 
teeth  at  a  distance  ;  so  whether  he  was  a  new  incarnation  ol 
the  dream-dog  or  no  I  can't  tell  you.  But  I  did  see  a  woman 
who  was  probably  little  Jack  Penberthy's  wife.  She  r;jme 
out  and  scowled  at  me  from  under  black,  straight  brows. 
I  shouted  'Good  morning'  to  her;  but  she  didn't  answer. 
I  would  have  given  good  morning  to  my  w'>r<t  enemy  on 
that  day.  ... 

"Bevond  Penberthy's  farm  the  going  became  more  easy. 
'One  field  of  rough  grazing  and  one  of  plough,  and  don't  'ee 
tread  on  the  yowig  corn.' 

"Beautiful  slender  stufi :  I  suppose  the  rotation  of  crop- 
ping had  just  brought  it  back  to  that  field  for  my  delight. 
Bej'ond  the  wheat,  the  path  led  me  over  many  acres  of  grass 
land,  a  high,  windy  piece  of  country  from  which  I  could  see 
the  hill-town  of  Liskeard  and  the  moors  behind  it.  And  one 
chimney-stack  I  saw  on  a  remote  hog's  back  of  a  hill  that 
seemed  familiar.  From  time  to  time  I  would  stop  and  fill 
my  lungs  with  air  and  my  eyes  with  the  sight  of  that  sweep 
of  country.  Standing  there,  with  my  waistcoat  unbuttoned, 
I  suddenly  felt  myself  give  a  little  shiver.  It  warned  me  that 
I  must  be  careful.  People  on  the  boat  had  told  me  that  a 
man  who  has  malaria  in  him  is  bound  to  get  it  when  he  goes 
>to  a  colder  climate.  I  reflected  that  I  hadn't  brought  any 
quinine  with  me.     Still,  that  was  nothing. 

You  keeps  the  path  right  over  above  Hcrodsfoot.' — I  had 
come  to  a  steep  hillside.  Below  me  lay  a  deep  valley  far 
wilder  and  more  densely  wooded  than  that  of  the  East  Looe. 
Down  there,  I  supposed,  lay  Herodsfoot,  though  I  could  see 


no  sign  of  any  village.  I  knew,  at  any  rate,  that  Treliske 
stood  liigh,  and  that  I  should  not  have  to  go  down  into  the 
valley  to  find  it,  and  it  relieved  me  when  I  saw  that  the 
path  took  a  turn  through  the  edge  of  a  hazel  plantation, 
landing  me  clean  into  a  field  where  gorse  was  growing  in 
the  shape  of  a  letter  L. 

"Why  did  the  gorse  grow  like  a  letter  L  ?  I'll  tell  you. 
On  two  sides  of  the  field  were  stone  walls,  and  the  angle 
between  them  faced  the  mouth  of  the  valley  and  the  pre- 
vailing wind,  so  that  the  flying  seeds  were  always  blown  up 
into  that  corner  and  along  the  walls,  Even  in  such  a  small 
thing,  you  see,  it  vvor*ked.  .  Now  for  the  two  paths.  'One 
of  them  goes  to  Duloe  and  the  other  to  Treliske.'  I  could  see 
the  two  paths,  and  then  found  mysplf  faced  with  an  awful 
doubt.  Wliich  went  to  Duloe  and  which  to  Treliske?  I 
stood  at  the  corner  of  the  field  shiveftng.  Now,  there  was 
no  doubt  about  it.  I  was  in  for  fever.  My  head  ached  ; 
my  limbs  were  sore  ;  I  began  to  feel  sick.  I  must  get, 
somehow,  to  a  village.  The  map  showed  me  an  inn  at  Duloe. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  the  sooner  I  reached  it  the  better,  so 
I  gambled  on  the  path  which  branched  off  to  the  left.  While 
I  had  been  debating  with  myself  the  sky  had  clouded  over. 
I  set  out  as  best  I  could.  Once,  in  a  near  field,  I  saw  a  man 
on  horseback,  and  shouted  to  him,  thinking  to  a.sk  him  the 
way.  I  suppose  he  didn't  hear  me,  for  as  soon  as  I  shouted 
he  rode  away  as  fast  as  he  could  go.  Then  the  path  took 
me  into  a  field  full  of  cows.  You'll  laugh  at  me  when  I  tell 
you  that  I  didn't  hke  the  look  of  them,  although,  if  you  come 
to  think  of  it,  your  English  cows  are  formidable  beasts  com- 
pared with  our  little  Indian  buffaloes.  It  wasn't  that, 
though.  As  soon  as  I  set  foot  in  the  field  they  all  began  to 
run  for  me.  I  never  saw  anything  like  it.  I  simply  made 
for  the  hedge,  and  there  they  stood  below  me,  about  a  dozen 
of  them,  refusing  to  let  me  pass.  I  threw  a  clod  of  earth  at 
them  to  get  them  out  of  the  way.  They  didn't  run.  They 
clustered  round  it,  sniffing  it  as  it  lay  on  the  ground.  Then 
I  tumbled  to  it.  I  saV  that  there  wasn't  a  day's  feed  in  the 
field.     The   wretched   beasts   were   starving. 

"By  this  time  my  fever  was  pretty  bad.  At  the  corner  of 
the  next  field  I  met  a  little  girl  with  black  hair  and  quick, 
brown  eyes  :  a  dirty  child,  in  the  poorest  of  clothes.  I 
called  to  her,  but  she  ran  from  me  as  if  she  were  frightened. 
I  had  a  sudden  idea  that  perhaps  she  was  right,  and  that 
I  myself  was  a  sort  of  ghostly  revenanl.  I  suppose  I  was 
light-headed.  Fever  does  take  me  like  that.  I  knew  I 
couldn't  go  on  much  longer,  and  thanked  Heaven  when  I 
saw  at  the  end  of  the  field  a  big.squahd  sort  of  stone  cottage 
the  windows  oi  one  half  were  empty,  the  others  decorated 
with  ragged  lace  curtains.  In  the  garden,  among  hens  and 
gooseberry  bushes,  I  saw  my  little  girl  wiping  her  nose  on 
her  frock.  Now  she  smiled  at  me  slyly.  Her  mother 
appeared  :  a  slatternly  woman  with  red  hair  and  bad  teeth. 
I  asked  her  the  way  to  Duloe.  '  Duloe  ? '  she  said, 
Duloe?  ..."  I  never  heard  the  rest  of  it.  I  fainted  on 
her  doorstep;    I  suppose  I  had  overdone  it. 

"They  weren't  bad  people.  She  and  her  husband  got  me 
to  bed  and  sent  for  a  doctor.  The  bed  wa.s  hi  thy,  and  the 
doctor  a  most  objectionable  old  man,  without  the  least 
knowledge  of  tropical  diseases.  He  ventured  to  give  me 
two  grains  of  quinine.  /  take  it  byi  the  teaspoonful,  you 
know.  It  isn't  even  expensive.  .  .  .  The  days  I  spent  in 
that  bed,  four  of  them,  were  the  most  miserable  I  ever  had 
in  my  life.  Thf-  people  regarded  me  as  the  nuisance  which, 
1  suppose,  I  was.  The  woman  with  the  red  hair  and  the 
bad  teeth  would  forget  all  about  my  food,  even  though  I 
assured  her  that  she  and  her  husband  would  be  well  paid  for 
everything  they  did  for  me.  Her  eldest  daughter  suffered 
from  fits,  and  slept  within  a  few  inches  of  me  tlffough  a 
n;irrow  partition  of  boards.  I  used  to  hear  the  father  slap- 
ping her  at  night  when  she  made  a  noise.  Altogether,  it 
was  a  ghastly  nightmare,  of  which  1  remember  very  little 
but  the  view  through  the  window.  It  was  always  the  same 
wild  and  miserable  scene :  colourless  liilltops  and  black 
woods,  and  over  all,  a  cold  and  drenching  rain  that  never 
ceased.  Nobody,  it  seemed  to  me,  who  had  ever  known 
sunshine,  could  consent  to  live  in  a  place  like  that.  I 
wondered,  rather  ruefully,  if  Treliske  were  better.  Of 
course,  Trehske  must  be  better. 

"On  the  fourth  day  I  got  up  and  drove  away  from  that 
ghastly  place.  I  paid  the  woman  who  had  neglected  me, 
handsomely.  Slie  took  it  as  a  matter  of  course.  I  told  her 
that  1  would  send  her  little  girl  a  present.  I'd  noticed  that 
the  child  had  no  toj's.  'I'll  post  it  to  her  when  I  get  back 
to  London,'  I  said.  'And,  by  the  way,  I  haven't  got  your 
name.'  She  said  the  name  was  Crago.  I  wrote  it  down, 
smiUng,  for  I  remembered  that  it  was  my  mother's! 
'And    the  address,'  I  said,  'the  name  of  the  house  '' 

"'Treliske.'  " 


May   1 6,  191 8 


Land    &   Water 


19 


Life  and  Letters  mJX.Souire 


The   Royal  Academy 

I\  the  middle  of  the  quadrangle  of  Burlington  House 
stands  Mr.  Gilbert  Bayes's  colossal  "War  Equestrian 
Statue,"  an  ideal  male  figure  on  horseback,  fronting 
the  future  with  determination.  It  has  not  the  life 
and  strength  of  Watts's  "Physical  Energy,"  which 
once  stood  in  the  same  place.  It  is  decorative  but  little 
more  ;  its  grace  and  its  serenity  are  rather  those  of  a  well- 
designed  piece  of  furniture  than  those  of  a  work  of  vital  art  ; 
taste  and  fancy,  not  imagination  and  passion,  have  gone  to 
its  making  ;  and  its  origin,  whether  the  sculptor  knows  it  or 
not,  is  Munich,  where  a  reproduction  of  it  might  well  make 
a  cover  for  one  of  the  magazines  of  the  "Secession."  But 
even  good  taste  is  not  a  commodity  to  be  under-rated  when 
one  meets  it  at  the  Academy  ;  and  Mr.  Bayes's  group  is 
better  than  all  save  a  very  few  of  our  English  pubUc 
monuments. 

4:  4:  *'  *  ifi  ^ 

The  next  important  thing  you  come  to  is  the  turnstile  ; 
the  next  the  catalogue.  Blazoned  on  the  title  page  is  5n 
extract  from  Hazlitt  :  "Art  must  anchor  on  Nature,  or  it  is 
the  sport  of  every  breath  of  folly."  "Nature"  is  a  compre- 
hensive word,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  man  who 
would  dispute  the  maxim.  The  Post-Impressionist  at  whom 
it  is  here  aimed,  maintains  that  what  he  is  trying  to  paint 
exists  in  Nature  ;  he  merely  argues  that  there  is  more  in 
Nature  than  meets  the  unacademic  eye.  And  I  had  rather 
see  a  man  fail  in  the  difficult  task  of  painting  the  "  bottleness  " 
of  a  bottle  than  try  to  paint  the  obvious  surface  of  the  bottle, 
and  fail  dismally  at  that.  If  the  Royal  Academy  has 
anchored  on  Nature,  all  one  can  say  is  that  the  anchor  has 
dragged  pretty  considerably.  The  Hanging  Committee  may 
be  determined  to  set  its  face  against  new  follies,  but  it  clings 
desperately  to  old  ones ;  and  the  maddest  of  the  Cubists. 
are  preferable  to  the  slavish  copyists  and  drivelling  anecdo-' 
tists  who  cover  the  walls  of  Burlington  House.  Year  after 
year  it  goes  on.  Good  men  are  constantly  being  elected  to 
the  Academy,  and  optimists  are  always  hoping  that  the  bad 
ones  will  die  off  and  Time  rectify  all.  So  they  hoped  a 
generation  ago  (I  commend  readers  to  the  discussions  in 
the  painter's  Life  which  preceded  Sir  E.  Bume- Jones's  resigna- 
tion of  the  Associateship  which  his  friends  had  persuaded 
him  to  take),  and  so  they  hope  still.  But  the  dullards  take 
care  that  they  preserve  their  compact  majority,  and  the 
percentage  of  good  pictures  on  the  walls  remains  as  low  as 
ever.  Every  year  there  are  actually  more  good  things  in 
each  of  several  small  exliibitions  than  among  the  whole  of 
the  hundreds  of  exhibits  at  Burlington  House.  It  is  a 
tragedy  ;  one  caimot  help  feeling  what  the  prestige  of  the 
Academy  could  do  for  the  best  of  the  young  painters  if  the 
Academy  were  differently  constituted. 

****** 

War  pictures  are,  of  course,  numerous  ;  they  may  almost 
all  be  neglected,  the  best  of  them  having  the  sole  merit  of 
giving  one  an  idea  (as  good  newspaper  pictures  do)  of  what 
conditions  at  the  front  are.  It  is  impossible,  however,  to 
ignore  Mr.  F.  Salisbury's  vast  panel  for  the  Royal  Exchange, 
representing  the  King  and  Oueen  at  the  front.  As  usual 
with  these  pictures,  it  is  so  terrible  that,  were  it  not  that  the 
Academy's  loyalty  is  above  suspicion,  one  would  incline 
to  think  it  an  insidious  form  of  republican  propaganda. 
If  anything  could  be  more  amazingly  bad  than  the  main 
design,  showing  the  King  with  his  generals  on  an  eminence 
— the  Prince  of  Wales  is  also  shown,  apparently  wondering 
when  the  painter  is  going  to  let  him  mf)ve — it  is  the  appendix 
at  the  bottom,  representing  the  Oueen  amongst  the  wounded. 
More  words  fail  me.  The  separate  portraits  of  their  Majesties 
(apparently  studies  for  the  great  work)  which  guard  the 
flanks  are  quite  tolerable.  Mr.  Walter  Bayes's  "The  Under- 
world." though  a  tliousand  times  better  painted,  and  far 
more  nearly  "anchored  on  Nature,"  is  almost  equally  odd. 
It  is  a  study  of  the  Tube  during  an  air-raid.  Puvis  de 
Chavannes  might  have  painted  it  had  he  taken  to  pessimism. 
It  is  wonderfully  keenly  seen  in  places  ;  but  it  is  so  large, 
it  does  not  hang  together  ;  and  its  realistic  ugliness  is  the 
work  of  a  clever  reporter  in  paint  than  of  an  artist.  It  had  a 
red  label  on  it,  indicating  that  it  had  been  sold.  It  cannot 
be  supposed  that  our  enterprising  Underground  Railways 
are  going  to  use  it  as  a  poster  ;  let  us  hope  that  it  has  not 
been  acquired  for  the  National  War  Museum.  If  some  stout 
fellow  of  a  profiteer  has  actually  purchased  it  to  embellish 


his  home,  all  I  can  say  is  that  I  trust  I  shall  never  be  asked 
to  dine  with  him.  Mr.  David  Jaggard,  who  last  year  did  a 
good  study  of  a  "Conscientious  Objector,"  has  gone  one 
better  this  year  with  a  raving  Bolshevik,  backed  by  a  blood- 
red  banner,  the  red  of  which  has  got  into  the  inside  of  the 
Bolshevik's  extended  mouth,  giving  him  a  truly  terrifying 
appearance.  There  is  great  vigour  in  the  painting,  but  it  is 
crude  and  raw.  It  makes  no  pretence  to  be  anything  but 
hideous  (there  is  no  question  of  a  "new  kind  of  beauty" 
here),  and  it  can  only  be  recommended  to  the  attention  of 
the  directors  of  Madame  Tussaud's.  Older  wars  are  less 
conspicuous  than  usual  ;  I  did  not  notice  even  one  picture 
of  Cavahers  and  Roundlieads.  The  Hanging  Committee 
must  have  been  nodding.  "Stories  in  paint"  have  also 
diminished  in  numbers.  Mr.  Jolm  Collier  confines  himself 
to  portraits.  No  Academy,  however,  would"  be  complete 
without  a  picture  of  somebody  or  other  prostrating  himself 
or  herself  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross.  Sometimes  it  is  a  knight 
in  armour,  sometimes  a  fashionable  lady,  sometimes  a  figure 
which,  in  the  absence  of  clothes,  one  cannot  socially  place. 
This  year  it  is  a  ballet-dancer  ;  the  picture  (by  Miss  Margaret 
Lindsay  Williams)  is  called  "The  Triumph."  What  does 
Mr.  Sargent  think  when  his  colleagues  fill  many  square  feet 
of  wall  with  things  like  this  ? 


There  are  a  few  good'  or  pleasing  pictures,  conspicuous 
among  them  being  several  small  still-lifes.  Mr.  Arnesby 
Brown's  "The  Little  Village"  is  charming  ;  and  it  is  pleasant 
to  see  him  getting  away  from  the  rut  (populated,  in  his  case, 
with  blue  cows)  into  which  he  seemed  to  be  getting,  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Academy  almost  always  do.  Mr.  D.  Y.  Cameron, 
with  an  intensely  cerulean  "Waters  of  Lome,"  also  departs 
in  colour,  if  not  in  subject,  from  his  customary  track  ;  he  is 
one  of  the  finest  artists  we  have,  but  I  do  not  think  he  entirely 
succeeds  in  this  picture,  which  is  vaguely  inharmonious. 
Mr.  Charles  Sims's  "Landscape" — a  great  block  of  dark 
foliage— is  very  agreeable ;  and  the  flesh-tinted  Grjeco- 
Roman  statue  which  he  sets  against  a  mountain  background 
and  calls  "The  Piping  Boy,"  though  not  up  to  his  old  stan- 
dard, shines  by  comparison  with  what  surrounds  it.  Mr. 
Glyn  Philpot's  "Adoration  of  the  Kings"  is  brilliantly 
painted,  but  would  be  tiring  to  live  with  ;  judging  by  their 
faces,  his  monarchs  needed  all  the  religious  influence  they 
could  get.  Mr.  Harry  Watson's  "A  Morning  of  Pleasure" 
is  an  effective  effort  in  the  out-of-focus  sun-spotted  genre  ; 
and  Mr.  Sydney  Lee's  "The  Limestone  Crag"  an  interesting 
reversion  to  the  methods  of  James  Ward. 


Mr.  Sargent  does  not  exhibit.  Nor  does  Mr.  Brangwyn. 
Nor  does  Mr.  Orpen,  who  has  recently  been  doing  first-rate 
portraits  of  soldiers  at  the  front.  Mr.  Qiausen,  happily, 
does  ;  his  "Sleeper"— a  nude  woman  asleep  with  her  cheek 
on  her  knee — is  very  undemonstrative,  but  one  returns  to  it 
with  growing  admiration  after  walking  round  the  room  in 
which  it  is.  His  work  is  always  too  quiet  to  get  its  full 
effect  on  those  bellowing  walls  ;  a  really  representative  one- 
man  show  would  surprise  some  of  those  who  tend  to  overlook 
the  beauty  and  variety  of  the  work  he  has  been  doing  for 
thirty  years.  Mr.  Cayley  Robinson's  "Winter  Evening" 
would  be  completely  satisfying  if  it  were  cut  in  two,  and 
only  the  figure  by  the  fire  retained.  The  portraits,  as  a 
body,  do  not  attract  attention  ;  few  of  them  being  remark- 
ably good  in  execution  or  notable  in  subject.  Sir  John  • 
Lavery,  who  is  painting  below  his  old  form  since  he  became 
a  fashionable  artist,  does  not  succeed  with  Mr.  Asquith, 
who  is  not  verj'  firmly  taken  in  a  not  very  characteristic 
aspect.  Mr.  Fiddes  Watts's  "Lord  Finlay"  is  better;  it 
fs  not  credible,  however,  that  Lord  P'inlay  can  always  look 
so  wise  as  that.  Mr.  Charles  Shannon's  portrait  of  himself 
painting  is  good  ;  he  is  holding  a  brush  in  his  mouth,  and 
one  is  at  Hberty  to  guess  that  he  has  just  fetched  it  out  of 
the  water  for  Mr.  Charles  Ricketts,  who  would  do  as  much 
for  him. 

The  sculpture  galleries  are  a  relief.  .They  contain  much 
that  is  workmanlike  and  notliing  that  is  offensive.  But 
enough  of  this  list.  The  one  consolation  one  found,  when 
looking  for  the  few  needles  in  that  immense  haystack,  was 
that  amongst  the  comparatively  few  pictures  which  had  been 
sold  at  the  time  of  one's  visit  were  virtually  all  the  good 
ones.     It  reminded  one  that  there  is  a  public  for  good  art. 


20 


Land    &    Water 


May  1 6,  191 8 


Building  in  Paint  :    By  Charles  Marriott 


THE  time  is  past,  if  it  was  ever  due  for  thinking  of 
the  artist  as  an  unpractical  person  engaged  in  grace- 
fully dodging  reality  for  ornamental  purposes. 
Nowadays  we  judge  the  ornamental  by  the  amount 
of  reality  it  contains.  We  recognise,  too,  that  the 
kind  of  reality  suited  to  any  particular  art  depends  upon  the 
tools  and  materials  it  is  done  with. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  suitable  ideas  of  reality  for 
pictorial  expression  with  paint  and  brushes  is  that  of  space  in 
three  dimensions.  For  some  time  after  the  reaction  from 
realism,  which  was  partly  due  to  the  recognition  that  paint  and 
brushes  are  not  in  it  with  the  camera  for  that  purpose,  painters 
"  hedged  "  by  putting  down  their  surface  impressions  of  nature 
only,  but  presently 
they  began  to  want 
something  firmer. 
Cezanne  expressed  the 
desire  when  he  said  : 
"I  want  to  make  of 
impressionism  some- 
thing solid  and  per- 
manent, like  the  old 
masters."  What  it 
amounted  to  in  fact 
was  a  craving  for  the 
third  dimension. 

Some  such  prelim- 
inary is  necessary  to 
explain  wliat  a  painter 
like  Mr.  J.  D.  Fergus- 
son,  who  is  now  exhi- 
biting at  Connell's 
Gallery  in  Old  Bond 
Street,  is  working  at. 
By  avoiding  realism 
he  recovers  the  free 
and  characteristic  use 
of  paint  and  brushes, 
liberty  of  design,  and 
the  intrinsic  value  of 
colotir ;  but  at  the 
same  time  by  insisting 
upon  the  condition  of 
deptli,  he  secures  the 
soUdity  demanded  by 
the  Western  mind.  It 
may  be  said  that  he 
could  get  the  same 
result  by  painting 
realisticall}',  but  that 
is  not  true.  If  you  are 
out  to  create  the 
illusion  of  reality — as 
in  a  stereoscopic 
photograph^any  free- 
dom of  brush  work, 
any  obvious  brush- 
work,  indeed,  must 
disturb    the    illusion  ; 

and  it  is  worth  remarking  that  the  earlier  painters  who 
aimed  at  realistic  illusion,  consistently  concealed  their 
brushwork,  and  painted  very  smoothly.  Also  in  realis- 
tic painting  yon  are  severely  limited  in  the  matter  of  design. 
Yuu  can  arrange  or  compose  reahstically  painted  objects  in  a 
striking  or  pleasing  manner,  but  you  cannot  really  make  a 
design  of  them  in  paint  without  straining  probabihty — just  as 
you  would  if  you  wrote  a  realistic  description  in  formal  verse. 
For  the  same  reason  you  must  sacrifice  the*  intrinsic  value  of 
colour  to  descriptive  truth. 

You  can't  have  it  both  ways.  The  objection  to  realistic 
painting  is  not  an  aesthetic  fad.  It  is  as  practical  as  the  objec- 
tion to  rule  of  thumb  in  engineering.  The  problems  of  paint- 
ing, indeed,  are  very  much  like  the  problems  of  engineering. 
You  have  to  make  a  structure  in  a  definite  material  that  will 
carry  your  ideas  or  feelings  to  the  spectator.  The  methods, 
Uke  the  burden,  may  be  subtler  and  more  subject  to  emotion, 
but  they  are  strictly  scientific  in  principle.  There  is  no  scope 
forthinking  in  the  world  of  illusion,  it  is  all  a  matter  of  tricks  ; 
but  in  the  world  of  design,  there  is  unhmited  scope  for  thinking. 
Once  exchange  the  illusion  for  the  idea  of  reality jis  an  aim,  and 
you  come  into  the  full  freedom  of  your  materials,  and  you  can 
"work  out  your  problems  of  design  instead  of  merely  dodging 
them  by  pretending — always  at  risk  of  probability — that  it 


Lamplight  and 

By  J.  D. 


"happened  so."  Mr.  Fergusson  can  be  as  "decorative"  as 
he  likes  ;  but  because  he  designs  in  three  dimensions  instead  of, 
like  the' Chinese,  only  in  two,  he  secures  the  reality  that  is 
generally  sacrificed  in  decorative  painting.  It  was  to  express 
the  idea  of  designing  in  three  dimensions  that  1  headed  this 
article  "  Building  in  Paint." 

Mr.  Fergusson's  paintings  o(  heads  convey  the  idea  of  plastic 
relief  which  is  something  quite  different  from  the  illusion  of 
stereoscopic  relief  produced  by  realistic  painting.  They  do  not 
stick  out  of  their  frames,  but  are  closely  related  to  their  back- 
grounds or  surroundings.  In  several  pictures,  ,in  "Rose 
Rhytlim,"  for  example,  he  has  carried  the  same  motive 
throughout  the  design  in  almost  exactly  the  same  way  as  a 

musical  composer 
would  construct  a 
fugue  on  a  given 
sequence  of  notes — or 
an  engineer  would 
carry  the  cantilever 
I)rinciple  throughout 
his  bridge,  for  the 
matter  of  that.  This 
is  a  thing  you  could 
not  do  in  realistic 
painting,  except  by 
pretending  accidental 
circumstances  of  the 
"very  like  a  whale" 
order ;  by  pretending 
that  the  young 
woman's  mouth  or  ear 
looked  hke  a  rose  in 
certain  lights,  for 
example.  By  dealing 
with  ideas  rather  than 
appearances  of  struc- 
ture, Mr.  Fergusson 
has  been  able  to  design 
the  young  woman  in 
the  rhythm  of  roses 
without  risk  of  prob- 
ability. Once  reduce 
the  visible  world  to  the 
same  category  of  ideas 
expressed  in  terms  of 
painting,  and  you  can 
compare  and  design  to 
your  heart's  content 
without  any  risk  to 
probabihty,  or  of 
confusion  between  the 
character  of  one  object 
and  another.  You  do 
not  need  artistic 
licence.  Whether  you 
deal  with  facts  or 
fancies  you  have 
exactly  the  same 
freedom  and  security 
as  the  writer  who  designs  in  words,  or  the  composer  who 
designs  in  musical  sounds.  The  nearer  you  get  to  the'  ideas 
of  things,  the  more  you  bring  out  their  differences. 

Moreover,  as  Mr.  Fergusson  shows,  the  moment  the  painter 
has  plumped  for  ideas,  instead  of  imitations  of  reahty,  he  can 
combine  with  ideas  of  structure,  of  length,  breadth,  and  depth, 
the  more  subtle  suggestions  of  surface.  One  of  his  pictures  has 
for  its  motive  the  blondness  of  a  woman.  The  head  is  firmly 
constructed  in  paint,  there  is  no  imitation  of  hair  or  flesh  and 
blood,  but  the  bloom  and  delicacy  of  the  subject  is  kept 
throughout. 

But  when  all  has  been  said,  the  most  striking  temperamental 
characteristic  expressed  in  the  work  of  Mr.  Fergusson  is  his 
craving  for  the  third  dimension.  Obviously  he  is  a  man  of 
robust  imagination,  ill  content  with  a  vision  that  evades  the 
logic  of  structure.  But  being  a  true  painter  he  will  not  sacri- 
fice the  tools  and  materials  of  his  craft  to  realistic  imitation 
in  order  to  get  the  effect  of  solidity.  By  reducing  everything 
to  the  same  category,  and  dealing  with  it  in  the  same  terms,  he 
is  able  to  combine  ideas  of  structure  and  emotional  sugges- 
tions in  a  pictorial  and  decorative  manner ;  to  embodv 
thoughts  and  feelings  "in  the  round."  As  might  be  expected 
of  such  a  painter,  he  has  more  than  an  instinct  for  sculpture  ; 
and  the  exhibition  includes  some  examples  of  his  work  in  stone. 


Violet: 

Fergusson 


Ruby 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXXI.     No.  2924.     [yl'^^]  THURSDAY,  MAY  23,   19 1 8 


r  registered  ast      published  weekly 
La    newspaperJ      price  ninepence 


Copyright,  19  iS",  V .S  A 


Cnpyris^ht,  "  Land  &   WaUt' 


The  Extended  Alliance 

The  Emperor  Karl  has  concluded  a  closer  alliance  with  the  Kaiser 

By   Louis  Raemaekers. 


Land   &    Water 


May  23,  19 1 8 


German  Rule  in  East  Africa 


GERMANY'S      method      of 
ruling  subject  races  is  fur- 
ther   illustrated    in    these 
photographs.      They  were 
taken  in  East  Africa,  but 
there   is  plenty?  of  evidence  that   the 
methods     are    not    peculiar    to    that 
section  of  the  German  Emjjirc.     The 
same   system    of   "frightfulness"    was 
consistently  practised  in  German  West 
Africa,    in    the    Cameroons,    and    the 
Pacific    Islands.       When    the    Crown 
Prince  was  in  India,  he  explained  to 
an  American  joumahst,   to  whom  he 
had  been  deprecating  the  British  sys- 
tem of  rule,  the  manner  in  which  Ger- 
many    established     her     might     over 
weaker   races,    illustrating   it    b}'   this 
anecdote:      "A    German     planter    in 
Samoa  had  a  field  of  yams,  which  were 
pilfered   by   native    villagers.      So   he 
went  to  the  village,  seized  the  head- 
man    and    three    others,    decapitated 
them,  and  impaled  their  heade  at  each 
corner  of  the  field.    Afterwards,"  added 
the  Crow'n  Prince  with  approval,  "there 
was  no  more  stealing  ! "     That  is  the- 
true  German  idea  of  justice  and  mercy 
where  the  weak  are  •concerned. 

To  carry  out  this  policy  effectively, 
we  see  in  the  third  photograph  here  how 
they  train  to  arms  the  more  warhke 
races.  The  native  soldier  is  encouraged 
to  be  the  same  bully  as  the  Prussian 
officer  ;  he  is  allowed  all  kinds  of  gross 
privileges,  and  is  permitted  to  bully 
and  pillage  peaceful  folk  so  long  as  he 
conforms  to  military  discipline.  The 
main  danger  of  German  rule  in 
Africa  is  the  creation  of  a  vast  black 
army  that  may  be  let  loose  to 
ravage  neighbouring  territories  at 
any  favourable  moment.  The  army, 
directly  it  realised  its  strength,  would 
probably  begin  by  cutting  the  throats 
of  its  taskmasters,  but  there  is  no 
saying  where  it  might  end. 


I.   Civil  Prisoners  in  Jail. 

3.  Germ:in  Officer  at  Head  of  Transport. 


z.  Drilling  Native  Soldiers. 
4.  Another  Hanging. 


May    23,    1 9  I  8 


Land    &    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 


Telephone  :    HOLBORN    2828. 


THURSDAY,  MAY  23,  1918. 


Contents 


PACK 


The  Extended  Alliance.     (Cartoon.)     By  Raemaekers  i 

German  Rule  in  East  Africa.     (With  photographs.)  J 

The  Outlook  ,) 

The  Offensive  Reviewed.     By  H.  Belloc                 "^  4 

British-American  Relations.     By  Arthur  Fagi-  7 
Cruise  of  the  Prince  Eitel  Friedrich. 

(With  photographs) .     By  Frencli  Strother     lo 

The  Turkish  Conspiracy — II.     By  Henry  Morgenthau  14 

Inside  a  Man's  Head.     By  J.  C.  Squire                         .  16 

Future  of  the  Farm  Labourer.     By  Jason  17 

In  Barracks.     (Poem.)     By  Sherard  Vines               '  18 

London.     By  Miller  Dunning  20 

A  Famous  Portrait  Painter.     (Review.)  22 

Notes  on  Kit  25 


The  Outlook 


LORD  FRENCH  lias  not  been  long  Viceroy  of 
Ireland  before  giving  evidence  that  he  remains 
a  man  of  action.  The  arrest  of  the  Sinn  Fein 
leaders  is  reassuring  both  for  the  act  itself  and 
for  the  manner  of  its  execution.  When  .  the 
details  of  the  German  plot  are  revealed  it  will  be  seen  how 
near  Ireland  has  come  to  a  second  rebellion.  The  clemency 
which  was  shown  by  the  ^British  Government  after  the  Easter 
Rebellion  of  1916  appears,  on  the  face  of  it,  to  have  been 
misplaced,  seeing  liow  many  of  those  who  then  received 
pardon  are  implicated  in  this  second  conspiracy.  None  the 
less,  we  believe  this  clemency  to  have  been  a  wise  act  ;  hence- 
forth, no  scruples  need  be  shown  in  dealing  with  those  who, 
for  whatever  purpose,  have  conspired  to  enter  into  treason- 
able communication  with  the  German  enemy.  We  depre- 
cate hasty  conclusions  that  all  who  have  lately  been  associated 
with  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders  are  necessarily  a  party  to  treason. 
This  is  an  occasion  for  calm  judgment  and  slow  speech,  and 
it  must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind  that  the  one  object  all 
wish  to  attain  who  have  sincerely  at  heart  Ireland's  future  is 
that  some  system  of  Government  may  be  devised  which  will 
enable  the  vast  majority  of  Irishmen,  in  whichever  province 
they  live  and  to  whatever  creed  they  belong,  to  work  together 
loyally  and  in  amity  for  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  their 
oountry,  and  for  the  welfare  and  security  of  the  British 
Empire.  The  prospect  is  dark  at  the  moment,  but  we  believe 
this  latest  step  to  be  a  decided  advance  in  the  right  direction. 
*  *  « 

The  long  Interval  which  the  enemy  may  be  presumed  to 
be  using  for  purposes  of  reconstruction  and  of  opening  a  third 
phase  in  his  great  offensive  still  continues  at  the  moment 
these  lines  are  written.  It  has  endured  without  interruption 
(save  by  comparatively  small  local  actions)  since  Monday, 
the  2gth  of  April,  on  which  day  the  enemy  suffered  his  heavy 
•defeat  to  the  North  of  Mt.  Kemmel.  The  number  of  divisions 
he  has  employed  actively  to  date  in  this  offensive — nearl}' 
all  of  them  in  the  first  six  weeks,  is  now  definitely  ascertained 
to  be  the  equivalent  of  254,  of  which  so  many  have  been  put 
in  a  second,  a  third,  and  even  a  fourth  time,  as  to  pwaint  to 
an  exceptionally  rapid  rate  of  usage.  Evidence  on  his  exact 
losses  is  still  lacking,  but  sdmething  in  the  neiglibourhood  of 
the  half  million  is  not  an  excessive  estimate.  His  delay  will 
permit  of  a  certain  number  of  returns,  and  he  has,  both  in 
fresh  divisions,  and  in  field  depots,  enough  material  left  to 
make  of  the  third  phase,  if  he  chooses,  something  like  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  first.  On  the  other  hand  it  must  be  remembered 
that  he  has  not  the  same  quality  at  his  disposal.  His  first 
shock  was  delivered  with  specially  trained  divisions,  each  of 
which  had  been  examined  for  the  purpose.  It  is  also  doubtful 
whether  lie  can  now  count  upon  any  element  of  surprise. 
*  *  * 

Meanwhile  the  future  of  aviation  and  the  apparently 
continuously  rising  preponderance  of  the  allies  in  this  field 
is  attracting  universal  attention.  Subsidiary  to  the  essential 
action  of  aircraft  upon  the  front,  the  weather  has  permitted 
a  long  distance  raid  into  Germany  and  the  thorough  bombing 


of  Cologne.  The  raid  upon  London  was  almost  simultaneous 
— for  it  takes  more  than  twenty-four  hours  to  prepare  a 
thing  of  this  sort.  Nevertheless  the  two  will  certainly  be 
treated  bj-  the  enemy  in  his  Press  and  communiques  (and 
unfortunately,  probably  by  too  many  people  at  home)  as 
cause  and  effect. 

Of  more  significance  to  the  war  is  the  tale  of  aircraft 
work  at  the  front.  The  most  striking  piece  of  statistics 
in  connection  with  this  is  that  given  in  connection  with  the 
number  of  bombs  dropped  behind  the  German  and  British 
lines  respectively.  For  the  months  of  March  and  April — 
and  much  the  greater  part  of  it  since  March  21st  —  the 
difference  is  no  less  than  thirteen-fold.  60,079  bombs  were 
dropped  on  or  behind  the  German  lines  by  the  British, 
and  only  4498  bv  the  Germans  on  or  behind  the  British 
lines,  it  is  far  too  early  as  yet  to  calculate  upon  any  decisive 
result  through  the  growing  superiority  of  the  Allies  in  the  air. 
Though  it  already  hampers  enemy  communications  it  is  still 
very  far  from  dislocating  them,  and  as  for  what  is  called 
"blinding"  the  enemy  by  establishing  such  a  superiority 
that  he  cannot  observe  usefully,  no  one  can  tell  how  far 
superiority  must  be  carried  before  such  a  result  can  be  achieved. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  not  yet  in  sight.  But  if  the  rate  of  increase 
can  be  maintained — and  the  resources  of  the  Allies  should 
make  that  possible — it  will,  with  American  recruitment,  be 
the  new  element  in  our  favour  as  the  year  proceeds. 
*  *  ♦ 

Raids  by  night  on  London  were  resumed  this  week.  A 
year  has  not  elapsed  since  the  first  attack  in  formation  by 
Gothas ;  it  occurred  on  Wednesday  morning,  June  13th 
last  ;  it  was  followed  on  Saturday  morning,  July  7th,  by 
another  attack  ;  others  were  frustrated,  and  afterwards  the 
enemy  preferred  the  inferior  visibility  of  moonlight  for  his 
raids.  Had  the  German  General  Staff  a  year  ago  been  able 
to  foresee  that  within  ten  months  Cologne  would  be  in  the 
reach  of  British  airmen  at  noonday,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
London  would  have  been  attacked.  As  it  is,  the  German 
air  offensive  on  cities  outside  the  war  zone  shows  no  advance 
during  this  period  ;  the  British  air  offensive  is  proving  more 
and  more  effective.  Germany  threw  down  the  challenge  ;  we 
accepted  it.     The  end  is  not  yet. 

*  *  * 

"A  peace  offensive  is  a  proposition  made  by  one  party 
who  does  not  desire  peace  himself,  but  who  does  desire  to 
divide  his  enemies  by  making  proposals  of  peace."  This 
definition,  put  forward  by  Mr.  Balfour  in  the  House  of 
Commons  last  week,  deserves  the  widest  publicity,  for  of 
"peace  offensives"  we  are  bound  to  hear  much  in  the  coming 
months.  ThiS'  definition  has  received  the  approval  of  that 
.other  master  of  clean-cut  phrases.  President  Wilson,  who, 
speaking  at  New  York  on  Saturday,  said  :  "We  are  not  to 
be  diverted  from  the  grim  purpose  of  winning  the  war  by  any 
insincere  approaches  upon  the  subject  of  peace."  Insin- 
cerity has  been  Germany's  trump  card  in  all  diplomatic 
relations  in  the  past  ;  she  has  won  so  many  tricks  with  it 
that  she  will  not  forgo  it  readily  ;  .but  while  it  is  easy  to 
deceive  at  any  game  when  a  man  \is  treated  as  an  honest 
man,  it  becomes  very  difficult,  once  he  is  a  declared  swindler. 
The  failure  of  each  new  peace  offensive  makes  the  next  one 
more  difficult.    But  Germany  will  persevere. 

*  «  * 

A  reference  was  made  in  these  notes  a  few  weeks  ago  to 
the  inequity  of  the  stipends  in  the  Church  of  England.  It 
was  stated  that  the  scandal  had  not  been  dealt  with. 
This  was  true  in  itself,  but  the  report  of  the  fourth  Committee 
of  Inquiry  into  the  Administrative  Reform  of  the  Church, 
just  issued,  shows  that  it  has  not  been  overlooked.  The 
reforms  proposed  by  this  committee  are  most  far-reaching 
and  sensible.  It  is  proposed  to  abolish  the  gross  scandal  of 
the  "parson's  freehold"  and  the  lesser  one  of  pew-rents. 
There  is  to  be  a  Patronage  Board  in  every  diocese,  on  which 
the  laity  are  to  be  largely  represented.  The  clergy  are  to 
be  assured  a  living  wage,  and  the  bishops  are  no  longer  to 
dwell  in  castles  or  palaces.  '  Parochial  Church  Councils  are 
to  be  instituted.  Let  these  reforms  be  brought  into  effect, 
and  the  Church  of  England  will  gain  new  life  as  a  modern 
institution.  How  can  this  be  done  within  a  reasonable 
time  ?  There  is  one  omission  which  a  substantial  and 
growing  minority  of  Churchmen  will  deplore: — that  the 
recommendations  do  not  include  disestablishment.  But  dis- 
establishment can  well  stand  over  for  the  moment  if  only 
these  reforms  are  not  delayed.  In  another  generation  at 
latest  it  will  be  everywhere  recognised  that  a  Church  cannot 
thrive  and  be  vigorous  which  is  under  State  control  and 
at  the  mercy  of  political  parties.  The  separation  must 
come  about,  but  it  will  be  all  the  easier  if  the  Church  has 
been  efficiently  reorganised  on  modern  lines. 


Land    &    Water 


May  23,  1 9 1 8- 


The  Offensive  Reviewed:  By  H.  Belloc 


FOK  now  exactly  three  weeks  (at  the  moment  of 
writing,  Monday,  May  20th)  the  enemy  has  re- 
frained from  any  continuation  of  his  great  offensive 
movement.  His  last  fully  dcx'cloped  action  was 
that  of  Monday,  April  29th,  in  Flanders,  between 
the  Ypres  Canal  and  Meteren,  in  which  he  suffered  a  very 
heavy  defeat,  the  magnitude  of  which  was  somewhat  obscured 
by  the  fact  that  the  victors  were  on  the  defensive. 

We  have  ahead}'  given  in  these  colunms  the  reasons  for 
believing  that  such  a  lialt  is  only  a  prelude  to  a  third  phase 
in  this  great  series  of  actions.  The  enemy  has  shown  by 
every  possible  indication  his  determination  to  9.chieve  a 
decision  as  early  as  possible  this  year  ;  he  has  put  in  the 
equivalent  of  254  divisions — a  mass  of  men  hitherto  quite 
unprecedented.  To  do  this  means  that  you  are  determined 
to  get  your  result  at  onc^,  and  that  you  would  rather  pour 
out  men  from  your  depots  than  get  fresh  material  in  rotation 
from  units  in  other  parts  of  the  line.  I^oth  methods  of 
recruiting  the  strength  for  shock  have  been  used,  but  the 
pace  at  which  German  divisions  have  been  put  through  the 
mill — from  three  to  four  times  that  of  a  previous  -period — 
is  absolute  proof  that  the  enemy  was  working  for  as  rapid  a 
decision  as  he  could  possibly  obtain.  If,  in  spite  of  this 
he  has  allowed  three  weeks  to  go  by  without  action,  it  is 
either  because  his  losses  liave  imposed  such  a  period  of 
reconstruction,  or  it  is  because  he  is  elaborating  a  completely 
new  plan  ;  more  probably  it  is  from  a  combination  of  these 
two  causes.  * 

For  the  comprehension  of  the  future  quite  as  much  as 
that  of  the  past,  and  therefore  with  a  practical  object,  we 
may  use  such  a  moment  for  a  review  of  the  great  German 
offensive  from  March  21st  to  April  29th — five  weeks  and  a 
half  of  most  intense  fighting  upon  the  largest  scale. 

It  was  divided  into  two  phases.  The  first  was  the  great 
blow  upon  a  fifty-mile  front  struck  between  the  Scarpe  and 
the  Oise  rivers  on  March  21st  and  March  22nd,  with  the 
object  of  separating  the  French  and  the  British  armies  and 
of  destroying  the  latter  by  an  advance  against  the  flank  so 
exposed.  This,  great  effort  succeeded  in  effecting  a  breach 
in  the  British  line  not  far  from  its  junction  with  the  French. 
There  followed  a  rapid  and  very  expensive  retirement,  but, 
as  in  the  case  of  Caporetto,  the  full  results  of  the  breach 
were  not  obtained.  After  an  attempt,  six  days  later, 
to  break  the  wall  at  last  erected  against  them,  the 
great  German  mass  in  this  saHent  ceased  its  effort  and  the 
first  phase  ofMhe  offensive  was  over  by  .\pril  5th — just  more 
than  a  fortnight  from  the  moment  of  its  inception. 

The  second  phase  took  a  curious  and  unexpected  form  ; 
unexpected  to  the  enemy  as  well  as  to  ourselves.  The  fact 
that  its  form  was  unexpected  has  profoundly  affected  the 
story  of  the  great  action  from  that  moment  onwards. 

The  German  higher  command  ordered  an  attack  upon 
April  gth  upon  a  comparatively  small  scale  (six  divisions — 
four  in  line  and  two  in  support)  upon  a  short  sector  of  a  few- 
miles  in  front  of  Lille.  This  defensive  sector  broke ;  a 
complete  breach  was  effected  ;  the  Lys  was  reached  and 
crossed  within  twenty-four  hours,  and  within  a  week  the 
whole  plain  up  to  the  foot  of  the  Kemmel  Hills  was  in  enemy 
hands.  An  advance  comparable  in  shape  (though,  of  course, 
not  in  extent)  to  the  great  German  advance  in  the  south 
had  taken  place. 

The  effect  of  this  very  great  local  success  upon  the  German 
higher  command  can  now  be  clearly  traced,  though  at  the 
time  we  had  no  evidence  to  show  whether  it  were  a  long- 
prepared  plan  or  not.  We  now  know  that  it  was  an  acci- 
dental opportunity  rapidly  used. 

The  enemy,  finding  himself  thus  possessed  of  yet  another 
breach  in  the  old  defensive  line,  determined  to  use  it  thor- 
oughly. Comparatively  small  as  was  the  area  for  manoeuvre, 
he  poured  in  between  30  and  40  divisions,  and  sacri- 
ficecl  men  with  the  utmost  freedom  in  the  pursuit  of  a  novel 
subsidiary  plan  to  cut  off  the  northern  end  of  the  British 
Hne  and  to  reach  Dunkirk,  at  least,  of  the  Channel  ports. 
This  second  effort,  which  became  more  and  more  expensive 
as  it  was  pressed,  was  a  strategical  failure.  A  violent  effort 
to  increase  the  salient  by  its  left  flank  in  the  second  week 
of  the  fighting  (led  by  Bernhardi,  with  six  divisions)  was 
heavily  defeated ;  and  in  the  week  following,  after  the 
exceedingly  expensive  capture  of  Kemmel  HiU,  the  largest 
assault  of  all,  with  11  or  i;^  divisions  on  April  29th,  was 
broken  to  pieces,  and  the  second  phase  of  the  great  German 
offensive  came  to  a  close. 


Such  have  been  the  general  lines  of  the  affair,  llwill 
now  examine  them  in  greater  detail.  MM^ 

The  first  essential  in  such  a  study  is  a  comprehension 
of  the  enemy's  scheme  of  attack.  We  are  the  better  able 
to  appreciate  tiiis  scheme  from  the  fact  that  enemy  sources 
of  information  and  enemy  descriptions  are  now  available. 
Even  the  roughest  sketch  cannot  be  complete,  of  course, 
because  in  the  first  place  both  the  enemy  and  the  Allies 
conceal  of  necessity  a  mass  of  things,  and  in  the  second  place, 
because  many  things,  though  not  concealed,  must  not  be 
published  lest  they  give  information  to  the  other  side.  m 

The  first  three  weeks  of  March,  the  special  training  of  the 
chosen  units  on  the  enemy's  side  being  by  then  accomplished, 
were  filled  with  the  last  accumulations  of  munitionment 
and  with  the  bringing  up  to  their  points  of  concentration 
of  these  divisions,  which  were  at  the  last  moment  marched 
up  by  night  to  complete  the  very  great  density  with  which 
the  attack  was  to  be  delivered. 

Concentration  for  Attack 

Already  during  the  two  months  past  the  roads  leading 
to  the  sector  of  attack  had  been  perfected,  and  so  elaborate 
in  detail  was  the  whole  plan  that  it  included,  as  the  French 
correspondents  tell  us,  a  book  of  about  100  pages,  which  was 
distributed  down  to  the  company  commanders  to  explain 
the  nature  of  the  operation  which  was  toward.  It  would 
seem  that  in  the  creation  of  new  roads  the  enemy  was  par- 
ticularly careful  to  create  subsidiary  lateral  communications. 
The  night  marches  up  to  the  front  began  on  the  13th  of  March 
and  proceeded  for  eight  days  continuously.  It  is  to  be  remarked 
that  the  moon  was  in  her  last  phase  during  this  operation, 
and  that  just  before  the  attack  there  was  almost  complete 
darkness  to  cover  the  concentrations  effected.  It  seems 
proved  that  much  the  greater  part  of  the  final  concentration 
was  made  quite  at  the  last  moment  with  the  object  of 
preventing  information  reaching  us  through  prisoners. 

Three  great  armies  and  a  portion  of  a  fourth  were  aligned 
between  the  Rivers  Scarpe  and  Oise,  a  distance  as  the  crow 
flies  of  about  fifty  miles.  The  right  of  these  three  armies 
was  in  front  of  the  Vimy  Ridge  by  Arras  ;  the  left  beyond 
St.  Quentin,  while  that  portion  of  the  fourth  army  which 
came  in  upon  the  extreme  left  was  astraddle  of  the  River 
Oise,  south  of  St.  Ouentin  near  La  Fere. 

These  armies  in  their  order  were  the  XVIIth  on  the  north 
or  German  right,  cop-,manded  by  Below  ;  the  Ilnd  in  the 
centre,  commanded  by  Marwitz  ;  the  XVIIIth  on  the  German 
left  or  south  in  the  St.  Ouentin  district,  commanded  by 
Hutier.  It  was  this  last  which  achieved  the  principal  success 
of  the  action.  Yet  further  to  the  .south  beyond  Hutier 
again  upon  the  Oise  was  the  extreme  right  of  Boehn's  Vllth 
Army,  a  certain  portion  of  which,  as  we  shall  see,  was  drawn 
into  the  action. 

Each  of  the  three  armies  consisted  of  no  less  than  23 
divisions.  It  is  probable  that  one  of  them  was  as  strong  as 
24  divisions.  There  were  thus  from  69  to  70  German  divisions. 
But  to  these  must  be  added  6  divisions  which  were  drawn 
in  from  Boehn's  VIltli^Army  on  the  extreme  left.  So  that 
in  the  very  first  developments  of  the  affair,  before  ultimate 
reserves  were  thrown  in,  while  the  original  shock  alone  was 
engaged,  at  least  75  divisions  were  used  ;  between  a  million 
and  a  million  and  a  quarter  men. 

Each  Army  commander  had  under  him  from  four  to  five 
corps.  But  these  corps  were  not  the  normal  German  Corps 
D'Arnicc  of  two  divisions  ;  they  were  groups  of  divisions, 
some  of  them  containing  as  many  as  six,  the  idea  being  to 
keep  great  masses  of  men  under  comparatively  simple  controls. 
We  will,  however,  give  them  their  corps  names.  Below's 
XVllth  Army,  on  the  right  of  north  in  the  Arras  dis- 
trict, counted,  leading  from  right  to  left— the  ist  Bavarian 
Reserve,  under  Fasbender ;  the  9th  Reserve,  under  Dieffen- 
bach  ;  thp  i8th  ;  the  6th  Reserve,  under  Borne  ;  and  the 
14th  Reserve,  under  Lindequist. 

These  corps  contained  between  them  21  divisions,  of 
which  12  were  in  Ijne  and  9  were  in  immediate  support.  But 
Below  also  had  under  him  two  reserve  divisions,  the  i6th 
Bavarian  and  the  24th,  which  he  kept  to  the  rear  of  his  left, 
near  his  junction  with  Marwitz. 

Marwitz  in  the  centre,  commanding  the  Ilnd  Army,  also 
had  five  group  corps  :  Gruiiert's,  which  formed  the  junction 
with  the  northern  army  ;  and  then  in  order  from  north  to 
south  were  the  29th  Reserve,  under  Staabs  ;  the  23rd  Reserve 


May  23,  1918 


Land    &   Water 


under  Kathen  ;    the  ijth,  under  Hofacker  ;    and  the  14th, 
under  Gontard. 

•  This  central  army  was  curiously  constituted.  Grunert  and 
Staabs  on  the  north  were  diminished.  The\'  had  only  2 
divisions  each,  both  in  line.  The  other  three  corps  were 
correspondingly  swelled.  This  central  army,  like  the  one  to 
its  right,  counted,  as  I  have  said,  23  divisions,  13  in  line, 
5  in  immediate  support,  and  5  used  as  an  army  reserve. 

Hutier's  army  on  the  left,  the  XVIIIth  Reserve,  which,  as 
we  have  said,  achieved  the  principal  result,  was  again  or- 
ganised in  a  special  fashion.  Its  two  wings.  North  and  South, 
Luttwitz's  3rd  Corps,  and  Conta's  4th  Reserve,  had  4  divisions 
each  ;  but  the  centre  was  even  denser.  Though  it  consisted 
of  only  two  corps,  the  17th,  of  Webern,  and  the  gth  (Oetin- 
ger's),  it  counted  certainly  11  divisions,  and  possibly  12. 
It  was  the  densest  formation  of  the  whole  line.  There  was 
only  room  for  11  divisions  in  line,  but  there  were  9  in  im- 
mediate support,  and  from  3  to  4  as  an  army  reserve.  This 
disposition  of  the  i8th  Army  proves  not  only  from  its  den- 
sity, but  from  the  depth  of  its  formation,  that  it  was  intended 
to  give  the  main  blow,  and  tliis  is  what  one  might  expect, 
seeing  that  it  had  to  operate  on  the  right  of  the  British, 
where  rupture  was  intended  between  them  and  the  French. 

I  have  said  that  bej'ond  Hutier's  XVIIIth  Army  the  ex- 
treme right  of  Boehn's  Vllth.  Army  was  engaged.  This 
included  Schoeller's  8th  Corps,  and  the  8th  Reserve,  under 
Wichura,  which  formed  the  extreme  left  of  the  great  action. 
Each  of  these  corps  were  3  divisions  strong. 

The  attack  came,  as  we  all  know,  in  the  morning  of  Thurs- 
day, the  2ist  of  March,  favoured  by  a  thick  mist.  Accord- 
ing to  the  German  accounts  the  moment  fixed  for  the  general 
attack  was  twenty  minutes  to  ten.  There  is  evidence  that 
different  parts  of  the  50-mile  Hne  launched  the  infantry  at 
different  moments.  The  cluef  novel  feature  in  the  attack 
would  seem  to  have  been  the  use  of  the  two-man  machine 
guns  which  came  forward  right  on  the  crest  of  the  advanc- 
ing waves.  Another  somewhat  novel  feature  was  the  ex- 
treme advancement  of  the  field  pieces,  which  pushed  right 
up  with  the  advance  of  the  infantry.  The  German  corre- 
spondents have  been  allowed  to  print  the  fact  that  this  tactic, 
though  successful,   was   very  expensive. 

The  German  account  of  what  they  had  tf)  meet  allows  the 
British  only  18  divisions  in  the  front  line.  When  the  blow 
was  struck,  the  first  day  bore  little  or  no  fruit,  and  was  spent 
at  a  very  heavy  cost  in  men.  The  second  day,  l-'riday, 
March  22nd,  unfortunately  gave  the  enemy,  as  we  know, 
a  breach  west  by  a  trjfle  north  of  St.  Quentin,  at  Holnon. 
There  followed  the  flood  of  German  advance,  in  which 
Hutier's  army  went  furthest,  and  which  occupied  in  just  a 
week  the  whole  great  salient  between  Arras  and  the  Oise, 
passing  in  front  of  Albert  and  Montdidier  and  Noyon. 

It  was  an  advance  in  two  stages,  rapid  as  it  was.  For  it 
was  checked  on  the  line  of  the  Somme  and  the  heights  just 
to  the  east,  in  what  the  Germans  call  the  Battle  of  Bapaume, 
forty-eight  hours  after  the  breach  was  effected.  It  was  only 
forty-eight  hours  later  still,  upon  the  26th,  that  Albert  was 
passed  in  the  north  centre,  and  on  the  next  day,  the  Wednes- 
day, the  27th,  that  the  enemy  entered  Montdidier.  The 
divisions  of  the  French  3rd  Army  had  been  hurried  up  with 
sufficient  rapidity  just  to  check  this  tremendous  impetus 
before    the   Amiens   railway   was  reached. 

Thursday,  the  ,48th — exactly  a  week  after  the  opening  of 
the  offensive — may  be  fixed  as  the  moment  when  public 
opinion  in  Germany  reached  its  highest  note  of  confidence. 
There  seems  to  have  been  some  confusion  due  to  the  elation 
of  the  moment  and  a  general  confidence  (unwarranted  by 
the  facts)  that  the  Amiens  line  had  been  reached,  and  that 
the  French  and  British  armies  were  separated.  It  was  not 
fully  understood  as  yet  that  the  French  3rd  Army  had 
relieved  the  5th  British,  and  that  the  gap  was  closed.  There 
were  elements  in  the  situation  which  public  opinion  in^^ 
Germany  could  not  understand,  though  they  were  grasped, 
of  course,  by  the  German  as  well  as  by  the  Allied  commands. 
The  chief  of  these  was  the  momentary  exhaustion  of  the 
attacking  force.  It  had  marched  in  special  kit,  with  six 
days'  rations  and  spare  boots  over  and  above  the  regulation 
weight.  It  had  advanced  in  extreme  cases  nearly  40  miles, 
fighting  all  the  way.  It  had  come  across  the  devastated 
battlefield  of  the  Somme.  Its  communications,  which  had 
been  so  admirable  just  before  the  battle  was  delivered,  had 
become,  in  the  advance,  quite  insufficient.  There  was  a  halt 
of  nearly  a  week  (filled,  of  course,  with  plenty  of  heavy 
fighting)  along  the  line  of  check,  when,  on  April  4th,  the  last 
great  effort  of  the  main  German  original  plan  was  made, 
and  failed. 

That  effort  may  be  called  the  Battle  of  Moreuil.  It  was  a 
blow  struck  upon  a  grand  scale  to  turn  Amiens  by  the  south — 
that  is,  against  the  left  of  the  newly  arrived  French  divisions. 


On  the  next  day,  the  5th,  and  even  the  day  afterwards, 
April  bth,  it  was  believed  in  Germany,  though  in  a  rather 
confused  fashion,  that  this  great  blow  had  succeeded,  and 
that  the  Allied  line  was  pierced.  But  by  the  Sunday, 
April  7th,  the  position  was  clear  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  original  great  wave  was  held,  and  the  last  effort  to 
advance  had  failed  with  very  heavy  loss.  It  may  possibly 
have  been  with  a  political  object,  in  view  of  disappointment 
at  home  ;  it  was,  at  any  rate  (we  are  now  quite  certain  of 
this)  as  a  subsidiary  and  secondary  operation,  that  on  the 
Tuesday  following,  April  9th,  (>  divisions  were  launched 
against  the  Portuguese,  holding  the  marshy  flats  at  the 
foot  of  the  Aubers  Ridge  in  front  of  Lille,  and  against  the 
two  British  divisions  that  flanked  them  on  the  right  and 
the  left  (the  one  from  Lancashire,  the  55th,  at  Givenchy  ; 
the  other  at  Fleurbaix,  in  front  of  Armentieres). 

The  operation  had  an  unexpected  and  very  rapid  success. 
But  precisely  on  that  account  it  led  to  considerable  conse- 
quences  adverse   to  the  enemy's  cause. 

Battle  of  the  Lys 

By  the  evening  of  the  first  day,  the  whole  of  the  marshy 
country  up  to  the  Lys  had  been  overrun  by  the  enemy, 
who  had  broken  through  the  defensive  zone  upon  a  sector  of 
six  miles.  From  the  front  of  that  zone  to  the  Lys  was  a 
distance  of  three  to  four  miles,  in  which  he  captured  numerous 
prisoners  and  guns.  He  crossed  the  Lys  by  the  unbroken 
bridge  at  Bac  St.  Maur;  twenty-four  hours  later  he  was 
everywhere  a  mile  or  two  beyond  the  river  ;  Armentieres, 
with  three  thousand  troops,  had  been  surrounded  and  had 
surrendered,  and  his  advance  had  already  touched  the  site 
of  Messines  on  the  southern  edge  of  the  ridge. 

On  the  night  of  the  third  day,  Thursday,  April  12th,  he 
had  added  about  as  much  again  to  this  rapidly  advancing 
salient.  He  was  almost  up  to  the  Forest  of  Nieppe  on  his 
left.  He  was  close  to  Bailleul  and  Neuve  Eglise,  at  the 
foot  of  the  Kemmel  range  of  heights. 

It  is  at  this  moment,  the  night  of  Thursday,  April 
r2th,  that  we  begin  to  note  the  effect  upon  the  enemy 
of  this  unexpected  success  and  his  determination  to 
prosecute  it  :  with  all  the  consequences  of  that  deter- 
mination. 

During  the  next  two  days  he  made  very  little  advance, 
for  the  British  reserves >  were  coming  up.  He  wks  still  by 
the  Saturday  night  out  of  Bailleul,  and  though  he  had  taken 
Neuve  Eglise  he  had  not  succeeded  yet  in  forcing  the  Messines 
Ridge.  He  had  put  about  16  divisions  by  that  time  into 
the  battle. 

Now  that  the  Germans  saw  the  British  resistance  stiff- 
ening with  the  arrival  of  the  reserves  ;  now  that  they  knew 
that  the  French  had  also  had  to  send  from  their  reserves 
divisions  right  up  round  to  this  far  northern  field,  they  might 
have  checked  their  adventure  had  the  original  plan  been 
fully  maintained.  But  it  is  ^ear  that  in  the  face  of  the 
apparently  great  opportunity  now  afforded  them  in  the 
north  coupled  with  their  finding  themselves  firmly  held 
in  the  south  in  front  of  Amiens,  they  modified  their  plan  ; 
or  rather  adopted  a  new  plan  and  determined  to  press  for 
all  they  were  worth  in  the  north.  They  called  up  at  least 
9  divisions  from  the  Amiens  salient,  tliverted  further  fresh 
divisions  to  Flanders,  and  for  fifteen  days  maintained  a  most 
furious  and  expensive  effort  to  reap  the  fruits  of  their 
unexpected   earlier   success. 

They  took  the  Messines  Ridge  and  Bailleul,  but  already 
upon  the  9th  day  after  their  first  attack,  on  April  17th, 
it  was  apparent  that  they  were  being  led  too  far.  On  that 
day  the  attempt  to  cut  off  the  Ypres  salient  from  the  north 
was  broken  by  the  Belgians,  and  on  the  ne.xt  day,  Thursday, 
April  18th,  came  a  severe  defeat.  Six  divisions  under  Bernhardi 
tried  to  force  the  line  of  the  Bethune  Canal  and  to  cut  the 
lateral  communication  which  runs  behind  it.  The  attack 
was  completely  broken  with  very  heavy  losses  indeed. 
Indeed  the  action  of  April  r8tli  is  perhaps  the  most  significant 
of  all  these  efforts  in  Flanders,  for  it  should  have  shown 
the  enemy  that  the  defensive  could  now  hold  him  there. 
Nevertheless  he  still  went  on,  having  already  doubled  the 
number  of  divisions  he  had  used  up  to  but  five  days  before. 
To  keep  French  reserves  in  the  soutli  and  to  check  any  further 
movement  northward,  he  made,  on  April  24th,  a  violent  attack 
upon  the  plateau  which  covers  Amiens  at  Villers-Brettoneux. 
He  was  beaten  there  ;  but  his  main  object  for  the  moment 
was  the  north,  and  on  the  next  day,  April  25th,  he  began 
a  fight  which  lasted  thirty-six  hoiurs  and  ultimately  gained 
him   Mt.    Kemmel. 

With  the  least  possible  delay — not  three  full  days — he 
concentrated  13  divisions  upon  the  front  of  which  Mt.  Kemmel 
is  the  centre,  and  witli  the  early  morning  of  Monday,  April 


Land    &    Water 


May  23,   19 1 8 


29th,  opened  the  last  great  phase  of  his  Flanders  Battle, 
which  was  at  once  to  turn  the  line  of  hills  and  to  cut  off  the 
troops  in  the  Yprcs  salient.  It  was  the  most  desperately 
fought  of  all  these  actions,  and  it  resulted  in  the  most  ex- 
pensive and  the  most  complete  defeat  the  enemy  had  yet 


received.  By  the  night  of  that  Monday,  April  29th,  an  effort 
upon  double  the  scale  of  Bernhardi's  ten  days  before  had 
been  even  more  thoroughly  crushed,  and  the  second  phase 
of  the  Great  German  offensive  was  at  an  end,  Wc  await  the 
third. 


The   Emperor  Charles'    Letter 


THE  abortive  negotiations  which  took  place  last  year 
between  France  and  Austria  are  now  of  only  historical 
interest.  Even  if  they  were  not  dead  and  done  for 
in  themselves,  the  Battle  of  Caporetto,  the  now 
decided  disintegration  of  what  was  once  the  Russian  Empire, 
and  the  scale  of  the  great  Western  offensive  which  opened  on 
March  2rst,  would  have  destroyed  all  their  practical  effect 
upon  the  war. 

Nevertheless,  though  these  negotiations  are  now  no  more 
than  objects  of  study  for  the  curious,  they  have  this  dangerous 
feature  about  them  :  that  they  may  be  used  by  malevolent 
or  foolish  jieople  as  a  subject  of  recrimination.  They  may 
be  thus  used  by  the  enemy  to  impair  the  solidity  of  the 
Alliance,  and,  what  is  perhaps  most  dangerous  of  all,  they 
may  lead  well-meaning  and  terribly  ignorant  enthusiasts  to 
believe  that  some  sort  of  negotiation  can  even  now  take  the 
place  of  military  action. 

It  is  important,  therefore,  to  grasp  the  real  nature  of  the 
event,  and  this  is,  happily,  a  simple  matter.  If  we  exclude 
the  elements  of  personal  intrigue  which  are  the  curse  of  all 
Parliaments,  in  France  as  much  as  in  England  ;  if  we  elimin- 
ate the  private  motives  of  those  who  use  any  national  peril 
as  a  mere  instrument  for  the  support  or  ruin  of  some  petty 
Parliamentarian  ;  if  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  plain  facts- 
there  is  nothing  either  very  mysterious  or  very  valuable  in  the 
affair. 

There  are  three  things  quite  clear.  The  first  is  that  the 
attempted  Austrian  negotiation  with  France  last  year  was 
not  some  marvellously  cunning  piece  of  duplicity  engineered 
by  Prussia.  It  came  from  an  easily  recognisable  motive  of 
a  singularly  obvious  sort.  The  second  is  allied  to  the  first  : 
it  is  the  fact  that  these  proposals  were  entirely  and  naively 
to  the  advantage  of  the  Emperor  Charles,  and  not  at  all  to 
that  of  the  Emperor  William.  The  third  and  most  impor- 
tant is  that  the  one  nation  to  which  they  would  have  been 
disastrous  if  (to  suppose  the  impossible)  they  had  been 
accepted  is  our  own. 

The  young  Emperor  of  Austria  -had  nothing  to  gain  by 
continuing  the  war.  He  saw  before  him  the  increasing 
power  of  an  ally  who  was  rather  worse  than  a  rival,  and 
possibly,  at  the  end  of  the  whole  business,  the  House  of 
Hapsburg  no  more  than  a  German  feudatory  of  Berlin.  His 
people  were  suffering  terrible  privation. 

The  Russian  Empire,  the  menace  of  which  was  the  only 
thing  Austria  considered  on  entering  the  field,  had  dis- 
appeared, and  a  strong  personal  feeling  in  favour  of  the 
.  West  natural  to  any  family  of  good  breeding  and  civilised 
traditions,  further  inclined'  the  Emperor  Charles  and  his 
wife  to  the  action  they  took. 

It  was  a  personal  action  confided  to  a  near  and  youthful 
relative,  who  was  quite  above  any  suspicion  of  duplicity 
and  whose  sympathy  was  heartily  with  the  Allies  :  Prince 
Sixtus  was  actually  fighting  in  one  of  the  Allied  armies. 

Some  may  be  puzzled  by  the  Emperor  of  Austria  thus 
acting  secretly,  separately  from  his  ally,  and  without  the 
knowledge  of  his  ally.  They  will  say;  "How  on  earth 
could  he  carry  out  anything  he  promised  without  Germany 
being  a  party  to  that  promise?" 

The  reply  to  such  an  objection  wotild  seem  to  be  that  the 
Emperor  hoped  (if  anything  should  come  of  his  action)  to 
approach  his  ally  and  to  see  what  accommodation  could  be 
made.  It  is  possible  that  Beriin  during  some  bad.  squeeze 
in  1916-  or  191 7  had  already  given  a  hint  at  Vienna  that 
Prussia  would  sacrifice  the  advantage  of  past  crimes  in  order 
to  avoid  punishment  for  the  crimes  of  the  present  war. 
Things  were  not  going  too  well  for  Prussia  even  as  late  as 
June  1917.  The  position  of  Russia  was  not  yet  absolutely 
certain,  and  no  unexpected  successes  upon  the  West  had 
come  to  raise  her  spirits.  She  had  always  been  ready  since 
the  Marne  to  make  very  large  concessions  to  France  in  the 
hope  of  separating  that  country  from  ourselves. 

But  whether  such  hints  had  been  dt-opped  just  before  the 
young  Emperor  tried  to  open  negotiations  or  whether  the 
action  was  entirely  spontaneous  and  only  envisaged  con- 
sulting Germany  after  France  had  been  sounded,  we  cannot 
tell.  What  is  clear  is  that  this  approach  to  the  French 
Government   by  the  head  of  the  .'Vustro-Hungarian   State 


was  as  direct  and  sincere  as  it  was  personal.  The  Emperor 
expressed  very  mildly  his  views  about  the  German  annexa- 
tion of  Alsace-Lorraine,  and  he  was  there  saying  undoubtedly 
what  he  felt.  It  is  what  everybody  upon  the  Continent 
feels  with  the  exception  of  the  Germans.  The  seizure  of 
.\lsace-Lorraine  after  the  war  of  1870  was  a  perfectly  novel 
baseness  of  a  peculiarly  cynical  and  disgusting  sort,  which 
profoundly  shocked  the  conscience  of  Europe,  and  which 
has  never  been  forgiven  its  authors, 

The  next  thing  to  note  about  these  Austrian  negotiations 
is  that  such  proposals  as  they  contained  (and  they  were 
vague  enough,  Heaven  knows!)  left  Austria- Hungary  upon 
the  balance  a  great  deal  stronger  than  it  was  before  the  war. 

This  capital  point  has  been  curiously  missed,  especially 
in  our  Press. 

Take  the  extreme  case,  and  suppose  Austria-Hungary  to 
have  secured  peace  upon  the  lines  suggested  in  the  famous 
letter,  and  then  compare  her  situation  with  what  it  was  in 
1913.  The  position  before  and  after  would  have  been  some- 
thing l.ke  this  : 

In  1913  Austria-Hungary  representing  the  Catholic,  as 
against  the  Orthodox,  Slavs,  was  in  perpetual  jeopardy  from 
the  enormous  military  power  of  the  Russian  Empire,  the 
leader  and  protector  of  the  Orthodox  Slavs.  An  agitation 
was  perpetually  going  on  just  over  the  borders  of  the  Austrian 
and  Hungarian  kingdoms;  its  centre  was  in  Serbia.  It 
worked  upon  the  national  sympathies  of  the  Serbian  race  on 
both  sides  of  the  frontier.  Catholic  as  well  as  Orthodox. 
It  was  a  perpetual  source  of  the  gravest  anxiety  and  even 
weakness  to  the  ruling  house  at  Vienna.  The  Orthodox 
elements  in  Galicia  and  certain  racial  elements  (such  as  the 
Serbian  population  from  over  the  Hungarian  border,  the 
much  larger  Rumanian  population  in  Transylvania)  were  all 
of  them  elements  of  weakness  which  imperilled  or  darkened 
the  future  of  the  Dual  Monarchy.  The  way  to  the  East 
was  blocked ;  the  relations  between  the  Balkan  States  were 
uncertain  and  required  the  exercise  of  the  most  careful 
Austrian  diplomacy. 

Faced  by  such  an  Eastern  situation,  Austria-Hungary  was 
dependent  upon  the  support  of  Prussia  ;  though  the  whole 
tradition  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg  and  the  whole  culture, 
even  German,  of  the  varied  people  whom  it  ruled,  was  anti- 
Prussian  to  the  core. 

Compare  such  a  precarious  state  of  affairs — which  had 
endured  for  a  generation,  marked  by  cf)ntinual  threats  of 
war  and  by  ceaseless  vigilance — with  the  situation  that 
would  have  existed  had  peace  been  established  upon  the 
lines  that  Austria  suggested  to  France  last  year  ! 

The  Hapsburgs  would  have  found  themselves  completely 
secure,  and  apparently  secure  for  ever,  upon  the  Eastern 
side.  There  was  no  longer  any  mihtary  relationship,  nor 
even  union  among  the  Orthodox  Slavs.  Russia  had  gone. 
Austria-Hungary  here  could  draw  what  frontier  it  chose  and 
rule  completely  at  ease.  The  Balkan  tangle  was  at  an  end. 
Bulgaria  alone  remained,  and  with  Bulgaria  there  was  no 
quarrel.  The  mortal  irritant  of  Serbia  was  gone.  The  com- 
plete control  of  the  Dalmatian  Coast  gave  Austria  the  Adriatic, 
.^nd  all  this  aggrandisement  was  purchased  at  the  price  of 
a  few  square  miles  in  the  Alps  (which  never  did  Austria  any 
good,  and  which  had  always  been  a  source  of  weakness), 
and,  for  the  rest,  at  the  expense  of  Prussia.  Such  a  peace, 
by  the  retrocession  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  left  the  Prussian 
rival  relatively  weaker,  and  restored  something  of  the  old 
balance  between  South  and  North  Germany  aiid  something 
of  the  old  position  of  the  Hapsburgs. 

AU  this,  of  course,  is  purely  academic.  Peace  could  never 
have  been  concluded  upon  lines  so  ideally  consonant  with 
Austrian  interests  and  satisfying  to  no  one  else.  But  still 
the  comparison  at  least  makes  it  clear  that  Austria,  acting 
thus,  acted  in  the  most  natural  fashion  possible.  For  she 
was  simply  following  her  own  interests  entirely  and  neglecting 
everybody  else's. 

But  there  is  a  third  point  to  be  considered  in  all  this  which 
is  not  academic  at  all,  but  severely  practical  and  of  vital 
importance  for  the  people  of  this  country.  Not  only  is  it 
important,  but  it  is  or  ought  to  be  self-evident. 

It  is  this  :    That  negotiations  of  such  a  kind,  peace  pro- 


May  23,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


posals  upon  lines  of  the  famous  letter,  directly  involve  the 
fall  of  this  country  ;    not  of  France  or  Italy,  but  of  England. 

Of  all  the  marvels  of  the  great  war  none  is  more  marvellous 
than  the  blindness  of  those  who  fail  to  perceive  so  glaring  a 
danger  when  it  stares  them  in  the  face.  It  is  a  prodigy 
which  can  only  be  explained  by  the  peculiar  history  of 
Victorian  England  with  its  isolation  from  the  world,  its 
extraordinary  illusions,  its  singular  domestic  peace  and 
happiness,  and,  above  all,  its  self-confidence.  But  even  if 
we  regard  the  survival  of  those  illusions  as  the  explanation 
of  certain  modern  follies,  those  follies  remain  enormous. 
There  are  actually  people  writing  and  speaking  to-day  as 
though  the  acceptation  of  such  terms,  not  by  France,  mark 
you,  whom  they  actually  benefit,  but  by  Britain,  would 
have  been  statesmanlike  ! 

Of  two  allies,  one,  Britain,  dependent  upon  sea-borne 
commerce,  the  commercial  rival  of  the  chief  enemy,  the 
power  chiefly  interested  in  Eastern  affairs,  and  possessed  of  an 
empire  for  which  the  East  and  communications  to  it  are  life 
and  death,  was  to  be  left  without  any  results  from  the  war  !' 
Its  commercial  rival  was  to  remain  vmdefeated  ;  the  Eastern 
Mediterranean  and  all  the  ways  to  Asia  were  to  be  at  the 
mercy  of  the  Central  Empires  !  A  iiew  code  of  maritime 
warfare  (or  murder),  which  had  destroyed  the  security  of 
sea-born6  commerce,  and  therefore  of  the  mere  food  by 
which  tlie  English  remained  physically  alive,  was  to  subsist 
unchastised  and  even  unreproved  ! 

Such  would  have  been  the  situation  of  Britain  if  peace 
had  resulted  upon  the  lines  f>f  the  Emperor  of  Austria's 
letter. 


The  other  ally,  France,  would  indeed  have  had  remaining 
before  it  an  undefeated  enemy,  but  ,the  one  prime  national 
demand,  the  restoration  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  would  have 
been  satisfied.  The  great  source  of  iron  supply  in  Europe 
would  have  been  acquired  by  France.  The  war  would  have 
tenninated  with  a  sense  in  France  if  not  of  victory,  at  least 
not  of  defeat  ;  not  one  of  the  conditions  thus  threatening 
Britain  need  have  concerned  the  totally  different  necessities 
of  a  continental  people. 

Happily,  there  was  no  question  of  France  listening  to  such 
proposals,  for  they  were  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the 
betrayal  of  Britain.  But  the  stupefpng  thing  is  that  conceit, 
or  the  habit  of  security,  or  both  combined,  should  have  led 
men  who  would  have  been  ruined  even  in  their  private 
possessions  by  such  a  peace  (let  alone  in  their  national  pride) 
to  regret  or  half-regret  that  it  did  not  come  ! 

There  is  only  one  melancholy  consolation  connected  with 
such  a  thought,  and  this  is  that  ineptitude  of  such  a  sort 
has  not  much  longer  to  live.  The  war  has  done  un- 
bounded evil,  but  it  has  also  done  some  good  if  it  has  killed, 
as  surely  it  is  killing,  the  state  of  mind  which  makes  such 
follies  possible. 

An  undefeated  Prussia  is  ultimately  the  end  of  England, 
and,  in  particular,  is  it  the  end  of  fortune  and  security  for 
that  silly,  comfortable,  belated  handful  from  whom  these 
proposals  come.  A  Prussia  not  only  undefeated,  but  left 
specially  strong  against  England  alone  and  allowed  to  buy 
off  her  allies  by  special  sacrifices  to  them  alone  is  the  speedy 
and  immediate  end  of  England.  What  room  is  there  for 
argument  in  a  thing  so  plain  ? 


British- American 

ilr.  Arthur  Page,  the  ivrt'cr  of  this  article,  is  the  son 
of  the.  United  Stales  Ambassador  in  London  and  one  of 
the  best-knoitn  publicists  in  America.  'He  sucfeedcd  his 
father  in  the  editorial  chair  of  the  "  World's  Work  "  of 
New  York,  which  the  latter  had  left  to  be  Ambassador 
in  this  country. 

Mr.  Page  not  only  explains  clearly  xvhy  the  United 
States,  in  defence  of  its  ideals,  "had  to  stand  beside  the 
armies  of  many  nations  now  fighting  in  the  Old  World 
the  great  battle  of  human  freedom,"  to  use  the  King's 
historic  language  but  he  also  foreshadows  how  after  victory 
is  won,  America  and  the  British  Empire  may  still  work 
together  wholeheartedly  in  the  same  cause. 

GREAT  BRITAIN  and  the  United  States  are  now 
undergoing  the  fourth  great  crisis  in  their  rela- 
tions with  each  other.  Curiously  enough,  these 
serious  crises  do  not  occur  over  the  subjects 
upon  which  the  two  countries  do  not  agree,  but 
arise  from  the  recurrent  forgetfulness  of  the  one  all-important 
subject  upon  which  tha  two  people  most  emphatically  do  agree. 
In  the  great  crises  which  have  confronted  the  two  countries 
in  their  relations  with  each  other  in  the  last  140  years,  the 
main  question  has  not  "been  either's  advantage  t6  the  detri- 
ment of  the  other,  but  how  rapidly  the  two  nations  acted  on 
the  realisation  that  the  continued  existence  of  both  depended 
upon  their  close  co-operation.  When  I  speak  of  existence, 
I  mean  existence  as  free,  self-governing  nations,  for  in  neither 
country  do  we  believe  a  lesser  existence  than  this  worth 
having.  The  most  fatal  thing  which  could  happen  to  either 
country  would  be  to  lose  its  political  liberty.  The  serious 
crises  which  have  confronted  the  two  countries  have  been 
threats  against  this  common  heritage. 

The  first  threat  occurred  in  1802-3.  Napoleon  had 
Marslial  Victor  Perrin  all  prepared  with  an  army  and  a  fleet 
ready  to  sail  for  Louisiana  to  re-establish  despotic  power  in 
Nortli  America.  If  he  had  succeeded  in  this,  the  free  institu- 
tions of  the  L'nited  States  and  Canada  would  have  been 
continuously  menaced  by  an  immediate  proximity  of  a  most 
despotic  and  aggressive  neighbour.  This  American  expedi- 
tion was  one  step  in  Napoleorf's  plan  of  world  empire,  which 
included,  of  course,  the  destruction  of  Great  Britain,  even  as 
Chancellor  Michaelis  has  informed  us  the  present  German 
plan  does. 

This  crisis  was  met  with  great  foresight  and  success. 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  President  of  the  United  States.  He 
was  of  a  pacific  nature,  but  ever  ready  to  fight  for  free  institu- 
tions. The  menace  of  Napoleon's  plan  was  amply  apparent 
to  him.  The  result  was  a  co-operative  arrangement  made 
with  Great  Britain  early  enough  to  prevent  war.  Addington, 
who  was  then   the  British   Prime  Minister,   promised    the 


1 

Relations:    By  Arthur  Page 


American  Minister,  Rufus  King,  that  if  Napoleon  sent  an 
army  to  America  the  British  Fleet  would  take  and  hold 
New  Orleans  for  the  United  States.  Jefferson  sent  James 
Monroe  to  Paris  to  tell  Napoleon  that  the  United  States 
would  buy  Louisiana,  which  he  had  just  forced  Spain  to 
give  to  him.  Napoleon,  knowing  the  alternative  if  he  refused 
to  sell,  accepted  the  offer  because,  as  he  said,  he  did  not 
often  have  a  chance  to  sell  what  he  would  otherwise  have 
had  taken  from  him. 

The  co-operation  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  was  sufficiently  foresighted  to  prevent  Napoleon's 
attack  on  free  institutions  in  America.  If  the  co-operation 
had  continued,  it  would  have  prevented  the  war  of  1812. 
It  was  at  that  time  the  most  vital  interest  of  the  United 
States  that  Napoleon  should  not  drive  every  Liberal  govern- 
ment out  of  Europe,  and  particularly  that  he  should  not 
defeat  the  British  Navy,  for  had  he  done  so  the  United  States 
would  have  been  the  only  free  government  left  in  the  world, 
and  it  could  hardly  have  maintained  itself  against  an  auto- 
cratic Europe,  with  many  times  its  population  and  war- 
making  resources;  and  with  command  of  the  sea.  It  was, 
likewise,  of  the  greatest  importance  to  Great  Britain  not  to 
have  any  more  enemies  than  she  could  help  while  engaged 
in  the  life  and  death  struggle  with  Napoleon.  The  states- 
manship which  allowed  the  war  of  1812  to  occur  against  the 
major  interests  of  both  countries  is  a  good  example  of  the 
kind  of  foreign  policy  to  avoid. 

The  next  crisis  was  in  1823.  This  one,  like  the  crisis  of 
1803,  was  handled  with  foresight  and  without  bloodshed. 
The  Holy  Alliance,  as  every  one  knows,  planned  to  exter- 
minate Liberal  government  in  South  America  as  a  step  towards 
getting  rid  of  it  all  over  the  world.  James  Monroe,  who  in 
1803  had  gone  to  Paris  to  buy  Louisiana  for  Jefferson,  was 
President  of  the  United  States.  George  Canning,  as  British 
Foreign  Minister,  followed  the  precedent  set  by  Addington. 
When  Canning's  proposal  to  join  the  force  of  the  British 
Fleet  to  the  armed  resistance  which  America  was  prepared 
to  offer  to  the  plans  of  the  Holy  Alliance  reached  Monroe, 
he  sent  to  his  old  chief  Jefferson,  then  in  retirement,  for 
advice.  The  advice  he  got,  which  sounds  uncannily  as  if 
it  were  written  now,  w;is  as  follows  : 

Dear  Sir,  Monticello,  October  23rd,  1S23.' 

The  question  presented  by  tlic  letter  you  have  sent  me 
is  the  most  momentous  which  has  ever  been  offered  to  my 
contemplation  since  that  of  independence  that  made  us  a 
nation  ;  this  sets  our  compass,  and  points  the  course  which 
we  are  to  steer  through  the  ocean  of  time  opening  on  our 
view,  and  never  could  we  embark  on  it  under  circumstances 
more  auspicious. 

Our  first  and  fundamental  maxim  should  be:  Never  to 
entangle  o\]r.selves  in   the   broils  of  Europe  ;    our  secoml  : 


8 


Land    &    Water 


May 


dy 


1918 


Never  to  sufler  EurojJe  to 
intermeddle  in  Cis- Atlantic 
affairs.  America.  North 
and  South,  has  a  set  ol 
interests  different  from 
;hose  of  Kurope,  and  pecu- 
liarly her  own  ;  she  should, 
therefore,  liave  a  system 
of  her  owr. .  separate  and 
apart  from  that  of  Eurojie. 
While  tlie  last  is  labouring 
to  become  the  domicile  of 
despotism,  our  endeas^jur 
should  :  urely  be  to  make 
our  hemisphere  that  of 
freedom.  One  nation, 
most  of  all,  could  disturb 
us  in  this  pursuit  :  she 
now  offers  to  lead,  aid,  and 
accompany  us  in  it.  liy 
acceding  to  her  proposi- 
tion, we  detach  her  from 
the  band  of  despots,  bring 
her  mighty  weight  into 
the  scale  of  free  govern- 
ment, and  emancipate  at 
one  stroke  a  whole  conti- 
nent, which  might  other- 
wise linger  long  in  doubt 
and  difficulty. 

Great  Britain  is  the  na- 
tion which  can  do  us  the 
most  harm  of  any  one  of 
all  on  earth  ;  and  with 
her  on  our  side  we  need 
not  fear  the  whole  world. 
With  her,  then,  we  should 
the  most  sedulously  nour- 
ish a  cordial  Iriendship 
and  nothing  would  tend 
more  to  knit  our  affections 
than  to  be  fighting  once 
more  side  by  side  in  the 
same  cause,  not  that  I 
would  purchase  even  her 
amity  at  the  price  of 
taking  part  in  her  wars, 
but  the  war  in  which  the 
present  proposition  might 
engage  us,  should  that  be 
its  consequence,  is  not 
her  war,  but  ours.  Its  object 
establish  the  American  system 


The  King  and  Queen  and  Major-General 
John   Biddle 

Major-General    Biddle    commanded     the    American    troops    who 
paraded  before  His  Majcst}  on  Saturday,  May 


is    to    introduce    and    to 

of  ousting   from  our  land 

all  foreign  nations,  of  never  permitting  the  i'owers  of  Europe 

to  intermeddle  with  the   affairs   of   our   nat  ons  ;     it  is  to 

maintain  our  own  principle,  not  to  depart  from  it,  and  if, 

to  facilitate  this,  we  can  effect  a  decision  in  the  body  of 

the  European  Powers,  and  draw  over  to  our  side  its  most 

powerful  member,  surely  we  should  do  it  ;    but  I  am  clearly 

of  Mr.  Canning's  opinion,  that  it  will  prevent  war,  instead 

of  provoking  it.   .  .   . 

The  President  accepted  Jefferson's  advice,  and  the  Monroe 

Doctrine  was  promulgated,  which  preserved  half  the  world 

for  the  growth  of  democracy  without  bloodshed. 

In  the  ninety-odd  years  since  this  happened  the  two 
countries  have  achieved  the  important  success  of  adjusting 
all  difficulties  between  each  other  without  entering  into 
hostilities  which  would  enable  their  enemies  to  catch  these 
two  most  consistent  and  powerful  exponents* of  political 
liberty  divided,  and  thus  destroy  them.  From  time  to  time, 
also,  the  two  nations  have  given  each  other  a  helping  hand. 
But  the  long  immunity  from  attack  threatening  the  exist- 
ence of  our  common  principles  somewhat  dulled  the  foresight 
which  on  some  of  the  earlier  occasions  enabled  us  to  triumpli 
by  preparedness  without  bloodshed.  When  the  iiand  of  the 
Hun  struck  it  was  not  recognised  in  either  country  with 
absolute  clearness .  that  the  same  old  crisis  faced  us  again 
and  that  our  free  existence  again  depended  on  co-operation. 
Moreover,  neither  country  realised  in  full  measure  that 
the  same  obligation  lay  on  us  in  regard  to  the  other  nations 
that  had  joined  the  ranks  of  freedom.  It  was  not  so  much 
a  clear  foresighted  realisation  of  the  true  meaning  of  the 
struggle  as  it  was  the  direct  menace  of  the  German  advance 
through  Belgium  that  precipitated-  Great  Britain's  rush  to 
arms.  It  was  not  a  far-sighted  conception  of  the  meaning 
of  the  struggle  that  convinced  America.  It  was  the  Lusitania 
and  the  decree  of  ruthless  submarine  warfare.  There  were 
many  in  both  countries  who  knew  what  was  the  real  signi- 
ficance of  the  crisis  the  day  the  Kaiser  ordered  his  mobilisa- 
tion, but  the  majority  were  too  befuddled  by  the  complexities 
of  the  situation  to  lay  a  firm  grasp  on  the  one  essential  and 
all-important  truth  tliat  again  we  were  laced  with  the  old 
choice  :    "Give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death." 

We  are  all  in  it  now,  fighting  with  our  lives  for  our  liberties. 


By  foresight  perhaps  we 
could  have  saved  both.  By 
fighting  we  can  at  least  save 
the  more  precious. 

This  is  the  history  of  our 
co-operation  in  the  defence 
of  liberty.  Twice  we  have 
joined  together  early  and 
avoided  war.  And  once  we 
were  foolish  enough  to  aid 
the  enemy  by  fighting  each 
other  while  he  endeavoured 
to  destroy  the  principle  by 
which  both  nations  live. 
This  time,  not  seeing  the 
peril  early  enough  to  prevent 
it,  we  have  got  to  fight  our 
way  out  togetlier. 

And  then  what  ?  What 
about  the  future  ?  If  we 
go  forward  together  in  the 
unending  task  of  trying  to 
improve  democracy  and  safe- 
guarding it  all  over  the  world, 
we  shall  see  problems  and 
dangers  eye  to  eye  so  that 
we  may,  even  if  ^e  do  not 
achieve  foresight,  achieve 
promptness  and  i^nity  of 
action  against  the  dangers  to 
our  common  ideal. 

There  is  an  earnest  hope 
ver\-  prevalent  in  America, 
and  I  believe  also  in  Great 
Britain,  that  after  the  war 
there  will  be  a  League  of 
Nations  to  enforce  justice. 
If  this  can  be  achieved,  the 
two  countries  can  maintain 
an  active  and  harmonious 
understanding  as  members 
of  this  league.  If  there 
are  not  enough  nations  in 
the  world  whose  ideas  of 
what  constitutes  justice  agree 
to  allow  the  formation  of  such 
a  league  or  its  effective  operation,  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  must,  nevertheless,  maintain  together  tlie 
eternal  watchfulness  which  is  the  price  of  liberty. 

Even  the  autocratic  attacks  of  history  did  not  show  us  the 
full  measure  of  danger  to  pur  institutions  which  the  German 
onslaught  on  civilisation  has  revealed.  The  German  plan 
for  autocratic  world  dominion  was  to  be  gained  through' 
commerce  as  well  as  by  war.  The  Germans  saw  that  by  the 
economic  conquest  of  a  country  they  could  deprive  it  of  its 
political  liberty  as  well  as  by  military  conquest.  Their 
economic  and  military  plans  for  world  dominion  went  hand 
in  hand. 

We  are  fairly  familiar  now  with  the  German  reason  for 
attacking  Belgium  and  France  first  rather  than  Russia.  The 
Western  advance  gave  the  German  armies  control  of  great 
deposits  of  iron  and  coal  in  Belgium,  Northern  France,  and 
in  the  Briey  basin  opposite  Verdun.  It  turned  out  that 
they  were  indispensable  for  the  German?  in  this  war,  but 
their  object  in  taking  them  was  primarily  for  future  wars, 
both  military  and  commercial.  The  conquest  of  these 
regions  would  give  Germany  a  practical  monopoly  of  con- 
tinental coal  and  iron. 

The  control  of  the  dye  business  of  the  world  and  its  relation 
to  explosives  is  well  known-.  There  were  similar  plans  for 
gaining  a  stranglc-hold  upon  the  world  by  a  monopolv  of 
potash. 

During  the  war,  both  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
have  demonstrated  that  a  Government  controlhng  a  large 
percentage  of  any  of  the  world's  necessary  products  can  hold 
other  nations  in  economic  peril,  just  as  Germany  tried  to  use 
her  projected  coal  and  iron  monopoly  on  the  Continent. 
The  United  States,  for  instance,  has  most  of  the  world's 
cotton.  Great  Britain  has  nearly  a  monopolv  of  rubber 
production.  The  two  nations  together  control  most  of  the 
coaling  stations  necessary  to  world  commerce.  It  is  plain 
that  other  nations  besides  Germany  have  the  commercial 
weapons  to  waylay  the  world,  but  they  have  not  used  them 
after  the  German  method.  American  cotton  has  gone  to 
Liverpool  and  Hamburg  on  the  same  terms  that  it  has  gone 
to  Providence  and  Fall  River.  German,  Japanese,  and 
Scandinavian  ships  have  coaled  at  Hong  Kong,  Port  Said, 
and  Gibraltar  on  the  same  terms  as  British  ships.     But  the 


tth. 


May  23,  19 1 8 


Land   &  Water 


ease  with  which  commercial  power  can  be  abused  has  been 
made  so  abundantly  clear,  and  the  inmiediate  profits  of  its 
abuse  are  so  manifest,  that  it  would  not  he  wise  to  trust 
that  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  abuse  such  power  in  the 
future.  There  is  imperative  need  that  the  nations — especially 
those  endowed  with  commercial  strength — should  agree  upon 
some  general  set  of  rules  concerning  what  is  fair  and  what 
unfair  competition. 

The  greatest  commercial  power  and  the  greatest  respon- 
sibilitv  now  rests  on  tlie  American  and  the  British  peoples. 

This  is  indicated  by  tke  large  proportion  of  the  world's 
more  vital  resources  held  by  them.  For  example,  the  year 
before  the  war  (1913)  the  world's  coal  production  was  about 
1,478  miHion  short  tons.  Of  this,  570  million  tons  were 
mined  under  the  American  Flag  and  3S0  milHon  tons  under 
the  British  Flag.  The  two  together  make  950  million  tons,  or 
just  two-thirds"  of  the  world's  supply.  The  pig-iron  produc- 
tion in  1913  was  about  79I  million  metric  tons.  Of  this, 
3i.\  million  was  American  and  11 J  million  British — the  two 
together  somewhat  more  than  half  the  world's  supply.  The 
steel  figiires  were  much  the  same.  Of  the  total  76  million 
tons,  the  United  States  produced  31  million  and  British 
people  9  million — together,  a  little  more  than  half  the  total. 

The  copper  production  before  the  war  was  about  a  million 
metric  tons  a  year.  Of  this,  more  than  half  (557,387  tons) 
was  American  and  about  100,000  tons  British.  The  two 
together  were  two-thirds  of  the  world's  total. 

"Tlie  United  States  produced  two-thir^ls  of  the  world's  oil 
supply  of  that  ypar  alone. 

•  About  60  per  cent,  of  the  world's  cotton  is  raised  in  the 
United  States  and  another  25  per  cent,  in  British  depen- 
dencies. 

National  Responsibilities 

American  responsibilities  arising  out  of  the  possession  of 
natural  wealth  are  much  greater  than  those  of  all  the  British 
people.  On  the  other  hand,  Great  Britain  owns  the  strategic 
points  of  world  commerce,  arid  governs  more  than  300 
million  politically  undeveloped  peoples.  We  are  responsible 
for  about  10  million  chiefly  in  the  Philippines.  In  this 
respect,  France  has  far  greater  responsibilities  than  the 
United  States,  for  the  French  colonies  in  Africa,  China,  and 
elsewhere  contain  about  40  million  people. 

Next  to  the  United  States  and  the  British  peoples,  and  in 
many  things  more  than  the  British — Germany  had  the 
greatest  responsibilities  of  power,  but  her  selfish  use  of  her 
strength  has  not  been  mitigated  by  any  enlightened  ideas 
whatever. 

In  or  out  of  a  league,  the  richly  endowed  nations  must 
meet  these  responsibilities,  must  mitigate  the  dangers  of 
unfair  commercial  competition,  and  must  endeavour,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  prevent  the  exploitation  of  dependent  and 
backward  people,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  encourage  them 
toward  material  well-being  and  political  ability  and  its 
attendant  freedom.  * 

In  other  ti-ords,  to  protect  their  oun  political  liberties,  to 
protect  and  encourage  the  political  liberties  of  less  well- 
developed  people,  and  to  establish  a  system  of  commercial 
intercourse  which  prevents  the  abuse  of  economic  power  either 
by  chance  or  desii^n,  the  close  co-operation  of  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  is  a  world  necessity. 

Unless  it  betrays  the  principles  of  both  nations,'  such 
<-o-opcration  cannot  be  for  selfish  ends,  nor  can  it  be  exclusive. 
It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  all  nations  whose  ideals 
are  sufficiently  similar  to  enable  them  to  aid  irv,  these  tasks 
should  do  so.  But  the  defection  of  any  other  nation 
would  not  be  so  serious  as  the  defection  of  either  the 
United  States  or  Great  Britain  because  these  are  the  two 
strongest  commercial  Powers  which  believe  in  free  jjolitical 
institutions. 

The  fact  that  they  have  the  same  language,  literature, 
tradition^,  and  ideals,  and  are  engaged  in  the  ceaseless  struggle 
to  improve  democracies  along  similar,  if  not  identical,  lines, 
is  not  only  added  reason  for  their  co-operation,  but  assurance 
of  its  success.  And  the  lessons  of  our  previous  history  add 
strength  to  this  assurance. 

By  what  machinery  can  this  co-operation  be  achieved  ? 
The  League  to  Enforce  Peace,  as  generally  discussed  in  the 
United  States,  is,  very  roughly,  a  plan  for  a  treaty  between 
the  nations  which  become  members  binding  them  to  accept 
arbitration — or,  at  least,  a  delay  for  discussion  before  the 
appeal  to  arms— upon  pain  of  universal  economic  and  militarv 
pressure.  But  this'  merely  provides  a  means  of  settling 
disputes  after  they  arise.  There  is  nothing  in  it  to  prevent 
disputes  from  arising,  nor  to  prevent  abuses  of  economic 
power  which  do  not  transgress  international  law.  There  has 
been  little  or  no  discussion  of  a  League  with  a  Legislature 


representing  the  different  countries  as  suggested  b\-  the 
Britisli  Labour  Party.  Whether  such  a  programme  as  the 
Britis-Ji  Labour  Party  proposes  be  feasible  or  not,  it  is  certain 
that  some  machinery  must  be  devised  that  will  be  in  con- 
tinuovis  operation.  It  is  not  possible  to  make  an  international 
treaty,  such  as  the  American  idea  of  the  League  to  Enforce 
Peace,  which  would  govern  close  co-operation  in  the  changing 
aspects  of  commercial  and  diplomatic  affairs,  except  to  settle 
disputes  after  they  arose. 


Machinery  Essential 


A  static  'thing  like  the  League  cannot  have  foresight  or 
flexibihty  of  action.  To  achieve  these  things  there  must  be 
some  continuously  functioning  machinery.  Until  some 
better  machinery  can  be  devised,  it  is  a  fortunate  circumstance 
that  we  now  have  the  machinery  in  operation.  The  diplo^ 
matic  and  consular  services  have  always  furnished  the 
skeleton  framework  of  this  machinery  ;  but  these  services 
were  usually  left  in  the  skeleton  shape,  except  now  and  then 
in  critical  situations,  when  the  two  nations  saw  clearlv  the 
necessities  of  close  co-operation.  Then  the  skeleton  has 
been  filled  out  and  invigorated. 

The  question  now  before  the  nations  is  whether  we  wish 
to  relapse  again  into  passive  lack  of  disagreement  or  push 
the  great  principles  in  which  both  agree  in  active  co-opera- 
tion. The  machinery  is  at  hand.  "The  question  is  one  of 
foresight  and  intention. 

To  make  the  matter  concrete,  the  Monroe  Doctrine  for  a 
very  long  time,  if  not  during  its  entire  existence,  has  depended 
upon  the  fact  that  both  nations  were  behind  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  during  President  Cleveland's  administration  the 
fact  that  tliere  was  not  sufficient  common  counsel  between 
the  two  rountries  made  it  possible  for  a  misunderstanding  to 
arise  over  the  particular  application  of  a  doctrine  in  which 
both  believed.  This  misunderstanding  was-settled  amicably, 
but  it  unquestionably  led  the  Kaiser,  who  did  not  and  does 
not  believe  in  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  to  try  to  make  a  breach 
in  it  in  the  same  place  during  Mr.  Roosevelt's  administration. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  could  between  them  announce  and  effect  a  more 
ideal  policy  for  their  conduct  in  Far  Eastern  affairs  than 
either  could  alone. 

The  commercial  field  is  also  full  of  opportunities  and 
necessities  for  agreement.  After  the  war,  for  example,  both 
America  and  Great  Britain  will  have  a  large  merchant  marine. 
In  both  cases  it  is  likely  to  be  owned  or  closely  controlled  ' 
by  ihe  Government.  If  these  two  great  shipping  organisa- 
tions, with  the  taxing  power  of  their  respective  nations 
behind  them,  should  drift  into  a  cainpaign  of  ruthless  com- 
petition, the  result  would  hardly  fit  with  the  principles  for 
which  we  are  fighting.  Great  Britain  1ms  the  lower  cost  of 
operation  and  advantages  of  strategic  coaling  stations.  The 
United  States  has  more  money  to  back  its  ship  campaign. 
A  struggle  between  the  two  would  drive  other  competition 
from  the  seas  and  bring  loss  and  ill-will  to  both  contestants. 
Yet  without  continuous  and  cordial  discussion,  such  a  con- 
tingency is  entirely  possible.  If  the  people  and  the  Govern- 
ments of  the  two  countries  realise  that  their  community  of 
ideals  and  interest  must  mean  continuous  community  of 
action  in  peace  and  war,  the  Vnachinery  for  developing  this 
action  will  appear. 

Mr.  James  A.  Farrel,  President  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  recently  said  : 

America,  it  may  be  hoped,  will  maintain  the  position  of 
offering  to  the  world  all  its  requirements  which  can  he 
supplied  here,  on  terms  and  conditions  that  are  fair  and 
just.  There  is  no  evidence  of  any  intention  to  take  undue 
advantage  of  our  economic  and  productive  strength,  and 
we  shall  in  the  future  be  as  little  disposed  to  turn  to  personal 
profit  the  necessities  of  a  war-worn  world,  or  the  excep- 
tional influence  of  our  position  as  exporters  and  importers. 

That  is  a  statement  of  American  feeling — the  feeling  not  only 
of  thoscwho  could  not  profit  personally  by  a  less  enlightened 
policy,  but  of  those  who  could.  But  these  good  intentions, 
unless  organised  in  America  and  reciprocated  abroad,  cannot 
be  made  effective. 

There  are  people  who  would  look  upon  a  co-operation 
between  two  great  nations  as  a  menacing  combfnation  of 
power.  It  leould  certainly  produce  great  power.  But  it  is 
power  for  good  as  well  as  power  for  evil.  Whether  it  is  used 
for  good  or  evil  depends  on  the  intention  and  wisdom  of  its 
holders,  not  on  their  strength. 

The  virtues  of  impotence  are  not  of  great  moment  in  the 
world.  The  virtues  of  strength  are,  and  in  combined  strength 
there  is  likely  to  be  more  virtue  than  if  the  power  is  used 
separately,  for  in  combination  the  policies  would  have  to 
have  the  approval  of  at  least  two  national  consciences. 


lO 


Land    &  Water 


May  23,   1918 


German  Plots  Exposed 

"Eitel  Friedrich's"  Photographs  of  Sinking  Ships 

By      French      StrOther,   Managing  Editor,  "The  Woria-s  work,"  New  York 


OUT  of  the  black  picture  of  the  German  depravity 
in  fighting  this  war  have  emerged  four  or  five 
dramatic  episodes  that  have  stirred  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  world,  and  appealed  to  the  romantic 
and  chivalric  instincts  even  of  Germany's 
enemies.  America  was  the  scene  of  two  such  episodes.  The 
first  unexpected 
appearance  of  the 
U53  upon  our 
shores,  rising  un- 
heralded from  thp 
unsuspected 
waters,  thrilled 
the  sporting  in- 
stinct of  our 
people.  But  per- 
haps the  most 
dramatic  incident 
was  the  arrival  of 
.the  Prinz  Eitel 
Friedrich. 

Durirg  the 
night  of  Marcii 
9th -roth,  1915, 
this  gallant 
cruiser  of  the 
Kaiserliche 
Marine,  slipped 
into  the  harbour 
at  Norfolk,  having 
run  the  British 
blockade  of 
cruisers  outside 
the  three-mile  limit,  ending  a  career  of  six  montlis  as  a  com- 
merce raider,  recalling  the  feats  of  the  Alabama  in  the  Civil 
War.  The  Eitel  Friedrich  was  soon  interned  for  the  period 
of  the  war,  and  her  officers  and  crew  put  under  formal  arrest. 
Even  the  British  whose  fleet  had  been  outwitted,  gave  their 
tribute  of  praise  to  the  men  who  had  taken  their  fair  chance, 
and  had  got  away.  Captain  Max  Thierichens  and  his  crew 
became  objects  of 
admiration  to  the 
world.  Felicita- 
tions  were 
showered  on  them, 
most  of  all,  as  was 
natural  enough, 
from  Germans  and 
German  -Ameri- 
cans. 

That  is  the 
bright  side  of  the 
picture ;  and  no 
one,  even  now, 
would  care  to  dim 
its  lustre. 

But  even  at  his 
best  the  German 
of  the  ruling  class 
seems  tainted 
with  the  ineradic- 
able nature  of  the 
beast.  The  world 
has  long  accepted 
the  Latin  affinity 
of  Mars  and  Venus 
— perhaps     too 


Before  and  After  a  Dose  of  Kultur 

I.    Before 


Before  and  After  a  Dose  of  Kultur 

II.   After 


complacently,  though  not  without  reason — so  it  would  not 
have  been  surprised  if  the  gallant  Thierichens  had  not 
measured  up  to  the  standards  of  a  Galahad.  Nevertheless, 
it  had  a  right  to  expect  that  he  should  not  descend  to  the 
level  of  a  Caliban  ;  and  Thierichens  fell  below  even  tliat 
low  standard. 

Among  the  great  quantities  of  letters  of  congratulation 
which  Captain  Thierichens  received  were  many  ivpm  German- 
American  women.  They  were  stirred  by  the  brilliancy  of 
his  exploit  :  it  was  a  ray  of  light  in  the  gloom  that  had  fallen 
on  the  Teuton  peoples  after  the  Battle  of  the  Marne,  when 


the  rosy  vision  of  quick  victory  had  turned  to  the  grey  fog 
of  a  long  defensive  war.  These  letters  breathed  the  passionate 
loyalty  of  the  German  spirit  to  the  Fatherland.  To  these 
women,  Thierichens  was  the  embodiment  of  the  martial 
spirit  of  their  race — the  spirit  of  the  sons  they  saw  them- 
selves in  imagination  sending  forth  to  war.     Some  phrases 

from  their  letters 
strike  the  key  : 

It  is  a  pleasure 
lor  us  to  help  our 
German  brothers, 
but  I  also  under- 
stand that  you, 
my  dear  brother, 
are  waiting  to 
come  out  from 
your  predica- 
ment. How 
grand  it  is  that 
you  are  receiving 
letters  from  the 
Fatherland.  We 
don't  hear  any- 
thing. Can't  write 
anything,  as  the 
letters  are  not 
being  delivered. 
So  far,  good 
news.  It  is 
wonderful.  My 
heart  is  jumping 
with  joy.  I  look 
with  confidence 
in  the  future.  I 
have  to  please  so 
many  ;  have  so  many  times  to  defend  my  Germany,  but 
1  have  an  unlimited  confidence  in  God  and  in  the  truth. 

Again  :    Hold  your  head  high  and  do  not  forget  :    "star- 
light itself  is  in  the  night,  and  God  (foes  not  forsake  his  own." 

Their  attitude  was  one  of  high  patriotism  and  maternal 
solicitude.  They  sent  him  books  and  delicacies,  scraps  of 
news  from  Germany,  and  in  every  way  sought  to  comfort 

and  inspirit  their 
hero. 

Thierichens  was 
indifferent  to  the 
lofty  purpose  of 
these  letters.  His 
mind  was  deprav- 
ed by  the  social 
.custom  of  military 
Germany  by  which 
men  of  the  officer 
class  are  in  youth 
taught  to  consider  1 
themselves  above 
the  moral  law.  He 
was  quite  aware 
of  the  kinship  of 
all  emotions,  and 
he  promptly  un- 
dertook to  change 
the  direction  of 
these  currents  of 
passion  into  a 
channel  more 
pleasing  to  his 
tastes.  It  was  not 
long  imtil  he  had 


narrowed  his  correspondence  chiefly  to  three  women,  and  of 
these  more  particularly  to  two.  Of  these  latter,  one  was  a 
German  servant  girl  of  rather  better  than  average  under- 
standing, and  the  other  a  kindergarten  teacher  in  the  Middle 
West,  one  twenty-five  and  the  other  forty-five  years  of  age. 
Their  correspondence  in  both  cases  started  on  an  exalted 
plane.  It  ended  in  unprintable  depravity.  Only  a  reading 
of  the  complete  series  of  Thierichens'  letters  to  these  women 
could  give  a  full  understanding  of  the  heartlessness,  the 
baseness,  and  the  ingenuity  with  which  this  man,  always 
playing  upi)n  their  patriotic  fervour,  transmuted  their  finer 


May  23,   I  9  I  8 


Land    &    Water 


1 1 


M 


(i)   The    "Mary   Ada  Short"  Heqling  Over 

The  "  Eitel   Friedrich's  "  careful   German    record   entered    below    this   photograph    was  : 

*' Englisher   Dampf.     'Mary   Ada  Short'  aus   Sunderland  versenkt  am  28  Januar  iQt5,  P.M.  2.}^ 

mit  5,200  tn.   Mais,  kam  KrUh  7.25  in  Sicht  !  " 

(2)    Last   Plunge   of  the   "Willerby" 

Sunk  on  February  20,  1915,  about  four  hundred  miles  from  Pernambuco,  Brazil. 


12 


Land    &    Water 


]V1ay  23,   1918 


i 


(i)    Sinking  of  the   "Jakobsen" 

This  French  sailing  vessel  was  sunk  by  the.  "  Eitel   Friedrich  "  on  January  28,  1915,  the   same  day  on  which 

the  American  ship  "William  P.  Frye  "  was  sunk. 

(2)    "When    the   water  gets   to   the   boilers" 

Explosion  of  the  boilers  of  one  of  the  neutral  merchant  steamers  sunk  by  the  "  Eitel  Friedrich." 


May  23,  19  1 8 


Land    &    Water 


feelings  into  the  most  degrading  travesty  of  romantic  love. 
By  the  time  this  correspondence  came  under  Go\'ernment 
censorship  it  had  become  a  blend  of  exalted  patriotism  and 
of  passion  perverted  to  the  obscenities  pictured  on  the  walls 
of  ruined  Pompeii. 

To  make  complete  the  picture  of  this  hero  of  the  Prussian 
officer  class,  it  may  be  well  to  quote  the  round  robin  of  the 
crew  of  the  Prinz  Eitel  Friedrich.  To  them  even  the  air  of 
an  American  internment  camp  was  the  breath  of  freedom 
compared  to  their  ser\'ice  on  a'ship  of  his  Imperial  Majesty's 
Marine.  Here  is  their  opinion  of  life  in  it  and  of  their  gallant 
captain  : 

Fort  Oglethorpe,  Ga.,  July  Sth. 
United  States  District  Attorney, 

Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania. 
Dbak  Sir, — •^^'e  of  the 
crew  of  the  Prince  Eilel 
Friedrich,  beg  to  inform 
you    about    the    condi- 
tion as  there  had  been 
existing  on   board  said 
vessel,  and  of  the  c^iar- 
acter    of    Captain    Max 
Thierichens.     He  is  one 
of  the  most  cruel  and 
dishonest  men  who  ever 
had  been  in   cliarge  of 
a  vessel.     He  is  a  dis- 
grace   to    any    military 
organisation,     and     we 
feel    ashamed    that    he 
brought  disgrace  to  our 
vessel.       He   is   one   of 
the     worst     egoists    in 
existence,   without  any 
feeling    for    his    fellow- 
men.      He  is  guilty  of 
using  the  United  States 
mails      for     fraudulent 
purposes,  advertising  in 
the     papers     that     he 
would     receive     liehes- 
gaben    (love    packages) 
tor  the  soldiers  in  order 
to  benefit  himself,  and 
later   selling    the   samt- 
in  the  canteen  after  an 
inspection   and   rifling  ; 
he   kept   everything   of 
value.    He  has  received 
1,000  of  packages  and 
money  from  very  near 
every    German    society 
and    countless    private 
people,     but     his     son 
never  saw  a  penny  ol 
the  same.     The  mone\ 
he  has  spent   for  him 
self    and    some    of    his 
officers  on  his  orgies. 

As  we  had  been  out 
on  the  high  seas,  he 
only  had  an  eye  for  his 
personal  welfare.  If  we 
met  a  vessel,  after 
stopping  the  same,  the 


first  thing  he  always  did  was  to 
secure  as  much  wine  and  other  good  things  for  himself  and 
officers,   so   that  they   always   liad   plenty.     He  would   not 
allow   his    sailors   to   bring   enough    potatoes   and   common 
food   on   board   to  satisfy   their   hunger.     There   had   been 
cases  where  men  had  been  severely  punished  just  for  taking 
a  piece  of  meat  from  the  table  of  one  of  the  sunken  \essels. 
The  men  did  not  even  have  drmking  water,  but  he  and  his 
officers   used   the  same   for   bathing.     He   had   been   afraid 
that  the  U.S.  Government  would  find  out  about  his  various 
misdeeds,  so  in  order  to  make  the  Government  think  that 
he  was  all   he  should   have  represented'  he  pulled  off  the 
biggest  blulf  ever  thought  of.     He  told  ten  men  that  they 
could  run  off,  supplied  the  same  with  money,  and  after  a 
few  moments  sent  some  other  boys  over  the  side  to  make 
as  much  noi.se  as  possible  to  call  the  attention  ol  the  guards. 
He  had  his  men  maltreated  wherever  there  was  a  chance 
to  do  so.     He  even  did  this  after  we  had  been  brought  to 
Fort  Oglethorpe.     We  have  to  thank  the  U.S.  officers  for 
putting  a  stop  to  it.     The  captain  had  been  mad  that  he  ■ 
lost  the  power  over  the  men.     He  swore  he  would  bring 
the  men   to   a  military   prison    for  years   to  come,    simply 
because   they   refused   to  be  treated -like  dogs  after  being 
informed  by  the  U.S.  officers  that  they  don't  have  to  stand 
for  anvthing  like  that.     H  it  was  not  for  the  iron  discipline 
maintained    by    the    Germans,    there    would    have    been    a 
mutiny  on  board  the  ship.     Even  a  common  man  hates  to 
see  good  supplies  going  to  waste  just  because  the  captain 
<  ould  not  get  quick  enough  to  his  wine,  and  the  men  feed 
on  hard  tack  that  was  full  of  worms.     Some  of  the  men 
are  willing  to  appear  in  court  against  the  captain  to  bear 


out  because  they  are  not  protected  by  the  U.S.  Govern- 
ment, and  may  have  to  lace  a  court  martial  'aw  if  they  are 
returned  to  Germany.  We  do  hope  that  there  will  be  an 
investigation  of  the  evil  doings  of  said  captain.  If  found 
guilty,  we  do  hope  that  he  may  find  out  what  it  does  mean 
to  do  wrong  lo  hi?  fellow-men. 

The  photographs  taken-  by  officers  of  the  Eitel  Friedrich 
during  her  career  as  a  commerce  raider  are  printed  here. 
With  true  German  thoroughness  they  made  a  complete 
record  of  the  ships  they  sank,  even  to  photographs  of  these 
vessels  when  first  sighted,  and  "progress  pictures"  of  their 
destruction  and  submersion,  mounting  the  photographs  on 
sheets  of  paper  embossed  with  the  Imperial  sign.  The  Eitel 
Friedrich  was  a  cruiser,  not  a  submarine,  and  it  so  far  observed 
the  rules  of  war  as  to  remove  the  crews  before  the  ships  were 

sunk.     One  of  these  mer- 
chantmen was  an  Ameri- 
can, the  William  P.  Frye. 
The  German  photographs 
show  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
flviiig  from  the  stern  when 
sighted    and    then    a    last 
view   of   the   topmasts   as 
she     went     beneath     the 
waves.    Ca  the  William  P. 
Frye,  as  on  many  of  the 
others,  women  were  among 
the   prisoners   of   war   re- 
moved to  the  Eitel  Fried-   ' 
rich.    -Aboard  the  German 
raider  they  were  locked  in 
their  cabins  under  guard, 
and  treated  with  scrupu- ' 
lous   politeness.      Perhaps 
it    was   as   well    for   their 
peace  of  mind  that  Thier- 
ichens'  subsequent  record 
in   an   American   court   of 
law   was   not   emblazoned 
on  their  walls.     It  is  cer- 
tainly well  that  there  was 
the  difference  between  the 
German    crew    and    their 
captain     trained     in     the 
Prussian  military  code  of 
morals. 

This  Captain  Thierichens 
was  in  correspondence  in 
America  with  nearly  a 
dozen  misguided  .American 
women.  At  the  same  time, 
he  was  receiving  most 
tender  and  touching 
letters  from  his  wife  and 
children  at  Kiel,  to  whom 
he  was  a  hero.  His  httle 
daughter  writes  :  "  My 
darling, — On  the  day  of 
my  sixth  birthday  I  will 
thank  you  all  alone  for  the 
Lovely  kisses  for  same.  I  hope  by  my  next 
I   am  praying  every 


The  Sinking  of  the  "William  P.  Frye"  after  the  crew 

of  the  "  Eitel  Friedrich "   had  exploded  a  charge    of 

dynamite  placed  within  the  hold 


pretty  things. 

birthday  you  will  be  with  us  again. 

evening  and  moming  to  the  dear  God  that  he  will  protect 
my  dear  father."  His  wife  writes,  in  March,  1917  :  "We 
are  all  right.  Nobody  would  conquer  us.  God  the  Lord 
won't  leave  us  alone.  We  are  all  brave.  We  shall  wait  to 
see  how  everything '  turns  out.  England  will  be  punished 
shortly.  Now,' my  darhng,  enough  for  to-day.  Please  remain 
healthy  and  retain  your  good  humour." 
{To  be  continued) 


r 


Notice 

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14 


Land    &    Water 


May  23,  19 1 8 


The  Turkish  Conspiracy— II 

The   Narrative    of  Mr.    Henry    Morgenthau,    American   Ambassador    in    Turkey, 

1913-1916 

Mr  Henr\  Moreenlhau  resiwtes  his  narrative  of  the  Turkish  Conspiracy,  which  tms  begun  in  La^d&  Water,  May  gth 
He  stated  that  Germany  precipitated  the  war  to  •' obtain  a  huge  Oriental  Empire  that  would  form  the  basis  for  unlinnted 
world  dominionr  and  explained  the  steps  taken  previous  to  1914  by  the  Kaiser  to  transform  Itirkey  into  a  vassal  State. 
Mr  Morgenthau  also  described  the  movement  that  led  to  the  ascendancy  of  the  Young  Turks,  up  to  the  Iwur  of  the  assas- 
sination ofNazim  Pasha,  at  the  Sublime  Porte,  by  a  mob  collected  by  Talaat  and  Enver ,  two  of  their  leaders,  Djemal 
the  third  leader  when  war  was  declared  was  sent  to  command  armies  in  Asia,  and  henceforth  played  a  subsidiary  part. 
Mr  Morgenthau  also  gave  a  vivid  character  study  of  the  German  Ambassador  at  Constantinople,  Baron  von  Wangenheim. 
ami  in  this  chapter  he  continues  his  portraiture  by  a  complete  sketch  of  Talaat  Bey  and  a  partial  one  of  Envcr  Bey. 

all  his  pleadings  did  not  affect  this  determined  man.  Here, 
Talaat  reasoned,  was  a  cliance  to  decide,  once  for  all,  who 
was  master,  the  Sultan  or  themselves  !  A  few  days  after- 
wards the  melancholy  figure  of  the  imperial  son-in-law, 
dangling  at  the  end  of  a  rope  in  full  view  ^)i  the  Turkish 
populace,  visibly  reminded-  the  empire  that  Talaat  and  the 
Committee  wert?  the  masters  of  Turkey.  After  this  tragical 
test  of  strength,  the  Sultan  'never  attempted  again  to  inter- 
fere in  affairs  of  State.  He  knew  what  had  happened  to 
Abdul   Hamid,   and   he   feared   a  more   terrible   fate. 


AS  assassination  had  been  the  means  by  which 
these  ciiieftains  had  obtained  the  supreme  power, 
so  assassination  continued  to  be  the  instrument 
upon  which  they  depended  for  maintaining  their 
control.  Djemal,  in  addition  to  his  other  duties, 
had  c(mtrol  of  the  police  ;  he  developed  all  the  talents  of  a 
Fouch^,  and  did  his  work  so  successfully  that  any  man 
who  wished  to  conspire  against  the  Young  Turks  usually 
retired  for  that  purpose  to  Paris  or  Athens".  The  few 
months  that  preceded  my  arrival  had  been  a  reign  of 
terror.  The  Young  Turks  had  destroyed  Abdul  Hamid's 
regime  only  to  adopt  that  Sultan's  favourite  methods  of 
quieting  opposition.  Instead  of  having  one  Abdul  Hamid, 
Turkey  now  discovered  that  she  had  several.  Men  were 
arrested  and  deported  by  the  score,  and  hangings  of  political 
offenders— opponents,  that  is.  of^  the  ruling  gang— were 
common  occurrences." 

The  difficult  position  of  the  Sultan  particularlj-  facilitated 
the  position  of  this  committee.  We  must  remember  that 
Mohammed  V.  was  not  only  Sultan  but  Caliph— not  only  the 
temporary  ruler,  but  also  head  of  the  Mohammedan  Church. 
In  this  capacity  he  was  an  object  of  veneration  to  milhons  of 
devout  Mussulmans  ;  a  fact  which  would  have  given  a  strong 
man  in  his  position  great  influence  in  freeing  Turkey  from 
this  crowd.  I  presume  that  even  those  who  liad  the  most 
kindly  feelings  toward  the  Sultan  would  not  have  described 
him  as  an  energetic,  masterful  man.  Had  his  days  been 
cast  in  more  favourable  times  perhaps  the  present  ruler  of 
Turkey  might  have  developed  into  the  actual  head  of  the 
State.  It  is  a  miracle,  however,  that  the  circumstances 
which  fate  had  forced  upon  Mohammed  had  not  long  since 
completely  destroyed  him.  His  brother  was  Abdul  Hamid— 
Gladstone's  "Great  Assassin,"  a  man  who  ruled  by  espionage 
and  bloodshed,  and  who  had  no  more  consideration  for  his 
own  relations  than   for  his  massacred  Armenians. 

One  of  Abdul's  first  acts,  on  ascending  the  throne,  was  to 
shut  up  the  Heir  Apparent  in  a  palace,  surrounding  him 
with  spies,  limiting  him  to  his  harem  and  a  few  palace  func- 
tionaries, and  constantly  holding  over  his  head  the  fear  of 
assassination.  Naturally,  Mohammed's  education  had  been 
Umited  ;  he  spoke  only  Turkish,  and  his  only  means  of 
learning  about  the  outside  world  was  an  occasional  Turkish 
newspaper.  So  long  as  he  remained  quiescent,  the  Heir 
Apparent  was  comfortable  and  fairly  secure  ;  but  he  knew 
that  the  first  sign  of  revolt  or  even  a  too  curious  interest  in 
what  was  going  on,  would  be  the  signal  for  his  death.  Hard 
as  this  preparation  was,  it  had  not  destroyed  what  was  at 
bottom  a  benevolent,  gentle  nature.  The  Sultan  had  no 
characteristics  that  suggested  "the  Terrible  Turk."  He  was 
simply  a  quiet,  ca^y-going,  gentlemanly  old  man.  Every- 
body hked  him,  and  I  do  not  think  that  he  nourished  ill- 
feeling  against  a  human  soul.  He  could  not  rule  his  empire, 
for  he  had  had  no  preparation  for  such  a  difficult  task  ;  he 
could  not  oppose  the  schemes  of  the  men  who  were  then 
struggling  for  the  control  of  Turkey. 

In  exchanging  Abdul  Hamid,  as  his  master,  for  Talaat, 
Enver  and  Djemal,  the  Sultan  had  not  improved  his  personal 
position.  The  Committee  of  Union  and  Progre.ss  ruled  him 
precisely  as  they  ruled  all  the  rest  of  Turkey— by  intimida- 
tion. The  Sultan  had  attempted  on  one  occasion  to  assert 
his  independence,  and  the  conclusion  of  this  episode  left  no 
doubt  as  to  who  was  master.  A  group  of  thirteen  "con- 
spirators" and  other  criminals,  some  real  ones,  others  merely 
political  offenders,  had  been  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  and 
among  them  was  the  imperial  son-in-law.  Before  the  execu- 
tion could  take  place  the  Sultan  had  to  sign  the  death-war- 
rants. He  did  not  object  to  visaing  the  hangings  of  the 
other  twelve,  but  he  begged  that  he  be  permitted  to  pardon 
his   son-in-law. 

The  nominal  ruler"' of  more  than  twenty  million  people 
figuratively  went  down_upon  his  knees  before  Talaat  Bey,  but 


Talaat  the  Postman 

Talaat,  the  leading  man  in  this  band  of  usurpers,  really 
had  remarkable  personal  qualities.  He  had  started  life  as 
a  letter-carrier ;  from  this  occupation  he  had  risen  to  be  a 
telegraph  operator  at  Adrianople.  And  of  these  humble 
beginnings  he  was  extremely  proud.  I  visited  him  once  or 
twice  at  his  house  ;  although  Talaat  was  then  the  most 
powerful  man  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  his  home  was  still  the 
modest  home  of  a  man  of  the  people.  It  was  cheaply  fur- 
nished ;  the  whole, establishment  reminded  me  of  a  thirty- 
doUar-a-month  apartment  in  New  York.  His  most  cherished 
possession  was  the  telegraph  instrument  with  which  he  had 
once  earned  his  living  ;  I  have  seen  him  take  the  key  and 
call  up  one  of  his  personal  friends  or  associates. 

Talaat  one  night  told  me  he  had  that  day  received  his 
salary  as  Minister  of  the  Interior  ;  after  paying  his  debts 
he  had  just  twenty  pounds  left  in  the  world.  He  liked 
to  spend  his  spare  time  with  the  rough-shod  crew  that  made 
up  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  ;  in  the  interims, 
when  he  was  out  of  the  Cabinet  he  used  to  occupy  the  desk 
daily  at  party  headquarters,  personally  managing  the  party- 
machine.  His  powerful  frame,  his  huge  sweeping  back,  and 
his  rocky  biceps  emphasised  that  natural  mental  strength 
and  forcefulness  which  made  possible  his  career.  In  dis- 
cussing matters,  Talaat  liked  to  sit  at  his  desk,  with  his 
shoulders  drawn  up,  his  head  thrown  back,  and  his  wrists 
— twice  the  size  of  an  ordinary  man's — planted  fiercely  on 
the  table.  It  always  seemed  to  me  that  it  would  take  a 
crowbar  to  pry  these  wrists  from  the  board,  once  Talaat 
had  laid  them  down.  Whenever  I  think  of  Talaat  now  I  do 
not  primarily  recall  his  rollicking  laugh,  his  uproarious 
enjoyment  of  a  good  story,  the  mighty  stride  with  which  he 
crossed  the  room,  his  fierceness,  his  determination,  his 
remorselessness — the  whole  life  and  nature  of  the  man  takes 
form  in  those  gigantic  wrists. 

Talaat,  like  most  strong  men,  had  his  forbidding,  even  his 
ferocious,  moods.  One  day  I  found  him  sitting  at  the  usual 
place,  his  massive  shoulders  drawn  up,  his  eyes  glowering, 
his  wrists  planted  on  the  desk.  I  always  anticipated  trouble 
whenever  I  found  him  in  this  attitude.  As  I  made  request 
after  request,  Talaat,  between  his  puffs  at  his  cigarette, 
would  answer  "No!"  "No!"  "No!" 

I  shpped  around  to  his  side  of  the  desk. 

"I  think  those  wrists  are  making  all  the  trouble,  your 
Excellency,"  I  said.  "Won't  you  please  take  them  off  the 
table  ? " 

Talaat's  ogre-Uke  face  began  to  crinkle;  he  threw  up  his 
arms,  leaned  back,  and  gave  a  roar  of  terrific  laughter.  He  en- 
joyed my  joke  so  much  that  he  granted  every  request  I  made. 

At  another  time  I  came  into  his  room  when  a  couple  of 
Arab  Princes  were  present.  Talaat  was  solemn  and  dignified, 
and  refused  every  -favour  I  asked.  "  No,  I  shall  not  do  that." 
"No,  I  haven't  the  shghtest  idea  of  doing  that,"  he  would 
answer.  I  saw  that  he  was  trjang  to  impress  his  princely 
guests  ;  to  show  them  that  he  had  become  so  great  a  man 
that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  "turn  down"  an  ambassador. 
So  I  came  up  nearer  and  spoke  quietly. 

"I  see  you  are  trying  to  make  an  impression  on  these 
Princes,"  I  said.     "Now,  if  it's  necessary  to  pose,  do  it  with 


May  23,   1 9  I  8 


Land    &    Water 


^5 


the  Austrian  Ambassador — he's  out  there  waiting  to^come 
in.     My  time  is  too  important." 

Talaat  laughed.,  "Come  back  in  an  hour,"  he  said.  I 
came  back  ;  the  Arab  Princes  had  left,  and  we  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  arranging  matters  to  my  satisfaction. 

"Some  one  has  got  to  govern  Turkey;  why  not  we?" 
Talaat  once  said  to  me.  The  situation  had  just  about  come 
to  that. 

"I  have  been  greatly  disappointed,"  he  would  say,  "at 
the  failure  of  the  Turks  to  appreciate  democratic  institu- 
tions. I  hoped  for  it  once,  and  I  worked  hard  for  it ;  but 
they  were  not  prepared  for  it."  It  was  a  country  which 
the  first  enterprising  man  who  came  along  might  grab ; 
and   he  determined   to   be   that   man. 

Of  all  the  Turkish  pohticians  I  met,  I  regarded  Talaat 
as  the  only  one  with  extraordinary  native  ability  ;  he  showed 
this  in  the  measures  which  he  took,  after  the  murder  of 
Nazim,  to  gain  the  upper  hand  in  this  distracted  empire. 
He  did  not  seize  the  government  all  at  once  ;  he  went  at 
it  gradually,  feeling  his  way.  He  realised  the  weaknesses 
of  his  position  ;  he  had  several  forces  to  deal  with,  the  Revolu- 
tionary Committee  which  had  backed  him,  the  army,  the 
foreign  governments,  and  the  several  factions  that  made 
up  what  then  passed  for  public  opinion  in  Turkey.  Any 
of  these  elements  might  destroy  him,  politically  and  physically, 
He  always  anticipated  a  violent  death. 

"I  do  not  expect  to  die  in  my  bed,"  he  told  me. 

By  becoming  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Talaat  gained  control 
of  the  police  and  the  administration  of  the  provinces  ;  this 
gave  him  great  patronage,  which  he  used  to  strengthen  his 
position  with  the  Committee.  He  attempted  to  gain  the 
support  of  all  influential  factions  by  gradually  placing  their 
representatives  in  the  other  Cabinet  posts.  Though  he 
afterward  became  the  man  who  was  chiefly  responsible  for 
the  massacre  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Armenians,  at  this 
time  Talaat  maintained  the  pretence  that  the  Committee 
tood  for  the  unionisation  of  all  the  races  in  the  empire. 
His  first  Cabinet  contained  an  Arab-Christian,  a  Deunme 
(Jew  by^race,  but  Mohammedan  by  religion),  a  Circassian, 
an  Armenian,  an  Egyptian.  He  made  the  latter  Grand  Vizier. 
Prince  Said  Halim,  this  new  dignitary,  was  a  cousin  of  the 
Khedive  of  Egypt  ;  he  was  an  e;^eedingly  vain  and  ambitious 
man — not  ambitious  so  much  for  real  power  as  for  its  trappings. 
The  Young  Turk  programme  included  the  reconquest  of 
Egypt,  and  the  Committee  had  promised  Halim  that,  when 
this  was  accomplished,  he  was  to  became  Khedive. 

Germany's  War  Preparations 

Gennany's  war  preparations  had  for  years  included  the 
study  of  internal  conditions  in  other  countries  ;  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  the  Imperial  programme  had  been  to  take 
advantage  of  such  disorganisation  as  existed  to  push  her 
schemes  of  penetration  and  conquest.  What  her  emissaries 
have  accomplished  in  Russia  and  to  a  smaller  extent  in 
Italy  is  now  tragically  apparent.  Clearly  such  a  situation 
as  existed  in  Turkey  in  1913  and  1914,  provided  an  ideal 
opportunity  of  manipulations  of  this  kind.  The  advantage 
of  Germany's  position  was  that  Talaat  needed  Germany 
almost  as  badly  as  Germany  needed  Talaat.  He  and  nis 
Committee  needed  some  exterior  power  to  organise  the  army 
and  navy,  to  finance  the  nation,  to  help  them  reconstruct 
their  industrial  system,  and  to  protect  them  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  encircling  nations.  Ignorant  as  they 
were  of  foreign  countries,  they  needed  an  adviser  to  pilot 
them   through   the  shoals  of  "international  intrigue. 

Where  was  such  a  protector  t9  be  obtained  ?  Evidently 
only  one  of  the  great  European  Powers  could  perform  this 
oflBce.  Which  one  should  it  be  ?  Ten  years  before  Turkey 
would  have  naturally  appealed  to  England.  But  now  the 
Turks  regarded  England  as  merely  a  nation  that  had 
despoiled  them  of  Egypt,  and  that'  had  failed  to  protect 
Turkey  from  dismemberment  after  the  Balkan  wars.  In 
association  with  Russia  Great  Britain  controlled  Persia,  and 
thus  constituted  a  constant  threat — at  least  so  the  Turks 
believed— against  their  Asiatic  dominions.  England  was 
gradually  withdrawirig  her  investments  from  Turkey  ;  Eng-' 
lish  statesmen  believed  that  the  task  of  driving  the  Turk 
from  Europe  was  about  complete;  the  whole  Near-Eastern 
policy  of  Great  Britain. hinged  on  maintaining  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  Balkans  as  it  had  been  determined  by  the  Treaty 
of  Bucharest — a  treaty  which  Turkey  refused  to  regard  as 
binding  and  which  she  was  determined  to  upset.  Above  all, 
England  had  become  the  virtual  ally  of  Turkey's  traditional 
enemy,  Russia,  and  there  was  even  then  a  genera!  belief 
which  the  Turkish  leaders  shared,-  that  England  was  willing 
Russia  should  inherit  Constantinople  and  the  Dardanelles. 
Though  Russia  was  making   no   such    pretensions,    at    least 


openly,  the  fact  that  she  wds  crowding  Turkey  in  other 
directions  made  it  possible  that  Talaat  and  Enver  should 
look  for  support  in  that  direction.  Italy  had  just  seized  the 
last  Turkish  province  in  Africa,  Tripoli,  and  at  that  moment 
was  holding  Rhodes  and  other  Turkish  islands  and  was  known 
to  cherish  aggressive  plans  in  Asia  Minor.  France  was  the 
ally  of  Russia  and  (ireat  Britain,  and  was  also  constantly 
extending  her  influence  in  Syria.  The  personal  equation 
played  an  important  part  in  the  ensuing  drama. 

"the  Ambassadors  of  the  Elntente  hardly  concealed  their  con- 
tempt for  the  dominant  Turkish  politicians  and  their  methods. 
Sir  Louis  Mallet,  the  British  Ambassador,  was  a  high-minded 
and  cultivated  English  gentleman  ;  Bompard,  the  French 
Ambassador,  was  similarly  a  charming,  honourable  French- 
man ;  and  both  were  constitutionally  disqualified  from  par- 
ticipating in  the  murderous  intrigues  which  then  comprised 
Turkish  politics.  Giers,  the  Russian  Ambassador,  was  a 
proud  and  scornful  diplomat  of  the  old  aristocratic  regime. 
He  was  exceedinglv  astute,  but  the  contemptuous  manner 
in  which  he  treated  the  Young  Turks  naturally  made  their 
leaders  incline  to  Germany.  Indeed  these  three  Ambassadors 
did  not  regard  the  Talaat  and  Enver  regime  as  permanent. 
That  many  factions  had  risen  and  fallen  in  the  last  six  years 
thej'  knew  ;  and  thev  likewise  believed  that  this  latest  usurpa- 
tion would  vanish  in  a  few  months. 

Enver  Pasha 

But  there  was  one  man  in  Turkey  then  who  had  no  nice 
scruples  about  using  such  agencies  as  were  most  available 
for  accomplishing  his  purpose.  Wangenheim  clearly  saw 
what  his  colleagues  had  only  faintly  perceived,  that  these 
men  were  steadily  fastening  their  hold  on  Turkey,  and 
that  they  were  looking  for  some  strong  Power  that 
would  recognise  their  position  and  abet  them  in  main- 
taining it. 

As  I  look  back  the  whole  operation  seems  so  clear,  so 
simple,  so  inevitable.  Germany,  up  to  that  time,  was  practi- 
cally the  only  great  Power  in  Europe  that  had  not  appro- 
priated large  slices  of  Turkish  territory  ;  this  gave  her  an 
initial  advantage.  Germany's  representation  at  Constan- 
tinople was  far  better  qualified  than  that  of  any  other  coun- 
try, not  only  by  absence  of  scruples,  but  also  by  knowledge 
and  skill,  to  handle  this  situation.  Wangenheim  was  not 
the  only  capable  German  then  on  the  ground.  A  particu- 
larly influential  outpost  of  Pan-Germany  was  Paul  Weitz, 
who  had  represented  the  Frankfurter  Zeitnng  in  Turkey  for 
thirty  years.  Weitz  had  the  most  intimate  acquaintance 
with  Turks  and  Turkish  affairs  ;  there  was  not  a  hidden  recess 
to  which  he  could  not  gain  admittance.  He  was  constantly 
at  Wangenheim's  elbow,  coaching,  advising,  informing. 
The  German  naval  attache,  Humann,  the  son  of  a  famous 
German  archseologist,  had  been  born  in  Smyrna,  and  had 
passed  practically  his  whole  life  in  Turkey  ;  he  not  only 
spoke  Turkish,  but  he  could  also  think  like  a  Turk  ;  the 
whole  psychology  of  the  people  was  part  of  his  mental  equip- 
ment. Moreover,  Enver,  one  of  the  two  tnain  Turkish  chief- 
tains, was  Humann 's  intimate  friend.  When  I  think  of  this 
experienced  trio,  Wangenheim,  Weitz,  and  Humann,  and  of 
the  delightful  and  honourable  gentlemen  who  were  opposed 
to  them.  Mallet,  Bompard,  and  Giers,  the  events  that  now 
rapidly  followed  seem  as  inevitable  as  the  orderly  processes  of 
nature. 

By  the  spring  of  1914  Talaat  and  Enver,  representing 
the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  practically  dom- 
inated the  Turkish  Empire.  Wangenheim,'  always  having 
in  mind  the  approaching  war,  had  one  inevitable  move : 
which  was  to  control  Talaat  and  Enver. 

Early  in  January,  1914,  Enver  became  Minister  of  War. 
At  that  time  Enver  was  thirty-two  years  old  ;  hke  all  the 
leading  Turkish  politicians  of  the  period  he  came  of  humble 
stock.  His  popular  title,  "  Hero  of  the  Revolution,"  shows 
why  Talaat  and  the  Committee  had  selected  him  to  lead  the 
army  department.  Enver  enjoyed  something  of  a  military 
reputation  though,  so  far  as  I  could  discover,  he  had  never 
achieved  a  great  mihtary  success.  The  revolution  of  which 
he  was  one  of  the  leaders  in  1908  cost  very  few  human  lives  ; 
he  commanded  an  army  in  Tripoli  against  the  Italians  in 
1912— ^but  certainly  there  was  nothing  Napoleonic  about 
that  campaign.  ?^nver  used  to  tell  me  himself  how,  in  the 
second  Balkan  war,  he  had  ridden  all  night  at  the  head  of 
his  troo]5s'to  the  capture  of  Adrianoplc,  and  how,  when  he 
arrived  there,  the  Bulgarians  had  abandoned  it  and  his  vic- 
tory had  thus  been  a  bloodless  one. 

Mr.  M orgenlhau  in  next  week's  Land  &  \\'ater  com- 
pletes his  character  study  of  Enver  Pasha,  and  explains  in 
detail  how  Germany  got  her  firm  grip  on  Turkey. 


i6 


Land    &   Water 


May   23,  19 1 8 


Life  and  Letters  Qj  J.  C  Squire 


Insi<le  a  Man's  Head 

THESli  pieces  of  moral  prose  liave  been  written, 
dear  Reader,  by  a  large  Carnivorous  Mammal, 
belonging  to  that  sub-order  of  the  Animal 
Kingdom  which  includes  also  the  Orang-outang, 
the  tusked  (iorilla,  the  Baboon  with  his  bright 
blue  and  scarlet  bottom,  and  the  gentle  Chimpanzee."  I 
hasten  to  draw  the  reader's  attention  to  the  quotation 
marks  and  to  disclaim  these  humiliating  relationships.  The 
passage  is  the  Preface  of  Mr.  Logan  Pearsall  Smitli's  book 
Trivia,  newly  published  by  Constable  at  4s.  6d.  net. 


