NEED FOR MILITARY VICTORY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1535, 13 April 1916, Page 2

NEED FOR MILITARY VICTORY.

To the Paris newspaper Le Journal, M. Aulard, the famous historiau of the revolution, contributes an interesting article, in which he upholds the contention that the war can only be ended by some decisive victory, and pot by mere economic exhaustion of either side alone. M. Aulard declares, that the delusion that the allies only require to hold out to win has caused much damage since the battle of the Marne, and, if persisted in, may ruin the allied cause. Germany may be tired, but she is not exhausted. M,

Aulard supposes that a hermetical blockade were made, and that Germany was actually reduced to absolute starvation and obliged to sue for peace. “I say that this would be the worst peril, and the certainty of the most terrible disaster for us in a very short time. The only peace that we could impose on an enemy whose armies occupy French and Russian territory, and the whole of Servia andMontenegro, with almost the whole of Belgium, would be one that would perhaps restore AlsaceLorraine to us, and the other occupied countries, but would leave intact, in all its strength and glory, Prussian militarism.” He can hear the Kaiser proclaiming, ‘‘We have not been beaten ; none of our foes has been able to invade us. It is hunger and the blockade that have forced us to lay down our arms. With our military honour safe, our prestige and our future are as bright as ever.” M. Aulard proceeds :—'Tf we cannot break the military power of Germany by arms, we cannot do it by a treaty. The Prussianised Empire of Germany would subsist as before, an eternal threat against us. Prolific Germany would make up its losses in men more quickly than France. Our sterile victory would soon divide us allies, and it would not be long before united Germany would fall upon us piecemeal, to destroy us finally.” The conclusion he draws is that the allies can only gain the victory out of which a solid and lasting peace can be founded, and militarism can be destroyed, by beating the German Army.