The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUHUST 3, 1918. THE. FIFTH YEAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 270, 3 August 1918, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUHUST 3, 1918. THE. FIFTH YEAR

As tho war enters its fifth year two facts stand out boldly. One is that the Allied nations arc_ more than -ever, convinced of the justico of their cause; the other, that they are fighting in full and undiininishod confidence of sooner or later attaining their'goal of a righteous and stable peace ' The justice of tho Allied cause "was apparent at the outset. It has been thrown into ever higher relief by Germany's progress in crime and degradation. Every charge that has been .made against her with authority since the war-cloud burst in 1914 has boon sheeted honio with finality. Her guilt - in deliberately plunging Europe, into war has bsen-proclaim-ed oven in her own inner official circle. Branded initially with that colossal crime, her reputation is indelibly stained; also by almost numberless atrocities on land and sea. The last touch of self-revela-tion needed appears, in her treatment of the hapless' peoples who have fallen into her clutches in Eastern Europe. She stands nakedly exposed before the world to-day as a nation- to whom brute force is everything and the moral law nothing, a nation to whom any crimo is attractive it it brinps or promises material gain. What Germany is on the mammoth scale, her vassals arc in their degree. Wo have.one thing to thank her for. She has. made it plain beyond all possibility of doubt or mistake that-the only way to preserve the world from an unendurable nightmare of horror is to subject her to crushing defeat. Tho British people'who arc about to commemorate tho fifth anniversary of war can have no doubt or hesitation in affirming -their inflexible determination to continue the struggle to'a victorious end. The alternative is to conclude a peace-by understanding with a nation which admittedly would regard such a peace as an opportunity of preparing another and more formidable bid for world dominion. The knowledge of what peace with an undefeated . Germany- would mean in itself gives tho Allies an all-sufficient reason for continuing the war with unflinching resolution. But it is to be said also that as the fifth year of war opens, the Al-' lies are as confident as they are resolute. Sound reasons for hope and confidence arc to.be found in the events of the present year's campaign on the Western front—a campaign in. which the enemy is making his last and most, desperate effort for victory. How badly tho Allies fared in the earlier battles of this year is known to all. Caught iii tho period of transition from national to unified command, and in many respects ill-prepared to cqpo with the enemy's superior mobility and greater strength in available reserves, their utmost efforts* served at first only to modify defeat. As a result they were placed for a time in perhaps the most critical situation they have occupied at any stage of tho war. But in this supremo emergency the Allied armies, with the American advance guard i already in action, have proved themselves nobly, worthy of the trust reposed in therm. Thanks to their unfaltering valour the menace of the offensive with which tho enemy undoubtedly hoped to end and win the war looms "much less formidably today than it did in March and April. In opening the offensive Germany hoped to add' victory to victory and prevail by the cumulative effect of overwhelming blows. ■ Instead, sho lias struck with diminishing effect; and in her latest effort her attacking armies have been rolled back in disastrous defeat.,, Even now the situation has not wholly lost its* critical aspects, but it is well within tho facts to-say that iii the- battles, of this year the Allies have passed from darkness into light. , A retrospect of tho present year's canipaign docs not; of course,' fully bring out ,tho improvement in their prospects to-day as compared with an earlier stage .of the war. The real contrast to be-drawn is between thoir present situation and that to which they, wore reduced by the collapse of Russia. It is no secret how that even: before the Revolution tho Allies*, and particularly Franco, had begun to fear for the stability of Russia, and that doubts arose in consequence as to their ability-to maintain such numbers on tho Western front as would give them a reasonable. pros- v poet of decisively defeating the enemy in the field. But if Allied prospects wore clouded and darkened by tho loss of Russian co-opera-tion, they are brighter than ever now ■that America is throwing herself vigorously into the- struggle and has made it plain to friend and foo that! shy sets no limit to the sacrifices she is prepared to undergo in order to bring Germany to defeat. 'American soldiers have already given splendid proofs of their quality, and in its full breadth and significance American co-operation is.' , a definite assurance to the Allies that their aggregate resources will riot fail under any demand the war may yet impose. Tho certainty that the strength lust to the Allies when Russia collapsed will bo more than made good by tlie United States is to-day one of the, commanding facts of the war. Tho Kais'T's bombast cannot alter the f»ct- that the U-boats,have definitely failed-to impede in any serious degree this mighty reinforcement of the Allied fighting forces —a reinforcement not only of tho fleets at sea and the armies on land, but of the aerial squadrons which aro carrying the war with over-in-creasing effect into German , territory. It is.not less noteworthy that in this year, which in all likelihood

will rank as the most critical of the war, the Al,lics perfected the unified command lor lack of which they had been previously at a hcitvy disadvantage. Tlie result is to notably strengthen their organisation and ensure that their expanding resources will lie turnexl to Hie best possible account. To say that tho Allies are able to look ahead with confidence is as far as possible from saying that nothing remains in the war but an easy and assured progress to victory. The enemy is still formidable, not only in warlike 'strength; but in his crafty and unceasing efforts to beguile the Allies into conceding such a peace .as would leave.him free to resume bis schemes of conquest and domination at a later and. better opportunity. But ho has failed to gain his ends with the odds more heavily in his favour than they will ever be again, and as tho fifth year of war opens it is plain that the Allies need only remain firm of purpose and untiring in effort to gain sooner or later the secure peace which is. their single aim. *'