of an individual who may be the soul of patriotism, who is being pushed by some persons of no less patriotism but equally by others of doubtful antecedents, including advocates of “a drawn war," though having been born in Germany our naturalized compatriots should appreciate the German peril more keenly than most of us.

"Nobbling"

THE functions of a British Prime Minister in war, especially in a war of this magnitude, with Allies too numerous to be counted on the fingers of two hands, are so vast, so vital, and Government by so varied that one might have hoped that any man would be content with that position. But some men are never satisfied with what they are and restlessly seek other things. It is a thousand pities, because Mr. Lloyd George is a remarkable personality and here is a remarkable situation made to his hand in which every one, apart from a few disgruntled ex-colleagues, sincerely hoped that he would distinguish himself. All he had to do was to run straight and to display sense, honesty, and courage. We could carry on without the higher gifts, at any rate for the time being. But there must be a readiness to learn from the right people. He has intuitions which frequently enable him to make a shrewd and original appointment and an independence that encourages him to go outside the Parliamentary ruck; he has wonderful popular instincts and is a great propagandist. But he has a mania for round-the-corner methods and round-the-corner men, so that his very colleagues of the War Cabinet are unable to guess what is going on. Nor can he distinguish between those who have axes to grind and those who have not, usually preferring the advice of the former, even when he must know that it is purely mischievous, if not malicious. Then he has developed this passion for "nobbling" every one, which can only end in repelling every one. Pacifists were to be nobbled by being given passports to Petrograd; patriots by patriotic perorations; the anti-Asquithites were "nobbled" by the ejection of Mr. Asquith; the Asquithites are to be nobbled by being given any vacant places that Mr. Bonar Law may relinquish. Hardly a week passes without the ex-Premier being solicited. Of the nobbling of the Press there is no end, while Lord Northcliffe is kept abroad so

that he may not know what a ghastly mess his protégés are making of almost everything they touch. The result so far is confusion, mistrust, bewilderment, exasperation, and ever-deepening disgust. Surely the forty-five millions of people inhabiting these islands and the four hundred millions in the British Empire are entitled to something better at this crisis of their fate, when civilization itself is at stake? We feel it our painful duty to speak frankly, because if the boomsters of the Press are allowed to continue misleading the world by depicting the present regime as indispensable and irreplaceable, a severe shock would be caused in the event, which many think not only probable but inevitable, of some drastic reconstruction. The alternatives would appear to lie between some one altogether outside the ranks of professional politicians, such as Sir Eric Geddes, or a Labour Premier with a Cabinet containing a judicious mixture of old and new blood. Or it may be that some soldier will have to sacrifice himself by turning politician. Anyhow it looks like a case of L.G.M.G.

POLITICAL intrigue can do nothing to win the war, whether directed against the General Staff under Sir William Robertson or at the great Army in France under Sir Douglas Haig. Intrigue It was hoped that when Lord Derby became War Minister he would play the part of an antiseptic and stop the spread of political poison, but like so many other public men who suffer from excessive modesty, he allows "careerists" to ride roughshod over him, with the result that the Premiership which once appeared within his grasp is rapidly receding among the 'Might-have-beens." Those who may be conveniently termed “the dukes" have apparently never recovered from the “strafing" they received some years ago from the demagogues and efface themselves at the very moment the nation and Empire desire and demand reliable leadership by men of character and purpose like the late Duke of Devonshire. It is deplorable from every point of view that none should be forthcoming among six or seven hundred Peers, of whom no doubt the flower are fighting, but the remainder ought to be able to put up a Devonshire as they can't provide us with a Chatham. We warn the classes that it will count against them hereafter that, magnificently as

their young men fought, the older generation was so unmindful of Duty at this crisis of our fate that a once great Historic Party was content to drift along under a Curzon or a Bonar Law and allowed itself to be exploited by the Beaverbrooks, the F. E. Smiths, the Churchills, and the Cassels, just as the once great Liberal Party had fallen under the Brunner Monds and the Speyers. Our own profession is not distinguishing itself, as many journals controlled by multi-millionaires are working overtime to boom and bolster up every spurious reputation. With all this false money in circulation it is not surprising that the people should be growing increasingly suspicious of all these cabals and conspiracies and social wire-pulling on the part of groups who may be all out for themselves but are certainly not out for the country. This war can never be won on the back stairs, though it might easily be lost there. We hear much of "secret diplomacy," but professional diplomats are ignored the real danger lies in private intrigues which are never mentioned in the Press and upon which no information can be obtained in "the House," as they are carried on by individuals behind the scenes, who escape responsibilty by avoiding official positions. Intrigue is peculiarly rampant under this regime and there will be much more of it before the end unless there is sufficient intelligence, patriotism, and determination at the back to install a decent Government that every one who is "doing his bit" could respect. This is surely not asking overmuch and it is the least the Fighting Men demand of the writing men, the talking men, and the working

men.

