100 Years Ago - The Times and The Telegraph

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-02-22/register/a-centre-of-vice-bhfxwmg7d

FEBRUARY 22, 1917

A centre of vice

The Waterloo Road and its purlieus, which have for many years had a reputation as a centre of immorality, have been brought into prominence during the last few days by the campaign for the cleansing of London from impurity. Inquiries made by a representative of The Times show that the state of things prevailing in this district is revolting. Night after night the short stretch of road between Stamford Street and the “Old Vic” is thronged by women pursuing the trade of prostitution. Some of the most shameless openly accost soldiers as they walk along the street or loiter at corners. The writer two nights ago saw a flagrant instance of solicitation outside the doors of the Union Jack Club. A young woman, fairly well dressed, walked up to a soldier who stood aimlessly watching the traffic in and out of Waterloo Station. She spoke a few words to him, and he turned away. Unabashed, she moved a few yards and made her appeal to a second soldier. He also rejected her overtures. A little farther on she offered herself to a third man, and again she was rebuffed. In each case as she moved away she flung back a taunt at the soldier. In the third case the writer caught the words, uttered in rather shrill tones, “Well, what are you standing there for?”
Presently this woman was seen to accost another soldier, and this time, apparently, she found a victim, for the two remained talking for some time, and finally disappeared into one of the side streets.
In the course of a couple of hours the writer witnessed several cases of verbal solicitation of soldiers by prostitutes. Solicitation, however, can be practised in other ways than by spoken word, and in those other ways it goes on continuously in the area immediately outside Waterloo Station. The whole district is so infested by prostitutes that no one could walk a hundred yards in any direction without passing scores of them. But this open flaunting of vice in the main street is by no means the worst of the evils which have made the very name of the Waterloo Road noisome to everybody who has any care for the good repute of London. There is ample evidence that the back streets which spread like a net between Westminster Bridge Road and Blackfriars Road are honeycombed with “houses of accommodation” and shebeens.

100 Years Ago - Siege of Kut

BRIDGE OF BOATS AT SHEIKH SAAD




REINFORCEMENTS FOR THE TURKS SURROUNDING KUT

A CAPTURED TURKISH . IS·POUNDER KRUPP GUN


THE TURKISH SNIPER'S POST AT UMM EL HANNA


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-siege-of-kut-m7vv9gl9c">http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-siege-of-kut-m7vv9gl9c

The Siege of Kut

The Tigris had risen on January 16 four feet above its normal level at this season, and by January 22 it was seven feet above normal, and was flooding the flat plains far and wide

February 9, 1916

The Government of India announced yesterday that General Townshend is holding Kut-el-Amara as a point of strategical value, and that General Aylmer’s operations are intended to support him there. They further stated that “no withdrawal is contemplated.”
The announcement is an interesting disclosure of future intentions, but at present the chief anxiety is for a union between the forces commanded by the two generals. General Townshend has now been partially besieged at Kut-el-Amara for more than two months. He has with him the effective balance of the far too weak force with which he was sent to fight the battle of Ctesiphon, and certain reinforcements, drawn from the troops originally guarding the line of communications, which met him at Kut after his brilliant withdrawal in the face of the pursuing Turks.
The fact that he has held out so long indicates that he occupies a fairly strong position on rising ground in a loop of the river. He was fiercely attacked on December 8 and again on December 12, while on Christmas Eve the Turks penetrated the bastion of a little fort which guards his right flank. On each occasion he repulsed the enemy with considerable loss. For the last few weeks the Turks have treated him more respectfully, and on January 28 they were-compelled by floods to evacuate their trenches.
The enemy seem to be now directing their main efforts to opposing the advance of the relieving columns, which at present are entrenched twenty-three miles lower down the river. General Aylmer has a force on the left bank and General Kemball holds the right bank. Sir Percy Lake, who has assumed the chief command in Mesopotamia, reached the relieving columns on January 31, and found them held up by extensive floods. These columns first came into view on January 7, since which date they have only advanced a very few miles. They fought a successful battle on the 7th, when General Kemball took 700 prisoners. Another and far heavier battle was fought on January 21, when the enemy claimed to have inflicted serious losses. But by this time the advance had been temporarily paralysed by the inundations.
The Tigris had risen on January 16 four feet above its normal level at this season, and by January 22 it was seven feet above normal, and was flooding the flat plains far and wide. It is now said to be subsiding, but the receding waters leave behind a great expanse of deep mud which renders progress still difficult. The present position remains a deadlock, though the cheerful messages which continue to arrive from General Townshend indicate that he can hold out for a considerable time yet. He makes no complaint of short supplies, and he is no stranger to long sieges. Further strong British and Indian reinforcements are known to be on their way, but the means of transport are probably not unlimited.

