LAND AND WATEE 
October 17, 1914 
Tliat official commmikfue tells us that the 
Eussiaa victories before Suwalki and Augustowo are 
" inventions" ; that no attempt was made to besiege 
the fortress of Osowiecs; that the Germans never 
intemled anjhow to occupy the pi'ovince of Suwalki ; 
and that the Eussians do not tell the truth because 
. they did not in their eaalier oflieial communiques 
describe the defeat of Tannenberg-. 
It is weE to pay paiiicular attention to this 
German nieaaage, beeaiisa it is the first of all the 
(lei-man official raessages to adopt this tone of false- 
hood, exaggeration, and complaint. The plain facts 
about the campaign between the East Prussian 
{voatier and the liiver Niemen I told last week. 
They are known to all students of th'is war throughout 
Um-ope by this time, and they are simple and decisive. 
Briefly, four or five German army corps advanced 
aeross the German frontier upon a front of anything 
between eighty and one hundred miles. An attempt 
was made to cross the Niemen at Drusskiniki, while at 
the same time a siege train was brought \vp to bombard 
tlie forts of Osowiees. The German attempt to cross 
the Niemen was beaten back, the mass of the Gennan 
^^maB" 
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\_ .---'7. . ,. _ ,. ir ' - ''i '■^■'''£""* 
2* M«R*. often 5urTcund<d Cy Karvh. 
■T=KThc Suwalki CiuK«fty ihreugh thi Minh. 
force retu-ed ujjon Mariampol-Suwalki-Augustowo. In 
doing this the pressure upon Osowiees was relieved. 
and incidentally some of the big German howitzers 
were abandoned. The Eussians coming through the 
Eorests of Augustowo occupied that town, and, along 
the railway to the south, they advanced from Osowiees 
right over the Prussian frontier. The Prussians in 
their retreat left in Eussian hands about 10,000 
prisoners and about 40 guns. Nearly all their forces 
arc now back over the Prussian frontier, while Eussian 
forces are occupying Lyck and Margrabowa, where the 
German Emperor has an establishment. Further, it 
is a matter of history that the German forces while 
they occupied the Government of Suwalki exercised 
administrative authoi'ity and treated it as their owm. 
The whole thing is nothing very enormous. It 
is not upon the scale of the fighting in France or the 
fighting upon the Vistula in southern Poland. But 
to say that it does not represent a Eussian victory is 
nonsense. To say that no attempt was made to take 
Osowiees is even w'orse nonsense. A commander who 
should have tried to cross the Niemen without dealing 
with Osowiees would have been even' more incom- 
petent than Napoleon's own brother in the same field 
of war a hundred years ago — and that is saj-ing a 
good deal. While as for the Eussians not mentioning 
in their oflficial communiques in any detail the defeat 
of Tannenberg, the simple reply is that in none of 
the official communiques of this war does the defeated 
party give details or the earliest information. Both 
the Austrian and the German official communiques 
left us in complete ignorance of the overwhelming 
Eussian victory at Lemberg. 
I repeat, the point is important because we shall 
p?rhaps have need in the near future to understand 
the psychology of official German news under circum- 
stances advei-se to Germany. 
Here we must leave the eastern field, and with 
it this week's examination of the war. The event in 
that eastern field is stiU undecided. Until it is 
decided the very critical moment through which the 
war is again passing — its thu-d crisis — cannot be 
further anafysed. 
WAR PUBLICATIONS. 
Tins current issue ol the Academy is one of exceptional interest, 
containing as it does a translation of matter by that great theoriser, 
Bernhardj, ■which has not been previously published in English. 
Bcnihardi has more or less deservedly com© in for very adverse criticism 
of late, but as an exponent of the Pjussian theory as to the method of 
waging war he stands alone. Kietzsche and the re'st pointed the way of 
blood ajid iron, outlined the ideals of the Germanic races, but it remained 
for Bemhardi to detail' the means by which these ideals were to be 
translated into practical teims. It may be remembered that the 
Aeadevnj secured the British rights of Admiral Mahan's article on sea- 
fov,-er a few weeks ago; the present securing of fresh ISornhardi matter 
13 yet another instanc* of the enterprise characbeiising the present 
niauagemcnt of our contemporary. 
