8 
LAND & WATER 
December 28, 1916 
of w-riting. There is something behind which has 
compelled him to intervene. There is something in the 
circumstances that compels him to use this particular 
form of words. I believe it to be the bankruptcy of 
neutrality. This message is his greatest effort as a 
neutral. It was to make this effort that he has remained 
neutral. It may well be his last act as a neutral. .And, 
as a neutral, he had to speak as if both parties were 
fit to speak to. 
For two years and a half the American Government has 
made an effort to persuade itself that it could and should 
remain outside the Var. It was from the first a mis- 
calculation. No nation, whose constitution and whose 
history idehtified it irrevocably with the clu\alry of 
freedom, and whose circumstances ga\e it the generous 
liberality of thought that follows from being too great 
to envy others and too strong \o fear others' envy, could 
possibly preserve a neutral attitude, when all the rest 
of the world was fighting to decide the fate of Christendom. 
Perhaps at the lirst it was not clear that this was the 
issue — so that a political neutrality seemed possible. 
Once neutrality had begun, I think it was persisted in 
because of a fine ambition — here the infirmity of a 
noble mind. Mr. Wilson has kept out of the greatest of 
wars that he might inaugurate the truest peace. It was 
a miscalculation, because the forces which made this war 
are not forces with which the world can compromise. 
The opponents profess faiths that cannot be reconciled. 
Japan and Russia could be brought together, because 
their quarrel lay in an essential misunderstanding. The 
British and the Boers could be brought together, because 
essentially there was goodwill between them. But 
Christendom and Germany can never be brought together, 
so long as the spirit of the Teuton is the spirit of anti- 
Christ. 
Illogical, unreal and inconsistent with its own ideals 
as America's neuta-ality from the first has been, the in- 
clusion by Germany of America amongst her enemies has, 
for the last eighteen months, made tliis neutrality 
something more startling and flagrant yet. Before the 
first murder was committed at sea, Ciermany was warned 
that its consequences must be inevitable. But those 
consequences have not followed — though murdered 
Americans are numbered, not by tens or scores, but almost 
by hundreds. For a time neutrality was prcser\ed by 
German promises. Washington now knows their value. 
What then is the position ? 
The attitude of America as a nation was defined by the 
solemn endorsement of the President's ultimatum of 
April last by both houses of Congress. Mr. Wilson's re- 
election — the clearest personal triumph in the history of 
American politics —ratified that ultimatum. His 
re-election committed America to peace-^but only if 
peace were kept by Germany. From August to the 
present time Germany has methodically and of set pur- 
pose ignored her undertaking of last Ma\-. Hundreds 
of neutrals have been killed — and Americans amongst 
them. It is these murders that ha\-e made neutraUty 
not only unreal but ridiculous. 
Mr. Wilson's Note then, is a last effort to preserve it ; 
or a necessary preface to abandoning it. He asks the 
fighting nations to state their objects. One side has stated 
theirs concretely and definitely enough — the offender must 
restore his conquests, repair the injuries he has done, 
give pledges that they shall not be repeated. It is to 
induce the enemy to state his purposes, as concretely and 
as definitely, that Jlr. Wilson makes his last appearance 
in his present role. And he adopts the serviceable fiction 
that both sides are so vague as to be seemingly identical 
in their purpose. We might, it seems to me, ha\e con- 
ceded him this fiction without too \chement a protest. 
