The Spectator

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: From the Dardanelles there is not much news, due no doubt to the fact that the operations have now reached a critical stage, and that the publication of the progress made might be injurious. All we know is that we have cleared the Straits for about eleven miles, but that the problem of how to get through the Narrows without too great loss still confronts us. It is stated that the 'Amethyst,' in the course of certain operations, was hit many times by the enemy's shells and that the casualties on board her were severe. We have no official knowledge of the nature of the work in which the 'Amethyst' was engaged.

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: When we wrote last week we were only able to chronicle very briefly the news that on Wednesday, March 10th, we had achieved a considerable local success at Neuve Chapelle. Now, however, that we have the details of the action contained in the spirited despatch from "Eyewitness" we are able to realize that the battle was not one of those confused events which are brought on by accidental circumstances, but a deliberate and well-planned attack by our troops.

From ‘The Defence of the Realm’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: BEFORE dealing with the merits of the Defence of the Realm (No. 2) Bill which Mr. Lloyd George introduced into the House of Commons on Tuesday, it is necessary to say a few words about the manner of the introduction. This is a measure which Mr. Bonar Law, whose power of effective criticism seems to grow each week, accurately described as one of the most drastic proposal ever laid before Parliament. It is, in brief, a proposal to authorize the Government to take over any factory or workshop that they think they may want for the production of war material or any unoccupied building they want for the housing of workmen.

From a letter, ‘Ascot in Wartime’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: [To the editor of The Spectator] Sir,—"Pleasure as usual" is "certainly a vile motto," say you in your note to "Schoolmaster's" letter regarding Ascot in last week's Spectator. You are profoundly comprehensive. I had, by the way, turned to your note almost immediately after reading the following on your front page: "in human affairs, military as well as moral and political, nothing absolute can be affirmed." But I will leave that to take care of itself. I should like to ask whether your condemnation includes all usual pleasures, and if not which of them are outside it and which are not. For example, reading the Spectator weekly is a genuine pleasure to me, as to others, and a usual one.

From ‘The King and the National Reserve’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: The King has made it his business not only to see every corps in the kingdom, old and new, and to share as it were in every new military development, but he has taken upon himself the duty of saying words of farewell and encouragement to the various units of the Army before they leave the country for foreign service. Hence if the King's movements had been chronicled the enemy would have become cognisant of military facts which it is essential to conceal from them.