12 
LAND & WATER 
May 31, i<)i7 
to understand as it has beon disappointing. But due allow- 
ances have not been made by the pulilic at large, for 
the size and dHficult nature of the country, nor for tlir climatic 
acN'antages the Germans have had in possessing seasoned 
troops. In a country of dense bush and forest sfich as Central 
East Africa is, the advantages are enormously in favour of a 
defensive and retreating force, and correspondingly against 
an <irtensi\e and advancing nrmy.- A skeleton rearguard with 
a sin, 'le Well-concealed machine gun can hold up a whole 
column advancing along a narrow bush path. 
liirtune, too, lias favoured the (jermans. On more than 
one occasion the riiain bulk of their forces has been almost 
surrounded, and but for one or two unfortunate incidents, 
the campaign would have lieen over months ago. 
I'he end does now, however, appear to be definitely in 
sight. The i-iiemv fnrcf>.; are all ciiiilini'd in a ((imjiaratively 
small area, and our lines of communication have been put in 
order. We can menace von l.ettow \'orbeck"s forces at any point 
we like, and it will be of much interest to observe the tactics 
the wily Teuton will adopt when what promises to be the 
final offensive operations are begun. 
N'orbeck will probably prefer breaking up 'his army into 
several small columns to offering battle en masse. There 
seems to be some reasons for thinking that he will try to 
break the line of the Kovuina and enter Portuguese territory. 
General Smuts hinted at this possibility in a speech made at 
Cape Town just before he sailed for Europe. 
It may be remembered that these were the tactics adopted 
by the remnant of the German .troops in the Cameroons. But 
in that instance they broke over into neutral Spanish territory, 
whereas', in th<^ case of the Central Kast African campaign, 
tliev^ are hemmed in b\' enemies on all sides. 
From the Other Side of the Atlantic 
By a Special Correspondent 
Washington. Way 7th, 1917. 
LIKE. Gaul, at the time when Julius Cesar invaded 
it, the United States, at the time when I invaded 
them, were and are divided into three parts. There 
is the East, the Afiddle. and the West. There 
svoiild lie less criticism and more understanding of American 
foreign policy if this elementary division were biirne in mind. 
" ."Xnierica wants this, America ought to do that," says the 
hasty traveller qu his n>turn to Europe from tlie Eastern 
States ; }ie buttresses his contentions with voluminous 
extracts, in the largest known type, from the Eastern press. 
And you feel that there is no more to be said. 
No more, at least, imtil you go to Illinois or Iowa. " That 
is the real America," said my neighbour at luncheon yester- 
day, " where you get men bom and brougJit up and sent to 
college and making their pile and living and dying with a 
thou-sand miles of land between thcni and, Ihe sea on either 
side. My other neighbour was from California, and told a 
different tale. And 1 was left thinking that no single part of 
the States is the real America, but the lowest common 
denominator of them all. The President and the .Adminis- 
tration of America, which governs America^ have to remember 
that , others are not so obliged. 
It is unprofitable to criticise the cities who proclaimed 
amid quotations from the Eastern press that America was 
thirsting for war two years ago, and that President Wilson 
was iKjIding her back. It was' true of t^e East ; the Middle 
and West were never put to the proof. (Jn the day of 
writing, tlie Selective Draft Bill has passed through Congress 
with a majority at which no one need cavil : the Middle and 
V\est are covered by its operation and will undoubtedly 
respect it, but the driving force behind the Bill in press 
and Coijgress, came from the East ; so urgent was the news- 
paper campaign on behalf of conscription, so unanimous too, 
that you wondered where the opposition was to be found. 
Again, it was in the Middle and the West, which have accepted 
the fact of war but are far from realising its demands. 