Mr.  Pearsall  Smith's  book  will  be  generally  described  as  a 
book  of  prose-poems.  The  t(>rm  has  unfortunate  associa- 
tions. It  is  usually  applied  to  compositions  in  which  some 
useless  dilettante  has  said  nothing  at  all  in  su]ierficially 
pretty  language.  I  therefore  eschew  it,  and  content  myself 
with  explaining  that  the  work  contains  a  hundred  pieces, 
whose  length  varies  from  fifty  to  a  thousand  words,  some  of 
which  are  certainly  poems'  in  prose,  and  all  of  which  are 
exquisitely  written,  but  which  have  the  unusual  charac- 
teristic of  invariably  expressing  soinething  at  first  hand. 
They  are  not  easy  to  define,  because  nothing  else  quite  like 
them  exists.  The  author  modestly  refers  to  them  as 
"thoughts  (if  1  may  call  them  so),"  and  all  of  them  have  a 
central  idea.  But  their  value  is  f3r  from  being  confined  to 
their  interest  as  meditations.  They  are  prose  of  a  quality 
rare  in  any  age  ;  they  are  perfectly  polished,  yet  betray  no 
sign  of  the  pumice-stone  or  file  ;  they  are  most  musical 
when  read  aloud  ;  they  are  decorated  with  an  abundance  of 
delicate  pictures.  Oueerly  meditating  upon  the  state  of  his 
own  mind,  his  relations  with  men  and  women,  nature  and 
the  Deity,  Mr.  Pearsall  Smith  ransacks  the  Cosmos  for 
images  :  all  the  quaint  and  beautifur  names  of  history  and 
geography,  all  shapely  and  misshapen  beasts,  birds  and 
fishes,  sun,  moon,  stars,  and  the  infinite  darkness  that  con- 
tains them  all,  snow,  rain,  fog,  the  refinements  of  an  opulent 
civilisation,  the  flamboyant  trappings  of  militant  barbarism, 
they  are  all  made  tlie  servants  of  a  mind  and  style  which 
bridge  the  gulf  between  Watteau  and  Jeremy  Taylor.  The 
finest  and  most  sustained  piece  of  prose  in  the  book — "The 
Starrj'  Heaven" — is  too  long  to  quote  ;  but  one  may  illus- 
trate the  grace  of  his  style  with  a  shorter  one — "  Happiness"  : 

Cricketers  on  village  greens,  haymakers  in  the  evening 
sunshine,  small  boats  that  sail  before  the  wind — all  these 
create  in  one  the  illusion  of  Happiness,  as  if  a  land  of  cloud- 
less pleasure,  a  piece  of  the  old  Golden  World,  were  liidden, 
not  {as  poets  have  imagined)  in  far  seas  or  beyond  inacces- 
sible mountains,  but  here  close  at  liand,  if  one  could  find  it, 
in  some  undisco\ered  valley,  /'ertain  grassy  lanes  seem 
to  lead  between  the  meadows  thither  ;  tlie  wild  pigeons 
talk  of  it  behind  the  woods. 

That  gives  his  natural  background  ;  he  drops  into  it,  seri- 
ously or  whimsically,  at  any  odd  moment,  at  tea,  in  church, 
or  on  a  railway  station.  But  his  more  instant  preoccupation 
is  with  his  own  mind,  chiefly  considered  as  tv^pical  of  all 
human,  or,  at  any  rate,  all  self-conscious  minds.  In  beautiful 
and  brief  prose  he  seizes  the  significance  of  casual  meetings 
and  tiny  occurrences,  visits  to  the  bank,  walks  "owling  out 
through  the  dusk"  thrcjugh  twilit  London,  stray  sentences 
overheard,  odd  desires  detected,  vague  hankerings  after  the 
beautiful  and  the  divine  ;  all  the  things,  in  fact,  which  most 
people  "be,  do  and  suffer"  without  really,  or  at  least  actually, 
noticing  them.  He  gets  the  drama  out  of  tlie  unmelodramatic 
processes  of  our' daily  life.  And  if  one  illustra'tes  one  of  his 
qualities  more  than  another,  it  should  be  his  truthfulness. 
»  »  »  »  «  » 

\Vc  hear  a  good  deal  in  these  days  about  frankness  and 
candour.  But  the  frank  modern  writer  is  generally  frank 
about  anything  in  the  world  but  himself,  and  when  he  is 
candid  about  himself  he  is  only  willing  to  admit  that  he  is 
the  deuce  of  a  dog,  but  seldom  that  he  is  an  ass.  His  parade 
of  abnonnal  honesty,  too,  announced  with  beatings  of  drums 
and  swinging  of  great  bells,  is  somewhat  suspicious  ;  he 
summons  the  world  to  hear  the  man  who  has  the  courage  to 
confess  what  other  people  are  afraid  to  confess;  and  it  is 
difficult  to  sec,  therefore,  how  he  can  avoid  at  best  an  uncon- 
scious lack  of  proportion  and  at  worst  King  for  effect.  These 
apostles  of  brazen  veracity  woidd  probably  be  incredulous 
if  one  told  them  that  one  thought  Mr.  Pearsall  Smith  one 
of  the  most  candid  writers  alive.     Nevertheless,  it  is  true. 


He  acknowledges,  and  in  the  quietest,  most  natural,  most 
charming  way  in  the  world,  the  things  of  which  people  are 
usually  most  ashamed — for  people  are  usually  far  more 
ashamed  of  their  absurd  dreams,  their  humiliating  faux-pas, 
their  humbugs,  their  snobberies,  than  they. are  of  the  most 
flamboyant  of  the  Deadly  Sins.  They  ought  not  to  be  ; 
still  they  are.  But  no  one  wh.o  has  read  Trivia  will  feel 
quite  the  same  about  them  afterwards  ;  Mr.  Pearsall  Smith's 
open  confession  is  good  for  other  people's  souls.  Let  me 
give  a  few  examples  of  his  revelations  of  his  private  life  : 

Humiliation 
"My  own   view   is."    I   began,   but   no  one  listened.     .\t 
the  next  pause,  "I  always  say,"  I  remarked,  but  again  the 
loud   talk   went   on.     Some   one   told   a   storj'.     When    the 

laughter   had    ended,    "I    often    think ";     but,    looking 

round  the  table,  I  could  catch  no  friendly  or  attentive  eye. 
It  was  humiliating,  but  more  humiliating  the  thought  that 
Sophocles  and  Goethe  would  have  always  commanded 
attention,  while  the  lack  of  it  would  not  have  troubled 
Spinoza  or  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Who  has  not  vainly  attempted  to  turn  a  conversation  his 
way  :  to  unload  an  experience,  an  anecdote,  or  a  jest,  or  to 
show  that  he  also  was  intelligent  and  entitled  to  his  view  ? 
Who  has  not  done  it  three  times  ?  Who — and  this  is  the 
subtlest  touch  of  all — has  not  studiously  modified  his  words 
of  entrance  each  time  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  egoistic 
,  insistence  ?     Apply  this,  again,  to  your  own  experience  : 

The  Goat 

In  the  midst  of  my  anecdote  a  sudden  mi.sgiving  chilled 
me — had  1  told  them  about  this  goat  before  ?  And  then 
"  as  I  talked  there  gaped  on  me — abyss  opening  beneath 
abyss — a  darker  speculation  :  when  goats  are  mentioned, 
do  1  automatically  and  always  toll  this  story  about  the 
goat  at  Portsmouth  ? 

In  "Symptoms,"  the  record  of  one  of  the  most  painful  and 
humiliating  things  that  can  happen  to  one,  he  tells  how, 
at  a  dinner-table,  he  was  talking  eloquently  about  Bores, 
and  how  deadening  they  are  and  how  obtuse,  proceeding  to 
add  a  few  stories  and  some  remarks  about  his  own  sensations, 
when  "suddenly  I  noticed,  in  the  appearance  of  my  charming 
neighbour,  something — a  slightly  glazed  look  in  her  eyes, 
a  just  perceptible  irregularity  in  her  breathing — which  turned 
that  occasion  for  me  into  a  kind  of  nightmare." 

*  *  *  *  »        .      * 

To  me,  at  least,  Mr.  Pearsall  Smith's  public  exhibition  of 
himself  is  balm,  and  his  book  will  be  a  refuge.  He  knows  all 
the  other  things,  too  :  the  idiotic  resolves  to  start  a  great 
career  to-morrow,  to  work,  to  get  up  at  dawn  ;  the  swollen 
conceits  ;  the  certainty  that  one  could  do  anything  if  one 
tried  ;  the  other  certainty  that  Providence  has  its  special 
eye  on  one  and  warns  those  who  threaten  one  with  "Leave 
him  alone,  I  tell  you  "  ;  the  dissipation  of  energy  ;  the  pre- 
tence at  activity  ;  the  desire  to  shine  in  company  ;  and, 
above  all,  those  romantic,  those  towering  castles  in  Spain. 
Do  we  all  do  it  ?  I  suppose  we  do.  Do  we  all— like  Mr. 
Smith's  romantic  "Me,"  whom  he  caught  looking  into  a 
fishmonger's  window  and  saying  "I  caught  that  salmon" — 
live,  whilst  lying  in  beds,  sitting  in  chairs,  walking  in  streets, 
the  lives  of  all  the  Heroes  and  all  the  Heroic  Rascals  ?  Do 
you  also,  reader,  you  who  would  get  out  to  any  ball  and 
run  away  from  any  fast  one,  hit  six  in  succession  over  the 
gasworks,  following  up  your  tremendous  innings  by  getting 
all  ten  Australian  wickets  in  your  first  two  overs^  thereby 
causing  the  cables  to  hum  ?  "  Do  you,  timid  and  harm- 
less creature,  return  from  deeds  of 'amazing  alertness  and 
valour  in  the  field,  to  receive  the  V.C.  which  you  wear 
with  a  rare  and  becoming  modesty.  And  you,  a'lso,'  most 
impecunious  and  unobservant  of  men,  do  you  dive  from 
W^atcrloo  Bridge  after  would-be  suicides,  rescue  rich  old 
ladies  from  the  descending  feet  of  runaway  cab-horses,  and 
win  the  £100,000  offered  by  a  Shipping  Magnate  to"  the  first 
man  who  Kills  the  Kaiser  ?  You  do,  all  of  you  ;  and  you 
will  find  your  similitude  in  Trivia,  a  book,  however,  which 
neither  you  nor  I  would  have  had  the  honestv  or  the  in- 
genuity to  have  written.  I  suspect  that,  percola"ting  through 
the  centuries  in  the  characteristically  shy  and  unobtrusive 
way,  Mr.  Pearsall  Smith's  boqk  is  destined  to  a  modest 
immortality.  It  will  never  be  a  widely  popular  book  ;  but 
I  cannot  conceive  that  there  will  ever  be  a  time,  two  or  three 
or  twenty  centuries  hence,  when  a  few  men  will  not  delight 
to  find  in  it  themselves,  their  hearts  and  minds,  dreams,  and 
doubts,  and  delights. 


Mav  33,  191 8 


Land   &:   Water 


17 


Future  of  the  Farm  Labourer:   By  Jason 


THE  labourer,  whose  ancestoi'  was  a  member  of 
a  living  community  with  rights  and  property  of 
his  own,  has  become  by  the  process  described 
in  an  earher  article,  a  mere  wage-earner  in  a 
sweated  industry.  He  has  declined  into  the  most 
despairing  of  all  positions.  For  in  the  struggle  of^he  poorer 
classes  against  the  social  forces  that  threaten  their  independ- 
ence we  can  discern  two  elements  of  promise.  The  peasant 
is  a  man  with  some  power  of  self-defence  derived  from  his 
association  with  a  community  that  is  attached  to  the  soil  ; 
the  town  workman  is  a  man  with  some  power  of  self-defence 
derived  from  his  association  with  his  fellow-workmen  in 
Trade  Unions.  History  is  full  of  examples  of  the  strength 
of  the  peasant  class.  At  our  own  doors  we  have  a  striking 
illustration  in  the  success  of  the  Irish  peasant  who  by  sheer 
tenacity  and  the  mysterious  comradeship  of  the  soil  has 
won  from  a  very  powerful  aristocracy  and  a  very  powerful 
neighbour  rights  that  the  English  labourer  may  well  envy. 
As  for  the  strength  of  the  Trade  I'nions,  the  evidence  is 
unmistakable  and  convincing. 

Now  the  agriculturJil  labourer  is  not  a  peasant  ;  he  has 
none  of  the  corporate  fwwer  of  a  society  behind  him.  He 
is  a  labourer.  Neither  is  he  a  Trade  Unionist.  All  the  con- 
ditions of  his  life  and  work  have  made  the  struggle  for  Trade 
Unionism  a  difficult  and  uphill  fight.  Men  working  in  isolation 
or  small  groups  on  scattered  farms  are  at  a  great  disadvantage 
for  Trade  Union  work  ;  they  have  no  buildings,  as  a  rule, 
where  they  can  meet  and  discuss  their  affairs  without  fear  ; 
they  have  none  of  the  relative  security  of  the  town  workman 
who  is  not  tied  to  a  single  home  or  a  single  employment, 
and  they  work  for  a  class  which  has  been  on  the  whole  more 
suspicious  of  Trade  Unions  than  any  other  employing  class  in 
the  country.  By  an  unhappy  combination  of  misfortunes  the 
class  that  needs  Trade  Unions  more  than  any  other  is  more 
handicapped  than  any  other  in  its  efforts  to  create  them. 

Disease  of  Low  Wages 

Any  industry  so  circumstanced  tends  to  become  a  sweated 
industry',  and  agricultural  wages  have  reflected  the  short- 
sighted power  of  the  backward  employers.  A  most  instruc- 
tive book  was  published  the  year  the  war  broke  out  by  Mr. 
Reginald  I.ennard,  under  the  title  Eni^lish  Agricultural  Wages, 
which  showed  by  a  most  careful  ancl  scholarly  investigation 
that  agriculture  was  suffering  from  the  disease  of  low  wages. 
This  disease  showed  its  results  partly  in  the  inefficiency  of 
farmers  for  whom  the  apparent  advantage  of  a  low  wage 
is  an  encouragement  to  idleness  or  to  unenterprising  and 
unprogressive  farming,  partly  in  the  inefficienc}-  of  the 
labourers  whose  vigour  is  sapped  by  positive  underfeeding 
and  the  general  hopelcfssness  of  their  outlook.  Sir  Daniel 
Hall,  the  Permanent' Secretary  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture, 
has  remarked  that  "many  formers  WEiste  manual  labour 
because  it  is  cheap."  And  in  agriculture,  as  in  the  early 
days  of  cotton  factories,  manual  labour  may  be  driven  down 
to  such  a  point  that  there  is  no  inducement  to  introduce 
machinery. 

Sir  William  Osier  has  pointed  out  that  it  is  dangerous 
to  suppose  from  the  comparatively  good  physique  of  the 
agricultural  labourer  that  he  is  properly  nourished,  that  a 
degree  of  underfeeding  insufficient  to  show  itsejf  in  measure- 
ments might  be  serious  enough  to  reduce  the  capacity  of 
a  workman  for  physical  toil.  As  for  the  general  depression 
produced  by  low  wages  and  poor  prospects,  we  need  only 
contrast  the  agricultural  labourer  in  the  best  paid  counties 
with  his  fellows  in  the  worst  paid  counties.  The  truth  has 
been  well  put  by  Sir  Daniel  Hall.  "The  farmer's  general 
complaint  is  that  the  majority  of  his  men  are  n<jt  worth  their 
wages,  and  that  is  probabjy  true  ;  they  will  have  to  be  more 
highly  paid  before  they  will  earn  their  money." 

The  first  and  essential  condition  of  successful  agricultural 
development  is  the  emancipation  of  the  labourer  from  these 
conditions.  He  must  have  a  decent  house  ;  he  must  have 
a  decent  wage  ;  the  conditions  of  his  employment  must  not 
be  arbitrary  or  tyrannical,  and  village  life  must  be  revolu- 
tionised so  as  to  turn  him  from  a  dependent  wage-earner 
into  a  citizen  with  freedom  and  opportunity  and  social 
enjoyment.  Thus  it  is  not  merely  a  reform  here  and  a 
readjustment  there  that  is  wanted.  It  is  the  transfonnation 
of  village  life. 

A  vigorous  policy  on  these  lines  was  urgently  needed 
before  the  war  ;  the  need  to-day  is  more  urgent  than  ever. 
For  nobodv  can  suppose  that  tli*'  '-.ilrhcr  who  has  faced  the 


unspeakable  sufferings  of  this  war  will  return  to  live  the 
life  that  the  labourer  lived  before  the  w-ar.  Think  of  what 
his  home  has  been  in  many  a  village.  Sir  Douglas  Haig 
reminded  his  men  in  the  most  anxious  moment  of  the  fighting 
last  month  that  they  were  defending  their  homes.  In 
answer  to  that  appeal  men  will  give  their  last  effort.  What 
kind  of  home  is  it  that  is  described  in  the  reports  of  our 
Medical  Officers  oi  Health  ?  In  the  villages  there  is  not  the 
excuse — such  as  it  is — that  space  is  limited,  and  yet  the 
Medical  Officer  for  Bedfordshire  has  pointed  out  that  the 
insanitary  conditions  in  the  village  cottages  are  often  more 
serious  than  those  usually  to  be  found  in  town  dwellings 
and  that  phthisis  is  very  prevalent  in  onr  rural  country-  homes. 

The  Housing  Problem 

When  we  ask  why  this  state  of  things  continues  we  are 
told  that  the  labourer's  wages  are  so  low  that  he  cannot 
afford  to  pay  an  economic  rent.  An  overcrowded  and 
defective  cottage  is  not  much  consolation  for  a  sweated  wage. 
It  is  obvious  that  wages  must  be  raised  to  cover  the  cost 
of  housing,  but  we  cannot  wait  for  economic  readjustments. 
The  crisis  is  too  serious  for  that.  The  nation  must  make 
provision  for  house  building  to  begin  immediately  the  war 
is  over.  From  this  point  of  view  the  policy  which  is  appar- 
ently to  be  pursued  by  the  Government  is  disastrously 
inadequate.  The  Local  Government  Board  have  issued  a 
circular  to  local  authorities  asking  for  a  report  on  local 
deficiencies  and  undertaking  to  bear  three-quarters  of  the 
loss  on  building  schemes.  Now  this  means  that  there  will 
be  delay  in  many  places  and  inaction  in  many  others.  We 
know  what  the  terror  of  the  countryside  about  rates  is  like, 
and  any  half-hearted  authority  will  be  so  afraid  of  this  prospect 
of  a  new  burden  that  it  will  be  exceedingly  reluctant  to  commit 
itself  to  any  Scheme  at  all. 

The  right  principle  is  to  recognise  that  in  this  tremendous 
emergency  the  responsibility  for  re-housing  the  nation  is 
national  and  not  local.  The  returning  soldier  has  fought 
for  the  nation,  and  not  merely  for  his  village,  and  the  nation 
owes  it  to  him  to  see  that  he  has  a  decent  home  in  the  country 
he  has  defended.  The  Government,  that  is,  must  guarantee 
the  local  authority  againfet  loss,  and  it  must  see  that  the  local 
authority  carries  out  an  adequate  scheme.  For  this  purpose 
the  County  Council  should  be  substituted  for  the  District 
Council,  and  the  schemes  will,  of  course,  be  designed  with  a 
view  to  the  needs  and  circumstarlces  of  larger  areas  than  the 
area  of  a  District  Council.  -This  is  an  immediately  urgent  policy. 

There  arc  in  existence  at  this  moment  two  types  of  insti- 
tutions that  the  war  has  brought  into  existence  upon  which 
we  shall  have  to  rely  in  great  part  for  the  successful  trans- 
formation of  village  life.  One  is  the  Agricultural  Wages 
Board  set  up  under  Section  5  of  the  Corn  Production  Act 
of  last  year.  It  is  the  duty  of  this  Board,  which  consists 
of  representatives  of  employers  and  labourers  in  equal 
numbers  with  additional  members  appointed  by  the  Board 
of  Agriculture,  to  fix  minimum  rates  of  wages.  This  Central 
Board  has  established  thirty-nine  district  wages  committees, 
formed  on  the  same  principle,  acting  in  some  cases  for  a 
single  county  and  in  others  for  two  or  more  counties  grouped 
together.  These  committees  make  recommendations  to  the 
Central  Board,  and  their  recommendation  takes  the  forrn 
of  a  proposed  weekly  wage  for  a  given  number  of  hours. 
These  recommendations  are  considered,  and  the  Board  after 
hearing  objections  gives  its  award. 

Now  the  creation  of  this  Board  and  these  Committees  is 
a  ste?p  of  great  importance.  Hitherto  wages  have  been  kept 
down  in  agriculture  by  the  weakness  of  the  labourers  and 
the  power  of  custom  and  solidarity  among  farmers.  It  has 
been  supposed  to  be  imi)roper  and  almost  dishonourable 
for  a  farmer  to  give  higher  wages  tlian  his  neighbours.  In 
some  districts  the  more  enterprising  farmer  gives  presents 
on  the  sly. 

At  a  Wages  Board  the  good  employer  counts,  and  the 
establishment  of  a  judicial  wage  breaks  the  ice.  But  in 
practice  the  Board  docs  more  than  fix  minimum  wages, 
for  a  committee  recommends  a  certain  wage  for  certain  hours. 
That  is  to  say,  the  working  davof  the  rural  labourer  is  regulated, 
and  any  time  o\'er  and  above  the  fixed  limit  becomes  overtime 
to  be  paid  for  at  special  rates.  When  a  Wages  Board  is  set 
up,  it  soon  assumes  other  powers  than  those  of  fixing  wages  ; 
it  tends  to  protect  the  workman  from  other  abuses.  That 
has  been  the  experience  of  the  Trade  Boards  in  sweated 
industries  where  the  regulation  of  wages  has  been  followed 


i8 


Land    &   Water 


May  23,  19 1 8 


by  the  regulation  of  other  conditions.  So  with  the  Wages 
Committees.  It  is  their  duty  to  fix  a  wage.  That  involves 
taking  a  standard  day.  And  the  decision  of  this  question 
enahlesthe  Wages  Board  to  regularise  employment.  In  some 
parts  of  the  country  the  labourer  is  sent  home  when  it  is  wet 
and  he  loses  a  day's  pay.  The  Board  can  forbid  tliis.  It 
can  again  help  to  make  employment  more  regular  by  fixing 
hourly  and  daily  rates  rather  higher  than  the  weekly  rate. 
Moreover  it  has  to  assess  the  vahie  of  allowances  in  kind 
which  enables  it  to  penalise  bad  housing  by  refusing  to 
allow  anything  for  a  house  that  is  defective" ,  Thus  these 
Committees  come  to  supervise  a  great  part  of  the  econom\- 
of  the  farm,  and  they  may  be  made  the  means  to  a  general 
improvement  of  conditions. 

Most  important  of  all  is  the  influence  of  such  a  body  on 
the  growth  of  Trade  Unionism.  In  every  case  Trade  Boards 
have  led  to  the  development  of  the  workmen's  organisations, 
and  agriculture  will  follow  the  same  law.  In  counties  where 
farmers  have  been  in  the  habit  of  refusing  to  employ  labourers 
who  belong  to  a  Union,  they  are  now  sitting  at  the  same  table 
with  Union  officials.  There  were  many  who  feared  that  the 
labourers  would  not  have  the  courage  to  present  their 
case  before  a  Wages  Committee,  but  this  has  proved  an 
idle  fear.  The  labourers  are  represented  partly  by 
officials  of  the  Agricultural  Labourers'  Union,  partly  by 
ofiBcials  of  such  Unions  as  the  General  Workers'  Union,  which 
include  agricultural  labourers  among  their  members  ;  men 
who  are  accustomed  to  the  atmosphere  of  discussion  and 
,  negotiation.  The  whole  tone  of  agricultural  life  will  be 
immenselv  affected  by  tlii-;  development. 

A  Stimulating  Influence 

We  have  then  in  these  Committees  a  very  stimulatin;.; 
influeiue  on  rural  life.  Farmers,  labourers,'  and  persons 
representing  the  outside  world  are  brought  together  ; 
labourers  have  to  organise  their  forces  and  to  feel  their 
strength  ;  it  is  cver\where  recognised  that  the  scandalous 
wages  of  the  past  must  not  return.  The  wages  recommended 
by  such  Committees  as  have  reported  vary  from  30s.  to  35s., 
these  wages  mark  an  advance,  and  of  course  they  are  fixed 
as  a  rule  for  a  shorter  working  daJ^  But  the\/  are  too 
low ;  for  a  Special  Sub-Committee  appointed  by  the  Wage-; 
Board  has  laid  it  down  that  tlw  wage  paid  must  be  such  as"  to 
enable  a  labourer  to  pay  rent  for  a  five-room  dwelling  in 
proper  state  of  repair,  with  satisfactory  sanitary  arrange- 
nients,  an  adequate  water  supply,  together  with  garden  ground 
of  not  less  than  an  eighth  of  an  acre.  It  is,  of  course,  most 
satisfactory  to  have  such  a  standard  established,  but  it  is 
•quite  clear  that  the  wages  recommended  fall  short  of  it.  On 
the  other  hand,  once  a  Wages  Board  is  set  up,  there  is  a 
medium  in  which  public  opinion  can  work,  and  it  is  certain 
that  agricultural  WRg.s  will  rise.  This  machinery  will 
also  be  of  use  in  introducing  a  Factory  Law  into 
agriculture.  There  is  no  reason  why  the"  agricultural 
labourer  should  be  denied  the  protection  that  the  town 
workman  receives'from  the  law. 

The  other  institution  that  we  owe  to  the  vvar  is  the  County 
Agricultural  Committee.  The  Corn  Production  Act  guarantees 
certain  prices  to  the  farmers,  but  it  imposed  on  them  a  certain 
discipline.  Under  Part  IV  of  the  Act  the  Board  of  Agriculture 
IS  empowered  to  enforce  a  certain  standard  and  type  of 
cultivation  on  the  farmer.  This  control  is  wide  and  drastic 
If  a  farmer  is  negligent  or  wasteful,  if  he  refuses  to  put  his 
land  to  the  best  use,  if  he  allows  rabbits  to  become  a  pest 
if  in  general  he  does  not  conform  to  the  standard  imposed 
by  the  Board,  he  may  lose  his  farm.  These  powers  ha\e 
been  delegated  by  the  Board  to  the  War  Agricultural 
Executive  Committees.  In  many  cases  the  Committees  have 
acted  with  vigour,  inflicting  penalties  for  waste  and  bad 
farming  and  the  excessive  preservation  of  game.  It  is  a 
weakn«s  in  the  organisation  of  these  Committees,  that  though 
they  have  powttr  to  punish  a  bad  farmer,  they  have  no  powm- 
■to  protect  a  good  one.  These  Committees  will  remain  in 
existence  with  these  powers  as  long  as  the  Corn  Production 
Act  IS  in  force,  i.e.,  till  1922,  and  although  nothing  but  the 
critical  position  of  the  country  would  have  reconciled  the 
farmers  to  this  revolutionary  scheme,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
machinery  will  serve  very  useful  purposes  after  the  war 

For  in  agriculture,  not  less  than  in  other  industries,  organ- 
isation is  urgently  needed  if  the  industry  is  to  be  developed. 
And  there  is  no  industry  where  development  is  so  vital  to 
the  nation  as  the  fundamental  industry  of  all.  Everybody 
agrees  that  the  land  must  produce  more  food  ;  that  the  natioii 
cannot  afford  wasteful  farming  ;  that  private  pleasure  must 
not  be  allowed  to  take  precedence  over  public  needs. 

On  other  sides  reform  is  necessary  to  give  vitality  and 
significance    to    rural    life.     We    want    to    encouratje    small 


holdings  of  different  types  :  to  introduce  land  settlements 
for  soldiers  ;  to  give  agriculture  the  promise  of  a  career 
to  men  with  brains  and  no  capital.  The  regeneration  of 
rural  life  means  the  development  of  co-operation,  of  village 
clubs,  of  village  industries,  of  new  methods  not  of  production 
only  but  of  buying,  selling,  transport  and  communication. 
By  making  village  life  various  in  jts  employments  and  its 
interests  we  shall  restore  the  old  type  of  village  society.  In 
a  later  article  we  shall  examine  the  bearing  on  all  these 
questions  of  the  new  revolution  that  is  imminent  with  the 
development  of  electrical  power.  At  present  it  is  only 
necessary  to  point  out  that  the  War  Agricultural  Committees 
will  be  invaluable  as  representative  bodies  for  stimulating 
and  guiding  the  development.  For  that  purpose  one  reform 
is  obviously  essential.  There  is  no  reason  for  the  presence 
of  the  Textile  Trade  Unionists  on  the  Cotton  Control  Board 
and  the  Woollen  Control  Board,  which  does  not  apply  to  the 
case  of  the  Agricultural  Labourers  and  the  War  Executive 
Committees.  "These  Committees  must  include  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  Labourers'  llnions,  so  that  they  may  speak 
with  'the  authority  of  the  industry  as  a  whole.  "  The  Govern- 
ment would  have  been  wiser  to  recognise  this  principle  from 
the  first.  As  it  is,  there  have  been  complaints  in  some 
parts  of  the  country  that  Executive  Committees  have  used 
their  power  unfairly  in  dealing,  at  the  time  of  a  labour 
dispute,  with  the  question  of  exemptions  from  military 
service.  For  the  future  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  these 
Committees  must  be  organised,  on  the  principle  that  has 
been  applied  with  such  success  to  the  textile  industries. 

Note.— Mr.  Arthur  Baring's  letter  in  Land  &  Water  of  May  2nd, 
on  the  subject  of  the  assault  on  Mr  Bingham  Baring,  does  not  affect 
my  account  of  the  brutahty  of  the  punishments  inflicted  on  the  rioters 
m  1830.  Of  Mr.  Bingham  Baring's  part  in  the  proceedings  I  have 
nothing  to  say.  The  fact  that  he  used  his  influence  oil  the  side  of 
mercy— which  I  am  interested  to  learn— suggests  that  he  took  the 
siune  view  as  the  people  of  Micheldever  of  the  conduct  of  the  judges. 

In    Barracks  :    By    Sherard   Vines 

Desolately,  the  Last  Post 

Cries  down  the  windy  barrack  square. 

Whirls  and  quavers,  and  is  lost 

In  the  blue  frost 

Beyond  the  air. 

Yet  that  sobbing  quality, 

Not  wholly  of  our  earthly  scale. 

In  their  brazen  harmony. 

Pierces  the 

Unending  veil. 

Lightto  sleep  goes  after  light , 

Step  echoes  after  step  to  bed. 

While  the  bugler  every  night 

Plays  in  sight 

Of  all  the  dead. 


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May  23,  19 1  8 


Land    &   Water 


19 


Men   and   Moods 

By  Edward  Anton 


I  have  just  delivered  myself  from  one  of  those  "moods"  to 
which,  as  a  Celt,  I  am  somewhat  liable. 

I  wish  to  emphasise  that  I  "delivered  myself,"  which  de- 
scribes the  process  exactly.  Time  was  when  I  waited  for  my 
moods  to  pass  :  now  I  end  them  at  will.  It  means  much  to 
me,  and  it  is  one  of  the  many  reasons  why  I  think  so  highly  of 
Pelmanism  as  an  instrument  of  self-mastery. 

All  of  us  suffer — consciously  or  unconsciously — -from  "moods," 
in  great  or  less  degree.  And  the  man  or  woman  who  has  learnt 
the  secret  of  mood-mastery  has  acquired  knowledge  which  not 
only  adds  largely  to  his  or  her  working  capacity,  but  also  tp  the 
capacity  for  interest,  pleasure,  and  even  happiness. 

"Moods"  are  the  fog-banks  of  the  mind  ;  impeding  progress 
and  perverting  vision.  They  are  induced  by  a  diversity  of 
causes,  into  the  nature  of  which  it  is  not  my  intention  to  inquire 
here  :    it  is  to  their  effect  that  I  am  presently  considering. 

If  I  illustrate  my  remarks  by  reference  to  my  own  case,  it  will, 
I  hope,  be  understood  that  I  do  so  not  from  egotism,  but  from 
a  desire  to  speak  from  experience. 

A  retrospective  survey  of  my  forty-odd  years  of  existence 
shows  me  that,  up  to  the  date  of  my  introduction  to  the  Pelman 
Course,  I  have  been  greatly  the  victim  of  "moods"  :  'gloomy 
moods,  impulsive  moods,  irritable  moods,  lavish  moods,  irre- 
sponsible moods,  moods  of  inexcusable  optimism,  moods  of  the 
deepest  self-distrust.  And  I  daresay  there  are  many  thousands 
of  men  and  women  who,  whether  they  recognise  it  or  not,  are 
equallyjiandicapped  by  their  wretched  perversions  of  mentality 
which  we  call  "moods." 

"I  can't  help  it,"  we  often  say,  "it's  my  nature."  Just  so 
have  I  often  attempted  to  excuse  myself  for  a  word  or  an  action 
which  I  could  not  defend.     "It's  my  nature  !" 

We  libel  "nature"  and  we  belittle  ourselves  in  uttering  such 
an  infamous  phrase.  It  is  not  "  nature"  that  is  to  blame  :  it  is 
our  self-ignorance.  The  majority  of  us,  successful  or  unsuccess- 
ful, are  deplorably  ignorant  of  those  forces  which  constitute 
our  personality  and  make  us  individuals.  Strapge  that  in  an 
age  which  prides  itself  upon  its  spirit  of  investigation,  we  should 
have  been  so  remiss  in  getting  to  know  what  there  is  to  be 
known  about  ourselves  !       , 

But  Pelmanism  is  changing  all  this,  and  in  doing  so  is  showing 
us  not  only  how  to  abolish  certain  undesirable  moods,  but  even 
teaching  us  how  to  produce  other  moods  which  are  desirable 
and  profitable. 

Let  us  get  back  to  our  "awful  example" — myself.  I  was 
most  conscious  of  my  handicap  where  it  affected  my  work. 
I  worked  well  ;  but  the  "moods,"  alas  !  were  all  too  infrequent. 
They  would  come  unannounced  and  would  depart  abruptly ; 
I  could  not  depend  upon  myself. 

That  disability  has  been  conquered,  thanks  to  Pelmanism, 
and  I  may,  without  affectation,  claim  to  be  able  to  produce  my 
best  standard  of  work  at  will.  There  is  no  need  to  dilate  upon 
the  enormous  advantage  this  has  been  to  me — an  advantage 
which  I  can  translate  not  only  in  terms  of  £  s.  d.  (the  usual 
criterion),  but,  what  is  of  more  significance  to  me,  in  sentiment 
and  self-esteem. 

Even  upon  those  occasions  when  I  couH  honestly  say  that 
my  "mood"  had  been  partly,  if  not  wholly,  induced  by  bad 
health,  I  have  found  "  Pelmanising "  result  in  an  astonishing 
betterment  :  enabling  me  to  overcome  my  mental  inertia,  and, 
by  reaction,  improving  my  physical  condition. 

This  may  probably  seem  difficult  of  belief  to  somfe  of  my 
readers,  but  there  are  the  simple  facts — and  they  are  amply 
corroborated  by  the  voluntary  evidence  of  hundreds  of  other 
"Pelmanists." 

Let  us  take  another  phase — the  dissatisfied,  restless  mood 
which,  intervening,  makes  work,  pleasure,  interest,  or  recreation 
impossible;  "a  feeling  that  you  don't  know  what  you  want," 
as  I  have  heard  it  described.  Here  again  I  have  achieved 
conquest,  and  am  able  to  put  the  "mood"  to  rout  as  soon  as 
I  am  conscious  of  it.  How  much  that  has  meant  to  me  in  the 
last  few  years  it  would  be  difficult  to  estimate. 

Irritability — another  supposedly  "natural"  feeling^was  a 
severe  handicap  which  I  have  successfully  "Pelmaniscd,"  but 
here  the  battle  is  not  yet  completelv  won.  Of  the  ultimate 
issue,  however,  I  Iiave  not  the  slightest  doubt. 

The  net  result  is  to  give  me  a  feeling  of  power  that  I  never 
remember  possessing  previously — not  even  in  my  supremely 
confident  boyish  days.  I  know  now  that  I  can  make  myself 
do — and  I  do  it.  I  do  jiot  wait  miserably  upon  Chance,  Mood, 
<'ii'  umstance.  Environment,  or  any  other  of  the  bogies  which 


cripple  and  nullify  human  effort.  I  appoint  my  work,  I  com- 
mand my  mood,  and  I  achieve  satisfaction. 

Let  me  repeat  that  these  notes  are  penned  in  no  egotistical 
spirit.  I  want  readers  of  L.\nd  &  W.\ter  to  realise  that 
"  Pelmanism  "  may  well  represent  something  of  far  more  moment 
to  them,  personally,  than  they  may  have  yet  realised.  It  is 
simply  tiie  impossibility  of  explaining  in  a  column  or  two  the 
immense  range  of  limitless  possibilities  of  the  System,  which 
compels  certain  popular  phases  of  "Pelmanism"  to  receive 
more  frequent  mention  than  others. 

.\bility  to  induce  a  working  mood  at  will  is  a  distinctly  valu- 
able gain  ;  but  there  are  others.  The  Pelmanist  who  faithfully 
applies  the  principles  of  the  Course  can  don  a  mood  suited  to 
every  occasion.  Interest,  sympathy,  criticism,  appreciation, 
contemplation — all  these  various  moods  or  mental  attitudes 
may  be  cultivated  ;  petJiaps  not  always  with  the  same  degree 
of  success,  but  invariably  to  a  certain  degree. 

Confidence  is,  psobably,  the  mood  which  most  matters  for 
the  majority  of  men  and  women,  and  I  will  quote  what  was 
recently  written  upon  this  matter  by  a  Pelman  student  (a  traffic 
manager  on  a  big  Northern  Railway  System)  :— 

"The  Pelman  Course  breathes  confidence  from  the 
beginning  .  .  .  confidence  in  what  the  student  is  taught, 
and  confidence  in   himself. 

"What  self-confidence  means  can  only  be  appreciated 
by  those  who  have  known  the  lack  of  it.  To  have  failed 
— not  from  lack  of  ability,  but  from  lack  of  self-confidence — 
at  a  time  which  marked  the  making  or  the  marring  of  a 
career,  is  an  agony  which  takes  a  long  time  to  drive  from 
the  mind.  .  .  . 

"  To  the  self-doubter  the  Pelman  Course  is  a  boon  and  a 
blessing.  It  opens  a  new  outlook  on  life,  it  sends  one 
forth  rejoicing  in  a  new-found  strength.     I  am — /  ought — 

I   CAN." 

Those  are  words  written  straight  from  the  heart  :  they  should 
be  well  pondered  by  every  man  and  every  woman  who  has  so 
far  failed  to  find  a  footing  on  the  ladder  of  success. 

The  financial,  business,  and  professional  advantages  have 
been  so  much  explained  and  so  liberally  evidenced  that,  I 
suppose,  no  reader  of  Land  &  Water  requires  further  assur- 
ance on  that  matter  from  my  pen.  Equally,  enough  has  been 
said  of  the  "pull"  which  Pelmanism  confers  upon  the  Army  or 
Navy  officer  or  man.  I  regard  these  triumphs — solid  and  sub- 
stantial as  they  are — as  "theatrical  effects"  compared  with 
the  deep  and  lasting  change  which  the  study  of  this  remarkable 
System  can  and  does  produce  in  the  inner  life  of  the  individual. 

Financial,  business,  professional,  and  social  considerations  do 
not  represent  the  main  considerations  in  life.  Our  vocations 
and  our  social  amenities  constitute  but  a  part  of  our  daily  lives. 
It  is  of  infinitely  greater  importance  to  be  able  to  command  a 
happy,  contented  frame  of  mind,  to  be  able  to  take  a  living 
interest  in  the  world  around  us,  to  be  able  to  develop  and  control 
ourselves,  than  it  is  to  double  our  incomes  or  achieve  professional 
advancement. 

Thus,  for  the  time  being,  I  set  commercial  inducements  aside 
and  invite  readers  of  Land  &  Water  to  consider  the  matter  of 
Pelmanism  from  the  higher  plane.  Every  man  and '  every 
woman  with  a  proper  degree  of  self-pride  can,  and  should  hasten 
to,  profit  by  the  adoption  of  the  simple  and  scientifically  sound 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Pelman  Course. 

It  is  profoundly  true  that,  as  a  student  of  the  Course  recently 
said  :  "  If  people  only  realised  what  Pelmanism  was  capable 
of  affecting  for  them,  the  doors  of  the  Pelman  Institute  would 
be  literally  besieged  by  eager  applicants." 

There  are,  perhaps,  a  hundred  strictly  personal  reasons  why 
each  or  any  reader  of  this  page  should  become  a  Pelmanist,  and 
I  venture  the  statement  that,  if  he  or  she  realised  it,  any  one  of 
those  hundred  reasons  would  be  sufficient  if  he  or  she  could 
be  brought  to  realise  it  !  I  have  never  yet  met  the  man  or  woman 
who,  having  studied  Pelmanism,  has  been  in  the  least  degree 
disappointed. 

"Mind  and  Memory"  {in  which  the  Pelman  Course  is  fully 
described,  with  a  synopsis  of  the  lessons)  will  be  sent,  gratis  and 
post  free,  together  with  a  repri^it  of  "Truth's"  famous  report  on 
the  System  and  a  form  entitling  readers  of  Land  &  Waier  to 
the  complete  Pelman  Course  a{  one-third  less  than  the  usual  fees, 
on  application  to-dav  (a  post  card  will  do)  to  the  Pelman  Institute, 
39,  Pelman  House,  Bloomsburv  Street,  London,  W.C.i. 


20 


Land   &   Water 


May  23,  19 1 8 


London:  By  Miller  Dunning 


TO  be  in  the  outskirts  of  London,  beyond  the 
town,  yet  tragically  within  the  spell  of  its  at- 
mosphere, is  to  win  an  experience  that  may  well 
make  a  lasting  impression.  It  is  a  low  level  land, 
lying  between  the  fiver  and  the  last  rows  of 
houses,  and  stretching  to  and  along  the  raised  bank  which 
borders  the  Thames.  It  is  awav  towards  the  East,  well  on 
the  seaward  side  of  the  West  India  Docks  ;  a  strange  coim- 
try  full  of  wild  contrasts  and  boding  suggestion. 

Above,  if  the  month  is  April,  the  sky  will  be  clear  and  blue, 
reaching  over  like  a  great  sparkling  dome  whose  founda- 
tions rest  in  a  setting  of  encircling  smoke,  wliich  rising,  turns 
to  amber  till  it  veils  the  clouds  and  an  afternoon  sun.  And 
beneath  both  crystal  dome  and  smoke  lie  side  by  side  the 
most  acute  of  all  contrasts — the  borders  of  a  blackened  city 
against  fields  of  unfilled  soil  .  .  .  and  here,  near  at  hand, 
solitude  ;  and  there,  on  a  Httle  further,  desolation,  and  in 
the  far-away  distance,  grim  destruction— the  spirits  that 
hover  between  that  sky  and  this  earth  and  ever  breathe 
their  likeness  into  the  beings  who  live  in  their  midst. 

One  is  in  touch  yet  removed  from  it  all.  The  sounds  that 
come,  come  singly  and  distinct  ;  the  distant  roll  of  the 
train  to  Tilbury,  the  hum  of  an  ocean  tramp  on  the  river, 
and  the  low  pulsating  of  engines  in  a  factory  hard  by. 

Then  the  fields  !  Eastwards  they  grow  deeper  and  are 
finally  lost  in  the  turnings  of  the  river — not  green  fields, 
but  long  broken  levels,  dun-coloured  and  uninviting.  Along 
the  inner  boundary  they  are  fringed  by  straggling  wind- 
blown trees.  An  occasional  cottage  is  seen  in  the  back- 
ground and,  standing  forward  from  the  rest,  a  mansion  such 
as  one  would  build  who  had  a  spite  against  his  kind  ;  a  dull 
red  building,  with  gables,  numerous  chimneys  and  hundreds 
of  windows.  In  this  place  it  stands  up  as  the  very  emblem 
of  misery — a  misery  such  as  these  cottagers  could  never  con- 
ceive; the  bitter  God-cursing  grief  of  disappointed  Mammon. 

How  is  it  revealed  ?  Most  surely  not  by  the  lad 
who  speaks  of  its  ghost-haunted  rooms  and  its  secret 
tunnel  to  London.  No  !  It  is  self-evident.  The  soul  that 
conceived  such  a  house  in  such  a  place  must  have, been 
full  of  irony.  It  must  have  seen  in  everything  about 
it  the  glaring  signs  of  oppression  ;  the  very  smoke  that 
infiltrated  the  air,  the  grim  liostile  looking  factories  in 
the  immediate  neighbourhood,  the  dirty  unfertile  fields 
all  about  it,  the  unholy  visage  of  the  docks,  the  tooth- 
like cranes  standing  gaunt  and  black  above  the  river, 
a  conglomerate  mass  of  buildings,  and'  above  them  a 
gasometer  frowning  on  every  aspect  of  the  land  .  .  .  and 
seeing  these  things,  cursed  them,  and  by  coming  into  their 
midst,  its  own  existence  also.  For  such  things  as  these  are 
not  the  natural  environment  of  happiness.  Who  then  being 
happy  would  choose  this  place  to  enjoy  the  good  things  of 
life  ?  None,  so  it  seems,  but  one  whose  life  had  grown 
thoroughly  spiteful  and  rnorbid  :  one  from  whom  all  real 
joy  had  flown,  leaving  him  to  the  gnashing  of  his  teeth. 
"It  is  mine,"  so  he  said,  "and  with  it  I  shall  do  as  I  choose. 
In  the  midst  of  man's  degradation  I  will  build  me  a  mansion. 
My  heart  is  bitter,  and  I  curse  the  day  I  was  born.  But  with 
the  sight  of  my  wealth,  still  more  will  I  curse  those  around 
me.  I  will  set  my  castle  in  the  midst  of  their  misery  and  from 
its  high  windows  I  shall  look  down  on  all  that  is  mine.  I 
shall  laugh  and  deride  their  weakness,  for  it  is  I  who  am 
strong.  It  is  I  who  am  bitter,  and  it  is  I  who  shall  do  as 
I  please."  But  this  is  not  the  misery  that  comes  of  poverty. 
Indeed  this  might  afford  the  normal  man  with  many  lumin- 
ous moments,  although  at  its  best  it  can  boast  but  a  gro- 
tesque beauty. 

The  tide  is  rising  from  the  Thames,  forcing  the  water  into 
this  smaller  stream.  Lining  either  side  there  runs  a  narrow 
sward  of  tall  river  grass — beautifully  green  and  swaying 
gently  to  each  breath  of  wind.  The  river  between  is  calm 
and  scarcely  moving.  Further  down,  two  men  are  poling 
a  great  barge.  There  is  an  occasional  splash,  the  thud  of 
dropping  poles,  and  the  inarticulate  sound  of  men's  voices. 
Near  at'hand,  a  flood  gate  retains  the  water  of  a  still  smaller 
stream.  Men  and  women  work  in  the  gardens  that  run 
along  either  side.  One  of  them  scrapes  a  spade,  and  except 
for  the  chance  cry  of  a  child  there  is  no  other  sound. 

But  over  all,  far  and  near,  there  hovers  a  strange  incon- 
gruous serenity.  For  this  is  none  the  less  an  ill-natured 
country  which  in  some  subtle  manner  would  seem  to  epito- 
mise a  sordid  beauty,  as  though  to  draw  from  all  greatly 
mundane  things  whatever  expression  of  virtue  they  might 
contain.     It  is  seen  in  the  intermingling  contrasts  of  beauty 


and  ugliness.  To  the  fore  is  a  hazy  landscape.  We  can 
dimly  see — b\it  we  clearly  know  what  it  contains.  And  above 
all,  above  these  broken  fields  and  scraggy  trees,  above  these 
sceptre-like  chimneys  and  the  grim  masses  at  their  base, 
a  real  sun  is  shining,  ever  as  though  to  gild  witli  true  gold 
the  basest  work  of  its  creatures.  But  it  rests  in  the  arms  of 
two  soot-begrimed  clouds,  and  while  its  light  is  reflected  in 
the  passing  river  and  the  swampy  ponds,  it  is  nevertheless 
light  that  is  hushed  and  muffled  ;  like  the  souls  of  labour- 
ridden  people.  For  this  is  the  expression  of  a  labouring 
city,  and  neither  the  sun  nor  any  other  star  can  make  it 
more  than  seem  a  nobler  thing.     Everywhere  it  is  the  same. 

On  The  River 

On  the  river,  large  shipis  and  .iinall  pass  to  and  [fro,  with 
only  their  masts  and  funnels  showing  abo''  ^  the  banks.  One 
passes  by  the  entrance  of  the  smaller  stream  and  mingles  its 
smoke  with  that  of  thfe  factories  that  overshadow  its  water. 
Of  these  there  is  a  long  uneven  row  following  at  right  angles 
from  the  greater  river.  There  also  everything  is  signifi- 
cantly quiet,  and  except  for  the  occasional  figure  of  a  man, 
no  living  thing  is  to  be  seen.  The  factories  are  of  the  smaller, 
ramshackle  class  :  Chemical  and  guano  works,  a  hide  and 
skin  factory,  and  others  of  various  kinds.  This  part  of  the 
country  had  known  the  activity  of  other  days.  Every- 
wTiere  the  natural  earth  lies  many  feet  under  great  areas  of 
refuse.  The  upper  arch  of  a  disused  tunqel  recedes  and  is 
lost  in  the  rearward  fields.  There  are  pits  and  mounds,  all 
overgrown  with  noxious  and  stunted  weeds.  A  dry,  nose- 
biting  quality  infiltrates  the  air,  and  soon  the  vilest  of  foul 
odours  rolls  up  like  a  monster.  A  horse  and  cart  come  through 
a  gate,  and  with  them  a  great  wave  of  unseen  virulence — the 
natural  atmosphere,  so  it  seems,  of  those  who  dwell  within. 

And  yet,  despite  the  general  quietness  of  the  day,  there  is 
a  low,  ill-matured  whistle  in  the  wind.  Then  too  there  is  a 
house  in  sight — a  smaller  one  this  time — which  bespeaks  dark 
night  deeds,  associating  us  with  those  blood-curdling  stories 
people  read  in  their  days  of  innocence.  It  is  double-storied. 
Several  lines  of  heavily  laden  telegraph  poles  wind  into  the 
distance  behind  it.  It  has  on  either  side  a  chimney  hke  two 
Satanic  ears.  Its  windows  are  almond-shaped  eyes.  The 
central  doorway  is  capped  by  a  sharp  perverted  curve,  an 
evil  nose,  so  that  the  whole  architectural  idea  has  as  it  were 
the  countenance  of  commonplace  villainy. 

The  fields  spread  everywhere— some  overgrown  and  green, 
others  quite  barren.  Between  the  factories  and  the  foot- 
path small  swamps  and  pools  of  green  slime  line  the  way, 
and  beyond,  a  row  of  attendant  cottages  succeeds  the  factories. 
Women  are  standing  talking  by  the  roadside.  A  boy  with 
donkey  and  cart  is  preparing  for  the  city.  At  the  mouth  of 
the  smaller  river  there  is  an  ale  house  of  the  kind  with  which 
London  abounds.  Men  and  women  with  their  children  are 
sitting  on  the  bank  above  the  river,  drinking  and  talking. 
Below  them  a  boy  is  lolling  in  a  boat.  His  dog  runs  up  and 
down  the  shore,  and  in  its  vain  endeavour  to  reach  him, 
snaps  fruitlessly  at  the  water.  Out  in  the  open  stream  looms 
a  great  tramp  making  for  its  native  ocean,  and  following  it 
comes  the  wash,  rocking  the  boat  and  driving  the  dog  up  the 
bank  with  its  wave.  The  evening  shadows  spread  across  the 
water,  and,  penetrating  through  them,  stretch  the  long  re- 
flections of  distant  buildings.  The  faint  notes  of  music  rise 
and  fall  on  the  almost  motionless  air,  accompanied  by  the 
subdued- voices  of  men  and  women. 

They  sit  out  in  the  evening.  Resting  thus,  they  seem  to 
make  themselves  one  with  the  all-pervading  spirit  of  peace — 
for  what  can  appeal  more  to  our  sense  of  the  picturesque  and 
seemly,  than  a  group  of  men  and  women  recumbent  in  the 
shadows  that  succeed  the  day. 

But  this  it  is  that  following  the  easier  way  we  so  readily 
accept  the  'more  obvious  reality,  and  pass  over  the  spirit 
that  lurks  so  darkly  beneath  it.  Tradition  would  have  us 
cry  :  "God's  in  his  heaven,  all's  well  with  the  world,"  while 
we,  to  uphold  tradition,  greet  every  seeming  scene  of  tran- 
quility with  applause,  hold  it  fast  in  our  memories  for  evidence, 
and  being  satisfied  pass  on,  although  we  have  but  witnessed 
the  manifestation  of  a  happiness  so  rare,  that  we  have  long 
ceased  to  recognise  it  as  the  natural  heritage  of  man  ;  or  if 
we  recognise  it  as  such,  then  only  to  take  it  as  signifying  a 
state  of  permanence  which  does  not  exist — a  delusion  never- 
theless which  enables  us  to  go  our  way  unhaunted  by  a  truth 
too  uncomely,  too  monstrous,  to  find  itself  at  home  in  the 
dehcate  tenements  of  our  unpractised  minds. 


LAND  &  WATER 

VoLLXXI.     No.  2925.     [vTa-r]  THURSDAY,  may  30,   1918  [l^^hf^f^Fpm     V^^i'lT^^^?l:^l 


Major  William   Orpen,  A.R.A. 

A  portrait  of  the  artist,  by  himself,  now  on  view  at  the  Agnew  Galleries,  Old  Bond  Street 


Land    &    Water  May  30,  191 8 

The  Orpen    Exhibition 


Highlander   Passing  a  Cirave 


Man  with   Cigarette 


Royal  Irish  Fusiliers 


German  Prisoners 


^HE  exhibition  of  paintings  and  drawings  executed  on  the  Western  Front  by  Major  William  Orpen,' A.R.A., 
which  was  opened  by.  Lord  Beaverbrook  last  week  at  the  Agnew  Galleries,  43  Old  Bond  Street,  will  draw' 


T;      .  ,,      „..„.. 

cverj'  one  in  London.  It  will  be  the  most  talked  of  picture  show  this  summer,  for  Major  Orpen  brings  home 
to  the  beholder  the  facts  of  war  in  the  present  year  in  a  more  vivid  manner  than  any  other  artist.  And 
this  is  true  not  only  of  his  paintings,  but  oi  his  drawings  in  black  and  white.  He  has  an  extraordinary 
power  of  .characterisation,  as  will  be  perceived  in  the  four  pictures  reproduced  above  ;  he  compels  a  personal  interest 
in  the  individuals  he  portray.s,  for  one  feels  they  arc  the  very  type  of  men  one  would  like  to  know  personally.  He 
shows  some  magnificent  portraits,  notably  of  Field-Marshals  French  and  Haig,  and  of  Generals  Trenchard  and  David 
Watson.  There  are  two  portraits  of  "A  Refugee,"  a  pretty  lady,  whose  anonymity  fends  additional  charm.  The  tints 
of  his  landscapes  are  singularly  lo\*cly,  and  remain  in  the  mind,  and  he  has  the  power  of  imparting  pathos  to  broken 
buildings  and  fields.  It  is  right  that  this  exhibition  should  be  under  the  direction  of  the  Ministry  of  Information,  for  it 
is  informative  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word.  The  civilian  who  enters  it  leaves  with  a  new  sense  of  the  fighting  line, 
and  a  lively  visualisation  of  the  scenes  of  those  heroic  episodes  of  w:liich  he  reads  daily  in  the  papers,  but  which,  bv 
very  repetition,  assume  after  a  time  an  air  of  unreality.  Major  .Orpen  corrects  this.  He  conveys  every  one  with' the 
least  imagination  to  the  Front,  and  shows  what  is  actually  going  on,  all  the  horror  of  trench  and  battlefield,  and  that 
strange  ironic  beauty  in  which  Nature  seems  to  delight  for  the  niockerj'  of  man.      The.  nn+i",-,r.  v.00  ^^o^^«  4^ 't,=  ^^.,uk. 


grateful  to  the  artist^for  the  work  itself  and  for  his  generous  gift  of  it. 


The  nation  has  reason  to  be  doubly 


May    30,    191 8 


Land    &    Water 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  -.    HOLBORN    2828 

THURSDAY,  MAY  30,  1918. 

Contents 

PAGi: 

-Major  William  Orpeii,  A.k.A,_  i 

The  Orpen  Exhibition.     (Photographs)  2 
The  Outlook                                                                       '3 

The  Delay  and  the  Attack.     By  H.  Belloc  4 

The  Tiirkish  Conspiracy — III.     By  Henry  Morgenthaii  8 

May  31st,  I9i(>-ic)i7-i9i8.     By  Arthur  Pollen  11 

"The  South"  Entrenched.     By  Herman  \\'hitaker  13 

Brazil's  Part  in  the  War  i.5 

A  Naval  Incident.     By  Capricornus  i') 

The  Indispensable.  Artist.     Bv  Charles  Marriott  17 

Victorians  with  the  Gilt  Off.  "  By  J.  C.  Squire  i'8 

New  Salonika.     (With  phot<),!,'raph>.)     By  T.  H.  Mnwson  19 

The  Boudoir  22 

Notes  on  Kit  xi 

Notice 

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with  their  newsagents,  or  to  register  a  subscription 
at  this  office,  5  Chancery  Lane,  W.C.2. 


The  Outlook 


THE  lont;  delay  of  five  weeks  since  the  defeat  of 
the  enemy  on  April  29th  closed  upon  Monday 
morning  with  a  double  attack  which  he  launched 
in  Champagne  and  in  Flanders.  The  first  was 
pressed  against  a  sectgr  where  tlie  French  had 
noticed  for  some  time  a  concentration  of  enemy  artillerv, 
and  where  certain  British  divisions  had  been  brought  from 
the  north,  the  presence  of  which  was  noted  in  the  enemy 
communiques  twenty-four  hours  before.  The  second'  attack 
was  on  the  well-known  ground — about  ten  miles  in  extent  of 
front — which  covers  the  hills  beyond  Mount  Kemmel  and  the 
southern  part  of  the  Ypres  salient.  It  nins  fiom  the  front 
of  Locre  to  Voorijiezeele,  near  the  Ypres  Canal. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  as  is  remarked  elsewhere  in  this  issue, 
that  the  interval  of  delay  which  the  enemy  has  allowed  to 
pass  corresponds  with  the  period  required  for  the  recruiting 
of  his  for^-es  after  the  losses  of  the  first  main  offensive  between 
March  21st  and  .\pril  29th.  If  it  is  his  intention  to  use  the 
great  masses  which  we  know  he  has  concentrated  on  the 
centre  of  the  salient — that  is,  in  the  region  of  Albert  and  in 
front  of  Amiens — then  these  two  attacks  in  the  extremities 
of  the  line  will  appear  as  secondary  efforts,  with  the  object  of 
pinning  down  the  troops  there  and  preventing  reinforce- 
ments for  the  centre.  But  if  he  develops  the  attack  in  Cham- 
pagne and  makes  it  his  principal  business,  it  will  depend 
upon  whether  he  can  turn  the  strong  ridge  of  Chemin  dcs 
Dames  on  the  south,  as  he  is  apparently  attempting  to  do. 
*  *  * 

There  was  a  time,  not  so  very  long  ago,  when  the  evidence  of 
the  connection  between  the  German  enemy  and  the  Sinn  Fein 
movement,  which  was  published  officially  last  week,  would  have 
l)een  received  with  incredulity  in  this  country.  The  idea  that 
the  Easter  rebellion  of  1916  should  have  been  planned  by  an 
Ambassador  in  a  neutral  coimtry,  and  every  detail  worked  out 
d<nvn  to  theactnal  dateof  the  uprising,  would  until  recently  have 
been  deemed  an  impossible  breach  of  the  laws  of  international 
hospitality.  But  to  those  who  have  followed  in  Land  &  W.ater 
the  exposure  of  the  plots  incubated  at  the  Cierman  Embassy  in 


Washington,  the  villainy  appears  merely  part  and  parcel  of  the 
ordinary  behaviour  of  von  Bernstorff  and  von  Papen. 

The  villainy  of  these,  two  highly  placed  German  officials 
has  been  estabhshed  plainly  by  Mr.  French  ^trother.  Docu- 
ments have  been  published  in  these  pages  which  have  placed 
beyond  all  suspicion  the  infamy  to  which  they  were  willing 
and  eager  to  stoop  in  service  to  their  State.  To  hoodwink  the 
American  Government  by  adding  to  diplomatic  telegrams, 
after  they  had  received  sanction  for  dispatch,  was  to  them  a 
natural  trick  to  play  on  the  "idiotic  Yankees."  It  did  not 
offend  their  sense  of  Itonour.  The  reason  for  this  is  perhaps 
a  simple  one  :  they  totally  lack  that  sense.  Civihsation  has  \ 
been  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  honour,  as  understood  by 
men  of  rectitude  in  all  ages  and  in  all  climes,  is  a  virtue 
which  has  no  place  in  Teuton  character. 

*  *  * 

The  publication  of  this  evidence  should  strike  a  death 
blow  to  the  Sinn  Fein  movement.  No  effort  will  be  spared 
to  minimise  or  distort  the  related  facts.  But  the  period  over 
which  the  conspiracy  extends  is  in  itself  corroboration  of  the 
truth  of  it.  One  has  only  to  read  the  public  utterances  of 
the  Sinn  Fein  leaders  or  to  listen  to  the  songs  which  the 
rank  and  file  sing  openly  in  Ireland  to  realise  that  an  active 
alliance  with  Germany  was  entirely  to  their  liking. 

The  Government  have  to  play  the  man  and  stamp  out 
boldly  this  rebellious  spirit.  If  it  weakens  and  finds  pretexts 
or  excuses  for  the  rebels,  then  it  cannot  expect  support  either 
here  or  elsewhere.  But  if  it  acts  strongly,  it  will  be  assured 
of  the  goodwill  and  co-operation  of  all  loyal  subjects,  and  we 
maintain  that  it  will  find,  notwithstanding  superficial  evidence 
to  the  contrary,  that  loyalty  exists  in  Ireland  to  a  far  greater 
degree  than  is  generally  supposed.  Weakness  and  hesitation 
in  a  crisis  of  this  character  are  the  deadly  sins. 

*  *  * 

The  week  has  been  conspicuous  for  two  pieces  of  work  in  ^ 
the  air  ;  the  one  highly  characteristic  of  the  enemy's  methods, 
the  other  of  the  increasing  superiority  of  the  Allies.  The 
first  has  been  the  raiding  by  night  of  a  large  British  hospital 
area  far  behind  the  battle  front  ;  the  second  has  been  a 
series  of  British  raids  on  the  German  towns  of  the  Rhine 
Basin,  and  particularly  a  most  effective  one  upon  the  pro- 
vincial capital  of  Cologne.  The  raiding  of  the  British 
hospitals,  though  the  worst,  is  not  the  first  case  of  this  kind 
of  atrocity.  The  enemy  has  already  been  guilty  of  the  same 
kind  of  thing  at  Bar  le  Due  many  months  ago,  when  he 
deliberately  chose  in  a  night  raid  a  restricted  area  which 
he  loiew  to  be  entirely  given  up  t,o  hospitals. 

But  the  attack  upon  the  British  base  hospitals  last  week 
has  a  character  of  its  own.  It  was  designed  in  the  first  place 
to  compel  the  British  to  use  more  tonnage  for  the  transport 
of  wounded  overseas,  and  to  abandon  their  system  of  hospitals 
on  the  Continent  ;  and  in  the  second  place  to  reinforce  the 
strong  political  effort  the  enemy  is  making  to  arrive  at  a 
convention  which  shall  put  an  end  to  air  raids' over  anything 
but  the  war  zone. 

The  raid  by  daylight  over  Cologne  had  the  best  effect  ; 
it  created  a  greater  impression  upon  the  civilian  population 
of  Germany  than  has  yet  been  registered,  and  it  is  an  excellent 
augury  for  the  future.  The  development  of  this  policy  will 
be  of  more  value  on  the  political  side  of  the  war  than  has  yet 
perhaps  been  appreciated  among  the  Allies.  The  immunity 
of  German  soil  from  the  suffering  inflicted  upon  the  Allied 
capitals  and  other  towns  (including  Venice)  for  many  months 
past  has  been  a  very  great  factor  in  preserving  the  civilian 
moral  of  our  enemies. 

*  *  * 

If  one  may  judge  from  the  provincial  Press,  farmers  are 
protesting  loudly  against  the  proposal  of  the  Budget  to 
increase  their  liabihty  for  income-tax.  It  is  difficult  to  see 
any  reason  for  their  protest.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer proposes  to  charge  them  on  double  their  rent,  but 
they  are  still  to  have  the  option  of  paying  on  the  same  basis 
as  other  people  -that  is,  on  their  actual  profits  under 
Schedule  D.  The  plea  put  forward  on  their  behalf,  that  so 
few  farmers  keep  any  accounts,  is  not  a  sound  argument 
-  against  this  alternative.  The  man  who  does  notr  or  who 
cannot,  keep  such  simple  accounts  as  will  satisfy  the  Inland  ■ 
Revenue  authorities  is  certainly  not  qualified  to  have  the 
control  of  land.  The  real  and  only  reasonable  objection  to 
this  proposal  is  that  any  alternative  should  be  given. 

It  is  true  that  the  farmer  pays  more  than  his  fair  share  of 
local  taxation,  which  entitles  him  to  special  treatment 
in  regard  to  his  payment  for  income-tax,  but  so  long  as  he 
gets  this  special  treatment  under  the  latter  head  he  is  not 
likely  to  get  justice  under  the  former.  As  a  class,  they  stand 
to  gain  more  by,  a  fair  revision  of  the  incidence  of  local  taxa- 
tion than  thev  will  lose  over  income-tax. 


Land   &   Water 


May  30,  19 1  8 


The  Delay  and  the  Attack:  By  Hilaire  Belloc 


AT  the  moment  tlicse  lines  are  written  (on  the 
afternoon  of  Monday,  May  27th),  news  reaches 
London  that  two  offensives  ha\'e  been  launclied 
by  the  enemy  early  this  morning  at  widely 
distant  points  :  the  Flanders  front  before  Mount 
Kemmcl,  in  the  extreme  north,  and  l^he  Champagne  front 
before  Kheims,  in  the  extreme  south. 

The  delay  of  the  enemy  before  resuming  his  offensive 
— the  Allied  command  deliberately  left  him  full  choice 
therein — was  up  to  the  moment  of  that  attack  the  chief 
object  of  military  interest.  It  admits  of  little  analysis  and 
less  conjecture. 

The  enemy's  delay  was  due  to  one  main  cause  :  the  neces- 
sity far  recruitment.  To  this  must  probably  be  added  the 
time  necessary  for  a  change  of  plan — since  his  first  plan 
failed.  There  may  possibly  be  added  doubtful  elements 
such  as  his  waiting  for  new  material,  fete.  We  may  add,  if 
we  will,  the  effect  upon  him  of  the  present  Allied  superiority. 
in  air  work  and  the  perpetual  harassing  of  his  concentrations 
in  men  and  material.  But  it  remains  true  that  his  chief 
cause  for  delay  was  recruitment. 

That  he  has  had  to  change  his  plan  meant,  of  course,  an 
immense  amount  of  new  staff  work,  a  certain  amount  of 
re-arrangement,  and  possibly  further  delay  caused  through 
the  discussion  of  alternative  objects.  But  his  inability  to 
strike  again  until  he  had  in  great  measure  replaced  the 
losses  of  his  last  immense  effort  to  reach  a  decision,  was  the 
governing  condition  of  that  halt  in  operations  which  had  been 
so  striking  since  April  29th,  when  he  suffered  a  heavy  defeat. 
We  have  here  available  figures  to  guide  us.  The  enemy 
lost  during  that  great  offensive  between  March  21st  and 
April  29th,  one  way  and  another,  counting  sickness  and 
every  form  of  depletion,  not  less  than  500,000  men.  He 
may  have  lost  more.  He  may  have  lost  up  to  600,000.  But 
500,000.  is  a  safe  figure. 

It  has  been  said  in  this  paper,  and  I  think  justly,  that  he 
was  then  budgeting  for  losses  of  some  650,000  at  the  most. 
To  have  lost  more  than  that  in  the  first  blow  before  reaching 
a  decision  .would  have  crippled  him  hopelessly.  As  a  fact, 
when  he  saw  that  he  had  failed  to  reach  a  decision  he  checlyed 
his  losses  before  the  possible  maximum  was  reached. 

Granted  this,  what  were  the  forms  of  recruitment  upon 
which  he  could  rely  should  he  determine  to  break  off  the 
battle  and  allow  a  long  pause  for  the  restoration  of  his  estab- 
lishments ?  His  allies  may  be  ruled  out.  Austria  can  afford 
next  to  nothing,  and  there  are  political  difficulties  as  well. 
He  can  bring  little  more  of  use  from  the  East.  What  else  had 
he  wherewith  to  refit  ? 

His  two  sources  of  recruitment  are  hospital '  returns  and 
his  last  class  called  up  and  in  training  ;  part  of  which  is 
already  in  depot  and  ready  to  be  drafted  into  the  fighting  units. 
In  round  numbers,  something  over  60  per  cent,  of  those 
in  hospital  at  any  moment  return  to  the  army  after  an  average 
absence  of  four  months.  The  rest  are  killed,  mutilated,  or 
sick  beyond  hope  of  immediate  further  service. 

To  have  lost  500,000  men,  therefore,  in  the  great  offensive 
which  ended  upon  April  29th  would  mean  that  if  the  enemy 
delayed  to  the  end  of  the  summer  he  would  get  back  from 
his  hospital  returns  alone,  theoretically,  some  300,000  men  ; 
in  practice,  perhaps,  a  quarter  of  a  million. 

But  it  was  not  a  question  of  waiting  for  the  longest  possible 
time,  but  of  waiting  for  j  ust  so  much  time  as  would  give  him 
the  highest  effective  returns,  at  the  least  disadvantage  to 
himself  through  tlie  growth  of  his  opponent  and  of  civilian 
strain  at  home.     It  is  a  junction  in  a  double  variant. 

Now,  the  curve  of  returns  after  one  short  intense  effort 
fliictuates  sharply.  There  is  an  early  period  of  rapid  returns 
for  very  slightly  wounded  or  slighty  sick.  Then  comes  a 
period  varying  Jrom  six  to  nine  weeks  during  which  what 
may  be  called  the  normal  lighter  cases  are  beipg  cured,  and 
during  which  the  curve  flattens.  At  the  end  of  it  the  curve 
rapidly  rises,  the  rise  representing  the  discharge  in  great 
numbers  of  the  men  who  have  passed  through  the  simple 
and  easier  cures  and  cofne  out  again.  Then  comes  a  long 
period  of  slow  and  fairly  even  rise  representing  the  gradual 
return  of  the  graver  cases  in  their  order. 

Other  things  being  equal,  the  moment  when  the  large 
returns  begin  to  come  in.  say,  after  six  to  eight  weeks,  is 
likely  to  be  the  moment  of  greatest  efficiency.  It  is  the 
moment  the  enemy  has  chosen. 

The  second  factor  in  recruitment  is  the  new  class. 

This  new  class  is  in  tlio  ]>r,-;r.nt  '"^e  class  1020 -that  is, 


the  lads  who  we're  born  in  1900,  and  wiio  attain  their  eigh- 
teenth birthday  between  January  ist  and  December  31st  of 
the  present  year.  Rather  more  than  one-half  of  tliem  are 
still  under  eighteen  years  of  age.  It  is  necessary  that  the 
oldest  should  bo  used  first,  and,  even  so,  they  have  been 
called  and  trained  earlier  than  any  other  Germ;m  class  senior 
to  them  since  the  beginning  of  tlie  wan  What  can 
this  class  now  provide  ^  Normally,  it  would  provide  quite 
at  the  end  of  this  summer  about  450,000  ;  but  for  the  moment 
200,000  is  the  highest  figure  we  can  possibl}'  allow,  and  it  is 
certain  that  those  200,000  will  not  be  put  into  the  fighting 
units  right  away,  but  kept  for  immediate  drafts  when  the 
fighting  begins. 

Our  conclusion  is  that  the  enemy,  so  far  as  mere  numbers 
are  concerned,  can  already  bring  up  his  establishments,  if 
he  is  dealing  only  with  the  divisions  he  has  already  put  in, 
very  nearly  to  the  weight  in  which  he  was  before  the  great 
attack  of  March  21st.  He  has  now,  so  far  as  mere  numbers 
are  concerned,  so  replaced  some  70  per  cent.,  or  a  little  more, 
of  his  losses.  If  he  likes  to  risk  the  holding  of  his  line  with 
even  less  men  than  he  held  it  before,  he  can  milk  the  divisions 
that  have  not  been  in  or  bring  them  up  bodily  to  replace 
divisions  mauled  in  the  recent  fighting,  gending  the  Iktter 
back  to  the  quiet  portions  of  the  line.  To  replace  three- 
quarters  of  your  losses  when  your  losses  have  been  from  a 
/third  to  a  quarter  of- what  you  put  in  is  very  nearly  to  restore 
your  original  condition.  After  a  delay  thus  calculated  very 
nearly  to  fill  the  gaps  created  by  the  great  offensive  of  last 
March  and  April,  and  its  failure,  we  have  news,  as  I  write 
these  lines,  of  a  renewed  attack. 

The  news  is  fragmentary  so  far  and  quite  inconclusive. 
But  the  prime  characteristic  of  it  is  that  two  efforts  are  being 
made  by  the  enemy  upon  two  sectors  as  widely  separate  as 
possible — from  100  to  115  miles  apart.  The  fir.st  and  appar- 
ently (so  far  as  the  news  goes)  the  largest  effort,  is  being 
made  in  the  sector  of  I^eims.  Its  exact  extent  is  still 
uncertain.  We  do  not  yet  know,  at  the  moment  of  writing, 
whether  it  includes  the  strong  position  of  the  Chemin  des 
Dames  or  not,  but  presumably  it  does.  The  second  effort 
is  being  made  in  Flanders  upon  the  familiar  ground  which 
was  that  of  the  last  great  battle  of  April  29tft_in  front  of 
Mount  Kemmel,  from  Locre  to  Voormezeele. 

No  indication  of  the  exercise  of  pressure  elsewhere  is  yet 
to  hand,  but  it  is  probable  that  two  such  very  widely  separated 


'Sea 


W^^nnn  f  .    .      uf'f  ""'"^'■>'  *°  ^"^her  work  in  the  centre.. 
We  cannot  tell.     We  know  that  for  the  moment  the  greatest 
weight  IS  m  the  south,  and  we  await  the  event 
Pnin^;,Cf/  r  ^°.  ^^^P""*;^^  ^  ''"^f  dispatch  describes''the 
frnn7of  .hi  ?  ^^  ^^  ^^°"^^>'  "'^ht.    He  has  attacked  on  a 
front  of  about  25  miles,  pushed  back  the  Allied  right  between 


i 


May  30,  1918 


Land   &   Water 


Rheims  and  the  hills,  and  so  turned  theeastern  end  of  the  ridge 
known  as  the  Chemin  des  Dames  from  the  eastern  end  of  this 
ridge,  therefore  the  Allied  line  has  fallen  back  to  the  River 
Aisne  south  of  it,  and  the  enemy  has  reached  the  road 
crossing  at  Pont  Darcy.     No  further  news  is,to  hand.] 

The  Air 

There  remains  the  work  in  the  air.  Of  the  normal  work, 
the  work  of  mihtary  operations  proper  (which  is'  nearly 
the  whole)  all  we  know  is  that  the  Allied  superiority  is  main- 
tained and  increased.  But  tYie  comparatively  small  extra 
work  designed  for  political  effect  merits  our  special  attention 
this  week.  The  most  striking  and  the  worst  incident  in  it 
was  the  deliberate  bombardment  of  a  great  British  Base 
Hospital  area  by  the  cnem\'.  What  he  did  here  was  con- 
sonant to  what  he  has  done  throughout  the  war,  to  wit, 
the  breaking  of  nil  civilised  conventions  where  he  Hjoupht 
there  was  advantage  to  himself  with  no  -corresponding 
disadvantage  that  he  could  see.  It  was  exactly  the  same 
calculation  as  made  him  massacre  and  bum  in  Belgium 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  as  made  him  murder  Captain 
Fryatt.  No  parallel  action  could,  he  thought,  be  taken 
against  himself. 

It  is  clear  that  if  he  compels  that  one  of  his  enemies  who 
has  maritime  communications  to  spend  more  tonnage  in 
transporting  wounded  ;  to  subject  more  wounded  to  the 
strain  of  two  transhipments?  etc.,  he  has  a  clear  advantage, 
because  his  own  communications  for  evacuating  wounded 
are  uninterrupted  and  by  land.  Further,  he  can  withdraw 
at  necessity  liis  base  hospitals  to  a  great  distance.  The 
British,  short  of  crossing  the  sea,  must  remain  within  radius 
of   aircraft. 

But  he  had  another  object,  which  was  purely  political, 
and  that  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  Convention  which  shall 
put  an  end  to  the  bombing  of  anything  that  is  not  of  strictly 
military  importance  and  within  the  war  zone.  He  desires 
to  put  a  special  strain  upon  the  Allies  in  this  respect  because 
he  knows  that  if  he  does  not  get  his  Convention  the  Alhes 
can  in  the  near  future  put  a  greater  strain  on  him,  which 
will  be  in  his  particular  case  really  dangerous. 

We  shall  never  get  a  proper  view  of  the  present  and  coming 
air  raids  in  the  Rhine  Valley  until  we  put  ourselves  in  the 
shoes  of  the  enemy  and  see  how  various  experiences  combined 
have  produced  in  him  a  state  of  mind  upon  which  these  repeated 
raids  are  pecuharly  efficacious. 

The  principal  of  these  experiences  is  the  tradition  of  victory 
combined  with  complete  security  at  horrie. 

The  very  oldest  men  alive  in  North  Germany  to-day, 
the  men  between  70  and  90,  have  their  memories  of  yqung 
manhood  crammed  with  victories  not  only  on  the  largest 
scale,  but  of  the  most  decisive  sort,  and  these  achieved  against 
first  class  Powers  with  incredible  facility  and  rapidity.  They 
remember  the  wars  whicli  unified  North  Germany  under 
Prussia  between  '64  and  '70  as  the  very  foundation  of  their 
lives. 

Men  somewhat  younger,  men  still  in  the  vigour  of 
public  service,  men  from  55  to,  say,  68,  can  recall  as  children 
the  same  experiences.  No  one  living  in  North  Germany 
can  recall  anything  else.  The  whole  psychology  of  that 
modern  experiment  which  still  calls  itself  the  German  Empire 
is  steeped  in  a  blind  faith  in  absolute,  riecessary,  conclusive 
victory  upon  the  largest  scale.  No  one  living  remembers 
invasion,  and,  what  is  more,  only  thfe  very  oldest  of  those 
now  living  can  remember  a  state  of  mind  in  wliich  defeat 
was  thought  possible. 

With  the  national  soul  ill  such  a  state  the  German  Empire 
launched  its  campaign'of  conquest  in  1914.  There  followed, 
it  is  true,  a  certain  disappointment.  Victory  did  not  prove 
as  simple,  as  easy,  or  as  rapid  as  had  been  expected.  Still 
there  was  victory,  and,  above  all,  there  was  the  continuation 
of  complete  security. 

All  the  news  of  civil  damage  and  humiliation  which  the 
German  at  home  reads  about  (or  the  German  soldier  either 
for  that  matter)  was  news  of  harm  dune  to  the  enemy,  not  to 
himself.  Did  French  and  British  gunfire  fall  upon  points 
behind  tlife  lines,  those  points  were  French  and  Belgian. 
A  German  attack  involved  the  ruin  of  foreign  land'i  Even 
German  defence  involved  nothing  but  the  ruin  of  foreigrt 
land. 

Later  when  the  German  armies  made  their  retire- 
ment to  what  was  called  the  Hindenburg  line,  they 
devastated  territory  which  thev  detested,  and  which  was 
not  their  own.  And  all  this  while,  though  suffering  the 
strain  of  partial  blockade,  civilian  life  in  Germany  was 
quite  secure. 

We  cannot  grasp  the  enormous  effect  of  air  w(jrk  in  Ger- 
many until  we  grasp  tliat  state  of  mind. 


The  first  sign  of  what  such  an  effect  could  be  was  the  ex- 
plosion of  anger,  surprise  and  furious  recrimination  which 
followed  the  French  raid  upon  Karlsruhe.  So  normal  was 
life  within  Germany,  so  much  did  all  the  authorities  take  the 
old  state  of  affairs  for  granted,  that  the  Royalties  were 
quietly  visiting  each  other  in  the  Palace  of  Karlsruhe  when 
the  raids  took  place,  and  the  Queen  of  a  neutral  country 
narrowly  escaped  death. 

A  Small  Beginning 

But  Karlsruhe  was  only  a  beginning — and  a  small  beginning. 
After  al),  the  opportimities  (apparently)  of  hurting  French 
territory  in  such  a  fashion  were  much  greater  than  the  oj>- 
portunities  of  hurting  German  territory.  There  was,  as  yet, 
no  conspicuous  Allied  superiority  in  the  air.  It  seemed  safe 
for  tfte  enemy  to  pursue  an  intensive  policy  of  terror  over 
Allied  civilian   territory. 

We  said  in  these  columns  many  months  ago,  that  the  test 
would  be  Cologne.  The  worSs  written  in  these  columns 
were  to  this  effect^-  "The  first  bombardment  of  Cologne 
will  wake  an  echo  not  only  throughout  Germany  but  round 
the  world." 

Why  had  Cologne  this  great  importance  ?  On  account 
of  its  size,  its  political  history  and  its  character  as  the  capital 
of  the  great  industrial  district  which  lies  to  the  north  of  it. 
Cologne  was  the.vone  great  city  of  Western  Germany  which 
had  this  character  of  a  capital,  of  a  provincial  metropolis  ; 
of  a  centre  of  influence,  of  a  great  historical  aggregate  of 
population.  It  was  intensely  jingo ;  there  had  appeared 
in  its  Press  threats  against!  the  French  and  British  more  violent, 
and  perhaps  one  may  say  more  simple,  than  in  the  Press 
of  any  other  city.  It  had  constantly  seen  pass  through  it, 
and  had  insulted,  those  long  trains  of  prisoners  over  whom 
for  three  years  it  had  exulted.  And  all  the  while  it  had 
regarded  itself  as  certainly  out  of  the  war  as  a  great  city 
could  be.  It  was  the  heart  and  nerve  centre  not  only  of 
the  western  belt  of  the  German  Empire  but  of  its  great 
industrial  ganglion,  the  Lower  Rhine  coalfield,  and  yet  it 
thought  of  itself  as  no  more  than  the  spectator  of,  and  the 
secure  and  happy  applauder  of,  victones  in  hated  foreign 
lands  far  to  the  West.  That,  it  should  be  raided,  raided  by 
day,  and  raided  on  a  large  scale,  produced  a  revolution  in 
the  German  mind.  If  it  could  be  thus  raided  on  a  large 
scale  and  by  day  there  was  apparently  no  limit  to  the  Allied 
power  of  reprisal !  ^ 

You  have  the  measure  of  the  astonishment  and  the  salutary 
terror  produced  by  this  British  achievement  when  you  read 
the  pathetic,  because  child-like,  cotnmentaries  of  the  enemy 
upon  it.  The  principal  Parliamentary  representative  of  the 
city  (whose  name  Kuckhoff  is  amusing  to  our  ears)  naively 
suggests  that  the  thing  should  stop.  He  thinks  it  frankly 
intolerable.  He  says  it  must  not  go  on.  The  Cardinal- 
Archbishop  of  the  place  proposes  that  the  Pope  should  put 
an  end  to  it.  The  newspapers  of  Cologne  ^d  its  district 
all  shriek  at  the  top  of  their  voices  that  it  is  fiendish  to  imperil 
the  lives  of  harmless  women  and  children. 

The  mind  of  Cologne  just  now,  at  the  end  of  May,  1918, 
is  far  more  different  from  what  the  mind  of  Cologne  was  six 
months  ago,  than  is  the  mind  of  any  western  belligerent 
from  what  it  was  four  years  ago.  And  Cologne  is  only 
a  beginning  of  what  may  be  done  for  the  conversion  of  the 
North  German.  In  the  West  every  one  has  known  Gennjm 
outrage  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  war,  invasion,  or  at 
the  very  best  the  necessity  for  bearing  with  re\Trse  and 
humiliation.  The  original  British  divisions  had  not  landed 
and  been  deployed  in  line  more  than  a  few  hours  before  they 
had  to  suffer  the  terrible  ordeal  of  the  retreat  from  Mons. 
Belgium  in  the  first  days  of  the  war  had  suffered  arson, 
massacre,  rape,  pillage,  and  inhuman  insult  after  a  fashion 
which  no  Christian  nation  had  yet  known.  With  Northern 
France  it  was  the  same  ;  and  the\  captives  had  gone  into- 
Germany  by  tens  of  thousands,  "fhe  monuments  of  anti- 
quity were  ruined,  the  decencies  of  life  dissolved,  and  a  sort 
of  chaos  seemed  to  have  come.  It  is  nearly  four  years  since 
that  time.  In  all  these  four  years  the  British,  the  French, 
the  Belgians,  and  in  their  turn  the  Itahans  (to  mention  onlj' 
the  West)  have  acquired  a  complete  experience  of  Prussian 
war  and  of  what  it  means  to  have  an  inferior  put  for  a  moment 
over  his  superior ;  what  it  means  when  the  child  of  the 
savage  or  the  bivte  gets  hold  of  a  weapon  which  ought  never 
to  be  left  within  his  reach. 

Meanwhile  the  German  himself,  the  author  of  all  this 
abomination,  was  inmiune.  He  suffered  military  cttsualties  ; 
but  those  are  normal  to  war.  He  saw  none  even  of  his  most 
offensive  modern  erections  destroyed  ;  not  one  of  his  prin- 
cipal towns  heard  the  noise  of  the  aeroplane  droning  above 
it  ;  no  open  coastal  place  of  his  suddenly  suffered  murder  from. 


Land    &    Water 


May  30,   1918 


tliL'  sea.  A>  Ills  o\m  maritime  coiiuiuin- ua>  destroyed  no 
civilian  sailors  or  unarmed  passengers  of  liis  own  people  suffered 
inconvenience,  let  alone  indiscriminate  murder  by  sea.  The 
war  was  still  to  the  German  the  thing  it  had  been  for  us 
in  the  past  before  the  present  campaign  :     Lamentable  for 


death  and  privation,  but  not  affecting  the  core  of  the  nation, 
its  soil,  its  tissue  as  it  were. 

The  development  of  our  great  raids  of  reprisal  have 
changed  all  that,  and  they  .will  continue  to  change  it  more 
and  more. 


The  Treaty  of  Bucharest 


'  I  ^1 


|HK  President  of  the  United  States  was  heard  every- 

■     where  in   Europe    when    he   said    recently    that    the 

\     intervention  of  his  people    concerned  Russia  just  as 
much  as  it  did  Belgium. 

That  phrase  might  l)e  expanded  to  mean  that  the 
.American  Government  had  appreciated  a  truth  which  in 
this  paper  was  emphasised  continually  many  months  ago, 
when  it  was  hardly  grasped,  which  is  fundamental  to  the 
whole  war :  if  Prussia  can  establish  a  Central  Europe  con-  ■ 
trolling  the  East  she  has  won  the  war,  no  matter  what  happens 
on  the  West  ;  and  the  conception  of  Allied  victory  in  the 
West  side  by  side  with  a  free  hand  for  Prussia  in  the  East  is 
meaningless.  If  we  really  win  in  the  West  we  win  all. 
I'nlcss  we  liberate  the  East  we  lose  all. 

Now,  the  Rumanian  Treaty,  of  which  more  details  are 
now  before  us,  confirms  and  increases  this  vital  conviction. 
The  details  of  the  document  vastly  develop  the  judgment 
farmed  upon  the  first  news  of  it — a  judgment  which  my 
readers  may  recall.  Those  details  (which  can  now  be  studied 
fully  and  at  leisure)  show  Prussia  producing,  as  we  said  three 
weeks  ago,  ^federal  State,  of  which  the  new,  humiliated,  and 
half-absorbed  Rumanian  could  be  taken  as  a  typical  member. 
But  they  also  show  the  complete  control  which  Prussia 
assumes  in  the  formation  of  the  new  State,  the  deliberated 
exclusion  of  all  Western  influence,  the  pretence  or  confidence 
of  moulding  this  particular  element  at  will  (as  Poland, 
Lithuania,  and  Finland  will  later  be  moulded),  and  the 
presence  before  our  eyes  of  a  Prussian  Empire  in  the  making. 
An  Empire  which  could  make  nothing  of  Europe,  it  is  true, 
but  might  well  destroy  what  it  was  too  base  to  understand, 
and  would  certainly  destroy  ourselves. 

The  Treaty  of  Bucharest  was  signed  at  11  a.m.  upon 
Tuesday,  May  7th,  at  Catroceni.  Kuhlmann  was  in  the 
chair.  He  sat  in  the  same  place  as  had  seen  the  declaration 
of  war  issued  by  Rumania  against  the  Central  Powers.  It 
was  a  complete  triumph. 

The  Treaty  of  Bucharest  consists  in  31  articles,  arranged 
in  eight  chapters. 

There  are  three  special  points  in  -the  text  of  the  Treaty 
to  which  I  would  direct  the  attention  of  my  readers. 

The  first  point  is  this  :  That  the  political  future  of  Rumania 
is  left  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror. 

Article  4  (in  chapter  H.)  leaves  only  20,000  Rumanian 
infantry  in  being.  But  this  tiny  force  is  not  independent. 
.•\rticle  5,  of  the  same  chapter,  puts  all  military  material 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  Austro-German  Army  of 
occupation.  Article  6  subjects  to  the  military  authority  of 
the  victors  the  movements  of  every  Rumanian  officer,  even 
for  the  shortest  journey.  Article  7  puts  Austro-German 
officers  into  intimate  connection  with  every  unit.  There  is 
no  power  of  political  autonomy  left  to  Rumania  by  this 
act.     All  is  for  the  moment  in  enemy  hands. 

The  second  point  is  the  destruction  of  all  power  over  the 
great  international  highway  of  the  Danube  save  that  of  the 
Central  Powers.  It  is  exceedingly  important.  It  speci- 
fically eliminates  the  old  right  of  Europe  as  a  whole  in  this 
highway,  and  treats  Russia  as  non-existent.  It  prevents 
even  Bulgaria  having  the  hold  we  thought  it  had  when  we 
first  heard  of  the  treaty.  For  by  sub-section  B  of  article  10, 
chapter  1 1 1.,  the  mouths  of  the  river  are  specifically  handed  over 
not  to  Bulgaria,  but  to  a  "Committee  of  the  four  Allied 
Powers." 

Now,  this  is  something  new  in  Europe.  It  is  curious  that 
so  vital  an  innovation  shouM  not  have  been  seized  by  the 
public.  It  is  the  very  magnitude  of  the  war,  and  the  fact 
that  all  is  still  complete  in  suspense  which  accounts  for  the 
misapprehension  of  the  thing. 

In  the  first  place,  here  is  Prussia  (at  the  head  of  the  New 
Central  European  State)  arranging  matters  so  that  she  can 
reserve  to  herself  in  the  future  all  the  bargaining  between 
Bulgaria  and  Turkey.  The  northern  part  of  the  Dobrudja 
— including  the  town  of  Constanza,  the  great  grain  port — is 
put  into  commission,  as  it  were.  It  is  in  the  hands  of  a 
Round  Table,  with  Prussia  in  the  chair.  Turkey  and  Bulgaria 
are  now  attendants  upon  the  final  decision,  but  that  decision 
will  virtually  leave  neither  Turkey  nor  Bulgaria  possessed  of 


the  mouths  of  the  Danube.     It   will  leave  each  expectant, 
dependent,   and  weakened. 

In  the  second  place,  Europe,  as  Europe,  has  ceased  to 
exist  where  the  Danube  is  concerned.  Now  the  Danube  is 
the  artery  of  Europe  in  the  East.  The  Lower  Danube  is 
the  road  by  which  most  cheaply  and  most  easily  the  grain 
and  the  oil  and  all  other  products  of  the  Hungarian  Plain 
and  the  Northern  Balkans  and  the  vast  Rumanian  cornfield 
reaches  the  rest  of  the  world  This  Lower  Danube  was 
hitherto  by  treaty  almost  like  the  sea.  There  were  particular 
rights,  jealously  guarded,  general  and  international  rights 
more  jealously  guarded  still.  The  Russian'  Empire  was  the 
great  countervailing  weight  which  kept  that  highway  open. 
The  Russian  Empire  has  disappeared. 

I  have  said  that  this  Treaty  of  Bucharest  treats  Russia  as 
non-existent,  and  perhaps  that  negative  point  is  the  most 
striking  point  of  all.  There  was  a  time  when  Great  Britain 
turned  her  foreign  policy  and  her  claim  to  a  part  in  the  world 
upon  her  power  to  support  or  to  control,  to  restrain  or  to 
defend,  those  who  held  the  entry  to  the  Black  Sea.  There 
was  a  timt  when  the  Western  Powers,  and  England  in  par- 
ticular, were  not  only  members,  but  the  chief  members  of 
that  European  Committee  which  counted  the  Lower  Valley 
of  the  Danube  as  something  within  its  purview.  The  Treaty 
of  Bucharest  i>rofesses  to  open  a  new  era  and  to  say  that  all 
this  is  now  closed  to  the  West.  The  Danube  is  mastered  by 
one  Power,  as  the  Rhine  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  was 
to  our  permanent  loss  mastered  in  its  middle  reaches,  mastered 
in  its  upper  reaches  in  1870,  and  as  Prussia  would  master  it 
to-morrow  in  its  lower  reaches  and  its  mouths. 

One  might  write  a  history  of  political  expansion  in  terms  of 
the  great  streams  which,  when  several  nations  are  indepen- 
dent, arc  common  highways,  but  which  when  one  attains 
hegemony  are  the  first  objects  of  the  new  Power.  There  are 
not  many  such,  but  the  Volga  made  the  autocracy  of  Russia  ; 
the  Lower  Mississippi  was  the  test  of  the  complete  continental 
control  by  the  American  States  and  the  exclusion  of  European 
power  ;  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  very  much  more  than 
either  of  these  other  examples,  will  be  the  test  of  whether 
this  new  Power  of  Central  Europe  under  Prussia  shall  remain 
erect  or  not.  During  the  long  centuries  of  civilisation,  for  a 
thousand  years,  since  the  evangelisation  of  Hungary,  nine 
hiuidred  years  ago,  of  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine  a  couple 
of  centuries  before,  the  two  great  sti earns  have  been  the 
common  inheritance  and  the  common  communication  of 
many  and  various  members  in  the  community  of  Christendom. 
The  Rhine  first  passed  almost  entirely  into  one  hand  :  A 
political  peril  supported  by  academic  pedantry.  Its  last 
issues  towards  the  sea  (which  include  the  great  harbour  of 
the  Scheldt)  are,  if  Prussia  has  her  way,  to  be  absorbed  into 
the  Central  European  system  directly  or  indirectly. 

And  now  it  is  the  turn  of  the  Danube.  Between  the  Iron 
Gates  and  the  Black  Sea  the  Danube  is,  according  to  the 
Treaty  of  Bucharest,  to  be  under  the  control  of  the  new 
State — that  is,  to  be  a  Prussian  thing. 

So  much  for  the  first  two  points.  Rumanian  political 
independence  is  held  in  suspense  at  the  will  of  the  conqueror, 
to  be  released  by  degrees,  and  moulded  plastically  at  his  will, 
until  the  new  State  takes  its  place  in  the  Federal  system  of 
Central  Europe,  just  as  the  archbishopric  of  Cologne  was 
absorbed  into  the  State  of  Prussia  a  hundred  years  ago,  and 
just  as  Hanover  and  Frankfurt  were  absorbed  within  living 
memory.  That  was  the  first  point.  The  second  point  was 
the  seizure  of  the  Danube  valley,  the  elimination  of  any  real 
power  over  it  from  the  Iron  Gates  to  the  sea  save  that  of  the 
Central  Powers  under  the  domination  of  Prussia. 

Nq  Guarantees 

The  third  point  is  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time  in  any 
so-called  tieaty  of  peace  a  nation  left  nominally  independent 
IS  also,  by  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest,  left  without  any  guarantees 
for  its  economic  freedom. 

Chapter  iV.  of  the  treaty  is  as  significant  as  anything  that 
has  appeared  m  modern  history.  It  is  entitled  "  Indemnities 
of  War."     It   has  only  two  sentences.     In   the   first,   both 


May  30,  19 1 8 


Land   &   Water 


parties  renounce  any  claim  to  charges  upon  the  other  for  the 
costs  of  the  war.  In  the  second  sentence,  only  twelve  words 
long,  Rumania  is  left  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror 
for  any  indemnity  he  may  in  future  exact.  It  runs  thus, 
translated  into  English  :  "  Future  agreements  are  reserved 
which  shall  regulate  the  indemnities  of  this  war." 

Half  the  fifth  chapter  develops  that  idea  upon  other  lines. 
The  army  of  occupation  retains,  although  peace  has  been 
signed,  the  right  to  requisition  any  amounts  of  any  material 
it  may  demand.  All  the  e.xpenses  of  the  army  of  occupation 
must  be  paid  by  Rumania,  and  all  actions  are  subject  +0 
the  military  tribunals  of  the  conquerors. 

There  is  no  limit  to  the  exportation  from  Rumania  which 
Prussia  may  not  arbitrarily  demand  ;  there  is  no  limit  to  the 
time  over  which  she  may  not  make  those  arbitrary  demands. 
There  is  no  limitation  of  payment  for  what  she  may  seize. 
She  may  pay  nothing  or  she  may  pay  in  her  own  paper  at 
whatever  price  she  chooses.  The  nominal  vendor  may  not 
open  his  mouth.  Such  is  the  bargain.  There  is  no  limit  to 
the  size  of  the  army  of  occupation,  or  to  its  demands,  or  to 
the  surplus  which  it  may  send  abroad,  or  to  the  power  of 
those  who  loot  over  those  who  are  looted. 

If  any  Rumanian  peasant  protests  against  the  action  of 
any  agent  come  to  take  his  stock,  the  issue  will  be  tried  as  a 
criminal  issue  before  a  court  martial  composed  entirely  of 
German  or  Austrian  officers. 

Upon  the  face  of  it,  such  a  treaty  is  not  a  treaty  of  peace 
at  all  :  it  is  a  treaty  of  occupation,  and  almost  of  annexa- 
tion. But  we  must  beware  against  regarding  it  as  a  mere 
piece  of  oppression.  There  is  more  policy  in  it  than  that. 
The  whole  thing  is  based  upon  the  federal  idea  and  upon  the 
experience  of  Prussia  in  the  last  half-century. 

That  experience  leads  the  rulers  of  Prussia  to  believe  that 
if  you  first  thoroughly  master  a  district  by  arms,  and  then 
release  it  within  a  certain  degree  to  enjoy  a  certain  measure 
of  local  freedom    you  can  later  arrange  it  to  suit  yourself  in 


some  scheme  of  federation  the  members  of  which  shall  exer- 
cise, in  all  sorts  of  differing  degrees,  local  customs  and  tradi- 
tions, and  even  the  simulacrum  of  independence.  It  is  the 
experienqc  of  Prussia  that  this  process,  first  of  military 
conquest,  then  of  carefully  regulated  and  very  partial  release, 
digests  the  conquered  into  that  expanding  body  which 
Prussia  ultimately  rules. 

What  remains  of  the  treaty  is  of  secondary  importance 
save  for  one  point  :  the  deliberate  permission  extended  to 
Rumania  to  enter  Bessarabia,  and<  thereby  keep  up  an  open 
■  quarrel  with  the  Ukraine.  It  is  a  policy  which  has  been 
described  often  enough  in  these  columns,  and  the  object  of 
which  is  to  keep  subsidiary  States  weak  by  establishing 
points  of  rivalry  between  them.  We  have  exactly  the  same 
thing  in  the  Polish  province  of  Cholm,  and  tfie  artificial 
arrangement  of  Lithuania  and  in  Courland. 

The  conclusion  of  the  Documents  adds  little  to  our  interest. 

Chapter  VI.  of  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest  expands  at  length 
the  new  arrangement  for  the  Danube,  and  fixes  Munich  as 
the  town  in  which  the  last  details  are  to  be  thrashed  out. 

Chapter  Vll.  does  not  concern  us  particularly.  It  deals 
with  what  it  calls  "religious"  equality,  with  the  special 
object  of  merging  the  German-speaking  Jews  in  the  mass  of 
the   Rumanian. 

Chapter  ^TII.,  which  contains  the  last  three  clauses  of  the 
treaty  (29  to  31),  insists  that  any  economic  arrangements 
made  in  the  future — though  Rumania  does  not  know  to  what 
extent  she ,  may  be  bled — shall  be  deemed  to  date  from  the 
signature  of  this  treaty. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest  is  the  most 
significant  of  all  the  purely  political  events  which  we  have 
seen  in  Europe  since  the  ultimatum  was  launched  against 
Serbia  in  July,  1914.  If  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest  stands, 
no  matter  what  the  results  in  the  West,  Prussia  has  con- 
quered, she  has  the  East  at  her  disposal,  and  our  civilisation 
is  defeated. 


German  Order  of  Battle  on  March  21st 


LIMITATION'S  of  time  and  difficulties  connected  with 
Whit-week  compelled  me  to  postpone  to  the  present 
issue  a  diagram  of  the  German  order  of  battle  as 
that  order  was  described  at  length  in  my  last  article. 
I  now  reproduce  that  diagram  with  certain  explana- 
tions. * 

The  chief  point  to  note,  which  was  emphasised  also  in  my 
article  of  last  week,  is  the  distinction  between  the  internal 
arrangement  of  the  three  German  armies  involved.  The 
Northern  Army  on  the  German  right,  the  XVIIth,  under 
Below,  has  only  two  divisions  kept  as  an  army  reserve  and 
those  two  divisions  in  the  rear  of  its  left.     Its  front  line  is 


It  is  designed  to  do  it  in  the  neighbourhood  of  its  own  centre' 
that  is,  in  the  region  of  St.  Ouentin.  Its  whole  mass  is 
concentrated  upon  the  two  middle  groups,  Webem's  and 
Oetinger's,  while  there  is  a  division  as  army  reserve  behind 
each  of  the  four  sections.  Seen  upon  the  map,  this  third 
mass,  the  XVIIIth  army,  is  not  only  thus  grouped  for  special 
weight  in  its  centre,  but  is  deeper  in  formation  than  the 
other  two.  Finally,  though  the  six  divisions  of  the  Vllth 
army  (Schoeler's  Corps  and  Wichura's)  were  under  Boehn's 
command,  they  are  lent  to,  and  tactically  seem  to  form  part 
of,  Hutier's  force. 

The  whole  sj'Stem  may  be  compared  to  a  great  pendulum 


C^vp^s  —  Orpups  ui  Luie  fhmi  "Worth  tpSout/i 
•BELOW  XV1I*Anny       -MA-RWITZ  II-^Aimy         HUTIER   XV'III^Army 


VlP'teserve 
XV/'^Jles€rvv 


XXXIX^Tles^nv 

XXIII"^  -Reserve 

Xll!"'  Tieserve 

XI\''^  ■^Oierve 


BOEHN  Vfl'^Arnryr 


ncy 

xvw^ 

rV^  "Reserve 


IVH'^Resen'e 


I  "T>iViswns  ui  iute  ^^ support' 
H'UA  fUlaies  ^'Cfu'LT  Qroup 
CJnu/u2-ru^crs~ 

I  T)ivisu}ns  used  as  army 
reser%>es 


JUTVflLes 


<1  I 


XVII*  Amy  -BELOW 


w^krxKf  -uAUwrrz 


XVIII*  Arm/  HUTIER 


'British   nir4  Arm>r  '^rttisfi  V*  Kvmf 

•AKRAS  'Vuigram.  aF  GEHMAN  ORDER  of  "BATTLB   ■JWarcA  2J^/9J8 


VIl'*'.Amy  "BOElfN 


evenly  disposed.  None  of  the  five  group  corps  is  especially' 
milked  to  reinfon  e  any  of  tfie  others.  It  is  a  disposition 
designed  to  strike  with  most  weight  well  south  of  Arras, 
and  therefore  arranged  with  an  eye  to  something  which  is 
expected  further  south  still.  No  group  corps  contains  less 
than  three  divisions,  and  of  the  23  divisions  of  which  the  whole 
was  composed,  9  were  in  support  and  12  in  line.  The  Central 
Army  under  Marwitz  is  similarly  concentrated  by  the  left. 
Its  two  Northern  groups  have  only  two  divisions  each,  with 
nothing  in  support  behind,  and  the  army  reserve  is  five 
divisions  strong,  the  centre  of  gravity  of  it  lying  to  the  south 
of  the  centre.  But  it  is  the  third  in  the  series,  Hutier's  army, 
the  XVIIIth,  wliich  wc  must  specially  note.  It  is  clearly 
designed  to  do  the  main  part  of  the  work,  as  in  fact  it  did. 


of  which|the'weight  isjin''the  south.  It  is  intended  to  swing 
round  a  pivot  on  the  north  in  front  of  Arras,  and  to  break 
t];e  opposing  line  upon  the  .south  in  front  of  its  main  weight. 
In  other  words,  the  order  of  battle,  the  enemy's  plan  as 
revealed  by  it,  corresponds  very  precisely  to  the  event.  ' 
Where  the  enemy  failed  was  only  in  reaping  the  full  results 
of  a  breach  which  he  had  first  effected,  for  it  seems  certain 
enough  that  he  intended  the  chief  effort  to  be  in  the  area 
of  St.  Quentin  and  the  follow-up  to  be  mainly  provided  by 
the  deep  formation  in  that  area.  What  he  did  not  allow  for 
was,  after  a  rupture,  the  rapidity  wiih  which  the  Allied  force 
would  bring  up  reserves  to  dam  the  advancing  flood.  The 
thing  was  done  in  just  a  week.  Ten  days  and  it  would 
have  been  too  late. 


8 


Land    &    Water 


May  30,  19 1 8 


The  Turkish  Conspiracy— III 

The   Narrative    of   Mr.    Henry    Morgenthau,    American   Ambassador    in    Turkey, 

1913-1916 


Mr.  Morgenthau  adds 
to-day  fo  his  porlr.nt 
gallery  of  the  leading 
personalHies  in  Con- 
stantinople at  the  begin- 
ing  of  the  war  a  life 
sketch  of  Ev.ver  Pash.i. 
He  also  continues  his 
narrative  of  persistent 
German  intrigue  in  the 
Turkish  capital. 

CERTAINLY 
Enver  had 
one  trait 
that  made 
for  success 
in  such  a  distracted 
country  as  Turkey — 
audacity.  His  other 
dominating  motive  was 
an  unUmited  ambition. 
I  remember  sitting 
one  night  with  Enver, 

in  his  private  apartment.  On  one  side  hung  a  picture  of 
Napoleon,  on  the  other  one  of  Frederick  the  Great.  Between 
them  sat  Enver  himself !  This  fact  gives  some  notion  of  the 
man's  colossal  vanity  ;  these  two  warriors  and  statesmen  were 
his  great  heroes  and  I  believe  that  Enver  actually  thought 
fate  had  a  career  in  store  for  him  not  unlike  theirs. 

That,  at  26,  he  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  the  revolution 


Mohammed  V.,  Sultan  of  Turkey 

His  Majesty  is  a  kind-hearted  old  gentleman,  who  is  entirely  ignorant  of  the  world,  and  lacking  in 

personal  force  and  initiative. 


in  the  Balkan  war. 
Enver  issued  a  circu- 
lar to  the  Turkish 
commanders  practical- 
ly telling  them  that 
they  must  look  to  him 
for  preferment  alone 
— that  they  could 
make  no  headway  by 
playing  politics  with 
any  group  except  that 
dominated  by  the 
Young  Turks. 

Talaat  was  not  an 
enthusiastic  Prussian 
like  Enver.  He  had 
no  intention  of  playing 
Germany's  game  ;  he 
was  working  chiefly  for 
the  Committee  and 
for  himself.  He  could 
not  succeed  unless  he 
had  control  of  the 
army ;  therefore,  he 
had  made  Enver,  for  years  his  closest  associate  in  "  U  and  P" 
politics,  Minister  of  War.  But  he  needed  a  strong  army 
if  he  was  to  have  any  at  all  ;  therefore  he  had  turned  to 
Germany.  Wangenheim  and  Talaat,  in  the  latter  part  of 
1913,  had  arranged  that  the  Kaiser  should  send  a  military 
mission  to  reorganise  the  Turkish  army.  Talaat  told  me 
that  on  calling  in  this  mission  he  was  using  Germany,  though 


which  had  deposed  Abdul   Hamid   caused   him   to  compare     Germany  thought  that  it  was  using  him.     That  there  were 
T^  x_  .  J.:         t,__  i-_  X-1J  „-  xi__x     definite  dangers  in  the  move  he  well  understood.     A  deputy 

who  discussed  this  situation  with  Talaat  in  January,  1914, 
has  given  me  a  memorandum  of  a  conversation  which  shows 
well  what  was  going  on  4n  Talaat's  mind. 

"Why  do  you  hand  the  management  of  the  country  over 
to  the  Germans  ?  "  asked  this  deputy,  referring  to  the  German 
niihtary  mission.     "Don't  you    see    that    this    is    part    of 


himself  with  Bonaparte ;  many  times  has  he  told  me  that 
he  believed  himself  "a  man  of  destiny."  Enver  even 
affected  to  believe  that  he  had  been  divinely  set  apart  to 
re-establish  the  glory  of  Turkey  and  make  himself  the  Great 
Dictator.  Like  Napoleon,  Enver  was  short  in  stature,  but 
his  diminutive  size  did  not  prevent  him  from  being  a  hand- 
some, even  an  impressive,  figure.     He  was  the  type  that  in 


America  we  sometimes  call  a  matinee  idol  ;   the  word  women     Germany's  plan   to  make   Turkey   a  German   colony that 

frequently  used  to  describe  him  was  "dashing."     His  face     we  shall  become  merely  another  Egypt." 

lr»Qprl   Hid  '*Wfn    iinrlnr-^^o  «^    «^..f.^^4.1...»» i;„j    t-^i. 


contained  not  a  single  line  or  furrow  ;  it  never  disclosed  his 
emotions  or  his  thoughts  ;  he  was  always  calm,  steely,  im- 
perturbable. That  Enver  certainly  lacked  Napoleon's  pene- 
tration is  evident  from  the  way  which  he  had  planned  to 
obtain  the  supreme  power  ;  for  he  early  allied  his  personal 
fortunes  with  Germany.  For  years  his  sympathies  had  been 
wjth  the  Kaiser.  At  the  fall  of  Abdul  Hamid  he  had  gone 
on  a  military  mission  to  Berlin  ;  and  here  the  Kaiser  immedi- 
ately detected  in  him  a  possible  instrument  for  working  out 
his  plans  in  the  Orient,  and  cultivated  him  in  numerous  ways. 
Afterwards  Enver  spent  a  considerable  time  in  Berlin  as 
military  attach^  ;  when  he  returned,  he  was  wearing  a  mous- 
tache shghtly  curled  up  at  the  ends.  He  could  speak  German. 
Indeed  he  had  been  completely  captivated  by  Prussianism. 
As  soon  as  Enver  became  Minister  of  War,  Wangenheim 
■flattered  and  cajoled  the  young  man,  played  upon  his  am- 
bitions and  doubtless  promised  him  Germany's  complete 
support  in  achieving  them.  In  his  private  conversation  Enver 
made  no  secret  of  his  admiration  for  Germany. 

Thus  Enver's  elevation  to  the  Ministry  of  War  was  vir- 
tually a  German  victory.  He  immediately  instituted  a  dras- 
tic reorganisation.  Enver  told  me  himself  that  he  had 
accepted  the  post  only  on  condition  that  he  should  have  a 
free  hand  ;  and  this  free  hand  he  now  proceeded  to  exercise. 
The  army  still  contained  a  large  number  of  officers  who  in- 
jChned  to  the  old  regime  rather  than  to  the  Young  Turks — 
many  of  them  partisans  of  the  murdered  Nazim.  Enver 
promptly  cashiered  26S  of  these,  and  put  in  their  places  men 
who  were  known  as  "U  and  P"  men  and  Germans.  The 
Enver-Talaat  group  always  feared  a  revolution  that  would 
depose  them  as  they  had  thrown  out  their  predecessors. 
Many  times  did  they  tell  me  that  their  own  success  as  revolu- 
tionists had  taught  them  how  easily  a  few  determined  men 
could  seize  control  of  the  country  ;  they  did  not  propose  to 
have  a  little  group  in  their  army  organi.se  such  a.  coup  d'etat 
against  them.  The  boldness  of  Enver's  move  alarmed  even 
Talaat,  but  Enver  showed  the  determination  of  his  character 
and  refused  to  reconsider  his  action.     One  of  the  officers 


We  understand  perfectly;"  replied  Talaat,  "that  that  is 
Germany's  programme.  We  also  know  that  we  cannot  put 
this  country  on  its  feet  with  our  own  resources.  We  shall, 
therefore,  take  advantage  of  such  technical  and  material 
assistance  as  the  Germans  can  place  at  our  disposal.  We 
shall  use  Germany,  to  -help  us  reconstruct  and  defend  the 
country  until  we  are  able  to  govern  ourselves  with  our  own 
strength.  When  that  day  comes,  we  can  say  good-bye  to 
the  Germans  within  twenty-four  hours." 

Xertainly  the  physical  condition  of  the  Turkish  army 
bcHrayed  the  need  of  assistance  from  some  source.  The 
picture  it  presented,  before  the  Germans  arrived,  1  have 
always  regarded  as  portraying  the  condition  of  the  whole 
Empire.  When  I  issued  invitations  for  my  first  official 
reception  a  large  number  of  Turkish  clfi;ers  asked  to  be 
permitted  to  come  in  evening  clothes  ;  they  said  that  they  had 
no  uniforms  and  no  money  with  which  to  purchase  or  to 
hire.  them.  They  had  not  received  their  salaries  for  three 
and  a  half  months.  As  the  Grand  Vizier  who  regulates 
the  etiquette  of  such  functions,  still  insisted  on  full  military 
dress,  many  of  these  officials  had  to  absent  themselves. 
About  the  same  time  the  new  German  Mission  asked  the 
Commander  of  the  second  army  corps  to  exercise  his  men  ; 
tlie  latter  replied  that  he  could  not  do  so  as  his  men  had  no 
shoes  ! 

Desperate  and  wiclied  as  Talaat  subsequently  showed 
himself  to  be,  I  still  think  that  he  at  least  was  "not  then 
a  willing  tool  of  Germany.  An  episode  that  involved  myself 
bears  out  this  view.  In  describing  the  relations  of  the  great 
powers  to  Turkey  I  have  said  nothing  about  the  United 
States.  In  fact  we  had  no  particular  business  relations 
at  that  time.  The  Turks  regarded  us  a  country  of  idealists 
and  altruists;  the  fact  that  we  spent  millions  building 
wonderful  educational  institutions  in  their  country  purely 
from  philanthropic  motives  aroused  their  astrmishment  and 
possibly  their  admiration.  They  liked  Americans  aid 
regarded  us  as  about  the  only  disinterested  friends  they  had 
among  the  nations.     But  our  interest  in  Turkey  was  small ; 


removed  was  Chukri  Pasha,  who  had  defended  Adrianople     the   Standard   Oil   Company   did   a  growing   business,    the 


1 


May  30,  igi8 


Land    &    Water 


Singer  Company  sold  sewing  machines  to  the  Armenians  ;  we 
bought  much  of  their  tobacco,  figs  and  rugs,  and  gathered 
their  Hquorice  root.  In  addition  to  these  activities,  mission- 
aries and  educational  experts  were  about  our  only  contacts 
with  the  Turkish  Empire.  The  Turks  knew  that  we  had 
no  desire  to  dismember  their  country  or  to  mingle  in  Balkan 
politics.  The  very  fact  that  my  country  was  so  disinterested 
was  perhaps  the  reason  why  Talaat  discussed  Turkish  affairs 
so  freely  with  me.  In  the  course  of  these  conversations 
I  frequently  expressed  my  desire  to  serve  them,  and  Talaat 
and  some  of  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  got  into  the 
habit  of  consulting  me  on  business  matters.  Soon  after 
my  arrival,  I  made  a  speech  at  the  American  Chamber  of 
Commerce  in  Constantinople ;  Talaat,  Dj  imal,  and  other 
important  leaders  were  present.  I  talked  about  the  backward 
economic  state  of  Turkey  and  admonished  them  not  to  be 
discouraged.  I  described  the  condition  of  the  United  States 
after  the  Civil  War  and  made  the  point  that  our  devastated 
Southern  States  presented  a  spectacle  not  unlike  that  of 
Turkey  at  that  present  moment.  I  then  related  how  we 
had  gone  to  work,  realised  on  our  resources  and  built  up 
the  present  thriving  nation.  My  remarks  apparently  made 
a  deep  impression,  especially  my  statement  that  after  the 
Civil  War  the  United  States  became  a  large  borrower  in  foreign 
money  markets  and  invited  immigration  from  all  parts  of 
the  world. 

This  speech  apparently  gave  Talaat  a  new  idea.  It  was 
not  impossible  that  the  United  States  might  furnish,  him 
the  material  support  he  had  been  seeking  in  Europe.  Already 
I  had  suggested  that  an  American  financial  expert  be  sent  , 
to  study  Turkish  finance ;  I  had  mentioned  Mr.  Henry 
Bru^re,  of  New  York — a  suggestion  which  the  Turks  had 
favourably  received.  At  that  time  Turkey's  greatest  need » 
was  money.  France  had  financed  Turkey  for  many  years, 
and  French  bankers,  in  the  spring  of  1914,  were  negotiating 
on  another  large  loan.  Though  Germany  had  made  some 
loans,  the  condition  of  the  Berlin  money  market  at  that 
time  did  not  encourage  the  Turks  to  expect  much  assistance 
from  that  source. 

In  late  December,  1913,  Bustany  Effendi,  a  Christian 
Arab,  and  Minister  of  Commerce  and  Agriculture,  who  spoke 
English  fluently — he  had  been  Turkish  commissioner  to  the 
Chicago  World's  Fair  in  1893 — called  and  approached  me» 
on  the  question  of  an  American  loan.  Bustany  asked  if 
there  were  not  American  financiers  who  would  take  entire 
charge  of  the  reorganisation  of  Turkish  finance.  His  plea 
was  really  a  cry  of  despair  and  it  touched  me  deeply.  But 
I  had  been  in  Turkey  only  six  weeks  ;  obviously  I  'had  no 
information  on  which  I  could  recommend  such  a  large  contract 
to  American  bankers.  Talaat  came  to  me  a  few  days  later, 
and  suggested  that  I  make  a  prolonged  tour  over  the  Empire 
and  study  the  situation  at  first  hand.  Meanwhile  he  asked 
if  I  could  not  arrange  a  small  temporary  loan  to  tide  them 
over  the  interim.  He  said  there  was  absolutely  no  money 
in  the  Turkish  Treasury;  if  I  could  only  get  them  £1,000,000, 
that  would  satisfy  them.  I  told  Talaat  that  I  would  try 
to  get  this  money  for  them  and  that  I  would  adopt  his 
suggestion  and  inspect-  his  Empire  with  the  possible  idea 
of  interesting  American  investors.  After  obtaining  the 
cortsent  of  tlie  State  Department  I  wrote  to  my  nephew 
and  business  associate,  Mr.  Robert  E.  Simon,  asking  him 
to  sound  certain  New  York  institutions  on  making  a  small 
short-time  collateral  loan  to  Turkey.  Mr.  Simon's  invest- 
igations disclosed  that  a  Turkish  loan  did  not  seem  to  be 
regarded  as  an  attractive  business  undertaking  in  New 
York.  Mr.  Simon  wrote,  however,  that  Mr.  C.  K.  G.  Billings 
had  shown  much  interest  in  the  idea  ;  and  that,  if  I  desired, 
Mr.  Billings  would  come  out  in  his  yacht  and  discuss  the 
matter  with  the  Turkish  Cabinet.  In  a  few  days  Mr.  BiUings 
had  started  towards  Constantinople. 

The  news  of  Mr.  Billings's  approach  spread  with  great 
rapidity  all  over  the  Turkish  capital ;  the  fact  that  he  was 
coming  in  his  own  private  yacht  seemed  to  magnify  the 
importance  and  the  glamour  of  the  event.  That  a  great 
American  millionaire  was  prepared  to  reinforce  the  depicted 
Turkish  Treasury  and,  that  this  support  was  merely  the 
prchminary  step  in  the  reorganisation  of  Turkish  finances 
by  .\mcrican  capitalists  produced  a  tremendous  flutter  in 
the  Foreign  Embassies.  So  rapidly  did  the  information  spread, 
indeed,  that  I  rather  suspected"  that  tha  Turkish  Cabinet 
had  taken  no  particular  pains  to  keep  it  secret.  This  suspicion 
was  strengthened  by  a  visit  wliich  I  received,  from  the  Chief 
Rabbi  Nahoum,  who  informed  me  that  he  had  come  at  the 
request  of  Talaat.  "There  is  a  rumour,"  said  the  Chief 
Rabbi,  "that  Americans  are  about  to  make  a  loan  to  Turkey. 
Talaat  would  be  greatly  pleased  if  you  would  not  contradict 
it."  Wangenheim  displayed  an  almost  hysterical  interest  ; 
the  idea  o£  America  coming  to  the  financial  assistance  of 


Turkey  did  not  fall  in  with  his  plans  at  all  ;  in  his  eyes 
Turkey's  poverty  was  chiefly  valuable  as  a  means  of  forcing 
the  Empire  into  Germtiny's  hands.  One  day  I  showed 
Wangenheim  a  book  containing  etchings  of  Mr.  Billings's 
homes,  pictures,  and  horses ;  he  showed  a  great  interest 
not  only  in  the  horses — Wangenheim  was  something  of  a 
horseman  himself — but  in  this  tangible  evidence  of  wealth. 
For  the  next  few  days  Ambassador  after  Ambassador  and 
Minister  after  Minister  filed  into  mj'  cffi;e,  each  solemnly 
asking  for  a  glimpse  at.  this  book  !     .\s  the  time  approached 


C.  K.  G.  Billings 

An  American  capitalist  who  visited  Constantinople  in  March,  1914,  to  discuss 
the  question  of  an  American  loan  to  Turkey.  At  that  time  the  Turkish  Treasury 
was  empty  and  was  seeking  financial  support  elsewhere  than  in  Eutope.  Talaat 
was  turning  to  the  United  States  because  he  knew  that  the  United  States  had  no 
territorial  ambitions  in  Turkey.  The  German  Ambassador  was  much  excited 
over  the  possibility  that  American  bankers  might   finance  the  Turkish  Empire. 

for  Mr.  Billings's  arrival  Talaat  began  making  elaborate 
plans  for  his  entertainment ;  he  consulted  with  me  as  to  who 
should  be  invited  to  the  proposed  dinners,  lunches,  and 
receptions.  As  usual  Wangenheim  got  in  ahead  of  the  rest. 
He  could  not  come  to  the  dinner  I  had  planned  and  asked 
me  to  have  him  for  lunch  ;  in  this  way  he  met  Mr.  Billings 
several  hours  before  the  other  diplomats.  Mr.  Billings 
franldy  told  him  that  he  was  interested  in  Turkey  and  that 
it  was  not  unlikely  that  he  would  make  the  loan. 

In  the  evening  we  gave  the  BiUings  party  a  dinner,  all 
the  important  members  of  the  Turkish  Cabinet  being 
present.  Before  this  dinner,  however,  Talaat,  Mr.  Billings 
and  myself  had  a  long  talk  about  the  loan.  Talaat  informed 
us  that  the  French  bankers  had  accepted  their  terms  that 
very  day,  and  that  theyVould,  therefore,  need  no  American 
money  at  that  time.  He  was  exceedingly  gracious  and 
grateful  to  Mr.  Billings  and  profuse  in  expressing  his  thanks. 
Indeed,  he  might  well  have  been,  for  Mr.  Billings's  arrival 
enabled  Turkey  at  last  to  close  negotiations  with  the  French 
bankers.  His  attempt  to  express  his  appreciation  had  one 
curious  manifestation.  Enver,  the  second  man  in  the  Cabinet, 
was  celebrating  his  wedding  when  Mr.  Billings  arrived. 
The  progress  which  Epvcr  was  making  in  the  Turkish  world 
is  evideiiced  from  the  fact  that,  although  Envcr,  as  I  have 
said,  came  of  the  humblest  stock,  his  bride  was  a  daughter 
of  the  Turkish  Imperial  House.  Turkish  weddings  are 
prolonged  affairs,  lastirtg  two  or  three  days.  The  day 
following    the    Embassy    dinner   Talaat   gave    the    BiUings 


lO 


Land    &  Water 


May  30,  1918 


Sir  Louis   Mallet   and   M.  Bonip:ird,  the  French  Am-  Bustany  Etiendi,  cx-MinisU-r  of  Conimcrte  and  Agri-  Mr.  Morgenthau  (left)   in  congenial  association   with 

baiiador    to  Turkey.       Neither  the   French   nor  the  culture    in    the  Turkish    Cabinet,  who   came  to  Mr.  Sir  Louis  Mallet,  the  British  Ambassador  to  Turkey 

British  Atnbassador  attempted  to   compete  with  the  Morgenthau    in    January,    1914,     seeking    American  in  1914.     Sir  Louis  had  been  secretary  to  Sir  Edward 

German  diplomats  for  the  favour  ct  Talaat,   Enver,  assistance     in      financially     rehabilitating      Turkey.  Grey  and  was   pursuing  a  policy  of  conciliation  and 

and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Young  Turks.  Bustany  is  a  Christian  Arab,  and  a  great  scholar.  "hands  off"  in  Turkey. 


party  a  luncheon  at  the  Cercle  d'Orient,  and  he  insisted 
that  Enver  should  leave  his  wedding  ceremony  long  enough 
to  attend  this  function.  Enver,  therefore,  came  to  the 
luncheon,  sat  through  all  the  speeches,  and  then  returned 
to  his  bridal  party. 

I  am  convinced  that  Talaat  did  not  regard  this  Billings 
episode  as  closed.  As  I  look  back  upon  •  this  transaction 
I  see  clearly  that  he  was  seeking  to  extricate  his  country, 
and  that  the  possibility  that  the  United  States  would  assist 
him  in  performing  the  rescue  was  ever  present  in  his  mind. 
He  frequently  spoke  to  me  of  Mr.  "Beehngs,"  as  he  called 
him  ;  even  after  Turkey  had  broken  with  France  and  PZngland, 
and  was  depending  on  Germany  for  money,  his  mind  still 
reverted  to  Mr.  Billings's  visit  ;  perhaps  he  was  thinking 
of  our  country  as  a  financial  haven  of  rest  after  he  had  carried 
out  his  plan  of  expelling  the  Germans.  I  am  certain  that 
the  possibility  of  American  help  led  him,  in  the  days  of  the  war, 
to  do  many  things  for  me  that  he  would  not  have  otherwise 
done.  "Remember  me  .to  Mr.  Beehngs"  were  almost  the 
last  words  he  said  to  me  when  I  left  Constantinople.  This 
yachting  visit,  though  it  did  not  lack  certain  comedy  elements 
at  the  time,  I  am  sure  ultimately  saved  many  lives  from 
starvation  and  massacre. 

But  even  in  March,  1914,  the  Germans  had  pretty  well 
tightened  their  hold  on  Turkey.  Liman  von  Sanders,  who 
had  arrived  in  December,  had  become  the  predominant 
influence  in  the  Turkish  army.  At  first  von  Sanders's 
appointment  aroused  no  particular  hostility  ;  German  Missions 
had  been  called  in  before  to  instruct  the  Turkish  army, 
notably. that  of  von  der  Goltz,  and  an  English  Naval  Mission 
headed  by  Admiral  Eimpus  was  even  then  in  Turkey  trying 
to  make  something  out  of  the  Turkish  nav}'.  We  soon  dis- 
covered, however,  that  the  von  Sanders  "military  mission 
was  something  quite  different  from  those  I  have  named. 
Even  before  von  Sanders's  arrival  it  had  been  announced 
that  he  was  to  take  command  of  the  first  Turkish  army  corps, 
and  that  General  von  Schnellendorf  was  to  become  Chief 
of  Staff.  These  appointments  simplv  signified  that  the 
Kaiser  had  annexed  the  Turkish  arniy  to  his  own.  The 
British.  French,  and  Russian  Amba.ssadors  immediately 
called  upon  the  Grand  Vizier  and  protested  with  more  warmth 
than  politeness  over  von  Sanders's  elevation.  The  Turkish 
Cabinet  hemmed  and  hawed  in  the  usual  way,  protested 
that  the  change  was  not  important,  and  finally  withdrew 
von  Sanders's  appointment  as  head  of  the  first  army  corps, 
and  made  him  Inspector  General — a  post  that  gave  him  even 
greater  power.  Thus,  by  January,  1914,  seven  months 
before  the  Great  War  began,  Germany  held  this  position 
in  the  Turkish  army  :  a  German  General  was  Chief  of  Staff ; 
another  was  Inspector  General  ;  scores  of  German  officers 
held  commands  of  the  first  importance,  and  the  Turkish 
politician  who  was  even  then  an  outspoken  champion  of 
Germany,  Enver  Bey,  was  Minister  of  War. 

After  securing  this  diplomatic  triumph  Wangenheim  was 
granted  a  vacation,  and  Giers,  the  Russian  ambassador,  had 
a  \acation  at  the  same  time,  fiaroness  Wangenheim 
explained  to  me— I  was  ignorant  at  this  time  of  all  these 
subtleties    of    diplomacy — precisely    what    these    \-acnti()ns 


signified.  Wangenheim's  leave  of  absence,  she  said,  meant 
that  the  German  Foreign  Office  regarded  the  von  Sanders 
episode  as  closed — and  closed  with  a  German  victory.  Giers's 
furlough,  she  explained,  meant  that  Russia  declined  to  accept 
this  point  of  view. 

An  incident  which  took  place  in  my  own  house  opened 
all  our  eyes  to  the  seriousness  with  which  von  Sanders 
regarded  this  military  mission.  On  l'~ebruary  18th,  I  gave 
rny  first  diplomatic  dinner ;  General  von  Sanders  and  his 
two  daughters  attended,  the  general  sitting  next  to  mv 
daughter  Ruth.  My  daughter,  however,  did  not  have  a 
very  enjoyable  tim'fe ;  this  German  Field-Marshal,  sitting 
there  in  his  gorgeous  uniform,  his  breast  all  sparkling  with 
medals,  did  not  say  a  word  through  the  whole  meal.  He 
ate  his  food  silently  and  sulkily,  all  my  daughter's  attempts 
to  enter  into  conversation  evoking  only  an  occasional  surly 
monosyllable.  The  behaviour  of  this  great  military  leader 
was  that  of  a  spoiled  child. 

At  the  end  of  the  dinner,  von  Mutius,  the  German  charge 
d'affaires,  came  up  to  me  in  a  high  state  of  excitement. 
"You  have  made  a  terrible  mistake,  Mr.  Ambassador." 
"What  is  that."  I  asked,  naturally  much  alarmed. 
"You  have  greatly  offended  Field-Marshal  von    Sanders. 
You  have  placed  him  at  the  dinner  lower  in  rank  than  the 
foreign  ministers;     He  is  the  personal  representative  of  the 
Kaiser  and  as  such  is  entitled  to  equal  rank  with  the  Ambas- 
sadors.    He  should  have  been  placed  ahead  of  the  Cabinet 
Ministers  and  the  foreign  ministers." 
So  I  had  affronted  the  Emperor  himself ! 
This    then    was  the  explanation  of   von  Sanders's   boreish 
behaviour.     Fortunately,   my  position   was   an   impregnable 
one.     I    had   not   arranged   the   seating   precedence   at   this 
dinner  ;     1  had  sent  the  list  of  my  guests  to  the  Marquis 
Pallavicini,    the   Austrian    Amba.ssador     and    dean    of    the 
diplomatic  corps,  and  the  greatest  authority  in  Constantinople 
on  such  delicate  points  as  this.     The  Marquis  had  returned 
the  list,  marking  in  red  ink  against  each  name  the  order  of 
precedence—!,  2,  3,  4,  5,  etc.     I  still  possess  this  document, 
as  it  came  from  the  Austrian  Embassy,   and  General  von 
Sanders's   name   appears   with   the   numerals   "13"    against 
it.     I  must  admit,  however,  that  "the  13th  chair"  did  bring 
him  pretty  well  to  the  foot  of  the  table. 

I  explained  the  situation  to  von  Mutius  and  asked  Mr. 
Panfili,  conseiller  of  the  Austrian  Embassy,  who  was  a  guest 
at  the  dinner,  to  come  up  and  make  everything  clear  to  the 
outraged  German  diplomat.  As  the  Austiians "and  Germans 
were  allies,  it  was  quite  apparent  that  tiie  slight,  if  slight 
there  had  been,  was  unintentional,  liut  the  Gennan  F:m- 
bassy  did  not  let  the  matter  rest  ;  afterward  Wangenheim 
called  on  Falla\icini,  and  discussed  the  matter  with  consider- 
able liveliness. 

"II  Liman   von  Sanders  represents  the  Kaiser,  whom  do 
you     represents"    Pallavicini     asked     Wangenheim.     The    ' 
argument    was   a   good   one   as   the   Ambassador   is   always 
regarded  as  the  alter  ego  of  his  sovereign. 

"It  is  not  customary,"   continued  the  Marquis,   "for  an 
Emperor  to  have  two  representatives  at  the  same  court." 
{To  be  continued). 


# 


k\ 


May  30,  19 1 8  Land    &    Water 

May  3  I  St,   I  9  I  6- 1  9  I  7- 1 9  I  8  :    By  A.  Pollen 


1 1 


THE  observance  of  anniversaries  is  a  wholesome 
habit,  if  we  are  led  thereby  to  commemorate  the 
great  things  done  in  the  past  and  from  them  to 
draw  the  courage  needed  for  the  tasks  that  lie 
before  us.  It  adds  to  the  value  of  such  exercises 
if  the  retrospect  is  dispassionate  and  crttical  and  events 
retraced  to  their  causes,  for  then  something  may  be  added 
to  the  general  stock  of  wisdom,  some  principle  of  action  made 
clear,  and  so  the  past  made,  nut  only  an  encouragement, 
but  a  guide  and  inspiration  for  the  future.  The  last  days  of 
Mav  and  the  "Glorious"  First  of  June  are  dates  traditionally 
famous  in  our  naval  history.  It  is  May  31st  that  saw  the 
greatest  naval  c\-ent  in  this  our  present  war.  Two  years 
ha\e  passed  since  Jutland,  and  it  is  perhaps  worth  asking 
what  that  battle  and  these  years  have  taught  us,  and  in 
what  respects  and  how  the  situation  at  sea  has  altered  in 
the  interval. 

The  month  of  May,  1916,  saw  the  close  of  the  enemy's 
first  systematic  attempt  at  a  ruthless  submarine  blockade  of 
these  islands.  \\'hen  the  threat  was  first  made  by  yon 
Tirpitz,  as  a  reply  to  Sir  Doveton  Sturdee's  annihilating 
victorj'  off  the  Falkland  Islands,  it  was  couched  in  very 
tmcompromising  terms.  A  month  or  six  weeks  later  the 
German  purpose  was  expressed  in  an  official  document, 
which  made  it  clear  that  the  enemy  held  himself  bound  by 
no  limitations  of  humanity,  and  would  sink  on  sight  when- 
ever, in  the  judgment  of  the  U-boat  commander,  it  should 
seem  desirable  to  do  so.  America  protested  before  the 
actual  campaign  began,  but  Berlin's  reply  set  all  doubts  at 
rest.  German  necessity  would  be  the  only  rule.  No  tender- 
ness as  to  risking  the  lives  of  neutrals  or  civilians,  no  scruples 
as  to  the  agreed  obligation  of  The  Hague  rules,  were  to  stand 
in  the  way.  Yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  after  the  Litsitania 
was  sunk  there  was  comparatively  little  ruthlesstiess.  And 
the  reason  for  this  was  obvious  enough.  It  was  clear  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  would  not  permit  it.  It  was 
also  clear  that  without  ruthlessness  the  submarine  campaign 
could  never  achieve  its  purpose. 

"  Thorough  " 

Already,  in  the  autumn  of  1915,  tVvo  groups  were  fighting 
for  the  control  of  German  naval  policy.  The  Tirpitz  party 
were  for  a  policy  of  Thorough,  their  opponents  either  for 
stopping  the  submarine  attack  altogether,  or  at  least  for 
limiting  its  conduct  to  standards  the  neutral  world  could 
tolerate.  The  strength  of  the  latter's  case  lay  in  this  :  that 
the  whole-hoggers  had  not  boats  enough  with  which  to  win. 
But,  by  the  end  of  the  year,  the  Almost  frenzied  building 
efforts  inaugurated  when  the  threat  was  first  made,  were 
already  coming  to  fruition.  A  considerable  number  of  sub- 
marines had  been  finished  in  1915 — many  more,,  in  all  pro- 
bability, than  had  been  lost.  An  ample  reserve  of  officers 
and  men  had  been  trained  to  the  work,  so  that  when  new 
boats  began  coming  to  hand  at  the  rate  of  three  a  week 
with  satisfactory  regiilarity,  the  advocates  of  "Thorough" 
felt  positive  that  these  new  forces — sent  regularly  into  the 
field  in  increasing  numbers,  and  ordered  to  strike  on  sight 
witliout  pause  or  parley — must  certainly  succeed. 

The  military  situation  at  the  time  was  critical.  The 
German  victories  in  Rassia  had  seemingly  left  the  power  of- 
that  Empire  almost  unimpaired  ;  the  land  forces  of  Great 
Britain  were  daily  increasing  in  numbers,  in  efficiency,  and 
in  armament  ;  the  people  of  Austria  and  Germany  were 
getting  restless  under  the  beginnings  of  our  stricter  sea 
siege.  To  forestall  the  dangers  ahead  a  great  military  attack 
on  the  French  was  in  contemplation.  What  could  be  more 
opportune  than  to  strike  a  blow  at  England,  which  was  sure 
to  produce  panic  even  if  it  did  not  produce  famine  ?  So 
sanguine  was  the  Grand  Admiral  himself,  that  he  announced 
the  date  of  his  sea  attack  on  England  almost  as  the  great 
battle  of  Verdun  began.  How  his  plan  vfas  overborne  and 
he  himself  dismissed,  and  then,  in  response  to  agitation,  the 
plan  revived,  is  a  familiar  story. 

The  frightfulness  lasted  from  the  last  week  of  March  till 
Mav  the  ist.  It  was  President  Wilson's  "Sussex"  note  that 
ended  it.  An  ultimatum  backed  by  Congress  ended  any 
uncertainty  as  to  America's  attitude  on  the  sink  at  sight 
policy.  Berlin  of  course  had  to  surrender.  The  hot-heads 
who  thought  that  the  "idiotic  Yankees"  would  never  fight 
were  distippointed  that  their  prophec}-  had  miscarried,  but 
the  believers  in  the  U-boat  blockade  must  have  been  more 
disappointed  still,  for  the  results  had  not  justified  the  risks. 


The  maximum  number  of  ships  sunk  in  any  week  was 
less  than  30,  the  average  over  the  period  hardly  half.  It  was 
not  a  rate  of  destruction  that  could  put  Great  Britain  out 
of  business  with  sufficient  speed.  Germany  withdrew  from 
the  game.  It  was  a  great  humiliation  and  naval  prestige 
had  to  be  restored.  It  was  this  necessity  that  brought  out 
von  Hipper  and  Scheer  to  seek  action  with  the  Vice-.\dmiral 
of  the  battle  cruiser  fleet. 

The  resulting  battle,  in  effect,  served  the  enemy  fur  his 
main  purpose.  When  the  German  fleet  returned  to  harbour 
it  was  possible  to  tell  the  people  that  it  had  fought  against 
a  fleet  of  twice  its  strength  and  had  inflicted  heavjer  losses 
than  it  had  suffered.  The  overwhelming  numbers  under 
the  British  Commander-in-Chief's  orders  had  not  been  able 
to  overwhelm.  Dexterous  and  determined  torpedo  attacks 
had  diverted  the  British  main  forces  from  coming  to  decisive 
range,  and  at  the  long  range  thus  made  inevitable,  poor 
light  and  smoke  screens  favoured  the.  German  tactics  of 
evasion.  Unquestionably  to  have  escaped  destruction  could 
be,  and  was,  represented  as  an  achievement  in  every  way 
praiseworthy  and  remarkable.  But  it  was  followed  by  no 
immediately  favourable  result  to  Germany ,  and  the  extravagant 
claims  to  a  victory  led  to  a  reaction.  , 

Unrestricted  Submarine  War 

It  was  this  resentment  that  the  (ierman  navy  turned  to 
account  nine  months  later.  For  during  all  this  period  new 
submarines  of  an  improved  type  were  being  added  weekly 
to  the  underwater  force,  and  from  August  until  January 
more  and  more  of  them  were  brought  into  use,  partly  to 
obtain  a  maximum  of  sinkings  within  the  rules  laid  down 
by  Washington,  partly  to  train  a  still  further  reserve  of 
officers  and  crews  for  the  task  in  view.  ?\eptember,  Octol)er 
and  November  showed  an  enormous  increase,  in  submarine 
efficiency,  even  when  the  boats  were  employed  under  the 
severe  restrictions  of  the  "Sussex"  ultimatum.  With  very 
little  frightfulness  the  record  of  the  previous  April  was  easily 
passed.  What  might  not  be  expected  if  all  restrictions 
were  withdrawn?  On  February  rst  withdrawn  they  were 
— and  the  results  obtained  in  March  and  April  and  May,' 
but  especially  in  April,  seemed  amply  to  justify  those  who 
had  told  Berlin  that  the  certainty  of  Great  Britain's  defeat 
at  sea  made  America's  belligerency  a  negligible  price. 

A  year  ago  then,  Germany's  navaK  prestige  was  not  only 
at  its  highest  point,  but  at  a  point  so  high  that  no  rea.sonable 
person  could  have  doubted  that,  vmless  some  vast  improvement 
was  made  in  our  counter  measures,  our  days  of  belligerency 
were  numbered. 

It  was,  indeed,  an  astonishing  change  from  the  situation 
of  a  year  before.  Then  we  were  all  in  full  cry  over  the  flight 
of  the  German  fleet  from  Jutland,  and  its  unwillingness 
and  incapacity  to  dispute  with  us  the  supremacy'  of  the  sea. 
Now  the  supremacy  in  surface  ships  seemed  suddenly  to  have 
become  valueless.  At  no  period  of  the  war  had  either  side 
seemed  nearer  to  an  early  defeat  than  did  the  Allies  a  bare 
year  ago.  But,  as  if  by  a  miracle,  we  were  saved,  but  only 
just  saved.  The  Admiralty  house  was  put  in  order.  A 
civilian  who,  however  little  he  knew  about  the  Navy,  knew 
much  of  war  and  almost  all  there  is  to  know  about  organ- 
isation, was  put  at  its  head.  A  new  spirit  re-animated  the 
command,  reserves  of  unused  brain-power  were  drawn  upcm. 
.\nd  synchronously  with  these  great  reforms,  representatives 
of  the  American  navy  were  domiciled  in  London  anc^  a  singu- 
larly efficient  American  force  was  quartered  at  the  critical 
point  at  Queenstown.  The  convoy  principle,  so  persistently 
urged  and  so  obstinately  neglected,  was  adopted. 

\  year  has  passed  since  then.  Once  more  the  situation' 
at  sea  has  undergone  a  complete  revolution.  The  efficiency 
of  the  submarine,  measured  by  the  present  rate  at  which  the 
world  is  losing  tonnage  compared  with  the  rate  for  the  second 
((uarter  of  last  year,  has  been  reduced  by  no  less  than  f)o  per 
cent.  And  as  the  world  is  building  tonnage  faster  than  it 
is  losing  it,  the  efficiency  of  the  submarine  as  an  engine 
of  victory  has  vanished  altogether.  What  effect  is  this  change 
likely  to  have  upon  Germany's -sea  policy? 