100 Years Ago - Hindenburg Line

TH.EES FELLED BY THE GERMANS AT PERONNE IN ORDER TO OBS1RUCT THE ROAD

WIREMEN ON A " DUCK-WALK" LEADING TO THE FRONT





THE BRITISH ENTER BAPAUME


A WORKING PARTY GOING UP TO CONSOLIDATE NEWLY CAPTURED TRENCHES


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/towards-bapaume-fnmdlqd2j

Towards Bapaume

Bluish-white clouds broke, vivid with flashes of sudden lightnings. Momentary flames lit the woods. Shrapnel broke above the trees frantically

March 14, 1917

Press Headquarters, March 12. I was talking to an artillery major of the heavies. We got in our words between the terrific blasts. “Fritz is counter-attacking now.” So that accounted for the infernal din in the Somme foundry, now again working overtime. “How does it go?” I asked, during a lull. The salvoes recommenced, and the major went to a telephone secreted in a chaotic heap of nameless rubbish. He came back. “It doesn’t go,” he said. “It’s gone.”

He spoke as a man would concerning a mere consignment of hardware. Some walking cases, their bandages immaculately and startlingly white in that world of filth, came from the opposite direction, where the trouble was. The men going up called with good-humour to the men coming back. “Hullo, goin’ to keep the bed warm for me?” and “Don’t look so glum, old son, you’ll come back all right”; and (to a man with his hand bound up), “I told you not to play with that hot poker. ‘Ave a fag, ole love.”

The enemy, angry for being thrown out of Irles, was trying to come back. He had gone to the Bapaume Ridge expecting a time of rest while he matured whatever plans he has, because he thought we should find it hard or even impossible to follow him, seeing that the ground he left behind him is what our guns have made it. No sooner did he get to the ridge than he has to turn, at bay. We are already there. The Somme fury is relighted. He has no respite.

Climbing over old trenches, stumbling over risty tangles of wire, we went forward away from the batteries, till we could hear the sky traced with the cross-hatching of high and dolorous cries, our shells on the way to the ridge before us. Trains seemed to be going north through invisible tunnels.

BOMBARDING LOUPART WOOD

In front of us stood Loupart Wood on the ridge, its separate trees visible, for the air was much clearer by now. We could even mark, helped by an occasional burst of sun, the scars of the trenches, on the slopes below, where the bombs were breaking in their blue smoke. Black fountains spouted there, full of dark debris. Bluish-white clouds broke, vivid with flashes of sudden lightnings. Momentary flames lit the woods. Shrapnel broke above the trees frantically.

Trudging over the horrible litter left by the shell fire which had now passed to the ridge before us - soddened helmets and equipment, broken rifles, rusting bayonets thrusting out of the mud, unexploded shells and bombs, chewing gum wrappers - an essential feature of this battlefield - boots, and the hasty graves of the misguided of oligarchies, we came to a place by chance which was like, a grouse-butte on a moor; except that this ground before us had not, even a blade of grass. It was only waves of brown mud.

I listened and heard an English voice say, “Five minutes right.” Another voice repeated monotonously, like a schoolboy, “Five minutes right.” There was a pause; and I heard the second voice say “Battery fired, Sir.” A second or two later came confirmation of that.

