November 28, 1014. 
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. Hilaire BcHoc in 
the latest of his illuminating expositions of the War, which appear week by week in "L.and 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 
•bout the future course of the war."—" The Times " Leader, Friday, November 13, 1914. 
NOTE,— Thli Artlcl* hit b«en iibmltted to tb« Preii Bureau, which doci not object to th« publication a« ceniored aid takei no 
reiponilbility for the correctaesi of th« itatementi, 
lo accordanc* with tbo rcqatrementi of tbt Preii Barcan, the poiitfoni of trccpi on Plant illnitratlnf thii Article moit only be 
retarded ai approximate, and no definite itrcngth at any point li indicated. 
THE FIELD OF WAR IN FLANDERS. 
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THE war in Flanders involves effort upon 
a front of about 70 miles. Beginning 
somewhere to the east of Arras, the 
front goes west of Lens ; then between 
La Bassee and Bcthune ; then between 
Laventie and Merville, and there begins to 
take its bend eastward to form what has 
been called the " Bastion of Ypres," which the 
British have now for so long so successfully held. 
It leaves Armentieres in the hands of the 
Allies, Messines in that of the Germans, Wyt- 
schaete disputed, Ilollcbcke in the hands of the 
Allies, and then goes right round Ypres in a semi- 
circle, leaving Bixschoote and its wood in the 
hands of the French, and so to Dixmude, the ruins 
of which are in the hands of the Germans. 
Now, from Dixmude to the sea you have not 
only the canalised river, the Yser (the attempted 
crossing of which by the Germans Avas the main 
matter of more than three Aveeks' fighting), but 
also widespread inundations, particularly upon the 
Avestern side of the river. It has already been 
described over and over again in these notes how 
the coast might have fallen to the enemy if one 
combined German effort had managed to breal^ the 
line between La Bassee and Bethune, and how a 
successful effort here on the part of the enemy 
before it was too late Avould have been more than 
equivalent, in its results, to any march along the 
difficult sea coast itself. 
It has further been described at length how 
this atteiv.pt to proceed along the sea coast (which 
has been called in this country the " Calais 
March ") could only be successful if it managed to 
overcome a series of very serious obstacles lying one 
behind the other in the progress westward from 
Ostend to Calais itself. Of these the Yser, with 
its marshy lands on either bank below high-water 
level, was but the first. 
We all know hov\^ the attempt to cross the 
Yser failed, and was succeeded by a second main 
effort directed against the great salient the British 
held round Ypres. The effort to break in this 
salient also has failed. The position of the Allies 
there seems now stronger than ever, and it is 
rumoured that the next and perhaps the last effort 
of the enemy will be a renewed attempt upon the 
line of the Yser to the north : between Dixmude 
and the sea. I will deal with both these points 
briefly and separately. 
I.— THE POSITION AROUND YPRES. 
The position round Ypres has, if anything, 
improved during the last Aveek. Those who have 
watched this war carefully and noticed its moral 
symptoms as well as its direct and measurable 
effects might argue from the bombardment and de- 
struction of the great mediaeval monuments of 
Ypres, especially the ToAvn Hall, that the German 
effort against this point Avas coming to an end. 
For, whether by accident or by design, the de- 
struction, or attempted destruction, of beautiful 
and venerable things seems usually to be made by 
the enemy after his effort in that neighbourhood 
has been abandoned, or when it is condemned by 
results. 
But apart from so vague and uncertain an in- 
dication we have the more solid record of places 
and dates. 
