THE "CANNON FODDER" MAN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 222, 7 June 1918, Page 6

THE "CANNON FODDER" MAN

LUDENDOBFF OF THE MAILED FIST. The sooner we remove the idea from our heads that anything counts which the Keictatag or the demi-semi-Snosvdens of.Germany may say the better for our- . eelves (says tho London "Weekly Dispatch"). Two years ago Hindenburg ' said that Germany would riot be able to win a food peace, which means a bad poace from our opnosite point of view, until the British liad been—a horrible word—"pulped." While the Hun statesmen have been talking one thing, Ludendorlf and Hindenburg have been working , the other. Ludeudori! frankly no nonsense from politicians. Hie Czirniu report of "no annexations" ' made him furious. He is running Germany. If this Hertling or any other Hertling, gets in the way, then that particular ltertling will go, for Ludendorffs intention is to win a military Kaisei>Luden-dorff-Hindenburi; and not a diplomat's victory. Lndendorft" "looks at the map" and not at the resolutions ironi tli9 Reichstag. He does not wait for signs from Chancellors. Ho cares for no "leaders" from any "group." He sent for Hertling. Hertling was recently commanded to Headquarters, where ho received a piece of tho Ludendorff mind and his instructions as to tho line' he was to take.

Before iho'Ger.uan offensive there was a dinner party ,at which Ludendorff was an honoured, and, it vniust be said, a revered, guest. The dinner-table talk was \ : small; in fact, there was so much food ' that tho guests had little time to talk; but after, dinner, when roffee (not this acorn colfeo of the masses) was handed round, war talk began. There were the pessimists. They started. Some of them taunted Ludendorff with the fact, as they put it, that no general had been pro- , duced'by tho war and no winning niiU- • tary decision was possible. Ludendortt brushed aside the suggestion about the general as a thing not worth talking about, and sharply asserted that' a firstclass military decision could be won. 'Die ta'k was on the prospects on the West front. Could anything decisive bn achieved there? The cost would be too great, said the pessimists. The peoplo would never stand it. This was too much for Ludendorff, who is a true, "cannonfodder" man. He thumped the table. "They will stand tho loss of a million men "if I ask it. I shall take good care that among that) million are those who , . talk most ibo'it peace or who give trouble." "But the Socialists would never stand it," exclaimed a bespectacled ■ Hun who had been listening quietly to the conversation. "Socialists be damned, rapoed out Lndendorfi. ."By the time you fear a revolution I shall havo prevented it. The men will he dead, and women, as Napoleon said, cannot makrt revolutions." That' is the man and the spirit wo are fighting.