My officer guide and I found inside a youth on his stomach in the mud, looking at Loupart I through binoculars. He turned cheerily roimd on his elbow as we slithered in, and said, “That got them all right.”

We left him, to see Pys before us, showing in ruin through the trees of its deserted road. Whizz-bangs made occasional but futile fire-works there. Beyond that rose the church spire of Achiet-le-Grand. We are lifting new landmarks every day.

Reaching the Mount by Miraumont it was clear enough, even to a layman like myself, that such a ground as this, which the Germans held a few weeks ago, would never have been surrendered except by an enemy who well knew he was beaten there. Serre rose conspicuously to the north. Between it and the Mount where we stood the land which the Germans recently held formed obviously a natural and, by the look of it, an impregnable obstacle to our advance. But it has, been cleared. Miraumont was under German fire even then; but all to no purpose.

And the reason was about us. Here was the famous Boom Ravine, at the bottom of the steep southern slope of the Mount which overlooks Miraumont. Its aspect is as shocking a tribute to our gunfire as the evidence I saw before Le Barque recently. No troops in the world could stand such gunfire. And that gunfire at that very moment was following them along the Bapaume Ridge.

100 Years Ago

100 Years Ago - Gorizia, Egypt and taxis

Flight Lieutenant Bob Nawarski - Obituary

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/02/13/flight-lieutenant-bob-nawarski-obituary/

100 Years Ago

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/surprise-tactics-at-grandcourt-gj5hzkjsj

FEBRUARY 10, 1917

Surprise tactics at Grandcourt

Grandcourt is a straggling village of one street, running along the south bank of the Ancre. It has been badly knocked about, though, unlike Pozieres, you can still see it was once a pleasant place. None of its buildings has any roofs, but the walls still stand to some extent.


A German trench system defended it on the west side, along the Grandcourt-Thiepval road. We discovered that the front trench was unoccupied the day before yesterday and took it. Yesterday morning our patrols got out to explore towards the village, found things were much easier than used to be expected from the Boche, and signalled for troops. These felt their way amid the ruins of houses, farms, barns, and orchards, and with very little fighting got out of the village on the east side. There was some machine-gun work, but only enough to give it a name. Some prisoners were sent back, and our men established themselves along a line running south from Grandcourt on the east side.


An operation stealthily made from another direction had brought us further north, meeting our success through the village from the westward. Our lines were adjusted from two directions to put the village wholly and securely within our territory. Where the Germans’ new line may be this side of Miraumont can be only surmised from the fact that erratic convolutions of the Ancre, a deep ravine, and a steep hill protect that larger and practically intact village from the south.


With the occupation of Grandcourt another move was possible on the north bank of the river. Beyond the trenches we won there last Saturday midnight and opposite the east end of Grandcourt is Baillescourt Farm, an ancient and strongly-built quadrangle of home and barns, well fortified by the Germans. That also has fallen. Its garrison of Hamburgers (85th Regiment of Infantry) made some sharp opposition which did not last, and 80 men and one officer were made prisoners. Naturally we had some good guessing as to the German withdrawal from the position I have described, and, acting on well-grounded assumption, our batteries did not give the enemy an easy job. The Germans were heavily punished, though they did not stay.

100 Years Ago - Italian Navy vs Austro-Hungarian Navy

GUN PRACTICE WITH SMALL·CALIBRE GUNS ON BOARD AN ITALIAN DREADNOUGHT

ITALIAN SUBMARINE


AND SUPPLY SH1P '


AT ANCHOR AT
THE ISLAND OF PELAGOSA.


