Uecember 7, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN, LONDON, W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7. 1916 
CONTENTS 
PAGE 
Christmas in the Trenches. By Louis Raemaekers i 
Creative War. (Leader) 3 
Battle Cruisers. By Chas. Pears 4 
Men and Munitionment. By Hilaire Belloc 5 
Turning the Big Gun. By Joseph Pennell 9 
Shells and their Makers (Illustrated). By A Special 
Correspondent 11 
State Control of Factories. By Arthur Kitson 15 
Spoils of War. By Boyd Cable 17 
Munition Making in America. By Lewis R. Freeman 19 
The Industrious Apprentice. By G. K. Chesterton 22 
Effects of War on Agriculture. By C. Turnor. 23 
The Arming of the Fleet. By Arthur Pollen 25 
A Great Crane. By Joseph Pennell 29 
The Military Situation. By A Special Correspondent 30 
Sinews of War. By J. H. Morgan 32 
Evolution of the Gun. By " H. W. R. T." 34 
Books to Read. By Lucian Oldershaw 41 
Reviews of Books 42 
The Mark of the Beast 44 
Joy of the Working Woman. By Mary MacLeod 
Moore. 46 
The Golden Triangle. Bv Maurice Leblanc 51 
The West End " 58 
Town and Country 60 
Kit and Equipment xix 
Motors and Armament. By H. Massac Buist xxvii 
Shopping Notes xxx 
CREATIVE WAR 
WE are busy in these times distilling out the 
soul of goodness in things evil, and to speak 
truth the result often surprises us. Yet it 
should not be so. One of the great prophets 
of the Victorian era — a period when as we all 
recognise to-day "the cankers of a calm world and 
a long peace " ate deeply into the national being — told 
the young soldiers of Woolwich, in a speech at the 
Royal Military Academy in 1865, that " all the pure and 
noble arts of peace are founded on war ; no great art ever 
yet rose on earth, but among a nation of soldiers." 
Ruskin evidently used the word " art " in a wide sense 
seeing that on another occasion, about the same time, he 
prophetically declared war was needed to teach England 
the true value of science. But in this Woolwich speech 
occurred the following passage, which is so vividly true 
that it might have been first spoken in this very year 
instead of being addressed one and fifty years ago to the 
grandparents of young officers at the Front : 
The creative, or foundational, war is that in which the 
natiaral restlessness and love of contest among men are 
disciplined, by consent, into modes of beautiful — though 
it may be fatal — play : in which the natural ambition and 
love of power of men are disciplined into the aggressive 
conquest of surrounding evil : and in which the natural 
instincts of self-defence are sanctified by the nobleness of 
the institutions, and purity of the households which they 
are appointed to defend. To such war as this all men are 
born ; in such war as this any man may happily die ; 
and out of such war as this- have arisen throughout the 
extent of past ages, all the highest sanctities and virtues 
of humanity. 
Who will deny that this is a creative war ? It is im- 
possible to behold in German brutality or in the devasta- 
tion and the shell-pits of the actual battle zone " beautiful 
play," but if we look nearer home we shall see that this 
phrase is not an exaggeration, and that " the natural 
restlessness and love of contest among men " are dis- 
ciphning the nation in a manner few would have dared to 
predict aforetimes. Beautiful play has banished from 
a thousand homes — and for ever it is hoped— semi- 
idleness and aimlessness of feminine life ; woman is 
more busily buckling the armour on man m these modern 
days of scientific "cannonry " than ever she was in the 
mediaeval times of gallant ' ' chivalry. ' ' Whether before the 
fight, in munition factories, or after the fight in hospitals, 
she is lending tangible and substantial help in winning 
the war. The victory when it is gained will be in part hers, 
for without her active co-operation it never could be 
won. New energy is generated,- new standards of self- 
sacrifice and industry are established; new manners and 
habits are formed, which must inevitably leave a perma- 
nent mark on the national character and which in our 
behef will both elevate and strengthen it. The virtues 
and sanctities of the home may be superficially different 
from old conventions, but they will be based on the 
eternal principles of freedom, justice and humanity in 
self-defence of which the British Empire and her Allies 
are putting forth their full strength regardless of cost. 
In these pages we have endeavoured to portray the 
busy life in progress throughout the country this Christ- 
mas. Such scenes of activity have never before been 
witnessed in these islands ; the whole nation is at work. 
The common purpose to which aU equally bend the will, 
is eliminating many foolish class distinctions and pre- 
judices. From the very outset of the war, a softer feeling 
was noticeable throughout the country. This has 
spread, and the flood of grief which has poured into 
multitudinous homes has served to wash away miscon- 
ceptions and antipathies. England has rested true to 
herself ; she has proved that the spirit of youth still 
animates her ; she has entered into glorious competition 
with the younger nations as to who should excel in en- 
thusiasm, self-sacrifice, and organised industry. Much 
has still to be accomplished before the war is over, but the 
resolution which has carried the nation so far is not going 
to weaken at the last. 
What is to be the new structure that shall arise upon 
this foundational war ? We are too much occupied in 
winning it to be able to devote very much time to this 
consideration, but it is the duty of the thinkers to take 
care that opportunities are not lost to build up a stronger, 
healthier and happier State in the future. We are 
determined not to go back to the old haphazard laissez 
faire slip-shod style of living, which was accepted as a 
matter of course three years ago. Politics, domestic 
and imperial, have to be vivified. Ruling the country 
is never again to be a sort of parlour game played 
between a score or couple of score of gentlemen 
who happen to have found themselves in power. 
One has only to read the many Victorian reminiscences 
which have lately been published to realise to what an 
extent this was the case in the past. Tradition is a very 
potent force in the pohtical world.but out of the wai should 
come a still stronger power, which should make its own 
traditions and be done for ever with the folUes and 
weaknesses of our fathers. • 
" Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the 
strong came forth sweetness." Samson's old riddle rings 
in the ears in these days. Much is being devoured, but 
there shall come forth strange meat from the devourer, 
and the Philistines shall be confounded. The strong 
shall \ield new sweetness to life. The beginning 
is already visible. There is no occasion for despondency. 
Not a life will have been sacrificed in vain in order that 
securer peace and nobler good-will shall dwell on earth. 
This thought may bring comfort to saddened hearths 
this Christmas. The toll of death has been terrible, but 
it is the price paid for refusal to allow mankind to return 
to barbarism and slavery, as oiu: enemies desire. 
