THE MAGAZINES.
IN the Nineteenth Century Major-General Long, C.B., late Director of Supplies and Transports, discusses the problem of demobilization after the war. It is, he admits, to some extent a military problem, but when "five million men are to be returned to civilian life the soldier must give way to the statesman. Besides, the type of man we have to handle is " not the fatalistic easygoing soldier of fortune of fifty years ago. It is only by a tragic accident that he is a soldier at all. Through and • Atlas of the Historiral Ceography of the Holy Land. Designed and Edited by George Adam Smith, and Prepared under the Direction of J. O. Lartholomew. London : Iioddcr and Stoughton. 125s. net.] I The Flemish System of l'oultry•Rearing„ Dy Mme. Jasper. London : Country, Afe (Mee. td. Ltt..j
through he is a civilian of civilians." The War Office already have a scheme for demobilization by whole formations or units ; this is logioal, but, according to General Long, entirely wrong, and calculated to intensify our labour troubles after the war. He strongly urges, on the other hand, gradual demobilization by classes, and regards the establishment of a Ministry of Demobilization as essential to the proper solution of a problem as grave as any faced by any nation since the world began. Mr. Ellis Barker prefaces his long article on " Britain's Coming Industrial Supremacy " by a detailed disproof of the current view that Great Britain is the richest country in the world. In riches and natural resources, and the use that she has made of them, America stands easily first. But " nations are born in war and die in peace" :— " The present War should not only unite the British Empire but should once more give to the British people the foremost position in the economic world, provided they make wise and energetic use of their opportunities. On the other hand, the United States, far from enriching themselves at the cost of the fighting nations, far from coining the sweat and blood of the Allies into dollars, may, through peace and ease, fall a prey to that fatal self-complacency and stagnation from which political and industrial Britain has suffered for decades and from which she has been saved by the war."
In fine, " the Civil War created the industrial supremacy of the United States. The present War should give the industrial supremacy of the world to the British Empire." These are only the main outlines of an article which is worth attentive study, however much one may differ from the materialist principles on which it is based.—Mr. George Saunders has a striking study of " Faust and the Gorman Character," his aim being to show that the greatest German drama may be not only regarded as an expression of a type of German character which through the success of Prussia became dominant, but also as having been an influence which tended to produce that type of character.
Sir Edwin Pears writes in the Contemporary on " The Balkan States and Turkey." His outlook is perhaps unduly optimistic, as when he calculates on Bulgarian troops joining the Russians in largo numbers, or speaks of its being an open secret that Turkey is seeking to make a separate peace ; and his apologia for the Young Turk Party is not convincing. But his wide experience and ripe historical knowledge render the article worthy of careful attention, and his review of the situation in Greece is eminently judicial.—Dr. Bet on-Watson has a short but illuminating paper on Pan-Slavism, in which he maintains that " the links in the chain of Slavonic racial unity have always been far closer, far more subtle, far more irresistible than those between the Teutonic or Latin races." This thesis he supports by many arguments. To take only one, " a complete mastery of one Slav language supplies a key to all the others," and " a humble Slovak pedlar can wander from the Danube within an hour from Vienna all the way to Vladivostock and yet always manage to make himself understood." The secular antipathy of Slav and German is illustrated by some remark- able extracts from the Croat priest Kri;aniC, who flourished circ. ann. 1660, and Dr. Seton-Watson quotes the prophetic utterances of the Pan-Slav Russian General Fadejev in 1369 in which he foreshadowed the develop- ment of the South Slav problem, and the disastrous results of the collusion of Budapest and Vienna acting as the advance-guard of Germany.
