THE MAGAZINES.

WRITING in the Nineteenth Century upon "The Secret of Germany's Strength," Mr. J. Ellis Barker discusses the great advantages possessed by an autocratic over a democratic

• T]o Glory of Belgium. By Roger Ingpen. IllustratIone is Colour by W, L. Druekmae. Loudon: Hodder and Stoughton, [20e. net.]

State for alt purposes which demand efficiency, and especially in waging war. He argues that efficiency depends upon organization, and organization upon discipline, and that discipline is scarcely attainable except under an absolute monarchy—a statement which, in our opinion, is altogether erroneous. In the course of his article Mr. Barker traces the growth of Prussian efficiency in the hands of the Great Elector, of Frederick William I., and of Frederick the Great, and he gives numerous extracts from the writings of the last of these, which illustrate admirably his administra- tive methods. We may quote as an example the entertaining set of rules laid down by Frederick for the meetings of his Council of Ministers :-

"In summer the Ministers shall moot at 7 o'clock in the morning, and in winter at 8 o'clock. The meeting shall not break up until all the matters which are to be discussed and decided upon have boon disposed of. Not a single document must be left over for another day. If the business in hand can be finished in an hour the Ministers are free to go. If it cannot be settled in the forenoon they must continuo sitting without interruption until 6 o'clock in the evening or until all the business is com- pleted. We herewith order Our Minister von Printz that, if the Ministers are working later than 2 o'clock in the afternoon, he shall have fetched for them four good dishes of food from the Royal kitchens, together with an adequate quantity of wine and beer. Half of the Ministers shall dine while the other half shall continuo working, and those who are working shall dine as a second shift when those who were dining have finished and are again at their work. In that way the work will be diligently and faithfully done."

At times Mr. Barker seems to carry his criticisms of democracy a little far, as, for instance, when he declares that " the English race has expanded so successfully, not because of democratic government, but in spite of it It has flourished so greatly because of its capacity for colonizing, because it was first in the field, because it was favoured by chance, because the great nations were fighting among themselves while Englishmen were conquering the globe, because it never had to fight an organized absolutism such as the German." And in his admiration for Frederick the Great he overlooks some of the disadvantages possessed by an autocracy even from the point of view of efficiency. History has plenty of examples to show us of the failures of absolute government. The truth is that no form of government will rescae mankind from the clutches of inefficiency. Efficiency is largely a matter of men. An efficient man will work any form of government efficiently—witness Lord Cromer's administration of Egypt. The system under which he worked was a nightmare of inefficiency.—Mr. John H. Harris writes with the greatest authority on the subject of "Germany's Treatment of Native Races—and Britain's Duty." The total area of the German colonies in Africa is nearly a million square miles, and their population is estimated at about fifteen millions. If these colonies are all eventually occupied, as seems likely, by French or British troops, two important problems will have to be met. The first is the need for preserving or restoring the economic assets of the countries taken over. The second is the need for improving the conditions of the natives. The German administrative policy has had, Mr. Harris tells us, a disastrous effect upon the native producer and the native labourer. Methods of frightfulness have been systematically applied. In Togoland, for instance, according to the Gold Coast Leader, "the German Secretary of State for the Colonies has admitted that from 1903 to 1913 one hundred and five thousand natives have been killed in expedi- tions against them." Again, "in no country," says Mr. Harris, "have I seen natives so utterly terrorized at the sight of their white taskmasters as those I saw in German Cameroons." German East Africa includes two negro States which are known to contain one hundred and eighty-five thousand slaves. Finally, in German South-West Africa, we learn, the effects of German terrorization have been the most fatal. Since it was taken over by Germany in 1884 harsh administration and punitive expeditions have reduced the native population from an estimated minimum of seven hundred and fifty thousand to fewer than one hundred thousand. Not the least of the good results of the war would be the improvement in the lot of the African natives which we may hope will follow from our occupation of those Colonies.—Among the many other articles we can only mention a study on the Vienna Congress by M. Yves Guyot, and a sketch of Mr. Bryan's career by Mr. Sydney Brooks.

