ambushes, and in addition the burnt trunks of trees and torn
branches the result of four years of bombardment proved an
impenetrable entanglement where advance was only possible
along the straight drives set at right angles, and these were
barred by wire and enfiladed by machine-guns.

On the left, while the Belgian 4th Div. seized Rille and St.
Pieters, the Belgian ist Div. secured the Chateau Blanckaert,
Hoog Kwartier, while with a gallant rush the 22nd Regt., having
conquered at the point of the bayonet many batteries which the
gunners fired until the last moment, arrived at the crossroads
of Houthulst at 11:00 hours and occupied it.

On the right, the Belgian 7th Div. drove right through the
forest and arrived at the end of the day on the eastern bound-
ary, having conquered it entirely with many dozen of cannon
and important material.

In the centre group the Belgian 3rd Div. reached without
difficulty the heights by the station of Poclkapelle, where
they held up some violent counter-attacks which debouched
from the S.E. corner of the forest; these attacks were strongly
thrown back as far as Schaap-Ballie, which the division occupied
at the same time as the gth Div. arrived at the outskirts of
Westroosebeke.

In the southern group the 6th and I2th Divs., held up by the
terrible condition of the ground, reached halfway to the crest-
line Westroosebeke-Passchendaele and found the enemy occupy-
ing in force this strong position. Further bombardments by
the artillery and many assaults left the situation unchanged.
Toward the end of the afternoon a strong German counter-
attack forced itself into line after line of the 6th Div. However,
the 8th Div., which had seized Broodseinde, advanced on Moor-
slede and at 20:00 hours the 4th Carabineers took Passchendaele
by assault. To summarize, the nine Belgian divisions of infantry
which had been engaged, accomplished under heavy rain an
advance of about 8 km. across the most appalling country,
bristling with every defensive accessory and abundantly fur-



YPRES AND THE YSER, BATTLES OF



mi



nished with machine-guns; they had conquered the famous
bastion of the forest of Houthulst and captured over 4,000
prisoners besides considerable material.

As for the British II. and XIX. Army Corps, they had reached
all their objectives: Becelaere by the gth Div., Krviseecke by
the 2pth Div., Zandvoorde by the 35th Div. Thus on the first
day over the whole frontage of the Belgo-British attack there
had been greatly exceeded the extreme limits of the victories
of the third battle of Ypres (July-Nov. 1917) that battle of
giants wherein 51 divisions of British and 78 divisions of the
Germans had disputed the same country foot by foot for four
months with a vigour unknown in history.

Action of Sept. 29. It was of importance that this brilliant
success should be followed up with the greatest vigour. The
following day the battle recommenced at 06:00 hours after
artillery preparation of half an hour. It was intended to force
the Flandern II. Stellung. In the northern group, after the ist
Div. had secured Clercken and Ternst, the loth Div. con-
quered Ruvter Hoeck and Zarren. At 09:00 hours the 4th Div.
had taken Woumen and Eessen and proceeded to encircle
Dixmude. Toward noon the division proceeded to clear up the
town. With the central group, the battle was particularly
vigorous: the 3rd Div. occupied in the first place Vyewege
and in the afternoon made an assault on Stadenberg, which
was secured at 16:45 hours after an obstinate fight.

The gth Div. threw six attacks against Wcstroosebeke with-
out gaining a foothold.

In the southern group the 8th Div., followed by the nth Div.
and fighting side by side with the British gth Div., prepared to
attack Moorslede when the latter division was carrying Keiberg.

About 13 : oo hours the 8th Div. found itself 500 metres W. of
Moorslede. The attack was made at 14: oo and secured the posi-
tion after a severe fight, and completely forcing the enemy line,
advanced the 7th Regt. toward St. Pieter, on the road Menin-
Roulers, which was occupied at nightfall. On the left, the I2th
Div. was taking the woods of Kalve and Calliemolenhoeck; to
the right the British gth Div. secured Keiberg and penetrated
into Danizeele. During the day's action four fresh German
divisions were encountered.

Action of Sept. 30. On Sept. 30 the 3rd Div. occupied Sta-
den; the Belgian gth Div. entered the evacuated Westroose-
bcke and occupied the outskirts of Oostnieuwkerke.

The other divisions undertook by certain local engagements to
rectify a frontage which was based on the first line of the Flandern
I. Stellung. This position, established by the Germans in 1917,
was strongly held, abundantly furnished with machine-guns
and barbed wire, and supported by the artillery disposed on the
whole front from Handzaeme to St. Pieter.

