August 17, .1916 
LAND & WATER 
17 
size and type, but the gay red and white splashes on the 
bows of the more northerly one indicated she sailed under 
the flag of an enterprising Scandinavian country, while 
the unbroken black of the side of the other told just 
as plainly that she was British. As I watched, the shift- 
ing of the shadows on the sides of the Norwegian told me 
that she was altering her course sharply every few 
hundred yards — " zigzagging " tominimise the danger from 
submarine attacks. A wise precaution, I told myself ; 
now what about the other ? I took up my glass and 
leld it on the Briton. One, two, three, four, five minutes 
passed. All the time the wave curled evenly back from 
her forefoot ; not a ripple of shifting light or shadow 
told of deviation in her course of the fraction of a point. 
" Straight on to your goal, little ship," I said, saluting 
with my glass. 
But I might have known as much. That was Fryatts 
way, and that was the way all my friends of the Red 
Ensigii did, and always will do. ("lood luck, fair weather 
and snug berths to you all " aye, and a quiet haven when 
the last watch, the long watch, is finally over ! " 
3K :{: >!e ^ H: 
Knots of troubled sailor men still gathered along 
Harwich quay this morning, but now that I understood 
by what they were moved I no longer hesitated to mingle 
and -talk with them. Their slow anger was steadily 
mounting — gradually crowding out all other feelings — 
with every word that was spoken,, with every hour that 
passed ; but among them were still men who were stunned 
and dazed, who could not understand how a thing so 
monstrous really could have happened. 
" But w'y, w'y, ha' the 'Uns done it-? " persisted a 
grizzled old salt, turning his troubled eyes to mine after 
all the others had shaken their heads perplexedly. 
" It is just possible," I said, " that the (iermans 
believe that the execution of one skipper who attempted 
to ram one of their submarines will make the others 
think twice befo,re trying to do the same thing." 
Two or three of the older men fairly snorted in their 
incredulity that even the (iermans should thus cheaply 
rate the British sailor, but the plausibility of the theory 
soon convinced even these. 
"Do you re'ly believe the 'Uns think that o' us ? " 
.one of them finally ventured. 
" I do," I replied, " for there is nothing else to think." 
The old man took a deep breath and turned his eyes 
awa\' to sea. " God pity all 'Uns ! " he muttered, 
and "God pity 'em ! " echoed his mates. 
The Battle of the Marne 
By Professor Spenser Wilkinson 
THE battle of the Marne was the first check 
received by Prussia since 1864, when she began 
her modern career, of which the principle is that 
between States there is no right but only force. 
Prussia's plan has been to choose, the object of her 
covetousness, to arm herself to the teeth while talking 
to her neighbour about rights and then, when quite 
ready, to put a pistol at the neighbour's head, to shout 
'' hands up," and to pull the trigger. 
Prussia succeeded in 1864 because neither the other 
Powers nor the other German States imderstood what 
she was driving at — the purpose was carefully concealed 
even from Prussia's partner Austria. Prussia succeeded 
in 1866 because Austria, being unready, had her army 
beaten in the hrst great battle, and not being a national 
State could not raise another. Priissia succeeded in 
1870 because the neutrals were deceived concerning the 
origin of the war, because the French army was captured 
entire in a few weeks and because France, with her 
northern territory occupied and Paris besieged, could not 
in time raise a fresh army able to eject the victors. The 
German principle is that to overpower an enemy you 
must take him unawares and crush him before he can 
get ready. Before striking you must calculate whether 
your force is strong enough not only to overv\hclm the 
victim's army, but also to hold him down and prevent 
his recovery. 
In 1914 the calculation had been made that the French 
army could be shattered at the beginning, and the greater 
part of France occupied while Russia, unready at the 
outset, could be beaten in her turn. Austria was in the 
conspiracy ; the booty was to be Serbia, Belgium, France 
to the Somme, Poland and the Austro-German domina- 
tion to the Persian Gulf. There were, however, mistakes 
in the reckoning. The Prussians ignored that element 
of life which is the sphere of conscience and of faith, two 
very potent springs of action. And what is more re- 
markable they ignored the effect upon war of that prin- 
ciple of nationality to which chiefly their own success 
in Germany had been due. The fundamental truth 
about national war is that given a national determination 
to light and to win, the national energies will sooner or 
later find their way into the right channels. The 
Prussians did not see that they had begun the war in 
su'ch a way as to make plain to French, Russians ana 
British that their national existence was at stake. They 
had counted on surprise and yet found themselves 
surprised at every turn, by the resistance of Belgium, 
by the English declaration of war, and not least by the 
French army when it turned on them in the early days 
of September 1914, and with inferior numbers stayed 
and swept back the flood tide of their invasion. 
The Battle oi the Marne. A genera) sketch of the Kuropcan War by 
Hilaire BcDcc. The Second Phase. T. Nelson and Sons, Ltd. bs. 
In August 1914, the Emperor \\ illiam set out, as 
though he were a new Alexander, to conquer the world, 
and fell with all his might upon France, which was to be 
thrown down in a fevv weeks. Before the middle of 
September the whole right wing of the German hoft had 
been flung back and was in hurried retreat to positions 
in which to defend itself. Prussia's military' prophet 
had told them that every offensive has a culminating 
point beyond which it can go no further ; they were 
startled to find themselves at this point within a month. 
Mr. Belloc has rendered two conspicuous services 
to the nation. First and foremost he has never for a 
moment wavered in his faith in the power of the Allies 
to make good their cause. He has abstained from 
every form of fault-finding with the leaders, whether 
generals in the field, military administrators or responsible 
statesmen. That implies courage and self-control. 
Secondly, he has explained with remarkable lucidity 
operations conducted on .a scale for which there is no 
precedent. The difficulty of following the story of a 
battle is to grasp the relation between the armies and 
the ground on which they were fighting. The reader has 
to find a good map, not always an easy matter, and then 
to be constantly distracted by searching for the places 
and making out the lie of the ground. Mr. Belloc con- 
trives to put on to his pages just so much of the map as 
matters so that the reader is spared the labour of search. 
Thus he brings the battle phase by phase before the 
reader's eye as a skilful guide through a difficult country. 
His sketches and diagrams make a part of his text. 
The fine art of thus combining the pen and the 
pencil is Mr. Belloc's creation and in its execution he 
has no rival. 
I have read with intense interest his new volume 
describing the Battle of the Marne. An accurate account 
of this conflict in detail will, of course, be impossible for 
a long time yet. Mr. Belloc gives what I think is a 
correct bird's-eye- view, based on the evidence at present 
available. He "has judiciously grouped the events and 
made the large features of the struggle as clear as can 
be ; everything is in due perspective. The French 
deferfce in front of Nancy, the blow dehyered on the 
right wing, its imperfect success, its effect in dislocating 
the German front in the region of the Marshes, the cool 
judgment of Foch's decisive thrust into the gap thus 
created, and its instant effect on the whole German line 
are described with broad strokes, every one of which 
tells. Technical language is avoided. There is in this 
volume no needless or disputed doctrine ; such theory 
as is given helps to make the actions intelligible. Above 
all Mr. Belloc brings out the immeasurable significance 
of the turn of affairs. Nothing that I have read since 
the war began seems to me to be a better spring of hope 
for the future than this plain tale of the recent past. 
