June 29, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
EMPIRE HOUSE, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C 
Telephone: HOLBORN 2828 
THURSDAY, JUNE 29. 1916 
CONTENTS 
A Council of War. By Louis Raemaekers i 
The Right Perspective. (Leading Article.) 3 
Austrian Retreat in Trentino. By Hilaire Belloc 4 
The Nelson Touch. By Arthur Pollen 8 
Revolt at Mecca. By Lewis R. Freeman n 
Germany's Mistakes : Moral. By Colonel Feyler 12 
The Sea and' the Air. By F. W. Lanchester 13 
Letters to a Lonely Civilian I5 
Roof of Armageddon (concluded). By Will Irwin 16 
Sortes Shakespearianae. By Sir Sidney Lee 17 
Italian Camp in the Alps. (Picture.) 19 
Union Jack Club Extension 20 
The West End 22 
Town and Country 24 
Choosing Kit ' xni. 
THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE. 
R 
EPORTING progress." So might one describe 
tersely the news of the last few days. With the 
exception of the Austrian retreat in the Tren- 
■tino, nothing new has occurred which is very 
aefmite, but everywhere is progress reported. A new 
era has been inaugurated in Greece by the dismissal of 
M. Skoloudis. The nation resumes its normal life ; a 
General Election will shortly be held, and if as the result 
of it the King of the Hellenes and M. Venizelos are able 
again to work together amicably outside the arena of 
war for the ultimate good of their people, it would give 
genuine satisfaction to all true friends of Hellas. In 
East Africa General Smuts continues his well-organised 
advance towards the central railway which is the back- 
bone of Germany's last colony. Once firmly astride of 
it, future resistance must of necessity become sporadic, 
and the end cannot then be long deferred. The revolt 
at Mecca has been threatening for years, but it is 
doubtful whether it would have come to a head had not 
the Young Turk, who is not a Turk by race or tradition, 
or even by religion except nominally, sold the Caliphate 
into Teuton bondage. The full significance of this 
uprising and the deathblow it deals to German preten- 
sions in Western Asia are described on another page. 
So we come to the Eastern and the Western Fronts. 
Russia is sweeping the Bukovina clean of Austrians, 
and north of the Pripet marshes holds firmly Hinden- 
burg's forces. Hard fighting continues, but everything 
promises well, though advance must naturally be slower 
than at the beginning of the big drive. •Germany reports 
that British guns are talking loudly and incessantly in 
France and Flanders ; there have been several small 
thrusts forward by our infantry. The battle of Verdun 
still rages fiercely vnth intermittent lulls, and the Crown 
Prince grows more and more reckless of his men, hurling 
masses to destruction in order to gain a few_ yards. As 
Mr. Belloc has consistently pointed out in Land & Water, 
the French are fighting at Verdun on the sound principle 
of compelling the enemy [to suffer a maximum loss at a 
minimum price to the defence. He may yet take Verdun 
if he is willing to pay the price, for Verdun is no more a 
fortress than is Ypres ; it is a small open town, defended 
by trenches, and it makes no difference from a mihtary 
point of view on which side of Verdun theitrenches run. 
But it is a name which has figured greatly in former 
military history, wherefore for these and other political 
reasons the enemy does all in his power to create the im- 
pression that Verdun is the breastplate of France. It 
is nothing of the kind. So far as the future of the war is 
concerned, it is of no consequence whether the common 
foe or our brave Ally holds this small town. 
It is part of the public duty of one and all of us — and 
no small and unimportant part — to keep a clear view 
of events, to behold them in their right perspective, and 
to arrive at a just comprehension of each separate fraction 
of the immense campaigns in its relation to the whole. 
This is a more difficult rdle to play than appears at first 
sight, especially in this country, where the old fires of 
partisan hatred and distrust still smoke and smoulder, 
and continually threaten to burst. into flame. Though 
things move at the moment very favourably for the 
Allied cause, it is inevitable that there will be temporary 
reverses, perhaps at unexpected moments, for which we 
must be prepared. No psychological phenomenon has 
been more notable in the recent past than the perpetual 
recurrence of elation and depression in the public mind. 
As often as not there is as little real justification for the 
one as for the other. This state of feeling seems almost 
to be bred in the air. It acts and reacts through all 
the channels of publicity. The Press echoes rather than 
creates it, though it has been most manifest in those 
organs of opinion which pride themselves on their popular 
receptivity. It denotes a certain instability of character, 
which might de\-elop into a serious national defect, were 
the public mind to yield too easily to these gusts of 
rriental excitement and despondency. The best antidote 
is the cheerful and resolute spirit of the Navy tind the 
Army. Detached from political influences, freed from 
public jealousies, confronting daily the stern realities 
of battle, our sailors and soldiers stand on a higher 
plane than their fellow countrymen ; they are in truth 
not only the bulwarks of the ship of State, but also its 
steadying ballast. 
This week we enter the last month of the second 
year of the war ; if we take a wide \iew, and regard 
the past three and twenty months as a whole, it must ' 
be admitted that achievement far outweighs default. 
Should we have been nearer the ultimate goal had the 
rulers of the country lent an open ear to the advice of 
all their critics ? We doubt it. A Government is a 
human institution and of the same nature as the in- 
dividual. There lives not a man of such perfection or 
excellence that in him there is no cause for blame. If ' 
his merits be not at fault, then it will be his birth or his 
breeding ; though he lacks \'ices, his features or manners 
will be open to attack. And so it has been with the 
Government ; now it was censured for action, now for 
inaction ; if it ignored the neutral it was wrong ; if it 
studied the neutral it was not right. Men and adminis- 
trations always have enemies, and not only enemies, but 
friends who delight in seeing them " taken down a peg 
or two," as the phrase runs. So a system of perpetual 
attack, unjust and acrid 'though it may be, ever secures a 
certain measure of approval. 
The right perspective is th6 first essential for honest 
and useful criticism, and at no time has honest criticism 
been more needed. Values change ; old conventions 
disappear ; new ones spring up ; the whole fabric of life, 
individual, social and national, deforms and reforms itself 
before our eyes. From the furnace of war the metal 
flows, and it is for us to mould it into permanent shape. 
Never has there been a period in the long history of our 
race when idleness, either in thought or action, were a 
deadlier sin. Also is there great occasion for sympathy. 
We must endea\'our to arrive at a reasonable understand- 
ing of the trials and difficulties of those on whom we are 
prone to sit in judgment. Victory is our fixed resolution ; 
it will be attained the quicker if we keep a stout heart 
and a level head through the trying weeks that lie ahead. 
The victory for which we fight must be decisive and 
complete, the beginning of a new and more beneficent era. 
