New-York tribune., 1915-03-18

3SO Huiton o.. Sahiu6A
perilously thin; by the goth, too, th'
| German masses were coming on fastel
and faster, and they were beglnnini
10 strike at his weakest spotLhl'
toucb with the French and Beiglan'
to his left.
Meantime. General French, even be
| fore the whole army was detraineu
had swung his main forces through
series OF mannuvres which, | suspect
The soldier Of the future will study
for their brilliance and for thelr DE
fance OF military tradition. visitors
returning to London in October de
.cribed General Headquarters and tn'
! town which surrounded it as tn'
| ouietest spot in Europe" Though th'
rcIns sounded everywhere IN the ais
tance. peasants were ploughing, Doy'
going fishing, housewives scrubbing the
! doorsteps, Just as usual. Heart OF tht
.own ard hope Of the empire was tha'
house. where this small, compact. blue
eyed man, with his mixture OF Frencf
and Irish blood, which means genius;
! his overlay of English blood, whicf
means stability; this old beau sdbreu,
transformed by the change OF warfare
TO thinking machine, was SOLVING
a situation which was like twenty chess
problcms, at once. OF mornings nc
worked at his desk; of afternoons he
held council or visited the lines; al
| luncheon, at tea and at dinner he
| thrashed il out with his officers. "He
violated" says a friendly critic. every
rule of warfare and succeeded" They
were iudicious violations. This is q
new warfare; some of the old rules dc
not hold. He was making the tradl-
tions of new warfare.
So complex is this new warfare that
a layman cannot follow the separate
| actions which made the great result
Indeed. French's own dispatches. writ
| ten at a time when he must concea
much from the enemy, fail to describe
| these actions in any detail. Every daJ
| he let loose a separate hell against tho
! increasing German hordes at his front
A spectator, sweeping the terrain from
an aeroplane, could have made little o.
those lines crawling through the mud
those streaks OF smoke and flame alonl
| the hills, those masses Of troops IL
tho towns. But French was bending
all these complex things to one end
| TO make untenable any German posi-
tion below the line drawn across Elan
ders and Northern France by TN
strategists of the Allies. In all thi
torn, bleeding province of fire an
death the action rose to separat
battles which would have been famou
in old wars. The SOirantc-Quih;e gun
OF the French artillery support, tn
| Lou nf q
Third Corps, took the hill Of Mont de
Cats; did il. too. against odds. Tha
same Third Corps always the attack
ing force, and almost always agains
odds went forward in a week to Ar
mentieres, gain or twenty mileS o
more. The Second Corps, fighting oi
the right of the Third, made mar
rover turn. II pivoted on La Bassee
it's left went forward ten miles, to
point where IL was in touch with tn
Third.
Stretched to Breaking Point.
So. as the critical Goth approached ed
the main force under General Frencl
extended for some twenty-five mile
from before La Bassee to a point be
yond Ypres; and now the German re
sistance stiffened and held. Nethe
the English nor the French could driv
much further. But the line was cstab
lished. And it was straight line
Half formed, insecure, it still reache'
out and touched that Franco-Belgial
defence which ran from the Forest o
Houthhoulet to the sea.
That extreme left Of the British lin
the point where it joined the line o
ho1I hp N
harassed. overstretched division. Ant
Just then more Germans and still NOR
Germans were rushed down the Bel
gian railroads. "They seemed to rail-
down on us everywhere" spectato
has said. but most OF all they raine'
on that weak point TO the left.
Now French, "violatng every rule o
war" had not only drawn the lines o
his important I'd and Sd Corps yer.
thin, but he had shot his last bolt o
reserves. All the reinforccments avail
able from England had been used up il
filling out units. (This purely intel
lectual summary has taken no accoun
of the heavy cost in life and limb o
these British attacks.) The lndial
troops, hurried up krom Marseilles
had been rushed TO the front. The da,
when they arrived the English force
were hanging on oy their eyelids
Some one, am told, looked back from
a trench and saw a solitary outpost
a turbanned. cloaked figure of the des
ert very startling in the green, peace
full French landscape, riding over
hill. Back Of him nodded the turban
of Sikh cavalry, and the English in tn
trenches, who seemed past emotion
waved their rife barrels and cheereC
But neither Indians nor French ter
ritorials nor French cavalry nor Frenc
artillery seemed sufficient.
Fate of War in Balance.
Only the 1st Corps remained out 0
action An army does not move in
day While the I'd Corps and the 3
had been battering their way throug
a twenty-five mile advance the Isl
under General Douglas lIaig, was still
coming over from its old position be
fore Scissors. By the goth they wer
detrained and ready for the line.
There came that night a special mo
ment Of decision for General French
and on his decision. perhaps, rested tn
fate Of the war. He himself has stat
ed il automatically in his dispatche,
Should he use the lst TO reinforce tn
I'd and Sd, thereby securing the groun
won on the right? They were draw
thin. the 2d and 3d-thin. Among tn
stories of that trying day which circu
late in London is this: French ha
gone out TO the lines, was talking I
the line officers, as he sometimes doe.
I'VE can die. but we can't hold ou
here much longer" said a colonel. at
impossible" 81 want only men who d
the impos sible," said French. Hold.