THE ITALIAN DESTROYER "INDOMITO'"




AN ITALIAN DREADNOUGHT FIRING FROM HER FORWARD TURRET


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/austrian-naval-activity-in-the-adriatic-jszppxndj

Austrian naval activity in the Adriatic

Doubtless the Austrians believe that they can make matters very unpleasant for the Italians by raids both on their coast and on the stream of supply ships which are crossing this comparatively narrow waterway

January 18, 1916

By Our Naval Correspondent.
The situation in the Adriatic continues to attract attention, although the first impression created by the fall of Mount Lovtchen has been modified by a clearer perspective. The strategical importance of the Montenegrin stronghold was naturally magnified by its new possessors, who had for long cherished ambitions with regard to it. The Italians, too, when they learnt of the capture of “the Gibraltar of the Adriatic,” were seriously concerned about the alleged menace presented by this position. Some writers have criticized Italy for not moving sooner in the matter, while others have blamed the Allies, and this country in particular, for not making more, use of its sea-power in this connexion.


As a matter of fact, whatever advantages the possession of Lovtchen will give to the Austrians on shore, its influence upon the maritime situation is not likely to be of great importance. Mount Lovtchen does, indeed, dominate the Bay of Cattaro, but not sufficiently so to render it untenable by a fleet, or the Austrians would have been cleared out of it long ago.


On September 23, 1914, it was stated from Bordeaux that heavy guns had been landed by the French at Antivari and transported to the forts on the mountain, but even with the assistance of these no impression was made upon the ships in the harbour, which were at that time reported to consist of three cruisers and a number of torpedo craft. The bay, or series of bays, is almost impregnable from the sea, owing to the forts on the heights which surround it, and from which a plunging fire may be brought to bear upon attacking ships.


Until the efforts of the Allied squadrons were directed to the Dardanelles, several attempts were made by the force under the command of Admiralissimo Boue de Lapeyrere to destroy the protecting batteries and occupy the harbour. As far back as October, 1914, the fort on Lustica Point, and that on Rondoni Island, as well as the Warmatz batteries, were reported to have been silenced, and the fall of the place imminent. Apparently, however, the nut proved too hard to crack, or the “gamble” at the Dardanelles to offer better chances of success. The Italians had not then come into the war, and the Russians were feeling the need of open water communication with the makers of munitions. The bombardment of the forts at Cattaro was therefore superseded by the bombardment of the forts at the entrance of the Straits of Gallipoli.


AUSTRIAN COMMAND OF THE COAST


But neither Cattaro in itself - with or without the dominating forts of Mount Lovtchen - can prove a menace to the Adriatic. It is the naval force which may operate from this base which constitutes the threat to the Italian communications by sea. What does not appear to have been fully realized, however, is that the deep water passage between the Dalmatian Islands and the coast has always been available to the Austrian Fleet. Between Pola and Cattaro, a distance of a little less than 300 miles, the control of the intervening waters has been in Austrian hands, with mine defences and torpedo craft stations at Zaza, Sebenico, Gravosa, and other ports.


Early in the war it was stated that the Allied Fleets were occupying some of these islands for the purpose of clearing out possible lurking places for destroyers and submarines, and in a general sweep up the Adriatic the small cruiser Zenta was destroyed. Lissa and Pelagosa were reported to have been bombarded, and the population of many of the islands, panic-stricken, were said to have abandoned them.


After November, however, no further movements of the kind appear to have taken place, and the route along the coast being open, there was no apparent reason why the Austrian vessels should not use it. It is quite likely, therefore. that the Austrian Dreadnoughts, as a telegram from Rome states, were brought down to Cattaro to take part in the assault on Lovtchen, nor is it improbable that the forts on the peninsula silenced by the Allied Fleet had again been re-armed.


THREAT TO ITALIAN SUPPLIES.


From a naval point of view, the presence of the main Austrian Fleet, or a part of it, at Cattaro would appear to indicate that there is free ingress and egress at Pola, and that the need for a covering force to the small craft acting from Cattaro has been found necessary. In the action on the night of December 28 off Durazzo, which presented some of the features of the engagement in the Heligoland Bight on August 28, 1914, the Austrian cruisers and torpedo vessels were defeated and suffered loss because there was no supporting squadron to come to their support.


