July 17. 1915. 
LAND AND ^^^\ T E E . 
THE WAR BY LAND. 
By HILAIRE BELLOC. 
NOTE.— Tliit arikic has b«ea sttbmitttd to ths Press Sarttu, whiih does not object to the pu)>Uv>ti«n cii aawt^.d, aad t«kes <m 
responsibility iot tht cofrectness of the statsmeiits. 
la Hccordaace with the requirements ol the Presj Bureau, tiie positious ol troops on Pbas iljuil.'atiji^ this Article mast only b« 
regarded as approiioiaie, and no deSniie strengiii at any point is indicated. 
THE ATTACK ON THE ROWNO— 
U'ANGOROD RAILWAY. 
THE whole crux of tlie campaign still lies 
as to its present phase in the field lie- 
tween the Galician border and the 
Rowno-Ivangorod Railway. The issue in 
that field is not yet decided. Upon its decision 
will depend the trend of the next two months of 
the war at least, and perhaps more. 
With the elements of the situation the reader 
is already farailar. The great enemy advance 
through Galicia lasted two months. ' Its main 
objec'tive was the separation of the Riissiaii 
armies, which, when the lesser portion of those so 
separated had been dealt with in detail, would 
have given the enemy a decision. Its subsidiary 
objects were the recovery of Galician soil, the 
securing of Hungar}' from invasion, the recapture 
of petrol supplies. 
As to its subsidiary objects, the enemy suc- 
ceeded in his campaign. 
In his main object he failed. During the first 
quarter of the period in question, from May 1 to 
the 13th — 15th of that month, he was not far 
from succeeding. The blow struck on the Dunajec 
was an exceedingly heavy one. The Russian line 
was with difficulty maintained; the retreat, though 
more and more orderly as the fortnight proceeded, 
was pressed until the line of the San was reached ;. 
every local initiative still la}- with the enemy. 
Upon and after May 16 the campaign 
changed in character. The enemy still had 
superior offensive power. The Russians were still 
condemned to ultimate retirement. But the new 
character apparent v.as the fact the various stcjis 
of this retirement were now undertaken at 
moments chosen by our Ally, and not at the im- 
mediate will of the enemy.* Thus, the salient ct 
Przemysl was heid until June 1 with apparent 
ease. That is. until ample time had elapsed for 
the evacuation of all stores and material. 
During the month of June the Russian retire- 
ment was even more deliberate and self -governed. 
The enemy's advance to l>eyontl I>emberg averagefl 
no more than two miles a day. He never forced 
the Dniester permanently, he did not force the 
Grodek positions. Each &te|> backward of the 
Russians was a step taken be/ore, and not after, 
the corresponding movement of the Austro- 
Ger man armies. 
When the Russian retircitient had reached the 
continuous line of the Zlota Lipa and the Bug, 
i'ust covering the very important junction, near 
Jusk. of the railways leading to the Russian bases 
and iron districts in the south and east, the 
Austro-German advance eastward halted. The 
attemjit to divide the Russian armies liad failed, 
and the enemy's plan changed and was now 
directed towards a less decisive, though veiy im- 
jtortant, object. He could no longer hope — th€j 
momentum of his drive having conipleteiy dis- 
appeared — to thrust a wedge between the Russian 
armies and to separate those in the south from 
those in the centre and nortli. Leaving only a 
sufficient force to watch the line of the Bug and 
the Zlota Lipa and halting there, the enemy 
turned his great concentrated mass of men and 
guns — more than half his total forces in Galicia 
- — at right angles and marched them northward 
from the railheads of tiic railway system which 
radiates from Lemberg, and proposed to advance 
upon, to cut, and to hold the Russian railway 
running from the fortified junction of Rowno to 
the great fortress of Ivangorod, upon the Vistula. 
The reader is already f;ur>iliar with the fact 
that the fate of Warsaw depends in the main 
upon the security of this line. It is, indeed, true 
that Warsaw can still be victualled in a round- 
about way from the south, evert if tisis line were 
cut, and, further, true that two other lines, erne 
from the centre of Russia, the other from the 
north-east, reach the bridges over the Vistula at 
Warsaw. The cutting of the Rowno-Kowel- 
Cholm-Lublin-Ivangorod line v/ould not mean the 
imm.ediate fall of Warsaw, but it would mean that 
Warstiw would Ije in so difficult n position that 
its evacuation before furtlier peril was incurred 
would impose itself. 
The news which had reached London last 
week in time for cotnment in these columns sliowed 
the enemy advancing from his railheads througft 
about one-half the distance betvvcen tlio.se Gali- 
cian railheads and the Rowno-Ivangorod railway. 
Two main roads — and two orly — leading to 
Cholm and to Lubiiti respectively crossed thia 
belt. He was in front of Zan^jsc upon the one 
with a body consisting principally of German.s 
under General Macken.sen. He was in front of 
Krasnik with the other, a force partly Austrian 
and partly German, under the Archduke. Con- 
tact v/as already well establishei! Ijetween the 
Russian line and the new Austro-German advance 
northwards. No definite result had yet followed 
ur>on that contact. The main bodies were held 
before Zamosc and Krasnik. Thinner lines con- 
necting Krasnik with the Vistula, Krasnik with 
Zamosc. and Zainosc with the Bug were similarly 
held before correspondingly thin lines of their 
Russian ojiponents. 
Now the event of tlte week since those com- 
ments were written has been a heavy check 
adniinistered to the second column, that of the 
Archduke, who.se main force lay in frotit of 
Krasnik. This action, wiiicli develoj)ed through 
the Tuesday, the Wednesday, the Tbur-<day, and 
Friday of h^st week, I will now de.scribe in sonie 
detair under the title of the Battle of Krasnik, 
for it is sufficiently distinct in character to merit 
[C'op'jrvjhi in America h>j "Tin;. Ncie Yor!: Anurica'i."] 
