August 9, 1917 
LANU & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN. LONDON, W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 9. 1917 
CONTENTS 
PAGE 
Anarchy. By Louis Raemaekers 
The Stockholm Conference (Leader) 
Opening of the Flanders Battle. By Hilaire Belloc 
Naval Review of the Year. By Arthur Pollen 
Forestry Development. (A Letter) By P. T. Maw 
Letters" from a Legation. By Hugh Gibson 
Merchant Seamen. (A Poem.) By N. M. F. Corbett 
A Flying Episode. By Morley Sharp , 
A Novel at Seventeen. By J. C. Squire 
Books to Read. By Lucian Oldershaw 
The Village Church. By Charles Marriott 
The Long Green Path. By J. D. Symon 
The Commodore. By William McFcc 
Beyond Bagdad. By L. Harrison 
Domestic Economy 
Kit and Equipment 
I 
3 
4 
9 
10 
II 
13 
IZ 
13 
14 
15 
i6 
^7, 
i8 
/ 
22 
23 
T 
I 
THE STOCKHOLM CONFERENCE 
HERE should not be a Stockholm Conference. The 
more closely the reasons for it are analysed, the more 
certain it becomes that the Conference is part and 
parcel of German propaganda, not to secure a 
German peace — at least not at this stage — but to weaken 
the resolution of the Alhes in the lightness of their cause and 
to create the illusion in their minds that after three years of 
warfare which has drenched Europe in blood they may now 
safely consider the means of terminating the dciily loss of 
life and the infinite distress. It may be stated without fear of 
contradiction that there is no thinking person who docs not 
desire the war to end as soon as may be, but the Prime 
Minister defined correctly this attitude of mind when he stated 
at the Queen's Hall on Saturday : " War is a ghastly thing ; 
butnotas grim as a bad peace." Wehave therefore the choice 
Df two, and only two alternatives — war or a bad peace ? Can 
there be any hesitation in our decision. Two years ago, or 
even a year ago, there might have been some wavering, but 
not to-day. At that time Germany had no wish for peace, she 
still behcved the victory was in her grasp that would B*ako 
her the ultimate arbiter of the destiny and fate of civihsation. 
Now that she realises this is impossible, she works foi breatli- 
ing-timc, for a few years of repose in which she may again 
fool Europe while she prepares for Europe's enslavement. 
Wherefore she raises the cry, " Is it peace ? " through all the 
subterranean channels which she has cunningly prepared 
by a system of subornation extending over a long period of 
time ; and the only answer that the Alhes can make to her 
messengers is the old one : " What hast thou to do with 
peace ? Turn thee behind mc." 
The Stockholm Conference is to come before the Labour 
Party Conference to-morrow, when the question whether or 
not British Labour delegates shall attend will be decided 
by voting. Feelings run strongly, but the mass take the 
common-sense view that any parleying with the enemy at an 
International Conference is impossible at this juncture, 
seeing that this fact will be used by Germany, no matter 
how strongly the Allies' case may be stated, to the disadvan- 
tage of the Allies. Undue emphasis is laid on the sentiment 
'of Russia. We have to face the truth, far from agreeable 
though it be, that popular sentiment in Russia at the present 
time is in a state of chaos. The signs of renewed order have 
not been unfavourable during the last few days, but it would 
be madness for the other Allies to weaken their position under 
the mistaken idea that by so doing they will hearten and 
encourage Russia. These arc the troubled waters in which 
it has always delighted Germany to fish ; evciyone knows 
now that the Balkan unrest was dchbcratcly fomented in 
order to further the world-might policy of the Kaiser and 
the Pan-Getmans. and no one can doubt that internal 
unrest in Russia is being employed for the same purpose. If 
only the British Labour Party can be deceived into beUcving 
the presence of delegates will render assistance to the cause ■ 
of order and defence at Petrograd and Moscow, Berlin will 
be happy, for she herself has no delusions regarding the 
currents and cross-currents which are flowing so strongly in 
the dominions of her northern enemy. In this diraetion 
she looks for sah-ation, for the miracle that shall save her 
from the punislunent which the Alliance is now capable of 
inflicting, if the war continues to be prosecuted with vigour 
and determination. 
The formation of the German Imperial Government, under 
the new Chancellor Herr Michaelis, should leave no doubt in 
British minds that Germany is as she always has been, a de- 
spotism. The idea of placing power in the hands of the 
people is as far as ever from the thought of her rulers, one 
reason being that the people do not in their hearts desire the 
power. The war was willed by the Geiman people in the 
firm conviction that it would extend and greatly increase 
the material wealth and prosperity which three previous wars 
had bestowed On them. They accepted willingly the 
discipline imposed by their rulers as the price of prosperity ; 
and in the last three years they have carried out without 
regret or hesitation the most brutal and barbarian orders 
on the assumption that they were necessary for victory. 
Victory delays, but in German minds this does not mean 
defeat hastens. The German jicople undoubtedly do long 
for the war to end, but they have no genuine desire that 
their form of Government shall change. Recent events in 
Russia bear testimony to the well-drilled orderly Teuton 
nature that the rule of the AU-Highest is the best for national 
efficiency and personal comfort under normal circum- 
stances which will return presently. It is an utter fallacy to 
assume there exists a natural craving in the breasts of German 
citizens for a form of Government to which we apply the word 
democracy, often erroneously as Dr. Jacks pointed out last 
week^ We have to prove the higher worth of democratic ideals 
if the German people are to be converted to our way of think- 
ing, and that proof can only bo established by the complete 
military defeat of German despotism. Until it has been 
utterly discredited on the battlefield, where the foundations 
of its power were laid, it is folly to expect the people on whom 
it has bestowed in the past so many good things, so far as 
this world goes', to withdraw their trust. To quote Dr. Jaclcs : 
'• It is too early fbr democrats to exult over the triumphs of 
their cause since 1914. The question is, will these triumphs 
stand ? They will not stand if the Germans win." 
There can be no gainsaying this truth, and it is for this 
reason that the Stockholm Conference seems entirely out of 
place in so far as the Alhes are concerned. Their aims 
have been most clearly defined in the plain and unam- 
biguous words which the President of the United States has 
both spoken and written. " What would the future of the 
human race be worth if the dehberate and calculated bar- 
barism of our enemies overran the world ? " asked Mr. Page, 
the United States Ambassador in his eloquent speech at 
Plymouth on Saturday. In his official position Mr. Page 
has had before him documentary evidence not available to 
the world at large, and he declares[once again the war was 
thrust upon us. Last week we referred to the secret Potsdam 
Conference of July 5th, 1914, and now the Daily Telegraph 
gives us the wording of the lying message which the German 
Emperor with his own hand wrote to President Wilson on 
August loth, 1914, and which was sent to him through Mr. 
Gerard, the American Ambassador in Berhn. To quote 
Mr. Page's words again : " This is a time of the heroic cleans- 
ing of the earth of that ancient and deadly malady, military 
despotism " — despotism which turns into mockery truth, 
justice, honour, freedom, in a word every ideal for which 
humanity has been prepared to lay down its life in the past. 
And now Germany's rulers " appeal to the pity of the world 
they set out to subdue." We have to be on our guard against 
this last danger, which is as formidable a peril to the future 
peace of the world as anyjwith which the nations have been 
menaced by Germany in the past. 
