the west in our favour had to be consigned to its grave.' In fact, the book is largely an apologia and a confession of failure which mere protestations of victory cannot alter. The effects of a German victory on the course of the war, with the Channel ports in German hands, as compared with those of an Allied victory in Flanders, which at that period of the war and at that season of the year could have resulted in little more than pushing the enemy back into Belgium a few miles, may be easily imagined. If the battle was a tactical draw, at least we had a strategic balance in our favour. The principal reasons advanced for the German ill-success are 'the enemy's numerical superiority, and the strength of his positions,' and of course the drastic course taken by the Belgians of 'calling in the sea to their aid.' There is constant repetition of these pleas throughout the book. To those who were there and saw our 'thin and straggling line' and the hastily constructed and lightly wired defences: mere isolated posts and broken lengths of shallow holes with occasional thin belts of wire, and none of the communication trenches of a later date, they provoke only amazement. Even German myopia cannot be the cause of such statements. As regards the superiority of numbers, the following appears to be the approximate state of the case as regards the infantry on the battle front from ARMENTIÈRES (inclusive) to the sea dealt with in the monograph. It is necessary to count in battalions, as the Germans had two or three with each cavalry division, and the British Commander-in-Chief enumerates the reinforcements sent up to YPRES from the II and Indian Corps by battalions, and two Territorial battalions, London Scottish and Hertfordshires, also took part. The total figures are:-- British, French, Belgian 263 battalions. German 426 battalions. That is roughly a proportion of Allies to Germans of 13 to 21. Viscount French in his '1914' says 7 to 12 Corps, which is much the same: 52 to 84 as against 49 to 84, and very different from the German claim of '40 divisions to 25.' Actually in infantry divisions the Allies had only 22, even counting as complete the Belgian six, which had only the strength of German brigades. Any future correction of the figures, when actual bayonets present can be counted, will probably emphasise the German superiority in numbers still more, and the enemy indisputably had the advantage of united command, homogeneous formations and uniform material which were lacking in the Allied force.