LAND AND WATER, 
March 23, igifi. 
population and carryine; on the war. But the loss has 
raised the cost of freight enormously. It has conipslled 
us to stop the imports of certain kinds of hixurics. It 
does leave us with 700 fewer ships at our disposal, if the 
exigencies of war make it desirable to start upon a new 
and distant overseas campaign of great magnitude. 
Von Tirpitz realised from the first that great as was 
our margin in fighting ships, it yet could not be considered 
a margin adequate for the vast responsibilities thrown 
upon the British Fleet. He probably then counted on 
the national siiipbuilding effort being limited to thi? 
requirements of the Navy. If he did, he calculated rightly. 
In our long-drawn-out wars against revolutionary France 
and Napoleon, our annual loss of ships was no doubt 
enormously heavy, but it was a loss that was replaced 
almost as fast as it occurred. Almost e\ery coast town 
with a suitable harbour had its local ship-builder. But 
the increase in the tonnage of merchantmen, and over <)o 
per cent, of our trade being carried in iron or steel built 
ships propelled by steam, have changed all that. And 
we have, as a fact, not attempted to replace the tonnage 
withdrawn for war purposes or destroyed by the enemy. 
All losses, then, are net deductions from the carrying- 
power available. 
Fatal Weakness 
For the Tirpitz policj' to succeed, it was not necessary 
to destroy all belligerent shipping. All that was necessary 
was to bring us down to the margin that would mean dis- 
tress. Could not larger, faster and wider ranging sub- 
marines effect something akin to the " general strike " 
that Continental syndicalists used to hope for to paralyse 
capital into surrender ? Could not a general arrest of sea 
carriage bring Great Britain down to the want line in 
another year ? 
There were two fatal weaknesses in the policy. In 
the first place it needed time before success could be 
achieved. In the second place it could not succeed if 
only belligerent ships were attacked. Since February 
of last year, rather over 100 neutral vessels have been 
sunk by submarines, and nearly an equal number by 
mines. Von Tirpitz probably thought the Swedish, 
Norwegian and Danish and Dutch ships could be des- 
troyed with impunity. But here the change in the 
American situation has changed the situation for all 
neutrals who choose to make common cause with America. 
Indeed, it is not improbable that the Tuhxntia and 
Palambzng incidents rr.jy precipitate the neutrals getting 
together on this question. In any event, whether it 
implied the sinking of neutral ships or not, no great 
extension of the submarine attack on shipping could have 
been made without involving neutral interests and neutral 
dignity to the danger point. If Germany had been 
sure of being able to carry on say, for the full three 
years that Lord Kitchener is said to have thought 
probable in August, 1914, then the hostility of America 
would have been worth risking. It certainly would have 
been worth risking if a real paralysis of the world's sea 
service could, have been achieved. The point of the 
present situation is that the failure at Verdun makes it 
obvious that results cannot be got in time. 
We shall probably therefore see the submarine cam- 
paign continuing very much on the Hues of the last six 
months. Atlantic liners will probably be spared, and care 
taken as far as possible to warn ships where warning can 
safely be given. If the new submarines really are of the 
dimensions and strength that nmiour describes, then there 
can be no excuse for not warning merchantmen in the 
majority of cases. For I know of no merchantman so 
armed as to be capable of engaging an armament of 5.5 
guns. The encounter of the Clan Mactavish with the 
Mocwe is at any rate decisive on this point. And there 
is another matter in regard to the big submarine that 
must be borne in mind. If the big submarine has to 
carry' a larger crew because of its armament and greater 
power, it does not at all follow that double, treble, or 
even four times the crew of the old vessels would tax its 
capacity. The weight of the men and two months' 
supplies for them wtiuld not. be a formidable addition to 
the displacement. This capacity will enable submarines 
to carry prize crews, and to that extent relieve the com- 
mander of the responsibility of sinking his captures. 
Cviriously enough there is in Tuesday morning's 
papers the announcement of the first instance of this being 
done. A British submarine, it seems, has captured the 
Norwegian ship Kon^ ht^e on a journey from Sarpsborg 
to Liibeck, i)ut a prize crew on board and sent her home 
to Leith. To get to Liibeck the Kong Inge would have 
to pass through the Sound or the Great or Little Belt. 
