LAND AND WATER 
October 17, 1914 
mnch prolonged tliat figure miglit be increased 
indefinitoly. The lUissiaa thirty or fifty increases to 
100, to 150, and, at a pinch, to 250. The French 
forty cannot increase. It was, at the beginning of 
the war, at its maximum. 
(2) As to the moral factor of claim, no one, even 
a student considering mere strategies, can neglect it. 
The Prussians claim nile, the Allies freedom. It is 
true that the Germanic Powers, and particularly the 
modern Grerman Empire, are fighting for theii- life ; but 
then so' is everybody else — except, possibly, Eussia ; 
and even Eussia would cease to be Eussia without her 
family of kindred states. But there is this indisput- 
able difference between the fight for life of the Allies 
and the fight for life of their enemy : that the enemy 
is claimmg as part of his fight for life something 
which no Eurojjean will ever accept. No Western 
European, at least, has ever accepted contentedly, or 
ever will accept without ceaseless revolt, an alien 
government. The conception that he would do so is 
the great strategic miscalculation modern Prussia 
made a generation ago. She is too stupid to learn. 
It is, in truth, a strategic miscalculation and one 
has a right to allude to it in a strategic commentary, 
for there is one great principle underlying all 
strategics, which is this : " 77/e success of a camjjargn 
can onli/ be measured i?! terms of ifs political object." 
For instance- Napoleon succeeded in 171)0-97 
because his object was to clear the Austrians out of 
the Lombard Plain. If his object had been to turn 
the men of the Lombard Plain into Mahommedaus 
the campaign w^ould have been an infinitely more 
difficult task and he would have failed. 
Here is an important concrete note upon what I 
mean. Germany by her action in Belgium has not, 
as a plain matter of fact, saved any appreciable 
number of men upon her communications. Those 
communications are not lOD miles in length. She 
thought by one miscalculation that they w^ould run 
through Belgium, as they do through Luxemburg, in 
territory free from peril. She has produced a state of 
affaire in which those few miles require a larger 
gan-ison than they would have required had she done 
no more than civilised Europeans in the past have 
done, to wit, executed those who broke the laws of 
war and spared the rest. My judgment in this will 
be disputed. I believe it to be sound. 
THE "BLOCK" OR DEADLOCK. 
There is the foundation, moral and material, upon 
which the situation now rests. Let us next turn to 
the present strategical position and what led up to it. 
The first characteristic of that strategical position 
is a " block " or deadlock upon the East as upon the 
West; which block has lasted, roughly speaking, for 
a month. 
The second characteristic of the position is that 
the block is maintained well exterior to anything vital 
in the Germanic powers. 
Upon the west it is almost entirely external to 
their boundaries ; only Upper Alsace, and a fraction of 
that, is in the hands of the French. 
Upon the east it is largely so ; only Eastern 
Galicia and a few miles of East Prussia is in the hands 
of the Eussians; all West Poland is in the hands 
of the Germans. 
To perceive how true both these propositions are, 
look at the following diagram. 
Here is the front of the positions occupied by 
the German ai-mies in the west to-day (Tuesday, 
October 13 th)— represented by a full line. Compare 
TbeCkaiuiet 
DOTTED LtNiiS EEPUESENT POSITIONS ON SKITK3IBER \".ni, 
FULL LlNIiS REPRESENT POSITIONS ON OCTOBKR lyTlI. 
it with the similar position occupied a calendar month 
ago, upon September 13th — represented by a dotted 
line — and see how slight has been the change. 
There has, it is true, been an extension northward, 
due to the successive attempts of France and Germany 
to outflank each other, but, so far as the advance of 
the one party or of the other is concei-ned, hardly any 
such advance has taken place. 
Turn to the same question in the east, and thougli 
the deadlock is not there so striking, it is remarkable 
enough. Hei-e you have the Austro-German front a 
^ 
•••..L£MB£RG' 
IV 
DOTTED LINES KEPEKSENT POSITIONS ON SEPTEMBER loTH. 
FULL LINES BEPBESINT POSITIONS ON OCTOBEB 13tH. 
month ago in dotted lines, and in a full line what 
appears to be the Austro-German front to-da}". 
As to the way in which these blocked fronts 
keep the Allies at arm's length to the east and the 
west of Germanic territory, the reader can under- 
stand it best by looking at the following rough diagram. 
In this sketch, the German-speaking area (1), in so 
far as it corresj^onds with the feeling in favour of our 
enemies, is marked wdth deep hatching. The area 
in favour of our enemies (3), but not German-speaking 
as a whole, is marked with another hatching ; the 
boundaries of territory occupied by the German and 
the Austrian Empires in arms is marked with a broad 
black line. Finally, the batching (2) represents 
4* 