There  is  obviously  a  fairly  close  analogy  between  the 
situation  to-day  and  that  of  two  years  ago.  Now,  as  then, 
the  sea  arm  on  which  our  enemy  chiefly  relied  has  been 
brought  to  nothingj  In  iqid  it  was  fear  of  America,  not  the 
strength  of  our  counter-attack,  that  defeated  him.  To-day 
it  is  the  combined  military  and  shi]ibuilding  efforts  of  all  the 
Allies,  but  chiefly  of  Great  Britain  and  .-\merica.  which  have 


12 


Land    &    Water 


May  30,  1918 


made  this  sea  arm  useless  for  its  purpose  The  parallel 
ceases  when  we  come  to  the  situation  on  land  ;  for  here, 
undoubtedly,  the  extinction  of  Russia  and  Germany's  recent 
successes  in  the  West  have  put  the  prestige  of  her  armies 
amongst  her  people  higher  than  they  have  ever  been.  But 
against  this  the  straits  of  the  people  are  many  times  more 
severe  than  they  were  two  years  ago.  Five  ounces  of  meat 
a  week,  and  a  bread  ration  recently  reduced  to  a  j^oint  that 
would  seem  to  us  below  the  limits  of  subsistence,  with  a 
grinding  scarcity  of  fats  and  sugar,  and,  indeed,  of  every 
comfort  of  life,  call  for  something  more  than  mere  prestige, 
if  they  are  to  be  patiently  endured.  The  situation 
seems  to  demand  continuous  bids  for  victor}^.  All  observers 
seem  to  agree  that  another  attack  will  be  made  on  land. 
Must  not  the  same  conditions  that  make  this  necessary, 
added  to  the  changed  conditions  at  sea,  make  an  effort  by 
the  German   Fleet  not  improbable  also  ? 

We  should  be  deceiving  ourselves  if  we  concluded  from 
the  enemy's  conduct  of  the  sea  war  up  to  May  31st  two 
years  ago,  and  from  his  conduct  on  that  day,  that  he  was 
exceedingly  averse  from  risking  an  engagement  between 
the  main  fleets,  or  determined,  if  one  came  about,  to  conduct 
it  on  principles  that  would  make  a  decision  unlikely.  It  is 
a  sounder  'view  to  assume  that  he  is  acting  on  the  principles 
he  professed  so  lucidly  before  the  war.  These,  stated  briefly, 
were  to  reduce  British  numbers  by  recognised  methods  of 
attrition^torpedoes  from  submarines,  mines,  and  bombs 
from  aircraft  ;  to  create  some  diversion  that  would  divide 
our  forces  ;  then  to  overwhelm  one  or  other  portion  of  our 
Fleet  with  as  near  the  whole  of  his  as  could  be  mustered. 
The  process  of  attrition  since  August,  19x4,  must  have  been 
disappointing.  At  most  two  capital  units  have  been  lost 
from  the  British  Fleet  by  accident  or  enemy  action  of  this 
sort.  Three  others  were  sunk  at  Jutland.  The  enemy,  it  is 
supposed,  has  lost  at  least  two  modern  units — if  not  three — 
in  the  meantime.  On  balance,  then,  we  are  very  little  to 
the  bad  in  losses,  and  our  additions  since  the  declaration  of 
war  have  been  great  in  number,  and  even  more  remarkable 
in  size,  speed,  and  armament.  And,  for  more  than  six 
months  now,  this  greatly  enlarged  force  has  been  strengthened 
by  a  division  of  American  battleships.  It  is  against  reason 
to  suppose  that  the  enemy  can  have  added  even  half  as 
many  new  ships  to  his  fleet  as  have  we  in  the  last  four  years. 
His  only  ally  possessing  battleships,  Austria,  cannot  help 
him  in  this  matter,  for  no  Austrian  fleet  could  ever  get  from 
Pola  to  Kiel.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  grave  reason 
to  fear  that  the  Russian  Baltic  Fleet  is  either  already  or 
must  shortly  be  in  German  hands. 

This  possibility  was  discussed  some  weeks  ago  in  these 
columns.  We  saw  then  how  greatly  four  fast  dreadnoughts, 
each  with  a  broadside  of  twelve  12-inch  guns,  and  foui-  battle 
cruisers,  each  with  a  broadside  of  eight,  would  add,  not  only 
to  the  main  battle  force,  but  to  the  scouting  power  of  the 
German  Fleet.  These  eight  vessels  would  not,  of  course, 
bring  the  enemy  to  equality  with  Sir  David  Beatty's  force 
in  the  North  Sea,  nor  anywhere  near  equality.  But,  if  he  is 
contemplating  action  by  diversion,  this  increase  of  his  num- 
bers must  add  greatly  to  his  capacity  in  this  direction.  That 
the  enemy  has  built  light  cruisers  of  a  new  type,  ver>'  power- 
fully armed  and  exceptionally  fast,  is  already  known.  Of 
destroyers  he  has  always  possessed  an  ample  supply,  and  to 
this  he  has  probably  added  many  more  than  he  has 
lost.  But  when  all  is  said,  it  is  the  Russian  .ships,  if  he  gets 
them,  that  will  be  his  main  factor  c  f  reinforcement. 

There  is,  however,  another  which  is  far  from  being 
negligible.  It  was  supposed  early  in  1915  that  the  Tirpitz 
submarine  building  programme  contemplated  a  production 
of  three  U-boats  a  week,  and  that  a  delivery  at  this  rate 
would  begin  at  latest  by  the  end  of  the  year.'  It  is  hardly 
to  be  supposed  that  tliis  rate  was  maintained  throughout 
1916  and  1917,  or  is  being  maintained  now.  But  we  have 
it  on  the  best  authority  that  it  was  not  until  the  end  of 
October  last  that  we  were  destroying  submarines  as  fast  as 
the  enemy  could  build  them.  From  January,  1916,  then, 
for  eighty  weeks,  the  net  gain  in  underwater  boats  must 
have  been  very  great.  These  boats,  as  we  know  to  our  cost, 
were  built  for  the  specific  purpose  of  attacking  our  trade. 
What  would  be  their  value  employed  in  battle  ? 

In  the  combined  sweep  of  the  Bight  of  Heligoland  in 
August  1914,  the  enemy's  submarines  effected  nothing. 
We  hear  of  them  in  the  'affair  of  the  Dogger  Bank  twice. 
Sir  David  Beatty  mentions  their  presence  shortly  after 
eleven,  and  records  the  destroyer  attacks  made  on  them 
and  the  squadron's  change  of  course  The  dispatch  of  the 
Rear  Admiral  who  succeeded  to  the  command  when  Sir 
David's  ship  was  disabled,  has  never  been  published. 

Two  statements  were  issued  by  the  Admiralty — one  saying 
that    action  was  broken  off  because  of    submarines ;  "  the 


second  that  it  was  the  presence  of  mines  and  submarines 
that  caused  Sir  .-Vrchiljald  Moore  to  recall  the  ships 
from  tl)e  pursuit.  The  bare  statement  was  astounding 
enough,  and  it  was  tantalising  that  no  more  light 
was  thrown  upon  the  matter.  At  Jutland,  not  only 
were  submarines  seen  but  it  was  mentioned  in  the 
dispatch  that  one  was  destroyed,  though  the  manner  of 
its  destruction   was   not   recorded. 

Quite  recently,  however,  we  have  heard  a  good  deal  of  what 
our  own  submarines  have  done  in  the  Baltic^  on  the  occasion 
of  the  German -invasion  of  Finland.  These  incidents  suggest 
great  possibilities  of  underwater  boats,  if  they  were  employed 
in  great  numbers,  and  used  with  skill  and  resolution.  But 
German  U-boats  are  certain  to  be  numerous,  and  there  is 
everv  reason  to  expect  both  skill  and  resolution  from  their 
commanders.  And,  as  the  initiative  in  seeking  action  rests 
entirely  with  the  German  fleet,  their  submarines  would  have 
an  advantage  which  British  submarines  in  the  Baltic 
certainly  did  not  possess.  It  seems,  then,  to  be  far  from 
fanciful  to  suppose  that  Germany,  devoting  all  her  under- 
water force  to  the  purpose,  might  plan  to  achieve  almost 
on  the  day  of  battle  itself  the  full  toll  of  attrition  which  her 
pre-war  writers  assumed  would  be  a  long,  but  continuous 
process.  It  does  not  follow,  then,  that  because  to-day  our 
nimibers  are  actually  greatly  superior  to  the  enemy's  that 
this  fact  alone  makes  it  even  probable  that  he  will  regard 
a  sea  battle  as  a  quite  desperate  adventure. 

Russian  Reinforcements. 

Just  as  the  enemy  seems  bound  to  get  the  Riissian  Baltic 
Fleet,  so  it  seems  almost  certain  that  he  is  either  already  in 
possession  of  the  Black  Sea  Fleet,  or  must  shortly  be  so. 
The  Russian  Black  Sea  Fleet,  so  far  as  we  know,  consists  of 
ships  similar  in  type  to  the  Gangoot,  though  not  quite  so 
fast.  They  are  three  in  number,  and  so  have  a  broadside 
fire  of  thirty-six  12-inch  guns.  If  the  Goeben  is  fit  for  service, 
and  these  ships  are  oflicered  and  manned  by  Germans,  they 
would  constitute  an  exceedingly  formidable  squadron.  If 
the  four  fast  cruisers,  laid  down  just  before  or  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  war  at  the  Nikolaieff  'works,  have  been 
completed,  the  value  of  the  battleship  force  would  be  very 
greatly  enhanced.  The  Black  Sea  Fleet  included  also  nine 
modern  destroj'ers.  Put  the  whole  together,  and  there  is 
clearly  a  unit  of  sea-power  which  could  create  a  very 
awkward  situation  in  the  Mediterranean — if  once  it  got  to 
sea.  For,  according  to  the  latest  edition  of  that  invaluable 
work,  Jane's  Fighting  Ships,  the  Austrians  laid  the  keels 
of  two  new  battleships  immediately  after  the  declaration  of 
war,  and  two  more  'a  year  later.  There  has  been  ample  time 
to  finish  all  four.  Before  the  war,  Austria  had  four  dread- 
noughts finished,  and  if  these  could  join  forces  with  the 
former  Black  Sea  Fleet  and  the  Goeben,  a  single  fleet  more 
powerful  than  any  Allied  fleet  in  the  Mediterranean  would 
be  constituted. 

The  question,  of  course,  is  :  can  the  Black  Sea  Fleet  clear 
the  Dardanelles  ?  We  know  that  the  Goeben  did  so  a-  few 
months  ago,  though  she  lost  her  consort  in  a  minefield 
on  her  return,  and  was  thought  to  have  struck  a  mine  herself. 
But  the  fact  remains  that  she  was  npt  destroyed,  and  that, 
unless  means  of  closing  the  Dardanelles  have  since  been 
found,  the  sortie  may  be  repeated. 

The  situation  to-day,  then,  seems  to  possess  for  the  Germans 
many  of  the  characteristics  of  that  of  two  years  ago.  They 
have  suffered  a  reverse  at  sea  far  more  serious  than  the 
surrender  to  Washington,  because  it  puts  a  final  stop  to 
every  hope  of  victory  by  submarine.  If  in  1916  they  were 
impelled  to  seek  a  fleet  action  to  restore  their  credit,  the 
elements  of  compulsion  in  the  same  direction  are,  therefore, 
ten  times  stronger  than  they  were.  If  thev  possess  the  eight 
powerful  fast  vessels  that  Russia  built  or  was  building  in  the 
Baltic  and  have  added,  to  the  limit  of  their  own  building 
capacity,  to  their  fleet  since  Jutland  was  fought,  they  are 
probably  relatively  stronger  than  thev  were,  in  spite  of  the 
Grand  Fleet  having  been  strengthened  by  the  new  vessels 
we  have  constructed  and  by  the  American  division  which 
has  joined  us.  The  Germans  certainly  possess  a  vastly 
greater  number  of  submarines  than  two  years  ago,  and  must 
have  learned  something  of  how  to  use  them  in  battle.  In 
the  Black  Sea,  if  they  have  the  Russian  ships— dreadnoughts 
and  fast  cruisers— they  have  a  force  which,  if  it  could  join 
hands  with  the  Austrian  Fleet,  would  create  an  entirely  new 
situation  in  the  Mediterranean,  one  which  might  call  for  the 
diversion  of  English  or  American  battleships  to  that  sea  to 
secure  an  adequate  supremacy.  It  is,  take  it  for  all  in  all, 
a  situation  full  of  potentialities,  and  it  may  well  happen 
that,  before  many  weeks  have  passed,  the  centre  of  interest 
will  pass  once  more  from  the  war  on  land  to  the  war  at  sea 


May  30,  igiB  Land    &    Water  13 

"The  South"  Entrenched:  By  Herman Whitaker 


YOUareawriter," 
said  the  "run- 
ner," as  we 
walked  along. 
"I've  read  a  lot 
of  this  war  stuff,  but  I've 
never  seen  that  correctly 
described.  How  would  you 
go  about  to  do  it?"  "  T/iai "  happened  to  be  the  whistling 
rush  of  a  minieicurfcr  shell  high  overhead.     While  listening 

till    it    merged    in    a    distant 


This  narrative  of  American  troops  in  the  firing  line, 
related  by  Mr.  Herman  Whitaker^  describes  a  visit  to 
a  section  of  trenches  in  France,  now  held  by  troops 
from  the  Southern  States  in  America, men  who  arc  the 
descendants  of  those  who  fought  bravely  for  the 
South  in  the  War  of  Secession  five  arid  fifty  years  ago. 


The  Author 


explosion,  I  also  realised  that 
it  had  never  been  described — 
for  a  cogent  reason  ;  it  can't 
be  done.  When  I  say  that  it 
is  a  .cross  between  a  whinny, 
a  whine,  and  a  whistle — I'm 
as  far  from  the  mark  as  the 
best  of  them.  The  note  of  a 
high-explosive  shell  that  fol- 
lowed was  shriller  and  cleaner 
cut,  but  equally  indescriba'ble. 
When  it  plugged  a  big  hole 
like  one  sees  in  the  battle 
pictures  close  to  our  road,  I 
got  my  first  real  war  thrill  ; 
one  that  was  keener,  perhaps, 
^^  because  I  really  had  no  business 
Hijfc^  aH      to  be  there. 

^^^^^,  ^H  You    see    G.H.Q.    is   more 

^^^^^H  '^1      careful   of    its   correspondents 

wKttKmmm^mrm^mJKk      i^^Ti  their  own  mothers  could 

possibly  be.  Both  for  their 
sakes  and  that  of  the  troops 
upon  whom  German  fire  might 
be  drawn,  we  are  restrained  from  unnecessary  movements 
along  the  front.  Very  politely,  but  most  positively,  I  had 
been  informed  that  an  "observation  post  "—usually  a  fpw 
kilometres  behind  the  front  trenches — would  be  abouf^he 
best  G.H.Q.  could  do  for  me.  Thanks,  however,  to  a  lucky 
combination  of  low  visibility,  produced  by  a  misty  rain, 
and  a  complaisant  southern  major  whom  I  found  with  his 
staff  burrowed  under  the  ruins  of  a  village,  here  was  I  march- 
ing along  a  camouflaged-  road  to  the  music  of  bursting  shells 
to  spend  the  night  in  a  front-line  trench. 

Through  shell-pocked  fields  and  past  shattered  farmsteads, 
the  "runner"  led  on  into  a  wet  wood.  Now  than  a  weeping 
wood  in  winter,  one  can  hardly  imagine  anything  more 
comfortless  ;  and  the  prospect  was  not  improved  by  zigzag 
lines  of  clayey  trenches  fenced  with  belts  of  rusted  wire  that' 
criss-crossed  it  everywhere.  But,  perhaps  because  of  a  faint 
resemblance  to  their  own  southern  "piney  woods,"  the 
troops  that  held  it  appeared  quite  at  home.  Though  it  was 
just  past  five,  supper  was  in  full  swing.  Blue  smoke  from 
half  a  hundred  shacks  and  dug-outs  hung  low  on  the  wet 
air,  mingling  with  satisfying  odours.  Introduced  by  the 
"runner"  at  "Dclmonico's,"  a  real  Bairnsfather  shack, 
I  joined  a  brace  of  lieutenants  in  soldiers'  chow  of  steak  and 
potatoes,  bread  and  coffee,  topped  off  with  rice  and  syrup. 

It  was  still  light  when  we  finished,  and,  viewed  through  a 
thin  haze  of  tobacco  smoke  from  the  changed  view-point 
induced  by  comfortable  repletion,  the  shacks  and  dug-outs, 
clayey  trenches,  rusted  wire  tangles,  even  the  weeping  wood 
appeared,  if  not  home-like,  at  least  hveable.  One  could 
understand  how  a  man 
can  get  so  accustomed  to 
shrapnel  helmets,  trench 
coats,  mud  boots,  gas 
masks,  and  other  impedi- 
menta' as  to  feel  uncom- 
fortable without  them. 

Through  the  open  door 
way  I  could  see  men  pass- 
ing to  and  fro  along  the 
duckboards  that  led  from 
post  to  post.  They  were 
strong  southern  types — 
mouths  thin-lipped  and 
firm  ;  eyes  steady  ;  brows 
broad,  but  sloping  quickly 
to  short,  sharp  chins.  The 
faces,  quiet  almost  to  the 
point   of   suUenness,   bore 


in  hard  print  the  whole  story 
of  the  south— mountain  ven- 
dettas, family  feuds,  moon- 
sliining,  the  Klu  Klux  Klan, 
race  wars,  all  of  that  dread 
atmosphere  which  Mark 
Twain  caught  so  wonderfully 
in  Huckleberry  Finn. 
"They're  shuah  natural  soldiers."  The  elder  lieutenant 
confirmed  my  impression  in  a  slow,  southern  drawl.  "All 
have  twenty  generations  of  private  wa'h  behind  them.  Very 
few  of  their  ancestors,  s'eh,  ever  died  in  their  beds  ;  and 
even  yet  a  revenue  officer  isn't  what  you  could  call  a  good 
insurance  risk  in  the  back  counties.  Instead  of  a  rattle, 
their  mothers  gave  them  a  gun  to  play  with  in  the  cradle. 
At  five  they'd  be  knocked  head  over  heels  by  the  recoil  of 
pop's  shot  gun.  At  ten,  they'd  be  trailing  deer  in  the 
mountains.  Shuah,  they're  sullen  fighters,  and  thar'  goes  a 
fine  specimen." 

In  the  face  of  the  man  who  passed,  just  then,  was  concen- 
trated all  the  hardness,  almost  vindictive  reserve,  undiluted 
by  the  softer  qualities  that  toned  it  in  the  others.  Carrying 
his  rifle  in  the  hollow  of  his  arm,  he  lounged  along  in  a 
swinging  hunter  stride  quite  unmilitary.  One  glance  at  him 
supplemented  the  lieutenant's  short  biography. 

"He   was    a   Tennessee    'moonshiner,'    and   simply    can't 

stand  discipline.     But  he's  the  

finest  shot  we've  -  got ;  can 
pick  the  eye  our  of  a  Boche  at 
three  hundred  yards. '  To  get 
the  best  out  of  him,  we  just 
gave  him  a  pass,  good  any- 
where along  the  lines,  and  let 
him  go  to  it.  So  every  day  he 
go6s  on  his  lonely  to  stalk 
Bochcs  through  No  Man's 
Land.  When  he  draws  a  bead 
on  one,  it's  '  Good  night, 
nurse  !  '  for  he  never  lets  loose 
till  he's  certain.  Some  day 
Fritz  will  get  him,  I  suppose ; 
but  not  before  he's  paid  an 
awful  price  in  lives." 

"  And  he's  not  the  only  one," 
the  other  lieutenant  put  in. 
"We  have  a  dozen  snipers 
that  go  out  hke  that — not  to 
mention  the  raids  we  pull  off 
alihost  every  night.  Fritz, 
over  thar,  tho'ght  he  was  going 
to  have  a  cinch  with  us  raw 
Americans.  But  he's  found 
our  chaps  so  nasty,  I  believe 
he'd  just   about   as  soon   change   back   to   the   French." 

"They  so  keen  for  it,"  the  other  continued,  "we  have  an 
embarr'sing  choice  of  volunteers  for  the  raids.  '  All  to-day 
they've  been  sidling  up  to  me  in  ones  and  twos  and  threes — 
'  Any  chance  to-night  s'eh  ? '  When  I  say  no,  they  look 
glum  as  a  pack  of  girls  that  have  been  done  out  of  a  dance  ; 
but  if  I'd  taken  all  that  offered,  we  shuah  have  had  to  attack 
in  fo'ce.  If  you  want  some  action  for  yu'  money,  s'eh,"  he 
soncluded,  "you  had  better  come  along  ?  " 

"  Better  come  along  ? "  I,  whose  ambition  had  been  to 
"go  over  the   top"  ever  since   the  beginning  of  the  war  1 

Lives  there  a  correspond- 
ent who  would  not  have 
jumped  at  the  chance  !  I 
saw  myself  putting  one 
over  on  our  dear  grand- 
mother, the  G.H.Q.  ;  and 
1  took  him  up  at  once. 

It  was  then  only  half- 
past  five.  The  patrol 
would  not  go  out  till  nine, 
and  I  spent  the  remainder 
of  the  daylight  following  a 
"runner"  through  the 
wicker-lined  trenches  from 
one  to  ano.hcr  of  the  (Com- 
pany's four  posts.  The 
more  I  saw  of  them,  the 
more  I  wondered  that 
troops  could  ever  be  got  to 


Section  of  Trench  on 
American  Front 


Relief  Mustering  for  Duty  in  American  Trenches 


'4 


Land    &    Water 


May  30,  1918 


go  up  against  them.  Imagine  thousands  of  miles  of  rusted 
barbed  wire  running  in  a  tangled  belt  40  feet  wide  in  front 
of  a  trench  laid  out  with  frequent  salients  that  permit  en- 
filading fire  on  attacking  troops.  Behind  the  first  line,  a 
second  wire  belt  ;  then  another  trench  system ;  finally, 
belt  after  belt  of  wire  running  back  into  the  open  country 
through  which  I  had  come. 

Though  it  had  been  raining  for 'days,  steady  pumping  had 
kept  the  water  below  the  level  of  the  duckboards  in  the 
trench  bottoms.  The  "runner"  spoke  quite  proudly  of  their 
"dryness"  ;  and  I  suppose  they  were  -as  dryness  goes  in  a 
w'et  wood.  The  dug-outs,-  too,  each  had  a  well  below  the 
floor  level,  from  which  excess  water  could  be  pumjied  out. 
Judged  by  war  standards,  these  southern  troopis  might  be 
said  to  be  li\-ing  in  the  lap  of  luxury. 

At  Post  Two,  from  where  the  raid  was  to  be  launched, 
I  looked  acitoss  No  Man's  Land  at  a  low  ridge  that  marked 
tlic  first  Boche  trench.  The  dull  winter  prospect,  misty  with 
rain,  knd  partially  veiled  in  evening  gloom,  appeared  so  quiet 
and  peaceful,  it  were  difficult  to  imagine  the  Boches  over 
there^on  sentry,  in  their  dug-outs,  eating,  drinking,  sleeping, 
just  like  the  men  about  me.  But,  proving  their  presence,  a 
minicicurfcr  shell  passed  overhead. 

"Better  not  look  too  long,  s'eh,"  the  "runner"  warned, 
"It's  true  they  can't  see  j'ew,  but  they  have  machine  guns 
trained  on  this  post,  and  turn  'em  loose,  now  and  then,  on 
gen'ral  principles.' 

In  a  dug-out,  six  by  five  outside  of  the  bunks,  I  sat  out 
the  remainder  of  the  evening  with  its  inhabitants — three 
lieutenants.  The  eldest  could  not  have  been  twenty-four ;  but 
all  had  led  night  raids  on  the  Boche  trenches,  and  while  the 
guttering  candle  lifted  and  lowered  their  bright  boys'  faces  in 
and  out  of  the  gloom,  they  drawled  with 'the  soft  southern 
speech  of  risks  and  dangers  that,  if  they  knew  of  them, 
would  turn  grey  the  hair  of  their  friends  at  home. 

One  had  been  shot  through  the  shoulder  only  a  couple 
of  weeks  ago,  while  stalking  a  Boche  sniper  out  on  No  Man's 
Land.  Grinning,  he  explained;  "You  see,  s'eh,  thar' 
happened  to  be  two  of  him,  and  just  when  I  was  about  ready 
to  draw  a  bead  on  one,  the  other  plugged  me.  What  did 
I  do  ?  Run,  by  golly  !  Shuah,  how  I  do  run.  A  bounding 
buck  had  nothing  on  me.  I  leaped  sideways  and  endways, 
ju<?»  tangoed  it  over  the  tops  of  the  bresli,  for  three  of  my 
snipers  were  squirming  up  behind  them,  and  I  knew  if  they 
kept  firing  long  enough,  something  was  due  to  happen.  It 
did,  too,  for  mj'  bo\'s  got  both  of  them." 

Fine  work  !  But  fancy  making  a  shooting  gallery  out  of 
yourself  for  the  benefit  of  you^  snipers  !  Though  I  did  not 
catch  the  name,  I  felt  sure  it  was  he  the  patrol  was  dis- 
cussing while,  an  hour  later,  we  filed  along  the  duckboards 
on  our  way  to  Number  Two.  "He's  a  nervy  cuss,  that 
lieutenant.  But  if  he  don't  take  care,  Fritz' is  going  to 
present  him  with  a  steel  medal  one  of  these  days." 

That  was  something  of  a  march — through  wet  woods  in 
black  rain,  along  narrow  duckboards  that  crossed  deep 
trench  systems,  and  threaded  barbed  belts  of  wire.  Though 
I  held  on  to  the  belt  of  the  man  ahead,  he  was  invisible. 
Sometimes,  too,  we  left  the  duckboards  and  wallowed  along 
snaggy  paths  that  I  found  difficult  enough  to  follow  in  broad 
day  next  morning.  How  the  leader  found  his  way  I  cannot 
say.  But  a  subdued  challenge  presently  told  that  he  had. 
While  we  filed  up  to  go  over  the  top  and  out  through  the 
wire,  I  grinned  guiltily  but  delightedly  as  I  thought  how 
cleverly  I  was  doing  up  G.H.O.  They  could  not  stop  me 
now.  I  was  going  over  the  top — even  if  I  got  sent  home  for 
it  or  was  shot  at  sunrise.  But,  alack  and  alas  !  through 
that  black  rain,  G.H.Q.  extended  its  mandate  from  head 
quarters  40  miles  away.  The  soft  drawl  of  the  lieutenant 
sounded  close  to  my  ear. 

"I  really  didn't  think  you  were  serious,  s'eh.  I'd  shuah 
like  to  have  you  go  with  me,  but  I'd  never  fo'give  myse'f 
if  you  got  3'Ou'self  killed.  It's  contrary  to  o'ders,  too.  If 
G.H.O.  evah  found  it  out,  I'd  shuah  get  inyself  co't-martialled. 
If  it's  the  same  to  you,  s'eh,  I'd  rather  you  didn't  come  ?  " 

I  was  not  going  to  increase  that  fine  boy's  embarrassment 
by  putting  up  a  disappointed  howl.  So,"  though  it  wasn't 
"the  same  to  me"  by  any  means,  I  shook  hands,  and  wished 
him  luck  ;  then  joined  the  sentry  up  above,  and  hstened  to 
the  rustle  of  their  passing  through  the  wire,  till  it  was  drowned 
by  the  pattering  rain. 

It  was  eerie  watching  there,  hour  after  hour,  in  wet  black 
silence  that  was  broken  only  at  long  intervals  by  the  boom 
of  a  distant  gun,  shriek  of  a  passing  shell,  imagination 
peopled  the  utter  da,rkness  beyond  the  parapet  with  sinister 
shapes.  Small  noises  took  on  vast  importance.  Once  I  saw 
the  dim  form  of  the  sentry  stiffen  in  breathless  attention. 
Rifle  at  hip,  leaning  slightly  forward,  he  stood,  rigid,  abso- 
lutely motionless,  for  fully  ten  minutes.     My  straining  ears 


had  also  picked  up  the  sound — chp,  ping !  clip,  ping  ! — the 
exact  noise  made  by  nippers  severing  wire  !  The  Boche  !  I 
know  that,  in  the  sentry's  place,  I,  should  have  fired.  But 
he  stood,  frozen  still,  and  soon  his  whisper  fell  down  through 
the  darkness. 

"It's  water,  s'eh,  dropping  from  a  tree  on  to  the  wire." 
Shortly  thereafter  a  star-shell  on  our  left  suddenly  laid  out 
the  wood's  dark  outline  and  No  Man's  Land  under  its  bright 
blue  flare.  Came  the  sentry's  hissed  whisper :  "  Don't  move  ! " 
As  the  light  faded,  he  said  :  "A  German  sniper  might  be  out 
thar.  If  a  light  goes  up  when  we're  out  on  patrol,  we  freeze 
— with  one  foot  up,  if  it  chances  to  be  raised.  So  long  as  you 
don't  move  they  kain't  see  you." 

Just  then  a  second  star-shell  broke  on  high,  followed 
by  a  burst  of  machine-gun  fire,  rapid  in  its  reverberation 
as  the  ripping  of  canvas.  For  five  minutes  it  continued,  but 
the  pictures  of  German  attacks  that  formed  in  my  mind  were 
dissipated  by  tlie  sentry's  laconic  comment:  "Number 
Three's  nervous  to-night." 

When,  a  few  minutes  la<ter,  a  second  eruption  of  flares  and 
firing  broke  on  our  right,  he  added  :  "Nervous  as  a  pack  of 
wimmen.  Number  One's  got  it  now  ;  must  be  catching. 
I'd  sho'  think  they'd  be  ashamed." 

Presently  flares  and  firing  died,  leaving  us  to  continue  our 
watch  in  cold,  wet  darkness.  Though  there  with  the  sentry 
in  the  flesh,  in  spirit  I  roved  with  the  patrol  groping  its  way 
out  there  through  the  utter  blackness  of  No  Man's  Land. 
Always  I  looked  for  the  star-shell  that  would  leave  it  dis- 
covered under  German  fire.  But  up  to  the  moment  a  sergeant 
climbedup  to  us  from  a  dug-out  below,  nothing  disturbed  the 
black  night  beyond  the  parapet. 

It  is  quite  easy  for  a  patrol  to  lose  itself.  The  marvel  is 
how  it  ever  gets  back.  Therefore,  according  to  agreement, 
the  sergeant  fired  a  pistol  flare  at  twelve  o'clock.  Quarter 
of  an  hour  thereafter  came  the  soft  rusjtle  of  men  passing 
through  our  wire.  Then,  one  by  one,  twenty  dark  figures 
climbed  down  the  parapet. 

The  lieutenant's  report  was  vividly  alive  ;  tense  with  the 
dread  interest  of  those  who  walk  with  death.  They  had 
gone  up  to  and  laid  down  close  to  tlu>  German  wire  ;  so  close 
that  they  had  seen  a  Boche  patrol  in  chm  outline  passing 
above  along  the  parapet. 

"We  could  have  picked  off  a  few,"  he  explained,  "but  the 
next  second  they'd  have  lit  No  Man's  Land  brighter  than 
day  with  their  flares  and  machine-gunned  lis  off  the  airth  . 
We  could  hear  them  talking.  One  chap  said 'j'V««  .'  nein  !' 
in  a  hissing  whisper  as  though  he  was  checking  something 
foolish.  If  we'd  been  thar  just  one  hour  sooner  we'd  have 
had  the  wire  cut  so  we  could  have  gotten  to  them.  But  we 
know,  now.  We'll  go  out  earher  to-morrow  night,  and  get 
them  to  rights." 

If  he  had  known  just  where  that  patrol  had  been — I  doubt 
whether  he  could  have  held  his  men's  fire.  But  none  of  us 
knew  until,  quarter  of  an  hour  later,  we  stopped  on  our  way 
back  to  the  main  camp  at  Number  Three  Post. 

"Nervous,  heigh  ? "  The  corporal  in  charge  replied  to  the 
lieutenant's  banter.  "There's  three  dead  Boches  out  thar 
in  our  wire  that  would  tell  you  diff'rent.  They  raided  us 
while  you  were  gone— killed  one  of  our  sentries  and  wounded 
two  others  ;  sniped  'em  from  the  edge  of  tlie  wire.  But 
three  for  one  is  good  exchange.  If  we  keep  that  up,  I  know 
who'll  win  the  wah." 

"Must  have  been  the  gang  We  saw!  Oh,  whv  didn't  we 
meet  them  in  the  open  ? " 

The  lieutenant's  exclamation  drew  an  echo  from  the  dark 
line  of  men  behind  us—a  mingled  snarl  and  growl  similar  to 
that  emitted  by  an  animal  torn  away  from  its  prey.  It  was 
not,  I  suppose,  a  pleasant  sound,  but  it  bocled  ill  for  Fritz 
when  they  "got  him  to  rights  to-morrow."  All  the  way 
back  to  camp  they  growled  and  grumbled,  and  as  I  listened 
there  was  borne  in  upon  me  full  comprehension  of  how  their 
grandfathers,  under  Robert  Lee,  liad  for  three  years  made 
life  for  the  northern  armies  into  one  long  hell.  My  last  look 
at  the  grim  determined  facesgoingout,nextmorning,  assured  me 
that  they  could  be  depended  upon  to  do  the  same  for-Fritz. 

Ihe  latter  was  shelling  the  road  on  general  principles 
rather  than  in  search  of  correspondents  when  I  approached 
the  village  under  the  shards  of  which  the  complaisant  major 
lived  with  his  staff.  In  saying  goodbve,  he  put  into  a  couple 
of  sentences  the  spirit  of  these  fighting  southerners 

"We're  not  naturally  quarrelsome,  s'eh.  I'm  a  man  of 
peace  myself— but  not  at  any  price.  There's  only  one  way 
It  can  ever  be  restored  again  on  earth— bv  giving  Fritz 
particular  hell."  "  . 

The  last  I  saw  of  him,  this  man  of  peace  was  bending 
over  a  map  with  his  finger  on  the  spot  where  he  intended  to 
cut  hell  loose  upon  Fritz  next. 

Copyright  in  .4morica  by  Herman  Whitaker.  ~ 


May  3o»  19^8  Land    &    Water 

Brazil's  Part  in  the  War 


15 


T 


Signer  W.   Braz, 

President 

of  the  Brazils 


HE  entrj'-  of  Brazil  into  tlie 
'war  on  the  side  of  the  Allies 
probably  created  but  little 
enthusiasm  in  the  minds  of 
Englishmen  at  home.   Those 
who  consulted  the  map  could  see  that 
it  was   a    case    of    checkmating    the 
schemes  of  Germany  in  a  large  mari- 
time country,  while  on  the  other  hand 
our  food  supply  would    be   likely  to 
benefit    by    our    closer    co-operation 
with  Brazil.     But  that  is  not  the  sum 
total  of  Brazilian  importance  to  us. 

It    is   a  remarkable   fact  that  the 

man  in  the   street   knows  practically 

this     vast     country     most       of      whose 

an   admiration  which  amounts  almost  to 

In  Brazil  "the  word  of  an 


nothing  about 
inhabitants  have 
a  craze  for  everything  English. 
Englishman  "  is  the  most  reliable  of  sureties,  and  the  shop- 
keeper cannot  praise  his  goods  more  highly  than  by  labelHng 
them  "  English  style."  Tennis,  association  football,  and 
rowing  during  recent  years  have  gained  enormous  popu- 
larity, the  actual  English  words  for  scoring,  rules,  and 
even  applause  being  emploved  in  the  former  two.  It  is 
amusing  to  hear  the  words,  "Well  played  !"  come  out  in  the 
midst  of  a  salvo  of  Portuguese  from  the  onlookers.  The  Boy 
Scout  movement  is  thriving,  and  the  educated  woman  of 
Brazil  has  already 
begun  to  see  in  First 
Aid  and  Nursing  the 
thin  end  of  the  wedge 
which  shall  open  a 
way  for  her  into  the 
free  and  active  life  of 
her  m  u  c  h-e  n  v  i  e  d 
Enghsh  sisters. 

It  is  worth  our 
while  to  appreciate 
Brazil  correctly,  both 
as  an  ally  in  the  war, 
and  as  an  important 
commercial  adherent 
after  it.  The  vast 
wealth  which  is  stored 
up  in  her  little-ex- 
plored hinterland  is 
only  beginning  to  be 
foreshadowed.  The 
necessities  of  war 
have  brought  to  light 
the  fact  that  the 
production  of  man- 
ganese, mica,  and 
other  increasingly  im- ' 

portant  minerals  will  very  soon  exceed  altogether  her  present 
exports  of  rubber,  coffee,  sugar  and  cotton  ;  cattle-raising  is 
•on  the  increase. 

We  at  home  know  the  years  of  war  it  has  needed  before  we 
are  even  moderately  sure  of  having  scotched  German  influence 
in  the  United  Kingdom.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  therefore 
that  the  Teuton  in  Brazil  has  yet  received  the  full  measure 
of  his  dues.  In  a  country  of  many  illiterates,  it  is  not 
possible  to  dispense  in  a  moment  with  the  servicesOf  200,000 
educated  foreigners,  and  the  important  enterprises  they, 
represent.  Furthermore  internments  on  such  a  large  scale 
are  a  severe  tax  on  the  finances  of  a  small  nation.  So  that, 
although  the  German  Banks  and  great  Shipping  Houses  are 
closed  in  Rio,  yet  (Germans  of  both  sexes  are  frequently  to 
be  met  in  public.  But  they  conduct  themselves  discreetly. 
Even  before  Brazil  declared  war  the  German's  life  was  not  a 
happy  one  in  Kio.  To-day  police  protection  is  given  to  the 
windowlcss  German  buildings  because  the  citizens  broke  in 
and  attempted  to  burn  them  down  in  October,  1917,  when 
two  Brazilian  (ex-German)  ships  were  torpedoed  on  their  way 
to  Europe.  They  wrecked  most  of  them  very  tiioroughly 
then,  and  have  since  done  the  same  to  one  or  two  lesser 
buildings.  No  doubt  there  are  pro-Germans  to  be  met  with 
occasionally,  but  there  is  no  mistaking  the  attitude  of  the 
vast  majority.  It  is  interesting,  but  a  little  risky,  for  an 
Englishman  not  well-known  in  Rio  to  venture  among  the 
avenging  crowds.  The  educated  people  of  Brazil  can  almost 
all  understand  if  not  speak  English,  but  the  poorer  folk,  in- 
cluding the  policemen,  cannot  distinguish   it    from  German. 


However,  to  smoke  one's  pipe  is  to  announce  oneself  an 
Englishman,  and,  as  a  last  appeal,  the  singing  of  "Tipperary" 
would  almost  certainly  convince  any  Brazilian  crowd  of  one's 
nationality. 

Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  most  wonderfully  reconstructed  city 
in  the  world,  was  also,  until  recently,  one  of  the  most  pleasure- 
loving.  To-da}^  the  President  is  endeavouring  to  instill  war 
economy  into  the-  nation  before  it  feels  the  brunt  of  war — 
a  by  no  means  easv  task.  Economy  is  not  easil}'  preached 
in  a  country  where  State  Lotteries  are  of  daily,  and  public 
holidays  of  all  too  frequent,  occurrence.  The  most  popular 
of  the  latter  is  the  Carnival,  which  occupies  the  four  days 
preceding  Ash  \\'ednesday. 

Brazilians  who  complain  of  the  high  cost  of  living  will 
probably  wish  to  see  war  ec^onomy  continued  in  times  of 
peace.  It  costs  one  about  30s.  a  day  to  live  at  all  comfort- 
ably in  Rio.  Some  manufactured  articles  are  now  difficult 
to  obtain,  and  the  cost  of  everything  "owing  to  the  war" 
and  the  colossal  protective  tarififs,  is  such  as  to  make  unac- 
customed English  folks  feel  faint  with  horror.  A  ready- 
made  drill  Jacket,  though  cheaper  in  back  streets,  will  be 
commonly  priced  at  45s.  in  shops  on  the  Avenida  Rio  Branco. 
A  tailor-made  man's  suit  will  cost  about  £10. 

Recruiting  po.sters  have  been  common  for  over  six  months, 
and  the  result  is  seen  in  the  numerous  soldiers  and  khaki-clad 
"tiros"  (c.f.  French  "tireurs")  who  are  to  be  seen  every- 
where to-day.     These  latter  correspond  to  our  territorials  in 

principle,  though  in 
practice  they  have 
doubtless  much  to 
learn  before  they 
reach  the  splendid 
standard  of  our 
"terriers"  of  to-day. 
The  first  thing  about 
them  that  strikes  one 
is  that  they  all  wear 
elastic  -  side  boots 
with  very  delicate 
leggings,  a  combina- 
tion that  would  not 
survive  the  stress  of 
life  in  Flanders  for 
long. 

A  recent  message 
from  the  King  to  the 
President  of  the  Re- 
public welcomed  the 
navy  of  Brazil  on  its 
entry  into  active  war- 
fare. By  no  section 
of  the  nation  is 
Britain  so  much  be- 
loved as  by  the  Navy. 
Nor  is  this  surprising  when  one  recollects  that  it  was  our  own 
brilliant  Lord  Cochrane  who  founded  Brazil's  navy  in  1823, 
receiving  a  marquisate  for  his  services.'  His  name  and  other 
British  names  are  borne  to-day  by  officers  who  trace  their 
descent  from  Cochrane  and  his  colleagues.  During  the  revolt 
of  i8g3,  when  the  navy  was  excluded  from  its  country's  ports, 
the  British  ships  on  the  station  took  pity  on  them  in  their 
dire  straits  and  gave  them  provisions.  The  descendants  of 
those  men  are  serving  under  the  Republican  flag  to-day,  but 
they  do  not  forget  the  English  kindness  shown  to  their  fathers. 
In  a  young  country  the  navy  is  of  necessity  hampered 
for  lack  of  funds.  It  would  be  impossible  for  a  small  Power 
to  expend  the  vast  sums  which  are  set  aside  by  first-class 
Powers,  not  for  construction,  but  merely  for  upkeep  and  the 
constant  succession  of  exercises  vital  to  the  efficiency  of  a 
fleet.  Brazilian  naval  officers,  until  the  entry  of  their 
country  into  the  war,  have  had  to  content  themselves  with 
wearisome  "  make-lx'lieve "  practices,  and,  worse  still,  the 
supply  of  materials  for  repairs  and  construction  had  been 
entirely  commandeered  by  the  belligerent  powers.  But 
there  has  always  been  a  large  section  of  keen  officers  and  men 
to  vitalise  the  ileet  and  keep  in  touch  with  modern  naval  lines 
of  thought.  A  flourishing  Navy  League  with  a  monthly  organ 
shows  that  keenness  on  naval  affairs  is  not  confined  to  the 
Service  When  Admiral  Alencar,  the  Minister  of  Marine, 
called  for  volunteers  for  active  service,  there  was  a  rush  for 
the  lists  on  the  part  of  officers  and  men  alike.  They  have 
long  chafed  at  inaction,  and  we  may  expect  good  service 
from  them.     Brazil  will  certainlv  do  her  bit  on  the  sea. 


Hoisting  the  Brazilian   Flag  over  a  German  Steamer 
Interned  in  Rio  Harbour 


i6 


Land   oc   Water 


May  30,  19 1 8 


Her  Air  Service  was  first  in  the  field.  Some  months  ago 
half  a  dozen  airmen,  drawn  from  both  Army  and  Navy, 
arrived  in  England,  and  more  will  follow. 

Her  entry  into  the  war  was  as  the  unlocking  of  flood- 
gates as  far  as  the  supply  of  materials  for  ship-repairing 
and  even  shipbuilding  (a' much  harder  proposition)  were 
concerned.  The  magnificent  harbour  of  Rio  will  now  come 
into  its  own.  Previously  there  was  not  enough  material  to 
work  with,  now  the  cry  is  for  more  skilled  artisans  to  cope 
with  the  pressure  of  work.  The  dockyards  have  already 
done  admirable  work  in  repairing  the  damaged  German 
ships.  When  these  ships,  some  twenty  in  a]],  were  taken 
over,  the  Genuans  had  damaged  their  machinery  and  boilers 
to  such  an  extent  that  it  looked  as  if  they  would  have 
to'  be   renewed   throughout.      The  ~fenemy  openly  boasted, 


"What  a  German'has  torn  to  pieces  it  will  take  a  German 
to  put  together  again."  Their  boast  has  met  its  answer. 
If  ever  engineer  had  an  extraordinary  feat  to  perform  it  was 
the  repair  of  those  ships,  yet  they  are  under  steam  to-day. 
It  would  open  the  eyes  of  stay-at-home  Britons  to  see 
what  a  number  of  large  enterprises  are  either  entirely  or  in 
part  conducted  by  their  fellow-countrymen.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  submarines.  Great  Britain  built  the  Brazilian 
Navy  of  to-day.  Englishmen  control  her  railways  and  mills,, 
and  huge  power-stations  ;  Englishmen  represent  great  Amer- 
can  firhis  ;  England  provides  overseers  and  chargemen  for 
the  yards  and  docks.  If  only  people  at  home  realised  some- 
thing of  the  promise  of  the  country,  Germany  would  stand 
but  a  poor  chance  of  reasserting  herself,  as  slie  certainly 
intends  to  do,  in  Brazil  after  the  war. 


A  Naval  Incident  :    By  Capricornus 


IT  was  ohe  of  the  most  lovely  mornings  I  remember. 
We  were  anchored  off  Asia  Minor  at  the  moment, 
during  a  spell  of  delightful  weather,  and  the  smooth 
sea  and  golden  sunshine  gave  the  early  hours  of  my 
morninj  watch  a  most  peaceful  charm.  It  was  before 
the  war.  Later  on,  the  ordinary  routine  of  a  man-of-war 
began,  and  with  much  clatter  of  scrubbers  and  swishing  of 
water,  the  ship  was  made  clean. 

The  bugle  rousing  the  "Guard"  to  wakefulness  had  just 
been  sounded.  Here  I  must  digress  for  a  moment  to  explain 
that  the  "Guard"  are  those  marines  detailed  for  the  various 
sentry  posts  in  the  ship,  who,  in  naval  parlance,  are  allowed 
to  "lie  in,"  i.e.,  they  may  remain  in  their  hammocks iin  hour 
or  so  after  the  others.  For  their  convenience '  they  are 
usually  allotted  a  separate  part  of  the  ship  to  sleep  in.  In 
my  particular  ship  they  slept  in  a  "flat,"  the  port  side,  just 
before  the  half-deck  ;  a  hatchway  and  a  ladder  led  from 
the  upper  deck  to  this  flat.  Though  more  quiet -than  the 
ordinary-  mess-deck,  this  flat  is  really  a  gangway  through 
which  a  certain  amount  of  traffic  would  always  be  "passing. 

I  had  been  watching  the  changing  shadows  on  the  hills 
ahead  of  us  as  the  sun  slowly  rose  above  them.  The  air  was 
full  of  the  scent  of  the  myriad  flowers  which  bloomed  on 
their  blue-shadowed  slopes,  and  I  pictured  to  myself  the  dark 
groves  of  orange  trees  with  their  golden  burden,  and  the 
yellow  roses  which  grew  beneath  them.  How  one  longs, 
after  many  days  at  sea,  for  the  sight  and  sound,  and  the  very 
smell,  of  Mother  Earth. 

Meanwhile,  the  sound  of 'gentle  scrubbing  blended  with 
my  thoughts.  It  was  Payne,  the  ship's  lark,  beginning  a 
new  day,  and  his  song  was  the  song  of  the  scrubbing  brush. 
Payne  was  considered  rather  a  character  on  board.  An  old 
five  badge  Marine,  with  a  good  conduct  medal,  he  had  been 
everywhere,  and  seen  most  things,  including  a  deal  of  service. 
Like  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  he  never  changed. 
We  almost  looked  on  Ijim  as  one  of  the  fittings  of  the  half- 
deck  ;  he  was  such  a  quiet,  hardworking  old  man,  and  the 
gleaming  enamel  and  brasswork  in  his  charge  were  standing 
tributes  to  his  industry  and  perseverance.  In  his  odd 
moments  he  turned  an  extra  penny  by  haircutting,  and  had 
cut  mine  to  perfection  and  shaved  me  the  day  before. 
A  good  soul  he  was.  and  my  thoughts,  accompanied  by  the 
sound  of  his  scrubbing  and  the  gentle  lapping  of  the  water, 
flitted  back  to  the  land  of  the  blue  shadows. 

It  was  not  for  long.  My  peaceful  musings  were  suddenly 
and  relentlessly  shattered,  "the  vision  beautiful  vanished,  and 
in  its  place  stood  a  grim,  terror-stricken  Marine,  pale  and 
disiicvelled.  He  w;is  clad  only  in  the  scanty  garments  in 
which  he  had  retired  to  sleep;  he 'was  ttembling  violently, 
and  I  shall  not  easily  forget  the  look  of  horror  in  his  eye's. 
"It's  Bill,  sir,"  he  roared,  as  though  I  was  eightv  yards 
away  instead  of  standing  all  attention  at  his  elbow^  "Bill 
Kennedy  what  sleeps  alongside  of  me,  sir."  His  voice  grew 
ever  louder,  and  he  never  removed  liis  dilated  eyes  from  my 
face. 

"Vers,  yes,"  I  said  in  a  soothing  tone,  "but  what  about 
Bill'" 

"He's  dead,  sir.  dead,"  he  added  softly  and  emphatically, 
as  though  trying  to  realise  the  full  force  of"  what  he  said. 

The  man.  Private  Jackson,  was  verv  shaken  and  upset, 
but  eventually  1  gathered  that  having"  been  roused  by  the 
bugle,  he  had  turned  as  usual  to  Bill,  whi^  was  a  verv 
heavy  sleeper,  "to  shake  him  properlv,"  when  to  his  horror, 
he  saw  that  Bill  Kennedy's  head  was  hanging  over  the  side 
of  his  hammock,  with  his  neck  almost  completely  severed. 
Overcome  with  shock  and  fright  at  the  dreadful  fate  of  his 


bed-fellow,  Jackson  had  rushed  to  the  upper  deck,  and  tO' 
-me,  the  Officer  of  the  Watch,  for  assistance. 

To  pass  from  the  peaceful  harbour  routine,  in  calm  and 
sunlight,  to  murder  and  sudden  death,  is  an  ugly  Shock,  and 
I  remember  the  sight  of  poor  Kennedy  to  this  day.  We 
could  do  nothing  for  him,  poor  fellow.    He  had  passed  ahead. 

I  had  the  doors  of  the  flat  closed,  and  the  place  and  the 
near  cabins  all  searched  and  the  occupants  questioned,  but 
without  result.  One  or  two  of  the  officers'  servants  were 
about  the  half-deck,  and  Private  Payne,  the  sweeper,  but 
they  had  nothing  to  report. 

Well,  we  had  "poor  Bill"  removed  and  the  flat  cleaned, 
but  the  shadow  of  Cain  was  on  us.  Suspicion  ran  amongst 
us.    We  were  all  murderer-hunters. 

The  Captain,  in  duty  bound,  had  been  informed  at  once 
of  the  death  of  one  of  his  ship's  company,  and  after  Divisions 
— corresponding  to  Parade  ashore — he  ordered  the  "lower 
deck  to  be  cleared,"  and  every  one  to  assemble  aft.  Having 
briefly  detailed  the  tragedy,  he  announced  that  every  in- 
dividual should  pass  before  him  and  be  interrogated  in  the 
presence  of  all  as  to  his  knowledge  of  the  affair.  The  Cap- 
tain was  a  fair  judge  of  character,  and  no  doubt  he  knew 
well  that  this  necessarily  slow  and  deliberate  method  of  ob- 
taining information  would  add  to  every  one's  nervous  tension. 

One  by  one,  officers  and  men,  we  "all  paused  at  a  small 
table  opposite  the  Captain,  stated  what  we  knew  or  did  not 
know,  and  passed  on.  The  end  of  the  line  had  nearly  been 
reached,  the  marines  were  filing  past,  and  so  far  no  more 
infonnation  had  been  obtained.  Now  only  three  remained 
to  be  questioned,  wlien  Payne,  the  last  of  "the  line,  stopped 
opposite  the  little  table.  We  thought  he  was  explaining 
how  close  a  friend  he  had  been  to  the  dead  man,  and  we  all 
closed  in  to  hear. 

I  stood  directly  behind  him  and  could  only  guess  at  the 
grieved  expression  on  his  lined  old  face.  The  grey,  bowed 
head  shook  sadly,  as  his  deep  musical  voice  went  on  : 

"You  see.  sir,  it  was  like  this.  Just  before  the  bugle 
sounded,  I  had  occasion  to  go  forward  to  the  flat,  for  some 
fresh  water  for  my  paint  work.  While  my  bucket  was  filling, 
I  stood  looking  at  the  boys  asleep.  Novv  Kennedy,  he  slept 
on  the  outside  of  the  row,  and  was  the  one  nearest  me.  His 
head  was  hung  back,  like,  a  little,  like  this,  sir,"  and  the  old 
man  threw  back  his  head  and  stroked  his  gnarled  old  neck. 

"He  had  a  beautiful  throat,  sir,  smooth  and  >-oung." 

There  was  pity  in  the  old  fellow's  voice.  To  have  had  time 
to  acquire  five  badges  a  Marine  can  be  no  chicken,  and  no 
doubt  he  felt  the  tragedy  of  his  mess-mate.  He  paused  for 
a  moment,  tlunkmg  deeply,  and  wagging  his  grev  head  from 
side  to  side  as  though  smitten  with  the  tragedy  of  life  and 
death :  » 

''Well,  sir,  I  turned  the  water  off,"  once  more  he  paused, 
and  we  waited  sympathetically,  "he  had  such  a  smooth 
throat,  sir  I  just  took  me  razor  out,  and  slit  it  from  ear  to 
ear  then  I  cleans  me  razor  in  the  bucket,  puts  it  awav  in  my 
pocket,  and  goes  on  cleaning  of  my  paint  work   sir  "  " 

The  righteousness  in  his  last  words  was  evident  to  all  of 
us.  He  liad  seen  a  throat  which  seemed  to  him  meant  to 
be  cut,  and  he  had  cut  it.  The  temporary  diversion  over, 
he  ]iad  gone  on  with  his  work,  "cleaning  of  my  paint  work, 

I  think  we  all  felt  a  little  sick.  Payne  excepted 

He  was  led  awav.  and  now  scrubs  the  paintwork  in  a  naval 

lunatic  asylum.     We  dispersed,  and  under  the  influence  of 

routine  were  soon  forgetting,  but  the  flat  at  night  is  still  a 

nfle  uneasy  :    and   1    remember  how  carefully   and   slowly 

Private  Payne  had  shaved  me  the  night  heiore 


,*5 


May  30,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


17 


The  Indispensable  Artist  :  By  Charles  Marriott 


h 


n 


\ 


/ 


:vv^^ 


As  an  artist,  Lieutenant  Paul  Nash  owes  notliing 
to  the  war,  though  he  probably  owes  a  great 
deal  to  it  as  an  exhibitor.  Hundreds  of  people 
will  go  to  see  his  "Void  of  War"  pictures  at  the 
Leicester  Galleries  who  would  never  have 
glanced  at  his  landscape  drawings  and  paintings  in  the  London 
Group  and  other  exhibitions,  though,  granting  that  he  has 
had  a  little  more  practice  in  the  interval,  they  were  just  as 
good  and  striking  as  are  his  war  pictures.  There  is  nothing 
to  grumble  at  in  that  ;  but  the  point  is  worth  emphasising 
because  t4-iere  is  an  idea  about  that  war  "improves"  the 
artist — that  it  makes  a  man  of  him,  so  to  speak.  The  idea 
cannot  be  too  strongly  or  too  often  denied,  because  if  it  were 
true  the  Germans  would  be  right,  and  we  would  be  wrong. 
What  happens  to 
the  artist  iq  war 
is  what  happens 
to  the  plumber  or 
any  other  man 
when  he  puts  on 
khaki  :  he  is  not 
greatly  changed, 
but  our  eyes  are 
opened  to  his 
value  and  import- 
ance. 

One  of  the  few 
satisfactory  things 
about  war  is  that 
it  does  distinguish 
between  dispens- 
able and  indis- 
pensable people 
and  things.  It 
shows  the  un- 
reality of  business 
and  brings  out  the 
reahty  of  work. 
More  than  that,  it 
abolishes  the  false 
distinctions  be- 
tween one  kind  of 
work  and  another ; 
and  though  it 
makes  its  first  call 
upon  the  .  fighter. 
it  proves  that 
while  the  trades- 
man is  a  doubtful  convenience,  the  artist,  equally  with  the 
man  with  the  hoe  and  the  man  with  the  hammer,  is  a  neces- 
sary person.  There  never  was  a  war  that  did  not  make  a 
direct  call  upon  the  services  of  art  and  literature  ;  but  the 
striking  thing  about  this  war  is  that  it  shows  the  indispensa- 
bility  of  art  and  hterature  on  their  own  terms  as  art  and 
literature,  and  not  merely  as  instruments  adaptable  to  the 
occasion. 

Persons  whose  contact  with  reality  is  habitually  com- 
promised by  the  vague  thing  called  business  are  always 
imploring  us  to  look  at  the  facts.  Well,  there  are  the  facts  : 
how  are  you  going  to  explain  them  ?  The  draughtsmen 
and  jjainters  supply  a  something  other  than  pictorial  informa- 
tion, a  something  beyond  the  power  of  photography,  the 
need  for  which  is  imperative. 

That  something  is  interpretation.  What  the  authorities 
want,  and  what  the  artist  alone  can  supply  is  not  so  much  a 
representation  as  a  reading  of  the  facts.  The  "stc^rn  arbitra- 
ment of  war,"  which  proves  the  futility  of  so  many  human 
activities,  only  confirms  the  reality  of  art,  and  confirms  it 
in  its  highest  function.  Under  the  sheer  pressure  of  events, 
the  artist  is  found  to  be  indispensable. 

The  particular  interpretation  of  war  given  by  Lieutenant 
Paul  Nash  is  that  of  its  absolute  sterility.  This,  of  course, 
affects  nothing  of  the  human  spirit  which  finds  magnificent 
expression  in  war  as  it  does  in  any  emergency.  It  is  extremely 
doubtful  if  the  finer  things  of  war  can  be  told  in  pictures, 
e.vcept  symbolically,  though  they  can  be  told  in  words.  In 
all  probability  the  visible  accidents  of  heroic  deeds  are 
absurdly  undignified.  Being  a  landscape  painter,  Lieutenan 
Nash  takes  the  human  spirit  for  granted,  atwl  limits  his 
judgment  of  war  to  its  effects  upon  inanimate  nature.  His 
judgment  is  entirely  unsentimental  and  all  the  more  forcible 
on  that  account.  He  shows  that  as  a  destructive  agent 
war  has  not  even  the  merit  of  originality,  hut  only  repeats 


%M 


La  Fol 

Cross  to  Canadians 


the  foundry  scrap-heap  and  the  blasted  quarry  on  a  "  kolossal " 
scale." 

He  is  not  indebted  to  war  even  for  the  undoubted  strange- 
ness of  his  work,  for  he  has  always  had  the  gift  of  the 
imaginative  man  of  finding  everything  strange.  No  other 
artist  that  I  can  think  of  can  so  bring  back  the  wonder  of 
trees  as  they  appear  to  the  child  :  and  this  not  by  fantastic 
exaggeration,  but  rather  by  insisting  on  their  character. 
Even  when  he  is  dealing  with  the  wildest  disorder  there  is  a 
curious  tidiness  about  his  work,  as  if  he  disdained  to  make 
use  of  accidents  and  relied  rather  on  the  force  of  under- 
statement. He  has  perceived,  as  few  have,  the  peculipr 
slowness  of  explosions  ;  the  weighty  jar  which  jumps  earth 
or  masonry  out  of  place  ;    and  he  explains  the  aptness  of  the 

word  "crater,"  his 
drawings  of  such 
phenomena  recall- 
ing no|hing  so 
much  as  pictures- 
of  landscapes  in 
the  moon.  Wheth- 
er or  not  the 
effects  will  be 
permanen  t ,  he  con- 
veys the  impres- 
sion that  the  earth 
in  the  war  zone 
has  been  killed. 
Nothing  could 
bring  home  more 
forcibly  the  stupid- 
ity of  war. 

.Though,  as  1 
said.  Lieutenant 
Nash  takes  the 
human  spirit  for 
granted,  it  is  all 
there  by  implica- 
tion. In  a  sense 
there  could  not  be 
a  stronger  tribute 
to  the  sublime  en- 
durance of  our 
men  than  the  de- 
solation he  so- 
remorselessly  con- 
veys. He  will  not 
even  allow  that 
of  the  picturesque.  They  have 
Without  a  single  heroic  gesture, 
with,  indeed,  an  occasional  hint  of  sensible  scuttling,  he 
convoys  an  impression  of  massive  determination  that  no 
other  artist  has  been  able  to  suggest. 

Lieutenant  Nash  undoubtedly  owes  a  great  deal  to  the 
consistency  of  his  method.  It  might  be  called  a  method  of 
super-realism,  in  which  the  effect  of  truth  is  got  by  dis- 
regarding accuracy  and  reducing  everything  to  its  essentials. 
Nothing  could  be  further  from  photographic  truth  or  show 
more  clearly  the  entire  independence  of  the  arts  of  painting 
and  photography.  Equally  arts,  they  have  ■  absolutely 
nothing  in  common  except  subject  matter.  One  reflects  the 
thing  and  stands  or  falls  by  the  accuracy  of  the  reflection, 
the  other  translates  the  thing  and  stands  or  falls  by  the 
completeness  and  con.isteiicy  of  the  translation.  The  differ- 
ence in  result  is  that  between  a  record  and  a  commemoration 
or  interpretation,  which  latter  implies  human  consideration 
and  judgment. 

This  applies  not  only  to  the  whole  scene  or  event,  but  to 
every  particular  ;  and  there  is  not  a  single  line,  curve,  or  tone 
in  Lieutenant  Nash's  work  -that  merely  copies  the  lines, 
curves,  or  tones  of  nature.  Generally,  the  thing  has  been 
greatly  simplified,  with  emphasis  upon  its  typical  rather 
than  its  accidental  form.  This  has  a  practical  as  well  as  an 
aesthetic  value  ;  for,  as  Sir  Arthur  Quiller  Couch  pointed  6ut 
in  one  of  his  lectures  on  poetry,  the  first  effect  of  measured 
language  is  to  make  a  thing  memorable.  -.i 

So  the  reason  or  instinct  which  leads  the  au'horities  to 
employ  draughtsmen  and  painters  to  commemorate  the  war 
is  as  sound  as  that  which  led  our  forefathers  to  say  : 
"Thirty  days  hath  September"  ;  and  the  reason  or  instinct 
which  led  them  to  employ  Lieutenant  Nash  was  particularly 
sound  and  accurate  because  it  is  seen  that  he  has  a  very- 
definite  and  complete  convention. 


ic  Wood 

fallen  on   Vimy 


By  Lieutenant  Paul  Nash 


Ridge 


they    have    the    support 
nothing  but  their  duty. 


i8 


Land    &    Water 


May   30,  191 8 


Life  and  Letters  ^  J.  C  Squire 


Victorians  with  the  Gilt  Off 

THE  "standard  biography,"  in  two  volumes,  so 
large  as  to  be  nn readable,  so  discreet  as  to  be 
misleading,  and  so  inartistically  done  as  to  convey 
no  clear  portrait  of  its  subject,  is  one  of  the 
commonest  products  of  our  Press.  The  good 
biography  is  very  rare.  The  good  short  biography,  though 
we  were  better  at  it  in  earlier  centuries,  has  been  almost 
extinct  for  generations.  Mr.  I-ytton  Strachey's  book 
Eminenl  Victorians  (Chatto  &  Windus,  los.  6d.  net)  contains 
four  short  biographies  whicli  are  certainly  equal  to  anything 
of  the  kind  which  has  been  jjroduced  for  a  hundred  years. 
His  subjects  are  Cardinal  Manning,  Florence  Nightingale, 
General  Gordon,  and  Arnold  of  Kugby  ;  and  in  the  course 
of  his  narratives  he  gives  portraits,  large  or  small,  of  many 
other  influential  or  popular  Victorians.  Opinions  will  differ  as 
to  his  fairness.  But  he  has  certainly  created  the  living  images 
of  human  beings ;  his  writing  is  deliciously  restrained, 
persuasive  without  being  rhetorical,  epigrammatic  without 
being  showy,  witty  without  being  flippant  ;  and  he  handles 
his  stories  like  a  master.  One,  at  least,  of  these  narra- 
tives— that  of  Gordon's  end  and  the  precedent  events — is 
extraordinarily  complex  and  difficult.  But  he  elucidates  it 
with  consummate  dexterity  ;  and,  wha,t  is  more,  proportions 
it  so  fairly  and  states  the.  problems  involved  so  carefully, 
that  he  makes  us  understand  that  there  was  something 
— a  great  deal — to  be  said  for  the  opinion  and  the  view  of 
almost  everj^  man  prominently  involved  in  the  tangle. 
****** 

He  is  drawn  to  Gordon  by  his  recklessness  and  fire  and 
unworldliness ;  he  is  drawn  to  Florence  Nightingale  by 
similar  qualities  in  her,  though  the  picture  he  draws  of  that 
fierce  spirit  flogging  Sidney  Herbert  to  his  death  is  veiy 
different  from  the  popular  sentimental  vision  of  "The  Lady 
with  the  Lamp."  The  traits  for  which  he  has  most  distaste 
are  smugness,  prudence,  and  material  ambition  ;  and,  finding 
these  in  many  of  the  people  about  whom  he  writes,  he  tends 
rather  to  iconoclasm.  Iconoclasm  is,  perhaps,  too  strong  a 
word.  His  practice,  rather,  is  to  rub  the  whitewash  off 
gently.  Sometimes  he  rubs  too  long  and  too  often  ;  and  a 
little  of  the  solid  substance  comes  off.  His  Arnold,  for 
instance,  is  not  a  man  who  could  have  been  the  power  that 
Arnold  was  :  he  is  merely  a  self-satisfied  and  bigoted  donkey. 
Hii  general  influence,  his  personal  hold  over  boys  are  men- 
tioned ;  but  they  are  certainly  not  brought  home  or 
explained.  His  dislike  of  Lord  Cromer  leads  him  too  far 
there.  To  Manning,  too,  he  is  not  quite  fair  ;  and  he  goes  a 
little  beyond  his  self-defined  sphere  by  putting  words  into 
the  Pope's  mouth  at  the  famous  interview  with  Pio  Nono. 
Granted,  however,  its  limitations — the  limitations*  of  a 
corrective — the  book  is  a  masterpiece  of  its  kind. 
****** 

One  would  like  to  quote  freely  in  illustration  of  the  ameni- 
ties of  Mr.  Strachej^'s  style.  Here  is  a  sentence  on  Keble  : 
'  He  had  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the  Prayer 
Book,  the  ways  of  a  Common  Room,  the  conjugations  of 
Greek  irregular  verbs,  and  the  small  jests  of  a  countrj'  parson- 
age ;  and  the  defects  of  his  experience  in  other  directions 
were  replaced  by  a  zeal  and  a  piety  which  were  soon  to  prove 
themselves  equal,  and  more  than  equal,  to  whatever  calls 
night  be  made  upon  them."  Here  is  a  sly  reference  to 
Dr.  Arnold  : 

It  was  no  wonder  that  Cai-lyle,  after  a  visit  to  Rugby, 
should  have  characterised  Dr.  Arnold  as  a  man  of  "un- 
hasting,    unresting   diligence." 

Mrs.  Arnold,  too,  no  doubt  agreed  with  Carlyle.  During 
the  first  eight  years  of  their  married  life  she  bore  him  six 
children  ;   and  four  more  were  to  follow. 

For  a  specimen  of  his  sustained  style  one  can  quuU'  iioiliing 
better  than  a  portion  of  his  fine  passage  on  Newman  : 

If  Newman  had  never  lived,  or  if  his  father,  wheil-*the 
gig  came  round  on  the  fatal  morning,  still  undecided  between 
the  two  Universities,  had  chanced  to  turn  the  horse's  head 
in  the  direction  of  Cambridge,  who  can  doubt  that  the 
Oxford  Movement  would  have  flickered  out  its  little  (lame 
unobserved  in  the  Common  Room  of  Oriel  ?  And  how 
different,  too,  would  have  been  the  fate  of  Newman  himself  ! 
He  was  a  child  of  the  Romantic  lievival,  a  creature  of 
emotion  and  of  memory,  a  dreamer  whose  secret  spirit 
dwelt  apart  in  delectable  mountains,  an  artist  whose  subtle 
senses  caught,  like  a  shower  in  the  sunshine,  the  impalpable 
rainbow  of  the  immaterial  world.     In  other  times,   under 


other  skies,  his  days  would  have  been  more  fortunate.  He 
might  have  helped  to  weave  the  garland  of  Meleager,  or 
to  mix  the  lapia  lazuli  of  Fra  Angelico,  or  to  chase  the 
delicate  truth  in  the  shade  of  an  Athenian  palaestra,  or 
bis  hands  might  have  fashioned  those  ethereal  faces  that 
smile  in  the  niches  of  Chartres.  Even  in  his  own  age  he 
might,  at  Cambridge,  whose  cloisters  have  ever  been  con- 
secrated to  poetry  and  common  sense,  have  followed  quietly 
in  Gray's  footsteps  and  brought  into  flower  those  seeds  oi 
inspiration  which  now  lie  embedded  amid  the  faded  devo- 
tion of  the  Lyra  Apostolica.  At  Oxford,  he  was  doomed. 
He  could  not  withstand  the  last  enchantment  of  the  Middle 
Age.  It  was  in  vain  that  he  plunged  into  the  pages  of 
Gibbon  or  communed  long  hours  with  Beethoven  over  his 
beloved  violin.  The  air  was  thick  with  clerical  sanctity, 
heavy  with  the  odours  of  tradition  and  the  soft  warmth 
of  spiritual  authority  ;  his  friendship  with  Hurrell  Froude 
did  the  rest.  All  that  was  weakest  in  him  hurried  him 
onward,  and  all  that  was  strongest  in  him,  too. 

And  this  one  has  cut  .short  at  its  best. 


It  is  a  noticeable  thing  that  the  figures  which  Mr.  Strachey 
has  selected  for  study  were  all  of  them  devout  Christians  ; 
and  he  is  continually  returning  tb  the  phenomena  of  religious 
introspection  and  the  niceties  of  religious  dogma.     For  the 
sincere  self-examiner  he  has  a  certain  sympathy,  as  indeed 
any  humane  man  must,  whatever  his  own  position  and  habit. 
The   measure   of   sympathy   Varies.     Perhaps   it    varies   too 
much.     Nothing  could  be  more  comprehending  and  tender 
than  his  references  to  the  self-tortures  of  Newman,  but  his 
dislike  of  Manning  is  such  (he  slips,  in  one  place,  into  a  refer- 
ence   to    "superstitious    egotists" — an    unusual    lapse    from 
urbanity)   that   his  attitude  towards  Manning's  ruthless  and 
undoubtedly  conscientious   analysis  of   his   own   motives   is 
coloured  too  much  by  his  conviction  that  Manning  was  alway  - 
bound  to  cheat  himself  into  the  selfish  course  of  action.     His 
sympathetic  comprehension  of  struggles  about  motive  and 
conduct,  however,  does  not  extend  to  disputes  about  dogma. 
He  is  interested  in  dogma,  but  his  interest  is  the  interest  of 
Gibbon.     It  is  all  very  well  for  him  to  quote  " Je  n'impose 
rien  ;    je  ne  propose  rien  :    j' expose,"   but   he  cannot   helj) 
having  his  point   of  view.     He   regards   all   dogmas   as   an 
amusing  kind  of  nonsense  ;    he  loves  to  look  on  and  see  how 
far  the  doctrinal  disputants  can  carry  the  splitting  of  hairs, 
their  efforts  to  reconcile  things  difficult  of  reconciliation,  to 
deduce  a  certainty  from  an  ambiguity,  to  find  support  for 
their  positions  in  the  remotest  corners  of  patristic  literature. 
The  odd  nanres  of  early  bishops  and  mediaeval  scholastics 
appeal  to  him  ;   he  rolls  them  off  with  an  outward  solemnity 
that    docs    not    conceal     the     inward    smile.      He   cannot 
quite  regard  a  believer  as  an   intellectual  equal ;    and  he 
tends  to  exhibit  the  whole  body  of  believers  as  odd  insects 
performing  strange  evolutions  for  his  benefit.     But  one  is 
not  so  sure  that  were  he  to  turn  his  microscope  in  other  direc- 
tions he  would  find  other  classes  of  persons  less  ridiculous. 
I  suggest    with  deference,  that  he  might  set  out  on  a  new 
line.     An  observer  with  his  detachment,  his  keen  sense  of 
the  ludicrous,  his  eye  for  httle  intellectual  and  moral  weak- 
nesses, might  give  us  an  original  \'iew  of  the  members  of  his 
own   sceptical   camp.     They   have   never  turned   their  own 
guns  upon  themselves  ;   and  their  opponents  are  incapable  of 
this  kind  of  cool  daylight  writing.     If  Mr.  Strachey  would 
devote  his  attention  to  a  few  "pioneers"  of  the  anti-religious 
movements,  and  examine  their  characters  and  mental  pro- 
cesses with  the  scientific  conscientiousness  of  which  he  has 
shown  himself  capable,  one  'imagines  that  the  general  run 
of  them,  from  Voltaire  to  Bradlaugh,  will  be  left  with  even 
less  of  th?  monumental  about  them  than  the  others.     His 
treatment  is  a  valuable  treatment.     A  man  who  can  remain 
heroic— as  both  General  Gordon  and  Miss  Nightingale  do- 
after  being  subjected  to  it  has  passed  a  very  severe  test,  and 
his  really  heroic  qualities  have  been,  in  effect,  glorified.     But 
the  one  striking  and  inevitable  defect  of  his  method  is  that 
in  failing  to  communicate  in  their  full  force  the  emotions 
by  virtue  of  which  persons  have  been  great  and  impressed 
their   contemporaries   as   great,    by   throwing   a   high   light 
upon  habitual  weaknesses  and  blind  spots,  it  tends  to  make 
both  the  great  and  the  half-great  seem  more  fooUsh  than 
they  were,  and  to  give  one  the  idea  that  our  fathers  were 
very  simple-minded  to  be  imposed  upon  by  such  persons. 
A  biographer  who  looks  down  on  his  subject  can  contribute 
much  to  our  knowledge  of  him  ;    but  the  biographer  who 
looks  at  him  with  level  ^yes  and  the  biographer  who  looks 
up  at  him  are  also  useful. 


May  30,  191  8 


Land    &   Water 


19 


The  New  Salonika  :   By  Thomas  H.  Mawson 


I 


The   Quay   before   the   Fire        .  Eastern  end  of  Rue  St.  Demetrc 

This  is  to  be  made  wider  and  arranged  as  a   Boulevard  Donlteys  laden  with  oak.       An  old  Turkish  Cemetery  in 

in   two  levels  background 

Mr.  Thomas  Mawson,  the  ivriter  of  this  article,  is  the  our  armies  are  doing  in  the  creation  of  a  great  system  of 
well-known  landscape  artist  and  toien- planning  expert,  splendid  railwaj-s  and  main  roads,  which  radiate  from  the 
H  e  is  the  senior  fnember  of  the  Commission  for  the  rebuild  ing  city  through  the  hinterland  to  the  frontier,  and  which  have 
of  the  City  of  Salonika,  xvhich  was  practically  wiped  out  opened  up  the  country  for  future  development  and  assured 
of  existence  by  the  Great  Fire  of  last  autumn.  Before  the  prosperity.  In  carrying  out  this  work  vast  numbers  of  the 
war,  Mr.  Mawson  had  been  engaged  on  a  scheme  for  mixed  population  of  Macedonia  have  been  employed,  their 
modernising  the  city  of  Athens.  He  also  laid  out  Banff  work  being  paid  for  on  a  scale  which  is  just  and  even  generous. 
and  Calgary  in  Western  Canada,  so  his  experience  is  In  fact,  in  all  these  matters  the  British  have  won  a  reputation 
unique.     The  members  of  the  Commission  include,  besides     for  fair  dealing  and  prompt  payment. 

Mr.  Thomas  Mawson,  Sir  E.  Hebrard,  Captain  Pleybair  The  third  reason  for  our  popularity  is  tJie  knowledge  that 

M.  H.  Kitchikis,  and  M    J.  Jacens,  with  the  Mayor  oj     we  are  held  in  high  regard  by  the  King.  M.  Venezelos,  and 
Salonika  as  cx-officio  member.      The  Commission  works     his  Government,   and  also  by  the  fact  that  the  safety  of 

Macedonia  is  in  the  keeping  of  the  Allies,  who  are  working 
in  perfect  harmony  with  the  Government  in  Athens. 

For  these  reasons,  it  seems  to  me  that  people  at  home 
should  make  haste  to  realise  the  commercial  importance  of 
Greece,  and  to  take  every  advantage  of  the  present  favour- 
future   of   Macedonia    and   the   intensely   interesting     able  conditions  to  further  British  prestige,  commerce,  and 
problems  connected  with  the  rebuilding  of  Salonika  ;      industry.  ,     j 

and  yet  I  claim  that  no  part  of  the  territory  o\'er         The  re-planning  of  the  citj',  after  one  of  the  greatest  and 


with   the   Greek   Ministry   of  Communications,    which    is 
under  the  able  presidency  of  M.  Papanasiacius. 


N   these  strenuous  and   anxious  times  comparatively 
few  ])eople  have  gi\en  any  serious  thought  to  the 


which  we  are  now  waging  such 
terrible  warfare  would  better  re- 
pay careful  study  and  active 
interest,  for  to  every  student  of 
the  Orient  it  is  becoming  in- 
creasingly clear  that  never  before 
In  our  history  have  the  British 
been  held  in  such  high  regard, 
both  by  the  Greek  Government 
and  people  at  large,  as  at  the 
present  time. 

There  are  several  main  causes 
which  have  produced  this  desir- 
able change  in  our  favour  ;  tliey 
may  be  stated  as  follows. 

The  great  fwpularity  of  our 
Army  (which  applies  to  all  ranks, 
from  the  Commander-in-Chief, 
General  Sir  George  Milne,  to  the 
private  soldier)  is  almost  unbe- 
lievable until  one  hears  from  the 
natives  of  the  splendid  heroishi  of 
our  men  and  their  self-sacrifice 
during  the  terrible  night  of  the 
fire.  Nothing  has  ever  happened 
in  Macedonia  which  so  impressed 
the  Oriental  mind  or  so  completely 
captivated  the  inhabitants  of 
Salonika  and  the  hinterland. 
Stories  arc  told  on  every  side  of 
the  perfect  genius  of  our  soldiers 
for  control  on  a  great  and  tragic 
occasion,  and  their  care  of  the 
women  and  children  who  flocked 
to  them  as  their  natural  protectors. 
Everywhere  I  heard  it  said : 
"British  soldiers  are  inimitable." 

The  second  reason  arises  from 
the  recognition  of  the  work  which 


Church  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 

From     this    position    can     be    obtained    the    finest 

panorama    of   City,  Gulf  of   Salonika,  and  Mount 

Olympus  in  the  distance 


most  disastrous  fires  in  history, 
provides  just  the  right  oppor- 
tunity and  occasion  for  enter- 
prise, whilst  the  development  of 
th?  agricultural  and  mineral  re- 
sources of  Macedonia  is  now  made ' 
possible  by  the  new  railways  and 
roads  to  which  -I  have  already 
referred.  Together,  these  offer 
endless  opportunities  for  British 
capital  organising  genius  and  in- 
dustry, and  the  more  we  can 
develop  these  opportunities,  the 
more  sure  are  we  to  prevent  the 
future  Germanisation  of  Greek 
financial  corporations. 

A  natural  question  wliich  is 
often  asked  is :  Where  is  the 
money  to  come  from  for  all  this 
exploitation  ?  To  which  I  reply  : 
Principally  from  the  Greeks  them- 
selves, because  it  cannot  be  too 
strongly  insisted  upon  that  the 
Greeks  are  to-day  very  rich. 
What  is  needed  are  a  few  recog- 
nised British  financial  corpora- 
tions, whose  members  are  kn6wn 
for  commercial  abiUty.  practical 
enterprise,  and  probity.  Given 
these  conditions,  1  am  sure  the 
rest  is  easy. 

I  regard  it  as  most  fortunate, 
from  a  national  point  of  view, 
that  an  Englishman  was  asked  by 
M.  Venezelos  to  take  the  senior 
position  on  the  City  Planning 
Commission — for  rebuilding  the 
city  and  to  lay  down  the  principles 
upon  which  the  ])lans  wryp  to  be 


20 


Land   &   Water 


May 


iO, 


1918 


developed.  Notliing  appeals  to  the  Oriental  mind  inure  than 
the  building  of  a  city.  With  them,  city-building  is  the 
highest  po.ssibic  enterprise,  and  I  may  add  that  the  Greeks 
everywhere  are  delighted  that  we  British  were''asked  to  t'dvO 
so  important   a  part   in   this   work. 

"  In  what  way."  vou  may  ask,  "does  the  rebuilding  o[  the 
city  offer  such  great  opportunities?"  To  begin  with;  it  is 
surely  clear  that  the  rebuilding  and  extension  of  a  city  upon 
which  there  will  be  expended  at  least  twenty  millions  sterling, 
provides  unhmitcd  opportunities  for  the  supply  of  e\ery 
kind  of  building  material  which  has  to  be  imported  into  the 
countr\'.  The  Greek  Government,  however,  are  anxious 
that  we  should  take  a  much  more  prominent  place  in  the 
rebuilding  of  the  city  than  this  implies  They  desire 
British  contractors  to  finance  and  build  important  sections  of 
the  city,  and  they  are  prepared  to  make  special  terms  and 
i-onditions  to  attract  this 
enterprise. 

Still  more  important  con- 
tracts will  be  given  for  the 
new  dock  and  harbour  exten- 
sions, new  railway  terminals, 
and  goods  yards,  a  connecting 
underground  electrical  rail- 
way between  the  east  and 
west  terminals,  and  a  bold 
and  comprehensive  system  of 
tramways,  all  and  each  of 
which  provide  opportunities 
for  still  larger  concessions,  as 
will  also  the  ne\v  waterworks 
and  main  drainage  system, 
which  form  parts  of  the  plans 
submitted  to  the  Govern- 
ment by  the  City  Planning 
Commission. 

The  new  Salonika,  which 
will  become  one  of  the  most 
important  cities  in  the  Orient, 
will,  in  addition,  possess 
those  qualities  of  permanence 
and  stability  which  should 
encourage  manufacturers  to 
lay  down  factories,  and  the 
necessary  plant  for  the  pro- 
duction of  all  those  commo- 
dities, whether  of  machinery  or 
fabrics,  for  which  Macedonia 
and  the  Balkan  States  provide 
so  great  a  market.  In  this 
connection  we  must  alwaj's 
remember  that  Salonika  is  the 
natural  gateway  to  the  Balkan 
States,  and  that  at  the  end  of 
the  war  Serbia  will  ask  for,  and 
probably  c/btain,  a  free  port 
near  the  city.  All  these 
factors  will  ensure  a  rapid  growth  in  the  population,  which 
at  the  present  time  is  220,000,  but  which  in  twenty  years 
may  be  well  over  half  ^  million. 

As  to  the  climate  of  Macedonia  for  purposes  of  residence, 
this  is  perfectly  delightful  for  eight  months  in  the  year, 
though  during  the  remaining  four  months  malaria  is  prevalent, 
but  with  the  drainage  and  proper  irrigation  of  the  Varda, 
t  Mikra,  Langaza,  Struma,  and  Dorian  marshes,  this  scourge 
will,  it  is  said,  rapidly  disappear.  Indeed,  conditions  in  this 
respect  are  already  greatly  improved.  In  other  respects, 
Salonika  will  be  one  of  the  most  beautiful  seaports  in  the 
world,  a  city  in  which  parks,  gardens,  and  boulevards  will 
provide  ample  shade  and  recreational  spaces,  a  city  in  which 
intellectual  pursuits  will  become  a  pastime,  and  in  whirh 
opera  and  good  music  will  flourish.  To  the  historian  and 
archaeologist  and  artist,  the  city  will  possess  great  attractions, 
for  every  archaological  treasure  will  be  preserved,  and  in  it 
the  new  architecture,  tliQUgh  following  local  tradition,  will 
equal  in  design  and  beauty  the  best  modern  work  fn  anv 
European  city.  So  much  M.  Venczelos  is  determined  to 
realise.  In  the  business  and  residential  quarters  there  will 
be  good  schools  and  a  well-placed  and  well-equipped  Univer- 
sity, a  fine  opera  house  and  theatre,  a  permanent  exhibition 
ground,  and  a  unique  sporting  and  yachting  centre  at  Mikra 
point,  now  the  site  of  our  British  base  hospitals. 

From  a  strategic  point  of  view,  Salonika  will  have  good 
railway  connections  with  the  Balkan  States  and  Western 
Europe,  with  Constantinople  and  Athens,  the  latter  railway 
(which  is  just  completed)  adding  greatly  to  the  convenience 
and  popularity  of  Salonika  as  a  centre  for  tourists. 

Even   now,   in   one  respect  at  least,   Salonika  is  unique. 


The  Whi 

The  most  popular  C.ifc;  centre 


for  it  has  no  municipal  debt,  and  does  not  need  to  lev}-  a 
rate  for  maintenance. 

To  those  who  have  visited  this  ancient  port  the  following 
notes  on  our  initial  plans  may  be  of  interest.  Hue  Egnatius 
will  be  the  main  central  longitudinal  boulevard  through  the 
city.  It  will  be  straight  from  end  to  end,  and  have  a  width 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  At  the  Porte  Varda  end 
there  will  be  placed  the  great  union  terminal  railway 
station,  with  an  electric  underground  railway  connecting  the 
stations  with  another  railway  terminal  at  Kalemaria,  or  the 
east  end  of  the  city.  Prom  this  station  a  new  railway  will 
eventually  run  to  the  Gulf  of  Oiphano.  The  width  of  Rue 
Egnatius  permits  of  a  central  boulevard  of  trees,  with  tram- 
lines on  either  .side,  then  two  lines  of  vehicular  traffic  and 
wide  tree-planted  sidewalks.  Above  and  below  this  main 
axis  there  will  be  three  other  longitudinal  axis,  or  seven  in 

all ;  two  will  include  Rue  St. 
Demetre    and    the    Qua}'. 

The  main  cross  axis  starts 
at  the  Ouay,  and  extends  to 
the  minaret  of  St.  Demetre. 
This  is  the  main  cross  artery 
of  the  city  ;  it  will  be  150 
feet  in  width,  planted  with 
four  lines  of  shade  trees,  and 
have,  in  addition,  a  central 
parkway.  On  -either  side  of 
this  boulevard  and  north  of 
Rue  Egnatius  there  will  be 
erected  in  large  open  spaces, 
the  new  city  hall  and  Law 
Courts,  which,  together  with 
the  new  St.  Demetre,  should 
make  a  very  fine  architec- 
tural composition. 

Rue  Venezelos,  so  well 
known  to  British  .soldiers  and 
nurses,  will  be  widened  and 
paralleled  by  another  road  of 
equal  width  and  importance  to 
the  west.  At  the  base  of 
these  two  roads,  and  near  its 
junction  with  the  Quay,  the 
central  block  between  these 
two  parallels  is  carried  back 
for  one  hundred  yards,  thus 
forming  a  square,  to  be  called 
Liberty  Square.  Around  this 
square  will  be  erected  the 
great  Post  Office  and  the 
principal  banks. 

The  great   Quay   is    to    be 

widened  by  about  40  feet,  and 

divided  into  lower  and  upper 

Boulevards,  the  latter  about 

4  feet  above  its  present  level. 

The  docks  are  to  be  deyeloped 

westwards,  and  the  \Vhite  Tower,  at  the  east  end,  developed 

as  *he  great  social  centre  for  the  city.     Here  will  be  built  the 

new  opera  house  and  theatre,  and  the  great  city  cafes. 

The  east;  or  Kalamaria  end  of  the  city,  will  increasingly 
become  the  residential  quarters  for  the  official,  professional, 
and  merchant  class,  and  Mikra  point  the  residential  area  for 
the  rich.  Here  also  will  be  developed  the  bathing  and 
recreational  centre,  with  a  great  yacht  club. 

The  area  west  of  Porte  Varda  is  "to  be  developed  on  garden 
city  lines  as  residential  quarters  for  the  industrial  classes. 
Here  they  will  be  near  the  dock  and  factory  areas,  and  in 
tins  section  will  be  laid  out  the  exhibition  ground,  where 
international  sports  will  be  carried  on. 

The  existing  picturesque  Turkish  quarters  north  of  Rue 
St.  Demetre  will  be  preser\-ed  along  with  every  feature  of 
historic  or  archaeological  interest,  but  certain  slum  quarters 
are  to  be  cleared  out  to  make  way  for  an  improved  system  of 
n)ads  and  the  provision  of  playgrounds  and  gardens" 

The  new  University,,  in  which  the  Greek  Premier  takes  so 
miich  interest,  and  which  will  eventually  consist  of  a  large 
group  of  fine  buildings,  is  to  be  erected  on  the  site  of  one  of 
.the  Turkish  cemeteries,  in  a  direct  hne  with  Rue  Egnatius 
Withm  the  central  part  of  the  city  therein  be 
many  beautiful  town  gardens.  One  of  these  will  extend 
from  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Sophie  to  Rue  Venezelos  and 
forward  to  the  proposed  French  Cathedral  at  the  end  of 
Rue  r  ranee. 

One  great  feature  of  the  city  will  be  the  new  bazaars, 
which  are  to  follow  the  best  tradition  of  Byzantine  archi- 
tecture, and  planned  in  large  groups  on  a  system  which  will 
prove  a  great  convenience  to  both  seller^  and  buyers 


te  Tower 

wh'ere  British    officers  foreg.tther 


June   6,  191  8 


Supplement  to  Land    &    Water 


IX 


r 


/  must  write  often er 

Letters  are  valued  by  our  men  who  are  serving ;  they  make  a 
spark  of  interest  and  brightness  when  the  day  feels  grey. 
Everybody  looks  forward  to  tlie  mails  from  home,  and  it  is  up  to 
us  to  see  no  one  is  disappointed.  It  is,  after  all,  the  least  we 
can  do  to  write,  if  only  a  little,  every  day. 

The  "Swan' '  is  immensel}'  helpful.  There  is  a  real 
inspiration  to  write  in  the  smooth  gold  nib.  It 
is  the  perfect  medium  by  which  to  send  a  word 
of  cheer  to  brave  hearts  out  there. 


At  pre-war  prices  from  10  6 

OF  ALL  STATIONERS  AND  JEWELLERS 

Illustrated  Catalogui  post  free. 

MABIE,  TODD  &  CO    LTD., 

London  Manchester.  Pans,  Zurich.  Sydney  Toronto,  etc. 

Associate  House — New  York  and  Chicago. 


You  cannot  do  better  tiian  toUow  the 
advic'i  of  the  Governmen'   Food   Pro- 
duction Department  by  thoroughly  spraying 
your     crops.        The    best    line   of   spraying 
machines  is  the  "  Ubel."    There  is  a  "  Ubel ." 
Sprayer  for  every  spraying  and  limewashing 
purpose.  All  machines  which  bear  the  "  Ubel  " 
trade-mark  (without  which  none  are  genuine) 
are  strong,   efficient,  and  ea^y  to  use.     Each 
machine  is  the  very  best  of  its  kind,  and  is  made 
by  the  largest  actual  manufacturers  of  spraying 
and  limewasliing  machines  and  accessories  in 
Great  Britain,  who  will  send  their  illustrated 
catalogue  on  request 

UNITED  BRASSFOUNDERS  AND  ENGINEERS  LTD 
Empress  Fouidry    Cornbrook    MaDchestei- 


"UBEIi 

I^apsad 
Sp; 


/ 


reiLyGTSi 


w^^mm^  wr 


VIRGINIA   CIGARETTES 

(HAND   MADE) 

Hi^h-Class  Cigarettes  of  superb 
delicacy,  the  result  of  a  matchless 
blend  of  the  finest  Virginia  Tobacco. 

Boxes  of  10  for  9^d.      Boxes  of  20  for  1/7 
Boxes  of  50  for  3/10    Boxes  of  100  for  7/2 

■■PERFECTOS     FINOS"   are    larger 
Cigarettes    of     the     same     quality. 

The  e    Ciciretlcl   are   also    supplied   al   DUTY    FREE 

RATES     for     the     purpose    of     gratuitous    distribt-Tioa 

to      wouoded      Soldiers      and      bailors      in      Hospital. 

Terms  oa  appltcatioa  to 

JOHN  PLAYER  &:  SONS.  Nottingham 

635         Breooh  of  tbe  Ia)p(>rial  TcjbacooCo.  (of  Orvst  Britain  ftod  Irelftad)  Ltd. 


X 


Supplement  to    Land    &    Water 


June    6,  1 918 


This  shows   the  first  stage  of  the 

roll  when  the  War  Bag  is  about  to 

be    rolled    up    with    the    sleepinj 

vahse. 


An  Officer's  War  Bag 

^7 he     only    suitable    Bag   for     the    Front 

THIS  "  CROSS  "  Baf,'  diics  away  with  the  tiresome  necessity 
fir  stowing  personal  belongings  in  the  sleeping  valise,  which 
has  to  be  emptied  every  time  the  owner  wants  to  "  turn  in." 
It  holds  all  belongings  and,  owing  to  its  specially  flexible 
character,  can  be  rolled  up  and  rolled  w  ith  the  sleeping  valise 
into  one  bundle.  It  saves  runnnaging  and  confusion  of  kit. 
In  case  of  sudden  call,  the  bag  with  all  essential  requisites  is  to 
hand  for  immediate  portage.  When  going  on  l«ive  the  owner 
will  find  it  exceptionally  useful  and  convenient.  When  not  in  use 
and  quite  empty  the  bag  folds  perfectly  fl  it  and  small  as  shown. 


Initials 
branded 
on  bag, 
6d.  per 
letter. 


Name 
complete, 
3/-., 
Name 
and 
■':'■  nment, 
4/-. 


This  shows  the  bag  folded  up  fiat. 
Note  how  neat  and  compact  it  is 
—easy  to  put  away  in  a  comer. 
Note  the  snap  and  strap  for  holding 
it  in  fold.  Also  instead  of  clips 
end  straps  are  now  fitted. 


Made  in  finest  quality  Pigskin,  lined 
smart  check  linen.  Fittc(}  strong 
lock  Size  20x10x14  in.  When 
closed  20x8x2  in.     Weight  3 J  lbs. 

Larger  size    22  in.     Weight  4^  lbs. 
Made  in  finest  quality  canvas 
Larger  size,  22  in.   - 


Price 

99/- 

110/- 

50/- 
60/- 


MARK  GROSS  Ltd.  89  Regent  St  London  W.l 


Fancy  Voile 
Wrappers 

.rr  POPULAR  PRicF'^ 


These  attractive  garments  are 
made  from  printed  cotton 
voile,  in  a  variety  of  beautiful 
yet  simjjle  designs  and  care- 
fiilly  blended  colourings. 
They  are  adapted  from 
l-rcnch  models  by  our  own 
workers,  and'are  particularly 
useful  and  becoming. 

Bedroom  Wrapper  (*is  sketch),  very 
fully  cut,  in  fancy  voile,  wilh  crepe 
n-vrrs  and  cnffs  to  tone.  In  a  large 
lan^e  of  dainty  pale  shades,  also 
u>.e£ul  Pai^li;y  colourings,  and  in  aU 
white  striped  voiles. 

Special  Price 


29/6 


THE   RAVAGES  OF  MOTH 

Stoic_  your  Kurs  in  our  Freezing 
Chamters.  Particulars  oi  our 
new  Combined  Fur  Storajje  and 
Insurance  against  all  and  every 
risk  sent  post  free  on  application. 


DebenKam 
&  Fr  eebodv, 

Vt'lrtmorc  Street. 

|Ci>\cn«Iish  Sqviare)  London  V^  1 

roiTinu*  ^OT  o^ rr  a  Century 
(orTo»tr  (or  QtioMt  forVoIue 


INEXPENSIVE  SUMMER  HATS 


Charming   Hat,   in 

white  muslin  wilh 
mauve  spots ;  also 
in  pink. 

Price   45/- 


MARSH  A L L 
&    SNELGROVE 

i.iMirir. 
Vere  St.  ana  Oxford  St. 
LONDON,     W.l. 


NOTE. —  This  EstabtishiiienI  will  be  closed 
on  Saturdays  until  further  notice. 


June  6,  1918 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


XI 


SERVICE  BREECHES 

MADE  AT  SHOR T  NO TICE. 

A  good  name  among  sportsmen  for  nearly  a  century 
is  a  sure  measure  of  our  particular  ability  in  breeches- 
making,  to  which  gratifying  testimony  is  now  also 
given  by  the  many  recommendations  from  officers. 

For  inspection,  and  to  enable  us  to  meet  immediate  requireraenlt,  we 

keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs  of  breeches,  or  we  can  cut  and  try  a 

pair  on  the  same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day,  if  urgently  w  anted. 

Patterns  and  Form  /or  self-measurement  at  request. 


LEATHER  PUTTEES. 


These  most  comfortable,  good- 
looking  puttees  are  made  en- 
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 
I  he  edges  never  tear  or  fray  out. 

The  puttees  are  quickly  put  on  or  takrn 
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  22/6,  post  free 
inland,  or  postage  abroad  1/-  extra,  or 
sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business 
(not  banker's)  reference  and  home 
address.     Please  give  size  of  calf. 


GRANT  AND  COGKBURN 
25  PICGADILLY,  W.l.  " 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


lESTD.  1821  r 


BSA 

RIFLES  &GUNS 

m  PEACE  a/7t/  WAR 

gBFORB    THK    WAR    B.S.A.  Rifles  held   (irsi    place    in   popularity 
because  (hey    romb  ned   the    highest    quality    and    a'^curacy    with   lo^ 
coat.      These  characteristica  wer**   ihe  result  of  expert  de-^igning,  the  u:*e  of 
Ki^iesl  grade  material  >  and  extensive  facihti'S. 

QURING     TH-^     WAR     the     B.S.A.    planf.    now    vastly    extendel. 
has   been   devoted    exclua'vely   lo  the  mnnu  acture  of  the  millio:i8  ol 
Lee*Enfield    Rif-es    and    Lewis    Mo  -hinc     Guns      eq ured     for     our     ijreat 
ImperrnI  Armies. 

A   PTFR    THE     WAR    the    great    reputation    o(    B.S.A.    pro  ucttons. 
retained  and  increased  in   the  heavy  stress  of   war    will  ensure  that 
the  B.SA.  sporfin:  anti   match  r  fles  and  ((uns  will  embody  all  the    ealur^s 
that  the  most  discriminating  s-portsman  can  possibly  desire. 


Thr  U.S.A.  Lee>Eii6cl<l  Miliury  aa^  Naval  Rifle. 

The  l.ewi&  Machine  (Vun,  made  by  the 
B.S.A,  Co.,  Lt4. 

FRBB 

Srna  far  a  ccpj  •/  "  RtHc  Sightl  and  Ihdr  AdjuilmenU  "  "id  tl'  m  tott 
JOUT  Jtairn  and  addrtu  i«  that  'wr   may  jflfii     yuu  tf  dtvtlopmfnli, 

\  THE  BIRMINGHAM  SMALL  ARMS  CO. 

LTD. 
ENGLAND. 


BIRMINGHAM,  ,^ 


I , 


•  The  Original  Coming's,  Estd.  1839  ■ 


'Be  sure  an  "Equitor" 

Will   keep  you  dry. 


Buying  an  "Equitor"  is 
buying  certain  protection 
irom  either  violent  down- 
pours or  obstinate  slow-fall- 
ing rain  that  lasts  all  day. 

The  "  Equitor  "  is  no  make- 
believe  wateroroof  (like  the 
so-called  "Trench  Coats" 
which  abound,  whose  dis- 
service in  wet  weather  is 
notorious),  but  i.s  positively 
impermeable,  for  the  material 
is  proofed  with  a  film  of  pure 
rubber,  and  the  manufacture 
is  that  of  a  House  proud  of 
its  80  years'  prestige. 

A  special  feature  of  the 
"  Equitor  "  is  the  attached 
riding  apron,  -which,  when 
not  in  use,  fastens  back  con- 
veniently, out  of  sight. 

In  our  litfht-weiftbt  No.  31  material, 
the  price  of  rhe  "  Equitor"  is  105/-; 
of  r)ur  No.  II,  ■  strong,  medium- 
weiftht  cloth.  120/- ;  without  apron; 
1.^/- less.  We  can  also  recommend 
an-  "Equitor"  (without  apron)  in 
our  No.  22  cloth,  at  70/- 

Wnen  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  buainess  referencc- 


Illustrated   List  at  request. 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  C£ 


WATERPROOFERS 
'WD.  TO  H.M.  THE  KING 

OnhAddresset: 

19  PICGAD1LLY,W.1,&35ST.  james'sst.,s.w.i 


J 


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. 


To  be  obtained  Iron  all  Qun  Dealers,  and  Wholesale  only  at 
Head  Office  and  Showrooms  : 

WEAMAN    STREET,    BIRMINGHAM 

London   Depot : 

78  SHAFTESBURY  AVENUE. 


LUPTONS 


SPIRAL  PUTTEES 


(Patent 
No. 
12699 

-1909) 


«* 


tl 


FASTEDGE 

IVtrn  »xt0niiv0ly  by  Offictn  of  Hit 
Majesty's    and  th*    AKisd   Forcts. 


SPECIAL  LIGHTWEIGHTS  FOR 
TROPICAL  CLIMATES. 


fftitig  Fositively  Nun-frayabU 
I  ITp'X'ON'S  Always  look  Neat  and  Smart.  Tbey  are  most  moderate 
r>l  TTTT  C  C  '"  ^"^^'  *"^  '"*^  ^*  obtained  from  all  High-class  Military 
r  U  1    1  lit  tt  i3       Tailors  and  Hosiers. 

If  ordered.  Pultea  made  specially  lo  wind  on  the  reoerie  Way,  and  to    fasten   the   tape 
round  the  nnkh  for  ridinp. 

ASK   H)K  UJFTOtrS  PUTT  I  F.S 

ManuUc-    ASTRACHANS    Ltd,,    Albert    Mill.    Allan    St..     BRADFORD. 

'"'"    **^  London  Agent:  4.  STRICKLAND.  Jt  «ot  /,««-.  EC. 

=  WHOLESALF  ONLY  = 


xu 


Supplement  to  Land  Sc  Water 


June  6,  19 1 8 


INEXPENSIVE 

Summer 
Frocks 

i:  ,;j„  ■     i  P(:iiiiiiir?;i!!.iinii!siii 

A  laif;c  Mill  Uwii  of  prettj- 
dresses,  sinipio  in  style  and 
moderate  in  prici-,  hut  all 
hearing  tlie  distinctive 
charm  and  character  of  the 
more  cost  h'  \Vo<il  la  nd  frowns. 


No.   101 

The  illustration  represents 
a  charming  little  frock  of 
fancy  cotton  voile  made  in 
a  variety  of  heautiful  de- 
signs and  pretty  colourings. 


Price 


Guineas 


These  dresses  cannot  be 

'<  e  n  t     ntl     nfjinh/itton. 


WOOLLAND  BROS.,  LT? 

KNIGHTSBRIDCE,  LONDON,  S.W.I 


With  Hunlel 
or  H«lf-Hunl^i 
Cover 

£4/ 


Cold 

£10/10 


J.  W.  BENSON 

LTD. 

■■  Active  Service"  WATCH 
Fully  Luminous  Figurts  and  Hands. 

Warranted  Timekeepers 

In  Silver  Cases  with  Screw  Bezel  and 
Back.      £3    15s 

Or   with   Half-Hunter  or  Hunter 
Cover,     £4  4s. 

Cold.  Crystal  Class.     SIO 

Half   Hunter  or  Hunter.      £10  lOs. 

Military    Badge  Brooches. 

^/Iny  Regimental  !Bodge  'Perfectltj 

MoJelleJ. 

Prices  on  Application. 

Skttckes  sent  for  approval. 

OLD   BOND   ST.,   W.l 

62  &  64  LUDGATE  HILL.  E.C.4. 


.-^l 


i>i  Whiteleys 


^  ^-'«^K»i(WmMCM»' 


K.i*.  '    '^c,!!*!*! 


for 

HOUSE 
REPAIRS 

and 

DECORATION 


QUEEN'S     BOAD 
LONDON,  W.2 


'541  ■ 


Telephone : 
P.rk  ONE 


Telenrama : 
*'WhiteIcy,  London' 


flllittrMtlW! 


MILITARY 


"  Many     Officers 
Lost    tneir    Kits " 

Dut  those  possessed  of  a 
MJitary  Dexter  looked 
serene  .  .  .  despite  the 
torrential  rain  .  .  .  the 
pestilential  raud  .  .  .  the  on- 
coming cnilly  night.  .  .  . 
They  knew  they  would 
remain  dry  and  warm  m 
their  Dexter  ....  even 
though     it     snowed  ! 

"  As      British      as      the 
Weather    but    Reliahle." 

Supplfcd  by  Agents  Kvervwhere 
^^^  WEATHEBPgOOFsPs!y 

ttPOTS      FOR      MILITARY      DEXTCRS 

FORTNUM   &   MASON    LTD 

161-184.     PICCADILLY.    Wl 

AUSTIN    REED  LTD 

113.    REGENT    STREET.   Wl 

MANCHCSTEH  BIRMiNGMAM 

R.  W.   FORSYTH    LTD 

CLASGOW  .         ■        ■        .  £  DtNBUROM 


Wallace.   Sion  I'r    (.<■  .    iJ-i.    <  n'hoUialt) 
Glasgow.    Ma<er\  oj  l)e>.Ur  '.i'ealhrrfroc/s 


Summer 
Wear — 


VERMIN-PROOF 

Men  in  the  trenches  write  stating 
that "  An-on  "  Silk  Underwear 
is  proof  against  vermin. 


Ail  prngressive  men  wear  An-on 
underclolhing. 

The   An-on  one  piece  suit  is 

the    last   word   in   men's   under- 
Karmenls,  and  weight  6  oz>.  or 


Loose  Biting  and  very  comfort- 
able. 

Made  in  Vests.  Drawers,  and 
Union  Suits. 

Fine  AH- Wool  Taffeta. 

Pure  Silk  (while  and  coloured). 

Mixed     Wool     and     Cotton 

Taffeta. 

AN  ON  Cotton. 

Made  in  li  different' sizes  so 
lis  to  fit. any  figure. 

BRITISH-MADE. 

BUTTONS  LIKE  A  COAT 

A  list  of  Selling  Agents  will 
be  sent  on  application  to 

AN-ON, 

66  Ludgate  Hill,  E.C.4 

An-on 

Underwear 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXXI.     No.  2926.     [v^I^r]  THURSDAY,  JUNE  6,  191 8  [^^^'^^f^Mi]     '.lYcTS^^ .lttl)^l 


Copyright,  1918,  U,S.A. 


Copyri^k,  "  Land  &  Water' 


The   Hohenzollern   Mill 


/ 


Land   &   Water 


June  6,   191 8 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 


Telephone  i   HOLBORN    28x8. 


THURSDAY,  JUNE  6,  1918. 


Contents 


PAGE- 

I 
2 


The  HohenzoUern  Mill.    (Cartoon.)     By  Raemaekers 
The  Outlook 

Battle  of  the  Tardenois.     By  ft.  Belloc  3 

The  Jutland  Anniversary.     By  Arthur  Pollen  7 

Turkish  Conspiracy — IV.     By  Henry  Morgenthau  9 

In  an  Old  French  City.    By  An  Officer.  12 

Village  of  the  Future.     By  Jason  13 

Literary  Hoaxes.     By  J.  C.  Squire  15 

Books  of  the  Week  16 

The  Canadians.  ^  (Illustrated.)     By  Centurion  17 

The  Boudoir  22 

Notes  on  Kit  25 


The  Outlook 


WE  are  passing  through  the  most  critical  period 
of  the  war  since  the  battle  of  the  Marne.  The 
German  Army  at  the  moment  of  writing  has 
reached  the  right  bank  of  that  river  and  at 
Chateau  Thierry  is  within  fifty  miles  of  Paris. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  original  intention  of  the  enemy, 
the  success  which  he  gained  last  week  in  Champagne  has 
encouraged  him  to  make  this  his  principal  offensive  with 
the  French  capital  as  its  objective.  Fresh  units  were  placed 
by  him  rapidly  in  the  firing  line,  and  though  his  progress 
slowed  down  with  the  lengthening  of  his  communications,  it 
was  not  until  Sunday  that  he  sustained  a  serious  check. 
What  the  cost  of  this  attack  may  have  been  on  either  side  we 
have  not  as  \'et  any  means  of  knowing.  But  the  comparative 
expense  by  which  the  offensive  and  defensive  in  these 
extremely  rapid  developments  are  being  conducted  is  the 
element  of  supreme  interest  in  the  whole  affair. 

*  »  » 

This  advance,  it  must  be  admitted,  has  been  conducted  in 
a  masterly  fashion,  and  ha.s  j  ustified  what  are  known  as  the 
new  German  tactics.  These  involve  secrecy  of  concentra- 
tion, organisation  of  the  attack  in  great  depth  so  that  fresh 
units  can  come  up  between  tired  units  whenever  a  rapid 
advance  is  possible  to  carry  forward  the  wave,  the  special 
training  of  men  for  rapidity  of  advance,  short  but  extremely 
intense  preliminary  bombardment,  and  the  use  at  the  very 
front  of  all  lighter  forms  of  mechanical  weapons,  especially 
of  tanks  anji  field  artillery. 

The  three  British  divisions  which  found  themselves  once 
again  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle,  although  they  had  been 
sent  to  this  part  of  the  hne  to  recuperate,  fought  with  magni- 
ficent stubbornness,  and  only  fell  back  from  their  second  line 
positions  in  order  to  conform  with  retirements'  elsewhere. 
The  French  are  displaying .  their  usual  valour,  and  at  the 
beginning  of  the  week  counter-attacked  frequently  with 
splendid  effect.  The  real  criterion  of  the  present  operations 
is  the  extent  to  which  the  reserve  divisions  of  the  two  armies 
will  have  been  employed.  As  it  is  explained  elsewhere  in 
this  issue,  there  is  a  good  purpose  in  holding  a  defensive  line 
lightly. 

•  »  ♦ 

The  capture  of  Cantigny  by  American  soldiers  was  a 
brilliant  affair  ;  small  in  itself,  but  important  as  evidence  of 
the  excellent  fighting  qualities  of  our  new  Allies.  The 
village  was  carried  in  a  dashing  manner,  and  the  troops 
consoUdated  their  gains  with  the  rapidity  and  efficiency  of 
veterans  ;  although  the  enemy  counter-attacked  more  than 
once,  he  was  unable  to  get  back  anything. 

London  has  had  ocular  evidence  that  the  men  whom  the 
American  Republic  are  sending  over  are  fine  raw  material, 
but  the  Cantigny  affair  proves  they  have  the  making  of 
first-class  soldiers,  for  this  brilliant  exploit  shows  a  high 
degree  of  training  and  discipline,  and  also  that  mental  alert- 
ness to  turn  an  advantage  to  its  best  value,  which  is  ever 
the  better  half  of  victory.  ^v 

Paris  preserves  a  calm  and  resolute  attitude  with  this 
fierce  battle  raging  within  ear-shot.     Every  night  come  the 


Gothas,  and  at  dawn  big  Bertha  hurls  her  shells.  There 
was- no  respite  for  Paris  even  on  Corpus  Christi  day.  Her 
serene  spirit  under  tliese  trials  is  typical  of  France  as  a  whole. 
She  places  absolute  confidence  in  General  Foch,  and  declines 
to  beheve  that  the  foot  of  the  invading  Hun  shall  again 
defile  her  streets.  "The  will  to  end  the  war,"  for  which 
Germany  is  now  fighting  desperately,  has  no  place  in  her 
mind  ;  her  one  thought  is  victory,  however  long  it  may  be 
delayed  or  through  whatever  trials  she  may  have  to  pass. 
'  The  air  defences  of  the  French  capital  have  proved  them- 
selves extraordinarily  efficient.  Although  on  many  nights 
there  have  been  two  separate  attacks,  only  rarely  has  a 
single  enemy  machine  been  able  to  penetrate  them.  The  long- 
distance gun  is  now  almost  accepted  as  an  ordinary  part  of 
the  daily  life  of  the  capital,  and  people  go  about  their  busi- 
ness as  thout;h  it  were  not. 

*  *  * 

The  King's  Birthday  Honours  List  this  year  is  notable  in 
that  it  contains  the  first  nominations  for  the  Royal  Air 
Force  decorations,  which  were  specially  instituted  on  this 
occasion.  Until  the  present  century  no  distinction  ^was 
made  between  the  fighting  forces  where  decorations  were 
concerned,  beyond  the  colour  of  the  ribbon,  but  in  1901  the 
Conspicuous  Service  Cross — now  the  Distinguished  Service 
Cross— was  instituted  as  a  special  naval  decoration,  and  it 
was  foUowetl  on  New  Year's  Day,  1915,  by  the  Military  Cross. 

There  is  good  reason  for  dividing  decorations ;  and  if 
ever  a  service  had  won  right  to  a  chstinction  of  its  own  it  is 
the  Royal  Air  Force.  There  were  two  crosses  and  two  medals  ; 
all  four  can  only  be  won  for  acts  of  courage,  devotion  to 
duty,  or  gallantry  when  /lying.  The  penguin  has  to  look 
elsewhere  for  his  honours,  which  is  as  it  .should  be. 

*  *  * 

The  congratulations  to  Lord  Rhondda  on  his  promotion 
in  the  peerage  will  have  an  unusual  ring  of  sincerity  about 
them.  He  has  almost  achieved  the  impossible  and  blossomed 
into  a  popular  Food  Controller.  He  is  still  constantly 
cursed  for  the  frequent  changes  in  rationing,  but  as  soon  as 
the  change  is  found  to  be  in  favour  of  the  home- controller 
and  consumer  the  curses  quickly  pass  into  blessings,  and  he 
is  extolled  as  a  great  and  good  man.  Lord  Rhondda,  we  fepf 
sure,  will  not  take  all  the  credit  for  this  to  himself;  he  will 
be  among  the  first  to  admit  that  the  nation,  as  a  whole,  has 
played  the  game  over-  the  rationing  business,  and  adapted 
itself  cheerfully  and  wiUingly  to  the  annoyances  and  restric- 
tions which  were  inevitable  at  its  institution. 

One  curious  result  of  the  coupon  system,  and  one  which 
will  please  the  new  viscount,  is  that  it  has  placed  for  the 
first  time  a  premium  on  big  families.  The  prudent  married 
couple  who  have  refrained  from  giving  hostages  to  fortunes 
or  been  content  with  one  or,  at  most,  two,  find  themselves 
irked  by  the  fewness  of  their/coupons  ;  but  let  the  quiver  be 
full,  and  there  are  more  coupons  in  the  home  than  the  mother 
requires.  And  as  wages  are  good,  the  man  with  a  big  family 
can,  for  the  first  time,  crow  over  his  prudent  neighbour. 

As  if  nature  approved  of  the  rationing  system,  the  harvest 
prospects  continue  to  be  excellent.  More  land  is  under 
cultivation  than  for  j^ears.  One  has  to  go  back  a  quarter  of 
a  century  to  find  the  equal  of  the  present  acreage  under 
wheat.  The  injury  by  wire- worm  proves  to  have  been  less 
than  was  anticipated,  and  if  the  favourable  weather  con- 
tinues, the  British  Isles  will  reap  a  record  harvest. 

*  *  * 

We  have  held  since  the  beginning  of  the  war  that  it  would 
have  been  wiser  had  we  exchanged  all  interned  civihans, 
irrespective  of  their  number.  There  were  obvious  objections  ■ 
to  this  course,  but  we  believe  the  country  would  have  gained 
immensely  on  the  balance,  and  would  have  breathed  the 
freer  if  every  German  had  been  sent  back  to  the  fatheriand. 
As  it  is,  we  have  derived  no  benefit  by  keeping  them  here 
beyond  that  we  have  deprived  the  German  High  Command 
of  a  certain  amount  of  "food  for  powder"— an  almost 
inappreciable  amount  at  the  rate  powder  devours  men  in 
this  war— while  we  have  had  to  provide  food  of  another 
kind,  and  thus  saved  the  enemy  this  necessity. 

On  the  other  hand,  while  we"  have  treated  all  prisoners  of 
war,  civilian  and  combatant  ahke,  with  a  humanity  that 
borders  on  benevolence,  Germany  has  not  hesitated  to 
wreak  malevolence  and  brutal  spite  on  British  prisoners  in 
her  power.  We  are  glad  to  know  that  every  effort  is  now  to 
be  made  to  exchange  prisoners  as  quickly  as  possible.  To 
what  extent  the  enemy  will  be  prepared  to  respond  is  doubtful, 
but  German  prisoners  in  this  country  exceed  in  number 
British  prisoners  in  Germany,  so  that  numerically  we  have 
the  advantage,  and  we  are  slowly  discovering  there  are  other 
ways  in  which  pressure  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  enemy 
to  compel  him  to  conform  to  reasonable  demands. 


June  6,   19 1 8 


Land    &    Water. 


Battle  of  the  Tardenois :  By  Hilaire  Belloc 


THIS  article  is  written  in  the  course  of  Monday, 
June  3rd,  and  is  based  upon  dispatches,  the  last 
of  which  was  sent  from  French  Headquarters  late 
in  the  evening  of  Sunday,  June  2nd.  It  is  there- 
lore  dealing  with  the  great  action  upon  which 
the  whole  fate  of  the  war  may  well  depend,  in  the  ver}'  heat 
of  its  most  critical  and  least-decided  phase.  Not  only  is 
there  no  indication  as  yet  of  the  direction  events  may  ulti- 
mately take  ;  there  is  not  even  an  indication  of  possible 
alternatives.  Any  one  attempting  to  analyse  the  action  at 
this  stage  from  the  very  meagre  accounts  of  it  which  have 
reai^hed  us  can  pretend  to  no  more  than  a  statement  of  its 
simplest  and  most  obvious  elements,  and  a  record  of  its 
varying  features  during  the  full  seven  da5s  through  which 
that  record  extends.  After  having  attempted  such  a  task, 
we  will  turn  to  the  more  genera!  meaning  of  the  struggle 
and  to  some  judgment,  however  general,  of  its  gravity. 

The  elements  of  the  situation  at  the  moment  of  writing — 
the  main  factor? — are  as  follows.  The  enemj',  after  a  highly 
successful  offensive  in  which  he  was  able  to  effect  a  great 
measure  of  sur])rise,  found  himself  in  a  deep  salient  reaching 
to  the  Marne — a  salient  the  immediate  product  of  his  success 
and  too  deep  for  its  width.  He  determined,  therefore, 
to  enlarge  it  upon  the  flank  where  it  was  most  threatened 
— the  Western  flank — and  by  Sunday  night  he  had  enlarged 
it,  forming  a  great  new  secondary  salient  or  bulge  here,  which 
carried  him  from  six  to  eight  miles  further  west. 

He  was  standing  then  upon  the  night  of  Sunday,  June  2nd, 
with  a  front,  the  shape  of  which  might  be  compared  to  a 
very  flat  letter  D ;  the  top  of  the  D  represented  the  old  Chemin 
des  Dames  front  wliich  he  broke  a  week  before.  The  bottom 
of  the  D  represented  a  14-miles  occupation  of  the  right  bank 
of  the  River  Mame ;  the  perpendicular  stroke  of  the  D 
represented  the  eastern  flank  of  his  salient  from  the  Marne 
up  to  Rheims,  while  the  round  of  the  D  was  the  bulge  west- 
ward by  which  the  enemy  had  enlarged'his  area  of  occupation 
in  the  course  of  the  past  three  days. 

Upon  the  north-western  corner  of  the  salient  stands  the 
town  of  Soissons,  the  French  holdiilg  the  heights  imme- 
diately to  the  west  pf  it,  and  the  enemy  apparently  unable 
to  debouch  from  the  half-ruined  city  which  they  occupy. 
Upon  the  north-eastern  comer  of  the  salient  stands  the 
town  of  Rheims,  which  the  Allies  still  occupy;  the  space 
between  the  two  towns  is  about  25  miles.  The  total  depth 
of  the  salient  from  the  original  front  to  the  River  Marne  is 
also  about  35  miles.  The  total  new  front  which  the  enemy 
is  holding  from  Soissons  round  by  the  west  to  the  Marne, 
near  Chateau  Thierry,  up  the  Mame  for  14  miles  to  near 
Vemeuil,  and  so  up  to  Rheims,  is  probably  close  on  go  miles. 
•I  say  "probably"  because  the  constant  fluctuation  of  the 
line  is  such  that  no  e.xact  measure  be  taken.  But  certainly 
by  the  evening  of  Sunday  last,  to  which  this  description  is 
confined,  80  miles  would  be  an  under-estimate  of  the  new 
front  the  enemy  has  created  for  himself  by  his  recent  success, 
and  something  between  80  and  go  is  the  trae  figure.  It  is, 
as  we  shall  see  in  a  moment,  an  important  point. 

The  area  thus  overrun  by  the  enemy  is  in  the  main 
composed  of  a  plateau  called  the  Tardenois,  which  is  the 
watershed  between  the  basins  of  the  Oise  and  the  Marne.  It 
is  broken  country-  but  well  provided  with  roads,  and  in  its 
central  part  open  ;  the  plateau  is  cut  through  its  middle 
by  the  sources  and  upper  course  of  the  little  river  Ourcq 
running  westward  :  it  is  bounded  for  the  most  part  on  its 
westward  side  by  a  succession  of  great  woods,  the  largest 
of  which  is  the  Forest  of  Villiers  Cotterets.  It  is  bounded 
on  the  south  by  the  broad  valley  of  the  Marne  which  is  not 
marshy  like  that  of  the  Oise,  and  is  nothing  like  so  formidable 
an  obstacle.  Further,  the  Mame  is  easily  crossed  by  a  force 
coming  from  the  north,  because  the  heights  which  dominate 
the  flat  of  the  river  valley  stand  upon  the  northern  side. 
It  is  from  these  heights  that  the  Tardenois  Plateau  falls 
sharply  on  to  the  water  level. 

All  round  the  edge  of  this  very  considerable  area  the  enemj' 
by  the  evening  of  Sunday  was  using  about  50  divisions, 
which  is  at  his  present  establishment  less  than  half  a  million, 
but  more  than  400,000  infantry,  and  not  quite  double  that 
figure  in  total  forces  of  every  kind.  Of  this  very  large  force 
much  the  thinnest  part  is  along  the  Marne  to  the  south, 
much  the  densest  at  the  moment  of  writing  is  upon  the  west, 
where  every  effort  is  being  made  to  extend  the  salient  with 
the  double  object  of  removing  dangerous  pressure,  and  turning 
the   French   out   of  the   Soissons   comer.     The   remainder. 


probably  not  a  third  of  the  total,  are  upon  the  eastern  side 
of  the  salient  between  the  Marne  and  Rheims. 

The  history  of  the  action  so  far  has  been  as  follows  : — 
Upon  Monday,  May  27th,  the  enemy  having  effected  as 
he  had  done  twice  before  in  this  season,  a  concentration, 
the  existence  of  which  was  known,  but  the  magnitude  of 
which  was  not  known,  struck,  after  a  very  intense  but  short 
preliminary  boniLarchnent,  the  whole  front  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Rheims  to  the  Forest  oi  Pinon,  which  is  some 
miles  north  of  Soissons  in  the  valley  of  the  Aillet  River. 
The  front  he  thus  attacked  was  a  section  of  the  quasi-per- 
manent defence  in  the  field,  which  the  Allied  line  and  the 
German  line  opposing  it  had  thrown  up  and  maintained 
for  many  months — in  some  parts  for  several  years — from 
the  Swiss  frontier  to  the  North  Sea.  As  we  know,  more 
than  60  miles  of  this,  north  of  the  Forest  of  Pinon,  had  gone  as 
the  result  of  the  great  German  advance  in  March,  but  all 
this  sector  of  between  .30  and  40  miles  east  of  the  Forest 
of  Pinon  was  part  of  what  may  be  called  the  "wall"  upon 
which  the  Allied  defensive  reposed  during  the  perilous  interval 
between  the  disappearance  of  Russia  and  the  effective 
appearance  in  the  field  of  the  United  States.  As  we  shall 
see  later,  to  bteak  this  wall  piecemeal,  to  restore  a  war  of 
movement,  to  disintegrate  while  he  is  still  superior  the  armies 
of  the  Allies  and  the  civilian  stmcture  behind  them,  is  the 
whole  object  of  the  enemy. 

» 
The  Action 

'  The  enemy,  using  the  advantage  of  a  new  and  success-" 
fully  developed  tactic  to  which  he  can  lay  credit  (for  it  is 
a  great  achievement)  succeeded  in  completely  breaking  the 
line  in  this,  the  third  stroke,  of  his  offensive.  He  had 
massed  about  25  divisions  with  15  reserve,  making  a  total 
of  40.  against  a  front  of  7,  and  on  the  very  first  day  he  was 
right  away  five  miles  forward  of  the  original  line,  and  cros- 
sing the  first  obstacle,  the  Aisne.  There  was  no  possibility 
of  considerable  resistance  before  the  centre  of  his  advance 
after  this  first  success  had  been  so  rapidly  achieved.  With 
the  second  day  he  was  pouring  across  the  second  and  smaller 
obstacle  of  the  Vesle,  by  the  evening  of  the  third  he  was 
close  to  the  Mame  itself,  and  his  advanced  bodies  may  al- 
ready have  come  in  sight  of  that  river.  At  any  rate,  on  the 
morning  of  the  fourth  day,  the  Thursday,  light  German 
units  had  appeared  on  the  hills  above  the  Mame  from  just 
above  Chateau  Thierry  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Dormans. 
At  this  point,  on  the  morning  of  the  Thursday,  the  battle  had 
completed  its  first  phase,  and  we  may  note  the  results.  There 
is  a  considerable  claim  to  prisoners,  between  thirty  and  forty 
thousand,  as  a  result  of  this  extremely  rapid  overran  ijing  of 
the  Tardenois,  and  the  overwhelming  of  the  original  line. 
There  is  also  a  claim  to  400  guns  or  more,  many  of  them 
heavies,  which  the  rapidity  of  the  unexpected  German  suc- 
cess had  made  it  impossible  to  remove.  But  the  enemy,  thus 
thrusting  forward  where  he  found  least  resistance,  and  reach- 
ing the  Marne  in  72  hours,  after  he  had  marched,  at  the  furthest 
points  for  well  over  30  miles,  was  in  a  salient  or  pocket  very 
dangerous  to  himself. 

li  it  be  asked  why  a  striking  advance  dependent  upon  the 
very  success  of  the  mover  should  so  rapidly  produce  a  peril 
for  him,  the  answer  is  to  be  found  in  that  new  method  of 
his  of  abandoning  topographical  object  for  the  mere  weight 
of  a  blow,  of  which  method  we  will  speak  in  a  moment. 

At  any  rate,  on  Thursday,  the  fourth  day  of  the  battle,  he 
did  find  himself  in  peril  through  the  depth  of  his  salient. 

The  cause  is  easy  to  understand.  If  you  arc  facing  in  any 
direction  your  strength  is  towards  the  point  you  look  at 
and  advance  towards,  jour  weakness  is  on  th'e  sides.  For  all 
military  advance  is  ultimately  analysable  as  a  column. 
You  can  only  defend  your  flanks  by  facing  round  towards 
them.  The  longer  your  flanks  get,  therefore,  in  proportion 
to  the  width  of  the  territory  over  which  y9u  advance,  the 
narrower  the  V  which  you  produce  by  your  thmst  forward 
after  a  success,  the  more  in  danger  you  are  of  a  much 
inferior  force  striking  at  the  base  of  your  long  wedge  and 
cutting  it  off. 

The  reason  that  the  enemy's  advance  was  shepherded 
into  this  curious  shape  was  the  situation  at  the  two  points 
of  Soissons  and  Rheims.  The  enemy  carried  Soissons, 
indeed,  but  found  he  could  not  debouch  against  the  French, 
who  held  the  heights  to  the  west.  He  tried  to  do  it  over 
and  over  again  day  after  day,  and  constantly  failed  with 


Land    &    Water 


June  6,  191  8 


very  lieavy  loss.  The  other  corner,  Rheinis,  was  not  carried 
by  the  enemy,  the  defence,  largely  British,  and  under  the 
general  command  of  Gouraud,  who  had  led  the  French  in 
the  Dardanelles,  was  maintained  outside  the  town,  and 
though  it  lost  some  ground,  thoroughly  maintained  through 
out  all  the  three  days  of  tremendous  pressure  its  task  of 
keeping  the  corner  firm. 

The  result  was  that,  with  the  opening  of  the  fourth  day 
—Thursday,  May  30th— the  large  German  body,  amounting 
by  this  time  to  something  like  40  divisions,  found  itself 
pinned  into  what  was  too  narrow  a  sahent  for  safety.  Now. 
on  the  west  the  boundary  of  the  salient  was,  roughly,  the 
high  road  from  Soissons  to  Chateau  Thierry.  It  was  the 
business  of  the  German  command  to  use  their  vastly  superior 
numbers  for  the  purpose  of  getting  an  extension  of  room 
on  this  side. 

A  strong  movement  westward  here  would  have  the  double 
effect  of  removing  the  perilously  narrow  character  of  the 
salient,  and,  if  it  were  pressed  right  home,  of  compelling  the 
French  to  fall  back'  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Soissons 
lest  they  should  be  turned. 

The  German  higher  command  therefore  regrouped  its  units 
in  the  course  of  the  Thursday,  and  spent  Friday,  Saturday, 
and  Sunday  in  throwing  their  weight  at  right  angles  to  the 
direction  hitherto  pursued  and  striking  westward  upon  either 
side  of  the  Ourcq  Valley.  They  started,  as  I  have  said, 
from  the  line  of  the  road,  and  in  the  course  of  the  three 
days  they  created  a  new  big  western  bulge  rather  more  than 
six  miles  deep.  By  the  night  of  Sunday,  June  2nd,  they 
stood  in  a  great  bow  from  a  point  about  four  miles  south  of 
Soissons  to  the  Marne  at  Chateau  Thierry,  with  their  most 
advanced  units  fighting  hard  for  the  following  points,  reading 
from  north  to  south  :  Longpont,  Corey,  Faverolles,  Troesnes, 
Passy  (and  Hill  163),  Torcy. 

If  the  reader  will  look  at  the  sketch-map  appended  he  will 
see  that  the  French  have  here  a  certain  line  which  their 
reserves  continually  reaching  the  line  of  battle  could  hope 
to  defend.  It  is  the  Hne  of  a  profound  ravine  with  steep  sides, 
through  which  runs  a  small  brook,  the  Savieres,- j ust  east  of 
the  edge  of  the  great  forest  of  Villiers  Cottcrets.  This  brook 
falls  into  the  little  River  Ourcq  at  Troesnes,  the  bow  to  the 
south  of  Troesnes  is  continued  by  a  not  very  clearly  defined 
line  of  heights,  including  Hill  163  just  in  front  of  Passy, 
and  rather  a  steep  bank  in  front  of  Torcy.  It  was  here  that 
the  stand  was  being  made  all  during  the  course  of  Sunday 
last,  June  2nd,  upon  the  dispatches  of  wliich  day  is  based  the 
present  description.  The  names  of  places  just  mentioned 
mark  a  line  on  which  the  battle  fluctuated  for  24  hours, 
some  of  the  villages  being  taken  and  re-taken  several  times 
— a  fact  which  shows  the  arrival  of  fresh  forces  upon  the 
Allied  side  in  this  neighbourhood— but  by  Sunday  night, 
although  nearly  the  whole  of  the  line  had  been  re-occupied 


by  the  French  after  having  been  completely  lost  upon  the 
Saturday,  one  point  of  vantage  remained  which  was  of  some 
value  to  the  enemy.  '  It  was  the  point  of  Faverolles,  which 
stands  above  the  deep  ravine  in  open  agricultural  land  just 
outside  the  forest.  Thus  holding  Faverolles,  the  enemy  had 
a  bastion  thrust  out  beyond  the  obstacle  which  the  French 
were  holding. 

Such  was  the  situation  at  the  moment  when  that  phase 
of  the  battle  which  terminates  with  the  night  of  Svmda\- 
was  concluded. 

We  may  now  recapitulate  and  summarise  the  whole. 
In  seven  days  of  fighting  the  enemy  had  thrown  in  at  least 
50  divisions,  which  is  rather  more  than  half  the  strength 
he  has  available  for  shock.  Those  seven  days  are  divided 
into  two  clear  chapters,  the  first  three  days  in  which  he  begins 
with  a  great  unexpected  success  due  to  an  element  of  surprise 
for  which  he  must  have  full  credit,  and  which  carry  him  to 
the  Marne  ;  the  last  three  days  in  which  he  faces  round 
at  right  angles  to  his  former  direction,  and  throws  all  his 
weight  westward  down  the  Valley  of  the  Ourcq.  The  fourth 
day,  Thursday,  which  separates  these  two  chapters,  was  the 
day  on  which  he  was  re-arranging  his  units  and  converting 
his  direction.  That  is  the  geographical  description  of  the 
action  during  its  first  week. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  more  practical,  but  far  more  difficult , 
business  of  estimating  his  intention  and  its  result.  For  this 
purpose  we  must  go  back  to  the  very  beginning  of  the 
enemy's  great  offensive  nearly  two  and  a  half  months  ago, 
and  see  how  the  events  will  probably  have  affected  his 
judgment. 

On  March  21st,  the  date  he  had  fixed  for  opening  his  main 
attack  in  the  west,  the  enemy  had  against  the  Allies,  three 
great  advantages.  He  had  superior  numbers,  he  had  interior 
lines,  he  had  a  perfectly  united  force.  The  Allies  were  of 
different  nationahties,  in  commands  mainly  separated  (I  mean 
separated  in  situation  not  in  authority),  they  were  less  in 
numbers,  and  to  reinforce  at  any  point  they,  had  to  swinj; 
troops  on  their  exterior  lines  further  than  the  enemy  had 
to  swing  his  on  his  interior  lines. 

These  advantages  further  gave  the  enemy  the  capital 
advantage  of  initiative.  He  could  strike  at  his  own  time 
and   place. 

These  advantages  alone  would  not  account  for  what 
followed  ;  he  added  to  them  a  further  element,  which  is  tlie 
new  tactic  he  has  developed  in  the  present  campaign.  It 
is  composed  of  many  elements  combined,  and  it  has  proved 
exceedingly  successful.  Its  chief  point  is  a  power  of  surprise 
due  to  the  study  of  secret  concentration  after  a  fashion 
which  no  belligerent  had  yet  attained.  To  this  must  be 
added  deep  formation  so  that  he  could  use  fresh  units  very 
quickly  to  support  an  advance,  intensive  training  to  get  the 
furthest   possible   forward   movement   out   of  his  men,   the 


June  6,   19 18 


Land   &  Water 


pushing  up  of  the  lighter  missile  weapons  so  that  they  work' 
as  almost   part   of  the  infantry,    etc. 

This  new  tactic  gave  him  upon  March  22nd,  the  second 
day  of  his  attack,  the  result  he  desired.  He  (iid  what  no 
one  had  yet  done  upon  either  side  of  the  west  during  all 
these  years,  he  broke  right  through  the  full  width  of  the 
defensive  zone  in  front  of  St.  Quentin.  There  followed  the 
loss  of  50  miles  of  the  old  solid  front,  and  the  creation  of  his 
great  salient,  the  apex  of  which  stands  just  outside  Amiens. 
Though  his  effort  had  cost  him  a  very  heav}'  price  in.  men, 
he  could  count  so  many  prisoners  and  the  destruction  of  so 
much  material  that  by  the  end  of  March,  when  he  found 
himself  held,  the  advantage  was  still  clearly  upon  his  side. 
He  had  restored  a  war  of  movement,  he  had  made  a  wide 
breach  in  the  solid  line  upon  which  the  Allies  depended  for 
their  power  of  resistance  while  awaiting  American  reinforce- 
ments; and  whereas  most  of  his  lighter  cases  would  return 
from  hospital  to  the  field  in  a  comparatively  short  time, 
very  many  of  his  opponents,  lightly  wounded  and  even 
unwounded,  were  definitive  or  permanent  losses  to  their 
side  because  they  were  prisoners.  On  the  other  hand 
the  enemy  could  observe  these  two  points.  First,  that 
he  had  failed  in  his  topographical  "object  of  separating  the 
British  from  the  French  armies  ;  next,  that  his  continual 
offensive,  save  where  there  was  a  rapid  success  and  a  great 
haul  of  prisoners,  would  necessarily'  be  far  more  expensive 
to  him  than  to  the  Allies.  The  defensive  woVild  meet  him 
with  forces  deliberately  inferior  to  his  own,  far  less  in  pro- 
portion than  the  difference  between  the  totals  of  the  two 
sides.  In  other  words,  the  defensive,  if  successful,  would 
keep  a  considerable  reserve  in  hand,  while  he  had  a  strict 
limit  both  in  time  and  number  wherein  to  effect  his  purpose. 
If  he  lost  more  than  a  certain  budgeted  amount  of  men 
in  a  certain  time  he  would,  even  allowing  from  his  new 
recruitment  from  the  younger  classes,  lose  his  superiority 
in  numbers,  which  would  be  fatal  to  him,  and  after  a  certain 
number  of  months,  if  he  did  not  succeed  within  the  limitation 
of  his  possible  losses  in  defeating  the  British  and  the  French 
armies,  the  American  reinforcement  would  turn  the  scale 
enormously  against  him.  Putting  all  this  together,  the 
effect  both  of  his  great  success  affd  of  his  limitations  must 
have  been  to  make  him  argue  somewhat  after  this  fashion. 

"  I  have  superiority  of  numbers^  I  have  interior  lines,  I 
have  the  initiative,  I  have  a  homogeneous  force.  But, 
following  out  a'  strategical  plan  of  a  clear  geographical  sort, 
they  have  not  given  me  the  full  result  they  might  have  done. 
Now  I  have  also  as  an  asset  my  new  tactic.  Perhaps  I  can- 
not always  break  the  line,  but  I  can  try  first  here  and  then 
there,  and  sometimes  succeed.  If  I  make  it  my  principal 
business  not  to  reach  this  point  or  that,  nor  to  separate  this 
body  from  that,  but  to  strike  repeatedly  at  one  place  and 
another  until  1  have  ruined  the  origmal  defensive  line  ;  if  1 
make  dispositions  to  follow  up  immediatpK-  any  success  ;  if 
I  leave  my  general  plan  vague  and  to  be  moulded  by  cir- 
cumstance, but  keep  for  my  main  principal  the  mere  deliver- 
ing of  very  heavy  blows,  1  may  within  the  limits  of  time— 
which  are  inexorable — succeed  in  disintegrating  the  whole 
defensive  system  of  the  Allies.  I  may  so  exhaust  their  re- 
serves, shake  their  morale,  military  and  civilian,  impose 
upon  them  the  heavy  business  of  perpetual  movement  along 
exterior  lines,  as  to  put  them  out  of  action  before  the  end  of 
the  season." 

The  Russian  Analogy 

Wo  must  remember  that  the  enemy's  success  against  Rus- 
sia had  proved  to  be  in  the  main  a  success  of  this  kind,  and 
that  the  unexpected  development  of  the  Russian  situation 
has  had  a  profound  effect  upon  the  mind  of  those  who  govern 
Germany.  They  had  intended  being  in  a  vast  superiority 
of  material  to  achieve  a  military  decision  by  a  carefully 
calculated  strategical  plan  which  should  destroy  the  armed 
forces  of  the  Russian  Empire.  They  had  created  one  salient 
after  another  all  through  the  summer  of  1915,  and  in  the 
last  one,  that  of  Vilna,  they  very  nearly  reached  A  true 
military  decision. 

Nevertheless  they  failed,  and  what  ultimately  happened 
was  something  quite  unexpected.  The  tremendous  strain 
had  the  moral  effect  of  disintegrating  Russian  society  and, 
through  it,  the  army.  It  was  as  though  a  battering  ram 
driven  at  a  wall  had  failed  to  break  down  that  wall,  and 
had  yet  so  loosened  its  structure  that  the  wall  came  down 
in  tlic  next  high  wind.  Or  it  was  like  the  case  of  a  hunter 
who  shoots  and  thinks  he  has  missed  his  ganje,  but  finds 
later  that  he  has  wounded  it,  and  that  it  has  died  ^as  an 
indirect  consequence  of  the  wound. 

We  may  take  it  that  after  the  partial— but  only  partial- 
success  of  the  March  offensive,  which  was  obviously  traced 
upon  a  fixed  and  simple  plan,  the  enemy'  relied  more  and 


more  upon  the  delivery  of  successive  blows,  now  here.rnow 
there,  and  his  power  to  follow  them  up  immediately  if  they 
should  prove  successful,  trusting  to  chance  and  circumstance 
for  the  moulding  -of  the  battle  which  might  ensue.  He 
failed  in  his  first  blows  east  of  Arras  and  south  of  Ariiiens, 
an  operation  undertaken  five  days  after  his  last  far  to  the 
north  in  the  sector  of  Lille  was  unexpectedly  successful. 
He  followed  it  up  at  once,  fought  very  hard  for  three  weeks 
from  A])nl  9th  to  April  29th  ;  having  begun  w-ith  only  six 
divisions,  ended  by  putting  in  nearly  40,  and  then,  having 
pushed  his  losses  near  to  the  hmit  he  had  allowed  himself, 
he  had  to  break  off  to  recruit.  He  halted  a  whole  month, 
and  struck  again,  as  we  know,  with  25  divisions  on  Monday 
last,  May  27th,  at  the  extreme  other  end  of  the  line,  where 
he  could  compel  his  opponent  to  the  greatest  fatigue  and  the 
longest  delay  in  the  moving  up  reinforcements.  Had  the 
blow  failed,  we  should  have  seen  a  short  delay  and  another 
blow  elsewhere.  Succeeding,  as  it  did,  he  at  once  exploited 
it  along  the  line  of  least  resistance,  pouring  through,  and 
then,  when  his  very  success  had  put  him  in  seme  peril,  turned 
to  ward  off  that  peril,  and  at  the  same  time  to  see  what 
chances  pressure  no  longer  southward  but  westward  would 
give  him.  He  is  not  thrusting  for  Paris,  he  is  not  carrying 
out  a  geographical  plan :  ho  is  working  to  break  us  up  piece- 
meal as  State  and  Armies.  He  looks  at.  the  map  and  per- 
ceives that  of  the  old  defences  regarded  as  almost  permanent 
between  the  Swiss  frontier  and  the  North  Sea,  there  now 
remains  north  of  Kheims  nothing  but  a  short  sector  on  the 
marshes  of  the  River  Yser  and  the  bow  running  from  in 
front  of  Arras  to  the  neighbourhood  of  La  Bassee.  He  pro- 
poses to  continue  the  process,  simply  taking  advantage  of 
every  opportunity  as  it  arises,  until,  as  he  hopes,  dis- 
integration shall  ensue  long  before  American  reinforcement 
can  turn  the  scale. 

Now,  in  such  circumstances,  there  are  two  points  clearly 
before  us.  On  the  first,  only  a  negative  judgment  can  be 
rendered,  though  it  is  important  to  have  that  negative 
judgment  well  defined  and  fully  possessed  by  the  public  at 
home.  On  the  second,  a  positive  judgment  is  not  only 
possible,  but  imperative.  The  first  point  is  the  fact  that 
the  enemy,  by  restoring  a  war  of  movement,  has  not  given 
advantages  to  his  own  side  only,  even  though  he  has  superior 
numbers  to  challenge  a  war  of  movement  is  to  challenge 
brains.  He  cannot  in  it  continue  to  enjoy  his  present  advan- 
tage of  his  new  tactics  of  surprise  against  hitherto  untouched 
sectors.  He  is  taking  his  risks.  The  .second  point  is  that, 
since  a  main  part  of  his  calculations  is  the  effect  of  new  condi- 
tions upon  the  whole  mass  of  the  nation,  so  it  is  quite  clearly 
our  duty  in  this  terribly  grave  moment  to  meet  him  by  as 
complete  a  civilian  discipline  as  possible,  and  to  refuse  to 
allow  aj)}'  movement  of  his,  or  anj'  success  in  the  near  future, 
to  affect  the  national  will.  ^, 

As  to  the  first  point ;  although  our  judgment  can  only  be 
negative,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  to  keep  it  sound  and 
cool. 

