LAND AND WATER 
November 21, 1914. 
IV.— SILESIA AS THE COMMAND OF 
THE WAYS TO EITHER ENEMY 
AND SEPARATING THEM. 
Finally, an occupation of Silesia puts the 
Russian Armies at the fork between the two, not 
only natural, but necessary ways which here 
diverge into the separate hearts of the two Allied 
Germanic Powers. 
There are some things in the elements of 
strategy, as imposed by geegraphical conditions, 
which are as simple and as necessary as the rules 
of arithmetic, and no situation in Europe — not 
even the great river highway from the Belgian 
Plain into the heart of France — offers an example 
of such compelling simplicity and necessity as do3s 
this junction of the ways into Germany and into 
Austria which Upper Silesia affords. The Car- 
BERLIN 
<» CRACOW 
'IRE 
VIENNA 
Political Frontiers 
A MOITNTAIN ORO0P OF BOHEMIAN BOBDKB. 
B MOUNTAIN GROUP OF CA&FATUIAN3. 
C MORAVIAN GAP. 
X THE FOEK OF THE Y IN UTPEK SILESIA. 
pathians immediately south of the Silesian pro- 
vince turn back to the left and sink, opening 
through the district of Moravia a great gap be- 
tween themselves and the Altvater Hills, by w^hich 
gap the modern railway and the old roads run 
directly to Brunn and to Vienna. By the very 
names on that highway history has recorded its im- 
portance ; here is Olmutz ; here is Austerlitz. The 
whole centralisation of invasion south-westward 
upon Vienna and Austria proper and of defence 
against such a movement is tied to that Moravian 
gap. As fatally tied to the valley of the Oder is 
the north-westward march upon Germany and 
Berlin. He who holds the fork of the two roads 
behind Cracow leaves his enemy in doubt upon 
which of the two movements he shall constitute his 
main plan of defence, and meanwhile co-operation 
between the Allies attempting to defend both roads 
at once is hindered by these three facts : — 
First, that the roads are increasingly diver- 
gent. 
Secondly, that there lies between them the 
mass of the mountains separating Silesia from 
Bohemia; and, thirdly, though this is of less im- 
I>ortance, that a stretch of hostile Czech popula- 
tion here separates the Northern from the Southern 
German-speaking character. That this last 
factor, now unimportant, will be of the gravest 
moment in the re-settlement of Europe none can 
doubt. It imposes itself as a necessary part of 
the plan for holding in check the danger in which 
European civilisation lies from the Prussian 
claims and methods. But during the actual pro- 
cess of the war the sympathies of a population not 
politically independent are unfortunately of little 
strategic weight. 
We may sum up and say that it is all-impor- 
tant to the Germans to keep the Russian invasion 
out of Silesia, and it is equally all-important for 
the Russians to achieve that invasion, because the 
occupation of Silesia by the invaders would mean 
the first serious moral blow inflicted upon the urban 
and industrial opinion of modern Germany; be- 
cause such an invasion would further strangle a 
province of industry essential to the economic sup- 
port of modern Germany and, under existing con- 
ditions, least affected by the war; because such 
an invasion would turn the line of frontier for- 
tresses and even the line of the Oder; and, finally, 
most important of all, because the invader holding 
Upper Silesia holds the junction of the two great 
natural ways diverging the one upon Berlin, the 
other upon Vienna, and, what is perhaps of even 
more importance than the capitals^ upon the dis- 
tricts that are politically the heart of either realm. 
Saxony as well as Brandenburg in the one case, 
Lower Austria and the march between Austria 
and Hungary in the other. 
By putting together these four points, it will 
be clearly apparent why the German effort is 
being directed at this moment above all things to 
the protection of Silesia. 
Let us turn now to some survey of how that 
effort is being made. It must necessarily be a 
brief survey, because the elements upon which we 
can base our judgment of it are still very few, and 
O 
>t US T RI A'M ^ 
SO wo 'Miles 
