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THE WEST TO DECIDE THE ISSUE

GERMAN MAN POWER WEARING ■ THIN. Mr. John Buchan, the well-known writer on the war, recently gavo a lecture on "The Recent Advance in the West." General 13. P. Seroeold, who presided, said that ho had only returned rrom France in tho last few days, and ho had already been asked, fifty times, when the war was coming t-o an end. He could not answer that question by giving dates, but ho could answer it in this way. Germany was fighting with her back to the wall, ana if a man fought with his back to the wall he did not give in easily. Wo could not expect the Germans to' give in e'asily, any more than we should give in easily if .we had our back to the wall." If, therefore, we were going to beat Germany, it was not a question of those who were at home saying we were going to do it; it was a question of doing it and not talking about it. {Hear, hear.)

Mr. Buchan expressed the belief that tho decisivo battle of tlio war would be fought in the West. It seemed, ho said, as though history would repeat itself. It would be remembered that Napoleon was checked in the Peninsula, and he • oared nothing about it. Ho swept eastward, and made great conquests, but thoy' availed him little, and by and by, when fortune turned, he camo back to meet his fate west of the Rhine This .war was going to be woii by the destruction of the German forces ill the field and by nothing else. It mattered very little i'hother that destruction took place on' tho Vistula, the-\Dneiper, the Danube, or the Aisne, but he could not help thinking that tlio fateful point was the AYest, and that, after all their adventures in far-away countries, it was on the fields of Franco and Flanders that the armed might of Germany crumble. There were two facts' of the war of which Germany was aware, but which our pessimists seemed to have forgotten. These were facts' which, in liis opinion, would sooner or later give tho Allies the victory, unless we ciioseto throw away our chances. No machine was immortal. It might break down from internal weakness. or because it was confronted with a machine of greater strength. Once the countormachine was ready the decision, rested, as of old, with the human element. Tho second fact was that the human' element, *30 far as.Gerniany was concerned, was wearing very thin. He wns_ not speaking of quality, though he believed the actual fighting quality of tho Allied soldiers, man for man, was more formidable than that of Germany. He was speaking of quantity. Every day the' spectre of diminishing man-power crept more closely to the German side. There was one thing which nn machine and no science could do. Thoy could do marvels, but they oonld nob bring the dead from their graves. (Applause.)

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19160205.2.90

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2687, 5 February 1916, Page 13

Word count
Tapeke kupu
497

THE WEST TO DECIDE THE ISSUE Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2687, 5 February 1916, Page 13

THE WEST TO DECIDE THE ISSUE Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2687, 5 February 1916, Page 13

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