The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAR, FEBRUARY 12, 1918. THE GREAT FINAL STRUGGLE.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 February 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAR, FEBRUARY 12, 1918. THE GREAT FINAL STRUGGLE.

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

A crisis of more or less importance appears to have been reached in Germany’s connection with the Bolshevik leaders in Russia, but it is too difficult to sift truth from deception to enable one to learn its magnitude and discern its .'full -'significance to the Allies. Plans are evidently not going according to the book; arrangements are 'not being carried out by Lenin and Trotsky in accordance with the compact they made, and for which they were given free passages across Germany from Switzerland, and have since been provided with German gold. The two arch-traitors and anarchists succeeded beyond their anticipations in upsetting the first revolution and in obtaining possession by seizure and confiscation of money, property and food, to such an extent that they became drunk with their success. Their methods were German, there was the inhuman ruthlcssncss, the carelessness of life, the butcheries and burnings, in fact, narrations of their doings read so like those of Germans- that material difference is not observable. Now, there is some evidence that they are taking pattern from German treachery; they arc scrapping their compact with the Kaiser. They have gained possession and do not sec why they should relinquish it. They are not allowing any mere scrap of paper to prevent them retaining the government of Russia, no matter how they came by it. They arc apt pupils in German methods and arc now as cleverly corrupt in : thc practice of duplicity and treachery as their German teachers. The plans for securing Russia for Gormans only needed a little alteration for them to keep Russia for themselves, and they altered them. German newspapers are angry; they demand that war shall be declared against the Bolsheviks, or an ultimatum sent; they arc the project of sending an army to Northern Russia, and taking possession of Pctrograd. The Bolsheviks know that the chagrined Germans will do nothing of the kind, their engagements on the western front against the growing millions of the

Allies are much too pressing for any such punitive venture. Lenin and t Trotsky have been dropped and Germany is seeking peace, and probably alliance, with another section of revolutionaries, the Ukrainians, the followers of the Grand Duke Nicholas and the Roumanians. But another huge miscalculation has been made, the conception of the plot came too late to the German supermen, so belated that the Allies saw daylight through it, and President Wilson announced that the crucial time had come, that the war would be finished this year and that the Allies <c shall gain final victory.” By getting bloodless possession of Russia aud Roumania the food problem of Germany would be solved; by methods of treachery and cunning levies of men were to swell the German man-power, while others were to constitute an army of food-getters, mercenaries in the pay of their destroyers. The Allies saw unmlstakeable indications that it was supremely vital the war should be decided in 1918, and the United States President's announcement was the outcome. Time is with the Allies until Germany can organise Russia, but distinctly against the Allies thereafter. The huge Gorman concentrations on the West front are primarily to gain time, to display such force that will make'the Allies afraitT to launch on the great finale until a few millions of Americans are available. The gratuitous information about, linprcccdcnted strength; about the special training given in open fighting, suggesting confidence of ability to roil up the Allied lino and break through to the rear, is all bluff to gain time to organise Russia; to get a grip of the key of Russian wheat stores; to treacherously get possession of everything Russian that would help in 1919, even to getting the handling of the whole Russian navy_ The superman mind is too ponderously slow; it is no match for the agile mentality of the common Allied mind, and there is wailing and gnashing of teeth throughout the. camps of the supermen war lords. What is Germany going to do with the great concentration of her troops on the west front now that her plans have gone awry? Hindcnburg has had the writing on the wall interpreted for him by President Wilson, Will he risk

a final throw of the dice in, a desperate, despairing, forlorn-hope? About this, Mr. Phillip Gibbs tolls us there is great diversity of opinion amongst British .officers' at the front, and the enemy plans are now the chief topic of discussion in British dug-outs. Some officers find sound argument for the belief that a.German offensive on a great scale is not probable, while others think the, Allies will be attacked at several points, to obscure the place where the. supreme effort is made to break through to find work for the men who have . been specially trained in open warfare. It may, of course, be just as correct to assume that Germany has decided to use her concentrations for defence against an Allied onslaught and that open-war-fare men are for special use in easo of compulsory retirement. Threatening Lenin and Trotsky with ultimatums and the feverish, hasty negotiations to settle favourably the peace question with Eoumania and the Ukraine are evidences that German preparations arc not up to time for the final bout to take place during this year. What the exigencies of the ease will result in is at present the great topic amongst British and Allied officers on the West front.