10 
LANU & WATER 
Koveinber g, 1916 
shows further light upon the matter. It is work that is 
necessarily carried out from a great number of separate 
bases and must therefore locally be under a great number 
of separate commands. We know nothing of how these 
commands are co-ordinated ; to what extent and how the 
forces from one base co-operate with their neighbours 
to the right and left ; what organisation exists at N\'hite- 
hall, not only for securing the right inter-action of 
separate forces, but the best and most effective action by 
all the forces. How far, for instance, are the experiences 
of one command made accessible to the others i How 
long does it take when any device or method proves 
successful in one locality to equip all the other independent 
forces with the device in question, or to communicate to 
them the nature of the manceuvre that has brought 
good results ? Again, we know nothing of there being 
anv Admiralty authority for controlling the movements 
of trading vessels with a view to the closest and most 
constant co-operation between these and the forces that 
are to defend them. Is the staff — whatever it may be— 
responsible for the whole of this work at Whitehall, 
composed of men personally familiar with the work in the 
outlying districts ? Does it, in fact, elicit the utmost 
possible energy and efficiency of the local men ? 
AH naval administration is open to the weakness that 
the head of each organisation m\ist be senior to all of 
those serving under him. In the war of the air and in the 
war of the under-sea, we have no senior men with actual 
experience and, as in everything else, there was no pre-war 
study of the matter. \Vhat is going forward is the result, 
not of right thcor\' derived from previous analysis, but of 
actual experiment, the conclusions from which will not 
always be correctly drawn, unless those whose business 
it is to interpret them, have a knowledge which, without 
experience, it is exceedingly difficult to acquire. 
Fortunately, there is no real reason why, in the absence 
of the best theoretical organisation, the best practical 
man should not be discovered and put in charge. No 
matter how junior he may be, it is always possible to 
give him, temporarily, whatever rank is necessary for the 
command he is to hold. And it is unnecessary to add 
that it is more than probable that in circumstances like 
the present the best man would be found far lower down 
in the list of seniority than officialdom, trained in peace 
ways, would be inclined to search. 
Possibly a general reorganisation of the Admiralty may 
be required. If so it will probably have to extend far beyond 
measures for securing closer touch between the Chief 
Command and the working service in the Air and Anti- 
submarine departments. The War Staff and the Board 
itself may need reconstitution. The navy is rich enough 
in men of lirst-class ability with war experience to fill 
every post at Whitehall open to Seamen, and yet leave 
the fleets at sea commanded as the country would wish 
them to be, should a second opportunity for battle arise. 
If the necessity for such changes has arisen it is one that 
need occasion neither uneasiness nor surprise. France 
and Italj' alone of the belligerent powers have to-day 
their armies commanded in chief by the officer who held 
command at the beginning of war. Great Britain, 
Russia, Germany and Austria have changed their field 
commands completely. Why should the British Navy be 
an exception ? There are indeed many obvious reasons 
why it should not, and not the least of them is that the 
command of a fleet at sea in the conditions of modern war 
is a strain that only very exceptional men can carry year 
after year without risking a total breakdown. To many 
men at sea, therefore, the change from command afloat 
to a billet on shore, though perhaps anything but welcome, 
would most certainly be salutary. Conversely, the change 
from shore to sea, to those who have been kept for so 
many years upon office stools, would be most gloriousl}' 
welcome — and salutary as well. Arthlr Pollen 
A little anthology of verse issued by Messrs. Sidgwick 
and Jackson has just been issued at 6d. net by this firm, 
and, by consent of the authors, all profits arising from the 
sale of the book will be devoted to war charities. With two 
exceptions, all the poems have been published since the 
outbreak of the war. The collection is representative of the 
work of Rupert Brooke, Herbert Asquith. John Drinkwater, 
Captain W. G. Shakespeare, Katharine Tynan, and others. 
In addition to being thoroughly representative of the poetry 
of the war, this little volume forms a guide to tiic work of a 
oumber of writers, each one of whom is worth attention. 
Earth to Moon 
Littcs written a/tcr observing ifw tragic like- 
ncss b:twcen the baltlc/iclds of Picardy and 
the face of the moon seen through a telescope 
By Eden Phillpotts 
Moon, thy mystery is read — 
Sister moon, so full and fair, 
Now I know why thou art sped, 
Why thine antres, grey and bare 
Lack their oceans, forests, air. 
Thy sad face behold again^ 
Furrows, craters, riven, torn. 
Ragged cup and shattered plain. 
Scarred and seamed and rent and worn — 
On mine own, since man was born. 
Earth thine ashy pattern knows. 
See my rounded bosom's grace 
Bleeding from the cruel blows 
Struck their mother, by this race 
Risen now upon my face. 
Thou art past that agony. 
Conscious things within thy breast 
Surely slew and strangled thee — 
Now a planet corpse, at rest. 
Grave and victim of the pest. 
Warring on thine innocent globe, 
Doubtless they have lived their day ; 
Fouled thy bosom, torn thy robe; 
Blown thy veil of clouds away ; 
Left thee scorched and mangled clay. 
Showing now the self-same scars 
Bitten to the heart of me, 
Soon among the old, dead stars, 
Sister Moon, I, too, shall be ; 
Twin and counterpart of thee. 
Ruin so complete as thine 
Here remaineth to be writ ; 
Man is learning, Hne by line, 
Till his power has reached to it. 
Then his works will match his wit. 
The Story of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment (6s. net), has 
just been added to the Country Life library, an excellent 
series of regimental histories which our contcmparary is 
publishing. Lord Derby, who has in these latter times done 
so much for " The King's," contributes a preface, and the 
story is well told by Mr. T. R. Threlfall. It is illustrated. 
Detective story readers will rejoice in The Ivory Snuff 
Box, by Arnold Fredericks (Sinipkin, Marshall and Co., 6s."), 
a book that goes with a rusii from the first chapter to the last, 
and displays an ingenuity on the part of the author which is 
rare in this class of fiction. The snuff box belonged to a 
diplomat, and concealed a cypher ; how it was stolen, and 
how recovered with the secret of tlic cypher still kept, makes 
exciting reading, and a love story woven into the plot sup- 
plies the human interest. It is a book that will keep its 
readers out of bed till they have finished the last chapter. 
Redwing, by Constance Smedley (John Lane, 6s.), is a novel 
concerned most of all with the women's movement, and thus 
is a little out of date in these days when women and men arc 
both concerned over more serious matters than the well-being 
of a certain well-known and very slightly disguised club. 
Mimsy (diminutive for Miriam), the heroine, is an attractive 
character, but most of the people who move round her are 
almost impossible, while the cleverness of the early chapters 
is rather wearisome— tiie conversations are hke those of Mrs. 
Humphry Ward at her cle\'ercst and worst, and the descrip- 
tions reek of attempted epigram. This, however, only con- 
cerns the opening chapters ; when the author settles down to 
her work and gets interested in it, there is enough to interest 
the reader as well, while many i)eople will think they recog- 
nise one or other of the characters, and many of the scenes. 
