April 4, 1918 
Land & Water 
LAND & WATER 
5 CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
Telephone •. HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1918. 
Contents 
PAGE 
Tlie British Soldier. By W. Orpcn, A.R.A. i 
Arras-Bapaume Road. By C. R. W. Nevinson 2 
The Outlook' 3 
The Great Battle. By Hilaire Belloc 4 
" This is My Battle." (Cartoon) By Raemaekers. 10 and 11 
Citizen Soldiers. B\' the Editor 12 
On a Balloon Ship. B\4 Lewis R. Freeman, R.N.V.R. 13 
The Great Passport Frauds — Part II. By French 
Strother 15 
Angels and Ministers. By John Ruan' 18 
The English Peasant. By Jason ig 
Murders. By J. C. Squire 22 
Books to Read ' 24 
Notes on Kit xi 
Domestic Economy xii 
The Outlook 
No Royal act during the war has given intenser 
pleasure to the nation than the unpremedi- 
tated vi«Tt of the King to the Western Front last 
week, and the informality which accompanied 
it. His Majesty went to his armies in the heat 
of the great battle as the representative of the British nation, 
or, more precisely, of the British Empire. He was able, by 
his presence among the soldiers, to convey to them in a way 
no words could express how the thoughts of the whole Empire 
are with them, and the complete confidence which the 
Empire places in their "indomitable courage and unflinching 
tenacity." Nor- can anyone fail to p'crceive the contrast 
between the Supreme War Lord of Germany, who flings his 
subjects into the furnace of battle with wilful recklessness in 
order to save his dynasty, and of the King-Emperor of the 
British Dominions, whose advent on the battlefield is to 
hearten his men and to carry the nation's sympathy to the 
stricken and wounded. These two Royal cousins epitomise 
in their acts and words — (place the King's letter to Sir 
Douglas Haig beside the vainglorious messages of the Kaiser 
on the first days of the battle)^the two civilisations which 
are at war together. Much is written, and often written 
vaguely about democracy and militarism ; it is not always 
easy to define them, but we cannot mistake the spirit 
that underlies those opposing ideals, and it was this spirit 
that was manifest in France last week. 
« * * 
The great battle of Picardy upon which the enemy is 
btaking everything for a vagup decision is now clearly per- 
ceived to stand, up to Easter Sunday, in two phases. The first 
almost exactly covered the week following its inception, and 
ended upon Wednesday, the 27th of March. It had taken 
the form of successive advances by the enemy, each slightly 
less pronounced than the last, and putting him at their 
close within possession of a great triangular area with a 
western and a southern face, tlie western menacing Amiens 
and the main railway to Paris held mainly by the British, 
the point of contact between the two armies being a few 
miles south of the Somme River. This western or main 
front was the result of the British retirement pivoting upon 
Arras. Meanwhile, a southern front at right angles had 
been created, nmning from La F6re to Montdidier. The 
last western 20 odd miles of this, after it left the Oise Valley, 
were uncovered, exposing the enemy to some peril upon liis 
flank, and compelling him to concentrate heavily there. The 
second phase of the battle, which filled the end of Holy 
Week, took the form of no further serious advance, but a 
violent and fluctuating struggle ; and one in which this trace 
was, upon the whole, maintained everywhere. The hinge 
at Arras successfully stood out against a violent assault. 
The enemy made a few hundred yards' progress at a few 
separate places south of the Somme on the southern front ; 
a furious and continuous combat still left things uncertain. 
and the fighting belt developed on the 27th was but little 
changed by the 31st. 
* * * 
Apart from the great battle, certain other minor military 
events have occurred during the week. The new long-range 
guns have continued to bombard Paris, causing upon Good 
Friday in particular, at the moment of the afternoon service, 
a terrible disaster in a great Metropolitan Church. In 
Mesopotamia there has been a renewed advance up the 
Euphrates for 83 miles north-west of Hit, with the capture 
of 5,000 Turkish prisoners, an event which shows both the 
present disorganisation of the Turkish forces in the absence 
of the former German control and supply, and the lack of 
correspondence between their nominal strength and divisions 
and their real strength in numbers. The same thing has 
been apparent in Palestine, where a further advance has been 
made of about two miles along' the Sechem or Nablus road. 
But, more important than this, the Hedjaz Railway upon 
the East has been reached by colonial mounted troops, who 
have destroyed many miles of its track at a point nearly 
east of Jericho. This cuts off aay Turkish troops who may 
remain in the Arabian field, where we know them to have 
been formerly operating against the Arabs of Mecca and the 
Holy Places. It also ends any anxiety (for which, however, 
there was no ground) of an enemy force arriving on the east 
of the British force and behind it. 
* * * 
The Prime Minister has sent to the Dominions a strong 
appeal for more men, and in this message reiterates that the 
Government propose to ask Parliament to authorise imme- 
diate measures for the raising of fresh troops. Parliament 
does not re-assemble until next Tuesday, but it is to be 
hoped that the proposals which the Government intend to 
lay before it, will be authoritatively announced before then. 
The nation is ready to accept a most stringent measure, but 
any half-measure or any shrinking from responsibility will 
be strongly resented. Ireland must at last be brought 
within the scope of conscription. This is not the occasion 
for adverse criticism of past actions, so long as there is no 
repetition of them. Never in the history of our race has 
there been more urgent need for courageous leadership. The 
people look for it. They understand the situation well, 
partly because there are few homes — certainly not a hamlet 
or village — which has not -at least one representative actively 
engaged in this vast struggle. It is a battle of nations, 
not of armies, and this nation is ready to fight to the last 
man. But it requires to be led. 
* * * 
"Kultured" Teutons, with their admiration for Shakes- 
peare's plays, must be reminded of the tragedy of Richard III. 
by the manner in which the ghosts of the past refuse to rest 
quiet in their graves. The latest spectre to fix blood-guilt 
on the Kaiser is Prince Lichnowsky, who with murdered 
Buckingham might declare: "The last was I that felt thy 
tyranny. ' ' From his notorious memorandum, The Times 
has given copious extracts. It is obvious that the Prince, 
when German Ambassador in London, worked not only 
sincerely in the cause of peace, but also most ably for the 
advantage of Germany, and the terms he was able to obtain 
from Sir Edward Grey in order to promote a better under- 
standing, were of so generous a nature that they seemed 
only just to fall short of abdication of dominion. For- 
tunately for the British Empire, the German war machine 
was in 1914 considered complete and perfect in all its parts, 
so diplomacy was scrapped ; but had the war been delayed 
for a few years, and had Germany accepted the rights our 
Foreign Office offered to them in Asia and Africa, it is difficult 
in the light of the last three years to see what could possibly 
have saved the British Empire from disruption when 
the clash of arms came. These revelations establish con- 
clusively that Britain had no desire for war, nor the sHghtest 
wish to run a ring-fence round the German Empire. 
« * * 
The big guns that bombard Paris are no longer a mystery ; 
they, are the work of Krupps — not of an Austrian factory, 
as was at first thought. Whether the gun is an effective 
engine of war is doubtful, its purpose so far having been 
to terrify Paris — a purpose in which it has failed. "That it 
should have bombarded Paris on Good Friday is entirely in 
keeping with the German spirit. This spirit has nothing in 
^mmon with Christianity, as Christianity is understood and 
practised here and in France. When will people fully realise 
this fact ? The Germans are barbarians, for alltlieir science 
and material progress ; and the longer the war lasts the 
more forcibly is this truth emphasised. They continue to 
pile up offences against humanity for which there can be no 
condonation. Punishment must eventually be exacted f free- 
dom and mercy are to be maintained. Can any one doubt this ? 