Tne papers do not siy whether the capture took place in 
the Baltic or in the Kattegat. .Vnyway the Kong Inge 
had run short of coal by th-^ tim; she had reached 
Frederikshavn, which is ju-;t opposite Gothenburg^ 
about twenty miles due South from the Skaw. The British 
subnurines then operating in these waters are certainly 
carrying enough men for at least one prize crew. If the 
Germans play this ganv,' they will naturally have to send 
their prizes to .\merica or Spain. It is certainly one of 
the possibilities of the situation that may enable Germany 
to take enough ships to please their people at home — a 
crucial matter — and at' the same tim-^ keep out of trouble 
with America. .\RTHfR Poi,i.f.n'. 
RUSSIA, POLAND AND SERBIA 
.Although he is one of the most eminent of Ru.ssian 
novelists, Alexander Kuprin's work is little known to Knglisli 
readers, and perusal of The Exile (George Allen and Unwin, 
(«.) affords evidence that there is room for translations of all 
Kuprin's works into this language. Like Dostoievskv 
and Goncharov, Kuprin gathers his materials from everyday 
life : in the manner of the former, he draws largely from 
personal experience, and this book is concerned with life in a 
little garrison town, before the Russo-Japanese war had come 
to cleanse the Russian army and relieve its commissioned 
ranks of the imputation of peculation and sloth. 
The book is as terrible as Tolstoi's Resurrection, as ruth- 
less as Hardy's Jude, and as tragic as either ; it is, at the 
same time, an analytic study of Romasov, the hero, and 
Shurochka Nikolaiev, the heroine, and the foibles and weak- 
nesses of these two are presented together with their virtues, 
so that they stand as real people. The author's detachment 
is such that we are hard put to it at the end to say whether 
he justifies or condemns the duel as sanctioned in the Russian 
Army ; in the true spirit of the artist, he draws a picture, and 
leaves us to form our own conclusions. 
In the preface to The Jewa of Rissia and Poland, by 
Israel Friedlander (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 6s. net), the author 
states as his opinion that the medLneval attitude toward the 
Jews was " prompted by none other than utilitarian 
considerations, for which the Poles need not perhaps be 
blamed but for which they certainly deserve no credit." His 
own attitude toward his subject is frankly — and, to the 
Gentile reader, perhaps a little unduly — optimistic and 
laudatorv. At the same time, the hostility of church and 
state toward the Jews in the middle ages — and even up to 
modern times —makes no pleasant reading, for it shows that 
whatever may be one's feelings with regard to the Semitic 
question, the Jew has no reason to love those of his neigh- 
bours who reside outside the Ghetto. 
The criticism which this work affords is purely historical, 
and the work itself stops short of contemporary events con- 
cerning the Jews of Poland. For the author is more con- 
cerned with Poland than with Russia. Admitting the Semitic 
bias of tlie author, there is still much valuable matter in his 
work, which forms a chapter in Polish and Russian history, 
and, being authoritative, will command the attention of 
students of Russia and of Judaism. 
iMr. and Mrs. Jan. Gordon, wandering in Serbia, have 
perpetuated an exceedingly inconsequent volume in 77»j 
Lxick of Thirteen (Smith Mlder and Co., 7s. 6d. net), which 
is as scrappy as a feminine conversation, and at the same time 
thoroughly fascinating. Here and there the grimness of 
war stands out with startling realism, and the fate that has 
befallen .Serbia is tragically limned in vivid sentences, 
then one is caught away from horrors by the femininity of 
" Jo," and again interested in some Serbian Comitaj or biilky 
municipal dignitary. It is all " live " and full of the spirit 
of courage and energy in a time of utter tragedy. Some fine 
illustrations and certain clever little drawings complete this 
extremely interesting war book, which is far more worthy 
of more than the great majority of publications of its kind. 
Princess Christian will preside at the meeting on Women 
and Farm Labour to be held at the Kensington Town Hall 
on Friday afternoon, March 31st. The chair will be taken 
by Lady Wantage, and Miss Gladys Pott will speak on lier 
recent visit to the agricultural districts of France. 
i.7 
