^8 
LAND & WATER 
Aiigust 30, 1917 
left the enemv in no doubt as to the blow that was intended. 
To the four divisions which he had left upon this sector he 
added two to meet that blow, and apparently a third in tlie 
course of its deliver%— making seven in all He was unable 
to prevent its full Jftect from beiuR reaped, and his inability 
was due to exactlv the same cause which operates upon him 
evervwhere the decUne in man-power-a decline which wouia 
already have been decisive but for the interruption of pressure 
upon the Eastern front. 
It will be remembered that wc went to press last week too 
early to do more than record the beginning of this operation. 
Its details would seem to have been as follows : 
Upon Mondav, August 20th, the artiller>^ preparation 
having destroved the enemy's defensive organisation, the 
infantry went forward and secured Avocourt \\ ood, the 
famous summits of the Mort Homme, the Crown Wood, and 
Cumieres Wood upon the left of the Meuse. On the right 
bank the French cafried Talou Hill, Hill .-H4 »"'! HiU Ho, 
nenetrating also into the wood called " 1 he P/itches (Res 
Fosses) and the wood called " The Thatch Wood " (Chaume). 
By the end of that tirst day 4,000 unwuunded prisoners were 
counted. . t t i\ 
There was a strong re-action before night on the part ol tne 
enemy, probably conducted by the two supporting divisions 
which he had already brought up. But it failed. 
On the Tuesday the Ridge of (ioose Hill, beyond the Crows 
Wood was entered by the French, and the village of Regne- 
ville at its foot : This "upon the left bank of the Meuse. ■ On the 
right bank the new advance covered Samogneux and the 
number of prisoners had risen to over iv^e thousand. 
On the Wednesday, the 22nd. there was a violent Geianan 
counter-attack on the Mort Homme, which touched the front 
hue but was driven out again, following on which the 1-rench 
line was advanced to the outskirts of the ruins of Forges. A 
"corresponding counter-attack on the other bank failed with 
considerable losses, and by the evening of that day the number 
of prisoners had increased to 6,ii6.unwounded men (that 
is including " walking cases "—the prisoners who can pass the 
tellers on foot) in addition to which there were 500 wounded 
men brought in. „ t^ . ^ 1 
On Thursday, the 2^rd, there was only a small French stroke 
on the right bank and a general consolidation of the positions, 
but a full count of the prisoners and captured guns was 
issued : 6,720 of the former and 24 of the latter. 
On l'"riday caiiie the second principal blow of these opera- 
tions, the French after full artillery preparation attacked at 
daw ri and carried the whole of Hill 304, and the Camard Wood 
to the west of it, advancing about 2,000 yards on the a\'erage 
and reaching the F'orges Brook. 
on Saturday another minor operation put the French in 
possession of some fortified outposts just south of Bethincourt. 
A renewed count of prisoners brought the total up to 8,100. 
U is of real significance and interest to follow the German 
accounts of this operation, and I will therefore summarise 
the enemy's despatches and let them speak for themselves in 
the light of what the reader has just had before him. 
On the Mondav night— the night of August' 20th, when the 
first French blow had been delivered, the German despatch, 
after saying that the French were marching " under ICnglish 
orders ''— ^a type of phrase which ought never to be admitted 
in the terse language, of military accounts, and which only 
appears when the writer is suffering more than he should 
allow himself to suffer— tells us that " the battle before \'erdun 
is going in our favour," and adds that the fighting on the east 
of the Meuse has not given any results to the l-'rc'nch. 
In an earlier communique of the same day the enemy had 
admitted a " voluntary withdrawal," 
Upon tiie next day there comes the phrase " at many places 
the French troops ])enetrafed into our defensive zone in which 
every step forward had to be wrested from our fighting troops 
by sanguinary losses." After these adjectives we get the 
phrase : " Bitter hand-to-hand fighting and powerful 
counter-attacks drove back the enemy almost everywhere." 
And we are further told, for what it is worth, that the struggle 
was mighty, and that it swayed to and fro ; that the measures 
taken by the leaders were "splendid ; that the tenacity and 
braveryof the infantry was " typical," and that the termina- 
tion of" the day was " satisfactof\-. " The despatch ends up by 
telling us thaf-both leaders and "troops anticipate a favourable 
conclusion. 