Initiative 

The  enemy  has  the  initiative,  he  has  the  numerical  pre- 
ponderance ;  that  is,  we  for  the  moment  are  first  following 
what  he  does,  and  he  not  following  what  we  do.  That  is 
the  meaning  of  the  word  "initiative."  He,  so  far,  dictates 
the  form  of  the  battle.  And  his  numerical  superiority 
means  that  he  cannot  only  dictate  the  form,  but  exercise 
the  pressure  ;  therefore,  he  is  on  the  offensive,  we  are  on 
the  defensive.  It  is  the  judgment  of  a  fool  to  regard  an 
offensive  as  victorious  in  itself,  and  a  defensive  in  itself 
as  a  mark  of  defeat.  The  defensive  is  a  phase  during  which 
he  who  has  the  less  opportunity  plays  with  space  and  time 
as  best  he  can,  to  his  own  advantage,  until  the  offensive  can 
be  resumed  by  him  in  his  turn.  We  must  consider  our 
commanders  during  all  the  defensive  phase,  even  though  it 
may  last  for  months,  as  men  making  for  victory  quite_  as 
surely  as  though  they  were  advancing  day  by  day  and 
reporting  the  capture  instead  of  the  loss  of  positions,  men, 
and  guns.  We  m.ust  not  regard  them  as  men  necessarily 
destined  to  achieve  victory.  That  is  a  convention  which 
many  worthy  people  have  thrust  upon  the  public  under  the 
idea  that  merely  to  say  that  you  are  certain  strengthens 
your  temper.  It  is  a  very  base  state  of  mind  ;  no  one  is 
certain  of  victory  ever.  Victory  is  decided  by  forces  higher 
than  mankind.  But  in  the  development  of  manoeuvre, 
victory  is  granted,  as  a  rule,  not  to  mere  superiority  of 
nnmber,  unless  it  be  overwhelming,  but  to  superiority  in 
will,  decision,  and  rapidity  of  thought. 

The  eiiefny  may  advance  from  this  to  that,  he  may  report 
such  and  such  captures,  and  we  may  be  certain  that  he  will 
make  the  very  best  he  can  of  the  shop  window.  But  he 
knows,  just  as  well  as  we  ought  tO|know,  that  the  problem  is 


Land    &    Water 


June  6,  1 918 


ultimately  one  of  expense,  "^e  condemn  him  to  a  certain 
expense,  and  our  comminders,  by  their  ri^ht  use  of  resources, 
can  condemn  him  to  a  higher  rate  of  expense  than  our  own. 
That,  ind3ed.  is  the  price  of  an  offensive — always.  We  do 
not  know  the  price  he  is  paying,  for  it  is  his  business  to 
conceal  it  from  us.  We  only  know  the  price  we  are  paying  ; 
and  even  that  very  vaguely.  In  the  last  great  movement 
we  brought  him  to  a  halt,  making  him  lose  about  five 
to  our  three.  We  not  only  brought  hini  to  a  halt,  but 
we  compelled  a  delay  of  one  month  at  a  time  when  every 
day  means  the  nearer  approach  of  jl  turn  in  numbers.  All 
this  struggle,  if  it  could  be  observed  by  one  impartial  to 
either  side,  and  fully  informed  as  to  wastage,  would  be 
regarded  by  such  an  observer  as  a  race  between  two  sets  of 
losses,  coupled  with  a  contrast  between  two  intelligences, 
each  eager  to  catch  the  first  slip  upon  the  part  of  his 
opponent  ;  the  first  gap.  the  first  imprudent  rush,  the  first 
unexpected  congestion  and  confusion. 

There  have  been  moments  during  the  last  two  anxious 
months  when  tremendous  execution  was  being  done  against 
the  offensive  without  our  general  opinion  at  home  appre- 
ciating adequately,  or  even  appreciating  at  all,  the  advan- 
tage that  was  being  gained.  The  great  battle  of  April  2gth 
was  such  a  moment ;  the  enemy  was  beaten  dizzy  between 
the  Ypres  Canal  and  Merris ;  he  was  so  beaten  that  two 
attempts  to  begin  again  broke  down  hopelessly,  and  yet 
there  was  no  change  upon  the  map.  There  was  not  even 
the  possibility  of  presenting  to  our  public  at  home  any 
detailed  comparison  of  his  loss  against  ours.     So  it  is  to-day. 

In  this  connection  we  must  remember  the  fundamental 
truth  that  the  defensive  is  always  working,  not  with  its  full 
strength,  but  with  the  minimum  strength  which  it  judges 
necessary  to  its  task.  You  may  have  in  such  and  such  a 
place  no  moi-e  than  3  or  4  divisions  opposing  8  or  9.  The 
men  under  the  strain  simply  find  themselves  against  over- 
whelming odds,  and  ask  no  questions.  But  the  odds  are 
not  those  of  the  total  forces  opposed,  they  are  harder  odds 
deliberately  arranged  by  those  who  have  the  command  of 
the  defence.  They  are  d;ffi:ult  odds  deliberately  arranged 
because  the  defence  so  acting  keeps  its  reserve  in  hand,  while 
the  offence  is  tempted  to  put  in  all  it  can  lay  its  hands  on. 

Another  negative  point,  in  connection  with  this  negative 
judgment,  is  the  point  of  communications.  We  must  not 
judge  too  much  by  the  map;  the  railways  of  peace  time 
are  not  the  railways  of  war  time,  nor  are  the  roads.  We 
must  not,  because  some  mere  student  of  the  map  suggests 
it,  say  that  the  enemy's  advance  to  this  or  that  point  has 
produced  this  or  that  disadvantage  to  our  power  of  concen- 
tration. In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  war  judgments  of  this 
sort  were  both  permissible  and  valuable.  To-day  they  are 
neither  one  nor  the  other.  Three  full  years  of  construction 
have  changed  conditions  beyond  all  knownig. 

Enemy  Statements 

There  is  one  last  point  in  this  connection,  and  that  is, 
our  reading  of  the  enemy's  bulletins.  It  would  be  extra- 
vagant to  say  that  these  are  merely  bombastic,  or  that  th->;r 
exaggeration  is  wild.  In  thjir  main  lines. thev  follow  the 
truth.  They  put  down,  indeed,  the  largest  captures  which 
they  can  claim,  or  which  they  think  we  will  a':cept ;  tneir 
object  is  of  course  pohtical,  it  is  aimed  at  civilian  opinion 
abroad,  and  especially  in  France  and  England,  bat  wh°n 
they  state  precise  numbers,  and  give  the  names  of  places, 
it  is  wiser  to  take  them  for  the  most  part  as  accurate,  or 
roughly  accurate.  What  we  must  do,  however,  is  to  scan 
very  carefully  the  messages  the  enemy  sends  in  order  to 
distinguish  between  preciie  and  vague  statement.  Words 
like  "enormous,"  "vast,"  and  the  rest  of  it  may  be  neglected. 
When  the  enemy  says  he  has  captured  "far  more  than" 
such  and  such  a  number  of  pieces,  it  means  that  he  has  captured 
that  number  and  perhaps  somewhat  over.  When  he  says 
that  he  has  captured  a  thousand  "  vehicles"  we  must  remember 
that  vehicles  cover  everything  from  a  motor  lorry  to  a  hand 
barrow.  When  he  says  "repeated  counter-attacks"  broke 
down  with  "sanguinary"  losses  (a  phrase  he  has  used  so 
often  that  he  surely  has  it  all  set  up  in  type  for  regular 
use  1)  we  must  remember  that  the  whole  gist  of  the  matter 
is  the  strength  of  the  forces  which  counter-attacked ;  a  mere 
rearguard  action,  in  which  a  coupMe  of  battalions  hold  the 
advance  of  a  division  in  a  narrow  place,  may  be  so  described. 

When  the  enemy  says  he  has  taken  so  many  prisoners 
exactly,  or  that  after  hard  fighting  (the  German  word  resem- 
bles the  English  word  "bitter"  and  is  invariably  so  trans- 
lated, though  the  English  word  "bitter"  means  something 
quite  different),  then  we  may  take  it  that  the  place  which 
he  claims  to  have  entered,  he  really  has  entered. 

To  conclude,  while  the  business  is  on,  our  judgment  has  no 


positive  foundation  ;  we  cannot  tell  the  comparative  losses 
or  even  the  comparative  forces  e.aga-<ed,  but  wa  know  more 
or  les?  the  \]:n'M  jf  reiiicy  ;  we  know  what  cannot  be  true, 
and  we  also  know  wha'.  miy  be  true. 

Civilian  Opinion 

The  second  matter  is  really  mire  important,  I  mean  the 
steadying  of  civilian  opinion  under  the  present  and  coming 
strain.  It  would  be  exactly  of  the  same  imoartance  if  ws 
n\d  no  news  at  all,  or  if  we  had  the  fullest  and  most  detailed 
de5:riptio.i  of  the  whole  action  on  both  sides  from  day  to 
dav. 

The  enemy  is  working  quite  as  much  on  civilian  moral 
as  he  is  upon  the  existing  power  of  the  armies.  A  mere  re- 
sume of  tlie  German  Press  will  teach  you  that.  Our  Press 
has  been  at  tine^  seisatioaal,  and  has  prophesied  both  good 
and  evil  magnificently,  but  it  is  nothing  to  the  German 
Press  in  this  regard.  The  German  Press  has  announced 
impending  victory — victory  in  the  next  few  days — I  know 
not  how  often — certainly  twenty  times — since  the  huge 
German  blunder  of  tlie  Marne. 

Well,  the  German  Press  is  very  much  under  orders,  and  if 
it  does  this  kind  of  thing,  it  does  it  in  order  to  affect  a  civilian 
moral  in  the  countries  of  its  opponents.  Our  counter  to  such 
policy  ought  to  be  simple  enough.  It  would  be  absolutely 
simple  were  we  a  completely  disciplined  society  ;  the  ideal  in 
time  of  war.  We  have  simply  to  neglect  the  whole  hypnotic 
effect. 

The  enemy  may  advance,  he  may  enter  towns,  exercise 
no  mitter  what  cruelties  (there  was  no  limit  to  these),  occupy 
no  matter  what  territory,  destroy  no  matter  how  much,  of 
what  we  had  hitherto  thought  part  and  parcel  of  the  in- 
heritance of  Europe.  ' 

All  that  is  upon  quite  another  clane  froT.  th2  major  issue, 
which  is  whether  the  Ailied  Armies  remain  in  being  and  stand 
re.idy  tor  ultimate  reinforcement.  So  ioiig  as  th^v  are  in 
being,  and  can  maintain  thjms'lves  prepa^'el  for  that  roia- 
forcement,  the  rest,  though  enormous,  is  negligible. 

Jud^  nent  is  wholly  founded  upon  degree.  Victory  or 
defeat  in  this  war  is  compared  with  all  its  concomitant 
strains  indefinitely  more  important.  Not  a  capital  city,  nor 
twenty  great  monuments  from  the  past,  nor  even  so  strict 
an  economic  suffering  as  the  German  Empire  now  happily 
undergoes,  applied  to  us,  is,  compared  with  victory,  any 
more  than  the  wetting  of  one's  clothes  in  thi  putting  out  of 
a  fire  which  threatens  all  our  property  and  the  lives  of  one's 
family.  Of  those  who  do  not  understand  this  truth — it  is 
useless  to  appeal  to  those  who  can  never  get  out  of  their 
little  province  and  think  only  the  crude  sensationalism  which 
is  their  life — there  is  no  present  power  in  the  State  to 
control  their  dangerous  and  sometimes  disastrous  effect. 
The  only  thing  that  one  can  say  to  such  is  that  their 
own  skins  are  no^-  in  peril,  and  that  they  would  do  well  to 
consider  those  skins.  But  to  the  many  who  still  live  more 
or  less  in  terms  of  the  old  Europe,  and  still  think  of  a  diplo- 
matic CO  npromise  and  of  a  signed  peace  with  negotiation 
or  what  -not  for  the  base  of  it,  one  can  point  out  this  now 
self-evident  truth  ;  that  the  battle  at  present  engaged  will 
either  leave  Europe  a  respecter  of  treaties  and  a  united 
civilisation  through  our  victory,  or  will  result  in  such  a 
viJitory  fpr  the  enemv  as  ends  all  securitv,  and  begins  a 
ruinous  and  probably  rapid  dr^cline  of  our  civilisation  as  a 
whole.  They  must  not,  even  unconsciously,  favour  so 
terrible  an  issue. 

Postcript 

Tuesday.  J  me  4th. 
The  communiques  of  the  last  36  hours,  since  this  article 
was  written,  show  an  aoproach  to  stabilisation  of  the  line 
between  Soissons  and  the  .Marne.  FaveroUes  was  recovered 
yesterday.  There  is  some  retire  nent  west  of  Soissons  but 
no  considerable  modification  of  this  front. 


Notice 

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June  6,  19  I  8 


Land    &   Water 


The  Jutland  Anniversary :  By  A.  Pollen 


IN  dealing  with  the  anniversaries  that  fell  last  week, 
I  intended — but  space  forbade — touching  on  an 
aspect  of  the  Battle  of  Jutland  which  has  not  yet, 
I  think,  been  discussed,  and,  in  making  notes  for 
it,  read  through  with  great  interest  Mr.  Hurd's  chapter 
on  the  battle  in  his  recently  published  work.  The  author 
writes  with  enthusiasm  and  a  literary  skill  which  makes 
it  contagious.  It  is  refreshing  and  comforting  to  have  the 
story  of  the  sea  war  re-told  to  us  with  the  ring  of  victory 
in  cvefy  line.  And  behind  it  all  there  is  an  apostolic  purpose 
worthy  of  the  theme.  Mr.  Hurd's  motive  in  writing  is  to 
make  the  world's  debt  to  the  British  Fleet  so  patent  an 
affair  that,  when  all  is  over,  we  may  ever  continue  to  hold 
the  navy's  work  in  grateful  memory.  But,  greatly  as  I 
desire  the  end  this  very  engaging  wnter  has  in  view,  I  am 
far  from  sure  that,  in  adopting  the  method  of  indiscrim- 
inating  praise,  he  has  chosen  an  effective  means  for  securing  it. 
For  really,  when  it  comes  to  our  North  Sea  strategy, 
to  Jutland,  to  the  submarine  campaign,  and  for  that  matter 
every  other  aspect  of  our  naval  policy,  our  author  will  have 
it  that,  from  1914  till  IQ17,  our  course  was  a  continuous 
miracle  of  perfection.  The  author  clearly  has  no  doubts 
at  all.  There  is  nothing  Lord  Fisher  planned  that  Nelson 
would  not  have  endorsed  ;  there  was  no  course  of  Lord 
Jellicoe's  that  the  greatest  of  all  seamen  would  not  have 
been  proud  to  follow.  Some  critics,  he  tells  us,  have  asserted 
that  had  true  doctrine  been  acted  on,  the  German  fleet 
would  have  been  destroyed  and  the  submarine  perjl  removed. 
"It  may  be  argued,"  he  sa3'S,  "that  Nelson  would  have 
•gone  into  the  German  ports  in  spite  of  all  risks  and  attacked 
the  German  fleet  in  its  nests."  Heaven  forbid  that  anyone 
should  prescribe  limits  to  the  nonseaise  that  "may"  be 
argued.  But  surely  it  is  a  simple  fact  that  no  one  of  sense 
ever  has  so  argued,  and  that  the  lament  over  the  survival 
of  the  German  Fleet  was  occasioned,  not  by  failure  to  attack 
it  at  anchor,  but  by  its  unfortunate  escape  on  May  31st 
two  years  ago.  Curiously  enough,  while  Mr.  Hurd  mentions 
six  comments  on  the  famous  battle — none  of  which  he  tells 
us  has  stood  the  test  of  time — he  entirely  omits  to  mention 
the  master  issues  raised.  First,  does  the  threat  of  torpedo 
attack  constitute  that  superior  force  in  the  presence  of 
which  alone  a  British  Admiral  is  justified  in  retreating  ? 
Secondly,  why,  as  the  rear  battle  squadron  got  into  action 
at  6.17,  did  not  the  leading  divisions  open  fire  before  6.30  ? 

Policy  and  Organisation 

The  book,  it  seems  to  me.  would  have  been  more  useful 
if  it  had  dealt  with  these  and  other  naval  issues  with  greater 
frankness.  Every  one  who  writes  about  war  during  war  is 
necessarily  in  a  dilemma.  He  must  be  on  his  guard  not 
to'  help  the  enemy.  It  is  his  duty  to  encourage  as  well  as 
to  inform  his  readers.  With  the  splendid  spectacle  which 
the  valour,  the  self-sacrifice,  and  the  devotion  to  duty  which 
the  British  on  the  sea  have  shown  in  the  last  four  years, 
he  would  have  to  be  a  poor  spirited  creature  indeed,  not 
to  be  in  a  constant  temptation  to  dwell  only  on  the  greatness 
of  what  he  describes,  and  to  deal  with  the  men  and  the 
measures  they  adopt  in  terms  of  praise  alone,  and  of  super- 
lative praise  at  that.  But  surely  those  who  have  made 
a  special  study  of  naval  war  are  at  times  justified  in  pointing 
out  where  policy  is  weak,  or  preparations  inadequate,  or 
organisation  defective.  Our  government  which  runs  the  war  is, 
after  ail,  civilian.  It  is  civil  opinion  in  the  end  that  alone  can 
secure  right  military  action.  "The  fact  that  we  have  completely 
changed  our  naval  policy,  by  changing  the  organisation  that 
creates  and  controls  it,  seems  bj'  itself  to  prove  that  criticism 
has  been  neither  merely  destructive  nor  altogether  without 
valuable  results.  And  to  acknowledge  our  great  defects  of 
organisation  does  not  belittle  but  enhances  the  great  things 
the  seamen  have  done. 

A   Problem  in    Deployment 

f  If  the  views  set  out  above  are  sound,  it  is  no  disservice  to 
the  general  cause  to  make,  from  time  to  time,  a  careful  and 
dispassionate  examination  of  past  events  because,  though  it 
is  exceedingly  unhkely  that  the  conditions  arising  in  one 
action  will  be  reproduced,  even  approximately,  in  another, 
still  an  inquiry  may  exhibit  a  principle  in  working  that  will 
a,ssist  towards  its  better  future  application.  With  thi.i  object 
in  view  I  propose  to  examine  one  of  the  two  main  issues 
arising  out  of  the  battle  fought  two  years  ago.     The  first  of 


them,  which  may  be  called  the  torpedo  problem,  has  per- 
haps been  as  adequately  discussed  as  the  information  at  our 
disposal  makes  possible.  But  the  second  raises  questions  to 
which  much  less  consideration  has  been  given.  Let  me  re- 
call the  broad  facts  of  the  situation  between  6.0  and  6.50  p.m., 
of  which  a  rough  indication  is  set  out  in  the  diagram. 

We  know  from  the  dispatch  that  the  Grand  Fleet  was  com- 
ing down  to  the  battlefield  on  a  S.E.  b}'  S.  course,  in  six 
divisions,  with  the  first  squadron,  under  Admiral  Burney,  on 


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the  western  flank.  About  a  mile  would  separate  the  divisions 
from  each  other.  At  four  minutes  to  six,  Limi  and  Marl- 
horough  saw  each  other  at  a  distance  of  between  ten  to  eleven 
thousand  yards.  At  that  time  the  head  of  the  German  line 
was  14,000  yards  from  Sir  David  Beatty,  bearing  approx- 
imately as  indicated.  BeattVrJt  will  be  remembered,  changed 
course  to  the  east  and  went  full  speed.  He  sighted  Admit al 
Hood  with  three  battle  cruisers  at  6.20,  ordered  Hood  to  take 
station  ahead  of  him,  and  changed  course  at  6.25  in  support. 
Hood  was  then  closing  on  to  the  German  van,  and  firing  at 
a  range  of  8,000  yards.  Beatty  apparently  kept  this  course 
until  approximately  6.50,  having  thrown  the  head  of  the  enemy 
hne  into  complete  confusion. 

In  the  meantime  at  6.17  the  western  divisions  of  the 
Grand  Fleet- — which  were  to  become  the  rear  when  the  single 
,  Une  was  formed — had  come  into  action  at  a  range  of  11,000 
yards.  These  ships  must,  therel'ore,; have  crossed  Sir  David 
Beatty's  track  at  a  point  about  three  and  a  half  to  four  miles 
astern  of  him.  They  accordingly  got  into  action  at  once, 
probably  with  the  German  centre.  The  rest  of  the  Grand 
Fleet  did  not  open  fire  on  the  main  force  until  6.30,  by  which 
time,  if  the  line  was  formed,  they  would  have  been  approx- 
mately  in  the  position  shown  in  the  sketch.  For  at  6.50, 
Sir  David  Beatty  tells  us,  the  battle  cruisers  were  clear  of 
the  Grand  Fleet,  the  leading  ships  of  which  "bore  N.N.W. 
frgm  him  at  a  distance  of  about  three  miles."  In  the  sketch 
I  hav6  shown  Beatty's  course  "AA,"  the  German  course 
"CC,"  and  have  indicated  the  line  "BB"  to  show  successive 
known  positions  of  the  Grand  Fleet. 

Now  the  point  on  which  we  are  absolutely  ignorant  is  how 
the  Grand  Fleet  got  from  its  original  position  at  six  o'clock, 
into  one  which  it  apparently  held  at  6.30,  when  it  opened 
fire.  What  seems  to  be  quite  clear  is  that,  though  the  rear 
of  the  line  must  have  crossed  Sir  David  Beatty's  track,  it 
was  not  on  the  battle  cruisers,  nor  the  enemy's  van,  that  the 
Fleet  deployed.  The  result  was  that '  between  6.10,  when 
Sir  David  had  closed  the  range  to  12,000  yards,  until  bad 
light  made  gunnery  impossible,  he  was  unsupported,  except 
by  whatever  period  of  fire  Marlborough  and  her  consorts  had 
been  able  to  maintain  between  6.17  and  breaking  off  to  keep 
station  with  the  divisions  ahead.  At  6.30,  as  at  6.50,  the 
leading  battleships  were  at  least  3,000  yards  away  from  the 
battle  cruisers,  and,  consequently,  at  nearly  that  much 
greater  range  from  the  enemy. 

Certain  things  should  be  noted  in  regard  to  these 
events.  By  6.50  the  visibility.  Sir  David  Beatty  tells  us  in 
his  dispatch,  "at  this  time  was  very  indifferent,  not  more 
than  four  miles,  and  the  cnenn-  ships  were  temporarily  lost 
sight  of.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  after  6.0  p.m.,  al- 
though the  visibility  became  reduced,  it  was  undoubtedly 
more  favourable  to  us  than  to  the  enemy.  At  intervals 
their  ships  showed  up  clearly."  Had  it  been  possible,  there- 
fore, for  any  squadron  of  the  Grand  Fleet  to  have  fallen"  in 


8 


Land   &   Water 


June  6,  191  8 


behind  the  battle  cruisers,  they  would  have  had  the  enemy 
under  fire  at  ranges  diminishing  from  12,000  yards  to  8,000, 
from  6.10,  say,  till  (1.40,  and  this  in  extraordinarily  favour- 
able gunnery  conditions.  As  it  was,  by  the  time  they  did 
get  into  action — that  is,  after  6.30— the  conditions  were  all 
against  effective  gunnery.  "  The  mist, "  said  the  Commander- 
in-Chief,  "  rendered  range-taking  a  difficult, matter."  "Ow- 
ing principally  to  the  mist,  but  partly  to  the  smoke,  it  was 
possible  to  see  only  a  few  ships  at  a  time  in  tlie  enemy's  battle 
line.  Towards  the  van,  only  some  four  or  five  ships  were 
ever  visible  at  once.  More  could  be  seen  from  the  rear 
sfjuadron,  but  never  more  than  eight  to  twelve." 

Further,  it  was  not  till  nearly  7.0,  when  the  leading 
ships  of  the  Fleet  turned  south,  that  the  Germans,  having 
us  now  behind  them,  began  the  great  torpedo  attacks  which 
were  decisive.  At  any  rate  it  was  at  6.54  that  Marlborough, 
tiie  only  ship  touched  by  a  torpedo,  was  hit.  From  the 
wording  of  the  Commander-in-Chief's  dispatch,  it  would 
api^car  certain  that  it  was  now  that  the  enemy's  plans  of 
evasion — torpedo  ^'olleys  and  smoke  screens — were  put  in 
force.  "After  the  arrival  of  the  British  battle  fleet, "  says 
the  Commander-in-Chief,  "the  enemy's  tactics  were  of  a 
nature  generally  to  evade  further  action,  in  which  they  were 
favoured  by  the  conditions  of  visibility."  "(He)  constantly- 
turned  away  and  opened  the  range  under  cover  of  destroyer 
attacks  and  smoke  screens,  as  the  effect  of  the  British  fire 
was  felt." 

There  was  evidently  something,  then,  in  the  situation, 
or  in  the  way  it  was  met,  that  saved  the  German  fleet  from 
our  gunfire,  just  at  the  one  period  when  it  could  have  been 
made  really  destructive.  That  tlie  rear  got  into  action  before 
the  van  is  in  itself  an  extraordinarj'  circumstance,  and  it 
seems  plain  that,  to  take  a  numerous  fleet  into  action  in 
single  line,  presents  difficulties  to-day  as  acute  as  they  were 
in  the  era  of  masts  and  sails.  This  fact  is  worth  emphasis 
because  the  evolution  of  the  Nelsonian  battle  is  easily  traced. 
The  things  that  distinguish  it  from  so  heart-breaking  a 
fiasco  as  .Mathews'  action,  Byng's,  or  the  Battle  of  the  Saints, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  "Glorious  F'irst  of  June"  on  the 
other,  were  twofold.  First,  the  tactical  plan  was  made 
with  the  single  object  of  bringing  the  force  into  battle  with 
the  utmost  rapidity,  which  involved  it  being  directed  straight 
at  the  points  chosen  for  attack  without  preliminary  man- 
ceuvTcs  ;  and,  secortdly,  the  execution  of  the  plan,  after 
the  Commander-in-Chief  had  made  absolutely  certain  that 
his  second  in  command  and  every  subordinlate'  had  mastered 
his  intentions  completely,  was  left  to  the  untrammelled 
discretion   of   these   responsible   for  the  separate   divisions. 

Battle  Cruisers  in  Action 

The  fact  that  Sir  David  Beatty  was  not  supported  at  this 
ciitical  period  does  not,  of  course,  give  rise  to  the  assumption 
that  he  might  and  should  have  been.  Until  all  the  circum- 
stances are  known,  any  such  inference  from  the  bare  facts 
would  be  unwarranted.  But  it  remains  a  poignant  regret 
that  the  support  could  not  be  given,  for,  viewed  as  a  move 
taken  with  the  expectation  of  such  support,  the  Vice- Admiral's 
tactical  decision  at  6.0  was  of  an  exceptionally  brilliant 
order.  When  the  battle-cruiser  type  was  first  designed, 
its  purpose  was  announced  to  be  twofold.  It  was  to  be  a 
ship  that  would  combine  such  force  and  speed  as  would 
enable  any  enemy's  scouting  screen  to  be  both  driven  off 
and  pierced  ;  conversely,  it  would  itself  protect  the  screen 
of  which  it  was  part,  from  disturbance.  Its  second  purpose 
was  to  be  a  superlative  unit  in  the  protection  or  attack  on 


%■■ 


the  lines  of  sea  supply.  The  dispatch  of  Inuincible  and 
Inflexible  to  the  Falkland  Islands  was  an  example  of  the 
latter  form  of  strategy,  and  the  German  raids  on  the  East 
Coast  exemplified  yet  a  third  purpose  to  which  such  vessels 
could  be  put.  Both  sides  employed  them  as  advanced 
scouting  ftjrces  on  the  3rst  May. 

It  was  reserved  for  Sir  David  Beatty  to  employ  tlic 
difference  in  speed  between  his  squadron  and  that  of  the 
enemy  to  create  a  tactical  situation  in  a  fleet  action  which, 
could  it  have  been  improved,  would  have  led  to  the  enemy's 
annihilation.  So  to  employ  these  vessels  called,  it  is 
needless  to  say,  not  only  for  that  "correct  strategical  insight 
and  appreciation  of  situations,"  with  which  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  duly  credited  him,  but  for  a  firmness  of  resolution 
and  a  grasp  of  right  war-Uke  principle  of  a  very  exceptional 
order.  Two  of  his  vessels  had  been  lost  earlier  in  the  day, 
and  it  is  not  known  whether  or  not  he  knew  at  the  time 
that  it  was  accidental  shots  and  not  the  wholesale  piercing 
of  their  thinly  protected  sides  that  accounted  for  their 
destruction.  In  any  event,  having  lost  two  ships  out  of 
six  when  the  range  was  14,000  yards,  it  might  well  have 
been  supposed  that  he  was  likely  to  lose  a  far  higher  proportion 
when  he  decided  to  close,  first  to  12,000  and  then  to  8,000. 
But  there  are  two  things  that  must  be  remembered.  iMrst, 
in  closing  the  range  materially  he  did  the  best  thing  possible 
for  the  defence  of  his  ships  ;  for  he  added,  perhaps,  incal- 
culabl}/  to  the  efficiency  of  his  Own  gimfire.  Secondly, 
while--even  with  this  point  in  his  favour — he  took  an  immense 
risk,  it  was  incurred  for  the  sake  of  bringing  about  the  crushing 
decision  which  he,  no  doubt,  realised  must  be  obtained  in 
the  next  haH  hour  or  probably  not  at  all. 

To  those  who  are  conversant  with  the  discussion  that  followed, 
the  two  knot  increase  in  speed  which  Dreadnought  possessed  over 
the  King  Edwarih,  this  episode  of  crumpling  the  head  of 
the  German  line  is  exceedingly  interesting.  It  was  made 
possible  by  the  possession,  not  of  a  10  per  cent.,  but  of  a 
30  or  40  per  cent,  superiority  in  speed  over  the  opposing 
force.  For  a  parallel  to  it  we  should  have  to  go  a  long  way 
back  in  history.  Possibly  there  would  be  no  precedent 
at  all  until  we  come  to  the  work  of  the  high  speed  triremes 
of  the  Athenians  and  the  victories  which  their  superior 
oarsmanship  obtained  in  the  Peloponnesian  war.  In  strict 
analysis  this  startling  use  of  the  battle-cruisers  was  a 
containing  movement.  It  was  the  essence  of  the  Beatty 
stroke  that  it  created  the  opportunitv  for  the  main  fleet. 

Indeed,  is  not  the  revolution  at  Wliitehall  itself  the  most 
astonishing  of  all  the  things  the  Navy  has  done  ?  It  was 
effected  at  the  most  critical  period  of  the  war,  despite  ex 
hortations  not  to  swap  horses  in  mid-stream.  It  is  not  our  least 
conspicuous  nationahty  to  fear  theory,  to  dislike  order,  and  to 
distrust  system.  And  this  is  seemingly  an  old  trait.  Shake- 
speare must  have  had  the  opponents  of  the  staff  system  in 
mind  in  writing  Ulysses'  speech  in  Troilus  and  Cressida  : 

They  tax  our  policy  and  call  it  cowardice ; 

Count  wisdom  as  no  member  oi  the  war; 

Forestall  prescience  and  esteem  no  act 

But  that  of  hand  :  the  still  and  mental  parts — 

That  do  contrive  how  many  hands  shall  strike. 

When  fitness  calls  them  on  ;  and  know  by  measure 

Of  their  observant  toil  the  enemies'  weight, — 

Why,  this  hath  not  a  finger's  dignity  : 

They  call  this  "bed-work,"  "mappery,"  "  closet- war  "  : 

So  that  the  ram,  that  batters  down  the  wall. 

For  the  great  s\ving  and  rudeness  of  his  poise. 

They  place  before  his  hand  that  made  the  engine ; 

Or  those,  that  with  the  fineness  ol  their  souls. 

By  reason  guide  his  execution. 


4^       >  * 


ijL  ^  ,afe 


*  •»    s 


The  Fifth  Battle  Squadron  at  "Windy  Corner,"  Jutland,  May  31st,  19 16 

By   H.   E.  Frecker,  R.N.R.      [From  details  supplied  by  eye-tciinasei.) 


June  6,  19 1 8 


Land   &   Water 


The  Turkish   Conspiracy — IV 

The     Narrative     of      Mr.     Morgenthau,     American      Ambassador     in      Turkey, 

1913-1916. 


T,  H  1  S  proceeding 
had  great  inter- 
national impor- 
tance. Von  San- 
ders's \'anity  had 
led  Jiim  to  betray  a  diplo- 
matic secret ;  he  was  not 
merely  a  drill-master  sent 
to  instruct  the  Turkish 
Army ;  he  was  precisely 
what  he  claimed  to  be — the 
personal  representative  of 
the  Kaiser.  The  Kaiser  had 
selected  him  just  as  he  had 

selected  Wangcnheim,  as  an  instrument  for  working 
liis  will  in  Turkey.  Afterward  von  Sanders  told  me,  with 
all  that  pride  which-  German  aristocrats  manifest  when 
speaking  of  their  imperial  master,  how  the  Kaiser  had  talked 
to  him  a  couple  of  hours  the  day  he  had  appointed  him  to 
this  Constantinople  mission,  and  how,  the  day  that  he  had 
started,  Wilhelm  had  spent  another  hour  giving  him  final 
instructions.  I  reported  this  dinner  incident  to  my  Govern- 
ment as  indicating  Germany's  growing  ascendancy  in  Turkey  ; 
I  presume  the  other  Ambassadors  likewise  reported  it  to  their 
governments.  The  American  military  attache,  Major  R.  M. 
Taylor,  who  was  present,  attributed  the  utmost  significance 
to  it.  A  month  later  he  and  Captain  McCauley,  commanding 
the  Scorpion,  the  American  stalionaire  at  Constantinople, 
had  lunch  at  Cairo  with  Lord  Kitchener.  The  luncheon 
was  a  small  one,  only  the  Americans,  Lord  Kitchener,  his 
sister,  and  an  aide  making  up  the  party.  Major  Taylor 
related  this  incident,  and  Kitchener  displayed  much  interest. 
"What  do  you  think  it  signifies  ?"  asked  Kitchener. 
"I  think  it  means,"  Major  Taylor  said,  "that  when  the 
big  war  comes,  Turkey  will  probably  be  an  ally  of  Germany. 
If  she  is  not  in  direct  aUiance,  at  least  I  think  that  she  will 
mobilise  on  the  line  of  the  Caucasus  and  thus  divert  three 
Russian  army  corps  from  the  European  theatre  of  operations." 
Kitchener  thought  for  a  moment  and  then  said,  "I  agree 
with  you." 

And  now  for  several  months  we  had  before  our  eyes  this 
spectacle  of  the  Turkish  army  actually  under  the  control 
of  Germany.  German  officers  drilled  the  troops  daily— all, 
I  am  now  convinced,  in  preparation  for  the  approaching 
war.  Just  what  results  had  been  accomplished  appeared 
when,  in  July,  there  was  a  great  military  review.  The 
occasion  was  a  splendid  and  a  gala  affair.  The  Sultan 
attended  in  state  ;  he  'sat  unde'r  a  beautifully  decorated 
tent  and  held  a  little  court.  The  Khedive  of  Egypt,  the 
Crown  Prince  of  Turkey,  the  Princes  of  the  Imperial  blood 
and  the  entire  Cabinet  were  on  hand.  We  now  saw  that, 
in  the  preceding  six  months,  the  Turkish  army  had  been 
completely  Prussianized.  What  in  January  had  been  an 
undisciplined,  ragged  rabble  now  paraded  with  the  goose 
step ;  the  men  were- 
clad  in  German 
field  grey,  and  they 
even  wore  a  casque 
shaped  head  cover- 
ing, which  slightly 
suggested  the  Ger- 
man pickelhauhe. 
The  German  offi- 
cers were  immense- 
ly proud  ;  and  the 
transformation  of 
the  wretched  Tur- 
kish soldiers  of 
January  into  these 
neatly  dressed, 
smartly  stepping, 
splendidly  maii- 
(Eu  vring  troops  was 
really  a  creditable 
military  achieve- 
ment. When  the 
Sultan  invited  me 
to  his  tent  I  natur- 
ally congratulated 
him    upon    the 


Field-Marshal  Liman  vm  Sanders,  who  had  arrived  in 
Ccnstantinople  in  Dece-mher,  1913,  was  appointed  General 
Commanding  the  First  Turkish  Army  Carps.  On  the  British, 
French  and  Russian  Ambassadors  protesting,  his  appoint- 
ment was  changed  to  Inspector-General.  In  February,  1914, 
Mr.  Morgenthau  gdvj  his  first  diplomatic  dinner.  .Accord- 
ing to  the  order  of  precedence,  settled  by  the  Austrian 
A  mbassador,  doyen  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  von  Sanders  was 
placed  below  ForSign  Ministers.  This  led  to  a  scene  in  which 
Wangenheim.the  German  .Ambassador ,t'^ok  part.  Subsequently 
von  Sanders  w. is  given  precedence  ever  Foreign  Ministers  with 
the  result  he  was  never  again  invited  to  a  diplomatic  dinner. 


Talaat  and  Enver  at  a  Military  Review 

Obtcrving  the  tran9form.ition  worked  in  the  Turkish  army  by  it-«  German  drill-masters.       This  was  in 

early  July,  1914,  almost  a  month  before  the  war  broke  out.       Talaat  is  the  huge  broad-shouldered  man 

at  the  right  ;  Envcr  is  the  smaller  figure  to  the  left. 


excellent  showing  of  his  men. 
He  did  not  manifest  mucli 
enthusiasm  ;  he  said  that  he 
regretted  the  possibihty  of 
war ;  he  was  at  heart  a 
pacifist.  I  noticed  certain 
conspicuous  absences  from 
this  great  German  fete  ;  the 
French,  British,  Russian, 
and  Italian  Ambassadors  had 
kept  away.  Bompard  said 
that  he  had  received  his  ten 
tickets  but  that  he  did  not 
regard  that  as  an  invitation. 
Wangcnheim  told  me,  with  some  satisfaction,  that  the  other 
Ambassadors  were  jealous  ;  that  they  did  not  care  to  see  the 
progress  which  the  Turkish  army  had  made  under  German 
tutelage.  I  did  not  have  the  slightest  question  that  these 
Ambassadors  refused  to  attend  because  they  had  no  desire 
to  grace  this  Genuan  holiday  ;  nor  did  1  blame  them. 
«  *  •  « 

Meanwhile,  I  had  other  evidences  that  Germany  was 
playing  her  part  in  Turkish  politics.  In  June  the  relations 
between  Greece  and  Turkey  reached  the  breaking  point. 
The  treaty  of  Bucharest  had  left  Greece  temporarily  in 
possession  of  the  islands  of  Chios  and  Mitylene.  These 
islands  stand  in  the  .lEgean  Sea  like  guardians  controlling 
the  Bay  and  the  great  port  of  Smyrna.  It  is  quite  apparent 
that  any  strong  mihtary  nation  which  permanently  held 
these  vantage  points  would  ultimately  control  Smyrna  and 
the  whole  .iEgean  coast  of  Asia  Minor.  The  racial  situation 
made  the  continued  retention  of  these  islands  by  Greece 
a  constant  military  danger  to  Turkey.  Their  population 
was  Greek  and  had  been  Greek  since  the  days  of  Homer  ;  the 
coast  of  Asia  Minor  itself  was  also  Greek ;  more  than  half 
the  population  of  Smyrna,  Turkey's  greatest  Mediterranean 
seaport,  was  Greek  ;  in  its  industries,  its  commerce,  and 
its  culture  the  city  was  so  predominantly  Greek  that  the 
Turks  usually  referred  to  it  as  giaour  Ismir — "infidel  Smyrna." 
Though  this  Greek  population  was  nominally  Ottoman  in 
nationality  it  made  practically  no  secret  of  its  affection 
for  the  Greek  fatherland  ;  these  Asiatic  Greeks  even  made 
contributions  to  the  Greek  Government.  The  ^Egean  islands 
and  the  mainland,  in  fact,  constituted  Graecia  Irredenta  ; 
that  Greece  was  determined  to  redeem  them,  precisely  as 
she  had  recently  redeemed  Crete,  was  no  diplomatic  secret. 
Should  the  Greeks  ever  land  an  army  on  this  Asia  Minor 
coast,  there  was  not  the  slightest  question  that  the  native 
Greek  population  would  welcome  it  enthusiastically  and 
co-operate  with  it. 

Germany,  however,  had  her  own  "'plans  for  Asia  Minor, 
and  naturally  the  Greeks  in  this  region  formed  a  barrier 
to  Pan-German  aspirations.  As  long  as  this  region  remained 
Greek,  it  formed  a  natural  obstacle  to  Germany's  road  to 

the  Persian  Gulf, 
precisely  as  did 
Serbia.  An\one 
who  has  read  even 
cursorily  the  litera- 
ture of  Pan-Ger- 
mania  understands 
the  peculiar  Ger- 
man method  advo- 
cated for  dealing 
with  populations 
that  stand  in 
Germany's  way^ — 
that  is  b}'  depor- 
tation- The  violent 
shifting  of  whole 
peoples  from  one 
part  of  Europe  to 
another  as  though 
they  were  so  many 
lierds  of  cattle  has 
for  years  been  part 
of  the  Kaiser's 
plans  for  Genuan 
expansion.  This 
is    the    treatment 


Tl^!Kt'     .   <lPte,.   tbJ|*^l 


lO 


Land    &    Water 


June  6,  19 1  8 


which,  since  the  war  began,  she  has  applied  to  Belgium, 
to  Poland,  to  >erbia  ;  its  most  hideous  manifestation,  as 
I  shall  show,  ;is  been  to  Armenia.  Acting  under  Germany's 
prompting,  Turkey  now  began  to  apply  this  principle  of 
deportation   to   her  Greek   subjects  in    Asia   Minor. 

The  events  that  followed  foreshadowed  the  policy  adopted 
in  the  Armenian  massacres.  The  Turkish  officials  pounced 
upon  the  Greeks,  herded  them  in  groups  and  marched 
them  towards  the  ships.  They  gave  them  no  time  to  settle 
their  private  affairs,  and  they  took  no  pains  to  keep  families 
together.  The  plan  was  to  transport  the  Greeks  to  the  wholly 
Greek  islands  in  the^Egean.  Naturally  the  Greeks  rebelled 
against  such  treatment  ;  and  occasional  massacres  were  the 
result,  especially  in  Phocaa,  where  mcfre  than  fifty  peopfe 
were  murdered.  The  Turks  demanded  that  all  foreign 
establishments  in  Smyrna  dismiss  their  Christian  employees 
— and  replace  them  with  non-Greeks.  The  Singer  Manu- 
facturing Company  received  such  instructions  ;  I  interceded 
and  obtained  si.xty  days  delay,  but  ultimately  this  American 
concern  had  to  obey  the  mandate. 

Turkey  for  the  Turks 

Naturally  this  procedure  against  the  Greeks  aroused  my 
indignation.  I  did  not  have  the  slightest  suspicion  then 
that  the  Germans  had  instigated  those  deportations ;  I 
looked  upon  them  merely  as  an  outburst  of  Turkish  ferocity 
and  chauvinism.  By  this  time  I  knew  Talaat  well;  I  saw 
him  nearly  every  day,  and  he  used  to  discuss  practically 
every  phase  of  international  relations  with  me.  I  objected 
vigorously  to  his  treatment  of  the  Greeks  ;  I  told  him  that 
it  would  make  the  worst  possible  impression  abroad  and  that 
it  affected  American  interests.  Talaat  explained  his  national 
policy  ;  these  different  Woes  in  the  Turkish  Empire  had 
always  conspired  against  Turkey.  Because  of  the  hostility 
of  these  native  populations,  Turkey  had  lost  province  after 
province — Greece,  Serbia,  Rumania,  Bulgaria,  Bosnia,  Herze- 
govina, Egypt,  and  TripoH.  In  this  way  the  Turkish  Empire 
had  dwindled  almost  to  the  vanishing  point.  If  what  was  left 
of  Turkey  was  to  survive,  he  must  get  rid  of  these  alien 
peoples.  "Turkey  for  the  Turks"  was  now  Talaat's  con- 
trolling idea.  Therefore,  he  proposed  to  Turkify  Smyrna 
and  the  adjoining  islands. 

The  Greeks  in  Turkey  had  one  great  advantage  over  the 
Armenians  ;  for  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a  Greek  Govern- 
ment, which  naturally  has  a  protecting  interest  in  them. 
The  Turks  knew  that  these  deportations  would  precipitate 
a  war  with  Greece  ;  in  fact  they  welcomed  such  a  war  and 
were  preparing  for  it.  So  enthusiastic  were  the  Turkish  people 
that  they  had  raised  money  "by  popular  subscription  and 
had  purchased  a  Brazilian  dreadnought  which  was  then 
under  construction  in  England.  The  Government  had  ordered 
also  a  second  dreadnought  in  England,  and  several  submarines 
and  destroyers  in  France.  The  purpose  of  these  naval 
preparations  was  no  secret  in  Constantinople.  As  soon  as 
they  obtained  these  ships,  or  even  the  one  dreadnought 
which  was  nearing  completion,  Turkey  intended  to  attack 
Greece  and  take  back  the  islands.  A  single  modern  battle- 
ship Hke  the  Snllan  Osman— this  was  the  name  the  Turks 
had  given  the  Brazilian  vessel— could  easily  overpower  the 
whole  Greek  navy  and .  control  the  ^Egean  Sea.  As  this 
powerful  vessel  would  be  finished  and  commissioned  *in  a 
few  months  we  all  expected  the  Greco- Turkish  war  to  break 
out  in  the  autumn.  What  could  the  Greek  navy  possibly 
do  in  face  of  this  impending  danger  ? 

Such  was  the  situation  when,  early  in  June,  I  received 
a  most  agitated  visitor.  This  was  Djemal  Pasha,  the  Turkish 
Minister  of  Marine,  and  one  of  the  three  men  who  then 
dominated  the  Turkish  Empire.  I  have  hardly  ever  seen 
a  man  who  appeared  more  Utterly  worried  than  was  Djemal 
on  this  occasion.  As  ne  began  talking  excitedly  to  my 
interpreter  in  French,  his  whiskers  trembling  with  his  emotions 
and  his  hands  wildly  gesticulating,  he  seemed  to  be  almost 
beside  himself.  I  knew  enough  French  to  understand  what 
he  was  saying  ;  and  the  news  which  he  brought — this  was 
the  first  I  had  heard  of  it — sufficiently  explained  his  agitation. 
The  American  Government,  he  said,  was  negotiating  with 
Greece  for  the  sale  of  two  battleships,  the  Idaho  and  the 
Mississippi.  He  urged  that  I  should  immediately  move  to 
prevent  any  such  sale.  His  attitude  was  that  of  a  suppUant  ; 
he  begged,  he  implored  that  I  should  intervene.  If  the 
transaction  were  purely  a  commercial  one,  Turkey  would  hke 
a  chance  to  bid.     "We  will  pay  more  than  Greece." 

Evidently  the  clever  Greeks  had  turned  the  table  on  their 
enemy.  Turkey  had  rather  too  boldly  advertised  her  intention 
of  attacking  Greece  as  soon  as  she  received  her  dreadnought. 
Both  the  ships  for  which  Greece  was  now  negotiating  were 
immediately  available  for  battle  !     The  Idaho  and  Mississippi 


were  not  indispensable  ships  for  the  American  Navy  ;  they 
could  not  take  their  place  in  the  first  line  of  battle  ;  they 
were  powerful  enough,  however,  to  drive  the  whole  Turkish 
navy  from  the  /Egean.  Evidently  the  Greeks  did  not  intend 
politely  to  postpone  the  impencling  war  until  the  Turkish 
dreadnought  had  been  finished,  but  to  attack  as  soon  as 
they  received  these  American  ships.  Djemal's  legal  point, 
of  course,  had  no  vahdity.  However  much  war  might 
threaten,  Turkey  and  Greece  were  still  actually  at  peace. 
Clearly  Greece  had  just  as  much  right  to  purchase  warships 
in  the  United  States  as  Turkey  had  to  purchase  them  in 
Brazil  or  England. 

But  Djemal  was  not  the  only  statesman  who  attempted 
to  prevent  the  sale ;  the  German  Ambassador  displayed 
the  keenest  interest.  Several  days  after  Djemal's  visit 
Wangenheim  and  I  were  riding  in  the  hills  north  of  Con- 
stantinople ;  Wangenheim  be^an  to  talk  about  the  Greeks, 
to  whom  h'e  chsplayed  a  violent  antipathy,  about  the  chances 
of  war,  and  the  projected  sale  of  American  warships.  He 
made  a  long  argument  about  the  sale  ;  his  reasoning  was 
precisely  the  same  as  Djemal's.  I  suspected  he  had  himself 
coached  Djemal  for  his  interview  with  me. 

"  Just  look  at  the  dangerous  precedent  you  are  establishing," 
said  Wangenheim.  "It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  United 
States  may  sometime  find  itself  in  a  position  like  Turkey's 
to-day.  Suppose  that  you  were  on  the  brink  of  war  with 
Japan  ;  then  England  could  sell  a  fleet  of  dreadnoughts 
to  Japan.     How  would  the  United  States  like  that  ?" 

And  then  he  made  a  statement  which  indicated  what 
really  lay  back  of  his  protest.  I  have  thought  of  it  many 
times  in  the  last  three  years.  The  scene  is  indelibly  impressed 
on  my  mind.  There  we  sat  on  our  horses  ;  the  silent,  ancient 
forest  of  Belgrade  lay  around  us  ;  in  thi^  distance  the  Black  Sea 
glistened  in  the  afternoon  sun.  Wangenheim  suddenly  became 
quiet  and  extremely  earnest.     He  looked  in  my  eyes  and  said : 

"I  don't  think  that  the  United  States  realise  what  a 
serious  matter  this  is.  The  sale  of  these  ships  might  be 
the  cause  that  would  bring  on  a  European  war." 

This  conversation  took  place  on  June  13  ;  this  was  about 
six  weeks  before  the  conflagration  broke  out.  Wangenheim 
knew  perfectly  well  that  Germany  was  rushing  preparations 
for  this  great  corflict;  he  knew  also  that  preparations  were 
not  yet  entirely  complete.  Like  all  the  German  A  mbussadors, 
Wangenheim  had  received  instructi  ns  wt  to  let  any  crisis 
arise  that  would  precipitate  war  until  all  these  preparations 
had  been  finished.  He  had  no  objections  to  the  expulsion 
of  the  Greeks,  for  that  in  itself  was  part  of  these  preparations  ; 
he  was  much  disturbed,  however,  over  the  prospect  that  the 
Greeks  might  succeed  in  arming  themselves  and  disturbing 
existing  conditions  in   the  Balkans. 

He  went  so  far  as  to  ask  me  to  cable  personally  to  the 
President,  explain  the  seriousness  of  tlie  situation,  and  to 
call  his  attention  to  the  telegrams  that  had  gone  to  the  State 
Department  on  the  proposed  sale  of  the  ships.  I  regarded  his 
suggestion  as  an  impertinent  one  and  declined  to  act  upon  it. 

To  Djemal  and  the  other  Turkish  •  ffi  ials  who  kept  pressing 
me  I  suggested  that  their  Ambassador  in  Wa.-;hington  should 
directly  take  up  the  matter  with  the  President.  They  acted 
on  this  adw^c,  but  the  Greeks  agam  got  ahead  of  them. 
At  two  o'clock,  June  22nd,  the  Greek  Charge  d'affaires  at 
Washington  and  Commander  Tsouklas,  of  the  Greek  Navy, 
called  upon  the  President  and  arranged  the  sale.  As  they 
left  the  President's  office  the  Turkish  Ambassador  entered— 
just  fifteen  minutes  too  late  ! 

I  presume  that  Mr.  Wilson  consented  to  the  sale  because 
he  knew  that  Turkey  was  preparing  to  attack  Greece  and 
believed  that  the  Idaho  and  Mississippi  would  prevent  such 
an  attack  and  so  preserve  peace  in  tiie  Balkans. 

Acting  under  the  authorisation  of  Congress  the  administration 
sold  these  ships  on  July  8,  1914,  to  Fred  J.  Gauntlett,  for 
212,535.276.98,  i.e.  rather  more  than  2\  millions  sterhng. 
Congress  immediately  voted  the  money  reahsed  from  the 
sale  to  the  construction  of  a  great  modern  dreadnought, 
the  California.  Mr.  Gauntlett  transferred  the  ships  to 
the  Greek  Government.  Rechristened  the  Kilkis  and  the 
Lemnos,  those  battleships  immediately  took  their  places  as 
the  most  powerful  vessels  in  the  Greek  Navy. 

By  this  time  we  had  moved  from  the  Embassy  to  our 
summer  home  on  the  Bosphoras.  .  All  the  summer  Embassies 
were  located  there,  and  a  more  beautiful  spot  I  have  never 
seen.  Our  house  was  a  three-story  building,  something  in 
the  Venetian  style  ;  behind  it  the  clitf  rose  abruptly,  with 
several  hanging  gardens  towering  one  above  the  other ;  the 
building  stood  so  near  the  shore  and  the  waters  of  the 
Bosphorus  rushed  by  so  rapidly  that  when  we  sat  outside, 
especially  on  a  moonhght  night,  we  had  almost  a  complete 
illusion  that  we  were  sitting  on  the  deck  of  a  fast  saihng 
ship.     In  the  daytime  the  Bosphorus,  here  little  more  than 


June  6,   19 1 8 


Land   &:  Water 


1 1 


a  mile  wide,  was  alive  with  gaily  coloured  craft ;  I  recall 
this  animated  scene  with  particular  vividness  because  1 
retain  in  my  mind  the  contrast  it  presented  a  few  months 
afterward,  when  Turkey's  entrance  into  the  war  had  the 
immediate  result   of  closing  this  strait. 

Day  by  day  huge  Russian  steamships,  on  their  way  from 
Black  Sea  ports  to  Smyrna,  Alexandria,  and  other  cities, 
made  clear  the  importance  of  this  little  strip  of  water, 
and  explained  the  bloody  contests  of  the  European 
nations,  over  a  thousand  years,  for  its  possession.  However, 
these  summer  months  were  peaceful ;  all  the  Ambassadors 
and  Ministers  and  their  famihes  were  thrown  con- 
stantly together ;  here 
daily  gathered  the  re- 
presentatives of  all  the 
Powers  that  for  the  last 
three  years  have  been 
grappling  in  history's 
bloodiest  war,  all  then 
apparently  friend^,  sit- 
ting around  the  same 
dining  tables,  walking 
arm  in  arm  upon  the 
porches.  The  Ambassa- 
dor of  one  Power  would 
most  graciously  escort 
in  to  dinner  the  wife 
of  another  whose  coun- 
try was  perhapw  the 
most  antagonistic  to 
his  own.  Little  groups 
would  form  after  din- 
ner, the  Grand  Vizier 
would  hold  an  im- 
promptu reception  in 
one  corner,  Cabinet 
Ministers  would  be 
whispering  in  another, 
a  group  of  Ambassa- 
dors would  discuss  the 
Greek  situation  out  on 
the  porch,  the  Turkish 
officials  would  glance 
quizzically  upon  the 
animated  scene  and 
perhaps  comment 
quietly  in  their  own 
tongue,  the  Russian 
Ambassador  would 
glide  about  the  room, 
pick  out  some  one- 
whom    he    wished    to 

talk  to,  lock  arms  and  push  him  into  a  comer  for  a 
surreptitious  tSte-dtite.  I  felt  that  there  was  something 
electric  about  it  all ;  war  was  ever  the  favourite  topic  of 
conversation  ;  every  one  seemed  to  realise  that  this  peace- 
life  was  transitory ;  that  at  any  moment 
the    spark    that    was    to     set    everything 


The  American  Summer  Embassy  on  the  Bosphorus 

Not  far  away,  .icross  the  Strait,  which  is  here  only  a  mile  wide,  Darias  crossed 
wilh  his  Asiatic  hosts  nearly  2,500  years  ago. 


ful  frivolous 
might  come 
aflame. 

Yet,    when 


the  crisis  came  it  produced  no  immediate 
sensarion.  On  June  2gth  we  heard  of  the  assassination 
of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Austria  and  his  consort.  Everybody 
received  the  news  calmly ;  there  was,  indeed,  a  stunned 
feeling  that  sometliing  momentous  had  happened  ;  but  there 
was  practically  no  excitement.  A  day  or  two  after  this 
tragedy  I  had  a  long  talk  with  Talaat  on  diplomatic  matters  ; 
he  made  no  reference  at  all  to  this  event.  I  think  now  that 
--Hve  were  all  affected  by  a  kind  of  emotional  paralysis — as  we 
were  nearer  the  centre  than  most  people,  we  certainly  reahsed 
the  dangers  m  the  situation.  In  a  day  or  two  our  tongues 
seemed  to  have  been  loosened,  for  We  began  to  talk — and 
to  talk  war.  When  .1  saw  von  Mutius,  the  German  Charge, 
and  Weitz,  the  diplomat-correspondent  of  the  Frankfurter 
Zeitung,  they  also  discussed  the  impending  conflict,  and 
again  they  gave  their  forecast  a  characteristically  Germanic 
toiich  ;  when  war  came,  they  said,  of  course  the  United  States 
would  take  advantage  of  it  to  get  all  the  Mexican  and  South 
American  trade  1 

"Serbia  will  be    Condemned" 

When  I  called  upon  Pallavicini  to  express  my  condolences 
over  the  Grand  Duke's  death,  he  received  me  with  the  most 
stately  solemnity.  He  was  conscious  that  he  was  representing 
the  Imperial  family,  and  his  grief  seemed  to  be  personal  ; 
one  would  think  that  he  had  lost  his  own  son.  I  expressed 
piy  abhorrence  and  that  of  my  nation  for  the  deed,  and  our 
sympathy  with  the  aged  Emperor. 


"  Ja,  J  a,  es  ist  sehr  schrecklich"  (yes,  yes,  it  is  very  terrible), 
he  answered,   almost  in  a  whisper. 

"Serbia  will  be  condemned  for  her  conduct,"  he  added. 
"She  will  be  compelled  to  make  reparation." 

A  few  days  later,  when  Pallavicini  called  upon  me,  he 
spoke  of  the  nationalistic  societies  that  Serbia  had  permitted 
to  exist  and  of  her  determination  to  annex  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina.  He  said  that  his  government  would  insist 
on  tlie  abandonment  of  these  societies  and  these  pretentions, 
and  that  probably  a  punitive  exp>edition  into  Serbia  would 
be  necessary  to  prevent  such  outrages  as  the  murder  of  the 
Grand  Duke.     Herein  I  had  my  first  intimation  of  the  famous 

ultimatum      of      July 
22nd. 

The  entire  diplo- 
matic corps  attended 
the  requiem  mass 
for  the  Grand  Duke 
and  Duchess,  celebrat- 
ed' at  the  Church  of 
Sainte  Marie  on  July 
4th.  The  church  is 
located-  in  the  Rue 
Pera.  not  far  from  the 
Austrian  Embassy  ;  to 
reach  it  we  had  to  de- 
scend a  flif^ht  of  forty 
stone  steps.  At  the 
top  of  these  stairs  re- 
presentatives of  the 
Austrian  Embassy, 
dressed  in  full  uniform, 
with  crepe  on  the  left 
arm,  met  us,  and  es- 
corted us  to  our  seats. 
All  the  Ambassadors 
sat  in  the  front  pew — 
and  it  was  the  last 
time  that  we  ever  sat 
together.  The  service 
was  dignified  and  beau- 
tiful ;  I  remember  it 
with  especial  vividness 
because  ol  the  con- 
trasting scene  that 
immediately  followed. 
When  the  stately,  gor- 
geously robed  priests 
had  finished,  we  all 
returned  to  our  motor 
cars  and  started  on  our 
eight  mile  drive  along 
the  Bosphorus  to  the  American  Embassy.  For  this  was  not 
only  the  day  when  we  paid  this  tribute  to  the  murdered 
heir  of  this  mediaeval  autocracy ;  it  was  also  the  Fourth  of  July. 
The  verysetting  of  tlie  two  scenes  seemed  to  me  to  symbolise 
these  two  national  ideals.  I  always  think  of  this  ambassa- 
dorial group  going  down  those  stone  steps  to  the  church 
to  pay  their  respects  to  the  Grand  Duke,  and  then  going  up 
to  the  gaily  decorated  American  Embassy,  to  pay  their 
respect  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  All  tlie  station 
ships  of  the  foreign  countries  lay  out  in  the  stream,  decorated 
and  dressed  in  honour  of  our  national  holiday  ;  and  the 
Ambassadors  and  Ministers  called  in  full  regalia.  From  the 
hanging  gardens  we  could  se  _>  the  place  where  Darius  crossed 
from  Asia  with  his  Persian  hosts  2,500  years  before — one 
of  those  ancient  autocrats  the  line  of  which  is  not  yet  entirely 
extinct.  There  also  we  could  see  the  fine  Robert  College, 
an  institution  that  represented  America's  conception  of  the 
proper  way  to  "penetrate  "  the  Turkish  Empire.  At  night  the 
hanging  gardens  were  illuminated  with  Chinese  lanterns, 
and  good  old  American  fireworks,  lighting  up  the  surrounding 
hills  and  the  Bosphorus,  seemed  almost  to  act  as  a  challenge 
to  the  plentiful  reminders  of  autocracy  and  oppression  which 
we  had  had  in  the  early  part  of  the  day.  Not  more  than 
a  mile  across  the  water  the  dark  and  gloomj'  hills  of 
Asia,  for  ages  the  birthplace  of  mihtary  despotisms, 
caught  a  faint  and  I  think  prophetic  glow  from  these 
illuminations. 

In  glancing  at  the  little  ambassadorial  group  at  the  church 
and  later  at  our  reception  I  was  suq^rised  to  note  that  one 
familiar  figure  was  missing.  Wangenheim,  Austria's  ally, 
was  not  present.  This  somewhat  puzzled  me  at  the  time  ;  but 
afterward  I  had  the  explanation  from  Wangenh  im's  own 
lips.  He  had  left  some  days  before  for  Berlin.  The  Kaiser 
hid  summoned  him  to  an  Imperial  Council,  which  met  on 
July  $th,  and  which  decided  to  plunge  Europe  into  war. 
{To  be  continued.) 


12 


Land    &    Water 


June  6,  19  I  8 


In  an  Old  French  City  :    By  An  Officer 


This  description  of  Arras,  -written  earlier  in  the  year, 
has  a  new  and  special  interest  just  now,  -when  at  any 
moment  a  neit'  battle  may  again  rage  round  this  ancient  city. 

UNTIL  past  spring  the  city  was  within  a  mile  and 
a  half  pf  the  German  Hnes  ;  but  since  then  there 
has  been  an  advance,  and  now  it  is  a  good  six 
miles  distant.  Considering  its  vicissitudes,  the 
two  great  battles  fought  so  close  to  its  walls, 
the  desultory  and  sometimes  violent  bombardments,  the 
place  has  suffered  surprisingly  little. 

Entering  the  city  by  one  of  those  great  national  roads 
which,  tree-bordered,  stretches  as  straight  as  a  ruler  across  the 
rolling  plain,  von  come  to  a  couple  of  railway-tracks  followed 
by  a  brickyard  and  factory  and  a  row  of  rather  dingy-looking 
semi-urban  houses.  The  outskirts  of  the  place,  hke  those  of 
most  European  towns,  give  no  promise  of  the  character  to  be 
found  within.  The  road  speedily  becomes  a  "faubourg," 
and  houses  border  the  pavement  on  either  hand.  Steeply  up 
to  the  left  is  the  way  to  the  prison.  Despite  the  echo  of 
n>any  footsteps,  the  ceaseless  activity  of  men  going  and  com- 
ing, the  prison  retains  its  character  at  once  austere,  gloomy 
and  pitiless.  One  would  not  linger  here,  though  in  it  happens 
to  be  an  officers'  mess.  The  passages  are  all  of  stone,  echoing 
and  cold,  with  bell-ropes  hanging  at  inten'als  along  them. 
Rooms  of  varying  size  open  off  on  either  hand,  whose  massive 
doors  have  each  a  peep-hole.  When  night  comes  all  the 
echoing  rooms  and  passages  are  plunged  into  absolute  dark- 
ness. War  blunts  the  imagination  or  one  might  see,  fear- 
fully passing  in  procession  before  one,  the  faces  of  generations 
of  French  criminals  who  must  have  lingered  and  possibly 
died  here.  Was  a  guillotine  ever  raised  in  either  of  the  two 
dingy  central  courtyards  now  abandoned  to  the  twittering 
sparrows  ?     Possibly. 

The  main  street  that  leads  into  the  city  is  remarkably 
free  from  damage.  This  is  the  quarter  furthest  from  the 
enemy  and  almost  every  house  is  whole.  On  the  right  stands 
a  magnificent  example  of  (I  believe)  Franco-Spanish  archi- 
tecture. Ordy  can  one  conjecture  the  history  of  these  places, 
for  guide-books  are  not  obtainable.  And  this  grey-stone 
delicate  ornate-looking  building  must  surely  have  been  a 
monastery  or  convent  ;  near  by,  intricate  with  splendid 
architecture,  is  a  chapel  as  fine  as  anything  to  be  found  in 
the  city.  The  former  seems  to  be  occupied  by  soldiers,  to 
judge  by  its  cheerful  sounds  after  nightfall. 

It  was  a  place  of  military  importance.  There  are  three 
barracks,  two  for  the  infantry  and  one  for  the  artillery  and 
engineers.  The  largest  of  the  former  is  a  great  red-brick 
modern  structure  ;  the  last-named  is  the  more  interesting. 
It  is  older  and  close  to  the  citadel  ;  and  looking  at  its  broad 
open  barrack-square,  one, can  even  now  picture  tlie  splendid 
parades  of  the  brilliantly  uniformed  engineers  and  artillery- 
men in  days  gone  by. 

In  one  corner  of  the  parade-ground  is  a  dreary  little  chapel 
—the  engineers'  military  chapel.  It  is  barred  and  wind- 
blown, having  been  stripped  of  its  glass  and  all  furniture. 
Only  there  remain  the  gallery  at  the  western  end,  one  or 
two  tawdy  effigies  of  the  Virgin  and  Child,  the  peeling  faded 
plaster  on  the  walls,  and  the  steps  that  once  led  up  to  the 
altar.  There  are  three  or  four  tablets  on  the  waUs. 
"Jacques,"  "Anthony,"  "Marcel,"  "  Renee  "—these  com- 
memorate the  heroes  of  1870-1  of  Sedan  and  Spicheren, 
of  Gravelotte  and  Mars  la  Tours. 

A  girdle  of  earthworks  encircles  the  town.  How  obsolete 
and  picturesque  they  look  !  The  wars  of  the  past  must  have 
come  very  near.  Here  drank,  quarrelled,  and  loved  Dumas' 
heroes.  The  Three  Musketeers.  Penetrating  the  interior  of  the 
city,  one  is  struck  more  and  more  by  its  essentially  foreign 
and  distinctive  aspect ;  like  so  many  towns,  it  has  a  personality 
of  its  own,  and  that  an  attractive  one  which  gives  play  to  the 
imagination.  There  are  long  broad  streets  of  almost  stately 
houses,  tree-bordered  and  with  a  kind  of  garden  down  the 
centre.  There  are  narrow,  crooked,  and  winding  streets 
consisting  of  blank  walls  and  high  white  houses  with  Venetian 
shutters  that  remind  you  of  nothing  so  much  as  Southern 
Italy.  There  is  a  broad  amiable-looking  fish-market  and 
wide  round  open  places  or  squares  in  one  of  which  is  a  band- 
stand, in  another  a  statue  of  the  contemplative  Victor  Hugo. 
There  are  several  gardens,  public  and  otherwise. 

There  are  also  many  churches  and  more  than  one  fine 
modern  public  building,  such  as  the  Prefecture  and  the 
Mus^e.  Despite  ruined  and  empty  houses,  of  which  there 
are  a  number,  and  the  warlike  unnatural  atmosphere  of  the 


place,  there  is  about  this  city  none  of  that  depressing  squalor 
and  flimsy  pretentiousness  which  characterise  many  towns 
near  the  front.  One  feels  that  it  would  be  a  place  to  visit 
in  summer,  when  the  noonday  sun  is  blazing  down  upon  the 
broad  squares,  when  the  trees  of  the  boulevards  and  public 
gardens  are  green  and  shady,  when  the  streets  are  alive 
with  hurrying  French  people  and  gay  with  shop-awnings, 
when  from"  the  byways  and  the  fish-market  and  the  churches 
there  arises  that  curious  combination  of  sounds — a  mixture 
of  busy  murmurs,  quaintly  intoned  cries,  and  the  incessant 
ringing  of  church-bells— which  is  the  distinguishing  and 
attractive  feature  of  so  many  foreign  cities. 

The  Cathedral 

The  cathedral  is  a  sight  to  see.  Not  standing  well,  because 
too  closely  pressed  in  by  houses,  but  rising  by  flights  of  broad 
stone  steps  to  a  majestic  height,  it  is  the  mere  shell  of  what 
once  must  have  been  an  impressive  building.  The  mere 
shell  !  The  gigantic  pillars  lead  gracefully  and  solemnly  up 
to  the  altar  which  save  for  a  bare  slab  of  marble  is  no  more. 
The  pulpit  remains---a  piece  of  ornate  driftwood,  so  do  the 
several  chapels  which  lead  off  the  side-aisles.  Here  and 
there  hangs  an  image  or  a  crucifix,  while  at  the  head  of  the 
cathedral  still  depends  the  great  figure  of  the  Saviour.  For 
the  rest,  bareness  and  ruin.  A  long  colonnade  leads  away  to 
grass-grown  cloisters  and  courtyards,  and  an  atmosphere  of 
those  who  in  vestment  and  cassock  must  often  have  lingered 
here,  reading,  meditating,  and  praying.  A  huge  forecourt, 
with  entrance  archway,  a  many-windowed  majestic  building, 
such  as  one  sees  in  Paris,  tall,  old-fashioned,  iron-wrought 
lamp-posts,  and  a  wall  surmounted  by  railings — it  is  the 
Bishop's  I'alace.  Nothing  is  lacking  to  impress  one  with 
His  Eminence's  importance. 

The  main  street  that  leads  down  to  the  railway-station 
has  no  particular  character,  but  it  must  obviously  have  been 
a  busy  shopping  centre.  Half-way  down  is  a  fine  gloomy 
Gothic  building  ;  further  on  a  central  square — doubtless  the 
resort  once  of  many  fiacres. and  idlers — with  a  large  white- 
fronted  hotel  standing  in  its  own  courtyard  just  opposite. 
Many  of  the  shops  are  still  doing  business  and  display  in 
their  windows  most  of  those  shoddy  cheap-looking  goods 
that  appear  to  appeal  to  the  British  soldier  in  default  of 
anything  better.  As  you  approach  the  station,  things  become 
very  bad.  Not  a  house  is  left  standing,  not  a  house  left 
whole,  not  one  that  has  escaped  a  breach  in  its  walls,  and  is 
not  fritted  with  shrapnel.  Extermination  !  It  is  the  most 
shelled  portion  of  the  city,  that  nearest  the  enemy,  and 
to-day  the  most  dangerous. 

The  once-impressive  glass-roofed  railway  station  is  a 
skeleton  of  iron  girders  and  the  home  of  empty  echoes.  Way- 
bills still  cling  to  the  walls,  denoting  the  hour  of  the  Paris 
and  other  expresses  ;  large  sign-boards  proudly  announce 
the  name  of  the  station.  But  the  steel  railway  lines  are 
twisted  and  grass-grown. 

Of  the  general  appearance  and  atmosphere  of  the  old  French 
town,  little  need  be  said.  It  is  all  the  same  in  this  part  of 
France.  Everjrwhere  the- British  soldiery  interspersed  with 
a  few  French  troops  and  a  certain  number  of  civilians.  The 
latter  seem  to  increase,  and  prosperously  dressed  men  and 
women  of  the  bourgeois  class  are  often  seen  ;  also  those  whose 
living  is  earned  by  supplying  the  troops.  One  afternoon 
there  was  c6nsiderable  excitement.  A  big  touring  motor  car 
containing  four  civihans,  two  men  and  two  ladies,  drove  down 
the  main  street.  Everybody  turned  to  look — it  was  so  un- 
usual. The  miUtary  Hfe  of  the  place  centres  round  the  various 
shows,  excellent  of  their  kind,  and  the  officers'  club,  which 
consists  of  two  large  huts,  warm  and  well  supplied  with  food, 
filled  to  overflowing,  morning,  noon,  and  night.  French 
parties  are  often  to  be  seen  tramping  down  the  stately  streets  ; 
there  is  a  constant  coming  and  going  of  troops;'  military 
bands  play  vigorously  at  times.  Aeroplanes  are  always 
circling  overhead. 

One  other  feature  should  not  be  forgotten.  At  all  hours 
of  the  day  you  are  apt  to  meet  walking  in  the  streets  a 
picturesque  and  distinguished  figure.  Here  he  comes,  an 
old  man  with  white  hair  and  a  white  moustache,  much  be- 
ribboned  and  wearing  the  uniform  of  a  General  of  France  ; 
on  either  side  of  him  walks  an  adjutant.  One  presumes  he  is 
the  French  Commandant.  With  his  smart  figure,  his  fine 
handsome  face,  his  dignified  bearing,  and  proud  manner  of 
acknowledging  a  salute,  he  seems. to  typify  the  chivalrous 
army  to  which  he  belongs. 


June  6,  19 1 8  Land    &    Water 

Village  of  the  Future  :  By  Jason 


13 


A  FEW  years  ago  a  traveller  found  himself  at 
Gubbio,  the  httle  hill-town  in  Umbria,  at  the 
time  of  the  Festa  dei  Ceri.  The  dav  of  the 
festival  was,  unhappily,  very  wet ;  but  that  did 
not  prevent  the  peasants  from  flocking  into  the 
town  to  see  the  guildsmen  carry  the^ strange  images  about 
which  learned  antiquarians  still  .dispute,  to  hear  the  bishop 
bless  the  ceremony,  and  to  watch  the  delight  and  excitement 
with  which  the  people  of  Gubbio  remind  themselves  year 
after  year  of  their  ancient  traditions.  Next  day  the  sun 
came  out  again,  and  the  beautiful  town  in  its  beautiful 
setting  of  hills  was  looking  at  its  best  as  the  traveller  waited 
at  the  station  for  the  leisurely  train.  A  few  peasants  grouped 
themselves  round  him,  and  he  began  to  talk  with  them 
about  the  ceremony  and  about  the  glories  of  their  country- 
side. "Yes,"  they  agreed  it  was  all  very  beautiful;  but 
yet,  they  added  with  wistful  and  longing  faces,  what  would 
they  not  give  for  a  few  factories  with  their  promise  of 
•emploj'ment  and 
wealth  for  the 
impoverished  dis- 
trict ?  And  the 
traveller,  thinking 
of  Oldham  and 
Burnley  and  Shef- 
field,  went  away 
sad  at  heart,  re- 
flecting on  the 
cruel  fate  which 
made  Gubbio  a 
pleasure  and  solace 
to  the  EngUshman 
whose  country  was 
the  home  of  the 
Industrial  Revo- 
lution, and  con- 
demned the  people 
of  Gubbio  to  envy 
Lancashire  her 
smoke  and  her 
disfigured  skies. 

The  English  vil- 
lage and   English 

village  life'  have  occupied  in  the  imagination  of  a  good  many 
people  very  much  the  same  position  as  Italy  has  occupied  in 
the  imagination  of  the  traveller.  This  is  not  surprising  in  itself. 
^f  the  American  who  explores  Europe  finds  a  strange  content- 
ment in  visiting  on  his  return  a  few  characteristic  villages  in  the 
south  of  England,  it  is  not  merely  because  he  sees  before  him  the 
most  beautiful  villages  in  the  world.  The  landscape  speaks 
to  him  of  stability,  of  peace,  of  a  world  that  stands  still  in 
the  midst  of  change,  of  a  power  that  seems  to  defy  all  the 
raw  and  blatant  strength  of  industrial  cities.  And  for  many 
people  the  village  is  primarily  a  place' to  be  visited,  and  men 
and  women  dream  about  country  life  in  the  spirit  of  the 
age  that  adored  Fragonard  and  Watteau. 

When  they  hear  of  the  flight  from  the  country  to  the  towns 
they  recall  the  famous  rhapsody  in  the  Geoi^cs : 

*  At  secura  quies  et  nescia  fallere  vita 
Dives  opum  variarum,  at  latis  otia  fundis, 
Speluncae,  vivique  lacus,  at  frigida  Tempe, 
Mug^tusque  bourn,  moUesque  sub  arbore  somni. 

For  those  to  whom  a  village  is  not  a  pleasant  feature  of  a 
motor-car  expedition  or  an  agreeable  place  for  the  week-end, 
village  life  presents -rather  a  different  aspect.  It  is  a  stern 
struggle.  If  the  labourer  wanted  to  quote  a  Latin  poet  he 
would  recall  the  moving  description  of  Lucretius  : 

t  Jamque  caput  quassans  grandis  suspirat  arator 
Crebrius  incassum  manuum  cecidisse  labores, 

or  the  warning  in  the*Georgics  that  the  Pater  ipse  colendi 
has  sentenced  the  husbandman  to  a  life  of  hard  and  incessant 
labour. 

And  his  life,  apart  from  his  work,  is  l>are  and  monotonous 
compared  with  the  life  of  the  town..  There  have  been  con- 
troversies enough  over  the  relative  attractions  of  town  and 
country  life,  but  it  remains  true  that  the  modern  villager 
feels  as  Horace's  bailiff  felt  about  the  lack  of  amusement 
and  incident  in  the  village.     In  the  town  there  are  th(^atre.-, 

auici  and  life  ignorant  of  disappoinlnient,  wealtliy  in  manifold  riclics.  the 
lands,  caverns  and  living  laket,  cool  pleasancas  and  the  lowing  of  o«en, 


A   Typical  Midland   Village 


•  Careless 
p«ane  of  broad  lands,  caverns  and  living 
and  soft  slumbers  beneath  the  trees. 


1  And  now  the  aged  peasant, 
hands  has  come  to  nautili. 


sbakinf(  bis  head,  often  lamiMils  that  the  labour  of  his 


music-halls,  cinemas,  clubs  ;  the  streets  are  lighted,  men  and 
women  meet  and  talk '  and  read  the  paper,  and  there  is  a 
sense  of  life  and  excitement  in  the  atmosphere. 

Turn  to  the  village,  and  what  do  we  see  ?  There  is  hardly 
ever  a  club  or  institute.  The  public-house  provides  little 
accommodation,  aild  none  of  the  games  and  recreation  that 
young  men  need.  The  place  is  dark  ;  the  cottages  are  small, 
and  the  opportunities  for  the  meetings  of  friends  are  rare 
and  difficult.  It  is  common  to  see  the  young  men  collect 
round  the  station  for  the  sake  of  the  light  and  the  occasional 
excitement  of  a  train.  In  many  villages  one  public-house 
is  the  resort  of  the  farmers,  the  other  of  the  older  labourers, 
and  the  younger  labourers  have  to  find  what  opportunities 
they  can  outside. 

Now,  the  villager  needs  all  these  things  not  less  but  more 
than  the  townsman.  He  spends  long  hours  in  soUtary  labour. 
Watch  a  man  ploughing  the  livelong  day.  He  is  driving  a 
Straight  line  which  is  an  art,  and  therefore  an  occupation  to 

the      intelligence. 

He  is  watching  his 
horses,  of  whom  he 
is  often  very  fond 
and  careful.  He  is 
in  the  open  air, 
keeping  an  eye  on 
the  changing  signs 
of  the  sky.  He 
has  before  him,  it 
may  be,  a  power- 
ful and  beautiful 
landscape.  All 

this  is  true,  but  let 
the  reader  settle 
down  day  after 
day  to  dig  a  potato 
field,  which  is  just 
as  diflicult  and 
absorbing  a  task  to 
a  novice,  in  one  of 
the  most  enchant- 
ing valleys  of  the 
world,  and  he  will 
•  '  ,  soon  find  that  his 

mind  is  roaming  over  a  thousand  fancies,  memories  of  his 
travels,  memories  of  books  he  has  read,  of  fine  passages  that 
haunt  the  memory,  of  pictures  or  buildings  or  music,  or  plays  ; 
they  are  the  stimulants  that  keep  him  from  tedium,  the  friends 
of  iiis  solitary  hours.  For  as  soon  as  an  operation  becomes 
a  routine  operation  a  man  does"  it  largely  by  instinct,  and  his. 
mind  is  set  free  from  the  task  before  him.  1 

What  a  difference  it  makes  to  a  man  whether  he  has  these 
resources  of  companionship  or  whether  the  thoughts  that 
cross  and  recross  his  wearied  mind  are  limited  to  the  life 
of  a  few  cottages.  If  you  "want  to  make  a  man's  work  unin- 
teresting, make  his  leisure  uninteresting.  That  would  have 
seemed  a  paradox  to  our  great-grandfathers  who  thought  a 
man  worked  all  the  better  if  he  had  nothing  to  interest  him 
when  he  was  not  working.  But  it  is  the  tnith.  When 
every  village  has  its  cinema,  agriculture  will  be  infinitely 
more  prosperous,  for  men  will  gladly  give  it  their  best  energies. 

Before  the  war  it  was  commonly  recognised  that  the 
improvement  of  village  life — or  perhaps  it  would  be  truer  to 
s^peak  of  it  as  the  restoration  of  village  life — was  urgently 
necessary.  To-day  that  convictioiv  is  universal.  Nobody  is 
going  to  ask  \he  soldier  to  return  to  a  state  of  things  in  which 
social  life  can  scarcely  be  said  to  exist.  He  has  known  the 
spell  of  comradeship  ;  he  has  lived  •  in  a  world  which  has 
learnt  how  to  organise  conceits  and  cinemas  under  the  most 
difficult  and  distracting  conditions  •  he  has  talked  and  lived 
with  men  drawn  frtjm  all  parts  of  the  world  with  every  kind 
of  past  and  every  \'aricty  of  experience.  Leisure  has  an 
infinitely  greater  rignificancc  in  his  eyes  than  ever  before. 

The  restoration  of  village  life  must  be  treated  as  a  serious 
and  definite  object  of  public  policy.  As  it  happens,  we  have 
at  this  moment  a  remarkable  opportunity.  We  find  our- 
selves hi  a  position  in  which  we  can  escape  from  the  dilemma 
suggested  by  the  pensive  regrets  of  the  Gubbio  peasant. 
The  re\-oluti(>n  associated  with  the  discovery  of  the  uses  of 
steam  ruined  our  towns.  The  revolution  that  will  be  asso- 
ciated with  the  discovery  of  the  uses  of  electricity  will  save 
our  villages.  Only,  of  course,  we  must  have  very  clear  ideas 
of  what  we  want  ;  we  must  think  clearly,  arid  act  cour- 
ageously.     Roughly  -ip'-aking,  we  may  say  of  the  Industrial 


Land    &    Water 


A  Village  on  Exmoor 


'4 

Revolution  that  it 
gave  new  power 
and  range  to  in- 
dustry', and  that  it 
only  ser\'ed  human 
n^ds  in  so  far 
as  the  improve- 
ment of  industry 
increased  the 
opportunities  of 
freedom,  and  hap- 
piness, and  wealth. 
In  many  respects 
it  degraded  human 
hfe,  and  made  men 
and  women  less 
their  own  masters. 
With  a  new  revolu- 
tion in  prospect, 
are  we  going  to 
apply  the  stan- 
dards of  our  fpre- 
fathers,  or  are  we 
going  to  say  that  this  new  power  must  be  regarded 
primarily  as  a  means  of  improving  and  enriching  human 
life  ?  If  we  take  the  first  standard,  we  shall  let  electricity 
go  the  way  of  steam.  We  shall  trust  its  development 
and  direction  to  the  guidance  of  economic  motive,  just 
as  our  great-grandfathers  threw  their  generation  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  steam  engines  and  the  railwaj's, 
and  left  the  whole  art  of  social  hfe  to  take  care  of  itself.  If 
we  take  the  second  standard,  we  shall  ask  of  the  new  power 
that  it  shall  serve  not  merely  the  big  industry  in  the  town, 
and  the  big  house  in  town  and  country,  but  that  it  shall 
serve  every  village  and  every  cottage,  reducing  labour, 
increasing  comfort,  enriching  liic.  s 

Let  anybody  with  his  eye  on  the  village  as  it  is  to-day 
think  what  it  would  mean  if  the  country  roads  were  lighted 
by  electricity  ;  if  every  cottage  had  electric  light  and  electric 
heating  ;  if  every  village  had  its  village  club  and  its  village 
cinema  lighted  and  worked  by  electricit\'.  This  might  have 
seemed  an  ambitious  programme  before  the  \var,  but  we 
have  learnt  a  new  perspective  during  the  last  three  years  ; 
we  have  learnt  it  at  home,  and  the  soldiers  have  certainly 
learnt  it  in  the  trenches.  And  in  this  new  atmosphere  it  is 
natural  to  ask  ourselves  not  "  What  will  this  or  that  improve- 
ment cost,"  but  what  will  it  cost  not  to  make  this  improve 
ment  ?  And  if  man  has  aimed  himself  with  a  new  f)ower, 
why  should  the  town  benefit  and  not  the  village  ? 

What  are  the  wants  of  a  village  ?  Decent  houses,  with 
gardens  ;  a  decent  water  supply  ;  decent  lighting  in  the 
roads  and  in  the  cottages ;  convenient  and  "economical 
arrangements  for  heating ;  an  efficient  school,  with  arrange- 
ments for  a  travelling  library  and  travelling  pictures.  The 
centre  of  village  life  of  every  kind  for  men  and  women  should 
be  an  institute  supplying  the  various  needs  of  the  village, 
managed  by  the  village  itself.  This  would  include  a  club 
house  where  people  can  buy  wholesome  beer,  with  newspaper- 
rooms  and  rooms  for  games  ;  recreation  grounds  ;  a  hall 
where  trade  unionists  and  co-operators  can  transact  their 
business  ;  rooms  for  entertainments,  lectures,  classes,  and 
dances ;  and  a  cinema.  It  is  probable  that  a  good  many 
Y.M.C.A.  huts  would  be  available  for  these  uses  after  the  war. 
If  we  could  see  five  years  from  to-day  that  every  village 
was  completely  supplied  on  this  scale,  how  we  should  have 
added  to  the  happiness  and  health  of  our  nation. 

In  working  out  such  a  programme,  cheap  electricity  does 
more  than  half  our  work  for  us.  It  effects  an  enormous 
reduction  in  the  labour,  the  discomfort,  and  the  dirt  of  every 
cottage.  Think  what  it  means  not  to  carry  coal  to  the 
cottage  ;  to  obtain  your  hot  water  and  your  hot  oven  without 
trouble  ;  to  be  rid  of  the  lamp  that  has  to  be  trimmed  and 
tended  ;  to  have  light  and  heat  without  delay  or  dust. 
Think  what  it  means  to  have  electricity  to  light  your  club, 
to  work  your  cinema,  to  warm  your  concert-raom.  Under 
such  circumstances,  even  Horace's  bailiff  might  have  recon- 
sidered his  objections  to  country  life. 

Let  anybody,  after  making  up  his  mind  that  the  English 
village  deserves  to  be  a  happy  and  comfortable  place,  turn 
to  the  report  of  the  Coal-conservation  Sub-Committee  on 
electric  power  supply  in  Great  Britain.  This  document  was 
published  by  the  Ministry  of  Reconstruction  a  short  time  ago, 
and  can  be  bought  for  threepence.  We  learn  from  that  report 
that  there  are  infinite  possibihties  if  we  decide  to  organise 
the  production  and  distribution  of  electricity  on  sensible 
lines.  At  present  there  are  some  600  different  authorities 
dealing  with  the  supply  of  electricity  in  as  many- 
different    districts.      This    arrangement    is    obviously    un- 


June  6,  igi8 


economical  and 
obstructive.  It  is 
as  inconvenient  as 
it  would  be  to  con- 
trol our  railways 
on  the  principle 
of  allowing  each 
small  district  to 
be  treated  as  a 
separate  area  for 
railway  adminis- 
tration. 

The  committee 
recommend  that  a 
single  authority 
should  be  set . 
up — a  Board  of 
Electricity  Com- 
missioners —  with 
full  power  to  deal 
with  the  supply 
of  electricity 
throughout  the 
country.  Great  Britain  should  be  divided  into  some 
si.xteen  districts,  in  each  of  which  there  should  be  one 
authority  deaHng  with  all  the  generation  and  main  dis- 
tribution. Sites  should  be  chosen  suitable  for  electric 
generating  purposes  on  important  waterways  as  the  future 
main  centres  of  supply  for  each  of  the  districts  into  which  the 
country  is  to  be  divided.  These  sites  should  be  large  enough 
for  the  erection  of  plant  suitable  for  the  processes  necessary 
for  extracting  by-products  from  the  coal. 

Certain  important  truths  emerge  from  this  report.  What 
are  the  great  advantages  of  the  large  power  station  over  the 
system  by  which  power  is  generated  for  their  own  use  by 
individual  manufacturers  and  railway  companies,  each  with 
their  separate  plant  ?  There  is,  first  of  all,  the  enormous 
economies  in  the  use  and  transport  of  coal.  Secondly,  there 
is  a  great  deal  of  coal  that  can  be  used  for  generating  elec- 
tricity, which  it  does  not  pay  to  transport  any  distance. 
Thirdly,  there  are  many  by-products  to  be  extracted  from 
the  coal  of  great  value  for  agriculture.  Fourthly — and,  in 
some  respects,  most  important  of  all — the  secret  of  economy 
in  generating  electricity  is  the  use  of  plant  to  its  maximum, 
and  that  is  secured  by  supplying  all  the  diverse  needs  of  a 
community.  One  station  is  supplying  electricity  only  for 
certain  hours  of  the  day  when  the  factory  is  working.  Another 
station  is  supplying  electrical  power  to  industry  in  the  day, 
and  electric  light  in  tlie  evenings.  During  the  night  and  on 
Sundays  it  is  pumping  water  ;  that  is,  it  is  always  occupied. 
What  an  engineer  aims  at  is  obtaining  a  regular  "load," 
keeping  his  plant  in  constant  use.  The  committee  estimate 
that,  apart  from  the  manufacturing  and  industrial  advan- 
tages of  a  cheap  and  efficient  electric  supply,  we  should  save 
a  hundred  millions  a  year  by  putting  the  generating  and 
distribution  of  electricity  on  a  proper  basis. 

Let  us  now  apply  these  tonclusions  to  the  case  of  the 
village.  It  is  obvious  that  the  more  various  the  demand  for 
electricity,  the  cheaper  it  is  to  supply  it.  It  is  obvious  again 
that  agriculture  and  village  industries  will  become  important 
consumers.  The  saving  of  unnecessary  transport  will  no- 
where have  a  more  marked  effect  than  in  the  country.  At 
the  same  time,  though  the  increase  of  the  quantity  and 
variety  of  consumption  cheapens  the  supply,  it  remains  true 
that  one  form  of  customer  will  be  more  profitable  than 
another.  This,  then,  is  the  question  which  we  have  to  put 
to  ourselves.  Are  we  going  to  leave  it  to  the  ordinary  motives 
of  commerce  to  choose  what  places  and  what  persons  shall 
have  cheap  electricity  and  what  shall  go  without  it  ?  Or 
are  we  going  to  say  that  in  the  hght  of  the  infinite  possi- 
bilities revealed  in  the  report  of  the  committee,  electricity 
may  now  be  treated  as  a  necessary  of  life  to  be  supplied  for 
the  community  as  a  whole. 

A  great  part  of  this  programme  depends  on  public  action. 
The  new  standard  of  civilisation  in  respect  of  housing,  water, 
light,  electricity,  niust  be  established  by  law.  But  there  is  one 
part  of  this  programme  in  which  private  people  can  play 
an  important  part.  Every  country,  every  parish,  will  be 
thinking,  sooner  or  later,  about  its  war  memorial.  What 
better  memorial  could  be  found  than  a  village  institute,  with 
the  role  of  honour  inscribed  in  a  conspicuous  place,  to  com- 
memorate the  religion  of  comradeship  manifested  in  the 
trenches  ?  There  are  various  organisations  in  touch  with 
rural  life  that  might  combine  to  set  up  committees  to  raise 
funds.  These  committees  might  be  organised  for  this 
purpose  to-morrow  in  the  several  counties,  and  architects- 
and  artists  might  strive  to  make  the  humblest  and  simplest 
of  these  clubs  a  fit  monument  to  the  spirit  of  the  war. 


June  6,  1918 


Land    &    Water 


15 


Life  and  Letters  Qj  J.  C  Squire 


Literary  Hoaxes 

LAST  week  the  Times  printed  some  atrociously  silly 
verses  signed  "Rudyard  Kipling."  Next  morning 
,  it  had  to  apologise  to  Mr.  Kipling  and  its  readers. 
^Somebody,  anxious  apparently  to  hit  both  the 
•  Times  and  Mr.  Kipling  with  one  stone,  had  hoaxed 
it.  His  ingenious  plan  is,  I  believe,  a  new  one.  But  it  has 
obvious  limitations.  Few  papers  would  print  such  thorough 
rubbish  without  inquiry,  and  the  sending  of  a  proof  would 
frustrate  any  such  fraud.  Moreover,  where  authors  are 
alive  it  can  only  take  a  day  or  two  for  an  imposture  to  be 
exposed.  The  forger  who  wants  a  nm  for  his  money  must 
either  invent   non-existent   authors  or  ascribe  his  forgeries 

to  the  dead. 

****** 

Such  frauds  have  been  known  in  many  ages,  in  many 
departments  of  literature,  and  for  many  motives.  Late 
Greeks  perpetrated  them  for  modern  scholars  to  detect. 
A  French  nobleman  (de  Surville),  a  hundred  years  ago, 
invented  a  mediteval  ancestress  and  wrote  a  large  body  of 
poetry  which  he  ascribed  to  her.  In  Germany  the  prolonged 
discussion  about  the  origins  of  printing  has  been  sprinkled 
all  over  with  .forgeries  by  archivists  and  genealogists,  the 
fellow-townsmen  of  Gutenberg  and  the  would-be  descendants 
of  Fiist.  We  in  England  had  a  thick  crop  between  1760 
and  i860.  First  came  Chatterton's  production,  while  still  at 
an  age  which  should  be  unfamiliar  with  guile,  of  ancient 
manuscripts  found  in  a  muniment  room  at  Bristol.  Then 
came  Macpherson's  Ossian,  and  later  two  important  series  of 
Shakespeare  forgeries.  Payne  Collier's  entries  in  registers 
and  marginal  annotations  in  old  books  were  the  work  of  a 
sound  sciiolar,  who,  presumably,  found  that  the  career  of  a 
Shakespearian  specialist  did  not  in  the  ordinary  way  produce 
enough  for  him  in  the  way  of  excitement.  He  wanted  to 
make  a  sensation  and  his  mark  by  large  discoveries  ;  so  he 
first  manufactured  the  discoveries  and  then  found  them. 
The  other  forger,  William  Henry  Ireland,  was  at  once  far  less 
eminent  as  a  scholar  and  far  more  enterprising  as  a  forger. 
He  was  a  bookseller's  son.  When  seventeen  he  went  to 
Stratford  with  his  father.  Meeting  a  man  there  who  had 
done  a  little  in  the  way  of  a  Shakespeare  forgery,  and  seeing 
that  I  his  poor  old  father  was  tremendously  interested,  he 
argued  that  supply  ought  to  meet  demand.  He  began  at 
once  faking  leases,  letters,  contracts,  and  (charming  touch) 
a  love-letter  to  Anne  Hathaway,  with  a  lock  of  hair  inside 
— Mary  Fitton,  at  that  time,  not  having  been  heard  of.  His 
father  was  delighted;  the  learned  world  was  curious;  so, 
with  the  assistance  of  an  ancestor  to  whom  Shakespeare  had 
left  his  MSS.,  he  next  found  a  play  "Vortigem,"  the  first  of 
a  new  historical  seoes,  covering  those  kings  who  are  ignored 
in  the  plays  we  have.  Sheridan  actually  produced  this 
drama  at  Drury  Lane.  The  house  Vas  crowded ;  but 
Ireland's  powers  of  composition  did  not  equal  his  gift  for 
archaic  handwriting  and  the  simulation  of  aged  ink  and 
paper,  and  "Vortigem"  went  down  as  a  roaring  farce.  At 
this  stage  the  young  man  was  nineteen,  and  he  got  no  further 
He  lived  until  1835,  when  he  died  in  great  poverty — an 
example  to  youth  of  the  results  of  divagation  from  the  nar- 
row path  in  general  and  of  literary  forgery  in  particular. 
The  example  might  be  more  salutary  were  it  not  for  the 
equally  indisputable  facts,  which  an  honest  man  must  not 
suppress,  that  Payne  Collier  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-four 
in  receipt  of  a  Civil  List  Pension  and  that  Ossian  Macpherson 
was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

■\  *  *  *  *  * 

These  frauds  were  mostly  done  for  selfish  motives.  There 
is,  however,  one  kind  of  literary  fraud  which  may  be  regarded 
as  performing  a  valuable  function.  That  is  the  imposture 
which  is  intended  to  take  in,  and  expose,  impostors.  The 
world  is  full  of  persons  who  pretend  to  authority  on  subjects 
they  know  nothing  about,  and  others  who  vitiate  public 
taste  by  puffing  rubbish  which  they  consider  "advanced." 
Any  hoax  which  may  make  these  people  look  fools  the 
moralist  may  excuse,  the  serious  student  must  welcome,  and 
the  humorist  will  thoroughly  enjoy.  I  may  illustrate  what 
I  mean  by  one  or  two  examples,  and  may  be  pardoned  for 
drawing  on  my  personal  experience.  About  eight  years  ago 
we  were  being  flooded  with  new  and  strange  philosophers, 
mostly  from  Germany,  who  were  being  acclaimed  and  adver- 
tised by  many  who  did  not  understand  and  some  who  did  not 
even  read  them.     I  therefore  took  the  liberty  of  inventing 


another.  I  gave  in  a  contemporary  an  account  of  his  philo- 
sophy which  was  partly  composed  of  sentiments  taken  out 
of  Mr.  Bottomley's  weekly  organ  and  partly  of  an  utterly 
nonsensical  mixture  of  mathematical  formulse  and  physio- 
logical speculation.  Nevertheless,  the  name  of  Wiertz  was 
good  enough,  and  I  was  deluged  with  letters  both  from 
supporters  of  the  philosopher  and  from  those  who  feared  that 
his  influence  was  dangerous.  Shortly  afterwards — though 
here  the  game  was  very  easy — I  butted  into  the  Baconian 
controversy,  then  being  conducted  with  great  vigour  by  the 
late  Sir  Edwih  Durning-Lawrence.  That  amiable  man,  it 
will  be  remembered,  did  his  best  to  popularise  Bacon  by  a 
wholesale  circulation  of  penny  pamphlets.  He  called  in  the 
evidence  of  the  editor  of  the  Tailor  and  Cutter  to  show  that 
the  portrait  in  the  first  folio  had  two  left  sleeves,  thus  proving, 
in  some  mysterious  way,  that  Shakespeare's  arms  were  really 
haunches  of  bacon  ;  and  he  clinched  his  case  by  finding 
that  three  successive  lives  in  Shakespeare  began  with  the 
letters  "P,"  "I,"  and  "G,"  the  bearing  of  which  on  Lord 
Venilam.'s  authorship  is  obvious.  Sir  Edwin  used  to  quote 
freely  from  Elizabethan  writers.  Anxious  to  demonstrate 
that  he  had  no  sense  of  the  value  of  evidence  and  that  his 
metfiods  were  reckless,  I  invented  a  quite  conclusive  quota- 
•tion  from  Greene,  and  sent  it  to  a  paper  over  the  signature 
"P.  O.  R.  Ker,"  in  which  anybody  but  this  kind  of  enthusiast 
might  have  smelt  a  rat,  not  to  say  a  pig.  He  tumbled  straight 
in.  He  had  an  immense  library,  including,  no  doubt,  all 
Greene's  works.  Here  was  an  utterly  crushing  testimony. 
But  did  he  trouble  to  verify  the  quotation  ?  Not  he.  He 
wrote  to  the  paper  at  once,  saying  that  the  fact  that  the 
'  Shakespearians  had  ignored  Mr.  Ker's  quotation  demon- 
strated their  incorrigible  prejudice.  My  subsequent  letter 
of  explanation  was  not  printed,  the  editor  wishing  to  spare 
Sir  Edwin's  feelings.  Still,  it  would  have  made  no  difference. 
Bacon  may  be  cured,  but  no  one  has  ever  cured  a  Baconian. 
****** 

There  has  just  been  perpetrated  in  America  a  salutary 
hoax  to  the  inventors  of  which  we  must  take  off  our  hats. 


i—flUTCHINSON'S  NEW  BOOKS— i 

FOUR    IMMEDIATE    SUCCESSES. 

NOTES    OF    A    NOMAD.      By  Lady  JEPHSON.    With 

illiistralions.  12/6  ikm. 
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from  Cowes  to  the  Riviera,  to  the  Nigerian  Protectorate,  to  Rome,  Athens,  and  Con- 
stantinople, and  finally  to  Naiiheim  at  the  outbreak  of  war." — Saturday.  Review. 
"  Brght  fleeting  glimp^^es  of  the  old  French-Canadian  life  .  .  .  a  delightlul  essay  on 
the  French  folk  soiMLis."—Mnrnii!g  Posf. 

JAPANESE  MEMORIES.      Bv  ETHEL   HOWARD.     In 

cloth  gilt,     Beautifully  iliusirated.     12/6  net. 

MY    AMERICAN   VISIT.      Bv  the  Rt.   Hon.  Sir  F.  E. 

SMITH,  Bart.,  K.C..  M.P.,  His  Majesty's  Attorney-General.    With  16  illustra- 
tions.   Cloth.    B/-  net. 

THE  COMING  ECONOMIC  CRISIS.   By  H.  J.  JENNINGS. 

3/6  ncl. 

HUTCHINSON'S  '  SUCCESSFUL       6h      NOVELS 


ARHMAKKABLK  NEW  NOVEL. 

A  KING  IN  BABYLON.  By  BUR- 
TON E.  SlEVENSiJN. 
"The  story  has  go." — Daily  News. 
"A  first-class  story  of  the  'creepy' 
school."- Drt»7>'  Graphic  "The  un- 
folding of  the  tale  is  a  succession  of 
thrills." — Scvtiman.  Thoroughly  divert- 
ing in  every  sense  of  the  word,  and 
there  are  moments  of  intense  excitement. 

MISS  P1M*S  CAMOUFLAGE.     By 

Lady  STANLEY. 
"Has  the  merit  of  being  light  and 
topical."  —  Sketch,  "  Nothing  like 
'Miss  Pirn's  Camouflaj'e'  has  been 
published  before;  it  stands  alone  in  the 
originality  of  its  vein.**—  Western  Mail. 
"  It  is  admirably  done,  and  full  of 
scenes  and  moments  which  are  both 
exciting  and  enjoyable." — The  Times. 

SANDS   OF   GOLD.      By  KATH- 

LVN  RHODES. 
**Tlie  ingredients  of  a  'best  seller' 
are  here  mixed  together  with  a  lavish 
hand." — West  minster  Gazette.  "  The 
Egyptian backgrouudis  a^ain  charming- 
ly painted.  Theauthor  wins  the  highest 
honours  in  turning  some  painful  prob- 
lems of  madness  into  a  sane  and 
sympathetic  %ioxyy —Globe. 
.  {3rd  Edition.) 

THE  NABfiOW  STRAIT.   By  W.  E. 

NORRIS. 
"  A  novel  with  plenty  of  substance." 
— Liitrpool  Post  and  .Mercury,  "  Bright, 
bubbling,  and  lively."  — L-'nii^r^*.  "  The 
novel  is  written  with  the  >  harming  ease 
of  style  and  kindly  knowlcdtje  of  human 
life -and  society  of  which  the  author  is 
master. "_5£o(swa«.  {2nd  Edition.) 


SEHGT.  SPUD  TAMSON.  V.C.     By 

R.  W.  CAMPBELL. 
"It  will  be  read  with  much  interest 
and  enjoyment. "—C/a5£ow/  titixen.  "  It 
is  full  of  fun." — A  berdcen  Daily  Journal. 
"The  Army,  with  good  reason,  has 
adopted  Spud." — Punch. 

CHILDREN  OF  EVE.    By  ISABEL 

C/CLARKE. 

"As  sweet  and  gracefullv  written  a 

story    as    could    be     written.*'— G/o6«. 

"The   story    is  well  told  and    full  of 

colour." — Liverpool  Post  and  Mercury. 

[2nd  Edition.)     ' 

THE    LYNDWOOD   AFFAIR.       By 

UNA  L.  SlLbERKAD. 
"One  of  the  ablest  and  most  bafflingof 
detective  romances,  with  an  idyllic  love 
story. "Sketch.  "  It  is  an  exciting  and 
good  mvstery  story.  At  the  same  time, 
it  is  clothed  in  human  character  and  the 
colour  of  real  life." — Daily  Chronicle, 
"  A  cleverand  absoft)ing  study  in  charac- 
ter and  study  in  deiecuon."~Hcrntng 
Post.  (2nd  Edition.) 

THE    BAG    OF    SAFFRON.      By 

BARONESS  VON  HUTTEN. 
"  It  is  an  excellent  novel.  It  is  beyond 
the  ordinary,  and  greatly  to  its  clever 
author's     credit." — Jllustrated    London 
Neifs.  {.3rd  Edition.) 

LADY  MARY'S  MONEY.    By  G.  B. 

BURGIN. 
"  It  is  good  reading  for  this  time  af 
great  war." — Daily  Chff>nicle.  "  A  re. 
markable,  readable  story." — Sunday 
Evening  Telegram.  "  A  story  that  ought 
to  be  populdiV."— Aberdeen  Free  Press. 


London  :     HUTCHINSON   &   CO..  Paternoster  Row,  E.C.4 


i6 


Land    &    Water 


June  6,  1918 


For  some  years  America,  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  this 
country,  has  been'  flooded  with  poetic  Schools,  Futurists, 
Imagists,  Vorticists,  and  so  on,  who  have  got  an  enormous 
amount  of  publicity  and  have  been  chattered  about  by 
almost  all  the  critics.  In  1916  (I  take  the  story  from  the 
Chicago  Dial)  a  volume  was  published  called  Spectra,  the 
authors  being  Emanuel  Morgan  and  Anne  Knish.  The 
preface  expounded  the  Spectrist  theory.  The  theme  of  a 
poem,  it  said,  "is  to  be  regarded  as  a  prism,  upon  which  the 
colourless  white  light  of  infinite  existence  falls  and  is  broken 
U])  into  glowing,  Ijeautiful,  and  intelligible  hues,"  and  "the 
overtones,  adumbrations  or  spectres  which  for  the  poet 
haunt  all  objects  both  of  the  seen  and  the  unseen  world  .  .  . 
should  touch  with  a  tremulous  vibrancy  of  ultimate  fact  the 
reader's  sense  of  the  immediate  theme."  Mr.  Morgan  used 
rhyme.  Miss  Knisli  free  verse ;  the  poems  were  lieaded 
"Op.  I,"  "Op.  2,"  etc.,  and  it  was  allowed  to  leak  out  that 
Mr.  Morgan  was  a  painter  who  had  been  to  Paris,  and  Miss 
Knish  a  Hvmgarian  wW  had  published  poems  in  Russian  : 

The  authors  began  to  be  deluged  with  adulatory  letters 
Irom  the  most  advanced  poets  of  our  verj'  advanced  day, 
of  whom  the  men  naturally  inclined  to  address  Miss  Knisli, 
and  the  women  Mr.  Morgan.  Here  at  last,  it  appeared, 
was  the  real  thing — pretence  stripped  away,  teclinique 
reduceil  to  lowest  terms,  passionate  beauty  impaled  for  a 
marvelling  posterity — that  ultimate  method  for  which  the 
poets  from  Homer  to  themselves  had  been  so  many  voices 
crying  in  the  wilderness.  Certain  poetry  magazines  were 
impressed  and  sought  the  privilege  of  giving  the  world 
more  Sjjectra,  "Others"  devoted  an  entire  issue  to  the 
Spectrists  :  they  were  successfully  parodied  in  a  college 
magazine  ;  they  acquired  disciples — a  Harvard  under- 
graduate, for  instance,  forswore  Imagism  for  Spectrisni, 
and  had  his  apostasy  roundlv  rebuked  by  the  high  priestess 
of  his  earlier  faith. 

The  authors,  who  kept  dark,  were  continually  being  intro- 
duced by  enthusiasts  to  their  own  works.  Reviews  were, 
innumerable.  The  Conservatives  wrote  with  alarm ;  the 
Radicals  with  exuberance ;  the  cautious  delegated  their 
task.  One  distinguished  editor  passed  on  the  work  of 
criticism  to  Mr.  VVitter  Bynner,  and  paid  him  handsomely 
for  "his  solemnly  judicial  appraisal  of  himself  in  the  role  of 
'Emanuel  Morgan,'  originator  of  the  Spectrist  theory."  The 
game  might  have  gone  on,  and  the  movement  might  have  spread 
from  one  end  of'  the  continent  to  the  other.  Only  America 
came  into  the  war,  and  "Miss  Knish"  took  a  captain's  com- 
mission under  her  real  name  of  Arthur  D.  Ficke.  Perhaps, 
after  this,  critics  will  be  a  little  readier  to  discover  and  say 
what  they  really  think  about  the  nonsense  that  gets  itself 
published. 

Books    of   the    Week 

Memoirs  of   William    Hickey,  1775-1782.      Edited   by 

Alfred  Spencer.     (Hurst  &  Blackett.     12s.  6d.  net.)  " 

Front  Lines.    By  Boyd  Cable.    (John  Murray.    6s.  net.) 

A  SECOND  instalment  of  the  Memoirs  of  William 
Hickey  has  now  been  published  under  the  editor- 
ship of  Mr.  Alfred  Spencer.  They  are  as  good  a 
reading  as  the  first  volume,  which  appeared  just 
before  the  war.  William  Hickey  was  a  solicitor, 
with  a  taste  for  fast  life.  He  came  of  a  well-to-do  London 
family,  but,  as  he  did  not  make  a  business  success  at  home, 
was  shipped  to  India.  Not  hking  the  country,  he  returned 
to  London  ;  and  this  volume  opens  in  1775  with  prepara- 
tions for  a  voyage  to  Jamaica,  where  his  father  was  sending 
him  to  practise  law.  When  in  Jamaica  he  made  many  friends, 
for  he  was  an  amusing  fellow  who  did  not  take  life  too  seri- 
ously, travelled  over  the  island,  met  all  the  local  celebrities 
whom  he  describes,  and  finally  decided  there  was  no  money 
in  law  in  the  West  Indies,  After  a  jgood  time,  excellently 
portrayed  in  these  pages,  he  returned  to  London ;  but  feared 
to  face  his  father.  Presently  peace  is  restored  between  the 
two,  and  W.  H.  goes  again  to  India,  sets  up  as  an  Attorney 
in  Calcutta,  rnakes  a  pot  of  money,  and  comes  home,  partly 
on  business,  partly  on  pleasure,  in  charge  of  a  petition  to 
Parliament  for  the  establishment  of  trial  by  jury  in  the 
East.  Every  line  he  writes  has  an  interest ;  it  is  human 
and  full  of  life,  and  much  is  of  historical  value. 

It  is  amusing  in  the  first  chapter  to  find  that  in  1775 
Government  departments  were  making  almost  identically 
the  same  mistakes,  but  in  reverse  manner  fi.e.,  in  the  export 
of  food  supplies  instead  of  the  imports)  which  they  made  in 
1917  !  So  little  does  the  working  of  the  departmental  brain 
alter  with  the  times.  When  ia  Madras,  in  1778,  Mr.  Hickey 
stayed  with  Mr.  Hall  Plumer,  who  a  little  later  took  over  "a 
Government  contract  for  erecting  military  works,  and 
"according  to  public  report,  cleared  sixty  thousand  pounds 


thereby.  Such  wjts  the  advantage  arising  from  Government 
contracts  in  those  days" — an  advantage,  also  according  to 
])ublic  report,  which  has  not  entirely  disappeared  in  these 
days.  This  Mr.  Hall  Plumer,  if  we  mistake  ftot,  was  a  forbear 
of  General  Sir  Herbert  Plumer,  for  the  general's  father  was 
also  Mr.  Hall  Plumer.  Throughout  these  fascinating  memoirs 
we  are  constantly  coming  across  names  and  incidents  which 
link  the  latter  half  of  the  eightqenth  century  with  the  early 
part  of  the  twentietli  century.  And  human  nature  has  not 
varied  in  the  least.  Hickey,  if  not  the  model  of  propriety, 
must  have  been  a  thoroughly  good  fellow  at  heart.  He 
marries  a  woman  with  a  past— a  very  variegated  past— but  is 
devoted  to  her,  and  resents  with  vigour  the  least  discourtesy 
to  her.  We  get  glimpses  in  Calcutta  of  Warren  Hastings, 
Philip  Frances,  and  Mme.  Talleyrand,  and  see  the 
beginnings  of  the  restaurant  habit  in  London.  Yet  a  third 
\'olume  of  the.^e  vivid  memoirs,  we  are  glad  to  say,  is  promised  ; 
it  also  will  be  assured  a  warm  welcome. 


Front  Lines,  Boyd  Cable's  new  book  is  as  good  as  his  other 
two,  but  there  is  a  difference  ;  he  has  paid  more  consideration 
to  the  inner  meaning  of  the  war,  and  has  given  the  work 
a  value  for,  say,  distribution  among  pacifists,  as  well  as 
retaining  all  the  photographic  accuracy  of  trench  life  that 
makes  such  stories  as  these  acceptable  both  to  the  men  who 
are  doing  the  work  and  their  friends  at  home  who  want  to 
know  how  the  work  is  done.  As  an  instance,  "Seeing  Red," 
the  story  of  an  Australian  who  never  quite  realised  why  he 
was  in  France  until  he  saw  the  Germans  indulging  in  cold- 
blooded murder  of  their  prisoners,  is  a  very  fine  psychological 
study,  and  one  that  will  appeal,  with  its  ring  of  truth,  to 
men  in  the  front  lines  and  to  people  at  home.  Almost 
as  an  aside  the  utter  callousness  of  the  German  mind 
is  shown,  and  reflection  after  reading  will  provoke  the 
thought  that  there  can  be  no  compounding  with  people  like 
these. 

Out  of  the  twenty-one  stories  that  make  the  book,  at  least 
half  contain  subtle  lessons  like  this  ;  every  phase  of  war 
activity  is  dealt  with,  from  night  raiding  in  big  bombing 
aeroplanes  to  the  task  of  the  stretcher-bearers  in  the  muddv 
rear  of  an  attack.  We  see  the  war  as  the  men  who  are 
fighting  see  it,  and  in  that  respect  this  work  is  the  equal, 
if  not  better  than  anything  its  author  has  yet  done. 


— BODLEY  HEAD  NEW  BOOKS 


'n 


A  NEW  LE.\COCK  VOLUME  IS  A  LITERARY  EVENT. 

FRENZIED      FICTION.        By     STEPHEN      LEACOCK. 
Author  of '■  Further  Fooli.shnes.s, "  "Literary  Lapses," '■  Non- 
sense Novels,"  etc.     Crown  8vo.     4s.  net. 
A  fresh  collection  o(  good  things  by  a  humorist  in  high  spirits'. 

THE    GLORY   OF   THE    TRENCHES,     liv  CONINGSBY 

DAWStJN.     Crown  8vo.     3s.  6(1.  net. 

This  new  boolt  by  the  author  of  "  Khaki  Courage,"  which  had  such  an  e«ormous 
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drives  the  fighting  men  on. 

THE  COMING  DAWN,  a  War  Anthology  in  Prose  and 

Verse.  By  THEODORA  THOMPSON,  Compiler  of  "  Under- 
neath the  Bough."  With  an  Introduction  by  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge.     Fcap.  8vo.     Ss.  net. 


WOMEN  AND  SOLDIERS. 

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By   FORD  MADOX 


Mrs.  1  weedie  touches  on  many  controversial  subjects  from  lovf-makiM  war- 
m.irnages,  war-babies,  divorce,  clothes,  economy,  dissipation,  the  great  wofli  done 
by  women  co-operativo  housekeeping,  women's  conscription,  wages  and  work.  She 
interlards  her  wisdom  with  much  humour.  [Ready  at  once. 

ON  HEAVEN,  and  other  Poetos. 

HUEFFER.     3s.  6d.  net. 
"  It  is  refreshing  to  find  in  Mr.  HueBcr  a  true  and  a  modern  poet— at  once  realistic 
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nne,  leels  aloud.  — Satunhty  Review. 

MESSINES,   and    other    Poems.      Hy   emile   cam- 

MAEK  t  S.    Enghsh  Version  by  TITA  BRAND  CAMMAERTS. 
Crown  Svo.     3s.  6d.  net. 
has  dWt^-d™— ra''n5T"f'ater  "°^'  "<>'»'''e  literary  work  which  this  terrible  struggle 

COAL  AND  CANDLELIGHT.     Poems  by  HELEN  PARRY 

LDLN,    Author    ol    "  Bread    and    Circuses."      Crown    Svo. 
3s.  6d.  net. 
"  A  book  of  distinguished  venc."— Morning  Post. 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  DOWNS.     A   Bafflinij  Detective 

^*'r[^'\r^^y    J-    J<     WATSON    and    A.   J.    REES,   Authors  of 
The  Hampstead  Mystery."     6s   net 

wifh'in"a'my^tor  "*'"''*'''"'  ''"''  ''"'"■'"  '"''  ^  ''^"*"'"'  ''"■^'  '"■■ ''  <:''"tains  a  mystery 

A  NOT  IMPOSSIBLE  RELIGION.  Bv  the  late  Professor 
SI L\  ANUS  THOMPSON,  Author  of  "The  Quest  for  Truth  " 
etc.     6s.  net.  ^ 

hu'ma"nit'-''-cSr'"    ""^    ''""'°''    ""    ''"    ^    ''«"'"-'>'    °'  in«lculable    value     to 
"A  profoundly  interesting  and  stimulating  bookr—Wntminster  Gaselle 


JOHN  LANE   THE  BODLEY  HEAD  •  W.l 


June  6,    19  I  8 


Land    &    Water 


17 


The  Canadians  ■  By  Centurion 


(April    2  2nd-2  6th,   19 15) 


"  Take  your  hands  off  me  or  I'll  trepan  you."     The  M.O.  raised  his  fist. 


to  a 
skies 


The  follmving  is  an  authentic  story  of  a  certain  Canadian 
lialtalion  at  the  second  battle  of  Ypres. 

IT  was  a  warm  April  day — so  warm  tJiat  it  might  have 
been  mid-summer  but  for  tfie  anemones  and  tlie  wild 
hyacinths  which  gleamed  in  the  patches  of  woodland. 
The  drab  and  grey  monotones  of  the  winter  landscape 
of  mud  and  low-lying  mist  liad  changed  in  a  few  days 
scheme  of  primary  colours  in  which  the  blue  of  the 
the  green  of  the  young  grass,  and  the  yellows  of  marsh- 
marigold  and  lesser  celandine  startled  the  eye  with  their 
sudden  improvisations.  It  was  one  of  those  days  when  the 
spirit  of  spring  takes  on  a  visible  incarnation  and  the 
mysteriqus  force  of  life  is  felt  in  the  air  and  in  the  blood. 
In  the  thrust  of  the  tiny  crumpled  leaves  on  the  trees, 
emerging  from  the  buds  like  a  butterfly  from  a  chrysalis, 
one  could  almost  see  the  secret  impulse  that  animated  them. 
The  red  roofs  of  V  glowed  in  the  afternoon  sun.     The 

front  and  back  doors  of  every  house  stood  open,  and  on  the 
cobbled  pavements  the  dogs  lay  with  their  heads  between 
their  extended  paws,, opening  and  closing  a  drowsy  but 
watchful  eye.  Except  for  two  company  orderly-sergeants, 
who  stood  at  a  door  smoking  in  intimate  silence,  the  street 
was  deserted.  The  estamincts  were  empty,  although  it  still 
wanted  four  hours  till  closing  time.  The  sergeants  had 
discarded  their  belts,  and  presented  the  negligi  air  of  men 
who  are  "resting"  in  billets. 

"Some  day  !"  remarked  the  taller  of  the  two  economically. 
■Jake!"    replied    the    other,     "(iuess   you'll    owe    me    a 
dollar  to-night.  Jack.     The  machine-gunners  will  knock  spots 
out  of  them." 

"  I'll  make  it  two  to  one,  if  you  like.  Bob,"  said  the  first 
speaker  confidently. 

"Done  !"  said  the  other.  And  they  relapsed  into  silence. 
They  fidgeted  occasionally,  as  from  time  tp  time  loud 
shouts  were  borne  upon  their  ears  from  the  direction  of  a 
field  outside  the  village.  These  appeared  to  come  orchestrally 
from  a  crowd  of  men  all  shouting  at  once,  though  now  and 
again  a  powerful  voice  was  heard  above  the  rest,  and  its 
nasal  note  repeated  the  same  theme  at  intervals  as  in  a  fugue 
— "  Take-him-<jut  of"  the-box  I  "  .  .  .  "  Take-him-out-of-the- 
box!"  The  cry  was  repeated  from  time  to  time  in  notes 
which   alternated  between   menace  and  entreaty. 

The  origin  of  these  sounds  was  to  be  sought  in  a  field 
hard  by  the  village.  In  this  field  were  a  crowd  of  officers 
and  men  who  had  posted  themselves  on  two  '=.ides  of  it  in 
such  a  manner  as  t(j  form,  with  their  backs  outward,  an 
angle  of  ninety  degrees.  The  men  composing  one  side  of 
this  V-shaped  formation  were  cheering  lustily,  while  those 
on  the  other  were  ferociously  silent.     In  the  centre  of  the 

Copvrifhi   in  til"  t'nitfMl   Stiiies  ot   AiiiRnra 


V  four  grey-shirted  men  in  khaki  trousers  were 
dashing  madly  round  from  one  point  to  another,  touching, 
as  they  went,  four  white  bags  on  the  ground  at  the  corners 
of  a  square,  and  having  apparently  as  their  objective  the 
bag  nearest  the  apex  of  the  V.  An  untutored  mind  might 
have  mistaken  their  efforts  for  a  variation  of  that  unauthor- 
ised form  of  .^rrrly  exercises  known  as  "whipping  to  the 
gap."  Far  out  in  the  field  a  breathless  man  was  trying  to 
pick  up  a  ball,  and  seven  other  men,  gloved  as  to  the  left 
hand,  adjured  him  with  many  imprecations  to  "get  on  with 
it."  A  ninth' man,  his  face  covered  by  a  steel-barred  mask 
and  his  left  hand  hooded  in  an  enormous  leather  glove, 
stood  b}'  the  corner  bag. 

In  the  centre  of  the  field  was  an  officer,  with  the  peak  of 
his  cap  at  the  back  of  his  head  :  his  languid  demeanour  and 
the  spare  ball  in  his  hand  marked  him  as  the  umpire.  Three 
of  the  runners  had  reached  "home"  at  the  corner,  and  the 
fourth  was  straining  towards  it,  when  there  was  a  flash  df 
white  and  the  clean  smack  of  a  caught  b»ll,  which  was  no 
sooner  caught  than  it  was  thrown  to  the  masked  keeper  of 
the  "home"  base.  The  latter  pirouetted  on  his  feet  as  he 
caught  it,  and.  stooping  with  a  half-turn,  quicklv  touched 
the  shoulder  of  the  runner,  who  at  the  same  moment  dived 
headlong  for  the  bag  as  though  seeking  sanctuary.  He  lay 
prostrate,  with  the  catcher  upright  beside  him,  while  all  eyes 
were  turned  -from  these  two  to  the  umpire.  No  imperial 
gesture  deciding  the  lethal  issue  of  life  and  death  between 
two  gladia'tors  could  have  been  more  anxiously  awaited. 
Without  a  word,  the  umpire  jerked  his  thumb  over  his 
shoulder.     The  runner  was  "out." 

At  that  the  sullen  silence  of  the  crowd  of  spectators  on 
one  side  gave  place  to  delirious  cheering,  while  the  exulta- 
tions of  the  supporters  of  the  "in"  side  were  transformed 
into  howls  of  execration  and  dark  threats  against  the  umpire, 
who  was  freely  accused  of  "graft"  and  other  corrupt  and 
illegal  practices. 

"Safe  a  mile,"  yelled  a  voice  above  the  rest.  "Use  your 
eyes,  umps  !  Wait  till  you  come  to  me  with  a  bullet  in 
your   hvcr  !     I'll   show   what   'out'   means." 

It  was  the  regimental  M.O.  He  shook  his  fist  at  the 
umpire  aS  he  uttered  his  maledictions. 

"Go  it,  Dickie,"  urged  a  company  commander  at  his 
elbow,  encouragingly.     "  You  haven't  begun  to  warm  up  yet." 

"Kill  the  umpire!"  yelled  the  M.O.,  with  lethal  fury. 
"  Kill  him  !  Scalp  him  !  Tar  and  feather  him  I  Tickle  his 
feet  ! " 

"Dry  up,  Dickie,"  said  a  subaltern  beside  him.  "He  was 
out  all  right." 

"That  doesn't  cut  any  ice,"  retorted  tlie  M.O.  "Can't 
I  have  a  yell  to  myself  ?  The  umpire's  got  a  glass  eye,  and 
a  cheap  'un  at  that.     Give  him  Medicine  and  Duty!" 


i8 


Land    &    Water 


June  6,  191  8 


His  soliloquy  fell  on  deaf  ears.  The  umpire,  who  had 
maintained  a  massi\'e  silence,  suddenly  looked  up  as  another 
man  took  the  place  of  the  vanquished  at  the  "home."  As 
the  new-comer  grasped  the  bat,  he  was  hailed  with  loud 
entreaties  to  "knock  the  ball  out  of  Belgium,"  on  the  one 
hand;  and,  on  the  other,  with  sinister  assurances  that  if  he 
did  his  life  would  hardly  be  worth  living.  Meanwhili^,  the 
pitcher,  some  twenty  yards  in  front  of  him,  and  the  catcher, 
a  yard  or  two  behind  him,  seemed  to  be  engaged  in  mysterious 
intercourse  in  a  deaf-and-dumb  alphabet  of  their  own.  The 
pitcher  was  juggling  with  th;-  ball  as  though  not  quite  certain 
what  to  do  with  it,  while  the  catcher  was  patting  his  gloved 
and  ungloved  hands  together  as  though  inviting  him  to  join 
in  th  >  ancient  game  of  pat-a-cakc.  All  this  pantomime 
would  have  been  very  disconcerting  to  a  nervous  batter. 
It  was  meant  to  be.  In  baseball  everybody  does  his  best 
t)  put  everybody  else  off  his  game,  this  is  useful,  for  it 
teaches  you  self-c  >  ftdence  ;  also  self-courage,  for  you  will 
gi?t  no  encourag  i  nt.  The  next  moment  thf-  pitcher 
suddenly  brought  ins  hands  together  over  his  head,  whirled 
them  round  in  an  ellipse,  and  hurled  the  bal:  in  the 
direction  of  the  batter. 

A  shell  whined  towards  the  field,  and  dropped  with  a 
roar  and  a  great  spurt  of  black  earth  and  blacker  smoke 
some  half  a  mile  away.  The  spectators  ignored  it.  The 
captain  who  had  been  urging  the  M.O.  to  still  more  inflam- 
matory efforts,  happening  to  glance  in  that  direction,  noted 
curi  )usly  a  figure  in  yellow  baggy  clothes  and  a  red  tarbush 
advancing  across  the  field.  The  figure  alternately  ran  and 
stumbled.  He  noted,  too,  that  the  gun-fire  t  >  the  north- 
east had  swelled  to  a  loud  continuous  roar.  A  click  recalled 
him  to  the  game.  The  batsman  had  hit  the  ball  to  centre- 
field,  and,  dropping  his  stick,  ran  desperately  towards  the 
first  base,  about  ninety  yards  to  his  right.  The  ball  was 
fielded  by  the  centre-field  with  incredible  velocity  and  thrown 
to  the  baseman  as  the  batter  measured  his  length  on  the 
ground.  Loud  shouts  of  exultation  arose  from  a  group  of 
Field  Ambulance  men  under  a  row  of  poplars  on  one  side 
of  the  field  as  a  third  machine-gunner  entered  on  his  innings. 
The  new  batsman  fingered  the  "bat"  nervously. 

"  Don't  be  afraid  of  it  !  It  won't  hurt  you  ! "  shouted  the 
ambulance   men,  encouragingly.     "It  ain't  septic." 

"Who's  bought  you  ?  "  shouted  a  man  with  a  megaphone 
darkly  at  .the  pitcher.  .\nd  he  proceeded  to  make  a  number 
of  defamatory  remarks,  chosen  with  extreme  care,  upon  the 
age  of  the  player,  his  deportment,  his  choice  of  a  career, 
and  his  private  morals.  If  you  are  of  a  sensitive  disposition 
you  had  better  not  play  baseball  ;  it  ij  verj-  bad  for  self- 
esteem.     But  it  is  uncommonly  good  for  self-control. 

At  that  moment  a  man,  belted  as  on  duty,  thrust  his  way 
through  the  boisterous  crowd,  and,  approaching  the  umpire, 
saluted  and  gave  him  a  bit  of  paper.  The  umpire  took  the 
message  and,  having  read  it,  suddenly  turned  his  cap  peak 
foremost.  He  raised  his  hand.  "The  game's  called,"  he 
announced  in  a  clear,  slightly  nasal  voice.  He  turned,  and. 
nodding  towards  the  menacing  roar  in  the  north-east  added, 
with  a  faint  smile,  "on  account  of  the  rain  !" 

Silence  fell  upon  the  crowd  as  he  paused  for  a  moment. 
-Men  turned  one  to  another.  Explosions  of  light  suddenly 
appeared  in  the  north-east,  succeeded  by  three  coloured  stars 
one  above  the  other,  which  scintillated  brilHantly  like  gems 


reaching  the  village,  the}'  fell  in  and  awaited  orders.      Thuy 

found  the  streets  of  V- choked  with  a  stream  of  men, 

women,  and  children — on  foot,  on  horseback,  in  carts,  in 
perambulators,  all  with  their  faces  turned  towards  the  west, 
as  though  intent  on  some  desperate  pilgrimage.  Incredibl}- 
old  women  and  bed-ridden  old  men  borne  limply  in  wheel- 
barrows or  carried  in  hand-carts,  with  their  atrophied  legs 
dangling  helplessly  over  the  sides,  were  being  pushed  or 
dragged  through  the  crowd.  The  captain,  glancing  at  these 
human  derelicts,  noticed  curiously  that  one  ancient  paralytic 
reclined  in  a  barrow  with  his  hands  ceaselessly  twitching 
while  his  body  and  members  remained  rigid,  like  a  poplar 
whose  trunk  and  branches  are  still  while  the  leaves  at  the 
extremities  flutter  ceaselessly.  Young  women,  carrying 
babies  at  the  breast  and  with  children  clutching  at  their 
skirts,  their  twinkling  feet  taking  three  steps  to  the  mother's 
one,  stumbled  forward  with  the  same  set  look  upon  their 
face.  Some  were  bent  double  with  the  weight  of  large 
feather  mattresses ;  others  held  bird-cages,  clocks,  cats, 
caskets,  in  a  close  embrace.  Now  and  then  there  was  a 
scream  as  some  cripple  fell  and  the  crowd  pressed  on  and 
over  him.  And  from  this  surging  crowd  there  arose  a  single 
cry  as  though  it  possessed  but  a  single  voice,  swelling  into  a 
loud  diapason— "  £fs  Bodies  viennent." 

There  was  a  sound  of  wheels  and  a  clatter  of  hoofs  on  the 
pavi  behind,  and  the  crowd  turned  in  terror  at  the  pursuit. 
They  broke  into  a  furrow,  and  through  them  galloped  French 
gunners  on  horses  with  the  traces  cut,  followed  by  other 
mounted  men  driving  limbers  without  guns — and  mercilesslv 
lashing  the  "leaders,"  whose  mouths  were  white  with  foani. 
And  they  also  cried  "  Les  Bodies  viennent,"  and  passed  on. 
They  were  followed  by  men  on  foot,  wearing  red  fezzes  ; 
their  livid  bluish  faces,  their  lips  flecked  with  froth,  their 
hands  fumbling  at  their  throats,  their  gasps  for  breath  added 
to  the  terror  of  the  crowd  with  which  they  mingled. 

The  captain  eyed  them  with  feelings  in  which  anger  and 
pity  strove  for  mastery.  "They've  got  the  wind  up,  and  no 
mistake,"  he  said  to  a  subaltern.  "But  what  the  hell's  the 
matter  with  them  ?     They  haven't  got  a  scratch." 

"Their  uniforms  arc  as  clean  as  ours,"  speculated  the  sub- 
altern. "They  can't  have  been  buried.  I've  never  seen 
that  look  on  a  man's  face  before." 

"That  pitcher  weren't  no  good,"  said  a  man  in  the  ranks. 
"They  oughter  have  taken  him  out  of  the  box  long  ago." 

The  men,  who  had  been  standing  easy,  now  fell  out,  and 
fetched  their  rifles,  packs,  and  ammunition.  Water-bottles 
were  filled,  nominal  rolls  were  checked,  and  for  a  few  minutes 
the  company  quarter-master -sergeants  were  incredibly  busy. 
The  men  squatted  on  the  ground,  wearing  their  equipment, 
with  their  packs  lying  on  the  "kicking-straps"  beside  them. 
They  debated  freely  the  respective  merits  of  the  two  sides, 
the  fielding,  the  pitching,  the  catching,  and  the  prospects  of  a 
game  that,  as  it  happened,  was  never  to  be  resumed. 
"COMP'NY!"  shouted  each  company  commander. 
The  men  scrambled  to  their  feet  and,  putting  out  their 
cigarettes,  put  on  their  packs. 

"COMP'NY!    'SHUN!...    FORM  FOURS  !    RIGHT' 
AT  EASE.     OUICK-K-K   MARCH." 

The  short  spring  day  was  drawing  to  a  cIosl',  the  air  grew 
cold,  the  shadows  deepened.     They  marched  along  the  Ypres 


I 


.  ^  ^  rr  -  "'^'^  P"^''  '"°^^'  tlirusting  their  wav  through  the  refugees,  and  turning 
for  a  mmute,  and  then  went  out  Two  company  orderly-  off  to  the  left  near  the  asylum  they  crossed  the  canal  just 
sergeants  appeared  on  the  edge  of  the  crowd,  wearing  their  '      ' " 


belts ;  they  were  panting  with  exertion  as  thougli  they  had 
been  running.  A  soldier  from  a  Belgian  working-party'  with 
a  shovel  on  his  back,  emerged  in  a  patch  of  blue  from  the 
crowd  of  khaki,  and,  talking  excitedly,  pointed  over  his 
shoulder  in  the  direction  of  the  church.  The  crowd  was  hke 
a  field  of  oats  suddenly  set  in  motion  by  a  breeze  ;  each 
individual  member  of  it  seemed  to  be  flickering  to  and  fro, 
although  the  crowd  as  a  whole  remained  stationary. 

"The  battalion  will  fall  in  at  once,"  said  the  subaltern, 
suddenly,  in  a  changed  tone  of  voice.  "Heavy  marching 
order." 

The  breathless  sergeants  became  articulate. 

'A'  and  'B'  Companies,  stand  to!"  shouted  the  one. 
"  'C  and  'D'  Companies!     Back  to  billets,  boys;    kits 
on,  and  fall  in,"  shouted  the  other. 

"WTiat  is  it?"  said  the  captain  to  one  of  the  orderly 
sergeants. 

"The  Germans  have  broken  through  on  the  left  flank,  sir." 
"Our  bet's  off,"   said   one  man   to  another.     "Tell  you 
what,   mate  ;    I'll  take  you  in  three  to    one  on  the  M.G.s 
next  time."     The  odds  were  accepted. 

They  streamed  back  to  billets,  discussing  the  match  as 
they  went.  The  orderly  sergeants  were  everywhere  at  once 
— in  their  flanks  and  in  their  rear — rounding  up  the  argu- 
mcntati\e    laggards    like    sheep-dogs    on    a    hillside.       On 


north  of  the  doomed  city.  Clouds  of  white  and  black  and 
red  dust  rose  above  it,  as  shell  after  shell  crashed  down 
upon  It.  and  died  away  in  crayon  upon  the  evening  sky. 
In  the  west  the  sun  was  going  down  in  a  great  conflagration. 
The  air  was  still  dry  and  clear,  but  to  the  north-east  there 
was  a  faint  greenish  haze  lying  over  the  fields  like  a  river- 
mist  in  the  crepuscular  light.  In  the  fields,  on  either  side 
of  them,  horses  and  cows  lay  dead  on  their  backs  in  uncouth 
attitudes,  with  their  legs  sticking  up  towards  the  sky.  A 
vast  desolation  brooded  over  the  landscape.  They"  were 
alone.  Not  a  living  man  or  beast  was  to  be  seen.  Dead 
men  in  bleached  uniforms  lay  about  in  contorted  attitudes— 
their  faces  livid  and  on  their  lips  little  bubbles  of  foam. 
Except  for  the  intermittent  roar  of  the  guns,  the  air  was 
still  as  death.     In  this  vast  mortuary  not  a  bird  sang. 

Ihe  road  dipped  into  a  hollow,  and  as  the  column  descended 
the  advanced  guard  began  to  cough,  theji  the  connecting  files 
coughed  and  these  phthisical  sounds  were  gradually  taken 
up  by  the  whole  column.  Night  had  fallen,  and  in  the  dark 
solitudes  these  hollow  sounds  were  as  loud  and  distinct  as 
the  hooting  of  owls  in  a  wood. 

"Silence  in  the  ranks,"  said  the  captain,  and  then  he 
begari  to  cough.     His  eyes  watered.     He  sniffed 

This  place  stinks  like  a  damned  latrine,"  he  said,  irritably, 
as  he  blew  his  nose. 

"It's  like  chlnrofnrii!."  s.ii^il  one  subaltern. 


June  6,  19  I  8 


Land    &    Water 


19 


Another  wondered  how  Jong  it  was  since  he  liad  tasted 
almonds. 

As  the  coKimn  emerged  from  that  sep\ilchral  hollow  and 
breastecl  the  rise,  they  breathed  more  freely. 

They  neared  the  cross-roads  at  B ,  and  shells  began  to 

whistle  over  their  heads.  The  night  air  was  full  of  strange 
and  sibilant  voices.  They  crossed  the  canal,  and  at  that 
moment  a  shell  fell  in  the  middle  of  the  column.  The  men 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  stopped  dead,  while  the  men  in 
the  rear  continued  to  march  until,  as  they  trod  on  the  heels  of 
the  men  in  front  of  them,  the  whole  column  was  pulled  up 
like  a  horse  that  i§  suddenly  thrown  on  its  haunches.  Con- 
fused voices  were  heard,  and  the  groans  of  wounded  men. 
The  M.O.  was  down  on  his  knees  beside  the  prostrate  forms, 
flashing  an  electric-torch  upon  them,  while  he  masked  its 
light  with  his  Burberry.  The  shell  had  wiped  out  a  machine- 
gun  team.  The  M.G.  officer  lay  dead  where  he  had  fallen. 
The  wounded  were  picked  up  and  placed  on  the  wheeled 
transport,  and  the  battalion  resumed  its  march.  No  one  knew 
whose  turn  would  come  next.  But  they  continued  to  march 
steadily,  each  man's  eves  fi.xed  on  the  pack  of  the  man  in 
front  of  him 

At  midnight  they  halted  by  the  side  of  the  road,  due 
north  of  St.  J — — ,  and  waited  for  dawn.  Thoy  found  some 
deserted  gun-emplacements,  and-  established  their  battalion 
headquarters  therein.  Having  put  out  outposts  and  dug 
themselves  in,  the  men  snatched  an  hour  or  two  of 
fitful  and  uneasy  sleep  under  the  stars. 

The  morning  broke  cold  and  clear,  and  with  the  first  flush 
of  dawn  the  men  were  on  their  feet,  stamping  to  keep  them- 
selves warm.  In  front  of  them  was  a  dark  wood,  and  in  the 
middle  distance  a  farm  and  its  outhouses.  It  was  a:  small 
wood,  and  if  you  look  for  that  wood  to-day  you  will  never 
find  it,  but  its  name  will  go  down  to  history.  From  this 
moment  the  battalion  was  spUt  up  ;  "C"  and  "D"  Companies 
were  ordered  to  march  off  in  the  direction,  of  the  wood,  where 
they  were  to  join  up  with  the  Third  Brigade?  As  they 
marched  off  by  platoons  in  file  they  wa\^ed  their  hands  in 
salutation  to  their  comrades ;  it  was  the  last  the  latter  ever 
saw  of  them. 

As  the  sun  caqie  out,  the  air  grew  warm  ;  but  not  a  lark 
climbed  the  heavens.  Of  the  two  companies  that  remained,  one 
was  ordered  to  move  straight  on  its  trenches  in  open  order  by 
platoons,  the  other  was  to  advance  by  s«*ctions  towards  the 
farm.  ^'  They  raced  forwards,  and  as  thej'  approached  their 
objective  the  German  guns  got  the  range,  and  opened  on  them 
with  shrapnel  and  high  explosive.  A  dark  grey  mass  of  men 
was  clustered  round  a  farm  about  900  yards  away,  on  their 
left  front,  and,  as  they  drew  nearer,  this  mass  opened  on  them 
with  rifle-fire.  Bullets  licked  the  earth  all  around  them,  throw- 
ing up  spurts  of  dust ;  but  the  shooting  was  poor,  and  they 
advanced  steadily.  The  captain,  who  was  signalling-officer  and 
was  in  the  rear,  watched  the  waves  of  two  other  battalions 
advancing  on  the  left  to  attack  the  ridge,  and  as  the  German 
machine-guns  got  to  work  on  them  he  noticed  that  the  first 
wave  grew  thinner  and  thinner.  It  struck  him  that  it  was 
•  extraordinarily  like  a  cinema  film  ;  he  was  looking  all  the 
while  at  the  same  picture,  and  yet  it  was  never  quite  the 
same.  There  was  the  wave,  always  there,  but  from  moment 
to  moment  gaps  appeared  in  it ;  flickers  of  flame  came  and 
went  above  it ;  little  white  clouds  appeared  from  nowhere 
over  it,  hung  about,  and  disappeared  as  though  they  had 
never  been.  But  with  each  cloud  another  gap  appeared  in 
the  line.  Now  and  again  it  was  wholly  obscured  by  great 
patches  of  coal-black  smoke  like  enormous  ink-stains,  and 
the  earth  shook.  As  the  smoke  cleared  away,  he  was  almost 
astonished  to  see  that  the  men — some  of  them — were  still 
upright,  and  still  advancing,  without  haste  and  without  rest. 
"  This  is  going  to  be  sOme  hell,  to-day  ;  eh,  what,  Dickie  ?  " 
he  said  to  the  M.O.,  who  was  on  his  way  to  a  farm  to  get  it 
going  as  a  regimental  aid-post. 

"That's  so,"  said  the  M.O.,  cheerful  at  the  prospect  of 
having  something  more  professionally  exciting  to  do  than 
look  at  men's  tongues  in  billets.  "I  guess  I'm  going  to  do 
quite  a  lot  in  the  general  practitioner  line  to-day.  Say,  old 
man,  if  you  come  my  way  I'U  patch  you  up  beautifully. 
I've  quite  a  good  bedside  manner."    ">        '  , 

The  M.O.  had  a  disconcerting  habit  of  envisaging  every- 
body else  as  a  possible  casualty.  Which  was  rather  premature 
when  you  came  to  think  of  it. 

"Get   along,   Dickie,   you  old  body-snatcher.     I'd  sooner 

die  a  natural  death,"  retorted  the  other.     "The  Bochc  has 

slain  his  thousands,  but  you   M.O.s  your  tens  of  thousands." 

"I'll  never  be  slain  by  the  jawbone  of  an  ass,"  retorted 

the  M.O.  pugnaciously. 

"Now,  Dickie,"  laughed  the  signalling-officer,  good- 
naturedly,  "  you're  getting  riled.  You're  better  at  giving  chaff 
than  taking  it.   .You  just  hike  away  to  your  consulting -room." 


