November 23, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
3 
of supply and demand, that this law will in the long run 
settle the question. But over a long range of years it 
has not done so. In neighbouring counties with a 
similar supply there can be a iifty per cent, difference in 
the rate of M-ages. And in low wage counties all the 
intelligent workers migrate, and only the dregs are left ; 
the law of supply and demand is inoperative. 
For the sake of argument let us put this wage at 25s. 
a week, plus the rental. Then the ordinary labourer 
in a iicic cottage would receive 30s. 6d. per week, and 
he would pay a rental of 5s. 6d. to whatever individual, 
society or authority owned the cottage. In the case 
of a man in an old house he would be paid 2C)s. ; and hand 
back the rental of 4s. to the farmer, or the owner of the 
cottage. The labourer would further pay rates which 
would vary from 6d. to cjd. per week. 
Generally speaking, every labourer's cottage should 
have a small garden attached. Properly worked this 
would yield produce worth ])erhaps two shillings a week ; 
Further, allotments should be easily available, where 
the land is suitable for allotments, and where the working- 
man shows himself capable of using an allotnjent effective- 
ly. In some parishes allotments arc hardl^ used at all, 
even when easily available, and yet in other parishes 
near by they are put to effective use. Judicious prize- 
giving undoubtedly is a great incentive to the proper 
cultivation of the allotment, and demonstration allotments 
run by the County Council Agricultural Organiser also 
prove most beneficial. Lender the wage conditions sug- 
gested here the rural labourer's position would compare 
favourably with that of his urban cousin. He would 
have 25s. in cash after paying rent ; he would earn an 
e.xtra two shillings a week from his garden, and more 
than that if he had an allotment. This reform in wages 
would undoubtedly mean that the A\hole wage would be 
jxiid in cash and not partly in kind as in the past. It 
would be 23s. a week all the year round for the ordinary 
day's work ; extra work, at harvest time, for instance, 
should be paid for as overtime. There are strong argu- 
ments in favour of part-payment in kind, just as there 
are strong arguments against it, but the balance is in 
favour of the casli paj-ment. 
A fair living wage, better housing facilities, access to 
land, will all help to attract intelligent labour to the land ; 
but it must not be forgotten that before we can see our 
country life conditions all that we would desire, there 
must be on the one hand a great improvement in educa- 
tion in the rural districts, and on the other there must be 
a brightening of life in the village ; community life 
must be developed and opportuhities for recreation and 
amusement provided. 
Our civilization during the last himdred years has been 
too one-sided — the urban side has been over-developed 
and the rural side neglected. If our national reconstruc- 
tion after the war is to be sound, if we are to achieve 
rapid recuperation — moral, physical and economic — ■ 
then we must realise that the country without a strong 
rural population is doomed to die. And we must there- 
fore set to work at once to build up those rural forces 
which alone vitalize the nation. 
An Historical Parallel 
Fourth Greek Army Corps and the Convention of Tauroggen 
/ 
By Colonel Feyler ^ 
LIKE a bolt from the blue did the news come, 
that the fourth Greek -Vrmy Corps had surrendered 
to the Germans. This corps had remained under 
arms in its positions on the Macedonian frontier 
when the German and Bulgarian troops, invading Greece, 
had marched on Kavalla ; in this manner its communica- 
tions with the interior ofthc country had been cut. The 
officer in command, General Hazzopoulos, thereupon 
arranged with the German Command, not for the 
restoration of the communications, but for the transport 
of his Army Corps, lock, stock and barrel' to the interior 
of Germany. Since then we have heard through a 
Wolff telegram that the corps was entrained with arms 
and impedimenta, includiiv^ women and childycn ; it 
was further pointed out to the world, as a touching inci- 
dent, that these women and their children had been 
regaled, whilst passing through Sofia, with a cup of cafe- 
au-lait and a slice of plum-cake ! 
There is nothing new under the sun, and General 
Hazzopoulos' arrangement has its parallel in the treaty 
signed between the Prussian General von Yorck and the 
Russian (ieneral Diebitsch on December 30th, 1812, 
ar.d known to military history as the Convention of 
lauroggen. Under this agreement von Yorck, who was 
in the service of Napoleon, surrendered his army to the 
Russians, in x'lew of their being considered thenceforth 
as a neutral body of troops, to be billeted in a specially 
neutralised zone of Prussia, a zone, however, which was 
to be open for the passage of the Russian troops. 
Tauroggen has often been mentioned in the present 
war, during the hrst Russian offensive and the German 
counter-offensive on the Lower Niemen in the winter 
of IQ15. It is situated in Lithuania near the eastern 
frontier of East Prussia, north of Tilsit and between 
Memel and Kovno. 
In February 1812, before Napoleon's Russian cam- 
paign, a treaty with the King of Prussia stipulated that 
the latter should furnish a contingent of 20,000 men and 
60 guns. This contingent, under the command of von 
"iorck, formed part of the X Army Corps, conunanded 
by JIarechal Macdonald, and at the time of the battle 
of the Beresina occupied the positions which to-day form 
the extreme left wing of the German armies in f^ussia, 
that is to saj', from the Gulf of Riga along the Dwina as 
iar as Jacobstadt ; von Yorck's division held the left 
half of this line, in front of Riga itself. 
From the moment when von Yorck was put in com- 
mand, the Russians tried to enter into friendly relations 
with him. Clausewitz says of von Yorck that he was a 
man of great l>ittemess of character. Gifted with great 
strength of will, he was nevertheless a dissimulator and 
of a disagreeable temper. The relations between him 
and his chief, Macdonald, already delicate as being 
between the conquered Prussian and the victorious 
Frenchman, soon became very strained. Up to the time 
of the Beresina, however, von Yorck, whilst doing nothing 
to discourage these Russian proposals, was not in a posi- 
tion to compromise himself. After the Beresina the 
Russians began to advance and the Russian General 
Wittgenstein, commanding in his neighbourhood, made 
concrete offers : "I offer you the assistance of my army 
for the destruction of the oppressors who have forced 
Prussia to enter into the senseless ambitions of Napoleon ; 
I propose that you, in concert with myself, should re- 
establish the power of your King and deliver Germany 
from the horror of these barbarians." 
Von Yorck replied : " Circumstances are at present 
such that I am obliged to act with the greatest of circum- 
spection. A soldier from birth, I have never had occasion 
to learn the tricks of politics ; but allow me to inform 
you that, whenever the situation of a State undergoes 
a radical change, the movements of its army must be in 
harmony with the measures taken by its government." 
For a man uninstructed in the tricks of politics, this 
suggestion seems to show a high degree of natural apti- 
tucle. It is a diplomat's letter rather than a soldier's ; 
General Wittgenstein had no reason to despair. At this 
juncture Macdonald received orders to join in the retreat 
of the (irand Army and to withdraw to the left bank 
of the Niemen and into East Prussia. He thereupon 
directed that the X Corps should march upon Tilsit 
by way of Tauroggen, and that Yorck's division was to 
form the rear-guard. On December 27th Macdonald's 
ad\ance-guard, lepulsing the Russian troops that were 
trying to cut his retreat, entered Tilsit ; but his main 
body followed more slowly, in small detachments, for 
he was very anxious about his rear-guard, with which 
he had lost contact. On the 2Qth he wrote to Murat, 
