The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1915-06-22
While Germany Became More United
and Determined Those of Great
Britain Maintained Indifference.
MUCH TROUBLE AMONG LEADERS
Army Scandal Adds to Difficulties
Coalition Ministry Formed for
Period of War-Asquith Hero.
By ED l.. KEEN.

London, June 10.-(By mail to
New York )-Swapping horses in the
middle of a stream is usually consid-
cred rather ticklish business; but
there's no reason, in certain circum-
stances, why one shouldn't chuck the
horse and take to a boat-especially
if the horse is overloaded and the
current has carried him off his feet
This is just the predicament in
which John Bull found himself nine
months after the war started-Only
/. more so. The horse he had been rid
ing since August 4, had not only be-
come just about tuckered out, but he
had gone lame and had begun to
balk. Also, the stream which at first
appeared comparatively easy to nego-
tiate had transformed itself into a
raging torrent, and the further shore
kept receding.
So John very wisely decided to
chuck the old single-party cabinet
nag and get aboard the coalition
boat. But he didn't arrive at this
decision Voluntarily The crew fair
~ had to drag him off the horse and
into the boat. And he would prob
ably still be clinging to old Dobbin's
back if Premier Asquith hadn't push
ed him while the others pulled.
Was No Surprise.
The recent cabinet crisis came as
as surprise to those who have had
the opportunity of observing from
the near inside Great Britian's con-
duct OF the war in the past few
months-and especially the past few
weeks. While the German people
had steadily become more united and
determined, with the successful pro-
secution of the war the one thing
uppermost in the mind of every man,
woman, and child in the Fatherland,
nothing apparently could jar the peo-
pie of England out Of their attitude of
indifference and apathy. Enlistments
fell Off, labor troubles increased, and
though day by day saw the Germans
more strongly entrenched than ever
and offering fiercer resistance, "busi-
ness as usual" and pleasure as
usual continued to be the watchword
Of the vast majority of the British
nation
But these things were obvious 1t
was not known to the public that the
most serious sort of discussions had
sprung up among the men whom the
country had entrusted with the task
of saving the empire-and let it go
at that
Row In Admiralty.
First came the row in the admiral
ty, between the first lord, Winston
Churchill, and the first sea lord, Ad-
miral Fisher, Churchill, the civilian
head of the navy-to whom the en-
pire owes an everlasting debt of
gratitude for mobilizing the fleet be-
fore the declaration of war and thus
saving Britain the control of the
seas embarked the country upon
the disastrous Dardanelles adventure,
over the protests Of Fisher, and with
out the knowledge of the cabinet gen
orally until after the enterprise had
gotten too far.along to be abandoned.
Churchill didn't figure for a minute
that the Dardanelles could be forced
by ships alone, as some folks have
charged, but he did figure on Greece
coming in with her army assisting
on the land This time he guessed
wrong
The Venezelos cabinet fell at the
critical time and Greece kept out.
The naval attack failed, and large
3 expeditionary land force had to be
: sent by the Allies. Churchill con-
tinued to exercise his control over
matters of purely naval strategy, un-
til Fisher couldn't stand it any
longer. He handed Premier Asquith
his resignation-but with a string
tied to it. If Asquith would fire
Churchill, Fisher would stay.
Then War Scandal.
Just about this time the scandal
in the army, which had been brewing
for several weeks, boiled over. The
British public came as near to be-
ing shocked as it ever does, when it
learned that a serious quarrel had
arisen between Field Marshal Sir
John French and his chief, Lord
Kitchner, over the question of mu-
nitions.
French had been bombarding the
war Office almost ever since the war
started for an adequate supply OF
high explosive shells. In nearly
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