The  M.O.  "hiked."  .And  for  no  apparent  reason  they 
shook  haS^s. 

They  were  busy  after  that.  The  captain  ordered  field- 
telephones  to  be  laid  out  from  the  farm,  which  was  to  serve 
the  double  purpose  of  aid-post  and  battalion  headquarters. 
They  were  laid  out. to  the  lines  of  unfinished  trenches  which 
had  now  been  occupied  by  the  waves  of  infantr}'.  It  was 
neither  open  warfare  nor  trench  warfare,  but  a  curious 
combination  of  the  two — a  contest  of  positions  which  were 
only  half-entrenched^while  the  German  infantry  hung  about 
in  clusters,  like  loafers  at  a  street  corner,  apparently  uncertain 
whether  to  advance  or  not.  The  truth  was  they  were 
puzzled.  They  felt  that  by  all  the  rules  of  the  game  the 
Canadians  had  no  business  to  be  there.  The  latter  had  one 
gun  and  no  aeroplanes ;  they  were  being  drenched  with 
Shrapnel  and  submerged  with  high  explosive  ;  their  left  was 
"in  the  air,"  and  their  allies  had  bolted  the  day  before  in  a 
wild  sauve  qui  petit  before  a  new  and  sinister  weapon  which 
the  Boche  knew  to  be  his  own'  peculiar  and  nasty  secret. 
And  yet  here  were  these  "verdammte"  Canadians  coming 
right  up  to  them  and  making  themselves  extremely  unpleas- 
ant with  nothing  better  than  two  or  three  machine-guns 
and  tlieir  rifles,  though,  to  be  sure,  the  rapid  and  accurate 
fire  of  those  rifles  was  something  to  reckon  with.  The 
Boche,  \  who  had  had  things  all  his  own  way  the  day 
before,  when  he  bayoneted  inanimate  men  half-suffocated 
by  his  poisonous  gas,  did  not  seem  to  approve  of  this 
at  all. 

During  tlie  vvhole  of  that  day  a  storm  of  iron  beat  upon  the 
farm  and  the  position  in  front  of  it.  Shells  ploughed  up 
the  trenches,  bur3^ing  men  where  they  stood,  and  leaving  not 
a  trace  behind.  Some  men  were  blown  to  dust,  others  were 
killed  without  a  scratch  ;  it  seemed  as  if  not  the  engines  of 
war  but  some  mysterious  force  of  natur'e  were  blasting  them 
out  of  existence.  The  survivors  fired  again  and  again  at  their 
fitf\il  targets,  until  their  rifle-barrels  grew  hot,  their  nostrils 
were  filled  with  the  reek  of  blood  and  burnt  cordite,  their 
ears  stunned  with  concussion,  their  eyes  half-blinded  w;ith 
showers  of  black  dust,  and  their  faces  running  with  sweat. 
Shells  formed  huge  craters  round  and  about  the  farm,  shaking 
it  to  its  foundations  and  bespattering  its  walls  with  the 
filth  of  the  midden-heap.  The  signalling-officer  found  him- 
self wondering  how  long  it  would  be  before  the  battalion 
headquarters  would  be  wiped  out.  As  he  sat  there,  with  the 
CO.,  receiving  and  transmitting  messages,  he  felt  as  though 
he  were  dwelling  in  a  haunted  house.  Soot  fell  in  showers 
down  the  cliimney  on  to  the  hearthstone,  windows  rattled, 
doors  opened  and  shut,  pictures  fell  from  the  walls,  and 
plaster  pattered  on  to  the  floor.  Voices  shrieked  and  whim- 
pered overhead.  And  all  the  while  he  was  conscious  of 
waiting  for  something  to  happen^something  was  surely 
bound  to  happen.  Would  it  be  the  next  or  the  next  but 
one  ?  No  !  that  was  a  "  dud."  Short !  Over  !  .  .  .  He 
got  up  and  went  out.  There  was  a  lull.  Tljen  the  storm 
burst  forth  again.  He  began  to  count  the  shells  falling  in 
or  near  the  farm  and  the  trenches  occupied  by  "A"  and 
"B"  Companies.  After  counting  for  fifteen  minutes  by  his 
watch,  he  had  reckoned  ninety  high-explosive  shells. 

Night  brought  little  or  no  respite  from  shell-fire  ;  but  the 
enemy's  machine-gun  fire  died  down,  and  they  were  able  to 
get  stretcher-bearers  and  ration-parties  with  water  up  to  the 
trenches.  The  M.O.  worked  all  night  in  his  overalls,  dressing 
the  wounded,  injecting  morphia  and  anti-tetanic  serum,  and 
evacuating  them  on  empty  limbers  and  supply  waggons. 
When  dawn  broke,  the  signalling-officer  was  ordered  to 
occupy  a  disused  trench  near  a  private  road  on  the  right, 
-  facing  the  wood.  He  had  not  been  there  many  hours  before 
it  stnick  him  that  something  was  happening  in  that  wood. 
Shells  were  raining  on  it  at  intervals,  and  in  the  pauses  he 
heard  the  rifle-fire  of  "C"  and  "D"  Companies,  who  were 
holding  it.  But  each  time  the  rifle-fire  diminished  in  volume, 
and  grew  more  and  more  fitful ;  dying  down  like  a  fire  of 
twigs  that  crackle  and  consume.  Meanwhile,  he  was  busy 
collecting  "details"  and  organising  the  supports.  At  inter- 
vals an  order  would  come  in  to  supply  "two  N.C.O.s  and 
forty  men"  to  some  hard-pressed  position,  and  he  had  to 
start  reorganising  all  over  again.  Cooks,  batmen,  signallers 
— all  were  impounded.  A  miUtary  policeman  passed  on  to 
him  every  straggler.  Derehcts  of  every  regiment  in  the 
divisions^Scottish,  English,  Canadian— came  drifting  in ; 
and  in  that  curious  medley,  drifting  together  like  fallen 
leaves  under  a  breeze  after  the  storm  has  momentarily  spent 
its  fury,  he  saw  only  too  clearly  the  evidence  of  what  had 
happened  the  day  before.  There  was  no  need  to  ask  any 
questions.  A  morose  Highlander,  a  company  sergeant-major 
who  had  lost  his  battalion,  volunteered  the  information  that 
he  was  "fed  up."  He  seemed  dazed,  and  was  argumentative 
in  a  dull^  slow  way  like  a  drunken  man. 


20 


Land   &   Water 


June  6,  1918 


"I  thocht  this  was  a  war,  d'ye  ken,  sorr  ?"  he  said,  thnist- 
ing  his  face  dose  to  the  captain.  The  latter  noticed  that  his 
eyes  were  tired  and  blood-shot.  "  It  iss  not !  It  iss  a  bluidy 
massacre.  And  the  Jair-nians  call  us  mercenaries !  As  if 
there  was  siller  in  it!  How  many  bawbees  d'ye  think  I'll 
be  taking  as  company  sergeant-major,  now,  sorr  ? " 

But  the  cajitain  had  suddenly  put  a  field-telescope  to  Ids 
eye,  and  was  gazing  hard  in  the  direction  of  the  wood  about 
a  thousand  yards  away.  "  Here,  ^ergeant-major ;  stop 
jawing,  and  look  through  this,"  he  said,  thrusting  the  tele- 
scope into  the  hands  of  the  N.C.O. 

The  effect  was  magical.  "A  cop,  sor^  ;  a  fair  cop.  It's  a 
sicht  I  dinna  expect  to  see  every  day.  Eight  hundred,  do 
you  think,  sorr  ?  Five  rounds  rapid  will  be  enough  to  lay 
them  out,  I'm  thinking." 

\Miat  he  had  seen  through  the  glass  was  a  grey  mass  of 
men  hanging  irresolute  about  the  corners  of  the  wood.  They 
had  spiked  helmets.  The  captain  gave  the  word  of  com- 
mand ;  the  company  sergeant-major  repeated  it.  The 
improvised  platoon,  with  their  sights  at  Soo;  burst  into  a 
splutter  of  rifle-fire.  The  captain  looked  through  his  tele- 
scope.   The  grey  mass  had  disappeared. 

But  the  captain  was  uneasy.  Something  must  have 
happened  in  that  wood  for  the  Germans  to  get  through  it. 
For  over  half  an  hour  silence  had  brooded  over  it.  Not 
an  enemy  gun  played  on  it ;  not  a  sound  of  rifle-fire  had 
come  from  it.  .  .  .  What  had  become  of  "C"  and  "D" 
Companies  ?  He  was  still  revolving  that  question  when  he 
saw  a  man  without  a  cap  running  from  the  direction  of  the 
wood,  taking  such  cover  as  the  ground  afforded.  As 
he  drew  nearer,  the  captain  saw  that  he  had  bright  red  hair. 

"By  God,  it's  G !"  he  exclaimed.     It  was  the  lance- 

cbrporal  who  had  had  charge  of  "C"  and  "D"  Companies' 
end  of  the  telephone. 

"I've  managed  to  bury  it,  sir,"  said  the  fugitive,  as  he 
arrived,  breathless  and  exhausted. 

"Buried  what?" 

"The  telephone.  I'm  the  only  one  to  get  through.  "C" 
and  "D"  Companies  were  cut  off  and  enfiladed.  Sixty  per 
cent,  casualties.  All  their  ammunition  exhausted.  They 
were  just  snowed  under.  Could  you  lend  me  your  water- 
bottle  ?     Thank  you,  sir." 

He  took  a  long  drink. 

Overhead  a  Taube  was  circling  like  a  hawk  over  its  prey, 
flying  as  low  as  200  feet,  so  low  that  they  could  see  the 
observer  looking  over  the  side.  He  'dropped  a  smoke-ball, 
and  a  few  minutes  later  a  "coal-box"  landed  just  short  of 
the  trench,  and  threw  up  a  spray  of  loamy  dirt,  which  covered 
them  from  foot  to  head,  and  filled  their  eyes  and  nostrils, 
half-blinding  them.  At  that  moment  a  runner  arrived  with 
a  message  from  battalion  headquarters.  .They  were  to  fall 
back.  The  German  line,  which  had  been  concave  before  the 
enemy  had  taken  the  wood,  was  now  convex,  and  was  thrust- 
ing forward  in  a  great  bulge. 

As  they  approached  the  farm,  upon  which  "A"  and  "B". 
Companies  were  retiring,  a  shell  landed  on  the  roof.  When 
the  pillar  of  cloud  cleared,  flames  were  seen  coming  from  it 
as  from  the  heart  of  the  volcano.  The  barns,  filled  with 
straw,  were  blazing  fiercely. 

In  the  farm-yard  stood  a  figure  in  overalls,  bareheaded, 
and  with  arms  bare  to  the  elbows.  His  overalls  were  splashed 
with  blood,  his  face  was  black  as  a  nigger-minstrel's  with 
soot,  out  of  which  his  white  eye-balls  glared  with  a  fierce 
glow   in    their    irises.     He    was    shouting    orders,    directing 


stretcher-bearers,  and  rushing  in  and  out  of  the  burning 
barn,  carrying  the  limp  bodies  of  wounded  men  in  liis  arms. 
He  was  about  to  rush  back,  when  the  signalling-officer  caught 
him  by  the  arms.  He  tried  to  shake  him  ofi,  but  the  other 
held  him  in  an  iron  grip. 

"Blast   you,    M .     Take  your  hands,  off  me,   or   I'll 

trepan  you."  He  raised  his  fist.  "I've  got  men  in 
there,  I  tell  you."  * 

"I  know,  Dickie,"  said  the  other  softly.  "I  know.  But 
look !  You've  done  all  you  can,  old  man."  As  he 
pointed  to  the  barn,  the  roof  fell  in  with  a  crash,  and  tongues 
of  fire  ancl  smoke  burst  from  the  doorway,  scorching  them 
where  they  stood. 

The  M.6.  stood  for  a  moment  like  one  dazed.  He  shook 
his  fist  in  the  direction  of  the  Germans.  He  was  a  master  of 
language,  but  for  once  in  his  life  words  failed  him.  He 
uttered  a  choking  sound,  and  turned  away. 

The  next  moment  the  farm-house  itself  caught  fire.  There 
was  a  noise  like  the  popping  of  corks,  and  brass-caps  flew 
freakishly  in  all  directions,  as  though  a  swarm  of  bees  had 
been  disturbed.  The  S.A.A.  had  caught  fire  and  was  going 
off  in  a  fusillade.  The  signalling-officer  and  his  men  rushed 
to  and  fro,  pulling  out  the  boxes  of  ammunition  and  throwing 
them  into  the  mud. 

They  fell  back,  and  dug  in  again.  There  they  held  on. 
As  the  day  drew  to  its  close,  the  sky  became  obscured  with 
clouds,  and  before  night  rain  began  to  fall.  It  fell  in  a 
steady  drizzle,  wetting  them  to  the  skin  as  they  hung  on 
without  flares,  without  wire,  without  sand-bags,  waiting 
every  moment  of  the  night  for  an  attack  which  never  came. 
Two  days  later  they  were  relieved  by  reinforcements,  and, 
retiring  by  sections,  they  marched  back  to  billets  by  the 
light  of  the  moon.  Out  of  the  two  companies  that  remained 
only  170  men  were  left.  Of  the  four  machine-guns,  they 
had  saved  but  one.  The  machine-gun  officer  who  had 
umpired  at  the  match  was  dead.  Of  the  eighteen  men  who 
had  played  the  game  of  Machine-gunners  v.  Ambulance-men, 
only  eight  survived. 

As  they  passed  "Suicide  Corner,"  the  captain  caught 
sight  of  a  somnolent  sepoy  sitting  against  the  bank  on  the 
side  of  the  road,  his  face  curiously  grey  in  the  moonlight. 

"Lost  his  unit!"  he  said  to  himself.  'It  was  a  common 
occurrence.  He  .went  up  to  him  and,  seeking  to  wake  him, 
pulled  him  gently  by  the-  neck  of  his  tunic.  He  fell  forward 
stiffly  against  the  captain.  The  back  of  the  man's  head  was 
gone,  and  his  face  was  merely  a  mask.     He  was  dead. 

They  reached  V at  dawn.     The  men  unslung  their 

rifles  and  packs,  and  threw  themselves  down  heavilj'  without 
taking  their  boots  off.  And  for  the  first  time  for  five  days 
they  slept.  — 

The  stories  by  Centurion — a  junior  officer  who  has 
seen  much  of  the  war  in  France — whicli\hav^  been  appearing 
at  intetv-ils  in  the  columns  of  L.\nd  &  W.-^ter  since 
November,  1916,  are  to  be  published  early  this  month  in  book 
form  by  Mr.  Heinemann  under  the  title  of  "Gentlemen- 
at- Arms."  They  are  to  be  published  in  America  by 
Messrs.  Doubleday ,  Page.  Several  of  the  stories  describe, 
for  the  first  time'  in  prjnt,  the  fortunes  of  certain  regiments 
at  the  battles  of  Mons,  the  Marne,  the  Aisne,  Ypres,  and 
.   the  Somme. 

We  shall  publish  in  Land  &  Water  at  an  early  date 
a  second  series  of  stories  by  Centurion,  which  will  appear 
simultaneously  in  America  in  the  "  Centurv  Magazine.' 


They  found  the  streets  choked  with  a  stream  of  men,  women  and  children— on  foot,  on  horseback    in  carts   in 
perambulators,  ail  with  their  faces  turned  towards  the  west,  as  though  intent  on  some  desperate  nilorima'oe. 


June    13,  1918 


Supplement  to  Land    &    Water 


IX 


For  England  and  St.  George 


An  old  cry — one  which  has  helped  our  country  to  victory  over  a  thousand 
years   and    more — yet    modern   enough    to    be    the    key   to  the  policy   of 

The  National  News 

the  control  of  which  has  been  taken  over  by 

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who  are  publishers  of  so  many  patriotic  weeklies.  The  future  outlook  of 
the  paper  will  be  patriotically  British.  It  will  be  as  independent  as  any 
Briton  would  wish,  and  every  line  will  be  interesting.  In  view  of  the 
paper  restrictions  you  should  place  a  regular  order  now  with  your  newsagent. 

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to 

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The  King. 


TRENCH  COAT 

The  Most  Reliable  Military  Waterproof  Produced 
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Supplement  to   Land   &    Water 


June    13,  1 9 18 


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J 


June  13,  1918 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


XI 


SEE  VICE  BREECHES 

MADE  AT  SHORT  NOTICE. 

For  inspection,  and  to 
enable  us  to  meet  im- 
mediate requirements, 
we  keep  on  hand  a 
number  of  pairs  of 
breeches,  or  we  can  cut 
and  try  a  pair  on  the 
same  day,  and  complete 
the  next  day  if  urgently 
wanted. 

To  those  who  order  their 
breeches  and  other  service 
clothes  from  us  we  assure  fine, 
wear-resisting  materials,  skilful 
cutting,  honest  tailor-work, 
and  more — the  certain  advan- 
tage of  ripe  experience. 

A  good  name  among  sportsmen 
for  nearly  a  century  is  a  sure 
measure  of  our  particular  ability 
in  breeches-making,  to  which 
gratifying  testimony  is  now  also 
given  by  the  many  recommend- 
ations from  officers. 

Fatltrnt  and  F»rm  for  self-measuremenl  at  request. 


f 


GRANT  AND  COGKBURN 

LTD. 

25  PIGGADILLY,  W.l. 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


—  ESTD.  1821. 


Military  Scales 


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FOLDING  STEEL  SCALE, 

i/ioooo,  1/20000,  etc.,   7/6 


SEMICIRCULAR  PRO- 
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7,000  yds.  at  i/ioooo  or 
14,000  yds.  at  1/20000. 

SI     2     6  in  case. 


RANGE 

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7/6 


8  in.  TRANSPARENT  PRO. 
TRACTOR,    with    cut  -  out 
grids  and  range  scale, 
i/toooo,  1/20000,  1/40000, 

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TRANSPARENT 
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8,000yds. at  1/20000  10/6.    10,500yds. at  1/20000  SI  5  0 

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QURI.NG     THH     WAR    the    B.S.A.    plant,    now   vastly    extended, 
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^FTFR    THE    WAR    the    great    reputation    of    B.S.A.    productions, 
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iho  B.S.A.  sportin^i  and  match  rifiss  and  guns  will  embody  all  the  features 
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Th.    K..S.A.  1  eoKoieia  Military  j.ai  Narai  Rifle. 


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DI  ITTC"  C"  C  '"  ''"'^''  '"''  ""'"  ''*  obtained  from  all  High-clals  Military 
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xn 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


June  13,  19 1  8 


Personality  in  Dress 


•  L:sia  ■'  Shirts  and  Pyjamas  reflect  that  air  of  solid  worth  which  grves 

the  wearer  standing  as  a  well-dressed  itian.    For  Officers'  Khaki  Shins 

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The  durability,  softness  and  flexibility  of 
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illustration 
N.  12 
A  graceful  Coat  in  good 
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*THREE  FRENCH 
MORALISTS   and 

The  Gallantry  of  France 

By  EDMUND  GOSSE,  C.B.  Price  6s.  net. 


Author  of  "Rei;iine)it  of  IV <  men." 

TIRST  THE  BLADE 

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LAND  &  WATER 

Vol.  LXXI.      No.  202  7.      Tvp^I'bI  THURSDAY     lUNF    n     iotR  rkEGisxERED  as-j      wjblishkd  wekkly 

^  LYEARJ  1.  I  ILJ  rvoivn.1  ,     |Ui>i:.     I   J,     iqio  [^      NEWSPAPERJ        PfiICK  ONE  SHILLING 


Copyigkt    I9r8,  f.S.I. 


CcipyrishI,  "  Land  &  Water: 


A    Soldier   of  France 

Hy   £,ouis  Raemackcrs 

."  There  is  nothing  to  shake  the  confidence  which  wc  should  have  in  our  soldiers.  They  fought  one  against 
five,  without  sleep  for  three  or  four  days  together.  ^  The  Army  is  better  than  anything  we  could  have 
expected.  When  I  speak  of  the  Army  I  speak  of  those  who  compose  it,  of  whatever  rank  and  whatever 
grade  they  may  be.  .  .  .  So  long  as  this  Government  is  here,  France  will  be  defended  to  the  death,  and 
no  force  will  be  spared  to  attain  success.  We  shall  never  yield.  That  is  the  word  of  command  to  our 
Government.  .  .  .  The  people  of  France  has  accomplished  its  task,  and  those  who  have  fallen  have 
not  fallen  in  vain,  since  they  make  French  history  great.  It  remains  for  the  living  to  complete 
thejmagnificent    work    of   the    dead."— M.    Clemenceau,    i»  the    Qhamber  of  Deputies,    June    4,th,    191 8. 


2* 


Land   &   Water 


June  13,   igi8 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Telephone  i   HOLBORN    2%it. 


THURSDAY,  JUNE  13,  1918. 


Contents 


A  Soldier  of  France.     (Cartoon.)     Bv  Raemaekers 

The  Outlook 

Battle  of  Matz.     Bv  H.  Belloc 

The  Potsdam  Conference.     By  Henry  Morgcnthan 

"Suddenly •"     Bv  T.cwis  K.  Freeman,  R.N.V.K. 

Cicmenceau.     By  J.  Couduricr  de  Chassaigne 

Sphagnnm.     By  Eden  Phillpotts 

In  an  East  Coast  Town.     Poem.     By  Sherard  Vines 

The  Bolo  Cablegrarns.     By  French  Strother 

Walter  de  la  Mare.     Bv  J-  C.  Sqviire 

The  Realist.     (Illustrated,)     By  Charles  ilarriott 

An  Ambassador  of  Letters.     By  James  Milne 

Household  Notes 


P.\GE 

I 

2 

.3 
8 
11 
13 
14 
14 
f5 
^7 
18 
20 
22 


The  Outlook 


AT  midnight  between  Saturday  and  Sunday  last, 
the  enemy  opened  a  preliminary  bombardment 
of  four  hours'  duration  upon  the  twenty-two 
miles  of  front  between  Montdidier  and  Noyon. 
His  action  was  exactly  parallel  to  that  which  he 
has  pursued  in  everv  one  of  the  blows  delivered  upon  the 
Western  front  in  this  year's  campaign,  each  of  which  has 
opened  with  a  bombardment  of  similar  duration  and  charac- 
ter. Gas  shells  formed  the  greater  part  of  the  missiles,  and 
the  zone  covered  was  very  deep. 

The  first  development  of  the  battle  followed  the  lines  of 
the  fighting  of  March  21st  against  ouf  3rd  and  5th  Armies, 
but  on  a  smaller  scale.  It  consistea  in  the  occupation  of 
the  first  covering  lines  and  a  determined  stand  by  the  defence 
upon  the  third  main  positions — a  development  which  neces- 
sarily meant  very  much  heavier  losses  in  the  attack  than  for 
the  defence.  At  one  point  only  did  the  assailants  seize  any 
portion  of  the  main  line.  This  was  in  a  very  important 
direction  where  presumably  they  had  thrown  the  greater 
part  of  their  weight.  They  came  down  the  valley  of  the 
little  river  Matz,  past  Ressons,  a  movement  representing 
an  advance  of  five  miles  and,  what  was  more  important,  a 
movement  which  begins  the  turning  of  the  strong  defensive 
position  known  as  the  Hills  of  Lassigny.  The  western  haJf 
of  the  hills  was,  by  Monday  night,  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy  ; 
but  the  Matz  Valley  to  the  west,  if  it  can  be  further  pene- 
trated, outflanks  them  altogether. 

*  «  * 

Though  this  last  move  has  a  direct  territorial  significance, 
being  clearly  an  effort  to  reduce  the  French  salient  towards 
Noyon  and  to  flatten  out  the  Allied  line,  we  must  never  lose 
sight  of  the  -main  truth,  that  the  enemy's  whole  object  is 
neither  to  reach  a  particular  point  in  space  nor  to  achieve  a 
particular  conformation  of  his  line,  but  to  reduce  the  forces 
opposed  to  him  in  men  and  material  while  he  yet  has  a 
superiority  in  numbers  (that  is,  .during  the  course  of  the 
present  summer)  to  such  a  point  that  the  struggle  can  no 
longer  be  continued.  In  this  effort  everything  will  turn 
upon  the  proportion  between  the  losses  which  he  suffers  and 
those  which  he  inflicts. 

He  has  captured,  first  and  last,  by  his  own  account,  since 
he  began  his  offensive,  not  far  short  of  2,000  pieces  and 
well  over  150,000  men,  yhile  he  has  accounted  in  permanent 
and  temporary  loss  otl>er  than  prisoners  for  some  much  larger 
number,  which  is,  of  course,  unknowif.  But  he  has  only 
achieved  this  by  throwing  in  the  equivalent  by  this  time  of 
nearer  300  than  200  divisions.  He  has  actually  used  for 
shock  close  on  three-quarters  of  his  available  units,  has  put 
in  at  least  one-third  of  them  twice,  and  a  similar  number 
three  and  even  four  times. 

We  know  the  length  of  the  pause  that  was  imposed  on  him 
by  his  losses  in  the  first  two  actions — the  second  battle  of 
the  Somme  and  the  battle  of  the  Lys.  Those  losses  com- 
pelled a  halt  for  recruitment  of  a  full  month.  But  save  for 
that  indication,  we  have  very  meagre  sources  of  information 
as  to  his  total  loss.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  until  the  reaction 
began  in  the  last  battle  of  the  Tardenois  his  losses  were 
lighter  than  in  either  of  the  other  two  preceding  struggles. 


The  Imperial  War  Cabinet  reassembles  this  week.  Apart 
from  practical  purposes,  it  is  symbolical  of  the  greater  cohe- 
sion of  the  British  Empire  which  the  war  has' brought  about. 
Not  only  are  the  self-governing  Dominions  adequately  repre- 
sented, but  India  again  finds  a  place  at  the  board.  At  this 
Imperial  Cabinet  questions  of  the  first  moment  will  be  dis- 
cussed. Australia  and  New  Zealand  have  clearly  defined 
ideas  on  the  purification  of  the  Pacific  from  the  Teuton 
taint.  South  Africa  will  also  have  something  to  say  on  the 
same  subject  as  it  affects  Africa  a/id  of  the  peril  of  allowing 
any  Power  a  free  hand  which  aims  at  building  up  a  well- 
flisciplined  army  recruited^  from  the  more  war-like  native 
tribes.  Canada  has  questions  of  her  own,  and  all  are  naturally 
interested  to  arrive  at  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  policy 
under  which  the  war  is  carried  on.  And  then  there  are  for 
consideration  economic  questions  of.  the  first  importance, 
though  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  at  this  stage  the  most  of  them 
can  be  conclusively  decided.  The  great  value  of  this  Imperial 
Council  is  that  it  impresses  on  the  constituent  parts  of  the 
Empire  that  they  have  everything  in  common  as  regards 
principles  and  ideals,  but  that  the  ways  are  necessarily 
divergent,  by  which  t^ey  are  compelled  through  circumstance 
peculiar  to  each,  to  work  them  out.  This  in  itself  is  an 
accomplishment,  for  it  removes  misunderstandings. 

•  «  • 

India's  representation  on  this  occasion  is  notable.  Mr. 
Montagu,  the  Secretary  of  State,  has  just'  returned  from  a 
tour  through  the  Indian  Empire,  where  he  enjoyed  the  most 
exceptional  opportunities  of  discussing  native  aims  and 
ambitions  with  representative  men  of  its  multiple  races, 
classes,  creeds,  and  civilisations.  He  must  have  returned  to 
Whitehall  with  a  very  clear  view  of  the  complex  and  intricate 
problems  which  confront  British  statesmanship  in  the  East. 
Associated  with  Mr.  Montagu  is  the  Maharajah  of  Patiala, 
head  of  the  leading  Sikh  State.  The  Sikh  is  not  only  a 
splendid  soldier,  but  has  been  quick  to  acquire  Western 
education,  which,  when  ill-digested,  has  rendered  him  at 
times  an  easy  prey  to  wily  German-bribed  agitators.  The 
loyalty  of  the  Sikh  people  has  never  been  in  question,  and  an 
intrigue  that  two  or  three  years  ago  threatened  dangerously 
was  mainly  suppressed  through  infonnation  they  themselves 
willingly  supplied  to  the  authorities.  The  other  Indian 
rep  resent  at  i-ve  is  Sir  Satyendra  Sinha,  who  filled  the  same 
high  position  last  year.  A  barrister  by  profession,  Lincoln's 
Inn,  he  was  ten  years  Advocate-General  of  Bengal  before 
being  summoned  to  the  Viceroy's  Executive  Council. 
«  «  • 

It  is  exactly  a  year  ago  to-day,  though,  of  course,  last  year 
June  13th  fell  on  a  Wednesday,  that  London  was  first  raided 
by  a  squadron  of  Gothas.  They  came  over  at  eleven  in  the 
morning ;  crowds  thronged  the  streets  to  watch  the  show  ; 
most  of  the  bombs  fell  on  the  western  outskirts  of  the  City. 
No  harm  was  done  to  the  invading  machines  ;  the  firing  of 
anti-aircraft  guns  was  desultory,  and  afterwards  considerable 
indignation  was  expressed  at  the  fall  of  shrapnel  in  manv 
districts.  It  was  thought  then  by  the  majority  that  we 
ought  to  regard  these  raids  in  much  the  same  light  as 
thunderstorms.  Not  until  three  months  later — in  Septem- 
ber— were  the  defences  of  London  organised  on  their  present 
lines.  There  has  been  a  steady  improvement  in  these  defences 
since  that  date ;  though  it  is  understood  that  under  favour- 
able conditions  of  weather- and  visibility,  raids  on  even  a 
bigger  scale  than  hitherto  must  be  expected,  yet  London 
now  realises  that  the  enemy  cannot  hit  at  us  without  being 
hit  back  ;  the  fun  is  not  to  be  all  on  his  side.  The  public 
mind  has  passed  through  many  phases  since  curiosity  was 
the  prevailing  emotion,  and  the  climax  was  probably  reached 
by  a  London  working  woman,  who  the  other  day  remarked  that 
she  rather  liked  an  air-raid,  as  it  took  her  mind  off  the  war. 

•  ■  *  » 

Looking  back,  the  most  extraordinary  features  about  these 
raids  was  the  objection  raised  by  educated  and  responsible 
persons  in  many  walk-s  of  life  against  our  invasion  of  German 
cities  on  the  same  scale.  These  good  people  boggled  over 
the  word  "reprisals";  they  admitted  we  had  the  right  of 
defence,  but  denied  our  right  to  defend  ourselves  by  means 
of  offence.  That  bad  argument  has  gone  the  way  of  many 
other  bad  arguments.  America  has  taken  warning  from  this 
experience.  Instead  of  talking  of  reprisals,  her  Secretary 
of  State  uses  the  more  accurate  phrase  "reciprocal  action." 
Mr.  Lansing  has  suggested  to  the  German  Gov'/rnment  that 
if  it  acts  brutally  to  American  prisoners  of  war  it  will  inevit- 
ably be  understood  to  invite  similar  reciprocal  action  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States."  It  is  a  pity  that  the  British 
Government  did  not  make  the  same  suggestion  in  equally 
plain  language  months  ago.  No  one  doubts — not  even  the 
German— that  the  United  States  will  act  reciprocally, 
promptly,  and  effectively   if   compelled   to. 


June  13,   191 8 


Land   &   Water 


Battle  of  the  Matz:  By  Hilaire  Belloc 


ON  Sunday  morning,  June  9th,  at  4.30  a.m.,  the 
fourth  attack  of  the  great  German  offensive  was 
launched  upon  a  front  of  22  miles  between 
Montdidier  and  Noyon.  The'  action  was  com- 
plementary to  that  which  had  broken  the  front 
between  Soissons  and  Rheims,  and  was  intended,  so  far  as 
mere  ground  is  concerned,  to  eliminate  the  salient  of  Noyon, 
but  much  more  to  continue  the  general  task  of  destroj'ing 
the  Allied  front  and  diminishing  it  to  the  point  of  decisive 
inferiority  in  numbers  of  men  and  material. 

In  the  course  of  this  first  day  the  battle  developed  not  as 
in  the  case  of  Armentieres  and  Soissons,  by  a  clean  break,  but 
on  the  model  of  the  first  thrust  of  March  21st,  in  the  shape  of 
very  stubborn  resistance  by  the  defenders  and  correspondingly 
exaggerated  loss  for  the  attack. 

In  order  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  line  and  of  the 
attempt  to  force  it,  we  must  study  the  ground  and  especially 
observe  its  main  feature,  which  is  the  mass  of  wooded  hills 
known  as  the  Heights  of  Lassigny,  the  turning  and  conse- 
quent evacuation  of  which  will  be  the  immediate  purpose 
of  the  enemy. 

The  line  from  Montdidier  to  Noyon  is  divided  into  two 
almost  equal  halves  by  the  valley  of  a  Uttle  river  called  the 
Matz.  On  the  west  or  left  of  this  stream  there  is  a  sector 
about  10  or  ir  miles  long  nmning  up  from  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  village  called  Haut  Matz  to  Mesnil  St.  George,  opposite 
Montdidier.  This  sector  runs  through  open  country  with 
no  very  pronounced  heights  on  rolling  fields  or  arable  land 
and  a  very  few  small  woods.  ' 

The  other,  or  western,  sector,  from  the  Matz  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Noyon,  is  sUghtly  shorter — not  quite  10  miles — 
and  of  a  totally  different  character.  It  consists  in  a  great 
body  of  high  land  rising  to  nearly  600  feet  above  the  sea 
and  400  above  the  water  levels,  known,  as  I  have  said,  as  the 
Hills  of  Lassigny,  from  the  little  town  now  in  German  hands 
which  lies  to  the  north.  These  hills  are  everywhere  wooded, 
especially  upon  their  northern  slopes  looking  towards  the 
enemy,  and  they  form  a  strong  defensive  position.  Through- 
out much  the  greater  part  of  their  length  they  form  one 
united  ridge,  which  gets  Higher  as  one  goes  from  east  to  west ; 
but  at  their  extreme  western  end,  near  the  Matz  Valley,  they 
break  off  into  an  isolated  lump  covered  with  wood  about 
100  feet  below  the  neighbouring  summit  of  the  Lassigny 
Hills,  and  separated  from  them  by  a  sharply  marked  valley 
150  feet  in  depth.  At  the  mouth  of  this  valley  is  the  village 
of  Gury.  At  the  far  or  southern  end  of  the  lump,  where  it 
falls  down  on  to  the  Matz,  is  the  large  village  of  Ressons. 
As  is  clear  from  the  map,  a  successful  thrust  not  only  up  to 
Ressons,  but  right  round  down  the  valley  of  the  Matz 
would  turn  all  the  obstacle  of  the  Lassigny  Hills.  It 
would  give  the  enemy  Bellinglise  Plateau  and  Thiescourt 
Wood  and  possession  of  the  chief  natural  obstacle  be- 
tween him  and  the  Oise. 

Position  on  Sunday 

When  night  fell,  upon  Sunday,  what  had  happened  upon 
the  line  as  a  whole  was  this  : 

All  the  main  positions  of  the  first  sector  down  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Matz  were  held,  which  everywhere  stood 
the  shock.  But  in  the  centre,  along  the  valley  of  the  Matz 
itself,  the  enemy  had  got  as  far  as  Ressons,  and  had  therefore 
begun  to  turn  the  heights  of  Lassigny.  His  direct  attack 
upon  those  heights  had  led  to  nothing.  He  was  held  all 
round  the  southern  base  of  them  from  Ville  to  Belval.  He 
had  got  Gury  and  the  isolated  heights  above  it.     The  danger- 


point,  therefore,  at  this  moment,  was  his  thrust  up  the  valley 
of  the  Matz  and  his  appearance  at  Ressons. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  in  this  the  fourth  of  the  blows 
delivered  by  the  Germans  for  a  decision  upon  the  Western 
front,  the  element  of  surprise,  which  he  has  certainly  found 
himself  capable  of  restoring  to  war,  was  hardly  present. 

There  was  a  very  strong  contrast  here  between  the  attack 
of  May  27th  and  that  of  June  gth.  The  attack  of  May  27th 
between  Soissons  and  Rheims  used  the  factor  of  surprise 
more  completely  than  any  other  attack  in  the  course  of  the 
whole  war  in  the  West.  Seven  divisions— four,  at  least,  of 
which  were  fatigued — found  themselves  opposed  to  25  at  a 
'  moment's  notice,  and  it  is  clear  from  the  further  development 
of  the  battle  that  such  a  blow  upon  this  sector  was  not 
expected.  But  the  Noyon-Montdidier  frdnt  was,  after  the 
battle  of  the  Tardenois,  so  obviously  the  front  that  would 
give  the  best  results  that  even  the  prophets,  who  for  some 
inscrutable  reason  stiU  cpntinue  to  prophesy,  had  remarked  it. 

It  is  clear  that  the  enemy  deliberately  sacrificed  the  advan- 
tage of  surprise  to  the  greater  advantage  of  the  results  that 
would  be  reaped  by  success  upon  this  hne. 

There  is  at  the  moment  of  writing — that  is,  upon  the 
dispatches  of  Sunday  night  and  Monday  morning,  when  the 
battle  had  been  in  progress  only  30  hours — no  criterion  at  aU 
of  the  two  main  points  upon  which  a  judgment  of  results 
would  be  formed,  the  extent  of  the  pressure  in  the  Matz 
Valley,  and  the  comparative  rate  of  losses  of  offence  and 
defence  along  the  whole  22  miles.  We  have  not  yet  even 
an  estimate  of  the  numbers  of  the  attacking  -force  in  the 
first  shock  {see  postscript  on  page  7). 

The  Tardenois  Battle     , 

On  the  Tardenois  battlefield  the  characteristic  of  the  week 
has  been  the  temporary  stabiUsation  of  the  new  front  by  the 
German  success  in  the  department  of  the  Aisne :  That  is, 
the  front  running  from  Noyon  to  the  west  of  Soissons,  so 
round  to  the  Mame  at  Chateau-Thierry,  up  that  river  beyond 
Dormans  to  near  Verneuil  and  then  up  from  Vemeuil  round 
Rheims :  a  perimeter  of  altogether  about  90  miles  without 
counting  smaller  sinuosities. 

This  stabiUsation  of  the  front  means  bringing  up  Allied 
forces  in  sufficient  amount  to  counter  enemy  pressure.  It 
does  not  mean  that  the  Allied  forces  thus  brought  up  are 
equivalent  to  the  50  German  divisions  within  the  great 
salient  Soissons-Chateau-Thierry-Rheims.  There  would  be 
no  meaning  in  countering  an  offensive  thrust  by  a  weight 
equal  to  that  thrust.  What  it  means  is  that  from 
the  eighth  day  of  the  offensive  onwards  the  advance  was 
held.  In  other  words  there  has  taken  place  here  exactly 
what  took  place  on  a  larger  scale  after  the  stroke  of  March 
22nd,  between  Arras  and  St.  Quentin,  and  after  the  second 
attack  on  April  9th,  between  La  Bass^e  and  Armentieres. 

As  one  might  expect,  this  third  great  German  effort 
has  features  closely  comparable  to  the  other  two.  For 
instance,  the  first  great  German  thrust,  running  its  course 
in  about  ten  days,  was  held  upon  a  triangle,  the  two  comers 
of  the  base  of  which  were  strongly  defended  at  Arras  and 
between  St.  Quentin  and  Noyon,  but  one  of  these  comers 
by  vigorous  effort  was  enlarged  down  to  Noyon.  In  the 
same  way  the  second  thmst,  which  was  on  a  smaller  scale, 
produced  a  triangular  sahent  of  almost  exactly  the  same 
shape,  firmly  held  at  the  La  Bassee  comer,  but  enlarged 
at  the  Armentieres  comer.  This  last  has  produced  its  triangle 
firmly  held  at  the  Rheims  comer  but  enlarged  at  the  Soissons 
comer.      The  plan  and   its    development  have  in  each  case 


Tvlbntduikr 


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LuieofMwdqynvrninifJuueJo'^1^3 . 


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Tvlbrfemtr* 


n^Ues 


Land   &   Water 


June  13,  1918 


been  exactly  the  same.  A  broken  front :  A  rapid  advance 
through  the  gap  straight  ahead  :  The  rushing  up  of  Alhed 
troops  to  stop  the  movement  upon  either  side,  tlius  pro- 
ducing the  triangle  :  Violent  efforts  by  the  enemy  to  enlarge 
himself,  wlflch  result  in  the  pusliing  back  of  one  of  the  corners 
at  the  base  of  the  triangle.  At  the  end  of  the  affair  stabil- 
isation. 

In  each  case  there  have  been  very  vigorous  efforts  made 
after  stabilisation  upon  the  part  of  the  enemy  to  drive  back 
one  side  of  the  triangle,  or  both.  In  thi^  last  great  business 
all  the  weight  of  the  enemy  has  been  put  into  trying  to  push 
back  the  Western  side  of  the  salient  he  has,  created.  It  is 
in  this  effort  he  has  lost  most  men,  and  it  is  here  that  the  re- 
action agciinst  him  has  been  most  violent  and  successful. 

It  is  important  for  an  understanding  of  the  battle  to  appre- 
ciate that  the  enemy  has  not,  especially  in  the  last  of  these 
three  efforts,  a  pre-determined  plan.  That  was  a  point  which 
we  insisted  upon  last  week.  The  more  he  came  to  see  that 
his  new  tactical  method  gave  him  the  power  to  break  a  front, 
the  more  he  trusted  to  merely  breaking  the  chosen  sector, 
and  then  following  such  fortunes  as  very  rapid  advance 
through  the  breach  might  give  him. 

Thus  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  he  intended,  if  possible,  to 
force  the  obstacle  of  the  Mame,  and  that  only  on  the  failure 
to  do  so  did  he  put'his  full  weight  against  the  West.  The  idea 
that  he  went  up  as  far  as  the  Mame,  and  then  dehberately 
used  it  like  the  Oise  in  a  former  case  as  a  flank  guard  for  an 
advance  west,  will  not  hold  water.  .He  made  the  most  de- 
termined efforts  on  June  ist,  June  2nd,  and  June  3rd,  to 
cross  the  river,  and  was  fairly  beaten.  What  is  true  in  regard 
to  the  whole  great  business  from  April  4th  onwards,  is  that 
he  has  a  general  thesis  before  him  of  reducing  the  Allied 
Armies  by  repeated  blows  all  along  the  line,  but  of  a  particu- 
lar strategic  conception  following  after  each  success  in  creat- 
ing a  rupture  of  the  Allied  line  there  is  no  trace.  There  is  no 
reason  from  his  point  of  view  why  he  should  draw  up  any 
such  particular  plans.  The  great  achievement  is  to  break 
an  organised  froni.  That  done,  the  fortunes  of  the  masses 
pouring  through  afterwards  must  necessarily  be  left  to  develop- 
ments upon  the  field. 

If  we  follow  in  detail  all  round  the  new  salient  the  gradually 
increasing  counter  pressure  of  the  AlUes  from  Monday, 
June  3rd,  to  Saturday,  June  8th,  inclusive,  we  shall  discover 
that  upon  Tuesday,  June  41)1,  came  the  lull  or  check  to  the 
enemy's  general  advance,  which  was  followed  by  either  his 
being  held  in  most  places,  or  actually  pushed  back.  Tuesday,' 
June  4th,  was  the  end  of  the  first  great  phase.  It  was  after 
this  date,  Tuesday,  June  4th,  that  he  haei  to  make  up  his  mind 
whether  he  would  pursue  his  advantage  by  throwing  in  fur- 
ther forces  beyond  the  fifty  divisions  already  used,  or  limit 
himself  to  the  lines  he  had  already  established- and  use  his 
dispensible  margin  elsewhere.     He  has  decided,  as  we  have 


seen,  for  the  sccoikI  policy,  a 
between  Montdidier  and  Noydn. 

On  Monday,  June  3rd,  his 
Marne  had  failed,  as  we  shall 


id  has  launched  a  fourth  blow 


second  attempt   to  cross   the 
see  in  a  later  description  of  it. 


It  was  the  attempt  of  Jaulgo  ine,  following  upon  the  failure 


of  the  previous  day  at  Chateau-Thierry.  But  on  that  day 
he  had  taken  the  dominating  hill  just  west  of  Chateau- 
Thierry,  which  was  so  conspicuous  an  object  above  the  valley 
of  the  Marne,  and  which  is  known  to  the  French  soldiers  as 
Hill  204.  He  had  pushed  on  past  Monthiers  to  the  vaUey  of 
the  Chgnon  Stream,  in  which  lie  Torcy  and  Bouresches. 
He  had  thrown  the  French  back  to  the  heights  on  the  South 
of  the  Valley,  and  had  got  right  forward  to  Veuilly  La  Poterie, 
in  his  furthest  extension  westward.  At  the  same  time  he  had 
enlarged  his  corner  at  Soissons,  got  right  up  on  to  the  hills 
which  dominate  the  town  from  the  West,  taken  Chaudun, 
and  approached  the  Villers  Cotterets  Forest,  which  is  the 
great  obstacle  against  him  in  this  neighbourhood.  During 
all  that  Monday  the  French  just  held  him  at  Faverolles  and, 
on  the  extreme  north  near  Noyon,  recovered  the  wooded  hill 
called  Choisy,  which  overlooks  the  crossing  of  the  Oise. 

Taking  it  all  in  all,  this  Monday,  June  3rd,  was  a  rapid 
and  successful  extension  of  the  German  effort  westward,  but 
was  also  the  end  of  the  first  phase  in  the  battle.  For  on 
June  4th,  Tuesday,  the  re-action  began  to  tell.  A  lull  was 
noticed  in  the  German  infant  rj'  efforts,  and  with  Wednesday, 
the  5th,  everything  changed.  The  offensive  was  halted  and 
the  enemy  was  beginning  his  plans  for  the  new  attack  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Noyon  corner.  The  delay  was  precisely 
that  of  last  April.  In  that  month  he  broke,  on  the  4th,  against 
the  reorganised  defence.  He  struck  before  Lille  on  the 
9th,  the  same  dates  as  mark  this  smaller  June  battle. 

There  was  on  that  day  a  very  violent  etiemy  effort  to  cross 
the  Oise  just  south  of  Noyon,  but  the  French  recovery  of 
the  Choisy  Hill  48  hours  before  ^caused  that  effort  to  fail 
at  some  expense.  The  French  re-acted  and  gained  a  certain 
amount  of  ground  north  of  the  Aisne,  and  the  last  enemy 
thrust  into  the  edge  of  the  Forest  of  Villers-Cotterets  failed. 
The  edges  of  the  wood  were  occupied  for  a  moment,  but 
afterwards  completely  cleared. 

The  enemy  further  marked  the  end  of  the  first  phase 
by  summing  up,  as  has  been  his  habit  after  each  of  these 
great  efforts  of  his,  the  toll  in  prisoners  and  guns.  He  claimed 
55,000  prisoners  and  650  pieces. 

On  Thursday  the  6th,  the  Allied  re-action  became  more 
marked,  or  the  enemy  cessation  more  clear,  whichever  way 
one  cares  to  put  it.  On  the  east  of  the  salient,  Bligny  village, 
which  the  enemy  had  carried,  was  partly  re-occupied  by  the 
British,  and  the  enemy  attempt  against  Champlat'  was 
completely  broken,  while  the  French  on  the  other  side  of  the 
salient,  that  is  on  the  west,  advanced  their  line  nearly  1000 
yards,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Veuilly  La  Poterie. 

On  Friday  the  7th,  the  full  weight  of  the  re-action  appeared. 
Bligny  was  entirely  re-occupied ;  the  French  advanced 
right  past  Veuilly  La  Poterie  ;  American  forces  to  their 
right  got  up  to  Torcy,  and,  mixed  with  the  French,  as  far 
as  and  even  beyond  Bouresches.  Most  important  of  all, 
the  great  dominating  hill  known  as  Hill  204  above  Chateau- 
Thierry,  was  recovered  by  the  French  upon  that  dav.  On 
the  8th,  Saturday,  a  further  French  advance  from  Veuilly 
La  Poterie  reached  Eloup. 

The    position   upon    the  evening  of  that  day,  Saturday. 


June  13,  19 1 8 


Land   &   Water 


June  8th,  the  13th  day  of  the  battle,  the  fourth  of  the  Allied 
re-action,  and  the  eve  of  .the  new  attack  along  the  Matz, 
north  of  Paris,  was,  running  from  north  on  the  Oise  near 
Noyon  southward  to  the  Marne,  near  Chateau-Thierry  and 
then  up  north  to  Rheims,  as  follows  : — 

An  attempt  to  enlarge  the  corner  near  Noyon  by  crossing 
the  Oise  cast  of  Sempigny  had  failed.  The  dominating 
hill  of  Choisy  overlooking  the  Oise  Valley  had  been  recovered 
by  the  French.  The  line  thence  ran  in  front  of  Moulin- 
sous-Tousvent  to  the  Aisne  at  Port,  just  west  of  Fontenoy. 
It  crosses  the  high  table-land  to  the  corner  of  the  forest  of 
Villers  Cotterets,  of  which  it  forbade  the  entrance,  ran  down 
along  the  ravine  of  the  Savieres  all  along  the  edge  of  the  forest 
past  Longpont  and  Corey,  covering  Faverolles  and  Troesnes 
where  the  Savieres  joins  the  Ourcq.     Thence  it  turned  a' 


corner,  recapturing  the  valley 'marked  by  the  villages,  Eloup, 
Torcy,  Boureschcs,  coming  to  the  Marne  at  the  recently 
conquered  Hill  204  above  Chateau-Thierry."  It  followed 
the  Marne  eastward  for  a  distance  of  about  12  or  14  miles 
to  Verneuil,  going  past  the  point  of  Jaulgonne  where  the 
second  attempt  to  cross  the  river  had  failed  five  days  before. 
At  Verneuil  the  line  went  up  east  of  the  main  road  to  Rheims, 
backward  against  the  great  forest  and  hill  group  known  as 
the  "Mountain  of  Rheims."  It  covered  Champlat,  against 
which  the  enemy's  attack  had  broken  with  ver\'  heavy  loss, 
and,  on  the  valley  of  the  little  river  Ardre,  it  covered  the  domin- 
ating isolated  promontory  of  Bligny,  from  which  one  over- 
looks all  the  Ardre  valley,  and  the  village  below.  Thence  it 
carried  on  round  Rheims,  quite  close  to  the  town  on  every 
side,  but  still  covering  the  ruins  of  that  place. 


Nature  of  the  Crisis 


THERE  is  some  danger  of  public  opinion  misappre- 
hending the  nature  of  the  very  grave  crisis  through 
which  the  Allied  cause  is  now  passing.  I  do  not  say 
that  there  is  a  danger  of  its  gravity  being  under-estimated, 
but  of  its  nature  being  misunderstood,  with  consequences 
that  might  lead  either  to  an  exaggeration  of  our  danger, 
great  as  it  is,  or,  what  would  be  still  more  unwise,  an  under- 
estimate of  it.  It  is  essential  now,  as  always,  to  get  as 
e.xact  a  view  as  possible,  and  to  be  as  much  as  possible  in 
touch  with  reality.  In  order  to  do  that,  the  very  first  thing 
for  us  to. appreciate  is  that  the  enemy's  new  tactics  permit 
of  surprise. 

How  long  this  will  be  the  case  we  do  not  know.  We  also 
may  develop  the  element  of  surprise  in  some  new  form.  All 
that  is  for  the  future.  But  for  the  moment  the  enemy  has 
undoubtedly  brought  into  the  field  this  new  factor.  It  has 
been  reluctantly  admitted,  but  now  it  must  be  admitted. 
The  other  thing  which  goes  to  make  up  our  present  strain  is, 
of  course,  his  numerical  superiority.  On  that,  I  think, 
public  opinion  is  quite  clear,  though  perhaps  its  extent  is  not 
fully  grasped.  Monsieur  Clemenceau  spoke  the  other  day 
publicly  of  an  excess  of  50  divisions.  That  was  speaking  in 
round  numbers.  There  are  probably  upon  the  West  to-day 
an  excess  of  46.  But  one  can  never  be  quite  certain,  because 
units  on  both  sides  are  in  movement,  and  there  may  still  be 
some  reinforcement  for  the  enemy  from  the  East.  Since 
the  enemy  has  presumably  206  divisions  in  the  West, 
we  are  speaking,  roughly,  of  his  superiority  over  the  Allies 
for  the  moment  in  a  proportion  of  25  per  cent.,  the 
Allies  are  fighting  in  the  proportion  of  rather  more  than  7 
against  10. 

But  that  is,  I  think,  generally  clear  to  the  public  mind. 
What  it  must  also  appreciate  is  this  vital  element  of  surprise. 
He  used  it  fully  on  May  27th,  the  fore  event  in  his  last 
attack  of  Sunday,  but  he  always  has  it  ready. 

For  the  first  j'ears  of  entrenched  warfare  after  the  Western 
line  had  become  a  siege  hne  in  the  late  autumn  of  1914,  it 
was  a  commonplace  that  surprise  was  no  longer  possible. 
The  concentration  of  great  masses  of  men  and  material  in 
amounts  never  before  known,  coupled  with  the  wholly  novel 
form  of  intelligence  provided  by  aircraft,  had  eliminated 
this  capital  element  of  success.  For  years  it  reappeared 
upon  neither  side. 

In  the  East  the  enemy  succeeded  in  piercing  the  Russian 
line  at  Gorlitz  three  years  ago,  not  by  surprise,  but  through 
his  immense  preponderance  in  material.  He  was  highly 
industrialised,  and  the  Russian  State  was  not  industrialised 
at  all  ;  so  that  once  the  war  was  seen  to  require  a  vast 
mechanical  output  from  modern  factories  the  Central  Empires 
could  indefinitely  out-weapon  the  Russians. 

But  in  the  West,  where  industrial  conditions  grew  more 
equal,  there  could  be  no  such  result ;  each  party  attempting 
to  break  the  line^  failed  because  it  was  never,  possible  to 
conceal  concentration  for  attack.  Neither  the  earlj'  German 
effort  on  the  Yser,  and  at  Arras,  and  at  Ypres,  nor  the  succeed- 
ing French  effort  in  the  Artois,  nor  the  twin  blows  at  Loos 
and  in  Champagne  of  September,  1915,  nor  the  tremendous 
attack  on  Verdun  from  February  to  July,  1916,  nor  the 
great  Somme  battle  of  the  later  summer,  nor  the  spring 
offensives  of  1917,  French  and  English,  nor  the  succeeding 
great  British  movement  which  bears  the  name  of  Passchen- 
daele  succeeded  in  making  a  true  breach  by  which  rapid 
advance  could  pour  through  the  opponent's  lines,  and  (even 
though  no  decision  was  attained)  could  yet  capture  at  one 
blow  very  great  numbers  of  prisoners  and  guns,  and  compel 
a  very  deep^retirement. 


The  first  occasion  on  which  a  Western  line  was  really 
broken  in  this  sense  was  at  Caporetto  last  autumn.  Then 
came,  as  we  know,  the  highly  successful  experiment  with  the 
tanks  in  front  of  Cambrai,  but  without  the  weight  behind  it 
to  follow  up. 

The  enemy's  new  tactic  of  surprise — that  is,  of  concentra- 
tion unobserved  or  not  fully  observed,  or,  at  any  rate,  of 
massing  very  rapidly  upon  a  particular  point  where  there 
was  an  insufficient  counter-concentration  against  him — 
appeared  fully  last  March,  and  we  then  had  a  true  breach  in 
the  Western  line,  which  was  only  restored  between  30  and 
40  miles  back  after  an  immense  offensivfe  salient  had  been 
produced  with  its  front  pointing  at  Amiens.  The  attempt  to 
use  the  new  tactic  for  the  enlargement  of  this  salient  and  for 
the  breaking  of  one  of  its  corners  failed.  But  another  use 
of.it  on  the  north  succeeded  on  the  Lys,  and  produced  the 
smaller  pocket  or  salient  east  and  south  of  Ypres.  For 
both  those  enemy  successes  special  causes  could  perhaps  be 
discovered,  but  it  was  beginning  to  be  clear  that  the  element 
o^  surprise  was  the  main  feature.  Now,  since  May  27th,  on 
the  front  between  Soissons  and  Rheims,  it  is  clear  to  every 
one. 

We  must  bear  that  well  in  mind  if  we  are  to  understand 
the  position  in  the  next  few  months.  It  is  this  new  element 
of  surprise  that  will  have  to  be  mastered  and  countered 
while  the  element  of  numbers  is  being  slowly  turned  to  our 
advantage  by  the  increase  of  the  American  contingents. 

Comparative  Losses 

There  is,  of  course,  another  element,  so  far  a  very  uncer- 
tain one,  but  ultimately  determinant  of  the  whole  affair, 
which  is  the  comparative  rate  of  loss.  I  have  already  dealt 
with  that  as  fully  as  the  evidence  admitted  in  the  case  of 

the  first  great  offensive  and  in  the  case  of  the  second  battle 

that  of  the  Lys. 

The  third  case,  the  battle  of  the  Tardenois,  is  one  upon 
which  we  have  as  yet  hardly  any  evidence  at  all,  but  we 
must  beware  of  estimating  the  difference  between  the  losses 
of  offence  and  defence  at  a  projiortion  as  high  as  we  could 
estimate  it  in.the  former  cases.  It  is  clear  first  that  the  general 
attack  succeeded  almost  at  once  and,  secondly,  that  it  was 
followed  by  so  very  rapid  an  advance  as  argued  no  immediate 
power  of  causing  during  that  advance  grave  loss  to  theassailant. 
The  numerous  prisoners  lost  by  the  Allies  are  definitive 
losses,  and  meanwhile,  in  the  first  stages  of  the  action  the 
only  places  where  there  was  apparently  .serious  excess  of 
loss  to  the  offensive  were  the  two  corners  which  held  near 
Soissons  and  round  Rheims.  In  the  latter  stages  of  the 
action  it  has  been  otherwise.  The  arrival  of  reinforcement, 
especially  in  machine-guns  and  artillery,  the  necessity  under 
which  the  enemy  was  to  attack  in  the  open  in  order  to  defend 
and  extend  his  flanks,  the  hampering  of  his  communications 
after  so  rapid  an  advance,  his  use  of  perhaps  50  divisions, 
41  of  which  have  been  identified  in  the  heat  of  the  action—^ 
all  these  meant  presumably,  after  the  first  four  days,  a  higher 
and  increasing  rate  of  loss  to  the  offensive  as  compared  with 
the  defensive.  It  is  mere  conjecture,  but  that  is  how  the 
very  slight  evidence  available  shapes  itself. 

As  to  the  comparative  rates  of  loss  in  the  fourth  attack, 
which  is  developing  as  we  write,  there  is  as  yet  (Monday^ 
June  10)  no  evidence  at  all. 

Another  error  against  which  we  must  guard  ourselves 
is  the  error  of  false  historical  parallel,  and  in  this  case  partic- 
ularly the  false  parallel  of  the  Marne. 

Great    errors   have   been    committed    by   public   opinion 


Land    &    Water 


June  13,  1 91 8 


through  the  use  of  historical  parallels  during  this  war.  Of 
the  two  extremes  in  the  use  of  historical  parallels  it  is  far 
better  to  exaggerate  their  use  than  to  neglect  it.  Since  there 
is  no  methodical  study,  of  history  in  our  Universities  and 
no  study  at  all  outside  the  Universities,  save  on  the  part 
of  private  individuals,  the  tendency  is  to  follow  historical 
parallel  far  too  blindly  in  very  well-known  cases  and  to  neglect 
altogether  the  great  mass  of  less  known  cases. 
OA  good  example  of  this  was  to  be  seen  during  the  Austro- 
German  advance  through  Poland  three  years  ago.  Because 
Napoleon  had  invaded  Russia  and  had  thereby  destroyed 
himself,  people  were  perpetually  comparing  one  campaign 
with  the  other.  There  was  nothing  in  common.  The 
Austro-German  advance  was  undertaken  with  full  aiid 
constant  industrial  supply  against  a  force  which  had  ex- 
hausted its  industrial  supply  and  could  produce  no  more. 
It  was  an  advanbe  in  Une  between  the  Bukovina  and  the 
Baltic.  Napoleon's  advance  was  an  advance  in  column.  It 
was  a  slow  advance  by  repeated  salients  reduced.  Napoleon's 
advance  depended  upon  such  rapidity  as  the  means  of  that 
time  commanded.  When  Napoleon  reached  the  end  of  his 
effort  at  Moscow  he  had  about  one-tenth  of  his  forces  remaining 
directly  under  his  command.  His  hnes  of  communication 
were  single  or  double  ;  enormously  extended  and  in  terms 
of  time  might  be  measured  as  from  one  month  to  two.  The 
Austro-German  advance  went  not  one-third  of  the  way. 
Its  lines  of  communication  were  in  terms  of  time  two  or  three 
days.  Its  forces  in  hand  at  the  end  of  its  efforts  quite  two- 
thirds  of  that  with  which  it  began  them.  Its  communications 
were  absolutely  secure  and  rapid,  and,  above  all,  it  fought 
at  the  end  of  its  effort  with  all  available  modern  weapons 
while  its  enemy  was  denuded  of  these.  Even  so,  the  Austro- 
German  effort  failed.  It  came  to  a  standstill,  though 
pohtically,  and  much  later,  it  broke  up  under  the  strain  what 
had  been  the  Russian  State.  But,  at  any  rate,  there  was 
never  any  parallel  between  tliis  business  arid  the  busi- 
ness of  1812.  You  might  as  well  try  to  discover  a 
parallel  between  the  affair  of  the  Dardanelles  and  the  Siege 
of  Trey. 

False  Parallel  of  the  Marne 

Now  after  the  latest  German  victory,  somethmg  of  the 
same  sort  is  apparent.  Because  the  word  "Marne"  has 
come  up  again  in  the  Press,  one  has  acres  of  stuff  written  upon 
the  supposed  parallel  between  1914  and  1918.  Chateau- 
Thierry,  where  the  enemy  failed  to  cross  on  the  night  of 
June  1st,  is  on  the  Marne.  Jaulgonne,  where  the  Americans 
destroyed  their  attempt  to  cross  again  two  days  later,  is  on 
the  Marne.  The  enemy  exploitation  of  his  success  upon  the 
27th  of  May,  north  of  the  Aisne,  reached  the  Marne.  The 
word  ' '  Marne"  therefore,  is  used  much  as  the  word  ' '  Russia" 
was  used  in  the  first  case.  It  suggests  a  parallel.  No  par- 
allel exists. 

In  the  battle  of  the  Marne  in  1914  the  enemy  came  on  in 
superior  numbers,  but  with  an  open  flank,  in  the  attempt  to 
finish  the  war  at  once,  and  under  an  erroneous  impression 
of  our  Allied  concentration.  He  thought  we  were  most  of  us 
in  the  East.  He  therefore  left  his  Western  flank  open,  and 
suffered  a  defeat.  He  had  somewhat  over  70  divisions, 
a  number  quite  insufficient  to  hold  a  complete  hne  to  the 
sea,  and  it  was  on  that  very  account  that  an  open  flank 
existed.  He  was  marching  without  any  thought  of  en- 
trenchment for  the  moment.  The  AUies  were  retiring 
without  any  appreciable  use  of  entrenchment  either.  The 
whole  thing  was  manoeuvre  and  manoeuvre,  with  plenty  of 
ground. 

The  great  action  of  to-day  is  not  manoeuvre,  but  the  breach 
of  works.  It  is  conducted  by  a  force  the  total  of  which  is 
over  200  divisions,  and,  even  allowing  for  the  shrinking  of  the 
establishment  in  a  division,  it  is  more  than  double  what  was 
at  work  \n  1914.  It  presents  no  flank.  It  is  but  one  of  a 
series  of  violent  and  successful  batterings-in  of  that  defen- 
sive wall  in  the  west  which  the  Allies  must  attempt  to  main- 
tain, until  the  balance  of  numbers  is  redressed  by  the  appear- 
ance of  sufficient  American  forces. 

The  two  situations — 1914  and  1918 — are  as  different  as 
the  difference  between  fencing  and  wrestling.  They  are  as 
different  as  the  difference  between  the  reduction  of  a  fortress 
and  a  fight  in  the  open  field.  They  are  as  different  as  the 
difference  between  heading  off  a  quarry,  and  meeting  that 
quarry  with  a  weapon. 

What  we  have  to  consider  in  the  present  situation  is  plainly 
the  chances  of  a  numerical  inferior  struggling  against  the 
continued  pressure  of  a'  numerical  superior,  who  exercises 
that  pressure  with  continued  emphasis  in  point  after  point, 
and  with  the  object  of  making  it  dominant  within  a  given 
time.  The  Allies  are  numerically  inferior.  Clemenceau  has 
said  they  are  inferior  by  about  50  divisions,  which  is  a  round 


number.  Let  us  call  it  46,  which  is  pretty  well  exact.  Their 
inferiority  is  due  entirely  and  upiquely  to  the  disajjpear- 
ance  of  the  Russian  State  under  political  and  financial  in- 
fluences, which  it  will  be  interesting  to  describe. years  hence, 
but  which  are,  for  the  purposes  of  this  battle,  mere  past 
history. 

American  Units 

As  against  the  West  the  Central  Empires  were  always 
numericallj'  superior,  and  even  vastly  superior.  The  balanc- 
ing power  of  Russia  having  disappeared,  the  West  fights 
against  enormous  odds,  and  is,  so  long  as  those  odds  remain, 
on  the  defensive.  The  odds  can  be  redressed,  unless  the 
enemy  achieves  his  decision  first,  by  the  appearance  of 
America  in  the  field  to  a  degree  of  force  which  shall  redress 
the  balance.  As  yet,  even  by  the  embrigading  of  American 
units,  the  new  factor  does  not  come  near  to  redressing  the 
balance.  It  will  be  a  matter  of  from  four  to  six  months. 
Within  that  four  or  six  months  the  Austrians  and  the  Germans 
must  win  or  lose. 

The  embrigading  of  the  American  units  with  French  and 
British  divisions  was  an  exceedingly  important  and  states- 
manlike decision.  What  it  means  is  this  :  That  instead  of 
the  American  divisions  fighting  under  their  own  leaders  and 
as  a  separate  army,  with  all  the  advantage  in  prestige  and 
honour  attaching  to  such  independent  action,  battalions, 
and  even  smaller  units,  such  as  machine-gun  companies,  etc., 
have  been  put  imder  the  command  of  French  and  British 
divisional  generals  and  fed  into  the  general  Allied  forces. 
This  has  been  done  on  account  of  the  sudden ,  and  terrible 
strain' imposed  upon  our  lesser  numbers  since  the  German 
attack  of  March  21st.  It  has  been  very  wisely  done.  For  if 
the  Allies  had  had  to  wait  until  the  American  force  had 
developed  as  a  whole,  the  battle  might,  in  the  interval,  have 
been  lost. 

Not  only  was  the  judgment  wise,  and  the  self-sacrifice  in 
the  highest  degree  patriotic  and  chivalrous,  but  the  event 
has  given  it  more  than  a  sufficient  excuse.  The  presence  of 
American  units  thus  scattered  among  the  French  and  British 
forces  has  been  of  immediate  weight.  They  have  the  advan- 
tage of  zeal,  of  industry,  of  a  very  sincere  desire  to  acquire 
these  novel  lessons  of  war,  of  rapid  perfection,  especially  in 
technical  things  and  of  simple  and  direct  will.  I  myself  saw 
and  heard  in  one  of  their  principal  artillery  camps  the  effect 
of  all  these  moral  things,  and  could  judge  them  from  what 
their  Allies  and  instructors  said  of  them  a  month  before  the 
offensive  began. 

The  work  of  these  American  units  now  mixed  in  with  the 
Allied  divisions  promiscuously  has  appeared  in  many  fields, 
but  there  are  three  points  this  week  where  they  may  be 
especially  studied. 

Those  three  points  are  Chateau-Thierry,  where  the  enemy 
made  his  determined  attempt  to  force  the  Marne  obstacle  on 
June  1st  and  June  2nd  ;  Jaulgonne,  >vhere  he  made  his 
second  very  determined  but  equally  futile  attempt  on 
June  3rd  ;  and  the  valley  of  the  Clignon,  where  the  Franco- 
American  forces  counter-attacked  with  conspicuous  success 
on  June  6th. 

In  the  first  case,  it  was  largely  by  the  help  of  the  American 
machine-gun  section  that  in  the  street  fighting  in  that 
part  of  the  town  which  lies  south  of  the  river  the  attempt 
to  cross  was  held  after  the  main  stone  bridge  had  been  blown 
up  and  the  pontoon  bridges  alone  remained. 

The  old  three-arched  stone  bridge  of  Chateau-Thierry  had 
remained  intact,  though,  of  course,  mined  by  the  French 
engineers,  while  the  Germans  poured  across  after  their 
successful  occupation  of  the  northern  bank  at  9  o'clock  in 
the  evening  of  Saturday,  June  ist.  They  also  threw  pontoon 
bridges  across  the  156  yards  of  river.  "  The  idea  that  they 
meant  to  stop  at  the  Marne  "according  to  plan"  and  that 
they  then  turned  westward  (as,  in  fact,  they  did),  .also 
"according  to  plan,"  is  nonsense.  They  made  everv  possible 
preparation  for  forcing  the  Marne  and  going  on  southward. 
When  their  first  thousand  had  got  across  the  stone  bridge, 
while  other  columns  were  pouring  across  the  pontoon  bridges 
and  while  a  strong  column  was  srill  in  march  across  the  stone 
bridge,  the  latter  was  blown  up.  But  the  numbers  of  Germans 
already  across  the  river  and  pressing  forward  by  the  pontoons 
was  so  large  that  the  Franco-American  forces  in  the  town  to 
the  south  were  very  hard  pressed.  The  situation  was  saved 
in  great  measure  by  the  excellence  of  the  newlv  trained 
American  machine-gunners.  These,  with  their  French  com- 
rades, threw  back  the  forces  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river, 
shot  down  great  numbers  pouring  back  over  the  bridges,  and 
checked  the  whole  affair.  They  were  instrumental  in  pre- 
venting the  crossing  of  the  Marne  when  that  (eat  was  appar- 
ently most  fiossible,  June  ist  and  June  2nd— that  is.  before 
the  Allies  had  time  to  bring  up  sufficient  stopping  power. 


June  13,  191 8 

and  while  there  was 
yet  a  chance  of  the 
enemy's  continuing 
his  tide  southward. 
Jaulgonne  was 
the  second  and 
almost  equally  con- 
spicuous example  of 
our  advantage  in 
the  growing  Ameri- 
can aid,  though 
that  aid  is,  as  yet, 
•  confined  to  com- 
paratively -  small 
units.  It  was  again 
the  American 
machine  ■  -  gunners 
who,  according  to 
the  French  dis- 
patches, must  prin- 
cipally be  praised 
for  the  result. 

Just  as  the  main 
road  and  crossing 
is  by  Chateau- 
Thierry,  so  the 
second  road  and 
crossing  are  at  Jaul- 
gonne. There  are 
«ven  at  Jaulgonne 
better  geographical 
opportunities  for 
crossing  than  at 
Chateau  -  Thierry. 
There  is  here  a 
great  b€4id  of  thb 
river  northward, 
nearly  3,000  yards 
deep  bv  not  much 
more  than  two  and 
a  half  thou^nd 
across.  The  south- 
ern or  defending 
side  is  flat,  and 
dominated  by 
abrupt  and  high 
hills  upon  the 
northern  side,  which 


Land   &  Water 


General  Foch 


aid  the  crossing.  The  fire  of  the  enemy  from  the  north 
attempting  the  crossing  can  converge  everywhere  upon  the 
flat  floor  below  within  the  bend.  This  floor  carries  the 
main  railway  from  Paris  to  the  east,  with  the  railway 
station  in  the  middle  of  the  plain  on  the  edge  of  the 
southern  rise.  . 

The  active  force  at  the  head  of  the  body  destined  by  the 
enemy  to  cross  the  river  here  was  the  175th  Regiment.  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  that  a  crossing  was  scheduled  to  be  made 
here  at  the  same  time  as  at  Chateau-Thierry,  although  the 
attempt  was  made  twenty-four  hours  afterwards  on  Monday, 
June  3rd.  There  could  not  have  been  time  for  a  mere  after- 
thought. Everything  had  been  carefully  prepared.  The 
funny  old  suspension  bridge  at  Jaulgonne  (which  many  of 
my  readers  must  have  seen  from  the  train  on  their  way  from 
Paris  eastward)  had,  of  course,  been  blown  up.  I  have  seen 
no  account  of  this,  but  I  take  it  for  granted. 

Meanwhile,  the  enemy  had  come  down  to  the  water's  edge 
with  apparatus  long  prepared  for  the  crossing  of  the  Marne : 
Narrow  bridges  formed  like  extensible  ladders,  supported, 
by  small  floats,  and  taking  two  men  abre^t.  Their  converg- 
ing fire  from  the  heights  round  the  bend,  coupled  with  the 
smallness  of  the  numbers  that  could  be  gathered  for  the  mo- 
ment to  oppose  them,  permitted  the  crossing  of  the  river. 
No  less  than  22  of  these  light  bridges  were  thrown  across. 
About  a  battalion  of  the  three  battalions  of  the  175th  of  the 
German  Line  was  poured  into  the  horseshoe  flat  to  form  a 
bridge-head,  behind  which  the  mass  of  the  army  could  follow, 
and  the  fortified  front  of  this  bridge-head  was  to  be  the 
station  into  which  a  company  was  put  with  half  a  dozen 
machine-guns,  while  the  rest  followed -on.  The  French 
counter-attack  was  organised  at  once.  There  was  nothing 
ready  but  cavalry,  which  attempted  to  rush  the  station, 
and  was  badly  checked  by  the  machine-guns.  A  small  body 
of  French  infantry,  which  was  trying  to  get  round  the  station 
by  the  right,  was  temp  rarily  held  up  by  the  enemy.  But 
immediately  afterwards  a  company  of  American  machine- 
gunners  arrived,  both  drew  and  mastered  the  fire  of  the  Ger- 
mans in  the  station,  and  gave  the  opportunity  for  the  French 
infafltry  to  work  round  by  the  right,  and  the  bridge-head  was 


destroyed.  Of  the 
thousand  men  or  so 
who  had  already 
crossed,  all  but  per- 
haps sixty  or  seventy 
disappeared.  A  few 
got  away  by  swim- 
ming. Two  boat-loads 
reached  the  northern 
shore  without  being 
sunk.  One  hundred 
surrendered  near  the 
statipn,  and  the  at- 
tempt to  estabMsh  a 
bridge-head  south  of 
the  Marne  failed. 

This  small  action 
is  exceedingly  signifi- 
cant. It  proves  the 
long-prepared  plan  of 
crossing  the  Marne, 
the  well  -  calculated 
moment,  for  it  would 
be  apparently  im- 
possible for  the  Allies 
to  bring  up  their  men 
in  strength  in  time  to 
prevent  such  a  cross- 
ing :  above  all,  the 
great  value  of  the 
comparatively  small 
American  units  thus 
rapidly  embrigaded 
with  the  French. 

The  third  example 
I  have  taken  is  three 
days  later,  and  con- 
sists in  the  advance, 
not  of  American 
machine-gunners  this 
time,  but  of  American 
infantry,  supported 
by  machine-guns,  at 
Torcy  on  Thursday, 
June  6th.  On  that 
day  the  whole  Allied 
line  advanced  from 
Veuilly  La  Poterie  to 
the  outskirts  of  Chateau-Thierry.  At  Veuilly,  on  the  extreme 
left,  and  on  Hill  204,  overlooking  Chateau-Thierry  on  the 
extreme  right,  the  work  was  entirely  French,  and  does  not, 
for  the  moment,  concern  me.  But  the  work  in  the  centre, 
in  front  of  Torcy,  was  largely  American,  and  there  was  here 
an  advance  down  the  slopes  and  through  the  small  woods 
of  nearly  a  mile.  The  moment  has  an  historical  significance 
as  great  as  those  of  the  crossings  of  the  Marne,  but  of  another 
kind.  For  the  first  time  in  this  great  campaign,  American 
infantry  in  considerable  numbers  have  engaged  in  an  offensive 
action,  and  have  gone  forward. 

Postscript  Tuesday  morning,  June  izth. 

The  dispatches  of  Monday  night  show  that  the  enemy  has 
succeeded  in  turning  the  main  part  of  the  Lassigny  Massif, 
and  thus  mastering  the  principal  natural  obstacle  between 
himself  and  the  Oise  River  above  Compiegne.  He  has  been 
fighting  on  a  front  of  some  12  divisions  or  more,  and  has 
been  renewing  that  front  at  the  rate  of  5  or  6  divisions  a  day. 
He  has  therefore  put  in  over  20  divisions  in  the  first  forty- 
eight  hours— perhaps  even  24  or  25.  But  we  must  remember 
that  the  frorit  involves  a  much  smaller  proportion  of  his 
total  available  force  than  did  the  main  offensive  of  two 
months  ago,  and  that  if  he  puts  in  his  full  50  available  divi- 
sions for  this  action  alone  he  has  materials  for  a  very  pro- 
longed effort,  before  the  close  of  which  he  could  recruit  and 
send  in  aenin  units  alroarlv  iisfd. 

Notice 

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PrmcM  Offic.d 


8 


Land   &    Water 


June  13,  19 1 8 


The  Turkish   Conspiracy — V 

Secret  History  of  the  Potsdam  Conference,  July  5,  1914 

Narrated  by  Mr.  Morgenthau,  late  American  Ambassador  in  Constantinople 


The  Bosphorus — Key  to  the  Black  Sea 
This  photograph  is  taken  from  the  Asiatic  side,  and  shows  the  narrowest  part  of  the  Bosphorus 

r'H  E  following  is  Mr.  Morgcnthmi's  full  narrative  of  the  famous  Potsdam  Conference  of  July  5th  1914^ 
excerpts  from  u'/acli  were  cabled  the  other  day  to  the  "Times"  and  other  London  journals  from  New 
i  ork.  Berlin  has  frequently  denied  that  this  Conference  took  place,  but  the  evidence  Mr.  Mor<^enthau 
produces  establishes  the  truth  of  it  for  all  time.  It  was  at  this  Conference  that  the  Katscr  ''and  his 
advisers  decided  on  a  European  War.  They  calculated  it  would  he  a  short  war,  in  that  their  plans  and 
preparations  io  surprise  Europe  were  complete.  Until  the  battle  of  the  Marne  thev  felt  certain  of  their  success. 
1  His  chapter  of  Mr.  Morgenthau  s  narrative  is  an  historical  document.  It  couvi'cts  Germany  of  blood-Puilti- 
mss;  It  reveals  Germany s  ambitions  before  the  war.  Some  of  these,  notably  the  demand  lor  coaling-stations 
everywhere,    have  only  recently  been  made  public.     Never  have  Teuton  ambitions  been  exposed  more  nakedlx 


A  few  weeks  after  the  Goehen  and  the  Breslau  had  taken 
up  permanent  headquarters  in  the  Bosphorus,  Djavid  Bey, 
Minister  of  Finance,  happened  to  meet  a  distinguished 
Belgian  jurist,  then  in  Constantinople. 

"I  have  terrible  news  for  you,"  said  the  sympathetic 
Turkish  statesman.  "The  Germans  have  captured 
Brussels." 

The  Belgian,  a  huge  figure,  more  than  six  feet  high,  put 
his  arm  sodthingly  upon  the  shoulder  of  the  diminutive  Turk. 

"  I  have  even  more  terrible  news  for  you,"  he  said,  pointing 
out  to  the  stream  where  the  Goeben  and  the  Breslau  lay 
anchored      "The  Germans  have  raptured  Turkey." 

But  there  was  one  quarter  in  which  this  transaction  pro- 
duced no  appreciable  gloom.  This  was  the  German  Embassy. 
This  great  "success"  fairly  intoxicated  the  impressionable 
Wangenheim,-  and  other  happenings  now  aroused  his  furor 
Teulonicm  to  a  fever  heat.  The  Goeben  and  the  Breslau 
arrived  at  just  about  the  time  that  the  Germans  captured 
Liegc,  Namur,  and  other  Belgian  towns.  Then  followed  the 
German  sweep  into  France  and  the  apparently  triumphant 
rush  to  Paris.  In  all  these  happenings  Wangenheim,  like  the 
militant  Prussian  that  he  was,  saw  the  fulfilment  of  a  forty- 
years'  dream.  We  were  all  still  living  in  the  summcfr  Em- 
bassies along  the  Bosphorus.  Germany  had  a  sumptuous 
palace,  with  elaborate  buildings  and  a  beautiful  park,  the 
gift  of  the  Sultan  ;  but  Wangenheim  did  not  seem  to  enjoy 
his  headquarters  during  these  summer  days. 

Directly  in  front  of  his  Embassy,  on  the  street,  within 
twenty  feet  of  the  rushing  Bosphorus.  stood  a-Iittie  guard  house, 
and  in  front  of  this  was  a  stone  bench.  This  bench  was 
properly  a  resting-place  for  the  guard,  but  Wangenheim 
seemed  to  have  a  strong  liking  for  it.     I  shall  always  keep 


in  my  mind  the  figure  of  this  German  diplomat,  in  those 
exciting  days  before  the  Marne,  sitting  out  on  this  little 
bench,  now  and  then  jumping  up  for  a  stroll  back  and  forth 
in  front  of  his  house.  Everybody  passing  from  Constantinople 
to  the  northern  suburbs  had  to  pass  this  road.  Even  the 
Russian  and  French  diplomats  frequently  went  by,  stiffly 
ignoring,  of  course,  the  triumphant  ambassadorial  figure  on 
his  stone  bench.  I  sometimes  think  that  Wangenheim  sat 
there  for  the  express  purpose  of  puffing  his  cigar  smoke  in 
their  direction.  It  all  reminded  me  of  the  scene  in  SchillerV 
"Wilhelm  Tell,"  where  Tell  sits  in  the  mountain  pass,  with 
bow  and  arrow  at  his  side,  waiting  for  Gessler,  to  go  by  : 

Here  through  this  deep  defile  he  needs  must  pass; 

There  leads  no  other  road  to  Kussnacht. 
Wangenheim  woiild  also  buttonhole  his  friends,  or  those 
whom  he  regarded  as  his  friends,  and  have  his  little  jollifi'-a- 
tions  over  German  victories.  I  noticed  that  he  stationed 
himself  there  only  when  the  German  armies  were  winning  • 
if  news  came  of  a  reverse,  Wangenheim  was  utterly  invi'^ible' 
This  led  me  to  remark  that  he  reminded  me  of  a  toy  weather- 
prophet,  which  is  always  outside  the  box  when  the  weather  is 
fine,  but  which  retires  within  when  storms  are  gathering 
Wangenheim  appreciated  my  little  joke  as  keenly  as  the 
rest  of  the  diplomatic  set. 

In  those  early  days,  however,  the  weather  for  the  German 
Ambassador  was  distinctly  favourable.  The  good  fortune 
of  the  German  armies  so  excited  him  that  he  was  sometimes 
led  into  indiscretions,  and  his  exuberance  one  day  caused 
him  to  tell  me  certain  facts  which,  I  think,  will  always  have 
great  historical  value.  He  disclosed  precisely  how  and  when 
Germany  had  precipitated  this  war.  To-day  his  revelation 
of  this  secret  looks  like  a  most  monstrous  indiscretion  but  we 


June  13^  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


must  remember  Wangenheim's  state  of  mind  at  the  time. 
Tlie  whole  world  then  believed  that  Paris  was  doomed ; 
Wangenheim  kept  saying  that  the  war  would  be  over  in  two 
or  three  months.  The  whole  German  enterprise  was  evidently 
progressing  according  to  programme. 

I  have  already  mentioned  that  the  German  Ambassador 
left  for  Berlin  soon  after  the  assassination  of  the  Grand  Duke, 
and  he  now  revealed  the  cause  of  his  sudden  disappearance. 
The  Kaiser,  he  told  me,  had  summoned  him  to  Berlin  for  an 
imperial  conference.  This  meeting  took  place  at  Potsdam  on 
July  ^th.  The  Kaiser  presided.  Nearly  all  the  Ambassa- 
dors attended  ;  Wangenheim  came  tp  represent  Turkey  and 
enlighten  his  associates  on' the  situation  in  Constantinople. 
Moltke,  then  Chief  of  Staff,  was  there,  representing  the  army, 
and  Admiral  von  Tirpitz  spoke  for  the  navy.  The  great 
bankers,  railroad  directors,  and  the  captains  of  German 
industry,  all  of  whom  were  as  necessary'  to  German  war 
preparations  as  the  army  itself,  also  attended. 

Wangenheim  new  told  me  that  the  Kaiser  sclemnly  put 
the  question  to  each  man  in  turn.  Was  he  ready  for  war? 
All  replied  "Yes,"  except  the  financiers.  They  said  that 
they  must  have  two  weeks  to  sell  their  foreign  securities  and 
to  make  loans.  At  that  time  few  people  had  looked  upon 
tlie  Sarajevo  tragedy  as  something  that  was  likely  to  cause 
war.  This  conference  took  all  precautions  that  no  such 
suspicion  should  be  aroused.  It  decided  to  give  the  bankers 
time  to  readjust  their  finances  for  the  coming  war,  and  then 
tlie  several  members  went  quietly  back  to  their  work  or 
started  on  vacations.  The  Kaiser  went  to  Norway  on  his 
yacht,  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  left  for  a  rest,  and  Wangen- 
heim returned  to  Constantinople. 

In  telling  me  about  this  conference,  Wangenheim,  of  course, 
admitted  that  Germany  had  precipitated  the  war.  I  think 
that  he  was  rather  proud  of  the  whole  performance  ;  proud 
that  Germany  had  gone  about  the  matter  in  so  methodical 
and  far-seeing  a  way ;  especially  proud  that  he  himself  had 
been  invited  to  participate  in  so  momentous  a  gathering. 
The  several  blue,  red,  and  yellow  books  which  flooded  Europe 
the  few  months  following  the  outbreak,  and  the  hundreds  of 
documents  which  were  issued  by  German  propaganda 
attempting  to  establish  Germany's  innocence,  never  made 
any  impression  on  me.  For  my  conclusions  as  to  the  respon- 
sibility are  not  based  on  suspicions  or  belief  or  the  study  of 
circumstantial  data.  I  do  not  liave  to  reason  or  argue  about 
the  matter.    /  know. 

The  conspiracy  that  caused  this  greatest  of  human 
tragedies  was  hatched  by  the  Kaiser  and  his  imperial 
crew  at  this  Potsdam  Conference  on  July  5th,  1914. 
One  of  the  chief  participants,  flushed  with  his  triumph  at 
the  apparent  success  of  the  plot,  told  me  the  details  with  his 
own  mouth.  Whenever  I  hear  people  arguing  about  the 
responsibility  for  this  war  or  read  the  clumsy  and  lying 
excuses  put  forth  by  Germany,  1  simply  recall  the  burly 
figure  of  Wangenheim  as  he  appeared  that  August  afternoon, 
pufTing  away  at  a  huge  black  cigar,  and  giving  me  his  account 
of  this  historic  meeting.  Why  waste  any  time  discussing 
the  matter,  after  that  ? 

This  Imperial  Conference  took,  place  on  July  5th  ;  the 
Serbian  ultimatum  was  sent  on  July  22nd.  That  is  just 
about  the  two  weeks'  interval  which  the  financiers  had 
demanded  to  complete  their  plans.  All  the  great  Stock 
E.xchanges  of  the  world  show  that  the  German  bankers 
profitably  used  this  interval.  Their  records  disclose  that 
stocks  were  being  sold  in  large  quantities  and  that  prices 
declined  rapidly.  At  that  time  the  markets  were  somewhat 
puzzled  at  this  movement  ;  Wangenheim's  explanation  clears 
up  any  doubts  that  may  still  remjiin.  Germany  was  changing 
her  securities  into  cash,  for  war  purposes.  If  any  one  wishes 
to  verify  Wangenheim,  I  would  suggest  that  he  examine  the 
quotations  of  the  New  York  Stock  Market  for  these  two 
historic  weeks.  He  will  find  that  there  were  astonishing 
-lumps  in  quotations,  especially  on  the  stocks  that  had  an 
international  market.  Between  July  5th  and  July  22nd, 
Union  Pacific  dropped  from  155!  to  127J,  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  from  91  i  to  81,  United  States  Steel  from  61  to  50J, 
Canadian  Pacific  from  194  to  185J,  and  Northern  Pacific 
from  1 11^  to  108. 

Wangenheim  not  only  gave  me  the  details  of  this  Potsdam 
conference,  but  he  disclosed  the  same  secret  to  the  Marquis 
Garroni,  the  Italian  Ambassador  at  Constantinople.  Italy 
was  at  that  time  technically  Germany's  ally. 

The  Austrian  Ambassador,  the  Marquis  Pallavicini,  also 
practically  admitted  that  tfie  Central  Powers  had  precipitated 
the  war.  On  August  i8th,  Francis  Joseph's  birthday,  I  made 
the  usual  ambassadorial  visit  of  congratulation.  Quite 
naturally,  the  conversation  turned  upon  the  Emperor,  who 
had  that  day  passed  his  84th  year.  Pallavicini  spoke  about 
him  with  the  utmost  pride  and  veneration.     He  told  me  how 


keen-minded  and  clear-headed  the  aged  Emperor  was  ;  how 
he  had  the  most  cortiplete  understanding  of  international 
affairs,  and  gave  everything  his  personal  supervision.  To 
illustrate  the  Austrian  Kaiser's  grasp  of  public  events, 
Pallavicini  instanced  the  present  war.  The  previous  May, 
Pallavicini  had  had  an  audience  with  Francis  Joseph  in 
Vienna.  At  that  time,  Pallavicini  told  me,  the  Emperor 
had  said  that  a  European  war  was  unavoidable.  The  Central 
Powers  would  not  accept-the  Treaty  of  Bucharest  as  a  settle- 
ment of  the  Balkan  question,  and  only  a  general  war,  the 
Emperor  had  told  Pallavicini,  could  ever  settle  that  problem. 
The  Treaty  of  Bucharest,  I  may  recall,  was  the  settlement 
that  ended  the  Second  Balkan  War.  This  divided  the 
European  dominions  of  the  Balkan  States,  excepting  Con- 
stantinople and  a  small  piece  of  adjoining  territory,  among 
the  Balkan  nations,  chiefly  Serbia  and  Greece.  That  treaty 
strengthened  Serbia  greatly  ;  so  much  did  it  increase  Serbia's 
resources,  indeed,  that  Austria  feared  that  it  had  laid  the 
beginning  of  a  new  European  State  that  might  grow  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  resist  her  own  plans  of  aggrandisement. 
Austria  held  a  large  Serbian  population  under  her  yoke  in 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina ;  these  Serbians  desired,  above 
everything*  else,  annexation  to  their  own  country. 

The  Pan-German  plans  in  the  East  necessitated  the  destruc- 
tion of  Serbia,  the  State,  which,  so  long  as  it  stood  intact, 
blocked  the  Germanic  road  to  the  East.  It  had  been  the 
Austro-German  expectation  that  the  Balkan  War  would 
destroy  Serbia  as  a  nation — that  Turkey  would  simply 
annihilate  King  Peter's  forces.  This  was  precisely  what  the 
Germanic  plans  demande4,  and  for  this  reason  Austria  and 
Germany  did  nothing  to  prevent  the  Balkan  wars.  But  the 
result  was  exactly  the  reverse  ;  out  of  the  conflict  arose  a 
stronger  Serbia  than  ever,  standing  firm  like  a  breakwater 
against  the  Germanic  path.  Most  historians  agree  that  the 
Treaty  of  Bucharest  made  inevitable  this  war.  I  have  the 
Marquis  Pallavicini.'s  evidence  that  this  was  likewise  the 
opinion  of  Francis  Joseph  himself.  The  audience  at  which 
the  Emperor  made  this  statement  was  held  in  May,  more 
than  a  month  before  the  assassination  of  the  Grand  Duke. 
Clearly,  therefore,  the  war  would  have  come  irrespective  of 
the  calamity  at  Sarajevo.  That  merely  served  as  the  con- 
venient pretext  for  the  war  upon  which  the  Central  Empires 
had  already  decided. 

All  through  that  eventful  August  and  September  Wangen- 
heim continued  his  almost  irresponsible  behaviour — now 
blandly  boastful,  now  depressed,  always  nervous  and  high- 
strung,  ingratiating  to  an  American  like  myself,  spiteful  and 
petty  toward  the  representatives  of  the  enemy  Powers.  He 
Was  always  displaying  his  anxiety  and  impatience  by  sitting 
on  the  bench,  that  he  might  be  within  two  or  three  minutes' 
quicker  access  to  the  wireless  communications  that ,  were 
sent  him  from  Berlin  via  the  Corcovado.  He  would  never 
miss  an  opportunity  to  spread  the  news  of  victories  ;  several 
times  he  adopted  the  unusual  course  of  coming  to  my  house 
unannounced,  to  tell  me  of  the  latest  developments  and  to 
read  me  extracts  from  messages  he  had  just  received.  He 
was  always  apparently  frank,  even  indiscreet. 

I  remember  his  distress  the  day  that  England  declared 
war.  He  always  professed  a  great  admiration  for  England, 
and  especially  for  America.  "There  are  only  three  great 
countries,"  he  would  say  over  and  over  again,  "Germany; 
England,  and  the  United  States.  We  three  should  get 
together  ;  then  we  could  rule  the  world."  This  enthusiasm 
for  the  British  Empire  suddenly  cooled  when  that  Power 
decided  to  defend  her  treaty  pledges  and  declared  war. 
Wangenheim  had  said  that  the  conflict  would  be  a  short  one  ; 
Sedan  Day  (September  2nd)  would  be  celebrated  in  Paris. . 
But  on  August  5th,  I  called  at  his  Embassy,  and  found  him 
more  than  usually  agitated  and  serious.  Baroness  Wangen- 
heim, a  tall,  handsome  woman,  was  sitting  in  the  room, 
reading  her  mother's  memoirs  of  the  war  of  1870.  Both 
regarded  the  news  from  England  as  almost  a  personal  griev- 
ance ;  what  impressed  me  most  was  Wangenheim's  utter 
failure  to  understand  England's  motives.  "  It's  mighty  poor 
politics  on  her  part!"  he  exclaimed  over  and  over  again. 
His  attitude  was  precisely  the  same  as  that  of  Bethmann- 
Hollweg  with  the  "scrap  of  paper." 

I  was  out  for  a  stroll  on  August  26th,  and  happened  to 
meet  the  German  Ambassador.  He  began  to  talk  as  usual 
about  the  German  victories  in  France  ;  the  German  armies, 
he  said,  would  be  in  Paris  within  a  week.  The  deciding 
factor  in  this  war,  he  said,  would  be  the  Krupp  artillery: 

"And  remember  that  this  time  we  are  making  war. 
And  we  shall  make  it  rucksichtslos  (without  any  con- 
sideration)- We  shall  not  be  hampered  as  we  were 
in  1870.  Then  Queen  Victoria,  the  Tsar,  and 
Francis  Joseph  interfered  and  persuaded  us  to  spare 
Paris.    But  there  is  no  one  to  interfere  now-    We 


lO 


Land    &    Water 


June  13,  1918 


An  imperial  Palace 

Photograph  taken  from  the  Scorpion,  the 


shall  move  to  Berlin  all  the  Parisian  art  treasures 
that    belong  to  the  State,  iust   as  Napoleon  took 
Italian  art  works  to  France. 
It  is  quite  evident  that  tlie  battle  of  the  Marne  saved  Paris 
from  the  fate  of  Louvain. 

So  confidently  did  Wangenlieim  expect  an  immediate 
victory  that  he  began  to  discuss  the  tenns  of  peace.  Germany 
would  demand  of  France,  he  said,  after  defeating  her  armies, 
that  she  completely  demobilise  and  pay  an  indemnity. 
"France  now,"  said  Wangenheim,  "can  settle  for 
£1,000,000.000  ;  but  if  she  persists  in  continuing  the  war, 
1    she  will  have  to  pay  £4,000,000,000." 

He  told  me  that  Germany  would  demand  harbours  and 
coaling  stations  "everywhere."  At  that  time,  judging  from 
Wangenheim's  statements,  Germany  was  not  looking  so 
much  for  new  territory  a^  for  great  commercial  advantages. 
She  was  determined  to  be  the  great  merchant  nation  ;  and 
for  this  she  must  have  free  harbours,  the  Bagdad  railroad, 
and  extensive  rights 
in  South  America  and 
Africa.  Wangen- 
heim said  that  Ger- 
many did  not  desire 
any  more  territory  in 
which  the  popula- 
tions did  not  speak 
German  ;  they  had 
had  all  of  that  kind 
of  trouble  they 
wanted  in  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  Poland,  and 
other  non  -  Gennan 
countries.  This  state- 
ment certainly  sounds 
interesting  now,  in 
view  of  recent  hap- 
penings in  Russia. 
He  did  not  mention 
England  in  speaking 
of  Germany's  demand  for  coaling  stations  and  harbours  ;  he 
must  have  had  England  in  mind,  however,  for  what  other 
nation  could  have  given  them  to  Germany  "everywhere"  ? 

If  England  attempted  to  starve  Germany,  said  Wangen- 
heim, Germany's  response  would  be  a  simple  one  :  she  would 
starve  France.  At  that  time,  we  must  remember,  Germany 
expected  to  have  Paris  within  a  week  ;  and  she  believed  that 
this  would  ultimately  give  her  control  of  the  whole  country. 
It  was  evidently  the  German  plan,  as  understood  by  Wangen- 
heim, to  hold  this  nation  as  a  pawn  for  England's  behaviour, 
a  kind  of  hostage  on  a  gigantic  scale,  and,  should  England 
gain  any  military  or  naval  advantage,  Germany  would 
attempt  to  counter-attack  by  torturing  the  whole  French 
people.  At  that  moment  German  soldiers  were  murdering 
mnocent  Belgians  in  return  for  the  alleged  misbehaviour  of 
other  Belgians,  and  evidently  Germany  had  planned  to  apply 
this  principle  to  whole  nations  as  well  as  to  individuals. 

All  through  this  and  other  talks,  Wangenheim  showed 
the  greatest  animosity  to  Ru'isia. 

"We've  got  our  foot  on  Russia's  com,"  he  said,  "and  we 
propose  to  keep  it  there." 

By  this  he  must  have  meant  that  Germany  had  sent  the 
Gf>eben  and  the  Breslau  to  the  Dardanelles  and  so  controlled, 
the  situation  in  Constantinople.  The  old  Byzantine  capital, 
said  Wangenheim,  was  the  prize  which  a  victorious  Russia 
would  demand,  and  her  lack  of  an  all-the-year-round  port  in 
warm  waters  was  Russia's  tender  spot— her  "corn."  At  this 
time  Wangenheim  boasted  that  Gerrhany  had  174  German 
gunners  at  the  Dardanelles,  that  the  strait  could  be  closed  in 
less  than  thirty  minutes,  and  that  Souchon,  the  German 
admiral,  had  informed  him  that  the  straits  were  impregnable. 
"We  shall  not  close  the  Dardanelles,  however,"  he  said, 
"unless  England  attacks  them."  Even  then,  two  months 
before  Turkey  had  entered  the  war,  Germany  had  prepared 
-  the  fortifications  for  the  naval  attack  that  Enelafid  ultimately 
made.  . "  The  Dardanelles  are  defended  as  effectively  as  Cux- 
haven,"  said  Wangenheim. 

At  that  time  England,  although  she  had  declared  war  on 
Germany,  had  played  no  conspicuous  part  in  the  military 
operations;  her  "contemptible  little  army"  was  making  its 
heroic  retreat  from  Mons.  Wangenheim  entirely  discounted 
England  as  an  enemy.  It  was  the  G  rman  intention,  he  said, 
to  pliice  their  big  guns  at  Calais,  and  thrdti  their  shells  across 
the  English  Channel  to  the  English  coast  tiums.  That 
Germany  would  not  have  Calais  Wiihin  the  next  ten  days 
did  not  occur  to  him  as  a  possibility.  In  this  and  other  con- 
versations at  about  the  same  time,  Wangenheim  laughed 
at  the  idea  that  England  could  create  a  large  independent 
army.    "The   idea   is   preposterous,"    he   said.     "It    takes 


oil  the  hohphurub 

American  guardship  at  Constantinople 


generations  of  miUtarism  to  produce  anything  hke  the  German 
Army.  We  have  been  building  it  up  for  two  hundred  years. 
It  takes  thirty  years  of  constant  training  to  produce  such 
generals  as  we  have.  Our  army  will  always  maintain  its 
organisation.  We  have  500^000  recruits  reaching  military 
age  every  year,  and  we  cannot  possibly  lose  that  number, 
so  that  our  army  will  be  kept  intact." 

A  few  weeks  latei:  civilisation  was  outraged  by  the  German 
bombardment  of  English  coast  towns,  such  as  Scarborough 
and  Hartlepool.  This  was  no  sudden  German  inspiration  ; 
it  was  part  of  their  ''nrefully  considered  plans.  Wangenheim 
told  me,  on  September  6th,  1914,  that  Germany  intended  to 
bombard  all  English  harbours,  so  as  to  stop  the  food  supply. 

It  is  also  apparent  that  Gennan  ruthlessness  against 
American  sea  trade  was  no  sudden  decision  of  von  Tirpitz, 
for,  on  this  same  date,  the  German  Ambassador  to  Constan- 
tinople told  me  that  it  would  be  very  dangerous  for  the 
United  States  to  send  ships  to  England. 

In  those  August 
and  September  days 
Germany  had  no  in- 
tention of  precipi- 
tating Turkey  imftie- 
diately  into  the  war. 
As  I  had  a  deep 
interest  in  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Turkish 
people  and  in  main- 
taining peace,  I  tele- 
graphed Washington 
asking  if  I  might  use 
my  influence  to  keep 
Turkey  neutral.  1 
received  a  reply  that 
I  might  do  this,  pro- 
vided that  I  made 
my  representations 
unofficially  and  pure- 
ly upon  humanitarian 
grounds.  As  the  EngUsh  and  the  French  Ambassadors  were 
exerting  all  their  effort  to  keep  Turkey  neutral,  1  knew  that 
my  intervention  in  the  same  interest  would  not  displease  the 
British  Government.  Germany, .  however,  might  regard  any 
interference  on  my  part  as  an  unneutral  act,  and  1  asked 
Wangenheim  if  there  could  be  any  objection  from  that 
source.  His  reply  somewhat  surprised  me,  though  I  saw 
through  it  soon  afterward. 

"Not  at  all,"  he  said.  "Germany  desires,  above  all,  that 
Turkey  shall  remain  neutral." 

Undoubtedly  Turkey's  pohcy  at  that  moment  fitted  in 
with  German  plans.  Wangenheim  was  every  dav  increasing 
his  ascendency  over  the  Turkish  Cabinet,  and  turkey  was 
then  pursuing  the  course  that  best  served  the  German  aims. 
Her  pohcy  was  keeping  the  Entente  on  tenterhooks  ;  it 
never  knew  from  day  to  day  where  Turkey  stood,  whether 
she  would  remain  neutral  or  join  Germany. 

I  am  speaking  of  the  period  just  before  the  Marne,  when 
Germany  expected  to  defeat  France  and  Russia  with  the 
aid  of  her  ally,  Austria,  and  thus  obtain  a  victory  that  would 
have  enabled  her  to  dictate  the  future  of  Europe.  Should 
Turkey  at  that  time  be  actually  engaged  in  mihtarv  opera- 
tions, she  could  do  no  more  toward  bringing  about  this 
victory  than  she  was  doing  now,  by  keeping  idle  and  useless 
considerable  Russian  and  English  forces.  But  should  Ger- 
many win  this  easy  victory  with  Turkey's  aid,  she  might 
find  her  new  ally  an  embarrassment.  Turkey  could  demand 
compensation— probably  the  return  of  Egvpt,  perhaps  the 
recession  of  Balkan  territories.  Such  readjustments  would 
have  interfered  with  the  Kaiser's  plans,  and  he  wanted 
Turkey  as  an  active  ally  only  in  case  he  did  not  win  his 
speedily  anticipated  triumph. 

Wangenheim  was  playing  a  waiting  game,  making  Turkey 
a  potential  German  ally,  strengthening  her  army  and  navy, 
and  preparing  to  u.se  her,  whenever  the  moment  arrived  for 
using  her,  to  the  best  advantage.  If  Gt-rmany  could  not  win 
the  war  without  Turkey's  aid,  Germany  was  prepared  to 
take  her  in  as  an  ally  ;  if  she  could  win  without  Turkey, 
then  she  would  not  have  to  pay  the  Turk  for  his  co-operation. 
Meanwhile,  the  sensible  course  was  to  keep  her  prepared  in 
case  the  Turkish  forces  became  essential  to  German  success. 

Next  week  we  shall  publish  Mr.  Morgenthau's 
account  of  the  arrival  of  the  ''Goeben'  and 
"Breslau"  at  the  Golden  Horn,  and  of  the 
events  that  imtnediately  ensued.  Hts  daughter 
and  son-in-law  actually  witifssed  the  fight  between 
these  ships  and  H.M.S.  ''Gloucester:' 


June  13,  19 1 8 


Land    &  Water 


1 1 


''Suddenly — !"  :  By  Lewis  R.  Freeman,  r.n.v.r. 


1 


F  there  is  one  word  which  recurs  oftener  than  another 

in  the  present-day  sailor's    tale  of    what  has  befallen 

him,  it  is  "suddenly!" 

Naval  life  in  the  North   Sea  would   be  comic  in  the 

swiftness  of  its  transitions  —  if  it  was  not  so 
tragic.  Perhaps,  indeed,  it  is  the  sombre  background  against 
■which  they  stand  out  which  makes  the  flashes  of  comedy  seem 
the  more  comic,  Uke  an  incident  in  connection  with  the 
torpedoing  of  a  cruiser  I  was  told  of  a  few  days  ago. 

"It  was  not  so  long  after  Christmas,"  said  the  one  of  the 
half-dozen  surviving  officers  who  told  me  the  story,  "and 
there  were  a  few  of  the  festal  decorations  stuck  up  here  and 
there,  mostly  wreaths  of  holly  and  mistletoe  sent  from  home. 
Eight' or  ten  of  us  were  sitting  in  the  ward-room  after  dinner, 
having  a  bit  of  a  sing-song  to  the  music  of  the  staff- 
surgeon's  mandolin  and  the  engineer-commander's  guitar. 
The  "mouldie"  hit  us  full  and  fair  amidships,  and  e.xplodea 
with  a  thud  that  made  itself  felt  in  the  ward-room  with  a 
sort  of  convulsive  jerk. 

"  Everything  loose  flew  off  on  a  tangent,  among  them  being 
a  curtain-pole  and  a  wreath  of  holly.  The  curtain  went 
into  a  heap  on  the  deck,  but  the  wreath — by  the  freakiest  of 
coincidences — made  a  fair  ringer  of  the  P.M.O.'s  curly  pate. 
He  was  a  chap  with  a  hair-trigger  sense  of  humour  and  a 
nose  for  scenting  the  ridiculous  that  was  almost  subUme. 
■Clapping  the  prickly  garland  on  his  brow  at  an  even 
more  rakish  angle  than  it  had  landed  at,  he  threw  down  his 
mandolin,  draped  the  fallen  curtain  over  his  shoulders  like 
a  Roman  toga,  and  seized  the  poker  of  the  empty  tile  stove. 
Recovering,  with  a  quick  grab,  the  mandolin  from  beneath 
the  divan,  where  it  had  rolled,  he  tucked  it  under  his  chin 
like  a  \'ioUn,  and  began  sawing  violently  across  its  protesting 
strings  with  the  poker  as  a  bow.  Swaying  undulantly  from 
the  waist  like  a  virtuoso,  he  began  shouting  at  the  top  of  his 
voice  :  '  Nero  fiddling  while  Rome  is  burning  !  Christians 
take  cover  I  Thumbs  down  !  Thumbs  dSwn  ! '  We  were 
hard  hit,  and  the  most  of  us  realised  it  was  only  a  matter  of 
minutes  before  she  went  down  ;  but  I  don't  think  there  iivas 
a  man  of  us  that  wasn't  laughing  as  he  made  for  the  door. 
I  could  laugh  yet  at  the  mere  thinking  of  it  if  it  wasn't  for 
the  fact  that — that  the  P.M.O.  was  not  in  any  of  the  boats 
that  were  picked  up  by  the  destroyers  a  couple  of  hours 
later.  The  last  I  remember  of  him  was  seeing  him  brush  off 
the  holly  wreath  and  make  after  us  for  the  door,  the  'toga' 
slipping  down  about  his  heels,  and  the  mandolin  and  poker 
grasped  in  either  hand.  He  headed  for'ard — he  always 
thought  to  look  after  a  chap  with  a  twisted  knee  he  had 
been  treating  in  the  sick  bay — and  no  one  ev£r  recalled 
seeing  him  on  the  upper  deck.  The  "mouldie"  shored  us 
right  open,  and  it  wasn't  ten  minutes  between  the  time 

poor  was  playing  Nero,  and  when — for  the  ship,  for 

him  and  for  a  couple  of  hundred  others — it  was  'Thumbs 
down  I '  in  dead  earnest." 

Swift  Transition 

There  was  another  instance  of  a  swift  transition  which 
I  recall,  in  which  the  tragedy  was  unilluminated  with  even  a 
flash  of  comic  reUef.  One  evening  during  a  fortnight 
which  I  spent  upon  a  certain  famous  battleship  a  young 
captain  from  the  destroyer  flotilla  came  aboard  to  dine  with 
a  former  shipmate.  Tall,  slender,  dark,  and  with  that 
magnetic  winsomeness  so  characteristic  of  a  certain  type  of 
Celt,  he  impressed  me  as  one  of  the  most  attractive  and 
thoroughly  likable  -personalities  I  had  ever  met.  He  told 
me — with  all  modesty,  but  yet  with  singular  effectiveness — 
destroyer  yarns  in  which  he  or  some  of  his  friends  had  figured, 
and  ended  by  extending  me  a  hearty  invitation  to  "come 
out  for  a  jaunt"  on  his  "little  pet"  some  day. 

Almost  immediately  after  dinner  he  asked  for  a  boat  to 
return  to  his  flotilla  anchorage,  saying  that  there  was  a 
probabihty  that  he  would  be  getting  away  on  some  kind  of  a 
stunt  before  morning.  They  held  him  over  for  two  or  three 
songs,  which  he  sang  to  his  own  accompaniment.  "  Nirvana" 
and  "Aileen  Alanah."  I  remember  especially  the  latter, 
vibrant  with  that  haunting  appeal  which  only  an  Irishman 
can  put  into  it.  He  renewed  his  invitation  for  me  to  "join 
him  for  a  jaunt  some  day"  the  last  thing  before  he  disappeared 
down  the  wrigghng  Jacob's  ladder  to  the  bobbing 
picket-boat. 

It  was  about  noon  the  next  day  that  the  officer  of  the  day 
Jonnged  into  an  easy  chair  by  the  fire  and  remarked — in  the 
usual  casual  ward-room  manner — that  a  signal  had  been 


picked  up  saying  that  a  destroyer  was  pounding  to  pieces  on 
the  rocks  somewhere  "outside,"  and  that  some  mine-sweeping 
sloops,  sent  to  i^s  assistance,  were  just  passing  through  the 
booms.  There  was  no  particular  discussion  of  an  event 
which,  if  not  quite  an  everyday  happening,  was  still  frequent 
enough  not  to  arouse  more  than  passing  comment.  "Hope 
all  hands  were  saved,"  and  "Can't  afford  to  lose  destroyers 
nowadays"  (comments  which  I  had  heard  on  half  a  dozen 
similar  occasions),  were  all  fhat  I  recall  being  made  on  this 
one.  The  more  imminent  interest  of  luncheon  put  an  end 
to  further  speculation.  That  evening  there  was  word  that 
the  destroyer  was  a  total  loss,  and  that  only  one  man — found 
half-frozen  in  a  niche  of  a  cliff — had  been  saved. 

Back  on  my  own  ship  a  fortnight  later,  an  interval  of  three 
or  four  days,  with  nothing  specially  to  do,  brought  to  my 
mind  the  invitation  I  had  received  from  the  young  Irish 
lieutenant-commander  to  pay  him  a  visit  on  his  destroyer, 
and  I  started  making  inquiries  as  to  how  I  could  get  in  touch 
with  him.  "You'll  save  time  and  trouble  by  taking  a  boat, 
going  over  to  the  destroyer  anchorage,  and  looking  your 
man  up  in  person,"  some  one  suggested.  "What  did  you 
say  his  name  was  ? " 

"K ,"  I  answered;    "he  commands  the  'X .' " 

"You  won't  find  either  of  them,   then,"   was  the  quiet 

reply.     "  K was  lost  when  his  destroyer  piled  up  on  the 

rocks — Skerries,  I  believe — about  the  first  of  the  month. 
Going  out  in  the  night,  and  probably  caught  in  a  bad  tide- 
rip,  and  lost  bearings  in  a  snow  storm.  Only  man  saved 
half-crazy  ;  can't  shed  any  light  at  all  on  what  happened. 
Rotten  place,  that  neck  of  the  Pentlands,  where  the  tides 
play  'Ring-a-ring  of  roses."  Destroyer  men  call  it  the 
'Hell  Hole.'  Beach  paved  as  thick  with  wreckage — some 
of  it  dating  back  to  the  time  of  the  Vikings — as  the  other 
place  by  the  same  name  is  with  'good  intentions.'     Knew 

K well.     Shipmates  with  him  on  the  old  'A .'     One 

of  the  best.     Ever  hear  him  sing  '  Nirvana  ? '  " 

"  He  sang  it  the  night  I  met  him  at  dinner  on  the  '- 


I  answered,  "and,  from  what  you  have  told  me,  I  should 
judge  it  must  have  been  the  last  time  he  had  a  chance 
to  sing  it  before  the  snowstorm,  the  tide-rip,  and  the  Pentland 
Skerries  conspired  to  advance  him  one  more  rung  up  the 
ladder  toward  the  peace  of  his  own  Nirvana." 

A  Destroyer  Yarn 

Then  there  was  the  story  the  Cockney  lad  on  the  after 
searchlight  platform  told  me  one  night  when  the  ship  was 
wallowing  in  a  mid- winter  gale  somewhere  off  the  coast  of 
Norway.  The  darkness  was  inky, '  Stygian,  giving  a  queer 
suggestion  of  "palpability"  that  almost  impelled  one  to  lift 
one's  hand  and  try  to  brush  it  aside  like  a  curtain  that  had 
brushed  one's  face.  Ahead  and  astern  the  other  battleships 
of  the  division  were  blotted  to  blankness  in  the  night,  but 
abeam  to  starboard,  a  tremulous  dusky  greyness  in  the 
enshrouding  capacity  indicated  where  a  screening  destroyer, 
labouring  in  the  lock-step  of  the  might}'  seas,  was  wrestling 
like  a  game  but  weary  terrier  with  a  bone  in  its  teeth. 
The  very  consciousness  of  that  eyeball-searing  shaft  of 
searchlight,  on  tap  at  the  turn  of  a  lever,*  seemed  to  make 
the  blackness  all  the  blacker. 

Sheltering  from  the  wind  in  the  lee  of  the  searchlight,  my 
companion  showed  me  how — by  closing  the  eyes  for  several 
seconds  and  then  opening  them  suddenly,  with  the  hollowed 
hands  shading  them  like  looking  through  binoculars — the 
never-so-faint  glow  that  sometimes  hovered  above  the 
destroyer's  funnels  could  be  fixed. 

"That  there  woggly  shiver,"  he  said,  leaning  close,  and 
indicating  with  outstretched  hand  the  fliittering  halo  dancing 
on  the  curtain  of  the  night,  "is  when  they'se  feedin'  'er  with 
more  oil,  an'  the  light  has  a  streak  o'  smoke  to  play  agin. 
An'  that  blinkin'  shadow  jnmpin'  up  'gainst  the  hght 
ev'ry  UT  while — d'yu  twig  wot  that  ritely  is  ?  No.  That's 
the  top  o'  a  big  sea  loomin'  up  higher'n  'er  funnels.  W'en 
you  'gins  to  see  that  scmi-'clipse  like,  take  it  from  me  it's 
jolly  well  time  they  eased  'er  down.  If  they  keeps  drivin' 
'er  at  much  more'n  halt-speed  into  'ead  seas — seas  like  them 
wot's  gittin'  up  now — ten  to  one  somethin'  goin'  to  carry 
'way,  and  even  money  somethin'  wurse  may  pay  for  it." 

"Like  what,  for  instance  ? "  I  queried,  taking  up  the  slack 

in  the  hood  of  my  "lammy"  coat,  and  buttoning  down  a 

yawning  sleeve  that  was  scooping  an  uncomfortable  amount 

of  brine  laden  wind. 

"Like. wot  'appcn'd  to  the  blinkin'  ol'  Ovd  w'en  I  wus  a- 


12 


Land    &    Water 


June  13,  1918 


stokin'  'board   er,"  he  replied,  beginning  to  follow  my  lead 
in  the  matter  of  snugging  down  against  the  weather. 

"Wc  wus  far  from  cushy  ev'n  cork-screwin'  long  wi'  the 
wind  an'  seas  on  our  quart'r,  for  she  was  do'jn  a  doubl"  back- 
acshun  shuffle  fit  to  shake  yer  teeth  loose.  She  wus  yawin' 
like  a  hook'd  jwrpus  ;  but,  still,  she  wus  we'therin'  it,  wliidi 
wus.  mor'n  she  wus  up  to  w'en  they  'gan  puttin'  'er  inter  it. 
[est  wot  they  did  it  fer  I  nev'r  ritcl}-  know'd,  but  sud'niy 
tlie  'elm  wus  shov'd  'ard  ov'r,  an'  roun'  she  spun,  rite  roun' 
without  slackin'  a  rev'lushun  o'  the  enguns  wot  wus  drivin' 
'or  at  mor'n  twenty  knots, 

"It  must'a  bin  like  divin'  thru'  a  long  green  tunn'l  fer 
them  wot  wus  'bove  deck's  ;  only  mos'  o'  'em  nev'r  cum  out 
at  tothcr  end.  The  bridge,  boats,  forrard  gun,  torpedo 
toobs,  two  o'  the  funnels — all  went  inter  the  drink.  The 
one  funnel  wot  held  was  knocked  almost  flat  on  the  dock. 
One  minnit  she  wus  a  middlin'  modern  destroyer  tearin'  'long 
in  the  night ;  the  next  slie  wus  a  'elpless  'ulk  rollin'  drunk 
in  the  trof  o'  the  sea,  without  steam,  steerin'-gear,  boats,  an' 
armaments,  an'  only  'arf  'cr  'orficers. 

"  I  tells  you  this,  sir;  like  as  I'd  seed  it  all.  Fact  is,  I've 
nev'r  clapp'd  eye  on  the  ol'  Owl — not  on  all  or  any  part 
<j'  'er  from  just  afore  that  big  sea  bashed  ov'r  'er  to  tliis  day. 
I  fergot  to  tell  you,  sir,  that  she  wus  one  o'  the  old  coal 
bumeis.  I  wus  balancin'  wi'  a  shovel  o'  coal  I  had  jest 
scooped  up  an'  watchin'  my  chances  fer  to  chuck  it  inter  the 
furnis,  w'en  I  felt  'er  'gin  to  rise  hke  w'en  she  clim'ed  a  'eavy 
sea.  Then  there  wus  a  'orrible  smash,  an'  she  stops  clim'in', 
an'  starts  to  shudder  all  ov'r  like  a;frit'en'd  pup.  Then 
there  was  a  bangin'  on  the  deck  an'  the  roar  o'  water  comin' 
down,  an  rite  arter  that  a  sort  o'  hissin'  explosion.  I  wus 
already  keehn'  sideways,  an'  it  wus  that  an'  the  rush  o'  steam 
that  slammed  me  'gainst  the  sta'bo'rd  bunkers.  Goin' 
down  in  a  heap  in  a  knee-deep  wash  o'  coal  an'  hot  water, 
an'  the  rush  o'  sizzUn'  steem — them  wus  the  las'  things  wot 
I  'ave  rekerlekshun  uv.  I  got  me  site  back  two  weeks  arter 
in  a  hospital  ashore,  but  me  kumplexshun'll  nev'r  be  the 
syme  agin. 

"Wot  'appened  wus  this,  sir.  Not  sat'sfied  wi'  pourin' 
down  the  funnels,  or  w'ere  the  funnels  'ad  bin,  the  water 
tried  a  short-cut  thni  the  ventilayters.  That  wot  kum 
down  the  funnels  blew  up  inter  steam  long  as  there  wus 
any  fires  left,  an'  arter  that  it  wus  boilin'  water.  Only  the 
water  kumin'  down  the  ventilayters  kep'  us  frum  bein' 
cook'd  alive.  Two  or  three  stokers  wus  drowned  or  banged 
up  so  they  croaked,  an'  none  o'  us'll  ev'r  be  prize-winners  at 
a  beauty  show  ag'in. 

"As  fer  'ow  the  ol'  Owl  liv'd  out  the  nite,  I  only  knows 
wot's  bin  tol'  me.  They  rigg'd  some  kinder  pully  'aul  steerin' 
gear,  an"  in  the  boiler  o'  the  funnel  wot  didn't  carry  way 
they  kep'  coaxin'  a  dribbhn'  'ead  o'  steem.  They  wus 
nev'r  abl'  to  keep  'er  'ead  to  the  seas  fer  long,  tho',  and  far 
the  mos'  part  the  nite  wus  jest  one  long  waller  in  the  trof. 
Nothin'  but  the  fact  that  she  was  b'ilt  so  as  to  roll  to  'er 
lieam  ends  'thout  capsizin'  made  'er  ride  it  out  till  dayJite." 

In  a  Submarine 

To  no  kind  of  craft  do  things  liappen  more  "suddenly" 
than  to  those  which  navigate  beneath  the  sea.  As  I  heard 
one  of  their  officers  put  it  recently:  "There  is  not  much 
variety  in  submarine  life,  but  when  it  does  come  it  is  very 
'  various.'  "  A  story  told  me  a  few  days  ago  by  an  engineer's 
mate — he  had  b?en  given  his  commission  for  his  part  in  that 
particular  day's  events — is  fairly  illustrative  of  the  chain 
lighting  actioh  aboard  a  submarine  when  things  do  begin 
to  move. 

"It  was  about  eleven  o'clock  of  the  night  following  a 
rather  strenuous  day,"  he  said.  "We  had  'strafed'  and 
brought  down  a  Zepp.  that  afternoon—the  first,  I  believe, 
to  be  bagged  by  a  submarine — and  were  headed  for  our 
base  with  seven  of  its  crew  (all  we  had  a  chance  to  pick  up) 
as  prisoners.  We  were  running  on  the  surface  at  full  speed 
—not  half-anxious,  as  you  may  fancy,  to  get  back  with  the 
news  of  our  good  luck— when  a  Hun  destroyer  (probably 
one  of  a  number  which  had  responded  too  late  to  the  Zepp's. 
'S.O.S.')  suddenly  loomed  up  on  our  starboard  bow  and 
opened  fire  with  all  her  guns  at  less  than  a  cable's  length. 

"  I  was  on  watch  'midships  with  my  motors,  but  so  close 
was  the  destroyer  that  the  '  bang-banging '  of  its  guns  sounded 
almost  overhead.  There  were  the  heavy  reports  of  what 
were  probably  'four-point-ones,'  and,  filling  the  intervals 
between  these,  the  '  rat-a-tat '  of  what  rriust  have  been  some 
kind  of  quick-firers  of  small  calibre. 

"You  don't  fight  back  on  a  submarine  in  a  case  of  this 
kind.  There  is  just  one  thing  to  do — dive— a.nd  you  do  it 
as  if  your  life  depended  upon  it  (as  it  usually  does,  as  a  matter 
of  fact).      The  officer  of  the  watch  set  the  'rattle'  going  at 


the   instant   the   destroyer's   searchlights   and   guns   flashed 
together,  and  ducked  below,  closing  the  hatch  after  him. 

"When  you  dive  in  the  ordinary  course  of  things  there 
are  a  number  of  orders  given.  '  Flood  all  externals  1 '  directs 
the  turning  of  water  into  the  tanks  ;  '  Hard  to  dive  ! '  sends 
the  hydroplanes  to  the  proper  angle  for  a  quick  descent  ; 
and  'See  the  comps  are  venting!'  is  a  caution  to  watch 
that  the  air  is  escaping  freely  before  the  inrush  of  the  water. 
Likewise,  there  are  similar  orders  directing  the  shutting  oft 
of  the  Diesel  engines  (by  which  she  runs  on  the  surface), 
and  switching  ofi  to  the  electric  motors  which  drive  her  under 
water.  The  rattle  gives  all  of  these  orders  at  once,  and  its 
use  also  indicates  that  their  speediest  execution  is  a  matter 
of  life  and  death.  In  the  danger-zone,  a  man,  asleep  or 
awake,  is  seldom  much  beyond  arm's  reach  of  the  one  thing 
he  has  to  do  when  he  hears  the  'z-r-r-r'  of  the  danger  signal. 
From  running  quietly  on  the  surface  to  submerging  beyond 
danger  of  ramming  or  shell  fire  is  hardly  more  than  a  matter 
of  seconds,  if  no  one  fails  in  his  task,  which — with  men 
picked  for  the  work — practically  never  happens. 

"  I  was  on  watch  with  the  Diesel  engines  in  the  after  part* 
of  the  ship,  amusing  myself  (as  these  engines  require  practi- 
cally no  attention  unless  speed  is  to  be  reduced  or  increa.sed) 
by  watching  the  Hun  prisoners — all  sitting  along  in  a  row  on 
the  'board'  or  platform  by  which  you  get  round  to  oil  the 
machinery — gouging  out  tlie  contents  of  sardine  tins  with 
their  teeth  and  fingers.  They  were  as  hungry  as  wolves,  and 
not  much  better  mannered. 

"My  hand  went  to  the  emergency  levers  at  the  sound  of 
the  firing,  so  that  when  the  rattle  was  sprung,  a  fraction  of 
a  second  later,  I  only  had  to  throw  them  over  to  shut  off  my 
engines.  At  the  same  instant  the  Banshee-hke  crescendo  of 
the  accelerating  motors  told  that  the  underwater  power  had 
been  thrown  on,  while  the  hiss  of  escaping  air  showed  tliat 
the  'comps'  were  venting  properly  as  the  water  flooded  into 
the  'externals.'  Then  the  deck  pitched  forward  at  a  dizzy 
angle  and  down  we  plunged. 

"Two  or  three  of  the  Huns  spoke  a  few  words  of  English, 
and  as  the  firing  started  outside  one  of  them  turned  round  to 
me  with  a  grimace.  They  set  up  a  wild  jabbering,  and  it  was 
beginning  to  dawn  on  me  that  they  might  be  getting 
ready  to  make  trouble  by  starting  a  counter-offensive,  when 
do\yn  goes  her  nose,  and  tlie  whole  hnc  of  them  topples  over 
hke  a  row  of  nine-pins  and  piles  up  in  an  angle  of  the  deck. 
Before  even  one  of  them  had  gained  his  feet,  we  had  swooped 
down  to  the  bottom  and  come  to  rest. 

"As  a  dive  the  thing  couldn't  have  been  done  better  if  we 
had  been  'stunting'  at  our  leisure,  but  for  all  that,  and  the 
fact  that  we  were  safe  from  further  punishment  so  far  as  the 
destroyer  was  concerned,  I  was  more  than  afraid  that  we 
had  only  escaped  danger  to  meet  a  worse  one.  From  the  j  ar 
of  the  impact  of  the  stuff  that  hit  our  bows  I  thought  it  was 
a  hundred  to  one  we  were  holed  forward.  In  fact,  I  was  ex- 
pecting to  see  the  bulkhead  give  way  under  the  rush  of  water  all 
the  time  we  were  plunging  to  the  bottom.  As  soon  as  she 
was  on  an  even  keel,  the  Captain  rushed  forward  to  see  how 
the  little  thin  wall  of  steel  (which  we  felt  sure  was  all  that 
separated  us  from  drowning  hke  rats  in  a  trap),  was  holding. 
As  there  was  no  indications  of  its  being  under  any  great  strain, 
we  started  to  open  it.  To  our  great  surprise,  and  stifl  greater 
reUef,  it  swung  back  easily  and  revealed  everything  quite  as 
usual. 

"  Two  men,  who  were  seated  on  a  spare  torpedo,bowed above 
a  copy  of  the  last  picture  paper  we  had  received  before  sail- 
ing, rose  in  a  sort  of  perfunctory  way  and  stood  at  attention 
as  the  Captain  entered.  Officers  and  men  are  too  close  together 
on  a  submarine  to  go  in  much  for  the  '  externals'  of  discipUne. 

"'So  you've  not  been  taking  any  water,'  said  the  Captain, 
his  eyes  roving  over  the  bulging  but  unpunctured  plates. 

'"Nary  a  drop,  sir,'  one  of  them  answered. 
But  wasn't  it  hereabouts  that  we  were  hit  ? ' 

"One  of  them  scratched  his  head  for  a  bit,  before  saying 
that  he  did  seem  to  have  some  recollection  of  a  '  kind  o'  bangin' 
up  'bove.'  Then  he  added,  'But  we  wus  standin'  by  to  fire 
our  mouldie,  sir,  an'  there  want  no  rime  for  harkin'  for  strange 
noises.' 

" '  All  right,'  said  the  skipper  with  a  grin, '  carry  on  ! '  He 
started  to  go  and  then,  turning,  asked  as  an  afterthought 
what  was  the  news  that  had  interested  them  so  much. 

""Taint  much  in  the  way  o'  news,  sir,'  said  one  of  them 
holding  out  his  paper  with  a  grin  ;   "but  ain't  that  a  rippin' 
picter  o"  Vi'let  Lorraine  as  Emma  in  'The  Bing  Boys'  ?  " 
*  ♦  ♦  ' 

These  stories  are  all  fairly  typical  of  the  way  in  which  the 
Bntish  naval  officer  and  man  meet  the  grim  and  sudden  emer- 
gencies which  confront  them  in  the  regular  routine  of  their 
day's  work.     If  I  were  asked  to  select  the  two  most  typical 
I  should  unhesitatingly  pick  the  first  and  the  last 


June  13,   19 18 


Land   &   Water 


13 


Clemenceau:  By  J.  Coudurier  de  Chassaigne 


MY  last  meeting  with  M.  Clemenceau  a  few 
months  ago — to  be  exact,  on  March  15th — 
took  place  in  the  library  of  the  French 
Embassy,  overlooking  the  green  lawns  of 
Hyde  Park. 
The  appointment  was  for  10  o'clock.  WTien  I  arrived,  a 
few  minutes  too  soon,  I  was  told  that  the  French  Prime 
Minister  had  gone  out  an  hour  before  to  take  his  morning 
stroll  in  the  park.  But  a  moment  later  and  tlie  heavy 
panelled  door  of  the  room  opened  suddenly,  and  in  walked 
the  Grand  Old  Man  of  France. 

I  had  not  seen  him  since  the  beginning  of  the  war — not, 
in  fact,  since  our  conversation  at  the  Senate  in  that  delightful 
ante-chamber  which  is  used  as  a  sort  of  club-room  by  the 
Senators  and  their  friends.  That  was  about  five  years  ago. 
He  appeared  to  me,  then,  rather  weary,  though  still  as 
vivacious  as  ever  in  speech  and  manners,  but  distinctly  older. 
His  eyes  were  as  fiery  as  of  yore,  burning  like  pieces  of  live 
coal  under  his  bushy  eyebrows.  But  his  complexion  was 
yellow  ;  and  I  remarked  to  a  friend,  after  M.  Clemenceau  had 
discussed  the  policy  of  the  French  Government  towards 
England  with  us,  in  his  animated  way:  "I  am  afraid  'the 
Tiger'  will  not  last  long."  I  can  still  see  him  as  he  left  us  to 
join  another  group  of  politicians,  the  shadow  of  the  man 
I  remembered  a  few  years  previously  at  the  funeral  of  Sir 
Henry  Campbell- Bannerman. 

And  after  that  long  space  of  time,  he  stands  again  beside 
me  :  a  small,  square,  compact  figure,  slightly  bent,  as  fre- 
quently happens  with  Frenchmen  who  ^parc  but  little  time 
for  athletics,  and  spend  most  of  their  lives  reading  or  writing 
at  their  desks. 

He  comes  towards  me  with  a  strong  yet  delicately  shaped 
hand  cordially  outstretched.  His  grasp  is  full  of  decision — 
the  vigour,  one  might  say,  of  a  man  of  forty.  Then;  after  a 
few  words  of  greeting,  M.  Clemenceau  explains  to  me  in 
little  jerky  sentences, 
followed  now  and  then 
by  ■  a  well-balanced' 
period — which  reminds 
one  that  Clemenceau 
is  not  only  an  energetic 
polemicist,  but  also  a 
great  parliamentary 
orator  —  why  he  re- 
fused to  be  the  prin- 
cipal guest  at  a  lun- 
cheon which  the 
Foreign  Press  Associa- 
tion in  London  had 
the  intention  of  giving 
in  his  honour. 

"I  do  not  want  to 
make  speetflies,"  he  re- 
marks. "I  speak  as 
little  as  possible — 
only,  in  fact,  when 
it  is  absolutely  ne- 
cessary. I  am  for 
deeds,  not  for  words 
ij'agis)." 

While  listening  to 
him  I  scrutinise,  as 
closely  as  politeness 
permits,  the  face  of 
this  marvellous  old 
man.  It  has  a  rosy 
tinge,  as  if  young  and 
healthy  blood  was  cir- 
culating under  the 
skin.  Maybe  this  slight 
flush  is  due  to  the  walk 
in  the  open  air — the 
hour  of  "footing  it," 
as  we  say  in  France — 
indispensable  to  the 
active  and  ever  green 
Senator.  The  thick 
moustache  is  white, 
but  mixed  with  many 
dark  hairs,  "  pepper 
and  salt,"  like  what  is 
left  of  the  hair  on  his 
head.    As  for  his  eyes, 


-Mi      - 

S 

M.  Clemenceau 
In  the  French  Trenches 


they  are  brighter  than  ever.  They  sparkle  wth  life,  and 
now  and  then  a  little  flame  bursts  forth  and  vanishes  in  a 
twinkling.  They  are  really  wonderful  —  those  eyes  of 
Clemenceau.  There  are  times  when  they  laugh  with  you  .' 
but  more  often  they  laugh  at  you.  They  are  in  turn  malicious, 
ironical,  devHish,  furious — doors  which  open  pn  the  ardent 
soul  that  would  have  consumed  long  ago  a  bodj-  more  frail. 
When  suddenly  they  dart  at  you  a  long  penetrating  glance 
which  enters  like  a  well-pointed  shaft,  you  ieel  as  if  a  feline 
of  the  most  powerful  tribe  was  ready  to  jump  on  you.  Then 
suddenly  the  storm  passes  over  as  rapidly  as  it  came.  The 
luminous  eyes  have  relaxed  their  grip,  and  again  they  are 
smiling  benevolently. 

The  voice  of  Clemenceau  is  harmonious,  alternately  very 
deep  and  a  trifle  shrill,  when  the  words  become  biting. 
Except  when  a  gesture  underlines  a  sentence  that  is  especially 
important,  the  hands  are  quite  motionless,  though  never 
for  very  long.  Occasionally,  now,  he  is  a  little  short  of 
breath,  but  this  rare  halting  in  his  speech  is  the  only  sign 
that  Clemenceau's  body  is  no  longer  as  ready  as  his  spirit. 
Taken  altogether,  the  French  Premier  might  be  a  well- 
preserved  man  between  50  and  60,  and  he  is  actually  over  77  ! 
Clemenceau,  in  spite  of  his  constant  advocacy  of  the 
republican  regime  and  of  democratic  institutions,  is  nothing 
if  not  an  aristocrat.  He  comes  from  an  old  family  of  Vendue, 
and  he  belongs  to  the  class  of  landed  gentry  which  in  France 
unites  the  nobility  to  the  haide  bourgeoisie.  If  it  were  possible 
to  establish  an  analogy,  one  might  say  that  his  social  position 
approximated  to  that  of  the  younger  son  of  an  English 
county  family,  well  connected,  but  not  rich,  and  obliged  to 
earn  his  living.  He  had  the  choice  of  a  professional  career, 
and,  like  his  father,  he  chose  to  be  a  doctor  of  medicine, 
which,  in  France,  has  been  a  highly  honorable  calling  ever 
since  the  days  of  Louis  XIV.,  ranking  with  the  law  and  the 
Church.     Thus  through  His  stormy  life,  M.  Clemenceau  has 

naturally  preserved 
the  charming  manners 
which  linked  the  men 
of  his  time  to  the 
ancien  rSgime.  Irideed, 
aspiring  statesmen  of 
the  present  generation 
have  found  it  unwise 
to  treat  the  Grand  Old 
Man  of  French  politics 
with  the  vulgar  fami- 
liarity so  dear  to  the 
rank  and  file  of  the 
Socialist  Party,  who 
think  that  democracy 
has  nothing  to  do  with 
politeness. 

Now  the  tide  of 
events  has  turned,  and 
at  the  most  difficult 
time  of  the  glorious 
history  of  France, 
those  demagogues  who 
are  largely  responsible 
for  the  calamity  which 
has  fallen  on  their 
country  have  had  to 
own  their  impotence 
to  save  themselves  and 
the  nation  they  have 
misled  for  so  many 
years.  They  have  been 
obliged  to  call  to  the- 
rescue  a  typical  gentle- 
man of  France,  who 
embodies  all  the  quali- 
ties, and  a  few  of  the 
defects,  of  his  race. 
M.  Clemenceau  is  to- 
day the  good  tyrant 
who,  in  spite  of  the 
empty  declarations  of 
pseudo-equal  it  arians, 
incarnates  that  ideal 
statesman  which  is  se- 
cretly cherished  by  the 
majority  of  French 
citizens.  Notwith- 


French  Official 


14 


Land   &   Water 


June  13,  19 1 8 


standing  our  boasted  love  of  unrestricted  liberty,  our  heredity 
is  that  of  a  military  nation  willing  to  obey  a  strong  but  kind 
mastei;  We  are  nevertheless  born  individualists,  and  by 
instinct  members  of  every  Opposition. 

The  French  character  is,  in  fact,  a  mass  of  contradictions. 
We  dislike  change  and  reform,  for,  though  we'alvvays  abuse 
the  past,  we  arc  the  most  traditionalist  people  in  the  world. 
Though  we  spend  the  best  of  our  wit  in  writing  lampoons 
and  comic  songs  at  the  expense  of  our  Government,  in  our 
hearts  we  respect  anthority.  A  few  gendarmes  can  keep  the 
peace  in  large  areas  of  our  territory  simply  through  the 
traditional  veneration  we  have  for  any  representative  of  the 
State.  Among  things  we  love  are  hierarchy,  decorations, 
imposing  titles,  gold  stripes  and  silver  embroideries,  huge  and 
usejess  swords,  picturesque  uniforms — in  a  word,  the  pomp 
of  official  functions.  For  the  same  reason,  we  willingly 
sacrifice  our  lives  for  glor^'  and  for  the  panache  which  sym- 
bolises the  virtue  of  patriotism.  We  will  permit  ourselves 
to  be  ordered  about  by  anybody  in  office  as  long  as  we  trust 
him,  and  if  we  understand  that  the  welfare  of  the  community 
depends  on  our  doing  what  we  are  told  to  do.  But  we  nnist 
be  allowed  to  grumble  as  much  as  we  like  while  faithfully 
accomplishing  our  duty. 

It  is  not  for  nothing  that  the  finest  soldiers  in  the  armies  of 
Napoleon  were  called  by  the  Emperor :  his  grognards — 
gnimblers.  All  the  time  they  were  fighting  like  heroes  for 
their  God  the  Emperor,  who  was  for  them  the  living  image 
of  "la  Pairie,"  they  grumbled,  and  the  devotion  of  the  people 
of  France  to  C16menceau  is  of  the  same  nature.  The  little 
Prime  Minister  is  also  a  grognard — a  grumbler — who  has 
spent  his  life  grumbling  at  everybody  and  at  everything,  but 
who  has  never  ceased  to  worship  his  country,  and  who  has 
always  been  ready  to  fight  and  to  give  his  life  for  the  prin- 
ciples he  has  defended  during  half  a  century. 

I    have   already   had   the   opportunity   of   describing  in 


Land  &  Water  the  principal  phases  of  M.  Cldmenceau's 
political  life.  I  need  not,  therefore,  repeat  the  memorab'e 
story  of  this  master  polemicist  who  has  never  sacrificed  his 
convictions  in  order  to  obtain  the  political  rewards  which 
it  would  h^ve  been  so  easy  to  get  for  the  asking.  His  unique 
position  to-day  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  he  only  comes 
into  power  in  periods  of  crisis. 

M.  C16menceau  docs  not  represent  a  party,  nor  even  a 
combination  of  parties.  He  is  simply  the  man  who,  like  all 
good  Frenchmen,  only  wants  one  thing— to  win  the  war. 
The  nation  has  entrusted  him  with  that  superhuman  task, 
and  stands  behind  him  as  one  compact  block.  To-day  he  is 
practically  the  absolute  rule^  of  France,  the  elect  of  the 
people,  atjd  already  he  has  been  an  autocrat  for  eight  months. 
A  few  may  grumble,  but  all  obey,  for  that  grand  old  man 
is  identified  with  the  will  of  France  to  remain  united  till 
victory  is  achieved. 

His  success  has  been  phenomenal.  In  spite  of  recurrent 
Socialist  manoeuvres,  M.  Clemenceau  has  maintained  and 
strengthened  his  position  in  a  Parliament  which  fears  him 
because  it  knows  that  behind  "the  Tiger"  there  is  France, 
military  as  well  as  civilian  France.  The  poilu  worships  him  ; 
the  peasant  trusts  him,  for  the  present  and  for  the  future ; 
the  Syndicalist  munition-maker  fears  him.  Slowly,  but 
surely,  he  is  clearing  the  atmosphere  behind  the  lines  of  all 
the  German  poison  gas.  Boloism  is  being  riithlessly  de- 
stroyed ;  Malvy  and  Caillaux  will  not  have  very  long  to 
wait  now  for  their  trial.  France  knows  that  it  is  to 
Cl^menceau,  and  to  him  alone,  that  we  owe  this  vital  ciaxe 
of  the  body  politic. 

That  explains  why  a  few  days  ago  when  in  a  dark  and 
critical  hour  the  French  Prime  Minister  uttered  words  of 
warning  to  rouse  the  indomitable  spirit  of  the  Motherland, 
however  mutilated  by  the  enemy,  the  whole  nation  responded 
instantly  to  that  appeal  from  the  greatest  living  Frenchman. 


Sphagnum  :  By  Eden  Phillpotts 


Now  that  winter's  scythe  has  lifted  and  the 
sun  has  climbed  again,  the  heart  beat  of  Dart- 
moor quickens,  and  her  pulses  throb  to  the 
vernal  thrill.  Where  was  withered  grass  all 
matted  by  rain  and  snow,  now  spear  a  million 
blades  ;  the  black  heather  is  warming  with  a  russet  tinge 
that  means  growth ;  the  whortleberry  wires  are  thickening 
fast  and  will  soon  break  into  red  leaves  and  red  flower-bells. 
The  velvet  buds  of  the  greater  gorse  flash  their  familiar 
gold  again,  and  in  fen  and  rill,  twinkle  the  marsh  violets — 
first  of  moor  flowers  to  return.  Above  them  the  sweet  gale's 
catkins  swell  and  shine,  like  agate  beads  in  the  pale  sunlight ; 
while  the  eagle  fern  has  long  passed  through  its  winter  splen- 
dours of  auburn  and  purple. 

But  the  glory  of  the  sphagnum  has  taken  wing  from  many 
a  cradle  of  the  Dartmoor  rivers,  and  wkere  the  stray  sunbeam, 
wandering  down  a  misty  hill,  would  light  of  old  the  bog  mosses 
into  jewels,  that  marked  a  spring  or  rillet's  starting-place, 
and  set  rainbow  bright  splashes  of  colour  on  the  monochrome 
of  the  waste,  there  lies  instead  a  scar.  Formerly  the  sphagnum, 
now  ruby  red  or  amber,  now  apple-green  or  lemon,  or  warm 
with  the  whiteness  of  old  ivory,  made  wonderful  patterns 
among  these  granite  boulders,  and  wove  magic  passages  of 
light  into  the  sombre  texture  of  the  heath  ;  but  now  patches 
of  stripped  stone  or  gravel  mark  the  robbed  beds,  and  the 
water  that  nourished  their  restraining  masses  falls  nakedly 
in  threads  over  the  face  of  denuded  rock,  or  lies  and  stares  up- 
ward from  black  cups  and  pools. 

