A CLEAR-SIGHTED GERMAN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1648, 9 December 1916, Page 4

A CLEAR-SIGHTED GERMAN.

Sorrowful confession of bow me conversion of the British Empire into a lirst-class military Power has upset Germany’s war calculations comes from Dr. Arnst Bassermanu, the well-known Anglophohe leader of the National Liberal Party. “Who would have thought it possible?” he cries. “In England we have an enemy whose professional army has been converted into a great citizens’ army. Aho would have believed tlml England could have gone over so quickly and with such limited domeslic resources to a universal military service basis ! Vet to-day the son ol the dllke bleeds for his Motherland shoulder to shoulder with the son of the eoolc. The realisation that England’s Imperial destiny is at stake has become the common property of the Empire. Thus we must reckon with the iron fact that the .war has become graver and more sacrificial for us than anybody at the beginning regarded as til till likelv. B is an illusion to think (bat peace is' wear at band. Many a tough engagement will still have to he fought before the war can lie ended. One used to bear often that France was no longer able to continue the war. Me see nothing ot that. On the contrary, we see a French army fighting with ancient Gallic bravery, an energetic, determined foe, full of offensive, spirit, despite the terrible wounds France has suffered, and which will ruin her future for decades, perhaps longer.

. . . . We «re also confronted by Russia, with her inexhaustible reservoir of men, Russia., which has revealed such unexpected elasticity in the reconstruction of beaten armies, and whose military organisation, instead of depreciating, h«s improved during the war.”