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"I believe," he said, "that the war will in a month's time or so assume a sort of defensive character as far as the Germans are concerned. They will occupy the whole of Belgium, and cover at the west a front strengthened with temporary fortification works like those which are being fully carried out at the back of the German fighting line. Then the war will assume a more careful character; I daresay the Kaiser will start economising the lives of his men, which he has freely spent up to now. The attempt to take Paris by storm with a daring march forward, coute que coute, which was not the plan of the German military command, but the Kaiser's, has completely failed."

"Germany realises that her soldiers are none too many, and wants to make the best of them. That's why they will use any amount of temporary fortification, and will abstain from the compact formations which were quite all right forty years ago, but have proved complete failures on this occasion.

"When the Germans are on their fortified line they will wait for a fresh supply of men and guns. The guns used in Belgium are mostly done for, and have gone back to Essen to be repaired, and in many cases to be melted down again.