The first days of Oct. marked a halt in the operations. Only
on the outskirts of Oostnieuwkerke and of Moorslede were there
any lively combats. In front of the British the Germans men-
aced by the salient of Moorslede were withdrawing progressively
their front line to the line of Wedlghem-Comines-Warneton, in
front of which the troops of Gen. Sir H. Plumer installed them-
selves at 17:00 hours.

To sum up, the Belgo-British offensive which was delivered on
Sept. 28 gave the most highly satisfactory results.

The progress realized had carried the Allied front about 15
km. from their starting point. The whole of the heights _ of
Flanders was conquered. More than 8,000 prisoners, of which
6,000 were taken by the Belgians, were captured. 500 guns,
machine-guns and material in proportion were the spoil of the
victors. Thirteen German divisions had been engaged.

This rapid advance carried the Allied divisions beyond the
zone of country so deeply cut up during the battles of Ypres.
It was not possible to continue the advance before having built
up across this historic stretch of mud sufficient communications
for food and supplies for the troops. The reestablishment of a
network of communications in this country, so completely cut
up and full of water, constituted a delicate and most arduous
task, which in spite of all efforts ought to have stopped the
operations for a considerable time.



The crisis was most acute for two or three days, and certain
divisions existed altogether on food supplies thrown from aero-
planes. Thanks to the most vigilant activity the troops found
themselves ready to take up the offensive on Oct. 14. The success
took them this time to Bruges and Courtrai, and assured the
freeing of the coast and evacuation of the region round Lille.

Battle of Courtrai-Thielt-Thourout. The battle of Sept. 28-
2g had put the Belgo-British in possession of the heights of
Flanders, and had taken the Allied armies in one bound beyond
the country of the Ypres battles. The reestablishment of com-
munications across this zone absorbed the first days of Oct.
On Oct. 6 the King of the Belgians sent out instructions for the
continuance of operations.

The intention of King Albert was that, taking as a base of
departure the positions conquered at the end of Sept., the Belgian
right flank and the British on the left flank should push vigor-
ously toward the last and seize the knot of communications at
Thourout, Thielt and Courtrai.

These points conquered, an advance should be made from
Thourout in the direction of Bruges, which would inevitably
insure the deliverance of Ostend and of all the coast. Proceeding
from Courtrai and combining their movements with the British
I. Army which was marching on Valenciennes, the British II.
Army would undoubtedly cause, probably without fighting, the
liberation of the populous and industrial region Lille-Roubaix-
Tourcoing. In consequence the Belgian army, reinforced by the
French VII. and XXXIV. Corps, would seize the plateau of
Hooglede-Gits and the centres of Thourout, Thielt and Oos-
troosebeke, and then be prepared to follow the enemy towards
Bruges and Ghent. The British II. Army would carry on the
front on the Lys from Harlebeke to Menin. It would proceed to
follow the enemy as far as the Scheldt. The II. Cavalry Corps
and two divisions of French infantry would remain under the
immediate orders of the King as a mobile reserve.

From Oct. 7 the corps commanders had caused the necessary
cannonade to effect breaches in the wire entanglements and for
the destruction of the most important enemy defences. On Oct.
14 the general attack was launched at 05:30 hours without any
further artillery preparation.

The German order of battle was as follows from N. to S.:
38 Div. L.; 3 Div. R.; 36 Div. R.; Div. Guards Reserve; i Div.
R.B.; 6 Div. R. B.; n Div. R.; 56 Div.; 12 Div. These divisions
had all their three regiments side by side and in each regiment
two battalions were placed in the first line. They were on the
alert, and the three battalions occupied their battle positions.

However, the first lines of the enemy were quickly captured.
The German defence was chiefly based on the employment of
machine-guns. The Allied smoke-shells created a dense cloud
which in the majority of cases prevented the enemy from making
effective use of his weapons. The reply of the German guns was
very serious, and very many heavy pieces on rails were employed.
In the course of the day, six support divisions were brought into
the line: they were used less for counter-attacking than to
strengthen the front where broken.

In the evening the northern Belgian group had conquered
Handzaeme as well as Cortemarck: the French, assisted by many
sections of tanks, had secured Hooglede and Roulers.

The southern Belgian group, led by the valiant 3rd Div., had
completely defeated the Guards Reserve Div. and the Bavarian
ist Reserve Div.: they had taken Rumbeke, Ouckene, pushed
almost to the gates of Iseghcm and captured 1,300 prisoners
and many batteries, of which some had both teams and personnel.

