10 
LAiNU .S: WATER 
OctubLl JO, Hjlij 
allowed to share the information. And, as a result, 
it is impossible to present any clear picture of the strategic 
position in the North Sea, or to indicate how, if at all, the 
Battle of Jutland has affected it. Now we have retaliated 
for the loss of Nottiiii>ha)ii and Falmouth by sending a 
torpedo into Mutnheu, but we do not claim to have 
sunk her. But this throws no light on the strategic 
situation. 
Now take the other field of naval war— namely, the 
submarine campaign against the trading ships of all 
nations. This has been veiled in almost as great a 
mystery as conceals the mo\ements and dispositions of 
IJie opposed fleets. Some information, it is true, is 
published about the losses of ships as they occur, but 
not all details about all losses, and without such details 
no attempt can be made either to total them, to analyse 
the progress of destruction according to the theatre in 
which it takes place, to elucidate the main characteristics 
of the campaign, to indicate how far our enemies are 
complying with tiie \ery detinite imdertaking that they 
gave to the United Slates of America, or to forecast the 
future. 
Far be it from me to dispute the wisdom of fogging 
every aspect of the sea war. so far as it can be fogged, if 
by doing so we can confound the knavish tricks of the 
enemy. But it is impossible at the same time to keep 
public opinion, in this and neutral countries, rightly 
informed and, as it seems to me, properly balanced. If 
the broad facts are not known, the meaning and conse- 
quences cannot be known, nor right expectations as to 
the future formed. How easily contradictory inferences 
can now be drawn is illustrated by the following. On 
October 14th the very brilliant writer who, Sunday by 
Sunday, sums up the world position for us in the 
Osberver, told us that our na\al methods had been so 
successful in home waters that the enemy submarines 
were no longer a grave menace to our trade, and that, 
thanks to the untiring work of our Allies, they had ceased 
to be formidable even in the Mediterranean. But on 
the Friday following, the Times began a leading article 
on the return of the Duke of Connaught by saying that 
it was a matter of universal satisfaction that he had 
crossed the sea safely. And on Tuesday of this week, 
we were told that the pre\-ious day had made a fresh 
record at Lloyd's — no less than twenty-five casualties by 
mines and submarines having been announced. This last 
item of news makes it clear enough that the submarines 
are distressingly busy. But surely it is unthinkable that 
a point has been reached when the safe arrival of any 
named ship cannot be guaranteed ? 
Could not some way be found by which the public 
could be kept abreast of the truth in a matter of such 
tremendous importance as this without any details being 
given away that would make the enemy's task easier ? 
If the facts now available indicate that the efiiciencyof 
the submarine campaign is likely to be increased, surely 
nothing is lost but everything gained by preparing the 
public for news which, however disagreeable, can hardly 
be disastrous ? And if the increased efficiency of the 
submarine campaign is due to a deterioration in the 
humanity of the enemy's methods, is it not all gain and 
not loss to the Allies that opinion in neutral countries 
should be stirred to resent these methods by the utmost 
publicity being given to the enemy's outrages ? These, 
of course, are matters which only those in the chief 
command can judge ; and it is easier for the onlooker to 
see the disadvantages than advantages of our present 
methods. 
The writer in the Observer, whom I have already 
quoted, affords us, in last Sunday's issue, an illustration 
of the frame of mind which may ensue from our general 
ignorance of the strategic position in the North Sea. 
For he asked with evident anxiety whether the War 
Committee knew all that could be known of German plans 
of invasion in present conditions. " Do they know the 
exact situation of the (ierman Navy? What fresh 
machinations are being planned with submarines and 
inines ? Are there not always enough merchant ships 
laid up in (ierman ports to carry a tierman army ? Is 
the co-operation of our Navy and of our home defence 
land forces assured ? " and much to the same effect. 
