July 5, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
The enemy did not take advantage of his opportunity and gas 
in general has fallen, since it ceased to have the effect of sur- 
prise, to an auxiliary form of attack which has never proved 
decisive. The Allies, after a brief and natural hesitation, were 
compelled to follow the evil example set by Prussia and here, 
as in every other single case where the older civilisation 
suffered from tardiness or reluctance, it has, with the efflux 
of time, prdved its superiority. The Allied use of gas is 
superior to the enemy's use of gas at the present moment. 
At the same time, what always happens in war occurred 
with the case of a gas attack. A defensive rapidly developed 
against the new offensive weapon, a gas helmet was provided 
and improved. The new weapon has now become a common- 
place of the great war. It has not and we may confidently 
say will not prove of decisive effect. 
The other novelty of what may be called the forbidden sort 
(as distinguished from the development of trench weapons, 
etc.), is the use of flame, whether in the form of projectors or 
of inflammable material discharged to a distance and there 
set fire to. The defence against this new offensive has not 
developed with the same rapidity as the defence against gas, 
but as in the case of gas the new weapon has proved in no 
way decisive. It sometimes produces small local successes, 
as on the plateau, of Craonne the other day, but it has pro- 
duced nothing more. It would seem, at any rate, in its present 
state of development, to be one of those military inventions, 
the lack of mobility in which outweighs their offensive power. 
\\'ith gas, and the use of flame we exhaust those novelties 
against armed forces which broke the original conventions of 
liiu'ope in the field and, as I have said, neither of them has 
proved of decisive effect. 
But when we come to the other category, the violation of 
non-belligerent rights, we find the mihtary effect of the 
Prussian immorality to be very considera])le : So consider- 
able that the enemy until quite lately believed it to be decisive 
and still permits his publicists to spread the illusion tliat it 
may be decisive. 
There are three main divisions of these crimes : First, the 
violation of neutral territory. Secondly, the enslavement of 
populations whose territory is occupied, and thirdly, the 
murder of non-belhgerents. 
If the war be examined with, the largest vision, it will be 
clear that upon these crimes alone has the enemy been able 
for a long time past to count for any chance of escape from the 
punishment that threatens him. He is here in a vicious 
circle. The very actions which would increase the severity of 
his punishment are those by which alone he can hope to 
escape that punishment. It was submarine murder, for 
instance, which brought in the United States, and yet sub- 
marine murder was by his own calculation and open con- 
fession, his chief standby. In the same way the enslavement 
of poprdation on the northern frontier of France has, more 
powerfully than any other of the enemy's crimes, produced 
the specific determination to destroy its authors. But the 
enemy would tell you that but for such enslavement he could 
not have maintained himself physically at all, and that by 
enslavement alone has he been able to continue the war. 
The violation of neutral territory, to take the first of these 
crimes in its order, has had upon the course of the war a 
strategical effect of the first magnitude. And I propose to 
examine the effect of this novelty iij next week's article. 
H. Belloc. 
{To be continued). 
The Editor of Land & Water is always glad io receive 
photographs or pictures illustrating the countries in which 
the forces of the British Empire are now engaged. If not 
possible for publication they will be immediately returned. 
The A.P.M, 
By Centurion 
An A.P.M. has more acquaintances and fewer friends 
/% than any officer in His Majesty's forces. It is his 
/ ^ duly to know everyone wisely but not to know 
-A. JL.anyone too well. He should never accept hospi- 
tality, and rarely offer it, unless it be a lodging for the 
night. If he offers you this form of entertainment you 
cannot refuse. He has to know all about etiquette ; if he 
asks an officer for his name and regiment he must be careful 
to have his armlet on, and if he enters another A. P-M's 
beat " he must be equally careful to have it off. He 
should know a lady when he sees one. He may ask an 
officer for his belt, but he should not ask him for his " slacks." 
