November 8, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN, LONDON, W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1917 
CONTENTS 
$ 
The Bolo Conspiracy. By Louis Raemaekers. 
Speak Plainly. (Leader) 
The Tagliamento. By Hilaire Belloc 
Sweden and the War. By F. Henriksson 
The Power of the People. Bv L. P. Jacks 
Harvest aud Tillage. By Sir" Herbert Matthews 
The Tide of Battle. By Centurion 
On the Road. By J. C. Squire 
Books of tl,e \\'eek. 
The Invasion of Italy (Photographs) 
Domestic Economy. 
Kit and Equipment 
I 
3 
4 
8 
10 
12 
13 
i6 
• i8 
19 
20 
25 
SPEAK PLAINLY 
THE moment is opportune for a great declaration by 
one or more of the politicians whom the chance of their 
profession happens to have thrown into power among 
the Allied countries. It might come,' perhaps, with 
most force from that man who speaks with the greatest author- 
ity at this moment, and with the freshest and largest forces 
at his back — the President of the United States. It might 
take the form of a united declaration. But at any rate, the 
moment is rjpe for such a political action, and that action 
would not only be advisable and timely — one might almost 
say that it is an imperative necessity in this crisis : and one 
that cannot be delayed. 
The gravity of the situation created by the great disaster 
in Italy increases with ever\'' day, and, most unfortunately, 
public opinion has not fully seized the magnitude of the peril. 
It may even be doubted whether the Parliamentary statesmen 
finding themselves suddenly faced with this new call upon 
their resources, have fully grasped tjie profound significance 
of the enemy movements upon the Venetian Plain. It has 
already been pointed out in these columns that in mere scale 
the enemy victory upon the Isonzo and beyond is by far the 
biggest thing that has yet happened in the war. It has in- 
volved, in a far shorter time, far greater lo.sses of men and 
material tiian did any other action of any belligerent during 
the three years and more that the war has proceeded. More 
than this, more than the mere matter of scale, the enemy 
victory upon the Isonzo has for the first time thoroughly 
shaken and tlireatened with dissolution the whole of an 
Allied Army organisation. It would be an exaggeration, of 
course, to say that the enemy had achieved a decision. As 
yet he has not done so. It is unfortunately true to say that 
ho has, for the first time since the Battle of the Marne, 
produced a military situation such that a decision hangs in 
the balance. 
Now if there is one plain duty before the journalist in a time 
of national cxisis, it is the re-enforcement, so far as words 
can rc-enforce it, of the national soul. The business of the 
publicist, and of the modern Parliamentary politician too, for 
that ma tter, is to confirm and sustain within the limited measure 
of his capacity, the spirit of the nation. The tendering of 
advice to the soldiers as to what their disposition should be, 
is not only unpardonable folly, but constitutes a national 
danger. The interference with men in command on account 
of private jealousies and of private intrigues' is more 
detestable still. In such actions, conducted by publicist 
or statesman, we have forces at work directly opposed to 
our interests, and directly favouring those of the enemy. 
It would Ix; lamentable if any such forces were to 
prevail at the present time. Bnb the other 
function, plain, wholesome, and clearly imposed upon 
every writer and every speaker at this moment, needs 
no apology and no defence. To confirm the national will, 
and to keep the national spirit strong there is no necessity 
to boast — everyone can see that there is no occasion for boast- 
ing to-day— there is still less any necessity, as some imagine , 
or pretend to imagine, for recurrent panic and sensationalism, 
which its supporters plead to be in some way a spur to action. 
All that is needed is to put the facts clearly before the pubhc 
— that should be done throughout the whole course of the 
war, regularly and frequently — and in exceptional moments 
as the present, to plead, not for a military policy, which a jour- 
nalist is quite incompetent to discuss, but for a political policy, 
especially of the domestic kind, which he is competent to 
discuss, and which it is his duty to present. 
The politicians have not appreciated at all the importance 
of keeping the public, when it is at war, fully, frequentlj', 
and regularly informed. The fact that so much must be 
hidden has been made a cover for mere slackness in giving in- 
formation, or what is worse, ifn occasional violent exaggera- 
tion of the favourable features coupled with a hiding away 
of the unfavourable. It is not too' late, even now, for this 
grave fault upon the part of our politicians to be remedied. 
It is still possible for opinion to be formed — as much foreign 
opinion is, and as American opinion certainly is going to be — 
upon the main features of the war and its progress, the best 
estimates numbers, material, losses, and so forth. This, we 
say, is a normal policy of which we stand in great need. But 
there is also the particular policy that this article is 
written to advocate, which is that of a solemn pro- 
nouncement by the Western Allies that they still intend to 
save civilisation thoroughly in spite of th^ very heavy and 
novel burden just laid upon those who hoped they had nearly 
accomplished the task. Unless such a pronouncement is 
made, and made soon, opinion, which is almost overwhelmed 
by the rapidity of the enemy's advance in Italy, may waver, 
and may suffer from that confusion which is the gravest of 
all civilian weakness in time of war. 
There is also this advantage to be gained from a public 
and solemn pronoimcement in the name of the Alliance at 
this moment. It. will fix opinion, it will define the boundaries 
within which we are acting, and it will direct the motive 
for which such terrible sacrifices have been made. In a word 
it will anchor the .\llies. There is a danger of drift, as there 
always is in moments of unexpected strain. There is a danger 
of confused advices and of very dangerous fallacies in public 
reasoning upon the international affair. All that needs 
fixing, and a public pronouncement would fix it firmly. In 
the House of Commons on Tuesday evening, Mr Asquith, 
referring to his speech at the Guildhall three years ago to- 
morrow in which he defined the aims for which England 
entered the war, said : " Unless and until these are 
attained, there is no hope for *he enduring peace of the 
world." This statement should be now publicly re-asserted 
in the plainest terms so that no miscomprehension can 
exist anywhere. 
No matter what the peril, no matter what the increase of 
burden, no matter what the unexpected severity of this new 
strain may be, civilisation cannot afford to admit its own defeat. 
It would be suicide. The decent, humane, immensely fruitful 
tradition of England and France and of all the West, cannot 
admit a new code of warfare which is no better than in- 
discriminate murder, and which, once accepted unpunished as 
a precedent, would prevent security in the future. Civilisation 
cannot admit the violation of treaties. Civihsation cannot 
admit the enslavement as prisoners of war, even of combatants 
—let alone of civilians, and of women and young girls. 
Civilisation cannot admit the massacre of hostages. Precisely 
because our ultimate' task appears at this moment more 
difficult than it has appeared for many months past ; precisely 
liecause we are met by a new, sudden, and unexpected change 
— precisely on that account, must we put forward again— 
and in the plainest and most uncompromising tenns — the 
very full of our demands. 
The whole war now depends upon the moral attitude ot 
either side. If we weaken in our attitude our enemies 
have conquered, and with them the forces that would dissolve 
Europe. If we meet them with as proud a declaration as we 
met them before this their last success, we sliall reduce them, for 
we have still, on the whole, the larger resources and the 
stronger faitU 
