SUBMARINES AND STANDARD SHIPS. IN Cassier's Engineering Monthly for February "A Naval Architect says that "in Sir Joseph T. Maclay, the Shipping Controller, the country has, in common opinion, for once in a while got the right man for the right job." In discussing the building of standard ships the writer thus refers to the manner in which the mariner meets the submarine menace :— In the matter of speed, experience has shown that in general 10 to 11 knots is sufficient to enable a cargo boat to evade the attention of enemy underwater craft. There is therefore no call for any greater speed than this. The latest type of U-boat, it is true, is credited with a considerably greater speed than 11 knots, when at the surface, but with a good gun and expert gunners, with which the national freight carriers will, of be supplied, there need be little to course, fear from the attack of a submarine. Shipmasters generally are of one opinion in regard to the potency of a gun in dealing with the submarine. As a rule, the latter will not come to the surface if he sees the quarry is armed, and, in view of this, some enterprising commanders have had dummy guns fitted on their vessels, it is stated, with good results. In attacking an armed merchantman the submarine usually relies on his torpedoes, and, as his supply of this weapon is strictly limited, after a trial or two, he finds it necessary to return to his base-that is, he is partially put out of action for a time. Another writer in the same magazine calls attention to an important scheme that is receiving the attention of the Government. Remarking that in the shipbuilding trade specifications have been issued for a number of cargo steamers of the single-deck type to carry 8,000 to 10,000 tons dead weight, to be as simple and inexpensive in design as possible, the writer goes on to say :— The hulls and machinery are to be standardised, and the vessels are to have priority in construction. These specifications have been in the hands of the builders for some little time, and already it is stated that orders for some twenty ships have been placed on the Clyde and that a like number are in process of being contracted for on the North-East Coast and elsewhere. Before long it is estimated that forty to fifty of these vessels will be in hand, and as nothing is to stand in the way of their construction, early delivery is expected. As completed they will be taken over by the Admiralty and engaged in trades essential to the nation, chiefly grain and food carrying. After the war is over the vessels will be offered for sale to private owners, and will then find ready buyers. It therefore looks as though before the year is half spent the country will be in possession of some 400,000 to 500,000 tons of useful shipping ready for employment in supplying the nation with food and raw materials. In the London Magazine for March, Mr. Percival A. Hislam, writing on "The Truth about the U-boat Peril," says : Apart from the gun and torpedo-carrying submarines and their minelayers, the Germans have made arrangements for supplying their ocean-going U-boats with supplies at sea by means of other submarines, which take out fuel, stores, and ammunition, and meet the U-boats proper at prearranged rendezvous. The idea is obviously practicable. If the Deutschland can get out of the North Sea with marketable merchandise for the United States, and other submarines with torpedoes and shells for the murder of British seamen, there is clearly no reason why yet others should not take out reserves of oil and stores for the craft engaged in the work of commerce-destruction. An ordinary submarine, when normally cruising on the surface, uses only ten tons of fuel for every thousand miles she travels; and as the normal storage capacity can be increased very largely by filling the greater part of the ballast tanks with fuel, it is quite possible that there exist to-day submarines with a cruising radius of 10,000 miles, or even more. Only recently the German Admiralty announced with gusto that a submarine had returned after a successful cruise at sea extending over fifty-five days, without entering any harbour or receiving any external help. At the moderate average speed of eight knots, this represents a journey of no less than 12,000 miles, showing to what extent, geographically, the U-boat menace may yet extend. We have received a copy of Chronicles of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, an illustrated fortnightly, edited by Clutha Mackenzie, son of Sir Thomas Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand. Young Mackenzie was totally blinded at Gallipoli; and considering that he had no former journalistic experience of any kind, and that the assistance he now receives is of an amateurish character, he can be highly congratulated on his successful efforts to produce "a paper to gather and dispense all interesting information concerning New Zea land soldiers in Europe." The price is 6d. per copy (to the troops, 3d.) and the editorial office is at 11, Southampton Row, W.C. NAVY The pay of the Navy is a terribly complicated affair, the tables dealing with it covering some twenty closely-printed pages of the official Navy List, but Mr. Lionel Yexley refuses to be appalled by these serried ranks of figures and has sought to make chaos cosmic for the benefit of readers of the English Review by extracting therefrom the salient particulars of the pay of each rank. It is difficult to quarrel with his conclusion that, taking it broadly, the distinguishing feature of naval pay is its meagreness when compared with the Civil Service and the prizes offered to ability in the commercial world. The very highest prize that the Navy offers is the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, of whom there are only three; they