October 23, 1915. 
LAND AND \V A T E R 
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given by the h^^avy guns. And it possibly, or 
probably, means that the infantry sent forward 
after the preparation was accomplished is no 
longer of the first quality. For remember that 
there have been a number of local set-backs during 
this advance, and that even at the first landings 
on the southern bank the Austro-German infantry 
broke again and again. There was another ca.se 
of their breaking when they were thrown back 
upon the suburbs of Belgrade a week ago. 
One cannot affirm on the strength of brief 
telegrams with regard to fighting which is 
taking place at a great distance and on 
which one has but a few weirds of information, 
but it does look as though the enemy were here 
dependent upon his heavj' artillery more than 
ever, and it also looks as though the infantry with 
which lie was doing his work was no longer of the 
same quality as that which he counted upon when, 
with a similar reliance upon heavy guns, he began 
the great advance through Galicia nearly six 
months ago. 
For all this slowness of the enemy advance 
the pressure of the Bulgarians on the east would 
seem to make it certain that the north-eastern 
coiner of Serbia would be abandoned. 
If the reader will turn to Sketch I. he will 
see that one of the strategical elements on the 
Bulgarian hioundary is the valle}' of the Timok 
river, Avhile another is the vulnerability of the line 
from Nish to Salonica, especially where the Bul- 
gjirian frontier approaches it in the Strumnitza 
bulge and near Vranie. 
Along the arrows (on Sketch I.) they have 
taken the Serbians in flank and rear (on arrow 2), 
reached with a raid the railway south of Vranie. 
The mountain ridge is too high for more. They 
have entered (at arrow 1) the coveted strip 
of Macedonia and come down towards Ni-sli 
(at arrow 3) by the mountain valley of 
the Vlasina. We may conjecture that the 
chief effort is being made in the north across the 
valley of the Timok, along arrows 4 and 5 (ou 
Sketch I.) and particularly along ariow 4, which 
turn.s all the N.E. t^orner of Serbia, A. The enemy 
had, by last Sunday, crossed the frontier ridge, 
come down the slopes to the neighbourhood of 
Kniazevac, crossed the River Timok, and, by the 
German account, carried hill 415 west of Knia- 
zevac, standing above the village of Glojovacs. 
This is that hill which the communique by some 
error in translation or in the original text put 
east of Kniazevac. But there is some ambiguityj 
here. The hill referred to may be the one markecl 
on Sketch III. with a cross, and the " Timok " 
crossed may be the East fork, which is also a 
Timok — at A — A. 
It is self-evident that if the Bulgarians 
master the middle Timok Valley and occupy the 
heights west of Kniazevac their further progress 
will endanger the Serbian forces in the north-east. 
Meanwhile the vanguard of the Allied forces 
which are landing at Salonica have crossed the 
Serbian frontier and are reported officially from 
France to have taken possession of the road over 
the first pass into Bulgarian territory, and to 
occupy the town of Strumnitza. There is here, 
perhaps, some ambiguity which a later telegram 
will correct, because on the railway is the station 
known by the name of Strumnitza, and some dis- 
tance from the town, and it may be possible it is 
the railway which is intended. 
It is clear that if a considerable force of the 
Allies were to march directly by Strumnitza, 
which is quite close to their base at Salonica, and 
on u]) the main road of the Struma Valley, they 
would with every mile of their advance more and 
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