GERMANY'S SPASMODIC SMASHING BLOWS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 46, 17 November 1917, Page 6

GERMANY'S SPASMODIC SMASHING BLOWS

After three years of war Germany is. making tho most of a situation which'threatens, her with, ruin by inflicting spasmodic smashing blows on' battlcfronts rotten with internal strife or honeycombed with treachery. The Russian situation, bad though it may bo to Britain and her loyal Allies, cannot bo worse than the peace that would have been made by; Nicholas the Weak, controlled by his German wife. ,Russia, rent with revolution, is probably better for us than a Russian autocracy controlled by German}'. The Italian debacle is clearly among the things in this war that should not have been, and the ugly story of tho probable treachery that brought it about may not bo told for some time.. Germany has pierced in these recent weeka tho very vulnerable Russian and Italian fronts, 'and has followed this up by invasion, but that is \tho limit of her achievements. She is no nearer winning the war than she was three years ago. Her colonial empire is gone. Her ships of commerce hare been 'confiscated or swept off tho seas. Her power as the assassin of the sea through her U-boats is weakening. Her warships, still skulk behind forts or mine-fields. She knows that the only way to a decisive victory for her lies in the Western front, and there she is on the defensive, and is slowly . blecdin'g to death through the invinciblo "assaults of the British and the French. In her temporary .successes by means of her spasmodic, smashing blows in Russia and in Italy, Germany has no adequate compensation for her losses elsewhere. But these successes no doubt proloug the war. To anyone who knows tho railway systems of tho Gontral-Powers" and tho internal resources of Germany, there is nothing remarkable in those .spasmodic, smashing blows. Germany is fighting in tho centre of a great circle, and it is an easy thing for her by means of her network of railways to transport swiftly men, munitions, and ' guns to a given point in her circumference and inflict sudden blows. In her warfare 'she is.never far from her base, and cannot be cut off from any supplies she may possess. Mr. Gerard, exAmbassador, of the United States, has called attention to the fact that Germany is practically bankrupt in money as well as in morals. She has borrowed incredible sums on the gambler's security of mythical indemnities that she threatens to exact from her enemies, and which she now knows will never be paid. Her smashing blows represent a desperate endeavour to discourage her enemies and win favourable peace terms. Her rulers know tfiat they cannot win the war. These smashing blows are within.the power of Germany, for she is rich in iron, the one thing most.needful in war, and she can confiscate everything within

her borders ibafc will make munitions.' Tbo secret of her smashing blows on weak- fronts is to bo seen in' her geographical position, backed by her colossal resources of steel and iron. lb is nofc by her man power, nor by her money power, but by her iron power that sho is able to strike at this late h6ur of the day of war. During tho years ol peace! before the war, a revolution in the British and German iron trade resulted in the supremacy in the production of iron and steel passing from Britain to Germany. Seventy years ago Britain produced half the iron of the world: When the Franco-Ger-man .War began,-Britain was turning out half as much steel again as Germany. In 1914, when we were forced to wage war with Germany, the trado tables were turned, for Germany was then producing 85 per cent, more pig-iron and 143 per cent, more steel annually than Britain. The Quarterly Review for April cited this fact of fatefirl omen, and adds: "The history of tho war and the Ministry of Munitions is, to a vory_ great extent, a commentary on this simple statement," and the reviewer furnishes the following table, which shows in millions of tons the export of steel and iron from Britain and Germany, and how Germany forge'd ahead of Britain by leaps and bounds in twelve years; — From From Tear. Germany. Britain. 1901' . 2.34 2.80 1902' ;. . 3.30 3.47 , 1903- !...; '.' 3.48 3.54 1904 2.77 3,26 1905 3.35 3.72 1906 A....1... 3.66 4.68 '• 1907 3.45 6.15 1908 3.74 4.09 1909 4.04 4.21 1910 4.87 4.58 ' 1911 „....., ; 5.38 4.51- l - - 1912 . ;.,- -.. . 6.03 4.80 This surprising supremacy of Germany in" iron and steel production was the fruit of the robbery in 1870 of tho great iron.mines of Lorraine, and in the early weeks of thq war iu 1914 - fi ?rmany added to her mineral wealth by capturing the French iron mines in the basin of tho Briey, and thus robbed Franco of three-fourths of her remaining wealth of iron and steel. This colossal, ill-gotten wealth in iron gives Germany to-day her power of defence. in . the Western front and hor power to strike spasmodic blows on other fronts. But Germany has to contend to-day with tho mineral wealth of tho world-. Before thewar Germany's output of iron oro was 21,000,000 tons per annum, but the combined output of tho United States arid- Britain was 50,000,000. Tho increased output to-day in Britain and America.is immensely greater. In spite of tho handicap" of sea transport, Britain and hev Allies have the supremacy in iron power as. well as man power in the Western front, and that supremacy will increase from Amorica as the weeks pass by. Germany's 'mineralwealth' that, has helped to make; her the 'pcaccbreaker of ..tho world is chiefly on the Western front,- and tho smashing of the Western front and tho driving of tho Huns to the Rhino will mean tho recovery to France of the mines that gave Germany her power. Deprived of her iron power, sho -*011. cease to be the ,menace of "the world._ Meanwhilo this iron power is in Gcrraiiny's hands, and.tbo surprising thing, in viow: of -the- wholo situation, is that ■she did so little with it in the early ■months of tho war, wfen'Britain and her Allies' were unready and unprepared.