existed in many minds-and they were freely expressed-doubts as to whether men of the right sort would be soon forthcoming, whether the energies and resources of the corps and the organisers would last long enough and whether their unfamiliar enterprise woull on the whole prevail against certain and known difficulties in its way. With God's blessings, these lifficulties disappeared. It was a brave and memorable show when the little corps, dominated by our graduates and undergraduates, received tokens of His Excellency Lord Carmichael's goodwill at the Prinsep's Ghat on the 8th of May before last and when His Excellency gave its name to the Hospital Boat Bengalee." The "Bengalee" was not destined to reach the Persian shores; but the catastrophe that overtook her did not damp the organisers' or the men's zeal. Within twenty minutes of the news of her foundering being received in Calcutta, fresh arrangements were taken in hand. 66 A land corps soon took the place of the intended River Ambulance, and it was privileged to give a thoroughly good account of itself. What must still continue to be confidential will soon belong to History, and the world will be able to judge how the corps had been striving to serve the Flag and rehabilitate the fair name of their beloved motherland.. What they have been able to achieve, as far as published accounts go, is now common property. Men who had not even rudimentary soldier training or tradition, came under severe fire " and from all accounts "did valuable work in succouring the wounded." The men worked with the greatest gallantry under heavy shell fire and rendered valuable assistance in removing the wounded. They took their full share of hardships of the actions. They who had bargained for no more than a Boat Hospital with 200 beds, did the work of a General Hospital with 1,800 and did it so well that British officers sought it and preferred it. In the words of a distinguished Officer of Government, with a high judicial training and a judicial frame of mind, the "Jeruselam lads," as they came to be called, were "just splendid." All this is not worth solemn recounting compared to the many deeds of valour and sacrifice of which the Allied Army gives proof every day. But those that I speak of are our very ownour flesh and blood; many are our graduates and undergraduates. Some are prisoners at KatalAmara. What wonder if momentary pride overtakes us? Thus have been quietly serving in Mesopotamia in the cause of the King and the Country the cream of the country's manhood. The second period of extension of their service, appreciatively accepted by the Government, was in itself a high compliment, and the new organisation was on a larger scale than before, with larger opportunities for development and display of the qualities that have yielded remarkable results so far. And this has been no unworthy a training for real baptism of fire for the Bengali youth. There is, however, no present need of their services as the Government has taken over direct management. But they and many more are always ready for more service. The war has afforded some slight justification for Indian methods and ideas in matters that had hitherto not drawn attention. The Brahman and the follower of the Brahman—the Brahman, of course, in the right sense-whose duty and taste impelled him to rise before the sun, never wanted a daylight saving bill. This adoption of Brahmanical methods is a great advance in ideas by which let us hope Europe will permanently benefit. We never needed sumptuary laws against extravagant living. Plain living and high thinking may not have been India's monopoly but it was about the rule. It is reassuring that luxuries have been tabooed from where they reigned supreme and may they be so ever. Philosopher" Punch" makes young ladies of quality vie with one another in hunting for old clothes of sufficient disreputableness in one of its recent numbers. It is distinctly bad form to be flaunting fineries when the world's manhood and womanhood are sacrificing themselves on the altar of clamant duty. If but a fraction of this new born spirit abides when the clouds roll by, gross materialism will be fairly at a discount and morality and spirituality will once again have a fair chance. There will be a thorough re-arrangement of ideas social, political, ethical, economical and physical, and neither polygamy nor polyandry, nor anything half as dreadful, will be necessary to be enforced as a condition of world reconstruction. The Lord that ever asserts Himself for the succour of the distressed and for the overthrow of evil, will once again manifest Himself for triumph and enthronement of Righteousness. TWO YEARS OF WAR. BY PROF. K. C. MACARTNEY, M.A: T the close of the second year of the War it is not easy to pass in review the changes of fortune which have taken place, or the efforts which have been put forward by both sides to meet them. Anything like a detailed account of the War is neither necessary nor possible at this time, for, as we write, the conflict is raging on all the European Fronts and in Western Asia with such fury and determination as to make it certain that a very short time will see important developments. All that we can do now is to try and indicate the phases through which the War has already gone and to sum up the general position at the moment. In order to do this, we must take the different theatres of the War and deal with them separately. It is natural to begin with the West, for both sides have most at stake on that Front, and all the "experts" are agreed that it is on the West that the War will be decided. The story of August 1914 is the story of the delaying action fought on behalf of Europe by Belgium against Germany, begun and symbolized by the defence of Liege, and ending with the fall of Namur. The month closed with the retreat from Mons, or rather