GERMAN COLLAPSE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9792, 16 October 1917, Page 6

GERMAN COLLAPSE

LECTURE BY MR WiLFORD CROWDED ATTENDANCE AT THE TOWN HALL. There is no doubt that Mr T. M. Wilford, M.P., is a wonderfully fine war lecturer. For upwards of two hours ho entertained a crowded Town Hall last evening with a distinctively picturesque account of tho latest phases of the war. Wc have had war lecturers directly from' tho front, and they have certainly not presented a tale of greater interest than that v hich Mr Wilford had to enfold in his lecture last night in aid of tho Red Cross fund entitled “The Coming German Collapse.’’ Tho Mayor presided, and the largo audience included the Go-vernor-General and Lady Liverpool. Mr Wilford was singularly fluent in his lecture and frequently had recourse to a blackboard with coloured pencils to illustrate his explanations and contentions in regard to tho progress of recent events. “Wo have heard much of tho organisation and preparedness of Germany,” said Mr Wilford in his opening remarks. “My reading has led me to tho conclusion that the Germans foresaw everything except that which has actually happened and calculated everything except the cost to themselves.” (Applause.) He touched most amusingly ,on the operations of the “German ho factor,-.” Tho reports issued from Germany, ho said, were utterly unreliable. But there was no gainsaying the fact, ho pointed out. that at /l the Germans held the middle Euiope territory which they planned Ifni in connection with their Pan-Ger-man programme. Tho maps they published in. that year m connection with their declared aspirations included pretty well all the territory they now occupied with the intent to swamp tho world.” What was the giving up of Alsace-Lorraine and Belgium compared with the rest of the large territory occupied down to Constantinople. A peace on tho present basis would be a tremendous menace to the future peace of the world. The Allies dare not make a peace with Bulgaria. The surrounding countries would deeply regent it. At the present juncture there could be no talk of separate peace with Bulgaria, Turkey or Austria. The only chance for the future peace of the world was to secure the independence of 28,000,000 Slavs in the Balkans. Mr Wilford indicated that future operations of the Allies after the present burst.on the Western front would bo a Balkan campaign which would cause a weakening on all tho fronts of Germany and Austria. After touching upon the very effective work being done on the Italian front ho went on to explain that America was shortly -to play a big part in the war. especially Tn the aeroplaning sphere. Germany feared the intervention of America, and that was tho reason she was now so active on tho Western front. A weakening force must always attack. The greatest confession of weakness on the part of Germany was tho frequent employment of the “strosstruppen’ tho storm troops, which were supposed to ho able to do anything. But they had been annihilated and the drumfire of the Allies was utterly demoralising the tail-end of the German forces. The storm trooro were picked men, trained specially for difficult assaults. What must Bo the effect on tho “moral” of those that were left when the picked men failed? Germany had been compelled to admit that man to man it could not stand up acainst the Allied forces. (Applause.) iHindenhurg was no longer a power in Germany. Ha was marching—but backwards. (Laugher.) Hindenburg’s army was an army demoralised that, has lost its “moral.” , ~ , ~ Mr Wilford, with the aid of diagrams, entered minutely into the recent operations on tho Western front, and predicted that the evacuation of the coast of Belgium must soon ensue. As to Russia, he described it as “upside down.” As Kerensky had said, at tho first stop of freedom it became intoxicated. Kerensky said that Germany could never take a big offensive against Russia. The only thing that could count so far as Russia was concerned was a separate peace. Touching upon recent developments in Russia, Mr Wilford mentioned as worthy of remark that in 100 days Kerensky, Sfrobeleff, and Tsdisjdo bad accomplished tho following reforms —freedom of speech, freedom for the press, free public meetings, religious freedom without State interference, land and income taxation, educational progress with technical schools, government by local authorities, with a general suffrage of men and women, the building of a new university at Perm, and the raising of the secondary education standard.

Mr Wilford w especially bappy when ho alluded to some of tho anomalies which, had been brought about by the Revolution in Russia. Before tho Revolution, ho pointed out, people were sent to Siberia if they wrote anything in favour of Socialism. Now they wore deported if they uttered anything in favour of the Czar. lllose solid for the Allies in Russia to-day wore the Cossacks, numbering six millions; the Siberians, who wore threatened by Japan if they did not fight; the Jews, who wore impelled by the concession of rights as propertyowners; and a largo proportion of the peasants. Tho groat trouble in Russia was ot an industrial nature. ' Tho people, on tho cessation of industrial disputes, had tried to work on the industrial principle. They got a 200 per cent, rise of wages, and then struck for more. Tho garrison at Tsaritsm had demanded £150,000 increase in wages from tho Provisional Government. Tho rise was refused, and the Government annexed the grain that was coming down in barges on the Volga. The present position was that the soldiers, excepting the Guards, artillery, Cossacks, and Siberians were on a national picnic, travelling on tho trains and trams free—drawing their pay, doing nothing, and chewing sunflower reeds. So far as Russia was concerned, there was nobody with whom a separate peace could be arranged. (Applause.) The lecture of Mr Wilford was concluded with an interesting account of what is now going on at tho Italian front.