This broken continuity in the chain from Atlantic to 
Pacific — an antagonism of race, policy and thought every 
whit as pttmounced as the antagonism between South and 
North sixty years ago — is one of the things which it is hoped 
^the war in general and the Selective Draft in particular will 
cure. Universal service appeals to the Republican mind- 
appeals unduly, would say anyone who had seen the im- 
possibiHty of exacting equality of sacrifice in war; it seems 
the obvious reply to Alarshal joffre's call for men, the obvious 
fulfilment of the promise that America was entering the war 
with all her resources. It is the obvious imitation of the 
policy ado]>ted by the other Allies and may rouse emulation 
in Canada and Australia, which now stand in an anomalous 
position. But almost before everything else it seems the 
means of unifying the United States. The old Iwast that 
America was the melting pot of the world has not been heard 
so much of recent years ; too many hard new elements were 
poured in for the pot to retain its transmuting heat, and un- 
melted blocks of Ireland, Italy, Ruthenia, Poland and Ger- 
many lay scattered over the wide soil of the States — Italian, 
Polish, German, anything but American. Reflective writers 
have long pointed out that the American type was no longer ' 
being produced and that the American ideal was being lost 
^ to view. Conscription, which will unite the country's youth 
under a common discipline and for a common cause, is wel- 
comed — at least in the purer-blooded "Eastern States — as a 
great and necessary uniformer. 
And what the Selective Draft is expected to do for the 
tizens of America, the war itself is exuected to do for the 
world. In the East it has long been felt that America has 
outgrown the Monroe Doctrine. It is one thing to keep out 
of Kurojjean diplomatic embodiments when these are confined 
to Europe ; quite another when the submarine cable and 
wireless system have conspired to violate the privacy of the 
western World and interfere with its development ; when 
Germany seeks to starve England from fhe Atlantic home 
waters of the States and the whole of her diploinatii" and 
espionage artillery is erected on emplacements in the heart 
of America. It is impossible to keep out of the war, even 
were it desirable ; and it is being increasingly felt that one 
of the richest nations in the worUl, with a population of 
iTO,ooo,ooo-and its own cherished ideal of civilisation, should 
not even attemjit to evade its share of work in moulding the 
world's destinies. The Monroe Doctrine served a valuable 
purpose, but it would now only hinder and weaken where once 
it helped and protected. 
" We .Americans are iKid starters," to quote my neighbour 
again, " but we don't quit." They thoughft o%-er the change 
of policy before they made it. but once made, they will not 
revoke their decision. Monev is to be had for the asking 
— 20o,ooo,ocK) dollars for Great Britain this week — and men 
as soon as they can be traii>ed. It is no disparagement to 
their goodwill to say that they have leapt in tlie dark ; they 
will make all necessary sacrifices, though I fear that they 
have no conception of what the war has cost the Allies in 
men and money or how " the spring has been taken out of 
the year." All they ask is guidance, rasdising that their 
war administration is non-existent and hoping to profit 
by the mistakes of others. " (iuess you had to buy your 
experience," is the exordium to eve^y discussion of the 
war, until you wonder whether your own abused and derided 
(iovernment made so many mistakes after all. Almost you 
are tempted, when conscription is passed, because the volun- 
tary system failed so signally in Britain, to remirid your 
'.•is-a-iis that 5, 000,000. men were recruited under it. But 
the spirit of willingness to serve and eagerness to learn how 
to serN'e the common caifse is too good to mar. So far no 
preparations have been made, but tliey are being undertaken 
with almost revolutionary ardour. The cultivatioh of. the 
land, the scientific distribution of man-power, the no les.s 
scientific substitution in industry, the perfection of trans- 
port and the conservation of the country's material and 
monetary wealth are being worked out day and night, without 
waiting for legislation, by semi-private committees whose 
one aim is to have ready a proved and practicable scheme 
for the moment whei\.;the Administration requires one. 
.The Union Jack Club 
The following subscriptions have been received by us from 
time to time for the Union lack CInl) : — 
,( s. d. 
Major Herbert Sykes lu o 'i 
W-. Welsh, Esq. 50 
Mr. and Mrs. C. I. de Rougemont . . 
Mrs. Shawcross 
Commander G. Elias 
Grimsby Pontoon Club 
J. M. Dawkins, Esq. 
Ex. Libris 
Herbert Price, Esq. 
Miss Robertson 
Lt.-Col. G. G. Thatcher, R.F.A. 
A.N. 
H. H. Cassells, Esq. .. .. .. .. .. 10 
Miss Peggy de Fonblanque ' 5 
•J 
2 o o 
2 O O 
200 
200 
I 10 o 
I I 
lie 
lie 
IOC 
