soldierly reticence in order to explain the full significance of the victory. His message to the Second Army, so admirable for its lucid statement, its moderate and reasoned claims, its tribute to the bravery of a beaten foe, and its serene confidence, is the best and most authoritative comment on the war position today. The significance of Messines, as Sir Douglas tells

us,

is that neither the natural strength of a defensive position organized by nearly three years' incessant labor nor the knowledge that an attack is coming can save the enemy from complete defeat in any area chosen by us for one of those hammer blows which, now that we have gained the initiative, we can prepare, with all the superior technical resources at our disposal, against any part of his line. We can learn from the Field-Marshal's message what the offensive really means in modern war when vast armies face one another in strongly prepared positions. It does not mean any considerable geographical advance, any breaking through, or getting the enemy on the run. It means rather a succession of hammer blows, which may be specially useful because they enable strategical positions to be wrested from the enemy, but which aim chiefly at breaking up his fighting line, exhausting his reserves, and reducing his moral. We saw these blows and their effect on the Somme last year, we have seen them at Vimy and near Arras this year, and Messines is likely to be regarded in the future as the classical example. "Brave and tenacious as the German troops are, it is only a question of how much longer they can endure the repetition of such blows." When Sir Douglas Haig, who has never once made an exaggerated claim, publishes a sentence like that, we are justified in believing that he sees his way to the end. If he is sufficiently supplied with men and munitions he will rain on the

Germans such a succession of blows that they will be compelled to cry "Enough!"

Every British claim about Messines is corroborated by captured German documents. The most significant of

these is the Corps Order, date 1 June, and signed "von Laffert," which defined the coming English attack. We learn from this Order that the German Staff attached the greatest importance to the strong points which dominate the Wytschaete salient. "These must not fall, even temporarily, into the enemy's hands." The Second Army has permanently secured them. Not only were the reserves of the divisions in line available, but "the troops must be told that we have very strong battle reserves close behind the front which are destined to throw back any enemy who may have temporarily broken through in one great counter-attack, should the battle reserves of the divisions not already have done so." We see that the Germans had made their customary prudent preparations on a greater scale than usual, and that they thought the ridge so important that they had provided a double reserve. Part of this second reserve was the 3d Bavarian division, which created a record by coming in, being thoroughly beaten, and going out within twenty-four hours. But what happened to the "one great counterattack"? There was a most unusual delay in delivering it. The ridge was won on Wednesday and the counterattack was not delivered till Friday evening. It was made in strong force by fresh troops, who attacked persistently and courageously, but General Plumer had got his guns well forward, and in a battle of five hours he did not lose a yard of ground. That second victory was as important as the first; the German losses were severe, and Sir Herbert Plumer completed and secured his gains and rounded off his

admirably conceived and marvelously executed scheme. There was, in fact, an artistic finish about the whole operation which speaks volumes for the Staff which arranged and the Army which carried out the ambitious plan. We have quoted German evidence as to the large reserves provided and used up, and there is abundant proof that the long artillery pounding and the vast explosion of mines seriously affected the German moral. How could it be otherwise? The world has never known anything so destructive and unendurable as a modern British artillery bombardment. In old days the Kaiser had the motto "Ultima ratio regis" carved on his big guns, but the last word in argument has now passed to the enemy whom he challenged. His soldiers have to lie exposed to gunfire such as did not enter into the dreams even of the German Staff before the war. They pass through an agony which evokes pity from the men they are fighting against, and that agony must be intensified as we gain post after post that improves our observation facilities. "We cannot compete with the English," says one German soldier. "There will soon be no way of escape for us," writes another. "The English smash everything with their artillery, and we have frightful losses." When there followed on this experience of the guns the biggest mine explosions of the war human nerves could not be expected to stand the strain. The prospect of similar happenings in future fights must influence even the stubborn German courage. We must not, however, expect any rapid breakdown; there is not the least chance of it; we saw their moral fall low in the great battles of the Somme, but Hindenburg's reorganization and the winter rest restored the old standard. It is falling again now, and before the end of the summer will, we trust, be lower than it is today. In

this stage of the war, the period of hammer blows, everything depends on the thoroughness of preparation, as one heavy and crushing blow like Vimy or Messines seems to have a greater effect than a succession of smaller successes. On the other hand, the periods of waiting between the great thrusts does give the enemy an interval for recuperation, and prevents the rapid spread of that despair which inevitably conquers the men who have to endure intensive bombardment.

