WAR NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, 18 October 1917, Page 6

WAR NEWS.

the; fourth yeas.

we now funiy entered on the fourth ye„r of the war, and everyone i s wondering - what it has in store. No one who impartially views the military situation can honestly say that there appears any early prospect oi' the end of the war. If the military factor is to be the determining one, thsa, indeed, we must brace ourselves for another winter campaign with a renewal of the active offensive npxt spring. And yet there are signs and portents which suggest that the process of exhaustion may accomplish that which the force of arms has not yet been able to achieve. All the belligerent nations are feeling the strain of the struggle with varying degrees of intensity. And in war in which ? for the first time in history, nations rather than armies have fought for mastery. It would be rash indeed to ignore these signs of internal disruption. As regards the military situation it is satisfactory on one front; exceedingly unsatisfactory on the other. There are indications that Russia is slowly pulling herself together, but the retirement still continues, and the enemy are once more in possession of Czernowitz And the possession of this key to the Bukovina is, from the Allied point of view, a much more material matter now than it has been at any previous period of the war. When Czernowitz was last in the hands of the AustroGermans, Rumania was still a neutral? and it was not until General Brussiloff had swept the enemy from this corner of her frontier that Ruman ia came in on the side of the Allies. The loss of Czernowitz constitutes a new and serious menace to Rumania, and brings Germany appreciably nearer to tbe realisation of her dream of an advance on Odessa. And it is important to remember that the campaigning weather on this part of the Eastern front lasts later into the year than it does in the north— a fact which may have influenced von Hindenburg in striking at the industrial south rather than striving for the rich prize of Petrograd, with all its munition factories, in the north. Happily, the fourth year of the war opens much more auspiciously on the Western front. No one who has followed the course of the struggle since the beginning of the spring can have tailed to i each the conclusion that on tn.s front, at least, the Allies have a marked ascendancy ever the enemy.

TH£ GERMAN HOPE.

Let it be quite frankly admitted that the confidence in victory which permeates every rank of the British army has not yet impregnated the minds of the Germans. Of this we have evidence from the prisoners taken in the course of the recent fighting, They are depressed, of course, hut they are certainly not disposed to the view that Germany is beaten. On the contrary, they still manifest an almost childish faith in their submarines. Belief that the U boat warfare will eventually compel the Allies to make terms has bitten deep into their minds. It is this also which causes the average German to treat America as a comparatively negligible factor in the war. The Kaiser’s subjects frankly do not believe that it will be possible for the United States to transport a great army across the Atlantic and maintain such an army in France in face of the difficulties and perils which will have to be encountered. It can be readily believed that vast preparations are being made in the German shipbuilding yards, and that submarines will soon be leaving the slips in ever-increasing numbers. Shall we be able to meet this menace? The belief is that we shall. B*ut the fact that an element of doubt enters into the calculation explains in some degree the relative cheerfulness with which the Germans continue to regard the war outlook. They believe that on the Western front they can hold us up substantially on the ground we now occupy, and the collapse of Russia has greatly strengthened them in this impression. The Germans do not regard time a s a neoVral, but as a very useful ally fighting on their side.

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