In the National Review the editor deals with some severity hi his "Episodes of the Month" with the Dardanelles Expedition, and quotes "a distinguished Frenchman" who remarked : " How odd you English are. You can breakfast in London and be killing Germans by lunch, yet you must needs go off and kill Turks at the other end of the Mediter- ranean."—Mr. D. L. B. Castle in an article upon " German Territory for the British Empire" argues in favour of our permanently annexing the German coast-line between Holland and Denmark. He maintains that in order to enforce the submission of Germany she must be reduced to the condition of an inland Power ; and that this must be effected by a Russian occupation of her Baltic littoral, while we perform the same function in the North Sea. He adds that this occupation would be directly beneficial to us, not only because we should be possessed of some exceptionally valuable ports, but also because " it would be the making of the British people by giving them a task which for many years would absorb a large part of their energies, and would call for the highest gifts of statesmanship and governance, as well as keeping alive a proper military organization in addition to our priceless Navy."—The remaining contents include a further article by Mr. Ian D. Colvin endeavouring to show that Germany (or rather the Hanseatic League) was largely responsible for the Spanish Armada, and a plea from Mr. Eustace Miles in favour of Government instruction of the people on the subject of food-values and cookory.—The principal article is Mr. Maxse's "Policy of the Blank Cheque." This is directed against the common view that the Coalition Ministry is the only possible Ministry and "the last hope of the nation " "We must not anticipate the end of the world because events may force some displacement in a Coalition which on the face of it is unwieldy and leaderless. Ministers themselves may come to realise the urgency of a working Premier, or this salutary change may be forced by public opinion. One can conceive a drastic reconstruction of the Cabinet with a view to its diminution and rejuvenation. Conceivably, extra parliamentary elements might be enlisted to strengthen its business and strategic talent now con- spicuously lacking, while, if the worst came to the worst without our having reached tho end of all things, the country might find itself under a Committee of Public Safety armed with drastic powers. A Kitchener Dictatorship is not altogether inconceivable. Lot us hope for the best from the Coalition; let us expect the best from the Coalition. But if we are wise we shall be prepared for all eventualities."

—The last number of the review contained a reprint of a large part of the Report of Lord Bryce's Committee. The rest of it appears in the present number, together with some of the evidence. We may add that an excellent map of the Italian frontier is included with this issue.

"The Temper of the People " is the title of an article by Mr. C. F. G. Masterman in the Contemporary Review. It is intended as a counterblast to that section of the Press which is perpetually proclaiming the apathy and selfishness of the nation at large, and incidentally creating a damaging impression upon opinion in neutral and allied countries. Mr. Masterman gives quotations from foreign newspapers to bear out this view. An American writer, for instance, declares that " the people pursue their businesses and pleasures in careless self-confidence, and exhibit a passionate deter- mination that not even the moat menacing situation in the annals of the Empire shall be permitted to curtail their comforts or their indulgences." The bulk of Mr. Masterman's article is occupied with an eloquent picture of what he believes to be the true state of feeling :— " I have seen this spirit," he writes, "in the manufacturing North, amongst a tough and hardy people—the hardest to drive in the world, and the easiest to lead. In these grey cities, con- fronting a war which came to them as a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky, they became deliberately convinced that by no honourable means could this war be avoided. They settled down with quiet, unyielding determination to see it through. Occupied seemingly with their work and their pleasure, giving their help in their own way, stiff-necked and obstinate if they think they are being 'done,' they are offering every kind of effort and sacrifice in men and means. They raise battalion after battalion of fighting men; they entertain refugees from abroad; they organize care for the relatives of those who have gone. I have soon this spirit in the little-known life of the real London, the million-peopled, unknown City of Labour which surrounds the Metropolis of Luxury and Splendour. I have found in that unending labyrinth of small, grey streets a generous sharing of precarious wages, endurance, an heroic patience, while so many of those who can fight have vanished into the vast and unknown regions beyond the city or beyond the sea. And I have found it in little South- country villages now in the pageant and glory of high summer, with every suggestion of violence banished from that triumphant vision. Only on the church door is inscribed the Roll of Honour,' names, most of them, of humble labouring men, who led lives at unremitting toil for limited reward. They have all responded to the appeal."

