LAND AND WATER 
February 3, 1916. 
(Continued tram JWffr 8.) 
to overcome. The final objection to the bargain is, as I 
have said above, that added to all its disadvantages as a 
bargain, it deals with one aspect of Germany's sea 
criminalities onlv. 
The Washington Government has access to naval 
advice of the highest authority and skill. Its whole 
conduct since the beginning of the war shows it to be 
deeply concerned to maintain the claims of justice and 
humanity. It is obvious then that the Cabinet must 
thoroughly understand all the objections to its proposals 
—a few of which I have just set out. What is its inten- 
tion in putting these proposals forward ? In this matter 
we can only guess at an explanation. Two are current. 
The first is "that Mr. Wilson hopes, by the threat of closing 
American ports to British traders, to force acceptance by 
the Allies, and by the threat of war to force Germany's 
compliance — if indeed (iermany would need any forcing 
into the acceptance of a bargain so extremely favourable 
to herself. Once the new arrangement came into work- 
ing we should iind ourselves face to face with the helpless- 
ness of our sea trade in the presence of German submarine 
warfare. \\'ould not this be a favomable moment for 
reopening that question of the freedom of the seas to 
which Mr. \\'ils(>n has always ''been committed"; to 
which Ormany — defeated at sea— is now so ardent a 
convert ? So long as the siibmarine war was carried on 
only in the war zone, the counter campaign could not 
only keep it under, but make it far more costly to Ger- 
many than to ourselves. Make the destruction of com- 
merce on the high seas easy, put it out of the Allies' 
power to defend their trading "ships, and then probably they 
will prove amenable to American and German reason. 
There is another view which is not untenable. It is 
obvious that the United States community is gravitating 
towards the view that the Administration's attitude 
towards Germany 'has been entirely too long suffering. 
The time has come when the Administration must take 
some action. How could it take action which will carry 
the anti-German sentiment with it without alienating 
the pro-Germans too violently ? It can only do so by 
appearing to impose its will upon both belligerents. Are 
the Lansing proposals made with a view to ultimate 
intervention on the Allies' side, but under the guise of an 
impartial policy ? The Administration may think that 
(iermany cannot act in good faith, and that a breach is 
therefore inevitable. If, when the breach came, the 
Administration could point to good faith on our side 
and perfidy on the other, it might secure unanimity. 
Whatever the intentions of the Administration are, 
it seems to me highly improbable that events will afford 
an opportunity of demonstrating them. In other words, 
the Lansing proposals appear to me to be still born. No 
suggestion for our acceptance of Germany's word can or 
should receive consideration. And this after all is the 
root of the matter. 
The Renascence of the " Appam." 
The Appam has reappeared, and startled the world 
as if she had risen from the dead. The Germans have 
scored grimly, but greatly, over the Navy. That it was 
possible for an armed cruiser to break the Blockade out- 
wards and get upon the trade routes, is a possibility which 
naval o"fficers have always foreseen. If we arc astonished 
it is not because of the difiliculty of the thing that has been 
done, but largely because it has not been done sooner. 
Manifestly it is hot a thing which can be done very often, 
or on a large scale. It is impossible, for instance, to 
suppose that warships could escape except by the merest 
lluke. A tramp could conceivably be seen and not 
pursued. Could a warshij-) be so disguised as to be seen 
and escape detection ? It is unlikei> . The news arrives 
too near the time for going tr) press for this incident to 
be treated fully. The question which excites the greatest 
curiosity at the moment is this. At the time of waiting 
we only know the Appam has arrived at Norfolk with a 
prize crew of twelve on board. This, of course, cannot be 
the whole personnel of the -Mocier. There is no other 
news of the Moewc. Is she still at large, or have her 
oflicers and men been transferred to one of the captures, 
and is the capture at large as a rover on the high seas ? 
If she is, a pretty problem is propounded to the British 
Navv What success will she have before- her inevitable 
end ■? ■ ARTHUR POLLEN. 
RATIONAL REFORM. 
THERE has come by chance into the possession of 
the writer a slim, brown-covered magazine, bearing 
the title of The Trust. Review. Its name docs not 
at first siglit reveal its purpose, so let me add 
forthwith tliat it is " a quarterly review published 
for promoting the principles of disinterested management 
in the retail sale of alcoholic liquors in Great Britain." This 
is its first number. 
