HOW LONG WILL THE WAR LAST?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1616, 28 September 1916, Page 2

HOW LONG WILL THE WAR LAST?

“HOW long will the war last?” Here are some speculations from the best authorities; Lin'd Derby said that he does not agree that the war will end in six months, but believes that it will last over the winter. The Roumanian Premier expressed the opinion that the war would end six months after the entry of Rottmania, though most of those who have recently assumed the role of prophet, concur with Lord Derby, (ieneral Brusiloff (the commander of Russia’s southern armies) said the other day that he believed peace would come in August ; Mr JL G. Wells, tin* novelist, ventured the opinion that the tiermans will “begin to squeal’’ in November, and that seven months later the war will be over; and Mr 4. L. Garvin, another writer of repute, says that (he trend of opinion at Home was that till the Allied nations assumed the wa r would be over in less than twelve months, though he would not be surprised tit any dramatic occurrence in December. There has been considerable speculation in America, and (he New York American published at the end of duly the replies it received from various prominent Englishmen and Germans itt answer to questions as to the length of the war, the cost of it, and the conditions of the principal belligerent nations at tin* end of it. Lord Derby said the war would last “until the Allied form's are victorious"; he thought it was impossible to estimate the cost; and he declared that at the end England, France, and Russia would be victorious, with Germany and Austria accepting terms guaranteeing the peace of Europe for many generations to come. Lesser men were more cotilident than this of (heir ability to see the end of the conllict. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was of the opinion that the war would go on for from six to nine months longer; Sir Gilbert Parker said nine months. Major-General Sir Alfred Turner was optimistic enough to believe that the war will not outlast .19.1 (i; and Mr Archibald Hurd, the naval writer, considered that Lord Kitchener’s prophecy of a three years war was “an outside estimate. Statements by other public men in England all go to show that there is a very general opnion that the war will be over before the beginning of the (Northern) winter of 1917. The Germans who replied included Herr Thyssen, the hanker and steel magnate; Herr Zimmerman, the editor of the Lokal Auzeigcr; Dr. Walter Ralhenau, who is credited with having been the director of Germany's industrial war organisation; and Professor Ludwig Stein. Only the last-named verges on jdeliuileness; he expected that “by the end ot September (the present month) when the offensive of (he Entente against Germany will have been checkmated on every side, the moment will have arrived lor Europe to decide the question to be or not to be." The gloomiest view of all is that of Dr Ralhenau. “I hold," he said, “that the prolongation of tin 1 wtir for another year is more than probable; and that prolongation for several, perhaps for many, years is altogether possible." None of the belligerent Powers, he says, can be crushed in the near future, and there is nowhere any fatal deficiency of human material, money, or mechanical material means, while even the poorest belligerent nation is adequately financed by its large Allies.