On the next day, Wednesday, the German communique 
tells us that all attacks and thrusts were repulsed, and while 
the French " forced themselves into the southern part ol 
Samogneux," the "dense masses" were "otherwise 
sanguinarily repulsed." , 
The despatch describing Thursday's fighting is uniniportant 
as was the French despatch of the day, being a day in which 
there was little action. But on Friday we get another of 
these characteristic documents. It willbe remembered that 
Friday was the day in which Hill 304 was carried, andvve are 
told that Hill ,;o4 was " evacuated in accordance with our 
plans." 
On Saturday, the day when the French reached the Forges 
Brook and the httle organised posts south of Bethincourt, we 
have in the German despatch the .remark that " the French 
sent forward strong forces against our positions on the Forges 
rivulet, and between Malancourt and Bethincourt." And 
that these were " repulsed with heavy losses." 
A tabulation of this sort is well worth making in the present 
phase of the war. H. Belloc 
Mr. Belloc has been obliged, through indisposition, 
to take a short holiday, and will consequently be 
unable to contribute his usual article next week to 
" Land & Water." 
Special articles have, however, been arranged for 
that issue : On the "Western Front, by Edmund 
Dane, and On the Italian Front, by [Lewis R. 
Freeman. 
The publication of Mr. Belloc's analysis of the 
remaining German effectives, as estimated by Mr. 
Gerard, is postponed. 
Germany's New Foreign Minister 
By J. Coudurler de Ghassaigne 
The writer of this article is the' well-known London corres- 
pondent of the Paris " Figaro." He is also President 
of the Poreign Press Association in London. He had manv 
and excellent opportunities of studying Baron von Kuhl- 
mann and his methods during the six years the Baron was 
Councillor of the German Embassy in Carlton House Terrace. 
DR. VOX KUHI.MANN, or as he used to be called by 
courtesy, Baron von Kuhlmann, is a fortunate man. 
He is only forty-four, and has already obtained 
the most coveted post in the whole of German 
diplomacy, and has becom.e the chief manipulator of the 
countless Pacifist wire-pullers who will succeed, if we are 
not careful, in winning a diplomatic victory for Germany in 
spite of its military defeat. 
The man who assumes this gigantic responsibility is ad- 
mirably qualified for his task. Baron von Kuhlmann comes, 
througli his father's family, from that upper middle-class 
which has been recently ennobled after having made a fortune 
in business, and he owes to that modest descent some of his 
rarest gifts : his common sense, his instinctive knowledge 
of everything connected with commerce and industry, and his 
obviously inherited habits of hard work. For he is]as tenacious 
and patient and energetic as the business man must be who 
wishes to succeed. He possesses also that quality which is 
so rare among the German nobility, of sympathising only 
superfically with the miHtary caste, while he is profoundly 
attached to the industrial classes, which, for him, represent 
the true future of his country. 
He is related, through the" family of his Wife, Marguerite, 
Baroness Stumm, and through his' mother, Anna, Baroness 
Redwitz, with the best of the German aristocracy. In that 
way he is connected by his ancestry and his marriage with all 
the governing classes of the Empire, but, as he does not belong 
exclusively to any one class, he is able to estimate them all 
at their, proper value impartially. 
Nature has further favoured him in giving him good looks. 
He is a fine figure of a man and has none of that obesity 
which is so common on the other side of the Rhine. His 
pleasant face and smile are full of an independent spirit and 
have at times an expression of candour and good fellowship 
that disarms everybody who does not know him well. His 
hand-shake is cordial, rather rough, but giving the impression 
of perfect sincerity. In the popular phrase, he is" hail fellow 
well met." Nothing in his outward appearance suggests the 
diplomat — ^I should say the diplomat of the old school. He has, 
however, charming manners. - He has an exq.uisite polite- 
ness towards everyone who conies to him. but he is so simple, 
so free from any aftectation, that one would believe him to be an 
absolutely splendid fellow without the least malice in his com- 
position. He means everything he says, though he does not 
speak all his thoughts. He has excellent health and appears 
