ijanuary 2, 1915, 
LAND AND WATEE 
J 
it gives no detail of day and place save to call it 
in. general " The action near Festubert." 
Now suppose one read that message alone, it 
could convey but one impression, and that not at 
all a pleasant one for our side. But when you 
read the evidence in its entirety you get something 
very different. 
You have first of all the French message of 
exactly six days before, Sunday the 20th, which 
tells us that the line near La Bassee was straight- 
ened out after the capture of the Chateau of Ver- 
melles by the capture of the German trenches at 
Givenchy, and that message added that to the 
north of this position the Indians had (gained a 
certain amount of ground and the British forces 
had lost a certain amount of ground. 
Coming on the Sunday and despatched on the 
Saturday, December 19th, these laconic French 
phrases referred to the situation upon Satur- 
day the 19th. Upon Tuesday, December 22nd, the 
Germans, referring to actions already past, tell us 
that the English had tried to retain the ground 
they had lost, but had been repelled. The Ger- 
mans, however, admit that round Richebourg 
(where the Indian troops were) the Allies re- 
covered their ground and held it — which is simply 
a belated admission of the accuracy of the earlier 
French version. 
Lastly there comes the British " Eyewitness " 
who, two days later, again gives us the official story 
as a whole and makes it comprehensible ; and now 
we know what happened. 
It was on the night between Friday and 
Saturday, the 18th and the 19th, that the British 
forces rushed the German trenches, presumably 
near Neuve Chapelle, advancing from 300 to 500 
yards. In that success a certain number of Ger- 
mans must have been killed, many more wounded 
and a certain number captured. How many we 
are not told. On the Saturday morning the Ger- 
mans counter-attacked and recaptured part, but 
not all, of the ground first taken by the British. 
During all that Saturday and all Sunday this belt 
of ground was the scene of a fluctuating struggle 
in each receding wave of which, of course, the 
enemy pick up a number of our wounded and take 
them prisoner, and note that we have a number 
of dead, as indeed they have on their side a number 
of dead. The Germans were successful in re- 
taking nearly the v/hole of the ground lost by 
them, and upon the Sunday, though suffering 
heavy losses as they advanced, they continued until 
about noon to secure their position. During all 
this, of course, they were picking up more wounded 
men and making them prisoners, and estimating 
the increasing number of dead. In the afternoon 
of Sunday the tide turned again. The furthest 
group of houses occupied by the enemy was re- 
taken, and by Monday morning the greater part 
of the ground first captured, then lost, had been 
recaptured again. An armistice, in the course of 
the fighting, allowed for the burying of the dead. 
This fluctuating of the line, ending in very 
much the original position occupied, cost both 
sides a heavy price. It meant, of course, for both 
sides many casualties. Regarded as an attempt 
of the Allies to advance it was a reverse ; regarded 
as a German attempt to cover La Bassee It was a 
success for the German. For all these villages, 
Festubert, Richebourg, Neuve Chapelle, Givenchy, 
lie east and north of La Bassee, and when all are 
captured by the Allies La Bassee will be unten- 
able. Regarded as an attempt of the Germans to 
push back the steadily advancing line which now 
seriously threatens La Bassee, particularly from 
the south, it was a failure. And in general the 
line stands very much as it stood before the stroke 
and counter-stroke were given. But no one would 
derive so inconclusive a result from the German 
Wireless. 
ON THE WORD "SIEGE." 
I would like to add a note at the end of these 
comments on the western field of war with regard 
to the metaphor " siege " applied to the present 
situation of the Austro-German forces within the 
Armies of the Allies. 
It is the penalty of using very exact termin- 
ology that the conversational connotations of one's 
terms make those terms seem paradoxical. For 
instance, if you say of an aristocratic state that 
is not a democracy and proceed to praise that state 
for its aristocratic qualities, people will call you 
paradoxical because they have some vague idea 
that a democracy is something humble but vaguely 
nice, and that an aristocracy is something haughty 
but vaguely bad. 
I see by one or two criticisms in the Press that 
Colonel Maude's admirable phrase ta describe the 
present situation of the war, " The Siege of the 
Germanics " — a phrase v/hich I was quick to bor- 
row with due acknowledgments because it seemed 
to me an excellently descriptive metaphor — has 
suffered from this penalty of exactitude. I will 
therefore recapitulate here the points which attach 
to that phrase. 
(1) The essence of a siege is the restriction of 
the besieged manoeuvre to a particular area. The 
more you compel your enemy to a particular area' 
from which he has to try and fight a way out 
through your restricting lines the more are the 
conditions these of a siege. 
(2) The word " siege " does not necessarily 
connote famine. It does not necessarily connote 
complete containment. Least of all does it connote 
uUimaie surrender and failure upon the part of 
the besieged. 
When we talk of this particular case as "a; 
siege of the Germanics " we are using a metaphor 
subject to all the limitations of metaphor ; for the 
word siege historically applies to limited areas, 
and we are here applying it to a very large one. 
With regard to this particular siege it is evi- 
dently true : — 
(1) That the blockade (which is something 
separate from a siege, though usually accompany-^ 
ing it) is imperfect. 
(2) That the besieged area can provide itself 
vv'ith food, though not with all the other essentials 
of modern war. 
(3) That the circumvallation is not complete.)^ 
(4) That quite obviously the besieged may bei 
able to cut their way out ; because the besiegers 
are still numerically inferior to them. 'i 
None the less their present condition, in whicK 
they are battering against an imperfect ring o^ 
hostile Armies (and Navies) which they fail tp', 
break, is essentially a state of siege. 
.7* 
