Land & Water 
February 14, 191 8 
economic side of the question also— the iron supply of 
l^ssia with all its consequences— is appreciated m America 
better than it is licre, botli by the minority which supports 
secretly or openly the Prussian claim, and by the majority 
which "is determined to destro>- that claim for good in l<,urope. 
The trial of Bolo in Paris has not been reported in any 
intelligible fashion upon this side of the Channel. No one 
competent in French procedure or even in the French language 
seems to have dealt with the subject at all. It is no wonder 
that opinion in general is simply bewildered by the accounts 
it is given to read. Vet tlie main lines of. the affair are per- 
fectly simple. A shadv financier of base origin, a true modern 
type' common to all modern countries, and usually exercising 
great power over wliat are ironically called " representative 
institutions " is accused of having received enemy money to 
serve enemy purposes in the Alhed countries. He is compelled 
to admit the reception of very large sums, certain of which 
. undoubtedly come through enemy channels. He explains 
his jx)ssesssion of them after a fashion with which we liad grown 
unfortunately familiar ourselves owing to jxilitical scandals 
at home before the war. He says that he has never kept 
records of payments or receipts, however large, and that vast 
but quite unexplained financial operations in which he was 
engaged (and of which also tliere is no record) accounts for 
everything. 
There would be no doubt about the issue as the evidence 
now stands save for the fact that personal influences are still 
strong — even after three and a half years of such a war as 
this — in Parliamentary countries. On the other hand, 
there was a very grave and legitimate anxiety felt by the 
politicians themselves in every such country, that the armies 
which have been used to very summary justice for so long 
will not tolerate privilege or exemption for a few favoured 
civilians simply because they are connected witli professional 
politics. And the dread of what may happen after the war, 
if such privilege or exemption is allowed to continue, acts as 
a salutary and most desirable check. 
Lord Jellicoe made S speech of great importance at Hull 
last Friday when he gave his audience for the first time in 
the course of this war an estimate of at least one future date, 
to wit, the date when the rate of building, etc., should have 
mastered the submarine peril. He did not give the date as a 
definite one, stUl less of one of minimum time ; he gave it 
as a maximum limit and fixed it for next August — roughly 
six months from the present date. 
There is no one else who can speak with anything like 
the authority of Lord Jellicoe in the matter, and his judgment 
will be received everywhere with a respect that certainly 
does not attach to the wild speeches of politicians. Apropos 
of those speeches, Lord JeUicoe very wisely reminded his 
audience that almost every irresponsible piece of boasting 
was followed by a disaster and that this was particularly 
the case with the extraordinary belittling of the submarine 
peril in the recent past by the Prime Minister. All that, 
however, is of no practical importance. The important 
thing is that the man who can tell us most about it has warned 
us that there will be continuation of the present strain for at 
least six months. 
The nation can stand the.strain if it is properly informed, 
in the old sense of the word " informed," that is, not fed 
with sensational tit-bits of news, but educated in a right 
judgment of the situation. Of course decisive events on the 
continent, whether within the enemy's territory or against his 
armies, would change the whole problem, but as things are we 
must bear in mind that term, next August, and not shrink 
from the length of the ordeal before us. 
There are two p^oints remarkable about the sinking of the 
'' Tuscania." The first is the exceedingly small loss of life — 
only about 4 per cent. — the second is that this should be the 
first loss of any of the great American transports. 
It is now nearly a year since America entered the war. 
It is many months since she began to send men and material 
in vast quantities across the Atlantic. It was confidently 
believed by the enemy and largely apprehended upon the 
side of the Allies that this effort could not.be made without 
a heavy proportion of loss. The loss turns out to be on the 
contrary exceedingly light, and so far as men are concerned 
only one half per cent, of those ferried have been subject to 
sucessful attack, and only an insignificant number of the 
latter have been lost. 
It must be admitted that this is no secure guide to the 
future. Indeed it is the undetermined feature of the submarine 
offensive which is the chief unknown factor in the whole 
war But at any rate we have had a consitUrablc experience 
now of the conditions of transport acrc^s the Atlantic on a 
large scale, and so i-M it has certainly been favouralile. 
