WHEN WILL THE END?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 113, 26 November 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

WHEN WILL THE END?

IN ABOUT A YEAR, SAY THE EXPERTS. "Basing your calculations on the progress of the Allied Armies at the end of the first year of war, and bearing in mind the expenditure and present financial conditions of belligerents, how long, in jour judgment, is the war likely to lost?" Such was the question which the 'New York American' recently put to a number of eminent soldiers, authors, and economists. Here is a selection from their replies:

Sir Robert L. Borden.—lt will end when the Allies are victorious.

Lord Sydenham.—A second full year appears economically impossible, and unless some unforeseen event occurs the end my come in the late autumn or early spring.

Lord Swaythlmg.—My opinion is that whatever effect economic conditions may have on the duration of the war, financial conditions cannot affect it, except indirectly by its iniiuclfce on the minds of the people themselves.

Sir Gorge Reid.—The end of the fighting can only be sensibly guessed at by experts who know as niucn as a first-rate encyclopaedia. If forced to guess, 1 would say the war will begin to end about a year hence.

Mr. G. K. Chesterton—As a probability, 1 should guess the war would end some time next year. 1 think 1 can promise vou it will end in one way if it laste till the Day of Judgment.

Sir Gilbert Parker—l incline \o think the war will last another year or thereabouts, but prophecy is a poor business when paid my results, so I will not attempt to discount my hope for the ready cash of optimism.

Mr. St. Loe Strachey. Thougu, greatly daring, I would predict the end of February tor the end of the war, I know it would be much safer to say this time next year.

Mr. Jerome K. Jerome.—The war will terminate when one of the belligerents loses heart. Nothing else will count.

Mr. A. H. Pollen, a distinguished naval expert.—At the end of the first year the strength of the Allies is something better than five to the four of the Germanic Powers. Before Christmas it will he six to four. By March, 1916, it will be seven to four. By June it will he eight to four, not only in men, but in guns and ammunition also. Before or as soon as the ratio of two to one is reached the end of the war should come.

It is'not without interest to note that theologians, basing their calculations on the Bible, have made some striking forecasts, which seem to have direct bearing on this great war. More than a quarter of a century ago Dr. Garttan Guinness, so widely known and respected, wrote: "It is not tor us to sav, but there can be no doubt that those who live to see the year 1917 will have reached one of the most important, perhaps the most momentous, of these terminal years of crisis.' Another well-known Biblical student, writing before the war, said: Ine final time of tribulation will come in the epoch of April, 1914. and October 191o," and actually names the oth or October as marking the end, or at least the termination of this acuta period, .although there is almost universal agreement iliatthe whole period will be three and a half years.