M 
ay 31. 1917 
LAND & WATER 
3 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN, LONDON, W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, MAY 31. 1917 
CONTENTS 
John Bull's Welcome. By Louis Raemaekcis 
Loyalty of Labour. (Leader). 
Policy of the War. III. By Hilaire Beiloc 
Jutland: Twelve, Months After. , By Arthur Pollen 
Campaign in East Africa. By Owen Letcher 
From the Other Side of the Atlantic. By. A Special 
Correspondent 
Salonika and its Weather. By H. Collinson Owen 
Germans and the Russians. By J. C. Van der Veer 
Ralph Hodgson's Verse. By J. C. Squire 
Books to Re'ad. By Liiiian Oldershaw 
Cruise of the " Washpoij ' By Benet Copplestone 
Amiens in War Time. By an Officer 
Domestic Economy. 
Kit and Equipment. 
Page. 
I 
2 
4 
9 
II 
12 
13 
14 
15 
i6 
17 
20 
21 
25 
LOYALTY OF LABOUR 
THE Prime Minister announced in the House of 
Commons, innnediatcly before the recess, the apiwint- 
ment of Commissions, distriUuted over seven areas 
of tlic United Kingdom, to inquire into the present 
industrial unrest, to report upon the operation of all labour 
emergency Icgishttion and to make recommendations which 
will tend to minimise-this unrest during the continuance of the 
war. These Commissions are to set to work at once and their 
reports are to be handed in without delay. Mr. Asquith 
spokb admirably on the question, giving expression to the 
thought which occupies many minds in respect to the labour - 
unrest ; for it is widely felt that it indicates difficulties which 
may become increasingly serious in the future relations of 
labour, not merely to capital, but to its own organisations and 
to the State. " We are apt " — these are Mr. Asquith's 
words and they define a vital truth — " to think in the terms 
of the nineteenth century or of the early years of the present 
century and to regard the economic organisation of the State 
as it then developed as something permanent, as a fixed 
conviction of things. It is very difficult for most of us to 
have cither the imagination or the sympathy which are needed 
in order to envisage those new problems emerging under new 
conditions, calling for new methods of treatment." Yet 
these problems must be envisaged.: 
"During the recent engineering strike, it came by chance to 
the notice of the present writer that in two works in different 
parts of England, when the men " went out," they expressed 
genuine regret to their employers at liaving to take the step. 
The strike was conducted in perfect good temper ; there was 
no attempt to coerce or interfere with non-Union men '• 
the Trades Unionists simply withdrew to their homes until 
the question was' settled, when tliey returned to work. One 
of the factories was engaged on important munition work 
of a very tecfmical character, and when the men declared that 
in throwing up their jobs they must be loyal to their Union, 
the question was ask^d : " Do you then consider loyalty 
to your Trades Union comes before loyalty to your country or 
loyalty to your fellows in the firing line ? " The answer 
was : "We prefer you do not put the matter in this light." 
But it is the very light in which it should be placed. Which 
loyalty is to come first, when country and trades union arc 
in conflict. It would, however, be a not unreasonable retort that 
the country must Jirst display loyalty to labour before it 
has the right to demand loyalty in return ? In Mr. Asquith's 
words, " We have to seize the present opportunity to bring 
the whole atmosphere of public opinion into an enlightened 
and healthy relationship to the future development of social 
and industrial jjroblems." 
Were evidence necessary that British labour in the mass 
is loval to the prosecution of the war until military victory 
is complete, it would be lurnished by "fast Sunday's meeting 
in Hyde Park of the British Workers' League. It was a 
remarkable demonstration which concluded with a deputation 
to the Ambassadors and Ministers of our Allies, pledging all 
patriotic Britons in the United Kingdom and in the Domin.ons 
beyond the Seas, " to continue the war until Europe is liberated 
from the menace of German thraldom." But without this 
demonstration, the loyalty of labour, as a whole, could never 
have been in doubt. Our armies in France would not have 
existed, far less inflicted constant defeat on the German 
cohorts, without its active and willing co-operation. We ought 
to recognise that this loyalty imposes the duty on the com- 
munity as a whole of studying the problems of labour with 
Sympathy and preventing its sense of loyalty being exploited 
no matter by whom or in what connection. 
Two weeks have passed since we asked here whether 
speculation in foodstuffs is still a legal operation, and whether 
prices may be raised artificially for private profit, even in these 
days of submarines ? Though the offence continues and be- 
comes more flagrant every week, no names have been disclosed. 
If a man shows cowardice in the face of the enemy, he is 
sentenced by a court martial to death, and is shot. The 
whole nation stands to-day in the face of the enemy ; and 
surely to make money out of the necessities of one's own 
countrymen at a time like the present and thus to render the 
difficulties of livehhood more severe for the poor, is an 
infinitely meaner and more dangerous sin than a soldier's 
cowardice. Yet these contemptible offenders not only arc 
not brought to justice, but are saved by officials from the 
pillory of public opinion. No wonder labouV is perturbed when 
it is authoritatively informed that the excessive prices it is 
called on to pay for its food arc not due to the war, but to 
the disloyal machinations of profiteers, who have no otliCj. 
thought than their own pockets. It is high time that a 
severe example was given, that will act as a deterrent to 
this most contemptible form of offence against the realm- 
Owing to LiOrd Devonport's health giving way a new F"ood 
Controller is to be appointed. Whoever he may be, he will, 
we trust, enter on his work with the fixed determination to 
suppress the profiteer. It is not easy, and the only way to 
succeed is to attack the biggest offenders. Go for the tiger 
and leave the jackals alone- 
Another question which is causing considerable and in our 
opinion, reasonable annoyance to labour, is the talk about 
prohibition. To reduce or even tq discontinue the brewing 
of beer in order to win the war is one question^ but to make 
the war an excuse for a crusade against alcohol, a subject on 
which opinion is sharply divided in all classes of society, is 
quite another matter. There was published in the Times 
on Monday, a letter from a working miner in South Wales, 
a well-educated man, who, in temperate language, pointed 
out the benefit of beer to a man engaged in heavy muscular 
work. Why should these hard-working and loyal men be 
denied the reasonable stimulant they have been accustomed 
to siinply to, please a particular school of reform ? This 
is, we are sorry to say, only one of the many pin-pricks fJ 
which the working-classes have been subjected by the stupidity 
of their so-called superiors since the war began. We use the 
'word " stupidity " advisedly for to this trait is due lack of 
sympathy and ignorance of true conditions which are at the 
root of the trouble. The slanders about war-babies and the 
drinking-habits of soldiers '-wi-^es are not forgotten ; and the 
exaggerated stories of the thriftlessness of munition workers 
is even fresher in the public mind. Why Labour should be 
expected to be free from the normal frailties of human nature, 
or, possessing them, be regarded as devoid of all the virtues 
is one of those things no fellow can understand. It is a 
commonplace to-day that in the army class distinctions have 
all but vanished ; men drawn from all walks of life under- 
stand one another in a way unheard of before the war. This 
wider understanding should be put into practice in civil hfe, 
for we shall never cultivate better relations with ourcountry- 
men until we take some little trouble to understand them. 
And until we do understand them, we shall never compre- 
hend the principles andideals for which labour is striving and 
for which it is prepared to wage a bloodless war on 
socictv in order to attain the end. If the loyalty of labour 
is uudoubted, so too is its tenacity. 