from the line of which Mons was on the extreme left. In September came the Battle of the Marne, which stopped the German advance on Paris, and the beginning of the Battle of the Aisne, which opened the stage of trench warfare, which has continued ever since. In October the attempt to save as much of Belgium as possible, together with the necessity of holding back the Germans from the coast of France, led to the extension of the Allied line to the North-West. In spite of every effort, it was not possible to prevent the enemy from overrunning all except a corner of Belgium, but this was really the last success which they have been able to obtain on this Front, and it was complete before November. In that month began the long struggle on the part of the Germans to force their way through Ypres to Calais and the English Channel. With the defeat of the Germans in the first Battle of Ypres, the winter campaign really set in. Though operations on a large scale were out of the question, the trenches were so near to one another that constant local fighting of a most determined character went on. It seems probable that the Germans were less able to withstand the conditions of this kind of warfare than the Allies. It did not enter into the pre-War calculations of the German General Staff, and consequently they were not prepared to meet it. It is interesting to notice that while the Germans have shown extraordinary ingenuity in preparing for whatever eventualities they foresaw, they have been far less ready than any of the Allies to meet and overcome any sudden emergency. Looking back over 1915, we get the impression that it was a year of waiting, organizing and planning, so far as the Western Front was concerned. The Allies had successfully checked every German attempt to break through the line they had established, but they were not yet strong enough in men or munitions to break through the German lines. Once in the spring at Neuve Chapelle, the British made an effort to get through, an attempt in which the Indian Corps played a prominent part, but though some ground was gained, and some prisoners taken, the supreme authorities evidently considered that our preparations were not sufficiently complete to admit of an offensive on a large scale. Again in September of that year the Allies made a considerable move forward, the main British attack being round Loos, but here again the resources of the Allies were not able to stand the strain of a prolonged offensive so that the initial successes, which were very considerable, were not followed up. The trench warfare of the winter was brought to an end by the Germans in the February of this year by the beginning of their desperate attempt to take Verdun. For nearly five months the struggle has raged, the Germans have slowly, and at immense cost, advanced towards their objective, but they knew all the time that they were fighting against time, for one of their main reasons for pressing the attack was, that they hoped by this means to delay the allied offensive. This has now begun, and has so far gone forward most successfully, with the immediate result that the Verdun operations have become of much less importance, and if all continues to go well, the German armies before Verdun will be defeated on the Somme, as they were earlier in the War on the Marne. This is the inevitable result of the power of initiative having passed from the Germans to the Allies. That this is the meaning of the almost complete success attending the present offensive hitherto, can hardly be doubted. It does not necessarily mean, however, that the German Armies are on the point of collapse. Their power of resistance has been impaired, but it has not been broken. The higher Commands are continually warning us that progress is certain to be slow. The present plan seems to be to keep up continuous pressure over as wide a front as possible, until the German reserves of men give out, and they have to fall back to prevent a Seden. When from the Western Front we turn to Russia's campaigns in Europe and Asia, we are struck by the sensational vicissitudes of fortune which Russia has experienced as compared with her Allies. In the August and September of 1914, Russia surprised both her friends and enemies by the rapidity of her mobilization and by the success of her invasion of Galicia. In the latter month Germany was obliged to divert her attention from the West in order to save Austria by the invasion of Russian Poland. Though the Russian advance was checked, yet the advantage on the whole was with the Allies, for the attack on Russia had contributed very largely to the weakening of the German pressure against France and England. In the early months of 1915, the Russians werə again able to threaten the plains of Hungary, which forced the Germans to invade Poland in earnest. Desperate fighting in the summer resulted in a considerable German advance, mainly owing to the shortage of Russian munitions. But before the winter the Russians had been able to check and hold the Germans, and it would almost seem as though they feared the costliness of a further advance, now that the Russians have been able with the aid of England and Japan. to obtain adequate supplies of artillery and munitions. Throughout the winter of 1915, the Russian main effort was being made in the Caucasus and in Persia. In Persia, Germany had been trying to stir up trouble and had almost succeeded in persuading the advisers of the young Shah to join her, when the plot was discovered and crushed by Russia. At the beginning of January last, Russia suddenly electrified the world by the advance into Armenia and the capture of Erzerum by a few days fighting in most inclement weather. This was followed up by the advance of one Army on Trebizond, which fell in due course, and of another towards Baghdad. Quite lately, within the last