Land & Water 
June 27, 1 918 
LAND & WATER 
5 CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
Tdepbene 1 HOLBORN zgll. 
THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1918. 
Contents 
Peace S;uiiples. (Cartoon.) By Raemaekers 
The Outlook 
The Italian Victory. By H. Belloc 
Further Progress. By Arthur Pollen 
The Turkish Conspiracy. — VII. By H. Morgcnthau 
The Kaiser : Mad or Bad ? By Charles Mercier 
• Flying Sailors. By Hennan Whitaker 
A Charter for Agriculture. By Sir Herbert Matthews 
The Auxiliary Cruiser. By N. M. F. Corbett 
High Spirits. By J. C. Squire 
Birds as they Live: By Francis Stopford 
A Topographer. (Illustrated.) By Charles Marriott 
London Sanctuary. By Millar Dunning 
Household Notes 
Notes on Kit 
P.\GE 
I 
2 
3 
7 
8 
II 
12 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
2q 
22 
25 
The Outlook 
A DISPATCH sent from Italian Headquarters by 
General Diaz last Sunday evening announced the 
termination of the Austrian offensive and the 
retirement of the enemy over the bridges of the 
Piave. The same dispatch says that the retire- 
ment has been conducted in disorder. It is not yet known 
how far the enemy's determination to abandon the battle 
has led to loss in men and material. It is generally believed 
that no heavy guns have been brought across by him save 
possibly over the considerable number of bridges thrown 
across at St. Dona in the lower parts of the river. On the 
other hand, he had 70,000 men to transfer to the eastern 
bank, and the bridges which he built and floated from one 
side to> the other were in part destroyed some days ago by 
the flood of the iSth and iqth of the month. There is every 
indication that the determination to retire was taken after 
the failure of the last thrust west of St. Dona last Friday, 
and after the Italians had crossed the mouth of the Piave 
the same day and threatened the enemy's rear. In that 
case the enemy had about tliirty-six hours in which to prepare 
his retirement. 
* * * 
The first question asked by all who have followed the 
recent offensive and its failure in Italy is the effect its reverse 
may have upon the domestic conditions of Austria-Hungary. 
The dual monarchy consists essentially of five parts, three 
of which are composed of subject nations and races, two of 
which consist of dominant States of German-speaking Austria, 
and Magyar-speaking Hungary. One may say, roughly, 
that of rather over 50 milHon people there are 10 million 
in each of the last two, and 30 million of the. remainder 
of which the greater part are Slavs. The latter are 
separated greatly by distance, and in part? by the varieties 
of dialect and language, while all are in various degrees 
attached to the dynasty, save some groups in Bohemia and 
Croatia and the greater part of the Poles. 
If only this political divergenc}' were at work, the difficulty 
the Hapsburg dynasty would have to face through a military 
reverse would not be so- great ; but fortunately there 
is also an economic strain in the country more severe than 
that suffered by any other present belligerent, and it is this 
which is the really grave feature in the present situation. 
It means that if the present offensive, with its great losses, 
is definitely abandoned, another can hardly be undertaken, 
the immediate future will show us whether the check of the 
Austrians in Italy will lead to any considerable developments 
on this count. 
All that we are told of the internal or domestic enemy 
conditions through neutral sources should, as a rule, be 
taken with a large dose of salt ; but there are known facts in 
this case. For instance, the demonstrations in Vienna, 
the diminution of the rations and the Hungarian strikes. 
Those things are, and the whole state of society in Austria- 
Hungary, so far as the town papulation, at least, is concerned, 
is liigldy unstable. 
