WAR NEWS BY MAIL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2358, 14 January 1915, Page 6

WAR NEWS BY MAIL

GERMANY'S EFFORT SPENT

AN AMERICAN VIEW

Washington, December 1,

Roviowing the four months of the campaign, tho military expert of tho "New York' Evening Sun" declares that certain things have becomo unmistakably clear. Above all else, it is plain, first, that tho great German design has failed utterly and irretrievably. Whatever may happen in the future it is certain that France is not to bo destroyed. When the war is over Franco will retain her place as a Great Power and her army will continue to be a factor in the European combinations. Four months of furious fighting have settled this. In late August'and in early September a Sedan seemed possible. At the close of November France has escaped any real disaster, and with the British reinforcements 'has checked every German offensive in' the West since the Battle of the Marne. "A Europe dominated by the German Emperor," tho writer continues, "is henceforth a thing inconceivable so long as there remains in being the Grand Alliance which has been formed by tho three Great Powers and two small States to face the Austro-German coalition. In a military sense it is too early to talk of a conquered Germany, but it is no longer premature to assert that the vision of a conquering Germany has been laid to rest."

Discussing the German plan of campaign to drive on Paris while Austria held Russia in check and Great Britain "was still gathering in unready hosts," the writer says it has utterly failed. While the Allies were defeating the Germans on the Marne the Russian armies were beating down the Austrian armies, carrying the war into East Prussia, and far into Galicia. Always the German problem has been the same. Always it was their design—and their necessity—to hold back the Russians Until they could crush tho Western Allies; but in this, the writer in the "New York Evening Sun" contends, the Germans have doubly failed. In the West the Germans have been unable to advance their front since October 11. Three times the German Emperor's generals have driven eastward in their effort to relieve Austria from the ever-growing pressure of the Russian masses in' Galicia. It is the belief of this critic that to-day the Western armies are numerically equal to those of Germany, 'and he goes on:

"Failure in the .East and in the West foreshadows the time when mere numbers will put Germany completely on the defensive. To predict a speedy determination of the war is idle. To set "a limit to the time Germany can hold Belgium is futile. It remains wholly possible that political changes may save William 11, as a change in Russian Emperors rescued Frederick the Great at the gravest hour in his long and perilous career. But on the mere military side it is hard to perceive that there is now any chance for an ultimate German triumph: Every shred of evidence that comes to this country directly from Germany demonstrates the depth and intensity of the unity of German determination. To oonquer such a nation may mean years, as it must mean a tremendous sacrinoo of life and wastage of capital, but at the close of the fourth month of the war there is almost overwhelming evidence to warrant the assertion that ; a German success seems no longer possible given the existing political conditions."