receive £6 per day, or £2,190 a year. But these are never seen afloat, and when we turn to the pay of those on whose shoulders rests to-day the whole success of the Allies-men who from the age of 13 or 14 have served the State, and who by a rigid course of selection attain to flag rank, we get these figures:Admirals, £1,825; Vice-Admirals, £1,460 ; Rear-Admirals and Commodores of the First Class, £1,095. Then come Post Captains, PAY. whose pay ranges according to seniority from £602 to £410, plus command money; Commanders, who get £410 10s. per annum, and if in command of their own ships, command money ranging from 2s. 6d. to 5s. a day; Lieutenant-Commanders, who start at £237 5s. and rise after six years' service to £292; and Lieutenants, whose pay runs from £182 10s. to £219. In addition, specialists, such as gunnery, torpedo and navigating lieutenants, receive allowances ranging from about £30 to £90 per annum. We cannot here follow Mr. Yexley through all the intricacies of lower deck, including warrant officers', pay, nor into his analysis of the prospects of the average man who joins the Navy as seaman or stoker-the two great classes which comprise the bulk of lower deck ratings; but when we consider the vast responsibility which rests upon every member of our Navy, from Fleet Admiral to newly joined boy, we thoroughly agree with the writer that what is very badly needed is a thorough overhaul of the pay of the Navy, so that both officers and men may receive remuneration more in accordance with Civil Service and commercial standards than they are at present. THE COAL AND SUGAR OF THE POOR. IN the March number of The Nineteenth Century Miss Edith Sellers draws attention, in plain language and without circumlocution, to the serious grievances of the poor in regard to their supplies of coal, sugar, and other necessities of life. It is a mistake to suppose that munitions and other war work have stamped out poverty. To many thousands and hundreds of thousands the war has brought, not prosperity, but acute hardships and distress. For two years they have, on the whole, borne their sufferings with wonderful bravery, without grumblings or complaints; but the last few months have shown a gradual, but distinct, difference. To their other troubles have been added grievances which, if they are allowed to go unremedied, may have very serious effects upon the moral health of the entire nation :Already there are thousands of women, each one of whom is cherishing a grievance, because she sees ton after ton of coal being taken into some other house, while in her house there is no coal; while she and her children are fireless, as she cannot buy a hundredweight, although she has the money to pay for it. All these besides the thousands more, each one of whom is cherishing a grievance, because her very nextdoor neighbour, perhaps, has so much sugar that she can give it to her dog, while she herself has none to give to her children, although she has the 51d. wherewith to buy it. Within a week there may be tens of thousands with other grievances, milk grievances, meat grievances, and, worst of all, bread grievances. So long as the great mass of English women believe that they and their children are being dealt with fairly, that it is a case of share and share alike, so far as bread and firing goes, there will be no panic among them, let them suffer as they may, and no clamouring for peace; but if they have grievances provided for them it may be desirably otherwise. The Government should take immediate steps to ensure the fair and cheap distribution of such necessaries as coal and sugar, and should look ahead and take steps now to set up machinery for a ticket system which, if necessary, could be put into operation at very short notice. THE NATION'S FOOD SUPPLY. THE Editor of The Hotel Review, in his issue for February, discusses the problem of the nation's food supply, and he is of opinion we cannot look back on the near past as regards home production of food with an iota of credit or satisfaction. He says: In Saxon and Norman times the people were in closer contact with the land and the food it produced. They knew whence came their support! Each man had one duty more than any other to fulfil the growing of sufficient food for himself and family for the year. In a nutshell, those who produced the food consumed it! Since 1872 the acreage in these Isles under the plough has declined by nearly 4,000,000 acres, and to-day we are experiencing the effects of this running-out-of-profit land. Politicians have ever made one serious mistake: They have sheltered happily behind the bulldog motto of " Britannia rules the waves," but have not kept in mind the fact that this is an island. They have not kept up to date, but instead have rested on their oars. to a fine art. In order to show this, the following comparison is given : The British farmer on each hundred acres of cultivated land Feeds from 45 to 50 people; Produces 17 tons of milk; Produces a negligible quantity of sugar. The German farmer, on the other hand, on each hundred acres of cultivated land Feeds from 70 to 75 people; The writer, however, is hopeful. He has made a careful estimate of the recent innumerable movements inaugurated with the sole object of increasing home production, and is convinced that "the future will be rosier than many would have it painted." There is," he says, British a lot in these 'everyman-grow-his-own-food' schemes, since it brings us back to the Saxon and Norman times." Four-fifths of our wheat comes from abroad and half of that from foreign possessions. In 1916 wheat showed a decrease in the United Kingdom of over 250,000 acres. farmers have neglected our land and livestock; German farmers have made a close study of such matters and reduced culture 66 66 THE GENTLEWOMAN