LAND AND WATER 
November 14, 1914 
(2) Admitting that the British officer does not, 
as the Avhole world knows he does not, sui-render with 
facility, and, 
(3) Giving the British standard as the highest to 
be accepted (and it is surely a very high one), we may 
proceed to estimate the true prisoners of war, that is, 
the soldiers wounded and imwounded now in German 
hands from the Western field. 
A multiple by which we find fi-om the number of 
officers the total number of prisoners is, in the case of 
the British, 38. For the sake of round numbers, and 
in order not to make our conclusion more cheerful 
than we can help, let us say for the French not 38 but 
40, and see what we get. There are, of French officers 
wounded and unwounded in German hands, 3,138. 
Multiply that by 40 and you get 125,520 French 
prisoners in Germany, wounded and unwounded. If 
you think that figm'e too low, add a margin to save 
all possible contingencies, and call it 150,000. It 
certainly is 7ioi 150,000, but we will call it that. 
Contrast with that figiu-e about 100,000 Gennan 
prisoners captured in the Western field, none of whom 
are in hospital (for the hospital figures ai'e not 
included by the French or the English), and you will 
perceive that the balance of prisoners upon the two 
sides is something very different from that which the 
first German figures might lead one to suppose and 
were intended to lead one to suppose. 
Remember, fm-ther, that the taking of prisoners 
from the Allies in the Western field was particularly 
a feature of the earlier part of the war when Belgium 
was broken, and when the French suffered their 
heavy defeat in front of Metz; when Maubeuge 
with from 25,000 to 40,000 troops, mainly territonals, 
was taken, and when the British contingent and the 
French Fifth Army suffered the terrible retreat from 
Mons and the Sambre. Remember that since the 
retreat of Von Kluck, though the invader has still 
been in superior numbers, his counter-offensive jjer- 
petually engaged, has as perpetually been repulsed — 
and you will come to the conclusion that the supposed 
balance against us very nearly cancels out. 
Of the numbers of Russian prisoners and of the 
con-esponding German and German- Austrian prisonei-s 
in Russian hands I say nothing, because the elements 
on which to form a judgment are lacking. We know 
that the Russians suffered heavily at Tannenberg. 
We know that since the date of that battle the 
advantage has steadily been with our Allies. But 
they have given us no statistics of their captures, 
save in the Austrian field of war, nor have they told 
us the number of the wounded picked up in the course 
of a general advance, not even the numbers wounded 
and unwounded which have fallen into their hands 
since their great success before Warsaw of now three 
weeks ago. But if we may judge on the analogy 
of the Western field, if we remember that civilians from 
Russian-Poland will have been seized and sent into 
Germany and counted just as they have been comman- 
deered and counted from Belgium and Northern France, 
we may perhaps come to the same conclusion about tlie 
figures in the Eastern field of war as we have with 
regard to the figures in the Western field of war. 
And we may justly conclude that so far, in matters 
of mere numbers of armed and whole prisoners to be 
deducted from either force, the balance strikes fairly 
even. The least advance into German ten'itory will 
make it strike heavily, and increasingly heavily, against 
the enemy. 
THE WAR BY WATER. 
By FRED T. JANE. 
KOTE. — THIS ABTICLK HAS BEES BUBMITTKD TO THS PRESS BUEEAU, WHICH DOES NOT OBJECT TO THE PUBLICATION AS CENSOBED 
AXD TAKES NO ESSPONSIBILITT FOE THE COKEECT.VESS OP THE STATEMENTS. 
T 
THE HIGH SEAS GENERALLY. 
"^OWARDS tlie end of last week a German Squadron 
from the China Station — consisting of the 
Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Leipzig, and Nurnberg — • 
arrived oS the coast of Chile and was reported from 
Valparaiso. 
I mentioned last week that the taking of the oSensive by 
the Einden in sinking the Jemtchug and Mousgmeton indicated 
that our strategy of intercepting their supplies and " stopping 
earths" was apparently having effect. The circumstance that 
the Scharnhorst group saw fit to keep together suggests the same 
thing again. For corsair work four ships together are no more 
oifettive than one ; and anything in the nature of battle — except 
as a last extremity — is madness, because very little damage ma}-- 
render the corsair useless for her own particular work, even though 
the battle in which she engages ends in her success. 
Therefore, we are reasonably entitled to assume that our 
pressure was such that the Scharnhorst group was compelled to 
abandon its original function. 
Ihe rest is mystery pure and simple. The German Admiral 
Spee reported that he had met and engaged off Coronel on Sundar, 
Xovember 1st, Admiral Cradock, that he had sunk the Monmouth, 
set the Good Hope on fire, while the Glasgow and Otranto (aimed 
liner) managed to escape. All that he actually claimed as sunk 
was the Monmouth, and that his own injuries were slight. 
The British Admiralty first of all issued a statement to the 
effect that it v.-as unable to accept the German report as accurate, 
because tke Canopus, which had been sent to reinforce Admiral 
Cradock, was not mentioned ; also that only three German ships 
came into Valparaiso after the action. 
So far, so good. But then the British Admiralty issued a 
further report to the effect that it had now received " trust- 
worthy information " that the Good Hoj)e (flagship) had been 
sunk : plus a very clear intimation that the Monmouth also had 
gone under. Both accounts agreed that tlieGlasgoiv was liltle 
damaged, and it was definitely stated by our authorities that 
neither the Otranto nor Canopus was engaged. Also for the 
Nurnberg the Dresden was substituted. Furthermore, there 
were reports of a warship ashore. This was looked for by a 
Chilean vessel, which found nothing. Also the Cliilians failed to 
find any wreckage or signs of any battle other than that the three 
Germans which put into Valparaiso appeared to have been ia 
action. 
The next stage of the mystery is that telegrams were widelv 
reported in Portsmouth to have been received from the Good 
Hope — all of them to the effect that she was " unhurt." 
_ Beyond that absolute silence so far as official reports from 
either side arc concerned. We have, however, fairly full non- 
official details collected by American correspondents from the 
crews of the German ships which put into Valparaiso. 
The substance of these various narratives pieced together 
is — as I read it — somewhat as follows : — 
The Monmouth, Glasgow, and Otranto were met with off tho 
Chilian coast by the German squadron, in a gale. They wero 
presumably waiting for the Good Hope; as about then she arrived, 
and succeeded in joining up with them at the cost of the Germans 
securing the inshore positiou — themselves more or less invisible 
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