September 26, 1914 
LAND AND WATEE 
THE WAR BY LAND. 
By HILAIRE BELLOC. 
THE WAR IN THE WEST. 
THE whole meaning of the Western M'ar at 
the present moment is this : 
That the Germans have retreated up 
to, and are defending, an admirable defen- 
sive line about half-way between Paris and the 
frontier ; that they have held this line, with varying 
fortunes, for twelve days ; that this state of affah-s 
cannot be indefinitely continued ; and, finally, that the 
chances of its breaking down are, at the moment I 
write this (Wednesday) evening, against the encm}'. 
Either {A) they will find themselves strong enough to 
(i) at the best for themselves to break the French 
line at its centre, Rheims ; (2) at least to press back 
the Allied line, which has for these ten days been 
attempting to dislodge them ; or (B) they will yield 
to the increasing pressure upon their western flank 
and will begin a retirement, which wiU be first under- 
taken from the plateau Craonne-Noyon, and will later 
extend to the whole line. 
Of these two alternatives (B) is the more likely. 
That is the whole gist of the war in the Western 
field. 
Our business, therefore, if we wish to understand 
wliat is going on, is first to summarise again the three 
great movements which led the Germans to their 
present position ; next to grasp the nature and exact 
situation of the defensive 80-mile line upon which 
the Germans have taken their stand; and, lastly, 
through a detailed examination of this line by sections, 
to sum up their varying fortunes along it. 
When we have these elements in hand we shall 
understand the gi'eat battle which has occupied the 
Allied troops since the 13th of this month ; we shall 
be able to consider its tendency, and, perhaps, to 
guess at its end. 
The summary of the operations which led up to 
the present position is as folloAvs : 
The Germans, bringing in through Belgium a 
little more than double the number of troops which 
the Fi-ench commanders had thought them able to 
bring by this route, met and forced back the Allied 
forces, not half their own, which had been drawn up 
to meet them along the River Sambre. The strengtb 
of a defensive attitude would have prevented what 
followed had Namur, on the right of the French 
defensive line, stood. But as Namur fell in the first 
day's shock (Sunday, August 23i-d), the whole line 
along the Sambre (including the British contingent, 
which stretched up past Mons) was compelled on that 
night and the following Monday to an exceedingly 
rajjid and very hard pressed retirement. 
This retirement, accompanied by very heavy 
losses upon the part of the Allies, was pursued by the 
overwhelming German numbers with the utmost 
rapidity. The whole advance upon the one side and 