The need for such a force may easily have been felt and by the dispatch of the new battleships to help also in the subjugation of Lovtchen two objects would be fulfilled. But by dividing the strength of their main fleet and placing its most important units where there must be some difficulty in keeping them supplied from the principal base the Austrians are undoubtedly taking a risk. It may be, however, that the menace which this heavy squadron and its accompanying small craft will be to the Italian line of communications, both northwards and, to the coast of Albania, is considered worth that risk. It is only 100 miles across to the Italian coast from Cattaro, and only 40 from Brindisi to Valona. Doubtless the Austrians believe that they can make matters very unpleasant for the Italians by raids both on their coast and on the stream of supply ships and the like which are crossing this comparatively narrow waterway.


The Italian Navy, however, which under the Duke of the Abruzzi has so recently shown its efficiency by the transport of an army to Valona, should be able to deal effectively with such a threat.

Якбитологія України: Одна куля

http://likbez.org.ua/ua/ukrayinska-yakbitologiya-ukrayini-odna-kulya-chastina1.html http://likbez.org.ua/ua/ukrayinska-yakbitologiya-ukrayini-odna-kulya-chastina-2.html http://likbez.org.ua/ua/ukrayinska-yakbitologiya-ukrayini-odna-kulya-chastina-2.html


Викладу текст, посилання на який наведено вище, одним шматком. Але за посиланнями є красіві картінки

Якбитологія України: Одна куля

Перш за все, шановний читачу, слова застереження. Все, що ти прочитаєш далі, це лише і виключно думка автора. Автора, що не є істориком з фаху, і хоча захоплюється історією з дитинства, не може підтвердити власної кваліфікації судити про історичні процеси жодним відповідним дипломом. Ба, до минулого року також і жодною друкованою книгою. Тому,  читачу, ти цілком можеш припинити читання посто зараз, як не хочеш витрачати свій час на аматорські розмірковування. А можеш і продовжити – а ну як буде цікаво?

Чи спадало тобі на думку, читачу, що картина світу, що видається нам зараз єдино можливою та заздалегідь окресленою долею чи історичною логікою розвитку, зовсім не була такою двісті чи триста років тому? Не можна забувати тієї простої речі, що історію творять люди, їхні вчинки, їхні думки, ідеї, рішення. Майбутнє не запрограмоване. Не задане «економічними силами», «базою», «історичними закономірностями». Про це все пишуть згодом, щоб якось полегшити розуміння минулих подій, і то часто невірно. А діють люди, як триста років тому, так і в наш час. Але мені здається, що якраз українському читачеві, на очах якого робиться історія прямо зараз, така думка не видасться дивною, як би ни знаходився він під впливом марксистського економічного детермінізму, який і досьогодні багато в чому формує уявлення про історичний процес у великої більшості наших співвітчизників.

Як би ни нівелював детерміністський погляд на історію значення дій конкретних історичних осіб, неупереджений погляд на історію не може не призвезти до висновку, що особистості мають значення. А також часто має значення посто випадок. На Заході (і не тільки) в останні пару десятиліть набула популярності література із серії What If? (тобто «А що було б, якби?») – де часто навіть серйозні історики розмірковують, як би могли розвиватися події, якби на якійсь розвилці історії її рух вибрав інший від реально обраного шлях. У жителів країни, де кажуть «поребрик», цілі шафи у книгарнях заставлені книгами, де описується минуле, сучасне та майбутнє у такому альтернативному світі (найчастіше набагато приязнішому до фантазій жителів тієї країни). Дещо на цю тему було написано й в Україні, але далеко не так багато. Так що ось я й викладаю на твій, шановний читачу, розсуд, мої міркування з приводу одного з ключових епізодів історії України – як би він міг виглядати, якби сліпа доля зовсім-зовсім трохи по-іншому здала карти. З Божою поміччю, і як на те буде читацька ласка, може з цього вийде серія таких собі есеїв під умовною назвою «Якбитологія України».

