The Spectator

From 'Humours of War Relief in the East End’, The Spectator, 26 June 1915: There may be often in the minds of the mothers and wives a little confusion as to what their menkind are actually doing at the war, but they frequently give a dashing and graphic description of what they imagine it to be, such as "Quelling them Turks," or "following up the Indians and Russians," while another said her son was "driving a motor in the mountainous parts of Paris." Anyhow, they make a better shot than the Hampshire farm yokel, who said he "’eard 'ow as our Bill is in the Sewage Canal, because o' them turkeys.

From ‘The Inexpugnability of Russia’, The Spectator, 26 June 1915: In dealing with the military problems which confront Russia we must never forget the size and the thickness of her Empire. It is like an enormous cloak. The fringe may get very ragged, and you may cut huge pieces out of it before and behind, but so vast are its dimensions that it will still remain for all purposes of warmth and security a perfectly serviceable garment. Pieces cut from it are hardly noticed—pieces which if cut from a smaller coat would leave nothing but a collar and a pair of sleeves. That is why the duration of war, which is so dangerous to smaller and more concentrated States, affects Russia so little. Short wars are her danger. Long wars only prove her strength.

From 'Mr Lloyd George's Speech', The Spectator, 26 June 1915: Though we are short of practically all the munitions of war, our most immediate needs are high-explosive shells and machine guns. Till the shortage here is made up we cannot show that activity which, we must never forget, is the essential element in all military operations, the sine qua non which, if it does not exist, must in the end mean defeat. But though in this war we cannot have activity without a great many more shells and a great many more machine guns than we have got at present, it by no means follows, as our pessimists would lead us to believe, that all is lost, or, if not quite all, that the danger is overwhelming.

From ‘Favourite Hours’, The Spectator, 19 June 1915: On a Sunday the Church and the world agree, and declare together that the distinctions between master and servant are merely matters of expediency involving no principle, and those who will not listen to the one can hardly avoid hearing the other. By the by, the persons who airily declare that you "never see any poor people in church" immensely overstate the truth, deceived by the fact that very few people look poor on a Sunday—in the country literally no one. Again, the fact that the majority of people have a good dinner on Sunday is a great safeguard against class bitterness.

From ‘Taxing Wages and War Profits’, The Spectator, 19 June 1915: Tax is growing much too complicated, and the multiplication of exemptions in the last few years has led to an enormous increase of clerical work at Somerset House. At the same time, the Government have never yet had the courage to carry out the ideal of compelling a return from every individual in the kingdom. Yet practically there are few people who do not have to make such a return either for the purposes of Super Tax, or in order to secure one or other of the numerous exemptions now operative. It would be far better to face the whole problem boldly, to compel a return from every individual, and then to grade the tax scientifically.