WHO TALKS OF PEACE?

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2652, 24 December 1915, Page 3

WHO TALKS OF PEACE?

WHY GERMANY MUST FAIL.

"Germany is Beaten" is the heading of an exhaustive loader in .tlie New York' "Tribune," which,has been notable ( for its brilliant analyses of the war's progress. "After fifteen months of unequalled strifo" —the "Tribune" asks —"who is it that is talking of peace? AVe in tho TJnited States in our own experience have an admirable standard of measurement for German military success. In the Civil AVar the victors were for many months the vanquished. Compare the German with the Confederate successes, making proper .allowance for the difference of size, and the essential fact is the same. Looking back, nothing is clearer than that the South was always doomed unless it could get an early decision on the • battlefield. Outnumbered and inferior in population and resources, cut off from sea-borne commerce, tho South was condemned to defeat unless it could. destroy the armies before it.

"Germany and Austria are outnumbered. Tlie wealth and resources of Great Britain) France, and Russia are incomparably greater.,' British sea power has destroyed German commerce, and sealed German harbours, while for tho Allies the sea brings all the resources of America and the colonies to : the battle! lines. At' Antietam • ' andGettysburg the South bid for a decision. It" failed. At the Marne and in tho recent Russian _ campaign Germany mad© 'a similar bid and lost. A single significant fact of the military situation now is that Germany is bleeding to death."

• The "Tribune" points out that the fighting on the thre9 fronts is a terriblo drain on Germany, utterly' disproEortionate to the drain on any one of er opponents. "It may take a year or two to bleed Germany white," says' the' journal,' "but tlie process is going on steadily, and remorselessly. "The proof of this assertion is that to go to the Balkans Germany had to abandon the Russian* drive. Apart from local operations at Riga, the effort to crush Russian military power has been abandoned. Russia has been left to recuperate as France* and England were left to consolidate their position after the Marne and Yser. In the West, Germany is barely hanging on. Viewing the war from this abgle, it is clear why German statesmen talk and think, of peace. There is no corresponding talk in London, Paris, or Petrograd." The "Tribune" speaks of "premature peace talk from German sources which is sure to follow any local success in the Balkans," and compares this with tlie frantic and abortive peaco efforts of tlie American pacifists in 1864. Only unexpected weakness in the final chapter on tho part of the Allies can avert tho inevitable.

"Bernhardi," tlio "Tribune"' says, "foretold with inexorable logic that if Germany failed to get a decision over one of her several foes before all were ready she must lose. And slio failed— failed utterly', in spite of local successes. Germany is now approaching what will bo lier last great bid for victor}', but it will not be made on the buttlefield. That is over. It will be made in conferences, in pea.ee negotiations, and in operations through neutrals. If those fail we shall presently .•ice the whole character of the 'conflict change, and an utterly new spirit flow from t'fio Rhine to the Vistula."—Reu_toi«