The Protection of Ships 
I owe apologies to several • correspondents wlio have 
urged me to add my advocacy to various methods for 
safeguarding our sea suppHes. Mr. Arnold Hills, for 
example, w^hose life-time association with naval and 
merchant shipbuilding gives him great authority, is 
convinced that our trading ships might bo far better 
protected were they furnished with torpedo nets. This 
is a purely technical question. The value of net pro- 
tection is conditional first, on the efiicacy of nets in ex- 
ploding the torpedo at a harmless distance from the ship ; 
next, on its being practical to carry them and get them 
out in time to afford protection ; lastly, upon its being the 
torpedo that is now the principal danger to merchant 
ships. If the general impression is right, the efficacy of 
the submarine to destroy on the present scale, is e.K- 
plained by her power as a gun carrying vessel — with the 
torpedo only as a reser\-c weapon — then it might not be 
worth while to put the additional weight into ships which 
nets involve. It is, of course, common knowledge that, 
the old nets are useless. A modern torpedo cuts its 
way through them as if they were not there. The weight 
of efticient netting, then, would be very serious and, if 
in addition to the nets, machinery for getting the booms 
in and out had to be carried — and this is the only alterna- 
tive to an enormous increase of the crews, a thing mani- 
festly impossible now — then the initial cost, the decreased 
carrying capacity, and the other objections grow stronger 
and stronger. Several correspondents make a strong 
point of the security which would be given to our carrying 
trade, if it could be conducted by submersible vessels. 
They at least, I am reminded, would be quite safe from 
the enemy submarines. This is undoubtedly true. But 
the suggestion is not very practical, because to build 
submarines makes demands on industry entirely dispro- 
portionate to the carrying power 'gained. What seems 
to be a conclusive argument on this point is that the 
Germans— whose need for freight exceeds ours by many 
thousand times — have, so far as wc know, only con- 
structed three submersible liners. 
Other correspondents have sent me fascinating draw- 
ings of torpedo-proof vessels, inchiding a turtle-back 
keelless ship, that presents only a razor edge of steel to 
the advancing torpedo. If the torpedo passes belo^v, 
it clears the ship. If it strikes above, it just rides up the 
side, and if it bursts, .should do only trivial damage. 
I do not know if this is one of the designs which, we were 
told in Parliament a few days ago, had been considered- 
by the Admiralty as not 'affording jiractical defence 
against unckn-water attack. That no effective design 
can be found is to me surprising, but then only those 
behind the scenes really know the full destructiveness of 
the war-heads that torpedoes now carry. It might be 
practicable to produce an under-water boat proof against 
Meetings were held early this month at 12. Hanover Square, 
of the Hunters' Imjjrovement Society and tliu National Pony 
Society. Both Societies will hold their annual shows in the 
spring of 1917, the Hunters' Show taking place at the end of 
i-"cbruary, when the band of the \\'elsh Guards will play. 
Card Houses, by I-ady Dorothy Mills (liveleigh Nash Co. 
5s. net), is the story of Cleo Stayres, who may best be described 
as a 13ecky Sharpc brought up to date, save tiiat fiecky 
never developed a heart, and Cleo did. This present book 
is an intimate pre-war picture of a certain gratle of society, 
and, whether intentionally or otherwise, the author has made 
a very striking study of the uselessncss and parasitic character 
of a class of folk of whom — it may be said in extenuation of 
their follies — the most kindly description is that they do 
little harm cither to themselves or others. Card Huiisc-; 
is not only a good story, but an extremely witty book, to 
which a definite point is given by the vyay in which Cleo 
went back on all her theories when the real call came, and 
changed from butterfly to woman. As a study of charactcc 
it is excellent work. 
-An exceedingly able and detailed study of English counfry 
life is embodied in Miss Ethel Sidgwick's latest novel, Hatch- 
ways (Sidgwick and Jackson, 6s.) "Hatchways" was the 
home of ICrnestine Redgate and her husband- -the order of 
naming is intentional— and was situated near Holmer, where 
dwelt the Duchess of Wickford and her two sons. Ernestine, 
in the opinion of her friends — and in the opinion of the reader, 
too — was all that a woman should be ; her genius for influen- 
cing lives is mainly displayed tlirough Ivcagli, younger of 
the Duchess' two sons, though many other characters display, 
indirectly, her skill and largeness "of heart. Witty and able 
' as the book imdoubtedly is, there is missing from it the wise 
humanity that made Succession and Le Genlleman notable 
novels. It is a brilliant piece of dissection, abnost as minute 
as Henry James' later work, and at times as analytic as 
Meredith himself. By these qualities the author retains the 
reader's interest, but her ultra-detached view point, and cold 
analysis of her characters — well-drawn though those characters 
are — render this a book to read as a study rather than enjoy as 
a story— and the novel should serve both these ends. 
I 
