The Washington times., 1917-03-31
Joy-Riding At the Front
With G. Bernard Shan
Being the Second Installment of the Playwright s
Experience With Warmly More
Soldiers Aren't Killed
By GEORGE BERNARD SHAW.

! All gentlemen of the armchair viii
agree with me IL I say that questions
as to the origin and spiritual justifica-
tion of the war are matters of opinion,
to which no two men can be expected
to give the same reply. and that ques-
tions of military technique are ques
tions of ascertained fact to which
there can be only one answer. But 1
shall say nothing of he sort, because,
as an old politician and amateur Of
science, / know better. -
At the front, IL you ask excessively
complex. perplexing. and finally .unan-
swerable questions as to the psychol-
ogy and ethics OF the war, from It's
far back termination to its still'high-
Iy speculative upshot, you viii hnd
fifty men giving you the same answer,
especially II they all read the same
newspaper. But.if you ask the tech
nicaI experts a question on point
OF simple fact concerning their weap-
ons or any other part Of their tech
nical material, you get answers OF
startling discrepancy. When the an
swer to a question is a figure, one au-
thority says 100 and another 10000.
Every playwright is familiar with
this phenomenon. He has to consult
experts on technical points when his
play touches on technical matters
(often military, and sometimes medi-
CALI, and every expert gives him a
different answer, and, when he pleads
the previous answer, declares that the
other expert is an ignoramus. Finally
the playwright is driven to conclvde
that science is a matter of the taste
and fancy of the scientist, while the
conduct of husband when he dis
covers his innocent wife concealed in
the bedroom of another gentleman Is
as immutable as the orbits of the
spheres are supposed to be-probably
enormously.
Therefore. my remarks on the tech
knique of war are founded. not on tbs
authority Of the experts whom I con-
suited at the front. but on my own
civilian observation and common sense,
which must be taken for what they are
worth.
A Boosted Precision That
The Big Guns Don't Have.
First. then. IL the big guns had the
precision to which they pretend. or even
anything approaching 1t, the war would
be over in two days. The armies could
cut on each others communications. and
consequently each others supplies Of
food. at a trifiing cost
On the Semme front the Germans.
having recently occupied the British
positions. knew as much about them as
we did. Our aeroplanes provided US
with photographs Of the German posi-
dons; and the stereoscopic projection
and Interpretation OF these photographs
have reached a pitch at which they are
now practically completely Ineligible.
The British taxpayer reads of how the
big guns can hit an invisible mark at
the o,her side Of a range of mountains.
and Of how the airman with his wire
less telegraph, can from his perch in
the empyrean send to the gunner the
correction for his gun and ensure the
destruction Of everything within the
range Of his bird's-eye vision. And the
British taxpayer. knowing that shells
cost anything up to 1000 pounds apiece.
and that even a small shell will dispose
of twelve men and wreck a railwaylline.
or dig up roadway so as to make II
impassabe for at least two hours. is led
to calculate that five million shells
would wipe out the entire German ma
ton. and that twelve shells per day per
road would cut on the food and am
munition of the enemy and bring him
to his knees in forty-eight hours.
When nothing OF the kind happens
and he is asked to find money enough
to cover his most extravagant esti-
mate OF the cost OF bringing the war
to a sudden and decisive end ten times
4. L.
complain that something must be
wrong; that the armies are not really
trying: that the kings and profiteers
are intriguing to make war perpet-
ual: that the generals are dug-outs
who should be superseded, and that
a more resolute prosecution of the
war should be made apparent by the
infliction OF some new and eXtraordi.
nary inconvenience ON himself and
his neighbors Especially his neigh
bors) and a sensational annihilation
of the Hun.
Shaking the Eternal Principle
Tint Every Bullet Has It's Billet.
Now, /, as an amateur and civil
ian. must not venture to say that the
instruments of war are not instru-
ments of precision, but I may and do
say that the things which would hap
pen IL they were instruments of pre-
cision do not happen. in spite of the
fact that the desire of the soldier
that they should happen Is beyond
all question. II they did, l shoulE
not. be alive to tell the tale.
To work out on paper the correc-
ton for aiming a big gun takes a
chartered accountant five minutes,
and would take me half an hour But
when the correction is made and the
gun fired a dozen conditions of at
mospheric pressure and refrcction
and heavens knows what not evade
all correction and shake even the
eternal principle that every bullet
has its billet. You have to fire 5000
shells on the OFF chance OF one reach
ing the mark, and the consequence is
that unless you are very flush of am
munition you do not fire at all.
/ stood with astonishment behind
and before British batteries shelling
the Germans with reckless prodigal-
Ity. We were within easy range of
the German guns: and l waited for
the reply. There was no reply: Brer
Boche evidently considered that a
shell saved is a shell gained. AS the
besieged Roman destroyed the hope
OF the beleaguerer by throwing loaves
to him, we parade our resources by
showering shells on the Germans g