In another way the battle of Messines must affect the future of the war. We know what efforts the German Staff put forth to stimulate the resistance of their men and what guarantees they gave that their ample additional reserves would enable them to hold the ridge and overcome the British attack. When such assurances as these are given and the fighting results prove them to be untrustworthy there must follow in the German soldier a weakening of faith, a loss of confidence in the competence of his generals which may lead to considerable results. The German leaders, political and military, have a marvelous genius for hypnotizing their people, but events like Messines are sometimes startlingly awakening. "I cannot imagine where the English get their ammunition," wrote one German, who had probably been sedulously taught by authority that the submarines were cutting off all supplies from our Army. Anything which causes the elaborate structure of German authoritarianism to crack and sway is of the greatest value, and the Second Army, in disproving the official guarantees of the German staff, has done most valuable work. On the other hand, the confidence of our men in their leaders is made stronger than ever by the completeness of this victory and the accurate timing and accomplishment of all its elaborate program.

The crowning mercy of this great fight is that our casualties were "astonishingly light." In our gratitude for the technical skill which has enabled England to set in the field an Army so lavishly provided, and to prepare such a mechanical blow as the great explosion, we must not forget that these things are of little value without the dash and courage of the infantry, the glorious daring of the airmen, and the skill and endurance of the sappers and gunners. We have cause for gratitude that the inevitable toll of our best men has been relatively small. Many heroes have fallen, and the death of one, Major Redmond, has called forth admiration and deep sympathy throughout the Empire. Those of us who disagreed with the politician pay the sincerest tribute to the chivalry of the man. This battle is one

The Saturday Review.

more proof of Sir Douglas Haig's military genius; it throws light on his whole careful and skilful plan, and it proves that he has secured for his Army the master power in the West. When we recall, with anger, the malicious criticisms that have sometimes been directed against our High Command we rejoice in the complete demonstration which Vimy and Messines have given of the high qualities that have won for Sir Douglas Haig the implicit confidence of the superb force which he commands. Sir Herbert Plumer and the Second Army have had to wait long for their chance, but they have grasped occasion by the hand to some purpose. They have won a success which will be an epoch in the war, and they have gained for themselves a permanent name in history and the perpetual gratitude of the whole Empire.

"The brotherhood of mankind must no longer be a fair but empty phrase. It must be given a structure of force and reality. The nations must realize their common life and effect a workable partnership to secure that life against the aggressions of autocratic and selfpleasing power. For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure." So in his Message to Russia, President Wilson describes the objects for which we are fighting and the effort that has to be made. Surely a noble end to strive for, especially if we contrast it with what we might have to face if the war came to the wrong enda world in which man's best energies would be devoted to devising, making, and manning more and more devilishly efficient weapons of destruction; and civilization would end in a nightmare, such as only Mr. Wells could imagine, of tanks, poison gas, submarines and

It

aircraft, developed and perfected into incredible engines of devastation. has been President Wilson's task to rebuild, on wider foundations and a nobler scale, the ideals with which our Allies and we began the war, and so to make still more repulsive the picture of what might happen if our effort ended with its objects unachieved, and with mankind left in a state of snarling hostility, only waiting waiting to gather strength for the next bout of bloodshed and destruction. This being so, we have to show our readiness to fight to the very end to win, but at the same time to show that the end can be at any moment, if our enemies will agree to the "restitution, reparation and guarantees" that justice and security demand, and that our terms will be based on no spirit of vindictiveness, but on the "brotherhood of mankind," as our great Ally has said for us, built

on

"a structure of force and reality."

"For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure." Our soldiers are doing the first with a heroism and devotion that makes us at home feel miserably ashamed when we compare the nature and extent of our war sacrifice (if we make any that can really be so called) with theirs. We are pouring out treasure, largely produced by inflation, at an ever-increasing pace, that is distancing, as usual, the forecasts of those who are supposed to control our finance. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announces that we had spent from April 1st to June 2d, 496 millions odd, a daily average of £7,884,000. A member of the House whistled on this announcement, and was reproved next day by a daily paper, once noted for its accuracy, on the ground that he need not have been astonished, because "the figures had all been published week by week." But the weekly statement of revenue and expenditure had shown that the total expenditure, during the period named, was 469 millions, and the Chancellor's higher figure was, presumably, arrived at by the inclusion of spending that had not yet passed through the Exchequer. Mr. Bonar Law added that there were a number of exceptional reasons for this increase, that he hoped that future expenditure would be at a less rate, but that he was not very sanguine that the estimate would not be exceeded. The whole statement was an eloquent commentary on the Chancellor's miserably inadequate proThe Economist.

