12 
LAND & WATER 
August 3, 1916- 
employment and consequent foodT shelter and comfort to 
all — even at high prices — than to risk industrial stagna- 
tion ! Let me say at once, that our most progressive 
bankers are opposed to this wanton destruction. The 
movement is confined to a very small, although a very 
intfuential dicjue. But the leaders of our great Joint 
Stock Ranks, the majority of those who are conversant 
with the commercial needs of the nation, desire to pre- 
serve these notes. What they wish to see, however, is 
an absolutely solid gold backing to the entire Treasury 
issue. They realise that £100,000.000 or £120,000,000 
of ten shillings and one pound notes are essential for the 
country's needs but they are anxious that the Govern- 
ment should create a Treasury reserve equal in amount 
to the face value of the notes issued. 
Now, experience has demonstrated beyond any ques- . 
tion, that for the purpose of our Home trade. Treasury 
notes, whether backed by gold or not, are readily accep- 
ted, and they facihtate trade quite as well as sovereigns 
and half sovereigns, and with far less cost to the nation. 
But our commercial dOalings with foreign countries are 
necessarily based upon gold — the international com- 
modity for settling trade balances. And at present we 
are entirely dependent for our gold supplies upon a 
private trading Company, viz., the Bank of England, 
whose interests are not "always in harmony with those 
of the trading commun-ty. The Great War has shown 
the importance of maintaining a War Chest. 
By securing a Treasury gold reserve of £100,000,000 
or more, as a basis for the notes, the Government would 
be able to satisfy all parties, except the contractionists 
whose interests are opposed to those of the nation. 
Those who are superstitious enough to believe gold of 
more value than the national credit based upon the pro- 
ductive energies and capacities of the British nation, 
would have their present fears allayed. Those who 
recognise the enormous help to trade which these notes 
have b3en, will admit that they lose nothing by the 
addition of so much gold. Bui ah)ve all, the use of the 
national credit as legal tcndir, takes the nation's industries to 
a larg: extent out of control of the manipulators of specie, 
whose policy has hzen a b/akc upon the ivheels of industry 
for the past century. In establishing such a national 
gold reserve, safeguards should be provided to prevent 
effectually cosmopoUtan hnanciers from manipulating 
these reserves for their own interests. 
The truth is that for our home trade, gold is entirely unneces- 
sary. It is only abroad, where our legal tender laws have 
no effect, that Treasury notes would fail to circulate, 
and hence gold becomes a necessity. But it is precisely 
the fact that our legal tender notes would not circulate 
abroad, that makes them far preferable for our national 
currency than gold. 1 Our manufacturing and commercial 
interests demand a currency that can b: relied upon, which 
will stay at home and not travel ab/oad and can b: obtained 
ivhen it is needed. They demand a uniform bank rate 
and not one that is continually oscillating like a pump 
handle. Under the Bank Charter Act our bank rate has 
been the most variable of any in the world. And this 
variability is the f ice we have had to pay for using as 
legal tender a metal that our laws have deliberately 
made so enticing to foreigners as to impel them to ship 
it abroad and restrict our banking facilities. 
Our Treasury notes tend to reduce these evils consider- 
ably. Moreover they tend to broaden the basis upon 
which our bank credit is issued, and permit our bankers 
to increase their facilities with far less risk than hereto- 
fore. There is therefore every reason in favour of con- 
tinuing these notes after the war, and not a single valid 
excuse for destroying them. 
One of the most moving stories of the war on the eastern 
front is that of Mr. R. Scotland Liddell, On T/w Russian 
Front. (Simpkin. Marshall and Co. 8s. 6d. net). " It is 
a story," says the author, " tliat can only be written in tears, 
rainbowed as it is by a thousand instances of heroism. " 
In this spirit the author approaches his task, and the result 
is a living story of the Russian army, its heroism, its tragedies, 
and sometimes its comedies. One may gather insight to 
Russian character from these pages, and from the little 
stories that the book contains may come to understand the 
Russian officer and his men, together with the reasons for the 
failure of (Germany's great effort throughout the summer and 
autumn of 1915. Written with real inspiration, this is in- 
evitably one of the books on the war that will count. 
Berceuse de Guerre 
By E.\nLE Cammaerts. 
^Chant^ :) Dodo, l' enfant do, 
L'enfant dormira tantot. 
Le feu s'eteint, le vent gcmit. 
La pluie cingle la fenetre . . . 
Vente-t-il, pleut-i! la-bas aussi ? 
Grele-t-il, tonne-t-il pent etre ? 
Dodo, l'enfant do . . . 
Est-il bien ? 
A-t-il chaud ? 
Ne manque-t-il de rien ? 
A-t-il ce qu' il lui faut ? 
Ses gants, son gilet, ses allumettes, 
Et, dans sa poche, contre son cceur, 
Ma derniere lettre 
Et sa ferveur ? 
L' enfant dormira tantot . . , 
La lampe baisse, le feu seteint. 
II va falloir se mettre au lit. 
L'enfant ferme se petits poings. . . 
Mon grand enfant dort-il aussi ? 
Dort-il paisiblemcnt, avant la bataille ? 
Court-il, comnie un fou. 
Sous la mitraille ? 
On bien git-il dans quelciue trou. 
La bouche ouverte et les yeux clos ? 
Dodo, l'enfant do. . . . 
L'enfant gemit, le vent goufle les rideaux, 
La meche charbonne. 
L'enfant se tourne dans son berceau, 
La pluife se tait, la nuit frissonne. 
II fait triste a faire peur. . . , 
L'enfant dormira tantot. . . . 
De la fureur des Boches delivrez-nous. Seigneur ! 
[.\ll Ri^iHTS Reserved] 
In ^ongs of Wind and Wave (William Blackwood and Sons), 
Mr. Arthur Salmon has collected together those charming 
poems of his with which so many readers are familiar in the 
pages of the newspaper press. Mr. Salmon has the true poetic 
gift ; liis verses are ever musical and haunting ; although he 
may not plumb the remoter depths of human emotion, he is 
singularly perceptive to the appeal of Nature. His com- 
mand of metre is considerable, and he has a curious love for 
Alcaics, which recall the old class-room and that friend (or 
enemy) of boyhood, Horace. One could not give a better 
illustration of his delightful volume than in these three verses ; 
Ghosts of a myriad Springtimes rise and beckon ; 
Impulse and instinct urging me to wander 
Far to tlie nameless and the chartless, seeking 
New worlds to conquer. 
Not a new world of treasure-land material ; 
Thirsting am I for voice and revelation — 
Secrets of earth and mysteries of the woodlands, 
Tales of old ocean. 
Souls of the dead, is this the heirloom left me ? 
Stirrings and restlessness, insatiate hunger, 
Impulse that goads me to the far horizon's 
Limitless secret ? 
Crusading at Gallipoli, A.D., 1915, by Signaller Ellis Silas 
is a book of sketches which serve to show the hfe of th'e 
Anzacs on the Peninsula. Forewords by General Sir Jar 
Hamilton and by Sir William Birdwood characterise the 
sketches as " an excellent record," and " doing justice to the 
gaiety and good humour which never deserted any of our 
troops in the trenches," statements which we heartily endorse 
after inspection of the book, which is published at the price 
of 2s. 6d. at the offices of the British Australasian, 115, High 
Holborn. The sketches, as Signaller Silas claims, picture 
war as the soldier sees it, shorn of pomp ; they bring home 
vividly the actual life of the heroes of Gallipoli. 
