December 5, 19 14 
LAND A X D W A T E R 
CHRISTMAS AND THE 
CRISIS 
To young and old the near approach of 
Christmas this year comes not with the 
famiUar zest and welcome, not with 
those delightfully kaleidoscopic visions 
of horse and hound, pheasants and ferrets, snow 
and skates, mistletoe and merriment, jollity and 
junketting, but with the positive shock of incon- 
gruity. Never were times more out of joint. 
Peace on earth ; goodwill ! — why, the very words 
are smothered in the shriek of shrapnel, the groans 
of dying and wounded, the stir and stress and 
fury of the greatest, the most wasteful war the 
world has known. Yet let us think : are we not 
up against a cruel and iion despotism the success 
of which would banish that treasured freedom 
and happiness from British homes, always so 
especially manifest in our Christmas rejoicings in 
normal times ? After all, the season may have 
its appropriate side ; may, indeed, be of infinite 
value to the nation if only it will bring the right 
train of thought, the true lesson. 
England was merry England when 
Old Christmas brought his sports again. 
And England shall be merry England again if we 
are all of one mind and hold unflinchingly to the 
great, grim task that is still before us. Courage, 
faith, self-sacrifice, self-discipline, unwaveiing 
resolve, and, yes, goodwill — goodwill, at least, to 
those who are fighting the fight of libert3' and 
right, the cause of oppressed nations — these are 
some of the virtues the coming Christmas may 
l)ring. 
First and foremost, it should bo a resolve on 
the part of those who for various reasons— not 
■. through choice, let us hope — have failed to take 
ui") arms, that none serving King and country, 
neither sailor nor soldier, officer nor private, 
Indian nor Colonial, seasoned campaigner nor 
tender recruit, shall possibly be able to imagine 
or to feel that at this sacred season of kind 
, greeting and good wish he has been forgotten. 
* Christmas presents for our heroes on land and 
water : the idea should appeal to every man, 
woman, and child in the kingdom, not so much 
as a duty as a welcome and happv means of 
conveying some direct measure of their appre- 
ciation of the splendid spirit that has been shown, 
of their admiration of the glorious work already 
done. Would that we might send to the Expedi- 
tionary Forces what would be the most acceptable 
gift of all — an overwhelming host of fresh comrades 
in arms, perfectly equipped, highly efficient and 
disciplined, such a force, in fact, as would imme- 
diately and inevitably turn the scale in the .\llies' 
favour. Lord Kitchener's Arm\- is growing 
■steadily and reinforcements are now crossing to 
France every week. But there are still bitter 
thoughts of what might have been had the nation 
done its f)lain duty from the first and listened to 
the warnings of that great soldier and patriot 
who has but recently been laid to rest in St. 
Paul's Cathedral. We have still in our minds the 
liumiliating knowledge that but for the noble 
sacrifice of little Belgium and the stubbornness 
and resource of our courageous French allies 
English women and English children might have 
suffered by now the unmentionable horrors meted 
out bv German butchers to the inhabitants of 
Louvain and other ravaged towns and villages. 
Again, the authorities cannot be held blame- 
less for that dangerous lull in recruiting which 
became so pronounced after the first rush of 
eligible men to arms. The absurd degree of 
stringency to which the Press censoi'ship has gone 
in this country ; the altogether illogical repression 
here of news; the innocuous and ever-confident com- 
munications from " Eye Witness " giving far too 
little light and scarcely any shade ; the paucity of 
intelligence conveyed in the brief announcements of 
progress effected at this or that point ; the loud 
but too often empty rhetoric of our public orators 
— all these, and other things besides, lulled the 
people into imagining that everything was going 
on as well as could be, and that present efforts 
and present numbers would in the end suffice. 
The Bi-itish public has not sufficiently been taken 
into confidence ; that is the chief mischief. The 
slump in recruiting was the direct consequence. 
Even now we are not told whether the flow of 
recruits is enough. " I want more men, and still 
more men," were, however, the words of our 
great War Secretary only a week or two ago, and 
the best gift the country can offer him at this 
season will be an ample supply of the material 
he most requires. 
We have hinted that the duty devolves upon 
the stay-at-home section of the communitx' to see 
that every officer and man serving witli the 
colours is given a token of their countrymen's 
gratitude at Christmas, and, naturally, the friends 
of those at the front will need no stimulus for 
such an obviously worthy purpose. It is because 
of this most natural object that in this issue we 
have followed our December custom of providing 
suggestions as to the selection of suitable and 
seasonable gifts. But let it be remembered there 
are many soldiers in the ghastly trenches and 
sailors keeping their long vigil on the bitter, 
bleak North Sea who have no friends at home or 
whose friends are too poor to send them service- 
able presents. To such, more than ever, it shorrld 
be our duty to give tangible expression of our regard 
this coming Christmastide. " And how ? " some 
may ask, though the question ought never to 
arise when Princess Mary's Appeal is daily before 
our eyes and other funds and organisations with 
similar objects in view call for urgent notice. 
There are soldiers and sailors in hospital ; there 
are poor refugees among us whose once happy 
homes are now a wry heap of worthless ruins ; 
there are our shopkeepers and employes to be 
thought of, harder hit financialh' than most 
classes by this cruel and devastating war. Our 
duty at Christmas was never more obvious, never 
more imperative. Those heroes of whom we have 
spoken are daily facing or about to face death 
under inconceivably appalling conditions, and are 
offering up their life's blood for our defence, for 
our deliverance from a ruthless, rabid, diabolic foe. 
"J 
