December 21, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
which I have pubHshed in two studies of Land & Wati:r. 
Tlieie are one or two points I think whicli ought t(j be 
answered pubUciy. The lust is the discrepancy which 
some of my readers think they have found between the 
study pubhshed last March and these later ones. 
As I said last week in a note, the idea of such a dis- 
crepancy arises from a misconception of the term " army." 
When one is talking of the total loss to the strength of the 
active force of an army, one is counting off all those who 
cannot be used again in their original active capacity : Men, 
for instance, who were in the trenches, were wounded 
there and will not appear again in the trenches, though 
they may appear upon lines of communications or in 
clerical work or as trainers, or in some other capacity. 
In the earlier statistics we discovered for the German 
Empire alone up to the end of 1915 about one million 
dead and a total minimum loss from the active power of 
the army of at least three and three-quarter million. 
There is no discrepancy between such ligures and the 
figures published the other day. With the end of the 
summer iighting the Germans had added about another 
half-million to their dead : That is, about another 50 per 
cent., and there was a corresponding addition to the 
other categories of losses. In other words, with the 
end of the sunmier fighting, say, with October, the total 
number so reckoned off the full active strength, apart 
■ from all other scr\'ices, the total you must reckon 
as out of action in the sense that they could not 
return to the same service as that which they left, 
was just over live and a half million since the 
beginning of hostilities, and that figure fits in pretty 
exactly with somewhat over three million in full active . 
service at the present moment, and a reserve of man- 
power in sight up to the ist of ne.xt ,A.ugust, say, of a 
nullion or a little more. The fact that the so-called 
German field army, that is, all the men used in any 
capacity • whatsoever, save in the interior, is some 
five million, does not militate against so simple a con- 
clusion, for the very large proportion (larger than in any 
other Einopean army at the present moment) which 
are in uniform and drawing rations, but not in full active 
service, is counted twice over if we do not appreciate that 
a verj' large proportion of it is formed from the men 
discharged from hospital indeed, but not capable of the 
same service as before they went into hospital. 
I can only repeat what I have said over and over 
again in these columns. The first figures of German 
losses given here and elsewhere were exaggerated. It 
was thought that the rate of German wastage was higher 
than it really was during the first si.x or seven months of 
tlie war and, at any rate, the margin of error of that period 
was very much larger than it came to be later. The 
reason is obvious. The evidence accumulated slowly, 
and there was no considerable mass of evidence from 
prisoners whereby to check other forms of evidence that 
were coming in. It w-as with the summer of 1915 that the 
figures began to be precise. We were then able, as I 
have constantly repeated, to give the appro.ximate dates 
at which abnormal recruitment would begin with the 
calling uv> of the younger classes, the re-e.xaminations of 
exempted men, etc. In the event these dates proved 
more and more accurate and formed an excellent check 
upon and confirmation of the statistics accumulated. 
For now more than a year the matter has been perfectly 
well in hand, and we can tell to within a comparatively • 
small margin of error how far the German casualty lists 
are incomplete, and what the real rate of loss is. 
The other point in the correspondence I have received 
which deserves noting is the question which has been put 
to me, whether the field depots arc included in the figure 
of somewhat over three million for the active force of the 
German armies or are within the non-active balance 
of nearly two millions. I believe they are included 
in the former. For though they are not part . of 
the divisional organisation, yet they do not form a 
Acry large total. For instance, when one says that 
Class 1917 is entirely used up with the exception 
of the immature portion that was - sent back upon 
examination, one does not mean that the portion 
called up has all appeared in the fighting ; a certain 
portion of it would still remain in the field depots 
at the moment for which that study was made— about the 
date of the 25th of October. ' 
H. Bklloc 
Union Jack Club Fund 
JN the summer of the year appeals were made in 
the columns of Laxd & W.-vfer for funds for the 
extension of the Union Jack Club- — a develop- 
ment which had become most urgent, if the Club 
were to continue to render the services to men of 
the Navy and Army it had undertaken. It was pointed 
out that for a donation of £100, a bedroom in the new 
Extension could be built which could be dedicated to the 
memory of any gallant gentleman in perpetuity, and that 
for a donation of /i.ooo a corridor containing ten rooms 
could also be dedicated in whatever way the donor 
chose to designate. 
We have now received the subjoined letter from the 
Governor of Mauritius enclosing a draft for £1,000 for a 
Mauritius corridor, in which the bedrooms are to be named 
after the various districts in the Colony, as set forth in 
his communication. To the two officers in the Colonial 
Secretary's Office, through whose efforts this handsome 
gift has been possible, the Union Jack Club is greatly 
indebted. Mauritius has set a generous example which 
other Crown Colonies may be glad to emulate, for the 
Union Jack Club is Imperial in the best sense of the 
word, and the services it renders to the Navy and Army 
ha\e no limitations except the Empire's boundaries. 
Colonial Secretary's Office, Mauritius. 
31s/ October, 1916. 
To the Editor oj Land' & W.\ter. 
Sir, — / am directed by the Governor of Mauritius to 
iransmit to yon the accompanying bank draft for the sum 
oj £1,000, drawn in favour of the Union Jack Club, to 
provide a corridor of ten bedrooms in connection ivitli 
the extension scheme of the Club. 
It is requested that the corridor should be known as 
the "Mauritius Corridor " and that the rooms should 
be designated by the names of the various districts of 
the colony, viz : 
■ I. Port Louis 6. Grand Port 
2. Plaines Wilhcms 7. Savanne. 
3. Pamplemousses H. Moka. 
4. Riviere du Rcmpart. q. Black River. 
5. Flacq. . 10. The Island of Rodrigues, 
The money has been collected in the Colony through 
the efforts of two officers of this department in reply to 
the Appeal in the columns of your paper. 
H. Henniker Heaton, 
Acting Colonial Secretary. 
Hospital Days, by " Platoon Commander " (T. Fisher 
Unwin, 2s. 6d. net), is a book in which much laughter is 
blended with a spice of real sentiment and with appreciation 
of the way in which the wounded are treated. The irrepres- 
sible high spirits of certain wounded officers are responsible 
for the laughter, and one hlanigan, an incurable practical 
joker, is good to know — as, in fact, are all the characters ia 
these sketches of the wounded and their ways. 
M. Jac([ues Roujon, author of Battles and Bivouacs (George 
Allen and Unwin, 5s. net) was once a member of the staff 
of the Figaro, and then mobilisation made of him a sinijjle 
soldier. In this volume of notes of the first six months, 
of the war, he presents the doings of his section in bivouac 
and battle with soldierly simplicity, and with a Latin wit 
that renders every page readable and evokes the reader's 
sympathy. One feels that this story of active service is the 
real thing, and its only fault is that there is not more of it. 
.\dmitting a certain improbabiUty in the matter of plot, and 
a determination not to let reality or its semblance stand in the 
way of the story, The Dancing Hours, by Harold Ohlson (John 
Lane, 6s.) is a decidedly diverting novel. Jane Eastwood, 
daughter of a Deptford pawnbroker, decided after her father's 
death, to get into society of the county family order — and 
succeeds in the attempt. What is more — and herein lies one 
of the improbabilities — she is well worthy of success, and one 
is glad to find that, in spite of the machinations of Mr. Brown, 
who kept a Deptford imb., she attained tu liappiness as well 
as to position. Tlie author has a gift for epigram, which 
together with the quality of his characters makes up a very 
attractive light-comedy novel with distinct hterary quality. 