Further S., the British forces had thrown back the enemy on
the Lys in the neighbourhood of Menin, and had taken Wynberg,
the western outskirts of Gulleghem and Wimkel St. Eloi. 20
enemy aeroplanes had been brought down.

On Oct. 15, while the Belgians in the N. gained ground to
within 2 km. of Thourout and the British in the S. captured
Gulleghem and then Heule, the indefatigable 3rd Div. (Belgian)
passed through Lemdelede at 1 1 : oo hours and Cappelle Ste.
Catherine, and the gth Regt. of the line pushed on irresistibly
almost to Bavichove near the Lys.



III2



YUAN SHIH-K'AI YUGOSLAVIA



On Oct. 16, after half an hour of artillery preparation, the
attack recommenced on the whole front. The northern Belgian
group captured the wood of Wymedaele and of Thourout,
the French pushing on beyond Lichtervelde and Ardoye; the
southern Belgian group occupied Iseghem and Ingelmonster,
the 3rd Div. touching the canal at Roulers and the Lys at Oyg-
hem and Bavichove. Thus were gathered the fruits of victory.
The enemy front, everywhere completely shaken, beat a re-
treat. The German Marine Divs. evacuated the coast sector
which they had guarded for four years.

Explosions and fires announced that the enemy was destroying
his installations and his depots at Middlekerke, Smaeskerke, at
Ostend and Guistelles. In the evening the coast-guns, levelled
for so many months toward the sea, fired in haste some rounds
at the Belgian bivouacs before being rendered useless.

On Oct. 18, in the evening, the Belgian front reached Zeebrugge
and Bruges. The British bordered all the Lys from Menin to
Harkebeke and penetrated into Courtrai.

On Oct. 20 the Germans were thrown back on the canal of the
Lys behind which they momentarily held a position from Eccloo
to Deynze. The British II. Army crossed the Lys at Courtrai,
occupied on the right Rolleghem and Leers, and made certain
the evacuation of Roubaix, while the left was pushed toward
Anseghem. By Oct. 31 the British had reached the Scheldt
from Kerkhove to Pecq, joining the British V. Army.

The battle of Thourout-Thielt-Courtrai was finished. Under
protection of their rear-guards the broken German front turned
itself to the E., followed by the Allies as quickly as the restora-
tion of the network of roads permitted.

From Oct. 14 to 31 the group of the armies of Flanders had
taken 19,000 prisoners and advanced 50 km. It had gloriously
achieved the double mission entrusted to it by King Albsrt:
the region of Lille was entered and set free; the coast and an
important portion of Belgian territory had been reconquered.

Belgians, British and French had rivalled each other in their
ardour and bravery. The submarine base of Bruges, the famous
batteries of Tirpitz, Hindenburg and Deutschland, and more than
100 coast-defence guns of very great calibre remained as trophies
taken from the enemy, marking the downfall of the ambitions
of the Germans. (R. VAN O.)

YUAN SHIH-K'AI (1859-1916), Chinese statesman, born 1859,
first attained distinction in Korea, when, as Imperial resident
and the trusted lieutenant of the Viceroy Li Hung-Chang, he
strove to preserve China's suzerainty over the Hermit Kingdom
in the years of strife which preceded the war between China and
Japan (1894). After that disastrous campaign he held office
under the Viceroy Li in Chihli; in 1898 he was in command of an
army corps and played a decisive part in frustrating the Em-
peror's plan of constitutional reform and in supporting the
Empress Dowager's reactionary coup d'etat. After her return to
power he rose rapidly; during the Boxer rebellion, as governor of
Shantung, he displayed sagacious foresight in the protection of
foreigners, and upon the death of Li Hung-Chang succeeded
his chief as Viceroy of Chihli. At the time of the death of the
Empress Dowager (1908) he was a Grand Councillor and her most
trusted adviser; but upon the accession to power of Prince Chun
as regent he was dismissed from office (in retribution for his
failure to support the Emperor in 1898) and ordered to return to
his native place in Honan (Jan. 2 1909). He remained there, in
disgrace, until the outbreak of the revolution in 1911, when the
regent and the court, alarmed at the rapid spread of the move-
ment, turned to him for help. By an edict of Oct. 14. he was
appointed Viceroy of Hunan and Hupeh and commander-in-
chief of the Imperial forces. As military dictator he took the
field a fortnight later against the revolutionary army at Hankow.
Thereafter, until his death (June 1916) the Government of
China, such as it was, lay in his hands. After the abdication of
the Manchu Dynasty, which he had done his best to uphold, he
accepted the Presidency of the Republic and took the oath of
office in March 1912; but he did so with mental reservations which
were obvious to those who had followed his career and observed
his policy. As President he displayed statesmanship of a high



