Evening journal., 1915-06-22
ENGLISH SWAP HORSES
IN MIDDLE OF stream
Old Single Party Cabinet
Worn Out, Coalition
Is Substituted
CHANGE BRINGS
SOME REFORMS
BY ED. l. KEEN

LONDON. June l0.-(By Mail 10
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 especially
if the horse Is overloaded and the cur
rent has carried him on 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 APP
peared comparatively easy TO
negotiate 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 fairly had to
drag him off the horse and into the
boat And he would probably still be
clinging TO old Dobbin's back II Pre-
mier Asquith had pushed him while
The others pulled.
The recent cabinet crisis came as
no surprise to those who have had the
opportunity Of observing from the
near-inside Great Britain's conduct
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 prosecution of the
war the one thing uppermost in the
mind of every man, woman and child
in the Fatherland. nothing apparently
could Jar the people OF England out
OF their attitude of Indifference and
apathy. Enlisiments fell off, labor
troubles increased, and though day by
day saw the Germans more strongly
entrenched than ever and offering
hercer resistance business as usual"
and pleasure as usual" continued 10
be the watehword of the vast majority
OF the British nation.
But these things were obvious. It
was not known to the public that the
most serious sort of dissensions had
sprung up among the men whom the
country had entrusted with the task
Of saving the Empire-and let it go
at that
First came the row in the Ad-
miralty, between the First Lord,
Winston Churchill. and the First Sea
Lord. Admiral Fisher. Churchill, the
civilian head of the navy--to whom
the Empire owes an everlasting debt
of gratitude for mohilizing the fleet
before the declaration Of war and
thus saving to Britain the control of
the seas embarked the country upon
the disastrous Dardanelles adventure,
nj the protests of Fisher. and with
Gnu the knowledge of the Cabinet gem
m hilly until after the enterprise had
,ted ten too far along to be abandoned
ir lurchill didn't figure for a moment
lFat the Dardanelles could be forced
1Ay ships alone. as some folks have
lcharged, but he did figure on Greece
coming i'm and with her army assist
ing on land. This time he guessed
wrong The Venezelos cabinet fell at
the critical time and Greece kept out
The naval attack failed, and a large
expeditionary land force had TO be
sent by the Allies. Churchill con-
tinued to exercise his control over
matters of purely naval strategy. un-
I'M Fisher couldn't stand Il any longer
He handed Premier AsQuith his resig-
nation-but with string tied to t.
II Asquith would fire Churchill, Fish
sr would stay.
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 being
shocked as IL ever does, when Il
learned that a serious quarrel had
arisen between Field Marshal Sir
John French and his chief, Lord
Kitchener. over the question of muni-
lions
French had been bomhardine the
war Office almost ever since the war
started for an adequate supply of
high explosive shells. In nearly
every despatch since Neuve Chapelle
he had been asking. begging. implor-
ing and even demanding an increased
percentage of this kind Of ammunition.
He had plenty Of shrapnel but shrap-
nel-which was a very effective weap-
on in the BOer War-was about as
usefsl against the strongly concreted
trenches of the Germans as water
from a sprinkling can Kitchener
kept sending Sir John shrapnel in
huge quantities. but ignored his plea
for increased percentage of high ex-
plosives, although, so his friends as
sert, there were large stores of the
latter available. One result of this
lack of high explosives at the British
front was the practical failure of the