August 29, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
however, a very great risk that what with secret bases and 
making the most of " within the meaning of the Act " in 
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 German flag ((( la Goehen), but 
we must be prepared to expect losses in the interim. Every 
weak neutrjd ailords a potential German base, and the 
difference 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 prcioared for 
temporai-y losses in the Atlantic. 
Reports of actions there should be accepted with caution. 
The German naval cruisers about are very fast, and nothing 
short of the direst necessity would induce tliem to fight. This 
avoidance of action is not Goehen-, but correct naval strategy. 
It will be well if we all remember it. There are many good 
men who command German cruisers. They will not Goehen 
till forced to it. 
Atlantic reports are meagre, and unoflicial at that. But 
in so far as they indicate anything, they do indicate that the 
captain of the Goehen is not fit to black the boots of the 
German captains in the Atlantic. " Honour to whom honour 
is due " — even though he be an enemy. Our immediate job 
is to scupper the efficient enemy afloat on the high seas. After 
that, it will be quite time enough to talk about the German 
ships 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 bo. Sooner or later wo shall get them. 
Just at the present moment it probably sounds silly to 
suggest that the fate of the world depends on that " sporting 
instinct " which for untold years the Nonconformist conscience 
has told us leads straight to damnation and hell. 
I cannot add the proofs. I can assert that I am not .a 
"sporting prophet," but that is all. I have never followed 
"sport" suificiently well to say more; but so far as I can 
calculate the Germans have nautically very much backed the 
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. 
Ajs placed here and self-censored, it probably sounds a 
trifle incoherent. 
A month hence I may add some explanation. To-day, I 
dafe not;. I can merely go in for the tiresome reiteration 
that-— so far as the Navy is coucerned^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 go into details (God grant that they never 
come!); but so far as these lines concern oi'dinary British 
people, I want them to be prepared for learning one day that 
a dozen or so of our Dreadnoughts have been sunk. 
The thing to do in such case is to remember that there is 
a good supply of other British Dreadnoughts to take the place 
of any who go under. 
The German 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" ■panic. It seeks to create that 
panic. The Germans will continue to lie in harbour till tha 
dark days of winter come along. Then . 
Well, none of us are quite certain about that " then," or 
that " Der Tag " (query Dor Nicht). Personally, I am not 
of opinion that German sailors who have been left lying for 
mouths in port saying " Der Tag " to each other are any niovcj 
likely to prove up to the mark than did Villeneuve'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 here- 
after, the captain of the Goehen, when he fuukcd things, 
sacrificed every German hope on the sea. 
Till then, wo believed a good deal of their bluff. Now 
not a man in the Fleet believes it. 
We have got the moral scoop, and the most important 
duty of the Fleet at the present time is tc hold it. People can 
calculate as they will about " tons of pi'ojectilcs per minute," 
but things of this sort have no real v>ar meaning. Hence : 
(1) The Goehen 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 come — the German captains 
will put in the best they can ; but, as I prophesied last week, 
the cowardice of the Goehen 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 Ostend 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 an-ival 
of a " forlorn hope," consisting of from 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 cf 
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 Aberystwith 
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 very distant 
and cautious blockade of tlie Russian coast, and that the 
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 Pnissia, situated between 
the Meuse and the Rhine in the Rhine province, forty-four miles 
west south-west from Cologne, on the line of railway fiom 
Cclojne to Liege. Although situated in German territorj', 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 nearly 1.50,000. Its thermal baths are widely 
celebrated, and it is one of the great customs stations of Western 
Germany. Two treaties of peace have been signed here — the 
first in iC68, the second in 1748. 
Alsace-Lorraine. — A German impenal territory, 
embracing the former French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, 
and styled in German Eisass-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 west by the French frontier, as defined on the conclu- 
sion of peace in 1871. The total population of the territory 
• is upwards of two millions, and its chief towns are Strasbourg 
(capital of the territory), Metz, Mulhausen, 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 natural 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 line 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 the Moselle 
to the Saar, and being devoted in great measure to coal, iron 
and salt mining. The line of German fortifications stretches 
from Altkirch in the south to Thionville in the north, and i.^ 
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* 
