October 9, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER 
despise that force because Roumanian civilisation 
does not appeal to them. I have no experience of 
this moral factor, but we hear upon all sides of the 
excellent Roumanian military arrangements, and 
the factor of numbers is very striking. Roumania 
can put into the field more men than Serbia and 
Bulgaria combined, and perhaps as many men, or 
nearly as many, as Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece 
combined. Roumania has not moved, and she 
knows her own business. She has profited in the 
past by not moving until the last moment, and that 
success may still be in her mind, or she may be, as 
I have already suggested, influenced by the great 
political effect the Austro-German advance in the 
East has had upon all the Eastern States. At any 
rate, Roumania has not moved. 
A POLITICAL NOTE. 
But in connection with this there is another 
political element in the situation which we must 
not neglect. It seems to pay Bulgaria for the 
moment to enter the ranks of our enemies. She 
thus obtains, or believes she will obtain imme- 
diately, and not as a distant promise, that part 
of Macedonia which she regards as hers by right 
of nationality and language, and which the Treaty 
of Bucharest gave to Serbia. But are we sure that 
the King of Bulgaria, who is the active agent in 
this deal, has not ulterior ends in view ? 
I am now trespassing upon purely political 
ground, where I have, perhaps, no right to tread. 
But I would make no more than a suggestion. 
May not the calculation be that, as the Austro- 
German cause has now but a few weeks to run 
before it begins to suiter embarrassment from a 
decline in effectives, a State situated as is 
Bulgaria, right between the two parties and hold- 
ing the bridge, having obtained all it can while 
Austro-Gerraany M-as at the full, should wait till 
the approaching decline began and should then 
turn round and ask for the terms of the Allies ? 
Remember that Bulgaria would be able to do 
this, for its defensive powers as nature, combined 
with its own military organisation, has framed 
them, are enormous. Remember that the Bulgarian 
army, thrown from one scale into the other, after 
it has once taken the field, will be of very great 
consequence indeed. Remember that Constanti- 
nople will be in its power. And then ask whether 
a calculation of this kind may not have occurred 
to the intelligent and not very scrupulous man 
who holds his chief characteristics, not from 
Coburg or Bourbon, but from the dubious Kohary. 
All the above is, of course, written upon the 
supposition that Bulgaria alone is inclining to 
the enemy's side; that Greece stands by her 
alliance with Serbia; that Roumania is at least 
neutral. But this is still, at the moment of 
writing, an hypothesis only. 
H. BELLOC. 
THE FLEET'S CO-OPERATION. 
By A, H. POLLEN. 
In accordance with the requirements of the Tress Bureau, which doei aot object to the puhlicalisin as censored, and (.ikes oo 
responsibility lor the correctness ol the statements. 
IT added much interest to a first visit to Paris 
in war time, that it coincided with the re- 
ceipt of the news of the great advance in 
the Artois and Champagne. The changes 
in the externals of Paris have been reported to us 
so fully that there was no element of surprise in 
finding that the reports were true. But I was not 
prepared to find the Allied capital take the news 
of the greatest military- victory for 100 years so 
calmly, nor to learn that the acknowledgment 
was general that, but for the staying power which 
the British Fleet has given to Russia and Fiance, 
but particularly to the latter, the twelve months' 
preparation of warlike apparatus, that has made 
that victory possible, could never have been made. 
I asked an eminent military authority if these 
successes, coinciding, as they seemed to do, with 
the collapse of the German forward movement in 
Russia, might not be considered the turning-point 
in the war. " In an immediate p.nd narrow sense, 
yes," he answered; "but the real turning-point 
was when England declared war upon Germany 
last year." 
The French have long memories. They do 
not forget that Napohion — who beat every army in 
Elurope — succumbed in the end, because time was 
on the side of those that had conunand of the sea. 
Had the German Army been sufficient in numbers, 
equipment, skill, and speed to gain an initial 
decision against either of the Eurojiean Allies, 
ultimate victory would still have been impossible 
so long as Great Britain was undefeated at sea. 
But the Germans have nowhere defeated their 
enemies on land, and have not even made tho 
attempt to win at sea. For nine years after Trafal- 
gar the forces of Europe could make no headway 
against Napoleon. When Russia and England 
combined against, him, the end was inevitalile. 
If this was the fate of the most successful com- 
mander in history, what chance has an army that 
cannot conquer against an invincible fleet to-day? 
It is entirely appropriate that the British 
Nav}' should have had some share in the initiation 
of the great offensive. Mondays papers gave us 
two interesting pieces of information about this 
participation that have not hitherto been pub- 
lished. Sir John French tells us, in his order of 
the day to the troops, that tlie Naval forces were 
under the command of Vice-Admiral Bacon, who 
is thus shown to have made a record. There aro 
two cases of Admirals who have been Colonels. 
Admiral Bacon is the first to rcAcrt to a Naval 
command after bring gazetted Lieut. -Colonel of 
Artillery. The German bulletin informs us that 
the Vice Admiral's force consisted principally of 
monitors. A previous enemy wireless placed the 
number of bombarding vo.sGels at thirty. If they 
are all monitors we have indirectly revealed to U3 
an astonishing performance in naval construction. 
Last August year the Ad'iiiralty purchased tho 
river monitors building in the private shipyards 
for the Brazilian Government, the first of their 
class to appf^ar in the Navy List. Their perform- 
ances against the Belgian coast, and more recently 