,,A, ^^^P'^ °f ^"7 c'e^cr dra-n-ings is comprispcl in the recenUv 
published booklet, KvUur and the German Blunderbuss, with verses 
by H. Robertson Murray, and Charles Grave as the artist. The 
dream of the superman, as interpreted in Germany, is pictured with 
ruthless irony, aid there is in the last two pages of Ihe booklet a very 
good forecast of German awakening. 
The list of works on the period ani personality of Napoleon is 
probably one of the loncest lists in literature. A recent addition is 
i\upohon at Work, traji.«i7ated from the Frer.ch of Colonel Vach.'- and 
coniprismg a minute study of Napoleon's methods in hia various 'cam- 
paigns, more especially the campaign of 1806. The author, one of the 
foremost French strategists and tacticians of the present dav, sets 
^^IZa f "ij* ''""^ ^^ .''"^"' e.xamination of the Napoleonic 
JTni^i , f^'^fl''' "^'^ ^^"^ °^ "•" German st^ff in 1370, it is 
possible to formulate rules of war for use at the present dav Events 
JTot mX'ri!n' "■TP'^S" ,'"'^« Proved that the advance of scienoe has 
Varhr'; V^.^;. • "^ u'* •'='""= P-L^P^ip'-e^ of ^^rfare, and Colonel 
Th» K. V J^- '? ™"'^'? '"'"■« ^^""''''^ ">=>" >t appears at first si^ht 
i, serin,'^^ r^"'"^^' •f^"'-'' i?™^"? ""^ '"^'^ noteworthy contributions 
^maTof lHt7."l-n" ""*' ""^"^^' ""d "^ «'« =anie time it contains 
grJ^' meilJ^'Srworl'"™'*"" ''"""""'"^ °"' °^ '^« ^•■-'^■' 
•nV^T-'v"^? * double numter this week containing a supplement 
6ntaLd Punch aad tl» Prussian Bully." Some twa dozeaSons 
are reproduced, ^mongst them being some fine e,tamples of the work 
of Sir John Tenniel, John Leech, and Linlev Sambouine, as well as 
the well-known present-day Punch cartoonists" In the opening cartoon 
which 13 to-day of special interest in view of recent events " Kin<^ 
Punch presenteth Prussia with the Order of ' St. Gibbet' ' " for 
tearing up the " scrap of paper " in which Prussia pledged herself to 
respect the integrity of Denmark. 
I.N this time that is surely the forging of a new age in the 
hjstory of humanity, such a book as J. Comvns Carr's Cuastinn 
UokemM 13 matter for congratulation to the author and to Messrs 
Macmillan and Co., the publishers, Tor the writer tells intimately 
and well of the great ones of tlio Victorian age; ho writes of the 
true Lohemia, of Burnc-Jones, Eossetti, Forde Madox Browne, and 
aU the pre-Eaphaehtes, while other of his pages concern such names as 
those of Du Manner, Dickens, and Meredith. Yet again he talks of 
Sex in Iragedy," "the English School of Painting," Henrv Irving 
and other tlieraes pertiining to the time before mediocrity and a peace 
tnat was apparently permanent had cramped the arts. It is a book of 
great names and great subjects, and, as for its construction, it may 
be said that there is dignity as well as inttre.st for the reader-ths 
boott 13 literature, m tlie best sense of the word. 
I.v another part of the paper we draw attention to the necessity for 
thoroughly reliable waterproof garments and ac-cessories in the "ideal 
service kit. It is worthy of note, in this connection, that Messrs 
Anderson, Anderson, and Anderson are makers of tlie sealed regulation 
paUern waU-rproof, and that the name of the firm is a gnarant<^ of th« 
In tlie event of readers experiencing difficulty or delay in 
obtaining copies of Lan-d and Water from their newsagents' the 
proprietors will bo glad to be advise<l of same. Copies o.i'n be 
.mmex^,.Ttcly obtained on application to the offices of the County 
Gentlemaii Pubhshmg Ck>mpany, Ltd., Central House, Kings- 
way, W.C. (see subscription form on page 16'). 
12* 