***

О другій годині ночі у понеділок 28 червня (за календарем, що був тоді на короткий час впроваджений у Швеції – у католицьких країнах вже було 8 липня, а у решті – 27 червня) 1709 року стояла темрява. Але шведське військо – точніше, та частина його, яку король Карл вирішив цього дня послати на бій із російським військом – вже вишикувалося у похідний порядок. Вісімнадцять батальонів піхоти під командуванням генерала Левенгаупта стали у чотири колони (дві ліві з п’яти батальонів кожна, дві праві – з чотирьох). За ними у шість колон стала кіннота під проводом фельдмаршала Реншильда. Із 34 гармат, що стояли на шанцях навколо обложеної Полтави, король вирішив узяти з собою лише чотири 3-фунтових гармати. Його план бою полягав у швидкості маневру на натиску, і зайві три десятка гармат завадили б цьому. Зрештою, сім років тому під Клішовом у нього також було лише чотири гармати проти 46 саксонських і польських.

Sitr Harold Atcherley - Obituary

FEBRUARY 1, 1917

The latest sea outrage

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-02-01/register/the-latest-sea-outrage-bblgpc3xl

The signs of an increased intensity in the German submarine campaign are accumulating fast. There can be only one reason for the manifesto of the German Government about hospital ships, which the Foreign Office makes public today. It has all the familiar marks of a document designed to prepare the way for inhuman deeds. It is based on the lie that British hospital ships have been misused for the transport of munitions and troops. It alleges, with stupid mendacity, that “proofs” have been placed “through diplomatic channels” before the British and French Governments. And it utters its threat in the form of a prohibition of all traffic of hospital ships in the English Channel and the North Sea south of the Yorkshire coast — a transparent attempt to induce the German people and neutrals to believe that the enemy has control of this large expanse of sea. This orgy of falsehood is well exposed in the reply of the Foreign Office, and the German Government have been informed that if the threat is carried out reprisals will be taken by Great Britain immediately.
The sinking of hospital ships by German submarines is no new outrage. There have been flagrant attacks on Russian Red Cross vessels in the Black Sea. Our own hospital ships, and those of the French, have owed their comparative immunity in home waters more to the measures of precaution taken than to any forbearance of the enemy. The fate of the Britannic and of the Braemar Castle — both sunk in the Aegean during November — proves that well enough. But the Foreign Office are probably right in saying that the new German manifesto means that the German Government intend to attempt “to add other and more unspeakable crimes ... to the long list which disgraces their record”.
The most recent of these crimes is among the worst. On Saturday, in a heavy easterly gale, the Artist, a British steamer, was torpedoed 48 miles from land. Of the crew, who were forced into open boats “utterly without means of reaching land or succour”, sixteen survived. The Admiralty do not mince words about the fate of the rest. “Those who perished during those three days of bitter exposure were murdered, and to pretend that anything was done to ensure their safety would be sheer hypocrisy.”

THE IMPERIAL WAR CABINET AND CONFERENCE, 1917.

Left to right (seated): Mr. A. Henderson, Lord Milner, Lord Curzon, Mr Bonar Law, Mr. Lloyd George, Sir Robert Borden, Mr. Massey, and General J. C. Smuts.

Standing (in middle): Sir Satyendra Sinha, the Maharajah of Bikanir. Sir James Meston, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Lord Robert Cecil, Mr. WaIter Long, Sir Joseph Ward, Sir George Perley, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Hazen.

Standing (back· row): Captain Amery, Admiral Jellicoe, Sir Edward Carson, Lord Derby, General Morris,

Sir M. Hankey, Mr. Lambert, and Major Storr.

GENERAL SMUTS AND THE MAHARAJAH OF BIKANIR RECEIVE THE FREEDOM

OF THE CITY OF LONDON.

Inspecting the Guard of Honour in Guildhall Yard.

SIR ROBERT BORDEN, GENERAL SMUTS, AND THE MAHARAJAH OF BIKANIR RECEIVE THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY OF EDINBURGH, APRIL 11, 1917.