few weeks, the field of Russia's main activity has again been transferred to the European Fronts. Once more Galicia is invaded, Lemberg threatened, the Carpathians are in danger, and possibly the flank of the whole Austro-German position may be turned this summer. Though this may be a too sanguine prophecy, there is on every side proof that for Russia, as for England, the war on land is entering an entirely new phase which is full of hope for a complete, if not a speedy, victory. The new advance by Russia has a double chance of success compared with the advances carried out earlier in the War, for this time she has been able to choose her own time to begin to move and to make all her preparations first. The course of events in the Balkans has followed very closely the fortunes of Russia. After maintaining themselves against Austria for a year, Serbia and Montenegro have both been over-run by the Austrians, though they can hardly be described as conquered. The Serbian Army is still intact, and has rejoined the Allied force at Salonika, and there is at least some reason to believe that the Montenegrins are giving the occupying Austrian troops plenty to think about. While Bulgaria is definitely committed against the Allies, both Roumania and Greece are nominally neutral. The recent Russian victories so near to their border have strongly influenced the Roumanian people in favour of joining the Allies, but so far their Government has preserved its neutrality. The Greek Government has caused the Allies a great deal of anxiety by its inexplicable attitude, but the strong attitude taken up by the Entente Powers, together with the salutary reminder that they are the protector of the liberties of the Greek people, seems to have brought about a more definite understanding; in any case the time is now past when the Greek Government could have done any great service to Germany by treacherously attacking the Allies. When Italy entered the War against Austria, her main object was the recovery of the Italian speaking population of the Austrian Empire. Her progress has not been as rapid as was expected by many people. The country through which the Italian Army had to fight is an exceptionally difficult one, and the Austrians were fully prepared for this campaign, so that the Italians had to begin by attacking strongly entrenched positions During this year, they had not attempted operations on a very extensive scale awaiting the general allied offensive. But in their case, this was anticipated by an Austrian advance which for a time drove them back, but they are at the present time rapidly regaining lost ground, and will presumably continue their advance to aid the general forward move of the Allies. Besides their work in Northern Italy, the Italians have been assisting the Allies in the Balkans by landing troops in Albania to protect refugees and to prevent an Austro-Bulgarian advance along the coast. Outside Europe, the War has been waged with uniform success by the Allies, except for the failure to relieve Kut. This does not mean that there have been no mistakes, but there have been remarkably few, considering our unpreparedness for the War. Colonial Wars are always the most difficult of all to carry on because of the distances involved, and the lack of local supplies or means of transport. Yet in spite of these difficulties, East Africa, the one remaining German Colony, is rapidly passing out of her hands and her flag has been swept off the Pacific, and out of Asia. It is clear that developments are to be expected in Mesopotamia, which will certainly show that the failure to relieve General Townshend's Force must not be looked upon as the close of an unsuccessful campaign, but only as a single unhappy incident in a series of events, the final result of which it will be quite unable to affect. From the capture of Tsing-Tao by the Japanese, and the occupation of South-West Africa by General Botha, the Colonial War against Germany has gone forward, and will go on on until there is nothing left from which to drive Germany. Although the chief work of the Navy was accomplished in the first year of the War, in clearing the seas of enemy ships, in keeping open communications, in assisting the Army whenever opportunity offered, as in bombarding the Belgian Coast or the Dardanelles, and in fighting the German Fleet whenever a chance occurred, yet all through the War, as long as it lasts, the work of the Fleet goes on, only noticed by the papers when a warship is sunk or the enemy gives an opening for a short trial of strength. There have been several minor engagements, between single vessels or groups of torpedo craft, but all these and all previous Naval engagements since the beginning of the War have been thrown into the background by the action off the coast of Jutland, which missed being the greatest seafight since the invention of gunpowder, because the enemy would not stay to fight it out. What the precise German losses were on this occasion does not really matter. We know that they were heavy, the Germans cannot blame us if, in view of their being forced by circumstances to acknowledge losses which in their first report they had not owned, we calculate that they lost considerably more than they acknowledged, or ever will acknowledge. But, in any case, the German Fleet drew into port in face of the English Fleet, which was left an unimpaired fighting machine, while since the battle, some two hundred interned English vessels have escaped from the Baltic, because the German Fleet could not stop them. We have yet to hear of numbers of German merchantmen finding their way safely home through the North Sea Blockade. The Second Anniversary of the War. The Indian Review War Book A COMPREHENSIVE AND AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE Officers of the Indian Civil, Military and Medical Services, |