goin' to smile, whatever 'appens. I'm not
one as is goin' to give in ! And we 'ad a letter
from Arthur [her son in the trenches] this
morning, to say 'is Company's on the hst for
leave, and 'e's apphed. — Oh dear. Miss, just to
think of it ! "
Then, with a catch in her voice :
" But it's not the comin' home. Miss — it's
the goin' hack again! Yes, I'll come to the
cookin'. Miss, if I possibly can ! "
No. 10] THE LABOUR OUTLOOK 241
There's the spirit of our country folk —
patriotic, patient, true.
As to labour conditions generally. I spoke,
perhaps, in my first letter rather too confidently,
for the moment, of the labour situation.
There has been one serious strike among
the engineers since I began to write, and a
good many minor troubles. But neither the
Tyne nor the Clyde was involved, and
though valuable time was lost, in the end
the men were brought back to work quite
as much by the pressure of pubhc opinion
among their own comrades, men and women,
as by any Govermnent action. The Govern-
ment have since taken an important step
from which much is hoped, by dividing up
the country into districts and appointing local
commissioners to watch over and, if they
can, remove the causes of " unrest " — causes
which are often connected with the inevitable
friction of a colossal transformation, and some-
times with the sheer fatigue of the workers,
whose achievement — munition-workers, ship-
wrights, engineers — during these three years
has been nothing short of marvellous.
As to finance, the colossal figures of last
17
242 FINANCE [No. 10
year, of wliicli I gave a summary in E7igla'nd's
Effort, have b een much surpassed. The Budget
of Great Britain for this year, including
advances to our Alhes, reaches the astounding
figure of two thousand three hundred milhon
sterhng. Our war expenditure is now close
upon six milhon sterhng a day (£5,600,000).
Of this the expenditure on the Army and
Navy and munitions has risen from a daily
average of nearly three milhons sterhng, as
it stood last year, to a daily average of nearly
five millions.
But the nation has not spent in vain !
" Compare the first twenty-four days of
the fighting on the Somme last year,*' — 'Said
Mr. Bonar Law in a recent speech — ■*' with
the first twenty-four days of the operations
of this spring. Four times as much territory
had been taken from the enemy in this
otrensive as was taken in the Somme, against
the resistance of double the number of German
divisions. And of those divisions just one-
half have had to be mthdrawn — shattered — •
from the fighting line while the British
casualties in the ofi'ensive have been from
50 to 75 per cent, less than the casualties
in the Somme fighting."
No. lOj MESSINES 243
Consider, too, the news which is still fresh
as I finish this letter — (June llth)^of the
victory of Messines ; perhaps the most com-
plete, the most rounded success — so far —
that has fallen to the British armies in the
war ! Last year, in three months' fighting
on the Somme, we took the strongly fortified
Albert ridge, and forced the German retreat
of last February. On April 8th of this year
began the battle of Arras which gave us
the Vimy ridge, and a free outlook over the
Douai plain. And finally, on June 7th, four
days ago, the Messines ridge, which I saw
last year on March 2nd — apparently impreg-
nable and inaccessible ! — from a neighbouring
hill, with the German trenches scored along
its slopes, was captured by General Plumer
and his splendid army in a few hours, after
more than twelve months' preparation, with
lighter casualties than have ever fallen to a
British attack before, with heavy losses to
the enemy, large captures of guns, and 7,000
prisoners. Our troops have since moved
steadily forward ; and the strategic future is
rich in possibiHties. The Germans have re-
gained nothing ; and the German press has
not yet dared to tell the German people of
244 THE TRAGEDY OF WAR [No. 10
the defeat. Let us remember also the vic-
torious campaign of this year in Mesopotamia ;
and the welcome stroke of the past week in
Greece, by which King " Tino '' has been at
last dismissed, and the Liberal forces of the
Greek nation set free.
• • • • •
Aye, we do consider — we do remember —
these things ! We feel that the goal is draw-
ing slowly but steadily nearer, that ultimate
victory is certain, and with victory, the dawn
of a better day for Europe. But who, least
of all a woman, can part from the tragic
spectacle of this war without bitterness of
spirit ?
" Who will give us hack our children ? "
W^ickedness and wrong will find their
punishment, and the dark Hours now pass-
ing, in the torch-race of time, will hand the
light on to Hours of healing and of peace.
But the dead return not. It is they whose
appeahng voices seem to be in the air to-day,
as we think of America.
Among the Celts of ancient Brittany there
was a behef which still sur\dves in the tradi-
tions of the Breton peasants and in the name
of part of the Breton coast. Every All Souls'
No. 10] A CELTIC LEGEND 245
Night, says a story at least as old as the sixth
century, the souls of the dead gather on the
cliffs of Brittany, above that bay which is still
called the " Bai des Trepasses,'" waiting for
their departure across the ocean to a far region
of the west, where the gods sit for judgment,
and the good find peace. On that night, the
fishermen hear at midnight mysterious knock-
ings at their doors. They go down to the
water's edge, and behold, there are boats
unknown to them, with no visible passengers.
But the fishermen take the oars, and though
they see nothing, they feel the presence of
the souls crowding into the boats, and they
row, on and on, into the west, past the farthest
point of any land they know. Suddenly,
they feel the boats Hghtened of all that weight
of spirits, and the souls are gone — streaming
out with solemn cries and longing into the
wide inimitable ocean of the west, in search
of some invisible shore.
So now the call of those hundreds of thou-
sands who have given their young lives^ —
so beloved, so rich in promise ! — for their
country and the freedom of men, is in your
ears and ours. The dead are witnesses of
the compact between you and us. For that
246 EUROPE AND AMERICA [No. 10
cause to which they brought their ungrudged
sacrifice has now laid its resistless claim on
you. Together, the free peoples of Europe
and America have now to carry it to victory
— victory, just, necessary, and final.
Mary A. Ward.
Printed by Eatell, Walton Jc Viney, Ld., Loruion arui Ayletbury, England.
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