Land «& Water 
July 
I I 
I918 
LAND & WATER 
5 CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
Telephone i HOLBORN zSzS. 
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1918. 
Contents 
The Counter Stroke. (Cartoon.) By Raemaekers 
The Outlook 
L«cal Offensives. By H. Bclloc 
Shore Leave. By Herman Whitaker 
Turkish Conspiracy— IX. By Henry Morgenthau 
Compulsory Education. By L. P. Jacks 
The Dragon in Exile. By j. O. P. Bland 
The Land— n. By Agricola 
One. Bv J. C. Squire 
Of Movintains. By Charles Marriott 
Families in Fiction. _ By Hugh Walpole 
Household Notes 
Notes on Kit 
PAGE 
I 
2 
3 
6 
8 
II 
12 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
23 
The Outlook 
THE assassination of Mirbach, the so-called Ger- 
man "Ambassador" at Moscow, who was in 
practice the Governor of Western Russia, will 
be variously interpreted. We must beware of 
too simple conclusions from it. It is a symptom, 
of course, of the dissatisfaction which the German Press of 
the country has bred, but it is no proof that the chaos into 
which Russian society has fallen is resolving itself into a 
national form. The International Anarchists who still hold 
the machine of Government, such as it is, are evidently 
strongly supported by the popular committees, especially 
in the towns, and so long as the loot lasts that support will 
continue. Whether a majority of the population really sup- 
ports them or not we cannot tell. It is quite certain that a 
real reaction undoing the economic work of the Revolution 
would have no support. The real interest of the situation 
Hes in the action which the German Government will take 
as a consequence of the murder. It provides them with an 
opportunity for open interference, and if their policy has been 
laid with the object of such interference, we shall see it com- 
ing into effect at once. But it may well be that the Gertnan 
policy is not laid upon these lines at all. 
The need of our enemies in all the Slav countries is to ex- 
ploit them economically, and that as soon as possible. They 
boasted that while their economic difficulties in 1918 will 
remain very severe, supplies in 1919 will come from the East 
in much larger amount, and will be sufficient to re-establish 
them. Now to realise that hope of theirs, social order is 
necessary. But even if they had in hand a large body of 
trained troops, with all the requisite material, they would 
have great difficulty in thoroughly occupying these vast dis- 
tricts, with their poor communication, and they have no such 
body to hand. They may therefore think it better to let 
the present confusion settle down of itself, rather than to 
provoke unknown dangers of further disturbance. The 
peasantry upon whose labour and, to some extent, upon 
whose goodwill the supply of necessaries will depend, may 
have lost whatever national sense they had, but the instinc- 
tive hatred of the foreigner remains, and direct foreign rule, 
however disguised or palliated, will probably only be estab- 
lished at a ruinous cost in energy. We must remember that, 
counting the Ukraine, the district involved is larger than all 
the belt to the west of it overrun by the German and Austrian 
armies, and that the mere material structure of that district 
lends itself ill to effective control. 
* * * 
• The local actions, which are the mark of the present in- 
terruption in great operations upon the West, have continued 
throughout the week, the two main ones being that of the 
Americans at Vaux, near Chateau-Thierry, and that of the 
Australians, with an American contingent, at Hamel, east of 
Amiens. Both operations were perfectly successful, carried 
out with comparatively light losses, and fairly fruitful in 
prisoners ; over 2,000 prisoners being gathered between them. 
The excellent work of the new American levies has been 
specially noted by the French command, and is the most hope- 
ful feature for the situation, for we must remember that the 
training upon this side has had to be intensive and rapid, 
the numbers of American troops being put into the line 
being far in excess of that which was contemplated before the 
misfortunes of March 21st and 22nd, which changed the whole 
phase of the Western war. Especially noticeable has been 
the enemy's refusal or failure to react. After the defeat of 
his three divisions at Hamel there was no counter-attack ; 
while in the case of Vaux, a very strong counter-attack 
on the morrow of the victory completely broke down. 
