The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1916. GERMAN UNIVERSAL MOBILISATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 18 November 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1916. GERMAN UNIVERSAL MOBILISATION.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

If Germany fails to win the war after the effort she is now engaged on there is certainly nothing else she can fall back upon. Everything useful for the prosecution of the war, as regards men, material and food, is being mobilised and put absolutely at the service of the military authorities. This is now an admitted and obvious fact, and most thoughtful people are anxious to have some indication of what counter-stroke the Allies ar c going to evolve. Every living male German capable of bearing arms is to go into the fighting line, and every German woman and child capable of doing war work, in munition or other factories, is to be conscripted to take the place of the men taken. Further, to perform work that is still needful many thousands of men and women in invaded countries are being deported to Germany and made to perform work quite opposed to the laws of nations to which Germany has put her signature. This all indicates most clearly the desperate straits Germany is in at the present time. It causes one to wonder what moral state German •soldiery is now in; there cannot be that elan and enthusiasm; that feeling of victory in the ranks of our enemies which pervaded them so strongly right up to the battles of Verdun, and the commencement of the thrust on the Somme. As a matter of fact it is now quite the reverse. All the enthusiasm

r>nd certaiidy of victor** i ’ with t 1

Allies. There arises now the question of whether the additional numbers raised by conscripting every man and woman, and enslaving men and women from invaded territories will restore the morale of the old troops sufficiently to cause them to fight as in the earlier days of the struggle, or will the material to be forced into the ranks, which has hitherto been rejected, remain something to distrust. ISTo doubt the Allies are already weighing carefully this extra and much vaunted strength, this last ounce of man-power Germany i s able to throw into the struggle, together with the last nail that remains of the store of war material, and we may expect to hear in the near future something of the course it lias been deemed in their vital interests to follow. In the meantime we can only look on at Germany’s death struggles, for what she has now decided upon doing, and is actually at work at, must be regarded as the very last gasp for existence that is left to her; if she fails complete defeat is inevitable. Even Hindenburg has found it necessary to reproach his Government for not realising the true position; he writes to Bcth-mann-Hollwcg, the German Chancellor,, saying “Many of our authorities do not realise that we arc now fighting for our very existence.” And he goes on to say that workers in munition factories cannot work unless they are fed well.. It is in this we shall probably find the weakest spot in the mobilisation of the whole population, men and women, of the 1 Central Powers. The workers cannot, it seems, be fed now, and much greater numbers to feed will not induce the improvement of the dietary scale. The German military authorities have without doubt thoroughly considered the scheme resolved upon, but, to the best-versed economists it will be fraught with considerable want of conviction respecting its success. We can only await developments.