November 21, 1914. 
LAND AND WATER 
THE WAR BY LAND. 
By HILAIRE BELLOC. 
WHAT "THE TIMES" SAYS :— 
" Instead of dwelling once more upon the inestimable value of all that the smaller nations have done and are 
doing, we prefer to turn aside in order to emphasise an extremely important point expressed by Mr. Hilairc BcUoc ia 
the latest of his illuminating expositions of the War, which appear week by week in "Land and Water" 
Mr. Belloc points out that a successful invasion of Germany would have vital results long before Berlin is reached. 
A great and simple fact he insists upon is that Germany is intensely vulnerable upon her very frontiers 
The principal business of the Allies, Mr. Belloc rightly says, is to defeat the German armies in the field; but If they 
can strike at the manufacturing provinces they will be dealing a vital blow at Germany's capacity for continued 
resistance. We think this view is so sound and so important that it must take a prominent place in any speculations 
about the future course of the war."— "The Times" Leader, Friday, November 13, 1914. 
NOTE.— Tbli Article hai been inbmitted to the Presi Boreio, which doei not object to the pnblicatlon ai centered end takei no 
reiponstbillty for the correctncti of the ttatcments. 
la accordance with the reqilrcmects of the Preti Bnrean, the potitloni of troopi on Plant lllnttratin; tbti Article mntt only be 
regarded at approilmate, and no definite itrecgth at any point It Indicated. 
I. 
THE EASTERN THEATRE OF WAR— 
THE BATTLE FOR SILESIA. 
THERE is developing as I -write and there 
has probably already begun the main 
phase of a second great action in 
Western Poland, which action, though 
the great mass of the forces engaged are 
not those upon the Silesian frontier, is in effect (as 
I shall later show) a battle for the possession of 
Silesia. 
Upon the issue of that battle how much will 
depend I will also later describe; but for the 
moment our first task, in order to understand why 
the Germans are thus turning and standing 
against the Russians in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of their frontier, is to comprehend the full 
strategic meaning of Silesia in the Eastern theatre 
of war. 
I showed last week in the following sketch 
map, which I here repeat, how the industrial dis- 
tricts of modern Germany, all save the Saxon, lie 
Main Industrial Regions 
^ .^'w Frontier of German Empire 
A A Western German Battle Line 
BB Eastern 
on the Eastern and Western extremes of that 
Empire and are only just covered by the existing 
battle lines. Silesia stands, of course, for the 
right hand or Eastern one of these districts; we 
liave not hitherto considered it in detail, and I 
shall do so now before turning to the chances of 
the battle. 
THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE 
OF SILESIA. 
Why is Silesia (by which we here mean that 
much greater part of old Silesia, which was seized 
in violation of Treaty by Prussia at the beginning 
of that career which this present war is undertaken 
to terminate) the all-important thing it is to Ger- 
many in this campaign ? , 
Silesia is, if it is invaded before any other part 
of Germany east of longitude 19°E, the key to the 
whole campaign for four reasons; two of them 
indirectly strategical and concerning moral and 
economic rather than purely military factors ; two 
of them directly strategical. 
These four reasons may be tabulated as fol- 
lows : — 
(1) Silesia contains accumulated wealth, a 
large population, masses of that urban type of 
opinion upon which modern industrialised Ger- 
many reposes. 
(2) Silesia contains works and manufactories 
largely necessary to the economic support and 
existence of modern industrial Germany. 
(3) An occupation of Silesia turns the line 
of the Oder and of the barrier fortresses of Ger- 
many upon the east (compelling, of course, inci- 
dentally, the ultimate evacuation of East Prussia 
by the German forces). 
(4) An occupation of Silesia puts the Russian 
Army upon the fork of the two ways (a) into and 
forcing pressure upon the German Empire ; (b) 
into and forcing pressure upon Austria proper: 
in both cases threatening the two separate capitals 
with their two divergent approaches. 
I.— THE POPULATION. 
Silesia counts for over five million of the popu- 
lation of Prussia. It is true that of this number 
nearly a quarter are Poles to whom the very name 
of Prussia is detestable. But the Polish popula- 
tion is largely concentrated in the Border district. 
The industrial and urban tone of the whole pro- 
vince is German. When we speak of Silesia, then, 
though we are not speaking of a very large propor- 
tion of the population of Prussia (it holds not much 
more than an eighth of that population) yet such 
is the concentration in industrial districts and 
great towns that it counts for far more than that 
eighth when weighted with its full civic import- 
ance; that it is the largest of the Prussian pro- 
vinces is nothing to our purpose, but that this grcati 
mass of manufacturing folk, peculiarly vulnerable 
to invasion, peculiarly liable to the terror inspired 
by invasion, lies here right upon the frontier, is of 
