February 21, i g i 8 
Land & Water 
LAND & WATER 
5 CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
Tclephoat : HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1918 
Contents p^^,. 
The Spirit of Washington. By Louis Raemaekers i 
A Double Pill Box. By Lieut. Paul Nash 2 
The Outlook 3 
The Meaning of Ukraine. By Hilaire Belloc 5 
An American Critic. By Arthur Pollen o 
A Clyde Shipyard. (Photograph) 9 
Leaves from a German Note Book 10 
John Rathom's Revelations. Part IL 11 
The Sleuth Hound. By Alec Waugh I4 
New Reform Bill. By Jason ^5 
English Treasures in Russia. (Illustrated). By J. 
C. WiUiamson ^7 
German War Medals. By Hilaire Belloc 19 
Merrv- England. By J. C. Squire 20 
Position of the Landowner. By Sir Herbert Matthews 22 
Domestic Economy ?4 
Notes on Kit ^^- 
The Outlook 
ON Tuesday of last week there was a violent 
scene in the House of Commons, the significance 
of which was much greater than that attaching 
to most movements in this assembly. The 
Prime Minister was defending a policy decided 
at Versailles, also the impossibility of divulging its nature for 
fear of informing the enemy, when he appeared, in a phrase 
he chanced to use, to accuse Mr. Asquith of desiring such 
divulgence. This accident was but the spark which fired 
material already very explosive, and a curious combination 
of three very different elements, which between them made 
up a great mass of the House, raised a storm of protest. 
The Prime Minister explained that his words did not bear 
the signification attached to them, but his apology was 
received in silence, and there followed direct accusations of his 
dependence upon a certain section of the Press, or at least of 
liis connection with it. These accusations the Prime Minister 
in turn denied. Later, the matter which was in everyone's 
mind— the recent Press campaign against the Higher Com- 
mand of the Army and in particular the Chief of the Staff — 
was alluded 'to, and the suspicion that this Press campaign 
was part of the Government's policy. Allusion was also 
made to Cf)lonel Repington's exposure of this policy in the 
Morning Post. 
The next day, Wednesday, a note was officially com- 
municated to the Press (appearing 'in the daily papers of 
Thursday morning) that the Chief of Staff, Sir William 
Robertson, might vacate his post at an early date and take a 
position of high influence if he cared to do so. Again, the fol- 
lowing day, Thursday, the Secretary of the War Office issued 
the further note that " no official authorisation exists for the 
statement circulated by the Central News (the agency through 
which the original statement had been made) with regard to 
Sir William Robertson. On Saturday, however, a third 
official message reached the Press, to the effect that the 
(iovernment had with much regret accepted Sir William 
Robertsfjn's resignation and appointed Sir Henry Wilson in 
his stead. The. Sunday Times, however, published a state- 
ment, as given by Sir William Robertson to their repre- 
sentative, that the distinguished soldier had indeed refused 
to accept a new post at Versailles or to take another post, 
but that he had not resigned : the inference remained that 
he had been dismissed. 
Meanwhile, the Government had decided to prosecute 
Colonel Repington and the Editor of the Morning Post 
under the Defence of the Realm Act, and on Saturday the 
case came on before the magistrate at Bow Street Police 
Court. It was adjourned until to-day. 
The interest of the incident in the House of Commons lay, 
of course, in the fact which had been loudly -^nd universally 
discussed for man>- weeks outside (for it was of common 
knowledge) that the great newspaper Trust which has vir- 
tually governed this country for 18 months and more had been 
allowed to attack the Higher Command without any check 
from the Government. It had long been felt intolerable 
that public power should be ^•ested in such hands, and that 
the real authors of policy were not the Ministers of the Crown 
but a power which could make and unmake such Ministers, 
and which was apparently immune from the general law 
governing us all in these times of necessary discipline. 
The House of Commons only expressed in a very belated 
an(J rather chaotic fashion what public opinion had felt \vith 
rising anger for a long time past, and thus for the first time 
in many years acted in a fashion more or less representative 
of its constituents. So far as the House of Commons is con- 
cerned, the matter is of no great moment, but the opinion 
which was for once in a way represented by that assembly 
is of real mpment at this crisis of the war. 
The public is quite indifferent to the private quarrels of 
politicians. They have passed from being things of third- 
rate interest to being things of no interest at all. But it is 
acutely interested in the disastrous revolution in methods 
of Government which it has seen with dismay and has been 
apparently unable to check. 
Briefly, this revolution consists not only in the deposition 
of this politician or the nomination of that, but much more 
in the framing of national and now even military policy by the 
newspapers referred to. This influence is not now in the main 
exercised by their circulation, but it is rather an influence 
which is exercised by putting unfair pressure upon 
individuals. And as its motives are nearly always personal, 
as its authors are often ill-informed, it is felt that such a 
situation has passed the limits of endurance. 
The protest in the House proceeded, as we have said, from 
three bodies. A tiny handful of silly Pacifists ; a rather 
larger group of professional politicians who would like to 
replace their present more fortunate colleagues in office ; 
and a very large body of the rank and file who rarely speak 
and who are composed, as to their persoimel, of soldiers, 
country squires and the rest, much more nearly representative 
of the English people than the small habitual troupe which 
occupies the stage of the House. 
The Pacifist element in the demonstration, insignificant 
not only in numbers but in capacity, had the obvious motive 
of doing anything that could interfere with administration 
of any sort, and therefore with the conduct of the war. The 
rather larger professional group had the equally obvious 
motive of professional politics. But the great mass of 
members who joined in the demonstration, joined in it not so 
much as Members of Parliament, but as ordinary citizens, 
who had the advantage of expressing in that place what was 
felt by them and bM decent men of similar education outside. 
There is an unfortunate tendency in the newspapers to 
make the subject a matter of debate as though it were one 
of the old tawdry quarrels of small coteries for place and 
salary, already badly blown upon in the years before the war. 
There is a still more unfortunate tendency in one or two 
papers to represent it as a debate on the policy of Surrender. 
With the public there is no discussion of this kind. 
The public at large is determined, if it can only find the 
power, that misgovernment by any section of the daily Press 
shall cease. Unfortunately, it does not possess organs 
through which to express that determination or to exercise 
that power, and it is hardly credible that the House of 
Commons, in the condition to which it has sunk, will continue 
to act- in a representative capacity in spite of its little scene 
of the other day. It remains to be seen whether public 
meetings or the mere vague fear of consequence on the part 
of the culprits may effect the desired reform. At any rate, if 
it is not effected we shall lose the war and with it the liberties 
and the future of this country. 
Just before dawn last Thursday the French Infantry 
stormed and occupied a small but awkward salient on the 
Champagne front between Tahure and the Butte du Mesnil. 
The attack was on a front of just under a mile and covered a 
depth of about the same extent, reaching and occupying the 
German third fine. The immediate object was the reduction 
of this rectangular projection, the situation of which gave it 
the power of annoying the French line east and west of it, but 
this was net, of course, the main purpose of the operation, 
which otherwise might have been performed at any time in 
the last two and a-half years. The salient has existed since 
September 1915. The real motive was the training in co- 
operation of the new American batteries. These, with 