The supper given in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of 
Westminster last week to the Prime Ministers of the Dominions 
and other representatives attendirg the Imjicrial War Confer- 
ence emphasises again the serious handicap imposed on 
overseas statesmen when they attend the Imperial Councils 
of the mother country. For public utterances they are 
entirely dependent on chance hospitalit\'. They are given 
no platform from which they may speak freely and frankly, 
and without the restraint that the conditions of the moment 
impose. We wrote strongly on this subject a year ago, and 
we repeat most emphatically that every Dominion Prime 
Minister or his representative who attends an Imjx^rial 
Cabinet should ipso facto be given a seat on the cross-benches 
of the House of Lords. He would then be at hberty to 
speak to the Empire with absolute frankness ; it may be on 
occasion he would feel it his duty to censure the Government 
on detail, t)uthecoulddoso without any base insinuation that 
he had been slighted or snubbed. The objection to this 
l^roposal is that it would give Dominion poHticians an oppor- 
tunity to interfere in domestic politics. There is no real 
ground for this. These men are accustomed to tiie codes 
and etiquettes of free Parlianients, and seeing that their very 
position testifies they are possessed of strong characters, we 
are convinced they would not offend in this respect. In any' 
case, as they arc now placed, their position is humiliating 
should they desire to address the nation in the public manner 
they are accustomed to speak in their own territory. This 
handicap should not be permitted to continue. 
* * * 
"Ireland remains as Irish as ever," was the phrase used 
the other day by a distinguished Dublin publicist to sum up 
the situatipn. And after Lord Curzon's speech in the House 
of Lords last week, he might have added "And England 
remains as English as ever." A more lugubrious confession 
of failure has never been publicly made in the Palace of 
Westminster. As we said here two or three weeks ago, the 
one deadly sin in Government's policy towards Ireland 
would be hesitation — -vacillation. This has been committed, 
and events do not forgive. As Lord Londonderry said, 
Ireland has been cajoled at one moment and dragooned at 
another. It is of no avail to throw the blame on either the 
Nationalists or the priesthood. The fault is the Govern- 
ment's, and it is the more glaring, remembering the fanfare of 
trumpets which greeted the present Prime Minister when 
he was deputed to Ireland after the Easter Rebellion. Wliat 
is going to happen now ? Things are not going to stand 
still. The position to-day is serious enough ; it will quickly 
get worse unless a firm policy be adopted. 
* * * 
German propaganda is an old story nowadays, but never 
have its workings been more nakedly exposed than by Mr. 
Morgenthau in his chapter on the Turkish Conspiracy. He 
has related how Goebcn and iSrcs/a!< passed through the 
Dardanelles in defiance of international treaties, and he now 
tells how the Turks were prepared for the closing of the 
Dardanelles by the high-handed action of a German General 
on his own responsibility. .\ more cynical contempt of the 
rights of neutral nations has never been exp)Osed, and we 
have no .difficulty in realising the manner in which Germany 
would have acted over the blockade had her position and 
Great Britain's been reversed. Mr. Morgenthau's disclosures 
increase in interest ; thej' are the strongest indictment that 
has yet been launched against the unscrupulous methods of 
the German Foreign Office — methods which obviously won 
the complete approval of the Kaiser. 
* * ' * 
The British farmer has done so well since a demand was 
made upon his services for increased production that every 
one who. knows anything about the facts must be resentful 
at the odious manner in which he has been maligned as 
though a slacker and shirker. The new call upon the agri- 
cultural classes was only made bj' the Government with 
reluctance, and because they were convinced of its necessity. 
It has been freely responded to at no small risk to tillage and 
stock in certain districts. Shepherds, horsekeepers, and 
cowmen are not trained in a day, and the farmer is often at 
his wits' end to find efficient substitutes. It is too fre- 
quently overlooked that the Yeomanry which performed 
splendid service at GalHpoli, and in Egypt, Palestine, and 
elsewhere, is mainly recruited from the farming class, which 
has done its duty bravely and well, both on the battlefield 
and the harvest-field. We should like to see the labours of 
the tenant farmer officially recognised. He who doubles 
the production of his acres is surely worthy of public honour. 
In this issue the effect of the report of Lord Seiborne's Com- 
mittee on the future of farming is discussed. 1 
