Maveh 27, 1915. 
LAND AND .WATER. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE SAILORS' AND SOLDIERS' TOBACCO FUND. 
To the Editor of Land and Water. 
Deab Sir, — On behalf of the above fund a military Rugby 
match has been arranged between the H.A.C. and the 
K.A.M.C. (Aldershot). This will take place next Saturday, 
at the Athletic Ground, Eichnioud, at 3.15 p.m. Prior to 
the match, by permission of the officer commanding and the 
Court of Assistants, the H.A.C. (Headquarters) brass band 
will play selections, also during the interval. 
Many of your readers are supporters of Rugby football, 
•nd would welcome this opportunity to witness a game, and, 
at the same time, help a fund which is engaged in the good 
work cf supplying tobacco to the British troops and the 
wounded in the hospitals in France. 
Six Internationals have intimated their intention to take 
fart, and four of the remaining players have played in 
nternational trial games. — Yours faithfully, 
W. Evan Collison, 
Central House, Kingsway, W.C. Hon. Sec. 
OUR NEW ARMY HORSES. 
To the Editor of Land and Water. 
Sir, — In reply to questions asked by Sir William Byles 
In the House of Commons on March 1 Mr. Tennant stated 
(a) that under one per cent, of horses purchased for the New 
Army had been cast as unsuitable; and (b) that less than 
two per cent, per month (italics mine) had been lost from 
death and destruction before leaving this country. He further 
itated that the percentage was not considered high. 
Let us see what it means. The Times of January 5 
had «n inspired article congratulating the country on the 
■upply of 140,000 horses secured in addition to " 36,000 
magnificent horses " for the Expeditionary Force and 18,000 
for the Reserve formations. It was admitted some wrong 
■'uns had got in and that some folks had cheated the nation 
for their own profit. Taking Mr. Tennant's one per cent, we 
get 1,400 as the figure for wrong 'uns bought by ignorance 
or chicanery, and allowing £40 apiece for them we arrive at 
the sum of £56,000 as the amount of loss — less, of course, the 
■mall sum received for them on being cast. 
But turn to the percentage of horses which have died. 
Two per cent, per month on the above figure of January 5 
for seven months of war works out at 19,600 horses which 
have died. Reckoned at £40 apiece, and allowing £34,000 
for Mr. Tennant's " under two per cent." as margin, we get a 
total monetary loss of three-quarters of a million. Does Mr. 
Tennant not consider this high ? 
But to some of us it is not the financial loss that is the 
most grievous question. It is the appalling and unnecessary 
Buffering thrust upon so many thousands of highly sentient 
creatures. A total of unnecessary pain and cruelty which 
shocks and shames us. And we ask once more : What is 
being done for the horses that are still sick, still tethered in 
lines unsheltered to face the bitter winds of March and April ? 
— I am, Sir, yours faithfully 
E. Ward. 
161, New Bond Street, W. 
The attempt to secure protection by deceiving the enemy 
by flying a neutral country flag as an ensign is probably 
justifiable, and in the case of an ordinary " tramp," not dis- 
tinguished by build and traversing no specified route, the 
result has a chance of success. In the case of passenger liners, 
whose routes and time tables are published (and at any rate 
approximately maintained) the ruse might deceive an un- 
usually obtuse German naval officer. An absolutt;ly distinc- 
tive ship like the Lusitania stands alone, and she would be 
identified as the Lusitania long before it was possible to make 
out what ensign she was flying. 
Possibly some non-nautical passenger took the use of the 
American flag at the masthead to be the use of it as a national 
flag. This would be an easy error for the non-nautical 
passenger to fall into. But if the Lusitania did really replace 
her own British ensign by the use of an American flag, thereby 
pretending to be an American ship, her Commander must 
have an exceedingly low opinion of the intelligence of a 
German commander of a submarine. Further, the speed of 
the Lusitania is such that a submarine would not have a ghost 
of a chance, either submerged or awash, of successfully 
launching a torpedo. I fancy that most sailors will, at present, 
believe that the Lusitania never flew an American flag in 
place of her own ensign, but that if she did so — that she did 
a foolish, because unnecessary and ineffectual, thing. — 
Obediently yours, 
Nactical. 
Hillside Cottage, Newbury. 
THE NEUTRAL FLAG. 
To the Editor of Land and Water. 
Dear Sir, — It would appear from what is called the 
Lusitania incident that the public are ignorant as to the uses 
and the practice of flying a national flag at sea. 
A merchant ship on the high seas normally flies no flag 
at all— only on the approach of another ship would the 
national flag be broken. In coastal wat«rs a flag will probably 
be flown. A flag is never flown during the night— from sun- 
down to sunup— for obvious reasons. If the Lusitania 
arrived at Liverpool in the morning much of her passage of 
the Irish Sea would have been in darkness. 
The National flag is always flown from a special flagstaff 
at the stern or, if she is so rigged, from a gaff on the mast. 
The flying of a national flag from the masthead is no claim to 
its u<=e nationally, but is intended as a compliment to the 
nation so honoured. In this complimentary way vessels 
entering a foreign port will usually fly at the masthead the 
flag of that foreign country. In the same way a vessel carry- 
in^ many foreigners— as the Lusitania would bo carrying 
Americans— might fly, at Ihe masthead, their national flag, 
merely as a compliment to them. 
MILITARY REWARDS. 
To the Editor of Land and Water. 
Sir, — I am glad to see a letter in your paper calling 
attention to the want of proportion in awarding rewards for 
military services. In the last list of cajiualties there is one 
staff officer wounded out of over two hundred names. Ever 
since I joined, in 1860, it has always been the same — the 
combatant gets the kicks, the staff the halfpence. — ^Yours 
truly, 
R. P. 
THE SMALL FIRM. 
To the Editor of Land and Water. 
Dear Sir, — I have read with very great interest and 
appreciation the letter In your issue of March 13th from 
" One of the Principals of a Small Firm." I should like to 
take the opportunity of heartily supporting all that he says, 
especially as since that letter was written Lord Kitchener has 
informed the nation of the really urgent need for the in- 
creased manufacture of munitions of war, and therefore all 
doubt as to this urgent need, which is queried in your cor- 
respondent's letter, is now at an end. 
I should like before going further to make it quite clear 
that my firm, which is one of the small ones, has no complaint 
whatever to make with regard to ordinary Government pro- 
cedure as regards inquiries and contracts, which is both good 
and businesslike, but if the country is actually in need of 
more war munitions than it can at present obtain, there are, 
I believe, many firms who would be only too glad to under- 
take more Government work than they have yet obtained, 
many, doubtless, having obtained none at all. 
I am glad to believe by my own experience, and by the 
fact of the very big wages being paid by firms recognised in 
times of peace as firms who make for the Government, that 
the question of price is not very acute, so long as the Govern- 
ment know that they are obtaining goods from firms who 
have previously satisfactorily supplied their demands, and 
that the Government is prepared to pay those firms extra 
when it is found necessary to work overtime, night-shifts, and 
week-ends. 
On the other hand, it appears that in dealing with new 
firms the Government is very keen as regards price, and no 
allowance is made if these firms have to put on a night-shift, 
which will cost them considerably more proportionately than 
would a night-shift to a big firm whose custom it was often to 
run one. 
In normal times it is quite right for the Government to 
buy as cheaply as ever they"Can, and to be as keen as possible 
in so doing, but it is quite another thing now, if our existeno^' 
as a nation to a large measure depends on the supply of i~[:. 
war material, and I would suggest that it is better to I "! 
generous as regards prices when offering work to new firms, 
15* 
