July 10, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER. 
ning will exhaust a man before the race is run out. 
The first man is not such a fool as to begin a mile 
race at a hundred yards pace; the second man is 
not such a fool as to begin it at a walk. The 
"difference between the two may even be quite 
sL'ght, but the expert will at once recognise it, and 
upon which of the two is right the result of the 
race will, in the main, depend. 
When the Prussian was told that the modern 
defensive increased so enormously in strength that 
men could not be got to face it in packed forma- 
tion, he answered, with perfect justice, as the.' 
matter has turned out : " Your men may not be 
able to face it thus, but my men can." 
When he was told that, even if he could get 
his men to face it, his units and formations would 
get blown to pieces, their drive would not get 
" home," and that he would, in nearly every case, 
have been spending enormously with nothing to 
show for it at the end, he answered that this was 
precisely where he differed from his opponents in 
theory. Not only he coiild get his men to stand 
these tremendous losses, but it would be worth his 
while to make them do so, because he would reap 
a reward much more than the sacrifice involved. 
Now, the wisdom or unwisdom of Prussia in 
this regard cannot be finally summed up yet. The 
war is not yet over, and we may yet see one of 
these enormously expensive experiments of hers 
getting its object at last, breaking an enemy de- 
fensive and rolling up an enemy line. 
But after nearly a year of warfare we can at 
least say this, that with something like a dozen 
general examples of the method and innumerable 
particular local examples, it has been far more 
expensive than any results could warrant. 
There was no point in the reckless throwing 
away of men even in the first great driye of last 
August unless the Allied line had been turned or 
at least pierced. The immense slaughter of men 
between Armentieres and the sea from the last 
days of October, 1914, to the middle of November 
demanded as a fruit the piercing of the Allied 
army, or, to speak more accurately, the division 
of the Allied forces into separate bodies which 
could be defeated in detail. Similar slaughter 
upon the Bzura and the Rawka in front of War- 
saw, all during January, 1915, demanded the c<^p- 
ture of the bridges of Warsaw or they were mere 
. waste. But the bridges of Warsaw were not 
captured. 
Should the Prussian ultimately fail through 
having thus thrown away recklessly such masses 
of men, we must remember that the type of war he 
set out to wage against the French, who are his 
principal opponents, was one in which he had an 
enormous numerical superiority. We must 
remember, again, that he was in a situation which 
made rapid victory far more fruitful than a vic- 
tory delayed. We must remember that his type 
of discipline gave an instrument which he at least 
could use in this fashion, and that the possession 
of a unique instrument is a gx-eat temptation to 
the using of the sam.e. 
If he fail and obtain not even an inconclu- 
sive peace, but final exhaustion, he will principally 
have to thank these, the fifth and sixth of the 
theories of war with which he undertook to destroy 
the more ancient civilisations of Europe. 
I mean that the future historian of the war 
will undoubtedly ascribe that result in the main 
to an exhaustion of men, and this exhaustion of 
men must again in the main be ascribed to the 
theory I have here been considering. 
H. BELLOC. 
{To he continued.) 
THE WAR BY WATER. 
By A H. POLLEN. 
SOTE. — TbU article has been submitted to the Press Bureau, which does not object to the publication as censored, and takes no 
responsibility for the correctness of tbe statements. 
NAVAL FIGHTS IN THE BALTIC. 
ON Monday and Friday last week naval 
actions took place in the Baltic, north 
of Libau. On Monday the Germans 
attempted a landing at Windau, and 
covered the attempt with a bombardment by 
a squadron of coast defence battleships. These 
are of no particular military value; their 
broadsides consist of three 9.4 guns only; they 
carry about 8 inches of armour, which is no pro- 
tection against heavy shell, and they are too slow 
to run awav successfully. They were accompanied 
by four lignt cruisers and some destroyers. The 
landing parties apparently came in trawlers. 
The Russian land artillery and a squadron of 
destroyers had apparently no difficulty in repuls- 
ing the landing party and driving the hostile 
ships away. There seems to have been no battle- 
ship or armoured cruiser squadron available to 
pursue and engage the retreating ships. 
But between Monday and Friday it looks as if 
a powerful cruiser squadron comprising the Eng- 
lish-built Rurik of 15,000 tons and the three 
Bayatis (of a little more than half this displace- 
ment) — all four built immediately after the 
Japanese War — and the Oleg, an unarmoured 
cruiser, built a couple of years before the war, 
went on a reconnoitring cruise to the Southern 
Baltic — no doubt looking for the force that had 
bombarded Windiu on Monday. At six a.m. on 
Friday morning, when returning from this cruise, 
they were off the coast of Gothland, when they en- 
countered a German light cruiser of the Augsburg 
class, a mmeAsiYQV, Albatross, and some destroyers. 
The morning was foggy, and a scrambling kind 
of fight ensued. This lasted until nearly nine 
o'clock, when the Albatross was driven ashore 
near the Ostergarn lighthouse, and the remaining 
cruiser and destroyers fled northwards. The 
Rurik, with her consorts, pursued, and in about 
half an hour met the Roon in company with de- 
stroyers. She was shortly afterwards joined by 
two other light cruisers. The Russians imme- 
diately engaged the Germans, and these, being 
in greatly inferior strength and with the wounded 
Augsburg to protect, steamed south in full 
flight. A running fight lasted till 11.30, by 
which time the Roon had been silenced and was 
ia flames, and the Russians had been drawn into 
an area where submarines were in waiting. Fur- 
ther pursuit was inadvisable. The encounter with 
9* 
