LAND AND WATER 
November 28, 191f. 
The Germans had come about 50 miles across It is very important in connection with all 
their frontier from Thorn. They had driven in this to remember that if the Russians can hold the 
the weaker Russian forces opposed to them, and Germans along the line of the Bzura, they not only 
had thus achieved what they themselves describe 
as " the victory of Kutno." It remained to be 
seen whether they would be held up or not by the 
defensive line the Russians had chosen : and as the 
event seems, at the moment of writing this (Tues- 
day evening, November 24th), it looks very much 
as though the Russians had succeeded in holding 
up the Germans upon this line of marsh, had saved 
the great town of Lodz, and had prevented a 
further advance upon Warsaw. It looks, in other 
words, as though the Russians had successfully 
brought in the factor of time in their favour, and 
protect Lodz and Warsaw — which have little more 
than a political significance — but they also occupy 
the mass of the German forces. These have now 
penetrated far from their good railway system into 
the heart of Poland. They cannot swing back 
again to the south to defend Silesia, save with 
great delay : and at the gates of Silesia the great 
Russian force in the south is free to attack the 
moment it feels itself relieved from any anxiety 
about the north and about the situation between 
Lodz and Lowicz. 
That, then, is the sitaiation in Poland at the 
as though, while the marshes of the Upper Bzura moment I write — the evening of Tuesday, Novcm- 
.were detaining the German advance, Russian rein- '— "''^'- -- ^ -- • i^ -^ i ^ .i . rv. 
forcements had come up from the east — notfromtlie 
sotith, and therefore not vjeakening the south — 
sufficient to prevent any further success upon the 
part of the invaders. 
We have the right to base such a conjecture 
ber 24th — so far as we can judge it by the official 
reports, which do not carry us, of course, beyond 
last Sunday. 
The German advance between the Vistula and 
the Warta was successfully sudden, made in very 
great force, pushed the weaker Rxissian forces 
upon two significant sentences in the official com- there before it quite 50 miles, permitted the Ger- 
mimiques of either party. The Russian official mans to register the whole movement as a success, 
communique, while telling us vaguely that the and even to call it the Victory of Kutno. But 
news is good, gives us the particular news (1) that once more the Germans would seem to have failed 
the Grermans have attempted (and presumably in their strategical object (it is the third time they 
failed) to " force the causeway leading to the town have done so!) which was the arresting of the 
of Piontek," and (2) that they have in part fallen 
back on a line of villages lying to the north of the 
marshes. Now, it should be noted that the only 
large causeway across the marshes is that same 
causeway which leads to Piontek. The bad 
pressure m the south against Silesia. And 
the reason they have not succeeded in this 
object would seem to have been that the 
Russians, by a skilful use of the Bzura marshes, 
have found time, in spite of the ruin of the 
ground stretches due west along the Middle and Polish railways, to bring up reinforcements from 
behind Warsaw and to check the invasion. So long 
as it is checked it is not very material whether it is 
driven back and pursued or no. So long as it is 
checked the great mass in the south is free to 
threaten the industrial corner of Silesia, which is 
essential to modern Germany, and the occupation 
"the 
Upper Bzura from Lowicz for a matter of 60 miles 
Jind more, as I have said; and in all this stretch 
(which forms a sort of moat in front of the 
Russian position) the only artificial bridge is 
this in front of Piontek. If, therefore, the in- 
vaders have failed to force the causeway and to 
establish a bridge-head beyond it, and if tlie Rus- of which would turn, as we saw last week, 
sian official communique is right in saying that eastern defences of the German Empire, 
they now occupy a line of villages beyond the It is not worth while making a rough sketch of 
marsh, it looks as though the trick had been done, the position in Eastern Prussia. It may easily be 
and as though the German invasion had been held understood from what has already been said. Hin- 
up until a sufficient reinforcement could reach the denburg did not concentrate his 400,000 men 
Russians along this northern front. For although between the Vistula and the Warta without in 
the railways between Warsaw and Lowicz have some degree weakening East Prussia, and there 
been as thoroughly destroyed during the German has been a corresponding though slow advance of 
retreat as the reports tell us, yet there are strong the Russians in that region. We shall have in that 
depots at Warsaw itself, and Warsaw is not four 
^ays good marching from the defensive line. 
We must, however, remember a modification 
in all this, which is that the western end of the 
deadlock very much what we shall have with regard 
to the deadlock in the West, that is, in France. 
If the Russians in Poland are sufficiently success- 
ful really to threaten the frontiers of the German 
marshes, say, between A and B— all that lies be- Empire, it will be an imperative necessity for the 
yond the position of the town called Lencysca— is rulers of that Empire to recall the mass of their 
much less formidable than the lower, eastern, part troops to the defensive lines of the garrisons along 
between Lencysca and Lowicz. This eastern part the Oder ; and when they do this they will have to 
the Germans have apparently negotiated in some abandon or weaken all the " frills " that do not 
places, and it looks as though some part of their regard the safety of the "heart." They will have 
forces were already in the situation C D. But that to fall back from Eastern Prussia precisely as they 
18 of no advantage to them if the masses of their will have to fall back from Belgium, 
forces are still at E, E, E, E on the wrong side of But while we axe talking in this strain let us 
•the main belt of the marsh, and if they have failedto remember that the converse is also true. If the 
force their way over by means of the causeway into 
Piontek. It is no use getting behind a flank unless 
your centre can advance and hold the enemy : and 
indeed, the Russian advices give one the impres- 
iBion that, up to last Sunday, at anj rate, all the 
country to the north-west of Lodz and upon the 
Upper Bzura was being pressed through by the 
^Russians. •' 
Q* 
campaign in Poland goes against the Russians 
after all, then not only will the deadlock in the 
West be maintained, but it may be turned into a' 
strong German counter-offensive by the bringing 
over thither of reinforcements from the East : anS^ 
not only will the Eastern Prussia deadlock be 
maintained, but German reinforcements sent thero 
also might threaten the line of the Niemen, 
