March 21, i 9 i 8 
Land & Water 
LAND & WATER 
5 CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
Telephone : HOLBORN lizS. 
THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1918. 
Contents 
PAGE 
I 
2 
3 
The Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem. (Photograph) 
Two Historical Ceremonies. (Photographs) 
The Outlook 
Raiding the Rhine Cities. By H. Belloc 5 
Convoys and Submarines. By H. Whitaker _ H 
The Robber Barons. (Cartoon). By Raemaekers lO and^ii 
Russia's True Voice. By C. Hagberg Wright 12 
The Allies. Bv " Centurion " 13 
Hit. By S. K". Vesey 15 
America and the Far East. By J. D. Whelpley 16 
French Art in Russia. By G. C. Williamson 17 
Shockers. By J. C. Squire 20 
The Story of "Northumberland. By H. R. S. 22 
Domestic Economy 26 
Notes on Kit ' xii 
JOHN RATHOM'S REVELATIONS 
Our readers will rennember that at the request of the 
American Authorities we were obliged to discontinue 
the series of articles describing the work of the German 
spy system in America written by Mr. John Rathom, 
Editor of the Providence Jowrwa/. We are now pleased 
to announce that we have made arrangements to 
publish in Land & Water a series of articles by Mr. 
French Strother, Managing Editor of the World's Work, 
New York, which will amplify and substantiate the 
charges of intrigue and treachery which Mr. Rathom 
brought against the German Government. These 
articles are to be published by courtesy of the Bureau 
of Investigation of the American Department of Justice, 
which discovered Von Papen's connection with the 
passport frauds, etc. Mr. Strother has been able to 
verify the statements and documents contained in these 
articles. The first article will appear in the next issue 
oi Land& Water, March 28th, entitled: 
THE AMERICAN REVELATIONS 
The Outlook 
THERE has been a recrudescence this week of 
the rumours that Germany is again asking for 
peace. These rumours seem to have a good deal 
of substance and they are certainly credited 
in quarters where something more than mere gossip 
is registered. The terms, also, which are suggested as being 
mentioned, have more reality about them than those which 
were passed about some weeks ago, and, generally, it may 
be judged that some special effort is being made. It would 
seem to be directed towards the American Government and 
to run upon the familiar lines of a considerable concession 
in the West on condition of a free hand in the East. 
What "a free hand in the East" would mean is by this 
time familiar enough to the educated public in this country. 
It would mean the recruitment of anything from 50 to 70 
per cent, extra military forces for the Central Empires, their 
economic exploitation of the Slav and their tutelage and 
restoration of the Turkish Empire. It is equivalent to the 
future easy mastery of Europe. 
mm* 
The effect of such a settlement upon the constitution 
of the British Empire is more evident than any other of 
the many propositions raised by the war in its present phase. 
It;, would necessarily mean the loss of security in our com- 
munications with India, for it would mean the loss almost 
immediately of the isthmus of Suez. The settlement of 
a frontier covering this point would be a mere paper settlement 
if the control of the Bosphorus and the new railways termina- 
ting there were to pass into the hands of Central Europe 
under Prussian guidance. 
Meanwhile, the alternative land route to the East could 
be developed upon a purely German model and for German 
ends. Such would be the efiect upon the Indian Dominion 
of Great Britain and the n^ad to it, but it would mean much 
more than that. It would mean the complete control of 
the Baltic and of the Black Sea, and therefore the complete 
control of the Russian market and the power to canalise 
its export of oil and of wheat. The long possession of the 
Bosphorus by a weak Power and the holding of the Sound 
by two of the lesser European nations has made men forget 
the meaning of a strong empire possessed of both those 
gates. They would soon learn it if that empire were left 
in possession of them. That they shall not be left in possession 
has become one of the main objects of the war and for this 
country an absolutely vital object. 
Besides the Black Sea and the Baltic, and in a sense more 
important than either, is the question of the Adriatic. 
Whoever controls the Eastern littoral of that sea controls 
the whole of it. That is the lesson of the last two years 
which ought to have been apparent from the map even before 
the war was opened. It is hardly an exaggeration to say 
that the whole of the Dalmatian coast is one vast, deep, 
land-locked and protected harbour. If Trieste is the "spear 
point " of the Germans, Dalmatia is still more their guarantee 
of power in the Mediterranean, and we may be certain that 
any terms suggested for the West will not include a 
compromise upon this essential littoral. It will be won or 
lost by the fortime of the war. So far that fortune has here, 
even more than elsewhere, and especially recently, strongly 
favoured our enemies. 
No matter what concessions remain in the West, if the 
Central Powers retain their present position in the Balkans 
and therefore upon the Dalmatian coast they own the Adriatic, 
and through the Adriatic and the Bosphorus they are the 
masters of the Eastern Mediterranean. Europe has something 
to say to that quite apart from our own interests in the matter, 
and for the future of Italy in particular the nature of the 
settlement is all-important. But our own interests alone 
are sufficient to define our position too clearly for any hope 
of compromise. 
* 41 « 
The occupation of Odessa by the enemy — an immediate 
and necessary consequence of the Rumanian peace — does 
more than convert the Black Sea into a German lake. It 
also puts a part of the Russian Fleet into German hands 
and promises the complete control of that Fleet in the near 
future. When the ice melts in the Baltic we shall have 
the enemy reinforced upon the north and upon the south 
with nearly every unit of the Russian Navy, subject only 
to such destruction as calculated measures (or more likely 
neglect) may have worked. 
One of the effects of the position in the Black Sea will be 
that the handing over of Georgia to Turkish garrisons can 
be fully supported by the Central Powers, and further, that 
the greater part of the oil supply of the Old World is now 
in the enemy's hands. Whether the granary of Southern 
Russia is in a condition to supply wheat this year to the enemy 
in any sufficient quantity, and, if it is, whether the condition 
of communications will permit of any great transports, may 
be doubted, but the position for next year is secure. 
Here, therefore, as in every other point upon the board, 
the issue of the struggle in the West is decisive. If a victory 
under arms in the West is denied us the enemy has won the 
war, and our immediate future will be a preparation for 
the next sttuggle under conditions far less favourable. 
The action of the Germans in arresting British and 
American subjects upon Finnish territory is not only character- 
istic and for that matter inevitable, but is also an excellent 
index of the relations now established through their recent 
victories between the Hoheneollems and the new 
"autonomous" nations they have set up. There is no 
intention of annexing Finland even informally, Finland 
is created as a completely independent Republic. But enemy 
subjects are seized upon the territory of Finland exactly 
as though that territory were Brandenburg or Hanover. 
The incident is also an index of the confidence the German 
Government now feels in its position. It is a challenge at 
once to the Scandinavian group of nations, to the new Finland, 
and to the Allies, and it is a challenge given in the confident 
expectation that no results can follow from it adverse to 
German interest. The calculation is just, for there are only 
two possible issues to the present situation : Either the 
Allies will achieve such military success as will enable them 
to exact full reparation, not only for this but for countless 
other enormities, or they will accept a German peace, ia 
which case all that Germany has done will go unpuni^ed. 
