August •20, 1914 
LAND AND W A T E 11 
however, a very great risk that what with secret bases and 
niakjjig the most of " within the meaning of the Act " iu 
International Law, many corsairs will live beyond the other- 
wise natural terms of their existence. 
The trouble will not last. The corsairs, sooner or later, 
will disappear or cease to fly the Gennan flag {I'l la Goeben), but 
we must be prepared to expect losses in the interim. Every 
weak neutral aJIords a potential German base, and the 
diilcrcnce between the old-time pirate and a German " cor- 
sair " is likely to grow finer and finer. 
Luck may save us; otherwise we must be prepared for 
temporary losses in the Atlantic. 
Eeports of actions there should be accepted with caution. 
Tho German naval cruisers about are very fast, and nothing 
short of the direst necessity would induce them to fight. This 
avoidance of action is net Goeben, but correct naval strategy. 
It wiU bo well if we all reanember it. There are many good 
men wlio command German cruisers. Tlicy will not Goeben 
till forced to it. 
Atlantic reports are meagre, and unoificial at that. But 
in so far as they indicate anything, they do indicate that tho 
captain of the Goeben is not fit to black the boots of the 
German captains in the Atlantic. " Hcucur to whom honour 
is due " — even though he be au enemy. Our immediate job 
is to scupper the efficient enemy atloat on the high seas. After 
that, it will bo quite time enough to talk about the German 
ahips hanging about in harbour. 
The Germans on the high seas are sportsmen, and should 
be treated as such. Their ultimate fate is certain as anything 
can be. Sooner or later wo shall get them. 
Just at tlic present moment it probably sounds silly to 
suggest that tlie fate of tlie world depends on that " sporting 
instinct" which for untold years tlie Nonconformist conscience 
Las told us leads straight to damnaticu and hell. 
I cannot add tho proofs. I can assert that I am not a 
" sporting prophet," but that is all. I have never followed 
■'sport" sufhciently well to say more; but so far as I can 
calculate the Germans have nautically very much backed tho 
■wrong horse. 
"When you size things up exactly, " war is sport in war 
time and contrariwise sport is war in peace time." The transi- 
tion is by no means so great as some would suppose. This is 
where we have the Germans. 
As placed hei'c and self-censored, it probably sounds a 
trifle incoherent. 
A month hence I may add some explanation. To-day, I 
dare not. I can merely go in for the tiresome reiteration 
that — so far as the Navy is concerned — the Germans have 
" backed the wrong horse." 
It sounds like bluff and " swank " to say that " Der Tag " 
is far more likely to end at the bottom of the North Sea than 
on the shores of England ! But so it is. Some of it depends 
on the land defences of Lord-knows-where being prepared. 
I cannot ^o into details (God gi'ant that they never 
come!); but so far as these lines concern ordinary British 
people, I want them to be prepared for learning one day that 
a dozen or so of our Dreadnoucrhts have been sunk. 
The thing to do iu such case is to remember that there is 
a good supply of other British Dreadnoughts to take the plaw 
of any who go under. 
The Genaan Navy long ago gave up serious reckoning as to 
its battle chances against the British Fleet. To-day it no 
longer trusts to guns or torpedoes, submarines, or to aircraft, 
but to 'common or garden" jnaiic. It seeks to create that 
panic. Tho Germans will continue to lie iu harbour till the 
dark days of winter come along. Then . 
Well, none of us are quite certain about that " then," or 
that " Bar Tag " (query Der Nicht). Personally, I am not 
of opinion that German sailors who have been left lying for 
months iu port saying " Der Tag " to each other are any moi j 
likely to prove up to the mark than did Yillcneuve's men when, 
an odd hundred years ago, they went out to meet Nelson's war- 
worn people at Trafalgar. 
As stated last -week, and as I shall state every week hcre- 
aftor, the captain of the Goeben, when he funked things, 
sacrificed every German hope on the sea. 
Till then, we believed a good deal of their bluff. Now 
not a man iu the Fleet believes it. 
