LAND AND WATER. 
November 6, 1915. 
further bank, "^hc account ot this success which 
we have from the Russian side is not very clear, 
and the Germans are, of course, silent about it 
because it was from their point of view, a failure. 
It seems, however, from one part of the account 
the Russians gi^-e, and from an interesting but 
miofficial version which has reached London, 
that a very serious attempt was made by the 
enemy to cross the main stream north of the island, 
and that it broke down. That was the first step 
in the unsuccessful effort. The second came at 
the end of last week when the enemy made another 
^•ery vigorous attempt to force another entry 
towards Riga : this time across the Misse at 
Palanken. It is difficult to understand why 
the enemy chooses this ])articular crossing place. 
There must be local reasons apparent only on the 
spot. There is no good road like the road up to 
Kekkau and there is a bad bit of marsh just behind. 
At any rate the attempt was made and failed 
badly, such troops as got across the river being 
thrown back again. A most interesting point is 
that the prisoners again attributed their failure 
to the lack of proper artillery support. 
The whole of this lighting upon the Riga front 
is now, and has been for two months, yet another 
example of that policy which we also have in the 
West : the enemy using men with extraordinary 
lavishness, because he still beUeves that a political 
result will ser\'e him better than a few weeks more 
grace in the matter of effectives. 
A PROTEST. 
In connection with this piece of fighting along 
the Riga front I am afraid it is necessary to break 
the rule, which normally governs these notes, of 
avoiding controversial matter. For the Times has 
this week again given so glaring an example of 
deliberately misleading its readers that I cannot 
refrain from emphasising it. 
The falsehood is implied, as usual, in headlines 
— the common method of the sensational Press 
which is doing the \\ork of the enemy in this 
country- III large type in the Times on Tuesday, 
the ^d, you have the headline " GERMANS 
NEARER TO RIGA." 
To what does this deliberately false heading 
in the Times refer ? It refers to an action miles 
awa\' on the left, at about the point marked X 
upon my sketch map. 
Now let me recapitulate all that is meant, 
and exactly what is meant by a falsehood of this 
kind. 
(i) It4>i'ofesses to refer to the main fighting 
for Riga. Instead of that it refers to a subsidiary 
affair twent\- miles away. 
(2) It is designed to leave upon the mind of 
anyone glancing at the paper, unprovided with a 
map and not at the pains of analysing the com- 
muniques (that is, upon the mind of pretty well 
everybody who sees the Times) the impression that 
the main German advance has made good and is 
approaching the town. 
(3) It ignores entirely the heavy fighting at 
the main points Vhich went against the Germans. 
(4) It actu4ly magnifies the German account, 
giving it a more favourable turn than the German 
authorities thenjsches had dared to give it. 
Perhaps tlie authorities will allow me to add 
that in no other belligerent country would such 
things be tolerated for a moment. The mere 
fact that they had been attempted would lead to 
the immediate and se\ere punishment of the 
author. The necessity for such action is plain to 
every Allied government, and ought to be plain to 
ours. Falsehoods of this kind breed that mood 
in which a distracted public opinion may be led 
to accept an inconclusive peace. 
THE EiNEMY'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS 
EXHAUSTION OF HIS RESERVES AND 
GLASSES '16 AND 17. 
We are at last in a. position to judge with fair 
accuracv how the enemy proposes to deal with the 
one vital question of the moment for his general 
staff : I mean the fact that his effectives are ap- 
jiroaching the point where they would normally 
decline. 
He has, in order to make good a wastage ol 
at least 400,000 a month to draw perpetually from 
a reserve of men which is approaching exhaustion. 
This problem is particularly acute in the 
German Empire, which maintains a larger number 
of units at the front in proportion to its numbers 
than does the Allied Empire of Austria-Hungary. 
And upon the maintenance of the German forces 
in particular everything depends.. 
Now the German reserves of men are of three 
kinds. 
There is first the very small number remaining 
— if any — of efficients of full miUtary age who can 
be spared from munitions, railways, mines, and 
the rest of it. 
There is secondly the large number of ineffi- 
cients of various degrees of inefficiency. 
Thirdly, there are the lads not yet mature — 
boys of 18 and 19, who remain to fee drawn upon, 
and whose numbers so far have only been reduced 
by a certain amount of volunteering during thp 
first year of the war. 
This last category are the " Classes '16 and 
17," which means the young men who will 
reach their twentieth birthday at some time in 
the years 1916 and 1917. In other words, those 
still surviving of the males born in the years 
1896 and 1897. 
Now the policy upon which the German 
Government appears to have decided in its grave 
embarrassment- — seeing its reserves thus depleted 
and no sort of decision reached on the East or 
on the West — would appear to be as follows : — 
It proposes to keep back the youths for winter 
training and to bring them up as trained effectives 
in the spring. Meanwhile it will hang on with the 
replenishment of wastage from what is lejt of its 
disposable efficients over tiventy {if any) and, after 
thai, by drawing upon the inefficients for the winter 
months. 
It is a gamble, and only the future can show 
how it will turn out. 
Ln order to discover the full significance of this 
policy to the reader I propose to repeat much that I 
have already said upon this point of effectives and to 
present the matter in full. 
To repeat the essentials : — 
(i) An army in the field consists of certain 
units (battalions, batteries, squadrons ; organised 
in brigades, divisions and corps). Everything 
connected with the Army — its orders, commands, 
supply, recruitment, replenishment — works in 
terms of those units. 
(2) Each unit is subject to what is called 
" wastage," that is, loss of numbers through 
