LAND AND M' A T K R 
March 
1 > 
-J' 
i<)i6. 
lorcstvn. But tlic will of the [)lO])1c Ims not been of recent 
years to support a strouf,' defensive pro^^raninie, Aviiether it 
be in aircraft or otherwise. The tjuestton is thus a broad 
one. Tlie narrowing' of |lhe question, and focussing 
attention on aeronautics generally and the airshii) in 
particular is, so far as the average voter and the body 
of the electorate is concerned, summed up in a few words : 
Wc have bu-n b:>mb:d ! ' 
Kven so uncompromising a democrat, so luicom- 
proinising a socialist as Blatchford recogniseii the truth 
in this respect. In his articles, published in the columns 
of a well-known London daily a few years ago, he clearly 
recognised the real source of weakness, though he did not 
express it precisely as the present writer is doing. I will 
quote two paragra])hs from Mr. Blatchford's fifth article 
(page 17 of tlie published reprint) : 
Tliere is danger ahead. Mr. Asquith has told us so, Lord 
l^oberts lias told us so. Sir Edward Grey has told us so. 
And we arc not ready to meet that danger. And we are 
not milking re.idy to meet that danger. And the gre.it 
nrajority of our people arc oblivious of that danger or 
refuse to recognise its existence. 
And a few paragraphs later : 
It implies that British Cabinets are unworthy of the nation's 
co.nfidencc. I am aiVaid it implies more than that. I 
am afraid it implies that British Cabinet Ministers, for 
the sake of remaining in power, have time after time con- 
cealed a state of affairs which in the event of war would 
e.vpose the Empire to serious rislcs of dishonour and 
defeat. 
It will bo noted in the foregoing that Jiaving 
ciumciated the fact, and stated that as well as Lord 
Roberts, both Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grev have 
warned us of danger, Mr. Blatchford has said ; " 1 am 
afraid it implies more than that." He says : " It implies 
that British Cabinet Ministers, jor the sake of roir.iiiiiiin 
in power," etc. Mr. Blatchford do;s not pros.; his argu- 
ment to its logical conclusion. If the British Cabinet 
.concealed the true state of affairs for the sake of remaining 
in power, then if they had revealed the state of affairs 
they would presumably have been thrown out, and we 
should have had some other Ministry, who also if they 
had revealed the true state of affairs would have been 
thrown out, so that Mr. Blatchford practically presents 
to us the apjiaUing state of things of a democracy electing 
a Parliament, and indirectly a tiovernment, which will 
bj thrown out if its members dare to tell the truth. 
Obviously such a state of things carries as a corollary 
that, whatever Government we may have, the price and 
condition of its existence is that it shall not tell th; truth 
on a matter of vital import : A more damning commentary 
on the whole fabric of democratic control has never been 
])enned. He admits that both Sir PMward Grey and Mr. 
As.iuith had warned the nation of the danger ahead, and 
it is common knowledge that the leaders of the Unionist 
Party had not been backward in thj same direction. 
That I am not misinterpreting Mr. Blatchford is 
clear when I quote paragraphs as follows. Tl.e concluding 
paragraph of the third artitde (page 13) thus reads : 
I nmst confess, with sorro^vful iiisgiving, that the nation 
is blind to its peril, and is proving itself impotent to meet 
that danger as it must be met if the Empire is not to go 
down in. complete and irretrievable disaster. 
Or again, from the first article (page 5 of the reprint) : 
That is the Pan-(ierm:mic dream. That is the ambition 
which is driving Germany into a war of aggression against 
this country. But the British people do not believe it. 
The British people take little interest in foreign affairs, 
and less in military matters. The British people do not 
want to bother, they do not want to pay, they do not want 
to hght, and they regard as cranks or nuisances all who 
try to warn them of tlieir danger. 
Members of the Cabinet before the war realised 
the danger. I think history will relate that in some 
respects they strained a jjoint beyond their mandate 
from the people in the direction of increasing our defences, 
but as Mr. Blatchford tacitly agrees, the Government 
were pledged to the electorate to economise, and if they 
had gone to the extent that they would untrammelled 
have wished, they would assuredly have been replaced 
by a Government more complaisant, which would have 
accorded more closely, more slavishly, to the dictates of 
popular clamour. No Government could have lived 
during the last decade, had it ventured to embark upon 
an increased spending programme in the direction of 
araiament ; given this as a condition it was clearly riuht 
that expenditure should have been limited to those 
directions in which utility had been proved or could be 
detinitely demonstrated. 
