THE MAGAZINES.

THE first place in the new Nineteenth Century is given to Sir Francis Piggott'spaper on "The Reorganisation of the Empire: Counsels of Perfection." Theoretically, the claim of the Dominions to a direct share in the management of Imperial affairs has been greatly strengthened by the events of the last two years. Practi- cally, Sir Francis Piggott finds that their representation at Westminster would be unworkable and inefficacious. He suggests, accordingly, that if the present system is in any way to be adapted to the new conditions, the Dominions should be represented at Cabinet meetings long antecedent to the out- break of war ; that the administration of foreign affairs should be removed from the area of party polities, as a corollary to the now accepted principle of continuity in foreign policy ; that the status and responsibilities of the Permanent and Under Secre- taries should be developed from that of Civil Servants to Assistant. Secretaries of State ; and that Cabinets should be reduced in numbers, and only those Ministers called to the meeting whose Departments are concerned, or who have special knowledge of the subject under discussion, the selection being in the hands of the Prime Minister. But the tentative nature of these "counsels of perfection " is sufficiently shown by the final acknowledgment of the writer that "the existing system of Imperial Government, with all its vagueness, judged by its magnificent results is a thing which has made the whole world wonder, and I ask :

Is it not better so ? "—Lord Cromer's admirable review, under the heading of "Vex Populi," of Sir Martin Conway's book on The Crowd in Peace and War is rich in illustrative comment, drawn from his own wide experience, on the contentions and

conclusions of that writer. He demurs, on good grounds, to the view that "the true measure of civilisation is manners." Thus we read on p. 532 :— "I agree with Sir Martin Conway in thinking that an Indian ryot, an Egyptian fellah, or—more especially—a nomad Bedouin will generally be better-mannered than an English navvy or a French peasant. But when I am told that on that account the Egyptians, as a body, are really more civilised than the French or than my own countrymen and countrywomen, I cannot help asking myself whether, during the whole of the quarter of a century and more that I passed amongst them, I was or was not in a dream."

He supports Sir Martin Conway's view of the influence

of crowd-pressure by a striking experience of his own in Egypt, where the unanswerable arguments of an Indian Judge, a staunch Moslem, were powerless to gain even a hearing

from the Ulema of Cairo. He pays tribute to the courage of women in braving crowd-pressure by the violation of social conventions ; and he tells two interesting stories to illustrate the readiness of a crowd to listen to arguments which run counter to their feelings and their inaccessibility to high poetry. Admitting the need of devising checks on the tyranny of crowd.

pressure under a democracy, he finds them in the creation of a strong, efficient, and intelligent Second Chamber ; in education and a more enlightened Press ; and, above all, in doing all that is possible to diminish the influence of mere "crowd-exponents," and to increase that of such " crowd-compellers " as are capable

of guiding or compelling the crowd to move in the right direction. "Crowds are a necessary concomitant of democratic institutions. They cannot be suppressed, but by courageous and skilful treatment they may be controlled and guided."—We may also note Dr. Brend's interesting paper on "Infant Mortality " ;

Miss Constance Maud's plea for a Pure Food Law, such as exists in France, in the interest of our children; and Bishop Bury's sympathetic study of "Holy Russia."

Sir Thomas Whittaker summarizes the work of the Central Control Board in the Contemporary. Applying the test of statistics, he points out that convictions for drunkenness have fallen by one-third and more in areas where the prosperity of the working classes has been greatest. Again, the opinion of public authorities, Magistrates, local officials, Chief Constables, port authorities, and large employers is overwhelmingly in favour of the restrictions. As for the lesser efficacy of the Orders in the industrial areas of Scotland, he attributes that result to the greater prevalence of the whisky-drinking habit and greater laxity in enforcing the law. But he points out that the practi- cally universal opinion expressed at the Conference held in Glasgow on January 18th was that the Orders did not go far enough. Even the representatives of the Trade agreed in urging that they should be more strictly enforced, while the Chief Constable of Glasgow, the Licensing Court, the Glasgow Herald, and the Clyde and Glasgow Shipbuilders' Associations are in favour of the prohibition of the sale of spirits during the war.— Mr. T. Farman writes a most interesting paper on "The French