Honourable  scars  are  these,  and  no  wild  green  thing  is  better 

serving  England  than  the  sphagna.       Their  value  in  the 

economy  of  the  moors  is  exceeding  great ;    but  even  that 

•  subserves   a   lesser   purpose   than   humanity's  present   call 

upon  it. 

The  peculiar  cell  structure  of  the  genus  sphagnum  renders 
this  moss  as  springy  and  absorbent  as  sponge,  and  its  habit  of 
growing  from  the  crown  of  each  filament  and  dying  at  an 
equal  rate  at  the  base,  produces  the  peat  moss,  or  swamp, 
that  holds  up  great  waters  and  creates  the  reservoirs  of 
stream  and  river.  Thus  sphagnum  has  lived  and  died  for 
centuries,  and  created  a  large  portion  of  the  existing  peat 
integument  of  the  moors.  Its  more  intimate  purpose  for 
luxury  need  only  be  recorded :  the  grower  of  epiphytal 
orchids  will  know  it  well  enough,  and  who  in  the  good  days 
past  but  received  his  flower  roots  and  bulbs  from  Holland 
and  Belgium  safely  packed  in  this  sweet  and  safe  medium  ? 

But  the  paramount  value  to-day  lies  nearer  man's  heart. 
Already  hundreds  of  tons  of  bog  mosses  have  been  forwarded 


to  the  military  hospitals,  and  the  cry  is  still  for  more. 
Enthusiastic  and  energetic  searchers  ■  are  yet  needed  to  go 
afield  to  the  lonely  centres  of  the  wilderness  and  collect  the 
unUmited  supply  of  this  natural  dressing  that  awaits  them. 
For  beyond  its  perfect  absorbent  properties,  the  moss  is  held 
to  be  actually  antiseptic  and  healing ;  it  contains  iodine, 
and  is  of  a  texture  so  soft  and  friendly  that  no  artificial 
material  surpasses  it.    Too  much  cannot  be  gathered. 

The  prophylactic  and  preservative  quality  of  peat  may 
be  observed,  for  in  the  deep  peat  tyes  will  often  appear  timber 
of  trees  that  grew  where  now  no  trees  are  and  fell  here,  to 
be  embalmed  for  centuries  in  the  pure  vegetable  earth  before 
it  reappeared.  One  has  seen  limbs  of  birch  from  vanished 
thickets  that  probably  flourished  in  Tudor  times  exposed  by 
the  peat  cutter,  with  their  silver  bark  as  bright  as  when  the 
tree  fell. 

His  Majesty  has  already  thanked  the  Dartmoor  moss  col- 
lectors, and  the  authorities  have  recorded  their  existing  and 
unceasing  needs.  They  urge  the  necessity  for  systematic 
collecting  and,  as  the  spring  returns  and  the  central  moors 
grow  more  accessible,  hope  to  count  upon  increasing  supplies. 
Therefore,  let  the  fisherman,  who  is  wont  to  penetrate  the 
streams  to  their  last  pools,  substitute  a  sack  for  his  creel  this 
year  and  leave  his  rod  at  home ;  and  may  the  holiday  folk, 
amid  their  pleasures,  permit  no  week  to  pass  that  does  not 
help  the  hospital  requirement.  If  one  brave  man's  wound 
heals  the  quicker  for  your  labour  on  the  heights,  then  is  the 
day's  work  rewarded  and  the  day's  beauty  blessed. 

In  an  East  Coast   Town 

Watch  through  the  town  ;  for  the  night  wind  brings  us. 

Gun-fire,  solemn  through  drifted  spume 
Fhckering  white  on  the  low  horizon, 

Great  guns  tolling  the  bell  of  doom. 

Watch  ;  "for  their  souls  in  the  storm  pass  over  ; 

Steal  to  your  window,  lovers,  and  look — 
Flash  by  flash,  to  preserve  your  body, 

Bodies  that  shatter  in  fire  and  smoke. 

Grey  waves  jostle  them,  speechless,  Umbless  ; 

Torn  mists  harry  them  as  they  ride. 
Day  leaps  up  like  the  resurrection. 

Spreading  their  blood  on  the  angry  tide. 

Sherard  ViSes. 


June  13,  1918 


Land   &   Water 

German  Plots  Exposed 

The  Bolo  Cablegrams 

r  renCh      Otr other,   Managing  Editor,  "The  World's  Work,^'  New  York 


15 


y 


SECRECY  was,  of  course,  the  most  important  con- 
sideration in  the  German  plots  in  America.  When 
Bernstorff  wished  to  arrange  with  BerHn  to  give 
Bolo  Pasha  10  million  francs  to  betray  his  country, 
he  naturally  did  not  write  out  his  messages  in  plain 
Enghsh  for  every  wireless  station  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 
to  read  them  as  they  went  through  the  air.  He  did,  to  be 
sure,  write  the  messages  in  English,  and  the}'  looked  plain 
enough — and  innocent  enough^ — but  thej'  meant  "something 
very  different  from  what  they  seemed  to  mean.  And  when 
it  got  down  to  the  actual  transfer  of  the  money,  another 
German  agent  in  New  York  signed  the  messages,  which  likewise 
were  not  what  they  seemed.     Those  messages  were  in  code. 

Now,  code  should  not  be  confused  with  cipher.  When  some 
Hindus  in  New  York,  subsidised  by  BerHn,  wished  to  write 
their  plans  to  other  Hindus  in  San  Francisco,  concerning 
their  commpn  purpose  of  fomenting  revolution  against 
British  rule  in  India,  they  wrote  out  messages  that  consisted 
entirely  of  groups  of  Arabic  numerals.  Those  messages  were 
in  cipher. 

Before  taking  up  some  of  the  German  code  and  cipher 
messages  that  have  been  translated,  with  dramatic  results, 
it  will  be  well  to  discuss  codes  and  ciphers  in  general.  A  code 
is  an  arrangement  by  which  two  people  agree,  when  ex- 
changing messages,  aJways  to  substitute  certain  words  or 
symbols  for  the  real  words  of  the  message.  Thus,  they 
might  agree  on  these  substitutions  : 

a  =r  the 
French  ship  --  market 
sailed  from  New  York  ~  price 
sailed  from  Boston  =  quotation 
to-day  =  is 
for  Marseilles  =  any  even  number 
for  Bordeaux  =  any  number  with  a  fraction 

With  such  a  code,  a  German  spy  in  New  York  could  cable 
a  seemingly  harmless  message  to  a  friend  in  Holland,  such  as  : 
"The  market  price  is  no."  This  would  mean  :  "A  French 
ship  sailed  from  New  York  to-day  for  Marseilles."  Whereas 
a  very  shght  change  in  wording  :  "  The  market  quotation  is 
no},"  would  mean  "A  French  ship  sailed  from  Boston  to- 
day for  Bordeaux." 

Messages  of  that  sort  could  be  exchanged  daily  between  a 
broker  in  Wall  Street  and  i.  broker  in  Amsterdam,  and,  by 
the  addition  of  a  few  more  words,  could  be  infinitely  varied, 
and  would  look  like  perfectly  legitimate  commercial  corre- 
spondence. In  fact,  most  international  business  before  the 
war  (the  Government  now  requires  all  messages  to  appear 
in  plain  English)  was  carried  on  by  coded  cables  which 
turned  long  messages  into  short  groups  of  words  that  of 
themselves  made  gibberish.  Several  code  books,  for  business 
use,  were  on  the  market,  containing  hundreds  of  pages  of 
these  arbitrary  substitutions,  which  were  useful,  not  for 
secrecy,  but  for  economy.  A  dozen  words  could  be  made 
to  say  what  normally  would  require  five  hundred  words. 

A  cipher  is  the  substitution  of  some  symbol  for  a  letter  of 
the  alphabet.  The  substituted  symbol  may  be  another  letter 
— as  writing  e  when  you  mean  a.  Or  it  may  be  a  figure — as 
using  42  when  you  mean  m.  .  Or  it  may  be  an  arbitrary 
sign — as  *  to  mean  c.  This  is  called  a  substitution  cipher, 
because  some  other  letter  or  symbol  is  arbitrarily  substituted 
for  every  letter.  But  another  kind  is  called  a  transposition 
cipher,  because  in  this  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  are  simply 
transposed  by  agreement— the  simplest  and  most  obvious 
example  being  to  reverse  the  alphabet,  so  that  z  stands  for 
a,  and  y  for  b,  etc. 

Perhaps  the  cleverest  transposition  cipher  ever  devised 
— it  is  so  good  tliat  the  British  Army  uses  it  in  the  field  and 
has  published  text-books  about  it — is  the  very  simple  "Play- 
fair"  cipher.  First  a  square  is  drawn,  divided  into  fifths 
each  way.  This  arrangement  gives  twenty-five  spaces,  to 
contain  the  letters  of  the  alphabet — /  and  /  being  put  in 
one  square  because  there  would  never  be  &ny  plain  sentence 
in  which  it  would  not  be  quite  obvious  which  one  of  them  is 
needed  to  complete  a  word  of  which  the  other  letters  are 
known.  Next  a  "key  word"  is  chosen — herein  is  the  clever- 
ness and  the  simplicity  of  this  cipher,  because  every  time  the 
key  word  is  changed,  the  whole  pattern  of  the  jdpliabet  is 
changed.     Suppose  the  key  word  is  Gardenia.     It  is  spelled 


out  in  the  sqilares,  as  on  Diagrafn  I.  The  second  A  is  left 
out,  as  there  mus^  not,  of  course,  be  duplicates  on  the  key- 
board. Now,  the  rest  of  the  alphabet  is  written  into  the 
squares  in  their  regular  sequence,  as  ©n  Diagram  II.     That  is 


G 

A 

R 

D 

E 

n 

G 

A 

R 

D 

E 

N 

IJ 

N 

IJ 

B 

C 

F 

H 

K 

L 

M 

0 

P 

Q 

S 

T 

U 

V 

W 

,x 

Y 

Z 

the  complete  keyboard.  The  method  for  using  it  is  this  :  The 
message  is  written  out  in  plain  text,  e.g. : 

DESTROY    BRIDGE    AT    ONCE 

(onlj'  capital  letters  are  commonly  used  in  cipher  work). 
This  message  is  now  divided  into  groups  of  two  letters,  in 
the  same  order,  so  that  it  reads : 

DE  ST  RO  YB  RI  DG  EA  TO  NC  EX 

(the  X  is  added  to  complete  the  group,  and  is  called  a  null). 
These  groups  of  twos  are  now  ciphered  from  the  keyboard 
into  other  groups  of  twos,  by  the  following  method  : 

Where  two  j  oined  letters  of  the  original  message  appear  in 
the  same  horizontal  row  on  the  kej'board,  the  next  letter  to 
the  right  is  substituted  for  each.  Thus,  the  first  two  letters 
of  our  message  are  DE.  They  occur  in  the  same  horizontal 
row  on  our  keyboard.  Consequently,  for  D  we  write  E, 
and  for  E  we  go  "on  around  the  world"  to  the  right,  or  back 
to  the  other  end  of  the  row,  and  write  G  for  E.  This  gives 
us  DE  enciphered  as  EG. 

Where  two  joined  letters  of  the  original  message  appear 
in  the  same  vertical  row  on  the  keyboard,  the  next  letter 
below  is  substituted  for  each. 

Where  two  joined  letters  of  the  original  message  appear 
neither  in  the  same  horizontal  nor  the  same  vertical  row  on 
the  keyboard,  we  imagine  a  rectangle  with  the  two  letters 
at  the  opposite  corners,  and  in  each  case  substitute  the  letter 
found  on  the  keyboard  at  the  other  comer  of  the  same 
horizontal  row.  This  sounds  complicated,  but  in  reality  is 
very  simple.  For  example,  take  the  third  two-letter  group 
of  our  message — RO.    The  rectangle  in  this  case  is 

R   D   E  , 

B    C    F 
L    M  O 

and  for  R  we  substitute  E,  and  for  O  we  substitute  L.    Sub- 
stituting our  whole  message  by  this  system,  it  reads : 
Original  DE  ST    RO  YB  RI    DG  EA  TO  NC  EX 
Cipher     EG  TU  EL  XC  AB  EA  GR  UM  IF    RZ 
As    telegraph    operators    are    accustomed    to    send    these 
gibberish  messages  in  groups  of  five  letters  (so  that  they  can 
check  errors,  knowing  tljat  when  only  four  appear  in  a  group, 
for  example,  something  has  been  left  out)  these  enciphered 
groups  of  twos  are  now  combined  into  groups  of  fives,  so 
that  the  finished  cipher  reads  : 

EGTUE    LXCAB    EAGRU    MIFRZ 

The  foregoing 
sounds  extremely 
comphcated,  but  the 
truth  is  that  any- 
body, after  half  an 
hovir's  practice,  can 
put  a  message  into 
''this  kind  of  cipher 
("Playfair  cipher") 
almost  as  fast  as  he 
can  print  the  straight 
EngUsh  of  it  in  capi- 
tal letters.  And  unless 
the  person  who  reads 
it  knows  the  key 
word  which  deter- 
mined    the    pattern 


■ 

1 

■ 

n 

■ 

D 

■ 

D 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

E 

■ 

E       ■         D 
■      E          ■ 

C 

■■   EDU 

CB  nnnuB 

i6 


Land   &   Water 


June   13,  19 1 8 


1 

A 

■  "'  ■  1 

U 

^ 

B 

A 

D 

U 

r 

c 

S 

A 

a 

U 

i. 

cti 

>I 

> 

T 

H 

> 

r 

T 

H 

-I — ' 

H 

> 

r 

T 

0 

H 

0 

i 

H, 

0 

R 

r 

0 

- 

R 

z 

>I 

r 

2 

0 

— 

R 

z 

3 

I 

• 

Z 

• 

E 

I 

Z 

Z 

•-H 

E 

w 

I 

Z 

z 

d 

-- 

E 

m , 

/ 

P 

P 

2 

- 

d 

w 

P 

0 

0 

^^ 

3 

A 

Y 

A 

r 

Y 

A 

a- 

A 

H 

n 

r 

< 

Y 

M 

E 

M 

E 

0 

I 

M 

E 

a 

0 

0 

^ 

2 

N 

T 

7^ 

N 

0 

- 

T 

73 

N 

0 

H 

J. 

w 

S 

T 

on  liis  keyboard,  he  would  liave  to  be  an  expert  to  deciplier 
it,  and  even  he  could  do  it  only  after  a  good  deal  of  work. 

Another  ingenious  cipher  is  called  the  "Chess  Board." 
First,  a  sheet  of  paper  is  ruled  into  squares  exactly  like  a 
chess  board— that  is,  a  square  divided  into  eighths  each  way. 
This  arrangement  gives,  of  course,  sixty-four  small  squares. 
Then,  by  agreement  between  the  people  who  intend  to  use 
this  cipher,  sixteen  of  these  squares  are  agreed  upon  and  are 
cut  out  of  the  sheet  with  a  knife.  Suppose  the  pattern  on 
diagram  at  foot  of  preceding  page  is  chosen,  and  the  squares 
in  white  are  cut  out.  Another  sheet  of  paper  is  ruled  into 
a  chess  board,  of  exactly  the  same  size  as  the  first.  The  perfor- 
ated sheet  is  now  laid  on  top  of  the  second  sheet,  so  that  the 
squares  on  the  one  exactly  cover  the  squares  on  the  other. 
Now,  with  a  pen  or  pencil,  the  plain  text  of  the  secret 
message  is  printed  on  the  under  sheet  by  writing  through 
the  perforations  of  the  upper  sheet,  only  one  letter  being 
written  in  each  square.  This,  of  course,  permits  the  writing  of 
sixteen  letters  of  the  message.  Suppose  the  complete 
message  is  to  be  : 

"Authorize  payment  ten  million  dollars  to  buy 
copper  for  shipment  to  Germany." 
Then  the  lower  sheet,  after  we  have  written  through  the 
perforations,  will  look  like  Diagram  A,  at  the  head  of  the 
page.  The  perforated  sheet  is  now  turned  to  the  right  through 
one-fourth  of  a  complete  revolution,  so  that  the  top  of  it  is 
at  the  right  side  of  the  lower  sheet  and  so  that  the  two  chess 
boards  again  "match  up."  This  operation  exposes,  through 
■the  perforations,  a  new  set  of  sixteen  open  squares  on  the 
lower  sheet.  The  writing  of  the  message  is  continued,  and 
the  lower  sheet  now  looks  like  B.  Again  the  perforated 
sheet  is  turned  to  the  right,  and  sixteen  more  letters  are 
written.  Once  more,  and  the  whole  four  squares  are  utilised, 
looking  hke  C.  These  letters  are  now  put  upright,  like  on  the 
accompanying  diagram,  and  are  read  from  left  to  right  and 

from  the  first  hue 
down,  Hke  ordinary 
reading  matter. 
They  arc  the^n 
grouped  into  fives 
for  telegraphic 
transmission,  and 
an  Jf  added  at  the 
end  to  make  an 
even  five-group 
there.  Thus  the 
message,  as  trans- 
mitted, reads  : 
SADUL      RRYAL 


s 

A 

D 

U 

L 

R 

R 

Y 

A 

L 

T 

0 

H 

0 

F 

T 

R 

L 

N 

0 

I 

R 

N 

E 

I 

M 

Z 

N 

P 

I 

E 

E 

I 

P 

E 

P 

G 

0 

W 

C 

A 

P 

Y 

T 

U 

L 

A 

Y 

I 

M 

E 

B 

0 

0 

M 

N 

R 

N 

0 

T 

T 

E 

S 

T 

TOHOF 
IRNEI 
EEIPE 
APYTU 


TRLNO 
MZNPI 
PGOMC 
LAYIM 


EBOOM  NRNOT  TESTX 

When  this  message  is  received,  it  can,  of  course,  be  quickly 
deciphered  by  printing  it  out  on  a  chess  board  and  placing 
over  it  a  sheet  perforated  according  to  the  pre-arranged 
pattern. 

This  survey  of  codes  and  ciphers  does  not  more  than 
scratch  the  surface  of  the  subject,  and  suggest  the  almost 
infinite  variations  that  are  possible— in  ciphers  especially.  It 
simply  gives  a  groundwork  for  an  understanding  of  the 
German  secret  messages  to  be  described. 

.\mong  the  most  interesting  of  these  secret  messages  is 
the  series  of  wireless  telegrams  by  means  of  which  the  German 
money  was  paid  to  Bolo  Pasha  for  the  purchase  of  the  Paris 
Journal— one  of  the  principal  episodes  in  the  treasonable 
intrigue  for  which  Bolo  >vas  recently  executed  by  a  French 
firing  squad.  These  messages  were  in  English,  and  meant 
exactly  what  they  said,  except  for  the  proper  names  and  the 


figures,  which  were  code.  To  decode  them  it  was  necessary 
only  to-  make  the  following  substitutions  : 

William  Foxley  =  Foreign  Office 
Charles  Gledhill  =  Count  BernstorfiE 

Fred  Hooven  =^.  Guaranty  Trust  Company  (New  Ywk) 
$500  =r  $500,000 

and  to  all  other  figures  add  three  ciphers  to  arrive  at  the 
real  amount.  For  example,  one  of  these  messages  read  : 
"Paid  Charles  Gledhill  five  hundred  dollars  through  Fred 
Hooven."  This  meant :  "Paid  Count  Bernstorff  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars  through  Guaranty  Trust  Company." 

The  story  of  these  messages  is  briefly  this :  Marie  Paul 
Bolo  started  life  as  a  barber,  became  an  adventurer,  and,  in 
the  service  of  the  Khedive  of  Egypt,  received  the  title  of 
Pasha  for  a  financial  service  which  he  rendered  him.  Re- 
turning to  France  as  Bolo  Pasha,  he  married  two  wealthy 
women  and  lived  in  grand  style  on  their  money.  He  became 
an  intimate  of  Charles  Humbert,  who  was  a  member  of 
the  French  Senate.  In  the  meantime,  the  Khedive  had 
been  deposed  by  the  British  on  account  of  his  pro- Turkish 
(and  hence  pro-German)  activities  after  the  great  war 
began.  Abbas  Hilmi  joined  the  colony  of  ex- rulers  in 
Switzerland,  and  there  became  a  part  of  the  German  system 
of  intrigue.  He  received  money  from  the  Germans,"  and, 
after  he  had  deducted  his  share  (whicli  sometimes  amounted 
to  half  the  total),  he  paid  over  the  rest  to  Bolo,  to  be  used  by 
Bolo,  and  also,  it  is  alleged,  by  Humbert,  and  the  ex- Premier 
Caillaux,  in  an  effort  to  restore  Caillqiux  to  power,  and  then 
to  further  the  propaganda  for  an  early  and  inconclusive 
peace  with  Germany. 

Either  this  method  of  supplying  the  French  traitdr  with 
funds  became  too  dangerous,  or  the  Germans  preferred  to 
keep  their  gold  and  wished  to  use  their  credit  in  the  United 
States  to  get  American  gold  for  this  purpose.  In  any  event, 
Bolo  Pasha  appeared  in  New  York  eariy  in  March,  igio! 
Strangely  enough,  this  French  subject  bore  letters  of  intro- 
duction to  several  Germans.  The  most  important  was 
addressed  to  Adolf  Pavenstedt,  who  was  senior  partner  in 
G.  Amsinck  &  Company  and  for  many  years  a  chief  pay- 
master of  the  German  Spy  System  in  this  country.  Through 
Pavenstedt,  Bolo  met  Hugo  Schmidt,  a  director  of  the 
Deutsche  Bank  of  Berlin,  a  Government  institution,  who 
had  been  sent  to  this  country  soon  after  the  war  broke  out 
to  provide  complete  co-operation  between  the  older  representa- 
tives of  the  Deutsche  Bank  here  and  the  management  in  Berhn. 

Through  Pavenstedt  as  messenger,  Bolo  also  got  in  touch 
with  Bernstorff,  and  arranged  the  final  details  of  the  plan  by 
which  Bolo  was  to  receive  10  million  francs  from  the  German 
Government.  He  was  to  use  this  money  to  buy  the  Paris 
Journal.  As  the  Journal  is  one  of  the  most  powerful 
dailies  in  France,  with  over  a  million  and  a  half  readers 
the  sinister  possibilities  of  this  scheme  are  readily  seen 

Bernstorff  committed  the  financial  details  to  Hugo  Schmidt 
He,  m  turn,  "wirelessed"  Beriin  for  suitable  credits  in 
Amencan  banking  houses.  These  were  arranged  with  the 
Guaranty  Trust  Company  and  the  Narional  Park  Bank— 
for  many  years  American  correspondents  of  the  Deutsche 
Bank.  These  credits  were  then  credited  to  G.  Amsinck  and 
Company,  of  which  Pavenstedt  had  long  been  senior  partner. 
He,  in  turn  placed  them,  with  the  New  York  branch  of  the 
Royal  Bank  of  Canada,  to  the  account  of  Bolo  Pasha.  As 
the  exchange  rate  at  the  time  ran  in  favour  of  American 
dol  ars  and  against  French  francs,  the  10  million  francs  (nor- 
mally about  2  million  dollars-£4oo,ooo)  which  Bolo  got, 
required  only  $1,683,500  of  American  money  (say,  £336,700) 
-which  IS  J  list  the  sum  of  the  amounts  named  in  the  wireless 
messages  1  he  Journal  was  actually  bought  by  Bolo,  but  before 
he  could  do  much  damage  with  it  he  was  arrested,  tried, 
convicted,  and  executed. 

{To  be  continued.) 


June    13,    19  I  8 


Land    &    Water 


17 


Life  and  Letters  ^y  J.  C  Sonire 


Walter   de  la   Mare 

MR.  WALTER  DE  LA  MARE,  indisputably 
the  most  cunning  artist  among  the  younger 
poets,  has  still  to  receive  bis  due  measure  of 
recognition.  This  probably  does  not  trouble 
him.  He  betrays  no  desire  to  be  thought  or 
to  bi:  .1  "great  poet"  in  the  customary  sense.  He  is^f  the 
dreamers,  and  one  of  the  quietest  and  most  secluded  of 
them  ;  a  man  who  cares  only  for  what  seems  to  him  beautiful, 
in  nature  and  in  man,  who  goes  where  he  can  find  it,  and  who 
produces  its  effect  and  its  praise  in  small  poems  as  nearly 
perfect  as  he  can  make  them.  They  percolate  unobtnisively 
into  the  world,  and  there' are  not  very  many  of  them. 
»  ♦  »  »  *  » 

In  sixteen  years  Mr.  de  la  Mare  published  three  small 
books  of  verse.  To  that  sparse  production  has  now  been 
added  a  new  volume,  Motley  (Constable,  3s.  6d.  net).  There 
is  no  new  and  unexpected  development  in  it  :  Mr.  de  la  Mare 
does  not  suddenly  break  into  a  long  blank  verse  narrative, 
a  ballad  of  vigorous  action,  or  a  robust  proclamation  of  faith. 
The  subjects  are  akin  to  the  old  ones,  the  forms  are  growths 
from  the  old  stem  :  the  poet  still  sings  quietly  of  things  he 
has  heard,  and  felt,  and  seen  :  the  only  change  is  that  he  has 
matured,  that,  a  careful  artist  from  the  first,  he  now  observes 
and  writes  more  surely  than  ever.  The  things  he  feels  and 
sees  and  hears  are  mostly  perceived  in  quiet  places,  by  moon- 
light or  starlight,  at  dusk  or  in  the  dark  :  thin  ghosts,  old 
memories,  birds,  insects,  and  secrets  of  the  heart  that  steal 
slyly  out  in  silence.     "When,"  he  wrote  in  an  earlier  poem  : 

When  the  dusk  is  falling, 

Silence  broods  so  deep, 
It  seems  that  every  wind  that  breathes 

Blows  from  the  fields  of  sleep. 

It  is  his  diaracteristic  atmosphere.  When  one  has  read  any 
of  his  books  one  feels  that  his  spirit  haunts  three  places : 
a  lonely  garden,  an  old  deserted  house,  and  a  wood  at  night. 
In  the  garden  the  flowers  are  untroubled  by  wind,  except 
by  an  occasional  "s-sh"  that  comes  and  passes,  and  leaves 
the  stillness  intenser  and  a  little  uncanny  ;  there  is  a  sleeping 
fountain,  a  mouldering  statue  or  two,  and  ages  ago  children 
have  been  there.  The  house  stands  among  trees  ;  its  rooms 
are  barred  with  moonlight  and  black  shadows ;  insects  tick 
in  its  mouldering  timbers,  mice  nibble,  and  the  stairs  creak  ; 
and  if  a  voice  comes  there  it  is  bodiless  and  plaintive.  But 
the  wood,  though  quiet  also,  is  fresh  and  aJive,  an  English 
wood  at  night,  with  oaks  and  beeches  stretching  their  branches 
to  the  stars,  dew  wet  upon  grass  and  berry  and  thorn,  a  bird 
singing,  and  a  hidden  stream  bubbling  in  the  dark.  There  is 
nothing  recondite  about  these  scenes,  and  it  might  have  been 
thought  that  poets  had  "done"  the  empty  house  and  the 
deserted  garden  to  death.  But  Mr.  de  la  Mare  has  not 
chosen  them  because  they  are  picturesque ;  he  is  drawn  to 
them  by  their  kinship  to  something  in  himself  ;  it  is  in  them 
that  he  is  most  truly  himself.  And  for  his  woods,  though  he 
has  never  elaborated  a  "description"  of  one,  but  contents 
himself  with  almost  parsimonious  small  touches,  I  know  no 
other  place  in  literature  where  just  those  night  woods  are  to 
be  found  in  all  their  sweetness.  They  are  here  in  Motley  once 
more — the  garden  also,  and  the  empty  house  : 

"Secrets,"  sighs  the  night  wind. 
Vacancy  is  all  I  find  ; 
Every  keyhole  I  have  made 
Wail  a  sununons,  faint  and  sad, 
No  voice  ever  answers  me. 

Only  vacancy  ? 
"Once,  once  .  .  ."  the  cricket  shrills. 
And  far  and  near  the  quiet  fills 
With  its  tiny  voice,  and  then 

Hush  falls  again. 

Yet  his  repetitions  are  only  superficial ;  for  he  is  writing 
sincerely,  not  manufacturing,  and  that  may  mean  a  hundred 
new  things  with  the  old  physical  materials. 

•  •*•«« 

This  book  is  not  to  be  recommended  as  an  introduction  to 
Mr.  de  la  Mare's  work.  There  is  nothing  in  it  which  makes 
so  abrupt  an  assault — if  one  may  use  that  adjective  and 
that  noun  of  anything  by  so  quiet  an  artist — as  many  poems 
in  Peacock  Pie  and  The  Listeners.  Even  the  cuisory  reader 
will  get  delight  from  many  things  in  those  two  earlier  books. 
The  cursory  reader  from  this  will  get  none ;  and  the  inex- 
perienced reader  may  be  baffled  by  his  unfamiliarity  with 


Mr.  de  la  Mare's  atmosphere  and  idiom,  may  be  checked 
because  he  has  not  learnt  the  rudiments  elsewhere  of  a 
method  of  expression  here  brought  to  an  extreme  pitch  of 
refinement.  All  readers  who  do  not  know  him  may  em- 
phatically bfe  advised  to  approach  him  through  the  two 
earlier  books.  But  those  who  do  know  him  will  discover 
and  treasure  in  Motley  the  fine  liower  of  his  genius  :  a  world 
of  spirit  now  explored  and  known,  a  world  of  sense  delimited, 
defined,  and  described  with  unfailing  accuracy,  a  language 
scrupulously  purged  and  beautifully  suited  to  its  purpose, 
a  precision  of  rhythmical  effect  grown  almost  perfect.  He 
has,  as  one  has  indicated,  his  limitations  ;  his  instrument  has 
view  strings,  and  he  never  sings  very  loudly.  But  he  has 
"loved,"  as  the  dying  Keats  said  of  himself,  "the  principle 
of  beauty  in  all  things,"  and  his  love  has  spoken  in  a  music 
as  melodious,  as  poignant,  and  as  individual  as  Chopin's. 
Beyond  the  inculcation  of  that  love  he  has  no  doctrines  ;  the 
professor  who  wants  to  write  a  chapter  about  his  "message" 
will  have  his  work  cut  out.  He  has  an  infinite  sensitiveness 
but  femarkably  few  general  ideas  ;  the  most  that  one  might 
do  \lfould  be  to  argue  plausibly  that  he  believes  in,  and 
evidently  lives  by,  things  in  which  he  does  not  know  that  he 
believes.  But  that  one  dominant  love,  source  of  all  nourish- 
ment and  all  consolation,  is  evident  always,  and  its  main 
aspects  are  shown  in  the  two  poems  with  which  the  book 
ends — "The  Scribe"  and  "Farewell."  I  will  quote  them, 
instead  of  vulgarising  them  by  paraphrase.     Here  is  the  first  ; 

What  lovely  things 

Thy  hand  hath  made  : 
The  smooth-plumed  bird 

In  its  emerald  shade. 
The  seed  of  the  grass. 

The  speck  of  stone 
Which  the  wayfaring  ant 

Stirs— and  hastes  on  ! 

Thoijgh  I  should  sit 

By  some  tarn  in  thy  hills. 
Using  its  ink 

As  the  spirit  wills 
To  write  of  Earth's  wonders. 

Its  live,  willed  things, 
I'^Ut  would  its  ages 

On  soundless  wings 
Ere  unto  Z 

My  pen  drew  nigh  ; 
Leviathan  told. 

And  the  honey-fly : 
And  still  would  remain 

My  wit  to  try — 
My  worn  reeds  broken, 
The  dark  tarn  dry,  ^ 

All  words  forgotten — 

Thou,  Lord,  and  I. 

The  second  is  its  complement  ;  it  is  as  simple  in  statement, 
as  unaffected,  and  as  successful  : 

When  I  lie  where  shades  of  darkness 
Shall  no  more  assail  mine  eyes. 
Nor  the  rain  make  lamentation 

When  the  wind  sighs  ; 
How  will  fare  the  world  whose  wonder 
Was  the  very  proof  of  me  .' 
Memory  fades,  must  the  remembered 

Perishing  be  ? 

Oh,  when  this  my  dust  surrenders 
Hand,  foot,  lip,  to  dust  again. 
May  these  loved  and  loving  faces 

Please  other  men  I 
May  the  rusting  harvest  hedgerow 
Still  the  Traveller's  Joy  entwine. 
And  us  happy  children  gather 

Posies  once  mine.  ' 

Look  thy  last  on  all  things  lovely 

Every  hour.     Let  no  night 

Seal  thy  sense  in  deathly  skimber 

Till  to  delight. 
Thou  hast  paid  thy  utmost  blessing  ; 
Since  that  all  things  thou  wouldst  praise 
Beauty  took  from  those  who  loved  them 

In  other  days, 

Mr.  de  la  Mare  has  been  called  a  poet's  poet.  Perhaps  he  is. 
If  so — or,  for  that  matter,  if  not — poets  can  learn  nlany 
tilings  from  him.  One  is  that  it  is  better  not  to  pretend. 
Another  is  that  a  great  deal  can  be  done  with  very  few- 
adjectives. 


i8 


Land    &    Water 


June   13,  191 8 


A  Realist:    By  Charles  Marriott 


|H 

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1 

Bantam 


IN  a  sense,  and 
a  good  sense, 
Mr.  Eric  Ken- 
nington  is  the 
most  realistic 
of  tlie  artists  ofticially 
employed  upon  the 
war ;  but  the  word 
"realistic", has  come 
t(i  mean  so  many 
d  i  ff  e  r  e  n  t — and  in- 
compatible— t  h  i  n  g  s 
that  it  has  to  be  used 
with,  some  caution. 
As  a  rule,  what  is 
meant  by  a  realistic 
writer  or  painter  is  a 
man  who  affects  a 
tiresome  fidelity  to 
tlic  look  of  things 
and  disclaims  any  in- 
terest in  their  pur- 
)>ose,  but  at  the  same 
time  leaves  you  to 
suppose  that  he  knows 
all  about  it.  Most  of 
us  are  heartily  sick  of 
that  sort  of  realism, 
the  "slice  of  life" 
realism,  of  which  somebody  wittily  said  that  it  is  no  more 
like  Hfe  than  a  slice  of  beef  is  like  a  cow. 

On  the  other  hand  there  is  the  realism  which,  while  it  does 
not  worry  much  about  the  look  of  things,  is  frankly  and  in- 
tensely interested  in  their  character  and  purpose.  This  is 
the  realism  of  the  pre-Raphaelites  and  of  Mr.  Eric  Kennington. 
As  a  rule  a  realist  of  this  kind  neither  disclaims  nor 
pretends  to  any  judgment  of  the  ultimate  meaning  of  things  ; 
he  simply  forgets  all  about  it  in  his  delight  in  things  for  their 
own  sakes  ;  and  it  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  tell  from 
Mr.  Kennington's  pictures,  now  on  view  at  the  Leicester 
Galleries,  Leicester  Square,  what  he  thinks  abq,ut  war. 
What  you  can  tell  is  that  lie  is  enormously  interested 
in  his  fellow  creatures,  and  in  everything  they  use  and 
wear,  down  to  the  last  button  on  the  last  gaiter.  The  great 
value  of  Mr.  Kennington's 
work,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  interpretation,  is 
that  it  interprets  the  war  in 
detail.  Nobody  else  has  taken 
such  pains  to  show  exactly 
what  the  men  and  their  wea- 
pons and  equipment  are  like. 
Not  what  they  look  like,  for 
that  is  begging  the  question, 
because  the  same  people  and 
things  will  look  different  in 
different  circumstances,  tf  and 
for  getting  the  look  of  a 
person  or  thing  in  the  circum- 
stances of  the  moment  there 
is  nothing  to  beat  the  camera. 
Art  being  before  everything  a 
practical  matter,  it  is  worth 
while  examining  this  question 
pretty  closely.  If  you  com- 
pare Mr.  Kennington's  draw- 
ings and  paintings  with 
photographs,  you  will  see 
that  the  great  difference  is 
that  he  shows  you  what  the 
thing  is  like  all  the  time. 
There  is  a  popular  notion, 
due  to  a  misunderstanding  of 
Impressionism,  that  this  is 
bad  art,  but  the  popular 
notion  is  wrong.  The  artistic 
merit  of  realism  is  to  be  ex- 
planatory. Anybody  who  has 
had  to  make  both  drawings 
and  photographs  for  scientific 
purposes — say  to  illustrate  a 
book  about  birds — knows  that, 
contrary  to  expectation,photo- 


General  Sir  Pertab  Sin 


graphy  is  an  imperfect  means  of  showing  the  permanent 
facts  of  structure,  though  it  is  unrivalled  for  representing 
appearances.  In  order  to  show  how  the  thing  goes  you  have 
to  make  a  drawing.  The  ironical  truth  is  that  photography 
kn ocks  the  stuffing  out  of  what  is  generally  ca lied  "  realism, ' '  but 
leaves  the  merits  of  pre-Raphaelitism  absolutely  unto'uched. 

Again,  if  you  compare  the  work  of  Mr.  Kennington  with 
that  dt  Meissonier,  you  will  notice  another  great  difference. 
Meissonier  shows  you  all  the  details  of  uniform  and  equip- 
ment, but  he  does  not  really  show  you  liow  they  are  made 
and  put  on.  The  defect  of  Meissonier  is  not  that  he  finished 
his  work  too  minutely,  but  that  he  finished  it  imintelligently. 
He  shows  you  the  speck  of  light  on  the  buckle,  but  lie  does 
not  show  you  hov\^  the  buckle  fastens.  To  put  it  in  a  prac- 
tical way,  a  person  who  had  to  make  a  working  as  distinct 
from  a  museum  model  of  uniform  and  equipment,  from  a 
picture  by  Meissonier,  would  very  soon  lose  his  temper ;  he 
would  find  that  exactly  the  information  he  wanted  was  mis- 
sing ;  whereas  with  a  picture  bj'  Mr.  Kennington  he  would 
find  no  difficulty  at  all.  He  would  be  able  to  see  exactty  how 
everything  buckled  or  buttoned  up.  Whereas  Meissonier  was 
interested  mainly  in  showing  how  "like"  he  could  make 
everything,  Mr.  kennington  is  interested  in  the  things  them- 
selves, and  how  they  go — which  is  interpretation.  It  im- 
plies, as  Rossetti  said,   "fundamental  brain-work." 

Not  that  the  merits  of  Mr.  Kennington's  work  are  limited 
to  still-life.  Some  of  his  portrait  studies  are  almost  dis- 
concerting in  their  reality.  Coming  upon  them  suddenly 
you  feel  inclined  to  say  :  "  I  beg  your  pardon,  I  don't  know 
your  name,  but •."  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  hos- 
pital studies ;  to  look  at  them  is  almost  an  intrusion,  not 
on  account  of  the  circumstances,  but  because  of  the  individual 
reality  of  the  men.  That  is  a  consequence  of  Mr.  Kenning- 
ton's intense  interpst  in  character.  He  shows  you  what  the 
man  is  like  all  the  time,  and  not  only  since  he  put  on  khaki. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  interpretation  this  is  extremely 
valuable.  It  brings  home  the  richness  and  variety  of  our 
wonderful  army.  It  is  an  army  not  of  machine-made  soldiers, 
but  of  men  whose  characters  have  been  formed  in  a  hundred 
different  occupations  ;  in  the  mine  and  the  foundry,  on  the 
railway,  at  the  forge,  in  the  office,  the  workshop,  and  the 
studio.  The  courage,  patience  and  responsibility  that  you 
see  in  their  faces,  have  risen  to  the  occasion,  but  they  were 
not  created  by  it.     You   can  follow  Mr.  Kennington's  men 

off  the  stage  of  the  war,  and 
see  them  about  their  tasks 
again,  confirmed  in  their 
characters,  though  with  a  new 
sense  of  comradeship  as  a 
result  of  their  great  experi- 
ence. 

Probably  no  other  artist  has 
given  such   a  solid  texture  to 
his  impressions  of  the  person- 
nel and  equipment  of  the  war. 
You  feel    that    each    of   Mr. 
Kennington's  men  answers  to 
a  name,and  that  every  belt  and 
water    bottle     represents    so 
much  human  skill  and  labour, 
so  that  you   are  reminded  of 
the   effort    at   home.     Think- 
ing in  thousands, we  are  apt  to 
forget  all  this,  and  it  is  well  to 
have  a  detailed  statement  to  fill 
out  the  summaries  of  other  art- 
ists.  Not  that  Mr.Kennington 
is  incapable  of  a  general  state- 
ment ;    his   landscape  studies 
show  him  to  have  a  good  sense 
of  design,  and  a  grasp  of  con- 
ditions as  distinct  from  facts. 
But  it  is  for  his  treatment  of  the 
facts  that  we  are  most  grateful 
to  him.  He  shows  that  thej^can 
be  dealt  with  in  a  realistic  man- 
ner without  descending  to  imi- 
tation,   and   that   if  you  get 
character,  you  get  something 
decorative  in  itself.    Best   of 
all,  he  proves  the  vitality' of  a 
peculiarly  native  movement  in 
painting. 


By  Eric  Kennington. 

gh,  G.C.S.I.,  etc.,  etc. 


June  13,    1 9  1 8 


Land    &    Water 


19 


There  are  many  reasons  for  the  im- 
mense popularity  which  the  B.S.A. 
name  has  achieved,  one  of  the  most 
important  being  the  high  quality  of 
all  material  used  for  B.S.A.  produc- 
tions. This  was  a  B.S.A.  feature 
when  the  Company  was  foundedover 
60  years  ago,  and  so  consistently  has 
it  been  maintained  that  amongst 
cyclists  everywhere  B.S.A.  quality 
is    now    the    recognised    standard. 


NEW  LIST 
POST  FREE 
ON  REQUEST 


THE  BIRMINGHAM 
SMALL  ARMS  CO., 
Ltd.,  SMALL  HEATH 
BIRMINGHAM 


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rom  special  systems  of 
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obviate  the  use  of  rubber, 
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agent. 

Burberry  models  are  made 
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S.«NS^S^ 


■4 


DISTINCTIVE  FURNITURE 

at  Waring  &  Gillow's  Galleries. 


»^ 


m 


A     VERY     HANDSOME      JaCOBKAN      OaK      DwaRF     BoOKCASE, 

5  ft.  wide,  fitted  with  adjustable  shelves,  and  enclosed 
with  three  panelled-  glass  doors.  I'oli^hcd  a  rich  repro- 
duction colour  and  finished  with  an  antique  rubbed  effect. 

Price  on  application. 


THOSE  who  desire  furniture  sound  in 
all  details  of  construction,  and  artistic 
and  individual  in  design,  should  visit 
our  Galleries  in  Oxford  Street.  The  furni- 
ture  here  illustrated  gives  an  idea  of  the 
quality  of  our  work,  but  only  an  actual 
inspection  can  convince  you  of  its  sterling 
excellence  and — what  in  these  days  is  even 
more  important — the  reasonableness  of  the 
prices  asked.  By  purchasing  from  us  you 
obtain  the  benefit  of  more  than  200  years' 
experience  of  fine  furniture  making. 

GlllOW 


STum/s/ten-  £  Deco/a/ors 


LTD 


164-180  OXFORD  STREET,  LONDON,  W.  1. 

Telephone:  Museum  5000. 


•"•«s<  tS^S«s!;\, jSss^^"^'* 


20 


Land   &   Water 


June    13,  igi8 


An  Ambassador  of  Letters  :  By  James  Milne 


WE  owe  much  to  Mr.  George  Haven  Putnam, 
the  famous  pubHsher,  for  the  good  friendship 
which  exists  between  England  and  America— 
a  friendship  now  being  consecrated  in  the  fires 
of  Armageddon.     He  is  here,  as  he  has  come 
here  almost  every  summer  for  the  past  half-century;    but 
this  time  he  is  with  us  under  special  circumstances.     No 
plain  American  citizen  did  more  than  Mr.  Putnam  to  carry 
America  into  her  place  in  the  war.     Therefore  the  Allies  owe 
him  gratitude,  though  he  would  be  the  last  man  in  the  world 
to  think  of  that.     What  he  thinks  of  is  how  best  to  inform 
us  about  the  fixed  moral  resolve  of  America  to  see  the  war 
through,  and  about  her 
rising  military  power. 
She  is  late  in  the  field 
— later  by  two  years — • 
than    he    would   have 
had  her ;    but  she  is 
going  to  fight  the  thing 
out    even    if,    varying 
General  Grant's  famous 
saying,     that     should 
take   many   summers. 
Such  is  the  message 
with  which  Mr.Putnam 
is  charged,  and,  for  its 
largeness,  it  should  be 
proclaimed  first ;    but 
he    carries    it    easily 
because,     in     London 
Town,  he  is  on  familiar 
ground.       His    sweet, 
gentle,  scholarly,  pur- 
poseful personality  has 
been    a   real   link   be- 
tween   our    Common- 
wealth   and    his    Re- 
pubUc,  alike  in  life  and 
in  letters.  He  has  been 
outside    the    brilhant 
group  of  literary  men 
— Rus,sell  Lowell,  John 
Hay,   and  the  others, 
who    have    been'  the 
official  spokesmen  and 
orators  of  America  in 
London.     But  he  has 
gone   on   longer   than 
any  of.  them,  and  at 
seventy- four  he  is  still 
hale    and    well,     and 
very  much  "not  out." 
His  three  score  and  ten 
and   more   j'ears   find 
him     at    work     when 
most     Londoners     are 
only  shaving,  and  this 
habit  of  catching  the 
day  on  the  hop  always 
enables  him  to  spare  an  hour  for  a  talk  with  a  friend. 

"  My  father,"  he  will  tell  you  in  a  voice  given  him  for  good 
conversation,  "was  the  first  American  publisher  to  invade 
England.  He  came  over  in  1837— the  year  Queen  Victoria 
ascended  the  throne — and  in  1841  he  definitely  established 
his  publishing  house  in  London.  He  constantly  did  what  he 
could  to  strengthen  the  relations  between  the  two  countries, 
and  he  had  a  considered  scheme  for  a  league  of  the  whole 
English-speaking  peoples.  I  found  myself,  at  my  father's 
death  in  1872,  an  inheritor  of  his  desire  and  of  his  dream,  and 
my  personal  relationship  with  England  began  as  early  as  it 
could — that  is,  with  my  birth  here." 

Mr.  Putnam  still  wonders,  and  humorously  asks  you  to 
wonder,  whether  he  is  really  an  American  citizen  or  a  British 
subject.  "You  see,"  he  puts  the  problem,  "a  child  born  in 
England  of  American  parents — and  it  is  the  same,  of  course, 
with  a  child  born  in  America  of  Enghsh  parents — has  the 
right,  on  reaching  twenty-one,  to  become  a  national  of  one 
country  or  of  the  other.  When  my  twenty- first  birthday  befell 
I  was  busy  helping  to  fight  the  Confederate  General  Johnston 
in  North  Carolina,  and  so  I  forgot  all  about  this  matter  of  my 
own.  In  a  sense,  therefore,  I  can  claim  both  America  and 
England  as  my  country— shall  I  say  that  they  are  twin 
mothers  ?     Certainly  I  hope  that  as  a  shuttle  between  them 


Major  George  Haven  Putnam 


—not  a  shuttlecock  blown  by  the  wind  hither  and  thither— 
I  have  done  something  to  weave  the  ever-growing  web  of 
sympathy  and  kinship  which  unites  the  two  nations." 

As  a  good  publisher,  he  has  enriched  the  golden  chain  of 
common  literature  winch  has  spanned  the  Atlantic,  unhurt, 
in  the  wintriest  of  weather.  As  a  publicist  he  has  served 
that  literature  well  by  being  chief  hammerman  in  the  making 
of  the  vessel  called  Anglo-American  copyright.  As  a  preacher 
on  the  true  relationship  of  England  and  America,  he  has  been 
tireless  and  eloquent,  and  always  a  master  of  the  case.  "  We 
can  realise  to-day  that  George  IIL,  with  his  German  theories 
of  government,  was  attempting  to  apply  to  America,  as  he 

was  applying  it  to 
Great  Britain,  a  system 
Prussian  in  its  purpose 
and  methods.  Nay,  im 
his  fight  with  the 
American  colonists  he 
even  utilised  the  ser- 
vice of  Prussian  so^ 
diers.  Thus  the  Ameri- 
can colonists  were 
fighting  not  only  for 
their  own  rights,  but 
for  the  first  principles 
of  hberalism  and  repre- 
sentative government 
against  autocracy." 
That  matter,  so  put  by 
Mr.  Putnam,  is  his 
illustration  of  the  pro- 
cession of  EngUsh  his- 
tory and  American  his- 
tory along  roads  where 
now  they  naturally, 
inevitably,  forcefully, 
meet,  to  challenge  the 
Kaiser's  dominion  of 
the  world.  "I  have 
not,"  he  will  add,  with 
flash  of  eye  and  sweep 
of  hand,  "many  years 
left  me  on  this  earth  ; 
but  if  I  could  fancy  the 
triumph,  for  an  hour, 
of  the  cause  which  the 
HohenzoUern  Kaiser 
represents,  I  should 
wish  to  go  straight 
underground." 

Mr.  Putnam  may  be 
said  to  have  begun  life 
as  a  Federal  soldier  in 
the  .\merican  Civil 
War.  He  had  a  taste 
of  Libby  Prison,  as 
part  of  his  miUtary 
education,  and  did  not 
like  the  place.  When 
it  went  down,  with  the  fall  of  the  Confederacy,  he  had  attained 
to  the  rank  o{  major.  This  rank  he  again  holds  actively  in 
the  American  Army  which  is  pouring  over  the  ocean  to  save 
civiHsation,  for  his  friend,  Mr.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  appointed 
him  to  the  forces  that  he  organised.  Major  Putnam,  the 
man  of  war,  has  always,  however,  been  a  strenuous  man  of 
peace,  an  unwearying  labourer  in  that  vineyard.  "What," 
he  demands,  "is  the  present  war  being  waged  for  but  for 
peace  ?  It  is  being  waged  by  the  Allies  so  that  the  royal  and 
other  cankers  which  beget  war  shall  be  destroyed  for  ever- 
more, so  that  peace  may  reign  in  the  world  for  evermore. 
The  Kaiser,  like  Herod  of  old,  wants  to  destroy  the  child  of 
liberty,  but  he  shall  not." 

You  may  gather  that  colour,  movement,  and  the  swift, 
sure  phrase  are  all  in  the  order  of  Mr.  Putnam's  talk  and 
speech-making.  His  description  of  the  well-meaning  pacifists 
as  "short-haired  women  and  long-haired  men"  is  likely  to 
abide  with  them  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  While  he 
addresses  you  quietly,  but  always  alertly,  across  his  own 
writing-desk,  he  drops  a  phrase  which,  as  events  have  proven, 
exactly  renders  the  position  of  America  in  the  war,  from  the 
moment  it  broke  out — she  was  on  "the  skirmish  line." 
Her  ideals  were  at  stake — Liberty,  Freedom,  the  right  of 
all  men  bom  equal  before  God  to  be  their  own  rulers. 


June  20,  19 1  8 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


XI 


WHITELEY'S 

BEDROOM    FURNITURE 


THE  DUFFERIN. 

Wardrobe,    enclosing 
Cheval   Dretsing  Chest,  4  (t 
top  and  back,  bottom  part 
sealed  Chairs. 


White    Enamelled    Bedroom    Suite,  handsome    design,    large    size,  comprising  6  It.  wide 
very    leirge    hanging  space,  the  doors    fitted    with    two   long    silvered    bevelled  mirrors ;    Hall 


wide,  with  long  mirror  and  numerous  drawers 
:ncIosed,  towel    rails   allached.   and    2    Cane- 
The   Suite  complete 


and  3  ft.  6  in.  Washstand  with  mjirble 

£39    :     10    :    O 


fVrite  for  Special  Price  List  of  Bedsteads,  1918  Models,  &  Furniture  Catalogue,  Post  Free 


WM.  WHITELEY  LTD.,  QUEEN'S  ROAD,  LONDON,  W.2 


Hundreds  of  Bedroom 
Suites,  in  all  woods 
and  every  period,  at 
prices  tlie  lowest  in 
London. 


If    you  so  desire   you  may 

FUHNISH  OUT   OF   INCOME 

AT  WHITELEVS. 

Goods  are  supplied  at 
ACTUAL  CASH  PRICES. 
Deposit  one-tenth  of  the 
total  value.  Interest  at  2^  % 
per  annum  only  is  added  to 
the  balance.  Instalments 
are  spread  over  1,  2,  or 
3  years,  according  to  the 
value  of  the  goods  selected. 


AN    EXAMPLE    OF 

WHITELEVS 

EASY  PAYMENT  TERMS  : 

(ioodsat6asA/'nc«£100:  0:0 

Deposit— one-tenth 

ol  total  value  ...     IB:  0:0 

Balance  90:  0:0 
Add  Interest  at  2^% 

for  2  years  4:10:0 

24  mo::thly  payments 

of  £318:9        ...  £94:10:0 

Furniture  to  Ihevalne  of  £5  and 

upwards  tent    carriase    paid  to 

any  station  in  Great  Britain. 


HASD -  MAD E 
RICH  Q^UALirr 
CRETE  DE  CHINE 

BLOUSE 


.Adapted  from  an  exclu- 
sive Paris  model  by  our 
own  skilled  workers,  in 
rich  heavy  crepe  de 
chine,  with  bib  and 
double  collar  of  line 
white  chiffon,  finished 
with  softly  gathered 
frills,  very  full  and  loose 
fitting.  A  most  attrac- 
tive blouse.  In  black, 
white  and  colours. 

Price 


49/6 


THE   RAVAGES  OF    MOTH 

Store  your  Furs  in  our  Freezing 
Chambers.  Particulars  of  our 
new  Combined  Fur  Storage  and 
Insurance  against  all  and  every 
risk  sent  post  free  on  application. 


DebeViKam 
&  Freebody 

Wigmore  Street. 

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Fer..OLK  for  over  a  Century 
fbrTo^le  (or  Quoliip  for  Value 


PRACTICAL 
WASH  I  NG 
PETTICOAT 

IN  muslin,  trimmed  with 
a     deep    frill     of    em- 
broidery, with    ribbon 
slotting. 

Price 

18/9 


Camisole,  with  under  siccvts,  trimmed 
lace  y  elastic  waist. 

Price  1519 


MARSHALL! 
SNELGRQVE 

VERESTREKI   ANI)OXH)BI>STKH.T 


LONDON  W 


NOTE. —This  EstabliilimtKt  ttiUb:clo$.d 
on  Satutiiays  umU  further  notice. 


Xll 


Supplement  to  Land  &  Water 


June  20,  1918 


I 


il.5.i:.J 


F  the  above  quotation  applies  to  t^QU — if  you 
have  merely  read  about  Sanatogen  while  others 
have  been  taking  it  and  enjoying  its  splendid  in- 
vigorating effect — then  you  should  at  once  make 
up  your  mind  to  try  Sanatogen. 

Near  you,  as  you  read  this,  is  a  chemist's  shop  where 
you  can  order  Sanatogen  ;  do  so  to-day — take  two  tea- 
spoonfuls  of  Sanatogen  witli  or  after  meals— and  go  on 
taking  it  regularl}'— twice  or  three  times  a  day — for  at 
least  a  few  weeks. 

You  will  be  astonished  and  delighted  at  the  result ;  for  theic  ir- 
no  doubt  that  Sanatogen  thoroughly  reanimates  all  the  molecular 
activities  of  your  body — generates  in  your  system  nutritious  com- 
pounds which  stimulate  the  cells  to  manufacture  energy— and 
even  invigorates  harmlessly  the  thinking  matter  in  the  uppermost 
strands  of  your  brain. 

This  explains  the  remarkable  effect  of  Sanatogen — how  it  smoothes 
out  ihe  lines  of  worry  and  depression — restores  sleep,  appetite  and 
digestion — makes  the  blood  flow  richer  and  redder — brings  a  light 
to  the  eyes,  colour  to  the  cheeks,  and  abundant  vitality  to  the 
whole  organism. 

But  do  not  be  satisfied  merely  to  have  read  this  description  -  take 
Sanatogen  I  At  1/9  to  9/6  per  tin  it  costs  yoit  only  twopence  per 
dose — less  than  tea  or  coffee  n  a  restaurant ! — and  it  saves  its  cost 
in  food  alone.  For  its  nutritive  value  is  so  high  that  two  tea- 
spoonfuls  yield  as  much  nourishing  proteid  as  a  pint  of 
whole  milk,  though  of  course  Sanatogen  is  not  made  from 
whole  milk,  only  the  proteid  being  utilised. 


Get  the  Guaranteed  Original 

SANATOGEN 

The  Genuine  Tonic-Food 


-and  see  that  it  is  labelled  Genatosan,  Ltd.  (British  Purchasers  of 
The  Sanatogen  Co.),  12  Chonies  Street,  I,ondon.  W'.C.i.  (Chairman, 
l.ady  Mackworth.) 

Your  chemist  may  have  to  keep  you  waiting  a  few  days  —for 
military  needs  have  greatly  curtailed  the  civilian  supply;  but 
1,'enuinc  Sanatogen  is  worth  waiting  for,  and  once  you  have  tried  it, 
yiiu  will  take  care  never  to  be  without  it  in  the  future. 

Nolt :  Sanatogen  will  later  on  be  renpnted  Cevalosan 
It  ,iiiinr:'nish   it  Jiom   substitutes   and  counterfeits. 


Before  we  helped  them  they 
looked  like  these  children! 


After  our  treatment  for  eight  weeks! 

The  pictures  speak  for  themselves.   Over 
12,000   have   been  restored    to  health. 


npHE  Belgian  Children's  Fund  in 
Holland,  under  the  Presidency 
of  H.S.H.  Princess  A.  de  Ligne, 
appeals  for  help  in  the  work  of 
bringing  sick  and  debilitated  children 
from  Belgium  into  Holland,  where 
they  are  fed,  clothed,  and  medically 
cared  for,  and  when  restored  to 
health  are  returned  to  Belgium, 
for     funds     do     not     permit     more. 


Remittances.earmarked  for  the"Belglan  Children's 
Fund,"  to  Hon.  Treasurer,  "Working  Men's 
Belgian  Fund,"  32  Grosvenor  Place,  London, 
S.W.I. ,  under  the  patronage  of  H.E.  the  Belgian 
Minister,  Em  Vandervelde,  and  registered  War 
Charities  Act,   1916. 


June  20,  1 91 8 


Supplement  to  Land  Sc  Water 


Xlll 


SERVICE  CLOTHES. 

To  those  who  order  their  service  clothes  from  us 
we  assure  fine,  wear-resisting  materials,  skilful 
cutting,  honest  tailor-work,  and  more — the  certain 
advantage   of  ripe  experience. 

A  good  name  among  sportsmen  for  nearly  a  centurj 
is  a  sure  measure  of  our  ability  in  breeches- 
making,  to  which  gratifying  testimony  is  now  also 
given  by  the  many  recommendations  from  officers. 

For  inspection,  and  to  enable  us  to  meet  immediate  requirement!,  ytt 
keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs  of  breeches,  or  we  can  out  and  try  a 
pair  on  the  same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day,  if  urgently  wanted. 


LEATHER    PUTTEES. 

These  most  comfortable,  good- 
looking  puttees  are  made  en- 
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. 

The  puttees  are  quickly  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  praotically 
waterproof. 

The  price  per  pair  is  22/6,  post  free 
inland,  or  postage  abroad  1/-  extra,  or 
sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business 
(not  banker's!  reference  and  home 
address.     Please  give  size  of  calf. 


GRANT  AND  COGKBURN 
25  PIGGADILLY,  W.l.  ™ 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


lESTD.  1821. 


•The  Original  Cording's,  Estd.  1839- 


€f 


The 

Paladin  " 


(Kir.D.) 


Oilskin. 

All  the  year  round  our  shapely 
' '  Paladin  "  coat  will  stand  the 
rough  and  tumble  of  Active 
Service  and  throw  off  any  rain 
which  comes  along. 

The  material,  in  colour  a  good-looking 
dark  khaki,  goes  through  a  special 
■■  curing  "  process  which  makes  it  non- 
adhesive  and  very  supple.  ' 
The  coat  is  cut  with  neat  tan  cloth 
collar,  full  skirt,  leg-loops  and  fan- 
piece  within  deep  button-to  sUt  at 
back  for  riding,  and  has  a  broad  fly- 
front,  through  which  no  rain,  however 
violent,  can  drive.  Adjustable  inner 
cuffs  likewise  prevent  any  water 
entering  the  sleeves. 
Between  the  lining  of  porous  oilskin 
and  the  outer  materia!  the  air  freely 
circulates,  so  that  there  is  always 
abundant  ventilation.  The  coat  is  not 
bulky,  and  weighs  less  than  4  lbs. 
Mud  is  just  washed  off,  and  the 
material  is  then  as  fresh  and  clean  as 
ever.  After  lengthy,  exacting  wear, 
the  "Ufe"  of  the  coat  can,  at  small 
cost,  Ijie  effectively  renewed  by  re- 
dressing. 

Prioe  47/6 

Postage  .ibroad   it-  extra. 

When  orderlnii  a  "Paladin"  Coat  please  state  tiolght  and  chest  measure  and  send 
remittance  which  will  t>e  returned  promct'y  if  the  ^rment  Is  not  approvadi,  or 
Itve  home  address  and  business  mot  banker's^  referenca. 

At  T^utst,  ILLUSTRATED  LIST  a/  WaUtproof  CmIs,  Boots,  OvtraUs,  Air  Beds. 

r'  r^rVDrMiMr*  *  no.  waterproofers 

,    \^,   V^VlIxl-'ll^VJ    *'^    VxlTD   TO  H.M,  THE  KING 

Only  Addrt»s»s: 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.l,  A  35 ST.  JAMES'S ST.,S.W.l. 


BSA 

RIFLES  &GUNS 

m  PEACE  a»t/  WAR 

gBFORB    THH    WAR    aS.A.  Rifles  held   first   place    in  popularity 
bocause   ibey    csmbloed   th«    higbe3t    quality    and    accuracy   with  low 
cost     These  characceristtes  were   the  result  of  expert  de<^igning,  tiie  use  of 
hi^st  grade  material  and  extensive  (acilitie*. 

JAURING    THH     WAR    the    aS.A.   plant.  ,oow  vastly   extended. 
has  been   devoted   exclusively  to  the  manu  acfure  of  the  millions  of 
LeC'Enlield    Rifies    and    Lewis    Machine     Guns     required    for     our    great 
Imperial  Armies. 

\  FTF  R    THE    VN  AR    the    great    reputation    of    B.S.A.    productions, 
retained  and   increased  in  the  heavy  stress  of  war  will  ensare  that 
ihe  B.S.A  sponin*  anH   match  rifles  and  ({uos  will  embody  all  the  features 
that  the  most  discriminating  sportsman  can  possibly  desire. 


1 ;  e  Lewis  Machine  Gun,  made  bv  the 
B.S.A.  Co.,  Ltrf. 

prbe: 

Stna  /of  a  copy  •/  "  RW«  SighU  a^d  their  AdjtatmtnU  "  •nd  Ut  tu  nat$ 
yntr  nurnt  and  addrttt  %9  tnat  ii^€  mat  advis    you  tf  dtveUpmrntt. 

\  THE  BIRMINGHAM  SMALL  ARMS  CO. 

LTD. 
ENGLAND. 


BIRMINGHAM, 


WEBLEY  &  SCOTT,  Ltd. 

Manufacturers  of  Revolvers,  Automatic 

Pistols,    and    all    kinds    of   High-Class 

Sporting  Gurts  and  Rifle*. 


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


To  be  obtained  from  all  Qui)  Dealers,  and  Wholesale  only  at 
Head  Office  and  Showroon)<  : 

WEAMAN    STREET.    BIRMINGHAM. 

London    Depot : 

78  SHAFTESBURY  AVENUE. 


I  Patent 


12699 
-IW)) 


l> 


LUPTONS 

SPIRAL  PUTTEES 

TASTEDGE 

Worn  txttnsiptly  by  Ogic»r$  of  Hit 
Mai»stj'a    and   tha    AlUtd    Forctt. 

SPECIAL  LIGHTWEIGHTS  FOR 
TROPICAL  CLIMATES. 


B0ing  Poiitivth  Non-frayahU 
I  I  TpTON*S      Always  look  Neat  and  Smart.    They  arc  most  moderate 
in  price,  and  may  be  obtained  from  all  Higb-class  Military 
PUTTEES       Tailors  and  Hosiers. 

//  ordertd,  Pulleei  made  ipecially  to  wind  on  the  recent  u>ay,  and  to   fmsten    Ihe.  tape 
round  Ihe  ankle  for  riding. 


ASK   FOR  LIJPTON'S  PUTTEF.S. 


Manufac-   ASTRACHANS   Lid..    Albert   Mill.    Allan   St..    BRADFORD. 

tured    by  Undon    Xgtnt:  A    STRICKLAND.  3S  Bow  Lan$.  EC. 

■:=  WHOLESALE  ONLY.  = 


XIV 


Supplement  to    Land   &    Water 


June    20,  igi8 


open  t )  all,  without  tickets. 

For  Sports 

or 

Country 
Wear 


SF'ORTS  JACKET  in 
;i  Donegal  Tweed,  with 
half-belt  and  patch 
pockets;  cool  and 
comfortable.  A'^  1 
Ready  to  wear    t^l~ 

Tfae  quantity  of  these  Coats 
K  Klrictty  limited,  and  we 
urc  uiiai.le  tu  repeat  them 
at  this  price  when  sold  <iul. 

("■KEY  fi.a.\m:i. 

TROUSERS,  suitable 
for  wear  with  Sports 
Jacket,  in  a  nice  shade 
ofgrev.  Madewithper- 
manent  turn-up  and  a 
strap  or  buckle  at  each 
side  of  waist. 
Ready  to  wear 


21/- 


Country  residents  are  re- 
minded that  orders  by  post 
receive  every  attention,  and 
are  carefully  executed  by 
a  specially  trained  staff. 


CifiV  Service  Co-operative 

Society,  Ltd., 

28    Haymarket,  S.W. 


Summer 
Wear — 


All  progressive  men  wear  An-on 
underclothing. 

The  An-on  one  piece  *uit  is 
the  last  word  in  men's  under- 
(tartnents.  and  weighs  6  ozs.  or 
ess. 

Loose  filling  and  very  comtori- 
able. 

Made  in  Vests,  Drawers,  and 
Union  Suits. 

Fine  All-Wool  Taffeta. 
Pure  Silk  (while  and  coloured). 
Mixed     Wool     and     Cotton 
Taffeta. 
AN-ON  Cotton. 

Made  in  12  different  sizes  so 
as  to  fit  any  figure. 

BRITISH-MADE. 

BUTTONS  LIKE  A  COAT 

A  list  of  Selling  Agents  will 
be  sent  on  application  to 

AN-ON, 

66  Ludgate  Hill,  E.C.4 


VERMIN-PROOF. 

Men  in  the  trenches  write  stating 
that  "An-on"  Silk  Underwear 
is  prpof  against  vermin. 


Anro 

Underw)! 


n 


MILITARY 


TKe  Best  Welcome 
to     Our     Lines 

you  can  ask  tor  is  a 
Military  Dexter  ...  it 
assures  you  warmth  on 
cKilly  nights  ....  denes 
the  aepressing  aamp  .  .  . 
keeps  out  wet  al^vaya  . .  . 
you  11  tind  it  a  -weather 
line  that  no  storming 
»\     can    break    through. 

ir\      As      British     as     the 

»^'j)  Weather    but     Reliable." 


Supplied  by  Agents  ETei^where 


tilt  POTS    ro 


DLITARV     OEXTCnS 

FORTNUM  &  MASON    LTD 

181-IB4.    PICCADILLY.     Wl 

AUSTIN    REED  LTD 

113.    REGENT    STREET.  Wl 

MANCHESTER       .  BIRMINGHAM 

R.  W.   FORSYTH   LTD 

OUASacW  EOlNBuftaH 


H'altacf.   Scou  »    Co..    l.hi.    ( irUoItaaU) 
Olax^env.    AlaJters  ^f  Dtxttr  li'tatherproo/s 


J.  W.  BENSON 

LTD. 

"  AMot  Sereice"  WATCH 
Fully  Luminous  Figures  and  Hands. 

p_^  Warranted  Timekeepers 

In  Silver  Cases,    £3    15s. 

Or  with    Half-Hunter  or   Hunter 
Cover.    £4  4s. 

Gold.  Crystal  Glass,     fi  I  0 

Half    Hunter  or   Hunter,       £10   I  Os 

Military    Badge   Brooches. 

^^ny  Regimental  ^adge  'Perfectly 

^CoJellcJ. 

Prices  on  Application. 

Sketclies  sent  for  approval. 

ST.,   W.l 

and  62  &  64  LUDGATE  HILL.  E,C.4. 


liiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 


Whiteleys 


HOUSE 
REPAIRS 


DECORATION 


QUEEN'S     ROAD 
LONDON,  W.2 

Tetegrami  : 
'Whiteley,  London" 

lllll|ilil't!i;illllilli!!tii!0 


LAND  &  WATER 

Vol.  LXXI.      No.  2928.      FvII^rI  THURSDAY     TUNF    20     iqtR  rREGisxERED  ast     pubushed  weekly 

^ LVEARJ  M.±±\^  n.j^n.1.,    J  Ui>XL     /U,     1910  Ij^      NEWbfAi'ERj        PKICE  ONE  SHILLING 


I  ■iii»iiiii  ]iiiim«iiiinBiiMninii|»u mil 


Copynght,  1918,  U.S.A 


Copyright,  "  Land  t-  Wmttr: 


Poilu:    "How  do  you  like  it?" 
Sammy:   "Ask  the  Boche!" 

By  Louis  Raemaekers 

On  June  12  the  Americans  made  a  successful  attack  on  Belleau  Wood  in  which  they  distinguished 
themselves  greatly,  repulsing  a  very  strong  German  attack  in  the  wood  after  it  had  been  captured. 


Land    &   Water 


June  20,   191  8 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 


Telephone  :  HOLBORN    lixt. 


THURSDAY,  JUNE  20,  191 8. 


Contents 


PAGE 


The  American  Soldier.     (Cartoon.)     By  Racmaekers 

The  Outlook 

The  Offensive  Against  Italy.     By  H.  Belloc 

Germany's  Lost  Illusions.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

Goeben  and  Breslau.     By  Henry  Morgenthau 

America  at  War.     Bv  Crawford  Vaughan 

At  Death-Grips  with'the  Wolf.     Bv  L.  P.  Jacks 

Mr.  Wells  and  World  Peace.     By  J.  C.  Squire 

An  English  Prophet  and  Seer 

The",Motor  Class.     By  Enid  Bagnold 

A  Drop  of  Leaf.     By  Etienne    - 

Sinaia  Palace.     (\\'ith  photograph.)     By  G.  C.  Williamson    20 

Household  Notes  22 

Notes  on  Kit  xv 


3 

7 

9 

12 

I.? 

1.5 
i(> 

17 
r8 


The  Outlook 


THE  last  phase  of  the  great  enemy "^offensive — the 
fifth  of  the  blows  delivered  upon .  the  Western 
front — was  launched  against  the  Italian  lines  at 
7.30  a.m.  last  Saturday,  after  a  prehminary 
bombardment  which  lasted  as  a  maximum  for 
four  hours,  and  upon  some  sectors  was  maintained  for  not 
more  than  an  hour  and  a  half.  This  preparation  was  of 
exactly  the  same  kind  as  those  with"  which  the  German 
offensives  in  France  had  already  been  familiar ;  it  is  con- 
ducted mainly  with  gas'  shells  and  directed  far  behind 
the  lines  upon  towns  and  road-crossings  hitherto  immune 
from  enemy  fire.  The  total  number  of  divisions  used  by  the 
enemy  was  not  less  than  sixty. 

The  main  effort  of  the  enemy  was  made,  as  necessity 
demanded,  against  the  northern  or  mountain  sectors,  where 
an  advance  would  lead  him  to  the  Italian  communications 
and  produce  a  great  result.  The  pressure  was  particularly 
heavy  on  the  Asiago  Plateau,  where  it  was  met  by  Italian, 
French,  and  British  troops  with  success,  and  thrown  back 
duriiig  the  whole  of  the  first  two  days.  Nothing  of  conse- 
quence was  done  to  the  west  of  this  position.  To  the  east  of 
it  there  were  powerful  attacks  on  both  sides  of  the  Brenta 
Valley,  but  the  Italian  troops  completely  repulsed  them  and 
recovered  nearly  all  lost  ground  on  the  few  points  where  a 
very  shallow  retirement  had  been  necessary.  Upon  the 
Piave  itself  the  enemy  crossed  in  three  places. 
*  *  * 

It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out  that  the  extreme  importance 
of  this  action  is  upon  the  political  side.  There  are  many 
things  to  emphasise  this.  Our  Italian  allies  suffered  a  severe 
reverse  during  the  great  offensive  against  them  last  autumn.- 
They  are  also  numerically  the  weakest  of  the  Western  group. 
They  find  munitionment  more  difficult,  from  the  lack  of 
coal,  etc.,  than  the  other  nations  defending  civilisation. 
Their  resistance  has  the  more  moral  effect. 

Again,  the  enemy  now  attacking  them  is  far  less  heartily 
in  the  \var  than  is  the  German  Empire,  which  is  for  the 
moment  his  master.  The  Austro-Hungarian  forces  are  made 
up  of  extraordinarily  different  races,  the  majority  of  which 
have  no  attachment  to  the  German  cause,  though  most  of 
them  have  perhaps  some  attachment  to  the  monarchy  which 
governs  them.  Further,  the  Austro-Hungarian  territory  has 
suffered  more  severely  from  the  prolonged  strain  of  the  war 
than  has  any  other  of  the  belligerent  countries,  save  portions 
jof  the  Russian  Empire,  which  do  not  now  concfern  us.  All 
these  things  combined  mean  that  serious  disappointment, 
coupled  with  heavy  losses  in  the  present  attack,  would  have 
a  most  powerful  result  upon  opinion. 

If  Austro-Hungary  collapses,  the  German  Empire  would 
be  in  a  far  worse  case  than  are  the  Western  Allies  since  the 
defection  of  Russia.  But  for  the  folly. of  Austro-Hungary 
in  supporting  Prussianised  Germany,  the  war  could  not  have 
been  successfully  attempted  by  Germany,  and  would  not  even 
have  been  possible.  With  the  disappearance  (even  if  it  were 
only  in  the  shape  of  a  half-hearted  effort)  of  Austro-Hungary, 
the  German  Empire  would  be  doomed. 


The  past  week  has  been  marked  by  several  important 
utterances  on  both  sides.  For  the  Allies,  Mr.  Asquith  and 
the  American  Secretary  of  State  have  spoken  very  much  to 
the  point.  The  luncheon  to  the  former  Prime  Minister  at 
the  Aldwych  Club,  last  week,  had  a  double  significance  ;  it 
was  not  only  a  tribute  to  a  leading  statesman,  but  it  was  an 
expression  of  opinion  by  business  men  and  men  of  the  world 
on  recent  methods  of  discrediting  political  opponents. 

Mr.  Asquith  was  right  in  laying  emphasis  on  the  present 
critical  state  of  affairs.  Since  the  battle  of  Marne,  it  is  the 
gravest  crisis  through  which  the  Allies  have  passed,  and 
until  Rupprecht  of  Bavaria's  Reserves  are  used  up  and  we 
have  seen  the  end  of  the  Austrian  offensive,  it  is  unwise  to 
take  a  too  bright  view  of  the  future.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  no  occasion  -for  pessimism.  Time,  Right,  and  the 
United  States  are  on  our  side,  and  if  the  enemy  be  held  for 
a  few  more  weeks,  the  situation  will  be  vastly  different. 
But,  whatever  happens,  to -use  Mr.  Asquith's  words,  "it  is 
not  going  in  the  faintest  degree  to  weaken  our  allegiance  to 
the  great  purposes  for  which  we  have  been  fighting  or  our 
determination  in  foul  as  much  as  in  fair  weather  to  press 
on  to  the  final  accomplishment." 


"True  Prussianism  and  the  idea  of  an  enduring  and  just 
peace  among  the  nations  can  never  be  brought  into  harmony. 
They  are  the  very  antipodes  of  human  thought."  These 
are  Mr.  Lansing's  words,  and  were  it  necessary  to  comment 
on  them,  all  that  need  be  said  is  to  suggest,  that  alongside  of 
them  should  be  read  the  contemptible  words  of  brag  which 
the  Kaiser  periodically  addresses  to  his  family  and  his 
ministers.  "Tens  of  thousands  may  fall  on  his  right  hand 
and  tens  of  thousands  on  his  left  hand.  We  offer  no 
apologies  for  reproducing  the  following  passage  from  Mr. 
Lansing's  speech.  It  is,  of  course,  a  familiar  truth,  but  it  is 
well  people  in  this  country  should  understand  that  the  same 
truth  is  recognised  and  accepted  in  America  : 

It  is  hardly  open  to  be  debated,  in  the  light  of  subsequent 
events,  that  the  philosophical  and  political  ideals  taught  lor 
years  from  university  platforms,  from  pulpits,  and  througli 
the  piinted  word,  to  young  and  old  in  Germany,  excited  in 
the  German  people  an  insolent  pride  of  blood,  and  infused 
into  their  national  being  an  all-absorbing  ambition  to  prove 
themselves  super-men,  chosen  by  natural  superiority,  by 
Divine  mandate,  to  be  the  rulers  of  the  earth.  Not  only  in 
Germany,  but  among  those  of  German  descent  in  other 
lands,  has  irtiis  pernicious  belief  spread,  linking  the  Germans 
everywhere  to  the  Fatherland,  in  the  hope  that  they  would 
be  considered  worthy  to  share  the  future  gjory  of  the  masters 
of  the  world. 


The  "insolent  pride  of  blood,"  to  which  the  American 
Secretary  of  State  alluded,  was  curiously  enough  illustrated 
in  the  identical  London  papers  which  reported  his  speech 
by  a  delivery,  a  few  days  previously,  of  the  German  War 
Minister,  General  von  Stein  in  the  Reichstag.  General  von 
Stein  talked  of  "our  incomparable  Army"  and  of  "the 
Entente  beginning  to  recognise  and  admit  their  heavy  defeat." 
He  sneered  at  "the  saving  help  of  America"  in  the  same  way 
that  the  Kaiser  sheered  at  General  French's  "contemptible 
little  Army,"  thereby  bestowing  on  the  British  soldier  a 
proud  title.  Who  to-day  would  not  be  one  of  the  "Old 
Contemptibles "  ?  Perhaps  in  time  to  come,  to  be  one  of 
America's  "Saving  Helps"  will  have  the  same  high  honour. 

General  von  Stein  spoke  nothing  but  the  truth  when  he 
said  :  "The  enemy  is  not  yet  prepared  for  peace.  It  is  still 
the  day  of  the  sword,  but  the  sword  has  kept  sharp."  More 
than  that,  von  Stein  !  The  sword  continues  to  be  sharpened  ; 
the  sparks  still  fly  from  the  grindstone  ;  and  before  there  is 
peace,  Germany  must  taste  the  sharpness  of  that  sword, 
must  test  the  temper  of  its  steel  in  a  very  different  way  from 
that  contemplated  by  the  boastful  German  War  Minister. 

*  ie  it. 

Readers  of  L.\xd  &  W.\ter  are  very  familiar  by  this  time 
with  the  stories  by  Centurion  which  have  appeared  on  these 
pages  at  intervals  during  the  past  two  years.  They  are  all 
based  upon  fact,  and  in  process  of  time  many  of  these 
plain  tales  from  the  battlefield  will  be  accepted  as  historical 
evidence  for  the*  actual  incidents  and  sequences  of  events 
of  the  famous  actions  which  they  describe.  The  book  is 
dedicated  to  the  West  Country  Regiments,  for  the  writer  is 
himself  a  Wiltshire  man,  who  "like  the  rest  of  the  children  of 
Wessex,  believes  Wessex  to  be  God's  country  and  Thomas 
Hardy  its  prophet.  Centurion's  volume  bears  the  title 
Gentlemen  at  Arms  (Hcinemann,  6s.).  It  is  to  be  published 
to-day,  though  last  Tuesday,  the  anniversary  of  Waterioo, 
would  perhaps  have  been  a  more  appropriate  date,  consider- 
ing the  feat  of  arms  which  it  commemorates. 


June  2  0,   1918 


Land    &    Water 


The  Offensive  against  Italy  :  By  H.  Belloc 


THE  present  Austrian  offensive  upon  tlie  Italian 
front  is  following  a  course  of  which  the  plan  was, 
so  to  speak,  inevitable.  Ever  since  the  Itahans 
entered  the  war,  seized  defensive  positions  in  the 
north-east  of  their  country,  and  occupied  the 
slopes  of  the  Alps  all  along  the  north  up  to  the  Swiss  frontier, 
the  object  of  the  enemy  in  any  main  offensive  was  necessarily 
an  effort  to  come  down  from  the  north  and  cut  the  Italian 
communications.  This  alone  could  give  him  a  complete 
decision.  It  is  true  that  his  great  victory  at  Caporetto  was 
due  to  a  direct  frontal  attack  against  the  main  defensive 
position ;  but  though  he  broke  the  front,  took  an  enormous 
number  of  prisoners  and  guns,  and  compelled  the  Italians 
to  a  rapid  and  terribly  expensive  retirement,  he  did  not 
obtain  a  decision  because  he  was  only  driving  his  opponent 
back  along  communications  which  were  still  intact. 

The  position  may  be  familiar  to  most  of  my  leadiers,  but 
I  will  explain  it  once  more  in  a  simple  diagram. 


B[ 

1     1    T>    r 

I 

__v> 

•*-+■ 

''Ss:^^^2S?s^^\^ 

L 

c^ 

=f^ 

Supposing  the  front  you  have  to .  hold  is  of  the  shape 
shown  in  the  diagram,  Uke  part  of  a  hook,  or  the  letter  "J," 
with  secured  flanks  at  B  and  at  A.  Suppose  your  main  hne 
communications  run  like  the  barred  arrow  on  that  diagram — 
that  is,  parallel  with  a  part  of  your  front  B-C.  Then  it  is 
obvious  that  the  success  of  your  enemy  against  you  between 
A  and  C,  cornpelling  you  to  retire,  for  instance,  to  D-E, 
though  it  may  involve  the  loss  of  prisoners  and  of  guns, 
does  not  merely  through  his' advance  affect  the  vitals  of 
your  army,  for,  as  you  fall  back,  you  still  have  your  com- 
munications intact  behind  you  by  which  to  receive  supphes, 
to  evacuate  wounded,  etc.  But  if  your  enemy  can  bring 
pressure  between  B  and  D,  then,  even  without  badly  damaging 
you,  if  it  only  presses  you  back  a  little  way,  and  [imme- 
diately your  communications  are  in  danger,  everything 
lying  beyond  the  point  where  he  ci/ts  the  communications 
will  be  destroyed,  and  the  nearer  to  B  he  effects  his  cut,  the 
more  thorough  his  victory  will  be.  If  he  can  cut  the  com- 
munications right  back  close  to  B,  he  will  scoop  in  the  whole 
army  and  achieve  a  complete  decision. 

Now,  the  Italian  front  has  been  from  the  begimjing  obviously 
of  this  kind.  There  was  always  a  peril  from  the  north — 
a  peril  which  was  greater  in  proportion  as  the  attack  from 
the  north  came  from  more  and  more  westward. 

This  unstable  state  of  affairs  was  imposed  by  nature 
herself.  It  is  the  great  curve  of  the  Central  and  Eastern 
Alpine  chain,  the  direction  of  the  rivers  flowing  down  from 
that  chain  to  the  sea,  and  the  consequent  sites  of  great 
towns,  all  lying  in  a  row  underneath  the  Alps,  these  in  their 
turn  determining  the  main  roads  and  the  railways  which 
have  produced  the  situation  just  described. 


If  you  compare  the  actual  map  between  Lake  Garda  and 
the  mouth  of  the  Piave — that  is,  along  the  lines  held  by  the 
Italians  at  the  present  moment^you  will  see  that  it  exactly 
corresponds  to  this  scheme.  The  secured  flanks  at  B  and  A 
are  Lake  Garda  and  the  high  mountain  region  west  of  it  and 
the  Adriatic  Sea.    The  main  line  of  communications  is  the 


railway,  Hnking  up  Verona  and  Vicenza,  and  leading  up  to  the 
front  on  the  Piave  River.  It  is  clear  that  an  attack  from 
the  north — that  is,  from  the  mountains  between  B  and  C — 
even  if  it  does  not  break  the  front,  but  only  succeeds  in 
pressing  it  back  up  to  the  line  of  communications,  would 
give  the  enemy  a  complete  decision,  the  more  complete 
as  his  successful"  effort  lay  more  to  the  west — that  is,  nearer  B. 

It  was  a  stroke  of  this  kind  from  the  north,  to  cut  the 
communications,  which  was  planned  in  1916  and  failed.  Of 
necessity,  exactly  the  same  plan  has  had  to  be  repeated  this 
time.  The  enemy  has  had  to  make  his  main  effort  from 
the  north— that  is,  against  the  left  flank  presented  by  the 
Allied  line  and  covering  the  dangerously  parallel  line  of 
communications.  He  has  been  compelled,  as  we  shall  see 
in  a  moment,  to  strike  at  one  particular  sector  of  this  northern 
front  in  special  force,  to  wit,  both  sides  of  the  Brenta  Valley, 
because  only  there  can  he  mass  in  sufficient  strength.  The 
only  difference  between  this  offensive  and  that  of  two  years 
ago  is  that  his  much  greater  numerical  superiority  to-day, 
both  in  guns  and  in  men,  has  allowed  him  to  attack  all  along 
the  line,  instead  of  confining  himself  to  the  left  flank  alone. 
But  the  left  flank  still  remains  the  touch-stone  of  the  whole 
affair.  Either  he  will  get'  down  to  the  communications  on 
the  plain,  and  so  obtain  his  decision,  or  he  will  fail  to  inter- 
rupt them,  in  which  case  he  will  suffer  serious  strategic  defeat. 

The  numerical  preponderance  of  the  enemy  here,  as  else- 
where in  the  West,  must  always  be  kept  in  mind  ;  and,  upon 
a  later  page,  where  I  discuss ''the  general  character  of  the 
whole  enemy  movement  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  North  Sea, 
I  give  the  causes  and  the  extent  of  that  preponderance  more 
in  detail.  Here,  in  a  preliminary  study  of  the  present  action, 
it  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that  the  Austro-Hungarian  armies, 
with  certain  German  contingents,  can  and  have  put  into  line 
no  less  than  60  divisions  between  the  Adriatic  and  Lake 
Garda.  Their  superiority  in  artillery  is  unfortunately 
beyond  question.  It  is  due  to  two  factors  :  the  very  great 
captures  of  pieces  made  since  the  first  great  offensive  of  last 
autumn  and  the  enormous  amount  of  material  provided  by 
the  betrayal  of  the  Allies  in  Russia.  We  shall  discugs  later 
how  far  this  preponderance  of  men  is  modified  by  a  loss  in 
miUtary  spirit  and  value  ;  but  the  preponderance  in  artillery, 
especially  in  heavy  artillery  work  very  far  behind  the  line 
of  shock  and  contact,  is,  unfortunately,  a  mechanical  thing 
which  is  susceptible  of  calculation,  and  a  superiority  here  is 
not  only  undeniable,  but  little  affected  by  the  moral  of  the 
attacking  troops. 

Before  describing  in  detail  the  accounts  of  the  actions  so 
far  as  it  can  be  followed  at  the  time  of  writing  (Monday 
afternoon,  June  17th),  it  wiU  be  necessary  to  go  briefly  over 
the  line  from  the  Swiss  frontier  to  the  Adriatic,  showing 
what  advantages  the  enemy  have,  maybe,  and  where  they  lie. 

There  are  three  main  sectors  in  this  line.  Reading  from  left 
to  right — that  is,  from  West  to  East— you  have,  first,  the 
sector  between  the  Swiss  frontier  and  Lake  Garda.  Second, 
the  sector  between  Lake  Garda  and  the  Piave  River  at  the 
point  where  the  latter  emerges  from  the  foot  hills  of  the 
Alps  on  to  the  plain. 

The  third  sector  is  that  of  the  Piave  River  itself,  running 
from  the  south  eastwardly  across  the  plain,  until,  it  falls 
into  the  Adriatic,  30  or  40  miles  down  stream. 

Of  these  three  sectors,  the  first  need  not  concern  us  greatly. 
It  is  very  high  mountain  land,  most  of  the  crests  are  in  the 
hands  of  the  defence,  there  is  only  one  gate,  the  Tonale  Pass, 
and  the  lack  of  communications  makes  it  very  difficult  for 
the  enemy  to  concentrate  upon  this  sector  in  any  great  force. 

The  second  sector — that  between  Lake  Garda  and  the 
River  Piave— is  the  critical  one,  as  we  have  seen.  It  runs 
from  the  lake  to  the  valley  of  the  Astico,  over  country  where 
an  attack  is  difficult  on  account  of  narrowness  of  the  issues 
by  which  the  enemy  can  debouch.  If  this  portion  were 
weakly  or  badly  held,  an  enemy  success  here  would  be  more 
fruitful  than  anywhere  to  the  eastward,  for  it  would  get 
down  to  Verona  and  find  itself  right  behind  the  whole  Italian 
army  and  astraddle  of  the  main  railway  which  feeds  it ;  but 
not  only  is  this  point  capable  of  defence,  it  is  also  one  where 
the  hill  country  goes  on  far  to  the  south,  so  that  the  difficult 
fighting  would  have  to  be  prolonged,  however  successful  it 


were. 


All  these  conditions  are  modified,  when  you  come  to  the 
next  portion  of  this  sector,  lying  between  the  Astico  Valley 
and  the  Brenta,  which  is  known  as  the  "Plateau  of  Asiago," 
from  the  now  ruined  small  town  in  its  centre.     It  is  of  curious 


Land    &    Water 


June  2  0,  1918 


formation,  limestone,  and  therefore  difficult  to  supply  with 
water,  and  coming  out  from  the  fall  of  the  Alps  in  a  sort  of 
shelf,  depressed  in  the  middle,  and  rising  at  the  rim.  From 
beyond  that  rim  the  ground  falls  very  steeply  from  a  sort  of 
wall  on  to  the  Plain  of  Vicenza.  Across  this  crucial  piece 
of  ground  the  Allied  line  runs  midway.  .It  nowhere  reaches 
the  northern  heights  which  bound  the  plateau  and  dominate 
it,  but  it  everywhere  covers  the  rim  to  the  south,  beyond 
which  is  the  sharp  fall  on  to  the  plain,  which  bears  the  main 
commuiiirations  of  the  armies.  Upon  this  Plateau  of  Asiago, 
British,  French,  and  Italian  divisions  are  placed,  and-there 
lias  the  main  shock  been  taken.  The  enemy  has  several 
advantages  here.  He  has  the  great  international  line  of 
railway  down  the  Trentint)  Valley  to  supply  him  and  to  help 
his  concentrations,  and  he  has,  branching  out  from  it  at 
Trent  and  running  down  the  Val  Sugana,  an  excellent  road 
and  railway  following  the  Upper  Brenta  Valley  and  giving 
him  a  tiret-class  lateral  communication  by  which  to  feed  his 
front.  He  has  built  numerous  roads  from  this  railway  up 
to  that  front.  He  overlooks  the  defensive  line  across  the 
plateau  from  the  heights  toirthe  north  of  it.  Finally,  if  he 
succeeds  in  bending  back  the  Allied  line  here,  let  alone  in 
breaking,  it,  he  reaches  the  plafin  almost  immediately.  The 
main  railway  itself  is  not  20  miles  away,  and  the  plain  is 
nowhere  more  than  7.  In  other  words,  there  is  hardly  any 
room  for  manoeuvre. 

Beyond  the  Brenta  Valley  he  could  also  use. troops  and 
guns  concentrated  by  the  aid  of  the  railway  and  everywhere 
exercise  pressure  to  get  down  to  the  plain,  to  which  he  is 
everywhere  close  ;  but  the  further  east  he  goes,  the  less  the 
«'ffect  of  his  advance  would  be. 

L;istly,  we  have  the  Piave  itself,  running  through  the  plain 
from  the  foot  hills  to  the  Adriatic.  This  part  of  the  front  is 
the  weakest  for  defence  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  that 
part  up«n  which  an  enemy  advance  has  least  effect. 

The  Piave  is  no  formidable  pbstacle.  For  much  the 
greater  part  of  the  year  it  is  only  a  broad  bed  of  shingle, 
carrying  a  few  trickles  of  water,  and  bounded  by  high  levees 
or  banks  upon  either  side  to  preserve  the  plain  against 
floods. 

After  heavy  rain  in  tlie  hills  and  during  the  first  big  melt 
of  the  snows,  it  rises  by  many  feet,  and  becomes  very  swift 
and  deep,  an  almost  impossible  obstacle  for  the  moment ; 
but  it  usually  goes  down  in  a  few  hours,  and  is  of  hardly  any 
permanent  military  value,  at  any  rate,  above  the  point  of 
St.  Dona  ;  below  that  point  the  last  few  miles  to  the  sea 
run  through  marshy  country,  which  can  be  well  defended. 
A  crossing  there  is  also  of  httle  service  to  the  attack  because 
there  is  no  good  road  by  which  to  advanced-only  more 
marshes,  cut  up  by  canals,  and  a  big  sliallow  lagoon  barring 
the  way. 

The  Piave  torrent  bed  is  crossed  in  three  places  by  the 
railway,  at  St.  Dona  itself,  just  above  the  marshy  ground, 
at  Fogara,  about  half-way  to  the  hills,  and  at  Nervesa,  just 
where  it  emerges  from  the  hills.  The  bridges  have,  of  course, 
long  ago  been  destroyed ;    but  the  railways  on  the  enemy 


side — that  is,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river-^and  the  road 
system  in  his  hands  only  lead  to  the  old  crossing  places,  so 
that  they  are  the  obvious  points  upon  which  he  can  con- 
centrate and  bring  pressure  ;  and  it  is  there  that  he  had 
already  by  last  Sunday  established  at  least  three  bridge- 
heads. 

Such  being  the  general  nature  of  the  ground,  we  will  now 
turn  to  the  fortunes  of  the  battle  so  far  as  the  dispatches  to 
hand  inform  us  upon  them. 

The  offensive  opened  at  3  a.m.  on  Saturday  last,  June  15th. 
It  -had  been  preceded  by  a  minor  action,  dwindling  down 
during  the  previous  thirty-six  hours  against  the  Tonale  Pass 
far  to  the  west  of  Lake  Garda.  It  is  not  easy  to  understand 
the  reason  for  this  feint — if  feint  it  was.  Perhaps  future 
developments  will  make  us  understand  it  better.  There  was 
no  chance  of  getting  through  under  such  conditions  of  quite 
partial  and  local  attack.  At  any  rate,  the  attack  was  de- 
livered, and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  without  result ;  the 
main  offensive  followed,  as  we  have  said,  by  the  opening  of 
intense  bombardment  at  3  a.m.  on  Saturday. 

The  bombardment  lasted  four  hours,  and  just  after  7  a.m. 
the  infantry  was  launched  along  the  whole  line,  from  above  the 
mouth  of  the  Piave  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Lake  Garda 
itself. 

At  this  point  we  shall  do  well  to  notice  the  complete  cen- 
tralisation of  the  enemy  forces  in  the  West.  What  he  cannot 
command  is  homogeneity  of  troops.  He  has  that  more  or 
less  in  the  German  Empire  ;  he  takes  advantage  of  its  lack 
among  the  various  nations  of  the  Allies  ;  but  he  cannot  obtain 
it  in  the  extraordinary  different  types  of  recruitment  which 
produce  the  Austro-Hungajian  forces.  What  he  has  got  is 
clearly  a  unity  of  central  command.  For  this  preparation 
of  his  last  offensive  is  almost  ridiculously  exact  in  its  copy 
of  the  efforts  made  in  France  since  March  21st.  The  pre- 
liminary bombardment,  its  exact  duration,  the  nature  of  the 
shell  used,  the  searching  of  back  areas — twenty  other  details 
are  precisely  the  same  with  the  Austro-Hungarians 
in  Italy  as  they  have  been  with  the  German  armies 
in  France. 

Now,  this  kind  of  similarity  is  not  produced  by  mere 
copying  ;  it  is  only  possible  when  you  have  direct  orders 
and  a  staff  working  to  a  plan.  It  means  that  the  whole 
direction  of  the  Austrian  armies  in  this  Italian  offensive  is 
German.  What  they  cannot  command,  as  I  have  said,  is  the 
united  human  material.  And  this  battle  really  turns  more 
upon  the  military  value  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  units  than 
upon  anything  else.  They  come  from  many  different  races  ; 
they  are  variously  affected  towards  the  cause  of  the  Imperial 
Crown  ;  they  have  suffered  different  kinds  of  strain  ;  even 
their  best  units  are  but  isolated  groups  in  such  a  mass  of 
disparate  forces  ;  and  it  is  all  this  which  weighs  against  the 
fact  that  they  are  superior  in  numbers  and  far  superior  in 
guns  to  the  defending  force. 

After  the  bombardment,  then,  had  proceeded  four  hours 
the  infantry  was  launched  at  about  half-past  seven  in  the 
morning  upon  every  available  point  of  the  line. 


June  2  0,  19 1 8 


Land   &  Water 


5 


Let  us  be  clear  as  to  what  tliis  phrase  "every  available 
point"  means. 

In  the  open  plain  against  the  Piave,  north  of  the  marshes 
at  least — that  is,  at  and  north  of  St.  Dona — attack  is  possible 
anywhere,  though  a  special  concentration  was,  of  course,  to  be 
found  at  the  three  points  where  the  roads  and  railways  lead 
to  the  three  crossings  of  the  river,  and  here  the  enemy  estab- 
lished a  bridge-head  on  the  first  day  at  each  of  the  points.  It 
is  not  clear  in  what  state  the  river  was,  whether  it  was  deeper 
than  usual  through  a  freshet  or  through  the  melting  of  the 
snows,  or  whether  it  was  in  its  usual  summer  condition  of  a 
mere  gravel-bed  with  insignificant  streams  of  water  trickling 
through  it. 

The  enemy  dispatch  talks  of  it  as  being  "swollen"  ;  but 
this  probably  only  means  that  it  has  enough  water  to  make 
fording  somewhat  difficult.  It  is  very  unlikely  that  it  was 
deep  enough  for  the  use  of  pontoons,  except  possibly  at  the 
southernmost  crossing,  for  when  it  is  deep  enough  for  pontoons 
in  its  central  reaches  the  Piave  is  such  a  torrent  that  they 
could  hardly  be  thrown  across.  . 

On  this  sector,  then — that  of  the  Piave  proper — crossings 
were  made  and  bridge-heads  were  established  on  the  Saturday 
and  Sunday.  The  enemy  claim  here  about  10,000  prisoners. 
But  by  the  last  dispatches — those  of  Monday  morning — 
these  bridge-heads  '^ere  closely  contained  by  the  Italian 
reaction,  and  do  not  seem  to  have  enlarged  at  all. 

In  the  sector  next  west — between  the  Piave  and  Lake 
Garda,  which  we  have  seen  to  be  far  the  most  critical  one — 
the  position  at  the  end  of  the  second  day  was  satisfactory. 
The  main  enemy  effort  was  made  on  the  Asiago  Platpau,  for 
reasons  which  have  already  been  given.  It  fell  with  great 
weight  upon  the  forces  holding  the  •  extreme  west  of  this 
district,  which  were  British,  effected  the  advance  of  about 
a  mile,  but  was  then  thoroughly  beaten  back.     It  entirely 


failed  to  reach  the  rim  of  the  plateau,  which  overlo(  ks  the 
plain,  or  to  debouch  from  the  gaps  in  it  upon  the  West.  The 
enemy  here  suffered  a  very  decided  check.  He  suffered  a 
similar  check  in  his  efforts  east  of  both  sides  of  the  Brenta. 
He  advanced,  but  could  not  keep  what  he  had  overrun,  and  x, 
was  beaten  back  by  the  Italians.  Further  to  the  east  again, 
between  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  Brenta  and 
Montello,  he  achieved  nothing.  The  eastern  ends  of  Montello, 
just  on  the  Piave,  he  carried,  probably. as  part  of  his  successful 
crossing  at  Nervesa.  By  the  Monday  noon,  he  seems  to  have 
reached  the  summit ;  an  important  success,  because  it  gives 
him  his  only  point  of  observation  over  the  plain. 

With  this  very  insufficient  result,  our  news  stops.  We 
have  yet  to  learn  whether  it  is  a  definite  check  for  the  enemy 
or  no.  Since  the. whole  plan  is  German,  and  its  conduct 
obviously  designed  by  officers  from  the  Prussian  staff,  the 
test  of  its  failure  or  success  will  simply  be  its  continuance. 
If  the  batile  is  broken  off,  as  was  the  battle  of  the  Matz  (a 
little  too  late)  the  other  day,  it  will  be  a  confession  of  failure. 
If  it  is  continued,  no  matter  what  we  may  be  told  about 
heavy  enemy  losses  in  the  West,  we  may  take  it  as  evidence 
that  those  who  are  directing  the  enemy  feel  themselves  to 
be  succeeding. 

So  much  has  been  written  throughout  the  Press  of  the 
political  effect  of  an  enemy  failure  here  that  I  will  not  add 
to  it,  especially  as  we  do  not  yet  know  what  the  chances  of 
the  battle   are. 

But  it  must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind  that  the  attempt 
is  being .  made  by  a  Power  which  is  thoroughly  tired 
of  the  war,  and  which  has  now  nothing  to  gain  from  the 
continuance  of  the  war.  It  is  being  made  by  a  Pgwer  which 
would  not  be  specially  punished  as  a  result  of  unsuccessful 
war,  and  it  is  being  made  by  a  Power  which  is  suffering  from 
the  most  grievous  internal  instability. 


True  Value  of  Numerical  Superiority 


WE  cannot  understand  this  critical  phase  of  the  war 
unless  we  begin  upon  the  very  largest  lines  and  go 
down  to  details  afterwards.  To  go  the  other  way 
about,  to  make  maps  showing  how  far  the  enemy  is  from 
this  or  that  point,  is  to  put  the  cart  before  the  horse,  and  to 
stop  at  those  very  simple  insufficiencies  is  to  be  ridiculously 
failing  in  judgment. 

The  Central  Empires  and  their  dependents  had  for  the 
European  field  alone  (counting  Salonika  as  eastern  and  eUm- 
inating  Syria,  Persia,  and  Mesopotamia)  more  than  eight  and 
less  than  nine  million  men  drawing  rations,  in  uniform,  and 
on,  the  military  strength.  Of  these,  roughly  three-fifths  or  a 
Uttle  more  were  organised  in  fighting  units  and  of  these 
again  more  than  one-half,  but  not  two-thirds,  were  the  in- 
fantry which  was,  of  course,  the  force  chiefly  subject  to  attri- 
tion. 

That  is  the  first  foundational  point  to  seize  and  remember. 
Those  who  neglect  it  or  ignore  it  marvel  at  the  enemy's  pre- 
sent superiority,  fail  to  understand,  and  fall  into  the  error  of 
thinking  it  due  to  some  hidden  power  of  surprise. 

I  repeat  :  More  than  eight  million  all  told,  neATly  five  under 
arms  in  the  field,  not  far  short  of  three  in  infantry  alone.  That 
was  the  state  of  affairs  from  the  moment  when  the  whole 
machine  had  come  to  full  working. 

With  the  exception  of  a  great  falling  off  in  quality  and 
possibly  some  falling  off  in  numbers  among  the  Austro- 
Hungarians,  it  is  the  state  of  things  to-day.  The  Turkish 
forces  were  badly  hit  by  lack  of  organisation,  insufficient 
industrial  power,  etc.,  but  that  was  felt  in  Asia,  not  in  Europe. 
The  Turkish  Divisions  in  Europe  upqh  the  fighting  fronts, 
though  few,  have  been  kept  up  to  strength.  The  Bulgarian 
divisions  have  suffered  little.  Of  this  eight — five  and  i/iree — 
million,  the  German  Army  counts  for  five-eighths  in  each 
category. 

Against  so  formidable  a  mass  were  arrayed  the  Russians, 
the  French,  the  British  and  the  Italians.  These  four  main 
AlUes  were  sufiicient  to  "  contain  "  (as  the  phrase  goes)  the 
Central  Empires  between  them.  The  Allies  never  had  any 
formidable  superiority  even  in  mere  numbers,  against  the' 
Central  Empires.  How  the  idea  got  about  that  they  had 
I  do  not  know.  They  had  a  superiority,  but  no  formidable 
superiority  ;  and  that  superiortiy,  such  as  it  was,  depended 
entirely  upon  the  huge  recruiting  field  of  Russia^ 

Between  the  late  autumn  of  1916  and  the  early  summer  of. 
1917  the  Russian  part  of  this  combination  went  to  pieces. 
The  enemy  may  legitimately  claim  that  this  result  was  the 
fruit  of  his  heavy  blows  in  1915  ;   but  it  may  also  be  urged 


that  this  fruit  would  not  have  been  garnered  but  for  political 
propaganda  and  the  action  of  the  detestable  international 
gang  that  captured  the  Russian  Capital  and  still  holds  it. 

These  discussions  are,  however,  of  no  value  to  a  present 
judgment  of  the  war.  The  Russian  forces  as  a  fact  dis- 
appeared. The  process  might  be  compared  to  the  break- 
down of  a  massive  wall  under  bombardment.  The  final 
collapse  came  suddenly,  and  almost  up  to  the  moment  of 
that  final  collapse  the  wall  was  standing  up  and  visible  to 
every  one  and  apparently  still  intact. 

With  the  disappearance  of  the  Russian  forces  went  the 
necessary  elimination  of  the  Rumanian  Army,  just  at  the 
moment  when  it  had  learnt  modern  war-,and  was  beginning 
to  re-act  very  usefully  in  our  favour.  The  whole  field  was 
left  open  for  a  duel  in  the  west.  Into  that  duel  the  Central 
Empires  could  now  bring  their  united  and  preponderant 
strength.  Take  them  all  in  line  from  the  Adriatic  to  the 
North  Sea  it  was  a  struggle  opening  between  two  forces 
which  stood  as  about  21  to  16. 

The  first  evidence  of  the  change  was  Caporetto  in  the 
late  autumn  of  1917.  It  was  explained  in  many  ways.  The 
Germans,  of  course,  made  the  most  of  the  fact  that  it  occurred 
just  after  German  divisions  had  joined  the  Austrian  forces  ■ 
but  the  underlying  cause  even  of  that  first  surprise  and  bad 
defeat  was  new  power  which  the  Russian  toUapse  had  given 
the  enemy  to  concentrate  against  the  west.  *  f'  ^ 

Here  let  me  point  out  that  numerical  preponderance  does 
not  only  mean  the  power  to  bring  up,  say,  ten  men  against 
seven  :  It  means  much  more  than  that.  It  means  the  power 
to  withdraw  divisions  and  give  them  special  training.  It 
means  the  power  to  give  long  periods  of  rest.  It  means 
the  power  to  resume  the  initiative — that  is,  the  vast  advantage 
of  striking  where  you  will  and  compelling  your  opponent 
to  conform  his  plan  to  yours. 

It  should  further  be  pointed  out  that  a  great  numerical 
superiority  enables  you  to  play  for  exhaustion  with  a  margin 
in  hand.  You  can  risk  heavy  losses  without  fear  for  the 
immediate  future.  Your  numerically  inferior  opponent  bv 
his  superior  skill  in  the  art  of  war  may  compel  you  to  heavier 
losses  than  he  himself  suffers,  and  yet  you  may  be  the  gainer 
in  the  long  run  because  there  is  a  certain  niinimum  beyond 
which  he  cannot  hold  and  you  may  fairly  hope  that  he  will 
reach  that  breaking  point  before  you  wiU. 

If  100  men  are  fighting  70,  the  70  can,  perhaps,  make 
the  100  lose  25  men  where  they  lose  only  20.  But  at  the  end 
of  the  process  they  are  worse  off  than  at  the  beginning.  They 
stand,  only  50  against  75  :    and  the  process  goes  on.    More- 


Land   &    Water 


June  20,'  19 1 8 


over,  there  is  a  line  to  be  held  which  cannot  be  held  after 
forces  have  fallen  below  a  certain  level. 

In  the  interval  between  the  autumn  of  1917  and  the  spring 
of  1918,  the  enemy,  and  in  particular  the  German  Army, 
utilised  their  new  superiority  in  numbers  in  all  sorts  of  ways, 
but  principally  by  way  of  training.  They  withdrew  great 
numbers  from  the  line — which  tlie  Allies  could  not  do  ;  they 
rested  them  ;  they  exercised  them  in  a  new  tactic  of  mobility 
and  surprise.  Wlien  all  was  ready  they  launched  that  great 
offensive  in  the  West  which,  as  they  then  firmly  believed 
and  still  believe  more  doubtfully,  should  end  the  campaign 
in  their  favour  before  next  autumn.  ' 

Apart  from  the  elements  in  their  favour  which  I  have  just 
mentioned  they  had,  in  the  largest  sense,  the  advantage 
over  the  west  of  interior  lines.  They  could  change  from  a 
main  attack  against  Italy  to  a  main  attack  in  Flanders  in 
less  than  half  the  time  and  with  much  less  than  half  the 
strain  imjiosed  by  such  a  change  upon  their  opponents. 
They  had  not  only  this  general  advantage  of  interior  lines 
upon  the  whole  west,  they  had  a  special  advantage  of  interior 
lines  between  Lorraine  and  the  North  Sea.  The  enemy 
determined  not  to  pursue,  for  the  moment,  the  Italian  adven- 
ture, which  could  be  only  indirectly  decisive,  but  to  strike 
upon  the  West,  that  is  against  his  principal  and  most  formid- 
able foes.  He  was  moved  to  act  rapidly,  at  great  expense, 
and  early  by  two  considerations. 

•  ;The  first  (which  seemed  to  him  the  least  important)  was 
the  gradual  growth  of  the  American  forces.  He  knew  that 
these  would  be  insignificant  throughout  the  spring.  He  did 
not  believe  that  during  the  greater  part  of  the  summer  they 
would  be  greater  in  proportion  than  the  British  Expedition- 
ary Force  had  been  to  the  French  before  the  Marne.  He  was 
morally  certain  that  they  could  not  redress  the  balance  in 
numbers  in  the  course  of  1918.  But  he  did  know  that  if 
his  decision  was  not  reached  in  .1918  the  American  armies 
would  change  the  whole  situation  six  months  later — other 
things,  such  as  the  political  situation  in  the  belligerent 
countries,  being  equal. 

The  second  thing  which  pressed  him  was  the  tremendous 
strain  upon  his  population  as  a  whole,  civilian  and  military 
combined.  The  civilian  strain  is  to  be  measured  not  only 
hf  the  scale  of  rationing,  severe  as  that  is,  nor  even  by  the 
imperfect  organisation  of  Austrian  and  Hungarian  supply, 
which  is,  perhaps,  a  worse  feature  for  them,  but  principally 
by  the  fact  that  the  burden  had  been  borne  so  long.  Even 
the  allied  belligerent  countries  which  are  more  happily 
circumstanced  know  what  the  cumulative  effect  of  a  long 
strain  can  be.  Habit  palhates  it,  but  upon  a  balance  the 
weariness  and  the  disgust  count  more  than  the  habit.  And 
even  upon  habit  you  cannot  count  where  a  real  privation  of 
necessities  is  concerned.  That  is  something  we  have  never 
had  and  which  the  Central  Empires  have  had  for  a  long  time. 

The  enemy  strfick  therefore  in  the  West ;  he  struck  early  ; 
he  struck  with  e»erytliing  organised  above  all  for  rapidity, 
and  he  struck  once  for  all.  In  other  words,  he  budgeted  to 
lose  up  to  his  full  maximum  of  men,  saying  to  himself  that  by 
this  means  there  was  a  chance  of  victory  and  by  any  other 
policy  nothing  but  a  certitude  of  defeat.  '   |i 

Now  what  was  that  maximum  of  men  and  how  would 'he 
use  it  ?  I  confine  myself  to  the  French  front  alone.  The 
enemy  could  there  use  nearly  three  million  of  men  of  whom 
more  than  a  million  and  a  half,  but  less  than  a  million  and 
three-quarters  were  available  as  infantry  for  the  active  part, 
-of  the  battle. 

It  was  upon  the  infantry  tliat  the  great  losses  would  fall. 
It  was  the  numbers  of  the  infantry  and  their  losses  which,  there- 
fore, would  determine  everything.  If  every  man  hit  or  caught 
counted  as  a  permanent  loss  one  might  safely  say  that  the 
enemy  would  budget  for  a  casualty  list  far  below  half  his 
force.  To  exceed  that  would  be  destruction.  He  could  not 
budget  for  infantry  casualty  lists  of  a  million  in  his  infantry. 
He  might  doubtfully  budget  for  700,000. 

But  not  every  man  hit  or  caught  is  a  permanent  loss.  The 
only  purely  permanent  losses  are  the  men  caught  and  the  men 
who,  being  hut,  are  either  killed  or  so  mutilated  as  not  to  be  of 
any  service  again.  The  remainder  (with  the  exception  of  a 
small  proportion  who  are  lost  by  sickness)  return  sooner  or 
later  and  in  various  capacities  to  the  ranks.  There  is  here  a 
problem  on  which  infinite  discussion  has  arisen,  to  wit,  how 
to  estirriate  the  exact  proportion  of  strength  really  recoverable. 
You  may  have  hospital  returns. on  paper  as  high  as  80  per  cent, 
of  the  wounded,  while  the  number  you  get  back  to  full  active 
service  of  the  same  sort  which  they  performed  before  they 
were  into  hospital  may  be  nearer  50  per  cent,  than  60  per  cent. 
You  have  men  who  can  go  back  to  very  useful  work  necessary 
to  the  army — transport,  etc. — but  not  to  the  firing  hne.  You 
have  a  large  proportion  who  come  back  so  irregularly  and  so 
slowly  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  make  an  average  rate 


of  their  return.  But  in  rbund  figures  you  can  say  that  of 
the  wounded  alone,  apart  from  prisoners  and  dead,  60  per 
cent.,  or  rather  more  come  back  in  an  average  of  about  four 
months,  and  a  large  proportion  of  these,  the  light  cases,  come 
back  in  the  first  few  weeks. 

Seeing  that  the  problem  is,  therefore,  not  a  static  but  a 
dynamic  one,  and  that  while  loss  goes  on  recruitment  is  also 
going  on,  we  know  that  the  enemy  could  budget  for  very 
much  more  than  a  casualty  list  of  700,000  on  the  French 
front  alone  during  the  fighting  of  1918.  For  each  particular 
stroke  he  would  have  to  budget  carefully,  of  course.  If  he 
wasted  all  available  material  without  success  in  the  very 
first  blows  he  might  find  himself  defeated  before  his  recruit- 
ment could  recover  him. 

Thus  it  was  said  with  justice  in  these  columns  that  his 
first  two  great  battles  between  March  21st  and  April  19th 
were  not  calculated  to  cost  much  more  than  600,000  casual- 
ties and  probably  cost  less  :  Perhaps  half  a  million.  But  take 
the  fighting  from  beginning  to  end,  take  the  fighting  of  the 
whole  of  this  season,  and  he  might  stand  a  casualty  hst  of  far 
more  than  a  million  and  yet  get  his  decision  before  he  had 
reached  the  point  of  exhaustion  and  of  danger.  Some  have  put 
the  number  at  a  million  and  a  half.  Class  1920  alone 
represents  at  least'  450,000  men. 

Special  Training  of  Reserves 

Now  the  enemy  had  a  further  calculation  in  his  favour. 
The  power  which  great  numerical  superiority  had  bestowed 
on  him  to  give  special  training  to  great  bodies  of  troops  resting 
out  of  the  fighting,  coupled  with  very  diligent  staff  work,  for 
which  he  must  be  given  full  credit,  had  given  him,  as  he 
believed,  and  rightly  believed,  a  new  tactical  instrument. 
'He  thought  he  could  break  a  line,  something  which  (in  the 
West)  neither  he  nor  the  French  nor  the  British  nor  the 
Italians  had  yet  succeeded  in  doing.  At  Caporetto  he  did 
this  for  the  first  time  in  the  West.  On  March  22nd  he  did 
it  for  the  first  time  in  France. 

•Having  found  that  he  could  break  a  line,  in  other  words, 
having  found  that  the  quasi-permanent  field  defences 
developed  by  the  present  war  were,  even  when  backed  by 
ample  material  (which  the  Russians  never  had),  capable  of 
rupture,  his  main  plan  was  simply  to  shatter  piece-meal 
that  defensive  line  in  the  West  and  after  each  breach  to  take 
the  first  possible  advantage  of  the  gap,  pouring  men  through 
with  the  utmost  mobility,  and  trying,  if  he  could,  to  sever 
the  hne  thoroughly  once  and  for  all ;  that  is,  to  prevent 
its  re-forming  far  to  the  rear  and  to  get  around  the  flank  of 
one  of  the  two  broken  sections. 

This  expected  result  he  has  not  gained.  But  there  is 
another  way,  a  slower  one  of  reaching  a  decision,  which  is  the 
exhaustion  of  his  foes.  He  is  fighting  roughly  ten  to  seven. 
With  every  advance  he  takes  prisoners  in  great  numbers  and 
these  though  slightly  wounded  or  even  unwounded  are  per- 
manent losses  to  the  side  from  which  they  come.  He  menaces 
point  after  point  of  importance  on  the  alUed  communications. 
He  postpones  the  power  of  building  up  again  permanent 
field  works  against  him  ;  he  exercises  heavy  political  pressure 
by  the  ruin  of  territory  occupied  ;  by  the  bombardment  of 
distant  civilian  centres  as  he  goes  forward. 

That  is  the  German  calculation.  That  is  the  very  simple 
plan  underlying  the  whole  of  this  fighting.  Each  individual 
blow  has  its  objective,  of  course— that  of  March  21st  and 
March  22nd  to  get  between  the  French  and  the  British  and 
effect  a  complete  rupture  of  the  hne ;  that  of  April  9th  to 
cut  off  the  Ypres  salient  and  reach  the  sea  ;  that  of  May  27th 
to  pass  round  the  forest  obstacles  and  compel  a  general 
retirement  upon  ?aris ;  that  of  June  9th  to  supplement  the 
blow  of  May  27th  by  coming  round  on  the  other  side  of  the 
sahent,  with  Compiegne  as  its  particular  obj'ective,  and  pre- 
sently the  turning  of  the  forest  belt  as  its  general  goal. 

But  dominating  all  is  the  conception  of  a  rapid  attrition 
of  the  Allied  forces  in  the  course  »f  the  present  war :  An 
attrition  gained  with  immense  loss  to  his  own  side  but,  as  he 
hopes,  mortal  to  his  foe. 


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|une  20,   1910 


JL^ctllU      LX.      vv  a.i.v-1 


Germany's  Lost  Illusions :   By  Arthur  Pollen 


Harbour  of  Sevastopol,  the  Portsmouth  of  the  Black  Sea 


AN  astute  French,  statesman  remarked,  when  war 
broke  out,  that  the  folly  of  Germany  could  be 
measured  by  the  fact  that,  by  combining  Russia 
and  Great  Britain  against  her,  she  had  set  out  to 
attack  the  "two  great  intangibles."  Russia 
seemed  to  be  protected  by  the  vastness  of  her  territor}'  and 
the  simpUcity  of  her  political  organisation  ;  Great  Britain 
by  her  ocean  girdle.  The  epithet  has  long  since  been 
proved  untrue  of  oui:  northern  ally.  But  it  is  still  true  of 
Great  Britain  ;  and  for  the  reason  that  it  is  true  of  us,  it  is 
trae  also  of  the  al^y  that  j  oined  us  when  Russia  was  on  the 
eve  of  collapsing — America. 

Now,  when  the  military  force  of  Germany,  relieved  of 
pressure  on  the  Eastern  front,  can  concentrate  its  entire 
weight  against  us  in  the  West,  it  is  wholesome  to  bear  in 
mind  the  truth 
that  still  remains 
in^Monsieur  Cairi- 
bon's  aphorism. 
It  recalls  to  our 
recollection  the 
fact  that  pri- 
marily and  ulti- 
mately, the  war, 
like  its  great 
predecessor  a  cen- 
tury ago,  is  for  us 
a  sea  war  ;  and 
that  Miough  our 
military  contribu- 
tion has  been 
upon  a  colossal 
scale,  the  essen- 
tial-truth remains 
that,  in  winning 
or  losing  in  a 
war  with  Great 
Britain,  it  is  in 
what  happens  at 
sea,  and  not  what 
happens  on  land, 

that  the  issue  will  b6  found.  And  that  truth  is 
culably  more  obvious  when  America  is  allied  to  us  in 
the  West  with  her  resources  in  men  only  just  beginning  to 
appear  in  the  field  of  war,  and  with  Japan  allied  to  us  in  the 
East,  whose  man-power  has  not  yet  been  touched  at  all. 

It  is  this  fundamental  truth  that  made  the  situation  a 
year  ago  so  intensely  grave.  For  we  were  within  measurable 
distance. of  being  beaten  at  sea  by  the  submarine.  And  it  is 
because  the  submarine  is  becoming  week  by  week  a  lesser 
danger,  and  because  week  by  week  the  shipping  of  the 
Alliance  is  increasing  much  faster  than  it  can  be  destroyed, 
that  we  shall  do  well  to  remember  that,  whatever  our  anxiety 
in  watching,  the  titanic  struggle,  while  it  must  be  decisive  for 
Germany  if  Germany  fails,  will  be  far  from  being  decisive 
for  the  Alliance  if  Germany  were  to  succeed. 

There  is  all  the  more  reason  why  we  should  bear  this 
truth  in  mind,  because  the  clearer  headed  Germans  can  see  it 
for  thQ.mselves.  There  has  recently  become  accessible  to  us 
the  full  text  of  three  very  significant  statements.  The  first 
is  von  Kuhlmann's  speech  to  the  Berlin  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
delivered  on  the  occasion  of  his  reporting  and  defining  the 
German  peace  with  Rumaniji.  Next,  there  is  Herr  Dern- 
burg's  article  in  the  Neue  *'Freie  Presse  deaUng  with  the 
American  threat  of  the  after-war  boycott  on  raw  materials. 
Lastly,  there  is  Erzberger's  defence  against  those  who  attacked 
him  and  his  advocacy  of  the  "No  Annexation"  resolutions 
passed  a  year  ago  in  the  Reichstag. 

Von  Kiihlmann's  speech  is,  naturally  enough,  a  rhapsody 
over  Germany's  colossal  apparent  triumph  in  Russia,  the 
Ukraine,  and  Rumania — a  triumph  the  economic  results  of 
which  are  to  be  reaUsed  by  a  ruthless  exploitation  of  the 
conquered  peoples,  carried  out  in  perfect  agreement  with 
Austro-Hungary,  Turkey,  and  Bulgaria.  Though  the  pros- 
pect is  dazzUng,  he  adds  that  the  Germans  would  make  a 
very  big  mistake  if  they  contented  themselves  with  extending 
their  economic  base  on  the  European  continent,  and  were 
satisfied  if  they  simply  put  themselves  into  a  position  to 
compete  "numerically"  with  such  units  as  the  United  States 
of  America. 

These  are  not  the  aim  and  conclusion  of  our  development, 
The  Rhine  flows  into  the  North  Sea,  and  the  mighty  Elbe, 
the  artery  of  Central  Germany,  points  us  in  tl^e  same  direc- 


incal- 


tion. .  All  these  efforts  .  .  .  will  in  the  long  run  be  a  spur 
and  incentive  to  German  trade  to  gravitate  towards  the 
first  element  of  all  great  and  really  free  trade,  the  free  seas. 
To  prepare  this  trade,  to  serve  and  strengthen  its  cause  is 
the  ultimate  and  highest  aim  of  all  the  work  and  all  the 
efforts,  which  have  been  brought  before  your  mental  vision 
to-day.  When  victory  and  peace  shall  have  been  won  in 
this  greatest  of  all  wars,  thanks  to  the  valour  and  tenacity 
of  the  German  people,  and  the  genius  of  their  leaders,  and 
German  merchant  ships,  built  of  German  steel  shall  again 
sail  the  free  seas  under  the  black,  white,  and  red  stripes, 
then,  .  .  .  the  German  merchant  will  prove  to  the  world 
that,  in  these  years  of  sacrifice,  he  has  only  become  more 
capable,  more  ready  for  peaceful  competition  with  every 
nation,  and  not  unworthy  of  the  proud  motto :  Nulli  Secundus. 

So  that,  unless  his  country  can,  when  war  is  over,  get  back 

to  pre-war  condi- 
tions at  sea,  then 
all  Germany's  war 
efforts  must  have 
been  wasted. 

Herr  Dernburg 
is  far  more  speci- 
fic. Except  for 
Germany's  ap- 
parent monopoly 
of  potash,  he  has 
to  admit  that 
neither  Germany 
nor  any  of  the 
neutrals  subser- 
vient to  her,  pro- 
duces any  of  the 
raw  materials  of 
which  the  rest  of 
the  world  has 
need.  Whereas 
the  British  Em- 
pire, the  United 
States,  and  the 
South .  American 
republics  that 
have  declared  war  against  Germany,  practically  monopolise 
the  ra,w  materials,  without  which  German  industry  is 
helpless.  Peace,  therefore,  when  it  comes,  he  says, 
must  include  the  fair  rationing  of  these  raw  [materials 
between  all  the  nations.  He  notes  that  [the  Non- 
ferrous  Metal  Act,  and  wholesale  purchasing  of  wool  clips 
and  crops  have  already  made  State  monopolies  of  many 
of  these  essentials  to  German  industry.  The  treaty  of  peace, 
then,  must  not  merely  guarantee  a  freedom  for  the  Germans 
to  trade  on  an  equaUty  with  others  in  all  these  countries,  it 
must  provide  compulsory  powers  of  allocation  to  Germany  of 
her  share  of  these  highly  desirable  products  !  '  And  it  dawns 
on  the  puzzled  Dernburg  that  this  means  a  "League  of 
Nations  for  the  universal  world  provision  of  •  a  humanity 
suffering  from  an  impoverishment  of  raw  materials."  Per- 
haps we  shall  not  all  agree  upon  the  definition  of  "  humanity." 
The  Allies  will  be  able  to  look  after  themselves  and  their 
friends,  and  the  German  claims  to  be  included  in  "humanity" 
will  certainly  require  strict  proofs.  Dernburg  evades  this 
point,  and  proceeds  : 

"A  thing  of  this  kind  {i.e.,  this  economic  j  League  of  Nations) 
cannot  be  obtained  in  the  event  of  a  peace  won  purely  by  force. 
It  requires  peace  by.  understanding  for  which  we  are  now,  as 
always,  ready,  but  which  can  only  be  concluded  when  our 
opponents  have  arrived  at  a  similar  position  of  reason.  Our 
goodwill  has  not  advanced  us  much  in  this  direction.  To-day 
the  task  which  we  must  pursue  with  all  our  might  is  to  bring 
about  this  condition  of  reason  by  force  of  circumstances." 

The  German  mind  is  surely  a  strange  thing.  Dernburg 
realises  as  clearly  as  any  man  can  that  a  peace  obtained  by 
force — such,  for  instance,  as  a  German  victory  in  France — 
will  not  bring  them  what  Germany  wants,  i.e.,  a  League  of 
Nations,  based  on  equality  of  economic  supply.  He  also" 
realises  that  this  can  only  come  by  a  peace  by  "understand- 
ing." "Let  us,  then,"  he  says,  "go  forward  with  all  our 
might — i.e.,  by  force  of  circumstances — to  bring  about  not 
a  peace  won  by  victory,  but  a  condition  when  they,  like 
'us  (the  Germans)  will  attain  to  that  sweet  reasonableness 
which  makes  some  other  kind  of  peace  possible." 

Erzberger  has  to  deal  with  his  critics  with  one  hand  tied 
behind  his  back.  He  cannot  say,  for  instance,  that  Turkey, 
Bulgaria,  and  Austria  are  beaten  already,  nor  can  he  reiterate 


Land    &    Water 


June  20,  191 8 


what  he  liints,  viz.,  that  tlic  warning  ho  uttered  in  October, 
1916,  as  to  the  result  of  unrestricted  U-boat  warfare,  lias 
proved  him  to  be  right  and  his  critics  wrong.  It  has  made 
an  irreconcilable  opponent  of  America  without  disposing  of 
the  other  irreconcilable,  England.  Germany  is  left,  then, 
still  needing  a  peace  by  understanding,  but  is  further  off 
than  ever  from  any  possibihty  of  getting  it.  The  people 
are  being  fooled  by  being  told  that  the  mihtary  successes 
are  decisive  \ictories,  and  their  war  passion  excited  by  the 
prospects  of  annexations  and  indemnities.  But  the  truth, 
he  says,  is  that  the  bulk  of  Germany  wants  only  German 
rights,  and  that  annexations,  in  the  interest  of  scientiiac 
frontiers,  have  no  meaning  in  these  days  of  long-range  guns 
and  aeroplanes  ;  and  that  all  this  talk  only  postpones  the 
only  finish  of  the  war  that  can  help  his  country. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  quite  a  remarkable  thing  that  three 
men,  so  different  in  origin,  experience,  and  environment, 
should  show  agreement  on  an  issue  so  fundamental  as  this. 
They  all  see  as  clearly  as  possible  that  the  tiling  Germany 
must  have — or  perish— is  exactly  the  thing  which  cannot  be 
obtained  by  force  of  arms  on  land.  If  Germany  is  to  .turn 
her  conquests  in  the  East  into  permanent  realities  profitable 
to  herself,  she  must  first  come  to  a  working  agreement  with 
aU  the  rest  of  the  world.  Without  wool,  cotton,  rubber, 
hides,  vegetable  oils,  and  a  host  of  other  products,  she  cannot 
regain  that  industrial  vitality  without  which  the  exploitation 
of  the  Russian  and  Rumanian  conquests  will  be  impossible. 
Without  a  free  sea,  no  internal  industry  can  bring  national 
wealth.  Now,  these  two  indispensable  things — raw  materials 
and  free  sea  commerce — do  not  follow  automatically  from  the 
only  kind  of  victory  dangled  before  the  German  vision. 

If  Gennany  could  conquer  the  armies  of  Italy,  France, 
England,  and  America  on  land,  and  beat  all  our  fleets,  too, 
then  the  countries  of  the  outer  world  would  have  to  come  to 
the  same  kind  of  "peace  by  understanding"  with  Germany 
to  wluch  Russia,  the  Ukraine,  and  Rumania — not  to  mention 
Poland  and  Finland — have  already  been  driven.  But  there 
is  no  prospect  of  sea  victory  on  this  or  any  other  scale.  Max 
Cohen,  indeed,  will  have  it  still  that  the  U-boat  will  win  ; 
but  he  speaks  to  a  formula  in  which  no  one  trusts.  It  is 
significant  that  Erzberger,  while  speaking  respectfully  of  the 
efficiency  and  the  gallantry  of  the  submarine  personnel,  is 
under  no  illusions  as  to  any  chances  of  submarine  victory. 
Dernburg  is  silent  on  the  subject  altogether,  and  Kiihlmann, 
while  talking  glibly  of  the  freedom  of  the  seas,  suggests  no 
means  by  which  the  rest  of  the  world  is  to  be  free  of  the 
peaceful  use  of  the  seas,  if  Germany  is  to  remain  free  to 
renew  her  piratical  sabotage  whenever  she  thinks  fit. 

The  growth  of  German  opinion  on  these  subjects  will  be 
well  worth  watching.  It  is  something,  at  any  rate,  to  have 
a  Secretary  of  State  admitting  that  it  is  peace  on  sea  and 
not  peace  on  land  that  Germany  needs,  and  one  of  the  fore- 
most of  her  political  thinkers  asseverating  that  peace  on  sea 
is  not  a  thing  that  can  be  the  fruit  of  land  victory. 

Rizzo's  Achievement 

On  the  night  of  June  S-gth,  Commander  Luigi  Rizzo,  of 
the  Royal  Itahan  Navy,  was  cruising  off  the  Dalmatian 
coast  in  a  m6tor  boat  in  company  with  another  of  the  same 
craft  under  the  command  of  Midshipman  Aonzo.  At  3.15 
on  Sunday  morning,  he  perceived  a  column  of  smoke  in  the 
distance,  and  was  soon  able  to  distinguish  two  dreadnoughts 
escorted  by  a  squadron  of  ten  destroyers.  He  determined  to 
go  for  them  at  once,  and  ordered  Aonzo  to  attack  "as  he 
thought  best."  He  managed  to  slip  between  the  destroyers 
and  get  within  between  400  and  600  feet  of  the  leading  ship, 
and  was  soon  under  fire  from  the  destroyers,  which  then  per- 
ceived him.  But,  unaffected  by  this,  he.let  his  two  torpedoes 
go  from  their  dropping  gear,  and  both  took  effect.  Aonzo,  in 
the  meantime,  got  in  one  hit  on  the  second  battleship.  All 
this  w;is  astonishing  enough,  but  the  miracle  is  that,  having 
got  inside  the  destroyer  line  and  torpedoed  both  ships,  these 
tiny  motor  boats  were  then  able  to  pass  out  again  untouched. 
Beyond  a  couple  of  torpedoes  and  depth  charges  each,  they 
carried  no  weapons.  It  was  with  one  of  these  latter,  the 
first  having  failed  to  explode,  that  Rizzo  stood  off  the  only 
destroyer  that  tried  to  ram  him — the  light,  one  imagines, 
was  too  bad  for  effective  gunnery.  The  second  depth-charge 
was  nicely  timed  and  lifted  the  destroyer,  so  that  she  "rolled 
like  a  drunken  man."  She  was  doubtless  out  of  action,  if 
pot  destroyed;  but  Rizzo,  now  defenceless,  did  not  wait  to 
see,  and  slipped  through  the  gap,  and  both  motor  boats 
escaped.  This  reads  more  like  the  ground  work  of  a  magazine 
story  than  an  event  in  real  life,  and  but  for  the  Austrian 
admission  that  the  Szent  Istvan  had  been  sunk,  with  the  loss 
of  several  officers  and  eighty  men,  one  would  be  tempted 
to  wonder  if  it  could  possibly  be  true. 


It  is  confidently  stated  that  another  Austrian  battleship 
has  been  lost  already,  and  Aonzo  is  positive  that  a  hit  was 
made  on  Szent  Istvan' s  consort.  'It  looks,  then,  as  if  there 
were  now  no  Austrian  battle  fleet  to  cause  concern.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  the  change  this  makes  in  the 
Mediterranean.  We  saw  a  month  ago  that,  if  the  old  Russian 
battle  fleet  could  be  annexed  and  put  under  the  command  of 
the  Goeben,  a  j  unction  between  such  a  fleet  and  the  Austrian 
would  create  a  very  serious  situation  in  the  Middle  Sea.  On 
Friday  came  the  news  that  two  of  the  ex- Russian  battleships 
had  already  been  surrendeied — not  to  the  Turks,  to  their 
great  chagrin,  but  to  the  Germans.  But  Rizzo's  feat  has 
transformed  the  situation,  and  though  the  enemy  may  yet 
try  a  diversion,  the  graver  possibilities  need  trouble  us  no 
longer. 

U-Boats  in  American  Waters 

The  submarine  attack  in  American  waters  that  began  a 
fortnight  ago  has  not  been  continued  at  its  first  intensity, 
no  doubt  because  prompt  measures  were  taken  to  deal  with 
it.     But  it  has  not  ceased  altogether,  and  obviously  it  can  be 
renewed,   quite   ^jossibly    with    greater    effect.     The    Navy 
Department  has,  to  my  personal  knowledge,  been  ready  for 
such  a  campaign  for  a  twelve-month  past,  and  something 
much  more  serious  than  the  raid  on  the  coastwise  shipping, 
that  has  actually  taken  place,  was  expected.     The  fact  that 
even  this  was  postponed,  imtil  American  forces  were  in  the 
field,  seems  to  indicate  that  German  policy  was  prompted 
by  a  hope  to  end  the  war,  before  the  American  war  spirit 
was  reinforced  by  national  action  on  so  large  a  scale,  that 
going   back   on   the   President's   professions   would   become 
impossible.     There  may  have  been  a  forlorn  sort  of  hope 
that  if  American  resentment  were  not  aroused,  a  return  to 
real  peace  conditions  might  be  easier.     Now,  Germany  is 
undeceived,    and   realised,    what    those  who  knew  America 
said  from  the  first,  viz.,  that  once  in,  she  was  in  till  the  end, 
and  the  end  as  she  defined  it.     It  is,  therefore,  a  clear  possi- 
bility of  the  situation  that  a  concentrated  submarine  attack 
may  now  develop,   not  only  against  American  trade,   but 
against  American  transports  and  the  coast  towns.     Indeed, 
it  is  a  necessity  of  the  mihtary  situation  that  a  concentration 
against  the  transports  should  be  made  before  it  is  too  late. 
For,  obviously,  the  Channel  and  North  Sea  barrages,   now~ 
openly  proclaimed — not  to  mention  the  other  elements  of 
the  offensive  now  being  developed,  largely  with  American 
help  ! — are  not  things  that  can  be  made  effective  on  the 
instant,  but  are  measures  of  slow  growth.     When  they  are 
mature^,  it  \vill  not  be  easy  for  many  submarines  to  get 
through,    and    a    high    proportion    of    those    that    try   will 
never    be    heard   of    again.      To  get    any    success  worth 
having,    the  U-boats  will   have   to  take  chances  of  a  very 
severe    order.       With    diminishing    numbers    and    a    moral 
strained    by    a    rapidly    growing    percentage    of    loss,     to 
suppose  that  they  will  now  embark  upon  tactics  of  a  more 
daring  and  hazardous  kind  than  ever,  may  look  hke  anti- 
cipating the  least  probable  of  things.   '  But  we  must  remember 
that  all  alternatives  may  appear  desperate.     The  German 
papers  are  apparently  instructed  to  deny,  first  of  all,  that 
the  submarines  that  have  been  operating  in  American  water.s 
are  of  the  cruiser  type,  in  the  sense  of  differing  materially 
from  those  hitherto  in  use  ;    next,  that  there  is  a  distinct 
cruiser  type  at  all.     The  so-called  cruiser,  is,  we  are  told, 
simply  a  2,000-ton  submarine  built  to  secure  a  larger  radius 
of  action  ;    but  the  denial  ceases  to  be  convincing  when  the 
inspired  statement  goes  on  to  say  that  the  high  surface  speed 
is  15  knots  only  ;    for  at  Newport  in  1916,  the  officers  of 
U  53  made  it  one  of  their  principal  boasts  that  their  craft 
could  do  over  20  knots  in  smooth  water.     And,   for  that 
matter,  many  a  merchantman  has  been  brought  down  by 
submarines  capable  of  16  and   17  knots  in  the  open  sea. 
Whether  the  larger  submarines  will  ever  be  employed  in 
baby-kilhng  on  the  American  sea  board  is  another  question. 
We  do  not  know  what  correspondence,  if  any,  srill  continues 
between  the  Germans  in  the  United  States  and  the  Father- 
land.    But  one  imagines  that  they  would  like  to  be  consulted 
before  the  All  Highest  exhibits  this  form  of  German  Kultur 
m  the  land  of  their  adoption.     Every  traveller  to  the  United 
States  testifies  gratefully  and  with  enthusiasm  to  the  lavish 
hospitahty    and   kindness    that    Americans   of   every   social 
grade  extend  to  their  friends— no  matter  how  slight  their 
claim  to  such  self-sacrifice.     But  it  is  not  every  visitor  who 
knows  that  this  gracious  quality  is  not  unaccompanied  bv 
a  compensatmg  capacity  to  be  extraordinarily    disagreeable 
to  those  whom  they  dislike.     The  German  emigrants  would 
probably  prefer  not  to  have  American  talent  in  this  respect 
put  to  too  searchmg  a  test.    And  it  is  likelv,  therefore,  that 
they  ha^e  begged  that  the  U-boats  campaign,  if  kept  going 
at  all,  should  be  maintained  as  a  strictly  maritime  affair. 


June  20,  1918 


Land   &   Water 


The  Turkish   Conspiracy — VI 

Arrival  of  '*Goeben"  and  "  Breslau  "  at  the  Golden  Horn 

Narrated  by  Mr.  Morgenthau,  late  American  Ambassador  in  Constantinople 


/  doubt  if  any  two  ships  have  exercised  a  greater 
influence  upon  history  than  these  two  German  cruisers. 
These  are  Mr.  Morgenthaii's  own  ivords,  they  are  none 
too  strong  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events.  The  flight 
of  the  "Goeben"  and  the  "Breslau''  to  the  Golden 
Horn  was  yet  (mother  glaring  instance  of  Gerntajiy's 
utter  disregard  of  internatianal  rights  and  treaties.  This 
fact  has  probably  never  been  fully  realised,  but  this 
chapter  of  Mr.  Morgenthau  s  narrative  establishes  the 
truth   of  it.      The  whole  episode  is   German  all 


I 


ON  August  loth, 
I  went  out  on 
a  little  launch 
to  meet  the 
Sicilia,  a  small 
Italian  ship  which  had  just 
arrived  from  Venice.  I 
was  especially  interested 
in  this  Tessel  because  she 
was  bringing  to  Constan- 
tinople my  daughter  and 
son-in-law,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Maurice  VVertheim,  and 
their  three  little  daughters. 

The  greeting  proved  even  more  interesting  than  I  had 
expected.  I  found  the  passengers  considerably  excited,  for 
they  had  witnessed,  the  day  before,  a  naval  engagement  in 
the  Ionian  Sea. 

"We  were  lunching  yesterday  afternoon  on  deck," 
my  daughter  told  me,  "when  I  saw  two  strange-looking 
vessels  just  above  the  horizon.  I  ran  for  the  glasses,  and 
made  out  two  large  battleships  :  the  first  one  with  two  queer 
exotic-looking  towers,  and  the  other  one  quite  an  ordinary 
looking  battleship.  We  watched,  and  saw  another  ship 
coming  up  behind  them  and  going  very  fast.  She  came 
nearer  and  nearer,  and  then  we  heard  guns  booming.  Pillars 
of  water  sprang  up  in  the  air ;  there  were  many  little  puffs  of 
white  smoke  ;  it  took  me  some  time  to  realise  what  it  was  all 
about,  and  then  it  burst  upon  me  that  we  were  actually 
witnessing  an  engagement.  The  ships  continually  shifted 
their- position,  but  went  on  and  on.  The  two  big  ones  turned 
and  rushed  furiously  for  the  little  one  ;  then  apparently 
changed  their  minds  and  turned  back.  Then  the  little  one 
turned  around,  and  calmly  steamed  in  our  direction.  At 
first  I  was  somewhat  alarmed  at  this,  but  nothing  happened. 
She  circled  around  us  with  her  tars  excited  and  grinning, 
and  somewhat  grimy. 
They  signalled  to  our 
captain  many  questions, 
and  then  turned  and 
finally  disappeared.  The 
captain  told  us  that  the 
two  big  ships  were 
Germans  which  had  been 
caught  in  the  Mediter 
ramean,  and  which  were 
trying  to  escape  from  the 
•  British  fleet.  He  says 
that  the  British  ships  are 
chasing  them  all  over  the 
Mediterranean,  and  that 
the  German  ships  are 
trying  to  get  into  Con- 
stantinople. Have  you 
seen  anything  of  them  ? 
Where  do  you  suppose  the 
British  fleet  is  ?  " 

A  few  hours '  afterward 
I  happened  to  meet  Wan- 
genheim.  When  I  told 
him  what  Mrs.  Wertheim 
had  seen,  he  displayed  an 
agitated  interest.  Imme- 
diately after  lunch  he  called 
with  Pallavicini,  the  Aus- 
trian Ambassador,  and 
asked  for  an  interview 
with  my  daughter.  The 
two  Ambassadors  solemnly 
planted  themselves  in 
chairs  before  Mrs.  Wer- 
theim, and  subjected  her 
to  a  most  minute,  though 
very  polite,  cross-exam- 
ination. 

