THE ALLIES AND GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3154, 4 August 1917, Page 6

THE ALLIES AND GERMANY

The .commanding fact as the war enters a fourth year is that, Germany—the Germany which armed deliberately and with criminal forethought to enslave Europe—is without prospects. Sir William Robertson, a high authority and a cautious man of few words, is quoted to-day as saying: "Considering the respective numbers and resources, it is fair to conclude that tho Allies, if they are steadfast and soundhearted, will sooner or later compel tho Central Powers to submit." Like every other authority whoso opinion is worth noticing, Sir William Eobertson lays strong emphasis upon moral and spiritual factors. "The .tremendous contest between armed millions." h& says, "is also a test of racial qualities. . . . Quality is going to win the_ war, character being the deciding factor." These are truths with a. vital bearing upon the development of the war. Tno inspiring consciousness of a just cause is a priceless asset to the Allies; and it is Germany's deadliest weakness, so far as her position as anation at war is concerned, that a moral awakening on the part of her people would entail tho instant overthrow of the men who made the war and are now afra-18 to call a halt lest they should be brought to account for their atrocious crimes. Prospects in tho war are not determined only by the balance of numorical and material strength. Tho Allies have developed a pronounced superiority in numerical and material strength, and will enormously increase their present margin long before this fourth year_ of war has come to an end, but it is even more important that Germany and her vassals, in their political slavery and moral degradation, arc vulnerable as free nations fighting honestly in defence of their liberties could never be.

Though it is true in a sense that the one! is not yet in sight, it, is equally true that, the war has entered its fourth year with the Allies

well advanced on the road to victory. In the early months of the third year of war the enemy armies wore sweeping through Rumania. Its Inter months have brought to the Aljies the heavy disappointment and dislocation of plans involved in the collapse of the .Russian southern armies. Yet it is unreservedly true that in the twelve months 'which ha.vo just ended Germany has been travelling steadily down hill to defeat. It is no misleading indication 'of the broad trend of events that the first hours of the fourth year of war saw her armies in Flandors staggering back under the impetus of an Allied offensive which has heavily intensified her problems of defence in the Western theatre. The events of the year just ended have demonstrated that she has exhausted her capacity for successful aggression on such a scale as would restore her declining fortunes. Her invasion of Rumania last • winter brought her no decisive advantage. The success she has lately won in Galicia, as much by conspiracy as by military effort" has perhaps saved her from final defeat this year. But, however it may be developed, it will not turn the fate of the war, and Germany is now so placed that she cannot send a division to Russia without taking a step nearer to crowning disaster in the Western theatre. Throughout the war-year just ended her main armies —two-thirds of her total fighting strength—have been visibly in process of defeat in • this ■ decisive theatre, where the war will be won and lost, and her utmost' efforts have not sufficed to arrest, far less jeyerse, the process. Adding to this that the submarine campaign, to which Hindenburg himself pointed some time ago as the sole hope of winning the war, has failed, it is manifestly not straining the facts to say that Germany' is without prospects in the war, and that if the Allies, as Sir William Robertson puts it, are steadfast and soundhearted, nothing can save her from utter defeat.