PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 41, 12 November 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

After being continued into its fifty-first month, the war has now reached a stage at which it may be destined to end very suddenly, lnc time granted to Germany, in winch to consider the armistice terms dictated by Marshal Focii and Admiral AViiMYSS expired last night (New Zealand time), and it should be known early to-day whether or not the armistice has been signed. Tho chances, no doubt, are heavily in favour of the armistice being signed, but the'question now raised is rather .whether the signing is likely to be effective and to bo accepted as binding by the German people, armies, and fleet. This question, for the moment, is open, but there is very little doubt that Germany s one way to avoid destruction, as Mr. Lloyd George has said, is immediate surrender. The real point now at issue is whether Germany is any longer to be regarded as a coherent nation or is fated to become a prey to recklessly anti-na-tional forces akin to the Russian Bolsheviki. The establishment of a | republic in Bavaria and similar developments elsewhere in Germany neecf not of necessity oppose an orderly settlement. It would be quite possible for the new republics to act in concert, both in making peace and in their subsequent careers. Tho danger in sight is that a carnival of disorder and anarchy may arise in Germany which would preclude the hope of an orderly settlement. A view taken in Washington, however, is reasonable as far as it goes: The object of the revolution in Germany is assumed to be peace, 'and since the signing of the armistice is the shortest road to peace it is thought that the revolutionaries will not seek to interfere. The .only weak point about this reasoning is that it takes no account of the possibility that the attitude of_ the revolutionaries, or of a considerable proportion of their number, may be quite irrational.