11 OCTOBER 1919, Page 24

The Limburg Manoeuvre of August, 1911. By Captain " Candid."

(Utrecht : A. W. Bruna.)—This pamphlet contains a good account, by a Dutch Army officer, of the concentration A the German armies on the frontier in August, 1914, and of the early stages of the invaders' march into Belgium. Its pur- pose is to show that the strip of neutral Dutch Limburg, north and south of Maestricht, formed a more serious obstacle to the German armies than it would have done had it belonged to Belgium and been defended by the little Belgian Army. The author maintains that the necessity of observing Dutch neu- trality, enforced by the presence of a considerable Dutch army, hampered the German concentration and delayed the enemy's advance by three days. His arguments are marshalled with skill and deserve attention. Three days' delay in August, 1914, was of priceless value to the unprepared Allies. The author's sketch-maps illustrate the technical difficulty of moving the first and second German armies, 540,000 strong, through the narrow gap between the Limburg frontier and the Ardennes, and of deploying them without throwing their transport into confusion.