March 28, 1 9 1 8 
Land & Water 
f A 'V T "PX O "\ 11 7 A 'TH T7^ "O ^^^ "P ^'^^ '■a-'^'^s of our amies. The Prime Minister spoke 
L^/\|^\ L/ OC VV l\ L 11/ 1\ ^'^'■y '^""^ctly to a deputation of miners, which waited on him 
■"-'■^ *■ last week. For once, he did not mince his words on a labour 
question . Would that he had spoken as straightly on previous 
occasions whenever they occurred. We have held con- 
sistently that a prime factor in all labour unrest has been 
the timid' way in which the Government has dealt with the 
men ; impulsiveness has yielded to half-heartedness, labour 
has been now rebuked, now cajoled like a spoilt child, and 
the essential troth has been steadily overlooked that the 
British working man is one and the same person, whether in the 
shipping yards on the Tyne and the Clyde, or in the trenches 
m France or Flanders. It is the handling of the men which 
varies, and it is this which makes the difference in their 
behaviour. We shall be surprised if there is any more 
trouble over obtaining the necessary recruits from the labour 
world after this battle. Already we hear the miners have 
withdrawn their opposition to the "comb-out." We have 
no doubt it will be the same with the A.S.E. England, or, 
to use the greater word, Britain, is fighting for her exist- 
ence and for those principles for which through the centuries 
she has struggled tenaciously. It is impossible to believe 
there is a single Briton who will in this crisis be fal.se to 
himself or to his countrv. 
5 CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
Telephone : HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1918. 
Contents 
PAGE 
I 
A Famous Flyingman. (Photograph) 
Transport Ancient and Modern. (Photographs) 2 
The Outlook 3 
The Great Battle. By Hilaire Belloc 4 
The End of the Road. By Raemaekers 10 and 11 
Submarine Campaign. By Arthur Pollen 12 
England. A Poem. By H. M. D. 13 
The Balkan Stage. By H. Collinson Owen 15 
The Great Passport Frauds. By French Strother 16 
A Contemplative Mind. By J. C. Squire 19 
Chronicles of the Great War. (Review) 20 
A Neglected Industry. By Christopher Turner 20 
Domestic Economy 23 
Notes on Kit 
25 
The Outlook 
THERE is inevitably only one topic of interest • 
thfs week, only' one question which occupies the' 
mind of us all — the issue of the great battle 
now raging in Franije. Mr. Belloc writes at 
length on the subject in the following pages, so' 
it is unnecessary fo dwell on it I'lere. The future of European 
civilisation sways in the balance during these momentous 
hours, for this, the greatest battle in which the human race 
has ever been engaged, a struggle far vaster and more terrible 
than any war between Gods and Titans, will decide the 
fate of the world's progress, and more nearly still the very 
existence of the British Empire. It were folly to shut our 
eyes to all that is involved in the fift5'-mile battle-line now 
swaying to and fro in France— a battle-line that at any 
moment may be extended. In one knowledge we have 
content — the British Empire is worthily represented by her 
armies ; the spirit which shone so brightly during the dark 
hours of the Mons retreat, in the perilous onslaughts at 
♦Ypres, and in a hundred other engagements where the odds 
have been heavily against us, burns as steadily and as 
brightly as ever. Amid the bare facts related by the war 
correspondents in France tales of undying heroism con- 
tinually emerge. We can place full confidence in our' men ; 
the only doubt that disturbs is whether their numbers suffice 
to stay the Teuton hordes, which are flung 'against them 
with a most callous disregard of life. 
* * * 
This great battle, which history may well know as "The 
Second Battle of the Somme," opened upon the early morning 
of last Thursday, and the German offensive is being continued 
with an unprecedented weight oi men and material upon an 
unprecedented length of front, and, happily, with unpre- 
cedented enemy losses. It had the result in the first five 
days of recovering, roughly, three-quarters of the devastated 
area upon which the enemy had retreated to the so-called 
Hinflcnburg Line. It had by Monday last yielded in wounded 
men left behind and in an unknown, but probably more, 
number of unwounded prisoners, 45,000 claimed by the 
enemy as captured and somewhat over 600 guns, the greater 
part of which are, of course, field pieces. These losses in ground, 
men, and material, though severe, are not the determining 
matter ; they only strike the imagination of the reader at 
home most strongly because the other features of this unpre- 
cedented struggle cannot be dealt with in detail, and many 
of them cannot be dealt with at all ; but, as is pointed out 
in Mr. Belloc's article, the existence and ultimate effect of 
the great reserves which the Allies have in hand are 
specially to be considered, and there is no result to be 
predicated until the effects of its use shall be known. 
. ' * * * 
Before the battle was joined, there was trouble in the 
labour world regarding the comb-cut of men necessary to 
The widespread demand for an official statement of the 
true position of shipping at last compelled the Admiralty 
to publish the figures of loss of tonnage. Now that they 
have been made known, one is only surprised that this 
information was withheld for so long, enabling the enemy to 
hearten his people with exaggerated reports, which were 
never authoritatively contradicted. The losses are heavy, 
but Sir Eric Geddes was able to show a substantial margin 
of safety, that is, provided destruction by submarines does 
not increase. The curve points to a diminution, but we are 
not aware of the number of U-boats operating round these 
coasts or whether Germany is able to increase their number 
faster than we destroy them. This is a factor not to be 
overlooked. The whole question is fully discussed by our 
naval writer, Mr. Arthur Pollen, on another page. 
VVhilc the loss of mercantile shipping through enemy 
action was not alarming, the statement regarding the output 
of new ships was less reassuring. It is only too evident 
there has been bungling and muddling here, and it is to be 
hoped Lord Pirrie will be able in brief time to straighten out 
things and put them on a proper footing. Lord Inchcape, 
who has been actively engaged in the shipping world from 
his youth upwards, tells a pitiful story in the Times of Monday 
about the irreparable waste of time over the so-called 
"national shipyard" at Chepstow on the Wye. This yard 
was originated by private enterprise, and had it been left 
to private enterprise to complete there would have been by 
this autumn 100,000 tons of new shipping either constructed 
or in course of construction. But last August the Chepstow 
shipyard was commandeered under the specious plea of 
making it "national," and nothing has been done. The 
months that have been wasted can never be restored. Will 
Government Departments never learn that time is different 
from public money, in that it can never be replaced ? They 
go on frittering it away with an untroubled conscience as 
though it were as easy to make good a year as it is to put 
another threepence on the income-tax. | |j^^ 
Raemaekers' cartoons have never been loved by the 
Kaiser or his people. It is not difficult to understand this ; 
their influence grows steadily, and even now it may be said 
to be only at its beginning. The Teuton slowly realises 
this. An exhibition of anti-German cartoons and drawings 
was opened recently at Munich, under the designation of 
"Our Enemies' Sowing of Lies." Besides these cartoons 
were hung gentle German cartoons of the tamest kind. This 
exhibition was promoted by the Bavarian Government, and 
the leading Munich journal, in commenting on it, wrote : 
" Most of the enemy productions are of the poorest' quality, 
and produce only a feeling of disgust ; some, indeed, siich 
as *he cartoons of Raemaekers, combine with the sense of 
disgust a bitter feeling of pain at this unparalleled degrada- 
tion of art." The bitter feeling of pain at the unparalleled 
degradation 0/ humanity which Raemaekers' cartoons portray 
will endure. It is the Germans themselves— not Raemaekers 
—who have shown to the world that Germans are really 
"Boches, Huns, and barbarians," three terms which rankle 
and will continue to rankle in the Teuton mind. 