order under conditions of exceptional difficulty. Judged by
European standards, his methods were often indefensible, but
until he aspired to found a new dynasty in his own person (1915)
their ruthlessness and venal expediency were generally accepted
by the nation without indignation, and regarded as consistent
with time-honoured traditions of rulership. All his efforts of
statecraft were steadily directed towards restoring the authority
of the central Government, shattered by the revolution, and with
it, the principles and practice of benevolent despotism. His
monarchical plans were skilfully laid and would probably have
succeeded if he had had to deal only with his own people; they
failed, and he died a broken and humiliated man, because he had
not allowed for the probability of intervention by the Japanese
Government. His enthronement as Emperor had been fixed by
proclamation for Feb. 9 1916; before that date the Yunnan re-
bellion had vindicated the " advice " of the Japanese minister at
Peking, and the end of his career was in sight. But he declined to
resign the Presidency, and died, as he had lived, in harness.

YUDENICH, NIKOLAI (1862- ), Russian general, was
born in 1862 and entered the army in 1881. Passing out of the
General Staff College in 1887, he spent the rest of his military
service on the general staff and specially in Turkestan, till in 1902
he became a regimental commander. In the Russo-Japanese
War of 1904-5, in which he was wounded, he had the reputation
of a valiant and careful chief. He became a general and com-
mander of a rifle brigade in 1005, assistant chief-of-staff of the
Caucasian military district in 1907, and chief of the same staff in
1913. Having carefully studied the Caucasus and its army, he
was quite prepared for the conduct of operations on this front, and
at the beginning of the World War he rendered great services
in the crisis and victory of Sarikamish as commander of the II.
Turkestan Corps. Soon afterwards he was put in command of
all the military forces of the Caucasus, which he held during the
operations of 1915 until the arrival of the Grand Duke Nicolai.
He continued to serve on this front under the new governor-
general and played a leading part in the operations which led
to the fall of Erzerum on Feb. 16 1916. In the summer cam-
paign further progress was made, and Baiburt and Erzinjan were
taken. Later, when the advance had outrun the organization
of the rear, the situation was saved by his prompt manoeuvres.

In March 1917, on the departure of the Grand Duke, Gen.
Yudenich again undertook the command of the Caucasian
armies, but here, as elsewhere, further advance was paralysed by
the increasing disorganization of the Russian army. In the course
of the civil wars Gen. Yudenich in 1920 carried out a campaign
from the Baltic provinces against Petrograd, but unsuccessfully.

YUGOSLAVIA, or JUGOSLAVIA. The " Kingdom of the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes " (Kraljevina Srba Hnata i Slovcnaca),
more commonly known as Yugoslavia, came into being in the
closing months of 1918 as a result of the collapse of Austria-
Hungary and the voluntary union of its Yugoslav territories
with the former Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro. la
point of international law, its existence may be said to date
from Dec. i 1918, when the Prince-Regent Alexander of Serbia
formally complied with the invitation of the Yugoslav National
Council to assume the regency over the sister provinces also.
That the Great Powers were so long in according official
recognition to the new state was due to purely political rea-
sons connected with the Adriatic dispute.

Yugoslavia consists ofthe former independent Kingdoms of
Serbia and Montenegro; the triune Kingdom of Croatia-Slav-
onia-Dalmatia (of which the first two enjoyed special autonomy
under the Kingdom of Hungary, and sent 40 delegates from
their own Parliament in Zagreb to that of Budapest, while the
third was one of the 17 provinces of the Austrian Empire, with
a local diet at Zara); parts of the Banat, Backa and Baranja
(which were integral portions of Hungary proper); Slovenia
(consisting of portions of Carniola, Carinthia, Styria and Istria,
each holding a position in Austria analogous to Dalmatia) ; and
Bosnia-Herzegovina (which was from 1878 to 1918 under the
joint administration of Austria and Hungary and had its own
diet since 1910). Fiume, which from 1867 to 1918 had been an



YUGOSLAVIA



ii



YUGOSLAVIA

Scale, 1:5,000,000 .''py436o7e

Frontier of Yugoslavia
Other International Frontiers 1921
International Frontiers 1914
Boundaries between Austria, Hun|ary,
Croatia & Bosnia 1914
Railways




autonomous unit under Hungary, has by the Treaty of Rapallo
been constituted as an independent State. Italy has acquired
almost all the Slovene and Croat districts of Gorizia and Istria.

