LAND AND WATER. 
April 10, 1915. 
He did not cajl'ire iind then hold on to the island of 
Lobau because he liked doing so, but because in no other way 
could ho create an artillery superiority sufficient to sweep 
out a space large enough for the deployment of his army. The 
process of fortifying the island occupied weeks, during tho 
w^hole of which period his enemy was receiving reinforcements 
and organising new ones, and his attention was then concen- 
trated on the one and only point from whence the enemy could 
come. 
During all these weeks rumours of the repulse suffered 
by the French at Aspern and Esslingeu were spreading 
through the country and encouraging the inhabitants to raid 
the French communications, and incidents revealing the 
intense ill-will of the people, and not to be concealed from 
the troops, could not but depress their spirits when they 
jiroved to be of daily occurrence. 
To-day the howitzers and light siege gun train accom- 
panying evory army, together with the field batteries, once 
they had established a relati\e superiority over the enemy, as 
those of the Allies have done in France, could have created 
and maintained an even more intolerable zone of destruction 
from 3,000 yards range as Napoleon's siege guns could accom« 
plish at 500; and instead of 200 guns, a modern army would 
probably dispose of nearly 2,000 in a case of similar inK 
portance. 
The nights would have been just as dark and the currenb 
just as Bwift, but the means of overcoming these difficulties 
are now so incomparably more powerful that they would noft 
present to us the same problem that Napoleon bad to solve; 
while working under cover of searchlights the degree of dark- 
ness no longer matters, for, turning their beams full on the 
enemy, you can follow up in the shadows outside them with- 
out the chance of being seen, while you can when detected 
put out of action any searchlights of the enemy. 
The whole question returns to the old one I quoted last 
week: " What man has done, man can do." And if in 1809 
the French forced the passage of the Danube with the troop* 
and materials then at their disposal, and against a strategical 
numerical superiority, they — or we — to whoever the task may 
be given, can force the Rhine witli far greater ease in view of 
the greatly better means we now control, in all of which the 
relative superiority now belongs to us. 
A DIARY OF THE WAR. 
SYNOPSIS. 
August 3RD.^Sir Edward Grey stited BrUisli policy .ind revealed 
Germany's amazing offer, in the event of our neglecting our obligations 
to France. Blobilisation of tho Army. Ultimatum to Germany. 
German and French Ambassadors left Paris and Berlin. 
August 4th. — Germany rejected England's ultimatum. English 
Government took over control of railways. War declared between 
England and Germany. 
August 5th. — Lord Kitchener appointed Secretary of State for 
War. H.M.S. Amphion struck a mine and foundered. 
August 6th. — House of Commons, in five minutes, passed a vote of 
credit for £100,000,000, and Banctioued an increase of the Army by 
500,000 men. State control of food prices. 
August 8th. — ^Lord Kitchener issued a circular asking for 100,000 
men. 
August 9th. — Tho enemy's submarine, Vlo was aunk by H.M.S. 
Birmingham. 
AuGi'ST 10th. — France declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germans 
advanced on Naniur. The new Press Bureau established by the 
Government for tho issue of official war news. 
August 11th. — England declared war against Austria. 
August 15th. — The Tsar addressed a Proclamation to the Polish 
populations of Russia, Germany, and Austria, promising to restore to 
Poland complete autonomy and guarantees for religious liSerty and 
the use of the Polish language. 
August 15th. — Japanese ultimatum to Germany demanding ths 
withdrawal of her vessels of war from the Far East. 
August 17ih. — The British Expeditionary Force safely landed in 
France. 
The Belgian Government transferred from Brussels to Antwerp. 
August ISth. — General Sir H. Sniith-Dorrien appointed to com- 
mand of an Army Corps of the British Expeditionary Force, in suc- 
cession to tho late General Gricrson. 
August 21st. — The German forces entered Brussels. 
August 23iid. — Japan declared war on Germany. 
August 24th. — Fall of Naniur. 
August 27th. — The German armed merchantman Kaiser Wilhdm 
der Gro$sf. was sunk by H.M.S. Highflyer on the West Africa Coast. 
August 28Tn. — A concerted operation was attempted against the 
Germans in tho Heligoland Bight. 
The First Light Cruiser Squadron sank the Mainz. The First 
Battle Cruiser Sqnadron sank one cruiser, Koln class, and another 
cruiser disappeared in the mist, heavily on fire, and in a sinking 
condition. 
Two German destroyers were sunk and many damaged. 
Septembeh 3nD. — The French Government moved to Bordeaux. 
September 4xh. — The Russian Army under General Ruzsky cap- 
tured Lembcrg. 
SEPTEnnEu 5th. — The formal alliance of England, France, and 
Russia was sigrvcd in London by the representatives of the three 
Governments concerned, binding each nation to conclude peace, or 
discuss terms of peace, only in conjunction with its Allies. End of 
retreat from Mons to Marne. 
Sepi£M3er 6th. — The scout-cruiser Pathfinder foundered after 
running upon a mine. 
Sei'TEMber 7th. — Fall of Maubcuge. 
September 9th. — The English Army crossed the Marne, and the 
enemy retired about twenty-five miles. 
September 13th. — On the left wing the enemy continued his retreat- 
ing movement. Tho Belgian Army pushed forward a vigorous ofiensi\ e 
to tho south of Lierre. 
