October 4, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN. LONDON. W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4. 1917 
CONTENTS 
riie Modern Falstaff. By Louis Raemaekers 
HoiTibardment of London. (Leader) 
J'he Second Blow in I'landers. By Hilaire Belloc 
American Influence in the Balkans. By I>ewis ,K. 
Freeman 
A. Journal from a Legation. By Hugh Gibson ^ 
Life and Letters. By J. C. Squire 
\ Tale of the S<-a. Bv William McFee 
Jld Maid. Bv Alec W'augh. 
K.N.V.R. (A Foem). By N. M. F. Corbett. 
Notable Books 
J he British Firing Line, (Photograph) 
Our Campaign in Palestine. (Photoijraphs). 
Domestic Economy 
Kit and Equipment. 
P.AGE 
1 
9 
II 
14 
15 
lO 
17 
i8 
20 
25 
BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON 
THE bombardment of London has been in progress at 
nights more or less regularly for ten days. Two 
or three rather obvious facts stand out saliently. 
The enormous size of London is one. The Germans 
can claim truthfully to have dropped bombs on the British 
metropolis, though these explosions ma>- have been inaudible 
to one-half of the people of London. This is a fact to be 
emphasised, for probably even its own inhabitants have 
hardly realised before, except in the vaguest manner, 
what a vast area the name of that old Roman camp on a 
hillock above the Thames covers to-day. Wlien a Briton, an 
Ally or a Neutral reads that London has been bombarded, 
he must not regard it as though this thing had occurred in the 
city or town with which he is most familiar, but know it has 
happened to a county or big district. Another salient fact 
is the efficiency of the local defences under presenl circum- 
stances. Persistent attempts have been made by the enem\' 
planes under peculiarly favourable climatic conditions 
to penetrate to the heart of London. They have l)een prac- 
tically thwarted. Already Londoners, with that adaptive- 
ness to implcasant experiences and lUsregard of personal 
peril which is so distinctive of British <haracter, are personi- 
fying the local battt-rieswith whose reports tiiey are growing 
familiar. There is Long Tom, with the loud voice and long 
arm, who makes a big noise but is comforting. Mother Jones 
talks with a regular scream, but no hen clucks her chickens 
under her wing with a stronger sense of protection than she. 
And so it goes on. When a bomb falls, it is over almost 
before one knows it has fallen. " That's that " is tl^e usual 
remark if one is still there. The British Londoner has stood 
this bombardment with splendi<l composure and the more 
frequently it is renewed the less it perturbs him. 
But from these two farts spring others. It is obviously 
impossible that the county of London can ever be adequately 
protected locally. There is only one effective system of 
defence. It is an old system : Drake practised it when Eliza- 
lieth was Queen ; Nelson when George III. was on the throne. 
Carry the war into the enemy's country. It was, the harbours 
of Spain and France in those days ; it is the cities and towns 
of Germany to-day. There is nothing new in this so-called 
" policy of reprisals." England would not be England, 
had we not carried out this very policy in- otlier centuries. 
In these recent aerial lights over London, there have been 
as gallant men, as splendid dare-devils engaged as ever fought 
under Nelson and Drake. Give them the necessary craft 
and loose them, and Germany will rue the nights her bombs 
fell on London. Meantime, the Germans declaim (and we 
believe they are honestly of tliat opinion) that the only reason 
we do not invade tlieir citiesisthat weare unable or frightened 
to. In Mr. Hugh Gibson's story of Louva in, related to-day. 
a small incident is recorded, illuminative of the Teuton char- 
acter. A drunken German soldier insulted, one of their 
party. A German ofificer was luckily with the* ; " he uiaded, 
into the soldier in a way that would have caused a mutiny in 
any other army." The German's one idea of strength is 
ruthless brutality. We need not go to anything like his 
extremes, but before he will cry off, he must be taught that 
his enemy has it in his power to be just as brutal and ruthless 
as any German if it so pleases him. 
London will never be allowed to sleep quietly at nights 
until the invasion of Germany by air is an accomplished fact. 
When the accomplishment is carried into efiect, is a purely 
military question. Meantime, it is well to push on as rapidlj 
as possible with the building of aircraft. Like shipbuilding' 
of old, this is mainly a private enterprise ; wisely so, for it 
brings into play individual energy and daring. Behind 
these there must be money ; it is the duty of good citizens to 
support most liberally all aircraft enterprises, which are 
rightly organised and conducted and have proved their capa- 
city and efficiency for construction. We are building our 
aerial fleets in tlie same effective way as we constructed our 
wooden navies when British supremacy at sea was in the 
balance. Though we may have lagged behintl and have 
failed to envisage the sky peril, the bombardment of London 
has been a salutary lesson. The pride of the country is 
touched and the nation is now determined that in so far as it 
lies in its power, the noise of the last few nights over London 
shall bea child's rat-a-tat-tat compared with the drum-fire that 
shall resound through the cities of Germany before the winter 
is over. The magnificent feats of our flying men in Flanders 
is sufficient evidence that this is no empty threat. 
Another salient fact of the bombardment is that at last 
the general public have been awakened to the alien danger 
in our midst. It was a common sneer of Germans before 
the war that London was the cesspool of Europe. We have 
discovered in the last few days that thete is a much too 
considerable amount of unpleasant truth in this con- 
temptuous saying. A low type of Continental Jew has not 
merely on these nights attempted to invade, to the excliLsion 
of the local British poor, all the underground shelters, but 
this unsavoury crowd has, like a blocked sewer, spread 
itself over the Home Districts, swamping villages twenty and 
thirty miles away and even further where cheap railway 
transport is available. It is already becoming a sanitary 
menace in country districts, and serious steps will have to be 
taken without any delay. It is not a question at the out- 
set for the (iovernment, the local authorities should tackle 
it to begin with ; the London County Coui>cil setting 
the example. An L.C.C. Committee might be appointed 
at once to investigate the exodus antl general behaviour of 
these mobs of- imclean, undersized, ill-favoured folk during 
the last ten days, with a view to an attempt being made to 
head them back to the regions whence they came once the 
war is over. Always detested by the genuine Londoner, 
this detestation is developing into a stronger and more 
active feeling in many of the poorest districts, as the writer 
can declare out of personal experience. Not only have 
these aliens displayed miserable poltroonery— the men even 
worse than the women— but by their attitude and manner 
they have spread fear and promoted panic jiist when the 
genuine Londoner was doing his best to create confidence and 
composure. This alien danger will not cease with the war ; 
these creatures breed rapidly, a fact that has been recently 
only too unpleasantly obvious, and they are introducing into 
the nation a strain of blood most undesirable, physically 
and morally. It is no exaggeration to say that until this 
bombardment scared these human rats from their East End 
haunts, not one educated person in ten realised their existence, 
let alone their numbers.. It is all very well to allow the dogs 
to eat the crumbs that fall from the children's table, but when 
because of this kindness, the dogs multiply and begin to 
drive the children out of the home, drastic action must be 
taken. If the invasion of Gnman aeroplanes leads to this 
alien question l>eing at last dealt with in a thorough and 
serious manner, then we may feel with reason that there is a 
good side even -.to the bombardment of London. 