Catholic Church and the War." We have only apace to note some of his most striking comments. Good, in his opinion, has

come out of evil. The French Republican Government, in suppressing the exemption from military service of men who had already entered the Church or were preparing to take Holy Orders, aimed at weakening the Church by sapping the recruitment of ministers, and, in the phrase of AL Viviani, by "extinguishing the lights of heaven." But the salutary influence of the soldier-priests has been so great that "even the most fervent Catholics no longer denounce the law which put the knapsack on the back of the priest, but content themselves with qualifying it as a feliz culpa." Not only did the parish priests hasten to rejoin their regiments at the outbreak of the war, but also the monks who had been expelled from their native land,

because they had become members of religious congregations, hurried back from far-distant lands to defend their country. The March National Review is distinguished from recent numbers by two welcome features—the absence of the usual long recriminatory article directed against the past misdeeds of Cabinet Ministers ; and the admission in the reprint, with comments, of the Papen Papers that the British Intelligence Department is capable of first-rate work. We observe that in his paper on "Government and Gloom," while contending that "the Five [the War Committee cf the Cabinet] and the

Twenty-Two [the Cabinet] as now constituted are a public peril," and gladly acknowledging that the moral of the British .Arrey is splendid, the editor does not refrain from alluding to excrescences, weaknesses, and jealousies which flourish at the Front at G.H.Q., "outside the real brain of the Army."— " The Fisher Cabal" is a very damaging criticism of the intrigue to place Lord Fisher in supreme power at the Admiralty. Into the record of the past we prefer not to enter beyond saying that it is incomplete, but as regards recent events we may note that the writer, who has "no use for" Mr. Churchill, is none the less convinced that " nothing in the world can absolve Lord Fisher from the direct moral responsibility for the immense and disas- trous blunder of the Dardanelles expedition" :—

" Either Lord Fisher, as the highest naval authority, approved of the expedition, or he did not. If he did approve of it, events have proved his incompetency. If he did not approve of it, it was his duty to have stopped the whole business at once. He could have stopped it, either by explaining the situation to the Cabinet, to whose war councils he had access, or by proffering his resignation. There remains a third hypothesis ; that Lord Fisher neither approved nor disapproved, but waited on events. But such an evasion of duty would be a grave reproach in itself."

The writer, who holds that civilian control and political intrigue have caused every disaster throughout the war and are still allowed to continue, appeals to Mr. Balfour to restore to the Board of Admiralty the supreme and unquestioned authority which is its right, and to declare plainly that he will not permit any orders to be given to the Fleet except by the Board.

The writer adds that Sir Henry Jackson, First Sea Lord, and his naval colleagues possess the absolute confidence of the country, a statement which is not altogether reconcilable with the editor's partial support in his "Episodes of the Month" of the " critical " and " alarmist " views expressed by the naval expert of the Daily Telegraph.—The best article in the number is Mr. Frank Fox's admirable study of "The Anzac "—the fighting Australasian—in "his superabounding national con- fidence, his instinctive thought of the British as the Chosen People of dt stiny, his intolerance, his contempt for incapacity." The article is enlivened by some delightful anecdotes, of which we may quote the two following :—

" When the Australian gunboat Protedor arrived in Chinese waters the British admiral went on board to pay his compliments and was not stinting in praise of Australian military and naval prowess. Thereupon the Australian band is said to have struck up with a tune from The Belle of New York : of course you can never be like es.'

It is perhaps true ; certainly possible; for there is a touch of gay impudence in the Australian character which an ex-Governor confessed to me he loved because it was so young.' Always one comes back to that word young.' It is, I am convinced, the key to an understanding of the Anzac—youth with its enthusiasms, rashnesses, faults, shynesses ; youth, raw, if you will, but of good generous breed and high intentions ; youth to be treated, if the best is to be got out of it, after the tradition of the Public School. . . . An English parson who now, back in his rectory in one of the fairest counties of England, often looks back with a feeling almost of regret at his year in the Back of Beyond' of Australia, tells me that his first impression was that the Anzac of the bush was cruel and pagan. His last impression was that the Anzac was generally as fine a Christian as any heaven for human beings would want. An incident of this parson's ' conversion ' (he related) was the entry into a far-back town of a band of five men carrying another on a stretcher. The six were opal miners with a little claim far out in the desert. One had been very badly mauled in an explosion. The others stopped their profitable work at once and set themselves to carry him in to the nearest township with a hospital. The distance was forty-five miles. On the road some of the party almost perished of thirst, but the wounded man had his drink always, and always the bandages on his crushed leg were kept moist in the fierce heat of the sun."

