The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1915. THE GERMAN DELUSION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 55, 8 March 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1915. THE GERMAN DELUSION.

At tho beginning of January the principal German newspapers, though much less bombastic in tone, were very certain of the ultimate success. of the German scheme to dominate Europe, though probably they are not quite so sanguine of ultimate victory now. As a Xew Year's message the Frankfurter Zeitung published the following: "We shall win. After live months of war we know very much better than we did on July iSI what this terrible word "war" means to us. We know the sacrifices in most precious life which the war has already demanded, and we have an idea what sacrifices it will still require. While in tho period of excessive nervous ten-1 sion, in the da3's immediately before the outbreak of war, there was here and there an outburst of unthinking] noise, we know to-day that the German people as a whole is bearing its fatej only with deep seriousness. But we also know another thing. To-day I there is nobody in German lands who has not felt with perfect clearness thati in this war everything is at stake—j our existence as a State and a nation) and our economic existence. There ■ is, moreover, nobody who would not be ready to stake everything on our victory, and nobody who does not feel in his innermost heart calm confidence in the final success. After live months we know also that we have already| won a good part of the victory.] In the East we have overthrown the gigantic Russian superiority. In the. West we hold the French, the English, and tho Belgians in check by a wall! stretching from the North Sea to the Vosges. AVe have secured the invaluable advantage that the war with all its wastage is being fought almost ell-, tirely on the enemy's soil. We hold great parts of this soil in our hands as sure security. That is the military gain of these live months. Similarly great is the economic victory. We can say now, coldly and calmly, that we have succeeded in the conversion of our economic system from the peace to a war basis, and that our enemies, if we continue to do what this test demands of us, can bury their hope of compelling us through economic weak-. ness to conclude a premature peace."