The Dominion. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1916. '"NO HALF-MEASURES"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2931, 17 November 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1916. '"NO HALF-MEASURES"

Whatever the German people think about it, the German Government; on the evidence o£_ cablegrams from reliable sources, is still determined upon one supreme effort to turn the tide of'war in favour of the Central Powers, or, in the, bitter alternative, to secure the best possible terms of peace in the event of defeat. By every possible expedient,- lawful and unlawful, they are putting into the fightingline, for the campaigns next spring, every available man capable of bearing arms. Against all the canons of international warfare they have deported from Belgium and Northern France thousands of persons of both sexes for the purpose of putting them into what are virtually slave gangs, so that the German workers may be set free for the firing-line without prejudice to the output of the German war factories. They have just promul-' gated a general conscription of citizens for war purposes—not only for men, but for women—so that the whole nation may be concentrated upon the final oast of the die. They have flagrantly, brazenly, broken their writen promise to the United States Government that they would not sink-ships without warning, and resumed their piratical outrages on the high seas in callous and defiant contempt for the consequences.- By the most fiendish and calculated' devices— the dissemination of disease germs —they have attempted to terrorise thcßumanian nation, and by an invasion in force —happily, it would appear, checked in time—sought to put our most recent, ally in the fight for freedom out of action To all these factors in the German system of war-making, an effective rc : ply must be made. Colonel Repington, The Times', military correspondent, considers that the- British Government must face the fact that the enemy means business by his proclamation of a general conscription of his citizens. "There must bo no half-measures," he dcj clares. Since the beginning of the Allied advance on _ the Somme we have, on every occasion upon which wo have taken the offensive, attained, or practically attained, our objective, thanks largely to an overwhelming superiority in our air reconnaissance and our artillery, which happily enabled our splendid infantry to secure the objectives with, comparatively speaking, a minimum of losses.| We have demonstrated our power and our capacity to beat the enemv at every point, but we have also learned that it will require the continued increase of our utmost 6trength to press the victory home. On the Russian front Brusiloff's brilliant victories in the Volhynia and Galicia havo secured the rcconquest of Bukowina, and an appreciable gain over the ground lost to tho Allied cause by the great German offensive of 1915, but the necessity, imposed by German' strategy, of reinforcing the Rumanians has resulted in a loss of j valuable time at the moment when | Brusiloff's operations were ripening for an overwhelming blow. The Italians have gained ground, and made grievous gaps in the ranks of the Austrian effectives, but withal they have not moro than invaded the friiige of the enemy's territory. In short, the general situation in tho closing months of the 1916 campaieis leaves us with at least another year of stern, grim, unremitting effort to. face- if we arc to force the Prussian Junker to his knees before the dawn of 1918. No intelligent citizen who has read the news of the war and reflected upon the significance of recent events can honestly burke the issues' before us. The call that has gone forth to the Emnivc is for the utmost we can do. In Britain a strenuous endeavour is being made to onsurc not only that the strength of the armies now in the field should be fullv maintained, but. that In every department of the war w;>, shall be in a position to retain ou' present superiority over the enemy.

The final great, wc might say despairing, effort of the Central Powers calls for an equally determined answer on our part. It would be the height of folly because we have now secured the uppor hand to underrate the tremendous preparations which Germany is making in a final endeavour to stave off decisive defeat and gain peace terms which will enable her to escape the punishment she has so fully earned. There can be no slackness now without imperilling what we have already accomplished at such heavy sacrifice. The facts must be squarely faced here and in | all parts of the Empire, and they plainly show, in the words of Colonel Kgpington, that wc must sec that we make full use of ,thc whole of our manhood, and, if necessary, of our womanhood as well.