ON THE LAND. MISS MADELINE COOKE, a girl of the upper class who in pre-wartime days lived at home, offered her services to a farmer in her neighbourhood for a fortnight on trial in exchange for hospitality, and in The Treasury for February she relates her personal experiences. We have room only for a few brief extracts from a capital account of a woman's work on a farm. One of Miss Cooke's first farming tasks was to dock a five-acre field, and this was a back-breaking job. Afterwards she had three lessons in ploughing. She says: Personally, I think it too hard for the majority of women. The test comes in turning the plough at the end of a furrow, and the effort seems to break one in half. Rolling and harrowing are quite within a woman's powers, however, though none of it is as delightfully easy as it looks. It is not easy to drive the horses and look to the instrument at the same time, or to toil up and down in the clogging ground, or when it is dry keep one's eyes clear of the cloud of earthy dust which surrounds you and the animals and penetrates the clothing in the most remarkable manner. In the neighbourhood there lives an ancient dame whose habit it is to wear two pairs of hose at the same time. woman "Is it because you feel the cold?' "No, miss, 'tis to keep the dirt out." In Miss Cooke's judgment no should harness the big cart-horses, for the equipment is too heavy to be lifted without fear of strain, and what a man can do easily in this respect might entail serious consequences to a girl. It is no use in the world to imagine that patriotism and spirit are going to take the place of strength, or that a gently brought-up girl can accomplish a man's heavy work because she has the will to do it. There are certain branches of farm work she should never, if possible, attempt to do. 66 During her period of trial Miss Cooke appears to have done a variety of services on the farm, and when the fortnight was up the farmer offered her wages at the rate of 16s. per week, with overtime at fourpence an hour. Her conclusion is that farm life widens the mind, rubs off the corners, makes one more understanding and tolerant, less opinionated and conceited. It is a remarkably good school for character." certain exceptions, farm life for the educated girl is quite a possible and healthy life. With THE PROBLEM OF A GOOD deal of space in the February issue of System is devoted to national service and the men who are directing it. The Editor leads off with a powerful Editorial entitled "How You can Help the National Service Department," in the course of which he points out that every business man must do for his business exactly what the National Service Department is doing for the Nation's business; its function is to find substitutes for those men in munitions and other nationally important work who are to be released for the Army; likewise it becomes the business man's function to find substitutes for those of his men whom he must release for National Service. In other words, every business manager in the country has to become, for the time being, controller of Man-Power for his own business. The Editor feels, however, that this need not entail so great a sacrifice as the business man may anticipate. Mr. J. A. Crabtree uses the same theme in his paper "Men-The First Problem of Business in War-Time." After giving some sound advice on the question of substituting, he lays down the rules which ought to be followed in handling men so as to secure the best results: Most failures arise through insufficient tact. Tact is defined by a most successful controller of men as the capacity for taking pains in handling men. “You want a man to go to the trouble of doing something he does not wish or intend to do? Then take the trouble to give him the desire and inclination. Men seldom make themselves awkward save with some reason at the back of their minds. Dig that reason out and, where justified, remove it. In any case see that there is no misunderstanding. All industrial troubles arise through a failure to appreciate the other man's point of view. Above all, threats and blunt commands are ever a last resort. They never get willing obedience, and are always the longest way round to get a job done. Good work is done willingly. Unwilling work is bad work. "Men and Methods" contains two short character studies of Lord Rhondda and Lord Devonport. Lord Rhondda, born to wealth and social position, spent twenty-two years in politics before devoting himself entirely to business. Chiefly his astounding success in the world's industry and finance is a success due NATIONAL SERVICE. to imagination. He brought to business a trained mind, a mind accustomed to grapple with the principles underlying the practice of trade. So it came that his keen, analytical mind was able to dig below the detail-littered surface of business to the golden rules, to a science of business whose precepts hold good, not of one undertaking but of all. Lord Devonport, on the other hand, had to hew his way to fortune. Beginning at the age of fifteen as clerk with a firm of tea merchants, he was running a business of his own at twenty-one. Five years later the firm of Kearley and Tonge was created. believer in scientific management and organisation, Lord Devonport got his chance when, after acting as Parliamentary Secretary, he was made Chairman of the Port of London Authority. In the strike of 1912 his organising genius achieved a miracle when he beat the Unions: It was in this strike that Lord Devonport won a reputation as "the man who says 'No.' But he had been saying it all his life. To unreasonable labour, to impetuous firebrands, to inefficient schemers, to the hundred and one circumstances which tend to make for hurried decisions and impulsive actions, Lord Devonport has always said "No." Of course he has made enemies. Every strong man does. One labour leader suggested that he was the sort of man who ought to be" emigrated or kidnapped." Another held, and said publicly, that he ought to be shot. All of which Lord Devonport passed by in silence. He is one of our very few business men with political experience who have the gift of silence. 