To-day all these facts are forgotten. The man who 
wished for curtailment of exiJcnditure in armaments, 
and a lavish expenditure in soiaal reform, seems to have 
vanished. He is there still, but has changed his coat, 
he will change it back again within a few weeks of the 
war being over, when the fear of Zepjiehn bombs has 
b.?en forgotten, but for th-:; moment he shouts loudly 
about other people's neglect, and swallows his own past 
words without even chewing them. 
An Effective Air Service 
Considering the political atmo.iphere prior to the 
outbreak of war, it is wonderful that we were able to 
assert, after the first few weeks' lighting, a definite aero- 
nautical ascendency. This was only due to the fact that 
the few millions (very few millions) which had been 
granted for aeronautical development had been mainly 
concentrated on the perfection of the heavier-than-air 
machine. If the available resources had been divided 
between an airship policy and the development of the 
aeroplane we shoukl have been hopelessly outclassed, 
and probably ovcrwholm:'d by disaster. 
It will only be fully appreciated when the history of 
the war is written what invaluable assistance was rendered 
by our airmen during the retreat from Mons, and that at a 
date before it had been possible to effect any mati-'rial 
increase in our force of aeroplanes. If we had not been 
well served by our Flying Corps at the period in question 
there is every reason to believe that the most perfe<:t 
generalship would not have saved us from irretrievable 
disaster. 
The cost of any effective airship programme (apart 
from experimental or developmental expenses) would 
have sucked up every available penny of aeronautical 
grant like a mighty suction dredger, and would have 
left nothing at all for the humbler heavier-than-air 
machine. 
It is no UJ2 dwelUng on the past except to glean 
lessons for the future, but I have reviewed the \yji'>i in the 
foregoing paragraphs to show how senselesss, and 1 may 
say ungrateful and criminal, is the movement of which 
one hasj-ecently seen evidence, to blame the i)ast Govern- 
ment for such deficiencies as may b3 acknowledged.! It 
would be more creditable to our national level-headedness 
if we were to recognise that it is our system of Government 
which is at fault, and not the individual puppets who 
happen nominally to be in power. 
One is tempted to exclaim : Serve God if you will, 
serve Man, serve Mammon, serve the n-.vil himself, b.it 
never serve a Democracy ! 
{To h: continued). 
WonuHa War ]Vork, edited by I-ady Randolph Chuichill 
(C. Arthur Pearson. 2s. Od.). embodies the first sefious effort 
to trace the war activities of women in the various belligerent 
countries, and to give a scrie.i of clear and convincing pictures 
of wliat women liave accomplished under new jiatriotic in- 
tbiences since the beginning of the war. l-'rom this book a 
very clear view can be obtained of women's war work in 
Europe, America, and the Jiritish Dominions overseas during 
the past eighteen months, and scarcely a phase of these 
activities has been overlooked. 
Degenerate Germany, by Henry dc Ilalsalle (T. Weiuer 
Laurie. 2s. 6d. net), is a record of the repellent decadence 
of Germany, the innate corruption, of the whole empire. It 
is possible, of course, to find parallels for a. number of the 
charges that the author makes in almost any country ; the 
immorality recorded of Cologne and other German cities is 
equalled by many centres outside (ierinany. and, as far ai 
statistics of this sort of thing are concerned, there is nothing 
new in the l)uok. Hut in the drgeneracy of modern German 
literatiuv. the immoral tendencies of Wagnerian and certain 
modern German music, and similar jioints, the author offers 
some very valuable matter for consideration. He shows that not 
only are the acts of the nation degenerate, but tlie whole 
tone of thought is on the down grade— and obviously a long 
way down the grade. The work is biassed, beyond question, 
but none the less it makes a study of sinister and at times 
horrible interest, as showing to what depths standarcls of 
conduct can sink under the doctrini- of " micht is right " 