If ^ * 
An examination of the figures published by Mr. Baker, the 
American secretary of War, upon the 4th of July, provides 
an analysis of the highest interest, the chief feature in which 
is the extraordinary elasticity shown by the system of trans- 
port. A curve very gradually rising from over 30,000 to 
less than 50,000 a month was suddenly changed by the events 
of last JIarch, and the transport of troops leapt up to over a 
quarter of a million for the month of June — an astorrishing 
performance. The mere figures are striking enough, but 
still more striking is the way iri which so vast a machine has 
been transformed to meet the new situation. The first ex- 
ample of this elasticity of method and decision was given 
when the American Government, at a moment's notice, 
decided in the most critical days of the offensive to embrigade 
their troops with those of the Allies ; and this further example 
of suppleness in the working of the great engine is of the best 
possible augury for the future. By the end of June over one 
million Ameritan troops had left the Atlantic Ports, of whom 
more than 700,000 were combatants, and it is obvious that 
the proportion of combatants to non-combatants will rise as 
time goes on, the preliminary work of facilitating communi- 
cations having demanded a very large proportion of non- 
combatant labour. 
* « * 
- The sinking of the Llandovery Castle is in its way the climax 
of Germany's outrages on the chivalrous traditions which 
seamen have handed down from war to war. It was not, 
of course, the first hospital ship deliberately sunk, nor was 
this the first occasion when every effort was made to see that 
no trace of crime remained, but it was the first time that the 
two things combined. No reasonable man can doubt that, 
while every boat but one was shelled or run down, the sur- 
viving boat owed its safety to miscalculation. The atrocity 
is one of such horror that there is nothing surprising in the 
fact that it has confirmed the seamen in their determination 
to have and permit no traffic with Germany in ships in which 
they serve, for a definite period after the war is over and to 
prolong the boycott by a further period of months. The 
Allied Governments might speak plainly on this matter. 
Every German already realises that victory without a hold 
on the raw materials which the Allies control would mean 
German ruin. It is only a small minority that sincerely 
believes in victory to-daj'. It might be a wholesome exercise 
for those no longer their dupes to realise that the Allies 
possess the power of bankrupting Germany and mean to 
exercise it, so that this ordeal must .be passed before that 
regeneration which alone can fit the Central Empire for 
fellowship with other people. This is the more necessary 
because the military party, rashly assuming that Germany 
will be left in possession of her Russian conquests, is organ- 
ising a great blow at the Murman coast through Finland, 
and seems to have inspired the judicial murder of the gallant 
and loyal Russian officer, who saved some ships of the Baltic 
Fleet from German clutches before the seizure of Finland was 
complete. 
* * « 
Our Naval Correspondent writes: "The British public 
and, for that matter. Parliament, are so perfectly trained to 
a tame acceptance of the inexplicable that it is idle to affect 
surprise over the matter of the Dutch convoy, which the 
Foreign Office has so complacently reported. Queen Wil- 
helmina's Government decided, it seems, to send a quantity 
of merchant ships to the East Indies under the escort of a royal 
warship, and has demanded that we should allow these 
ships to pass without that examination to which international 
law gives us an undoubted right. T^at it is a right that we 
should have lost had the Declaration become effective, and 
that it is a right that we have lost in this case by the sur- 
render of the Office which fathered the Declaration, excite 
a reasonable suspicion that there has been no quid pro quo. 
We do not know whether all, or indeed any, of the Allied 
Governments are consenting parties, and still more curious 
is it that the published documents tell us nothing about the 
Admiralty's attitude in the matter. That our surrender is 
accompanied by the emphatic statement that we will never 
do it again, looks like an attempt to mask a weakness in 
the language of strength. Our curiosity as to the-' inner 
meaning of all this will probably be unsatisfied, but till it 
is, further comment would be unenlightening." 
