April II, 191 8 
Land & Water 
LAND & WATER 
5 CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
Telephone : HOLBORN 2818. 
THURSDAY, APRIL ii, 1918. 
Contents 
PAGE 
I 
The King's Visit to France. (Photograph) 
Pozieres. (Illustration.) Bv Captain Handley-Read 2 
The Outlook " 3 
The Continued Battle. By Hilaire Belloc 4 
A New German Port. By Arthur Pollen 9 
Good Friday, 1918. Bv Raemaekers 10 and 11 
Mr. Wilson's Great Stroke. By Arthur Pollen 12 
German Plots Exposed. By French Strother 13 
The Petitot Snuff-Box. By G. C, Williamson 16 
Our Band. By Etienne 17 
Mr. Asquith as Author. B\- J. C. Squire 19 
Motor Tractors in Agriculture. By H 20 
Domestic Economy 24 
Notes on Kit xi 
The Outlook 
AT the beginning of the first week of this month 
the enemy's main attack was held by the in- 
creasing resistance of the Allies as portions of 
the French Reserves came up. But in two 
great attacks whic'h followed during the course 
of that week, and the last and most severe of which was last 
Thursday, the enemy still continued his vast expenditure in 
men with the clear object of creating a nipture in the line 
as soon as possible. In the course of these efforts the 
Germans occupied the western or left bank of the Avre, and 
finally reached the point where the brook Luce falls into 
that river, thus occupying new ground in the shape of a 
crescent about twelve miles long and rather more than a 
couple of miles deep at the deepest point. 
TTiis movement brings the most advanced German posts 
to within three miles of the main railway between Amiens 
and Paris, which they have already had under distant fire 
for a long time, and, at Castel, to about nine miles from the 
heart of Amiens. But the coSt of the effort continues to be 
enormous, the German losses to date being at least a third 
of a million men and probably more — 60 per cent, of their 
whole annual revenue in recruitment. The Allies still stand 
upon the defensive, and a rough rule governing the situation 
is to regard that defensive as about half the strength of the 
offensive which it is for the moment holding, and creating in 
, the offensive losses about double that which itself suffers. 
• • • 
The lesser military incidents of the week include the con- 
tinued bombardment of Paris by the long-range guns which 
the enemy has established between La Ffere and Laon, which 
have caused a few casualties in the course of the week, but 
nothing seriously disturbing the life of the city. Unfor- 
tunately, among the victims was a niece of Mr. Sargent, the 
painter whose unique position in this country is familiar to all. 
This young lady was the widow of a French officer already 
fallen in this war. 
Apart from the main attack ujwn the junction between 
the French and British armies, strong pressure was exercised 
by the Germans just south of Albert, with the result that 
they gained a further narrow strip on the high ground beyond 
the Ancrc River ; but considerable efforts made further to 
the south again, between this point and the Somme, broke 
down with serious losses. 
The German Press continues almost unanimously to pro- 
phesy immediate victory as the result of the present action, 
and the attitude of the Socialist organs is worthy of special 
attention , These surpass their rivals in their certitude of 
the imminence of a complete military success and in their 
support of the policy now leading to it. There has been no 
more conspicuous change of tone in Europe than this new 
attitude of the German Socialists, unless it be the converse 
change which has taken place in this country since the 
enemy showed his hand a couple of weeks ago. 
• • • ' 
Never since the war began has British public opinion 
ijcen more averse from a "negotiated peace" than it is at 
present. It is not only the battle now being fought so 
sternly in Picardy that is accountable for this healthier 
state of feeling. The Lichnowsky memorandum has knocked 
the bottom out of the favourite argument of the Pacifist 
that this country in some mysterious way was responsible, 
at least in part, for the war ; also recent events in Russia, 
Finland, and Rumania have conclusively established the 
kind of treatment any nation may anticipate which is willing 
to conclude a German peace. 
The Government in carrying into effect its new Man- 
power Bill will bo met more than half-way both in the House 
and the country. The proposals are far-reaching, and 
Ireland is at last to have conscription ; but before it is 
enforced, a new Home Rule Bill is to be passed. It will 
be interesting to watch the welcome now accorded to Home 
Rule 1iy the various Irish sections. 
# » ♦ 
April 6th will always be hailed as a festal day in the United 
States. It is the date on which America entered the war, 
and the first anniversary was fitly celebrated in London by a 
luncheon given by the Lord Mayor of London at the Mansion 
House last Saturday. A distinguished company had been 
invited to listen to the speeches of Mr. Balfour and the 
American Ambassador. Mr. Page made a deep impression 
by following up his remark that "his countrymen were 
aroused and united as they were never united and aroused 
before," with the observation : "To no previous war did we 
give our unanimous approval. Neither Washington nor 
Lincoln had all the people behind him. Such unanimity as 
President Wilson has is a new fact in our history. It took 
the boundless and barbarous ambition of Germany to bring 
this about." 
Mr. Page also put into memorable words the task that 
still lies before the Allies : " No nation that helps to stay this 
plague will ever outlive the glory of its achievement nor the 
thanks of succeeding generations." And on this same day 
Mr. Wilson delivered at Baltimore yet another of those 
speeches that will pass into history. According to the Reuter 
report, it concluded with the following sentences, to which 
it is impossible to give too wide publicity : 
Germany has' once more said that force and force alone shall 
decide whether justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, 
whether right as 'America conceives it, or dominion as she con- 
ceives it, shall determine the destinies of mankind; There is, 
therefore, but one response possible from us — force, force to the 
utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant 
force which shall make right the law of the world and cast erery 
selfish dominion down in the dust. 
• * * 
Mr. Balfour did well to differentiate clearly between /the 
speeches and the acts of the enemy. It is a favourite German 
trick to endeavour to fog us with words, and it is one for 
which the rulers of Germany have some justification in that 
in this manner they undoubtedly did deceive us in the past. 
All their careful war preparations were made behind a cloak 
of protestations of desire for peace and for friendly relations 
with their neighbours ; their endeavours to estrange the 
Allies have always been undertaken by verbal protests of 
respect first for this one and then for the other of their 
adversaries, and, like the drowning man, they still cling to 
the straw that though might fails them and their armies are 
defeated in the field, they will secure victory at the last 
either by tongue or pen. Therefore, Alhed statesmen cannot 
be too precise and emphatic in their references to Teuton 
hypocrisy. 
Mr. Balfour drew attention to the methods Germany is 
employing to secure self-determination in her own favour. 
"Is it not a very simple plan, either by massacre or other- 
wise, to change the character of a population ? That sounds 
almost incredible in its brutality. It has been done. It is 
being done. And it is proposed to be done at the very 
moment at which I am speaking, under the a?gis of those 
civilised nations Germany and Austria." These are plain words. 
And to drive them home, the Foreign Secretary told what 
was not generally known before : that Rumania's alternative 
to accepting Germany's terms of peace was her destruction 
as a nation, her dominions to be equally divided between 
Hungary and Bulgaria. 
» « » 
The Prime Minister would be well advised to break himself 
of the habit of uttering words in order to galvanise liis audi- 
ences. He has confessed it was the real reason for his Paris 
speech which gave rise to regrettable misunderetandings, and 
we conclude it is also the origin for the final sentence of his 
April 6th message to the Lord Mayor of London : "During 
the next few weeks America will give the Prussian military 
junta the surprise of their hves." It would be wiser and 
so much more dignified were these "surprises" only spoken 
about after accomplishment. Experience warns us that the 
anticipated "surprise" is usually a frost. 
