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 restoration 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. 1 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 reasons connected with the Adriatic dispute.
Yugoslavia consists of the former independent Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro; the triune Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-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