The editor of the National Review has been fortunate in securing a timely, courageous, and deeply interesting article on " Ireland in 1916 " from the Archbishop of Dublin. Dr. Bernard starts by accepting Home Rule and the exclusion of the six counties. He disbelieves in Separatist legislation for Ireland on the ground that it is inconsistent with the best interests of Ireland and the Empire, and he has grave misgivings about the feasibility of the exclusion settlement. But Homo Rule is on the statute-book and a solemn pledge has been given to Ulster. As for the present impasse and the discontent felt on both sides, he holds them to be largely duo to the ambiguity of language used by politicians in their desire to promote a settlement. The assumption that Ireland shall remain part of the Empire and not an independent nation " is a platitude for English readers, but it is not a platitude in Ireland." There must be concessions on both sides, but the first principle is that Ireland is and will remain part of the Empire. The number of irreconcilables may be small, but they have grown in the last few months, and the main cause of the increased popularity of " Sinn Fein " is due to the execution of the leaders. " Surprising as it may be to law-abiding people, no Irish Nationalist expects to be punished for political crime, no matter how grave may be its consequences." Imprisonment is another matter, for sympathizers with rebels always count on remission of sentences, and since Dr. Bernard wrote "a motion advocating a general amnesty has been brought forward in the Dublin Corporation. " Sir John Maxwell," Dr. Bernard goes on, " acted with great moderation as wellns good judgment. But it was enough that any one should be executed for treason to provoke a very angry feeling throughout the country which had been educated • under the Birrell-Abordeen regime] to believe that treason was no more than a political eccentricity, and that the killing of soldiers and policemen was not murder." The linos of political demarcation in Ireland have changed, and Dr. Bernard does not hesitate to predict that in the struggle to come all political quarrels will be merged in the great quarrel between the forces of authority on the one side and'the forces of lawlessness and anarchy on the other. The spirit of lawlessness cannot be exorcised by legislation ; it can only be dispelled by Ince years of just and firm rule. As for the immediate future, Dr. Bernard notes that " neither the furniture of a Dublin house nor the fabric of a church or glasshouse in Ireland can at this moment be insured against fire, caused by a second Sinn Fein rising, with the insurance companies ordinarily glad to get new business."—The editor, who has actually a good word to say for the Spectator's article on peace terms, makes great play with a new name which he has invented for Lord Haldane and gives a very amusing sketch of the popular German war noel, Hindenhurg'a March into London, which he regards as embodying not only the hopes but the expectations of the entire German nation.—Under the head of " Correspondence " we note a remarkable letter from the Hon. J. M. Fowler, a Liberal member of the Commonwealth House of Repre- sentatives, in which he maintains that while Mr. Hughes was lashing the War Ministry in London his own Government was being attainted by public opinion in Australia for its lamentable lack of thoroughness and courage. " Australian Imperialists wait anxiously to have the perfervid injunctions of Mr. Hughes to the people of Great Britain acted upon by his own Government. No one can honestly say that, as yet, the Commonwealth has come at all near to the Mother Country in making the 'supreme sacrifice' which Mr. Hughes so passionately urged." The Labour Party in Australia, he admits, has been converted to Imperialist views, but its conversion is not so thorough as the situa- tion demands. In this context we may note that the list of signatories to the Memorial urging the recall of Mr. Hughes to this country has been strengthened by the addition of the names of Mr. Arthur Bourchier, Mr. G. R. Sims, and Mr. Augustus John.
Dr. Dillon in his article in the Fortnightly sees in the Hindenburg worship in Germany an index of general despondency, the deeply perturbed flying to a semi-superstitious remedy. Another sign of anxiety is the sensitiveness to the attitude of neutrals. Denmark has come under suspicion and is accused of taking sides, apparently because the Danish Press publishes too many extracts from English and French newspapers and too few from German. Dr. Dillon concludes by remarking: "And it is perhaps permissible to add that we are on the eve, as well as on the morrow, of an altered state of things in Europe, and that the alteration will not be to our disadvantage."—Mr. Arthur Baumann considers that Mr. Asquith is indispensable as the Prime Minister of the period of reconstruction when it will be necessary to have a Central Party in power, he being superior in intellect and tenacity to any other of the politicians. Indeed, Mr. Baumann sees only one fault in the past, and that was the great blunder of Ireland. We are told that the Unionist Party are dead and done for, and that the final sign of this was their refusal to take advantage of the moment when fate placed everything in their hands. When the Government came to the House of Lords and asked them to extend the life of Parliament, they should have insisted on the introduction of the Referendum, using the power given them by the war as the Liberals had used it for the purposes of Home Rule.—" A General Action," by Captain Maurice Woods, is a remarkable account of the feelings of an officer in a modern battle, where the condition of the trenches, the fighting in the dark, and the length of the action make a modern battle trying in endurance to the very extreme.
Pictures of Mesopotamia, by " Light Infantry," are to be found in Blackwood. One of these gives a curious account of an expedition against a hostile Sheikh in company with one who was friendly to us, probably because he was at war with our enemy. Fighting was not really the object of our ally, and he so contrived things that the enemy should be frightened out of his village but not surrounded. This pro- duced the desirable result of loot without combat, the escape of the enemy being of secondary importance.—" A Side Issue of the War' is a very interesting and lively account of one of those many incidents of which so little has been chronicled. In January, 1915, an outbreak of enteric took place among the refugees from bombarded Ypres. It was not desirable that this should be generally known for fear of causing panic, but the unfortunate women, children, and old men who were the victims had to be taken care of. So it came about that a contingent of V. A.D. nurses was sent out to help at a hospital established not far from St. Omer. Miss Mure, who writes the account of what happened, records much discomfort cheerfully borne, and, needless to say, much hard work.—" The Scene of War," by " Odysseus," might be described as landscape with figures. It gives us, in fact, a picture of the dif- ferent settings in which the drama of war is taking place ; but the picture is seen from afar off, so that the landscape predominates. As the name " Odysseus " suggests, tho scene is round and about Greecb. The figures come a little more into prominence when the scone is Athens, where an old Russian diplomatist declares that " Tout le mobisme est avec le Roi." Here, too, we get a glimpse of M. Venizelos in his house surrounded and guarded by Cretans. The impression made on the writer by the patriot was that of a great and civilized man. "
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