January 9, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER 
have been able to intern a certain number of German 
civilians who remained in Russia. But when the 
official German communique goes on to say that 
"The total number of German prisoners is not 13 
per cent, of the Russian claim " it is playing the 
fool. That would mean that the total number of 
German prisoners in Russian hands was only 
17,000 ! 
But (1) the Germans lost heavily in wounded 
and retreated precipitately before the first Russian 
invasion of East Prussia. (2) When, after their 
triumph at Tannenberg the Germans invaded in their 
turn, they were beaten back from the Niemen with 
heavy loss and left heaps of wounded, particularly 
upon the causeway of Suwalki. All that was 
before the end of the summer. (3) In October 
they brought up 200,000 men against Warsaw 
alone ; were beaten, and retreated at the rate of 
10 miles a day, suffering a series of heavy actions 
as they fell back. (4) At the same time they fell 
back from the middle Vistula with another 200,000, 
fighting the whole time and necessarily losing 
heavily in abandoned wounded. In eveiy such 
retirement after heavy action great numbers of 
wounded men fall into the enemy's hands. (5) Con- 
siderable bodies of them have passed the Bzura 
between December 10th and 25 th and have been 
thrust back across that stream again leaving their 
wounded. (6) In the prolonged action a month ago, 
from Ilowo to Lodz, the whole district for 30 miles 
behind the mouth of the trap in which they were 
so nearly caught (that is, behind Glovno and 
Strykov) was strewn with the wounded of the 
wliole Army Corps and with innumerable small 
isolated bodies which surrendered. It is ridiculous 
to suppose that in a series of fluctuating actions 
of this kind the various retirements have not 
abandoned at least 50,000 wounded men ; double 
that number is far niore probable, and there must 
be many unwounded prisoners as well. 
An estimate of 17,000 is one of those extra- 
ordinary statements which, like the 15,000 British 
drowned in the Yser, the fortified naval base of 
Scarborough, and the denial of the siege guns in 
front of Osowiec, leave every critic bewildered. 
Something must be intended, some effect must 
be expected, but what it is no one living out of the 
German atmosphere can understand. And, I 
repeat, these monstrosities are the more remarkable, 
from the fact that they are embedded in a mass of 
perfectly cold and reliable summaries. So much for 
prisoners ; they are losing a little more rapidly than 
we are. 
We have already seen what the proportion of 
casualties is in the much more serious category of 
killed and wounded. We know that of the German 
forces alone not quite four men have been hit to the 
French one, although the German forces have never 
been double the French. We know this, not from 
induction, but from oflicial statistics published ujion 
both sides. We can confidently say that the recent 
fighting in Poland, with its continued and unsuccess- 
ful assaults in close formation, has been just as 
murderous as the fighting in Flanders. What the 
total German casualties to date may be we do not 
know, but we shall know them soon, because the 
German authorities are still careful to publish those 
statistics. 
What is perhaps more important for us is the 
German margin, and it can only be repeated here 
what has been said so often in these columns and 
what mere arithmetic should prove true, that this 
margin is certainly not more than 2^ million men. 
K:om 7 or at the most 1\ take 5, and 2 or the most 
2 J remains. It is much more likely to be under 
two million than over. It can be enormously swelled 
by using boys, slightly swelled by using old men ; 
but the use of either of these categories of material 
is worse than useless to an armed force, and only 
accelerates its failure. 
Mr. Belloc's next lecture at Queen's Hall on the War will 
be on Wednesday, January 27th. 
THE WAR BY WATER. 
By FRED T. JANE. 
HOTE.— ThU ArtlcU htt bees labmittti to th« Prtii Boreaa, which d«ei Dot tbjtet U th« psbllcktloa ai c«aiortd| and takti a* 
rciponitbilitr for tht correctneii •( th* itatementi. 
THE MEDITERRANEAN. 
AS usual, there is little to report. True, the 
Austrian battleship Yirihui Unitis is reported 
to haro been submarined in the engine-room, and 
th© report, though unofficial, has been more or 
less confirmed, and is probably quite correct. 
Since, however, tho Austrian Fleet is 
steadily pursuing a policy of remaining in har- 
bour, the disablement of a Dreadnought more or less cannot 
materially affect results. 
On the other hand, there are decided indications of a 
remarkably smart piece of work on the part of the French 
submarine concerned, if, as reported, she was attacked in 
Pola Uarbour. 
The Viribus Unitis is the first Dreadnought to be sub- 
marined, also the first ship to survive submarine attack. 
Ilere, at any rate, is a vindication of the Dreadnought policy; 
even though nearness to a dock may have contributed to the 
battleship's survival. 
The safety of a Dreadnought against submarine attack 
lies in her bulk — she is too big for a sudden inrush of water 
to have any immediate effect. Also, of course, she ia con- 
structed, with a view to surviving underwater attack, far 
more thoroughly than were tho sliips of an earlier ei a, when 
the t.M-pcdo was a much less dangerous weapon than it now is. 
Ouo has necessarily to write on imperfect information. 
but, sino© all Dreadnoughts have some form of armoured 
underwater protection, it would look as though the protec- 
tion hitherto deemed sufficient has proved insufficient in prac- 
tice, even against the comparatively mild torpedoes used by 
the French. 
Here, incidentally, it may not bo irrelevant to refer once 
more to the circumstance that the German torpedoes appear 
to carry a far more powerful and violent warhead than any 
used by the Allies. Most or all of our ships which have been 
submarined went down swiftly to the tune of a terrific explo- 
sion : those of the enemy bagged by us have gone down in a 
U" 
