October 10, 101-4 
LAND AND WATER 
resvilt of its action, favoxtrable or disastrous to Aiistria 
and Gcrmauy, wiU turn tlic Urst phase of the war in 
tlie East. Moreover, if the action is really decisive, it 
will violently react npon the campaign in France. 
lief ore taking these two fields of battle in detail, 
I would insist on this last point, upon the very giave 
effect npon the war as a Avhole that the first decisive 
results in Poland must necessarily have. It is agreed 
that the " pressure " which Eussia may be able to 
bring upon Geniiany will be of capital effect upon the 
the eastern " pressure " upon Germany upon which 
the west so eagerly counts. 
Now, it is because a decision one way or the other 
appears to be imminent that the operations in Polaud 
at this moment have resumed their interest for us. 
Having said so much let me turn to the two 
battlefields in detail. 
THE ACTIONS IN THE VALLEY OF 
THE NIEMEN. 
r 
^MAB^^MPOL 
^\ ^5UWALKl 
HI ! 
► RATCHKl / \_^ 
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^ 
© ^ (? 
5 ao so 4-0 so 
. \W" SCALE OF Miles. 
'^•f cTTTrr? Meres, often Surrounded by Marsh. 
Principal Roads. 
The Suwalki Causeway throuch the Marsh. 
campaign in the AVest. The date at which this 
" pressure ' might begin was very foolishly advanced, 
and too many organs of public opinion, in tliis coimtry 
especially, wrote, at the opening of the Avar, as though 
Berlin were to be menaced in a few days. It was 
impossible, unless the rules of arithmetic were to be 
suspended, for any such "pressure" to be felt before 
the third week in Octolx?r, even supjxwing the 
maximum success conceivable on the paii of the 
Kussians, and the collapse of their opponents. As a 
matter of fact, it is already apparent that the 
" pressure " will come in any case later tlian this 
most favourable date. Fuiiher, it is equally apparent 
that the first " pressure " which our common enemies 
could Jx> put under by the Russians would be applied not 
in the heart of the German Empire, nor at its capital, 
but in Silesia, hecause Silesia is the nearest populous 
and wealthy pi-ovince exposed to a Russian advance. 
Now, a decision reached within the next few 
days or in the next Aveek or two by the Russiaus over 
the Germans m the eastern theatre of war would 
mean the beginiung <jf that " pressure " upon Silesia, 
an advance along the valley of the Oder, the turning 
of the Eastern fortresses of Prussia in Poland, notably 
Posen and Thoni, and the way opn to a niarch ujwn 
industrial Saxony and the capital itself. 
Conversely, the success of the Gennans, shoxild 
they aiTcst the Russian march through Galieia, and 
still more should they thrust back the Russians in 
that field, woxild mean the indefinite postponement of 
On tlio above skeleton map the reader will 
discover the size and to some extent the natm-e of the 
field of operations in. Northern Poland. It must first 
be observed that the artificial frontier Iwtwecn the 
Russian Emjnre and East Pnissia, which here cuts 
through Northern Poland, has long been crossed by 
the advancing German forees, and that these have 
been advancing directly \\\>o\\ the Niemen with the 
object of crossing that stream. 
Tlie Niemen is the great natural ob.stacle to any 
invasion of Russia from the west ; at least if such an 
invasion take place upon the northern part of her 
Avesteni frontier. When Napoleon was occupied in 
re-erecting Poland as a nationality, he had imposed 
upon the Russians the Niemen as a frontier between 
Russia and Poland, though, as a matter of fact, the 
Polish nation extends its territory far to the east of 
that river. It Avas across the Niemen that Napoleon 
marched his great force in June, 1S12, and one 
might almost say that the Niemen Avas to the 
fortunes of Russia in history what the Meuse is 
France. To obtain possession 
its crossing places, then, Avas 
the fortunes of 
this river and 
to 
of 
the object of the Gennan advance in this quarter. 
All the country between the East Prussuin frontier 
and the Niemen (a matter of over "jO miles even at 
the narroAvest point lx?twcen the two lines in this 
region) is a mass of Avatcr and wood and marsh. Some 
few of the lakes I have set down in the sketch map, 
but the total number appearing upon jiny detailed map 
3» 
