THE WAR SITUATION.

Taihape Daily Times, 27 May 1918, Page 5

THE WAR SITUATION.

ME LLOYD GEOEGE ’S EEVIEW. LONDON, May 25. Mr Lloyd George, after receiving the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh, said the collapse of Eussia was an enormous help to Germany at a time when the man-power af the belligerents was almost at the point of exhaustion. American help could not be reckoned on for some time. America, after all her exertion, did not at the present moment occupy what was equivalent to one-fifth the accession of fighting strength which the enemy had received owing to the Eussian collapse. The second adverse circumstance was Germany’s unexampled submarine wiarfare, which was unprecedented in the whole history of piracy. If it had succeeded it would have cut off the transport of men, supplies and munitions. The British mercantile marine was the Allied armies’ windpipe, We set every Government to deal with the menace. We had to reorganise, our merchant shipping, which task was brilliantly achieved. We had next to cut down imports and increase Homo products, and since 1914 had increased tillage by four million acres, and doubled the output of shipping. He hoped this year woud treble, if not quadruple, it. The naval staff was now confident we were sinking more submarines than the enemy Avas able to build, and we were building merchantmen more quickly than tho Germans could sink them. The Admiralty’s returns for April showed a record destruction of submarines. The submarine was still a menace, but not a peril. . As’ a means of inflicting injury, it was still formidable but as a danger which could cause , the winning or losing Of the war, wp tcould rule out the submarine. The Germans recognised its failure. That accounted for the present Western offensive. The enemy had been driven thereto as a last rsort. We were on the eve of a great attack. He was able to tell them that those who best know the prospects felt confident of the result. He felt happier than he had felt since tho commencement of the Avar. He had tried repeatedly to achieve unity of command. It Avas incredible that they had for months to fight every inch of the way for unity, but it was now a fact, and it had added mightily to their fighting strength'. Generalissimo Foch was one of the most brilliant strategists of the ago. They were iioaa t approaching the third 'stage of Ijhe greatest battle ever fought. He Avas glad to think they had a man of Foch’s genius. For the Germans as well as for us the next few weeks would be a race. betAveen Hindenburoland Wilson, and the Germans were straining every muscle to reach the goal first before American help Avas available. The Prussians did not intend to end the war until their basket was as full as it could hold. Those who imagined they could, without breaking Prussian militarism, achieve freedom securing the liberty of the world should remember what befell the Eussian democracy.