19 AUGUST 1916

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NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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A LTHOUGH there is no dramatic progress to record from the various fronts such as stirred enthusiasm last week, the military unity of the Allies continues to yield excellent...

General Brusiloff has thus driven the enemy from the whole

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of their winter lines south of the Pripet marshes as far as the Roumanian border in a campaign of ten weeks, from June 4th to August 12th. The wall of defence which, they...

Another brilliant local success followed on Wednesday when the French

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reached the Guillemont-Maurepas road at certain points, and took all the German positions east of the Maurepas-Clery road to a depth of five hundred to six hundred yards on a...

The serious preparations for the recent attempt to invade Egypt,

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and the high hopes entertained by the Turks of its success, are described in an article by a neutral correspondent published in last Saturday's Timm. The writer, who was in Asia...

The Belgian columns, moving from the Congo, have meanwhile shown

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great pluck and vigour in clearing the enemy first out of the region between Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika, and then from the whole eastern shore of Tanganyika, where they took...

The Italians have pressed on beyond Gorizia, and are doing

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well in all they attempt. One can almost see the upward leap of their spirits now that their reward for which they had so patiently worked with little apparent result has come...

*** The Editor cannot undertake to return Manuscript in any

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case.

German East Africa will soon cease to bo German. In

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a despatch published on Monday General Smuts described the concentric advance of his columns against the main forces of the enemy in the east-central district, inland from...

In Galicia the Russians have at last compelled the stubborn

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Bothmer to fall back westward. General Letchitaky, on the 10th, occupied Stanislau and pressed forward on both sides of the Dniester towards Halicz, thus threatening Bothmer's...

That would have happened this time last year. Fortunately it

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can happen no longer. And the British and French are doing very much better than merely hold the Germans while the brave Russians and the Italians march from success to success....

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The King's visit to the front is not only a

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proof of his restored health, but of his devotion to his soldiers and of his disregard of danger. In a General Order issued before his return, the King describes the great...

Among the minor incidents of the war we have to

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record a sea- plane attack on Dover last Saturday afternoon and the loss of the British Destroyer Lasso° ' on Sunday. The two seaplanes who appeared off Dover at half-past 12...

The new Special Register Bill accordingly provides that persons engaged

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on war work since August 4, 1914, are to be placed on the register whether or not they have retained their qualifying pre- mises. Further, such persons who were in process of...

The King has returned to England after spending a week

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with his armies in the field. Arriving in France on Tuesday week, the King visited the Northern portion of the British front, and then proceeding to the Somme area, on Thursday...

The Bill was read a second time on Wednesday, after

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a somewhat acrimonious debate. Mr. Asquith admitted that it was "not logical or complete or anything but a very halting, lop-sided and temporary makeshift, which may or may not...

Proceeding, Mr. McKenna said that our total national wealth— capital

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wealth—was estimated at 15,000 millions sterling. Thus our national indebtedness would be leas than one year's national income, and not one-sixth of the total national wealth....

One of the most striking features of the preparation was

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the fact that the Germans never fraternized with the Turks. The German soldiers were well fed, clothed and supplied with plenty of medical stores and doctors. But the Turks were...

Mr. Asquith introduced on Monday a Bill to extend the

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life of the present Parliament for eight months—that is, from Septem- ber 30 next, the limit last imposed, to May 31, 1917. He also ex- plained the provisions of the Bill,...

The Interim Report of the _Committee on the Administration and

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Command of the Royal Flying Corps was issued on Tuesday night. With the exception of one general observation at the end en the expansion and greater efficiency of the Flying...

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The Parliamentary Air Committee having recently inhaled much ozone at

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giddy heights, during their visits to a R.F.C. park, have breathed some of it forth in a brilliant idea. They propose that the present clumsy and ugly system of designating...

We recognise that the promises extracted from Mr. Asquith, and

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the ruling of the Speaker that the Special Register Bill may be amended so as to enfranchise new classes if instructions to that effect are previously carried, opens the way for...

In reply to a question from Sir Edward Carson, Mr.

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Asquith stated on Wednesday that the Government were of opinion that this country would not tolerate the resumption of diplomatic intercourse with Germany after the war until...