Dr. Dillon asks in the Fortnightly on what grounds do we

base the optimism which is now so prevalent. The military situation hardly accounts for it, for we are for ever on the defensive, and repulses of enemy's attacks or finely conducted retreats, however often they may occur, do not win campaigns. Neither is our prospect in the political and diplomatic domain any better. The reason of all this Dr. Dillon attributes to the fact that "the poisoned source of nearly all our reverses is our willingness to allow the conduct of the war to remain in the bands of men of peace." As an instance of this we are told that, at a particular period of the war, in this country "a man of far-reaching vision and high organizing capacity" pressed a scheme for a landing at Salonika upon the Government, who would not consider it because it interfered with a diplomatic fencing-bout in which they were then engaged. At the same time, it is said that General GaMeni also propounded the plan, but it was pronounced visionary. Many months later—that is, in July—M. Briand took up the proposal, but he was not able to convince others. Had the plan been carried out when it was first conceived, we should have saved Serbia, and almost certainly brought Roumania and Greece actively to our side. Dr. Dillon considers that now there are substantial grounds for believing that " Roumania's participation in the war is a military,' not a political, question." He also announces that "the tide of events is rolling temporarily from West to East," and expects a double advance on Albania and Salonika. But the battle of Verdun has upset this calculation. In a postscript Dr. Dillon tells us that he knows, on first-hand authority, that Germany has offered terms of peace, but has not found a spokesman who will present them to any of the Allied Governments. We are tantalized by being told that Dr. Dillon knows what the terms are ; but he does not disclose them, except in one par- ticular, which is that Germany is to treat with each Ally separately. Dr. Dillon says of this attempt to negotiate that it is "one of the most hopeful circumstances that have come to my knowledge since the outbreak of the war."—Mr. Arthur Baumann asks the question, "Is Democracy to Blame?" and makes a survey of the past, in which he shows that the blunders in eighteenth-century wars were far greater than ours at the

present, and that the successes ware largely the result of a com- bination of geniuses, with Pitt, Nelson, and Wellington at their

head. Mr. Baumann also points out that the Allies represent every form of government—Autocracy, Limited Monarchy, and Republic—that all were equally unprepared, and that all have blundered. It is therefore not just to lay all the blame on demo- cratic government alone. Real blame, however, must be laid upon the Trade Unions :—

" The discussions between Mr. Lloyd George and the representa- tives of organized labour about wages and output and the em- ployment of women arc only comparable to the discussion by the Council of Constantinople of a theological text while Mahomet was thundering at the gates. . . . Undoubtedly organized labour has retarded the adoption of compulsory military service by a year, and thus cost us about £1,000,000,000 and very many lives. . . . Democracy has in eighteen months placed some three million men under the Colours well fed, well clothed, and adequately, if slowly, armed. What would Marlborough or Wellington have done with such an Army ? He would have conquered the world."

—Mr. Davenport Whelpley insists that America in an external crisis is entirely dependent on her leaders for guidance, so little are foreign affairs understood. This gives enormous powers for good or evil to the President. Unfortunately, America has taken the wrong road because she has the misfortune to have at the head of affairs a man who was not capable of distinguishing a titanic struggle between right and wrong from a common international brawl. Under the guidance of one capable of realizing the greatness of the issue, America might have exercised an enormous moral force ; now she exercises none. In the past she has wearied the world with her boasting that she stands for all that is good and progressive among nations, and leads the world in moral ideas. The time came for her to act up to her words, and she proclaimed herself not only too proud to fight, but too careless of right and wrong to protest against the violation of laws, human and Divine.

The article in Blackwood, "A Ship's Company," is a vivacious account of the doings of a battle-cruiser at the beginning of the war, including the part it played in the Bight of Heligoland battle. The writer gives us a glimpse of the spirit of the Navy, and in so doing lays us under a debt. Front the force of circum- stances, we hear so much less about the daily life of the Navy than of the Army that we are grateful for any little insight we may get.—Sir William Willcocks gives an extraordinarily interesting account of the two and a half years he spent in Mesopotamia, when he surveyed the country for the Turkish Government with a view to the restoration of its ancient fertility by means of the control and use of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. Before setting out in 1908, Sir William asked the Khedive how he could best work with the Turks. The Khedive told him to come back in three days' time, when he gave the following advice :—

" (1) Never fall out with the Germans on any point, or they will wreck your work. (2) Never mention the word India, as the Turks look with dread upon the entry of Indians into the Euphrates delta. (3) Every Turkish official will pretend to be stupid in order to draw you out. These people are no fools, and in their presence you keep your own counseL"

"The advice was sound," says Sir William, "and stood me in

good steed all the time I worked with the Turks." How trying, to the very verge of human endurance, Turks can be is amply illustrated in this paper. The Turkish Government had allotted

£250,000 a year for irrigation work, but Sir William Wincocks

was often hard put to it to obtain supplies. The Army con- sidered that they had a right to this money, and so at any

moment necessary funds might be diverted. Current expenses were paid by cheques, but to get these cashed was not always easy. These cheques were countersigned by the Wali of Baghdad on a Thursday evening, but Sir William says that he "could draw no money on Friday, as it was the Moslem holiday ; on Saturday, because it was the Jewish holiday ; or on Sunday, as the Christians took their day off. The Defterdar, 'after this Ion" break, was too busy to attend to cheques on Monday, so he approved the payment on Tuesday evening, and, if my credit at the Bank had not been transferred to the Army, I got the money on Wednesday."

