Land & \\'ater 
February 21, igi8 
certain British pieces in addition, furnished the barrage fire 
which covered the advance and the further fire cutting off 
the enemy communications. We are not told whether 
the heavy p eces <f the Al ies other than French heavy pieces 
were also concerned in the preparation. 
This small operation was thoroughly successful, and it is 
interesting as being the first occasion upon which French and 
Americans have acted together upon any considerable scale. 
The Court Martial sitting in Paris to try Bolo Pasha for 
treason brought in a unanimous verdict of " Guilty " last 
Thursday against the accused, upon all five counts : 
(:) Of having entered into "communication with an enemy 
power, to wit, Germany — through the Ex-Khedive. 
U) With having received money sent by the German Govern- 
ment to create a Pacifist movement in France. 
(3) and (4) With having received German money in 1915 
and 1916 with the object of influencing French newspapers in 
the enemy's favour, 
(5) With having furnished a politician, Humbert, with enemy 
money with the same object. 
Bolo was condemned to death, and his accompUce, or rather 
tool, Porcherc, to three years imprisonment. There is a 
right of appeal on the form of the trial only. The verdict 
was given just after 7 .p.m. A large crowd which had 
gathered during the evening outside the Law Courts loudly 
cheered the result of the trial. 
As we remarked last week, the real interest of these affairs 
is the change which has come over the position of professional 
fwlitics in France as elsewhere. Bolo, both from his financial 
position and from his connection with Parliamentary 
pohticians, was the sort of man regarded as immune ; and it 
would have certainly been impossible to condemn him, even 
to a mild sentence, before the change of temper produced by 
this great struggle. But any sign of showing favouritism to 
such people to-day when the great mass of the male popula- 
tion have been subject to the rigours of martial law for more 
than three years, would have provoked an explosion, and no 
one in the French Parliament intervened, openly at least, 
to shield the culprit. 
The verdict marks an epoch on the history of modern 
parliamentarism, and the progress of the change vrill be noted 
with anxiety and interest as the trials of Humbert and 
Cailaux come on. These men being themselves parlia- 
menlarians and therefore less really powerful than the 
financiers behind them, are none the less more in the hme- 
light and the pubhc fear and anger lest they should receive 
privi ege is more acute. 
It is a curious example of the misunderstandings produced 
by the stram of the war that the methods employed by 
Bolo should have led to such different conclusions. The 
German money, as has now been proved, was employed in two 
distmct ways. It was employed to distribute Pacifist 
literature of the less sincere and more virulent type as widely 
as possible ; it was also employed to purchase shares in the 
patriotic Press, and especially in the extreme sections of it 
I he latter manoeuvre, in spite of its obvious motive, has been 
completely misjudged by those who have not compared dates 
It had nothing to do with paying for extreme jingo statements 
m order that they might be used in Germany— as roundabout 
a way of domg one's country good as the supposed Govcrn- 
uZ ffvP*"'* °^ •^"''°/ •' ^* "^^^ ^'"^Ply an attempt to get 
hold of the majority of shares in order gradually to change 
the policy of the paper, to spread doubt and dissension while 
still openly supporting a continuation of the war, and so to 
lead the large mass of readers who still believed the journal 
1,^ ?1f ^'y"?"/ '"*? ^ "'^"^ °^ 'despair upon the issue. 
What the tnal has shown, and what presumably the further 
trials will also show, is that the enemy uses his money ust 
^K^"? '^"u ""^^ r*^'^ ^''P^^* h™ to "se it. He does not 
subsidise obscure sheets written by fanatics and read by little 
choues ; still less does he indulge in fantastic combina ons 
.^dPl°.''J°'^f""'^^'"''" ^"^^ked in the hope ha 
such attacks wiU somehow or other do him good bv reacting 
on home opinion. He pays the corrupt Prels of 0^ t?rSe"S 
two wavs^ First by subsidising the (listribution on a large 
scale of Pacifist literature when he finds a working chance If 
such a distribution ; secondly, by getting hold of a con 
troUing number of shares in a Japer hitherti pa rio?k Lthat 
Its tone may be imperceptibly changed, not to Pacifism wS 
would at once be spotted, but to ditsension and doubt 
It i3 a cunvMs commentary on hfe in peace time that the 
need for reorgamsation due to scarcity sho,5dresult7n an actual 
improvement m the condition of large sections of the popuk 
tion. Ihis will be true of boots ver>' soon , for the new standard 
boot is now readv, and it will be true of clothing when the 
scheme for the manufacture of standard cloth that has been 
produced by the Wool Textile Department bears fruit. This 
scheme is one of the bye-products of the War Control Board. 