"  I  never  felt  so  im- 
portant in  my  life,"  she 
afterwards  told  me. 


over. 


Admiral  Souchon  and  Naval  Officers 

AH  the  men  except  at  the  extreme  right  and  left  are  Germans, 
uniforms — Jbut  nothing  else — are  Turkish 


They  would  not  permit 
her  to  leave  out  a  single 
detail  of  her  story  ;  they 
wished  to  know  how  many 
shots  had  been  fired,  what 
direction  the  German 
ships  had  taken,  what 
everybody  on  .  board  had 
said — and  so  on.  The  visit 
seemed  to  give  these  allied 
Ambassadors  immense 
relief  and  satisfaction  ; 
,  they    left    the    house     in 

an  almost  jubilant  mood, 
behaving  as  though  a  great  weight  had  been  taken  off  their 
minds.  And  certainly  they  had  good  reason  for  their  elation. 
My  daughter  had  been  the  means  of  giving  them  the  news 
which  they  had  desired  to  hear  above  everything  else — that 
the  Goeben  and  the  Breslau  had  escaped  the  British  fleet,  and 
were  then  steaming  rapidly  to  the  Dardanelles. 

The  next  day  official  business  called  me  to  the  German 
Embassy.  But  Wangenheim's  animated  manner  soon  dis- 
closed that  he  had  no  interest  in  routine  matters.  Never  had 
I  seen  him  so  nervous  and  so  excited.  He  could  not  rest  in 
his ,  chair  more  than  a  few  minutes  at  a  time ;  he  was  con- 
stantly, jumping  up,  rushing  to  the  window,  and  looking 
anxiously  out  toward  the  Bosphorus,  where  his  private 
wireless  station,  the  Corcovado,  lay  about  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  away.  Wangenheim's  face  was  flushed  ;  his  eyes  were 
shining,  he  would  stride  up  and  down  the  room,  speaking 
now  of  a  recent  German  victory,  now  giving  me  a  little 
forecast  of  Germany's  plans— and  then  stalk  to  the  window 
again  for  another  look  at  the  Corcovado.        '  '    ' 

"Something  is  seriously  distracting  you,"  I  said,  rising. 
"I  will  go  and  come  again  some  other  time." 

"  No,  no  ! "  the  Ambassador  almost  shouted.     "  I  want  you 

to  stay  right  where  you 
are.  .  This  will  be  a  great 
day  for  Germany  !  If 
you  will  only  remain  for 
a  few  minutes  .you  will 
hear  a  great  piece  t  of 
news- -something  that  has 
the  utmost  bearing  upon 
Turkey's  relation  to  the 
war." 

Then  he  rushed  out  on 
the  portico,  and  leaned 
over  the  balustrade.  At 
the  same  moment  I  saw 
a  little  launch  put  out 
from  the  Corcovado  toward 
the  Ambassador's  dock. 
Wangenheim  hurrieddown, 
seized  an  envelope  from 
one  of  the  sailors,  and  a 
moment  afterward  burst 
into  the  room. 

"We've  got  them  !"  he 
shouted  to  me. 

"Got  what  ?"  I  asked. 
"The  Goeben  and  the 
Breslau  have  pasged 
through  the  Dardanelles  !  " 
He  was  waving  the 
wireless  message  with  all 
the  enthusiasm  of  a  college 
boy  whose  football  team 
has  won  a  victory. 

Then,  momentarily 
checking  his  enthusiasm, 
•he  came  up  to  me, 
solemnly,  humorously 
shook  his  forefinger,  lifted 
his  eyebrows,  and  said : 
"Of  course,  you  under- 
stand that  we  have  sold 
those^  ships  to  Turkey  !" 


The 


10 


Land    &    Water 


June  20,  1918 


"But  Admiral  Souchon,"  he  added,   with  another  wink, 
"will  enter  the  Sultan's  service!" 

Wangenheim  had  more  than  patriotic  reasons  for  this 
exultation  ;  the  arrival  of  these  ships  was  the  greatest  day 
in  his  diplomatic  career.  .It  was  really  the  first  diplomatic 
victory  which  Germany  had  won.  For  years  the  Chancellor- 
ship of  the  Empire  had  been  Wangenheim's  laudable  ambi- 
tion, and  he  behaved  now  like  a  man  who  saw  his  prize 
within  his  grasp.  Tlie  voyage  of  the  Goeben  and  the  Breslan 
was  his  personal  triumph  ;'  he  had  arranged  with  the  Turkish 
Cabinrt  for  their 
passage  through 
the  Dardanelles, 
and  he  had 
directed  their 
movements  by 
wireless  in  the 
Mediterranean.  By 
safely  getting  the 
Goeben  and  the 
Breslau  into  Con- 
stantinople, Wan- 
genheim had 
finally  clinched 
Turkey  as  Ger- 
many's ally.  All 
his  intrigues  and 
plottings  for  three 
years  had  finally 
succeeded. 

1  doubt  if  any 
hvo  ships  have 
exercised  a  greater 

influence  upon  history'than  these  tti'O  German  cruisers.  Not  all 
of  us  at  that  time  fully  realised  their  importance,  but  sub- 
sequent developments  have  fully  justified  Wangenlieim's 
exuberant  satisfaction.  The  Goeben  was  a  powerful  battle 
cruiser  of  recent  construction  ;  the  Breslau  was  not  so  large  a 
ship,  but  she,  like  the  Goeben,  had  the  excessive  speed  that 
made  her  extremely  serviceable  in  those  waters.  These  ships 
had  spent  the  few  months  preceding  the  war  cruising  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  when  the  declaration  finally  came  they 
were  taking  supplies  at  Messina.     I  have  always  regarded 

it  as  more  than  a      

coincidence  that 
these  two  vessels, 
both  of  them 
having  a  greater 
speed  than  any 
French  or  English 
ships  in  the  Med- 
iterranean, should 
have  been  lying 
O'ot  far  from 
Turkey  when  war 
broke  out.  The 
selection  of  the 
Goeben  was  partic- 
ularly fortunate, 
as  she  had  twice 
before  visited  Con- 
stantinople, and 
her  officers  and 
men  knew  the 
Dardanelles  per- 
fectly. The 
behaviour  of  these 
crews,  when  the 
news  of  war  was 
received,  indicated 
the  spirit  with  which  the  German  Navy  began  hostilities  ; 
the  men  broke  out  into  song  and  shouting,  lifted  their 
admiral  upon  their  shoulders,  artd  held  a  real  German 
jollification.  It  is  said  that  Admiral  Souchon  preserved,  as 
a  touching  souvenir  of  this  occasion,  his  white  uniform 
bearing  the  finger-prints  of  his  grimy  sailors  ! 

For  all  their  joy  at  the  prospect  of  battle,  the 
situation  of  these  ships  was  a  precarious  one.  They  formed 
no  match  for  the  large  British  and  French  naval  forces 
which  were  roaming  through  the  Mediterranean.  The  Goeben 
and  the  Breslau  were  far  from  their  native  bases  ;  with  the 
coaling  problem  such  an  acute  one,  and  with  England  in 
possession  of  all  important  stations,  where  could  they  flee 
for  safety  ?  Several  Italian  destroyers  were  circling  around 
the  German  ships  at  Messina,  enforcing  neutrality  and 
occasionally  reminding  them  that  they  could  remain  in  port 
only  twenty-four  hours.  England  had  ships  stationed  at 
the  Gulf  of  Otranto,  the  head  of  the  Adriatic,  to  cut  them  off 


"  Goeben "    in    the    Sea    of  Marmora 


in  case  they  sought  to  escape  into  the  Austrian  port  of  Pola. 
The  British  Navy  also  stood  guard  at  Gibraltar  and  Suez, 
the  only  other  exits  that  apparently  offered  the  possibility  of 
escape.  There  was  only  one  other  place  in  which  the  Goeben 
and  the  Breslau  might  find  a  safe  and  friendly  reception. 
That    was    Constantinople. 

Apparently  the  British  Navy  dismissed  Constantinople 
as  an  impossibility:  At  that  time — early  in  August 
— international  law  had  not  entirely  disappeared  as 
the  guiding  conduct  of  nations.    Turkey  was  then  a  neutral 

country,  and, 
despite  the  many 
evidences  of  Ger- 
man penetration, 
she  seemed  likely 
to  maintain  her 
neutrality.  The 
Treaty  of  Paris, 
signed  in  1856, 
provided  that  war- 
ships should  not 
use  the  Dardan- 
elles exclpt  on 
the  special  per- 
mission of  the 
Sultan,  which 
permission  could 
be  granted  only 
in  times  .of  peace. 
In  practice,  the 
Government  had 
seldom  given  this 
permission  except 
for  ceremonial  occasions.  In  the  existing  conditions,  it 
would  have  amounted  virtually  to  an  unfriendly  act 
for  the  Sultan  to  have  removed  the  ban  against  war 
vessels  in  the  Dardanelles ;  and  to  permit  the  Goeben 
and  the  Breslau  to  remain  in  Turkish  waters  for  more 
than  twenty-four  hours  would  have  practically  been  a  declara- 
tion of  war.  Depending,  as  usual,  upon  the  sanctity  of 
international  regulations,  the  British  Navy  had  shut  off 
every  point  through  which  these  German  ships  could  have 
escaped  to  safety — except  the  entrance  to  the  Dardanelles. 

Had  England 
rushed  a  powerful 
squadron  to  this 
vital  spot,  how 
different  the  history 
of  the  last  three 
years  would  have 
been. 

"His  Majesty 
expects  the  Goeben 
and  the  Breslau  to 
succeed  in  break- 
ing  through!" 
Such  was  the  wire- 
less that  reached 
these  vessels  at 
Messina  at  five 
o'clock  in  the 
evening  of  August 
4th.  The  twenty- 
four  hours'  stay 
permitted  by  the 
Italian  Govern- 
ment had  nearly 
expired.  Outside, 
in  the  Strait  of 
Otranto,  lay  the 
force  of  British  battle  cruisers,  sending  false  radio 
messages  to  the  Germans  instructing  them  to  rush  for  Pola. 
With  bands  playing  and  flags  flying,  the  officers  and  crews 
having  had  their  spirits  fired  by  speeches  and  champagne, 
the  two  vessels  started  at  full-speed  ahead  toward  the 
awaiting  British  fleet. 

.  The  little  Gloucester,  a  scout  boat,  kept  in  touch,  wiring 
constantly  to  the  main  squadron.  Suddenly,  when  off  Cape 
Spartivento,  the  Goeben  and  the  Breslau  let  off  into  the 
atmosphere  all  the  discordant  vibrations  which  their  wireless 
could  command,  jamming  the  air  with  such  a  hullabaloo 
that  the  Gloucester  was  unable  to  send  any  intelligible  mes- 
sages. Then  the  German  cruisers  turned  south  and  made 
for  the  ^gean  Sea.  The  plucky  little  Gloucester  kept  close 
on  their  heels,  and,  as  my  daughter  had  related,  had  even 
once  audaciously  offered  battle.  A  few  hours  behind  the 
British  squadron  pursued,  but  uselessly,  for  the  German 
ships,  though  far  less  powerful  in  battle,  were  much  speedier. 


Breslau "    (left)    at    the    Golden    Horn 


June  20,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


1 1 


K.4  4 

n 

n 

1 

i^'' 

■•*    V." 

1 

It 

i4 

itefc-^ 

-Tt»-atf. 

4 

'Stt*"     r, 

I                                             . 1 

Even  then  the  British  admiral  probably  thought  that  he 
had  spoiled  the  German  plans.  The  German  ships  might 
get  first  to  the  Dardanelles;  but  at  that  point  stood  inter- 
national law  across  the  path  and  barring  the  entrance  ! 

Meanwhile,  Wangenheim  had  accomplished  his  great 
diplomatic  triumph.  From  the  Corcovado  wireless  station 
in  the  Bosphorus  he  was  sending  the  most  agreeable  news  to 
Admiral  Souchon.  He  was  telling  him  to  hoist  the  Turkish 
flag  when  he  reached  the  Strait,  for  Admiral  Souchon's 
cruisers  had  suddenly  become  parts  of  the  :Turkish  Navy, 
and,  therefore,  the  usual  international  prohibitions  did  not 
apply  !  These  cruisers  were  no  longer  the  Goeben  and  the 
Breslau  ;  like  an  Oriental  magician,  Wangenheim  had  sud- 
denly changed  them  into  the  Sultan  Selim  and  the  Medilli. 
The  fact  was  that  the  German  Ambassador  had  with 
his  usual  cleverness  taken  advantage  of  the  existing 
•situation  to  manufacture  a  "sale." 

As  I  have  already 
told,  Turkey  had  two 
■dreadnoughts  under 
construction  in  Eng- 
land when  the  war 
broke  out.  These  ships 
were  not  exclusively 
governmental  enter- 
prises ;  they  repre- 
sented a  great  popular 
movement  of  the  Turk- 
ish people..  They  were 
to  be  the  agencies 
through  which  Turkey 
was  to  attack  Greece 
and  win  back  the 
islands  of  the  .lEgean, 
and  in  a  burst  of 
patriotism  the  Turkish 
people  had  raised  the 
money  to  build  them 
by  popular  subscrip- 
tion. Agents  had  gone 
from  house  to  house, 
painfully  collecting 
these  small  subscrip- 
tions ;  there  had  been 
entertainments       and 

fairs ;  in  their  eagerness  for  the  cause,  Turkish  women  had  sold 
their  hair  for  the  benefit  of  the  common  fund.  These  two  vessels 
thus  represented  a  spectacular  outburst  of  patriotism  that  was 
unusual  in  Turkey  ;  so  unusual,  indeed,  that  many  detected 
-signs  that  the  government  had  stimulated  it.  At  the  very 
moment  when  the  war  began,  Turkey  had  made  her 
-  last  payment  to  the  English  shipyards,  and  the  Turkish 
crews  had  arrived  in  England  prepared  to  take  the 
finished  vessels  home.  Then  the  British  Government  stepped 
in  and  commandeered  them  for  the  British  Navy. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  question  that  England  had  not 
only  a  legal,  but  a  moral  right  to  do  this  ;  there  is  also  no 
question  that  her  action  was  a  perfectly  proper  one,  and 
that,  had  she  been  dealing  with  almost  any  other  nation,  it 
would  not  have  aroused  any  resentment.  But  the  Turkish 
people  cared  nothing  for  distinctions  of  this  sort ;  all  they 
saw  was  that  they  had  two  ships  in  England,  which  they 
had  almost  starved  themselves  Vo  purchase,  and  that  England 
had  now  stepped  in  and  taken  them.  Even  without  external 
pressure  they  would  have  resented  the  act ;  but  external 
pressure    was    exerted,   in    plenty. 

The  transaction  gave  Wangenheim  the  greatest  opportunity. 
Violent  attacks  upon  England,  all  stimulated  by  him, 
began  to  fill  the  Turkish  Press.  Wangenheim  was  constantly 
discoursing  to  the  Turkish  leaders  on  English  perfidy.  He 
now  suggested  that  Germany,  Turkey's  good  friend,  was 
prepared  to  make  compensation  for  England's  "unlawful" 
seizure..  He  suggested  that  Turkey  go  through  the  form  of 
"purchasing"  the  Goeben  and  .the  Breslau,  then  wandering 
around  the  Mediterranean  perhaps  in  anticipation  of  this 
very  contingency— and  incorporate  them  in  the  Turkish 
Navy  in  place  of  the  appropriated  ships  in  England.  The 
very  day  that  these  vessels  passed  through  the  Dardanelles, 
the  Ikdam,  a  Turkish  newspaper  published  in  Constantinople, 
had  a  triumphant  account  of  this  "sale,"  with  big  headlines 
calling  it  a  "great  success  for  the  Imperial  Government." 

Thus  Wangenheim's  manoeuvre  accomplished  two  pur- 
poses ;  it  placed  Germany  before  the  populace  as  Turkey's 
friend,  and  it  also  provided  a  subterfuge  for  getting  the  ships 
through  the  Dardanelles,  and, enabling  them  to  remain  in 
Turkish  waters.  All  this  beguiled  the  more  ignorant  part  of 
the  Turkish  people,  and  gave  the  cabinet  a  plausible  ground 
ifor  meeting  the  objection  of  Entente  diplomats,  but  it  did 


not  deceive  any  intelligent  person.  The  Goeben  and  Breslau 
might  change  their  names,  and  the  German  sailors  might 
adorn  themselves  with  Turkish  fezzes,  but  we  all  knew  from 
the  beginning  that  this  sale  was  a  sham.  Those  who  under- 
stood the  financial  condition  of  Turkey  could  only  be  amused 
at  the  idea  that  she  could  purchase  these  modern  vessels. 
Wangenheim,  in  his  talks  with  me,  never  made  any  secret 
of  the  fact  that  the  ships  still  remained  German  property. 
"I  never  expected  to  have  such  big  cheques  to  sign,"  he 
remarked  one  day,  referring  to.his  expenditures  on  the  Goeben 
and  the  Breslau.  "The  Germans  say  they  belong  to  the 
Turks,"  Talaat  remarked  with  his  characteristic  laugh;  "at 
any  rate,  it's  very  comforting  for  us  to  have  them  here.  After 
the  war,  if  the  Germans  win,  they  will  forget  all  about  it  and 
leave  the  ships  to  us.  If  the  Germans  lose,  they  won't  be 
able  to  take  them  away  from  us  ! " 

The  German  Government  made  no  real  pretension  that  the 

sale  had  been  bona 
fide ;  at  least,  when 
the  Greek  Minister  at 
Berlin  protested  , 
against  the  transaction 
as  unfriendly  to  Greece 
— naively  forgetting 
the  American  ships 
which  Greece  had  re- 
cently purchased — the 
German  officials 
soothed  him  by  'ad- 
mitting, sotto  voce, 
that  the  ownership  ■ 
still  resided  in '  Ger- 
many. Yet  when  the 
Entente  Ambassadors 
constantly  protested 
against  the  presence 
of  the  German  vessels, 
the  Turkish  officials 
blandly  ^kept  up  the 
pretence  that  they 
were  integral  parts  of 
the  Turkish  Navy  ! 

The  German  officers 
and  crews  greatly 
enjoyed  this  farcical 
pretence  that  the  Goeben  and  the  Breslau  were  Turkish  ships. 
One  day  the  Goeben  sailed  up  the  Bosphorus,  halted  in  front 
of  the  Russian  Embassy,  and  dropped  anchor.  Then  the 
officers  and  men  lined  the  deck  in  full  view  of  the  enemy 
Ambassador.  All  solemnly  removed  their  Turkish  fezzes  and 
put  on  German  caps.  The  band  played  "Deutschland  fiber.. 
Alles,"  the  "Watch  on  the  Rhine,"  and  other  German  songs, 
the  German  sailors  singing  loudly  to  the  accompaniment. 
When  they  had  spent  an  hour  or  two  serenading  the  Russian 
Ambassador,  the  officers  and  crews  removed  their  German 
caps  and  again  put  on  their  Turkish  fezzes.  The  Goeben  then 
picked  up  her  anchor  and  started  south  to  her  station,  leaving 
in  the  ears  of  the  Russian  diplomat  the  gradually  dying  strains 
of  German  war  songs  as  the  cruiser  disappeared  down  stream. 
/  have  often  speculated  on  ivhat  would  have  happened  if 
the  English  battle  cruisers,  xnhich  pursued  the  Breslau  and 
Goeben  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Dardenelles,  had  not  been  .too 
gentlemmly  to  violate  international  law.  Suppose  that  they 
had  entered  the  Strait,  attacked  the  German  cruisers  in  the 
Marmora,  and  sunk  them.  They  could  have  done  this,  and, 
knowing  all  that  we  know  now,  such  an  action  would  have 
been  justified.  Not  improbably  the  destruction  would  have 
kept  Turkey  out  of  the  war.  There  were  men  in  the  Turkish 
Cabinet  who  perceived  this,  even  then. 

The  story  was  told  in  Constantinople — though  I  do  not 
vouch  for  it — -that  the  cabinet  meeting  at  which  this 
decision  had  been  made  was  not  altogether  harmonious.  The 
Grand  Vizier  and  Djemal,  it  was  said,  objected  to  the  fictitious 
"sale,"  and  demanded  that  it  should  be  made  a  real  one. 
When  the  discussion  had  reached  its  height,  Enver,  who  was 
playing  Germany's  game,  announced  that  he  had  already 
completed  the  transaction. 

In  the  silence  that  followed  his  statement  this  young  Napoleon 
pulled  out  his  pistol  and  laid  it  on  the  table. 

"  If  any  one  here  xvishes  to  question  this  purchase,"  he  said 
quietly  and  icily,  "I  am  ready  to  m';et  him." 

Mr.  Morgenthau  in  the  succeeding  chapter,  to 
be  printed  in  ne.xt  week's  Land  &  Water,  tells 
exactly  how  the  German  A  diniral  took  the  law  into 
his  own  hands  and  committed  the  act  of  hostility 
which  finally  plunged  Turkey  into  the  war. 


The  Golden  Horn,  Harbour  of  Constantinople 

The  big  building  at  the   water  edge   in  the  centre  is  the  Turkish   Admiralty 


12 


Land    &.    Water 


June  20,  igi^ 


America  at  War:  By  Crawford  Vaughan 


The  Hon.  Crawford  Vaughan  was  formerly  Prime 
Minister  of  South  Australia,  and  is  still  a  Member  of  its 
Legislative  Assembly.  In  the  following  article  are  given 
his  experiences  in  the  United  States,  where  he  spent  a 
considerable  time  early  in  the  year  lecturing  and  visiting 
various  camps  and  ifidustrial  centres. 

ADMIRATION,  deep  profound  admiration,  moves 
me  when  I  tliink  of  America  at  war.  For  three 
months  I  have  journeyed  up  and  down  this  vast 
.  repubhc,  and  Iiave  felt  the  pulse  of  that  mighty 
^  national  force  which  is  America.  I  have  addressed 
audiences  from  San  Diego  in  Southern  California  to  Fore 
River  on  the  Atlantic  ;  from  Sioux  Falls,  South  Dakota  in 
the  north,  to  Tulsa,  Oklahoma  in  the  south.  I  have  spoken 
in  labour  temples,  in  shipyards,  in  factories,  in  legislative 
lialls,  in  chambers  of  commerce,  in  churches,  before  white 
men  and  dark  men,  to  gatherings  of  women  and  of  children. 
But  whether  it  be  in  the  far  west,  or  along  the  Mississippi, 
in  tlie  democratic  south  or  repubUcan  New  England,  there  is 
but  one  America — true  to  the  ideals  of  Washington  and  the 
spirit  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  "The  world  must 
be  made  safe  for  democracy" — that  slogan  was  the  call  to 
arms,  which  rallied  to  the  colours  all  those  cosmopolitan 
elements  tliat  go  to  make  up  this  wonderful  people. 

The  resolution  embodied  in  the  phrase  is  not  born  of  the 
hour  ;  it  is  the  heritage  of  the  past.  For  four  years  Lincoln 
fought  against  the  sOuth  because  the  nation  could  not  live 
half  slave  and  half  free.  Had  the  slave-owning  south  been 
content  to  keep  slavery  within  its  legally  defined  borders, 
that  struggle  might  perhaps  have  been  avoided  by  subse- 
quent settlement.  But  slavery  proved  that  it  could  not  be 
so  confined.     It  had  to  expand  or  perish. 

Autocracy,  like  slavery,  has  proved  that  it  cannot  be 
confined  within  any  territorial  limits.  Kaiserism  must 
expand  or  die.  It  sought  to  expand,  and  thereby  menaced 
the  freedom  of  the  democracies  of  the  world.  President 
Wilson's  whole  policy  has  been  framed  on  the  assumption 
that  if  Germany  wanted  autocracy  she  had  a  right  to  so 
govern  herself.  But  the  Kaiser's  battle-cry  has  always  been 
"Germany  over  all."  She, herself  declares  that  the  world 
cannot  live  half  democratic  and  half  autocratic.  The  issue 
is,  then,  quite  clear.  Either  democracy  or  autocracy  must 
perish  from  the  earth. 

I  have  been  a  privileged  visitor  to  many  of  the  mUitary 
cantonments  which  have  sprung  up  all  over  the  States,  and 
have  spoken  to  the  men.  The  thermometer  was  twenty 
below  zero  when  T  motored  across  from  Boston  to  Camp 
Devens.  The  big  Y.M.C.A.  auditorium  quickly  filled  with 
the  younger  sons  of  the  Republic  who  seemed  anxious  to 
hear  the  message  from  Australia.  These  clean-limbed 
Americans  think  the  world  of  the  Anzacs.  The  Australians 
come  nearer,  perhaps,  to  them  than  any  others. 

These  soldiers  like  to  be  told  that  Australia,  which  has 
linked  her  destiny  with  that  of  America  is  the  only  country 
which  has  adopted  the  principles  of  the  American  Constitu- 
tion, and  that  pur  Hag,  with  its  six  stars,  representing  our 
six  States,  floats  side  by  side  with  "Old  Glory,"  with  its 
forty-eight  stars,  representing  the  forty-eight  States  of  the 
Union,  and  will  so  float  to  the  end. 

In  the  cantonments  everything  is  provided  to  give  needful 
comfort  without  pampering  men  who  are  in  training.  "Dry  " 
canteens  on  land  and  on  sea  are  the  stern  decrees  of  beer- 
less  Washington.  Already  military  training  has  stiffened  the 
backbone  of  the  way-back  sons  of  the  soil,;  the  slouching 
mountaineer  of  Kentucky  and  of  Tennessee  has  acquired  a 
brisk  step  and  fipright  carriage,  the  loose-jointed  cowboy  of 
Wyoming  has  rubbed  shoulders  with  the  pampered  youth 
from  Long  Island,  and  each  is  better  for  the  experience. 
The  psychological,  pohtical,  and  economical  effect  of  this 
comminghng  of  the  east  and  the  west,  the  north  and  the 
south,  with  all  the  interchange  of  ideas  that  it  involves, 
together  with  the  impressions  of  other  lands  which  fighting 
abroad  must  leave  behind,  will  be  far-reaching. 

Though  the  negro  regiments  are  kept  aloof  from  the  white 
men,  there  is  no  lack  of  good  fellowship  between  all  soldiers 
— white  and  black — and  perhaps  the  feehng  of  the  southern 
Jim  Crows  was  well  expressed  by  one  of  them  who  proudly 
declaimed  that  he  was  "  gwine  over  thar  to  fight  fer  de  angry 
Saxon  race,  yes,  sar. " 

Industry  has  been  mobilised  in  America  on  a  war  footing. 
Luxuries  are  being  inexorably  displaced  by  war  necessities. 


Breadless  days  and  meatless  days  involve  no  great  privation, 
it  is  true  ;  but  the  spirit  which  has  released  much-needed  food 
to  the  Allies  is  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  that  sends  America's 
noblest  sons  "over  there." 

America's  output  of  rifles  is  now  approximately  sufficient 
to  equip  three  army  divisions  every  week.  Machine-guns- 
and  ordnance  are  being  turned  out  in  ever-increasing  quantity. 
Enormous  quantities  of  munitions  and  clothing  are  now  being 
manufactured,  and  food-product  has  been  greatly  stimulated 
by  the  organisation  of  labour  for  the  farms. 

It  is  impossible  to  tell  in  a  word  or  two  the  inspiring  story 
of  the  co-operation  of  American  women  in  war  activities. 
A  few  girls  are  now  to  be  found  behind  the  plough,  thousands- 
are  in  munitions  plants,  and  an  increasing  number  are  to  be 
found  on  the  tramways,  1  working  elevators,  etc.  Although 
no  comparison  can  yet  be  made  between  women's  sphere  of 
labour  in  Great  Britain  and  in  the  United  States  of  America, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  American  women  wiU  take  up  their 
cross  as  heroically  as  have  their  British  and  French  sisters. 

Labour's  Co-operation 

In  my  talks  throughout  twenty-four  States  of  the  American 
Union,  I  enjoyed  the  co-operation  and  personal  help  of  Mr. 
Samuel  Gompers  and  the  American  Federation  of  Labour. 
Never  in  any  conflict  was  the  nation  so  united,  so  implacably 
resolved  to  stand  steadfast  in  the  faith.  Business  men 
ever3rwhere  have  cast  business  interests  aside,  and  are  working 
day  and  night  for  a  dollar  a  year  in  the  innumerable  agencies 
that  have  been  created  out  of  war  conditions. 

Workers  are  sternly  setting  their  faces  against  any  attempt 
to  strike.  Mr.  Gompers  stands  behind  President  Wilson 
and,  next  to  the  President,  is  the  most  potent  figure  in  American 
public  life  to-da}'.  It  is  fortunate  not  for  America  only, 
but  for  the  world,  that  the  forces  of  labour  in  America  should 
at  this  hour  be  in  the  hands  of  this  sturdy  broad-visioned 
American.  Mr.  Gompers  has  been  at  the  labour  helm  in 
this  country  for  twenty-eight  years,  and  has  won  the  implicit 
confidence,  almost  the  veneration  of  the  American  Labour 
world.  He  is  too  big  in  his  idealism  to  allow  class  interests 
to  dominate  national  interests,  and  too  clear  in  vision  not  to^ 
see  that  the  triumph  of  Prussian  militarism  means  the  down- 
fall of  democracy  the  world '  over.  Picture  him  with  his 
lion-like  head  set  on  massive  shoulders  and  sturdy  body, 
with  face  stem  in  moments  of  decision,  but  genial  and  full 
of  light  and  humour  when  the  cares  of  the  hour  are  cast 
aside ;  a  figure,  although  only  five  and  a  half  feet  in  height, 
full  of  a  dignity  which  emphasises  the  weight  of  the  opinion 
which  Jie  expresses.  Gompers  is  an  old  man  in  years,  but 
not  in  outlook.  I  take  my  hat  off  not  only  to  Samuel 
-Gompers,  but  to.ihe  loyal  Labour  men  of  America  who  have 
stood  so  splendidly  by  him. 

Through  the  murk  and  smoke  of  conflict  the  future  of 
President  Wilson  looms  powerful  and  imposing,  not  simply 
because  of  Mr.  Wilson's  undeniable  gifts  of  statesmanship, 
but  because  the  President  of  the  United  States,  during  the 
term  of  his  office,  enjoys  all  the  powers  of  a  king  and  of  a 
prime   minister   combined.     The   White    House   has   always 
been  a  centre  of  political  cyclones,   and  even  in   times  of 
war  politics  cannot  always  be  excluded.     Criticism  fierce  and 
often  partisan,  but  more  often  quite  honest  and  patriotic,  is 
at  times  directed  against  the  administration,  as  is  the  case  in 
every  Allied  country.     The  result  of  this  probing  into  war 
activities  has  in  the  main  been  beneficial.     No  one  man  or 
set  of  men  can  possibly  control  a  vast  organism  Hke  tliat  of 
the  United  States  during  war,  and  not  blunder  occasionally. 
We  five  too  close  to  our  own  times  to  measure  with  exactitude 
the  greatness  or  deficiencies  of  the  men  into  whose  keeping  is 
placed  the  tremendous  responsibihty  of  piloting  our  civilisa- 
tion  safely   through   the   fiercest  storm   mankind   has   ever   ^ 
known.      Theirs   is   the  fiery  trial.      Not    as    weary  Titans 
staggering  under  the  too  vast  orb  of  their  fate  must  the  issue 
be    faced,  but   as   the   impassioned   champions   of   freedom 
carrjdng  the  flaming  sword   to  victorj'.      Certainly  nothing 
better,  nothing  more  in  tune  with  the  aspirations  of  demo- 
cracy has  been  said  than  by  President  Wilson  at  Baltimore : 
Force,  force  to  the  utmost,  force  without , stint  or  limit, 
the  righteous  and  triumphant  force  which  shall  make  right 
the  law  of  the  world,  and  cast  every  selfish  dominion  down, 
in  the  dust. 

Upon  America's  interpretation  of  that  message  into  imme. 
diate  and  efficient  action  the  fate  of  the  world  depends. 


13 


June  20,  19 1 8  Land    &    Water 

At  Death-Grips  with  the  Wolf:  By  L.  P.  Jacks 


^A  LL  political  problems,  whether 
/^L       domestic  or  foreign,  become 
/    ^     in  the  last  resort  what  I  will 
/      ^^  call,    for  want   of  a  bettei 
■^~       -^^name,       human      problems. 
This    is    not   a    distinction    without    a 
difference,     and    none    but     benighted 
politicians  would  treat  it  as  such.     It 
stands  for  the  greatest  difference  con- 
ceivable ;    it    marks    the    dividing   line 
between  wisdom  and  folly,  success  and 
failure,  in  public  affairs.      Some  of  the 
most  disastrous  mistakes  ever  made  bv 
nations    or    governments    have    arisen 
from  the  neglect  of  it. 

The  astonishing  mistakes  which  Ger- 
many has  been  making  during  the  last 

four   years — I   shall  speak  later  of  her 

crimes — may  be  traced  to  the  incapacity 

of    the    German    mind    for    translating 

international  politics  into  human  terms. 

Nor  is  she  the  only  sinner,  though  she 

is  unquestionably  the  worst.     Our  own 

troubles  in   Ireland   are  due  to  our  not 

having  perceived  that  the  Irish  question 

is  primarily  a  human  one.       We  have 

treated  it  as  primarily   political,  which 

is  only  its  secondary  aspect.     At  root, 

and  in  essence,  it  is  not  a  question  of 

Ireland    and    England,   but  of    Irishmen    and    Enghshmen. 

What  a  difference  would  have  been  made  if  that  had  been 

understood  from  the  first ! 

In  like  manner,  we  shall  never  understand  the  war,  its 

■causes,  its  meaning,  its  issues,  until  we  look  at  these  things 

from  the  human  point  of  view 


A  typical  wolf  face 

General  von  Freytag,  Author  of  "Deductions 
from  the  World-war." 


tvpe  with  the  rise  in  rank.  Among  the 
common  soldiers  the  wolf-face  is  absent 
fully  as  often  as  it  is  present.  Among 
the  junior  officers  one  misses  it  only 
here  and  there.  The  generals  reproduce 
it  almost  witliout  exception  ;  while  in 
the  Kaiser,  of  course,  it  comes  out  pur 
sang.  On  the  whole,  the  collection  does 
justice  to  the  alternative  title  my  friend 
has  inscribed  on  the  cover — "the  War 
interpreted  at  a  Glance."  You  close 
the  book  with  the  feeling  that  the 
question  has  been  reduced  to  its  ulti- 
mate terms.  "Mankind,"  you  say,  "is 
in  arms  against  this  wolf."  Nor  is  this 
mere  impressionism.  We  may  use  these- 
words  with  the  assurance  that  we  are 
anticipating  the  verdict  of  history. 
These  German  militarists  have  justified 
their  faces.  They  have  won  for  them- 
selves a  reputation  in  cruelty  by  which 
they  will  be  remembered  hereafter,  even 
though  everything  else  should  be  for- 
gotten. The}'  have  made  cruelty  the 
keyword  to  the  human  mtaning  of  the 
war ;  the  word  that  explains  better 
than  any  other  single  word  that  could 
be  chosen  what  it  is  that  binds  the 
allied  nations  into  a  unitary  force,  what 

they  are  fighting  to  estabhsh,   and  what  they  are  fighting 

to  overthrow.  , 

Ever  since  the  outbreak  of  war  evidence  has  been  rapidly 

accumulating  that  the  instinct  for  cruelty  is  an  outstanding 


characteristic,  if  not  of  the  German  people,  assuredly  of  the 

We  shall  never  reach  the     German  State— and  I  for  one  do  not  see  how  it  can  belong 

govenung  factors  by  poring  over  maps,  by  studyirjg  statistics     to  either  unless  it  is  the  common  property  of  both.     There 

u..  __!..__,    ___x  ,__    ._„  •  r     was  a  time  when  we  hesitated  to  believe  this  ;  andeven.now, 

when  evidence  leaves  no  alternative  to  the  behef,  the  mind 
revolts  at  the  necessity  which  imposes  upon  it  a  conclusion 
so  dishonourable  to  man.  For  a  long  time  we  tried  to  per- 
suade ourselves  that  the  thing  known  as  Schrecklichkeii 
(frightfulness)  was  the  temporary  expedient  of  a  desperately 


of  empire,  by  comparing  political  systems,  by  talking  of 
tendencies,  prindiples,  or  even  ideals.  I  am  not  saying  that 
these  things  are  unimportant.  They  are  immensely  import- 
ant. But  they  are  not  fundamental.  Behind  them  all  lie 
the  facts  of  temperament,  of  human  character,  out  of  which 
the  ideals,  the  systems,  the  tendencies  take  their  rise.     The 


people  who  tell  us  that  the  war  is  "a  conflict  of  ideas"  think      wicked  Government  fighting  with  its  back  to  the  wall  against 
thev  are  takintr  us  to  the  foimtain-heari.     Rnt  assnredlv  thev      thp  iiirlcrmr.nf  nf  m•.r,^i.1,^      w^^  ^„„  ^u'..,^.  . 1 


they  are  taking  us  to  the  fountain-head.  But  assuredly  they 
are  mistaken.  The  ideas  themselves  have  to  be  accounted 
for.  How  is  it  that  the  Germans  have  one  "idea"  and  we 
another  ?  The  answer  can  only  be  given  in  human  terms — 
in  language,  that  is,  which  shows  wherein  the  Germans  differ 
as  men  from  ourselves.  Primarily  the  conflict  is  between 
types  of  character ;  onh'  in  a  secondary 'sense  is  it  a  conflict 
between  "ideas."  All  turns  on  the  tjnpes  of  character  that 
are  involved.  It  is  not  merely  a  question  of  British,  French, 
American,  or  German  notions  of  the  way  the  world  ought  to 
be  governed.  ,It  is  far  more  a  question  of  Britons,  French- 
men, Americans,  Germans. 

A  friend  of  mine,  who  is  a  student  of  liistory,  makes  a 
point  of  collecting  all  the  contemporary  German  por- 
traits he  can  lay  his  hands  on..  He  has  them  pasted  in  a 
book,  handsomely  bound,  on  the  cover  of  which  he  has 
printed  these  words  :  "The  Wolf,  or  the  War  interpreted  at 
a  Glance."  Inside  is  a  vast  collection  of  faces:  authentic 
photographs  of  the  Kaiser,  his  ministers,  his  generals,  Hinden- 
burg,  Liidendorf,.  von  Kiihlmann,  von  Tirpitz,  and  the  rest — 
all  tlie  representatives  of  the  military  party.  In  another 
group  are  the  various  professors  and  divines  who  have  declared 
their  militarist  proclivities.  In  another  are  their  opponents. 
And,  lastly,  there  are  hundreds  of  prisoners  of  war,  repro- 
ductions of  photographs  from  the  illustrated  papers,  to  which 
my  friend,  as  an  expert  in  physiognomy,  attaches  a  high 
VEilue. 

The  type  which  he  professes  to  have  found,  more  or  less 
strongly  marked  in  the  great  majority  of  these  faces,  is  that 
of  the  wolf.  To  make  this  apparent,  he  has  executed  a  well- 
drawn  wolf's  head  on  those  pages  where  the  type  stands  out 
clearest.  In  the  Kaiser,  the  Crown  Prince,  and  many  of 
the  generals  no  one  could  overlook  the  resemblance.  A  few 
of  them,  like  the  Crown  Prince,  appear  to  be  men  of  a  low 
order  of  intelligence,  and  one  wpuld  hardly  say  of  these  that 
they  make  convincing  wolves.  But  the  gre-^t  majority  have 
the  marks  of  exceptional  intellectual  power,  and  it  is  precisely 
in  them  that  the  lupine  traits  are  most  pronounced  and 
unmistakable. 

Very  remarkable,  too,  is  the  increasing  dominance  of  the 


the  judgment  of  mankind.     We  can  think  so  no  longer,  even 
if  we  have  thought  so  before. 

We  now  know,  by  force  of  cumulative  evidence,  that  we 
have  here  to  do  with  an  instinct  deeply  embedded  in  German 
character  and  sufficiently  powerful,  in  spite  of  whatever 
resistance  it  may  encounter  here  and  there,  to  stamp  the 
mark  of  cruelty  on  the  world- pohcy /"of  the  German  State. 
Let  the  reader  cast  his  eye  through  the  collection  of  sayings 
by  German  statesmen,  jshilosophers  and  divines  issued  by 
the  American,  Committee  on  Public  Information  in  the 
volume  Conquest  and  Cnltur  :  or  lot  him  turn  to  von  Freytag 
Loringhoven's  book.  Deductions  from  the  World  Wa;- (Constable 
and  Co.,  3s.  61.  net).  If  his  "experience  resembles  that  of 
the  present  writer,  he  will  find  that  the  whole  mass  of  this 
abominable  hterature  resolves  itself  quite  simply  into  the 
picture  of  a  cruel  face,  in  which  the  ferocity  and  cunning  of  a 
wolf  are  rendered  revolting  by  combination  with  the  high 
intelligence  of  a  man.  Such  unquestionably  is  the  German 
State  as  it  is  here  exhibited  by  those  who  belong,  to  it. 

The  war  has  provided  hundreds-  of  test  cases  which  are 
quite  unintelligible  except  as  the  outcome  of  a  native  instinct 
for  cruelty.  Some  of  them,  like  the  killing  of  Nurse  Cavell, 
are  small  things  when  set  down  before  the  general  background 
of  horrors — small,  but  infinitely  significant  as  betraying  the 
spirit  of  these  people.  Others  reveal  cruelty  on  an  immense 
and  incredible  scale.  Foremost  among  these  is  the  appalhng 
story  of  the  treatment  accorded  to  prisoners  of  war — ^in 
which  the  civilian  population  appear  to  have  taken  an  equal 
hand  with  the  military  authorities.  This  is  not  the  place  to 
recit(i  the  evidence  ;  "it  is  abundantly  accessible  to  all  who 
can  sfeel  tlicmsclves  to  read  it  ;  and  "hereafter  when  the  full 
story  is  told— for  as  yet  we  have  but  a  fragment— the  worid 
will  have  before  it  a  record  of  cruelty  practised  on  a  scale 
which,  had  it  been  predicted  of  any  nation  before  the  war, 
would  have  caused  the  prophet  to  be  counted  insane. 

Let  no  one  say  that  these  are  the  inevitable  incidents  of 
war.  They  are  no  such  thing.  Far  from  being  ine\-itable, 
they  would  be  impossible  even  in  this,  the  bitterest  of  all 
wars,  were  it  not  for  the  psychological  fact  that  one  of  the 
belligerents  has  inclinations  towards  cruelty  which  are  to  be 


'4 


Land    &    Water 


June  20,  1918- 


found  in  no  other  civilised  nation.  "Whoever  cannot  prevail 
himself  to  approve  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart  the  sinkmg 
of  the  LusUania  "  saj-s  Pastor  Baumgarten,  "whoever  cannot 
conquer  his  sense  of  the  gigantic  cruelty  to  unnumbered 
innocent  victims  and  give  himself  up  to  honest  delight  at 
this  victorious  exploit  of  German  defensive  powcr--At»t  we 
judge  to  be  no  true  German."  What  words  could  declare 
more  plainly  that  a  cruel  instinct  is  native;  to  the  German 
mind  ?  They  reveal  in  a  flash  the  foul  ethos  out  of  which 
the  German  dream  of  world-dominion  has  arisen.  We  see 
once  more  the  cruel  face  suddenly  disengage  itself  from  the 
futile  mass  of  words  and  theories  which  are  offered  as  the 
explanation  of  the  war. 

The  "  true  German  "  as  he  is  here  depicted  by  Baumgarten 
is  none  other  than  the  human-wolf,  the  genius  of  the  German 
military  State,  the  common  source  ahke  of  her  poHtical 
philosophy,  of  the  systematic  tortures  inflicted  on  defenceless 
prisoners  "of  war,  and  of  a  thousand  other  barbarities  on  the 
greater  or  the  lesser  scale.  It  is  true  that  unless  there  were 
some  Germans  who  are  ashamed  of  these  things  Pastor  Baum- 
garten would  not  have  found  it  necessary  to  address  such  an 
appeal  to  his  audience.  Let  us  take  what  comfort  we  can 
from  the  thought.  The  words  were  uttered  tliree  years  ago, 
and  events  have  since  proved  that  the  comfort  to  be  thus 
extracted  from  them  is  by  no  means  great  ! 

Such  are  the  conclusions  which  await  us  when  we  translate 
the  meaning  of  the  war  from  its  political  into  its  human 
equivalent.  As  in  the  narrower  fields  of  family  and  social 
relationships,  so  in  the  wide  and  immensely  confusing  regions 
of  world- pohtics  we  come  at  last  to  the  decisive  factor  of 
personal  characteristics.  Whatever  principle  may  be  an- 
nounced as  final  for  the  government  of  mankind — democracy 
or  autocracy.  State  organisation  or  individual  freedom — 
behind  them  all  hes  the  ultimate  question  of  the  kind  of 
people  by  whom,  and  for  whom,  the  principles  are  to  be  applied. 
Had  the  choice  to  be  made,  a  bad  system  administered  by 
good  men  would  always  be  preferable  to  a  good  system  admin- 
istered by  the  evil-minded.  And  wherever  human  interests 
are  at- stake,  the  worst  form  of  the  evil  mind  is  the  cruel 
mind.  Hence  we  frame  the  question  wrongly  when  we  ask 
what  would  happen  if  the  world  w(^re  ruled  by  German 
methods.  We  should  ask  rather  how  the  world  would  fare 
if  it  were  ruled  by  Germans.  According  as  we  frame  the 
question  in  the  one  way  or  the  other  the  answer  will  come 
out  with  an  immense  difference.  As  to  German  methods  in 
general  we  do  well  to  keep  an  open  mind  ;  but  always  with 
the  reservation  that  under  no  circumstances  whatsoever  will 
we  suffer  them  to  be  applied  to  us  by  the  German  as  we  have 
come  to  know  him  during  the  last  four  j'cars. 

What  the  German  may  be  within  his  own  borders  is  not  in 
question  ;  let  him  be  what  he  claims  to  be.  It  is  as  an  inter- 
national person  that  we  have  to  dp  with  him  ;  and  here  his 
character  stands  out  clearly  defined.  He  is  essentially 
cruel ;  he  has  the  qualities  which'  derive  from  cruelty — 
cunning,  treachery,  fraud  ;  untrustworthy  to  the  last  degree  ; 
a  bad  neighbour  ;  a  dangerous  partner  in  the  work  of  civiUsa- 
tion.  This  is  the  mark  he  wears  on  his  forehead — stamped 
there  b}'  his  own  act,  and  frankly  reproduced  in  many  a 
portrait  he  has  drawn  of  himself.  So  long  as  the  mark 
remains  he  stands  condemned  as  an  international  person, 
and  neither  his  valour,  his  skill,  his  prudence,  his  know- 
ledge, nor  any  other  good  quality  that  may  be  assigned 
him,  will  induce  mankind  to  submit  to  his  ascendancy.  But 
for  this  he  would  have  had  a  fair  chance  of  realising  his 
dream  of  world- dominion.     As  it  is,  he  has  none. 

Along  with  the  virtues 
which  have  brought  him 
to  the  front  he  has  re- 
tained, and  apparently 
cultivated,  the  one  vice 
which  effectively  puts  him 
out  of  court  as  a  claimant 
to  the  leadership  of  civil- 
isation ;  and  this  it  is 
which  leaves  him  faced 
with  the  hopeless  alterna- 
tive of  subduing  by  force 
a  world  firmly  resolved 
never  to  accept  him.  Even 
if  he  were  to  repent  to- 
morrow— and  who  can  say 
he  will  not  ? — confidence 
would  be  slow  in  return- 
ing. We  should  fear 
reversion  to  the  original 
type.  And  rightly  so  ;  for 
the  cruelty  he  has  shown 
is  neither    temporary  nor 


superficial.     It  is  too  firmly  embedded  in  the  German  State 
to  be  got  rid  of  in  a  day.  ^      ,        t     •     1 

The  Germans  know  this.  Von  Freytag  Loringhovens 
book,  to  which  I  have  already  referred,  betrays  the  know- 
ledge on  every  page.  He  sees  that  Germany  has  gone  too 
far  to  retreat;  her  pact  with  cruelty  is  irrevocable;  her 
methods  cannot  be  changed.  She  must  abide  by  the  issue ; 
she  must  see  the  thing  through  to  the  end,  and  having 
finished  this  war  to  her  satisfaction,  must  arm  to  the  teeth 
for  the  next.  And  doubtless,  from  his  own  point  of  view. 
Loringhoven  is  right.  But  his  vision  is  not  untroubled ; 
nor  is  that  of  liis  countrymen.  There  is  a  coumn,  published 
daily  in  the  Times,  under  the  heading  Through  German 
Eye^  "  Reading  between  the  lines  of  tliis  record  it  is  not 
hard  to  guess  what  many  of  these  German  eyes  are  looking 
at.  They  are  looking  at  Nemesis,  which  they  pretend  not 
to  see.     Macbctli  did  the  like.  _  •     ^     • 

When  German^'  launched  her  great  offensive  against  man- 
kind she  did  so  with  clear  alternatives  in  view:  World- 
dominion  or  Downfall.  One  of  the  secrets  of  the  extra- 
ordinary vigour  with  which  she  has  maintained  the  contest 
lies  in  the  fafct  that  she  has  kept  both  alternatives  steadi  y 
before  her  mind.  She  has  seen  cleariy  that  Downfall  would 
be  the  certain  consequence  of  failure  to  achieve  her  aim, 
the  aim  itself  being  of  such  a  nature  as  to  bnng  upon  her 
the  lasring  hatred  of  the  worid.  This  is  the  alternative 
which  evil  has  always  to  face.  It  provokes  forces  which  are 
vowed  to  its  destruction.  At  this  point  Germany  has  never 
suffered  herself  to  be  under  a  moment's  illusion.  She  has 
reasoned  in  terms  of  defeat  as  well  as  of  victory,  has  reahsed 
what  each  would  involve,  and  has  conducted  the  war  with 
the  desperate  energy  of  a  mind  which  knows  that  everything 
is  at  stake.  She  has  schooled  herself  in  contemplating 
downfall  as  well  as  in  dreaming  of  world-dominion. 

By  taking  the  initiative  on  these  terms  Germany  has 
imposed  them  upon  ourselves.  For  us  also  Downfall  is  the 
only  alternative  to  victory.  This  has  seldom  been  stated 
with  the  plainness  it  demands.  Even  the  few  thinkers  and 
writers  among  the  AUies  who  have  had  the  courage— and  it 
has  required  no  Httle  courage— to  open  the  eyes  of  the  pubhc 
to  what  defeat  would  involve  have  generally  stopped  short 
at  exhibiting  only  one  side  of  the  picture.  They  have  told 
us  what  it  is  that  would  be  defeated— to  wit,  democracy, 
and  all  that  democracy  involves.  But  the  need  is  far  greater 
that  we  should  fully  realise  i£'hat  it  is  that  would  be  victorious.  ■ 
Cruelty  would  have  won  ;  cruelty  would  have  become  a 
dominant  power,  a  principle  in  the  government  of  mankind  ; 
not  the  cruelty  which  is  a  mere  bestial  instinct,  powerless 
before  the  higher  intelligence  of  man— though  it  would  not 
have  lost  its  bestial  character— but  cruelty  reinforced  by 
human  reason  and  the  resources  of  science,  cruelty  in  full 
command  of  the  very  means  that  were  intended  to  break  its 
power.  Never  mind,  for  the  moment,  what  would  be  de- 
feated. Think  what  would  be-  victorious :  read  the  new 
worid  situation  in  the  positive  terms  of  the  victory  of  the 
wolf  and  not  alone  in  the  negative  terms  of  the  shepherd's 
defeat.  Who  can  doubt  that  this  would  be  a  "downfall'^ 
such  as  mankind  has  never  seen  ? 

It  would  be  no  false  reading  of  history  to  say  that  the 
essential  task  on  which  mankind  has  been  engaged  since  the 
very  dawn  of  civilisation  has  been  this  same  battle  with 
the' wolf.  Cruelty  lias  always  been  seeking  to  dominate  the 
worid,  and  would  have  dominated  it  long  ago  but  for  the 
fight  put  up  against  it  bv  brave  men— under  the  leadership, 
as    some   people  think,  'of    that  Good   Shepherd    who   has 

left  on  record  what  he 
thought  of  the  runaways. 
In  one  shape  or  another, 
now  as  a  world-power 
threatening  human  liberty, 
now  as  some  inhuman 
social  creed,  cruelty  has 
never  failed  to  provide  the 
warrior  and  the  reformer 
with  their  characteristic 
tasks.  How  often  have 
they  broken  his  jaws  and 
plucked  the  prey  out  of 
his  teeth  !  '  Surely  they  do 
Christianity  a  wrong  who 
say  that  it  has  failed  1 
These  are  among  its 
mightiest  acts,  its  most 
splendid  achievements,  but 
for  which  the  world  would 
long  since  have  sunk  back 
into  the  savagery  from, 
which  it  emerged. 


The  Allies  :  Typical  Faces 


French  Official 


June  20,    19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


15 


Life  and  Letters  mjJX^Soh 


mre 


Mr.  Wells  and  World  Peace 

MR.  H.  G.  WELLS'S  book  In  the  Fourth  Year 
(Chatto  &  Windus,  3s.  6d.  net)  is  described 
in  the  sub- title  as  "Anticipations  of  a  World 
Peace."  It  is,  in  fact,  a  tract  showing  the 
necessity  and  the  nature  of  what  we  now 
commonly  call  "a  League  of  Nations."  Other  more  or  less 
relevant  subjects  are  discussed,  including  the  institution  of 
monarchy  and  the  nature  of  democracy  ;  but  this  is  the 
centre  of  the  book. 

*  *      ,      «  *  *  * 

Mr.  Wells  argues,  unanswerably,  that  the  progress  of 
destructive  invention  and  of  means  of  communication 
has  made  another  war  a  thing  not  to  be  tolerably  cf5ntem- 
plated.  The  only  thing  for  it,  therefore,  is  for  the  States  to 
come  together,  and  to  delegate  some  of  their  authority  to  a 
central  co-operative  organisation  which  will  have  as  its 
object  the  preservation  of  the  peace.  Legal  power  will  have 
to  coincide  with  actual  power  ;  the  great  countries  of  the 
world  must,  if  the  scheme  is  to  work,  rule  the  roast  ;'  any 
voting  arrangement  must  be  framed  in  the  light  of  this 
truth.  The  delegates  Mr.  Wells  wants  to  be  chosen  by 
popular  election.  'And  the  functions  of  the  League,  over 
and  above  its  main  function  of  the  pacific  settlement  of 
disputes  and  the  outlawry  of  breakers  of  peace,  will  include 
limitation  of  national  armaments  (the  size  of  which,  as  he 
argues,  are  at  present  mostly  decided  not  by  our  own  free 
will,  but  by  the  actions  of  foreigners),  the  trusteeship  of 
backward  territories,  and  the  fair  distribution  of  tropical 
raw  materials.  One  cannot  go  far  into  details,  but  I  may 
say  that  his  argument  in  favour  of  an  international  control 
of  tropical  Africa,  which  will  avoid  the  highly  undesirable 
international  administration  of  its  several  parts,  puts  the 
.  case  for  that  proposal  more  convincingly  than  I  have  ever 
seen  it  put. 

♦'***** 
Mr.  Wells  is  naturally  clear  that  Prussia,  wliich  stands, 
not  only  in  practice  but  in  theory,  as  the  negation  of  all  our 
beliefs,  must  be  beaten.  A  League  of  AlUed  Nations  may 
be  (it  is  a  much-disputed  point)  formed  even  during  the 
war  ;  but  it  must  break  down  if  Germany  wins,  and  a  genuine 
draw,  if  that  were  conceivable,  would  leave  it  as  a  mere 
alliance — possibly  not  stable — against  the  German  danger 
of  the  future.  Again,  though  to  this  point  Mr.  Wells  does 
not  sufficiently  address  himself,  the  realisation  of  the  Allies' 
programme  of  "national  self-determination"  is  an  essential 
preliminary,  unless  (i)  the  League  is  to  be  regarded  by  every 
subject  people  in  Europe  as  an  instrument  for  maintaining 
an  inequitable  status  quo,  or  (2)  it  is  to  be  given  powers  of 
"domestic"  interference  which  few  would  be  willing  to 
concede,  and  which  involve  possibilities  of -endless  trouble. 
And  again,  as  Mr.  Wells  very  persuasively  points  out,  it  is 
essential  that  before  we  get  to  the  Peace  Congress  the  Allies 
shall  have  so  thoroughly  harmonised  their  war  aims,  terri- 
torial and  other,  that  no  Gerrrian  intrigue  will  be  able  to 
split  them.  This  is  common  sense  ;  but  it  wants  Saying , 
very  loudly.  All  these  conditions  satisfied,  a  League  of 
Nations  is  practicable ;  once  the  habit  of  international 
co-operation  is  established,  it  will  grow  ;  and  th*e  suspicions 
and  fears,  which  are  the  lever  by  which  the  bloodthirsty  and 
the  rapacious  move  for  their  own  ends  large  masses  of  men 
who  desire  neither  to  kill  anybody  nor  themselves  to  stand 
for  years  in  wet  trendies  aijiid  clouds  of  poison,  will 
insensibly  diminish. 

***♦*• 

The  book  is  brief,  hot,  impulsive  ;  Mr.  Wells  is  concerned 
chiefly  and  rightly  with  driving  home  the  large  elementary 
considerations  which  make  a  League  of  Nations  imperative 
in  such  a  way  that  the  ordinary  reader,  who  is  timid  about 
new  political  considerations  and  shirks  technical  detail,  will 
be  at  once  arrested  and  convinced.  It  is  natural,  therefore, 
that  he  should  sometimes  unintentionally  convey  an  impres- 
sion that  some  of  the  difficulties'  he  deals  with  are  still 
untackled,  whereas  in  fact  a  great  deal  of  useful  donkey- 
work  has  been  done  upon  them.  He  migiit  pertinently 
have  referred  the  reader  to  wliat  are  perliaps  the  three  most 
interesting  schemes  which  have  been  produced  :  those  of 
Lord  Bryce's  Committee,  of  Mr.  L.  S.  Woolf,  and  of  the 
American  League  to  "Enforce  Peace.     A  roni  revision,   too, 


might  have  led  him  to  rectify  some  loose  or  obscure  sen- 
tences. It  is,  to  give  an  instance,  on  the  face  of  it  not  easy 
to  reconcile  his  statement  that  "we  are  fighting  to  bring 
about  a  revolution  in  Germany ;  we  want  Germany  to 
become  a  democratically  controlled  State,  such  as  is  the 
United  States  to-day,  with  open  methods  and  pacific  inten- 
tions," with  his  other  statement  that  (internally)  "if  Ger- 
mans, for  instance,  like  to  wallow  in  absolutism  after  the  war, 
they  can  do  so"  ;  though  other  remarks  seem  to  visualise 
the  possibility  of  democracy  for  international  purposes  only, 
which  may  be  verbally  treated  as  a  possibihty,  but  will  not 
bear  contemplation.  A  more  serious  defect  of  the  book  is 
Mr.  Wells's  impatience  with  those  from  whom  he  differs  : 
not  on  the  main  issue,  but  on  others.  In  this  book  of  all 
places  he  has  seen  fit  to  introduce  a  violent  attack  upon  the 
motives  of  those  who  are  opposed  to  Proportional  Repre- 
sentation— an  attack  which  is  all  the  worse  in  that  he  endea- 
vours to  injure  the  sensible  opponents  of  P.R.  by  lampooning 
its  foolish  opponents.  This  is  not  the  time  or  place  to  con- 
trovert him  ;  but  has  it  ever  occurred  to  him  that  P.R., 
with  its  big  constituencies,  may  actually  assist  the  great 
pohtical  caucuses  to  swamp  candidates  without  machinery 
or  large  funds  for  organisation  and  advertisement  ?  One 
could  wish  that  Mr.  Wells  were  a  little  less  free  with  his 
invective  against  men  who  honestly  differ  from  him,  and  a 
httle  freer  with  his  jecognition  of  assistance  and  assent. 
It  is  impossible  that  we'  should  all  agree  with  Mr.  Wells 
about  everything. 

*  .  *  *  *  *  * 

One  does  not  wish,  however,  to  dwell  on  the  relatively 
unimportant  defects  of  this  brilliant  and  valuable  piece  of 
pamphleteering  ;  one  would  not  bother  about  them  at  all 
did  one  not  feel  that  a  man  of  Mr.  Wells's  powers  of  reason 
and  imagination  could  avoid  them  if  he  tried,  and  would, 
if  he  did  avoid  them,  be  even  more  effective  than  he  is. 
Whatever  quahfications  have  to  be  made  and  whatever 
lacuna  have  to  be  filled  up,  Mr.  Wells's  statement  on  the 
main  issue  is  more  calculated  to  convert  the  indifferent  or 
the  vaguely  hostile  reader  than  anything  which  has  yet  been 
published.  A  few  passages  on  the  possibilities  of  future 
war's — should  civihsation  shirk  the  job  of  putting  them  out 
of  the  question— suggest  that  Mr.  Wells  the  novelist  might 
make  in  a  future  book  his  most  valuable  contribution  to  the 
service  of  mankind.     "There  is  not,"  he  says, 

— a  capital  city  in  Europe  that  twenty  years  from  now 
will  not  be  liable  to  a  bombing  raid  done  by  hundreds  or 
even  thousands  of  aeroplanes  upon,  or  even  before,*  a 
declaration  of  war ;  and  there  is  not  a  line  of  sea  com- 
munication that  will  not  be  as  promptly  interrupte<^  by 
the  hostile  submarine.  .  .  All  the  European  empires  are 
becoming  vulnerable  at  every  point. 

There  may  be  many  who  will  not  face  this  prospect,  simply 
because  (it  is  the  usual  reason  for  not  facing  a  fact)  they 
do  not  hke  it.  There  may  be  some  who  still  toy  with  the 
fanta.stic  idea  that  the^eroplanc  and  the  submarine  can  be 
"ruled  out"  and  that  \Ve  shall  be  able  to  go  on  having  wars 
in  the  dear  old  way,  kilhng  a  limited  number  of  men  in 
certain  strictly  defined  modes,  but  always  stopping  short  of 
imperilling  the  fabric  of  civilisation.  But  the  facts  exist 
and  stare  at  us.  If  we  do  not  get  rid  of  war,  war  will  get  rid 
of  us.  In  the  absence  of  a  world  organisation  after  this 
war  which  will  enforce  the  legal  settlement  of  disputes  and 
threaten  the  would-be  law-breaker  with  overwhelming  force, 
we  shall  all  of  us, '  compelled  to  clutch  at  every  chance  of 
national  self-preservation,  spend  our  days  and  nights  pre- 
paring for  war,  feverishly  racing  each  other  in  perfecting 
and  multiplication  of  existing  means  of  destruction  and 
the  devisal  of  new  ones.  The  necessities  of  dtiily  life  pro- 
vided, all  our  surplus  energies  and  surplus  brains,  all  our 
imagination  and  all  our  money,  will  be  devoted  to  that  end. 
.And  what  the  clash  -would  be  like  when  it  caflie  most  of  us 
must  find  it  impossible  to  conceive.  Mr.  Wells,  however, 
never  so  conspicuously  a  man  of  genius  as  when  he  is  pre- 
dicting meclianical  developments  and  their  inevitable  re- 
actions upon  life,  could  visualise  it  ;  and  must  be  doing  so 
now.  If,  even  in  the  midst  of  the  present  carnage,  he  could 
write  a  novel,  keeping  his  imagination  strictly  within  the 
Ijounds  of  probability,  describing  the  next  war,  he  would  do 
indirectly  more  for  the  cause  he  is  maintaining  than  he  could 
do  by  a  hundred  more  immediately  relevant  but  more 
al-)stract  books. 


i6 


Land   &   Water 


June  20,    19 1 8 


An  English  Prophet  and  Seer 


MR.  BLATCHFOKD  has  a  position  in  th(? 
propaganda  work  done  on  behalf  of  this 
country  which  is  quite  different  from  that  of 
any  other  man.  He  owes  it  to  three 
things,  which  are  not  found  combined  in 
any  other  man.  The  first  is  that  he  was  for  jrears — and  still 
is — a  very  important  exponent  of  popular  demands,  and 
these  in  the  concrete  and  uncompromising  form  wliich  they 
have  taken  in  industrial  countries  and  which  is  called  Collec- 
tivism. There  are  other  men  who  have  risen  to  a  similar 
eminence  in  the  e.xposition  of  these  demands,  but  there  is 
not  one  who  has  commanded  the  same  wide  publicity.  With 
the  book  Merry  England  as  a  foundation  between  twenty 
and  thirty  years  ago,  circulating  I  know  not  how  many 
hundred  thousand  copies,  and  witii  the  position  of  The 
Clarion  through  so  many 
years  of  active  Sociahst 
preaching,  Mr.  Blatchford 
took — and  rightly  took — a 
place  which  no  one  else  could 
claim  in  the  movement. 

Next,  [Mr.  Blatchford 
foresaw  and  insisted  upon 
the  probability  of  war  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and 
Germany.  JHe  foresaw  it, 
And  insisted  upon  it  at  a 
time  when  comparatively 
few  men  did  so,  and  hardly 
any  of  those  who  did  so, 
did  so  intelligently.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  war 
between  the  two  countries 
has  come  in  a  very  dif- 
ferent form  from  what  was 
•xpected  by  anyone.  It 
«ame  by  a  side-wind,  as  it 
were,  through  the  determina- 
tion ultimately  come  to  by 
the  British  Cabinet  to  enter 
what  was  already  a  Con- 
tinental struggle.  It  is  now 
— and,  indeecl,  has  long  been 
— a  war  of  the  whole  world, 
and  I  not  a  duel  between 
Germany  and  England  at 
all.  None  the  less,  the  inci- 
dents of  a  struggle  between 
the  two  countries  are  as 
nuidi  present  as  though 
they  two  alone  were  engaged, 
and  it  is  just  as  much  a 
question  of  life  and  death 
for  England  as  it  would  be 
if  she  were  single-handed  on 

the   one   side   and   the  Prussianised  German   Empire  single- 
handed  on  the  other. 

Mr.  Blatchford  insisted  upon  the  danger  at  a  time  when  it 
seemed  fantastic  to  most  men.  He  did  more  than  insist  ; 
he  actually  prophesied,  and  he  prophesied  rightly.  This 
combination  of  popular  exposition  and  politics  with  so 
singular  a  s«nse  for  foreign  affairs,  and  this  combination  of 
pubhc  patriotism  with  what  has  been  thought  an  inter- 
national social  theory  is  sufficiently  remarkable.  But  one 
must  add  to  it  the  third  point,  which  makes  it  unique,  and 
that  is  Mr.  Blatchford's  power  of  expression,  or,  as  critics 
call  it,  "  style. "\ 

It  was  remarked  by  all  those  who  happen  to  recognise 
the  wide  djfierence  between  strong  and  weak  writing,  from 
the  first  moment  i  Mr.  Blatchford  struck  the  public  ear, 
that  he  possessed  in  a  supreme  ^  degree  the  two  virtues  of 
style  which  are  to  have  something  to  say  and  to  be  able  to 
say  it.  The  object  of  prose- writing  is  to  express  oneself, 
and  if  it  be  true  that  few  have  something  to  say,  it  is  also 
true  that  of  those  only  a  very  small  number  can  say  it  in 
the  clearest,  most  conclusive,  and  most  economical  way. 
Mr.  Blatchford's  writing  has  been  alive  with  this  power  of 
exposition  for  something  like  a  generation.  He  is  in  the 
tradition  of  Cobbett. 

Now,   in  connection   with   his   book*   upon  the   German 

♦  "  General  von    Sneak."    By    Robert   Blatchford.     Hodder  and 
Stoaghton.     2s.  6d. 


spirit  and  the  nature  of  the  war  which  lies  before  us,  this 
gift  is  of  the  utmost  value.  But  we  have  to  make  a  rather 
difficult  intellectual  thesis  which,  as  we  do  not  enjoy  Mr. 
Blatchford's  terseness  of  expression,  we  arc  afraid,  may  !«• 
put  forward  a  little  confusedly. 

The  thesis  is  this  :  That  which  is  most  difficult  effectively 
to  emphasise  is  the  thing  most  widely  bid  nominally  known. 

It  may  be  diffic^^lt  to  convince  people  of  some  novel  truth 
hitherto  unfamiliar  to  them,  but  to  make  them  ahve  to 
truths  the  names  or  labels  of  which  are  familiar  to  them,  to 
"  rub  in  the  obvious,"  is  far  more  difficult  still.  We  know  not 
why  this  is,  but  it  is  so  in  all  human  controversy.  It  is 
partly  that  things  well  known  come  to  fatigue  the  mind  so 
that  it  grows  callous  to  them  ;  partly,  perhaps,  it  ha.s  a 
more  subtle   cause :     the  difficulty   of  throwing  into   relief 

that  which  is  part  and  parcel 


Mr.   Robert  Blatchford 


of  ordinary  diction  or  even 
experience.  But,  at  any 
rate,. the  difficulty  is  there. 
When,  some  years  ago,  efforts 
were  made  to  interest  Free 
Trade  audiences  in  the 
North  of  England  with  the 
economic  theory  of  Protec- 
tion and  the  arguments  in 
its  favour,  it  was  found  easy 
enough.  The  idea  was  new, 
or,  at  any  rate,  fresh  to  the 
minds  receiving  it ;  curiosity 
was  awakened  ;  the  logical 
train ,  of  argument  was  in- 
teresting to  follow.  But  go 
before  the  same  audience 
and  insist  upon  the  conse- 
quences of  an  ill-distribution 
of  wealth,  and  you  will  get 
nothing  like  thesameinterest,  ■ 
unless  you  have  very  excep- 
tional powers  indeed.  The 
ill-distribution  of  wealth 
stares  them  in  the  face  ;  it 
is  a  thing  taken  for  granted  ; 
it  comes  into  almost  every 
experience  of  reahties  whicli 
these  people  have,  and  it  is 
very  difficult  indeed — for 
most  people  impossible-^to 
take  a  thing  thus  known  and 
present  it  with  the  force  of 
a  novel  thing. 

Now,  •  in-  keeping  alive 
before  the  public  the  nature 
of  the  present  struggle,  of 
the  consequences  of  defeat, 
of  the  necessity  for  victory, 
a  difficulty  precisely  of  this  kind,  and  it  is  "a 
ippalling    in     its    magnitude,     and    still     more 


there    is 
difficulty 

appalling  in  its  practical  consequences,  in  this  late  stage 
of  the  war  as  we  approach  the  end  of  its  fourth  year. 
It  is  no  good  merely  recapitulating  to  your  audience  the 
known  facts  that  the  Prussian  murders  the  innocent,  robs 
and  defiles,  cheats,  boasts,  lies,  and  whenever  he  can  destroys. 
They  know  all  that.  They  have  been  singularly  used  to  it. 
They  are  taking  it  for  granted.  If  anything,  there  is  a  danger 
of  reactiim   against  such  repetition. 

What  is  perhaps  worse,  there  is  certainly  a  tendency  to 
accept  each  new  break-down  in  civilisation  as  normal.  That, 
by  the  way,  is  what  has  always  happened  in  history  when  a 
civilisation  went  to  pieces.  Does  anyone  remember  now  the 
horror  that  ran  through  all  the  West  in  April,  1915,  when 
the  Prussians  first  used  poison  gas  ?  Turn  to  a  file  of  old 
newspapers  of  that  date,  and  then  read  the  account  of  any 
action  to-day  wherein  gas  always  plays  a  part. 

Now,  Mr.  Blatchford  has  succeeded  where  almost  every 
one  else  would  have  failed  in  putting  into  a  strong  light,  and 
therefore  making  live  again,  all  those  emotions  which  we 
ought  to  keep  at  the  highest  pitch  of  keenness  as  an  incentive 
to  that  victory  without  which  Europe  will  perish.  That  is 
the  note  throughout  this  book,  and  it  is  much  the  most 
remarkable.  We  do  not, know  what  steps  the  authorities 
are  takmg  in  supporting  the  book.  There  are  tons  of  official 
propagandist  hterature  no  part  of  which  could  compfue  for 
popular  effect  with  these  pages. 


June  20,  19 1 8 


Land    &    Water 


17 


The  Motor  Class  :   By  Enid  Bagnold 


V 

THE  lecturer  wore  a  tail  coat  and  was  covered 
with  blotches  of  chalk  from  head  to  foot.  'He 
had  blue,  pale  eyes  fitted  into  two  hollows 
in  his  head,  and  he  held  a  very  small  pipe  upside 
down  between  his  teeth,  so  that  I  used  to  wonder 
why  everything  that  was  in  it  did  not  fall  down  upon  the 
floor. 

He  loved  chalk,  and  held  three  pieces  of  different  colours 
in  each  hand,  as  well  as  a  yard  measure,  and  often  another 
piece  was  in  his  lips  beside  the  stem  of  the  pipe.  Though  he 
was  quite  small  he  ma4e  a  great  deal  of  noise,  and  even 
whistled  as  he  drew  upon  the  blackboard,  shrill  for  the 
upstrokes,  deep  and  low  for  the  downstrokes,  and  for  a  circle 
he  could  scoop  his  tongue  round  in  his  mouth  and  make 
a  circular  noise. 

Perhaps  he  never  got  enough  exercise,  for  he  seemed  to 
try  to  get  what  he  could  within  the  limits  of  the  class- 
room, jumping  upon  the  sill  of  the  window  like  a  cat  if  there 
was  a  window  to  be  opened,  or  if  the  gas  was  to  be  turned 
on  he  sprang  about  among  the  pipes  and  bare  bones  of  the 
motor-chassis  that  stood  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  and  reached 
for  the  chains  that  hung  from  the  tap. 

He  was  our  little  god,  and  taught  us  how  an  engine  works. 

Before  the  class  started  we  all  sat  in  a  half-moon  about 
the  chassis,  and  being  on  the  whole  dull-looking  women, 
got  up  in  raincoats  as  though  we  meant  to  be  armed  for  a 
perpetual  rainy  day,  we  made  dull  confidences  to  each  other, 
and  spoke  about  April  as  though  she  were  a  month  of  ill- 
fame,  and  nothing  much  could  be  expected  of  her. 

Some  of  us  listened  to  a  lady  with  a  pretty  powdered 
nose,  and  a  small,  strained  mouth  full  of  gold  teeth.  She 
had  a  tale  to  tell. 

"  I  found  her  asleep,  on  the  floor.  Snoring  !  With  crumbs 
from  an  old  newspaper  beside  her  !    It  ought  to  be  stopped  !" 

"Disgusting !" 

"...  and  a  black  cat  sitting  in  the  basin.  Actually  in  the 
basin  when  I  wanted  to  wash  my  hands  !  I  had  to  lift  her 
out." 

She  was  speaking  of  our  cloakroom  in  which 'hung  twelve 
times  as  many  oily  overalls  as  there  were  pegs  to  hold  them, 
and  of  the  cloakroom's  charwoman  who  could  find  no  softer 
place  to  lay  her  head  than  under  the  shadow  Of  the  overalls. 

"That's  where  democracy  leads  you,"  said  the  lady, 
speaking  either  of  the  black  cat  or  of  the  charwoman, 
"straight  to  dirt."  ' 

But  the  lecturer  came  in  at  a  gallop,  and  her  thin  voice 
fell  to  a  thinner  whisper.  The  door  shut  after  him  at  a  touch 
of  his  flying  foot,  he  took  the  naked  chassis  at  a  boimd, 
struck  the  blackboard  a  broadside  with  his  yard  measure, 
and  the  lady  jumped  and  let  all  her  silver  luggage  slide  out 
of  her  lap. 

As  he  had  eyes  in  the  back  of  his  head  he  roared  at  her : 

"Don't  leave  the  silver  about!  Somebody'!!  take  it. 
Somebody  always  does  take  it.     Seen  the  convictions  ?" 

He  referred  to  the  left  hand  wall  of  the  cloakroom,  where 
the  space  over  the  basin,  the  home  of  the  black  cat,  was 
filled  in  with  the  newspaper  accounts  of  convictions  for 
thefts. 

"...she  was  the  daughter"  the  worst  of  them  ran, 
"of  a  retired  doctor,  and  her  father  led  her  from  the  court 
in  tears." 

The  lecturer  made  passes  in  the  air,  with  his  right  hand 
full  of  chalks,  and  the  carburettor  began  to  blossom  like 
a  hot-house  plant  upon  the  blackboard. 

"Thieves,"  he  shouted,  so  close  to  the  board  that  he  blew 
chalk  up  his  nose,  "in  a  garage," — he  paused,  a  feed-pipe 
flew  from  one  comer  of  the  board  to  another,  "abound!" 
he  finished,  looking  at  us  threateningly  over  one  shoulder. 

"Begins  by  taking  screws.  Goes  on  to  spanners.  Goes 
on  to  spare  parts.  Thin  end  of  the  wedge.  Man  .  .  . 
adaptable  creature.  Spare  parts  to  tyres..  (There's  your 
complete  thief  I)  After  tyres  they'll  take  anything.  You 
leave  that  silver  about  .  .  .  there's  no  knowing  .  .  .  might 
take  it  yourself  !" 

He  swung  away  from  the  bl?rckboard  and  showed  us  the 
finished  drawing,  crossed  and  checked  in  red  and  blue. 

We  gazed,  delighted,  dropping  the  contemplation  of  each 
other's  minds,  brooches,  fringes,  silk  or  cotton  stockings, 
and  leaned  towards  him,  waiting  for  his  fiist  question,  as 
a  dog  leaves  a  dry  bone  to  quiver  at  a  live  rat. 

But  one  amongst  us  has  leaned  too  far,  and  she  is  seized 
by  his  blue  eyes,  fired  at  with  his  yard  measure,  shot  dumb 
by  the  violence  of  his  question,  and,  sitting  in  that  glare 


of  publicity,  would  give  her  soul  to  answer  and  cannot. 
'  But  could  not   I  ? 

Ah,  if  he  would  but  ask  me  I  might  crown  myself  with 
glory,  speaking  slowly,  once  sure  of  his  permission,  adding 
tags  of  knowledge  to  my  sentence,  that  I  may  show  him, 
and  show  them  all,  how  I  have  understood  him  ! 

Fame,  if  he  will  only  shift  those  blue,  attentive  eyes  from 
the  dumb  face  of  the  girl  who  doesn't  know.  And  I  lean 
forward,  alive  with  knowledge,  my  right  hand  lifting  and 
falling  in  my  lap,  as  though  it  would  shoot  in  a  mute  ex- 
clamation above  my  head 

Has  there  been  a  gap  of  years  ? 

What  of  that  other  class,  those  other  classes  ?  The  room 
filled  with  little  girls  in. white  viyella  shirts,  each  with  a  wrist 
watch,  and  a  gold  chain  around  her  neck,  the  hot  sunshine 
at  the  window  washing  the  pale  canary  paler  till  he  burns 
with  a  white  light  .  .  . 

It  is  the  same  room,  and  the  lecturer's  face  softens,  and 
under  the  lecturer's  chin  is  a  large,  soft  bow  with  tiny  spots 
upon  it,  and  a  fold  of  lawn  over  the  edge  of  the  collar.  It  is 
the  science  mistress,  at  work  upon  her  board  with  a  duster. 

The  science  mistress  who  will  not  move  her  eyes,  but  keeps 
them  flfxed  in  a  long,  intolerable  question  upon  the  empty 
face  of  such  a  dunce  while  in  that  classroom  there  is  another 
little  girl,  fat,  pig-tailed,  leaning  so  far  upon  her  desk  that 
her  body  seems  almost  sawn  asunder,  whose  tongue  is  mute 
because  she  hasn't  yet  received  the  look  that  can  set  it  going, 
but  whose  two  eyes,  popping  out  of  her  face,  irnplore  ardently, 
"Ask  me  !     O  ask  me,  for  I  know  !" 

How  many  times,  little  girl,  you  swore  to  yourself  that 
if  you  couldn't  get  the  better  of  them  by  subtler  means 
you  would  learn  to  keep  your  knowledge  for  your  own 
savouring,  and  never  again  use  it  for  be-dazzlement  ?  And 
when  you  had  given  yourself  away  a  hundred  times,  and  were 
in  despair,  haven't  you  thought,  "One  day  I  shall  grow 
up,  and  change,  and  mystery  and  dignity  will  clothe  me, 
and  I   shall   become  impenetrable." 

O  little  girl,  you  thought  you  could  change  your  spots  .  .  . 
Who  is  this  then,  sitting  in  my  wooden  chair,  clothed  in  my 
grown-up,  complicated  clothes,  leaning  forward  in  the  same 
attitude,  thrusting  her  head  a  foot  out  among  the  thirty 
grown-up  girls,  her  eyes  bright  with  a  piece  of  knowledge 
which  she  is  inwardly  phrasing  and  rephrasifig  until  it  shall 
astonish  and  dazzle  by  its  aptness,  if  only ...  if  only  she  is 
asked  ! 

Who  is  this,  who,  knowing  to  the  uttermost  comer 
how  the  carburettor  works,  has  discovered  a  phrase  of  such 
bewildering  and  inverted  complexity — and,  given  the  lightest 
signal  from  the  lecturer,  flings  it  straight,  a  very  tumbling 
waterspout  of  knowledge,  causing  thirty  grown-up  girls  to 
gape  and  withhold  their  admiration  in  doubt  for  a  second, 
while  she  herself  awaits  the  beautiful  applause  ? 

"Our  friend  here  ..."  she  hears,  and  the  colour  is  mounting 
in  her  face,  and  she  is  sitting  far,  far  back  among  her  line 
of  heads,  "...  thinks  she  is  very  smart." 

It  is  the  little  girl  again,  hot-faced  and  ashamed,  who 
knows  the  very  tone  and  colour  of  that  reproof,  she,  who, 
.  though  formed  and  polished  up,  and  laden  with  the  jewels 
of  her  sophistication,  has  blushed  with  the  same  puppyish 
excitement  because  she  has  caught  the  tail  end  of  the  solution 
to  that  puzzle  which  is  puckering  the  brow  of  the  girl  on  the 
other  side  of  the  chassis. 

Are   we   not   ageless  ?     Are   we   not    all  here  ? 

The  lecturer  has  drawn  the  piston  so  fa§t  upon  the  black- 
board that  it  seems  to  leap  in  the  cylinder,  propelled  by 
miraculous  gas  from  his  flying  h^nd.  Were  I  famous,  had  I 
achieved  success,  I  should  have  been  listening ;  but  dis- 
gruntled, rebellious,  I  gaze  round  the  class  instead,  sitting, 
well-hidden,  between  my  neighbours.  I  see  that  we  are  all 
here. 

There  is  the  head  girl  in  her  decent  coat  and  skirt,  modest, 
worldly  attentions  bestowed  upon  her  collar,'  the  charming 
efficiency  of  the  school  blouse  lost  in  a  flutter  of  lace  and 
a  bright  brooch.  She  has  impersonal  and  yet  watchful 
eyes,  she  is  not  clever  but  she  is  sure ;  she  makes  no  friends 
because  she  is  accustomed  to  the  isolation  of  sovereignty ; 
if  she  smiles  it  is  hurriedly,  remorsefully,  as  though  she  had 
little  time  for  itr  Only  by  her  steady  justice  and  detach- 
ment can  she  escape  our  universal  dislike. 

Theife,  beyond,  are  two  pretty  girls  who  look  about  them. 
They  are  the  pretty  girls  who  knew  no  awkward  age,  who, 
even  at  school  appeared  to  keep  their  eyes  ft.\ed  on  something 
beyond  it,  who  never  quite  shared  our  belief  that  all  happiness 


i8 


Land   &   Water 


June  20,   1918 


is  over  at  eighteen.    They  have  different  methods,  but  at 
heart  they  are  the  same  pretty  colour.     One  is  clever,  one 
feigns  to  be  a  know-nothing ;    one  has  a  dark  and  secret , 
blue  eye,  the  other  a  light  and  limpid  blue  eve  ;    one  is  a 
sphinx,  the  other  plays  a  gentle,  feminine  buffoonery. 

There,  in  the  green  raincoat,  is  the  girl  who  backs  up  the 
mistresses,  pours  the  chill  milk  of  her  human  kindness  upon 
honest  gossip,  defends  the  small  too  publicly  for  their  comfort, 
draws  lines  in  her  notebook  with  a  ruler. 

That  thin  girl  with  the  big  eyes  is  a  hero  worshipper.  She 
■will  carry  with  her  bits  of  ribbon  of  the  beloved,  belts,  old 
stockings,  and  stale  chocolates.  She  is  so  ready  to  be  martyred 
that  she  is  martyred  every  time ;  she  eats  little  and  grows  thin, 
because  she  is  always  in  love,  and  always  under  the  necessity 
of  proving  it. 

But  there  are  gajjs  in  the  class.  There  are  women 
whom  I  cannot  fix.  who  carry  in  their  eyes  no  past  and  no 
future,  in  whom  the  link  witli  their  vouth  is  for  ever  broken. 


Life  is  the  only  school  they  can  remember,  and  if  that 
other  school  appears  for  a  moment  upon  the  plate  of  their 
memory,  that  active,  orderly  and  simple  life  of  wooden  desks, 
green  playing  fields,  and  bells  which  ring  off  every  hour, 
it  is  a  memory  of  something  mythically  young,  a  kindergarten 
in  infancy. 

Perhaps  they  are  the  married .  women,  unrecognisable  . . . 
The  lecturer's  voice  taps  sharply  on  my  ears,  the  hour  has 
struck,  the  class  breaks  up  and  all  the  growij-up  girls 
sigh  as  they  gather  their  books  together,  "Isn't  he 
wonderful !  Isn't  he  wasted  here !  He  ought  to  be 
running  a  Department.  He  ought  to  be  Minister  of 
Aeronautics  !" 

For  one  of  the  vanities  of  women  demands  that  she  should 
shift  everything  from  its  place  and  call  it  creation,  and,  seeing 
a  creature  good  at  its  work,  she  would  like  to  put  it  at  some 
other  work  and  so  gain  glory  from  her  passion  for 
reconstruction. 


A  Drop  of  Leaf:   By  Etienne 


A  GLEAM  of  light  flickered  up  momentarily  to 
the  east  and  caught  the  tired  eyes  of  a  young 
lieutenant  on  his  fore-bridge  of  a  lighf  cruiser. 
He  leant  his  back  against  the  binnacle  of  the 
compass  and  rubbing  the  eyepieces  of  his  binocu- 
lars to  remove  the  dew,  he  focussed  them  on  the  horizon. 
He  knew  that  somewhere  on  his  beam  lay  a  squadron  and 
that  at  dawn  a  signal  was  expected  from  the  flagship  of  that 
squadron. 

The  hour  was  3.40  a.m.  and  the  day  was  at  that  stage 
of  its  career,  which  is  sometimes  called  "the  false  dawn." 
The  sea  was  perfectly  calm,  and  of  a  leaden  grey  hue  ; 
such  of  the  sky  as  could  be  distinguished  was  grey,  the 
ships  were  grey,  and  to  the  young  lieutenant,  who  had 
been  standing  by  the  compass  since  midnight,  life  seemed 
grey. 

He  was  waiting  for  the  signal,  with  an  anxious  intensity 
bom  of  nine  months'  arduous  patrol  and  convoy  work. 

As  he  stared  through  his  glasses,  a  startling  change  took 
place  in  the  eastern  sky.  At  first  a  dull,  red  glow  appeared. 
as  from  a  big  fire  below  the  rim  of  the  sea. 

From  this  centre  of  light,  which  grew  more  luminous 
every  second,  purple  and  gold  fingers  stretched  themselves 
tentatively  across  the  sky,  reaching  towards  the  zenith. 
It  was  the  birth  of  dawn.  The  young  lieutenant  was  not 
without  a  sense  of  the  beautiful,  but  he  had  seen  the 
inauguration  of  so  many  days  in  the  North  Sea  that  his 
attention  was  chiefly  concentrated  ilpon  four  dark  silhouettes 
which  appeared  for  the  first  time  on  the  horizon.  It  was 
the  other  squadron,  and  the  leading.ship  was  the  flagship. 
*  *  * 

At  the  first  sign  of  dawn,  a  signalman  in  the  flagship  had 
annouijced  the  fact  to  the  Flag  Lieutenant  who  was  snatching 
an  hour  or  two's  sleep  on  the  chart-house  settee.  Sitting 
up,  he  fumbled  in  his  pocket  for  a  signal  written  out  the 
night  before,   and   countersigned   by   the  Admiral. 

"Take  that  to  the  Belfast,  and  report  when  through," 
he  said,  handing  the  crumpled  paper  to  the  waiting  yeoman. 
A  couple  of  minutes  later  he  was  asleep  again,  and  had 
to  be  awakened  a  second  time  to  receive  the  information 
that  the  Belfast  had  received  and  understood  "your  1545". 
At  3.45  a.m.  on  the  lower  bridge  of  the  Belfast,  three 
signalmen  had  collided,  due  to  their  simultaneous  attempts 
to  reach  the  signalling  shutter  of  a  searchlight  and  reply 
to  the  calling-up  signal  of  the  flagship. 

The  young  lieutenant  op  the  after-bridge  was  just  able 
to  shout  "Flagship  calling  us"  when  the  metallic  rattle 
of  the  shutter  and  the  hiss  of  the  arc  light  below  informed 
him  that  his  information  was  entirely  superfluous. 

In  thirty  seconds  the  signal  had  been  received,  in  another 
ten  the  young heutenant  was  shouting  down  a  pipe,  "Captain, 

sir  !    Captain,  sir  I    Captain,  sir  ! " 

"Yes?" 

"Ofi&cer  of  the  watch  speaking,  sir.  From  the  Flag; 
'Proceed  in  execution  of  previous  orders.'" 

"Ah — well,  alter  course  ;  have  you  got  the  new  course  ?  " 
"Yes,  sir,  it'^  N.70°  W.  and  the  navigator  is  down  for  a 
call  at  4  a.m." 

"Very  good,  what  sort  of  a  day  is  it  ?" 
"Fine    morning,    sir.     Extreme    visibility,    B.C.    and    the 
glass  is  steady."  "    . 


"  Leaf  "  is  Matelot's  language  for  leave. 


"Very  good.  Call  me  again  when  we're  steady  on  the 
new  course." 

"Very  good,  sir,"  answered  the  young  heutenant,  and 
closing  the  mouth  of  the  speaking  tube,  he  took  his  stand 
at  the  compass. 

"Pretty"  chatty,  the  owner  is  this  morning,  ain't  'e  ?" 
remarked  the  helmsman  to  the  petty  officer  quartermaster. 
Though  they  were  on  the  lower  bridge,  the  whole  of  the  fore- 
going conversation  had  been  audible  to  them,  as  a  branch 
to  the  captain's  fore-bridge  voice-pipe  led  to  the  steering 
compass. 

"You  watch  the  ship's  'ead,  young  feller!"  replied  the 
quartermaster,  who  objected  on  general  principles  to 
famiharity  with  young  ordinary  seamen. 

The  helmsman  accepted  the  rebuke  and  silently  gazed 
into  the  magnifying  prism  on  the  compass  bowl.  This 
docility  touched  the  heart  of  the  quartermaster,  he  determined 
to    unbend. 

"Wotcher  going  to  do  wiv  yer  drop  of  leaf,  my  son?" 
The  helmsman  was  about  to  reply  when  a  voice  from  above 
shouted:  "Port  25  !" 

The  young  lieutenant  was  altering  course  and  the  Belfast 
was  proceeding  in  execution  of  previous  orders. 

As  the  helm  went  over,  the  bow  slowly  swung  round  with 
increasing  speed,  her  long  low  stern  appeared  to  side-slip  in 
the  water  and  as  she  "transferred"  she  left  a  sheet  of  glassy 
water  on  the  inside  of  the  turn. 

The  edge  of  this  sheet  of  water  lapped  and  folded  in 
towards  her  swinging  quarter  with  a  curious  .sucking  sound. 
As  she  was  turning  at  speed,  she  heeled  inwards  two  or  three 
degrees,  and  this,,  combined  with  the  distinctive  rattle  of 
the  steering  engine,  caused  more  than  one  of  the  occupants 
of  cabin  bunks,  and  serried  rows  of  hammocks  on  the  mess- 
decks,  to  wake  and  think  for  a  moment  as  to  the  meaning  of 
the   turn. 

In  a  man-of-war  at  sea,  most  of  her  inhabitants  sleep  very 
lightly,  and  a  swift  turn,  especially  during  the  dayhght 
hours,  makes  every  one  pause  for  a  moment  and  wait  ex- 
pectantly for  the  bump  or  what  a  Hun  ofl&cer  of  my  acquain- 
tance once  described  as  the  "characteristic  jar'  of  a  torpedo 
on  steel   plating." 

At  night  a  turn  probably  wakes  up  half  the  sliip's  company. 
Things — unpleasant  things — can  happen  so  very  quickly 
on  a  dark  n  ight  when  one's  home  is  travelHng  at  25  knots 
without  ligb  ts — it  is  always  wise  to  be  prepared. 

On  the  occasion  I  have  in  mind,  those  of  the  Belfast's 
compa^iy  w'no  were  awakened  by  the  turn,  rolled  over  again 
with  a  happy  smile  on  their  lips."  They  knew  what  it  meant. 
They  knev ;  that  the  rest  of  the  squadron  were  steaming 
south  and  that  they  alone  had  turned  to  the  westward  for 
the  purpo!  ;e  of  making  an  East  Coast  port,  wherein  the  ship 
would  refit  and  from  which  they  would  proceed  on  leave. 
As  the  young  lieutenant  steadied  the  Belfast  on  her  new 
course  and  reported  to  the  Captain,  eight  bells  struck; 
half  a.  dc  zen  hooded  figures  in  lammv  coats  turned  over  to 
the  r.iorning  watch  look-outs  and  tramped  below,  negotiating 
the  iteep  ladders  to  the  upper  deck  with  amazing  swiftness 
in  t  fteir  b  eavy  sea  boots  and  masses  of  warm  clothing. 

\  few  minutes  later  the  navigator  came  up  and,  as  is  the 
ha  bit  of  iiavigators,  fondled  the  compass  and  took  a  bearing 
of  the  sun  . 

To  a  na  vigator  his  standard  compass  is  as  a  good  wife, 
a  pearl  be^yond  price,  for  on  the  accuracy  of  his  compass 


June  20,  191 8 


Land   &  Water 


19 


depends  the  safety  of  the  ship  and  his  professional  reputation. 
In  the  North  Sea  where  opportunities  for  sunsights  are 
often  infrequent  much  navigation  must  be  done  by  dead 
reckoning.  Three  instruments  are  used  for  this,  the  compass, 
the  log,  and  the  lead,  but  the  greatest  of  the  three,  and  the 
most  essential,  is  the  compass. 

Watch  any  navigator  when  he  first  appears  on  the  fore- 
bridge.  He  goes  immechately  to  the  compass,  and  looks 
at  it.  He  will  revolve  the  azimuth  mirror,  and  if  the  glass 
over  the  compass  bowl  is  dirty,  he  will  remove  the  azimuth, 
and  witli  his  pocket  handkerchief  he  will  carefulh'  wipe 
the  glass  clean,  then  look  round  the  horizon  to  see  if  there 
is  anything  which  will  give  him  a  chance  of  taking  a  bearing. 
As  he  leaves  the  bridge  he  nearly  always  launches  a  parting 
shot  at  the  officer  of  the  watch,  to  the  effect  that  careful 
steering  is  particularly  necessary  for  the  next  few  hours. 
Two  or  three  hours  later  he  will  come  up  and  repeat  the 
performance,  including  the  advice. 

In  the  Belfast  the  pavigatpr  often  kept  the  morning  watch 
at  sea,  and  it  was  to  him  that  the  young  lieutenant  turned 
over  the  safety  of  the  ship,  the  Poldhu  Wireless  "Press 
message,"  the  watchkeeper's  electric  kettle,  a  chipped  enamel 
mug  and  a  tin  of  cocoa. 

A  few  minutes  later,  the  young  lieutenant  was  standing 
on  the  quarter  deck,  looking  with  satisfaction  at  half  a 
dozen  wisps  of  smoke  far  astern  and  below  the  liorizon, 
which  marked  the  presence  of  the  squadron  which  the}'  had 
left  for  several  weeks. 

As  he  turned  to  go  down  the  narrow  hatch  that  led  to  the 
cabin  flat,  a  seagull  rose  lazily  from  a  pit  prop  upon  which 
it  had  been  sitting  and  flew  to  another  baulk  of  timber. 
The  young  lieutenant  paused  on  the  top  step  of  the  ladder, 
and  a  hard  look  came  into  his  eyes  ai  he  saw  that  over  an 
area  of  several  hundred  yards  square  the  sea  was  thickly 
covered  with  pit  props  of  Norwegian  pine.  Upon  the  largest 
of  these  timbers  a  dark  mass  of  what  appeared  to  be  clothing 
sprawled  inconsequently,  a  cluster  of  birds  hovered  round  it. 

"Seems  to  have  been  some  dirty  work  at  the  old  cross 
roads,"  murmured  the  young  lieutenant,  addressing  no  one 
in  particular,  unless  it  was  the  sea-gull.  The  gull,  disturbed 
from  its  second  resting-place  by  the  wash  of  the  ship,  rose 
and  flew  over  to  the  dark  mass. 

"Brutes  !"  muttered  the  young  man  as  he  thumped  down 
the  ladder. 

Four  hours  later,  a  sentry  knocked  at  his  cabin  door 
and,  shouting  through  the  curtain,  said :  "  We're  inside  the 
bar,  sir  1  and  going  up  the  river,  the  first  lootenant's  compli- 
ments, an'  will  yer  look  out  for  the  wires  aft  ?" 

A  hasty  toilet — sea  boots,  trousers,  sweater,  and  monkey 
jacket  were  pulled  on,  and  he  went  on  deck. 

The  Belfast  was  slowly  gliding  up  the  very  muddy  waters 
of  an  exceedingly  narrow  river,  but  one  of  the  wombs  of 
Britisii  sea-power,  for  all  its  small  size.  Gggantic  cranes 
stood  on  both  banks.  The  latter  were  covered  with  an 
endless  succession  of  building  slips,   sheds  and  workshops. 

The  continued  roar  of  thousands  of  pneumatic  riveters 
filled  the  air ;.  whistles  blew,  and  long,  lean,  ugly  pipes 
puffed  jets  of  white  exhaust  steam  into  the  smoke-laden 
atmosphere.  High  over  all  towered  the  enormous  chimneys 
with  the  thick  smoke  of  North  Country  coal  streaming  from 
their  lips. 

In  the  shadow  of  the  chimneys,  under  the  pall  of  the  smoke, 
stood  row  upon  row  of  small  houses,  hideously  similar.  These 
stretched  in  serried  rows  up  the  slopes  of  the  valley.  The 
highest  row  was  shrouded  in  smoke  and  mist. 

On  the  quarter-deck  lay  coils  of>  wire  with  which  the  Belfast 
was  to  be  warped  into  dock. 

Close  astern  of  her,  like  faithful  hounds,  splashed  the 
Rambler  and  the  Buster,  two  paddle  tugs,  captained  by 
shabby,  but  knowledgeable  gentlemen,  in  seedy  overcoats 
and  bowler  hats.  At  9  a.m.  the  struggle  began.  Four 
tugs,  two  ahead  and  two  astern,  laboured  to  turn  a  ship, 
four  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long,  in  a  river  three  hundred 
and  seventy  feet  broad.  This  apparent  impossibility  was 
achieved  by  gradually  working  her  nose  into  the  dock. 
,  The  real  interest  to  a  detached  observer  began  when  ship- 
ping tried  to  pass  up  or  down  stream,  and  many  quaint  oaths  in 
English  and  in  Scandinavian  tongues  were  bandied  to  and  fro. 

At  noon  the  dock  gates  were  shut  with  a  thud,  and  they 
began  pumping  out  and  shoring  up. 

The  Paymaster  had  a  busy  time  paying  the  hands,  and 
acting  as  an  interpreter  between  sailors,  who  wanted  tickets 
to  unheard-of  corners  of  the  British  Isles,  and  two  very 
worried  railway  officials. 

I'  .The  Commander  informed  the  watchkeepers  that  one 
of  them  would  have  to  travel  to  London  with  the  10.21  p.m. 
as  two  hundred  of  the  sailors  were  going  by  that,  and  he 
thought  an  ofi&cer  should  be  available  on  the  journey. 


The  lot  falling  on  the  young  lieutenant,  the  rest  of  the 
Wardroom  wished   him  joy   and  went  their   several  ways. 

At  10  p.m.  the  young  lieutenant  arrived  at  the  station, 
and  was  somewhat  surprised  to  hear  a  brass  band  playing 
in  the  central  hall.  It  turned  out  to  be  the  ship's  amateur 
band,  which  was  the  centre  of  an  admiring  crowd  of  some 
fifteen  hundred  people.  As  luck  would  have  it,  the  band 
saw  him  and  raised  a  loud  cheer,  and  the  crowd,  suspecting 
hidden  heroism  somewhere,  joined  in  heartily. 

The  young  lieutenant,  blushing  furiously,  fled  to  his 
sleeper,  devoutly  praying,  the  band  would  miss  their  train. 
It  was  not  so  ordained.  At  2  a.m.  he  was  awakened  by  an 
agitated  attendant.  He  Rooked  through  the  window  and  saw 
thej'  were  at  Bedford. 

Above  the  jangle  of  empty  milk-cans  rose  the  distant 
strains  of  a  band. 

"What  is  it  ?"  said  the  heutenant. 

"  Please,  sir  !  it's  them  sailors  of  yours,  they're  a-playing 
of  the  "Rosary"  on  their  hinstruments,  and  they're  a-playing 
of  it  houtside  the  foremost  sleeper,  and  General  Sir  William 
Somme  is  hout  on  the  platform  in  'is  pink  sleeping  suit, 
cursin'  somefink  'orrid." 

"  My  good  fellow  !  I  don't  care  if  the  whole  Army  Council 
are  on  the  platform  in  purple  pyjamas.  Th^ose  sailors  are  on 
leave,  and,  as  far  as  I  know,  there  is  no  law  preventing  them 
playing  the  "Rosary"  or  any  other  blinking  tune.  They 
probably  think  he  likes  it  .  .  .  I'll  have  some  tea  at  7.30  a.m. 
Good-bye-e  !" 

"  But,  sir  !  Sir  William " 

"I  said  good-bye-e  once,"  said  the  young  lieutenant, 
with  a  touch  of  irritation  in  his  voice. 

The  attendant  withdrew. 

The  last  mournful  chords  of  "Where  my  caravan  has 
rested"  mingled  with  the  guard's  whistle  and  lulled  the 
ofiScer  to  sleep. 

When  he  left  his  sleeper  at  8  a.m.  next  morning,  not  one 
of  his  unruly  flock  was   to  be  seen. 

Breakfast  and  a  Turkish  bath  followed,  and  at  11.45 
the  young  lieutenant  shaped  a  certain  course,  which  led 
to  the  "Sigrt  oi  Capricomus." 

*  *  * 

It  is  permitted  to  follow  him  to  the  door  of  this  very  remark- 
able place,  which  excites  the  wildest  curiosity  on  the  part 
of  many  mothers  and  sisters,  but  the  descriptive  pen  may 
go  no  further.   "Members  only"  is  a  rule   rigidly    enforced. 

Nor  would  it  be  fair  to  follow  his  movements  during  the 
subsequent  ten  days. 

Sufficient  to  say  that  his  passion  for  navigation  led  him 
to  explore  many  reaches  and  backwaters  of  the  Thames, 
and  that  he  was  not  alone. 

*  *  * 

Three  weeks  had  elapsed  since  that  first  morning  when  the 
Belfast  had  parted  company. 

Once  again  it  was  early  in  the  day — about  6  a.m. — once 
again  the  young  lieutenant  was  on  watch,  but  this  time 
he  searched  the  horizon  for  signs  of  the  squadron,  with  some- 
what different  feelings. 

At  6.30  a.m.  light  tapering  masts  showed  up,  followed  by 
funnels  and  hulls  as  the  range  decreased. 

Accurately  the  Belfast  adjusted  her  course  and  speed  to 
wheel  into  line  behind  the  rear  ship. 

*~'  As  she  did  so,  the  flagship  ran  up  a  couple  of  hoists  of  flags. 
r^"The  old  man  welcoming  us  back  and  hoping  we  have 
had  a  pleasant  leave,"  jested  the   lieutenant    to  the  sub. 

"I  do  not  think  !"  replied  the  latter. 

A  signalman  jumped  up  the  ladder:   "Signal,  sir.'' 

"Read  it,"  said  the  lieutenant. 

"Flag  to  Belfast — make  less  smoke — ^prepare  for  ranging 
exercise,"     announced  .  the  signalman. 

"War   is   Hell!     sub,"   laughed    the    young    lieutenant. 

The  sub  sang  in  a  low  voice  as  much  as  he  could  remember 
of  Let  the  great,  big  world  keep  turning  ;  it  reminded  him  of 
a  girl  he  had  met  at  a  dance  in  town  and  temporarily  caused 
him  to  forget  the  imminence  of  the  ranging  exercise. 


The  Miracle  of  Saint  Anthony  (Methuen  &  Co.,  3s.  6d.  net) 
is  a  delightful  little  play  by  M.  Maurice  Maeterlinck,  describing 
the  inconveniences  that  might  ensue  if  a  kindly  old  saint  returned 
to  earth  and  restored  to  life  the  dead,  in  the  form  of  an  elderly 
lady  in  a  middle-class  family,  who  had  departed  from  the  world 
leaving  behind  her  quite  a  nice  little  bit  of  money,  and  whose 
will  had  been  read.  As  can  be  easily  understood,  the  feeUngs  of 
the  family  were  decidedly  mixed.  While  prepared  to  shed  a 
decent  tear,  it  had  quickly  adapted  itself  to  the  sad  occasion, 
and  poor  St.  Anthony  weis  treated  not  as  a  blessed  saint,  but  as 
an  impertinent  intruder.  The  play  is  a  delightful  piece  of 
delicate  satire,  and  it  has  been  excellently  translated  by  Mr, 
Alexander  Teixera  de  Mattos, 


20 


Land   &   Water 


June  20,  191B 


Sinaia    Palace  :    By  G.  C.  Williamson 


BUCHAR1-:ST  is  one  of  the  hottest  cities  in  Europe, 
and  incidentally,  one  must  add,  one  of  the  most 
expensive  in  which  to  reside.  In  consequence,  its 
more  ■  wealthy  residents  leave  their  homes  and 
])alaccs  as  soon  as  the  hot  weather  approaches 
and  hasten  to  the  mountains,  where  nestled  amongst  the 
peaks  of  the  Carpathians  is  the  .lovely  valley  of  Sinaia. 

Sinaia  has  grown  into  its  present  fashionable  position 
during  the  past  fifty  /years.  Previously  it  was  simply  a 
lovely  village  in  a  deep  valley,  surrounded  by  pine  forests, 
hemmed  in  by  huge  mountains,  well  watered  and  well  pas- 
tured, and  possessing  as  its  solitary  attraction  a  monastery 
founded  on  an 
ancient  site  by 
the  Spartan 
Michael  Canta- 
cuzene  in  1695. 
Visitors  occasi- 
onally discovered 
its  charm,  re- 
joiced in'  the 
beauty  of  its 
scenery,  lodged 
with  the  hospit- 
able monks  in 
their  convent, 
and  either  rested 
bv  its  streams,  *^ 
drank  its  medi- 
cinal waters,  or 
pursued  the  wild 
game  on  its 
mountains.     * 

In  1866,  how- 
ever, Prince 
Carol,  visiting 
for  the  first  time 
the  country  over 
which  he  was  to 
rule  as  king, 
came  to  Sinaia, 
and  was  charmed 
with  its  beauty. 
In  1871  he  and 
Princess  Eliza- 
beth (afterwards 
so  well  known 
as  Carmen 
Sylva)  spent  the 
whole  summer 
in  the  place, 
lodging  at  the 
monastery,  and 
then  decided  to 
erect  close  to 
the  village,  on  a 
wonderfiil  spot 
in  the  forest, 
a  summer  resi- 
dence to  be  at- 
tached to  the  Crown, 
which,  unhappily,  has 
German  ImperiaJ  Staff. 

It  was  under  much  happier  auspices  that  I  had  the 
honour  and  privilege  of  being  many  times  the  guests  of  their 
Majesties  and  of  seeing  the  beauties  of  their  summer  home. 
King  Carol  was  a  great  lover  of  pictutes,  and  he  had  as  a 
young  man  a  chance  of  acquiring  en  bloc  the  entire  collection 
of  a  Spanish  nobleman.  He  was  told  that  a  few  of  the 
pictures  in  it  were  only  copies  ;  but  he  knew  that  some  were 
masterpieces  of  the  highast  value,  and  very  wisely  he  secured 
the  entire  lot,  and  when  he  was  called  to  the  throne  of 
Rumania,  enriched  the  palaces  of  Bucharest  and  Sinaia 
with  his  treasures. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  being  escorted  round  the  gallery* 
by  the  King  himself,  and  of  advising  him  respecting  some 
of  the  pictures,  and  in  return  for  this  advice  the  King  pre- 
sented me  with  copies  of  his  privately  issued  illustrated 
catalogue.  The  house  stands  alone  in  the  midst  of  pine 
trees,  at  the  foot  of  a  giant  mountain.  It  is  unique  in  style, 
and  built  under  difficulties,  for  all  the  material,  save 
the  native  stone,  had  to  be  brought  into  the  valley  from 
a  distance.     It    is    like    a    fairy  *  residence    which  bursts 


Hence    arose   the  Chateau   Pelesch, 
lately  been  in  the  occupation  of  the 


upon  the  view  as  one  suddenly  leaves  the  forest,  and  it  is 
surrounded  by  green'  terraces  and  flower  gardens,  with 
numerous  fountains  of  entrancing  beauty. 

Its  interior  decoration  owes  much  to  the  hands  of  Carmen 
Sylva.  Her  wonderful  sense  of  colour  is  very  marked  ;  the 
frescoes  on  the  walls  are  from  her  designs,  the  chapel  decora- 
tion largely  her  own  wor"k,  and  her  own  boudoir,  with  its 
darkened  niche  in  which  I  had  the  privilege  of  hearing  that 
gifted  Oueen  awaken  the  tones  of  a  fine  orgari  in  a  fugue  of, 
her  own  composition,  is  enfirely  arranged  to  her  own  scheme 
of  design.  The  stained  glass  windows  throughout  the  palace 
depict  the  legends  and  folk  lore  of  her  adopted  country. 

The  dark  oak 
panelling,  the 
rich  enamel 
ornaments,  the 
great  white  polar 
bear  skins  which 
cover  the  flo.ors, 
the  rich  harmony 
of  the  furniture, 
glass,  and  hang- 
ings, all  bespeak 
her  skill,  and  the 
effect  of  the  in- 
terior is  that 
strange  mingling 
of  savage,  poetic, 
dreamy  melody 
which  is  so 
marked  a  charac- 
teristic of  the 
poetry  which 
gave  to  the 
Oueen  her  best- 
known  name. 
The  little  theatre 
in  the  palace  is 
also  her  creation, 
and  perfect  in 
every  detail. 
The  decoration 
of  the  plumage  of 
peacocks  which 
appears  in  so 
many  rooms  is 
her  idea,  but  the 
long  gallery  in 
which  one  waits 
before  dinner, 
the  library,  with 
its  splendid 
volumes,  and  the 
pictures  which 
crowd  the  walls 
of  passages  and 
apartments  alike 
are  due  to  the 
tastes  of  the  con- 
queror of  Plevna, 


Sinaia  :   Palace   (right)   Monastery   (left) . 


whose  gun-metal  crown,  with  its  few  rare  stones,  was  so 
modest  in   its  simpUcity. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  Crown  Princess  was  at  the 
zenith  of  her  exceptional  beauty  and,  surrounded,  as  she 
was,  by  a  group  of  her  children  second  to  those  of  no 
reigning  family  in  loveliness,  presented  a  sight  of  personal 
fascination. 

The  children  were  the  Princesses  Elizabeth  and  Mignon  and 
Prince  Carl  (who  is  now  heir  to  the  throne).  King  Carol  was 
profoundly  in  love  with  his  pictures,  and  discoursed  of  them 
in  French  with  glowing  enthusiasm  and  scholarly  discretion. 
Alone  of  all  sovereigns,  he  owns  many  works  by  El  Greco, 
the  strange  Creto-Spaniard,  in  his  private  gallery,  and  he  is 
almost  alone  also  in  appreciating  this  wayward  genius  at  his 
full  value. 

The  precursor  of  Velasquez,  the  teacher  of  all  modern 
art,  the  man  from  whom  Sargent  learned  more  than 
from  any  other  painter,  and  the  first  profound  student  of 
colour  values,  El  Greco  stands  out  supreme  as  one  of  the 
greatest  pamters  in  the  world,  and  to  see  him  at  his  best 
stand  before  his  portrait  of  Covarrubia  at  Sinaia. 

What  now  is  the  condition  of  Sinaia,  one  hesitates  to 
think.    Where  now  are  the  famous  pictures  ? 


June  27,  1 9 1  8 


Supplement  to    Land    &    Water 


XI 


NOTEDLY  SUCCESSFUL 

BREECHES-MA  KING 

We  have  long  been 
notedly  successful  in 
breeches  -  making,  and 
we  maintain  this  good 
repute  by  guaranteeing 
all  the  essential  factors 
—  fine  wear  -  resisting 
cloths,  skilful  cutting, 
careful,  honest  tailor- 
work  ;  and  our  experi- 
ence,ninety-seven  years, 
is  certainly  adequate 
beyond  question. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number 
of  pairs  of  oflBcers'  riding 
breeches,  and  are  therefore 
often  able  tomeet  immediate 
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And  at  PARIS 


LAND  &  WATER 

V0I.LXXI.     No.  2929.     [vT/r]  THURSDAY,  JUNE  27,   1918         [^^%f^W^,i^\     '^r^f^'SiE ,lf^5hl 


Ctpytifht,  1918,  U^A. 


-^       I  I  nil  ll.Lluu 
Copyright,  "  Lana  &  Watm:' 


Scheidemann  preparing  Peace  Samples  for  Troelstra 
The  Allies  have  Declined  with  Thanks 

By  Louis  Raemaekers 


Land    &   Water 


June  27,  1 918 


LAND  &  WATER 

5  CHANCERY  LANE,  LONDON,  W.C.2 

Tdepbene  1   HOLBORN    zgll. 

THURSDAY,  JUNE  27,  1918. 


Contents 


Peace  S;uiiples.     (Cartoon.)     By  Raemaekers 
The  Outlook 

The  Italian  Victory.     By  H.  Belloc 
Further  Progress.     By  Arthur  Pollen 
The  Turkish  Conspiracy. — VII.     By  H.  Morgcnthau 
The  Kaiser  :  Mad  or  Bad  ?     By  Charles  Mercier 
•    Flying  Sailors.     By  Hennan  Whitaker 

A  Charter  for  Agriculture.     By  Sir  Herbert  Matthews 

The  Auxiliary  Cruiser.     By  N.  M.  F.  Corbett 

High  Spirits.     By  J.  C.  Squire 

Birds  as  they  Live:     By  Francis  Stopford 

A  Topographer.     (Illustrated.)     By  Charles  Marriott 

London  Sanctuary.     By  Millar  Dunning 

Household  Notes 

Notes  on  Kit 


P.\GE 

I 
2 
3 

7 

8 

II 
12 
14 
15 
16 

17 
18 

2q 
22 
25 


The  Outlook 


A  DISPATCH  sent  from  Italian  Headquarters  by 
General  Diaz  last  Sunday  evening  announced  the 
termination  of  the  Austrian  offensive  and  the 
retirement  of  the  enemy  over  the  bridges  of  the 
Piave.  The  same  dispatch  says  that  the  retire- 
ment has  been  conducted  in  disorder.  It  is  not  yet  known 
how  far  the  enemy's  determination  to  abandon  the  battle 
has  led  to  loss  in  men  and  material.  It  is  generally  believed 
that  no  heavy  guns  have  been  brought  across  by  him  save 
possibly  over  the  considerable  number  of  bridges  thrown 
across  at  St.  Dona  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  river.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  had  70,000  men  to  transfer  to  the  eastern 
bank,  and  the  bridges  which  he  built  and  floated  from  one 
side  to>  the  other  were  in  part  destroyed  some  days  ago  by 
the  flood  of  the  iSth  and  iqth  of  the  month.  There  is  every 
indication  that  the  determination  to  retire  was  taken  after 
the  failure  of  the  last  thrust  west  of  St.  Dona  last  Friday, 
and  after  the  Italians  had  crossed  the  mouth  of  the  Piave 
the  same  day  and  threatened  the  enemy's  rear.  In  that 
case  the  enemy  had  about  tliirty-six  hours  in  which  to  prepare 

his  retirement. 

*  *  * 

The  first  question  asked  by  all  who  have  followed  the 
recent  offensive  and  its  failure  in  Italy  is  the  effect  its  reverse 
may  have  upon  the  domestic  conditions  of  Austria-Hungary. 
The  dual  monarchy  consists  essentially  of  five  parts,  three 
of  which  are  composed  of  subject  nations  and  races,  two  of 
which  consist  of  dominant  States  of  German-speaking  Austria, 
and  Magyar-speaking  Hungary.  One  may  say,  roughly, 
that  of  rather  over  50  milHon  people  there  are  10  million 
in  each  of  the  last  two,  and  30  million  of  the.  remainder 
of  which  the  greater  part  are  Slavs.  The  latter  are 
separated  greatly  by  distance,  and  in  part?  by  the  varieties 
of  dialect  and  language,  while  all  are  in  various  degrees 
attached  to  the  dynasty,  save  some  groups  in  Bohemia  and 
Croatia  and  the  greater  part  of  the  Poles. 

If  only  this  political  divergenc}'  were  at  work,  the  difficulty 
the  Hapsburg  dynasty  would  have  to  face  through  a  military 
reverse  would  not  be  so-  great ;  but  fortunately  there 
is  also  an  economic  strain  in  the  country  more  severe  than 
that  suffered  by  any  other  present  belligerent,  and  it  is  this 
which  is  the  really  grave  feature  in  the  present  situation. 
It  means  that  if  the  present  offensive,  with  its  great  losses, 
is  definitely  abandoned,  another  can  hardly  be  undertaken, 
the  immediate  future  will  show  us  whether  the  check  of  the 
Austrians  in  Italy  will  lead  to  any  considerable  developments 
on  this  count. 

All  that  we  are  told  of  the  internal  or  domestic  enemy 
conditions  through  neutral  sources  should,  as  a  rule,  be 
taken  with  a  large  dose  of  salt  ;  but  there  are  known  facts  in 
this  case.  For  instance,  the  demonstrations  in  Vienna, 
the  diminution  of  the  rations  and  the  Hungarian  strikes. 
Those  things  are,  and  the  whole  state  of  society  in  Austria- 
Hungary,  so  far  as  the  town  papulation,  at  least,  is  concerned, 
is  liigldy  unstable. 


The  supper  given  in  the  Royal  Gallery  of  the  Palace  of 
Westminster  last  week  to  the  Prime  Ministers  of  the  Dominions 
and  other  representatives  attendirg  the  Imjicrial  War  Confer- 
ence emphasises  again  the  serious  handicap  imposed  on 
overseas  statesmen  when  they  attend  the  Imperial  Councils 
of  the  mother  country.  For  public  utterances  they  are 
entirely  dependent  on  chance  hospitalit\'.  They  are  given 
no  platform  from  which  they  may  speak  freely  and  frankly, 
and  without  the  restraint  that  the  conditions  of  the  moment 
impose.  We  wrote  strongly  on  this  subject  a  year  ago,  and 
we  repeat  most  emphatically  that  every  Dominion  Prime 
Minister  or  his  representative  who  attends  an  Imjx^rial 
Cabinet  should  ipso  facto  be  given  a  seat  on  the  cross-benches 
of  the  House  of  Lords.  He  would  then  be  at  hberty  to 
speak  to  the  Empire  with  absolute  frankness  ;  it  may  be  on 
occasion  he  would  feel  it  his  duty  to  censure  the  Government 
on  detail, t)uthecoulddoso without  any  base  insinuation  that 
he  had  been  slighted  or  snubbed.  The  objection  to  this 
l^roposal  is  that  it  would  give  Dominion  poHticians  an  oppor- 
tunity to  interfere  in  domestic  politics.  There  is  no  real 
ground  for  this.  These  men  are  accustomed  to  tiie  codes 
and  etiquettes  of  free  Parlianients,  and  seeing  that  their  very 
position  testifies  they  are  possessed  of  strong  characters,  we 
are  convinced  they  would  not  offend  in  this  respect.  In  any' 
case,  as  they  arc  now  placed,  their  position  is  humiliating 
should  they  desire  to  address  the  nation  in  the  public  manner 
they  are  accustomed  to  speak  in  their  own  territory.  This 
handicap  should  not  be  permitted  to  continue. 

*  *  * 

"Ireland  remains  as  Irish  as  ever,"  was  the  phrase  used 
the  other  day  by  a  distinguished  Dublin  publicist  to  sum  up 
the  situatipn.  And  after  Lord  Curzon's  speech  in  the  House 
of  Lords  last  week,  he  might  have  added  "And  England 
remains  as  English  as  ever."  A  more  lugubrious  confession 
of  failure  has  never  been  publicly  made  in  the  Palace  of 
Westminster.  As  we  said  here  two  or  three  weeks  ago,  the 
one  deadly  sin  in  Government's  policy  towards  Ireland 
would  be  hesitation — -vacillation.  This  has  been  committed, 
and  events  do  not  forgive.  As  Lord  Londonderry  said, 
Ireland  has  been  cajoled  at  one  moment  and  dragooned  at 
another.  It  is  of  no  avail  to  throw  the  blame  on  either  the 
Nationalists  or  the  priesthood.  The  fault  is  the  Govern- 
ment's, and  it  is  the  more  glaring,  remembering  the  fanfare  of 
trumpets  which  greeted  the  present  Prime  Minister  when 
he  was  deputed  to  Ireland  after  the  Easter  Rebellion.  Wliat 
is  going  to  happen  now  ?  Things  are  not  going  to  stand 
still.  The  position  to-day  is  serious  enough  ;  it  will  quickly 
get  worse  unless  a  firm  policy  be  adopted. 

*  *  * 

German  propaganda  is  an  old  story  nowadays,  but  never 
have  its  workings  been  more  nakedly  exposed  than  by  Mr. 
Morgenthau  in  his  chapter  on  the  Turkish  Conspiracy.  He 
has  related  how  Goebcn  and  iSrcs/a!<  passed  through  the 
Dardanelles  in  defiance  of  international  treaties,  and  he  now 
tells  how  the  Turks  were  prepared  for  the  closing  of  the 
Dardanelles  by  the  high-handed  action  of  a  German  General 
on  his  own  responsibility.  .\  more  cynical  contempt  of  the 
rights  of  neutral  nations  has  never  been  exp)Osed,  and  we 
have  no  .difficulty  in  realising  the  manner  in  which  Germany 
would  have  acted  over  the  blockade  had  her  position  and 
Great  Britain's  been  reversed.  Mr.  Morgenthau's  disclosures 
increase  in  interest ;  thej'  are  the  strongest  indictment  that 
has  yet  been  launched  against  the  unscrupulous  methods  of 
the  German  Foreign  Office — methods  which  obviously  won 
the  complete  approval  of  the  Kaiser. 

*  *      '  * 

The  British  farmer  has  done  so  well  since  a  demand  was 
made  upon  his  services  for  increased  production  that  every 
one  who.  knows  anything  about  the  facts  must  be  resentful 
at  the  odious  manner  in  which  he  has  been  maligned  as 
though  a  slacker  and  shirker.  The  new  call  upon  the  agri- 
cultural classes  was  only  made  bj'  the  Government  with 
reluctance,  and  because  they  were  convinced  of  its  necessity. 
It  has  been  freely  responded  to  at  no  small  risk  to  tillage  and 
stock  in  certain  districts.  Shepherds,  horsekeepers,  and 
cowmen  are  not  trained  in  a  day,  and  the  farmer  is  often  at 
his  wits'  end  to  find  efficient  substitutes.  It  is  too  fre- 
quently overlooked  that  the  Yeomanry  which  performed 
splendid  service  at  GalHpoli,  and  in  Egypt,  Palestine,  and 
elsewhere,  is  mainly  recruited  from  the  farming  class,  which 
has  done  its  duty  bravely  and  well,  both  on  the  battlefield 
and  the  harvest-field.  We  should  like  to  see  the  labours  of 
the  tenant  farmer  officially  recognised.  He  who  doubles 
the  production  of  his  acres  is  surely  worthy  of  public  honour. 
In  this  issue  the  effect  of  the  report  of  Lord  Seiborne's  Com- 
mittee on  the  future  of  farming  is  discussed.  1 


June  27,   1 91 8 


Land    &   Water 


The  Italian  Victory :   By  H.  Belloc 


MY  task  this  week  is  a  difiBcult  one.  The  last 
news  that  has  come  in  at  the  moment  of  writ- 
ting  is  a  dispatch  of  only  just  over  twenty 
words  from  General  Diaz  to  the  effect  that 
the  Austrians     are     recrossing   the   Piave   in 

disorder.     Beyond  that  we  know  nothing,   and  very  little 

useful  commentary  can  be  made  upon  a  statement  at  once 

so  important  and  so  simple,  until  the  detailed  results  of  the 

Italian  pursuit  shall  be  given  us. 
All  we  can  do  in  the  meanwhile  is  to  present  the  position 

as  clearly  as  may  be,  and  show  what  its  possibilities  are ; 

after  which  a  recapitulation  of- the  battle  may  also  be  of 

some  service. 

The  enemy  in  forcing  the    Piave  a    week    ago    achieved 

roughly  three  things  upon  this  front. 

In  the  North  he  seized  the  eastern  end  of  the  Montello,  an 
isolated  hill  giving  excellent  observation,  and  threatening, 
if  it  could  be  taken  in  its  entirety,  to  outflank  the  whole  of 
the  Piave  line  from  the  north  or  left.  At  the  other  extremity 
he  occupied  rapidly  and  successfully  a  considerable  bridge- 
head beyond  the  point  of  St.  Dona,  the  lowest  point  at 
which  an  offensive  crossing  can  be  made  with  any  hope  of 
deploying  largely  upon  the  further  side.  And  this  establish- 
ment of  a  large  bridgehead  threatened,  if  it  were  ex- 
tended, to  turn  the  Piave  line  by  the  right  or  southern 
flank.  Meanwhile  he  had  crossed  at  numerous  points  in  be- 
tween, but  in  lesser  force,  and  with  the  object  of  holding  the 
ItaUans  there,  rather  than  of  advancing.  The  plan  was 
clearly  one  of  envelopment  by  the  two  wings.  The  Piave, 
which  for  much  the  greater  part  of  the  year  is  no  great  ob- 
stacle north  of  a  point  about  six  miles  from  St.  Dona,  and 
which  even  when  it  is  in  flood  is  an  obstacle  only  occasionally 
(because  it  rises  and  falls  so  rapidly),  behaved  in  a  fashion 
p)eculiarly  embarrassing  to  the  offensive.  It  had  risen  suf- 
ficiently to  help  the  first  crossing ;  for,  paradoxical  though  it 
sounds,  a  certain  small  rise  of  the  river  helps  troops  to  cross 
in  the  higher  reaches,  allowing  pontoon  bridges  to  be 
thrown  across,  whereas  when  the  water  is  at  its  lowest,  there 
is  a  mixture  of  fordable  places,  and  numerous  narrow  arms  a 
little  too  deep  to  be  fordable,  which  make  a  very  complicated 
task.  The  enemy's  first  crossings,  then,  a  week  ago,  were 
made  under  conditions  perhaps  as  good  as  any  that  could 
have  been  chosen  by  him,  and  it  is  probable  that  he  picked 
his  moment  in  connection  with  the  then  state  of  the  river. 
The  bridges  once  firmly  established,  and  more  permanent  ones 
constructed  by  the  engineers  behind  the  cover  of  the  bridge- 
heads consolidated  on  the  further  bank,  would,  if  the  river 
should  fall  again,  give  every  advantage  for  the  continuation 
of  the  programme.  But  the  river  rose  unexpectedly  upon 
the  third  day  of  the  operations.  Many  existing  bridges,  and 
apparently  all  those  under  construction  were  swept  away. 
It  was  only  in  the  deeper  part,  atove  St.  Dona,  that  a  number 
of  large  pontoon  bridges — no  less  than  five — completely  stood 
the  strain.  Elsewhere,'  in  varying  degrees,  the  new  work  was 
damaged  or  destroyed.  The  bridge  on  the  extreme  north 
supplying  the  Montello  and  crossing  at  Nervesa  was  main- 
tained, but  for  many  miles  below  everything  went.  General 
Maurice  has  pointed  out  in  the  Daily  Chronicle  the  impor- 
tant element  in  this  affair,  which  is  the  presence  of  cut  logs  in 
the  higher  part  of  the  torrent  bed  up  in  the  mountains,  which, 
coming  down  on  the  swollen  current,  would  act  as  battering 
rams  against  the  piles  of  the  new  bridges  and  the  pontoons. 
He  remarks  with  justice  that  though  the  operations  of  the 
woodsmen  would  naturally  be  suspended  during  hostihties, 
a  great  deal  of  the  cut  timber  would  still  be  left  lying  above 
flood  level,  and  would  be  caught  when  the  river  rose,  and 
whirled  down. 

This  rise  in  the  Piave  very  gravely  hampered  the  supply  of 
the  Austrian  troops  who  had  managed  to  cross.  It  starved 
the  considerable  force  which  had  seized  the  eastern  end  of 
the  Montello  and  all  the  various  detachments  down  the 
middle  of  the  stream.  Nothing  was  left  tolerably  supplied 
except  the  bridge  head  to  the  west  of  St.  Dona,  on  the  lower 
reaches,  where^  the  flood  was  less  violent  and  the  permanent 
depth  of  water  gave  security  to  the  pontoon  bridges.  It 
was  therefore  here,  west  of  St.  Dona,  that  the  chief  Austrian 
effort  could  be  made,  and  apparently  as  many  as  five  divisions 
were  ready  to  take  part  in  it,  a  considerable  portion  of  which 
had  by  the  end  of  the  week  crossed  to  the  right  or  eastern  bank. 
It  is  estimated  that  by  that  time — Thursday  and  Friday- 
some  70,000  Austro-Hungarians  were  beyond  the  stream. 
Much    the    greater    part    of    them    concentrated     on   the 


Montello,  and  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  line,  west  of  St. 
Dona ;  the  remainder  strung  out  in  narrow  batches  between 
the  two. 

At  this  point  there  enters  an  element  of  far  more  import- 
ance even  than  the  behaviour  of  the  river,  with  its  sudden 
and  unexpected  flood,  and  that  element  was  the  skilful 
handhng  of  the  Italian  reserv'es,  coupled  with  the  excellent 
fighting  quahties  which  they  displayed.  At  the  two  chief 
points— the  Montello  and  the  St.  Dona  bridge-head— the 
Italian  pressure  began  to  be  heavy  by  Wednesday,  and 
decisive  throughout  Thursday  and  Friday  ;  while  the  smalkr 
Austrian  forces  in  the  middle  were  thoroughly  pressed  back 
to  the  very  banks  of  the  stream.  At  the  close  of  these 
operations  two  things  were  already  clear.  First,  that  the 
enemy  would  not  succeed  in  itaching  the  summit  of  the 
Montello,  and  would  therefore  fail  to  obtain  either  that 
obser\-ation  over  the  plain,  or  that  position  upon  the  flank 
of  the  Itahan  fine,  both  of  which  were  his  objects  in  attempting 
to  capture  the  hill.  Second,  that  his  only  chance  of  further 
advance  was  in  the  south— west  of  St.  Dona.  Here  he 
made  very  vigorous  efforts,  but  the  Italian  rapidity  was 
too  much  for  him.  He  could  not  supply  at  anything  hkc 
the  rate  which  was  demanded  by  the  increasing  pressure 
against  him,  and  before  Saturday  he  had  lost  his  battle. 

Meanwhile,  on  Friday  there  had  taken  place  an  operation 
the  effect  of  which  was  probably  very  great,  though  no 
dispatch  has  yet  given  us  the  co-ordination  between  it  and 
the  Austrian  retreat.  I  refer  to  the  passage  of  a  mixed 
Italian  force  of  soldiers  and  sailors  across  the  canahsed 
mouth  of  the  two  rivers,  Sile  and  Piave,  at  Cavazuccherina. 
The  Piave  in  its  natural  state  runs  from  St.  Dona  south-  , 
eastwardly  into  the  sea  at  Cortelazzo.  But  it  had  another 
branch,  called  the  Old  Piave,  running  into  the  marshy  lagoons 
north  of  Venice.  Just  where  this  touches  the  brackish  water 
the  httle  river  Sile  comes  in,  at  the  point  called  Capo  Sile. 
From  this  point  a  canal  has  been  dug  along  the  edge  of  the 
lagoon  with  high  banks,  which  carries  the  water  of  the  Sile 
and  of  the  Old  Piave  down  to  Cortelazzo,  at  the  piouth  of 
the  Piave  proper. 

Now,  this  canal  is  the  chief  obstacle  of  the  neighbourhood. 
Through  it  passes  the  great  bulk  of  the  water  coming  down 
the  Piave  bed,  and  a  body  which  can  force  this  obstacle  will 
certainly  be  able  sooner  or  later,  unless  there  is  special  con- 
centration against  it,  to  force  the  easier  obstacle  of  the 
Piave  proper  a  little  further  east,  between  Grisolera  and 
Kevedolo. 

A  study  of  the  curious  ground  in  this  neighbourhood  at 
once  shows  the  importance  of  such  a  move.     South  of  the 


i^ossctru 


illSJOl 


01        2       J        t       ^      S       7 


fine  formed  by  the  River  Sile  and  the  canal  you  have  abso- 
lutely impossible  ground  formed  by  the  shallows  and  mud  flatsof 
the  lagoon.  North  of  it,  between  Capo  Sile  and  Fossalta  there 
is  ground  difficult  indeed  between,  for  it  is  cut  up  by  in- 
numeiable  ditches  and  willow  banks  with  very  narrow  raised 
paths  hardly  to  be  called  roads  ;  but  stiU  an  advance  is 
possible  to  the  enemy,  and  here  it  was  that  his  advance  has 
been  made.  He  held  all  the  northern  half  of  this  district, 
which  is  bounded  by  the  Sile,  the  Piave,  the  Old  Piave,  and 
the  Fossetta  Canal.  He  even  managed  to  cross  the  latter 
obstacle,  and  had  nearly  reached  I.osson,  which  he  was  in 
the  act  of  assaulting,  when  his  opponent  seized  the  crossing 
at    Cavazuccherina,    far    away    on    his    left.      Eastward  of 


Land   &   Water 


June  27,  1 9 18 


Cavaxuccherina  there  is  hard  land.  Any  movement  there 
can  be  supported  from  the  sea,  and  the  St'  Dona  bridge-head 
might  be  turned.  It  will,  I  say,  probablv  appear,  when  we 
have  the  full  accounts  after  the  war,  that  the  passage  of  the 
water  here,  with  the  threat  it  contained  of  advancing  towards 
Grisolcra,  was  the  movement  which  finally  decided  the  enemy 
to  abandon  his  bridge-head  west  of  St.  Dona,  and  with  the 
loss  of  that  there  was  no  reason  for  attempting  to  liuld  the 
difficult  central  bridge-heads  up  stream. 

The  point  of  interest  then  became  (and  is  at  the  moment 
of  writing),  the  measure  of  success  which  the  enemy  would 
have  in  withdrawing  his  troops  across  the  river.  Save  in 
the  St.  Dona  bridge-head,  the  distance  to  be  traversed 
was  insignificant.  The  Austrians  were  quite  close  to  the 
stream.  It  is  probable  also  that  not  much  heavy  material 
had  yet  been  got  over.  But  though  the  distance  of  retire- 
ment was  very  short  and  the  impediments  accompanying  it 
probably  few,  with  insufiicient  bridges,  the  bringing  over  of 
70,000  men,  which  is  something  like  a  man  to  a  yard,  counting 
all  the  bends  of  the  stream,  would  be  a  formidable  task  ; 
and  what  we  are  now  waiting  for  is  news  of  how  far  that 
task  has  been  accomplished.  But  it  began  (probably)  on 
Saturday,  and  was  not  (apparently)  observed  till  after 
mid-day  on  Sunday.  The  losses  of  the  Austrians  had 
already  been  exceedingly  heavy  before  their  offensive  move- 
ment failed.  It  has  continually  appeared  in  the  latter 
stages  of  this  war  that  a  successful  offensive  in  its  first  stages 
is  far  less  e.xpensive  to  the  attacker  than  to  the  attacked, 
and  this  is  due  to  the  change  in  the  value  of  artillery.  But 
the  second  phase,  when  the  offensive  begins  to  be  continued, 
when  it  still  struggles  to  go  forward,  and  when  it  has  aban- 
doned this  hope,  and  begins  to  consolidate  itself,  is  the  one 
in  which  losses  begin  to  tell.  Now,  in  the  case  of  the  present 
Austrian  offensive  this  second  stage  was  greatly  prolonged 
in  comparison  with  the  first.  The  crossings  of  the  river 
and  the  first  apparently  successful  shock  against  the  Italian 
line  was  a  matter  of  thirty-six  hours  only,  and  much  the 
greater  part  of  the  work  was  done  in  the  first  twelve  ;  but 
after  that  there  came  seven  days  of  continuous  fighting 
without  any  appreciable  advance  save  the  four  or  five 
thousand  yards  west  of  St.  Dona.  Everywhere  else  the 
offensive  was  checked,  and  yet  attempted  to  extend  itself 
even  after  the  position  was  hopeless. 

In  the  particular  case  of  the  Montello  the  offensive  steadily 
declined  in  power  during  all  that  week,  until  it  had  turned 
from  a  true  offensive  into  a  precarious  defensive. 

The  same  thing  was  going  on  all  down  the  river  to 
the  neighbourhood  of  Fossalta.  Even  there,  in  the 
St.  Dona  salient,  the  Italian  pressure  increased  so  rapidly 
that  the  enemy  began  to  lose  ground,  and  his  final  attempt 
last  Friday  to  enlarge  himself  by  a  full  massed  attack  against 
Losson  was  cruelly  battered.  Under  such  circumstances,  the 
rate  of  casualties  must  necessarily  have  been  very  high 
indeed.  How  high  exactly  we  do  not  know,  but  we  shall  be 
able  to  estimate  it  better  when  the  Italians  have  occupied 
this  belt,  which  the  Austrians  are  abandoning,  and  can 
judge  the  waste  of  their  enemy  by  observation  upon  the 
ground  itself. 

Since  there  is  nothing  more  to  be  said  of  the  movement 
until  further  reports  come  in,  which  will  Show  us  how  far 
the  Austrians  have  been  successful  in  withdrawing  to  the 
further  bank,  let  us  turn  to  a  general,  though  brief,  recapitula- 
tion of  the  battle. 

To  understand  the  battle  as  a  whole,  it  is  best  to  put  it  in 
the  simplest  possible  form,  and  for  that  purpose  I  will  here 
append  a  sketch  in  which  nothing  is  mentioned  but  the  ab- 
solutely essential  points,  and  these  only  in  diagrammatic 
form. 


You  have  on  this  diagram  the  Allied  front  in  the  two  sec- 
tors attacked,  which  may  be  called  respectively  the  River 
Sector  and  the  Mountain  Sector.  You  have  that  front  mainly 
though  not  entirely  supplied  by  communications  running  as 


does  the  barred  line  in  the  diagram.  The  enemy  masses 
against  this  line  from  Lake  Garda  to  the  sea  almost  the  whole 
of  his  offensive  forces.  There  was  nothing  left  in  the  Eastern 
marches  of  Europe,  in  what  was  once  the  Russian  Empire, 
but  a  small  number  of  troops  of  low  value,  and  in  the  Balkan 
mountains  little  more  than  a  police  force.  The  Austro- 
Hungarian  Empire,  therefore,  can  put  71  divisions  into  line 
against  the  Italians  and  the  Allied  contingents  who  are  with 
them.  Of  these  71  divisions  he  engages  no  less  than  41  for 
the  first  main  shock  and  its  immediate  reserves  of  men,  keep- 
ing back  30  to  put  into  the  battle  as  it  develops  later.  This 
force  is  supported  by  seven  and  a  half  thousand  pieces : 
It  will  be  appreciated  that  such  a  concentration  either  of 
men  or  of  guns  against  the  Italians  had  not  been  possible, 
and  is  only  now  possible  as  the  result  of  the  collapse  of 
Russia.  • 

The  enemy's  plan  is  obvious.  He  will  come  down  from  the 
mountains,  pressing  back  the  Allies  on  their  extreme  left 
where  the  arrows  arc  in  the  diagram,  and  so  get  down  to  the 
communications  of  the  Italian  Army,  if  he  can  press  the  line 
back  to  the  neighbourhood  of  these  communications,  a  mat- 
ter of  about  20  miles,  still  better  if  he  can  break  the  line  and 
reach  the  communications  directly,  he  has  trapped  the  whole 
Italian  force  between  Lake  Garda  and  the  sea.  But  in  order 
to  do  this  he  must  hold  the  Italians  everywhere.  Therefore, 
while  he  makes  his  main  attack  in  the  mountains  and  as  far 
to  the  left  as  possible  (because  the  further^  to  the  left  he  makes 
it,  the  greater  the  result.should  he  reach  the  communications) 
while  he  masses  no  less  than  29  divisions  in  the  mountains, 
he  also  fights  vigorously  to  cross  the  Piave  with  the  remaining 
12  divisions,  thus  compelling  the  Italians  to  concentrate  heavily 
in  defence  of  that  line,  lest  it  should  break  after  losing  its  de- 
fensive obstacle,  the  river.  In  connection  with  this  crossing 
of  the  Piave,  he  proposes  to  seize  the  isolated  hill  at  the  point 
where  the  river  front  joins  the  mountain  front,  a  hill  called  the 
Montello.  To  possess  this  hill  would  give  him  observation 
over  the  whole  plain,  and  prevent  Italian  observation  over 
his  rear  and  communications  which,  hitherto  from  the  Mon- 
tello, the  Italians  have  possessed.  But  we  must  clearly  bear 
in  mind  that  all  this  fighting  from  the  Montello  southwards 
along  the  Piave,  is  a  secondary  part  of  his  original  plan.  He 
is  there  only  compelling  the  Italians  to  mass  troops  ;  in  other 
words,  holding  them  by  a  threat,  while  he  delivers  his  main 
blow  in  the  mountains. 

It  is  a  perfectly  simple  and  even  obvious  conception. 

While  it  was  yet  dark,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of 
Saturday,  June  15th,  he  began  his  bombardment  all  along 
the  line  from  Lake  Garda  to  the  sea.  And  at  half-past  seven 
he  threw  in  his  infantry.  The  critical  point  was  the  Asiago 
Plateau  corresponding  to  the  sector  upon  which  I  have  put 
the  arrows.  This  sector  was  thus  defended  :  On  the  extreme 
left  the  ItaUans ;  next  to  them  the  British,  then  the  French, 
and  then  the  Itahans  again.  The  enemy's  chief  weight  was 
against  the  British,  and  especially  against  the  British  left, 
where  there  was  a  point  of  junction  with  the  Italians,  and 
where  the  easiest  approach  to  the  plains  from  the  mountains 
lies  down  a  fairly  open  valley  carrjdng  both  a  road  and  a 
railway.  Four  divisions  struck  the  blow :  All,  I  believe, 
Austrian  and  German  speaking.  The  2nd,  the  i6th,  the 
52nd,  and  the  38th,  reading  from  left  to.  right— that  is, 
from  west  to  east.  The  first  two  succeeded  in  pushing  back 
•the  British  line  next  to  the  Italians  by  about  a  thousand 
yards  on  a  mile  and  a  half  of  front.  That  was  a  dense  forma- 
tion. We  have  no  details  yet,  but  it  looks  like  a  density  of 
more  than  seven — and  perhaps  more  than  eight — men  to  the 
yard.  The  Italians  gave  great  help  on  the  left,  which  the 
British  Commander  acknowledges  in  special  terms ;  the 
other  two  divisions  on  the  British  right  were  checked  abso- 
lutely ;  the  counter-attack  was  undertaken  on  the  same  day; 
and  early  on  the,  Sunday  morning  the  whole  position  was 
restored.  Further  east  the  French  had  held  the  attack 
against  them,  and  still  further  east  in  the  mountains  the 
Italians,  after  suffering  a  retirement  almost  to  the  very 
edge  of  the  hills  at  the  Col  Moschin,  returned  and  recovered 
the  whole  position. 

