July 13, 1916 
L A N D .^- ^^■ A T E R 
LAND & WATER 
EMPIRE HOUSE, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C 
Telephone: HOLBORN 2828 
THURSDAY, JULY 13. 1916 
CONTENTS 
PAG2 
The Axe Laid unto' the Tree. By Louis Raemakers. r 
Germs of Settlement. (Leading Article.) j 
Nature of the General Offensive. By Hilaire Bell6c 4 
The Jutland Despatches. By Arthur'Pollen lo 
The Kaiser as a Diplomatist. By Sir W. M. Ramsay 15 
Verdun Poem. By Emile Cammaerts 16 
Fear. By Patrick MacGiil 17 
Greenmantle. By John Buchan ig 
Union Jack Club Fund. (Subscription List) 21 
The West End 22 
Town and Country 24 
Choosing Kit xiii. 
CxERMS OF SETTLEMENT 
THE essence of the Prime Minister's speech in the 
House of Commons on Monday lies in the last 
sentence : 'I venture to make one more appeal 
to the House and to the country to take advan- 
tage of an opportunity which may never recur to provide, ' 
at any rate, the germs of a real and lasting settlement of 
this great question." We leave the House to speak for 
itself, but so far as the country is concerned, . the hope 
underlying these words undoubtedly represents the 
spirit in which it will consider the Government of Ireland 
Bill which is shortly to be presented. The great majority 
of the inhabitants of these islands are endeavouring very , 
sincerely to wash clean their minds from ancient pre- . 
indices and old fears, and in these heroic days are ready 
to apply heroic treatment to the remedy of grievances 
and the cure of evils which have hitherto defied the 
cautious measures of compromise. The Home Rule Act 
is oh the Statute Book, and if before the war ends the 
germs of the settlement contained in that Act give signs 
of healthy life, it will be well. Risks must be taken, but 
they are worth taking, especially at a tiftie like the present, 
when men's minds are attuned to self-sacrifice. H, on 
the other hand, these germs die or spring into poisonous 
growth, we shall know where we stand in regard to 
Ireland when the whole question of the constitution of 
Imperial Parliament comes up for revision. 
One by one the perennial controversies of the past 
are being closed by the events of the present. We can 
but hope that Home Rule may follow on the heels of 
Conscription , and that the disputations which have hitherto 
surrounded it will have as little reality in the future as 
those on national service have to-day. It depends upon 
Ireland. Prophets of , evil recently have been so often 
discredited that w^e see no reason to repose special 
confidence in them on this occasion. 
On one minor point it must be admitted that these 
prophets have recently been justified. When the war 
began numerous funds were started by all kinds of 
people. Many of the appeals were conducted with 
ability and '~n right business principles, but it was fore- 
seen that new ground for gross abuse of public charity 
was opened. After some pressure the Home Office 
in the spring of the year appointed a Committee to 
inquire into the subject, and the report, just issued, fully 
bears out the fears then expressed. Reference is made 
to one fund which has £42,000 unaccounted for, and to 
another with £20,000, that it is holding until "after the 
war." A gentleman whose hobby appears to be bank- 
ruptcy, had the ingenious plan of living rent free by 
converting his dwelling-hbuSe; the rent of wliich was 
behindhand, into ^ Soldiers' Home of Rest. These in- 
stances-are, , we fear, only typical. No names are given 
in the report, but as obtaining money under false pre- 
tence is still a criminal oftence, we assume the police 
have the cases in hand. The Hontc Secretary now pro- 
poses to introduce a Bill rendering illegal an appeal to 
the public for any war- charity unless the body making 
the appeal is registered. The Act we trust will cover all 
charities at all times and will also put a stop once and for 
ever to street collections, with their numerous opportuni- 
ties for fraud and temptations to swindling. It is a 
wonder that the Home Ofiice has allowed these Flag' 
Days to continue for so long. 
To turn to a larger subject. The .A.rchbishops ot Canter- 
bury and York early in 1914 appointed a Committee 
" to inquire what changes are advisable in order to secure 
in the relations of Church and State a fuller expre.ssion 
of the spiritual independence of the Church as well as of 
the national recognition of religion." This report has 
just been issued ; it has been compiled for the most part 
during a period when the Church has been subjected to 
extremely .sharp criticism, and by no class more than by 
its own members and servants. Those v\ho are responsible 
for this report doubtless hope that it also contains the 
germs of a real and lasting settlement. So far as the 
national recognition of religion is concerned, probably at 
no period lias this be'en more widely conceded. It is 
manifest in, the spirit and conduct of our gallant sailors 
and soldiers ; . it is reflected in hundreds and thousands 
of private letters and diaries ; it is echoed in almost every 
poem of the war. The present recognition of religion 
inevitably calls to the mind the miracle of Gennesaret, 
The barque of Christianity labours in the midst of the 
sea, tossed with waves, the winds contrary and boisterous. 
And in the gloom of the night, above^the raging waters, 
just where human eyes would least expect the vision, 
" see, tlie Christ stands.": 
. We have ceased to hear that at one time hotly 
discussed question whether ministers of religion 
ought or ought . not to be combatants. It turned 
largely on whether or not one accepted Ruskin's definition 
that " the soldisrs' trade is verily and essentially not 
slaying but being slain." But the great battles by sea 
and land have revealed that the chaplain has no fear of 
being slain in the execution of his duty ; that he is as 
willing to give his life for his countr}' and his country- 
man as the fighting man. And that discussion, based as 
it often was on the unjust assumption that a minister of 
religion must have something effeminate in his nature is, 
We trust, now closed for ever. 
England has never lacked heroic souls. They are 
confined to no class of life. , Now it is a private of The 
Buffs, again a fisher girl, to-day a " first-class boy." 
John Travers Cornwall, of H.M.S. Chester, aged 16, is 
enrolled among earth's few Immortals ; his name will 
endure when the battle of Jutland is as old as the sea 
fight of Salamis is at this hour. Mortally wounded, he stood 
alone, at a most exposed spot, with the dead and dying 
around him, awaiting orders. This high Example 
has been set by him to us all ; it touches civil life as 
nearly as the strain and stress of battle. In the soul 
of this boy we would see reflected the soul of the Empire 
— a soul calm and courageous that defies pain, faces 
death fearlessly and remains quietly at the post of duty 
awaiting orders. There is a strong temptation in civil 
life, at times like these, to imagine each could do his 
duty so much better in some qjher state ^of life than 
that to which it has pleased God to call him. Jack 
Cornwall's example rebukes this form of cowardice. 
Each and all have to stick to tlieir post, strong though 
the temptation may be to leave it, and to carry out their 
duties quietly, whatever may be the environment. In 
this spirit we shall conquer, no jnatter what eventuaU- 
ties may still lie ahead of us. 