Under that scheme the Board is directed to consider the 
interests of the consumer, and the Trade I'nion representatives 
argued that the Board could ciieck profiteering in the civilian 
trade as it had checked profiteering in the making of officers' 
uniforms. The proposal was taken up. A plan has now been 
worked out and some of these standard suits will probably 
be on sale in three months' time. Those sections of the work- 
ing classes who were formerly obliged to buy shoddy clothes 
wUl be better dressed in war than they were in peace. 
The Board of Control was able to compel the manufacture 
of standard cloth by the .simple device of consigning for that 
purpose a certain proportion of the raw wool at its disposal. 
By the use of its machinery for " costing " the Board could 
decide what was a fair price. To enforce a certain standard of 
quality was simple. The final arrangements have now been 
completed by the setting up of advisory committees of clothing 
manufacturers throughout the country which has been divided 
for this purpose into six areiis. There are about 36 patterns 
for men's suits, so that there will be no lack of choice and the 
price is fi.xed at 57s. 6d. Boys' suits are also to be produced. 
This interesting experiment may have important consequences 
in making men and women demand better quality in future. 
In the army thousands of men have had good boots and decent 
substantial clothes for the first time in their lives. We may 
doubt whether men who have worn army boots or these 
guaranteed suits will ever consent to put up with the scan- 
dalous articles that were forced on them before the war. 
In that way the war has altered the standard of dress for a 
large section of the nation and the producers will have to 
reckon with a more exacting public in future. 
Reports from the country speak of agricultural operations 
being well forward for the time of year. It has been a much 
more favourable winter for the farmer than twelve months 
ago, and labour is more plentiful. One reason for the latter 
fact is that women have now settled in earnest to farm work • 
those for whom it was uncongenial or too strenuous have 
dropped out, where those who remain arc proving themselves 
most efficient. 
In those counties where operations have not been impeded 
by heavy snowfall, ploughing is well advanced, and the 
amount of pasture now under tillage is well up to the promised 
quota. Of course, it is far too soon to predict the results 
of next harvest, but everything up to now promises well 
Meantime, the meat stringency is likely to rectify itself to a 
considerable extent, once rationing is general. The scale of 
rations has been fixed on home production, and if the Food 
Ministry will continue to take the advice of the Agricultural 
Department and to listen to agriculturists generally there 
is no occasion to anticipate anything like a meat famine In 
fact, everything points to more plentiful supplies once con- 
sumption IS kept within reasonable limits. 
This rationing will do the nation infinite good. The people"; 
ol these islands have been accustomed from time immemorial 
to set no limit on their appetites, provided purchase-money 
was forthcoming. They are learning that tliriftiness in dietary 
which has been common knowledge on the Continent for 
generatiras, the teaching of wars and the devastation of 
wars ; these lessons in thrift should prove a valuable national 
asset in the future. They will certainly never be forgotten 
by the present generation, and it is to be hoped that the 
rising generation will receive practical instruction in them. 
London is passing through another period of air raids 
which have come to be regarded by its people as a matter of 
course under certain conditions of weather and moonlight 
r^Zo^^'V- I'^'r^ *' '^J"^ ^"^^*^°" '^ "-ai^d what does the 
German Higli Command expect from these senseless attacks 
on a civilian population ? Does it really believe that the 
slaughter by its trained moonhghters of a certain number of 
British women and children will induce peace ? We hear 
much of the superiority jf German education, but' there is one 
branch of history which they have certainly never studied 
It IS the nse of the British Empire. sruaiea. 
The British Empire would not have been what it is to-day if 
Bntish women had not suffered and endured with equal 
courage and fortitude as the men. We have learnt in the 
WnoH r' ^^TJ'""^ the manhood of the country that the 
blood has not degenerated, and if further testimony to the 
truth were necessary, the women of London would furnish 
it b} their calm attitude towards those night attacks 
