December 26, 1914. 
LAND AND WATEB 
were on a small tactical scale, and as truly there, 
as in battles of a hundred years ago, everything 
will depend upon the moment in which it is thought 
wise to use the reserve, and everything will be lost 
if for any reasons it were used too early. 
It is not without interest, in spite of the de- 
tailed character of this trench fighting, to remark 
in a few sketches the scale upon which it is taking 
place. 
On the preceding page, for instance, is 
the ground of the recent fighting near Nieu- 
port. For many weeks the Allied line cor- 
responded roughly with the line of crosses 
on this sketch, that is, it followed the 
eastern bank of the Yser, included the town of 
Nieuport, and thence southward followed the em- 
bankment of the railway which unites Nieuport 
with Ypres, going in front of Ramscapelle, and so 
to Dixmude. Then, in day after day of minute 
work, it advanced from trench to trench across the 
sand between the canal and the sea until it got 
past Lombartzyde, the whole thing a matter of not 
much more than a mile, and then a few hundred 
yards further along the road towards Westende. 
But by this time it had doubled the flank of the 
flooded area which lies between the railway em- 
bankment and the Yser, and this advance on the 
north over the sand made it pl>ssible to extend a 
new line west of the river, with the hamlet of St. 
Georges and its ruined bridge behind that line. 
That is a very good example of the way in 
which the advance from trench to trench is pro- 
ceeding, and of how in a series of minute move- 
ments pressure and strain are applied to this huge 
line running from the Vosges to the sea. 
The recent work round La Bassee is another 
example of the same thing in a different form, but 
on much the same scale. 
The country house called the Chateau of Ver- 
melles, about three miles south-west of La Bassee, 
was captured, and there was. given in these notes 
a description of how this point gave control over 
the railway, and ultimately threatened the high 
road whereby the German occupation of La Bassee 
is supplied. When the Chateau of Vermelles was 
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captured the line of the French trenches in this 
neighbourhood, which had been roughly A-B-C, 
became roughly A-B-D-E. Then further days 
were spent in making good the irregularity east 
of A-B and north of the canal, and this task was 
accomplished, according to Sunday's communique, 
at the end of last week. The hamlet, Givenchy, 
and the first German trenches there were taken, 
so that the line has now straightened out to some- 
thing like F-D-E. 
Immediately to the north of this neighbour- 
hood you have a third example of the minute dis- 
tance over which work of this kind is done in the 
region of Richebourg L'Avou^ and Neuve Chapelle. 
Neuve Chapelle is a scattered group of workmen's 
houses in this industrial district, lying round or 
near the high road, which leads to La Bassee 
southwards, and along which the light railway or 
tramway to La Bassee runs. But a mile away^ 
^,'' Neuve 
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•31 
eastward is Richebourg L'Avoue, a similar group 
of workmen's houses upon a quadrilateral of side 
roads. The landscape and appearance of these 
mining villages is not unlike what you may see in 
the outskirts of the great towns in Lancashire. 
So close is the work that the loss of an Eng- 
lish position near Neuve Chapelle is distinguished 
from the counterbalancing success of the Indian 
troops in the immediate neighbourhood at Riche- 
bourg, although the whole distance separating the 
extremes of these groups of houses is not more 
than a mile. 
Upon the rest of the front there is even less to 
record. We have rumours in the paper about the 
recapture of Noyon, and the occupation of Rouler^, 
but stories of this kind are quite negligible. The 
whole work is being patiently done upon this very 
small model, and we shall know Avell enough when 
a general advance begins without having any need 
to confuse ourselves by turning our hopes or expec- 
tations into realities. 
In the paucity, then, of further news from the 
front, I will, as I said at the beginning of these 
notes, conclude the comments for this week with 
some examination, so far as evidence is available, 
of the moral of the enemy. 
XL— THE MORAL OF THE ENEMY. 
The word moral * used as a technical expres- 
sion in military history is, like so many words in, 
•For some reason I have never understood tie word lb often epelt 
in English tvitli an " e "—" Jjwwoie..'' 
6».. 