The Arabs of Mesopotamia hate the Turkish Government, and are in a constant state of rebellion. When the surveying party was going down the river with a guard of Turkish police, it was noticed that the Turkish flag was not flying on the boat. The reason given for its absence was that it had been flung into the

river because at the sight of it every Arab fired at the boat. Well may the natives hate such a Government, which has

reduced the most fertile ground imaginable to a desert, and has no other idea of ruling than of stirring up strife, which it does deliberately, between the various tribes. The whole of this great tract of tlrritory shows signs in every direction of the remains of irrigation works, and Sir William Willcocks says that in an incredibly short time the desert could again

be made to blossom like the rose and capable of sup- porting a great population, and to outdo Egypt in wealth

and fertility. Hero there would be a great outlet for the surplus population of India. To restore the prosperity of the land it is only necessary to control the excess of water in the rivers during three months of the year. This could be done by cutting canals, which would carry off the water to form vast reservoirs in the desert. Irrigation could then be undertal:en when the menace of flood had been removed. Nazim Pasha, the Wali of Baghdad, was a notable Turk, for he was a man of strong character and, strange to say, incorruptible. He had been sent away from Constantinople by the Young Turk Party, as ho was not their willing tool. He determined to leave his mark on the city of Baghdad by widening its principal street, which was of extreme narrowness. To do this he took advantage of an old law, and pulled down the fronts of the houses of British residents. Having been educated in France, he was no friend of the Germane, and when their Consulate garden came in the way he made his new road across their tennis-lawn. The British Con.sul-Goneral lives with an Indian garrison of seventy sepoys and a gunboat stationed on the Tigris in front of the house. The lino taken by the road ran straight at the wall of the Residency grounds. Baghdad was greatly interested, and used to turn out into the street every evening to see whether the Wali's workmen would knock down the wall :— " The Nekib of Baghdad (the highest Sunni Moslem in Arabia after the Sheriff of Mekka) had a house with an overhanging balcony. He, too, used to sit out on his balcony and look out for the dis- mantling of the Residency wall. The .British Resident telegraphed to India for orders, and was directed to hand out ball cartridge and resist by force any attempt to destroy the wall. As soon as the Wali heard of this he turned his road through a right angle, and cut off the balcony of the Nekib's house I' The Wali's end was tragic. He was recalled to Constantinople, and murdered, possibly by the hand of Enver.—An O.T.C. officer describes his experiences with great humour and sense.

He traces the movement from the beginning, shows what a wonderful success it has been, and tells us that by its means the country has actually obtained something for nothing (and what a something it is too !), for annually four thousand five hundred officers are now being provided by the schools-without cost to the

nation. The writer's experiences of early days are many of them very amusing, as is the account of a Royal review, when the only implement he had for eating tinned meat in his tent was his toothbrush, the plate being the looking-glass ! The tent was to be occupied the next day by Boy Scouts, and he wonders what his Scoutmaster successor remarked on the state of the looking-glass. Probably the comment was : "When will the Army learn the Scout motto, 'Be Prepared ' " In quite early days it is recorded that a sham fight took place between

two schools, one of which was driven back in confusion to its own gateway, and as a despairing stroke of genius turned on the fire-hose. At the "Cease fire ! " there issued forth one

wrathful and drenched opponent—it was the opposition Head- Master I The United Service Magazine for March contains an interesting historical article entitled "The Prussians at Waterloo," by Major T. E. Compton. It deals with the German boast that "the Prussians saved the English from destruction at Waterloo," which Major Compton tells us was one of the Emperor William's amiable sayings in regard to this country. Here it may be noted that the whole subject was dealt with years ago in a delightful essay by Thackeray. This is Major Compton's summing up of the whole matter .— " Wellington said he would fight at Waterloo if Blucher would aid him with a part of his troops. Blucher agreed, and thus the battle was arranged. Each of the allied generals loyally fulfilled his part. Is it not invidious, therefore, to say that the Prussians saved the British from destruction at Waterloo, when they only carried out their contract, without which contract the battle would never have been fought ? "

—Another interesting historical article is that by Mr. J. W. Chambers entitled "How the 'Seven Thousand' of Belgium Stood in the Breach in 1815." We wish that we had space to summarize it. We strongly advise all who care for the story of Waterloo to read it.