November 9, 1916 ' 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN, LONDON, W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9. 1916 
CONTENTS 
PACK 
I 
3 
4 
Verdun : October, 1916. By Louis Raemackers 
Unwise Reticence. (Leader) 
l^oumania's Defence. By Hilaire Belloc 
The Chief Command. By Arthur Pollen 8 
Earth to Moon. (A Poem). By Eden Phillpotts lo 
Germany's Gift to Poland ii. 
Science and Agriculture. By Christopher Turnor JZ 
Neutral Sympathies. By Colonel I'Vyler 14 
The White Road to Verdun. By Kathleen Burke 15 
The Obstacle of London. By Hilaire Belloc 17 
Books to Read. By Lucian Oldershaw 18 
Greenmantle (Concluded). By John Buchan 20 
The West End ' 26 
Kit and Equipment xix 
UNWISE RETICENCE 
SINCE the war began the country has now and 
again witnessed with considerable surprise certain 
outbreaks of hysteria or emotional nervousness 
which previously had been thought to be alien 
to the British character. The origin in almost every 
instance has been due to bad news, exaggerated by 
rumour, but having a basis of fact more or less accurate. 
While deploring these outbi-eaks, we cannot help feeling 
that they might have been obviated, had only those in 
authority shown greater confidence in the people and 
realised that the spirit of the people at home is not a 
whit less dauntless than the spirit of our fighting men on " 
sea and land, and that we have entered the war, well 
knowing we must take hard blows as well as give them. 
No better illustration of this truth can be given than the 
recent Channel raid ; had only the facts been communi- 
cated in a more lucid and equivocal manner, the present 
outcry against the Admiralty, which has almost developed 
into a screech, would not have occurred, though the 
criticism against the apparent passiveness of our Naval 
forces would have remained. On this question of strategy 
our Naval writer, Mr. Arthur Pollen, has much to say 
to-day, which is entirely to the point. 
The position of the Admiralty is not an easy one in 
so far as the announcement of naval action is concerned. 
Of necessity the news which first reaches Whitehall is 
incomplete, and it is only when later reports are received, 
which for obvious reasons may not be for a considerable 
period of time, that it is possible to i.ssue a communication 
which is in all respects reliable and comprehensive. If 
no report is sent out until it be full and complete, it follows 
naturally that the German Admiralty, unrestrained by 
any decent consideration of truth or honesty, is able to 
flood Neutral countries with flamboyant falsehoods. 
But these falsehoods will not be checked by an incom- 
plete statement issued in Whitehall ; indeed, such a 
statement may quite possibly be regarded by Neutrals as 
more or less corroborative of Teuton lies. The British 
Admiralty would therefore act more wisely were they 
in the future, when issuing their first reports to make it 
perfectly plain that these were necessarily incomplete, 
and then content themselves with a simple denial of the 
German version, and afterwards keep silent until it were 
possible to make a communication which was both 
accurate, reliable and complete. No Neutral, to say 
nothhig of ourseKes or the Allies, doubt that the Britisli 
Admiralty is truthful, but they are perplexed by seemingly 
contradictory communications that are now put forth 
without sufficient explanation, and are inclined to wonder 
whether the Naval authorities may not for some reason 
or other be withholding bad news. 
The plain truth has to be stated that the country is 
growing more and more restive under the reticence 
which the Government displays in all branches of the 
administration. This restiveness is in part the outcome 
of the Cabinet's mistaken fear of publicity in the past. 
From the earliest days of the campaign, it has withheld 
information to which the nation was entitled, and which 
could have furnished no assistance to the enemy had it 
been made public. The blame for this is often cast upon 
the Censorship, but in our opinion the main fault lies in 
the old traditions of Government departments which 
take an almost childish delight in secrecy, and will only 
tell what is doing when it is extracted from them piece- 
meal by Parhamentary question and answer. This system 
is all very well in normal times, but it is not to the public 
advantage during a great national struggle. 
Sir Edward Carson spoke to the point on Tuesday 
evening in the House of Commons when the question 
of more publicity regarding our foreign policy was under 
discussion. He alluded to the " considerable discontent 
at the present moment " in the country regarding what 
appear to be failures of diplomacy, which might be allayed 
were more information forthcoming, but so far as the 
Iweign Ofiice was concerned he went on to saj', that 
" much as he would like to know many facts, never 
in the many years that he had been in the House had he 
been able to see in what manner such communication 
could be made to the country without doing far 
more harm than good. " There is no gainsaying the truth 
of this assertion, but foreign policy is a thing apart, 
and as Lord Robert Cecil during the same discussion 
observed, the responsible Minister cannot share his 
responsibility but must continue to discharge the duties 
of his office until publicly censured by his fellow country- 
men and thus dismissed. 
To leave foreign policy at one side, why cannot 
the public be told exactly what is being done to shut down 
German businesses in these islands at the earliest moment 
possible. The effect of the shuttlecock game in the 
House of Commons which has grown up round this 
subject, has been to create the worst impression possible. 
Yet none seriously doubt that the Government is not at 
one with the country in its desire to eliminate utterly 
German influence over British trade and commerce, but 
this being so, it is not understood why progress should 
not be reported from time to time, and if long delays are 
absolutely essential, why the;}' should not be explained. 
We have taken this subject as an illustration, because 
there is not a problem arising out of the war upon which 
public opinion is more unanimous or pronounced. Busi- 
ness has to be purged of the German taint, now and for 
all time, not only in the British Islands, but throughout 
the British Empire, and by the German taint we mean 
precisely that secret and treacherous undermining of 
British trade and commerce tliat went on as a prelude to 
the war. Yet we are kept in a state of uncertainty 
regarding the efficiency of the methods which have been 
adopted to achieve this end. 
There is at the present time much work of recon- 
struction in hand in which public interest increases daily, 
and the Government will be well-advised to assume a 
more communicative manner. Never has the nation 
been so deeply concerned, both collectively and 
individually, in vital problems of the hour. We are 
a people in arms ; more than that we are an educated 
people in arms, who have learnt to think out things for 
themsehes, and the grea^^er the corrfidence the Go\ern- 
ment reposes in the people, the better for the country and 
for the cause in which we are eiigag;ed. 
