20 
Land & Water 
March 28, 191 8 
Chronicles of the Great War 
THE novelist and the biographer would find this a 
poorer world to live in, were there readily avail- 
able to readers the actual chronicles of all wars 
— proclamations of kings, orations of statesmen. 
Parliamentary statutes, and the bare recital of 
battles by land and sea. These contain the very words that 
stir the blood and that ring in the ears like the noise of 
trumpets. The language, for the most part, is sparing, 
rhetoric is avoided, the phrases are as cold as cold steel — 
and as deadly. The Times is now preparing a Documentary 
History of the War (the first four volumes are before 
us), and every word written here applies to them. 
The idea is to collect in these volumes (17s. 6d. each) 
documents of the war in all its aspects, so arranged as to record 
the events of tlie struggle and the circumstances which led up 
to it. This history will consist of papers issued officially 
or recognised by the various belligerents, such as diplomatic 
correspondence, proclamations, ultimata, military orders, 
reports, messages from monarchs to their peoples, etc., 
together with public statements by responsible Ministers 
and correspondence in the Press of an authoritative char- 
acter. It is proposed to have at least five main divisions : 
Diplomatic, Naval, Military, Overseas, and International 
Law, each division to appear in its own distinct set. 
The first two volumes of the Diplomatic series carry the 
story of the war to the beginning of October, 1914, and the 
first two volumes of the Naval series to the end of that 
month, so it i/ apparent that when these stately chronicles 
are complete. The Times will have issued almost a library of 
the vital facts of this mighty struggle for the survival of 
European civilisation. The volumes are stoutly bound in 
cloth, with excellently clear red and gold impresses on the 
back — a matter of importance to librarians. There is no 
comment, brief notes being added where it is absolutely 
necessary to elucidate the text. A special feature is the 
indexing ; it is lucid, and cross-references and annotations 
abound. Looked at from the point of view of the student 
or the historian, these volumes must be regarded as classics, 
so carefully has every detail been thought out and put into 
execution— details to assist the worker in. his task. 
What a long way we have travelled since that September 
day of 1914, when at the prorogation of Parliament the 
King began his speech in these words: "My Lords and 
Gentlemen, I s^ddress you in circumstances that call for 
action rather than speech." 
In the Naval section we have, among other papers, the 
story of the escape of the German battleships, Goeben and 
Breslau, the latter now at the bottom of the Mediterranean. 
There is hardly any single incident which has exercised a 
more potent influence over the future course of the war than 
this one, and at this time of day it is most interesting to 
read the contemporaneous records of the episode. 
Also here may we read the German account of the victory 
off Coronel of Admiral von Spec's ships over Admiral Cradock's 
brave but unfortunate squadron. This happened on Novem- 
ber ist, 1914, which was All Saints' Day, and the German 
admiral begins his dispatch in these words : " Yesterday 
was All Saints' Day, and a lucky day for us." But there 
was not to be any luck for the German admiral some 
■five weeks later — on December 8th, which was No Saints' 
Day — when off the Falkland Islands his squadron met the 
same fate as Admiral Cradock's. These two naval engage- 
ments are described in these volumes in the naked sentences 
of dispatches, and their story is a grand one, for on both 
sides there was bravery, and the German Navy in the Pacific 
had not then tarred and feathered its fair fame with the 
cowardly and contemptible actions in which it has since 
gloried. Space forbids us to deal further with these 
chronicles. No person of intelligence can open them and 
begin reading without finding difficulty in laying the book 
down. The. fact is that when great deeds and splendid 
actions are done, the fewer words in which they are described 
the more fascinating becomes the story. We have yet to 
apprehend fully that action is far older than language, and 
that no system of human speech has been devised, which 
does not in some way conceal the glory of noble deeds. It 
is for this reason that the old ballad quickened the pulses 
with its crude and rough diction, and in .these modern days 
the dispatch of general or admiral who does not polish his 
periods has much the same effect on the human mind. 
A Neglected Industry : By Christopher Turner 
Potato Production in tons (Board of Trade figures) : 
United Kingdom. Germany. 
1893 5,634,000 .. 27,530,000 
1913 .. 5,726,000 49,463,000 
THE full and proper use of the potato has never 
been understood in this country. The soil and 
climate of England are more suited to potato 
growing than those of Germany, and our potato 
growers are the most highly skilled in the world : 
yet compare the above results both relatively and progress- 
ively. The chief reason why the United Kingdom does not 
show better results is that our people think of the potato 
in terms of "table" use, whereas the German thinks of it 
as a most valuable raw material of industry. Of the fifty 
million tons of potatoes produced in Germany only some 
ten million tons were used for human consumption. The 
remaining forty million tons were used in the production 
of alcohol — the key to the bleaching and dyeing industry 
(which they captured from us) the residuary pulp being used 
as cattle food — in the production of potato flour, corn-flour, 
artificial sago, dextrine, glucose, starch, size and so forth. 
From time to time one hears of the need of subsidiary agri- 
cultural industries. What a range of industries might not the 
potato alone set going ! 
The potato produces more starch per acre than any ^ther 
plant. So that, on the one hand, we see in Germany a great 
reserve of carbo-hydrates which, when the war broke out, 
could be utilised for human food as necessity required, and 
on the other hand, in this country an ever-lessening supply 
of carbo-hydrates, till we find ourselves to-day faced with 
such a serious shortage that, after satisfying the bread and 
flour requirements of human beings, we are left with 
insufficient concentrated food for pigs and cattle. 
Last year owing to the efforts of the Government (and to 
it being a good potato year) some two millions tons above 
the average were produced. A sound policy of concentrating 
on a vast increase in the output of pigs and potatoes, if 
inaugurated three years -ago, would have placed the nation 
in a very different position from that in which it finds itself 
to-day in regard to food. Even now all attention should 
be centred upon these two commodities, for, quicker and 
greater results can be achieved with them than with any 
other articles of food. 
But we must not rest content with the production of an 
extra two- mOlion tons of potatoes. We should aim at an 
extra ten million tons. The national safety demands it. 
This great increase could be effected without interfering 
with the policy of the Government as regards cereals. It 
would remove any fear of actual starvation and any surplus 
of potatoes could be used for feeding pigs and cattle. Quite 
a sufficiently fat pig can be turned out fed on pQtatoes and 
scraps with little or no meal at all. 
But hand in hand with the increased output of potatoes 
should go the erection of potato flour mills and drying plants. 
Excellent bread can be made with 30 per cent, or 40 per cent, 
potato flour added to the wheat flour. 
The Government is encouraging the growth of potatoes, 
it has fixed the prices for the coming crops ; it has agreed 
to buy all the potatoes that the farmer cannot sell in the 
ordinary course. But it is to be feared that the farmer 
is still thinking in pre-war terms, and in spite of the Govern- 
ment's offer the idea of an extra ten million tons would 
probably stagger the producer. 
The question is : "Has the Government taken a sufficiently 
strong line in regard to potatoes ?" If it is agreed that they 
are a prime necessity, then at all costs the area of land 
necessary to produce the desired quantity should be pre- 
scribed. Necessity knows no limits. Before the crop comes in 
we could have our drying plants and our mills ready for it, if 
the Government takes the matter in hand seriously. 
We should in this way be able to obtain a supply of 
pig meat that would greatly ease the situation from the 
point of view of food, and also on the financial side ; for a 
largely increased production of potatoes and pigs would reduce 
our enforced expenditure on imported meat and flour staffs. 