Mr. Lloyd George followed his familiar practice in painting the

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dangers we have passed through, in the pericd lam ammunition was very short, in colours of storm and eclipse. We do not quarrel with that. Now that the danger is past we all...

Personally we are not at all alarmed at the idea

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of manhood suffrage. We fancy it would make very little difference, and in many ways it would be a great convenience as compared with our present system. But then there would be...

Truly man is a political animal, and if you scratch

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him you. will find that the party-man is somewhere underneath, even though in becoming so he may have, as the Greeks used to say, escaped his own notice. The very lawyer-like...

The Spanish manifesto to Belgium, signed by seven hundred leading

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Roman Catholics, condemning the German invasion and the atrocities committed by the invaders, and expressing the desire that Belgium should be compensated and restored to inde-...

Mr. Montagu made the very important statement that the weekly

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output of heavy shell amply covers the consumption at the front, so that the terrific bombardment on the Somme can be maintained if the factories work at full pressure. This...

Figures such as these make one feel more than ever

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that the resistance of our tiny Army at Ypres and elsewhere in the early days of the war, short of men, short of guns, short of ammunition, was nothing less than a miracle. If...

Bank Rate, 6 per cent., changed from 5 per cent.

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July 13th.

Mr. Montagu, the new Minister of Munitions, gave the House

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on Tuesday a remarkable account of the work done for our Army and for the Allies under his Department. It now takes a week to make as many shells of all kinds as were made in...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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CONSTITUTIONAL PROPRIETIES. M R. ASQUITH'S Special Register Bill, which was in- troduced on Tuesday, and debated at some length on Wednesday, ought to satisfy the more...

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THE CHARACTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION.

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/THE Government are certainly not backward in preparing for an eduoational reconstruction after the war. They have nothing to reproach themselves with in this respect. It is...

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SPEED THE PLOUGH.

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S OME letters which we print elsewhere prove how many sides of the agricultural question require discussion, and therefore how necessary it is to clear our minds before the end...

WAGES AND PRICES.

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T HE new demand of the railway-men for an addition of 10s. a week to their wages brings up again in an acute form the question of the relationship between wages and prices. The...

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"TILE ADVENTURE OF DEATH."

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T HERE is only one thing which can be prophesied with absolute certainty about every new-born child. "It will die," is all that the ablest man on earth can say of it for sure....

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THE J])1 AT SUBALTERN. T HE anxious subaltern is leaving England

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every day to join his battalion at the front. A novice about to mingle with a company of veterans, he dreads the curiosity, and even suspicion, inevitably aroused by the arrival...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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CINCINNATUS BRITANNICUS. !To THE EDITOR OF Till " arscraroa."1 FIR, —Certain phrases seem able to acquire the authority of an axiom merely by the process of repetition. Uttered...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:I

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SIR,—In reference to your article on the above subject, there is evidently some great mistake as to the products which can be obtained from the land. It is stated that in...

"SPEED THE PLOUGH."

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[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.1 Sm,—Your otherwise admirable article (Spectator, August 12th) on British agriculture leaves out of account the most important and difficult...

[TO THE EDITOR OP THR " SPECTATOR:]

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STR,—Your article on the above is good, but there is at least one point on which you have not touched—the question of rent and security of tenure. The latter is more secure than...

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THE REGISTRATION BILL.

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[To me EDITOR OP TRH SPROTILTOR.1 But,—The Spectator must be congratulated on the excellent and prac- tical article on the absurd demand for a Registration Bill with a view to a...

ARISTOPHANES. [To MC EDITOR OP TSR " SPEOTATOIL1 SIR,—As I

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was returning from some duty at the front, down the "East Gully" in Gallipoli to my dug-out at "Deckhouse Post," in July last year, with a very keen ear for the sighing of...

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

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[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR:I SER,—Once again the Spectator steps in to comfort the souls of the humble and unprejudiced, as evidenced both by the article on this subject...

SOLDIERS AND THEIR RELIGION.

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[TO MR Boron OP THE " SPECTATOR:1 $m,—I shall be glad if you can allow me space to comment on two of the paragraphs in the letter under the above heading in your issue of June...

,CLOSED 1.11U1sCHES.

