It does mean, however, that we shall have to be prepared for greater effort, especially with the great burden of the debt we are now carrying. We must produce more than before the war in order to increase our wealth, and, of course, we must find markets for the extra products which we do not consume. Looking at the world as a whole and the countries that we are able to supply either with raw materials or manufactured goods I feel confident that the British Empire will continue to maintain its world position, and that there is room both for the increased American and British activities. It must take a very considerable time before Germany is in a position to make her competition felt in the foreign markets as in pre-war times.'

After his arrival in London the Earl of Reading gave an interview to representatives of the press. 'I come back from America,' he said, 'more convinced than ever that the future of the world depends in the main on the relations between ourselves and the States. There is no doubt that contact and intercourse between Americans and British have strengthened the ties between us, and deepened the attachment which is, after all, only the natural outcome of our common heritage. traditions, and ideals.

'Irish agitation has been the main cause of anti-British feeling in America. During the war it was quiescent, but as soon as hostilities ceased it again became evident, and it has undoubtedly increased in intensity. It would be folly,' he continued not to recognize this fact, but at the same time it must be recognized that the vast majority of American people, by getting to know us better, have a deeper feeling for the British than ever before in our time.'

A CURIOUS little note on the early history of the war is to be found in a recent speech of Mr. Asquith's. Readers will recall that the responsibility for a shortage of shells was the great reproach leveled against the Asquith ministry.

'From the very first days of the war the position turned upon the adequate supply of munitions for our rapidly expanding

forces, for Lord Kitchener, remember, was developing those great new armies with which his name will always be illustriously associated. This was the subject of serious solicitude to the government. So far back as the month of September, 1914, when the war was not a month old, I appointed a strong Cabinet committee, presided over by Lord Kitchener, on which, among others, the present Prime Minister and Lord Haldane were members to deal with the matter in all its aspects. That committee worked hard and continuously from the first. They gave orders wherever orders could be given, and they succeeded also in substantially enlarging both the field and the machinery of supply. That development of new methods of warfare on an unprecedented scale, far beyond the forecast of any expert in this or any other country upon which ammunition began to be expended in the winter and spring of 1915, increased the urgency of the situation, and the necessity for adding any prospective means of supply was acutely felt both by the Commander-in-Chief in the field and by Lord Kitchener. I, accordingly, as head of the government, resolved on taking an unusual step, and upon coming down here myself to urge upon the men of the Tyneside primarily, and through them upon the community at large, that an increase in the out-turn of munitions had become even more urgent than the growth in the volume of recruiting.

'But before I left London I made the most careful inquiry of the highest military authority whether it was true that up to that date our operations had been crippled or seriously hampered by lack of munitions. I was assured by Lord Kitchener who informed me that he had been the day before in London in direct personal communication with Sir John French that that was not the case; and it was on the strength of that assurance and I do not know where else I could have gone for authentic information that I made that statement which has been so much quoted. Was it for me, or for anyone in my position, to question or to doubt the accuracy of that statement? How could I? Being given to me in the highest of all authority, I should have been wanting in

my duty if I had not imparted it to the country.

"That statement, as I have said, was carefully limited to the past. Our anxiety as to the future I pointed out, and you will forgive my going into this in some detail, because this is one of the grossest calumnies, among many gross calumnies, that have been circulated during the war. I pointed out the sacrifices that were required both from masters and men, the necessity, for the time, of the limitation of profits and the suspension of trade union rules and customs in order to draw in from the outside of skilled men to take the place of those who had voluntarily gone to the front, and of broadening the basis of the production of munitions by utilizing works devoted to other purposes, and I summed up in terms which I will quote textually: I venture to say that not one in one hundred thousand of those who have

referred to my speech have ever read the words I used at the time. What were they? They are on record, and they are these:

"There is not a single naval or military authority among us who of the approximate and prospective requirements does not declare that a large and rapid increase in the output of munitions has become one of the first necessities of the State."

'And this is the only peroration I attempted: "This, then, I say, what, in the name of your King and country we ask you to do, is to deliver the goods." Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to have this opportunity of telling you that that is a speech in which I am charged with lulling the nation into a sense of false security, and I am glad also to remember-and I have abundant evidence to prove it that that speech had precisely the effect which it was intended to produce.'

Arthur Machen, novelist and short story writer, is perhaps the most delicate stylist of the group who achieved fame in the 'nineties.

Dr. J. F. Muirhead is the English editor of the English editions of Baedeker, and the author of Baedeker's United States.

Theodore Maynard, a poet of distinction, forms one of the Conservative and Nationalist group centring on the New Witness.

Lewis A. Freeman, R.N.V.R., is an American by birth, but has served during the war as an officer of the British Grand Fleet.

last

Peace; and the gradual beauty of my smile.

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