LAND ^ WATER 
August 29, 19 18 
LAND&WATER 
5 Chancery Lane, London, IV. C. 2. Tel. Holiom liiS 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 19 18 
Contents 
P.AGE 
The Serenaders (Cartoon) 
Raemaekcrs 
I 
Current Events 
2 
The War 
Hilaire Belloc 
3 
The Baffled Pirates 
Arthur Pollen 
7 
The Opening of the Dardanelles 
Adventure . . . . . . 
Henr>- Morgenth 
ui q 
In Hun Hands in East Africa.. 
Effendi 
II 
Ah Old Eook Ke.a.d Again 
L. P. Jacks 
12 
Small Talk 
J. C. Squire 
M 
The Reader's Diary 
Peter Bell 
15 
The Theatre : The Chinese Puzzle 
W. J. Turner 
If) 
The New Village 
Jason 
17 
London's Chief Special Constable 
James Milne 
■ 18 
Household Notes . . 
20 
Notes on Kit 
22. 
Marshal Foch's Success 
THE past week has shown the fruits of Marslial 
Foch's policy. The inauguration of that policy 
is, as we all know, much older ; it dates from 
the spring of this year and from the wise creation 
of a united command. The first opportunity of 
its exercise came between five and six weeks ago with a 
surprise counter-offensive against Soissons and the conse- 
quent ruin of the enemy's offensive plan. But it is perhaps 
only in this last week that public opinion here has appre- 
ciated the fullness of it. The conditions under which the 
Allied Higher Command in the West has been acting since 
July i8th are unique in the history of war. It had before 
it an unbroken line of men, two millions upon the actual 
front, three millions in total numbers, sectired upon both 
flanks (the Swiss mountains and the North Sea) ; it recovered 
the initiative before it had recovered its superiority in 
numbers. It was certain of an increasing stream of rein- 
forcements. It was essential to retain the initiative, and yet 
a superiority in .fighting power (without which the initiative 
could not be fully used), was still lacking, and could only 
slowly come. What was to be done ? The Allied Higher ^ 
Command suppHed the answer to that question. Attack 
after attack was delivered, each upon a narrow front, each 
with a strikingly limited number of men, each with strictly 
limited objectives, each gradually extending the front of 
action. Because the attacks were delivered upon narrow 
fronts they were each individually highly economical in the 
number of divisions used. Because the objectives were 
limited, they were highly economical in the number of 
individual casualties. Because they were sprung upon the 
enemy, now here, now there, up and down a vastly extended 
line, they compelled him to a continued anxiety and to 
a ceaseless draining of his reserves. Meanwhile, the 
American contingents were perpetually coming in, though 
they were used sparingly in actual attacks and mainly kept 
back for future action. To all this must be added the supreme 
tactical value of the new tanks, which we owe to the 
mechanical genius of this country. These novel weapons in 
their present form, coupled with the strategical plan of the 
Marshal in command, have changed the face of the war. 
War Aims 
It is good to have our beliefs, and even our conventions, 
doubted ; for if these are challenged, we are compelled to 
examine the basis and nature of our faith. Even Lord 
Lansdowne, therefore, has his uses. By asking us what we 
were going on for he has made us ask ourselves what we 
were going on for. One result of his latest explosion (the 
word is a little strong for the cautious exploits of that tem- 
perate man) is that certain of Lord Hugh Cecil's Oxford 
constituents haye sought from their member light on the 
present situation. Their member has given it to them. He 
points out that were mere material interests at stake this 
might be a proper time for bargaining. But the character, 
opinions, and objects of the. enemy put a totally different 
complexion on the matter : 
From the time of the burning of Loiivain it began to be 
seen that we were not merely fighting in redemption of 
a promise nor to bring a conflict of national interests to 
the decision of the ordeal by battle, but to preserve the 
well-being of the civilised world from a monstrous evil. 
. . . That the citizens of a nation can know no higher 
object than to advance the interests of that nation, arid 
for that object may commit anv cruelty and any perfidy, 
is a doctrine which civilisation must ' either destroy or 
else itself perish. The war is now a crusade. 
"Moloch," .says Lord Hugii, "must be humiliated in the 
sight of all his votaries, if they are to accept a purer faith." 
It is evident, therefore, that in demanding the liberation of 
.-Msace-Lorraine, Prussian Poland, and the subject nations 
of Austria-Hungary, we are killing several birds with one 
stone. We are not only securing that justice should be 
done, we are not only removing the potential causes of future 
wars, but we are teaching the oppressors and the aggressors 
that oppression and aggression do not pay. We are happy 
to see that Senator Lodge, one of the ablest and most respected 
of American political leaders, takes precisely the same view.. 
Senator Lodge properly chsavows any idea of annihilating 
Germany or the German people. But he declares that the 
peace "cannot be a peace of bargain, or give-and-take and 
arrangement." Why ? Partly because it is our business to 
cure the Gei-mans of their disease, and partly because the 
things we require from them^and rightly and morally 
require — are things that they will never give up until they 
are beaten and will never yield except under dictation. 
His programme and curs is one wh'ch it- would be infamous 
cowardice to whittle down, but one which a Germany infected 
with the lust for predominance could never concede unless 
the Allied troops were, if not in Berlin, at any rate in a 
position to get there. When the game is obviously in our 
hands the Germans will give way ; and not before. 
Rabbits 
Ever since the food shortage began dignitaries of all kinds 
have encouraged citizens to keep and breed rabbits. The 
argument has been (i) that rabbits could eat virtually anything, 
i.e., grass and rank greens of all sorts ; (2) that they multiply 
like rabbits, and (3) that they make excellent food, and that, 
with all other sorts of meat very scarce, they, and they 
alone, can supply "a long-felt want," and fill a long-felt 
vacuum. Parts of this argument are unexceptionable. It 
is true that rabbits will cat almost anything green. Readers 
have written to us complaining that they will even eat young 
dahlias and young chrysanthemtmis, if given half a chance. 
It is also true that they will multiplj' beyond the dreams of 
avarice. Hundreds of thousands of British householders 
have realised during the past two years how it was that 
the introduction of a few pairs of rabbits in Australia resulted 
in the conversion of Australia into a continent of burrows. 
The breakdown occurs in the last argument. That rabbits 
can be eaten cannot be disputed ; that they are excellent 
eating is also beyond question ; that they were, as food, 
unjustly despised before the war is now admitted by all. 
But the grand dfficulty is that the ordinary Briton, being a 
creature of sentiment, and not a slave of logic, cannot bring 
himself to slay and devour his pets. At this moment all 
over, England there are millions of Belgian hares and less 
distinguished rodents which nibble greens all day long, and 
which can live in the comfortable assurance of dying a natural 
death. The simple reason is that the chUdren have given 
them names like P^ter, Marguerite, and Ann Veronica, that 
the whole household has been accustomed to feed them by 
hand, and that when it comes to the point of killing them 
for food people can no more bring themselves to it than they 
could bring themselves to the point of assassinating the 
domestic cat. We have come up against the primary affec- 
tions oi iliankind ; and we must recognise that it is highly 
fortunate that sheep and bullocks are not, and cannot be, 
reared in suburban gardens and by the domestic hearth. 
