June jS^ 1917 
LAND di WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN, LONDON, W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THUR SDAY, JUNE 28. 1917 
CONTENTS 
PAGE 
Reprisals. By Louis Raemaekers i 
Past and Future. (Leader) 3 
Transformation of War. By Hilaire Bclloc 4 
German Disintegration on the West. By Edmund Dane 6 
Motherbank. By The Author of A Grand Fleet Chap- 
lain's Notebook 8 
Why We Must Have Victory. By G. K. Chesterton 9 
British Salmon Fisheries. Letter by Maurice Portal 10 
Past and Future. — III. By Jason , n 
Recitations in Public. By J. C. Squire i.> 
liooks to Read. By Lucian Oldershaw 15 
The Charity that' Continued Abroad. By Stephen 
McKonna 16 
Ypres Salient. (With Photographs) 18 
Domestic Economy 20 
Kit and Equipment 25 
PAST AND FUTURE 
HE who has seen a village or town that has been 
bombarded can never forget the shock caused 
him by the hrst sight of a house, the outer wall of 
which had been broken down by shell-fire. 
It was not so much the desecration of a home that created 
this painful impression as the fact that its intimacies were 
brutally laid bare ; its dignities and joys ruined and be- 
{ouled, its household gods maimed and shattered. No repair 
of such a house were possible ; the broken walls must be 
pulled down and a new home built on the site. Only after- 
wards, when the first sense of horror had passed away, did the 
thought occur that this rebuilding would give an opportunity 
for construction on a better plan, one more adapted to the 
circumstances of the day, and into whicli the newest comforts 
and conveniences of science and modern life might be happily 
introduced. Such a war-broken home is symbolical of the 
li\-es of the great majority of us, and certainly of our national 
existence. The question may well be asked, are the plans 
for the great rebuilding being prepared ; are skilled archi- 
tects busy on the designs and estimates, so that when the hour 
strikes there shall be no delay in putting the necessary work 
i n hand ? War has destroyed many conventions and customs, 
good, bad and indifferent. Are we both individually and 
collectively, through the Government, getting ready to replace 
them with better customs and conventions that shall embody 
the higher ideals and nobler freedoms which these terrible 
times have fostered ? 
Under the title that appears at the head of this article, 
a writer closely in touch with the more urgent problems of 
reconstruction is contributing a series of artiw'es to L.\nd & 
\Vater which go deeply into the question. Last week 
Jason, for so he signs himself, pointed out that " when the 
father of Frederick the Great gave to Prussia the most per- 
fectly drilled infantry in the world, he gave her the basis on 
which later rulers were to build up her civilisation," German 
civilisation is the organisation of camp and barrack square 
carried into every department of national existence. Her 
spiritual pastors and masters are merely drill -sergeants in 
different coloured uniforms. " The same motive that makes 
the German State insure the workman and consider his healtli 
and housing, makes it refuse him the right of free speech and 
any control over the affairs of his national life." He con- 
trasted the military civilisation of Germany with the con- 
ditions that have been called into e.xistence in this country 
by the exigencies of war, and he showed that beneath a 
superficial resemblance there is a vast radical difl'efence. 
So far from military service compelling the men of Britain 
to yield their personal rights to flic drill-sergeant, it is inspiring 
them to set a new value on these rights. " The more ready a 
man is to risk his own life, the higher the value he puts on it- 
He offers it to his country as the highest sacrifice he can 
make, but the very fact that his life is trembhng in the balance 
gives it a new significance and value. For this reason the 
man who endures all the discomforts and the hardships and 
the dangers of this war, will not put up with the standards 
that seemed tolerable before the war." Can we expect it 
of him .' It is true that the State only asked for his service 
for three years or the duration of the war. But having given 
his service to the State and having taken his share of the 
risks and perils it involved, it is inconceivable that the State 
can regard its duty to him ending when the war ends. It will 
only begin then, for in the future State which the manhood of 
Britain has rendered possible, every man will demand and 
rightly demand a larger share of liberty than he has enjoyed 
in the past, except he belonged to the small privileged class- 
And he looks to the State— that is to the Government, as 
things are, to obtain it for him. 
The same writer, in the present 'issue, discloses the meaning 
of industrial discontent. Can any reasonable being read 
through the article to-day without finding his respect for the 
working man increased ? We have before this remarked how 
irrational it is to proclaim tenacity and loyalty to one's 
fellows when exercised at home as heinous offences, but when 
displayed in the firing line as splendid heroism. No man 
that is true to himself keeps a different suit of virtues for 
different circumstances. The war has proved that the martial 
character of the blood has suffered no deterioration since 
Magna Carta was signed at Runnymedc or the New MAdcl 
army charged on Nascby field ; that being so it has to be 
recognised that the liberties on which the people have set 
their heart will be won by them sooner and later. We 
maintain it to be the duty of the Government, without relaxing 
its prosecution of the war, to prepare plans whereby these 
liberties may be obtained when civil life-is restored. But 
first of all the Government must purge itself of those bureau- 
cratic methods which have brought the Ministry of Munitions 
into disrepute in labour circles. Espionage is so utterly 
Opposed to the spirit of this country that the eqpployment 
of '' secret agents " in factories and works is bound to breed 
discontent. We are relieved to know that this anti- English 
practice is not hkely to be revived. It was a grievous blundci" 
and could not be justified by any circumstances. 
The failure of National Service has proved how numerous 
and difficult are the intricacies and obstacles which have to 
be avoided, mastered and overcome if success is to be certain 
on a large scale. We can never go back to the old days ," only 
the hopelessly indolent or the selfishly comfortable desire 
it, but to combine what was best in the past with what is 
best in the present and so construct the future is a stupendous 
task. We do not yet comprehend the full significance of the 
new education of women, for it is education in the broadest 
and most liberal sense which has taken ^lace in this country 
during the last three years, and not emancipation as some 
seem to think. Woman has learnt both her power and her 
weakness. The vote, in our opinion, will make a much 
smaller difference than its more ardent advocates and antago- 
nists imagine. Woman will not be content to revert to the 
narrow spheres to which her energy and usefulness were 
confined before the war, nor would we have it so, for in all 
communities where the sexes stand on the closest level of 
physical, intellectual and spiritual freedom, progress and 
liberty flourish best. 
The greatef employment of female labour is bound to con- 
gest the labour market unless action is taken in good time 
to increase the industrial output. Then looms up that most 
horrid rock of all — unemployment. Employment must be 
found for every man and woman who honestly desires to 
work, and those who of their own choice refuse to work, 
should be compelled to do so. How few the latter really 
are, is evidenced by the almost total lack of unemployment 
that exists at present. It is dreadful to reaUse that war has 
made possible a higher level of comfort and industry among 
the lower classes of this land than peace with all its blessings. 
This cannot be tolerated in the future, but it can oiUy bo 
prevented by taking thought in good time. 
