April 20, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
The Opinion of America 
We ought, I think, in this country, to make up our 
minds defmitely one way or the other, whether the 
presentation of the Alhed cause to the American public 
is worth our while or no. If the opinion of neutrals — 
which is, after all, only a moral factor— is indifferent to 
us because we conceive it to have no real effect upon the 
course of the war, then we may neglect that field altogether 
and leave it to the enemy's undisturbed possession. 
If, upon the contrary, we think that this moral factor 
is of weight, then it behoves us to put forward our fullest 
strength to influence it. ' 
Of all the Allies Britain alone is in a position to do this, 
through the community of language and the very close 
commercial and other bonds between the two countries. 
Hitherto, one may say that nothing has been done. That 
is a strong phrase, but it is not an exaggerated one. No 
one who sees the American Press, as I do, regularly, can 
have any remaining doubts upon this matter. Those few 
proprietors of newspapers whose private inclination or 
commercial advantage is served by supporting the Allied 
cause continue to support it. But they do not print 
information of the least use to that cause, for it is not 
supplied to them. 
Even the most obvious military truths about the war 
^not a special plea in favour of the Alhes but a mere 
statement of facts — is not watched by us in any way, 
and even the papers which, on the whole, support us, 
leave their public, even when that public is favourable 
to the Allied side, quite ignorant of the true situation ; 
for they have no one to give it them. I have myself in 
the last few weeks written letters to American papers 
obviously well disposed towards us to contradict such 
monstrous nonsense published by them as the following : — 
(i) That Germany alone would put in about next 
February one million new effectives. 
(2) That no instructed English opinion now denies 
the object of Prussia. 
(3) That the German permanent losses from wounds 
were, in 20 months, less than 79,000 men ! 
Meanwhile, a press of certainly much larger circulation 
and of far more vigour is acting quite openly against us, 
and this press is fed with the utmost industry by German 
propaganda of every kind. The German Government 
really takes trouble here, and it has succeeded in something 
over a year in producing with very large bodies of American 
opinion the state of mind it desires to produce. It has 
not only pleased its own supporters — that was not its 
main object.^ It lias not merely strengthened the positions 
of those who would in any case have been opposed to the 
Allied cause. It has done something much more. It 
has created a view of the war now very largely accepted 
in the United States and accepted just as much by those 
who are in our favour as those who are against us. 
The best proof of this is the fact that the Germans can 
now circulate in America falsehoods of a crudity and 
enormity which they would hardly have attempted some 
months ago, and that these falsehoods are solemnly 
accepted upon every side. 
I will give a particular example which I think very 
striking. 
The Chicago Daily News published upon March 27th 
last a cable from its German correspondent in Berlin. 
This cable is marked " Via London." I do not say 
that those words represent the truth, but I note them. 
The message sent is, of course, a German message 
supplied by the German authorities. It is to the effect 
that the total German permanent losses up to the ist 
March, 1916, were 1,029,620. 
Now I would beg my readers to dwell upon this amazing 
phenomenon. Here is a falsehood apparently so crude 
and stupid that it seems not worth telling. Every 
Louise and Barnavaux, by Pierre Mille (John Lane, 3s. 6d. 
net), forms a study of the French colonial soldier in China — 
and in love. Barnavaux reappears here subjugated at last 
by a woman, but he is still the old campaigner with a wealth 
of stories — and all the stories are good, though in one or two 
oE the earlier ones the susceptibilities of some readers will be 
shocked, for east of the Straits the French colonial soldier 
is apparently as lacking in morals — as these are understood 
in the west — as any Ainu. .'\n echo of Mulvaney, Barnavaux 
is ahvavs entertaining, morals notwithstanding. 
authority in Europe has debated the losses of the various 
belligerents until the subject is threadbare, and though 
there have been considerable differences we know that the 
truth fluctuates round about four millions for the date 
in question. We know that that is only normal to the 
rate of losses of all other belligerents in this war, and our 
only debates turn upon whether we are to put it at a 
quarter of a million less or a quarter of a milUon more. 
But the German authorities feel perfectly confident in 
their ability to publish and to get accepted in America a 
stupefying message cutting down the real figure not by a 
third or a half, but to a quarter. In other words, they 
believe — and probably they have good grounds for be- 
lieving — that the American" public will swallow the state- 
ment to the effect that German losses are, in proportion 
to the numbers fighting, four times less than any of their 
rivals ! 
We must not, in the comic side of such an incident as 
this, forget its very disquieting lesson. This piece of 
folly did not appear in some obscure hole and corner, nor 
was it put forward in one of those little fanatical sheets 
which from hatred of England or love of the enemy lose 
all sense of proportion. It appeared with every credential 
in one of the very great daily newspapers of America, 
something which may be compared to the Manchester 
Guardian or to the Scotsman in this country. It was 
accepted as an official and true statement by millions, 
and it has by this time undoubtedly become a legend with 
a whole body of opinion in the middle West. 
Is it an exaggeration to say that such a state of affairs 
would have been impossible if we had, in this country, 
taken any steps to instruct American opinion ? 
We have taken none, and I think the reason is a very 
simple one. No one has been willing to take the trouble 
required. 
I do not know whether it is too late. I hope it is not. 
But there is a great deal of leeway to be made up, and the 
more I see of the American press in these last few weeks 
the more I am impressed by the solidly rooted legend of 
German greatness which is now there implanted. 
We may console ourselves by the knowledge that all 
this will count for nothing when the truth appears on the 
map, as it has already appeared in the calculations of the 
higher command. i 
We know that the alliance composed of the German 
Empire with its dependent peoples, the Austro-Hungarian 
Empire, the Turks and the Bulgarians, is already beaten. 
But between the present phase and the last one there 
is still a long distance to travel and in that interval it 
is possible that American opinion will count. There 
may still be time to effect something in that field. So 
far nothing serious has been done. H. Belloc. 
Sortes Sbakespeavianae 
By SIR SIDNEY LEE 
The Wittenberg- Infamy : 
This is the bloodiest shame, 
The ivildest savagery, the vilest stroke 
That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage 
Presented. 
%.\al Joba IV., ui., 47-50. 
To our Impatient Pessimists: 
How poor are they who have not patitiice ! 
What wound did ever heal but by degrees ? 
Thou know st we work by wit and not by 
witchcraft, 
And wit depends on dilatory time. 
Othellq n., iii., 379-82. 
The German Dynamitard in America : 
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was 
That wrought upon thee so preposterously 
Hath got the voice tn hell for excellence. 
Henry Vn., ii., Ul-3. 
