6 future. This war is not going to be over for some time.' Exorbitant naval taxes? Why, my friend, take a current copy of our "Statistisches Jahrbuch" and find out how much the German nation is paying for what our enemies describe as our "luxury." About 7 marks a year per capita is the average for the last four years. That amounts to of what England demands of her subjects.' These are a few examples of their conversations and by no means the most extravagant. But they talked well, and I think they quite believed what they said. I knew how utterly useless it would be to try to argue with them. Besides, I wanted to have a look at the harbour and dockyards next morning, so I deemed discretion the better part of valour. One is not in Wilhelmshaven every day, in these times! Captain-Lieutenant Hersing, whom I mentioned above, had not reached his most dazzling height of fame, when I met him. It was in the pre-Lusitania days. Still he had already earned the Iron Cross, second and first class. With the U 21, one of the smaller submarines, he had sunk what he described as the British 'cruiser' Pathfinder. Besides he had been active for a short spell in the Irish Sea, where he sank the 'Bencruachan' and one or two other ships. The names of all his victims-I refer to the ships were neatly engraved on a silver cigarette case which he showed me, with the dates behind and a facsimile small Iron Cross in the corner. After sinking the 'Lusitania' he was the most popular naval officer in Germany. His friends declared that he received more love-letters, more proposals, love-parcels, flowers and photographs, than the most popular actor or actress ever dreamt of. Hersing told me there was but one serious risk in his job; that was the British Destroyers: "Those "beasts of prey" are on you before you can say "knife"! They patrol usually in sixes or twelves and it has become essential for us to show ourselves as little as possible on the surface. Up till now we have carried out this campaign in as much of a sporting spirit as possible, but since several of our U boats have been lost, as a result of their too lenient treatment of the enemy, that is going to be stopped. It's all very well to try to be humane, even in war-time, but not at the price of suicide. The recent destruction of the U 8 and U 12 are cases in point. Our instructions now are, that on no account must we risk the safety of our boat, to say nothing of our own necks, for the sake of saving the crews of captured ships. Was it not their own Naval Chief, Lord Fisher, who said: "Moderation in war is nonsense." Take the case of Captain Hansen (Commander of the U 16). He refrained from torpedoing a French steamer off the harbour of Cherbourg, because he noticed several women and children on board, and afterwards escaped, by the breadth of a hair, being rammed by that very vessel. Oh, we Germans are too easy, too sentimental, too tenderhearted, and our enemies take advantage of that weakness, every time.' After dinner a naval officer came in, limping on a stick. He was formally presented to me as one of the survivors of the Mainz,' which was sunk in the North Sea early in the war. His experiences had been quite interesting, so I was told. When he regained consciousness, he thought of course that he was a prisoner in England. So he racked his brain for every possible vile English curseword he could think of to throw at his attendants. His English vocabulary was said to be extensive, and he rattled the unflattering epithets off one after another. Strange to say, instead of becoming furious, his attendants all began to laugh, and they 'laughed in German' (Englishmen cannot really laugh properly, they only grin, on account of their eternal pipe!) Oh what joy, when he discovered that he was not in the enemies' hands, but at home, in the dear old Vaterland! He was so overcome that he swooned again. But his cup of happiness was mixed with many bitter tears at the thought of his ship, the poor old 'Mainz,' his 'Iron Home,' now at the bottom of the North Sea! The tears almost welled into his eyes, when he retold the story of this glorious escape. Then there was the Commander of the old torpedoboat, U 5. He too was famous. Had not his nutshell of 600 tons earned, in the Dogger bank affair, the great distinction of having drawn the fire of the largest calibre British guns, while trying to save some of the crew of the sinking 'Blücher'? Oh, it was not really as difficult as one would think, to avoid those big fellows. You see, when you saw the water spout up on your left, why you simply turned off to the right, and when you heard or Vol. 226.-No. 448. H water on your right, well you saw the shell strike the He, too, was one of the official Captain Hansen, who was also present on this occasion, had been living in England till a few days before the outbreak of the war. He related a brilliant bit of German humour. While basking in the sun, on the deck of his large new submarine, somewhere off the English coast, one of his men appeared from the conning tower, carrying a large box. He was about to chuck the thing overboard when he (the Commander) stopped him and asked what was in the box. 'Just a "Liebesgabe " (Love-gift), Herr Capitän.' 