Time flies quickly and one hardly realises more than fifteen 
3'ears have slipped by since Lord Grey founded the Home 
Counties Public House Trust. Other and isolated efforts 
were even then in progress to reform the ale-house and 
liquor bar on sensible lines. The Trust, as Lord Lytton 
remarks in the editorial cohimns of the Review, was founded 
in the behef tliat in any community, whether village, town or 
district of town, or even a club, public sentiment favours 
temperance and abominates druniicnness. " Drunkenness 
is a vice of the individual, not of the community." Will 
anyone to-day question the absolute truth of this assertion ? 
It is a httle difficult at the moment to realise fully the 
extraordinary cliasm that divided total abstainers from even 
the most moderate " drinkers " in the latter half of the Vic- 
torian era. The Blue Ribbon army is apparently as dead as 
a doornail, but at tlie end of the seventies and" in the early 
eighties of last century, it was most vigorous, and every man 
or boy who had signed " The Pledge " vaunted a bit of blue 
ribbon in his buttonhole, one effect of which was to stimuate 
the weaker brother to indulge in inebriation " just to prove his 
independence." At that time, in a commercial establish- 
ment of the City, it occurred to a wit, irritated by the flaunting 
virtue tliat thrust bits of blue ribbons in his face, to carry the 
war into the enemies' country, and ripping the red silk tape 
with which it was then customary to keep cigars in their 
place from an old cigar box, he divided them into short 
lengths, distributing them among friends of like feeling witli 
liimself. The idea promptly caught on ; the custom spread, 
and thus came into existence the Red Ribbon army, the only 
covenant of which consisted in its members being pledged to 
indulge in at least one alcoholic drink a day. It was the 
very last thing which the founders of the Blue Ribbon army 
had in mind, but it is typical of the spirit which fanaticism 
awakens among he peoples of this Realm. 
Then in the last year of the nineteenth century came 
Lord Grey, the Bishop of Rochester, the Bishop of Chester, 
and two or three other common-sensible Englishmen, who had 
faith in their fellows and honestly believed it were easier to 
induce a stubborn Anglo-Saxon to adhere to the paths of 
sobriety than to force him there under compulsion. And so 
was born an enterprise which for years the writer has believed 
and is more than ever convinced t )-day, is sooner or later to 
solve a social problem which has h'therto defied both the most 
sincere and the most strenuous efforts of reformers. 
" Surely a time will come some day when the fact that 
the working-classes must go into separate houses for food and 
liquor will be a thing of the past." This from the Trust 
Review. It is a point which the present 'writer has been 
hammering at for a dozen years or more. Why should not the 
working-classes be given the same facilities for alcoliol with 
their food which are granted in every restaurant to the upper 
and middle classes ? 
But the Trust would proceed even beyond this and wisely 
so. Says its Review : " We should have Uked to combine in 
many places the provision of cheap meals with a little music, 
but in the present =.tate of the law and practice this is con- 
sidered a criminal offence, and those who attempt to carry out 
the idea arc liable to be proceeded against for keeping a dis- 
orderly house." Oh dear ! Oli dear ! How heavily do the 
sins of our fathers and our fathers' fathers ride upon our 
shoulders ! 
But all those who struggle for the cause of true temper- 
ance may take heart of grace from Tli^ Trust Review. Lord 
(irey contributes to it a series of verses which that rabid 
teetotaller, l)ut perfect gentleman, tlie late Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 
wrote on the movement at its inception. They are excellent 
evidence of the advance in public opinion on this momentous 
question. In fact, all the satire of Sir \\'ilfrid's lines has 
entirely evaporated and to most of us it is a little difficult 
to realise the uncompromising spirit, and, one must add, the 
narrow-mindedness which gave them utterance. 
Drunkenness nine times out of ton is not a vice but 
a symptom, and if only we could rescue the State once 
and for all from the mistaken and pernicious view of 
regarding alcohol merely as a revenue-earning commodity, 
the battle of temperance would be more than two-thirds won. 
This is what Lord Grey's Trust is doing. The Trust Review 
is a rallying point for all rational temperance reformers. 
It may be obtained, post free, for sixpence, from The Editor, 
Home" Counties P.H. Trust, J,td., Radlctt, Herts. 
