LAND & WATER 
September 21, 1916 
west of the Allied line,' fell back towards the two lakes 
Petrsko and Ostrovo. The heights to the north of 
the lakes wece with difficulty maintained. The ridge 
to the west, the Malareka, which is continued after 
the Pass of Derbend in the Malka Nidje, was lost. 
This ridge awrages rather more than j.ooo feet above 
the sea, and about half as much over the lake levels, 
falling to 2.000 odd feet at the Pass of Derbend and 
culminating ina flat topped peak of nearly 5,000 feet upon 
the mountain called Cheganska. In the second phase 
of the lighting, this ridge was carried by the Serbians 
mainly, but apptireiitly with the help of IVench reinforce- 
ment, and meajAwhile the weight of men on the Allied 
bide upon this -western wing was continually growing. 
The third phase f>t the operation was the ad\ance of the 
Russians round ti'ie extreme western end ol the |)ositions 
much after the fa;shion of the arrow in the accompanying 
sketch Map III. The ridge was not only carried but turned, 
and the Allied army pursued down the easy slopes whi^h 
fall upon the Plain of Monastir. 
Miles.- 
The first point of any importance upon that Plain is 
the town of Fiorina, with its station upon the railway, 
two or three miles to the east. The encniy, perpetually 
retreating towards Monastir,was driven out of Fiorina 
station last Monday by a French column, and there for 
the moment our news of the operations on this line ceases. 
But there is further news of action in the same neigh- 
bourhood which shows that Fiorina may well prove to be 
not even the temporary halting point of the movement. 
Fiorina, as the map shows, is by road, rather less than 20 
miles from Monastir, but the heads of the Allied columns 
just to the east are overlapping the Bulgarian defences 
more seriously still. A stand was made in the .hilly 
country in the great bend of the Czerna, the centre of 
which is marked by the Bridge of Brod, well within 
Serbian territory as defined by the last resistance. The 
bridge was, of course, destroyed, but the Serbian troops 
here forded the river and broke the defensive line which 
that stream formed, h'urther to the east again, upon the 
frontier peak of Kaymakchalan, the Serbians forced the 
Bulgarians down the wooded slopes of the mountains 
towards the valley and maintained a similar success still 
further to the east upon the lower frontier peak of 
Vetrenik. 
The characteristic of the whole movement at present 
is its rapidity and the inability of the enemy so far to 
check the pursuit. A good deal depends upon the con- 
dition of the little tunnel of Derbend marked T upon 
Map III, where the railway traverses the Pass. It is quite 
short, but if the enemy has been able to obstruct it that 
action will have an effect upon supply for some time to 
come. The culverts and short bridges can be repaired 
quickly, but the tunnel would be a longer matter. Mean- 
while, two good roads aid supply, the one coming round 
from the north, the other from the south of the lakes and 
con%erging upon the main Monastir road near Banitsa 
below the ridge upon the Plain. 
The description of the operation as far as I can carry 
it in this article is necessarily imperfect, for it was still in 
active progre^ in the early afternoon of Monday, since 
which hour news has not been received ujwn the Tuesday 
which is the date of writing. It is possible that by the 
time these lines appear the Allied ad\ance will be in 
the neighbourhood of Monastir. 
****** 
I would beg my readers' leave to add to my article of 
this week a personal note to which I am comjx;lled by 
a recent attack made against me in the London Press. 
There was published a few weeks ago a book from my 
pen by Messrs. Nelson and Sons, dealing with the Battle 
of the Marne. The book was praistxl in some quarters 
and adversely criticised in others. 'One criticism in par- 
ticular was of peculiar violence and appeared in the 
I olunms of the Daily Chronicle, the thesis of that 
article being that my \iew of the Battle of the Marne 
was erroneous on account of my ignorance of the dates 
governing the initial action of the (irand Couronnc. 
I owe it to myself and to my public in this \'ery widely 
read journal to defend myself from the charges of in- 
accuracy upon any of the principal matters concerning 
the war or alternatively to admit sucii inaccuracy when it 
has occurred from my insufficient information. I owe the 
same duty to the ])ublic which reads my book work upon 
the war, and which is in part the same as the public which 
reads L.\nd & Water. I therefore wrote to the Editor 
of the Daily Chronicle upon the same day as that upon 
wiiich the article appeared, saying that all evidence upon 
the earh' part of the war was still exceedingly meagre and 
contradictory ; that very possibly my theory of the 
(irand Couronne was erroneous and even my elates un- ' 
certain, and that I would be obliged if the reviewer would 
give the evidence in his possession, in which case I would 
at once mark the error in my book and admit^it. The 
thing was of some importance not only to myself hut 
to all those who are attempting to obtain a just judg- 
ment upon the greatest event in- our history. That 
letter- has remained unanswered from that day to this. 
No protest of mine has been admitted to the columns of- 
the Daily Chyoniclc, and a further letter sent a week ago 
complaining of the delay was left unanswered. A daily 
l)aper is read by many thousands of people, and if it 
gives a false impression of a writer's work he is bound, 
although it is a personal matter, to defend himself by the 
best means a\'ailable to hiiu. 
H. Belloc 
[It has again been necessary at the last moment to 
hold back, at the request of the Press Bureau, a con- 
siderable portion 0/ Mr. Belloc' s article dealing with 
the Bulgarian position. This interferes with the main 
argument — Editor] 
The Poems of M. Cammaerts 
Admirers of M. Emile Cammaerts' genius will liear with 
pleasure that a new volume of his poems is now published 
(.Yew Belgian Poems, by Emile Cammaerts, English transla- 
tion, by Tita Brand Cammaerts. John Lane. 3s. 6d. net.) 
There is deep pathos behind these lucid verses, which add 
greatly to their strength. There are some which one can 
hardly read without tears coming to the eyes. Heaven be 
thanked, recent events on the Sommc have given a new 
ring to the poem entitled Le Dernier Boche from which wc 
ijuote these two verses : — 
Je songe au grand jour ou ils nous quitteront, 
Oii, cntre deux rangees de trembles ou de sapins, 
Leurs canons et leurs fourgons 
Rouleront vers le Kliin. 
Ou, par tous les chemins 
Des Ardennes et des Flandres, 
De la Meuse a I'Escaut, de I'Yser a la Dendre, 
De la Meuse a la Lys, 
Se traineront leurs pieds meurtris. 
Je reve du grand jour ou I'cnnemi 
Sortira du pays, 
Tandis qu'une tcmpete de chansons et de cris, 
De drapeaux et de fanfares, 
Saluera de son joyeux tintamarre 
Son depart I 