—Dr. Dillon discusses the prospects of the interven- tion in the war of the neutral Balkan States, and more especially of Roumania and Bulgaria. In the former country, we learn, M. Bratiano, the Premier, is almost in the position of a dictator; and his aim is virtually to secure as much territory as possible for his countrymen, with the least expenditure of effort. After setting out the terms which Roumania is offered by the two groups of belligerents, Dr. Dillon gives some reasons for thinking that

the choice will lie in favour of us and of our allies. He adds a word of warning to Roumania, reminding her that "the hour for a decision has struck, because the present conjuncture enables the Roumanians to offer the highest measure of help to the Allies, and to secure the largest terms," In the case of Bulgaria, perhaps the most important factor, according to Dr. Dillon, is the personal inclination of King Ferdinand, which is strongly on the German side. But even in spite of this, and of the unremitting attempts of Germany to influence Bulgarian opinion by underhand means, Dr. Dillon sees signs of the possibility of an intervention on our side, especially in the event of favourable progress in the Dardanelles.----Among the other articles are a description of German South-West Africa by Mr. Alfred Scholfield, and a paper upon "Intensive Farming in Flanders" by Princess Kropotk in.

Dr. Dillon in the Fortnightly tells us that Italy has gone through a veritable new birth in getting free from the old influences which held her to Germany. It has been a case of the people revolting against the politicians in a marked and definite manner. Austria has for some time past considered that of her two problems, the South Slav and the Italian, the latter was the one to be first taken in hand. A treaty, Dr. Dillon assures us, was entered into between Austria and Russia in which the Russian Empire agreed to remain neutral in the event of Austria attacking Italy. The part that Germany played was characteristic. She pointed out to the Italians how bad a plight they would be in unless Germany used her restraining influence with Austria. By this means Germany gained an ascendancy in Italian affairs. The Balkan War diverted Austria's attention from Italy to the South Slays, but when the present war began Germany was obliged to treat the Italian situation seriously. Prince Billow was sent to persuade Italy to accept the German offer of bribes in the shape of bits of Austrian territory, and generally to influence Italian opinion. Dr. Dillon declares that

"He scattered money broadcast, bought up Italian journals and journalists, published misleading documents, atmosphered the nobility who gathered round his hospitable board like flies round a barrel of sugar, and through his agents he invited professional anarchists to his palace, where they were encouraged to persist in their campaign against King Victor Emanuel's Government, and spoken to about funds, revolvers, and packets of dynamite."

Giolitti, who established government by personal corruption, was of course the great German asset. His interests were solely those of a Tammany "boss," and therefore ho was the natural ally of the German Ambassador. Another anti-Italian influence has been the Vatican, and Dr. Dillon describes a state of things which takes us back two hundred years for a parallel. The evil influence centred in Monsignor Gerlach, an Austrian who, we are told, " when in Vienna consorted with ecclesiastics of the type depicted by Poggio and incar- nated by the French Abbas of the free-and-easy days of the

Regency." This man became the boon companion of a worldly Nuncio iocat Vienna, who later, on becoming Cardinal Agliardi, did not forget his friend. Finally, the present Pope " appointed the worldly Austrian Churchman to the post of Partecipante and the functions of intimate councillor to himself . . . . shares with him the exterritoriality of the Vatican, allows him to communicate in cipher with the band of Austrians and Germans who are watching and praying in Swiss Lugano.. . It is fair to add that the attitude of the Roman Catholics clergy throughout Italy has with some exceptions been con- sistently patriotic." Dr. Dillon gives an account of Prince Billow's last card and bow he played it. He got the Austrian concessions amplified, and took them, not to the Italian

