December 19, 1914. 
EAND AND WATEB 
THE WAR BY LAND. 
By HILAIRE BELLOC. 
NOTE.— Thti Article hat Wen •■bmlttcd to tht Prtti BireiD, which doei not object to the pnbllcktlon a* ceniored tnd takei a* 
reiponiibility for the correctneii of the (tatemcDti. 
la aceordaaco with the reqnlrementi of the Preii Bareao, the potltloni of troopi oa Plant lllnitratiac thie Article mnit only bt 
retarded ai approiimate, and no definite itrenfth at any point It indicated. 
to 20 30 40 SO 
£nalish Miles 
/ 
T 
SERVIA. 
HE chief feature of this week's news is 
the unexpected and very decisive suc- 
cess the Servians have obtained upon the 
eastern front. 
It is probable that the magnitude of 
this affair, especially in its political effects, will 
increase upon us as the war proceeds. In any 
case, it is as welcome as it is conspicuous, and as 
conspicuous as it is surprising to all that Western 
opinion had hitherto prepared itself for on this 
side. 
There must, therefore, be devoted in the notes 
of this week some considerable space to the exami- 
nation of that victory, and I propose to show what 
place it holds in the general scheme, and why it 
may justly be regarded as being of such consider- 
able moment. 
In order to estimate the general value of the 
affair in Servia we must recapitulate the nature 
of the whole campaign, East and West, during 
this its second phase. 
The war upon the Continent is a single action. 
All its parts are co-ordinated: co-ordinated 
as much upon the side of the Enemy as upon the 
side of the Allies. It is one battle. 
It began in its first phase as the blow struck 
by Germany with overwhelming numbers in the 
West, while Austria was thought sufficient to hold 
up Russia and Servia in the East. 
The Germanic Powers had there the Initia- 
tive, as it is called in military history. That is : 
they willed the form of the action ; we had to com- 
ply to that form. 
This first phase passed. Germany did not 
make good. 
Then came the second phase, and the present 
plan of the European battle. 
The present plan of that battle is dictated by 
the Allies : for the Initiative has been (since Sep- 
tember in the West, since October in the East) re- 
covered by the Allies. This plan consists in the 
Allies forcing the Enemy to fight upon two fronts 
in a certain special fashion: upon the western 
front against a containment, upon the eastern front 
against a defensive-offensive. Therein you have 
the general plan of the campaign in its present 
phase. 
The Germanic bodies — those of the German 
Empire and of Austria-Hungary — are nearly 
blockaded. Half the sea to their north is closed. 
Not, indeed, at their coast, but between these 
islands and the Arctic : all to their south, that is, 
the Adriatic and the Dardanelles, and the ^gean 