'Now what do you think was in that box, and to whom do you imagine it was addressed?' Hansen asked his audience. After everybody had given it up,' he continued slowly: 'The box contained the old bones of the previous day's meals, and it was addressed to "Herr Edward Grey, London." If universal hilarity and applause is any criterion, the joke was hugely appreciated by the Captain's colleagues. A few days previous to my visit the 'Lützow,' one of the new 28,000 ton super-dreadnoughts [sunk on May 31], had been completed and commissioned. I was told that the eight original 12-inch guns had been supplanted by ordnance of 15-inch calibre. Each projectile of these guns is five feet high and weighs over 1600 pounds. The range of these guns is supposed to be 22 miles. At point-blank range they can pierce a steel armourplate four feet thick. It is claimed that no gun in the British Navy is capable of such a feat. No wonder that my brain was in a whirl when I left the Casino! It certainly had been a strenuous evening. Nevertheless, I spoke the truth when, on taking leave of my hosts, I assured them that I had spent a most interesting, entertaining and instructive soirée. J. M. DE BEAUFORT. (To be continued.) Art. 6.-INDIA UNDER LORD HARDINGE. In general it is the last two years of a Viceregal term of office in India that give it its character and bring the measures by which it will be remembered. For the first half of his time a Viceroy will usually be occupied in making some acquaintance with the huge country, its varied populations, and their widely differing circumstances, with the mechanism of administration, and with the personality of his subordinates and colleagues. Even, therefore, if the change of Viceroys is to mean any marked change in the policy and spirit of the administration, as it did, for example, when Lord Ripon succeeded Lord Lytton, the country is not likely to feel the shock of the dislocation until much later. It is in his third year of office that the personal proclivities of a Viceroy may be expected to come into the foreground in their practical effect. By that time he will have corroborated or revised the stock of ideas that he brought with him; if he has plans, they will have been put into the hands of the Secretariat and subjected to a preliminary testing by circulation to the Local Governments; the ground will probably have been cleared by the enquiries of Committees or Commissions; and, above all, he will have established touch with the India Office and have learned how far he can count on being supported in his measures by the Imperial Government. 6 Had things pursued their normal course there is every reason to suppose that the last two years of Lord Hardinge's reign would have seen a rapid and perhaps turbid spate of political change. Two large Royal Commissions had rioted through the country, conducting their proceedings on the most popular' lines, and creating, as a result, a ferment of eager expectation throughout the educated classes. Even Conservative officials would seem to have become convinced that something must be done in the way of 'concessions' to meet the anticipations produced; and the bent of the late Viceroy towards such questions has been too plainly disclosed to allow it to be doubtful that he would have thrown his own influence into furthering the movement to the utmost. But in August 1914 came the war; and the activities of the Government of India have been turned into altogether different courses. Thus it comes about that the administrative record of Lord Hardinge's later years is comparatively speaking a blank; while the most important act of his time falls within a few months of his assumption of office. We refer, of course, to the decision to transfer the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi. Wherever the merit or demerit of that decision lies, it cannot be attributed to Lord Hardinge personally. Lord Hardinge reached India towards the end of 1910. The mind of the Government of India must have been made up early in the following summer, for the despatch which asked for the sanction of the Secretary of State not only to the exchange of capitals, but to the abandonment of the lately instituted Province of Eastern Bengal and the creation of another new Province out of Behar and Orissa, was dated Aug. 25, 1911; and it is patent that so big a scheme could not have been worked out in a night. But in August 1911 Lord Hardinge, if he had seen Delhi at all, can only have been there on a flying visit to inspect the ground-breaking for the Royal Durbar. He is, perhaps, the one high official in India who is enthusiastic on the subject of Delhi now, but it is impossible that he should have fallen in love with its unknown perfections then. The adoption of Delhi was only one part of a many-sided scheme which had several purposes; and the Government, in their despatch, frankly stated that an ideal capital would be hard to find. Some of the hopes with which the scheme was adopted have turned out better than expectation; in other respects the results are less satisfactory. In one respect the good result was complete and permanent. The agitation that had sprung up over Lord Curzon's partition of Bengal had taken the rest of India entirely by surprise. No one had hitherto supposed that the population was sentimentally attached to the idea of being included in one compartment of British administration rather than another; and to find such a rearrangement as that carried out by Lord Curzon giving rise to a great popular grievance was a revelation. In one sense it was satisfactory, and a tribute to British Government, to discover that such a territorial attachment had come to exist. It is certain that no sentiment of the kind |