Communiqués

THE war can be won and is being steadily, surely, and inexorably won across the Channel by the mighty machine which improves every month, as we learn on the best possible Competing authority, viz. the confused and contradictory communiqués by which Hindenburg and Ludendorff, Ludendorff and Hindenburg, seek to conceal the course of events from a nervous and apprehensive public, who are probably more susceptible to panic than any community in the world. Discounting every prediction of discredited prophets, who began announcing "collapse of Germany" during the siege of Liége, there could hardly be more encouraging evidence than these

childish efforts of German Headquarters to convince a deluded nation that all goes well, unless it be the frantic outbursts with which the German Emperor periodically favours this country. If such manœuvres were confined to officials and politicians in Berlin, who are always mounting one or other pantomine for the benefit of neutrals, whose swallow is deemed unlimited, we should take them as a matter of course. The Reichstag is but a puppet Parliament. It has even less power than our House of Lords, because, like the House of Lords, it always runs away from its guns, being as a matter of fact nothing but a subordinate branch of the Executive and under the thumb of the German Government, which in its turn, as we are reminded anew, is but the mouthpiece of the army-in war. But when we find the Higher Command resorting to every conceivable mystification and playing up to public opinion," which German officers are trained to despise, we realize how different things are to what they were when Bismarck, von Roon, and von Moltke were placing the German Empire and the General Staff on the pinnacle from which they are now being deposed. In earlier campaigns, when our gallant little Army was battling for existence against hopeless odds, British communiqués necessarily adopted a hopeful hue and even glossed over failures involving substantial losses of prisoners, as gradually transpired later. German communiqués had then to be consulted as a corrective, but to-day the Germans expend their ingenuity in minimizing or misrepresenting operations, while our communiqués are models of candour and describe things exactly as they occur. We should be depressed if G.H.Q. were constrained to deal with such an incident as the recent battle of Langemarck as Ludendorff did—not for moral, but for military reasons. It would show that our general situation was bad and that we were afraid to let the Army or the nation know what was happening.

CONSIDERING that our task is now to break down the moral of the Prussian and Bavarian armies, there could be nothing more cheering than recent German bulletins except From Contempt these perpetual exhortations of Wilhelm II to his troops. If King George had been reduced to such frenzied appeals on his recent tour of the British Front we should all have felt alarmed. As it is, we feel exhilarated by being singled

to Fear

out as the Fatherland's most formidable foe. It is a proud pre-eminence which we trust we deserve and must struggle to retain in friendly rivalry with our incomparable French Allies, who have surprised the world afresh by their inexhaustible élan, and the rising power of the United States, whose Baptism of Fire will be a red-letter day in the History of Civilization. Think of the contrast between the Emperor's almost obsequious attitude to-day and the obloquy and contempt of three years ago, when the floodgates of venom were opened upon the nation he was about to destroy :

It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies, for the immediate present, upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill and all the valour of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English, and to walk over General French's contemptible little army. (The German Emperor, Aix-la-Chapelle, August 19, 1914.)

Wilhelm II still chants his Hymn of Hate, but in what a different key! He is a quarter English, and though the bombast is purely Prussian, it almost looks as though his English blood enabled him to read his doom as he confronts the Empire of Queen Victoria which he has armed. One feared that some wag might have invented the Kaiser's "latest," but, happily, an official telegram from Berlin repeated via Copenhagen stated that deputations from "all detachments which had a share in repulsing English attacks" had been paraded (August 22) to receive this homily from the All-Highest :

In these struggles all the Germans have realized who is the instigator of this war and who is the chief enemy-England. Everybody knows that England is our most spiteful adversary. She spreads her hatred of Germany over the whole world, steadily filling her Allies with her hatred and eagerness to fight.

Thus everybody at home knows what you know still better-that England is particularly the enemy to be struck down, however difficult it may be. Your relatives at home, who have made great sacrifices too, thank you through me.

A difficult struggle is in front of us.

If boasting ever was a British characteristic there has been no boasting in this war-our hearts are too full. We may nevertheless express our gratitude to the great soldiers who have organized victory with the aid of the younger generation, who have eclipsed all records in valour and endurance, for evoking this tribute. To have converted Imperial contempt into Imperial fear is no mean achievement, nor is it a mere matter of sentiment, as the issue will ultimately depend on moral. We are a long way