GERMANY’S "LAST CARD.”

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 1 August 1917, Page 6

GERMANY’S "LAST CARD.”

The German view of tha submarine campaign is described by Professor F. S. Delmer in the London Times. He says that after the Zeppelin hope “fizzled out’’ came the hope in the submarines and the ruthless U-boat warfare. The Pan-Germans and the official classes really believed in the effectiveness of this instrument for bringing Great Britain to its knees, and they converted the whole of Germany in their way of thinking. But when the new ruthless U-boat policy was frankly declared and greeted by the press with such acclaim and relief, one man there was at least who no longer believed in it, and this •man was von Tirpitz, now living in his Berlin Patmos. On February 2 he, in conversation with two members of the Centre Party, declared: “This comes a year too late!” And his words, although it took months, were gradually whispered abroad in Berlin, and the cocksuredncss of the newspapers began to be a little discounted. “If it is true, as some say, that England has large food supplies stored up, then we To done for.” Schoolmasters openly declared to their classes in March, 1917, that the new U-boat war was Germany’s last card. The signs on the wall now show that this last card has been "laved in vain, and the German authorities are no doubt already setting their wits to work to discover some new ular cry in hope of keeping the confidence of the nation alive. "What the new panacea will be no one can toll. It is only an interim comfort for them when the Kaiser says that it is England that is making tlie last desperate effort. In th e back of their minds they

know that it is Germany that is in the plight. But what do the German military authorities now really hope for? I ask myself. I can only think that they have turned into military Micawbers, and ar e trusting to hold out until “something turns up." Not in their own offensive strength do they now put their trust, "but in some miracle of folly on the part of their enemies.