June I, I 916 
L A N D .^- W A r E K 
LAND & WATER 
EMPIRE HOUSE, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C 
Telephone: HOLBORN 2828 
THURSDAY, JUNE 1. 1916 
CONTENTS 
PAGE 
What Plentiful Munitions Mean. By Louis Raemaekcrs i 
The Future of Ireland. (Leading Article) 3 
Story of a Brandenburg Army Corps. By Hilaire Belloc 4 
Sartcs Shakespeariante. By Sir Sidney Lee 1^ 
Bluebells (a poem). By Emilc Cammaerts i-i 
The Navy at War. By Arthur Pollen i.) 
South America and the M^ar. By Lewis R. Freeman 15 
A " U " Boat's Victim. By Georgina Pennant 17 
The West End ' 22 
Town and Country -4 
Choosing Kit ^"i- 
THEFUTURE OF IRELAND 
A FORETIMES if one raised the cry "God save 
/% Lcland," it was deemed seditious, but to-day 
/ % there is not a man or woman with a personal 
•*- -^-interest in the sister island from whose heart this 
prayer does not arise. It is their fixed determination 
that so far as in them lies, a settlement shall be concluded 
which shall render the future of Ireland secure from 
troubles both within, and without. When the Prime 
Minister determined to go over and examine the position 
for himself, he took a step which won the unquahfted com- 
mendation of all save a few bitter political enemies whose 
first axiom appears to be that whatever Mr. Asquith 
does is wrong. He was able on his return to state with 
the strong authority which comes from experience that the 
feeling in Ireland is universal for a joint and combined 
ellort to obtain agreement as to the way in which the 
Government of Ireland is for the future to be carried 
on, and he has with the full consent and approval of the 
Cabinet devised a plan of action which gives the best 
promise of success. 
The occasion is more propitious than appears on the 
face of it. The possibility of a recrudescence of the 
previous acute Irish differences and disagreements 
directly peace was restored has hung like a heavy cloud 
on the horizon. It has not only presaged discord at a 
moment when harmony should prevail, but latterly it 
has been foreseen that it might hinder other and greater 
Imperial developments and neutralise much of the 
good of that closer union of the various units of the 
Empire which has been effected through the war. If the 
solution of every problem, be it political, social, economic 
or financial, is to be put aside until the war is over, 
it is obvious many of them will never be solved at all, 
and the nation will drift back into its former habits of 
procrastination and inaction. This is a very real and 
serious danger. But let us find an acceptable settlement 
of the Government of Ireland difficulty, and it will be new 
encouragement to tackle other complicated questions 
which ought to be faced boldly without delay. It is 
needless to say this settlement can only be based on 
compromise, but compromise should be all the easier if 
it be recognised that the opinion grows and gathers 
strength among thinkers that one of the first great works 
of peace will be to retonsider, and possibly reconstruct, 
the constitution of the British Parliament at West- 
minster so that all subjects of the King-Emperor, both 
at home and overseas, shall be adequately represented 
when Imperial problems are under discussion. This will 
necessarily imply the delegation of local affairs to lesser 
Parliaments. It would hs premature to declare that we 
are within measurable distance of Home Rule all round, 
but the omens point that way, and we may regard the 
Irish settlement as the first experiment in constructive 
statesmanship which this world struggle has caused to 
be attempted within the British Empire. 
In selecting Mr. Lloyd George as his ambassador, Mr. 
Asquith has chosen wisely, and on the wisdom of his 
choice the future hinges. These two— Prime Minister 
and Minister of Munitions — have worked shoulder to 
shoulder for many years. They who fish in troubled 
waters and find pleasure and profit in the making of 
mischief, have done their best to foster jealousy and 
intrigue between the two, but without avail. The latter 
willingly continues the difticult task which the former 
has initiated, though it is obvious that if the success all 
hope for be attained, the credit for it will rest primarily 
with the Prime Minister. Mr. Lloyd George through- 
out his political career has kept free from entanglements 
in Irish politics, and he is both temperamentally sym- 
pathetic with the Celtic character and happily endowed 
with imagination. Lack of imagination is a distinctive 
English trait ; though this quality has advantages in 
these times of disturbance, it is not calculated to promote 
concord where other peoples and races are concerned. 
Yet in the coming years we shall be called upon to give 
imagination a far freer rein if we are to place the political 
imion of the Empire on a sure foundation, so it is as well 
that this truth should be realised at once and difficult 
tasks of this nature entrusted to imaginative men. 
It is not our intention to discuss Ireland's troubles here. 
No good can come of it. The story cannot be told in its 
entirety. Public inquiries into general causes and 
particular episodes are being held and the less discussion 
there is in the Press the better. But we would par- 
ticularly invite attention to the excellent example which 
Ireland is giving England in certain social reforms, 
notably the, reconstruction of village industries and the 
development and extension of agricultural co-operation. 
It has been Ireland's peculiar misfortune that owing to the 
bitterness of party dissensions, it has been considered 
impossible that any good thing can come out of her, 
and no attempt has been spared by political opponents 
to render futile schemes which are intrinsically sound 
and wise. Yet at the present time movements are 
prospering there which despite the political taint 
that has ' been so unfairly attached to them, ought 
not only to spread more rapidly in Ireland, but to be 
extended to this country. England can learn of Ireland 
and will learn, once we are rid of the dividing wall of 
suspicions and misunderstandings. Already it is more 
than half broken down by the gallantry of Irishmen in the 
field, and it only remains for so much of the barrier as 
still exists to be removed through the temperate and 
conciliatory efforts of her leaders in the Council Chamber. 
We would not have it thought that we minimise the 
difficulties that lie ahead of the Cabinet, and its special 
representative, Mr. Lloyd George. No wave of a wand 
will cause men to change their deepest convictions of au 
instant, and though one speak with the tongues of angels, 
persuasion will not remove every personal animosity, 
but realising that the spirit of conciliation has never 
been more wiUing than at present, we entertain high 
hopes that a plan of settlement is not impossible and that 
before the war ends, it will be only the bare truth to 
assert that permanent peace has been established in 
Ireland. There would be singular satisfaction in such a 
happy conclusion. The Kaiser thought to break Britain 
through civil war in Ireland, and if he makes Ireland 
whole through having forced Britain into war, and thus 
brings about a permanent reconciliation between factions 
and discordant elements which have persisted through 
centuries, it will be fine, entirely fine. 
