January 30, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER 
zer fire (which the guns of the fort with their flat 
trajectory do not dominate, and which with its 
long range and therefore large circumference of 
action the guns of the fort cannot easily search 
out), let the permanent fortification be abandoned 
and a series of trenches traced upon a perimeter 
larger than and exterior to the perimeter of the 
old forts, and let the mobility of heavy guns be 
organised as well as may be — for it is always a 
difficult matter — by the laying of light rails within 
such works. Let the emplacement of them be 
chosen in positions naturally concealed upon the 
edge of wooded heights and whatnot, and then the 
defence loses nearly all the disadvantages it had 
through the known position of restricted fortified 
areas. You have established a quasi-mobile ring 
of defensive fire and replaced the old immovable 
ring. The fire of those who desire to invest a 
fortress so organised has to search as best it may 
for the unknown gun-positions of those whom it 
would besiege, and having found them is never cer- 
tain that precisely the same position will be held 
upon the morrow. The only condition necessary 
to the success of such a plan is the condition of 
numbers. You must have more guns and a larger 
number of trained gunners, and they have, of 
course, to do a great deal more work than under 
the system of narrowly restricted permanent forti- 
fications. 
I believe it will be found when the history of 
the war is written that Przemysl has been holding 
out under these conditions, and that our Russian 
Allies have been kept at a distance from the old 
permanent works precisely as the Germans in the 
regions north and east of Verdun are kept at a 
distance from the old permanent works of that 
fortress. 
THE EASTERN FIELD. 
IN the eastern field of war there are three re- 
maining points of interest, the action in the 
Caucasus having come to an end apparently 
with the escape of the remnants of the 10th 
Turkish Army Corps and the safe retirement 
of the 11th. The Battle of Sarikamish now three 
weeks past has had its decisive effect, and has 
killed the Turkish offensive against Caucasia, 
while the long-reported concentration of troops 
for an advance against Egypt has not jet begun 
to take effect. 
The three points of interest then are: — 
First: The reported move against Servia; 
second, the actions on the frontier of Bukovina, 
near and upon the crest of the central Carpa- 
thians, where the old Northern Roumanian fron- 
tier marched with that of Austria-Hungary ; and, 
third, the hitherto curiously rapid advance in 
Northern Poland between the Vistula and the 
frontiers of East Prussia. 
I name the three movements in the order of 
their apparent importance. 
As to the first : We have as yet no grounds for 
rii&Ji TO ILLUSTBA'J-B TUB REPORTED UOVB AQAINffC SCRVU. 
