lAND AND WATEE 
October 24, 1014 
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TOUL 
- FreJuJt Front 
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Conzmimiqim 
^f=f^= Occupied 
by French since last 
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t/te Vbsges 
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BELFORT 
MOLHAUSEN 
Gap ofBelfort 
Betwreen. Swiss 
mocmtains and 
the Vosges 
or Alsatian slope (A the Vosges is held up to a point 
abreast of Colmar. 
The forces hitherto engaged on this extreme 
right of the great line of positions through France 
have been (comparatively) so small during the last 
few weeks that the strategic value of an advanccv 
or retirement in this district is not great. But the 
news does at least mean this — that if a big turning 
movement is attempted on tlds right wing of the 
French at any time — as by the release of troops 
from the East after some German success upon the 
Vistula — that turning movement will not imme- 
diately approach, or without warning, the gap of 
Belfort. It means that the attack, should it come, 
is more likely to come through Lorraine and upon 
that " open door " of which I have spoken so 
often in these notes upon the Meuse at St. Miliiel. 
But it is no longer certain that this open door 
is as open as it was three weeks ago. St. Mihiel, 
indeed, is stiU occupied, but such slight change 
as there has been in the situation has been to 
the advantage of the French. They way now hold 
Camp des Eomains. They are back over the 
Meuse, quite near St. Mihiel. The news is very 
scanty, but a little startling. It speaks of the 
destruction of a battery of heavy German guns and of a 
recrossing of the river — of action close to the St.Mihiel 
point. But of a cutting off of the Grerman advanced 
post patiently w^iiting there, it says nothing. Had 
the French occupied the whole of the Eupt du Mad, 
had the advances northward from Toul and south- 
ward from Verdun met, the German door into France 
at St. Mihiel would have been shut agam. It has 
not been shut; but the corridor leading to it has 
been maintained naiTOw, and has, perhaps, been made 
a little narrower. We must wait for more news. 
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