He should never swear, except at a court-martial, and then 
not profanely. It is never safe to ask him the way, as he is 
naturally suspicious and may think you know it but cannot 
walk it. The fact that he is called Assistant Provost - 
Marshal does not mean that he is meant to assist officers 
home, though he sometimes offers to do so. When he does 
that be sure you ask for a medical officer as soon ♦as you get 
there, and say you don't feel at all well. The A.P.M. has few 
equals and no superiors. He can ask any officer he likes to go 
for a walk with him, though it is a mistake to suppose this is a 
compliment, and it is unwise to refuse. He is privileged to at- 
tend executions, which he does with a pocket-handkerchief, 
but not to blow his nose. He is very fond of exercise. He 
takes other people's pleasures sadly. He has a profound dis- 
trust of human nature but he is seldom indignant and never 
surprised. It is very difficult to make him see a joke — 
(■specially a practical one. His manners are, indeed, more 
subdued than jovial ; he will sometimes touch an officer on the 
shoulder, but he rarely slaps him on the back. He is fond 
of^frequenting estaminets, especially after 8 p.m., but this does 
not mean that he has convivial tastes. He has the insati- 
able curiosity of a child without its ingenuousness— his 
curiosity lacks charm. 
From all of this it will be gathered that an A.P.M., although 
invariably a man of parts, is usually, more feared than loved. 
He is a lonely man. 
Now there was once a young A.P.M. who feared neither 
God nor man— always excepting the P.M. who is a 
Brigadier and has power to bind and loose. He was zealous 
• — so much so that the zeal of his office had almost eaten him 
up. So when he was not posting road-controls and instruct- 
ing examining posts or parading his " red cap---," he would 
sit and meditate on spies like the harlot in the Book of Joshua. 
In the matter of spies your Intelligence Officer is the plain- 
clothes man and your A.P.M. is the policeman ; the Intelli- 
gence picks up the scent but the A.P.M. does the kill. Now 
this young A.P.M. longed with a great longing for a bag. So far 
he had had no luck. It never seemed to come his way as it 
came the way of other fellows he knew. There was Wetherby 
in a certain home Command, who had had a glorious stunt, 
capturing the commercial traveller with a valise of saturated 
underclothing which had yielded the most surprising results 
in the hands of an analytical chemist ; there was Chipchase, 
A.P.M. to a Division, who had located the sniper under the 
tombstone just behind our lines ; there was Ledger who had 
caught a female of disarming ingenuousness at a certain Base 
as the result of a train of induction which began with no other 
data than the -fact that in knitting she always looped the yarn 
over the forefinger of the left hand instead of the right, and 
in eating laid her knife and fork parallel across her plate, 
which is a way they have in Germany — but then Ledger 
had had a German governess and his bag was luck, pure luck. 
Still these things showed what could be done by observation. 
One morning as he was sitting in his office making up 
his weekly report, the orderly entered and placed a buff- 
coloured envelope in the " In " box where it lay until such time 
as the A.P.M., glancing up from his papers, chanced to observe 
that it was marked " Confidential." He languidly ripped it 
open with a bored intuition that some officer had been over- 
staying his leave or having a difference of opinion with Mr. 
Cox about the principles of banking. Then he suddenly sat 
up in his chair as he caught the head note " From the Com- 
mander of the — — Naval Base to the A.P.M; of the 
District." And this is what he read : 
" Lieutenant Commander— — — of the Night Patrol reports 
that about 1 1 p.m. on the 25th, he observed irtermittent lights 
on the coast some 300 yards from Winstone Point. They 
appeared to be signals in the Morse code addressed to some 
ship at sea. We have no signaUing station at that point. 
Lt.-Commdr. was unable to read the messages in full, 
owing to the signals being apparently addressed to someone 
lyirg nearer in shore . The only words he succeeded in detect- 
ing were " Yes," "No," "Repeat." There has been con- 
siderable activity of late on the part of U boats along this 
coast, under circumstances which seem to indicate precise 
knowledge of the sailings from — — harbour. It \vill be 
remembered that on the 25th a tramp steamer which had 
cleared from the harbour about 10 p.m., while following 
the course indicated in the Admiralty sailing instructions, and 
showing neither port nor starboard lights, was torpedoed 
about midnight. I should be glad if you would keep tliis 
locality under strict observation please.' 
The A.P.M. read this through twice. There ■might be 
nothing in it, of course — he had known more thamouco what 