The new freemen leaving the Usher Hall with the 'Lord Provost after the ceremony.

PRESENTATION' OF THE FREEDOM' OF THE CITY OF L0ND0N TO, MINISTERS'OF THE EMPIRE

Seated, on the Lord Mayor's right hand are (reading from left to right) :-Sir Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, Sir James Meston"

Sir Edward Morris (Prime Minister, Newfotlndland), General Smuts, and the Maharajah of Bikanir.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/what-the-war-conference-means-wgznfbx7b

What the War Conference Means

The Dominions have long believed that the time had come for them to take a more direct share in the government of the Empire

January 26, 1917

The statement by the Prime Minister about the War Conference which we publish today was made to an Australian Press representative. But it is addressed to all the Dominions, expounding for their benefit the necessarily vague terms of the invitation to their Prime Ministers. It sets at rest all doubts about the nature of the War Conference, and puts it in the true light as a bold innovation in the war government of the Empire.
The representatives of the Dominions and of India, while they are here, are to “sit in the Executive Cabinet of the Empire.” At its meetings they will have an equal status with British Ministers who are members of the War Cabinet. This, as Mr Lloyd George readily admits, breaks away from all precedent. Only lately have Dominion Ministers even been admitted to meetings of the Imperial Cabinet. When they were admitted they were there to receive information and to give advice. They were not members of the Cabinet itself. Now they are to be full members.
Thus, by a stroke of the pen, the Government has created, if only for a moment of emergency, that Cabinet of the Empire, composed of representatives from all its self-governing States, which has seemed for so long to be a dream of the Imperial visionary. The creation of an Imperial Cabinet, even though its existence is limited to a series of special meetings and though its functions are adjusted to the imperative needs of the war, is, as the Prime Minister says, a proof that the British peoples “have found a unity in the war such as never existed before - a unity not only in history but of purpose.”
The Dominions have long believed that the time had come for them to take a more direct share in the government of the Empire. Since the war they have felt more keenly than ever their divorce from direct responsibility. Now they are asked to assume it. There is no doubt about their reply, once they understand that the invitation is genuine, that it has real business behind it, and is not mere window-dressing.
The Prime Minister’s explanation of the real meaning of the invitation will show them that there is a new spirit abroad in this country. That is all they want to know. The rest can well be left to them. Nonetheless, it is an excellent thing that the work which the War Conference is to do is now set before them in unmistakable terms. The Conference is first and last a war measure. The Prime Minister puts its complete justification into a sentence. “You don’t suppose,” he says, “that the Overseas nations can raise and place in the field armies containing an enormous proportion of their best manhood and not want to have a say, a real say, in determining the use to which they are to be put.”

Thus the tradition that made the British Government responsible for the foreign policy and for the naval and military strength of the whole Empire is to be overborne by the creation of a War Cabinet for the whole Empire. The work of that Cabinet will be dictated by the circumstances of its origin. It is to be a Cabinet for war, and all the conditions, contingencies, and consequences of the war will be within its province. It will review and determine British strategy by sea and land. Its value in this field must, of course, depend entirely; upon the circumstances of its meeting.

War waits for no man, and as its blind tide ebbs or flows the enigmas of one week become the commonplaces of the next. But, this apart, the Conference will have much to do. The Prime Minister gives a rough outline of its work. It will consider “all the difficult problems connected with peace”. as well as “what I may call the preparation for peace” - demobilization, “migration of our own peoples to other parts of the Empire, the settlement of soldiers on the land, commerce and industry after the war.”
“Nothing,” in short, “affecting the Dominions, the conduct of the war, or the negotiations of peace will be excluded from its purview.” Once the broad lines of Imperial policy on all these questions are laid down they can be adapted in detail to the shifting exigencies of the moment. Until they have been discussed and determined, at least in outline, by a Cabinet of the Empire, the British peoples can neither develop their full strength for war nor speak with clear unanimity in the councils of the Alliance.