,Mav 
191 7 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN. LONDON. VV.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828 
THURSDAY, MAY 3. 1917 
CONTENTS 
PAGE 
\ I 
The Two Giants. By Louis Raemafckcrs 
I'ublic and Private Econonn'. (Leader) .» 
Wearing Down the Enemy. By Hilaire Belloc , 4 
How to Treat a Great Man. By L. P. Jacks 7 
A Naval Holiday. By The Author of .1 Grand Fleet 
Chaplain's Note Book 9 
Small Nationalities. Bv M. A. Czapliska lo 
White Blossoms and Col'd Winds By J. D. Symon ii 
The Eastern I'Vont. By Colonel Feyler i^ 
Life and*Ketters. By J. C. Squire ij 
Nesting Mothers of the Battle Zone. By H. Thoburn- 
Clarke ^4 
Books to Read. By Lucian Oldershaw i? 
Scenes from the Battle Area * i**^ 
Les Trains reclament de I'Huilc (Poem). By Emile 
Cammaerts i*^ 
Domestic Economy -O 
Kit and Equij)ment 2,; 
PUBLIC AND PRI\'ATE ECONOMY 
THE enormous figures which Mr. Bonar f.aw has 
lakl before the House of Commons in his Budget 
statement, ought to bring home to the country the 
necessity of establishing some more effective control 
of our national expenditure. The need' for private economy 
has been preached up and down the country, and great credit 
is due to all who have lent a hand in this useful campaign. 
Indeed, from a strictly logical point of view, the more waste- 
ful the Government is, the greater is the need for the private 
citizen to economise. But human beings are not strictlj' 
logical, and in practice the ever-present spectacle of pubhc 
waste directly discourages private economy. People say 
to themselves: "What is the good* of our saving pence 
when the Government is wasting pounds ? " Hitherto 
notliing, or practically nothing, has been done to check 
Government waste. 
It is true that as far back as the autumn of 1915 
a Public Retrenchment Committee was appointed by the 
then Liberal Government ; but though the committee sat 
for many months and reported many possibilities of economy, 
its recommendations had no political force behind them, 
and were mostly ignored. Since then the question of public 
economy has been quietly pushed out of sight. Expenditure 
has gone up by leaps and bounds. New Ministries have been 
created for every new purpose that has entered the mind 
of the Government, and each Ministry has set to work to 
prove its own importance by creating a gigantic staff. When 
the staff has been created then the Ministry which it serves 
has begun to consider what to do with it, and in many cases 
there has been nothing for a large number of those small armies 
of clerks and messengers to do, but to get in one another's 
way. So far as can be ascertained, the Treasury exercises 
no oontrol of any kind over the minor appointments made. 
If any official wants a typist to take down two or three 
letters a day, he can get a girl appointed for his exclusive 
use without criticism or opposition from anybody. If the 
same official thinks that it adds to his dignity to have a 
messenger for his room on\\, the messenger is duly appointed, 
and the nation pays. This is the main reason why all the 
new Government offices which have sprung up like mushrooms 
arc swarming with girl typists and girl mes.sengers, most of 
whom never had a real day's work to do, and all of whom 
are under the impression that they are permanent ser\-ants 
of t*c State. A Treasun,' only begins to display a faint 
interest in the stuffing of these vast establishments when 
salaries of £200 a year are reached. Up to that point the 
new departments are virtually free from financial control ; 
they can multiply minor jippointments. In practice Govern- 
ment officials, who themselves occupy only medium positions. 
have the power to apj^omt as many subordinates as they 
like. Nobody worries ; the nation pays. 
To blame the Treasury alone for this costly chaos would be 
unfair. The Treasury only acts under the orders of the 
Government. If it received instructions to scrutinise depart- 
mental expenditure more closely, it would probably soon 
discover effective, means of .stopping part, at any rate, of the 
present waste. But such instructions are not likely to be 
given by the present Cabinet. Mr. Lloyd George has many 
striking qualities, but a love of economy is not one of them. 
Since he became Prime Minister, ]iublic extravagance, which 
was sufficiently serious before, has increased enormously. 
The apparent view of the Prime Minister and his present 
colleagues is that because we are compelled to spend several 
millions a day upon the war, it does not matter if we throw 
away a few thousands a day more on purely needless ex- 
penditure at home. That is the kind of doctrine that leads 
straight towards national bankruptc}-. For it re-acts upon 
every branch of the public service. The fighting services 
themselves are directly affected. There is room for many 
minor economies, and some major ones, both in the army and 
the navy. But soldiers and sailors who are risking their 
lives for the nation can hardly be expected to worry about 
saving pence here and pounds there when they know that 
civilians at home are playing ducks and drakes with the 
nation's money without rebuke from the Government. 
During the past few weeks some appreciation of the serious- 
ness of the situation seems to have dawned upon the House of 
Commons, and a considerable number of members have 
given in their names in support of a motion declaring 
that : " This House is of opinion, in view of the 
continued growth of expenditure, taxation and debt, 
that a committee should be appointed consisting of 
members of this House, with power to review all national 
expenditure, examine Ministers and officials and report to 
the House." It is not cjuite clear whether the proposed 
committee is to report upon the estimates of expenditure 
before they have been voted, or to review expenditure after 
it has been made. If — as the language of the resolution 
implies — the latter is all that is intended, very little will 
be gained. The House of Commons already possesses a 
Public Accounts Committee, which it owes to the zeal of Mr. 
Gibson Bowles— which Committee, in conjunction with 
the Comptroller and Auditor General, reviews past expendi- 
ture. But except for the puqwse of unearthing irregularities, 
and so perhaps checking fraud, this process does not greatly 
differ from the rather futile operation of locking the stable 
door after the horse has been stolen. What is needed is an 
Estimates Committee to report upon the proposed expendi. 
ture of each department before it is sanctioned. Such a 
committee — if properly backed by the House — might be of 
incalculable value in protecting the nation against the whole- 
sale plunder that is now in progress. But an Estimates 
Committee will not be appointed, or if appointed, will not be 
backed by^ the House, unless the countrj' speaks with em- 
phasis in condemnation of the present waste. 
We have built up a constitutional system which provides 
no direct link between political power and financial respon- 
sibility. In the ideal State every citizen possessed of a vote 
ought to know that he will have to find out of his own pocket 
his share of any increase in public expenditure. But the 
immense majority of the electors of the United Kingdom 
pay no direct tax, while the indirect taxes Which they do 
pay are not desjgned solely for raising revenue, and still 
less for bringing home financial responsibility. As long as 
this primarv defect in our constitution continues, most 
members of Parliament will remain indifferent to the duty 
of defending the taxpayer. Therefore, if the taxpayer is to 
be defended, he must begin by defending himself. If there 
were in every constituency a group of men and women 
resolved to demand public economy and purity in admini- 
stration, the politicians would begin to recast their attitude 
towards the problems of national finance. As matters stand, 
nobody speaks for the taxpayer, and therefore members of 
Parliament and Parliamentary candidates ignore his intere.sts 
and prefer to lend their help in squandering the nation's 
money in order to multiply Government jobs to appease 
clamouring constituents. 