Now here again I cannot but think that if Mr. Balfour 
could continue in the career of candour which he began 
in the month of May, there could be not only no alarm 
Imt no enquiries as to the possibility of Gemiany in- 
\ ading these islands. Is there no way in which the broad 
simple facts of the case can be kept before us ? At 
[n csent it looks as if the public were being invited to form 
\ lews as to the danger from submarines th^t are alter- 
nately far too optimistic and unnecessarily alarming, and 
as to the danger of in\ asion that are altogether baseless. 
Arthuk Pollen. 
The Real Serbia 
THOSE who would understand the Serbian atti- 
tude toward the war would do well to take up 
.-1 Balkan Freebooter, by Jan Gordon (Smith Elder 
and Co., 7s. 6d.). and read the whole of the book 
( arefully. For, though the writer deals with events of the 
days oi the Obrenovitch rule in Serbia for the most 
part, and though his story ends before the breaking of the 
1-uropean war, he shows quite clearly, in this story of 
Petko Moritch, how Austria and .Austrian intrigue made 
hell in Serbia, how Turkish rule made worse hell in 
^Macedonia, and how the Serb is indomitable, a cunning 
lighter and a gallant man. 
Petko told this story to the author, the story of his own 
lite. It includes certain escapes from prison, certain 
athentures which prove the man's great bravery and his 
]iossession of a strong sense of humour, certain soldierly 
t'pisodes in the time when Petko was comitadj, and at 
the end an appalling story of Turkish brutality, into which 
tomes an incongruous picture of Turkish chivalry and 
real kindness. It is, as all stories of real happenings must 
he, a little inconsequent — so many of Petko's adventures 
had to nothing, and were one writing romance they would 
bf left out ; as it is, they add to the atmosphere of reality 
that envelops the tale. " 
In the days of Petko's childhood, " songs and tales 
dealt with the exploits of the heroes of Serbian romance, 
the defeat at Kossovo, of the exploits of Marko Kralic- 
\itch, or of the deeds of brigands and robbers and of such 
men as Kara George and Voivoda Velko, his chief general, 
and Stephen Singelitch. The subject matter was either 
bloodshed, or ingenious robberies, or other dare-devil 
exploits, and upon such strong meat the infant morals were 
fed, producing naturally a point of view somewhat 
estranged from our own." 
It is the presentation of that point of view in the 
l)erson of Petko Moritch that makes the book so note- 
worthy. One knows the whole of the Balkans better for 
perusal of it, for it throws new light on Balkan intrigue, 
and shows up racial antagonisms and hereditary 
animosities which have always been hard for the Western 
mind to understand. Serbian virtues are not Western 
Mrtues ; Serbian ideals are not western ideals — these facts 
ery out from every page, and yet the author has got so far 
into the Serbian mind that he makes clear the fact that 
the Serb is a man equal to any Western product, one who 
lives a little nearer to nature, and is in reality quite 
>imple : only by reason of the different mode of thought 
jirevailing in the West does he appear complex. The 
student of racial problems will find much here that is of 
\alue, for not only Petko himself, but also the people with 
\vhom his adventures brought him in contact, are clearly 
limned, and the book is a picture of Serb, Bulgar, Rou- 
manian, Turk, and Montenegrin character. 
Yet, in considering these serious aspects of the work, 
Mght must not be lost of its interest as a story of adven- 
ture. Stevenson himself never told a more exciting tale, 
l(n- Petko was one to whom adventures came naturally— 
or It may have been that the country in which he Hved 
was so disturbed that what civihsation counts as adven- 
ture was conimonplace. However this may be, here is 
matter in which a schoolboy will revel and a grown man 
stay out of bed to find out what happened next. Brigands 
are commonplace in the story, and of fighting there is 
as much as men could compass, while Petko's escapes and 
exploits form a network in which the reader is inevitably 
caught and held. With no pretence of fine writing, but 
smiply, as befits the life history of a simple and courageous 
man, the author recites the main events of Petko's career, 
and the result is such that it is to be hoped he will fulfil 
certain half-promises made in the course of tliis book, 
and give us more stories of the real Serbia and her sons 
and daughters. 
