Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-08-05
BY SIR PHILIP GIBBS.


nalistic life, England was not
i without troubles at home and
abroad, but nothing had happened, or
seemed likely to happen Except in
the imagination of a few anxious and
far-seeing people,, to touch more
Than the surface of her tranquility,
to undermine the foundations of her
wealth or to menace her security as
q great imperial power
1t was a very pleasant place for
pleasant people, if they had a social
status above that of causal, or
sweated. labor. The aristocracy of
wealth still went through the social
ritual of the year, in country houses
and town houses, from the London
season to Cowes, from the grouse
moors to the Riviera, agreeably
bored. and finding life, on the whole,
Il good game, unless private passion
wrecked 1t.
The great middle class, with its in
determinate boundaries. was happy.
well-to-do, with a comfortable sense
of ease and security, apart from the
ordinary anxieties, tragedies, failures.
of private and domestic life.
I called on W. T. Stead one day in
his office of the Review of Reviews,
which afterward | was to edit for
year. 1t was just before lunch time,
and Stead had an engagement with
Spender of the Westminster Gazette.
But he grabbed me by the arm in
his genial way, and said. Listen to
this for minute, and tell me what
you think of it,
anpaared that had heen
rather upset by Blatchford's articles.
He could not make up his mind
whether they were all nonsense or
had some truth at the back of them.
He decided to consult the spirit world
through Julia, his medium.
I'VE rang up old Bismarck, Won
Moltke and William IL of Prussia.
Look here l said. lis there going to
be war between Germany and Eng
landr"
The spirits of these distinguished
Germans seemed uncertain. Bis
marck saw a red mist approaching
the coast of England. Won Moltke
said the British fleet had better keep
within certain degrees of latitude
and longitude-which was kind of
him. One of the trio-I forget
which-said there would be war be-
tween Germany and England. 1t
would break out suddenly, without
warning.
''When?" asked W. T Stead.
a date was given. 1t was the
month of August The year was not
named.
T LAUGHED heartily at Stead's an
i ecdote, especially when he told me
him. He was so disturbed that he
went round to the admiralty. inter-
viewed Lord Fisher. who was
friend of his. and revealed the dread
message that the German fleet was
going to attack in August. ct was
then May, 1920
Fisher leaned back in his chair.
smiled grimly. and said, NO such
luck, my boy
In August of that year | was en-
gagged in trouble which did not seem
connected with Germany, though l
am inclined to think now that Ger
man agents were watching it very
closely-especially one German baron
who posed as a journalist and was
always reporting on industrial unrest
in Great Britain, wherever it hap
pened to break out. l had met him
at Tonypandy, in Wales, during the
miners riots down there, and I met
him again in Liverpool. which was
now in the throes of a serious strike.
1t was the nearest thing to civil
war I have seen in any English city.
] have forgotten the origin Of the
strike-I think it began with the
dockers-but it spread until the
whole of the transport service was
at a standstill, and the very scaven-
gerss left their work The Mersey
was crowded for weeks with ship
ping from all the ports of the world,
laden with merchandise. some of it
perishable, which no hands would
Spuch. No porters worked in the
railway goods yards. so that trains
could not be unloaded. There was no
flesh meat. and no milk for babes Not
a wheel turned in Liverpool 1t was
like besieged city. and presently. in
hot weather began to stink in
pestilential way, because of the refuse
and muck left rotting in the streets
and squares.
This refuse, among which dead rats
lay, was SO filthy in one of the best
squares of Liverpool outside the
hotel where l was staying, that a
number of journalists and myself,
borrowed brooms, sailed out, swept
up the rubbish heaps. and made bon
fires Of them, surrounded by a crowd
of angry men who called US "scabs"
and ''blacklegs," and threatened to
bash US, if we did not stop work.
We stuck to our job, and were re-
warded by clapping of hands from
ladies and maidservants in The neigh
boring windows. 50 that our broom
sticks seemed as heroic as the lances
of chivalry.
0NE afternoon the troops were or
" dered to fire on crowd which
made an attempt to attack an escort
of prisoners and there was a small
had an exciting narrative to dictate
over the telephone to the office of
the Daily Chronicle. But in the mid
die of it tbs subeditor, Mackenna
VINO was taking down my message,
said: "Cut it short, old man! Some
thing is happening tonight more i'm
portant than a strike in Liverpool
The German feet is out in the North
sea and the British fleet is cleared for
action"