vision of fresh permanent taxation in a Budget which involves a huge addition to our debt. Meantime, the subject of the appointment of a Parliamentary Committee with power to review national expenditure is to be given a day for discussion, some day, but "in view of the pressure of public business," a date cannot at present be fixed. In other words, the Government is too busy to busy itself with what is in some ways its most important business (for no heroism of our soldiers will win the war if we waste our financial strength beyond a certain point), and our finance drifts on along the unsound lines that pile up debt, inflate the currency, increase the cost of war, encourage the still rampant extravagance, promote unrest and ugly feeling among the working classes about exploitation and profiteering, and generally help to produce exactly the state of feeling in the country that is most unworthy of a great nation fighting for the greatest cause that ever was at stake. The notion of self-sacrifice and self-denial for the war's financial needs is becoming more and more an unfashionable back number. We are fighting for a better world, with the prospect before us, if we lose, of a world in which life may be a nightmare. And we seem to think that we can win with a system of finance that tries to leave about threequarters of the war's burden to posterity, and imposes present sacrifice on those least able to bear it by raising prices, by the simple device of setting bankers to work to make new money.

In the offices of a certain London chemical firm there is an attractivelooking diagram. It is a large tree; but upon close inspection it is plain

that it is not an ordinary tree. Each branch is labeled with a chemical name, and many of them are colored. Upon the trunk one may read "coal-tar," and

the mysterious diagram is explained. Every branch represents a substance derived from coal-tar, and one is astonished at the large number of the branches, although as a matter of fact these branches represent only the main derivatives, and form a very small proportion of the total.

If we read carefully over the branches, we shall find examples of dyes (represented by the colored ones), drugs, flavoring substances, disinfectants, photographic chemicals, explosives, solvents, etc.

At one time coal-tar was looked upon as an unpleasant by-product of gasmaking, difficult to deal with, and difficult to get rid of. The number of chemists who have investigated this substance is of course enormous, and they have come from every country; but we are always proud to remember that it was an Englishman, W. H. Perkin, who produced the first dye that could be made on a technical scale. He was a business man as well as a chemist, and he ran a very successful factory for dye-making in England. Unfortunately we have been beaten in this industry, but there are signs that the coming of the war is effecting a renascence.

Tar must be looked upon as the king of the waste products. It is not likely that we shall find anything that will furnish such an enormous number of useful substances. But there are numerous interesting cases of waste products that have proved gold-mines to the men who have found ways of turning them to usefulness. The volatile substances given off in the making of charcoal from wood, for example, have become very important. In the old way of making charcoal all these valuable products (wood spirit, acetic acid, acetone, etc.) were entirely lost, but today they are the most important of the substances obtained.

All the great industries give us ex

amples of the finding of uses for waste products. In the cotton trade we have the cotton waste, which consists of the short and unsuitable fibres left over from the spinning. At first this found very few uses, and could be obtained for next to nothing. Then, as more uses were found for it, its value went up. It was largely used as a packing and cleaning material for engines. At the present time it has an extremely important use in the making of guncotton. Baron von Lenk, in Austria (about 1847), was the first man to use cotton successfully on a large scale for making gun-cotton, although he was not the inventor of the process. The cotton was dipped in a mixture of strong sulphuric and nitric acids, and subsequently washed and dried. Sir Frederic Abel, in England, made many improvements upon this process, and since then cotton waste has been very largely used, and many explosives firms have got riches from it.

Silk waste, too, has proved very profitable, chiefly for working up into cheap silk materials. There was a paragraph recently in the daily papers reporting the death of Lord Masham of Swinton Park, Masham, Yorkshire. He was the son of the first baron, Samuel Lister, who made a large fortune from silk waste.

It is the agricultural world that seems to get the benefit (doubtful sometimes) of a large number of the odd and end waste substances of various industries. If you can find no other use for a waste material, you can probably work it off either as a cattle food or as a fertilizer. At least this is what one might be led to believe, after learning about the disposal of large numbers of waste materials.

Amongst the foods we have linseed cake (the waste after pressing out the oil from linseed); cotton cake, etc.; brewers' waste (brewers' grains, etc.);