A census of the new State was taken in the spring of 1921, the
total pop. being 12,162,900.

Early Tendencies Toward Unity. The Yugoslav movement
was by no means a recent one, as is often assumed. Despite
the different traditions of culture due to the rival ecclesiastical
influence of Rome and Byzantium, a sense of kinship had sur-
vived throughout centuries of separation, and was strengthened
by continual migration. The two most notable cases were the
formation of the Uskok pirate settlements along the Dalmatian
coast in the i6th century, and the settlement of the Serbian
patriarch and many thousand Serb refugee families in Slavonia
and S. Hungary, at the invitation of the Emperor Leopold I.
in 1690. Ivan Gundulic and the brilliant group of poets that
gathered round him at Ragusa in the early i7th century, re-
flected in their writings the little Slav Republic's intimate con-
nexion with its kinsmen of Serbia and Bosnia. The first advo-
cate of the Pan-Slav idea in Russia itself was Krizanic, a Croat
Catholic priest from Dalmatia, and early writers in favour of
Slavonic racial and literary unity were the Slovene schoolmaster
Bohoricz (1584) and the Dalmatian Croat Orbini, who wrote in
Italian (II regno degli Slavi 1601). The Franciscan friar Kacic,
who did so much for the revival of popular poetry in Bosnia
and Dalmatia in the mid-i8th century, shows similar traces of
Serbophil feeling, and the achievements of Dusan and other
Serbian Tsars have bulked almost as largely in the modern
literature of the Croats as of the Serbs themselves.

The first active impulse toward political unity was given by
Napoleon, when after Wagram he erected the Slovene districts



and most of Croatia and Dalmatia into a separate Illyrian State,
incorporated in the French Empire, but having its adminis-
trative capital at Laibach. This short-lived experiment, which
inspired the muse of Vodnik, the first Slovene poet of real
mark, had its aftermath in the Illyrian movement of the forties,
which centred in Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Its real motive
force was supplied by Ljudevit Gaj, who combined to a remark-
able degree the qualities of author, philologist and political
agitator. His two newspapers, the Illyrian National Gazelle
and the Danica Ilirska (Illyrian Daystar) provided a literary
focus for the rising generation ; while his reform of Croat ortho-
graphy, planned on parallel lines with Vuk Karadzic's epoch-
making philological work in Serbia, assured to modern Serbo-
Croat literature a definitely unitary development. The fact
that linguistically Serb and Croat had thus become interchange-
able terms, only to be distinguished by the respective use of the
Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, inevitably reacted upon the politi-
cal situation, and served as an incentive to the movement for
unity. In somewhat sensational and affected but prophetic
words Gaj compared Illyria to a lyre, " a triangle between
Skutari, Varna and Villach. Its strained and inharmonious
chords are Carinthia, Gorizia, Istria, Croatia, Slavonia, Dal-
matia, Ragusa, Bosnia, Montenegro, Herzegovina, Serbia,
Bulgaria and Lower Hungary," and " on the great lyre of
Europe they must harmonize once more." He saw in the Mag-
yars the chief obstacle to the realization of his dream, and openly
warned them that they were " an island in the Slav ocean,"
which one day might easily engulf them. The alienation of
Croat and Magyar for centuries close allies in the struggle
against the Turk grew rapidly in the ' forties, mainly owing to
the aggressive legislation passed by successive Hungarian diets,



1 1 14



YUGOSLAVIA



and tending to curtail Croatia's ancient liberties and extend
the sway of the Magyar language. It was a fertile soil for
Gaj's agitation, and in 1848 the Croatian nation found in Baron
Jelacic a military leader who voiced the Illyrian idea and hoped
to realize it in union with the Habsburg Dynasty and the other
subject nationalities of Hungary. It is highly significant that
Jelacic as Ban of Croatia went hand in hand with the newly
elected Serb-patriarch Rajacic: that Croats and Serbs, including
many volunteers from the principality of Serbia, fought side by
side against Hungary, and that the poet-prince-bishop Peter II.
of Montenegro wrote to Jelacic, expressing his solidarity with
the movement.

Croatia after 1848. After the collapse of the Hungarian revo-
lution in 1849, the Croats, in the words of Pulszky, received as
reward the same absolutist regime which had been imposed upon
the Magyars as punishment. Jelacic and Gaj died as disap-
pointed men, and the very general resentment aroused by the
ingratitude of Francis Joseph vented itself also against the
name of Illyria, which rapidly disappeared from the political
arena. But its place was taken more and more by Yugoslavia,
which, it should be remarked, was then still used to denote all