The I ancashire cotton spinners have issued a statement 
on the subject of the Education Bill after taking the opinions 
of the members of the Federation of Master Spinners. I he 
raising of their leaving age to 14 is accepted but the proposal 
for continuation education after that age is criticised as putting 
too great a strain on the industry. Apparently a half-time 
system up to 16 is preferred to Mr. Fisher's proposed arrange- 
ment on the ground tliat it is easier to work. The cotton 
spinners argue that the industry will be in difficulties for labour 
if the Bill is passed, and tliat employers and workpeople alike 
will suffer. The answer surely is that the present crisis gives 
an e-xcellcht opportunity for introducing the change with the 
minimum of inconvenience. The arrangements made by the 
Cotton Control Board have had the effect of keeping the 
factory population together. Over a million pounds have been 
paid out under the unemployment scheme in six months, which 
shews that the workpeople have not been scattered. Peace 
will bring back a large number of spinners and weavers from 
the army and it will, of course, be essential to find employment 
for them. There will still be many disabled soldiers who will 
prefer to return to the mill in one capacity or another. 
Now the scarcity of juvenile labour is not a new fact. It 
has been noticeable for some years past. And the reasi^n for 
it is the want of prospect for piecers, because there are many 
more piecers then spinners, and the outlook for piecers is con- 
sequently poor, The wages of men weavers again are far too 
low. In other words some reorganisation of the industry 
is necessary, and this is the best moment for beginning it. The 
effects of introducing half time education between 14 and 16 
will be to make such reorganisation easier by improving the 
quality of labour. The cotton industry has achieved wonders 
m the course of the last ccntur>' and it is doing less than justice 
to its resources of constructive imagination to suppose that it 
cannot adopt itself to a new situation. An industry which 
depended upon conditions that forbid the development of the 
full capacities of its workpeople would be in a precarious state. 
The account which is published on another page of Women's 
Village Councils shows how the ferment of social revolution 
may work sanely and rightly. English villages, for all their 
beauty and the apparent healthiness of their peoples, are too 
often devoid of sanitation. The hygienic horrors common 
among them are only known to those who dwell in them. 
But improvement has been diihcult so long as the people 
themselves, more or less, acquiesced in .present conditions. 
These Councils, which seem to be spreading with extraordinary 
rapidity, are just the very thing which is required, combined 
as they are to-day with better education. 
Taken as a class, there are few finer types of British 
character than the country-woman ; she is industrious, 
self-respecting and independent, and the best of mothers, 
when she survives the perils of childbirth. Village life will 
be both healthier and happier when the Women's Council 
becomes a recognised part of the social machinery of every 
parish. And we prtdi:t it will soon be so. 
Lord Rhondda has at last been able to present London 
with a meat ration scheme. It is doubtful if anybody will 
really understand it until it has been in operation for two or 
three weeks. The great thing in its favour is that it will be 
tested in a spirit of good will for the most part, as it is accepted 
as part of the price of victory. The comparative silence that 
has fallen on the Food Ministry is another advantage, though 
Lord Rhondda still protests too much when he receives depu- 
tations. It would be infinitely wiser to leave his political 
sincerity to the imagination of the audience. No one for a 
moment doubts the disagreeableness of his task, nor has any- 
one the least wish to reheve him of it, and so long as he is 
prompt to rectify mistakes, for undoubtedly there will be 
mistakes and many, he is assured of general support. 
He may go down to history as the man who opposed horse- 
racing and popularised horse-eating. Will horseflesh ever, be 
a staple of diet in these islands ? Country people will be 
prejudiced against it because it is horse ; towns-folks will 
object to it because it is cat's-meat. There is the alien popula- 
tion, and if they take kindly to it so much the better. Is it 
not time that the Russian element was returned to M. 
Trotski — good name for a horse-eater ? The War Cabinet 
would do well to devise a scheme to return the Russian Jew 
alien to " peaceful " Russia. 
