The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1917. GENERAL SMUTS ON THE WAR OUTLOOK

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 11, 8 October 1917, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1917. GENERAL SMUTS ON THE WAR OUTLOOK

A REVIEW'of tho war situation' credited to-day to General Smuts is specially deserving of attention. What this famous Boer soldier and statesman lias to say at this critical moment of war will be received with all the more faith from the fact that General Shuts resembles nothing less than a special pleader. It has been his fortune to know tho British Empire from outside as well as from inside, and to fight against it as well as to lead British armies. Liko tho great majority of his countrymen, he is now a . l°y a J citizen of tho Empire, but his citizenship is of too recent date to colour his outlook. He is in a position to speak from a far broader 'standpoint than the ordinary -British statesman or military commander. At tho- same time, by reason_ of his association with the Imperial War Cabinet, he is in a. position to speak with definite knowledge of many things which are hidden from the public gaze. Commanding attention in any case as the utterance of an exceptionally able man in close touch with events, what General Smuts has to say about the war is given double force by the fact that he speaks from what may fairly, be called an impartial standpoint. Tho speech reported to-day makes it evident that General Smuts is as confident of the enemy's impending defeat as of the justice of the cause 1 in which the Allies arc fighting. It is manifest also that his confidence is strengthened instead of being diminished by the special knowledge of which he is possessed' as a result of his association with- the War Cabinet. This applies particularly to his references to submarine arid aerial warfare. That the enemy's powers of resistance are rapidly waning in the Western theatre is plain to all observers. With the experience of the latest battle in Flanders' to go upon, General Smuts's observation that "our military predominance on l-hc Western front is no longer in question" will be accepted generally as a conservative statement of the truth. '

But while the defeat of the enemy armies is being visiblv worked out in the decisive land theatre, somewhat uneasy speculations have lately been current in regard to aerial | warfare, and still moi'e in regard Ito the submarine campaign. We have, a very definite assurance from General Smuts that neither the bombing of London nor the submarine campaign against merchant ships will save the Germans from the fate that is in store for them. In Germany as well as in Allied countries full attention will he paid to his prediction that the enemy will find aerial warfare, as he has developed it on the lines of attacking cities and towns, a' terrible boomerang, and to his unqualified declaration that the submarine has ceased to bo a decisive factor in the war. From every point of view this spccch, unquestionably an able and unprejudiced survey of the- war both in its moral and material aspects, piits a most encouraging light on prospects. General Smuts nowhere gives better proof of his masterly grasp of the essential issues at stake than in pointing to the lasting infamy which Germany has incurred in doing her best to overthrow and destroy Russia at a time when that country is struggling in the throes of re-birth as a free nation. In this matter, as in others, Germany has been at the same time criminal and foolish. Germany is already beginning to pay for that blunder. There is no doubt that the unmistakable demonstration she has given of her own character is the grand obstacle to that separate peace with Russia for which she has so industriously conspired and intrigued.