Government, but to Giolitti, who agreed to them in spite of the engagements entered into by the Cabinet with the Allied Powers. He also secured the public assent of a majority of the Chamber, which was not sitting. The Cabinet resigned, and

"the magnitude of the danger evoked by the Dictator and rendered imminent by the blind obedience of the Legislature awakened the nation's instincts of self-preservation and nerved it to a supremo effort, which can only be compared to that sudden radical change in individuals which is known as spiritual con- version . . . and Italy took her place among the civilised and civilising nations of Europe."

—Mr. Archibald Hurd has no difficult task in drawing up an indictment of outlawry against the German Navy. He contrasts the spirit of our enemies with that of our Navy, and of the Committee which is raising funds for a national gift to those who sank the 'Lusitania' with Nelson's final entry in his Journal.—Mr. Frank Fox maw the German artillery at work in Belgium at the beginning of the war as a correspondent. He is now an artillery officer himself, and his judgment of the enemy, as compared to the Allies, is that " he had far better preparation but less intelligence. If pre- paration were equalized he would take second place." A curious instance is given of the failure of spies in Antwerp, who did so much to assist artillery fire, but failed to direct the Germans' guns on to the two bridges of boats over the Schelde. Had these bridges been destroyed the retreat of the English and Belgian forces to Ghent and Ostend would have been cut off. Mr. Fox's conclusions are that we need to be prodigal with

gunfire—" the more shells spent the less lives spent." It is impossible to be too cautions as to spies, and, given the same degree of preparation and equipment, English and French gunners will prove superior to German on account of higher intelligence.—Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch discourses lightly and pleasantly of " The Workmanship of A Midsummer

Night's Dream," and advises us that in reading Shakespeare we get far more insight into the magic of the poet by trying to find out how the play is constructed than by dryasdust speculations as to how much came from Chaucer, how much from Golding's Ovid, what scientific discoveries were antici- pated, and why a fairy was called Mustard-Seed. There is much that is attractive in the proposal for a stage setting of the play—a great Elizabethan hall with an oak staircase, and under the staircase sliding panels which reveal the wood, "recessed moonlit with its trees upon a flat arras or tapestry." Last month in Blackwood "The Junior Sub " took leave of

us in a poem, and we reluctantly said good-bye; but here he is again, and as full of life as ever, taking us over to France and right up into the trenches. It must be said that of the many accounts which have been written none gives so clear a picture, and one so easily understood, of the final fortified ditch. The account of the journey, or rather of the Staff

work which made that journey possible, is interesting, and when we stop to consider what it means we can only gasp with amazement. Speaking of the efficient British Staff officer the writer says :—

" To the eternal credit of the British Army, be it said that he abounds in this well-conducted campaign. As an instance of his efficiency, let the case of our own regiment be quoted. The main body travelled here by one route, the transport, horses, and other details by another. The main body duly landed, and were con- veyed to the rendezvous—a distant railway junction in Northern France. There they sat down to await the arrival of the train containing the other party, which left England many hours before them, had landed at a different port, and had not been seen or hoard of since. They had to wait exactly ton minutes I "

—The first chapters of a new story, "The Thirty-nine Steps," by "H. de V.," are to be found in the present number,

and they include a good deal of excitement, and turn on a man who devotes himself to frustrating a vast international

political plot. How the man is murdered and bow his place is taken by another constitute the adventures of the first instalment of the novel.—The picture of naval manners, " Chummy-Ships," by " Bartimeus," is full of high spirit and good temper and delightful to read. It is the slightest affair, just a scene on board a ship of war during a brief time in harbour, when the officers invite those of their " chummy-ship " to dinner. The evening amusements are interrupted by the signal to get up steam and prepare for action on leaving harbour General Scott Moncrieff writes his recollections of the Germans in China in 1900. He found some of the older officers, including Count von Waldersee, courteous and

