October 19, 1916 
LAND & WATEP 
II 
equipped in this respect, they did not wait to seize their 
opportunity. 7"heir gunfire was absolutely ineffective 
against the Grand Fleet. It is indeed obvious that the 
moment they rcahsed that the Grand Fleet was present, 
they had but one object — flight. It was made possible 
by an ingenious accentuation of the prevailing low 
visibility, by the creation of smoke screens and by the 
delivery under the cover of those screens and the mist, of 
massed torpedo attacks. Then as the pursuing squadrons 
were driven off their course, they seized the opportunity 
and fled in a direction at right angles to the British line, 
the diversion of the British Fleet thus giving them a 
new start in the race for safety. The increasing dark- 
ness added to its value. A second massed torpedo attack 
lengthened the interval still further, and the coincidence 
of this with the fall of darkness terminated the gunnery 
battle of the day. It was not one that the Germans 
wished to renew next morning, though the opportunity of 
doing so was theirs. 
Let us note that 'when the enemy came out to fight, 
it was in the hope of ultimately evading a decisive issue, 
and let us also note that on^ the evening of May 31st 
and the morning of June 1st, it was by his own action that 
he made it impossible for himself to lift the burden of 
blockade off his frontiers. Are we to suppose that he has 
postponed the fighting out of this issue to another day ? 
That it was not fought out at Jutland must be an abid- 
ing disappointment to the British Fleet. But it is not 
one that need make us impatient or uncertain as to the 
future. We know the mettle of our men and the capacity 
of our guns. We have no contempt, but indeed a great 
respect for the skill and courage of our enemies. But 
Jutland has given us their measure. And if on Trafalgar 
Day, 1916, we have not a Trafalgar of our own to cele- 
brate, at least we know this, that it was only the hazard 
of the weather that robbed us of it at Jutland, and that 
the enemy has no hopes of a Trafalgar for himself. 
Arthur Pollen. 
The White Road to Verdun-III 
By Kathleen Burke 
|T/;c following is a continuation of Miss Kathleen 
Burke's story of her visit to Verdun. Previous articles 
from her pen on the same subject appeared in Land & 
Water of October ^th, and 12th. \ 
August, igi6. 
WE lunched with General Petain and his Etat 
Major. A charming and most interesting 
addition to the party was M. Forain, the 
famous French caricaturist, and now one 
of the Chief Instructors of the French Army in the 
art of camouflage — the art of making a thing look like 
anything in the world except what it is !■ He has estab- 
lished a .series of schools all along the French front where 
the Poilus learn to bedeck their guns and thoroughly 
disguise them under delicate shades of green and yellow, 
with odd pink spots in order to reiieve the monotony. 
Certainly the appearance of the guns of the present 
time would rejoice the heart and soul of the " Futurists." 
It was most interesting to hear him describe the work in 
detail and the rapidity with which his pupils learned the 
new art. For one real battery there are probably three 
or four false ones, beautiful wooden g:ims, etc., etc., and 
he told us of the Poilus' new version of the song, " Rien 
nest plus beau que notre patrie." 'They now sing " Rien 
n'est plus faux que notre batterie." 
It was M. Forain who coined the famous phrase " that 
there was no fear for the ultimate success of the Allies, 
if only the civilians held but ! " I was much amused 
at M. Forain's statement that he had already heard that 
a company had been formed for erecting, after the war, 
wooden hotels on the battlefields of France for the 
accommodation of sightseers. Not only was it certain 
that these hotels were to be built, but the rooms were 
already booked in advance. 
It was strange to find there, within the sound of the 
guns— sometimes the glasses on the table danced to the 
nuisic, although no one took any notice of that— sur- 
rounded by men directing the operations of the war and 
of one of the greatest battles in history, how little war was 
mentioned. Science, philosophy and the work of women 
were discussed. 
The men of France are taking deep interest in the 
splendid manner in which the women of all the dift'erent 
nations are responding to the call to service. I described 
to General Petain the work of the Scottish Women's 
Hospitals. These magnificent hospitals are organised 
and staffed entirely by women and started, in the first 
mstance, by the Scottish Branch National Union of 
Women's Suffrage. He was deeply interested to learn 
that what had been before the war a political- society, 
had, with that splendid spirit of patriotism which had 
from the first day of the war animated every man, woman 
and child of Great Britain, drawn upon its funds and 
founded the hospital units. I explained to him that it 
was no longer a questioji of politics but simply a case 
of serving humanity and serving it to tlie best possible 
advantage. The National Union had realised that this 
was a time for organised effort on the part of all women 
for the benefit of the human race and the alleviation of 
suffering. 
I spoke of the bravery of our girls in Serbia ; how 
many of them had laid down their lives during the typhus 
epidemic ; how cheerfully they had borne hardships, 
our doctors writing home that their tent hospitals 'were 
like " great white birds spreading their wings imder the 
trees," whereas really they had often been up all night 
hanging on to the tent poles to prevent the tents collapsing 
over their patients. 
A member of the Etat Major asked how we overcame 
the language difficulty. I pointed out that to diagnose 
typhus and watch the progress of the patient it was not 
necessary to speak to him, and that by the magic language 
of sympathy we managed to establish some form of 
" understanding " between the patients, the doctors 
and the nurses. 
The members of our staff were chosen as far as possible 
with a knowlege of French or German, and it was possible 
to find many Serbians speaking either one of these 
languages. We also found interpreters amongst the 
Austrian prisoner orderlies. These prisoner orderlies 
had really proved useful and had done their best to help 
us. Naturally they had their faults. One of our lady 
doctors had as orderly a Viennese Professor, willing, but 
somewhat absent-minded. One morning she sent for 
him and asked him : " Herr Karl, can you tell me what 
was wrong with my bath water . this morning." " I 
really don't know, Fraulein, but 1 will endeavour to 
find out." 
Ten minutes later he returned, looking decidedly 
guilty and stammered out : " I do not know how to tell 
you what happened to that bath water." " Nonsense, 
it can't be very terrible," replied Doctor X, "what 
was wrong ? " " Well, Fraulein, when I went into the 
camp kitchen this morning there were two cauldnnis 
there, one was your bath water, and the other was the 
camp soup ; to you, Fraulein, I brought the camp 
soup." 
We who had worked with the Serbians had learned to 
respect and admire them for their patriotism, courage 
and patient endurance. We felt that their outstanding 
characteristic was their imagination, which, turned into 
the proper channels and given a chance to develop, 
should produce for the world not only famous painters 
and poets, but also great inventors. This vivid imagina- 
tion is found in the highest and lowest of the land. To 
illustrate it, I told my neighbour at table a tale related 
to me by my good friend Dr. Popovie. " Two weary 
ragged Serbian soldiei-s were sitting huddled together 
waiting to be ordered forward to fight. One asked the 
other : ' Do you know how this war started, Milan ? 
You don't, well then I'll tell you. The Sultan of Turkey 
sent out King Peter a sack of rice. King Peter looked 
at the sack, smiled, then took a very small bag and went 
into his garden and filled it with red pep'(«(ir. He sent 
the bag of red pepper to the Sultan of Turkey. Now 