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[TO THE EDITOR OP THR "SPECTATOR?'] But s —There Is a growing tendency to ascribe everything to the war. Mr. I). McLean tells us in your issue of August 12th that "after some...

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ON CONSULTING THE DICTIONARY.

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[To sus Emron OF THE " SrEenTos."1 Bra,—Your ingenious correspondent "W. W." has started me on a new game which may become indirectly as profitable as the pig's quest for...

A SUGGESTION.

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[TO THB EDITOR OR THE " SPECTATOR:1 Sra,—In these days when so many homes are sorrowing for those who will never come back, I write to make a small suggestion which I have...

BOOKS.

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN.* WHEN James Russell Lowell, in a patriotic threnody over the corpse of Abraham Lincoln, called him "the first American," it might at first sight appear that he...

NOTICE.—When "Correspondence" or Articles are signed with the writer's name

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or initials, or with a pseudonym, or are marked " Communi. catcd," the Editor must not necessarily be held to be in agreement with the views therein expressed or with the mode...

POETRY.

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IN TIME OF SLAUGHTER. WHEN I weekly knew An ancient pew, And murmured there The forms of prayer, And thanks, and praise, In the ancient ways, And heard read out During August...

"MISSING."

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTITOR.1 Bia,—On the day you kindly published my letter asking for informa- tion about my son, 2nd Lieut. A. B. Marston, who was wounded and missing,...

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PERSONS AND POLITICS OF THE TRANSITION.* ME. A. A. BAUMANN

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certainly provckes his readers to thought in these very skilfully written political essays, with their sharpness of phrase, their spice of personal experience, and their aptness...

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THE WAR AND RELIGION.*

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OF the essays in the book before us, entitled The Faith and the Was', only a few are concerned with the war directly ; the rest are, in the editor's words, "on the religious...

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SOME MILITARY BOOKS.*

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WHEN half the world suddenly embraces a new profession a new biblio- graphy arises as inevitably as darkness yields to dawn. Only those who began the new way of life in that...

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FICTION.

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A SLAV 801314 Mn. Mulls's) WILLIAMS, in the chapter on Literature in his admirable Russia of the Russians, places Kuprin among the realists. "He is a born story-teller with a...

FILIBUSTERS AND FINANCIERS.*

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Wrimisss WALKER is dimly remembered as the American adventurer who set Nicaragua in a blaze in the middle of the last century. The son of a Scotsman who had settled at...

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At one time—not so very long ago—it used to be

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regarded as one of the luxuries of the rich to have fruits and vegetables out of season. Indeed, by some people it was regarded as almost a wicked indulgence and a pandering to...

Germany and Spain : the Views of a Spanish Catholic.

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By Don Francisco Melgar. Translated by T. Okey. (T. Fisher Unwin. Is. 6d. net.)—This is an eloquent protest by one of the oldest and most respected members of the Carlist Party...

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

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[Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.] The War for the World. By Israel Zangwill. (W. Heinemann. 6s. net.)—Mr. Zangwill has collected his...

READABLE NOVELS.—The War Wedding. By C. N. and A. M.

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Williamson. (Methuen and Co. 2s. 6d.)—The subject of this book is announced by the title. The complications result from the wrong Identification of a fallen officer and the...

Taormina. By Raley "lusted Bell. (New York : Hinds, Noble,

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and Eldridge. 56. net.)—An author who in good faith quotes Plautus in his " Mencenie " (1), the poet " Giovenale," and " Silio Italieo " as if they wrote in Italian is something...

Milk and its Hygienic Relations. By Janet E. Lane-Claypon, M.D.,

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D.Sc. (Lend.). (Longmans and Co. 7s. 6d. net.)—This book, which is "published under the direction of the Meclioal Research Committee (National Health Insurance)," contains a...

The Psychology of Relaxation. By George T. W. Patrick, Ph.D.

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(Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. 5s. net.)—Unless the reader of this little book is endowed with considerable patience, he will scarcely read it to tho end, for its author—who is...

Serbia in Light and Darkness. By Rev. Father Nicholai Velimirovie.

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(Longmans and Co. 3s. 6d. net. )—In a preface to this little volume the Archbishop of Canterbury says that "it will be to many people the introduction to a new range of interest...