We have got the moral scoop, and the most important 
duty of the Fleet at the present time is to hold it. People can 
calculate as they will about " tons of projectiles per minute," 
but things of this sort have no real war meaning. Hence: 
(1) The Goeben ran away. 
(2) The Germans not fitted with white feathers will try at 
all costs to make up her deficiency. 
The result (with any luck whatever) will be a foregone 
conclusion. 
No doubt there are fights to comc^ — the German captains 
will put in the best they can ; but, as I prophesied last week, 
the cowardice of the Goeben has settled the ultimate result of 
the war on the water. 
FINAL NOTE. 
The general situation at the time of writing remains abso- 
lutley unchanged from what was described last week, except 
that the German advance towards Osteud probably indicates 
that an attempt to land a small raiding force in this country 
is in contemplation. The Germans have apparently no 
prospect whatever of getting over any considerable body of 
men, but we may at any time look for the unexpected arrival 
of a " forlorn hope," consisting of fi'om 500 to 1,000 men, which 
■will be landed at the most unexpected point, not with the 
object of accomplishing anything vital, but for the sake of 
moral effect. 
If such an attempt be made, the probable landing (let us 
hope) is at the bottom of the North Sea; but, failing that, 
anywhere — that is to say, Seaton in Devonshire, or Abeiystwith 
in Wales, are just as likely to be objectives as those places along 
the East Coast which are awaiting a possible German invasion. 
The situation in the Baltic is apparently unchanged. It 
would seem that the Germans are keeping up a veiy distant 
and cautious blockade of the Russian coast, and that tho 
Russians are waiting unmoved until some of the Gangoot class 
are ready for sea. 
A TOPOGRAPHICAL GUIDE TO THE 
WAR ZONE. 
By E. CHARLES VIVIAN. 
Aix-la-Chapelle. — Known in German as Aachen. 
A town and watering place of Western Pru.ssia, situated between 
the Mouse and the Rhine in the Rhine province, forty-four miles 
west south-west fiom Cologne, on the line of railway from 
Cdojne to Liege. Altliough situated in German territory, Aix 
is practically the point of junction of the German, Belgian, and 
Dutch frontiers, and is a town of considerable importance, with 
a population of nearlj' 150,000. Its thei-mal baths are widely 
celebrated, and it is one of tlie great customs stations of Western 
Germany. Two treaties of peace have been signed here — the 
first in 1CG8, the second in 1748. 
Alsace-Lorraine. — A Gennan imperial territory, 
embracing the former French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, 
and styled in German Elsass-Lothringen. It extends 
from the Luxembourg border on the north to Switzerland in the 
south, and is bounded on the east by the Palatinate of Bavaria, 
and on the weat by the French frontier, as defined on tho conclu- 
sion of peace in 1871. Tho total population of the territory 
is upwards of two millions, and its chief towns arc Strasbourg 
(capital of the tcnitoiv-), Metz, Mulhauscn, Colmar, Hagenau, 
and Saargemund. The railways total upwards of 1,300 miles, 
and the territory is of great fertility, being chiefly devoted to 
agricultural pursuits. The Government is vested in a Governor- 
General, appointed by the German Emperor. The Vosges 
mountains form a natiu-al frontier defence practically from the 
Swiss boundary to the latitude of Strasbourg, on the western 
side, and the Rhine valley, in the east of the territory, forms 
another hue of great natural strength. Good roads and 
a system of canals afford means of communication, in 
addition to the railways of the territory. The Rhine valley in 
Alsace is the more fertile portion of the whole, Lorraine lying 
almost entirely on the high plateau reaching from tho Moselle 
to the Saar, and being devoted in great measure to coal, iron 
and salt mining. The hne of German fortifications stretches 
from Altkirch in the south to Thionville in the north, and ia 
connected by a strategic railway linking up all the principal 
fortified points. 
Antwerp, — Capital of the Belgian province of the same 
name, situated about fifty miles from the sea and twenty-five 
miles north of Brussels by rail, on the right bank of the River 
15» 
