NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AYEAR has elapsed since the first war issue of the Spectator. We have tried elsewhere to say something in answer to the question. " How do we stand? " Here we only reply very shortly. If we cannot say all is well, we can at any rate say that no man whose mind is not blinded by panic or prejudice can fail to admit that the position is on the whole satisfactory. It is true that we are still in peril, and that, unless we strain every nerve to carry the war to a successful issue, that peril may at any moment assume the most deadly proportions. But though this has been the prevailing condition ever since the war began, we can say truthfully that the peril is far less now than it was a year ago. Though we did not fully realize it at the time, if we look back upon the first weeks of the war we see how utterly inadequate was our preparation and how poor our resources compared with those df the Germans. Neither we nor the French nor the Russians were ready for action. We had but a handful of men—though beyond praise in quality—to put into the field. The British Army, Regular and Territorial, which now approaches three million men, has had to be created under fire.
