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Land ex W^ater 
February 7, 19 1-8 
shown in communicating to the German agents in the AUicd 
coimtrio'^ arguments for publication. In England antl 
Amt'rica wc have had Alsace Lorraine harped upon perpetually 
and its insignificance to the Britisli and American public 
emphasised. In the corresponding quarters in France we 
ha\-e had the exactly opposite suggestion -the suggestion 
that France could obtain ver\' liberal terms, and that the 
prolongation of the war was onlv a capitalist and therefore 
• hiefly a British commercial interest. 
While this h;is been the principal method, one of the sub- 
sidiary- ones has been the deliberate sparing of Paris from 
air raids while the raiding <)f London got more and more 
severe. It was calculateil both that this policy would tend 
to increase a desire for peace auKmg the French and a dis- 
content with the authorities on the part of the En^ish who 
would contrast the immunity of Paris with the peril of 
London, and complain that "their defences were neglected 
or in bad hands. Indeed, we know that such complaints were 
made freely and that the enemy f)bjcct was therefore in part 
achieved. Now in a mood of petulance the enemy throws 
up the whole of this plan, and by a raid on Paris which, of 
course, he could have carried out at any time in the last two 
years, has destroyed all the effect of his former policy. 
Allies Aerial Offensive 
The second point is also of great interest. The raid on 
Paris, like all those on London, shows us what the new feature 
will be in the coming phase of the war. It will be, as we all 
kncnv, the gieatly increased effect of the flying machine an 1 
in particular the effect it will have upon a civilian population. 
What we have to remember is that hitherto, as in every other 
singl<> case of the enemy's abandonment of common European 
niorals, the advantage consequent upon such a breach of 
implied contract has during the first period lain with him. 
It was so with the use of poison gas. It has been so for months 
in the case of the submarine. It will be so should he take 
to tainting the water supplies of great towns — were that 
possible to him— or to any other form of that indiscriminate 
imu-der to which he has reduced the noble profession of arms 
and by wliicli he hai disgraced the old pride of the soldier. 
Now in this case, unlike the example of the submarine and 
like the example of the poison gas, his breach of common 
European morals will hardly be to his advantage. It is true 
that the capitals, Berlin and Vienna, are much further from 
the lines than Paris and London. But, on the other hand, 
modern Germany is a confederation and the chief centre of its 
industrial life is, though much further from the lines than 
Paris, yet well within \'ulnerable distance. When everything 
is ready for prolonged and repeated Allied action agaiiist the 
towns of the Rhine basin, the enemv will as sureh' Vegret his 
inauguration of this form of warfare' as he has learnt to regret 
his inauguration of the use of poison gas in .\pril 1915. 
(ierman Civilian Moral 
The remaining strei gth of Germanv in this war reall\- 
depends upon the imnia.uty of its civilian population. The 
lact that the battles have been fought on the soil of the Allies 
and that German soil has remained intact, that the German 
towns have been well lit and normally protected during the 
courst> of the war, that all the circumstances of civilised life 
.save the actual privations throngli the blockade, have been 
those of a people shielded from the consequences of war, 
which have given to the enemy a constancy not always founcl 
in the Grand Alliance. 
The (ierman is peculiarly susceptible to nerves. Neglecting 
altogether the newspaper telegrams purporting to come from 
Holland and Switzerland, we know from excellent sources 
what the effect of bombing has been on Treves and Karlsruhe. 
Civilian moral in those unllapp^• places, to cpiote but two, has 
gone to pieces, and the shrieks of the German Press, in re- 
gard to the latter to An especially, were like nothing that has . 
appeared m the Allied Press even after the worst raids on 
London. 
.\n intensi\e j^o'icy of raiding, therefore, on the part of the 
Allies, when their superior resources shall have given them, as 
they soon will, an ample material for such action, will have a 
very great effect upon the enemy*and perhaps a decisive one. 
The Strikes I 
It is difficult to assess the exact value of the strikes in Berlin 
and the mdustrial centres of Germany. We know that the 
civilian element is well disciplined ; we also know that the 
working classes are suffering from privations of fooJ. More- 
over, It was palpable that if the strikes threatened to work 
serious harm to the armies in the field, thev would be suppressed 
with the same mercilessness that Prussian militarism alwaj's 
show-, to those over \\;hom it has power, whenever they stand 
in its way. 
