Jul> 25, 1918 
Land & Water 
LAND & WATER 
5 CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
TeUphonei HOLBORN zSzt. 
THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1918. 
Contents 
I'AGE 
The Pawn. (Cartoon.) By Kaemaekcrs i 
The Outlook " 3 
The Counter Stroke. By H. Belloc 4 
The Enemy's Tactics. By Henry Bidou 8 
Bombing of Zeebriigge. By A. Pollen ii 
Attempt on .American Labour. By I'rench Struther 12 
The Teleferica. By Lewis R. Freeman 15 
Rupert Brooke. By J. C. Scjuire " 17 
Reader's Diary iS 
(ioverninent and War 19 
A Lost .\rt. By G. C. Williamson 20 
Household Notes , ^ 32 
Notes on Kit 25 
The Outlook 
THl'2 past week has been the most eventful in 
military operations since the great German 
offensive was launched on March 21st last. It 
has seen the undertaking of a new enemy offensive 
upon a scale only slightly less tlian that of the 
main blow four months ago ; but, for the first time, a reversal 
of the situation, a strong counter-offensive on the part of 
the Allies, a situation which, as we go to press, has not only 
compelled the enemy to give up his original offensive scheme, 
but also compelled him to begin a retreat. It is too- early 
to sjieak of the results of this counter-blow. Its first effects 
are only developing at the end of the week's fighting. The 
great value of the movement as affecting civilian opinion in 
the Allied countries is the proof it affords that the very rapid 
increase in the American contingents has already borne fruit. 
Hitherto, the enemy's strength has lain both directly and 
inchrectly in the superior numbers granted liim by the 
collapse of Russia : Directly through its giving him m'ore 
men in the field ; indirectly through its pertnitting him to 
do what the Allies have never been able to do — that is, to 
withdraw a large number of divisions for rest and special 
training before an attack. 
♦ * ♦ 
The enemy would seem to have made a false calculation 
as to the rate of arrival of the American troops, and also 
— what is of even more importance — as to their tactical 
value, which has proved everywhere of a very high order. 
He clearly believed that his right flank was sufficiently 
guarded with the troops present upon it while he threw his 
whole weight into th? great offensive he was conducting 
behind that screen. The Allied Higher Command was able, 
both by the use of the new method General Byng inaugurated 
last year, and also by the possession of sufficient numbers, 
together with the fighting quality of the American troops, 
to break through this screen completely upon Thursday 
last — the fourth day of the battle. The effect of this counter- 
attack was to put General Mangin's army into possession of 
the positions which had under their direct fire the sole railway 
communication of the whole district' between Soissons and 
Rheims. The offensive was thus immediately paralysed. 
The German troops which had crossed the Marne eight 
divisions strong on Monday were compelled to retreat upon 
Friday night. The retirement was continued during the 
whole of Saturday^ On Sunday, Chateau-Thierrj' was 
evacuated and re-occupied by the French, and the movement 
is still continuing. 
* * * 
The salient feature in this battle, apart from the strat- 
egical plan which it shows, is the new tactical value of the 
.\merican troops. The enemy not only made some miscal- 
culations as to their numbers actually available in the field 
in tl>e crisis of the action i)ut also clearly misunderstood 
and under-estimated their indi\i(hial figiiting power. It is 
an e.xceedingly important point ; tlie presence of these picked 
men, all of them in the prime of a soldier's age, that is between 
21 and 30, at this stage of the war has much the same effect 
as the presence of a new tactical instrument, with this 
supreme advantage attached to it — that it is an instrument 
that the enemy cannot copy. The armies of the original 
belligerents, especially the two main armies, French and 
German, are exhausted by four years of war, their nerve and 
resisting power, their general health and their tenacity are 
all necessarily affected by such a period of strain. But 
apart from this there is the fact that they have lost the men 
of the best age for- doing a soldier's work in a much- larger 
proportion than they have lost their older men and boys. 
The armies of the original belligerents now in the western 
field show large gaps in the classes between 20 and 30 years 
of age, and have a large proportion of the younger and older 
classes. The appearance therefore in the field of a great 
and rapidly increasing contingent of men between the ages 
of 20 and 30 is of very- great effect in action, and it is comfort- 
ing to reflect that this will grow sUnidily with every week of 
the summer. 
* * * 
As we write, some tens of thousands of munition workers 
liave handed "in strike notices. If a strike comes its material 
consequences must be grave, and its mental consequences, 
upon the Army, the civil population, and the workers them- 
selves deplorable. This is a commonplace ; it is obvious 
as anything could be ; and it leads many politicians and 
most journalists to angry denunciations of the workmen 
as traitors and declarations that "strikes cannot be per- 
mitted." But the mere facts that we have gone through 
these experiences before, that in some cases no threats have 
prevented the men from downing tools ; that in other cases 
they have been kept 'at work by an admission that their 
grievances were just and a promise of redress ; and that, 
for all the industrial unrest we have had, the munition workers 
have shown no tendency as a body to drift into opposition 
to the war or to remain idle after their claims have been 
settled should keep us on our guard against thinking either 
that menaces are any good or that abuse is justified. When 
we find— -as we 'often do find in these disputes — that the 
"unrest" is shared by men who have been discharged from 
the Army after "doing their bit" as voluntary soldiers, f his ■ 
becomes more evident than ever. 
It is the duty of those of us who are not working men to 
exercise our imaginations, and to try to get hold of the 
facts. The basic fact in th6 i)rescnt case (there is also a 
question of tactlessness on the part of a particular fimi) is 
that the Ministry of Munitions have ordered that certain 
firms shall take on no more skilled men without licence. 
The workmen — whose only asset is their power of setting 
their labour in freedom under conditions approved by their 
organisations— see in this an approach to what they con- 
sidered the "servile" provisions of the Munitions Act, which 
tied men down to particular employers. The offensive part 
of the Munitions Act — after causing continual trouble and 
serious dislocation of supplies — was* repeided ; and it has 
been officially admitted that the repeal has not led to the 
ill-effects (e.g., wanton change of employment) which were 
feared. "But," says the Government, "this new suspicion 
is groundless, and it is absolutely essential that, in the interests 
of productipn, our inadequate supply of skilled labour should 
be properly distributed." This is true ; it is true that the 
maximum of efficiency is all-important ; it is true that war- 
time strikes are repulsive and might be disastrous. But if 
we wish to secure maximum efficiency and to avoid strikes 
there is only one way of doing it : by working with and 
through. the trade unions, by taking the men into our con- 
fidence, by listening to, and either dissipating or satisfying, 
their grievances, and, above all, by treating them as reason- 
able and patriotic men. The last thing to do is to attempt 
to brow-beat : vaguely to thteaten the use of force, which 
would do no good if you used it, to issue orders in terse and 
dictatorial terms, or to attempt to queer the men's pitch 
by sending ex parte communications to the Press. The 
same qualities which make the Englishman so tenacious in 
the field make him stubborn in the factory ; they may 
occasionally have unpleasant results, but we cannot deny, 
or even deplore, their existence. We have the greatest 
admiration for many of Mr. Churchill's gifts. But his posi- 
tion, in so far as it regards labour, should properly be treated 
as that of standing conciliator, and in a concilator pugnacity 
is not a merit. We believe that no large body of workmen 
will be exasperated into desertion of the fighting forces if 
they are properly handled. 
Late in the day the Ministry issued a more sensible state- 
ment, and announced that it was j^repared to discuss with 
Labour any changes affecting labour ; and we sincerely 
hope that t)y the time these lines appear the strike will have 
been averted. 