September 14th. — All day the enemy stubbornly disputed tho 
passage of the Aisne by our troops, but nearly all the crossings were 
secui'«I by sunset. 
September 15th.— The Allied troops occupied Rheims. 
September 16rH.— Submarine K9, Lieuteimnt-Commandcr Rtax 
Kennedy Horton, torpedoed the German cruiser Hela six miles south 
of Heligoland. 
Septembep. 19th.— The British auxiliary cruiser Carmania, Captain 
Noel Grant, Royal Navy, sank the Cap Trafalgar off the east coast of 
South Americ.T. 
Septembep. 22nd. — H.M. ships Ahoukir, Hague, and Cretay were 
sunk by submarines in the North Sea. 
September 23rd. — Briti.?h aeroplanes of the Naval wing delivered 
an att-vck on the Zeppelin sheds at Diisseldorf. 
October 1st. — The arrival of the Indian E-xpeditionary Force t 
Marseilles. 
October 2.vd. — His Majesty's Government authorised a min»- 
laying policy in certain areas. 
October 5th. — In Russia the German Army, which was operating 
between the front of East Prussia and the Nicmen, was beaten all 
along the line and retreated, abandoning a considerable quantity of 
material. 
October 9th. — The British naval airmen carried out another suc- 
cessful raid on the Zeppelin sheds at Diisseldorf. 
October 10th.— Death of King Carol of Roumania. 
October IItii. — The Russian cruiser Pallada was sunk in the Baltio 
by a German submarine. 
October 14th. — The Belgian Government removed from Ostcnd to 
Havre. 
October 15th.— H.M.S. Yarmouth (Captain Henry L. Cochrane) 
sank the German liner Markomania off Sumatra, and eaptui'ed th« 
Greek steamer Pontoporna. 
October 16th.— H.M.S. Tlawl-e (Captain Hugh P. E. William*, 
R.N.) w;is attacked and sunk by submarines. 
October 17th. — The new light cruiser Undaunted (Captain Cecil H.. 
Fox), accompanied by the destroyers Lance (Commander W. de M. 
Egerton), Lennox (Lieut. -Commander C. R. Dane), Legion (Lieut. C. P. 
Allsop), and Jjoyal (Lient. -Commander F. Burgea Watson), sunk fou» 
German destroyers off the Dutch coast. 
October 25th. — A German submarine was rammed and sunk by 
the destroyer Badger (Commander Charles Fremantle, R.N.) oS th» 
Dutch coast. 
October 29th. — Admiral H.S.H. Prince Louis of Battenberg re- 
signed his position as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty. 
October 31st. — H.M.S. Hermes was sunk by a torpedo fired by » 
German submarine in the Straits of Dover. 
November 2^d.— The Admiralty declared the whole of the North 
Sea a military area. 
November 4th.— It was reported that the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, 
Leipzig, Dresden, and Niirnberg concentrated near Valparaiso, and 
tliat an engagement was fought on November 1st. The ilonmouth 
and tho Good Hope were sunk. The Glasgotv and the Otranlo escaped. 
November 5th. — Tho German cruiser Yorck struck tlis mine* 
blocking the entrance to Jahde Bay and sank. 
November 7™. — The fall of Tsingtau was announced. 
November lOrH. — The Bmden was driven ashore and burnt *.\ 
Keeling Cocos Island by H.M.A.S. Sydney (Captain John C. T. 
Glossop, R.N.). The KOnigsberg was imprisoned in the Rufigi Island 
by H.M.S. Chatham. 
November 11th.— H.M.S. Niger (Lieut.-Commander Arthur P, 
Muir, R.N.) was torpedoed by a submarine in the Downs, and 
foundered. 
November 14™. — Field-Marshal Lord Roberts died at ths Head- 
quarters of the British Army in France. 
NovE.\iBER 25nD. — The German submarine Ul8 was rammed by a 
British destroyer, tho Garry, off the coast of Scotland. 
November 26th. — H.M.S. Bulwarh blew up in Slieerncss Harbour. 
December 8th. — A British squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir 
Frederick Sturdee .sighted off the Falkland Islands a German squadron 
consisting of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Niirnberg, Leipzig, and 
Dresden. Threo of those five warships were sunk, including the flagj 
ship of Admiral Count von Spee. 
December 9Tn. — Valievo was retaken by the Serbians, who ener-. 
getically pursued the Austrian forces. 
December IOth. — A further telegram was received from Vice- 
Admiral Sir Freclerick Sturdee reporting that the Niirnberg was als(> 
sunk on December 8th. 
December 13th. — Submarine BU, Lieut.-Commander Norman D. 
Holbrook, R.N., entered the Dardanelles, and, in spite of the difficult 
current, dived under five rows of mines and torpedoed the Turkish 
battleship Afessvdiyeh, which was guarding the minefield. 
December 15tu. — In the morning a German cruiser force mads a 
demonstration upon the Yorkshire coast, in the course of which they 
shelled Hartlepool, Whitby, and Scarborough. Thoy were engaged 
by the patrol vessels on the spot, and a British patrolling squadroa 
endeavoured to cut them off. On being 8ight«d by British voaael* 
14» 