The most important factor is that these strikes recur ; and 
their recurrence becomes more and more frequent. Bread 
rather than franchise is probabh' the main cause, but ex- 
perience teaches directly ci\il disciiiline give* way, the revolt 
receives help from all to whom this discipline is repugnant. 
There is good reason to believe that the spirit of these 
strikes has touched the (ierman N'avy more than once, but 
there is no evidence that it has yet reached the (ierman ,\rmy, 
and until the army is affected, no political significance can be 
attached to them, beyond that they are straws, showing how 
the popular breeze is changing. 
British Ag-riculturists 
The leading agriculturists were invited to meet Mr. Prothero 
and Lord Rliondda at Westminster last week : they accepted 
the invitation, heheving that an opjiortunity was to be afforded 
to them to express their views, to oStain exact information 
and to remove from the official mind certain misunder- 
standings. They went away disappointed, for all that their 
long journey had resulted in was to listen to two speeches, 
good in their way. but which carried the practical farmer no 
larther. The Minister of .Agriculture has, we are glad to say, 
been quick to rectify the error ; he has invited these same 
gentlemen to return to Westminster next Wednesday, ivjjen he 
will be ready to listen to them. 
There is no great industry which suffers so acutely as 
agriculture from ignorance, and from that peculiarly pernicious 
form of ignorance which arises out of superficial knowledge. 
The scientist is not the least offender in this respect ; nor is 
this surprising when we bear in mind that science and chemistry 
have been powerless to demonstrate why a few acres on a 
certain hillside can produce a grape or a coffcc-bcan possessed 
of a fIa\-our impossible elsewhere, or why, as in Cuba, a single 
valley grows tobacco leaves having an aroma impossible to 
reproduce in other quarters of the world. 
The conservatism of the farmer, which we arc apt to deride, 
is much like the conservatism of the Oriental, which the 
Western mind is at last beginning to comprehend ; it is based 
on empirical knowledge, which has time and again proved 
Itself a sounder guide than scientific advice. The fault that 
has been made in all food production schemes in this country 
IS that the advice of the trained agriculturist has not been 
sufficiently sought or followed. 
Wages Committee 
Meantime the farmers are working heart and soul to place 
the agricultural industry in a sounder position than before. 
The Agricultural Wages Board has just issued a circular to 
all farmers asking them to give every facility to those of their 
men who may be elected b\- the fellow-labourers to service 
on the District Wages Committees. 
" Nothing in our opinion." the Board writes, "would be 
more detrimental to the interests of agriculture than an 
attempt by individuals to interfere with or impede the acce pt- 
ance b\- aii\' man of an invitatipn to represent his class on 
these Committees." 
Public Rationing- 
Ratio'iing is at last in sight : before the month is out, all 
arrangements should have been completed in so far as meat 
and fats are concerned. Bread may soon be added to the 
list. Meantime, th queues continue to increale, and those 
who hold that there is a fascination for a certain type of woman 
in standing in queues, seem to be justified. 
As was to be expected, the difficulties of marketing are far 
greater in towns than in the country, where, beyond a differ- 
ence in quality, things remain more" or less normal. There is 
still plenty of game in the country, and we wonder whether 
it will be permissible to market the eggs of pheasants and 
partridges. One knows by experience that the first nests of 
both might be taken without diminishing the stock next 
autumn, provided, of course, thf wejither be favourable 
f Jf the second brood. Sea-birds' eggs were as a matter of fact 
used for food in increasingly large numbers last spring in the 
North of England What "is required in these times is a 
supple mind that is always on the look out for new food. 
These proposals we are aware are trivial ones, but they are 
put forward not f r th ir intrinsic merit, but merely to suggest 
how in a sco^e of little ways evervonc can help towaifds the 
solutio.i of food pio')lems. Think what the countless roods of 
potato patches did last yrer, in so far as this staple was con- 
cerned. The more an individual, whether living in town or 
country, can be self-supporting, the better service lie renders 
to his countrv 