Meanwhile  on  the  first  day  of  the  battle  the  Piave  was 
crossed  at  several  points.  The  eastern  end  of  the  Montello 
was  seized  by  the  enemy,  and  the  nearest  practical  point  to 
the  sea,  the  last  point  before  the  marshes  began,  the  bank 
opposite  St.  Dona  was  also  seized,  but  so  far  everything 
turned  upon  what  would  happen  in  the  mountains. 

By  the  third  day  of  the  battle— Monday,  and  quite  early 
in  the  day— it  was  apparent  that  the  effoi;t  in  the  mountains 
had  failed.  We  shall  probably  find,  when 'we  know  the  facts, 
that  the  cause  of  the  failure  was  the  very  heavy  loss  the 
enemy  sustained.  At  any  rate,  from  that  day,  Monday,  the 
whole  battle  changes  in  plan,  and  the  enemy  determines  to 
give   up   his   original   effort   to   reach   the   communications. 


June  J 7,  igi8 


Land    &    Water 


which  would  have  given  him  a  complete  decision,  and  to 
concentrate  his  energies  upon  the  Piave  line  alone. 

It  is  essential  to  understand  this  if  we  are  to  understand 
the  battle  at  all.  It  is  really  two  battles,  with  a  change  of 
plan  in  the  middle  corresponding  with  Monday.  There  is  a 
first  battle,  the  main  operation  of  which  is  an  attempted 
descent  from  the  mountains  on  to  the  communications,  with 
the  crossings  of  the  Piave  as  a  secondary  feature.  This  first 
battle  ends  on  Monday.  There  is  a  second  battle  from 
■•'onday  onwards,  in  which  the  crossings  of  the  Piave  become 
♦he  main  feature  and  the  mountain  sector  merely  holds 
fast. 

[n  thus  attempting  to  do  something  new  on  the  Piave, 
the  enemy  was  taking  second  best.  Even  if  he  compelled 
an  Italian  retirement  he  could  get  no  decision  because  the 
retirement  would  take  place  along  untouched  communica- 
tions behind  it,  and  it  was  too  late  to  hope  for  a  breach  in 
the  line.  However,  to  compel  such  a  continuous  retirement 
would  have  sufficiently  grave  consequences.  It  would 
uncover  Venice  and  therefore  lose  Italy  vast  masses  of 
material  and  all  naval  power  in  the  Adriatic — apart  from 
the  political  effect.  It  would  probably  compel  a  retirement 
right  to  the  Adige,  and  that  certainly  at  great  expense,  and 
perhaps  at  some  peril. 

These  consequences,  however,  would  not  be  what  the 
consequences  of  the  first  plan  would  have  been.  They 
would  not  involve  the  complete  destruction  of  the  opponent. 

The  new  battle  was  also  second  best  because  the  Austnans 
on  the  outside  of  a  bend  could  not  concentrate  as  rapidly 
against  any  point  as  could  the  Itahans  on  the  inside  of  the 
bend,  and  this  difference  was  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  so 
considerably  a  portion  of  the  enemy's  forces  were  in  tUc 
mountains,  and  could  only  get  down  with  difficulty  to  the 
plain,  as  there  are  few  roads  leading  thus  down  southeastwaid 

To  compel  the  Italians  to  retire  trom  the  Piave,  it  was 
necessary  to  turn  their  line  along  that  river  either  by  the 
left  extremity  or  by  the  right,  or  by  both.  If  the  vvhole  of 
the  Montello,  which  is  some  eight  miles  long,  could  be  seized 
it  would  put  the  enemv  right  on  the  left  flank  of  the  Italians, 
and  give  the  enemy  excellent  observation  o  all  their  move- 
ments. If  at  the  other  extremity  of  the  iin  he  could  make 
a  really  large  bridge-head  opposite  St.  Dona,  with  the 
advantage  of  the  main  road  and  of  the  main  railway  behind 
him  to  feed  him,  it  would  enable  him  to  turn  the  Italian  line 
by  its  right.  He  tried  both  points,  and  at  the  same  time 
held  the  Italians  all  along  the  river  between  him  by  hard 
fighting  at  each  of  the  crossings  he  had  obtained. 

This  second  battle,  which  may  be  called  the  Battle  for 


outflanking  the  Piave  line,  had  two  phases  :  The  first,  in 
which  the  chief  effort  was  being  made  to  turn  the  Italians 
by  their  left — that  is,  by  the  Montello — the  second  in  which 
more  and  more  weight  was  put  into  the  effort  by  St.  Dona — 
that  is,  by  the  Italian  right. 

The  effort  against  the  Montello  was  made  very  largely 
with  Hungarian  troops,  and  it  suffered  particularly  from  the 
sudden  rising  of  the  river,  which  took  place  upon  the  afternoon 
of  Tuesday  and  all  during  Wednesday,  and  the  effect  of  which 
we  have  already  described.  The  Italian  concentration  was  very 
rapid  also,  and  the  enemy,  though  the  battle  fluctuated  on 
the  hill,  gradually  lost  ground.  Already  bv  Wednesday  the 
enemy  was  beginning  to  put  his  trust  m^  .•  w  "^he  alternative 
effort  near  St.  Dona,  and  had  here  five  pontoon  bridges; 
the  fury  of  the  rising  current  was  less  so  far  down  the  river, 
and  a'.so  its  increase  in  height  was  lc=s.  His  bridges  were 
therefore  secure.  By  the  evening  of  Thun  day  he  had  crossed 
the  next  obstacle  after  the  Piave  in  ths  region,  the  Fosselta 
Canal,  and  by  Tliursday  he  was  m  a  position  to  prepare  for 
a  considerable  attack  m  this  region  hi  the  direction  of  Losson. 
He  may  have  had  a?  many  as  five  divisions — or,  at  any  rate, 
he  had  units  from  five  divisions — on  the  west  bank  here.  All 
Thursday  there  was  furious  fighting  en  the  central  part  of 
the  river  and  on  the  Montello,  where  the  enemy  was  gradually 
losing  hold,  and  it  seemed  as  though  the  tide  had  turned  all 
along  the  line.  But  there  was  one  more  effort  to  be  made, 
and  that  was,  of  course,  in  Iront  of  St.  Dona.  In  spite  of 
the  rapidly  increasing  concentration  here,  the  enemy  launched 
upon  Friday  his  main  assault.  It  suffered  a  very  heavy 
and  expensive  check  in  front  of  I  tsson  ;  but,  as  we  have 
seen,  this  was  not  the  only  cause  of  anxiety  for  him.  He 
might  have  attempted  a  still  f'lrther  westward  extension  by 
t  11'  ting  more  men  across  the  river,  for  he  still  had  perhaps 
?x  unused  divisions  when  the  news  came  of  the  threat  to  his 
extreme  left  near  the  mouth  of  the  Piave,  which  was  being 
developed  ti^'  the  forces  which  had  forced  the  water  obstacle 
at  Cavazuccherina,  and  which  could  be  easily  supported 
from  tlie  sea:  It  was  clearly  on  the  next  day  (Saturday) 
that  the  decision  to  give  up  this  attempt  to  turn  the 
Piave  line  was  made  by  the  enemy  command.  Con- 
sequently the  apologetic  dispatch  written  to  prepare 
Austrian  opinion  for  the  collapse  appeared  fairly  early  upon 
the  Sunday  morning,  and  in  the  early ^ afternoon  of  the  same 
day  the  Italians  announced  that  the  enemy  was  already  in 
full  retreat  across  the  river,  adding  that  this  retreat  was 
being  carried  out  in  some  disorder,  and  was  being  pursued. 

At  this  point  our  information  ends.  The  second  great 
Austrian  offensive  in  Italy  has  failed. 


The  Pacifist 


PACIFIST  is  an  ugly  and  very  vulgar  word  ;  made  up  on 
an  ignorant  echo  of  Latin.  But  it  has  obtained  cur- 
rency and  must  be  used.  It  designates  at  this  partic- 
ular moment,  not  a  man  who  prefers  peace  to  war  in  general 
— as  sane  men  mostly  do — but  a  man  who  desires  to-day  the 
particular  peace  which  can  be  immediately  obtained  by  con- 
senting to  negotiate  with  an  undefeated  Prussia,  ruling  direct- 
ly and  indirectly,  over  200  million  souls,  and  at  the  height 
of  her  power ;  yet  dreading  a  prolongation  of  the  war,  be- 
cause famine,  disaffection  among  Allies,  and  American  re- 
cruitment all  menace  in  the  near  future. 

A  Pacifist  is  he  who  would,  at  such  a  moment,  parley. 
To-morrow  the  word  may  seem  something  more  That  is 
what  it  means  to-day. 

Public  men  have  recently  given  to  a  certain  enemy  man- 
oeuvre on  the  poUtical  side  the  excellent  title  of  "A  Peace 
Offensive."  To  that  title  there  has  been  raised  an  objection, 
by  which  the  Pacifist  may  be  examined.  The  objection  has 
not  been  raised  publicly  by  those  who  stand  for  weightier 
and  more  respected  of  their  kind.  Nor  by  those  who  are  sin- 
cere men  and  carry  weight.  It  has  been  raised  by  parhamen- 
tarians.  But  we  owe  it  to  their  betters  for  whom  they  say 
they  speak,  and  also  to  ourselves  to  explain  what  a  peace 
offensive  means,  why  it  should  be  regarded  seriously,  and 
why  the  overwhelming  mass  of  the  nation  will  have  none 
of  it. 

The  objection  taken  to  the  phrase  Hes  in  its  imphcation. 
When  we  say  that  the  enemy  is  preparing  or  will  dehver  a 
peace  offensive  we  mean  that  his  proposals  for  peace  (he  has 
made  them  several  times  already  in  the  course  of  the  war) 
are  as  much  directed  towards  our  defeat  as  are  the  operations 
of  his  armies.  We  mean  that  the  proposals  he  has  already 
put  forward  certainly  and  the  proposals  we  expect  he  will  put 


forward  probably,  have  for  their  object  a  state  of  European 
society  in  which  the  civilised  West,  notably  Great  Britain, 
would  sink  to  a  position  of  inferiority,  and  would  for  the 
future  (did  we  yield  to  those  proposals)  find  itself  suffering 
from  all  the  consequences  of  a  military  defeat.  That  is,  the 
older  Western  nations  would  find  their  national  vitality 
lowered  and  threatening  to  fall  lower  still.  They  would 
find  their  possessions  oversea  either  cut  down  or  so  menaced 
in  the  immediate  future  that  one  could  limit  their  loss. 
They  would  ultimately  find  themselves  impoverished  to  the 
advantage  of  the  victors.  Worst  of  all,  the  tradition  for 
which  they  stand — a  tradition  of  chivalry  in  war  and  of 
respect  for  European  conventions,  pubUc  and  private — 
would  be  supplanted  in  the  future  life  of  Europe  by  the  threat 
of  Prussian  war  with  all  its  abominations,  and  the  oppression 
of  Europe  by  a  dominating  Central  Power  of  lower  culture 
than  the  rest. 

The  thesis  of  those  who  do -not  believe  that  such  results 
would  follow  upon  accepting  the  enemy's  proposals,  past  or 
future,  and  who  are  ready  to  make  terms  with  Prussia,  is 
made  up  of  four  very  different  elements  which,  if  you  will 
examine  them  you  will  discover  to  have  very  httle  to  do  one 
with  the  other ;  but  which  combined  produce  the  pacifist 
mood. 

The  first  undoubtedly  is  a  conviction  that  (as  they  would 
put  it)  "No  complete  mihtary  victory  against  Germany  can 
be  achieved."  Mr.  Philip  Snowden  said  that  in  so  many 
words  in  the  House  of  Commons  the  other  day.  True,  Mr. 
Philip  Snowden's  opinion  upon  a  military  situation  is  not 
worth  having  ;  but  he  speaks  for  a  certain  body  of  men 
more  reputable  than  tiimsolf,  and  there  does  undoubtedly 
run  through  that  body^which,  though  small,  carries  weight 
in  this  fourth  year  of  the  war,  after  all  its  fatigues  and  dis- 


Land   &    Water 


June  27,  igi8 


appointments — an  error  which  they  would  formulate  in 
such  terms. 

It  would  be  as  well  to  remark,  before  going  further,  that 
this  formula  is  only  one  other  example  of  the  unconscious 
self-deception  from  which  a  particular  type  of  mind  often 
suffers.  The  plain  English  is  not  that  "the  enemy  cannot 
be  defeated,"  but  r.ather  "The  enemy  has  beaten  us  and  we 
may  as  well  accept  the  situation."  I  know  these  gentlemen 
would  be  horrified  to  have  such  plain  speaking  put  into  their 
mouths,  but  that  is  the  long  and  short  of  it. 

If  we  had  broken  up  Austria-Hungary,  if  we  had  thereby 
reduced  Prussia  and  her  German  armies  to  a  position  of  grave 
numerical  inferiority  ;  and  if,  in  spite  of  that,  after  dreadful 
losses  we  had  reached  no  decision,  then  the  conception  of  a 
stale-mate  through  the  robust  defence  of  our  opponent, 
would  have  some  sense  in  it.  As  things  are  it  is  nonsense. 
As  things  are  the  enemy  has  detached  from  our  alliance 
opponents  more  than  half  its  potential  numerical  strength 
by  the  collapse  of  Russia.  It  is  the  enemy  who  has  advanced  ; 
the  enemy  who  has  recently  taken  vast  numbers  of  prisoners 
and  guns  ;  the  enemy  who  menaces  at  least  one  of  our  capitals  ; 
the  enemy  who  has  the  initiative  ;  the  enemy  who  can  attack. 

To  represent  such  a  situation  as  a  sort  of  negative  one  is 
to  deceive  oneself  grossly  with  pleasant  words  in  the  place 
of  unpleasant  facts.  One  might  add  that  such  self-deceptions 
on  the  part  of  one's  fellow  citizens  are  verv  humiliating  for 
us  who  have  to  bear  them  and  who  know  they  are  repeated 
abroad.  When  the  lighter  weight  is  getting  pounded  in  a 
bo.xing  match  and  needs  all  his  stamina  to  hold  out,  it  is  not 
a  pretty  thing  to  hear  his  relations  calling  out  that  if  the 
pounder  will  only  stop,  the  poundee  will  magnanimously 
spare  him.  The  enormous  and  immediate  business  of  the 
time  is  to  stand  up  to  the  pounding  until  the  tide  turns.  If 
a  man  is  prepared  to  accept  defeat  he  ought  to  say  so  openly, 
and  not  to  camouflage  his  moral  breakdown  with  false  phrases. 

But  anyhow,  that  is  the  formula  used,  "  No  military  victory 
is  possible"  ;  and  this  under-lying  conception  that  the  whole 
forces  of  Central  Europe  (erroneously  described  as  "the 
Germans")  under  the  leadership  of  Prussia  are  too  much  for 
us,  is  the  first  element  in  the  minds  of  those  whom  we  would 
convince  of  their  error. 

Now  whether  they  are  right  or  no  it  is  absolutely  impossible 
for  the  human  intelligence  to  determine.  The  mass  of  men 
have  by  this  time  appreciated  the  justice  of  the  position  we 
have  taken  up  in  this  j  jurnal.  that  victory  was  the  gift  of 
the  gods,  and  that  prophecy  and  certitude  upon  it  was  (upon 
either  side)  essentially  unmilitary. 

Historical  Parallels 

But  as  aga'nst  the  crude  idea  that,  while  battle  is  still 
joined,  victor/  is  impossible,  one  may  bring  forward  a  certain 
historical  argument  which  is  of  great  weight.  In  every  long 
and  arduous  struggle  whatsoever  there  has  always  arisen 
during  its  later  stages  a  feeling  of  this  sort,  and  it  has  always 
become  most  acute  just  before  a  decision  was  reached.  You 
find  it  in  the  Great  American  Civil  war  ;  you  find  it  in  the 
Second  Punic  War ;  you  find  it  in  the  struggle  against 
Napoleon  ;  you  find  it  in  Revolutionary  France  in  1894. 
You  find  it  always  and  everywhere  in  proportion  to  the 
length  and  difficulty  of  the  work  to  be  done.  If  you  could 
have  heard -private  conversations  in  Germany  and  Austria 
before  Caporetto  you  would  undoubtedly  have  found  any 
amount  of  it.  One  may  say,  in  passing,  that  if  or  when  the 
AlHes  achieve  anything  hke  Caporetto,  or  the  Second  Battle 
of  the  Somme,  or  even  the  surprise  which  the  enemy  effected 
against  us  between  Soissons  and  Rheims  three  weeks  ago, 
then  this  false  mood  would  be  dissipated  as  rapidly  on  our 
side  as  it  has  unfortunately  been  dissipated  among  the 
enemy  by  their  recent  successes. 

The  historical  termination  of  great  duels  which  were 
fought  for  something  vital,  not  for  mere  dynastic  points,  • 
has  invariably  been  a  true  decision  upon  one  side  or  the 
other.  And  so  it  must  be  in  the  nature  of  things.  But  if 
people  are  fighting  upon  a  matter  of  life  and  death,  nothing 
short  of  a  decision  can  put  a  permanent  end  to  hostilities — 
and  the  old  traditions  and  the  old  civilisation  of  Europe  are 
undoubtedly  fighting  here  for  their  lives.  To  put  it  simply  : 
England  would  not  be' England,  nor  France  France,  nor 
Italy  survive  at  all  if  the  enemy  emerged  from  this  war 
undefeated. 

The  second  element  in  this  frame  of  mind  is  a  sort  of 
muddle-headed  idea  that  all  fighting  is  much  of  a  muchness 
and  all  fighters  equally  in  the  wrong  ;  to  which  is  sometimes 
added  the  still  more  extraordinary  conception  that  fighting 
is  itself  wrong  in  some  way  ;  in  other  words,  that  aggression, 
tyranny,  injustice,  treachery,  and  violence  of  every  kind 
should  be  cheerfully  accepted,  and  that  if  a  man  proposes  to 


kill  you  you  should  say  that  you  see  no  great  harm  in  it,  and 
that  he  is  free  to  go  ahead. 

Neglecting  this  rabid  nonsense,  one  can  understand  though 
one  cannot  sympathise  with  that  error  which  regards  tliis 
war  specifically  as  a  great  misunderstanding  and  its  evils  as 
being  of  a  sort  natural  to  all  wars.  It  comes  mainly  from  a 
considerable  though  insular  acquaintance  with  modern  North 
Germany  and  an  extreme  ignorance  of  other  countries. 

It  does  not  always  proceed  from  this  source.  Sometimes 
it  comes  from  a  complete  ignorance  of  all  foreign  nations, 
including  modern  Germany.  But  you  will  usually  find  that 
those  who  postulate  the  war  as  a  great  misunderstanding, 
and  who  can  so  easily  put  themselves  in  our  opponent's 
shoes,  are  people  who  have  lived  in  sympathy  with  one  half 
of  modem  German  thought  and  who  are,  therefore,  able  to 
keep  in  touch  with  German  apologists.  They  admired  those 
things  in  which  modern  Germany  was  rising,  such  as  her 
chemical  industry,  her  expansion  in  the  manufacture  of  iron 
and  steel,  her  growth  in  export.  They  were,  indifferent  to 
those  things  in  which  modern  Germany  was  rapidly  declining, 
such  as  manners,  morals,  the  power  of  building  and  writing, 
and  also  one  may  add,  sanity.  The  great  mass  of  stuff  which 
Germany  produced  in  which  she  proclaimed  lunatic  theories 
of  super-man  and  what-not  and  saw  her  own  dull 
people  as  stage  heroes  conquering  the  world,  they  knew  to 
exist  indeed,  but  forgave  as  a  pardonable  excess — though 
they  disapproved  of  it.  But  the  German  apologist  who  has 
become  so  vociferous  since  things  went  wrong  with  the 
German  plan  of  immediate  success  in  1914  ;  the  German 
who  points  out  that  after  all  he  also  is  fighting  for  life  (which 
is  quite  true)  ;  that  he  was  morally  subject  to  aggression 
(which  is  quite  false) ;  that  isolated  acts  of  war  in  the  past  can 
be  made  to  look  parallel  to  his  systematic,  ordered,  and  con- 
stant negation  of  human  morals  to-day — that  German 
apologist  the  pacifist  understands,  likes,  and  agrees  with.» 
The  error  present  in  this  second  element  of  the  disease  we  are 
studying  is  an  error  in  proportion. 

Napoleon  and  his  armies  went  into  Spain.  They  brought 
with  them  the  revolutionary  ideas,  equal  law,  a  high  material 
civilisation,  a  quite  as  strong,  though  less  spiritual,  conception 
of  beauty  as  that  which  the  Spaniards  enjoyed.  They  also 
brought  the  crusade  for  what  they  called  liberty  and  democ- 
racy and  so  forth.  But  they  violated  the  conscience  of 
the  Spanish  people.  They  proposed  to  force  upon  them  a 
foreign  rule.  The  Spanish  people,  by  their  unequalled 
courage  and  tenacity,  broke  the  back  of  that  invasion  and 
secured  immunity. 

Now  an  apologist  for  this  great  and  wrong  effort  of 
Napoleon's  could,  if  he  liked,  insist  upon  the  one  side  of  it 
at  the  expense  of  the  other.  He  could  point  to  the  poverty 
and  to  the  decline  of  Spain  ;  to  the  growing  ignorance,  in 
letters  at  least,  of  its  population,  to  the  corresponding  advan- 
tages of  what  was  virtually  a  French  annexation.  He  could 
go  further  and  say  that  Napoleon  was  "forced"  to  the  in- 
vasion by  the  general  international  situation,  etc.  But 
if  he  let  that  weigh  in  the  balance  against  the  over- 
whelming and  outstanding  truth  that  the  invasion  was 
the  application  of  force  without  right  against  a  clear 
national  will,  he  would  have  his  sense  of  proportion  so  dis- 
torted that  his  judgment  would  be  worthless. 

So  it  is,  but  in  a  much  higher  degree,  with  the  British 
apologist  for  Prussia.  Of  course,  a  case  can  be  made  out 
for  Prussia.  You  can  make  out  a  case  for  anyone.  If  yon 
doubt  that  go  and  hear  any  good  lawyer  at  any  criminal  trial. 
But  any  sane  sense  of  proportion  discovers  that  Prussia  in 
the  mass  has  had  the  same  lack  of  morals,  the  same  methods, 
and  the  same  insolence  during  all  her  vast  and  maleficent 
expansion  of  the  last  two  hundred  years.  The  important 
and  typical  thing  is  not  the  German  apology :  That  was  an 
after-thought.  The  important  and  typical  thing  is  the 
Prussian  boast  and  the  deliberate  Prussian  forcing  of  war 
upon  Europe.  If  a  man  denies  that  Prussia  felt  absolutely 
certain  of  victory  in  the  summer  of  1914,  desired  war  and 
deliberately  made  war  in  order  to  achieve  that  victory  ;  if 
he  denies  that  Western  civilisation  was  peaceful  and  ill- 
prepared  for  such  a  challenge  ;  then  he  is  like  a  man  denying 
the  fact  that  Great  Britain  is  a  maritime  and  commercial 
State,  or  the  fact  that  the  French  are  violent  in  religious 
controversy,  or  that  the  Arabs  are  Mohammedans,  or  any 
other  moral  fact  notorious  and  undisputed.  He  has,  through 
lack  of  the  sense  of  proportion,  lost  his  grip  on  reality. 

The  third  element  in  the  hotch-potch  is  a  conviction  that 
if  the  war  were  to  cease  to-day,  with  things  just  as  they  are, 
it  would  certainly  never  be  renewed  after  so  awful  a  lesson, 
and  that  therefore  if  some  stable  arrangement  could  be 
come  to  on  paper  now  the  national  currents  of  the  future 
would  again  be  much  what  they  were  before.  This  thu-d 
element  I  propose  to  consider  next  week. 


June  27,  19 1 8  Land    &  Water  7 

Further  Progress:   By  Arthur  Pollen 


THE  issue  of  a  patent  for  a  new  Board  of  Admiralty 
affords  two  interesting  pieces  of  information. 
Rear-Admiral  Halsey  has  been  relieved  and  goes 
to  a  command  in  the  Grand  Fleet,  after  more 
thtin  eighteen  months  of  excellent  service  at  the 
Admiralty,  and  has  bepn  succeeded  as  Third  Sea  Lord  by 
Captain  Bartolome,  an  officer  of  outstanding  ability,  recog- 
nised in  the  Service  as  an  acknowledged  authority,  not  only 
on  material  but  on  methods  of  using  it,  a  far  more  important 
matter.  Sir  Robert  Home  becomes  Third  Civil  Lord.  The 
change  of  personnel  has  been  accompanied  by  a  significant 
redistribution  of  duties. 

When  the  Admiralty  was  reformed  a  year  ago,  the  duties 
discharged  in  old  days  by  the  Third  Sea  Lord  were  divided; 
the  care  of  material  being  entrusted  to  a  civilian.  Captain 
Bartolome  is  now  to  re-combine  the  duties  of  both  offices. 
The  Controllership  is  thus  once  more  in  naval  hands.  But 
this  does  not  mean  that  we  have  gone  back  to  where  we  were 
before  Mr.  Churchill  made  Lord  Southborough  Additional 
Civil  Lord  in  igi2.  The  reorganisation  effected  by  Sir  Eric 
Geddes  when  he  was  Controller,  and  the  allocation  of  the 
new  Civil  Lord,  selected  for  his  wide  experience  of  law  and 
business,  to  the  administrative,  legal,  and  financial  duties 
of  the  Department,  have  now  made  it  possible  for  a  naval 
officer  to  be  responsible  for  warlike  material,  because  he  is 
no  longer  overwhelmed  by  non-military  duties,  and  is  free 
to  concentrate  on  the  technical  aspect  of  his  work.  The 
Controller  %vill,  in  short,  become  the  naval  chief  of  that  part 
of  the  administration  responsible  for  the  maintenance  and 
supply,  just  as  the  First  Sea  Lord  is  chiefly  responsible  for 
all  the  elements  of  command. 

It  is  a  development  that  grows  out  of  the  continually 
widening  application  of  the  Staff  principle,  which  has  been 
going  forward  in  the  last  twelve  months.  Since  I  resumed 
writing  in  this  journal  on  my  return  from  America,  I  have 
touched  several  times  upon  different  aspects  of  this  develop- 
ment and  of  its  very  extraordiaary  results  on  the  war  at  sea. 
But  1  find  from  my  correspondence  that  very  wide  mis- 
apprehension still  exists  on  this  subject.  It  may,  therefore, 
be  as  well  to  summarise  the  actual  changes  that  have  been 
made  and  then  attempt  a  restatement  of  their  significance. 
Mr.  Balfour,  it  will  be  remembered,  left  the  .Admiralty  at 
the  end  of  1916,  immediately  after  Sir  John  Jellicoe,  Sir  Cecil 
Burney  and  Rear-.^dmiral  Halsey  had  j  )ined  the  Board.  Sir 
Henry  Oliver  was  then  the  Chief  of  the  Staff.  It  was  under- 
stood that,  in  view  of  the  extreme  gravity  of  the  submarine 
menace,  Admiral  Duff  and  others  were  to  constitute  an 
unofficial  staff  to  assist  the  First  Sea  Lord  in  this  matter. 
But  the  April  Na\'y  List  did  not  show  that  any  such  division 
had,  in  fact,  been  created.  When  this  list  was  issued,  then, 
there  were  four  naval  members  of  the  Board — omitting  the 
Director  of  Air  Service — and  five  divisions  of  the  Staff, 
Operations,  Intelligence,  Mobilisation,  Trade,  and  Signals, 
presided  over  by  naval  officers.  Of  these.  Operations  and 
Mobilisation  were  alone  concerned  with  the  conduct  of  the  war. 
The  reforms  of  May,  1917,  made  the  First  Sea  Lord  Chief 
of  the  Staff,  and  the  former  Chief  was  added  to  the  Board  as 
his.  deputy,  while  Admiral  Duff  was  included  also  as  an 
assistant  chief.  The  other  Sea  Lords  remained  as  before, 
and  an  anti-submarine  division  was  added  to  the  War  Staff. 
This  raised  the  war  divisions  to  three.  Shortly  after  Sir  Edward 
Carson's  retirement,  the  Second  Sea  Lord  became  deputy  First 
Sea  Lord,  and  three  new  divisions  were  added  to  the  Staff,  one 
for  Plans,  one  for  directing  Mercantile  Movements,  and  the  third 
for  the  Training  and  Direction  of  Staff  Duties.  Following  on 
the  creation  of  a  new  organisation,  came  in  January  the 
changes  in  personnel  the  completion  of  the  refoim  required. 

Of  the  naval  officers  who  were  either  on  the  Board  or  Chiefs 
of  Divisions  in  April,  IQ17,  all  the  Sea  Lords  have  retired, 
and  ajl  except  one  of  the  Chiefs  of  Division.  Instead  of  four 
naval  officers  on  the  Board  there  are  now  seven,  and  instead 
of  a  naval  staff  consisting  of  five  divisions  with  a  chief,  it 
consists  of  ten  divisions,  the  Chief  being  the  First  Sea  Lord. 
A  year  ago  the  First  Sea  Lord  and  the  Chief  of  the  Staff 
ran  the  war.  To-day  its  conduct  is  distrrbuted  over  four 
members  of  the  Board  and  the  heads  of  at  least  six  divisions. 
It  is,  then,  an  entirely  new  organisation,  run  by  entirely  new 
men.  Further,  it  includes  an  element  that  does  not  figure 
in  the  Navy  List.  Admiral  Sims  and  some  of  his  officers 
are  in  daily  collaboration  with  the  Board,  and  others  are 
actuallv  working  in  certain  divisions  of  the  Staff,  so  that  the 
new  Higher  Command  is  not  only  rejuvenated  and  reformed — 
,it  has  become  international. 


This  consummation  is  one  devoutedly  wished  b\'  many  of 
us  a  year  ago,  and  no  sane  person  can  now  dispute  that  it  is 
from  first  to  last  in  consonance  with  right  reason.  Nor  can 
it  be  disputed  that  it  has  been  followed  by  results  of  an 
extremely  gratifying  and  encouraging  kind.  The  defeat  of 
the  submarine  seems  to  be  going  forward  with  progressive 
efficiency.  The  attacks  on  the  Flemish  ports  are  far  from 
being  the  only  new  departures  in  the  narrow  seas  ;  and  there 
are  many  indications  of  greater  activity  in  the  North  Sea, 
and  of  a  changed  policy  in  the  Mediterranean.  All  the 
world,  allied,  neutral  and  enemy,  has  borne  witness  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  war  the  British  Navy  is  being 
guided  with  an  inventive  initiative  and  a  spirit  of  offence 
that  certainly  were  not  conspicuous  in  its  earlier  periods. 

Change  of  Atmosphere 

This  new  policy  has  followed  on  the  creation  of  a  new 
organisation,  and  its  conduct  by  a  new  personnel,  not  because 
individual  men  in  the  new  organisation  are  more  brilliant  or 
more  inventive  or  more  warlike  than  those  they  have  dis- 
placed, but  because  an  entire  change  has  been  made  in  the 
spirit  and  atmosphere  in  which  the  work  is  done.  A  year 
ago,  after  two  and  a  half  years  of  hostilities  which  had  begun 
with  all  the  winning  cards  in  our  hand,  our  game  at  sea  was 
a  losing  one.  We  had  let  the  German  Fleet  escape  in  the  only 
opportunity  we  had  for  destroying  it  and,  as  a  direct  conse- 
quence, the  German  submarines  seemed  to  be  in  a  fair  way 
to  destroy  our  sea  communications.  It  was  an  astounding 
result.  It  was  still  more  astonishing  when  it  was  remem- 
bered that  in  material  strength  we  had  from  the  outbreak 
of  war  been  overwhelmingly  superior,  and  had  for  the  whole 
period  disposed  of  resources,  for  building  ships  and  making 
armament  and  munitions,  that  e.xceeded  those  of  the  enemy 
by  many  hundred  per  cent.  Clearly,  our  forces  and  our 
resources  had  been  grossly  misused.  The  blame  fell  where 
alone  it  could  fall,  namely  on  Whitehall.  Our  naval  .strategy, 
unlike  our  strategy  on  land,  had  not  been  shaped  in  colla- 
boration with  the  best  war  brains  of  our  Allies.  We 
had  learned  nothing  from  our  friends  and  seemingly 
nothing  from  our  foes.  At  no  time  had  the  Admiralty 
been  directed  by  our  own  best  naval  brains,  and  the  few 
really  able  men  who  from  time  to  time  served  there,  had  been 
powerless  because  of  the  character  of  the  Admiralty's  organis- 
ation. It  was  one  framed  on  principles  entirely  unadapted 
either  to  preparing  for  war  or  for  conducting  it.  Wc  had 
begun  and  we  went  on  without  the  elements  that  either 
elucidate  the  principles  of  right  policy  or  secure  their  applic- 
ation. The  four  officers,  who  were  in  turn  First  Sea  Lord, 
had  been  taken  from  the  same  group.  This  group  dominated 
naval  policy  for  ten  years  before  war,  and  showed  that  they 
had  not  anticipated  the  main  problems  of  modern  fighting. 

They  did  not  know  how  to  base  sea  government  on  the 
knowledge  and  brain  power  of  the  Service  they  commanded. 
Our  sea  strategy,  therefore,  had  none  of  the  marks  of  the 
allied  land  strategy.  It  was  not  international,  it  was  not 
democratic,  it  certainly  was  not  successful.  The  auto- 
cratic principle  fails  because  the  work  to  be  done  is  far  beyond 
the  capacity  of  one  or  two  or  three  men,  however  bfilliant 
and  able  they  may  be.  Before  the  simplest  war  decision 
can  be  made,  a  whole  situation  may  have  to  be  analysed, 
the  principles  that  apply  to  it  elucidated,  plans  made  for 
their  application,  and  material  specified  and  personnel 
selectee^.  All  these  operations  can  only  be  the  work  of  many 
men.  And,  unless  these  co-operate  without  reference  to 
seniority,  no  useful  work  can  be  done.  If  executive  authority 
is  employed  to  establish  the  fact  that  an  official  chief  is 
right  because  he  is  official,  then  all  work  becomes  barren  and 
useless.  It  is  almost  a  synopsis  of  staff  organisation  that 
reason  supersedes  rank,  and  hence  the  safety  of  the  naval 
state  is  found  only  in  a  republic  of  brains.  The  significance 
of  the  changes  still  in  progress  is  that  it  is  towards  such  a 
constitution  that  wc  are  tending.  There  is  still  much  to 
be  done.     But  much  has  been  done  alrcadv. 

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8 


Land   &   Water 


June  27,  19  i<i 


M 


The  Turkish   Conspiracy— VII 

How   Germany    forced   Turkey    into    the    War 

Narrated  by  Mr.  Morgenthau,  late  American  Ambassador  in  Constantinople 

R  MORGENTHA  U  is  able  to  furnish  a  classic  example  of  Gennan  propaganda.  It  was  due  to 
this  that  Turk".)'  vjas  forced  into  the  War,  the  Dardanelles  being  closed  on  the  sole  responsibility  ot 
the  German  General  in  command  of  the  fortifications,  ivithout  the  sanctipn  of  the  Turkish  Cabinet. 


TJhe  duel  that  now  took  place  between  Germany  and  the  En- 
tente for  Turkey's  favour  was  a  most  unequal  one.  Germany 
had  won  the  victory  when  she  smuggled  the  Goeben  and  the 
Breslau  into  the  SCa  of  Marmora.  The  Enghsh,  French, 
and  Russian  Ambassadors  well  understood  this,  and  they 
knew  that  they  could  not  make  Turkey  an  active  ally  of  the 
Entente  ;  they  probably  had  no  desire  to  do  so  ;  however, 
they  did  hope  that  they  could  keep  her  neutral.  To  this 
end  they  now  directed  all  their  efforts.  "You  have  had 
enough  of  war,"  they  would  tell  Talaat  and  Enver.  "You 
have  fought  three  wars  in  the  last  four  years  ;  you  will  ruin 
your  country  absolutely  if  you  get  involved  in  this  one." 
On  condition  that  Turkey  should  n  main  neutral,  they 
offered  to  guarantee  the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
So  greatly  did  the  Entente  Ambassadors  desire  to  keep 
Turkey  out  of  the  war  that  they  did  not  press  !0  the  limit 
their  case  against  the  Breslau  and  the  Goehen.  It  is  true 
that  they  repeatedly  protested  against  the  continued  presence 
of  these  ships,  but 
every  time  the  Turkish 
officials  maintained 
that  they  were  Turkish 
vessels. 

"If  that  is  so,"  Sir 
Louis  Mallet  would 
urge,  and  his  argu- 
ment was  unassailable, 
"why  don't  you  re- 
move the  German 
officers  and  crew  ? " 
That  was.  the  inten- 
tion, the  Grand  Vizier 
would  answer ;  the 
Turkish  crews  that  had 
been  sent  to  man  the 
ships  built  in  Eng- 
land, he  would  say, 
were  returning  to  Tur- 
key, and  would  be  put 
on  board  the  Goeben 
and  the  Breslau  as  soon  as  they  reached  Constantinople. 
But  days  and  weeks  went  by.;  these  crews  came  home  ; 
and  still  Germany  manned  and  officered  the  cruisers.  These 
backings  and  filhngs  naturally  did  not  deceive  the  British 
and  French  Foreign  Offices.  The  presence  of  the  Goeben  and 
the  Breslau  was  a  standing  casus  belli ;  but  the  Entente 
Ambassadors  did  not  demand  their  passports,  for  such  an 
act  would  have  precipitated  the  very  crisis  which  they  were 
seeking  to  delay,  and,  if  possible,  to  avoid — Turkey's  entrance 
as  Germany's  ally.  Unhappily,  the  Entente's  promise  to 
guarantee  Turkey's  integrity  did  not  win  Turkey  to  their  side. 

"They  promised  that  we  should  not  be  dismembered  after 
the  Balkan  wars,"  Talaat  would  tell  me,  "and  see  what 
happened  to  European  Turkey  then." 

Wangenheim  constantly  harped  upon  this  fact.  "You 
can't  trust  anything  they  say,"  he  would  tell  Talaat  and 
Enver.  "Didn't  they  all  go  back  on  you  a  year  ago?" 
And  then,  with  great  cleverness,  he  would  play  upon  the 
only  emotion  which  really  actuates  the  Turk.  The  descend- 
ants of  Osman  hardly  resemble  any  people  I  have  ever  known. 
They  do  not  hate,  they  do  not  love  ;  they  have  no  lasting 
animosities  or  affections.  They  only  fear.  And,  naturally, 
they- attribute  to  others  the  motives  which  regulate  their 
own  conduct.  "How  stupid  you  are,"  Wangenheim  would 
tell  Talaat  and  Enver,  discussing  the  Enghsh  attitude. 
"Don't  you  see  why  the  English  want  you  to  keep  out? 
It  is  because  they  fear  you.  Don't  you  see  that,  with  the 
help  of  Germany,  you  have  again  become  a  great  mihtary 
Power?  No  wonder  England  doesn't  want  to  fight  you  1" 
He  dinned  this  so  continually  in  the  ears  that  they  finally 
beheved  it,  for  this  argument  not  only  completely  explained 
the  attitude  of  the  Entente,  but  it  flattered  Turkish  pride. 


Docks  of  Constantinople 


Whatever  may  have  been  the  attitude  ci  Enver  and  T.^luat, 
I  think  that  England  and  France  were  mo,e  popular  wilh  all 
classes  in  Turkey  than  was  Germany  llie  Sultan  was 
opposed  to  war;  the  heir  apparent,  Youssouff  Izz.idin,  was 
openly  pro-Ally ;  the  Grand  Vizier,  Said  Halim,  favoured 
England  rather  than  Germany;  Djemal,  the  third  member 
of  the  ruling  Triumvirate,  had  the  reputation  of  being  a 
Francophile— he  had  recently  returned  from  Paris,  where 
the  reception  he  had  received  had  greatly  flattered  him ; 
a  majority  of  the  Cabinet  had  no  enthusiasm  for  Germany  ; 
and  public  opinion,  so  far  as  public  opinion  existed  in  Turkey, 
regarded  England,  not  Germany,  as  Turkey's  historic  friend. 
Wangenheim,  therefore,  had  much  opposition  to  overcome 
and  the  methods  which  he  took  to  break  it  down  form  a 
classic  illustration  of  German  'propaganda. 

He  F^arted  a  lavish  pubhcity  campaign  against  England, 
France,  and  Russia.  I  have  described  Turkish  feelings  at 
iosmg  their  ships  in   England.     Wangenheim's   agents  now 

filled  columns  of  pur- 
chased space  in  the 
Pi  ess  with  bitter  at- 
tacks on  England  for 
taking  over  these 
vessels.  The  whole 
Turkish  Press  rapidly 
passed  under  the  con- 
trol of  Germany.  Wan- 
genheim purchased  the 
Jkdam,  one  of  the 
largest  Turkish  news- 
papers, which  imme- 
diately began  to  sing 
the  praises  ol  Germany 
.and  to  abuse  the 
Entente.  The  Osman- 
ischer  Lloyd,  published 
in  French  and  German, 
became  an  organ  of  the 
German  Embassy.  Al- 
though the  Turkish 
Constitution  guaranteed  a  free  Press,  a  censorship  was  estab- 
lished in  the  interest  of  the  Central  Powers.  All  Turkish  editors 
were  ordered  to  write  in  Germany's  favour,  and  they  obeyed 
instructions.  The  Jeune  Turc,  a  pro-Entente  newspaper, 
printed  in  French,  was  suppressed.  The  Turkish  papers 
exaggerated  German  victories  and  completely  manufactured 
others  ;  they  were  constantly  printing  the  news  of  Entente 
defeats,  most  of  them  wholly  imaginary.  In  the  evening 
Wangenheim  and  Pallavicini  would  show  me  official  tele- 
grams giving  the  details  of  military  operations ;  but  when, 
in  the  morning.  I  would  look  in  the  newspapers, 
I  would  find  that  this  news  had  been  twisted  in  Germany's 
favour. 

A  certain  Baron  Oppenheim  travelled  all  over  Turkey, 
manufacturing  pubUc  opinion  against  England  and 
France.  Ostensibly  he  was  an  archaeologist,  while  in  reality 
he  opened  offices  everywhere,  from  which  issued  streams  of 
slanders  against  the  Entente.  Huge  maps  were  pasted  on 
walls,  Showing  all  the  territory  which  Turkey  had  lost  in  the 
course  of  a  century.  Russia  was  portrayed  as  the  nation 
chiefly  responsible  for  these  "robberies,"  and  attention  was 
drawn  to  the  fact  that  England  had  now  become  Russia's 
ally.  Pictures  were  published  showing  the  grasping  Powers 
of  the  Entente  as  rapacious  animals,  snatching  away  at  poor 
Turkey.  Enver  was  advertised  as  the  "hero"  who  had 
recovered  Adrianople  ;  Germany  was  pictured  as  Turkey's 
friend;  the  Kaiser  suddenly  became  "Hadji  Wilhelm,"  the 
great  protector  of  Islam  ;  stories  were  even  printed  that  he 
had  become  a  convert  to  Mohammedanism.  The  Turkish 
populace  was  informed  that  the  Moslems  of  India  and  of 
Egypt  were  about  to  revolt  and  throw  off  their  English 
"tyrants."     The  Turkish  man-in-the-street  was  taught  to- 


June  27,  19 1 8 


Land   &   Water 


L- 


"  Scorpion  "  :  American  Embassy  Guardship 


say  GoU  Strafe  England,  and  all  the  time  the  motive  j5ov\er 
of  this  infamous  campaign  was  German  money. 

But  Germany  was  doing  more  than  poisoning  the  Turkish 
mind ;  she  was  appropriating  Turkey's  military'  resources. 
I  have  already  described  how,  in  January,  1914,  the  Kaiser 
had  taken  over  the  Turkish  Army  and  rehabilitated  it  in 
preparation  for  the  European  war.  He  now  proceeded  to  do 
the  same  thing  with  the  Turkish  Navy.  In  August  Wangen- 
heim  boasted  to  me  that  "we  now  control  both  tlie  Turkish 
Army  and  Navy."  At  the  time  the  Gocben  and  Breslau 
arrived,  an  English  mission,  headed  by  Admiral  Limpus,  was 
hard  at  work  restor- 
ing the  Turkish  Navy. 
Soon  afterwards  Lim- 
pus and  his  associates 
were  unceremoniously 
dismissed ;  not  the 
most  ordinary  courte- 
sies were  shown  them. 
The  English  naval 
officer-  quietly  and 
unobs  rvedly  left  Con- 
stantino :e  for  Eng- 
land— all  except  the 
Admiral  himself,  who 
had  to  remain  longer 
b  lause  of  his 
daughter's  illness. 
Night  after  night 
whole  carloads  of  Ger- 
mans  landed  at 
Constantinople  from 
Berlin  ;  there  were  , 
finally  3,800  men,  most  of  them  sent  to  man  the  Turkish  Navy 
and  to  manufacture  ammunition.  They  filled  the  cafes  every, 
night,  and  they  paraded  the  streets  of  Constantinople  in  the 
small  hours  of  the  morning,  howling  and  singing  German  pat- 
riotic songs.  Many  of  them  were  skilled  mechanics,  who  im- 
mediately got  to  work  repairing  the  destroyers  and  other 
ships  and  putting  them  in  shape  for  war.  The  British  firms  of 
Armstrong  and  Vickers  had  a  splendid  dock  in  Constantinople, 
which  the  Germans  appropriated.  All  day  and  night  v  o 
could  hear  this  work  going  on,  and  we  could  hardly  sleep  be- 
cause of  the  hubbub  of  riveting  and  hammering.  Wangen- 
heim  now  found  an- 
other opportunity  for 
instilling  more  poison 
into  the  minds  of 
Enver,  Talaat,  and 
Djemal.  The  German 
workers,  he  declared, 
had  found  that  the 
Turkish  ships  were  in 
a  desperate  state  of 
disrepair,  and  for  this 
he  naturally  bleimed 
the  English  naval 
mission.  He  said  that 
England  had  delibe- 
rately ^  let  the  Turkish 
Navy  go  to  decay ; 
this  was  all  part  of 
England's  plot  to  ruin 
Turkey  !  "  Look  ! "  he 
would  exclaim,  "  see 
what  we  Germans 
have  done  for  the  Turkish  Army,  and  see  what  the  English 
have  done  for  your  ships !  "  As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  this 
was  untrue :  Admiral  Limpus  had  worked  hard  and  con- 
scientiously to  improve  the  Navy  and  had  accomplished 
excellent  results. 

All  this  time  the  Germans  were  strengthening  the  forti- 
fications at  the  Dardanelles.  As  September  lengthened  into 
October,  the  Sublime  Porte  practically  ceased  to  be  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  I  really  think  that  the 
most  powerful  seat  of  authority  at  that  time  was  a  German 
merchant  ship,  the  General.  It  was  moored  in  the  Golden 
Horn,  near  the  Galata  Bridge,  and  a  permanent  stairway  had 
been  built,  leading  to  its  deck.  I  knew  well  one  of  the  most 
frequent  visitors  to  this  ship  ;  he  used  to  come  to  the  Embassy 
and  entertain  me  with  stories  of  what  was  going  on. 

The  General  was  practically  a  German  club  or  hotel.  The 
officers  of  the  Goeben  and  the  Breslau  and  other  German 
officers  who  had  been  sent  to  command  the  Turkish  ships 
ate  and  slept  on  board.  Admiral  Souchon,  who  htid  brought 
the  German  cruisers  to  Constantinople,  presided  over  these 
gatherings.  Souchon  was  a  man  of  French  Huguenot  ex- 
traction ;    he  was  a  short,   dapper,   clean-cut   sailor,   very 


energetic  and  alert.  To  the  German  passion  for  command 
and  thoroughness  he  added  much  of  the  Gallic  geniality  and 
buoyancy.  Naturally  he  gave  much  liveliness  to  the  evening 
parties  on  the  General,  and  the  beer  and  champagne  whirli 
were  liberally  dispensed  on  these  occasions  loosened  the 
tongues  of  his  fellow  officers.  Their  conversation  showed 
that  they  entertained  no  illusions  as  to  who  really  controlled 
the  Turkish  Navy.  Night  after  night  their  impatience  lor 
action  grew  ;  thc\'  kept  declaring  that  li  Turkey  did  not 
presently  attack  the  Russians,  they  would  force  her  to  do  so. 
They  would  relate  how  they  had  sent  German  ships  into  the 

Black  Sza,  in  the  hope 


Shipping  at  the  Golden  Horn 


of  provoking  the  Rus- 
sian fleet  to  some 
action  that  would 
make  war  inevitable. 
Toward  the  end  of 
October  my  friend 
told  me  that  hostili- 
ties could  not  much 
longer  be  avoided ; 
the  Turkish  fleet  had 
been  fitted  for  action, 
everything  was  ready, 
and  the  impetuosity 
of  these  hot-headed 
German  officers  could 
not  much  longer  Be 
restrained. 

On  September  27th, 
Sir  Louis  Mallet,  the 
British  Ambassador, 
entered  my  office  in 
a  considerably  disl„ii  c;!  state  of  mind.  The  Khedive  of 
Egypt  had  just  left  and  1  began  to  talk  to  Sir  Louis  about 
Egyptian  matters. 

"Let's  discuss  that  some  other  time,"  he  said.-  "I  have 
something  far  more  important  to  tell  you.  They  have 
closed  the  Dardancl  es." 

By  "they"  he  meant,  of  course,  not  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment, the  only  power  which  had  the  legal  right  to  take  this 
drastic  rtep.  but  the  actual  ruling  powers  in  Turkey,  the 
Germans  5'r  Louis  had  good  reason  for  bringing  me  this 
piece  of  r.ivs,  for  this  was  an  outrage  against  the  United 

States  as  well  as 
against  the  Allies.  He 
asked  me  to  go  with 
him  and  make  a  joint 
protest.  I  suggested, 
however,  that  it  would 
be  better  for  us  to  act 
separately,  and  im- 
mediately I  started  for 
the  House  of  the 
Grand  Vizier. 

When  I  arrived  a 
Cabinet  conference 
was  in  session,  and,  as 
I  sat  in  the  ante- 
room, I  could  hear 
several  voices  in  ex- 
cited discussion.  I 
could  distinctly  dis- 
tinguish Talaat, 
Enver,  Djavid,  and 
other  familiar  mem- 
bers of  the  government.  It  was  quite  plain,  from  the  tone 
of  the  proceedings,  that  these  nominal  rulers  of  Turkey  were 
almost  as  worked  up  over  the  closing  as  were  Sir  Louis 
Mallet  and  myself. 

The  Grand  Vizier  came  out  in  answer  to  my  request.  He 
presented  a  pitiable  sight.  His  face  was  blanched  and  he 
was-trembling  from  head  to  foot.  When  I  asked  him  whether 
the  news  was  true  he  stammered  out  that  it  was. 

"You  know  this  means  war,"  I  said,  and  J  protested  as 
strongly  as  I  could  in  the  name  of  the  United  States. 

All  the  time  that  we  were  talking  I  could  hear  the  loud 
tones  of  Talaat  and  his  associates  in  the  interior  apartment. 
The  Grand  Vizier  excused  himself  and  went  back  into  the 
room.  He  then  sent  out  Djavid,  the  Minister  of  Finance,  to 
discuss  the  matter  with  me. 

"It's  all  a  surprise  to  us,"  were  Djavid's  first  words — this 
statement  being  a  complete  admission  that  the  Cabinet  had 
had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  I  repeated  that  the  United  States 
would  not  submit  to  closing  the  Dardanelles  ;  that  Turkey 
was  at  peace  ;  that  she  had  no  legal  right  to  shut  the  Straits 
to  mercantile  ships  except  in  case  of  war.  I  said  that  an 
American  ship,  laden  with  supplies  and  stores  for  the  American 


lO 


Land   &   Water 


June  27,  1 91 8 


Embassy,  was  outside  waiting  to  come  in.  Djavid  suggested 
that  I  have  this  vessel  unload  her  cargo  at  Smyrna  and  that 
the  Turkish  Government  would  pay  the  cost  of  transporting 
it  overland  to  Constantinople.  This  proposal,  of  course,  was 
a  ridiculous  evasion  of  the  issue  and  I  brushed  it  aside. 

Djavid  then  said  that  the  Cabinet  proposed  to  investigate 
the  matter ;  in  fact  they  were  discussing  the  situation  at 
that  moment.  He  told  me  how  it  had  happened.  A  Turkish 
torpedo  boat  had  passed  through  the  Dardanelles  and  at- 
tempted to  enter  the  .-Egean.  The  British  warships  sta- 
tioned outside  hailed  the  ship,  examined  it  and  found  that 
thefe  were  German  sailors  on  board.  The  English  Admiral 
at  once  ordered  the  vessel  to  go  back  ;  this,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, he  had  a  right  to  do.  Weber  Pasha,  the  German 
General  who  was  then 
in  charge  of  the  fortifi- 
cations, did  not  consult 
the  Turks  ;  he  imme- 
diately gave  orders  to 
close  the  Straits. 
VVangenheim  had  al- 
ready boasted  to  me, 
as  I  have  said,  that 
the  Dardanelles  could 
be  closed  in  thirty 
minutes  and  the  Ger- 
mans now  made  good 
his  words.  Down  went 
the  mines  and  the 
nets ;  the  lights  in 
the  lighthouses  were 
extinguished ;  signals 
were  put  up,  notifying 
all  ships  that  there 
was  "  no  thorough- 
fare" and  the  deed, 
the  most  high-handed 
which  the  Germans 
had  yet  committed, 
was  done.  And  here  I 
found  these  Turkish 
statesmen,  who  alone 
had  authority  over  this 
indispensable  strip  of 
water,  trembling  and 
stammering  with  fear, 
running  hither  and 
yon  like  a  lot  of 
frightened  rabbits,  ap- 
palled at  the  enormity 
of  the  German  act,  yet 
apparently  powerless 
to  take  any  decisive 
action.  I  certainly  had  a  graphic  picture  of  the  extremities 
to  which  Teutonic  bullying  had  reduced  the  proud  descen- 
dants of  Osman.  And  at  the  same  moment  before  my 
mind  rose  the  figure  of  the  Sultan,  whose  signature  was 
essential  to  close  legally  these  waters,  quietly  dozing  at 
his  palace,  entirely  oblivious  of  the  whole  transaction. 

Though  Djavid  informed  me  that  the  Cabinet  might 
decide  to  re-open  the  Dardanelles,  it  never  did  so.  This 
great  passage  way  has  remained  closed  from  S»ptember  27th, 
1914,  to  the  present  time.  I  saw,  of  course,  precisely  what 
this  action  signified.  That  month  of  September  had  been 
a  disillusioning  one  for  the  Germans.  The  French  had  beaten 
back  the  invasion  and  driven  the  German  armies  to  entrench- 
ments along  the  Aisne.  The  Russians  were  sweeping  trium- 
phantly through  Galicia ;  they  had  capti^red  Lemberg,  and 
it  seemed  not  improbable  that  they  would  soon  cross  the 
Carpathians  into  Austria-Hungary.  In  those  days,  Palla- 
vicini,  the  Austrian  Ambassador,  was  a  discouraged,  lament- 
able figure  ;  he  confided  to  me  his  fears  for  the  future.  The 
German  programme  of  a  short,  decisive  war  had  clearly 
failed ;  it  was  now  quite  evident  that  Germany  could  only 
win,  said  Pallavicini,  after  a  protracted  struggle. 

I  have  described  how  Wangenheim,  while  preparing  the 
Turkish  forces  for  any  eventualities,  was  simply  holding 
Turkey  in  hand,  intending  actively  to  use  her  only  in 
case  Germanv  failed  to  crush  France  and  Russia  in  the  first 
campaigjn.  The  time  had  now  come  to  transform  Turkey 
from  a  passive  into  an  active  ally,  and  the  closing  of  the 
Dardanelles  was  the  first  step  "in  this  direction.  Few 
people  realise,  even  to-day,  what  an  overwhelming  influence 
this  act  had  upon  future  mihtary  operations.  I  may  almost 
say  that  the  effect  was  decisive.  The  map  discloses  that 
enormous  Russia  has  just  four  ways  of  reaching  the  seas. 
One  is  by  way  of  the  Baltic,  and  this  the  German  Fleet  had 
already  closed.    Another  is  Archangel,  on  the  Arctic  Ocean, 


Talaat  Pasha 


a  port  that  is  frozen  over  several  months  in  the  year,  and 
which  connects  with  the  heart  of  Russia  only  by  a  long, 
single-track  railroad.  Another  is  the  Pacific  port  of  Vladi- 
vostok, also  ice-bound  for  three  months,  and  reaching  Russia 
only  by  the  thin  line  of  the  Siberian  Railway,  5,000  miles 
long.  The  fourth  passage  was  that  of  the  Dardanelle  ;  in 
fact,  this  was  the  only  practicable  one.  This  was  the  narrow 
gate  through  which  the  surplus  products  of  175,000,000 
people  reached  Europe,  and  nine-tenths  of  all  Russian  exports 
and  imports  had  gone  this  way  for  years.  By  suddenly 
closing  it,  Germany  destroyed  Russia  both  as  an  economic 
and  a  military  Power.  By  shutting  off  the  exports  of  Russian 
grain,  she  deprived  Russia  of  the  financial  power  essential 
to  successful  warfare.  What  was  perhaps  even  more  fatal, 
she  prevented  Eng- 
land and  France  Irom 
getting  munitions  to 
the  Russian  battle- 
front  in  sufficient 
quantity  to  stem  the 
German  onslaught.  As 
soon  as  theDardanelles 
was  closed,  Russia  had 
to  fall  back  on  Arch- 
angel and  Vladivos- 
tok for  such  supplies 
as  she  could  get  from 
these  ports.  The  cause 
of  the  military  collapse 
of.  Russia  in  1915  is 
now  well  known  ;  the 
soldiers  simply  had  no 
ammunition  with 
which  to  fight.  In  the 
list  few  months  Ger- 
many has  attempted 
desperately  to  drive  a 
"wedge"  between  the 
English  and  French 
armies — an  enterprise 
which,  up  to  the  pre- 
sent writing,  has  failed. 
When  Germany,  how- 
ever, closed  the  Dar- 
danelles in  late  Sep- 
tember, 1914,  she 
drove  such  a  "wedge" 
between  Russia  and 
her  allies. 

In  the  days  follow- 
ing this  bottling  up  of  ■ 
Russia,  the  Bosphorus 
began  to  look  like  a 
harbour  suddenly  striken  ^  with  the  plague.  Hundreds 
of  ships  from  Russia,  Rumania,  and  Bulgaria,  loaded 
with  grain,  lumber,  and  other  products,  arrived,  only 
to  discover  that  they  could  go  no  further.  There  were 
not  docks  enough  to  berth  them,  and  they  had  to  swing 
out  into  the  stream,  drop  anchor,  and  await  developments 
with  what  patience  they  could. 

The  waters  were  a  cluster  of  masts  and  smoke-stacks  ;  the 
crowded  vessels  became  so  dense  that  a  motor  boat  had 
difficulty  in  picking  its  way  through  the  tangled  forest.  The 
Turks  held  out  hopes  that  they  might  re-open  the  waterway, 
and  for  this  reason  these  vessels,  constantly  increasing  in 
number,  waited  patiently  for  a  month  or  so.-  Then  one  by 
one  they  turned  around,  pointed  their  noses  toward  the 
Black  Sea,  and  lugubriously  started  for  their  home  ports. 
In  a  few  weeks  the  Bosphorus  and  adjoining  waters  had 
become  a  desolate  waste.  What  for  years  had  been  one  of 
the  most  animated  shipping  points  in  the  world  had  its 
waters  now  ruffled  only  by  an  .occasional  launch  or  a  tiny 
Turkish  caique  or  saili  g  vessel.  For  an  accurate  idea  of 
what  this  meant,  from  a  mihtary  standpoint,  we  need  only 
call  to  mind  the  Russian  battlefront  in  the  next  year. 
There  the  peasants  were  fighting  German  artillery  with  their 
unprotected  bodies,  having  no  rifles  and  no  heavy  guns,  while 
mountains  of  useless  ammunition  were  piling  up  in  their 
distant  Arctic  and  Pacific  ports,  with  no  railroads  to  send 
them  to  the  field  of  action. 

How  the  capitulations  came  to  be  abrogated  is 
told  by  Mr.  Morgcnlhau  next  week. 


Owing  to  unavoidable  delay  at  the  last  moment,  the  publica- 
tion of  "Gentlemen  at  Arms,"  the  collection  of  Centurion's 
stories  in  Land  &  Water,  ivill  not  be  published  by  Mr. 
Heinemann  until  Tuesday,  July  gih. 


June    27,  1918 


Land    &    Water 


1 1 


The  Kaiser:  Mad  or  Bad  ?    By  Charles  Mercier 


IT  is  often  said,  especially  by  persons  who  are  not 
qualified  to  express  an  opinion,  that  the  Kaiser  is  mad, 
or  must  be  mad  ;  and  still  more  often  that  he  is  a 
degenerate.  The  term  a  "degenerate"  has  never  been 
defined.  It  is  a  quasi-saientific  term  of  abuse,  em- 
ployed to  fling  at  anyone  of  whose  conduct  or  character  we 
•disapprove,  and  in  this  sense  it  is  no  doubt  correctly  applied 
to  the  Kaiser  ;  but,  putting  abuse  on  one  side,  and  speaking 
with  strict  scientific  accuracy,  is  the  Kaiser  mad? 

This  question  has  occupied  my  mind  at  intervals  since 
long  before  the  war,  for  undoubtedly  there  have  been  incidents 
in  his  career  that,  as  they  have  been  reported,  have  raised  a 
strong  suspicion  of  madness — a  strong  suspicion,  but  no 
more,  and  a  suspicion,  even  a  strong  suspicion  is  of  little 
value.  My  desire  has  been  to  form  such  an  opinion  as  I 
should  form  of  a  patient  brought  to  my  consulting- room  for 
the  purpose,  and  subjected  to  a  searching  examination  such 
as  I  am  accustomed  to  make  ;  an  opinion  of  a  strictly 
scientific  character,  founded  upon  indisputal^le  facts,  and 
formed  with  bias  or  prejudice  one  way  or  the  other.  Such 
an  opinion  could  not  fail  to  be  both  interesting  and  valuable  ; 
but  such  an  opinion  I  have  been  unable  to  form,  for  the 
necessary  data  were  not  to  be  had. 

Whether  a  person  is  mad  may  be  very  easy  or  very  difficult 
to  determine.  It  does  not  always  need  a  personal  interview 
for  its  determination.  Such  a  letter  as  now  lies  before  me — a 
letter  without  formal  beginning  or  ending,  bringing  vague 
but  horrible  accusations  against  a  multitude  of  persons, 
named  and  unnamed,  of  persecuting  the  writer  by  means  of 
lightning  flashes  and  red  flashes  transmitted  through  walls 
and  ceilings,  accompanied  by  voices,  dreams,  and  night- 
mares, and  lasting  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  without  inter- 
mission— such  a  letter  is  of  itself  conclusive  of  the  madness  of 
the  wTiter  ;  but  there  are  cases  in  which  repeated  personal 
interviews  and  a  minute  ])ersonal  history  leave  one  still  in 
doubt  whether  the  dividing  hne  between  sanity  and  madness 
has  been  crossed,  or  whether,  if  it  has,  the  sojourn  on  the 
wrong  side  has  been  sufficiently  prolonged  to  warrant  certi- 
fication. Tfiis  being  so,  I  am  always  entertained  when  I  hear 
people  who  have  never  seen  a  madman  in  their  lives,  assert 
positively  of  some  other  person  whom  also  they  have  never 
seen,  and  who,  like  the  Kaiser,  may  be  near  the  border  line, 
that  "of  course "  he  is  mad,  or  must  be  mad. 

A  common  but  erroneous  opinion,  which  it  has  taken  me 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  dissipate  from  the  minds 
of  my  fellow  experts,  is  that  madness  consists  in  disorder  of 
mind.  There  could  scarcely  be  a  greater  mistake.  Madness 
consists,  not  in  what  a  man  thinks  or  believes,  but  in  what 
he  does  ;  not  in  his  opinions,  whether  deluded  or  not,  but  in 
his  action.  Conduct  is  the  test ;  and  that  conduct  alone  is 
mad  that  exhibits  disorder  in  the  process  of  adapting  one- 
self to  one's  circumstances. 

Consequently,  in  forming  an  opinion  whether  a  man  is 
sane  or  mad,  it  is  necessary  to  take  into  account  not  only 
what  he  does,  but  also  the  circumstances  in  which  he  does  it. 
To  take  a  very  simple  case  :  suppose  a  man  in  good  health 
sits  still  all  day  and  all  night,  taking  no  food,  and  bawling 
at  the  top  of  his  voice  ;  if  he  were  in  ordinary  circumstances 
— that  is  to  say,  in  his  own  house,  surrounded  by  his  family 
and  his  comforts — we  might  conclude  that  he  is  mad,  or 
must  be  mad,  to  behave  in  such  a  way ;  but  suppose  he  has 
fallen  into  a  pit  in  a  lonely  place  and  broken  his  legs,  we 
must  revise  our  j  udgment  on  a  consideration  of  his  circum- 
stances. 

So  it  is  with  the  Kaiser.  In  forming  an  opinion  of  his 
sanity  or  madness,  we  must  take  into  consideration  not 
what  he  thinks  or  beheves,  which  we  can  only  conje<;ture, 
but  what  he  does,  as  to  which  we  have  more  or  less  trust- 
worthy information  ;  and  in  estimating  his  conduct,  we  must 
never  lose  sight  of  the  circumstances  in  which  he  acts,  and 
never  fail  to  take  account  of  these  circumstances.  The 
dominating  circumstance  oj  the  Kaiser's  life  is  thai  he  is  the 
German  Emperor. 

He  is  the  Emperor  of  a  people  whom  we  may,  if  we  please, 
stigmatise  as  degenerate,  and  who  are  at  any  rate  very  differ- 
ent from  ourselves.  This  dominating  circumstance  is  con- 
stantly ignored,  and  the  German  Emperor  is  judged  as  if  he 
were  the  monarch  of  some  people  like  ourselves.  If  the 
English  King- Emperor  were  to  act  as  the  German  Emperor 
acts ;  if  he  were  to  change  his  dress  a  dozen  times  a  day  :  if 
he  were  for  ever  boasting  and  bragging  and  calling  God  to 
witness  what  a  splendid  creature  he  is  ;  if  he  were  for  ever 
rattling    his   sabre   and   blustering   about   mailed    'ists   and 


shining  armour  ;  if  he  were  to  order  his  soldiers  to  give  no 
quarter,  and  so  forth,  we  might  well  question  his  sanity  ; 
for  the  aim  of  a  king  must  be  to  inspire  tlie  respect,  the 
loyalty,  and  the  devotion  of  his  subj  ects  ;  and  if  a  king  of 
England  were  to  behave  thus,  he  would  inspire  only  dislike, 
disgust,  and  contempt.  But  the  Kaiser  is  not  King  of 
England.  He,  is  German  Emperor,  and  the  Germans  like 
his  conduct.  It  suits  them.  The  more  he  brags  and  postures 
and  prances  before  them,  the  more  they  admire  him,  and 
the  more  loyal  and  devoted  they  become.  There  is  no 
evidence  of  madness,  then,  in  this. 

Abuse  of  Hospitality 

In  this  country,  or  in  any  other  country  on  the  face  of  the- 
earth  except  Germany,  a  man  who  should  abuse  the  hos- 
pitality of  a  generous  host  by  introducing  spies  into  the 
house  of  that  host,  and  plotting  against  him  while  enjojdng 
his  hospitality,  would  be  execrated  and  despised  as  the  vilest 
of  scoundrels.  An  Ojibbeway  or  a  Pathan  would  be  driven 
from  his  tribe  for  such  conduct.  The  lowest  savages  respect 
the  binding  obligation  of  hospitality  ;  and  to  eat  a  man's 
salt  or  to  break  bread  with  him  is  a  sacred  treaty  of  peace. 
But  the  Germans  do  not  take  this  view,  and  the  Kaiser  is 
the  German  Emperor. 

The  Germans  see  in  such  conduct  nothing  to  condemn,  but 
much  to  admire.  They  look  upon  it  as  evidence  of  superior 
astuteness.  They  laugh  at  the  confiding  simplicity  of  the 
hosts.  They  admire  the  conduct  of  the  German  Ambassador 
to  "those  idiotic  Yankees,"  and  they  worship  their  Emperor 
for  his  perfidy  towards  Edward  VII.  If,  therefore,  we 
regard  the  conduct  of  the  Kaiser  in  relation  to  the  dominating 
circumstance  tliat  he  is  Emperor  at  the  head  of  the  German 
people,  we  find  no  want  of  adaptation  to  this  circumstance. 
On  the  contrary,  the  adaptation  is  complete  and  perfect, 
and  therefore  the  question  of  his  madness  does  not  arise. 
If  the  King  of  England,  the  President  of  the  French  Republic, 
or  the  President  of  the  United  States  were  to  act  so — I 
apologise  to  them  for  the  supposition — they  might  well  be 
considered  mad,  and  it  would  be  charitable  so  to  consider 
them,  for  sucti  conduct  would  be  so  alien  to  the  opinions  and 
sentiments  of  the  peoples  that  they  govern  as  scarcely  to  be 
explainable  on  any  other  ground  ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  it 
alien  to  the  opinions  or  sentiments  of  the  Germans.  It  is 
what  they  are  taught  and  trained  to  do.  It  is  what  each 
one  of  them  who  finds  himself  in"  a  foreign  country  does  in 
his  own  humble  way  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  The  Kaiser 
shows  no  madness  in  this. 

No.  So  far  there  is  no  evidence  of  madness.  It  is  true 
that  other  incidents  are  reported,  such  as  that  of  his  capering 
in  crown  and  sceptre  on  the  sands  of  Ostend,  and  causing 
photographs  of  himself  in  this  unseemly  e.xercise  to  be  dis- 
tributed to  his  troops,  that  are  more  strongly  suggestive  of 
madness  ;  but  in  the  first  place,  the  incident,  though  reported 
on  fairly  good  authority,  is  not  beyond  doubt ;  and  in  the 
second,  it  may  be  that  even  if  it  is  true,  it  would  excite 
nothing  but  admiration  among  the  Germans.  It  is  difficult 
to  imagine  any  act  of  their  Kaiser,  that  the  Germans  would 
not  approve  and  admire. 

B  it  if  we  seek  the  (ffi.  ity  of  the  Kaiser,  not  to  the  mxdtnan, 
bit  to  the  criminal,  ue  are  on  much  firm:r  ground,.  More 
nonsense  has  been  written  about  cnminals  than,  perhaps, 
on  any  other  subject ;  but  though  the  doctnnes  of  Lombroso, 
Garofalo,  and  the  rest  of  the  Italian  school,  and  even  those 
of  I'^ere  and  the  French  school  of  criminologists  are  now 
abandoned,  there  remains  a  residuum  of  truth  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  existence  of  "instinctive"  criminals.  There  are, 
undoubtedly,  persons  who  are  born  without  a  rudiment  of  the 
moral  sense,  and  who  grow  up  without  its  ever  becoming 
developed  in  them.  Such  persons  I  have  called  "moral 
imbeciles,"  and  under  this  title  they  have  been  provided  for, 
at  my  instance,  in  the  Mental  Defectives  Act. 

A  study  of  these  "instinctive  criminals,"  or  "moral 
imbeciles,"  shows  that  between  their  moral  and  intellectual 
peculiarities  and  those  of  the  Kaiser  there  is  a  very  close 
similarity.  The  moral  imbecile  or  instinctive  criminal  is 
distinguished  from  other  men  in  the  first  place  by  his  want  of 
the  moral  sense,  or  his  moral  insensibihty.  To  him,  right 
and  wrong  are  empty  words,  or,  if  they  have  any  meaning, 
right  is  that  which  is  profitable  to  him,  wrong  is  that  which 
is  unprofitable  to  him.  I  have  sketched  his  cliaracter  in  my 
book  on  Insanity,  and  in  other  places,  and  when  1  reperuse  these 
descriptions  I  am  struck  with  their  applicability  to  the  Kaiser. 


12 


Land   &  Water 


June  27,    191 8 


The  moral  imbecile  lies,  forges,  swindles,  and  robs  without 
any  compunction,  without  any  consideration  for  his  victims, 
and,  what  is  specially  characteristic  of  liim,  without  any 
shame  when  his  misdeeds  are  discovered  and  brought  home 
to  him.  So  far  from  feeling  shame,  he  is  apt  to  glory  in  them 
if  they  are  successful,  as  that  typical  German  and  idol  of 
the  Gennans— Bismarck — glorified  in  his  falsification  of  the 
Ems  telegram,  and  as  the  Kaiser  glories  in  having  "hacked 
his  way"  through  Belgium.  But  though  the  moral  imbecile 
does  not  recognise  the  inculcations  of  morality  as  binding 
on  himself,  or  as  to  be  observed  by  himself  to  his  own  in- 
convenience, he  is  extremely  sensitive  to  their  infraction, 
and,  indeed,  to  their  enforcement  also  by  othef  people,  if  that 
infraction  or  enforcement  is  at  all  inconvenient  to  himself. 
The  moral  imbecile  in  private  hfe  will  steal  and  swindle  and 
forge  without  a  scruple  ;  but  not  only  is  he  quick  to  resent 
and  to  prosecute  depredations  on  himself,  but  also  when  he 
himself  is  prosecuted  for  his  misdeeds,  he  looks  upon  the 
punishment  as  grossly  unjust  persecution. 

The  Kaiser's  attitude  is  strikingly  similar.  His  devasta- 
tion of  Belgium,  his  >nurder  of  Nurse  Cavell  and  Captain 
Fryatt,  and  of  multitudes  of  other  men  and  women,  and  even 
of  children,  liis  bombardment  of  open  towns,  his  sinking  of  the 
LusHania  and  of  neutral  ships,  and  all  the  inpumerable 
crimes  committed  in  his  name  and  by  his  orders  are  in  his 


eyes  quite  right,  and  pfroper,  and  justifiable,  and  in  conformity 
with  moral  law  as  he  understands  it ;  but  the  reprisal  bom- 
bardment of  German  towns  is  a  scandalous  and  abominable 
infraction  of  the  liws  of  war.  Other  well-recognised  traits 
of  the  instinctive  criminal  are  the  sentimentality  that  alter- 
nates with  cruelty,  colossal  egotism,  naive  and  clamorous 
vanity,  and  a  craving  for  notoriety,  wliich  displays  itself  in 
a  passion  for  the  limelight  and  for  histrionic  display. 

Moreover,  the  instinctive  criminal  is  very  often  intensely 
religious.  He  pays  with  scrupulous  punctuality  his  tithes 
of  mint  and  cummin  and  anise.  When  about  to  commit 
a  murder,  he  wdl  go  to  mass  und  pray  for  a  blessing  on  his 
enterprise  ;  and  when  he  has  conducted  a  successful  burglary, 
he  will  make  a  thank-oi'fering  to  the  God  who  has  assisted 
him  and  held  him  scatheless.  All  these  traits  of  character 
are  enumerated  by  Mr.  Havelock  Ellis  and  other  crimino- 
logists, and  though  they  exaggerate  in  many  things,  in  these 
I  can  corroborate  tljcm  from  my  own  experience  of  mora} 
imbeciles. 

All  these  traits  are  notoriously  and  conspicuously  present 
in  the  character  of  the  Kaiser,  and  my  provisional  diagnosis 
is  that,  whether  he  is  or  is  not  mad,  as  to  which  the  evidence 
is  quite  inconclusive,  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  his 
mental  and  moral  make-up  is  that  of  the  instinctive  criminal 
or  moral  imbecile. 


Flying  Sailors:    By  Herman  Whitaker 


T 


HE  dickens  ! "  said  the  American  commander 
as  I  stepped  off  the  train;  "who  would  have 
expected  to  see  you  down  here  ? "  You  see  we 
had  crossed  on  the  same  transport  from  New 
York  to  Liverpool  fivp  months  ago,  and  ''  down 
here"  was  a  United  States  Dirigible  Station  on  the  south 
coast  of  France.  ■     , 

While  we  were  motoring  out  to  the  station  1  took  stock 
of  his  sartorial  aspect,  which  had  changed  somewhat  since  we 
parted.  A  sailor  on  horse-back  has  from  time  immemorial 
been  something  of  a  joke.  A  sailor  on  skates — roller  or  ice — 
wide  trousers  flapping  like  raven  wings  in  rhytlim  with  liis 
stroke,  is  hardly  less  funny.  In  fact  it  is  hard  to  fit  him  in 
to  any  background  but  that  of  the  sea.  His  clothes  and 
nautical  roll  clash  with  all  other  schemes.  But  in  the  brown 
service  uniform,  the  commander  looked  natty.  But  for  his 
blue  and  gold  shoulder  straps,  it  were  hard  to  tell  him  from 
an  officer  of  the  line. 

Like  the  "Heavier  than  Airs"  I  have  already  written  of 
in  Lj\nd  akd  Water,  the  war  had  dumped  this  lot  of  sailors 
in  queer  quarters.  Beyond  the  dead  flat  mile  of  the  flying 
field  a  river  swept  on  to  wash  the  skirts  of  a  quaint,  peaked 
French  town.  Here  and  there  low  stone  farmsteads  splashed 
the  dull  green  of  the  prospect  with  blobs  of  white.  An 
impressionist  painter  would  have  used  half  a  tube  on  each. 
As  in  all  South  France  land.scapes,  fat-bellied  windmills 
waved  grey  wooden  arms  in  the  distance.  From  the  dead 
centre  of  all  of  which  the  great  canvas  hangar,  that  housed  the 
dirigibles,  raised  its  hundred  feet  of  height  and  ran  like  an 
overgrown  haystack  three  hundred  yards  along  the  field 

When  we  arrived  the  men  were  at  dinner  in  one  of  the  long 
low  huts  that  now  form  their  home  in  this  foreign  land,  and 
one  glance  at  the  table  confirmed  an  impression  I  had  gained 
while  cruising  with  the  American  destroyer  fleet  in  English 
waters — taking  it  by  and  large,  the  American  officer  does  not 
"  eat "  nearly  as  well  as  his  men.  Outside,  the  day  was 
cold  and  cheerless.  A  damp  wind  blew  over  the  bleak  country- 
side. One  could  scarcely  imagine  a  duUer  place,  but  the 
men  had  been  made  happy  this  morning  by  the  receipt  of 
baseball  and  boxing  sets,  a  football,  box  of  quoits,  and  were 
now  looking  forward  to  a  piano  and  Victrola  that  were 
said  to  be  en  route. 

"When  they  arrive  we'll  be  able  to  dance  and  sing  in  the 
evenings,"  one  lad  said  with  cheery  optimism.  "  Then 
we'll  feel  all  right." 

"Sure  !  "  another  added.  "And  after  they  put  us  on  the 
American  Y.M.C.A.  amusement  circuit,  we'll  be  happy  as 
a  lark."  And  they  will — that  is,  as  happy  as  it  is  possible 
for  them  to  be  away  from  Dakota  or  Iowa,  Kansas,  Alabama, 
California,  or  other  States  they  happen  to  hail  from.         ^ 

Of  tlie  dozen  officers  I  presently  met  at  lunch,  ten  had 
trained  together  at  the  dirigible  school  at  Akron,  Ohio,  in 
the  United  States.  Most  of  them  had  come  out  of  civilian 
Ufe  in  the  last  six  months.  I  believe  the  Commander  and 
his  chief  officer  were  the  only  blue-water  navv  men. 
But  what  the  others  lacked  in  previous  sen--ice,  they  made 


up  in  enthusiasm  They  had  plunged  head  over  heels  in 
their  work ;  were  so  permeated  that  it  escaped  from  every 
pore.  Their  conversation  bristled  with  technical  terms ; 
was  (lark  with  flying  lore. 

"Bondage,"  "angles  of  inclination,"  "ascensional  forces," 
"stabilisers"  and  "elevators,"  "fins,"  and  other  full-mouthed 
phrases  that  quite  confounded  my  layman's  ignorance, 
dropped  casually  from  their  mouths.  I  wished  to  learn, 
however — and  did  ;  among  other  things,  that  a  dirigible 
is  operated  on  practically  the  same  principles  as  a  submarine  ; 
which  might  be  expected,  for  the  mediums  they  navigate 
differ  only  in  density.  Both  are  fitted  with  narrow  vertical 
and  lateral  planes,  the  "fins"  and  "equalisers"  wliich  are 
really  lateral  rudders.  Raised,  they  catch  the  wind  and 
send  the  ship  up.  Depressed,  they  force  her  down.  The 
ship  swings,  of  course,  like  any  sea  vessel  in  the  direction 
the  vertical  rudder  happens  to  turn. 

I  learned,  also,  that  dirigibles  are  safer  to  operate  than 
sea-planes,  which  fall  if  the  motors  fail.  But  a  dirigible  can 
float  for  hours  o^  days  while  its  mechanics  are  making  engine 
adjustments  or  minor  repairs.  Also  they  can  remain  poised 
above  a  certain  spot  to  make  observations  or  deliver  attack. 
Greatest  advantage  of  all — they  can  stay  out  for  thirty  or 
forty  hours  at  a  time  and  cruise  seven  or  eight  hundred 
miles.  Indeed,  the  Commander  was  quite  willing  to  fly  his 
ship  home  to  the  United  States  at  the  end  of  the  war.  Because 
of  these  manifest  advantages,  j^our  "Lighter  than  Airs"  are 
inchned  to  look  down  on  their  brethren,  the  "Heaviers,"  as 
members  of  a  primitive  craft  which  represents  the  stone  age 
in  flying.  Those  present  seemed  to  be  in  doubt,  however, 
as  to  their  position  in  relation  to  the  submarine  till  the 
Commander  summed  up  a  heated  argument  by  saying :  "  Those 
submarine  chaps  have  to  know  a  lot  more  than  we." 

"Sondage"  and  "angles  of  inchnation,"  those  mysterious 
terms,  explained  themselves  when  the  chief  officer,  who  was 
showing  me  over  the  station,  sent  up  some  toy  balloons  to 
determine  wind  velocity.  If  they  rise  only  a  thousand  feet 
while  travelling  the  same  distance  horizontally,  the  wind  is 
stronger,  of  course,  than  if  they  had  risen  twice  the  height. 
Worked  by  a  scale  through  triangulation,  the  "angle  of 
inclination"  which  gives  the  wind  velocity  is  thus  easily 
determined. 

"Come  on!"  The  Commander's  call  from  the  door  of  his 
office  cut  off  the  officer's  explanation.  "We  are  going  to 
bring  her  out." 

"Her,"  was  the  dirigible,  now  due  to  depart  on  patrol. 
The  crew  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  required  to  handle  her  were 
already  at  their  places  in  the  hangar.  With  its  long  rows  of 
latticed  steel  piers  rising  in  a  graceful  arch  overhead,  its  vast 
interior  spaces  softly  illumined  by  golden  light  that  suffused 
through  the  canvas  above,  the  hangar  looked  like  a  great 
cathedral,  and  in  its  centre,  suspended  like  Mahomet's  coffin 
between  floor  and  roof,  the  great  ship  floated  fight  as  thistle- 
down under  the  arch. 

Your  tnie  sailor  is  always  neat  as  a  good  housewife,  and 
the  ship's  crew  were  giving  the  last  loving  touches  to  her 


June  27,  iqi8 


Land    &    Water 


13 


brass  and  paint.  Every  bit  of  brass  and  copper  shone  like 
gold.  The  painted  car  gleamed  like  a  grand  piano. 
With  glue  and  sandpaper  the  gunner's  mate  in  charge  was 
touching  up  a  slight  abrasion  in  a  propeller  blade,  for  while 
revolving  at  two  thousand  a  minute  the  slightest  roughness 
wiU  cause  vibration  and  fracture,  if  not  complete  wreckage 
of  the  motor.  An  object  falling  on  to  a  propeller  as  small 
and  soft  as  a  chestnut  will  pierce  a  blade  like  a  high-power 
bullet,  and  break  it  off  through  the  terrific  vibration  before 
one  can  shut  off  the  engine.  Accordingly,  before  each 
flight,  each  nut,  bolt  and  wire  is  subjected  to  microscopic 
examination. 

On  the  bows  a  Lewis  gun  was  mounted  on  a  swivel  that 
permitted  almost  perpendicular  depression  ;  and,  peeping 
underneath,  I  saw  in  racks  on  each  side  the  four  bombs, 
carried  for  the  benefit  of  U-boats.  To-day^  she  was  carry- 
ing practice  bombs 
made  of  concrete 
which  she  would 
presently  drop  on  a 
target.  The  sand- 
bags and  mooring 
ropes  having  been 
cast  off,  the  crew 
marched  her  out 
and  around  on  a 
wide  circle  into  the 
centre  of  the  flying 
field.  "Let  her 
rise!  "  At  the  Com- 
mander's order 
they  let  her 
up  a  few  feet. 
"Lower!"  They 
pulled  her  down 
again. 

She  floated  in 
perfect  balance 
with  just  enough 
buoyancy  to  carry 
her  up  to  cruising 
height.  A  pull 
at  a  lever  would 

releas^  water  ballast  to  rise  higher  in  emergency  ;  but  usually 
a  dirigible  rises  and  lowers  by  the  power  of  her  engines 
driving  the  sharp  "elevator"  planes  into  the  wind. 

"Port  engine  !  "  "Starboard  engine  !  "  They  both  went 
off  with  a  puff  of  black  smoke,  and  when  satisfied  with  their 
even  purring,  the  Commander  gave  the  word  "  Let  go !  " 

Simultaneously,  the  dozen  ropes  that  held  her  slipped 
through  the  rings  of  the  permanent  stays.  Then,  slowly, 
but  with  rapidly  increasing  speed,  the  big  ship  rose  and 
moved  off  on  a  wide  circle  that  presently  brought  her  heading 
straight  down  the  centre  of  the  field. 

In  the  meantime  we  had  all  moved  back  away  from  the 
target,  a  whitewashed  oblong  that  represented  the  deck  of  a 
submarine.  At  her  height,  seven  hundred  feet,  it  could  not 
have  looked  any  larger  than  a  turtle's  back.  A  bomb,  too, 
has  the  initial  speed  of  the  ship  when  released,  and  describes 
a  flat  curve  in  falling  ;   or  may  be  deflected  by  a  side  wind. 

The  Commander  said,  afterward,  that  he  released  the  bombs 
two  hundred  feet  before  he  reached  the  mark.  While  they  fell 
they  looked  astonishingly  large.  A  dead  rifle  shot  could 
easily  hit  and  explode  one  in  mid-air.  The  first  just  tumbled, 
turning  over  and  over,  then  as  the  wooden  feathers  caught 
the  wind,  it  righted  and  shot  down  for  the  centre  of  the  target. 

The  ship  had  passed  on,  was  fully  a  hundred  yards  ahead 
before  the  bomb  struck.  She-  would  have  been  well  out  of 
range  of  the  concussion  blast  of  a  real  bomb.  Now  she 
described  another  \vide  circle,  and  repeated  it  three  times 
dropping  always  a  bomb.  All  but  the  last  hit  the  target.  A 
side  wind  carried  it  a  couple  of  inches  to  one  side,  but  in 
real  warfare  it  would  still  have  blown  up  a  submarine.  While 
the  French  had  the  station,  they  sank  two  U-boats  with 
well-placed  bombs.  Since  then  our  lads  have  added  a  third  ; 
and  their  brethren,  the  "Heavier  than  Airs"  have  also  scored. 
One  pilot  actually  hit  a  fourth,  and  had  the  hard  luck  to  have 
the  bomb  turn  out  a  "dud."  No  doubt  greatly  frightened, 
the  U-boat  dived  to  a  great  depth  and  remained  below  till 
darkness  permitted  escape — than  which,  one  could  hardly 
imagine  anything  harder  to  bear.  That  poor  pilot  has  not 
got  over  it  yet. 

Each  time  she  came  down  the  field,  the  ship's  great  bulk 
clove  the  air  with  a  sough  like  that  of  a  risitig  wind,  and  on 
the  last  round  she  was  going  at  a  pace  that  put  her  in  a  few 
minutes  low  down  on  the  horizon.  But  just  before  she  went 
out  of  sight,  there  appeared  a  second  distant  speck  that  en- 
larged as  she  diminished. 


'  It's  the  Vidette  from  B- 


A  Handley-Page  in  Pursuit 


Official  photo 


The  chief  officer's  face  could  not  have  lit  up  more  brightly 
had  it  been  his  best  girl  instead  of  the  second  ship  of  the  four 
that  were  to  make  up  the  station's  complement.     He  added 

as  she  dipped  her  nose  to  alight :    "If  that  is  little  D at 

the  wheel  you  are  in  luck.     He's  the  boy  that  can  give  you 
real  stories." 

He  could  and  did — as  we  sat  with  him  at  a  later  luncheon. 
A  small,  dark-eyed  Frenchman,  he  spoke  English  so  perfectly 
that  his  narrative  lost  nothing  of  its  spirit  that  would  have 
been  inevitable  in  a  translation. 

" Ouil  "  lie  confirmed- the  officer's  assertion.  "We  sank 
two  submarines  at  tliis  station.  With  another  we  fought 
an  artillery  duel.  Out!  The  little  Vidette  out  there  fought 
a  U-boat  with  only  her  little  pop  gun  and  put  him  to  flight. 
We  had  sighted  him  steaming   along   the  surface,  and  had 

he  kept  his  course, 
we  could  easily 
have  come  down 
the  wind  and 
bombed  him  as  we 
passed.  But  he 
was  wise,  that 
U-boat — wise  as  a 
woman  who  is  wise 
without  knowing 
it.  Instead  of 
waiting  for  us,  he 
headed  up  into 
wind  which  blew 
so  strongly  that, 
with  our  engines 
doing  their  best, 
we  could  make 
only  eight  knots. 
That  was  his 
speed,  and  while 
we  hung  astern, 
striving  to  over- 
take him,  he  fired 
fifteen  shells  at 
us.  Some  burst  so 
close  that  the 
little  Vidette  still  bears  their  marks.  But,  luckily,  they  were 
not  incendiary  shells.  We  answered  and  hit  her,  too,  with  our 
three-pound  pop  gun.  But  our  shells  glanced  from  her  back 
Hke  peas  off  a  bald  man's  pate. 

"It  would  have  been  suicide  to  persist,  so  we  struck  a 
wide  tack  across  the  wind  to  outsail  and  come  back  at  him 
down  the  wind.  But  when  we  came  about  he  was  gone,  that 
cunning  U-boat  had  submerged  and  fled  from  our  little 
Vidette.  But  such  is 'your  Boche — a  coward  alwa5's  unless 
the  odds  are  his." 

I  took  another  look  at  that  little  Frenchman.  He  had 
spoken  so  quietly,  as  though  hanging  on  to  the  tail  of  a 
.submarine,  a  mark  for  its  gunners,  were  a  mere  incident  in 
the  day's  work.  He  could  not  have  been  five  feet  tall.  He 
weighed  probably  in  the  neighbourhood  of  ten  stone.  But 
the  spirit  that  lit  up  his  dark  Latin  eyes  was  big  as  Mont 
Blanc.     The  soul  of  him  could  not  be  set  down  in  tons. 

"  Is  war  ever  safe  ?  We  do  not  always  escape.  Out  there" 
— he  flung  his  thumb  over  his  shoulder  indicating  the  flying 
field — "we  watched  a  great  ship  fly  off  on  a  far  mission. 
A  ship  reported  her  along  the  Mediterranean  ;  a  gallant  sight, 
too,  she  must  have  made  between  the  sunHt  sky  and  deep, 
blue  sea.  Then" — his  shoulders  rose  to  the  roots  of  his 
hair — "she  vanished.  Perhaps  a  submarine  got  her  with  an 
incendiary  shell.  A  flash  of  flame,  the  splash  of  her  charred 
body  in  the  water,  it  would  be  over  !  Or  she  may  have  been 
just  brought  down.  Perhaps  her  crew  will  be  heard  of,  some 
day,  in  an  interior  German  prison." 

Just  as  he  had  said,  a  dirigible  offers  a  large  target — ^just 
how  large  I  did  not  realise  until  our  big  ship  came  sUding 
back  out  of  the  sunset's  gold.  The  huge  bulk  of  her,  shining 
ethereal,  looked  as  large  as  the  hangar.  While  she  was  still 
a  fly  speck  on  the  horizon,  the  lone  sentry  on  top  of  the 
hangar  had  sounded  the  bugle  blast  that  brought  the  men 
like  swarming  bees  into  the  flying  field.  As  she  slowed 
and  dipped  down  with  engines  cut  off,  the  quarter  mile 
of  trail  rope  thudded  on  the  ground.  It  was  seized  by  a 
hundred  hands  and  quickly  bent  to  a  "dead  man"  anchor. 
The  guys  were  then  slipped  through  the  stay  rings  ;  then,  on 
a  wide  circle,  she  was  marched  around  and  into  the  hangar. 
"What  a  target!  "  I  thought,  but  these  flying  sailors  of 
ours  showed  no  mental  disturbance  over  the  fact.  Daily  they 
go  forth  on  the  patrols  keeping  the  German  mine  layers  out 
of  the  French  ship  channels — and  they  make  the  best  of  a 
rather  cheerless  e.xistence  while  doing  it. 


14  Land    &    Water  June  27,  1918 

A  Charter  for  Agriculture:  By  Sir  H.  Matthews 


A  NUMBER  of  documents  have,  during  the  past 
ten  years  or  so,  been  accorded  the  title  of 
"charter";  among  others,  the  Small  Holdings 
Act  was  so  acclaimed  by  an  enthusiastic  section 
of  the  political  Press  ;  so  was  that  quaint  pro- 
duction, The  Report  of  the  Land  Inquiry  Committee,  issued 
in  1913.  The  reports  of  several  official  committees  have 
been  welcomed  with  pa-ans  of  praise,  by  one  part\-  or  another, 
according  to  the  measure  of  support  they  gave  to  their  respec- 
tive nostrums  for  solving  agrarian  questions.  At  last  we 
have  something  which  embodies  the  essence  of  most  of  these 
earlier  documents,  presented  by  a  body  of  really  first-class 
agriculturists,  who  have  taken  a  broad  and  statesmanlike 
view  of  all  the  more  important  problems  that  have  cumula- 
tively rendered  the  industry  so  difficult  and  unprofitable. 

This  is  a  report  presented  by  a  sub-committee  of  the 
Reconstruction  Committee,  appointed  by  Mr.  Asquith  in 
August,  1916,  to  consider  and  report  upon  the  best  methods  of 
increasing  home-grown  food  supi)lies  in  the  interest  of  national 
security.  The  Committee  was  originally  composed  as 
follows  :  Lord  Selborne  (chairman).  Sir  Charles  Bathurst, 
M.P.,  Mr.  C.  M.  Douglas  (Scotland)',  Sir  Ailwvn  Fellowes, 
Mr.  W.  l'"itzherbert-Brockholes,  Sir  Daniel  Hall,  Mr.  W.  A. 
Haviland,  Mr.  C.  Bryner  Jones  (Wales),  Mr.  R.  E.  Prothero, 
M.P.,  Mr.  G.  G.  Rea,  Mr.  G.  H.  Roberts,  M.P.,  Hon.  E.  G. 
Strutt,  and  Sir  Matthew  Wallace  (Scotland),  with  Mr.  H.  J,. 
French,  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  Mr.  A.  Goddard 
(Secretary  of  the  Surveyors'  Institution)  as  joint  secretaries. 
In  November,  1916,  Mr.  Asquith  added  Sir  Horace  Plunkett 
and  the  Bishop  of  Ross  to  represent  Ireland,  while  Sir  Charles 
Bathurst,  Mr.  Prothero,  and  Mr.  Roberts,  M.P.,  resigned  in 
hebruary,  1917,  on  taking  ministerial  office.  These  three 
members  all  signed  the  Interim  Report,  presented  in  February, 
1917,  which  confined  its  recommendations  to  the  questions 
of  a  minimum  wage  for  farm  labourers,  the  guarantee  of 
minimum  prices  for  wheat  and  oats,  the  conferring  of  powers 
on  the  Board  of  Agriculture  to  enforce  the  proper  cultivation 
of  land,  and  the  encouragement  of  the  production  of  beet 
sugar  in  the  United  Kingdom.  The  first  three  were  embodied 
in  the  Corn  Production  Act  of  1917,  while  the  production  of 
sugar  beet  has  been  taken  up  departmentally. 

There  is  one  outstanding  feature  in  the  composition  of  this 
Committee  which  distinguishes  it  from  almost  ever\'  other 
official  inquiry  ;  that  is,  the  entire  absence  of  the  politician 
and  the  almost  complete  absence  of  political  inflection.  The 
natural  result  is  that  we  find  a  series  of  recommendations, 
some  of  which  rut  right  across  the  lines  hitherto  marked  out 
by  the  party  wire-pullers,  but  all  part  of  a  comprehensive 
poHcy,  each  factor  having  been  considered  on  its  merits,  and 
nothing  advocated  of  a  chimerical  nature  or  outside  practical 
politics.  Moreover,  as  a  general  rule  when  a  recommendation 
is  made,  it  is  emphatic  :  there  is  little  of  that  hesitating, 
qualified,  and  fearsome  putting  forward  of  a  suggestion,  and 
then  whittling  it  away  by  modifications  inserted  with  a  view 
to  bringing  into  line  recalcitrant  members  of  the  committee. 
That  is  the  advantage  of  having  a  body  of  men  who  know 
their  subject,  and  who  can  differentiate  between  theoretical 
and  practical.  The  fact  that  there  were  three  Members  of 
the  House  of  Commons  in  the  original  Committee  docs  not 
in  the  least  conflict  with  the  foregoing  view,  for  both  Mr. 
Prothero  and  Mr.  Roberts  have  frequently  risen  above  the 
trammels  of  party,  while  Sir  Charies  Bathurst  occupies  his 
scat  with  a  definite  understanding  that  he  has  a  perfectly 
free  hand  in  all  agricultural  questions. 

Both  the  Interim  and  Final  Reports  are  signed  by  all  the 
members  except  by  Sir  Matthew  Wallace,  who  presents  a 
minority  report  to  each  of  them,  and  the  burden  of  whose 
song  is  always  the  need  of  "security  of  tenure,"  This  subject 
will  be  dealt  with  at  a  later  stage. 

The  volume  opens  with  an  all  too  brief  historical  preface 
by  Mr.  Goddard,  which  forms  an  excellent  introduction  to 
the  report  that  follows.  -The  Committee  emphasise  the  fact 
that,  in  accordance  with  their  terms  of  reference,  they 
approached  their  work  "exclusively  in  the  national  interest," 
and  not  from  the  standpoint  of  the  landowner  or  the  tenant. 
"It  cannot  be  too  often  reaffirmed,"  say  the  Committee  in 
their  conclusions,  "  that  the  recommendations  we  have  made 
have  never  been  asked  for  by  landowners  or  farmers,  and  that 
they  have  been  made  exclusively  in  the  national  interest,  and 
not  in  that  of  any  individuals  or  class  of  individuals.  We 
have  believed  that  elementary  considerations  of  national 
insurance  demand  that  this  country  should  become  self- 
supporting  in  the  matter  of  food-stuffs  in  the  event  of  anv 


future  emergency,  and  we  have  shown  how  this  can  be  d(.ne." 
Another  paragraph  says : 

Since  Part  I.  of  our  Report  was  sent  in,  Parhament  has 
passed  the  Com  Production  .Act  .  .  .  But  that  Act  has  been 
passed  as  a  war  measure,  and  is,  therefore,  a  temporary 
Act.  We  must  renew  our  assurance  with  all  the  earnestness  at 
our  command  that,  unless  after  the  war  the  principles  of 
tliat  Act  are  (with  the  necessary  adjustment  of  details  to- 
the  values  and  conditions  of  the  time)  embodied  in  a  per- 
manent statute,  there  can  be  no  hope  of  the  people  of  the 
United  Kingdom  becoming  emancipated  from  dependence 
on  supplies  of  foodstuffs  brought  from  overseas,  or  of  the 
increase  of  our  rural  population.  .And,  again,  we  must 
cmpliasise  the  fact  that  Parts  I.  and  II.  of  our  Report  are 
not  separate  policies.  They  are  strictly  interdependent 
and  mutually  essential  parts  of  one  poUcy  .  .  .  Without 
the  armour  provided  by  Part  I.,  the  measures  of  reconstruc- 
tion recommended  in  Part  II.,  are  foredoomed  to  impotence. 

These  are  pregnant  words,  and  must  be  borne  in  mind  in 
dealing  with  any  and  every  portion  of  the  report.  They  are 
a  waiTiing  to  those  who  take  short  or  narrow  views,  and  they 
are  altogether  too  much  for  the  mere  politician,  who  looks  at 
every  question  through  glasses  tinted  with  bis  party  colours, 
and  negatives  all  these  that  do  not  fall  in  with  his  precon- 
ceived opinions. 

The  summary  of  recommendations  fill  four  pages  of  the 
blue-book,  onfe  page  dealing  with  Part  I.,  which  materialised 
in  the  Corn  Production  Act.  Turning  to  those  in  Part  II.,  the 
first  proposal  is  for  a  reorganisation  of  the  Boards  of  Agricul- 
ture for  England  and  Scotland,  and  the  setting  up  of  Advisory 
Committees  to  each  Department  on  the  lines  of  the  Board  in 
Ireland.  The  next  is  that  National  Agricultural  Councils  for 
England  and  Scotland  should  be  set  up,  while  the  existing 
Council  for  '  Wales  should  be  made  statutory  ;  and  that 
delegates  from  the  four  Councils  (Ireland  already  has  one) 
should  meet  annually.  The  appointment  of  a  special  Minister 
for  Scotland,  directly  responsible  to  Parliament  is  recom- 
mended.    Other  proposals  are  : 

Instruction  and  Research. — Responsibihty  for  agri- 
cultural education  should  be  removed  from  tlie  Countj- 
Councils  and  centrali.sed  in  the  Board  of  Agricultur-?  the  cost 
being  l)orne  by  public  funds.  For  England  and  Wales  and 
Scotland  improved  ruralized  curriculum  for  elementary  and 
secondarv'  schools  should  be  laid  down,  and  better  prospects 
provided  for  teachers  in  rural  districts.  Demonstration  and 
illustration  farms  should  be  estabhshed,  a  limited  number  of 
large  demonstration  fanns  being  run  on  business  lines. 
•Research  work  should  be  developed.  Livestock  "  schemes 
should  be  extended,  and  livestock  officers'  become  the  ser- 
vants of  the  Board  of  Agriculture.  The  expenditure  on 
agricultural  education  should  be  largely  increased.  Better 
>  opportunities  for  the  agricultural  education  of  women 
should  be  given.  Students  likely  to  become  landowners  or 
land  agents  should  be  given  greater  opportunity  of  studying 
rural  economy  at  public  schools  and  universities. 

.Agricultural  Credit. — The  procedure  in  respect  of 
loans  should  be  cheapened  and  simplified.  Short  term  credit 
through  co-operative  trading  societies  and  farmers'  central 
trading  boards  should  be  provided.  Deposits  in  the  Post 
Office  Savings  Bank  should  be  made  available  for  use  by 
central  trading  boards. 

S.MALL  Holdings  :  Ownership  and  Tenancy. — Greater 
facilities  .for  purchase  should  be  given  to  small-holders 
desirous  of  uwning  their  land  ;  County  Councils  should  be 
urged  to  prepare  schemes  at  once  lor  the  provision  of  small- 
holdings for  ex-sailors  and  soldiers,  both  as  tenants  and 
owners ;  and  the  Treasury  should  remove  the  financial 
•restrictions  at  present  placed  upon  thim.  The  principle 
of  purchase  contained  in  Mr.  Jesse  Collings's  Purchase 
of  Land  Bill  should  be  adopted. 

Tithe  Redemption. — Legislation  should  be  passed  to 
stimulate  tithe  redemption,  particularly  with  a  view  to 
making  land  available  for  small-holdings  or  for  village  re- 
construction without  payment  of  cash. 

Agricultural  Holdings  .Acts.— High  farming,  beyond 
the  recognised  requirements  of  good  farming,  should,  sub- 
ject to  proper  safeguards,  be  recognised  as  a  subject  for 
compensation.  That  the  principle  of  the  Evesham  custom 
shoulK  be  adopted. 

RjiCLAMATiON  AND  DRAINAGE.— Special  authorities  to 
be  set  up  in  each  of  the  three  Kingdoms. 

Deer  Forests.— Land  suitable  for  agriculture  ind 
forestry  should  b^  so  utilised,  and  a  special  survey  should 
be  marie.  A  national  ixilicy  of  afforestation  and  interniinghng 
jilantations  and  small  holdings  should  be  adopted. 

Weights  and  Measures.— A  special  sub-committee  of 
the  Reconstruction  Committee  should  be  set  up  to  inquire 
into  tl-  "  h^.u.  question  of  imperial  weights  and  measures. 


June  27,  19 18 


Land    &    Water 


15 


A  uniform  standard  of  weight  should  be  laid  down  on  wliich 
alone  sales  and  purchases  of  agricultural  produce,  other 
than  Uquids  and  market-garden  produce,  should  be  legal. 

Elimination  of  Pests  and  Weeds. — Prohibition  of  sale 
of  impure  seeds  :  County  committees  to  have  powers  to  deal 
with  weeds  and  pests. 

Transport. — A  special  sub-committee  of  the  Reconstruc- 
tion Committee  should  be  set  up  to  inquire  into  the  whole 
question  of  transport  improvement  and  facihties.     Farmeri 
should  be  induced  to  act  m  co-operation.     A  scheme  should 
be  prepared  to  enable  discarded  Army  motors  to  be  used 
in  the  organisation  of  transport  services,  and  for  other  farm 
purposes.     Government  should  enforce  the  law  as  to  undue 
preference  by  railway  companies. 
Referring  to  some  of  the  criticisms  levelled  at  any  attempt 
to  foster  aRriculture  or  to  develop  food  production  at  home, 
the  Committee  sav  :    "Stripped  of  all  phrases  the  contention 
is  that  in  the  interests  of  British  manufacturers  and  of  the 
British  mercantile  marine,   agriculture  must   be  kept   in   a 
■  continuously  depressed  condition.  .  .  .     We  cannot  be  both 
a    great    manufacturing    and    a    gfeat    agricultural    nation. 
Therefore  ...  it  is  to  our  manufacturing  interests  that  we 
must   devote  our  minds,   and  not   worry  our  heads  about 
agriculture.     Moreover,  what  will  happen  to  our  mercantile 
marine  if  we  cease  to  be  dependent  on  overseas  supplies  of 
corn    or   meat  ?     The   greatest    possible   number   of    wheat 
cargoes  are  essential  for  the  prosperity  of  our  mercantile 
marine.     Any  substantial  increase  of  the  home  production 
of  food  will  be  a  deadly  blow  to  our  shipping.  ...     All  this 
fuss  about   agriculture   is  made   because  of  the  submarine 
menace,  when,  if  we  cannot  overtake  and  subdue  it,  we  need 
not  trouble  oui;selves  to  outline  an  agricultural  or  any  other 
policy,  we  shall  take  our  orders  from  Berlin." 

Probably  no  member  of  the  Committee  ever  heard  these 
precise  forms  of  words  strung  together  ;  but  they,  like  the 
writer,  must  have  heard  expressions^ which  mean  the  same 
thing,  hundreds  of  times,  from  many  different  kinds  of 
people.  It  is  probably  the  first  time  that  such  views  have 
ever  been  condensed  into  cold  type  ;  but  it  is  time  they 
were  brought  into  prominence,  for  it  points  to  what  has 
blocked  every  proposal  seriously  put  forward  for  the  ameliora-  . 
tion  of  agricultural  depression,  and  that  is  the  vfeiled  hostility 
of  certain  large  shipowners  inside  a^d  outside  the  House  of 
Commons.  It  is  a  terribly  short-sighted  view  for  them  to 
take.  A  flourishing  agriculture  and  an  increased  home- 
production  of  food  might  mean  a  change  of  cargoes  in  certain 
instances,  but  it  would  certainly  not  mean  fewer  cargoes. 
It  would,  by  the  natural  increase  of  wealth  which  must 
follow  increased  production,  create  an  enhanced  demand  for 
numberless  commodities  which  we  cannot  produce  here,  and 
for  an  immense  number  of  cargoes  of  the  raw  material  for 
British  agriculture,  e.g.,  fertilisers  and  feeding  stuffs  for 
stock,  to  mention  only  two. 

With  regard  to  the  submarine  menace,  the  Committee 
fortified  their  own  conclusions  by  obtaining  the  opinion  of 
the  Admiralty.  Having  drawn  attention  to  the  terms  of 
reference  given  by  Mr.  Asquith,  they  asked  for  any  observa- 
tions the  Lords  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  were  able  to 
make  in  the  light  of  their  experience.  The  following  is  a 
paraphrase  of  the  reply  received,  wliich  the  Lords  Commis- 
sioners passed  as  accurate : 

The  submarine  attack  on  the  oversea  food  supply  of  the 
United  Kingdom  has  thrown  a  great  additional  strain  upon 
the  Navy  in  the  present  war.  The  Navy  has  so  far  been 
able  to  keep  this  submarine  attack  in  check,  but  no  means 
have  yet  been  discovered  to  render  sea-borne  traffic  immune 
fr^om  attack.  Consequently  any  effective  steps  to  make 
this  country  less  dependent  upon  the  inipoitation  of  the 
necessities  of  life  in  the  present  war  would  result  in  a  great 
reduction  of  anxiety. 

The  certain  development  of  the  submarine  may  render 
such  vessels  still  more  formidable  as  weapons  of  attack 
against  sea-lxrne  commerce  in  a  future  war,  and  no  justifi 
cation  exists  for  assuming  tliat  anything  approaching  entire 
immunity  can  be  obtained.  Therefore,  the  experience  of 
the  present  war  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  any  measures 
which  resulted  ii.  rendering  the  United  Kingdom  less  depend 
ent  on  the  importation  of  foodstuffs  during  tlie  period  of 
a  future  war,  and  so  in  reducing  the  volume  of  sea-borne 
traffic,  would  greatly  relieve  the  strain  upon  the  Navy  and 
add  immensely  to  the  national  security. 

This  statement  by  the  Admiralty  refers,  like  the  question, 
to  the  submarine  menace  only;  but  if  for  "submarine 
menace"  we  substitute  some  such  words  as  "hostile  navies," 
there  is  a  strilyng  similaritj'  to  the  views  put  forward  by  the 
Admiralty  before  the  Royal  Commission  of  Food  Supplies 
in  1905.  At  that  date  the  submarine  was  little  more  than  a 
mechanical  toy  ;  certainly  not  the  chief  daifger  we  had  to 
face,  but  if  one  studies  the  evidence  given  before  that  Com- 
mission, and  the  conclusions  drnwn  from  it,  one  becomes 
impressed  with  the  fact  that  conditions  have  not  been  much 


changed  by  this  new  feature  of  naval  warfare.  Admiral 
Sir  John  Hopkins,  who  had  himself  been  in  corrimand  of  the 
Mediterranean  Fleet,  said,  on  February  12th,  1904,  that  our 
ships  could  only  come  through  that  sea  with  the  very  greatest 
danger.  He  agreed,  with  other  naval  witnesses,  to  precisely  ■ 
similar  views  to  those  contained  in  the  quotation  from  the 
.■\dmiralty  to-day.  Yet  successive  Governments  have  done 
nothing  since  that  time,  either  to  ensure  our  food  supply  or 
to  encourage  increased  production  at  home. 

There  is  one  important  fact  to  be  remembered  in 
connection  with  the  question  of  indemnifying  shipowners 
against  loss,  and  that  is  that  payment  is  only  made  when 
loss  occurs,  and  consequently  only  when  the  food  is  not 
delivered  :  any  expenditure  which  the  Government  or  the 
community  may  incur  by  encouraging  increased  home  pro- 
duction is  only  paid  when  the  food  has  materialised.  That 
means  security.     Nothing  else  will  attain  it. 

Mr.  Asquith  instructed  this  Committee  to  consider  the  1 
question  "in  the  interest  of  national  security."  The  whole 
tenour  of  their  report  is  evidence  that  this  was  the  only 
consideration  they  kept  in  view.  The  policy  they  recom- 
mend will  give  us  security'.  It  remains  for  the  country  to 
see  that  that  policy  is  adopted  in  its  entirety. 


The  Auxiliary  Cruiser 

By  N.  M.  F.  Corbett 

["H.M.  auxiliary  cruiser has  been  lost  at  sea  with  all 

hands.  It  is  presumed  that  she  struck  a  mine  during  the 
gale  on  the  night  of  the  12th  instant.  The  relatives  have 
been  informed. — Admiralty   Official."] 

THE  da\'  closed  in  a  wrath  of  cloud.     The  gale — • 
Like  a  fierce  beast  that  shuns  the  light  of  day. 
Skulking  within  the  jungle  till  his  prey 
Steals  forth  at  dusk  to  water  at  the  well, — 
Now  leapt  upon  her,  howling.     Steep  and  swift,. 
The  black  sea  boiled  about  her  sky-flung  bows. 
And  in  the  shrouds,  the  winds  in  mad  carouse 
Screamed  :   and  in  the  sk3''s  paU  was  no  rift. 

And  it  was  cold.     Oh,  bitter  cold  it  was. 
The  wind-whipped  spray-drops  froze  before  they  fell 
And  tinkled  on  the  iron  decks  hke  hail ; 
And  every  rope  and  block  was  cased  in  glass. 
And  ever  wild  and  \vilder  grew  the  night. 
Great  seas  lunged  at  her,  bellowing  in  wrath  ; 
Contemptuous,  to  sweep  her  from  their  path. 
And  not,  in  all  that  waste,  one  friendly  light. 

.Alone,  spray-bhnded,  through  the  clamorous  murk. 
By  skill  and  courage  besting  the  hungry  sea, 
Mocking  the  tempest's  fury,  staggered  she. 
The  storm  is  foiled  :  now  for  the  Devil's  work. 
The  swinging  bows  crash  down  into  the  trough, 
And  with  a  sudden  flame  the  sea  is  riven. 
And  a  dull  roar  outroars  the  tempest  even. 
Her  engine's  pulse  is  stilled.     It  is  enough. 

Oh,  have  you  ever  seen  a  foundered  horse — 
His  great  heart  broken  by  a  task  too  great 
For  his  endurance,  but  unbroken  yet 
.  His  spirit — striving  to  complete  his  course. 
Falling  at  last,  eyes  glazed  and  nostrils  wide. 
And  have  not  ached  with  pity.     Pity  now 
A  brave  ship  shattered  by  a  coward  blow 
That  once  had  spurned  the  waters  in  her  pride. 

And  can  you  picture — you  who  dwell  secure 
In  sheltered  houses,  warm  and  filled  with  light, — 
The  loneliness  and  terror  of  that  fight 
In  shrieking  darkness  ?     Feel  with  them,  the  sure 
Foundation  of  their  very  world  destroyed. 
The  sluggish  lifting  of  the  lifeless  hull. 
Wallowing  ever  deeper  till,  with  a  dull 
•  Half-sob  she  plunges  and  the  seas  are  void. 

Yet — Oh,  be  sure,  they  did  not  pass  alone 

Into  the  darkness  all  uncomforted 

For  round  them  hovered  England's  mighty  Dead 

To  greet  them  :  and  a  pale  poop  lanthorn  shone 

Lighting  them  homeward,  and  a  voice  rang  clear — 

As  when  he  cheered  his  own  devoted  band — 

"  Heaven's  as  near  by  sea  as  by  the  land," 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  hailed  them,  "Be  of  cheer." 


i6 


Land    &    Wate. 


June   27,    1918 


Life  and  Letters  ^  J.  C  Squire 


High  Spirits 

TiHERE  is  now  no  need  to  explain  who  Mr.  Stephen 
Leacock  is :  his  Frenzied  Fiction  (John  Lane,  6s. 
net),  is  his  ninth  book,  and  the  other  eight  are  in 
every  house  where  (unhke  one  of  Mr.  Leacock's 
recent  reviewers)  'they  enjoy  "uncontrollable 
laughter."  Mr.  Leacock  has  been  boomed  in  several  continents, 
and  it  is  only  natural  that  a  reaction  should  set  in.  If  it 
does,  it  will  be  unfair  to  him,  for  his  work,  uneven  as  it  is, 
has  not  f;dlen  off  at  all.  He  is  as  amusing  now  as  he  ever 
was :  and,  as  a  topical  humourist  should,  he  keeps  well  up 
with  the  latest  events,  phvsical  and  moral.  He  may  not 
"stay  by"  one;  but  there"  is  always  sufficient  sense  under 
his  nonsense  to  enable  one  to  read  him  at  least  twice. 
•  ♦**** 

The  world  has  never  lacked  people  who  have  made  it  their 
business  to  attack  shams,  hypocrisies,  pretence,  and  Cant. 
Some  of  them  have  been  solemn  missionaries,  themselves 
a  proper  subject  for  humour,  and  others  have  been  morose 
and  bitter  satirists  who  have  taken  a  savage  pleasure  in 
exposure.  Mr.  Leacock  is  also  principally  concerned  with 
what  we  comprehensively  term  Humbug,  and  he  also  takes 
a  pleasure  in  exposing  it.  But  his  pleasure  is  a  healthy,  not 
a  perverse,  pleasure.  His  method  of  attack  is  not  to  flay 
humanity  with  knives,  or  pierce  it  with  poi^soned  arrows,  but 
to  pull  its  leg.  There  is  nothing  in  him  of  the  satirist  who 
likes  giving  pain,  or  of  the  austere  moralist  who  thinks  a 
little  hypocrisy  a  sin  which  earns  the  lowest  hell.  Oil  the 
whole  he  finds  humbug  a  rather  harmless  thing  that  adds 
to  the  variety  of  existence,  and  he  is  aware  (as  any  man 
who  is  honest  with  himself  must  be)  that  he  is  a  bit  of  a  hum- 
bug himself.  Though  he  is  always  on  the  right  side,  nobody 
could  suspect  him  of  writing  in  order  to  improve  his-fellows  ; 
but  he  is  at  once  so  shrewd  and  so  charitable  that  he  is  far 
more  likely  to  do  so  than  many  of  those  crusaders  who 
approach  us  showing  their  teeth  and  inviting  counter-attack. 
His  unconscious  tendency  is  to  exhort  us  to  be  natural ; 
and  the  man  who  does  not  find  in  his  pages  unnatural  actions 
and  words  of  which  he  himself  has  been  guilty  has  never 
watched  Ms  own  conduct. 

****** 

But  to  hunt  further  for  what  the  authors  of  The  King's 
English  would  not  allow  me  to  call  the  True  Inwardness  of 
Mr.  Leacock  would  be  to  join  that  solemn  company  of  theorists 
at  whom  he  is  always  laughing.  He  is  about  as  easy  to  define 
as  the  end  of  the  war.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  he  pulls 
legs  ;  and  that,  being  an  educated  and  cultivated  man,  he 
pulls  legs  with  which  humourists  of  his  boisterous  type  are 
usually  unfamiliar.  Amongst  the  humbugs  treated  in  the 
new  book  are  not  merely  the  humbugs  of  prohibition,  of  the 
fisherman,  the  Return  to  Nature,  and  the  strong  primitive 
man,  but  the  humbugs  of  modern  education,  of  modem 
fiction,  and  of  foreign  politics.  To  identify  and  burlesque 
the  nonsense  in  these  last  you  have  to  know  something  about 
them  ;  and  that  is  where  Mr.  Leacock,  who  is  a  man  of  letters 
and  a  professor  of  economics,  as  well  as  a  funny  man,  gets 
his  pull.  On  the  whole,  as  a  citizen,  he  is,  no  doubt,  in 
favour  of  every  sensible  reform  in  educational  curricula  that 
is  proposed;  but  his  skit,  "The  New  Education,"  absurdly 
as  it  exaggerates,  does  point  out  real  dangers.  We  may 
substitute  "  Civics"  for  "Classics"  as  a  subject  of  study,  but 
superficial  and  pedantic  teachers  and  stupid  students  will 
not  be  abolished  by  any  such  charge,  and  his  conversation 
with  a  girl  imdergraduate  on  vacation  is  not  mere  folly. 

"  I've  elected  Social  Endeavour." 

"Ah,"  I  said,  "that's  since  my  day,  what  is  it,?  " 

"Oh,  it's  awfully  interesting.  It's  the  study  of  condi- 
tions." 

"  What  kind  of  conditions  ?  "  I  asked.  ' 

"All  conditions.  Perhaps  I  can't  explain  it  properly. 
But  I  have  the  prospectus  of  it  indoors  if  you'd  like  to  see 
it.     We  take  up  Society." 

"  And  what  do  you  do  with  it  ?  " 

"Analyse  it,"  she  said. 

"But  it  must  mean  reading  a  tremendous  lot  of  books." 

■'  No,"  she  answered.  "We  don't  use  books  in  this  course. 
It's  all  laboratory  work." 

"Now  I  am  mystified,"  I  said.  "What  do  you  mean 
by  laboratory  work  ?  " 

"Well,"  answered  the  girl  student  with  a  thoughtful  look 
upon  her  face,"  you  see,  we  are  supposed  to  break  Society 
up  into  its  elements." 

"In  six  weeks  ?  " 


"Some  of  the  girls  do  it  in  six  weeks.  Some  put  in  a 
whole  semester  and  take  twelve  weeks  at  it." 

"So  as  to  break  it  up  pretty  thorouglily  ?  "  I  said. 

''Yes,"  she  a.ssented,  "But  most  of  the  girls  think  six 
weeks  is  enough." 

"They  ought  to  pulverise  it  pretty  completely.  But  how 
do  you  go  at  it  ?  " 

"Well,"  the  girl  said,  "it's  all  done  with  laboratory 
work.  We  take,  for  instance,  department  stores.  I  think 
that  is  the  first  thing  we  do,  we  take  up  the  store." 

"  And  what  do  you  do  with  it  ?" 

"We  study  it  as  a  Social  Germ.  " 

"Ah,  '  I  said,  "as  a  Social  Germ." 

This  sketch  is  good  all  through  ;  so  is  tlie  one  which  shows  a 
circle  in  a  club  listening  to  a  cryptic  authority  on  Foreign 
Affairs  and  pretending  to .  understand  :  a  very  hard  poke 
at  the  journalists  who  make  up  for  a  deficiency  of  real  know- 
ledge by  jaunty  use  of  a  few  foreign  words  and  the  ordinary 
man  who  would  rather  do  anything  than  admit  that  he  does 
not  understand  what  is  being  said  to  him  : 

"I  doubt  very  much,"  he  said,  "whether  Downing  Street 
realises  the  enormous  power  which  the  Quai  d'Orsay  has 
over  the  Yildiz  Kiosk." 

"So  do  I,"  I  said,  "what  is  it  ?  "  But  he  hardly  noticed 
the  interruption. 

"You've  got  to  remember,"  he  went  on,  "that,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  Yildiz,  the  Wilhelmstrasse  is  just  a 
thing  of  yesterday." 

"Quite  so,"  I  said. 

"Of  course,"  he  added,  "the  Ballplatz  is  quite  different." 

"Altogether  different,"   I  admitted. 

"And  mind  you,"  he  said;  "the  Ballplatz  itself  can  l^e 
largely  moved  from  the  Quirinal  and  the  Vatican." 

"Why,  of  course  it  can,"  I  agreed,  with  as  much  relief 
in  my  tone  as  I  could  put  into  it.  After  all,  what  simpler 
wa^'  of  moving  the  Ballplatz  than  that  ? 

The  lunacy  of  the  last  sentence  is  the  American  touch  ;  an 
Englishman  of  the  Leacock  kind  would  have  shnmk  from  it ; 
he  would  have  preferred  to  keep  his  raillery  more  uniform 
and  more  delicate  ;  he  would  have  feared  to  spoil  the  illusion 
by  extravagance.  But  Mr.  Leacock's  spirits  are  uproarious 
and  he  will  allow  sheer  nonsense  to  break  into  quite  a  close 
parody.  He  does  not  hesitate  to  call  a  Russian  spy 
M.    Poulispantzoff. 

****** 
The  description  of  life  in  a  "dry"  Canadian  city  is  very 
good;  so  is  the  interview  with  a  primitive  cave  man,  for- 
tunately procured  after  a  surfeit  of  magazine  stories  in  which 
the  heroes  feel  the  cave  man  surging  within  them  and  use 
violence  towards  the  heroines.  Needless  to  say,  the  cave 
man,  when  found,  is  a  nervous  creature,  very  much  under 
the  thumb  of  his  wife,  afraid  to  smoke  when  she  is  about, 
and  unreasonably  proud  of  his  unprepossessing  child. 
Another  good  one  is  the  seance.  "All  the  spirits  who  are 
tapped  say  that  they  are  happy,  quite  happy ;  that  every- 
thing is  bright  and  beautiful  where  they  are,  and  that  they 
want  everybody  to  know  how  happy  they  are.  Even 
Napoleon.     The  conversation  with  him  opens  charmingly  : 

"Hello  !  "  I  called.  " Est-ce  que  c'esl  lEmpereur  Napoleon 
a  qui  j'ai  I'honneur  de  parler  ?  " 

"How's  that  ?  "  said  Napo'eon, 

"  Je  demande  si  je  suis  en  communication  avec  I'Empereur 
Napo'eon — ." 

"Oh,"  sad  Napo'eon,  "that's  all  right;  speak  English." 
"What!"  I  said  in  surprise.  "You  know  English.' 
I  always  thought  you  couldn't  speak  a  word  of  it."  He  was 
silent  for  a  minute.     Then  he  said  : 

' '  I  picked  it  up  over  here.     It's  all  right.     Go  right  ahead. ' ' 

But  the  best  thing  in  the  book  is  the  interview  with  a  pair 
of  novelists,  husband  and  wife.  The  wife  is  a  sociological 
novelist ;  she  specialises  in  the  laundry  and  pickle  industries, 
and  will  talk.  The  husband,  however,  refuses  to  talk  about 
anything  but  his  pigs,  bees,  bulls,  horses,  dogs,  and  crops. 
All  he  can  say  when  pressed  about  his  methods  of  work  is 
contained  in  this  passage  : 

"My  methods  of  work  ?  "  he  answered,  as  we  turned  up 
the  path  again.     "Well,  I  hardly  know  that  I  have  any." 

"What  is  your  plan  or  method,"  we  asked,  getting  out 
our  notebook,  "of  laying  the  beginning  of  a  new  novel  ?  " 

"My  usual  plan,"  said  the  novelist,  "is  to  come  out 
here  and  sit  in  the  sty  till  I  get  my  characters." 

■^Does  it  take  long  ?  "  we  questioned. 

"Not  veiy.  I  generally  find  that  a  quiet  half-hour  spent 
among  the  hogs  wil  give  me,  at  least,  my  leading  character." 
But  how  seldom  are  they  so  candid. 


June  27,  I  91 8 


Land    &   Water 


17 


Birds  as  they  Live:  By  Francis  Stopford 


MAN  is  so  much  oc- 
cupied with  his  own 
great  war  that  he  is 
apt  to  forget  there  arc 
greater  wars  in  pro- 
gress, until  he  is  pulled  up  short  by 
a  catastrophe  that  threatens  his 
nerves  or  his  stomach.  This  summir 
it  is  caterpillars — bugs  as  they  call 
them  in  America.  Bugs  are  Boches  ; 
birds  are  the  Allies.  But  the  Allied 
birds  in  this  big  .fight  are,  for  the 
moment,  unable  to  hold  the  enemy 
in  check.  Man  is  to  blame^  After 
the  manner  of  the  Boche,  the  cater- 
pillar, until  the  hour  for  invasion 
drew  near,  jiractised  peaceful  pene- 
tration in  the  form  of  a  chrysalis 
or  posed  as  a  gay  and  innocent 
butterfly.  Man  foolishly  thought  no 
harm  could  come  from  him.  The  bircN 
on  the  other  hand,  took  open 
tribute  from  his  orchards,  gardens, 
and  fields ;  he  deemed  them  the 
enemy,  and  sought  their  destruc^ 
tion.  Now  he  knows  better.  And  he 
would  give  no  small  thing  to  call 
back  to  life  many  of  his  winged 
friends,  who  if  they  had  been  spared 

would  never  have  allowed  the  Huri  Pheasants 

caterpillar  to  attain  to  the  strength 
he  has,  devastating  wild  lands  and  threatening  cultivation. 

It  is  said  that  the  average  Englishman  knows  less  history 
than  a  similarly  educated  man  of  any  other  nation.  And 
history  includes  natural  history.  The  ignorance — not  only 
in  towns,  but  in  the  country — of  the  manners  and  habits  of 
birds  is  amazing,  and  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  spread  of 
elementary  education  has  certainly  increased  it.  In  the  old 
days  the  countryman  who  knew  neither  to  read  nor  to  write, 
but  could  use  his  brains,  acquired  considerable  and  often 
intimate  intelligence  about  the  lives  of  wild  creatures  ;  but 
with  the  opening  of  elementary  schools  and  the  spread  of 
book-knowledge,  that  other  book,  which  he  who  runs  may 
read,  appeared  dull  and  hardly  worth  studying.  It  is  a 
thousand  pities  it  should  have  been  so,  more  especially  in 
rural  districts  ;  but  now  comes  the  weapon  wherewith  to 
fight  this  ignorance  in  the  form  of  a  new  edition  of  Mr. 
Archibald  Thorburn's  Brilish  Birds*  It  is  a  work  that 
every  public  library  should  obtain.  Those  who  are  starting 
village  libraries  should  include  it  in  their  first  list ;  and 
whoever  takes  a  lively  mterest  in  a  country  school,  and  has 
the  means,  should  present  this  school  with  a  set  of  volumes. 
A  study  of  their  pages  is  fas- 
cinating, and  for  a  child  of  good 
understanding  they  will  open  an 
entirely  new  vista  of  the  land 
wherein  he  dwells. 

"The  work,"  writes  Mr.  Thor- 
burn,  in  his  preface,  "has  been 
designed  mainly  with  the  purpose 
of  providing  sketches  in  colour 
from  life  of  our  British  birds,  in- 
cluding not  only  the  resident 
species,  but  also,  in  most  cases, 
those  which  have  more  or  less 
regularly  or  even  rarely  visited  us 
from  abroad."  Thus  we  have  here 
not  only  the  house-sparrow,  but 
the  hoopoe,  and  vultures  and  the 
flamingo  are  depicted  as  well  as 
hawks  and  the  heron.  VVe,^have 
italicised  the  words  from  life 
because,  after  all,  it  is  in  this 
respect  that  Mr.  Thorburn's  bird- 
paintings  differ  from  those  popular 
plates  with  which  youth  is  more 
familiar.  Tlic  artist,  it  must  be 
remembered,  is^also  a  miniature- 


By  .4.  Thorburn.F.Z.S. 


•"British  Birds":  written  and  illus- 
trated by  A.  Thorburn,  F  Z  S  ,  with 
eighty-two  plates  in  colour,  showing 
over  400  .'species.  In  ionr  volumes. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.     £S  8s. 


painter,  and  he  gives  to  his  feathered 
friends  the  saine  study  he  bestows  on 
a  human  subject  before  taking  up 
his  brush.  As  an  illustration  of  this, 
take  his  painting  of  the  cuckoo. 
Here  wc  have  the  bird  with  drooping 
wings  and  puft'ed-out  throat,  in  the 
act  of  uttering  its  familiar  cry,  for 
the  bird  was  drawn  from  hfe  through 
field-glasses  ;  and  in  the  letterpR'ss 
we  are  told  what  will  be  news  to 
most-^-that  the  cuckoo  calls  with 
closed  bill,  as  the  pigeon  coos. 

The  advantage  of  drawing  birds 
from  life,  and  after  a  close  study  of 
them  in  life,  is  that  the  student 
acquires  a  much  better  knowledge 
of  them  before  he  begins  to  read 
their  history.  Look  at  the  caper- 
caillie  on  this  page.  After  having 
studied  this  beefy,  bullnecked  old 
cock, one  is  not  the  least  surprised  to 
hear  that  when  in  spring-time  his 
thoughts  turn  to  love,  he  squalls 
like  a  cat  and  turns  somersaults  until 
he  is  giddy. 

To  revert  to  the  preface,  the  author 
m«itions  that,  being  more  familiar 
with  the  brush  than  with  the  pen,  it 
was  at  first  his  intention  to  make  the 
book  simply  a  sketch-book  of  British 
birds,  but  on  second  thoughts  he  decided  to  add  rough 
notes.  Second  thoughts  are  tTie  best,  for  these  notes  are 
admirable  ;  they  are  necessarily  brief,  but  they  are  always 
stimulating,  and  urge  one  to  discover  more  about  a  favourite 
or  famihar  wild  bird.  The  biography  of  the  jackdaw,  for 
example,  recalls  the  amazing  fact,  if  true,  which  an  old 
keeper  told  the  present  writer,  that  daws  re-marr}',  that  is, 
if  a  sitting  hen-bird  is  shot  off  the  nest,  the  cock  bird  promptly 
finds  a  new  mate,  and  brings  her  home  to  hatch  out  the 
brood.  A  very  remarkable  example  of  stepmotherly  love, 
if  it  be  true !  Everybody  knows  that  the  East  is  the  origin 
of  the  long-tailed  mangold- devouring  fowl,  whose  portrait 
figures  here,  but  to  stigmatise  the  pheasant  as  a  bloated 
parvenu,  a  newlv  naturalised  alien,  or  even  as  an  eighteentlv- 
century  Nabob,  is  to  admit  deplorable  ignorance.  He  was 
here  before  William  the  Conqueror  ;  Harold  the  Saxon  pre- 
served hint;  he  was  known  to  be  c'ommon  in  Ireland  when 
Elizabeth  reigned,  and  he  made  his  presence  felt  in  Scotland 
ten  years  before  James  I.  came  south  to  rule  over  English 
coverts.  In  these  later  days  this  lordly  fowl  has  developed 
a  new  and  patriotic  character  ;  in  country  districts  he  is  ever 

the  first  to  cry  "  Take  cover!  "  when 
Zeppelins  raid  on  moonless  nights. 
These  notes  not  only  contain 
interesting  little  items  of  news 
such  as  these,  but  they  have  a 
real  and  permanent  educational 
value.  They  describe  briefly  the 
ordinary  habits  of  the  bird,  his 
favourite  haunts,  fashion  of  his 
nest,  difference  between  male  and 
female,  and,  what  is  most  impor- 
tant of  all,  his  food.  The  green- 
finch is  an  avian  instance  of  a 
dog  with  a  bad  name  ;  and  in  the 
massacre  of  innocents  which  local 
authorities  and  persons  of  position 
have  been  foolishly  promoting  and 
encouraging  on  nests  and  nestlings, 
during  tlie  last  two  or  three  years, 
we  are  certain  no  breed  has  suffered 
worse.  Now  read  Mr.  Thorburn's 
words  on  this  finch :  "  This  is  a  use- 
ful bird  in  the  garden,  destroying  a 
great  number  of  caterpillars  and 
harmful  insects,  and  during  the 
winter  it  feeds  on  seeds  and 
berries  of  various  kinds."  He 
who  destroys  finches  in  sheer 
stupidity  has  only  himself  to 
blame  if  his  land  be  overrun 
with  caterpillars. 


By  A.  Thorburn,  F.Z.S. 

Capercaillie,  or  Wood  Grouse 


i8 


Land    &    Water 


June    27,  1918 


A  Topographer:    By  Charles  Marriott 


LET  it  be  said  at  once  that  no  disrespect,  but 
rather  a  comphment,  is  intended  in  describing 
Mr.  WiUiam  T.  Wood's  water-colours  of  the 
Salonika  Front,  at  the  Leicester  Galleries,  Leicester 
Square,  as  topographical  in  character.     Splendid 

as  are  some  of  the  results  of  impressionistic  and  romantic 

treatment  of  landscape,  all  but  the  very  greatest  of  them 

suffer  from  some  lack  of  stability  in  the  one  case,  and  some 

taint    of    "the    pathetic    fallacy"— the    reading    of    human 

emotions  into  inanimate  nature — in  the  other  :   and,  speaking 

generally,  the  famous  landscape  paintings  of  the  world  have 

a  topographical  basis.  . 

There  is  a  reason  for  this  that  is  worth  examining.     It  is 

because  they  are  inspired  by  something  more  than  "art." 

They  are,  in  fact,   as 

all  great  art  finally  is, 

utilitarian.      On     the 

technicaj  side,  art  can- 
not   be    too    severely 

"art  for   art's  sake"  ; 

but    in    purpose    and 

application,    in    order 

to  be   great   it   must 

have  some  sanction  in 

universal    human    re- 
quirement. 

Without  pretending 

to  be  great,  the  water- 
colours   of  Mr.  Wood 

have    the     merit     of 

sticking  to    the    busi- 
ness     in     hand    and 

ministering      to      the 

natural  human  craving 

to    know     what     the 

Salonika  Front  is  like. 

So    many    artists 

would   have  given   us 

"impressions"   of  the 

Salonika  Front ;   witji 

the  disappointing  and 

irritating     effect      of 

poetry  in  a  guide-book. 

Anybody      who      has 

grasped  the  fact  that 

a     well-written      and 

trustworthy    guide- 

book,  without  a  single 

quotation,     may     be 

hterature    is    on    the 

way    to     understand 

that  Mr.  Wood's  water- 
colours  are  art.   There 

is  evidence  enough  in 

them  that  Mr.  Wood. 

if  he  had  hked,  might  have  gone  directly  for  "effects" 
and  "atmosphere"  with  considerable  success;  but  he  has 
more  wisely  and  modestly  allowed  them  to  happen  as  a  result 
of  intelligent  fidelity  to  the  facts. 

"Intelligent"  fidelity  because  Mr.  Wood  is  considerably 
more  than  an  accurate  observer  and  draughtsman.  A  topo- 
graphical landscape  is,  in  fact,  a  portrait  of  a  place,  and, 
hke  the  portrait  painter,  the  topographical'  artist  needs  to 
know  or,  at  any  rate,  to  feel  a  great  deal  more  than  the 
appearance  of  the  subject.  He  must  know  something  of 
history,  geography — both  physical  and  political^— arcliitec- 
ture,  agriculture,  and  domestic  economy.  I  do  not  mean 
that  he  need  know  these  subjects  out  of  books  or  by  deliberate 
observation  but,  what  is  much  more  important,  that  he 
must  have  the  sense  of  them.  Without  it,  he  may  be  full 
to  the  neck  with  the  facts  of  the  subject,  and  yet  go  wrong. 
In  architecture,  for  example,  knowing  all  about  styles  is 
much  less  important  than  feeling  the  mechanical  problems 
whose  effective  solution  resulted  in  a  particular  style. 

There  is  a  passage  in  Captain  Mann's  introduction  to  the 
catalogue  of  the  exhibition  which  seems  to  me  to  indicate  the 
great  merit  of  Mr.  Wood's  drawings.  "His  pictures  per- 
petuate .  .  .  the  great  natural  disadvantages  our  Army  is 
face  to  face  with  in  the  Balkans."  In  order  to  do  that,  the 
artist  must  have  shared  in  sympathy  the  "engineering  feats," 
and  felt  in  his  own  person,  if  only  by  imagination,  the  "ter- 
rible climate."  Accurate  observation  and  technical  skill 
alone  arc  not  enough  for  the  business  ;   and  I  am  inclined  to 


believe  that  a  moral  and  physical  "sense"  of  things  is  the 
most  valuable  possession  of  any  artist  in  any  medium.  As 
the  portrait-painter  must  feel  how  the  man  came  to  look  like 
that,  so  the  landscape  painter  must  feel  how  the  landscape 
or  the  city  grew,  and  the  advantages  or  disadvantages  they 
present   to   human   activity. 

If  this  power  is  necessary  in  any  place,  it  is  particularly 
necessary  in  a  place  like  Salonika  ;  a  museum  of  successive 
civilisatiohs,  Greek,  Latin,  Arabic,  Semitic,  and  Slav,  peopled 
with  the  drainings,  if  not  the  dregs,  of  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa.  The  architecture,  like  the  language  "Ladino"— the 
corrupt  Spanish  of  the  Jews,  who  form  nearly  half  of  the 
population—is  not  so  much  a  mixture  as  a  transformation 
of  several  elements  into  something  with  a  texture  and  colour 

of  its  own  ;  a  tapestry 
of  styles.  To  draw 
the  architecture  sym- 
pathetically, a  man 
must  have  lived  many 
lives  in  many  periods; 
must  feel  his  classics 
and  be  romantic — all 
that  is  implied  in  the 
word  "Levantine." 

That,  in  Mr.  Wood's 
drawings,  the  war 
seems  to  take  a  second- 
ary place  is  really  a 
tribute  to  their  vera- 
city. War  in  Mace- 
donia is  war  subject 
to  Macedonian 
conditions  ;  not  spec- 
tacular, but  a  matter 
of "  restless  vigilance," 
of  watching  and 
countering  intrigue,  of 
consolidating  positions 
and  pouncing  when 
you  can.  Mr.  Wood's 
pictures  bring  this 
home  and  help  us  to 
understand  that  the 
more  dramatic  effects 
of  the  war  in  Mac- 
edonia must  happen 
elsewhere.  There  is 
hardly  a  drawing  that 
does  not  show  some 
incident  of  war,  but 
the  great  value  of 
the  series  is  to  show 
how  the  incident  is 
modified  by  the 
conditions. 


William  T.  Wood 


Salonika 


Not  the  most  striking,  but 'one  of  the  most  informing  of 
the  pictures,  and  one  that  shows  best  Mr.  Wood's  perception 
and  skill  as  a  topographer,  is  the  pencil  drawing  of  "Salonika 
from  the  Minaret  of  St.  Sophia."  It  gives  you  the  "hang" 
of  the  place  as  a  whole,  and  at  the  same  time  enables  you  to 
appreciate,  its  architectural  character  in  detail.  Together 
with  such  pictures  as  the  church  interiors,  with  their  painted 
wall  decorations,  and  "  Rupel  Pass  from  Gumusdere,"  which 
-give  Mr.  Wood  his  opportunity  as  a  colourist,  it  suggests 
the  range  of  the  technical  powers  that  with  admirable  self- 
restraint  have  been  devoted  to  the  business  in  hand. 

The  value  of  the  series  is  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  several 
of  the  pictures  are  bird's-eye  views,  done  from  an  observation 
balloon,  combining  the  advantages  of  a  map  with  the  vision 
of  an  artist.  Such  is  the  picture  of  the  Great  Fire,  reproduced 
on  this  page.  If  our  army  in  the  Middle  East  is  engaged  in 
consolidating  positions,  Mr.  Wood  has  fulfilled  the  useful 
task  of  consolidating  the  Balkan  Front  in  the  imaginations 
of  those  of  us  who  read  the  verbal  dispatches.  "  Operations" 
themselves  are  easily  followed  when  once  the  scenes  of  them 
are  clearly  visualised — a  fact  that  war  artists  would  do  well 
to  bear  in  mind.  Even  Mr.  Wood's  pictures  of  air-fighting 
— good  as  they  are— may  be  looked  upon  as  a  holiday  from 
his  real  task.  An  aeroplane  is  an  aeroplane  all  the  world 
over,  and  "  Brought  Down  in  Flames  "  is  a  sight  not  unknown 
even  in  England.  Still,  these  pictures  serve  to'  show  that 
Mr.  Wood  is  as  happy  in  dealing  with  movement  and  atriio- 
sphere  as  he  is  in  explaining  the  lie  of  the  land. 


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