12 
LAND & WATER 
September 21, 1916 
thirteen Conspicuous Gallantry Medals, and a very con- 
siderable number of D.S.M.'s and coninundations. The 
orticers' honours list is supplemented by two others, one 
of ofticers commended, which is a long one— one hundred 
and sixty-four —and another of those put forward for 
immediate or early promotion. The promotion list was 
published many weeks ago. 
One or two comments seem t<i be in place. First, 
this honours' list must not be looked upon as a simple 
reflection of the authorities' appraisement of the merits 
of those actually engaged in lighting on the ,51st May 
and on the following night, The occasion of distribut- 
ing honours ha,s been largely used — and no doubt (piite 
rightly— for the recognition of services rendered in the 
Jong period of vigilant jireparation that preceded the 
action. That this is so appears very clearly from the 
te.xt of the despatch. For example. Sir John Jellicoe 
in reconmiending a list of h'lag Officers for honours, says 
of Rear Admirals >iapier and Goodenough and Commo- 
dore Alexander Sinclair, that they would have been 
recommended for an honour for their actions on the jist 
May, had they not so recently recei\ed the C.B. It is 
quite clear then that in each case the merits of every 
oflicer's whole term of service during the war have been 
• onsidered, and that in some instances the battle is more 
the occasion than the direct cause of a decoration ])eing 
bestowed. Secondly, and bearing the preceding princi])le 
in mind, it is to be remembered that this is not the 
filial appraisement of ser\ice. There may be either 
another great fleet action, or failing that, more than 
one partial action, before the Central Empires are forced 
to unconditional surrender. Reputations are, then, 
still in the making, and it is not till the story of the war 
is closed that final adjustments can be made. It is 
l)robably these two considerations that have limited 
the admissions to and promotions in the two orders of 
knighthood to forty-three, the total honours to officers to 
less than one hundred; and have led to many, whose 
gallantry and achievements in conditions of the greatest 
danger are notorious, being left with no further reward 
than commendation. Not everyone who deserved dis- 
tinction and mention could receive it ; and if there are 
many disappointnHiits, as there muSt be, the best con- 
solation is. after all, tiiat there are so many. If courage 
in facing death is a title to an honour, which of the 
destroyer or light cruiser officers can be excluded ? AH 
that can be done is to reward representati\es. And 
this has been done. 
In one way it is the representative character of the list 
that is its cliief interest. Thus from amongst the very 
youngest of all those engaged, we find the heroCornwell 
ennobled to the end of time by the highest honour a 
lighting man can win, and at the other end of the scale 
a chaplain wins the Distinguished Service Cross, he being 
by some months the oldest man in either of the 
Fleets, save the Commander-in-Chief and a couple of 
Senior Vice-Admirals. The gap of forty years between 
them is covered by medals, commendations, promo- 
tions, Companion.ships and Knighthoods to members 
of every rating, and officers, of every rank. Admirals, 
Captains, Commanders and Lieutenants, either as 
Officers in Command or in charge of the most 
responsible activities of the ship, (piite naturally win 
distinctions and rewards, but it is interesting to note 
that engineer officers, a carpenter, a flight lieutenant, 
nine surgeons, three officers of marines, paymasters, 
assistant paymasters, all receive decorations. 'And the 
officers commended include in addition to these ratings 
and ranks, chaplains, sub-lieutenants, midshipmen, chief 
gunners, gunners and gun artificers. Akthuk Poij.kn 
Another Verdun Theory 
By Colonel Feyler 
VARIOCS reasons have been giv^n for the (ier- 
man assumption of the offensive before Verdun. 
One theory which, although not the cmly sugges- 
tion made, must have had gieat weight with 
the German Staff when this offensive was decided upon, 
has been expounded by a French Officer, Lieut. Louis 
Madelin (not unknown as an historian), in a recent pamph- 
let entitled " L'Avcu-La Bataillc dc \'erdun d I' opinion 
allemande." His contention is that Germany's interior 
conditions forced her to make this offensive and that 
the battle of Verdun was less an act of strategy than a 
manoeuvre of home politics, an attempt to obviate the 
growing dissatisfaction of a people tired of suffering and 
. ready to leave its leaders in the lurch. 
The author of this brochure gleans his evidence ex- 
clusi\(ly from German documents— letters taken from 
prisoners, letters of soldiers and officers at and behind 
the front, and letters from parents and friends addressed 
to soldiers at the front. He is at pains to explain that the 
examples given in his work are quite a small proportion 
of those actually available, and that in order to obtain 
a correct view of the facts these examples must be multi- 
plied by thousands and tens of thousands. He further 
points out that they must logically be looked upon as 
only a very moderate expression of the sentiments of 
their authors to whom general circumstances, and particu- 
larly the German censorship, deny full liberty of expres- 
sion, notwithstanding the letters are very "often quite 
outspoken and would lead one to believe that the censor- 
ship is not as strict as i,t might be, or perhaps that in- 
dividual employees of the censor are personally not 
hostile to the diffusion of such opinions. 
The first series of documents concern the weeks pre- 
ceding the battle, and they are published in order to 
establish a state of affairs in the interior of the Empire 
which led to the neces. ity of the Great Offensive, thus 
justifjing the proclamation issued on February the 14th 
by the Crown Prince to his troops, starting in the follow- 
ing manner : " Ich, Wilhelm, sche das dcuische Vatoiand 
gezwum'^en zur offensive tiberzugchcn." (Literally "I 
William, see the German Fatherland forced to proceed to 
the offensive). 
Already at Christmas a spirit of doubt and even of dis- 
content seems to have been more widespread m Ger- 
many than the papers would have us believe. Note 
for instance a letter addressed by a father at Leipzig to 
his son expressing the opinion : " As far as we can 
judge things are always getting worse for us,' and we can 
d() nothing but star\e, and wait until it may please the 
criminals to make peace." Similar complaints come from' 
all parts. At Oberschoenwcide for instance a policeman, 
who attempted to make a calming ancl patriotic speech 
in the presence of a crowd which was pillaging shops, 
was so badly beaten that he had to be removed on a 
stretcher ; at Charlottenburg women started smashing 
windows, crying that they wanted food and their hus- 
bands ; at Gecstemunde a butter merchant had his shop 
front smashed up by rioters ;. at Hambing where " busi- 
ness is getting more and more difficult. At an age when 
one's strength begins to give out, it is worse than death 
to lose all that one has spent a life of hard work in order 
to build up." 
So much for the civilians. Soldiers, however, are not 
all heroes, for suffering and doubt are sometimes harder 
to bear than the, fire of the enemy. " Food is getting 
worse and worse, fit to sicken one," writes a soldier 
from a garrison in the interior to a friend at Koenigsberg. 
A young woman of \\'eilburg in Prussia writes 'to her 
husband : " Surely you have not arrived at the point of 
contemplating suicide. . . It is true that the treat- 
ment you receive is cruel and brutal and unworthy of a 
man. Let your officers do what they like, however 
scandalous it may be, since you cannot change their 
conduct." Later in the same letter : " I hear from eye 
witnesses that (ierman officers have committed pillage 
in Poland like ordinary thieves . . . When you are 
in the trenches, I implore you, dear Willy, not to expose 
3'ourself uselessly ; try and kill from a safe place just like 
the others do." 
^^ A letter from Cologne dated December 29th, 1915 : 
\ ou tell me not to believe what the papers write. Do 
you think we imagine there is much enthusiasm at the 
front ? A year ago we might have thought so, but now 
. . ." The enthusiasm at the front certainly had 
dimmished if we judge by a letter written on Januarv 4th 
bv a soldier in the Argonne ■ "J passed the Christmas 