23 66 HIS Grace the Duke of Marlborough is one of the portents of our time. He might have been a soldier or a politician, but he evidently prefers to be a farmer. And he has a great belief in farmers and farming. His theme is : "Give the farmer a chance, 'give the farm labourer a chance. And if this is done the landlord will assuredly come by his own." What we need for the good of Old England is a prosperous and contented people, getting the utmost out of the cultivable soil of this country. And Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, ninth Duke of Marlborough, is setting himself strenuously to work towards that end.-Social Service. "AN IMMENSE ADVANCE.' MRS. HENRY FAWCETT in The Englishwoman for March welcomes the Report of the Speaker's Conference on the Franchise as an immense and significant advance in the direction of Women's Suffrage. It will be remembered that the Conference, suggested by one anti-suffragist, sanctioned by another, and appointed and presided over by a third, decided by a majority-rumour says a large majority-that some measure of women's suffrage should be conferred, and suggested as its most practical form what used to be called the Dickinson basis-i.e., the giving of the Parliamentary franchise to every woman on the Local Government Register and to the wife of every man on that register, and also to University graduates, with the proviso that the franchise should not be exercised by women until they had attained the age of 30 or 35. As Mrs. Fawcett points out, these proposals do not, of course, fulfil the demands of the Suffrage Societies, which are the enfranchisement of women on the same terms as men; but if the Conference recommendations are adopted by the Government and passed into law, women will have gained a great deal, for the proposals would place 6,000,000 women on the Parliamentary Register. The writer urges, as we think wisely, that advantage should be taken of the tide of public opinion which is now running strongly in favour of the movement, and that all the Suffrage Societies should unite in pressing for the franchise on the Conference basis: I think I am justified in saying that the universal feeling among suffragists is one of profound satisfaction that the Speaker's Conference, by a large majority, has recommended the destruction of the electoral disabilities of half the nation, and I think it is also true to say that there is unanimity among suffragists in the opinion that complete justice to women will not be attained until women vote upon the same terms as men. But when this is said and duly weighed, I believe there is an enormous preponderance of feeling not only in the National Union, but among suffragists generally, that we should support the recommendations of the Conference, and do everything in our power to urge the Government to make them, without delay, the general basis for legislation. For it must be remembered that the report is the result of a carefully balanced compromise. All parties and all opinions were represented in the Conference, and no one section obtained, in the finally resulting report, all its own way. As in all compromises, there had to be give and take on both sides: the suffragists got the abolition of the sex disqualification, but had to yield on the question of equality of qualification. It is obvious that when agreement has been achieved under those circumstances, it might be fatal for us to come in from the outside and say we won't have this and we won't have that. Such a course might very well bring the whole delicately balanced structure about our ears. LORD CROMER AND LITERATURE. THE obituary notices of Lord Cromer were concerned, as was perhaps inevitable, almost exclusively with his magnificent record as administrator and pro-Consul of Empire; but his intellectual and literary activity was hardly less remarkable, and Mr. Edmund Gosse pays a just service to his memory in the March Fortnightly by giving some charmng reminiscences of this side of his nature. His first meeting with Lord Cromer was, he says, characteristic. They were the only guests at a dinner given at the House of Commons by the brilliant group of young politicians who called themselves, or were called, the Hooligans; in the middle of dinner the division bell rang and the hosts departed in a body: -- The moment we were left alone Lord Cromer looked across the deserted tablecloth and said quietly, as though he were asking me to pass the salt, "Where is Bipontium?" I was driven by sheer fright into an exercise of intelligence, and answered at once, "I should think it must be the Latin for Zweibrücken. Why?" "Oh! I saw this afternoon that my edition of Diodorus Siculus was printed ex typographia societatis Bipontina, and I couldn't imagine for the life of me what 'Bipontium' was. No doubt you're quite right." Nothing could be more characteristic of Lord Cromer's habit of mind than this sudden revulsion of ideas. His active brain needed no preparation to turn from subject to subject, but seemed to be always ready, at a moment's notice, to take up a fresh line of thought with ardour. What it could not endure was to be left stranded with no theme on which to expatiate. In succeeding years, when it was often my daily enjoyment to listen to Lord Cromer's desultory conversation, as it leaped from subject to subject, I often thought of the alarming way in which 66 Bipontium had pounced upon me at the dinner-table in the House of Commons. |