September 25, 1915. 
LAND AND .W.ATER 
Dniester, and towards the end of the line, a local 
offensive against the Sereth was beaten back with 
the loss of about a thousand men taken prisoners 
and perhaps twice as many killed and wounded. 
On Tnursday, the 9th, these successes were 
confirmed and increased. Of the Austrians in 
front of Tremblowa, over 5,000 fell in the hands 
of the Russians, and the enemies along the whole 
front taken up to the evening of that day 
numbered about 22,000. By Saturday, September 
11, Mackensen, in the extreme north, counter- 
attacked. He had obtained reinforcements and 
attacked the Russians on the Stry, near Kolki, in 
front of Rovno, and on the Upper Goryn. He 
was thrown back, and more prisoners were taken 
by the Russians ; and in front of Tarnopol another 
round-up of Austrians and Germans between 4,000 
and 5,000 in number. On that same day, Satur- 
day, the 11th, the whole line moved forward from 
Tremblowa to the junction of the Sereth and the 
Dniester, and pursued the Austrians over the 
rolling country between the Sereth and the 
Strypa. By this date the total of prisoners along 
the whole of this southern front had approached 
40,000. By Sunday, the 12th, both reinforcements 
and munitionments drawn from other parts of 
the Austro-German line had come up, and its 
effects were felt by the Russians, who none the 
less advanced slightly upon the Upper Sereth. 
But this reinforcement was local and did not 
affect the whole front. And on Monday, the 13th, 
there was a general Austrian retirement towards 
the Strypa. Upon Tuesday, the 14th, that river 
was reached, and the Austrians were driven across 
it in many places. Mackensen all that day was 
trying to relieve the Russian pressure in the south 
upon his allies by very vigorous attacks all the 
way from the Kovel-Sarny railway to the upper 
waters of the Goryn River. All the attacks were 
repelled, and he lost very heavily in men, includ- 
ing some thousands of prisoners that passed into 
Russian hands upon that day and the next. On 
.Wednesday, the 15th, the Wednesday of last week, 
there was very little, if any, advance, but the 
advantage remained with the Russian forces, who 
were still taking prisoners and machine guns 
(which means that they were taking trenches) 
upon the whole front from the south of the 
marshes to Tremblowa. We may take this day to 
be the end of the Russian advance. The enemy 
had received a sufficient reinforcement to check 
it, or its further prosecution would have been 
unwise because it would have led to no direct 
effect. On Friday last, September 17, one very 
vigorous counter-stroke was given along the north 
of the line, leaving another 2,000 or 3,000 
prisoners in the hands of our Ally, a number of 
machine guns, but again no field artillery. While 
on the south of line, the Strypa, some bridge-heads 
across which were still held by the Austrians, 
marked the limit of the Russian advance. If we 
represent that advance on the map (as is done on 
Sketch IV. by the dotted line), and contrast it with 
the positions of a fortnight before, we shall see 
that the extent of ground covered is insignificant. 
Nowhere does it exceed twenty miles; in most 
places it is not fiive. But the moral of the whole 
thing is that the Austro- Germans cannot concen- 
trate at will. The piesent dispositions along the 
Russian front permit of an immediate counter- 
offensive the moment any one sector on the enor- 
mous line is weakened by the enemy. 
Nevertheless, it is true that the Russian dis- 
positions are such as to prevent the enemy from 
throwing the weight of this enormous superiority 
into any one field, r.nd these successes to the south 
of the marshes prove it. 
H. BELLOC. 
P.S. — As this article goes to the printer no 
official news has yet been received confirming the 
safety of the Russian armies. The German com- 
munique mentions the crossing of the Lida raib 
way and enemy outposts to the east thereof, 
certainly of cavalry. The gap left between the 
foremost of these and the Minsk railway is still 
nearly fifty miles. The news refers to Monday 
last. An unofficial message from Mr. Ludovic 
Naudau has also come through to the effect that 
the retiring force is now out of danger. Mr. 
Naudau's dispatches carry a deservedly high 
authority and the newspaper he represents is now 
in patriotic hands. Everything, therefore, inclines 
one to accept this private message, but for full 
confirmation we must wait till the Russian 
communiques arrive. 
A PARADOX OF SEA POWER. 
By A. H. POLLEN. 
la accordance with the requirements of the Press Bureau, which does not object to the publication as censored, and takes no 
responsibility for the correctness of the statements. 
IN his recent speech at the opening of Parlia- 
ment Mr. Asquith put forward certain 
facts and figures of the position that might 
have been made the starting-point of an 
Illuminating debate on national strategy. As a 
fact the discussion went little beyond a wrangle 
on the question of conscription. Sea-power, 
the clue to the position, came in for inci- 
dental mention only. Mr. Balfour, it is true, 
was called upon to explain the insufficiency of 
London's defence against aircraft — but this, after 
all, has nothing to do with the Fleet — and Lord 
Robert Cecil to correct a perverted reading of Sir 
Jldward .Grey's views upon " Freedom of the 
Seas," which has everything to do with it. But it 
surely would have been worth while to have made 
it clear how it was that so great a gulf exists 
between our apparent military duties of to-day 
and the conception of those duties which most of 
us entertained little more than a year ago. That 
gulf has, in fact, been made by the completeness of 
our command of the sea. 
The theory of national defence on which, 
before Armageddon was let loose, we had for years 
been nurtured, was based upon the physical fact 
that the United Kingdom was an insular Power, 
and, therefore, enjoyed certain immunities, such as 
only an island kingdom can possess. The chief of 
IX 