friendly, but the description of the younger men and their doings is just what one would suppose from the recent behaviour of Germans. Nothing seems to have been too ungentlemanly for them to do, and the deliberate disregard of the feelings of others was habitual. A certain piece of railway belonging to the English was used by all the forces present in turn. It was the practice of the Germans after they had used the line to take no trouble whatever to leave it in a usable state for others ; nothing except their convenience mattered. The German officers took no interest in their men and took no care of them, with the consequence that their sick-list was ton per cent. higher than ours. The soldiers naturally followed the example of the officers' want of manners, and, as they always went armed, dangerous situa- tions arose. At length our men wore allowed to carry stout cudgels instead of "swagger canes," and that difficulty wan solved. But police work was arduous in the extreme, for the German authorities always backed up the drunken vagaries of their own officers, and were indignant if these were restrained from making themselves objectionable. General Scott Moncrieff concludes with a tribute to Count von Waldersee, and says that had " men of his stamp been in the ascendant to-day, the ignominious history of German degradation might

never have been written."

In the July number of the United Service Magazine is an article entitled " The Navy and the War," by " Admiral." The writer, though not apparently prejudiced against Mr. Winston Churchill, tells us that, if we are to give him the credit for much good work done, we must also charge him with respon- sibility for failures :-

"In doing so, we cannot acquit our admirals and captains of having in many cases made mistakes, but as the Admiralty have refused to hold courts martial or inquiries, they have practically shouldered all the responsibility. The incidents to which I refer which require explanation are as follows, on each of which I can only touch briefly from want of knowledge, as all information will be withheld till the close of the war, when little attention will be given to similar episodes in view of larger questions at issue : (a) The loss of our three Cressy,. (b) The Antwerp fiasco. (c) The lamentable Coronel action. (d) The loss of the Lusitania. (e) The naval attack on the Dardanelles. As regards (a) it is generally believed that the officer in command might have had the protection of destroyers ; but it has been freely stated that naval opinion looked upon the patrol by those ships as dangerous, and that it was persisted in against the advice of the Naval Lords and the Commander-in-Chief. (b) was an unfortunate failure, for which it is acknowledged the First Lord was responsible. We do not know the whole of the political or military circumstances, but it was courting disaster to send half- drilled and unorganized men to share an inevitable catastrophe. (c) Undoubtedly 'some one had blundered' in leaving weak ships like the Good Rope and Monmouth to face Von Specs's more modern ships. This is not the place to pass judgment on the action in which the gallant Sir Christopher Cradock lost his life, but if we have been correctly informed both the Minotaur and Defence, two of our latest armoured cruisers, were off South America shortly before the action took place, and that the Admiral asked for one of them, but they were wanted for convoying purposes! (d) The loss of the Lusitania is being inquired into. We do not know what advice was given by the Admiralty, but reports are current that contradictory instructions were received by Captain Turner, and it would seem that under the special circumstances some protection might have been afforded her ; nor does it appear that the vice-admiral and senior officer at Queenstown had any instructions on the subject. (e) The Dardanelles I Let us hope that Mr. Churchill is right in his rather enigmatical statement that our forces are 'separated only a few miles from a victory such as the world has not yet seen,' but the attempt to open the entrance to the Sea of Marmora by naval action alone was doomed to fail, and it is generally believed that it was ordered contrary to the advice of the First Sea Lord. It is probably the case that naval opinion was overruled by political requirements for which the First Lord was only partly responsible."

It is curious that the Censor should have allowed the publica- tion of this passage, but apparently things are allowed to magazines which are not permitted to their humbler brethren

of the weekly or daily Press. However, there can be no question that the Spectator may quote what the United Service Magazine has been allowed to publish, and, further, to publish

from the pen of a naval officer.